Helene

My favorite role in the movie was the cameo played by Antoinette Sibley. I think her line was something like, "And that's why I will never end up like Emma."

There were many responses on initial publication on this thread: http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...opic=17923&st=0 We welcome additional thoughts from those who've read it since that time.

Don Quixote, Nutcracker -- except for the Prince's mime and Candy Cane -- and A Midsummer Night's Dream are original Balanchine full-length ballets. Coppelia was a collaboration between Balanchine and Alexandra Danilova. According to Choreography by George Balanchine, Acts I and II were "after Petipa," with the exceptions of the mazurka and czaras in Act I, and, Back to the same reference for Jewels, the same source says, "Each section is a separate work...The ballet lasts a full evening." (That's clear as mud.)

The commemorative program, which was conceived and co-edited by Doug Fullington, with co-editor Sheila Dietrich writing the program notes, deserves a mention of its own. Besides the standard retail and commercial ad tributes to Russell and Stowell, there were some touching ones: one from their neighbors and one from their sons. In the front of the program were the full listings for the Company and Artistic, Administrative, and Technical Staffs. There was an introduction by Susan and Jeffrey Brotman, the evening's hosts, with a terrific studio photo by former PNB soloists and Company photographer Angela Sterling of Russell and Stowell. Following are the articles from the program: "Partnership Extraordinaire" (Leland Windreich), which discusses Russell and Stowell's backgrounds, how they met, and a short history of their artistic and personal partnership. One of the photos accompanying the article is of a young Stowell in a gorgeous attitude on demi-pointe. "Ken Stowell Choreographer" (Elizabeth Kendall). "Fair Francia" (Nancy Reynolds), which discusses Russell's role and legacy as stager and teacher. Tributes by Ronald Hynd and Annette Page, Randall Chiarelli, Val Caniparoli, Deborah Hadley, Louise Nadeau, Patricia Barker, Irv Huck, Colleen Neary and Thordal Christensen, Melissa Hayden, Ariana Lallone, Allan Dameron, Larae Theige Hascall, Ming Cho Lee, Lila York, Jocelyn Vollmar, Suki Shorer, Sherri J. Thompson, Todd Bolender, Denise Bolstad, Donald Byrd, Lucinda Hughey, Angela Sterling, Otto Neubert, Stewart Kershaw, Martin Pakledinaz, Julia Tobiason, Patricia Wilde, Dianne Chilgren, Benjamin Houk, Kabby Mitchell, Victoria Pulkkinen, Jeffrey Stanton, Jane Erskine (Janet Reed's daughter), Abbie Siegel, Glen Tetley, and Peter Boal. Extensive program notes on the individual pieces, discussing their historical place in the development of the Company and, in the case of Balanchine works, the historical significance of the staging: Serenade Pas de Deux Campagnolo Agon (with sidebar by Arlene Croce) Nutcracker (with sidebar by Maurice Sendak) Theme and Variations (with sidebar from Yuri Fateev, who was chosen by Russell as an assistant when she staged at the Kirov/Mariinsky and brought him to Seattle to stage the pas de trois from Le Corsaire, and who is responsible for Balanchine rep at the Kirov) Dual Lish (with sidebar by William Bolcom) Liebeslieder Walzer (with sidebar by Karin von Aroldingen) Piece d'occasion Daphnis and Chloe Grand Defile There are wonderful photographs throughout, ending with a full page photo of Russell and Stowell, Otto Neubert, and a handful of the men in the company -- Herd, Stanton, Wevers, possible Maraval, and two whose faces are obscured -- dressed in street clothes, with the men lifting Russell, and Stowell sitting casually in front of the tableau.

