ggobob

The mixed bill, which I saw on Thursday in Zellerbach Hall on the UC Berkeley campus, was mind numbing. Rachel Howard in the SF Chronicle (see Links for Friday 2/15) does her best to find words of hope; I hope for better when I see Giselle tonight. And, since I do my best not to be negative and do believe the dancers are capable of better, will let Ms. Howard's opinion stand.

On Sunday, the Moiseyev Ballet celebrated the 71st anniversary of its founding. The company was here in Berkeley performing (4 shows, Friday to Sunday) and began each performance with a tribute to its founder. As to the dancing, it tended to take the audience's breath away and bring forth lots of cheers. Listening during the intermission, one heard mainly Russian being spoken as conversations drifted to memories of the dances back home. What did I make of it? Must admit I had only seen the company on video - going back to Ed Sullivan when I was not quite a teen; so I was looking for flying feet and impressive choreography. The choreography was impressive but more in the sense of how masses of people can be moved around the stage to create effects. The dancers are of a high caliber and probably have great cardio-vascular systems. Glad I went...won't travel to see them, but will go if they are in Berkeley or San Francisco.

Thanks for the review, Julie Kent is scheduled to dance with Bolle later in the run. If you attend, keep us posted on the comparison.

After a year's break, The Hard Nut returned last night to Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall. The same joyful deconstruction of The Nutcracker that began in Brussels and found a second home on Berkeley. Some significant cast changes from the last visit...(as usual, my program is unfindable at the moment). Ballet is as joyful as ever. Being the first performance the snowflakes were a bit cautious and not always exactly on the beat. They should have this corrected by today's matinee. Robert Cole, Cal Performance's head honcho, was in the pit leading the Berkeley Symphony. Huge crowd, looked like a sell out...given that SF Ballet, Oakland Ballet, and the intrepid Berkeley City Ballet are all in full Nutcracker mode, this may bode well for dance in the Bay Area. Then again it may just mean there are more grand parents at the moment. Certainly everyone had a good time last night. I'm sure the MMDG and Cal Performance marketing types were pleased with the Wall Street Journal's rave about the Hard Nut in Saturday's paper. I'll update this later in the run.

My memory is that in 1980 or so the ABT dancers went on strike...that was when the Labor Day march was led by danceers and the photo appeared in the Times. There was a lot of grumbling that the union didn't support the dancers to the level expected. Later the dancers decided to form their own union. It was the 1980s action that began the upward climb in salaries, per diems, etc. I seem to remember that another item on the agenda was the care/cleaning of costumes. At one point the dancers reps hung costumes in the room during bargaining and the session ended early because of the power of the smell.

It would be 1976...ABT danced in LA after DC where it presented Baryshnikov's Nutcracker at Christmas time, then brought it to the Chandler in LA, along with an extensive mixed bill. It was Baryshnikov's first LA season. Because the LA Philharmonic also used the Chandler the Music Center ran out performances to Pasadena. I remember seeing Leaves are Fading there that year.

Thanks, Ray, I netflixed it and moved it to the top of my queue. I remember this in performance from a Loooooooooonnggg time ago! Will be interesting to see if memory holds up.

Following up on Adam's recollection of New York magazine's estimation of an ABT principal's salary; it seems realistic to me; having been in several conversations with some of the principals about tax strategies and hearing them mention that they made too much to have an IRA. Caveat all the $$$ are not from ABT, it would appear that it involves guest fees with European companies, run outs to Japan, endorsements, as well the regular contract stipend from ABT. ABT's contract rates (at least from a period when I knew the details) tend to slightly lead or slightly lag behind NYCB depending where each company is in the life of the contract. Principals have a contract base rate but negotiate, usually annually - and the success of the negotiation depends on box office, talent, and number of the principal's performances. My information on the Royal is very out of date...but at one time it was slightly more than the ABT contract rates...but for fewer performances. Guesting in Europe for both Americans and Europeans is very lucrative.

