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Amy Reusch

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Everything posted by Amy Reusch

  1. I far prefer a choreographer run company... the director-choreographer has insights that bring out qualities in dancers in a very different way than an artistic director cultivating a museum/choreographer-of-the-day repertory... a director-choreographer has a long term influence. NYCB would be like the current ABT if it hadn't been for the artistic-director choreographers. Even with a choreographer like Ratmansky in residence, it seems like he is globe hopping so much, it is a different situation than a choreographer-director's influence on the shape of a company. Balanchine took his company classes very seriously and used them to deliver a very different type of dancer and technique. Now, in the early days of ABT, perhaps Tudor & deMille had more influence on the shape of the company than a resident choreographer now? Also, a choreographer having their own company of dancers with long standing muse relationships has an entirely different creative nourishment situation.
  2. From the above referenced NY Times article: ok... Two Dozen... that's more than we first heard about.
  3. Thank you!! That is exactly what I was hunting for! And here is the link for anyone else interested: Tckets are $20, but complimentary to "NYCB Circle of Friends" https://www.nycballet.com/Educate/Public-Programs/Inside-NYCB.aspx
  4. Come to think of it, didn't Balanchine not draw a salary for the same position?
  5. No, he could have not cared and behaved just as badly... but I have seen plenty of people with a "whatever...." attitude not fight for quality and accept less, and I respect the struggle for quality. Some people handle it better than others. I was paywall blocked from reading Kelly Boal's account until today, so my apologies, I had only read Martins lost his temper during rehearsal. The Boal account describes truly appalling behavior played out hours after rehearsal. Almost sounds as if Martins felt insecure due to Peter Boal's increasing popularity. I'm pretty sure I would have lost my temper with a kid horsing around during a full dress rehearsal involving costs of union stage, union orchestra and union dancers, plus everyone else's time. Clearly the pushback was over the top, but these outbursts came from nowhere? Surely we have all seen situations where one kid provokes another but the teacher's attention was only caught by the second kid's strike back... these are adults, not kids, but they are still humans... I'd like to know what the provocation was. The behavior absolutely was not excused by the provocation, but we're still making value judgements based on one side's account of what happened. Yes, the multiple accounts are damning, but we are also talking 50 years worth of interactions in a large institution and a lot of changeover, I'm really honestly surprised that, given the behavior described, we haven't heard of even more... We do not hear what happened during rehearsal that set him off, but hours later is hardly a knee jerk reaction. Obviously he has rage problems. Alcohol does not help with this and there are DUI incidents mentioned. Martins hasn't been accused of the consistency of your former boss.... that doesn't make his behavior excusable but it doesn't make it the same situation either. Have people been accusing Martins of being a Narcissistic bully? Did I miss that? (honest question, I miss a lot, I'm not an insider) Was Martins' rage outbreak a weekly occurrence? Or was he known for losing it at least once a season? If it was a regular everyday occurence, I'm astounded he could have lasted 50 years. I'm not defending him, just not equating him with your example. I suspect a more balanced director would have overcome personal feelings and brought Suzanne Farrell in to coach. Balanchine was rather famous for not losing his temper and just making changes, after all, with no loss of quality... but then again, he had his genius to fall back on, not everyone has that facility. Perhaps the sniffing was an indication of consternation? Robbins was famous for losing his temper, but he did get good work out. I can,t remember ever hearing accounts that it was more than verbal abuse though. Can be just as cutting, but... Tudor was famous for cutting remarks. Rambert would tear people apart to rebuild them. Nureyev was known to lose his temper. Plenty of people manage to create their art without resorting to verbal or physical abuse. But not everyone is that well balanced. Do we take only the results of mentally balanced people? But I take your point. I have had the misfortune of encountering too many people in the past two decades not interested in pushing hard for quality, but I have spent those two decades living in the hinterlands. It was culture shock leaving urban centers where you give quality or you get out. It probably has colored my understanding from a distance of the forces at play at NYCB.
  6. It in no way excuses violence or harrassment, but I do feel for Martins, after having given 50 years of his life to this company, and caring enough to lose his temper, that he should end this way. It is unfortunate that the retribution collected for so many years. Of course he got a lot himself out of those 50 years, but to imagine there were no sacrifices or personal cost involved...
