volcanohunter

The Odesa Fine Arts Museum was damaged over the weekend on the eve of its 124th anniversary. There is now a crater in the street directly in front of the museum, while the museum suffered broken windows and cracked walls. The museum's main collection was moved to a secure location last year, but it continues to display rotating exhibits of contemporary art.

photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CzSMkYLoA1N/

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/11/07/odesa-museum-of-fine-arts-rocked-by-russian-missile-strike-on-124th-anniversary

I hadn't seen coverage of the 2022 audience participation survey by the National Endowment for the Arts. I had even wondered whether the survey had been delayed post-pandemic. But the topic came up in conversation, so I took a look at the NEA website, and sure enough, the basic results were released a few weeks ago. Not surprisingly, the results of the first post-COVID survey are brutal.

The survey seeks to find out how much of the adult U.S. population attends different kinds of performing arts events at least once a year. The survey also covers visits to visual arts museums, movie-going and reading, primarily of literature.

The percentage of American adults who attended:
- outdoor performing arts festivals of any kind fell from 24.2% (2017) to 18.7% (2022)
- musicals: down from 16.5% to 10.2%
- plays: down from 9.4% to 4.5%
- jazz concerts: down from 8.6% to 6.3%
- classical music concerts: down from 8.6% to 4.6%
- dance other than ballet: down from 6.3% to 3.3%
- Latin music concerts: down from 5.9% to 3.9%
- ballet: down from 3.1% to 2.0%
- opera: down from 2.2% to 0.7%

For that matter, movie-going was down from 58.6% to 43.1%.

Reading was also down across the board, and so were visits to museums and craft fairs.

All of these downturns were deemed "statistically significant." 

[Added]: The survey covered the period from August 2021 through July 2022, when all performing arts organizations had resumed performances, albeit initially with masking and vaccination requirements.

https://www.arts.gov/impact/research/publications/arts-participation-patterns-2022-highlights-survey-public-participation-arts

The charts don't indicate how often the average ballet- or jazz-goer attended these events. For now we can go by the results from 2017:

musicals - 2.1 shows annually
plays - 2.3 shows
jazz - 3.0 concerts
classical music - 2.4 concerts
"other" dance - 2.1 shows
Latin music - 2.3 concerts
ballet - 1.5 shows
opera - 1.5 shows

9 hours ago, fondoffouettes said:

He's 44. I get the impression from his social media and the company's website that he's fully transitioned to administration and is no longer dancing with the company. I'm glad to learn he's landed a permanent post after serving as artistic advisor to the company. 

Tamara Rojo left her job at English National Ballet ahead of schedule to take over San Francisco Ballet. Then Aaron Watkin left the Semperoper Ballett to take over at English National Ballet. Gomes is helping to keep things running until a new director is appointed in Dresden.

Royal New Zealand Ballet is already doing morning class. I'll try to link the streams above as they come. ⬆️

4 hours ago, stuben said:

Seems the company didn’t give much time for the dancers to get ready for this tour!? So last show was Sunday and they’re already onto China?

I'm sure they didn't wait until Sunday night to pack their bags.  They're pros, and while tours can be exhausting, ten shows over eleven days is not backbreaking. Foreign tours are generally considered a perk of the job: you get to see the world, and someone else pays for it.

So they've been flying eastward on Korean Airlines rather than across the Pacific to Incheon International?  

I once flew to Japan via Dubai, but I began the journey in Europe.

China Airlines is a Taiwanese company. SkyTeam also includes China Eastern and XiamenAir. The European front includes Virgin Atlantic, Air France, KLM and ITA Airways, which emerged from the wreckage of Alitalia. Aeroflot was kicked off SkyTeam.

Added: American Airlines is part of OneWorld, whose Chinese member is Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong. Presumably Japan Airlines also flies to China.

1 hour ago, California said:

Trivia of the day: Judging from several Instagram Stories, ABT dancers are now on an 18-hour flight to China. From their postings: corps members fly economy (Roxander) and principals business/first (Cornejo)

At many companies business class is part and parcel of principal contracts. But often only if the trip is longer than a certain distance.

A reminder that the Bavarian State Ballet stream of Wheeldon's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is available today only.

I don't yet see it on the main site, but the National Ballet of Ukraine is opening up the event to in-person visitors (much like what the Staatsballett Berlin does), as well as streaming online. Class on stage, rehearsals of The Forest Song, Spring and Fall and Five Tangos, plus online appearances from Alexei Ratmansky, Nina Ananiashvili, Vladimir Malakhov, Alexandre Riabko and Alexander Zhembrovskyy. Starting at 14:00 EET/8:00 am Eastern, absence of air-raid sirens permitting.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cy3tnvVAKJA/

The World Ballet Day site has broadcasts listed in chronological order and apparently adjusts to your time zone, both of which are super useful.

