Alexandra

Has anyone seen this? The west coast reviews were all raves. I'm wondering how New Yorkers view Neumeier's theater piece. Reports, please!

There's an article in the Guardian today about this: Company revolt forces ballet director to quit

Congratulations, Viviane, you are now officially a Very Frequent Poster (and a very welcome one). The viriulent anti-classical situation in newspapers is serious -- as it would be if there were critics who would only review classical ballet and dismissed everything else, regardless of quality, as "stupid and harmful experimentalism" or the like. We were headed for the same way in America, but Balanchine found a way to make classical ballet appeal to the much (though not all) of the critical avant-garde, and so both the critical left and the critical right found a place in his big tent. As for La Bayadere -- Solor kills himself at the end? Gosh, why didn't Petipa think of that?

Great question! I'd divide the issue into two: One,when the ballet really didn't work and needed to be fixed and Two, when the ballet was just fine but the audience didn't get it (clash of aesthetics and/or education) or it's no longer performed in a convincing way. I'd love to see the real original firebird, with the Firebird in harem pants and a processional by people who could make a processional look like a grand apotheosis and not the March of the Supers. My favorite "fix" is one I read about in Copenhagen in the 1930s. The Danes danced "Spectre de la Rose" the right way, the way it should have been done in the first place, i.e., their way. The Rose was danced by a ballerina, and there was now a Young Man asleep in the chair. Was Fokine really wrong? Or was the audience coming from another aesthetic planet? (They also found Spectre too athletic and, as late as the 1930s, wrote of "Our Master's" brilliant use of the same music -- in a comic pantomime scene as a prologue to "Konservatoriet.") I also agree with Mel about some of Balanchine's rethinkings. As for Swan Lake, et al.: I'll take a truly grand version, or the truncated highlights one, but spare me from the mush in the middle, which is our regular fare.

I noticed that he wasn't on the cast lists too, Reinhard. It might not be that he's injured, but simply that he wasn't cast in Sleeping Beauty, and that's all they're doing for two weeks. The company is bringing Jewels to Washington in early March -- we'll see if he dances then.

Trust your instincts!

That's a great story -- thanks for that, Michael (and thank you for your lovely review, too. I wish I could see these!)

What a lovely memorial for a very fine dancer. Thanks for letting us know about this, mbjerk.

You know, guys, you may have something here with the "trade you one Ringer for two Bouders " I'll work on it!! There's a Hollywood lottery site that I've never checked, but I understand it gives stock ratings for different movies.... Not that we'd ever do that HERE

Copied over from today's links: Washington will get a new Nutcracker. Washington's Revolutionary 'Nutcracker'

Hi, Allegfan! I hope you'll tell us about what you saw. If so, please start another thread on this forum. I'm going to close this thread -- we'd like to have discussion on the PERFORMANCES rather than the posters or discussing the discussion. Anyone with more to say on these performances, please feel free to start another thread. We'd like to hear from you. Any and all views (and posters!) welcome here.

Welcome to Ballet Alert!, Kathy! Jasper will be glad to have someone to talk to who sees these performances, I think!!! Please feel free to join in current discussions, or raise issues that are a few weeks old if they interest you. You can bring a thread up to the top by simply adding a reply. We look forward to reading about what you're seeing!

Effy wrote on the Royal Danish Ballet forum of the company's Balanchine/Martins evening, and that Gudrun Bojesen had danced Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2. I was curious -- and hope Effy will see this and respond -- of whether she is as light in that as she is in the Bournonville repertory; I've never seen her in a non-Bournonvile ballet. I saw her on this most recent tour in La Sylphide and a solo from Napolil, and during the 2000 Bournonville Week in Kermesse and Folk Tale. I've never seen a dancer with Bojesen's lightness -- and was surprised that some of the other Washingtonians didn't see her as light at all, until I realized this is perhaps an issue of word choice; she's not ethereal, you can't put your hand through her. She's a dancer without footfall. I kept thinking of the ghost stories where a young man meets a beautiful young woman who looks absolutely normal (save for her beauty). They talk and walk together, and it is only when he looks down at the snow and sees that she has left no footprints that he realizes he's talking to a ghost. I felt that way with Bojesen, especially in the La Sylphide. Some New Yorkers would have seen her in the Sylphide and in Conservatoriet, out in New Jersey, so I thought we might have enough of a group of people to talk about her. Any other comments about this dancer? Effy, aspirant, Jorgen, how is she regarded in Copenhagen now?

Thans, Leigh. Let's get back to talking about the performances.

