Dansuer85

Stair ahead

Struggle of women to ascend portrayed in KC Ballet piece

By PAUL HORSLEY

The Kansas City Star

On six platforms of increasing height from right to left the women ascend stepwise — leaping, climbing, at times upside-down or arched or contracted. They lift and sometimes catch each other at the last second, like members of a trapeze act.

A raucous orchestral score blasts on the stereo. By the end the dancers are panting, bathed in sweat.

KCStar Full Article

Litte article that was in the KC Star a few days ago that describes 'Stepping Stones' well!

By PAUL HORSLEY

The Kansas City Star

Equally interesting is Kathryn Posin's “Stepping Stones,” which utterly astonished me when it was performed here four years ago. It's one of the most intricate and visually riveting pieces of choreography you will ever see.

On stage are six platforms of increasing height, from about 6 inches to 2 feet. Each has a ballet barre across the back. Six women step and writhe and fall in sequence; another six, representing their inner selves, intertwine themselves around them. Six men represent those who make the women's lives interesting — and miserable.

That hardly expresses the whole of this masterpiece, but trust me, you'd be nuts to miss this. I don't care if you think you don't like ballet: You will like this.

Opening Night Thursday October, 8th.

The Program opend with Paquita. It was very good. Kim Rovac(Student apprentice) Replaced Chelsea Teel in a Demi Soloist Part. Paquita on a whole was fabulous! The corps was very together and bright and elegant. The Soloist were strong and danced very well. Racheal Coats Did the first variation, and was very strong and turns so well. Lisa Choules did the second variation and was very bright and has great hops on pointe. Lisa Thorn did the 3rd variation and executed the attitude,arabesque,attitude,arabesque turn sequence very well! Steafni Schrimpf did a magnificant job with the 4th variation, such elegance and maturity and control on her developes side and her Italian Fouettes were spot on. The Pas de Trois was very good. Matthew Powell was very strong in all of his variations. Caitlin Cooney and Catherine Russel were so bright and did a nice job with the variations. Kim Cowan and Juan Pablo-Trijuillo were the lead couple. Kim Cowan was so powerful and elegant and just drew you right into her dancing. She had such control in all of her balances and turns and has such a high jump for a female dancing. Her fouettes in the finale were so solid, she almost could have done them on a dime. Pablo-Trijuillo has such the look for Paquita and the presence and did a very nice job with all the variations and the finale. The Pas de duex was also very good. He is a solid partner and she is so strong and on her balance that it looked so easy for both. Fabulous job with Paquita.

Stepping Stones is such a visually appealing piece. All of the diffrent Lighting and pink/red colored costumes and the boxes aka "steps" it makes for a very visually appealing piece. It's bassicly a piece about woman and their inner struggle to become strong and their fight against men to do so. It's very diffrent from Paquita and was done very well. *Kim Cowan replaced Chelsea Teel*

The Concert was such a hilarious piece! It looks as if it was rehearesed with a fine tooth comb! Every little thing was done just right to make it all so funny. Aisling Hill-Oconner was superb as the Ballerina, made us chuckle with delight! Stefani Schrimpf was most funny as the "Mean Lady" She was very scary!! Josh Christopher was a very good shy boy, he did little things to make you just laugh!! "The Mistake waltz" was well worth going to see this show. The Women did such a great job with that part. Every little "mistake" was done so well! The "Mazurka" was done with great power and humph! and just cracked you up! Francis "Rain" was done so well. The umbrellas moved like they were a part of each dancer! 'The Concert' was a great hit with EVERYONE!!

If you can go see this Rep. DO SO!!!

The Jerome Robbins way

Perfectionist's ‘The Concert' will be performed by KC Ballet

By PAUL HORSLEY The Kansas City Star

Former New York City Ballet principal Bart Cook critiqued the performance. Cook, who danced in many Robbins premieres and later was his assistant, had been sent by the Robbins Trust to stage the work.

“I warned them about how much laughter there would be,” he said to the audience. “And sure enough, it did throw them off.”

Kansas City Star, full story

*Paquita and Posin's Steppings Stones are also on this bill*

I too saw the Wednesday Evening show. I most enjoyed Opus 19/The Dreamer. I had never seen it before and I thought it was very nice. Peter Boal is so gorgeous and Wendy looked just fabulous. The corps too was very nice.

