sandik

The thread on Swan Lake made me think of this. There are several ballets in the historic repertory that, for one reason or another, have been remade or significantly revised many times. In some cases, the changes are due to issues of money or casting, but in others, the reasons are associated with some difficulty or "problem" that the original work was seen to have. As an historian, I'm of two minds about this process -- I long for the original work to be maintained in some fashion, but as I said in the other thread, I'm also curious to know what the reviser thought was difficult about the original version, and what they do to amend that. What are some thoughts about this idea within this community? Are all revisions heresey, or are there situations where the newer model is an improvment on the old? Do you have any specific examples of this you can cite? To start this off, I'd like to open with Firebird, a ballet I love in its original version, but that I think has a weak ending. In part it's due to the scenario -- "happy ending, happy ending" is tough to pull off unless you take a page from Petipa's book and reserve some significant dancing for the ending. A processional in full Russian regalia is handsome, but not kinetically exciting. (I know the monsters usually come in for more criticism than the ending, but not with me.) Of the versions I've seen, I felt that John Taras made one of the best efforts, by reintroducing the Firebird at the end, but it still had a slightly "ok, already" feeling. So, am I out on a limb, or do other people have similar problems with other ballets? The description of this forum did mention "provocative opinion..."

Since their move (back) into the remodeled McCaw Hall, PNB has put additional energy into promoting their audience education events. They have two scheduled for their upcoming programs: a "Conversation with Nicolo Fonte" who is making a new ballet for their upcoming shows in mid-March (March 9), and "The Making of Carmina Burana" on April 6 (with Kent Stowell and Rico Chiarelli), which will be performed in mid-April. Both of these are moderated by Doug Fullington, who is a moderator of this board, and who does an excellent job with this kind of thing. (I'm posting this without his knowledge).

The Joffrey did indeed revive Cotillion -- Illaria Ladre, who had danced with the Ballets Russe and had performed in the work, assisted in the revivial. It doesn't seem to be in their current repertory, however...

Hmmm, indeed. Teaching a dance history course several years ago, and discussing Petipa's use of the corps, I cited SL - act 2, and then a student said, "but I thought that was made by Ivanov...?"

It's always such a gamble when a company revives an "After Petipa." We got a newly refurbished SL here in Seattle this autumn, and while most of it is blessedly accurate (in style if not actual steps) we've all seen versions that probably make Petipa and Ivanov rotate in their graves. And yet (warning, devil's advocate section ahead) Like Lamb's "Tales from Shakespear," these new versions of old works do say something about what people think ballet should be at certain times and places in our history. The revised Soviet SL, with its mandated, socially-acceptable "happy ending," is a fascinating example of that aesthetic. I'm not suggesting a wholesale substitution (as a dance historian that idea makes me queasy), but when someone claims to have "fixed a problem ballet" I'm always curious to see what they've done.

If my memory is correct, when PNB first announced that they were going to stage a Firebird, their intention was to resurrect the Balanchine version for Tallchief, but when it started to come together, they realized that they couldn't get enough of the work back. By that time they were committed to doing a Firebird (it was scheduled for the Goodwill Arts Festival here) and so Stowell stepped up. I understand that, as part of the Balanchine centenary events, Maria Tallfcheif is going to teach Patricia Barker part of her role in Firebird -- although I doubt this will lead to a full reconstruction, it's certainly good news.

Living at the other end of the continent, I've never been to SPAC, but I'm both fascinated and disheartened by this turn of events. I was bemused by the observation in several of the articles that the ballet always cost more to present than they brought in through ticket sales. Well, of course they did -- that's why non-profit organizations are allowed to offer tax deductions to donors, because as a community we feel these events are important enough to our well-being that we will subsidize them. If SPAC is a non-profit, then part of their mission is to bring artists to their community that would otherwise be unavailable -- a group that covers its expenses through the box office could perform there without the assistance of a non-profit presenter. If (the more complicated situation) SPAC presents a certain number of pop events to help make cash to defray other expenses, then it's a question of how much is enough. If Dave Matthews is there to support NYCB, it's one thing -- if he supplants NYCB, it's another.

