koshka

Especially hammy productions of DonQ, preferably for audiences composed mostly of kids.

I am following this thread with the greatest interest because I expect to be in St Petersburg in October. Please keep me posted! Grishko has a store on Gorokhovaya, probably a 10-20 minute walk from the school. I can give you more precise directions if needed. The shop is small but reasonably well-stocked and staffed with friendly salespeople, though they probably don't speak a whole lot of English.

Last week I was in Kazakhstan on business. To my extreme delight, the online info about the theater's schedule (which showed no ballet for the week) was wrong -- I saw Don Quixote on Sunday, a school performance on Tuesday, and Swan Lake on Friday. I do NOT have my programs handy at the moment but will try to add some more specific info when I find them. The Abai Theater is absolutely lovely, and was restored about 5 years ago. It is a moderate size, and at the end of performances, audience members who want to give flowers to the cast simply walk up on the stage and deliver them. In general, the costumes were terrific but nearly all of the dancers seemed to have impossibly worn shoes--I wonder if this is an indication of a budget problem or whether they prefer to use softer shoes to keep the noise down (there was almost no shoe noise). Don Quixote was very thinly attended and seemed to be a bit of an abbreviated production--there was no "puppet show" and no final group coda. Also, the cast seemed a bit "thin"--perhaps some were on tour? Anyway, it was an enjoyable show, though I favor a slightly more "hammy" presentation when there are lots of kids in the audience. One notable feature: Gamache had a pronounced limp, which I've never noticed in other DonQ. The school performance was a delight. The fifth-year boys were absolutely stunning, and one of them bore a very strong resemblance to Friday night's Prince. (Brother?) The upper-level students did 4 or 5 traditional dances from the region, which were very interesting and beautiful. The assorted solos, group pieces and pas de deux were a mixed bag, though the couple that danced "Flame of Paris" was amazing. Swan Lake was performed to a much fuller house than DonQ, possibly because the local star, Leila Alpieva, was dancing. She is indeed a lovely dancer, very strong and (IMHO) better suited to Odile than Odette. The whole production was much more "lively" than DonQ.

Another inexpensive model that can be, er, adjusted to play dvds from any region is the Cyberhome 320, which is available at Target for $40-something. The instructions for making the adjustment (aka hack) are at www.nerd-out.com I am not particularly technically skilled, but I got this dvd player up and running in multi-region mode in a matter of minutes.

I was really looking forward to seeing Swan Lake, but will be out of town for the _entire_ run. :-( In the past the production has been great, though I was looking forward to seeing how it went (esp corps work, which in the past had been great and credit had been given to the Russian coaches who are now mostly gone) under the new management. I have a front-row or near-front-row ticket to the Sat May 15 and Sun May 16 matinees if anybody is interested. I'd be happy to get about half price for them since otherwise they will be totally wasted.

More of the mundane: the seats have clearly been refurbished and are much more comfortable and supportive, making it much easier for this front-row audience member to be high enough to see the dancers' feet. Oddly, the barrier between the orchestra and the front row is not an actual wall but rather a frame with fabric stretched over it. I don't know if this was done to improve acoustics or is just a work in progress--there are other places in the pit that look like some finishing work has yet to be done. I think the curtain was definitely cleaned. It is not really my taste either, but it does complement the style of the building. Oh, and one thing that deserves praise at the Kennedy Center (though no changes were made in this last renovation as far as I can tell) is that there are actually enough stalls in the ladies' rooms for everybody at intermission. And, uh, novamom, from the front row it can be seen that costumes are often not-so-clean, especially toward the end of a company's run.

The alternate location is Columbia plaza. In my experience, walking from the KCen to Columbia Plaza is perfectly safe and is just as fast as waiting to get out of the KCen garage. I personally nearly always park on the street. :-) Alternatively, if you are staying near an orange or blue line metro station, the walk or free shuttle to the metro is quick and convenient.

The DVD I have is from amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...?v=glance&s=dvd

I just watched part of the DVD of the POB School's Coppelia. The end is a piece called "Les Enfants de la Danse"; it is 52 min long and is apparently a condensation of a 4-part series broadcast on French TV in the late 1980s. Soooo the question is: is the full 4-part series available on video (PAL or NTSC) / dvd anywhere?

I saw it last night and thought it was interesting but was left wishing for a whole lot more information in the program. For example, the piece with the 5 men who painted themselves would've been a lot more interesting if I'd known it was about drugs, as I heard while standing in line for the ladies' room at intermission. The audience participation piece was remarkable.

