Helene

Are they shared, though? I thought every choreographer wanted to put his/her individual mark on the subject, with the full array of $$$ costumes and sets. I haven't read the "Twilight" books, but now that Bollywood has allowed kisses in place of five minutes of two faces getting close and then tilting away at the last minute, ballet might be the appropriate medium for frustrated love and eroticism. Oh, wait, Tudor already did that.

Even when there's an explicit threat -- to choreograph if donors don't fork up the $$$ -- Boal manages to do it with humor and class I'd love to see some trading and borrowing among ballet companies whose directors choreograph for their companies. Works don't have to be masterpieces, structurally or any other way, to be challenging to dancers and/or be great vehicles for them, and several I've seen over the past few years have been excellent on their own. A lot of new ballets are in the same boat as contemporary classical music: seen locally once or twice, only to die out, no matter what their quality is. The ones that have multiple companies producing them are the ones that have a chance to survive. I think of works like "Doctor Atomic". Of course, classical music recently has a advantage with broadcasts, often over the Internet, where someone halfway across the world can hear and enjoy the works without having to travel.

emilienne, I hope that the next work you see merits the detailed, descriptive, and well-written and argued review you've posted here. It sounds like a disappointment.

Now I understand

(Ruing that I can't be in three places at once...) I have never seen a version of "The Concert" where the pianist begins to play before the ballet as part of the entrance -- it sounds like a scream!

Thank you so much for this wonderful review, chiapuris, with its vivid depiction of both characterization and dance. It sounds like a delightful ballet.

Did anyone see this production?

This summer, Miami City Ballet will be in Vail for two performances: 1 August: Rep TBA 3 August: Up Close: Edward Villella with Miami City Ballet This program is described as:

Ballet Talk is an audience site. What the audience knows about the Company is either public information, like descriptions of their season on the Joffrey website, which usually includes tours, the labor agreement on the AGMA site, or newspaper and magazine articles, or a review by a member. Any reviews of the Company would be found in the Joffrey Ballet sub-forum of the American Ballet Companies forum, like this thread, as would most news, although some might be in "Ballets & Choreographers", "Aesthetic Issues", or "Ballet News & Issues". You can use the "Search" function at the top of the page to look for site information on "Joffrey" or "Joffrey Ballet". We have a specific policy about news: it must be official. When we read or hear anything official about next season, it will be posted in one of the forums listed above. I'm closing this thread.

When I took an arts management seminar in 1989 at Jacob's Pillow the core seminar team was Sam Miller, then managing Pilobolus; Art Becofsky, then Executive Director of Merce Cunningham, Barbara Horgan, who, too, dealt with the aftermath when Balanchine, as you put it, "[had] come to the end of the road with certain dancers, that they've explored everything they wish to say through that dancer" for personal or professional reasons. One of the main topics was how they approached their roles. In contrast to Miller, who lived with his wife and small children in Connecticut and conducted most of his business by phone, Becofsky described, with disciple-like devotion, being on the road with the Company, and how his role and goal was to enable Merce Cunningham to do his work, whatever it took. It looks like someone with that single-minded dedication is what MC hires, and I'm not surprised to see it again, although I would have been surprised if Becofsky was still in the role: it sounded completely exhausting. The ruthlessness of an Artistic Director was well documented in "Dancemaker". This applies to almost all small- to mid-sized ballet companies as well; I don't think there's ever been a modern dance company on the same scale as a major ballet company, and few modern companies of any size, like Compañía Nacional de Danza de España, have ever been state subsidized to the same degree as the major European and Russian companies. Those that have survived the best are those that keep their expenses low and don't strive to grow from small to medium or medium to large, with all of the overhead that entails. New York Theatre Ballet is one example.

PNB had to absorb a very large deficit during the multi-season stint at the Mercer Arena -- ticket sales made up a whopping 70% of the budget -- and Francia Russell was very clear in Q&A's that promotions were put on hold because there wasn't money for them. I would not be surprised to see the same thing happen across the country in this economic climate.

What an ordeal for such a young man to face. He is blessed to have Pacitti and Lallone to stand by him through his diagnosis and chemo.

Does anyone know whether the flexed back was characteristic of William Dollar, the original Melancholic? If not, was the original version different, and the newer version required it? Or was it the characteristic of a particular dancer that made it a plus or pre-requisite?

I would advise anyone who is interested in seeing the reconstruction to get this DVD from BRO while it is available. (Even if I did pay retail )

You do have to be prepared, though, to find that the disk for which you paid $25-40 is selling there for $13.99, and is the first disk on the search results list.

I've always felt that this should be "Prince Siegfried's Anthem": it's so much more evocative than any moody solo at the end of Act I, even if it is more optimistic than brooding.

Feijoo as Caroline and Sylve as The Woman from His Past? Wow, that will be a change.

Bart Cook. Exhibit A: exit as Melancholic in Dance in America "Four Temperaments" broadcast.