The structure of tonight's intermissionless tribute program alternated between dancing and mostly taped spoken tributes, but it opened with a live spoken introduction by Susan Brotman, Board Chairman of the Company Foundation and former Chairman of the Board of Trustees. It was a short intro, in which she was joined by two young students, Emma Baker and Jeremy Blancas, who also both spoke a line or two of thanks to Russell and Stowell. The performance began with the overture to Stowell's ballet Silver Lining, which closed the regular season last night. The first taped tribute was by Suki Shorer, well-known to NYCB fans as a teacher and author of Suki Shorer on Balanchine Technique. The first dance, the opening section of Serenade, was fitting for the founders of a school that is now feeding the Company (and how!): it was performed by students of the Professional Division. Tributes by Jocelyn Vollmar, who danced with San Francisco Ballet, as Kent Stowell did in his early career, and who now teaches at the San Francisco Ballet school, Violette Verdy, and Deborah Hadley, former Principal Dancer for PNB, followed. Verdy was very funny and noted that people work harder in retirement. Jodie Thomas and Casey Herd danced the coda from Pas de Deux Campagnolo, set to Verdi's music from I Vespri Sicilian, which Jerome Robbins used for part of The Four Seasons. I wish they had been able to dance the entire (short) ballet, and I hope it's revived after next season. It was clear from that first performance how "on" the dancers were going to be; they sustained the energy and devotion displayed by Thomas and Herd. So did the Orchestra, which played beautifully throughout the program. Writer, historian, and Director of Research for the Balanchine Foundation Nancy Reynolds gave the next tribute, which was followed by a performance of the First pas de Trois from Agon, with Jonathan Poretta, Maria Chapman, and Mara Vinson. The version they performed was the one that Russell learned from Balanchine -- the opening of the movement is completely different than the one performed by NYCB and staged by Richard Tanner on Ballet Arizona -- and he re-choreographed the Galliarde on her. In the commemorative booklet, Arlene Croce wrote a remembrance about her 1993 trip to Seattle to see Russell stage Agon. In it she said, "I had been watching Agon from its opening night, but not until the PNB staging did I realize how much had actually changed, accidentally or on purpose...Agon had been minimized for far too long a time." Maurice Sendak, whose sets and costumes for Stowell's The Nutcracker were part of the first "start from scratch" major new production in Russell and Stowell's tenure, spoke next. It was fascinating to hear the different take and response of a professional whose life isn't centered around ballet. Louise Nadeau and Olivier Wevers then danced the "awakening" pas de deux from the first act of the ballet -- set to the music that NYCB fans will recognize as the "moving bed" music -- complete with full sets and snow -- and the corps followed with the Waltz of the Snowflakes. There's something a bit electric in the air when Nadeau and Wevers are paired. Probably the most moving moment of the tribute was that to an orchestral introduction to Theme and Variations, photographs of Russell staging the ballet for the Kirov Ballet (as it was still known) in the late 1980's. The curtain rose on the pas de deux, danced splendidly by Carrie Imler and Batkhurel Bold, and the violin solo gave concermaster Marjorie Kransberg-Talvi a chance to shine. The corps and demis entered to perform the Polonaise. This performance got a huge ovation, and the applause didn't end until William Bolcom's tape tribute started. I think I counted four times where Bolcom exclaimed how important it was to work with a choreographer who new and understood music. This was followed by Stowell's fourth ballet to Bolcom's music, Dual Lish, to the "Serpent's Kiss" section of The Garden of Eden. This was the first time I saw this ballet; I was travelling when it premiered last year. Larae Hascall designed another beautifully flattering costume for the female lead, danced by Noelani Pantastico, who was partnered by Jonathan Poretta, in a role that is a classical take on the song and dance man that Stowell had wanted to become as a boy. The next tribute was from designed Ming Cho Lee, with whom Stowell has collaborated for most of his original major full-length productions. Liebeslieder Walzer was the next ballet, followed by tributes from Russell and Stowell's three sons, Christopher, Artistic Director of Oregon Ballet Theatre, Darren, who's a teacher, and Ethan, who's co-owner and chef for the Seattle restaurant Union. Fitting was the next ballet, a Piece d'Occasion, choreographed by Christopher Stowell, to the Bartered Bride overture by Smetana. The ballet was led by Jodie Thomas/Casey Herd and Mara Vinson/Nicholas Ade, with a large corps and six young students from the school. All of the dancers were dressed in costumes from Kent Stowell ballets, with two towering figures from Silver Lining in the background, and the piece ended with one of the Nutcracker gift boxes being rolled to center stage, out of which popped Russell and Stowell's three sons, in black tie. Given how tied up many of the dancers were in rehearsals for Silver Lining -- the whole