Helene

Wagner would have had a field day with movies and computers. I've only watched the first few parts of the Burton film, and he doesn't convince me for a second that he's far too old to play the young to middle-aged Wagner. The Min a is superb, though.

The interview started at about 10:07.5 and ended around 10:15.

More than a fan, Maurice Sendak designed the current Pacific Northwest Ballet production of "The Nutcracker", considered the company's classic production. (It was filmed in the mid-80's, but only the staged version does his designs justice. Rest in peace, Mr. Sendak.

From "Weekday"'s Facebook Page: Former Pacific Northwest Ballet artistic director and prinicipal choreographer Kent Stowell remembers his collaboration with author and illustrator Maurice Sendak this morning at 10. Click "Listen" at the top right of the KUOW Home Page It should also be available soon a a podcast for ten days after the interview from: http://www.kuow.org/rss.php?program=weekday

According to the Lincoln Center website: Venue Accessibility The box office is accessible from the plaza level. Wheelchair seating is accessible from the concourse level only. Please call 212.799.3100 ext. 2207 at least 24 hours prior to the performance to make arrangements for assistance. Wheelchair Seating There are six wheelchair locations in the Orchestra and ten locations in the Dress Circle. Wheelchair Loans Available for people to go to and from their seats. No security deposit required. http://lc.lincolncenter.org/visitor-guide/venues/venue/17 This website has additional information: http://www.nyc-arts.org/organizations/294/metropolitan-opera It would be a good idea to give them a call. It might be safer for you if you sit in the wheelchair in wheelchair seating to avoid being jostled, having to get up and down for your row-mates, etc. If you are bringing a wheelchair but sitting in regular seating, it's likely they will have to stow it for you during the performance. I'm not sure if crutches will fit under the seats, since there may be hardware between the seats that blocks them -- this may be section-specific, too -- but they should be able to discuss the logistics with you.

It will be broadcast live this Sunday, May 13, and Monday, May 14 at 7:30pm EDT/4:30pm PDT. From the press release: In addition to Korbes and Seth and Sarah Orza, James Moore, Jerome Tisserand, and Leta Biasucci will demonstrate. Those who saw the "Giselle" presentation will recognize James Moore, who performed in the "Peasant Pas de Deux" with Carrie Imler and as Hilarion. New Yorkers will be in for a treat seeing Tisserand and Biasucci for the first time in featured roles. (Tisserand performed in at least the Millipied when PNB performed at The Joyce a few years ago.)

This has been discussed piecemeal in other forums, but I wanted to post a heads up that Doug Fullington will be presenting "After Petipa" this Sunday and Monday 13-14 May at the Guggenheim as part of it's "Works & Process" series. According to the Guggenheim website, Sunday night is sold out, but there are still tickets for Monday. The presentation will be screened via web. Here is the PNB press release, with details: Joan Acocella wrote a (physical) column about the presentation in "The New Yorker", but it's only available to subscribers. There was another mention of the program in "Goings on about Town: Dance" in the magazine (dated 14 May): Note that the website does not list the Monday show as being sold out; more tickets may have been released between publication of this note and today.

I saw it at the Vancouver International Film Festival, and I think I still have a bruise where the woman next to me grabbed my arm and exclaimed "Thank G-d!" when we found out that she was offered a contract at Washington Ballet. I thought she came across as a lovely young woman. If the audience at Lincoln Center Film Institute mocked her, that's unfortunate. Having heard the director speak, the first adjective that comes to mind is "empathy"; I don't think mockery or sensationalism was on her mind. Your mileage may vary.

I had forgotten reading that. Thank you!

Twice, and too briefly each time. I remember once when he subbed for our adult ballet class teacher one Saturday morning. Long used to short, perfunctory adagios, the class performed short, perfunctory adagio, but he would have none of that, and demonstrated the emotional flow by using the metaphor of weather in Seattle. It was a lovely class.

Many thanks for your impressions, Anne! If Massot is still interested in dancing, I hope he gets guest gigs. ABT could certainly use him. I am not the Hubbe fan that many here are. I thought he bordered on crude as James, substituting for Lund in his own RDB production of "La Sylphide" , and I was not impressed with his Apollo when he performed it with Ballet Arizona in 2004, finding it broad and lacking detail. (I would have much rather have seen a second performance by Zejnati.) It's hard for most ballets to follow "Agon."

