Alexandra

I'd echo the dress up idea -- from Washington, a very untrendy town. The Kennedy Center often has tour groups of high schoolers, and they're nearly always dressed up. It looks like Prom Night. (Once, we had all the Miss Georgia Peach contestants, in ballgown attire! No need to go that far....) That said, the quietly casual -- your black slacks and sweater -- is just fine.

Wow! Thank you, djb. That's very helpful. It's impossible to write about phonetics -- and yet you've done it! It's so clear.

Mme. Hermine, you've got it. A new Games forum (only kidding...) Good points. There are two ways to go. Collector 1: The players are all really truly ballet fans. They love the art form, they want to own the ballets for their own, admittedly selfish, but otherwise benign purposes: viewing on demand, with their very own favorite casts, etc. And so the only conflict would be that two of us want Apollo, say. The streets would be renamed ballets, and the color blocks would be choreographers. If you're bidding on Balanchine, and I land on a Balanchine square, I could buy the ballet just to get you, or in the hopes that we could make a trade for a beloved Forsythe work Version 2. Ballet Wars. The players are artistic directors or kingmakers whose sole purpose is power. We'd be after ballets because they were audience hits -- we'd be trying to guess which would be hits, so the chance cards could be a mix of reviews and/or box office receipts -- OR we could be after a prestige block of ballets -- Fokine revivals, say -- and I'd try to block you from getting Scheherezade or Firebird simply because I'm mean and nasty I wanna play. Anybody remember Diplomacy? We could have a Ballet verison of that. And if anyone from Parker Brothers is reading this, I do freelance

Thank you for taking the time to read them, Perky! I think these pieces are wonderful -- it was a pleasure and an honor to have published them. I hope you check the Reviews, Interviews and Commentaries archives, too. I'd like to take this opportunity to make an anti-commercial -- for the next few weeks, I'll be updating everything: I have three years of articles to upload on the DanceView site. I've started a new site related to my book on Kronstam that's nearly finished. And then, the monster: it's on to updating Ballet Alert! Onlilne, which hasn't had new copy in THREE YEARS. And www.danceviewtimes.com will have new copy every Monday and I'll be announcing that here. I'll be telling you about these updates because if I don't, you won't know they're there. Of course, we'd love it if you subscribed. Many Ballet Aletniks do, and if even 30% of the people who read this board every day subscribed to its publications, it would make a difference in my life, and in the lives of our writers. But the updates aren't intended to be the virtual cognate for those beloved PBS "if you watch even one program every day and you don't pick up the phone NOW" begathons. We're not a commercial site; we're an educational and informational one, so we'd like you to read us -- on line (articles are posted a year after publication) or in print. Becuase if people don't read us, there's no point in writing. Our goal is to provide background and context to our discussions here, to what you're seeing in current repertory. So when I zoom into a thread and say, "You might be interested in reading Marc Haegeman's interview with Legris" or "Mary Cargill's review of the Ashton program in DC" or "There's a review on DanceViewTimes of this performance," or whatever, please take the interruption in that spirit. And please feel free to question, challenge, or comment on the articles. Some of our writers also post here, and they will read it, but we all want feedback. If we respond, it's in an attempt to be clear, not to correct or defend. And now, apologies, back to Ballet Talking!!!

Carbro's "I want Barocco" post spurred new thoughts. We could have the Collector's Edition. Like rich guys who want to own a Da Vinci drawing so that no one but them can look at it, the players are all individual collectors who want to own ballets. And perhaps block other players, artistic directors, from having them.....

Update and fyi: According to our web stats, people are still clicking on the link to the photo of Kronstam in the Ashton solo from Sleeping Beauty (thank you!). When I redid www.danceview.org this week, I moved all of the Kronstam pages on to a new site -- www.kronstam.com (yes, yes, a year late, but what they hey. This isn't to sell books, but to have material about Kronstam on the web.) Here's the url to the cabriole photo: Kronstam as Florimund Also, fyi, the Kronstam site is only about half-finished, so if links don't work, or if one page is a different color from the rest, I know about it and will get to it some day. I've corrected the url in the initial post about the photo.

