Alexandra

Treefrog found this one for us, from the Chicago Tribune. Find out the Chicago Tribune's take on why heavyweight (sic) dance companies don't visit Chicago. Here's a sample: The article has some very good, specific reasons why one particular city hasn't been able to bring in "big time" ballet. Any comments from Chicagoans? What about others -- how is your city doing?

A belated comment on the Danilova quote, which is raised here often. It's the kind of comment that can be expected when a dancer/teacher/ballet mistress is asked a question like that in a public forum. Danilova dealt with the question of her difficulties with the then-current generation of students in other interviews. And isn't looking in the rear view mirror what a historical consciousness does? Otherwise, one propounds the notion that anything that happened before *I* entered the scene is unimportant or should be disregarded. I also think there's a difference between "I really liked that dancer so I can't watch anyone else in the role" (not that I'm dismissing that) and the idea that the very nature and character of a work changes with different casts. Sorting out those differences is, for me and many others, part of the fun not only of performance comparison but of the ever-fascinating question of "what is the work?"

It is difficult, but easier to do with costume changes. In "La Sylphide," Bournonville shows that James's mother is a mother-in-law to be, a mother-in-law (almost), and a mother-in-law again by changing the tartans which indicate clan -- and by the mime, not in the sense of classical mime speeches, but in the way the characters relate to each other. When done well, there's no question who is who. The 18th century ballets, and some 19th century ballets -- all lost, as far as I know -- dealt with very complicated stories, far beyond the love story, of war and betrayal and all the riches that classical mythology offers.

Estelle wrote, on the thread over in News about the Forsythe situation Now, I think the time has come where it's good to have contemporary dance companies -- there's an audience for it, and, personally, I'd much prefer that than having so many companies that try to do both genres, because I think it's not possible to do so on a high level. Paris Opera Ballet Master Patrice Bart said, in a recent interview with Marc Haegeman in DanceView, that he thought that ballet must be excellent (I'm paraphrasing) and therefore it was good to pool a country's resources and have one ballet company at the highest classical standard, implying the rest of the country should do something else. Maguy Marin in a recent interview about her experimental choreography, liked the situation too, saying (again a paraphrase): They have to do the classical stuff and we get to do all the cool, experimental stuff. I think there should -- must -- always be experimental companies outside the big institution. I don't think the classical institutions can be the hotbeds of experimentation. To me, they should refine what's been created in the outlying laboratories. BUT, I also see a danger in the model of having one big classical company, no matter how excellent, and a lot of smaller contemporary, nonballet companies. Doing so removes ballet from the general population. If they don't get to see it, they won't develop a taste for it and, in the French case, the POB will seem more and more remote, more and more "elitist." Lincoln Kirstein once said about American Ballet that it was the "Dolly Dinkle" schools, all those tiny little schools dotting the country, that fed ballet. If one child is produced per year from those schools, it's worth it. (And it gives the entire country an exposure to ballet.) But that's expensive. What are your thoughts on these issues?

Estelle wrote, on the thread over in News about the Forsythe situation Now, I think the time has come where it's good to have contemporary dance companies -- there's an audience for it, and, personally, I'd much prefer that than having so many companies that try to do both genres, because I think it's not possible to do so on a high level. Paris Opera Ballet Master Patrice Bart said, in a recent interview with Marc Haegeman in DanceView, that he thought that ballet must be excellent (I'm paraphrasing) and therefore it was good to pool a country's resources and have one ballet company at the highest classical standard, implying the rest of the country should do something else. Maguy Marin in a recent interview about her experimental choreography, liked the situation too, saying (again a paraphrase): They have to do the classical stuff and we get to do all the cool, experimental stuff. I think there should -- must -- always be experimental companies outside the big institution. I don't think the classical institutions can be the hotbeds of experimentation. To me, they should refine what's been created in the outlying laboratories. BUT, I also see a danger in the model of having one big classical company, no matter how excellent, and a lot of smaller contemporary, nonballet companies. Doing so removes ballet from the general population. If they don't get to see it, they won't develop a taste for it and, in the French case, the POB will seem more and more remote, more and more "elitist." Lincoln Kirstein once said about American Ballet that it was the "Dolly Dinkle" schools, all those tiny little schools dotting the country, that fed ballet. If one child is produced per year from those schools, it's worth it. (And it gives the entire country an exposure to ballet.) But that's expensive. What are your thoughts on these issues?

I'd like to add my voice to the thanks to Diane for her very interesting summary of the political and economic situation there. What's odd about the Frankfurt economic situation is that the first reports, a few months ago, was that the city wanted to replace Forsythe's company with a classical ballet company -- that wouldn't save money. It would also certainly be going against the trend that Estelle noted, that elsewhere in Europe the smaller classical troupes are being turned into modern dance troupes. Generally, Estelle, I think your comment that It seems that "the cities want to spend less money on the arts and cut the budgets, and it's less expensive to have a small modern company than a ballet company" is very true. No pointe shoes, taped music, much smaller roster of dancers. Ballet is in danger (another reason why we started Ballet Alert!) NOT that there's anything wrong with having contemporary dance troupes; it's that they're replacing not supplementing, or adding to, ballet.

Thank you for those comments, BW. I don't want to interrupt THAT flow, and am popping in only to say that even though we have discussed this, I hope we can talk about it again. These questions bubble up every six months or so, and there are about 600 people who've registered since our last discussion, so please, chime in!

There's a brief preview note in the NYTimes about the upcoming tribute to George Harrison which ABT will show at its fall City Center season. Ballet Theater Will Rock to a Beatle (the Quiet One) I wonder what would have happened if the reply had been, "Yes, actually. Michael Smuin did one for the San Francisco Ballet, 20 years ago"? I'm curious. How do ABT fans feel about this? Theme, music, choice of choreographers, direction of the company, "targeted" audience?

