Alexandra
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Excellent news indeed! Thanks, rg.
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The next time I have a week free I might set up a Ballet Alert! Blog on danceviewtimes.com, and post some of the articles there, but it won't be soon, I'm afraid.
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Dear members and visitors,
I wanted to let you know that Ballet Alert! (www.balletalert.com) has been taken down as of today. NOT the message board, i.e., what you're reading not. But the site that spawned it.
balletalert.com has been dormant for some time -- i.e., no new content has been added -- and the newsletter Ballet Alert! ceased publication quite some time ago. We have retained the URL name, but there will be no website.
My most sincere thanks to all readers, and contributors, and espeically Marc Haegeman for the beautiful cover photo.
Alexandra
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Ilona Landgraf has posted a review in her dvt blog of new works by Jiří and Otto Bubeníček:
The Czech twins Jiří and Otto Bubeníček, principals of Dresden Semper Opera Ballet (Jiří) and Hamburg Ballet – John Neumeier (Otto), regularly gather dancers from various ensembles to tour their own creations worldwide under the label “Les Ballets Bubeníček”. To date, Rome and Tokyo as well as different locations in their homeland have lain on their route. After five years, they have returned to Prague's National Theater for one weekend to present a gala of four of their own choreographies: Two plotless, neoclassical pieces, “Le Souffle de l'Esprit” and “Toccata” contrasted with two narrative works, “Faun” and “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. -
Here's Ilona Landgraf's review of "The Nutcracker" in Hamburg.
[quote[John Neumeier's “Nutcracker” is free of any association with Christmas. This Hamburg production, like John Cranko's earlier version for Stuttgart, converts the winter-holiday fairytale for children into a ballet for all seasons. Substantial content has been added, and watching it becomes a pleasure for adults, too. Christmas or not, this Neumeier has become a much loved classic during Hamburg's winter season.[/quote[
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Merry Christmas, to those who celebrate it, and Happy Holidays to all Ballet Alertniks!
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Has anyone seen this?
Ilona Landgraf wrote about it for her danceviewtimes blog:
Bleak Prospects for the Future
Stuttgart Ballet, seldom lacking self-assurance, titled its new ballet evening “Ground Breakers”. The German term “Fort//Schritt//Macher” better conveys this triple bill's intention: Presented are works by three choreographers of different epochs, all driving forces behind European modern ballet's progress, in short true trailblazers. And further all three – William Forsythe, Hans van Manen and Marco Goecke - are closely associated with the company or are even home-bred.
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Sunday matinee was also a full house -- not always the case with this company. I usually run into New York friends over the weekend, but didn't on Sunday. It's a shame, as this week had much enjoyable dancing. I liked Magnicaballi in "Mozartiana." She had a bit of trouble, especially at the end, but this ballet is so hard (the men were both miscast and out of their depth, I thought). Magnicaballi gave a very thoughtful (not overthoughtful) performance, especially in the Preghiere. This season has depended a lot on the guest ballerinas. Heather Ogden is a Principal with the National Ballet of Canada, of course, and both Magnicaballi and Paola Hartley are leading dancers with Ballet Arizona. I liked Harley the more I saw her. She's extraordinarily musical.
I thought the group did a good job with "Episodes," too, for the most part. I liked Hartley in the opening section and Ogden very much in the last. I can't say I loved "Romeo and Juliet," but I found it interesting. I liked both leads (Hartley with Michael Cook). I think this was Cook's best role here. This is one ballet that looked quite well rehearsed, but it's not as complicated as any of the Balanchine we saw.
These are just a few quick thoughts. I'll write more for danceviewtimes, probably tomorrow.
I do hope others who were there will let us know what you thought!
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I also went last night (to the first performance of Program B) and liked both "Pas de Dix" and "Agon" very much. The house (at least the orchestra) looked sold out, which was nice to see.
I liked "Pas de Dix" because it was so dancey -- not a classroom exercise, as we so often see today in this and other similar works. It's not academic classicism, it's dancing to the music, and this the dancers showed beautifully. Even the clapping solo was a tempo, rather than How. Slow. Can. The. Bal. A. Ree. Na. Hold. That. Line. I thought both Ogden and Gurevitch were excellent and would like to see a later performance, as I'm sure it will be tighter.
I've always been interested in "Agon"'s casualness as well as its tension. Last night, the men at the beginning could have come from a Robbins piece of the same time period, and it was quite a contrast to the way the ballerina is stretched in the pas de deux. I thought the pas de deux was a bit pallid -- but it might look stronger at later performances. I liked both Kirk Henning and Paola Harley in the two pas de trois.
And I liked Paola Hartley very much in "Tempo di Valse" too. At first glance, I thought, "She doesn't look like a Balanchine ballerina," before I remembered that none of them did, until he made them Balanchine ballerinas and then, presto, there was a new "type." I liked Hartley's professionalism -- an experienced dancer among a lot of eager youngsters in the Valse -- and I especially liked her musicality.
And for me, "Duo Concertante" was a misfire, partly because of the Bright Blue shoes/socks worn by the man. It was hard for me to look anywhere else. I thought Magnicaballi's dancing was exceptionally clear, but the piece didn't hold together for me. Michael Cook looked small for this Peter Martins role, and so I thought the geometry of the ballet was off. His quick, emphatic style also seemed off-key to me. The performances I've liked of this ballet in the past had had a mysterious quality about them, and I missed that.
I enjoyed the evening and was glad to see it. I'm going again Sunday afternoon (I couldn't attend the opening). There were quite a few Ballet Alertniks there, and I hope you'll write!
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Ditto! Thanks, Tara. There's also a very interesting review, not only of the ballet but of Ib Andersen's career and what he's done in Arizona, by Alastair Macaulay in the Times -- see Tuesday's Links.
