Calliope

I really meant to ask (not between Taylor and Cunningham necessarily) who you thought the greatest living choreographer is.

I really meant to ask (not between Taylor and Cunningham necessarily) who you thought the greatest living choreographer is.

This past week I've read (so far) 2 pieces where a choreographer (Cunningham and Paul Taylor) have been referred to as "the greatest living choreographer". Who would you say is?

This past week I've read (so far) 2 pieces where a choreographer (Cunningham and Paul Taylor) have been referred to as "the greatest living choreographer". Who would you say is?

I adored Melissa Barak's "Telemann", it may not be the greatest ballet ever created, but it gave hope that some of the younger generation still unders Mr. B and appreciates him. I'd give a gold medal to Ansanelli A silver to Margaret Tracey and a bronze to Abi Stafford And in the sport of it all, I'd award a second gold medal to Wendy Whelan who always seems to stay healthy. While we had Balanchine this season, in spring they perform more non-Balanchine/Robbins, mostly because of the Diamond Project (I hope). I'm still waiting on Rutherford's promotion though. And hoping they rehearse more.

Roundabout Theater tries to accommondate plays that don't have too much appeal. I'd disagree with that, they're re-staging of "The Women" was fantastic and sold out completely.

On second thought, I wouldn't mind seeing a weekly press conference from AD's! I remember watching Bravo's profile of Peter Martin's and there's footage of him talking to Ansanelli about an injury, I believe it was her foot or ankle, and he asked "why does it still hurt" making me wonder if they'd ever be able to give us accuracy with injury reports. I think if you report specific injury, you run the risk of dancers who have different recovery times being compared (well the other dancer only needed 3 weeks to recover) It may also (like in sports) play into a dancer choosing to leave a company and going to another one knowing they may be "damaged goods".

The Hendricksons as well at City Ballet. But what I meant to ask , was not what siblings are in companies, but do you find yourself comparing them to each other?

There are quite a few siblings in companies today and there's been some mentions on the board about Kathleen Tracey "stepping out" a bit more now that her sister Margaret has retired. As an audience member, do you find yourself comparing the siblings? (I'd say we can leave out the brother/sister comparison for obvious reasons) But SF has the LeBlanc sisters (like the Traceys, one a principal the other soloist)

I'd wonder if dancer X had an ankle sprain and then was a little in turns after that, if that would then be "excused" because we knew she had the previous injury. I also think it's dangerous from the dancer perspective of there is already enough pressure and an injury only magnifies it. Well if X hadn't been injured Y wouldn't have had the opportunity. It's a sensitive topic. [ February 25, 2002: Message edited by: Calliope ]

The Kennedy Center used to have a program that Michael Kaiser developed where they gave artists "CEO" type training. I don't know if it's still in existence, but... Do many companies NOT make a profit? I know NYCB and ABT both ran black and I thought Helgi had turned SFB around.

The possibilities scare me. I've thought about this one and considering the boards of most of these companies are already "big shots" at corporations. Ballet companies already rely on major corporations for funding and sometimes that doesn't work out (Houston Ballet and Enron). The thought of seeing ABT on the stock exchange though... The topic beckons the question of the Artistic Director's job. I think, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong, that SFB is the only company that lists a CEO in their company.

An article (and photo) profiling Wheeldon and his upcoming Broadway collaboration in "Sweet Smell of Success"

Definitely in Serenade (the very beginning, when everyone gasps, I get teary eyed) any Romeo and Juliet and whenever I know a dancer is having a debut and just nails it, I feel like a proud parent and get teary eyed

I thought now was the Age of the "I'm not the original director but I need to make my mark"

Since Oscar season is upon us let's turn the tables a little. Best New Ballet Best Ballerina (or female lead) Best supporting Ballerina (the soloist or corps) Best Male Danseur Best supporting Danseur Best Choreographer Best Director (of a company) Best Special Effects Best Scenery/Lighting for a piece Best score Lifetime Achievement I can't really list the nominees, they'd be very NY based. My answers Telemann Overture (Barak) Alexandra Ansanelli Rachel Rutherford I'm stuck on the males (and the rest)

I always look at 2&3 Part Inventions and it's original cast that Robbins did on students and then when it was brought over to the company. I'll never forget Jeny Ringer and Wendy Whelan in the leads, it had such a different feel that Kristina Fernandez and Alexandra Ansanelli. What was ironic, was Ansanelli then seemingly had to "fight" for the role back! I always question whether you leave a dancer in a role and let them develop into it before giving someone else the shot. It just seems there's too many people waiting to step in. I used to like City Ballet's policy of keeping young dancers out of certain pieces and letting that cast "gel". No people get "thrown" in unexpectedly all the time. So even though there's 3 layers of casts, the "debuts" always make me smile. I would like to debate whether or not a ballet that has many casts is due to the ballet's importance or that people get injured, or don't want to do the piece. Or that they need to throw some dancers out there. Makes me question how many "throw away" pieces there are just to give people work. [ February 20, 2002: Message edited by: Calliope ]

It is good press!

http://edition.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/News/0...t.ap/index.html The man was fired for "over acting" according to management. Anybody have any comments. I know I've been harping on it, but maybe he wasn't rehearsed enough!

I went last night to NYCB and saw yet another under-rehearsed performance (Firebird) and I wondered if the company is too big or their teaching staff too small? Certain ballets I realize require larger casts, for NYCB, Union Jack, takes the company plus some, but companies used to be smaller (didn't they)?

I'm not sure exactly what they wrote, but the gist of it was that they were so disappointed that NYCB looked under re-hearsed in so many pieces that they'd rather give the money to the school where the kids at least would learn a ballet with proper training and amount of time for performance. It's by no means a huge movement, but we used to have a subscription where 6 of us went, we're all in our 30's and were just amazed (some not even knowing the pieces) of what is "thrown out" there. We all cancelled the subscriptions and go every once in a while, but switched to going to other companies, instead of NYCB this spring, we'll go see the Kirov this summer.

I don't really go enough, but the ABT crowd vs. NYCB? With all due respect to NYCO, I think many people (at least in my 30-something circle) go there to see if they like opera before spending $100 to go to the Met.

Some friends that were NYCB Guild members, wrote back on their renewal forms they would not be giving to the company and instead were sending their donations to SAB. No word yet from the Company.

Out of curiousity, how many people on this board have gone to the ballet as a result of a marketing campaign (cheaper tickets...) for the first time? I think if ballet companies were to advertise on TV, they might have a better shot at getting younger kids in. But aside from the weekend programs (and the freebies for school programs) it's a tough ticket to get regardless of age. Weekends naturally sell more tickets anyway (times work better for out of towners, people that work and kids). I can't help but wonder if companies would ever try doing a la Nutcracker a 6:00 performance start a couple of times during the week.

Well Kathleen, there was nothing "ordinary" about your review! Great job, with all the dancers you covered I could just about picture it! Brava