Novice123

Ballet West The Little Mermaid  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUNLkiHxSYk

I don't see any mention of ABT so here goes.  On their YouTube they have two performances of ABT Company dancers.  Will remain up for one month.  Act II dropped today.  

Scottish Ballet did with so little while

12 minutes ago, canbelto said:

Yeah that one is a keeper. I also enjoyed Birmingham Royal Ballet's adaptation of Peter Wright's old production.

 Disney couldn't with so much.  

Scottish Ballet gets my vote for best Nutcracker adaptation 2020.

One premiering now.  www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFkr94zQwkA

18 hours ago, pherank said:

Thank you, Novice123.

The use of the grounds and the road leading up to the Wethersfield mansion was innovative. There were times when the camerawork was a bit clunky, or the transitions weren't as well thought out as they could have been. And in the first portion of the Kingdom of the Sweets section the camera kept circling about in a disorienting manner. But the novelty of the whole enterprise made it fun for me. I give Ballet Collective lots of credit for thinking outside the box, and reminding everyone that there can be many approaches to representing this music visually.

I got the impression that the music we were listening to wasn't necessarily what the dancers were hearing. The audio track may have been added separately.

My one big issue: why the really low resolution video? 360p ?!!! Should have used an iPhone 12 Pro.  😉

Nevermind, you got it now.

35 minutes ago, Novice123 said:

I've not seen this particular clear face mask before.  Clear face mask, or partial clear face mask, can be more effective if made properly because the plastic is impenetrable.  However, there need to be surface area that are "breathable and filterable".  This particular version has such a large surface area reserved for the clear plastic that I can't figure out where the breathable section would be.  I saw thick foam like materials in the bottom section between the mask and the chin.  I assume there's a similar foam like section along the nose bridge area.  Perhaps they will tell us via Instagram.  

I did some research and found it.  It is an FDA approved mask.  There's a "surgical" version and a consumer version.  Search for "clearmask' and you'll find it.  

I've not seen this particular clear face mask before.  Clear face mask, or partial clear face mask, can be more effective if made properly because the plastic is impenetrable.  However, there need to be surface area that are "breathable and filterable".  This particular version has such a large surface area reserved for the clear plastic that I can't figure out where the breathable section would be.  I saw thick foam like materials in the bottom section between the mask and the chin.  I assume there's a similar foam like section along the nose bridge area.  Perhaps they will tell us via Instagram.  

2 hours ago, Drew said:

In a traditional production, she has to cope with the breaking of her Nutcracker doll  (a big deal to a child with all kinds of potential meanings), a dream with nightmarish elements including the battle of mice and soldiers—in which she intervenes—the journey through the snow to land of sweets and, though I don’t recall if this belongs to the original, waking up from out of her dream.

It is not a realistic story, and it’s not presented as kitchen-sink tale of angst, but it suggests, in a fantastical way a whole psychic world of learning about oneself and the world and some of the pains and pleasures of that process...I am not a super fan of modernized productions that make her psychic development too explicit (though I do like scary rats and I don’t mind a pas de deux for Clara on pointe with a come-to-life romantic Nutcracker) but I find them at least to be based on something in the traditional ballet libretto and in the music

I always take fantasy stories and fairy tales quite seriously. I think the music suggests that Tchaikovsky did too.

 Would I be correct to assume then that you don't like Bourne's Swan Lake for the same reason, it modernizes and switched to all male struggles?

PBT Nutcracker

12 hours ago, Drew said:

This made me sigh --not because it isn't traditional but because it takes a story about Clara and her struggles to grow up and 'modernizes' it into a story about a male dancer and his struggles.

 

Did Clara struggle?

Carolina Ballet will be fre live streaming their performance starting today Dec 4th.  More information at their website.

https://carolinaballet.org/nutcracker-once-upon-a-time-in-greenville/

Why do promotions of dancers of color have to be laced with "good for the company from a diversity perspective"?   A good principal "for a person of color" sotto voce 

4 hours ago, tutu said:

Agreed.  I don’t think of Brandt as a natural swan queen, but those early rehearsal videos on her Instagram story looked promising.

Separately: thanks to the advice of those on this board, I made my own subscription with Smirnova/Kim Bayadère, and both the Osipova/Hallberg Giselle and R&J.  I think it’s unlikely I’ll be in a position to make all three, but all the exchange information provided here has convinced me to make the plunge.  Thanks especially to those who alerted that there was no exchanging in to these performances—you helped me finalize my selection.

I just bought another create your own subscription and added these three shows.  May will be very busy with NYCB and ABT both at Lincoln Center. Not complaining of course.

20 hours ago, Novice123 said:

When you say outside of exchange week, do you mean BEFORE or after.  After I can understand because they've opened up exchanges following the exchange week but I didn't know if yo can BEFORE.  

For other newbies here: Customer service confirmed via email that I can call starting March 15 and make my exchanges over the phone. 

On 2/20/2020 at 10:45 AM, abatt said:

Presumably, they could also rent the Met Opera House during February, while the opera is on hiatus.  However, I'd be very cautious about purchasing any ABT tickets during snow season.  When they did Nutcracker at BAM a number of years ago there was a blizzard.  They refused to offer any kind of  exchange for people holding tickets.

