art076

The most recent recording of the Royal Ballet's "Nutcracker" has some of these interesting extra features: wide shots of the Transformation Scene and the Waltz of the Snowflakes, plus interviews with Anthony Dowell and Sir Peter Wright. I've only found DVD extras on the Opus Arte series of DVDs from Britain, where the initial recording seems to have taken place with a DVD release in mind. On that label, there are plenty of interview extras on the Royal Swedish Ballet "Swan Lake", the Royal Ballet Stravinsky DVD has some great rehearsal footage and interviews with Leanne Benjamin, Monica Mason and extensive reflections from David Drew on the Royal's first staging of "Les Noces". The Royal Ballet "Coppelia" DVD has some brief clips from pieces that aired on the BBC prior to the opening of the new Royal Opera House. But besides these DVDs, ballet extra features are indeed sorely lacking. US-made DVDs (such as the ABT "The Dream" that just came out) are coming without extra features). I presume, though, that the extra cost of producing special features makes it uneconomical?

JRB: Could you elaborate on which role Ashley Bouder danced in Apollo? Glad to hear she was great in it, though!

Gianina: I second (or third) the Get-Wells! You've got to stay for at least the second act on Thursday night. :-) Tuesday night found the stratosphere section back to its normal weekday emptiness. Perhaps the seat fill on Monday was due to the observed July 4th Holiday, or because it was opening night, or even perhaps because it seems to have been the most anticipated cast (the LA Times had, as early as January, a note about Cojocaru being an upcoming not-to-miss in 2004, and the Times also ran a giant feature about Cojocaru and Kobborg in the most recent Sunday arts section). Relative emptiness is apparently normal for a weeknight; its a huge hall (3000 seats!) though the weekends apparently sell out for the big-name ballet weeks. There was a very annoying child in the upstairs today; the ample seating allowed me to move away at first intermission, though that unfortunately meant I had to sit through the Fairy variations with a five-year-old's running commentary. Now, on to the show itself: There seemed to be a noticeable drop in energy as the second cast shuffled in, though the company still managed to maintain the sense of unified theatricality that I so liked on Monday night. Also, there was a bit of a kooky problem with the set as the curtain went up; it must have snagged on the full length mirror, because the mirror came crashing to the floor as the curtain rose. Leanne Benjamin, as Cinderella, and William Tuckett, as the Father, went over and righted it in full character - as though nothing odd happened. And so the show went on. Leanne Benjamin looked and acted as an older, more mature Cinderella. She didn’t have quite the girlish charm that Cojocaru had the night before, but it was serviceable. What this meant, however, was that Benjamin was less endearing overall, and instead had to rely on her technique and the choreography to string the audience along for the ride. Benjamin did have the technique, and she managed a few high points in the choreography (noticeably: her steely pointe work in the extended Entrance-to-the-Ball dance in Act II). Her Act II pas de deux, however, was a bit overdone: it sometimes looked like she was in dreamy Swan Lake mode, or at other times in Sleeping Beauty mode, but never quite in the proper Ashton Cinderella mode. Viacheslav Samodurov made the best of the Prince’s limited role; technically secure and princely in manner, he made a much stronger impression than Kobborg’s messy Prince on the night previous. The Ugly Stepsisters, Thiago Soares and Tim Matiakis, were way over the top on Tuesday night – and far too much so. I’m not sure who danced which role (it’s not detailed as clearly in the program), but the Ashton Sister – that is, the one that Ashton himself dances on the video version – simply seemed to run around the stage stomping, and the Helpman Sister just kept swatting him with a fan. There less of an attempt at creating a convincing character than there was at slapstick gags. The Fairies were once again wonderful. I never seem to tire of that choreography! Vanessa Palmer danced the Fairy Godmother, Iohna Loots the Fairy Spring, Lauren Cuthbertson again the Fairy Summer, Laura Morera again the Fairy Spring, and Deidre Chapman the Fairy Winter. Cuthbertson continues to impress me with her understated and musical dancing. The production has two exceptionally long intermissions here in Orange County – the first one a whopping 30 minutes, and the second a long 20. There can’t be that many people to run through the bathroom – and the set is elaborate, but does it really take 30 minutes to transition into the ballroom? I'm debating whether or not to make a complete collection out of the Royal Ballet performances here in Orange County. We'll see how I feel tomorrow night perhaps?

