Juliet

I really felt like Alice when I went to the performance of "Tchaikovsky" recently....I looked around at all these people filling City Center, obviously being moved or enjoying this performance. I really Don't Get It. (And it is not because I am not Russian or Dramatic Enough: I am both.) I thought it was awful. Screamingly funny in its obviousness and yet this awful mawkishness was overlaid on a very solid foundation. The dancers were beautiful, the partnering of the men very skilled, the lighting, sets and costumes well done. Opening on a dramatically lit scene of Tchaikovsky contorted in bed ("The great composer is dying..."), the dancer then proceeds to examine his left foot in great detail (bunions? ill-fitting shoes?) and a respite from the contortions arrives with Carabosse......the first appearance of Carabosse. During the course of the ballet she appears several times, usually in the character of Nadezda Von Meck---the little rat hat she wears later is particularly appealing.... All of the women in the ballet wear rat hats--figuratively, if not literally. I have seldom seen such a misogynistic choreographer---some like Bejart just do not have much use for women in their work, but this was just plain nasty. Somehow I don't think it was simply a reflection of Tchaikovsky's feelings, but there was an awful lot of flinging around (humans) and bourrees (swans) and that was pretty much the extent of the choreography for the female dancers. Tchaikovsky's wife had a very well-done variation with her scarf/straitjacket....she was very good, actually. I thought the entire thing was appealing in its badness----but surely an entire City Center run can not be filled with people payiing good money for bad/crude ballet. I half-expected to like it, actually, for its baroque theatricality, from all I had read previously. I love the music, I love exuberance, I love well-trained dancers (even in bad choreography---like a beautiful body showing through an ill-fitting suit.) I must be down the wrong rabbit hole, is all. I am really happy for those who attended and thought it was wonderful: may you spend further enjoyable evenings at the ballet. I am sorry not to share your love for this production but I thought it was atrocious, formulaic choreography and a crude presentation of a gifted and troubled artist. I simply cannot understand the accolades for this.

What about the egregious Pied Piper? Where does that fall? I'm sorry, whenever I think about "new works" in the same sentence as "ABT" that is what comes to mind...... I am hoping that the money will be spent on something a little less "trickster" than rats, exploding plastic flowers, and swamp monsters....back to the *old* ABT, which I quite loved......

I've also seen it-- This is not my favourite musical, by a long shot, but I know it very well. I thought it had new life in it, I thought it far less hackneyed and stereotyped than the film version or other productions which I have attended. Just to prove a point to myself (I loved it the first time I saw it and wanted to make certain that I was just not being misty-eyed), I took two young professional dancers with me to gauge their reactions. One knew it intimately, the other slightly, and they were both very, very impressed. The dancing was interesting to watch, the performers sustainiing a character-believability throughout, as well. I have to disagree with atm about the costumes--they were well designed to withstand the rigors of performance, the subtle details (like fastenings) were appropriate, the weathering/aging of the materials done well, and the fabric choices perfectly in time (down to the differentiation in petticoats, bloomers and wooly stockings.) Admittedly, I am looking at this as a professional costumer and admittedly-amateur costume historian, but I have been doing this for many, many years. (I had minor quibbles about some of the hairstyles, but...:rolleyes:) I think it's an interesting production--the lighting is especially noteworthy--- although the Gershwin is a fairly charmless venue..... It is a dark musical in some ways (Rogers was not exactly Mr. Sweetness and Light), but I was much more terrified of the Judd in the film version--this actor has a magnificent voice and, let's face it, a great role to flesh out. The dream sequence was all in black and white and the dance hall girls were a lilting note in what was essentially a fairly haunting sequence. By the way, I think it is perfectly appropriate for a younger audience, if this is a concern to some, as nothing is even remotely graphic as compared to the current offerings on MTV or VH1. For me, this Oklahoma was well sung, well danced, well-produced, well-played and vastly more interesting in some ways for contemporary audiences than the original. Different, but just as worthy.

Dairy Queen......Dairy Fairies with milk moustaches. This is priceless. My next project, I hope...... (This is my favourite thread since the sublime ones on computer viruses and Sleeping Beauty fairies....)

Dairy Queen......Dairy Fairies with milk moustaches. This is priceless. My next project, I hope...... (This is my favourite thread since the sublime ones on computer viruses and Sleeping Beauty fairies....)

