Alexandra

Thank you very much for taking the time to translate that for us, Marc! It would be hard to choose -- I'd want to see the whole thing, even if I wasn't especially interested in a particular ballet.

I wondered what exactly you meant by "modern music"? Pop music, rock, show tunes? Or contemporary serious music? I once watched a class at a professional company where the teacher was using contemporary jazz, and it seemed the specific intent was to break the dancers of their old way of responding to the music, which was melodic. (And totally wrong for that comany, IMO.) I've also seen classes that used pop music very well. One class by Flemming Ryberg in Copenhagen -- whether it was his choice, or the pianist's I don't know -- had the boys doing beats to "I Feel Pretty." Well, the rhythm was dead right

Thank you very much for that, Jack. We have a review of MCB in the Winter issue of DanceView that's also very favorable. And it's wonderful news to hear that there's some good news on the financial front as well!

I'm glad you said that about the audience comments, Estelle. I found that quite distasteful. But fitting with the whole tone of "real people don't go to the ballet, and isn't it comforting to know that they all have dandruff"?????? I love the image -- the entire English audience is ugly and dowdy, sucked in by dreams, and surrounded by elegant Japanese. Oh, and the cool cool young, of course. To me, this would be insulting to half the readership and condescending to the other half.

Michael, I think your Danish relatives have taught you well I haven't seen "Eight Easy Pieces" in a long time, so can't comment beyond, a -- that sounds very interesting, and quite plausible. I also think that art *should* have undercurrents, it shouldn't just be all surface. That fits in what we've been talking about on the "what is high art?" thread, and how works can be appreciated by different people, at different times, and on different levels. It's also something to bear in mind when looking at something that looks simple -- is it simplistic, or is it just the cover over something else?

I love the "I want to do these steps" story -- I've been told similar ones. Another is that dancers (perhaps only those of a certain rank?) at one time had the right to take a ten-minute break every hour. And so if a group didn't like the choreographer, they'd arrange to stagger the ten-minute breaks so that there would never be a full cast and rehearsals were effectively prevented from happening. And I think Hightower had exactly the idea -- if you keep people busy, especially if it's work they respect and enjoy doing, this kind of problem will disappear.

Some of that is very lovely -- oh, he'd hate that word, I bet! But he's still uncomfortable going there, still has to let you know at the end that he's a real guy. The thing that struck me as sad about this article -- and the many other mentions I've read in the British press the past two weeks -- is how important it was that "Becks" (I've never heard of him, but I gather he's a famous football star there) went to the ballet. HOT MARKETING TIP Stop courting the old widows for their money. Put all your energies into getting Michael Jordan to come to the ballet. He's tall -- he'll stand out. People will notice him. And then everybody will go, in the spirit of the "I want to be like Mike!" commercials.

I'm beginning to feel nostalgic for the Dark Ages actually. There was something honest about them. The 1% of the population who cared about art and thought lived together studying and making illuminated manuscripts, while the other 99% went about pillaging or having wild parties with lots of dancing and beer I can sympathize with grace's perceptions. Of course there are exceptions, and we have many of those exceptions on these boards. But there are also those stories of the 14 year old who stormed out of Suzanne Farrell's class when she was teaching at SAB, so that is now some time ago, muttering, "Did she ever, like, dance?" -- genuinely not realizing that Farrell had been a ballerina with the company. To be fair, we can't know what we aren't taught, and if anyone is teaching dance history, or even arts awareness, to teens in general education, I'd love to know about it. It might be a good idea for ballet teachers to mention dancers of the past when they teach. They do in the old academies; combinations are given nicknames of the dancers who were noted for those particular combinations, for example, or old teachers might shout out, "Good grief, not another Kant-turnova!!" during class, which would prompt the bright student to find out whether this was a good or a bad thing.

