Amy Reusch

30 years is a very long time in dance... Not many can perform that long. I wonder, how many "generations" there would be in that long a period... What would you say, is 4 years a generation, or 5?

Is the Dupont appointment permanent or interim?

I wonder what quality ballets Martins would be turning out if he were not doing all those other things?

There are two pieces of his that seem to get done by other companies, Calcium Light Night (1977) and Fearful Symmetries (1990)... Are there others?

1977 was before he was Artistic Director and in 1990 Jerome Robbins was still part of the picture...

I really do think being free to focus on choreographing instead of on the managing of the company must help some choreographers.

Surely the head of the POB has an able administrative staff at his disposal?

I don't think Kirstein & de Valois were quite "staff", though surely Petipa must have had something like that?

Maybe the way to think about it would be to consider the number of POB directors who have been major choreographers?

Lifar, was he prolific? I am not all that familiar with his oeuvre, I can call to mind a few pieces, but did he create several pieces a season like Balanchine? (I just checked Wikipedia which says he was director for 3 decades but only lists a handful of pieces even though stating many were choreographed).

Nureyev mostly seemed to do re-stagings (involving a lot of choreography but with much groundwork already done) is that really comparable?

[snip] In fairness to both gentlemen, plenty of people have, still do, and will continue to both run companies and create new work (ahem, Balanchine) -- [snip]

Let us never forget that Balanchine had Lincoln Kirstein... which freed up a lot more of Balanchine's time/energy for creative work.... (Doesn't everyone wish they had a Kirstein?) Petipa had the deep pockets of the Tsar... Is much written about how much of his time was taken up managing the company? Ashton had de Valois?

I'm not defending Millepied... I'm just not sure a choreographer should lead the Paris Opera... though Nureyev's choreography demanded a certain skill level and Balanchine's demands demanded a certain skill level... when a living choreographer isn't intimately involved in casting repertoire, is the technique/style of a company free-floating and tied most strongly to a calcifying version of it's historic repertoire?

Roberto Bolle? Help, I can't temember his connection to the Paris Opera... ?

Thanks, Frail Dove, that was well said. I'm still not sure about the primary training showing through. I must not have framed my question correctly. A graduate from the Vaganova Academy dancing Balanchine is going to look different from someone trained at SAB dancing Balanchine. Very few can absorb the style without the years of training. It may look beautiful, but it will not look the same. What I would like to know, is whether a dancer that makes the switch at age 13 will still show the elementary training of the original school in their movement signature, will it show like a foreign accent?... If a child moves to another country with a different language by a certain age and is immersed in learning a new language, they usually will speak it without a discernable accent whereas an adult will tend to have an accent even after being immersed for a longer period of time. I'm wondering if the elementary years of ballet training (in a reasonably good school) are not similar enough from school to school that the "finishing" years leave the main imprint?

Regarding the "having no business" teachers, I wonder up to what level they are ABT approved to teach? I'm curious how that works.

I thought the intent on reaching out to the recital school business was a sort of rescue line to the upcoming dancers enmeshed there. If students from those schools attend ABT summer intensives, is it likely they will not realize the difference when they return to the year round school?

It will be interesting to see where JKO is in another 10 years. Although the school is young, it is not as if the teachers thmselves are inexperienced. How far out into the affiliates that extends Is another story. Still, I imagine, that as a result of the ABT initiative, the cultural understanding of what good training entails will have reached farther and farther into the hinterlands, and more talented dancers will have a window of opportunity.

Has anyone studied what effect the Ford Foundation initiative had? Does it in anyway exist anymore, is there even the scholarship grant program or has that basically been taken up by other scholarships? Was there a sea change in the level of students coming through SAB after the initiative as opposed to before? Was there a corresponding sea change in NYCB?

Perhaps I should rephrase my assertion about schools associated with companies and say that schools associated with companies generally aim to produce dancers to suit that company. They may also be aware that they are educating an audience and community support for that company, but they are aiming for a professional standard in their best students. While there are some good teachers not associated with companies, many small schools isolated from a performing company are in a different business. This business can serve a community well, giving its children a chance to dance, to experience being on stage, etc., there are beneficial reasons to experience dance recreationally, but there are also a lot of small private schools which are in business for profit rather than in business to produce dancers. I do not believe JKO is one of these schools even if its funds help support a company that provides employment to is top graduating students.

