California

I'm reminded of advice from Michael M. Kaiser (the Mr. Fix-it in the performing arts world) who said it's always better to have dancers performing than only rehearsing, as they are on contract and you have to give them something to do. Even performances at a loss bring in some revenue (although I have no idea what arrangement they have with the Koch or what penalty they'd pay for cancelling). I wonder if they are thinking of substituting a few ballets, which wouldn't be that hard to do.

I just now got two tickets - picked from seating chart. Very nice. Then it stopped working so I couldn't get the Sunday matinee. And when I got back to that it seemed the option to "purchase tickets" had disappeared. I am amazed at how incompetent this whole process is -- I guess the Met and State Theater have us spoiled. Pretty good selection, though. EDITED TO ADD: As of 5:15 pm PDT all three performance have "purchase tickets" available again.

Their site finally came back ( as of 1:37 PDT) but when you try to get to the ticket purchasing site, they say they are having technical difficulties. I'll keep trying. If anybody figures out how to get through, please post.

I am trying without success (for the past hour) to get to the Music Center's site to buy tickets for Mayerling next July 4 weekend. Single tickets for the spring 2019 series went on sale at 10 am PDT, and I'm guessing they're just crashing. Anybody else having any luck?

Any word on scheduling -- spring or fall?

crystal ball reading by Mussel -- see earlier entries

We heard a few months ago that Miami was going to do this in 2020 - the first North American performances. Presumably there is an agreement that they have it exclusively, in hopes of attracting some visitors from North America.

Let's hope for Jane Eyre -- which is choreographed by a woman, Cathy Marston. Lots of ballet companies are trying to give opportunities to women choreographers nowadays and this would be a nice twist. https://northernballet.com/jane-eyre

If anybody is interested the YouTube of Royal Ballet has rehearsals with Steven McRae and Sarah Lamb from Mayerling:

Although I have the DVD, I've never seen this in the theater (although I'm seriously looking at the LA performances next July). Can someone elaborate on the physical demands that account for this? Time on stage? Difficult partnering? Is this a problem in ballets like Manon?

They haven't done Manon since 2014 and that would also be a good vehicle for Bolle (retirement or otherwise): https://www.abt.org/ballet/manon/

The 2018 schedule was announced the last week of October 2017, judging from postings on this site. There were a few hints earlier of specific ballets, but no schedule.

The Colorado Ballet Studio Company has been announced. I'm pleased they have several promising young men. They do a lot of programs in the schools in the greater Denver area. https://www.coloradoballet.org/company/studiocompany

Glad you have these wonderful books! I typically re-read her essays on specific Balanchine ballets before I see them again. She alerts me to things I would otherwise not notice in the performance.

I'm reminded of those guys in the tiki march in Charlottesville last year (on a weekend) who were identified, thanks to social media, and then fired by their employers. Again, not strictly analogous, but we don't know if there's language in the dancer contract about behavior outside work hours that reflects badly on NYCB.

Thanks for this lovely report, Drew. I'm always so pleased to see that great dancing is being shown by the regional companies that are so often overlooked. And if some of it was sub-par, if I dare say so, we have seen plenty of sub-par performances at Lincoln Center over the years, too. These companies provide professional performing opportunities to so many dancers. I suspect most of that audience will never see ballet at Lincoln Center themselves, but do get to experience the thrill of live performance at their local companies. They deserve our support.

This was just sent by e-mail: In a previous communication from New York City Ballet, you learned that the Company recently undertook an internal investigation that determined that Zachary Catazaro, Chase Finlay, and Amar Ramasar had violated the norms of conduct that NYCB expects of its employees. At that time New York City Ballet took the initial action of suspending Catazaro and Ramasar, and had made the decision to terminate Finlay, prior to receiving notice of his resignation. After further assessment of their conduct and its impact on the NYCB community, the decision has been made to terminate Catazaro and Ramasar. A workplace where our dancers and staff feel respected and valued is our highest obligation, and we will not allow the private actions of a few to undermine the hard work and strength of character that has consistently been demonstrated by the other members of our community, or the excellence for which the Company stands. Your thoughts these past weeks have been welcome and appreciated. And thank you again, for your support of New York City Ballet. Katherine E. Brown Executive Director Jonathan Stafford Interim Artistic Team Leader

As someone on this board said long ago: Symphony in C is bread and water for ballet lovers. And if there's anybody who has not yet discovered Nancy Goldner's brilliant essay, I would highly recommend that, too, in More Balanchine Variations (pp. 14-23), including her analysis of that amazing tendu sequence for the corps in the last movement.

