piccolo

When I went to ballet school in Japan, the resident company's choreographer did Dracula & the Red Shoes as one story. Pretty cool - and she won a national award for it, too.

Thought you guys might have some fun with that tossed in the mix...

And how about Orlando's amazing extension or Trevor Hoffman's (sigh) demi-plie with developpe...

I love watching the pitchers. Some of them just throw but others are very balletic.

Every city has its own foibles. Here in San Diego, we have a thriving opera scene and three, very small, professional ballet companies. It's like Los Angeles -- there's plenty of interest in opera but they can't seem to sustain one, decent-sized ballet company. Of course, Los Angeles Opera has excited the region by bringing in Domingo (yes, one of the Three Tenors ;) ) as its artistic director and was going to present the Ring series with special effects done by none other than George Lucas. You can bet people were talking about that.

Ballet doesn't have anything going for it right now. No big name dancers OR choreographers, good companies don't have the money to tour and spread the word (this is how Anna Pavlova sparked so much interest in her day), ballet doesn't make its way onto TV or the silver screen much, etc.

In the last year, all of the arts have suffered. Every day another symphony goes bankrupt. Many, many opera companies had a deficit last year (San Francisco Opera -- one of the biggies -- had over $7 million shortfall this last season). Tickets sales are having problems everywhere because after 9/11 people wanted to stay close to home and therefore, instead of buying subscriptions, they are only buying single tickets. (The Lyric of Chicago is a special case.)

Ballet needs a tipping point. I just don't know what or when that would be...

Argh! I work for an opera company and that makes me cringe. Right along the lines of, "Trust me, honey, creamed spinach is really good!"

I believe the first ballet I ever saw was the national Japanese company doing Swan Lake. Yoko Mori****a was Odette/Odile. The first ballet/dance performance I remember really well, though, was Alvin Ailey. I had seen ballet before but I hadn't seen anything like Ailey. It was my first viewing of "Revelations" and Judith Jamison. Wow.

The first dance performances I've taken my husband to were to see Hubbard Street from Chicago and Alvin Ailey (who of course did Revelations but also Lar Lubovitch's "Bolero.") Both of those companies came through Madison, Wisconsin which is where we were living at the time.

I love ballet...what can I say?

Oh, there is so much to reply to here, I don't even know where to start.

When is someone emotionally ready to see ballet? I grew up in Japan and my parents did what all the other Japanese parents did, which was to take their children to art & culture events. Any time we went to the ballet, theatre, symphony, etc. my brother and I were far from the only kids in the house. We were brought up on it early and we both feel very comfortable with it. Now that we're adults, I like the ballet & theatre and he enjoys musicals & orchestras -- we gravitated towards our favorites. But we were exposed to the arts and this is what is missing today.

I think taking someone and introducing ballet (or opera, etc.) to them is one of the best things we can all do to support the arts. People must be exposed to the art, understand the art and have a positive experience with it. Then, when money and time allow, they will go back to it.

I work for an opera company and while our Education programs reach out to school-aged children, we don't have a particularly young audience. (Which is true for most opera companies in the country.) Now, opera tickets are expensive. We wanted to know -- is there a need among 20 and 30-somethings for opera tickets? Is it something that if you are exposed to as a child, you will go to once you start a job and have money or do you not bother until "you turn off the rock music one day" and start attending in your 50s. Well, let me tell you how our experiment is working: We have started 2 programs that bring the price of an opera ticket to $20 or less and each time we've offered the deal, we are flooded with orders from the 20 and 30-somethings. There is a need!

I realize that ballet is different from opera but before saying more. I'm taking a break and will check in again tomorrow.

Yes, let's have more accompanists in ballet class! It makes a huge difference to the dancers.

My involvement with ballet: I take classes, I teach classes, I watch videos, I see performances when I can (I hoping to see San Francisco Ballet's Othello this weekend), I do the BalletAlert thing, I audit master classes and transcribe the classroom exercises, I volunteer at the local ballet company whenever they need help and I usually sign up to help backstage during the Nutcracker. I'm sure there are even more ways to be involved but this is all my schedule allows for now!

I just posted the link to the article about Diablo Ballet being saved in the News Discussion Board.

Read all about it:

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/4104979.htm

I can't find the thread where we were talking about this but look what I just saw at www.artsjournal.com:

BAD MOVES: New York Magazine

miscalculated when it fired dance critic Tobi

Tobias. But the magazine has been cutting

back on space for its other critics, and some

might worry other cutbacks are in the works.

