Alexandra

It's always interesting to read how a company or choreographer one knows well goes over out of town. I found the opinions in this review, well, a bit curious. Any comments from Tudor fans? Another review of Ballet West's appearance at the Edinburgh Festival, this by Thom Dibdin in the Glasgow Evening News.

It's nice to have some GOOD news about a ballet company for a change. There are on today's Links thread (thanks to Ari): (A news article about expanded performances): Musical Chairs and a related news blurb announcing the company's "Coppelia" for the spring. Coppelia And finally, some notes about director Ib Andersen (scroll down): Making a Difference

Welcome, Carol, and thank you for posting! I've also attended performances by Russian companies, especially highlight programs, where the curtain calls were much longer than I'm used to. When they've used taped music, there will be long silences after a variation if the applause doesn't fill it. I've also seen dancers be very miffed that they didn't get the applause they were expecting. I was always interested in the difference because I'd so often read that American audiences were so much more exuberant than European audiences -- but apparently we're not always up to snuff!

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre brought its NEW! TAKING IT TO THE EDGE, PUSHING THE ENVELOPE, YOU'VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT BEFORE!!!! Sting ballet to Wolf Trap. Here's Sarah Kaufman's summary of the event in Thursday's (August 26) Washington Post:

I have no opinion on whether or not Robbins was opportunistic -- but to Thalictum's comment, I don't know of any reliable reports that Balanchine, Ashton, Tudor or Fokine ever shoved someone under a moving train (metaphorically speaking) to get a position. (My understanding of "opportunistic" is someone who is not the best person for a job, say, who seizes an opportunity -- illness or absence of the person who is the best person for the job, perhaps -- to forward his/her career. Which is different than saying, "Yes, thank you for the opportunity, Mr. Kirstein. I'd love to come to America.")

From today's Links: Reviews of Ballet West's Tudor program at the Edinburgh Festival: Judith Mackrell in the Guardian Kelly Apter in The Scotsman

Oh, Tigger, I'd forgotten about the Republican Convention. Thursday is the last night, though, I think. But until that's over, STAY AWAY FROM MADISON SQUARE GARDENS. (That's where the convention is being held.) I've been to conventions (not Republican ones) in the past, and I remember feeling that the city had been taken over by the delegates and others working with the convention. Lots of extra people in town hitting the restaurants within walking distance of the Gardens. This time, there are a lot of protestors, too, so the city will be full, even if the New Yorkers are fleeing It will be an experience! Our calendar is up now, and aside from the experimental piece I mentioned -- DANNY SIMMONS PRESENTS: Young Voices of Protest at DTW -- the only other performance we could find was of a Spanish dancer, Pilar Rioja, so unfortunately you're hitting New York at a ..... very special time! Maybe it would be good to go to the Performing Arts Library and check out some videos. If you're going to do this, go in your first day there and ask for the current ground rules -- last time I went videowatching, you had to sign up for a specific time block, and I believe it was only a half-hour. So it's best to go in knowing exactly what you want to watch, so you don't waste any of that half-hour.

Good question, and I'm sure some Natives will chime in to give you tips. We did have a "What's On in New York" thread; Leigh Witchel compiled it. We stopped it when I started DanceView Times, because it has a calendar: What's On This Week The info for that weekend isn't up yet (and I don't know what's going on, as I don't compile the calendar) but check back in a few days. Also on DanceView Times there's a full season calendar for each of the cities we cover. I scanned the listings and didn't see much going on, but there are some things New York calendar There is a big exhibit devoted to Margot Fonteyn that's just about to close, so that may be something you'd want to see. Here's a link to another calendar -- http://www.dancenyc.org/dance.asp Only one listing for the time you'll be there (aside from the Fonteyn exhibit), and that's an experimental program at Dance Theatre Workshop -- very much part of checking out the dance scene in NY City. Have a great time, Tigger, and be sure to let us know what you saw! Now, New Yorkers, any tips, please!

