miliosr

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123819010175560705.html Here's the money quote: "The choreographer [balanchine] hoped to make his mark and that of his company with fresh and experimental new works in a dance world that was then all too ready, in Balanchine's view, to see ballet in a kind of bell jar of nostalgia, where revered works from the past were a company's ne plus ultra." Oh, he doesn't see the irony in what he's written!

One aspect of the Ballet Review interview w/ Wiles which hasn't been mentioned is the brief discussion of ABT's policy of performing works by American modern dance choreographers (and her subtle criticism of it.) The interviewer asks Wiles if she would like to perform in works by Martha Graham, Mark Morris and Paul Taylor. She responds that she had performed in Graham's Diversion of Angels but that, "t takes time to get into the technique and figure out what Graham is all about. What I got was a dusted-over version and it was very rushed. I'm sure it's great, but I was just throwing it out there. It wasn't really what it was supposed to be." This is exactly why Graham, during her lifetime, refused to allow other companies to perform her works!

At the Corella Ballet Web site, I see they've listed City Center performances for March 15-21, 2010.

Regarding dancers we don't realize we'll miss until their gone, the Joni Mitchell lyric from "Big Yellow Taxi" applies: Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone They paved paradise and put up a parking lot . . .

I'll take the bait, nijinsky1979 . . . I've seen Wiles twice in Chicago: Swan Lake in 2004 (with David Hallberg) and Sleeping Beauty in 2008 (again with Hallberg.) At the 2004 performance, I thought she was quite assured technically but curiously flat in terms of projecting any kind of emotion to the audience. She was a technically sound automaton, basically. At the 2008 performance (by which time I'm assuming the "de-Vaganovification" process had already begun), she had captured the worst of both worlds -- she was still flat in terms of projecting anything to the audience but now her technique looked very unsteady (she was straining HARD to maintain the balances in the Rose Adagio.) I've said before and I'll say again that I don't think Hallberg is the ideal partner for her -- I find that they cancel each other out in terms of looks. I would really like to see ABT push a Wiles/Alex Hammoudi partnership but that doesn't look like it's going to happen.

Bottom Two: Denise/Maks and Holly/Dmitry with Denise and Maks leaving. Thoughts: Steve deserved to go (he really was that bad on Monday night) but Denise was the next best option. She looked like she was on the verge of nervous collapse every time she danced and her dancing was of a poor quality. Also, unlike Steve, she has a large "anti" fan base (due to her tabloid-worthy divorce from Charlie Sheen, her ill-advised reality TV program on E! and her "homewrecking" antics with Heather Locklear's husband) that would have finished her off soon enough anyway.

I couldn't put my finger on what irritated me so much about that Portfolio article, sandik, but your post made me realize what it was: the implied suggestion (intended or not) that Russell and Stowell were deficient in some way and that Pacific Northwest Ballet needed the Whiz Kid from New York to save the day.

bart had asked why tormented figures/outsiders held such a fascination for Jose Limon. From what I know about him, I would say that there were several things at work (in terms of his personality and experiences): 1) He was born in Mexico in 1908 and his parents raised him as a Catholic. Even though he fell away from the organized Catholic Church in adulthood, I would say that he remained profoundly Catholic until his dying day. I think he carried with him his whole life long the Catholic sense that Eden cannot be recaptured and that mankind had fallen from a state of grace. As such, he gravitated to Biblical/historical/literary subjects who, in some sense, had also fallen from a state of grace -- Othello, Adam, Judas, etc. 2) No doubt contributing to this innate suspicion of the perfectibility of man and utopian schemes to reclaim Eden were the very real events of his adolescence and early adulthood: a) A younger sister died at a very young age; b) Gunmen shot and killed his uncle (before his eyes) as unrest swept Mexico; c) A younger brother died as the Limon family fled Mexico; and d) His mother died at the age of 34, worn out by repeated childbirths. (Limon blamed his father for this and said to him, "Why do you cry? You killed her. And God permitted you.") 3) Arriving in the United States from Mexico, he felt like an outsider in the English-speaking world. While he would go on to become a major American cultural figure in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s, I think he always carried with him a sense of being "other" -- too American to be truly Mexican and too Mexican to be truly American. Take this armchair psychoanalysis for what it's worth . . .

Hmmm. I didn't realize this was happening concurrently with Missa Brevis: http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/article/2009/...-m-dance-depart I can't speak to the issues which provoked This (although the article intimates that the dissension stemmed from the student performance of Missa Brevis in February rather than the Limon company performance of the same work in March.) Regardless, this article would surely have given Jose Limon cause for sorrow . . .

