cubanmiamiboy

Fridays (after 5:00) at MoMa are free, too! That's the justification for the $20 admission at all other times. Special exhibitions are ex$tra.And shame on me for not going since it reopened.

Last time i went to NYC i was at MOMA on a friday, (i always do, as i know about the "free fridays"). It was last year in august, and they had that fabulous DADA exhibition. For the first time in my life i could see the famous Duchamp's urinary (aka "Fountain" ) in front of me...

Love Defoe for 'Moll Flanders' .

Yes! I loved Moll Flanders too!, God, was she outreagous!

definitely Homer, and the Iliad even more than the Odyssey, it's more muscular.

Those were mandatory when i was in high school, but back then i was just devouring all the XIX russian and french literature that i could get...it wasn't 'till college that i got into Homer...for good.

Agree with cubanmiamiboy about 'The Wild Palms' of Faulkner, I've read most of his novels, they are all magnificent.

I know! Every time i reread some pages of the Harry and Charlotte’s doomed love affair, i just get amazed at its long, hypnotic phrases and brilliant tone.

For those of you enamoured of Don Quixote, Martin Amis writes a most amusing essay on how hard it was for him to get through it. Made me not want to read it, and I did try once.

I would like to add that I was able to read this amazing tale in an excelent adition in its original language,spanish, which is also my first language, so i guess that that's a plus when trying to get into it...

Oh,well...here's a rough amd truncated very first choices list:

Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment

Flaubert: Madame Bovary

Tolstoy: Anna Karenina

Joyce: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Hemingway: Farewell to arms

Cervantes: Don Quijote

Proust: In search of a Lost Time

Faulkner: Wild Palms

Zola: Therese Raquin

Balzac: Lost Illusions

Stendhal: The Red and The Black

I love the idea of outreach to younger audiences. But there has to be pricing that allows for this to work.

Of course, bart. And if you take the fact that for the cheapest ticket here in Miami going at $18 ( with the student discount ), what you'll get is an anticipated dissapointing performance, (in terms of organization), with no parking lot for your car, (we have no public transportation in this city) , and then having to deal with chaotic traffic after the performance, then...

But back to Saratoga and the NYCB, any similarities...?

It's not happening in NYC.

...nor in Miami, as usual.

Mmm, interesting . I think i will be paying a visit to the "World Erotic Art Museum" here in Miami Beach. I've never been there, but i think it will be...different Thank you for this information!

Back to bart's question: how can SPAC, and other venues, boost attendance?

Well, how about trying to attract young people?...Last night, at one of the half empty Ballet Festival performances, i was talking to a lady who was sitting in a desk in from of an enormous pile of gloosy festival-related flyers that were going to be thrown out after the show. She ended up being part of the event staff. I told her that i hadn't seen any publicity of the Festival around my school,(Miami Dade College),which is a super big well known institution with half dozen huge campuses all spread out around Miami. I ended up taking the flyers with me and i'm planning on displaying them in in my school library next tuesday when i go to classes. So, how about just that? If they spent the money already on the flyers, why not going around Colleges, Universities, high schools and the like to try to target that type of public, students and teachers...? PR doesn't have to be always about connecting with the big media, but it should be more than giving discount tickets to geriatric/nursing home produced groups, (and thank God that at least we have those.!)

Are there any lessons to be learned by other ballet companies -- and summer festivals -- which may be faced with unpredictable and even declining audiences for some of their programs?

Thanks for bringing up this topic bart. I know it would be dangerous to give an impulsive answer to those questions, but God, is so frustrating to go to half empty theatres with absent courtain calls ballet performances! Believe me, at least here in Miami this situation get's at horrific levels. Currently , we're having our infamous International Miami Ballet Festival, and i really have no words to describe the disaster so far. The magic word for a huge part of the success of ballet companies and festivals, in my opinion, is one: PR.

I'm not talking about a youthful Studio Company, but a genuine but slimmed down "ABT." This would give "national" exposure to ABT's adventurous and eclectic repertory (something which only New Yorkers and, apparently, Berkleyites, have the chance to see this year.) It would give some of the company's stars a chance to dance more often and in a wider rep than is currently the case in the touring season. It might also be a way of developing in-house talent and creating home-grown stars.

