YouOverThere

That sounds less than encouraging. IMHO, the CB had 4 dancers who could carry a show, and 2 of them won't be around next season, or at least for the first half. And I thought that Nathan VanderStoep did a pretty good job in supporting roles. Hopefully some of the new dancers will be really solid.

Last weekend being a sparse one for the performing arts in Denver, the only thing that I could find to go to was the season finale for Ballet Nouveau Colorado. Well, it turned out to be much better than I anticipated. I thought that they did an admirable job, in spite of having to overcome the 2 obstacles of a budget that allows a maximum salary of (IIRC) $450/week for dancers and a stage that was so small that it really was insufficient for 8 dancers. Like last weekend's Doug Varone and Dancers program, this one featured 3 separate pieces. And like the Doug Varone and Dancers program, the dances expressed a mood rather than told a story. Unlike last weekend's Doug Varone and Dancers program, the choreography was an interpretation of the music. While I've never danced, the movements seemed to me to be a lot more physically difficult than anything in the DVaD show. The three pieces were: Game Piece, choreographed by Amy Seiwert to Terry Riley's Sunrise of the Planetary Dreamer and G Song; In Between Dreams, choreographed by (outgoing artistic director) Robert Mills to music by Arvo Part and Gustav Mahler; and Dusty Heat, choreographed by Lee Wei Chao to music by Peter Ludwig. The first and third clearly fit into the "ballet" category, while I would consider the second to be "modern dance". All 3 impressed me far more than anything that Doug Varone did. Breaks in the dancing were purposeful, with the dancers maintaining a pose. My favorite was the second dance (Arvo Part RULES!!!). Since I'm not able to comment on the technical aspects, there's not a whole lot more that I can say. An interesting sidenote: the first movement of In Between Dreams was set to a very sparse piano piece by Arvo Part. The seats in the theatre were quite squeaky, and it was fascinating how many people became fidgety when listening to something that had as much silence as sound.

My outlook on art is that it is a form of communication, so I care mainly about whether the artist is saying anything to me. The particular style isn't all that important to me. I just want to feel something (besides boredom) when I view it. I couldn't even see any connection between the gist of the dance and the music. Dancing that stops before the music is finished?

Time for the latest dance review from Ballettalk's most un-educated, un-sophisticated member. Read at your own risk: I stumbled across an announcement in a local newspaper of a performance in Denver by Doug Varone and Dancers. OK, I thought, Doug Varone's a well-known choreographer and since I don't have anything going on Saturday evening I'll go see the show. I was even more excited when I opened the program and saw that the first two works were set to music by Prokofiev and Arvo Part. Little did I know what I was in store for. The first piece was called Castles and was set to Prokofiev's Waltz Suite. This piece was stunning. Stunning because I had never before seen choreography in which the dance sequences stopped several seconds before there was a natural break in the music. The dancers stood for several seconds looking like gymnasts in a floor exercise preparing for their next tumbling run, unless they needed to walk or jog across the stage because the just-finished dance sequence left them on the wrong side of the stage for their next part. The dancing looked non-challenging (and the dancers looked stiff and mechanical), with a lot of meaningless (to me) arm-waving and a continual stream of dancers walking to a corner of the stage and gazing off into the distance. I'm about the biggest Prokofiev fan around, but this piece couldn't get over soon enough. The second piece was titled Boats Leaving and was set to Arvo Part's Te Deum. That alone should have been a tip-off. Or at least I don't see any connection between a hymn of praise and ships sailing off. This particular piece wasn't even a dance. The dancers walked about the stage, occasionally aligning in a pattern that might have had some meaning to a more sophisticated viewer, and did a lot of flopping on the floor. And there were more dancers walking to corners of the stage and gazing off into the distance. I love Arvo Part's music, but there was a total disconnect between the music and the choreography. The last piece, Lux, set to Philip Glass' The Light, was the only one that seemed to take serious dancing skills, though it was still below the level that I'm used to seeing with the Colorado Ballet. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to have any point other than to show off the dancers' athleticism. It got to be very repetitious (as did the music), and I thought of it as perhaps an aerobics class for dancers. All-in-all, I'd say that this show was about the level one would expect of a college dance program. I can only assume that Varone chose music for little reason other than it had the right tempo for what he wanted to do, since for me there was no connection between the music and the choreography. Based on that show, I have no idea why Varone is held in such high esteem. Of course, my opinion was in the minority. The majority of the audience thought that it was worth a standing ovation.

