emilienne

Foyer de danse, with Alicia Markova

Ashton's Mars and Venus, with Pearl Argyle and William Chappell.

Ninette de Valois's Rake's Progress, 1940s. edited to correct the choreographer from Ashton to above.

The thread is definitely misnamed, as the archive has a respectable number of early ballet clips in general. I'll post the most notable ones here and let the discerning viewer dig through for their own stuff. In the meantime, a clip of Anna Pavlova performing something that is not the Dying Swan, with sound!

The first offering, a disconnected and silent (and watermarked) record of what seems to be the original cast of Symphonic Variations. Dancers are Margot Fonteyn, Michael Soames, Moira Shearer, Pamela May, Brian Shaw and Henry Danton. This seems to be previews of what is available from an independent UK archive. If only it had sound... I should add that the British Film Institute recently posted some similar footage, though much better quality. They seem to be shot from similar angles. Unfortunately the BFI will not get a similar thread unless I find more.

I missed it the first time, but that's also from the NYPL. Serves me right to try to do research after a night of being designated driver.

And also Balanchine's Nutcracker done in Hamburg.

British Pathé released about 90k documentary film clips onto their Youtube channel. I found a clip of Bourree Fantasque with the Festival Ballet (London), taken in 1962 in Prague. The Balanchine works catalogue says that the work was staged for the company in 1960. Video linked below: There doesn't seem to be any film clips of this work listed in the catalogue, and NYPL lists two films, one taken in 1993, possibly for the Balanchine Celebration, and another with excerpts with Le Clercq, Tallchief, and "partners". Is this the only other film of it, then?

Jack, Raritan's circulation is around 3500-4000 in 1999. I don't expect this number to have increased much, though I'm not sure how they count institutional and digital subscriptions to academic journal repositories that would contain Raritan such as Jstor, Ebscohost, etc ad infinitum. Edit: That's the only concrete circulation figure that I could find. Neither the magazine's website nor Ulrich's Periodicals Directory list a current circulation figure. Anyway, if you are affiliated with a university, the article should be accessible through your institution's subscription to these fine repositories. Interesting fact from said article: Violette Verdy once danced Giselle with Edward Villella at Boston Ballet in 1968.

You're right! I've seen copies of this floating around Youtube, but had not realized that it was different (thanks brain) from the PBS broadcast. I'll add it to my list.

My guess is that copyright negotiations for live performances are different than television performances, if only because there are more parties involved. In addition to the performers, PBS would also have to negotiate with the musicians' union, the stage crews' union, et cetera ad infinitum, as opposed to studio personnel (musicians, etc) who are presumably already covered under a Radio Canada employment contract. Second, given that most of these performances are fairly old, they may not have had syndication or home video riders built in to the contract. Fewer financial terms to arrange here: you've got to negotiate with the Balanchine trust, presumably the dancers, and then it's just archival work. Last, and probably the most depressing part: fewer of the original dancers are alive to refuse permission. The 1978 Balanchine performances on PBS originally included Allegro Brilliante (Farrell/Martins) and Rubies pdd (McBride/Weiss). I believe they were not on the home video releases because some of the dancers declined to have those performances included.

Volume! Three! Volume! Three!

