Ray

In , he does a remarkable extended series of entrechats sixes (right at the top of the clip). Does anyone know the history of this choice? Most versions have brisees here, right? (I've been told that Bujones used to do the sixes). IF this has already been a topic of discussion, kindly let me know and I will go there.

Here's a review of the film, by art critic Glen Helfand for the Huffington Post (it's included with reviews of other films).

After the "Black and Whites" programming of last year, this suggests that they are just going to bring what's handy. A shame that they don't program more thoughtfully.

I hate to say it, but this seems like it could be right up Ratmansky's alley--that is, it could elicit some good work out of him. Thank you for posting it!

It's criminal that there's not a remastered version of this commercially available. THANK YOU for posting the link!

It's so cute, of course, and I love the way she places the foot so thoughtfully into 5th after each battement--all 20 times. Each one an event in itself...

Are there any other dancers who have been promoted after 8 years in the corps? I assume if someone is a standout, he/she will be promoted quickly, after a few years at most. Is 8 years in the corps fatal to promotion? That if he were going to make it, he would have made it by now? Sometimes dancers mature later. Hope you're wrong. Wasn't Merrill Ashley in the corps for a long time? Or was she stuck in soloist "limbo"? I can't remember...

A Canadian friend writes, after reviewing the video, that "Sun News is trying to be Fox News North. The Gillis interview occurred in more-or-less their first week on the air and everyone agreed the vitriol was meant to attract publicity."

Videos are definitely important. I was thinking however of written accounts by observers of these sessions. Several have appeared in DanceView in recent years, I believe. (Unfortunately I recently gave away my archives of DV and similar serious publications, and cannot recollect the specific works.) There is a video of Verdy coaching dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet--it's quite amazing and, I believe, commercially available (edited to add: but it's of Liebeslieder, not Emeralds). But Bart is right about the importance of written accounts. I would add that I think more extensive scholarly work should also be undertaken to capture all of these voices in a systematic way.

Actually, both these women have a lot to say about Balanchine that's very interesting. (NG has had a fascinating career, in and outside of NYCB.) But I think your larger point is right: readers of a book like this should hear from the "major" voices; on the face of it, it sounds like the interviews were selected for expediency. That said, I think there is a real need to interview thoughtfully all of the "minor" players, too, who are still around; this kind of research would appear in a different kind of book, though (one I would certainly read!).

American Public Media's Performance Today just posted Mahler's 5th symphony, in its entirety, plus 2 encores, played by the Pgh. Symphony Orchestra in Berlin. Lovely performance and good sound from Digital Concert Hall, the Berlin Phil's online producer. The reason for the gift to us: "The 10th Anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 is of great global importance. For the people of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania, they have a very special place: one of the four planes crashed in a field near Pittsburgh after passengers on board intervened. These brave men gave their lives for the lives of others. To you and all the victims of September 11, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra dedicates this global stream of Mahler's Symphony No. 5 from the Berlin Philharmonic." And NY Phil broadcast Mahler 2 to mark the occasion. I wonder if any dance companies would ever even think of doing something like this...

Thank god for Balletoman. He's the Julian Assange of ballet! Will we ever see a cast like that for Divertimento again? Those women had gravitas!

Perhaps this has been discussed in an earlier thread: the issue of how ballet choreographers get trained. Mostly--in my opinion, anyway--is that they don't, and I wonder why? I mean, most modern-dance choreographers have been through some course of training, while ballet dancers seem to have to pick it up on the fly, as it were, or participate in workshops like the Carlisle Project (does that even exist anymore?). It's a funny thing: as dancers, the training is so rigorous, while choreography is supposed to issue out of people as if by magic. Does the field still hold on to Romantic ideas of Creative Genius? I am NOT saying that choreographic training will guarantee good choreographers. I will assert, however, that I've seen the bad results of no training many, many times in my relatively short career as a dancer. In the other arts, training in composition is rigorous, too, even if creators end up jettisoning what they've learned. Again, apologies in advance for repetition.

Truly gifted. I also liked his playing in Schumann's Piano Quintet Op. 44 (Mark Morris's music for "V"): P.S. Bergman used the 2nd movement music in Fanny and Alexander.

I'm really struck by the generic nature of these last few. While "silvery soprano" in opera reviewing is, as Siff points out, an overused and problematic phrase, at least it connotes something. "Expressive" doesn't really give us much, does it? And I'd love to see "charming" reserved for something really charming--a rare quality these days. Sounds like it's a euphemism for "pleasant," which I guess readers would see through as damning with faint praise (to use a cliche).

That's why I like Siff's article--I think he is too. He exerts a very light touch and is not writing a "cliches = moral failure" or "the downfall of Western Civilization" screed.

As in "Giselle and Albrecht are overparted"?

In the most recent issue of Opera News, Ira Siff writes about cliched and overused phrases critics employ in writing reviews (providing a bit of history on how they change over time, too). I wonder if we can identify the commonplace descriptions that dance critics use in the same way? Is, as Siff concedes, the "word limit" excuse at least partially valid for justifying the use of cliches? "Plangent" is high on his list of overused words in opera reviewing; I don't believe I've ever heard a dance critic use it, though!

From the obit in the Guardian: "He forged a distinctive, at times thrilling, brand from references to the high culture of the past, only rarely referring to contemporary events or issues. Yet, despite this apparent remoteness from the present, he achieved early success by offering a clever alternative to abstract expressionism and managed to keep going long enough to come back into fashion. It is questionable whether such an esoteric artist would have so enduring a career if he started today."

Can you identify the time marker for the place you're looking at? I don't notice anything distinctive here about what he's doing with his hands, but perhaps I'm just not seeing it. I can't even fix the tracking. I am lucky I can turn it on and off. Time = flash 12 flash 12. LOL. Honestly, it is throughout. I find it strange that he kicks and lifts his leg higher than his female partner, and don't know if that is variance in skill or intentional. The female looks sloppy, weak and/or constrained compared to him. Also, a lot of the turns involve semi-open legs, which seems unfinished, but, as in other dances, can be intentional. It is jarring, though. OH sorry, I thought you meant you were watching the clip that EvilNinjaX posted. My mistake.

Can you identify the time marker for the place you're looking at? I don't notice anything distinctive here about what he's doing with his hands, but perhaps I'm just not seeing it.

I may be calling the big waltz near the beginning of Act I "Pas de Sept" because I danced in a company that called it that. But I'm asking the question mostly because I didn't know the answer. I have listened to the score again, though, and discovered that I was mistaken. Maybe that's a worse commentary on the production then: it felt like a repeat!

I too saw Tuesday night's performance. I'm not going to comment on the performances, but just register my disappointment in the lackluster quality of the production. Like nysusan, I think Macaulay got this one right. As a viewer, I should understand what motivated McK's choices--why preserve certain steps/phrases and re-choreograph others? I don't get a sense of a bigger vision here (whether towards "realism" or sticking to tradition); very middle of the road, cut-and-paste. The choreography of the Act IV prelude was terrible--lots of aimless running around. And the lighting was so bad, in design, but also some in execution--at the Met! And did I hear it wrong, or does McKenzie repeat the Pas de Sept music from Act I in Act III? I guess it's draw a link b/t Act I and III, but it certainly bogs things down in a production that otherwise aims towards efficiency (to its detriment, as Macaulay points out, in act IV).

Thanks, but the second part of my message was wrong--I can't even bear to replicate it here!

All the dance training I received was distinctly anti-intellectual: don't think, DO. Everything I learned about dance history and criticism I did on my own. I wonder if that's changed now at all?