Giannina

I AM jealous! And....green green green. Giannina

I've had a Sat. night subscription at Orange County Performing Art Center since the Dance Season started years ago, and we chose that night for the reason you mentioned: the BIG night. I cannot say we get the big stars; in fact sometimes it's the only night that the big stars don't dance. I don't know if they're hob-nobbing with the Hollywood celebrities, or shopping til they drop at South Coast Plaza, or just what the story is. Giannina

Mary J....read it; loved it. I love horses. Looking at the book and title you wouldn't think a non-horse-lover would enjoy it, but my husband and daughter did. I doubt the movie will measure up. Giannina

I'm with you in that I've never seen it before, but the fact that Kronstam is in it makes it extremely interesting. rg? Alexandra? Giannina

Joffrey Ballet of Chicago; Sunday afternoon, June 30; Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. I haven’t seen Joffrey for ages and it was nice to catch up with them. The all-Arpino program began with “Suite Saint-Saens”. Nice enjoyable piece; very nice choreography for the corps as they filled the stage with dance. The Serenade pas de trois has a man (Sam Franke) partnering 2 women (Karthleen Thielheim and Valerie Robin) and the women dance in mirror image of each other. When done correctly (they had a few lapses) it is extremely effective. It would have been better had both women been wearing seamless tights rather than one with seams and the other without! Next came “I/DNA”. Deborah Dawn danced the role of the Mother and was the only dancer I recognized from the last time I saw the company. Tony Montalvo danced the roll of The Man as a Child and was excellent. That being said I’ll end with this….if you want to see a mother watching her innocent son being executed in an electric chair then this baby is for you! “L’Air D’Esprit” followed, a tribute to Olga Spessivtzeva with Suzanne Lopez and Willy Shives. Very pretty, very classical, trying to be Giselle-ish. I’ll split hairs and say that this short, healthy dancer did not look like Spessivtzeva. Years ago Alexandra had a Thread in which we were to list ballets we were embarrassed to admit we loved. I joined Alexandra in choosing “Carmen”; there’s an Eliot Feld ballet about Americana and cheerleaders, etc.; and there’s the final selection of today’s program, “Light Rain”. This thing is pure sleeze but I’m a sucker for the pas de deuxs; love ‘em. In the lead were Trinity Hamilton and Sam Franke. You’ve got to have a perfect body and great legs to dance the female lead, and Trinity fills the bill. No room for hyper extended knees, or a strange turn-out, or wishy-washy feet; and any errant bulge will stand out like a mountain in those tighter than tight tights. Lordy! Of course it brought the house down. Pleiades, you're not a lone dumb (numb?) nut; I'm a dumb nut too. Giannina

I have it on a laser disc. Giannina

I'll say! Giannina

Oh, dear. I saw Eifman’s "Tchaikovsky" tonight. It was a mixed bag. To begin with, the audience’s applause ethic lost all credence when they applauded the house lights dimming. I simply give up! My largest impression was the ballet’s angst. Jeez, fellas; lighten up a bit; I’ve never seen so much suffering. My 2nd largest impression was that the dancing was big. Big leaps, big lifts, big motions from side to side, big arabesques, big flowing skirts/scarves/etc. I didn’t hate it. I didn’t hate the first act more than I didn’t hate the 2nd act which was really quite boring compared to the 1st. OK, I’ll admit it: for the most part I enjoyed it. It was heavy and the dancing was not what I expect from a ballet, so taking all of that into consideration going in, I enjoyed it. Galichanin was Tchaikovsky and suffered nobly. Povorozniuk was his wife and I liked her, and her dramatic choreography, a lot. I also liked whoever danced Dosselmeyer. I found the corps’ choreography interesting. None of the usual line-up-in-formation-and-do-the-same-steps but rather a group of people dancing with abandon. Extremely noisy toe shoes on the ladies. I've seen Eifman once before and I think the trick to enjoying him is to think "Eifman" when you see his ballets. No fair thinking Petipa or Ashton; that just won't work. There were kids present and, like the Don Giovanni thread, I wonder what the heck their parents were thinking. I’d hate to take my child home from that ballet and have him/her start asking question about what was going on! Giannina

I have a poster of Makarova doing a grand jete from Act III of Don Q. Her legs are in a perfect split and just below hip level; her back is leg is slightly bent but in a perfect attitude line and perfectly turned out. Feet pointed with the toe of the back foot slightly higher than its heel. I've already used the word 3 times in this post but to me this is "perfection". Giannina

Thanks, BW. Giannina

Recently I've been aware of my elbows and I try to keep them in. I'm short so I'm hoping my elbows are way below everyone's eye level. None the less I'm glad you called my attention to the problem and I will try my best to keep myself contained. Other than over-applauders my main gripe is people who lean forward in their seat, usually/seemingly wrapt in attention. While they're wrapt I can't see a darn thing. But I digress. Giannina

