sandik

KCTS 9 (Seattle) will run the program on Thursday May 21 at 9 pm (this is good -- they didn't run the Live program featuring the Mark Morris company in Mozart Dances last year, and Morris is from here...)

Well then, who would you like to see as the Nurse of Lady Capulet (besides the dancers who've already performed the parts.) Nurse: If she doesn't dance Juliette, I think Vinson might do well here -- she has a sunny aspect to her dancing that could work well in the humorous sections. Kari Brunson might also shine here, especially in the scene with Juliette in the bedroom (I'm thinking of that long and loopy pointing gesture "you come here!") Lady Capulet: After watching her Odile again, I'd like to see Kaori Nakamura in this -- she could be quite avaricious and predatory. Or maybe Mirnda Weese (that's just intuition talking, I can't put my finger on what I've seen her do that makes me want to see her do this...) And who should play Tybalt?

Try looking here for credits House guide It's not complete, I think, but helpful

May 25 at 7 pm May 26 at 4:15 pm Both at SIFF Cinema (the small theater at McCaw Hall)

Thinking about the whole ballet, there are several good female parts, and with Louise N and Jodie T leaving, they'll have to replace them (Lady Capulet and Nurse) as well as find a (couple?) new Juliettes. Sounds like juicy opportunities all round!

My wish list (hey! a person can dream, right?): Carla Korbes (I'd say probable barring unforeseen circumstances) She learned the part when it was first staged, but got injured and had to withdraw. She'd be an interesting choice, but her Rosaline is so good I don't know that they'll think of her as Juliette The tallness thing would be interesting here. So far the Romeos they've fielded have been medium sized. Hadn't thought of her, but can see it. She's having a lot of opportunities this year. I can certainly imagine her learning the part this time around, but don't know that she'd get to perform yet. I'm thinking that Mara Vinson might get a turn at this.

The committee has made a preliminary announcement, with some of their programming. Some commisssions and some selections from standing repertory. The dancey stuff includes • The Blue Dragon/Le Dragon Bleu — Robert Lepage 2/02/2010 - 2/28/2010, 8:00 pm Quebec's Robert Lepage continues his internationally celebrated imaginative and innovative stagecraft with this sequel to his acclaimed series The Dragons' Trilogy, set in modern China. Co-commissioned by the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad. • Moon Water — Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan 2/05/2010 - 2/06/2010, 8:00 pm Lauded worldwide for its innovation and grace, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan's Moon Water is a contemporary exploration of Tai Chi Tao Yin movement, an ancient Chi Kung exercise, set to Bach's Six Suites for Solo Cello. It will be the troupe's first performance in Vancouver since 1997. • Joni Mitchell's The Fiddle and The Drum — Alberta Ballet 1/22/2010 - 1/24/2010, 8:00 pm This extended, full-length collaboration production of the dazzling ballet features four additional Joni Mitchell songs, illuminated by her latest artwork and the choreography of Alberta Ballet's artistic director Jean Grand Maître. Commissioned by the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad. Tickets on sale soon. • Compagnie Marie Chouinard: World Premiere 3/12/2010 - 3/13/2010, 8:00 pm This newly-commissioned group piece by Canada's reigning queen of contemporary dance is based on the notion of time recaptured. For the first time, Marie Chouinard will create an accompanying vocal score. Co-commissioned by the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad. • Nixon in China — Vancouver Opera 3/13/2010 - 3/20/2010, 7:30pm Vancouver Opera presents the Canadian premiere — and a new production — of John Adams's modern masterpiece about U.S. President Richard Nixon's historic 1972 visit to China. Canadian coloratura soprano Tracey Dahl, as Madame Mao, joins opera greats Robert Orth as Nixon and Alan Woodrow as Mao Tse-tung under the musical leadership of Maestro John DeMain who led the 1987 premiere of the opera. • Rain — Cirque Éloize 03/19/2010 - 03/20/2010, Time TBA Montreal's Cirque Éloize brings the wonder of childhood to vivid life in this circus arts performance. The company expresses its innovative nature by combining circus arts with music, dance and theatre. • Kidd Pivot: Dark Matters 2/26/2010 - 2/27/2010, 8:00 pm Created by Kidd Pivot artistic director Crystal Pite, this new work brings together six dancers for an exploration of human significance in the wake of catastrophe and planetary frailty. Co-commissioned by Arts Partners in Creative Development. 2010 Arts Festival

I thought the limitations on guesting were small as well, particularly in a year when they've had their contracts shortened by three weeks.

I'm hoping they cast more than one Juliette. I know the role is a taxing one, but I kept watching Noelani Pantastico during the run, and she seemed to be increasingly tired at the end of each performance I saw. (to be fair, they tried the last time, but injuries got in the way) I'm wondering who else might get a chance at it...

