Treefrog

As always, I like Jack's analysis. I kept feeling bad for all the moms who had brought their small daughters to see this fairy tale ballet -- only to be faced with farsical dissonance and minor keys, and not even a lavish ball to rescue the mood! I saw the matinee performance last Sunday, with Victoria Jaiani/Mauro Villanueva/Calvin Kitten, and Chryst and Holder as the stepsisters. Jaiani was fine as Cinderella. Villanueva just didn't do it for me as a prince. However fine a dancer he might be, his body and bearing just don't work as a danseur noble (I think that's the term I want?); he's too boyishly slim. And this production badly needs a prince who just adores Cinderella; when Villanueva failed to present Jaiani adequately during the curtain call --taking his own bow at pretty much the same time as hers -- I realized that he just didn't project that undying attentiveness that, say, Willy Shives always shows for Maia Wilkins. Kitten was as playful and elastic as ever. Jack, I'm pretty sure that's a substitute Cinderella in rags running up the stairs and out of the ball. The hiding-behind-the-corps thing didn't go so well last Sunday, and I saw Jaiani exit stage left. And, I'm not sure the woman in rags actually transforms into the Fairy Godmother. I think the FG just shows up a little later. I don't recall the fairies well enough, but it would be fair to surmise that Wilkins just made it look that way. Nuance is her specialty; it is always the description that springs to my mind for her dancing, regardless of the role. As for those lavender lights -- alas, I suspect they were no mistake, as I saw them sweep the orchestra ahead of us too. (We have slightly cheaper seats, toward the back of the main floor.) I couldn't for the life of me figure out what effect they were trying to evoke.

Let's pretend I can get tickets to any Chicago performance -- but can afford to see at most two. Which casting should I go for, and why? Vishneva/Fadeev Pavlenko/Zelensky Lopatkina/Korsuntsev Tereshkina/Kolb Somova/Zelensky Pavlenko/Sarafanov

Here's the story. It seems like pretty good reporting to me. The language you cite was contained in this editorial. Personally, I don't find it objectionable. It's the editorial staff's job to take a stand on issues.

Bump. Will there be an worthwhile dance performances July 3-11?

Getting back to the original question of partnerships that work well and possibly are audience draws ... Willy Shives and Maia Wilkins at the Joffrey have an absolutely wonderful partnership. They always appear to be madly in love with each other. So much so that my husband remarked just other night that he wonders if their respective spouses (Wilkins' husband is Joffrey dancer Michael Levine) get jealous.

Just returned from one of the last of the free activities this week: Workout with the Joffrey, and a performance of South African Gumboot Dance in the Crown Fountain. The Workout was fun. Former Joffrey dancer -- and now Outreach Coordinator -- Pierre Lockett led us through a fast-paced barre (sans actual barres), and then taught us part of one of the Billboards dances. This was all on the grass of the Great Lawn. There were about 100 people participating by the end, of varying ages, training, and abilities. Some had come just for the event, and some were just passersby. It was not a gentle workout, though! He ran us through the dance about 10 times nonstop, and it's a very energetic dance. The dance in the fountain was pretty cool. It was performed by members of the Joffrey's Strobel Step-Up program, which culls the best dancers from three programs the company operates in the city schools and park district. They were clad in yellow waders and white rainboots. The dance was based on dances the miners in South Africa do. It involved lots of rhythmic clapping and slapping of feet -- and LOTS of splashing! The kids were really great. Afterwards, they invited the crowd into the fountain and Lockett taught the basic step to everyone. All in all, this is GREAT PR for the Joffrey. I love the way they are putting themselves out in front of the city. (They've been doing these Gumboot dances every day this week, I t hink.)

