Worst of 2004

[Alexandra]

What are the things you'll want to forget from 2004? The Worst List.

[Kathleen O'Connell]

What are the things you'll want to forget from 2004?  The Worst List.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Musgète. It was indeed unforgettable, and it will haunt me until the end of my days. Through it, I was transported to another realm, a realm in which Bizzaro World Balanchine is inspired to:

1) hack a movement from Bach here and a finale from Tchaikovsky there, fling them at the orchestra in whatever order he happens to rip them out of the score, et voila! effortlessly devise background music for his choreo-montages (Bach is, like, you know, really really classy, and using his music demonstrates the depth to which one has penetrated the mysteries of art and the seriousness with which one's subject, or at least one's self, must be taken -- and it's all off copyright, to boot! Tchaikovsky -- alright not so classy, but by using him one by implication kills two great birds -- no, not Odette and Von Rothbart, Petipa and that other guy -- with one stone ...) (hmmm ... Odile kills Odette and Von Rothbart with one stone ... a stone laden with now sadly out of fashion Oedipal import ... but first they all writhe around a lot in solitary agony, or in pairs, or in a trio with Prince Siegfried and his mother and pop up on pointe a couple of times and show off their extensions and do an off center en dedans priouette with an en dehors preparation -- see, we know our classical vocabulary -- and then they die ... except for Odile ... I love Odile but I hate her too ... Odile, Tragic Muse ... aha! next ballet! Must book City Center NOW!);

2) devise choreography to make good dancers look bad (to paraphrase Eifman's own amusing program notes: a brilliant development and transformation of the traditions of Russian ballet to make possible the the evolution of dance from the 19th ot the 21st century ...);

3) put them in cheesy costumes to make them look even worse;

4) see how many clichés, I mean, references to the traditions of dance and dance theatre can be deployed in one ballet; and

5) pack it all into a lurid, puddle-of-conciousness narrative -- note please that "It is not a biographical ballet, but there is the personality of the choreographer" -- to make Deep Inner Meaning™ and The Torment of Genius© accessible to the many.

"Unable to free myself from this spell" I can do nothing but write incoherent run-on sentences and the result is this post. (Really, the program notes were almost worth the price of admission.) OK, I liked the rolling chair and an innocent little bon-bon about Mourka might have been fun. I can only assume that Martins' intention was to provide a palpable demonstration of what makes Balanchine great and most of the Diamond Project ballets not bad (Vespro and La Stravaganza were Musgète warm-ups, perhaps). The bar for worst of 2005 has duly been raised.

[carbro]

Musgète. . . .  The bar for worst of 2005 has duly been raised. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Aw, gee, Kathleen, you beat me to it! And so evocatively! Brava!

[canbelto]

Some very disappointing videos: Baryshnikov in Wolf Trap was one. A very short video, and he is very miscast in Spectre a la Rose. No dreaminess, no poetry, his boyish stocky frame jumps through the window with all the feline grace of Tonya Harding. Excellent dancer, totally wrong role.

Another real disappointment was the POB Romeo and Juliet video.

But the very worst was the horror that was Grigorivich's Nutcracker, with a way too old Vasiliev and Maximova, snowflakes that wore gray Mrs. Bates wigs, a "fight" scene that basically consisted of soldiers and mice marching in opposite directions onstage, and divertissments that had all the joy of a root canal. Bar none the worst performance of a ballet I have ever seen from a world-class ballet company.

As for performances, a very sloppy Suite #3 at the State Theater with Angel Corella having a very off-night. Everyone had an off-night really.

A La Sonnambula where the petite Yvonne Borree almost toppled over with the Poet's body.

[Leigh Witchel]

Kathleen -

You can re-live the magic again on January 6, 8, 9 and 11!

Tickets on sale now. . .

[Natalia]

Hey, I bought one of those tickets, Leigh! Can't wait. Let's see if it's REALLY all that bad. ))) Maybe it is...I was somewhat disappointed with his 'Russian Hamlet' but loved the ballet that followed that one, 'Don Juan.'

