Helene

I've broken off the question of whether NYCB is treading water into a new topic:

Denis Savin was pitch-perfect as Gringoire. Watching him, I was thinking how the last time I saw him, he was in his skivvies as Maria Alexandrova let out a shriek and bit him. (It was the Donnelan/Poklitaru version of "Romeo and Juliet".)

An excerpt from the "Romeo et Juliette" Balcony pas de deux, with Noelani Pantastico and Lucien Postlewaite:

No one asked, but she did say that at one point she found investors. (I wish I could remember what event triggered her being able to get them.) The other time she mentioned money was when she discussed adding extra cameras for the last week (or maybe two) during the competition. She said that she wanted a crane, they said it would be $3000/day, and she said "No crane!", which made me think that $21K was a big deal for the budget.

It's early, but PNB has published a YouTube video of eight dancers in multiple venues around Seattle performing part of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa's "Cylindrical Shadows" to its Facebook Page. It's not yet available directly on YouTube, but can be accessed through the company's FB page: https://www.facebook.com/PNBFAN It's marvelous. The dancers, who are identified at the end of the video ( ) are: Kylee Kitchens Price Suddarth Laura Gilbreath Andrew Bartee Jerome Tisserand Lucien Postlewaite Kaori Nakamura Ezra Thomson You can hear Glenn Gould humming along to his recording.

On the other hand, euphemistic and circumlocutious language can be interpreted as condescending, insulting, dishonest, and/or offensive as direct language. It depends on the audience.

The Balanchine rep was also distributed widely, but the agreement to manage them through the Foundation was agreed to quickly by most of the recipients. I hope that waiting this long doesn't impact the Ashton Foundation's ability to get everyone, or mostly everyone, on board.

What we know so far is answered by Ismene Brown in this Link from today: http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/34555-monday-october-10/page__view__findpost__p__292875

I might not like it, but people can be as racist, sexist, and any other -ist that they like. It when those "ists" turn into actions, or discrimination, that matter, which is why I think the UN makes that distinction. It's not about what people think, believe, or feel, but how they act upon those thoughts, beliefs, and feelings. As Leigh pointed out, there are measures for discrimination in the legal system.

