California

Dance Theatre of Harlem is streaming Firebird Saturday, Oct 13, at 8 pm EST on YouTube

The Aspen Santa Fe Ballet is ending its performing and touring activities after 25 years. They have a $10 million endowment, which they will use to continue their schools and other community programs. https://theknow.denverpost.com/2021/03/09/aspen-santa-fe-ballet-closes-coronavirus/254403/

The quote I was thinking of is in the two-hour PBS documentary at 1:45: People dance. While I'm here they dance that way. When I'm gone, they will continue dancing, but somebody's going to rehearse them different. So will be a little different, different intensity. So if few years go by and I won't be here, will be my ballets, but will look different.

I am reminded of a quote from Balanchine that appeared in one of the documentaries on him. Close paraphrase: "After I'm gone, will be my ballets, but will look different." He seemed matter-of-fact and very accepting of this.

Pennsylvania Ballet just announced their 2021 Spring Digital Season: three programs for $50. They've been rehearsing in pods. Very nice rep: Purchase the whole season for just $50 ➡️➡️➡️Start with March for just $25 ➡️➡️➡️MARCH (2 casts)🔹"Concerto Barocco" - George Balanchine🔹"Clear" - Stanton Welch AM🔹"Suspended in Time" - Angel Corella, Russell Ducker, and Kirill Radev🔹"Penumbra" (excerpt) - Matthew NeenanAPRIL🔸"Allegro Brillante" - George Balanchine🔸"Polyphonia" - Christopher Wheeldon🔸"Raymonda Suite" - Marius Petipa🔸"And So It Is..." (excerpt) - Dwight RhodenMAY♦️New Work by Juliano Nunes♦️New Work by Meredith Rainey♦️New Work by Russell Ducker https://paballet.org/spring-2021/

Diamond also is not on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BalletWest1 Nor on their YouTube subscription page: https://www.youtube.com/user/BalletWestUtah/videos The company's web site says Diamonds is March 5 for a week: https://balletwest.org/news/winter-streaming-the-best-of-ballet-west If it appears and somebody finds it, please post the link. Thanks!

Central City Opera just announced that two of its planned operas (Carousel and Rigoletto) will be performed at Hudson Gardens (https://www.hudsongardens.org/) which has an outdoor amphitheater in Littleton, CO, a suburb to the far south of Denver. Ironically, perhaps, most of that audience is over 65, so I suspect most of us who usually attend will be vaccinated by then. Of course, there are young ushers, interns, and orchestra members to take into account. I suspect we're going to see a lot more of this move to outdoor venues this summer. (The Vail dance festival is at an outdoor amphitheater and has already announced that its going forward.) https://centralcityopera.org/2021-festival/

I had no problems with access to the program last evening and enjoyed it very much. But I've unsuccessfully tried to send them a donation on two different laptops over the last two days -- from the link on the program page and another from their home page. I keep getting the same message: please close your browser and try again. I've used that credit card successfully on several other things today, so I'm mystified. I normally use my auto-fill but tried typing everything in from scratch, in case that's the problem. Nope -- still doesn't work.

I just watched it again. I always assumed that, as it was known at that point that he was leaving for NYCB, that he was trying extra-hard to avoid excessive emoting, something Balanchine was known to discourage. They're both such professionals, they kept up the appearance of dignity and graciousness throughout.

Impressive schedule. They ask for donations, but free on YouTube if you register: https://bcadmin.org/portal/tickets-rsvp/index.php Bravo, Balanchine! Saturday 03-06-2021 07:00 PM Reserve TICKETS Fabled Family Fun Sunday 03-07-2021 02:00 PM Reserve TICKETS Neoclassic Innovations Saturday 03-13-2021 07:00 PM Reserve TICKETS World Premieres from the Stage of the Harris Theater Saturday 03-20-2021 07:00 PM Reserve TICKETS Kick Up Your Heels / Baila, Baila! Saturday 03-27-2021 07:00 PM Reserve TICKETS Balanchine's Swan Lake Sunday 03-28-2021 02:00 PM Reserve TICKETS Repertoire Study Workshop #3 Saturday 03-13-2021 04:00 PM Reserve TICKETS Repertoire Study Workshop #4 Saturday 03-20-2021 04:00 PM Reserve TICKETS Repertoire Study Workshop #5 Saturday 03-27-2021 04:00 PM Reserve TICKETS

This review of the ABT premiere in 2012 at City Center does mention Gomes pointing to the ceiling at that point. Note also that the costumes have been redesigned so they have fewer busy patterns: Ms. Semionova and Mr. Gomes lie down, as if to sleep, and yet the timing is amusing. They descend to the floor in abrupt sections, bit by bit. And no sooner do they lie there than Mr. Gomes raises a finger: he's signaling, "Wait." https://www.portalentretextos.com.br/post/o-amazonense-marcelo-gomes-em-symphony-9 Here's a photo of the original costumes in 2012:

Thanks for the heads-up. One thing I've understood about life in Communist countries is their fear of being open about anything, because you don't know who you can trust. That was clearly a problem under Stalin. The wonderful film, The Lives of Others, about life in East Germany, is a good illustration of that in more recent times. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405094/ I should add that the interviews with dancers that I'm seeing all over have their value, especially the discussions of career preparations, challenges, set-backs, etc. It's good for young dancers and students to hear the realities of this very challenging profession. Interpretations of roles are interesting to me, especially in a nonverbal art form.