Natalia (certified Eifman Fan but hopefully not a blind one)

p.s. and we have 'Anna Karenina' to look forward to this May!

...back to the subject of this thread...

My vote for 'Dud of the Year" is, without a doubt, Radu Poklitaru's crude travesty of a 'Romeo & Juliet' at the Bolshoi. Second place to that George Harrison thing by ABT, during last winter's DC tour. Third place to (sadly) Wayne Sleep & Anthony Dowell butchering the roles of the two Stepsisters with over-the-top, attention-hogging slapstick in the revival of Ashton's 'Two Sisters'....errr....'Cinderella' on the Dec 2 perf that I attended.

[Kathleen O'Connell]

Hey, I bought one of those tickets, Leigh! Can't wait.  Let's see if it's REALLY all that bad. ))) Maybe it is...I was somewhat disappointed with his 'Russian Hamlet' but loved the ballet that followed that one, 'Don Juan.'

Natalia (certified Eifman Fan but hopefully not a blind one)

p.s. and we have 'Anna Karenina' to look forward to this May!

Natalia -- I've never seen anything else by Eifman, so I don't know if Musagète is typical of his work or not. Based on what I saw, I suspect he could put on a pretty good show if he had a mind to, though. My beef with Musagète isn't that it's lurid --which is what seems to have troubled some people, and also seems to be a complaint about Eifman generally -- it's that Eifman doesn't seem to have a clue about Balanchine. It just may be that other subjects are a more fruitful field for his talents. (Let's be honest: Balanchine's biography is nothing if not fodder for a staggeringly lurid novel or a Ken Russell movie -- you couldn't make this stuff up, as they say. My guess is that it takes a deft and judicious hand to present even an outline of the facts without blundering into dangerous terrain.)

[liebs]

Raymonda at ABT was the longest bore of the season, at least the Eifman was shorter.

Corrella and Ricetto in Mozartiana at City Center seemed to be in different ballet than the one that Balanchine created.

ABT's underuse of Part and Meunier is the scandal of the year.

ANd I didn't much care for the redesign of Pillar of Fire.

[BalletNut]

The horribly depressing financial situations at Oakland Ballet, and DTH too for that matter.

The costumes from SFB's version of Who Cares? will give me nightmares for quite a while.

The fact that Cal Performances (Zellerbach Hall) always charges an arm and a leg for world-class visiting ballet companies, this year it was the Kirov and Bolshoi, and I couldn't afford even the cheapest tickets to see them.

Musagete sounds horrible. I'm really glad I was not subjected to it. The repertory index entry on NYCB's homepage is disturbing enough in and of itself.

[canbelto]

Oh yes I forgot the total snoozefest that was Raymonda. Some things are better left alone ...

[Helene]

What are the things you'll want to forget from 2004?  The Worst List.

hack a movement from Bach here and a finale from Tchaikovsky there, fling them at the orchestra in whatever order he happens to rip them out of the score, et voila! effortlessly devise background music for his choreo-montages (Bach is, like, you know, really really classy, and using his music demonstrates the depth to which one has penetrated the mysteries of art and the seriousness with which one's subject, or at least one's self, must be taken -- and it's all off copyright, to boot! Tchaikovsky -- alright not so classy, but by using him one by implication kills two great birds -- no, not Odette and Von Rothbart, Petipa and that other guy -- with one stone ...) (hmmm ... Odile kills Odette and Von Rothbart with one stone ... a stone laden with now sadly out of fashion Oedipal import ... but first they all writhe around a lot in solitary agony, or in pairs, or in a trio with Prince Siegfried and his mother and pop up on pointe a couple of times and show off their extensions and do an off center en dedans priouette with an en dehors preparation -- see, we know our classical vocabulary -- and then they die ... except for Odile ... I love Odile but I hate her too ... Odile, Tragic Muse ... aha! next ballet! Must book City Center NOW!);

I'm really glad that I could read your description and that I didn't have to see it for myself. And that the worst of what I saw this year was more of a snooze than anything that would rate a "worst."

