pherank

I think the closing night cast of Cinderella is about the same as the original opening night cast (in SF). Chung and Van Patten as the stepsisters were especially good together. But as Helene says, Ms. Tan won't be around forever, and is definitely worth seeing in person. And seeing Sofiane Sylve in the mixed rep - I would recommend that - she's nearing the end of her performance career. The Mixed Rep performances will have something from everybody principal-wise, so they are a good bet. I join Natalia in lamenting the loss (through retirement) of Vito Mazzeo, and Damian Smith, but the company doesn't exactly look weak right now. That's the good news. One notable absence here seems to be Lorena Feijoo - maybe she goes off to visit in Cuba at this time of year? Who knows?

Those were the days. Folkine was also invited by Lucia Chase to be one of the first choreographers for Ballet Theatre in the '40's. Nothing going on for Balanchine didn't mean ballet had all but died. LOL - Yes, those were the days. Having read many of the pages in the Kattner-Ulrich dissertation (but not all by any means), I can tell that she is purposefully focusing on Balanchine's relationship to the theatre scene in Germany (no doubt because she was at the Berlin Free University to do the research). And she spends some time discussing how little ballet was appreciated by 1920s Berlin - very different to the scene in Paris. The Ballet Russes apparently did not fare well in Germany. I really like some of this dissertation - I would like to see it improved, to deal with some of the weak points we mentioned, but there's some really great information in there too. And that's my feeling about Balanchine and The Lost Muse as well, there are a few assertions that trouble me (or just confuse me as to their meaning), but it is a great story, and there's an awful lot of worthwhile information to wade through, and consider. It inspires me to learn still more...

I've confirmed that Courtney Elizabeth is teaching at the Piedmont School of Music and Dance in North Carolina, and is now calling herself Courtney Elizabeth Stewart, so I think we can guess that she's gotten married since leaving SFB. Congratulations to Courtney!

Looks like Simone Messmer gets to appear in From Foreign Lands. Good for her! I guess Mathilde Froustey won't appear until the regular season opens. She's on the beach in Santa Cruz ;) https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BWACcm9CEAA01If.jpg:large

Ballet had died in Paris and Copenhagen? In Monte Carlo before Rene Blum was sent to a concentration camp? I suppose the very first sentence could be considered controversial, since it is entirely Western in viewpoint: "In 1924 a small unknown group of young ballet dancers left St. Petersburg for what was to be a four month educational tour of Germany." They were obviously not "unknown" in Russia (and Kendall's book explains all that), but unknown in the West/Europe. It looks like Kattner-Ulrich did publish the dissertation (I don't know if anything was altered before publishing though): http://www.amazon.com/Early-Life-Works-George-Balanchine/dp/383813690X Her statement "no longer the art form that had all but died out in Western Europe" is definitely begging for more details - she must be referring to the post-Diaghilev Ballet Russes era, when companies were certainly struggling, and then WWII. And perhaps she was thinking of Balanchine's remark about how nothing was going on for him, so he would go to America. But I agree with you: that kind of broad, sweeping statement is not a good idea. [Edit] I do like Kattner-Ulrich's listing of the various early Balanchine ballets, as well as the "Correspondence from George Balanchine to Serge Diaghilev (1925 - 1927)". And, the whole section describing the troupe's experiences dancing in Berlin (p100 and beyond) are quite fascinating. If enough people read the dissertation, it would merit its own thread. ;)

Pretty interesting, no? Being a dissertation, I can understand that it isn't widely known, but due to the wonders of the Internet, we can have a look-see.