Company is in it -- and how ambitious this tribute program was, it is amazing that the dancers performed this energetic ballet with multiple entrances and exits and patterns as if they'd rehearsed it for years. The next set of tributes was from the "backstage" members of the Company, followed by a performance of the pas de deux from Stowell's Daphnis and Chloe, danced by Patricia Barker and Jeffrey Stanton. Dancer tributes followed, from school children, who spoke of their professional dreams, to a member of the Professional Division, to a company apprentice, to corps members, to a soloist -- at least an attempt, since Jonathan Poretta was recently promoted to Principal Dancer -- and long-time Principal Dancers Louise Nadeau, Jeffrey Stanton, Patricia Barker, and Ariana Lallone. Barker and Lallone were products of the school, and rose through the ranks to Principal status. It was only fitting that the last piece on the program was Grand Defile, to Bizet's Symphony in C. Grand Defile began with a couple of very young students, starting upstage, doing a ballet walk downstage, and then a turn toward the closest wing, and a walk offstage with arms extended in arabesque. They were followed by increasingly older students and corps members -- who took places onstage -- until Poretta and, I think, Herd appeared. They may have been the first to step to about midstage and then run downstage, before they gave hand-on-chest bows. I thought at that point that they were bowing to Russell and Stowell, not the audience, but the after several groups of students and corps, the next male Principal received a great ovation, and the audience started to clap and cheer for the Principals, who appeared between the older students and corps. I believe the Principals entered in the order in which they became Principals with the Company. Each Principal designed his or her bow. They were followed by the three Principal character actors, Uko Gorter, Flemming Halby, and Victoria Pulkkinen. They did a normal walk downstage, but Halby, in a well-cut suit, was as imposing and impressive as the most formal, serious Principal dancer. The Company stood on stage for the orchestral finale from Firebird, which was almost entirely drowned out by applause. I'm not sure where Russell and Stowell entered the house with their children -- the First Tier is blocked off and is the only section that doesn't flow downwards into another, unless there's a secret, moveable gate in the barrier -- but they did come down the aisle in the section in which I was sitting (Gallery Upper Right), where they ascended to the stage via a small staircase. The crowd was clapping and yelling and whistling, glitter confetti dropped from the flies, and flowers showered the stage. The Principal dancers, Ballet Masters, and Russell and Stowell's children each gave them a flower with a big red bow, in between plenty of hugs and kisses, so that when held together, they formed enormous bouquets. The crowd went wild until the curtain came down for the final time. About 20-30 minutes later, with a packed set of lobbies, Susan Brontman appeared with Russell and Stowell and their children. There were toasts, and Russell and Stowell each spoke. Russell thanked everyone and revealed that the "mastermind" behind the entire tribute was none other than Doug Fullington, and he had been working on it for a full year and was responsible for the commemorative program, which goes so far beyond the typical tribute program, and is an important historical document for PNB and for the history on staging Balanchine. Like the experiment that was the United States, it's easy to assume in retrospect that the daunting task of creating and sustaining and growing a great ballet company in Seattle was going to succeed and that the existance of the Company at the current standard was inevitable. From an audience perspective, certainly in the last decade, it's easy to take this success for granted. Of all of the spoken tributes, the most moving to me were from the ballet masters (Anne Dabrowski, Paul Gibson, and Otto Neubert), musicians (Stewart Kershaw, Allan Dameron, and Dianne Chilgren), school staff (Denise Bolstad), and technical staff (Jennifer Kimball, Sherri Thompson, Murray Johnson, and Rico Chiarelli) who spoke of Russell and Stowell as mentors, teachers, collaborators, and colleagues. Except for the musicians, who were established when they met Russell and Stowell, Russell and Stowell were intergral in the professional development of every other speaker. There was palpable love and emotion in the tributes, and a sense of thankfulness for being part of this venture. This is something I would have expected from the dancers, but to hear it from the people who are invisible to the audience and are rarely honored was a privilege for us. The two qualities that they spoke most about were the trust and respect that Russell and Stowell gave them, which has engendered tremendous loyalty. Russell and Stowell managed to trust the people they worked with even when the Board didn't trust them, like during preparations for the Stowell/Sendak Nutcracker. Perhaps the key was Croce's description of watching Russell staging and Stowell choreographing in separate studios during that 1993 visit: "Both Kent and Francia worked in the unhurried, unbothered, utterly secure manner of their mentor, Balanchine."

