printscess

Cristian,

Would you be so kind as to translate. Did I read this correctly that he was only 56 when he died? Were you familiar with his dancing? If so what was he like?

Gee, I like ballet. That's why I don't go to NYCB. (Oh, I'm going to hear it now . . .)

I mentioned to my friend's girlfriend (remember, I'm relatively new to ballet) that I don't care for Balanchine, and she (a former dancer), said, "No, you don't care for NYCB. You haven't seen Balanchine."

Actually, the Nutcracker Woman raises a good point, although she didn't intend to. I mean, I know someone who told me she likes opera. What opera has she seen? "Rent".

she might have a point. Last season an article in the NY Times said that if you wanted to see pure Balanchine, go see Miami City Ballet. I am paraphrasing slightly.

Thank you, Printcess, for that marvellous story and for the way you handled it. Bravo!

You are quite welcomed!

I am so envious -- this is such a well conceived and well put together program. It is like the kind of thing that Joe and Dan Duell used to present for NYCB. It shows that they respect the audience's intellect and taste.

Congratulations to all involved. Maybe it will be videotaped and put online??????

The Balanchine Trust is very strict about videotaping any Balanchine ballets. I doubt that it will be taped and put online. If it is taped, it will probably be for archieve purposes and teaching purposes

I asked her if she was afraid her son would turn gay as well. She asked me why should she be afraid, and I said, "well, you know, he wants to be a soccor player". I don't think she got it.

Good for you! Well done! And no, I'll bet she didn't "get it". (I think the most distrubing thing she said was her use of the word "turn" as if being gay were a disease or something.)

Overall, I once again say "So what". There is huge prejudice in the world about everything imaginable. Small minds like printscess's son's friend's mother will insist on saying and acting in small ways. Better to teach one's kids to not be prejudice and small themselves, as well as help them realize that small views like this only hurt the one expressing them. Kids and adults both can laugh at these things (since these things are laughable).

Ballet hasn't cornered the market on smallness. Small people say prejudiced, ignorant things about: race. religion, patriotism, educational-level, class, accent, men's height, and apparently even ballroom dancing.......you name it. Best to rise above this nonsense and see the absurdity in the human condition (and teach one's kids to see it too), as opposed to getting insulted or hurt by smallness.

Sandy,

It gave me such pleasure to say that to her LOL

Darn, just 3,000 miles will keep me away from what seems to be an wonderful evening. I love lecture/performances.

I think NYCB has the right amount

Just enough to make you feel like you're in a winter wonderland and it doesn't obscure the dancers. That scene is my favorite in the ballet. It is so magical!!!

The invitation is still out for any stories about anti-ballet cultural prejudice you've encountered.

It's nice to hear, so far, that the problem doesn't seem to be very real. But I wonder?

My son has been dancing since he was 9 yrs old, he is 18 now and in a company.

Things were fine in elementary school. By the time he got to a public performing arts middle school things had changed. He was called every name you could think of and had been falsely accused of every gay sexual practice that middle schoolers could think of...and you'd be shocked as to how much middle schoolers can think of. His life had been threatened. I know this seems unbelieveable, coming from NYC, but it is true. All this because he was a ballet dancer. He transfered to a public performing arts middle school/high school where most students are already professional actors, singers and dancers. His life changed..no more threats. There is a lot of prejudice out there at every age when it comes to male ballet dancers.

One day, I ran into a mother of one of my son's friends. She had just seen my son in the Nutcracker with NYCB (9 yrs ago). She told me how great he was and how proud i must be. She then asked me if I was afraid that he would "turn" gay. I cannot believe that I was able to keep a straight face, but asked her why should I even be concerned? She said, "well, you know, he wants to be a ballet dancer". I asked her if she was afraid her son would turn gay as well. She asked me why should she be afraid, and I said, "well, you know, he wants to be a soccor player". I don't think she got it.

I would like to say that attending a ballet school such as SAB is a wonderful thing for a young boy. There is certainly power in numbers. It is amazing when you see 100 boys in one school of all ages, sexual orientation, supporting each other and cheering each other on. There has never been a time when my son didn't know other male ballet dancers, who were just like him...boys wanting to become ballet dancers. And through out his studies at SAB, he has learned to embrace others and their differences, regardless of their orientation.

This is off topic, but I still fell a sense of loss and sadness that Peter Boal is no longer at NYCB and no longer teaching at SAB

Marcelo Gomes spent a year at the POB school. Does that count?

I enjoyed reading about last nights performance. It would have been fabulous to have been there. Thanks for your observations, because reading them made me fee like I was there. Last year, the NY Times stated that if you want to see a true Balanchine company, MCB was the company to see.

Stunning photos. thank you for sharing them with us.

Hands down is Edward Villella and Patty McBride. Growing up in the 60's and going to NYCB on a regular basis with my parents I would sit dreamy-eyed in the audience and dream of being Patty McBride dancing with Edward Villella.

I love the parring of Julie Kent and Angel Corella in the classics. One pairing that I see on a regular basis is Nilas Martin and Darcy Kistler. That doesn't work for me, knowing that she is his step-mother.

Cristian - Cheer up, it's not that bad! Petipa core is still there & still beautiful.

I'm sooo relieved to read that...Thank you so much, Susan, for the encouragment!...

They also have some really wonderful dancers in all the roles - right down to the last fairy.

Looking forward to see Murphy/Corella and Kent/Carreno..!.Do you think it'll happen...?

Anything with Kent/Corella (i.e Swan Lake or Le Coursaire) run to the box office, do not walk and get your tix.

Cristian,

sorry about the misspelling of your name in last post.