Personally, i'm happy with having Beauty brought over our lost city. It will be, i'm sure for lots of miamians, the first time to see the whole production live, me included. Of course, i would love to be able to watch more of the "ABT's adventurous and eclectic repertory", but in a way, it always occur to me with ballet as with books...every time i try to go and adventure into contemporary less known works, i realize that there's still a "classic" out there that i still have to take a look at before.

The earlier Bolshoi video with Natalia Bessmertnova and Mikhail Lavrovsky is an interesting document. It dates from the early seventies and is much preferable to the later “Bolshoi at the Bolshoi” film, as it gives a better idea why Bessmertnova was one of the greatest Russian Giselles of the last decades. The old-fashioned filming style and the sets give it somewhat of a postcard-image at times, while the very short skirts of the girls in the 1st look rather funny, but the dancing leaves little or nothing to be desired. Especially the 2nd act is breathtaking. Also some great dancing by Lavrovsky (There is no peasant pas de deux).

I went back last night to re watch this production, and again, i understood why do i love it. Is the "old fashioned" feeling of it...the lovely lightness of Bessmertnova, who had a beautiful body and very graceful dancing. I also love the dramatic atmosphere of the betrayal/madness scene, and the well adjusted organic corps. The dancing gets at its very best also because of the wide open stage and minimal sets. Personally, i like Bessmertnova better in Act I, wearing that cute fluffy skirt , although IMO she does a beautiful II Act too.

. Absolutely. I would also like to note that he comes from that 70's 80's generation of cuban dancers (Esquivel, Salgado, Candia) that were highly influenced by the Bolshoi style . Oh, and i almost forgot t to add that he is uncle of ABT's principal Jose Manuel Carreno.

I was recently reading an old program from Ballet Nacional de Cuba from october 2000, when Mme. Alonso organized a program called "Gala tribute to George Balanchine" during the XVII Havana Ballet Festival. The program notes is based in an interview in which Mme. Alonso describes some of her experiences working with Mr. Balanchine. I thought it would be a good idea to translate some of these notes . Here they go:

Mme.Alonso on "Theme and Variations":

"In 'Theme and Variations" Balanchine kept testing me all the time, stablishing a kind of fight between my technical strenght and his choreography. So he would ask me, for instance:

G.B-'Do you think you could do entrechat-sixes here...?'

A.A-'I'll do them!'

...and then he would say...

G.B-'So, could you do now pas de chat en tournant..?'

A.A-'If you want to, i'll do it!'

...and so he would keep torturing me , adding new steps, new dificulties, to see if i would say 'No, i can't ', but i never gave up! That's why the version of 'Theme and Variations', as it was presented on the premiere, was technically and musically very, very complicated. When other ballerinas danced the role later on, some of them that were my friends-(among them Maria Tallchief, who was Balanchine's wife)-would tell me 'But Alicia, how did you let him put this ...?!, or that ...?!, now we are in trouble!', and I would answer: 'Well, it was Balanchine who put it there!...'Another thing that i can't forget is that with 'Theme and Variations' Balanchine made his debut as orchestra conductor, and aside for the importance of it, I will always rememer this because the tempo was madly fast. We all ended up breathless!"

Houston Ballet’s Head Master

Lazario Carreno’s Master Class

Dancin’ School would like to welcome Houston Ballet’s Head Master Lazario Carreno. A native of Cuba, Lazaro Carreño joined Houston Ballet's artistic staff in November 2003. Mr. Carreño began his professional ballet career in 1969 when he joined Ballet de Camagüey, and he began dancing principal roles with the Ballet Nacional de Cuba the following year. He has been a guest artist with a variety of renowned companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Ballet Nacional de Caracas. After winning numerous international awards in the 1970s and 1980s, Mr. Carreño was awarded the Cuban National Arts Medal, the highest artistic honor in Cuba. He began teaching at Ballet Nacional de Cuba in 1972 and was granted the title of ballet master in 1976. He is a respected guest teacher worldwide and has previously taught at Toronto's National Ballet School of Canada, Britain's Royal Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre. Mr. Carreño was appointed Principal Teacher and Coach at Houston Ballet's Ben Stevenson Academy.

