bart

Thanks, hbl, for the really thoughtful and informative report. I visited the Saratoga "season" long ago, and it's good to hear details about how well it has developed. The size of the audience puts the original local report in perspective. And it's good to see how well the local facilities (including housing) support the enterprise. Re the curtain-warmer. Isn't it great to have dancers who can do this well. As for smallish attendance -- it's one of those pleasures of attending dance that I'm GLAD most ticket-buyers either don't know about or care about.

We're getting pretty close to my original profession here, and I ALSO like and admire the Vidal novel, which is based on quite a sophisticated knowledge and understanding of the period and is (IMO) by far his best history-based work. Vidal, made it possible for historical novelists to tell complex truths about the past through focusing on intelligently drawn characters. He also paved the way for academic historians to go deeper into the personalities, quirks and warts, too, and to be more questioning and skeptical about inherited pieties about the Founding Fathers. Of course that was the end of the Nixon and Vietnam War era, when we were all more than ready for a new approach.

vagansmom, you may be able to answer a question I've always had about Kelly. His body seems so compact ... dense. Not what I usually associate with dancers. Yet he's extraordinarily graceful. This seems true in SPITE of what our eyes -- or expectations -- tells us about his body? How did he create the illusion, if that's what it was? Also, am I right in recollecting that he suggests lightness by moving fast horizontally while avoiding on the whole vertical jumps which would resquire ballon? Maybe the answers tot these questions would have something to do with his strong and rather direct connection to the music.

Geat review. Thanks, helene. It's interesting how often one finds oneself, when encouraging friends so see a movie, talking about the annoying things it DOESN'T have or do. Good to hear of an exception to all the low expectations out there.. Incidentally, how old is the director? Surely over 40. Does HE find it hard to get good work opportunities?

Lots of great advice here. I agree that it's not the most focused or ravishing love story of the bunch. But the production is magnificent -- truly stunning. The Bastille stage is vast, the sets rich and breathtaking. The camera alternates angles, including some from above during the corps work, which allows you to see patterns you don't usually see. The sheer scale of it -- and thrilling, I think, especially the movement of masses of dancers in the crowd and ball scenes. Plus the most male fighting/dueling scenes. (Except, maybe, the Northern Ballet in England.) On the negative, the balcony scene and the final tomb scenes are less effective than the above, which I guess tells you something. They are, however, wonderfully danced. But, another plus: you can SEE everything -- not to be sneezed at in ballet videos, often the kingdom of muddy lighting, over-filtering, misplaced camera angles, look-at-me-the-videographer cutting, cut-off extremities,etc. About the "steps, steps, and then more steps." criticism. I understand where this is coming from, but I recall that similar things were said about Balanchine early on. And, if you replace "steps" with "notes", don't you have what some contemporaries found unappealing in Mozart? Truly wonderful dancers (esp. the corps and secondary roles) moving beautifully to great dance music -- what could be wrong with that?

Ballet without feeling is D-E-A-D-L-Y, rekoretzky. We all need it. Thanks for your concern and information, which really addressed the issue, answered our questions, and reminded me (for one) why I was delighted about the Saratoga move all those decades ago.

Accoding to IMGArtists.com website, the Miami City Ballet tour engagements for 2005-06 (not including performances in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and Naples) are: 9/30/05 U of Florida, Phillips Center, Gainesville FL 10/23/05 Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council, Texarkana, TX 10/25/05 U of Texas at Tyler, R. Don Cowan Fine and Peforming Arts Center, Tyler, TX 10/28-29/05 KU. of texas at Austin Peforming Arts Center, Austin TX 4/23/06 Christopher Newport University, Ferguson Center for the Arts, Newport News, VA 4/25-26/06 Long Island U., Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, Greenvale, NY 4/30/05 Purchase College, The Performing Arts Center, Purchase, NY 5/2/06 Princeton, NJ, McCarter Theatre

