Alexandra

"magical" "Clara" "nutcracker doll" "Snow Queen" -- all good signs! A real Nutcracker!!!!

Thanks to Liebs for this link. Crain's New York Business Daily has a story about this today: Dance Theatre of Harlem details turnaround plan Lots of detail here -- thanks, Liebs!

Re Giselle, it's my understanding that this will be a traditional Giselle, staged by the same person who staged the company's "Coppelia" last year (Her first name is Char, but I'm blanking on her last name!) I don't know about "Nutcracker" -- perhaps Victoria will see this thread and comment.

I didn't realize she already had quite a TV career going -- not all that usual for a dancer. Best of luck to her!

Scroll down -- way down! -- for a very brief news item about Jennifer Gall. [copied from Ari's Links] Briefly Noted

From the company: Oregon Ballet Theatre (Christopher Stowell, Artistic Director) announces its 2004 - 2005 company roster. The company has increased to 21 (from 20) and five new dancers have joined the company. The apprentice core had grown by more than 50% -- from eight last season to 13 this year. Four of the 13 trained at the School of Oregon Ballet Theatre (Damara Bennett, School Director). Dance critic Martha Ullman West calls the dancers of Oregon Ballet Theatre "astonishingly good" in her 03-04 season review of the company, which appears in the October 2004 issue of Dance Magazine. All the dancers critiqued in the review remain with the company and Leann Underwood, then an apprentice now a company member, was also singled out for praise. The 2004 - 2005 company comprises: Candace Bouchard Matthew Boyes Kester Cotton Paul De Strooper Ansa Deguchi Damian Drake Katie Gibson Yuka Iino Gavin Larsen Mia Leimkuhler Valerie Limbrunner Daniela Martin Kathi Martuza Anne Mueller Alison Roper Artur Sultanov Tracy Taylor Scott Trumbo Leann Underwood Karl Vakili Holly Zimmerman The new dancers are: Candace Bouchard Ansa Deguchi Damian Drake Valerie Limbrunner Leann Underwood, and Holly Zimmerman. Three of those five -- Mlles. Bouchard, Deguchi and Underwood -- were apprentices last year and Ms. Underwood trained at the School of Oregon Ballet Theatre. Ms. Limbrunner was a guest dancer at OBT last year; Mr. Drake joins the company from Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Ms. Zimmerman from Kansas City Ballet. The company is increasingly international as OBT now includes two dancers from Japan (Ansa Deguchi and Yuka Iino), a Russian (Artur Sultanov) and a Canadian (Paul De Strooper). The company also includes two Oregon natives: Kester Cotton and Valerie Limbrunner. Tracy Taylor is a founding member of the company, having been with OBT since its inception in 1989. The dancers are already well into rehearsals for "Movement as Metaphor," OBT's season opening program, which runs October 9 - 16 at Keller Auditorium. The program includes: - Swan Lake, Act III, adapted by Christopher Stowell from Marius Petipa's 1895 original, to Tchaikovsky's magnificent score. Includes the breathtaking Black Swan pas de deux with its famous 32 fouettes. Company Premiere. - Orpheus Portrait by Kent Stowell set to achingly romantic music by Franz Lizst. Company Premiere, first time this piece has been by a company other than Pacific Northwest Ballet. - Concerto Barocco by George Balanchine set to Bach's virtuosic Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor. Set by Francia Russell, who, in 1964, became one of the first ballet mistresses chosen by Balanchine to teach his works around the world.

Old news now, but here's the official press release: New York City Ballet has announced the program for the Opening Night Benefit, to be held on Tuesday, November 23. The program is titled “Ballet Four Ways” and includes works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Peter Martins, and Christopher Wheeldon. The performance, which begins at 7:30 is preceded by a cocktail reception and followed by a gala dinner on the Promenade of the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center. Opening the program is the U.S. premiere of Mr. Martins’ Octet, a ballet set to Mendelssohn that the Royal Danish Ballet premiered on November 14, 2003. Octet features two principal couples and a corps of six men. Octet will also be performed on the Company’s annual New Combinations Evening on Saturday, January 22, replacing the previously announced world premiere ballet from Mr. Martins. Additional performances of Octet will be given on January 23 at 3 p.m. and January 29 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. The program continues with Mr. Wheeldon’s Liturgy, a haunting pas de deux set to music by contemporary composer Arvo Pärt that premiered on May 31, 2003, followed by Balanchine’s Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux, a virtuoso work that premiered on March 29, 1960. “Ballet Four Ways” concludes with Robbins’ 1983 tribute to Fred Astaire, I’m Old Fashioned, named for the song by Jerome Kern which Morton Gould’s score uses as its theme. Tables of ten for the Opening Night Benefit are available for $15,000, $20,000, and $30,000 and include performance tickets, while individual tickets are $1,500, $2,000, and $3,000; these tickets are available through the NYCB Special Events Office at 212-870-5585. Tickets for the cocktail reception and the performance (orchestra sides and back) are $200 and are also available through the NYCB Special Events Office. Tickets for just the performance are priced from $20 to $100 and will be available at the New York State Theater Box Office and through the NYCB website at www.nycballet.com beginning September 27 and through Ticketmaster at 212-307-4100 beginning September 28. The New York State Theater is located on the Lincoln Center Plaza at Broadway at 63rd Street. For general information on tickets for any New York City Ballet performance, call 212-870-5570, or visit www.nycballet.com.