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This is all fascinating, and terrible, to me. Back to the Bad Old Days? Or is this the new century kicking in? (there's no answer to those questions except time, of course.) My heart goes out to the artists in St. Petersburg.
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There will be a memorial for Paul Szilard at the Joyce on October 31st.
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German dance critic Ilona Landgraf now has a blog on danceviewtimes. She'll write about other companies too, but her first two posts have been about Stuttgart Ballet performances.
Here 'tis:
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Another article on Heidi Ryom (also in Danish) by Anne Middleboe Christensen:
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Considering the good news Jane Simpson posted below, it's even sadder to have to report such sad news. Heidi Ryom, one of the leading ballerinas in the 1980s and '90s, has died suddenly. Here's a report by Eva Kistrup:
http://danceviewtimes.typepad.com/eva_kistrup/2013/10/heidi-ryom-dies-suddenly-.html
For those who read Danish, there's an appreciation of Ryom in today's Berlingske Tidende by Viveka Wern:
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Here's a lnk to another news story that has more information on Fayette:
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Thank you very much for that report, Carbro. (and for posting the links to press coverage!) The best news, of course, is what James Fayette said -- that "it could have been much worse."
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Re the Sarabande. Indeed! As you know, that's what developed into the danse d'ecole.
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Thank you for this, pherank. It's a keeper
All the dances in one place!!! -
Re the dances of death, there were several round dances -- such as Ring Around the Rosy, where they all fell down "dead" at the end (and some, it is written, were actually dead) and Pied Piper type dances, as mentioned above, but the Dance of Death, I've always read and been taught, is what you see at the end of Bergman's film "The Seventh Seal": death leading the doomed away, often up a hill (as in the film) with their black cloaks flying. It was an image, but not an actual dance.
And then there was the dansomanie, which now many think was caused by vilagers eating rotten grain, where whole towns of people danced themselves to death, literally.
But on the ordinary Saturday night, there were round dances that went on continiually -- no beginning/middle/end; you just entered and left as it pleased you. The Maypole Dance is an example of this dance (the form was called the carole; that's the major one; I'm sure there were others). And later there was the estampe, the first dance that had watchers as well as dancers; also, it had a beginning/middle/end.
The steps, I do not know. But there are several groups who do, and have reconstructed them. A friend of mine taught my class at a local university a few of these and they were very like games, very simple steps, and play-like hand gestures (couples wagging their fingers at each other as if to say, "Oh! You've been naughty."
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Sandi, it was Nikoloz Makhateli, who's now the boys' teacher at KAB. (The dancer in the youtube video is Emerson Moose. The Firebird is Riho Sakamoto, who's only 15.)
The ending is from a tape of Lifar dancing the role, I was told.
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Has anyone read this article in The Nation? I read it yesterday in one gulp. I think Harss is a wonderfully vivid writer, and although this is a complex piece -- weaving her observations at rehearsals of Ratmansky's Shostakovich trilogy, with its roots in Russian history, and lots of fascinating information about Shostakovich WITH some very interesting comments by Ratmansky and those he's worked with -- it flows.
http://www.thenation.com/article/17531/running.shadows#
Here's a quote:
Ratmansky is politely pushing the dancers, and ballet technique, to a new level. He tends to complicate the movement, speeding it up, taking it off-balance and introducing multiple shadings into each step. “His ballets are so hard; you do so many steps,” says Isabella Boylston, a soloist at American Ballet Theatre, where Ratmansky is the artist in residence. “But you can also have a sense of abandon, and I think he likes that.” Ratmansky likes the unexpected. Each day, he comes into the studio with a few ideas, which he has developed early in the morning before rehearsal, and a black notebook full of musical cues, but without a firm plan. His rehearsals are remarkably tension-free, even when the dancers look wan and spent and he asks them to repeat everything just one more time. They ask questions and make suggestions; he listens and takes their input. But he is also implacable in his desire for them to exhibit certain nuances, and he demands they use their imagination: “Run like you’re shadows, with no weight.” Though Ratmansky’s choreography is almost exclusively built out of the usual ballet vocabulary—steps developed in the French court, with names like coupé, passé and brisé—under his direction they look less formal, more free, almost newly minted.
Read more: Running Like Shadows | The Nation http://www.thenation.com/article/17511/running.shadows#ixzz2ZyGyU6wK
Follow us: @thenation on Twitter | TheNationMagazine on Facebook -
This was a shock, as I did not know he was ill. I saw him both as Lescaut and as the Man in "Song of the Earth," among other roles, and admired him very much. RIP, Mr. Wall.
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I've posted a review of Program B on danceviewtimes:
Paintings are luckier than ballets. If a museum wants to have an exhibition of art works that have been in storage for a few centuries, the paintings can be retrieved, hung in a gallery, rediscovered and pronounced lost masterpieces. In contrast, ballets without a company to take care of them can vanish in a season, and reviving dead ballets is an almost hopeless task. Unless, it seems, a ballet is lucky enough to wander into Florida, where the Sarasota Ballet has not only been building a repertory of ballets by Frederick Ashton but making them look extraordinarily fresh.I wasn't able to see Program C, unfortunately. Thanks for the comments so far, and if others saw it, or any other program, I hope you'll chime in!
All the dances in one place!!!
We're taking down the Ballet Alert! website
in Ballet News & Issues
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Sandik, thank you so much for your kind comments. (And I'm sorry for those who found the title scary. Any news about this website would be on About the Site, if that helps! (Not meaning to imply that any is being planned!)
sandi, the demise of libraries is very scary. I keep thinking it must have been like this among the bards back at the time of the invention of the printing press. "Who would want to read, when they could listen to us?" they would have said.