Helene

Following are upcoming events from the company: Book signing: Monday, April 13th at 7 pm (212-595-6859) @ Barnes & Noble/Lincoln Triangle,1972 Broadway at 66th Street. Performance: DANCES PATRELLE, 20th Anniversary Season Dances Patrelle's 20th Anniversary performances will be April 16 - 19, Thursday at 7:30pm; Friday & Saturday at 8:00pm; and Sunday at 3:00pm. Tickets are only $20 for all performances with limited Patron tickets for $100. For tickets call: The Kaye Playhouse box office (212) 772-4448

However your reasoning causes me to want to respond. For one thing, tattoos are less "modern" than the extreme extensions that are seen in ballet today (tattoos have been around in western society since the 19th c at least). As far as I know, visible tattoos are more modern on a ballet stage than the extreme extensions we are seeing. Suzanne Farrell had some extreme extensions in "Bournonville Divertissement" (certainly extreme for Bournonville), but Balanchine would have had a heart attack if she had showed up in the studio with a visible tattoo. Semenyaka didn't limit herself to 90 degrees in the "Raymonda" from the 1980's. I think we'd go bankrupt from the bandwidth costs if everyone pre-faced every opinion on this board with "In my opinion" Polls like this one solicit aesthetic judgements. We would be a very small discussion board if we agreed on everything.

dancewonder, Ballet Talk is an audience board. Posts on the "how" belong on our sister board, Ballet Talk for Dancers, which requires separate registration. I'm going to close this thread.

Moira Macdonald's season announcement article was in today's Seattle Times: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thea...rt02ballet.html The new Val Caniparoli piece is a world premiere named "The Seasons". The "Sleeping Beauty" is a revival of the Hynd, and "Coppelia" is Balanchine's version. sandik, you hit the nail on the head!

Amidst general bad news for arts organizations and the economy, as well as the poor general state of arts education, there's great news from New York Theatre Ballet: Fathom will broadcast six chamber versions of ballets to movie theaters next season. Here is the company's announcement: NCM FATHOM EXPANDS ITS ARTS AND CULTURAL PROGRAMMING WITH RENOWNED NEW YORK THEATRE BALLET SERIES CREATING "SEASON OF THE ARTS" IN OVER 400 MOVIE THEATERS NATIONWIDE New Agreement with MarQe Entertainment Brings Classic Chamber Ballet to Local Community Cinemas Beginning in August LAS VEGAS - March 31, 2009 - NCM Fathom, the alternative entertainment division of National CineMedia, announced today an agreement with MarQe Entertainment Inc., (MarQe) to present a series of New York Theatre Ballet (NYTB) performances exclusively in select movie theaters nationwide beginning this August. The NYTB is historically known for its elaborate storybook sets, rich costumes and mesmerizing choreography where each classical story comes to life through the art of dance. The New York Theatre Ballet series will complement Fathom's existing opera schedule, offering audiences a "Season of the Arts," beginning in late summer and continuing into 2010. The series will include a live performance of The Nutcracker, which is slated to be broadcast live from New York in December. Each performance will feature exclusive segments that will only be seen by cinema audiences. The agreement for Fathom to exclusively distribute The New York Theatre Ballet series was announced today by Dan Diamond, vice president of Fathom, at ShoWest 2009, the largest annual convention for the motion picture industry. Through this new agreement, Fathom in conjunction with MarQe will present The New York Theatre Ballet series featuring six performances of dynamic chamber ballet classics such as Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, The Nutcracker, Carnival of the Animals and The Alice in Wonderland Follies. The ballet performances are perfectly suited to the attention span of the youngest audience members, yet sophisticated enough for the most discerning adults. Hailed by The New York Times as "a discreet little pearl in the oyster of New York dance," NYTB has earned acclaim for its restoration and revival of small masterworks by great choreographers and for its innovative ballets based on children's literature. The New York Theatre Ballet series will be offered across NCM's exclusive Digital Broadcast Network (DBN) - North America's largest cinema broadcast network that reaches nearly 500 movie theaters and performing arts centers in the country. Tickets will be available beginning Friday, July 10th. Visit www.FathomEvents.com to learn more. About New York Theatre Ballet Founded by Diana Byer in 1978, the NYTB is the most widely seen chamber ballet in the U.S. NYTB is the only chamber ballet company in New York to celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2009 - an important milestone since numerous chamber companies have closed due to dwindling arts funding and increased costs. "We are thrilled with the opportunity to work with MarQe and NCM Fathom bringing NYTB's 30-year legacy to the screen for audiences across the country to enjoy. In this current economic climate, it is more important than ever to make the arts accessible and affordable and we're doing just that by bringing the rich experience of the NYTB to local cinemas nationwide," said Byer, artist director and founder of NYTB.

