Ray

So many corps members and soloists in NYCB could be honored for how they represent (or represented) Balanchine's vision. I think, for instance, of Renee Estopinal (retired in the 1980s?)--she used her legs in a way that I would characterize as quintessentially Balanchinian--the whole leg strongly articulated from the hip, if that makes sense, even in high extensions. And she and Wilhemina Frankfurt as the soloist pair in Agon!--I feel honored to have witnessed that, as a young person, in many NYCB performances of the early 80s.

Now that's more like what I expect to hear from Farrell--interesting information as well as insights about connections among ballets. It's as if she--or a KC publicist--read Ballet Talk!

I had the privilege of seeing Peter Boal do Apollo, with Farrell's co. (?). I had never seen a generous Apollo before, and would have not thought it possible. A midwife to the muses' talents--pretty wonderful stuff!

Ben Brantley reveiws Joan Didion's Year of Magical Thinking, a one-woman show starring Vanessa Redgrave, in the NY Times today (3/30): http://theater2.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/the...ews/30magi.html I thought it was a great example of a very thoughtful and generous negative review--the likes of which we rarely see in the dance world, alas.

That's a shame--not that I love Béjart or dislike Slaughter; it's just that we rarely get to see the former and see the latter a lot.

Thanks Ray. Not exactly a rave was it? No, but I thought she was critical in a careful way--she bases her criticism both in details of Neenan's (young) career and in the context of his current interests, as can be seen here: "Past works have shown Neenan to be intensely tuned to musical phrasings; here the dancers dash in or out and gesture with little connection to the music's rhythms or structural arcs. The dance's relationship to Orff's bulwark seems distracted and removed, as if the music's thickly cascading sonics are too loaded or daunting for Neenan to play off in a significant or consistent way. He seems to be fascinated instead with a gestural language that functions in its own time -- all sharp shifts and arm hinges, perhaps an influence from recent work with Jorma Elo. Certain Neenan-isms -- the bum stuck out and arms gesticulating, the legs spread wide and torso lurched forward at a right angle -- grow tiresome here with their air of skittish insubstantiality."

Another review of Neenan's Carmina, by Lisa Kraus, the Inquirer's part-time dance critic (although this review was written for danceinsider.com): http://www.danceinsider.com/f2007/f0329_3.html

Sounds very ... uplifting, indeed. Perhaps it's there to balance the Ben Stevenson Dracula, also being performed next season. Or as a follow-up to this season'ss similarly iconic choral work (though one that is quite different as to message) Carmina Burana. Bart, the cynical part of me says you've thought about this a lot more carefully than they did.

Well, come to Philly in 2008 and see what Ricky Weiss does with Handel--his Messiah no less!

I'm tryin', PAB, but you're not makin it easy...Ricky Weiss??? The WHOLE Messiah???? And only two Balanchines??? The only thing this thin lineup will challenge for the dancers is their patience. Not promising.

In my quest to weave dance into the cultural conversations of my college English classrooms, I show the old kinescope of Moor's Pavane's original cast performance (only one out there!) whenever I teach Othello. It's a great way to focus discussion, as Limon is pretty incisive about zeroing in on a particular part of the story. And after spending so much time on the language of the play, seeing the dance helps the students to look at the play in a different way--Limon presents, as it were, an "argument" about what he thinks the play is about (Othello's race, for instance, does not stand out as important to Limon's vision) , which usually makes for lively discussion!

This thread is enlightening and informative--as always--but also depressing. While several of the wish-list items are rarities or oddities, most are recordings that chronicle exemplary or canonical intepreters of the standard rep, and as such should be widely available. I'd love to see dance companies step up and acknowledge that dance literacy depends, at least in part, on making their companies' works more accessible on video and DVD. I know, I know, it's not always under their control. But if NYCB, say, took this on, I bet something would change. They could sell fewer pointe shoe keyrings in their gift shop and more DVDs!

Casting in opera seems on the one had ridiculous--large mature people playing emaciated consumptive 20-somethings--yet on the other hand it's rigourous, carefully delimited by vocal types: if you can sing Zerlina in Don Giovanni you won't sing Brunhilde in Die Walkure (there are other, less extreme examples too). This of course was not always the case; think of all the stuff Callas and others of her generation sung that really didn't "fit" their voices. As far as women singing breeches roles, the main concern is aural, not visual (unles of course a woman dressing as a man is part of a comic plot).

A link to a recent article by Zimmer, "A Veteran Dance Writer Surveys the Scene," reprinted from Movement Research Performance Journal #30. http://www.impulstanz.com/news/features/en If this post should go elsewhere, my apologies.

Yes, but Fosse in a certain sense is fading from critical view--consider how many major revivals of shows he worked on are mounted/filmed without his choreography (i.e., Chicago, Cabaret). Without having read this article, it seems that we needed in 1998 an article celebrating Fosse--younger people needed to be reminded of who he was, sadly!

Has anyone commented on Acocella's recent article in the New Yorker on Matthew Bourne? It struck me as little more than a high-toned PR job. Not what I get the New Yorker for! (Although, to be fair to JA, John Lahr, the theater critic, writes this kind of profile all of the time). (Perhaps I should be posting this message somewhere else, since Bourne may not to some be considered a ballet choreographer. If that's the case, please move this thread w/my apologies for blurring the boundaries.)

