Helene

I remember the shock, even though I knew it intellectually, when I was in Adelaide at the beginning of December, where it was 80F/27C and I was in short sleeves, and suddenly Christmas carols were being blasted off a loudspeaker at the top of a huge Christmas tree at a major intersection of their pedestrian shopping zone. We're so Northern Hemisphere-centric

You put your finger on it bart: relaxed. I'm so used to thinking of Eglevsky as aristocratic, and I couldn't figure out what was different and surprising (but appealing in its own way).

Sometimes programs are like Oreo cookies: big ballets to open and close, and some sweet pas de deux in the middle. Alternately, the first work is to ease in the eye and ear, with the new, difficult or controversial one in the middle, with a very popular draw to close, so the audience isn't tempted to come late or miss the program altogether and wants to stay for the last. The medicine goes in the middle.

The costume Verdy is wearing reminds me of the dress she wore in "Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux" in the filmed version they excerpted in the PBS Balanchine bio. Ludlow looks very handsome in that photo. I love the cross-lateral aspect, with the combination of energy and casualness.

Margaret Willis just published a wonderful interview with Peter Boal in Dance Tabs: http://dancetabs.com/2013/02/peter-boal-pacific-northwest-ballet-artistic-director/

The premiere of the Balanchine was in February, 1954, according to the Balanchine Catalogue. The TV broadcasts on CBS' Playhouse 90* was in 1958, but no indication of when. According to this Google Books excerpt of Charles M. Joseph's "Stravinsky Inside Out" (p. 143), it was broadcast Christmas night and on CBS*. *A photo caption on p.154 of "Repertory in Review" states, "Above: George Balanchine as Drosselmeyer. NBC-TV, 1958." There's no listing in the Balanchine Catalogue for another 1958 TV performance. In "Repertory in Review," Nancy Reynolds wrote (p153),

It always surprised me when I do the Calendar June/July that there are a handful of companies in North America that I have to keep checking until August/September. I don't know how they manage their budgets and cash flow.

I thought maybe they resurrected Third Movement again.

Do you mean the last (Fourth) movement of "Western Symphony" that was choreographed for Tanaquil Leclercq? Every once in a while NYCB pulls the Third Movement out of mothballs, and Bouder would be perfect for the part created for Patricia Wilde.

That makes little sense to me. Typically, tycoons who make a bundle in business and try to cleanse themselves and the origins of their money through involvement in the arts don't risk sullying it through physical attacks. I also don't see how Kekhman would be anywhere close in line for the Bolshoi throne, since the tactic hasn't made everyone shy away from wanting the position.

There's a very short clip of an excerpt from "Emergence" on YouTube, but sadly it focuses on a solo: Maria Kochetkova just tweeted a link to a work made is making for Netherlands Dans Theater, and I think it gives a better indication of the types of group images and formations Pite makes in her work:

I like both of your ideas. I'd also love to see "Jewels" again, the sooner the better. If I remember correctly, the Cerrudo is tied to a grant. Tharp will be in residence with the company again; hence the premiere. National Ballet of Toronto Canada brought Crystal Pite's "Emergence" to Vancouver last season on its "Western" tour, along with Forsythe's "the second detail," Robbins' "Other Dances," and Kudelka's "The Man in Black." The last work, created for BalletMet in 2010, was fun, and while the men were strong in the Forsythe, which was created for the company in 1991, the work that brought the company to life was "Emergence," also choreographed for NBoC (in 2009). The corps is the focus. At first, I was afraid it was going to become a dance version of a Hollywood movie where the earthlings fight the aliens in little ships that look like insects, but it morphed into something far more interesting about groups and social dynamics. It has a spectacular hive image in it; it gives me chills just thinking about it. It's not Dawson, but the Dawson didn't use the whole company, and "Emergence" will stretch the male and female corps equally and has lots of energy. I hope the re-staging of "Giselle" retains the original material (and even puts back some of it in) and doesn't become a watered-down version. Jerome Kaplan is a wonderful designer: he did the costumes for the Ratmansky "Don Q" we saw last year, as well as for "Romeo et Juliette."

Ratmansky would need a reason to leave and a reason to take on the administrative work of an AD. The. Major Chad R&D companies are all accounted for, with the possible exception of the Mariinsky. (Why he'd want to be second-fiddle to Gergiev and the opera were this ever to become a possibility, I don't know.) He's got a great gig at ABT: he gets to make new work performed by a core of great dancers and impressive guests, and from the outside, it looks like Kevin McKenzie gives him lots of latitude. Plus he gets to live in NYC. What's not to like?

"Sleeping Beauty" does count as one of the Martins full-lengths. He got it right at least once.

Rest in peace Mr. Cliburn.

The Martins "Sleeping Beauty" sets and costumes are beautiful.

