drb

Allegra Kent, Janie Taylor (yes, her hair dancing), Wendy Whelan, Isabelle Guerin, Herman Cornejo, William Forsythe, and Alexei Ratmansky are among the ballet dancers to be featured in David Michalek's Slow Dancing at, well on, the New York State Theater from July 12 - 29, 2007. Michalek, husband of NYCB ballerina Wendy Whelan, will show three dancers at a time, each performing a five-second dance expanded to ten minutes, each on a 40+ feet high screen on the facade of Lincoln Center's New York State Theater.

Details about the exhibition:

http://www.lincolncenter.org/load_screen.a...ow_dancing_main

Preview still photos of all the performers, including dancers from around the world, as well such modern dance icons as Koma, Eiko, Judith Jamison, Karole Armitage and Trisha Brown may be seen here:

http://www.lincolncenter.org/load_screen.a...dancing_artists

Ms. Whelan had this to say about her experience:

What I did for the camera was a simple class combination. I found that the less I did the better for me. It was sissons [a type of jump] mostly. I felt, when I looked at myself, youthful and hopeful and reaching for higher, but definitely imperfect—which I didn’t mind. I knew I had to let that go. I felt like each person gave a little poem in their film. Everyone had a story and a mood. They were all so different and I fell in love with each of them so differently. Falling in love with somebody’s essence.

.. In autumn we are promised to be introduced to a new cast formed with young dancers - Natalia Osipova, Ekaterina Krysanova, et al.

Thanks for your illuminating and nonpartisan report. PLEASE remember to report back after seeing that autumn cast!

I would also like to attract special attention of future watchers to the dances of six girls in Pas des eventails - it is pure Ratmansky, but very much in style of the Petipa ballet. To the best of my knowledge only variations of Gulnara and Medora could be attributed as original in this lost and "found" Pas.

Thanks, too, for this clarification. You must know of Mr. Ratmansky's great choreographic successes here in New York. Just one more reason for us to hope for a Bolshoi visit as soon as possible.

But please don't wait till autumn to tell us more about the glorious Bolshoi!

In practice, most Odiles that I've seen do go for the 32 fouettes, but there is the issue of embellishment. Irina Dvorovenko was an embellisher before giving birth, but on her return did it straight, 32, in place. But in her second performance this season she did interpolate a triple in the middle and another for her finish. Diana Vishneva's choice is obviously based on the dramatic interpretation she's planned for any given performance.

Gillian Murphy, surely one of the most spectacular 32'ers, she reached 32 at the age of 11, has given embellishment and the place of spontaneity serious consideration, and has reached different conclusions for different ballets. Regarding Odile, in an interview given to Finis Jhung last year she says

... I plan ahead of time, but leave it open to last minute spontaneity. What I try to do is have different combinations of turns for different ballets. I do basically the same combination (fouetté, fouetté, fouetté-triple pirouettes) for Black Swan.

For more:

http://www.danceart.com/BarreSide/Gillian_Murphy.htm

But I especially want to know precisely what he meant by mercurial. I want all possible meanings and innuendos, if any.

I think this is just the Daily News trying to expand its readership. Having attracted the ballet audience to their readership with this scoop, they want to keep us by pandering to our sophistication by alluding to Giovanni da Bologna's sculpture Mercury that perhaps inspired Carlo Blassis's attitude.

Friday, July 6, 2007

For the children

Were one to awaken into an Alastairian dreamscape, tonight's cast of Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg would have danced Sir Fred Ashton's Cendrillon. Had that been so, Ms. Murphy, alone among ABT's home-team of principal ballerinas, would have attracted me to the performance. Most of the major companies of the world have ballerinas aplenty with the chops to do due justice to Ashton's sublime masterpiece, but ABT's emphasis on male virtuosity would count for little in that version. For Kudelka it counts a lot.

For an evening performance of a three-acter, there were lots of kids in the audience and it says something, I'm not quite sure what, about this Cinders that the those kids were about as important to the production as the corps is to Petipa. In Act 1 I just enjoyed Gillian's spontaneity and her sparkling barefoot dancing. Maria Riccetto (with Carlos Lopez) had the more advantageous role as the myopic sister. Kristi Boone (with Roman Zhurbin) was the blonde bombshell one: why shouldn't she look great, after all she's just been promoted! This has turned out to be a special season for young Mr. Zhurbin, beginning with his impressive debut as Bayadere's High Brahmin. He really puts himself inside his character's skin, real emotional involvement, and looks big enough to become a substantial partner. Someone to watch.

