Alexandra

Quiggin, your description of the music (or lack thereof) is horrifyingly clear!

Same consulting firm? It's a good question but unless someone has a connection to one of the parties involved, I doubt we'll know. Or maybe this will be the Decade of Dogs

Hi, DancinKiki -- I know you're new, and we're a big forum and it takes awhile to learn your way around, but this forum is to post reviews of modern dance performances and the like. (There's a sticky at the top that says "please read before posting"). Also, this forum is for students of classical ballet, not all forms of dance.

Oh, I agree on Porter I'd loved her as the maid, but not as Natalya!

I haven't tried Kultur, but I went to Amazon and put in "Russian Ballet" as well as "Kirov Ballet" and "Bolshoi Ballet" -- there are a lot! But usually there are good notes or descriptions saying what's on what -- and some very good reader's (well, watcher's) reviews. Paul, I haven't been able to read the article yet -- it's next on my To Do list. And I never saw Soloviev dance, except on video (the "Sleeping Beauty djb noted above, and a few other cliips shown at panel discussions). I hoped Marc would see this -- he had seen quite a bit, as I remember from earlier discussions.

Alas, I came to ABT after you had left it. When I first saw Pillar, it was in the late 1970s, the Sallie Wilson-Marcos Paredes-Gayle Young era.

I love the notion of retroactive irony -- thank you for that, Helene! I didn't know her age, and so looked it up. According to Horst Koegler's Oxford Dictionary of Ballet she was born in 1907, so she was a mere slip of a girl, 73, in 1980. She was still performing, too. Queen Mother in Swan Lake. I swear I saw her as the Older Sister in Pillar and the Mother in the House of Bernardo Alba.

I agree with Mel -- it's a great ballet (And thanks for the info, rg!) I saw it several times when it was new, and several times since, with different casts. Like many Ashton ballets, it's lost its subtlety over the years -- more histrionics, more, well, everything. And it's still a great ballet. Ashton is rarely seen as an innovator, because his innovations are so quiet. I read something once -- I think it was by Clive Barnes, although I've never been able to find idt and may be misremembering -- that you'd go to see a new Ashton ballet and think it was just more of the same, until a week or so later, you realized that there were many new things in it -- new steps, a new way of structuring a work or, as in "A Month in the Country" a new way of telling a story using steps to depict mood and character, or to actually advance the story -- but he's so smooth and subtle they don't look new, and so you miss them. It's still in repertory -- not every season, of course, but done frequently. Among its many charms was its perfect casting -- another Ashton hallmark.

I thought this link might be useful for those trying to find a particular film or video. The Dance Film Association has an ENORMOUS and very detailed data base. You can search by choreographer, dancer, subject, composer -- many different ways. There are very detailed credits, as well as distributor/purchase information. (It's an informational database, not a commercial one.) Here's the link to the database And here's a link to the Dance Film Association

Bump! This is a ballet nearly everyone here has seen -- what do you think of it? Any particularly memorable performances or casts?

Hmm. I see no one is touching THIS one with a ten-foot pole I think it's true that Chase was pushed out. I don't know who or what was the force behind it. I don't think Baryshnikov was the impetus. From what I remember hearing at the time, the board went to him. I think there was a sense that They (the board?) wanted the company to be bigger, to compete on international level, to have a uniform corps, to emphasize technique, to modernize. Chase was getting on, and was ill. There are always personality issues involved in something like this, but I can't help there.

Good question, Balletmom. I hope everyone will post their own core collections -- that would be fun. Do you remember the Desert Island Disks shows on public radio? Let's have Desert Island DVDs. What 10 DVDs would you take with you if you knew you were going to be marooned on a desert island? You might find Robert Greskovic's Ballet 101 useful. He has an extensive videography that answers many of your questions. The book is a few years old now and keyed to videos -- but many of the most important videos have been released on DVD. But for now, whawt are your Desert Island DVDs? The basics for a collection?

