Amy Reusch

Also... I don't know about you... but when I hear a sentence like "she sashayed through the doorway", I can't say I think of someone galloping through a doorway... it always brings to mind some image of swaying hips and swishing skirts... but the square dance "sashay" is definitely a chasse-like gallop... quite possibly they both entered the language by different paths but arrived at the same spelling (for lack of imagination?)

If pick-up companies are included, didn't Anna Pavlova have an all-black corps at a performance in the carribean? (I can't remember where... cuba? )

I don't know what was the first company, but you might interested that when Balanchine was discussing with Lincoln Kirstein plans for him to come to America, he wanted to found a school in Hartford, with, I believe, 7 white students and 7 black students.

Come to think of it, even though it's all-male, they're portraying animals rather than men... even talking male animals, but still animals.

And if you leave your seat to "use the facilities", do you lose it and have to stand in line again? Have no Ballet Alertniks ever attended a wall-to-wall? I think they're usually musical events, but still... ?

Here's the schedule (wow!)

Schedule:

11:00 am-2:00 pm

“First a School”

In keeping with Balanchine’s famous dictum, the day kicks off with Suki Schorer’s master class featuring School of American Ballet students

New York City Ballet Education Department: Balanchine the Balletmaster

Ellen Sorrin leads a lecture-demonstration with students from the School of American Ballet performing excerpts from Agon, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue and George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™

Meet Balanchine on Film

Merrill Brockway, interviewed by Barbara Horgan, presents clips from his Balanchine documentary

Balanchine and Diaghilev

Lynn Garafola speaks about Balanchine’s connection to the famed director of the Ballets Russes and shares rare photos of both

2:00 pm-5:00 pm

Balanchine Up Close

Robert Gottlieb interviews Barbara Horgan, Balanchine’s longtime assistant and friend as well as Trustee-General Director of The Balanchine Trust

From the Balanchine Archives: Part I

Nancy Reynolds introduces a film montage of coaching sessions, including: Alicia Markova coaching Song of the Nightingale, Frederic Franklin coaching The Bride’s solo from the first version of Le Baiser de la Fee, Maria Tallchief coaching Orpheus, and Todd Bolender coaching The Four Temperaments

A live coaching session follows the screening, as Maria Tallchief coaches New York City Ballet dancer Maria Kowroski in Firebird

Balanchine Hollywood Film Clips

John Goberman presents clips of Balanchine choreography from Hollywood movies of the 1930s and 1940s

Panel Discussion on Balanchine and Stravinsky

Elizabeth Kendall moderates a discussion on Balanchine and Stravinsky with panelists Charles Joseph and Jonathan Sheffer and featuring Dance Theatre of Harlem’s live performance of the Agon pas de deux

Clive Barnes Introduces

Clive Barnes introduces performances by New York City Ballet dancers

Balanchine’s Company: New York City Ballet

Clive Barnes hosts a panel discussion with Peter Martins, Edward Bigelow, Violette Verdy, Maria Calegari and Bart Cook

5:00 pm-8:00 pm

From the Balanchine Archives: Part II

Nancy Reynolds introduces a film montage of coaching sessions, including: Melissa Hayden coaching Donizetti Variations, Allegra Kent coaching Bugaku, Alicia Alonso coaching Theme and Variations, Helgi Thomassen coaching Divertimento/Baiser, and Suzanne Farrell coaching Movements

A live coaching session follows the screening, as Melissa Hayden coaches New York City Ballet dancers Alexandra Ansanelli and Charles Askegard in Stars and Stripes

Designing for Balanchine

David Hays gives an illustrated talk on the experience of designing thirty-seven ballets for Balanchine

Balanchine and Kirstein

Anna Kisselgoff moderates a panel discussion with Edward Bigelow, Martin Duberman and Nancy Reynolds on the legendary partnership between Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein

Memories of Balanchine

Maria Tallchief, Allegra Kent and Edward Villella read from their own memoirs, hosted by Robert Gottlieb. Maria Tucci will read from the memoirs of Alexandra Danilova, Rochelle Owens will read from the memoirs of Tamara Geva 

Balanchine on Tchaikovsky

Simon Volkov reads from his interviews with Balanchine

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™: The Sugar Plum Fairy

Filmmaker Virginia Brooks introduces footage of Jennie Somogyi’s original audition for The Nutcracker, followed by Ms. Somogyi performing a segment from the ballet

8:00 pm-11:00 pm

Dancing at the Speed of Balanchine

Merrill Ashley discusses the athletic demands made on Balanchine dancers, illustrated with video of Ballo della Regina

Kansas City Ballet Presents Renard

Todd  Bolender introduces dancers from Kansas City Ballet performing Renard, a piece not seen in New York since its premiere in the late 1940s

Coming to Lincoln Center!

