Quiggin

Actually Balanchine himself didn't want Cotillon recreated. When the Joffrey earlier appoached him, the were met with "amiable disuassion" (LA Times). Possibly because he felt it was dated or that the types of personalities he had built it on were no longer around. Also he had used parts of it in Serenade, La Valse and Liebeslieder. Drew is right about its ephemeral nature. Lewis Segal felt that the revival had lost what Cyril Beaumont called its "curious, bittersweet perfume". Edwin Denby already looked at it as a lost ballet by 1941 - Adrian Stokes (Russian Ballet, 1935) gives a similar description of how it looked, one part having "the paraphernalia of the carnival, the hunt and the serenade," and the whole "the character of a hastily convened seance." Here's a clip from an early version of Cotillon - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fM6SP--oac & its descendant, La Valse - http://danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org/tanaquil-leclercq-nicholas-magallanes/la-valse/

Thanks for posting that, I hadn't read Douglas before. Here's a not quite matching poem I just came across by his contemporary Louis MacNeice. Les Sylphides

No word of acknowledgement from Mr Dylan quite yet. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/oct/22/bob-dylan-criticised-as-impolite-and-arrogant-by-nobel-academy-member

Sally Streets and Kyra Nichols, mother and daughter.

I was disappointed in this. Bob Dylan doesn't need authenticating and his work is more about music than literature.The choice deprives us of a chance to discover a new writer and another country's culture. It seems to be a pass for a year. Pamela, have you heard anything about why the announcement was delayed?

Some of the photographs are very good and that they're in black and white is plus. But the continuous presence of a photographer, even an insider, might be a low level distraction from the work of the class and might affect the concentration of some dancers more strongly than others. I wonder what sort of time allotments Martha Swope was given when she photographed City Ballet.

Oh so that was Vazlev who was so loquacious at the Bolshoi company class and Emeralds rehearsal. Thanks for the description of his comments. He seemed to insist at class that he would indeed be a presence and would have some keen insights, but whatever was translated (Maryinsky is a woman, Bolshoi is for men) seemed less interesting than the interviews with teachers in previous segment at ballet school. I did find him fascinating to watch though. He had a mishievously disappointed, slightly hurt look on his face, like a character in a play who has been neglected and is trying to regain ground. That said his Emeralds rehearsal looked better to me than other non-NYCB versions. (I just wish the first dancer didn't smile during her solo.)

Thanks for the reminder, Pamela. Well, I'm still reading my Modianos, the latest being "Little Jewel," just released in English this spring. The prize this year could indeed go to Adonis – but after reading a recent NYRB interview with him, I have trouble figuring out where he stands regarding the compexities of the Syrian Civil War. So it's hard figuring out what statement the award would make in that case. An award to Peter Nadas or Laszlo Krasznahorkai might send a signal about the crack down on cultural organizations in Hungary (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/06/hungary-culture-crushed). Murakami is probably too successful to meet the usual profile (neglect / artistic worth / nod to disenfranchised groups). But maybe Marilynne Robinson? Here's an odds list, with many familiar and not so familiar names. http://www.nicerodds.co.uk/nobel-prize-in-literature

I used to fight this but I've given in and am just happy to glean a few nice moments here and there. LIked the rehearsals with Helgi Tomasson – and the moment he was showing Sofiane Sylvie and Tiit Helimets how Balanchine designed a particular turn. But I enjoyed the Bolshoi segment best which I only stumbled on by accident. Classes at several levels and interviews with interesting teachers like Vera Kulikova (I wished I'd caught the name of the one in the Chanel jacket who looked like Elizabeth David) and a company class with the relentlessly tireless Boris Akimov. Biggest surprise was a rehearsal of Emeralds with a young Brazilian dancer, David Motta Soares (first couple), and Ana Turazashvili's willowy second solo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxaJOuwMLmY Long promotions of Bolshoi cinema presentations this year which include Ratmansky's Bright Stream on the otherwise Grigorovich-heavy schedule.

Here's one of Christopher Wood's costumes. Wood also did some sets for Diaghilev's Romeo & Juliet. http://www.artnet.com/artists/christopher-wood/costume-design-for-the-three-legged-juggler-and-4dWMVYUjcKzHXk1bADhWHg2 Ashton used the Berners Luna Park music for his ballet Foyer de Danse ("a kind of Degas thing"): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw9fP7FBKHo added: study for Luna Park. This bears the influence of Picasso's curtains, esp that of Parade – along with Franz Marc horses – but nice nonetheless. http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5813859&CID=54470031002 Maybe the Times of London archive could possibly yield some reviews from 1930 – a library might have access to the database. Be interesting to see what you come up with.

