printscess

Sylvie Rood from SAB is a beautiful dancer. Congratulations to her as well.

Thanks Dale! I heard that from Tonya too. Any advice about how early to get on line?

About an hour before the performance should be enough time. I have always gotten tickets this way.

Has anyone read the new Einstein bio? I am interested in reading it, but haven't gotten around to it..yet.

The last books I read are not worth mentioning because they were yummy murder mysteries that made a round trip cross country flight bareable...however, what makes me the happiest is Saturday mornings with the NY Times with the Sunday sections. I start off with the real estate section, to make sure my apartment is still worth something, then read Arts, Magazine, Book Review...until I am finished. I lay on the couch with my iced-coffee. My cat is on top of me and my kids are out of the house. This is heaven and this is what I love.

Without question, I would see the Moiseyev

I was not able to see OBT Exposed and was interested in how it went. Tom Gold of NYCB choreographed a piece for the apprentices. Did anybody see it? Pam Tanowitz a modern dancer also choreographed a piece. I am not familiar with her work at all. Any thoughts?

My mother forgot to tape it!!!! I reminded her (being without a TV in the dorms is an odd experience) about 50 times and sent an email, and she called me this morning and told me that she forgot. I was wondering if the DVD was worth buying or if the book were worth buying as well.

Would you watch it again if you had the chance? How was the archival footage of Rudi?

I am sure that PBS with air it again. They usually will repeat a program like that.

I would say Watermill. I just couldn't get it and I thought it would never end

I was at one performance when people where boo-ing and walking out. It is not a good ballet but I felt so horrible for Edward Villella. I don't think NYCB has performed it since the 70's.

Calcium Light Night by Peter Martins, one of the first pieces he choreographed

I can't stand this piece either, nor the music.

It makes me want to poke my eyes out with a stick and I agree with you on the music. It is like nails on a chalk board.

The NY Times and The New Yorker both gave scathing reviews of R+J. Alastair MacCauley of The NY Times reviewed it twice and the 2nd review was a little kinder. Regarding the Dance Mag review, which I did not read, I know that Callie Bachman was injured. She did perform the ppd at the SAB student workshop and did a beautiful job, as did her partner.

Usually dancers,and ballet fans do not usually find boring a ballet.But when It happens It means It is really really boring.In your own opinion,which ballet did You find boring when You saw it?

I really can't stand Romeo&Juliet as a whole.If It's an extract ok.The whole becomes very boring,especially MacMillan's version.And then everything that's contemporary.I love to dance it,but to be watched,I admit It is boring when It's not a highly genial choreography.

Now It's up to You.

Calcium Light Night by Peter Martins, one of the first pieces he choreographed

Printcess, After the Rain is a ballet many of us will not have had the opportunity to experience. What is it about this particular pdd that moves you so much? And this particular cast?

Hi Bart,

A lot of beautiful things come together during this ballet. The music, "Speigel im Speigel" by Arvo Part (umlaut over the a) is astonishing. It is very melancholy, beautiful and haunting. The lighting is soft and delicate. The costumes are almost skin color (the ppd couple) so you have a sense that you are seeing the dancer naked and raw and full of emotion. I have interpreted the ballet as couples coming together and breaking up, thus added to the sadness.

I have seen this ballet three times. Twice with Wendy and Jock. The final time was Jock's farewell performance, so perhaps I cried more. I couldn't breathe. The third time Wendy danced with Nikolaj Hubbe.

"After the Rain" can be considered a leotard ballet, without the hard angles. Wendy's body is very angular. When she danced with Jock, she softened.

There are a few other ballets that are ingrained in me with certain dancers: Peter Boal in Square Dance, Edward Villella in Tarantella, the original cost of Dancers at a Gathering, just to name a few. ABT's Swan Lake and Le Corsaire with Angel Corella comes to mind.

The ppd in Wheeldon's "After the Rain", particularly when it was danced with Wendy Whelan and Jock Soto. I cried everytime I saw it. Now that Jock has retired, I cannot envision anyone else doing it. I have seen it with others and it wasn't quite the same.

Based on responses in this and a couple of other threads -- "beautiful" and "long-legged" seems to go together today, at least as far as danseurs nobles go. Can one have relatively short-legs in the present aesthetic marketplace and still compete in the elevation, elongation, and nobility games? Is the ideal male ballet following the same path his female counterpart travelled several decades ago?

And, while we're at it, will no one say a kind word for those big-thighed, big-buttock, superpower lifters, turners, jumpers, and promenaders the Bolshoi used to turn out in such numbers?

