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Manhattanik, you do make me laugh...especially that "Giselle" tag team scene! I have to agree with everyone's comments. I enjoyed it, I liked seeing the snippets, thought Mark Morris was the wrong choreographer to have used for this kind of film, felt his piece at the end was a really big let down. The fighting of the male dancer stereotype was done with a rather heavy hand. (I kept thinking that Ethan Steifel really was nuts for riding around on his Harley without a helmet, but guess that was part of the "manly" emphasis.) And yes, it was rather odd that there was only that one, brief, glimpse of any partnering - with a female, that is. However, for all these negatives, I still enjoyed it and think it was pretty successful, generally speaking. As Dale wrote: Time to drop a note of thanks and encouragement off to PBS and Great Performances.

Well, I know there are at least a couple of people here and there who walk past this bus stop regularly, so I hope they'll tell us. I feel a letter coming on. By the way, Farrell Fan, I'm in agreement...though, often, the ads for certain items are so stupid I do remember - such as that really bad one about "losing the carbs, not the taste" for, uh, um, is it Coors Light? ;) I see the billboard everyday.

Is this the first airing? If not, does anyone know how long the program will run?

Thanks you two and many thanks to the person who ammended that ignorant ad campaign's poster! What is it supposed to be advertising, anyway?

Just an aside here - I really have to disagree with the view of the corps dancers as being, on the whole, thin, very thin or emaciated. My dancing daughter and I both feel strongly that the corps does not look thin. In our views, there are two - one in particular who is also quite tall - who are quite thin...but frankly, I was commenting the other night that I found them on the whole to be quite "healthy" looking. Several of the corps members, in my opinion, have rather atypical ballet bodies...certainly they are not the stereotypical Balanchine bodies to be sure. It's odd how different people see the same things and see them so differently, isn't it? To me, the corps looks quite healthy and actually quite happy too. To my eyes, there are many more smiles this season.

Here's a question from a nondancer: Hans, if it took you a year to do this, and I have no idea if you are being humble or not, how do dancers who move around to various ballet companies do it? On the first level we have students who study at SAB and get positions at ABT or Boston Ballet? Or what about people such as Robert Tewsley who is now with NYCB... I realize you are not saying "it can't be done!" yet, so many seem to say it's either or: classical or neo classical; Vaganova or not... Granted, changes take time, each dancer must have their own learning curve, but I have to believe these different styles (techniques?!) are not exclusively independent in perpetuity? I suppose "the answer" to "how they do it" is with time.

You know, I think I may have read The Silmarillion along time ago, as well. I'll give the site a look through a non AOL source, thanks Mel.

Mel, and all of you other folks who've posted so eloquently, I must ask - where do you get all your information? Granted, I haven't read the trilogy in many, many years, but still! Is there an annotated text? All right, that was obviously a dumb question! I just clicked on the Tolkien Scocitey link!:eek: Do they offer a PHD in Tolkien? Oddly, the text on parts of the site is rather unclear - sort of like a double exposure.

Just thought this thread might be worth reviving, as I know there are quite a number of new posters, and readers, on board.

Thanks "rk," I felt the same way about Slaughter on Tenth Ave. I guess sexiness is in the eye of the beholder. ;) I attended last night, Tuesday's, performance to see "Haiku" and I was not disappointed! My daughter had seen it last summer at SPAC and I'd never heard her so excited in her short life about anything - she insisted we had to go; that I had to see it! How to describe it? I'm not up to it but I found it refreshing, striking, amazing, shocking, fun, thoughtful and dramatic. Great costumes - really beautiful and flattering to Aesha Ash, who was mesmerizing throughout, Faye Arthurs and Carla Korbes. Stephen Hanna, Sebastien Marcovici and Seth Orza were their partners and I loved seeing them fly across the stage on their own, as well as, watch their skills in partnering in this very unusual and stylized performance. The lighting was very effective. The music by John Cage is certainly not what one usually hears when one attends the ballet but in my opinion it worked really well with the provactive choreography on stage. Albert Evans did a great job. I hope he is encouraged to continue while still performing, himself, at NYCB. A friend who went with me said she thought it was something one needed to see a second time in order to really appreciate it fully due to its "different" nature... I would like to see it again to have a second chance to really watch it... Sadly, it's not featured in too many of the season's performances and I don't think it's going to be in the Spring season either. I would love to have seen them learn it and rehearse it because, as a non musician, I can't even begin to understand how they did it!

