sandik

You know, we never see it on television here in Seattle.

I don't get that channel -- do they continue to make new work, or is it primarily reruns. (that would be quite interesting in itself) My mother was a One Life to Live person, and I used to watch with her when I was home sick from school. I spent a chunk of time in grad school avoiding my master's thesis watching several soaps. and I have a very soft spot in my heart for them.

She is indeed quite lovely, and very restrained. I know it's unfair to compare her with contemporary skaters, who work in a very different environment, but this excerpt made me very nostalgic for John Curry and that whole school of thought in the skating world. Does anyone know who created that solo for her? And what is she doing today?

The run at Northwest Film Forum (Seattle) has been extended, until 12/18 (no show on the 17th, when the theater has its annual holiday party) And they reminded us last night that they'll be showing Red Shoes in February, with a new 35 mm print.

Any ideas?

It's such a disappointing development in publishing (especially since a friend of mine worked her way through grad school working as an indexer...)

I think we need to start a list.

For a moment there, just looking at the subject line, I thought the two of them were working together somehow, and I was trying to imagine what that might be like! Thanks for the heads=up on the interviews -- they are both engaging, articulate speakers and should make for good listening.

When I first started studying in the early 70s, I was taught a version of his floor barre during regular classes. We were all absolute beginners, and it was an effective way to isolate the lower body and work on rotation and flexion without the complication of actually standing on your legs!

They are doing some mild touring of this program as well -- they'll be in Seattle at the Paramount February 23

Those are really good parts to see people coming along -- I have good memories of several different dancers early in their career in the trios. Anyone here been yet?

Ah, you have been channeling Sarah Kaufman from the Washington Post! I tend not to think of Nut as a ballet so much as a holiday show, separate from the concerns I have for the art form at other times of the year. I don't know that there are too many Nuts per se, but I do know that almost every organization in my town, dance and otherwise, feels that they must have some kind of performing presence during the holidays, and that is a difficult proposition. It squeezes the audience into a tight spot, and puts a strain on the local venues. One of our local theaters lost their performance space to a fire early in November, and so they are doing the performance version of sleeping on other people's couches in order to do their holiday show. In my particular part of the world, Pacific Northwest Ballet is the equivalent of the 800 pound gorilla with their Nutcracker -- it's really difficult to program against them. There are a few local dance groups, mostly kid and semi-pro, that do their own Nut, but they've had to find different ways to make a virtue out of a more modest production. And tangentially, besides NYCB, Pennsylvania, Miami, and Oregon Ballet Theater, is there anyone else who performs the Balanchine Nut?

Doesn't he just! I enjoyed his performances last spring, and was so glad to see he hadn't lost any of the zesty details this time around.

What an interesting view of their partnership. I often think of them more in the Rosenkavalier mode -- older woman in a final relationship and younger man just embarking on life.

The eggnog is on grocery shelves, and the plastic turkey centerpieces are almost gone from the "seasonal" aisle in my local shops -- it must be Nutcracker time. So, are you going? And if so, which one are you seeing? Or is there an alternative work that you pledge allegiance to?

Jeanne-Claude, companion and muse to Christo, died this week. The NYT obituary has a great photo of their Reichstag project here. My local PBS station ran an Independent Lens program recently about the Vogels, a couple who collect minimalist and conceptual art, and in it was an interview with Jeanne-Claude and Christo, about their first meetings with the couple. Jeanne-Claude was wearing a brilliant orange jacket, which matched her amazingly orange hair -- her enthusiasm for Christo and for the work was equally vibrant.

Am having a little trouble figuring out how to get to the "refine your search" page efficiently, but it looks like they've got a lot of stuff, stuff, stuff!

Wow -- this looks huge. Will scamper off and look around.

I like to wait until after Thanksgiving to deal with holiday things like Nutcracker and eggnog, but there's been nog on the shelf in my local grocery store since before Halloween, and Nutcracker press releases in my inbox for weeks, so I'm just a relic of an earlier time!

And here we go. Casting for the first week is up on the website -- it's still the drop down window, so making comparisons of casts is a paper and pencil exercise.

