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SanderO

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Everything posted by SanderO

  1. I probably won't go to see this production even those Tosca is a fav of mine. I do have a deep concern for these minimalist interpretations / productions. Some ADs screw of classic ballet with their new ideas and the same applies to Opera. The Zeferelli was very majestic and rich and with a good casting it was a very magical experience where you DO feel ported away sitting there in the Met. I am sure this production would leave me missing a lot of that sort of experience. I've seen some stagey things done at the Met such as when the did La Fille du Regiment and as a comedie it made me think more of Broadway, but it was delightful. Can't see that for this opera. The Met also did an interesting Madama Butterfly with Anthony Minghella which worked visually because it is a "small" opera that needs to fill a big stage. Minghella made it minimal, Japanese-likeand memorable for the use of the huge mirror providing a plan view and the puppets. I suspect this production will be dropped as it was not well received at all. Is this Mr. Gelb's Waterloo?
  2. That's cool Point1432. Perhaps you might describe the difference in partnering with another man aside from your husband. Do you think your marriage and closeness makes / made an observable difference, or perhaps he is just was just a better dancer. I am assuming he was / is your best partner in ballet / dance.
  3. The idea of ballet without music makes no sense to me, though obviously it is possible. Dancers seems to be like a visual musical instrument, but the require the rest of the "orchestra" to complete the music. To my it would be no different than playing a duet with one instrument, simply because it's possible. This might even sound interesting. We can watch ballet or dance with the sound off, and it still looks beautiful or wonderful simply because movement done so well IS beautiful and looks musical. Contained in dance is rhythm tempo some of the unheard (at times) structure under the music. I would consider ballet or dance without music mostly a gimmick or a curiosity and incomplete. Would I attend a staging of a ballet danced without the music? I would to experience it? How about without the music and without the costumes and sets? Interesting too. These are the kinds of things modernists have done to make us see dance and movement differently, much the way minimal artists asked us to look at art, shape, form, color differently. One of the most interesting things to be about ballet, is the notion that it is set/established and each production/cast/staging attempts not only to reproduce the work perfectly, but allows brilliant artists to carve out something individual - interpretation??? It's the same reason I can listen to classical music repertoire over and over again performed by different musicians, as there is always something new to hear.
  4. I find art in any mode human's greatest gift to ourselves. All the rigor, technique and principals of aesthetics that each culture adapts to the service of the arts all brilliant. Ballet as art is such a complex and subtle art. Perhaps we see the choreographer as the "prime" artist in the ballet. They leave us the work and the performance artists inhabit the piece yet struggle to find unique interpretations within such a narrow range of possibility. They can't improvise too much or the work is not recognizable. There is more than perfection of movement and technique. That "more" is where the artist works/emerges in ballet. Geniuses they are. I wonder if they can even articulate what they are doing? Or who they do it?
  5. I just returned from a screening of "The Ballerina" which is a documentary film focusing on 5 dancers at the Kirov. The film also shows how these dancers start at Vaganova at age 9 and study for 9 years and face an audition/test which will determine if they have a career in ballet. It is a fascinating look into the world of Russian ballet, where the ballerina has become the muse Russian culture. You get to see the teachers, instructors, the directors and one male dancer from Paris Opera ballet who offers some commentary of the Russian ballerina. I enjoyed the presentation, especially for the look behind the curtain to see a bit of how this all happens. One cannot but have a better understanding of how hard these dancers work, how obsessed they are with perfection and come away with even more appreciation of what it is that they do. What struck me as I was reflecting about "the Ballerina" was the notion I live with is that ballerinas are "artists", performance artists, whose language is movement but whose message is more than aesthetics - it involves human emotions, the human condition etc. The repertoire is very limited, the choreography is more or less set, the boundaries of the possible are somewhat well defined. The process of ballet, that is producing the dancer begins with children who perhaps have a child's view of what ballet is; what else could they have?. These children are shaped with 9 years of training their bodies. When selected at age 9 it is even hard to know exactly what they will look like at 19 when their training is