Kathleen O'Connell

18 hours ago, Nzoia said:

 

 I believe the NYCB is beginning to open up to outside dancers now, as is the POB -- a positive move I think.  

 

I'm puzzled by this observation: with the exception of Joaquin De Luz, Gonzalo Garcia, and Ask la Cour, all of NYCB's Principals and Soloists came into the company via its own school and surely most if not all of the corps has as well. There were more non-SAB dancers on the roster in Balanchine's day - his famous "Danish Pastries" for instance (Andersen, Lüders, Martins, and Tomasson). De Luz, Garcia, and la Cour have all been with the company a decade or more. 

Every now and then a non-SAB ballerina is taken into the ranks -- Most recently Sofiane Sylve -- but they are more or less the exceptions that prove the rule.  

PS: I must respectfully disagree that it's a positive move for companies to "open up to outside dancers" - especially those with distinctive, recognizable styles and their own schools. I think a diversity of style is important to any art form, and I worry about the kind of homogenization that might result if companies don't cultivate their unique styles by cultivating their own dancers. Or worse, what happened to ABT for a time: a stage that was a hodge-podge of every style and no style at all at the same time. As much as I relish the opportunity to see dancers like Cojocaru and Lendorf, I'm actually more excited by the company's burgeoning ranks of homegrown talent such as the recently promoted Sarah Lane, Devon Teuscher, Christine Shevchenko, and Calvin Royal not to mention the up-and-comers like Skylar Brandt, Catherine Hurlin, Gabe Stone Shayer, and Cassandra Trenary,  (just to name a few). The corps looks better than one might have been led to believe.

On 7/30/2017 at 1:22 AM, volcanohunter said:

 

As for Gottlieb's piece, I would just point out that she wasn't making a debut. She first danced the ballet on October 6, 2016, and she danced it again on April 1. 

 

Thanks for the links! Now I know how to spell her name in Cyrillic (Алёна Ковалёва), and how to pronounce it.  I wish US presenters and the US press had transliterated her name the way the Bolshoi does (Alyona Kovalyova) - it makes everything much clearer! 

16 minutes ago, sandik said:

 

  You didn't happen to be at ComicCon this weekend?

Les Trocks de Cosplay ...

PS I would love to go to ComiCon, but I'll leave Wonder Woman to the pros. 

4 minutes ago, canbelto said:

FWIW, some of the most unidiomatic Balanchine performances I've seen (that have actually made me want to cover my eyes) has occurred right across the plaza at ABT. 

Oh Lordy, yes! But there have also been some pretty good ones ... and I might add that the home team has dished up some clunkers right on the stage of the Theater Formerly Known as State.

11 hours ago, MRR said:

The NYCB and Bolshoi approaches to Diamonds could not be more different: if Diamonds is considered "After Petipa," NYCB emphasizes the "After" and Bolshoi the "Petipa." There is nothing in-between, but the steps are basically the same. 

 

7 hours ago, sandik said:

 

The touchstone, yes, but is there room for other worlds? 

 

Yes, of necessity and up to a point. Any company that wants to present a Balanchine ballet to its audience and has the wherewithal to do so ought to: it does neither his legacy nor the world any good to lock his work up in a cabinet like a rare manuscript that can only be viewed by special permission in a climate-controlled room while wearing white gloves and a surgical mask. Lord knows, that's not how we treat Shakespeare, Beethoven, or Petipa: tastes, technique, and technology change over time, and so does performance practice. 

That being said, choreography is more than an assemblage of codified steps; simply executing the steps in the right order to the right music isn't enough. The way the choreographer moves the body through space in time in relation to the music (and, I'd argue, in relation to dance tradition and codes of behavior as well -- body language if you will) is as essential as the steps. So are the things that are emphasized -- and, importantly, de-emphasized. I'm guessing, for instance, Balanchine wasn't particularly invested in the kind of tidiness that some styles require, and that insisting on it might in fact be detrimental to the way he wanted to see the body move in relation to the music. A company's style tells you what it values. It can't simply abandon those values wholesale to dance Platonic Idea Balanchine. But by the same token, it can't insist on something that's antithetical to the values that are central to Balanchine's choreography - the way phrases are shaped in relation to the music, for instance, or the way the arms are deployed to facilitate speed. 

