Helene

A new video, this time featuring Paul Gibson, choreographer of "Piano Dance", speaking about casting new dancers in roles and the new ending he choreographed for the ballet: The eight dancers rehearsing are: Margaret Mullin: light green leotard, black tights, one light blue leg warmer Sarah Ricard Orza: red leotard with flowered straps and bodice trim, pink tights Kylee Kitchens: light blue leotard, pink tights Laura Gilbreath: brown leotard with thin red trim, black tights. Karel Cruz: white sleeveless shirt, black pants (partners Gilbreath) James Moore: black shirt and socks, gray shorts (partners Ricard Orza) Jerome Tisserand: gray shirt with white lettering, black knee-length tights (partners Mullin) Andrew Bartee: long-sleeved pale blue shirt, gray tights (partners Kitchens) In the background, I see Brittany Reid, Barry Kerollis, Benjamin Griffiths, Ezra Thomson, and Jessika Anspach.

In Canada, Vancouver at least, the encores are on Saturdays and sometimes Sundays. Sandy, doesn't the theater in Mt. Vernon shown the encores on Sunday afternoons? I think scheduling is theater-specific. Last year they had encores during the summer as well, but only a subset of the most well-attended operas. I suspect "Iphigenie en Tauride" will not be among them, especially since Peter Gelb had to make the "Graham and Domingo are singing with colds" pre-curtain speech. It was gracious of them to do the mini-interviews at the beginning of intermission. I'm torn about Paul Groves. He sang very, very well, and I'm usually not someone who compares current performances to historical recordings, but in this case, I can't help thinking of George Thill because of his impeccable style. I think the music is gorgeous.

Yes, Twitter counts, as do Facebook "like" pages. (Personal Facebook pages do not.) When posting info, please remember to note the source.

Oh, I need brain bleach for that thought

Doug Fullington wrote an article on the PNB Facebook Page about the progress of the reconstruction of "Giselle": I had seen the two scenes mentioned before, but not which ones they were until now.

If Lady Gaga did it, they could pay for the Martha Graham Dance Company for the remainder of the decade.

Aren't the fairy tale characters in "Sleeping Beauty" a representation of the aristocracy playing in costumes at one of their celebratory balls? We wouldn't have ballet if the French aristocrats weren't dancing with each other.

[Admin beanie on] I just want to re-iterate a few rules about discussing other forums and linking to other forums, because I'm not sure I explained them clearly, and you might be wondering why a slew of posts just disappeared from this thread: Other discussion boards: No discussion or links to them on the board. There are many other valuable discussion boards on ballet, dance, other arts, and multi-subject boards, including those can be described as partisan. We don't want to get into critiques or discussions of discussion on them, which is generally regarded as board-dragging. The only exception is the the Magazine sections of discussion boards, like ballet.co.uk/magazine. There is, of course, nothing to stop people from having a rousing conversation about them via email or personal messenger. (Just to note, when using Ballet Alert! board email, the sender's email address is exposed to the receiver and not vice versa unless the receiver responds.) Official sites/media Discussion about and links to official websites, tweets, Facebook "like" (formerly "fan") pages, blogs, are fine. We strongly discourage discussion about the comments section, unless posted by an official source (Facebook account, Twitter account), as in "Dancer XYZ commented 123 on the Company 1A2 Website", since it's hard to say how valuable noting that "The overwhelming majority of comments say that Critic-A-Wouldn't-Recognize-a-Toe-Shoe-If-She-Tripped-Over-It", when who knows what kind of encouragement has happened behind the scenes. [Admin beanie off]

