Helene

It's late in Warsaw, but just some thoughts: The Compulsory Dance (CD) was the Golden Waltz, which I read was based on an original set pattern, and IIRC, it was by Klimova/Ponomorenko. Unlike most CDs, which have a couple of higlight moves, like turns, this one is chock full of them: it opens on couple barrel-like turns from one corner, then some counter turns to a series of toe-pick assisted turns for the woman at the other end of the rink, around the corner with the man in attitude positions, to a dip where the man supports the woman under her shoulders, with one knee bent and the other free leg extended forward (with turnout and toe point when we're lucky), to a series where both are in attitude, where he has to stay on that one leg and turn and extend, then a series of turns where each alternately has one leg extended high, to a section where he lunges, then supports her in a dip in each direction, then a tricky turn in one short corner where his free leg is extended in arabesque, to a very tricky footwork section in the other short corner, back to repeat the pattern. It's considered the most difficult, and not just because there are at least five different kinds of turns, and the pattern itself is very intricate, but also because all of the lunging and dipping is a killer on the thighs, which are already building up lactic acid. It shows off many different aspects of the dancers, and it's my favorite of all of the CDs, even if the three musical selections of Strauss waltzes get to be a bit tedious by the end of 28 teams. Denkova/Staviyski, the reigning World Champions, have been quoted as saying that they don't like the CD, and they skated it as if they didn't like it. I thought it looked perfunctory, but they are such professional-quality skaters with such great edges, that it isn't surprising they are in a virtual three-way tie. Domnina/Shabalin, the young Russian couple, weren't quite as fast, but they came to skate the CD, and I think they deserved to be ahead of Denkova/Staviyski. I can't be objective about Delobel and Schoenfelder: I think he is Fred Astaire, and that they have the most beautiful edges in Ice Dancing and are constantly under-scored. I am thrilled that they are in first; I wish it was by a larger margin. There's a noticeable break between the three D/S's and the next three, Faiella/Scali, who are being pursued closely by Khoklova/Novitski, and the Kerrs, from Great Britain, who train with Evgeny Platov, two-time Olympic gold medallist with Oksana Gritshuk. I suspect Khoklova/Novitski will pass Faiella/Scali in the next two phases. After these teams there is a noticeable drop among the veteran teams, although I think that Fraser/Lukanini were overrated, as their "waltz" was a bit to Vegas in style for my taste. There are a lot of up-and-coming young teams, though, although I don't think they were necessarily given credit for where they were superb. For example, the lovely young Italian #2 team, Cappellini and Lanotte, were, in my opinion, the best at the lunge/dip/dip section of the skate, and quite wonderful in the rest of the dance. (Italy's #1 team, Faiella/Scali, were next best in this section.) Gruenberg/Rand, a young Estonian team, were more impressive than their 20th place would indicate, and he has superb extension, expression, and rhythm. Zhiganshina/Gazsi did very well and capitalized on the opportunity given to them by the German #1 team's, the Beiers, injury. The two Lithuanian teams were very nice to watch; both are pairings of American women with Lithuanian men, including former singles skater Aidas Reklys, who has a lot of presence and flair. Because Drobiazko/Vanagas competed at Europeans last year on their way to the Olympics and earned two spots for this year, two teams were able to compete, but there will be quite a competition for next year's single spot, with another American/Lithanian team also in the wings. The Pairs SP was rough-going; I'm not sure there was a single clean program among them. Savchenko/Szolkowy's program was brilliantly choreographed, though, and quite well skated. The Siudeks skated nervously in front of their home crowd -- they postponed retirement in order to compete in Warsaw -- and they were lucky to be ahead of Obertas/Slavnov by a fraction. Sadly, the exquisite Volosozhar and her partner Morosov did not skate cleanly and trailed O/S by 4 points going into the long program, which they couldn't make up, after outscoring O/S in the long. Petrova/Tikhonov also have a lovely program, a re-working of last year's to Handel's "Sarabande," but they skated a little cautiously. There were only 14 pairs in the competition, but even with a relatively small number, there were no scary pairs -- as in being afraid she was going to be dropped -- among the younger ones. Pla/Bonheur, the French #1 team, are still getting back to form after being out with an injury that caused them to withdraw from the Grand Prix. The Number 2 team, Canac/Coia, has improved markedly from its first competition in Paris last fall. The young British team, Kemp/King, have a lovely, almost old-fashioned quality about them. The young Italians, Magitteri/Hotarek, we very impressive; they have a lot of spunk on the ice, an impression that was confirmed by their West Side Story long program tonight. German #2, Vartmann/Just, also skated well, with a lot of flow. The surprise bronze medallists from Russian Nationals, Efaieva/Menshikov have a lot of potential: although she is juniorish, he, a most unusual specimen Russian male pairs skater -- short --, is as fine an all-around skater as any of the men in the competition: beautiful technique on his jumps, lovely positions in his spins, and great strength in lifting her as if she were no heavier than can of beans. The Siudeks skated first in the last group of four. Their program was gorgeous, to a series of pieces by Chopin, all of which were used by Jerome Robbins in Dances at a Gathering, In the Night, and Other Dances. They were not flawless, but they skated beautifully, with great flow, in a grown-up, classical program. Petrova/Tikhonov followed with their Moonlight Sonata free skate, also a mature program. I know that the Siudeks could only have made up the different from the short program if Pet/Tik had fallen apart, but I don't think it was correct that they were (slightly) ahead of the Siudeks after the long, especially since two of their lifts ended very slowly, one almost at a standstill, and he muscled out his jumps. But they had other elements of top quality, and she is a very beautiful skater. Obertas/Slavnov were on-again-off-again in their long program, and it was clear that the Siudeks would retain their lead, and win the bronze medal. However, O/S, skating 13th of 14th, had the first of only two synchronized side-by-side pairs spins, which was a shock, because this is usually a very strong element for Petrova/Tikhonov. While I really could live without another Savchenko/Szolkowy program to another generic American movie score -- The Mission this time -- their program was choreographed brilliantly, and they skated flawlessly and with better line than I'd ever seen them before. They truly earned their medal. It is true that the brilliant Tomas Verner of Czechoslovakia, who has had world-championship-level edges and ice coverage since he was a junior skater (and got little credit for it), beat Brian Jouber in the short program, bringing A-level jumps and spins, including a huge axel. His triple lutz was so easy, we wondered if he had doubled it. Joubert fell out of his quad in the combination and was unable to complete the second jump, but he did come back strongly for all of the other elements. His spins have improved 300% over the last couple of years, since the last 6.0 Worlds in Dortmund in 2004. Davydov had one of the few clean programs, although all but a couple of the 32 Men's SP's were very enjoyable. He is a terrific skater, and was top six at Worlds in DC in 2003. (He's been inconsistent since.) The young German skater Philipp Tischendorf, led off with a lovely program, and his score stood very well through three more groups. The crowd was unhappy with Kevin van der Perren's scores; he skated dynamically, but his levels of difficulty were all 1's. The young Russian #3 skater, Andrei Lutai is trained by Plushenko's coach, Mishin, and his style is similar to Plushenko's, but it suits his smaller proportions, and he is a better spinner than the Olympic champion. I can't wait until the Men's LP tomorrow night.