Yes, I would agree with that, vrsfanatic.

Also, any student with a more serious start, say such as one starting at the Vaganova Academy or at POB, would not likely "finish" at some other school, I would lay bets.

But there are relatively some good schools (usually attached to companies) around the U.S. where a student might train more intensely than two or three times a week, successfully audition for say SAB or JKO, and "finish" there. In such a case, would their earlier foundation show through much? Boston Ballet has a pretty strong school and I would guess has had students move to both SAB and JKO to finish ( though I know no names )... But I don't know that one could tell the difference in the resulting professional than say one whose path prior to SAB/JKO had started at SFB's school rather than at Boston....

I suspect there is more difference in the "finishing" schools (SAB/JKO) than the first several years of training (SFB/BB). But maybe there is a lot of difference in the early training at POB & Vaganova? I ask because I do not know. If the foundational training was so important, what are the differences in the foundational training? I suspect the differences become more distinct in the final years as dancers are pushed toward a particular school's idea of finesse.

I would be interested to know the significant differences in the first four years of training. I imagine it might show up more in the dancers arms and shoulders, or in the transition steps, than in the virtuoso steps or positions of the legs... In other words, in the little things... And then only if the early training was daily and significant?. If "serious" daily training only began at a "finishing" school, would the early training show in the finished dancer? Does it influence the movement signature of the dancer?

My apologies, vrsfanatic, for using "finishing school" as a term before it has been defined, but I'm beginning to like the concept.

I think dancers could pick up Balanchine style from four years of "finishing" at SAB. Does Hallberg show the influence of his "finishing" at the POB? I kind of think he does. But perhaps there are things taught to a child that get absorbed into their technique that cannot be taught later. And even perhaps there are things learned by a child that are very difficult to unteach later.

Wasn't Carlotta performed by Brenna Monroe-Cook? In regard to the training aspect and length of time working in a genre, should it be noted that she has been studying modern dance since she was a child? I believe she was in the Stodelle coaching tapes, but I would have to check.

Well Cecchetti was under 5 feet tall.... Dubrovska was considered freaky tall at 5'6"... Royes Fernandez told me that at 5'8" he was considered a tall dancer (founding principal dancer at ABT). In the late 1970s, ABT was still cutting girls from the scholarship audition line if they topped 5'6"... now I think a great many of the superstars of the 20th century would have been cut for not making the minimum height.

So let's see, if 5'6" was freaky tall... would would be average, 5'3"? Here is a picture of Cecchetti teaching large-528148-enrico-cecchetti.jpg

Gelsey Kirkland is 5'1" according to google... Margot Fonteyn was 5'4"

Here is Fonteyn bending over to hug Olga Preobrajenskaya 12362097_1542779049379109_1524067419_n.jpg

Here is Olga Preobrajenskaya and Nicolas Legat 38a7d2674d82671dfb665e1a5e6364b9.jpg

I think they were much much smaller back then, akin to gymnasts

Ooooh... I would love to be in the best sets. All the same, thanks for the typo alert!

I am not a fan of presenting something from the wings when it was designed for a proscenium stage presentation, exciting though it might be, it does not seem to honor the choreographer and artists intent.

Those late 19th to early 20th century ballerinas were a lot shorter than the average ballerina today...those extra inches of height add up to a lot of extra weight for the guys to lift. I don't know that shorter men were correspondlingly weaker, not sure it works that way.

It seems there has been a misunderstanding... http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/13/arts/dance/mats-ek-the-swedish-choreographer-says-his-goodbye-isnt-quite-a-farewell.html

Like live vs. canned music... I agree.

But there actually are some dance elements that look better framed on video than by the proscenium*... But very few... Mostly dance is diminished by the flat screen. However, not many in the theater can sit in those prime seats. I remember going to see ABT in one of your local venues, The Auditorium... A friend in the company let me slip into the top row of sests. The performance was so far away, it felt like it was going on in a building across the street. A good dance video can put you in the best seats in the house... seats I never could have afforded... I am grateful for every good video that passes my way.


* and these mostly have to do with line, that can be made more significant by good framing. I have seen some rather dull in the theater choreography become more fascinating on screen. High energy fast and complex work, by comparison, really tends to suffer.

