Drew

5 hours ago, Quiggin said:

 

It is odd though that Balanchine's stature often seems to have to be justified by dance writers whereas someone like Merce Cunningham's doesn't.

I wonder if that isn't somehow indirectly influenced by the suspicion that ballet itself has to be justified. Cunningham obviously belongs to an avant garde that everyone takes very seriously (at least everyone who doesn't think their three year old could have painted Les Demoiselles D'Avignon). But if ballet isn't really a major art form then Balanchine can't be a major artist (Bach! Tolstoy!) and--turning that around--if Balanchine is major then ballet, at any rate, can't be all minor. That is, maybe there is a kind of not-always-conscious concern that ballet is not taken entirely seriously by many people who do otherwise care about the arts and underlining Balanchine's stature is a way of underlining ballet's stature.

Kennedy Center site is now showing Nagahisa as the Gulnare to Kondaurova's Medora.  Well, that information may have been up there a while--I just noticed it tonight.

I'm very happy about all the dancers I have tickets to see. (Would have been happy to see Yevseyeva as Gulnare as well. Guess you could say I'm just happy to have tickets to see the Mariinsky.)

Sad news--may he rest in peace...

Oh! I just saw this on a separate thread. Hoping to see all three casts....Something (several things) to be especially happy about in each one

Thank you for posting @rg -- the person who predicted D.C. would be seeing Khoreva as Medora called it correctly.

If all goes well, then I will be going to D.C. and have a chance to see each of these casts over the weekend. Looking forward to it!

Thanks for these reports. These sound like great performances.  One reaction I had reading your account of Shurale is that if Kim develops into as fine an actor as he is sensational a dancer, well...wow!

(Quite pleased to read your impressions of Chebykina in Firebird too -- she was a lovely Clemence in D.C. a couple of years ago but videos of her more ambitious classical outings since that time have been hard for me to assess. I hope she is progressing.)

This performance sounds like a very good if not perfect start to your week. I hope it gets better and better. (I have a deep fear of falling on ice, so just reading about the pavement sent a shudder through me. Stay safe!)

Thanks for these updates and links which I have enjoyed. By unexpected luck, I saw the first of Alexandrova's two Sleeping Beauty performances with ENB this past summer and she was in excellent form technically (or seemed so to me) though I felt she only really relaxed into the wonderfully flowing, musical ballerina I remember from a long ago Corsaire in isolated sections of that performance—especially in her Act III variation. (By all accounts that I read, she was more relaxed, a better Aurora, at the second performance she gave which I missed.)

I imagine it would be very interesting indeed to see Osipova and Alexandrova on stage together in Bayadere!

A very substantive exciting program all round. 

6 hours ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:

The last couple of times I saw Reichlen dance Piano Concerto No. 2 she absolutely blew the doors off of it. Perhaps it was an off night? 

I saw Reichlen dance Piano Concerto no. 2 the first or second season she danced it and thought she was wonderful in it -- consider that performance one of the best I have ever seen her give. (Nor do I remember being an outlier in my reaction.) So I'm a little surprised to be reading the far more negative responses to her performance this season--I hope it was just an off night. 

3 hours ago, Blaithin said:

Thanks a million, that's lots of information. I would love to see the Rite of Spring, let's hope they schedule it again. I'll see if I can edit it now.

Mcgregor ended up creating his version of Rite of Spring for American Ballet Theatre some years after the Bolshoi production was cancelled. It premiered there quite recently.

I'm someone hoping to see Bright Stream in London. There are only two performances, so I doubt the company will have trouble selling it. If they do, then I fear London going the way of New York -- with Bolshoi tours restricted to Don Q, Swan Lake, and Spartacus for all eternity. Maybe an occasional Giselle if we are lucky. I like to see traditional fare--even love to see it--but not exclusively.

On 1/18/2019 at 2:17 PM, Olga said:

Wendy Whelan an impresario? That is a BIG stretch. The piece reads like a plug for her, though Boal comes off well. Both Whelan and Boal (through his wife) have something in common on the Martins front.

