Drew

9 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

The geo-block can be circumvented with a VPN. I watched part of the performance live, but missed Fancy Free. When I went back to watch it the following day, I had a terrible time with the stream. It sputtered constantly, and part way through the second sailor's solo it refused to go any further. This was a real shame, as I was looking forward to Bullion in the third solo, since his characterization struck me as particularly interesting.

You had mentioned this before and over a year ago I started trying to use a free VPN service (Windscribe) ...but even with multiple tries and broadcasts, I find it has never once gotten me past a geo-block. In some cases--like this one--I just get the same message that I always get about the network being unavailable (only I get it in French not English) and in a few other cases I have gotten a specific message that VPN addresses aren't acceptable. Is there a step I am missing or does one need to upgrade to higher quality (pay) VPN? (I realize this may not be answerable on a message board, but thought I would ask.)

Thank you @Amy for the detailed description of the production.

Thanks for the updates....

24 minutes ago, kbarber said:

The company is performing at another Budapest theatre, the Erkel Theatre, while the opera house is being renovated.

Great to know...it still seems plausible to me that the renovation of their usual theatre would make this a season when they opted for some major tours. 

Self-aggrandizement is rarely charming and fascism never, but there are links between Hungary’s modern struggle for independence and Hungarian immigrants in the United States. (There’s even a statue of Kossuth in Washington D.C.) Sounds like the evening @Dreamer describes went overboard in bad ways, but perhaps once the season is underway, dancing and other elements will pick up. At least, for the sake of those with tickets, I hope so.

Thank you @laurel  for the summary. The Budapest opera house is stunning. And if it's being renovated, then touring of the opera and ballet companies in the meanwhile seems rather normal to me whatever other goals or meanings may have accrued to the tour. That is, whoever was in government, the companies would presumably have gone on tour if they couldn't perform at home.

On 10/31/2018 at 3:00 PM, Ashton Fan said:

 I intend to go later in the run. I can't go earlier as I have rather a lot of tickets for performances closer to home, I shall console myself with the thought that by the time I get to see this production of La Bayadere it will have benefitted from all the intervening performances it has received and that while the dancers appearing in it at that point may be less stellar than at earlier performances they may well be more inclined to follow the party line as far as performance style and musicality are concerned.

Meanwhile, closer to home, Mr O'Hare seems to be resolutely refusing to acknowledge significant anniversaries of any kind. The Scarlett production of Swan Lake was more of an exercise in thumbing your nose at Petipa than an act of homage to the man and there is little sign that Kevin intends to mark the centenary of Fonteyn's birth in any way, let alone a significant one. As for other anniversaries which occur about this time such as the centenary of the first performances of Le Tricorne and La Boutique Fantasque two important works by Massine I can't see anything happening on that front either.

I will be interested in reading your responses to the production.  I'm very curious about it...

Not sure how I feel about the anniversaries issue. Anniversaries of major ballets in the ballet repertory make the most sense to me if it's a ballet created on one's own company and/or definitive in some fashion or another for the company's history and identity (like Sleeping Beauty at the Royal) because otherwise where does one stop really? Every year could be a 25th/50th/75th/100th anniversary of some significant ballet and even of some significant ballet that a company has occasionally danced.  (All of which is a separate question from whether Massine should be revived more often--to which I think the answer is yes.) 

I was mildly surprised at the Royal's decision to celebrate Bernstein's centenary. The result may have been musically/choreographically interesting, but I thought perhaps it reflected musical tastes and the desire to create an "event" around new work as much as anything else--unless there is an important historical link between the Royal and Bernstein I'm unaware of?? (And if there is, then I'm guessing @Ashton Fan will know!)

On the other hand the lack of announcements regarding the Fonteyn Centenary at the Royal initially seemed genuinely shocking to me, though I have lately been wondering if O'Hare's idea is that the Fonteyn celebration is going to be in Fall 2019 and so announcements should wait until announcements of 2019-2020 season.  Still one would have thought a May 2019 birthday gala or special repertory program would have been an obvious thing for the Royal to do this season.  So that is a bit of a head-scratcher ...