Probably quite a lot, but isn't it dangerous to go down the Box Office road? We all do it. When something we like/support sells out, it's "The People have decided!!!" When something we like/support does poorly, it's "We have to take a chance on art, money doesn't matter, what's good and what's popular are two different things."

Thank you, Francoise. I do hope you'll all go and report!

This just in from a correspondent who's on the Washington Opera's press list. It pays to read the fine print! He noticed this item and alerted me. Washington Opera productions for the second half of the 2002 to 2003 season at DAR Constitution Hall" "Aida," February 22, 24, 26, March 1 matinee, March 3, 8 and 11. The credits are as follows: "Stage and visual director is Paolo Micciche. Sets by Antonio Mastromattei. Costumes by Alberto Spiazzi. Lighting by Benedict Miller. Projections by Patrick Watkinson. And Nilas Martins as choreographer."

I think the Danes are now on a Program I, Program II track -- and with mostly full-lengths, at least this season. Tiime for another Fokine revolution! (in many ways ) Estelle, in the old days the ballet companies shared with the opera too, and in Denmark, with the theater. It does make things more complicated, but it's workable. One of the stories I heard from several administrative people in Denmark about Kronstam was that he could keep the schedules for five years in his head and know exactly what rehearsal rooms would be needed by the drama, the opera and the ballet, so if someone said, "We think we'd like to substitute this for that," he'd say, "That would cause a problem, because you need the big rehearsal room for that play and the opera will be needing that same room that month." I'm sure he's not the only person in history with that ability! And they do have computers now. But it does require thought and planning. I think there's a probem between switching from "Giselle" to Forsythe and the increase in injuries begiinning in the 1970s coincides with the omnivorous repertory, if I can use that term -- dancers dancing a mixture of styles. (I think we were writing at the same time, and I mentioned the advantages of a homogenous repertory in my post above.) Hmm. It's fun to "come to Paris" to discuss these things Thank you for posting the question, Katharine.

Your first trip -- that's exciting! I hope you have a terrific time. Are you there Friday night? That's the one I'd choose. FRIDAY EVENING, JANUARY 24 AT 8:00PM [Fiorato] Square Dance: BORREE, BOAL [Moverman] Intermission "Davidsbündlertänze": NICHOLS, KISTLER, WEESE, SOMOGYI, ASKEGARD, SOTO, HÜBBE, MARCOVICI [Moredock] Intermission Slaughter on Tenth Avenue: KOWROSKI, WOETZEL, FAYETTE, HANNA, FOWLER, SUOZZI, HENDRICKSON, ROBERTSON

ABT does the same thing in its spring season. It looks like an opera company. There might be one or two mixed bills. When I look back at older programs, I get quite jealous. Three ballets, each one headed by Stars. In the old opera houses, programming was once quite adventuresome. In Denmark, the drama department's leading actress would do a monologue from "Joan of Arc" as the centerpiece of an otherwise ballet program. Or the ballet's leading mime would do Beckett's "Act Without Words" on the same bill with a play. To me, THAT'S crossover programming And too advanced to even contemplate now, I'm afraid. I think in the old rotating repertory days, when a company kept 40 or 50 works a year fresh, it was because there wasn't the amount of company turnover that there is today, and since the dancers had grown up in that repertory, they knew the ballets, from watching them if not from dancing them. It was a real "repertoire," in the sense that this particular set of ballets was not only known by the dancers, but their particular forte. (As in, "I have 50 winter squash recipes in my repertoire.")

