Alexandra
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Posts posted by Alexandra
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Thank you! I wish I could go again. It was a good opening, I thought -- other opinions welcome, of course -- but I'm sure it will have tightened by Saturday. Please report!
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Did anyone go? It was sold out, and one of the most mixed-in-age audiences I've seen in awhile. A few kids, but mostly adults, young old and in the middle, and the audience seemed both excited and happy. (I'll write a review later. I liked it a lot, and was happy to see something new that was truly new, and not a pale copy of something else, or a turn-it-upside down for the hell of it version )
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This is the 4th rehearsal -- we've been off for a week. I think this was filmed yesterday, which means the dancers had only been in class two days after that break. They're beginning to clean now -- working on the backs.
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A bit belated, but Happy Thanksgiving!!!
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Welcome! Glad you've found ballet, and found us. You might also want to check out our sister site, BT4Dancers (Ballet Talk for Dancers). The link is at the far right on the bar at the top of the page. That's for people who want to talk about DOING dancing. This site is for those who want to talk about what we see on stage, or read about ballet. You're most welcome at either or both. Please feel free to join in on any thread!
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There is a very interesting interview by Gia Kourlas with Alicia Graf this week in Time Out New York.
http://newyork.timeout.com/arts-culture/dance/224274/alicia-graf-mack
I remember her stunning performances with Dance Theatre of Harlem in the late '90s. She was still a teenager, but had enormous presence (and flexibility ) I knew she'd had to stop dancing because of injuries and illness, and she came back for a few year with Alvin Ailey.
Does anyone else remember Alicia Graf?
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They cut the third act soon after its premiere back in 1870. They reduced the dancing because they thought there was too much dancing, a common complaint about Saint-Leon's choreography. I think they cut the whole act a few years later, after the Franco-Prussian War, when the opera house opened again, but I don't remember the exact date. They kept that version -- with Franz danced by a woman en travestie! -- until 1960. So maybe it's just their instinct that that act should go, as the story is over.
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I just got this today, so haven't had time to read it, obviously, but it looks very interesting. Janet Collins was an important dancer, and one of the very few African Americans to have a real career, dancing at the Metropolitan Opera. Its based on an unpublished memoir by Collins of her early years -- her training, and her rejections by major companies. Historian Yaël Tamar Lewin finished the story.
Here's a link with more info, from Wesleyan University Press's site:
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There's an excellent interview with Paul Taylor at Penn State Public Broadcasting, link below:
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I would add a major difference between online criticism and that coming out of traditional newsrooms is that there are no editors and editorial supervision or peer review online.
Not always the case. There's definitely editorial supervision on danceviewtimes, and reviews are assigned. But for blogs, that's definitely the case.
I'd add, too, that danceviewtimes started because there were four critics I knew in San Francisco who did not have enough space, and were finding their reviews cut, or things they had expected to review could not be run. We called it DanceView West (as there wasn't room enough in DanceView, the print publication, for their pieces. The week the first issue went up, I was contacted by several critic friends in New York asking if they could write for it, and it changed. At the beginning, we used only professional critics. We've tried out a few since -- many who "auditioned" here on Ballet Talk, several who had a lot of help when they started to write. As an editor, I have my own idea of professional standard and critical objectivity. There are a lot of good writers who love ballet, but we wanted people with perspective.
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Thanks, Natalia! I'm glad they're bringing a triple bill as well as a full-length. I haven't seen "Thirteen Diversions," so I'm especially interested in that. (Glad to see most of the others too, of course!)
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I think we've seen over and over again that when something is running well, everyone thinks they can run it. Especially Boards -- Boards have ended directorships in Boston, Hartford and Colorado, to name three that I can think of off the top of my head, in each instance tossing out the person who either founded or developed the company.
I wonder what the reaction is in Miami? Are fans and supporters happy with this, or will there be a Discussion?
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I've always wondered about this, too. Ivor Guest would know! Were Camargo and Salle and Dupre "etoiles"? I agree that those at court would not be called stars, even the magnificent Louis. Amateurs cannot be etoiles, I'm sure. But when? Hope somebody knows!