over. And most, at best, have a shot at the "entry" level of a company - the corps. Yet somehow a few "artists" emerge. The trained ballet dancer seems to have reached the epitome of control of their body. They've nailed how ballet is meant to look. And then they face the task when they are advanced through coryphee to soloist to principal where they become the leads and portray the characters. The characters who act, who exhibit emotion, who pull at our heart strings. They inhabit their roles like brilliant actors do in theater. In my mind I have conflated the notion of a great artists with a deep understanding of the human condition, of someone who has perhaps suffered, and struggled not so much with technique, but of "issues" that humans face about the world we inhabit. While a child experiences emotions, I think they often don't have the maturity or the greater context of the "human condition" to process this into an artistic "output" of some sort. We see very few, for example, visual artists, scultors, painters who are very young. We do see prodigies in music. I've listened to some very young performers who seem to play their instruments with remarkable maturity and sophistication, depth in a way that goes beyond pure technical skill. This amazes and confounds my own sensibility. I hear it, I am moved, yet I cannot make sense of it. How can a child, so young have the depth, understanding and so forth which I associate with the production of art? When I see some ballet I see more than difficult perfectly executed "synchronized" dancing as one might see with say "cheer leaders". There's a message in the ballet that the "librettist" and choreographer are offering to us. Their instruments are the dancers, customers, set designers, ADs and so forth. I'm struck with how these messages of emotion and "content" are distilled into the most subtle manner how a dancer will move. Frankly I am completely mystified at how this happens. I can understand that ballet is a series of specific well defined movements strung together in flow, if you will. I still am perplexed at how these masters of movement find their message and inject it into their movement. Can this be taught? Do these schools even try? If so how is this learned or taught? Isn't it more than superb technique that makes a great dancer? And how do they find this "more", learn this "more" at such a young age when it appears that all their training is focused on technique and fitting precisely into a preconceived expectation? There is something magical going on which I don't understand but what is the brilliance of ballet and why we can return again and again to see the same limited repertoire. Whatever that magic is, that is how it "gets into" ballet is not revealed in "the Ballerina". I was struck by one scene in the movie when Evgenia Obratsova who was the youngest to perform Romeo and Juliet and had devoted fans (who closely followed her career) and who she met after a performance. She looked like a little girl, a child, sweet, fragile, delicate, innocent, yet these sophisticated fans saw her as an artist who with great skill had "interpreted" the role of Juliet. In performance she was a mature artist, off stage she was (appeared to me) as a more like a child. Perhaps I am projecting and not seeing what is there? Also the comments of maestro Gergiev refers to some of these your girls almost like clay with a special ability to be molded by Vaganova into artists - great artists. The teachers somehow see this and somehow will bring the artist out in some of these dancers. It's more than physical beauty. The film was very provocative and has my mind spinning around trying to understand these mysteries that becoming a great ballet dancer is.
  6. Mods, I am gratified that the thread is getting responses. Of course there must be hundreds if not thousands of titles about ballet. To make this useful I would suggest that the suggestions be limited to perhaps 3 books in whatever categories are established and could we get something like a poll or a numerical indication of how many others recommend the book. This would actually function to sort the list most popular first. Of course this doesn't mean the survey would include the best books or even if it did, show as them as most popular. The value to me of such a survey is that I could think of no other collection of ballet fans that I trust more than the members of this site to guide me to books on ballet. Can we have this for a back to school present?
  7. SanderO

    Julie Kent

    Julie Kent appears to be such a wonderful mother, dancer and human being. I like her!
  8. If this topic has been discussed please delete this thread. If not here goes. What are your favorite books about ballet? Which are your favorite autobiographies of dancers? Which biographies do you recommend? Are there any books that focus on choreographers, perhaps even comparing and contrasting them? What are the best books about the history of ballet? Are there books for "newbies" (as opposed to those for hard core addicts thirsting for detail)? Are there any collections of ballet reviews in print? If not would reading this be of interest? Would a bibliography "sticky" of ballet books be something that BalletTalk should include?
