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Amy Reusch

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Everything posted by Amy Reusch

  1. Oh god yes, the lillies... they should have taken them off their plastic stems amf put them on florists wire... something... anything... I had forgotten but my companion and I both deplored the lillies... and yes, the veils... the willis did have them on but the losing of the veils happened so much in the wings that it was pretty unnoticable... I can understand why getting it to happen like they did at Paris Opera might be beyond Boston's means, but what happened here was almost pointless... POB veils at about 18 seconds in: re the talented Hilarions... are those lifts in the second act dangerous if there is any prior back injury? I am not making assumptions, I just wonder if there is a reason like that which might leave a principal out of the pool for Albrecht...
  2. Apologies for taking so long to report back... Oga was a delight... if you ever wanted to explain the difference between the movement signature a principal and someone only able to support a corps de ballet role, show them Oga's work with steps below 45 degree extensions... so beautiful!!! No tricks to distract, just beautiful movement. Truly a charming Giselle. Her Albrecht, Derek Dunn, I could watch execute jumps all day... that one diagonal run of Brisés would have been worth sitting through an entire performance of mundane work just to catch. I enjoyed seeing the willies flickering in & out from the wings, something I don't recall ever seeing before. The sets were charming. Isaac Akiba was the best Hilarion I've ever come across (not that I have seen dozens of productions, but I have seen a few). He held the stage with a brute force that made me want to see him bring life to other roles... has he played a role in Corsaire yet? He could be very worth seeing in that. The man is not afraid to act with the energy he puts into his character's sequences of steps. i hope they do Giselle more often. ----- Things I would love to see changed.. the lighting design... in the second act, I did not mind the swirling lights giving the "other worldly" vibe, but the erractic xmas lights were just plain distracting. And the cross on Giselle's grave being upstage did not help Albrecht's entrance (or is that Hilarion's?) this long slow walk toward nothing in particular with lots of light effects... the cross was rarely visible... not sure what was up with that... and it almost seemed like they could not afford enough followspots? Often Giselle & Albrecht were entreating a Myrtha left wholly in shadow. The props... I felt like the props department thought everything must be extra extra because surely we would never "get it" otherwise... so Albrecht has a short red ermine trimmed cape (might have been borrowed from a Snow White production?) for his first entrance... And his sword looks more like Excalibur than the quivering rapier needed for the snake moment in the mad scene. Myrtha wears a big crown in case you didn't get that she was Queen of the Willis, and her asphodel sprig is so large that it is terribly distracting when she has to get rid of it off-stage... also, strangely, the peasants have bright shiny solid gold goblets stored in the cottage in case visiting aristocrats stop by. I just don't get what the deal was with the props department... they clearly didn't take the job seriously. Coaching of Albrecht in Act II... he has to sense Giselle's presence... not just turn and look her immediately straight in the eye... it should be like sensing at the back of the neck that someone is watching... if he sees her plain as day, why does he miss her when he reaches for her later... In the act 2 pas de deux, that lovely adagio was missing legato in the dancers' musicality... i don't know if it were the conductor playing with it or the dancers themselves, but the setting Giselle down on pointe shouldn't be so precisely accented to the note... it's not a moment to express precision... it should be like a dream... I missed the power of the Willis' rolling gesture of pointing... it was more like a Busby Berkeley wave than the inexorable command the drama requires... and I have to say that one of the Russian touring pick-up companies did a better job of the willi's arabesque voyagé crossing,.. the willis should not appear to hop, no air time in the chugs... it spoils the magic, they lose that ghostly crossing clouds affect when gravity appears to jar the arabesques, or even merely dancers popping up individualy... floating has to be communicated or the moment is nothing... Some of the dancers in the ensemble's of Act I were lovely, but many needed more practice with the Romantic style of epaulement and heads... they were trying to get the heads right I guess, but with the slamming force of a leg extension in Forsythe... not with a soft tilt.. Hopefully the Peasant PDD went better in other performances. Coaching of Giselle's mother... she never so much as looks at Albrecht... which seems a little weird... that she doesn't give this interloper even a passing glance... especially since she clearly is happy with Hilarion's courting of Giselle. Why was Bathilde's father younger than Albrecht? Surely a ballet master could be pressed into service here! The young man was tall, yes, but he looked barely 18. And why on earth did the Prince put his mouth on his servant's hunting horn? All these things could be easily fixed in future performances... and we would have the magic that has carried this masterpiece over 175 years... ------------ I loved Chisako Oga's Act I, though I thought her mad scene could use a little more angst.. she is still so young, perhaps she has not yet had her heart broken to know how to express that desperation? She was so gorgeous in the floating lifts (this might have been all to Dunn's credit, but there is one crossing where he carries her and she seems so light as if he is carrying a spectre not a real woman... and surely she had something to do with managing that). I don't know if it was a costume problem or what, but I was surprised her line didn't haunt in Act II. Sure, she is petite, but so too historically were a great many magnificent Giselles, and frankly it should not be danced by a tall ballerina if rules of emploi are followed? Peasants are supposed to be shorter the aristocrats I believe? So why did her line not extend? There probably isn't a female dancer in Boston Ballet or among the apprentices without line, so surely it isn't her physique... did the costume dwarf her or did she just not emote the extensions? Did her fingers curve and not suggest eternity? What was the problem? I could not figure it out, but I hope someone does and corrects it... she was a perfect pre-mad scene Giselle, best I have ever seen... she should be allowed to grow into Act 2. In all fairness, this was her debut with Boston Ballet, and not being first or second cast, perhaps this was her first time on stage with that conductor and that orchestra and in that lighting with that partner... she did a gorgeous job of what could not have been ideal conditions.