That said, the Royal is dancing so well these days, there is plenty to celebrate about their performances....

3 hours ago, BalanchineFan said:

I haven’t spoken to any dancers about the floor surface, but I trust it won’t surprise anyone to read my differing opinion of the reason for the slips and falls. I think it’s part and parcel of the occasion; bringing different companies together, a different routine, the excitement of seeing heros or idols up close, the excitement of the unknown. 

The first day of the festival Unity Phelan posted an IG film taken just before company class. The little films disappear after 24 hours, but the excitement in the room was palpable. She highlighted a dancer from another company at the barre, a friend and/or someone whose dancing she admired. After a close up view all the dancers are probably comparing their own interpretations to the dancing of this vast number of other people (even if only subconsciously), changing routines and approaches to movement that were proven by time. The snow globe has been shaken and the flakes now fly. Until they settle anything might happen.

That seems a very likely explanation as well...

What has been most interesting to me reading about this festival is the wide variation in people's responses to the same performances--and I've found the same variety (and more, for example, regarding the Joffrey) on other social media. One always reads different and even conflicting opinions here at Ballet Alert, but often there is some clear tilt in the overall response--sort of the way in this discussion almost everyone has some criticisms of Tchaikovsky pas de deux as danced by Tereshkina (especially) and Kim--even if someone writes to disagree with that tilt. Or else the opinions fall into two clear "strands" or perspectives (say, responses to the Bolshoi from people who admire Grigorovich and people who don't).  But it's not that often, as far as I remember, to read such a wide and widely swinging variety of responses to so many performances and not easily categorizable responses either since everyone is interested in Balanchine at the least. And where one person's favorite performance is another's worst disaster and yet another person's nice and another person's meh. Perhaps this reveals how strongly people feel about the different ways Balanchine can/should be danced and what they expect from non-NYCB  as well as non-American performances. 

Though there does seem to be something consistently wrong with the City Center stage that so many falls are happening -- Canbelto commented on this on her blog too.

This discussion assumes that Clifford really knows what he thinks he knows and that his commenting on it won't itself have an impact on the board's process--which it probably won't (or wouldn't)...but stranger things have happened.

That said--thinking about company ballerinas who joined after Balanchine's death, I find myself wondering if Jenifer Ringer is in the mix at all, though I understand why Whelan draws the most attention.

Thanks to everyone for these reports. Falls, slips, mistakes, come with the territory (and not always for the "good" reason Jack Reed mentions above that a dancer is not holding back and, indeed, is pushing herself past the limit) though it's always a shame when it happens on a high profile evening and especially if it affects the rest of a performance and most especially if it involves an injury.

Overall, though, these sound like very enjoyable and valuable performances.

Even Smirnova as Lescaut's mistress is a bit of a head scratcher--not as Manon? I do think she'd make a rather charming Princess Tea Flower and what sometimes can seem all too knowing and almost affected in her dancing actually might fit the ironic retro-decadence of Ratmansky's Whipped Cream.  

But I suspect some of the casting is jumbled.

2 hours ago, doug said:

Francia Russell staged Apollo at the Kirov/Maryinsky in 1998. I very much doubt she would have coached the muses to smile. I think she'd die if she knew that had been pinned on her.

When I saw the smiley muses cast on video (the same cast appearing in New York), I was...well...I was not smiling back.

Some very talented dancers surely, but I'm not surprised by your post.

Congratlations to Khoreva.

(I have enjoyed video of her dancing quite a bit, but still would have said she decidedly could use a little seasoning. Apparently the company leadership does not agree or is happy to have her get that seasoning AS a leading soloist. Let’s hope this works to the benefit of her development. If she is smart, then she has a good idea of how much she still has to grow.)