And in the Moses Supposes number from "Singing in the Rain" Kelly and O'Connor have a nice bit with a couple of chairs. And then there are the high chairs in the triplets number in The Band Wagon! Chairs are just one of a plethora of things that show up in music hall/vaudeville turns. They often are used as a kind of magic prop (rather like the precursor to CGI tricks) to extend or replace a part of the body.

I just got my schedule today, and the film will be showing in Seattle December 4-10 at Northwest Film Forum. here

Absolutely. Stewart Kershaw, for many years the very reliable conductor for Pacific Northwest Ballet, retired this autumn. He'd conducted almost everywhere, for almost everyone -- it was quite a coup when then directors Kent Stowell and Francia Russell got him here. It's going to be a real trick to replace him.

I saw the Thursday and Saturday matinee performances last weekend. Petit Mort - It feels like we've been stalking Jiri Kylian for years - Stowell and Russell brought work by some of his apprentices into the rep, and Boal has continued their efforts, but this is the first piece from Kylian himself. I've always been told that his work was really expensive, but honestly, I don't know how much this cost. In a Q/A last week, Boal mentioned that some “European” choreographers cost as much as $50,000 for a work, but I don't know if he was referring to this particular piece. Kylian's certainly not the first choreographer to combine modern dance and ballet -- people like Glen Tetley and John Butler got there long before (PNB has performed Tetley's “Voluntaries” and his “Rite of Spring,” but I don't know many companies that do anything of Butler's any more). Yes, Kylian has been working for many years, and has influenced most of the choreographers working in Europe today, but there must be more than that. There's a great thread of magic tricks running through “Petit Mort” - the swooping fabric that swishes back to reveal the women lined up, the dresses that stand up for themselves, the stage tricks that the men perform with the rapiers - “look - no hands!” Combine that with the pretzelly partnering and it's a very distinctive work. The Mozart is a nice contrast to the rather scary swordplay at the beginning of the ballet. It's spare and contemplative, and calmed down the more aggressive vibe. Postelwaite really moves Nakamura around in their duet - it makes her look even smaller than she is. Lallone was a great contrast right after that - Bold swings her overhead and her legs wheel through the sky. It isn't always the case that married couples dance well together, but Dec and Cruz slide through their duet with aplomb. Everyone is very clear about the shapes they're making - the work is very freshly set and rehearsed, but Dec seems to have an extra layer of understanding about that aspect. (it occurs to me that, after a “Romeo and Juliet” with no swordplay, maybe “Petit Mort” fills that spot?) I think it was Rosie Gaynor in her blog that said this ballet was over before she was ready for it to end, and there was a “huh?” feeling at the finish. The last couple fades away upstage and we're done. Mopey - At the top it's hard to tell who's performing. They've got the hood of their jacket pulled so tight all you can see is the tip of their nose peeking out. The phrasing is really twitchy at the beginning of the work (before the Bach kicks in). This time around I see a lot of animal imagery (scratching under the arm results in the leg twitching like a dog, bouncing off stage on his butt like a lemur) alongside the anger and alienation we get on a first view. Without the music several of the key phrases seem quite nasty - the Bach sweetens everything up. I didn't get to see Porretta last week, and I'm missing Sar this week, but Moore and Griffiths are both making good work out of this solo. Griffiths in particular is quite intense -- much more so than his character in “West Side Story Suite.” I'm still not convinced it's a ballet, but it is a great vehicle for a solo guy, so I'm content. (still, if they're going to do modern works, I'd give a lot to see them do Daniel Nagrin's Strange Hero - it's not as physically challenging, but the musicality and the acting would be an excellent stretch for this group) The Seasons -- I know that the big acquisition for this rep is the Kylian, but this is the piece that fascinates me the most. Caniparoli has been an itinerant choreographer for many years now, and has made a wide variety of works, but this is perhaps the most traditional thing I've seen from him, which in many ways makes it the most radical. He really has taken on the straight-ahead classical structure and vocabulary, and has made a ballet. Not a variation on a ballet, or a commentary on a ballet, or a satire of a ballet, or a reduction of a ballet, but an actual ballet, with hierarchical casting and all the structures that implies. There are big ensemble sections, individual dances with specific qualities for soloists, a lovely