Kathleen O'Connell

4 minutes ago, sandik said:

So if you're having trouble with the "woman as victim" theme, I assume that Giselle is a problem too?

Yes and no. I think the ballet gives us leave to rage against the agents of Giselle's victimization: Albrecht's unthinking cruelty and the social structure that has trapped them both. Every now and then I do get annoyed with her having to save him, though.  

18 hours ago, Birdsall said:

Everything is a metaphor.....

 Moderators - please move this to another thread if you think it appropriate!

Nope. I'm taking the plots at their word. Indeed, I take plots both literally and seriously () because in narrative forms like story ballets they are the engine of meaning. This has nothing to do with "realism" in the sense of absolute fidelity to observed reality: a work can be both fantastical and serious at once provided it is intellectually consistent. That's what proper world-building is all about. What I'm arguing is that Swan Lake doesn't have the kind of intellectual, moral, or psychological consistency that, say, Giselle and La Sylphide have, despite the fact that both of the latter rely heavily on the supernatural. I think this makes them better ballets, but of course your mileage may vary. (If I never saw Swan Lake again, my life would not be materially altered for the worse, but I'd be absolutely disconsolate at the thought of losing La Sylphide, which I think is just about the most perfect story ballet ever.) 

Swan Lake's plot has the following key drivers: 

1) Odette is under an enchantment from which she can only be released by an unbroken vow of first and true love.

2) Prince Siegfried must choose a bride at his 21st birthday ball, because that's what grown-up princes do.

3) Rothbart tricks Siegfried into breaking his vow to Odette via a ruse -- disguising his daughter Odile so that she looks like Odette -- perpetrated at the very ball at which Siegfried must choose his bride.

4) Siegfried rushes off to beg forgiveness for his (presumed) betrayal. 

5) Note that there is no ending here! More on that below.

(I'm talking about the 1895 libretto; the 1877 version is rather different in a number of key respects, including Benno's not being fooled by Odile and a rather grim ending which features neither redemption nor the triumph of true love over evil. It's a better plot.)

So, Siegfried thinks he's (ahem no pun intended) killing two birds with one stone:  he's being true to both Odette and his social obligation to marry. Siegfried isn't undone because he thinks Odile is smokin' hot; he's undone because he thinks she's Odette. In essence, Rothbart gets him on a technicality. As far as I'm concerned, this makes the ballet hollow at its core. We are set up to believe that Siegfried has done something for which he must beg forgiveness and by which Odette will be forever doomed, but what is his crime? Although he doesn't perceive the spectral Odette pleading with him not to be deceived -- which is potentially some kind of moral failing -- why would he when he has every reason to believe he's got the flesh and blood Odette right there in front of him? I've yet to see a staging where that spectral Odette is more than a dim figure far away from center stage; half the time the audience doesn't notice her. If Siegfried's crime is being deceived when he shouldn't have been, the staging and choreography need to make that the focal point of the act. (As it happens the focal point seems to be counting fouéttes) Now, I can imagine different staging / choreography that would render Siegfried's inability to perceive the spectral -- but true -- Odette a genuine moral culpability, but that would make it impossible for the same ballerina to dance both roles, and there isn't an AD on the planet who'd even think of touching that one.

Finally, I think it's telling that every director seems to believe that they can change the ending without doing violence to the whole -- or perhaps even believes that by changing the ending they're fixing something. A Choose Your Own Adventure approach to dramaturgy doesn't suggest a coherent dramatic arc. In theory, my outline of the plot should have included the ending, but now we are treated to everything from living happily ever after to death and destruction. But no matter which ending we get, it doesn't really solve the problem of that hollow core. 

Not to digress too much, but here's my problem with the love-potion in Tristan: it absolves Tristan and Isolde of any moral agency. I'd find it a more interesting drama if Tristan and Isolde fell in love without the aid of a potion, despite their past history and in full consciousness of their transgression. 

