Helene

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.

Thank you so much for your review, kfw! I'm always interested to hear how other people who see NYCB intermittently note the differences between performances by dancers they see intermittently. I know that when I see the same dancers after several years, it's a very different experience then seeing them regularly over the same period.

Just this evening I saw "Bluebeard's Castle" and "Erwartung" at Seattle Opera. In this production by Robert Lepage, in "Erwartung", an actor portraying The Woman's lover, Noam Markus, was murdered in bed upstage left, and very slowly rolled naked out of bed and towards downstage right. Across the front of the stage was about 4-5 feet of water, and during that time, to the most beautiful part of the score, all I could think of was "not the water, Not The Water, NOT THE WATER!!!!" (A certain Seinfeld episode came to mind...) Of course, he rolled with his limbs in the water, then entirely in the water, from which he swam offstage. After the performance, Speight Jenkins said that the water was a comfortable 104 degrees (40 C), so I really didn't have to worry, and tomorrow night, when I see it again, I won't.

Everything to the left of each post under your board name is the same for all posts, including post count. The software is not retaining a post number for each posts, but a "number of posts" in total.

Although I'm not exactly sure why a hero is required for a modern dance piece based on an Elizabethan play with a score by Prokofiev, who wasn't a Romantic composer, in his review of Morris' take on "Romeo and Juliet" in Ballet Review, Winter 2008/9 issue, Robert Johnson makes two comments that I think are pertinent to this thread: Re: the happy ending in Prokofiev's score, which Morris followed: and later, I wonder if we'd conclude the same if Albrecht had never been discovered.

The subject of the article is modern dance ("Mark Morris, on Motifs of Prokofiev") but I can't resist quoting Robert Johnson in Ballet Review, Winter 2008/9 (p. 47),

6 Mar 09 On Bathsheba Dance Company: Not Really Gaga for This Program 5 Mar 09 On Savion Glover: Tap into Glover's Talent

What an appropriate phrase, since Choreography by George Balanchine was the credit for "On Your Toes"

He's certainly going for variety and range of images of men and women in ballet.

These have been such a delight to read!

I don't think he was the first to call himself "choreographer", but he insisted upon being billed this way for his work on Broadway. I'm fairly sure this was in Taper, and it has been picked up by other biographers and writers as well.

to Moredo and Higgins.

Casting for Week 1 is up! http://www.pnb.org/season/broadway-cast.html Lesley Rausch debuts in "Slaughter on 10th Avenue" with Jeffrey Stanton, who is a great hoofer. Carla Korbes also dances Strip Tease Girl; Seth Orza debuts as her hoofer. Korbes and Orza dance the leads in "Carousel", with Korbes making her debut, and Jodie Thomas and James Moore are paired in the same roles. There are some debuts in "Take Five...More or Less": Tisserand and Porretta in the Opening Night Cast, Dec/Chapman/Gilbreath on Friday, and Thomas in the Saturday matinee. For "West Side Story Suite": Tony: Lucien Postlewaite Anite: Carla Korbes Maria: Sara Ricard Riff: Orza or Stanton Bernardo: Cruz or Bold