Drew wrote: I wish I'd said that That's a wonderful definition, Drew, and one that covers comedy as well as serious drama (there are many who don't understand how something like "Coppelia" or "La Fille Mal Gardee" can be considered fine art, for example). It's complexity -- that I knew. But your "element of concentration combined with imagination" nails it. I also agree with your point that light reading, in your example, has its place. And being too tired or distracted to read a book -- something with unbroken narrative flow -- rather than a magazine with many one-page articles, that is a function of concentration, too. HF, on even days of the week I'd agree that the sports you mention aren't sports, and on the odd days, I'd say, why is strength considered a sport, and precision not? So I haven't made my mind up on that one yet, but you're very persuasive

Interesting suggestion, but isn't that just jiggling with the statistics? Why not classify sport as art, too? I think that Monday Night Ballet could be made to appeal to a larger audience -- the PBS "Wild Men" show tried to do that, and it may well have introduced some people who'd been curious about dance to learn more about it, but you're never going to get "Agon" or "Lilac Garden" or "Symphonic Variations" on a Monday Night Ballet show. My question wasn't meant so much to try to boost ballet ratings (although of course that's a logical point to raise!) as to say, why will people who watch gymnastics NOT watch Agon, or Lilac Garden, or Symphonic Variations? Since the beginning, ballet has been appreciated by a small, educated audience (again Balanchine's famous line, "It's not for everybody, but it's for anybody") and I wonder why. People who are into a particular sport (or three) love learning the rules and citing the statistics, so it's not a lack of willingness to understand something complex. There's something else going on there.

In the 19th century, most of the great choreographers were also great dancers -- Perrot, Bournonville, St. Leon. And into this century, Fokine was a fine classical dancer; Massine and Petit mesmerizing dancers, but, as Mel noted, character dancers. There have been male stars who have made good directors -- Sergeyev in St. Petersburg, Kronstam in Copenhagen and Nureyev in Paris. Currently, I can think of at least three star men -- Helgi Tomasson and Edward Villella and (although his company is less known) Ib Andersen -- who are excellent diectors. That said, the current practice, especially in America, of looking to any male who's reached the rank of principal dancer at any mid- to large-sized company to fill vacancies is beyond troubling. Nureyev starting staging works at a very early age and expressed an interest in staging them from his student days; he also coached dancers throughout his career. Kronstam was trained by Volkova to be a director (through conversations, no specific training program). I don't know Sergeyev's history, but I would bet he also had some sort of training. Today, some guy gets a bunch of dancers together, takes them on the road, and within months is announced as a director somewhere. His first act is to throw out half the dancers because "they're not good enough," clear out the repertory and bring in the dances he knows how to stage, and then clear out the artistic staff when they complain.

I know, Mel, and thank you! I"m just asking you to clarify for purposes of discussion!

I think we are in a retrenchment, although it's not as creative as the Anacreontic period. We're revising ad nauseum the few 19th century classics. But that period was really a fresh breeze -- by people sick of the old order and wanting to do something new, something lighter. I'm up for it Mel, are you thinking of trying to revive-reconstruct ballets of that period from libretti, or trying to find a 21st century analog, or both?

Thanks -- as he said, he was afraid he wouldn't have the "correct English spellings."

Would Creatures of Prometheus be an Anacreontic ballet? My definition of that has always been "pastoral" (after the poet Anacreon) By that definition Ashton's "La Fille Mal Gardee" is Anacreontic and still successful. I'd love to see a revival of Flore et Zephyre, but there'd be the same problem with reviving the lost Bournonville ballets. One, we don't have enough of the original to work from. Two, if we did use the vocabulary of the time -- and all the mime -- most audiences would scream. Three, if we update them, a la Lacotte, then we have an old story with new steps. So how to do it?

