pherank

Personally I love mixed rep programs - I feel like I've had a full evening. And, if the program has been well-designed, the ballets can be easily compared and contrasted. But I concede that many ballet goers want to concentrate on a single narrative ballet, and submerge themselves in that one particular world. Walkaround Time is a conceptual piece, which instantly marks it as "not for everyone". I have to think that the general ballet audience will have trouble with this: 'Nine dancers meander around them, occasionally posing as if they were part of an ongoing exhibition. Midway through there is a jokey “interval” during which the cast stretch and chat onstage.' The audience paid money to see great dancing, so some of those people are going to feel that they have been robbed. It's not necessarily ignorance on their part either: those audience members are simply wishing for a different entertainment. In the U.S., however, it would be very unlikely that the dancers would have been booed - a subdued applause would be more likely if the audience was not happy.

She's a rebel. ;) Actually there's a few veterans that don't look to be in any hurry (thank goodness) to end their careers. Lorena may have reached that point when the body is just not responding as expected, and she knew it was time. That, or risk permanent disabilities. Thanks so much for the write-up, Terez. I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed "Ghost" - most everyone has commented that the sad/downcast solo for Sasha doesn't quite work, so hopefully Myles will tinker with that part. Balanchine would have made changes to anything that isn't working. It's important not to regard one's own work as being too 'precious' to touch. Let me add that "Ghost" would be a good candidate for Program 3 of the 2018 Season ("Included in the program will be a select world premiere from our 2017 Repertory Season").

Sara Mearns and Tiler Peck won't have to dance their entire careers without having once been filmed. Unless you consider the "New York City Ballet Workout" sufficient. ;)

Not quite an official announcement. Robison is going home - I hope ENB is a good fit for him.

Thanks for posting that information about Carlos, PeggyTulle - 30 Nutcrackers doesn't exactly ease a company into the season. It can be a killer. Speaking of injury, Froustey announced a few days ago that she feels well enough to go back into the studio. And so now she is teaching a masterclass in Singapore (a previously scheduled event). I don't recall her ever saying specifically how her foot was injured (though she's had a chronic issue with the one foot since she was a teenager). I know she wasn't wearing a "Bledsoe boot", so seems more likely that it has been a problem with the ligatures. "I have been off from ballet and performing for 3 months (day for day today) and it has been a very intense journey. I have been depress sometimes, felt alone often and hated my body a lot but I also have learned a lot about myself. Thank you to all my amazing friends ( old and new ) who made me laugh, cry, talk and who are teaching me everyday how to be a better human person." https://www.instagram.com/p/BTDgvQml3gr/?taken-by=lapetitefrench_ Masterclass Poster https://www.instagram.com/p/BTHFnDClCMP/?taken-by=lapetitefrench_

The NYCB Instagram page states: "The trailer for Justin Peck's new ballet The Decalogue was shot on 16 mm black and white film with a Bolex camera. The dancers embraced the element of the unknown that comes with the analog medium. The Decalogue premieres MAY 12 with additional performances MAY 14, 18, 20 eve."

Thanks, SF_Herminator. It's good to hear that she will be sticking around the Bay Area, and will be working with young dancers.

That's great - I hope Davit and Vanessa both continue to appear at galas. I'm going to guess that Davit will perform with YYT in the Diamonds PDD. Masha is game to dance with whomever, but YY usually appears only with danseurs she is already quite comfortable with.

A nice video - I'm glad that SFB is doing this kind of thing now. Although we've been hearing that Lorena is retiring, we really haven't heard about what comes next for her. Will she stay in the U.S. or return to Cuba? (Given the thaw in relations between the two countries, this may not be a problem.) Is she looking to teach? Run a school? Become an A.D? I've heard nothing about this in her few interviews.