I just returned from the final performance of the week: the 50th Anniversary Gala, performed at the outdoor Pritzker Pavilion in Millenium Park (which is the northern end of Grant Park). On the program: excerpts from Romeo and Juliet, Pas des Déesses, Ruth: Ricordi per Due, and Celebration! It was a somewhat bizarre experience. When we arrived, most of the seats were roped off for the bigwigs who had paid for tickets to the Gala (which I think was a pre-performance reception and a post-performance dinner). We got three seats far back, but center stage -- then noticed the large grey box between us and the stage, which presumably shields the lighting board or something. Then noticed it is clearly designed to roll back and down. But usher said it probably wouldn't be moved, so we changed to seats farther back and over to the side. Can't see much from there: no rake. Then another usher says it definitely will be moved, so we change BACK to seats just behind where we had been. At this point, the box IS rolled back and into its home, and the sight lines are clear. The bigwigs arrive. We have some fun ogling the fancy dresses (everyone else is in shorts and t-shirts, as it is about 85 degrees and muggy). After a bit, all the bigwigs are seated and there are still plenty of seats, so the ushers open it up to the hoi polloi. We change seats AGAIN to about 10 rows closer. The view is noticeably better. The program begins: first an orchestral piece, and then R & J . For a while, all is lovely -- if you don't mind the visual confusion of sumptuous gold and black costumes dancing against a backdrop of a seated orchestra in black pants and white short-sleeved shirts. Then it starts to rain a bit, and the wind picks up. (Remember the scene in The Company ?) Umbrellas get opened, blankets are thrown over heads, and all the bigwigs hustle off to the protection of the side structures. Lots of other people just get up and leave. For a few minutes, the whole audience area is a-bustle and the action on stage is totally lost. Then the big grey box is rolled out of its home, and instantly we are no longer seeing Romeo AND Juliet , but Romeo OR Juliet -- whoever happens to be stage left, as the box completely obliterates the whole of stage right. We move AGAIN to seats further on the side that the bigwigs have vacated. We get to watch most of Pas de Déesses unhindered. Suddenly the woman in front of me vomits. Copiously. We move further down the row. It stops raining. In fact, it never did much more than drizzle. In dribs and drabs, the bigwigs return to the seats -- wherever they can find them, as the hoi polloi have moved in some more. I lose some concentration as I wonder if they are really annoyed at the whole thing, and what they think about Joffrey management, and whether support is going to plunge or Someday We'll All Laugh About This. The performance ends with Celebration , which I still think is about the silliest, most random, most banal piece of choreography I've ever seen. However, the audience is appreciative and sends off the company -- by now, the whole company, some in costume and some in tuxes and gowns for the Gala -- off with a standing O. So ... was it a colossal blunder scheduling this important event outside, in an unprotected pavilion? Or was it a really good PR move to expose all the people wandering by on this summer night to the unexpected treat of this 'foreign' artform?

Dolphingirl and I will be in London in early July, and I see that the English National Opera is premiering a production of Purcell's King Arthur , in conjunction with the Mark Morris Dance Group. Does anyone have any information about it? It sounds very cool. Also: what other theatre productions (any genre) do you recommend? Also: besides the TKTS booth, are reduced price tickets generally available? How and where?

I've no idea who is performing Thursday. The program includes Pas des Déesses, Tensile Involvement, Return to a Strange Land, and Sometimes It Snows in April. When I last saw Pas des Déesses, two years ago, Jennifer Goodman played the Cerrito role (with Maia Wilkins and Suzanne Lopez as the other two dancers), so there's a reasonable hope of seeing her onstage Thursday. I wouldn't expect to see either of these high-energy dancers in Strange Land -- I'd bet more on the elegant cast I saw last (Wilkins/Victoria Jaiani). The two ensemble pieces might well include both Goodman and Keppley. I can't remember if they danced Sometimes It Snows in April last night. By the way, Mezzo -- would you mind using the "Add Reply" button at the bottom or top of the thread to post a reply? By using the "reply" button on my posts, you trigger a needless quote. (This function is useful when you want to highlight a particular idea, or refer back to something said earlier in the thread, but generally not necessary just to keep the thread going.) [Helene edited to add: I removed the quotes before I saw this post. But Treefrog's advice is correct.]

The week of free events kicked off last night with a reprise of the Cool Vibrations program that was performed in the spring (and will be reprised AGAIN in August at Ravinia -- this is apparently a very successful, accessible program!) I won't review the program again -- it was substantially similar to the May performance -- but I will note that the Harris Theater was packed to capacity. This is good; I frankly wasn't sure what to expect. The audience was hugely enthusiastic; the dancers received prolongued, heartfelt applause after each piece. I got the impression that the audience was not so much applauding the particular performance as expressing their appreciation and love for the company. The schedule for the rest of the week can be found here.

Jennifer Goodman does have shorter hair. Last night, she was the dancer in green in Motown Suite , and she had two little ponytails high up on the sides of her head. She danced the "I'm so angry with you/please don't go away" section with Thomas Nicholas. Julianne Keppley is indeed a little taller, and to my eye, with a bit more sparkle in her dance. She was the dancer in pink.

