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California

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Everything posted by California

  1. I'm not aware of ABT touring the Ratmansky Nutcracker anywhere. But with an even shorter season this year at BAM, I wonder if they are looking at possibilities for 2014. Most major cities already have a big Nutcracker by the local company (San Francisco, New York, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Denver, etc.), but LA doesn't and could use one. The LA Ballet has a small production with just a few performances that doesn't address the potential.Other than the Kennedy Center visit, it doesn't appear NYCB tours to any North American cities any more. They have been touring to smaller cities with the small non-union subgroup they call "Moves," but that's it. Perhaps they had trouble finding the subsidies they needed in other cities and NYCB appears to have been running a deficit in recent years at home.
  2. The site is a disaster this morning. When I finally got through, it wouldn't let me check out -- I kept getting an error message. I'm trying to buy things in small batches (2 or 3 tickets) so I can spend most of the 10-minute count-down trying to get to check-out. I was able to buy two batches about an hour ago, but now it appears the entire check-out system has malfunctioned. I get things into my cart, but can't check out. Again and again and again... I've been buying tickets on-line for several years for the ABT spring season and never had this kind of problem. Either their software is backsliding or there is much more demand this year than in previous years. The only consolation: there are a lot of seats - but the ones you had your heart set on might be gone when you finally get through.
  3. I'd like to see it revised and updated through 1983, to include the last few years of Balanchine's life, including the Baryshnikov performances. But that's dreaming, I think. I haven't heard of any plans. For those looking for a cheap used copy, do check out Amazon's listings. Several are available for under $10 including shipping. I've had good experiences ordering via Amazon for used books (and don't forget to start with the Amazon box on this site): http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0803773684/ref=tmm_hrd_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=1364130311&sr=8-1
  4. The huge Russian community in LA might help with ticket sales for Osipova/Vasiliev. They were very prominent for their Don Q performance with the Bolshoi in spring 2010, although not so much for the other principals. I hope Vishneva doesn't drag Marcelo Gomes with her for her gig in November -- which is scheduled during the ABT fall season at Lincoln Center this November. I'd rather see him with ABT!
  5. Really shocking! That theater has hosted so many great companies in the last decade (San Francisco, ABT, Mariinsky, Bolshoi...). I don't think the LA series at Dorothy Chandler has been announced yet, but perhaps they decided they couldn't compete. Or perhaps their previously reported fund-raising problems are catching up with them and they couldn't get the underwriting they needed for major companies. Didn't some of the Vishneva solo programs at City Center last year get cancelled to avoid embarrassment? If they can't sell tickets to New Yorkers, it's hard to see how they'll do it in Orange county in a bigger theater!
  6. It makes you wonder if there's a problem with the software in their on-line ticketing system...
  7. The program for the SAB Spring workshop has been posted: http://www.sab.org/news/workshop_performances/program_information.php
  8. MSNBC has now picked up her story: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/21/17398477-dancer-claims-bolshoi-theater-was-big-brothel?lite If the dance historians are to be believed, this kind of "favor" was also common in the 19th century in the ballet world.
  9. The Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC will present Chekhov's Man in a Case with Baryshnikov December 5-22, 2013. http://www.shakespearetheatre.org/subscribe/presentations.aspx
  10. Terrible news! I hope it's not serious and he's back in good health for the spring season in the U.S. He's still listed for the April Kennedy Center engagements, although they'd probably not be in a hurry to announce a substitution.
  11. I don't know the specific practices of WB, but availability of seats can be very unpredictable at most theaters due to several factors. (1) Theaters typically hold back excellent "house seats" for guests of the company, big donors, and critics and only release those near to performance date. (2) If the company allows subscribers to exchange tickets for different performances, excellent seats can open up late in the game. A swing from 30% available to sold out and back does sound a little extreme, though.
  12. Baryshnikov will be performing with the Mark Morris Dance Group at Morris' Brooklyn dance center April 3-14: http://markmorrisdancegroup.org/performances/629 I hope the New Yorkers who attend will tell us about it. I believe the piece Baryshnikov will perform (The Wooden Tree) was premiered in Seattle last fall.
  13. I went back a few entries when this thread re-emerged, and found your query -- I've always heard them referred to as arabesque voyage, and thought the idea of an arabesque taking a little trip was so sweet... Isn't the arabesque voyage the movement for the corps starting at 6:03 where they scootch across the stage in lines in arabesque?