Thank you, Carbro!!!! (I'm glad you got in -- I understand that program was sold out months ago.) There's a listing of the videos and the libraries where they reside on the Balanchine Foundation web site. http://www.balanchine.org/03/gbfvideoarchives.html Look at the navigation links to the right. Whoops -- and thank you, Leigh. I posted before seeing your comments as well. It sounds like a fascinating evening. The Balanchine Foundation web site is also keeping track of all the lectures and events during this centennial season, so it might be a good one to bookmark and keep checking: http://www.balanchine.org I'd also like to link again to Leigh's articles on the danceview web site that describe several of the video sessions: http://www.danceview.org/archives/balanchi...hine/index.html

A press release from ABT: WILLIAM FORSYTHE'S THE VERTIGINOUS THRILL OF EXACTITUDE AND THE NEW YORK PREMIERES OF SCOTT RINK'S THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE AND PETER QUANZ’ SPRINGSCAPE TO HIGHLIGHT ABT STUDIO COMPANY PERFORMANCES AT NYU'S SKIRBALL CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, DECEMBER 4-6 Narrated Family Matinee to be Given on Saturday, December 6 at 2 P.M. American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company will present three performances at New York University’s new Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, December 4-6 at 8 P.M. and a special narrated family matinee on December 6 at 2 P.M. The program will include the ABT Studio Company Premiere of William Forsythe’s The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude and the New York Premieres of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Scott Rink and SpringScape by Peter Quanz, as well as Antony Tudor’s Continuo. William Forsythe’s The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, set to Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 9 (final movement), is a series of solo variations, pas de deux, pas de trois and ensemble sections for five dancers. The ABT Studio Company is only the second American company, after San Francisco Ballet, to perform The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude. The work was staged for the Studio Company by Kathryn Bennetts and features costumes by Stephen Galloway and lighting by William Forsythe. Scott Rink's The Sorcerer's Apprentice, based on the poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, will receive its New York premiere on Thursday, December 4. A co-production with Minnesota Dance Theatre, The Sorcerer's Apprentice is set to a musical collage by Scott Marshall based on Paul Dukas' L'Apprenti Sorcier. The ballet features costumes by Tracy Christensen, scenery by Andrew Saboe and lighting by Jason Lyons. The Sorcerer's Apprentice received its World Premiere by MDT in October of this year at the Pantages Theatre in Minneapolis. Peter Quanz' SpringScape, set to Simple Symphony by Benjamin Britten, will be given its New York Premiere on December 4. First performed this November at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, the ballet for 10 dancers features costumes by Dennis Ballard and lighting by Brian Sciarra. Quanz created SpringScape during a recent three-week residency at the White Oak Plantation in Yulee, Florida. Antony Tudor’s Continuo, staged for the Studio Company by Donald Mahler, is set to Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D. Tudor created the ballet for six dancers in 1971 for his students at The Juilliard School. Continuo was reconstructed by arrangement with the Dance Notation Bureau, Inc. The ABT Studio Company will also present a family matinee on Saturday, December 6 at 2 P.M. The one-hour performance will be narrated by ABT’s artistic staff and will feature The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Continuo and the grand pas de deux from The Nutcracker. Tickets, priced at $15, are available by calling 212-992-8484 or online at www.skirballcenter.nyu.edu <http://www.skirballcenter.nyu.edu/> . The ABT Studio Company is among the first dance troupes to perform at The Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at New York University, an 879-seat proscenium theater which opened in October 2003. The Skirball Center is located at 566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square South in New York City. Tickets for the ABT Studio Company at the Skirball Center are $32 and are available by calling 212-992-8484 or at www.skirballcenter.nyu.edu <http://www.skirballcenter.nyu.edu/> . For more information, please visit www.abt.org <http://www.abt.org. The ABT Studio Company is funded, in part, by The Chisholm Foundation and Sandler O’Neill & Partners. This performance is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency. The ABT Studio Company’s Skirball Center performances are dedicated to the legacy of Howard Gilman.