I do give Wagner full props for the Tristan chord and the impact his use of chromaticism had on common practice tonality. (The Tristan Chord was my ringtone for a while, which is about the geekiest thing imaginable). 

35 minutes ago, sandik said:

 

I wouldn't say "warped" -- more like unusual.  Perhaps not a question for this thread, but I'd be curious to know what about the ballet doesn't appeal to you?

Short answer:

1) I don't find that the transition from swans to maidens to swans again is clear enough theatrically and I find the attempted mimesis of the whole swan arms thing utterly annoying. 

2) Plot silliness masquerading as eternal truth. Ether Sigfried is a giant dolt for not being able to distinguish Odette from Odile or the whole broken vow thing is a false test: if Odile is in every way a faithful replica of Odette, and Sigfried thinks he's asking for Odette's hand, he hasn't broken his vow in any meaningful sense. (I have a similar problem with Tristan and Isolde: how meaningful is their love if a magic potion was required to achieve it, but I digress ...)

3) Meh. Not a fan of maiden-as-love's-victim. Give me Swanilda, thank you very much.

33 minutes ago, NinaFan said:

 

What a shame that you hate the production so much.  Of course to each his own, but I guess I don’t understand your comment with regard to Von Rothbart.  If you are skipping NYCB’s Swan Lake because of Von Rothbart casting, then I have to assume that you also skip ABT’s Swan Lake.   Just for the record, it was an absolute joy to see ABT’s Calvin Royal III dancing Von Rothbart this year.  He’s a handsome and thrilling dancer.  I can’t wait to see more of him dancing lead roles. 

 

In the meantime,  I am going through ballet withdrawal, and look forward to NYCB's fall season, which for me, includes Martins Swan Lake. 

I should have worded my original post more carefully. There have been many seasons in which NYCB exclusively cast Von Rothbart with dancers of color: Fall 2015, for example, when Silas Farley and Preston Chamblee alternated in the role, which unfortunately makes it seem like skin color is the determining factor. I sat through more than one performance featuring the magnificent Albert Evans as Rothbart and the underwhelming Nilas Martins as Siegfried.  I dunno, maybe I was in the tank for Evans, but that just seemed nuts to me -- and unfortunately it's a pattern that seems to have persisted. It strikes me as tone-deaf at best (especially in the current environment), and it pains me every time it happens. The company has plenty of good things it could (and should!) give both Farley and Preston to do, and its version of Rothbart isn't much of a of break-out opportunity in any event.

ABT's situation is very different: many of its principal and up-and-coming dancers rotate through the "Purple Rothbart" role and it would be surprising if a dancer the company viewed as a genuine prospect didn't get a crack at it. There is little doubt in my mind that ABT cast Royal in the role because of his talent and I would have been happy to see him perform it.

Finally, I gather I am the only balletomane on the planet who doesn't like Swan Lake. Heck, I don't even like the Maryinksy production. But yes, I find Martins' version a special kind of hell. (My favorite version is Matthew Bourne's; that's how warped I am about this particular ballet.)

19 minutes ago, Barbara said:

I saw Reichlin/Jantzen do the Balanchine one act Swan last winter season and they brought me to tears. I don't know if I can bring myself to see the Martin's Swan. I suppose if I sat through the Bolshoi's I should give the Martin's a try. Thoughts?

Sigh. This is a tough one. I despise Martins' Swan. First and foremost, it's an ugly production - any eyesore pure and simple. The sets and costumes aren't just hard to look at: they aren't theatrical - i.e., they do nothing to help tell the story by providing context or a dramatic frame. This is a problem because Martins has so stripped his version of any effective storytelling that it leaves his dancers without much space to create a genuine, dramatic resonance. T. Reichlen and T. Angle -- who managed to wring a whole Tudor ballet out of the last five minutes of the "Wienerwald" section of Vienna Waltzes (that's the first section) -- could do nothing with it despite some pretty glorious dancing. 

