lmspear

http://www.kennedy-center.org/email/live_archive/email_8207_viewable.html

Sorry for the delayed report I actually attended this past Saturday instead of the previous one as I thought. (Guess I really really wanted to see it.) Anyway, Natalia, I also LOVED LOVED LOVED the show. I don't have the playbill in front of me so I can't identify individuals and credits, but there is a lot of solid training and performing experience on that stage and it shows. I particularly enjoyed the the dancer playing the Opera choreographer. He graduated from Julliard and danced with both the Merce Cunningham and Mark Morris companies.

Visually it is the most gorgeous thing I've seen on stage recently. The dappled colors of the scenery and the lighting made me feel as though I was looking through Degas' eyes. The deterioration of his vision is one of the major plot lines. I could easily believe that these were people living by gaslight.

My one very very tiny annoyance came when Young Marie's best friend-side kick made some overly obvious comments on the action. Very short moments that just made me grimace. The play is full of well-realized characters that feel like real people execpt for these few comments by the best friend. Major themes were aging, coming of age, friendship, the desire for freedom and art, family, identity and survival.

It's not fair that Tiler Peck is so talented. She is a convincing actress and singer, as well as the magnificent dancer that we know from her years on the stage. In interviews she seems very grounded and intelligent. All I can do is be impressed. The rest of the cast is very fine and convincing.

In addition to the dance sequences set in the ballet studio and theater there is a short burst of waltz clog in a scene where Young Marie is busking on the street with the rehearsal violinist and a cafe scene where Marie is taken for a night out by her older sister that has the first appearance of the cancan and a polka is danced as well.

I think I like the score, but I wouldn't want to pass judgment without hearing it a few more times. I can say that the score works.

My recommendation is that if coming to Washington is a reasonable day trip for you, get your tickets before the reviews come out. It plays through Nov. 30th. There is a performance on Thanksgiving night as well. Washington tends to empty out at Thanksgiving because a large proportion of the population are transplants and they fly home for their turkey (I'll be back in NY). You might even be able to find a deal at an in-town hotel. If you want to really treat yourself, the Suzanne Farrell Ballet is performing 11/28-11/30 in the Opera House with this program: 1951 version of Swan Lake, Allegro Brillante, Monumentum & Movements and The Concert.

The only thing to fear is the traffic on I-95.

I wouldn't mind ABT presenting Balanchine so much if they were bringing it to audiences who didn't have the opportunity to see it danced by NYCB. If they insist on doing Balanchine, I wish it would be pieces that are not in the current repertory. I've seen Allegro Brilliante and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux (both of which I love) too many times in recent years.

I like both the Ashton and Balanchine versions of A Midsummer Night's Dream. There's video out there of Alessandra Ferri dancing the Balanchine version with the La Scala company opposite Roberto Bolle and the Ashton version with ABT opposite Ethan Steifel.

I'll be seeing it on Saturday. Lisa

Didn't Matthew Bourne get there first by making his Lilac Fairy male?

It was a special edition of the Carol Burnett show. Villella was a guest several times.

This thread makes me wonder where would Virginia Johnson, or any principle woman from Dance Theater of Harlem's glory days, fit into the current ballet world.

It's a rental. The full title of the event is Live Nation Presents: Jackson Brown.

My hunch, lmspear, is that both "slights" to McBride and Mazzo meant........absolutely nothing.

I completely agree.

My hunch, lmspear, is that both "slights" to McBride and Mazzo meant........absolutely nothing.

I completely agree.

Something similar happened a few years ago in the entry on Duo Conertante for Farrell's. Note From the Ballet blog. Discussing the ballet she mentioned that she danced it with Peter Martins who originated the role, but she neglects to mention Kay Mazzo by name as the first to dance the female role. It struck me as an odd oversight. In light of this discussion, I can see that it could be interpreted as a statement that her interpretation was the first one that mattered.

Do they offer subscribers the option of having their tickets held at the box office to be picked up at the window before each performance. This method makes exchanges incredibly easy since you don't have to physically return your tickets. It also simplifies giving your tickets to someone else, since you can instruct the box office that they will be picked up by the recipient at will call and you don't have to arrange a physical meeting to hand off the tickets or worry about the mail service failing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1gYf_Z9Mao

Interesting interview with Eglevsky's daughter, Marina.

The issue of heritage has been discussed here on BA, at least tangentially. An older example -- dancers in the Ballet Russe generation often had to change their names to appear more "Russian" (Mark Platt became Mark Platoff) and therefore more appropriate to the company. Agnes deMille talks about this in Dance to the Piper, in the section describing her experience traveling with the Ballet Russe while she was making Rodeo.

de Mille also writes about her own body not be an "acceptable" ballet body.

Kelly's first wife, Betsey Blair, wrote a memoir several years ago that covers the journey from Broadway to Hollywood through their divorce in the late 1950's.

The ushers at Bayeriche Staatsoper in Munich are also very strict about taking pictures. They don't allow people to take pictures of the interior of the opera house during intermissions and are quite rude.

And no theatre in Japan allows taking pictures at curtain calls, they are really strict about that so no one dares to take any.

Since it's no longer necessary to hold a camera directly in front of your face to use the view finder, I've been at performances where my view of the curtain calls has been obstructed by raised arms trying to frame the perfect shot. I miss bouquet presentations and bows and all those lovely moments that can occur between the dancers. :-( Don't I have the right to see the curtain calls? They are included in the price of my ticket, no? What I get to see is a lot of smart phone/digital camera screens that look like a bunch of miniaturized jumbotrons, randomly placed throughout the audience.

In an earlier discussion under another thread, it someone proposed that the jump was a hugh sissone with an arched back.

Going back a ways there was the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in Song of Norway with choreography by Balanchine.

Charles Ward of ABT was in Bob Fosse's Dancin'.

Look Mom, no hands!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=COAiNdWepkw

I'm trying to post this from my phone and don't know if the link will work. It's Maximova doing Kitri's fouettes, hands on hips for the whole ride and a wonderful grin on her face.

I've never come across any mention of her performing Odette/Odile. Did it ever happen?

Check out the Suki Schorer book on Balanchine technique.

Too bad she wasn't able to see Yoko Morishito in her glory days guesting around the world with lots of press coverage after she won at Varna

I think the change in approach to the Balanchine style will probably reflect the eras that Lopez & Villella danced at NYCB. I'm reminded of the threads that discussed how Francia Russell's stagings for the Trust reflected the period she danced with NYCB.

The JR piece was always intended as a short term work that would not become part of the rep. The performances depend on the availabiltiy of LIl Buck. Nobody at NYCB performs "jookin" (nor should they). Actually, I think more young people know Lil Buck than JR. Lil Buck appeared with Madonna at the half time show for the SuperBowl a few years ago, and he makes regular appearances on rapper videos. He's a busy guy.

I got to see him as a guest performer at a Yo-Yo Ma performance within the last few years. He's moving pretty fluidly between popular and "artistic" performance settings.

I was at Dance Acadamy of RVC too. It was from 1973-1975 during high school. I took ballet with Karl Klauser and got my first taste of Graham technique from Marty Morginsky. I have no further information about either of them, but would love to learn anything.

My family is still in the area and my travels take me by the studio every once in a while when I visit. The name is different and the signage indicates that the main focus is now on ballroom dance.