  3. Oh, yes, I'd love to see the A & B cast, but I can only go to the first Saturday Matinee and I'm delighted that the Giselle looks so promising...
  4. I'm looking forward to seeing Chisako Oga debut in Giselle. I was worried about a Saturday Matinee cast, the only time I could make it, but I am quite looking forward to seeing her take on the role... she is young but charming and promising in what I could find of her online.
  5. They have put on some wonderful exhibits... thanks for the "heads up"!
  6. I believe I arrived at the dance department at Purchase as a student the year BJ Sills arrived as a professor. I believe she learned to teach on us, and I believe she eventually became a good teacher because she was willing to work at it. She was the first teacher I had ever encountered who taught from a notebook, (and not the last, though I could number them on one hand). It may have been what helped her improve. I can tell you almost none of the freshmen female dancers considered themselves to be modern dancers when they first encountered Ms. Sills. The conversion to modern dancers (by the time they graduated, the proportion had reversed) was influenced perhaps more from the excellence of the modern instructors and their belief in the students' professional potential. In the late 70s not many professional ballet dancers had been produced by colleges... almost the fact that one was past 16 and not in a ballet company already was an indication of lack of future there... though I do remember a senior joining ABT and someone from the class after me rising to become a principal at Houston Ballet. I also remember a couple of students who had danced professionally before entering Purchase, but generally they did not stay the four years as it was a conservatory and they were interested in a more traditional college experience. Eventually, however, most classmates went on to dance professionally with non ballet companies (Cunningham, Graham, Limon, Tharp, Taylor, Nikolais/Louis Tricia Brown, etc. or form their own companies, like Doug Varone & Terre O Connor). Nor do I remember anyone being rude in class to BJ, or speaking disrespectfully of her...although I do remember once a student asking why she never gave port de bras back, (or perhaps, why only once per class). I also remember she did not have an answer for him. Perhaps it seemed rude to ask a question about why she was teaching a certain way, given the tradition at SAB, but this was college and students are encouraged to ask questions. I do remember a lot of negativity for one of her colleagues, so perhaps she meant not only toward herself, but toward her colleagues.... but one has to remember... just because these were ballet students does not mean that that they were trained by teachers in the Balanchine tradition.... there was more division back then between the ABT/Joffrey/European tradition and the Balanchine tradition... perhaps more difference than there had been in the early days of City Ballet, and perhaps more difference than there is now... if you were brought up by teachers adamantly saying "never do it this way, you will ruin your knees [or your Achilles]" and then a teacher asks you to do exactly as you had been warned not to... well, the teacher might encounter push back... before the wonders of orthoscopic surgery, knee injuries could be the end of things. There was a feeling at the time that SAB could make demands on the body that were risky and if many students were injured as a result, well, there was a never ending supply of students waiting to replace the them... sort of a natural selection process... which might work fine for the look Balanchine was cultivating in his company but could be lousy from the perspective of the individual taking that injury risk... I also remember some teachers received more respect than others perhaps just based on their personality interacting with the students, and it was not necessarily down a clear NYCB/non-NYCB divide. However, I do not remember BJ being treated with disrespect, and I also do not remember her pushing Balanchine technique as othrs did... it was a more straightforward class. i guess we all remember different experiences...