“Cinderella” kicked off the Royal Ballet’s US Tour in Costa Mesa last night, and it was simply stunning. I must have seen 10 or so ballet performances on my recent trip to New York, but none of them came close to the overall quality of last night’s performance. The Royal is really able to create a whole – that is, a fully formed and developed – and satisfying evening from start to finish. Everyone on stage is so invested in their roles; they know they are putting on a story and a show, not just a whole bunch of dancing strung together with a loose plot. Everyone seemed to believe in the story, and they play it through fully and naturally; each soloist was a bright and living character that was a joy to watch. And that, I feel, is something that has been missing from many story ballets that I have seen recently. Dancers have inconsistently maintained character, or they seemed to be thinking through the steps more than just dancing. The Royal seemed to be in another class. I’ve always been impressed watching them on video how deeply invested in their roles and in character everyone on stage seemed to be – and seeing them live did not disappoint. Of course, the dancing was wonderful as well. Alina Cojocaru was delightfully girlish as Cinderella – she was the demure, pretty girl next door who doesn’t seem to notice how beautiful she is because her noisy sisters distract everyone’s attention. Her dancing in Act 1 was a bit noisy – her hard pointe shoes clonked around on the stage, and it seemed she was doing some excessive stomping; the problem lessened in later acts (perhaps someone told her how loud it was), but her shoes were still noticeably louder than others. Her dancing, though, was wonderfully liquid and flowing; she’s a tiny dancer but she projects very well and has a very warm stage presence. Her variations and pas de deux in the Act II ballroom scene were sublime. The Fairies and their variations at the end of Act I were the highlight of the evening. Isabel McMeekan, as the Fairy Godmother, carried herself with authority and poise, and dancing with a kind of melting lyricism that makes you wish she was your own personal Fairy Godmother. Christina Elida Salerno was marvelously musical as the Fairy Spring, Lauren Cuthbertson delightfully creamy and British as the Fairy Summer, Laura Morera a flamboyant (if slightly too wild) Fairy Autumn, and Marianela Nunez a beautiful Fairy Winter. Ashton’s brilliant waltz for the corps de ballet closes out Act I – another one of my favorite parts of the evening. The only dancing disappointment of the evening was Johan Kobborg as the Prince; he seemed to be having an off night. His jumps were a bit clunky and was unsteady on several turns. His partnering of Cojocaru was sure and steady, however, and he managed to carry himself with a noble air despite the flubbed dancing. The Prince doesn’t get to do much in this production anyway, besides stand around and look nice – the travel-around-the-world sequence that Prokofiev wrote into the beginning of Act 3 does not appear in Ashton’s production, so the Prince gets next to nothing to do. This is very much Cinderella’s ballet. Ashton’s “Cinderella” is a bit deficient narratively, as it glosses over plot points to instead focus on individual moments. There is, for example, plenty of hamming from the Ugly Stepsisters, and tons of dancing in the Ballroom. But the Fairy Godmother’s transformation from Beggar Woman to pretty Fairy gets half a second in dim lighting, going by so fast one wonders what in the world just happened. Then, at the end of Act II, the Prince finds a sparkly slipper. The slipper is supposed to, of course, belong to Cinderella. But she has been wearing plain white pointe shoes for the entire act: who’s shoe is it then? The ballet seems to simply assume we know how the action got from point A to point B without much exposition. The lack of narrative cohesion is mostly forgiven, though, because of Ashton’s wonderful choreographic gems: the Seasonal Fairy variations, the Act I waltz for the ensemble, Cinderella’s Act II ballroom entrance and dance, her variation and subsequent pas de deux. It was still a great evening, though. I was very, very excited as I walked out of the theater Monday night, with the kind of excitement that very rarely comes, when you know you’ve just seen something really good. I keep going back to the ballet hoping I’ll get that giddy feeling again, and last night, I got it. --art

I don't see Keller's comments as a necessarily bad sign at all - he said that they need to retain those readers as well as move the Arts section into a position where it will attract others as well. He never said he was going to cut the dance or classical music coverage. He does seem to say that perhaps the paper's focus on those specific arts was becoming narrow to the point of alienating other readers or excluding coverage of other arts that the Times should also have the responsibility of covering - and that is okay as long as he remembers that he would also like to retain the readers the section had previously. He's very right to say that the paper needs more hard hitting, and more expansive coverage of the arts - he mentions two "take-no-prisoner" stories about the movie business that were published recently - and hopefully that means that arts coverage will extend in the same way. We need more balanced and hard hitting coverage of the arts, not just features promotional feature on the performance aspect or lopsided coverage of financial situations.