Judges Scores from Week 3: 01 27pts Gilles/Cheryl (samba) 01 27pts Melissa/Tony (foxtrot) 01 27pts Shawn/Mark (foxtrot) 04 25pts Lil' Kim/Derek (samba) 05 24pts David/Kym (foxtrot) 06 23pts Chuck/Julianne (foxtrot) 06 23pts Ty/Chelsie (foxtrot) 08 20pts Lawrence/Edyta (samba) 09 17pts Holly/Dmitry (samba) 10 16pts Denise/Maks (samba) 11 15pts Steve-O/Lacey (foxtrot) 12 10pts Steve/Karina (samba)

You managed to say in one paragraph, Helene, what the writer of the Portfolio article failed to say over the course of the entire article. Still, was Romeo and Juliet a hit because of Peter Boal's outreach efforts or because he brought in a version of a classic that struck a chord with the younger audience? In other words, was it a triumph of outreach or a triumph of programming?? Or both??? (Sorry if I'm being argumentative but I find questions like these endlessly interesting!)

And the review concludes . . . The last work on the Northrop bill was Jose Limon's Missa Brevis (1958). Limon created Missa Brevis after he returned from a 1957 United States State Department-sponsored tour of Europe. As part of the tour, his company had travelled to Eastern Europe, including Poland. When they reached Poland, Limon and the other company members were stunned to see that Poland was still in ruins even though it had been 12 years since the conclusion of World War II. (As Carla Maxwell noted in her pre-performance chat, the Nazis and the Soviets had razed Warsaw to the ground.) What struck Limon about this was the resiliency of the Polish people in the face of widespread destruction and how they had not experienced any crisis in faith despite the hardships they faced. Limon resolved to make a dance about these "believers". Before he returned to the United States, however, Limon -- who had long since experienced a crisis of faith with Catholicism -- attended Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve in Seville, Spain. He found that Mass to be an "empty ritual" and decided to create a Mass of his own. He now had the raw elements for Missa Brevis at his disposal -- the community of believers on the one hand and the Outsider (himself) on the other. For the music, Limon chose Zoltan Kodaly's Missa Brevis in Tempore Belli, which is set to organ and chorus. The dance itself requires 22 dancers. Since the Limon company is modest in size (fluctuating between 12-15 dancers at any given time) and is not attached to a specific theater (with an in-house orchestra or chorus), the company initiated the Missa Project several years ago to keep Missa Brevis in active repertory. As part of the Missa Project, the company (a) either partners with a college or university dance program to provide the additional dancers needed for the performance, or (b) recruits dancers from the local community. In this instance, the Limon company recruited nine student dancers from the University of Minnesota Dance Department for the performance. Former Limon company member and current Limon stager Sarah Stackhouse taught Missa Brevis to 22 students in September and October 2008 and then returned in January to complete the staging for student performances in February 2009. Nine members of the student cast then joined the Limon company for a two week residency which culminated in the March 19th performance. See the students speak about their experience here: http://www1.umn.edu/urelate/newsservice/Mu...limon_dance.htm For the performance, the company also partnered with the Oratorio Society of Minnesota (a 60-voice choral ensemble based in the Twin Cities) to sing Kodaly's work. Helen Jensen performed on the organ. The narrative of Missa Brevis is quite simple. A community gathers to celebrate its faith while an Outsider (originally Limon but now danced by Francisco Ruvalcaba) attempts to join in but can never quite become part of the believing community. I must say that I found Missa Brevis to be altogether the most beautiful dance work I have ever seen -- I was awed by it, basically. The individual variations are so, so beautiful but what really captured me were the group sections in which the 21 members of the community danced and breathed as one organism. From the opening grouped pose to the concluding one, the dancers were of one mind and body; perfectly conveying Limon's idea of a spiritual community with an unshakeable resolve. The nine student dancers fit in admirably with the Limon dancers and the uninformed viewer never would have known they weren't members of the company. What really set Missa Brevis apart from other dances for me, however, was the central dilemma of the piece -- the Outsider wanting to be part of the spiritual community but unable to become a part of it. Being gay and having been raised Catholic, I saw some of myself in the Outsider. Just as the Outsider is drawn to the spiritual beauty of Limon's Mass but cannot join in, I am still drawn, as a matter of upbringing, to the Catholic Mass but can no longer partake due to the organized Church's dogma regarding homosexuality. I've never had that experience with a work of art before (seeing myself in a character) and I've certainly not had it with the cold formalism of George Balanchine or the contractions of Martha Graham or the blowsy camp of Mark Morris. My only quibble with the performance is that the nine student dancers didn't get their own curtain call. So, let me give them a little shout-out by listing their names: Lauren Baker, Mackenzie Beck-Esmay, Jeremy Bensussan, Bryana Fritz, Tristan Koepke, Scott Metille, Brent Radeke, Duncan Schultz and Chrysetta Stevens If you are reading this guys and gals -- great job! My goal now is to see the complete Choreographic Offering on the same bill as Missa Brevis. Truly, I could die happy if I were to see that. But, until then . . .