Rita Feliciano reviews The Return of Ulysses, a collaboration between Pacific Operaworks, Stephen Stubbs' new Seattle-based opera company, and Handspring Puppet Company from South Africa, for danceviewtimes. I saw this production, in which Monteverdi's score was cut to 1.75 hours and performed straight through, last Saturday at the Moore Theater in Seattle. For the many who liked the use of bunkaru puppets in Anthony Minghella's production of "Madama Butterfly", recently shown live on the Met HD broadcasts, the approach for this production takes it one step further by having the singers control the arm and hand of the side of the puppet that was downstage. For the many who disliked the Minghella, feeling that the puppeteers were distractions and the "Trouble" puppet was disembodied from the singer, this collaboration solved that issue by having the singer be intrinsic to the puppets performance. Despite the presence of the puppeteers, the singers and the puppets and puppeteers became one. In four days, I saw Theater Replacements "That Night Follows Day", aptly described on producer's On the Boards website as and "The Return of Ulysses", bookended by two performances of PNB's Broadway Festival Balanchine's "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" Wheeldon's "Carousel (A Dance)" Stroman's "Take Five...More or Less" Robbins' "West Side Story Street" What a remarkable weekend with such a wide range of theatrical approaches, each with such integrity to the material.

Well, Letestu was dying pretty much from the beginning, and the only surprise for a first-time viewer was that she hadn't died in prior episodes. The coughing gesture is built into the action; it wasn't an artistic decision on Letestu's part. The setting -- very bare -- was a dressing table and a divan placed horizontally, so that she could sit at the end and write or apply her make-up. There was a mirror to the right facing the stage. From the way it was filmed, it seemed rather far upstage. When all of the couples, including the Hungarian dancers, were on stage for "Raymonda Act III" last year, the stage looked bare. If this was performed at Opera Bastille, an ocean of a stage, it's hard to imagine how this intimate setting would read. Letestu's body language was very clear and much as you described in the Ballet Florida production. It was the stage business that looked like it would be too small to carry.

There are two ways to avoid posts: one is by placing the poster on "ignore" and the second is by stepping over a post and addressing the topic at hand. There's no obligation to follow a path that veers.

In Friday's links there was an article that mentioned that Lindsi Dec and Karel Cruz plan to marry this summer in Costa Rica. http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20090...STYLE/903150325 Stanko Milov choreographed a work for three couples a few years ago to his own piano music, and one of the couples was Dec and Cruz. Milov said at the time that he wanted to portray their love for one another. Congratulations to them!

Actually this was the quote I was responding to, if you notice you mention two seperate programmes, Swan Lake & Isadora/Dances At a Gathering, stating that you enjoyed the latter as opposed to the former. I read this to mean that of "Isadora" and "Dances at a Gathering", the ballets in the parenthetical statement, DeborahB liked the latter, i.e., "Dances at a Gathering".

I am very happy to hear how well Osmolkina performed in "Swan Lake". I admired a number of performances she gave at City Center last spring, and I hope this means she'll guest a little closer in the future.