I agree completely about this. I saw in the Orchestra, 4th row center at the Met for ABT, and the house still managed to make it seem like the dancers were miles away. When I was watching from the balcony at another performance, I felt like I was seeing everything through a little hole in the wall that they had cut out in the bottom of gigantic stage wall. Strangely enough, I still felt this sitting in the fourth row orchestra - not to mention that the orchestra section of the Met is barely raked at all so you often cannot see over people's heads. The head obstructions are usually so bad that they often cover the ENTIRE dancer, not just their feet as would be normal at most theaters. So yes, I agree, the Met is not an ideal dance house; clearly it was designed for opera and its grand spectacle (understandable, since it is after all the Metropolitan OPERA House), and its not the most audience friendly place. The New York State Theatre, though, is a wonderful house - great sightlines and it feels intimate from most places in the house. I'm usually in Tier 3 and it feels much better than being in most places at the Met.

This is a newer one, but I will never forget Diana Vishneva's Nikiya.

ABT's "Tribute to George Balanchine" opened at the Metropolitan Opera House Monday night. Theme and Variations was a bit sleepy to start off; Paloma Herrera and Marcelo Gomes took the leading roles, and it was mostly danced well, but there was very little spark or excitment until the finale. They seemed to be thinking through everything, though Gomes was still able to wow in his variation. Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux: Irina Dvorovenko was spectacular in this role, a marked difference from her pretty but cold Raymonda on Friday. She seems to excel in the purely technical roles, but assuming a character is harder for her. She simply showed off her prodigious technical gifts in Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, and to great effect. Maxim Belotserkovsky was an adequate partner, but faded into the background behind Dvorovenko. Mozartiana: First time seeing this piece (and the first time for ABT dancing it), so I can't say much to compare it to other times it has been danced. I did enjoy it, however, most especially because of Nina Ananiashvili's performance in the Farrell role. She was fantastic; she fully gives herself to the role, dances with great musicality, and projects a very warm and appealing stage presence. It was entirely different from most of the times I've seen her in classical roles, so I was impressed. Angel Corella was her partner in the Theme & Variations section, and he was a bit over-exuberant and consequently rough around the edges. Pushing too hard, there were many wobbles and mis-steps all over the place, but the audience still loved him. Corella only really needs to smile to have the audience in his hands. Herman Cornejo danced the Gigue. I was struck at how the costuming and sets for the production make it look like they are all at a funeral - especially the Gigue soloist's costume. Black everything, with some white embellishments here and there. Meanwhile, the music decidely does not invoke feelings of death. Maybe I need to read the book on Mozartiana to learn a bit more about this... Ballet Imperial: First time view for this one also, both in the "Imperial" version and in "Piano Concerto No. 2" version. I enjoyed it immensely; the stage patterns and movement of the corps is endlessly inventive and interesting, and the way Balanchine plays with the music and choreography is thrilling. The dancing was quite good, though I get the feeling that it could have been more. Gillian Murphy was the lead ballerina - she has toes of steel, and especially in the first movement, she really seemed to "bounce" on pointe, or use it as a firmly anchored pivot point (if that made any sense whatsoever). Carlos Molina as her cavaliere was particularly strong, especially in the second movement, when he does a lot of stuff alone. Michele Wiles was bright in the soloist role. All could work a bit on the musicality though...everything didn't quite mesh as perfectly with the music the way things do at NYCB, but it worked and I still loved it. Looking forward to seeing more casts in this program before I finally have to go home to Southern California. :-(