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Thanks, Cristian. They're getting there. They really are serious about it. I think that's the beauty of student performances -- no matter what the school!
To those new to this thread, I wanted to put up videos that the school is posting on youtube because I thought it might be interesting to see the rehearsal process, and to see the ballet build -- see how it might change from week to week. I'm not sure how much does show. They started filming about the 4th rehearsal, and they already knew the steps. They're cleaning now, and the changes are subtle.
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Cristian, they're doing more than Shades, but I'm not sure how much. They'll do a matinee with bits from Gamzatti's wedding (KAB often does danse manu, and I think they'll do the parrot dance as well as the pas de deux). And then in the evening they'll do Shades -- that is not official, and could change, but that's what I know now. They'll also do a piece for the 11 and 12 year olds, and a few solos and pas de deux.
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This week's rehearsal footage is now up. They're cleaning style, necessary because so many of these girls have only been at the school since September. Again, ages are 13 to 18.
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As far as I know, it was Nureyev. I believe this is in the Percival biography. (Someone who is reading this will know :) ) They are breathtaking!!
In a later interview, Nureyev said he would do 24, and if the audience wasn't clapping, he would stop, but if they were, he would do 32.
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Oh, I want more Bausch on DVD!
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He does, Cristian. They really LIKE this. I've been showing several classes -- nearly the whole school -- the full DVD of "La Bayadere" and you can see, as they watch it, they love it -- the character dancing, the classical dancing and the mime. They think it's worth keeping and they wouldn't cut it.
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Episode 2. They rehearse once a week, and are still learning this, as this 10-minute clip shows.
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ALso, it's curious, when they break from the opening phrase and run into place, there's a dancer who has to run past several others to find her right place in the front line. THey'll probably fix THAT before opening night.....
Yes -- I hope so! (I'm sure they will.) I was surprised there weren't more misses like that, as they're only rehearsing once a week at this point. It's one of the reasons I thought it might be interesting to see this "build," to see what changes are made, in what order they make the changes, what mistakes are corrected, etc. There are differences among productions, of course, and I'm not posting this as a definitive production (although I think it aims to be a serious, accurate one).
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I saw "Intolerance" in college and have only vague memories of it, but, Sandi, I agree that it is very dancey. There were several HUGE spectacles that were popular here in the late 19th century, the most important being "The Black Crook" (which ran for 17 months without a day off) and its less successful sequel, "The White Fawn." They had 1,000 people on stage. There were platforms along the sides and across the back, and a platform on top of THAT. There's a very brief film of "Excelsior" (1910, long after its premiere) that has so many people doing different things -- yet all part of a general overall composition -- that you'd have to see it several times to get it.
And it got too expensive. When movies came along, they thoughtt this was the way to solve a practical problem: put one of these spectacles on film. That way it could be shown many times, in many cities, to recoup the costs.
I don't remember the stars -- I do remember the (I hope this is right) Temple of Babylon? I think that's where Ruth St. Denis's dancers were -- though I knew nothing about dance at the time.
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Thank you, bart -- and good question. See Paul's answer below.
(I've deleted my wrong answer posted earlier. )
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My first thought was that Edward Villella must be the youngest looking and most vibrant 75-year-old in the history of time.
As for the dancing, I could only watch "Square Dance," but I loved it. I want a DVD! MCB used to come here a lot several years ago, and I've always admired it -- their ease in classical dancing, the combination of respecting a work but making it live. They have a company style, but they also have a company bond. I'm so glad PBS did this. I hope they will show more American companies, in the ballets that we do best.
Mark Goldweber
in Ballet Obituaries and Memorials
Posted
I am sure there will be obituaries tomorrow. Mark Goldweber, aside from being a wonderful dancer and fine balletmaster, first with the Joffrey, where he spent his dancing career, and for the past few years at Ballet West, was very important to this forum. He posted as Glebb, and always had interesting comments. He hadn't posted much lattely because of his illness.
I will remember the joy of his dancing as a young man, especially the zest with which he tore into "Les Patineurs".
Rest in peace, Mark.