Press Release: CONTEMPORARY 4 Featuring works by PAUL GIBSON – MARCO GOECKE – MARK MORRIS – ALEXEI RATMANSKY March 18-27, 2011 Marion Oliver McCaw Hall March 18-19 at 7:30 pm March 19 at 2:00 pm March 24-26 at 7:30 pm March 27 at 1:00 pm SEATTLE, WA — With CONTEMPORARY 4, the fourth program in its 2010-2011 season, Pacific Northwest Ballet presents the local premiere of critically acclaimed choreographer Alexei Ratmansky’s Concerto DSCH. PNB’s first work by Ratmansky represents a major introduction for Seattle audiences. Marco Goecke, the young German choreographer known to PNB audiences for cult-hit Mopey, stages a world premiere that is certain to be stamped with his enigmatic, quirky style. CONTEMPORARY 4 also features the return of The Piano Dance, created by former PNB principal dancer and now Ballet Master Paul Gibson, and Mark Morris’s Pacific, a serene alliance of mood and movement. CONTEMPORARY 4 runs March 18 through 27 at Seattle Center’s Marion Oliver McCaw Hall. Tickets start at just $27 and may be purchased at www.pnb.org, by calling 206.441.2424, or in person at the PNB Box Office, 301 Mercer Street at Seattle Center. Pacific Northwest Ballet thanks presenting sponsor The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and major sponsor the National Endowment for the Arts for their support of CONTEMPORARY 4. The line-up for CONTEMPORARY 4 will include: Concerto DSCH — PNB Premiere Music: Dmitri Shostakovich Choreography: Alexei Ratmansky Stager: Tatiana Ratmansky Costume Design: Holly Hynes Lighting Design: Mark Stanley Piano Concerto No. 2, written by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1957 as a nineteenth birthday gift for his son, is a hopeful and joyous work inspired by the end of the Stalin era in Russia. The high spirits of the music are captured in Alexei Ratmansky's lively choreography for Concerto DSCH, especially in the roles of the lead dancers, one lyrical couple and a virtuoso trio. From the opening moments, when the trio’s ballerina bursts from a closed circle of dancers in a whirl of high-stepping leaps and turns, the ballet is non-stop energy and playful surprises. Even a gentle romantic interlude reflects the wit and originality of the choreographer. “An endlessly suspenseful choreographic construction, with passages of breathtaking dance brilliance. At its premiere, you could feel wave upon wave of emotion sweeping across the audience. Wonder, excitement, admiration, affection, hilarity, surprise, exhilaration.” (The New York Times) Concerto DSCH is PNB’s first work by critically acclaimed choreographer Alexei Ratmansky. Pacific Music: Lou Harrison Choreography: Mark Morris Staging: Tina Fehlandt Costume Design: Martin Pakledinaz Lighting Design: James F. Ingalls Premiere: May 10, 1995; San Francisco Ballet (UNited We Dance Festival) Pacific Northwest Ballet Premiere: April 5, 2007 (Celebrate Seattle Festival) True to Mark Morris’ work, Pacific’s serene alliance of mood and movement appears innately formed from the psyche of Lou Harrison’s 1990 score. The dancers’ full-skirted strides and uplifted arms, set against expansive blue and orange vistas, convey effortless accord, a deep sense of well-being, and “ever-surprising combinations, ever delightful to behold.” (danceviewtimes.com). “Like the title of the dance, the work has multiple connotations, which are underscored by the costumes of Martin Pakledinaz. The bare-chested men wear culottes—full, skirt-like pants that suggest the native dress of Pacific Island and even Indian cultures; the women’s outfits have the same full skirts with simple tops. Blues and greens predominate, with red used for the central couple. The colors evoke the ocean as well as tropical climes. The movement Morris uses also incorporates suggestions of Asian cultures, particularly the Kathak style of southern India: the men (and later the women) repeat a gesture of one arm raised in a curve, the other pointing straight in the opposite direction with the head turned towards the pointing arm. ...This is a work that makes you think about its meaning.” (culturevulture.net) The Piano Dance Music: Frederic Chopin, John Cage, Gyorgy Ligeti, Bela Bartok, and Alberto Ginastera Choreography: Paul Gibson Costume Design: Mark Zappone Lighting Design: Lisa J. Pinkham Premiere: April 14, 2005; Pacific Northwest Ballet Ten works for solo piano by five composers accompany the contrasting dances for four couples in The Piano Dance. Although the composers chosen by choreographer Paul Gibson lived during a span covering more than a hundred years, Gibson sees in their works a common respect for the expression of melody. He has devised a series of solos, duets, and pas de trois for his dancers, set to music chosen for variety and for affinity to the dance impulse. The Piano Dance offers a sharp contrast to Gibson’s earlier works for PNB, in which he favored large-scale orchestral scores and required big ensembles. The Piano Dance demonstrates his wish to convey the clarity of ballet performance in a setting of intimate and brilliant miniatures. Set to ten piano pieces, the chic, ruby velvet group and solo dances are capped by a “spectacular pas de deux that manages to evoke both abandon and restraint” – The New York Times. Place a Chill — World Premiere Music: Camille Saint-Saëns Choreography: Marco Goecke Dramaturge: Nadja Kadel Costume Design: Mark Zappone Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli In spring of 1965, a New York Times critic wrote enthusiastically about the young English cellist Jacqueline du Pré: “She played like an angel.” Listening to a recording of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1, interpreted by du Pré, Marco Goecke was inspired to create Place a Chill for Pacific Northwest Ballet. The cello concerto was du Pré’s last recording before she had to stop playing in public because of an incurable illess, during which she continuously lost control over her movement and body, dying in a wheelchair at the age of 42 in 1987. The quivering, shaking, and fluttering movements of Goecke’s choreography might, at a first glimpse, look like a loss of body control, but in fact they are exactly the opposite—they are the result of a very precise and detailed rehearsal process, a sophisticated elaboration of every single movement. If they rarely show the symmetrical formations that are so characteristic of classical and neo-classical ballet, they do create another kind of order—an organic and dynamic order where nothing is left to chance. But the order which appears in Goecke’s choreography does not try to compete with the heavenly or angelic hierarchies evoked by the music, which will be performed live by the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra. Rather, he builds up an antithetical world—a world in which darkness, evil, and the opacity of filthy materia are predominant. Goecke found an explicit formulation for this when he worked with corps de ballet dancer Ezra Thomson during a rehearsal: “You have to show up like the devil in person.” However, Place a Chill does not argue for a sharp dualism between the two worlds. The threatening destructiveness of earthly life and the angelic sphere are not independent from each other; they interact and are inseparably connected. It is the communication between the two spheres that produces the tension that moves the choreography. (Notes by Nadja Kadel, dramaturge) TICKET INFORMATION Tickets ($27 – $165 in advance) may be purchased through the PNB Box Office: * By Phone – 206.441.2424 (Mon.-Fri. 9am–6pm; Sat. 10am–5pm) * In Person – 301 Mercer Street, Seattle (Mon.-Fri. 10am–6pm; Sat. 10am–5pm) * Online – pnb.org (24/7) Subject to availability, tickets are also available 90 minutes prior to each performance at McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer Street. DISCOUNT OFFERS AND SPECIAL EVENTS $15 TICKETS FOR AGE 25 & UNDER All Thursday and Friday performances: March 18, 24 and 25 at 7:30 pm Each attendee must present valid I.D. upon ticket retrieval. TEEN TIX PNB is a proud participant of Seattle Center’s Teen Tix program. Young people 13 to 19 years old can purchase tickets to PNB performances and other music, dance, theater and arts events for only $5. To join Teen Tix or view a list of participating organizations, visit Seattle Center’s Teen Tix webpage at seattlecenter.com/teentix. STUDENT AND SENIOR RUSH TICKETS Subject to availability, half-price tickets for students and senior citizens (65+) may be purchased in-person with ID, beginning 90 minutes prior to showtime at the McCaw Hall box office. FRIDAY PREVIEWS Friday, March 11, 6:00 pm The Phelps Center, 301 Mercer Street, Seattle Join us for an hour-long dance preview led by Artistic Director Peter Boal and featuring PNB dancers performing excerpts from CONTEMPORARY 4. PNB Friday Previews offer an 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. (These events often sell out in advance.) Friday Previews are sponsored by U.S. Bank. CONVERSATIONS WITH PNB — FREE Sunday, March 13, 2:00 pm Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Avenue on Capitol Hill, Seattle PNB's Sunday afternoon series features an hour-long discussion about CONTEMPORARY 4 with PNB dancers Laura Gilbreath, Chelsea Adomaitis, and Ezra Thomson in the casual atmosphere of the Elliott Bay Book Company reading room. All Conversations with PNB are FREE of charge. BALLET PREVIEW — FREE Tuesday, March 15, 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 CONTEMPORARY 4, complete with video excerpts. FREE of charge. PNB LECTURE SERIES & DRESS REHEARSAL Thursday, March 17, 2011 Lecture 6:00 pm, Nesholm Family Lecture Hall at McCaw Hall Dress Rehearsal 7:00 pm, McCaw Hall Join choreographer Alexei Ratmansky 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 St. 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 all performances. FREE for ticketholders. POST-PERFORMANCE Q&A Skip the post-show traffic and enjoy a post-performance Q&A with Artistic Director Peter Boal and PNB dancers, immediately following each performance in the Norcliffe Room at McCaw Hall. FREE for ticketholders. (At the Saturday, March 19 7:30 performance, the post-show Q&A will be moderated by KUOW’s Marcie Sillman, as part of KUOW’s Front Row Center. For more information, visit kuow.org/frontrowcenter.)