I went to two performances of this workshop this weekend (it was the NY Choreographic Institute). Four choreographers' works-in-progress were presented: Ben Millepied, Damian Woetzel,Sabrina Matthews, and Alexei Ratmansky. The Ratmansky effrort was the one I liked the least---it was lots of running on the diagonal, grand passionate lifts, flinging oneself backward onto the floor and the final impassioned kiss and then backward collapse (as opposed to Flinging) onto the floor..... Not Much There. I don't just mean the steps/absence/elimination thereof. It was very Russian,very impassioned (this is a direct quotation from the choreographer) but very derivative (do I see every Soviet balletic cliche ?)and having no emotional or dramatic core. No core, no steps....what is left? Lots of bravura dancing to smoke. ...the dancers were very good, but it pretty much was the equivalent of a beautiful curtain to hide the emptiness. The remaining three pieces were quite interesting---obviously works-in-progress, but they left me wanting to see more. Millepied did two dances to music by Steve Reich and as it was entirely rhythmical (Clapping Music, Typing Music), the steps, figures and structure were for me more evident --very crisp and delineated. I really didn't see the need for much cleaning, actually. Matthews' work was set to a Bach Partita for violin and I found it very interesting, mostly as a result of the contrast between the highly structured music and the movement, which was very inorganic and expressive. She stated that she wanted to give the dancers scope for individual expression within a set framework and I liked the contrast between the movement and the music......it was really beautiful but must have been very difficult to dance. Woetzel used a series of songs by Copland and while I think it could use a little cleaning and less pyrotechnics, a number of the shapes and images I retained from this series of pieces were very arresting---a good marriage of music and dancing, a beautiful use of his chosen dancers. It was a very stimulating program.....but the Ratmansky piece seemed very empty (well, almost formulaic). This was a workshop performance, the choreographers had eight days to develop and rehearse pieces.....however, with the other three pieces, I saw a lot more than steps.

I completely agree with Michael's first sentence. Wheeldon is also working in Boston......and surely, somewhere else as well?

but what are they WEARING?????? I get agitated just thinking about it.....

but what are they WEARING?????? I get agitated just thinking about it.....

Considering that she is a major spokesperson for Gaynor Minden, it would be surprising if she were not wearing them.

Oh my. This sounds as if it would immediately qualify for a Balletalertnik field trip....although perhaps not for the reasons we usually like to attend performances. I feel really badly for the dancers. All that beauty, all that work, all that love for the art, and such a mess. Perhaps I would feel differently were I to actually see it.....however....

Talk about getting hung up on your costume.......

Thank you, Jeannie! I'm really enjoying reading these reviews (and very happy to hear that Makhalina is dancing well--she has always remained a favourite of mine. I can just imagine her in that clapping variation in Raymonda.... Looking forward to hearing your impressions of Cinderella......

1. Tchaikovsky 2. Delibes (with an abiding soft spot in my heart for Prokofiev's R & J score.)

Alexandra, don't forget the hunting calls in recent Sleeping Beauty. Truly beyond description.

Oh, I think it's set in. You bet your bottom hook and eye it is. But I don't think discussing it in a public forum is anything I'm going to do!!!! [ February 24, 2002: Message edited by: Juliet ]

No, they have rehearsal tutus. It is purely a question of misguided aesthetics..... Aurora as one of the girls in Fancy Free...... I love high extensions. Aurora doesn't need them. I was happy to see that as the Kirov administration is not reining this sort of thing in, they are at least managing to tack the tutus on this tour....

All of this comes just-in-time for tonight's Russia-vs-USA ice hockey semifinal game...on the 22nd anniversary of the 'Miracle on Ice' game (Lake Placid 1980). ******* GUESS WHO WON!!!!!! Ta Da!!!!!

Perhaps Nezvegsky was taking a little nap. After all, Russian/ Eastern bloc judging has always been so unbiased......

I omitted the obvious: when someone I love is dancing. (That's when I get exasperated at being a watering-pot.)

I cry at everything. Don't watch TV, so I'm not a candidate, but I know that I cry much more frequently at dance performances than at opera/theatre. In opera, there is always the bad enunciation/pronunciation to jerk me around the bend....with ballet it is much more visceral. Sometimes I have to really pull myself up short so I don't completely miss something because I am weeping...and of course, sometimes a performance will affect much more strongly depending on what is occurring in one's life. Some music will turn on the spigots even if there is nothing going on onstage (this can get embarrassing during rehearsals when one is trying to fit a costume!) Preghiera from Mozartiana is a sure bet. Serenade. Lots of Romeo and Juliet. A good bit of Swan Lake....well, I have to be utterly honest and say a good bit of Tchaikovsky. Lots of Midsummer Night's Dream/The Dream. Oh well, I have lots of hankies (emboidered, of course!) It's interesting, while I shy away from anything sad in movies or theatre, I always go to the ballet.

NO7, I was being fairly kind about his physical appearance. People cannot help how they look. They can help what they do with their stage makeup and how they comport themselves onstage in a professional performance of this calibre. I have seen him in othr roles, and in television snippets from this production (partnering Ayupova) and he was quite nice. I have no complaint about his dancing at all, and I apologise if I gave that impression.

Well, I'm happy that *someone* got to see Korsuntsev! Finally. I was really disappointed, as he was supposed to be at a performance in NYC on Monday last, with Zakharova, but didn't show. Tell us everything!

What an entrancing prospect...... Carabosse has a Bad Kitty one, but I wish they all had them.....

JULIET -- ARE YOU OUT THERE? Why does Lilac get into the boat wearing the blue shoes and come in to the Awakening Scene wearing white ones? Fairies, even Wise Ones, are capricious. She wears the periwinkle ones with the lilac silk chiffon, and wears the white with the Grand Bustle one. Who's to say......at least she didn't wear one of each. Another shoe note: Last night's Prince darkened his instep to simulate heeled shoes in the grand pas de deux. Interesting! Did anyone else like the red heels on some of the men? I did! I wish the King and Queen's had been jewelled, however.....