Two problems I'm having - 1) Restricting my "content type" to postings by members only – rather than seeing them lost on a sea of Community Calendar items. If I do manage to narrow the content type, it seems to work only temporarily – when I return to the site, the setting goes back to "all types". 2) I am not able to scroll back to topic postings before a couple of days ago. In the former build I was able to click "new content" and specify 24 hours, one week or even longer and see everything in sequence. It was an easy way of catching up, much easier than hunting through all the Forums and sub-forums on the home page. Are there some controls I've not set properly? Thanks for any help.

Looks like Balanchine danced Prince Charmant in at least one of the programs later in spring. He also may have helped reset the Petipa choreography ( can't remember where I read that, need to double check). Picasso was at rehearsals in Monte Carlo that spring 1925 and was "never without a sketchbook" according to a note in "Picasso in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art". In the sketch linked below the male looks a little like Leon Woizikovsky. (Irving Penn in the late forties photographed Ballets Russes dancers in a similar big foot way.) And of course Picasso earlier designed the curtain for Nijinska'a Le Train Bleu (to tie this albeit tenuously back to topic.) http://www.moma.org/collection/works/34480?locale=en

If anyone wants to delve more deeply into the subject, there's a summary of the events of late 1984 by Robert Commanday in the San Francisco Chronicle of February 24, 1985. What's most interesting is that the board recommended Patricia Neary as co-director of SF Ballet. Erik Bruhn, the board's consultant, favored Helgi Tomasson, at least above the reappointment of Michael Smuin, but the co-directorship with Neary seemed to be a good compromise. (According to Herb Caen, the dancers had cast 27 votes to retain Smuin, 14 to hire Neary and two for Tomasson.) Commanday: It seems to have worked out well in the long run, but you always wonder what the alternate history would have been like. Perhaps a less romantic repertoire?

Here's a good video for Museum Day of from MoMA about Degas and the experimental monotype processes that allowed him to catch the movement and bustle of modern life, landscapes seen from a moving train, dancers on stage, etc http://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1613 (middle of the page)

Some of the problems with restaging Nijinska's ballet might be the phrasing. Alexandra Danilova said that it was hard to remember her choreography – that the dance phrase could begin in the middle of a musical phrase and end in the middle of the next – they didn't coincide. OT: When I used to visit my aunt in Pacific Palisades, we would pass Nijinska's little house. It was not far from other cultural landmarks – Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester's at the edge of another crumbling cliff – and the glass one of Rae and Charles Eames, off Chautauqua on the way to the beach. I later learned Thomas Mann also lived not far away – and that Susan Sontag interviewed him there when she was a high school student... Nijinska's (and later her daughter's) house: https://www.google.com/maps/@34.033858,-118.5268391,3a,75y,119.33h,81.38t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sXJtyJv2HDlrkJcgrKe55HQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 Maria Tallchief, who as her student very successfully danced in some of Nijinska's ballets at the Hollywood Bowl in 1940 (along with Cyd Charisse), quotes Danilova saying, "the late ballets of Nijinska did not turn the pages of history. Yet they were very nice, very charming."

Regarding the forthcoming Frankenstein, I think the question in London is why such a young albeit talented choreographer was upsupervised for a full length ballet that took so many resources. (My guess is that Christoper Wheeldon's Winter’s Tale was so successful because of the experienced theater director Nicholas Hytner’s input and shaping skills.) Here’s a portion of Luke Jennings’s review cited by fellow critics as heart of the problem: http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/may/08/frankenstein-royal-ballet-review-liam-scarlett Luke Jennings and Matthew Bourne about co-directorship: https://twitter.com/gramilano/status/729213997686398976 Since this is a co-production with San Francisco, the question here is what sort of ballet will finally arrive at the Opera House late summer when rehearsals will begin. And how much of San Francisco’s budget and attentions will it take up and divert from other productions.

Yes, but in this case the stakes for the Royal Ballet and for San Fancisco seem really big. Several critics have talked about the large amounts of money spent on a drama that doesn't work (remember how little Balanchine could work with and yet make a big impact), that is too literal and doesn't have any guiding metaphors.. There was a question of why an editor wasn't around to help shape it and get it down to two acts instead of three (it runs 50 minutes / 45minutes / 30 minutes). it's more that the reviews are lopsidedly divided than mixed, one star versus three. Clement Crisp said it was the most bizarre thing he'd seen at Covent Garden since 1946 and Mark Monahan says it's the least enjoyable full length work he's watched the Royal perform. The dancers all get great notices so that isn't the problem. So I'm wondering how it will travel here and translate on the company – and who in San Francisco can carry the nearly three hours of high drama. It would make a good documentary film I think.