I confess that, when I saw the title of this thread, I thought it referred to a series of children't books, so didn't read it. Sort of like Peter Rabbit long ago. Re Old Fashioned and Proust. He's a favorite of mine, and the success of Alain de Botton's "How Proust can Chanage Your Life" a few years ago suggests there still a following. But for those who REALLY can't into Proust, you might try the excellent illustrated adaptation (a large-format comic book really, with exquisite drawings) of selections. General title of the three volumes translated so far is "Remembrance of Things Past." Included: "Combray" (childhood); "Within a Budidng Grove", parts 1 and 2 (adolescence). Adapted by Stephane Heuet and Stanislas Brezet. Art and Color: Stephane Heuet. Publisher: Comicslit (an imprint of Nantier, Beall, Minoustchine Publishing, Inc., NY) I found it on the internet. Really well done.

I saw the piece as an extreme example of Attention Deficit Disorder.

Interesting article with some beautifully expressed, classic Acocella appercus and opinions. (Not to mention a fascinating review of Don Quixote, which will probably be controvesial on Ballet Talk. Maybe someone should start a new thread.) About Corella: Acocella is in sync with John Rockwell, who recently called him "the ultimate poetic dancer." Here's Accocella on Corella: "the most complete artist -- the one who combines a great skill with the greatest warmth -- in the male ranks of American ballet today." I haven't seen enough of him to comment, but I hope she's right. He's certainly maturing, growing in a direction unaccessible to some of his colleagues. We need someone like that. Acocella has an ability to fix an impression or description in a few memorable words that make you "see" what she has seen. She shares this with her predecessor at The New York, Arlene Croce. Here's my current favorite Acocellism, from this review: QUOTE: "The choreography [of Sylvia] shows Ashton's tender connoisseurship of the classical-ballet vocabulary. The dancers not only do a thousand fabulous things in the air; when they land, they do so in an equally pointed, scrupulous manner, as if they were stepping into a pair of new shoes." P.S. I was delighted to see Acocella's description of Suzanne Farrell's short solo in Act III of Don Q -- the one captured on pirate film -- as "the most remarkable piece of dancing I ever saw." Me too.

Good question. "The Bolshoi" is indeed a world-class, prestige brand name, and people respond to it. To be fair, the company obviously works hard to maintain the brand image, and selective touring is part of that. I think "New York City Ballet" in a brand-obsessed part of the world like East Asia would be as successful as as the Bolshoi in New York or Rolex and Versacci in Japan.

I must have multiple personalities, because (after several attempts at the survey) I came up with Balanchine, Petipa, Fokine, and a few others not even on the list of choices, including Robbins.

Great link! Great tribute to the spiritual and healing powers of dancing. I love the line, "When things get tough, the tough go dancing." (Think of the boogie craze in World War II.) The article brought to mind the new award-winning documentary "Red Hot Ballroom," which I missed here in its brief appearance in theaters, but which I've heard great things about. My friends who saw it all calll it inspirational. Has anyone seen it? What did you think? Here's a LINK TO A CBS TV report on the New York City public school program that is bringing 30 ballroom instructors into inner city schools. Kind of reminds me of Jacques d'Amboise's wonderful National Dance Institute programs and performances. Come to think of it, there was a documentary about that, too, in the 80s: "He makes me feel Dancin'"

I don't quite know the words for the difference I see -- especially when compared with personal memories of the 50s and 60s supplemented by the few commercial videos of the 70s. But the attack is sharper than Miami. There's a quality of risk-taking, almost despately so in some of Balanchine's 70s videos. That is not there at Miami, though the great attention to detail is. This is not a huge difference, but something I've felt since I first saw Miami -- a company which, incidentally, is wonderful, wonderful.

cargill, thanks for the reference! Now Amanda McKerrow -- there's a wonderfully expressive dancer I'd love to have seen in this role.