Well, this is from the first Saturday evening performance. http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0406...erformpicks.php There were several excellent performances I didn't have room to comment on, particularly Carrie Imler, who has a natural gravity to her dancing -- it's very full and finished. She swept through the soloist role in the first section of the Brahms, making me like it much more than I actually do. Louise Nadeau did seem to have a couple of uncertain moments in the second movement, but they appeared to come from a physical impulsiveness that was very appropriate to the part -- she was swept away by the moment. The solos in Divert 15 were full of women who are on the brink of big things in their dancing, and it was a treat to see them reach out for those moments. In the post-show Q&A, Russell and Stowell both said that they would promote several of them if there were funds available. Since they just announced that they will be retiring at the end of next season I've been mulling over their tenure here, and thinking about their willingness to nurture dancers over a long haul. Right now, after a few retirements from the principal rank over the last couple years, it's more noticeable, but it occurs to me that it's always been going on.

Interesting line-up --many thanks for posting it! The Merry Widow is by Ronald Hynd. The Hynds staged PNB's Sleeping Beauty, and came later to set MW.

Oops! I'm so sorry to have misread your original posting, but glad that you were excited by Gillis' work.

I haven't seen Gillis in several years, and so can't speak to her current performing, but I would disagree with your comment about a lack of talent. As an independent modern soloist working from an emotion/expressive base, she's frequently been at odds with contemporary taste, but I've always found her dancing to be extremely heartfelt and compelling. She's toured and taught extensively (she was the first modern dancer to teach in China) and, as you found, is very generous with her enthusiasm for the art form. Like Isadora Duncan, she leads with her heart. I'm sorry to hear that you were not impressed with her as a mover, since my memories of her are quite incandescent.

Twyla Tharp made a dance for Peter Martins and (I think his name was) Lynne Swan, a football player for an Eastern team, that used similar materials (a saut de basque resembled some kind of jumping catch from sports). I can't find it in the NYPL catalogue, but I'm pretty sure I remember it on PBS. I doubt it actually convinced someone who was a sports fan to transfer their loyalty to dance, but it could have improved their opinion of dancers.

I would be surprised -- during his tenure here, Kent Stowell has been as much a resident choreographer as a curator of other works, and I don't think Barker is interested or experienced enough in choreography to manage that part of the job. Although Russell wasn't officially an artistic director when the couple arrived here in the 70's, she's certainly always functioned as one, and I think it will be difficult for one person to fill the role that two have done up to now -- the board might find it needs to think carefully about its expectations as it goes through the search process.

On the Boards, a local contemporary performance venue, commissioned a work from several local choreographers last year to the music of David Bowie. While parts of it were interesting, it was, as a whole, just as chaotic as you are already imagining...

I've read this several times, and have assigned the chapter on the making of "Rodeo" in dance history classes. I like her chatty style in it, and it gives contemporary students a very personal vision of life in the Ballet Russe companies of that period. I don't always agree with her aesthetic choices, but always admire her guts.

The film certainly does seem to be on the "art house" circuit -- in Seattle it's presented by the Landmark chain and is in one of their central city theaters. They've shown most of Altman's recent films, frequently for extended runs. (his work usually does quite well here). I realize that this makes it difficult for some people to see it in the theater, but I think that it's doing better here than it might in the big box multiplexes where it would be up against loud action films. One sweet detail -- it's showing here at the Harvard Exit Theater, which used to be a small concert house, the Women's Century Club, before it was modified. In 1948 Robert Joffrey presented his first full evening of choreography there, dedicated to his teacher Mary Ann Wells, so it's very appropriate that the film is running in that theater.