PNB has never performed Liebeslieder until tonight, and the performance consisted of, if I counted correctly, eight waltzes from Part I. In the first few Q&A's I attended in which Russell and Stowell discussed the ballet, they tended to speak around being afraid the audience wouldn't accept the ballet, and they cited the first NYCB performances, where many audience members left after the first part. (My co-favorite Balanchine quote is when he was told, "George, look at all the people who left," he replied, "But look at all the people who stayed.") However, after they announced their retirement last fall -- or, after it was leaked -- they said that the Balanchine Trust requires a Company to use a replica of the original sets and costumes, and they just couldn't afford to do it. For tonight's performance, staged by Karin von Aroldingen, they borrowed the women's dresses from San Francisco Ballet, and used white tie from the PNB costume shop for the men. There were chairs and tables, but they must have received dispensation from the Trust, because there were no sets. I don't know if the SFB sets would fit on the McCaw Hall stage, or if they are even available for loan. I can't imagine that permission would be granted for a set-less full staging, and until someone writes a big check for a new production, I suspect we're not going to see it again. It was a most beautiful, moving performance, and the ballet means so much to Russell and Stowell. Ariana Lallone and Stanko Milov danced the Jillana/Conrad Ludlow roles, and in the section that is excerpted in the PBS Balanchine biography, Lallone's attention was as deeply passionate as her dancing was decorous, quite different than the almost lighthearted one by Jillana (in that song). Usually that sense of a couple so bound that they don't need to speak is conveyed in the second-to-last song in Part II, in the role originated by Melissa Hayden, which, for me, is the center of the ballet. The Hayden/Jonathan Watts roles were danced by Kaori Nakamura and Jeff Stanton, but I don't think the Part I dances for this couple are the most notable in the ballet. Patricia Barker and Christophe Maraval danced the Diana Adams/Bill Carter couple, with the famous "whispering pas de deux," which was quite lovely. He is a wonderful partner. At one point, I think a child let out a noise, which allowed the coughers to chime in, but for most of the ballet, you could hear a pin drop. When Louise Nadeau and Olivier Wevers finished their second pas de deux to the tenor solo in the Violette Verdy/Nicholas Magallenes roles, it was so ravishing, that an audible, collective sigh rose from the audience. For the musicians, it was also a fitting tribute: long time company pianists Dianne Chilgren and Allan Dameron (who also conducts) are so attuned to each other, that they sound like one instrument. Soprano Catherine Haight and baritone Erich Parce have performed in Stowell's Carmina Burana and mezzo soprano Emily Lunde has sung in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Tenor Wesley Rogers joined them, with his beautiful tenor voice. The four singers blended together and sang the songs as lieder, not opera, in the finest performance of the music I've heard. There are several legacies that Russell and Stowell leave the Company and the city, but one went mostly unspoken in all of the tributes: they've built and educated an audience that wouldn't consider leaving after the first part of Liebeslieder Walzer.

