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miliosr

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Posts posted by miliosr

  1. 1 hour ago, volcanohunter said:

    Not all ballets are keepers. But I wonder how many of Tomasson's 195 commissions are still being performed.

    Exactly. If you can count on one hand the number of commissions that have gained a permanent toehold in repertory, then the 195 number becomes a meaningless statistic. The dancers who danced in the commissions originally may have enjoyed the experiences but, ultimately, history will judge based on how many of those works survived in the San Francisco Ballet's repertory and spread beyond it.

    (I wouldn't count Tomasson's own works as 'commissions'. It doesn't matter what bucket you place them in, though. I don't think they will prove any more lasting than Lew Christensen and Michael Smuin's works did.) 

  2. On 1/18/2022 at 5:05 PM, Drew said:

    (Schools do seem to go through ups and downs. I remember how excited people were when they saw what was happening under Claude Bessy at the POB school.)

    On 1/18/2022 at 6:13 PM, pherank said:

    If you think about it, to produce principal-level talent out of a school takes years to see any results. Even if the first Level 3 class had, say, 3 principal-level talents in their ranks, it would take close to 15 years for those dancers to end up as principals. So it would take decades to yield any consistency. That's why I hope the gains made are not squandered.

    There would have been no Generation Nureyev in the 1980s if Claude Bessy hadn't taken charge at the Paris Opera Ballet school in the early 1970s. When did she take charge -- 71 or 72? So, in the span of a decade, she delivered to Nureyev that group of dancers who jolted the company back to life in the 80s. (Of course, not everyone is a Bessy admirer. She and Aurelie Dupont have traded insults in the French press over the years.) 

  3. 7 hours ago, Drew said:

    Tomasson had a super distinguished tenure at San Francisco. Bravo to him! But it wasn't an easy transition (as noted by others above) and he did/does bring in dancers from outside the company-- Mackay recently but quite a number of others -- not as guest artists but as soloists and principals, and I would be surprised if Rojo didn't do that as well.

    Leafing through my copy of the 'Look Book' from 2015 celebrating Helgi Tomasson's 30th anniversary with the company. there are 19 listed principals with accompanying bios and photos. Not a single one mentions the San Francisco Ballet School in their bios. So, at that point, the school hadn't been producing enough talent to obviate the need for Tomasson having had to go outside the company to either bring in dancers as principals and soloists or bring in dancers trained elsewhere as corps dancers and then develop them.

    To the extent the school is firing on all cylinders now, I think you have to give the credit to Patrick Armand, who became Assistant Director at the school in 2012. Now, how well he will work with Rojo remains to be seen. They both have personality to spare!

    1 hour ago, pherank said:

    To me, bringing in another version of Giselle, no matter how 'interesting', is not really pushing the art form forward. Hopefully she will continue the interest in new ballets, and new platforms to present them on.

    During the pandemic, I've been buying old issues of Dance Magazine on eBay. The June 1996 issue had an interesting feature about the men of San Francisco Ballet. Here are some equally interesting facts buried in the story:

    "Today only four of its [San Francisco Ballet's] sixty-three dancers and none of its active repertoire date from before Tomasson's reign. It is effectively a new company, changed from within."

    The company's going to change again under Rojo. How much so remains to be seen.

  4. 7 hours ago, Mashinka said:

    Perhaps SFB has better financial reserves?

    The San Francisco Ballet has deep pockets. It's probably the third richest American dance company after the New York City Ballet and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. So, not only can the board exceed what Tamara Rojo was earning in London, they can no doubt provide a very generous subsidy regarding housing.

    2 hours ago, pherank said:

    I'm just not sure what the attraction would be for Rojo.

    Perhaps the board thinks the repertory needs a major overhaul after 37 years with Helgo Tomasson. Rojo proved at the English National Ballet that's she's not afraid of making changes and, in fact, welcomes them. And, with those deep pockets, she can get away from the English National Ballet's starveling existence and build the kind of repertory she wants.

    Just speculating . . . 

     

  5. 20 hours ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:

    One can practically hear him sigh that they just don't make them like the Palais Garnier anymore.

