sandik

I checked the link -- I wonder if this extends to dance, or just to music.

Oh, the years of my life I've spent watching lec-dems! When I taught dance history, a class that wound up attracting a significant number of non-dancers since it fulfilled a distribution requirement, I would always bring a pointe shoe with me to my first lectures on Romanticism. I'd bang it on the table at the beginning of the lecture, which would wake up the snoozers in the back rows, and then pass it around the class. Always, always, someone would try tapping it on their head.

Good to know -- many thanks for the clarification.

Tangentially, there's an item in today's "Links" section about the characterization of the newly selected heir to the throne of Cambodia as a "ballet" dancer. He has performed some of the court dances of his country (though it's not clear to me if he's ever danced with the national company, which has been called the "Royal Ballet of Cambodia" in some of its press), but I don't think he makes any kind of claim to have performed the danse d'ecole.

Well, I had a lengthy comment written, and managed to lose it, but will try again. As a term, "ballet" is applied in many different ways, only some of them about the kind of work you seem to be advocating for here. Sometimes it's used for its historical value, sometimes as a kind of shorthand for theatrical dance in general. As Amy points out, Graham called her works ballets, and though I can think of many dances less like a ballet than Graham's work, it's always seemed like a linguistic stretch to me. Several of the folkloric or "national ballet" companies formed in the 50's and 60's incorporate "ballet" in their names, mostly to indicate that the works they perform are theatricalized versions of their authentic predecessors. (Ballet Folklorico de Mexico, Les Ballet Africains National Dance of Guinea). In part, I think they took "ballet" as a part of their name to make themselves more acceptable to a Western or Euro-American audience. As far as Ballet Hispanico is concerned, I think the "ballet" refers to a commonality in training for the dancers, and a kind of theatricalized version of the social and ritual dances that much of their rep is taken from. I looked at their website and much of the work they perform is in the same kind of fusion style as NightClub. They've had a wide variety of choreographers work with them, but even more "ballet" oriented dancemakers (like Daniel Duell and William Whitener) seem to be drawing on Latin materials in their commissions. http://www.ballethispanico.org/company/prior_repertory.html It seems a little cheesy to quote myself, but this is what I wound up saying about the show in a calendar spotlight in the Seattle Weekly. "The "ballet" in Ballet Hispanico's performance of NightClub isn't about classicism, but about control, with passion held on a tight leash. A dance-theater work in three acts, NightClub features the company's signature combination of ballet, modern, and Latin forms, moving from the brothels of 1920s Argentina to contemporary dance halls, passing through 1950s Spanish Harlem and its social clubs."

There is a certain amount of rental/borrowing going on (one example: Oregon Ballet Theater has been borrowing Pacific Northwest Ballet's older Swan Lake sets for their current production of Act 3, and apparently will now buy them in preparation for setting the complete ballet -- PNB opened a new production last year), but you're right, there certainly doesn't seem to be the same kind of intentional marketing of sets/costumes that you find in opera, where potential rental income is often figured into the budget of a new production as a way of defraying costs. I think in some cases larger companies have "sold down" (rather than handed down) some parts of older productions, but it's pretty adhoc. You're absolutely right about the storage issue -- it's a big budget item for many companies, and a pain in the neck as well.

I'm very fond of a different Rainforest -- the Warhol set for the Cunningham piece is so beautiful. Locally, I liked the scene painting that Pacific Northwest Ballet commissioned for their version of Tudor's Dark elegies -- it's based on a very harsh and wind-swept part of the Washington coastline, and worked extremely well with the sensibilities of the ballet. (to my shame, I can't remember the designer)

Rockwell has actually spoken more than once for the DCA and I've been impressed each time. While his expertise leans more toward contemporary and avant garde work, he seems to have great respect for traditional and classical art forms and is willing to go out on a limb for difficult projects (he was one of the powers behind the appearance of the Chinese "Peoney Pavillion" at the Lincoln Center fest a few years ago). Since it appears that current thinking at the Times considers dance to be a niche art form, Rockwell's background as a general culture writer might help change that, illustrating the centrality of dance to human experience.

If so, what did you think? Enquiring minds want to know!

If a specialty is something that you do exclusively, or much better than anyone else, the defile would certainly qualify!

I don't know that I would identify it as the "house specialty," in the same way that you recommend a certain dish to someone going to a restaurant ("If you're only going to eat there once you have to get the ___"), but I think Pacific Northwest Ballet does a very good job with the Balanchine repertory, especially the "leotard" ballets. I'm very fond of their productions of Agon and 4 T's -- they give them a very direct and clean performance.

Did anyone here see the performance with Jonathan Poretta -- since I see him often in Seattle, I'm curious to know what he was like in the OBT Swan.

If you are close to New York City, you should check the holdings at the New York Public Library, in the Performing Arts branch. I think they might have kinescopes of the old "Lamp Unto My Feet" program, which was a Sunday morning program that often included dance on sacred themes. You can access their catalogue online http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/lpa.html

The National Arts Journalism Project (an arm of the journalism school at Columbia) has released another dispiriting study about the decrease in space for arts writing. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions (you have to register to read the piece, but here's the crux) "But daily journalism is really about space — the never-ending quest to maximize and utilize the precious "news hole" allocated to individual reporting beats. This is where arts coverage has suffered the worst casualties recently. Simply put, at a time when the arts have been proliferating across America, the number of column inches devoted to arts and entertainment in most papers has remained, at best, constant. And in many dailies, the coverage has decreased." The denizens of Ballet Alert come from a fairly wide geographic spread, so let's hear it -- what is the coverage like in your community. Fair? Biased? Non-existant? Aside from the news you read here, where do you get your information about your local dance community?

