SanderO

I suppose in team sports when someone seeks to really do a me me me thing we call it grand standing... almost as if they are simply trying to excel for themselves and not for the team. In many team sports there are different roles and some may seem to be more important than others... the quarterback or the pitcher for example. In ballet, it is the principals who get to display virtuosity... it's often the nature of the choreography of the piece... there is one Giselle and a dozen or more wilis. When you see a principal in a role, you want to see them excel, even stand out, but that doesn't diminish their integration into the entire work. A perfect performance is like a woven tapestry... some threads or parts stand out but together they make a whole. I think we like to see some principals and some dazzling virtuosity. But some choreography is all team and no stars. We recently saw In The Upper Room which seems to be such a piece. It was a very interesting piece and the music seemed well matched for this type of choreography. Yet, the company seemed to be subordinated to the choreographer and her choreography in this case... she seemed to be the star! A ballet company without strong principals seems like a conundrum.

Globe, If one means by teamness the working together of separate parts to create a whole, then I would say that ballet without the virtuosity of a principal can appear very team like.. and with some participants shining out it teamness is diminshed. For sure many artists/performers have big egos (sportsmen too) and they use the cast (team) as a backdrop or platform for their own expression... whether intentionally or not. The team concept for me is more how many dancers can weave themselves into a seamless tapestry... even with principals shinng brighter. But you may be right... maybe I am missing the thrust of your post.

It would appear that the analogy is flawed. All football games... all sports have very rigid structures, the field, the rules, the team size, how the game is played. Ballet, although it involves many "players" and can be called atheletic, the similarities end there. Not all ballets have the same casting.. most feature a pair of dancers with "supporting" roles from soloists and the corps... or maybe not. There can be, and often is virtuosity.. which may look similar to an athelete super star... But ballet is meant to be something very different from sport. It can be a story... or a mood... a work of art... There is no battle to find a winner! All the components make the ballet work... must work! And that includes the choreograoher, the set designer, the costumes... the lighting and of course the music... of did I forget the dancers? What an amazing, complex and nuanced interaction... compared to a football game? Are you serious?

My impression is that this marketing approach is trying to reach out to non ballet goers and trying to link the plot theme of the ballet with things that occur in our every day lives. The average John and Jane Doe armed with some insight in the plot and how it could relate to things in their own lives might be induced to see how these themes are translated into ballet... and they offer a discount too. I don't know that it will be successful in bringing more in to view the performance, but it clearly is targeted at non balletomanes and in the end this approach may create a few new ballet lovers. Isn't it the story line of the Nutcracker which children can relate to? For ballet outreach into the greater community, I think the approach is fine. It may not appeal to everyone, but it will to some. No?

Several years ago we attended the Met Opera on a Monday evening. Directly behind us was an elderly fella who was obviously plagued with a cough and cold and sneezed and coughed right behind us almost continuously. It was awful and so terribly distracting. My reaction was that it was rude of him to subject others to his interruptions and his germs! I complained to the house manager at the first intermission. They could obviously not eject someone for sneezing and coughing, but they provided us comp seats (much better) in the parterre I recall. Apparently Monday night is when the most "old timers" show up and so I now try to avoid Monday nights at the Met for that reason... sick elderly people who are hacking, coughing and sneezing! Personally I don't care how demonstrative the audience is after the curtain falls, but I find audience noise during the performance very distracting to the experience. The Met will not seat anyone after the lights dim for the performance so they do have a sense of respect for the audience and the performers. But how to control rude audience members who have no respect for others? I wish I knew... or someone else did.

A nice lady from the ABT called this evening requesting that I become some sort of sponsor and they have all sorts of membership levels with all sorts of perks and each contribution is matched by Andrew Mellon... a nice rich chap. One of the perks is tickets to attend a dress rehearsal at the MET and perhaps a buffet with the company...at their rehearsal space after a rehearsal or class ... I am not exactly sure what this perk is. The bigger the donation, the more rehearsals and other perks you get. I would probably prefer to spend my money on tickets to performances than on support if I had to choose. And I do have to choose. So my question to BT is... would seeing a rehearsal be beneficial to someone such as myself.. would it enrich my ballet experience in the future? Do I even want to see a performance in rehearsal and not the actual performance? What should I be looking for at a rehearsal? The lowest support level IS affordable. As odd as this may sound I have a strange desire to not actually know the dancers or choreographers etc on any close up personal level... just to sit in the theater and be transported by the ballet experience. Is this odd?

