Kathleen O'Connell

15 hours ago, maps said:

Program A Sun-  Rodeo was, as I expected, athletic teams.  Costume budget?   The lyrical section needed women [lines extended on point] combined with men.  The music carried the work.

 

Interesting. I found Peck's exquisitely tender "Corral Nocture" quintet for five men powerful precisely because there were no women. For me it re-affirmed the beauty of ballet's essential line without the distortion of extreme extensions, wham-pow effects, and yes, pointe work.

For those who haven't seen Peck's Rodeo, rehearsal and performance clips from the "Corral Nocturne" section start at about the 33 second mark of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNSXD8nKlqg

I want a bottle of whatever magic youth elixir DeLuz has gotten his hands on. Plus the guy is a total stage animal even in rehearsal. 

PS - Good to see Glenn Keenan again! And I wish they'd post a video of the actual performance so we could get a "before and after" look ... Woodward is a charming performer and I'd love to see what she does with the role.

Ah! I got the Russell/Stowell - Boal timeline wrong. I did see Postlewaite in a couple of SAB workshops, and assumed he went straight to PNB (much to my chagrin, since I really liked what I saw), but perhaps there was an intermediate stop along the way.

2 hours ago, Helene said:

I can't remember any dancers Peter Boal has hired directly out of SAB.  

Lucien Postlewaite? 

Oh, I'm sorry to see Carmena go! He looked particularly good in Russian Seasons during this year's Here / Now festival: like a dancer at his peak, not on his way out. If it's time to leave, so be it -- but he certainly looked like he had many more seasons to go.

17 hours ago, kfw said:

 

I don't mean to say all high art is good art, or all pop is bad, or even always of less value. But pop is easily approachable. Is bringing it into a place devoted, for the most part, to work that is more demanding, work that to be fully understood and appreciated requires effort and education, justifiable outreach, or is it pandering, is it checking off the diversity box? And if it's outreach, is it working? Is there evidence the hip-hop crowd is buying, say, Alvin Ailey tickets? 

Carnegie Hall has been presenting healthy doses of Not-Classical music for lo these many years without crowding out performances of what is more generally understood as Classical fare. 

What's "popular music" these days anyway? There's a ton of thoughtful, well-wrought, demanding music out there that is neither "classical" nor "popular" in the sense of lots of people finding it approachable and liking it. Jazz comes immediately to mind, of course, but yeah, there's some hip-hop that would fit the bill, too.

Count me among those who welcome major institutions giving younger performing artists opportunities to program themed events, series, and festivals -- not so much because of whatever fresh perspectives they may bring or treasures they may unearth, but rather because of the new skills it will give THEM. On some level they have to be attentive to matters of budget, logistics, marketing, audience development, etc etc etc, even if the institutions' artistic and administrative staffs sweat most of the details. They will also see what works and what doesn't, and, more important, know that they are responsible for the results. It's an investment in the human capital of the overall performing arts infrastructure. Artistic judgment and taste are important of course, but so is knowing the nuts and bolts of getting good art in front of the public.

The "X and Friends" model is one way to build these skills, but it doesn't hurt to have more tools in the toolbox.

It's a small world, by the way: Mason Bates, the young composer referenced in the linked WaPo article, composed the score used for Nicolas Blanc's Mothership, which was one of the works presented as part of NYCB's 2017 Here / Now festival. 

1 hour ago, Kaysta said:

I hate the score for Everywhere We Go.  To me, there was absolutely no subtlety in it, it's just loud and obnoxious.  But I get that is my personal opinion, and we all have different tastes in music, and obviously there are many folks who do like it. 

Actually, I don't think that many people like Stevens' score for Everywhere We Go. I've heard my share of grumbling in the lobby and, if I recall correctly, the critics weren't that enthusiastic either. 

I may be an outlier: I got a ticket to Here / Now Program 4* mostly for the music, although I will admit that Spectral Evidence is a particularly guilty pleasure that I enjoy beyond all reason. I like Neverwhere too, although it wouldn't be anything special without the costumes.

*Neverwhere (Muhly/Millepied)
*Mothership (Bates/Blanc)
*Spectral Evidence (Cage/Preljocaj)
*The Times Are Racing (Peck/Deacon)

2 hours ago, Kaysta said:

Enough with the Peck/Stevens.

