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Celebrate Forsythe (LA) on October 21, PNB, SFB, and HB;Elle Macy to Perform


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Pacific Northwest Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and Houston will perform in LA in October in the "Celebrate Forsythe" program.  

 

PNB:  The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude

SFB:  Pas/Parts 2016

HB:  Artifact Suite

 

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Celebrate Forsythe will feature alumni of The Music Center's Spotlight program, the performing arts center's free, nationally-recognized scholarship and arts training program for teens. Elle Macy (2007, 2008, 2009 Spotlight participant) will perform with the Pacific Northwest Ballet; Katharine Precourt (2002 Spotlight participant), Tyler Donatelli (2012 Spotlight participant) and Alyssa Springer (2007, 2009 Spotlight participant) with the Houston Ballet; and Jennifer Stahl (2003 Spotlight participant), Jordan Hammond (2007 Spotlight participant), Steven Morse (2008 Spotlight participant), Norika Matsuyama (2009, 2010, 2011 Spotlight participant), and John-Paul Simoens (2011 Spotlight participant) with the San Francisco Ballet.

 

http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwdance/article/The-Music-Center-to-Launch-2016-17-Dance-Season-with-CELEBRATE-FORSYTHE-20160901

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56 minutes ago, Helene said:

Pacific Northwest Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and Houston will perform in LA in October in the "Celebrate Forsythe" program.  

 

PNB:  The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude

SFB:  Pas/Parts 2016

HB:  Artifact Suite

 

 

http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwdance/article/The-Music-Center-to-Launch-2016-17-Dance-Season-with-CELEBRATE-FORSYTHE-20160901

 

Interesting, thanks - I wasn't aware of the Spotlight program.

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I was fortunate enough to see the program tonight.  Here was the order:

 

San Francisco Ballet: Pas/Parts 2016

Pause
Pacific Northwest Ballet: The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude

Intermission
Houston Ballet: Artifact Suite

Note:  recorded music was used except for the second half of Artifact Suite, which is always performed to a live pianist.

(I will only comment on PNB here since it is the PNB forum....)

Dancing in tonight's performance of Vertiginous:

Leta Biasucci, Carrie Imler, Margaret Mullin, Benjamin Griffiths, Jonathan Porretta

 

I thought everyone was great tonight.  My favorite was Leta Biasucci - there was just something about her that really drew my eye to her.  

 

During intermission, I was in line for the bar and looked up to realize there were other PNB dancers in front of me :clapping:

At the end of the performance, all the dancers came out for bows, and then William Forsythe joined the dancers on stage.  It was a great moment and a great night of dancing!!!

 

I would be curious to know if any other dancers are performing or if these dancers are in all three performances this weekend.

Edited by sf_herminator
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I was there also and it was fabulous! From the program notes, it looks like there will be another cast for The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude as it lists ten dancers from PNB, and the cast sheet listed the five who danced on Friday.  The audience was as super-charged as the dancing on stage. I see this so often in L.A.; we are starved for really excellent dancing and so the audience reaction is explosive. Looking forward to the next two shows. 

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Josette:  do you know who the other five PNB dancers are?  I looked at the cast lists from March 2015 when PNB performed Vertiginous as part of its "Vertiginous Thrill of Forsythe" program, and half of them have either left the company (Bouchard, Adomaitis, Frantziskonis) or are still not back from injury/surgery (Samuelson and Davis).  The remaining five are Dylan Wald -- sf_herminator, was one of the PNB dancers in front of you a tall blond? -- Angelica Generosa -- just promoted to Soloist -- Elizabeth Murphy, Rachel Foster, and Price Suddarth.  They were in two different casts, while the cast you saw on Friday was an intact cast.

 

Leta Biasucci had an injury during season's opening program after making a brilliant debut in Third Movement of "Symphony in C":  I'm glad to hear she's better.  She's a remarkable dancer, who's been dancing above rank since she joined PNB.