I just finished reading an advanced copy of Stephen Manes' "When Snowflakes Dance and Swear". Manes spent a little over a year at PNB, from preparation of the 2007-8 season, Boal's third with the company, to the very beginning of the 2008-9 season, and he followed just about every aspect of life in the company and the hundreds -- thousands if you consider families and mentors -- of people that make a season possible. It is similar to Joseph Mazo's "Dance is a Contact Sport" in that Manes dedicated his life to a season with a company, but far from being just about dancers and/choreographers. Manes takes an in-depth look at the school, classes, coaching, backstage, PR, the front of the house, administration, touring, auditions, fundraising, the orchestra, the Board: all of the aspects that come together to make the organization run and the performances happen. He even pays a visit to The Barn in Carlisle, PA. He also avoids the self-consciously cuteness in which Mazo wrote, but Mazo wrote in the '70s. Many people have asked over and over again, "How are works transmitted?" "How do the dancers learn them?" "How do dancers work?" This books describes all of these in great detail, including the contrast in style, approach, and expectation of different stagers/stager-choreographers/choreographers, and, because that season boasted so many new works of different sizes and demands, there is quite a contrast. (The one thing they had in common, how many times they praised and encouraged, was the biggest surprise to me.) The book gives a robust portrait of Peter Boal in a critical year in his first 5-year term as Artistic Director, and in-depth descriptions of the crucible of that period: a production of Jean-Christopher Maillot's "Romeo et Juliette", which replaced a much-loved version of Kent Stowell's, "The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet". Boal had five of Stowell's Juliets and several Romeos among his Principal Dancers; with one exception the stagers rejected all of them, which in a perverse way was an advantage, because everyone was equally unhappy and insulted, especially as the stagers tried to audition them in the non-title roles -- PNB didn't have enough performances to offer that many casts in the Stowell version -- and the one exception was unhappy because she felt that Boal would always favor Carla Korbes. 2007-8 was also a critical point in the transition from Francia Russell and Kent Stowell to Peter Boal, two years away from the honeymoon, and the adjustment was huge, however well as it was handled publicly, and the detailed descriptions of the making of each rep and special performance, presentation, and gala/party over the year establish context. Whatever anyone thinks of Peter Boal, there is someone in the book who will validate their conclusion, because, ultimately, this is a book about work and, by extension, about business, and Peter Boal is the boss. There are limited resources -- time and money -- and limited opportunity, and no matter how much money he and his staff raise, time and opportunity are still limited. PNB is run, at least in this period, on a pretty strict business model, to produce a small operating surplus each year. That limited the amount of new work that Boal could produce, especially going forward, which is not entirely a bad thing, based on the company's experience of conflicting schedules, the logistics of so many stagers, time and money restrictions during the 2007-8 season, as well as giving dancers the opportunity to fine-tune and deepen their interpretations by repeating the ballets sooner than later. The book was written about the season before the financial crisis hit, after PNB had deferred an endowment gift on which the 2008-9 season budget relied, only to find the value of the endowment reduced below contributions, and before "Nutcracker" suffered the triple-whammy of the financial crisis, a new Christmas show in town, and a massive snow storm that crippled the city, whose poor response toppled then-mayor Nickels. It's also a book about communication, and setting expectations, and often, the lack of both. I found it pretty astonishing that stager after stager from the modern dance world, whether their experience was with smaller companies or in an established theater like in Monte Carlo, seemed to have no idea about what it would mean to their rehearsal process to work in a repertory company with a union. What was a given to Stacy Caddell or Brian Reeder or Benjamin Millepied, all NYCB veterans for whom this was not news, seemed astonishing to the Monte Carlo team among others. There are many profiles, both of dancers, stagers, choreographers, and people behind the scenes, and for NYCB fans, Carla Korbes, who was cast widely in the season, is a featured player, with appearances by Miranda Weese, Seth Orza, and Sarah Ricard Orza. I thought the most fascinating was the one of Bruce Wells -- what a perspective Wells has. Maillot's thoughts were also a highlight. There is also an epilogue, to bring the reader up-to-date through last season. It's a fascinating story, regardless of whether the reader has ever seen Pacific Northwest Ballet. The book is available through amazon.com, amazon.ca, and amazon.co.uk in hardcover and Kindle editions, as well as from Japanese and European amazon.com sites. It's also available in Nook and Adobe formats. Here's the website to the book, from which you can read six chapters: http://wheresnowflak...ceandswear.com/

I just did a search to try to find the plot of Esmeralda, and every version I could find ends unhappily for at least Esmeralda and/or Quasimodo. The ballet plot is a lot happier at the end.

We didn't even get the entire "Corsaire" on the US tour a few years ago: the fan dance was cut, and Act III felt like it was five minutes long. All to avoid overtime at the Kennedy Center. I can't wait to see the whole thing. "Jardin Anime" as a stand-alone would be worth the price of the ticket. This version does not have the slave Ali, and the hero is fully clothed in the big Pas de Deux. (I'm really hoping Andrei Merkuriev, the Birbanto in DC, reprises the role for the HD. I have a massive crush on his Birbanto, even if he is the villain of the piece.)