I think I know what you are referring to--you can correct me if I'm wrong--but "in common" seems to me a misleading way to express it. Martins was Whelan's artistic champion: whatever went on behind the scenes, he created ballets for her and promoted her career steadily, casting her across the repertory. She was, I should think, THE star ballerina of Peter Martins' NYCB insofar as NYCB has stars. At the end, when she was well over 40, he took her out of Sugar Plum Fairy (with all that implies) and she allowed herself to be filmed in a pretty raw emotional state seemingly blaming him for that and even, at one moment, seeming to blame him for the physical problems she had afterwards -- insisting she had never had a serious injury until after that conversation with him as if there might be some kind of mystical (or psychological) cause-and-effect. She may not have meant to make that connection and who knows if she feels now as she did during the transitional time in her career which was filmed.  All of that, however dramatic, seems a far cry from being choked, physically shaken, and berated by Martins as Kelley Boal reports or indeed being married to someone who was choked, shaken, and berated. (Not that Kelley Boal's experience kept Peter Boal from staying at NYCB and having himself a very successful career at NYCB under Martins.)  Unless Whelan were to report being physically attacked by Martins in that fashion I don't see much in common with Kelley Boal's experience, because...well...if one believes Whelan's account of what happened with the Sugar Plum Fairy role, then one might still reasonably come to the conclusion Martins was being a good director making tough decisions; if one believes Kelley Boal's account of what he did to her, then...not so much. 

I also prefer the decision on a new director be made sooner rather than later. But mostly, as I 've indicated above, I hope that whoever comes in has an active respect for and understanding of Balanchine's legacy. Or at least cares enough to put Balanchine's works in the hands of regisseurs who do--and to program them regularly (something one would be naive to take for granted). Other things matter...but not as much.

Sounds like a wonderful event. Thank you for describing in such detail...

[Admin Note: This is a response to a deleted post]

The synopsis on the Mariinsky website reads: "The time for the marriage to be consecrated is close and Nikiya is requested to dance in the holy rites." But I'm afraid I don't know much more about it than you.  I saw the Mariinsky version when they brought it to Kennedy Center a little over a year ago and she is brought in to dance shortly after Solor and Gamzatti become engaged and dances it in front of them. It does very much give the impression of being a pas de deux in honor of the newly engaged couple and a blessing or consecration of sorts especially when she casts flowers down from a high lift. 

Since the dance involves the unwinding of that elaborate veil I always thought it helped make sense of the prominence of the veil in the Shades scene. However, it's not performed as if Nikiya knows about the engagement or as if she comes to any sort of realization about it either. It's as if she doesn't even see Solor there. I find that a little odd and it might account for why Grigorovich changed the timing of it to make it just a generic entertainment (or blessing perhaps) with no Solor around...which, come to think of it, is a point in favor of how Grigorovich re-arranges the scenes.  Makarova cut it entirely. 

I LOVE the elephant and it perfectly corresponds to the deepening, brassy parade music at that point, but it's definitely an old fashioned kind of stage effect when you see it live, so perhaps not everyone finds it impressive.  I will note though, that Nureyev keeps it too. I have only seen his production once and it was many years ago. One of the things I remember best about it is the elephant. But I've been thinking I should watch his version on video sometime soon...

6 hours ago, MRR said:

Bolshoi uploaded the cinemacast on its website (you have to register an account):

http://media.bolshoi.ru/play#/vod/play/435

In the end I had to miss this in the movie theater and was grateful to be reminded in time that I could find it on the Bolshoi website. I just finished watching it this evening.

I very much enjoy and admire the Bolshoi's production of Bayadere with a few caveats: I seem to appreciate pure pantomime more than Grigorovich; and I prefer Solor see Nikiya's dance with the veil in Act I since it explains the dream imagery of Act III; also, the placement of that Act I "veil" pas de deux in the Mariinsky's production doesn't interrupt the Djampe dance the way it does here. The Mariinsky's Djampe exit, ever turning in arabesque, is also more impressive. Additionally, I take it as axiomatic that Solor entering Act II on an elephant is far superior to any other possible entrance.  (As I've expressed my concerns about blackface in this ballet before and at length -- I won't go into it again.) But those caveats aside, and allowing that I only have video to go on, I do very much enjoy this production which I've also watched complete in the Zakharova/Lantratov/Alexandrova version that was broadcast a few years ago. And I hope one day I get to see the Bolshoi Shades scene, with its four ramps, live in the theater.