It's a can of worms though to suggest that Geva made up a story regarding her wedding day. And for me, as a reader, I instantly want to know more, but we don't have much to go on. Mentioning that Georgia was a long ways from St. Petersburg, or that the railways were a mess, doesn't preclude the presence of those two people (and Andrei, aged 12, had earlier traveled on his own to Georgia, and obviously survived). And if Geva's version isn't credible, then what is the more credible version? I disagree that Kendall owes no explanations - that goes to the heart of what historical biographies attempt to provide: some facts and "truths" about a subject. A couple of other spots that confused me: "But Maria shouldn't worry about Aunt Mila or him, writes Andrei: the family was taking care of both [in Georgia]. "Better worry about yourself and Zhorzhik [George]," Andrei says, then adds with younger-brother wistfulness, "I can't believe I haven't seen him for five years! And during that time…I've become an artist." Was Maria herself really taking care of Georges, as Andrei implies, doing his laundry, bringing him food? Had she seen his school graduation performance? Had she traveled to Pavlovsk for his lezginka or his semi-failure in Swan Lake? If not, why not?" > Good questions at the end, but how is Andrei implying that Maria is "taking care" of George (who is at the Mariinsky Theatre school). It would make sense for Andrei to tell his relatives to "take care of" themselves in very troubled times. …"A postscript at the end of the letter only deepens the mystery surrounding this inscrutable family: "I'm very sorry about Babusia," Andrei writes, "maybe she's happy now." This seems to mean that Babusia, who we assume was Maria's mother and so his and George's grandmother, has died in Petrograd. maybe Maria has been preoccupied with nursing her. But how odd for Andrei to write like this about a grandmother's death--as if he wasn't personally involved. Balanchine, the brother on the spot, never even mentioned a grandmother." > How does this signal that Andrei didn't feel personally involved? Is Kendall assuming that Andrei needed to write a formal letter on the subject? And how do we know that he hasn't already?

I've finished the book, yeah! I'll admit to taking vicarious 'pleasure' in reading about life in Russia of the 1920s - I'm both fascinated and horrified: there is so much to be learned from those events, and those people, but the available records are few, aside from remembrances of the survivors, most of which are bitter and mournful. Overall, this is an excellent piece of research, and there's little doubt it was an arduous task to cobble together useful and believable information, and weed out the hearsay. I do think that this book should be regarded as an important source of information for English language readers. I'm wondering if there is, or will be, a Russian language version of this book (and what Russian readers think about this work). A couple of oddities I would like to mention: Kendall has a tendency to question people's statements without giving the reader an adequate sense for why that person's statements are unreliable. We need to see evidence; otherwise, the author comes off badly. As an example: "Geva wrote later that Georges's father and brother traveled from Georgia for the wedding, though this seems unlikely given the distance, the ruined railways, and the Georgian Balanchivadzes’ poverty. And where were Georges’s mother and his friends in a school chapel wedding? No one has left an account of it except the bride. Georges’s friends heard about it only afterwards; they’d barely known about Geva. But for Georges, who did not advertise psychic events, this mariage was an ultraprivate affair, and in private terms a masterstroke." So we should assume that Geva needed to lie about her wedding details? Sorry, why precisely? (Or is that being saved for Kendall's next book?). Why state that the marriage was "ultraprivate", but then question why there were few witnesses? We get no clue as to why Geva's comments on the wedding aren't reliable until in the final portion of the book, Kendall adds, "This account comes mainly from Geva's memoir, Split Seconds, which contains so many questionable details and blurred contexts that we can’t know if it’s accurate." But why not make that point from the beginning and display something of the inconsistencies in Geva's text? Otherwise, it's just Kendall's opnion with nothing to back up her claim. One person's word against another's: I can get plenty of that on YouTube. A stylistic nitpick: Kendall uses contractions throughout her writing, and first names for 'characters', which I find a little odd in a mostly academic-toned work. It comes across to me as a stylistic affection - I'm not seeing how contracting phrases is even necessary in this type of work. The book is not conversational in tone, so why the informal style of written English given the subject matter? Also, the ending struck me as being a bit abrupt, but I suppose Kendall wanted to leave off without going into matters that are much written about already by others. I especially liked the section dealing with sexual politics during the post-revolution era. And it was interesting to learn how Balanchine was, for the most part, forced out of dance performance into choreography by the 'powers that be'. Also, the time spent on Lidochka Ivanova's story: her death, and her life, was a worthwhile effort in my opinion. It is worth celebrating a short, but exceptional life. Take a look at this online dissertation on Balanchine's early life (cover is in German but text is English): http://www.diss.fu-berlin.de/diss/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/FUDISS_derivate_000000007745/Early_Life_and_Works_of_George_Balanchine.pdf

