SanderO

I think it's odd when some donor drops a lot of cash on an arts institution with some sort of agenda or conditions attached. Especially in these economic times when ticket sales are off and perhaps some of the company are laid off why not simply give the money to the company and let them use it as they see fit. The donor will get some "thing" as an acknowledgment but even that is a bit too much ego for my sensibility. I am reminded how Nancy Elison and her husband reputed gave huge donations to both the Met Opera and the ABT and what a coincidence that Ms Elison has done two coffee table books, one for the Met Opera and the other for ABT. This has nothing to do with the quiality of her work, because it's good. But there are many talented photographers who can't do these books... because they are not rich enough to be a sponsor and a photographer. And then there's the Koch family which dropped a dime on the NYCB and got the theater named for them and they probably get to participate in the design decisions too. And from a very right wing family. That deal soured me on NYCB and I won't step in the place. But I don't think Mr Martins could care less where the money came from. Color me cynical

Congratulations Ms Part! Well deserved for Veronika and a smart move by ABT. This will certainly cause a lot of excitement and make not only her fans happy, but all those who have yet to experience this talented dancer in leading roles.

Brave and dedicated you are! I am going to wait this out because I see lots of troubled waters ahead. Aside from the economic downturn, the disruptive construction, the arts/performance companies which "make" the complex seem to be rudderless lately. None of this compels me to set my foot inside the complex. I think I'll wait for the storm to pass.

The entire Empire State Building was built in 18 months. Where there is a will there is a way.

I passed by Lincoln Center yesterday and it looks like they have lots of work to do to complete their face lift. I found attending performances at the Met were made unpleasant by the construction process so much so that I decided to wait for it to be completed before going back. Does any one know what the completion date is?

I think of competition when I think sports. I think art when I think ballet. But then there is all that ballroom stuff which is more sport than dance from my POV. Ballet is not a sport for me.

I always assumed that Degas romanticized the dancers and put them in their performance outfits rather than daily practice or rehearsal dancewear. After all looking behind the scenes is not the point of many a genre despite it being of interest to some. Having seen some of the Met Opera live broadcasts where they go back stage as interesting as it was , it shattered the illusion of the performance for me. Innocence lost, whatever. So it has been a strange journey for me who became drawn to ballet like a moth to a candle with the knowledge that the behind the scenes world might very well shatter the illusions I delight at from my seat. I struggled with a kind of anxiety about seeing a rehearsal at the Met of ABT, but found that the ones open to the public were hardly a look behind the scenes. For those IN dance they might find this incomprehensible, but much of the arts is about the illusion these geniuses create, not about how they manage to do it.

I received oodles of calls from the ABT reps who were very polite and to whom I explain what I wanted to see and why their subscription thingy doesn't work. They offered better seats and so forth but they concept that some people simply want to select precisely which casts to see and not just see the ballet doesn't seem to sink in. You would think that there would be some sort of quid pro quote when you buy a subscription as in discounted seats or 4 for the price of 3 type of thing. There is no inducement or value in a subscription to the purchaser. None. My conclusion is that these work for the blue haired ladies who need to feel a bit of culture on a regular basis and to have something to tell their friends over lunch.

I had a subscription for a while and after having all the cast changes for whatever reason, I told the ABT that it wasn't working for me because I has seen all the ballets and was now more interested in see specific dancers perform which I how I tried to select the subscription. The exchange thing didn't solve the problem so I told them that there was no benefit to me to be a subscriber and I would simply purchase tix for the castings/performances I wanted to see and if they were sold out, so be it and good for them and they didn't need my butt to fill an empty seat. I sent ABT a small donation and told them I would no longer be a subscriber and so the story ends.