I did a search for Yuan Yuan Tan, (a San Francisco Ballet ballerina) hoping to find a photo of her in "Bugaku" that would be appropriate for another thread, and came upon this interview in Jade Magazine: Interview with Yuan Yuan Tan

I never fully appreciated "Bugaku" until seeing the San Francisco Ballet dance it -- with Yuan Yuan Tan in the central role. Hers was a different type of passivity -- not subservient, but regal, the way a medieval Japanese princess would most likely have been. She managed to remain an individual -- she definitely knew her place in that society and she accepted it. But I didn't feel sorry for her.

There was a news report on our Links forum (thanks to Ari) about 4 to 6 weeks ago saying that the company had hired several dancers. I don't know if that was expansion or replacement. You might go to www.google.com and do a search and see if you turn up any news articles!

Maybe they're saving Ashton for next season? His birth year is 1904, but he was born in September -- just a bit before the City Center season, but one can hope.

Thanks for the clarification -- it makes sense (I misunderstood, and thought you just were being extremely diplomatic!)

ALL-NEW PRODUCTION OF RAYMONDA BY ANNA-MARIE HOLMES AND KEVIN McKENZIE TO HIGHLIGHT AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE’S 2004 SPRING SEASON AT THE METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE, MAY 10 THROUGH JULY 3 ALL-BALANCHINE PROGRAM TO FEATURE COMPANY PREMIERE OF MOZARTIANA AND REVIVAL OF BALLET IMPERIAL IN HONOR OF THE CHOREOGRAPHER’S CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 90TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION FOR FREDERIC FRANKLIN ALSO PLANNED American Ballet Theatre’s 2004 Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House, May 10 through July 3, was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie. Highlighting the engagement will be an all-new production of the full-length Raymonda, and the Company Premiere of George Balanchine’s Mozartiana, as part of a salute to the choreographer’s centenary. Principal Dancers for the engagement will include Nina Ananiashvili, Maxim Beloserkovsky, Julio Bocca, Jose Manuel Carreño, Angel Corella, Herman Cornejo, Irina Dvorovenko, Alessandra Ferri, Marcelo Gomes, Guillaume Graffin, Paloma Herrera, Amanda McKerrow, Gillian Murphy, Xiomara Reyes, Ethan Stiefel and Ashley Tuttle. ABT’s Spring Season is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The 2004 Spring Season will kick-off with an Opening Night gala performance on Monday, May 10 at 6:30 P.M. For information about the Opening Night Spring Gala, please call the Special Events Office at 212-477-3030, ext. 3239. ABT’s Spring Gala is sponsored by Signature Bank. United States Premiere of All-New Raymonda American Ballet Theatre will present the United States Premiere of an all-new production of the full-length Raymonda on Friday evening, May 21 at 8 P.M. Choreographed by Anna-Marie Holmes and conceived and directed by Anna-Marie Holmes and Kevin McKenzie, Raymonda is set to the music of Alexander Glazunov, arranged by Ormsby Wilkins, and features sets and costumes by Zack Brown (Swan Lake and Dorian) and lighting by Steen Bjarke. A co-production with the Finnish National Ballet, the all-new Raymonda was given its World Premiere in Helsinki by the Finnish National Ballet in May of this year. A preview of Raymonda (Grand Pas Classique), with choreography by Anna-Marie Holmes, was presented in October of this year during ABT’s City Center engagement. The World Premiere of Raymonda, choreographed by Marius Petipa, was given in 1898 by the Imperial Ballet at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1964, Rudolf Nureyev restaged Raymonda with additional choreography for the Royal Ballet Touring Company. The production received its American Ballet Theatre premiere in 1975 in Houston, Texas with Cynthia Gregory as Raymonda, Rudolf Nureyev as Jean de Brienne and Erik Bruhn as Abderakhman. Major funding for Raymonda has been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. An all-Tchaikovsky Salute to George Balanchine In tribute to the centenary of choreographer George Balanchine, American Ballet Theatre will present a program of his works, all set to the music of Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky. The all-Balanchine/Tchaikovsky programs will be performed May 24 and May 26-31. Highlighting the program will be the Company Premiere of Mozartiana on Monday evening, May 24. Created in 1981, Mozartiana is one of Balanchine’s last works. Set to Suite No. 4 Mozartiana by Tchaikovsky, Mozartiana features costumes by Rouben Ter-Arutunian. The ballet will be staged for ABT by Maria Calegari. George Balanchine’s Ballet Imperial will have its revival premiere on Monday evening, May 24 with Gillian Murphy, Carlos Molina and Michele Wiles performing the leading roles. Set to Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No. 2 in G for Piano and Orchestra, Ballet Imperial features costumes by Rouben Ter-Arutunian and lighting by Jennifer Tipton. Last performed by ABT in 1996, Ballet Imperial received its World Premiere by American Ballet Caravan in 1941 and first entered ABT’s repertory in 1988. Colleen Neary will stage the revival of Ballet