Edit 20140730: Corrected #7, added color source annotation to 3, 4 & 8 (they were from the same L'heure du concert program). Added new category at bottom to "released from VAI but not on my original list" Edit 20140829: Added items from Vol 4. Edit 20141113: Added Bugaku for Vol 5 speculation ---- A partial list of NYCB performances on CBC/Radio Canada, primarily Balanchine choreography. Compiled from the NYPL Dance Research Collection, from memory and from scraps of gossip. Previously Unreleased (Except where listed, all films are B&W) 1. [Vol 4] Four Temperaments: Carol Sumner, William Weslow, Marnee Morris, Earle Sieveling, Suki Schorer and Ramon Segarra (Theme); Richard Rapp with Kay Mazzo and Bettijane Sills (Phlegmatic); Patricia Wilde and Anthony Blum (Sanguinic); Arthur Mitchell (Melancholic); Patricia Neary (Choleric) 2. [Vol 4] Ivesiana: Sara Leland and Francisco Moncion (Central Park after dark); Patricia Neary and Arthur Mitchell (At the inn); ensemble (In the night) 3. Concerto Barocco: Farrell/Morris/Ludlow (NYPL B&W, color original) 4. Apollo: Morris/von Aroldingen/Farrell/Martins (NYPL B&W, color original) 5. Liebeslieder Walzer: Singers: Claire Grenon-Masella, Marcelle Monette, René Lacourse and Claude Letourneau. Dancers: Diana Adams and Bill Carter, Jillana and Conrad Ludlow, Patricia McBride and Jonathan Watts, Violette Verdy and Nicholas Magallanes. 6. Stravinsky at 80 program: (ballet and relevant excerpts listed) Agon pdd: Patricia McBride and Arthur Mitchell Speech by George Balanchine / discussion of the relationship of music and dance ; introduction to the following excerpts from Apollo (Apollon musagète). Apollo's variation, pas de deux of Apollo and Terpsichore: Jacques d'Amboise and Melissa Hayden Symphonie de psaumes (Symphony of psalms): Patricia McBride and Arthur Mitchell Speech by George Balanchine / discussion of the relationship of music and dance ; introduction to the following excerpts from Apollo (Apollon musagète) 7. Festival, Romance in Music Pas de deux: Melissa Hayden and Edward Villella (music by Tchaikovsky, no further information given on contents)8. Glinkaiana, Divertimento brillante: Patricia McBride and Edward Villella. (NYPL B&W, color original) 9. Le New York City Ballet: Une école, un style, une compagnie, un repertoire (color) Tarantella. Patricia McBride and John Clifford. Movements for piano and orchestra: Kay Mazzo and Anthony Blum. Who cares? Patricia McBride, Marnee Morris, Karin von Aroldingen, Jean Pierre Bonnefous 10. Chaconne, 1977 (Color): Suzanne Farrell, Peter Martins, Renée Estopinal, Elise Flagg, Wilhelmina Frankfurt, Heather Watts, Jean-Pierre Frohlich, Jay Jolley, and members of the New York City Ballet. 11. [Vol 2] Concerto Barocco, 1956: Le Clercq/Adams/d'Amboise (w only 6 corp dancers) 12. [Vol 2] Agon, 1960: Jillana/Russell/Bolender (1st pdt), Verdy/Rapp/Tobias (2nd pdt), Adams/Mitchell (pdd) 13. [Vol 1] Serenade: Adams/Wilde/Mounsey/d'Amboise 14. [Vol 2] Nutcracker pdd, 1957: Adams/Magallanes 15. [Vol 3] Coppélia pas de deux: Le Clercq/Eglevsky 16. [Vol 1] Orpheus: Magallanes/Verdy/Moncion 17. [Vol 5?] Bugaku: McBride/Bonnefous (color) Stuff previously released: 1. Still Point pdd: d'Amboise/Hayden (color) 2. [Vol 4] Afternoon of a Faun: d'Amboise/Le Clercq 3. Les Sylphides pdd: Tallchief/Fernandez 4. Scenes from Act II of Swan Lake: Tallchief/Eglevsky 5. [Vol 2] Pas de dix: Tallchief/Eglevsky 6. Apollo: Jillana/Russell/Adams/d'Amboise

Join me on the floor, Helene. It's so nice and carpeted! (squeeeeeeeeeeee)

I forgot to mention that the Tea variation in the OBT Nutcracker had been revised from "tea Chinese tea" to "tea Siamese tea", headdresses, flared shoulders, and all. The costuming is marginally more "authentic", but I'm not sure why the revision is deemed to be any less stereotypical than what had come before it.