I've been attending NYCB  programs from  Feb 1 -29 and have had great luck with the weather.  There is an increase chance of a blizzard here or there in February but I for one would love to be able to see both NYCB and ABT in the "darkest" of winter months.  They do wonders for my outlook.  If the trains works, then I know that I can make it there and back.

31 minutes ago, Leah said:

FWIW I’ve definitely gone to the box office in person outside of exchange week and exchanged tickets, without a fee. I didn’t even need a subscriber card.

When you say outside of exchange week, do you mean BEFORE or after.  After I can understand because they've opened up exchanges following the exchange week but I didn't know if yo can BEFORE.  

Beginner question here: I'm a second year subscriber but this will be the first time I need to exchange tickets.  I've read the instructions multiple times but I do wish the instruction is more clear (at least to me)

Please confirm for me if I understood the subscription ticket exchange process correctly.

1:  By mail: one fill out the exchange form and mail it.

2:  Starting March 15 till 22nd is the "exchange week". I assume that this must be done in person that the Box office?  I'm not clear on this but assume that this is the ONLY method during this week.  Hence, I'll need to visit the Met Box Office in person and bring along the tickets and my subscriber card.

3:  There is no such thing as doing exchanges over the phone, as one can do with NYCB subscriptions?  

Thank you in advance

21 minutes ago, Needlepoints said:

I saw Fairchild and Garcia on Thursday night and I was reluctant to come here with my impressions, as I am a fan and not a ballet professional, but here goes:

I saw no chemistry between the leads until the last 10-15 minutes of the performance.  Fairchild was on robotic autopilot through the White Act; not once did I see a swan from her, never mind a swan queen.  The Black Act was a slight improvement and then in the final lakeside scene all of a sudden the principals came to life.  If only they had been like that for the whole performance.  In 45 years of ballet-going in NYC this was the most boring, tedious Swan Lake I've ever seen.  Harsh, I know, but that's honestly what I felt.  Technique-wise I felt they were fine, but there was no there there as the saying goes.  I am not a fan of impeccable technique if that is all there is; I want the technique to support the drama and bring the drama to life.

I felt exactly the same when I saw them last night.  They connected at the very end.  The audience's reaction mirrored my own in that the applause was not as enthusiastic as other performances.   I saw ABT Swan Lake last season and Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake two weeks ago at City Center and I was more emotionally connected to both of those.  Bourne's Swan Lake received long stand ovations and there was a person behind me who sobbed during the end.  The difference in emotional connectivity is stark.  NYCB choreo is my least favorite.  I do enjoy the Jester choreography, in isolation to the story, but the Jester added nothing to the story itself.  One expects the Jester to be the foil or the conscience to the King/Queen but I don't see a connection here.  

13 hours ago, stuben said:

 

I see both points, indeed first rate employers would groom their hires, I guess I should have added - .....I would think an insecure boss would never want to feel threatened.....

I work in the knowledge field and the first rate boss doesn't necessary groom their hires but hire them for their expertise, expertise that the boss doesn't have.  The manager's role becomes one of maximizing their hires productivity, retaining the talents, building on their strengths with the hope that the talent will stay, otherwise they will leave for potentially better opportunities elsewhere.   A similar field would be profession athletics, the coaches/ managers most often are not good as their star athletes, they don't have a big a salary, but their jobs is to maximize the productivity of these athletes and retain them for as long as they can.   You can see this pattern with the elite sports teams, majority of these coaches were nowhere near as successful as the athletes under their charge.  Now, with second tier athletic teams, you will more likely find a coach, who in their primes, were better than the athletes currently under them.   A current example would be Jill Ellis, the just-retired coach of the US Women's National Soccer team.  She played collegiate soccer but was nowhere near the level of the players under her.  Yet, she coached the team to two consecutive world cup championships.  

8 hours ago, stuben said:

My thoughts exactly! In any job I would think a boss would never want to feel threatened by their employees to surpass their successes. Sadly though in this case of performing arts the artists suffer for this type of power grab. Question about the coaching outside though, would the company pay for such help or does the individual dancer have to use their own salaries? Assuming that costs quite a bit especially for well known coaches like Max, if so this has to be tough on the small salaries that dancers make.

I would disagree with this.  First class people hire first class people and hoped that their hires would surpass them so that they will benefit from quality of their hires.  Second and third rate managers will only hire those lower than them.  

there were many other listed in the main page, with links to FB streams.  If anything, there were so many simultaneous broadcasts. Of course, if all you cared about were the "big 3" listed on the top then you can't expect 3 companies to provide 24hrs of continuous streaming contents.

39 minutes ago, Novice123 said:

FYI, the Casting pdf for this week is incorrect. It has next week's casting.  

They've updated it now.

FYI, the Casting pdf for this week is incorrect. It has next week's casting.  

2 hours ago, Leah said:

I was in 1st ring too. Did you hear what sounded like someone on speakerphone? It was the ushers on their walkie talkies.

don't want to go off topic.  Good to know it was the ushers and not audience.  

1 hour ago, Leah said:

Raymonda was fantastic, and Gordon and Bouder (still a bit squeaky, alas) were amazing together. Of the variations I thought Macgill and Emma von Enck were the best. 

The ushers nearly ruined the whole thing though; they chatted and kept their walkie talkies on for the entire ballet. Where on earth does the Koch get these people? 

Up in the first ring, somebody continued to use their cell phones throughout the entire performance.