[carbro]

NYCB's new Eifman is in a class of its own, but ABT deserves a slap on the hand for acquiring the extant (i.e., You can see it before you buy it, so you have no excuse!!!!) works of Jiri Kylian, Petite Morte and Sechs Tanze.

[perky]

Locally, a performance by the Fort Wayne Ballet called The Bad Girls of Ballet. Some of the lowlights included Cell Block Tango from Chicago. Which I happen to like in context, but take it out of context and present it as a ballet danced by ballet students and it's awful. Also don't care to see teenage dancers dressed as tarts grinding and slithering on the floor. It made me squirm in my seat and wish I had bag over my head. They also had a Western themed ballet, complete with saloon girls. It was Balanchine's Western Symphony minus the taste, talent, musicality, intelligence and humor. Ugg.

A Darci Kistler performance I saw in May of the "Clara the Muse" role in Davidsbundlertanze. It was overwrought, frantic and just weird. She could overcome her miscasting in this part by just toning it down. Balanchine's muses never try too hard, they don't have to.

The Suzanne Farrell Ballet having to cancel a planned tour.

[GeorgeB fan]

The apparent ungentlemenly firing of the wonderful Ashley Tuttle by Kevin McKenzie at ABT.

[Andre Yew]

To be fair to the Kylian works, I thought ABT butchered them when they performed them out here in California. It was completely unidiomatic dancing on their part, and shouldn't have been presented to the public without a lot more work.

--Andre

[socalgal]

A snooze ....... Royal Ballet's "Cinderella" at OCPAC (sorry folks, it was dark, cold and stiff)

An eye sore..........the NYCB corps de ballet in Symphony In C at OCPAC (girls were actually looking around to see if they were dancing the right steps and in the right spot! ) I expected more from them......

Depressing............The lack of any dance programing on A & E's Breakfast at the Arts.

[chauffeur]

The lack of any dance programing on A & E's Breakfast at the Arts.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

yeah! What's up with that? Sunday mornings used to be an often rewarding dance-viewing experience, what with A&E, Bravo and CBS Sunday Morning. Now it's just go buy the NY Times and hope for an interesting article.

[sandik]

The worst thing in my world last year wasn't a performance, but my nitwittery in missing Dance Theatre of Harlem when they were here doing Apollo (with Rasta Thomas, whom I have never seen live).

No excuse, just exhaustion.

Like everyone, I'm very sad about the financial troubles at DTH, Suzanne Farrell Co. and Oakland Ballet -- it's never good when a company has to suspend operations.

[AmandaNYC]

Now that I'm finally getting to this thread...

Musgète, by far.

No Somogyi dancing. I have missed her so!

Shambards pas de deux.

Performance-wise, I utterly despised Sylve's approach to the Who Cares? girl in th blue. The technique was there. But, I spent the whole solo going "what ballet is she dancing?". I realize she's not American, but still... it pained me.

The choreography for Kyra Nichols's solo in Double Feature. I might not be a Nichols fan, but I certainly wouldn't wish a solo on her that makes someone squirm in their seat (I did) for it's lack of... everything. I can "deal" with the rest of Stroman's choreography, but this was just bad.

The inclusion of choreographers barely influenced / far indirectly influenced by Balanchine in the Balanchine Centennial (Stroman, Eifman). I do know they need to sell tickets. But, I would have loved to have seen works by choreographers either schooled at SAB or NYCB or closely linked companies. But I guess we have lamented the Centennial programming enough.

-amanda

[chrisk217]

Another real disappointment was the POB Romeo and Juliet video.

canbelto,

I was thinking of buying the POB Romeo and Juliet video.

Actually more than thinking: it resides, for the moment, in my Amazon basket, waiting for check out.

I know that tastes vary but I'd like to know what it was you did not like in the POB R&J...

