miliosr
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Posts posted by miliosr
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Sarasota Ballet has announced its 30th anniversary season for 2020-21:
https://www.sarasotaballet.org/events/subscribe-30th-anniversary-season
Program 1 - October 23-25, 2020
George Balanchine - Donizetti Variations
Ricardo Graziano - Amorosa
Paul Taylor - Company B
Program 2 - November 20-21, 2020
Frederick Ashton's Birthday Offering and Dante Sonata
David Bintley's The Spider's Feast
Program 3 - December 18-19, 2020
Frederick Ashton - Romeo & Juliet
Program 4 - February 26-March 1, 2021
Peter Darrell - Othello
Will Tuckett - Changing Light
Yet to be announced third ballet
Program 5 - March 26-27, 2021
George Balanchine - Serenade
Mark Morris - The Letter V
Kenneth MacMillan - Elite Syncopations
Program 6 - April 9-10, 2021
The Sarasota Ballet Presents
Mark Morris Dance GroupProgram 7 - April 30–May 1, 2021
Agnes de Mille - Fall River Legend
Ninette de Valois - Checkmate
Bronislava Nijinska - Les Biches -
Yes, it is disappointing given that those Humphrey works don't have much of an active life outside of the festival circuit.
That being said, I'm more concerned about the fate of smaller companies like Limon. Sadly, I think we're going to see a lot of companies disappear before all this is over.
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After four seasons as artistic director of the Limon Company, Colin Connor is departing the company. Former Limon dancer Dante Puleio will be the new director. He is the sixth artistic director in the company's history after Doris Humphrey, Jose Limon, Ruth Currier, Carla Maxwell and Colin Connor.
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Anne Bass was also the victim of a very scary home invasion.
https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2007/08/michael-shnayerson-anne-bass-attack-200708
The 'Ups and downs with NYCB' article makes for good reading because it highlights why the debacle which led to Peter Martins' resignation happened: The Board was so tightly bound to Martins that they ended up being asleep at the wheel.
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A few thoughts regarding ABT's - at times - precarious financial situation . . .
ABT was never as fiscally sound as the New York City Ballet in part because of an overreliance on Lucia Chase's personal fortune to get them through hard times. Eventually, the company did get serious about diversifying its fundraising but that was a late development compared to other companies.
In addition, various shocks over the past 30 years have compounded ABT's fiscal problems. The profligacy of the Baryshnikov era left the company so deeply in debt by 1992 that everyone thought the company would fold permanently. So certain was the expectation of an implosion that no one was willing to take on leadership of the company except Kevin Mckenzie.
As fate would have it, this kicked off a new Golden Age at ABT as McKenzie, starting with a base that included Julio Bocca, Alessandra Ferri, Susan Jaffe, Julie Kent and Amanda McKerrow, added such future bold-faced names as Max Beloserkovsky, Jose Manuel Carreno, Angel Corella, Irina Dvorovenko, Paloma Herrera, Vladimir Malakhov and Ethan Steifel. He also developed in-house stars such as Herman Cornejo, Marcelo Gomes, David Hallberg and Gillian Murphy.
Even during this Golden Age, though, ABT had to contend with various fiscal crises. There was the dot.com implosion in 2000 which hindered fundraising and then the much larger and more serious Great Recession of 2008. So, for every financial gain the company has made over time, it has also endured some fairly significant financial shocks which have often set them back for years.
One more point to make: Before anyone praises the New York City Ballet to the heavens for keeping its dancers on salary, let's not forget that in 2008 they released all those dancers they deemed expendable as a response to the Great Recession. ABT, in contrast, worked out an arrangement with its dancers so that everyone took a pay cut but no one lost their jobs. I dare say that the New York City Ballet's response in 2020 is in part a reflection of how much bad press it received for its actions back in 2008.
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From a January 1972 Dance Magazine cover story on Natalia Makarova:
Antony Tudor's Romeo and Juliet, Natasha feels, is the most significant ballet she has danced so far [at ABT].
"Working with Tudor and being able to dance this ballet makes me feel that my decision to stay in the West was well worth it. I have learned so much by just watching Tudor in rehearsals and talking to him. I have danced three versions of Romeo and Juliet: the Lavrovsky version with music by Prokofiev, which I danced for eight years; Igor Chernyshov's, to music by Berlioz, which I never performed in public because it was considered too modern for Soviet audiences; and now Tudor's. I've had the opportunity to use totally different styles since Juliet - as choreographed for all three ballets - is portrayed differently. Tudor's version gives me enormous artistic satisfaction. I was quite amazed that the public here did not respond to this ballet with the enthusiasm it warrants. In Russia, I think the people would love it. To me, Tudor has created a masterpiece - a complete work. Each gesture becomes a painting. You see, all the poses are from the Renaissance. most of all Botticelli. When Romeo meets Juliet, they look like the archangel Gabriel and the Madonna in the Annunciation. I think, to understand this ballet, one should be more than familiar with painting. In my opinion, if an artist wants to achieve something - whether on the stage, in painting or in music - he must not stay within the limits of his own art. So I used every day to study different forms of art. To extend my horizons. The Renaissance intrigued me the most. I read a lot about it and was fascinated by the paintings of that period. For this reason I think I understood what Tudor wanted."