OREGON BALLET THEATRE CELEBRATES 25 YEARS OF THRILLING DANCE World Premieres by Nicolo Fonte and Darrell Grand Moultrie, A Trilogy of Duets by Influential OBT Choreographers, The Debut of OBT II, and Our First Full-Length Cinderella Anchor This Landmark Season February 22, 2014 - Portland, OR The 2014-2015 Season marks a milestone for Oregon Ballet Theatre as it celebrates a quarter century of entertaining, exciting, and inspiring audiences in Portland and around the world. The 25th Anniversary season will also be the first programmed solely by Artistic Director Kevin Irving, who joined OBT in July 2013. Irving fills the season with nods to an impressive past while offering a clear vision of the company’s bright future. OBT 25, October 11-18, 2014, at the Keller Auditorium, will open this year of celebration. For the first time in over 12 years, George Balanchine’s athletic contest for eight women and four men, Agon, will appear on the OBT stage. Created in 1957 and set to an original score by Balanchine’s frequent collaborator, Igor Stravinsky, Agon’s experimental nature remains fresh and challenging, even over half a century later. In tribute to three choreographers who have shaped OBT to date, we include Love x 3, featuring pas de deuxs by former Resident Choreographer Trey McIntyre, former Artistic Director Christopher Stowell, and for the first time since 2003, the work of Founding Artistic Director James Canfield. The capstone of this program covering past, present, and future will be a world premiere for the whole company by Portland favorite Nicolo Fonte, set to live music. Of course, no holiday season is complete without at least one viewing of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker. In recent years, Portlanders have shown us just how much they enjoy this grand tradition, and we’re responding by adding two performances after Christmas to ensure visiting friends and family have a chance to share in the wonder of little Marie’s larger-than-life adventure. Six performances will feature the stellar OBT Orchestra. A total of seventeen shows of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker will be presented between December 13 and 27, 2014, at the Keller Auditorium. There’s no time like the 25th Anniversary to add a full-length ballet to our repertoire. February 28 – March 7, 2015, will see the company premiere of Ben Stevenson’s Cinderella. Colorful and full of magic, Stevenson’s version of this classic tale is one of the ballet world’s most popular, performed by companies world-wide including American Ballet Theatre and Queensland Ballet of Australia, and Prokofiev’s dramatic score demands repeat listening. We invite Portland to fall in love with Cinderella, from the hilarity of her Ugly Stepsisters to the fantasy of her Fairy Godmother, the opulent pumpkin carriage to the despair of losing one precious glass slipper, all resolving in the heart-warming promise of happily-ever-after with her Prince Charming. An entrancing experience for adults and children alike, we’re thrilled to offer six memorable performances at the Keller Auditorium. Wrapping up the main-stage programming for the season is Impact at the Newmark Theatre, April 16 – 25, 2015. Focused on the power of the relationship between audience and performer, patron and ballet company, we present three striking works. The company premiere of Nacho Duato’s compelling Rassemblement, set to the songs of Haitian artist Toto Bissainthe and inspired by the strength and resistance of slaves longing for a home where they could be free from oppression, offers a chance to see OBT’s dancers at their most emotionally bare. We also tie our past to our future with performances of our first Resident Choreographer Dennis Spaight’s Crayola. Signifying a bright new direction for OBT’s current Professional Division and Apprentice programs, we launch the newly established OBT II with this work. Rounding out this exciting program will be a world premiere by Darrell Grand Moultrie. A Princess Grace Choreography Award winner, Moultrie is known for his ability to weave between genres, and has created works for a great range of ballet companies as well as Beyoncé and Savion Glover. SEASON AT A GLANCE: OBT 25 – October 11-18, 2014, Keller Auditorium Agon – Balanchine / Stravinsky Love x 3 – McIntyre, Stowell, Canfield / Various World Premiere – Fonte / TBA George Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker” – December 13-27, 2014, Keller Auditorium *Including six performances with the OBT Orchestra Cinderella – February 28-March 7, 2015, Keller Auditorium – Stevenson / Prokofiev Impact – April 16-25, 2015, Newmark Theatre Rassemblement – Duato / Bissainthe Crayola – Spaight World Premiere – Grand Moultrie / TBD ADDITIONAL EVENTS: OBT:Exposed – August 25-29, 2014, Pioneer Courthouse Square OBT at Wolf Trap: “Face of America” Celebration – August 27, 2014, Filene Center at Wolf Trap, VA SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION: 3-show subscriptions for Oregon Ballet Theatre’s 25th Anniversary season start at $66, or the full season can be seen for $88. Subscribers also receive benefits like flexibility in exchanging tickets and the ability to purchase additional tickets at a discount, with no service fees. OBT season ticket holders may take advantage of discounts at Portland Opera, Oregon Symphony, Portland Center Stage, Artists Repertory Theatre, and White Bird. Patrons can call the OBT Box Office at 503.222.5538, visit at 818 SE 6th Ave. Portland, OR 97214 or go to www.obt.org for more information on becoming a subscriber.

Good point, sandik, but what I saw didn't look very orthodox (if there is an orthodox Balanchine besides when he's at church, ha, ha...yeah). The bulk of the programming now consists of modern repertory pieces or reduced classics, and the dancing for the most part reminds me of that bent. Nutcracker is not on my list for next season, but OBT is offering Agon on their first program. Between that and PNB offering Jewels — and I've never seen all three acts together in a theater! — offered in the same month, I may have to plan a cycling trip to see it all.

The program indicates that the original was staged by Elyse Borne and Darla Hoover. Sigh, looking back, I've realized that I had made a huge mistake in the casting. I'm going to have to go back and make a huge edit to the Anonymous Feature Dancers section. [Edit made, enjoy the idiocy.]