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According to the program, I would expect the PNB dancers tonight to be Rachel Foster, Angelica Generosa, Elizabeth Murphy, Matthew Renko, and Dylan Wald.

 

Pherank found or figured out the casting and, I believe, it's posted under SFB touring. 

 

The evening was exhilarating. It was wonderful to see such a high level of no-holding-back, intense commitment and individuality on the part of these three American ballet companies and their wonderful dancers. Regarding PNB, I was very happy to see the musical Carrie Imler and radiant and personable Leta Biasucci, both of whom I've read about here and watched in videos on the PNB website. The PNB dancers were positively joyous! 

 

All three works are in the SFB repertory and I wish SFB would do an all-Forsythe series. 

 

With Artifact Suite, which always affects me profoundly, I found Karina Gonzalez especially beautiful, but all the dancers were excellent, with several men standing out. I am in the first row tonight and tomorrow, so I hope to figure out who some of the Houston Ballet dancers are. Interestingly, I could easily find and  follow Yuriko Kajiya from my seat upstairs in the Founders Circle.  

 

 

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2 hours ago, Helene said:

Josette:  do you know who the other five PNB dancers are?  I looked at the cast lists from March 2015 when PNB performed Vertiginous as part of its "Vertiginous Thrill of Forsythe" program, and half of them have either left the company (Bouchard, Adomaitis, Frantziskonis) or are still not back from injury/surgery (Samuelson and Davis).  The remaining five are Dylan Wald -- sf_herminator, was one of the PNB dancers in front of you a tall blond? -- Angelica Generosa -- just promoted to Soloist -- Elizabeth Murphy, Rachel Foster, and Price Suddarth.  They were in two different casts, while the cast you saw on Friday was an intact cast.

 

Leta Biasucci had an injury during season's opening program after making a brilliant debut in Third Movement of "Symphony in C":  I'm glad to hear she's better.  She's a remarkable dancer, who's been dancing above rank since she joined PNB.

I found a link to casting here:  http://www.musiccenter.org/about/Our-Programs/1617-Season/Celebrate-Forsythe/  If you scroll down a bit there is a section on the right 'Engagement Casting' which will pull up the PDF of casting for each performance.  So dancing tonight are Rachel Foster, Angelica Generosa, Elizabeth Murphy, Ezra Thomson, and Dylan Wald.  The Friday cast will dance again on Sunday afternoon.  

 

Helene - Yes, the dancers in front of me were Dylan (actually he was off to the side with Angelica), Ezra, and Elizabeth.  I had previously met Dylan when he (along with Elle Macy & Steven Loch) came to see SFB during the Onegin run.  I had complimented Ezra on his performance as Mercutio (and forgot to tell him I also saw him in Waiting at the Station) and Ezra was flattered.  He told me he was really excited about Cendrillon.  I told them I was planning to come up for Director's Choice.  Dylan asked me if I was coming again.  I said unfortunately no - but this was before I knew that they would be dancing tonight.   I am tempted, but not sure if I want to make the trek up to LA again (I am staying in Orange County - it took me two hours to drive up to the performance last night!!  But it should really not take more than one hour....).

Edited by sf_herminator
clarification
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Thank you so much, sf_herminator!

 

Ezra Thomson was terrific in "Waiting for the Station," and I love the contrast between Thomson's and Porretta's Mercutio.  Thomson does just enough to bait, fight, make his point and leave, retracting like a knife, until his final, fateful encounter.  Porretta's is so in-your-face, that he's the type of guy his friends would hate if he weren't their friend and on their side.

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So glad to hear that this is going well for the company.  I really wish I could be there, but cannot travel right now.  I had the chance to watch Virtiginous in rehearsal when it was being staged here, and see how the fine-tuning went.  It's one of those ballets that looks best when it's performed on an extreme.

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Glad to see them all there, but especially Foster, whose back from a lengthy rehab recently, and is just getting her feet underneath her again (literally as well as figuratively -- one of the tricky aspects of writing about dance is how often metaphorical language has a real application...)

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