bart

Don Quijote seems a strange choice of ballet to bring to Spain. It's not like the world is suffering from a scarcity of that particular work. I'd love to know the rationale for this. Of course, all the stars who have committed to Barcelona do guarantee big ticket sales. I just wish a full-length that is less cliched and more adventurous (interesting? rare? .... dear I say, great?) could have been chosen instead.

Sometimes, talking with people during intermissions, you get the feeling that ballet makes the strongest impression when it turns out big jumps, unbelievable turns, dramatic power-lifts. What about the little things in ballet? I think I fell in love with ballet when, as a child, I saw Swan Lake from a fairly close up seat. A lady in white, with a smooth white feathered headdress and a crown, was standing on the point of one foot, slowly turning in a circle with the support of a prince. As she glided, the other foot foot, pointed and slightly raised from the floor, fluttered in and out, making me think of a bird hovering at her nest.. I now know this as petit battement sur le cou de pied. It was over almost as soon as I noticed it, but in a real way this small step changed my life. (Or at least the arts-loving part of it.) I still love this detail -- and the music that it is married to -- though I confess I've never found a subsequent performance to be as "good" as that first one, which I saw at age 9 or 10 or so. Any other "small steps" that have made a lasting mpression on you? Do you still feel the same way?

My first real live ballerina . This image strikes me as untypical in its softness and vulnerability. There even seems to be a suggestion of the fey. Not your usual impression of Hayden.

Sandy, I agree with your post. This has been a thread looking at these events from several different perspectives. That's why, I suppose, I haven't read the thread as a disagreement so much as a real conversation. If we focus on the future -- and especially on the need for reconciliation -- I do think that the key figure is Edward Villella. I have known Villella as a dancer since seeing him in his first NYCB season and am full of admiration and gratitude for what he has accomplished with MCB. The accomplishment is overwhelmingly his, along with those he has hired and inspired. Villella is the only figure in this story with real stature in the larger world of the arts. Now the time has come for him re-define his artistry, as it were, by encouraging all the parties -- especially those fractious Board members and real or fantasy potential donors -- to start working towards maintaining MCB's current artistic position and keeping it going into the future. After all, the MCB company and rep are Villella's legacy. He has a great stake, personally and professionally, in seeing that this continues after he has moved on. Many forces in the MCB community (which includes 4 other major performance locations, audiences, and donor groups, not just Miami-Dade) need to be drawn together. Who better to do this than a master -- though soon to be emeritus -- Artistic Director like Edward Villalla?