Just catching up with this thread...thinking that perhaps the apparent lack of dramatic abilities among today's ballerinas is more the result of shift in critical viewing away (at least in the US) from Tudor, Loring, DeMille, Ashton, Macmillan to a Balanchine ethos? The support for ballets that are emotionally charged by the music rather than connected to a plot reached critical mass around the time Peter Martins took over NYCB and left relatively few survivors. (Survivors: Pitsburgh withTerry Orr and Colorado with Gil Boggs). Alan Ulrich, the free lance critic for numerous outlets, wondered why ABT dances Fancy Free in a way that was vital and alive and was living in its story...when SF Ballet did not; and, yet both ballets had been set by the same NYCB dancer. One can suppose that the answer is that ABT still does dramatic triple bills that give some experience and has lived with this ballet for generations. Maybe ABT needs some drama skill to sell its full lengths at the MET. As one can easily read, I am all over the place in my reply. I do think that ABT needs to be encouraged and use its resources (e.g. Martine VanHamel) to keep at it. Finally, I am led to think of Pillar of Fire and its breakthrough for the the dramatic ballerina a Americana. Tudor wrenched Nora Kaye into greatness, Nora coached many others in the role...one of the great ones who retired early was Lise Houlton. The resources are there is there is only the will. And now having finished saying little, I will refuse to think about the dramatic dancing at NYCB or SFB.

Thanks...I look forward to your next recollection...in the happy knowledge that next year's promised date is only a month and a day away. A sidebar to the White House story and the small stage. Back then, before "staging" was essential to any WH moment, the lights and stage materials were borrowed from the Masque and Bauble drama club at Georgetown University. Which in one of those six degree of separation moments allows me to realize I appeared on the same stage as you - but you definitely had the better venue.

ABT's Program 2 at Zellerbach UC Berkeley included Tharp's "Baker's Dozen" and "Sinatra Suite", Jorma Elo's "C. to C.", and Millepied's From "Here on Out". everything was incredibly well danced - which shows that the rehearsal period at City Center was a wise investment for Berkeley. Lots of insouciant charm in Baker's Dozen with Craig Salstein, Michele Wiles, Misty Copeland, Stella Abrera, Blaine Hoven, and Isaac Stappas stepping out in catching the audience, as well as one another. Sinatra Suite, while well done by Marcelo Gomes and Luciana Paris, seemed to an audience one week out from Miami City Ballet's "9 Sinatra Songs"to be something of an appetizer for a meal already finished. I found myself captured by "C. to C." - the silences, the connectivity to Chuck Close's artistry, and the total involvement of the dancers (Gomes, Cornejo, Matthews + Kent, Copeland, and Boone) held the audience close (no pun intended). Well deserved applause, much of it standing. Incredible positive buzz during the interval. (This is a house that is in thrall to Mark Morris and loves its Forsythe and Bausch seasons). Bruce Levingston played the commissioned Glass score with grace and some physical charm - the score more underscoring to the movement than a piece of its own. That said, Nico Muhly's score for "From Here on Out" was the better part of the closing third of the evening. Millepied's choreography is interesting but not very nourishing. I kept thinking of other pieces by multi-various others that seemed similar. David Hallberg and Gillian Murphy and everyone else worked very hard. Saturday's matinee is promising with Cornejo and Copeland in Sinatra; Radetsky, Salstein, and Hoven + Riccetto, Jacquelyn Reyes, and Abrea in "C. to C."; and Herrera and Gomes as the lead couple in "From Here on Out" Overall, ABT is dancing better, with an incredibly strong group of soloists and corps members; principals - even the limited number here - are tops with awards to Kent, Gomes, Reyes, and Cornejo. House was pretty much full...no rush tickets were available...today is the big football game, rain is promised, sources tell me sales are weak as folks want to avoid the football crowds. On the other hand, reviews from Program I were very good and Sunday's matinee is pretty well sold. Why do I mention this when I post?...because Cal Performances looks at its box office when booking dance companies. Thus Miami City Ballet comes once a decade, ABT every six years, NYCB once in 15, and the Perm Ballet is returning for a second straight year with the same Swan Lake.