I just received an email from Ms Part who said she sustained an injury in class this morning and would not be able to appear in the rest of the season. She did not elaborate and the email was apparently sent to all who had emailed her in the past... as it was addressedwith the salutation: "Friends". Never a good thing when this happens. Hope she has a speedy recovery.

Obviously taking bows and curtain calls is both ad hoc and "rehearsed". I recall an article in the ABT playbill about the whole protocol around the bouquet of flowers presented to the lead ballerina. Who knew it was so formally "structured"? That little article did answer many questions in my mind about how those flowers got on stage at the end of a performance. I would imagine that bows and departing flourishes must be "rehearsed" and anticipated... perhaps depending on the audience enthusiasm? Does anyone know the inside scoop about how this is done? Who decides when to "interrupt" the performance for some bows etc. Even, who decides how many curtain calls are made and which cast members appear etc.?

I am not knowledgeable as a critic and have absolutely no formal training, but I do attend ballet and was at the ABT's Gala last evening. My impression of Ms Part was that she was well matched with Ms Wiles in the Symphonie Concertante, but seemed a bit "heavy" and unsteady... as if she was working too hard to look soft. The Balanchine choreography was lovely... My impression was that it would really take a super ballerina to really shine in that piece.. and neither Wiles or Part pulled that off. It seemed well tuned and safe. Does this make sense? Having said that.. Part certainly seems destined to become a principal in the future. She needs to make dancing look easy (which it is not of course). I was not impressed with Part's port de bras last evening... that would go to Julie Kent or Paloma Herrera, both who were outstanding in Melody and a Swan Lake Pas de Deux respectively. Herrera can dispense with the bones in her arms at will... perhaps her strong point? What a swan! Ms Kent, in my opinion, shown last night as the shining star of the ABT's female roster.... her performance with Marcello Gomez was one I will never forget. The audience seemed to agree. Julie Kent is a gift from the gods of ballet. Our seats were wonderful in the 3rd row Grand Tier. What a perch to view ballet. It was so intimate and superior to a similar seat at the Met. There were no sets the entire evening and only bare stage (which is smaller than at the Met). The staging, therefore was "sparse" and so the focus was on the dancing. The dancing was inspired... The entire company performed the very athletic Upper Room by Twyla Thorp with music by Philip Glass. The corps was amazing.. every last one of them, but I felt the piece was a too long. The music seems to be a continuous crescendo that never comes! Xiomara Reyes seems competent but not an elegant ballerina figure... She appears diminutive and her arms seem short. The overall feeling was wonderful. The ABT is a terrific company, but this evening did not give the men much to work with except perhaps in Sinatra which Cornejo danced. He was great with Sarah Lane... but this piece was far afield of ballet... in my opinion. Sorry for the awful review! We had a wonderful time...

The article was by Laura Jacobs called "Assoluta". You can find it on the Veronika Part web site: http://www.officialveronikapart.com/ I thought it was in the New Yorker, I may be mistaken.

I don't know if this was mentioned on the BT, but there was a long article in the New Yorker and much of it was about Veronika Part. I sent an email to Ms Part about the article and she emailed back inviting me to her performance on Wednesday. That came as a surprise! I'll be there, but I am not a dance critic. Are opening Galas different than a regular performance.. other than the program seems to be "mixed"?

I suspect that since much of ballet is movement and it is "fleeting" it may be very hard to capture it all in a drawing. Seems like most drawings capture more static "things" ... even poses as in life drawing, portraits and so forth. Of course some positions are "held" long enough for the artists to "capture" all the lines... but some of the dramatic movement seems to be very elusive. There are some excellent drawings and paintings of horses which contradict the above notion of capturing movement in still art. I prefer photography to capture the moment.

If you visit the South Bronx (SoBo) you can see that "dance" is everywhere in the hip hop culture and especially among young boys. It is the more formal dance and especially the esoteric ballet which is a performance art as opposed to a recreational type of dance... as ballroom or other popular social dancing.. where the "problem" lies. This is an "image" thing perhaps... one that appeals to young girls but not to young boys.

