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hermes

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  • Connection to/interest in ballet** (Please describe. Examples: fan, teacher, dancer, writer, avid balletgoer)
    Dancer/Teacher
  • City**
    GA
  1. It will be interesting to learn the response of the audience. I think because the story is so well known, and it's being performed in perhaps the most progressive city in the Southeast, it will be noted and hopefully forgotten. I was thinking about what it would be like to have a white Othello? I know that this has happened with Domingo performing in dark makeup; I should hasten to add that the complications of having a black performer in white makeup would preclude such a thing. Although I understand Dwight Rhoden did a piece at Ole Miss using black dancers in white-face and white dancers in black-face to address the issue head on. For myself, I want to call the whole thing off. You know? There are so many people killing each other because of their ethnicity I am comforted to know that reasonable people, at least in my experience in ballet, are ready to grow up and realize that we are really one people on one planet with precious little time on our hands. Oh Lord, I'm about to start a chorus of Kum Bi Ya, heaven forbid.
  2. Good points, Bart. I believe a simple and inexpensive way to find more diversity is to audition in neighborhood schools and send flyers advertising performances in targeted areas. I live in the South and there are many many segregated areas; reaching out to schools in specific communities could make people feel more invited. Similarly, I believe outreach programs (which are popular because there are so many grants for them), should be geared towards a more diverse audience. Like Bart, I'm concerned not so much about the artists' desires about creating a more diverse company and audience; but, I think a larger issue is the Board's desire. Often, at least down here, the constituency of Boards isn't terribly diverse; therefore the motivation to reach out is seen as a non-issue. -- I should qualify that by saying I only have my own anecdotal evidence to support that claim. I don't believe there are many people who would wish to be perceived as racist, and that audience feedback would prove more effective than the interests of the artists. I do worry about audience feedback being a form of push polling: "Would you like to see a more ethnically diverse company?" Hmmm. I can't imagine anyone stating publicly that they wouldn't. Now that I type it, maybe this is a good question for a survey! At any rate, there are models out there. If I might brag on Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux at North Carolina Dance Theatre for a minute, two of the first things he did when he arrived were to eliminate gender based pay-scales and secondly he actively pursued (and still does pursue) reaching out to minority dancers, choreographers, and teachers. The emphasis was on quality above anything else, but JP has made it a point to encourage diversity in the company. Certainly, I can't speak for him, but I feel confident he would be willing to discuss the matter with anyone interested in following his lead.
  3. Whew. That took a while! OK, I think I get it. Something I've experienced as a teacher is, I guess you'd call it, reverse racism. I've had black students who believe ballet isn't a "black" thing to do; and further that if there is a black person doing ballet, they are trying to be white. As a director, I want movers. I really couldn't care less about skin color. In theatre, this was called 'non-traditional casting'. Hopefully, racism will continue to wain; at least in my peer group 25 - 35 year-olds, this seems to be the case. Though, I think the original post makes some good points about there not being enough diversity in major companies; I think this will disappear as the newer generation ascends to positions of power. I believe, and pray, the generation after me will be even less concerned with race, until eventually, God willing, we can collectively GET OVER IT! An interesting situation that happened to me recently was a phone call I got from a friend looking for a short girl. She had to be short as the part was that of Pearl in The Scarlet Letter (heightism?). My friend had some people in mind, and I knew how to contact them so I called them first. Those folks weren't available so I suggested a friend of mine who is short, is awesome, and happens to be black. I will admit there was concern as to whether it would be appropriate to cast a black woman in this part because Pearl, in this reading of the book, is wild and somewhat of an anti-hero (heroine? Geez, it's so hard to know what is the right term to use these days!). Anyway, my friend was worried that casting a black person in the role might somehow communicate a racist view of black people (e.g. perpetuating any negative stereotypes about black folks (this is taking place in the South, btw)); not to mention it might be confusing to the audience to see two lillywhite people with a black child. OK, so the whole conversation is racist! Eventually, my friend hired my black friend and the performance is next weekend. The point is, everyone's is a little bit racist. I think it unfair to single out ballet as an example of institutional racism, or of being racist in any sense. We're just people trying to put on a show; and as I mentioned above this situation is something that will improve with time if we can get over ourselves. That's more than two cents, but I often find myself stirred up about this because I just wish we could all get along, and I really don't care if that is cliche, sounds weak, or whatever, IMHO it is the honest truth.
  4. Thank you for the responses. I wish I had taken the time to post here before I printed my program! Poor scholarship on my part! I'm fairly mortified. I did set it well, though; as we say down here: it ain't braggin' if it's true! Giselle has such a rich history it seems that there's enough backstory there for a movie...Wait a minute! This doesn't tell the story of the ballet's creation, of course. Seems like there's plenty there, though. I appreciate the quick replies and the next time I leave my cheat sheet at home; I'll remember to check here before I embarrass myself! Thank you! B.