Cranko's Taming of the Shrew always has me rolling in the aisles. Here's what I said in my review when the Joffrey performed it several years ago:

I believe that we will be getting Apollo again instead of Cotillion, but that the rest of that program will be presented as originially scheduled. But I'll have to search out the notice to be certain.

The Joffrey is presenting Come Dance With Us June 13-18 -- a week of free events in the Chicago's Millenium Park, including stage performances, a premiere of a piece choreographed in the Crowne Fountain , lessons, stretch classes, and an ice-cream social. Basically, it sounds like a huge celebration of dance that should generate some buzz! Also, I just received a mailing announcing a program change for next season, in response to the warm reception of this season's Cool Vibrations program. Instead of Founder's Gold (Fanfarita, Gamelan, Sea Shadow, Suite Saint Saëns), we'll get Light Rain , a compendium of short works with a pizazz factor (my words, not theirs). Included will be Light Rain, White Widow, a Pilobolus piece, Arpino's Valentine, and a couple of other short works. Seems like there's a trend afoot.

Just checking here ... the "Boston casting" is still speculative, is it not? And if the actual casting is posted somewhere, is it also posted for Chicago?

Leigh, please do give us your impressions! bart, I wouldn't say that it had much more than youthful energy. The choreography is fairly repetitive -- think "thread the needle" diagonals of dancers doing the same jumps and leaps ... which, come to think of it, is very like Arpino's choreography even if it was by Dean. It wows, it mesmerizes, it builds ... but, like Leigh, I wouldn't say it actually spoke to me in any profound way.

Overall, as one might expect, this program was rather much of a muchness. Great if your music taste runs to oldies and your ballet taste runs toward the contemporary. Like much of the Joffrey's 1970's repertoire, I suspect that Deuce Coupe doesn't play nearly as well now as it did originally, when it was new and startling and seemed to be making a statement. (It especially doesn't play new and startling when paired with two clones ....) I thought the performance lacked a certain energy necessary to make its contrast come off. (For those not familiar with this piece, a solitary ballerina figure in white skirted leotard appears periodically to methodically explore the classical ballet vocabulary, in the midst of brightly clad dancers -- orange dresses for the ladies, red pants and Hawaian-inspired shirts for the gents -- whose movements are partly based on 1970's dance party moves.) That said ... Heather Aagard exhibited superb control and balance in the ballerina role, Brian McSween and Julianne Kepley did great justice to the exagerated movements in "Long Tall Texan", and Ikolo Griffin made an amazing leaping entrance to "Wouldn't it be Nice". (It was actually difficult to identify all the dancers, since the women had their tresses unpinned and the men had grown out their hair to almost 70's length!) I was totally wowed by the lighting of "Got to Know the Woman": warm orange/red on two thirds of the stage, cool white/blue on the other third, with one contemporary dancer (Julianne Kepley) occupying the warm side and Aagard, the cool side, but edging toward the divide and straddling it ... until Kepley disappears, leaving Aagard alone on the stage, which suddenly is bathed entirely in white/blue. Motown Suite was actually lots of fun. It is a portrayal of the up and down, on-again-off-again nature of teenage romantic relationships among six (mostly) couples and one lone boy. The awkwardness of the school dance, the flirtation, the passionate kisses, the wandering eyes, the confusion .... it's all here. My absolute favorite scene was "Where Did Our Love Go?", in which Jennifer Goodman does a dead-on portrayal of a girl who knows it's over, doesn't want it to be, and is by turns angry, desperate, despairing, hopeful, and incensed, while her former beau (Thomas Nicholas) mostly stands there not sure what to do -- sweet, certain the relationship is over, not wanting to hurt her but certainly not wanting to encourage her. That love/hate, gotta-have-him/want-to-kill-him hurt and confusion within Goodman was really intense, and especially evocative to anyone who's been there. Billboards was the clear crowd favorite, and with good reason. The cast was made up mostly of the youngsters in the company, and they radiated an energy that was lacking in their more senior counterparts earlier in the evening. Of course, the rock-'n'-roll soundtrack and the leaping, energetic choreography didn't hurt either. The crowd, by the way, was very very respectable, with only scattered empty seats in the orchestra. It seems as though this program worked to bring in a new audience.