I did find the leading performances in the Zakharova/Lantratov/Alexandrova recording superior to those in today's broadcast, but I still found lots to admire in today's leads (Smirnova/Belyakov/Marchenkova)--especially, at times, Smirnova. Still, I'm afraid I have to second Quinten's suggestion that she might have given a freer performance opposite Chudin and regret we didn't get that pairing. I do think Belyakov is a fine dancer and I imagine he can develop still as a performer. 

Thank you for posting the video...

A couple of years back, i found Segin just terrific in Martins’ Hallelujah Junction, and always imagined I would read/hear more about her in other featured roles. Anyway, I’m delighted to read about her receiving recognition. Congratulations to her! 

Big news! Congratulations to him—

1 hour ago, pherank said:

Good for you - Andersen's tales can be a difficult read. I attempted to read all of his "complete fairy tales and stories", but found much of it too depressing to get more than 2/3rds of the way.
Reading Ethan Frome to compare with Marsden's ballet might be useful though.

When I was a little girl I received a beautiful (probably abridged) Little Mermaid--the book was illustrated with sort of "puppet/doll" stagings that seem to have been photographed and had a shiny or possibly holographic image on the front. I loved the book--the physical book--and its illustrations as well as the little mermaid herself and was devastated when I got to the ending. Not all my older siblings' attempts to persuade me that the mermaid's final fate was "really" happy nor my own daydreaming attempts to arrive at the same perspective ever got me past the sadness.

By the time I read Ethan Frome I had somewhat better defenses.

Given his international reputation, I found it surprising that ABT had not asked Mack to make at least a guest appearance and am pleased to read that they have now done so. 

Nice to see the recognition especially for the Unbound Festival which was so much a company achievement....Do the Izzies ever livestream their ceremony?

1 hour ago, Rock said:

I'd be surprised if Maria Kowroski were interested in a job like that. Farrell is 73, Kent 81 - it wouldn't seem realistic that either of them would be interested in a job with that kind of stress, guaranteed built-in trolling, and endless hours. (Is trolling the right word? I meant to refer to those people who carp and complain that nothing's good enough.)

Being 73 doesn't seem to be thought of as a disqualification when it comes to running for President of the United States--that's probably a more stressful job than Directing NYCB . But I, too, think the board is likely looking for a younger director.

Trolls are primarily trying to get under your skin -- their complaints are not altogether sincere but crafted to get attention by causing online havoc of some kind, start fights on social media and get people to look ridiculous as they respond to something that was, after all, ridiculous to start with.  Not exactly the OED but-- https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=troll 

I take it you mean something different, but I also don't think directors of ballet companies stress much about ballet fans online complaining/critiquing. They probably stress a whole lot more about fundraising.

Stepanova has many supporters on social media, and was promoted to principal at the Bolshoi with some swiftness. She has faced career obstacles or, at least, complications, but she is not exactly a hard luck story--in part because she took matters into her own hands by leaving the Mariinsky, a company that is her natural home. If Stepanova had no "ambition" to dance more roles or to be promoted then she would have had no reason to leave the Mariinsky, which--as it happens--was a very smart move for her both as an artist (giving her more opportunities) and as a professional (becoming a principal dancer with a company of comparable prestige and, indeed, greater fame than the Mariinsky).  It also took some nerve since there was no guarantee it would work out as well as it has or that she would end up at the Bolshoi at all. I can't read into people's hearts, but still can't help but feel that no-one becomes a principal dancer with the Bolshoi, without both dedication to the art for its own sake and ambition. It demands too much of one--not just in physical terms, but in terms of character, emotion, and grit. I would say this even of ballerinas at the Bolshoi I don't particularly respond to or like.

Sounds quite extraordinary! How fun that you got to be there—