  5. I understand the music for Peasant Pas was added to Adam's score by Frédéric Bergmüller. Because this came later, I'm wondering if Jules Perrot is the choreographer of this pas. I read somewhere that the leaps in peasant pas are at least in the manner of a Perrot ballet. The reason I'm asking is that I recently prepared a playbill for a performance by my kids at the Governor's Honors Program of Georgia and got it wrong; I originally listed Petipa as the choreographer (terrible scholarship on my part! Yikes, how embarrassing!) I understand that Petipa did assist with a restaging for the Kirov and introduced some solos; but that it was Perrot that is responsible for the bulk of the work. Any information is greatly appreciated. B Edited to try to correctly display acute accents and umlaut. Apparently BBCode doesn't like character entities; though they are displaying fine on my, ahem, Mac.
  6. The Executive Director of the Augusta Ballet is a former dancer in the company. You'll read the quotes from her and the President of the Board (former dancer at the Company) saying things like, "the Ballet is not closing!". Or "I feel really bad (about the dancers)", or "Personally I am extremely dedicated and willing to make a lot of sacrifices in order to have a dance company in the community". Those sacrifices would be what exactly? She feels 'really bad' that she didn't let the dancer's in on the plan in order to give them a chance to audition around? If there are no dancers, no artistic directors, no shows; what is the definition of 'not closing'?! There is a word for the kind of tripe served up by these press releases; but it is unprintable here. There's another article out there, and you don't have to register to read it: http://www.metrospirit.com/pages/arts1.html hermes
  7. Wow. Thank you for the explanation. I can't help but think that Mr. Petite's influence must've provided the funding Marseilles enjoys. There's some irony there. The saying, "Before seeking revenge one must first dig two graves," comes to mind. Do you think the audiences in France are simply bored with regular ballet? I wonder because what's to stop someone from starting their own company? Or would one have to go through the ministry of culture. etc. I don't know. If there are butts for the seats, it seems someone entrepreneurial could find his niche. Hmmm. What's the situation in Saintes? So far, that's my favorite little city in France. Lol.
  8. Interesting. Wasn't Roland Petite the director at some point in history? I don't even know if he's still with us or no. I love his pieces. They're so dramatic and someone usually smokes on stage. I have no idea how companies are structured across the pond. I imagine that there has to be a Board of some kind. I wonder how much power they have and how responsive is the artistic direction of the company to the audience's expectations. But that's another topic for another thread I suppose. Seems strange that they would hire a non-ballet person for the Director of a Ballet company. Should be fun to follow.
  9. Now, that is a good question. I would suspect that employed modern dancers are too busy premiering the original works, or on the road setting older pieces by their choreographer to worry about the poor little rich kids. J/K I do think the ballet world and the modern world are different culturally. Perhaps there's more convergence nowadays; but, the modern folk I knew coming up were always a little more (how to say it?) self actualized than their ballet counterparts. For Estelle, Esplanade is a Paul Taylor piece (though referred to as a 'ballet' by the folks who set it on me) to the Bach Double Concerto (more familiar to ballet audiences as the music for Concerto Barocco). Anyway, it features a bunch of dancers performing various pedestrian movements. It starts with a walking section that begins with two lines that start with simple patterns that become increasingly complex and interesting. There's a running section. There's a section with crawling that (though there's no story), has perhaps one of the sweetest endings I can think of. The last movement (I think there are five) is intense. There's giant leaps from the girls into the men's arms. There's no-look catches. It's really dangerous and fun. Anyway, it takes it's toll. I remember a friend of mine showing me her bruise. It was the size of a paper plate around her hip and outer thigh from the many baseball slides in the piece. All of our feet were torn to shreds. We could wear little knee-pads, but they never seemed to fit right so the knees get bruised and bloody. Your shoulders are wrecked from rolling around quickly (I can still manage one of the rolls, to scare my students). Did I leave anything out? Well, if I did I can assure you that those parts hurt too. (There's this promenade where the girl steps right above - that's above- the belt. Well, it's supposed to be above the belt anyway). My friend Traci came to a Halloween party dressed like road kill with a shirt that read, "I Survived Esplanade". You get the idea. What was your question again? Lol. B.
  10. We used to have this debate at School. Several things come to mind. One, do Esplanade on tour a few times and tell me that some modern dance isn't dangerous to anyone; much less ballet dancers (though it's probably my favorite piece, even without the bell bottoms). Two, ballet companies have more money than modern companies, so ballet companies get famous works of modern choreographers because they can afford them. Three, it would seem nearly impossible to have a career of any length without addressing the necessity of possessing more than a passing familiarity with modern technique. While there may be a segment of the population of professional ballet dancers who can avoid doing a single contraction, I suspect the percentage to be very very small. There may be advantages to a homogenized tuition; however, unless we're able to recreate Children of Theatre Street, I think we're stuck with a melange of styles and genres. Even those kids had to take Character. Long story longer: versatility = good.
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