Alexandra

SAN FRANCISCO BALLET ANNOUNCES PROGRAMMING FOR FALL 2008 AMERICAN TOUR WITH ENGAGEMENTS IN CHICAGO, NEW YORK, COSTA MESA, CA, AND WASHINGTON, D.C. San Francisco Ballet—America’s Oldest Professional Ballet Company—Embarks on a Four-city American Tour as Part of Its Year-long 75th Anniversary Celebration SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Tuesday, June 10, 2008—In fall 2008, as part of its 75th Anniversary Celebration, San Francisco Ballet–America’s oldest professional ballet company–will embark on a four-city national tour with 30 performances total. The American Tour will include prestigious engagements at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Millennium Park, in Chicago (September 16–21); New York City Center in New York (October 10–18); Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, California (November 11–16); and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. (November 25–30). Much of the tour’s mixed-repertory programming will feature works from the Company’s acclaimed New Works Festival held in spring 2008. As the culmination of San Francisco Ballet’s recent 75th Anniversary Repertory Season, the festival featured 10 new works by 1o renowned choreographers that premiered over three consecutive evenings. San Francisco Ballet at 75: The American Tour San Francisco Ballet will kick off the tour with seven performances over six days at the Harris Theater in Chicago (September 16–21), marking the first full-Company engagement in Chicago in over two decades. For its Chicago engagement, San Francisco Ballet will perform two mixed-repertory programs of three works each. Additionally, in honor of the fifth anniversary of the Harris Theater, San Francisco Ballet will perform a special one-time-only gala program for the Harris Theater’s Fifth Anniversary Celebration on September 18. This engagement includes a total of six Chicago premieres. Program A includes the Chicago premieres of Helgi Tomasson’s The Fifth Season, Christopher Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour, and Jorma Elo’s Double Evil, and will be performed at 7:30pm on September 16 and 19, and at 1:30pm on September 20. Program B, featuring the Chicago premieres of Tomasson’s On a Theme of Paganini, Mark Morris’ Joyride, and Yuri Possokhov’s Fusion, will be performed at 7:30pm on September 17 and 20, and at 1:30pm on September 21. The gala at 6:30pm on September 18 will include Possokhov’s Fusion, Tomasson’s Concerto Grosso, and two additional works to be announced. Over eight days and nine performances (October 10–18) at New York City Center, the Company will present three mixed-repertory programs that include seven New York premieres. San Francisco Ballet last performed in New York in July 2006, as part of the Lincoln Center Festival, and most recently performed at City Center in 2002. Program A, which features George Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15 and the New York premieres of Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour and Possokhov’s Fusion, will be performed at 8pm on October 10 and 18, and at 7:30pm on October 15. Program B features the New York premieres of Tomasson’s The Fifth Season and Morris’ Joyride, as well as Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments, and will be performed on October 11 at 8pm, October 12 at 3pm, and October 16 at 7:30pm. Program C will be performed on October 14 at 7:30pm, October 17 at 8pm, and October 18 at 2pm, and includes the New York premieres of Tomasson’s On a Theme of Paganini, Val Caniparoli’s Ibsen’s House, and Elo’s Double Evil. The third engagement of the American Tour will be at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, California (November 11–16) and includes five Southern California premieres. San Francisco Ballet will present two mixed-repertory programs over six days and seven performances. The Company last performed in Southern California at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles in 2003, and most recently performed at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in 2002. Program A will be performed on November 11, 13, and 15 at 7:30pm and on November 16 at 2pm and includes the Southern California premieres of Possokhov’s Fusion and Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour, along with Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments. Program B will be performed on November 12 and 14 at 7:30pm and on November 15 at 2pm, and includes the Southern California premieres of Tomasson’s The Fifth Season, Morris’ Joyride, and Elo’s Double Evil. The American Tour concludes with an engagement at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. (November 25–30) that includes two Washington, D.C. premieres. The Company will present a mixed-repertory program, Program A, as well as the full-length production of Helgi Tomasson’s Giselle, over five days and seven performances. Program A, a mixed-repertory program of three works, will be performed on November 25 and 26 at 7:30pm and includes the Washington, D.C. premieres of Morris’ Joyride and Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour, as well as Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments. Tomasson’s full-length classic Giselle, which the San Francisco Chronicle hailed as “Tomasson’s finest achievement,” will be performed on November 28, 29, and 30 at 7:30pm and on November 29 and 30 at 1:30pm. San Francisco Ballet last performed at The Kennedy Center in 2000.

