uptowner

Oh nice! Royal Blue's reflection makes me want to go.

Absolutely-- they should do rush or day-of tickets at a lower price-point. Even just weekdays. Don't offer it for shows that sell over a certain amount. Even if you have to show up in person to get them. I don't understand why they do not do this. It seems so short-sighted, not to build an audience. How will people know they enjoy something if they never try it in the first place? $80 seats are very steep for the least expensive. 30 for $30 is a great idea-- but no good at all if you're over 30! Met Opera has rush tickets.

I noticed on Jovani Furlan's instagram "stories" today that he writes that he will be performing Scotch Symphony with Ashley Bouder on opening night 9/20 and on 9/23: https://instagram.com/stories/jovani.furlan/2921512125266413030?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igshid=NmNmNjAwNzg=

I was there on Friday night and thought it was terrific. I was also shocked at how many empty seats there were in the theater-- especially given how inexpensive the tickets were. I was there with my teenage ballet dancer and he was really thrilled by the program and the dancing.

SAB posted this video a few days ago- "inside look" at the rehearsals.

As a parent of three kids I have paid attention to the kid-friendly ballets, and I am pretty confident that Midsummer has recently only been performed every other year, though maybe that was just the years that I've been occasionally taking young people to the ballet. I agree its a good one and maybe they should do it more often! I often recommend it to other parents as something family-friendly but not-Nutcracker (which truly is the only ballet many people have seen).

I was there tonight as well and absolutely loved the costumes for the Gustave le Gray, they were fascinating to watch as the dancers moved and then were still, and I really liked how the fabric would part and reveal their body underneath. The still photos don't really capture the effect well. I also quite liked the costumes for Law of Mosaics (at first when they came on stage I didn't, but as they began to move in them, I found it visually arresting).

Why does anyone have to "explain this one away"? It was a decision made by the school regarding the minor age students who were performing for donors/guests who were eating and drinking, unmasked. They aren't professional dancers or employees, they are kids. I am kind of surprised to hear that it bothered people. It is the school policy right now that they wear an N95 (or similar high filtration mask) at all times, so they are very accustomed to wearing them and already dance in them 6 days a week. The day of that performance was the first day that masks were not required inside public school buildings in NYC since they reopened in September 2020. And no, the Koch theater isn't technically "school", but it probably feels that way to the kids. I am the parent of one of those students, and I can assure you he did not even think twice about wearing a mask, please don't scream into any pillows on his behalf. In fact I think he might have felt a bit cynical if the school abruptly reversed a policy everyone has to adhere to just for the enjoyment of donors. Its hard to explain how difficult it was on these kids to have such a long interruption to their training and so much social isolation. Now that they are really back, they want to keep dancing in person and they completely understand that layers of protection will help them do that. The mask policy will likely be revised in the next few weeks, so next time you see a student performance you probably won't see them wearing masks. (Also: SAB does test students regularly, but I am assuming guests were not tested in advance of their attendance at the event.)

It looks like someone can request a medical or religious exemption in advance to go to the Koch (State) theater https://www.davidhkochtheater.com/plan-your-visit/your-safety/ but I wouldn’t assume this is generally granted. In NY medical exemptions are allowed but religious exemptions are not permitted in many settings (for example in 2019 religious exemption was removed from school vaccine requirements following a measles outbreak, and hospital employees cannot have religious exemptions to vaccines including against Covid.)

Also Ruby Lister was promoted to corps

NYCB posted a little "sneak peek" of the new Justin Peck choreography:

I am so curious to hear what it is like with teenagers playing the children's parts. Linked here an article in the NYTimes about the impacts of the need to cast only ages 12 and up. Also towards the end they talk about rebuilding some of the costumes based on original designs, which is exciting! https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/24/arts/dance/nutcracker-new-york-city-ballet.html

How on earth will they clean the snow off the stage and change the scenery without an intermission? I think they will need to have one.

Ha-- Charlie Brown shirt was exactly what I thought of too! I actually enjoyed ZigZag more than I was expecting-- it was definitely tacky, and it wasn't exactly ballet, but it was fun and exuberant. It could have been half the length and I would have probably liked it more. I wish it had been done to live music. I was there for the gala performance, it was a pretty enthusiastic audience in general, which might have contributed.

All of Lincoln Center is being quite strict about the 12+ right now, for performers, employees and guests. (See the Koch Theater guidelines here: https://www.davidhkochtheater.com/plan-your-visit/your-safety/ ) I am sure ABT has to abide by these as well as the resident organizations. Some 12yos are very small!

Am I understanding this correctly-- there will be new work presented digitally as a premiere? That is pretty exciting. They certainly have the resources to do some high quality and innovative dance on camera (which is quite different from watching the footage that was made for archiving purposes). I have enjoyed watching dancers experimenting with this and have been hoping that we would see some companies lean into it while they can't perform for live audiences.

Not about ballet, but The Daily podcast from The New York Times did a segment on live theater-- I thought it was interesting and did think about how this will happen (is happening?) with dance. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/04/podcasts/the-daily/Godspell-theater-coronavirus.html

SAB workshop is cancelled. I am not sure if they have made a public announcement, but families of students were told. (I am not reporting heresay; I was notified directly)

ooh thank you, I was waiting for this

hmm pretty tempting and the ticket prices are quite reasonable, but so far away (for me at least, I am very last minute with the planning). I do appreciate that the Joyce brings companies to NYC for us to see.