I've recently started taking an adult ballet class, which is sooooo hard

Hi. Barbara!!...wow, that's great that you went back to take classes. That's one thing i've always dreamed about, but has never happened...Sometimes i bike my way to the MCB studios and watch the adult class from the glass window.

Anyway, Welcome!

Hi Christian (aka CMB)

Biking to the studio and watching the adult classes is a step closer than I am to taking adult classes. You are almost on the other side of the glass window.!!! BTW: I enjoy your posts and your beloved Alicia Alonso is a friend of my aunt's.

Bart,

I couldn't agree with you more. There is little to no direct mail ad campaign to season ticket holders that NYCB performs in Saratoga, I do not ever remember seeing ads in newspapers. I can only surmise that the management thinks of Saratoga as a short season for the residents of New York State, Adarondeck region. I have been a season ticket holder for most of my adult life (well, I stopped once I was able to get free tickets available to SAB students and parents :-) and never knew that they performed upstate (about 3-4 hrs north of the city) until my son was at SAB and was asked to come up one summer to perform in Sleeping Beauty. I had absolutely no idea that NYCB performed during the summer.

Also, unless the Nutcracker is being performed, or something like R+J, there are many many evenings of empty seats at the NYS Theatre.

I was attempting to answer your question/comment about shorter dancers.

Wow! The good neighbor policy, NYCB to the rescue!

... a new work by choreographer Benjamin Millipied, which will be set to a commissioned score by composer Nico Muhly. The unnamed work will be the first for ABT by Mr. Millipied, a principal dancer with New York City Ballet, who has previously choreographed pieces for NYCB and ABT's Studio Company.

The season will also feature... George Balanchine's "Ballo della Regina," which will be staged by former NYCB principal dancer Merrill Ashley...

Perhaps ABT could loan the occasional tall male dancer to NYCB in return? WHY NOT?

I have seen an evening of Balachine ,a few years ago, that ABT did at the Met. If you saw that program, you wouldn't want an ABT dancer loaned to NYCB. Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake and even R+J that NYCB does, doesn't have the same romance and beauty that ABT's versions have. One evening (I believe it was 2 years ago) Julio Bocca did a guest appearance with NYCB. Peter Martins choreographed a tango piece. I was embarrassed for the NYCB male principals who were on stage with him. They were out-classed and out-danced. Nope, the 2 companies in my opinion don't mix well together, but I am sure they can learn a lot from each other.

SanderO,

That is a great question. I am not an expert, but have seen enough to know that shorter men usually jump higher than taller men and stay in the air longer. Most notably are Herman Corjeno, Angel Corella (ABT), Daniel Ulbrich and Joaquin De Luz (NYCB) (that is to name a few). They can do more rotations when the do any combination of turns.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that ballet is designed specific body type, rather than parts in ballets require certain abilities and those abilities come not only with varying degrees of talet but different body types.

So IMHO, although companies tend to graviate toward taller dancers, not everyone can dance Puck in Midsummer Night's Dreamr \,lead the corp in Stars and Stripes or dance The Bluebird Variations. And short men do make wonderful partners as well. It is just a different asthetic.

The wonderful cover storyarticle in the August issue of Dance Magazine, about dancers who have "made it" in spite of not having a ideal body type. It was a positive article and I am sure gives hope for the "too short, too tall, too whatever or not enough" men and women dancers who are extraordinarily talent.

Avenue Q! is coming to San Francisco in Aug 2007 and Los Angeles in Sep 2007. Why does California always lag so far behind Broadway? It's not as if it's the place where musicals come to die. Anyway, I am jazzed and looking forward to watching it. Wish me luck that I will get one of the best, if not the best, seats in the house.

I have seen Avenue Q many times on Broadway. So run, don't walk to get tickets.

I can't believe no one has mentioned Gus van Sant's remake of "Psycho."

I think musicals might lend themselves better to remakes because many of the Broadway adaptations were made in a time when dubbed voices and drastically censored musical numbers were the norm. See: Carousel.

My most favorite musical is West Side Story. I was probably a baby when the original play was on Broadway, but grew up listening to the "orginal cast sound track" that my parents had and played it ad nauseum ( in my heart I was Chita Rivera, dancing up a storm). I remember like it was yesterday seeing the movie with my parents when I was 10. When the revival of the play opened up on Broadway in the 1970's I went to see it, only to be disappointed. I hope that is a movie that is not remade. The great thing about the movie is that the outdoor scenes were shot in the Hells Kitchen neighborhood part of NYC which is now Lincoln Center.

There was the awful TV re-make of the Goodbye Girl with Jeff Daniels and Paricia Heaton. There is a new movie coming out with Ben Stiller (always funny) doing a re-make of The Heartbreak Kid. I wonder how that will fare? The Invasion with Nicole Kidman..a re-make of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I saw it as a child unbeknownst to my mother, who told me I couldn't see it and the of course I refused to go to sleep for weeks. My younger son asked me to take him to see it and my childhood memories came flooding back and I nixed that idea.

Well, it was hard for them to quit their friends and they were some tears at the airport when they left, but I'm more than happy they have found the strength to go. SFB is an amazing compagny and I'm sure they will learn more than their fellows with temporary positions at POB. They weren't the best of their classes and were aware of that, but they're still excellent dancers. SFB 's experience should provide them with some very strongs weapons allowing them to do well in the future.

At least one of them would like to come back in France next year but I really hope they can settle in the USA or somewhere else because of ballet's condition in France. it's really great SFB gave them a chance and I'm grateful to them for that. Not every POB's graduate has such a chance!

Well, I for one wish them merde. They must be very talented because it is a very competitive program to get into.