    Which would be ironic considering Teachout rarely showed any interest in what was happening on the stage of the Garnier (or on any other European stage for that matter.) My guess is he was a strict Croceite in that regard. She loathed the dominant position John Cranko's Stuttgart Ballet came to hold in Europe both through Cranko's work and through the work of those who had some connection to the company - Kenneth Macmillan, Glen Tetley, John Neumeier, William Forsythe, Jiri Kylian. I suspect that loathing became an article of faith for him as a young critic.

    13 hours ago, FPF said:

    I lived in Wisconsin for a few years in the early 2000s and enjoyed attending plays at the American Players Theatre in the summers. As far as I can tell, Terry Teachout was the only major theater critic who ever traveled to Wisconsin to review them. I appreciate that he would regularly review plays at regional theaters around the country. 

    This will probably be one of his most important legacies. He never displayed a similar 'get-up-and-go' spirit with his dance writings, though. To the extent he travelled at all to write about dance, it was done fitfully and mostly to see Balanchine spinoff companies where he hoped to find some remnant of that mid-century American modernism Arlene Croce had found (and wrote about) at the New York City Ballet. But by the time Teachout made it to New York and started his life as a working New York critic, the modernism he had read about in The New Yorker in general and Croce's reviews in particular was already dead and gone. So, like Jennifer Homans, he was left proclaiming the 'death of dance'. (Teachout quite literally wrote a piece in 1996 [!] titled 'Who Killed Dance?)

  6. Terry Teachout also wrote about the arts for Commentary right up until his death.

    Dance was only ever a small part of his writings and, I have to say, not a very impressive part. I always got the impression from his dance writings that he had overread Arlene Croce and Lincoln Kirstein when he was young, and then became trapped in their biases. This led him to make sweeping declarations regarding the superiority of ballet to modern dance, which in turn led him to make some feckless predictions (i.e. that dancer/choreographer/artistic director Robert Weiss' ballets would soon be entering the repertories of ballet companies across America).

    I think the Croce/Kirstein influence in his work led him to miss what was going on in the ballet world; namely, that William Forsythe, Kenneth Macmillan and Jerome Robbins would become the dominant influences in the 21st century and not -- as he had predicted -- George Balanchine. 

  7. 4 hours ago, canbelto said:

    Helgi Tomasson himself cleaned house in a rather harsh way when he took over SFB.

    Memories are short. People forget how contentious that period and its aftermath were.

    32 minutes ago, sandik said:

    For many years, most of the companies on the west coast have been closely connected to the House of Balanchine -- it's looking like that will be shifting over the next few years.  I'm looking forward to seeing how this all develops.

    I was thinking about this after I heard the news. I don't associate Tamara Rojo with George Balanchine (or with Jerome Robbins for that matter). So, this represents a sea change for the company. Between the Christensen brothers and Helgi Tomasson, there's always been someone with a connection to the New York City Ballet in a position of power. (Power sharing in the case of Lew Christensen and Michael Smuin.)

    Also, what becomes of the Mark Morris repertory Tomasson commissioned? Morris made 8 dances for the company between 1994 and 2012. What becomes of the Yuri Possokhov repertory? The Tomasson repertory? I hope Helgi Tomasson isn't harboring illusions that the repertory he built up over four decades will enjoy a better fate than the repertory he tossed out when he took over in 1985.

    As for the dancers, we shall see. For instance, Aaron Robison left San Francisco Ballet to join English National Ballet and then returned to San Francisco Ballet after a year,

    26 minutes ago, California said:

    They could have continued a Balanchine heritage with Daniel Duell (Chicago) or Ib Anderson (Arizona) and for whatever reason passed over them..

    The problem with Andersen and Duell is that neither is as youngish as Tamara Rojo. I looked up Andersen and he turned 67 in December. I imagine Duell is a comparable age. So, even apart from the gender issue, the board probably wanted someone who is younger and will hopefully last in the position for awhile.

  8. Robert Gottlieb has a new book out simply titled Garbo. It's a combination biography (by Gottlieb) and Garbo reader with essays and comments by others.

    I haven't started reading my copy in earnest but I have leafed through the pages. While the book has plenty of pictures, most of them are ones I have seen before. Mark Vieira's Greta Garbo: A Cinematic Legacy has a much better selection of rare photos and stills.