I've always wondered what the rights are for the kinescope of Agon, as well as the CBC broadcasts of Balanchine. Re the Royal Danish Ballet, if there aren't union issues with releasing the ballets, one of the easiest ways to see if it's worth putting out the DVD's is to take pre-paid pre-orders. (The other way is to take pre-orders, and then extrapolate down by at least 50%, to see if it's worth a printing. They wouldn't even have to worry about retail distribution if they sold directly, and there are plenty of companies in Ireland and Bertelsmann in Germany that could take the orders, process them, burn the disks, prepare the export documentation, and ship them out, if there wasn't a Danish firm that could do the same.

Did Charlie Chaplin, too? There was a moment in The Circus when after having run up some kind of pole, he sees the heroine -- the daughter of the greedy and cruel circus owner -- opens his arms, and makes a couple of such beautiful gestures, I am convinced he was ballet's loss. I recently saw a movie at the Seattle International Film Festival called Saving Face, which was about a brilliant young Chinese-American surgical resident, Wil, played by Michelle Krusiec, who falls in love with her mentor's daughter. I'm not sure if the actress who played her is Lynne Chen, but in any event, her character, Vivian, is supposed to be a ballet dancer who took a year off from New York City Ballet to "follow her dreams" as a modern dancer, and is mulling over an offer from the Paris Opera Ballet. (From what I'm reading in the POB forum, possibly based on her modern dance career...) While being a stunningly gorgeous young Asian-American woman -- and, in this role, a seductive girly-girl to boot -- with a typically thin, small-boned body (even on screen), the actress playing Vivian is proof that despite having the body type, without the form and carriage, it is extremely difficult to play a ballet dancer convincingly. (Oh, but wait, maybe one year of modern dance undermined the first 20 years of ballet training completely.) In one scene, she tries to teach the reluctant Wil how to fall -- get it? -- and is even more unconvincing attempting a port de bras. (Oh, but wait, maybe one year of modern dance...)

Well, I just realized I have one good gene -- blindness to modern fundraising requests Skipped right over it!

I wonder what control data the EU used in order to establish that Danes "can't stand seeing foreigners being successful." There are enough historical and "scientific" texts from the past that extol the intrinsic inferiority or superiority of one group over the other, and, in retrospect, we don't think too highly of them.

Last week I received a lovely letter under Christopher Stowell's signature from OBT, honoring the three dancers who retired at the end of the 2004-5 season: Tracy Taylor, Matthew Boyes, and Karl Vakili. (I assume it went to subscribers, donors, and ticket buyers.) I'm grateful that I was able to see all three over the last two seasons.

That was terrific, carbro

Welcome, Miss Christine! As carbro said, it's great to have a post from someone who has studied with Mezentseva, as well as having seen her perform.

I'm not sure Raymonda was supposed to be any more historically accurate than Madama Butterfly or Abduction from the Seraglio, for example, in the conflict of archetypes, both philosophical -- East vs. West, Christianity vs. The Other -- and dramatic. After all, the dangerous, sexy stranger -- in ballet terms, the flashy guy with the big jumps and excuse for the exotic divertissement -- is still a stock character in plays and movies.

Marriage to the Saracen would have been a strategic alliance between the Tsar of Hungary (Raymonda's uncle) and the Islamic east. Hungary was located at the crossroads of various competing empires. By the time Petipa set the story, the Saracen would have been considered and portrayed as the heathen compared to the civilized, Christian Jean de Brienne. (Dressed all in white in the Bolshoi production that toured to Berkeley.) He's set up as the straw man in this drama.

Well, not really: she is listed as being born on Sept 17, 1931, so she would have turned 74 on Sept 17, 2005, and so she still was 73. (Sorry, that's the math teacher in me talking ;) ) Yikes -- I'm already in the next fiscal year at work and subtracted from 2006

If the only dancers to really do A Month in the Country right were the original cast members, then I would say "yes" resoundingly. Even more than Symphonic Variations, which I could recognize as a great work, even if it didn't move me, I was floored by A Month in the Country. It was performed by Sandra Conley as Natalia Petrovna, David Wall as Beliaev, David Drew as Yslaev, Douglas Howes as Kolia, Gillian Kingsley as Vera, Derek Rencher as Rakitin, Jacqui Fallis as Katia, and a dancer whose last name was Conway as Malvei. (I think I've written either "Ch" for Charles, or "A") The ballet was performed during the Royal Ballet's 1981 tour to New York.