My main reason for going to the Ballet tonight, was to see Valse Fantaisie, as it is one of my favorite Balanchine ballets, but alas tonight was a dissapointment. The corps was ok, not as good as I had hoped. The leads? Sorry, I do not like either one of them, atleast not in this part, which is the only thing I've seen either of them do. She did not move enough, her movement was very small and conatained, which for this peice is not good. He, well, im not sure how to describe what I thought of him. He's very flashy, and he over did the part SO much. Sometimes bending to the ground, and it really bothered me. I did not like either one of them at ALL in this peice.

The last peice, of which it's name I forget, set to music from Raymonda, I enjoyed thourougly. The guest from Royal Danish was very nice. Very diffrent from City Ballet dancers, which was a good contrast. Nilas Martin, I did not enjoy at all. He danced so heavy and I thought was so sloppy in his variation, and at one point during the pas de duex almost pushed her over. I thought the pas de quate was very nice. I especially enjoyed Mandrijeff(sp?), she was a joy to watch as were the others.

The Martins peice,was ok, the dancers were very nice, Hubbe and Boree. Enjoyed them alot. The peice it's self was enjoyable, but not something I would want to see often!

Sorry for spelling of the names, I do not have my program infront of me. I leave from NYC tomorrow, so this was the last of the performances that I will get to see of ABT or NYCB, Very sad as it was very fun!

I voted a nice addition. While I enjoyed the peice, I do not think it was a masterpeice as it did have it's flaws, but most every peice does, atleast to one person or another. I personally rather enjoyed this peice. I thought it moved well and was quite interesting. I enjoyed the first half more than the second, but I did not dislike the second half, I just thought it was much more random than the first. I thought it was a nice tribute to Balanchine, No it was not Balanchine, but it's not supposed to be Balanchine, it's supposed to be in his honor and if it was Balanchine, then why even coreograph, cause Balanchine is all around us, a nice change of pace, other than Peter Martins, was good! :-D

I found the Ballet quite enthrawling. I was very impressed by all the dancing and thought that while some of the coreography was lacking, that over all it was a very moving peice.

I know this is not of the most importance, but something I forgot to add was that Michelle did Double pirouette into triple attitude turn, every single time. I saw Nina on Friday night, i do not have time right now, but will try to elaborate soon!

Michelle Wiles and David Halberg-wow. Let me start this off with, asking a question this is only what, their 2nd time performing Swan Lake? and the first at The Met. If this is true, then yes,them pulling you in the the "story", wasn't the best i've ever soon, but with time that will come.

Their technique and stage presence, as in holding your attention to them on the stage and being enthralled with every little movement, is very good. Both of them have such a purity about their dancing, they don't come off as tricksters, yet they can pull of what is needed in that area.

I was most impressed with Michelle's Balance. She would go up into arabesque and HOLD and then roll right through her foot, ahhh so nice to see! Something elese that will also come with time are her Arms. While they were very classical and very good, they were not swan like enough, one day they will be like Julie Kent's Im sure! Her fouettes, right on. Throwing in triples and not moving alot, very clean. I too, do not think the audience realized this, partly because it was so effortless on her part!

David Halberg, he is just so nice to watch. He has such a presence about him, not too "look at me", but not too humble either. Almost perfect. Obviously, he was made to be a prince. Tall and gorgeous. He has such clean technique. He has gorgeous lines. The most effortless, animal like Grande Jete I ever ever seen. Just breath taking. He is a very good partner. I don't remeber seeing one fumble between either of them. It was quite nice to see a male dancer not have to throw in a bunch of tricks to get the audience stand up! I don't belive he did more than 4 pirouettes, maybe 5, he doesn't have these huge double cabrioles, but they are nice. His turns in 2nd were gorgeous, he too threw in triples. He is defientely one of the most up and comming dancers at ABT, if not in the world!

The cast as a whole was right on. The swans were quite gorgeous, not always together and legs at the same height in the arabesque, but over all very nice. The 4 swans were very well rehearsed, there was a cast change Misty Copeland was supposed to do it, but someone elese was announced as doing it, who and why I do not know. All of the variations, russian and spanish and mazurka were very good. Neopalatin, was very good. I was quite impressed with the 2 guys, especially Arron Scott. He was right on. Very nice turns and jumps.