I looked at the Fox website and couldn't find a link to show credits. That doesn't mean they don't have them somewhere, just that I couldn't find them. But you can watch full episodes there, 8 days after they've been broadcast. House (I know this isn't really dance-related, but thanks for mentioning the problem with condensed credits -- as someone who sits through all the credits in the movie theater, I'm always irked when the credit roll for a program I've been watching gets squished or deleted!)

It's very interesting to read the responses to this article, in terms of legal precedent and in the general understanding of 'ownership' I found this comment pretty dispiriting but took heart from this

Well, the children's chorus in Balanchine's Midsummer Night's Dream are called the bugs. Not sure if that counts. Ashton is indeed credited with the choreography on imdb.com. And Hein Heckroth, who worked on The Red Shoes, and designed the Kurt Jooss ballet The Green Table, designed here as well.

Well, I think part of the mix is the presenters involved -- here in Seattle it's playing one weeknight (and one showing, I think) through the auspices of the local film festival -- a fairly arcane niche. They haven't really promoted it outside of their own audience and I will be interested to see who else is in the audience. Interestingly, the screening hall is in the same building that the ballet performs in, but there wasn't any promotional material for the film at the ballet's last program (Swan Lake even...). An opportunity wasted.

Thanks for the heads up on this -- the Seattle date is being presented by the Seattle International Film Festival SIFF Ballets Russes but they don't have much information about the film on their website.

Hathaway looks similar in still photos, but I'm less convinced in movement. I haven't seen the Jane Austen film, so don't know if she moderated her physicality for a period work, but I think she doesn't innately have the upper/lower body coordination that marked Fonteyn, even in pedestrian moments -- I don't remember ever seeing a graceless action. But even if it's not ingrained, she may be a skilled enough actress to learn the style.

At Dance Horizons http://www.dancehorizons.com/store/search.....x=0&GO.y=0

And Asaf Messerer made a solo for himself as a soccer player, in his early days as a performer. One of the fundamental things about dance is its malleability -- it is used in many ways, and fills many needs for human beings. It can be worship, it can be instruction, it can be art and it can be a form of competition (thanks Helene for pointing out that distinction) It's used as a metaphor for change, for compatibility, for negotiation, and for contest. It doesn't surprise me at all to find dance used in sports writing, and that the term ballet is used interchangeably with it. Paul makes a good point about the rise of sport metaphors in post-modern dance. Steve Paxton, one of the developers of Contact Improvisation and a central person at the beginning of post-modernism, often talks about CI being similar to basketball (a sport he played) -- that a good player or a good dancer would work to internalize certain movements, would practice skills methodically, but that in the actual performing or playing, the goal was to do the dance or play the game, and the skills came into use unconsciously. Technique is a tool, whatever the context. This is as true in ballet as it is for any other physical practice. Tangentially, at one point applicants for Rhodes Scholarships were advised to list a sport or some other kind of activity as proof of their physical fitness (a criterion for the award) -- one of the first women to get a scholarship in the 1970s was Rachel Klevit (from my college!), and her "sport" was ballet.

Oh, thanks so much for the heads-up on this. The festival is so large, I often miss things just from trying to deal with the scope of it all.

Oh good news for them -- all excellent dance writers!

Thanks for the link -- I saw this group here in the Northwest in the late 90s and was blown away.

You've put your finger on a very true thing -- the organizations I know that were budgeting with a specific endowment income in mind are scrambling just as hard as those who operate 'paycheck to paycheck.' Glad to hear good things about the rep -- I'm going down to Portland on Thursday and am looking forward to it!

And apparently he was not injured, just incapacitated from an allergy test, and is on his way to being well, according to the press office at the company.

Oh, I don't know -- maybe she has x-ray vision? I'm glad people are getting the chance to move around -- it's a bit like Nutcracker that way. She is indeed a very American beauty. The more I see this trio, the more I notice in it, and the more I realize how tricky Petipa was. It's not designed to be hard just for the sake of hard, but it takes its subjects very seriously, and tries to display every facet of them it can. I thought both the lead couples I saw (Lowenberg and Tisserand, and Brunson and Lee-Yin) did an excellent job, but the last ones were particularly juicy with that deep, grounded quality. I'm so glad you got to see them.

Our recommendations are all over the place -- if it were me, I'd come to see the Balanchine triple bill, since I'd get a broader view of more of the company, with three different groups. Plus it's 4Ts -- my all-time favorite ballet. But really, it depends on you. Do you love big story things best, do you want to see a big variety of performers, do you want something you already know so you can make some comparisons, or do you want something you don't get to see at home...