United Airlines is having fare sales to Europe, and I'd been looking to see what ballets would be performed in Paris and London during the time I had free. (Alas, not much.) When I saw this listed, I still had John Cranko in mind, and after I had gotten up early to get to the 10am showing and saw that it was Neumeier's, I was ready to cry, since his "Mahler's Third Symphony" was the most painfully boring ballet I've ever seen. But, after a slow start, I was very glad I saw this production. Cranko Neumeier doesn't show any more ability to move crowds around in interesting ways than he did in the Mahler, but there were a number of pas de deux for all of the main couples that displayed a wide range of emotion and style, and passion without the excesses of MacMillan in similar material. The ending pas de trois with Marguerite, Manon Lescaut, and Des Grieux was quite moving, and during it, in what had been a silent audience of 80, there were sniffles and tears. I particularly liked the idea of the ballet within the ballet, and apart from some early, short, and obvious mirror dancing by Marguerite/Manon and Armand/Des Grieux, which, thankfully, passed quickly, Marguerite's gradual understanding of Manon was a beautiful dramatic element. The scene/pas between Marguerite and Papa Duval (Michael Denard) was as emotionally dramatic as its Verdian operatic counterpart in "La Traviata": gesture suits the changing relationship and understanding between the two beautifully. First and foremost, kudos to the two pianists who played the all-Chopin score and whose names I thought were on the printed cast list sheet at the cinema. According to this article While the choreographer, who also staged the production, is the authority, in my opinion, Letestu was most convincingly tubercular, and except from the opening scene in which Des Grieux meets her, she had the appeal and stature of a governess. In sections, such as the pas de deux in the country, her legs were very expressive, but from the waist up -- chest, arms, shoulders, neck -- she was stiff and unexpressive throughout. How she ever had the sensuality or charm to become a top courtesan is beyond me, and she played Marguerite as a victim, which limited the pathos. Delphine Moussin's Manon Lescaut had all of the dance qualities to have been a believable Marguerite, particularly in her final ballet scene (the death of Manon) and in the final pas de trois. Her upper body was expressive, and her entire body moved as one. In the pas de deux with Armand, I think she could have expressed the feverishness of illness and love that is built into the choreography, but which was, in my opinion, only partly expressed by Letestu. As secondary leads in lighter roles, Dorothee Gilbert was the sensual Prudence Duvernoy, a wonderful pairing with Karl Paquette's Gaston Rieux, the life forces contrasting with Marguerite and Armand. I think it was Simon Valastro's Le Comte de N. who flirted with Prudence in one scene, which I found quite brave: I wouldn't have had the nerve with Paquette holding a riding crop. Eve Grinsztajn danced fully as Olympia; I wish she had showed this lushness and spark in the "Raymonda" Act III I saw last spring at POB. The lighting was very dark, and Stephane Bullion's Armand was dressed mainly in black. Not all of his dancing was clear or visible, but he certainly kept in character throughout, and was a believable, ardent young pup in love. The stage looked bare -- I think this was filmed at Opera Bastille -- and it's hard to imagine how some of the action, such as Marguerite writing in her diary, looking in the mirror, putting on rouge for her last public appearance, all which was very clear on screen, would have registered to the back of the house. I did love, though, how Armand knocked over the big white wicker garden chair after he learned that Marguerite was returning to Paris and Le Duc. Set and costume designer Jürgen Rose's costumes for the women were stunners.

I think there are some dancers one doesn't know how much will be missed until they are gone. I wish Thomas the best of luck, happiness, and artistic fulfillment in Denmark. Oh, to live in a transportation hub with much of Europe within a 4-hour direct flight!

Many thanks, volcanohunter! I'll be in Vancouver this weekend

I'm fairly sure in one of the renewal mini-brochures or letters PNB advertised the Balanchine "Coppelia". It's such a wonderful production. From the "Balanchine Catalogue": http://balanchine.org/balanchine/display_r...rchMethod=exact In her book "Dancing for Balanchine", Merrill Ashley describes how Balanchine created the "Dawn" variation for her. Starting with "Romeo et Juliette" is an interesting way to kick-start the season. I always think of R&J as a winter ballet, and if we're lucky when it is performed we will be in Indian Summer. I'm assuming "Sleeping Beauty" is the Hynd production. Is "New Caniparoli" a new work made for the company, or a revival?

I agree. I'm not sure that they would have taken the company much farther: they had intended to retire two years earlier than they did, which suggests to me that they had done what they wanted to do, but they put aside their personal plans to dig PNB out of the financial hole into which the Mercer Arena residency had plunged them. I thought the critical part of hiring the new Artistic Director was to ensure continuity of PNB as an institution. I think it's funny that at the time, people talked most about Boal's lack of experience, and while I don't think they underestimated his social intelligence and downright decency (if I can project about someone I've never met), what I don't think they did consider was that he had taught about a third of the company's dancers at SAB (and had trained himself at SAB with dancers like Louise Nadeau), and how much loyalty and "glue" he would bring to the table by having had a working relationship with a large part of PNB. That the company has moved forward is a bonus in many ways, and a look at many of the dancers in the Company shows that so many are a product of the PNB school and training that Russell established, as well as being Russell and Stowell hires, more on the roster -- Nadeau, Bold, Nakamura, Wevers, Milov, Stanton among the Principals -- than Boal's (Korbes and Weese). The foundation of the company is very much Russell's and Stowell's.

