aurora

^{_{The opening night playbill had an insert listing who made the Firedbird possible. David H. Koch was at the top of the list. People will be forced to see this again if they want to see the Dream, because they stuck it in as the second ballet on the program for every performance of the Dream. At least it's last, so you can leave early.}}

I wont be "forced" to see it again. Instead I am looking forward to seeing it again as I actually very much liked it the first time.

It was not a critical failure and many people did enjoy it.

According to her twitter feed, Joy has been offered contracts as a soloist at the Mik or corps of the Bolshoi and is currently trying to decide...

So nobody has seen them yet? Or is it that everyone is at a loss for words...

I saw their Swan Lake yesterday and, frankly, it is one of the worst ballets I've ever seen. They chopped up the score (just a few examples - the first act included the music from one of the national dances and some 2nd act lakeside music & they broke up the pas de trois music).

I found the choreography boring and unmusical, which made it very difficult to watch.This is Graeme Murphy's Charles/Diana/Camilla inspired version. I couldn't muster any sympathy for any of the main characters and I was ready to go home after the 45 minute 1st act but I convinced myself to stay. In the 2nd act the jilted princess bride Odette was confined to a sanatorium where she dreams of being a swan. It was better, but still not good and I left at the 2nd intermission.

I can only take solace in the fact that about a week from now the lovely Veronika Part will make all visions of this frankentchaikovsky nightmare vanish.

I am in the "loss for words" camp.

It was interminable. 3 hours that felt like years. Black swan in act 1? what?

I pretty much agree with everything you said.

I did like some of the costumes and sets, but that isn't enough to make a dull/bad/tedious ballet worthwhile.

act III was just really really confusing btw, you didn't miss anything!

.....The stage is sparse, four huge trees loom as the only background, with digital projectionss filling in the rest. .....

"Sparse"... 'El Cheapo' strikes again!

I love that you can be so dismissive of something you haven't seen.

.....

I saw it now. I can definitively state: El Cheapo has struck again!

In her review for Dancetabs.com, Marina Harss writes:

The designs, by Simon Pastukh (who also worked on “On the Dnieper”) are haunting, weird, almost post-apocalyptic. One could call them ugly.

Damn right there!

I thought the designs and costumes were very interesting, visually arresting, and not cheap looking in the slightest.

From still photos I wasn't sure if I would like the firebird costume itself, but I found I did, quite a bit. And I thought the set design was fantastic.

Besides, at least the colors weren't drab, right? ;)

I really thought it was a stunning production.

I do seem to be the odd man out around here regarding "Firebird", and, more generally, this entire triple bill. .... My problem is that I had never considered large stretches of this score danceable in the first place, and I thought that Ratmansky did as admirable a job as possible. Also, I liked the abundance of humor; I found the updated story more interesting than the original one; I thought it a plus that Ratmansky had four quite distinctive characters all of whom were defined through both mime and dancing (whereas Fokine had essentially only one dancing character, the Firebird).

I haven't had the time to write up my opinions but they actually were very much in agreement with yours. I enjoyed Firebird very much and while I like the score I do have issues with its "dancability."

So just to voice an opinion in agreement!

Also, I would like to see Osta/Le Riche instead of Pech. And it will be Clairemarie's farewell the 19th of July.

And with the casting changes, that is now the cast on the 14th and 19th....

Met has almost 4,000 seats & standing rooms, State almost 3,000 seats before the rennovation and about 2,800 seats after. I estimate ABT sold out or almost sold out about 20-25 performances each Met season. If ABT were to move across the plaze, it'd lose about 30,000 to 40,000 tickets. There would be headache in re-arranging subsrcription seats. Sets might need to be re-configured, ballets re-staged.

As a point of reference, Covent Garden has 2,250 seats, Bolshoi & Mariinsky main stage each has about 1,800 - 2,000 seats. State Theater is humongous, and the Met stadium-size by European standard.

Thanks for the informative comparison, as well as bringing up the giant headaches that would be caused by such a move. I was also wondering about the issues of sets fitting/ and stagings.

I think it's logical to perform the fall season at the State Theater. The State Theater has a much better sight line and bigger stage than City Center. But I can't imagine ABT would move its all important spring season from the Met to the State. ABT's identity and prestige are partially tied to its spring season at the Met. I suspect ABT is using State Theater as a leverage to negotiate a better term with the Met.