I will say many kind words about those big-thighed, big-buttocked, superpower turners and jumpers. Give me Angel Corella, Joaquin De Luz, Daniel Ulbricht, Misha (in his day) and all the shorter men of ballet who can jump higher, remain in flight much longer than the long-legged dansuers nobles. I find these men so charismatic, that when they are on stage, I barely notice anyone else.

Avichai Scher (Avi) is listed as a dancer with LA Ballet and Joffrey. Does anyone know where he is dancing? He is a very talented choreographer.

Thanks for the choreography credit! I'm dancing with Ballet British Columbia in Vancouver now. So far so good, beautiful place to be. Do I know you?

Avi

Yes you do!!! Thanks for answering my email last month, did you get my response? I was just in Portland, got back last night.

At Jacob's Pillow last month, I saw an interview with Freddie Franklin, whom I've always found to be very articulate, if not quite as reflective about the profession as I would like.

Maria Tallchief is also surprisingly candid and down-to-earth in interviews. (In "real life" I'd use another, less kind word.)

Christopher Wheeldon also seems good at talking about his own choreographic process.

How old is Maria Tallchief?

Peter Boal of PNB and Christopher Stowell of Oregon Ballet Theatre come to mind. They both are very pro-active in getting the local community involved and interested in ballet by making ballet more accessible and understandable.

Is anyone planning on going to OBT Exposed? I'd love to hear about it.

Oh, if they will perform in NYC, what a joy that would be.

I am sorry to see Angela Snow has left ABT. She was a beautiful and graceful dancer.

EDWARD VILLELLA, A MAN WHO DANCES - a television documentary and portrait of villella - was once released but i don't know that it still is.

the film of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM was released on video in the UK but was then withdrawn.

villella appears on a telecast from the CBC of balanchine's DIVERTIMENTO BRILLANTE - from GLINKAIANA - (but i know of no plans to release this).

there was also a program called something like BALLET WITH EDWARD VILLELLA but i don't think it' s been released commercially.

There was a one-hour NUTCRACKER with villella and patricia mcbride and which was shown on tv (harald kreutzberg is the drosselmeyer figure) but this too is not necessarily available commercially - there is a nutcracker pas de deux w/ villella and verdy on a tape once released by kultur/white star, called A TRIP TO CHRISTMAS (the bell telephone hour) but i don't know if it's still available.

villella isn't eager, it would seem, to have films of him in the public domain, there is nothing of him in the PBS 2-part biography of balanchine, by his own choice.

I am not sure that he isn't eager to have films of him in the public domain, but rather that the Balanchine Trust does not usually make recordings available. They really don't allow the taping of the ballets for anything but properity and teaching the next generation of dancers. If I am wrong about this let me know but I think that is the case.

For a few years, they offered an all-Tchaikovsky, which included Theme, Aurora's Wedding and two pdd's chosen from Swan Lake, Nutcracker or Tchai pas. A bit rich, but I'm starting to miss it.

I liked that program too. Sarah Lane made a very favorable impression with Theme.

When I think about it I always come to the same problem. ABT has always been built on big ballets which rely on stars. Stars are imported as needed which reduces the opportunites for the "in house" talent. Murphy and Wiles fill a technical need and are both developing artistically, but without their technical prowess they would not be principals.

In terms of ticket sales -- I don't know how excitement is created but that is best left to PR departments. From what I've read both Sarah Lane and Misty Copeland make good stories.

I love NYCB for their style and I love ABT for their's. I went to the ABT Balanchine evening in 2004 and walked away feeling that ABT should do what they do best: full length ballets. When I go to a full lenght ballet at NYCB I walk away feeling that they should do what they do best: an evening of rep.

Did anyone see the summer intensive performance? I just read that Orlando's performance was rained out. How disappointing for the dancers

This list is from his own one page website, www.avisher.com:

Thank you very much.

I don't know about the Joffrey, but the list of dancers confirms what I'd heard some friends - who had run into Avi - say, that he is with that company. I think he was listed with a Sacramento Co. a year or so ago, so he's been in CA for a while. Wish we could see him here (in NYC!)

written later, after some sleep:

Forgive me -- when I said "THAT Company," I was referring to the LA Ballet and not the Joffrey. I started by saying: "I don't know about the Joffrey" because I hadn't seen their roster. I had checked the LAB roster and saw Avi's name. which confirmed what my friends had said, that he was with the LAB.

I remember him being a very kind young man when he was at SAB, and extraordinaryly talented. I have tried to follow his career as a dancer as well as a choreographer.