Apologies - As I can't find my program this morning, my report is based on memory - always treacherous. In the 70s and 80s, ABT was an annual visitor to the San Franciso Operne a House. Now and then it would do short run out seasons across the Bay in Berkeley. Now for whatever reason, the Opera House is not a home to anyone not in its family (SF Opera and SF Ballet)...and Berkeley welcomes ABT only now and then. I have mused that ABT in Berkeley is under a negative spell. Last visit was the week after 9/11 when no one was going out to see anything. This year they are enjoying a run that includes the town closing down for the UC-USC football match. (Rush tickets should be easy to come by on Saturday - assuming one can get into Berkeley for the traffic). All that said, the house was good in number and great in appreciation as David Hallberg and Gillian Murphy made Ballo look easy and Misty Copeland won all hearts. Originally, Clear had been scheduled to be part of the program, but somewhere for some reason (maybe the tattoos) it disappeared to be replaced with two gala pieces, Beauty's Rose adagio and Le Corsaire. Since all the advertising has laser focused on Herman Cornejo...this made the house happy. I am going to give a pass on commenting on the Rose adagio...other than to say that it looked out of place, Paloma Herrera started off seeming jittery but improved. The house being primed, Cornejo and Reyes could do no wrong. (Was this only his second performance of the role? - that's what someone said at the intermission.) Looked like he had been building up some barrell turns and special jumps just for the night. Xomara Reyes was for me the better of the two...if only because many in the audience seemed to be surprised that there was someone else on the stage besides Cornejo...and she was spot on. Evening ended with Fancy Free (Gomes, Radetsky, Salstein, Kent, Abrera)...I've watched this ballet for some four decades - last night it looked fresher than I have ever seen it, there was a sense of joy moving from the music and choreography to the dancesr and through them and their on-stage personalities to the audience. This is what ABT is really good at when it trusts a revival to someone who cares about the ballet. Many highlights, will only mention one - a salute to the pas de deux with Kent and Radetsky - a mini version of Der Rosenkavalier in a few bars of music.

This afternoon, Miami City Ballet closed out a three performance run at UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall. Nine Sinatra Songs, Agon, and Upper Room comprised the triple bill. I'll leave it to the critics to make official comments...for myself, I was pleased, delighted, and energized. The Sinatra always pleases me, I was delighted to see a company other the SF Ballet perform Balanchine in the Bay Area, and if I was getting tired from the extended intermissions, Twyla and Philip Glass got everyone going - some more than others: the smoke effects got somewhat out of hand at one of the performances and some in the audience got going right out of the hall. High level of artistry, casting remained the same for the run. I saw two of the performances, loud cheering, lots of folks standing to applaud, dancing improved from performance to performance (Zellerbach's stage lacks depth and takes some testing through performance). Low point - relatively light attendance. The hall holds 2,000. It was about half full the two times I attended. Glass half (?), larger audiences than for the Joffrey last week. Saw Alistair Macaulay in the house this afternoon.

Yesterday afternoon, MMDG closed a four performance run of Mozart Dances at CalPeformances' Zellerbach Hall. Sold out house (2,000 seats), enormous ovation, everyone standing, actual cheering beginning when Mark Morris came out for his bow...first night of the run was the 150th performance of MMDG in Berkeley. Conversations at intermission and IMO indicate that the audience places this on a plateau with only L'allego on a higher peak. The SF Chronicle in a review not only raved but compared the please of the second section with viewing Matisse. I saw three of the four performances...sitting in different sections each time and each time saw anew...

This post attempts to generalize instead of being specific...I know this is treasonous (I live in the Bay Area) but 95% of Helgi Thomasson's one acters meet or exceed the boring quotient.

Me too, and I'm usually a huge fan of MacMillan's ballets - his Romeo and Juliet, and Manon usually have me in tears by the end. I think that Mayerling is trying to tell too convoluted a story, with too many people having too many affairs, and what is it with the opera singer in the middle? I'll take several Mayerlings to avoid one Isadora

THEN Kain and Augustyn Markova and Dolin Makarova and Nagy Fracci and Bruhn Jefferies and Collier Jefferies and Barbieri Seymour and Gable Seymour and Nureyev Coleman and Penny Sibley and Dowell JUST PAST Ferri and Bolle Bocca and Ferri NOW Kent and Gomes

Thanks for the link

Sander The marketing folks are aware and some are avid readers...I know some dancers are aware of discussions that involve them or their ballets. Have seem some corps members of one national company on the site looking at comments about a new production, not sure if they are posters...but they may well be.

I am coming very late to this topic...I appreciate the dialogue and the debate. Didn't anticipate the depth that could be found following Lew Segal's name. Segal follows in the LA Times tradition of dance criticism exemplified best by Martin Bernheimer who noted that Clark Tippet moved partnered someone as if she was a side of beef. Dancers in classical ballet companies come to LA prepared to be slated by Segal...they are rarely disappointed. Is this better than cities who have critics who can never find fault with the local company? Theoretically, it is better...but it is sad when there is so much bitterness and bile present. I wait for Alan Ulrich to get to LA for a review I trust.