Thanks in advance,

Christine

Edited January 19, 2005 by chrisk217

[canbelto]

I wrote a rather detailed review of it on Amazon. Basically, I hated Nureyev's production. I found it heavyhanded, way too mature, and just plain busy. Here's what I wrote:

------------------------------

Rudolf Nureyev contributed so much to ballet that it seems ungrateful to criticize his ballet stagings (mostly at the Paris Opera Ballet). Indeed, his La Bayadere staging remains one of the best. But this Romeo and Juliet is simply misguided in so many respects.

For one, Nureyev's staging is way too long, with too many intermittent scenes. The video runs to 150 minutes. MacMillan understood how to juxtapose crowd scenes, character-setting dances, and pas de deux. He overall keeps the ballet moving at an astonishingly fast clip, even though the ballet is very long (about 2 hours). Nureyev's Act 3 has SEVEN scene changes.

Nureyev also does not seem to trust the story itself, and adds a lot of heavyhanded imagery and symbolism. A skeleton is prominently displayed on the scrim before one act, then there is a bit with a grim reaper. Juliet has a dream with the "ghosts" of Tybalt and Mercutio. Because GET IT??? THEYRE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!!!! Towards the end Romeo has a "pas de deux" with Paris, which is also something nowhere in the MacMillan version. All this symbolism and fatalism not only comes across as heavyhanded, but it also changes the very nature of Shakespeare's play, which despite the "star-crossed lovers" bit is really about the senselessness and miscues and poor timing that cause such pain and tragedy.

I am no prude, but I thought Nureyev was WAY too eager to emphasize the violent aspects of the story. Things do not get very unconventional until Tybalt's death. In this staging it does not seem like an impulsive act of rage on Romeo's part. Instead, there is a very prolonged fight scene, replete with choke holds and dropped swords, and the final death seems like cold-blooded murder. From then on things get more violent. Even the Bedroom Scene between Romeo and Juliet has little intimacy, and a lot of rolling around and grinding. But there's a totally pointless scene on the road to Mantua where the messenger is brutally murdered. It's very graphic and gratuitous. Granted, Renaissance Italy was a very violent time, but all the graphic violence IMO not only pushed the limits of classical ballet but made Romeo and Juliet seem much more unappealing as people, and also are confusions and distractions to the storyline.

As for the dancing, the etoiles of the POB are Manuel Legris and Monique Loudieres. They have absolutely perfect technique, with not a bent leg or misplaced foot in the entire ballet. Their precision is jaw-dropping. But in the end, I feel as if they are unable to convey the youth and romance of these teenaged lovers. They are too mature, too serious, more SEXUAL than SEXY (there's a difference). The POB corps is as usual probably the most uniform and well-trained in the world.

But Romeo and Juliet IMO requires more than accurate footwork and well-placed arabesques. This production by Nureyev simply failed to understand the timeless appeal of the story.

[richard53dog]

As for the dancing, the etoiles of the POB are Manuel Legris and Monique Loudieres. They have absolutely perfect technique, with not a bent leg or misplaced foot in the entire ballet. Their precision is jaw-dropping. But in the end, I feel as if they are unable to convey the youth and romance of these teenaged lovers. They are too mature, too serious, more SEXUAL than SEXY (there's a difference). The POB corps is as usual probably the most uniform and well-trained in the world.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, I agree with canbelto on the unbalanced and oddly perverse take Nureyev has on R&J.

I would add that Legris and Loudieres seem chilly, almost frightening to me. I found myself unable to care at all about the fate of these two, which isn't what I would expect from any R&J production (theater, ballet , or opera)

Richard

[chrisk217]

Thank you canbelto for the detailed review!

I use the UK version of Amazon where there is just one user review. Must remember to always check the US Amazon for more reviews

[Ostrich]

I agree with what has been said about Nureyev's R&J. "Busy" and "heavyhanded" are the right words for most of his choreography in this ballet. However, Nureyev's choreography for the Balcony Scene is my favourite for this scene - I prefer it even to MacMillan's version. Pity he didn't keep it up in the rest of the ballet.