grace

thanks b1 - he's an absolute knockout onstage, isn't he? love those long legs! and as you say, good at contemporary, dramatic and more gymnastic moves, as well as ballet. and a lovely friendly down-to-earth person, too. our loss is your gain. please keep me informed!!

i am a little interested in Ballet Met, now that someone i know has recently gone there: Daryl Brandwood - whose performances i will really miss, in australia.

b1 - have you seen any performances he was in, or any online reviews of the same?

Bournonville insisted on a low arabesque. (And later made the women sew threads from front to back of the underskirt so that their leg could only go so high.)

Mme. Hermine:

Think I'm kidding?

what's that other film, alexandra, that we recently discussed, with henning kronstam and kirsten simone in it?

i love Bugsy Malone - but that's dance, rather than ballet.

that song:

"I was born to be a dancer,

I won't take 'no' for an answer..."

if you haven't seen it - this one IS a family movie. any dancing kids will love it.

unfortunately, i think alexandra's right:

I'd worry that children will find the stage production lacking, especially if they see a very small town production. No special effects, no talking animals, no.....

i only worked with him when he was very old, and of course his works for the RB were taught by the ballet mistress and/or notators, then ashton only came in at the end to proffer (or not) his seal of approval. he certainly has a way of conjuring up steps, in the imagination, just through upper-body movement..perhaps one might liken it to (effete) conducting!

Mia-ooooOWW!

and i DO mean "ow!"

it was the idea of putting 2 different composer's pieces together, and then casting around for choreographic responses - which would go together - that struck me as odd.

farrell fan - thank you for that fascinating additional info, which helps explain a lot.

'Devil's Holiday'? sheesh - never heard of THAT before. (NOT meaning to change the subject ;) )

i am a bit confused by this thread, as i thought we had all had this discussion in quite some serious depth a long time ago. perhaps it was SOOO long ago that others don't remember..

my comments:

1. that program is fascinating viewing. and alexandra - you would love it. it's "MUST NOT MISS" for anyone interested in these issues. beg, borrow or steal, alexandra - but SEE THAT program.

2. i have that book you speak of, mel. it has LOTS of photos, posed by vera fokina, a looooong set of freeze-frame poses, intended to be replicated in such a way as to recreate the dance. the book itself is iINCREDIBLY comprehensive as to how fokine wanted the dance done. he wrote it himself. it goes into choreography, lighting, set, costime, music - the whole shebang. poses are tied to notes in the music by a precise numbering system. i love it!

3. choreographic copyright extends for 50 years beyond the death of the creator. presumably the heirs can only control things, legally, for that period.

doesn't anyone else remember talking about this?? :confused:

i am really quite struck by the tone of this thread, which SEEMS to imply that americans don't know that much about isadora, and don't regard her as important in their dance history. am i getting the wrong impression?

i certainly grew up (in australia) knowing about her - just as much as about pavlova or fonteyn - as one of THE MOST highly significant figures in the development of dance.

is that not how americans see her?

i would have thought that, because she was american, you would have regarded her part in dance history with even more respect than 'the rest' of us...:confused:

if it makes you feel any better, i've NEVER seen a Carmina Burana...

It is an interesting approach to choreography, isn't it? To have the AD choose music and then search out the choreographer to make the work.

oh dear! even worse than i thought.

thanks leigh. i suppose i should go to a dictionary, but please: what does 'egregious' actually mean? it comes up a LOT at this board, i've noticed.

her proportions must surely be NYCB...

- except for THE BUST.

now WHERE in ballet will THAT find a home...?

"... he was his own muse"

btw, i certainly wasn't looking to COMPARE the two (a la bournonville & balanchine!)... :rolleyes:

since *I* didn't say "they're controversial". i am assuming that you, alexandra, are putting forward that idea? - but with hesitation. is that right? if so, i understand that, and am not surprised by that, or the reasons you suggest for it. i guess i was just looking for THIS week's feedback, rather than an overall assessment...

so i MUST read the reviews!

thanks tempusfugit. gotcha!

alexandra: did bournonville have a muse?

~ agree with Hans.

ah - just answered my own question:

HEREAFTER. A ballet in two parts presented by American Ballet Theatre, artistic director, Kevin McKenzie. Act I, "Heaven," choreography by Natalie Weir, music by John Adams; Act II, "Earth," choreography by Stanton Welch, music by Carl Orff. Scenery and costumes by Santo Loquasto, lighting by Brian MacDevitt.

http://www.newsday.com/features/printediti...eatures%2Dprint

Welch and Weir have done good work in the past, but this project seems to have overwhelmed them. In both halves, the choreography reaches for grandeur but rarely gets beyond trite.  

- - - The idea was to construct a unified ballet with two choreographers, Natalie Weir and Stanton Welch, and two disparate choral pieces, John Adams' "Harmonium" and Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana." Act I, titled "Heaven," pairs Weir with the Adams, which is a soaring setting for three poems, while Act II, "Earth," is Welch's choreographic vision of Orff's popular, pulsing cantata based on medieval poetry.

- - - Unenthusiastic audiences aren't necessarily right, of course. But this one was. Kevin McKenzie's commendable effort to diversify ABT's repertory is going to result in expensive mistakes, and "HereAfter," ponderous and glum, is one of them.

i am interested to hear about stanton welch's new work in NY, but don't know what it's called. sounds like maybe this is it? "Hereafter" - ?

i am not registered at NY Times site (i was, but i forgot my name!) - so i haven't seen any of the reviews, which might set me straight. OK, i'll TRY to register AGAIN...

meanwhile, can anyone fill me in a bit, about how stanton's work has been recieved? (btw, i'm a natalie weir fan, and saw one of her works last night, here in australia.)

love your post, leigh.

tempusfugit - could you possibly simplify what you say about the 2 muses, as i cannot quite follow your point in that section, as it relates to leigh's question (or is it an 'aside'?). thank you.

hi. i don't usually follow this forum, so forgive me if i am duplicating something already here, but i received some information about copyright and thought it might be of interest to someone:

an initial query was posted here:

http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/s/pharri...ris1/video.html

- along the following lines:

"Swarthmore College is an undergraduate institution with approximately 1400 students. We have a Dance Department that offers a dance major and a library collection to support undergraduate research. Our dance collection has a large video collection, 50% of which is college sponsored and produced performances, 50% of which is commercially purchased VHS/DVD.

I am looking for similar undergraduate institutions who share the same concerns for their video collection, ie. preservation and copyright. Do any of you have collection/video development policies that address preservation and copyright needs?"

Association of Moving Image Archivists

http://www.amianet.org/

Dance Heritage Coalition

http://www.danceheritage.org/

Music Library Association

http://www.lib.jmu.edu/org/mla/

hope this is of interest to someone.

ed waffle - what you are saying is most interesting and informative (at least, to me).

Now take a portion of that work--one page of the score, for example--and try to improve it. Find the flaws in it and fix them.

as dancepig says, mel, it's "scary" what you remember! jane - what a hotel! i can't imagine a hotel that would offer such a thing. not meaning to lead people off-topic, but can you offer a bit more info, as to WHY this hotel has this offering? thanks.