Thanks, oberon, for your thoughtful responses to the questions I raised. You've convinced me about SPAC (I was always for keeping the connection). And I can see the problems with US touring -- though numerous non-American companies do it). The lack of interest in video, however, is still perplexing -- especially when other companies like Paris Opera, Royal Ballet, Kirov, etc., are getting quite active in this area. Those of us who love the Balanchine repertoire and have seen how time and distance can bring about changes, whether you approve of them or not, can't help but feel that there should be an ongoing campaign to make a performance record of Balanchine's work. AND to make it available to the young dancers, educators, and audiences of the future. I recently spoke with a young dancer who just completed the Summer Intensive at Harid. She and her home studio -- in Maryland -- are very interested in Balanchine. But other than a few local-ish performances, she's never actually seen Balanchine danced. Ditto our local professional company, whose dancers have performed several Balanchine ballets -- set by visitors from NYC -- but are unfamiliar with virtually ALL the others. They know Balanchine is a great name, but not really WHY. Miami Ballet -- a major preserver/presenter of Balanchine -- has Edward Villella and access to the best Balanchine coaches. Their style is impeccable/ ditto their speed. But the feeling (more legato, more gentle, less urban-intense) is quite different from NYCB in Balanchine's day or even today. So there's work to be done. Whoever does it. Or where.

I'm sorry to have hurt feelings by asking questions, and certainly did not mean to offend anyone as deeply as I appear to have done. I've followed the NYCB since the mid-50s. I revere the Balanchine legacy and all those who keep it alive. I think the work -- and the dancers who perform it -- are great treasures that deserve to be shared with as many people as possible. My questions were entirely in that spirit. Thanks, hans, for your own questions.

Good question. I hope one of our Russian ballet mavens answers it. The Kirov version hans desribes reminds me of the prologue to ABT's Swan Lake, where you get to see Odette captured (enslaved) by Rothbart. It sets the context of innocence trampled on by evil (lust, greed, or whatever). I echo dirac's thoughts about the ABT televised Corsaire. Those cringe-making comments by the dancers suggested to me that they were mouthpieaces for the artistic director. The vision they suggested made me think of plots frequently acted out by Olive Oyl, Bluto and Popeye. Smirk/wink. I'm not saying that this ballet should be played like an anti-slavery tract, but the original Byron poem -- which audiences at the first performances would most likely have known -- is full of passion and real feeling about the justice and injustice of what is going on. And it seems odd, in our day, to turn these characters into inhabitants of the Land of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Ditto to all. The very best movie watching is an urban art house, mid-afternoon, when you have a day off. Rainy day, preferably. The all the other times, Independent Film Channel and Sundance help. A DVR (Tivo-style) and a good tv program guide can open up films on cable you didn't know were there. Best of all is the aesthetic: "I'd rather watch a live performance than all but the greatest films." That's led us to wonderful student work, small theaters, experimental companies, etc.

I guess my questions did not speak for themselves. Nor was my real attachment to NYCB -- especially its great, great, unique history -- and wish for it to make its art available to greater numbers of people. I did not intend in any way to suggest anything else. I agree with Perky and assume that many, many fans not fortunate enough to live in or travel regularly in metropolitan NY (or the Adirondacks) would agree. I'd add the question of the NYCB's apparent lack of concerned about the distribution of its vision through film (past and future). How can young dancers -- and serious dance lovers who happen to live outside the magic circle -- learn the Balanchine style without seeing it performed at its best? I'd still like to get an idea of whether NYCB and its fans -- including you, Farrell Fan -- consider that the company is doing the right thing by putting so many eggs in this particular Saratoga basket. And if so, why? Oberon makes valid points. But I would think that the company has a responsibility to devise strategies to attempt, at least, to address them. "Dwindling audiences" -- true. But we are talking about one specific "dwindling audience" in a particular venue which the company has chosen to make its major non-Lincoln Center performance site. Is this the best possible priority? ""It does not surprise me": no, but it DOES surprise me that there's so much passive acceptance of in the cultural communityh, as though lack of audience is always the fault of dumb people or vulgar culture. Wouldn't the dancers and others RATHER bring their art to larger audiences? Wouldn't the big donors feel the same way? "Touring" is costly -- yes, but others do it. And I'd be surprised if wealthy donors would not support it (NYC patriotisim, etc.) if seriously courted. I'm not talking about the old 4-month treks around Europe. And, God knows, NYCB excels in the kind of cost-effective program that doesn't require 80 dancers, elaborate costumes, or cumbersome sets. The old NYCB acted as though they had a mission to expose larger audiences to their Balanchine repertoire, challenging music, and splendid dancers and style. What about the current company?

