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All Wheeldon Program


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PNB has created a short trailer for the "All Wheeldon" program:

I recognize Rachel Foster and James Moore in "After the Rain Pas de Deux", Carla Korbes and Seth Orza in "Carousel", and Carla Korbes (pink tulle) and Amanda Clark (deep red) in "Variations Sérieuses". It may have been Louise Nadeau in the clip from Polyphonia (black leotard) and with Seth Orza in "Variations Sérieuses", but so many of the clips went by too fast to be sure.

I missed the Laugh Out Loud Festival and haven't yet seen "Variations Sérieuses", but the casts I did see in the other Wheeldon ballets are:

"After the Rain Pas de Deux" (May-June 2009): Korbes/Bold (opening gala), Chapman/Bold, Nadeau/Stanton, Chapman/Cruz, Foster/Moore.

"Carousel (A Dance)" (March 2008): Foster/Tisserand, Thomas/Moore

"Polyphonia" (March 2007): Chapman/Milov, Weese/Postlewaite, Foster/Spell

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It may have been Louise Nadeau in the clip from Polyphonia (black leotard) and with Seth Orza in "Variations Sérieuses", but so many of the clips went by too fast to be sure.

That is Nadeau in Variations Sérieuses -- she did a great job with the comedy, as did Jonathan P. I'm really looking forward to seeing this again.

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It may have been Louise Nadeau in the clip from Polyphonia (black leotard) and with Seth Orza in "Variations Sérieuses", but so many of the clips went by too fast to be sure.

That is Nadeau in Variations Sérieuses -- she did a great job with the comedy, as did Jonathan P. I'm really looking forward to seeing this again.

"Variations Sérieuses" premiered at NYCB and I saw it several times. I believe that both Wendy Whalen and Maria Korowski danced the lead, but I could be wrong. I know Maria has tremendous comedic abilities.

Even though he changed the ending so that it became a little more devilish, and I preferred the original ending (more like "42nd Street"), I enjoyed it tremendously. I was very sorry that NYCB did not retain it in the rep, and am happy to hear that it would be possible, with a little trip to Seattle, to see it again!

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Very impressive trailer. Considering the number of different works involved, it's amazing how well they have edited the clips to fit the Mendelssohn music.

The woman who does their in-house video work is very skilled -- they've made excellent use of their website, especially the video component.

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"Variations Sérieuses" premiered at NYCB and I saw it several times. I believe that both Wendy Whalen and Maria Korowski danced the lead, but I could be wrong. I know Maria has tremendous comedic abilities.

Even though he changed the ending so that it became a little more devilish, and I preferred the original ending (more like "42nd Street"), I enjoyed it tremendously. I was very sorry that NYCB did not retain it in the rep, and am happy to hear that it would be possible, with a little trip to Seattle, to see it again!

I was very taken with it when it was performed here -- alongside the comic elements, which were great fun, I loved the forced perspective of the set, and the odd 'from the side' point of view we got. The double front aspect of the performance part of the work (the false front on stage right of the ballet and the real front for us in the audience) was very cleverly done -- a smartypants kind of trick from Wheeldon.

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Polyphonia preview, in the main rehearsal studio in the Phelps Center:

Kaori Nakamura/Benjamin Griffiths

Benjamin Griffiths/Lucien Postlewaite

Sarah Ricard Orza/Jerome Tisserand

from bottom of screen: Ricard Orza/Tisserand, Rachel Foster/Postlewaite, Carla Korbes/Batkhurel Bold, Nakamura/Griffiths

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First week is up, which makes it feel real after a long summer:

http://www.pnb.org/Season/11-12/AllWheeldon/#Details-Casting

Here is the first week in Excel spreadsheet form to download to compare casts.

Rep 1 performance casting week 1.xls

Many of the announced new apprentices and members of the corps de ballet make their debuts in the corps of "Carousel (A Dance)" on Opening Night, Friday, 23 September: Leah Biasucci, Sarah Pasch, Elizabeth Murphy, Matthew Renko, along with apprentice-turned-corps Jenna Nelson, with apprentice Steven Loch appearing in the male corps in "Variations Serieuses" on Saturday evening, joined by Renko.