And so he is! Hmmm.... I may yet be persuaded, I guess. (It wasn't so much the music as its method of composition that I objected to....) I've actually never heard any of Lutoslawski's works. There was a symphony on the CSO schedule but Kahane has suffered some serious health problems and they had to bring in a substitute conductor at the last minute. The substitute didn't have time to learn a new piece so he changed the program to include works that he already knew.

It was like deja vu. I went to see The Light in the Piazza today, which was advertised as having won 6 Tony Awards. The first act was AGONY. I don't think that I've ever been more bored in my entire life. There wasn't a single memorable song in the entire play.

Quite a few classical music composers whose works are popular today were not popular in their own lifetimes. And there a quite a few works that failed initially but became popular years later (e.g., Prokofiev's 2nd piano concerto). This isn't entirely a new phenomena. People tend to prefer the familiar so orchestras and radio stations, which need to attract the largest possible audience for financial reasons, will go with the "tried and true". It probably will shock a lot of people, but Jeffrey Kahane, the music director of the Colorado Symphony, thinks that some day Lutoslawski will be considered a truly great composer.

Just when you thought it was safe to view this forum, I will again reveal my ignorance by posting my impressions from the Colorado Ballet's Dance Creations program. At least this time I waited until I saw it twice before posting my thoughts. The second time, I was accompanied by a friend who is a part-time artist. The first piece was Second Exposure, with choreography by Darrell Grand Moultrie. It got the most enthusiastic audience response of the 3 the first time I saw it. Personally, I thought that it was by far the weakest of the 3, and my friend agreed. While requiring INCREDIBLE athletic ability from the dancers, it was a bit short on "artistic merit". There didn't seem much point to it other than to let the dancers show off. It was the only one that I enjoyed less the second time I saw it than the first. The second piece was De Profundis, with choreography by Jessica Lang and set to music by Arvo Part. While the first time I saw I didn't think it was quite as good as last year's From Foreign Lands and People, the second time I found it to be so emotionally powerful that I almost started crying. The difference might be that the first time I was in the mezzanine while today I was on the main floor. I hope people in other cities get to see this one sometime. The third piece was Celts, choreographed by Lila York. It's a great piece to finish the season with. It's very high-energy and like Second Exposure requires a lot of athletic ability from the dancers, but it also tells definite stories. I liked it 99% as much as I liked De Profundis. My friend liked it 101% as much as she liked De Profundis. The product on stage is still very high quality. I just hope that the Colorado Ballet's administration can get its, errr, stuff in order so that we can continue to have great shows in Denver.

Egads, I hope that I'm not coming across like a newspaper reporter. I'm just hoping that my posts will be seen by people who have the capacity to make a different. Denver has a far better performing arts community than it deserves (Coloradoans don't seem to have much interest in anything where they don't keep score), and it's not a given that a high-level dance company can survive.

The website re-appeared this morning with a new URL, www.coloradoballet.com (it had been www.coloradoballet.org).

I guess the strains of change are continuing. The week before the final weekend of the season, their website disappears. No matter. One can always go to the Ticketmaster website and look for tickets. Except that at least since Sunday the Ticketmaster website has said that there were no tickets on sale for the Friday performance. This didn't prevent me from purchasing 2 of the many remaining tickets tickets for the Friday performance from the CB's box office on Monday afternoon. I informed both people that I talked to on Monday that there was a problem with Ticketmaster. Their response was that they don't work for Ticketmaster. If you try to buy tickets by phone during a busy period and get asked to leave your phone number so that they can call you, don't count on it. It took them 24 hours to get back to me, which was approximately 21 hours after I purchased my tickets. When I purchased them, I got right through without being put on hold. I tracked down my inability to make a donation to the CB last December to their PayPal account being set up to notify someone who had long since left the CB. All this lends itself to some concern about the future of the CB.

Maybe they're planning to continue with Mr. Sendak's Outside Over There, and are extending a courtesy to a presumed relative... (sorry, it's late) They charged me full price tonight. Must have been the Pierre Cardin tie. It would have been worth the money just to see the Jessica Lang piece.

This piece is much-anticipated by me. I've liked everything by Arvo Part that I've heard, and I really enjoyed From Foreign Lands and People last year.

I went to see Heartbeat this evening. It is sort of a Chinese answer to Riverdance. Only it is so much more dynamic, so much more spectacular, so much more challenging for the dancers (and martial artists), and so much less repititious that the two are hardly even comparable. I was in the 18th row and I could still feel so much energy from the people on stage that it was almost scary.