    One little bit I did read involves Garbo's last, aborted picture for M-G-M. She was still on the roster in late 1942/early 1943 when she signed a $150,000 (about $2.4 million in 2020 dollars)  contract to make a picture titled The Girl from Leningrad. She was paid $70,000 upfront. When Garbo and Louis B. Mayer decided to cancel the picture in 1943, Mayer handed her a check for the remaining $80,000 but she refused to take it for work she hadn't done.

    Gottlieb also mentions how that period 1942/43 involved a revolution of sorts with the studio pushing out Garbo, Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Jeanette Macdonald and Myrna Loy in favor of Judy Garland, Greer Garson, Katharine Hepburn, Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner.  

     

  9. According to the 'Joan Crawford - Best of Everything site,' the US Library of Congress has named What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) to its National Film Registry. It was selected for preservation as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."  

    Baby Jane joins Grand Hotel (1932), The Women (1939), Mildred Pierce (1945), and Johnny Guitar (1954) as one of five Crawford films on the Registry list.

    Four decades, five films -- not a bad career longevity

  10. 6 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

    Maybe the target audience doesn't exist? At least not in a sufficiently large size to justify the production budget.

    I think two things can be true at the same time: That the target audience, which I'm assuming is primarily female and older, is wary of attending movies in a theatre, and that said audience (as volcanohunter notes) would not be large enough under normal circumstances to justify that kind of budget.

    Note: I'm assuming $100 million in production costs and $50 million in advertising. If the old "rule" still applies that a film has to earn twice its total budget to break even, then West Side Story would have to earn $300 million to claw its way out of a money-losing situation. It's not going to come close to doing that at theaters. Now, over a period of years, it may claw its way to break even status. But I doubt the studio will be happy settling for that outcome.

  11. West Side Story took a dive at the box office last weekend; dropping from $10.6 million in its first weekend to $3.7 million in its second. Not good for a movie that reputedly cost $100 million before promotional costs are taken into account.

    It may pick up some during the upcoming week between Christmas and New Year's. But I still question who the audience was for a big-budget remake of West Side Story when a more-or-less definitive version already exists.

  12. On 12/17/2021 at 7:46 PM, bingham said:

     Kevin Mc will be leaving ABT in 7 months ? Surely, ABT is looking for a new one now. There has been no official news  yet. Any ideas for possible candidates?

    Several couples spring to mind:

    Stella Abrera and Sascha Radetsky

    Irina Dvorovenko and Max Beloserkovsky

    Julie Kent and Victor Barbee

    Gillian Murphy and Ethan Stiefel

  13. Limon will be losing its executive director after 8 years:

    "It is with both sadness and gratitude that we announce that our Executive Director, Juan José Escalante, will be stepping down from the position effective December 31, 2021." 

    "After eight years of leadership, Juan José leaves the José Limón Dance Foundation financially solid, under good management, and on an upward trajectory. He is pursuing new horizons with another leading dance organization, and while we are not at liberty to disclose his new position, we wish him a bright and successful future there."

    In other news, Limon will be celebrating its COVID-delayed 75th anniversary with a 12 day stand (April 19-May 2, 2022) at the Joyce in New York. Repertory will include a reconstruction of Limon's Danzas Mexicanas (1939), revivals of Chaconne (1942) and Psalm (1967 - with the original score), and a first ever company performance of Waldstein Sonata (begun by Limon before his death in 1972 and finished by his assistant Daniel Lewis in 1975). There will also be a revival of Doris Humphrey's Air for the G String, and new work by Raul Tamez and Oliver Tarpaga.

    Finally, the company premiered a new, filmed version of The Winged (1966) tonight:

    The Winged Livestream | José Limón (limon.nyc)

     

     

  14. Thank you for posting this news.

    Guidi deserves major credit for programming revivals of Bronislava Nijinska's most important works: Les Noces (in 1981), Les Biches (in 1982) and Le Train Bleu (in 1989). These works are perfectly revivable if the will is there.

  15. On 10/29/2021 at 5:52 PM, dirac said:

    Dark Shadows really went off the rails toward the end, IMO, but I admit I don't find the 1840 storyline gripping.

