pherank

Fine bit o' re-framing by Ms. Morr to get us back where we started. It's still a lot of trouble for La Scala to go through to be able to perform a single night as the current Teatro alla Scala Ballet. Yes, Bolle originally came from La Scala, so the audience supposedly sees some of that training in Bolle, but it still looks like the performances are a star vehicle for Bolle (who has been a 'gypsy' performer for some years now). It's not the best way of showing off the company as it stands. A better option would be an arrangement where Teatro alla Scala performs for a week during another company's season, as one of the programs of the host company (in the same way that Hamburg Ballet and National Ballet of Canada have done/will do in San Francisco). Supposedly the Misty Copeland performance is sold out, so that much is working.

Of all the festival pairings, I think Chung with Greco is the most interesting one. I hope that proved to be an inspired choice. (It's now a given that the pairing of Sylve and Di Lanno will be riveting.) SFB has announced that Ballet Master Felipe Diaz is now (also) an Assistant to the Artistic Director.

John Clifford has posted this 13 minute film of Mademoiselle Fifi (Alexandra Danilova) from 1955. Danilova would have been about 52 at the time of the filming. It doesn't look like the male danseur is credited. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgF6OXTSCao "Mlle Fifi is meant to be no more than a vehicle for its star, Alexandra Danilova; its corny but acceptable story shows her as a circus artiste receiving the favours of two suitors—who happen to be father and son. Mme. Danilova twinkled, bounced, ogled and ripped away with the part in a manner to turn any twenty-year-old danseuse green with envy of her precision, timing and subtlety of gesture. Michael Maule and Anton Dolin played the rake and the roué with verve; only Zachary Solov's choreography lacked both precision and decision, so that tree episode turned out to be a novel but tasteless interpretation of the droit de seigneur." —A.V. Coton from a 1955 review

Jen Stahl performing some Dana Genshaft choreography - I like the double-speed video effect myself: https://www.instagram.com/p/BWiJ08MDjV-/?taken-by=jenstahl.weitz Mathilde Froustey also mentioned working with Genshaft a couple weeks ago, so I'm curious what this may turn into.

Ana Sophia Scheller - Girl got balance https://www.instagram.com/p/BWxkvJADxG-/?taken-by=la_scheller&hl=en

I just came across this little video of the "official" retirement for Vanessa Zahorian and Davit Karapetyan (a married couple) after their final performance together at SFB (2017 season). Helgi Tomasson did the presentation. An official commemorative video was also released online. https://www.instagram.com/p/BVSfC7dASQP/?taken-by=diegocruzcooosss For the retirement of Lorena Fijoo (same season, 2017) the presentation was a little different (Feijoo opted out of a special performance). To quote from one of Quiggin's postings on this forum: "Lorena took the stage and dancers of the company filed out individually and presented her each with a single red rose – including the Cuban group: Joan Boada, Taras Domitro and Carlos Quenedit. Pascal Molat was also there as well as Vitor Luiz and Feijoo's sister I believe (though it was difficult to see over the standing crowd; maybe someone else can correct and fill in). Most touching seemed to be Yuan Yuan Tan's rose and big hug. All in all a lovely commemoration of a very fruitful 17 year career with the company." An online video honoring Feijoo was also released.

From the SFB Instagram page: sfballet: Ever wonder where a choreographer finds inspiration, how they cast their ballets, or what makes them tick? Choreographers Stanton Welch, Arthur Pita, and Edwaard Liang are here to answer your questions! Submit questions in the comments below and they may be answered next week during Unbound LIVE! #Unbound2018 Learn more about Unbound: A Festival of New Works >> www.sfballet.org/unbound https://www.instagram.com/p/BWsUHmjF1_o/?taken-by=sfballet [No word yet on how the LIVE! part is going to happen - perhaps on the SFB Facebook page?] EDIT: on SFB's Facebook page they have posted the following - JUL26 Unbound LIVE Wed 5:30 PM PDT "Our first Unbound LIVE—featuring choreographers Edwaard Liang, Arthur Pita, and Stanton Welch—will be broadcast July 26 at 5:30 pm on our Facebook page" https://www.facebook.com/sfballet/

Either did anyone else. ;) I suspect it may be joke name, but the dancers certainly know what they are doing.