  7. I like Vipa's idea... I believe the board would support up the financial end while an inspiring leader is carefully chosen.... two years would be time to vet all ideas, wouldn't it? And the company would be in good hands in the meantime if it were one of the senior coaching staff. Roy Kaiser carried Pennsylvania Ballet for a long time. Two years should turn up a leader...?
  8. How about the directors of two small companies Los Angeles Ballet or Ballet Arizona... Colleen Neary and Thordal Christensen deserve credit for keeping a company alive for ten years and bring both Balanchine & Bournonville backgrounds. Ib Anderson looks to be doing interesting work out in Arizona and also has both influences. Yes, incomparable budgets, but perhaps one should look at what they have managed to do with those budgets and give them the chance to work with more. The problem is, the "worked directly with Balanchine" generation have just about aged out... how long would any of them be available to run the company? It will be difficult to replace the stability Martins provided, how much havoc would a series of directors over the next few years wreak? I'd love to see someone paired with Wendy Whelan. Partnerships can be difficult to get to survive in as stressful a situation as running a dance company. Even though NYCB is an unlikely vehicle, I'd love to see an American ballet company headed by Wendy Whelan with David Hallberg , their backgrounds would complement each other interestingly.
  9. Perhaps because the State Theater has been rented instead to Shen Yui for the 21st? I'm still surprised there is not more... The more I think about it, the more I imagine it would be the job of the director of Education who organized the events... Maybe I just haven't hunted through the website thoroughly enough? Did they not do one last year? (I'm afraid I was out of commission at the time and not checking ballet calendars)
  10. I was hunting on the NYCB site to see what was planned for this year... there are often interesting lecture demos, etc... (there is still this on the website, but, given that the 21st is a Sunday this year, it must not be current: https://www.nycballet.com/Season-Tickets/Saturday-at-the-Ballet-with-George.aspx) They seem to be presenting an all Balanchine program on the 23rd, but there is no mention of lectures or demonstrations... Am I looking in the wrong place? Or was this all pulled together in the past by Peter Martins and with him away no one has picked up the slack?
  11. Amy Reusch

    Gomes and ABT

    Do ABT dancers get pensions and post employment benefits?
  12. Regarding the name and ties with New York City... Didn't NYCB become NYCB when they took New York City Center theater as their home? Before that the group was Ballet Society and Ballet Caravan?
  13. I would like to know what the Dress Rehearsal "horsing around" consisted of... if a child is endangering others by out of control behavior, a director may make sudden physical contact to make it stop... We aren't told what it was that triggered the "grabbed by the back of the neck" response... Obviously it was over the top on Martin's part... but I'd still like to hear the event described by a witness rather than the one who triggered the response. If he was misbehaving back then, why is his testimony taken as flawless truth now? Surely there would be other children there who would remember this day. What happened? What was Martins putting a stop to? Why so violently? Clearly though, there is this same thread of "grabbing by the neck" through the stories... that makes it clear it was a line that was crossed more than once... What is that old line to women about "if a man hits you, once, it will happen again... get out of that relationship fast".
  14. I don't know if it is refreshing that Nutcracker could be unfamiliar, or depressing!?
  15. The theme seems to be snowy white... yet it is Waltz of the Flowers we hear... i wonder if there was a last minute change in plans...
  16. http://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2017/11/upstate_ny_native_performs_ballet_for_melania_trump_at_white_house.html above is an article about one of the dancers... not sure age 22 qualifies one as a student in the same way as ABT fan meant.
  17. It may be important to note that the finishing training is quite significant... it is as if at each level of advancement the student is capable of learning much more finesse than at the previous level... it is not as if one is just adding the top floor to a skyscraper. In the US, the level of selection at age 9 is not the same as it is in say Russia... The intense selection happens later, perhaps around age 14? There are benefits to this sytem too... sometimes not all talents are apparent at a very young age... it is hard to spot the artist in the child.
  18. Sounds like mission creep... sounds like their focus was fractured in many different directions... how many of the dropped names visited Charleston?