Imperial for ABT. American Ballet Theatre’s all-Balanchine/Tchaikovsky program will also include Theme and Variations and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux. Paloma Herrera and Marcelo Gomes will lead the season’s first performance of Theme and Variations on Monday evening, May 24. ABT’s production of Theme and Variations, staged by Kirk Peterson, recreates the original version choreographed by Balanchine for Ballet Theatre in 1947. Full-length Ballets In addition to the all-new Raymonda, American Ballet Theatre will present five full-length ballets during its Spring season. La Bayadère, choreographed by Natalia Makarova after Marius Petipa, will be given nine performances beginning Thursday evening, May 13 with Nina Ananiashvili as Nikiya, Julio Bocca as Solor and Gillian Murphy as Gamzatti. Set to music by Ludwig Minkus, specially arranged by John Lanchbery, La Bayadère features scenery by PierLuigi Samaritani, costumes by Theoni V. Aldredge and lighting by Toshiro Ogawa. The full-length production of La Bayadère received its World Premiere by ABT in May 1980 at the Metropolitan Opera House. Don Quixote, staged by Kevin McKenzie and Susan Jones, after the choreography of Marius Petipa and Alexander Gorsky, will be given eight performances, June 7-12. Nina Ananiashvili and Jose Manuel Carreño will lead the season’s first performance of Don Quixote, which is set to the music of Ludwig Minkus and arranged by Jack Everly. The ballet features scenery and costumes by Santo Loquasto and lighting by Natasha Katz. The McKenzie/Jones staging of the current production was first performed by ABT in June 1995. Kevin McKenzie’s production of the Tchaikovsky classic, Swan Lake will have its first performance of the season on Monday evening, June 14 with Gillian Murphy as Odette/Odile and Jose Manuel Carreño as Prince Siegfried. Swan Lake, staged by Kevin McKenzie after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, has scenery and costumes by Zack Brown and lighting by Duane Schuler. McKenzie’s staging received its World Premiere in March 2000 at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Generously underwritten by the Rosh Foundation, the ballet will continue for eight performances through June 19. The season’s first performance of Romeo and Juliet will be performed by Alessandra Ferri and Angel Corella on Monday evening, June 28. Choreographed by Kenneth MacMillan, Romeo and Juliet is set to the score by Sergei Prokofiev and features scenery and costumes by Nicholas Georgiadis and lighting by Thomas Skelton. The ballet was first choreographed for The Royal Ballet in 1965 and received its ABT premiere in January 1985. ABT’s performances of Romeo and Juliet will continue through July 3. Celebration in Honor of Frederic Franklin Eight performances of Coppélia, staged by Frederic Franklin, will be highlighted by a special celebration of Franklin’s 90th birthday on Wednesday evening, June 23. A distinguished ballet master and choreographer, Franklin was one of the original members of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and has appeared with American Ballet Theatre in recent years. Coppélia is set to the music of Léo Delibes and features scenery by Tony Straiges, costumes by Patricia Zipprodt and lighting by Brad Fields. Franklin’s staging of Coppélia, which will be performed June 21-26, received its Company Premiere in February 1997. Leading the opening night cast of Coppélia will be Ashley Tuttle as Swanilda and Angel Corella as Franz. Additional repertory for American Ballet Theatre’s 2004 Metropolitan Opera House season includes Antony Tudor’s Pillar of Fire, staged by Donald Mahler and Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison, choreographed by David Parsons, Ann Reinking, Natalie Weir and Stanton Welch. ABTKids ABTKids, a special one-hour family friendly performance, is scheduled for Saturday, June 5 at 11:30 A.M. Narrated by a member of ABT’s artistic staff, ABTKids presents age-appropriate excerpts from the season’s repertory. All tickets for ABTKids are priced at $18. American Ballet Theatre’s annual Family Day Benefit will coincide with ABTKids on June 5 at 11:30 A.M. followed by a luncheon in the Tent at Lincoln Center. For information on Family Day, please call ABT’s Special Events office at 212-477-3030, ext. 3239. Reckson Associates is the Principal Corporate Sponsor of ABTKids. Family Series The matinees on Saturday, May 22 (Raymonda), and Saturday, June 26 (Coppélia) will offer tickets for children ages 4-14 at 50% off regular price with the purchase of one adult-priced ticket. Pre-performance workshops are also available on Saturday, May 22 (11:00 A.M.-12:00 P.M.), Saturday, June 5 (9:30-10:30 A.M.) and Saturday, June 26, (11:00 A.M-12:00 P.M). Tickets to the workshops are $20 per person and are available to ticket holders for the performance following the workshop. ABTalks ABTalks, 30-minute pre-curtain discussions, are held in List Hall one hour prior to performances and are free to ABT ticket holders. Please see schedule attached for dates. Subscriptions for American Ballet Theatre’s 2004 Metropolitan Opera House season are on sale now by phone at 212-362-6000 and by mail. For more information, visit ABT’s website at www.abt.org <http://www.abt.org.