Good point... Four years is significant, particularly the last four years before becoming professional... It would be like not considering someone's Harvard degree significant because it was only four years and they had been to high school after all...

It will be interesting to see when the first ABT curriculum start-to-finish dancers arrive,,, how many of these have been graduated yet?

I saw a lot of ballet on PBS as a child and found it inspiring, and there certainly wasn't any ballet in the public schools in my area. I am a strong believer in STEAM over STEM, though I don't undertand why the study of English has become so devalued.

I don't believe Catherine Hurlin began at ABT... I thought she started at a competition school in Westchester... Was she at ABT before she was Clara for The Rockettes Christmas Spectacular?

Well, that's more than nothing! Glad it's not a drain. Too bad there isn't a breakdown of how much of that comes from the summer intensives. I'd like to know how much tuition the actual school generates.

Yes, the Kirov Academy has been doing good work, it trains some strong dancers and serves the classic repertoire well. I still am not convinced it is the best training for an ABT school despite the guest artists that grace ABT's stage. Natalia, you could probably even list for us the names of the Kirov alumni currently at ABT. Is it about the same as those produced by JKO?

I think it was very clear why JKO needed an American curriculum and the efforts to draw schools around the country toward a system of producing dancers. Our training in America has been a ragtag mishmash of other schools since the very beginning, with teachers insisting "my way is the only correct way" all over the place. How is a parent to know who is right? We do not have the sort of state supported systems and cultural traditions that support the Russian and French schools. One might just as well ask why Britain needed to set up RAD or why after the maestro's death Cecchetti technique was systemized as well. De Vito was amply qualified to just set up JKO as a Cechetti school if he had so wished. Instead he toured schools all over the world, choosing the elements he felt worked best. I think the school has a strong Cecchetti base which is appropriate considering the history of the company. McKenzie's Joffrey background influence should not be ignored. Robert Joffrey was adept at bringing the best out of dancers who did not go the full NYCB or ABT route. I think The Harkness school had some influence as well. I heard Lukens speak while the school was still in the planning stage and he said they were very impressed with the dancers coming out of Spain. I am sure Da Vito could talk about Vaganova influences as well, but America has a very different set up with its prospective student base, i do not see how setting up a true Vaganova system from scratch could have worked here, by which I mean the audition pool, the long days and the complete control of the students... JKO could not expect a huge pool of prospects auditioning at an early age hoping to board at the school. Not even SAB has what Vaganova has in it's nine year olds. How many parents would be willing to give up their children to boarding in NYC at such a young age?

The affiliations help set up a stream down which talented students can be sent towards a professional career. Around the fcountry not every locale has the demographics to support a classical school (perhaps "preprofessional" is what such schools are now called?). The affiliations help stream students who might otherwise have gotten lost on the danceteam competition circuit toward more professional training. Sure, several of the big cities have viable professional companies with classical schools, but not every child has access to such a school. JKO reached out to schools all over the place. And while anyone could come take the teacher taining curriculum, not everyone who did so passed the grade and received the affiliation. I believe they are periodically inspected to make sure they are holding up the standards. It is a wonderful thing to encourage every school, even razzle dazzle recital schools, toeard training that does not damage the students.

I doubt very much that the affiliation fees support the ABT company itself, and I don't think anyone at the JKO is befoming wealthy off those funds either. Surely the tax filings are available if it is a 501©3 non-profit. Most schools of that nature are not money makers and require funding income to cover what tuition does not. How many students at JKO are on scholarships? I do not know.

As far as a break between McKenzie and De Vito, I can't see any evidence of that. The school is successfully placing dancers into the company. De Vito is retiring from the administration tasks but not the school. He has earned his retirement, not been forced into it. There have been many posts on facebook about the transition and everyone seems happy about it. If it were an unwelcome event, there would not have been a photo of Harvey, De Vito & Lukens celebrating the transition together posted.

I'm tempted to return the favor and forget his work ever existed.

[thank you]

Wonderful job of setting JKO up on a strong foundation. It could have been done badly, but it was not.

I have a problem with "womanly" being an insult, regardless of the context. I appreciate that football requires more strength than most men posess, but calling a weak man "womanly" does a disservice to strong women everywhere.