California

I saw flashes going off around the theater at virtually every performance during the curtain calls. Down in the front of the orchestra during curtain calls, it seemed that at least a dozen people were taking pictures with smartphones, many with flash. Perhaps because there were so many, the ushers didn't try to intervene. At one Swan Lake, a young girl (9, as she proudly told everybody) pulled out her iPad during the performance and started snapping pictures. I scowled at the mother and shook my head, to no avail. A retired teacher (I later learned) reached over and pulled it out of her hands, saying "no"! At the first intermission, an usher came to talk with the mother, who was incredibly rude about it. "She's only taking pictures!" Add this to the list of rude audience behavior. I did see a lot of late arrivals being seated during the overture, but not later.

Do you have a source for this? I am looking at Elizabeth Kendall's wonderful book about her, Balanchine & the Lost Muse. It does discuss her amazing jumps (see especially p. 196), but nothing sounds specifically like what I've called the Plisetskaya. In any event, this would be almost a half century before Plisetskaya, so this would be significant. If others have the book, could they take a look at that page and see what they think? I remember hearing a talk by a dance historian on Don Q (I'll be vague here about time and place, as I don't want to embarrass anybody). She showed a clip of what I've been calling the Plisetskaya and told the audience to watch for it in Act I. She called it "the Kitri jump." During the Q&A, I said I had heard it called the Plisetskaya, named after the first dancer who performed it. She was adamant that the jump appeared in Petipa's original choreography in the 19th century. I nodded my head and didn't say anything more, but that just didn't sound right to me. First, how do we know exactly what was in the original choreography, with no video, vague notations, and an oral tradition that didn't always transmit the exact same steps? Second, why would so many people call it Plisetskaya, if the move had always been there, almost a century before?

Ardani just sent out a tweet about the March 7-8, 2015 engagement at City Center. Is this the same program you just saw at Segerstrom? http://www.nycitycenter.org/tickets/productionNew.aspx?performanceNumber=8238#.U9mQ_fF0zIV

Who knew this much-loved jump had so many names!! I wondered what Gelsey Kirkland called it, as she is so associated with it, thanks to Don Q with Baryshnikov and that Time magazine cover. Not much help! This is all I could find: -Dancing on my Grave, p. 191

The still photo in the DVD cover that started this really does seem to be a Plisetskaya, although the shot isn't quite as impressive as the Kirkland Time magazine cover of many years ago. In the first two jumps in the B&W, she does not have both legs horizontal (a "split jump"?), so perhaps that's what rg is referring to? She seems at the beginning and later to be arching back, with the front leg pointing down, so I'm not sure what to call it at this point!

The jumps at 21, 25, 29 are the Plisetskaya's. In the B&W clip I posted, you do see it in the entrance sequence, although not as clearly as in the Osipova clip.

I think it's commonly called the Plisetskaya, named after Maya Plisetskaya (although I've heard people call it simply the "Kitri jump"). If you search YouTube, you can find some clips. Here's one:

Thanks for sharing that link so others can take a look without buying the DVD. I didn't know it was available. Do you think a Ratmansky revival at ABT would work with U.S. audiences? Would it sell as well as the Grigorovich pieces if the Bolshoi brought it on a future tour? The seriously obsessed ballet lovers would appreciate it, but I think it might be too "culture-specific" for general audiences. At least with Bright Stream (a Ratmansky re-creation from that same era in the 1930s), the humor appealed to the casual ballet-goer.

He might add "The Bolt" to that, though that might be an earlier production. Anyway it's a loss for us. Bolt was choreographed by Ratmansky to the 1931 Shostakovich score, with a world premiere recording in 2006. I have no idea how long (or whether) it stayed in active repertory at the Bolshoi with Filin, and can't tell from the DVD's booklet. If you're interested in Ratmansky and Russian/Soviet dance history, it's worth looking at the DVD, but I can't imagine it being staged or shown in the U.S. It has elements that reminded me of the third in the Ratmansky trilogy for ABT and SFB (Piano Concerto #1), especially the odd floating scenery, red and gray colorings in the sets and costumes, etc. Bolt is described on the DVD as "a ballet of the absurd set in a Soviet factory." The DVD: http://www.amazon.com/Shostakovich-Bolt-Anastasia-Yatsenko/dp/B000NVL4MY/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1406718505&sr=1-1&keywords=bolt+ratmansky+shostakovich

A critic definitely does not have to attend every performance. Indeed, I'd hope the other critics at the Times had a crack at writing about the Bolshoi, too, and you would want the head critic to attend a variety of things. But we now know the Times does not have fact-checkers (or editors who function as fact-checkers). I was hoping they would correct it by now. It was an interesting bit of history that on the day a Malaysian plane is shot down over Ukraine that the Koch Theater decided there might be a threat in NYC to a Russian ballet company. But the "paper of record" will not be a source on this in the future. Macaulay seemed to think that bag-checking at the Koch was so important that he made it the lead in his overview (which also struck me as a little peculiar). I read that protesters from Ukraine are planning demonstrations in Saratoga, but have no idea how many or what they are planning.

