volcanohunter

I remember that Alina Cojocaru's first performance with ABT coincided with a family matinee. A lot of balletomanes who'd come to see her were unhappy with the elevated noise levels in the theater, as little ones turned to their parents asking for explanations about what was taking place on stage. But given that ABT had actively encouraged people to bring their children that day, this was to be expected. Obviously, it would be better to keep highly anticipated guest appearances and family afternoons separate, and the current ABT Kids format is a much better idea.

Timing is also important. It was noted that during the livestream of Paquita from Munich a child in the audience began to cry just as the ballerina was performing her crowning variation. That performance had been preceded by a special introduction especially for children. But if you add 45-60 minutes to a child's theater-going experience, will he last through the whole ballet?

Oh no! It goes to show you that arts organizations ought to have socializing opportunities for people of all ages, genders and Facebook statuses.

It's important to remember that these most recent reports released by the NEA are based primarily on data from the General Social Survey, and not the NEA's own Survey of Public Participation in the Arts. The latter specifically gauges attendance at the "benchmark" events such as plays, operas, ballets, jazz or classical music concerts. The former does not ask about such details, and rock concerts could easily fall within the "live performance" category of the survey. (That's why the last SPPA said that 37% of adults attended a live performance, while the GSS said that 45.6% did.) It was also noted that between the last two SPPAs, the biggest drops in attendance were found among those who attended musicals and plays, which perhaps have a less "elitist" reputation than ballet or opera. When respondents of the GSS were asked why they didn't attend live performances, I doubt that one of the answers suggested was "because it's for rich, old white people." But when asked why they didn't go even when they were interested, these were the most popular answers. Could not find the time, including due to work 47.3% Costs too much 38.3% Too difficult to get there, including difficulty due to physical handicap or illness 36.6% Could not find anyone to go with 21.6% Did not want to go to that location 9.0% Programs or events were not of interest 6.6% (As for the "not enough time" answer, the report notes that 95% of Americans engage in leisure activities daily, for an average of 5 hours per day. But I know from experience that watching television in a half-comatose state requires less effort than spending 3-4 hours at the opera house.) And this is why people attend live performances and/or art exhibits: Socializing with family or friends 72.9% Seeing an exhibit or performance at this particular location 65.8% Gaining knowledge or learning something new 64.1% Experiencing high-quality art 63.2% Supporting a community organization or community event 51.2% Seeing a specific individual artist’s performance or artworks 41.2% Low cost or free admission 40.9% Celebrating or learning about one’s own cultural heritage 24.2% Unfortunately, the data doesn't tell us why respondents do not go specifically to the ballet or the Shakespeare festival or a rap concert. But perhaps it can give arts organizations something more precise than our usual guesses and assumptions to study, including how motivations and perceived barriers differ across racial groups, because they do.

I'm not going to assume that the companion-less would-be audience is necessarily young and single. The study suggests that among young adults, the unmarried and childless are the likeliest to attend arts events, which stands to reason since they probably have the most free time. It could be that some people are faced with an unwilling partner, and since women constitute a larger chunk of the arts audience across the board, I'm going to assume that they find themselves in this position more often than men. Just the other day I gave a spare opera ticket to an older married woman. She was thrilled to go and loved it. She explained that she attends dramatic theater with her husband, but that he can't abide opera, so she never goes because, you guessed it, she has no opera buddy.

Not to digress further, but I'm fairly sure Tallchief was not that tall. Take a look at the scene in Million Dollar Mermaid, where Tallchief stands opposite Esther Williams. Williams was 5'8½" tall, and she's clearly quite a bit taller than Tallchief.

There are times when I wish Macaulay had a somewhat more journalistic approach to his writing. Reviews are a sort of record of those performances, and I can't help thinking that 100 years from now readers could be left with a lopsided impression of what they were like. I really feel for those dancers whose work Macaulay seems to dislike. But he's also an incisive writer and very acute observer. Several years ago he traveled to London and Paris to review the local Nutcrackers. It so happened that both the casts he saw were filmed for broadcast, and when I saw those films the following Christmas, his review came flooding back to me, because I could see for myself exactly what he'd meant; he'd described it so vividly and precisely. And yes, most of it rang true to me, too.

Yes, Digital Theatre seems quite willing to offer those 25% off discounts in exchange for only moderate patience. After downloading Le Corsaire, I subsequently received another discount offer, so I downloaded a play, and within a few days I received yet another discount offer.