I do know of examples of young, contemporary dance choreographers in the States who, while not exactly working for free, are known to be considerably less expensive than others. And I have been told that both the Tudor and Balanchine trusts have sliding fee scales; (I haven't investigated that independently.) The problem with revivals is once they're out of repertory for a long time, there's the question of who can revive them, of course, but also, if the style of the company has moved in a different direction, it takes more time to get the company dancing the older repertory convincingly. And once they've been dumped into that dread Heritage Bin -- "Oh, God. We forgot to program the Heritage work. What should we drag out this year?" -- the ballets are not viewed as living things, but as obligations, and are often danced that way. It's too easy to bring them back for four performances, plunk them in between Virtiuosity Exercise 107 and NewNow Sexy Kickbutt Work 295, and when the audience does not leap to its feet demanding Heritage Work -19, they can say, "See, people really don't want to see that silly old stuff." But this isn't just a Paris problem by any means. I think the only solution to this is to have a director who genuinely loves those ballets and can excite the dancers about them -- the dancers will then excite the audience. To use a Danish example, when Hans Brenaa staged "The Kings Volunteers on Amager," after it had been out of the repertory for 27 years and was presumed dead, the dancers loved it, and the ballet sang. When I saw it again in 1992, it was a soggy, lifeless thing. I spoke to two of the dancers about it. They didn't like it, they didn't have enough to do, it was "just mime." I talked to them about the older production and the woman said, "Yes, but that was Hans Brenaa, and that was a different time." Bring someone in who loves the ballets, he can get you to love them. Have a director who says, "Wow! Look at all these wonderful treasures I found in our attic. There's a great role for you, and you and you, and here's one for our young dancers," I think that could turn things around. The farther we move away from these ballets, the less likely it is to happen.

Rotating repertory is disappearing everywhere, unfortunately, and it's always blamed on the unions. (What does this mean? Does this mean that they have to pay the unions more when they actually work? When they hang one set for the week, or the month, what do the stagehands do for their salary?) A similar change occurred in theater. Until mid-20th century theater companies were repertory companies: a company of actors with employment for the year. Then someone figured out that it was more "efficient" to schedule a few small-cast plays, and then they realized that when they were doing a play with 8 people, the other 30, or however, people weren't doing anything (rehearsing being not doing anything, I suppose) and we moved to the Broadway idea: one show, everyone -- playwright, director, musicians, actors -- are hired for that one show. Ballet will undoubtedly move in that direction. In the 1950s, there was not only rotating repertory, but the programs were mixed -- none of this "Program I, Program II, Mother's Day Program. At New York City Ballet, you'd get a Twelve-Tone Evening (all of the ballets would be to twelve-tone music) and then, a few nights later, one of those Twelve Toners would be the middle ballet on a different program. That was one of the beauties of repertory, because juxtaposition can make such a different. See "Violin Concerto" in October and "Symphony in 3 Movements" in March, and you might think they are similar. See them on the same program, you notice the differences. The dancers do get bored silly and the principals don't get enough work. The corps may dance every night, but if there are six Auroras, that's one night in six. On one of the old-fashioned mixed bills, with three or four ballets -- especially the old demicaractere ballets, with dozens of good roles -- dancers had a much more varied diet.

Thank you, Leigh. I couldn't have said it better! I'd only add that I definitely agree that modern dance belongs in modern dance companies and ballet companies should be dancing ballet - for the benefit of both genres. As I've often said, I wouldn't want to see modern dance companies dancing "Concerto Barocco" either.

Thank you so much for that, Estelle! Now I want to see some of it I was interested to hear about Zambelli, too. I have a story about her. A friend of mine met her when she was VERY old. They chatted for awhile, and she mentioned that she had danced in the old choreography of "Giselle" (!!!!!), not the version we know from Petipa, but the original Paris version. He asked if she could show something, and she thought she could. They put on a record and she stood up and started to dance, took a step, and then sat down, shaking her head, very sadly. "No, I can't," she said. "I have forgotten now." Dance is so horribly ephemeral!

Francoise, please, there is no need to apologize for your English! We are very glad for your comments, and I hope you will understand that if someone asks you what you meant, it is only to make sure you are understood, NOT a criticism. Estelle, yes, I can see what you mean. Costume can date things more than anything, I think.