Yes, I do think that a good, truly successful story ballet evening should have a strong story line to carry the evening, and it must also be clearly articulated as well. The dancing should be properly set in some sort of context; Odile's seduction is just another flashy pas de deux with fouettes, but it becomes more when you pile on the story of "Swan Lake" to the dance. A successful story ballet should be a good balance of enough clear story exposition to make the reason for the dance apparent, alongside the dancing that is already a given. I turn often to videos of the Royal Ballet in "Sleeping Beauty" and "Swan Lake" as excellent examples of how strong, clear mime is balanced against equally strong dancing, thus setting the dances in perfect context and moving things along interestingly. Also the clarity is a big point, I think. The suggestion of story, without proper follow through, will make people in the audience simply scratch their heads and go "what is going on?", even if there is pretty dancing to look at; you're distracted by the loose shards of story hanging around, and are more disinclined to dismiss the evening as a failure because of its inability to effectively convery a story. I think this comes from early on, in grade school, with training on how to read literature for a story, and to know the elements of what do make up a good story - we end up trying to find a plot in everything. That said, though, a story doesn't necessarily have to exist in a full evening ballet program. There just has to be something significantly interesting enough to propel the evening, like in Balanchine's "Jewels," where the choreography is significantly varied enough, and a visual theme in the sets and costumes strings them together, keeping your interest for all three parts. And yet another exception, too, to all of this is that there also exists a time when the dancing and the stage presences of the dancers is significant enough to make the evening great even without a good, strong story. "Le Corsaire," for instance, was fun because most of the dancers cast in the roles made the most of it, danced at their most show offish, and hammed up the silly plot. So it was fun if not a deeply moving evening of ballet - call it a popcorn ballet. So in sum, ideally I want a well-told story, but give me something else good enough to distract me and I might look the other way.

Responding to Cygnet: It just seemed to me that she luxuriates in extended poses, like a huge arabesque, or a grand stance smiling big and brightly at the audience. But the stuff in between the poses isn't quite so smooth, and things get choppy. It looks like she's putting forth a lot of effort to get from point A to point B, even though points A and B are individually quite pleasing. By the way, the production just got good notice in the New York Times. Anna Kisselgoff liked it, and, in her lead paragraphs that the ABT press office will absolutely LOVE to quote in advertising copy, called it "super-duper." Kisselgoff seems to like most things ABT does; but she did mention Dvorovenko's lack of flow ("Irina Dvorovenko led off on Friday night with clean, strong technique, but little charm and continuity between her movements.")

I second bobbi's comments above on the Saturday matinee. Peter Boal in Concerto Barooco was amazing, such strong, sharp dancing. ANd Maria Kowroski was sublime in the adagio. Wendy Whelan was my favorite of the afternoon - her sleepwalker in La Sonambula was perfectly mysterious and ethereal on top of a rock solid technical performance.

Opening night Friday - anyone else go? It's a very pretty - and sparkly - production. And that is meant literally. The dancing is very pretty, and the costumes and sets have sparkles and glitter all over them. And the dancing itself is very pretty as well. But - it was almost too pretty. All beauty and smiles, less life except in isolated scenes (mostly, the ones with Marcelo Gomes). Perhaps they simply need to settle into the production and start having more fun with it. Irina Dvorovenko was a beautiful Raymonda. Crystal clear dancing, especially her variation at the beginning of Act II, in the pas de trois. Her hops on pointe were light as a feather, stunningly rendered. Dvorovenko too, though, was almost too pretty. Everything move was perfect, but at the expense at some kind of spontenaity or spark. Dvorovenko also strikes me as the kind of dancer who moves excellenty from pose to pose, but the flow between them isn't quite so interesting, or when the need for speed is there in the choreography presents itself, she falters slightly. (I also noticed this when she danced Nutcracker last year). Maxim Belotserkovsky was very good as Jean de Brienne, very princely. The ballet gives little reason why Raymonda chooses him over Abderakhman, though, esepcially when Abderakhman is being danced by Marcelo Gomes. Gomes was spot on and very charismatic whenever he was on stage. Too bad he didn't get more to do. Michele Wiles and Veronika Part were Raymonda's friends, with David Hallberg and Genadi Saveliev. All four were excellent and were great in the variations; their roles though, didn't give them much to do except dance prettily - again with the prettiness. Grand Pas Classique late in the ballet read very well; didn't seem like quite the disaster that earlier reports from the excerpted showings described. The Grand Pas does, however, seem like a totally different ballet from what precedes it. Most of the ballet (at least on Friday) was a very refined, straightforward classicism; then comes the Grand Pas, with its Hungarian-flavored steps and a bit of attitude thrown in for good measure. Looked like the transition from "Sleeping Beauty" to "Paquita." It went well for the most part, though, and Dvorovenko was perfect, again. Really - very little to complain about here except that it the whole evening felt like it was covered in smooth gloss. I longed for a more textured surface.