This is the schedule so far according to Eastern time.

31 October

6:00 - 7:30 pm: Royal New Zealand Ballet
7:30 - 10:30 pm: Australian Ballet
10:30 - 11:30 pm: Queensland Ballet
10:30 - 11:00 pm: Sydney Dance Company (Instagram)
10:40 pm - 12:00 am: National Ballet of Japan
11:00 pm - 1:00 am: West Australian Ballet

1 November

12:00 - 1:45 am: K-Ballet Tokyo
12:30 - 2:00 am: National Ballet of China
1:00 - 3:00 am: Singapore Ballet (Facebook)
4:00 - 4:45 am: Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan
4:00 - 4:30 am: Ballet de Barcelona (Vimeo)
5:00 - 6:30 am: Semperoper Ballett Dresden
5:00 - 6:30 am: Sibiu Ballet Theatre
5:00 - 6:00 am: Estonian National Ballet
5:00 - 6:00 am: Korean National Ballet
5:00 - 5:45 am: Bangkok City Ballet
5:30 - 6:00 am: Norwegian National Ballet (Vimeo)
5:55 - 7:00 am: Paris Opera Ballet
6:00 - 7:00 am: Cape Town City Ballet
6:00 - 6:40 am: Sofia National Ballet
6:00 - 6:30 am: Polish National Ballet
6:00 - 6:15 am: ISTD (Instagram)
6:30 - 6:45 am: Finnish National Ballet
6:30 - 6:45 am: Royal Swedish Ballet
7:00 am - 12:00 pm: Royal Ballet
7:00 - 9:30 am: Bavarian State Ballet (class); part 2 (rehearsal)
7:00 - 8:00 am: La Scala Ballet
7:00 - 7:30 am: Staatsballett Hannover (website)
7:15 - 8:00 am: RAD
8:00 - 10:00 am: Joburg Ballet
8:00 - 10:00 am: Ballet Indonesia
8:00 - 10:00 am: National Ballet of Ukraine
8:00 - 9:30 am: Stuttgart Ballet
8:00 - 9:00 am: English National Ballet
8:00 - 9:00 am: Hong Kong Ballet
8:30 - 11:00 am: Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo
9:00 am - 1:30 pm: Orlando Ballet (Facebook)
9:00 - 10:30 am: BalletX (Facebook)
9:30 - 11:30 am: [School of] Philadelphia Ballet
9:30 - 11:00 am: Washington Ballet (Instagram)
9:30 - 10:00 am: Northern Ballet (Royal Ballet stream)
9:45 am - 2:45 pm: Texas Ballet Theater
10:00 am - 5:00 pm: Ballet Arkansas
10:00 - 11:30 am: Miami City Ballet (Instagram)
10:00 - 10:45 am: Vienna State Ballet
10:00 - 10:15 am: Alonzo King Lines Ballet
10:00 - 11:15 am: Ballet West
10:30 am - 12:30 pm: Boston Ballet
10:30 am - 12:30 pm: National Ballet of Portugal
11:00 am - 12:00 pm: Dutch National Ballet
11:00 am - 12:00 pm: Istanbul State Ballet (Instagram)
11:00 - 11:15 am: Royal Danish Ballet
11:30 am - 12:30 pm: New Adventures
12:00 - 1:15 pm: Staatsballett Berlin
1:00 - 2:30 pm: Smuin Contemporary Ballet
1:00 - 1:15 pm: National Ballet of Canada
1:45 - 2:00 pm: Ballet BC
2:00 - 3:45 pm: Hungarian National Ballet
2:00 - 3:00 pm: Ballet Nacional de Cuba
2:00 - 3:00 pm: Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico
2:30 - 5:30 pm: San Francisco Ballet
3:00 - 5:15 pm: American Ballet Theatre (class); part 2 (rehearsal); part 3 (studio co.)
3:00 - 3:30 pm: Pacific Northwest Ballet
3:30 - 6:30 pm: Acosta Danza (Facebook)
4:00 - 5:30 pm: Birmingham Royal Ballet; part 2
5:00 - 5:30 pm: Houston Ballet
5:30 - 7:00 pm: Kansas City Ballet
6:00 - 8:00 pm: São Paulo Dance Company
6:00 - 6:30 pm: Ailey II
7:00 - 7:45 pm: Les Grands Ballets Canadiens

San Francisco Ballet contributed a couple of hours last year, though to be honest I never got around to watching them because I started with the eastern-most companies and didn't make it to the Westcoast before the videos came down.