They'd of course also have to change the dates to do so, as currently there is significant overlap with NYCB's spring season....

It would make it easier for them to fill the theater. Does anyone know offhand what each theater holds? my impression is that ny state (I will not call it Koch) is quite a bit smaller than the Met.

Part is now listed on ABT's website in place of Vishneva for Friday's Bayadere...was this announced earlier? Did I somehow miss it?

I am not at all sorry to see Part for sure--though she may rather tower over Osipova--but very disappointed not to be seeing Vishneva especially after last year when I only saw her in Carmen (which I did not care for). I've hit my budget limit on planned NY trips, so this means I won't see her at all this season...

(To be honest, I have been mostly worried Cojocaru would pull out of Thursday's performance.)

The best laid plans of mice and balletomanes...

I don't think the height differential should be a disaster or even an issue. Osipova has so much personality I think she can stand up to anyone. I kept seeing Part cast with Wiles in this and I think tempermentally this will be a much more interesting match. Its also a gorgeous role for Veronika (or has been, and I'm so sorry I don't get back to the US until next week!!).

No doubt you can argue that Gelb is within his rights but clubbing critics for delivering news you don't want to hear seems mistaken from pretty much any standpoint.

As its been resolved maybe its too late, but there was something in the wording of this that I found interesting.

Above you called this "delivering news you don't want to hear." I would call reviews--both bad and good--opinion. not news. There is a difference and the fact that people don't seem to recognize that is maybe why the MET opera originally wanted to quash the unstintingly negative reviews...

You have a point there, Natalia, about their participation in competitions. LiLing does, as well. It's good to hear a perspective coming from very experienced eyes.

Indeed! I would like to add however, that experienced eyes do not of course, always agree. While this is not the place to discuss reviews, it seems worth pointing out that at least one professional reviewer had the precise opposite viewpoint from Natalia--thinking Hurlin was "a delight" while critiquing her partner for sacrificing musical accent for height.

In other words, some very experienced viewers thought she was fantastic.

It would be a boring world indeed if we all liked the same things!

I'm not sure if crutches will fit under the seats, since there may be hardware between the seats that blocks them -- this may be section-specific, too -- but they should be able to discuss the logistics with you.

I am pretty sure you can stow crutches under the seats because I'm sure my father must have done that. He didn't go really once he needed a wheelchair so I cant speak to that. But he was on crutches from when I was 7 and I know he went after that.

I'm intrigued about this ballerina and the reasons behind the absence of more info about her online. I don't find anything from Alonso's BT recollections, whereas she always speaks at large about Kaye and Markova. Can someone direct me to any reading source on her...? Does anybody has any recollections of her dancing back in the days..?

http://www.ballerina...ic/highto01.jpg

Thanks in advance!

I know nothing about it personally, but I found a book on 4 of the American Indian ballerinas, by someone who knew them and interviewed them. You can see a preview of it here:

http://books.google.it/books?id=ZwGIO99UPAMC&printsec=frontcover&hl=it&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

hopefully that will work. If not it is

American Indian Ballerinas

by Lili Cockerille Livingston

Thanks, Quiggin for the lovely clip! Mme. Danilova, or course...always a star. I notice, though that she sort of simplifies a bit the variation, for instance, by the absence of the little ronde de jambes with the right leg during the pas de chat sequence-(very explicit in Markova's clip).

I wouldn't be sure that change/simplification came from her. If you notice all these variations have differences from eachother. Viengsay for example does the early shift in position to an arabesque, while the Royal Ballet version has it a terre.

In fact Danilova does do pas de chats. The others are doing gargouillades--which are similar but should have a round de jamb movement of BOTH legs in the air. In actuality, and as you identified with Markova, this doesn't often happen. The first leg does it, and the second does a normal pas de chat movement (Markova), or sort of kicks out before coming in (Viengsay). The best example of how it is meant to look is the Royal Ballet one (I'm sorry I've totally forgotten her name and watching it embedded all I can see are the wrong names!).

I'm not so fastidious on this. If you want to see someone do 32, watch nina ananiashvilli.

I don't really care if they do 28 or 32 or whatever number. I am still impressed with 15! LOL But I was just wondering, b/c especially on videos that I watch I count out of curiosity and I was always confused whether to count the pirouettes or not.

If someone just does 10-15 do you just say, for example, "I like her fouettes," or do you still call it 32 fouettes? Is 32 fouettes just a term to describe doing "a lot"?