So, there are dancers one wants to see, but they're pitted against a production that works against their talents at every step.

In any event, I've vowed to stay away from this production until Martins decides to stop casting Von Rothbart with dancers of color. 

1 hour ago, sandik said:

 

I was thinking about the dynamics of the triple bill (opener, middle, closer) and then you posted this trio -- it struck me that each work has a very didactic opening section.  Serenade begins with the fundamentals of ballet class (first position and open arms to the side), Apollo is all about learning how, and then Four Ts starts with those three themes.  You smartypants, you!

This is was my dream program when I was an absolute newbie, so I don't think I can take any credit for great insight. But maybe we can say Balanchine is a very good tutor!

I have a whole archipelago of desert islands! But here's the first I ever stuck my flag into:

Serenade

Apollo

Four Temperaments

16 hours ago, sandik said:

Such a challenge, but she's almost there!

2 hours ago, abatt said:

Of course this is only a practice video.  However, you can see that she is traveling to her right a great deal.  Better to do neat singles or doubles that are under control than to travel into the wings during an on stage performance. She's young, so she will probably be able to improve with practice and coaching.

1 hour ago, vipa said:

Agree abatt. It is practice. She sure has the makings of something spectacular. I'd like to see a better look to the arms in particular. Beautiful turns are important

Agree, agree, agree ... plus, I'd rather see musical singles than doubles and triples that have no relationship to the music. A single perfectly timed with a cymbal crash has much more éclat than a random double or single. The composer put all those flourishes in the music for a reason - make them count!

But yup, it's a practice video and Brandt is a serious artist - I think we can count on her to give it her all.

Helene, I love the idea of Episodes as a palate-cleanser. 

I absolutely agree about the sad omission of anything from ABT's jewel box of Tudor! Per the repertory page, here's what they have:

Continuo
Dark Elegies
Dim Lustre
Echoing of Trumpets
Fandango
Gala Performance
Goya Pastoral
Jardin Aux Lilas
Judgment of Paris
The Leaves Are Fading
Little Improvisations
Nimbus
Offenbach in the Underworld
Pillar of Fire
Romeo and Juliet
Shadow of the Wind
Shadowplay
The Tiller in the Fields
Undertow

The Theater Formerly Known as State is a far better venue for most of the Tudor rep than the vast reaches of the Met and it's a part of the company's heritage that they should both conserve and celebrate. A revival of some of the lesser known (and maybe just plain lesser) works might be too much to ask for, but why not take the opportunity to put the new / newish crop of principals and soloists through their Jardin or Pillar paces?

That being said, there are things on the fall calendar that are worth seeing, especially Ashton's Symphonic Variations and Ratmansky's Serenade after Plato's Symposium. I try to see all the Ashton I can and while I'm not a Ratmansky completist, I found Symposium well worth a second look. Fortunately, both are on the 10/21/17 matinee program with Other Dances and the Ratmansky premiere (with Shevchenko and Royal), so I grabbed a ticket.

2 hours ago, canbelto said:

Good to know that she's dancing at another company now. I always get sad when apprentices are not renewed for a corps contract.

It may have been Hackbarth's choice. New York and NYCB isn't for everyone and she might have discovered that during her apprenticeship. Since she has already studied in Germany, going back might have had some appeal to her. Or she might have liked Semperoper's more eclectic repertory, or the opportunity to dance in a smaller company with more opportunities,  etc, etc, etc.

I think we naturally assume that NYCB is the end goal of every SAB student & apprentice, but it must sometimes happen that other opportunities have more appeal.

PS - I wish her well! I saw her in a couple of things and thought she had a genuine and lovely stage presence. 

5 minutes ago, canbelto said:

Yeah Dronova was very good in Russian Seasons this year.

Also I guess apprentice Jennifer Hackbarth did not move up to corps. 

Hackbarth has joined Semperoper Dresden. If I'm not mistaken, she studied at the Cranko School in Stuttgart for a time.