It's hard for me to imagine a broader context for that remark; the production under discussion sounds beyond the traditional. A quote from Judith Mackrell's review in The Guardian: The rest of the review is here I think the growth of pop culture must have an effect on what we're seeing, and on how audiences perceive. If MTV is your context, then that will influence how you view what you see. But I think there are times -- 1960s London for one -- where pop culture and high culture lived together quite well. Whenever a movement begins to tank, there are stages. At first it's, "let's try and fix this." That lasts about a decade. Then a growing realization that it's not Something that's going wrong, but becoming Something Else. In this case, rather than a new movement (like romanticism replacing neoclassicism) it's the worry of many that lower standards are replacing, or have replaced, higher ones. I think that's the concern that Ismene Brown was referring to. The keepers of the flame have some work to do Carbro, why leave in the swans? Is the music enough? If you set High Noon or Hamlet or The Simpsons Episode 999 to Swan Lake, is it still Swan Lake? If you take the story of Swan Lake and set it to a new score, is that Swan Lake? All interesting questions!!!

The short version of the article is that neithier Ivanov nor Petipa claim Swan Lake in their diaries. (!!!; and George reads German, so has read Petipa's diaries). Petipa's name is on some of the early posters -- that could be first balletmaster's right, or it could be truth. Petipa was ill; did he begin the preparations and Ivanov carried out instructions? But it's looking at the actual structure of the act, especially going back to the Stepanov (and early Royal) versions: It was a very formal structure -- the huntsmen took part in the dances. There's be a pas d'action, the swans are a grand pas classique, etc. The entre is very similar to Bayadere, as are some of the formations. Ivanov being derivative? Or Petipa varying his own formula?

I'd be curious to know what's up with this company. We just had the "Russian National Ballet" directed by MRS. Radchenko, and I was charmed by them. It's a hybrid Kirov-Bolshoi production and the company is half-Kirov, half-Bolshoi, and there was a whiff of the 1960s about them, but they knew what they were about and they were honest. Was there a schism? I found this in a web search on the company's page: "In January 1998 Moscow Festival Ballet» company was renamed Russian National Ballet». " It lists that company's artistic director as MR> (Sergei) Radchenko -- he was a terrific character dancer -- a star -- with the Bolshoi in the 60s. I don't know anything about the Cinderella, though. Sorry! Go and report!!

Some day, I promise, I'll put up George Jackson's "Did Ivanov REALLY choreograph Act 2?" article (I have to OCR it, and it's not an easy process; it's from an old DanceView). I was very much struck, when the Kirov was here, how closely SLAct2 resembles BAct4 (Shades). There's a lot to indicate that Petipa did choreograph it. That's not a good subject for a poll -- but if you sense a poll coming on, Hans, by all means, go for it!

Well, said, Sandi, Devil's Advocate section and all. I'd have much less of an objection to Weird Swan Lakes if there were one benchmark production floating around somewhere. And I also have a nervous feeling that Ivanov, particularly after a few snorts of vodka, might just love the Grigorovich version, or whatever, and wonder aloud, "Why didn't I think of that?" Petipa, I'm certain, would be grave-spinning We should have a contest, some day, to see who we think has done the most posthumous recumbant pirouettes of the Old Dead Masters!

Wow! I can't imagine that reaction here. Most Americans, in polls, say they support funding for the arts as a general proposition, but if they were told, "Okay, but then we'll have to cut the sports funding for high schools; no more football!" or "we'll have to decrease Social Security by .001 percent" I think that support would crumble. I think this is going to happen more and more -- it's odd, as we get richer, we seem to have less money. Congratulations for booing. I hope that continues.

Balanchine always said "it's all in the programs." He's one of those artists whose life does seem to have been in the theater. But no, there's no biography I know of that omits his work and concentrates on him as a person.

Dido, I think it's great that you care what production you're seeing! And most unusual. Generally people think (understandably) that if it's called "Swan Lake" they're getting "Swan Lake." Of all the big, 19th century ballets, this one is probably the most changed, but there still are some bits that are (nearly) "standard" -- first act pas de trois, second act, "black swan" pas de deux -- that you'll recognize if you've watched a few videos.

I agree that it would be ideal not to use arts funding as a political wepaon, but has that ever been the case? Art and politics have been intertwined since kings had courts; we just claim to be more democratic about it. There are so many issues. First, I think it's true that people use the One Bad Example -- or find a hot button -- to further a different agenda. It may be social conservatism, or liberalism; it may be "let's reduce government"; it may be "government shouldn't fund arts." Whatever it is, they'll find the one museum showing "dirty" photos, or the one theater company that is doing "Miss Saigon" (or pick any play) without enough actors of the "right" ethnicity. And whamoo, funding should stop. Second, you have the censorship problem -- should the government fund an anti-war (any war) play/painting? Should government funds be made available to an anti-abortion work? anti-religious? How one feels often depends on how one feels about war, abortion or religion. Karen Finlay offends some people, "Gone with the Wind" offends others. Should the individual artist worry about not pressing this or that button? Some artists exist to press buttons. Some artists make a work of art in which they genuinely believe and are shocked themselves when it shocks. Any additional funding is welcome, as far as I'm concerned (depending on the strings, of course) and it will be interesting to see what the new head of the NEA does.

I kept thinking, reading Mel's post, "Thank goodness the CIA isn't into the arts." Treefrog probably had something more benign in mind.

I think if you subtract 19 from 63 you get 44, not 56.