YouOverThere

It's a pretty cramped dance schedule. Not only is the bulk of the ballet scheduled from late January to late March (the Washington Ballet's sole production at the KC is in February), but they've slotted in a bunch of modern dance in the same time period (Alvin Ailey is scheduled for early February, Paul Taylor for late February, and Twyla Tharp will overlap with the NYCB). Is there really an audience for 8 dance companies in 2 months?

The Washington Ballet will also perform at the Wolf Trap on September 5.

No mention of whether there will be live music at any of these. Does the Warner Theater even have room for an orchestra pit? I've been to a couple of concerts at the Capitol One Hall and found the acoustics to not be particularly good.

I don't know how many of you have heard of this show. It is an attempt to create something akin to a story ballet except using break dancing. It has a kind of difficult to figure out plot (at least for me, of course, I often have trouble figuring out the plot), something about 2 brothers and a sister in Chile during the reign of Augusto Pinochet leaving home and then getting caught up in a violent anti-government protest, arrested and beaten, the put on a boat to be sent into exile only to have the boat sink, and then eventually be re-united (except for the apparent wife/girlfriend of the younger brother, who drowned because there weren't enough life jackets). It was set to music by Sting (not AFAIK typical break dance music). I found it very entertaining, if not exactly Swan Lake. I don't know if it's typical for break dancers to portray characters in a story, but this group did pretty well. And of course there were the usual gravity-defying break dance moves.

Attendance was pretty poor, aggravated by scheduling too many performances (even ABT would have trouble selling out a 2-week run). IMHO, it deserved better attendance, because it really was a quality show even if it wasn't quite up to the standards of the elite ballet companies. I've seen it 3 times.

Skimming through the Wolf Trap schedule, I noticed that the Washington Ballet will be there for a single performance on Sept. 5. The program will consist of Balanchine's Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Edwaard Liang's Murmuration, and a new work by Jennifer Archibald. The WB hasn't announced there 2024-25 schedule yet, but I wondering if this program will also be the opening program of their subscription season. Commissioning a new work for a single performance would seem unlikely.

Gil Boggs is going to perform the role of Dr. Coppelius for 3 performances in the current run of Coppelia.

1 hour ago, LIslandArts said:

Was anybody in attendance for today’s show? I was hoping to see the show one more time, but I’ve come down with the flu. Rats! 

How I managed to blow a chance to get a ticket for it is too painful to think about (all the standing room tickets had been sold, but they did end up with some returned tickets). Watching it 5 times wasn't enough 😢

6 hours ago, lmspear said:

I was there as well. Her Odile was extremely glamorous.  I've reminded of the film I've seen of Tamara Toumanova. Her Odette made me think of our beloved Stella Abrera.  May Misseldine have a career unhindered by injury and bad management decisions.

The quote was actually from a post by Hippolyta, not from my post.

15 minutes ago, Hippolyta said:

I attended Chloe Misseldine’s debut this afternoon. She was stunning. The sold out theatre was absolutely rapt during the Act II pas de deux with Aran Bell and then broke into wild applause at the end. Her performance had emotional nuance, beautiful phrasing and line (gorgeous arms and back), and was technically assured. She and Bell were terrific together. It was a star turn.

 

Yes, she definitely looked like principal material.

Bell was the best of the 3 leading men that I've watched so far, by a fairly significant margin (I skipped the Friday evening show, which I might regret, so I didn't watch Stearns).

I in a way feel like I'm watching Swan Lake for the first time. I'm focusing more on the supporting and corps dancing than I have in the past, and the ABT soloists and corps members have been IMHO very solid this week.

3 takeaways from the Thursday performance:

- Devon Teuscher is a near-perfect Odette/Odile.

- If Jake Roxander learns to jump any higher, he's going to need a parachute.

- The Devon Teuscher/Joo Won Ahn pairing is less than ideal.

The KC will be selling standing room (according to a box office attendant), though only after all returned tickets are resold.

I lucked into a free ticket (a seat, not standing room) for opening night. Na-na-na-Na-na. Isabella Boylston nailed the fouettes.

I just started looking at tickets for the WB's current run of Jazz Icons and found that ticket prices for the same seats are substantially higher for the Thursday evening and Saturday matinee performances than they are for the Friday evening, Saturday evening, and Sunday matinee performances (I missed out on the Wednesday evening performance). I'm wondering why, as I would have expected the Saturday evening and Sunday matinee tickets to be the most expensive. It doesn't appear to be a result of "airline pricing" (only about 60% of the tickets have been sold for the Saturday matinee).

All 7 performances are now sold out - 3 weeks in advance.

