Helene

How could I have forgotten so soon -- Val Caniparoli's The Bridge, in which five couples portray Admira Ismic and Bosko Brckic, real-life Bosnian and Serb lovers who were killed trying to escape their war-torn country in the early 90's. The keys to Caniparoli's success were using the different couples to display different various of their relationship up through their attempt to escape, and the choice of music, in this case the Shostakovich chamber symphony based on the composer's String Quartet No. 8, and the choreographer's sensitive response to the score.

I think that's why I've never seen a lousy performance of Balanchine out here. As frustrating as space sharing issues are between ballet and opera, and, in Phoenix, with the Symphony, which was PNB's issue until Benaroya Hall was built, the level of performance based around focused preparation is higher as a result, I believe.

I haven't seen any non-NYCB East Coast companies perform Balanchine in years -- La Sonnambula at Boston Ballet in 1980, Bouree Fantasque at ABT maybe that same year -- but I've seen numerous PNB performances and a few years worth at Ballet Arizona and some at San Francisco Ballet. I can say that despite an occasional interpretation or two with which I've taken issue, I have not seen a single lousy performance of a Balachine ballet, and the quality has been amazing, especially given the consistency of the quality. The heights have been as high as any NYCB ballet performances from the two decade period in which I saw the company on a regular basis, with the exception of those from a very small group of dancers (Farrell, Andersen, Cook, Saland) and a handful of other performances. It's not what I expected when I moved west, but it proved to me that not every surprise is a bad one.

This sounds like an assumption that Villella, Farrell, and Gottlieb want to run NYCB. All indications show that Villella is happy in Miami and Gottlieb has plenty to do as an editor. Frankly, editing Clinton's autobiography sounds like a whole lot more interesting than managing NYCB to me, especially since Gottlieb is neither a former dancer or choreographer. Farrell, at least in print, seems to take her opportunities as they come. It was she who was one of the first people invited to Russia to stage Balanchine there. As prestigious as NYCB is, running an institution gives less autonomy than having a company of one's own. In the 2006/7 season, MCB will do two full-length ballets, Don Quixote and Giselle. They will perform two mixed bills consisting of seven ballets, three by Balanchine (Symphony in Three Movements, Agon, and Raymonda Variations), one by Robbins (Afternoon of a Faun) -- over 50% of the mixed bill works -- one by Wheeldon (Liturgy), one by Tharp (In the Upper Room), and one by Tudor (Jardin aux Lilacs). If they are also repetiteurs for the Balanchine Trust or have rights to ballets that were not turned over to the Trust. (John Taras owned the rights to Symphony in C until his death.) Why is this an omission? The Trust's boilerplate permission is listed on every program. No company is hiding the involvement of the Trust. I've never seen a program in which the stagers, Trust or not, were not prominently in the credits, with a bio as a guest stager as well. It is considered a mark of prestige and honor to have the best coach the dancers and train the works, whether that stager comes from the Balanchine Trust, The Susan Marshall company, Forsythe's company, or Tharp or has worked closely with Robbins, Wheeldon, and/or Tudor. For PNB, Peter Boal has said several times that he had originally wanted to program more Balanchine in his first season, but he was advised to cut down the number of Balanchine works by Russell and Stowell. The Trust is not meting out ballets to these companies. It is more likely that the Robbins Foundation is.And it is not uniformly true for all companies. The Christensens (SFB), Francia Russia (PNB), Arthur Mitchell (DTH), E. Virginia Williams (Boston Ballet), and Barbara Weisberger (Pennsylvania Ballet) were only some of the company directors who were given the right to have their companies perform Balanchine ballets and for some to stage Balanchine for their companies during Balanchine's lifetime. Ib Andersen was a repetiteur for the Trust before he took over Ballet Arizona and has staged and coached Balanchine works for his company, as well as bringing on other repetiteurs. Allowing the greatest number of people who worked with Balanchine to pass on his teaching to new generations of dancers is what is common to these companies, and one of their strengths. I'm lucky -- I get to see Diamonds next month with dancers coached in their role by Suzanne Farrell. The more Martins doesn't take her time, the more for me.

Many thanks for your detailed review, sandik I wish I could have seen this program and the company. I agree that Stowell is doing a very impressive job of pairing repertoire and dancers and is growing his dancers through those choices.

Nor does Oberlin want to be Harvard, at least from any public info I've seen. Get the respect that Harvard does? Have Harvard's endowment? Get first crack at most of the best students in the country and faculty? Wouldn't any institution? However, there are many ways in which Oberlin is superior to Harvard -- the conservatory, for one -- because that is where it puts its energy. There are many ways in which the experience of being an Oberlin student can be preferable to being a Harvard student. There are advantages to being in a smaller institution, which include personalized attention that is difficult to get in a larger one, smaller class sizes, smaller and more affordable cities, etc. Big fish in small pond does not necessarily mean lesser quality, intelligence, etc., as the number of Fullbright scholars coming from smaller schools (including potted Ivy) shows. SAB graduates a huge amount of talent every year. It can absorb a tiny number of those graduates. Even among those graduates who dance with NYCB, there is more than one lifelong corps members who more or less belong there for every Tiler Peck. It's not just Korbes, though, who's at PNB. Peter Boal said there were 15 of his former students in the company when he showed up to turn in his application, among them Porretta and Pacitti, most of whom were hired right into the company. (That's about one third of the company.) NYCB's loss is Seattle's gain, and Seattle is only one company that feasts at the SAB table, although, thankfully, Francia Russell is friends with Suki Schorer, who recommended dancers to her, including Porretta (source: Russell and Porretta, each in a Q&A).

I don't think he's planning entire seasons of programs that don't need corps. The closest this year was Valentine, where the only corps work came in Ancient Airs and Dances, and that was a small corps. Looking at next year's season, there are large corps in "Director's Choice" (Theme and Variations), Nutcracker, Swan Lake, "Wheeldon, Duato, Balanchine" (La Sonnambula), "Celebrate Seattle" Weeks 1 & 2 (Carmina Burana), and "Stravinsky 125" (Symphony in Three Movements). I only know Valse Triste from "All Premiere"; Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven-Dove, World Premiere-Quijada, and Waterbaby Bagatelles-Tharp are the others, and I don't know how big they'll be. In Week 3 of "Celebrate Seattle," Schwa (Program A) had 18-20 dancers in it. Given the number of works that the company will dance in all three programs, I would expect many of the rest to be small to medium in size, but there might be at least one other large-scale work, since many of the company members have done Carmina Burana at least once and wouldn't be learning it from scratch. I don't think Boal meant by his comment that he is trying to change to corp-less programs; his first two seasons aren't by any means. I think he meant having the quality of dancers, all of whom could step into soloist and principal roles.

In Suzanne Gordon's book, Off Balance, she relates a story about how Darci Kistler danced in class with such intensity that she fell badly, and how the response of her fellow classmates was to laugh at her. I guess it wasn't "cool" to show how much one was invested, regardless of how Balanchine prized this characteristic, and he was the person in whose hands their career was.

If I'm transliterating from the Bolshoi page correctly, the composer is Karin Khachaturian, who wrote Cippolino in 1973. Here's a page I found by Googling him: http://home.wanadoo.nl/ovar/kkhach.htm Edited to add: I couldn't find any recordings by Karen/Karin Khachaturian on either amazon.co.uk or fnac.es. The only recording that isn't by Aram Khachaturian is a Rostropovich recording of a piece for cello. Perhaps this is available in Russia? Does the Bolshoi have a gift shop?