Wow - great news. Thank you! And thanks to the Royal Ballet for helping out. I wouldn't want to be a Royal ticket holder who bought a ticket for the 12th, thinking she was dancing.

When and where is this?

You're correct, of course, that this is a matter of much continuing debate. On January 25, 1997, the LA Music Center had a marvelous panel program in its Opera for Educators series on exactly this topic, with several experts holding varying opinions: “Dealing with the Political Past: Aesthetics vs. Ethics in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde.” (I know the date because I was the moderator for that panel, one of the more challenging assignments I've had, trying to keep things under control and ensure balance in the discussion!) But I would still insist that if one wants to call Wagner's operas "anti-Semitic," the only legitimate debate is over the content of the opera, not the views of Wagner himself (which would be the so-called "genetic fallacy"). When I talked with the Klinghofer demonstrators at Lincoln Center last week, I asked if it wouldn't be worthwhile to try to set up some ancillary panels/discussions on the issues that concern them, rather than trying to suppress the performance altogether. The response: nobody would pay attention. I tried to respectfully disagree, but I don't think they heard me.

Macaulay's overview of the Bolshoi season just appeared: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/29/arts/dance/bolshoi-ballet-turns-back-the-clock-in-its-new-york-season.html?_r=0 Nowhere to post comments on the NY Times site, but he makes an obvious factual error in the first paragraph: Oops! Bags were checked on Thursday and Friday, July 17 & 18. The Malaysia plane was shot down on the 17th, which we presumed was the explanation. But now we know that Macaulay not only did not attend those performances -- he also didn't bother to check his facts with his colleagues at the Times or the theater. Wonder how long before that gets fixed on-line.

Ah, but they would have to pay for the rights to perform Le Jeune Homme! Have they announced the NYC program? Glad I'm not planning to attend that one! Did they have a full orchestra for the pieces they did do? If not, that would also explain skipping Le Jeune Homme.

These are all important and interesting questions, but it's easy to tangle separate and distinct issues. I'm glad I saw Spartacus, as I think I understand a little more about how the art of that era reflected its politics and culture. Ditto for the Grigorovich Swan Lake. Ditto for the examples of paintings Hitler loved now on display at the Degenerate Art show at the Neue Gallerie. Wagner's operas are anti-Semitic - not because Wagner as a person was anti-Semitic (which we know from diaries and letters) and not because Hitler liked those operas. Rather, the operas are anti-Semitic because of the content (e.g., portraying Jewish characters as "rats"). I think it's important to study things like Birth of a Nation (which reflected the hideous racism of that era) and Triumph of the Will (which has been called the most effective propaganda art ever). The content is what's appalling to us today, most importantly, not who liked or didn't like those works. After Shindler's List came out, Spielberg was asked in an interview who was his favorite filmmaker. Riefenstahl! But as he explained this, it was clear that he was judging her for (1) cinematic technical innovation and (2) purely formalist qualities of design, not content. So when I said Putin would probably like Spartacus, I was saying that the work reflected the "glory days" of the Soviet Union and anybody who missed those "good old days" (as Putin and others do) would no doubt like it. It's troubling that the current Russians, two decades later, still are drawn to that militaristic, bombastic, over-the-top work. We today see Birth of a Nation for what it was, but they still love their Spartacus. No doubt the current neo-Nazis in the U.S. love Triumph of the Will, but that's not what makes the content so appalling. Are there some stories that just don't work for classical ballet? Well, the Tempest (for some of us at least). But I would add that the pompous Spartacus score doesn't help.

The schedule for this fall has been announced: http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/calendar-and-events/series/works-a-process Tickets go on sale to the general public Monday, August 11 (same day that singles go on sale at NYCB). Here's the PDF brochure for the program: http://media.guggenheim.org/content/pdf/education/2014/wnp_fall_2014.pdf Several interesting dance things, including Damian Woetzel, Little Dancer, Moving Company, Robbins, and Julliard Dance.

I assume people are hearing about the controversy surrounding the current production of "The Mikado," especially in Seattle, which has a huge Asian population. A few examples of the coverage: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/stereotypes-mikado-stir-controversy-seattle-n157306 http://seattletimes.com/html/thearts/2024145209_mikadocommentaryxml.html Bolshoi Ballet audiences were greeted by a group of Jewish demonstrators protesting the presentation of "Klinghoffer" at the Met. I stopped to speak with some of them and they objected to the presentation of Israelis and Palestinians as "moral equivalents," among other things. I might add that Wagner's characterization of Jews in some of his operas is pretty appalling, but I'm not sure that draws the same protest. I wonder if we'll start seeing such protests over ballet classics, which include some pretty ugly stereotypes (e.g., Nutcracker, Raymonda). A few of those divertissements could be omitted or altered without disrupting the ballet overall, just as blackface can easily be omitted from some classics. But for some ballets, the stereotypes seem so pervasive, you really can't just remove a few scenes and still have the ballet.

