Alexandra

Hubbe's training emphasized the plie. the Danes got it (back) from Volkova (and continued it through Kronstam ). I don't know what level he teaches at SAB. Leibling, do you? Editing to add: In Denmark, when Volkova came, she "reformed" (in all senses of that word!) the plie at all levels, from children in the school through the aspirants class (16-18 year olds) to the company's dancers, so a teacher can work on even a basic element at any age.

Article about the new season: http://www.azreporter.com/?itemid=785&catid=17

Nikolaj Hubbe will guest with the company -- very short article here: http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/4671.html

Oh, please do, Mimi! We will read your reports eagerly. (We have activity in this forum from time to time -- there have been three or four regular posters, but then there's no activity and they go away for awhile. I hope you'll bring some of them home!)

My guess is the changes were to make the ballet appeal to a general audience and be more like a movie. There's a mid-50s "Swan Lake" THAT CUTS THE PAS DE TROIS! I've assumed that was because audiences at that time didn't want to see extended passages of classical dancing. They liked the character dances and the "story." Not the mime, but the story (and so we have the Prince slicing his way through to the palace. He has to be a Hero; not enough to have a Lilac Fairy tell him what to do.) There's always been a group that thinks the grand pas de deux should have been placed right after the Prince kissed Aurora awake, so this version may be correcting that "error."

mouse, I think Thomas's "Bumblebee" piece is something Vladimir Angelov made for him when he was a student -- for a competition. On galas, the mixture of dance styles isn't new. Back in the goodolddays, the stars would often do a contemporary, or specially-made piece, in addition to the belovedoldchestnut that made them famous. But there was a sense of planning, an overall idea and sense of balance.

Thanks for posting that, Estelle. What do I think? I won't be going :blush: "Caroline Mathilde" was very bad. Some good roles, but I could only sit through it once. I'd be interested in Anna Laerkesen's piece. All of the ballets I've seen of hers are really ballets. But the rest? Even though some are interesting choreographers -- Prelocaj, Brandstrup -- it's hard to see any company identity. bart, Martins' "Swan Lake" was rapturously received in the press, with one exception, when it was first done, and I have to say I liked it better in Denmark than here (never seen it live; just on tv.) The two Danish performances I attended (in 2000) were sold out and the audience was happy. I don't know if it's aged well. Jorgen, what do you think about the next season?

I think some of the companies mentioned in the original post are more small than mid-sized, and those companies have always struggled. Some of the mid-sized companies iin trouble -- Colorado Ballet (which seems to be ok at the moment, I hope), Ballet Internationale -- seem to have been management related. Another way to look at this might be that there CANNOT be a professional company in every town with a population of 100,00 or more. Instead, larger company -- PNB, MCB, Atlanta, that size -- could serve the communities near their home city. That would, in theory at least, produce better ballet -- more performances, the chance to keep pieces in repertory more than a single season, etc. BUT it would decrease employment opportunities for dancers. Lewis Segal made a very good point, I thought, in a recent piece in the LA Times about the demise of Ballet Pacifica: do not try to start a company in Orange County again until there is a wide enough audience to support it. When ABT and the Kirov can only play one week here, this is an indication that the audience is not wide enough. The idea that all we have to do is start a ballet company and money will fall from the sky and audiences will rush in the door if we do "Swan Lake!" No, make that "Dracula!" Um, maybe we should try Rock Ballet? Yeah, that'll do it -- that has not proven to be a workable formula.

Hans, this is one of the most beautiful answers that has ever been posted on this board! Thank you! (And thanks to Solor for a very good question!)

The karakterdansere category is a recent addition, from the early 90s if I'm remembering correctly, when the retirement age was drastically lowered (to 40) and dancers over 40 who remained with the company were so classified. Before this, every dancer in the company was a character dancer (as well as classical, of course)

Hi glebb! I'm a "Dark Elegies" lover, too. I know it only from its late ABT days, in the Van Hamel era. She, and Johan Renvall and Danilo Radojevic, were stand outs, for me. I don't remember it as being hugely popular, but I didn't get the sense that the audience found it boring. It went over much better than, say, "Undertow," which was revived around the same time.

Thank you, vrs!!!!!

I'm sorry, drb, I must be going blind. You used the word "tutu" in close connection to the word "ballet" with the implication that it's a "new" ballet. Smelling salts!

I'm surprised to learn that about San Francisco. I thought Tomasson had tried very hard (and successfully) to build an audience for the triple bill. Thanks for that info, dirac. What struck me about the article was that the writer had to explain triple bills -- a sure sign that the times have changed. A historical note: in September 1956, writing about the Royal Danish Ballet's production of Ashton's "Romeo and Juliet," John Martin (an ardent modernist) wrote -- paraphrasing from memory -- that "in 50 years when the full-evening ballet is again predominate, people will look back to this production as the start of its resurgence." It is exactly 50 years past 1956!

I think that depends on the time period, and perhaps where he's speaking. the works he does for his own company (and the last tour of the late Frankfurt Ballet) were called modern dance. When he works for a ballet company, he says his works are ballet (and some are ) but I don't think that's a general statement. He was very influenced by Piina Bausch and the whole tanzteater movement.

Very interesting Sunday piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer by David Patrick Stearns about a new phenomenon in classical music -- "pseudo-classical" singers and musicians seeking to be listed on the classical charts to get visibility. This is parallel to what's been going on in ballet now for some time (a modern dance choreographer on the way up, or wanting to be, gets a commission from a ballet company where his/her work has greater visibility and, in the dance instance, there's more money). Pseudo-classical syrup for the soul arts.

Well, there isn't the steady supply of interesting young choreographers that there was 20 years ago, and no major trend or movement seems brewing. More troubling to me -- and maybe this is just a local problem -- but I'm afraid we're running out of dancers. At one D.C. university, not a single modern dance major plans to have a career in dance. Why? Not enough money. Thanks for raising the question!

"Foreign Correspondent." (Hitchcock, 1940)

Taglioni was "en l'air". We think of this as being light, but from contemporary accounts -- she was a jumper. Elssler was neither light (in the sense of being evanescent) nor a jumper, and was terre a terre. Bournonville has four "civilian" types of emploi, too. I'd have to look them up, but one is light and one is strong.

Same thing with me, both browsers. I can live with it. (I've changed nothing on this end, and the only change on BT's end was the upgrade -- I doubt the move had anything to do with it.)

Alas, no. Now I have to log in the first time I access BT (earlier, I was automatically logged in at first access; the problem was trying to access BT4D. Then the problem became every time I switched between the two sites. So it's just getting worse )

Apollo was originally a demi-caractere role, and remained one through the 1960s. Balanchine at one time made a big point about this, saying that his Apollo "was NOT the Apollo Belvedere."

Has it happened? Dirac posted a link to this review, on Links. It started with the comment that some people say that mixed bills are dead, but when they work, they can be magnificent. David Lyman of the Cincinnati Enquirer on Cincinnati Ballet: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...04010410/-1/all (It would be best if we did not get diverted by the reviewer's take on "Stars and Stripes" but stick to the health of the triple bill )

Right you are, Bart. Wonder what's the going rate for French, Spanish and German musicians? [warming to topic] And just THINK of the money we could have made off the Bolshoi during the Cold War?

Once again, I waited too long to post the above editorial (dated March 13) -- Dance Europe has changed its policy. Sort of. Here's a link to Article 19's news page. There are several news articles about this issue -- which also appeared on a few dance blogs. Article 19's News page