I'm sorry to be so wordy, but I wound up seeing all five O/Os (and, I think, most of the additional casting as well) and have things I'd like to say. Peter Boal gives curtain speech 4/9 -- performance tonight is dedicated to Peter Donnelly, who was a big part of the Seattle arts community. Ran the Rep for a long time (especially important during the capital campaign for their current building), and then on to found Arts Fund, which helps channel corporate donations to the arts. When he first stepped out I thought perhaps he'd be talking about Gwenn Barker (former Ballet Russe dancer who taught and coached here for many years) who also died recently. Act 1 Jordan Pacitti is Victorian elegant as the tutor, with little picky steps to match. I loved Paul Gibson in this part, it was made on him and he really made the whole “who, me? Drinking?” sequence with Siegfried and the Queen Mother very organic. But Pacitti is making this his own -- he's just this side of bibulous. At one point he dances with all six women (three on each arm) like a collector, and then towards the end he's got a series of increasingly tipsy turns resolving into a bobble-headed moment. With one hand on his hip and the other held in front of his waist he could appear on Project Runway -- he's a caricature of a fashion designer. But he's very carefully doing his job, looking out for the prince's interests, trying to find a young woman who would suit. Lucien Postelwaite bounds on stage and that's his mode for the act -- he's young and bouncy and dazzled by life. “All these girls, and look, now we're dancing. Uh, oh, it's my mother -- I'd better put my coat back on. What -- get married? How would I do that?!” He loves his mother and wants her approval -- he turns to her over and over again, and as Carrie Imler plays her, she's an icy one. Kind when she gets her way and withholding affection when crossed. The way she takes her hand away from his as she leaves the stage after handing down her ultimatum is stunning. Quick, powerful and directed -- she snatches it back. In movement analysis terms that combination of energy is called a “punch” and though she doesn't actually strike him here, it has the same effect. Stanko Milov and Karel Cruz are more grown-up as Siegfried, they tell people what to do, they break up fights. For this Siegfried, actual love comes as a revelation -- like Alberecht in Giselle, he is transformed and undone. Milov has done this part before you can sense his confidence in the role. Cruz is newer and so is more of a surprise. He's really filled out this last year -- when I first saw him he seemed all height and no breadth (though the boyshorts he wore in Tharp's Waterbaby Bagatelles didn't help much), but he's more in control of his length now -- his sissones are so arrowy I was smiling like a goof. I don't know if Seth Orza has done this role before elsewhere, but it feels like he hasn't -- the technique is more developed than the character. Good and clean (and easier in the upper body than he's been the last few programs) but I didn't see specific moments (“this is who I am right now”) so much as a clean general performance. Pacitti and Jonathan Porretta as the Jester have a highly developed mime chat during the act -- I think it must have at least some actual meaning -- it certainly doesn't feel like unshaped hand jive. Helene is right -- Barry Kerollis is meant for the Restoration. He's checking out the girls upstage and making comments behind their backs. Everyone comments on Porretta's theatricality, and it is indeed a big part of his work no matter the part, but the thing that strikes me right now is just the physical facility. In past generations, the fast and gymnastic dancers were often not the ones with flexibility or really elegant line, but Porretta does have those attributes as well as the high-test stuff. The Jester is full of tricks, choreographically, and I've often seen them performed by dancers with more panache than clarity, but that's not happening here. The trio, as Francia Russell has staged it, is very close to the original Petipa, and it feels like it. He loved setting little challenges for dancers (how many ways can you do this pas de bouree?) or showcasing someone's particular skill (hops on pointe -- hell on earth for some and a walk in the park for others) Benjamin Griffiths has been whipping off extra multiple turns everywhere this season and here is no different. He's so poised with them, though, that I begin to doubt my finger math at the end of the phrase -- did he really do three/four/what? and then pause in releve -- he doesn't look like butter would melt… Maria Chapman is lovely in all the pointey hopping and Leslie Rausch is just clean, clean, clean in the releves. In another cast, Jodie Thomas is excellent -- the busy precision really suits her. She should be just fine in Denmark. Kyle Davis substitutes for Porretta as the Jester on 4/17, He's got the technicals skills, certainly, but he hasn't quite worked out the showmanship of the role. He's very pure (I would be interested in seeing him in the pas de trois), but I think he needs to be more selfish (Hey! Look at me!!) in his performance. He needs to come to his own terms about what he does and why he does it. (in act 3, after Odile reveals true bad self, the characters winds up at the feet of the QM, weeping into her train. Both Porretta and Griffiths make this a totally believeable moment, but with Davis he seems to dive at the QM's train before his emotions tell him to go there, just because the choreography says so. Act 2 At the lake, Seth Orza manages to make Benno make sense -- he's the outrider -- the one who checks the field before the prince comes along. I know that the original character was inserting for purely pragmatic reasons, but over