printscess

This is too close to my heart, as my son is a company artist with the company. I appreciate the support I have seen in this thread. The line up for the June 12th fund raiser is amazing. Who can resist "After the Rain". I weep every time I see it. Tarantella is always a crowd favorite. OBT performed it in its last rep with rave reviews.

The timing seems dumb, but contractual, and she'll be moved if the webmaster has his/her act together when her contract kicks in.

Bad timing is what happened to former Colorado Ballet dancer Crystal Hartford, from today's lead Links:

"They let me know February 17th -- I'll never forget that day," said Hartford, 24. (According to Artistic Director Gil Boggs, attendance and ticket sales were up this season, but a drop in contributions led him to lay off four dancers.) Her first thought: "My career's over, especially given the way the economy is right now." To make matters worse, the timing of the bad news meant that she had already missed out on many of the annual open auditions typically held by ballet troupes in January and February.

That seems par for the course. Most dancers find out the horrible news towards the end of the audition season when they have to scramble.

jealous

a small organization with no endowment

That "no endowment" does seem to be a problem.

I've heard so many good things about this company, its aspirations, its potential, its dancers, its commuity involvement, and the leadership of Christopher Stowell.

"No endowment," however, makes an organization very vulnerable to ups and downs. It also suggests the lack -- so far, at least -- of an established group of high-level donors.

Does anyone know about whether Portland has the kind of philanthropic base (and values) to support such a company over the long haul?

I hope it does.

No endowment could be a good thing if you look at the glass half empty/half full. Had they had an endowment and based their operating costs on that, they would have been in worse shape with the crash of the market. They have always operated at of ticket sales and contributions, so they are not suffering the lose of the endowment money. Although, when speaking with the development office, the major corporate money is in Seattle not Portland and it doesn't trickle downstream.

I just spent the last 5 days in Portland, seeing the company perform (and visiting colleges with my younger son) and each time I see them, I see the artistic growth by leaps and bounds. I certainly hope that the patrons will continue to support this fine young company. Has anyone seen this past weekend performances? I saw the Saturday and Sunday matinees. I am still digesting "Hush". It was a powerful ballet with a lot of nuances, so it needs to be seen more than once. Of course Tarantella was a crowd favorite and mine too.

There was a small and very beautiful obituary in the Sunday NY Times written by I am assuming Eva's husband Michael. If any of you still have the paper it is in the first section of the paper on page 20. It is hard to believe that the NY Times has not written a wonderful article about her. This is an unhappy state of affairs.

I graduated high school with Michael. He is a gifted pianist. He was absolutely in love and devoted to Eva. I ran into him on a bus last year and he spoke about her like they were 2 high school students in love. My heart goes out to him.

What is really upsetting is that there is a new generation of ballet dancers who will never get hired due to the economic downturn and companies are laying off and not hiring. Some of these dancers will not have any opportunity to perform.

I am planning my 2nd and 3rd trips to see WSS. Going from the East side to the West

Honestly, I have not stopped signing the songs since Friday night. I can't wait to see other reviews. I am sure on the 2nd and 3rd time, I will see a lot that I might have missed through all of those tears.

Most other companies do not even have vacation pay and there are no pensions. When the rep is over, you are off and you are intitled to go on unemployment. ABT dancers are well paid and are unionized. ABT will survive I am sure. I worry about the smaller companies. My heart just sank when I read about Nevada Ballet. Losing 10 or 32 dancers? Yikes.

Bart Cook. Exhibit A: exit as Melancholic in Dance in America "Four Temperaments" broadcast.

Peter Boal as well.

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The NYT article EricMontreal22 links to is well worth reading. Now that we have Spanish speakers and Anita gets raped, more or less, do we also have a sufficient amount of profanity to make it all really real?

Thanks for the detailed review, printscess. I hope others will report. If you see it a second time, tell us about that, too, please.

During "Officer Krupkee" (sp?) lewd male hand gestures were added. I am far from being a prude but I felt that those up and down hand gestures did not bring any value to the song. My 17 y.o. son even mentioned those gestures as we left the theater and commented that in fact they distracted from the scene. My 19 y.o. called him a prude and a baby (sibling rivalry never ends) but I happen to agree with my younger son.

Aside from that, there was just enough profanity to make you realize that these were 2 street gangs who hated each other. As my younger son says: gangs who just happen to pirouette.

I am trying to pick out the next date when I can go back to see it again.