Thanks dirac!

The review continues . . . The second work on the Northrop bill was Jose Limon's The Traitor (1954). Set to a score by Gunther Schuller, The Traitor retells the Jesus/Judas story in a series of episodes: 1) The Leader (Jesus), the Traitor (Judas) and the Followers (the Disciples) gather in secrecy, 2) The Traitor prepares to betray the Leader, 3) The Leader and the Followers celebrate the Last Supper, and 4) The Traitor betrays the Leader and then hangs himself. Thursday night was my second live encounter with this work (the first being in Philadelphia in December 2007.) Like my first encounter with The Traitor, I left the Northrop with mixed feelings toward it. There is much to admire about this work, not the least of which is the extraordinary "painterliness" Limon brought to it. The way in which he deploys dancers in space to create a "living painting" is remarkable. And, as Alastair Macaulay has noted, Limon makes ingenious use of a simple white cloth to create a variety of stage effects, including the Leader's robe, the table for the Last Supper and (a detail I noticed for the first time in this performance) the bindings on the Leader's hands when the soldiers arrest him and lead him away. All that being said, I confess that I admire The Traitor more than I actually like it. Like I did in Philadelphia, I found the abstract elements of the production more engaging than the narrative elements -- surely not Limon's intent. In addition, I get the same sense watching this work that I got when I saw Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet. Is the dance actually giving me all of the information I need to comprehend the dance? Or did I bring preexisting knowledge to the dance which I used to fill in the blanks?? For instance, the Traitor's "solo" contains a moment when he counts the thirty pieces of silver. If I had no prior knowledge of the Jesus/Judas story, would this bit of stage business make any sense? I'm not sure it would. Still, however ambivalent I may be about The Traitor, it was worth seeing again for Francisco Ruvalcaba's performance as the title character. Now the seniormost male dancer in the company, he is ably filling Limon's own parts in the repertory. None more so than this one -- his solo is riveting. He depicts Judas' agonizing struggle with the thought of betraying Jesus as if he were a junkie going through withdrawal. His entire body convulses in an agony that is painful -- yet mesmerizing -- to watch. Still more to come . . .

Whether or not Peter Boal is solely responsible for any kind of financial turnaround is difficult to discern from the article, which reads more like a glorified press release from the Pacific Northwest Ballet press office rather than as a sober article from the financial press. The writer introduces "good news" but then doesn't explain whether the good news is a result of Peter Boal's actions or is a function of completely unrelated events. For instance: The writer offers up that only 87 under-25s took advantage of a reduced-price offer for an unnamed production. At a subsequent reduced-price offer for under-25s (which, not coincidentally, was for Romeo and Juliet), 600 people took advantage of the offer. Now, what accounts for the increase? Good word-of-mouth from Peter Boal greeting the 87 people who took advantage of the first offer or Romeo and Juliet being a name brand which appeals to under-25s? Impossible to know from the article because the writer doesn't bother to develop the information he introduces in any meaningful way. The article goes on in this vein; assigning "blame" to Russell and Stowell for events which were beyond their control (9/11, using an inadequate facility during construction) while praising Boal at every turn. But it is likely that Pacifiic Northwest Ballet's financial fortunes would have been no different after 9/11 and during the construction process even if Peter Boal was at the helm. Likewise, if Russell and Stowell had held on as artistic directors during the absolute peak years of the derivatives boom years (2005-2008), they may have ridden out the financial hard times due to the general feeling of wealth at that time. I'm not writing this to trash Peter Boal. My own feeling is that any turnaround at Pacific Northwest Ballet is a combination of new strategies on Boal's part and plain old luck. But the article is so badly written and edited that the reader can't make any kind of informed decision about where to assign credit and blame. As to whether Peter Boal has accomplished an artistic turnaround, that I cannot say. I will say that going to see a hybrid of the New York City Ballet and Cedar Lake just ain't my thing. Sorry!