Jacques d’Amboise introduces video of the New York State Theatre’s opening night, including video excerpts from Stars and Stripes and an intermission interview with Balanchine, Lincoln Kirstein, Richard Rodgers, architect Phillip Johnson and himself

Selections from Union Jack

Dancers from the New York City Ballet perform selections from Union Jack

Dance Theatre of Harlem: Excerpts from The Four Temperaments

Dancers from Dance Theatre of Harlem perform excerpts from The Four Temperaments

Who Cares?

New York City Ballet dancers perform Gershwin’s Who Cares?

Dance Theatre of Harlem: Apollo

Dancers from Dance Theatre of Harlem perform the New York City premiere of the company’s new production of the complete work, including the birth of Apollo

Symphony Space Commemorates Balanchine Centennial with Wall to Wall Marathon Extravaganza

Maybe I'm crazy but I have trouble with Gail Grant's definition of Chasse as "one foot literally chases the other out of its position".

When I first heard this, I thought it was an explanation some one came up with as a mnemonic device to help children remember the step... but that the name really referred The Hunt... as in noblemen hunting on horseback... rather than to a foot chasing another... my french dictionary lists "hunt" before anything else..

Am I out of my mind? Is there an etymology of ballet vocabulary out there? And has anyone traced the square-dance step "sashay" to chasse?

Is this piece the only all-male-dancer piece Balanchine choreographed?

Nice Season!! Makes we wish even more that we had a company here in Hartford! Has PA Ballet done either The Concert or La Fille Mal Gardee before?

When is her Centennial ?

"Toe dancing is a dandy attention getter, second only to screaming."

Agnes deMille (09/08/1905 – 10/07/1993); US dancer, choreographer

Not sure if this is where this post belongs... but here goes:

While I was in class today, I got to reflecting about lost ballet styles...

The during grand plies, the teacher had given us a longish balance (8 counts) in fourth releve with the arms in third... mmm.. Ceccheti third, I think... in order to make us think about the arms... requesting that we keep the neck long and the arms soft... Since due to injury I can't releve for the time being, I was totally focussed on trying to keep the arms alive while soft... and got to thinking that this isn't a position we work much on any more... and that "softness" is something not talked about in arms much anymore either... at least not in the studios I've wandered through...

And it reminded me of Jean Benoït-Lévy's 1937 French film "Mort du Cygne" released as "Ballerina" in this country... Have you seen this film? It was shot at the Paris Opera and includes footage of the company dancing. For sort of random reasons, I found myself watching it over and over a few years ago while trying to con my toddler into feeling sleepy (she didn't seem to mind the French subtitled since she didn't speak much yet, and having recently conquered walking she found images of people dancing fascinating) (she also made me watch "Top Hat" over & over again at that stage of her life; always later referring to "Mr. Rogers" as "Ginger Rogers").

Watching the dancing of that time, it was hard for me to get used to the technique differences... I kept wondering what on earth people saw in the dancers of that time since it didn't seem to be "line" in anyway we would recognize today... finally I decided it was an intentional quality of softness to the movement... like big soft clouds... all those soft extensions, etc... and the arms... as if a tense muscle would be childish, anxiety-stricken, vulgar or un-womanly....

Which brings me back to the soft third arabesque arms... they seem like a relic of La/Les Sylphides...

Is there a quality of "softness" that was present in pre-1950 ballet that we have abandoned? Or are there post 1950 ballets that continue this tradition? I'm not referring to "delicate/lyrical/sensitive as opposed to bold"... it's not that wispy superlight versus strong attack thing... like the difference between 1830s french ballets and late Petipa.... I think we still have that interpretation model... but rather more rounded, less extremity oriented... more quality of movement than shape of movement type thing...

Am I making a grain of sense?

Here's a blurb from the 2000 SF Intl. Film Festival on the movie

Ballerina (Jean Benoït-Lévy, France, 1937) An international success at the time but unavailable for many decades (until a print was recently found buried in Warner Bros.' Los Angeles archives), Jean Benoït-Lévy's 1937 French feature is one of the best films about ballet – and in particular its institutional tendency to inflame pressurized young students' emotions past the limits of childhood suitability. Its heroine, Rose Sourie (Janine Charret), is a pubescent enrolled in the National Opera's dance school; she has little time for normal play between rigorous classes, and backstabbing peers and hard-driving "stage mothers" add to the competitive tension. Rose is fond of the professional corps' prima ballerina, so much so that when a haughty, glamorous new arrival (Mia Slavenska) threatens the former's top status, the wee artiste-in-the-making arranges an "accident" that has tragic, conscience-plaguing consequences. Reportedly Hitchcock wanted to remake this drama for years, but there's a good deal more empathy toward the young and old danseuses here than he would have managed. Ballerina (originally titled La Mort du cygne, or Death of the swan) isn't so much a drama of evil-child scheming à la Children's Hour or Bad Seed as it is a poignant look at childish emotions racing out of control and adult forgiveness – all for art's sake. Another plus: Benoït-Lévy slips in a bountiful number of scenes with the Paris Opera Ballet onstage and in rehearsal.