Last night I went to see West Side Story now in previews at the Palace Theater in NYC.

In a word: WOW. If you live in NYC or are planning on visiting, get thee to the box office ASAP.

It is certainly not the WSS from the 50's, (I was too young to see it in the theater) 60's (movie version - I have that one memorized) or 80's (I went to that disappointing one on Broadway). This revision hits your right between the eyeballs. The opening sequence in the playground packs an emotional wallop, most in part because how the play opens. I will not give that delicious tid bit away. As I sat there I wondered how Jerome Robbins would have reacted to some of the changes, however slight were made. My sons and I had philosophical discussion on Robbins after the show. Since Arthur Laurents directed it, I am sure Robbins would have relented. I for one approved. I wonder if the Robbins Foundation had to approve the changes? I know for sure no one changes a hand movement from a Balanchine ballet.

Most of the changes were recognizable to me, as I have memorized the choreography, dialog and songs from the movie.

I was crying from the moment the curtain raised, during every dance number and until the curtain came down. Chills ran down my body during the opening number, the dance at the gym and during "cool".

I half expected the Riff and other members of the Sharks to sing slightly off key as they did in the movie, but this is Broadway and nothing was off key.

Mixing Spanish with the English worked. For anyone who has lived under a rock and is not familiar with the songs and dialog from WSS, I was certain that they would be able to follow the thread.

It was wonderful that I knew a Jet and a Shark and meeting them at the stage door was a treat.

Yes, thanks, Kathleen, for your post. I also was struck by the positive comments in this piece.

I thought that many parts were positive and felt that mostly through out the short time that he has been a reviewer he was always favorable to NYCB. However, regarding some of the negative remarks of the older dancers, he was saying things that many of us have thought for a long time.

HBL

I enjoy your posts!!!

Ballet Builders 2009 presents and evening of works by choreography competition winners

Saturday March 14 @ 8PM and Sunday March 15 @ 3PM

Dicapo Opera Theatre

184 East 76th Street between Lexington and Third Ave. located on the lower level of St Jean Baptiste Church

NY, NY

www.smartix.com or 212-668-4444

Choreographers are : Sidra Bell, Peter Davison, Jennifer Hart, Cindy Mancini, Anne Mueller and Gina Patterson

It's like my husband always says: he loves going to the opera, he just can't stand the singing. He loves going to the ballet, he just can't stand the dancing. (and I married him anyway).

But do these dancers really and truly ever get a chance to dance?

Thank you for that breakdown. I found it fascinating.

Is the comparison to Kistler valid? If so, Kistler's ability to sustain such a long career seems to have been both a miracle and a triuimph.

Did you mean is the camparsion to Kirkland valid? In a word: no.

As her ability to sustain a long career: I think being married to the Dance Master in Chief had a lot to do with it, as with Nilas. I think that with all due respect, Darci should have retired a few years ago.

Kyle Froman who retired recently from NYCB has the most unique eye. He is the one who wrote the book "In the Wings" but has grown by leaps (jetes) and bounds since that book came out.

Some dancers are under so much pressure to be reed thin. I think even more so today than ever before. If you view tapes of ballets from 20 years ago, which was not so long ago, the ballet dancers seem heavier and THEY were considered very thin.

Nilas, Darci...I see a pattern here. Talk about your dead wood.

I believe that principals are paid on a per performance basis, so the effect on the budget is somewhat different.

Wow. Is that so? I'm surprised. I thought principals at City Ballet earned an annual salary that was established by contract. The per performance approach makes sense for guest artists (for example, ABT's guest artist Osipova), but not for someone who is under contract as a principal dancer for a negotiated term of a year or more.

NYCB pays its dancers the highest amount of any company from the apprentices to the principals. The dancers are unionized and rightfully so are paid a very nice living wage. The principals are not paid per performance. (as far as the last time I knew).

Paul Frame (Peter's identical twin brother) is or at least was becoming a nurse/midwife. He was a soloist at NYCB while Peter (who is a trainer at SAB) was a Principal.

Paul Frame is a chiropractor in Arizona

Having seen the R&J in the house (with Hyltin, I believe) I think this is a ballet that ironically might work better on TV. In the theater the ugly set-piece decor, and the sparsely populated "crowd scenes" were a real distraction. It didn't look like my vision of Romeo and Juliet. But on TV these things would probably be less obvious.

Not if you have HD TV. Then the scenery and awful costumes will be upfront and personal.