I'm not sure if they cut it off in your theater, Bart, but the multi-lingual host, Katerina Novakova (?), who switched back and forth between English and French with aplomb, announced Stashkevitch and Lopatin just before the Act II curtain, and then before the Act III curtain, Alexei Loparevich as Claude Frollo and another dancer/character I couldn't hear as people around me returned to their seats. I assume it was Igor Tsvirko as Quasimodo, unless there was a substitution. Tsvirko was very moving in the role. Loparevich was again cast in another humorless, dyspeptic character role, and he's so good at it. Happily, the Bolshoi site lists a complete cast list for today's performance, which had "Live" text in the corner of the screen a few times, although it was after midnight when the performance started in Pacific Time: http://www.bolshoi.r...ynid26=2676#dyn I was especially impressed with Maria Vinogradova, Beranger, who was the slightly taller and slightly more muscular of Krysanova's/Fleur de Lis' two demi-soloist friends, and their partners, Artem Ovcharenko and Vladislav Lantratov. And it was Yuliana Malkhasyants as the gypsy Mergera. She had way too little to do. PeggyR, I didn't miss the explanation of how Phoebus recovers. There's no mime that explains this, as far as I could see. Maria Alexandrova was stupendous; seamless technique without appearing technical, and her characterization was fantastic. I would love to see her Nikiya again now. :flowers: Savin was sweet and endearing, with a pinch of Alain. I didn't know the story, and was hoping that he'd come forward to die with her, then she'd be saved, and then she'd fall for him. However, marriage to a poet, a hapless one at that, would have ended badly. I loved Svortsov's dancing; it was pure and strong. I thought he was very virile in his first entrance, oh, that walk!. In Act II, at the court, he looked deflated, not in his dancing, but in his characterization: he had a polite smile on his face, as if his mind was elsewhere and he was going through the motions, which is quite in character. The orchestra sounded great. And , while it retained the Vaganova addition of the "Diana and Acteon" scene, there was no holding tambourines overhead and kicking them with a toe shoe. for a DVD of this.

Given the way he lived his life and used his money, I don't think he made the distinction.

This is hardly a new idea: according to Duberman's bio, Lincoln Kirstein was pitching American-themed libretti and scenarios to Balanchine long after the choreograper had showed disinterest. However, in Kirstein's non-Balanchine-centric ventures, there were plenty of these ballets. Also American Ballet Theatre's early rep included works like "Rodeo", "Billy the Kid", and "Fall River Legend", which were, for years, their classics. I've seen works by Dance Theatre of Harlem that speak more to black experience, at least in setting, that were, by no means masterworks, but weren't any worse than the aerobics that often is presented as ballet.

Thank you, Peg, and welcome to Ballet Alert!

"First Position", a documentary about a group of young dancers competing at YAGP 2010, will screen at the New York Documentary Festival on Saturday, 5 November at 1:15pm in the Eisner Auditorium at NYU's Kimmel Center, 4th floor. Details, trailer, ticket purchase links here: http://www.docnyc.net/film/first-position/ I saw it last night at the Vancouver International Film Festival and posted about it here, if you want more details:

