sandik

Considering the quality of some transfers, an improvement in that alone seems pretty deluxe to me!

Fiddlesticks -- I'm missing that performance. But she comes back again the following Saturday.

Sorry to be late to the party -- I got hung up reading about other productions. Morris has worked on this opera several times, starting in 1988 at Seattle Opera, just as a choreographer. He came back to the Gluck in 1996, collaborating with the Handel & Haydn Society, with a production that toured. I didn't get the chance to see it, but judging from the photos it was a more nymphs and shepherds production visually. This current production at the Met is from 2007, and he both directs and choreographs. For this current production, the set is by James Ingalls and the costumes by Isaac Mizrahi -- Morris has worked with both artists previously. As I understand it, the majority of the dancers in the Met performances are from the Mark Morris Dance Group, but there are some members of the Met Opera Ballet as well. I loved the production, and I'm afraid that I loved best some of the elements that other people here found objectionable. I thought the conceit of making the chorus a collection of dead celebrities was stunning, and I didn't feel at all distracted by their distinctive presence. I loved the fact that Joan of Arc was seated beside an astronaut and Jimi Hendrix was next to a grand Edwardian lady. With the chorus dressed in pedestrian clothing, it reversed the cliche that the famous become just another body when they're dead. And with Orpheus all in black, with a guitar as a lyre, it seemed that he was related to Johnny Cash. Morris has always cast a much wider variety of body types than the standard modern dance maker, and although his current company is a bit more uniform than previous iterations, this ensemble felt right for his aesthetic. And the weighted, unisex phrases were a lovely connection to his youthful experiences as a folk dancer. I don't know if there are any connections between the dances in this new production and his previous work with this opera, but some of the partnering here feels similar to his early choreography in dances like The Office and New Love Song Waltzes. I did think that the camera work was a trifle busy to really see the dancing, and the lighting seemed a bit dark, though some of my colleagues were speculating that it was the projector in the theater (they thought that other operas in the series were also too dim). The scene as Orpheus and Eurydice were traveling out of Hades was actually dark, and probably read better live than on camera, but I do love seeing the characters close up, so am willing to trade one thing for another. The Morris company website has some helpful background information on his various productions, and links to several reviews and interviews about this current staging. Mark Morris Dance Group And Alistair Macaulay's review from the NYT is very informative. NYT review

A company often has a 'house' lighting designer, so that the lights for a mixed bill program can reflect a singular aesthetic, despite the variety of choreographers. Several years ago, a local presenter (not the ballet company) had a house designer who put much more emphasis on side light. The outline of the performer was very crisp, but their faces were often in shadow. It took me some time to realize that the 'coolness' I thought I saw in the performers was as much a function of their visibility as their intention.

unfortunately, NDT III does not exist anymore. The Dutch gov. decided to no longer fund it. (please correct me if I am wrong, but that is the info I was given..) -d- I'm sorry to hear that -- I didn't get the opportunity to see the group in person, but knew several of the performers and was so glad they were still involved...

Oh, I know -- it's just the stereotype. With a bagpipe.

Well, it's not quite the example you're looking for (I think), since this is a change in genre as well as company, but here in Seattle Julie Tobiason and Timothy Lynch left Pacific Northwest Ballet, and then formed the Seattle Dance Project. The new ensemble is mostly a contemporary dance company, but the style is very heavily influenced by their work in ballet. Alongside this would be artists who have joined Nedelands DT 3 (I think that's the correct number), a group that is comprised of older artists. I know of a couple specifically modern dance companies with a similar mandate.

I saw that with my son, and didn't know Montalban was in the film, so was gobsmacked when he appeared. He was so generous about spoofing his commercial persona, it was a sweet moment in the film.

Perhaps I'm living in the past, but I've always thought of a kilt as a skirt with knife pleats around 3/4 of the waistband and an overlapping flat front. The stereotype is Scotch, made of a plaid wool that was a family identifier, but that's certainly not the only kilt around. A local company makes kilts out of heavy duty canvas for construction workers, as well as more formal styles Utilikilt The skirt I know best for Rubies is a number of rectangles set on a waistband (long side vertical). I remember a white skirt in photos, but I don't think I've ever seen one in performance. Tangentially, I thought that your Ballet Talk membership level (if that is the right term) is particularly appropriate for this conversation Rubies Circle

Absolutely. I'm not a big concert person, but do track the action, and she's been working consistently while so many other artists have arrived and faded away. I like to think it's the early dance training...