balletshoe, I wondered if that might be the reason you were asking. My daughter attends BAE, too. I have to believe that Darla must have a copy of this. I'd love to see it, too.

balletshoe, I just did a "search" on the videos forum and am afraid that I didn't come up with much encouraging news. Perhaps you should post again down there: http://www.balletalert.com/forum/showthrea...hlight=Serenade I, too, would love to have a copy of this. I wonder why it is that it is, apparently, not on any videotape or DVD? I wonder if The Balachine Trust might have an answer?

Robert Greskovic has a wonderful way of explaining the "two faces" of ballet, which I think relates quite a bit to this discussion and this article. It's found in the beginning of his introduction to Ballet 101, on page xiii, where he writes: "Ballet, the world seems to say, has two faces. One is the frighteningly unfamiliar, leading people to insist, "I don't understand it." The other appears quite ordinary and perfectly understandable, inspiring news reporters to describe, for example, the successful docking of one space vehicle with another as "space ballet," confident that the reader will find the usage perfectly clear. If pressed, the person capable of having both the above reactions will say that in the first instance they're talking about the formal activity and behavior on a stage. Meanwhile, in the latter example, the word stand for any sophisticated activity smoothly accomplished that looks effortless. So it's not ballet that people fail to understand, it's Ballet, with a capital B." Mr. Greskovic goes on to point out that if you can understand the "ballets of space modules in orbit, or dolphins...you do understand the essence of ballet, even with its big B and its individuals on stage doing things with their limbs and especially their feet that look quite unlike what you do with your own appendages. The common denominator of this double-edged vision is perfection of participant and of execution." As much as I'd love to keep on typing his words, I'm sure that wouldn't be acceptable...but they are well worth reading and rereading - it's a great book. However, the reason I brought it up was mostly due to this last line about "perfection"...since that is what the journalist Mr. Ferguson quotes his father's description of ballet and then, his own descriptions of why he does fall under its spell, as well. So back to the question of perfection. Is it attainable? Does it really matter if it is or is not? Just a thought.

Thank you Farrell Fan.

Wonderful idea, "rk"! By the way, is this the publication that Francis Mason is involved with?

Thanks Leigh, I'd actually been to their website and that email address didn't work. Guess I'll resort to the phone and/or the NYCB bookstore... dirac - appreciate your synopsis. My unlearned reaction when I saw it was that they were exactly that the"harbingers of death" and definitely felt a funereal twinge as they made their tophatted entrance...I could almost hear the horses' hooves on the cobblestones... Unfortunately, I did not really care for the ballet - whether this was due, in part to Askegard's costume and portrayal ...or just the general piece, I cannot say. Naturally, I am speaking here in regard to my emotional response...not specifically to the choreography, but the ballet as a whole.

atm711, where does one find "Ballet Review" and/or is it by subscription only?

Thank you FF for reviving this thread and for filling in with your own particulars, as well! Skip, I can understand the "addiction" to reading Ballet Alert and Ballet Talk...but it is probably good that you can't do it too much while in school... Wow! Pamela, you do have a good memory. Sparkle J - have you seen the Adult Forum? There are quite a few people that have either come late to ballet or have returned to it... You know, I'm going to have to go back to the home page of Ballet Alert! to see when the site first began... I know I read some information about the different countries that are represented by registered posters... It is a far reaching community, that I do know.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! What a wonderful source of information! Interestingly, today I was speaking to someone who had studied music and piano, and she had brought up Schumann's spiral into madness and thought that the dark, quill pen wielding figures might have been his "demons"...and as Farrell Fan has explained, in a away, they are just that. ;) I'm also glad you brought up "Square Dance" as I thought Peter Boal, in particular, was superb...but how I would have loved seeing it done with a caller and a fiddle player! I'm sorry that they don't do that anymore. I also thank you for your details in re Valentina Kozlova... I knew she had danced in the revival but until your mentioning it, FF, no one had mentioned it. I can bet she was a show stopper. Thank you all so much for the details...I really did find "Davidsbundlertanze" a bit obscure. If only they had included some notes in the program!! This, for me, was an example where you could really have used them. Again, thanks to all of you... I am going to reread everyone's comments, for sure.