I just came from a Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) showing of Bess Kargmann's "First Position", a documentary which follows a group of young ballet dancers preparing for YAGP 2010, focusing on six plus one sibling who came with the package, but quit ballet. (In one scene, his teacher says that his bows were the best part of the variation, so that's probably for the best. When asked his favorite part of the film, according to the director he replied "When I fell.") In addition, there's another dancer in a supporting role, because there's no footage of her at home or in Israel training, unlike other seven, but she comes through as a vivid personality. Kargmann studied ballet for over a decade, according to the Boston Herald at the Boston Ballet School, but as she said in an interview, "I danced my entire childhood but was spared from all of the sticker shock because I was little. Some tutus cost $2,000 and you wear them twice. It’s really, really shocking how expensive ballet can be." She was at the screening and spoke and answered questions at the end for a good 30 minutes. Kargmann said she gave up ballet and later played college hockey -- wheee!. (She must have been very tough or very fast or both, because she is pretty tiny.) Bored with her post-graduation job -- I'm not sure if I heard this correctly, but I think she said that -- she saw a gaggle of ballet students on the street and knew that this was the film she had to make. She noticed one girl in particular, and I think it was YAGP who gave her 100 photos, from which she recognized Miko Fogarty, who would be one of the six main dancers on whom the film focuses. She said she had a lot of competition from other filmmakers who also wanted to use YAGP as the center of their projects, and it was especially tough, since she didn't have a resume. However, she said that she "talked the talk" and made it clear to the YAGP folks that she didn't want to make a reality show out of it or even focus on the winners: she wanted to tell more complex stories. YAGP has a page on its site that has links to a number of reviews, the trailer, etc., so they must be pleased. It was important to her that the group was not just racially diverse but economically diverse as well, and she wanted at least one dancer who led a relatively normal life -- in public high school, not home-schooled or away to boarding school -- and she wanted to show that dancers don't all starve themselves or live off of caffeine and cigarettes. There are two wonderful scenes with Joan Sebastian Zamora, the first with his roommate in Queens, who cooks what looks like a mean and tasty stew, although he says they pretty much eat only that, and then when he visits home in Cali, Colombia for the first time in a year, his mom makes an enormous pot of chicken stew that is cooked on top of a grill and looks mouth-watering. The director also chose dancers from different age ranges and points in their career, with the older dancers looking for scholarships or contracts as much as prizes. Kargmann noted that the kids were quite shy -- they mentioned being able to say things with their bodies that they couldn't verbally -- and she shut off the cameras and went to dinner with the kids and her cameraman to get to know them better and put them at ease. The strategy worked, because you'd never know it from the resulting film. Kargmann did a lot of the filming herself at first, but then hired a cameraman (Nick Higgins) whom she called a great cinematographer, and she took many photos as well; for the final week she added cameras for a total of six, so that she could get shots from every angle. She called veteran editor Kate Amend on someone's recommendation, and Amend said that she could recommend a lot of people, but that she might be interested herself. (Amend has edited two other films at this year's VIFF, but the MC didn't mention which other two.) Kargmann was very grateful to Amend for the amount she learned. The director is smart as a whip, extremely engaging, high-energy, and verbal, and I was very disappointed when the Q&A ended. However, she did say the magic words, "When the DVD comes out", and this is one I'll order the moment it is announced. The footage at home and in the studio, in class and preparing for the competition, is fascinating, and the teachers are some of the best characters in the movie, especially Denys Ganio, who teaches Aran Bell, Viktor Kabaniaev, who teaches Miko and Jules Fogarty, and, too briefly, a man whose name I didn't catch who coached Joan Sebastian Zamora in NYC; I thought he said he danced with ABT. (Zamora is listed on the YAGP site as coming from the Rock School.) Race comes up several times in the film, and no one's pulling any punches. Zamora says that his idol is Carlos Acosta, because he was the first black principal at the Royal Ballet, and that he probably thinks of himself as black because he's from Colombia. His skin is no darker than most of the people with whom I grew up whose ancestry was from Sicily, so I think that says a lot. For the other two times, the subject is Michaela DePrince. The first time we see her mother, an older Jewish woman with a broad NY metro accent, she is dying straps and tutu panties brown and using a marker to darken the flesh-tone center "V" of a tutu, because commercially available "flesh-toned" is for white dancers. DePrince later lists all of the attributes that black dancers are supposed to have -- ex: bad feet, no extension -- and she's living proof that these are ridiculous assertions, because if anything, she has too much extension. When her mother says that people come up to her to tell her why her daughter can't be a ballet dancer, she asks, somewhat rhetorically whether they think their comments affect her less because her daughter is adopted or whether they're really that crass. Kargmann and Amend let people make the points clearly and move on, the touch of masterful editing, because you don't forget it. I'm interested to see what will be in the bonus material. (Kargmann said if she used all of the footage she'd have a four-hour, rather than a 1.5-hour movie.) The parents are a mixed bunch: those who moved houses and businesses to be closer to their kids training, a military father who chose to go to Kuwait so that his family could stay within two hours of Rome for his son to continue training rather than move the whole family to a place where there was none, parents who are supportive without being overwhelming to not so much, parents who really aren't sure what hit them, and parents who understand that this is their kid's best chance to earn a decent living, which in itself is a frightening thought. Like with figure skaters, there's a substantial financial investment and sacrifice, and the ones who softly remind their child of this can pull the guilt-strings just as skillfully -- after one such instance, the woman behind me said incredulously, "No pressure there..." and many others gasped -- as the ones who are in their kid's face(s). As far as the dancing goes, the two that most impressed me were 11-year-old Aran Bell and 16-year-old Joan Sebastian Zamora. Unfortunately the "poster" photo for Zamora is far more extreme than anything he showed in training and competition, where he was quite elegant and controlled, but virile at the same time, great attributes for a danseur noble. The film opens with Bell, who looks like a young Dennis Christopher and is quite goofy and young, showing off his skateboard and unicycle and toy trucks and gun -- there's a great scene of him in Central Park zipping along on his skateboard, until he stops in awe of a cyclist who bounces his bike up a large, craggy rock formation -- which didn't prepare me for how elegant and un-show-offy he was. He also had a very sweet friendship with Gaya Bommer-Yemeni, whose mother is a modern/contemporary choreographer in Israel, which is quite clear from her choreography for her daughter. Bommer-Yemeni is quite a character and has stage presence that you can't buy. (Kargmann, answering a question from the audience, thinks that she will end up in modern or contemporary, not ballet.) Aside from Rebecca Houseknecht, who shows less of this, whatever their good attributes, like solid cores, nice feet, and presence, the girls are being trained to ridiculous extensions by highly prestigious teachers and schools, and it was hard to watch. The cinematographer captured so many great reactions from the dancers, the coaches, the teachers, the parents, and, surprisingly the judges: it was amazing to see among a row of judges the look of joy and wonder on some of their faces as they are impressed and moved by a young dancer. That alone was worth the price of admission. There is a lot of humor in this film, and lots of laughs from the audience. But be warned: if you see it where there are many non-ballet people (doers, watchers, and parents), be prepared for audience reactions that would make you think you were at a horror flick, as dancers show their torture devices, their wrecked feet, and their various ways of contorting themselves well beyond 180 degrees. At 90 minutes, I hope takes off like "Spellbound" and "Mad Hot Ballrom" and gets aired on TV. Edited to add: the film will play at New York's Documentary Festival on Saturday, 5 November at 1:15pm at NYU. On Thursday the "First Position Team" announced that Sundance Selects has acquired the North American rights to the film: http://moviecitynews...first-position/