The other night I just heard a very young Joni Mitchell's recording of "They Paved Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot." I had forgotten how sweet her young voice was, and how very different her later work was. I wonder how poppy this new music will be, given the jazz influences that have filtered into her music over the last two decades. The last time I saw her was on the televised special celebrating the 100th anniversary of Saskatechewan, and she looked like a dowager, especially her hair.

One thing I've heard at the beginning of every performance of Symphony in C: an audible gasp when the curtain rises on the line of pony-tailed women in white.

I don't know if there are ways to borrow these from a library in the UK, but there are two commercial recordings that might interest you: in the "Dance in America" series, there's a studio production of Stravinsky Violin Concerto with Karin von Aroldingen and Bart Cook as the "Aria 1" couple, and Kay Mazzo and Peter Martins as the "Aria 2 couple." All but Cook were in the original cast. (I think Cook's is the strongest performance of all.) This ballet, with Symphony in Three Movements, is considered one of three masterworks from the 1972 Stravinsky Festival. (The other is Duo Concertante.) In Volume 2 of "Balanchine Celebration" videos from the Nonesuch Balanchine Library series, from a 1993 live performance to honor the 10-year anniversary of Balanchine's death, there's a perfomance of Agon. Darcey Bussell danced the central role with Lindsay Fischer. Volume 1 has a performance of Scherzo a la Russe, too. The opening tableau of Symphony in Three Movements is spectacular.

Welcome to Ballet Talk, scherzo! We hope you enjoy the site. And we'd love to hear what you think about the Balanchine triple bill.

Have you seen it or any of Maillot's other work?

Yes, he did. It was called The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, and it was set to a score of mostly obscure music by Tchaikovsky, with two exceptions: the Diamonds adagio from the Symphony #3, and the "Pregheria" from Suite No. 4 (Mozartiana). Stewart Kershaw worked with Kent Stowell to craft the score. I find it a very lovely and moving work. I would love to see it again, and I think that there are many companies in the US that would be richer if they produced it. I think this might be a wish in vain.This new R&J is to the Prokofiev score.

