Alexandra

At the last performance of City Balet I noticed a sgn on the office door: Sorry, we're out of booster seats! I've had the same problem, and I'm 5'8. On the right side in the front orchestra, you can see people, especially those on the aisle, shifting and trying to peer around the heads in front of them. The wide cross aisle has taken three, possibly four, rows of the best seats: R, S, T, and U -- which means the rows that now bear those letters are really, V, W, X, Y, Z, etc.

Oh, ATM, I'm so glad you went! (I unabashedly admit to be a Taylor lover of the deepest double-eye.) I was very interested in your point about "In the Beginning" being a "wonderful little trifle" I would never have thought of that -- most people look at it as, Oh, he's doing one of THOSE things again. It never occurred to me that it had a tradition.

I also think that at least some of today's artistic directors really don't understand many of the points made above -- they're not balletmasters. 30 years ago, you'd read directors say that a ballet would be done first on a mixed program because muscles tightened for ballet could be loosened for modern (ha!) but not the other way around. I think today there are people leading companies who weren't particularly refined dancers in their dancing days, and just went out there and did it, whatever "it" was, and so it never occurs to them to look at either the artistic or the physical aspects of program building, ballets within each program, and season building -- that doing a week of New Now Dance and then a week of Swan Lake isn't the best thing.

Speculation on PNB after Stowell and Russell: (includes brief interviews with Nancy Reynolds, Christopher Stowell, others) What's PNB's next step? I don't agree wiith the last sentence in the quote -- will PNB "look for a new,, venturesome artistic direction," which implies that Stowell and Russel's direction has been less than venturesome -- but I'm sure others will. What do you think PNB watchers? (Not just of this point, but of the several issues raised in the article, and, what do you want to see happen at PNB? What do you think will happen?

Interview with Alexandra Ansanelli in the NYTimes: The Paradox of the Self-Effacing Diva

Good question -- it is happening in many companies; half of the NYCB principals didn't make it to DC, for whatever reason; many were injured. There's been an injury problem as long as I've been watching ballet, and I remember in the 1970s there were cries of alarm, as though this were a change. (There were always injuries, of course, but people noticed that there were more.) I hope Victoria, Mel, mbjerk and other dancers will have some answers for this one. Culprits I've heard: 1. Dancing too much (not as much of a problem in Copenhagen as in New York) 2. Mixing contemporary ballet and classical ballet in repertory because different muscles are used, or are used differently -- pros, please weigh in here! 3. It's difficult to dance a classical ballet after a diet of contemporary and people are ill-prepared. 4. The way the ballets are cast and the repertory arranged may not be helpful: You don't prepare for Sleeping Beauty by doing a month of Merry Widow, say.

Well, then, Herman, we must DEMAND they do more Bausch!!!

No, she's saying they're a 20th century invention and that the choreography didn't include extended balances.

I doubt that she'll sue

It was like watching a series of flash cards of ballet steps danced perfectly in slow motion. She was wonderful in it! Balanchine made it for her crisp, clear style, and her amazing footwork. The most famous story about Ashley's performance is that, years after the premiere, her partner was seriously injured during a performance and she finished the ballet without him.

If all of you would write to them and say what you've said here, it might make a difference!

Best quote on the JFK head I've ever heard, from a small boy to his parents: "How long has he been dead!"

Robert Greskovic reviewed the company in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. It's not available online except to paid subscribers, but here is his lead graph: and, after describing the new dances as well as the repertory classics, his final one:

I didn't want to respond immediately so that everyone could have a say first, but I wrote that Villella and d'Amboise were on the list of the great American dancers because that's my reading of the literature, both at the time, and now. Those were the ones considered "great" in the sense that they could stand up alongside the European dancers dancing in America during that time: Erik Bruhn, Igor Youskevitch, Andre Eglevsky. When d'Amboise and Villella came along, there was a "Oh, see, our school can produce one oof them too," response. Kriza was a very important dancer and very popular dancer, and nearly always referred to as "Mr. Ballet Theatre." They haven't had anyone since like him -- the repertory changed so, I don't think it would be possible to have a "Mr. Ballet Theatre" now.

