YouOverThere

Judging from the reviews, including Alastair Macauley's, it seems as if the only people who thought that Hush was good are posters in this forum. But I didn't get the impression that any of the reviewers understood the meaning of the ballet, which came from a larger Holocaust-inspired ballet and is about hope, beauty, and love rising out of devastation and despair. I am pondering the irony that, given the summertime 3-hour time difference between D.C, and Arizona, I would have been watching a ballet about hope rising from despair at the time that my mother was eating what turned out to be her last meal.

In what sense? What I took from her responses is that DTH will always (as long as she is in charge) be a neo-classical ballet company (communicates by rising up from the Earth by, among other things, dancing en pointe) while Ailey's company is, by her standards, a modern dance ensemble (communicates by working into the Earth)..

I originally was leaning against going to Program C, but my co-worker talked me into it (without knowing that I had attended enough performances at the Kennedy Center to earn a discount - $29/seat near the rear of the orchestra - way cool!). It turned out to be a gem among gems. Opening up was the North Carolina Dance Theatre, performing a piece titled Rhapsodic Dances which was set to everyone's favorite (or almost favorite) Rach piece, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. This piece, choreographed by former NCDT dancer Sasha James, was for 5 couples and was in the neo-Balanchine style. Very stylish and elegant, with beautiful costumes. I'll let Natalia fill in the details. The dancers seemed a little mechanical, which was about the only thing that kept this one from really taking off. The middle work was Stephen Mills' Hush, from his Light/The Holocaust and Humanity Project. The work was set to Philip Glass' Tirol Concerto, one of Glass' least droning compositions. He used 4 couples from his company, Ballet Austin. This one gets my vote as the most outstanding production of the festival. Beautiful, creative, athletic, moving, innovative, beautiful, moving. This one was in the modern ballet genre. Last up was the Dance Theatre of Harlem, dancing to soul music by the likes of Aretha Franklin and James Brown. Simply the most improbable use of neo-classical ballet techniques, mixed in with black disco sensibilities. Extremely innovative.

I enjoyed Program B better than Program A. There were no weak productions in this program. For me, Les Patineurs was the weakest (least excellent?) of the works. The costumes were downright ugly; brown and maroon don't go with teal. It dragged on a bit, and there were a few stumbles by the dancers. I'm predisposed to love everything by Edwaard Liang, so of course i loved Wonderbound, though I was thinking that I would hate to have to listen to the droning, repetitive music without dancers. I also have a bias towards music by Hindemith, so there was little chance that I wouldn't like The Four Temperaments. At the post-performance discussion, Septime Webre made a comment that I found interesting. In response to a question about how the ADs choose their dancers, Webre said that he looks for dancers who really "go for it" and are "fearless", One of the criticisms of the Washington Ballet that I've heard is that the dancers seem to hold back. I let my co-worker who I've gone to A and B with talk me into buying a ticket for Program C tonight. I'm more than a little bit worried about getting there, given how difficult the drive is even in good weather.

Or maybe the volunteered to fill empty seats in the orchestra during the first intermission? I squeezed past 4 or 5 people during the usual pre-performance announcements. As soon as the lights were turned down, they discreetly moved to better seats across the aisle. I never saw them after the 1st intermission.

I was in 2nd Tier too and you are right about the 1st and 2nd tiers...but the Orchestra seemed packed (full?), as were all but two of the loges in Box Tier. Almost everyone who bought the $15 2nd-Tier-Side tix was able to move to the more expensive seats in the center of 2nd-Tier when lights dimmed. Then again, I've seen this happen on most mixed-bill weekday nights, even when ABT and NYCB are playing (yes, even ABT with Ratmansky's Shostakovich 'masterpiece' played to near-empty 2nd and 1st Tiers). Mixed-bill nights seem to fill up only when the Mariinsky comes to town (in recent memory); it would probably be the same for the Bolshoi but they never bring mixed bills to DC, do they? A bit off the subject, but we ran up to the box office at the last moment (it was literally 7:29) and they told us that they couldn't seat us next to each other. But one of the tickets that they sold us was in an otherwise empty row!

The performance was poorly attended. I sat in the 2nd tier because my co-worker who decided at almost the last minute that she would enjoy seeing this if I would take her along didn't want to spend much $, and I don't think that there were even 100 people up there.

