SandyMcKean

Off topic somewhat, but........

Loving mathematics as I do, I like to imagine JS Bach and Mr B somewhere in the beyond having breakfast together each morning. I may get ridiculed for saying this, but those two have always seemed soul brothers to me (and yes, Concerto Barocco is a favorite of mine). As unprovable as it might be, it occurs to me that Bach often used the fugue structure in music, and Balanchine often used it in motion (not literally).

I am both fascinated and confused by your post here.

As it happens, I am a trained physicist (altho it has not been my career). Although it is fascinating to me that such a statement would be made in a ballet class, I am puzzled by it. I am unaware of any significant connection btwn Rutherford and magnets. Surely Rutherford did use magnets in his research, but the use of magnetic force was not a major aspect of his work. (Probably his best known contribution was the firing of alpha particles at a thin sheet of gold foil where he measured the scattering pattern of the particles which in turn led him to devise the well known model of the atom as a cloud of electrons surrounding a much smaller but hugely denser nucleus.) OTOH, strong magnets and the use of magnetic forces is fundamental to the operation of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) in Geneva which you mention.

Beyond this, I remain curious as to what your teacher meant by the comment: "Remember Rutherford and the magnets!". Perhaps I'm too dense, but I don't get the connection to dance. Please enlighten .

P.S. Just for the record.....as you say, Rutherford was a New Zealander and was educated there, but he did most of his work, and spent most of his life, in England and Canada.

I can't see getting upset about this article. I found the article rather good in that it clearly expresses a relevant point-of-view (that of a rock-n-roll fan listening to opera). It seemed quite an honest article to me. I wonder what someone who loves opera but dislikes rock-n-roll would say if they attended a crunge band concert and were this honest in an article?

The young (I assume) lady (I assume) doesn't like opera......so what? It took me 30 years to truly love opera -- now I go to all productions in a Seattle season, and always attend 2 performances of the same opera, and most of the time 3 or 4 performances of each opera. That didn't happen overnight. Perhaps she will learn to love opera in time......at least she attended.

Her conclusion was:

"It is the fact that I just cannot find a friend in this music. I can see it is beautiful. I can tell they are singing magnificently, but it stirs nothing in my belly, conjures nothing in my heart. It carries for me none of the fire, the spine-tingling, stomach-flipping, bone-chilling lifeblood of rock'n'roll."

That doesn't strike me as unreasonable.

I have 2 related criticisms however. She never owns up to the possibility that there is more to opera than she can currently understand (which there must be since so many folks love it and spent big bucks to see/hear it). And she is extremely judgmental about other audience members without ever, it seems, considering the possiblity that her dislike of other audience members may be more her problem than their problem (The fact that she couldn't wait to get back to her "own kind" in her own "comfort environment" ought to have been a hint to her that the former is more likely than the latter.)

I can't imagine why anyone would be offended by an article like this. It's at least an honest look -- if a very narrow look. Frankly, if I feel anything, I feel sorry for her that she is not allowing herself to see/hear the shear beauty that is opera.

Jemil Akman makes some useful suggestions but s/he skips over some issues.

First, copy houses may do PAL to NTSC copies all the time, but I find it hard to believe (but maybe I'd be surprised ) that a video industry business would do this for anyone except a copyright holder. If you own the rights to the material on the DVD, then sure a copy could be made including one that converts PAL to NTSC, but in this case the question is what to do with a DVD purchased from Amazon -- the questioner surely does not hold a copyright.

Second, the statement:

"Hook your output via the rca cables to another recording device that is NTSC and record it as an input."

contains a lot of gotchas. The only way to maintain DVD like resolution (even with the degradation mentioned) is to have some sort of DVD recorder (relatively expensive and unlikely to be found in most households), or to have a high end video card (and associated software) on your computer that would allow the burning of a DVD from RCA inputs (few computers have such a video card). Another way would be if you have a TIVO type PVR. One could then record the output of the PAL DVD player to the hard disk on the TIVO with RCA inputs, but with most TIVO type devices that would result in a low resolution copy (standard broadcast TV format as well as compressed) which is far worse than DVD resolution. Even then you'd have to have a special model PVR or special software that would allow one to burn a DVD when the data is on the PVR's hard disk.

