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Amy Reusch

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Everything posted by Amy Reusch

  1. Yes, I do understand what an Artistic Director is... I just find merit in the Ballet Master in Chief title. I find them to be slightly different roles. Perhaps what I would like to see is a Ballet Master in Chief in addition to an Artistic Director because of the unique technique developed by NYCB... or perhaps rather, I'd like to see the same individual have *both* titles. I believe Balanchine was artistic director of the company? He did choose the repertory, did he not? Or was that shared with Kirstein? But he also significantly oversaw the school and built the company technique up. I rather think Robert Joffrey was similarly involved though perhaps Arpino was the more dominant choreographer. I never heard of an official "Joffrey Technique" but believe there was a master teacher situation there. From my understanding, an Artistic Director oversees the artistic choices, a Ballet Master oversees technical achievement and interpretation legitimacy, Resident Choreographer creates new repertory. Balanchine was all three. There are Artistic Directors who are all three, and there are Artistic Directors who do the first two and not the third, and there are impresarios who only do the first. Where I don't see an Artistic Director as being appropriate is for a school. Here one would have a Program Director. SAB and the development of Balanchine Technique within the Company, where the vast majority of the dancers are prepared by SAB, is so significant to what NYCB is, that the Ballet Master in Chief role is more significant than it might otherwise be. if NYCB were to start taking most of its dancers from the pool of foreign highly accomplished ("world class") dancers, it would be an entirely different company stylistically, and its identity would be lost, even with the repertory "schooling" these dancers as they danced it. (I use "foreign" here to mean a dancer produced by a school other than SAB, not as a quality of ethnic or national origin) Whatever doubts anyone might have entertained about Martins success as a choreographer, or even as an artistic director, as a ballet master he has been very successful... the quality of the dancers in the company at the end of his tenure was quite wonderful. I know some felt the repertory was not being danced as it was in Balanchine's day, but no one has faulted the facility of the dancers. Perhaps this is part of why they are being given so much say in what is wanted in the next director of the company... they are as extraordinary an asset as NYCB's repertory is. If the value of the title of ballet master is downgraded, might not the value of the ballet master's achievement and significance also be slighted? Also: sure, one can divy the roles out to different people but a unity of artistic vision is then diluted. It may have to happen, there are not Balanchines produced every day, but… this is beginning to change the company's structure… The Paris Opera ballet model should be examined for its strengths and weaknesses... it produces wonderful dancers... how many Balanchines has it produced in the last 100 years? The imperial Russian model cannot be recreated without a tzar, I don't believe... but was a pretty autocratic situation, wasn't it? Can a big institution foster choreographic creativity? Well, sure, look at the classic repertoire. How important is structure?
  2. Ballet Master in Chief with the rest of the ballet masters in tow, reporting to a king... Artistic Director reporting to a Chairman of the Board plus the rest of the Board ... Am trying to consider if it is the same.... does the singularity one one side make a difference?
  3. Yes... and "but first, a school" Ties the training into the choreographing to an extent that few other ballet companies in America did... (Though the early modern dancers certainly agreed with the tie in) In Russia, the first companies were made up of slaves (ok, serfs, but the distinction is not great...)
  4. By the way, I think I may have on tape Antony Tudor correcting an interviewer who had refered to those who set the Tudor works on companies for him as his "disciples"'... saying with a smile that these were his "slaves" not disciples. But I never thought for a moment that he was drawing on American history horror references. If it is not still in my posession, it definitely is in the NYPL archives.
  5. I realize it is an anachronism, but perhaps it is a meaningful one. I've only known artistic directors, but admittedly all the companies mentioned were lesser companies to NYCB. I think Ballet Theater and City Ballet were closer rivals at their start than they are now, is that an AD vs. BMiC approach? Why was it Balanchine's preference? Forward to Petipa? I am guessing, or possibly half remembering, that there was a theater director for the imperial theaters who did not possess ballet master skills. Perhaps it was respecting to Diaghilev's artistic direction of the Ballet Russe? I guess I would like if NYCB made the adjustment in "Forward to Petipa" rather than in "Ballet Master in Chief".... Did Balanchine make the company a museum as he went "Forward to Petipa"? ... yes, in some ways, but in other ways it was more a gallery than a museum.... with a lot of innovation next to the classicism. Perhaps they should aim "Forward to Balanchine"? It was good enough for Balanchine to aim for Petipa's mastery, but not good enough for Balanchine's successor? Why not?
