Helene

So far Olivier Wevers has succeeded: he's chosen a group of artists that he wants to work with, and the piece was a collaboration with a composer and three designers. I listened to Robert Lepage speak after "The Blue Dragon", it sounds like a similar collaborative experience, if without the time or financial backing that Lepage had. (Although Lepage's projects are often postponed as his collaborators have other contracts to fulfill.) He also took Balanchine's approach in using dancers who had other jobs to support them and working around their schedules, and he had nine dancers in "3 Seasons", the size that Lopez cited as feasible for "Morphoses", and remember reading that one of them, Hannah Lagerway, is joining a company in Europe. I would love to see Wevers take some commissions like Wheeldon has, so that his work is more widespread and better known, but he's chosen another course. Wheeldon has many choices and can write his own ticket, and it takes great focus to be committed under those circumstances.

The rules state that ice dancers have to skate to the rhythm and beat. Often this means superimposing a rhythm box on the music, so that the music doesn't get disqualified or a deduction. I was so mesmerized by Virtue and Moir that I didn't even notice a piano.

Wow, that's quite a line-up for next year. I may invest in a guild membership to be able to buy the season early next year, to avoid sitting in the front four rows at the Scotiabank Theatre. Here's the link to the Met Opera site: http://www.metoperafamily.org//metopera/ne...h.aspx?id=11526 For "Das Rheingold", there's Terfel's Wotan and Blythe's splendid Fricka. It will be interesting to see what she does under Lepage's direction and with Terfel. Having seen "The Blue Dragon" in Vancouver, he's a relationship director, which I wouldn't have understood from "La Damnation de Faust", although I loved the production. In the "Die Walkure", what a cast: Kauffmann and Westbroek as the Walsung twins and Blythe and Terfel and Fricka and Wotan. I'm interested in hearing what Voigt does with Brunnhilde. "Boris Godunov" has Pape, wow. Netrebko's performance of the season is in Donizetti's "Don Pasquale", with Kwiecien and Polenzani. Hopefully, Kwiecien will be well, and I'm glad to see Polenzani get an HD broadcast. For me, the highlights of "Don Carlo" are Yannick Nézet-Séguin as conductor and Simon Keenleyside as Don Rodrigo. Luisotti's conducting "La Fanciulla del West". I'm very excited that they're broadcasting "Iphigenia en Tauride" and the "Il Trovatore" with Radvonovski, Alvaro, Zajick, and Hvorostovsky, wow, wow, wow. Dessay's in "Lucia di Lammermoor" -- did they do this before? I thought everyone hated the production?

No, but costumes have become a lot flashier since then. Think of the beautiful dresses Kwan wore and that Kim Yu-Na wears now. These would have been unheard of in Hamill's time, and even the lace on Peggy Fleming's collar in 1968 would have been outrageous a few decades earlier. Torvill and Dean had some over-the-top costumes in their professional competitive days. In 1984, there already was a controversy over their music, "Bolero". Khokhlova's Firebird costume was spectacular, in my opinion, and she looked delicious in it.

There's no rule against it, although next year, there might be. Virtue/Moir were divine last night.

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In the program for "Dance Canada Dance", a performance by National Ballet of Canada and Royal Winnipeg Ballet for the Cultural Olympiad was a flyer for Ballet British Columbia's "Renaissance" program from 15-17 April. According to the Ballet BC website, the performances will be at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, the venue for Vancouver Opera and NBoC tours. The program is: "Herman Schmerman" (Forsythe/Willems) "Things I Told Nobody" (Galili/Handel, Vivaldi, Mozart, Satie) "Short Works: 24" (Pite/Belton) Having been bored by "Herman Schmerman" at NYCB, I would have skipped this, except I saw Galili's "Hikarizatto" in "Dance Canada Dance", and I'm look forward to seeing more of his work.

Our commentary would sound like the title of Johnny Weir's SP Music: "I Love You/I Hate You".

They are aware of how COP is supposed to work, but Plushenko received huge Program Component Scores and Torino in 2006 and in Tallinn a month ago, although not quite as high as before his comeback. It's not that his PCS were so much higher than his competitors -- it was the 8-10 points of positive Grade of Execution (quality on jumps, spins, and footwork) that gave him substantial leads -- but by giving him similar or equal PCS, the nullified the complex choreography, transitions, and interpretation of his closest competitors. Even in skating skills, which have a list of criteria apart from power, I would argue that he was overrated in the past, when he had speed and power -- in Tallinn and even more in Vancouver, he was not exceptionally fast or strong -- because he does not use his edges all that well. He has remarkable athletic ability to power his jumps, even when he doesn't approach them with speed. Given the way he was rewarded in the past, Team Plushenko had every reason to believe that he would be judged the same way. He was within a point of beating Lysacek for the title with a sloppy, uninspired skate, however impressive it was that he came back after 3 years of not competing and with a 4/3 combination. I still believe he was overrated enough in GOE -- sloppy landings, bad air positions, no compensating jump entrances -- and PCS in Vancouver that it's possible to make a case for Takahashi winning the silver medal.

