charlieloki

the company has twenty-six principals at present i expect there will be some movement soon we will be seeing retirement of more principals -- are there soloists ready to move up, or will there be people coming in from the outside, such as sylve? certainly, senior corps members will be leaving, and this must happen soon -- not enough of the other corps members are being given featured corps roles -- seems as if their development is somewhat inhibited ten years is a long time -- will we see anyone of the caliber of wendy or jock again? life is strange -- save those memories -- these are the old days of tomorrow

i was at that symposium and found martins to be very ungracious and negative toward balanchine, for whatever reasons -- i wished he had not been there, he spoiled the atmosphere of joy and appreciation my thought was: where would he be today if balanchine had not employed him at nycb? at abt? in denmark? (i wish) [Edited to delete irrelevant portions of quoted post.]

I love NYCB, and I love also ABT whick Kisselgoff hates; she is brilliant and knows everything, but she can be nasty too. She will never retire. How do you guys like Rockwell? JIM <{POST_SNAPBACK}> response from charlieloki: at least rockwell calls it as he sees it, seems to have no "agenda" his reviews seemed a little cold as first, but i've grown to like the conciseness and accuracy of them -- reviews need not be a half page of fluff kisselgoff spent a lot of review space on history, etc. of ballets she reviewed, and seemed to not want to be negative about p.martins or the company, for whatever reason -- some reviews were not even real reviews i never liked her reviews, felt they were, at best, quite slanted -- i don't miss her (as i do arlene croce -- good heavens, what a loss --)

i hate to pick on dolly dinkle -- she may have suffered enough adverse comments however, i think bouder's costume in the evans piece might have come from the dinkle school of costume design -- it is simply awful also, it's my feeling that if the guy wears tights, the girl wears tights why mess up a serious and wonderful piece of choreography with what looks like a cheerleading getup? anyone out there agree with charlieloki on this?

i happen to agree with mr g most of the time his negative comments are harsh, but generally justified esp. regarding the eifmann mess some of us really feel it *here* when our favorite art is, shall we say, sullied -- unintentionally or not -- by choreographers, directors, etc.

imho: two points: i don't like to think of balanchine as a craftsman, but as a supreme artist i think martins' firing of suzanne farrell was supremely selfish -- the company was deprived of the most important link to balanchine -- a disgrace, really i have been spoiled by balanchine, and also find other companies' performances just don't do it for me (exceptions: suzanne farrell's [snip] groups)

april 30: seats in the fourth ring were occupied mainly by people who weren't there, again those who were there seemed to like the "jazz" piece robbins' choreography in opus just doesn't work today it's some kind of weird hybrid the women have no jazz in them, and their thin legs look odd in black tights which end in white socks and sneakers -- they look big-footed and dainty at the same time -- and rachel rutherford? -- v. strange casting the black/white pas de deux might have looked odd in 1958, but is not even interesting today, thank goodness -- same old, same old all this brings to mind the absence from nycb of twyla tharp she's simply an american genius, far more interesting than martins, et al as for "sneaker-dancing": her broadway show "movin' out" (starring two former abt dancers, john selya and ashley tuttle, and which i have seen many times) exhibits some breathtaking examples of it: daring slides ending in sudden, dangerous stops with the sneakers grabbing the floor just before disaster can strike -- macho, macho guys and all, but v. balletic please, nycb -- bring her back, and soon she has heart and soul, which to me, anyway, is lacking in nycb's "new" talent

i attended tonight's performance: 22 years without mr b - it doesn't seem possible his apollo and stars and stripes were danced so well -- he must have been present in spirit, guiding the dancers

program: stars and stripes, barber violin concerto, union jack lots of fourth ring seats, maybe 75%, were empty last night a real shame, because the whole evening was superb we got to see thirteen principals (because union jack uses so many), which is always good stars and stripes: andrea quinn conducted superbly well alexandra ansanelli has developed beautifully -- except for one tiny bad moment, she was superb -- a witty and elegant and technically fine liberty bell damien woetzel simply tore up the stage -- he really IS el capitan, smooth as silk and very sharp at the same time, with a great devil-may-care smile however, my favorite most recent liberty belles are still kyra nichols and monique meunier (who is being terribly underutilized at abt) at first intermission, a very interesting older man, who had obviously been or still is a dancer, gave himself a short barre session, using the railing along the main fourth ring aisle to support himself -- an entertaining entracte -- barber: darci kistler and albert evans were magnificent and stunningly beautiful forces of nature in their perfectly choreographed pas de deux how in the world has darci managed to retain her aura of purity and joy? my only complaint regarding her is that the costume she wears for this piece is totally unsuited to her body type -- but she manages to overcome this less than flattering image by giving us a pristine performance her technique is diminished, of course, but her other resources seem to be infinite albert is so-underutilized at nycb: although this could be his choice he was a charming young dancer and has matured so well charles askegard was ok in a sort of thankless part ashley bouder was so far away from the kate johnson original: no way she can look like a demented little mosquito, although she certainly tried very hard barber is a wonderful showcase for the right dancers, and -- of course -- for the violin soloist: oh, that wonderful music! i felt truly blessed to be at the theater tonight union jack: i am immoderately in love with the french horn section: wait, make that the whole sonorous, rich-sounding brass section -- sharp when they needed to be, chorale-like when they needed to be -- heavenly andrea quinn surely contributed greatly to this marvelous musical aspect of union jack wendy, damien, nilas and jenifer -- how can they all be so on in the same performance? charlieloki thought "it can't get much better than this": maybe all my remaining tickets for this season should be given away -- just stop right here, maybe

i saw a section of apollo - with suzanne and jacques d'amboise - in black and white, without sound, on a small stage or in a studio, that was amazingly fine i think it was done in canada suzanne was very young at that point, very interesting and very gorgeous and so was jacques does anyone else recall it?