Tomasson has his own R&J version that would presumably be available to Feijoo, but as Volcanohunter mentions above, Onegin is another matter. It sounds like no one really knows why Feijoo's short performance was called off. End of an Era (photo by Dores André)

Nancy Goldner's More Balanchine Variations (the followup to Balanchine Variations) has a nice write-up about La Valse. I recommend both of those books if you don't already know them: they are both inexpensive, and first rate, and you can use the Ballet Alert Amazon search box to find the books. NYCB will soon release their Paris performances on DVD, and La Valse is one of the ballets that was performed. John Clifford has posted a couple of 1970s TV broadcasts of La Valse - the image and audio are terrible, but that's what we have. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQx7egjInhU Short of Le Clercq and Magallanes PDD https://danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org/tanaquil-leclercq-nicholas-magallanes/la-valse/

Interesting. In one of her most recent interviews she stated, “I am happy with my career,” she says. “I was rarely injured; and in San Francisco, I danced every role I wanted, except two, Juliet and Tatiana in ‘Onegin.’ I was so depressed when I was passed over for ‘Onegin’ the second time, I decided to get pregnant.” I wonder if Tomasson will grant her an act of R&J or Onegin? It would be a nice gesture.

SFB has released a "Celebrating Vanessa Zahorian & Davit Karapetyan" video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF78YmwNdp0

Totally unknown. I'm sure the idea of having a choreography workshop at SFB has been bandied about, but I doubt there's resources to really make that happen. Need another big donor. ;) I don't get the sense that there's any organized approach to developing choreographers (female or male) at SFB. I think Myles Thatcher is a 'happy accident' for the company. When he won one of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative awards - studying with Alexei Ratmansky - then things were really able to develop for Thatcher. This article tells a bit about how he got started in all of this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sean-martinfield/myles-thatcher-profile-of_b_5440878.html Rolex article about Thatcher and Ratmansky as protege and mentor: https://medium.com/mentor-protégé/reinventing-old-ideas-of-classical-dance-60480179b0d6 All budding choreographers should have mentors (preferably more than one). I would like to see opportunities for young choreographers to work together too, creating longer works as team.

Sadly (only) for Misters Gottlieb and Macaulay, it never will be. ;) A regional ballet 'aesthetic' is going to be a very difficult thing to control or 'implement'. At the same time, I'm not sure it's something that can be worried about, because, like culture, it just develops around a group of humans. Taking three previously mentioned companies as an example - does anyone really get confused as to whether they are watching MCB or ABT or SFB? Each company manages to be distinct in look and feel.

I'm not suggesting that they should 'recreate' MCB or SFB, but that they are likely to follow the same model for repertoire and organizational style. Even if 2 dancers left SFB and went to Atlanta, that would not in any way be a recreation of the SFB experience. It would still be something new and different, for better or worse. I agree, California - each of these companies has some responsibility in presenting the audience with the idea of what ballet is, and can be. And ballet is one art form where tradition and history are ultra-important, and actually are part of the fun, if not used to turn a company into a "museum piece". By all means, show the people of Georgia some Petipa, Ballet Russes, Balanchine, Robbins, Cunningham, Martha Graham, AND Pite, Peck, Tharp, Kylian, Bausch, etc.

My guess has been that the Atlanta Ballet board is wanting to compete at the level of MCB, as that company has the strongest organization and repertoire in that part of the country, and generally to follow an ABT/SFB type of model in which traditional classical ballets can be performed on a high level, while bringing in the the best of modern and contemporary ballets (and hopefully have new works created on them by leading choreographers). But this approach requires money, money and more money. Atlanta is one southern city with lots of wealth and growth potential - that's the good part. Can the Atlanta Ballet board really raise the necessary funds consistently? I mentioned previously that Nedvigin may be able to leverage some of his goodwill with SFB - there may even be a few mid-level or Corps-level dancers that would be willing to relocate, who knows? I don't know that it would be so difficult to find 4 principal dancers, as long as they are paid a decent amount (that's the real catch).