  19. I am a great admirer of Novikova... thought her dress was stunning, but missed the "tap on the back: wrap it up" cue of an earlier Bolshoi live stream... thought that was charming.... here they were clearly talking in her ears, but she coped well. I had a little difficulty following the Ratmansky interview... what was the new part he inserted in the third act? Was it the entire pas with the feathery fans? They kept saying what it was but my French is too basic to catch the term... Pas de What? Was the first act tempo a little faster than it had been rehearsed? was anyone else's livestream's audio off by a fraction? I found myself watching to see if the footfalls matched what we were seeing on stage... Costume design was gorgeous, just stunning, but I wish the bottom layers of the tutus were a little less springy... it seemed a lot of the footage was shot with the camera at the dancers' knee level so that we were looking up the skirts and the view was distracting. I am happy to say that most of the camera decisions were invisible... they clearly worked hard to make the kidnapping scene frame just right. At times I wished they would allow the dancers just a little more space to dance in, but that the camera was rarely distracting is evidence of how well shot the production was. i wish very much that in their intermission bytes that they would decode the pantomime gestures... there several here that I was a little mystified by... is there a history to the slave pose of fingertips to chest? Keep your hands out of yuor pockets and visible at all times, ready to serve? The pas de Odalisques was one of the high points... person next to me whispered in awe "so that's what brisés are supposed to look like!" finally... does the boat never rock in the storm? I thought remembered reading once somewhere how a detachment of calvary(?) would be ordered to duty at the theater to pull the ropes to rock the boat during the storm. This is the first time I have seen the whole production (have caught bits on the micro screen) and I had always wondered how the dancers moved on a rocking surface... here the dancers clung to things as if the boat were rocking but the looked as placid as if it were sitting in a small ponf on a still day (until it cracked in two). So... it never did rock? Or not in recent memory? we were given a printed program, but I swear it was practically in font point size 3... i will have to find my magnifying glass... [watched in Connecticut]
  20. I believe Novikova said something hopeful about upcoming availability on DVD....
  21. I would like to see more Possokhov.... there were astonishing moments in the choreography... and some gorgeous dancers... and I'd like to see this production live in the theater, but I can't imagine that set will ever travel to the US. I agree about the storyline, clearly we all needed to know the Lermontov novel well to be able to follow what was going on. I'd like to know how the live-stream came through in other parts of the country... for us the music frequently dropped out... but mainly I'm wondering about the quality of the [well shot, well directed this time!Bravo Vincent Bataillon!] ] video. The Bolshoi obviously went to some expense on this production, but on screen, it seemed as if it weren't lit for the camera. All those dancers in black kept fading into the black background... was this just a downgraded streaming issue at my end? Were there cities where the black-on-black came through crisp and brilliant? I thought perhaps with the sound dropping out that the video might have downgraded to lower resolution, causing the issue. The composer interview at intermission was interesting... so very young... but what really struck me was his emphasis on his many discussions with the director, and an off-hand remark "and of course the choreographer". Perhaps I am mistaken, but in the US, we're used to the choreographer being the primary director of a production, even when working for a company's artistic director... I imagine that was not the case with Diaghilev, but usually isn't the choreographer given the reins? I'm wondering if Possokhov set the tempos or was it someone else, the Director of the Bolshoi, the Composer, the Conductor? Because it seemed as if in the first story, Smirnova was rushed through her movement (every split second she a chance to articulate, she did... don't get me wrong... she didn't seem to sacrifice to keep up with the speed), the movement just seemed too fast paced to be allowed to resonate... Her choreography's tempo seemed and oddly, the tribesmen (Georgians?) seemed too soft... We're used to all the youtube clips of fierce Georgian dancers and these just looked soft-edged.. I couldn't put my finger on it... they certainly the physical ability, but the dynamic, the attack was not as it is in the character dance companies... or was this just because it was not well lit? Very hard to figure out what the problem was. Also Igor Tsvirko, (yes, may we see more of him??), was curious... his passionate characterization well sustained the close-ups and the virtuosic movements, but it seemed like he was concentrating very hard to get the contemporary style choregraphy bits exactly correct... why? was it the tempo? He clearly is not lacking in ability or talent. The second act, was also well danced but difficult to decipher... I cannot decide if it were the lighting or whether the projections did not come through clearly over the live-stream? It looked like some interesting water effects were happening on the scenery, but I kept feeling like they were not really visible, as if we were seeing only 20% of what was visible in the theater. I suspect it was a technology issue local to the venue I saw the livestream in... was it widespread? Anyone else feel something was not coming through? The dancers in wheelchairs... mixed-ability choreography presented at the Bolshoi!! Very nice to see that! Novikova was impressive in the speed at which she could get the information out. It did seem as if she were not getting quite what she expected from management though because she said something about not giving a description in Russian because the direction had not come through? Also, I enjoyed the guy who would walk through and lightly touch her shoulder... I guess that was a cue that the sets were now in place and she should wrap up in 3 minutes or so? Very curious. It looked as if the next season will not have any new works? (Corsaire, Taming of the Shrew, Nutcracker, Romeo & Juliet, La Dame aux Camelias, The Flames of Paris, Giselle, Coppelia ) Only re-choreographies of earlier ballets? I only saw the titles go by in the theater, but on Pathe's page it looks like the Romeo & Juliet will be new choreography? The descriptions are in French, and my skills there are lacking. http://www.pathelive.com/programme/ballet-du-bolchoi-2017-2018 The bit with the ballet barre in Act I... is that in the novel?
