Alexandra

We have several Ballet Arizona watchers here -- did anyone see this program?

You're welcome I don't agree with certain Career Choices either (and often point this out to current students). I think there was a certain atmosphere in the school when Tidwell and a few other medal winners one might think of were there that has changed -- but that was before my time (not meaning to imply that I changed it!)

I didn't see the show -- what did people think?

And Vienna, Stuttgart, Birmingham Royal, Dutch National, Zurich, Dresden, Houston, Kansas City, Aspen, Colorado and OBT, off the top of my head, from the past five years that I've been teaching there. Tidwell was a student at KAB awhile back. There's a career guidance class now, and an active placement program.

Back to the main topic - I don't want to hijack the thread, but amend the record -- and thank you, Hans.

Thanks, rg!

Thank you for posting that, kathaP. I think that's on the Firestone DVD. I just watched it last week.

I interviewed them both about that performance for my book on Kronstam, and Simone said the floor was very slippery and "we were afraid to do anything." She said when they came to the studio, the stagehands beamed at them and told them "we've waxed the floor twice, just for you." I love that pas de deux -- very Danish, not Russian, in high Vokova-era style. I find Kronstam's arms, especially, the way they cross his chest, very beautiful.

Congratulations to Kaufman -- and this is also very good for dance!

Thank you for that, Anne. I habve a question. You wrote: "When Hübbe made his new version of Napoli. the attitude of the Danish press and the Danish audience were generally open and interested, the resistance came much more adamant from abroad!." What was the resistance from abroad? The only two reviews in the British press I read were very positive, and I didn't see any from Americans. I've read a lot about Hubbe standing up to the resistance from abroad, but I haven't seen the resistance. Was there something in the Danish press about this, I wonder?

Marc Haegeman has some beautiful photos of Evgenia Obraztsova/David Makhateli in "Giselle" in Rome. Take a look!

For Ballet Lovers Only

Marc Haegeman has some beautiful photos of Bouder in "Giselle" in Rome. Take a look!

For Ballet Lovers Only

They really are gorgeous, Marc. Thank you for posting the link.

Jane Simpson's review of this cast is now in ballet co's magazine.

Royal Danish Ballet; ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream’

Midsummer Night's Dream fits the RDB so well that you might think it had been made for them. Although Hippolyta/Titania and Theseus/Oberon get the headline casting, this is essentially a company ballet, with seven big dancing roles and two character/comedy parts of almost equal importance. Neumeier gives the quartet of lovers much more to do than in other versions I've seen, and he includes more of the story than either Ashton or Balanchine, so that the mechanicals get to do their ridiculous play in the Duke's palace. The leading couple have two big pas de deux in the last act - a private, 'awakening', romantic one and a more formal, public, classical one - but I'd bet that what most people will remember a couple of months later will not be those - however starry the casting - but Thisbe in her red pointe shoes, Bottom changing into a donkey, and feisty little Helena fighting for her love. The RDB dancers grab opportunities like these with both hands and it's good to see, especially after the rather dispiriting showing they'd made a couple of days earlier in a different programme.

I'd like to add that right before the paragraph quoted above, Jane has a list of bullet points for people who are new to the ballet -- an idea I'm sure dance critics will greedily, happily, steal!

Anne, thank you so much for this! (Sorry I've come late to the feast.) I read this with great interest and am looking forward to your "Midsummer" review.

Larry Warren, one of the most important figures in modern dance in Maryland and the D.C. area, has died. His wife and colleague, Anne Warren, sent me the following obituary:

Larry Warren (1932-2009)

Larry Warren, dance biographer, choreographer, teacher, and director passed away December 9, 2009. He was the author of two dance biographies, Lester Horton: Modern Dance Pioneer (1977) and Anna Sokolow: The Rebellious Spirit, for which he received the 1991-92 De la Torre Bueno special citation awarded by Dance Perspectives.