The Scherzo was choreographed for Patricia Wilde and Andre Eglevsky, and was reportedly dropped because no one else could do it at the time. According to Choreography by George Balanchine, in "ca. 1960" it was "permanently eliminated." It was dusted off for at least the 19 February 1989 performance, in which Katrina Killian and Gen Horiuchi danced the leads. The only thing I remember is that it was a virtuoso turn. I also just notice that Kelly Cass, Peter Boal's wife, danced the second movement, originally choreographed for Janet Reed, in that performance. The date is too early for the season ender; I'm not sure what the occasion was. The music listed in the book for the ballet is: "Red River Valley" "Old Taylor" "Rye Whiskey" "Lolly-Too-Dum" "Good Night, Ladies" "Oh Dem Golden Slippers" "The Girl I Left Behind Me." I'm not famililar enough with the titles of the songs except for the first and last to know if this listing includes the music from the Scherzo or just the current score.

MacLaine's Deedee did strike me as a very real person, but she lacked the carriage and body awareness that I've seen in every ballet teacher, regardless of age, weight, or number of children. Her character was supposed to be the co-director of a ballet school, who had once been enough of a singular talent in the equivalent of ABT to have a rising young choreographer choose her -- over Bancroft's Emma -- for a starring role in his first major ballet.

This past weekend, Ballet Arizona closed its season with its Innovations program: 2B, a 2003 one-movement ballet by Ib Andersen extended by two movements, Agon, and Theme and Variations. I saw the Saturday matinee and evening performances. I was rather frightened when I read last week that 2B was set to a Polenc piece for two pianos, but it was choreographed to a concerto, not the solo piano work against which Christopher Stowell's recent piece for PNB fought gallantly. The ballet opened with two couples and the first movement alternated between them dancing in parallel and the sets of two men and two women performing contrasting movements. The most striking parts of this older movement were the quirky humor that Andersen injects into the piece, like the use of sudden heel turns, but even more so, the extensive way he uses the floor, making the ballet work on multiple physical planes. The second movement begins with a single dancer onstage in an orange leotard, to a short piano solo that sounds like ballet class music -- a contrast to the rest of the concerto except for the reprieve -- and the choreography resembles a class exercise. As the music expands, so does the choreography, and about 2/3 through, she is joined by two men in royal blue tights and blousy shirts, who dance around her and eventually partner her. While the individual moves looked "easy" -- single pirouettes, for example -- the requirement to phrase them together for such a duration without a break in form, a bobble on a stop on both pointes in fourth, or a loss of energy or concentration -- all done with few visible preparations -- made it look impossibly difficult to me. Kenna Draxton, a tall amazon with long legs but also a proportionally long torso, danced the role, and was riveting in her command of the stage and her two cohorts. The last movement was for four couples, beginning with the four men. One moment they were flying across the stage in big jumps to all corners, and an instant later they formed a line across the stage, and I still can't figure out how that change happened; it came out of nowhere. The women's entrance was clever: as the men stood in a line across the back of the stage, the women entered one at a time and circled each man along the row. The only thing that looked forced was the very end, where the entire cast re-assembled, but for such a short time, it looked like there might not have been enough rehearsal time to fuse the cast for a more extended passage. But the final stage picture was gorgeous: the costume design is attributed to Andersen, and the colors -- teal, orange, royal blue, mint green -- not only looked fantastic together onstage, they represented a southwest regional pallette. The demands of this ballet, in contrast to the lightness and wit of many passages, seemed rather draconian: for example, the dancers were asked to go from full throttle to a quieter passage of quick rondes de jambe (on the floor), which, to do cleanly, need perfect placement, turnout, and control. The contrasts in the ballet were dictated by the music, and, unlike many choreographers, Andersen does not falter when a grand sweeping musical passage retracts and turns to development. That ability, to me, is a litmus test; it's when the choreographer responds to the change without "Then a Miracle Happens" before continuing on the original path. It looked even better from the Balcony than from the Orchestra; from higher up, the patterns and particularly the placement of the couples in the first movement were quite a bit clearer. It is impossible not to note the resemblance in the second movement trio to the second pas de trois in Agon, but with the exception of a couple of partnering phrases, the similarity is more in the DNA than the actual steps. Even if Agon had not been on the program, Draxton's performance in 2B screamed for her to be cast in the role. (She danced it in the evening cast.) Three of the four men in the ballet were cast as the demisoloists in Theme and Variations, and while their parts in T&V don't require quite the number of quick juxtapositions of weight and direction they performed in 2B, the bar is set for the main male role in Theme, and 2B is going to get them there if they're not already and will keep their skills honed. The two main couples in the first movement were Natalia Magnicaballi, paired with Ilir Shtylla in the matinee and Michael Cook in the evening, and Lizbet Companioni and Joseph Cavanaugh in both performances. In the matinee, I wasn't sure if the main couples were supposed to be in unison -- they were in the evening -- or they were supposed to follow the first. Shtylla looked underrehearsed in the role, and