I posted this in the Announcements forum, but in case you miss it: Five articles on the Balanchine Archive Project are now on line at www.danceview.org -- all by Leigh Witchel (thank you, Leigh!) More will follow; our policy is to post articles one year after publication date out of fairness to our subscribers. Rita Felciano wrote about Helgi Tomasson coaching his solo from Baiser de la fee in San Francisco, and Leigh will be writing about a recent taping session soon, if not sooner Anyway, for now, here's where they are: The Balanchine Archive Project And here's what's there: George Balanchine Foundation's Interpreters Archive Project Reports Notes on Melissa Hayden Coaching at PNB by Leigh Witchel Autumn 2000 Notes on Karin von Aroldingen coaching Robert Schumann’s ‘Davidsbündlertänze’ by Leigh Witchel Winter 2001 Notes on Nancy Knot Mann coaching Reminiscence by Leigh Witchel Spring 2001 Notes on Suzanne Farrell coaching Monumentum Pro Gesualdo and Movements for Piano and Orchestra by Leigh Witchel Winter 2002 Notes on Arthur Mitchell coaching the pas de deux in Agon by Leigh Witchel Spring 2002 Related links: An interview with Nancy Reynolds in Ballet Alert! about this project. The George Balanchine Foundation

Giannina, the Quizzes are still on the main site here Great ideas, everyone -- keep 'em coming. This may need to be a three-dimensional video game, with Levels. Level 1, you're an apprentice. Level 2, you're a dancer. Level 3, you're a choreographer. Level 4, you're an artistic director. Different chances/opportunities and jails for each Hans, having Nutcracker as Go is brilliant

Yes, that's the spirit. So if you land on Sleeping Beauty Boulevard (aka Park Place) you have to pay a whopping royalty to the Petipa Trust. If you land on Scheherezade Row, I guess pay a whopping royalty and still not be able to perform the ballet, and be stuck there for three turns while the court cases drag on. (That would work for Graham, too, if we did a Dance version.)

Just curious, but what is it about Forsythe that brings the word "classicism" to mind? His works use ballet steps -- and distorted ballet steps, and other steps -- but the corollary to my oft-stated theory that if your native language is classical ballet, then you can incorporate anything in the world in your ballets and it will still be classical ballet, if your native language is Not Classical Ballet, then you can use the whole lexicon, in alphabetical order, and it will always be something else. (This isn't to say that a company should or shouldn't dance the works; I have no objection to ballet companies doing Forsythe, nor to watching it.) We've had two Forsythes in DC this season -- In the Middle and Steptext, both very similar in that they give a backstage view of ballet -- and I was also struck by their episodic nature. I wonder if this is a comment on the current stage of ballet, or a more sophisicated approach to what, in lesser hands, looks like MTV-mindset (can't construct anything longer than four minutes). It could be taken as a witty comment, too -- since so many performances these days are rehearsals, why not just put a rehearsal on stage and be done with it!

I've copied these over from Links: two London reviews of this run of Bayaderes, covering several casts. Do people agree with Brown's assessment of Rojo's partner? Two reviews of the Royal Ballet: La Bayadère with Marienela Nuñez, Thiago Suares, and Lauren Cuthbertson. Romeo and Juliet with Tamara Rojo and David Makhateli. Also, two Bayadères, one with Daria Pavlenko, Roberto Bolle, and Zenaida Yanowsky, and the other with Nuñez, Suares, and Cuthbertson.

The Chance cards would have to include: Prima Ballerina is injured, Jester out for season, Major Donor dies, Varna Winner accepts contract, those kinds of things. Please add!! The game also could control choreographers' works. That's where the Monopoly could come in. You'd try to get all the major Petipa ballets, or Balanchine, Kylian, whatever. If others couldn't do those works, they'd have no repertory and you'd Conquer All. Great idea, Mary. Any entrepreneur who tries to take this to market -- we'll sue!!!!