I have been wincing since I first read about this situation, but I do think it's interesting that the NYT is quoting the director of the local ballet company.

Anyone going tomorrow (Jan 24)?

I was surprised that Eastwood was left out -- I don't always like his work, but he's certainly been a mainstay of the film industry. And I was surprised that Revolutionary Road was passed over, especially considering its reception at the Globes. the Mumbai Juno!! I'm snickering.

I love both of those books, but I have to confess -- I originally read them because Dorothy Sayers mentions them in her Peter Wimsey books!

I have some major disagreements with the reviewer from the Australian, but can understand their basic misgivings. I spent a considerable part of the film peering through my fingers at the violence, but would not want it any other way. The general trend in mainstream films is to make them consistent -- romance is romance, drama is drama, etc. But most of the truly good films break those conventions. Without trying to reduce contemporary Indian life to a caption, it is a world of great contradiction, and in that I think Slumdog Millionaire is a very truthful film.

First week casting is up here After Louise N's comments about who gets the opening night roles, I looked at this again. Carla Korbes is doing Diamonds on Thursday night, and Emeralds on Friday. (but not Rubies on the third program...) Louise N is opening in Emeralds, and Jodie Thomas is dancing with Jonathan Porretta in Rubies (with Ariana L as the solo woman)

You raise a very interesting question, Cristian. There would seem to be a great deal of value in looking at dancers moving through space in silence. Sometimes, with pieces I know fairly well -- most recently, with Sugar Plum Fairy pdd and Robbins' version of Afternoon of a Faun -- I'll turn the volume off and just look. It can be wonderful. Or am I just kidding myself? It's a very different experience -- not really the same work at all. But I have spent considerable time, when I was teaching dance history, fast-forwarding through tapes to cue things up, and I realized that watching the ensemble sections of the big classics speeded up gave me a new insight on the traffic patterns of the work that I might not otherwise have had.

I was tickled by Lowery's references, those lines in particular. In an NPR commentary, Hedrick Hertzberg felt that Obama "spoke" rather than "sang" in his address, and I thought that Lowery moved between the two several times. Dirac, I hear your 'prosy' element, but for me that came more from her delivery than the actual text. Reading it aloud to myself, it feels quite different than hearing her speaking voice.

I'm not at all familiar with Elizabeth Alexander, but was very taken with some of the images from the poem she read at the inaugural today. Any thoughts? (Here it is, if you didn't get a chance to hear it this morning)

I do love all three, but my personal favorite is El Amor brujo (Love the Magician) -- it takes a very eccentric attitude about the 'realism' of film, and uses is to help us with the magical aspects of the plot. And the dancing is fantastic. Hoyos and Jimenez do some of their best work here.

Well, I went to the Emeralds coaching session today, and watched Verdy work with Nadeau. I'm glad we'll get the chance to see her in a few more roles this season, but I'm feeling quite sad about her leaving.

It's 'friggin', which I like very much and use often. That's actually old, but I noticed both 'frikkin' and 'freakin' beggining to crop up about mid-90's. I hear these a lot everywhere, in the subways or stores, and they're even written a lot on the internet. Which reminds me, I don't really like any of the internet-born words and phrases that I can think of. I hear both "frickin'" and "friggin'," as well as "fraking" (the last seems to have come from the television series Battlestar Galactica). But I usually prefer the original.

Perky, In NJ we say: "It's a sheet of ice out there !" I guess it not such a regional saying! That being said, since just this morning we had "a sheet of ice out there" as part of our third winter storm in 5 days, I would guess that out in the midwest you deal with these "sheets of ice" better than the horrible drivers here in NJ do! Holiday wishes (with no more ice!) to all In Seattle we had sheets of ice out there for most of the holidays. Which I suppose is better than having those sheets inside.

I like that better than students being described as consumers. Yes, it does! I didn't follow from the beginning, which is why I've got a little cluster of replies here. I don't mind regional variations, like the difference between standing in line in Seattle and standing on line in New York City. My particular grump is the redundant phrase "The reason is because ..." How about either "The reason is ..." or "It works this way because ..." Ah, that was refreshing!

I'm not sure if this usage comes from the online/search world, but it occurs to me that it reinforces the main topic (that is Batman or the NBA) by using it as a kind of base word for all the other variations. Written like this (Batman: the Movie, Batman: the Graphic Novel, Batman: the Soundtrack), in an alphabetized list, or in a set of results from a search, all these entries would appear together. Yes, the colon creates a false sense of importance in the phrase (like a little fanfare as you enter the room), but it does have a possibly unintended, but useful result.