Amy Reusch

They could have cropped her out and the photo would have been fine...

Regarding Petipa and Duato, may I point out that Petipa is dead and not likely to create any new works on either Osipova or Vasiliev? Duato has the advantage over Petipa there.... Artistic opportunity was a very real reason for Baryshnikov's defection, and he left almost the same repertoire...

Perhaps they are unhappy with Bolshoi management? It hardly seems money would be the motivator. Wouldn't the Bolshoi be the more prestigious and higher paying contract? I wonder if they dislike the renovated stage. With all the fancy turn table capabilities, the floor is still well sprung isn't it? I kept wondering when I watched the grand opening... But surely we would have heard by now if there were any problem.

My thoughts were in line with Jayne's... that Villella saw retirement coming and wanted to retire on the laurels of the Paris season.... So very juvenile on the board's part... Questions of authority? There's a question? The Executive Director works for the Artistic Director... end of story. Companies run into trouble very quickly otherwise. They didn't have to lose the authority of an artistic director to move toward building an endowment. Forget the statue... the company was the legacy.

There are some photos here: http://www.kansan.com/photos/galleries/2011/nov/12/suzanne-farrell-ballet/. But I don't know which are which as the photos are not identified... Can any of you say?

Nice trailer... I find myself loving Hallberg's sense of humor... Merde!

Forgive me, i am not who you wish to hear from... but I couldn't help but wonder if in the presence of the Sun King other luminaries were "stars".

So interesting... don't know how I missed the updates to this thread... but because we were talking about floorcloths, thought should add to this thread that Hallberg mentioned how slippery the canvas was in his premiere with Bolshoi http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/its-official-american-is-now-a-bolshoi-dancer/

Her feet are so narrow, so delicate... Almost unreal... Could they have been retouched?

It seems like ages since the trailer for this film appeared... It was in the NY Film frstival but I learned of it too late... When is it going to make the rounds of the Art Houses in the US? I hope I don't miss any other chance!

Your son is extremely talented and you have much to be proud of. I've also enjoyed your daughter's rise through the corps to principal and her guest appearences (I believe, if I remember the face) with Alla Nikitina's small productions. My daughter and her friend were totally entranced by your son. The tours are beautiful!

I did notice the issue with the poison instructions and found it odd at the time. I do not remember this issue from 20 years ago but it could be it wasn't a videography issue so with everything else to deal with it didn't stand out in my mind... Or perhaps something has changed? I also felt the crypt scene was stronger before... Not sure why. I stand by my preference for Cranko"s partnering. I did think some of the qualities in the opening trio of Mercutio, Rome & Benvolio looked "off" as if they didn't quite get what they were doing and trying extra hard over danced it rather than played with the movement to make it work.

I think I remember seeing Smuin's on television... and liking it, but it was so many years ago... (I think I may have been a teenager). I would like to see it again to get a sense of it. I can always hope it will some day show up on Youtube!

Didn't realize someone who saw Pavlova perform was still alive... Sounds like a life well spent. Have you been to his Dance Museum?

Sometimes I wish this forum had a "like" button! Now I'm wondering if the masks had a revival sometime after moving into the theater? It is still confusing to me, and now in the new school year I'm up to teaching students dates from the 1800s in ballet, I'm looking at the losing the mask situation again.... I suppose it was a great aid in helping a man dance a woman's role...

I suspect the Trocks were once much inspired by some of the artists in Ballet Eloelle. The director was once a major Trock if I remember. There was a huge rift between the management of the Trocks and their dancers about a decade or so ago, and there was a splinter group called Grandivas. I believe there were artists on stage that had been in all three companies, but without the bios I cnnot say for sure. I was wishing I had subcaptioned this thread "Ballet: Elle! Oh, Elle!"

Thanks Mel, I was wondering whether it was still being performed when McKenzie was with Joffrey. I wonder if the Joffrey company is large enough now to mount it again... The school in Chicago seems to be growing, perhaps it could fill in the extras? It is the sort of production one might be able to inspire large donations with... But it looks huge to mount.