People will disagree on whether a bod mod is beautiful or not, but the fact remains that the are modifications of/to the body, its skin of a rather permanent nature. Ballet as a genre seems to include the platonic notion of a perfect human form in formalized motion. In that sense it is rule based and somewhat "rigid". I don't see how body modifications fit into this sensibility. And I believe most ADs and dancers agree and cover them with make up. They are meant to express something, but that expression is largely or almost exclusively directed to non ballet expressions. This topic became current when I and several others observed tattoos on classical ballet dancers who obviously were not concealing them and obviously felt that concealment was not in order. Seems as if most disagree with that decision. I observed a tattoo on the hip of Vishneva at her Beauty performance which was outside the auspices of the ABT. The performance was modern and so a tattoo was less jarring, but it was distracting. Although I didn't care for much of the performance the tattoo grabbed too much of my attention and shattered my illusion of "the classical ballerina". It got me also thinking about Anna Netrebko, a modern diva goes clubbing and partying like other women of her age and how we DO put these artists on some sort of pedestal where we expect them to conform to "classical expectations". In a sense we in the audience don't "know" our dancers except as we see them in performance and read, perhaps, the occasional press release about their lives. But most ballet dancers seem to lead private lives sheltered from their public. I am not advocating more light, because they deserve their privacy. They give us so much with their artistry. I suppose it's when the private (bod mods) appears in their artist public life that it may be disturbing or to some thrilling. And when we hold an opinion of something like bod mods it can color how we view these artists in the future. I don't know why, but seeing Ms Vishneva's tattoo makes me see her in a different light on stage. The odd thing about any personal styling choice is that we are all very different to begin with so what's the big deal? I suppose this applies within a narrow range. I see tatts as a fad and can envision when they are out of style. What then?

If you are in town and want to go the met and the $$ are short, try to come 2hrs early and get rush tix in the orchestra for $20 each. Can't beat that! They'll be on the sides but still you'll love it. I saw/heard I Puritani from rush seats and it was the best $20 I ever spent!

OT, re the NYCB / Koch family relationship: "....the Koch family, the multibilllionaire owners of the largest private corporation in America, and funders of scores of rightwing thinktanks and advocacy groups, from the Cato Institute and Reason Magazine to FreedomWorks. The scion of the Koch family, Fred Koch, was a co-founder of the notorious extremist-rightwing John Birch Society.”

I am not an educator nor a parent, but I can tell you what I have heard about the disappearance of art and music programs in the public schools. When I attended them in the last century we had robust music and art programs which are fouind only at the best schools I suppose. You can't nurture creativity in the arts without exposure to them and we are not doing this for children. What we are getting is more and more hollow "pop" culture today. Look at the difference between here and Venezuela.

Interesting question. I'd set up scholarships for gifted students at arts and music schools.

Somewhat OT but one day I had a meeting in the late morning across from Lincoln Center. When the meeting finished I walked through the plaza which was filled with the audience during the first intermission from Madama Butterfly reheasal (Anthony Menghela production). I decided to see if I might make a beautiful day in catch the last two acts so I approached the ticket fella and asked if I could sit in for the rest of the performance. He reached in his pocket and handed me a ticket! In I went. The was dead center first row parterre. YIKES. Then followed the most delightful afternoon in the most perfect seat in the house. Stuff happens, I got lucky that morning. It was unforgettable.

The Met presents different "challenges" for the opera and the ballet. ABT performs on that huge stage and you can get some excellent perspectives from different areas of the house. As I attend opera there I noticed that the sound is not "optimized" unless you get the full effect of it bouncing off the ceiling. I noticed the sound somewhat attenuated under the balconies even for ballet and I at times wanted to "turn up the volume", but the dance was the main attraction so I let it pass. For the opera it's another story and to my lousy ears I need all the range and volume so I like to sit close (not usually possible) or in the front sections of the upper levels because the sound is really much brighter and louder. It feels as if it's baffled under the balconies. Perhaps I am crazy, but this would be my suggestion for listening at the Met as opposed to just seeing at the Met. I was fortunate to get some very close orchestra seats for an opera rehearsal and the intimacy of the singing was incredible. It was a bit close to take in the whole thing without turning your head from side to side and might not be good for the grand scenes with the full corps or company but for the arias and solo type work it is a great experience. But most of the productions DO utilize that massive stage and so to take it all in it's best to sit back a bit, of course that would be in the most expensive seats which mortals can't afford. We can dream can't we?

