Jack Reed

...and so some of them blushed? blanked out? collided? So, what happened, alexandra? And did the authorities take notice, or action? You've left us hanging over a cliff!

Is S-VHS (or Super VHS) used with any video standard other than NTSC? I've been using it instead of ordinary VHS for years because the sharper image is such an advantage when the frame shows the whole stage, or most of it, with lots of dancers. And when I make a copy tape, the result is better for having been made from a better original. Yes, I'm composing a letter to Santa Claus, and I'm wondering what to ask for...

Donald, if that's Aiwa's HVMX100, you can get the booklet from their website at http://www.aiwa.com/pdf/87JUT901010.pdf All 132 pages of it! (The first 32, the English part, should do.) [This message has been edited by Jack Reed (edited November 09, 2000).]

Thanks for that information, Dale, but could you go a little farther? What model Aiwa? And do you still need that highly compatible TV or does the Aiwa VCR connect to a normal NTSC TV? Thanks again.

Regarding "Someone Else" in alexandra's post of 24 September at 1:09 PM, my program says "Michael Eaton (September 23 at 2:00)". Or are we on the same page?

A footnote to alexandra's post of 22 September. In the third paragraph, I won't quarrel with the judgement that it's a great book, but the title is either "Balanchine's Complete Stories of the Great Ballets" or possibly the shorter, soft-cover "101 Stories of the Great Ballets", not "Great Books of the Ballet". This may help anyone who is looking for a copy as a result of seeing the title here, although, to try to help further, I think both versions are out of print, including the two-volume version of "Complete..." published in England by Comet Press in 1983, the year of Balanchine's death.

I don't think Farrell ever did anything exactly the same way twice, not that she changed steps, but in her approach, conception, emphasis within the phrase, that sort of thing; it's long been my theory that that was a large part of why Mr. B. went so nuts over her - it was always the first time, always fresh, alive - well, okay, she could have a bad night, too - but in general -

"Light" was the right word for this "Serenade", or at least the last two movements, all I saw of it. Easy tempos, little agitation in the fourth movement. As for Bugaku, not one of my favorites, it was pretty good, not too vulgar, Tan's filling out of her role some compensation for Pierre's not bringing the power and force some used to give this role up to the level of menace we sometimes got. But it strikes me as a little preposterous overall, and makes me feel again there are a few too many "novelty" ballets available for this type of celebration and too few leotard and tee-shirt ones. And, yes, "Symphony in C" didn't really get up there and fly. Program 2, especially "Divertimento No. 15", remains my favorite so far. [This message has been edited by Jack Reed (edited September 20, 2000).]

Thanks to alexandra for the color-coding of "Mozartiana". That really added something for me! Jeannie, there were some projections onto the drops in "Stars and Stripes" I omitted mention of in my haste: With the forecurtain up, there was some light with cross-hatch shadows on the right side of the red-and-white backdrop, and a few white light stars, I think, on the left; and when the forecurtain came down, we saw a few white-light stars on it for a moment. All this projected stuff is new and, to my mind, extraneous, as was starting "Rubies" in near-darkness; showing the audience the dancers in full light as the curtain went up got "oohs" in the old days, too. Anyway, the backdrops for "Stars and Stripes" are all cloth, as far as I could see, as I say above. Changing the order, omitting, editing the music is, for me, the choreographer's prerogative: They're making a new thing out of old materials, and it must succeed or fail on the qualities of the new thing. In politics, the end may not justify the means, but in art, it's the only justification! [This message has been edited by Jack Reed (edited September 27, 2000).]