figueroa's "barber violin concerto" made you forget the rest of the orchestra was there, and the dancers also -- really from heaven

georgeb fan: charlieloki would ordinarily say "enough with the emoticons" but i will go along with you this time, except for the casting of the muses let's both stay well for this performance, and mr b(oal) also

charlieloki is offering an opinion, which is what this board is for? "insulting"? not at all, just stating a perception arrived at from a background of budget-breaking attendance at nycb for over thirty years you know, after a time, there is an almost mystical proprietary feeling about nycb -- sort of, "what are they doing to my company?" does anyone else out there feel that way?

i don't think the dancers are the problem: whelan, soto and boal are peerless overall artistic quality of the productions is not good thus, the lackluster "jewels", "orpheus", et al; the miscasting; the sense that dancers are just "doing steps", etc. some small companies, such as suzanne farrell's and leigh witchel's groups seem to "get it" and therefore put on marvelous programs, using what they have most wonderfully: why can't nycb, with all its resources?

balanchine performances in the "really" early days left many of the audiences floating out of the theater on a ballet cloud, in a state of exhilaration hard to explain, but the feeling was that all was ok with a world that had such things in it addicts were created i thought that as an "old" devotee, i had become jaded and impossible to impress however, that old feeling does arise every so often, so i don't think i've changed -- it's the dancing that's changed well -- i attend now mostly to analyze the choreography, since the dancing does not get my full attention -- and to listen to stravinsky, et al not as good a situation as before, but i realize that i missed a lot of the choreographic structure while watching farrell, etc. the newbies have missed city ballet's golden years, and -- of course -- don't know what they've missed -- they have my sympathy

i have ordered -via web- full price 4th ring tickets for the farewell performances usually, i stand in line on the first day of box office ticket sales to buy all my tickets for a season, as a member of 4th ring society i intend to do this also i made the web purchases (i think, not confirmed) as insurance, in case 4th ring tickets for those performances have all been sold i may end up with extra tickets, as a result will post if they are available april 27th note: no 4th ring society tickets are being sold for boal and soto thanks very much, nycb management, for slighting your loyal 4th ring society members

just received my spring 2005 brochure from nycb some dreadful pictures beginning with the front cover: reichlen and labean looking very unballetic in what look to be low-cost nylon nightgowns a terrible way to treat dancers who have spent so many years of work and study to achieve the ballet look page 3: a very unflattering apollo picture of (my very all-time favorite) peter boal: what a dreadful way to go! page 4, lower left: bouder should sue over this picture page 5, top: a very vulgar picture of the very unvulgar korbes Page 9, top: bouder, again, in goldberg: what can one say, except eek!, and hurry up with the lawsuit back cover: the magnificent albert evans, so poorly presented was anyone else offended by this stuff?

arthurs is an especial favorite of mine -- i hope she is moved along speedily however, at least in new york, her first-theme couple part needed work imho - the use of the sharp 90 degree angle of the arms, as presented to the audience, was not clearly defined -- also, ms arthurs was not squarely to the front since this particular look is used often further on in the piece, it must be precise, since it is crucial in setting the tone for what follows maybe the coaching/directing is responsible for allowing this to happen, i cannot see arthurs doing this knowingly recently, van kipnis in this part was quite good, as i recall

i really dislike being negative, and am not unaware of his fine points, but -- imho -- de luz as apollo would be a new level of miscasting at the very least, he would be physically miscast

i feel that apollo would have been the best choice for mr boal's exit i would like to have my last image of him be the "arms and face raised to the heavens" pose -- probably my most cherished nycb memory of the many, many hundreds of performances i've attended over the past 37 years however -- opus 19 gives mr boal beautiful "still" moments alone on the stage -- and he is a master of stillness my hope is that he will come back to nycb at some point to replace martins the elder a very tearful goodbye, here

i hope he forgets the whole thing is he running through a personal laundry list of one-of-a-kind projects? ....."let's see: i've done one of these, one of these", etc. how unoriginal as to ms. g: isn't it time for ms. arthurs, and others in her category, to be given a chance? presumably, they are tomorrow's soloists/principals i would expect the senior corps members to be departing soon, after years of stalwart service

for a tiny laugh (or a sob) the front page of the arts and leisure section of my sunday's (02.20.05) new york times refers to an article about the fourth ring scene at the new york state theater in that reference, mr b is "ballanchine"

charlieloki saw jewels tonight imho: emeralds was incredibly boring casting sylve along with rutherford is not a good idea pairing hanna with rutherford is not a good idea casting sylve in anything is almost always a good idea sorry, kowroski fans: ms k can somehow manage to look brittle and flexible at the same time -- diamonds does not show her at her best -- the "modern" pieces are more in tune with the stern personna she projects hard to believe, but reichlen received more applause in rubies than weese, who did not seem to be dancing full out, for some reason so it goes -- i won't be seeing jewels again -- except when bouder is dancing in rubies Edited to remove unrelated quoted material. --C.

i have really enjoyed ms sylve's sensational performances, which have made nycb's season there are a lot of new, talented women around, but it will take time before they mature into real ballerina status however, i feel that ms syle is not yet fully commited to the company's style -- it's as if she is being drawn in different choreographic directions: she is incredibly versatile i hope she soon settles into something definite -- whatever it is, i hope i'll be there to enjoy her very special talent best wishes, and thanks, to her

as madame gabriella taub-darvash, a very formidable ballet teacher, said repeatedly: "ballet is a visual art" i tend to go along with mr rockwell