Amy Reusch

Is the New York Times becoming USA Today?

Thank you Alexandra for giving us Ballet Talk... every time round! It's been (and hopefully will continue) a drop-dead astounding site and service to the ballet world.

9 Sinatra Songs will be interesting because it showcases so many partnerships... I wanted to mention to Purely Ballet that there are no pointe shoes in these pas de deux. I hope to hear reviews of Matthew Neenan's new work. He's been given a lot of exposure by PA Ballet. They would seem to think we have a new ballet choreographer worth nurturing in him. I'd love to see a documentary on the new ballet choreographer talent out there. If only PBS were living up to it's potential!

Ahhh... if only ballet were too young to be subjected to silly reinterpretations... I'd say Mr. Rockwell has not yet suffered enough. I think he's just trying to be liked by everyone... though I am sorry that in his "unified universe", only one ballet choreographer gets mentioned... the rest are all crossover types. Of course cross-over and post-modern are almost synomynous. Hasn't anything taken over from post-modernism yet? When are we going to stop cross-pollinating and try distilling again?

I saw them do Barocco and also the concert version of Who Cares, but it was maybe a decade ago. I haven't seen the company since then. I did however, study there in my teenage years in the '70s. The direction of the company has been in the same hands for a very long time. Joseph Carow left some time in the late 1980s, I believe, but Paul McRae who took his place had danced with the company for years before. I mention the Balanchine because perhaps regional companies that have performed Balanchine are different from regional companies that have never performed Balanchine. I think the budget, the size, and the quality of the company have varied over the years.

I'd venture to guess that they looked very very much alike! Any deviations and well before 121, she'd have lost controll!

Sometimes when seemingly inappropriate close-ups are used, it's because someone screwed up somewhere and the editor needed to cut away to an incomplete image so that you won't notice. Of course, when it's someone other than the artists on stage who screwed up.... ... well, lets just say that it's a rare to find a professional who would rather allow themselves to look bad than anyone else.

NJ Ballet has also performed Balanchine works in addition to the Russian classics and new works. There is a choreographer in residence. I think he's been in residence since the company's founding decades & decades ago. The company suffers and benefits from it's proximity to New York City.

Edward Villella was "artistic advisor" to NJ Ballet for 36 of it's 47 years of existence, I think he must have still been dancing with NYCB for the early years, when his name was prominently listed... I thought, in fact, that he was "artistic director" to Carolyn Brown's "executive director", Joseph Carow's "assistant artistic director" and George Tomal's "resident choreographer" in the early years, but perhaps that standing changed when Villella became true artistic director for the Eglevsky. My understanding was that Villella auditioned their Nutcracker cast, danced in some of the early productions and workshops, and taught master classes for them, but wasn't involved in the day-to-day running of the company; much like Steifel's role might for Ballet Pacifica... but then again, my memory isn't always trustworthy.

Hubbard Street did it with the colored De La Renta gowns. The two "group" sections come, if I remember, in the middle and at the end, and they're not so much "group" as multiple pas de deux on stage. They come to the "I Did It My Way" song, which frankly, I could live without ever hearing again. The apache dance that is the last PDD is exciting, but there are some other nice pas in the work as well.

As a child, I saw ABT do it in the early 70s, and the broadcast of the NYCB one. Later I shot a few performances of Ballet Chicago's production in the mid '90s, staged by the late Basil Thompson. It was a nice production, beautifully lit and it was the sort of the company's last Hurrah before disintegrating. The Swanhilda was well done by Meredith Benson. Her husband, was explaining to me how much he preferred the version she had danced with ?Cincinnati Ballet? which had been staged by Frederic Franklin. I would very much like to see the Franklin staging. I took my young daughter to see - I think it was the Shanghai ballet - in a one night stand college tour type production... it was just awful. Perhaps this was because the scenery didn't fit on the college stage, but it was so very strange to see the choreography referring to Coppelia up on her balcony when in this production there was absolutely nothing there. Also, in the folk dances... instead of various stamping steps rebounding off the floor, the energy sank into the floor... something was lost in the cultural translation I think. I believe it had been set on the company by Lacotte? (sorry vague memory again, someone from Paris Opera at any rate). They were obviously trying to do everything "correctly" and somehow the sense of humor was entirely lost. Technically, though the dancers were beautiful, in a kind of Les Sylphides sort of way. I know a lot of people don't care for this ballet, but I think it's a nice alternative to Nutcracker for introducing children to ballet... the story-line is easy enough for a child to follow, it's funny, the music is pretty and "dancey". Giselle and Swan Lake, are no more small child appropriate than Romeo & Juliet. I suppose Sleeping Beauty is good bet, but that's perhaps more difficult for small companies to pull off than Coppelia. Don Quixote has "dancey" music as well, but the story perhaps isn't as easy to follow as Coppelia. Coppelia is kind of light opera.

Hey, Mel, did Lupe spot the floor on the fouettes? I was once told that she always spotted the floor a little off center and since she turned like a fiend no one ever tried to alter her technique. Makes sense from the days when perhaps "spotting lights" were not dead center every night, if they existed at all...those most teachers seem to think spotting the floor would throw off one's balance. (My apologies for a ballet talk for dancers type question here).

