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f.y.i. from Barnard College: << On Monday, September 15, Twyla Tharp, a Barnard alum (class of 1963) and the college's first Distinguished Guest Artist, will give a talk based on her book The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life." This is Tharp's inaugural lecture at Barnard, and we hope to have members of both the Barnard-Columbia community and the city's dance community on hand. The lecture, which begins at 7 p.m. in the Diana Event Oval, is free of charge, but reservations are required. Please RSVP at www.dance.barnard.edu. >>

the streaming was done at the second go-round of this presentation. a scan of the program obtained at the earlier showing is posted below. the introductory remarks, which may or may not have been clearly documented on the stream, were a little hard to hear in the large room and were not amplified. one fact voiced then, and perhaps again at the streamed presentation was that the dancers would be wearing the actual costuming designed by M. Skinner. these midnight blue unitards were the third of three changes that were part of the full, 90-min. version of OCEAN.

1942 publicity photo of Balanchine's BALLET OF THE ELEPHANTS.

Wiley has an introductory entry on LA BAYADERE, same same study that includes the full libretto, in his translation, in A CENTURY OF RUSSIAN BALLET, DOCUMENTS AND EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS, 1810-1910 (Oxford, 1990).

Wiley's translation of the 1877 libretto for LA BAYADERE reads: "Apotheosis: Through the rain, the peaks of the Himalayas are visible. Nikia's shade glides through the air; she is triumphant, and tenderly looks at her beloved Solo, who is at her feet." descriptions of just how, or if, the staging itself worked to depict this scene don't seem readily available in English, or perhaps even in Russian, for that matter.

as you may or may not have already found, the release date for the film simply says: 1957. the NYPL dance coll. cat. entry doesn't say when it was actually filmed, which was in Paris. a safe assumption might be Oct. 17 - 21 when NYCB played Paris before traveling to Cologne (Oct 26 -24) and then Copenhagen (Oct. 26-31): Stockholm was Nov. 3 -11. perhaps d'Amboise recent memoir can confirm this. Western symphony/ Monitor Productions ; directed by Thomas Rowe ; choreography by George Balanchine ; music by Hershy Kay. Imprint : 1957. Description : (27 min.) Notes : Filmed in Paris by Monitor Productions. : Diana Adams and Herbert Bliss (Allegro); Melissa Hayden and Nicholas Magallanes (Adagio); Allegra Kent and Robert Barnett (Scherzo); Tanaquil LeClercq and Jacques d'Amboise (Rondo); artists of the New York City Ballet.

there were film-unit trucks in the area of NYC around the Fashion Institute of Technology last week notes as part of filming for FLESH AND BONE. as it turns out both Radetsky and Stiefel were young scholarship students in The School of Classical Ballet at American Ballet Theatre during the start-up years of the short-lived ballet school Baryshnikov established and oversaw at ABT during the last years of artistic directorship there.

from the Whitney Museum of American Art's current Jeff Koons retrospective: "Liberty Bell," 2006-14, Bronze, wood, wrought iron, cast iron Edition no. 1/3 Private Collection

MMDG email: << We're celebrating the 25th Anniversary of L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato and this summer we are filming the work live in performance at Madrid's Teatro Real. In early June we launched a crowdfunding campaign to support the necessary re-build of the costumes to meet the standards for the high-definition film. I'm happy to share that to date we have raised over 58% of our $80,000 goal. But we need your help to raise the full amount. SOME WAYS YOU CAN HELP: Make a gift in any amount Forward this email to friends Share the link to igg.me/at/mmdg on Facebook and Twitter 272 yards of silk chiffon for 52 costumes 78 yards of lycra for 26 leggings Skilled small batch dye processing 26 leotards and seamless undergarments Costume shop reconstruction of the original patterns Labor to build the new costumes Please consider making a donation today at our indiegogo campaign page. If you’ve already given, thank you so much. Visit the site again to view new photos and video or follow us on Facebook for updates from the campaign. >>

re: Nijinsky's costume 'controversy,' about which facts remain somewhat murky, the costume in question was Benois's for Albrecht, not Bakst's for FAUNE.

MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR MARY ANTHONY Sunday July 13 2:30-3:30 service 3:30-4 PM (approximate), remembrances of Mary 4-5 PM reception Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South For information: 212.674.8191 A memorial service will be held for Mary Anthony, who passed away May 31, at Judson Memorial Church, Sunday July 13, starting at 2:30 PM. The memorial will include performances of three solos from Mary's body of work, as well as a video of her life in dance. (the program is still in formation, and names of dances and dancers will be announced closer to the service.) After the prepared ceremony, visitors will be invited to speak briefly about Mary Anthony, her work, or her impact on them individually.

the following has come from a Cunninghamian in an email correspondence: << The coat in Antic Meet along with all the costumes, apart from the jumper with no head hole, were designed and sourced by Robert Rauschenberg, the then design director for the MCDC or Merce Cunningham and Dancers as it was known. He bought the coat along with the old second world war parachutes he used to make the dresses for the women, at 2nd avenue thrift stores. The jumper was conceived by Cunningham and Valda Setterfield advised on how to construct it and made up of many squares of knitted panels, the majority of which were knitted by Setterfield and Cunningham and sewn together by Setterfield. >> "jumper," to anyone unfamiliar with British usage, is the name given to the garment we call a sweater hearabouts; the info was culled by the writer of my email from Carolyn Brown's "Chance and Circumstance."

No, Paul that's not a coat of EG's.

my guess of Charlip is clearly off here. as the credits show Charlip, who was in the original cast of ANTIC MEET, was not there by the time of this film. the answer then is Steve Paxton, as noted above and as noted by a more knowledgeable Cunninghamian. the credits above, btw, misspell Brown's name, she uses no 'e'.

the dancer w/ Cunningham in ANTIC MEET is likely Remy Charlip.

f.y.i. << Ballet Review now has a website up and running (http://www.balletreview.com), which includes sample articles from past issues. Additional free articles will be posted in the coming weeks. Table of Contents are available for the issues of past two volumes. The website also provides an easy way to order a subscription to the magazine (and pay via credit card or PayPal). Please tell your friends about us and this new subscription option. The summer issue is in the mail and should be arriving within a few days. The website has information on its contents and a brief preview of our fall issue, due out around Labor Day. >>

the early ideas for the different rival gangs have been noted in a few studies of Robbins' life and career.

scan of an undated and uncredited NYCB publicity photo showing Edward Villella's Oberon and Melissa Hayden's Titania, the original leading dancers in Balanchine's 1962 production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. the 1965 dating may refer only to the newsroom's use of the photo, presumably to illustrate a Walter Terry article or review. the pose is no doubt one struck for the photographer as the staging includes no time when Oberon partners Titania. since the ballet's recent run to close NYCB's spring season included rebuilt versions of Karinska's costumes and Hays' Harvey-assisted settings, this glimpse of the original, or nearly original designs, may be of interest. it's reasonable to assume that this photo dates from the City Center era ('62-'64); the Balanchine catalog notes that in '64, when the company moved into Lincoln Center's New York State Theater, Karinska re-designed the costumes. other photos from the early NYST era document differences between the costuming shown here as well as from those that NYCB has had in place for the last few decades.

the post-ABT downtown no. 1 train from 66th St. will likely be full of, among other NYers, patrons from the Met. there should be no problem w/ your commute other than a possibly congested subway car, filled w/ post-theater goers like you.

here is the NYPL dance cat. listing for the Petit work. it's been shown in new york, a while ago and excerpts have been sometimes performed. Intermittences du coeur: Chor: Roland Petit; mus: Act I: Hahn (L'Heure exquise), Franck (Sonata for vln & pf, 1st mvt), Fauré (excerpts from Ballade), Saint-Saëns (Harp concerto, 1st mvt), Debussy (La mer, Syrinx), Franck (Psyché excerpt), Saint-Saëns (Symphony no. 3, excerpts); Act II: Beethoven (Quartet, op. 131, "Presto"), Saint-Saëns (Havanaise, Marche héroïque), Debussy (Danse infernale), Fauré (Elégie), Wagner (Overture to Rienzi); lib: After Marcel Proust's Remembrances of things past. First perf: Monaco Festival of the Arts, Aug 24, 1974; Ballets de Marseille.//First perf. in Paris: Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Nov 14, 1974; Ballets de Marseille.//U.S. premiere: New York, Uris Theater, Sept 12, 1980; Ballets de Marseille; scen: René Allio; cos: Christine Laurent.

the mismatched tights noted here used to be presented in this costume scheme but over the years, and lately, the mismatch got lost, either out of ignorance or an urge to 'correct' Karinska.

it would seem i no longer see this oddity. so let's assume: a] it's a thing of the past or b] a figment of so-called imagination. bottom line: think no more about this.

if the 'review' cited above is the one in today's NYTimes of the triple bill w/ GAITE P and not the one of the excerpt on opening night, that review was written by Brian Seibert, not Alastair Macaulay. Macaulay was in Washington, DC for the Kirov the night ABT's triple bill was first shown.

the mat. cast for THEME AND VARIATIONS was Lane and Simkin.

THEME AND VARIATIONS pause DUO CONCERTANTE intermission GAITE PARISIENNE