But Calvin Royal is on my radar screen, for sure. Thanks to Ratmansky for giving him such a prominent role in the third Shostakovich piece. I'm eager to see how Ratmansky casts his new Sleeping Beauty. I'd love to see Calvin in Blue Bird, e.g.

I think we all agree that more racial diversity is needed in classical ballet in the US. But Copeland has muddled the issue more than necessary. I haven't read her entire book, but have seen excerpts in which she always seems to blame racism (never her own technical limits) for excluding her from certain roles. Now, when she does get plum roles, we will always wonder how much those charges of racism had to do with it. She fails the test of "Know thyself" and seems unable to recognize that her own technical limitations might have something to do with it, at least part of the time.

I saw Spartacus for the first and last time Friday night. I'm relieved to discover I'm not the only person who found it appalling. (Thank you, mimsyb and angelica, for your candor!) Yes, there are some "guilty pleasures" - especially the PdD in the 2d and 3rd acts. And we do see some amazingly athletic and versatile show-off solos, especially for the men. But overall this is Soviet (not Russian) ballet at its worst. All those soldiers, blood, guts, killings, battles in silly encounters, storming around to that relentless movie score by Khatchadourian. I am glad I saw it, as it reflects the Soviet mentality in the 1960s, when they crushed the Prague Spring in 1968 and the communist world descended even further into brutal oppression that lasted until the 1980s and glasnost/perestroika. I don't want to go too far with this, but I had flashbacks during those battle scenes of Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will, with battalions of Nazi soldiers showing us how powerful and dominant they were. Like canbelto, I'm amazed the Soviet censors let that pole dance sequence through. It wasn't just the principal with her embarrassing antics, but also the writhing couples all around the stage, reminiscent of a drunken frat house. Perhaps the dark lighting made it tolerable to the censors, as you had to strain to see much of what they were doing. Swan Lake from the 80s -- when the Soviets were first allowed to study Freud -- reflected their naïve excesses in trying to incorporate him into their classic masterpiece. Both of these pieces tell us a lot about how the arts can reflect the culture of their times, for better or worse. Most troubling and sobering to me is that 22+ years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russians still love these ballets. Putin has said that the single worst event of the 20th century was the collapse of the Soviet Union (not WWII, when millions of his fellow Russians were slaughtered by the Nazis?). He must love Spartacus.

Thank you for these detailed reports. I thought of Jeff Koons while reading them: is Ardani having the last laugh at the fools who pay good money for this stuff? Is this the program they have planned for City Center this fall? The managers at CC must be very worried at this point. They could have done Le Jeune Homme et la Mort (which Vasiliev has been doing elsewhere), surely a role she could learn, if she doesn't already know it. The Carmen they previously announced with Ballet San Jose would have been interesting, too.

AGMA has a list on their web site of companies with their contracts: http://www.musicalartists.org/agreements_dance.html

Colorado Ballet uses a live orchestra for everything except one weekend of four performances at the University of Denver Newman Center. Everything else is at the Caulkins Opera House in downtown Denver. Live music can be the first thing to go when a company has financial problems -- Ballet San Jose had to switch to recorded music this year after bringing in less than they expected from their last Nutcracker. The current iteration of LA Ballet uses recorded music and many performances are in school auditoriums at area colleges. And doesn't Washington Ballet use recorded music (except for Nutcracker) for its programs at the Eisenhower Theater at the Kennedy Center? I don't know about Ballet West, but with 40 dancers and six programs, live orchestra seems likely: http://www.balletwest.org/AboutUs/TheDancers

At least from their web site, Milwaukee has 26 dancers on contract, but I can't tell how many weeks on contract. They have five programs scheduled for next year, including their Nutcracker. But these comparisons are very tricky. Milwaukee does each program for only one weekend, while Colorado does most of theirs in 8 performances over 2 weekends. http://www.milwaukeeballet.org/about-us/dance-company All of these second/third tier companies have suffered mightily in the Great Recession, as well as from the cancellation of the NEA Dance program's touring program, which underwrote visits by smaller companies to smaller cities -- both those cities and the companies suffered. Each city is unique. Philadelphia has old money and a legendary orchestra and art museum, but their proximity to NYC and DC (and the Kennedy Center) might hurt as much as help - it's such an easy train ride for serious dance lovers to visit those cities. Minneapolis is a good example of the lack of correlation between a city's wealth, sophistication, and education levels and their likelihood of hosting a successful resident ballet company. Minneapolis has a great symphony, great art (think: Walker), great theater (think: Guthrie), but I can't think of a single resident ballet company that ever took hold. The successful regional companies seem most likely to share determined founders who fought against seeming odds to build those companies. It's possible Pennsylvania has been bigger in the past and perhaps Corella hopes it will grow in the future. I hope New Yorkers will support that company - it's only a 90-minute train ride and you can visit the Art Museum and the Barnes Collection while you're there!