    I enjoy the storylines from 1970 for their sheer audaciousness - Parallel Time to a ruined Collinwood in 1995 to 1970 to 1840 (via a mysterious stairway through time). But Dark Shadows did violate one of the primary rules of daytime soap operas -- you conserve storyline and stretch it out over an extended period of time. Dark Shadows burnt through storyline at such a clip that, even if the show had continued past spring 1971, they wouldn't have had much storyline left to film.

    Probably my two favorite periods on the show are pre-Barnabas/immediate post-Barnabas and 1970. Two very different eras and I like them for very different reasons. The former because Collinsport was more of a real place and the show achieved some stunning lighting effects in B&W. The latter again because of how audacious it was.

    I participated in a fun Webinar last night titled 'Gilded Age Mansions of Dark Shadows'. It covered all of the houses used to represent Collinwood and the Old House in the various incarnations of the franchise, particularly Seaview Terrace in Newport, which became the exterior stand-in for Collinwood. Fun fact: The Lyndhurst estate in New York, which was used as Collinwood for the two Dark Shadows features, actually has a Rose Cottage on it. Rose Cottage plays a huge part in the 1970 and 1840 storylines.

  16. On 10/11/2021 at 12:38 PM, dirac said:

    Last night I saw “It’s Alive” from 1974 on TCM. Briefly, something goes seriously wrong in the delivery room when Frank and Lenore Davis are having their second child and soon a killer newborn is terrorizing Los Angeles. Anxiety and fears about childbirth, sexuality, and science are not new to the horror genre and they all get a workout here. The movie is very watchable despite the cheesy dialogue and amusingly stilted acting from the supporting cast. Distinctive score from Bernard Herrmann.  The movie has an open ending and there were two sequels. 

    Has anyone else seen it? Any opinions on the denouement?

    I saw it in the 70s but I don't have strong memories of it. I do think it's a testament of what you can do on a low budget if you have a lot of ingenuity.

    This Halloween season I've been watching the 1840 storyline on Dark Shadows, which first aired in the fall of 1970 - winter of 1971. After the malevolent spirit Gerard Stiles destroys Collinwood in 1970, Dr. Julia Hoffman returns to the year 1840 via a magical stairway through time to unravel all the mysteries that led to Collinwood's destruction in the present. Even though the show was nearing cancellation in 1971, there are so many good characters and plot twists in this final big storyline. Oh, and a young actress fresh out of drama school by the name of Kate Jackson is on hand as governess Daphne Harridge!

  17. From a June 1985 Dance Magazine news story about Guggenheim Awards winner Arlene Croce:

    Croce . . . is writing a book on the ballets of George Balanchine. "It's going to be a concentrated study of Balanchine's methods and technique," Croce said. 'But the work won't really start until the fall."

    36 years and counting . . . it's the Chinese Democracy of dance books!

  18. Interesting tidbit from a November 1976 Dance Magazine feature on dance in Philadelphia:

    "The Philadelphia Civic Ballet owned a name which kept [Barbara] Weisberger from founding a Philadelphia Ballet [note: my emphasis] and she had to settle for the Pennsylvania Ballet, a name that still strikes a provincial note."

    So maybe the name change was a way of honoring her wishes after her death??

    (I wouldn't agree that Pennsylvania Ballet sounds more "provincial" than Philadelphia Ballet.)

  19. On 9/12/2021 at 2:12 PM, dirac said:

    By her own admission she learned a lot from Bejart and committed herself to his work,

    To her credit, Tobi Tobias had this to say in Dance Magazine (April 1975) regarding Farrell's return to the New York City Ballet:

    "Her Bejart schooling has helped her, most specifically, in developing a beautifully sinuous use of the arms and hands. Their movement is fluid, rich and heavy, motivated from the back, a corrective contrast to the flailing and clawing, the just plain frantic sketchiness so often criticized in the New York City Ballet's tossaway ports de bras."

  20. 26 minutes ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:

    It could be that the company has chosen to time the promotions to correspond with the retirements, either because it wants to or because it needs to.

    Given the very contentious year the company has had with the orchestra regarding financial matters, the management may very well be staggering promotions so that there's a direct 1:1 link between retirements and promotions.

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