The idea of bringing rotten fruit/vegatables with one to the theater seems bizarre to me... pre-meditated... I mean, I wouldn't go to something that I thought ahead of time that I might feel inspired to pelt the performers with vegatables, would you?

After I posted that earlier note, I was wondering if the vegetable thing was something that had mostly happened in the middle ages to mummers, etc. who were perhaps were performing at fairs where vegetable would have been for sale and handy... and it became one of those theater legends... like all the different explanations for how "the green room" got it's name...

Does La Scala have some sort of tradition of this vegetable thing?? Is this some sort of "interactive audience" thing?

On the other hand, riots are generally good publicity, right? What about those clacques that stoked the rivalry between Essler & Taglioni, did they only applaud or did they voice disapproval as well? Did people really throw rotten fruit once upon a time in theaters? Perhaps the audience caring enough to voice displeasure isn't the worst thing. What is better, a passionate audience or a polite audience?

Booing seems childish, somehow.

And in previous years was NYCB the only dance offered, or were companies like DTH, MCB and Taylor offered in addition to NYCB?...

Sometimes I've wondered if isolation doesn't end up as a benefit, growing a distinct style rather than a bland homogeneity... it might be a gift to be isolated, but only if there is funding enough for excellence to grow... too bad so many of our regional companies are underfunded... we might have a new wealth of choreography (so long as they were forbidden to travel?)...

Do you think ABT is trying to rectify it's imported talent situation by building up it's school again?, or do you think the school is mostly an attempt at supplementary income?

Just curious... have they said yet with what specifically SPAC was filling in the 3 weeks that were formerly NYCB's?

Unless I know the author personally, guilt does not drive me to finish a book. Generally, guilt drives me to put aside even great books to get other things done. Come to think of it, even when I know the author, I often can't finish the book. Perhaps some day I'll have the luxury of time necessary to feel guilty about books. One can always hope.

almost twice as many people attended a live performing arts event (78 percent) as compared with a live pop/rock concert (44 percent)

I'm a little confused by this statistic... does the 78 percent include the 44 percent?... isn't a live pop/rock concert a live performing arts event?

By the way, have they improved their program listings? When they performed here a few years ago, it was almost impossible to know who danced what because there were so many names listed for each part. An 88 city tour? Whew!

Thanks for the recommendation. I've always avoided parking parkside because of the increased break-in risk... but maybe since I don't have either xenon lights or airbags and my mileage is way way way way up there, I shouldn't be concerned. What is the deal these days on break-ins in NYC? I remember when it was pretty rampant... although perhaps not so rampant as that decade when because of overcrowded prisons, no one went to jail for grand auto theft and there were gang wars on the upper west side about car stealing turf. If you walk along Riverside Drive, do you see much broken window glass on the street these days? Or is that mostly a thing of the past?

I'd like to see Figure in the Carpet too... but call me sadistic, I'd also like to see PAMTGG because I wonder if now that "jet set" seems "period" there aren't aspects to PAMTGG that are "period" as well.... just curiousity..... everyone seems to have thought it pretty bad, it's sort of fascinating for that reason alone. What would the Trocks make of it, I wonder?

Are NYC parking tickets as cheap as $50? I might consider! No, I'll probably be driving around looking for a spot for hours... probably the night before.... or else I'll park further downtown and subway up. But I wonder when the schedule for the wall-to-wall event gets posted. I'd like to see Renard again.

And if you need material to get your creative juices flowing, try out this quote from Wednesday's links

The decision to drop the company wasn't based just on funding, Chesbrough said, but on '40 years of doing the same thing.'

SPAC will continue another high-art dance performance in the company's absence and might bring in the New York City Ballet every few years, Chesbrough said.

The New York City Ballet 'reached its plateau. I don't see growth or don't project growth,' he said. 'I expected a reaction to this. Everyone, including myself, thought this would go on forever.'

I'm going to try my darndest to get down to the city for this. I've heard about the wall-to-wall events for years but this is the first time I've ever attempted to attend one. Does anyone have experience? How long have you had to wait? Are there any strategies to make it through? 12 hours straight.... I don't think I'd last that long. Can't imagine that it will be easy to get in. Do I need to become a member of Symphony Space to even have a chance of seating? At $50, I guess would probably spend that for a ticket...

Russian Ark came through last year. Hartford was probably on the last wave of the art houses it played. We saw it here on the 4th of July. I think it played Boston & NY the Fall previous. A fascinating movie.