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NYC Ballet Cuts Corps as Deficit Widens


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I think enough of these remarks will actually win sympathy for Kistler. Macaulay should call it as he sees it, of course – he wouldn’t be doing his job as a critic if he didn’t – but I thought he went a bit overboard.

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And I can't believe that the Kirov or Royal do a better job as he has stated. I recall him saying the the Royal did something much better than NYCB. NYCB followed the choreography precisely but Royal was more exciting. I can see Balanchine rolling over in his grave.

Sorry, but other companies ARE often better than NYCB at Balanchine. That should come as no surprise. If they do a good job and if they are now doing a better job, that does not always mean they are always doing better Balanchine than other companies. I have seen NYCB a LOT, and they are not always better than other companies doing Balanchine. There are some things even in POB's DVD of Jewels alone, not to mention anything elsewhere, that are better than what you usually see at NYCB (excluding Diamonds, of course, which is horrible in POB DVD.) But it he's positive about NYCB, that most likely means that they really are better than they were last year and the year before, and I agree with Kathleen that that is something both unexpected and heartening. I can certainly understand why he might not be unctuous about Nilas Martins, who is serviceable, but hardly a star. That's just one example, but NYCB goes back and forth, and they can be very disappointing. To hear that they are being less so is something I really would take seriously especially from Macaulay, who has been scrutinizing them carefully for some years now.

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. . . it seemed a tad disingenuous of him to offer the excuse that his criticism was harsh lest younger dancers be misguided by Kistler's example. Hmm.

I think critics do do this, actually. If you see something that sends up a red flag -- a 540 by the man in "Concerto Barocco," say -- you reason, "If the director cared, he would have stopped this before it happened. Ergo, I must say SOMETHING, or when the next boy does 3 540s it will be my fault." Not saying that dancers should, or do, read critics or take them seriously, but one wants to have a clear conscience on things like this.

And I can't believe that the Kirov or Royal do a better job as he has stated. I recall him saying the the Royal did something much better than NYCB. NYCB followed the choreography precisely but Royal was more exciting. I can see Balanchine rolling over in his grave.

Sorry, but other companies ARE often better than NYCB at Balanchine. That should come as no surprise. If they do a good job and if they are now doing a better job, that does not always mean they are always doing better Balanchine than other companies.

Well put.

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[Whelan] is a wonderful dancer and he has never ever, not once, given her anything but bad reviews.

I understand feeling irritated when a critic is unfavorably disposed towards a dancer most people love (I wonder what Macauley would have thought of the meltingly lyrical performance I once saw Whelan give in the Divertissement pas de deux of "Midsummer Night's Dream"), but it might be more accurate to say that Macauley has never praised her unreservedly. He has written of her "authority." For example in an article last November, he wrote that

Wendy Whelan, who still dances many leading roles, remains a decisive, vehement dancer who, despite physical and stylistic imperfections, displays a cool, adult authority.
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And I can't believe that the Kirov or Royal do a better job as he has stated. I recall him saying the the Royal did something much better than NYCB. NYCB followed the choreography precisely but Royal was more exciting. I can see Balanchine rolling over in his grave.

I believe Macauley was both right and wrong when he said that both the Kirov and RB do some Balanchine ballets better than NYCB.

The most important thing is that these companies do it differently and dare I say it much more to European taste as they imitate neo-classicism but still retain their own (somewhat debased) schooling. I recently saw the RB dance Serenade and Theme and Variations. In my opinion, the first was given a perfunctory performance whilst the second was excellently performed and brilliantly led by Rojo and Bonelli. I do not think at their best anyone can perform Symphony in C like the Kirov but in other Balanchine ballets they have been less effective.

My concern about Balanchine performed by NYCB is that Balanchine appeared to me to change the performing style and the shape of his female dancers by the late sixties and I have never quite got over that.

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I think critics do do this, actually.

Oh, I’m sure they do. I just thought he sounded a trifle sanctimonious. If the criticism is fair, it can and should stand on its own without any little homilies about the bad example Kistler is allegedly setting for young dancers.

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I think critics do do this, actually.