Next in the series: Jillian Barrell. http://www.balletaz.org/index.taf?mnid=about&smid=1314272294 She's being coached by Paola Hartley and Natalia Magnacaballi for her debut as Cinderella, which is the first production of the season. She's done beautiful work in the Balanchine rep in all size roles: congratulations to her

Here's the press release; Doug Fullington wrote the notes on the program: BABY, IT’S GETTING COLD OUTSIDE! PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET HEATS UP McCAW HALL WITH Love Stories FEATURING THE PNB PREMIERES OF George Balanchine’s Divertimento from “Le Baiser de la Fée” Jerome Robbins’ Afternoon of a Faun PLUS EXCERPTS FROM Roméo et Juliette — Swan Lake — The Sleeping Beauty November 4-13, 2011 Marion Oliver McCaw Hall 321 Mercer Street, Seattle Center Seattle, WA 98109 November 4 & 5 at 7:30 pm November 5 at 2:00 pm November 10-12 at 7:30 pm November 13 at 1:00 pm SEATTLE, WA — Pacific Northwest Ballet ponders love’s many moods with LOVE STORIES, a mixed-bill program that adds Balanchine and Robbins works to its repertory. George Balanchine's buoyant Divertimento from "Le Baiser de la Fée," was created for New York City Ballet's legendary 1972 Stravinsky Festival. Its charismatic choreography contains notable solos for the male and female leads as well as hints of an enigmatic attraction between the pair. Afternoon of a Faun, Jerome Robbins’ reconsideration of Vaslav Nijinsky's 1912 ballet, portrays an innocent exchange between two dance students. Holding their gazes toward the audience as if seeing their reflections in a studio mirror, the couple carefully appraises each movement in their tentative partnership. LOVE STORIES also includes selections from three of PNB’s most popular story ballets. In the Balcony pas de deux from Jean-Christophe Maillot's Roméo et Juliette, the ecstasy of love “unfolds as a series of chases, of catches, of rapture…as if happily drowning in a pool of sensation” (Seattle Times). The fiery Black Swan pas de deux from Kent Stowell’s resplendent Swan Lake is classical ballet’s most famous depiction of seduction and betrayal, as well as a show-stopping technical accomplishment. For a very grand finale, Aurora's Wedding from Ronald Hynd’s eminently English The Sleeping Beauty fills the stage with splendor. “In a word, lovely. A lavish production for the eyes and ears, a testament to the company’s depth of skill and talent” (Seattlest). LOVE STORIES runs for seven performances only, November 4 through 13 at Seattle Center’s Marion Oliver McCaw Hall. Tickets start at $28 and may be purchased by calling 206.441.2424, online at pnb.org, or in person at the PNB Box Office at 301 Mercer St. The line-up for LOVE STORIES will include: Divertimento from “Le Baiser de la Fée” Music: Igor Stravinsky (excerpts from Divertimento, concert suite, 1934, and the full-length ballet, Le Baiser de la Fée, 1928) Choreography: George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust Staging: Peter Boal PNB PREMIERE The original production of the Stravinsky ballet Le Baiser de la Fée was commissioned by Ida Rubinstein and choreographed in 1928 by Bronislava Nijinska. Balanchine choreographed the fullwork in 1937 for the American Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and restaged it for New York City Ballet in 1950. (British choreographers Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan also choreographed the work in 1935 and 1960, respectively.) Balanchine’s distillation of the ballet premiered at New York City Ballet’s legendary 1972 Stravinsky Festival. The story of Baiser de la Fée is based on The Ice Maiden by Hans Christian Andersen and Stravinsky’s score is dedicated to Tchaikovsky. Historian Joseph Horowitz has described the music as, “one of Stravinsky's most tender scores—a love letter to the Russia of his childhood—The Fairy’s Kiss [the work’s English title] lovingly adapts more than a dozen songs and piano pieces by Tchaikovsky. The action of the ballet depicts a child kissed by a Fairy; later, on his wedding day, he is carried off to the Land of Eternal Dwelling. The story suggested to Stravinsky ‘an allegory with Tchaikovsky himself. The Fairy’s kiss on the heel of the child is also the Muse marking Tchaikovsky at his birth’—and later terminating his mortal existence at the height of