I enjoyed "The Rosin Box" episode about backstage that featured the director of production and the mens and women's wardrobe masters. Really interesting! (maybe because in my past I did some technical production work, I do always think about what is going on back there and so this was quite satisfying to my curiosity)

My son (a serious teenage ballet student) and I saw the Mark Morris "Letter V" last night at the Houston Ballet City Center performance. Keeping in mind that I am not at all an expert on ballet or dance in general, and certainly not on Mark Morris, this thread is interesting because of the conversation I had after seeing the performance. I had listened to an interview with Connor Walsh on Conversations on Dance https://conversationsondancepod.com/2019/10/16/connor-walsh/ where he talked about how closely Morris connects his choreography to the music, which I could definitely see (particularly being someone who has had a lot more formal training in music than dance). And I didn't just see it as the same steps done over and over, but as having been planned out- as with the music- to go from a solo theme into an intersecting group dynamic. My son had a different reaction- he said while he liked how tight it was, and well executed, that he felt distracted by it trying to "force" too many jokes and funny asides. He said it took him out of the experience of watching it, and I can see what he means-- he would have preferred the "jokes" to be more sparing. Was he not "getting it" maybe? and we were watching in a well-sold house, so there was the feedback of the audience reactions who were definitely responding to the (many) odd moments where the dancers come briefly out of a ballet idiom. By contrast, he has seen the Hard Nut, and found it to be hilarious and enjoyable- in that he didn't find the humor to be at all distracting. I personally liked the restraint of a lot of the movement-- to me it doesn't look like anyone could do it, but its not in your face or flashy at all. However, the quickness and precision takes a lot of skill. And stylistically, that seemed a good fit with the Haydn. I haven't seen a lot of Mark Morris though. And this was Houston Ballet performing.

https://www.nycitycenter.org/pdps/2019-2020/houston-ballet/ Is this the right place to put this? Houston Ballet in NYC for 3 days at City Center.

Helene, I think this is true except that some of the schools attached to bigger companies are recognizing that they have to proactively seek out talent in the community and nurture it with financial and practical support so that they create a more diverse "onramp" for their elite training program. So there may be a 5th way, and I would love to see that be more common-- where companies or prominent training programs actively look to engage potential students from diverse backgrounds in their own communities-- and fundraise to adequately support that. Miami City Ballet has the "Ballet Bus" program; Elliot Feld has a dance program in NYC that goes into multiple public schools to audition and identify kids, then provides transportation and uniforms for them to come to his school (Ballet Tech); programs like National Dance Institute provide free, high quality, in-school dance education to students; and I have heard about programs at Hubbard Street and PNB that I believe are free and actively doing outreach into their communities; ABT has Project Plié; and I do hope there are others. More to the point for this thread, School of American Ballet has two big initiatives that have been in place for several years now. The first is their community auditions for the children's division (and they do community performances called "Beauty of Ballet", which are free and lots of fun) to encourage kids from all over NYC to come out and audition. Then they have comprehensive need-based financial aid available for accepted students, which they make clear in the auditions. The second program I am thinking of at SAB is the "Visiting Fellows" program which is a grant for ballet educators with a proven track record working with communities of young dancers of color, with the express purpose of strengthening relationships to local programs and helping to strengthen that "on-ramp" for talented students of color to enter the elite upper division of the school. The reasons for a lack of diversity in ballet are complex, and it absolutely is a real problem. More funding for arts for everyone would of course mean that more kids would have the chance to discover dance (and music, theater, etc... ) but the ballet companies seem to have determined that long term, one important tactic for diversifying their workforce is to try and actively reach out into local communities, and provide support and opportunity for young dancers of color to receive the training they will need to enter an elite program as a teenager. The work of convincing parents and families to prioritize it, and trying to address the practical and cultural barriers have to be part of that too, for it to succeed. It appears to be paying off for NYCB in terms of a (somewhat) more diverse group in the younger corps, but its going to take a long time (a decade at least?) to see if this is indeed an effective tactic. SAB certainly fundraises for these initiatives. note... I am a little confused with the idea (posted by someone else) that a dancer like Chamblee has been "passed over"-- he has only been in the corps since 2015, during which time he has had a number of opportunities for featured roles. While a few dancers at NYCB are promoted very quickly, current male soloists at NYCB-- excluding Furlan who was hired at the rank of soloist-- joined the company in 2005, 2012, 2013, 2012, 2005, 2000, 2013, and 2012 (I just went through in alphabetical order and looked at when they joined the corps). I don't think anyone will be shocked if there are some promotions to principal in the near future (much needed, right?) which will open the way for some of the really fantastic young men in the corps to move up as well...

Re: Alec Knight's hair-- Knight has now commented on Macaulay's post, "noted" (editing to add that I do not know how to post a link to an instagram comment, but here is the link to the Macaulay post: https://www.instagram.com/p/B3Qzq2HgoT5/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link)