time we've inherited him without the reason he exists. There has to be some reason he gets a program credit of his own rather than the ubiquitous “friends” or “retainers.” As O/O, Kaori Nakamura has real quickness on her entrance -- rather than just being fast she's got the true 'precipite,' which feels very birdy. She's not soft here, so much as she's still. Watching and worrying -- just like the last time around, when she performed this role with Olivier Wevers, she seems the more mature of the pair, which lets Postelwaite, in this case, be the hopeful, fragile one. Carla Korbes first go at O/O, a couple years ago, was clean, but she's so much further along now. She really seems to have thought the character through, and found the movement components of her interpretation within the choreography rather than grafted on. She's got the “let me go” part of the first extended duet, just like in “Firebird.” When she looks at Siegfried, she's really hopeful -- maybe the curse can be broken. Louise Nadeau's O/O was the most eccentric of the run, especially in the upper body where she really used her natural facility to support her characterization. I know that we see her performances right now thinking that she's leaving at the end of the season, but even without that awareness this would feel like a highly developed and personal interpretation. Mara Vinson, understandably, was much less adventurous -- this is her first time out in the full ballet and she acquitted herself well, but it felt a bit like a performance as much based on what she's seen of other dancers as what she thinks of herself. I'm hoping that the work comes around in the repertory again soon enough for her to get another go at it (or that she guests somewhere that she can keep working on the part). Miranda Weese is having an interesting time of things here -- she's been in and out of performances often enough that many of the people I speak with feel they really don't know her very well, for all that she's been on the roster here for almost two years. Like most people, I saw her in the televised performance of the Martins' Swan Lake, but I don't have many specific memories of her distinct from the production. Here she is almost a photo-perfect O/O in the tableaus, with a side tilt of her head reading as modesty in the white acts and seductive in the black. Liora Reshef is very clear in the 4 little swans, but she's decided the downbeat is a slice earilier than her colleages. I actually think she's right, but in a variation like this, unison is more important than right. She's been popping up all over the stage in the last few productions, and there's almost always something interesting to see. Wever's Von Rothbart is great -- his timing is very innate, like Imler's, and almost violent -- he makes that oversized cape really snap. William Yin-Lee had some excellent moments as well, glaring at the audience as well as Siegfried. Act 3 Okay, I can manage with the tilting walls/columns in the fist two acts, but when the curtain opens for the beginning of act 3, I look at that big wall of off-kilter windows upstage and all I can think is “Titanic!” The national dances are looking really snappy this time around. I've loved the Spanish as much for its incredibly gaudy costumes as for the rose-in-the-teeth choreography since I first saw it, but this time out it's particularly nice. I do miss Kerollis and Kiyon Gaines here -- they were a great match for timing and amplitude, but Pacitti does a lot to make up for it. Stacey Lowenberg and Jerome Tisserand have great tension in the Czardas, but I think I love Kari Brunson and William Yin-Lee best -- you can hear their heel clicks and stamps throughout the dance, which really links it to its ethnic dance roots. He's been popping up on the radar in all kinds of things this year -- he looked great in Benjamin Millepied's “Three Movements,” in a white shirt and a skinny black tie. Stowell has choreographed several doll dances and commedia pieces, and the Neopolitan here is a good example. Tricky, with the big movement payoff not linked to the crescendo in the music. Jodie Thomas is charming and flirty here, and Griffiths is an excellent partner for that. The relationship between the QM and Von R can shift in a couple different ways. Imler is condescending, so that at the end of the act Von R's victory is as much over her as it is over Siegfried. There's an interesting moment as Von R and Odile enter the ballroom -- they're coming down the diagonal towards the throne when Odile and Siegfried leave the stage (off to canoodle in another room?) Von R continues down the diagonal towards the QM, but she gestures across the stage “There's your seat.” Otto Neuberg plays it very broody -- he's been dissed by the QM, and he slouches in his chair and sulks during the national dances. Olivier Wevers is less surly as Von R, more devious. Nakamura's Odile is very glittery -- very wiley. Postelwaite's Siegfried doesn't stand a chance. Körbes is more sinuous, more overtly seductive -- Milov's Siegfried is probably much more experienced than Postelwaite's -- it will take more to win him over. Act 4 If I had my way I'd see acts 2 and 3 from fairly close on a level with the stage, and then see act 4 from above. The geometry of the corps work is quite lovely, and it's hard to see from the orchestra section. There are some great bits here, and the constant thrum of their bourrees is reinforced by the roll of the tympani. The differences between O/O come mostly in act 2 -- by the time we get to act 4 they all seem to be on the same page. Not sure how much individual coaching they get on the details. Compared with the plot points that they need to make in the preceding acts, this one is quite straightforward -- apology, forgiveness, death and apotheosis.