A company that has been bred to present the body in time and space and with the kind of decorum that is ideally suited to Petipa is going to have to make some adjustments to do justice to Rubies. And it's OK if the Tall Girl has an accent (America is a nation of immigrants after all ) but she can't just be the Lilac Fairy engaging in some showgirl cosplay (or worse, a cheap hoyden, but I digress ...). Similarly, a company that's comfortable pulling the music out of shape to accommodate pyrotechnic display or using big preparations to signal that the next amazing feat is on its way will have to make adjustments to perform, say, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux with the right kind of music-dependant showmanship.

By the way, I also think its wrong to patrol the borders of Balanchine style with unwarranted ferocity. Back in the day, someone tartly informed me that Bart Cook was dancing Melancholic all wrong and I was naive enough to believe him.

1 hour ago, sandik said:

 

Apologies, but I'm going to take this comment out of context -- it feels to me that we're in a transitional moment when it comes to the Balanchine repertory, and this "SuperJewels" production points this out.  Do you think that it's possible to stage a production of a Balanchine work that can be seen as a viable alternative to the standard reading?  That is to ask, can we have versions of this repertory as we have versions of the classical and romantic era rep?  Or are we still too close to the original productions to feel comfortable with that kind of directorial discretion?

I ask this question about Paul Taylor and Merce Cunningham's works all the time. To me, so long as the choreographer's company is still in existence and is still actively engaged in conserving his or her essential style, its reading remains the touchstone. Note that in the case of Balanchine, I would include among companies 'still actively engaged in conserving his or her essential style" those headed by one of his dancers - e.g., PNB, MCB, etc. 

In the case of Cunningham, I would probably include Compagnie CNDC-Angers, which is headed by Robert Swinston, a long-time Merce dancer and disciple.

19 minutes ago, canbelto said:

 

And I don't think Suzanne was actually that tall. I think her very long feet made her tall on pointe.

Five foot six, per Joan Acocella in her review of Farrell's autobiography, Holding On to the Air.

26 minutes ago, Fleurdelis said:

 

I am glad that people are finally agreeing that there is nothing wrong with the composition a Russian company being predominantly Russian + the various ethnicities that inhabit Russia.

I honestly don't think anyone was ever suggesting that it should be otherwise. 

18 minutes ago, canbelto said:

Idk why this has become so contentious. I think part of the uniformity one sees in the Russian companies' corps is also the way their companies have a feeder school and in those schools kids as young as 10 are vigorously selected to have the "right" proportions, looks, face, everything.

In addition, there are 80 women in the Bolshoi corps and 75 in the Mariinsky's. It's simply easier to put sixteen women who are the same height, weight, body type and coloring on the stage at the same time. What stood out the most for me the last time I saw the Mariinsky's Swan Lake was the corps' absolute uniformity of height, weight, and body type. I assumed that the company's sheer size gave it the luxury of filling the stage with a flock of look-alike swans. I also assumed that this was intended as an aesthetic and theatrical effect.

Marina Harss has posted a comment to the piece:

"I couldn't disagree more. Jewels, like La Boheme or La Traviata, is a popular work, the kind that brings in the non-elite. As Balanchine knew better than anyone, everyone wants a good show. Furthermore, the female dancers in this ballet are not at all "commodified"—unless one believes that about all of ballet. Each has a story. Violette Verdy has gone on and on about her role in Emeralds and its connections to impressionist art, Pelleas and Melisande, the sea. Teresa Reichlen, of NYCB, has spoken about how her Amazionian character in Rubies dominates her four partners, not vice versa. And the "Diamond" ballerina is a distillation of both Aurora and Odett/Odille in Swan Lake. And more..."

