samba38

I worked my way through high school as an usher at a playhouse back in the dark ages pre-pagers no less. The system then was that doctors and others on call left the theater # with their answering service and their seat number with the head usher. We would sneak up and tap the needed person on the shoulder. Even 15 years ago when we left infant kiddo with a sitter to go see the opening season of Miami City Ballet, we left the sitter with the theater # and our seat location. But of course that was before the era when everyone was so terrrrribly important that they felt they were always on call, and before bosses expected their employees to snap to attention even on Saturday night.

So how much gossip are we entitled to? Consider the complex and volatile situations such as last summer when Villella abruptly fired Jimmy Gamonet de los Heros in a multi-layered political/personal dispute eventually detailed in print and on line. What exactly are we entitled to know? After all, if MCB gives the audience a fine performance -- with or without a Gamonet piece -- does it matter? If Gamonet has a fine career elsewhere, do we need to know if Villella was a scoundrel? Likewise, while we all remain fascinated with every blip and burble of Balanchine's life and nearly ever dancer whose fanny he patted has had a book out of it, does it matter? This reminds me of my husband's reason why he never goes to hear even his most favorite authors give a talk at a bookstore 3 blocks from our house: "They already gave me all they owe me, good books. Who cares what they say."

Where to start in on all these delicious options.... -- sex/drugs rumors. If I didn't shoot up with Sheezno myself, or reliably know the person who witnessed Heezno Nureyev hanging naked like a bat having sex in the chandelier -- no go. These are rumors that do deadly damage, are easily distorted particularly online, and beneath a serious discussion of an art form (my pinky finger is now arched around a teacup). Moderators seem to keep this at a minimum on BA and that's fine with me. -- secret knowledge of injuries. What do dancers owe audiences? Your best. To step on stage knowing that you can't deliver the quality performance that earned you that spot to begin with means you deserve whatever critical blasts befall you. Of course dancers are on stage all the time taped, strapped, medicated and defying all kinds of injuries that would fell a football player but one hopes they don't step out of the wings already knowing they can't deliver. If you post someone elses health/fitness data on line, I think it's inappropriate, even in defense of that person. And you may be doing more harm than good. Don't know how the moderators can/should handle such posts, however. It's not like dance companies publish injured reserve lists like sports teams. -- On the obligation to state your role. This is tricky. If you are positng on someting relevent to your profession I'd say you have to state your appropriate credentials. Moderators should not have to worry about school directors recruiting or closet advertising, for example. Now, having said that, I don't want to pretend to dance expertise I don't have when I post my humble, semi-educated-but-none-the-less-firmly-stated opinions. I'm a feature writer, not a critic. So I don't want my professional work confused with my personal BA addiction. Neither do I want strangers -- even the nice BA strangers -- connecting my wacky ideas and personal prejudices with Kid-o-Samba. [ 06-29-2001: Message edited by: samba38 ]

I've just had the fresh pleasure of RB's "La Fille" at Kennedy Center. Could ABT deliver the full experience? Unquestionably, ABT has plenty of dancers who could do the leads but the corps is a character in this and I'm not very impressed with the ABT corps under McKenzie. They were pretty but not brilliant in Giselle. (The less said about the hysterical colliding swans of the first searson of his Swan Lake the better. Can't fault the dancers on that. I was just praying for them to survive unscathed.)

Thanks for the baydance link. I found the calendar and there's a lot of great stuff -- alas all in August when we're gone.Oh well.

Veering back to the practical for a moment -- will Lines or Smuin have any performances in July or early August in SF? I'd very much like kiddo to take a break from going gaga over watching SFB rehearsals after her own summer classes to see something that will expand her brain a little. I enjoy both ballet and modern and prefer to see them thrive as distinct forms rather than blenderized blather.

Glad to read that Wiles had a good debut in T&V. She's a lovely dancer to watch growing season after season. Beyond the long limbs and regal carriage, she seems to me to be a cerebral dancer, very intellectually engaged. I was sorry I missed her Myrta debut at Kennedy Center. Gomes is another solid dancer I think will change considerably as he grows a tad older and loses that boyish rubbery look.

I thought people flooded in to DC in part because it was an Ashton week and there are few, if any, chances to see any Ashton, much less some of his finest pieces beautifully delivered. Another Swan Lake, even with the Royal, might not pull people up the road...

You're exactly right that no 12-year-old dreams of the NYCB corps because they all imagine they will some day be S.Farrell reincarnate. The problem is that the American corps work -- a gaggle of individualists trying to break out - is often all they see. I think this sacrifices an important lesson that all the dancers are there to serve the whole. Somehow stars do emerge in the Royal and the POB but it's because they have the full range, superb control and discipline to deliver on the smallest detail as well as the showiest solo. They know they are there in service to the music and choreography, not just to their own glory.

The revolutionary stood on his soap box thundering, "Come the Revolution we will all have strawberries and cream!" A pipsqueek in the crowd piped up," but,,, but... I don't like strawberries and cream." The speaker shouted:" Come the revolution you WILL like strawberries and cream." Of course the mix of tasts and experiences on this board are what make BA so valuable. People who agree with me teach me nothing. And for the record, La Sublimova in my mind isn't fit to understudy Sheezno Fonteyn.