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5 hours ago, Roberta said:
the Sarasota Ballet has not cancelled its upcoming revival of Ashton's Romeo & Juliet, set for next weekend (25 March). Sarasota definitely has a senior population. They should reconsider keep the theatre open.
They've cancelled. I received an e-mail to that effect this afternoon.
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12 hours ago, Becki Lee said:
Just got my email from the Auditorium Theater—Chicago performances are cancelled.
I haven't received any notice from them. I went to their Web site to find out what's going on.
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I get that the strikes have had a big impact on the troupe's finances but this programming is kind of ho-hum. The only things that would excite me are the Roland Petit evenings (yea!) and Frederick Ashton's Rhapsody. Surprised that Raymonda isn't coming back given that there was only one performance before the strikes scuttled the rest. And didn't they just do an all-Kylian evening in 2016-17 as a replacement for the originally scheduled Benjamin Millepied/Antony Tudor double bill?
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On 2/9/2020 at 12:59 PM, nanushka said:
John Clifford has been advocating for Bugaku’s return to the repertory
That nothing new for him -- he does that periodically. In fact, if you follow his Instagram account regularly, you start noticing that there's a lot of repetition to it. The same stories and topics appear over and over again.
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I found out this weekend that John Karlen died on January 22nd at the age of 86. In the world of Dark Shadows, he will be remembered forever as Barnabas' cringing sidekick, Willie Loomis. Karlen also had great success in the 1980s playing Harvey Lacey (Harve!) on the detective show, Cagney&Lacey. (He also appeared in the legendary -- disastrous? - Broadway "run" of Tennessee Williams' play The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore with Tallulah Bankhead [!] and Tab Hunter [!!])
I can't say I was surprised by the news as I saw a clip of him at the 50th anniversary Dark Shadows convention and he was very frail. He had to be helped on stage by David Selby and Jerry Lacy. What did surprise me was his actual age. I would have put him in his mid-70s but he was born in 1933. So he would have turned 34 the year he joined the cast of Dark Shadows.
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The Limon company will be performing rarely seen dances by Doris Humphrey at Jacob's Pillow this summer:
"Their anniversary program begins with performances that correlate to the rare film of José Limón dancing solos from Humphrey’s iconic Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías at Jacob’s Pillow in 1946."
"The company also performs Doris Humphrey’s Air for G String—a grave, sculptural work set to Bach"
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The standoff continues although the dancers continue to rehearse for Giselle and the all-Balanchine program:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/13/arts/dance/paris-opera-ballet-strike.html
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I'll play (this will be very ABT-centric) . . .
I would like to see a sustained recommitment to the Antony Tudor repertory including (but not limited) to Continuo, Dark Elegies, Dim Lustre, Gala Performance, Jardin aux Lilas, The Judgment of Paris, The Leaves Are Fading, Pillar of Fire, Undertow and -- above all others - the complete Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.
From repertory, I would like to see revivals of Frederick Ashton's Les Patineurs and Les Rendezvous, Eugene Loring's Billy the Kid (w/ Aran Bell in the lead). Harald Lander's Etudes, Jose Limon's The Moor's Pavane, Leonide Massine's Gaite Parisienne and (echoing a previous poster) Clark Tippet's Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1.
Keep George Balanchine's Theme and Variations (which he created for ABT) and Symphonie Concertante (which was an important ABT revival in the 1980s) but ditch the rest of the Balanchine. ABT is not trained in Balanchine's method and style and the result is that they look foolish in comparison to the company across the Lincoln Center courtyard.
Give Jerome Robbins' Fancy Free (especially) and Agnes de Mille's Rodeo rests for a while.
Have Kevin McKenzie wean himself from jumping on whatever micro choreographic trend is happening at the moment. ABT just isn't that kind of company. (I freely admit this is a forlorn hope on my part.)
20 hours ago, Leah said:I wish NYCB would do a Rite of Spring - I know that Balanchine didn’t do it, but it’s the most famous Stravinsky ballet
According to Suzanne Farrell, Balanchine thought Maurice Bejart's version was the best version. Staging that at the New York City Ballet would certainly cause a lot of New York-based critics' heads to explode!
There's always the Pina Bausch version:
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On 12/17/2019 at 6:52 PM, miliosr said:
The Opera will be cutting it close as far as Abbagnato's retirement is concerned. Four of her scheduled performances have already been cancelled.
And her farewell is cancelled. The strike roils on . . .
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The Opera will be cutting it close as far as Abbagnato's retirement is concerned. Four of her scheduled performances have already been cancelled.
"La Marseillaise" at The Opera Bastille today:
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7 hours ago, dirac said:
it really is rather scary, for one thing.