Larry was born in Brooklyn and moved to North Hollywood with his family in 1948. He began his dance training in Los Angeles at the Ruth St. Denis studio with Denishawn-trained dancer Karoun Tootikian and performed with the Concert Dance Group of the Ruth St. Denis Studio. Evening-long chats with Ruth St. Denis in the tiny patio behind her California studio triggered his interest in dance history and research. He received his undergraduate degree in Theater Arts from UCLA, where his love of dance theater was furthered by his success in his senior year in the lead role in the dance drama performance of John Steinbeck’s, “The Pearl.” After graduating from UCLA in 1954, he produced several concerts featuring his own choreography and served as president of the Board of Directors of the Southern California Dance Alliance, during which time he danced with the Guild Opera and the San Francisco Opera Company. Larry returned to UCLA for graduate work in Dance where he completed his Master’s thesis on Lester Horton, and, with encouragement from John Martin, began to work on a biography of Horton.

Larry joined the faculty at the University of Maryland in 1971, where he co-founded, and for many years directed, Maryland Dance Theater, a critically acclaimed repertory company in residence at the University of Maryland at College Park from 1972-1988. His own choreography for the company earned him praise for his wit, his imagination, and his ability to create dramatic structures, characters and atmosphere.

Upon his retirement in 1995, Larry became Professor Emeritus of Dance at the University of Maryland in College Park. He is remembered by students and friends as a man of much passion, warmth, generosity and insight, one who took great delight in adventure. He is survived by his wife of 36 years, Anne Warren, Associate Chair of the Dance Department.

Thank you for this, Jane!

Eva Kistrup has just posted about next season, and some other news, in her danceviewtimes blog.

Breaking News!

That's a lot of ballets! I hope DC gets more than a whole week of "Sleeping Beauty."

The RDB version out on DVD is as close to the original (Bouornonville) version as it's possible to get. The POB version is a reconstruction of the Taglioni version, but I agree -- having the farm girls on pointe in the first act destroys the point.

I'm still mourning Morse. They're rerunning the series on our local PBS station. I realize that if this were "real life," there would be no one left alive in Oxford, but stilll...

Just to confirm that, as of now, the performance will go on. I just got an email from the Kennedy Center confirming that.

Good question! I hope others will chime in, but here are some thoughts to start off.

What is the role of the corps? In story ballets, it might seem evident: the Wilis in "Giselle" are ghost maidens, girls who die unmarried and dance in the forest at night; the "swans" are really maidens (they're only swans by day, and we're seeing them at night), friends of Odette, enchanted with her. Sometimes they dance beautiful patterns that are lovely to look at (and go with the music), sometimes they are part of the story (the Wilis like to dance men to death; more subtly, the swans are happy after the Prince swears his love to Odette). Ini Spartacus, the men are an army. In a Balanchine ballet, the corps may be part of the ballet's architecture. In any ballet, the corps sometimes echoes the ballerina, sometimes dances phrases before she does, to prepare your eye (the way an overture prepares your ear for the score).

At its best, a corps should show the company's style. It's more than just dancing the same steps at the same time (although that often helps!). It shows the look of a company, what bodies are considered beautiful by that particular aesthetic, as well as technical things -- how the arms and fingers are held are different from company to company, the way the pointes are used.

There's lots more, but that's a start.

Ashton's "La Fille Mal Gardee" is 50. Here's a link to a page (gateway page) on ballet.co.uk about "Fille," with a lot of interesting material.

http://www.ballet.co.uk/magazines/yr_10/fe...anniversary.htm

I would love to see this one -- I hope there is a DVD. There are a few clips available on the various Russian Great Ballets-type tape/dvd collections,, and it looks very interesting -- very subtle, as one might expect from Yacobson.

John Percival in his review of Parry's bio of Kenneth MacMillan had a curious observation:

"MacMillan is widely credited with having single-handedly dragged classical dance out of its obsession with fairies and princesses"

Really? am I missing something here?---or perhaps he is talking about British ballet?

I think he's referring to the contemporary British perspective.

I'm going tomorrow night and Wednesday, and I'll be glad to post casting from the program Tuesday night. I have the same cast that's on the website.

And keep the tape. I have tapes from the 1970s that I've played dozens of times -- and played segments of them dozens of times for classe and lectures -- that are still pristine, and DVDs that lasted less than a year.

Welcome! Just in time for the spring seasons, too -- I hope you'll write about what you're seeing.