  6. No more "masterpieces"? Is there another word for mastering the art form? Command isn't quite the same thing.... for imstance " Commander in Chief sounds too military and not about maintining standards,. Words are not my forte, ... have we stopped listing regular ballet masters and ballet mistresses yet? I know some call actresses "actors" these days as if the feminine form of the word is somehow insulting ( isn,t it sexist to assume the femine form is insulting but the male form is not?). I can't say I feel strongly one way or the other about actress/actor. I guess I do think Ballet Mistress In Chief has lost the ring to it because we do not have mistresspieces or talk about mistressing the art form. I would not blink if a woman were called Ballet Master in Chief. They are all servants of the art form, even the Ballet Masters and Mistresses.
  7. I kind of prefer "Ballet Master in Chief" tradition for NYCB... it seems to indicate that maintaining the quality of dancers and repertory is the primary concern... that there is a goal they are trying to live up to... director vs. master... how did it get its start, did Kirstein wish to be AD? Was AD in conflict with Impresario? Regisseur?
  8. There was a very tiny funeral home obituary listed on Mel's facebook that mentioned almost nothing about him... but the school where he often taught posted some nice photos and a bio from a program. Facebook tribute at Dance Design School's facebook page
  9. I thought of Carbro and Glebb, and before BA, ther was a,a.b. and the ever charming Tom Parsons. Sad to lose any of those gems.
  10. I see nothing here, but it seems our treasure from a while back, Mel Johnson, has passed on. I do not know if an obituary has been pulblished yet, my last search turned up nothing, but his facebook page carried the sad tidings. https://www.facebook.com/mel.johnson.946?fref=ts
  11. I think doubles certainly add an element of risk and skill (requiring strong center of balance), and if one is trying to do doubles in the same amount of time as singles (though usually a double replaces two singles in fouettes), there is significantly more force... as the dancer tires, center of balance can begin to go awry... slight errors begin to accumulate that are easier to save with a single than with a double.
  12. Not to mention that doubles are actually a "rest" for the dancer (one less relevé ... one less whip of the leg)... and changing spots is impressive from a technical standpoint but doesn't have much more to say aesthetically.
  13. Odile's fouettés are meant to be hypnotic, if you listen to Makarova...which I like to do. The problem with gimmicky tricks is that they get old fast. Fouettés are a pretty old trick. 32 is like playing one note over & over & over...
  14. Interesting that the Chicago - Grand Rapids flow continues! Happy to see a female choreographer being fostered. Brian Enos a choreographer? Gosh! I was mixing him up with Brian Eno the composer! I wonder how often the name has thrown people...?