3 hours ago, canbelto said:

 

Senior corps members Faye Arthurs and Alina Dronova have left the company. 

Oh, I will miss them both! I got a chance to see Dronova dance in a number of ballets last season, and she looked terrific in everything: she was much more than a reliable corps stalwart.  Alas, I didn't get to see Arthurs in much since her return from maternity leave, but I'd certainly hoped to see more of her.

19 hours ago, CharlieH said:

 

 

From the sounds of it, this work seems unballetic and vulgar. I guess that explains the "bouncy" aspect of the photo, even though it is a still. The odd thing is that, even though they appear in the publicity shot, Copeland and Whiteside are not cast in the pdd this fall. Instead, I see that Seo/Zhurbin and Boylston/Foster are cast in "Elegy pdd" from "With a Chance of Rain". Maybe the "boob grabbing" pdd is being supplanted by the "lovely pdd" (Hee Seo) described by abatt? 

 

Now I know that I'm definitely planning to skip this, with all due respect to the dancers. It's not their fault.

For what it's worth, I didn't find "With a Chance of Rain" particularly vulgar or unballetic. The real problem with the Copeland / Whiteside duet was that it came far to early in the ballet; had it come later the audience would have had more context with which to evaluate those gestures in terms of the particular world (or community or society - pick your term) that Scarlett was evoking on stage. I promise you, they weren't there merely to titillate us: they were there to tell us something about that couple and their relationship. I would actually like to see the work again, but won't be able to this time around.

Pantone has created a standardized color in honor of The Purple One: Love Symbol #2 or, officially 

On 6/29/2017 at 8:45 PM, canbelto said:

I always associate Other Dances as being exactly wrong for Hallberg and Seo. It was made on Baryshnikov and Makarova, two very short dancers. Their compact size and Russian folk dance familiarity are part of the ballet's DNA. At NYCB it's still cast with short, terre-a-terre dancers. de Luz and Peck, or Garcia and Fairchild. 

I did see Kira Nichols and Sean Lavery perform Other Dances at NYCB. They may be casting it with shorter dancers now, but that wasn't always the rule.

I've enjoyed what I've seen of Feld's choreography, especially The Unanswered Question (NYT review here), but I suspect he won't be considered a capital-M major dance-maker once the dust has settled on his generation of choreographers. 

His truest and best legacy lies elsewhere: Ballet Tech, which is now part of NYC's public school system. Here's a recent NY Times #SpeakingInDance item featuring three of the school's students performing some of Feld's '80's choreography. Here's a TDF article about the school and its mission.

And, he was one of the founders of The Joyce.

NYCB has presented quite a few Feld ballets over the years, mostly between the late 80's - early 00's. I liked them. In no particular order:

The Unanswered Question 

Backchat

Étoile Polaire

Organon

Intermezzo No. 1

A Stair Dance

I don't think the company has presented any of these within the last decade, which is too bad.

17 hours ago, abatt said:

That's exactly the type of writing the NY Post is known for.  You haven't made it as a social misfit until you've made it to Page Six of the Post.  Talicia made it to the cover story.

While the lede doesn't top the absolute perfection of  "Headless Body in Topless Bar," there's a kind of breeziness to it that evokes the big-screen screwball comedy depiction of journalism in a bygone era, featuring madcap heiresses, fast-talking dames, and cigar-chomping copy desk veterans pounding away on typewriters. You can practically see Barbara Stanwyck racing to the phone to dictate her story to the copy desk before the late edition closes.

Of course the real story is sadder than that, and would be much sadder still for a young man or woman without Ms. Martins' financial and social resources, as the Post's readership is probably keenly aware.

I'm happy to grant Ms. Martins and her family their privacy, but Lordy! can I give that NY Post article one big giant eye roll:

Quote

The socialite daughter of a New York City ballet power couple traded in her evening gowns for a cat-burglar outfit to allegedly rob a string of shops in Maine — and now she could be headed for prison stripes, it was revealed Monday.

