Amy Reusch

It is a little choppy but I love the wide angle lens' depth of field here; I forgive those close-ups as it pulls wide... one feels much closer to the dancers & dancing than the "live" shoots usually allow for...

I had fun comparing "Balanchine" to "choreographer"...

"Today's Active Topics" had, by contrast, 14 items... If at all possible, it would be really great if you were able to move this option to the top of the page...

Just keeping up a log for what it's worth...

I just clicked "View New Content" after looking at the new links a few moments ago (my first time of checking Ballettalk today)... Here's what the header said:

"There are 4 new entries since Today, 12:51 PM" [and none of them included this topic].

I probably last checked my e-mail at 12:51.. and then again about an hour ago... but 6:15 is probably when I first hit Ballettalk...

I'm going to check active topics instead... but I think the view new content issue is very weird.

Ha! no... that just booted me off the forum and I had to sign in again... thought maybe it was some sort of special Ballettalk cookies (have no idea what I imagined those to be) obviously a standard cookie... but I was surprised to see it on the board rather than in my browser menu.

Well, today when I clicked View New Content, it showed me what had been posted since 5:22 pm... but this is the first time I've checked in on Ballettalk today. And it did NOT show me any of the posts on this topic since my last post. I wouldn't be surprised if this particular forum isn't different from the others... it's kind of an administrative forum, no?

Carbro, sometimes I leave it up, sometimes not.

Sounds like Active Topics is what I'd be interested in...

If I hit "delete my cookies" at the bottom of this page, will I have to log in again?. Am going to try it.

Being a stubborn old fogey, I don't think I'll start calling threads topics.. it cuts too many ties to the past. As far as I'm concerned BalletTalk itself is a forum. But for the sake of the groceries, I'll mention that this when I checked "new content" just now, it neglected to show me that you had responded to my most recent posts... I had to take a look in this forum (subforum, catacombs?) to see if you had responded. "View new content" should have shown me that the thread/topic had been added to since my last visit...

That's what I'll do... I'll try the switch.

Oh, and I do have evidence of threads not showing after all... I notice there was a new addition on a Ballets Russes centenary thread, something I've been very interested in, but it never appeared in my "view new content".

I always enter the site through the Links page to see what has happened recently in the dance world... then I click "view new content" to see what the board is buzzing about. It's been much quieter since the format change, but I think it's because I'm missing posts.

Will try the switch, maybe it will make a difference. I think it was a default situation because this is the first time I've hunted through the settings since the summer format change.

Thanks,

Amy

Sandy, I mean that there have been whole new thread posted since my last visit that I only become aware of if I hunt through the forums... I don't have evidence of it at this moment, but I'm sure it is happening... from my experience over the last several months compared to my experience of Ballet Talk over the past several years (I was an early member).

My experience of "view new content" seems like yours except that there is rarely much there and it posts these strange times as my "last visit"... Now, perhaps these times are the standard time of the board and not the adjusted time? Might explain it... though the 7am time this morning would have corresponded to the school closing check.... and the 2pm time would have corresponded to an e-mail check...

This is so confusing... I suspect that since I never revisited my settings when the format change happened, that several new default settings never took effect. Having looked through the settings (and changed nothing), now all of a sudden there's this list of new topics that shows up on the right of the forum. Curiouser & curiouser...

When i click on View New Content I get: "There are 7 new entries since Today, 02:25 PM" I don't believe I visited ballet talk at 2:25pm today... only when I originally posted, this morning.

I looked in my settings (took me a bit to notice where those are now stored, by the way)... I noticed under View New Content there were two options: [i'm paraphrasing rather than cut & pasting here] either show all content that I have not read or show new content since my last visit. I notice that show all content that I have not read is checked... Now, would that show me quite a bit of content when I click "view new content" rather than less? Do you think I should change it?

I'll look around and report back... I'm not one of those who gets e-mail notifications... and indeed whole threads never show up in my "view new content" (For instance, the updates to this thread never showed up.) I'm pretty sure my browser accepts cookies for this site or I'd have to log on all the time, wouldn't I? I do, however, use a Mac... maybe it's a Mac Safari internet browser incompatibility?

Sandy, it does show me the current updates on the Links page... that is all in order... it's just when I check "view new content" that the site doesn't deliver as it used to. Has there been a drop off in discussion since the new format? I'm wondering how much I'm missing...

"posted today" seems accurate enough in regards to what my time is coordinated to... will look in the settings.

It's taken me a long while to get around to posting this question. I've noticed the problem ever since this Summer's upgrade to the new look. My apologies if it's been answered already, but it didn't seem to be there in the other posts...

"View New Content" no longer seems to show me new posts since my last visit... intead it shows me new posts since the moment my computer accessed the internet. For instance, I would like to see the new posts since I checked in last night, but since my daughter used the computer at 7am to check school closings, Ballet Talk is showing me only new posts since 7am... Not a big deal today, but if I've been away for a few days and then check, it does the same thing... shows me only the posts since my most recent access of the internet.

How do I get it to show the most recent posts since my last visit to Ballettalk? Do I have to log out each time so that it's a fresh log-in each new visit?