dirac, I agree with your summation. As this insightful but depressing thread shows, there are powerful arguments to be made on each side. Villella emerges (for me) as someone both sinned against and sinning. Without a doubt, MCB is Villella's creation, reflecting his passion for the Balanchine idea of what ballet can be, a long-term vision of what he wanted the company to be, and amazing dedication to the daily business of teaching, coaching, rehearsing, and staging. We all owe him a tremendous debt. U I tend to see Villella, looking back over the past few months, as classic tragic hero -- complex, a brilliant risk-taker, a victim who is complicit in his own downfall.. In tragedy, enemies plot. Friends warn but are ignored. Secondary players keep their heads down. The audience is either oblivious or enjoying the spectacle. So, when the dagger comes, who is to "blame"? Board members, certainly, as Helene and others have expressed so well. But Villella himself bears quite a lot of responsibility for his own tragedy, and especially for protracting it for so long. Villella has been charged (correctly in my opinion) with lax financial management and inconsistencies in dealing with personnel. He handled some Board members well and others .... not so well. He possibly misjudged the kind of ballet that "Miami" really wants, or can afford, though in the process he introduced them to something astonishing and marvelous.. Most seriously, he does not appear to have thought much about -- or been emotionally prepared for -- a succession crisis, even after his most influential supporters (Ansin, the Eidsons, Robert Gottlieb) were doubtless encouraging him to do so. After the original shock of being told to go, he appears to have engaged in a campaign to overturn the decision. He has, most seriously for the future of the country, not been able to (or chosen not to) encourage others to let these conflicts go. If Villella "deserves better," so does Lourdes Lopez. So do the dancers other company workers, the audience, and the donors who are not actual participants in the Board's shameful and self-defeating in-fighting. Based on the Miami Herald article, it seems inevitable that the $5 million Knight Foundation grant which "top board members are counting on" is unlikely to materialize. None, indeed, was ever promised. The Knight Foundation seems to prefer targeted matching grants (as in their 3-year commitment to the orchestra). There's a real question whether any serious donors will make an "investment" in MCB until the Board gets its act together. In retrospect, I think that the Board (whoever and whatever that now means) made a serious misjudgment in the way they handled Villella's (how shall I put this diplomatically?) "transition into retirement." They chose the worst possible moment. The City Center season, the Dance in America appearance, the big new Romeo and Juliet, new ballets by Alexei Ratmansky and Lliam Scarlett, and a pretty wonderful season on the whole. If they were genuinely surprised at the size of the deficit for this they were, to put it baldly, not doing their oversight job. I don't ordinarily advocate for the harsher practices of big corporations, but it has always seemed sensible to me -- when you are firing a CEO -- to get him or her out of the way quickly. Let the new administration or a transition team get a quick start. This did not happepn at MCB. Villella was given an undefined year to continue working intimately with, and be responsible for, a company which (HIS company, as he sees it) had been stolen from him. No wonder there's been a disaster. Levin's article paints a picture of a man, "gaunt and haggard," who "now shuffles slowly." I have seen this Edward Villella, and it was heart-breaking. (It was a private moment at the stage door at the Kravis Center, West Palm, during the run of Coppelia.) But I also saw him a month earlier during MCB's Giselles at the Kravis, working the auditorium like a man much younger than he is, smiling and giving photo ops to fans, chatting with Palm Beach donors, and apparently signalling to the world: "They haven't gotten they beset of me yet." I understand the personal motivations and the desire to put a good face on things. But why did he run his own candidate (a favored dancer) against Lopez at the time of the Board's vote on his successor? It didn't work -- nor should it have. We all want to know what happend. But, more crucially, now's the time for reconciliation of all parties and a renewed commitment to the future. No one is better placed to get this going than Edward Villella himself. So far, he hasn't tried this option. Right now I'm looking at a listing of the amazing season that Mr. Villella planned for 2012-13. As things stand now, and barring some change in arrangements, he will have the daunting task of making this work in a company that is demoralized, fearful of the unknown, and almost broke. This factionalized Board -- some of whom seem to be dangerously narrowly focused, according to public statements -- will have to find a way to pay for it.. Here is that program. I hope it gives you an idea of what we risk loosing, or eviscerating, if those who ought to know better decide to keep this "debacle" going.) Program I. Les Patineurs (Ashton); Piazzola Caldera (Taylor); Apollo (Balanchine). Program II. Divertimento No. 15 (Balanchine); Duo Concertant (Balanchine); Don Quixote Pas de Dekux (after Petipa); world premiere of Liam Scarlett's new ballet. Program III. La Valse (Balanchine); Steadfast Tin Soldier (Balanchine); Tschikovsky Pas de Deux (Balanchine); Symphonic Dances (Ratmansky). Program IV. Dances at a Gathering (Robbins); Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (Balanchine).

The NY Times (June 12, 1976) has a review of the Seymour/Nagy Giselle, written by Anna Kisslegoff. The article is available only to subscribers, but I think you can purchase a view. Seymour was a "guest artist" with ABT that summer season. Kisselgoff starts with explaining that New Yorkers were used to Markova's classical approach to Giselle. Seymour was different, reminding one viewer of Pavlova. Nagy's Albrecht was "danced excellently." Seymour and Nagy also performed Swan Lake, reviewed by Kisselgoff on July 19th.

As an old DHG fan, I really wish them well. How many companies get a second chance like this? I think I remember hearing that they are coming to south Florida next season. Possiblyl the Kravis Center in West Palm? I hope so. Incidentally, DePrince will be performing in Le Corsaire in South Africa later this month. Here's a link to an article: http://mediaupdate.c.../?IDStory=47888

Which piece is this? I like Act III: Pas Classique Hongrois That's it, Neryssa. My post was a poor description of the clapping variation. On relistening to the music, I see that "balalaika" is wrong, too. The melody haunts, but also carries false memories in this case.I love the tune, which immediately evokes the choreography when I think of it.

What you are describing is something dancers often talk about. Your point suggests to me that we, in the audience, experience something similar. Certainly this experience has been much enhanced, for me, by starting ballet classes relatively late in life. Absolutely we experience this in the audience. We actually have kinesthetic experiences --the physical reaction to visual stimulation -- frequently. It's why you dodge when you think you see a ball come your way, why you wince when you see a boxer land a punch. It's most easily observed with those kind of moments, where there is pain, or the possibility of pain involved, but it's happening all the time. I was thinking about sandik's response when I came across the following -- from the encyclopediste Denis Diderot's Letter on the Deaf and the Mute. It seems that people were thinking and speculating about such issues even in the 18th century.. Quoted in Charles Rosen, "Freedom and Art," NY Review of Books, 5/10/12.

Me too, Kathleen. This is fascinating. I enjoyed the Bacchae, though I was astonished, and not for the first time, at the way some contemporary choreoraphers use grandiose language to describe dances that are fairly ordinary.