I've been thinking about that part of this situation quite a bit, as well as looking at other companies and how they managed similar transitions, and I have to say I have yet to see a really good model. Some companies have managed to keep everything under very tight wraps until the final choice was announced -- a process that frustrated their communities and made those "not in the know" feel excluded. In some cases the actual transition went pretty smoothly, with the incoming director embraced and supported by the community, but in a few examples, it was a very rocky process, involving legal action and creating the opinion among the general population that the organizations didn't know how to run themselves. ("Oh, those crazy artists.") I understand that the hiring committe at PNB wanted to avoid that situation if possible, hence the short list of candidates released earlier this year. Although they did get a number of "What in the world?!" responses from outside the area, local opinion has been pretty muted. As far as this latest announcement is concerned, I'm enough of a small-type-reader to note the distinction between the committee agreeing that one candidate leads the group and having that translate into a recommendation to the board at large. And knowing that there are several steps after that recommendation that will also have to be navigated, I can see why they might think this is a reasonable place to make another announcement. Like many of us, I'm not sure how much to read into the language of the press release.

Currently, Francia Russell is the head of the school as well as a co-director of the company -- since the school position will have to be filled in some way I don't know that there will be any real "savings" at this point. As hockeyfan points out, the company has always been very upfront about their fiscal situation. They are more dependent on ticket revenue than companies in other cities, and this part of the country is lagging in the recovery from the dot.com bust, which affects ticket sales as well as donated dollars. The move back into the rennovated hall has certainly been good for them, but I believe they were in a deficit situation (albeit a small one) before. Honestly, if there is additional money to be garnered from this, they may want to consider adding to the roster of dancers. After some retirements, promotions and shuffling, they are down to 5 soloists, officially. On one hand, this is really a cosmetic distinction, since they often draw from the corps to fill solo roles (and ocassionally principals will also appear in parts that might be considered solo-level) but it is disheartening for dancers who might otherwise appreciate that kind of recognition to stay in their current 'category.' If Boal does indeed become the Artistic Director then it seems he will have to look beyond himself for new work -- whether that means a house choreographer or a series of guests is a distinction without much difference, budget-wise.

The press release didn't go out until Monday morning, Seattle time, and the NYT may be waiting on interviews. Or perhaps just waiting.

Like everyone else here in Seattle, I've been mulling over the people on the "short list." I admit that at first I was surprised by Boal's name, not that he'd be part of the list, but that he had applied, but then, there are some times when you need to step up to the opportunities when they present themselves, rather than deciding when you're ready for a change and then seeing what's available.

It may just be semantics, but the press release emphasizes that the committee has not yet made their recommendation, while the King County Journal article implies that the decision is more concrete. I think the KCJ does have a smaller circulation than the Seattle Times or Post-Intelligencer, but it is not necessarily a lesser paper -- it is based in the suburbs surrounding Seattle. The reporter who covers dance for them, as well as other beats, was the dance critic for the Seattle Times for several years, and has good connections to members of the board and administration.

Actually, I think they might be a good candidate for some Bejart -- maybe some of the earlier, more dance-specific work. And the Alonso "Carmen" might be an interesting fit as well.

Well, at the very beginning they were the company that toured in a station wagon. Cunningham was the minibus. But anecdotes aside, this is an excellent question. For many years, the Joffrey held a particular position, both on its own and in relationship to other NY ballet companies. NYCB was Balanchine, ABT was a mix of classical and American works with a procession of guest artists, the Feld company was, well, the Feld company, and Joffrey was all the other stuff. Robert Joffrey took the Ballet Russe as a model, in several different ways, trying to act as a conservator of that material and looking for innovation in choreography. He was committed to variety in the repertory, including a mix of old and new, but it's hard to know how he might apply that aesthetic today, when other companies have taken on so many of those characteristics. In the past, they actively collected works from new ballet choreographers, works from the historic rep that were out of favor with other groups, works from artists outside of ballet. I think, if you were to apply those criteria to repertory building today, you'd be looking again to the Ballet Russe rep (especially the Massine and Nijinska works), to people like Kylian and Forsythe (who's a Joffrey alum) and to people like Trisha Brown or Stephen Petronio (work that can have a strong "dancey" base but has a distinct non-ballet style). But unlike times past, these choices would not necessarily make the company unique -- these are programming strategies that served the Joffrey well enough that they have been adopted by several other groups.

May I say "all of the above?" The Joffrey rep has always been very eclectic, more so even than ABT, and has reached to the edges of the dance world to include works that other more mainstream ballet companies would shun. I'd love to see them bring back their Ballet Russe works (the Fokine and the Massine, as well as the Nijinsky), revive their Jooss ballets and their Tharp works, polish up their Ashton, and perhaps look to someone like Mark Morris for new work, as they did to Tharp previously. And I'd really like to see them come back to Seattle!

An interesting discussion of critic Jim Demetre's review of Lyon's performance in Seattle (combined with comments on Pacific Northwest Ballet's opening program). Mr. Demetre is one of the discussants. http://www.artdish.com/ubbcgi-bin/ultimate...ic&f=3&t=000069

There is an interesting discussion going on at "artdish" about Jim Demetre's reviews of the opening night of R&J and of the Lyon Opera Ballet performances (Mr. Demetre is one of the discussants). http://www.artdish.com/ubbcgi-bin/ultimate...ic&f=3&t=000069

It sounds like a great program -- I wish I could have gone, but am so glad you went, and were willing to talk about it here.