National Tap Dance Company of Canada Bach's Brandenburg Concerto#3, 3rd movement Choreo by William Orlowski https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9yyKtb515Q There is a somewhat better looking video of the same with barely audible audio here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD6rVtaqTDo

Cubanmiamiboy mentioned the special deals that are often available at venues on the day of performance, and that is something that does not seem to appear often online. It's a shame actually that special sales are not run for "tomorrow's performance" or "same day" savings, although many large companies will offer special pricing for particular performances.

Isn't that a great line? I like how Morkovina is reinforcing the oral traditions of the ballet, giving what she is teaching the weight of history. That may be lost on some kids, but others, probably the right ones, will perk up to that message. I also liked Rowe's comments about Forsythe, “Working with Bill Forsythe was a really big turning point in my dancing just because the way he explains movement really clicked with me...And the way he appreciates dancers, and he is a total movement geek. He will sit in the studio and talk about movement and dancing and ballet for hours and hours. And I could listen to him talk all day.”

Thanks for the laugh, Nanushka. ;) Website category names and menu listings are often contentious - one person's 'logical' category name may be completely misunderstood by another user, or it may simply not be intriguing enough for anyone to care to explore that link. I've witnessed many heated internal company discussions about menu categories over the years, but there's nothing like feedback from your audience - a well run company adjusts to their user/audience's needs fairly quickly. The San Francisco Ballet website was revamped not all that long ago to favor mobile devices, and it uses a menu system that was designed with mobile users in mind. But it isn't yet as user friendly as it could be, and it's taken a number of months for some of the website organization issues to be resolved (or not), imo. One thing SFB gets right is online ticket sales - I've never run into problems purchasing tickets that I can recall. Once the subscription drive period has passed, and tickets are available to the general public, it is an easy process to view the different sections of the opera house and see which seats are still available for a particular performance date, and what the cost is for each seat. Also, if one is a subscriber, and the subscriber's discount applies to any tickets one orders, then logging into the website and purchasing tickets remains seamless - the discount is automatically applied to anything being viewed (not only when viewing the "cart" at checkout).

The Fjord Review has a number of short pieces on SFB dancers. A couple of these links I've posted before... Julia Rowe https://www.fjordreview.com/in-the-music-julia-rowe/ Sasha De Sola https://www.fjordreview.com/sasha-de-sola/ Isabella Walsh https://www.fjordreview.com/in-frame-isabella-walsh/ Angelo Greco https://www.fjordreview.com/rising-stars-erik-bruhn-prize/ ...and a Q&A with Wanting Zhao https://www.fjordreview.com/wanting-zhao-san-francisco-ballet/

I like the cinematic quality of the stagings; however, I wonder how effective this is going to be for the audience seated in the orchestra area - it's going to be difficult to see things as well as we do in these videos (presumably the camera is mounted in one of the center box seats). The studio lighting effects are excellent - the fake daylight coming in through the windows, and the change to sunset during the "Erik" scene. I'm not crazy about the choice of all black evening suits and dresses in the 2nd(?) video though. That doesn't strike me as being very 1960s Paris/London (though it's hard to place these scenes in actual historical time). The flow between and during scenes needs some work, judging from these videos. The entire ballet will need to be conducted/choreographed so that there are no gaps, slips, static periods, etc. in the movement of the ballet. That is a tall order, but necessary for this approach to work. What I'm seeing here I would not describe as "trashy". Mostly I've liked the work Possokhov has done for SFB - his ideas tend to be sound, though he may lack a gift for details and nuance in some of the movements.

And then there's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Southern California, where standing ovations are practically a house tradition (no wonder foreign companies like to perform there). I wonder if boos have ever been heard in that auditorium?