I took a look at the film's credits, which list MacMillan as the choreographer of Rite and Jeux. MacMillan's original Chosen Maiden, Monica Mason, played Maria Piltz in the film. However, the Kenneth MacMillan web site states that his "choreography was based on the archival evidence of the 1913 original and not on his own production for the Royal Ballet." http://www.kennethmacmillan.com/ballets/all-works/1977-1992/nijinsky-reconstructions.html

If I recall correctly, the Rite of Spring choreography used in Nijinsky was MacMillan's, only dressed Roerich's costumes. The film was made several years before Hodson's reconstruction.

The company has posted a photo from the défilé for those of us who weren't fortunate enough to see it. https://twitter.com/sfballet/status/558719575533957120

These days that requires some fortitude.

Just a word of warning. Zakharova and Rodkin were scheduled to do their first of two Swan Lakes tomorrow, but have been replaced by Nikulina and Chudin. This, of course, doesn't mean that Zakharova won't be back in the saddle by Sunday.

Smirnova danced a Swan Lake at the Mariinsky in October, but she has not performed with the Bolshoi since the end of July. The Bolshoi had continued to schedule performances for her, only to replace her at the last minute. I suppose it's noteworthy that she has not been cast for anything in February. Perhaps this is an acknowledgement that she needs to stop for a proper period of convalescence, rather than continuing to rehearse and hoping that she'll finally be fit this week or next.

Numerous sources are reporting that Wilfride Piollet, an étoile of the Paris Opera Ballet from 1969 to 1983 and wife of fellow étoile Jean Guizerix, has died at age 71. http://dansercanalhistorique.com/2015/01/21/wilfride-piollet-une-grande-dame-nous-quitte/ This newsreel includes some footage of Piollet and Guizerix dancing Merce Cunningham.

If it comes down to a choice between authentic choreography and authentic design, I vote for choreography.

Glad to hear it will be playing at a more centrally located place.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland will be screened in Australia on January 23, 24, 25 and 28, and in Canada on January 24 and February 2.

Initially I was too lazy to do it, but I realized that a better basis for comparison between ABT and the Bolshoi would be Swan Lake, since it's a work ABT performs every season. I wouldn't even attempt to do this for the Mariinsky; the number of performances would be mind-bogglingly high. For 2010-2014 I found records for 102 performances of Swan Lake by the Bolshoi, including 53 on tour. This is how many performances the leads averaged per year. Again, those marked with asterisks weren't dancing with the Bolshoi for the entire five-year period. Odette-Odile Krysanova - 3.8 Nikulina - 3.6 Zakharova - 3 Shipulina - 2.4 Allash - 2.2 Alexandrova - 1.4 Smirnova - 1.2* Lunkina - 1* Antonicheva - 0.8 Kretova - 0.6* Gracheva - 0.2* Esina - 0.2 (guest artist) Siegfried Skvortsov - 6 Chudin - 4.2* Hallberg - 2.6* Volchkov - 2.6 Ovcharenko - 1.6 Gudanov - 1.4 Rodkin - 1 (recent debutant) Uvarov - 0.6* Lantratov - 0.2 (recent debutant) Shklyarov - 0.2 (guest artist) Rothbart Lantratov - 6.2 Baranov - 4.2 Belyakov - 3.4* Tsiskaridze - 2.8* Dmitrichenko - 2.4* Rodkin - 1.2 (recent debutant) Belogolovtsev - 0.2*

Despite the well-documented problems Helene mentioned, I'll grant the Bolshoi a couple of things. It hardly ever hires guest artists to perform its core repertoire. And role debuts take place there regularly. During 2014 the company's debutants included 1 Sylph, 1 James, 2 Giselles, 1 Albrecht, 2 Myrthas, 2 Kitris, 1 Basilio, 1 Aurora, 1 Lilac Fairy, 2 Siegfrieds, 3 Nutcracker Princes and 1 Marie, 2 Jean de Briennes, 1 Abderakhman, 1 Tatiana, 1 Onegin, 1 Olga and 1 Lensky, 1 Marco Spada and new interpreters of most of the lead roles in Ratmansky's Bright Stream, Flames of Paris and Lost Illusions. So yes, I do think it works on developing talent from within its own ranks, even if some feel there is a great deal of favoritism in deciding who will get the opportunities. Unfortunately, the Mariinsky's archives aren't so easy to scour.