  9. What a bizarre thread. I think I watched the show but thankfully like so much of the junk of TV it has gone forever down the memory hole. Looking back it's kinda sad to see what a disaster TV became and what it is today and how it has informed so much of popular culture. It's not that early TV was not creative and entertaining, that was there, but what emerged as dominant was the worst of it and nonsense like Charlie's Angels may be the perfect example. I did see Farah Fawcett in some other productions where she turned in a good dramatic performance rising above the garbage of that Angel role. My recollections of the others is dim, but I vaguely remember find Smith the more sultry of them, as if that means anything. Perhaps a better poll would be about what early TV programs were memorable and represented TV at is best, such as Masterpiece Theater, or the David Susskind Show, Dinah Shore, Lassi and Rin Tin Tin, Carole Burnett, I remember Mana or even Ask Mr Wizard. hahahaha. I've developed such a negative reaction to TV I suspect it has obliterated most of my memories about the medium. How bout that?
  10. Come back to the ABT Sasha... and perhaps we can see more of Stella too???
  11. Our economy is not recovering. It's only happy talk. The traders are at it again and driving the market higher, but the stock market has nothing to do with the real economy. The arts funding model is all wrong.
  12. Does the success of DWTS draw non ballet people to take a closer look at ballet?
  13. The funding model for ballet companies is problematic to say the least. As a society we have decided to let the wealthy fund the arts and pass some of the "extra" wealth along to arts institutions with the inducement of receiving a tax deduction. Along with this, many companies have adopted a ticket pricing which closely aligns with their perceived well heeled clientele leaving only the nose bleed seating for working people and students. And then as noted in another thread the companies devout resources to wooing these rich donors, name their theaters after them and care not where the money came from, ie how the benefactor has made his wealth, which more often than not is the result of exploitive labor practices, monopoly practices and in industries which may be destroying the environment. I am not making any specific claims about any individual donor, but I would be very surprised if the companies even look into the origins of the gifts / endowments and so forth. My guess is that ethics and arts seem to not work together. When companies are hurting they need to look at the salaries they pay. Mr. Maartins pulls in close to $800,000 a year. When corps members are cut lose because there's no money to pay them, one has to wonder how Mr. Martins sleeps at night depositing over $60,000 each month as his paycheck. Of course not many people see this aspect of ballet or the arts. But this is what it has come to in the USA.
  14. I wasn't there, but I read an account of the wives of Goldman Sachs execs behavior at a charity event in the Hamptons. I found the behavior very distasteful, but I would bet the Goldman Sachs and perhaps these two families donate to the ballet in NYC. This, to me is very creepy. And it disturbs me that I can only see the ballet only because people such as Blankfein and Friedman make large donations and keep these companies floating and my ticket purchases hardly matter at all.
  15. I don't presume to know the cost of running a ballet company, local regional or world class. I can only guess at the expense side - salaries, rent, lighting and heating, sets and wardrobe, insurance, marketing, travel and so forth. On the revenue side there is ticket sales, of course, charitable foundation grants and "state funding for the arts", fund raising events, and private donations, and perhaps run a school. I don't know what percentage each funding stream plays or even if they operate on budget or run deficits. I don't know the economics of a ballet comapny. I would like to understand more about the money in ballet. I read recently that Peter Maartins pays himself more than $750,000. That seems awfully high, but what do I know? I am also concerned about the influence of any of private donors. Is there ever some sort of quid pro quo aside of getting their name in the program or a plaque on the wall, or a theatre named, as sponsoring some dancer or some "program". They do get tix to the galas and hob knob with the company, best seats and so on, and might even get to speak to the rain makers when they call. What might a company consider when a donor presents? Would they accept money from a Stanford, a Milkin or Maddoff or the Koch family, the extreme right wingers behind the swift boaters among other troubling (to me) activities? Do the companies hold their nose and play this game... smile and put on a good face? (this reminds me of the patrons of the arts in the middle ages - royalty) Should the arts be a tax shelter of sorts for large donors? Should pay scales be more in line with other "work" in other sectors and should they not mimic the disparities in the public sector where management makes 70 times what the "workers" make? What other funding models are there? Is ballet something which "belongs" to the public like the great art museums... or is it a private enterprise which is run like a business in the private sector? Would you boycott a company whose funding and financial practices disturbed you? Is something broken, or if it ain't broke don't fit it kinda thing. What are your thoughts about money and ballet?
