scoop

...but glad to find at least two other dual b/b fans here! Ballet and baseball strike be as engaging for many of the same reasons -- the sense of narrative that propels both a company and a team's season, the potential that at any point in a ballet or a game, you'll witness something just amazing and jaw-dropping on the stage or field, etc. I envy New Yorkers, home of my favorite team and company -- there's never been much ballet in Baltimore, but at least I always had the Orioles. In recent years though -- they've been self-destructing...

Anyway, to make amends for going off track, I can recommend in Saratoga Springs, the Westchester Bed & Breakfast. Charming owners and a beautiful garden -- I still have a picture that the host took of us on a sun-dappled morning out there that brings back the utterly magical atmosphere of Saratoga Springs in the summer.

It's a fun experience, very different from a modern-day spa. The place I went, you're assigned an attendant who takes you into this catacomb like area, very dark and cool, with ancient-looking bathtubs equipped with spigots that let "the waters" in. I guess there's something of a mystique to the waters, but to me it just seemed like a nice bath, which I'm always up for anyway!

I've been to Saratoga Springs just once before and highly recommend it. Even if you only catch one or two ballets (which seems likely with this year's schedule), it's a beautiful area with a lot of other things to do. My other big passion is baseball (are there any other combo ballet/baseball crazies out there?!), so I was in hog heaven -- Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame are nearby, which is great fun. (And a great bargaining chip if you're in the company of the male sort that goes to the ballet with martyred reluctance, even if he eventually admits how much he enjoyed it!)

Well, having left my personal backwater this a.m., some 12 hours later I find myself in -- don't hate me, it's a business trip, really! -- in Hawaii. Where the PBS station is indeed airing the elusive Men of ABT -- but at 10 pm, which by my personal, still-on-Eastern-time clock will be 3 a.m. Is this what they mean by suffering for one's art?:confused:

Hi Treefrog from your friendly ex-Chicagoan,

No sign of Men of ABT on my local PBS station either -- grrrrr. Although oddly enough I see an upcoming airing of Rudolf Nureyev's Don Q. I always knew Baltimore was in a time warp -- maybe Men of ABT will air ten years from now! If they can fit it in in between endless Antique Roadshow broadcasts, that is... :eek:

Thanks very much for these links -- somehow, I was too busy to send traditional cards this year, but have all the time in the world to log on here and check out these online cards! Everyone I've sent them to is highly amused...

Baryshnikov's Nutcracker for ABT, which turns up on PBS occasionally, is the one I've seen that most clearly interprets the story as a sexual awakening. For one thing, Clara/Marie is danced by an adult rather than a girl -- and, in the TV broadcast, by the ultimate woman-child, Gelsey Kirkland. Her dances with the Prince, Baryshnikov, are very romantic and "grown-up" compared to other versions where it's more like Clara is off on a little girl's adventure to Candyland. If I'm remembering right, Kirkland even takes over the grand pas de deux that Sugarplum usually dances. There's also a bit of psychodrama with Drosselmeyer weaving in and out of one of Kirkland and Baryshnikov's dances in which he seems to be transferring his niece from childhood into adult life.

Thanks for the review, Treefrog. I'm taking my 4-year-old niece to the Joffrey's Nutcracker in Chicago later this month. After four nephews in a row (one of whom was actually in a figure skating Nutcracker as a little boy), I'm delighted to have one of those little-girls-in-velvet that make Nutcracker audiences so much fun. I enjoyed seeing the Joffrey's Nutcracker years ago when they performed at the Kennedy Center, so it'll be a treat to catch up with it again.

I went to the Sunday matinee. Serenade is one of those pieces I'd previously only seen in random, excerpted bits on TV, so I was thrilled to finally see it completely. I love that moment in the beginning when the dancers snap into first position -- such a small but potent element. I thought the piece got going rather slowly, it seemed rather tentative or maybe lacking in energy. But once the waltz movement began, things picked up. I thought the dancers were quite lovely -- very nice footwork and ensemble work. I think that's the beauty of the piece, the classroom quality of a group of dancers performing often basic tendus or port de bras with precision and as one. The sum indeed is greater than the parts.