Dores André photograph of Vanessa and Davit's curtain call:

Tonight is the night: a Swan Lake farewell performance for Vanessa Zahorian and Davit Karapetyan. A sad time for the SFB audience. May Vanessa and Davit enjoy many happy years in their new careers as joint artistic directors of the Pennsylvania Ballet Academy. From the SFB Instagram page: "Words cannot describe how we feel that this is your farewell performance. You are sublime as a premier danseur! Your artistry, virtuosity and generosity on stage is a wonder to behold. and will be terribly missed. It was an honor to be in the audience when you danced." "We'll be there watching tonight and wouldn't miss it for the world. Vanessa and Davit have been inspirational to us in more ways than they will ever know. We came to a master class they participated in at SFB about two years ago. My young dancer (then 10) had broken her foot and had to miss a lead part in her school's spring show. Vanessa saw her with her cast on and came over to ask her what happened. Vanessa gave her a big hug, shared her own story of having broken a foot, and encouraged her that she'd be able to come back. My daughter took a lot of inspiration and courage from that little moment and, as a mom, I can't thank her enough. We will miss seeing both Davit and Vanessa dance, but we're also grateful that they will going to share their love of dance with kids. Just know, some of that thunderous applause you'll hear tonight will be from us."

Reminds me a bit of the photographs of George Platt Lynes. Although it's impossible to tell from this video what the true character of the ballet is like, I found it encouraging to see that Peck might actually be using moments of slow interplay, and choreography for the arms, hands, perhaps even the fingers! Glory hallelujah! It may not be only bodies hurtling through the air at fastest possible speed. Maybe he's starting to develop a deep vocabulary of the musculature of the body. Or not.

We now get a brief look at Justin Peck's THE DECALOGUE with Music by Sufjan Stevens at NYC Ballet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7jXp0qFz0Y The video has a great 1940s Modernist feel to it - reminds me of two Maya Deren shorts: A Study In Choreography For Camera (1945) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9D3e12rq9c&spfreload=10 Ritual in Transfigured Time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKyYI7i3FVM&spfreload=10 I just hope that the full ballet is able to retain some of this feel. But who knows what it will really be like?

We now get a brief look at Justin Peck's THE DECALOGUE with Music by Sufjan Stevens at NYC Ballet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7jXp0qFz0Y The video has a great 1940s Modernist feel to it - reminds me of two Maya Deren shorts: A Study In Choreography For Camera (1945) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9D3e12rq9c&spfreload=10 Ritual in Transfigured Time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKyYI7i3FVM&spfreload=10 I just hope that the full ballet is able to retain some of this feel. But who knows what it will really be like?

Yes!

I wondered this myself: who is currently able to act as repetiteur for Christensen ballets? And what can you tell us about the Divertissement?

Filling Station? I'm not sure there's any special meaning to the 85th season, but perhaps the 100th season will involve a vast retrospective. That would be OK with me - I just don't know who will be around in another 15 years. ;) I've never seen Tomasson's Sleeping Beauty, so I went looking for an old review - here's one from 2007: http://archives.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/prince-charms-sf-ballets-sleeping-beauty/Content?oid=2155088 And here's a review from 1990, when Tomasson's version first premiered: http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-26/entertainment/ca-212_1_dance-ballet-sleeping "After 100 years, it's about time someone got serious about The Sleeping Beauty. San Francisco Ballet does exactly that, in a new $750,000 production that manages to be both novel and profound. ...Unfortunately, the production suffers occasional cop-outs and lapses, ranging from such minor inconsistencies as Aurora wearing a tutu in the Rose Adagio to such serious problems as a bungled staging of the Lilac Fairy's spell. (After the court falls asleep, she dances at the front of the stage while a Maryinsky-blue act-curtain descends behind her to hide a set change. Very unmagical.) ...Flawed as it is, the production has such deep intelligence and sheer splendor that it easily outclasses the empty-headed versions currently danced by American Ballet Theatre, the Kirov and the Bolshoi. What other Sleeping Beauty dramatizes how long it takes for goodness to vanquish evil in this world, for love to finally triumph?" So I, of course, wonder how much was changed form 1990 to 2007, and what will be tweaked for this next showing in 2018.