he and Magnicaballi seemed to be just a beat behind Companioni and Cavanaugh. Companioni had more energy and strength than I've ever seen from her, and more than held her own with Magnicaballi onstage. (Was she always a redhead?) Cavanaugh was magnificent in a role that showcases his flexible back, enlivened torso, and grounded plie. (He reminds me a bit of Soto.) And Cavanaugh and the elegant Cook together were a stunning combination, particularly when the men danced in unison. Draxton was a cool, modern goddess in the second movement. Among the Principals and demis, only Sergei Perkovskii, replacing Elye Olson in the evening, danced both casts in Agon. The afternoon's performance was like nothing I'd ever seen before in phrasing, emphasis, and energy, particularly among the women. It was as if I was listening to a performance in Dutch -- some of the words sounded somewhat familiar. It was truly a contest, starting with the sense that the stage was split in half, with Nancy Crowley leading the blue team and Giselle Doepker leading the white team -- over water rights in Arizona. Ginger Smith and Lisbet Camponioni threw themselves into the Gaillarde, each trying to outdo the other. James Russell Toth's direct interpretation of the Sarabande was rather alien from the rest of the performance -- a West Coast visitor teleported into the NYC subway at rush hour. Again Companioni danced strongly, and Ginger Smith is a wonderful addition to the Company. In the second pas de trois, Sergei Perkovskii and Ilir Shtylla were comrades, joined by Giselle Doepker, who looked uncontrolled, rushing about the stage without every having her legs quite under her. I may not just "get" Doepker as a dancer, at least in the black and white rep. (She was the corps dancer in Theme who had beautiful expression in her arms and shoulders during the adagio intro to the section where the ballerina performs balances supported by the women.) Nancy Crowley and Joseph Cavanaugh led the most aggressive pas de deux I have ever seen. That Crowley's approach would be balanced differently was clear from the start, in the height of her knee in the frappes at the beginning of the movement. The standard interpretation that I've seen of the central woman's role is that the man mainly manipulates the woman's limbs into a position, and in response she springs back or pretzels out of it, like a cyber being. Crowley fought back each time with red-blooded intensity, and when the man was prostrate on the floor as a result, it was almost as if she had flipped him. At one such point when Cavanaugh was on the ground, and Crowley raised her arms in modified high fifth, she flicked her wrists and looked like she was about to gore her bullfighter. (Ole!) Because she was so powerful, Cavanaugh's role was more vivid by contrast, not just the puppetmeister role to which leading men in the role are often delegated except for the solo passages. The dancers threw themselves into their roles in both ballets, and there were a notable number of slips and slides. I wasn't sure if there were intermittent slicks on the surface, or if it truly resembled the skating competitions where the first fall spooks the other skaters and causes a domino effect. I really wondered whether Richard Tanner, who did the staging, had a completely different take on the ballet, but the evening's performance was much more familiar. The opening was competitive, but I didn't get a sense that there was a wall separating the two halves of the stage. I haven't seen any other Company that cast Gaillarde to such strength: Paola Hartley and Kendra Mitchell radiated warmth and power along with technical prowess. I had to look twice to see that it was Astrit Zejnati in the Sarabande, switching styles from Theme to Agon seamlesslessly. (James Russell Toth would have been equally at home in this cast.) In the Second Pas de Trois, Perkovskii was joined by Robert Dekkers, in another rendition of friendly competition in the Bransle Simple. In the Bransle Gay and Bransle Double, Kenna Draxton fulfilled the expectations that her performance in 2B promised. If I have one criticism, it is that in both casts, the final lift and "toss" into arabesque was a bit tentative. Natalia Magnicaballi and Michael Cook are a wonderful pairing, with matching lines and elegant style. Their interpretation was dynamic, but understated, spinning a web until the final pose. The last ballet on the program was Theme and Variations, with the same cast for all five performances (in four days, and with Agon duty ) The Company performed this ballet with the same Principals in last year's Balanchine Program, and I believe it's also part of next June's as well. (The Company site is under construction, so I can't confirm right now.) I love both dancers, Paola Hartley and Astrit Zejnati, in general, and in these roles in particular. Hartley moves between allegro and adagio with ease. She is not tall, and she was flanked by the tallest of the tall women in the Company. When she first took the hands of the two women on either side, it looked for a moment as they raised their arms that they would lift her from the floor. That she was able to command the stage from there was remarkable, and the ravishing supported adagio with the corps women made me see that this passage in Theme is a crystallization of the White Swan pas de deux. Her Odette must be something. Zejnati is the personification of "Old World Charm" -- elegant and attentive, with a streak of humility. His attention to detail, particularly the way his arms shadow the woman's, in timing and shape, and how they balance her gestures, is a welcome reminder of an almost lost art. The four demis were even stronger than last year, with the welcome addition of Ginger Smith joining Kendra Mitchell, Lisbet Companioni, and Kanako Imayoshi as a beautifully matched quartet. I'm looking forward to seeing three performances in next year's season. Although the move to the smaller Orpheum Theater was a financial burden for the Company, I'm going to miss it with the move back to Symphony Hall (four of five programs). It is no converted hockey rink!