  16. OT, We all may have our favorites and marvel at their skill, but have any "bad" dancers made it to principal and stayed there. I don't know, but I doubt it. It seems to be a matter of good, better, best and exceptional. I've seen dancers who I did like in a role, but I would call them bad dancers. In fact, I would say that the standard of excellence in the major companies is very high.
  17. Why do the ushers prevent people from taking photos in the MetOpera - not only during the performance, but any time and anywhere?
  18. The basic mechanics and physics, irregardless of aesthetics means that different sized bodies wiill have different limitations in movement. Smaller bodies can move more rapidly, but can't jump as far, for example. Notice how short gymnasts are. Since choreography is "set", especially for allegro work, the shorter body will have an easier go at it. Assuming that the proportion are scaled the taller person will NOT have proportionately scaled muscle strength. Look to nature to see this at work. Larger animals are slower and stronger but in proportion to their size they are weak and clumsy. It certainly makes sense that a choreographer creates a dance which is better suited to smaller dancers than taller ones and assuming that two companies have dancers of the same body types/proportions - tall company and short company, the dance will look very different. Since dancers may have been historically much shorter when a piece of choreography was created it makes sense that today's tall dancers would not be as well suited to these roles. The difference may be subtle, but it can be noticeable. Perhaps the choreographers even had specific dansers and companies in mind (their own?) when they created a work?
  19. David is a very thoughtful and introspective artist. He does some excellent photography as well. Thanks for the link to the interview. It was great to see how he gets "into" his character intellectually. How this is manifest in his dancing is not articulated and is the magic and the genius these artists possess.
  20. Rudi had celeb power so non ballet fans knew him all over. In the celeb department on Baryshnikov comes close i'd say in the USA. Malakhov is a gorgeous dancer. Didn't he do Manon with Vishneva at ABT a few years back?
  21. Hans, this makes perfect sense. But I suppose my questions were meant as statistical average and in the case of Ms Part... who is referred to as a tall dancer, and appears tall, but how tall is she? I would say that the entire height range for dancers is compressed compared to the general public. for female dancers: short 5' 3" average 5' 5" tall 5' 7" For male dancers: short 5' 6" average 5' 9" tall 5' 11" Partnering requires the correct height relationship for aesthetic and technical reasons of course and this might mean that most who make it to principal dancer fall in an even narrower range of heights. Just a guess, here.
  22. I ran into my neighbor when I returning walking my dogs. We got into the elevator and she asked me what I had seen at the ABT. It didn't occur to me that I was wearing my ABT cap, Why would anyone ask me such a question. Realizing that only ballet aware people would know what the initials stood for, I figured she attends ballet. Turns out she teaches ballet... and she has many friends at ABT. YIKES how cool. I knew there was something extra special about that neighbor and she does have the body of a dancer. So we talked about ballet and she's tall, perhaps 5' 9" and added she was too tall really for ballet. I asked her about Veronika Part who is known as a tall dancer and recently made principal at ABT. To me 5' 9" would be a tall dancer and I assumed that Ms Part was at least 5' 9" for no other reason than that I think that is how tall a tall ballerina is. She said no way could she be a principal, she's have no one to partner with... well almost no one. Bolle is quite tall too. So what is a short dancer - male and female? What is an average height dancer - male and female? And what is a tall dancer - male and female? I made her a bet (without knowing if I would win... a bad approach) that Veronkia Part was at least 5' 9" tall. How tall IS Veronika Part?
  23. A true visionary has left the stage. Thank you Merce. That was quite a performance.
  24. I came late to ballet... wasted most of my life in the wilderness. When my eyes were opened it was Julie Kent, but many others have dazzled my eyes since. I'm fickle or I like too many to choose now. If I'm not near the girl that I love, I love the girl I'm near... or something like that.
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