sandik

Very swanky. Now if they'd post the cast list for the next program...

This is one of those roles that seems to support many different interpretations and approaches, which makes it such fun. Nureyev was close to the end of his dancing life when I saw him in the role, and he turned the ballet into an essay on death and transfiguration rather than birth and development. It was certainly an unusal performance, but a fascinating one, and in retrospect, quite moving. With Pacific Northwest Ballet I've seen Jeffrey Stanton and Stanko Milov in the role. (I believe Olivier Wevers was originally scheduled to perform -- he was the Apollo in the poster -- and with his acting skills he would likely have done a fine job). Stanton was very serious -- it was all about being schooled, learning how to control the muses and be a god. Milov was more boisterous (in a review I compared him to Elvis in the "strumming" moment) -- part of what he was learning to control was himself. With both of them I was very interested in seeing how their Terpsichore's meshed with their characterizations. Stanton performed with Louise Nadeau, whose quickness (especially at the beginning of a phrase) seemed a sparky contrast with his more andante style. Milov was paired with Patricia Barker -- her cool competence made her into a teacher.

vs. Gelsey Kirkland. In all fairness, Novikova's photographer did not ask her to face the camera and smile. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> And Novikova's image is from a performance, while Kirkland's is a studio shot.

This is excellent news -- thanks so much for the heads-up! Off to bookmark the site...

Without trying to be self-serving, I had the chance to see this reconstruction and write about it for DanceViewTimes -- you might be interested in the review. It was a lovely production and I was very excited to have seen it. www.danceviewtimes.com/dvw/reviews/2004/spring/pnbschool.htm

Well, privately I always call Placido Domingo "Mr. January," in honor of an especially hunky picture of him in an old Opera News calendar. But that's just me.

When I'm writing for publication I use the full name for the first mention, and then just the last name afterwards (unless there is more than one person with the same last name). In general, I don't use first names unless I have a personal relationship with that artist, and I'm talking about our friendship rather than their work. Tangentially, though, I often make a fuss when people don't get their full names in a program or other print piece (like a press release) For some reason, choreographers often reduce the identity of well known composers to their surname, even if that makes for a confusion (like Bach -- which one are they talking about?) I know we refer to them by their last names all the time, but a program note is not a conversation.

Off the top of my head, he worked directly with Graham (I believe she both made new material for him as well as set existing choreography) and with Murray Louis and Paul Taylor. Although he performed work by Jose Limon, I don't think he worked in the studio with him (Limon died in 1972).

I am sorry to have missed this performance, it sounds like great fun. I was there earlier in the week, and got a chance to see Carla Korbes as Clara. She was cool and lovely, and very self-possessed, particularly in her relationship to the Pasha in act 2. If the Clara seems too youthful in that section the Pasha can appear as a predator in these hyper-aware days, but there wasn't any of that here. There were a couple of glitchy moments in the partnering, but I'm writing that off to chance, since Christophe Maraval is usually an excellent partner, and he was princely as always everywhere else. I'd chosen that performance to see Korbes, but also to see Rebecca Johnston as the lead in Flowers. She's been a corps member since '99 and is unfailing able to make sense out of the wild variety of material that comes with the corps de ballet territory. Kent Stowell's Flora is a very busy part, dancing across the waltz rhythm frequently and covering lots of ground, and Johnston made it all very clear. She seemed to have a group of fans on house left, and I was glad to join in their enthusiasm for her dancing.

Well, there is a kind of "insider" attitude that can disdain the familiar world, and in ballet Nutcracker is very familiar!

Thanks indeed -- I'm looking forward to the French Tricorne

I saw Nureyev as Othello, in one of those Friends tours (can't remember the rest of the cast, but they were all POB people) He was strangely compelling in it -- so many times when the work is set on a ballet company they substitute balletic virtuosity for the weighted quality that it needs, but this was towards the end of N's performing career and his struggle with technique "read" as the kind of tension that works well in that role. I saw him in Apollo and in Bejart's Songs of a Wayfarer on the same bill, and they were equally unusual readings of the works, but believable on some level or another.

Oh, these are just wonderful, with diamond earrings the size of golf balls, and Cecchetti as a grasshopper! Many, many thanks for posting these here!!

I know we're discussing Nureyev here, but I just wanted to mention that Fracci is/was very compelling in this excerpt, and that the whole program is very, very interesting. Could you tell me please, where you found your copy?

Mine as well -- two larger than life characters!

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/26/arts/26cohen.html obituary from New York Times

I am so sorry to report that Selma Jeanne Cohen has died, after a long struggle with Alzheimers. She was a pathfinder for the dance community, especially for historians, and her groundbreaking works on history and aesthetics have been and will continue to be integral to our literature. She wrote with authority and with humor. She was able to take complex ideas and state them clearly, so that people of many different backgrounds and perspectives could discuss them with interest. Her work was read by scholars and lay people -- a claim that few authors can make. She loved dance and took it seriously, and we are richer for it.

thanks for linking to her essay -- Kena Herod is a fine writer, and I'm always interested in what she's been seeing.

A couple of barely related thoughts For the most part, NPR stations are quite pro-arts. In Seattle, KUOW runs a weekday arts and culture show in the afternoon, with a mix of studio interview and prepared pieces. (This week there's a series on public art running on the national morning show that originated here -- listen for Marie Sillman) Although music and theater get more airtime than dance, the coverage is generally smart and positive. I didn't get a chance to hear the negative commentary that starts this thread, but I've certainly heard many others like it. It's snarky and funny, and a popular kind of essay whatever its actual topic. (I've heard it recently about graduation speeches, blogs, student theater and holiday cards -- "once is hard enough and more is infinitly more awful") Although it's never fun to hear people expose their ignorance about dance, I'm not as concerned about the long-term affect of this particular essay. On one level I have some sympathy with the commentator's points (as I understand them from the excerpts here), but I think those thoughts belong in the other Nut thread, so I'll slide over there.

What do you suppose the Sugar Plum Fairy is?

I thoroughly enjoyed Good Night..., especially the art direction. The use of black and white throughout the film let them use extensive kinescope footage, very deftly. The McCarthy material is the most important, but there is alot of other stuff salted throughout, and it works extremely well. I was touched by the scene in the bar where they're waiting for the newspaper reviews of their McCarthy show. Electronic news is so pervasive today, I think we forget that originally people in radio and television felt a bit inferior to their colleagues who worked in print.

Good news about the translation -- I'll be looking for it.

Once you've seen this, could you report back to us about why you feel the way you do -- since most of us don't live in your neighborhood we're not going to be able to see for ourselves...

I know in the past we've had a grab-bag Nutcracker thread where we could discuss the various productions we've been seeing (rather than filing them all away neatly under the individual companies) -- would anyone be interested in that again?

Nice to hear that gender stereotyping is getting underway early. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Oh, it made me cringe (and many of the characters), but it was very right for the actor and the moment.