If you have Gelsey's book, Dancing on My Grave, see pp. 196-7. This was their last performance together. They had all sorts of quarrels during rehearsal and at one point Baryshnikov said he would refuse to dance with her that night and had to be talked into it. But there was also tension with Bujones, who had lifted some of Baryshnikov's turns from T&V to show him up.

Christine Shevchenko is announcing on Instagram that she was admitted to Harvard, postponed admission, and is now taking classes on-line. I wonder how much of her degree she can finish that way before she needs to attend in-person. She's someone I'm really eager to see again in the theater. https://www.instagram.com/p/CMD2YUtnuUd/

I love Symphony #9 and have seen it many times at ABT. Ratmansky is not helpful in interviews in explaining any of the symbolism from life in the Soviet Union that seems to be there. I'm hoping the lecture next Wednesday will explore some of that.

Question: I sometimes hear the remark that Balanchine made a few modifications in T&V when he staged it for NYCB, from the original ABT version. Can anyone identify those changes?

Same here! Tiler's wrists are a little more flamboyant, shall we say, than I like, but great otherwise. And SFB's digital program #3 just opened with Ratmansky's Symphony #9. Great night at the ballet!

Tickets are for sale on the City Center site, not ABT: https://www.nycitycenter.org/pdps/2020-2021/abt-live-from-city-center/ I'm glad to see it will be available for almost four weeks of repeated viewings.

Totally agree! They were scheduled for a week at the Joyce in August 2020, which I had planned to attend. I hope they are able to reschedule for 2022. Marcelo Gomes has done some of their Ashton rep with them, an extra bonus for those of us who miss him, although he's not in any of the digital subscription performances so far.

Well, at least the ABT Digital program will be available to view repeatedly over several weeks (an improvement over the Australian stream, which can only be viewed once, as I understand). But the selections are pretty skimpy -- two PdD, one movement of Seven Sonatas, and one new thing. And not necessarily my first choice for casting. But it's something. (The complete Symphony #9 is on the SFB digital subscription next month, which I'm really, really looking forward to.)

New Yorkers probably already know about this project for live, outdoor performances starting April 7: https://lincolncenter.org/lincoln-center-at-home/series/restart-stages Great for audiences. Great for providing work for performers. I hope other cities around the country follow their lead!

I bought digital subscriptions to several companies -- SFB, PNB, Sarasota, Boston. But with each of them, I was drawn to a complete performance of a favorite piece (especially Ratmansky's Symphony #9 at SFB and Pictures at an Exhibition at PNB). Everything else is bonus material for me during this never-ending nightmare while we wait for the return of live theater -- hopefully this fall. Compared to the cost of travel and tickets to see these companies, the digital subscriptions are bargains and it's a way to support the companies. I confess that I didn't really appreciate PNB's alternative version of R&J, but that's just me -- I'm mainly looking for comfort food at this point. I'm also not a fan of all the talking dancers in many of these offerings, but that's also just me; I'm sure some people find that really interesting and worthwhile bonus material. Most importantly for all these projects: dancers and other company personnel are getting work with paid support from their digital audiences. I haven't been drawn to the single performance approach that Royal Ballet and Kennedy Center is using, even though they are very reasonable and the offerings are interesting. Of course, we've all benefitted enormously from the free things that companies like NYCB have offered and I assume everybody is taking advantage of them.

I'm pleasantly surprised to receive today an announcement of the Colorado Ballet's 2021-22 season. Nothing happens until the Denver Performing Arts Center okays it, as that's the location of the Opera House. The Buell Theater (also at DPAC) is planning My Fair Lady, to open August 11. https://www.denvercenter.org/tickets-events/my-fair-lady/ Colorado and especially Denver have done an excellent job with COVID, certainly compared to other states. I hope we can keep it up. https://www.coloradoballet.org/performances/season Opening with Giselle in October, as they had planned last year. The premiere of Great Gatsby is replaced with Derek Dean's gorgeous production of Romeo and Juliet. Wizard of Oz was a huge box-office success from a couple of years ago, so I'm glad to see it on the schedule again. Masterworks announces only Theme and Variations. Last year they had planned Petit Mort and In the Upper Room, so I'll hope they can work those out for 2022.

The Colorado Arts Relief Fund for businesses and organizations awarded $5,985,500 for general operating support grants to 123 arts, culture, and entertainment organizations in 33 counties across Colorado. https://oedit.colorado.gov/colorado-arts-relief-grant#awardees Colorado Ballet: $75,000 Boulder Ballet: $12,000 Vail Valley Foundation: $125,000 Cleo Parker Robinson: $20,000

The National Endowment for the Arts has announced the latest round of grants to dance. No surprises, and they don't include project descriptions, so we don't know about plans for new productions. 99 grants for $2,090,000 https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/2021-Discipline-Grants-List-2.4.21-rev.pdf