  15. I saw Moscow Festival Ballet's "Giselle" last night, a dreary cold rainy Tuesday night in Storrs, CT at Jorgensen Auditorium at University of Connecticut. It was the sort of weather that brings out injuries in dancers, so I am grateful for any effort they made, particularly on this stage. I have to explain that although the University of Connecticut built this auditorium from scratch as a performing arts venue, the sight lines from the orchestra do not allow the expensive seats to see the dancers below the knees unless one is in the very back of the house where there are some risers, and the balcony is so very far back from the stage that is difficult to see the dancers, the sound system is so-so, and there is no fly-space... so production values of touring companies are severely limited... and this company or it's sister business entity, the Russian National Ballet, come through this space once a year, so they are aware of the limitations before they arrive. Also, on a series of one-night-stands, it is probably a challenge to get much going as far as lighting is concerned. Jorgensen did not include the casting in the program, so I hope the dancers manning the concession stands understood me when I asked for the names. I managed to call Hillarion "Gurn" but luckily she just blinked... and when I clarified, the huntsman suitor of Giselle, gave me a name. For Coppelia, this means no balcony for the doll. For Giselle, it seemed to mean only one hut, to no hut for Albrecht to hide his aristocratic signifiers. So.. usually, I do not expect much in terms of production values... However, the last time I caught this company's Giselle, the corps de ballet was so gorgeous that the Willis were worth the ticket price regardless of sets & lights... and I have told people to come, because despite the limitations the dancers are beautifully trained. The men carried this Giselle. The Albrecht, Evgeniy Rudakov, was worth the ticket... beautiful danseur noble elegant line... expressive epaulement, every gesture and port de bras evolving from his back... lovely soaring arc to grand jetés, sensitive partnering. A true artist, he was faithful to his art despite the lowly surrounds, giving us a poetic expression of this old classic. Often in the variation with the Willis, I find many Albrechts master the turning leaps only to misunderstand and overdo the cambrés on landing, looking awkward. Rudakov's cambrés swept from the landing of the jump in a way that made perfect visual sense, with never a loss of grace. The Hilarion, Dmitry Sitkevich, carried the show with his heartfelt acting... while Albrecht, as an aristocrat, has to be somewhat restrained in his expression, Hilarion has no such restrictions. We totally believed him, and frankly his acting made up for the rest of the dancers... I would go see this man dance any story ballet. The roar that greeted him at bows showed the audience agreed with me. It was louder than the status of the role normally garners, proving that there are no small roles when the dancer is great enough. The Giselle, I did not ask for her name. She had some lovely moments, toward the end of the ballet, but she left me pretty cold. I think she might have been dealing with an injury because she took the famous Spessitseva hops en pointe from the opposite diagonal, only did 4 in a row before breaking it up with a pas de bourrée, and fell out out even those. She was not having a good day. The weather might have been to blame, but she definitely "was not feeling it" last night. The Peasant Pas de Deux, danced by Aleksandra Krukova and Sergey Kotov, was fine... I applaud Kotov for opening with those lovely double cabrioles, for giving more than one would expect to see at this venue... and Krukova hung a lovely triple tour piqué en dedans... Alas, the corps de ballet's training was very uneven. It could be the space and the lack of rehearsal in it, or the ghastly weather, but they were often not together. I had been looking forward to the arabesque voyagé section, so transcendent the last time around, but it was nothing here... hopping instead of graceful, not together. I kept wondering if there had been injuries and they had filled in with some domestic dancers... some of the girls in the corps had that beautiful Vaganova grace, and others were just kind of clumsy. Sadly, these less-than-ideal dancers were not on the periphery, but front and center, making them hard to miss. There is that lovely part in the Willis where they pair up, holding hands, circle each other with a step piqué double frappé side (or something like?)... well, some of the dancers bothered to do the double beat, and others just skipped it... it was just kind of sloppy. I kept thinking I've seen smaller regional companies do better with this, and in the past the training of the dancers of this company has been so beautiful... I don't know if word has gotten out about how grueling the tours are, or things are not as desperate in Russin as they were a dozen or so years ago or what, but it was not good. Of course, and American company would have go on strike if the program did not bother to list the cast... so, probably we will never see the smaller regional companies touring the college circuit. I miss the old days when the National Endowment for the Art funded a lot of touring by American companies. I sound nationalistic here, and I'm not really, the Russians are often lovely, and populate American companies too... It's just that out here in the hinterlands, the public is exposed to so little ballet, there are ballet students who have only heard of Misty Copeland (on talk shows and commercials) and the girls on Dance Moms... Copeland is okay --at least they have heard of her -- but they need to see a full ballet live on stage, not an abbreviated segment on a television show... there is so much more to it.. they so badly need to see the art form faithfully presented as originally intended. Forgot to mention the scenery, costumes and lighting. I don't think it's fair to talk about the sets given the limitations of the space, so I'm not going to talk about that backdrop, the singular hut, or the cross. The costumes were fine, although for peasants the emphasis on a bright pink and gauzy costumes made one sure these were originally intended for Coppelia. The pink leggings for the men seemed odd too. The duchess's gold lamé probably doubles for the Queen mother in Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. Perhaps the LED lights were not cooperative, but the Dawn that arrives makes one think "Red Skies in Morning, Albrecht take Warning" (which considering the night he just had, might have seemed appropriate), rather than the redemption and safety of morning.