The scenario Kent describes is very rare. The big companies follow a couple of different models. The POB and Royal Ballet will do longer runs of 15-20 performances, but the ballets aren't performed every season. For example, the POB has 14 performances of Swan Lake coming up. It will have been four years since they last performed it. Cozette, Albisson, Pagliero and Ould-Braham are scheduled to do three performances each, Dupont is slated for two. (This means that five female étoiles aren't scheduled for any performances of the ballet.) If you were to do the math, I suspect you'd find that ABT principals average more Swan Queens per year. Sometimes a POB or RB ballerina will end up doing 4 or 5 performances of a role during a run, but that would be as a result of an injury to someone else, which happens at ABT as well. As Helene pointed out, except when on tour, Bolshoi and Mariinsky dancers usually won't get more than one performance of a role during a mini-run, though they may return to it a couple of times in the course of a season, and chances are the ballets will be performed every season. Between the beginning of 2010 and the end of 2014 the Bolshoi gave 73 performances of Giselle in two different productions, including 17 performances on tour. Over that five-year period, this is how many performances the lead dancers averaged per year. (Asterisks indicate that a dancer was not a member of the company for the entire duration.) Giselle: Antonicheva - 2.2 Zakharova - 1.8 Nikulina - 1.4 Lunkina - 1.2* Krysanova - 1.2 Ryzhkina 1.2 Osipova - 1* Kaptsova - 1 Kretova - 0.8* Shipulina - 0.8 (recent debutant) Obraztsova - 0.6* Goryacheva - 0.6 Stashkevich - 0.4 (recent debutant) Stepanenko - 0.2* Vinogradova 0.2 (recent debutant) Albrecht: Gudanov - 2.8 Skvortsov - 2.6 Ovcharenko - 1.4 Hallberg - 1.4* Volchkov - 1.2 Tsiskaridze - 1.2* Merkuriev - 0.8 Uvarov - 0.8* Lobukhin - 0.8 (recent debutant) Lantratov - 0.6 Vasiliev - 0.4* Chudin - 0.2* Lopatin - 0.2 (recent debutant) Polunin - 0.2 (guest artist) So they usually don't have the benefit of multiple performances either, though most return to the roles regularly, and I'm sure, as with all dancers, that interpretations are constantly percolating below the surface.

Last season the Royal Ballet gave something like 150 performances, the POB did about 170, the Bolshoi about 225, and the Mariinsky gave more than 300. By my count, ABT did 111 (63 at the Met), fewer than San Francisco Ballet's 128 and NYCB's 180 or so. (I happened to be keeping track of this last season, out of curiosity.)

Ideally, those solo parts should serve as a training ground for lead roles. I remember Mathieu Ganio saying that the most difficult thing about being promoted to étoile at such a young age was that he missed this intermediate stage altogether--the Bluebirds, peasant pas de deux and Swan Lake pas de trois. The first time he danced a ballet he was in the corps, and the next time around he was already Prince Charming, without having had an opportunity to find his sea legs first. I don't think it's the repertoire that's to blame--for generations many companies danced nothing but full-length story ballets--as much as ABT's season being so heavily focused on the eight solid weeks it spends at the Met. At other companies the work load is spread out over the course of a year. It's one thing for a gifted young dancer to do her first Kitri in October, her first Sugarplum Fairy in December and her first Juliet in April. But asking her to dance her first Giselle in week one, her first Aurora two weeks later and her first Nikiya a week after that would be nightmarishly stressful, even if she had spent the preceding six months doing nothing but rehearsing those ballets. I just don't think it would be feasible. You end up with a closed circle: major role debuts at the Met are too daunting; there are very few opportunities for ABT to perform those ballets elsewhere; so the company relies on people, including outsiders, with past experience, often gained somewhere else.

More data to mine: http://arts.gov/news/2015/surprising-findings-three-new-nea-reports-arts Apparently, 63% of arts attendees are there to experience "high-quality art" (only 63%?), while 73% go to socialize with their near and dear ones. 22% of non-attendees are put off by the prospect of going solo. What do you think? Are arts organizations blind to the social aspects of arts participation?

A film of the English National Ballet's production of Le Corsaire is now available through the Digital Theatre platform. Anna-Marie Holmes' production, familiar to American audiences through Boston Ballet and ABT, stars Alina Cojocaru as Medora and Vadim Muntagirov as Conrad. The performance was filmed at the London Coliseum, and I must acknowledge that English National Ballet dances Le Corsaire more persuasively than the Royal Ballet does Don Quixote. As for the quality of the film, it isn't quite up to Royal Ballet standards. The sound of the orchestra is tinny, and the lighting in the first act in particular is very bright, so anyone in a spotlight looks overexposed. Of course I would much rather have a DVD of the Bolshoi production, but this performance is vastly preferable to Kader Belarbi's completely re-choreographed version, which is actually available on DVD. (Funny how that works.) The performance can be "rented" for 48 hours for $6 or purchased as a digital download in standard definition for $13 or high definition for $16. Incidentally, after I registered on the Digital Theatre site, I didn't rush out immediately to watch anything, and within a few days I received an offer of a 25% discount on my first purchase. So if you do decide to register, hold off with any purchases until Digital Theatre offers to sweeten the pot. http://www.digitaltheatre.com/production/details/english-national-ballet-le-corsaire