Just a gentle pull back to the topic -- we've had debates about whether story or storyless ballets are necessarily good and/or evil and we certainly can again, but, as Hans pointed out, this topic was specifically put up as a safe haven for those who do like/see a value in story ballets to discuss them without being told they're inane and juvenile, as happened a few posts up.

Yes, it's difficult. The ballets are out of fashion and the dancers aren't used to the kind of dance acting that they require -- so they often look silly or slight to contemporary audiences. And then you get into the question -- is it because they are inferior choreography, or because the dancers aren't accustomed to performing them, and the "just do the steps" approach doesn't work. I've read passionate arguments by people who insist that Christensen was at least a second-tier choreographer, and equally decided opinions to the contrary.

In past seasons, Farrell has used corps women and soloists in principal parts. I think it's very rare, anywhere, for principals to dance soloist or corps parts.

Oh, Jane, please report if you do -- she's got a lot of fans here.

There's a biography of the Christensen brothers (again, check the Christensen site). I think there's another one in the works as well. They were very important in forming American ballet. Christensen's ballets became out of fashion -- like Fokine's, Massine's, de Mille's, and a whole list of lesser lights. Too demicaractere, too concrete, not abstract (mostly; there are exceptions). Also, when you don't direct a company, it's harder to keep your ballets in repertory, and during Christensen's day, companies tried to maintain unique repertories and were less likely to be interested in a work done elsewhere. Hard to believe now, but there was a time within living memory when good choreographers found it hard to get work! djb, I think the Oakland Ballet performs some of Christensen's works as well? If I'm remembering correctly, last season, both SFB and OB did "Jinx."