New York City Ballet conducted its second tour in the autumn of 1972.

Perhaps what Gelsey Kirkland didn't appreciate when she was told to "just dance," and the same goes for Darci Kistler when she was told to "be herself," was that their dance personalities were incredibly strong. They were extremely compelling by nature, and the same advice wouldn't work for less inherently captivating dancers.

Just a reminder that there is only one week left to watch Val Caniparoli's Jekyll and Hyde performed by the Finnish National Ballet.

4 hours ago, BalanchineFan said:

I HATE the Bizet tutus. While they look beautiful, they don't function well for the choreography.  When the ballerina does penché arabesque the tutu turns itself inside out. It happened to Maria Kowroski every time.  I think it was Gia Kourlas who described the look as "Hello sailor!" Is that  the unseemly aspect you describe?

Yes. The music is exalted in the best French way, the ballerina as empress stands center stage, and then this happens:

Extensions are part and parcel of ballet, but not infrequently I find myself wondering why the principal woman is providing a 360°-view of her underpants, especially in those ballets, where beautiful manners and the glorification of the ballerina lie at the core of their aesthetic.

1 hour ago, MRR said:

Unity Phelan lacks some of the majesty and grandeur for second movement, and her extension in a la seconde and nose-to-knee penchee could be higher. 

I didn't see these performances, but one of the qualities I like most in Phelan is that she doesn't muck with placement. It's so rare nowadays. I'd rather she not start tilting her pelvis in an attempt to hoist her leg higher. It's unseemly in a white tutu and tiara, even in a Marc Happel tutu.

Isabella Boylston definitely has no need of them. I am sorry Sarah Lamb feels compelled to use them. She wears them even with bare legs and footless tights, when the enhancers are impossible to hide.

I think her feet look perfectly fine without them.

Diana Vishneva has no arches whatsoever, but she never thought it necessary to disguise this fact, nor did she let it stop her.

1 hour ago, choriamb said:

I never had an opportunity to see Murphy in the role, but I'll bet she was equally good or better.

I never saw Semionova in the ballet, but I remember a very fine performance with Murphy and Maxim Beloserkovsky at City Center 23 years ago. In particular he did really beautiful things with his croisés and épaulement in his first solo. That's what has stayed with me most vividly. But I also remember her allegro being very clear.

The ballet looked cramped on that stage. By 2000 dancers were a lot taller than they had been in 1947.

Suzanne Farrell on her childhood "armchair":

Yes, Bell is 6'3", a good two-three inches taller than the others.

41 minutes ago, ABT Fan said:

So, was he considered a poor fit for Etudes and The Dream after being initially cast? I would find that hard to believe. What gives ABT?

Bell is very tall, and Ashton's Oberon was conceived for a small, slight and very speedy dancer. I'm guessing the original soloists in Etudes were also not particularly tall. I can't say whether Bell is a poor fit for those roles, but he isn't an obvious fit.

The company posted a little clip of Indiana Woodward in Who Cares? She had a bit of trouble with her fouettés, and I don't know whether it was the skirt, Vanessa Williams singing too slowly or perhaps the cumulative effect of too many danged distractions.

https://fb.watch/nxCY604Sz5/?mibextid=NOb6eG 

Meanwhile, the company and the press are busy trying to sell those dresses as "elegant" and "sophisticated." 

https://www.surfacemag.com/articles/carolina-herrera-new-york-city-ballet-fall-fashion-gala-2023/

3 hours ago, yukionna4869 said:

This is how the new costume looks in motion:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CyEkqlbOYXE/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Oh yuck. That's not nice. Those jeweled and sequined panels really weigh down the skirt. 

3 hours ago, fondoffouettes said:

A recent Instagram post from NYCB lists the history of the costumes as Karinska (1970), Ben Denson (1983), and Santo Loquasto (2013). So, I'm presuming it's the Denson design.

I remember those designs having bigger stones around the neckline, at least initially, but by the time of the big Balanchine gala of 1993, Viviana Durante wore that design exactly.

1 hour ago, Helene said:

I'd need to see them move and in context before finalizing my opinion.  They strike me as an attempt to indicate Fred and Ginger, but a lot of the choreography does not.

My thoughts, too. I immediately wondered whether the length of skirt interferes with the choreography of "My One and Only" in particular.

P.S. On the other hand it appears the women were bare-legged, which would be decidedly un-Fred and Ginger and more "Barbie crashes the prom", as per Kourlas.