his powers.” Balanchine’s shorter work from 1972 contains no narrative, although, as dance historian Nancy Reynolds writes, “some found in the girl the embodiment of both the Bride and the Fairy, and in the prominent male role a reflection of the original, in which the Bridegroom was the protagonist.” [Notes compiled by Doug Fullington. Joseph Horowitz quotation courtesy of Boosey & Hawkes.] Afternoon of a Faun Music: Claude Debussy (Prelude a l’Après-midi d’un Faune, 1892-94) Choreography: Jerome Robbins Staging: Bart Cook PNB PREMIERE Debussy′s music, Prelude a l′Après-midi d′un Faune, was composed between 1892 and 1894. It was inspired by a poem of Mallarme’s which was begun in 1876. The poem describes the reveries of a faun around a real or imagined encounter with nymphs. In 1912, Vaslav Nijinsky presented his famous ballet, drawing his ideas from many sources, including Greek sculpture and painting. This pas de deux, choreographed by Jerome Robbins, is a variation on these themes. It was first performed in 1953 by New York City Ballet and is dedicated to Tanaquil Le Clercq for whom the ballet was choreographed. [Notes courtesy the Robbins Rights Trust.] The Balcony pas de deux from Roméo et Juliette Music: Sergei Prokofiev (Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64, 1935-1936) Choreography: Jean-Christophe Maillot Staging: Gaby Baars, Bernice Coppieters, and Giovanna Lorenzoni In his version of Roméo et Juliette, choreographer Jean-Christophe Maillot has taken formal inspiration from the episodic character of Sergei Prokofiev’s classic score, structuring the action in a manner akin to cinematic narrative. Rather than focusing on the themes of political-social opposition between the two feuding clans, this Romeo and Juliet highlights the dualities and ambiguities of adolescence. Torn between contradictory impulses, between tenderness and violence, fear and pride, the lovers are caught in the throes of a tragedy that exemplifies their youth and the extreme emotions and internal conflicts that characterize that time of life—a time of life when destiny, more than at any other moment, seems to escape conscious control, and when the inner turmoil occasioned by passions and ideals can sometimes have disproportionate—even fatal—consequences. The Black Swan pas de deux from Swan Lake Music: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Op. 20, 1875-1876) Choreography: Kent Stowell (after Marius Petipa) Staging: Francia Russell Swan Lake is considered by many to be the greatest classical ballet of all time. With its fantastical plot filled with romance, sorcery, and betrayal, Swan Lake offers ballerinas the ultimate challenge of a dual role―Odette, trapped in the body of a white swan while awaiting an oath of true love to set her free, and Odile—the black swan—the temptress daughter of Baron Von Rothbart, who plots the downfall of Odette’s true love, Siegfried. The image of a swan has come to represent the lyrical image of a dancer, and for that we have to thank three men: composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and choreographers Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. Tchaikovsky composed his score for Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet in 1877, but it was not until Petipa and Ivanov’s St. Petersburg production of 1895 that Swan Lake took the form we know today. The ballet has since inspired countless choreographers, who, in their own productions, seek to extend the ideas and meanings suggested in the work of its creators. Following tradition, choreographers in our own century often have re-visited Swan Lake, for the ballet lends itself generously to new stagings and new interpretations. Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Swan Lake dates from 1981, when Mr. Stowell and Ms. Russell mounted here the production they had first created for the Frankfurt Ballet in 1975. [Notes by Doug Fullington.] Aurora’s Wedding from The Sleeping Beauty Music: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Op. 66, 1889) Choreography: Ronald Hynd after Marius Petipa Staging: Ronald Hynd, Annette Page, and Amanda Eyles The Sleeping Beauty represents the pinnacle of 19th-century Russian ballet, a collaboration of dance, music, and design that continues to influence ballet today. The well-known story served as a foundation on which the ballet’s creators—composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, choreographer Marius Petipa, and designer and director of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres Ivan Vsevolozhsky—developed a work that demonstrated a century’s worth of achievements in classical dance. Pacific Northwest Ballet’s production of The Sleeping Beauty by English choreographer Ronald Hynd was originally set on English National Ballet and is based on the historic Royal Ballet version, with which Hynd and his wife, former Royal Ballet ballerina Annette Page, are intimately familiar. That production, in turn, was closely based on the original Sleeping Beauty of 1890. Act Three—or, Aurora’s Wedding, as the act has come to be known— is a grand celebration of the wedding of Prince Aurora and Prince Florimund, held in the palace to which fairy tale characters are invited. They arrive bearing precious jewels, and each entertains the guests with a divertissement. Aurora and Florimund affirm their love in a grand pas de deux. At the climax of the festivities, the Lilac Fairy and her nymphs are revealed in the sky blessing the happy couple. [Notes by Doug Fullington.] SPECIAL EVENTS AND DISCOUNT OFFERS AFTER PETIPA: Lecture-Demonstration Thursday, October 20, 5:30 pm The Phelps Center, 301 Mercer Street at Seattle Center Many ballets are credited with choreography “after Petipa,” but what does that really mean? In After Petipa, PNB Education Programs Manager Doug Fullington and Company dancers take a fascinating look at LOVE STORIES’ famous classical duets—the Black Swan pas de deux from Swan Lake and the Blue Bird pas de deux and Grand pas de deux from The Sleeping Beauty—to find how these extraordinary dances have evolved over time. Tickets are $25 each, and may be purchased through the PNB Box Office. LISTEN TO THE BALLET Saturday, November 5 at 7:30 pm PNB partners with 98.1 Classical KING FM to bring listeners some of the world’s most popular ballet scores, featuring the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra performing live, direct from McCaw Hall. Tune in to KING FM to listen to the live performance of LOVE STORIES on Saturday, November 5 at 7:30 pm. Only on 98.1 FM or online at king.org/listen. FRIDAY PREVIEWS Friday, October 28, 6:00 pm The Phelps Center, 301 Mercer Street, Seattle Join PNB for an hour-long dance preview led by Artistic Director Peter Boal and featuring PNB dancers rehearsing excerpts from LOVE STORIES. PNB Friday Previews offer an upbeat and up-close view of the Company preparing to put dance on stage. Tickets, $10 each, may be purchased by calling the PNB Box Office at 206.441.2424, online at pnb.org, or in person at the PNB Box Office at 301 Mercer Street. (NOTE: Friday Previews usually sell out in advance.) Friday Previews are sponsored by U.S. Bank. BALLET PREVIEW — FREE Tuesday, November 1, 12:00 noon Central Seattle Public Library, 1000 Fourth Avenue, Seattle Join PNB for a free lunch-hour preview lecture at the Central Seattle Public Library. Education Programs Manager Doug Fullington will offer insights about LOVE STORIES, complete with video excerpts that illuminate the ballets being discussed. FREE of charge. PNB LECTURE SERIES & DRESS REHEARSAL Thursday, November 3, 2011 Lecture 6:00 pm, Nesholm Family Lecture Hall at McCaw Hall Dress Rehearsal 7:00 pm, McCaw Hall Join PNB artistic staff, choreographers, and/or stagers during the hour preceding the dress rehearsal. Attend the lecture only or stay for the dress rehearsal. Tickets are $12 for the lecture, or $25 for the lecture and dress rehearsal. Tickets may be purchased by calling the PNB Box Office at 206.441.2424, online at pnb.org or in person at the PNB Box Office at 301 Mercer Street. PRE-PERFORMANCE LECTURES Nesholm Family Lecture Hall at McCaw Hall Join Education Programs Manager Doug Fullington for a 30-minute introduction to each performance, including discussions of choreography, music, history, design and the process of bringing ballet to the stage. One hour before performances. FREE for ticketholders. POST-PERFORMANCE Q&A Skip the post-show traffic and enjoy a conversation with Artistic Director Peter Boal and PNB dancers. Immediately following each performance in the Norcliffe Room at McCaw Hall. FREE for ticketholders.