My own eyes rolled at the notion that ballet has become "a form of conspicuous consumption." Methinks someone has not read their Veblen very carefully. And don't get me started on the "commodification" of women; there are many more pernicious examples of that particular phenomenon.

14 minutes ago, Fleurdelis said:

 

One simply has to dig deeper and learn about the different ethnic groups that inhabit Russia, and also learn a bit about the individual Bolshoi dancers and which ethnic groups they come from. Thankfully, the internet provides ample opportunity for this.

 

Then, perhaps, these "Russians" will all of a sudden stop looking the same and lacking individuality and, yes, diversity, to the enlightened American public.

I wasn't asking you to do my work for me; I simply thought someone might know. Since I haven't seen the Bolshoi in quite some time, I can't speak to how diverse the company looks from the stage. 

A nation needn't have had a history of chattel slavery to be ethnically diverse, nor for there to an expectation that its national dance company would reflect (if not actively respect and celebrate) that diversity. There are any number of ethnic minorities still living in today's Russian republic, even if it's shed many of its former non-ethnically Russian republics -- the various Central Asian "stans" by way of example. If I'm not mistaken, Nureyev was ethnically Tatar. Balanchine may have been culturally Russian, but he was ethnically Georgian. 

I don't know anything at all about the ethnic makeup of Russia's big dance companies: would it be surprising to find non-ethnic Russians among its ranks? 

10 hours ago, fondoffouettes said:

 

They have a lot of high-profile clients, but I don't see any from the arts world. I think it can actually be advantageous to use a firm that doesn't usually work in the arts (they can bring a fresh perspective), but one has to wonder how ABT arrived at the decision to use them. And what tech firm in good faith could allow ABT to function with their weird hybrid website? My first thought was "Who on ABT's board has a connection to Infor?" This may be unfair; it's just the first thing that crossed my mind.

 

That was my first thought too.  I quickly checked ABT's Board of Trustees against Infor's Executive Team: there's no direct relationship - i.e., no one on ABT's Board is also on Infor's Executive Team. That doesn't mean there isn't a connection of some sort. And even if there is a connection, it could be completely innocent: I can easily imagine an ABT Trustee saying "Oh, my firm works with Infor and they've served us really well -- I'll have someone on their team call you." That kind of thing needn't be particularly nefarious -- although a thoughtful Trustee might have said "Hmmm ... I'm going to reach out to my IT folks and ask them if there's a firm with a track record working with arts organizations."

That being said, ABT -- like all organizations -- needs more than front-end web design, and Infor may well have been charged with developing a whole suite of integrated enterprise systems for the organization: everything from accounting to wardrobe management to audience data analysis.

Also, ABT could be a lousy client in terms of putting resources behind the project or even deciding what it really wants (and we've all had those clients ...)

fondoffouettes' observation that ABT's website shouldn't require much by way of design to be attractive and responsive seems on the mark: if they don't need a ticket sales back end, they could practically do it with Squarespace.

18 minutes ago, Balanchinomane said:

Oh, thank you! Never knew it was there. Now I have a new bookmark.

PS: note that you can sort the repertory list by work, choreographer, or composer. That is a really good thing and I hope it survives the redesign when it trickles down to the Library pages.

11 minutes ago, nanushka said:

What genius sat there one day and thought, "Hmm, a place called Library is the obvious place where our website visitors would go to find a listing of all the ballets we perform"? (In a menu of tiny grey type at the top of the "Education and Training" page, no less.)

The world is awash in front-end web developers whose whole raison d'être is to help their clients build logical, engaging, and easy to navigate websites. 

I heard a member of the NY Philharmonic's Digital and Strategic Initiatives staff speak at a seminar a while back, and was mighty impressed by how much thought and energy the organization puts into its digital presence. 

47 minutes ago, Olga said:

Also I think it's a question of professionalism. This kind of sloppiness doesn't speak well for the company. They can't even get their programs right. They have a lot of wealthy successful people on their Board, a large staff and what seems like constant fundraising efforts. It's an embarrassment.