Honestly, I don't know whether to laugh out loud or just throw down my pen and slow clap in admiration.

2 hours ago, abatt said:

Does anyone think this episode may have a negative impact on NYCB or SAB.   Kids from far and wide come to SAB, frequently without their family members.  ...  Fairly or unfairly, this incident may cause some parents  to take a hard look at whether to send their kids alone to NYC to attend SAB. 

I suspect New York makes parents take a hard look at sending their kids alone to New York. 

I live near NYU, which is smack-dab in the middle of temptation central: whatever kind of trouble one might have a mind to wander into is there for the asking a mere two blocks away, and it's open all night. I've seen more than one parent standing on the corner glazed with panic on dorm move-in day. 

I gather that SAB's student dorms have 24 hour live-in adult supervision, which must be at least some comfort to the parents of prospective students; and I suspect a fair number of them are acquainted with a minister or sheriff's kid who can't seem to stay out of trouble and know the limits of parental influence. Apparently, Lucien Postlewaite's PNB career can at least in part be credited to SAB's drug and alcohol policies: "I was offered an apprenticeship with the company. One night I went out celebrating with friends, drinking, and got caught when I returned to the dorms. I lost my apprenticeship and was sent home: the poster child for the school's new drugs and alcohol program." 

In any event, it seems that suburban and small-town America are as hard-hit by the opioid crisis as my beloved urban hell-hole. Having been one once, I can attest to the adolescent's ability to get into trouble just about anywhere.

Opioid dependence can be treated with one of several drug regimens -- aka medication assistance treatment, or MAT -- paired with behavioral therapy. (Note: 12-step programs are not the only form of behavioral therapy available to substance abusers; cognitive behavioral therapy has also proven successful in this context.) Alas, ready and affordable access to MAT regimens are often limited by the perception that addictive behaviors are first and foremost moral failings that can and should be overcome through right living and will power alone. The fact that opioid dependence is a fearsome thing to overcome, even with the best available therapies, means that there will inevitably be relapses -- which seems only to exacerbate the conviction that addicts simply lack the moral fibre to tackle their dependence. 

I hope that Ms. Martins and EVERY person burdened with drug dependence receives the treatment they need, both for their sakes and the sakes of their families and communities.

2 hours ago, Nzoia said:

 

Balanchine's Ballet imperial by the Mariinsky.  The NYCB could not possible match it, in my view.

I think I would have to see both companies perform the ballet before I could confidently make a judgment.

20 minutes ago, Nzoia said:

I agree that an attached academy is very important; however, the best companies accept the best from elsewhere (providing, of course, they fit their brand).  The POB and NYCB, of course, have been known for having closed shops.  In my view, it shows.  

How does it show in the case of NYCB specifically? What have you seen recently that you think might have benefited by being performed by non-NYCB dancers? There is such a surfeit of talent there at all levels - especially among the women - that there hardly seem to be enough casting opportunities for the company's dancers as it is. 

I haven't seen the POB since their 2012 visit to NYC, so it's hard for me to comment on the current state of the company's roster and whether it might benefit from talent from elsewhere.

1 hour ago, Nzoia said:

 Certainly, the POB has started opening its doors -- albeit, gingerly.  A good move I think.  I don't think insularity ultimately serves a company well.

I wouldn't define relying on dancers selected from a company's own school (or, alternatively, a network of trusted teachers / academies) as "insularity." Unless a company is unable to fill its ranks from its own school or network, what benefit does it get from bringing in dancers from elsewhere? (I'm not asking to be snarky - I'm genuinely curious.) 

If you want your ballerinas to do justice to, say, Swan Lake, wouldn't it be better to invest in robust and focussed coaching rather than airlifting in a fully-formed dancer from another company to dance in a few performances and then vanish? 

Wouldn't an openness to a judicious expansion of the repertory combat ossification?