I wouldn't have guessed that Where the Wild Things Are would be "much anticipated". I'll probably end up going, but I'm having trouble working up enthusiasm for paying lots of money to see this program. I went, I saw, and I enjoyed it far more than I expected. While Where the Wild Things Are might be based on a kids' story, I didn't think that it was strictly a children's ballet. Certainly the music was not written for children. I must look like I'm impoverished. They keep offering me half-price on tickets.

I wouldn't have guessed that Where the Wild Things Are would be "much anticipated". I'll probably end up going, but I'm having trouble working up enthusiasm for paying lots of money to see this program.

This is quite possibly true. However, the Colorado Symphony sells "season" tickets in packages of multiples of 7 (7, 14, or 21), and you can add individual concerts to your package, so effectively "season" tickets just means purchasing tickets to at least 7 concerts. Unless there are fewer than 7 concerts that you want to go to, you wouldn't need to purchase tickets to a concert that you're not interested in just to get the benefits of having season tickets. It is true that on the average older people have more stable finances and might be more willing to take a chance on a concert that they don't know ahead of time whether or not they'll enjoy.

I should have added that if you ever get a chance to see Evelyn Glennie perform UFO, you ABSOLUTELY must go. She is an amazing performer!

The Colorado Symphony presented a program consisting mainly of (very) modern (American) classical music this weekend - featuring Jennifer Higdon's Concerto for Orchestra and Michael Daugherty's UFO. As with most modern classical music programs, the attendance was less than is normal at concerts featuring 18th and 19th Century music. What I've observed at these concerts is that the reduced attendance is mainly due to the fewer number of middle-aged people. The older people seem to turn out in similar numbers as with other concerts (in Denver, few young adults go to the symphony), and they seem very receptive to new music. I was curious as to whether people in other cities have observed the same thing or if it's just a local aberration.

Is anyone familiar with the show Heartbeat? It will be passing thru Denver at the beginning of March, and is advertised as being a "percussion dance show". I believe that Dennis Law, who is from the Law family who have been important patrons of dance in Denver, is involved (he was also involved with Terracotta Warriors).

Not every play has to be provocative and challenging, and there's nothing wrong with something that is merely entertaining (I was the one and only person on the upper balcony who didn't think that Hairspray was fantastic - everyone else gave it a standing ovation. Perhaps the cast deserved a standing O, as they were from my perspective doing as much as could be done with the material they were given). I'd probably have a better attitude about it if I had known what to expect. What I don't understand is what the motivation(s) of critics is(are). Do they really believe that it's as good as they've claimed? Were they just anticipating that it would be popular and writing good reviews so that they'd agree with their readers?

I can post here on Hairspray since it has dancing in it, right? I must live in a different world than theatre critics do. I went to see it on Sunday since it was advertised as having won 8 Tony Awards. Well, I almost fell asleep during the first act. The second act was moderately entertaining, but still why all the fuss? I seriously considered leaving at the intermission because the plot was so unimaginative that I knew what was going to happen without having to watch. If this was one of the best plays ever, I'd hate to see one of the worst.

Ballet is life for dancers, choreographers, ballet masters/mistresses, directors, teachers and many more who make their livelihood through the artform. A ballet company is not a passing fancy to those of us who have invested our lives in it. OK, I relented and tried to donate some money to the CB. When PayPal still listed the donation as unclaimed 15 days later, I cancelled it. For tax purposes, I wanted to donate that money to someone before the end of 2006, and I didn't have time to try to get things straightened out.

Ditto! Especially the Mina/Renfield dance. I haven't seen anything else quite like it, especially when Andrew Thompson danced the role of Renfield. Overall, in my limited dance-watching experience, Dracula differs from the other dance programs that I've seen in that it's story-oriented and ensemble-oriented rather than dance-oriented and solo-oriented. Since I'm not knowledgeable enough about the techniques of dancing, this sort of thing is enjoyable for me, but I can see that a serious dance fan might miss the seeing the challenging solos.

I'd have to say that for me it's the music and the story. And the atmosphere. Dracula is very much theatre (I think that Michael Pink calls it "dance theatre" rather than ballet). The music and lighting effects really capture me emotionally (I really like the music, and even bought a CD). It has much more plot and more sophisticated characters than most ballets. But I can see why sophisticated ballet fans might not be big fans of Dracula. The choreography isn't terribly challenging. There aren't any opportunities for virtuoso solos for the women. Even Dracula is constrained by the weight of the costume (20 lbs.!). But Dracula isn't "dumbed down" to specifically appeal to unsophisticated audiences, like Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake is. It's just a fun thing that I can lose myself in.