Just a comment on Jared...I noticed him with the Studio Company, but really noticed him in Symphonic Variations...he was the only one who carried himself as if Ashton was coaching...he understands how to use his shoulders both in movement and in silence. Congratulations to all on their promotions and to Craig Salstein who was promoted in time for the Chicago season in March

Possibly this is a way for Ethan to ease away from dancing...it is still not clear that his recovery is a full recovery...North Carolina has a strong faculty and Alex Ewing has been a potent power there for years...he may have been the instigator of the appointment to draw attention to the school. And a comment about Warren Conover...what a truly generous human being...I met him when he was at ABT and watched him in Chicago..never less than a committed dancer and often very special.

Thanks for the warm welcome and for the background about Miami...the box office folks at Cal Performances mentioned that Miami was selling better than the Joffrey...then again that is a meaningless comment as I don't know how well Joffrey is selling.

Hello...I joined this group after reading many of the posts and finding the thoughts and insights and humor creating a comfortable place. The first saw dance I ever saw was in April of 1967...keyboarding that made me feel old. I was in NYC on a Satuday night with some friends. We decided to go to a Broadway show but couldn't find tickets for what we wanted to see; a New Yorker in the group suggested we go to Lincoln Center and chek out the Met (it was then truly the new Met), sounded like a good idea even if it was the ballet. Knowing Zip about dance, we just assumed that like Broadway, the STARS would be on (read Nureyev and Fonteyn). Anyway, the Royal was dancing Beauty. David Wall and Doreen Wells were the principals. I liked it. Then I met a girl who worked for the National Endowment and she always had tickets to the Kennedy Center (I was living in DC at the time) so to spend time with her I went off one night and saw Fracci and Bruhn...next it was Wolf Trap to see Ailey. Moving in the early 70s to Southern California, I lost touch for a while, then ABT brought Baryshnikov to LA and I was hooked because he canceled on the night I had tickets and Bujones danced Tudor and I saw Fancy Free for the first time. I saw Baryshnikov the next night and then in several things, most memorably Push Comes to Shove. But the cancellation allowed me see that ABT was/is more than one star. From here I became the proverbial stone rolling down hill, seeing more and more. Even now, I see as much as possible. Last year, close to 80 dance performances I have also had the good fortune to have become friends with many dancers. Meeting many when they were in the corps but some when they were already legends (Margot Fonteyn and Nora Kaye come most immediately to mind). I don't really recall how the chain worked...but I remember one night in Los Angeles when the Royal was returning after many years of being away, I was invited to attend a first night party after Beauty with Merle Park. I was seated with Stephen Jefferies and his wife Rashna Homji, I mentioned to him that I was disappointed that I would not be seeing him in Mayerling as I had heard great things. This started a conversation among the three of us. I few nights later, when I went to the American premiere of Mayerling, I found Rashna in the lobby looking for me...she told me I would get my wish and that "Jeff" was dancing that night as David Wall was injured. She invited me to the party afterwards and that began a welcome to the RB and many of its dancers that continues. Including a sharing with David Wall about my first every ballet. Somehow, I have been blessed with one contact leading to another, finding firm friendships with members of ABT (especialy ABT) as well as the Royal, Mark Morris, the Canadians, Hong Kong, and Nederlands...and, amazing being asked to be a god parent for the son of two dancers. It remains a passion, in the last few days I have seen Morris's Mozart Dances three times...living close to the perfrorming arts venue for the University of California - Berkeley and twenty minutes from San Franciso provides opportunities that I take advantage of...in the next six weeks I will see Armitage, Miami, the Joffrey, and ABT. It is really never enough. I look forward to spending time of this board of knowing ballet lovers.

I found this thread the same morning I had an email from Julie Kent. I treasure notes from Magot Fonteyn, Lynn Seymour, Marianna Tcherkaasky, Cynthia Harvey and others. In July, I was surprised by a card from many of the women in ABT's corp thanking me for remembering them on tour. Unfortunately, rereading the above, it seems an ego trip...it was not meant to be, let me begin in another way, more as a coach... I began sending notes to dancers who impressed me, sometimes I would have the good fortune to meet some of them. Now and then there was recognition that my note had been appreciated. Meeting them again, a conversation might and often did take place. A dancer introduces you to another dancer and another conversation takes place and a correspondence sometimes begins I have an ongoing email thread with one dancer who is an opera nut (in the best sense of the description) and we share notes on performances and perfomers. As the years have rewarded me with several friendships and a godson (now a young man, the son of two dancers), I would chance to say that dancers appreciate the correspondence...they may not always have time to reply especially at the etoile level...but they are very aware of the letters. And two recommendations...our words have greater potency for those in a corps de ballet; and remember to keep in touch with those who have retired...until her passing Nora Kaye and I would share stories...hers were much better than mine