Jack, thanks for your calming influence on this. I guess I've never gotten over the long buildup to the demise of Ballet Florida and the drastic downsizing of NYC Opera. Also, although I share your admiration for Michael Kaiser, I have some skepticism about whether this will actually take place now that Goldsborough is gone. It's not Villella, or Lopez, or even the Development people who give me concern regarding the company's ability/desire to continue its commitment to a serious Balanchin based rep It IS the Board and the deeply divided big-donor group. There's also the question of the south Florida audience. South Florida is not Paris, Manhattan, or Ballet Alert. Perhaps (shocking thought) the demand for the aesthetic vision we admire isn't as deep as we would like. More serious reportage might give us more info, but Miami lacks the depth of arts coverage one finds in NYC. So we rely on rumor and self-serving p.r. I hope you are right. How ironical that this has erupted right after such a triumphant season.

Me too. But not in all the Soviet era productions.Young Nureyev staged Raymonda for the Royal and danced Brienne with Fonteyn. I never saw that, but I do recall seeing him dance Brienne at ABT. When preparing a new version of Raymonda for Paris much later on, Nureyev greatly expanded the Abderakhman's role. I have the feeling that Nureyev might have been coming to the conclusion that he wished he could dance Abderakhman himself. The character he created, for another dancer, has passion, sensuality, and STEPS that go far beyond the Soviet versions. As a result, Act III is a dramatic letdown. It is probably heresy, but sometimes I wish I had the chance to see an Act III featuring Raymonda and her Saracen husband.

A rich and marvelous list of opportunities, Kathleen. Thank you. What you present is a best-case scenario, of course. But if even a few of your items were to work out -- how refreshing that would be. I had been thinking of your first three. The MCB dancers don't have a lot of free time during the season, but this might extend the season for both them and for the company. Based on what many company dancers have said on the MCB website, I am sure they would love the chance to dance even more new works and to have the chance to work with new choreographers. Summer touring would fill a void in dancers' schedules. Your point about funding is interesting. There is the possibility, I suppose, that an independent Morphesis fund-raising campaign might compete with MCB's own attempt to reach new donors. That's something the development experts would have to consider, assuming any remain on staff after this batch of cuts. I don't think MCB has done live streaming. Considering the level of choreographers they work with, performance rights would be a serious obstacle.

The original 1898 production is usually described as "by Petipa," and I have seen refereces to "Petiipa's libretto." I haven't come across, however, details about where Petipa got the story. Does anyone know the actual source (or sources) of this story line? By the way, an interesting 2002 thread about the Raymonda story line is linked here -- http://balletalert.i...story-be-saved/ About the depiction of the Christian-versus-Muslim conflict -- Making the characters French and Hungarian connects the story to the actual Crusades (in what we now call the Middle East). Russians (representing Orthodox Christianity) seem to have been trying to identify an idealized version of the Roman Catholic Crusades with their own long history of military and cultural expansion in Muslim regions in the Caucasus and Central Asia. By 1898, the date of Raymonda's premiere, Russia had already been fighting to dominate Muslim populations and absorb them into the Russian Empire for several hundred years. The Soviet Union inherited both the policies and the prejudices of the Tsarist regime when it came to thinking about the Muslim societies to the south. The recent conflict in Chechnya is just one offshoot of this.. Russian artists have long been fascinated with the interactions of Christian and Muslim societies. Gogol visited Palastine; Pushkin visited and wrote about the Caucusus; Tolstoy served in the army in the Caucus and wrote some of his best stories about it as well.

Well, THIS certainly changes the direction of the thread .... Jordan Levin's article begins: This is so disheartening. Summer is ordinarily a s-l-o-w time for the larger performing arts organizations in south Florida. The MCB School has a summer intensive, but otherwise not much goes on. And then there's Mike Eidson, former president and chairman of the Board, telling the reporter: The problem is, will anyone -- artists, donors, potential new donors, staff, potential new staff, -- believe him?

Thanks for reviving this all-too-brief thread, polyphonyfan. This is an unforgettable image. I sometimes think of their epaulement, and especially the downward, unseeing positioning of the head as suggesting someone looking down into a deep pool of water. I wonder what the crossed arms are supposed to suggest. The arrangement of a body in a coffin, I suppose. But also a kind of submissiveness -- to Myrth, to fate, to their own acceptance of death.Makes me think of another entirelyi different "submissive" set of gestures: the slave in Corsaire, as he bows to his masters. Different arm position, same strong suggestion of social role and personality. I only know this as "chugging." (I believe it does have a composite French name.) A variation of this is the most memorable image of the corps in the Kingdom of the Shades scene from Bayadere. Both ballets share an eyes-downward placement of the head -- the opposite of eyes focused on the heavens which accompany moments of triumph and transcendence in other ballets. Down-ward movements and poses make me think of Odette movement in Act II and IV. The plunges into penche arabesque (alternating with a passive cambre backwards (and downward) though the face looks upward, as if straining to get away from what she has felt. There are also those iconic backward extensions of the arms, with fluttering hands, suggesting wings, but also suggesting surrender, or possibly hopelessness. One of the best things about Svetlana Zakharova's performance as the wicked Odile (la Scala dvd) is the way she satirizes, wickedly, these gestures in her own attempt to seduce a particularly clueless Siegfried.