  14. I've tried sitting on many occasions in the side Grand Tier boxes and also the Side Parterre boxes close to the stage and like them a lot. It's imperative that you be in the first row (seats 1-2-3). The second row is unacceptable everywhere in the boxes, mainly because they cram too many chairs into those boxes. I like being close to the stage and you can often see well into the wings, which is fun. You'll almost certainly have a blind corner closest to you, so be prepared for that. But the biggest advantage is just getting a very close-up view of the dancers, which you can't get from the Grand Tier, even in the first row, as it is quite some distance back. Another little bonus with the Grand Tier boxes: one closest to the stage is the "company box" and the other the "director's box." Dancers from the company sometimes sit in the company box, especially for high-profile performances, and it's fun to see their reaction. Others can speak to the orchestra. The only times I sit there is for the open rehearsals and I really don't like it. Unless you're lucky enough to be on the aisle in the outside section, you'll have people in front of you, some rather tall and/or sporting big hair that interferes with your view. Be sure you have printed out the seat diagrams from the on-line ordering site to see exactly where you are.
  15. I don't know the count story, but in French sissonne means "split," which also seems apt for that movement.
  16. I'm sure that's part of it, but attracting younger audiences surely is a problem, too, for both opera and ballet. Major companies seem to have all sorts of programs to attract younger audience members, but I don't know how successful they are. And people of limited income at all ages can only experience the arts in these secondary ways. The big companies need to figure out how to exploit the new technologies without destroying their major revenue sources. (But this is also a problem for newspapers, book publishers, and music studios.)
  17. I don't know about support for the Kennedy Center visit, but doesn't Glorya Kaufman underwrite rather generously the dance series in LA? http://www.musiccenter.org/about/Our-Programs/Glorya-Kaufman-Dance/
  18. I used Internet Explorer 9 and the form worked just fine.
  19. Maybe the Opera (and Ballet) HD cinema need to look at other models. I'm not a sports fan (except for figure skating and gymnastics) but don't some local teams ban local TV broadcasts of games that are not sold out? The Opera/Ballet might adopt the same rule for broadcasts within, say, 100 miles. I suppose one problem would be the movie theater owners who wouldn't commit to something like this. (Not great for fans, but better than abandoning that mode of delivery altogether.) Another model: the traditional release of books was hardcover first and cheaper paperback much later, sometimes a year or so later. (The book publishing model is in chaos right now, of course, because of e-books, but that was the old model. If you just couldn't wait, you'd pay premium price for the hardcover -- or get onto a waiting list at your local library.) Opera/Ballet HD might show things on delay -- perhaps months later, so if you were eager to see something special, you'd get to New York, but otherwise wait a while to see it in the movie theater or on PBS. I'd hate to lose this new delivery mode and wish ballet would do more of it. So many people can't afford to ever get to New York (or Moscow or London or St. Petersburg) to see these in person and some compromise that balances accessibility with the continuing need of companies to sell tickets to live performances should be possible.
  20. This reminds me of the David Gordon piece to the Shades music in 1972 at the Judson Church. It was excerpted in a 1980 PBS special on post-modern dance. Last year he recreated some of this. Here's a NY Times story about it: http://www.nytimes.c...oject.html?_r=0 He commented in 1980 that he loved the repetition of that music as much as ballet audiences did. He used ordinary people walking across the stage, with a "janitor" busily sweeping in the background. One of the performers was an NYCB dancer, Bart Cook.
  21. The 2013-2014 season schedule has just been posted: http://www.bostonballet.org/2013-2014-season/
  22. Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo lists Princess Caroline as its "president." Even if she doesn't donate money, her sponsorship must count for something in fund-raising. http://www.balletsdemontecarlo.com/?lg=en
  23. That struck me as odd, too, but I think he's saying he'd like new productions, along the lines of the "new Don Q" next season, which still uses the Minkus music, choreography "after Petipa," and presumably the same general libretto. So it's not "entirely new," but more refreshed, updated, etc.
  24. The new season was just announced: http://www.roh.org.uk/news/201314-ballet-and-dance-season-announced
  25. This isn't much, but the (slightly) revised subscription brochure I received in today's mail says that the fall season October 30-November 10 will feature "an eclectic repertoire of one-act ballets," so I guess they're saving all the full-lengths for the Met seasons. It also says that on-sale dates for performance tickets for the fall season (and the Nutcracker Dec 13-22 at BAM) are TBA.
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