I went to the opening performance, and found it disappointing. Afterwards, I was thinking that it was like seeing the freshman team, the junior varsity team, and then the varsity team. This probably had less to do with the abilities of the dancers than the abilities, or lack thereof, of the choreographers. The Richmond Ballet opened with a work titled Ershter Vals by Ma Cong, who has choreographed several forgettable works for the dance company formerly known as Ballet Nouveau Colorado. This work consisted of 4 parts, each set to some bland allegedly Klezmer music (until I read the program notes, I thought it was Paris cafe-style music). Each of the parts was, to both me and to my companion for the event, a work unto itself since there was no obvious common theme to the 4 parts. Nor did it in any way resemble the description in the program notes. I categorized it as modern dance rather than ballet, and I saw nothing innovative nor particularly challenging for the dancers. They were followed by the Oregon Ballet Theatre, which performed a work titled Almost Mozart by James Kudelka. While the work was advertised as being accompanied by Mozart and silence, almost all the dancing was done without accompaniment. This work also contained 4 parts. There was a musical introduction and part of the 3rd movement was accompanied by music but the rest was unaccompanied. I felt like I was watching a ballet class rather than a performance, though my companion said that she liked it. Again, I didn't notice anything particularly innovative or challenging (other than the lack of music). At the post-performance discussion, the artistic director said that she asked Kudelka why he had done the work with so little accompaniment, and his response was that he had been commissioned to create a work using Mozart but he didn't like Mozart as dance music. Seriously! I didn't care at all for the costumes. I don't understand why so many costume designers like to put men in short shorts. They look ridiculous in them. Finally we got the Boston Ballet doing Balanchine's well-known Symphony in Three Movements. What a relief that was! I did think that it seemed a little under-rehearsed, as they were occasionally off on their timing. I went to the opening performance so that I could go to the second performance if I wanted, but I don't think that I will. It's too much of a hassle to get to the Kennedy Center on a weeknight (it took us half an hour to go the last 2 miles) just to see 1 out of 3 works that I enjoyed.

The Baltimore Symphony normally plays 1 of their 3 weekly concerts at the Strathmore in Rockville. Next weekend is the final weekend of their season, and the featured work is Carmina Burana. The Strathmore is also home to a chamber orchestra called the National Philharmonic Orchestra. They are also presenting a program next weekend. The featured work: Carmina Burana. I guess conflicting scheduling is not restricted to Denver. Since next weekend is Dance Across America weekend at the Kennedy Center, I won't get a chance to compare performances.

Hildegard of Bingen Susan B. Anthony Aung San Soo Kyi

Indeed. Despite the high prices, all the shows except for the Sunday evening show were virtually sold out, and the Sunday evening show had about 90 percent of the tickets sold.

"Fiesta" was Hemingway's working title for the book, and the first printing in Britain used that title.

I think that there was a problem with the way the video was used. I do not see it as a good idea to have a video running at the same time that important dancing is happening. The audience cannot watch both, so one needs to be the background for the other. Still photographs would have worked better IMO. I found that even the dialogue that was posted above the stage diverted my attention from the dancing. I had some questions about whether this story was a good choice for choreographing. There were some scenes in which the dancing seemed quite out of place. I don't know how one would portray fishing through choreography, but the fishing scene in this production didn't make me think at all of fishing. Even the opening, in which Jake apparently was suffering from writer's block, seemed unnatural. It had me thinking "Why is this guy who is suffering from writer's block leaping about like, well, like a ballet dancer?"

I managed to scrape enough money out of my piggy bank to take in one performance of the TWB's production of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. I really like to see ballets twice because lots of times I enjoy them more the second time, but the $89 tickets (by far the most I've ever paid for a ticket for anything that didn't involve listening to instructions on how to buckle a seat belt) precluded that. The choreography was created by the TWB's artistic director, Septime Webre, with music from a variety of recordings and new compositions. The ballet was in 2 acts. The first act took place in Paris, so the music was standard 1920's lounge/cafe music. Not my cup of tea. This act was nearly an hour long, and IMHO contained a substantial amount of filler. The pas de deux and tres (hmmm. That looks like Spanish rather than French) contained some very athletic lifts that required tremendous strength, but I think left out grace and beauty (but maybe if I saw it again I would change my mind). The shorter second act was livelier. It consisted mostly of the Spanish part of the novel. The music was livelier as well. They used a few guest artists, including a spectacular flamenco dancer, and, rare for the the TWB, there was live music for this act. There were some good ensemble parts with high energy dancing. Overall, I rate the ballet as decent but not great. It was stuffy in the theater (this seems to be a common occurrence at matinees at the Kennedy Center) and I nearly fell asleep several times during the first act. But maybe if I had seen it again ... Side note: I've found a couple of parking garages in the vicinity of 22nd and I Street that charge only half as much as the KC parking garage and are only a block and a half from the shuttle stop.

The dancers in the other performances also wore white tights. Does even a star get to decide what everybody wears? There can be slight alterations. At the Bolshoi, all of the Conrads wore slightly different costumes - some had the Greek 'skirt' version (Tsiskaridze, for ex.), while most wore tights...some tights darker than others. Back to ABT/Conrad: Vasiliev looked so embarrasingly chunky, that I had to apologize to my partner during the first intermission when he asked me "Didn't you say that Vasiliev was supposed to be good? He's heavy." It was being commented a lot by folks in our group. His chunky line is a serious-enough problem when it detracts from all of what he does so spectacularly. Your friend apparently isn't familiar with a body feature known as "muscle". Vasiliev is totally buffed (he played Ali Saturday evening, and, no, there weren't rolls of fat showing when he didn't have a shirt on). Unshapely or bulky muscles, or short, squat muscular bodies, or an unpleasant facial feature or personality type, are not aesthetically pleasing to all. Neither is a sloppy landing after a quadruple pirouette. I can't recall every enjoying a dance performance less just because the dancers weren't all perfect 10's.