Quick notes on Wednesday night: the evening was truly Ashley Bouder's night, replacing an injured Abi Stafford in "La Source" and dancing her previously anounced role in "Dances at a Gathering." She was spectacular in both, especially in her duet with Joaquin De Luz in "Gathering." I enjoyed the rest of "Gathering" a ton; its nearly 60 min long, but it remains constantly interesting throughout. A real Robbins masterpiece.

I was there for Zakharova's Nikiya as well. Zakharova was beautiful as Nikiya on Monday night. She was passionate and communicated with her entire body throughout. The adagio in the Kingdom of the Shades was thrilling, nary a wobble throughout the whole thing, just a very placid, very clean perfection. I love it when Nikiyas can pull off a very smooth adagio, making it look completely effortless and holding poses and balances for ages - it makes the part appropriately otherworldly and magical. Only thing that bugged me though was how high Zakharova was able to lift her leg; it looked un-human in a distracting way - made it seem like I was watching a Cirque du Soleil performance at times. In fact, much of her Shades act was like this - almost as though she were showing off her technical skills, great as they are. Since we're talking about Kirov-trained dancers here, I guess I'll mention that my absolute favorite Shades act came from Diana Vishneva, with whom Zakharova used to be colleages with at the Kirov. SHe pulled off the smoothness, showed off as much rock-solid technique, but did it with more character and without having the technique be a distracting side show. But back to ABT, Zakharova's Acts I and III were quite good - she knows how to inject drama into a role and keep dancing at the same time, something her counterparts in the main company have a bit of a ways to catch up to still. Michele Wiles did an excellent job as Gamzatti, though admittedly much of the role is technical fireworks. When required to act, I felt she faltered a bit - clearest example of this is in Act III, when she has a marvelous solo during the wedding scene. She dances the solo marvelously, but then, just a bit later, when a girl toting a flower basket reminiscent of Nikiya's killer flower basket runs on, Wiles fails to react with the appropriate fear and apprehension that the moment should bring. She goes through the motions of the moment with too much grace and lightness, moving her arms softly as though she were bowing, not running away scared. No one can deny, however, that Wiles is a great stage presence in her current form - just needs to work more at the dramatic. Jose Manuel Carreno made the most of Solor; he's not in the spotlight all to often, it's more a ballerina's show, but boy did he grab a hold of and make full use of the spotlight when he was in it. Herman Cornejo - stunning as the Bronze Idol. The audience ate it up. The corps danced the Kingdom of the Shades very well tonight. Reading early reports from Washington and otherwise, I was expecting disaster - but the corps exceeded my expectations. THey're not the Kirov, but they're not second rate, either. This is my first time seeing ABT in Makarova's production of "Bayadere" live (seen it once in London and then on the Asylmuratova/Zelensky/Bussel video); I don't particularly like John Lanchberry's alterations to the score and orchestrations - particularly in the Grand Pas Classique. It sounded just find in the original Minkus orchestrations, I do'nt understand why he felt the need to make it either more diddly, or mess up the orchestrations to make the music sound more flat and thin. But that's just me being used to the way it's played in the Russian versions. Also - maybe I missed this sitting in the balcony - but for some reason I feel like they never lifted the scrim for the Kingdom of the Shades? They go to black to change from Solor's tent to the Kingdom, where you see lights going across the scrim, but then, I never saw the scrim go up for the entire act...seems odd they'd do the entire scene behind a curtain, but again maybe I just missed this?

I agree with Michael about Saturday night's Union Jack. Especially enjoyed Jennifer Ringer and Nilas Martins in the pas de deux. They say clothes make the man, but here clothes made the woman - Ringer really seemed to jump right into the character of the outgoing party-going woman with huge hat and sparkly clothes. A lot of fun to watch! Then of course, Wendy Whelan in the Royal Navy segment - fantastic! Saw Shambards, the new Wheeldon piece, as well. My favorite part was the James MacMillan score. The hinted violence between Jock Soto and Miranda Weese during the pas de deux didn't offend me like it has offended a few other posters, but it did seem kind of random to me - there was no real justification or follow up for it in other parts of the ballet. It was just kind of there, and would pop up at the end of the second and third movements. Enjoyed the third movement overall, but felt the first movement was trying to be Four Temperaments with more dancers, but not quite getting there. A nice piece by Wheeldon, though. --Art