"Eliminating a major voice from an important

venue—either for budgetary reasons or to

bring in someone trendier—is not merely a

dance-world scandal, it’s a dark comment on

the priorities of today’s journalism." New York

Observer [low down in the column] 08/21/02

(If you go to the above website, there is a link to the full article.)

I can't find the thread where we were talking about this but look what I just saw at www.artsjournal.com:

BAD MOVES: New York Magazine

miscalculated when it fired dance critic Tobi

Tobias. But the magazine has been cutting

back on space for its other critics, and some

might worry other cutbacks are in the works.

"Eliminating a major voice from an important

venue—either for budgetary reasons or to

bring in someone trendier—is not merely a

dance-world scandal, it’s a dark comment on

the priorities of today’s journalism." New York

Observer [low down in the column] 08/21/02

(If you go to the above website, there is a link to the full article.)

I can't find the thread where we were talking about this but look what I just saw at www.artsjournal.com:

BAD MOVES: New York Magazine

miscalculated when it fired dance critic Tobi

Tobias. But the magazine has been cutting

back on space for its other critics, and some

might worry other cutbacks are in the works.

"Eliminating a major voice from an important

venue—either for budgetary reasons or to

bring in someone trendier—is not merely a

dance-world scandal, it’s a dark comment on

the priorities of today’s journalism." New York

Observer [low down in the column] 08/21/02

(If you go to the above website, there is a link to the full article.)

Just for the record, I saw Diablo Ballet when they toured through San Diego. What a wonderful troupe! Interesting & varied choreography, beautifully trained dancers, a great evening. I wish more people had come to this regional performance. Good luck to them!

I just hope Paul Simon doesn't feel like he was the second choice to be asked to the Prom... I like Sir Paul McCartney but 1) why was he nominated and 2) why doesn't he care?

Let's see. I seem to be on a Hemingway kick right now -- rereading "A Farewell to Arms" and I'm rereading Tolkien's "The Two Towers."

Earlier this summer I was on a biography kick: Vernon Jordan, Maria Tallchief and Judith Jamison.

Ahh. The links finally worked. Now I'll take my time reading them and get back to you.

Thanks, Alexandra.

Alexandra,

I clinked on your links but it takes me to the Ballet Alert home page. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks.

I totally agree with Nazezhda -- the very start of the balcony scene is the best. No dancing, just standing.

I also love it when a dancer (esp. male) just absolutely nails a difficult step. Example - Angel Corella's solo during the Don Quixote pas de duex with Paloma Herrara (on the ABT tape), he is so "on" and he knows it and he gets more and more confident during his solo and pulls out an amazing number of turns and jumps. And at the very end, instead of simply landing on the last note, he adds a quick back-and-forth of his head that looks very much like a ta-da! to me...

I work in the opera world and there has always been serious disagreements as to whether or not operas should be updated. The era, costumes, country and setting all change and only the music remains. Some people want the opera to be done just as it had been originally. Others like seeing an older opera in a new light with a new twist. In America, it seems that "updating" an opera attracts newer, younger audiences.

I don't mind updates in opera as long as the concept is thought through carefully by the director.

I haven't really thought about this matter much as it relates to ballet. I've been curious to see Sylvie Guillem's update of Giselle but who knows if I'll like it or not. I'm certainly not opposed to the process. How many different versions of Swan Lake are there? Which one is the "traditional" one? Are minor changes in choreography allowed? It's kind of a sticky issue.

You've probably already tried this but have you done a search on google.com or at the Paris Opera Ballet website?

Ok, this is really depressing me. NEW YORK is decreasing its dance coverage? Oh what has this world come to? Our dance coverage here in San Diego is so pitiful and I have been holding out hope that it will improve but if New York doesn't see the need for dance coverage, who will?

Ok, this is really depressing me. NEW YORK is decreasing its dance coverage? Oh what has this world come to? Our dance coverage here in San Diego is so pitiful and I have been holding out hope that it will improve but if New York doesn't see the need for dance coverage, who will?

If ballet is on TV, I'll watch it. But if I had to pick the subject of 4 shows, I'd be interested in seeing:

1) Sylvie Guillem's Giselle.

2) Any ballet with Darcey Bussell.

3) Manon.

4) Coppelia

I have been looking for a site just like this one for years and I'm delighted that there finally is one!! Thank you for sharing!