Thank you sandik! Two full Balanchine programs, a reprise of Kiss, more Robbins, a Wheeldon, and new work by Wevers and Gibson. I'm not familiar with Maillot. Sounds liks a very nice season.

According to his bio on the PNB website, I tried to Google "où est Olivier?" and Adam to find out who danced the role, but didn't find any matches.) Wevers's wife, Kaori Nakamura is in her mid-thirties, having won the Prix de Lausaunne in 1986 when she was in her mid-teens. I don't know if they are the same age, because seeing in person in his (very stylish) civilian clothes, it's hard to guess his exact age, but I would guess their ages are in the same ballpark.

In a way, my very first subscription to NYCB on Saturday afternoons functioned that way, although I didn't realize it when I bought it. I loved seeing young dancers get chances at new roles.I would buy this in a second. I think this is a fantastic idea.

I haven't read Robert Maiorano's book Balanchine's Mozartiana for many years, which could explain what I'm about to write, but I don't remember that Balanchine conceived the role for Martins. I thought the point was that Andersen was, in an abstract way, a stand-in for Balanchine, and that Balanchine liked the pairing Farrell with dancers who were closer to his height than Martins's.Even if Martins had been in Balanchine's mind when he conceived the ballet, it's hard to me imagine that the finished product wasn't built for Andersen's agility, proportions, and musicality. I consider the Farrell/Andersen/Castelli performance of Mozartiana that I was privileged to see among the greatest live performances of any kind in my memory.

In a NYCB review thread, Klavier offered this strategy for purchasing tickets to sold-out performances, and it bears being saved for quick reference: Here's the link to the original post.

I understand completely, but reading this, I thought immediately of Klavier's post on getting tickets to a sold-out performance. This was for NYCB, but I can't imagine it wouldn't work in most cities, and if you have the afternoon to spare, and back-up plans if you can't get a ticket, it may be worth a try.

I think there are two main groups of non-neoclassical choreographers: modern and other non-ballet choregraphers, like Mark Morris, Twyla Tharp, Martha Graham, Paul Taylor, Victor Quijado (who did a work for PNB last year). Morris and Tharp have choreographed some pieces for ballet companies in what I would call primarily neoclassical style, like Waterbaby Bagatelles, Push Comes to Shove, Sylvia, and the piece Morris did to the Beethoven Ghost Sonata -- I think it was called Maelstrom, which at least sits on the fence -- but others, like Nine Sinatra Songs are not, although they have been performed by many ballet companies. While Taylor has choreographed for ballet companies, I haven't seen anything of his I would call neoclassical style. Ulysses Dove has certainly attempted the style in Red Angels. The second group are what we've called contemporary choreographers, and the most successful of these are Bejart, Duato, Kylian, Ailey. I'm not sure what Eifman is, to be honest. Some of Red Giselle looked to me very much in the neoclassical style, but it was dramatically over-the-top, in my opinion, and that I'm not quite sure how to classify.

Most ballet companies in the US do not travel because of the prohibitive costs. Even national companies like National Ballet of Canada and Australian Ballet are criticized at length for their limited touring outside their home cities or regions. I don't think Paris Opera Ballet is a touring company. In general, performances outside the home theater don't count towards the season, although sometimes free performances are included in seasons listings. In the US and Canada, a season generally is defined as a series of performances to which a person can subscribe. The huge companies in Russia have always toured, having enough dancers to support performances in the home theaters and to tour, and during the renovations have toured extensively. There are a few companies like Miami City Ballet which do fewer programs per year because they repeat a program in multiple venues. (In MCB's, in Miami, Palm Beach, and Broward.) Often the pieces performed on tour are different than the pieces performed at home that season, due to the logistics of touring. Sometimes triple bills are rearranged for touring. In the US and Canada, there are two models for venue sharing: 1. ballet and opera alternate programs, like Ballet Arizona (which performs in the same venue as the opera and the symphony) and Pacific Northwest Ballet. 2. ballet and opera alternate seasons, like New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and ABT for the summer season. But even in this model, the period between seasons is chock full of rehearsals while the opera is on stage. On the whole, the season is when people are in town and not on vacation and traveling. Summer is usually the time for special festivals, especially in the music world, although some, like Tanglewood and Mostly Mozart, can span months. Many ballet professionals teach during summer ballet programs and summer intensives; you can see the advertisements in Dance Magazine, for example, promoting top dancers and teachers in their programs. Usually with both companies at once, like Sofiane Sylve with New York City Ballet and Dutch National Ballet. Suzanne Farrell Ballet uses dancers who perform in the off-season of their permanent companies. Many dancers take time off in Nutcracker season to guest, often in or near their home cities. The more reputation a dancer has, the more bargaining leeway s/he has, generally, to take periods off during a season to guest. Then there is "Gala World," where dancers are invited to guest at various gala performances. There are very few opera houses in the Western world today that run on a rep company model, although there are still some in Germany, and there are local and small regional companies all over the world that use it, because almost all of the talent is local. Most of the full-season opera companies that use the rep model are in Russia, Eastern Europe, and the Baltics. Nearly every major opera house outside the Bolshoi and Mariinsky hires the leads from a worldwide talent pool, contracted for each opera, although it may rely upon a core set of local singers for comprimario roles, and singers like Yevgeny Nikitin, who was featured in the documentary Sacred Stage, will leave their base companies to guest, although their primary allegiance is to their home company.Almost all full-time ballet companies are rep companies, and guesting is usually either by dancers who mostly freelance, like Dmitri Hvorostovsky does in opera, or who leave their base companies to guest for periods or productions, like Nikitin does with the Mariinsky.

