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salzberg

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Posts posted by salzberg

    Was the Joffrey right?

    in Everything Else Ballet

    Posted

    Originally posted by Mme. Hermine:

    did you do that jeffrey?

    I lit Caliban there.

    (Upon subsequent reflection, Jeff decided that perhaps the above was too cryptic and needs further detail. . .and, besides, I'm really bored, waiting for my laundry to finish.)

    Caliban was James Clouser's rock ballet based on Shakespeare's The Tempest, but told, obviously, from the point-of-view of, well, Caliban. Because the action takes place on an island, the ballet thought it would be cool to do it at the Medinah, which was a HUGE (the Shrine Circus performed there, elephants and all) old (there was a picture of Pavlova dancing there)thrust stage (that means there are audience members on 3 sides). No one seemed to consider the fact that dance doesn't work all that well on a thrust stage -- especially a ballet that was originally choreographed for a more conventional (oh, yeah, the Medinah also hosts conventions) theatre (Houston Ballet/Jones Hall, where it was very, very good).

    You could call the production a success, I guess, but then you could also call me Robert Redford. . . .

    [ 05-09-2001: Message edited by: salzberg ]

    Was the Joffrey right?

    in Everything Else Ballet

    Posted

    Originally posted by Amy Reusch:

    The Airie Crown theater might have been fine for convention speeches but it was not friendly to dance... and I don't think much of the Auditorium Theater either

    You should have tried to do ballet, as I did once, in the Medinah Temple.

    Was the Joffrey right?

    in Everything Else Ballet

    Posted

    So I think the question is:

    Why is Chicago -- the 3rd-largest city in the US, with over 3 million residents -- such a bad place for ballet, when the art thrives in smaller cities such as San Francisco, Boston, and Atlanta?

    Remember that Chicago is a veritable hotbed of activity in theatre (to the extent that there's a separate Actors' Equity contract for "Chicago Area Theatres") and has an opera company that is, to say the least, healthy. One would expect, then, that this arts-awareness would carry over.

    "I could just go home now. . ."

    in Everything Else Ballet

    Posted

    Originally posted by Leigh Witchel:

    So when did you feel like that?  Did you leave or stay, and was it the right thing to do?

    It's never happened to me, but I know what I'd do.

    About 20 years ago, the theatre critic of the Tampa Tribune asked in print, "When you go to the theatre, are you expecting it to change your life?" To me, the answer is "yes". Those moments to which you refer are the reason we go to the theatre.

    . . .And why would we stay after seeing one?

    Because there might be another one coming up.

    [ 05-06-2001: Message edited by: salzberg ]

    Leigh Witchel Wins Guggenheim

    in Ballet News & Issues

    Posted

    Originally posted by alexandra:

    not only because Leigh Witchel has won such a prestigious award, but because this year, a Guggenheim went to a BALLET choreographer.

    . . .And it's especially gratifying that it went to one of ours!

    . . .And I, too, hope to see more of Leigh's work soon.

    [ 04-14-2001: Message edited by: salzberg ]

    Boston, Boston, Boston. . .

    in Boston Ballet

    Posted

    Bijoux said, in the Boston X 3 thread:

    When Bruce Marks was the director,he had a platform."Diversity" was a big issue with him,not only with who was onstage,but with what was being danced. The company did Twyla Tharp and Paul Taylor as well as they did Swan Lake and Giselle and he seemed to make it clear that his company reflected the city of Boston.

    So. . . .

    Should companies reflect the tastes and experiences of their home cities or should they aspire to a higher (or at least more universal) aesthetic?

    [This message has been edited by salzberg (edited March 25, 2001).]

    Boston, Boston, Boston. . .

    in Boston Ballet

    Posted

    Well, folks, to be truthful, there are some musicians who are quite knowledgeable about dance and whom I would trust to select repertory (Leigh, you know at least one of the people I'm thinking of), but not many.

    I think it's dangerous to generalize about people (but I'm gonna do it anyway). I think Boston's making a mistake -- a bad one.

    Dumbed down advertisements

    in Everything Else Ballet

    Posted

    Originally posted by Mme. Hermine:

    and the person at p.r. or wherever at boston ballet a few years ago that decided that the audience wouldn't understand a ballet called 'le corsaire' so titled it "the pirate" in advertisements with 'le corsaire' in parentheses.....