Went Friday night, with Divertimento No. 15, Variations poure une porte et un soupir, and Four Temperaments. Divertimento was a bit sloppy, or a bit lacking in something - not quite sure what. Last time I saw it was November with Suzanne Farrell's company on tour in Los Angeles, on a much much smaller stage - it seemed to fit the stage there perfectly, and the dancers brought a certain vitality to the entire thing. Here, it looked much smaller on the larger NY State Theater stage, and it wasn't so sharp and the dancers weren't so interesting to watch. Exceptions, though, in the Second Movement: Ashley Bouder (fourth variation) and Robert Tewsley (fifth variation) - both were excellent, secure technically, and charismatic in stage presence. Each time Bouder or Tewsley were on stage, it was an effortless flow of movement going with the orchestra - the way I remembered seeing it in November, but better since these two were so much stronger overall. Orchestra played decently, but the French horns were a bit off... Variations poure une porte et un soupir (Variations for a door and a sigh) - a quirky piece, seemed to drag on at the end, though. The music is entirely recorded door squeaks and "sighs" of metal. Maria Kowroski was excellent, even though her "squeaking" her limbs in tune to the recorded squeaks of the doors got a bit old after awhile. Tom Gold was positively creature like in his role. Four Temperaments: I enjoyed this piece very much. The orchestra did wonderfully, and so did the dancers. Wendy Whelan and Robert Tewsley (replacing, according to the program, Charles Askegard due to injury) were wonderful in the Sanguinic variation, and Teresa Reichlin stood out in the Choleric variation. Good start to a visit to New York...two more weeks here should be great (just in case anyone was wondering why my location says Los Angeles and I somehow posted from New York). --Art

By the way, speaking of ABT's Met Season, if you're dying to catch a glimpse backstage while ABT is at the Met, take a Backstage Tour of the Metropolitan Opera House. They're offered by the Metropolitan Opera Guild (www.metguild.org), and they're only $10 - but you have to call ahead to reserve. I took one today and it was great fun! Ballet highlights from today's tour: watching some "Theme and Variations" rehearsal from the wings of the stage (up behind the curtain); having to squeeze by Gennadi Savaliev and Herman Cornejo several times while in the back corridors; riding a packed elevator in close quarters with Angel Corella; momentarily glimpsing Angel rehearse in a studio; getting an up-close look at pieces of the set for the new "Raymonda" and for "La Bayadere"; seeing tutus lined up in a row and marked "Theme", "Ballet Imperial", and "Mozartiana"; then, from the front of the house, watching corps rehearsal for the Grand Pas Classique from "La Bayadere" - without the principals (who knew there was so much choreography going on behind them?). Then there is the great stuff from the Opera Company itself, like the huge sets, the sheer size of the stage complex, etc. etc. etc. Great fun...but balletomanes will enjoy glimpsing at ABT back there! --Art

This doesn't count as "Met Season" technically, but I did see Rep Program I in Los Angeles just over a month ago, at each of the three casting changes (McKerrow, Murphy, Wiles). I too, felt that Wiles was tentative in the role. I do think she's moving in the right direction but as of then she looked uncomfortable in the role and it looked like it needed to sink more. She glossed over some key dramatic movements in the choreography, failing to stop and give them proper weight. However, I do feel like she might get there in the future. McKerrow was superlative as Hagar - very poignant dramatic interpretation, very committed to the role. You never once questioned that she was anyone but Hagar up there on stage, and the dancing seemed like to come out of her like a very natural language. Murphy, on the other hand, was in the same boat as Wiles, though I think Wiles has a slight edge... "Within You WIthout You" was mildy amusing, but I decided to skip out the third time around. "Petite Mort" and "Sechs Tanze" were amusing the first time, but got progressively less and less so on repeat viewings. It seemed to get sloppier as the performances went on as well - not as sharp, not as unexpected. Have they fixed this in New York? --Art (who is in NYC for two weeks and will see much ABT at the Met...and actually post Met comments, not outdated LA ones! )

Liked some of it but ... I think I was a little disappointed mainly because I had hyped it up so much. But I did VERY MUCH enjoy Elizabeth Miner in the title role of Sylvia - and while she's still a member of the corps de ballet! She has a stunning stage presence and she was very confident throughout - remarkable. There were parts I liked and parts that I was just "eh" about - the ensemble scenes seemed lacking; I feel like I've seen better from Morris. The interpretation of the music there was a little too literal, to the point of clunkiness while following the music. But I found the choreography for Sylvia in Act III as well as the pas de deux for Sylvia and Aminita in Act III to be very good, and I also enjoyed the dances for Sylvia and her entourage in Act I. Act II was amusing - but short. So not bad, but not great either. Still, I remained disappointed, but probably because I had hyped it up so much in my mind.