Now, here's some news! JULIO BOCCA TO APPEAR AS GUEST ARTIST WITH NEW YORK CITY BALLET IN JANUARY 2005 New York City Ballet has announced that international ballet star Julio Bocca will appear as a guest artist during the Company’s 2005 winter repertory season at the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center. Mr. Bocca, who is from Buenos Aires, will appear in Peter Martins’ Todo Buenos Aires, which Mr. Martins is re-choreographing for the occasion. Mr. Bocca began his dance training in Buenos Aires with his mother at age four. He studied at the Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colon and during that time danced with the Caracas Ballet Company. In 1983, he joined the Ballet del Teatro Municipal de Rio de Janeiro as a principal dancer, and in the same year appeared with the International Ballet of Caracas. In May 1985, Mr. Bocca won the Gold Medal at the Fifth International Ballet Competition in Moscow, and in 1986 he joined American Ballet Theatre as a principal dancer. In 1997, Mr. Bocca became artistic director of Ballet Argentino, a touring group of young Argentinean dancers. With these dancers, he created “Boccatango,” a collection of dances based on the tango that recently had its first U.S. performances at New York City Joyce Theater. Todo Buenos Aires was choreographed by Peter Martins to two tangos by Astor Piazzolla, orchestrated by John Adams, and had its premiere on May 3, 2000. For the winter 2005 performances featuring Mr. Bocca, Mr. Martins is re-choreographing the piece and adding a third section, also to a Piazzolla tango that has been orchestrated by Mr. Adams. Todo Buenos Aires will be performed Saturday, January 8, at 8 p.m.; Tuesday, January 11, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, January 14, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, January 16, at 3 p.m. Winter season subscription series are now on sale by mail, through the NYCB website at www.nycballet.com, and by calling the NYCB subscription office at 800-580-8730. Single-ticket orders for the winter repertory season will be accepted by mail and through the NYCB website at www.nycballet.com beginning September 27. Single tickets will also be available by calling Ticketmaster at 212-307-4100 beginning November 21 and at the New York State Theater box office beginning November 22. The New York State Theater is located on the Lincoln Center Plaza at Broadway at 63rd Street. The mailing address for the NYCB Box Office is New York City Ballet, New York State Theater, 20 Lincoln Center, New York, NY 10023. For general information on tickets for any New York City Ballet performance, call 212-870-5570, or visit www.nycballet.com.

Thanks for the link, MJ. (We can't post whole articles here because of copyright laws, so I edited a bit, just leaving the first two paragraphs as a quote.)

Sorry, GeorgeB fan, but no, there's no official word on Jennie Somogyi's injury or when she'll be back. There usually won't be; because recovery is so difficult to predict, often neither the dancer nor the company will want to answer a question like this, because the answer will be only a guess.

Copied from Links for discussion: Tatsha Robertson of the Boston Globe reports that Dance Theatre of Harlem will disband for the rest of the 2004-2005 season to restructure: http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/arti..._to_end_season/

Champagne and fireworks indeed! Happy 2nd century, Sir Frederick.

To the Pointe: someone emailed me this morning that they'd sent you a Personal Message. So please check your PMs on this board (and, I'm sure you'll figure this out, but just in case, please reply through PM and not publicly -- thanks! You can get to the PMs by clicking on My Controls, and then Inbox.)

Inside the Beltway, "Art" is a man's first name. I did wonder about Warren Beatty, since he's been politically active, but the Honors are after the election, I think. So it's hard to predict the possible political effect.

There's a sticky at the top of this very forum with the schedule http://balletalert.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=17068

Getting restless waiting for opening night? Here's an interview by Brendan McCarthy in ballet.co's magazine 'Unmasking Scotland’s Tartan Fictions'

A review on ballet.co by Lynette Halewood: Tudor Triple Bill: ‘Lilac Garden’, ‘The Leaves are Fading’, ‘Offenbach in the Underworld’

Balanchine was a citizen, though, and is listed as Russian-American in encyclopedia entries, so I'd count him as an American. I agree, though, that a significant contribution, beyond paying taxes, would be nice.

