Alexandra

Ah, but what a partnership. Toumanova and Peckov in Swan Lake, Giselle, 2nd movement Bizet....

Mel's very funny post raises an interesting question. It's a very unmodern notion, of course, but there have been periods in art history when restrictions -- it must be a religious subject and the Madonna must look like my wife -- created some of the greatest art ever created. I'm of two minds on the donor-strings issue. On the one hand, I think, in an ideal world, the donor should give the money to the local company just because its there -- the way many people lgive money to both the Democratic and Republican parties, because they believe in the two-party system. If one is a passionate supporter of a particular artist, then one should give the money and let that artist do what he or she does, even if they might produce a work that the donor doesn't love, or even finds distasteful. On the other hand, I don't think it's a sin to give money and say, "I'd like this to go to rehearsing the Tudor ballets, and I'd like you to perform three every year, and if you do that, I'll give you $1 million a year," say. Or "here's $1 million and it must go to new creations and they can't be by you." Or "Here's $3 million to anyone who will reconstruct Bournonville's "Valdemar" and I get to have veto power over all the members of the artistic team and casting." (I like your golden rule, citibob; I hadn't heard that one.)

Paul, thank you for that beautiful post. According to David Vaughn's biography of Ashton, he did see Cunningham's "Septet" and "Monotones" was his response. Which raises an interesting question -- that's a very unusual thing to do, one great choreographer seeing the work of another great choreographer and setting a very similar work -- same music, similar atmosphere, similar costumes. AND that the second work, the "copycat" work would also be great -- I can't think of another instance of that. (There are instances of lesser choreographers copying, of course, and of copying something that the home audience would not have seen. But in this case, I think everyone in Ashton's world would have seen "Septet" and I don't think he made any secret that "Monotones" was a homage.

Mel, I agree that there aren't many people about that speak fluent Ashton -- and even if there is the World's Greatest Revival Person doing the staging, if the dancers don't get to dance it a LOT, it's hard. Ashton dancing is such a different accent. I remember when the Royal did Dream here several years ago, they did about five performances and the first was very bumpy. By the last one, the corps was beautiful; they'd found their feet in it.

Thank you for taking the time to translate that for us, Susanne. (Your question -- "manners" might be "mannerisms" I think).

We just put up a new forum, Cross Talk, in the Special Groups forums for posts that don't quite fit into any category, and I think that would be a good place for this topic. We want to keep the General Discussion forums for DANCE WATCHERS and the Special Groups for DANCE DOERS. The reason for this separation is a practical one -- if someone posts "how do I become a teacher" in Dance or Anything Goes, the people who are most likely to be able to help may not see it. In the past couple of months, we've had good topics on insurance for dancers, studying swing dancing or Irish dancing, where to locate particular brands of shoes, etc., as well as theoretical ones -- the "How did you know when to stop?", for example -- that would be of most interest to dance professionals. It's time we had a general, crossover forum for that. (CROSS TALK is BW's invention -- thank you ) Anyone can read and eavesdrop, of course, but practical questions of interest to anyone who dances can be posted in CROSS TALK. That way teachers, students (pre-professional, recreational or adult), parents, choreographers, designers, etc. will be likely to see it and chime in.

I only saw Monotones II (the white unitard to the Satie) performed by the Royal in the 1980s, when the bodies weren't as perfectly matched as the original cast. I have seen this a video of this with the original cast and it's in my All Time Top Ten list. I also saw the Joffrey do it, and I thought they made a valiant effort, but they weren't as successful with it as they were in Patineurs and Wedding Bouquet. The original cast of Monotones (Anthony Dowel, Robert Mead and Vivyane Lorraine and I hope I'm remembering correctly) had two men with nearly the same body proportions and line, and a woman who matched them line for line when she was on pointe, and it's one of those ballets that looks off to me when that can't be recreated (which, of course, it can't). It was the ballet that taught me that ballets have geometry. I saw a film of Ashton coaching once where he was explaining that the crooks of the dancers elbows had to be aligned (all three do arms en couronne). One was about a half-inch off, and that wouldn't do. I don't know Monotones I as well -- it is more rarely performed. But Antoinette Sibley and Brian Shaw (and Merle Park?) were in the original cast, and I'm sure it was wonderful. I think this is one of the ballets Joffrey will be reviving this season -- the only American company so far doing an Ashton tribute save for SFB, which gives him two ballets out of three on one program, but I digress. I'd love to see it again.

Thank you for posting that, Estelle. The company certainly does seem to be following the trend in Europe to turn ballet companies into contemporary dance companies. Do you have a sense of the audience there -- is this following their wishes, or those of the director?

I was emailed this by Effy, who asked me to post it. --------------------------------- The highlights of the Royal Danish Ballet outdoor gala vere sentimaental highlights as when Frank Andersen on open stage commissioned a new work from budding choreographer Louise Midjord and when we applauded the appointmenr of Alexei Ratmansky (our home boy) as ballet master at Bolshoi. Unfortunately Nicolas Hubbe in Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux also only represented sentimental value. Dancing this particular piece, when struggling with an injury was not a well considered move. but we love him - so we applaud him. Duo Concertante may have been a wiser choice. The program was dictated by injuries and absentees, as the three leading male dancers (Blangstrup, Greve, Bowman) were, repsectively, injured, in South Africa and hit in the head with a boomerang on the beach. So the focus was on the modern newer pieces which could be danced by middle rank dancers and a too long segment from Manon, where the three ballerinas subsistuted for each other . The good news is that Gitte Lindstrøm is back on stage and will be the ballerina in Etudes late September. Gudrun Bojesen will finally have her debut as la Sylpide in the Hubbe revival of the piece. Over all one may conclude that the company is in fairly good shape, allthough we had too little highlights from the dancing part. Frank Andersen also announced that John Neumeier will create a new ballet for RDB next season. hopefully a better work than Odysseen, which artistics highlight are few,although the piece is very well danced by Schandorff and Greve, who is also the stellar combination in Manon. Effy

Thanks, Estelle. I thought I'd remembered POB doing it. I don't think there was really much to reconstruct. In Nesta McDonald's book about the Ballet Russe in England and America (Till received its premiere in New York, if I remember correctly) she said that Nijinsky was very ill at this time, and only choreographed his own part, with the other dancers filling in and choroegraphing their own material. It received very few performances.

On the dancers' biographies in program books, if they got them from the Maryinsky Theater press materials, that's legal and has always been done, I think. And the press people prepare materials with that in mind.

Exactly. I hope the Ballet Encyclopedia does the same. Unfortunately, many people look at web sites as fields of wildflowers -- anything is there for the plucking.

Thanks for pointing that out, Marc. It's a good example of why we continually tell students, "Do not depend on the web for your research."

For an article on Strauss's Cinderella, read the Viennese-American critic George Jackson on: Cinderella and the Waltz King

Good point -- there's little exposure to new music. Back when both ballet and modern dance were creative forces in this country one of the draws to get young composers to work with choreographers, I've read, was that they saw working with a ballet company as a chance to gain exposure for their work. The ballet would receive six to ten performances in a season and, if it was a hit, would come back the next season. There were a lot of people drawn to new music through dance.

Mostly Not Mozart

Those who hate applause between movements will enjoy this: Sydney Symphony

A preview piece for the upcoming Cunningham season: A career that spans Warhol and Radiohead

From Backstage (link from today's Arts Journal): Green Strings: Should Arts Donors Make Demands?

The link is from today's Arts Journal: THREE-QUARTERS OF ADULTS PARTICIPATE IN THE ARTS The article contains a link to the full survey.

Jacki, I'm not attacking the school. I meant that anecdote about one student to illustrate the broader point about education providing context. It may be a wonderful school but it produced at least one graduate who, at graduate level, had never produced a research paper and who had not read much beyond those clalssics -- her own fault, yes, but she seemed surprised to know that Harvey's theory wasn't still au courant, and in that case, the professor did not seem to have put the work in context. But the point I was making is that whether we study the past or the playground, teachers should bring a context into the discussion.

I thought Rasta Thomas would be the man to revive movie dancing -- he could have been (and still could be) the John Travolta of his generation. Cross-trained in every kind of dancing imaginable (martial arts, modern, jazz, fusion and ballet) he has a HUGE stage persona. I always liked him most in the non-ballet stuff; he's not a Prince, and his ballet was in High Competition Mode. Like ballet, you need the directors (and I'm sure dirac is right, there aren't any) and you need the people who know how to do a musical, and old timers say they're all gone too, and then you need the stars.

Thanks! Im glad you got to see it, tired or no. Kate, when you get the chance -- if you have the time -- come back and tell us who you saw. I'd also be curious about the audience reaction. A

It's always good to discuss these issues, but I wanted to put up a link to past discussions -- Feel free to either add to those comments and revive the thread, or read what's of interest and continue posting about it here. Miinorities in Ballet Black Dancers

Thanks for telling us about this, dufay -- I didn't go, but I'm interested in reading about it. I think what you've described seems very typical for small experimental companies. They don't WANT to use Chopin; they want to use new music. And using disabled dancers and integrating dance and video is also currently popular.