Not yet

Here's a link to the obituary in The Washington Post. It is written in a more personal tone.

It was hard for me to believe Shirley MacLaine was ever a creature of the stage from her portrayal of Deedee in The Turning Point, and the irony was that she was a dancer and musical theater actress in her early career, with a reprise in Postcards from the Edge. I thought Bancroft's portrayal of a careerist, who forged her career when ballet didn't have the legitimacy afforded by the Ford Foundation grant in the 60's and the subsequent ballet boom, and when women were expected to be domestic, was dead on, particularly the frustration with, distain for, and ultimate lack of understanding she showed for the more talented friend who didn't have the single-minded will that made her own career possible. And as far as believing her as a dancer, to me she looked like every bone and joint was stiff and aching at that part in her dancing life. Where I felt director Herb Ross really let down the actresses and the story was when instead of keeping the camera zoomed in on the physical fight between the two women, he panned away for cheap chuckles over at catfight. The recognition of how far they had come and how deep their resentments lay would have been more effective -- and respectful -- by showcasing the talent that Arthur Penn described ,and which was quoted in the New York Times obituary: ""More happens in her face in 10 seconds than happens in most women's faces in 10 years." According to IMDB.com, Bancroft was born in 1931 -- which conflicts with her age listed in the NYT (73) -- Hoffmann in 1937, and Ross in 1940. Pace Anne Bancroft, and condolences to your husband an family.

Given Volkova's influence and dedication to the Company over so many years, and all of the students' and dancers' lives that she touched, hopefully there will be an extensive effort to honor her 100th birthday.

Antonia Franceschi was Cecchetti-trained by Margaret Craske. Craske's student Diana Byer teaches the technique at the school that is affiliated with New York Theater Ballet and coaches the Company that way as well.