juicy pas de deux at the end for a principal couple with separate variations - it's the whole thing, a set of matched suitcases, along with a garment bag and a train case. It's a big challenge, all the more so for being one that many contemporary ballet choreographers choose not to take on. The Glauzunov score dictates a lot of the structure - I don't know if Petipa wrote a minutia for this one, but he did for several others, and they were very exact, down to the number of measures he wanted for a particular solo, and detailed information about the tone and quality of the music. (if you haven't seen one, there's a reprint of his directions to Tchaikovsky for “Sleeping Beauty” in Selma Jeanne Cohen's anthology “Dance as a Theater Art.”) The score treads water in a couple of places, in that way that some of the Petipa-commissioned scores do, but it's certainly danceable. The scenario feels a bit dated too, in spots - it's a mildly silly thing with demi-gods, and other mythical creatures -- but Caniparoli takes it on with zest, and goes with the differences in style and personality that it draws. The ballet has some weak spots, from glitches in the score and from some movement choices. Caniparoli's choreography for the lower body is quite fine - some fascinating developments of classical echangement, but there is some awkwardness getting down to the floor and back up again. His upper body work is more free, with arms tracing some really baroque curves and a very supple back. There are some complicated accents as well, which make for some rich phrases. Postelwaite and Orza really cover space as Zephyr, despite an ankle length surcoat with slits up the side and the back. This makes it a vest with four long panels attached at the waist, and although it swoops effectively in a couple places, I was more worried that their legs would get all tied up in the fabric. The women's costumes are more successful than the men's, especially the tutus for the corps and soloists. The corps seem to have a gauzy skirt with a wire run through the hem, so that they stand out firm without much bulk at all. The soloists get tutus that look like the bustle off a dress from the 1890's, with the front cut away the back dipping down a bit - a very flattering line. Eames looked good as Zephyr's partner (she's identified as Canary, and the part does have a real birdy feel). She's got that sharpness (quick, not just fast) - I'm wondering if she'll take on Bluebird and/or Canary when they do “Sleeping Beauty” later this season. Imler and Lallone were both excellent Bacchantes in the big pas de deux. There's a place where the woman stands in a big wide stance, facing her partner upstage, and does this huge curving arm gesture, carving the space like it was a tactile thing. Both of them were full of gusto right then, Imler maybe a little stronger, and Lallone getting a bigger shape with her long arms. As Bacchus, Cruz and Bold matched their strength. If all Caniparoli did was make a traditional ballet it would be interesting enough, but about 2/3 of the way through he starts adding references to historic works. Zephyr is dancing with a canary, who seems to be channeling the “Firebird,” a group of satyrs show up looking like Fokine's “Faune,” complete with little horns on their heads, and scarves across their arms, the women in the corps show up in tunics waving those scarves over their heads like those old photos of Pavlova in “Pearl Fishers.” Despite the fact that it is the Ballet Russe centennial year, PNB hasn't programmed anything that refers to that period or repertory - this may be the only acknowledgement of it that we get. West Side Story Suite - I know this is a 'send them home happy' ballet, and I do like the Robbins choreography for the dance in the gym, but I miss the dramatic development in the full musical, and I'm still not comfortable with the work ending before the big denouement. Everyone was all up in arms about Mark Morris' “Romeo and Juliet” with a happy ending last year, but this feels just as awkward as that idea. Having said that, though, the company is doing well with the challenges of the work. Seth Orza was dancing better than he was singing as Riff last year, but with these performances his voice is catching up to his feet. Postelwaite seemed to have just continued his Romeo performance as Tony. I'm sorry not to be seeing him this second week as Riff, just to know how that casting turns out. Tisserand put a more classical spin on Tony's steps where they might otherwise have a vernacular feel, but that could just be familiarity. And Lindsi Dec made as very strong debut as Anita. She said, in a Q/A session, that she was there just to give Carla Korbes a break from the role, but that's too modest. She stood up tall, shook her hips and convinced me.

Yikes -- I didn't know that. I remember the press conference when they announced the improvements for the remodel (more women's bathrooms!) Sounds like they didn't quite manage to get all their ducks in a row.