I don't remember it -- you'll have to keep checking ebay to see if one comes up! I like Mary J's idea. I'm going to move it to Anything Goes so more people likely to play will see it (Cross Talk is for dancers-teachers-choreographers, those who do dance).

Welcome, rojo fan and thank you very much for posting that! We have several Londoners here, but you're awfully quiet -- as you can tell from Giannina's and Watermill's posts, we want to read about what you're seeing!!!!!!! Beckster, a friend who saw Nunez's performance liked it VERY much; I hope you'll enjoy it. I'll await your review with interest. I've always heard Bayadere pronounced BYE a dare.

Freddie Franklin won't be 90 until next June, but he's in residence at Barnard this year, and there were two evenings devoted to his career last week -- a panel discussion and a film evening. Dale Brauner has a piece about them on DanceViewTimes: Living History Another teacher in Warren's book, Larry Long (of Chicago) is still teaching, I think.

Hi, Colleen! Glad to see you posting -- I wondered where you'd been (now I know. On Staten Island!) Thanks for the review -- and thanks, too, for your point about programming. I think a lot of people prefer matinees for a variety of reasons, and it would be nice to have a choice of programming.

Yes, ENB hasn't been here (DC) since it was London Festival Ballet! Thank you, Tracey -- the best thing about the Net is that we can get an idea of what's going on where we're not. This was a lovely review, and I hope to read more from you.

It may all turn out to be brilliant, of course, but I think if audiences took more tomatoes to performances like these -- just in case, just in case -- the world would be a safer place. I'm trying to find out who the famous Western producer Donnelan is, but am so far drawing a blank. So is Google.

It's a wonderful review, silvy -- thank you. This is a company that many of us would never read about otherwise. Companies of this size and scope are tremendously important to young dancers -- and audiences. I hope you'll write more about what you're seeing this season!

To inspire you Every season I say that our discussions of both ABT and NYCB's New York seasons get better -- and every season I mean it. Each season there are three or four new people who jump into the mix, and it is wonderful to read so many different opinions. While I'm especially fond of the long detailed reviews, I'm also quite happy to read the "Went last night. X was great" quick takes -- it's all part of the mix. So if you haven't stuck a toe in yet, please do. And to our devoted regulars -- I hope you're not burned out and are going to see some of the cast changes this week. If so, please let us know what you think!

I discovered this channel while visiting my mother in Richmond. There, it's "The Library Channel." Meaning the Richmond Public Library uses that as their content. It is a wonderful sampler.

I thought five foot nine would be too tall, too -- I suppose Aloff meant her proportions. She doesn't look 5 foot nine in the photos that accompany the article; it would make the soldier standing next to her about 6 foot 5 (which is quite possible, of course). I didn't know about her as a dancer either, atm. When I did a google search on her name, several pages identified her as "an exotic dancer." But she did dance in films -- at least once with Gene Kelly.

Thanks for your comments, Lee. I have several friends who HATED the Kylian and others who liked both pieces. (I can remember 15, 20 years ago, when Kylian was going to be The Next Great Choreographer. I never agreed with that, but I usually find his pieces easy to watch, at any rate.) I'm curious about Dorian. ABT hasn't brought any of Hill's ballets to Washington, so I don't have a sense of him as a choreographer. It sounds as though this ballet had some interesting parts, but there were problems with the whole. Anyone else see this program?

Mindy Aloff's letter this week for DanceViewTimes is, in part, an appreciation of the late Jinx Falkenburg. I was unfamiliar with her career as a dancer I found one of the things Aloff wrote particularly interesting: She does seem to personify her generation. Looking at the photos, especially the one where Falkenburg stands next to a wounded soldier (there's a third photo on the DVT home page, for those interested), does make her seem prototypical of her generation. She made gazillions of movies, none of which I've seen (or remember). Does anyone else remember her? Or have comments about the dancers of her generation? [The full article can be found at: Letter from New York ]

There's a review of the Contemporary Works program by Gia Kourlas in this week's DanceView Times: Dorian--Not Quite Wilde Enough