Further thoughts, after the Wednesday night performance: Square Dance: I disagree with our generally admirable and always industrious hostess that the male solo doesn't work in this production - It finally seems to me that it and the pas de deux are on a more exalted level, and form a welcome addition to the ballet in that dimension. Neither are at the margins (the very beginning or the very end) of it, but are set off by the energetic ensemble with its (sometimes) witty and certainly novel caller. (I still would like to do without this particular novelty.) Indeed, these two dances make the whole thing not only bearable but even worthwhile. And while I would like to have seen Leticia Oliveira at least once, I didn't tire of seeing Tracy Julias. She was fine, clear and flowing, without the tendency to clipped phrasing Mr. B often gets. (At the end of the pas de deux coda, she did not open out into arabesque from the "corkscrew" turns.) Stars and Stripes: In the last half minute, I tore my gaze away from the dancers to see just what was going on with the backdrop(s), projections, and so on: The dark blue backdrop before which most of the ballet was danced goes up as the red-and-white striped one rises behind it and the blue star field with 25 star cutouts either drops down in between (i.e. in front of the stripes but behind the solid blue drop) or is already in position, as it was Wednesday night. Wednesday there was a lot of red and white material lying on the stage that never got pulled up since at Kennedy Center it stops going up when the area is filled, whereas in Mr. B's days at the NY State Theatre, it kept going. I sometimes wondered why I couldn't see any of this material during the earlier part of the ballet, and now, thanks to the challenge of your remarks and complaints, I think I know: The solid blue backdrop conceals it. Lopez looked underpowered compared to her opening-night performance, but I take back what I said about Catoya danced more choreography - my memory isn't reliable enough, I guess; she did too what I thought Catoya added. MCB: I wonder if the crispness and precision some of you want is the clipped quality I think is alien to Balanchine. Cost effectiveness: Is MCB, which is covering the big-cast ballets versus about 15 dancers here from Bolshoi and 20 or so Joffrey, getting paid as much to tour up here for two balets an evening as they would if they were doing three or four? I didn't put the matter quite as sharpely to Villella when I ran into him again, but I still wonder if this type of festival is the best way to go in these constrained times. Here's a thought: Maybe this sort of thing can make up on ticket sales what it loses on cost efficiency. (All I know on sales at this point is that they had 30 unsold seats on opening night, in a house of just under 2500.) [This message has been edited by Jack Reed (edited September 19, 2000).]

Jeannie, I thought the flag at the end of "Square Dance" was a projection, too, and I thought, why? Is it a little cheaper? That was opening night, when I was in a box, but last night I was near the middle of row Z in the orchestra seats, from where it was pretty obvious it was a cloth backdrop, and the blue star field that comes down from the flies on the left had a hem in the lower edge with a bar or something in it to hold it straight and flat, so it was not the computer-generated video I thought I was looking at on Tuesday. (For those not familiar with this ballet, about a minute before the end, with everybody on stage, the orchestra takes up Sousa's "Stars and Stripes" march theme again, and a backdrop the entire width of the stage, showing the red and white stripes of the American flag, starts to ascend from the stage; as the stripes reach the top of the back, a blue field with a small number of big star-shaped cut-outs descends on the left until the top of it is just even with the top of the back. In my years watching Mr. B's company in the NY State Theatre, we usually could see the stripes moving up through the cut-outs. So, it's not a "real" flag, but a representation. I liked your observations about costume differences with the authentic version you know from video, but did you have any ideas about the back of Filin's vest? It's a dull green, versus the lavender Ib Andersen wore. I don't know about costume epochs, but that lavender always has had the effect of "unblank" versus the usually blank effect of a dancer's back compared to their front, and I miss its compensation. I must say that more than the flag backdrop looked different to me Wednesday: The whole program seemed better, better directed toward me. Maybe it was being more central rather than not having the altitude. I was more one with what was going on on stage, even in "Square Dance", where I strained hard to hear the music through the calls. There was the announced cast change in "Stars and Stripes", and although Mary Carmen Catoya looked less secure than LOpez had, she did more choreography I believe, and that made a better time of it! And her partner Luis Serrano was fine (Arnold Quintane having taken over his role in Third Campaign). In defense of Quillere in Rubies, I think anyone trying to fill Villella's slippers has a thankless task on his hands -or feet- although, as I said elsewhere in connection with the SAB workshop, I think, I did once see a remarkable surprise in this role. And while I will certainly try to see the Kirov do Rubies if I get a chance, I don't think unison corps dancing is where Balanchine is at, sorry. (More on this on one of the ballet book threads where I write about Suki Schorrer's new book on Balanchine Technique,for sale or browsing in the Kennedy Center foyer, incidentally.) Thanks again for your post, Jeannie. It's the kind of thought-stimulating writingIlook for, even if I don't agree exactly with everything. (Want to discuss ballet in person while I'm in Washington? Anyone else? My e-mail is jckdrd@netscape.net)