That reminds me of the promo for "Frasier" reruns on a Seattle station, which goes something like: Frasier: "Niles, do you think I'm elitist?" Niles: "Of course I do. You don't have to worry about that." It may be city-specific, but I've found in Seattle and Vancouver, arts organizations are doing everything they can to break down the wall between the theater door and a public that is afraid of the arts because they feel the theater is too formal, and they feel uncomfortable with what they know about the art forms. There are all kinds of outreach, public performances through educational outreach, clubs for teens (Seattle, across orgs) and groups for people in their 20's and 30's, pre- and post-performances lectures and Q&A's, special concerts that are more familiar and less intimidating, etc.

The Balanchine Foundation has announced that Merrill Ashley will coach Tiler Peck and Jonathan Stafford in "Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2" on 11-12 October at the New York City Ballet studios for the Foundation's video series. Full text here: http://balanchine.org/balanchine/05/archive/2011_mavs.html

Today's event was "Dreileben", a series of three 1.5 hour films originally shown on German television. "Dreileben" is a project among three directors, Christian Petzold ("Beats Being Dead"), Dominik Graf ("Don't Follow Me Around", and Christoph Hochhäusler ("One Minute of Darkness") in which each director made a film in which an escaped convicted murderer is a key element. There is overlap among some of the characters in all three movies, and overlapping action whose importance isn't clear until the later films, very much like in Lucas Belvaux's "Trilogie". Like "Trilogie", the middle film is about domestic relationships, and the tone is lightest. The last, which is about the escapee himself, uses very little overlap after the beginning, but mentally, I kept waiting for it. When I came home I read a few reviews which thought the last one was the weakest, but I didn't see this. I thought all three films were fascinating, and the landscape and forest of Thuringia are gorgeous. Even with two ten-minute breaks, this was a long sit. Depending on the comfort of the art theaters near you, it might be a good choice for DVDs.

Same in Vancouver, at least so far. I hope it's being added, especially since it spans the opera and ballet audiences. I'm hoping they'll announce it as a "To be added" at "Esmeralda" this weekend.

Last night I saw "Restoration", an Israeli film that won the scriptwriter award at Sundance this year. It's about a retirement-age man who has a furniture refinishing business, and whose partner of 40 years, who took care of the business aspects, dies. Not surprisingly, he finds that the business is in trouble. Not surprisingly, family mishegas ensues. The acting in it is superb. There isn't a miss among the cast.