KayDenmark

As someone who hasn't seen the company as a whole in more than three years, I was quite impressed with Craig Hall, who had one of the featured roles in Symphony in C. What marvellous carriage. One of my Danish friends who had never seen City Ballet before picked him out of the crowd as well. Symphony in C's first movement had Ask la Cour dancing one of the featured parts behind Nilas. Although he's rather gangly and odd-looking at this young age, Ask does have more presence and verve than his brother. Seth Orza replaced Millepied in Symphony in C, and seems to be being groomed to be the new Tom Gold. He was fine, although nothing special. I was looking forward to seeing Carla Körbes, based on the enthusiasm many members of this board have shown for her. If that was her in Serenade - can't tell from the photo, as I was stranded at the very back of the house - perhaps she had an off-night. The blond dancer I saw, whomever she was, had very crude and awkward arm placement. (Again, I couldn't see very well, but it seemed like I was seeing Bouree, Kowrowski, and Körbes in Serenade, with no Kistler. Am I wrong?) I agree, Effy, that Agon was nothing special. It was interesting to see Stephen Hanna getting a featured part, however. Has he been dancing soloist roles all year?

I think we should just let Wheeldon be Wheeldon. I'm no fan of story ballets and I simply hate him when he's trying to be cute, but I'd much rather see him follow his muse wherever it takes him than see anyone forced into pale Xeroxes of the Balanchine style. Isn't ham-handed Balanchine imitation part of the problem with Peter Martins? I think NYCB is pretty lucky to have a young, innovative in-house choreographer - it keeps the company vital and alive. What other major company has that opportunity right now? Furthermore, it's good for the dancers, who have the chance to have parts created on them, parts tuned to their own personality and skills. Balanchine works are inimitable, but how many times can you try to re-intepret something really styled for Violette Verdy, or be told that whatever you're doing was done better 30 years ago by Suzanne Farrell?

Just looked it up on the Staatsoper website. (I had thrown my program away.) At the performance Saturday night, the Queen was played by someone named Beatrice Knop. I have not seen her before, so perhaps she had an off-night, but her footwork seemed imprecise and her jumps were highly uninspiring. Polina Semionova did, in fact, dance the role at two earlier performances. The website informs me that this was, in fact, the 1964 version, which is why it was danced in the old-fashioned tutus. Also that if I had arrived a week earlier I would have seen Malakhov and Vishneva dance it.

Interestingly enough, I just saw it staged as "Ballet Imperial" this Saturday night at the Deutsche Staatsoper in Berlin. Not sure which version I got, but it was coached by Colleen Neary and Adam Luders. Some nice corps dancing, but a truly dreadful Queen, whose name I have mercifully forgotten.

How about "Fancy Free"? The NYCB seems to see it as a box-office draw and schedule it waaaay too much. The dancers look bored and so am I.

I remember doing some research in the archives of the New York Daily News, and finding an article from the 1930s that referred to Balanchine only as "Vera Zorina's husband."

When considering this silly article, I also think we should account for men’s well-documented tendency to exaggerate when telling other men how much action they are getting. At any rate, a girlfriend of mine once ran into a very handsome NYCB soloist in a singles’ club – his main complaint being he couldn’t meet any women. I also wonder how many beers that reporter bought Seth and Orza before he got those quotes. I somehow doubt the “pinching titties” interview was conducted on a velvet bench at the State Theater, which is where I used to do interviews with the dancers.

A good, and ethical, journalist takes account of his subject’s canniness with the press. Technically, anything than comes out of a subject’s mouth is suitable for quoting, but a wise and kind journalist will cut a lot more slack for the little old lady down the block than he would or should for Donald Rumsfeld or Jesse Jackson. In a dance context, I doubt that Henry Seth is as used to being interviewed as someone like Nikolaj Hubbe (or, frankly, Charles Askegaard). He might not be aware of exactly how to handle a grasping, flattering reporter, or how much damage can be done by a few quotes taken out of context. Ben Millepied refused to talk to the press for awhile after getting burned repeatedly. At any rate, I would venture a guess that Seth is not a very happy man right now. As far as Details, my understanding is that it’s not an economically healthy magazine, and desperately needs to do whatever it can to distinguish itself from the other “laddish” men’s magazines on the market (FHM, M, Loaded, as well as what’s left of Playboy). This is what they did. I haven’t read the piece, but it sounds awful – and that’s a shame, because there probably is room for a good piece on “straight” male dancers (although a lot seem to swing both ways). The New York Times Magazine ran a piece on white guys in the NBA a few years back, and it was very well done, along the lines of “how does it feel when the majority becomes a minority”?