(A series of highly unpleasant events mean that I have a backlog of impressions that I need to write and post, if only for my own edification. I'm inflicting it on BA solely due to habit. And of course, in the interest of maligning only the right dancers, I've had to go back and revise a few things. Watch this space for yet more idiocy.) George Balanchine's The Nutcracker Oregon Ballet Theatre Keller Auditorium, Portland, Oregon 22 December 2013 Orchestra Center, Row X, Seat 6 Without realizing it, Nutcrackers have snuck into my Christmas routine just as surely as have Chinese-food-and-a-movie. It was particularly welcome this year after a cross-continental move. The landscape changes, but by gum, the story won't, even if we can't decide if our heroine is Clara or Marie. I caught the Sunday matinee and was greeted by confused glances when I plunked my lonesome down between several populations of little girls and their adult attendants. Oregon Ballet Theatre promised live music in select performances. Unfortunately Keller Auditorium is not ideal for music. The richness of tone suppresses any semblance of texture at any volume greater than piano, overexposes tuning problems in the brass, and turns the whole thing into soup by the time sound reaches the balconies. However, the conductor gave a brisk performance despite acoustic limitations, never falling into melodrama even when there were moments that threatened to dive headfirst into tubercular French novel territory. This Nutcracker was rife with sartorial confusion and uneven in the quality of its dancing, all in all having a better time with the first act than with the second. Frau Stahlbaum's bustle and hobble skirt read as late Victorian (1880s) while her guests wore circular hooped styles from the early 1860s. Guests were comfortable enough to mix day and evening dress, enough that some came in dark plaids and calicos more suited for rough work. On the fantastical side, the Kingdom of Sweets was rebranded as a Kingdom of Pastels, with a very pink Sugar Plum Fairy presiding over a menagerie of pretty but anonymous feature dancers, including Candy Cane in a photo negative of a Tron Legacy battle suit. The children were the highlight here, having an excellent time playing with each other on stage under the eyes of indulgent parents. Marie (Jenny White) is clearly the queen bee of her social set, dolls included, and Noah Hug made me feel sorry for his Fritz. While he could be played as just a pest, Fritz wandered the stage looking lost, kitted out in an unusual peach-colored sailor suit among a sea of velvet suits. His mischief looked like that of a lonely little boy convinced that he could make a place for himself, if he ran at one fast enough. In contrasts, the adults were a great deal less memorable. Luckily, the choreography provides sufficient detail so that they were not wholly homogenous. Drosselmeyer (Brett Bauer) was a benevolent guest who seemed determined to play down his mysteriousness. I wanted he and his cape to have more flair than dutifulness. Even the mice seemed similarly functional, sufficient to move Clara from the familiar to the fantastical with the smallest amount of dramatic impact needed to be seen under dim lighting. Granted, the dancers were likely very tired from a long performance season, but I wish the whole house sequence seemed less perfunctory. It shouldn't be just a placeholder until the good bits start. Luckily, good triumphed over evil, and a beautifully turned out Nutcracker (Wyatt McConville-McCoy), and led Marie into the forest and the start of the "good" dancing. The Waltz of the Snowflakes is a sentimental favorite, and I have discounted many productions after seeing their treatment of this sequence. While the OBT is not a Balanchinean company, its corps de ballet responded beautifully to the choreography. Most of all, they looked like they enjoyed dancing it and were hungry for more of the same. This was the only place where I wished that the tempi could have been more dramatic (another 10-15 ticks on the metronome wouldn't have gone amiss), but for smaller favors, I would settle for a more human-like and less shrill choral sample. Act II drags everyone into the Kingdom of Sweets, or in a desperate search for more appropriate descriptors, the Pastel Boudoir Kingdom Situated in an Enchanted Forest Glade. Given that this was Portland, I shouldn't be surprised that Clara and the Nutcracker weren't given sweets for feasting, but the odd costumes and sets seemed determined to break any mental connection between the plot in progress and Nutritionally Empty Items. Some blurriness in the footwork was inevitable given that the company does not specialize in Balanchine, but in general the soloists danced them well. My only disappointment was Dewdrop (Xuan Cheng Haiyan Wu [sorry for the incorrect attribution]), whose dancing shrank as the Waltz of the Flowers proceeded. Cheng had lovely clarity in her footwork, but it came in such tiny dancing that the effort seemed wasted. By contrast, Haiyan Wu, formerly with the Miami City Ballet, gave an orthodox interpretation of Coffee, though Exoticism in her costuming seemed to have been mostly transmuted into suggestions of Harem instead. It seemed too obvious a turn into blatant sexpot territory, and I was rather uncomfortable with it. Luckily, the Sugar Plum Fairy (Ansa Deguchi) and her cavalier (Michael Linsmeier) rescued the fizzle with a truly grand pas de deux. It was perhaps not true to style, but I couldn't mind a slight detour into Ballet Russe ardor if the dancers were absolutely sincere in their dancing. Deguchi is a small woman, but on the shoulders of her cavalier, she glowed with loveliness and triumph as she whipped the entire auditorium into a screaming frenzy. I staggered to the theater wondering whether the OBT could become my new "home" company. In December and even now, I'm glad that I went, but given my limited resources and my absolute need to see my "home company" (now on the opposite side of the country), I'm not likely to attend again unless multiple factors (read: ticket prices/dancing/sartorial decisions) improved.