  22. Miliosr... doesn't the length make it kind of an odd duck for a revival project (do patrons expect a full evening for an expensive revival)? I would love to see Tudor's take on Shakespeare...
  23. I remember the Smuin one as well, Natalia, though I only saw the broadcast... I thought it was quite successful (but I was teenager at the time, I don't know what I'd think now...) I'm a little surprised no one else does it...
  24. I was only able to get for a bit of Friday... The room was packed,more people than chairs... And afraid I did not take notes... Here are some random memories/thoughts... One thing I wondered was perhaps addressed during sessions I missed: under Stalin, it could be fatal to have Western connections... The exchanges started in the neighborhood of three years after Stalin's death... Was there a reluctance to be associated with a venture like this? Perhaps the new regime might also turn against those with Western connections? The bribes that were required in the USSR to get the exchanges to happen... Were some of these also to smooth over that reluctance? A theme seemed to be that the exchanges had much more impact on dance on the Western side of the Iron Curtain than on the Eastern side. But I am not sure I entirely agree... Sylvie Guillem, perhaps too late to be considered Cold War, but I believe she influenced the look of Russian dancers today... Their extreme flexibility... and the popularity of In the middle somewhat elevated.. There was some talk of the cultural exchange in Cuba and how the Cubans were resisant feeling they had their own distinct technique not requiring Russian patronizing... But there was no discussion of the details of this technique. I find it interesting because it often seems to me that the Cuban dancers more resemble the old soviet dancers than their Russian counterparts do. Ulanova was surprisingly old when she finally got to dance in the US? I didn't realize how long it took Hurok to bring The Bolshoi to the US. And the world nearly got DeNiro playing Hurok in a biopic. Russian Dancers were expected to bring back "thank you" gifts for those bureaucrats who got them in the tour... But they had very little money with which to purchase these gifts. It was not quite explained how they managed on their piitance of a per diem to purchase the gifts. I wondered why Merce Cunningham was not included... It seems he was not considered a gifted public speaker... But John Cage would have done this well for him, no? And on the Modern Art front the US State Dept was covertly funding abstract painting from the avant garde, why was dance exported more conservative? There was also talk of Ailey, Dunham & Primus in Africa. In some countries the local tribes distrusted Primus, thinking she was there to steal their dances, in others the colonial overlords feared she was fanning patriotic flames. I wanted to ask if dances were handed down as legacy in Africa as they are in some Native American tribes but time was limited and the room was packed with noted critics, authors & scholars, so.. not sure if questions from general public would have been welcomed.
  25. The index link has sadly gone inert... Found this nice thread when a friend posted a link to a video of that charming solo Ashton choreographed for Fonteyn at 60. So, that dance they do together before Ashton leads her offstage, is that the Fred Step? would be a fun game some August (or Nutcracker seige) to see how many quotes we can find in the piece. I think I see Ondine, maybe Firebird and surely Juliet?, but do not know the Fonteyn repetoire well enough to see more.
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