California Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 I just noticed a significant change in the program for the Kennedy Center in March 2015: The revival of Push Comes to Shove has disappeared, replaced by Rodeo, along with the previously announced T&V and Pillar of Fire. http://www.abt.org/calendar.aspx?startdate=3/1/2015 The 2015 Met season should be announced soon. Perhaps Push will be on the schedule there. Link to comment
fondoffouettes Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 I guess ABT felt compelled to acknowledge de Mille in its 75th year. I'm afraid it will look second-rate next to the Tudor. And does ABT really need to program two overwrought one-act dramas in one evening? It's unfortunate that ABT's choreographic heritage consists mostly of two not very prolific choreographers whose approaches to dance represent dead ends in the history of American ballet. Thank goodness for Robbins' and Balanchine's one-offs for ABT. Or did they choreograph any other works for ABT that we don't usually see? Both de Mille and Tudor can seem terribly dated. Maybe Ratmansky will finally be the great choreographer ABT has always needed? Link to comment
California Posted October 14, 2014 Author Share Posted October 14, 2014 I saw Rodeo by ABT at the fall 2012 season at City Center. Yes, it's a classic, but I couldn't sit through it more than once that week. Fortunately, it was programmed last, so I could slip out. The big highlight of that week was Ratmansky's then-new Symphony No. 9 and I can sit through that endlessly and never feel I've absorbed everything. I can't remember if they did Rodeo the following spring. I see in the press release on the ABT site that Push is not mentioned for the 75th anniversary year celebrations. That was a milestone for the company and I was looking forward to seeing the revival with perhaps Cornejo and Simkin in the Baryshnikov role. I suspect they would both do a great job and it's so much fun for the rest of the cast. I will be on the east coast in mid-March and was actually thinking of spending a few days in DC to see it. Scratch that!! Link to comment
sandik Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 I see in the press release on the ABT site that Push is not mentioned for the 75th anniversary year celebrations. That was a milestone for the company and I was looking forward to seeing the revival with perhaps Cornejo and Simkin in the Baryshnikov role. I suspect they would both do a great job and it's so much fun for the rest of the cast. I will be on the east coast in mid-March and was actually thinking of spending a few days in DC to see it. Scratch that!! I agree about the role that ballet plays in the history of the company -- I'm sorry that they won't' be able to included it in their programming. Link to comment
miliosr Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 Both de Mille and Tudor can seem terribly dated. Maybe Ratmansky will finally be the great choreographer ABT has always needed? My suspicion with Tudor revivals is that bad coaching and bad staging create that dated effect. In the right hands (as in those of the late Sallie Wilson), Tudor revivals need not be mere exercises in history. As for Ratmansky at ABT, he will make no change to ABT's DNA. An interviewer once asked the great Cubist painter Georges Braque, "When did the public accept modern art?" Braque replied: "They never accepted it. They endured it." The same holds true for ABT's audience. The dance intelligenstia may love Shostakovich Trilogy but the regular ABT audience will only endure things like that so long as they get stars holding forth in the grand manner in Swan Lake and Giselle and Romeo and Juliet. Link to comment
ABT Fan Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 Both de Mille and Tudor can seem terribly dated. Maybe Ratmansky will finally be the great choreographer ABT has always needed? My suspicion with Tudor revivals is that bad coaching and bad staging create that dated effect. In the right hands (as in those of the late Sallie Wilson), Tudor revivals need not be mere exercises in history. As for Ratmansky at ABT, he will make no change to ABT's DNA. An interviewer once asked the great Cubist painter Georges Braque, "When did the public accept modern art?" Braque replied: "They never accepted it. They endured it." The same holds true for ABT's audience. The dance intelligenstia may love Shostakovich Trilogy but the regular ABT audience will only endure things like that so long as they get stars holding forth in the grand manner in Swan Lake and Giselle and Romeo and Juliet. That's a great way of explaining why the war horses are perpetually hauled out, one after the other. I guess I'm in the minority as a regular ABT attendee. I do love to see the big ballets, but I don't get enough of their mixed rep programs or new modern ballets. Link to comment
abatt Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 I think most people head over across the plaza for mixed rep programs with modern ballets. It's really the best of all possible worlds because there is such a vast array of choices for ballet lovers. War Horse full length ballets = ABT; modern/contemporary = NYCB. Link to comment
ABT Fan Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 Except that NYCB and ABT do, for the most part, different mixed rep and modern works. What ABT does in the fall or on tour, I'd like to see more of at the Met. Link to comment
abatt Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 My suspicion with Tudor revivals is that bad coaching and bad staging create that dated effect. In the right hands (as in those of the late Sallie Wilson), Tudor revivals need not be mere exercises in history. Amanda McKerrow and her husband were coaching the Tudor ballets. Not sure if they still do the coaching. The Leave Are Fading and Lilac Garden are among my favorite ballets. I never feel that they are dated. Link to comment
miliosr Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 I went back to the press release for the Fall season in New York, and McKerrow and Gardner are listed for staging Jardin aux Lilas. That's great news as McKerrow worked with Tudor during the last decade of his life and they are both Tudor devotees. Link to comment