I was very impressed with this performance, I saw it live for the first time last summer with Julie Kent and Marcelo Gomes(im pretty sure) and it was ofcourse the most amazing experince, atleast on Julie Kents part, and one I will never forget, but this performance is right up there with it. Friday I will be going to see Nina perform, Never have seen her, so should be fun!

I saw the weds. maitnee, with Hallberg and Wiles, OMG AMAZING!! I will elaborate more, later. It was most breathtaking though!!

Well, she didn't seem off her leg, she just had a few bobbles, small bt noticable to me. Bent knee in tourjete and a few floppy feet, nothing major. Though, I must say, I don't think she is the strongest technician in the comapny. I would go with Julie Kent(to me she embodies what a ballerina is) or Amanda Mckerrow(though I find her dry sometimes). While murphy is good, these are ofcourse just my opinions.

The flower girls were: Maria Riccetto and Adrienne Schulte, I thought they were well picked for the parts and did a great job.

Legs:Kent/Yuan Yuan Tan

Feet: Guillem/Barker/Ferri

Arms: Julie Kent

Hands: The above or Mckerrow

Those are just ones off he top of my head an from the bigger companies. I know many dancers in smaller companies that have some of the ost beautiful legs and feet and arms.

The cast last night,6/09, was Ethan Stiefel,Gillian Murphy,David Hallberg,Carmen Corella and Michelle Wiles.

This was my first time being able to see any of them live.WOW

Ethan has always been my favorite dancer from videos and such, but now WOW, he is way up there. I was utterly entranced by the use of his feet. He was gorgeous, I must say, him not being totaly perfect made me feel better, he is actually human. A few wobles here and there, but over all gorgeous!! Murphy, now I know some people LOVE her, and yes she was good, but I didn't find her that enthrawling. Her dancing was good, though I noticed some technique issues. I also didn't feel her energy was up to Ethan's. But she was good.(interesting side note, I went to the ABTALK before and the women running it,forget her name, bassicly said she felt Gillian Murphy had the best technique of the ABT females. What do you think? My personal opinion is NO, while she was good, by far I do not thin she was the best female dance in the company.) David Hallberg, was amazing!! He was gorgeous, he lacked a little flare, but over all amazing. Carmen Corella was nice, a little more flare from her too would have been nice, but still very good. Michelle Wiles...Perfect....Her Italian Fouettes were gorgeous, Perfect... Her dancing was just so pure and clean and very eye catching! Th corps was also very good!! The 2 girls who do solos,forget what they are called, were very good. I felt they were very well chosen, as was the sprite in the dream scene. Gypsies and the Peasent dancers were all very very good. Over all I give this show 4 out of 5 ballet shoes!

I must say, I agree with alot of what they said, not tottaly, but I do see where they are comming from!

The is gone from the title? Why? Or was it never there?

Oh, Im not saying there are no foriengers in the companies, but I would say there is a large amount of Americans in these companies, comparatively. Houston Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Alabama Ballet, PNB, and Ballet Met just to name a few who are primarily American filled companies.

I know this is about ABT, but also about American dancers, if you look around at other companies, Medium to small sized, I would think the majority of them are Americans. And the majority of them are very good dancers, not everyone can be in ABT, or wants to be.

One thing i've noticed about ABT, is lately atleast, they only like to bring people into their corps who have gone up through their summer program, which alot of really good dancers, don't go to. I also think that alot of the NON- American principals are in the company because Americans tend to think..oooo Foriegn, mystery, must be really good!! Which is not to say this is Bad, because they are good!

That's just my take on it, though.

Darcy is preagnant!!(Isn't she?!?!)

Did anyone see the ABT Studio company performances?!?!?! B)

It's really hard for me to say, because I've not seen alot of dancers live, but of those who I have seen, Julie Kent, to me she embodies what a female dancer should be, I know other people differ in opinion, which is their right, but she is gorgeous in my eyes!

Of the few i've seen and know aren't used to their full abilities, Mandradjieff and Arthurs!

Was this the performance were Renard was performed?

Thanks so much! They both sound very insteresting!

I'm not sure!! :shrug: Could you tell me about both?

I was curious if anyone had any knowledge of this ballet. Is there a story? Is it ballet, or more modernish, what dance vocabulary does it draw from and about how many dancers are usually in it! Thanks!