What Olga said. 

Is it in no one's remit to proofread the programs and fact check the program notes? Into whose bailiwick does the website fall? (NYCB has staff dedicated to both digital content and information technology.)

8 minutes ago, Balanchinomane said:

It has always bothered me that there is no catalog or listing of their Repertory.

The company has such an impressive legacy and yet the Company History section

is one page and one picture from 1947. Nice to see Jerome Robbins though!

Oh, they have one -- it's just impossible to find it! Go here:http://www.abt.org/education/archive/index.html

The galling thing is that they don't really even need to build a ticket sales back end: most major venues will provide presenting organizations with access to the house box office / ticketing system for a fee and ABT has taken advantage  of that. (In this day and age it would be a waste of time and resources to try to roll their own.) All they have to do is embed a link in a "Purchase Tickets Now" button on the relevant pages. 

I won't even start ranting about making pages "live" before they're fully baked. Just leave the old version up there until the new one is ready to roll.

It's not like websites are the new hotness that only seven developers know how to build ...

You can buy tickets for ABT's fall season right now on the Koch Theater's website: https://davidhkochtheater.com/Events.aspx

And Lordy! ABT's website is a bonafide dumpster fire ... If there's anything that needs to work, it's the link to the box office. 

Gathering the data (and keeping it up-to-date) would probably be a heavier lift than building the app! Also, dancer buy-in would be a MUST simply as a matter of respect, leaving aside whatever rights (to images, e.g.) and AGMA issues might be lurking out there. 

I'd pitch it as an audience development tool rather than a money-making opportunity.

But it could be done. 

8 hours ago, sandik said:

 

Yes!

 

Now what do we want to know?  Height, apparently, but what else?

 

My choices:

training

companies danced for, with dates

roles danced (would have to be truncated somehow)

roles created (probably just an asterisk on the "roles danced" listing)

 

What am I missing here?

Head shots, staged studio portraits, or performance photos? Physical cards or eCards that one flips through in an app on one's phone? If the latter, there's no need to truncate anything: disclosure triangles, tabs, and hamburgers are a thing. 

Since I'm all for sharing the joy of the art form, I think I'd forgo engineering the kind of scarcity built into the baseball card market, not to mention predatory in-app purchases. 

Next on the list: fantasy ballet. Pick your roster and your repertory and watch your season crash and burn as injuries mount -- or soar to new heights with unexpected promotions ... 

I really do have half a mind to do the cards ... 

Ballet Baseball Cards ...

9 minutes ago, alexL said:

All I can say is Reichlen definitely made the role the biggest deal for me! 

 

Me too! That's my clue that she's either transformed the role or really plumbed its full potential. 

Maria Korowski has also danced the Rubies Tall Girl, although I don't know if it was when she was in the corps, or as a soloist or principal. She was a soloist for something like five minutes before being promoted to principal, so who knows ...

25 minutes ago, nanushka said:

 

Neary was not included in the iconic (and gorgeous!) publicity portraits taken with Balanchine and the costumed female leads, though both Verdy and Paul were included from Emeralds. That doesn't necessarily indicate how he conceived of the role, of course, and it's certainly a substantial part. Reynolds' Repertory in Review indicates that it was subsequently danced by Karin von Aroldingen, Renee Estópinal and Marnee Morris.

Indeed, she wasn't - so here's a nice 1967 Martha Swope studio portrait of her in her Rubies togs, courtesy of the NYPL: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/841285b0-9f98-0130-3e79-58d385a7bbd0

Balanchine did create challenging and iconic Tall Girl roles, but I don't think they were privileged roles in quite the same way that say, Symphony in C's second movement ballerina's is. To me the Rubies Tall Girl is akin to the second ballerina in Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 - a big deal, but not the biggest deal.

Edited to add: Just for fun, here's a page full of Swope's 1967 publicity photos for Jewels. There are quite a few of Neary, but she's always solo. (Again, the photos are from the NYPL's digital archives.)