But where was the pony? Pals who went to the Sunday matinee said they sang but the pony cart was pulled by people. Did the pony poop out, so to speak?

I second all praise of Yoshida's exquisitely clear, crisp classical footwork and mischeveious acting but I want to focus on another aspect mentioned above. The corps dancing is one of the great treats of the Royal's visit here -- a real education in precision, artistry and musicality to young dancers -- and some old mamas -- in the audience who have seen some pretty raggedy corps work on this stage recently (bad memories of ABT's frenzied swans coliding with each other). So many teens idolize the NYCB that you wonder if they've ever seen a great corps not on video? Dancers who don't perform as individuals seeing to snag attention but as but essentials in creation of a whole event?One reason is that the Royal "corps" excells may be that it is toploaded with people who are first soloists and could be principals elsewhere. At least one is heading home to Australian Ballet to be a principal next season.

Let's see if I can express myself better on another try on this: Comparing performances past to a present one works online for me when the poster gives critical details of what made prior dancer's choices/delivery in some way different/better/worse/more intriguing/more or less faithful than the performer currently in the role. So please, you veteran eyes out there, pour on the descriptive details. I do want to know if the memory of some prima pack kicks the stuffing out of the Lise-du-jour in La Fille but I want to know how you reach this judgement so I can educate my own eye in the possibilities of a role.

I think there is a certain spot on the KC opera house stage on the audience's center left side of the stage where one person slips in every company visit, sometimes every performance (San Francisco had many slips although the one serious injury occurred mid-stage when a fellow came down out of a jump into agony). But I always thought most Balanchine companies took their lead from Mr. B who thought anyone dancing with their full powers was bound to slip sometime. When it happens, I wish the dancer well and keep my eyes on the overall performance.

I started a new thread on partnerships -- a better way to pursue that tangent. On the Hamlet analogy -- of course you are right and I don't mean to shoot the messenger. If Peter Martins bills 4Ts and dances only 3 of them, I'll go off like an air raid siren. Mangled choreography is important to note. But too many comparisons to dancers new viewers can never see leaves us reading these interesting posts with huge holes shot through them. One reason I so much enjoy BA reviews and discussions is that so often highly knowledgable posters are sharing with me and teach me simultaneously. I come to read the posts wondering: What was asked of these performers and how well did they deliver on their promise to the audience? [ 06-06-2001: Message edited by: samba38 ]

This come out of a tangential discussion on the Royal Ballet and the pas and partnerships from dynamic to, well, less than divine... I responded to earlier posters many allusions to great pairs of the past.... Unfortunately, given the paucity of dynamic new choreographers and the free-agent approach of some international stars and robotic training of some US dancers, we don't have new versions of these to-die-for partnerships of the past. We don't have stable, deeply developed pairings where a choroegrapher can craft a work that makes a world out of one couple. Hence those of us who can only attend ballet in the present tense, need ways to assess the qualities of what we see now -- its possibilities and its limitation and the poetry that is art within limits. No one cares if I saw the final pas de deux between Gelsey and Mikhail that brought 2,000 people to their feet, 1,000 of them weeping with joy. I can replay it in my mind even now but I can't give it to my 15-year-old or expect her to judge a current pas by those standards. My kiddo asked Villella a question recently about how he pairs couples, whether he looks for stable couples or mixes and matches by need and opportunity. At the time i thought it was a mildly interesting question and he gave a muddled answer which came down to do-what-works. He has, after all Ileana and Franklin, husband and wife who move wonderfully together)and a string of individuals some of whom partner nicely but without setting any fires (think Eric Quillare boring us to sleep last week in Duo Concertante). But now I think it's an interesting question for real critics and self-appointed mouthy fans such as myself. Where are the great couples now? Is the business side of ballet so structured now that a company cannot keep/cultivate a duo and let a choreographer (call me when the 21st century titan arrives on the scene, please!)grow with them?

tangential discussion on partnerships past, present, and one hopes, future, moved to it's own thread... [ 06-06-2001: Message edited by: samba38 ]