I just ordered this CD (2-disk set) and I have the other, older recording as well. I noticed that on Amazon, some of the music is attributed to Anton Simon and Wassili Solowjov-Sedoy. I think the part you are talking about is Track 15 on the list below. There is no track list at Amazon for the newer CD, but maybe you can compare using the one you have. Here is the track list from the older CD: 1. Don Quixote, ballet 2. Spanish dance of Mercedes (insertion music for Minkus's "Don Quijote") / Composed by Anton Simon 3. Karmencitta (insertion music for Minkus's "Don Quijote") /Composed by Wassili Solowjow-Sedoy 4. Don Quixote, ballet Act 2. La Taverna. Solo a gitana - Dance of Espada 5. Sailors' dance (insertion music for Minkus's "Don Quijote") /Composed by Wassili Solowjow-Sedoy 6. Don Quixote, ballet Act 2. La Taverna. Scene 7. Don Quixote, ballet Act 2. La Taverna. Coda 8. Don Quixote, ballet Act 2. Gypsy Camp (Windmills). Gypsy dance 1 9. Don Quixote, ballet Act 2. Gypsy Camp (Windmills). Gypsy dance 2 10. Don Quixote, ballet Act 2. Gypsy Camp (Windmills). theater of marionettes: 11. Don Quixote, ballet Act 3. Dream. Scene in the Forest 12. Don Quixote, ballet Act 3. Dream. Dream of Don Quixotte 13. Don Quixote, ballet Act 3. Dream. Allegretto 14. Don Quixote, ballet Act 3. Dream. Variation: Dryads' mistresses 15. Variation: Dryads' mistresses ("Souvenir du Ball") (insertion music for Minkus's "Don Quijote") / Composed by Anton Simon 16. Don Quixote, ballet Act 3. Dream. Amour 17. Don Quixote, ballet Act 3. Dream. Variation: Dulcinea (Kitri) 18. Don Quixote, ballet Act 3. Dream. Coda 19. Don Quixote, ballet Act 4. Duke's Temple. March 20. Don Quixote, ballet Act 4. Duke's Temple. Scene 21. Don Quixote, ballet Act 4. Duke's Temple. Amour 22. Don Quixote, ballet Act 4. Duke's Temple. Classical variation 1 23. Don Quixote, ballet Act 4. Duke's Temple. Classical variation 2 24. Don Quixote, ballet Act 4. Duke's Temple. Entrée 25. Don Quixote, ballet Act 4. Duke's Temple. Adagio 26. Don Quixote, ballet Act 4. Duke's Temple. Variation: Basilio 27. Don Quixote, ballet Act 4. Duke's Temple. Variation: Kitri 28. Don Quixote, ballet Act 4. Duke's Temple. Variation: Kitri (Version of No. 9) 29. Don Quixote, ballet Act 4. Duke's Temple. Coda 30. Don Quixote, ballet Act 4. Duke's Temple. Finale: Spanish dance

Goodness--I saw the title of this thread and had much worse visions! I am sorry to say that none of this is surprising--the mailings, the calls, the premiums with price tags attached (heck, the Kennedy Center has an elaborate table showing what you get at each level of giving!). It is marketing, after all. It's why I adore caller ID. Washington Ballet does this and my sister (Not a Dance Person) and I both typically find the brief intro before and the Q&A after enjoyable. Of course, Washington Ballet is also really lovely to its subscribers--there are 2 or 3 open house/open rehearsal-type events each year. It is great. Boston Ballet has pre-performance lectures/demonstrations an hour or so before selected performances, and when I have been able to get to them (rarely), I have really enjoyed those too. The Kennedy Center has done many more "Performance Plus" (lectures etc) events this year, and they have also been great. My $0.02 about these events is that are terrific. There are many people out there who enjoy ballet performances and otherwise have no opportunity to observe "behind the scenes" classes or rehearsals or just to ask questions. It can add a lot to the experience when the opportunities are provided.

OK, my $0.02: Raymonda I thought Steifel and Reyes were a very good couple, and that he was a most gallant partner. Haven't seen (or, OK, don't ever remember seeing) the Sergeyev version, so I can't make comparisons in that regard. There were some rough spots, most noticeably in the men's pas de quatre. I did not think the Hungarian costumes were any more unflattering than others of their type. Without Words Overall, I thought the dancing and the costumes were exquisite, and I am not necessarily a fan of contemporary works. I described the costumes to one of my friends as "Vera Wang-type unitards". Beautiful. Within You/Without You Just not my cup of tea at all. Even if it had been "good", I doubt that it would have been appealing to me.

There is a preview showing (for which I have a ticket :-) ) next Tuesday the 13th in Bethesda, so I am guessing that it will open in the DC area over MLK weekend and that it will be playing in Bethesda, which very convenient for _some_ Alertniks.

About the "taming": more to the point, the program states that Petrucchio treats the servants so badly that even Kate feels bad for them, whereas in the performance, Petrucchio was (as I read the mime) conniving with them to torture her. There was a girl about 7 sitting a couple of seats from me, and she was seriously confused. This one went right over my head, so we can only hope that that was the case for the younger members of the audience as well. Of course, I am hopeless at following plots, so it's fortunate that following the plot is often not an essential part of enjoying a ballet performance.