The Concerto Barocco excerpt was actually one of my favorite parts of the program - but I've always enjoyed Barocco. I think it was the one piece on the program that showed Balanchine in the mode that people are most likely to encounter him with ballet companies across the country - that is, his more straightforward ballets that are up on pointe and look most classical are the ones that seem to keep popping up on Balanchine programs. I did also enjoy Kowroski in the main role; wish we could have seen more of it! I do agree, though, that the overall programming was a bit odd. The latter half of the program seemed to be loaded with slow pieces (slow musically), which took momentum out of the program - plus all slow pieces, as beautiful as they are, don't read so well one after another on television. Great to see the excerpts that we saw though, just wish they weren't clumped together the way they would. Agree that they should have perhaps put more thought into giving the television audience a more well rounded view of Balanchine's works. The interludes were a bit odd, with the switching between all the "special guests" and the awkward speeches. Overall, though, I felt most of the dancing was very well filmed and inteligently shot. Who says that a "live off the stage" capturing of dance can't capture dance well? Glad to see NYCB on tv...

There's a really great article from the San Francisco Chronicle in the links section for today (Monday, April 26 - its the first story in the list), interviewing Morris and giving some background on "Sylvia." Read it if you get the chance - that photo of Morris included with the story is so very Morris, and the writer captured his exuberance perfectly (based on having seen him give one or two post-performance talks).

The voices are also used in the Balanchine "Midsummer," roughly in the same spot in the story - that is, they both send Titania to sleep (logical since that is what the song is saying). Similarly, they are both pretty dances for Titania and her retinue of fairies. They're also used in the finale in both ballets - exactly where Mendelssohn wrote them in. I think what was meant by "jarring" was that in this recording of "The Dream," the voices come in very loudly and suddenly - much more loudly than the rest of the orchestra. They must have over-mic'd it a bit, so even if you were expecting the voices they are slightly jarring before they fixed the levels a bit.

I agree about the camera movements - too many cuts and too quickly. The camera cuts back and forth quickly and frenetically, like it's racing to catch everything all at once. I wonder if there would have been another way to do this satisfyingly on camera? If it zooms out too far, then some detail is lost, and if you're always zoomed out, the average viewer could get bored seeing just the same shot for an extended period of time. I've never enjoyed, though, too much zooming on the upper half of the dancer's body. It seems to me that the whole body should be kept in the frame; dance was designed to be expressed with the entire body - of which the facial expression is of course a part, but I don't think anything is lost if the zoom stops at keeping the dancer's entire body in the frame. On another note: Perhaps this explains why the Royal is celebrating Ashton's 100th next year instead of this year?

Did anybody watch this? I saw it and was very pleased by it; Alessandra Ferri was particularly enjoyable as Titania, along with Ethan Stiefel as Oberon and Herman Cornejo as Puck. The corps danced particularly well, but I though the lovers seemed to be over acting at points. Some of the comedic moments seemed to get lost in the busy camera work, but over all i think they did a pretty good job translating from stage to screen. It's a fun to be able to watch it on the small screen, and hopefully they'll bring the stage production of "The Dream" back sometime soon at ABT.

Leigh Witchell wrote: Not to mention that ABT refers to itself as "America's national company." I've heard the reference used as recently as two weeks ago by Kevin McKenzie in his remarks before curtain at the Romeo & Juliet opening night in Los Angeles. In ABT's progam bio, it also says, "Mr. McKenzie, steadfast in his vision of ABT as "American," is committed to maintaining the Company's vast repertoire, and to bringing the magic of dance theater to the great stages of the world." It's interesting that they keep referring to the "American-ness" of the company - not that the dancers' nationality needs to be American to do so. But why the emphasis on national identity? If ABT were to be "American" by repertoire or temperment, what would it then be like? It certainly doesn't seem like an American company from its active repertoire, which is by in large dominated by 19th century Russian classics. --art