There's an article in The Independent today (Ari posted it on Links) that I thought might spark a discussion. The talks between the dancers' union and Covent Garden resume this week. One of the things that's interesting about this article is the several quotes from Australians -- dancers and critics -- which are negative to Stretton, and far from the "they're just being mean to him because he's an outsider" cries that we've read lately. Here's a sampler, from the end of the artcle. There's much more to it, so I hope you'll take a look before discussing Dancers out of step with Royal Ballet chief

Thank you, Jaana! Now we'll count on you to keep us up to date with the Finnish Ballet all season long!!!! If you have a chance to watch a video of Ashton's version of "Cinderella" you may find the choreography more interesting.

Thanks, Renee and Ed, for keeping us up to date on this. There is hope. Ballet Arizona faced a similar crisis two years ago -- the board gave them only one week to raise the money, and they did it. There was a good side benefit, too, because they got a lot of publicity, and the community pulled together to help.

Ronny, everybody on this board has a different background or angle that will be behind what they post here -- and all are welcome. You surely did nothing "wrong". You asked why people were responding and I gave you a reason why at least several aren't As Leigh wrote, no one was trying to stop discussion. (And thank you very much for your kind comments. Please remember that the web site wouldn't be worth beans if people didn't ask questions!!!) Jaana, I think libretto writing was a solitary activity. In the early days of ballet, the choreographer wrote his own libretto. When ballet started to become show business, in the early 19th century, they brought in professional librettists (Bournonville, who wrote his own "ballet poems" his whole career, said this would be the death of ballet as a creative art form )

Good question, Marc. The first time the Kirov came here under the New Regime, one of my friends in New York made an observation that I thought quite wise -- and I hadn't yet seen the dancers. "There are several dancers who look like ours, and those are the ones we like." I think that's part of it, but I don't think that everyone thinks that Balanchine will be the Kirov's salvation -- I do know several people who perhaps are hoping for the reverse From a very outsider point of view -- only seeing the company on tour (and reading your interviews with some Kirov dancers in DanceView ) I'd agree with your comment that the new regime is a continuation of the old.

Sounds like something to watch for -- thanks, Watermill.

Great question, BW. Thank you for posting it. (I also think it would be interesting to hear how audience members define it. It's a term nearly everyone uses.) I'm sure there are a variety of definitions, and it can be quite controversial. Makarova was one example. American critics generally, as I remember it, praised her for her musicality, but I also remember reading several different British reviews that would say something like "her one sin, lack of musicality." So obviously people were using different definitions! To me, it's when the dancer is inside the music, and that means that what I see matches what I hear; there's no air between the movement and the music. An unmusical dancer, to me, is one who gets in the way of the music, who's "off" the music or, at worst, is fighting the music. Choreographers use music differently, and I think one should be aware of this, and not expect Tudor to be danced like Balanchine, or vice versa. Some choreographers set dances on the melody, others are more aware of rhythm. I have two stories about dancers and musicality, but I'll wait to post them until there are other responses

No one went? Here's a link to my review that's in the Post this morning (Saturday) Washington Ballet at the Kennedy Center's Prelude Festival: Prelude: Movers, Shakers -- And Occasional Power

I'm glad you like it (www.balletcompanies.com). I though it a real find. It's a commercial site, so they can afford to keep it updated and I very seldom find bad links there. It's wonderful to be able to tour the dance world like this -- seeing nearly every company in the world, at least through photos, without leaving home. You can learn a lot about the company's approach from reading its press releases, too. To Roy, and any others who are just exploring this site, we have a section of forums on American companies, and another section of non-American companies. (I don't think there's an Australian Ballet company one yet, because we really need at least 3 or 4 active posters to make one go.) I'll be putting up the season's schedule in each forum, company by company, this week, so it will be easy to check up on what everyone's doing -- and read comments by people in that area. I look forward to your Gender Balance Research Study

I know no one meant any harm, and I thank you for being discrete and not naming names But on a message board, one thing often leads to another very quickly, and we try to avoid conflict among sites. I agree -- every site has its own personality and strengths. Now back to gender balance in ballet companies!

Thanks to both of you, and I'm very glad you like us , but we'd like to avoid negative comments about other sites. I hope you understand.

Thanks for all your info, sneds. I'm sure a lot of people will be looking forward to the updated page, so please be sure to give us a holler when it's up. I think a lot of the smaller ballet companies' web sites are maintained by volunteers, sometimes a dancer, sometimes a staff member on his or her own time. I've found a lot of them with out-of-date parts -- and often the web site will start out as a "home page" of the designer/maintainer, and become a dotcom or dotorg a few years down the line, so the URLs can be deceiving, too.

THAT I remember, the 1995 performances.

Oh, I believe both of you

The Suzanne Farrell Ballet hasn't done that one yet, unless I blinked and missed it

The Washington Ballet is dancing as part of the Kennedy Center's Prelude Festival. They opened last night, and are on tonight and tomorrow night. Any comments? (I went last night, but I reviewed it so won't comment. My review should run in the Post tomorrow.) If anyone is interested and doesn't yet have a ticket, last night was not quite sold out, so it's worth checking to see if there are tickets remaining. The program is: "Allegro Brillante," pas de deux from Choo-San Goh's "Momentum," Trey McIntyre's "Blue Until June," and Nacho Duato's "Na Floresta."

Ballet Dad, we now have at least THREE practicing Ballet Fathers -- you'll have your 30 posts in no time. You're a veritable gang -- and welcome, all of you (Ballet Dad, Ballet Dad 48, and Watermill). We've had others in the past, but I don't think anyone else is actively posting. You all are VERY welcome in the Ballet Moms and Dads forum, I hope you know