I haven't heard from the competition, but I happen to have a Bulgarian dancer friend, and he made some inquiries and here are the winners: Varna Winners: I. Senior Division: Ladies: GOLD - Matilde Frusti (France) SILVER - Fu Shu (China) BRONZE - Iana Salenko (Ukraine) Gentlemen: GOLD - Arman Gregorian (Armenia) SILVER - Joshua Offal (France), Juei Yan (China) BRONZE - Dasta Chinibaev (Kazakhstan) II. Junior Division: Ladies: GOLD -Yum Yunesava (Japan) SILVER - Eri Mori (Japan), Ianela Tamioa (Cuba) BRONZE - Shuzi Cao (China), Desislava Stoeva (Bulgaria) Gentlemen: GOLD - Danail Simkin (Germany) SILVER- Alexandro Gonzales (Cuba) BRONZE - Ivan Vasiliev (Belarus) Warning: The spellings may be off, because he got them from a Bulgarian source (so they're Bulgarian transliterations of names). (And thanks to Marga -- I think, in a case like this, where we're talking about who won the competition -- not the real true backstage story about who was cheated out of a medal and by whom!!! -- any news is fair game.

Yulia, I'm sure you checked the official Varna site, as I just did, and found that it had not been updated. I wrote to them and asked. I'll post if I get an answer. In the meantime, if others know.... (I also did a search on a news story data base and found nothing, in any language!)

I hope someone can answer, and thank you for asking. Results from Varna were once big news -- even American newspapers would have an article -- small, page B99, but there. By the way, a housekeeping matter. We had a forum dedicated to Ballet Competitions, but I moved it to Archives, because most of the posts had been from dance students wanting to know how to apply, or dates when a competition was happening, etc., and we'd wanted to keep the forum for discussion of competitions. So unless there is a huge demand for it, we'll keep competition discussions to Anything Goes, or News, or Aesthetic Isssues. But the topic is NOT off limits just because the forum has been closed. Now, anyone know the July 2004 results?

This is from today's Links: New York-born choreographer Nicolo Fonte, in Melbourne to stage a work for the Australian Ballet, says that his home town is history as far as choreographic leadership is concerned. I've read this elsewhere, and he has a point. Modern dancers began worrying about the high rents in NY forcing them out during the 1970s (it's impossible to starve in a garret in NY anymore; the garrets are gone. Studio space is at a premium as well). The crisis in creativity in choreography in ballet is often discussed here. I'm not sure that fiscal problems are completely to blame there. There's no question that Duato and co. are dominant -- but that doesn't mean they're good

If I'm remembering correctly, Cliff, it was taped, but there was a royalty problem with one (at least) of the dancers involved and so it couldn't be released.

Are you thinking of "The Unmaking of a Dancer?" That's the one book I wouldn't recommend to a young dance student! (She's very bitter about the dance world, as I remember it, but kept auditioning for things, being chosen, and then walking out.)

There's a long article about Antony Tudor (thanks to Ari; this is from today's Links) Festival Dance: Tudor’s work comes home HIS 100th birthday is coming up; I think it's 2008. Hope there's a celebraiton that's worthy of Tudor's contributions to ballet! In the meantime, Ballet West has just become the American Company With Most Tudor Ballets in Repertory This Season.

I had the same feeling, Dale. It's almost a "Yuri Grigorovich, as told to..." story. I do remember the firing of all those dancers, though, and the uproar it caused (at least, that's how it was reported here at the time). Marc, Mikhail? Any news? (One couldn't help but note YG's comment that Volochkova was "perfection"....)

Hi, oldtimer. Could you give us the full names of the dancers? As for OBT school -- it's a shame the Oregonian doesn't write about which students get into which companies. Otherwise, it's hard to trace from the company end. Anyone have any news about recent OBT grads?

From today's Links (thanks to Ari), some history, and an account of what he's doing now. Yuri Grigorovich will bring his Krasnodar Ballet to St. Petersburg later this summer. Novosti gives a sympathetic account of the choreographer's career.