As the lights lowered before Act 2 the kids began to clap, here, then there, then in unison with the oldsters for conductor David LaMarche, then each wanted to get in the last clap: sort of like the closing pops of a batch popcorn. But they did stop in time for the ballet to go on. While, yes, there is too much trivia going on as Spaceship Pumpkin alights, it is a fun entrance for the kids, even though Gillian is worthy of THE entrance, down Ashton's stairs. When Ms. Murphy doffs her cape to reveal her pretty-in-pink considerable charms, it is greatly to David Hallberg's credit that he takes off into his iconic grand jetes, some of astonishing elevation, while at the same time looking like a man who's knees have turned to jelly, such beauty he's just seen. As they dance together, Big Red's plasticity further engulfs him. He flicks his hand and circles it above 'round her head. She reaches her hand to touch her neck, as if awakening to the breeze she's just felt there from his. Maybe Kudelka isn't telling a story about a royal, but Mr. Hallberg has been won, and his gift to Cinders, and to us, is that Bruhn-like classical purity, on David's own grand scale, a True Prince. On a lone stage dancing together as Prokofiev swells with love, she is so melted into a timeless moment that she neglects the time. Suddenly there she is, in her pink slip, shorn of gown and one sparkling slipper. There's no way he's not going to find her.

The second intermission seemed a bit much for a lone father with three young daughters sitting next to me. Three entirely different children took their seats, sans adult. As the lights began to dim, kids throughout the theater began their clapping fun again. But more vocally, too, and as Mr. LaMarche appeared there was a torrent of cheers and squeals. The conductor may have looked just a little sheepish, but I'd bet that he's going to have happy memories of tonight for a very long time. Fading to that popping corn... The new kids next to me did talk on occassion, but it wasn't the talk of boredom, they were into it, having fun. And since it wasn't Ashton, well, why not? Is it possible that there was some audience building going on tonight? There was a scene in a shoestore (unfortunately they didn't deal in sparkly pointes), and one of the clerks was Luis Ribagorda. How nice to see Sarah Lane's future husband! (See the recent thread on her Time Out interview.) In the wedding scene, Fairy Godmother Georgina Parkinson waves away all the kitchen set except the fireplace. So, we're in Gillian's garden. It is, obviously, just past Halloween, and Gillian enters with her tatters replaced by a nice print Fall dress, David in white with tie and suspenders. The kids get excited. I switch the binocs off the couple and see why. There's a fire in the fireplace! Tonight Ms. Murphy's diagonal of fouettes featured a number of triples! She's given a white veil and he a jacket and they are married. He doesn't mind his inlaws at all.

Yet.

There are now 57 photos, as Mr. Schiavone has added the Masha Alexandrova (partner Tsiskaridze) performance, at the moment on the second page of his corsaire set:

http://www.geneschiavone.com/gallery/album15

On the basis of the photos, that's the cast I'd hope to see when they bring it here (if they do... wake up, Met!). Dear Moscow friends, how do the casts compare in real performance?

Ivan Vasliev, Ratmansky's wunderkind at The Bolshoi, now has his website:

http://www.ivanvasiliev.ru/

While it is in Russian, it is very easy to navigate. Click photographs and be amazed how this guy (so much like his partner Natasha Osipova) lives in the air. There are other remarkable photos scattered throughout the site, including some endearing ones with Natasha. He has videos as well.

Now it is really official: they made the New York Times (Friday Arts, Briefly)!

Footnote

The American Ballet Theater has promoted five dancers to the rank of soloist. They are Kristi Boone, Misty Copeland, Yuriko Kajiya, Sarah Lane and Jared Matthews.

... I would have liked to see Hee Seo and Isaac Stappas promoted as well.

I agree, Klavier. Ms. Seo has been exceptional dancing Tudor. Perhaps her best hope lies in their City Center seasons, if Mr. McKenzie decides to dig into the company's treasury of old masterpieces... and if that season reverses the shrinkage promised for this Fall. Ms. Fang's situation is a mystery to me.

At any rate, congratulations to the new Soloists for their long overdue promotions. I hope we hear similar news for the four Apprentices and for one or two Soloists...