We tend to think of Balanchine as having dominated from the beginning, but until NYCB, his work might have been of the top quality wherever he was, but there were many other choreographers in these companies and project groups, and, according to the Duberman bio, he resisted many of Kirstein's ideas on American themes which would have gone to other choreographers in other Kirstein-sponsored projects. There were also other, outside choreographers (besides Robbins)! Including Tudor and Ashton. Ashton gradually became the dominant choreographer, and Macmillan established a body of work at Royal Ballet before he took over as dominant, but not sole choreographer, especially in a company that did full-length classics. Tudor wasn't prolific enough to dominate ABT exclusively. Ashton and Tudor became relatively dominant in young, emerging rep companies, while Balanchine had that rare sponsor who begged, borrowed, and stole to put his works front and center. NYCB was one of the few companies to be created on a similar model to most of the most well-known modern companies, who existed for a single artistic vision. Ashton and Balanchine were lucky to have schools -- with Ashton for a more limited period of time -- that developed dancers who not only could meet the technical demands of their choreography, but also which developed a singular style. For Tudor, it was more to do with coaching, and while that makes his works so delicate, the Ashton style has also been lost despite the existence of a school. Unless someone is willing to throw a lot of money at a choreographer to create a company for them, like Balanchine -- for whom else has this happened? -- or a choreographer is willing to start his or her own small group and try to grow it -- maybe the original, failed Morphoses concept comes closest -- the choices for a choreographer are growing within companies, like Liang. now Peck, Wheeldon, Ratmansky, Martins and then taking them over, taking over a different company, or skipping the AD headaches -- personnel management, season planning, fundraising, accounting, etc. -- and becoming Resident choreographer. Ratmansky is (re-?)establishing that place at American Ballet Theatre. For AD's with at least some choreographic experience and interest where they choreograph for their own company out of necessity, sometimes that necessity means re-shaping a company through the work. Like Hayden said, "I became a Balanchine dancer by dancing Balanchine ballets.". (She didn't have the luxury of his early schooling.) When Ib Andersen took over Ballet Arizona and Helgi Tomasson took over San Francisco Ballet, their works were essential in transitioning existing companies from a more contemporary rep to a more technically demanding classical and neoclassical one, and to do this, they created works that strengthened the technique -- and certainly with Andersen the mime and dramatic aspects of works -- and the abilities of the dancers and grew the dancers through their own choreography and the careful curation of rep that did the same. Kent and Christoper Stowell took the same aporoaches at PNB and OBT. Most of the time they created works not just because they had an idea for ballet ABC, but because their companies needed specific works of specific sizes with a specific range of roles with specific technical and artistic challenges at the time, even if they weren't always immune to the call of a muse or to the advantages of creating if not stars, then recognizable names in their dance-going communities. Ratmansky was starting from a better place at ABT, but he seems to be taking a similar approach. I think this aspect of company-building is highly under-rated and that it stems from an understanding of institutions and lomg-term planning and thinking. It's why Jerome Robbins, with his slash-and-burn approach and total focus/selfishness about his work, was suited to short-term project companies and existing in a company where all that was done for him. I don't know BalletMet well enough to understand what condition the company is in or what it needs. I've also only seen a couple of very small ballets by him, which don't show a wide range or tge abilities to move groups around or to create the hierarchical opportunities that feed dancers what they need at that point in their development. He might very well have created works which show this and/or may be an intelligent purchaser of appropriate rep for the company. He may gradually use his own work to create an artistic vision and, through that and his selection of other rep, to bring the company to another level, which seems to me to be the point of being an AD.

Official news only, please.

I just learned about this video of Misty Copeland performing a solo by Marcelo Gomes. It was posted today from a tweet by Isaac Hernandez (Dutch National Ballet, formerly San Francisco Ballet):

By your categories, Amy, Choreographer Directed North Carolina Dance Theatre - Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux Carolina Ballet - Robert Weiss The question, though, was how many AD's were primarily choreographers before being tapped for an AD spot, as opposed to becoming AD's bringing some choreographic experience, but mainly choreographing for their own company.

From Ismene Brown's blog, the Editor-in-Chief of the Russian "OK" Magazine, Vadim Vernik saw Filin recently and was interviewed in Izvestia, and the translation appears in her blog: http://www.ismeneb.com/ismeneb.com/Blog/Entries/2013/2/26_I_do_hope_Tsiskaridze_will_show_a_little_compassion_for_Filin.html

There have been a number of Artistic Directors who had some choreographic experience before taking over ballet companies, like Helgi Tomasson, Peter Martins, and Paul Mejia, for example, but had Stevenson established a career as a choreographer before he took over Houston Ballet or Mikko Nisseinen before he held the AD position in Alberta?

Considering that the Bolshoi lost Osipova and Vasiliev to Kekhman, wouldn't you'd have expected the attack to be the other way around, if this were the root cause?

Thank you for the reports on SFB! I wish I could get down to see this marvelous company more often.

Christopher d'Amboise wrote in his memoir that NYCB was on tour -- maybe Copenhagen -- and from the Men's dressing room they could see into the Women's dressing room. He described how one of the more well-endowed women was changing and every man in the dressing room gathered around the window with bated breath to stare at her, gay and straight men alike. (She then noticed them looking and put a quick end to that.)