I don't feel qualified to propose solutions but this a provocative discussion. I notice that the Met, with it's new director Peter Gelb is trying new marketing approaches including showing Madame Butterfly on the Times Square JumboTron. And Anna Ntrebko, the Russian born soprano was featured on 60 Minutes and has produced some "contempory" videos which would have cross market appeal. She does not come off as some fat old lady singer (no insults intended here).. but as a hip chick who parties with 20 and 30 somethings AND is an opera diva. This is in opera and she is a woman... but it illustrates how opera is trying to make itself into something which has wider appeal. I would think that in addition to some big "marketing" approach as noted above... more outreach where these incredible male dancers could visit and perform some pas de duex with anyone of the lovely ballerinas in high schools etc... to inspire some of the young people. Seeing these incredible dancers up close and personal.. and even have a Q&A might get some people interested...espcially if there were also accessible dance programs for these young people. Why tease them if you can't deliver the programs? Perhaps the companies are doing just this... or have tried. I never saw anything like it when I was in school and it was in a rather upscale high end albeit public school where 90% went on to college. Is ballet too inaccessible to young boys?

This has raised an interesting point about ballet in the mind of the masses. With so few superstars being "promoted" as they are in sports... ballet may be viewed as a "team sport"... which in a sense it is... a company with principals etc. who perform a selection from their repertory each season. Very few superstars seem to emerge into the general publics consciousness... names to easily recall etc as in the case of Baryshnicov... and he with a popular film star too! Perhaps young boys may need to have "heroes" to identify with more so than young girls... just a guess... like their favorite baseball player etc. And since ballet is performed largely by companies which seem to not want to promote a superstar, but an ensemble.. a corp of talent.. they ("ballet") may be not choosing the market themselves in the way that would appeal to young boys... who might choose athletics over dance. I suspect the image of ballet and all dance in the mind of youg boys is not very "positive"... that was until street dancing became popular... break dancing and hip hop and so on. But these seem to mostly be about individualism, competition. I suppose the good thing is that young boys are open to developing "dance moves" now... but the bad thing is that they are not looking to classical and traditional dance to express themselves. Perhaps a few "cross over" popular public icons who "promote"... love.. attend and exalt ballet can open the minds of young boys to ballet? Does ballet have an image problem for young boys perhaps?

I would suspect that there would be more support, suggestion.. guidance of a young girl by her parents into ballet classes than there would be for a young boy. DancemomCA illustrates that it was her young son who got the "bug" and she rightfully then picked up on his interest and did the good parent thing and got him into classes. Do you think parents ever suggest dance to young lads.. or perhaps music and sports? My sense is that male dancers come from highly motivated young boys and not doting parents.

Shatz's images seem to use the human form and ballet as a graphic tool and not to convey what dance is about. Maybe I am missing something of his intent. The images are powerful but more about themselves then about dance. Jack Reed makes an intersting point about still photographs of dance movement... it really can't conver the idea of movement because it tenchincally requires time and a still photograph is but a tiny slice of time. But when successully done, you "sense" the movement.. the complete line and may receive the special bonus of being able to get a really close look at "perfection" which in a live performance sometimes seems to whirl by so fast that you can't appreciate it completely. I completely agree that posed photographs are about themselves and use a dancer as a graphic "tool"... they can be stunning photographs, but not about dance and movement. I find some of the images of actually dancing can be very powerful... and can bring me back to a moment in time and then the whole experince.

This may be OT but... Thanks for that link... Gene's work is wonderful and it is informative to be able to see a dancer who we may not be familiar with. Is there is thread about dance photography? I would be interested to learn how these dance photographers "work" and explore some other photgrapher's vision of ballet. Since dance is movement through time.. when one freezes a moment in a still photograph it can be amazingly powerful and "pregnant" conveying all the "joy" of movement.

DancemonCA, Wonderful post!... Can you tell us a bit about how your son became interested in ballet? It seems more understandable that little girls would be attracted to dance.. In fact, I see many with the moms at the ballet at Saturday matinees for example... but can't recall an "excited big eyed" young man with his mother or father. As unusual as this sounds... I assumed that male dancers came from a "dance environment" or a home where the "high arts" were cherished and children were exposed at an early age... and this would be true for girls... but less so. Of course your son's story is only one anecdote... so perhaps those who DO know about how male dancers got the "bug" to pursue a ballet career as a young child.. it would be interesting to know about that.

Hello from the northern suburbs of NYC. My wife and enjoy attending the ballet and have been going to the ABT and some NYC Ballet performances for about 5 yrs. Each year it gets better and we hope to learn from this discussion board.