I'm curious... who is setting 9 Sinatra Songs? Any chance that Jennita Russo has a hand in it? She danced it countless times after she left Penn Ballet and joined Hubbard Street.

I remember the Tarentella as being very good... I don't remember any of the others... though I do remember a Serenade on video, it's quite possibly from some other recording. Merrill Ashley: Was this the same team? I can see I'll have to visit the Dance Collection sometime to get my memory straightened out.

That must be it. I could easily mix up Great Performances with Dance In America and it had that Ardolino look. Not available on DVD I suppose? One would hope that since it was filmed in Munich the rights would have been more forthcoming? After all, it could be the definitive recording of Tarentella... though I hate for there to be a single "definitive" recording of anything... tends to freeze the interpretations.

I have this vibrant memory of Villella & McBride doing Tarentella... it seems to me that it was shot in the quality of the 1970s Dance In America series which I thought were shot at the Grand Old Opry stage because it was so large it allowed the cameras the angles they wanted... but perhaps I'm misinformed. I could easily have gotten PBS & WNET mixed up as I was living in NJ at the time... but I don't think I would have remembered a 1966 telecast... (I was five in 1966).. also, I'm remembering a color video and I'm sure we only had a black & white TV in '66. I also remember the Meditation video though... perhaps it was re-broadcast in the 70s? But it had that Merrill Brockway/ Emile Ardolino (sp?) look to it.

How about that bit of Villella & McBride doing "Tarantella" for PBS's Dance in America series... has that ever been released?

Thanks Mel & RG & Sandik, that is all very interesting. I dream someday that things like annotated scores will be accessible on-line. The "revealing" of the tree I meant was not at the point where it grows (and with Sandik, I suspect that most trees' growth can't support that much music... I agree with Balanchine about the tree*), but rather earlier in the party scene. I guess one of the first Nutcrackers I became familiar with "lit" the tree at this particular point in the music, some others just twinkle the lights ominously, foreshadowing I suppose the later magic. Some productions just ignor it. * - from "All In The Dances: A Brief Life of George Balanchine" by Terry TeachoutNutcrackers for me must have 4 essentials to succeed: truly magical tree; cute real children; good fight choreography for the battle; a good "russian" dance with at least one person who can really jump. I can't abide Nutcrackers with lame battle scenes... it's one of the few chances to draw boys into dancing.

I was going to ask this on the Nutcrackers 2004 thread, but perhaps this would be a better place. Is there somewhere an annotated score? After seeing so many different productions, I find myself somewhat annoyed when certain things don't happen where they "should" in the music. I expect certain bits (like a choreographic focus revealing the tree or the grandfather's drunken jig, or a toast, or a soldier doll or a girls' doll lullabye dance interrupted by boisterous boys), to happen at certain points in the music... and in several productions they do, but in others these points are ignored or placed against different music... I'd like to know if productions are mimicking each other/later productions or whether there was original basis for these in the score/first producton? My apologies on the grammar.

There is a choreographer, Kathy Rose, who has done some wonderful work with animation & dance... (I remember one piece in which the dancers' costumes were projections of animation). Last I heard she was working out of NY. Has anyone seen any of her work lately?

Thank you ATM. I wonder if the changing story about the costume going missing was made up to cover for Lifar's error? I think Markova also made a pilgrimage to visit Spessitseva, but, typically, I can't remember much of that either. Perhaps Spessitseva was already in an asylum. (talk about drama... there's Hollywood material in Spessitseva's life... but perhaps the outcome is too sad... I suppose it would have to be about another ballerina's obsession with Spessitseva, just to have some plot outlet from the impending doom). Back on topic, however, here's a link to and excerpt from Jane Pritchard's "Appreciation of Dame Alicia Markova, DBE" on ENB's site. Jane Pritchard is the archivist for the English National Ballet. Dame Alicia Markova, Prima Ballerina Assoluta, Founder and President of English National Ballet: "The People's Ballerina" -By Jane Pritchard, Archivist, English National Ballet.I didn't realize La Chatte had a special floor. I wonder what it was made of?

Thank you, Dale. There was nothing about a note? I wonder if I'm mixing up someone else's NY Giselle debut with Markova's. (who? Danilova?? Fonteyn? I could have sworn it was Markova). I believe I read "Giselle and I" rather than the "Markova Remembers".

Alexandra, I think it's part of her mystique that someone threatened her life over her dancing... and went to lengths to try to stop her... Markova put it in her own biography, I don't think she felt embarrassed by it... if it's something she wrote herself, does it really count as gossip? I don't own the biography and it's not in my library... I was hoping someone who had it in theirs would refresh my memory on the incident. Should we not mention that there was a riot at the premiere of Rite of Spring? If she were insignificant, no one would have gone to the bother. I think it's history not gossip.

It's been so long since I read her biography, I'm afraid my memory isn't holding up... but weren't there attempts to sabotage her Giselle in New York? Something about the costume going missing and turning up soiled ...and ... was it.. a note with a death threat? I can't remember why anyone would want to threaten her.

a form of bribery, I believe.