So one could do this all right, but to maintain anything like good resolution, most folks would have to invest several hundred dollars in new equipment, or talk some business into doing an illegal copy.

Do you have to be a dancer or dance student to be able to view these tapes?

Here is a stmt from the libraries page of the website Alexandra gave above:

"The Archive of Lost Choreography and Interpreters Archive video tapes are made available for a nominal fee to qualified research libraries, where they can be viewed on site on an unrestricted basis by all who are interested."

Check out that site for more info.

One additional thought. All the suggestions in this thread do not address one issue: DVD copy protection.

Most DVDs issued in the last 5 years (approx) do some form of encryption. It is not possible to make region free copies, or any other form of DVD ripping for that matter, with an encrypted DVD. To copy a encrypted DVD to your hard drive or to a blank DVD (regardless of region) would require that you decrypt the DVD first. This can be done, but it is illegal, and requires bootleg decryption software.

I am not an expert, but I have some experience with DVDs. There may be holes in what I'm saying, but maybe what I do know will be helpful.

Copying a commericial DVD can be done, but the legality of doing it is questionable (some say it is OK if you are making a backup for your own use; OTOH, *no* service would do it for you). Even making a backup copy is a bit complex requiring bootleg decryption software, and probably compression (shrink) software too. Even then a PAL to NTSC might not be do-able.

Essentially whatever you do, you will be "recoding" (also called "transcoding") the video/audio data into a new format. There are programs that can do this for non-protected files (or for files where the protection has been removed assuming that can be done legally).

One no-cost software program that can do such recoding of unprotected files is:

SUPER by eRightSoft

P.S. No matter what the circumstances, this is technically complex and not something the un-initiated is likely to feel comfortable doing.

After all, the classical ballets do tell stories and these miming sections can be the most boring and confusing moments!

Your comment resonated with me. I can remember hating miming sections years ago. I think that one of the silly reasons I told myself for so many years that "I don't really like most full length ballets." But in recent years, I've "found" miming. I now see it as beautiful (when done well). About that same time I also found that I started to love the traditional full lengths too. I'll bet there is no coincidence there .

As you say, it is: all of the above.

But for me what prevails is: stage presence and creating character (aspects of "force of nature" in the particular polarity you define). A good example from PNB is Carla Korbes.....but of course there are several others.

Thanks! I should start making vacation plans for March 2009. It's been years since I've visited the Seattle area. Is West Side only a ballet suite? Is there no full-length version?

PNB is doing the suite. I don't know this for a fact, but I believe that the term "suite" applies only to the music. That is, Robbins choreographed to a suite of Bernstein's music, so the suite is the ballet......the term "full length" does not apply. Hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

If you do come out to Seattle (and PNB is well worth it), here is the rest of that program.

------------------------------

Broadway Festival

March 12-22, 2009

West Side Story Suite

Music: Leonard Bernstein

Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim

Choreography: Jerome Robbins

Carousel (A Dance)

Music: Richard Rodgers

Choreography: Christopher Wheeldon

TAKE FIVE - More or Less

Music: Dave Brubeck & Paul Desmond

Choreography: Susan Stroman

Slaughter on Tenth Avenue

Music: From On Your Toes by Richard Rodgers

Choreography: George Balanchine

----------------------------------

Note all are PNB premieres except "Take 5" which was done on the PNB dancers by Susan Stroman just last season for a world premiere. "Take 5" will float your boat too.....especially if you enjoy the Broadway Musical scene (it is a sort of balletic look at the artistry and artists of Broadway done to the never to be forgotten music of Dave Brubeck -- spiced with the unusual time signatures).