The place to start is here: Either Do an advanced search: Click the little wheel icon next to the green and white magnifying glass icon in the search box at the top of each page (under the secontion for username) Enter "Don Quixote" with quotation marks in the "Find Words" top search box Select the "Ballet Videos, etc" forum from the forum list Click "Search Now" or Start with these links: Recommend me a Don Quixote, please! Which video "Don Quixote" do you recommend? Other threads and comments: Mariinsky Don Quixote DVD Sarafanov/Novikova Beautiful release!:Cuban National Ballet's Don Quijote. (2007)

Here is the program trailer for Contemporary 4, with clips from Paul Gibson's "Piano Dance" and Mark Morris' "Pacific": I'm having bandwidth issues, and many of the shots are from a distance and blur with freeze frame; I haven't been able to make many ID's. In "Pacific" there are several clips of Carla Korbes and Batkhurel Bold, with a short solo section by Lucien Postlewaite, but I'm having no luck with "Piano Dance", although the feet in the freeze frame above look like Lesley Rausch's. The other two works on the program are Alexei Ratmansky's "Concerto DSCH", which I cannot wait to see, and a World Premiere by "Mopey" choreographer, Marco Goecke. Here's the video for his new work, "Place a Chill". The background music is by Saint-Saens, but that could be only for video or the actual music. The video opens with James Moore in "Mopey" and then changes to "Place a Chill" Margaret Mullin is in the light blue T-shirt; she dances with Ezra Thomson who has a goatee. I can't tell who Kiyon Gaines' partner is, because we don't see her face. At the end, Thomson is in the center of the screen, with James Moore at the top and Kiyon Gaines at the bottom.

There are people who agree with you and people who won't, but we have policies against ad hominem attacks. I've said things good and bad about Somova, and I've never felt attacked. I understand that I've got a harder shell than most, being a Jersey girl, and I do understand not wanting one's opinion picked at and feeling like talking against a majority or vocal minority is not worth the effort, but everyone has the choice to take a stand, hopefully a well-reasoned one, even if it is met with opposition. There's a general tendency to feel that last word has more weight, but for careful readers, it doesn't matter how much subsequent posts SCREAM and CLANG or beat a drum, if what comes before is valuable.

We received this note to our "Contact Us" link from the Director of the National Museum of Dance: The National Museum of Dance is celebrating the 25th Anniversary and we are seeking out an archival gift from Mr. Kirstein estate and/or foundation. Mr. Kirstein is in our Hall of Fame and we would like to feature a personal item from his contribution to the art world and dance in particular. Your assistance in providing us with this information would be most appreciated. Donna Skiff Director National Museum of Dance 99 S. Broadway Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 donna@dancemuseum.org www.dancemuseum.org I'm not sure what is being requested: an archival gift or information about what gift to pursue or something else. But Lincoln Kirstein is a subject dear to many on this board, and I wanted to be sure to pass it on.

Admin note: I've moved several posts to a new thread called The Future of the Mariinsky Ballet at the Kennedy Center. The topic is important enough for a separate thread.

Or they stop casting them.

I disagree strongly. I believe every person who sees a performance -- what is put on stage before him/her and not some future potential -- has the right to evaluate the performers in what they see. The Mariinsky, just like New York City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Moscow Ballet Theatre and every other company that represents itself as a professional company -- i.e., not a student or amateur company -- is responsible for who and what it puts on stage for any given performance, and when it presents a new/younger dancer as the representative of the company style and/or quality, that is exactly how the audience should take it and react accordingly. Not all companies package themselves as representative of a particular style or long history -- many younger companies are glad to surpass their early days, especially when they have the home-grown dancers to do so -- but the Mariinsky does. If Somova was presented as the equal of a long, historical line of dancers, then she should be judged that way. I think most of the vitriol about her is due to the great disservice that the company did by presenting her this way instead of allowing her adequate coaching and the careful development and presentation that many dancers with potential were given in the past. It sounds, on the whole, taking a wide range of views here, that she, through new coaching, is slowly progressing towards fulfilling that potential.