    I assume that the ad was placed by Le Flack.

    Censorship!

    in Everything Else Ballet

    Posted

    Originally posted by alexandra:

    I think the problem with Giuliani is his attacks are so personal.  He hears about something he doesn't like and then wants to ban it, or withhold funding. That presents an odd definition of art, too -- "The Mayor don't like it."

    When I lived in NY (I left at about the time that the first Brooklyn Museum controversy was starting) I thought of him as "Il Duce"; the parallels with Mussolini are striking, including the justification that he's "made the trains run on time".

    If Nixon can be the subject of an opera, could we make a ballet about Giuliani?

    [This message has been edited by salzberg (edited February 18, 2001).]

    Censorship!

    in Everything Else Ballet

    Posted

    Originally posted by alexandra:

    Someone write an email to me that I wish s/he would post   smile.gif  It's a good point.  That if the offensive artwork were deemed offensive to blacks, or another minority group with a loud voice that's listened to by the current Mavens, this would be a different story -- Giuliani may well want it censored, but the left of this controversy would be screaming for it

    I can'y speak for my fellow liberals, since we don't march in lockstep, but I, for one, would not be.

    Several years ago (at the time that Jesse Helms was first attacking the NEA, I attended a production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible -- the best production of that play I've ever seen -- at a Christian theatre in Houston. After the performance there was a"talkback" and I asked, "How do you, as both Christians and artists, view this play (for those who don't know it, it uses the Salem Witch Trials as a thinly -- and I mean very thinly -- veiled metaphor for the McCarthy hearings) in light of recent attempts by the Christian right to use federal funding to inhibit the content of artistic works?"

    The first person to answer hemmed and hawed, but the second attacked the question right between the eyes -- "I do not approve of censorship in any way, shape or form, ever."

    I agree with him.

    . . .So if someone makes art that reflects badly on Blacks, Jews, or for that matter Texans, I won't like it. I won't pay to see it. . .but I also won't censor it.

    ------------------

    Jeffrey E. Salzberg, Lighting Designer

    This Day in Arts History: www.suncoast.quik.com/salzberg/arthist.htm

    portfolio: www.suncoast.quik.com/salzberg

    email: salzberg@suncoast.quik.com

    Tragedies and Disasters

    in Everything Else Ballet

    Posted

    Originally posted by Mel Johnson:

    I have an awful feeling this accident could have been avoided.

    That is, of course, the definition of "accident"; every accident can be traced back to human error.

    I'm going to continue this, I think, in a new thread in the "Tech" forum, where backstage safety is a recurrent theme.

    ------------------

    Jeffrey E. Salzberg, Lighting Designer

    This Day in Arts History: www.suncoast.quik.com/salzberg/arthist.htm

    portfolio: www.suncoast.quik.com/salzberg

    email: salzberg@suncoast.quik.com

    Reading reviews of one's own work

    in Everything Else Ballet

    Posted

    Originally posted by Calliope:

    But we can't control what an audience goes into the performance with

    When I was teaching college, I told my students that "the essence of theatre is one person performing and one person watching". It doesn't truly become art until both are participating.

    This means, of course, that each dance becomes a different work each night, because each night brings a new audience.

    ------------------

    Jeffrey E. Salzberg, Lighting Designer

    portfolio: www.suncoast.quik.com/salzberg

    email: salzberg@suncoast.quik.com

    Reading reviews of one's own work

    in Everything Else Ballet

    Posted

    Originally posted by Estelle:

    (I remember that Jeff Salzberg complained about the lack of attention to lighting design...)

    Me? Complain? Never!

    Whenever I am serving as Stage Manager, one of my jobs is usually to find out which dancers (or actors) do or do not want to know when critics are in the house and which performers want to see reviews before the end of the run.

    As a designer, I always want to know who's there and I always want to read the reviews right away, but my situation is different from that of the dancers; my work is already done and its quality is unlikely to be affected by my reaction to a critic's comments, as opposed to the dancers, who do not need to be onstage thinking "the Times critic didn't like me in this section".

    ------------------

    Jeffrey E. Salzberg, Lighting Designer

    portfolio: www.suncoast.quik.com/salzberg

    email: salzberg@suncoast.quik.com

    [This message has been edited by salzberg (edited October 23, 2000).]

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