She once sat next to me at one of those pub-like restaurants in the Lincoln Center area -- my friend Mike thought it was amusing when I stopped breathing -- and when she sat down, she sat on her hair it was so long. Before she cut it, it was one of the joys of seeing her in the last section of Serenade. IIRC, it was that long when the ballet was broadcast on PBS with Western Symphony. A bit off topic in terms of Balanchine, but on in terms of hair. A friend of mine used to dance with Laura Dean, and in one of her works was paired with a young woman who had very long, beautiful hair. During one section of the dance the two of them came downstage center in a phrase that included a kind of swinging bow -- Erin used to say that he felt he was just there to introduce the hair as it swooped past.

If this is the one I'm thinking of, there's a tape of the whole piece in the NYPL dance collection. Old, black and white stuff from when Bausch was a student of Jooss at the Folkwang Schule. Despite the image quality, it is indeed a fabulous tape. I just wish someone would do it live, so we could see it and stop thinking for a minute about videotape!

PBS ran a Great Performances of the Joffrey GT, which included some juicy archival images of Jooss and Laban -- this is the tape I have and I don't think it's commercially available. And of course, someone should be filming all these coaching sessions. And when I win the lottery, I will donate all my money for just that thing...! Paul, I'm not quibbling about the value of direct contact with generative artists, or, in this case, next-to-the-generative artist. But since Markard herself liked what she saw in Ohio, I'm sad that she doesn't want to continue that process.

I saw this show Friday evening and was very impressed with the work. I've seen most of Graney's choreography, and as time has passed she has become more and more intrigued with visual art, working almost as a collagist as she assembles movement themes and phrases. Her standard working process is very long for dance, usually at least a couple years, and the performers have a significant amount of input on the show. She's something of a one-off -- there really are very few people whose work looks like hers, and she certainly doesn't think of herself as being part of an artistic lineage. Usually she significantly alters the original visuals, sometimes to the point that you aren't really sure what they are, but in this case the source material is almost completely intact. The Darger images are seriously odd -- beautiful, innocent and creepy. I agree that the opening half hangs together better than the second, but I love the women on pointe in part 2. For those of you who know Darger, they're based on the Blangens, menacing aliens who threaten the Vivien Girls, and the use of pointwork here is stunningly utilitarian. Hockeyfan is talking about Cathy Sutherland ("an exit where she crouched on pointe, and in that crouched position walked off the set on pointe"), but I was also very impressed with Allison Cockrill, who has a kind of inevitable quality in all her dancing, rather like a queen.

Absolutely -- both you and your daughter should go. Kids often get parody in a direct way, even if they don't know the original work being parodied. Think of the great Chuck Jones cartoons about opera!

I love Green Table and am in the process of wearing out my videotape. Your mother is right, it doesn't seem to be in any active repertory in the states right now, though I think the Joffrey still claims it in theirs. (in the lovely old days, they used to do an all-Jooss program, GT with Big City and Pavane on the Death of an Infanta) A colleague investigated setting it on her company, and Paul is correct -- the family still holds the rights very closely, insisting that someone personally supervises all aspects of the staging. Interestingly, it is fully notated, and the dance program at Ohio State (where they have an excellent notation program) reconstructed the work from the score several years ago, in part to prove to Anna Markard (Jooss' daughter and the keeper of the keys, so to speak) that it was a viable way to stage the ballet. Markard was impressed with the results, but has not licensed any other reconstructions from notation that I'm aware of. I had one of those dance historical moments a number of years ago when I realized that Herman (?) Markard, who designed the costumes and masks for GT, was also the designer for The Red Shoes.

I just got a review copy in the mail this week, from Limelight Books, so they could just be behind their schedule.

I haven't been able to follow all the links to discussion about the new company, so please forgive what might be an obvious question -- does anyone here know where the new group will be based? Will they keep rehearsing in their current quarters, or will they be moving?

Thanks to you, and thanks to your husband, for the information!