Saturday, September 29

1:00 - 2:30pm: Intermediate Class

2:30 - 4:00pm: Advanced Class

Cookie Joe's Dancing School

1415 Hwy. 6 A100

Sugar Land, Texas 77478

(281) 265-1042

www.cookiejoedance.com

The MCB and TSFB forums felt quite cozy,

I know...

Can anyone tell me which Giselle video does the best job in showing the mad scene? By "best" here I mean in terms of filming/video quality--I want to show it to a non-dance class of students and I want them to see it clearly.

I love Mme. Fracci's mad scene, but again i still stick to my favorite: Mme. Alonso /Plisetsky. Like i said earlier, this production is from 1965, but in this scene the angles a wide open, the music goes at a fair tempo, not like other productions that i've seen where it gets truncated or killed in a super fast way, and the madness is recreated by Alonso in such a exquisite way...paying attention to simple and beautiful details (like Giselle following and fingerpointing to a non existent bird, or butterfly on the air ).She doesn't overact nor she gets into frenzy runnings, like i've seen too, but simply delivers pure insanity...

i've just located my seymour/nureyev GISELLE and indeed the mad scene is well filmed and vividly rendered by seymour. for one thing, she employs a detail, which i've long thought should be standard - she seems to have the necklace somehow 'linked' to her hair-do - in this case she's still wearing her crown as queen of the vintage harvest, so when she tears off the necklace, the rustic crown (and her hairpins) all come out in a stroke, leaving her loose-haired as she collapses at her mother's feet, and thus requiring no fidgety help from distraught mum to undo her hair, pin by pin.

Last night i revisited my old Nureyev-Seymour VHS (BTW, it's never been released on DVD, right?), and indeed, the effect of the necklace/crown pulling is quite effective. About Seymor , IMO that for some reason, right from the mad scene 'till the end of the I Act, she looked as she has aged a lot to me. I think she did a great characterization of a suddenly mentally ill woman, but at the same time, when all the "joie de vivre" seems to have drained from Giselle, Mme.Seymour doesn't really convince me anymore that she is a young adolescent. I know that she was filmed way past her prime, but so were Mme.Fracci and Mme. Alonso when their respective Giselles were filmed, and i don't find this problem with them.

That's sad to hear...RIP Luciano Pavarotti...

Hmm...I think I'm the only one here who adores both Close and Malkovich, and the Frears' movie.

I'm with you, OldFashioned...

Here's an updated list of participant companies and performances and a link to the Festival official web site:

http://miamihispanicballet.com/international_calender.html

International Young Ballet Medal Winners

Manuel Artime Theater

900 S.W. 1st Street, Miami, Fl.

Saturday, Sept. 8, 8:00 PM

Modern and Contemporary Ballets

Colony Theater

1040 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, Fl.

Sunday, September 9th at 5PM

For the first time in Miami

Proyecto Titoyaya from Spain with the premier of

“Portrait of Oscar Wilde”

With other guest companies

Rastro Dance Company (New York)

Compania Colombiana de Danza (Colombia)

Brazarte Dance Company (Miami)

Giovanni Luquini Performance Troup (Miami)

Classical and Neoclassical Gala

Kravis Center for the Performing Art

701 Okeechobee Boulevard, West Palm Beach, Fl.

Thursday, Sept. 13, 8:00 PM

Ballet Estable Teatro Colon (Argentina)

Ballet de Santiago (Chile)

Ballet De L'Opera National De Paris (France)

Ballet Du Capitole – Opera de Toulouse (France)

Staatsballett Berlin (Germany)

Bayerisches Staatsballett (Germany)

Compañía Nacional de Danza (México)

Ballet de Monterrey (México)

Warsaw Opera Ballet (Poland)

Compañía Primavera (Poland)

Proyecto Titoyaya (Spain)

Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève (Switzerland)

Ballet San José (USA)

Carolina Ballet (USA)

Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami (USA)

Demetrius Klein Dance Company (USA)

Margot Fonteyn Ensemble (USA)

Grand Gala Homage to Roland Petit

recipient of the “A Life For Dance” Lifetime Achievement Award

Presenting the best of his repertoire by the Roland Petit Company Star Ensemble

Ziff Ballet Opera House-Carnival Center for the Performing Arts

1300 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami, Fl.