Cristian, I believe Mme. Alonso's version is very different. It's the same story, but it descends from the Russian (which probably descends, at least in part, from the old French). Ashton completely rechoreographed it. If there aren't dancing chickens in the version you're used to, and a lot of beautiful and imaginative use of ribbons, it's not the Ashton

I've skimmed it. It was published in Holland some time ago and is just now being translated. I have to say I learned more about van Dantzig than I did about Nureyev

The last time I saw it was with ABT and it's one of the best things I"ve ever seen them do. You would have thought the ballet was set on them, about a week ago. (Alexander Grant staged it.) The cast was Ashley Tuttle and Ethan Stiefel, with Kirk Peterson as the Widow Simone. They had the tone right, the mime right, the dancing was musical, the audience howled, the critics wrote and wrote and WROTE about it -- and I don't think they've done it since.

I agree with Leigh, but I do think there's a lot of truth in the quote: "You have to be very careful when you use your mind, or you will get into trouble". Balanchine. Performance has to be beyond thinking. You don't want to listen to a pianist playing a very difficult concerto thinking about scales, worrying which key s/he is in at the moment and when the arpeggio passage is coming up and how that relates to the melody hiding in the harmony for a few minutes and STRUCTURE! Where are we in sonata form? For those of us who watch or think or write about ballet from the outside, too, it can be very easy to draw conclusions from the smallest clue and extrapolate from these conclusions, add on a few assumptions we've misoverheard or misread, and come up with some pretty impressive(ly wrong) theories!

Thanks for starting off the thread, Mike. I went last night and this afternoon and was glad to see so many people in the audience -- and it was such a happy audience! I think this is one of the most important programs the Kennedy Center does and I am very, very glad to have the chance to see what's going on in the top schools.

Ray, you gotta write a book: A Quip with a Past. (I love that phrase!)

Thanks for finding the origin of the quote, bart! One historical note -- Balanchine would not have been under Kirstein's influence in 1933. Perhaps he spoke in French. Whatever the origin, his statement reflects the philosophy and aesthetics that he would have been taught at the Mariinsky, where aesthetics, and the idea that ballet is a philosophy, dating back to the first dancing masters, was taught. There's a lot written about ballet aesthetics, actually, but most of us don't have access to it, and it's certainly not in the popular press!

Ah, the Pretzel Girl pas de deux, staple of our age

There really are a lot of endings -- the last time I saw the Bolshoi's, I thought Odette was strangled by The Evil Genius (the monster formerly known as Rothbart) but I wouldn't take an oath on it. Maybe she just fell into the scarf and died. The Soviet versions I've seen had Siegfried and von Rothbart fight and von Rothbart losing (death by complications following a Wingdectomy).

Terrific work, BTers! You've just given today's choreographers LOTS of good ideas Just imagine all of these -- or even 10 of these -- in the same work! My take on the Mahler ballets (through no fault of Mahler) was that they could have been called Death is Sad.

I'm also glad they're not stuck in the Thanksgiving week slot. More people -- I hope! -- will see the company. Thanks, FF.

As kfw said, this was a belief of Lincoln Kirstein's, but it's been a principle of the classical point of view in aesthetics, going back to the Greeks (at least). One way to think of it is that nonclassical art IS personal -- often confessional. It's "Something terrible happened to me and I'm going to tell you all about it," and that can be done very artfully. It advocates realism, content. (In painting, think of Ingres versus Delacroix, or Carraci versus Carravagio.) The classical point of view is objective rather than subjective, giving an outside rather than inside view, if you will. In ballet it means that the choreography itself is impersonal; it's a codified system of steps and combinations and rules that's brought to life by the dancers. Graham's was a personal style created out of her own body -- and then codified, but the impetus was personal. The modern dancers, back in the day, almost always started their careers with solos while working out their theory. What was dance? Contraction and release? Fall and recovery? Classicism doesn't have those theories. Not saying either is right or wrong, good or bad, but it's a big divide in Western art. Interesting that the epigraphs change -- I can't help but thinking that that would be quite a chore!

Thank you for posting in such detail, 4mrdncr. I think you could convince someone to become a ballet fan, if someone who was about to test the waters read that post! You really did have an interesting year. I can't imagine what it would be like to see the Royal Ballet after so much time. How did it look to you? Did it measure up to memories, or surpass them, or otherwise? I'm curious.

Great topic! This wasn't a particularly great season, for me. I didn't see everything available -- I missed Washington Ballet's interesting Tharp/Wheeldon/Morris triple bill that was both a popular and a critical success. Highlights were the Shades act (and only the Shades act) from the Kirov Ballet's "La Bayadere," although I also enjoyed Vishneva's and Lopotkina's performances as Nikiya. The most surprising performance for me was the New National Ballet of Tokyo (and I'm blushing to say I'll have to check that name!) in "Raymonda." For a young company, I thought they did an excellent job, and it was a pleasure to see dancers breathing life into classical style. I'm looking forward to a lot of responses on this one -- what did you like, or not, from this season?

This will be a sticky eventually, but I wanted to leave it in the main forum for at least a few days. Welcome back!!! Please read the Company Forums Are Back! Post [click here] before reading this! Because this forum has more posters than most, and because we've had occasional problems in the past, we wanted to put up a few guidelines. I don't want to make too much of this. I think of it as having to put up street signs and stop signs in a town that has begun to grow. The Golden Rules, of course, are to remember that this forum is dedicated to civilized discourse of classical and neoclassical ballet. 1. To further that, we'd ask you to be welcoming to new posters. Please leave room for others and be inclusive. This is a Big Board and can be intimidating. What we'd ask, above all, is that people be careful not to try to dominate the forum. Don't ALWAYS make the first post on a performance, please, or answer every post, or do anything that would make YOU, if you had just found the board, reluctant to post because you think this is a private party and you wouldn't fit in, or everyone there knows so much and what could you say, or the like. BT Posters are almost always nice to other posters, but it's good to remember, in the heat of the moment, that the person who is disagreeing with you is NOT the four-eyed monster from another planet, but a very nice person you'd like to chat with at intermission. 2. Please don't forget the No Gossip, No Backstage Chat rule. 99% of our posters are golden, but anyone can forget. If you need a refresher, please click the link that's now at the top of every forum. 3. Please always be aware that the dancers and company personnel read these boards. One can be honest without being mean. When I began writing criticism I was given a very good piece of advice by an a more experienced critic: Write as if the dancer's mother were reading over your shoulder. That doesn't mean we have to pull punches, but calling the ballerina you don't like a clubfooted floosie, say, is not a good idea, and one should always remember that most mothers who hang about in ballet forum elevators are armed. 4. Sometimes long reviews can hinder discussion. We've had issues in the past with people wanting to post a review on a separate thread so that it doesn't get in the way of the discussion or dissuade other from posting; we've had times when people post a long review and there's no response because (we're told) that others "didn't know what to write, it covered everything!". Occasional long posts are great, but if you want to write full reviews of every performance, we'd ask that you consider using the forum blogs (they're free and can be set up in milliseconds by going into your control panel and finding the blog section in the left hand panel.) If you do choose to open a blog, we'd suggest that, after you post, you post a link to it in the proper thread, so that people can easily find it. Comments can be made in the blog itself, so you'd have your own message board (forum rules still apply). We're not going to push this point, but make it as a suggestion. We added the blog function because we've had people who came to the board and wanted to blog their first season of ballet, or their Summer Grand Tour of Europe performances, or the like, and it hasn't been used very often, unfortunately. You can see the Blog list by clicking Blogs at the top of the board. Thank you, all of you, for posting with us! Sorry for all the instructions, but we want to make this work. Please read this, think about it, and then dive in and talk about ballet!

This will be a sticky eventually, but I wanted to leave it in the main forum for at least a few days. Welcome back!!! Please read the Company Forums Are Back! Post [click here] before reading this! Because this forum has more posters than most, and because we've had occasional problems in the past, we wanted to put up a few guidelines. I don't want to make too much of this. I think of it as having to put up street signs and stop signs in a town that has begun to grow. The Golden Rules, of course, are to remember that this forum is dedicated to civilized discourse of classical and neoclassical ballet. 1. To further that, we'd ask you to be welcoming to new posters. Please leave room for others and be inclusive. This is a Big Board and can be intimidating. What we'd ask, above all, is that people be careful not to try to dominate the forum. Don't ALWAYS make the first post on a performance, please, or answer every post, or do anything that would make YOU, if you had just found the board, reluctant to post because you think this is a private party and you wouldn't fit in, or everyone there knows so much and what could you say, or the like. BT Posters are almost always nice to other posters, but it's good to remember, in the heat of the moment, that the person who is disagreeing with you is NOT the four-eyed monster from another planet, but a very nice person you'd like to chat with at intermission. 2. Please don't forget the No Gossip, No Backstage Chat rule. 99% of our posters are golden, but anyone can forget. If you need a refresher, please click the link that's now at the top of every forum. 3. Please always be aware that the dancers and company personnel read these boards. One can be honest without being mean. When I began writing criticism I was given a very good piece of advice by an a more experienced critic: Write as if the dancer's mother were reading over your shoulder. That doesn't mean we have to pull punches, but calling the ballerina you don't like a clubfooted floosie, say, is not a good idea, and one should always remember that most mothers who hang about in ballet forum elevators are armed. 4. Sometimes long reviews can hinder discussion. We've had issues in the past with people wanting to post a review on a separate thread so that it doesn't get in the way of the discussion or dissuade other from posting; we've had times when people post a long review and there's no response because (we're told) that others "didn't know what to write, it covered everything!". Occasional long posts are great, but if you want to write full reviews of every performance, we'd ask that you consider using the forum blogs (they're free and can be set up in milliseconds by going into your control panel and finding the blog section in the left hand panel.) If you do choose to open a blog, we'd suggest that, after you post, you post a link to it in the proper thread, so that people can easily find it. Comments can be made in the blog itself, so you'd have your own message board (forum rules still apply). We're not going to push this point, but make it as a suggestion. We added the blog function because we've had people who came to the board and wanted to blog their first season of ballet, or their Summer Grand Tour of Europe performances, or the like, and it hasn't been used very often, unfortunately. You can see the Blog list by clicking Blogs at the top of the board. Thank you, all of you, for posting with us! Sorry for all the instructions, but we want to make this work. Please read this, think about it, and then dive in and talk about ballet!

This will be a sticky eventually, but I wanted to leave it in the main forum for at least a few days. Welcome back!!! Please read the Company Forums Are Back! Post [click here] before reading this! Because this forum has more posters than most, and because we've had occasional problems in the past, we wanted to put up a few guidelines. I don't want to make too much of this. I think of it as having to put up street signs and stop signs in a town that has begun to grow. The Golden Rules, of course, are to remember that this forum is dedicated to civilized discourse of classical and neoclassical ballet. 1. To further that, we'd ask you to be welcoming to new posters. Please leave room for others and be inclusive. This is a Big Board and can be intimidating. What we'd ask, above all, is that people be careful not to try to dominate the forum. Don't ALWAYS make the first post on a performance, please, or answer every post, or do anything that would make YOU, if you had just found the board, reluctant to post because you think this is a private party and you wouldn't fit in, or everyone there knows so much and what could you say, or the like. BT Posters are almost always nice to other posters, but it's good to remember, in the heat of the moment, that the person who is disagreeing with you is NOT the four-eyed monster from another planet, but a very nice person you'd like to chat with at intermission. 2. Please don't forget the No Gossip, No Backstage Chat rule. 99% of our posters are golden, but anyone can forget. If you need a refresher, please click the link that's now at the top of every forum. 3. Please always be aware that the dancers and company personnel read these boards. One can be honest without being mean. When I began writing criticism I was given a very good piece of advice by an a more experienced critic: Write as if the dancer's mother were reading over your shoulder. That doesn't mean we have to pull punches, but calling the ballerina you don't like a clubfooted floosie, say, is not a good idea, and one should always remember that most mothers who hang about in ballet forum elevators are armed. 4. Sometimes long reviews can hinder discussion. We've had issues in the past with people wanting to post a review on a separate thread so that it doesn't get in the way of the discussion or dissuade other from posting; we've had times when people post a long review and there's no response because (we're told) that others "didn't know what to write, it covered everything!". Occasional long posts are great, but if you want to write full reviews of every performance, we'd ask that you consider using the forum blogs (they're free and can be set up in milliseconds by going into your control panel and finding the blog section in the left hand panel.) If you do choose to open a blog, we'd suggest that, after you post, you post a link to it in the proper thread, so that people can easily find it. Comments can be made in the blog itself, so you'd have your own message board (forum rules still apply). We're not going to push this point, but make it as a suggestion. We added the blog function because we've had people who came to the board and wanted to blog their first season of ballet, or their Summer Grand Tour of Europe performances, or the like, and it hasn't been used very often, unfortunately. You can see the Blog list by clicking Blogs at the top of the board. Thank you, all of you, for posting with us! Sorry for all the instructions, but we want to make this work. Please read this, think about it, and then dive in and talk about ballet!

