Leigh Witchel

Echoing something I said before, in response to Jane's comment on inconsistency, it's less that, I think, than that Alexandra doesn't usually give a great first performance. Her second and third are almost always markedly better, and closer to what she can accomplish. I also am not sure she'll completely find herself within the Royal Ballet's organization until she finds a sympatico partner. Judith Cruikshank just posted a review of Ansanelli's Ondine in Danceview Times that sounds very much as I might have expected the performance to go given what I saw at the Final Dress.

Shedding all pretense of objectivity (after final dress Alexandra and I talked for an hour about Ondine. I'm really biased) I'd suggest always going to her second or third performance of a role. She's not one of those dancers that nails it on the debut.

I saw the final dress, and I'm biased. In New York, some of Ansanelli's best roles were fantastical - The Firebird comes to mind. Ondine fits very well into the line of roles that Ansanelli is really suited to. I thought her third act was particularly moving.

I was there, in fact sitting two seats down from Sulcas. I'm doing a longer review for B-R but the short version: Meh. I liked Chroma better, and I don't hate Infra, but don't think there's much exciting or new about it. Julian Opie's work is - pun intended - pedestrian. McGregor's choreography is not ballet, unless you define partnering as a gynecology exam on pointe. More seriously, he asks the dancers for an eel-like, unsupported center and torso that is antithetical to classical ballet technique. If your center isn't doing ballet, the rest of you isn't either. McGregor's work does round out the repertory and does sell tickets, so I understand why he works with the Royal Ballet. Why he would be named resident choreographer, unless that job has been radically defined, is a complete mystery to me.

Happy Thanksgiving from London to those who celebrate! I'm here to have expatriate turkey with family, but saw the Royal triple bill last night (for Ballet Review) and will see Ondine on Saturday. Off to catch the train to Bristol. Gobble, gobble.

A corollary to the discussion on "How are you." If you are American, you know the answer is always, "Just fine, thanks" or a variation thereof. If someone who isn't a very close friend asks you "How are you?" and you actually tell them . . . the reaction is usually a pained smile. I remember doing that once in college and realizing that things were pretty bad if I was actually telling someone how I was.

sz - some of it's Villella, but as you could guess, some of it's Roma Sosenko and the other ballet masters/mistresses. That's also what I meant by standardization. These ballets are no longer rehearsed by the original choreographer or dancers so that irregularities that were the spice of the ballet often get lost. They can't always be retrieved; and often even if the original dancer is coaching the role s/he can't impart to the next dancer something that was second nature - that's why casting matters so much. Sometimes the best substitute is for the new dancer to bring his/her own flavor and quirks to the role.

It's probably lost something in the translation, but is it possible the writer is trying for a distinction of genre or emploi similar to the discussions we've had here?

I'd answer that it started to happen while Balanchine was alive. Melissa Hayden was complaining to him about those changes in Agon by the '72 Stravinsky Festival. Some of it isn't Martins. Some of that musicality can't be recaptured without huge, intensive amounts of rehearsal. It's not a conscious choice, but the effects of standardization.

I wonder how analogous the situation is with this to Ashton's Sylvia or Homage to the Queen. Sylvia is by and large Ashton's with Christopher Newton reconstructing a few bridges of it where the choreography was lost. The only section of Ashton's Homage to the Queen that could be fully staged was Air - the other sections had to be remade. I think we need to let ABT know with our support (and dollars) that we really want to see this before more time passes making it that much more difficult. If they saw the demand, I bet they'd do it.

For the record, at an exhibition of the Berman costumes at the NYPL ca. 1996, Michael Kaiser and I had a conversation where he stated something similar to what McKenzie said. The costumes existed, but were too fragile to be worn. Recreating them would cost $500,000 - evidently there's been significant inflation.

There is actually an ancient reason for the use of the term "Meh." Meh is the Egyptian God of Indifference. Translated from the original is the Prayer to Meh. It's very short. I'll try and remove my tongue from my cheek now.

"I have nothing against. . . " Always followed by something where you do.

I'm pretty amazed myself. Paul didn't want any spectators, but I was allowed in. She coached Jon Stafford and Sara Mearns in Emeralds, and the next day with John Clifford coached Megan Fairchild and Jared Angle in Valse Fantaisie. Short version - very effective sessions. Her style wasn't as metaphorically rich as Verdy (whose is?) but she got tons out of everyone quickly and directly. Very interesting woman, very into epaulement and the use of space. And John Clifford is the Energizer Bunny.

It would be redundant as an Interpreters Archive project. Verdy coached Emeralds for the Foundation about two years ago; Paul just did a week ago. (I'm transcribing about 15 pages of notes now from Paul's coaching of that and Valse Fantaisie - it will be in the print edition of Danceview.)

Very different companies, and I think SFB stopped being a Balanchine company for all practical purposes a while back. They're best now at "contemporary" ballet. MCB does Balanchine very well (I thought their Square Dance to be particularly fresh) but I would not use them as a stick to beat NYCB with.

Amen.

Jonelle - It's good to see you settled in and back. To me, Episodes has been a ballet that even NYCB has had some problems maintaining in shape. It's not in the form it was originally imagined (a solo originally made for Paul Taylor was deleted from the ballet early on - though it made a few appearances back briefly over the past 20 years) and sometimes it gets treated, as I think I said once, "like Agon Jr." Please keep reporting and let us know what you think of the rest of the season.

It's got a happy ending and a jester. I consider the Royal's version my reference.

Very exciting - the press release and discussion is here, so I'll close this thread.

Violette Verdy happened to be at City Center tonight watching San Francisco Ballet - she confirmed that NYCB did tour to Bloomington in the early sixties "but we performed in the big auditorium" along with other cities (I recall her mentioning Corning, NY) She did not immediately recall if d'Amboise was on that tour, but assumed he was. You can contact her at IU to inquire further.

I'd try contacting d'Amboise through the National Dance Institute Also New York City Ballet (see if they have an archivist on their website) - if not that then perhaps the George Balanchine Foundation. And also the theater department at IU - or even the dance department, if Violette Verdy is presently there. Good luck.

The choreography is pedestrian, but I think given its context, it does what it may have been planned to do. Stealing from an article I wrote for Ballet Review regarding the company's last NYC appearance at Lincoln Center in '06:

I like the fact that they help the audience connect to the action on stage. I liked the "childhood" films at NYCB and the profile films Benjamin Pierce did for Morphoses especially for that. My reservation is that I think the filmed dance footage changes the way the audience looks at the dance and also their expectations about what they're going to see. We've been raised on film and video and thinks in quick cuts - I worry that more and more people are going to expect ballet to look like that as well, without any patience for the long phrases of something like Concerto Barocco. If it were me, I'd ask the film director quite purposefully to keep from too many quick edits.

Film and video introductions to ballet performances are becoming more and more common now. I'm curious what people like and don't like about them. What do folks think of them?