For archival purposes, a 'pure' performance sounds like a good idea, but it's hard to think how these performances could be arrived at since every dancer tends to interpret the movements a little differently. At best, we get a pretty good record of a particular dancer's performance. These days, professional dancers are using video fairly constantly to help them remember new choreography, and analyze what was working, or not - so I suppose video taken at the time of ballet creation is about as 'pure' as we are likely to see. But video of later revival rehearsals would carry with them all the "accumulated detail and ornamentation" you mention. https://www.instagram.com/p/BWi1x-cHDjg/?taken-by=lapetitefrench_ Maddening, and fascinating, both together. ;) Fixed cameras (aimed towards the front of the stage) don't give a good sense of the overall geometry of a piece - I realized that when for the first time I saw the overhead shots used in the infamous German TV films of NYCB. Being able to watch, say, Concerto Barocco from an overhead position was eye-opening for me. But to have that footage entwined with other camera angles was mostly disorienting, and infuriating.

A video often shows only a single perspective, though a few camera positions would obviously be possible (and I think necessary to show all the nuances of a performance). But I suppose the only thing that would be truly 'accurate' would be to use 3D motion sensors to capture a dancer's movements in toto - that might be helpful to store the information for future reference. So far, there isn't a way to do that during a public performance without ruining the appearance of the dancers.

Perfect. Presumably Tchaikovsky wasn't worrying about cost as we must, only about effect.

Ordinarily I would say that it isn't fair to compare national companies with regional companies, but NBC and SFB are of similar size. The idea to use children is an interesting one since that reduces the cost quite a bit compared to employing professional singers. Another option would be to invite small choral groups to participate in at least some of the performances (as volunteers). That makes it more of a community outreach plan. Personally, I don't really see the choir being a necessity for The Nutcracker - not like listening to Daphnis et Chloe without choir. FYI: I have it from an SFB insider that a synthesizer is being used for the choral effect during performances.

Yes, I knew the part that you were referring to (I have the blu-ray). I'm pretty sure those are not live voices though, and I don't even think they are recorded human voices - it sounds like an electronic sampler to me. But if anyone knows different let us know! EDIT: But if there was one time that SFB might hire some singers for The Nutcracker, it would be for the filming of the production.

SFB performs something like 30+ Nutcrackers each year, so the cost of a choir to perform for all of 2 minutes each performance would be prohibitive - that would be my guess. As you know, The Nutcracker MUST be profitable, and every dollar made goes into paying for the rest of the season. And apparently, they will need to buy an Avedon photo (my running gag line).

Not that I recall, but it's been a while since I've gone to Nutcracker.

Aaron Robison didn't last long at SFB, but it's tough to blame him for going to ENB, as he is now listed as a "Lead Principal" - the same level as Alina Cojocaru and Tamara Rojo in the hierarchy crazy ENB. (SFB's Madison Keesler was 5 levels below that, just to compare). Best of luck to Robison.

I'm not sure if the size of the stagings is the issue (but does anyone really know?). The size of the orchestra pit may be more of an issue given the vocal choir requirement. I think the production team will need to make this ballet more 'transportable' - shall we say - since it's not likely to see the light of day in Moscow. Even in dreams, a company like SFB will not be paying $400,000 for rights to display an Avedon photo - they will need another option. Either pay for something new (many artists would practically do this for free to have the chance), or negotiate a much cheaper price for usage of the Andy Warhol illustration, or talk to David 'last of the great fashion illustrators' Downton to develop something that could then be made available as a print for sale. Andy Warhol https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c9/ba/e5/c9bae5309b3ef602932603c53df549a8--multimedia-artist-rudolf-nureyev.jpg David Downton http://minotti-la.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/DD-Minotti-2.jpg

You don't think the Bolshoi would deign to appear in SF performing a 'notorious' ballet? ;) Possokhov staging would be a given in any case. Another twist would be to have SFB perform Nureyev, and Bolshoi perform a work of their own choosing [created within the last 20 years] for a week at the War Memorial Opera house.