There are a lot of little arrows in this forum now, guiding you to recent posts that have been moved to the company forums, which have been reopened for posting. (There's a post here with more info. For those who have joined us in the past few months, the Recent Ballet Performances is a good place to put comments about: 1. A company that is not on the Companies Forums list 2. A company that is touring (If the Kirov Ballet comes to DC, post about it here. A few weeks after the thread is inactive, we'll move it into the Kirov-Mariinski forum for archive purposes) 3. If it's a gala, or special performance of any kind 4. If it's a festival or mixed company series (like New York's Fall for Dance) 5. If it just doesn't seem to fit anywhere else 6. Or if you don't know what to do with it. Please don't worry about the Proper Place to Put Things. If we think it's necessary we'll move it (and leave an arrow so you can find it.) I'll make this a sticky in a few days, but wanted to put this up in the hopes of avoiding confusion.

Thanks for posting this, and I hope people will go and tell us about it!

After Mannerism came Something Different (Rubens, Veneer, landscapes, genre paintings). Not a revolution, but enough to tide us over for several centuries. I think we may be seeing that now with Ratmansky, but it's early days.

Thanks to popularlibrary for referencing the quote and bart for finding it. I think that's one of the keys to this period: we're in an Age of Pedants. I think of it as, somebody has to be in charge. If people aren't creating, then there has to be someone maintaining standards. To al certain extent, this is a good thing, because technique (not virtuosity, but TECHNIQUE) was getting sloppy. Go for umpty-zillion pirouettes and to hell with placement. Turnout, schmernout. Etc. But at some point, you need choreographers to gently push the teachers aside and say, "All right, you're not in class any more, let's MOVE." It's very interesting to watch films from the 1970s with ballet students, which I now have the pleasure and privilege to do. To al student, they think the 1970s dancers are "better" than what they see on stage today. "That's the same company we saw do this last week?????" is the usual comment. BUT by "better" they mean more disciplined, more cohesive a unit. Individual dancers aren't up to current standards because they don't have high extensions or long enough legs. Even Colleen Neary's legs are beginning to look normal!!! I think -- and I'm going to write this in an article this summer -- that we're in a Mannerist period of neoclassicism. Neoclassicism is bred out. Three generations of Son of Balanchine ballets without a new spark has left people mining the same territory over and over and over. It's Mannerist because we're now distorting classicism, literally stretching it out, because it's the last thing we can think to do with it.

One thing about the 1970s. There were a lot of new Balanchine ballets in the 1970s, and really right up until his death. The 1970s are considered by many to be a Silver Age, and it was in the 1970s that Balanchine became crowned King of Choreographers in the general media. After Stravinsky's death came, not in order, "Mozartiana," "Davidsbundlertanze," "Ballo della Regina," "Union Jack," "Vienna Waltzes," "Chaconne," -- just to name the hits.

Oh, bingham, thank you for pointing that out. We should all realize that every company has people who read internet forums, blogs, etc. (I think, though, in this instance, we called ABT.)

I think they were trying to answer directly and succinctly so there would NOT be a misunderstanding. I think it's safe to take the statement at face value.