sandik, you can log in simultaneously from multiple different browsers. Just for fun, I tried five from several different devices. Have not (yet) exploded. In all seriousness, you are not maintaining a constant and active connection with the forum server, in which an intrusion from a secondary source would break that signal . You're just providing the authentication materials necessary for the server to know, when it is contacted, that it should return a webpage instead of a terse login page. Unless it is programmed to, the server does not care whether that authentication comes from multiple browsers, just that you gave the correct authentication information.

Mac OS 10.9.2 (as before) on a MacBook Pro, using Safari 7.0.2. Page looked fine when I accessed it as a guest and also when logged in at 5 PM PST.

I seem to be experiencing this problem. I am using Chrome (33.0.1750.146) on Mac OS 10.9.2 using a MacBook Pro. I'm pretty sure that I saw the webpage on Sunday, but since then have skipped straight to New Posts, so no reports on Monday or from earlier today. Will update this post once I delete my cookie. (UPDATE: deleted all of my cookies invisionzone.com cookies, still a blank page.)

From videos and pictures, there seem to have been multiple versions of the Rubies skirt. 1. The White Puffball: seen here. You can see it in action in The Man Who Dances. It is very frilly and looks like a ball of cotton candy. This seems to have been the first version of the costume, seen in the promotional photographs. 2. Red Overskirt: A red overskirt with a red tulle underskirt underneath. I think this is a precursor to the modern version with separated panels (flaps?), though my memory insists that there was also a version with an a-line skirt without any separation between panels. You can see the flaps-with-underskirt version in the truncated Rubies third movement in Ballet with Edward Villella. 3. The modern version, now seen everywhere except at the Bolshoi and POB: I want to call it a heraldic something-or-other, which isn't right, so instead I'll just call them bejeweled flaps. Why the costuming change? I once posted this question to BA!, actually, but there were no theories. Perhaps it's finally time to send off that inquiry to the costuming department at NYCB.