I don't have the memory to answer that question. But I looked up the review by Clive Barnes of the premiere at the NYPL gala in 1976. It sounds as though, immediately after the dance, an award was presented to Robbins: But what was really unusual was that the gala unveiled a masterpiece — it had some great performances as well. All galas have great performances—they are like cream in coffee — but this gala had a piece d'occaxion by Jerome Robbins that transcended the simple and tasteful needs of such events. It was a piece of genius. After it, Mayor Beame presented to Mr. Robbins the C ty's Handel Medallion for outstanding cultural achievement throughout his lifetime. He deserved it just simply for this lovely duet called “Cofher Dances,” performed by Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov. I can't tell from the review what came before or after the award presentation. https://www.nytimes.com/1976/05/11/archives/stars-shine-for-benefit-of-library.html

I won't be in town to see this. Please report, especially their success with the notorious Torch lift.

I'm jealous of people on the east coast this month. Marcelo is doing Serenade for the first time in his career with Washington Ballet at their season opening. For a nice rehearsal clip (third in this Instagram):

This message just arrived via e-mail: View in browser We’re writing today to offer our thanks to you for your support of New York City Ballet during what has been, to put it mildly, a challenging year. As you may know, in August, the Company took disciplinary action against two dancers and a third resigned after an investigation found that they had violated norms of conduct required by the Company with regard to their personal text and email exchanges. This week we learned that a lawsuit has been filed against NYCB alleging that the actions of these individuals were somehow condoned by this Company. It is important for you to know that NYCB took disciplinary action against these individuals before the lawsuit was filed, and that prior to this investigation these communications were not known, approved, or facilitated by NYCB. We want to assure you that this type of behavior is not rampant within the organization and that no one here would ever condone or tolerate any conduct of this nature. New York City Ballet stands for excellence in every aspect of its operations. We work diligently to ensure that NYCB is a place where our employees feel safe and respected and that over the past year additional resources and training have been made available to our dancers and staff to further support this objective. The dancers of the NYCB are among the most gifted and hard-working artists in the world and they deserve nothing less. They are currently in rehearsals preparing for the opening of a very exciting fall performance season, and we all look forward to launching another wonderful year full of creativity and superb artistry on September 18. Again, thank you for your patronage of NYCB. Katherine E. Brown Executive Director Jonathan Stafford Interim Artistic Team Leader

It's actually a pretty impressive dance department, as you would expect in NYC, with so many outstanding people available to teach part-time: https://dance.barnard.edu/

I was curious about the Vail episode, but as Woetzel has been director since 2007, bringing several NYCB dancers each year, it doesn't appear this could be easily determined via Google. https://vaildance.org/festival-artists/ Many rape victims don't file criminal charges, for all sorts of reasons. The Town of Vail has information on its web site about its courts and public records, but it's also possible charges were filed by Jane Doe. Nothing turns up on the sites of community papers. Yet the fact that this was mentioned in the complaint suggests somebody is prepared to testify.

I don't have tickets for the fall season, but still plan on attending in the spring. One problem in these situations: the company has a lot of innocent people who depend on those paychecks and they would be punished with a major boycott of all performances. (It reminds me of the Roseanne cancellation -- a lot of ordinary actors and production staff lost their jobs, too, and I am glad the network is bringing them back without her -- although I have never watched that show and never will. I was disgusted with her Instagram dressed like Hitler, putting human-cookies in the oven, and wondered why they didn't fire her over that much earlier. Sorry to digress...) Cancelling donations, writing to the management, etc. all seem like excellent choices to me.