12 minutes ago, vagansmom said:

=[...] I avoid Hallberg and did so back when he was at his technical height because I thought he had a wooden affect. [...]

I thought that when he started dancing with Osipova, he became a much richer performer in that regard. I always regretted that that pairing wasn't able to blossom into more of a true partnership (meaning regular appearances over time, not occasional events).

Welcome @carl smith-knapp — I think there will be some top school performances at ROH in July, so perhaps you might see some excellent up-and-coming talent...

Khoreva seems to be getting great opportunities right out of the gate....I am hoping she dances one of the odalesques when the Mariinsky brings Corsaire to D.C. as I may then have a chance to see her live in the theater

On 9/1/2018 at 11:42 PM, Laurent said:

 

I have mixed feelings when I see too much attention and gossip in social media accorded to children in ballet schools, with inevitable partisanship and setting one child against another. Let us keep children safe from online gossip, let them learn their craft and develop into ballet artists unaffected by the distorting and harmful impact of the internet.

Just read this post today--I had missed this way back when it was posted. Like other ballet fans, I watch some of the video of talented students at schools that permit that video or from competitions etc. and I can't help admiring some of the dancers being featured, and still...I could not agree more with this post. These words seem to me exactly right.

Welcome! And do please post about what you see. London gets so much great ballet.

(i also like a lot of different styles of ballet. Probably more now than when I was younger.) 

I enjoyed the whole thing--conversation and rehearsals. Just thrilling to see Makarova at work too.

[Spoiler Alert for those planning to watch the video...]

But surely the horrifying-though-fortunately-funny highlight was watching the knife go flying out of Takane's hand right in Naghdi's direction and seeing everybody's reaction. Hands down my favorite Royal Ballet educational programming moment ever. 

4 hours ago, dirac said:

 

The Tudor idea is an interesting one, but is there a Washington audience for a Tudor-based company? and is the Tudor rep varied and large enough to serve as a company calling card as the Ashton rep does for Sarasota?  

I mentioned Tudor originally up-thread and now kind of regret having done so. As I tried to (but did not) make clear the first time I mentioned Tudor, I was not really trying to advocate for his work at Washington Ballet, a company I last saw when Mary Day was still directing it (!), but trying to give an example—among what might be several possible examples—of how one could imagine ways of  building repertory with “big league” aspirations and legitimacy (which, for all I know, Webre deserved too) that is still not identical to every other company out there including, if not especially companies seen in D.C. on a regular basis. 

In fact, I personally would like to see a company outside New York Theatre Ballet take up Tudor the way Sarasota has taken up Ashton—acknowledging it is a smaller oeuvre—but that’s not exactly the issue I meant to underline. And I am one fan and don’t live in D.C.  I was more concerned with whether building a major classical ballet company and cultivating an at least partially distinctive profile are mutually exclusive.  Kent expressed herself (perhaps inadvertently) as if she thinks they are. But are they?

Boston Ballet’s European-inflected aesthetic is not exactly mine, but reading about them I do sort of feel I have a sense of what they are after and it is not just ABT or NYCB “north” though the companies also share some overlapping repertory. (Boston also is free of annual head-to-head competition with those and other world class companies.) One can also imagine, say, a company whose director was interested in visual arts and who tried combining revivals of works like Parade, Orpheus, or Rainforest with new commissions of choreographer collaborations with contemporary artists, plus standard repertory...or perhaps that’s a bad idea for one of a hundred reasons—there are other ideas one can imagine or, rather, that a great ballet professional might imagine. But even if I’m not the person with the professional skills, the visionary formula, or the line-up of wealthy donors, it seems to me it might be done even in D.C. (And Kent herself may still find a way to greater success.)

1 hour ago, vipa said:

I'm not a fan of full length story ballets in general, and the idea of a piece of literature like Jane Eyre being a ballet doesn't attract me. Dear Reader, I don't see how the tone of the book can be captured. So, I'll rely on your reviews of that, Manon and other full lengths but will be attending the rep nights.

