miliosr

Is anyone familiar with the ABT 35th Anniversary Gala booklet from 1975? (It was part of the Dance Horizons Spotlight Series.) From what I can gather, it consisted of 24 pages (with photos by Louis Peres and Dina Makarova and text by Agnes de Mille and Lucia Chase.) I haven't had any luck finding a used copy on the Web and was wondering if anyone knew anything about it.

Does anyone know what the Limon Dance Company is up to these days? They did a short season in California in January but, to my knowledge, nothing since. I check the Web site from time-to-time but it doesn't look like there are any performances scheduled until summer (at Kaatsbaan in upstate NY) and fall (at The Joyce). Anyone have any information?

You're welcome nysusan!

I hope I didn't sound too harsh about Wiles. Her performance was fine -- it just paled in comparison to Hallberg's. Seeing him, I was reminded of (I think) Arlene Croce's comment about a dancer having "a center stage radiance that cannot be taught." Boy, does Hallberg have IT!

I attended the 03/27 performance of Swan Lake w/ David Hallberg and Michele Wiles. (This was the truncated, "family friendly" performance.)

Overall, I was favorably impressed by ABT's version of Swan Lake. The corps was "together" (or at least much more so than what I was expecting given all the negative remarks I had read on this board) and the soloists performed well. I could have lived without some of the costumes (particularly on the male dancers) but it wasn't a major thing for me. And I kind of liked The Swamp Thing!

Anyway, on to what everyone wants to know -- Hallberg and Wiles. I may disappoint some people with what I'm about to say but I thought Hallberg far outperformed Wiles. Or, maybe a better way to put it is that he "outpresenced" her. They both danced absolutely correctly in a technical sense. It's just that you could feel his charisma all the way back to where I was sitting (about half way back on the main floor) and she didn't register in the same way. In fact, whenever they were together on stage, I found my eye drifting toward him instead of her because he was just SO charismatic. So, while the overall performance was fine, I did feel that a curious imbalance occurred where he was projecting up to the rafters (but not in a vulgar or clownish way) and she wasn't projecting much past the first few rows.

One more thing: The movie Weatherman with Nicolas Cage and Michael Caine was filming across the street from the Opera House that day. Since I got to the Opera House a little early, I found a nice vantage point to watch the filming while I waited -- which happened to be in front of the stage door. So, there was an added bonus of seeing various ABT dancers step outside for some fresh air or a cigarette break!