Oh, I’m sure they do. I just thought he sounded a trifle sanctimonious. If the criticism is fair, it can and should stand on its own without any little homilies about the bad example Kistler is allegedly setting for young dancers.

I don't think it's necessarily sanctimonious. Young dancers can naturally be expected to heed, if not always follow, the example of a longtime SAB teacher rightly revered as a dancer favored by Balanchine himself. A critic can be expected to find that heeding worrisome, and to hope against hope that he can make them see her current performances in a different light. I don't read him as defending his criticism, which in any case isn't his alone, but as trying to be heard by the audience that counts the most.

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I agree that Macaulay got overly personal and was a little out of sorts, however his overall point about a tendency to cuteness was well taken. I remember another critic, in Washington or London, point out in a review that we had officially entered the age of cute. Young dancers tend to soak these things up, like drawls or accents of favorite movie stars, so it's ok Macaulay's trying to point this out.

Regarding Darci Kistler, her dancing in the 1990s was sometimes so pure and other times coy and incomprehensible. One Swan Lake was danced with such strange rhythmic emphasis, it seemed as if she were doing the Charleston. And it was sad that Nilas Martins virtually owned Apollo for a decade. He looked so uncomfortable in Apollo, as if it were spinach--while being so at ease when he danced Who Cares.

I haven't seen the company for two years, but the last time I was in New York, I saw great Donizettis, Somnabulas, Brahms-Schoenbergs--while Concerto B was a bit shabby, and there was a so-so Symphony in C, except for Antonio Carmena who blazed across the stage. When NYCB is on target, there's nothing better. Miami's pretty good, a solid second. I've only seen them twice, but they seem more small scaled, more finished and more delicate.

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Thank you Quiggan, for that marvelous overview. You catch the complexity of the Macaulay's atkenon NYCB very well.

Two thoughts:

(1) Comparisons between NYCB's dancing of the Balanchine rep and that of other companies are actually quite useful -- to both. NYCB is still the standard for other companies dancing these ballets. Also, paying attention to how others do it, can only benefit NYCB as well.

2) Was there ever a time when people did NOT complain about inconsistencies in the way ballets were danced from season to season, or over the course of a season? I don't think so. Perhaps this is the price a company has to play when it is so large ... has such a vast, revolving repertory of great works ... and performs so often.

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Was there ever a time when people did NOT complain about inconsistencies in the way ballets were danced from season to season, or over the course of a season? I don't think so. Perhaps this is the price a company has to play when it is so large ... has such a vast, revolving repertory of great works ... and performs so often.

Never! Once early on in my NYCB-watching "career" (I started attending regularly in the late 70's) I burbled something enthusiastic about a performance of 4Ts in which Merrill Ashley, Bart Cook, and Adam Luders, among others, had danced. "Oh," observed an older friend who'd been attending since the 60's "you should have seen that ballet when the company could really dance it."

This kind of thing always puts me in mind of Burt Lancaster's great line in the movie Atlantic City: ruminating on the city's decline since its (and his) glory days in the 40's, he says to Susan Sarandon ''The Atlantic Ocean was something then. Yes, you should have seen the Atlantic Ocean in those days.''

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Was there ever a time when people did NOT complain about inconsistencies in the way ballets were danced from season to season, or over the course of a season? I don't think so. Perhaps this is the price a company has to play when it is so large ... has such a vast, revolving repertory of great works ... and performs so often.

Never! Once early on in my NYCB-watching "career" (I started attending regularly in the late 70's) I burbled something enthusiastic about a performance of 4Ts in which Merrill Ashley, Bart Cook, and Adam Luders, among others, had danced. "Oh," observed an older friend who'd been attending since the 60's "you should have seen that ballet when the company could really dance it."

This kind of thing always puts me in mind of Burt Lancaster's great line in the movie Atlantic City: ruminating on the city's decline since its (and his) glory days in the 40's, he says to Susan Sarandon ''The Atlantic Ocean was something then. Yes, you should have seen the Atlantic Ocean in those days.''