This humorous take on ballet by a reviewer for The Saratogian refers twice to small audiences -- apparently only 1/3 full during the peformance he discusses. Can this be true? Is it typical? If so, it's clear that SPAC is no Tanglewood. Nor Jacob's Pillow. Just how good an idea is this commitment for NYCB? With other companies touring (like San Francisco) or developing long-term relationships with public television (like ABT), why does NYCB -- which rarely tours or appears on public television any more -- continue to devote so much time and so many resources to this rather low-profile engagement?

Anyone seen the current tour of Tango Flamenco? (I know it was up in Montreal and Toronto recently.) There have been several threads on Ballet Talk recently about "fusion" choreography, usually referring to some combination of ballet-modern. I just saw an evening entitled "Tango Flamenco" -- performed by the Spanish Compania Talent Danza, and created and choreographed by the company's artistic director, Antonio Najarro. Najarro also danced in each piece -- and what a good dancer he is. The company consists of 6 stunning women, 5 men who were both solid and quick, a contemporary flamenco band and (excellent) singer and a "nuevo tango" orchestra. Here the obvious fusion was tango and flamenco -- though hand and arm movements and footwork were mostly derived from flamenco and there was relatively little sustained tango dancing even in the tango second half. There were numeous recognizable touches of Bejart-style ballet (but no jumps, true to the grounded traditions of flamenco and tango), Graham (including one solo with a textbook illustration of contraction and release), and show biz gestures and panache from both Fosse and Flatlley. This might sound awful, but it wasn't. Quite the contrary It ws done so artfully, seamlessly, and with such conviction by each dancer, that it was actually one of the great strengths of the work. There was a unified choreographic vision to the whole program (consisting of what could be peformed as separate dance). The reliance of basic ballet steps and positions to hold it all together (returning to pointed toe, standard pirouettes, etc., with a few double tours en l'air, etc.) was especially nice to see. They -- and the flamenco hand, arm and torso movements -- held it all together. Colorful and beautifully dance-able costumes, simple but colorful lighting and backgrounds, and placement of each band at the back of the stage all contributed to the effect. The audience went wild -- a rare event indeed in this neck of the woods. On the drive home my companion mentioned that each dancer seemed to remain an individual while never ceasing to be part of the ensemble, and that each seemed 100% committed to the performance. It's as if each had been told that Mr. DeMille was in the audience tonight. We were near the front of the orchestra so could see faces and eyes, ,and I didn't see any instances of wandering attention. This was a group that knew how to dance like this was the most important performance of their lives. I could think of several ballet company directors -- and certain members of their companies -- would would benefit from seeing how this can be done. And how it thrills the audience. And did I mention how good and charismatic a dancer Antonio Najarra is?

I'm learning so much. Thanks Hans and nlkflint for your distinct professional perspectives. Thanks Old Fashioned for the stunning photographs.

Leigh, I just had a chance to turn to your link to the 2001 discussion. It's very high level, and I plan on finishing it very soon. A few points from the first few posts surprised me, though. My response to news about the relative cost of mounting these choreographers' work is: WHAT !?!?!?!? My reaction to the ballet company is: WHAT !?!?!?!? (Is there a "STUPEFACTION" smilie?)

Query: are "audience" and "subscribers" the same thing? Anyone involved in the administration of a ballet company have any ideas about this? My gut feelling is that the contemporary stuff is aimed mroe at attracting new audiences (in itself a vital goal) while the classics is aimed more at the subscribers. Donors can fit in either camp. Of course NONE of this applies to subscribers who are members of Ballet Talk.