Program A: Mozartiana, Episodes, Romeo and Juliet The Suzanne Farrell Ballet Thursday, 7 November 2013 Eisenhower Theater, Kennedy Center Washington DC Orchestra Left, S3 Everything was a little off-kilter in Mozartiana tonight, as if the energy hoarded for last night had bursted at a few seams. We were left with some interestingly conceived dancing that didn’t seem to belong to the same ballet. Natalia Magnicaballi has a luscious rubato and uses it intelligently. While I liked Ogden yesterday, she anticipates the music too much and that occasionally comes off as a lack of confidence. Magnicaballi allows her phrasing to flow through the music, never hurrying her movement for the sake of the next beat. Part of that power comes in her calm upper body, extending her head, back and arms so that the movement always feels completed to its full potential. Perhaps it’s part of Magnicaballi’s emploi, but there’s always a sense of fragility in her dancing. Today it colors the Preghiera (as it did in the Riccercata yesterday) as tragedy. It was not an invocation as yesterday, asking divinity to use her as instrument; it was instead a sacrifice and she was the courtly victim, Andromeda on the rocks as appeasement or intercession. There was a new cast of girlish attendants, attendants to the doomed bride. These girls are older than yesterday’s cast, and there is not enough physical contrast between them and the womanly attendants, nor between them and Magnicaballi. It was yet another interpretation from the four (or five) that I have seen, and I was looking forward to how that theme would be developed. Unfortunately, the Gigue happened. Kirk Henning has elongated limbs that seemed more suited to the geometry of petit allegro. While still not quite satisfactory, it was an improvement over Grosh. However, his usual musical intelligence seemed to have failed him today. This was a frolic worthy of the Soviet clown out of Swan Lake. I won’t say that he simpered, but the uncomplicated cheeriness made the fine music insubstantial. It did not follow what has come before and made me wonder whether I had sleepwalked into a different ballet between movements. Once again, as with Grosh, he was most effective while standing still in the Menuet. His leave-taking was flirtatious and seemed oddly inappropriate for a courtly jester, whose dreams of dignity exists only on my soapbox. Again, not much to say about the Menuet. Once one sees the shepherdess curls, one cannot unsee them. In the Theme et Variations, Magnicaballi gave a command performance of the solo variations. It was a masterclass in phrasing. Again, like Ogden, the execution seemed spontaneous and yet endlessly complex. Pavel Gurevich is Magnicaballi’s cavalier today. While the two are long-limbed and seem physically suited, their dancing was less harmonious than what was promised by their promenade. Gurevich moves well for his size and build, but his upper body lurches oddly upward when jumping. The partnering looked curiously underrehearsed. Their spacing was off, and there were a few parts in which he looked like he was manhandling Magnicaballi in the partnering.There was one turn en attitude in which I could only focus on his hand gripped around her wrist, while her hand trembled above like an autumn leaf. Magnicaballi looked visibly off-center after the pas de deux, and all but staggered off the stage. It was more than a little disastrous, and the whole thing made me think longingly of Momchil Mladenov, one of Magnicaballi’s former partners of a similar build, since retired from the company. The Finale was an uncomplicated relief. Henning and the girlish attendants came together in joy, Gurevich and Magnicaballi tried to remember the distance between their respective limbs, and the whole thing came to a triumphantly relieved end. Allan Lewis conducted the orchestra. As with last night, it was a finely textured rendering, marred only by the clarinetist, who seemed to have forgotten his fingers. The reed also seemed suspect in the higher notes. The lighting changes were more noticeable than tonight. I started to squint during the pas de deux and realized that my eyesight was not in error. It is a modern intrusion and was unappreciated. Also as with last night, I tried very very hard to ignore the flouncy flounces on Magnicaballi’s gown. It was easier today with all of the other bewildering things that were happening simultaneously. I mentioned last night that black-and-whites are hard for me to digest. Unlike the gentleman sitting next to me, I cannot follow the tone rows without sheet music. I spent most of yesterday’s performance sorting the bodies on stage so that I can match the action to the music. It’s a cheat, of course, but repetition and a perverse appreciation for arbitrary musicality yields enough amusements to make the endeavor equitable. Last night I ranted on the opacity that is Episodes. Episodes of what indeed. My growing suspicion, planted last night, that these were episodes of episodes. In other words, it’s a sequence of events that loop back upon themselves in reference. It is much like the Four Temperaments, except the repetition is not both melodic and choreographic. Instead, it is only choreographic, integrating thematic ideas