 

Frankly, I'm thrilled that he's not using Arvo Pärt or extracts from seven different Baroque violin sonatas interspersed with musique concrète.

In defense of Peck, I'll note that his musical tastes appear to be pretty broad ranging: in addition to Stevens (Year of the Rabbit, Everywhere We Go), he's made dances to works by Philip Glass (Increases), Bohuslav Martinů (Paz de La Jolla, Heastscape, The Dreamers), Benjamin Britten (Chutes and Ladders), Lukas Foss (Capricious Maneuvers), Bryce Dessner, (Murder Ballades, The Most Incredible Thing), César Franck (Belles-Lettres), George Antheil (Debonair), Esa-Pekka Salonen (Helix), Aaron Copland (Rodeo), Steve Reich (New Blood), Francis Poulenc (Entre chien et loup), and Dan Deacon (The Times Are Racing). 

Martins didn't do Peck any favors by putting Increases, New Blood, and Everywhere We Go on the same Here / Now program - they're all too much of a muchness to demonstrate Peck's range. He'd have done better by throwing Rodeo, Paz de La Jolla, or Belles-Lettres into the mix. 

I really liked Stevens' score for Everywhere We Go, even if it did prompt Peck to choreograph what looked like four separate grand finales. I liked the Deacon too, although the house needs to back the volume down a notch. (Not because it's too loud per se, but because it distorts the music with an annoying tizz at peak.)

27 minutes ago, Kaysta said:

Thanks, canbelto!  So it was Alexa Maxwell.  I have to keep my eye on her, I thought she was fantastic.

 

Good to know I understood the plot.  It was definitely a fun ballet and I would like to see it again when I'm not obsessing over whether they are aliens or pirates.  One of the NYT's reviews called them gnomes. 

I'm pretty sure it's the kind of almost-a-story ballet where you can choose your own adventure. 

Kaysta, I think you pretty much got the plot of Ratmansky's Namouna!  The ballet's original plot is even daffier, featuring the island of Corfu, a Pirate King, and a beautiful slave girl. Maybe Ulbricht is a Space Pirate ... Anyway, I do love the Erté-on-a-bender costumes, art deco spacemen and all.  

14 hours ago, Drew said:

As best I can remember, ABT has recently done a successful all Ratmansky mixed bill -- two, if one counts the Shostakovich trilogy.  I'm defining 'success' as 'substantive and varied ballets that held my interest and I would be interested in seeing again' not as 'is as good as Balanchine' and not as 'everyone agrees all the ballets are masterpieces.' 

NYCB's Here / Now festival has an all Ratmansky program, featuring Russian Seasons and Namouna. Both are among my favorite ballets -- not just my favorite Ratmansky ballets, but my favorite ballets period. Especially wacky, witty Namouna, which I love dearly despite a couple of glaring structural flaws. (So I put my money where my mouth is and bought tickets two performances of that particular Here / Now bill...) 

ABT's got enough quality Ratmansky to program a solid -- and watchable -- triple bill.  

I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I find all-Balanchine programs that consist entirely of his leotard ballets fatiguing. They are all great ballets; cramming three or four of them into an evening does not make for a great program. I find that the eye -- and the mind -- need more variety.

Just now, Helene said:

If Ratmansky was asked the question by text after the interview, I wonder if someone on the editorial side asked for a follow-up question on a hot topic.

 

I'm sure it got them their clicks.

Oh, I think this thread is testament to that. 

Eh. Men mansplaining. Did no one think to pick up the phone and call a woman choreographer or AD? 

1 hour ago, Quiggin said:

Another reason why there are many more women choreographers downtown might be that a good portion of the downtown men were gay and were not afraid to share power. And the institutions there, the KItchen, PS 122, DTW, were established much later, in the 1950s and 1960s, not the 19th century. And as pointed out above, there were no money men.

 

I'm not convinced that one's sexual orientation has much to do with one's willingness to share power.

I'm more inclined to think that the presence of notable women choreographers in US modern and postmodern dance is a function of it's not being almost exclusively housed in established institutions the way ballet generally is. 

PS122 et al are venues, not companies; they function as presenters, but they're not the same kind of institution as NYCB, ABT, SFB, PNB, etc.