Thank you,

Amy

What I'd really like to know is what Ben Stevenson thought of this film... or rather of the portrayal of his personality & choreography. Was the only piece of choreography that was Stevenson's the one on the ballet barre? I don't know it well enough to know if it is exactly his.. but it was similar. Is this defamation of character or did he get paid something for the use of his name? It's a strange situation. He's a public figure. I don't remember how portrayal of a public figures works in the international intellectual property laws...

I wasn't crazy about the special effects, the slow mo seemed a little forced.

Best were the China scenes.

And I'm sure my eyes deceived me, but did they misspell "Sacre du Printemps" in the credits? I think it must have been a motion trick of the eye, but I could have sworn it was spelled "Printempts" on screen...

What was Li's comment to his parents on stage "Let's not talk about that now"? Would love the exact quote...

New York Times obituary by Jack Anderson - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/arts/dance/18rommett.html?ref=dance

Zena Rommett was an extremely influential teacher... I thought perhaps she should have a thread here as well.

http://www.dancebloggers.com/2010/11/zena-rommett-90

Hmmm... can't say there's anything there reminiscent of frosting or a Viennese ball..... oh well... seemed a good way to tie it all together.

36 Couples? Wow... that's a lot! Or was it 18 couples?

I understand that that they are Cake Flowers, in keeping with the rest of the dessert treats... but what is the ethnicity? (or are they like Sugarplum, whom I assume has no ethnicity but reigns over them all... sugar on high so to speak?

Lately been wondering if they are Viennese? White cake flowers ~ debutantes at a ball? Is a Viennese waltz different musically from a regular waltz?

Just wondering... wandering...

... the season is coming nigh...

Saw Coppelia again tonight… this time in Hartford. What a difference a week can make. Lighting issues fixed. Perhaps there had been first night jitters… softer acting, clearer story. Beautiful counterpoint between Dr. Coppelius & Swanhilda in Act II.

Grand pas de deux in Act III alone was worth the price of the ticket. .. just stunning… and the use of the children was so charming… particularly the surprise ending to the Prayer solo.

One night stand college tour companies, “Stars of”, and well run school productions are not the same. Thank you, Mr. Raphael, for bringing a classical ballet company back to Hartford.

Thank you rg.

I'm hoping to come in for ABT's presentation of Franklin's staging of Coppelia, and most certainly will try to catch the Danilova telecast at the library first... would love to hear what she had to say.

Although, re Balanchine & mime, he did keep in that entire mime scene in Nutcracker where the prince explains to the Sugarplum Fairy how Clara had saved him...

I really really really want to see a split screen version of Franklins & Danilova's Coppelia... to see what they did. Danilova's Coppelia was broadcast, wasn' t it? Does Franklin's exist anywhere outside of archival video?

And who, do they imagine, would be suited to run both an opera and a ballet company?

When one goes to see a small company pull off a big ballet, one is never really sure what one is in for. Sometimes, with luck, the ballerina is enough to make the ticket worth while, while one is forgiving of the sets, costumes, ensemble dancing and incidental choreography.

It’s a pleasant surprise at Connecticut Ballet’s current Coppelia production. The sets and costumes are charming, in fact, the 2nd Act toy shop set is quite inspired!. The ensemble dancing, particularly from the men, is better than one would have seen in a company this size 20 years ago, the dancer playing Franz had some stunning bravura technique and the dancer playing Swanhilda has some beautiful extensions. The character dancing, at least the first piece, was very easy on the eyes (I’m terrible at telling a Czardas from a Mazurka… and I thought they were doing czardas steps first but I see in the score it’s the other way around). The Palace is an excellent house to see ballet in, a charming survivor from the jewel-box age of cinema theaters.

Where the production is lacking is not in the technical level of the dancing and not in the choreography, (which in some places had better group choreography than other Coppelia productions I’ve seen…) but in an area I think might be found reflected in other companies in this new century. It’s been a long time since the domination of the story ballet. Dancers have so much better technique than they did decades ago… it’s really quite impressive… but what’s been lost, perhaps, along the way, are the acting skills. Because Coppelia is a comedy and the story is told through mime doesn’t mean therefore that Swanhilda must clownishly relate the drama. Timing is everything with comedy (and acting). Making gesture large enough to read in the theater isn’t the same thing as overacting. Where dancers need coaching now is not so much for their technique and movement dynamics as for their acting…. As the Ballets Russes generation leaves us, will acting through dance become a lost art?

Swanhilda was danced by Therese Miyoshi Wendler,

Franz was danced by Mikhail Ilyin

Dr. Coppelius was played by Brett Raphael

Staging/Choreography by Artistic Director Brett Raphael

Special Unexpected Treat of the evening: Dawn soloist, Jiyoung Park, whose lovely physical expression of the steps was just dreamy…. I could have watched her for far longer.

The production runs for one more matinee in Stamford on Sunday and then an evening & matinee next weekend in Hartford at the Bushnell.

Wonderful to see what can be accomplished, even on a shoestring.

Would that lighting designer Bradley King had seen fit to indicate that Coppelia was involved in the plot with a ray or two of light, and that whomever took on the props responsibility had figured out the butterfly & wheat a little more convincingly...