Showing them. What we can't see is none of our business

I knew she was more than a technical whiz! I was thrilled to read this.

I'm not sure why the younger group would have been more amenable to Maillot's version of R&J than Stowell's based on the name, but I think it was a matter of both. The data in the article just gave out the total number of tickets, but didn't note a pattern. I would suspect there was word-of-mouth involved with R&J, but if it turned out most of the 600 were advanced sales or for the first performances, then my theory would be wrong. I do think that began with the contact Boal made, in which he could only make a promise, and once fulfilled, people told others. I know that Speight Jenkins has said over and over that Seattle Opera sells most of its single tickets through word-of-mouth. I can't say that my taste and Boal's intersects as much as I'd like. I would say that his reflects the taste of the dancers, or at least that most are happy with the challenges. I think that the quality of the Ulysses Dove works has gone down from "Red Angels", whereas Boal talks of bringing more of Dove's works to the Company. I sometimes cringe in Q&A's when he describe works he'd like to bring to the Company, and I'm sure he'd cringe at presenting most of my wish list, which would challenge his ability to be polite as much as anything (Although he could say, politely and truthfully, that he couldn't afford them ). When I think of the number of times critics reviewed Balanchine, especially after the 1960's, in a "but what have you done for me lately?" mode, forever saying that his genius had run out and his time was over, only to retract it when he choreographed a "Chaconne" or "Mozartiana" or a "Vienna Waltzes" or a "Davidsbundlertanze", I remember an interview with the actress Sandra Oh, in which she talked about Bjork. Oh said that while once in a while she'd think "Bjork is going through her drumming phase, OK..." but that she followed her no matter what, not just her latest album, because she valued her as an artist. Boal has a two-fold challenge: to convince long-time subscribers that he's not going to betray them, and to convince a younger audience that they will see something that will speak to them. It's a fine line, and I think it's less a matter of perpetually dazzling people than establishing long-term trust, so that if something's a miss, which it's bound to be, or the audience doesn't agree with the value of a work, they don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. I don't underestimate Boal's social skills/emotional intelligence in making this work.

I'd say "yes" for Martins and Stowell (if you mean Kent Stowell). I don't know enough about Tomasson. I don't consider "Romeo and Juliet" or "Cinderella" classics, and from what I've read here, Martins' "Romeo + Juliet" was quite a hit. Stowell's hits were mainly full-lengths: "Silver Lining", an original to music by Jerome Kern, "Cinderella", and "The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet", which was to a score of various pieces, mostly little-known, by Tchaikovsky. I also wouldn't put down Kent Stowell's "Swan Lake" by any means, which is a very straight take on the classic, although I wish he had left out the Jester character. What Tomasson and Stowell did at their best with one-act ballets is to create pieces that were either needed to balance a program or to grow the dancers, and for free. While I think the article was a bit superficial, Kent Stowell produced his own version of R&J, "The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet", and while it was a hit among subscribers -- it was created for Deborah Hadley, who may have been PNB's first star -- I never noticed more than the usual number of 20-somethings at performances. The Maillot "Romeo et Juliet" was another story: it was one of the hottest tickets around, and there's a reason why Boal has been so successful in Seattle with every generation: he has an intelligent, low-key, unaffected manner, with a wonderful, self-deprecating sense of humor, and he listens. I think he believes in this younger audience, many of whom would be put off if they thought he was not sincere or was in any way condescending. I think the time he spends with the younger audience is a great investment in them. I would never underestimate the power of taking people seriously and being thought of as a good guy. There's been so much "me, me, me, Greed is Good" in the world, that a little decency goes a long way, and a lot of decency goes even farther, and eye contact goes farther than that, especially in this part of the country, where it isn't easy to suss people out from appearance, and there is much more personal contact between The Powers That Be and the audience.

No kidding -- in Harry Potter, almost everyone is an in-law

The screening of the film "Ballets Russes" on Monday, 30 March at 6pm will be followed by a Q&A with Frederick Franklin. Venue: Apollo Cinema Piccadilly Circus, London.

You guys are killing me! I'm thinking Stroman, though, for "Frasier". I don't think Tudor would have had much patience for Niles' puppy-dogged-ness.

The two stagers from the Robbins Foundation for PNB's "West Side Story Street", which premiered in May 1995, were Elyse Borne and Jean-Pierre Frohlich. I know Borne had left NYCB by then, and I think Frohlich might have as well. At least one of them never danced in the work.