I thought this might be interesting to BT folks since it is rare for any of us to hear our beloved dancers singing on stage! This was written by PNB Artistic Director Peter Boal regarding West Side Story last 5/27:

--------------------------------------

"Last week, I listened while most of our dancers sweated and squirmed through painful singing auditions for Jerome Robbins’ West Side Story Suite. To my surprise and theirs, we had several voices. The entire cast sings, with solo work going to Anita, Rosalia, and Riff. When Jerry auditioned the New York City Ballet dancers in the late 1990s, I was spared the humiliation. I remember Nikolaj Hübbe revealing that he turned white with fear before a note could be uttered. Jenny Ringer remembers singing “I’m a Little Tea Pot,” complete with hand gestures, because it was the only song that came to mind. One PNB dancer summed up the process by offering, “It wasn’t as painful as I expected.” I felt their pain and was truly grateful for their willingness to try."

i believe it's about to enter the repertory of Pacific Northwest Ballet. (the co. site should confirm this w/ dates, etc.)

Yes it is (from PNB website):

---------------------------------------

March 12–22, 2009

West Side Story Suite

Music: Leonard Bernstein

Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim

Choreography: Jerome Robbins

PNB's salute to Broadway offers marvelously entertaining premieres by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and Christopher Wheeldon paired with the reprise of Susan Stroman's TAKE FIVE. George Balanchine's Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, created for the musical On Your Toes, offers a parody of Broadway, Russian ballet and the mob. Danced in front of a ferris wheel, Wheeldon's salute to Richard Rodgers "…is so enriching that one hungers for more: too good to be enough" (The New York Times). The legendary singing, finger-snapping teens of Robbins' long-anticipated West Side Story Suite are guaranteed to elicit "rockconcert cheers" (San Francisco Chronicle).

If Monaco thinks I'm going to forgive them for stealing my Juliette (Pantastico) by lionizing my Romeo (Postlewaite), then they may just be right

Seriously, if you were luckily enough to have seen PNB's production of Malliot's R&J this last season, you will know just how special these 2 dancers are. Congratulations to both of them.

Really, really great questions Amy.

The part I am most interested in might be stated as:

What is essential about Balanchine's choreography that would have his works be "American" (leaving aside the obvious "Stars and Stripes" pieces)......especially in these "leotard ballets" (as Mel termed them)?

I am too uninformed to comment myself on these questions, but I feel as if I am in Amy's camp emotionally.......even in the purely abstract, such as Agon, there is something American.

[later edit: bart's post, which I did not see until after I hit the send button, gives me a lot of insight into the question.]

sigh

I doubt I will see Mama Mia, but I might.

P.S. Patrick, I did get that wrong.....I did think you were saying something about NY skits in the movie (skits I don't remember.....now I see why ). Further, as for me, add "Shortcuts" to "Gosford Park", and you have my favorites.

Sandy, I think anyone who likes Keillor's things would like 'Prairie Home Companion'.

Strangely I am not a fan of the radio show "Prairie Home Companion" or even of Keillor . However, I like him well enough to have greatly enjoyed the look inside his world that Altman gave us.

It's great when people of discerning eye see things very differently. The thing I liked the most about the film was how much Altman was in the film (just the opposite of you ). To me Altman is so great precisely because he gets out of the way and allows the talent of the actors and serendipity to shine. His movies are like distilled real life -- there is more going on at each moment than you can possibly catch (most brilliantly done IMO in "Gosford Park" -- my favorite movie of all time). Patrick, you say "his radio show at Town Hall in 2002, and there was little difference between that and the film".......once again interesting how differently people see things: one of the best things about the film for me is that very sense of inevitability where I felt that what I was seeing was just as it might have been in 2002 at the Town Hall (except that I also got to be back stage, to see the personal lives of the performers, to see Keillor 3 seconds before the curtain opened, and on and on).

In the show, there were skits about skits of New Yorkers, none of which had anything recognizable to do with any I've ever known in over 40 years; I don't think they were especially even trying to be accurate that way.

I don't know NYC and its culture well enough to have noticed that, but I think you are 100% correct that Altman likely wasn't trying to be accurate. My take on Altman is that accuracy is well down the list of his priorities. I think he prefers to stress the universality of situations and characters rather than reality -- in fact, his films for me are almost fantasies, but profound ones........not what did happen, or even what could happen, but what might happen given human nature as a foundation.

I'm with you on Tomlin. In addition I was blown away by Kline -- not at first perhaps, but the more I realized the subtly of his humor (in a gariish kind of way) the more I was impressed.