Extra wide focus....never heard of that but I think that's what I need. I use my opera glasses a lot. I usually get the best balcony seats available but still use the glasses for solos and pdd's. As I said in the "Where do you look" thread, I watch legs and feet and with my lousy eyesight I need opera glasses to see them well. The down side is that I miss seeing the entire stage. If there's more than one couple dancing, or if the couple dancing the pdd are saparated from each other I'll forego the glasses. Using the opera glasses is not easy for me. I have them on a cord around my neck. I wear regular glasses which are also on a cord around my neck. If I need the opera glasses I whip off my regular glasses and have them dangle against the left side of my body as I pick up the opera glasses and use them. When I no longer need the opera glasses I reverse the process, but if I'm not careful I can get the cords entangled and miss a lot of ballet as I try to extricate myself. Giannina

That's a great question, and a topic of conversation I've had with several of my dance buddies. Wouldn't you know we all have different answers. For the most part I watch legs and feet. In doing that the rest of the body is in view but I do concentrate on legs and feet. I think it's because I learned about ballet as a young student and as an observer of ballet classes. At my level of dance (very low!) most of our emphasis was on turnout, arched feet, and.....well.....legs and feet, so that is what I practiced, and that is what I'd concentrate upon as I observed advanced classes. Giannina

Friday mixed bill; an enjoyable evening at Cerritos Center. The evening started with "Rubies". Had I never seen the ballet before I would have considered this performance exciting, but I have and the dancing wasn't quite angular and quirky enough. Jennifer Kronenberg and Renato Penteado starred and they were very nice. Just not angular. 15 minute intermission and then "Glinka Pas de Trois" which I had never seen. Callye Robinson, Mikhail Ilyin and Mary Carmen Catoya starred. As a trio they were lacking, but they were excellent in their solos. Ilyin stood out: very clean technique; a solid performance. Short pause, then "Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux with Deanna Seay and Carlos Guerra. They did not mesh as well as one would wish, but the ballet is flashy and, as always, pleased the audience. 15 minute intermission (I keep referring to the intermission length because of late intermissions have been nearing the half-hour mark!) and then "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue". Much to my surprise I enjoyed this ballet. It's everything I don't like in ballet: no pointe work, jazzy music, no pointe work, ballet dancers trying not to look like ballet dancers, no pointe work. But the dancers did a wonderful job and they DID look like ballet dancers in spite of no pointe work. Michelle Merrell and Yann Trividic starred. If you wanted acting you had to look elsewhere but their dancing was wonderful. I have no idea what the heck the story line was but that did not take away from the enjoyment of the ballet. Short evening; only two hours long. Villella made an appearance as the Gangster in "Slaughter...." and got healthy applause. Giannina

I think Romeo and Juliet is the newest. You can check/buy at Amazon; access it at the top right hand corner of this page so that Ballet Alert! gets a small percentage of whatever you buy. Giannina

Yes! Six Ballets Seven Ballets Nureyev's Cinderella Nutcracker Romeo and Juliet rg might have more. Giannina

I went to the Sunday matinee. To say parking was a b---h is an understatement; a gargantuan swap meet across the street (year long, or almost) stops traffic on the freeway!! This happens every year and gets progressively worse since swap meet-ers use the theater parking lot. Anyway.... This is the 3rd time I've gone to one of these performances. The performance is put on by Festival Ballet Theatre, "a regional ballet company.....to showcase talented, youthful dancers of our community", etc. I must say that I've never seen the kids look as good as they did this year. Some I have seen before. My congratulations to Salwa Rizkalla, Artistic Director of Festival Ballet Theatre. Giannina

I'd ask Merrill Ashley to explain Balanchine to me, with demonstrations. Giannina

Dunno, BW, since I couldn't get a take on the audience at Sat. night's R&J. I did not like the mixed bill, as I said in my review. Giannina

The attendance in Costa Mesa (California) was not that good. On the Thurs. night mixed bill performance the theater's 3rd Tier was about as empty as I've ever seen it for a ballet. On Sat. night we were in the First Tier so I cannot comment on the attendance that night. Attendance at the Orange County Performing Arts Center's Dance Series has been consistantly low of late. Giannina

Cranko's Onegin is on tape. Giannina

How about "Applause-Pause": dispensed with the evening's program and guaranteed to limit applause to appropriate moments. Please! Giannina

Romeo and Juliet....Cranko the seventh blue.....Christian Spuck Cindys Gift.....Douglas Lee Seventh Symphony.....Uwe Scholz Giannina

Ok, I'll give it a try. I love Bournonville. Some may look at it and say it's stiff: arms quiet, lots of movement straight up and down, men in kilts doing odd things. That's the beauty of it. The arms ARE quiet so there isn't all this visible effort getting into a passage. When the arms do move they are in sync with the movement and still quiet. Very fast flowing footwork. And the men! They have these huge leaps, lots of them straight up and down, and the body is so relaxed. Jeppesen commented on Bournonville's style in Makarova's "Ballerina" TV offering. She said that everything looks like there is no effort involved because of the seeming simplicity of the dance, but that in truth it is extremely hard. Come off a jump and land in attitude or 5th position without your body saying "Taa-daa : wonderful stuff. Giannina

dirac, he doesn't have to! Giannina