That's where I come out on any number of 20th-century story ballets but video suggests Marston's approach and vocabulary ends up looking quite different from the Cranko/Macmillan line of literary adaptations and I find myself unexpectedly tempted to give Jane Eyre a chance--and of course simply taking it as an entirely different animal than the novel. If I could do a trip that combined the ballet with something else (say the All Tharp evening the night before the premier), then it might be worth it to me. Though, like Emma above, I'd be happier if I could combine it with NYCB across the plaza--which I can't. (A lot depends on whether it appears that I will get to UK for Bolshoi which would likely blow my travel budget.)

Edited to add: I just noticed, too, a premier by Ratmansky to the Glazunov Seasons. I enjoy that score and wonder why choreographers don't turn to it more often. Don't think I will get to see that, but I certainly would love to do so.

3 hours ago, Helene said:

So much energy and radiance in that performance of "Suite en Blanc."

I especially love the soloist in the section that starts at ~ 1:55:55, where she follows in at the end of the second, downstage line of corps, and the music is primarily woodwinds.

Oh yes...Alexandra Khiteeva...

In 2017 she danced a variation in the Vaganova Academy Paquita that sent me straight here to this site asking "does anyone know who danced the solo in which etc. etc....." This past spring she was cast prominently in other works as well. I believe she graduates this coming spring.

16 hours ago, lisbit said:

Kent doing Tudor is not new to WB.   They used to perform “Leaves are Fading” back in the 90s.  

Well, that would be ca. twenty years ago, but still, so much the better if there is some history in D,C.. . But I’m imagining a company that does things like revive Undertow and Echoing of Trumpets and puts on all Tudor evenings, or that  with the right donor might even try reviving Tudor’s Romeo and Juliet —not just occasionally put on one of his most frequently performed ballets. Make Tudor theirs in other words. But it is just one thought. I am sure there are many others about what could be done to give the company a distinctive stamp that includes its history AND yet also helps it enter big leagues as Kent was hired to do.

5 minutes ago, l'histoire said:

Drew, I sincerely hope I didn't offend you. I absolutely understand the value of looking at things that aren't looked at often - I've literally made my career on things (plays, in this case, which are sometimes not so different than ballets) that haven't ever been seen, or published, or written about since the early 1950s […]

I agree 100% with Gottleib's assessment that one SHOULD be able to revisit an entire corpus, but how often does that happen - for a company, and more importantly, an audience? Capitalism is dreadful & I hate to think of artistic groups deciding on what-to-do-when-and-how based on a financial logic, but let's face it, that has a lot to do with programming choices. […]

I wanted to respond to your question, but I wasn’t offended and don’t disagree about the financial pressures facing companies. I was thinking, though, that more could be said —and has been said by critics and even fans on this site who saw the revival—about why Balanchine’s Don Quixote might be worth the resources it would take to revive periodically.  (Pretty plainly not everyone agrees.)

I think I understand why Kent should not have said ‘it’s not about entertainment...’ but if I also understand what she was trying to say, then I definitely admire the sentiment which I take to be that ballet is about MORE than entertainment, and creating a major company requires long-term effort and historical perspective. 

The fact is that if D.C. is starting to get less classical ballet programming, as several here have said, and if a visiting company like ABT is letting aspects of its own legacy slide (eg Tudor) which is self-evidently the case, one could imagine a role for a company with bigger aspirations -- and that could still reflect something its own distinctive character --  especially if Kent were successful at raising standards and also included elements of what the company has done successfully in the past. (And my ABT remark is sort of gesturing in the direction of something like: what about staging some neglected classics like Tudor which are not seen in D.C. much —or anywhere—and certainly worthy of a world-class company. (Edited to clarify: Kent did have the company stage Lilac Garden, but why stop there?) But that is just one outsider’s thought, and there are other possibilities.

Letting Brooklyn Mack go seems, from the outside, simply incomprehensible.