Yes, definitely is Ms. K beginning in the 2nd section of the video (in the PDD - if you can call it that). Thanks for the video link.

The SF Ballet Blog mentions that Ms. Tan went to a book signing in China where she has released an autobiography of her life (so far) as a dancer, Ballet & I: http://www.sfballetblog.org/2013/10/yuan-yuan-tan-book/

LOL - I had the same reaction actually. I mean, I was ready for anything: Schwarzenegger, Jolie, whoever.

Sarah Van Patten is SID! (And with those eyes, who would think otherwise?) But who the heck is SID? Well I've read the descriptions, but still don't really have a 'picture' of SID, the Film. Apparently they are in pre-production on this project: http://www.sidthefilm.com/

Good job, Nanarina - I'm happy for you (and envious). I agree that the opportunities to see Dupont live are fast running out.

Note: things have changed - Sarah Van Patten (a US citizen) is now the recipient of the Diana Dollar Knowles "grant" (the SFB wording is, "Appointed Diana Dollar Knowles Principal Dancer in 2013"). Congratulations to Ms. Van Patten. http://www.sfballet.org/company/dancers/principals

Great news, Abatt. I just found the explanation to be rather confusing: “The problem in all ballet companies is that the orchestra members get paid more money than dancers, usually significantly more,” he said. The San Francisco dancers wanted the company to begin to address the disparities in compensation, he said, which they did." We had heard before that: 1) money wasn't actually the issue, and 2) the artist were seeking better, more respectful 'treatment' from management (whatever that might be). I have to say I am still confused as to what exactly transpired.

But thankfully, the labor dispute is now over. ;) So keep your fingers crossed. Edit: Maria Kochetkova posted this image today, mentioning that she is "getting ready for NY": http://instagram.com/p/fBMaxEkUZy/#

You are welcome, Alexandra. We definitely need the Spanish folk dances added in. There are just so many dances and variations on dances, so I tried to stick to the ones that have some kind of reference in ballets. I highly recommend watching the Sarabande video - great stuff, and it's easy to see a relationship to ballet's positions and steps.