I should have been more clear!

I didn't mean you were being. I mean to me, if they do 32 rotations, it counts as 32 fouettes. technically probably it isn't but I am not the kind of person who cares much

As for Nina, the way I worded it, it sounded like I was being dismissive of her, "if you CARE about that, watch her."

In fact I think her FAST clean singles are one of the most impressive fouette displays I've ever seen. I always found them a bit more impressive IRL then on video, especially a few years ago when she was really in her prime, but she shows you can do great singles at great velocity and make them a massive feat (you dont NEED to throw in bells and whistles to make it a knockout)

i think she's fab!

Thanks! It seems that very few actually do 32 then. Without counting the extra pirouettes I rarely count 32.

I'm not so fastidious on this. If you want to see someone do 32, watch nina ananiashvilli.

When I read the title of this thread, I thought the OP meant actual "hunting melodies," as for instance the Hunters' Choruses from Der Freischutz, and Charpentier's Acteon

Maybe someone could kindly change the title of the thread to "haunting" which is what I assume it should be?

Maybe there are others, but there are a lot of short clips up on Youtube from this person:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uKylmn9lXk&feature=channel&list=UL

The name of the new director is easily found by searching on Twitter, in case anyone else wants to know before the embargo ends.

I do recall at least one interview in which this dancer expressed an interest in directing (I think the interview actually described her as a possible candidate for directing the Royal Ballet).

It's certainly a bold move by the END board. I wonder what the dancers' reactions will be. Things are going to interesting!

I think we can go ahead and make it public now. Its in the public record (not just twitter). Apologies if this is inappropriate and please delete but once it is in official news sources from the Press Release (even if that is prematurely leaked), I assume it is fair game.

http://www.theartsdesk.com/dance/tamara-rojo-prima-ballerina-becomes-english-national-ballets-director

Thank you!!!

who was that, ahem, swan queen? Sorry to go this far afield but I'm dying to know.

And now i hit this pose, and now this one, and now that one. Was there a character there at all?

Martins has no use for repose, and that's part of the problem. His Dance! Dance! Dance! version of "Swan Lake" is even more relentless. It's like someone cornering you at a party and talking your ear off; in their eagerness to tell you everything they lose the thread and end up telling you nothing.

this is a brilliant comparison!

At least in the Sleeping Beauty, the visual aesthetic is nice. In his Swan Lake you just keep wondering, "OMG what on EARTH are they wearing?! That is HIDEOUS! Why would they wear that?" which further detracts from what is being "said."

Or maybe that is just me

Since someone brought up Matthew Golding, run to youtube quickly, his gala performance with Obraztsova at Mariinsky is up and beautiful!

Is there a trick to finding this? it isn't coming up for me under either of their names (separate or together....)

re: NYCB

I'm asking on how do they do Petipa. That's ballet first and uttermost for me, and then, other choreographers and works that I might enjoy.

The short answer is, they don't.

There are Balanchine works that are resolutely AFTER Petipa (Nutcracker and then his heavily Petipa influenced works, like Raymonda Variations for example).

And then there is Martins' Swan Lake and his Sleeping Beauty, the second of which is not bad, but not Petipa.

I'd like to see MCB become a specialist ....

That could be the key. Perhaps what you see as an specialization I see it rather as a limitation, more when they publicly expose things like the Aurora's Wedding's failure, so it becomes a matter of "I can't" instead of "I don't want to".

MCB has the "Ballet" last name on its presentation card. They ought to know how to do Sleeping Beauty. Paul Taylor Dance Group doesn't.

NYCB does too. And they aren't a classical company. They are a neo-classical one. It is a different style.

This diagonal is taught by Frederick Frankilin when he sets Giselle. oakland Ballet does it. I haven't see n Dance Theater of Harlem's in some time, but I believe they did it. It's the Ballets Russes version.

Oh, Paul...how WONDERFUL! I wonder if I could ever see that company.. I would be very interesting to compare both versions. One thing i notice from Fracci to Johnson to all the Cubans is that they, unlike the Russians and Americans, don't get the initial arabesques into penchees. It still kind of shocks me a bit to see the amplitude of the Russians in this step in Giselle.

Thanks so much for the clue on the Harlem company! I will rent the DVD.

The funny thing is, just as for you, it has to be the diagonal, for me, it should be a penchee.

The difference is, I can appreciate the variation done well either way.