Are you saying that everyone who does not appreciate Somova is living in the past and applying old-fashioned and out-of-date standards towards her performances? That is how it reads to me. Perhaps the people who saw Vishneva from a distance saw something quite different, just as stage makeup and stage acting can look gaudy artificial from the first few rows, but the majority of the house sees another performance or look entirely.

Everyone in every seat in a theater has the right to criticize any aspect of a dancer's performance. The great ones act with their bodies and their faces and manage to project to the back of the house as well as the first few rows, although it is a different experience. I'm sure the Czars' guests in the center would have been surprised to know that they did not have the 2nd best seats in the house

Oh, ouch for the necessary reminder. I haven't been able to see them, living on the West Coast, but I've lived vicariously through our DC area posters and those who've been able to travel to see them at the Kennedy Center, and will miss them, if at one remove.

Just about every movie about a specialized subject is scrutinized by experts for authenticity and many are criticized for giving an impression of the subject that is false and/or superficial and/or opportunistic and/or misleading. In this case I believe the advanced press and marketing campaign for the movie suggested an authenticity that is misleading.

Not so much ill-will as truthfulness, but else where on the web it has been a different story as for years there has been a concerted effort by trolls to flood the internet with lavish praise and phoney reviews, the latter quickly removed on the more responsible sites when their provenance became apparent. One person's "phoney review" is another's heart-felt appreciation. One person's "truth" is another's "self-involved nastiness". That is why we encourage a wide range of views and discussion. How much credibility is given to posters is based on the way they express their views. Over-the-top says more about the posters than the subject, usually, and we assume that readers with their eyes open are able to make distinctions.

On PNB Principal Dancer Olivier Wevers' company, Whim W'him, website, there is a fascinating post about Michael Mazzola's collaboration with choreographers Wevers and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa to create the lighting design. Mazzola is the Lighting Director for Oregon Ballet Theatre. If "Cylindrical Shadows" is, indeed, the ballet by Ochoa that PNB will perform, it will be interesting to see how the superb lighting design will change from the 400+-seat Intiman Theater to the 2000+ seat, multi-level McCaw Hall. Mazzola's lighting design for many OBT productions in both the (large) Keller Auditorium and (more intimate) Newmark Theatre is as good as it gets.

I think the gesture to thank the orchestra can be symbolic as well as real There have been a number of times I've raced to the exit of the parking garage with members of the ballet and opera orchestras ;) They've had a long night of work, where I've had a long night of pleasure. Why should they suffer the Mercer Mess to be polite?

Actually, were Macmillan's R&J playing this season at ABT, you could see it from the Family Circle Center for $30 or the Balcony for $40 as part of a three-ballet subscription. If you are between 18-29, you could sit in the Orchestra for $30. You won't sit in the Orchestra, though, for $35 if you are 30 or over; those tickets are $80-$102/ballet. As far as donating is concerned, most people donate when they are convinced in the product, the idea/vision, and/or the participants or by those that ask them to donate (could be a friend or board member, for example, or a snappy fundraising letter). They are unlikely to donate if they aren't, until something changes to convince them otherwise. I don't agree that those who don't donate have no say in what they see. The reality may be that they won't see more of it unless they donate.

If having a world class orchestra means that the community can or is apt to support ballet companies, Los Angeles, Cleveland, and Chicago, among other cities, would have large, thriving ballet companies. There's a lot more to it than that, as well as competition from DC. Deborah Macmillan, Kenneth Macmillan's widow, has been vigilant in enforcing production rights and licensing for Macmillan's work. The distinctions between derivative vs. plagiarism vs. influence vs. quotation in ballet choreography are important, and a question/discussion for our "Aesthetic Issues" forum. Unlike written and musical text, recordings of all live theater, only those who've seen or been involved in the production can compare both the Baltimore Ballet and recorded Macmillan choreography to determine whether any apply, since Baltimore Ballet's production hasn't show up on YouTube or been posted to a company website.