When Canadian National Opera produced the "Ring of the Nibelungen" in 2006 to open the Four Seasons Centre, in the series of seminars and presentations, there were concerts by a young Quebecois Canadian pianist, 24 at the time, who was excellent. He played the Gould transcription and a few of his own, and they were brilliant. I don't have the program in Canada, and I cannot remember his name.

I wouldn't watch. Were they willing to showcase dancers in Exhibition, that would be fine. Competition? Do I really want to see Murphy, Bouder, Somova, et. al. in a fouette contest? (Hell, no!) What would the basis of judging be: whoever did the most tricks? If it's the one who did the finest technically -- and how to compare difficulty? -- or the ones the judges felt were the greatest artists? And how to explain that to an audience. That's just a "Would I watch?" The IOC only allows in sports that have national federations, established rules of competition, a history of competition, worldwide viewership, and relatively recently, a competitive playing field. (There was talk of removing Women's Ice Hockey, because there were two dominant teams worldwide, but then the Swedes won the day by beating the US team.) Ballroom dancing has been proposed, because it does have the history and infrastructure, but also a history of judging that is not disinterested. What would the criteria be? In sport the judging is immediate: no panel juries, no discussion, no criteria such as usefulness to the profession, etc. How would the dancers be selected? It has to be a competitive process, not just nominations by a committee. Competitors for the non-sanctioned World Professional Figure Skating Championships were invited, and its founder, Dick Button, had financial interest in at least some of the skaters who were chosen. I believe that this was a major weakness to professional skating, and why it was vulnerable to the International Skating Union's successful attempt to keep its skaters from "defecting". It would be as if Stars on Ice got to pick the field for US Nationals based on who they wanted to hire in skating shows.

Okay, I am in Vancouver at the Olympics, with tickets to see curling and figure skating that day, and I am green with envy that I won't be able to see this. (Yes, I want everything. Please don't hate me )

Apollinaire Scherr also takes on the question of classics programming for her blog "Foot in Mouth": Happy Valentine's Day -- ballet Style

Michael Popkin just posted the following on his danceviewtimes blog: Classics at City Ballet. It is far too rich and covers too many points for me to be able to summarize, but I think it a great starting point to discuss this programming, now that the classics part of the season is over. Edited to add: I couldn't resist this appetizer:

Another Somova-like mannerism. Never been very found of it for Aurora. No, I don't like it either. the high attitude just doesn't look appropriate in something so Classical as Sleeping Beauty. After the mostly classical proportions and clean lines I saw in her Nikiya broadcast on French TV on New Year's Eve, this is disappointing to hear. Could it be why she didn't lift her arm in fifth? Somova is more flexible than Tereshkina, and I would guess her exaggerated back leg position would not have affected her balance.

To start to circle back to topic, in other Vancouver news the Uliana Lopatkina/Yuri Bashmet performance in the Cultural Olympiad is tonight: http://www.vancouver2010.com/more-2010-inf...t_131938XN.html

Robert Greskovic's piece is far more than a review of The Sleeping Beauty. It addresses the season itself, from programming to performance.

Yes, please, corrections when what's printed in the program (or not identified at all) doesn't match what's onstage are always welcome! I'm disappointed to hear it was Zuzin who phoned in Bluebird though. I liked him with the Mariinsky came to New York a few springs ago.

I've never read Nadel. Is there one you'd recommend to read first?

Laura Gilbreath at PNB, who is very tall, spoke in a Q&A about her tendency to stoop over, and how she's worked very hard to open up her shoulders. She's succeeded.

but if you want to branch out, the Wallender series by Henning Mankell is full of stories enriched by Kurt Wallender's personal life and family, as well as the underlying commentary on Swedish society. I know that BBC has turned a few into a TV series, starring Kenneth Branaugh as Wallender, and that there are DVD's of the Swedish versions with English subtitles (but quite expensive), but the books are richer, even in translation. I apologize if I'm repeating myself from another thread.

Especially since she was holding a riding crop.

Roman Zavarov is featured in the February 2010 issue of Dance Magazine (with Carla Korbes on the cover). http://www.dancemagazine.com/issues/Februa...e-Roman-Zavarov Rosalie O'Connor quotes Ib Andersen on Zavarov: His "Apollo" last season was one of the most remarkable things I've seen, and it was only his first run. What struck me was how his interpretation was true to Andersen's, but, at the same time, entirely his own. Honesty is the perfect description.

Ms. Aldrich will sing with Mr. Kaufmann, who is contributing to my shallowness.

PNB used to format the casts in a grid, so that you could compare casts by role across dates. It was very easy to use. The PNB website looks a lot like the Seattle Opera website. I'm not sure if it was out-of-the-box, customized software, or custom software, but this is one feature that I find difficult to use, since I'm trying to buy multiple tickets based on seeing the most number of dancers in the most number of roles. When I started going to NYCB -- Balanchine was still alive -- the company was publishing casts lists one week in advance. There was no Internet, so I stood in the little group between the entrance and photos of principal dancers, and jockeyed my way into the middle to read the cast lists each week.