I agree that it's often a matter of simply forgetting to turn the phone off, but occasionally people feel that they are expecting a call so important that it is worth inconviencing the rest of the audience. A couple of years ago, I sat behind a "celebrity dance couple" at the State Theater, and their phone rang repeatedly during the performance. At the intermission, they explained to those nearby that they had a sick child at home who needed comforting. I don't blame the kid. Mom or Dad or both, however, might have skipped the premiere for a little parent duty.

It's definately not my favorite theater to see a ballet in - as Alexandra says, wide and shallow, and seems almost childish in shape and decor. It doesn't help that you have to walk in your finest ballet-going duds to the Koncertsal through the Tivoli amusement park, past cotton-candy stands and crowds of little ones in line for the choo-choo train. The Koncertsal also a tremendous number of partially-obstructed seats, and that's "partially" in the sense of 60% or so. I've been to (expensive) galas there where I had to switch seats with my companion during intermission, just so we'd both get to see a bit of the show. BTW, Martins (and I note that the Danish ticket service has managed to spell his name wrong, knighthood and all) gave a funny newspaper interview saying that the Copenhagen shows would not make any special effort to highlight the company's four Danish dancers - Hubbe, Nilas, Ask le Cour, and Saskia Beskow. The newspaper reporter either didn't know, or didn't mention, Nilas and le Cour's relationship to Martins. Hubbe is a minor celebrity here, of course. I have no idea where Beskow fits in.

Tickets for the following September 2003 shows are now available at http://www.billetnet.dk/ , which can be accessed in English. New York City Ballet - Tivolis Symfoniorkester Sted: Tivolis Koncertsal Tidspunkt: 2. - 7. september 2003 kl. 19:30 6. september dog også kl. 15:00 Priser: 138, 183, 273, 338, 413 DKK Tirsdag d. 2/9 kl. 19:30 'Serenade': Musik: Tschaikovsky 'Agon': Agon af Tschaikovsky 'Tschaikovsky Pas De Deux', Svanesøen, uddrag af 3.akt af Tschaikovsky 'Symphony i C', af Bizet Koreografi: George Balanchine Onsdag d. 3/9 kl. 19:30 'Jeu de Cartes' Musik:Stravinsky Koreografi: Peter Martens 'Carousel' Musik: Richard Rodgers Koreografi: Christopher Wheeldon 'Sonatas and Interludes' Musik: John Cage Koreografi: Richard Tanner 'Glass Piece' Musik: Phillip Glass Koreografi: Jerome Robbins Torsdag d. 4/9 kl. 19:30 'Square Dance' Musik: Vivaldi Koreografi: George Balanchine 'Piano Pieces' Musik:Tschaikovsky Koreografi: Jerome Robbins 'The Infernal Machine' Musik: Christopher Rose Koreografi: Peter Martens 'Symp. in three movements' Musik: Stravinsky Koreografi: George Balanchine Fredag d. 5/9 kl. 19:30 'Carousel' Musik:Richard Rodgers Koreografi: Christopher Wheeldon 'Herman Schmerman Pas de Deux' af Thom Willems Koreografi: William Forsythe 'Guide to Strange Places' Musik: John Adams Koreografi: Peters Martens 'Serenade' Musik: Tschaikovsky Koreografi: George Balanchine Lørdag d. 6/9 kl. 15:00 'Square Dance' Musik: Vivaldi Koreografi: George Balanchine 'Sonatas and Interludes' Musik: John Cage Koreografi: Richard Tanner 'Herman Schmerman Pas de Deux' af Thom Williams Koreografi: William Forsythe 'The Infernal Machine' af Christopher Rouse Koreografi: Peter Martens 'Glass Pieces' Musik: Phillip Glass Koreografi: Jerome Robbins Lørdag d. 6/9 kl. 19:30 'Agon' Musik: Stravinsky Koreografi: George Balanchine 'Jeu de Cartes' Musik: Stravinsky Koreografi: Peter Martens 'Symphony in Three Movements' Musik: Stravinsky Koreografi: George Balanchine Søndag d. 7/9 kl. 19:30 'Guide to Strange Places' Musik: John Adams Koreografi: Peter Martens 'Piano Pieces' Musik: Tschaikovsky Koreografi: Jerome Robbins 'Symphony i C' Musik: Bizet Koreografi: George Balanchine Adresse: Tivolis Koncertsal Tietgensgade 20 København V 1500 DK

Dates in Copenhagen have been announced for September and tickets are on sale. According to an interview with Peter Martins in the newspaper Politiken, these shows will include up to 70 dancers, and are part of a tour that will include St. Petersburg.