I happen to like Andrea Miller's work. She's from the not-ballet precincts of the dance world, where it is not at all unusual for a woman to start her own company, make her own dances, and get her own funding without asking for permission first. Nobody's making much money, but they are making dances.

Go here to visit her dance company's website.

I like Millepied's Neverwhere, but I gather there aren't many members of that club. 

Nanushka - If you are not a NY resident, you can get a temporary library card that will allow you to access the research collections.

28 minutes ago, Helene said:

And the lavishly funded festivals...

Well, we got Ratmansky's witty, wicked, wondrous Namouna out of one of those. But we certainly didn't need a festival to get it.

5 hours ago, sandik said:

Ballet training rarely includes this expectation, and even when dancers are training in a college program that includes ballet, their composition classes don't generally encourage them to work in a ballet idiom.  Barbara Weisberger's Carlisle Project was an attempt to bridge this gap -- giving ballet dancers an opportunity to take a clearly thought-out composition class (and to encourage modern choreographers to work in ballet as well).  A few works of distinction came out of it, but apparently not enough to justify it continuing.

"But first, a school." 

I dunno. Millepied's been a choreographer for about as long as the Carlisle Project was in existence, and has probably run through about as much money all told. Has he generated even a few works of distinction? Three decades of lavishly funded Martins has given us what, maybe three works of distinction? And one of those is a production of Sleeping Beauty. 

On 4/21/2017 at 11:37 AM, Birdsall said:

Unfortunately women have to be 100 times better than a man just to get a chance. That's the unfortunate reality. 

It may be the situation on the ground, but it's not one of the laws of thermodynamics. 

The situation is entirely amenable to a modicum of vision amplified by a lot of check-writing. 

Whoo Hoo! Le Tombeau de Couperin! I wasn't able to see it the last time it came around; glad it's back. Almost makes up for 25 evenings of Per Kirkeby sets and costumes.   

15 hours ago, cargill said:

When Robbins revived it in 1998 they used a recording, so maybe they will go back to that--not that I think they should, but it would be cheaper.  Mary

The recording NYCB used was rather unique: it was by the Pokrovsky Ensemble, who performed the work in a traditional Russian folk style. You can listen to it here:

I happen to like it, but it would have been better to hear the ensemble perform it live rather than via a recording.

For comparison, here's a video of Najinska's version, with Stravinsky's score performed in a more classically operatic and instrumental style: 

4 hours ago, California said:

I'm glad to see his Les Noces on the schedule. Long ago, I read an interview with him about this -- he said he would not have attempted it if he had been familiar with Nijinska's or Lubovitch's versions. Reportedly, also, the cost of performing it is staggering, with the chorus, dancers, and orchestra required.

Not much mention of Balanchine, other than Coppelia. I hope that's not a bad sign!

The last time I saw Robbins' Les Noces at NYCB, it was performed with full chorus and orchestra.* I can't say Robbins' choreography bowled me over, but the whole spectacle -- with the full chorus arrayed on tall risers behind the dancers -- was definitely worth a trip to the Theater Formerly Known as State. Seeing it was fine; hearing it live was terrific. 

*OOPS! Not an orchestra - four onstage pianos! Also percussion, if I'm not mistaken ... plus vocal soloists. It's an earful and an eyeful.

NYCB's Midsummer is roughly on par with its other narrative offerings - Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, Sonnambula, etc. (I exclude Martins' exceptionally ugly collaborations with Per Kirkeby, Swan Lake and Romeo + Juliet. In addition to being eyesores, the sets and costumes are simply hostile to good theater, and Martins' storytelling needs all the help it can get. The company would be better off performing both ballets in practice clothes in front of a blue cylcorama. Did I mention the productions are ugly? But I digress.) NYCB's opulence tends to reside in its costumes rather than its sets. In Midsummer, for instance, it looks as if all the little bugs in Oberon's court have their own distinct costumes, which is a charming touch. They might have all been dressed exactly alike, or nearly so (like the fairy maidens in Titania's retinue), but no, each costume has its own special little touches. This became obvious when the costumes were refurbished a few years ago: suddenly you could see that the third buglet from the left wasn't wearing the same thing as the third buglet from the right. It really is just the sweetest thing. 

In any event, NYCB's production has lots of trees, but no grand staircase like the one in the film. Its big coup-de-theatre is when the court's tapestry-draped pavilions transform back into a forest in the closing moments.