This is my first taste of the fabled Royal and I found it overall lovely -- far from perfect but lovely. On Les Rendezvous -- The costuming -- six brights in polka dots for girls and striped jackets for men -- spent so much time in the air the effect was like decorating cupcakes with sprinkles while on drugs. For those of us who found Les Patineurs painfully slow, this was the other extreme. From the tepid ochestra audience response, I'd say I was in the minority in enjoying the pacing and the use of the arms and shoulders so often ignored by Balanchine. But I don't think this could be ABT on a good night, frankly. I thought they had better, cleaner feet and musicality than at least the last round of ABT at KC. Yoshida was precise but flat, but the second taller solist (oops, kiddo has kept my program so I don't have all the names)had the kind of flair I thought I should expect from an Ashton dancer from what I've read. For the Thais pas de deux -- I held my breath the entire time and found it exquisite. Now this was a slow piece in which every tiny action had resonance and immense pleasure. It may have worked in his favor (less distracting) that Cooper was far less handsome than I expected from his film work. Blonde hair doesn't work for him. Benjamin was indeed smoke in his eyes and she lingers in mine even now. Symphonic Variations simply did not grab me as choreography. Having read that this was among his finest works, I expected to be transported intellectually as well as emotionally (the effect I get from a brilliantly performed geometrically precise 4Ts)and this just didn't do it for me. In part it was the adequate but less than confident delivery by the central man, Burley. Post performance he too, expressed disappointment. He's coming back from a bad knee injury this fall, and I suspect by Thursday night and by the Boston performances later this month that he will be at full power. The three women were mechanical. Cojoracu needs to grow up and be more than a technical whiz kid. I liked the blonde -- sorry, I don't always know which last name goes with which dancer so it's either Rojo, which sounds brunette to me, or Wilder --- not only for her dancing but for the pleasure of seeing what appeared to be an adult woman for a change, someone for whom I could only count 4 ribs not all 14 from the orchestra seats. All those bones can be distracting unless.... Unless they melt into jelly under a lovely costume as they did for the histrionic Ms. Guillem in M&A. Remember -- Like about 60% of the US adult dance audience and 100% of those under 25 (not me!), I have no visual references to Fonteyn and Nureyev or anyone else. (Hint hint to veteran posters with a great visual memory -- I love reading about what was and having mental pictures for comparison, particularly those knees-in-the-chest images, but sometimes it gets in the way of the assessment of what is being offered now.) Yes, I agree the choreography was skimpy and I don't know whom to blame. But it was the little family's first Sylvie sighting and we were charmed. Perhaps we are charmed cheaply -- by soap opera acting and exquisite feet (so much nicer than the Paloma arch that I find frightening and distracting)but she was a dancing storyteller, not merely a dancer in a story ballet, and it serve the whole. [ 06-06-2001: Message edited by: samba38 ] [ 06-06-2001: Message edited by: samba38 ]

Then my vote is definitely in for Vera Wang -- a former skater before she became a dress designer and the costumer for many star skaters today. I suspect, by the way, that I'm not alone in having no idea this ballet is about shape, not line.... yet another good reason I don't do reviews!

Alexandra, may you live to 120, as they say in my tribe, but while I wouldn't want Les Patineurs in practice clothes, I think it would be adorable outfitted by REI or by Vera Wang. At least you would be able to SEE the dancers which I hardly could under the bulky jackets and bunchy bustly goop freighting the MCB dancers.

I saw the MCB rep on Wednesday night when Carlos was already gaining power in Sylvia and Deanna Seay was flawless. One thing I particularly like about the way Villella uses his many talented men -- they don't do a series of flashy steps and then mug the audience for applause the way ABT men do. I must be the traitor -- or the ignoramous (alwasy a possibility) on the Asthon piece which bored me out of my socks. Wiser viewers than I may say that it's not often done because it's so hard. But I have to wonder if it's not often done because the American audience, educated visually to a lot more snap and speed, won't sit still for this. Of course the flip side is that the only way to educate an audience's eye is to offer them something of quality and bring them forward in their understanding. So from that side, I'd say Villella was schooling his audience and making an investment in them. This can work for Miami where (despite his trashing the city in his corps de ballet talk) a loyal paying -- audience from Kendall to Palm Beach has provided the base for MCB since it was a tiny thought in the mind of Toby Anson who brought in Villella. Okay, that's it for the Miami booster club.

I second all Alexandra's suggestions and add a few more. Before you lift your phone or pen, take a few minutes to think about the kinds of fine arts coverage -- opera, symphony, etc -- your paper already offers. Do they focus the story less on the specific performance and more as a feature on the personalities, financies, artistic import, experimentalism, "news" of what the artists are doing? You may be much more successful if you don't seek reviews so much as look for story opportunities. Say the local company has a very famous guest artist coming in to perform and to, incidently, give master classes. That's a great opportunity to get attention for the local company/school with a newsy link and invite the arts reporter to come to the master class, do an interview etc. for a feature that runs BEFORE the performance. It's not athe same as a review, of course, but ... sometimes that's a mercy.

A co-worker fresh from a biz trip to Cuba last week has come back with a remarkable image of the Ballet Nacional's Giselle April 25. In the final three minutes of Act I, as the mad scene was at full throttle with Lorna Feijoo and Osmay Molina, the taped music died. The dancers carried on flawlessly, says the veteran ballet watcher. At the intermission, another person in his travel group, one who had studied ballet herself before switching to medicine, met him in the lobby with tears in her eyes. She told him she was weeping because the dancers had been softly crying as well as they carried on. Act II had all the music and all the magic, he tells me.

it seems to me that my first memory of Giselle was a Bathilde who was just as much a wronged innocent, albeit a royal one, as Giselle. She comes to a village, treats the local maiden with sweetness, gives her a gift and then is equally stunned to discover that the boyprince she thought loved her was a two-timing cad. She watches Giselle go mad and realizes that there, but for the grace of God, goes she, and fades out to find a way to salvage her heart and life.

Bathilde loves herself too much to die brokenhearted over Albrecht. She'll flounce around peevishly for a few weeks until some other prince crosses her line of vision.