I think it's according to whether you like Keillor more than anything else............,

I wouldn't argue against your thought here, but I'm a living example of just the opposite!!

oh, God...yes..."Prairie"...well, THAT was a disaster...

I'm probably not a reliable source since Robert Altman is my favorite film director of all time, but I loved "Prairie". In particular I thought Meryl Streep was brilliant (but then she nearly always is).

OTOH, I'm not much of a "musicals" fan -- in fact, I've never gone to one.

........but don't quite see her as especially self-destructive.

And neither do I. I chose the words "maybe a bit of self-destruction" very carefully. As I heard Allegra say in the subject Rose interview, Allegra seemed to say (in a quite Blanche like fashion) that her acquiescence to her mother's wishes to marry, and then her own insistence on having children while in the peak of her career, had a certain self-destructive quality. She said that one of the things she will always be grateful to Mr B for is allowing her to "come back" and dance after clearly disobeying his desire for her to devote herself more completely to her dance. It's not hard to imagine Blanche doing something similiar in the world of all powerful men they both inhabit.

but Baryshnikov said, "Oh, she's too crazy," or words to that effect.

Last night I happened to see a truly superb production of "Streetcar Named Desire" by Seattle's Intiman Theater. While driving home, this thread on Allegra came to mind. Blanche in William's play has a destructive streak that I can't imagine Allegra has (except maybe a bit of self-destruction, and certainly like Blanche, a tinge of preferring fantasy over reality), but I was struck by an apparent simularity btwn Blanche and Allegra. Neither may be "normal", but you have to be awed by their artisty and, in the final analysis, love them both. I'd rather spend an evening with Blanche in spite of her eccentricities than almost any other character in literature I can think of. An evening with Allegra might prove nearly as interesting.

I hate to post to myself, but I did find out today that Carla Korbes is dancing at Vail.

As someone who has worked as a publicist for decades.........

I second the thanks Deborah.

I've always wondered how these things go. Just to what extent they are spontaneous vs scripted; just how much leeway each party has. You've given us real live insight. I'll watch/hear interviews from a different perspective now........and so many interviews: John Stewart, Colbert, even Sunday news shows, often seem driven by the interviewee's need (contractual obligations I presume) to market a book.

Anyone know which dancers will be representing PNB at Vail over the next couple of weeks? Which roles will be danced by whom?

Personally, I love it that PNB will be doing "Agon". That piece says everything about PNB dancers IMHO. Besides, what might get left out will certainly show up in "Take Five, More or Less".

Allow me to go back to something I said early on in this thread.

Seems to me that only thing that counts when watching an interview is whether or not the person is authentic. I frankly don't care who they are being, or what their particular "human-ness" is, as long as I am getting the real deal. I love the near infinite variety that humans come packaged in -- even in their billions. I am interested in listening to any of them, even a serial killer, as long as they are saying what's authentically so for them.

The only time an interview would waste my time, or be sad, or be any other sort of unfortunate experience is if the person was not speaking their own personal truth (authenticity). For example take negative campaign ads as an analogy: they insult the intelligence and create nothing because they are made of images, words, and impressions that are just the opposite of authenticity. There is no communication there....no touching of the human spirit.....but rather nothing more than manipulation.

Allerga was authentic with Charlie Rose IMHO -- however that was, or whatever that looked like. I can ask for no more than that.

No, no, no. I can't see what's more cynicism-breeding about Park Avenue and its suburbs than all that Microsoft... I mean--doesn't it just pervade Puget Sound?

I once worked at Microsoft. In my experience, there certainly is a cynicism there -- not a "nothing measures up" kind of cynicism, but more a kind of "the vast majority will never understand" cynicism.

I wouldn't say Microsoft pervades the Puget Sound....altho the money they generate does. Seattle still holds onto its innocence (not necessarily a good thing), but the "savviness" of cynicism is steadily creeping in. Frankly, I'd say our limitiations here are from being too "nice-nice" rather than from being cynical, but in terms of responding to authenticity, the results of the 2 ways of being are pretty similar. Everything is just too PC around here.