Choreographer/dancer Paul Christiano is mounting a show to benefit the Make-A-Wish foundation. I'm posting his advertising e-mail because it makes an eloquent statement about the place of the arts in our world:

Sorry -- when I said I should have used the word "ballet" in place of "dance."I stand by my belief that part of the answer to bart's question is that the training system steers student dancers in that direction, and that BT4D's choice to serve a very,very tiny part of the ballet student population is emblematic of that system. Student dancers who see the writing on the wall at an early stage and choose not to follow the pre-professional regime find less support within the system, less encouragement to keep dancing, and fewer resources for excellent training. Edited to add: Helene, I was composing while you were posting. I'm glad to hear that that PNB maintains an excellent parallel track. I have heard often that the "community" tracks are not as good. And, I will also note that Boston Ballet curtly dismissed our inquiry about classes for college students, saying, "They never keep up with classes. And if they do, they end up dropping out of college." This suggests strongly that the school does not care enough about non-professional students to keep them happy and engaged and learning on the terms that are appropriate to the students .

This is a good question, bart, and I think the answer is complicated. For the students at the very top, what this implies is years of uncertainty and insecurity. For the rest, I could be flip and say it implies self-delusion, but I don't think that's entirely accurate. I think they are being sold a bill of goods. We have a decentralized training system in this country, and each of the many "top" schools has to fill their classes to stay solvent (to say nothing of the myriad second or third tier schools). Clearly, that many students cannot win a job in a professional company, yet they are encouraged to believe they can. This is even more complicated. I think the answer to this is because we don't have many good models for ballet training in this country that aren't based on the pre-professional one. In other words, if you want to study seriously in this country, you have to follow a pre-professional curriculum. Hang out for a while on our sister site, BT4D, and you will see that the number of classes and hours that are deemed "usual" or "normal" or "required" are quite large. Clearly, that level of training is only going to benefit a very, very small number of dancers, in the sense of who is going to use it to gain professional employment. However, anything less and dancers are looked down on as "recreational" or "not serious". I think the choice to aim a terrific resource like BT4D only at pre-professional dancers is symptomatic of the ballet training atmosphere. Why not instead choose to support and encourage excellent dance training at all levels? You see it in the nomenclature, too. Look at the many thousands of "pre-professional" dancers attending the many hundreds of summer intensives, which are now de rigeur for almost any serious teenager. Look at RDA's characterizing the 2000 dancers who will attend next year's national festival as "pre-professional". It's just wrong; they aren't all pre-professional, no matter how serious they are. It's like calling every college football player "pre-professional". But it sends a message. Another part of the story is that ballet training starts so very young, at a time when kids are filled with dreams. Still another part is the ethos, in the US at least, that "you can be anything you want to be, if only you try hard enough." Add in also the current societal push to specialize early and train intensively in ANY chosen pursuit. Put all these things together and it's a pretty volatile mix. I wish it weren't so. I really wish that we had better, healthier training models. Ones that created more audiences and fewer performers. Isn't there a saying about all chiefs and no indians?

Sorry -- yes, I meant to refer specifically to Deuce Coupe when asking about the original 1970's performances. Thanks for the history.

The Joffrey's spring program, "Cool Vibrations", opens tomorrow night and runs for nine performances over two weeks. Deuce Coupe, choreography Twyla Tharp, music by The Beach Boys Motown Suite, choreography Donald Byrd, music by various Motown artists "Sometimes it Snows in April", from Billboards, choreography Gerald Arpino, music by Prince (in collaboration with Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman) I'm wondering what any of you know about the history of these pieces, and about their original performances in the 70's. I'm also curious about how the character of the current performance will be different. I'm thinking about how the music originally was new and fresh, and likely to be the music the dancers were listening to on the radio and playing on their stereos, whereas now the music is at best known as "oldies" to the current dancers. And finally ... do you think programming like this will attract today's audiences, or turn them off? Not asking what YOU prefer, but whether you predict good attendance and enthusiastic applause, or just the opposite.

Note to anyone travelling to Chicago for NYCB: the closing performance of the Joffrey's Cinderella is Sunday, October 15 (two days before NYCB opens). You can make it a two-fer!

I wonder when this will actually be aired? Great Performances lists Alvin Ailey: Beyond the Steps as airing June 21. Jewels is still languishing in the never-neverland of "Spring/Summer 2006".

Well you might think. However, it was really a non-event. There were no big crowds or anything. We arrived about an hour before the box office opened, and were #25 in line. I never checked behind me to see how long the line grew, but I did not have the impression that hordes of people went away disappointed. Nor was there any sort of media coverage that I know of. This probably speaks to the original question of what NYCB's visit means to Chicago, and vice versa. Sadly, not a lot. (Although I should note that the Friday Balanchine performance is largely sold out of good seats, so SOMEBODY is paying attention -- probably out-of-towners making a weekend of it.)