According to the Kennedy Center website, the leads are scheduled as:

Wed - Boylston/Camargo

Thu - Teuscher/Ahn

Fri matinee - Misseldine/Bell

Fri evening  - Seo/Stearns

Sat matinee - Brandt/Cornejo

Sat evening - Hurlin/Whiteside

Sun - Shevchenko/Royal

2 hours ago, Drew said:

That's very good news--

Not for those of us who have difficulty making plans and schedules much in advance and who are used to attending 2-3 performances.

Ticket sales for ABT's annual visit to the Kennedy Center February 21-25 are, to say the least, brisk. The Saturday and Sunday shows currently only show handicapped seats available (unused handicapped seats are usually released to the general public a day or 2 before the performance), and only the Friday matinee performance is less than around 90 percent sold.

On 1/4/2024 at 2:02 PM, daughterlovesballet said:

How did people like the (few) new costumes?

Such as the new costumes for the little mice? I thought that white was a strange color for mice.

I took in the WB's Nutcracker this evening. Someone (Trinidad Vives? Edwaard Laing? Tamas Krizsa?) re-worked the 1st act a little to give some serious dancing bits to Clara and Drosselmeyer's nephew/nutcracker/prince (Yay!!! I've never liked when Clara just does a little acting and then spectates.), though the roles are still danced by students in the "Professional Training Division". Andile Ndlovu appeared as the Snow King, so he apparently is recovered from the rather serious injury he suffered in the Spring of 2022.

I preferred this production to Ballet West's, a sentiment shared by the woman who sat next to me.

2 hours ago, matilda said:

I really don't see Nutcracker ever catching on outside of the holiday season in the US. Personally I would only see it between late November and Christmas eve. Even the week directly after Christmas feels too late, like the moment's over.  

[somewhat off-topic] I would think from a marketing standpoint there might be some risk in presenting The Nutcracker outside of the holiday season. If it ceased to be identified as a part of holiday celebrations, would it still be as big a draw? [/somewhat off-topic]

23 hours ago, YouOverThere said:

Ballet West's The Nutcracker performances at the Kennedy Center are essentially sold out. Other than a few box seats (some of which are currently designated for wheelchair patrons), there is only a single ticket left (for Saturday evening).

Just to make me a liar, the Kennedy Center released 8 seats in the rear of the orchestra today for each performance. A few of these are still available. 

Ballet West's The Nutcracker performances at the Kennedy Center are essentially sold out. Other than a few box seats (some of which are currently designated for wheelchair patrons), there is only a single ticket left (for Saturday evening).

A pleasant surprise, as I expected that the WB would only attract applicants from small companies or who didn't have AD experience. Does this qualify as a step up for Mr. Liang?

Ballet Met has 3 dancers with DC connections (1 former WB dancer), so I wonder if he will bring any dancers with him. Though what the WB really needs right now is a couple of Leading Man-type dancers after most of the ones they had followed Julie Kent to Houston, and only 1 of the 3 is male (who doesn't appear to have much experience dancing lead roles in the big classics).

I will start stockpiling Kleenex with the expectation that he will program Feast of the Gods at some point. It's unfortunate that my former co-attendee did not live to be able watch it.

The French hip hop (but not exactly what you think of when you think of hip hop) dance company Compagnie Kafig was at the Kennedy Center for 3 days this week, performing their latest work, Pixel. The performance is rather hard to describe. Much of the movement consisted of hip hop dance techniques, though there were a couple of circus-type performers, including a contortionist, and a roller blade dancer, yet it was anything but a conventional hip hop dance performance. It was performed to music that may or may not meet the definition of classical music, but it certainly bore no resemblance to the music that is normally associated with hip hop dance. There were slow, dramatic sections, again unlike stereotypical hip hop dancing, and ensemble dancing. The choreography was highly formalized in the manner of ballet or modern dance rather than being improvisational. And then there was the lighting. I can't even begin to describe the lighting effects. If you're interested, use Google to find some YouTube videos (the trailer for their Kennedy Center is good, but I don't know how much longer it will be available).

The WB is also going to present "pop up" performances at a facility called Dupont Underground (not surprisingly, on Dupont Circle). There will be evening shows on Sept. 28, 29, and 30 and a matinee on Sept. 30. It's not clear what the program will be - the announcement only states that there will be choreography by Tamas Krizsa and Mimmo Miccolis and music by Blake Neeley. Seating will be general admission: $40 for the 1st 4 rows and $20 for the remainder.

Pop Up Performance at Dupont Underground | The Washington Ballet

I guess that "Acting Artistic Director" sounds better than "Interim Artistic Director", but her role is the latter since there is no Artistic Director for her to act in place of. Nevertheless, this is interesting, and to me surprising, news (IMHO, it would make a lot of sense for Gillian Murphy and Ethan Stiefel to take over the WB).