Ardani has reserved (all center, i.e., numbered in the 100's) Orchestra Rows A-J, Grand Tier Row A (best, but only if you have very tiny legs...) for VIPs at $500, and Mid Mezz Row A for poorer VIPs at $250 for Opening Night. A post-perf party, photo book, and signed poster are the bonuses. They also say there will be VIP seats for the rest of the run. However, so far only some seats for the first few orchestra rows are no longer available. Those lucky VIPs, who will get a great view of the back of the conductor's head and avoid the sight of toe shoes... Well, Opening Night I'll have a great view of the back of their heads!

The current Playbill has a number of pieces on Ms. Sills, and also notes the passing of Regine Crespin at 80.

There is also a very positive piece on the state of Pavarotti's health:

http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/6747.html

A viewing of telecasts of Ms. Sills at the Paley Center for Media:

...A long-lost 1962 WCBS television program featuring Douglas Moore (1893-1969), composer of the opera The Ballad of Baby Doe, and Sills, who played Baby Doe Tabor in the legendary 1958 New York City Opera production of the work.

Highlights include Sills's rendition of the "Willow Song" from Baby Doe and "When All is Still and Fair" from another Moore opera, Wings of the Dove... (1962; 45 minutes)

Screening from July 5 to July 15.

Tues/Wed/Fri/Sat/Sun at 3 p.m.; Thurs at 6 p.m.

...The much-heralded musical special, taped at New York's Metropolitan Opera House and featuring Sills and her good friend, comedienne Carol Burnett.... opens with a dialogue between Burnett and Sills, who then sing "Only an Octave Apart." Other highlights include Burnett and Sills in an audition sketch, Sills performing "O luce di quest'anima" from Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix, and the two women singing a medley of torch songs paired with arias that also express the blues ...(1976, 60 minutes)

Screening from July 17 to July 29.

Tues/Wed/Fri/Sat/Sun at 3 p.m.; Thurs at 6 p.m.

[At] Paley Center's New York branch (25 West 52nd Street in Manhattan, between 5th and 6th Avenues). The suggested donation is $10 ($8 for students and seniors, $5 for children under 14). Patrons of the Center's Los Angeles branch may view the programs at any time in the center's library.

For more details:

http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/6741.html

Ms. Crespin:

http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/6743.html

...but the most interesting is what she does not mention, such as dancing at City Center in April 2008 with her home company, the Kirov-Mariinsky Ballet. Vishneva mentions February at City Center and May/June with ABT at the Met. So what's up in April?

Since she was just responding to questions on her site, my guess is that she simply didn't give an encyclopedic list. Current information from City Center lists her (including their main publicity photo: dancing Ballet Imperial with the also listed Igor Zelensky) for the April 1-20, 2008 Mariinsky visit. They've also modified information for her February, 21-24, 2008 Beauty in Motion week: in addition to already announced premieres by choreographers Alexei Ratmansky and Moses Pendleton, there will be a third by Dwight Rhoden. Desmond Richardson has been added as guest artist. Artists from the Mariinsky's Opera (?!), Orchestra, and Ballet are also promised (although, based on what has been posted so far, only for the New York engagement). Given this cooperation from her home theater, one might doubt that she'd disappoint the Mariinsky in April...

Regarding the 2008 La Scala tour, the only mention of her that I've found so far is Romeo and Juliet on July 1, 2008 at the Los Angeles Music Center.

[ADMIN BEANIE ON]

Please remember the board rules when responding to this article. If there is news or speculation that hasn't been published, please don't post about it here.

[ADMIN BEANIE OFF]

I wish Nilas a quick, fair and compassionate resolution to this predicament.

Frequent ABT photographer Gene Schiavone has just posted 39 photos of this Bolshoi production on his website:

Awesome!

http://www.geneschiavone.com/gallery/

Is this going to be the 1933 choreography or a Lacotte-like "reconstruction" with the same plot and completely different choreography?

Mr. Ratmansky, in contrasting the situation with that of Bright Stream, says he has available the original steps for Flames of Paris. In an interview last August for Dansomanie:

...The Flames of Paris, we will look back into the original steps. Actually, this ballet stayed in the repertoire until the early 70’s, and many of its dancers are still with us, coaching for example. They are not very old! So it’s a real possibility.

Met Opera Radio is honoring Ms. Sills with Thursday and Friday evening broadcasts:

Remembering Beverly Sills

Tuesday, Thursday, Friday

Beverly Sills, one of the great sopranos of the late twentieth century as well as one of the most prominent administrators and fundraisers in the history of opera in America, died Monday of cancer. She was 78. Metropolitan Opera Radio will mark her passing with two memorable Met performances. Hear Ms. Sills perform the role of Pamira in her 1975 broadcast debut of Rossini's L'Assedio di Corinto on Tuesday at 9:00 pm ET and Friday 8 pm ET. On Thursday at 9 pm ET, we will air her 1978 performance in the title role of Thais.