The Halloween sequence is actually scarier than some of the movies in the Halloween franchise!
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5 hours ago, Josette said:
I hope Eleonora Abbagnoto gets to dance her scheduled farewell performance on the 23rd, but . . .
It's not looking good at the moment. For the Raymonda run of shows, the company performed once and the next 10 shows were all cancelled.
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5 hours ago, Josette said:
I hope Eleonora Abbagnoto gets to dance her scheduled farewell performance on the 23rd, but . . .
It's not looking good at the moment. For the Raymonda run of shows, the company performed once and the next 10 shows were all cancelled.
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On 12/20/2018 at 1:15 PM, dirac said:
it also works as an ensemble piece; you really do feel that you’ve gotten to know this family. (Garland hardly appears in what is arguably the most celebrated portion of the film, the Halloween sequence with O’Brien and the other children.)
I just love Tom Drake in this and his line readings (“The welsh rarebit was ginger peachy.”)
One of the strengths of Meet Me in St. Louis is that M-G-M cast it from strength from its contract roster -- not just Garland, O'Brien and Drake but Mary Astor, Leon Ames, Lucille Bremer and Marjorie Main as well.
The Halloween segment is justly celebrated but I always feel like it came out of an entirely different movie. As if M-G-M had scrapped a movie that wasn't working, salvaged the Halloween sequence and inserted it in Meet Me in St. Louis.
And Tom Drake was from the Brooklyn part of St. Louis.
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We'll see how many shows of Le Parc and Raymonda the company actually performs given the strikes that have led to several cancellations already.
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12 hours ago, Sebastian said:
There is a comment online (not on this forum) to the effect that the recent production of Jewels at the Vienna Staatsoper seemed less successful than the performances by the Royal Ballet in London in 2017. Further there has been criticism by others of the recent Jewels in Berlin.
So I was wondering if someone could explain these variations in quality, given how seriously the Balanchine Trust supervises everything? Are some authorised coaches more reliable than others? Or is this more about variable standards across different companies (such as the three listed above)? Or just the luck of the draw, subjective opinion meeting the vagaries of rehearsal and production?
One theory would be that the Trust has gotten too worldwide in trying to mount so many productions of Balanchine's work every year and quality has become uneven as a result. Another would be that too many company directors are programming Balanchine regardless of whether or not their companies have any stylistic or technical affinity for his work.
And then there's this:
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Maina Gielgud has taught the solo Squeaky Door (which Maurice Bejart created for and gave to her) to Maria Khoreva:
Gielgud talks about this and other matters (including the lost art of epaulement and her exposure to Lester Horton's technique) here:
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On 11/22/2019 at 7:10 PM, dirac said:
Vicki doesn’t change much, true, but then what can you do with Vicki?
The 1795 storyline is the beginning of the end for Vicky as a character. Vicky prior to and just after Barnabas' arrival still had a functioning brain. The clip I linked to above doesn't show it but there's additional dialogue after Barnabas finishes with the 'Josette Soliloquy. After an upset Carolyn flees the drawing room (with good reason given the content of Barnabas' story), Vicky begins peppering Barnabas with questions, particularly about his use of the word 'bloodless'. That is the Vicky I always liked -- the one who, early on, tended to be more perceptive than those around her. But the character of Vicky became more and more blanded out as the show became more and more supernatural; a fate which also plagued the characters of Carolyn Stoddard and Maggie Evans.
Is the Tudor Repertory Dead?
in Aesthetic Issues
Posted
From an October 1971 Dance Magazine review of American Ballet Theatre's revival of Antony Tudor's Romeo and Juliet:
"Antony Tudor's 'Romeo and Juliet,' first performed in 1943 and revived several times since, is more literary in tone than either the MacMillan or Cranko versions. It is Shakespeare with the passion muted. The ballet is part modern, part classical, in orientation, giving us pockets of common body language as well as passages of lyrical dance. The other versions lean more on spectacle and their style is operatic. Then, there is the difference in scores. The music of Frederick Delius for the Tudor version is delicate where Prokofiev's is enraptured. it is also less urgent and sweeping than its Russian counterpart.
Tudor is concerned with the essential elements of the story, so parts of the plot are either condensed or altered. He eliminates Juliet's journey to the friar's cell and has her take the potion in her bedroom after her parents force her to marry Paris. There is little banter between Romeo and his friends. Tudor foregoes a full-blown pas de deux for the balcony scene and instead has the suspicious nurse unknowingly interrupt the tete-a-tete between the lovers. The scene thus reinforces the sense of pervasive interference and makes their triumph over unfavorable odds more cogent. He also draws on the play within a play motif by having two girls sit downstage off to the side and observe most of the action. They are disinterested parties much as the Veronese duke is in the other versions."
ABT performed at the New York State Theater from July 22-August 8, 1971. The two pairs of leads for Romeo and Juliet were Carla Fracci/Ivan Nagy and Natalia Makarova/John Prinz.