I adore Cranko's Romeo & Juliet. It is a masterpiece. I know there are others who are stuck on MacMillan's, but I cannot follow them. It has been years since I last saw the complete MacMillan, so forgive me if memory is misleading me... but I remember rushed group dances and in the famous pose everyone seems to use from the balcony scene, i always feel that even though Juliet looks beautiful, Romeo's neck is in an awkward position and his face seems perhaps not to have the best view of his Juliet (here is the moment I am thinking of... it happens in so many photos regardless of the company presenting it). I don't know if one likes one's first Romeo & Juliet best... but I prefer Cranko's... and I am surprised that I have to drive 2 hours to Boston to catch it. When was the last time Cranko's was presented in NY? The Joffrey did it back in 1965... so it seems curious to me that ex Joffrey dancer, Kevin McKenzie, does not present it. I know there is great interest in seeing Tudor's remounted, perhaps this complicates the mix? My last experience with Cranko was trying to learn the lay of the 2 hours of choreography in an extremely short period of time to shoot it from radically changing and unfortunate angles to catch it for Pennsylvania Ballet's archives roughly twenty years ago. It is a different experience to sit relaxed in the audience and let it play out for one's entertainment. I fell in love all over again. The dancers were often startlingly good... that sort of good where one has settled down into an impression of their skill, and then suddenly they pull something off that makes you sit up in your chair and think "what was that? I've never seen that step so electric before!?"... usually it's some family step one has seen many times before, suddenly illuminated to a new level of clarity ["Oh, so that's how that it's supposed to look!!"] The double assemblés en tournant by the men in the market place were so free floating and flashing... it was worth the two hour drive for them alone. Misa Kuranaga gets through to one... by the end, one's heart is her hands... sometimes she hangs an arabesque that stops the audience from breathing... well, me anyway... it hangs there and so does time suspend itself... Nelson Madrigal had his moments too... generally better in the second act than the first... but I want his fingertips to reach out to Juliet when he reaches to her... not to curl down relaxed the floor... and sometimes he seems to feel a little sheepish... Sheepishness is something the post-po-mo arts world seems to have to fight. There's this inability to take nobility/heroism/romanticism seriously... inability to give it valid expression... as if the concept is only for very young children.. If one is going to make a film about oh, I don't know, King Arthur or Alexander the Great... then it needs to be full of self-conscious distancing from taking the subject seriously... Or perhaps it was just the ballet's awful mask designs of the costumer (Reminds of some Russian teenage goths scifi... not sure why... the designer's surname is Benson. Did the last production I saw of this have those horned masks? I don't remember them, but maybe the lighting was a tad dimmer?) . At any rate, it seems very difficult for artists nowadays to take any highly romanticized story and setting seriously. The last ballet I saw, Martin's Swan Lake, had even more trouble with this... though perhaps there was the choreographer and designers feeling sheepish rather than the performers feeling sheepish. Today's dancers are so good with technique, center of balance and line... so many of these regional company dancers are even perhaps better technically than the dancers the work was created on... but all this focus on pure dance seems to have left a vulnerability in the acting skills. Gino DiMarco was so good as the Duke of Verona, the first one on stage whose acting read valid. Otherwise, I'd say most of the acting was a little... I don't know how to discribe it... "soft" maybe?... in a sort of youthful inexperience sort of way... The corps looked uncomfortably odd in the masque scene... (but then again, those masks... I did not love this costumer designer). It is an odd style... but they lacked the gravitas the music demands. Despite Mercutio, these seem to humorless folk... was Prokofiev channelling boyars? (why I think the boyars were lacking in humor... not sure... wonder what Eifman would make of them). The costume designer also tackled the set.. the crypt was oddly airy and bright. I remember the Pennsylvania Ballet production bringing chills during the scene lowering Juliet down... didn't happen for me here... but then the orchestra sounded a little strange to me as well... at one delicate point in the music, one was suddenly very aware of the amplification.... to the point where I wasn't sure if it were live or recorded just there... was it a harp or harpsichord section?... I don't quite remember. And there were ... not sure if these are called harmonics, or what, but there are sort of echos a stringed instrument makes... that I've never heard quite like the Boston Ballet orchestra played them... a twist off subtle... but back to the costume design... There is a thing about running with capes in Romeo & Juliet... Ulanova's famous run... I felt Nelson Madrigal was a little betrayed by the cape the costumer provided him with... it was a little as if it had been swiped from Juliet... an light fluttery piece of silken material... moved nicely, but in a feminine flutter... couldn't they have found something more appropriate for Romeo? Swordplay in Cranko's is what one wants from a production like this. Artyom Maksakov was very convincing. But then there is that thing about style... that thing about tossing one's head while dancing... as if even in the midst of this technically demanding feat one is relaxed enough to shake the curls out of one's eyes... little gestures of the head and eyes, if they doesn't seem natural, they look terribly labored.. Jeffrey Cirio's dancing was one the great strengths in this production, and perhaps he will grow into the part of Mercutio even more over the two week run. Jeffrey Gribbler, a natural Mercutio if ever there were one, set the bar for me. Cirio will one day jump it. Paul Craig was an interestingly appealing Paris... which usually seems a bit part... here one was kind of rooting for Paris to get a better deal. Adiarys Alemida was a standout as a gypsy... and of course Tai Jimenez was a cogent Lady Capulet. I quite liked Artycom Maksakov as Tybalt... one wants to cheer his side in the market place (ok, so I'm post-po-mo too). I brought two young teenage girls with me, one of whom had never been to a live ballet performance. The Boston Opera House* is one of those charming jewel box theaters... a palace for the ballet. The girls were totally enthralled by everything, beginning with the theater, through the spectacular dancing, Misa Kuranaga's bourees and arabesques, Jeffrey Cirio's turns and leaps... but most of all it seems by Cranko's choreography... they particularly liked the lifts Paris floats Juliet through in the Masque scene, but most of all, when Romeo pulls himself up to the balcony for one last kiss from Juliet. I am totally with the girls on this. Cranko's choreography is a delight, no matter whether it is crowd scene, swordplay, dramatic plot advancing or romantic pas de deux. It would be worth driving to see on a company half the quality of Boston Ballet. Bostonians are very lucky indeed. Would that Cranko had not died so suddenly, so young. I hope I get the chance to see Onegin after this recent Cranko refresher course! ________________ * But I did have to suppress my desire to shout "Bingo!" during intermission as the powder room usherette directed traffic. Those who have been there surely know what I am referring to.

I don't seem to be having any trouble now... Perhaps it was just my nervousness because of troubles with earlier upgrades coupled with a slight delay deviating from the normal timing of the Links postings... My apologies for any time consumed looking in to this.

I am so glad it landed here... Easier to access than a university library...

The new upgrade seems to shifted the paradigm yet again. What is the new best option for seeing new and updated rhreads? I seem to be missing updates to the daily news links...

Such a strange cut to the back of the costume... This wasn't very typical, or was it?

I haven't seen the program yet... Did Mr. Diamond's directing resemble his work on the Paul Taylor Wrecker's Ball of several years ago?

What were they like? Were they nailed down? One wonders what the Odile fouettes would do to a cloth... Oil cloth?

I'm always surprised to see wooden floors... But this must have been well before Marleys?