Pacific Northwest Ballet and San Francisco Ballet on core Balanchine rep and the style of the house choreographers, Helgi Tomasson and Kent Stowell, which make up a large part of the rep. Miami City Ballet for it's core Balanchine rep and much-lauded performances of it. Mikko Nissenen's own choreography and aethetic sensibility are safely in the neoclassical range. Pennsylvania Ballet's self-description "During its first decade, the Company forged the unique identity for which it is still known today: a diverse classical repertoire with a Balanchine backbone performed by versatile dancers whose energy and exuberance are the Company's enduring signature." When it produced a new Swan Lake, it was Wheeldon's first full-length. To be a neoclassical powerhouse does not mean that a company has to be exclusively neoclassical, in my opinion. But when three of five programs are in that genre, and two are classics, as is the case of Boston, when six of nine are predominently neoclassical mixed rep and three are classics -- and those three are choreographed or co-choreographed by the neoclassical Tomasson -- in San Francisco, when five of seven programs are mixed bill and still primarily neoclassical in Seattle and when Nutcracker is choreographed by the neo-classical Kent Stowell, when Miami is considered to be at the pinnacle of performing Balanchine -- the only company among the five I cited to have a majority of full-length classics, at least in this season -- and when Pennsylvania has a combination of full-lengths and mixed bills, but one of its three full-lengths is Balanchine's Nutcracker and Caniparoli and Wheeldon are considered "Modern Masters" I would say that this defines them as neoclassical companies, and these five are among the very top in the US, hence "powerhouse." One dancer I forgot to mention is Astrit Zejnati, who in a Q&A after one of his performances with Ballet Arizona, said the reason he left PNB (he did two stints with the Company) was to dance classical roles. Being cast primarily in neoclassical roles did not cut it for him.

Apart from when there are dissenters, like Robert Gottlieb, or scandals, like when Anne Bass resigned, or around the succession to Martins and Robbins, we rarely hear about the workings of the Board from official sources. Ultimately, we don't know what they do, what areas outside finance they influence -- they have a fiduciary responsibility to do the latter, and I assume they do so -- whether their influence is specific or general, or whether and how this has changed over the years. We don't know who initiated the surveys, what the results were -- except that, according to an article in The New York Times, college aged peers of a dancer didn't recognize the names of great choreographers -- whether they actually pointed to any clear conclusion, and, most importantly, to your question, whether the Board took note of them in any or all details, and if they had any influence whatsoever on Board actions, suggestions, or influences. There's been nothing, however, to suggest that the Board does not support Mr. Martins in his roles as artistic director, even if that is not his title.

You should see Miranda Weese while you have a chance over the next six weeks. A recent press release stated that she was leaving NYCB at the end of the Winter rep season. She will be guesting at PNB after that.

Although, like NYCB, they perform full-lengths as well, I would say:Pacific Northwest Ballet San Francisco Ballet Miami City Ballet Pennsylvania Ballet Boston Ballet

I also don't see how a neo-classical version of Romeo and Juliet is antithetical to fulfilling the mission to "preserve the aesthetic" of its founders. It's not as if Balanchine didn't choreograph The Nutcracker, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Pulchinella, or Coppelia, all multi-act narrative ballets, as well as several versions of Firebird. Balanchine dreamed of producing Sleeping Beauty, and if he had lived longer, we might have seen Darci Kistler's Aurora in the Master's version. Lincoln Kirstein was instrumental in supporting a number of choreographers -- not only at NYCB, but with Ballet Caravan and some of his other ballet ventures during Balanchine's Broadway and Hollywood periods -- who created works with narratives and characters. I don't see where Martins would have had to justify R&J from a mission perspective at all. To speculate that he did has no foundation in official news.