Sorella Englund (Royal Danish Ballet)

Ah, Ruth Andrien. I think she's the most fearless dancer I've ever seen. The way she'd slam her body into the floor in Esplanade, and throw herself at her partner, trusting he'd catch her in mid-air. She and Carolyn Adams were two of my all-time favorite dancers, and it's still hard for me to watch anything they did done by someone else. Nicholas Gunn, Elie Chaib....... I became interested in dance the season Esplanade was new and the Taylor company came to Washington for a week every year, bringing three programs.

Eric Taub reviews Paul Taylor for ballet.co's magazine: Mixed Bill: ‘Airs’, ‘In the Beginning’, ‘Piazzolla Caldera’

One of the factors to consider with very young students, though, is that they need to spend class time on mastering technique. It's one thing in a theater that has the school attached to it; there's time to fit in rehearsals and not stint on class time. But when a school tries to put on performances, or use young children in company performances, often "class" becomes rehearsal, or teaching to prepare for that particular ballet, and it short changes them. It's as if fourth graders spent all their English school time -- reading, composition, grammar -- on the school play.

Hi, ginny! Thank you for posting -- Please don't be shy I know you come to performances here often, and we'd love to hear from you. I liked Boal very much, and Reichlen as well. Glad you enjoyed the performance!

Ah, now the Paris Opera Ballet is officially a modern dance company, it seems.

This has been a very interesting topic! Thank you, Victoria -- I didn't know that about the darkened hairline. There are also blondes whose features do project (Kirsten Simone) and those who always looked pale to me (Amanda McKerrow). Herman's comments about light and costume are fascinating, too. How often have you seen a dancer look "heavy" (meaning, probably, their weight is in the triple digits, in pounds!) in Ballet 1 on a mixed bill, and suddenly slim in the second? Sometimes it's obvious -- the ABT Raymonda costumes, for example, made everyone's torso and waist look, well, ample -- but I've seen a dancer look heavy in a lovely, dark-colored "nighty" shift and look 10 pounds lighter in the next ballet wearing a light-colored unitard. THAT one I've never figured out -- cut, I suppose, but perhaps lighting too. One more thing on blondes. A Danish dancer told me that when she was young, she had very blonde hair -- white-blonde, as many do -- and when she matured, her hair began to darken, to what Marga would call "dirty blonde." An older dancer came to her and said, "It's time. You have to decide. Are you dark or fair?" Some blondes lighten their hair, and some blondes darken it, and that might have to do with their personality, or their features.

A very interesting critic's notebook piece this morning about Covent Garden's decision to pull soprano Deborah Voigt because she's too heavy to suit the designer's idea of the opera: A Dress or a Voice: What Makes a Diva? This article hits a lot of issues -- updating a classic, what matters to an audience, contractual matters -- as well as one that struck me: opera has never been realistic. I'd like to say that ballet isn't/shouldn't be realistic either. (even though all of us are suckers for realism in the sense of finding something universally human in a characterization of a gesture) Ballet audiences have loved 50 year old Juliets and Giselles -- but these ballerinas had to MOVE as a young person on stage; then the face was either overlooked or forgiven. What do you think of this issue? Both the Case of Covent Garden and Ms. Voigt, and the issue of realism on stage in general?

Do they have to be natural blond(e)s? Re Danes: lots of blonds, not too many blondes

Blonde hair and coloring don't show up as well on stage, perhaps, especially when it's pinned back in a bun. I interviewed a young ABT soloist many years ago who sweetly said that she thought the reason she was getting more parts than others of her age was that she had dark hair, and the blonde girls got left out!

Reviews now up on DanceView Times of the first first four nights of the Taylor season. Mindy Aloff's Letter from New York next week will be devoted to Taylor, and there will be at least one other review in next week's edition. For now: The opening night gala: Three Classics and a New Dance by Susan Reiter Gods and Demons by Leigh Witchel Gods and Puppets by Mary Cargill Paul Taylor's Sunset[/i] by Nancy Dalva