As threatened, my review of the Limon Dance Company's March 19th performance at the Northrop Auditorium on the University of Minnesota Campus. The evening began with a Q&A between Northrop Director Ben Johnson and Limon Artistic Director Carla Maxwell: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/northrop/northrop/...ce_company.html Carla Maxwell had many interesting things to say about Jose Limon's work but what really stuck with me the most was her aside that she had joined the company in 1965 (when she was 19.) It's amazing to think she's devoted 44 years of her life to maintaining Limon's work as a living thing. I don't think Ben Johnson was that far from the truth when, at the beginning of the chat, he said that she had almost single-handedly preserved Limon's work. Carla Maxwell would have none of it but I'm inclined to agree with Johnson. At the end of the day, Limon -- unlike most of his contemporaries -- hit the dance equivalent of the lottery in terms of having the right person in the right position of power at the moment of succession. The Northrop Aud is a very large venue but I was happy to see such a full turnout for the performance. From where I sat on the main floor, it looked like the floor was 85-90% full. So, neither the modern dance nor the economy proved to be a deterrent to attendance. The first dance on the bill was the newest. Former Limon company member and longtime Duke University dance professor Clay Taliaferro created Into My Heart's House in honor of Limon's centenary in 2008. (Full disclosure: I contributed money to the Limon company to help fund this piece.) Set to music by four very different composers (Johann Sebastian Bach, Valentin Silvestrov, Nick Bartsch and Joanne Metcalf), Into My Heart's House is a work for the full company. It is largely abstract but contains proto-narrative elements. On the whole, I liked this work very much. (And, certainly, it is head and shoulders above other Limon company commissions I have seen this decade -- the bad [susanne Linke's Extreme Beauty], the mediocre [Lar Lubovitch's Recordare] and the truly odd [Jonathan Reidel's The Undisputed Elephant].) Together, the individual variations and group sections serve as a primer on the beauty of Limon technique. There are many, many outstanding effects at work including the very first one -- the dancers come hurtling and sliding on stage until they have rested into position. Taliaferro shows many of the dancers off to their advantage, especially in the variations for Kristen Foote and Jonathan Fredrickson. Alas, two things kept this work from becoming a great work (rather than a merely good one) for me. The use of four different composers kept the piece from building into something powerful (and gave me a bad flashback to Lar Lubovitch's tiresome Men's Stories, which employs a similar device) and, frankly, Bach left the other three in his dust. More importantly, the introduction of quasi-narrative elements at certain junctures left me baffled. As the narrative elements were almost willfully obscure, I found that they distracted from the forward moment of the dance and left me with the sensation that was good could have been better. Still, I hope the Limon company keeps this dance in its active repertory and I hope Taliaferro keeps tweaking it. A critic once wrote about Jose Limon's The Winged that, "there is a good little dance lurking inside the infinities of this big . . . work." I feel much the same way about Into My Heart's House. More to come . . .

Bottom Two: Belinda/Jonathan and Steve/Karina with Belinda and Jonathan leaving. Thoughts: Belinda was a reasonable elimination given the following: 1) Slow, clunky dancing, 2) Looked like she wanted to be elsewhere, and 3) Suspect fan base (don't know how many hardcore Go-Go's fans there are out there.) I don't know that I understand the dance-off as utilized. Theoretically, it should be a means for the judges to save deserving celebrities who may not have large, preexisting fan bases (i.e. Albert, Paulina and even Sabrina.) But if the new judges scores only count for 1/2 (w/ the prior viewer votes counting for the other 1/2), then it still really does come down to the viewer vote.

This business of pirated versions of The Moor's Pavane gets curiouser and curiouser. We have been discussing the "outdoors" version w/ Nikita Dolgushin as the Moor's Friend. But on YouTube, there is a 1:42 extract from an "indoors" version which also features Dolgushin. But this time, he is playing the Moor. (Gabriella Komleva appears in both versions as the Friend's Wife.) So, I take it Dolgushin commissioned two separate films of The Moor's Pavane? I wonder when he would have seen it -- the Limon Company's tour of the then-Soviet Union in 1973??