Thanks for the info, flo. Maybe I'm wrong about the Soto-Ramasar connection - in fact, I rather hope I'm wrong. At any rate, I will happily eat my words - literally print them out and eat them - the day Ramasar gets cast in a danseur noble role.

Isn't Houston the last active male dancer who danced under Balanchine? Jock Soto joined right before Balanchine died, of course, but he's really a Martins dancer. Speaking of Soto, I see that Amar Ramasar is debuting in the role Soto created in Martins' "The Infernal Machine." Am very happy that Ramasar is getting a chance to shine - I'm a fan, and have been following him since his SAB show - but I am bit worried that NYCB's worrisome policy of "the black guy role" (ie, the Arthur Mithcell role in Agon, to which Albert Evans and others have subsequently been limited) may be supplemented by the "Indian guy role," ie Ramasar will start getting all Soto's old parts. Granted, there are some very nice parts in there, but when will Martins get a clue and figure out that the dark guy can also be cast as the Cavalier, the Prodigal Son, or Apollo? I wish NYCB could learn to see dancers just as DANCERS, instead of paper-doll color-types. A lot of other companies learned this lesson a long time ago.

They had a full house for the show on the 16th...it turned out to be an excellent marriage of a dancer and a role. A lot more acting than dancing, but Hübbe has always had a bent towards acting anyway.

Just a note to say that I saw Ask Le Cour dance in Copenhagen Saturday night (November 16) - the Royal Danish seems to be making him work up to the very last minute he gets on the plane. He did Bournonville's Konservatoriet, a male demi role, although a fairly prominent one. Very nice footwork and good stage presence - tall and rangy, more Peter Martins than Nilas Martins, with a devilish cleft chin that I'm sure will delight the ladies. He could be a keeper.

Funny you say that, because I think Peter Martins chooses pictures of himself (for programs, etc.) that make him look like a Beethoven bust on top of a piano.

Pink sounds interesting - and like he might be a good fit for Milwaukee. It's a nice town, a friendly town, but extremely down-to-earth and unpretentious. No divas need apply.

That novel that I liked was not, in fact, called "Compulsion" but "Collusion: Memoir of a Young Girl and Her Ballet Master," by Evan Zimroth. It gets very mixed reviews on Amazon, but I liked it, and I thought the eroticism was tastefully done.

"Oprah" magazine - yes, Oprah has spread to Denmark - informs me that there is a novel on the market called "The Four Temperaments" set in the New York City Ballet. The author is Yona Zeldis McDonough. Has anyone read it? I have found that ballet novels can be either very good or very bad. I enjoyed Adrienne Sharp's "White Swan, Black Swan," which was also full of NYCB references, and another novel called "Compulsion" which focused on the psychological tension between a student and her ballet master - maybe I have the title wrong, as I can't find it on Amazon. Does anyone have any other ballet novels they can either recommend or warn me away from?

Is choreography part of the SAB curriculum?

Via the Recent Performances Board, I can see that Benjamin Millepied is beginning to choreograph his own ballets, with some success. There seem to be a good number of NYCB Dancers now trying their hand at choreography. Robert La Fosse and Christopher Wheeldon, of course, got their start as dancer/choreographers, and now occupy themselves largely with the latter, but it seems there are also a number of active (and sometimes quite young) dancers putting together their own ballets. The ones I know of are Millepied, Melissa Barak, Albert Evans, Damien Woetzel - are there others? Is this just the outgrowth of the Choreographic Institute? Is it healthy for the company? And how in the world does a working NYCB dancer ever find time to choreograph a ballet?

Well, if anyone at NYCB is listening, the group vote is clearly for Millepied and Ash.

Kate - I've seen Hubbe do the role, in the spring 1998 season, I believe. He was good, but not great, and apparently Martins agreed, since he hasn't been cast in it since. Neal may have been my imagination - I seem to remember seeing him on a cast list for the role, but it's not in his official biography. Ullbricht and Carreno sound like interesting ideas. Call me crazy, but I think it would be fun to see a fairly young guy as the Prodigal - it is, after all, about a young guy rebelling against his family. And it looks as there are a lot of intriguing young male dancers in the company these days. As for the Siren:I love Jennie Somogyi, as regular readers of these boards know, but is she MEAN enough for the role? Ansanelli would either be absolutely divine or absolutely miscast. Ash is a fascinating idea. Since she appears to be suffering from the Albert Evans syndrome - ie Martins' lack of imagination about where to cast her - I haven't seen enough of her to know what she can do. I haven't ever seen her in a soloist role or one that required acting. Can anyone guide me on this?

The Queen's appearance on the last night was nice, but other than that it was just a (welcome) repeat of Program 1. The child soldiers had just as much trouble with the bucket, and Nik saluted them when they finally got it to stand up properly.