Royal Ballet's Frankenstein is taking a drumming in the press in England (see dirac's May 5 links). Wonder what form it will survive in when it comes to San Francisco next year. Unusual situation. Seemed to be a little on the wrong track in the rehearsal when Scarlett suggested to the dancer doing the role of the monster that he think of himself as a teenager going through the awkward body changes of adolescence. Anyway congratulations to Aaron Renteria who was always a bright spot on stage – sorry for us he's leaving.

Thanks for the links. The cameo laden Pepe seems to have successfully ended Cantinflas's movie career in the US. Perhaps more interesting now than it did when it came out ( – as a mosaic of clips, like Christian Marclay's The Clock?). There's also some good scenes from More the Merrier with Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea – especially the one about navigating about the small apartment, also the brief tar beach panorama.

J. Hoberman, who was the film critic at the Village Voice for years, wrote a good background piece on Siegfried Kracauer that is a little more generous to his achievements than the Variety review allows. Hoberman also notes the link between the "Hitler" films and American film noir: http://www.thenation.com/article/trembling-upper-world-siegfried-kracauer/ From the good Wikipedia entry on Kracauer – which also helps round out Variety: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegfried_Kracauer

After the boisterousness of Justin Peck's new work and Christopher Wheeldon's ingredient-driven Continuum, it was so nice to enter the quiet world of Alexei Ratmansky's Seven Sonatas. Especially with the second cast - Lorena Feijoo, Carlos Quenedit, Dores Andre, Vitor Luiz, Sofiane Sylve & Carlo Di Lanno - when it really shone (like alabaster). So many wonderful combinations for solos, duos and threes, each group doubling the gestures of the others. Some things seem like parodies - a male Swan Lake-like pas de trois by three men - a man wheeling around the turning couple as in Lifar's Suite en Blanc - a funny lopsided walk by Vitor Luiz after something more serious. Solos of self definition, couples testing each other, the group involved in high jinks or suddenly felled by some mysterious force. Near the beginning the three men sit palms down flat to the stage floor, like stone temple figures, and at the end they assume the same positions, now guarding their partners who sleep just beneath them. Prism seemed like Balanchine without the meaning or bite (borrowed from Chaconne and the Sanguinic section of the 4Ts), except the last scene when a dancer in black (once Gonzalo Garcia's role, now retailored for Taras Domitro) wildly threads himself, like a basting stitch, through the body of the pastel colored ballet. Finally at rest he gives a benediction to the dancers, slowly looks up to the protective proscenium, and then meets the audience with his gaze.

I'm generally ok with re-settings of Shakespeare's plays – I saw a great Pericles at the Public Theater that took place at a shabby beach hotel – if it sharpens the play for our time, and has sound structural reasons for doing so, etc. But Cristian makes an important point that in Midsummer Night's Dream – and other Shakespeare comedies – it is important to maintain the contrast between the green world and the world of the court. (A little like the difference between the Theme and Variations act and the three green movements the precede it in Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 3). I don't know how the Miami production is handled, but if that contrast is lost then an important element of the play is lost, flattened out. (And all the references to the moon and

Wouldn't it be Joseph Walsh for Prodigal Son?

I think it's ok to reset a classic in a new setting - didn't Peter Sellars start this in opera? - if it temporarily refreshens it and says something shocking and new. Reseting Nutcracker in Edwardian San Francisco normalizes it and all the choices seem to move it away from the essential ETA Hoffman qualities of scariness and uncanniness. The houses on stage are the same as the ones that many of ballet patrons live in only a few blocks away from the Opera House. Perhaps reseting it in 1890s SF in Mark Hopkins' mansion just above Chinatown, Little Manila and the Latin Quarter would have made for better drama. Or today's Mission district with its Google bus & Uber anxieties ... But pure and strong as Jack says are also radical qualities ( for which see Ratmansky revivals of SL, etc) Was Miami Ballet thinking of Napoli?

One sobering thing about male beauty in Greece is that Socrates’ male beauties – Charmides and Alcibiades – became tyrants and worked against democracy. (For a parable about the high maintenance diet of male beauty see Dorian Gray). Does male beauty help in dance? Or does slow it down and make it ponderous? I prefer seeing videos of Bart Cook to Peter Martins (whose good looks are too static), young Merce Cunningham, Edward Villella, awkward, Tanny LeClercq-like Renan Cerdeiro, etc. Good/great choreography is a harmony – or community – of odd parts.