Friday 14, 8:00 PM

Etoile’s Classical Grand Gala

For the first time the “Criticism and Culture of Ballet Award” to be presented to the venerable former New York Times critic Clive Barnes

Ziff Ballet Opera House-Carnival Center for the Performing Arts

1300 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami, Fl.

Saturday, Sept. 15, 8:00 PM

Ballet Estable Teatro Colon (Argentina)

Ballet de Santiago (Chile)

Ballet De L'Opera National De Paris (France)

Ballet du Capitole – Opera de Toulouse (France)

Staatsballett Berlin (Germany)

Bayerisches Staatsballett (Germany)

Compañía Nacional de Danza (México)

Ballet de Monterrey (México)

Warsaw Opera Ballet (Poland)

Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève (Switzerland)

Ballet San José (USA)

Carolina Ballet (USA)

Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami (USA)

Margot Fonteyn Ensemble (USA)

And speaking about remakes, "Valley of the dolls" is coming...so let's see...

Some questions for Ballet Alert:

I looked on Julio's "sitio official" (Spanish only) and saw that he is not entirely dropping classical roles after his ABT farewell on June 22nd. He is dancing "Swan Lake" or a portion of it in Cuba at the Havana Festival. .

I have fond memories of Bocca dancing in Havana during the 90's, particulary his incredible "Diana and Acteon". He, indeed, danced his farewell to the cuban public at the XX International Havana Ballet Festival. Here is the comment made by Margaret Willis on the event from "Ballet Magazine"

"Showing off a different form of seduction was the Argentinean heart-throb Julio Bocca back at the festival again with his tango team. Most importantly however was his farewell performance in ‘Swan Lake’ in which, twenty years ago at the 10th Festival, he had made his debut. His warmth and added touches brought a bit more sense to this production. When the curtains finally closed, there was a short film of Bocca’s achievements—astounding—and then his Siegfried took one last bow alone. "

Margaret Willis

I was recently reading an old program from Ballet Nacional de Cuba from october 2000, when Mme. Alonso organized a program called "Gala tribute to George Balanchine" during the XVII Havana Ballet Festival. The program notes is based in an interview in which Mme. Alonso describes some of her experiences working with Mr. Balanchine. I thought it would be a good idea to translate some of these notes . Here they go:.

Mme.Alonso on Balanchine's Theme and Variations" staging with her and Youskevitch.

Alonso's variation:

"About my variation, i sill recall the intense rehearsals. Balanchine would take musically a tempo of four counts of repetitions of a given step and would ask me to dance 5 of them, and that was crazy, because i would listen to the music catching up while i was still turning! But then, he would establish a phrase system in which one,somehow, would connect the end just in time with the music. That was a hard mental and physical test for the ballerina. It was a divilish game between music and technique, very typical of Balanchine."

Mme Alicia Alonso

In any case, for the Alonso/Vasiliev resurrection...!

Nicole Kidman appears to be the current queen of Pointless Remakes of Classic Films, what with her appearance in the Stepford Wives remake and the current Invasion Of the Body Snatchers remake.

...and "Moulin Rouge" and "Bewitched"...Yep, she's, with no doubt, the Queen...

This video will be released by VAI:

Giselle (Adam) VAI DVD 4391, $34.95

On October 31, 1980, a unique event in the world of dance took place at the Grand Theatre of Havana. Alicia Alonso, the prima ballerina assoluta of the 20th century, and Vladimir Vasiliev, the most distinguished Russian male dancer of his era, performed together for the first time. This video documents that unforgettable Giselle, presenting the two great stars accompanied by a first-rate supporting cast and the famous corps de ballet of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba. (Please note: part of the original video master for this performance was lost; the version presented here was compiled from sources of varying quality. Though the final results are less than ideal, the video technicians did succeed in preserving a memorable performance that would otherwise be lost to posterity.)

DVD Bonus: “Encounter” – Alonso and Vasiliev in rehearsal for Giselle introduced by Anton Dolin (15 minutes). 110 minutes (plus bonus = 15 minutes), Color, Stereo/Mono, All regions.

My old long time dream finally comes true... :yahoo: