Helene

I saw his 7 for 8 (?) recently, and could not stay awake. What a waste of a major company's time. I saw 7 for 8 with two different casts and was impressed that each cast could stamp its own personality on the ballet. I liked it more than most of Tomasson's one-acters, most of which I find dry as kindling and very tedious.

I think that the change from a Pas de Trois, especially one in which the Siegfried was the less involved partner and there is another mortal man to witness the scene, to a Pas de Deux, witnessed only by other imprisoned souls, changes the dynamic drastically, as well as the interpretation. There is not the same decorum, and little place for Siegfried to stop and listen, unlike when Benno is partnering Odette and that's his primary "job." I recall many early performances of Balanchine's shortened Swan Lake. The main mood his early casts seemed to be aiming at was something like a highly emotional trance. This seemed to be the case no matter who was dancing the roles. (Some of the males, however, were a bit more wooden than the others.) Act II as a stand-alone also changes the dynamic: there's no need for a dramatic arc between the acts; it's all distilled. I think the Siegfried's mood/approach at entrance has both the added pressure to establish the character more potently and immediately, but also the added freedom from consistency.

Bummer about Graham, but I look forward to reading your review on danceviewtimes. I saw tonight's performance, in which there was one announced debut and one unexpected one, as well as several performers I hadn't seen in this run. In the post-performance Q&A, Peter Boal told us that Stacy Lowenberg had jammed her foot in Square Dance, and while she thought she could dance Ballet Imperial, she was sent to PT, and a Professional Division student understudy, Taisha Burton-Rowledge was called to action. As Dick Button would say, "Good for her." (T B-R, I mean, and I hope Stacy Lowenberg is fine for tomorrow.) The announced debut was Laura Gilbreath as Siren to Jonathan Porretta's Prodigal. She bourreed onstage like silk; she was slinky and luminous like mercury, until she needed to intimidate. (Her Siren preferred to play with her food a bit.) It was a beautifully drawn characterization through movement, and she managed the cape, the hat, and both slides down Porretta's legs like she had been doing the role for years. In the Q&A she had nothing but praise for Porretta as a partner and as a person. Imler and Postlewaite once again danced the leads in Square Dance. Watching Imler, I couldn't stop thinking of Chaconne. She has a unique voice. The orchestra seemed to me to have taken the pace up a notch, especially in the last movement, which seemed to phase neither Imler nor the corps. There were some different dancers in this cast than I had seen last week. It was great to see Rebecca Johnston, with her wonderful beats, in the great corps role. This was the first time I'd seen Kaori Nakamura and Batkhurel Bold in the leads of Ballet Imperial; the last time I saw the ballet before this season, in 1997, Nakamura danced the second lead. Nakamura danced the lead with her characteristic clarity and lightness and just enough sense of royalty. Jodie Thomas as the second lead was even lighter, almost transparent, but she didn't have the size and proportion to her movements to match Nakamura. She was flanked by the formidable pair of Maria Chapman and Lesley Rausch, both of whom danced with grace and more than a hint of imperial of their own, and partnered by Lucien Postlewaite and Benjamin Griffiths in an impressive performance of a supporting role. Bold was very moving in the second movement as the Siegfried-like character; he imbued the role with the essence of story without every being specific or imposing acting on it. As a tall, muscular dancer, it always amazes how high he jumps, in this case hanging in the air during the series of beats, and landing with panther-like softness. I found the match of Nakamura and Bold to be very pleasing, and dancing with her, he doesn't recede as he tends to do with more emphatic ballerinas; it was very beautiful to see tonight.

Ballet Talk receives a commission on all purchases through the mini-store and the search box to the right of the logo. The mini-store is a tool provided by amazon that highlights ballets books and DVDs. The search box brings you directly into the amazon.com main site.

In what company? Merrill Ashley described in her book that when she met her husband in 1974 -- and she was already cast in Principal roles at the time -- he told her that she had two expressions: big smile (I can't remember his less-than-complimentary description) and what he called her "pained ballerina" look. I assume if she had gotten this feedback from anyone else, she would have mentioned it. Which meant that neither Balanchine nor any of the ballet masters nor Jacques d'Amboise, who chose her for his small performing groups, had worked with her on her facial expressions in any detail.

(4mrdncr, I'm dying to know who that Siegfried was.)

Surely he'd be saddened and moved by her tale, but during the White Swan pas de deux, he's comforting her and getting her to trust him, to open up and to help heal her sadness. If he looks like the harbinger of Doom, it doesn't make any sense that she'd put her hope in him.

Did anyone see James Moore's debut as Prodigal and Carla Korbes' first Siren last night? sandik -- if you did and are reviewing for publication, would you tell us when and where?

I think this is exascerbated by giving Siegfried Act I solos that are increasingly melancholy, and also by the increase is stage business where von Rothbart mirrors his every doubt and agony, which sometimes means von Rothbart is pulling the strings, in other productions that he is simply Siegfried's dark side, etc. By the time he gets to the lake, he's a character who needs a decade of psychoanalysis. I think Siegfried is frustrated by his mother's insistence on marriage, but feels there is something else out there, if he could only find it. He's not sure what it is until he sees Odette. I agree that, dramatically, at that point, he'd be happy, or at least relieved. This parallels his "Just In Time!" relief when Odile shows up at the palace in Act III, if there's an Act III. And if he's doomed in Act II, that suggests that he accepts his fate, and Act III and Act IV make little sense dramatically. Ballet dancers are taught to smile. I think sometimes that the only other expression I see on stage is "I'm going to rip your face off," which is more appropriate to Forsythe. Without an emphasis on mime training and storytelling, I think the dancers are on their own to come up with something for their faces to do when a smile is inappropriate.

The amazon.com discount is quite good. The DVD is now available in the Ballet Talk Amazon Mini-Store.

Jann Arden who will appear in the same benefit for the National Arts Centre as Ben Heffner, interviewed the tenor for the Ottawa Citizen. http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/a...f5-7f703512a0d8

There's been quite a brouhaha in Seattle, because I Pagliacci is being presented as a stand-alone. I never thought of Giselle as being a ballet that would be presented with anything else. I understand how it is more palatable to a big company to have more than six featured roles in an evening (counting the Peasant pas de deux), but ballet #2 has always felt like overkill to me. At least in La Sylphide, which I saw RDB perform with Etudes, James might have a tragic ending, but Effie is content and Gurn is a happy camper -- there's a distinct "life goes on" aspect. Giselle is uniformly tragic. What other works can match its pathos on the same bill?

Most of the companies listed are major international or regional companies, although not all are listed, or for the entire season. For example, the Bolshoi only lists through November on their website, and I can't find an English-language version of the Mariinsky schedule. If there is a training academy associated with any of the companies which has a graduation/annual student performance, we'll list it. What aren't listed are 1. Training and semi-professional companies, which consist mainly of students, with or without guest professionals 2. Nutcracker, unless it's part of the general rep and out-of-season. There are just too many performances, and Nutcracker is too important to the annual budgets of most companies to inadvertently leave anyone out. 3. Any company that doesn't have a website that makes it possible for us to get the information reasonably. 4. All producers/dance series. If there is a tour, we expect to find it on the main company's site. If you have a suggestion, please PM me or send email to the "Contact Us" link, and we'll consider adding it.

We've launched the 2007-8 Ballet Calendar. You can find it here or by clicking the "Calendar" option from the top right toolbar at the top of the screen. By selecting any entry, you'll find details about the programs, dates and times, and ticket information, where these were available when we posted to the Calendar. We will continue to add events/performances as they are announced, like NYCB and ABT Spring/Summer seasons. (If you find any errors as you browse, I'd appreciate it very much if you would send me a PM or an email through the "Contact Us" link from the top right toolbar.)

I can see how it would read that way, LOL! I'm afraid both of us were too near comatose to be able to quarrel if we had wanted to It definitely was not the music, but even the music (taped) couldn't salvage this fiasco.

vrsfanatic sent us a link to the press release announcing all of the Princess Grace Awards; nine in total went to dancers and choreographers: http://www.pgfusa.org/uploads/PGF%20Awards...%2008.27.07.pdf Dancers: Andrew Bartee (Pacific Northwest Ballet School) Brooklyn Mack -- he was a a silver medallist at the Jackson International Ballet Competition last year (Orlando Ballet) Sarah Kathryn Lane (American Ballet Theatre) Rashaun L. Mitchell (Merce Cunningham Dance Company) Christopher Vo (The Julliard School) Meredith Webster (LINES Ballet) Choreographers: Eric Ray Kupers (AXIS Dance Company) Darrell Grand Moultrie (Cincinnati Ballet) Pavel Zustiak (Laboratory Dance Company)

That suggests she was the Cynthia Gregory of her time.

Wheater was such a beautiful dancer. If he's half as successful as an AD, the company will be lucky, indeed.

I'm not sure it's technically a variation, but it's certainly a solo: the male solo George Balanchine created for Bart Cook in Square Dance in 1976. Runners up are any of the male variations in Chaconne or Mozartiana, and any part of Oberon's "Scherzo" from A Midsummer Night's Dream. I'll have to think more about women's variations.

I wakened some deep subconscious thought that was better left alone, but I do remember the most boring ballet I've ever seen, and it wasn't even Manon: It was John Neumeier's Mahler's Third Symphony which I saw performed by the Hamburg Ballet at BAM. Unfortunately, I was in the middle of a row with a friend, and we hadn't developed a silent way of coordinating our escape. If I remember correctly, I went to see the performance because Gina Gail Hyatt was in the Company, and I had seen her dance in the documentary made about the 1982 Jackson International Ballet Competition where she won Gold in the Junior Division, beating out Katherine Healy and two other men.

Doesn't "sofia" mean wisdom? I don't want to split hair here or drive things off-topic but the different meaning significantly changes what Volynsky though. It refers to "female wisdom," what Siegfried attributes to Brunnhilde -- little does he know that she doesn't touch it until the end of Gotterdammerung. Unlike beauty, it's one of those things that people worship, but rarely heed.

Did you keep your programs? Often they mention whether or not there are stagers from the Trust (with all of those copyright symbols all over the place.) I don't know if Alonso every performed in Apollo, but there are so many people with experience in the ballet from so many companies that it wouldn't be that hard to stage, especially with at least three video versions. Ballo was filmed within a few years of its premiere. Odds are it was staged from that video, if the Trust didn't send someone.