It's tempting to hop on a plane and to go to the Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House with a can of red spray paint and "X" out "Dolores" and paint in "Beatrice." Until now, the options to rename arts buildings have been 1. Tear down the building and build a new one and 2. Renege on your contribution and have your named stripped from the building, a la Vilar. Sanford Ziff may have inadvertently started a new trend, like at stadiums: limited time naming rights, which they could sell and re-sell multiple times over the years. They could put up an electronic board with the current name-holder and update it with a simple configuration change. There's a reason for the form "Mr. and Mrs. [Man's Name]: all of Sid Bass' donations are in the all-purpose form of "Mr. and Mrs. Sid R. Bass", which can span multiple marriages.

Ballet Arizona posted a "Thank You" to Richard Nilsen on its Facebook Page:

I didn't get the impression that the film tried to pass YAGP as the only competition to award scholarships, but the only competition to give scholarships to those so young. Prix de Lausanne is looking at 15-18 year olds, which would have eliminated half of the kids in the film and one of its more fascinating aspects: how kids that young aspire to roles that are over their technical and emotional heads and are packaged for the competition. It's unlike the great training academies that give the students age-appropriate roles and stage experience and grow them into Odile, for example, and, for the most part, impart and reward classical virtues, not extension after extension. Kargman isn't responsible for the way the competition announced the prizes -- I'm convinced that the Met deliberately announced Michael Fabiano and not one of the others as the optional sixth winner to torture him in 2007 Met Council Auditions -- or for Bell's expression during the regular announcements. Bell didn't look relieved when he realized that he didn't get "demoted" to a lesser prize. I think it would have been more effective for the film to have stated that Bell was going for a repeat, because that would have made the ending even more suspenseful: it would have meant that the judges might have skipped him altogether: by then it was an all-or-nothing situation. You see this all the time in the hierarchical reverse announcements with more finalists than prizes: up to the last announcement, no one wants to hear their name, but for the last one, most know that they would rather have been one of the lesser winners than no winner at all. Kargman said in a Q&A in Vancouver that 1. She had to work with people who were willing to work with her and that she had to be practical about the number of contestants and 2. She was hoping to find someone who had grown up in more average circumstances, as a non-home schooled/regular high school student doing some regular activities, and whose parents were innocents about the ballet world and were taken by surprise by it. (They seemed rather shell-shocked throughout the film.) Since she had to follow the contestants over a long period of time, she could hardly know how they would be judged in the end. I think "mocking" is in the eye of the beholder and that the Fogartys' Tiger Mom came off much worse to the average viewer.

It's probable that comments to her blog have to be reviewed and "approved" before they appear publicly, and there can be lag time before she gets back to it. This is normally used to prevent spammers from inundating the comments section with links to viruses and porn. We have the same functionality for the blogs on this board, set on/off by the blogger.

That's odd. It's there now: http://www.artsjournal.com/tobias/2012/04/glimpses-4-re-inventing-tanny.html

The aristocracy in Russia was pleased by Petipa's portrayal of them in "Sleeping Beauty". Not everyone recognizes when they look [fill in a non-flattering adjective] from the outside. While the movie is flattering in some ways, in other ways: not so much.

Arizona Republic critic Richard Nilsen is retiring, and for his final piece, he paid tribute to what he called his "transcendent moments." Ballet Arizona is among them: I'm not sure that Ballet Arizona is better than Arizona deserves, but in it's own way, it's as good as it gets. I was lucky, too, to have seen that "Semele".

Congratulations, Kristen -- that sounds like a very fun evening

I just added the "Other" option with a request for a link to a page with photo.

There will be fewer dancers in NYC than in the presentation in Seattle, but I'd expect to see Korbes and the Orzas.

Thank you for posting this, Brioche. Rest in peace, Ms. Larkin.

sidwich, I'd appreciate it very much if you'd give us your take past midpoint of the season.

It's a very small stage at the Guggenheim.

I love "Bluebeard's Castle". I first saw it in the '70's when the Met still ran the June Festival after the main season. Seattle Opera did a wonderful production a couple of years ago, paring it with Schoenberg's "Erwartung". I like seeing productions by film directors and video arts: they're not always completely successful as theater, but they often have fascinating sections.