California Posted December 28, 2014 Author Share Posted December 28, 2014 Marcelo Gomes just sent out a Tweet with a link to an Instagram showing Ethan Stiefel teaching the men's company class at ABT. How long before audiences start noticing improvements? I like Marcelo's #inspiration in his message. http://instagram.com/p/xKaETsiuVJ/ Stiefel is also now listed on the ABT "company teachers" list, although I don't know when that was posted. Marcelo has been sending a lot of holiday Tweets from Brazil and was in Russia before that, so it's hard to guess when that photo was taken. http://www.abt.org/insideabt/staff.asp Link to comment
miliosr Posted December 28, 2014 Share Posted December 28, 2014 A separate men's class taught by someone like Steifel is a great idea considering how young so many of the male corps members are. But the men's class won't solve the very real problem ABT has with male dancers getting fed up with a lack of career movement and leaving. Link to comment
Kaysta Posted December 30, 2014 Share Posted December 30, 2014 Casting is up on the Kennedy Center website. I've decided to see the Reyes/Gorak cast again, as this will be my last chance to see Reyes dance before she retires. I saw this cast last year at the Met, but I look forward to seeing it again. Link to comment
vipa Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 Casting is up on the Kennedy Center website. I've decided to see the Reyes/Gorak cast again, as this will be my last chance to see Reyes dance before she retires. I saw this cast last year at the Met, but I look forward to seeing it again. No big surprises in casting, but I didn't expect to see Vasiliev there. Link to comment
Kaysta Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 Casting is up on the Kennedy Center website. I've decided to see the Reyes/Gorak cast again, as this will be my last chance to see Reyes dance before she retires. I saw this cast last year at the Met, but I look forward to seeing it again.No big surprises in casting, but I didn't expect to see Vasiliev there. He's not, I think you must have looked at last years Don Q? Link to comment
vipa Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 Casting is up on the Kennedy Center website. I've decided to see the Reyes/Gorak cast again, as this will be my last chance to see Reyes dance before she retires. I saw this cast last year at the Met, but I look forward to seeing it again.No big surprises in casting, but I didn't expect to see Vasiliev there. He's not, I think you must have looked at last years Don Q? Thank you - you are correct! Link to comment
ABT Fan Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Joseph Gorak is now cast to dance T&V with Sarah Lane in DC. How I'd love to see that. Link to comment
vipa Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Joseph Gorak is now cast to dance T&V with Sarah Lane in DC. How I'd love to see that. I hope Gorak is up for it both partnering and solos. The best I've seen at ABT was Andrew Veyette as a guest from NYCB. Link to comment
abatt Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Who was cast in T&V with Lane before they cast Gorak? Was it Cornejo or TBA? Link to comment
ABT Fan Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 I'm pretty sure it was Cornejo. It'll be a challenge for Gorak, but in a good way in my opinion. Link to comment
its the mom Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 I hope he can hang in there. Every dancer I have spoken to about T&V has said it's the absolute hardest thing they have ever done. I remember reading this from a Dance Magazine article in which David Hallberg spoke about it: "When I ask David more about ABT’s 'cardio repertoire' he offers up Balanchine’s Theme and Variations as something that 'never becomes less stressful or excruciatingly painful' as the years go on. Theme has been a staple at ABT since it was created there in 1947. Though the ballet is only 20 minutes, Baryshnikov was famously quoted saying, 'If you can do a good Theme and Variations, you can do a good anything.' For the female lead the ballet is a dizzying display of hard-boiled technique; for the male there are combinations that David suggests are the most demanding feats in the classical idiom. 'I am so tired by the end of the marathon that the last thing I want is to have someone sitting on my shoulder,' David says of the famous last pose when the curtain goes down. 'No disrespect to any of the ladies, but I never get a ballerina down from a lift quicker than I do after Theme.' - See more at: http://www.dancemagazine.com/issues/June-2010/Literally-Breathtaking#sthash.YVYLHTw6.dpuf Link to comment
abatt Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Thanks, its the mom. Interesting interview. It's too bad Hallberg is cast in Rodeo instead of T&V. Gomes has also given up T&V. Nothing against Gorak, but I hope Herman can make it back to the stage in time for the Met spring season. Link to comment
California Posted January 29, 2015 Author Share Posted January 29, 2015 Though the ballet is only 20 minutes, Baryshnikov was famously quoted saying, 'If you can do a good Theme and Variations, you can do a good anything.' Baryshnikov also said T&V was the hardest ballet he'd ever danced and that he felt his "legs would fall off" when he was done. Link to comment
sandik Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Though the ballet is only 20 minutes, Baryshnikov was famously quoted saying, 'If you can do a good Theme and Variations, you can do a good anything.' Baryshnikov also said T&V was the hardest ballet he'd ever danced and that he felt his "legs would fall off" when he was done. It may have been excruciating to dance, but it was certainly exhilarating to see -- I only ever saw him on video with this, but what a wonderful performance! Link to comment
themor Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 Who is going to Kennedy Center performances? I'm seeing Julie Kent and Marcello the 28th and going back for more the next day. Pretty excited to see Julie one last time! Link to comment
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