If anyone remembers, there's a scene in the film The Pawnbroker where the protagonist, played by Rod Steiger, takes a long walk up from deep downtown Manhattan to the Upper West Side. Along the way, he passes Lincoln Center, then under construction. The walk through black-and-white early 60s New York emphasizes his sense of alienation from the world (he's a Nazi concentration camp survivor); Lincoln Center's hulking frame contributes to that feeling a lot!

Exactly--and still, they put Neenan on as just another choreographer. And yes, an AD has a tough job; that's why he gets the big bucks. But I do think there are models out there an AD can learn from, and I question how hard this AD looks for solutions--or that he even sees the kinds of issues we're talking about as problems to be solved.

Yes, but not if it's done b/c he comes cheaper (thus leaving budget for costumes, sets, and orchestra) and with less hassle than other choreographers. That's just expediency. (From his point of view, of course, he'd be foolish not to grab at all of these wonderful opportunities he's been given.) Again, it's all about the framing--if they nurture him, why not others as part of a larger vision of developing American talent or expanding the creative possibilities for PAB artists (i.e., set up a program for other emerging choreographers)? Then, the less successful productions can be contextualized as part of a process--one that can also be exciting for an audience to experience. Or, if he's simply to be PAB's resident choreographer, why not create that position for him and compensate him/credit him accordingly?

I live here, so I cling on to hope--the men have looked better than ever in the past few seasons, esp. w/the san fran imports. ...yet, sad to say, I don't really disagree with Leigh. I would, though, add to his list of what's needed: artistic leadership, which I believe the current AD and artistic staff does not provide. The company is not alone in "hiding" behind its audience ("If we do X then they won't come"); I think a company as well established as PAB needs to do some leading, and I'm not sure they're up to the task. Interestingly, this doesn't mean doing "outrageous" new work; it means, as Leigh points out, sometimes making conservative choices. But it also means following up on those choices ("OK, we've done Fille; where do we take the company from there? More Ashton? ...?"). I never get a sense that anyone is following up on the company's strenghts and weaknesses that the programs reveal. I just looked at the PAB website, which claims that the company has a "Balanchine Backbone." With a few vertabrae missing, to judge from recent programming...

I agree about Robbins, and they need to beef up their Balanchine rep. I believe the company can take more control of rep than it does. PAB is woefully short on works by internationally known choreographers, such as Kilian, Duato, and Forsythe. (No, I'm not saying that that performing works by these guys will confer some magical status. But the omissions are notable for a "world-class" company; the company lacks a global world view) I'd love to see them do more comissions; I thought Swan Lake, for all its faults, was a great step; another Wheeldon is great ("Carnival").

A great topic that interests me very much! I think it would be interesting to survey the arts and see what different disciplines expect of their critics. There are long traditions in music and theater of critic practitioners, whereas in dance it's fairly rare to have a dancer who also writes (though probably not as rare as it used to be). I think most music critics worth their salt can play the piano from a score. What about the visual arts? Don't most art critics have advanced degrees in art? Are/were any practicing artist critics? I think the diversity of backgrounds of dance writers is great, and non-dancers have been some of our best critics. (Dance criticism in this regard is like film criticism.) But personally I'd like to see more dance practitioners--in the widest sense (i.e., dancers, choreographers, presenters, scholars)--write about dance. I think it would be good for the art as a whole to practice articulating itself more frequently in other media.

Kennedy center is such a barn. So is the Met, but it has more cachet. Those space-age chandeliers have grown on me over the years--the Jestons go to the opera! I think the Academy of Music here in Philly (c1850) is one of the most wonderful venues in the US for ballet or symphony concerts (I haven't seen opera there). I'm always happy to see ballet there, even if I'm not that into the performance (and I'm grumpy whenever I have to PAB dance in it's alternate space, the utilitarian Merriam Theater down the block). Philly's Perlman theater, part of the new Kimmel center, is a very good space for small and mid-size dance companies--good sightlines, as no seat feels very far from the stage. It's too small for most major ballet companies, though. As a child I saw my first ballets in Minneapolis's Northrup Auditorium, a modified GIANT lecture hall. Talk about a barn! ABT tours there (it's where I saw Gelsey do Giselle), and so did the Met when it used to tour. The Auditorium Theater in Chicago is a very special place b/c of its architectural provenance, but its upper balconies are really really high! And the backstage is a dungeon--or at least it used to be. Finally, Pittsburgh's Benedum Center is a fabulous stage--expertly rennovated movie-palace grandeur, with modern backstage facilities and lots of fly space for sets. I think the ideal venue is a deep, wide stage but a house that keeps you close to the action, and doesn't seat too many.

I agree absolutely! I hope Woods takes on Krull... Wasn't there a Masterpiece Theater version of Buddenbrooks once? I can't find it anywhere, but I'm sure I remember the ads for it (I don't remember watching it, for some reason).

Not only Magic Mountain, but Buddenbrooks, Doctor Faustus, and Joseph and His Brothers too! John E. Woods, the adept translator, has been very, very busy.... Of course, you could wait for the John Neumeier versions to come out first