  7. I enjoyed White Crow... I took a 20 year old who knew almost nothing about Nureyev and it touched her... i had little hope for the movie, after all who could match Nureyev's charisma, but I thought it was well done. One get's the turmoil involved... I thought it interesting how the actor tried to portray Pushkin... seemed close to the youtube clips... but Lifar made out like a bandit...
  8. Oh NOOOOOOOOOOOooooooo! This is a huge loss!
  9. I thought I remembered a short documentary about this ,( black-and-white images of riding the subway come to mind but I don't know why ) ... I could not locate the video I remembered, but here are two others ... I don't believe he mentions an outreach program but he mentions that he was on full scholarship ... By the way, there are a few moments of Karin von Aroldingen in the first video... https://www.peopleewnetwork.com/video/amar-ramasar-pen-americandoers-amar-ramasar-v02 https://www.pbs.org/video/nyc-arts-nyc-arts-profile-amar-ramasar/
  10. We've all been there, Helene... perhaps technology will evolve again soon and typos will become rare as they once were... I'm waiting... hoping...
  11. Thank you... have really been wondering how this came off... There is a lot of talent involved, Andersen seems to pick gifted designers, but the concept of science fiction seemed to risk being tacky... glad to hear somehow they managed to skirt that risk? Also interesting to split the bill with La Sylphide... both ballets are not quite full evening fare, and to go from charming romantic antique to futuristic Stravinisky? Might be just the juxtaposition to keep both fresh?
  12. If you can access Facebook, Kansas City Ballet put up a nice short video of Tomlinson teaching and talking about teaching...
  13. I live in a university town in Connecticut and most people here have no idea who Balanchine was and have never heard of him. For those not familiar with US geography, Connecticut is a small state adjacent to New York, practically bordering the city (in Seattle, an American born cashier asked me if Connecticut were next to Tennessee). Having grown up in the NY metropolitan area and then lived for a decade in Manhattan before living in other parts of the country, I can tell you, the rest of the country is not a less densely populated version of the city. The gap in what is known about dance inside NYC vs outside NYC is extraordinary. However, in these other parts if the country, the populace have heard of the New York Times. They all know who Picasso and Bach are, why shouldn't they know the major names in dance? A great many also know the New Yorker. Is it possible that the NY Times & New Yorker dance writers are trying to write for the rest of the country as well as New York City, and this is why they mention Balanchine's stature?
  14. I suspect they are negotiating with the chosen one.
  15. Why? Why Wheeldon? (and yes, Elkins would be an excellent choice)
  16. And yet it was the rearranging of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake by Drigo that made it a success... was Drigo following his own instincts, or Petipa's requests? Tchaikovsky blamed the original ballet's failure on the music. I wonder what he would have thought of what Swan Lake became after his death? (I have a hunch he would have enjoyed Ivanov's work) Thanks for the Lopukhov info... Macaulay spoke at Harvard about how the music would change and yet Petipa would continue repeating the same step... and that this placed the step in a new light so to speak (my words, certainly not his)... I was struck by this because I had always wondered if repeating a step despite a big change in the music were due to someone not remembering the original choreography... yet instances of this were recorded in the Stepanov notations, so it was not a failing in the handing down... It feels as if so much of what we were taught as dance history in my youth has now been truned upside down... if Petipa dictated so much of the structure of Sleeping Beauty, how could he be struggling with what he was given? Were the leitmotifs dictating which characters could move so much so that Petipa was frustrated? In Balanchine, Lopukhov got what he was asking for: a ballet master who studied music... Did he ever get to see what Balanchine created in the West?
  17. The face on the woman does seem 1950s ... I think those are snakes in her hand...
  18. I hope he does a few more before his 6 month retainer is up... I imagine, though, that with the Cunningham Centennial, he's going to want to weigh in on that... ? I'd like to hear more about how Petipa & Tchaikovsky worked together... He said that it was difficult for Petipa working with Tchaikovsky, something about the complexity, but I haven't caught the details...
  19. Balanchine & Kirstein did not have much experience when they founded the precursors to NYCB, and while admittedly they struggled & foundered at first, they ultimately succeeded gloriously.... It was a different situation, but is it so obviously a mistake to take a risk on inexperienced talent if there is a "vision"? Are there no choreographers out there to give the helm to?
  20. Oh!! thank you!!, I didn't think of Ballet West, only had SFB on the brain!!
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