Kathleen is right. Comparing the way Barocco was danced in say the 50's with how it is danced now is like comparing apples and oranges. It's less jazzy and more lyrical. This had to have been Balanchine's doing, he was there after all. Was this due to a change within himself or was he responding to a different way of moving in his dancers?

The way Balanchine ballets were danced in the 70's and early 80's is the aesthetic that Martins uses. He was there dancing at that time as was ballet mistress Rosemary Dunleavy and teaching associate Merrill Ashley. So, how is the way the ballets were danced in the 70's different from how they were or are danced in the 90's to the present?

I'm only privileged to see the company every couple of years so I can't make that call but I am interested in what the regulars think.

Editing to preemptively apologize for getting so far off from the thread topic! :o

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Kathleen is right. Comparing the way Barocco was danced in say the 50's with how it is danced now is like comparing apples and oranges. It's less jazzy and more lyrical. This had to have been Balanchine's doing, he was there after all. Was this due to a change within himself or was he responding to a different way of moving in his dancers?

I have felt that the height of the dancers brought a bout the change. When I first saw 'Barocco' the dancers were about 5'2" or 5'3"--the dancers I saw then were Moylan, Marie-Jeanne, Boris, Wilde---all petite . The long-legged ones move differently, as we all know. I still cringe when I see one of the current generation in the 2nd mm where the dancer is latched on to the side of the male dancer and she swings her legs back and forth---all I can think of is 'big bird'. It looks cumbersome. (and while I'm at it, I will never grow to like those white costumes.)

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Does anyone know which corp dancers are not getting their contracts renewed? Younger members, senior corp members...?? Just curious to see if anyone had heard specifics.

[Moderator beanie on ...]

This might be a good time to jump in and remind everyone to post ONLY OFFICIAL NEWS (and to CITE THE SOURCE). This is especially important with personnel issues. Thanks. :) [Moderator beanie off ... ]

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Also, it's been noted earlier that the reason for not disclosing the names is that their current contracts do not expire until the end of the Spring Season. I would not expect any official news until much later in the spring, and only if the dancers themselves disclose this on their own sites.

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I think enough of these remarks will actually win sympathy for Kistler. Macaulay should call it as he sees it, of course – he wouldn’t be doing his job as a critic if he didn’t – but I thought he went a bit overboard.

FYI, there is a two paragraph letter to the editor in yesterday's NY Times Arts & Leisure section titled "Defending Darci Kistler". The author complains that A. Macaulay is "mean".

[Admin Edit to add link]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/arts/15a...tler&st=cse

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Getting this discussion back on track, Peter Boal offers up some thoughts on his blog which touch on many of the issues we have discussed here:

http://www.pnbunleashed.com/PNB_Unleashed/...9_NEW_YORK.html

Thanks so much for this link. As ever, Peter Boal is the voice of reason and insight. I say, "as ever" because whenever he spoke or presented at NYCB that is what he projected. That and openness, friendliness and honesty.

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Even when there's an explicit threat -- to choreograph if donors don't fork up the $$$ -- Boal manages to do it with humor and class :dry:

I'd love to see some trading and borrowing among ballet companies whose directors choreograph for their companies. Works don't have to be masterpieces, structurally or any other way, to be challenging to dancers and/or be great vehicles for them, and several I've seen over the past few years have been excellent on their own.

A lot of new ballets are in the same boat as contemporary classical music: seen locally once or twice, only to die out, no matter what their quality is. The ones that have multiple companies producing them are the ones that have a chance to survive. I think of works like "Doctor Atomic". Of course, classical music recently has a advantage with broadcasts, often over the Internet, where someone halfway across the world can hear and enjoy the works without having to travel.

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As there seem to have been many successful productions of 'Dracula' shared between companies, I propose...

Twilight: The Ballet

:devil:

Are they shared, though? I thought every choreographer wanted to put his/her individual mark on the subject, with the full array of $$$ costumes and sets.

I haven't read the "Twilight" books, but now that Bollywood has allowed kisses in place of five minutes of two faces getting close and then tilting away at the last minute, ballet might be the appropriate medium for frustrated love and eroticism.

Oh, wait, Tudor already did that.

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