sandik

It is all about the marketing.  If you look at most ad campaigns, you'll see some version of a price spread, or another indicator about the lowest entry point ("tickets $X - $XXX" or "tickets starting as low as $X).  In the same way that most gasoline is listed at #X.99/gallon, the person selling the item, whether it's fuel or fouettes, wants to give the impression that the lowest price is indeed low.

The price of a ticket, even with all the handling, facility, costume/set, mandatory donation fees, still does not cover the cost of the performance.  Each one of these fees is carefully calibrated to avoid making you turn away.  You're offended, but you're still buying.

In Seattle, Ticketmaster is generally held in low repute for what people see as excessive handling fees.  They've managed to ameliorate some of this by running a box office at one of their theaters -- if you can get downtown to buy your ticket, rather than buying online, you can get some of the handling fees eliminated.  In fact, getting there can be very tricky, but it makes people feel like they have an option.

Also in Seattle, many restaurants tried recently to fold the service fee into the bill, rather than leaving tipping to the discretion of the diner.  Some restaurants just raised the prices of the actual food, while others added on a separate line for service fee.  It was a highly controversial process, with all kinds of results, depending on the restaurant (as you might imagine, fine dining places got less pushback than places that are usually known for low costs) and the strategies that they used to explain this to their customers.  People are still sorting through this -- it's a big topic of conversation.

He was the longest running dance critic in San Francisco, writing for the Chron, and many other publications.

Thanks so much for these links -- I liked Siegel's observation at the top of her review, that all writing, especially autobiography, is selective.  As usual, she puts her finger on it.

I like the sash of (what I assume are) ultrasound images.

10 hours ago, dirac said:

It's hard because I like Sesame Street as much as anyone, but it's a slippery slope. All of this year's nominees can be justified individually - the Honors have never recognized an R&B group before, for example.  It's the larger pattern that concerns me.

I understand your concern, and I think it is a trend that we've seen developed over time. 

What an exciting project!

On 7/18/2019 at 2:04 PM, pherank said:

The Jérôme Bel piece may be biographical, but I bet that was his choice and not hers.

Bel's work is often biographical, so I imagine not a surprise.

Welcome to the neighborhood!  Let us know what you see, and what you think!

oh dear

The Kennedy Center honors have always gone to a wide variety of artists, both "high" and "low"

It's been almost 10 years since that commentary, and though I don't think I would have agreed with it at the time, I agree even less today.  In general, I think we swing back and forth between work that is primarily abstract and work that is primarily emotional or narrative  (between the dans d'ecole and the ballet d'action) -- over the last several years I've seen a real shift to dance that is "about something" other than itself.  I think Tudor might be in a good place for a revival...

And they're laced through the Bournonville rep as well.  I think that's a product of its own time -- during the Romantic period, pointe work was transitioning from being a total special effect to a more integrated part of technique, but it didn't make that change all in one moment.

I'd heard a bit about Jordan's appointment -- he will be a thorough advocate for the rep. 

While I always hope that old works can be reconstructed, I think that someone (possibly Jordan, possibly someone else) needs to be actively promoting the rep to companies.  It's a challenge, technically and dramatically, but one that I think would repay the work that goes into it.

While both Brief Fling and Pillar of Fire are originally from ABT, I can see how they might not sit well next to each other in a performance...

Yes, a thoughtful response.  And social media isn't always the place we see that kind of consideration, which may be the point he's trying to make.  I don't know him or his work especially well (ironically, most of what I do know I've learned here!) but we're in the middle of a vast social experiment, where we are transferring a great deal of our lives to the electronic sphere.  I think it's smart of him to take this step and see how it turns out.

And Sesame Street has hosted a multitude of dance artists (says the brightsider). 

I'm very glad that Ronstadt is getting this recognition -- as Dirac points out, her career has been really varied, and she has tried to honor her heritage as well as her generation. 

20 hours ago, miliosr said:

Slapping the 'humanist' tag on the new works doesn't obviate the fact that Expressionistic old school modern dance (as represented by Limon) doesn't have much to do with anti-Expressionistic contemporary dance.

Interestingly, we seem to be heading back into a period where dances are about something other than themselves -- the early question posed by Doris Humphrey and her cohorts ("What shall we dance about") is coming back into fashion.

On 7/16/2019 at 10:46 AM, Kathleen O'Connell said:

I had to pitch well over a decade's worth of programs when I moved to my current digs. It hurt. (Actually, I probably didn't have to throw them out, but for some inexplicable reason I thought I did, so into the trash they went.)

Anyway, I learned my lesson. I've kept everything since then, but digitized. I rip out the pages with the casting & other ...

You could use something like Evernote, but honestly, the file system on your computer or Google Drive would probably work just as well if you're working with searchable PDFs.

Oooh -- this is great advice!

7 hours ago, abatt said:

Fancy Free is Robbins.

And originally made for Ballet Theater

11 hours ago, Quiggin said:

Reading the Wikipedia entry on "West Side Story" gives some interestingly crazy, slightly bad faith, background – which could be a play in itself, if not a musical....

So maybe it's alright that the afterlife of West Side Story continues on in a like manner.

Absolutely!

Thank you so much for the report.  I was tying myself in all kinds of knots trying to figure a way I could get to this, and every plan was just too fraught.  I was sorry to miss this, but especially sorry to miss seeing Thomson in Mopey.  I had a feeling he would bring a very different dynamic to the work, and it sounds like that's what happened.  (I've seen it with Moore and with Griffiths -- it seems to offer the dancer a chance to step outside of their current aesthetic.  I was particularly interested in seeing where Griffiths went with it)

I'm hoping that some of this material can get performed in Seattle during the year, but I know that schedules can be very tight for those folks.

Programs are a real challenge for me as well -- I need to be able to look back at timing and casting.  I'm getting ready to move my office, and I think that will be the impetus to transcribe the essential information to a database as I am sorting, winnowing, and packing.

Or at least I certainly hope so!

A redhead in his heart.

Making me wish I had a travel budget!

1 hour ago, nanushka said:

The struggle is real.

Bingo

Postlewaite has been posting clips of this new work on Facebook, it's very loose and slippery.