Whatever the reason, those are great ballets, and I'm glad there will be many reports of their performances, so I can live vicariously through you

How often, though, do they try cricket in a company that is considered less prestigious than the being a Major League Baseball player? Alexandra Ansanelli said that she left NYCB to dance the classics. She joined the Royal Ballet, albeit as a soloist. (Michael Jordan joined a minor league baseball team after his first retirement from being MICHAEL JORDAN, but Michael Jordan didn't need much validation.) But how often does a Principal Dancer at NYCB leave to join a regional company that performs them with the same regularity as the Royal Ballet? Or a Principal Dancer at ABT to join a regional company that is a neoclassical powerhouse?

According to their website bios, PNB dancers who came from other companies are: Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre: Principal Stanko Milov (also National Theatre for Opera and Ballet in Bulgaria), Corps Members James Moore and Rachel Foster Houston Ballet: Principal Le Yin, Corps Member Barry Kerollis Royal Winnipeg Ballet: Principals Kaori Nakamura and Olivier Wevers, Soloist Chalnessa Eames San Francisco Ballet: Principal Jeffrey Stanton (also retired dancers Lisa Apple, Kimberly Davey, and Paul Gibson) Dance Theatre of Harlem: Corps Member Taureen Green Boston Ballet: Corps Member Benjamin Griffiths Dutch National Ballet, Royal Ballet: Corps Member Anton Pankevitch Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Ballet Clasico de Camara, Teatro Teresa Carreno: Soloist Karel Cruz American Ballet Theatre: Principal Casey Herd New York City Ballet: Principal Carla Körbes Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet Nationale de Nancy: Principal Christophe Maraval Basel Ballet, Kansas City Ballet: Principal Louise Nadeau I thought Bold had danced for a company in Russia, but there's no listing of another company in his bio. If you look at the companies from which most of the dancers came, with a few exceptions -- Körbes from NYCB, Herd from ABT, and Pankevitch from Royal Ballet -- they are mostly from mid-sized companies with which PNB is generally ranked. Of the dancers who left PNB, I know that Stacy Lowenberg danced for Oregon Ballet Theatre after her PNB apprenticeship and before she returned to the Company, and Gavin Larsen dancing beautifully with OBT. Oleg Gorboulev has joined LA Ballet. I think there was one dancer who left PNB to join the corps at NYCB or ABT, but apart from that, I can't think of anyone else who went on to the large companies. In the ballet food chain, at least in the US, with ABT not having a long-term school to produce its own dancers, SAB is at the top, and if not all agree that NYCB is the top, it's at least the co-top here. I'm assuming that for the majority of SAB students, NYCB is their first choice. That doesn't mean that there aren't PNB members who either turned down an apprenticeship or corps offer, or left SAB because they knew they didn't want to join NYCB (to the chagrin of SAB), but that kind of info isn't published anywhere. I've watched the company evolve to where the school is graduating more top-quality dancers than it can hire. The majority of the other dancers finished their training at the PNB school, and many of those were trained at SAB before that. Peter Boal said that there were 15 dancers in the Company (about 1/3) that he had as students when he taught at SAB, and Louise Nadeau was his contemporary at SAB. (Stanton also trained at SAB, but I think he would have studied there after Boal, but before Boal began teaching.) I don't think regional companies are the minor leagues, but SAB continues to be the top farm team for the mid-sized companies in the US, and more and more, the PNB School is training dancers, as the San Francisco Ballet School has for a number of years.

Then I've been very lucky in my ballet-going experience. While there are few famous violinists, pianists, or singers who perform with ballet companies outside of gala presentations in major cities -- Jane Eaglen, now a Seattle local, singing Wagner for Joffrey's Remembrances for PNB, Elmar Olivera for the first season of Barber Violin Concerto -- I've heard much world-class if not world-famous singing and playing at the ballet: Jerry Zimmerman's wonderful Chopin for NYCB, Dianne Chilgren's amazing work for PNB, Susan Erickson's lovely soprano in the Queen of Spades excerpt in Nutcracker and in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and National Ballet of Canada Concert Master Fujiko Imajishi's (Four Seasons and NYCB's Figeroa's (first violin in Concerto Barocco) masterful solo playing among them.

You're bringing back memories of my New Jersey commutes, and a tangential reminder of how if I missed the 10:10pm train to Freeport on Sunday night, it was nearly an hour wait in Penn Station back in the day when the entire building was a smoking section, and there was no place to sit. What we do to see great art!