  16. I returned Saturday night and Mearns did not disappoint!! She was absolutely sublime! And all of it looked better. Which gave me the happy thought that maybe long after Mearns steps off the ballet stage (far in the future), we will still be able to enjoy her artistry in this repertoire... how old was Annabelle Gamson when she danced her last Duncan?
  17. Vipa, I think it is fascination with a legend... just as we try to put new male virtuoso dancers in Spectre de la Rose... we all want to catch a glimpse of a legend... And of course, no one alive has actually seen Isadora dance (except for that flurry out from the shrubbery & back in again... which I feel I caught a glimpse of in Mearns on Sunday). Who knows how much of what the disciples passed on was the disciples interpretation of what they remembered... what was disciple and what was Duncan? We have a sense of Duncan's spirt from her dancing and a sense of the strictures of the time... Whenever it was upper body expression (torso, arms, head, focus), I thought Mearns triumphed... when she was trying to step out of her legs muscle memory, I thought she was slightly less so... as if she were trying desperately not to do ballet's version of similar steps but was trying to exist in someone else's skin and someone else's muscle memory. Watching her, it felt as if those bits were going to evolve into something more as she performs the piece over and over... Whoever does Duncan has to look like they improvised the movement themselves... like it was born that moment... so much of this worked... Butterfly worked particularly well (Hello Loie Fuller?), and Petals. With Petals, though, I wondered why they did not fall until the last moments of the dance... I have seen others do this dance, so long ago now that I cannot totally trust my memory... and I was sure there were moments earlier particularly where petals had fallen in the past. I wondered if she used real petals and could not crush as many hidden into her fingers as one could with silk petals? In the Funeral piece, she seemed sad, frail and vulnerable... but for some reason I wanted to see the agony of tragedy in her... not sure where this desire in me came from... perhaps from watching Annabelle Gamson or some Hollywood clip? It could be totally misplaced. I just wanted to see the "powerful tragic Isadora", and Mearns was lyrical here. Also, I think she was trying not to use ballet's gravity defiance in some of the skipping jumping moments... I wonder if this is the disciples passing down memory of an older Duncan. I am not sure it fits with a childlike persephone-esque moments... what child ever was earthy in their skipping? Is it not always a temps levé feeling? I wondered how much of this was a coaching request. There is a remarkable amount of Duncan on youtube these days (truly the internet is a modern miracle), so one can see others in these pieces. Mearns' delivery is as extraordinary as the artist she is. There is this curious clip (not Annabelle Gamson) and this lovely clip of Loretta Thomas... which reminded me more of Mearns' performance than some of the others. There are several videos of director Lori Belilove there as well.
  18. Mearns was very successful with many of the solos... as one might expect of a dancer with such a heart.
  19. In fairness, tricks are easier to make a short video statement with. I was just surprised to see Swan Lake sold that way... sure the black swan pas de deux, but some stuff that came out from the company on facebook was about how well the dancers were technically handling the "difficult" white pdd, as if the technical tricks were the focus of that choreography. I've never seen the "tricks" there promoted as such rather than the soulful expression... very weird.
  20. Is it possibly all the emphasis on competitions rather than on artistic quality these days? Maybe they don't see beyond the tricks? And this is their way of measuring themselves against the rest of the world?
  21. It is surpriisng how quickly dancers are forgotten, it is truly the most ephemeral of the arts... I apologize for being off topic of PA B's Season, but wouldn't Julie Kent with David Hallberg make a great artistic management team for ABT?
  22. It seems this was the case... his family posted on Facebook: "Sean was diagnosed in January with a recurrence of the tumor that ended his dancing in 1986. He was placed on radiation, but his immune system could not tolerate the effects of that therapy. He died quickly and peacefully in his beloved Palm Springs; his family was there, and he was well-cared-for by the professional staff at the hospital."
  23. I don't recall Swan Lake selling poorly back in the Christopher d'Amboise days... is this low turn-out something new? Maybe that poster image isn't helping much...
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