Carla Korbes/Seth Orza and Sarah Ricard Orza/Jerome Tisserand alternate as the leads in "Carousel (A Dance)". Ricard Orza, who was striking as a demi-soloist in the last run, should be wonderful in the lead. (She also has leads in "Polyphonia" and "Variations Serieuses"). Korbes, Orza, and Tisserand reprise their roles.

"After the Rain Pas de Deux" is shared by three couples: Rachel Foster/James Moore, Carla Korbes/Batkhurel Bold, and Maria Chapman/Karel Cruz. Happily James Moore is back from last season's injury.

The casting for Polyphonia mostly follows the casting in the video above, with Maria Chapman and Karel Cruz in place of Korbes/Bold on Saturday night.

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Casting is up for Week 2:

http://www.pnb.org/Season/11-12/AllWheeldon/#Details-Casting

Here is the spreadsheet with both weeks combined:

Rep 1 performance casting weeks 1-2 combined.xls

Casting in Week 2, Thursday and Friday nights:

New Demi-soloists in Carousel (A Dance):

Leah O'Connor/William Lin-Yee and Brittany Reid/Eric Hipolito, Jr.

New Principal Casting in "Polyphonia"

Lindsi Dec/Seth Orza, Kylee Kitchens/Ezra Thomson, and Elizabeth Murphy/William Lin-Yee join Maria Chapman/Karel Cruz.

Three new names: "Carousel (A Dance)" Corps Women: Macy. Corps Men: Garcia, McCall.

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"Variations Serieuses", The Trailer :lol:

This video clip reminds me of a game we used to do when I made short films (about a million years ago) -- take a short without dialogue, and run it with a totally different soundtrack -- substitute pop music for classical, or nature sounds for industrial clanging. The percussion-heavy score here gives the whole thing a vibe that I don't remember at all from the original work. I'll be curious to see how on or off my memory is when I see this over the weekend.

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I went to the lec-dem on Wednesday night, which was a very lovely introduction to the works. Boal did a short on-state interview with Wheeldon, who was quite gracious, and told the story of how he came to America for probably the gajillionth time and did it very cheerfully. The company did a big chunk of Carousel (Korbes and Orza in main roles) -- this piece and all the other excerpts looked very freshly coached. Cruz and Chapman demonstrated a key phrase from Polyphonia, which Wheeldon tinkers with in a fairly post-modern pattern-making way in the finished work, and then three other couples joined them on stage for an excerpt. Moore and Foster were the couple in After the Rain, and are very well-matched there.

I don't really want to talk at length about any particular performance, except to say that it was a pleasure to see Kiyon Gaines back on stage in Carousel.

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I went to this "lec-dem" also. I had a great time. Just adding on to what sandik said.....

It was a wonderful chance to see some of the new dancers who have joined PNB this season. In particular, I thought Elizabeth Murphy (at least I assume it was Murphy) was very impressive doing a quite difficult solo from Polyphonia (very Agon-like). I am always pleased to see Ezra Thomson (he's not new this season)......there is something so intense while completely in sync with the music about this young dancer.....very masculine and powerful, almost like a street-dancer, albeit in the classic ballet idiom.

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The roster is printed in the Encore program, and no dancers other than the ones previously announced have been added to the corps and apprentices ranks. Garcia and McCall are listed as Professional Division students playing "Crew" in "Variations Serieuses". I hadn't seen the ballet before, and I thought "Crew" was made of PNB IATSE stagehands.

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Quick and dirty review: Saw the Saturday night show, definitely the "A" cast. Carousel impressed me more with the second viewing, and since I was in the balcony this time, the patterns were much clearer. I really like the inventiveness in the choreography. There was some awkward laughter during After the Rain, but by the end, everyone was captivated. Polyphonia went on and on and on. I kept thinking "please edit this down to four parts". It was definitely Aton-esque with some 4T's thrown in there. I didn't think it was the masterpiece others have raved about. Variations Serieuses was fun to watch, but it wasn't laugh-a-minute the way The Concert is funny. I think my eyeballs are burning from the pepto bismol pink tights worn by the cast. I did enjoy Laura Gilbraith's acting much more in this comedy than other things she has done. So perhaps she is growing as an acting artist.

off to bed.

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