Helene

Given McKenzie's statement is it surprising that he didn't go out of his way to accommodate her?

Here's an instagram snippet from the opening piece (Handel 1) in "New Suite" with Elizabeth Murphy and William Lin-Yee: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152894711373952&set=vb.21358443951&type=2&theater&notif_t=notify_me Edited to add: More: Jahna Frantziskonis and Ezra Thomson in Handel 2: https://instagram.com/p/0ZIQKIGelh/?taken-by=pacificnorthwestballet Angelica Generosa and Eric Hipolito Jr. in Handel 3: https://instagram.com/p/0a2jaJmejE/?taken-by=pacificnorthwestballet Leslie Rausch and Raphael Bouchard in Berio 1: https://instagram.com/p/0b236jGetk/?taken-by=pacificnorthwestballet Lindsi Dec and Jerome Tisserand in Berio 3: https://instagram.com/p/0b236jGetk/?taken-by=pacificnorthwestballet Lindsi Dec and Seth Orza in "In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated": https://instagram.com/p/0O_siNmevM/?taken-by=pacificnorthwestballet Benjamin Griffiths and Jonathan Porretta in "The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude": https://instagram.com/p/0MRCEomehj/?taken-by=pacificnorthwestballet

I just got a heads up that I missed this change for tonight: Elle Macy dances in "In the Middle" for Sarah Ricard Orza. Here's the updated spreadsheet with that change: Forsythe 2015 03 20 v2.xlsx

One issue is that some really wonderful work by house choreographers -- sometimes the AD, sometimes not -- and dancers never gets shown anywhere else. A rare exception is Ib Andersen's "Romeo and Juliet," which Kansas City Ballet performed. Another issue is that it is less career-damaging to fail doing what you've always done than to try something different and fail. Everyone wants the great break-through masterpiece or almost masterpiece -- even Balanchine's batting average wasn't above .400 -- but when an artist tries something different, and it doesn't really work, the knives come out. The audience also expects more of what attracted them in the first place, and in every case a new choreographer is working with a group of people with whom (mostly) he has to form a relationship and teach at least some things from the ground up. That takes time, and they don't have time. Put those three things together, and things start to look the same. One phenomenon, even among the choreographers that are the hot ones at the time, is that the people who see the works regularly will often say that a work is unsuccessful, or that the choreographer's latest work is just like the six other things he's done, mostly in one city, and "phoned in." For example, I read criticism that Wheeldon's "Tide Mercuric," which PNB performed at the Joyce, was recycled Wheeldon. We're lucky that the Wheeldon we've seen in Seattle has a lot of variety: "Variations Serieuses," "Carousel (A dance)," "After the Rain (pas de deux) and "Polyphonia." "Tide Mercuric" looked like it was in the same family as "Polyphonia," even though I think it was structured quite differently. For a Seattle audience, it doesn't really matter if it's true Wheeldon did "Tide Mercuric" six other times for NYCB, because we didn't see the other six, and whether this is break-through work for him is neither necessary nor the point if the work is quality. I think it's silly that no one else performs Paul Gibson's "Piano Dances," Ib Andersen's one-act ballet to Shostakovich's Preludes and Fugues and "2B," some of Helgi Tomasson's shorter works. These types of ballets feed the dancers, usually with at least five featured roles, and hone neoclassical technique. I understand the obstacles -- time, not willing to send them elsewhere, even if there's virtually no audience overlap, no non-company-focused staging infrastructure -- but it should be possible to figure out something: maybe a ballet master exchange? Forsythe is preserving some great work by curating "New Suite" by selection pas de deux from works that are less or never performed.

Australian Ballet is a wonderful company. We don't see them very often in North America, sadly. They performed "La Fille mal gardee" in Seattle to open the 1994-5 season, as part of the PNB subscription. Since New Zealand no longer is, with Stiefel gone.

That's too bad: the "next" tab still reads "Next webcast: 21 March, Saturday, 19:00," but the orchestra is on the schedule, and there seems to be one channel. I was hoping to see the variations again, but, alas, unless either the company posts to YouTube, or someone managed to record it and posts it later.

I just realized that Maria Chapman's comeback role was supposed to be in Slingerland There were a few casting switches as well in "New Suite." The updated spreadsheet is here: Forsythe 2015 03 20.xlsx

That is absolutely true, especially in Martins' early festivals.

Then it will stay up until tomorrow, March 21, when the young choreographer's workshop is listed as an online stream starting at 7pm St. Petersburg time, 12pm EDT, 9am PDT. According to Laura Capelle's tweet: Here are more tweets from Capelle about the stream: Link to her Dec 2014/Jan 2015 interview with Tereshkina in "Pointe Magazine" from this tweet: http://www.pointemagazine.com/issues/december-2014january-2015/reverence-star-st-petersburg https://twitter.com/bellafigural/status/578612529196335104 https://twitter.com/bellafigural/status/578613092323569664 https://twitter.com/bellafigural/status/578631632313294848 https://twitter.com/bellafigural/status/578632154973925377 https://twitter.com/bellafigural/status/578649360617115648