Judges scores from Week 2: 01 27pts Gilles/Cheryl 02 26pts Melissa/Tony 03 24pts Shawn/Mark 04 23pts Lil' Kim/Derek 05 21pts Denise/Maks 06 20pts Ty/Chelsie 06 20pts Lawrence/Edyta 06 20pts Chuck/Julianne 09 18pts Belinda/Jonathan 09 18pts Holly/Dmitry 11 17pts David/Kym 11 17pts Steve/Karina 13 14pts Steve-O/Lacey Combined point totals -- Weeks 1 & 2: 01 51pts Gilles/Cheryl 02 49pts Melissa/Tony 03 47pts Shawn/Mark 04 44pts Lil' Kim/Derek 05 40pts Chuck/Julianne 06 39pts Denise/Maks 07 37pts David/Kym 08 36pts Holly/Dmitry 08 36pts Lawrence/Edyta 10 35pts Belinda/Jonathan 11 34pts Ty/Chelsie 12 31pts Steve-O/Lacey 13 30pts Steve/Karina Thoughts: 1) If they are Christians, Cheryl and Tony must be crossing themselves to have God deliver Gilles and Melissa in their laps. Tony looks the happiest we have seen him since he partnered Stacey in Season 2 and Cheryl has that "go in for the kill" look she gets on her face when she knows she has a potential champion on her hands (like she did with Drew in Season 2 and Emmitt in Season 3.) 2) Chuck can go tonight thanks to his "dancing is so feminine" remarks but I suspect it will be someone like Belinda or David -- middle-of-the-packers with no discernible fan bases.

Last night, the seven remaining teams competing on the CBS reality TV show The Amazing Race raced their way across Siberia to the city of Novosibirsk. The final pit stop of this leg of the race was . . . the ballet/opera house! And the show actually showed dancers dancing as the racers arrived at the ballet/opera house (although I think the show prefilmed the scenes of the dancers.) So, who says commercial television is completely uninterested in the high arts?

Hello everyone! I am looking to purchase a performance of Rimsky-Korsakoff's Russian Easter Overture from iTunes but am overwhelmed by the choices. Can anyone make a recommendation to me as to what you think the best performances of this work are? With this information in hand, I can make a more informed selection at iTunes. Thanks!

Thanks to our London correspondents for replying! I've seen Tamara Rojo perform the Ashton Isadora on YouTube. Is she the only performer ever to dance both the Ashton and MacMillan takes on Isadora Duncan?

Rereading my post, dirac, what I should have written was: But sometimes it's just hard to put a positive gloss on Events. (Bahahaha -- a little Merce Cunningham humor there!)

So, what is the word from our UK correspondents regarding the redacted version of Kenneth MacMillan's Isadora? An improvement on the much-maligned full-length version?? How does it compare to other Isadora tributes such as Ashton's Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan or Limon's Dances for Isadora??? (I'm disappointed that my Moor Ed Watson didn't get to play Yesinin, since he plays neurotic/psychotic characters so well! )

Thank you, dirac, for the positive feedback about the thread title. I almost didn't use that title, as I know Alexandra encourages us to use a genteel tone. But sometimes it's just hard to put a positive gloss on events. As to Cunningham's decision itself, I find it interesting that he would cause such a disruption in the fabric of his company when (to be incredibly tactless) he will probably leave us sooner rather than later. Succession issues are always delicate ones for one choreographer dance companies and, of the major modern/postmodern/contemporary companies in the United States, his will most likely be the next to confront it (with Paul Taylor and Trisha Brown to follow.) Of all the companies that achieved some kind of reknown during the founder's lifetime, I can only think of three in the United States which have survived the founder's death and continue to perform a reasonably full schedule: Limon (since 1972), Ailey (since 1989) and Graham (since 1991, albeit with some disruptions). To my knowledge, Limon and Ailey never experienced any major disruptions in terms of former dancers being frozen out. Whatever other difficulties they may have experienced, the former dancers were always on hand to pass on the works to the next generation(s). And so, whether the works are to your taste or not, you can still see them as living things close to the creators' intentions rather than as museum pieces. As SimonG points out, however, the Graham company experienced severe disruptions in terms of one generation passing on its knowledge to another and, as a result, the succession was compromised. [Personally, I agree with those individuals who believe that Graham wanted the works to die with her and, therefore, that the current Graham company is heretical. But that, as they say, is a matter for another day and another thread.] The Graham people are valiantly trying to reverse the erosion but I think the results have been mixed -- at best -- so far. Ah well, we shall have to see how Mr. Cunningham fares. It's tricky business this succession thing!