Can't go wrong with Verdi and the Met usually does this well, I heard they have a new production. The music's great. That's my rec. Oh and by the way, the sound is very different when sitting under a balcony. Try to get seats with nothing on top of you.

I personally don't care for tatts and bod mods, but I believe that if someone wants to do this it should be their choice, it's their body. However, I believe that dancers in ballet are expected to conform to some rather rigid standards and one of them is personal self expression. I think this should be confined to movement as opposed to style. And yes dancers in story ballet become characters and use styling and costume and make up to create these illusions. A tattoo could conceivably fit into a character, but most of them it would be a distraction. I suppose since most of them are covered by make up the prevailing view is that they are not appropriate in ballet at this moment in time.

YIKES, they surely don't read BT and if they do they don't value what's written here. Having seen it after the hype my sense was that they needed to go back to the drawing board. YUCK to the sets and costumes. But the marketing hype worked. Mr. Martins, is this really where you are going to take the company. Mr. B are you watching from up there in heaven?

I have bad vibes from the Martins and the management especially after the gala and the big wet kiss they sent to Mr. Moneybags Koch. They named the theatre after him and I'd bed he spends more money on his yacht crew's salaries than the whole corps put together. That worked out great Mr Martins and NYCB management. Didn't it?

These answers surprise me as I had always thought that professional dancers are movement "geniuses" and would be able to adapt to all sort of rhythms and movement forms, timing whatever. I was referring to all the other forms of dance when I started the thread, social dancing, jazz, tap, you name it. I can understand that any genre takes some dedication and training and some more than others for sure, but trying to imagine my favorite ballet geniuses as looking as if they have two left feet doing a merengue is hard to wrap my mind around. YIKES

Obviously some are more skilled in dance than others and the best probably become professionals and hone their skills level to divine heights which we all can enjoy in performances. I was wondering if those skilled with an obvious aptitude for dance and movement can dance in any style without much difficulty? Can ballet dancers pick up salsa, or meringue, or other popular styles in a flash? I would think so. Once you are a pro at movement it all becomes easy, perhaps not to excel, but it's a aptitude for dance. No?

Interesting, but to my eye and my monitor a bit jarring. Can we expect some other theme and variations?

I sometimes think that "Broadway" of the last century was the marriage and dumbing down of opera and ballet and where dance and music (singing) was part of a show. Both singing and dance occupy an "interesting" niche in daily life and are recreational pursuits for most of us (non professional performers). I don't know anyone who sings to their lover etc., but perhaps some dancing with one can be seen at times (still in a recreational context). Both singing and dance have come to represent a meta level of communication, with singing more literal of course. But it is interesting to note how we can identify musical compositions, keys, melodies, orchestrations etc. with moods and sentiments... same with gesture in dance. These abstractions provide marvelous tools for the story teller who can draw upon and interweave these meta languages to convey anything from simple story lines to abstract ideas. We are now, as the audience of such artistic creations able to immerse ourselves in these creations of fantasy of sound, movement, storyline and come away moved, motivated, inspired and the wiser for the experience. How fortunate we are to have these wonderful creations by such talented and dedicated artists and performers who speak these meta languages to our souls.

I was thinking about: What does one actually need to know to appreciate ballet? There is no doubt in my mind that the more one knows about a topic, the deeper one's appreciation, the more subtlety and nuance one is open to, the richer the experience. Whether we speak of Skiing, or sailing, or guitars or ballet we can enjoy these "things" with very little specific "technical" knowledge because of the big broad overarching qualities that reach almost anyone who has 5 senses. Ballet Talk has been a learning lab for me, as I have no background in dance and came to it because of my initial curiosity and a general attraction to the arts and artists. The discussions here have informed me, drawn me into see things about ballet that I never would have, have given a more enjoyment and insight of what is going on. I am far, far, far away from an expert, as I have no practical experience as many on BT do (thanks so much to each and every one of them), but what are the steps or levels of knowledge of the art that "we", the general public, need to have, before we begin to really get what this wonderful art form is? Can this even be identified? How do John Q and Jane Q get this bump up in awareness? I would like to hear the opinions of both those who have been involved professionally with ballet, and those who have never been in a studio or involved in a production.