I guess it's inevitable that when different people go to the same performance, they respond differently... For me, and the people around me, MCB stole the show. Although "Mozartiana" is one of my top favorite ballets (along with "Agon", not incidentally later in the Clebration schedule), I thought "Rubies" got a better performance overall than "Mozartiana" did, with a vitality that seemed to come naturally, although I can certainly understand Jeannie's reservations about some of the principals, having first come to this ballet by seeing its original cast several times. I do think "Mozartiana", which I have seen many times, beginning with its second performance ever, is harder to do at best effect, and that the Bolshoi contingent was very creditable. But while Sarah Kaufman says in today's Washington Post that the Joffery's [oddly hybrid] "Square Dance" was the high point for her, for one who finds Balanchine's power in the relation of bodily expression to musical expression, the caller's distractions made it the low point. The two movements without the caller were much more enjoyable for me. And for many of my neighbors in the audience. But I was glad to learn how much the person on the taxi line got out of it! As I said at the start... And I had some reservations about Lopez and Gamero, too. They're strong, secure dancers, but they tend to emphasise pose more than follow-through, and so I was pleasantly surprised by Lopez in the adagio for having more flow than I had expected. But overall I had a better time with the "Square Dance" at SAB this June. Encountering Edward Villella in the foyer after the program,I offered him the opinion of many of us in my part of the audience, and he said something to the effect that "Dancing isn't all with the feet,some of it is in here" (touching his temple) "and our dancers submit to that". I had never before experienced more than one company on one program, and considering the expense, especially of touring, I thought that less dancing from each meant that money was being wasted, and part of the reason PNB dropped out was that they didn't want the expense if they were only going to do a few ballets, but a free-lance dance writer I talked with reassured me that companies brought fewer dancers for less work so that the cost was in proportion. Does anybody have anything to add to this aspect side of the discussion? Meanwhile, I thank Jeannie for her thoroughness and look forward to more comments on the Celebration. [This message has been edited by Jack Reed (edited September 13, 2000).]

Lately I've had a few glimpses at this splendid new book, which doesn't seem to have been noticed here otherwise. It's written by Suki Schorer, who danced with NYCB from 1959 through 1972, during which time she also was a guest teacher at SAB, becoming a full-time member of the faculty in 1972 and now teaching ten advanced classes each week, illustrated by photographs by Carol Rosegg, and edited by Robert Gottlieb. The author says, "My purpose in writing this book is to record what I learned from him about ballet dancing and teaching ballet, insofar as that is possible on paper... I have not tried to say all there is to say about an exercise, nor have I written about every classical step or movement. This is not a general syllabus for teaching balet. Rather I have focused mainly on what was distinctive in Mr. Balanchine's approach, how he wanted certain movements done, and any special considerations for music, accent phrasing, and so on. In most cases I have tried to offer the corrections that I find I have to make most often and insist on most strongly to get the desired result." I have not yet found the time to read more than about 25 of its 426 pages, but I have peeked at a lot more than 25 of its 700 photographs, of Peter Boal, Dana Hanson, Deanna McBrearty (basic technique), Darci Kistler and Nikolai Hubbe, and Wendy Whelan and Jock Soto (partnering). It seems pretty obvious to me that this is a book for dancers, teachers, and students primarily. I'm none of these. For me, it will likely sharpen my eye some more and would animate my spirit, even without the effect of the many, many quotations from Balanchine. She says,"...We worked and worked until every line was straight, until every arm was raised at the same angle, until we were in perfect unison. Blanchine appeared, and the ballet master proudly showed him what he had accomplished. When we had danced the passage, Mr. B paused, sniffed, and said,'Mechanical ducks! I don't want to see mechanical ducks.' For Mr. B, the energy, the life, the awareness and the beauty EACH of his dancers displayed were always more important; it was how you got to your place and arrived at a position that mattered more. This is not the same as saying that the other qualities did not matter at all; they mattered, but less. That ballet master had lost the balance between drilling for "perfection", which can't be achieved because it doesn't exist, and working for the essential qualities while keeping alive the spontaneity, the risk-taking, the spirit, the joie. Teachers also need to keep that balance." There is a "Technical Cross-Reference" by way of an index, but no guide to these quotations. A pity. The book is published by Knopf at $40 but available from Amazon or SAB for less, I think.