That was a lovely review, Sylvia -- thank you! (I have to admit I'm glad you're loving Scenes de ballet ) I'm also very grateful to you for reporting on Monica Mason's talk in such detail. What she was makes a lot of sense and it also sounds very honest -- not something we can assume these days, unfortunately. Everything you've reported makes me feel hopeful of the company's future. (Of course, I wasn't there, and if others have different impressions, please, do chime in!)

Katharine's question about "Sylvia" reminded me that I've been meaning to ask for ages about Leo Staats. I've only seen one ballet of his -- "Soir de Fete" -- on a taped-off-TV video -- and liked it very much. I know that Balanchine respected Staats. I know (or think I know) that he was the finest choreographer of his day in Paris. And that's all I know about him -- I'd like to know more. Estelle (and others) what is Staats' reputation now? Are his ballets ever revived? From reading interviews with older dancers, can you tell us more about him?

Just curious but both Francoise and Estelle have used the word "cute," and I'm interpreting that that the staging looked old-fashioned? The score would call for grandeur, I think -- in addition to the scampering goats! (Katharine, I'm reasonably sure that "antic" was meant to be "antique.")

Just bumping this up before it gets buried. I'm surprised there haven't been more comments -- atm? You would have seen Bruhn when he took over "Theme" from Youskevitch! Tell tell! Also, since the new DVD is out, even those who didn't see Bruhn on stage might have some comments? (I haven't yet seen the DVD.) From the snatches of film I've seen, I agree that he was an absolutely beautiful dancer -- not only a pure technique, but a beautiful technique, because everything was so perfect and so harmonious. As I wrote above, I only saw Bruhn in mime roles and there I thought he was very stiff, both physically and dramatically, but as an actor-dancer, in his best roles (Jean in "Miss Julie" and Don Jose in "Carmen," say) he was, by all accounts, extremely effective. I have a few Danish stories about Bruhn One is that when he was young, and still exploring outside opportunities, "Giselle" was in repertory and he wanted to dance Albrecht, a role that was owned, in the custom of the day, by Borge Ralov, who was the company's big star. According to Kronstam, Volkova was working with Bruhn on Albrecht and thought he was quite ready and deserved a chance to dance it, and approached Ralov asking if he would give Bruhn one out of his ten performances. Ralov mulled it over for several weeks and finally said no. Kronstam thought this was why Bruhn finally left to go to ABT (I think he's wrong; I think Bruhn would have left anyway), and very shortly afterwards he danced an Albrecht with Markova that became legendary -- and very different, from what I read, from what we would see today, as both were light, cliassically pure dancers. Quite a contrast to Alonso and Youskevitch! Yet ABT could have two such couples then.

Thank you very much for that, Francoise. It's quite clear I think in any company there will always be questions about promotions. There is always one dancer that no one but the direction seems to think is a principal, and often dancers who are audience favorites but don't get promoted, that's true. I wanted to make one comment about the rank of premier danseur in general, though, and that is that there have been many dancers who were promoted to principal who were not Albrechts, or Auroras -- this used to be the norm. There were danseurs nobles and danseurs de demicaractere, and a company needed, and rewarded, both. She's retired now, but Kathleen Moore was one of the most exciting principals at ABT, and she never danced a leading classical role. She was that rarest of creatures, a character ballerina. The Royal Ballet had a star for years, Wayne Sleep, who was tiny -- much too small to dance the "Prince roles," and there wasn't much of a repertory for him, but the direction (several directions) either created or acquired roles for him because he was a virtuoso. So there are precedents for this.

Yes, and I think they're bringing the best thing they have now. When I last saw them at the Bournonville Week in 2002, the tarantella still looked very good. (Led by Alexei Ratmansky, who was absolutely wonderful -- good as a Dane, a real Bournonville "fullblooded dancer" (fulblodsdanser, I think it is).) The solos and pas de six showed the effects of the last ten years of disarray; the older dancers (i.e., the 30-year-olds) were fine, the younger ones didn't have the phrasing. But they also had very little rehearsal then, and I'm sure that will NOT be the case this time.