That very brief clip gives a hint as to how magnetic Ms. Kampa must be on stage, even when performing something simple. I don't know that I've ever seen (or noticed) that charming youthful gesture of playing with the snow.

Thanks, all, for the great reports on this thread. Sounds like the Semionova hire was a good one, and that the Semionova-Halberg partnership is a big future. abatt's comment -- "All the little details that were missing in their performance earlier this week were present tonight" -- shows that Semionva (and Semionova-Halberge) are well on the way to fitting in perfectly.

I thought the 2012-13 season might be a good time for an on-going thread for news and discussion of developments as Lourdes Lopez prepares to take over the directorship of MCB in 2013-14. First of all, from Claudia La Rocco, in the NY Times today: It seems to me that MCB has already tried an experimental connection with a modern dance company, Maximum Dance, several years ago. Nothing came of it. It will be interesting to see if Lopez can pull this off. Will MCB dancers be involved? (Morphoses is a pick-up company, so anyone can dance in any program I suppose.) Is there an audience for this kind of dance in Miami, where MCB itself has not always fit in well with the expectations of the Cuban classical ballet audience? Does anyone have thoughts about this? Or is it too early in the game? http://www.nytimes.c...?_r=1&ref=dance

APOLOGIES for replying to -- or adding to -- my own post: Polyphonyfam and sandik, you might want to check out Charles Rosen's article, "Freedom and Art," in the New York Review of Books. May 10, 2012 Rosen notes that Rosen is discussing the ability of music to express "freedom." But the point could apply equally well to a variety of other "meanings," including the narrative themes we find in ballet.

I join the others: thank you, onxmyxtoes. Leigh Witchell, on Facebook, has posted a fine description of the evening -- with more emphasis on the curtain call than on the performance -- that did not make it into the New York Post. I'm not sure how to link to individual Facebook posts, but below is the link to Leigh's page. The post we are talking about was dated just an hour ago. His Post interview with Corella is also on Facebook. https://www.facebook...nceleighwitchel "Short Takes. Swan Lake. ABT. June 28."

I'm embarrassed to admit that until I saw this I had never heard of Matt Harding or his project. As with you, EvilNinjaX, this boosts my faith in humanity. Freeze any frame and you see individuals cooperating with each other, trying to learn and contribute to the performance, and having a wonderful time. When I noticed the brief clip from Robbins Island, the notorious South African prison settlement during the apartheid period, I found myself feeling: "Things CAN get getter. So can human beings. And dancing definitely helps." P.S. Loved the very brief pas de deux with the enthusiastic seal. (From San Diego.)

Sandik, I l really like the following: What you are describing is something dancers often talk about. Your point suggests to me that we, in the audience, experience something similar. Certainly this experience has been much enhanced, for me, by starting ballet classes relatively late in life. Makes sense. There is a parallel to this in the story line of many of these ballets. People weep but are also exhilarated -- truly joyful -- as they sit in the theater and allow the travails of Odette/Siegfried, Romeo/Juliet, and other star crossed lovers sweep over them.

A "grand celebration of life" !!!! Maravilloso. Ballet is a great way to celebrate life, as you and your mother know so well. What lovelier place to celebrate all this than the Garnier with something so lovely and lighthearted. Wishing you all the best. Don't forget to report all the details.

Polyphonyfan.as I read your list I found that I could hear just about every piece you mention. Some melodies came instantly; others took a little time to locate and retrieve. I thought of a time a few years ago when, during a performance of Carmen, I could hear the distinct sound of humming coming from the balcony. It was a spontaneous, and possibly unconscious, sing-along to the Habanera, another haunting auditory icon. What is it about these "hauntiing" melodies that makes them stick in the mind and makes so many of us want to sing along? In other words, what qualities do they share? All are extremely cantabile. Each can be hummed or vocalized rather easily, whether or not your have any musical training. Most are "romantic" in feel (or at least amenable to romantic interpretations in performance) -- with longish but not over-long flowing lines that permit the use of rubato phrasing and even a touch of schmalz. (A smaller category are especially sprightly, with a pronounced rhythm.) Another question that has been puzzling me: why have only two of us so far mentioned the Berceuse from Firebird. It has a very long melodic line; it is quite complex rhythmically, is romantic in a touching, eery way, and is very beautiful. I often find myself thinking of it and recalling the chroeography (Balanchine's version). Perhaps the length of the line, and the complexity of the rhythm within the line, are the problems?