Carmina Burana confused me a bit, I think maybe I needed more program notes. I guess what threw me was it began, and ended, with a primitive, sort of pagan sensibility, but the middle was something entirely else. I'm not sure I can describe this, but the beginning and end seemed tribal, like a ritual was going on -- like a human sacrifice or something (I'm grasping here). But I wasn't sure how that related to the middle sections, which were very colorful and almost circus-y with giant Mother Ginger-like figures. I thought the choreography was quite splashy -- lots of pairs-skating-type twirls and lifts -- and the men were particularly awesome. Great Fred Astaire moves with the chairs! The company overall looked terrific -- kept up with the challenging choreography and never looked frantic. I loved the spectacle of it all, the three tiers of singers, the moving scaffolds, the moody lighting.

Can't help you on Pilates tape, but I occasionally do the NYCB workout when I can't make it to ballet class. There are some similarities to ballet class -- plies, tendus, degages, passes, etc. -- but done without a barre. Some sections are also like a floor barre -- where you're on your back or side and doing leg lifts and such -- and there are lots of good abdominal exercises. It's not like a real class -- no real combinations or big jumps -- but ends with a nice reverance.

I think it's partially a chicken-and-egg thing: There are so few cities where a newspaper can justify having a full-time dance critic -- you have to have a good, professional company in town, or at least a lot of touring companies coming through, or preferably both. But then, it's hard for a local company to get started and grow and become criticism-worthy ... unless there's already a good dance critic in town who can cover them and generate interest in their performances.

So you end up with either part-time dance critics who also cover God knows what else, or non-staff freelancers who may or may not be very good. On the newspapers I've worked at, there's always one or two people who love ballet (I'm one of them!) and can write about it well on deadline, but it can be hard to fit it around your regular duties. :eek:

I think it's partially a chicken-and-egg thing: There are so few cities where a newspaper can justify having a full-time dance critic -- you have to have a good, professional company in town, or at least a lot of touring companies coming through, or preferably both. But then, it's hard for a local company to get started and grow and become criticism-worthy ... unless there's already a good dance critic in town who can cover them and generate interest in their performances.

So you end up with either part-time dance critics who also cover God knows what else, or non-staff freelancers who may or may not be very good. On the newspapers I've worked at, there's always one or two people who love ballet (I'm one of them!) and can write about it well on deadline, but it can be hard to fit it around your regular duties. :eek:

Oh, so very sad to hear this. I too knew Laurie and her writing from my Florida days. I have great memories of the first years of the Miami City Ballet and how Laurie so ably chronicled them. I think her serious, comprehensive coverage, and the way she showed how vital a role ballet can play in the local culture, was an undeniable part of their success. Fond farewell.

Anyone reading Ian McEwan's "Atonement?" I'm almost to the end, and I've just loved it. The language is just ravishing! It's almost the opposite of a page-turner -- not that it isn't engaging, and I've been just gobbling through it to see what happens next, but that the writing is so beautiful that I find myself re-reading passages just to enjoy them again.

I'm also reading Suki Schorer's "Balanchine Technique." I'm a big Balanchine and NYCB fan, so I love the inside look at his classes and style. But I'm also slightly disturbed by it -- it advocates a number of things that I've always throught were verboten. (Heels coming slightly off the ground in demi-plie in some cases, for example.) I guess you have to buy into and train entirely in the entire Balanchine style, rather than just dabble and borrow from it. Fascinating, but not really useful for someone like me (adult ballet student).

Next on my list if I ever get more time (ever wish the New Yorker magazine would only publish monthly?!) is the novel "Lovely Bones," which is getting raves everywhere. Story is told in the voice of a young murder victim, which sounds like it would be totally gruesome but supposedly is quite wondrous.