and the choreographic conventions that came before in tighter and more enclosed rounds. At intermission today, I mentioned that the whole thing reminds me of PDQ Bach’s Art of the Ground Round (Opus 3.19/pound). That was a tour de force of parody upon the convention of the round (think row, row, row your boat). The idea of rounds is something that keeps popping up in this piece, and the whole thing makes me wonder whether Balanchine has constructed one hell of a joke. Symphony, Movement 1, is a masterclass on rounds. The opening tableau is even vaguely circular, as are the opening arm isolations. The dancing starts with simple rounds, in which one couple does a movement, the next couple replicates two beats later, repeat until finished. The dancers then start a second round, escalating the complexity as dancers find rules to play with. First, the corp chooses to replicate the main couple in the same direction, in the next round they choose to replicate in contrast. Then the corp decides that moving in unison among themselves is boring and that they should move in tight contrast to each other even as they are still moving in counterpoint to the leads. The pairs then get tired of each other, and suddenly it’s time for rounds with genders. First it’s straightforward rounds with men and women, but then for added complexity, the lead man and woman extract themselves to create two more layers of moving bodies. I felt like a giant game of choreographic Twister and I was a little cross-eyed, trying to keep score. Valerie Tellmann and Matthew Renko were the leads today. Both the music and the dancing were more confident when compared to yesterday, which also made it easier to keep track of the action. Webern is difficult, and the dancing can be obscure. I heard one audience member behind me muttering in dismay. She was advised to “try to take a nap, if she could”. Disappointment is to be expected, but I wish it didn’t have to be so loud during the dancing. Jordyn Richter and Ted Seymour were the leads again in Five Pieces today. At first glance, they seem like anecdotes that seem to to have nothing to do with rounds, but they provide thematic material for integration later. I labeled these as “episodes of unreadyness” in my head. The woman and the man are never in the same physical or mental place. Richter plays it straight. Her acrobatic antics are tools to befuddle poor Ted even further. He wants to look up, she looks down. He looks for her, she hides behind him, legs in the air creating the ballet equivalent of bunny ears (antlers!). Ted wisely does not overact, letting the absurdity of the choreography enhance his guileless expression. Concerto, the third movement, puts elements of the first two movements to work. The dancers start in a simple round, but as they escalate in difficulty as in movement 1, the lead couple incorporates the juxtaposition of purpose seen in movement two into their dancing. Michael Cook and Elisabeth Holowchuk danced again today (Holowchuk substituting for the scheduled Paola Hartley). I hadn’t particularly liked his dancing with Magnicaballi, as their reciprocal comfort often looks like complacency, but he’s working out quite well with Holowchuk, who seems to to have an adversarial relationship with him on stage. The last movement of Concerto made me laugh, as it was literally a round of women surrounding Cook. Just to make sure that we haven’t missed it, we also start with Holowchuck tightly encircling Cook with all the limbs she could find. It’s got to be some sort of a joke, but the final choreography for Cook is that of a man desperately looking for a way out of a round. Last night, the preceding contrast of bodies stood in counterpoint to the physical homogeneity of Riccercata. Tonight, the preceding fugue of choreography was startling when we arrive at the conventional choreographic voicing of the Riccercata, an orchestration of Bach’s Fugue in 6 voices from Musical Offering (BWV 1079). Webern’s orchestration adds instrumental texture even as it preserves the (dare I say) conventional harmonics of Baroque music. It was a weird return to normalcy after the stringent compositions that preceded it. (I felt the audience members behind me stir in interest, and then in appreciation. Nicely done, Mr B.) Six groups of dancers, five corp groups and the lead couple, represent the six moving voices, though the lead couple retains the singing melody at all times. It is a moving tableau of bodies, exploring permutations on a motif. Heather Ogden and Ian Grosh were the lead couple tonight. She was majestic in contrast to Magnicaballi’s restrained melancholy, and Ian Grosh found the dignity and simplicity in movement that should have gone into Mozartiana. When they finally bade the curtains to go down, Ogden gestured with authority, imbuing her hands with weight. Here endeth the masterclass, they say. I don’t have anything to add to last night’s observations about Mejia’s Romeo and Juliet. Holowchuk and Henning make it work despite the choreography, though they were less spontaneous in performance tonight. Despite some sour flourishes by the french horn, Tchaikovsky got another elegant performance, its floridity sufficiently subdued to keep it on this side of parody.