Agreed that there "should" not be any influence. Sadly, I guess there is...and I think Leigh's point about the lack of critics in a smaller venue make it all the worse. I like to read different review of the same performances. It seems to me that the problems arises when there is only one critic in print.

We attended last night and saw, among other things, "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" - all I can say is WOW! Maria Kowroski was unbelievable in that role of the "Strip Tease Girl" - what legs, what dancing, what allure! I've read about her performances on other sections of the board...and now I understand. Amazing, truly. Damian Woetzel was none to shabby himseelf - he really is awfully good at the acting part of their performances, besides being an accomplished dancer...and in this case a tap dancer! If you've never seen this ballet, you really ought to try - it's very different from most...very much like a non singing musical... Jason Fowler and Stephen Hanna were very humorous in their performances as the bartenders...both they and the policemen, played by Antonio Carmena, Aaron Severini and Daniel Ulbricht were excellent to - great precision and humor. Not to mention the rather Nureyev-like parody of Morrosine, played by Adam Hendrickson... I know it came from "On Your Toes"... Can someone tell me a little history of "On Your Toes"? I know it's a Rodgers and Hammerstein production...why did I think it was Jerome Robbins? Next: Someone please tell me what "Davidsbundlertanze" means - David's dream dances? Many people seemed to like this piece...I did not, generally speaking. Right now, I'm most interested in its title. Seeing Kyra Nichols was a real treat for us, though, I must add.

Leigh, I really do understand and agree with the points you make, especially, in your last paragraph. I appreciate your comparison to English literature and poetry, for that I do have some background in...as opposed to the fact that I have never studied ballet or choreography - only watched it. Diane andCalliope, I think you are both right! Early exposure can be either a key, or a dead bolt to the appreciation of the "high arts" - whichever forms taken. Here is my question, an offshoot if you will: do you all believe that someone who is not educated in the specific "high art" - such as ballet - is able to appreciate this art, in a way that meets the standards deserved by its "highness"?

I'm certainly no medievalist, but if Chaucer wanted fame and fortune, he probably knew he'd have to put pen to paper...plus how else could he remember it! Even the Bible finally made it to print, right? In regard to your comments obbligato, where you say you might be "oversimplifying"... I think that simplicity can often be a virtue. ;) That being said, I tend to hold with your views when you said As I didn't see The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, I can't comment on it from a personal point of view...nevertheless, I do believe that a work of art, and art meaning "Art" as in the ultimate kind, has to transcend the five senses. Does that sound too vague? You wrote that Although I wonder if it is necessarily a catalyst for "good or evil", I do think it does function in part as a catalyst to thought, and emotion. Earlier, Leigh, I believe you wrote that you believed education was necessary to truly understanding "high art"... At first, I nodded in agreement... but then, I changed my mind. Education can give one the words to explain the meaning or the method but I do not believe it is mandatory to experience "high art." To me the experience of art is based more upon the "eye" or the "soul" or whatever you'd like to call that inner quality of spirit or? that every human has, unless they've become so inured to life that they cannot feel or think. I know that I'm opening myself up to comments that might say that to appreciate "high art" doesn't always require "feeling" but I disagree. By using the word "feeling", I don't necessarily mean emotion. Perhaps, again, it's a matter of knowing the right words to use? obbligato your last statement "And, sometimes, it's only in hingsight that we know which art is which" seems to be historically often the case!

isabella, it was stated on an earlier "thread" that the person to contact was Mignon Furman. I did contact her quite a while ago, gave her the name and address and never did receive any information...but hope springs eternal! So give her a call! 212-787-9500 Let us know if you find out anything!

Good for you Treefrog! I think there are some here who felt that he was captivated as well... I agree that not wanting or needing to "be seen" is a compliment, as well! The good news is that he obviously liked what he saw on stage!