ViolinConcerto

My "Google Alert" led me to a very interesting article about Aesha, now dancing with Alonzo King in San Francisco. I for one was sorry to see her go, (she was my mother's favorite female dancer) and felt that she had been under-used. Albert Evans' piece to the John Cage music ("Haiku") showed what she was capable of doing. I hope you'll follow the link to this information.

The article traces not just her physical journey from New York to Switzerland (with Bejart) to San Francisco, but her internal struggles with being the only African-American woman in NYCB. I was sad to read that she had become discouraged, and wish her well in her new endeavors.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c...ype=performance

Fluidity and gracefulness were two of his hallmarks when he danced at NYCB.  He partnered Kyra Nichols in Walpurgisnacht Ballet on the Balanchine Celebration VHS/DVD set.

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.....and don't forget the beauty of his line, and the elegance of his carriage. IMO he was the dancer who most resembled Peter Martins when he was young.

Ben has just staged "Serenade" for the Shanghai Ballet. Here is the link:

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/0c937c62-4687-11d...000e2511c8.html

The article mentions that "Unlike the National Ballet of China, which already has five of George Balanchine's ballets in its repertory, the Shanghai Ballet premiered its first just this week."

Hi everyone -- here's the review in today's NY Times. It's a good one. I really look forward to seeing the film this weekend.

But the real life force pulsing through "Ballets Russes" - what makes it a delight even for a dance philistine like this critic - belongs to the veterans of the two companies. Many of these dancers were well into their 80's when they were interviewed for the movie, and several have since died, but they remained spirited and active to the end. (Many still teach dance, and a few still dance onstage.) They speak in a variety of accents, Old World and New. . . .

Hearing them reminisce, you can infer that their lives were not always easy, but toughness and resiliency are as much a part of their artistic identities as delicacy and grace.

Link to the full review: http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=319400

Her retirement was announced at a screening of the new "Ballet russes" film at the library over the weekend.

Not only has she done excellent work, she's done it with great entusiasm and a sense of wonder!

I'm glad the article has gotten such interesting responses.

(I just wrote a whole reply, and being new to this board must have touched something that wiped it out. How frustrating....let's see what I can remember!)

All dance is unpredictable: it's LIVE! So many things contribute to what happens on stage -- how many performances were affected by Andrea Quinn's race to the finish, for example.

As for "underrehearsed," I agree with canbelto. Back in the 70's and 80's there were fewer pieces in each season's repertory, and each one was repeated 5 or 6 times. You could watch the dancers learn and grow into a role over that span. Now ballets are only run 3 or 4 times (other than the full-length ballets, which usually run for a week), so unless a particular cast has performed it in previous seasons, no one will have had a chance to really come to know a role.

I also have no idea what Kourlas meant by "punk rock" relative to ballet, but somehow that just doesn't seem to fit.

And thanks, Kathleen, for bringing to mind one of my favorite images in all of balanchine: that long line of women opening and closing the first movement of Symph. in 3.

on the website: http://www.sdhs.org/studies.html

it is listed with two asterisks, meaning it is out of print.

Vol. 3, No. 1 The Diaries of Marius Petipa**

Thanks for the link rg; OK, Helene, now I get it!

Hi rg -- Actually, I'm not Amy - my nom-de-Ballet Talk is "ViolinConcerto" and I just started using the Boards. I'm a NYCBallet Volunteer with a particular interest in the Ballet Russes, especially Nijinsky and MK. So I guess just seeing ANYTHING is a plus. I liked the images of Afshin -- an old favorite of mine. He was back in NYC for a time (haven't seen him recently) but was a fishing/wildlife guide for a while in Idaho. (for the moderator: that's what he told me once on the promenade.)

Thanks!

here's the link to a selection of differently sized and intended cards:

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p...624&uid=1471587

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rg, I know this is an old post, but the link requires a password, and I was wondering if there is still a way to view those images. I am intrigued. Thanks.

A few years after Balanchine's death, the stagebill noted a donation opportunity for le$$er givers which was dedicated to Balanchine rep.  Its mention vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared, my theory being that it drew too much money from new ballets and other purposes.

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In the small print at the back of the program are many funds: the Repertory Fund is one of them, which seems to support some new commissions, but also to "conserve on an ongoing basis seminal ballets in the NYCB repertory." That would seem to cover Balanchine works. Also, the Company seeks support for individual ballets, and I just checked to see that last season, Brahms-Schoenberg was supported by Exxon. (Oh great. Oil money.)

And one comment on the whole issue of "they're not doing/teaching X,Y or Z the way we used to...." last year, at one of the many seminars that were part of the 100th Anniversary -- Francia Russell, Kent Stowell, Tanner, Violet Verdy, Barbara Horgan and Peter Martins were in one -- (hope I'm not forgetting anyone), where they talked about how GB's classes changed through different periods in his life. there were some points when he paid very little attention to classes at all. Barbara Horgan also mentioned that there were several students, Suki Shorer was one, who wrote down everything that was said and done in those classes. So the point is that there is no one absolute standard, even from Balanchine's lifetime, against which today's classes, performances or dancers can be measured. It's all subjective.

Regarding NYCB and museums, NYCB was created by Balanchine (and Kirstein) to perform Balanchine's (and later, Robbins's) ballets.  This is a different mission from MoMA, whose goal is to present modern art, whoever creates it.  As Petipafan wrote, NYCB needs new choreography, but its core must remain Balanchine. 

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Maybe someone else has commented on this, but in the early days of NYCB, Balanchine invited quite a number of choreographers to create ballets, including Tudor, Ruthanna Boris, Tod Bolander, Cunningham, Graham, for example in the 40's and 50's. Cross pollination, not enough time, publicity....who knows what all the reasons were, but I think the parallel with MOMA is one to consider. However, ballet is a performance art and no two performances will ever be the same.

Over at The Winger NYCB corps dancer Kristin Sloan has camera-phone blogging verité of the performance from backstage.  There are almost no dance shots, mostly it's about how a dancer prepares.

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Thanks for turning me on to Kristin's site! It's really interesting.

Hi - I just posted a little info on "Welcome." I believe that the Company only publishes performance photos in the press. If there are photos taken during rehearsals, even dress rehearsals, they are probably "for internal use only" to quote the pharmaceutical companies. That is not the "word" from on high, just from 25 years of observation.

Member amitava, a photographer, just posted that he sees few performances with the audience and does most of his work in dress and tech rehearsals.  I suspect the same is true for Mr. Kolnik.

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Paul Kolnik photographs from the Right Viewing Room at performances, and sometimes in the center of the 1st Ring. Before they put up the baffles at the extreme ends of the rings, the photographer's seat was right up close to the stage in the 1st ring, right side.

I emailed Carol Landers a number of times, beginning in 1996 about the poor user interface of the NYCB website, and she basically said "---" well, I won't say it in a public place, but her attitude was not condusive to improvement shall we say. Glad to see they are re-thinking.

A librarian friend of mine forwarded me a job posting for "CURATOR, JEROME ROBBINS DANCE DIVISION at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts/Jerome Robbins Dance Division"

I wonder who is leaving and who will be arriving. Does anyone know if it is a new position or if someone is leaving or retiring.

It seems to me that the person in this position will be very important to those of us lucky enough to be in NY and to use the collection.

Has anyone heard about this?