Program A: Mozartiana, Episodes, Romeo and Juliet The Suzanne Farrell Ballet Wednesday, 6 November 2013 Eisenhower Theater, Kennedy Center Washington DC Orchestra U 107, V103 Mozartiana was the first ballet that I ever saw live. I love the solemn pageantry, the evocation of French courtly manners, and best of all, the feather light displays of petit allegro. What continues to amaze me is the range of emotion that different ballerinas call forth in the same choreography. Suzanne Farrell, in her 1983 televised performance, was joyfully spiritual, even triumphant; Whelan, the first woman I saw in the role, evokes dignity and command even seen years apart, though the initial imperiousness seems to have melted into a calmer self-reflection; and Veronika Part, an earthly Dulcinea, warm and loving. Heather Ogden in the same ballet called forth serenity. Her dancing brought to mind teachings from the taoist canon, which emphasizes naturalness, simplicity and spontaneity. It was not a static performance; there was always the sense that we see only those bright facets that the ballerina chooses to show to us, that there is more of the enigma hovering just out of reach. Preghiera is an invocation, but last night my mind veered off of Christian prayer to that of invocation of the Muse at the beginning of the Iliad, asking for divine inspiration to guide his hand in dance. It's rather appropriate: his first surviving masterpiece is a celebration of Muses (Apollo, 1927), while what is more or less his last work calls on them for their favor. Ogden sets the stage with four girl attendants. Despite the mismatch in size, as some attendants were visibly and bigger than others, their solemn dignity complemented Ogden's prayer well. Ogden has a very lovely and calm bourrée, and she uses it well, though I would have liked to see Ogden utilize her back and head more fully to match. Ian Grosh was the courtly jester in the Gigue. He is not yet comfortable in the role, more concerned with the fiendishly difficult footwork than the proper conveyance of manner. However, this is a complaint not unique to this performance. I continue to scream (in a vacuum, it seems) that this jester should be the most dignified person in the room. He is not a clown, and nobility bearing should permeate his upper body. I have yet to see sufficient consideration and weight given to the sparse simplicity of the port de bras. In this respect, Grosh was more effective in the Menuet, as he remembered to give proper attention to his carriage as he took his leave of the audience. On that note, I would like to give a discommendation to his execution of the petit allegro. The dancing should give more consideration to distance covered rather than the height attained during steps. What I saw last night was all up-and-down and flattened the choreography to an unhappy extreme. I continue not to have much to say about the Menuet. From memory, I think it's a piece better seen straight on than from above. It was excellently performed, but it is the choreographical weak link in Mozartiana and thus hard to make much of. Despite the suggestions of Dresden Shepherdesses in costuming and hairstyle, these women are courtly attendants. I wanted the women to demonstrate solemnity that their girlish counterparts had displayed to great effect, as I think the elegance would keep the pastoral portrait from imploding in triteness. Mozartiana is a ballerina's ballet, and Michael Cook very intelligently recognizes this, devoting himself to displaying Ogden like a shining treasure. Occasionally his bearing is too ardently yearning, but that is a slight correction. Despite the disparity in petit allegro — that is, Cook demonstrates an understanding of its execution and goal (that of clean, fleeted footwork that hovers over and across space rather than simply measuring its height) — the casting demands that we compare he and Grosh as doppelgängers. They are sufficiently similar in coloring and build, calling back to the mirroring of girl and woman attendants, and who are ultimately refracted shadows of the ballerina herself. Cook initially tries for sharply etched movements in his solos, calling equal attention to the choreography as well as the occasionally blurry execution of it. I think I (and he) enjoyed it more as he relaxed into the music, and it showed in his increased ease (and ironically, clarity) of movement. I wish that I have other Farrell stagings of this ballet for comparison, especially when it came to the final tableau. What came to mind was not of the ballerina ascendant, but a sense of reconciliation, of disparate parts reaching rapport, celebrating a harmonious oneness in purpose. It was joyous enough to make this perpetually grumpy observer burst into discreet tears. Allan Lewis is the new(?) conductor this year, and he lead the orchestra in giving a finely textured performance. However, I will note that like cowbells, one can never have too much glockenspiel in the variations. Holly Hynes's costumes worked well for the female attendants, but the fringes on Ogden's bodice detracted from its elegance. The swooping excess seemed more appropriate for a gypsy dress meant for the tavern scene in Don Q. Similarly, Michael Cook's vest was too low cut. The objective is courtliness, not Eurotrash. Ballet Austin provided the corps for my first and last experience with Episodes in 2008, which incidentally was my first experience with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet. I find that I rather miss them in this iteration. I miss the full-bodied physicality that their dancers brought to the round. It is too refined this time. I won't bore my gentle reader with too many wild theories about the name. After all, Episodes? Episodes of what? They could be called "anecdotes", but episodes imply repetition and continuity. Episodes is a weird, dreamlike echo of Four Temperaments and Agon. We see quotations from both works, some weirdly abandoned in the middle of its execution. When I first saw it, I stared at blankly and wondered if perhaps Balanchine was having me on. Who, what, antlers?! On a more serious note, if we were to talk about progressions, we could talk about the progression of womanly bodies from the petit, short-waisted Paola Hartley in Symphony, to the statuesque but long-waisted (shades of Aroldingen!) Jordyn Richter in Five Pieces, to the shapely but humanly sized Elisabeth Holowchuk in Concerto, to the Balanchine archetype that is Natalia Magnicaballi in the Riccerata. The juxtaposition of soloist and (where available) corps bodies in the first three movements is especially piquant when compared to the physical homogeneity of the Riccerata. But then, I could be reading into it too much. I don't do too well with black-and-whites on my initial viewings, so I will save more detailed choreographic comments for the second night. The first movement (Symphony) was tentatively performed, though it settled down as the orchestra grew in confidence. Jordyn Richter was all cool nonchalance in contrast to Ted Seymour's guilelessness. He is a very intelligent dancer and carefully rations his theatricality to delicious effect. Holowchuk and Henning (substituting for Cook) performed the Concerto. Holowchuk never makes the same movement twice, and she coolly twists Cook into knots of bodies and limbs. I really appreciated Cook's ability to make the choreography look natural rather than silly (which did happen later in the program, but more on that later). Magnicaballi and Guervich were the courtly leads in the minor-key Riccercata, conveying a sense of subdued personal tragedy into the moving tableau. Their downward sweeping gesture at the finale is done with great delicacy; it is equal parts request and reminder that we must now leave them. (I moved to V103 for this portion of the program) While I enjoyed Mejia's Eight by Adler, I didn't hold much confidence for his Romeo and Juliet, if in part because I have no confidence that anyone can overcome the musical cliché of the Tchaikovsky suite. I am sad to say that my suspicions were mostly confirmed. Holowchuk and Henning did marvelous acting (poor Ian Grosh had a thankless job as a thrashing Tybault), but it wasn't enough to save the brawny and sometimes anti-musical choreography, by which I mean that the action on stage clashed against the musical mood. Mejia does have a fine sense of theater, and I liked his neo-German Expressionist staging, especially in the costuming. Some of the action made me think (rather uncomfortably) that the choreographer had a series of striking tableau in mind, but not the steps to fill and link them. At the end, I remarked to my friend that I liked it better when they weren't dancing, and I still can't bring myself to retract that statement.