The dancers in the other performances also wore white tights. Does even a star get to decide what everybody wears? There can be slight alterations. At the Bolshoi, all of the Conrads wore slightly different costumes - some had the Greek 'skirt' version (Tsiskaridze, for ex.), while most wore tights...some tights darker than others. Back to ABT/Conrad: Vasiliev looked so embarrasingly chunky, that I had to apologize to my partner during the first intermission when he asked me "Didn't you say that Vasiliev was supposed to be good? He's heavy." It was being commented a lot by folks in our group. His chunky line is a serious-enough problem when it detracts from all of what he does so spectacularly. Your friend apparently isn't familiar with a body feature known as "muscle". Vasiliev is totally buffed (he played Ali Saturday evening, and, no, there weren't rolls of fat showing when he didn't have a shirt on).

The dancers in the other performances also wore white tights. Does even a star get to decide what everybody wears?

VISA knows that I went. 3 times. Sunday was sensational! Ivan Vasiliev cannot possibly be human. No mere mortal can do what he did. At the curtain call, he and Natalia Osipova turned around and bowed to the rest of the cast. That's the first time that I've seen that happen.

I got to both Saturday performances of Le Corsaire, but since I've never seen the earlier ABT production I can't comment on changes. My general take on this ballet is that it really shows who the outstanding dancers are. The story line is so weak that unless the dancers are spectacular watching it gets tedious quickly. Which is why I had to fight to stay awake during the matinee (it didn't help that the KC didn't turn on the air conditioning until the first intermission) but found myself engrossed in the evening show, because the dancers in the major parts in the matinee were merely very good while the cast for the evening performance was great (especially Gillian Murphy as Medora and Ivan Vasilev as Ali - he did things that I didn't think were physically possible). I also think that the music is totally uninspiring. Spoiler Alert I don't know who came up with the ending for the story, but I thought that it was kind of stupid. Everybody on the boat except for Medora and Conrad apparently drowns, including Medora's friend, but there is no sense of tragedy./Spoiler Alert

I thought that the costumes were attractive and feminine (by modern standards) I did not care at all for the costumes for Symphony in C. It is a very common programming concept to put the slowest piece in the middle and the fastest piece at the end. I don't know that I've ever seen the Colorado Ballet program triple bills in any other order.

Isn't the Shostakovich 9th both happy and sad? It was superficially written to celebrate the victory over Germany, but while the immediate threat of the Germans was removed, the specter of Stalin remained. I liked the costumes. Perhaps because they reminded me of tie-died jeans.

Isn't crimson a shade of red? Anyway, it looked red (lighter than the Crimson Tides' uniforms) to me, but the bright lights bothered me (again) so perhaps Meow's impression is more accurate.

I think that was part of the reason they revivied it - Give Kent something to do that's not very difficult. That's her only assignment for the KC Tour, since she does not do Le Corsaire anymore. I suspect the reason they are doing Month in The Country at the Met is to give Kent a relatively easy role to do. Isn't that strange? I haven't seen Julie Kent dance in years but do have a ticket to see her in Month in The Country at the Met (she's not the reason I bought the ticket). Why do they keep her on if she is so limited that they have to find things for her to do? According to the ABT website, unless there is another J. Kent in the company she is scheduled to take a turn at the lead in both Romeo and Juliet and Swan Lake in June.

I decided that the Metro isn't THAT expensive or inconvenient, and with tickets discounted by $20 it was too much to resist going back. I think that Meow summarized it pretty well. Symphony in C is, I think, a piece that has more appeal to people who understand the technical aspects of dance than to people like me who just like an engaging show. My opinion of Balanchine's work will probably seem as stupid to serious dance fans as my opinion of Mozart's music seems to serious music fans. I enjoyed the Tuesday performance a little more. There one lead ballerina, I think that it was the second one (the one who was quite tall), who seemed somewhat mechanical. I found The Moor's Pavane to be more meaningful the second time around (plus this time I read the program notes beforehand), even though I thought that the dancers weren't quite as in sync as on Tuesday. I was struck by how little movement there was in the audience during this piece; it seemed that everyone was totally engaged in the piece. I too did not find a followable "program" to the choreography for Symphony no. 9, but I didn't care. The dancing was challenging and entertaining, and any excuse to listen to something by Shostakovich was good enough for me. As I said in my earlier post, I thought that the ABT did a better job of programming than the NYCB. Three ballets that were completely different accompanied by music that ranged from Baroque to Romantic to Modern. IMHO, that makes for an interesting show.

Bad news about Cornejo - he had to pull out mid-performance when they did this piece at City Center last fall. Anybody know what the problem is? I hope this is just a terrible coincidence. He is cast in some great roles in the Met season. The program merely said that he was ill, and made it sound as if it was something of a last-minute switch.