Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty Fall Engagement at City Center

[YouOverThere]

I thought MB's Swan Lake was much better than his SB. Most of the choreography for SB was boring and simplistic. This is not a production for a balletomane. I regret wasting my time and money on it when it was in New York.

I've gone to run-of-the-mill dance school presentations where I saw 14-16 year-olds perform more challenging choreography than anything that was in Sleeping Beauty. I still view Matthew Bourne's work as a satire on ballet.

[Helene]

Usually satire requires a great deal of mastery and technique.

It sounds to me that what Bourne was creating was theater. I think that Maillot's "Romeo et Juliette" is more successful as theater than as choreography, aside from the Friar Laurence conceit.

[mimsyb]

Usually satire requires a great deal of mastery and technique.

It sounds to me that what Bourne was creating was theater. I think that Maillot's "Romeo et Juliette" is more successful as theater than as choreography, aside from the Friar Laurence conceit.

I agree that satire requires a sure degree of mastery and technique. I think Bourne goes beyond that here. Even he has spoken of his great love and respect for the original versions of "SB". Of loving the balances the ballerina does in the Rose Adagio, etc. And I definitely think he has a great regard for the score. He has decided to tell the story in a different fashion, using his own dance vocabulary. No, you won't see any balances on one leg by Aurora, but you will see two very ravishing pas de deux that clearly tells us about these two lovers and what their love means to each other. His Garland Waltz is one of the best. His use of his "corps de ballet" in the vision scene is entirely appropriate. I could list more happy surprises in this work. Suffice to say, yes, it was "theater" in that respect, but even so, most good dance, whether classical ballet or Paul Taylor should first and foremost be good theater.

[YouOverThere]

I wonder if Matthew Bourne has ever watched Michael Pink's Dracula. Much of the production beginning with the introduction of Caradoc brought back memories of Dracula.

[YouOverThere]

Very aggressive marketing, but the thing opens tonight and they have an awful lot of seats to sell. Does DC have a TKTS 1/2 price ticket sale booth like New York?

I've never seen "rush ticket pricing" at the Kennedy Center. The co-worker that I often go to dance events with is not on their mailing list and never gets tickets at discounted prices unless I buy the tickets and use a discount code that was e-mailed to me, even though she goes to lots of programs there (she has season tickets to the National Symphony).

Another interesting item that I learned last night is that it is illegal to sell your unused tickets inside the Kennedy Center, even at a lower price than you paid for them (which led in my getting a free ticket to the National Symphony!).

[cantdance]

The Kennedy Center website has the MB SB listed on the ballet web page and also on the contemporary web page, while a company like Alvin Ailey is only listed on the contemporary web page.

My friend went to their master class yesterday and learned some of the choreo from the final ensemble dance. He said it was like "Lots of theatrical attitude, plus a little jazz, a little Travolta...and a hint of the Pony." I was hoping to also take the class but was busy with our local Nutcracker. I will see the performance later today.

[YouOverThere]

Here's an ironic tidbit: the name of the town that Matthew Bourne grew up in is Hackney.

[aurora]

Here's an ironic tidbit: the name of the town that Matthew Bourne grew up in is Hackney.

That would be a borough in London.

[YouOverThere]

Given that with the various discounts the cost of tickets for 2 shows was about the same as the face-value of an orchestra seat for one show, I went back again to try to find what I am missing. I still don't get it. If anything, I was less impressed the second time around. I didn't see any real pas de deux between Aurora and Leo; Aurora danced a little and then jumped into Leo's arms and he carried her around for a bit. And I became more suspicious of the similarities between the last act of MBSB and the last act of Michael Pink's Dracula.