And Sir Elton? No one has opined at length upon his selection

WARREN BEATTY, OSSIE DAVIS AND RUBY DEE, ELTON JOHN, JOAN SUTHERLAND AND JOHN WILLIAMS TO RECEIVE 27TH ANNUAL KENNEDY CENTER HONORS America to Celebrate the Careers of Six Performing Arts Legends, Sunday, December 5, 2004 Gala will be Broadcast on the CBS Network Later in December WASHINGTON, D.C.—The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced the selection, by its board of trustees, of the individuals who will receive the Kennedy Center Honors of 2004. Recipients to be honored at the 27th annual national celebration of the arts are: actor, producer, writer and director Warren Beatty; husband-and-wife actors, writers and producers Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee; singer and composer Elton John; soprano Joan Sutherland; and composer and conductor John Williams. “This year the Kennedy Center honors not the usual five but six extraordinary individuals whose unique and abundant artistry has contributed significantly to the cultural life of our nation and the world,” said Kennedy Center Chairman Stephen A. Schwarzman. “They are a film artist whose talents are astonishingly diverse; a greatly revered couple of stage and screen; a pop music icon who also composes stunning musical film and theater scores; an operatic superstar of unsurpassed artistic achievement; and one of the most influential American composers of the past four decades.” The annual Honors Gala has become the highlight of the Washington cultural year. The 2004 Honorees will be saluted by stars from the world of the performing arts at a gala performance in the Kennedy Center's Opera House on Sunday evening, December 5, to be attended by the President of the United States and Mrs. Bush, and by artists from around the world. The President and the First Lady will receive the Honorees and members of the Artists Committee, who nominate them, along with the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees at the White House on Sunday evening, December 5, prior to the gala performance. The Boeing Company is the exclusive underwriter of the 2004 Kennedy Center Honors Gala and weekend of events, which concludes with a supper dance in the Grand Foyer. The Kennedy Center Honors will be bestowed the night before the gala on Saturday, December 4, at a State Department dinner, hosted by the Secretary of State Colin Powell. The Honors Gala will be taped for broadcast later in December on the CBS Network for the 27th consecutive year as a two-hour prime time special. George Stevens, Jr., who created the Honors in 1978 with Nick Vanoff, will produce and co-write the show for the 27th consecutive year. The Honors telecast has been honored with five Emmy's for Outstanding Program as well as the Peabody Award for Outstanding Contribution to Television. Delta Air Lines, the official airline of the Kennedy Center Honors television broadcast, will provide transportation for the performers and television crew that will be coming to Washington for the Honors Gala. Boeing is proud to underwrite the Kennedy Center Honorees’ Luncheon and special events throughout the Kennedy Center Honors weekend. The Honors recipients are recognized for their lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts: whether in dance, music, theater, opera, motion pictures or television. The primary criterion in the selection process is excellence. The Honors are not designated by art form or category of artistic achievement; the selection process, over the years, has produced balance among the various arts and artistic disciplines. Members of the Kennedy Center's national artists committee, as well as past Honorees, made recommendations of possible Honorees. Among the artists making recommendations were: Dan Aykroyd, Christine Baranski, Angela Bassett, Joshua Bell, Adrien Brody, Dave Brubeck, Cy Coleman, Benicio Del Toro, Michael Douglas, Suzanne Farrell, Renee Fleming, Morgan Freeman, Rosemary Harris, Paloma Herrera, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Nathan Lane, Yo-Yo Ma, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep and Pinchas Zuckerman. Michael M. Kaiser, President of the Center, expressed the Center’s gratitude to the many individuals involved in the success of the Honors program. “In addition to recognizing our most treasured artists, the Kennedy Center Honors Gala also extensively supports the many performing arts initiatives, education and public service programming, and national outreach efforts that make the Center’s presentations accessible to all.” For more information, please visit www.kennedy-center.or

I don't have the exact date, but I believe it was the mid-90s. Here's a link to a brief biography of Ms. Collier on Ballet.co

Yes, civilized discussions can be fun! I'm sure you're right about the work discussed -- I saw "Mahler" and "lied" and didn't read carefully. Thank you! I'll edit my post so as to avoid confusing people. Now, I wouldn't think I would have liked Mr. Bejart's Mother Theresa ballet, but I would be curious to see some of the others. I must say I'm glad to have this discussion. There are many choreographers who do not often figure on these boards: Bejart, Grigorovitch, Neumeier. Just because there aren't a lot of threads about them doesn't mean that they're off-topic!

There's a great divide on Mr. Neumeier too, Jose Manuel (The pro-Neumeier stance is that he makes such great theater; the anti-Neumeier stance is that he uses an extremely limited vocabulary repetively and that the works don't stand up as choreography.) I've seen pieces by Bejart that I consider classical ballet -- "Songs of a Wayfarer," which was choreographed for Nureyev and I saw it several times. It was on the first program of ballet I ever saw, and it was the last thing I saw Nureyev do, and so I have great affection for it, but I also think it's a good work. I never saw his grand theatrical extravaganzas and always was curious about them. (The ones with the motorcycles and angels and dancers swinging onto the stage, the ones he made to be shown in football stadiums.) I imagine they are, as you said, a mix of many things. I rate Bejart higher than his imitators; I think there's a strong craft there. I'm not a fan of reworking other ballets, so for me, his "Firebird" and "Gaite Parisienne" aren't very interesting, but I don't think they're bad. When I see Eifman, I think nostagically of Bejart [this post was edited to correct an error, which jose manuel kindly corrected in a post below]

Thanks -- keep us posted. I've posted this before, but article 19's site regularly shows video of contemporary dance performances. http://www.article19.co.uk

Thank you for this, and don't forget to write! It sounds like an interesting mix.