For my own edification, I started putting together a list of European folk/social dances and links to video samples. So if anyone finds this of interest, please feel free to add samples (or if you can recommend better sample videos for any of these items, definitely let me know). I was looking mainly at dances that are referred to in various ballets. Note that many of these dances are also linked to a particular form of music sharing the same name. The quotes all come from Wikipedia unless otherwise noted. I'll have to deal with the Southern Mediterranean another time, but here's the first group - Branle (Bransle) "16th-century French dance style which moves mainly from side to side, and is performed by couples in either a line or a circle." "According to Arbeau, every ball began with the same four branles: the double branle, the single branle, the gay branle, and the Burgundian branle." Branle Gay http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a826x9x1oUs Branle de Champagne http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWNe-6EdsBo Galliard "a form of Renaissance dance and music popular all over Europe in the 16th century" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbCTUvnawSg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lDCxv3Hv2g Anello (fifteenth-century Italian) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcX8rrnVb5M http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbUtpxuMptU Sarabande "Originally, a dance considered disreputable in 16th-century Spain, and, later, a slow, stately dance that was popular in France. Possibly of Mexican origin or perhaps evolved from a Spanish dance with Arab influence that was modified in the New World, it was apparently danced by a double line of couples to castanets and lively music." --Encyclopedia Britannica "In music, the sarabande is a dance in triple metre. The second and third beats of each measure are often tied, giving the dance a distinctive rhythm of alternating quarter notes and eighth notes. The quarter notes are said to correspond with the dragging steps in the dance." Gavotte "The gavotte originated as a French folk dance, taking its name from the Gavot people of the Pays de Gap region of Dauphiné, where the dance originated. It is notated in 4/4 or 2/2 time and is of moderate tempo. The distinctive rhythmic feature of the 18th-century French court gavotte is that phrases begin in the middle of the bar; that is, in either 4/4 or 2/2 time, the phrases begin on the third quarter note (crotchet) of the bar, creating a half-measure (half-bar) upbeat." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9b6ldKKqu0 Bourrée The bourrée is a dance of French origin common in Auvergne and Biscay in Spain in the 17th century. It is danced in quick double time, somewhat resembling the gavotte. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pRW-yAe2L8 Minuet "A minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, and may have been from French menu meaning slender, small, referring to the very small steps, or from the early 17th-century popular group dances called branle à mener or amener." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik1b4jH9Rk8 Chaconne "…a type of musical composition popular in the baroque era when it was much used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line (ground bass) which offered a compositional outline for variation, decoration, figuration and melodic invention. In this it closely resembles the Passacaglia." "The chacona was a sexily swirling dance that appeared in South America at the end of the sixteenth century and quickly spread to Europe, becoming popular both in the elite courts and in the general population." -- Alex Ross This fine article contains sound samples (thank you!): http://www.therestisnoise.com/chacona/ The dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRyeg_r2zqY Quadrille "fashionable late 18th- and 19th-century dance for four couples in square formation. Imported by English aristocrats in 1815 from elite Parisian ballrooms, it consisted of four, or sometimes five, contredanses; like the contredanse, the quadrille depended more on the cooperative execution of intertwining figures, or floor patterns, than on intricate stepwork." -- Encyclopedia Brtannica "Quadrille is a historic dance performed by four couples in a rectangular formation, and a precursor to traditional square dancing" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLvt-Tss_mU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syiClqV1HBQ Cotillion "The cotillion is a type of patterned social dance that originated in France in the 18th century. It was originally made up of four couples in a square formation, the forerunner of the quadrille; in the United States the square dance, where the "figures" are called aloud by the caller, is a form of rural contredanse that also descended from the urban cotillion. Its name, from French cotillon, "petticoat", reflected the flash of petticoats as the changing partners turned." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqWR10wAndg Tarantella "The term tarantella groups together a number of different folk dances characterized by a fast upbeat tempo, usually in 6/8 time (sometimes 18/8 or 4/4), accompanied by tambourines. It is among the most recognized forms of traditional southern Italian music." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM-B_KL3PFI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOiOPtXSmpA Mazurka "The mazurka (in Polish, mazurek) is a Polish folk dance in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo, and with accent on the second or third beat." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XytcQovGT-U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLvVYVwD2No Czardas "Hungarian folk dance. The Csárdás is characterized by a variation in tempo: it starts out slowly (lassú) and ends in a very fast tempo (friss, literally "fresh")." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSKqrhXGrUw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTaaqlNvQ1c Troika "Troika is a Russian folk dance, where a man dances with two women. The Russian word troika means three-horse team/gear. In the Russian dance the dancers imitate the prancing of horses pulling a sled or a carriage." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CiQ8bKU4bw Viennese waltz "What is now called the Viennese waltz is the original form of the waltz. It was the first ballroom dance performed in the closed hold or "waltz" position." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1AkeBpyDsY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kditrEUhCU Polonaise "A dance of Polish origin. The polonaise had a rhythm quite close to that of the Swedish semiquaver or sixteenth-note polska, and the two dances have a common origin. Polonaise is a widespread dance in carnival parties. Polonaise is always a first dance at a studniówka ("hundred-days"), the Polish equivalent of the senior prom that occurs approximately 100 days before exams." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPeNd8luMQY Polonaise from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt7a4BVtTr0 Polka "The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajxfQk_zbjM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cgLHOyzmrg