For technical details:

http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentServe...d=1158082416364

Please note that there is a free-online trial.

I saw Kent and Gomes on Monday night. They were wonderful, but Kudelka's ballet is not worth talking about.

A great precis of Macaulay's review in today's Times, Farrell Fan. If august Alastair were ever to find himself under length restrictions a la Clive Barnes at the Post, you've given him his model!

Just received notice of late July benefit performances to aid Ailey dancers in making career transitions:

... fans will have the opportunity to see the Ailey dancers in an up-close and intimate setting when the Ailey Dancers' Resource Fund (ADRF) presents Continuum.

Original choreography by the Ailey dancers is featured in Continuum, including works by Kirven J. Boyd, Hope Boykin, Zach Law Ingram, Abdur-Rahim Jackson, Willy Laury, Malik Le Nost, and Matthew Rushing, along with an excerpt of Alvin Ailey’s Blues Suite and a special version of the duet “A Case of You” from Artistic Director Judith Jamison’s acclaimed Reminiscin’.

The performances will benefit the ADRF, a non-profit organization which provides financial assistance for Ailey dancers seeking to make a career transition.

Friday and Saturday, July 27-28

7:30pm

$25 admission at the door (no advance reservations)

Note: Guests are invited to attend a reception following the Saturday evening performance.

The Ailey Citigroup Theater

The Joan Weill Center for Dance

405 West 55th Street (at Ninth Avenue)

On her site today, Diana Vishneva said that she'd dance with ABT at the Met (New York) in May & June, 2008. Regarding being in NYC, Ms. Vishneva remarked

New York begins for me native city more and more.

and also referred to performing there in February at City Center (presumably as part of her American Beauty in Motion Tour, already on sale). She said she would tour with La Scala Ballet as well, specifically in answering a question on when she might appear in Los Angeles.

http://www.vishneva.ru/eng/index.htm

Oh, and drb, I did not find Bouder's Odette to be lacking grandeur.

Certainly I did not mean to imply that! Quite the contrary, that she can do anything, including enough of her own grandeur to rate with Part's in Odette! She finds her way.

... What am I missing?

Bouder.

Longer answer. That daring you mention can make up the 3 inches she's short of tall (5'8"). Inhabiting a role as she does makes me lose sight of what I have come to expect. She makes me a believer that she is the role. After seeing so many (not all) pastel imitations of Farrell in her roles, I look forward to Bouder making them live, which is more about Farrell than just Suzanne's height or appearance.

Best is a taboo word, but she is the best Aurora I have ever seen (around eight productions over the years, if you count ABT's new Sleeping). She and Part are the best recent Odettes, IMO. So I'm not concerned about missing grandeur, Ashley can be anything she wants to be.

However, just because she can, is no reason to work her into the ground. Just now, Diamonds doesn't need her rescue, but plenty of other Balanchine roles do. Maria Kowroski is ravishingly fine now, especially if she isn't forced to dance about one principal role per performing day, as she was the last four weeks. Also, Tess Reichlen and Sarah Mearns have the look and the daring (a must) to keep Diamonds going. So I wouldn't be inclined to add Diamonds to Bouder's rep soon, unless of course she asked for it.

About half that article is a love song to Ashley Bouder. And it ends with

There are other dancers here to whom I suspect I will lose my heart on just a little more acquaintance. And there were more than a few performances that made me feel, as the greatest choreographic repertory in the history of the world passed before my eyes, that the State Theater was the only place in the world I wanted to be.

I see his negative remarks not so much personal attacks on dancers past their best as on the AD's miscasting of some of the greatest Balanchine masterpieces.

Wow, thanks for all this, zerbinetta. Maybe "they" should let Nilas program/cast November's opening night NYCB gala!

I love Osipova - interesting that they imported her - I must not have been keeping up with this section of the boards.

Surely that's not to say that they don't have a decent Kitri of their own?

Here are photos of the Osipova/Sarafanov DQ (what company in the world wouldn't find Osipova an upgrade?) from Russian Interpress:

http://www.interpress.ru/index.php?t=list&news_id=13408

Thanks for this, Mme. Hermine.

Mr. Franklin:

Prostate, two hernias, triple bypass, "and here I am!" And was he ever last night in ABT's Swan Lake, dominating Act 1. Bravo!