I saw it Saturday at 1:30. I thought it had some redeeming qualities--I liked the spare, abstract sets, and I thought some of the choreography was quite inventive and many of the costumes very nice (I especially liked the pompoms on the slippers of the male corps.) I did _not_ like the spoken lines (utter lack of creativity) and the "taming" which was really coercion and abuse (forced marriage, deprivation of food and sleep), which was at odds with the plot summary given in the program (program stated that Kate is "tamed" by seeing her husband outdo her in bad behavior) and was _terrible_ for children. Yuck. It's a shame, because in general I think these one-hour productions are a great way to introduce kids to ballet, and I was glad I didn't bring my 4-year-old niece to this one.

Must have been Scherbakov. Korsakov looks all of about 19, or at least he looked that way in Oct 2002. By the way, one thing I found very irritating was that the program named only the dancers in the most major roles, which made it a lot harder to identify dancers in the minor roles.

I too attended last night's (Thursday's) performance and will see the Pavlenko/Zelensky cast on Sunday. I liked both leads very much, but they are not a good pair. The partnering was not-so-good, and Sarafanov looks _much_ younger than Sologub. Sologub's scary hair was mostly hidden by headpieces, mercifully. She does have amazing feet, and after seeing her doing the frustrating Nutcracker choreography, it was great to see her just dance. Sarafonov is fabulous, but seems to be not fully grown. He looks to be about 18 (if that), though bio information at the Mariinsky site indicates that he is at least 21. He was a bit jittery in a few of his solos, but he is just a stunning dancer and I hope to see much more of him in the future. The Spanish costumes look identical to those used in Sleeping Beauty.

Another couple of notes: The Prince in Sunday's matinee, Leonid Sarafonov, was terrific and looked to be about 17 years old. (Of course, so does Anton Korsakov, and he's 23, so...) Another thing: The Nutcracker does not hold the same place in the ballet world in Russia _at all_. It is not really considered a holiday ballet (is performed year-round) or even a ballet especially suitable for children, although it does often seem to be performed around holiday time by students of the Vaganova School. So perhaps a really different Nutcracker is not really as much of a big deal there.

I went to today's matinee. I don't always agree with Sarah Kaufman's take on things, so I was prepared to be pleasantly surprised. The best thing I can say about the performance is that I'm glad I saw it...once. The sets and costumes were terrific (I loved the snowflakes but not the Snow Queen), with the exception of Masha's costume, which I thought was dreadfully bland. Also, her red-to-fuschia hair color was frightful with the pistachio-green costume, and the first-act ponytail was even worse. Yikes. Uncharacteristically for the Kennedy Center (felt like I was at the Wang Center!), there was a bit of a problem with the scrim toward the end of the first act--it landed with a loud clank coming down at one point and then got stuck on something on the right side of the stage on the way back up. I agree with all the others that the choreography was just not satisfying. Notes on the program: (E)Lena Vorontsova, one of the older dancers featured in the mid-1970s movie "The Children of Theater Street", is listed as a teacher now. The local children who performed were mentioned but not named, which I thought was odd.

I've recently acquired a DVD player that can play DVDs from Russia, and I have shopping contacts in Moscow. Does anybody know if there are any interesting ballet DVDs coming out of Russia right now, and (for extra credit, as one of my teachers likes to say) where in Moscow they might most easily be found?

I suspect it will open in the DC area over MLK weekend (Jan 16-19) because I received a pass to a "preview" screening on Jan 13th.

A couple more options: You don't say which direction you're coming from, but you might want to consider parking (and possibly eating) at the last line on the T's Red Line, Alewife. There is a Bertucci's there, and from that station you can go directly to Park Street and then walk. If you are coming from the west, you might also consider parking near a Green Line T station and then taking the T into Boylston or, for eating, Copley or Arlington. If that sounds like too much adventure (not sure I'd want to try it with my 4-yo niece...), another option is to park at Copley Place, which has a number of restaurants including the aforementioned Legal Seafood (might want to make a reservation if you are going at a busy time) and the much more casual Au Bon Pain. I am pretty sure Legal has a menu for kids and in any case their service is usually terrific. Legal Seafood might validate so that parking is less expensive--I really have no idea since I always take the T. There are also numerous cute cafes/restaurants along Newbury Street, which runs parallel to Boylston (Boylston roughly connects Copley Place and the Wang).

Some public libraries have dance videos too. :-) Renting or library borrowing (or borrowing from friends??) are always good preview options.

If she is just starting this collection, she might want to focus on DVDs, though I am not sure how many ballet dvds are out there right now...