You can read one of the early reviews here (it is positive): http://jbspins.blogspot.com/2013/09/nyff-13-afternoon-of-fauntanaquil-le.html

Excellent! I'm really encouraged by the fact that the footage being used of Le Clercq has been cleaned up, and film rate issues have been fixed: it does look like people will be seeing the clips at life-like speeds and with decent clarity.

For any Russophiles out there: I came across this website, which apparently was intended to be a book, but the author could never find an interested publisher... http://russians.bellevueholidayrentals.com/

I'm not a sports fan, but I wouldn't say that football or other sports are not good "products". Not to stray down another path, but what I am referring to here is in fact a great big discussion in sports land: NFL games suffer from many 'quality' problems due to overwork of the players, and the unquestionable violence of the sport. Some of the problems facing the NFL these days that effect quality and people's perceptions of the sport: Use of performance enhancing drugs and illegal drugs (if players are caught it does mean suspension) has been difficult to control. An inordinate number of off-field criminal offenses by NFL players (and the numbers keep rising). Concussions are proving to be a big long-term health issue for the sport, and there will continue to be expensive legal issues around this. The sport is dangerous, and there is simply little the NFL can do to prove otherwise, yet many people like football... The general greed of the NFL league and owners has created longer seasons with pre-season games and now both Monday and Thursday night games that cut down on recovery time for players. There are currently 4 preseason games and 16 regular games, and if the team is 'lucky' they play in the post-season too. From 1947 through 1960, each NFL team played 12 games per season, which would have been easier on the body. But the number of games played has only grown. And then there's this crazy thing about teams being allowed 53 players on their roster, but on game day, they can only choose from 45 to play, and if there are significant injuries during the game the teams can actually run out of players at a particular position, but they are not allowed to pull from the 'extra' players. So what happens? The injured continue to play... Last year, the NFL had an unprecedented amount of significant injuries, and also off-field criminal problems to deal with, and it definitely affected people's perceptions of the game. Fans want more football, but they are also complaining constantly about the quality of the games they see. This preseason and practice period seemed to end with more players injured than at any other time before. And that seems to be a general perception in NFL land. Fans want to see their favorite star players face off against one another, but what they see a lot these days are the replacements. And then they get to see the replacments get hurt...

To me, there simply isn't enough exposure in all communities. SF Ballet gives a free performance in the park each summer, but that's one single event. And most regional companies are extremely limited in the amount of community 'outreach' they can do. NYCB and ABT do a pretty good job of saying, "we're here!", but most of the companies in the US have a really difficult time even getting on the average person's radar. But football - that's another matter. Way too much coverage for football which is often not provding a good 'product'.

Racial demographics get awfully tricky though because of the enormous number of sub-groups within a culture. Class distinctions, for instance, mess things up further. As an example, upper class Asian Americans sometimes have more in common with upper class Euro-Americans than they do with the urban poor Asian Americans. In San Francisco, you will actually see a fairly big turnout from the Asian American community at the ballet. I can't say whether it is commensurate with the percentage of Asian Americans in the SF population (33.3%), but it is far beyond what we see from the African American community, for instance. But again, wealthy African Americans, or ones that grew up in a mixed-ethnicity community seem much more willing to attend arts like ballet, or classical symphony. And, I should add, educated Whites/Euro-Americans seem more likely to leave their comfort zones and explore other culture's arts because they are educated, or because they have money to spend on extra things. Both economics and education play into this.

I had the same thought, but it's more like they represent a last vestige of the "old world", when very few humans could afford to be sendentary. But technology makes it so. I believe that was the original promise of machines: that they would free us up to do more things we wanted to do. Of course that was just marketing.