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2021: Free Streaming during COVID-19 Crisis


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1 hour ago, Drew said:

I had to laugh (ruefully) asI read this. As you probably have seen, there is footage of Farrell’ in the role and her exit at that moment was SO extraordinary, I was eager to see if the camera captured even a whiff of it. Alas no—the camera cuts away to show instead the swirl of couples as the crowd enters, so you can’t get any sense of what Farrell did with that moment....and I will never not be unhappy about that! 

The director of the 1983 telecast dealt with this by showing the entire stage, so you do see a smallish Farrell making her exit, but you also see the chandeliers switch on and the couples coming on from stage right. Sort of the Fourth Ring view.

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18 minutes ago, volcanohunter said:

The director of the 1983 telecast dealt with this by showing the entire stage, so you do see a smallish Farrell making her exit, but you also see the chandeliers switch on and the couples coming on from stage right. Sort of the Fourth Ring view.

I must be remembering that same version and for me it didn’t remotely capture Farrell’s impact at that moment. A closer shot might have done more....there was such POWER in the way she completely yielded to the music and movement....I guess it’s just another example of why live performance is such a challenge to capture on film or video even when the choreography is, technically, visible.

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6 minutes ago, nanushka said:

@Drew, just out of historical curiosity did you see that specific performance? I ask just because, when watching that video, I always think it must have been such an emotional night in the house.

I don’t think I was, but honestly don’t know.

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I think Vienna Waltzes is one of those works that is best viewed live. Video somehow diminishes it. This particular video doesn't hold up well against the earlier version with the original cast for three reasons IMO, Von Aroldingen,  Martins, Farrell. It's interesting to me that Peter Martins extraordinary career as a performer isn't mentioned more often. He and Karin Von Arondingen brought a real sophistication to their section. Reichlin and La Cour looked like they were play acting. Farrell's impact can't be overstated. Kowroski was sweet. 

It's not that I don't think a new crop of dancers can make as big an impact as the original cast, but I think there is a lack of imagination in casting. Height, seems to be a big factor in casting these roles. What if that wasn't a requirement? I was just thinking that Gina P seems to me to be a performer of some drama and depth. 

I know there is a big push for diversity in terms of who is asked to choreograph new works, and people of color being hired. Wouldn't it be interesting if casting for old works didn't get divided up by height, but other factors were deemed more important.

 

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1 hour ago, vipa said:

Height, seems to be a big factor in casting these roles. What if that wasn't a requirement?

Sure, especially in light of the fact that the Gold and Silver Waltz was not choreographed on an Amazonian ballerina.

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On 5/28/2021 at 2:00 AM, Helene said:

From PNB's press release:

 

See the stars of tomorrow, online today!

Pacific Northwest Ballet and PNB School present NEXT STEP

June 4 – 18, 2021

PNB’s annual choreographic showcase of premieres, created by PNB Company dancers for Professional Division students, goes online in 2021.

SEATTLE, WA— NEXT STEP, Pacific Northwest Ballet’s annual choreographers’ showcase, goes online this year, with a cornucopia of choreography created by company members. As with everything else during this unmentionable year, NEXT STEP is being presented online, via PNB’s YouTube and Facebook channels. [See hyperlinks below.] The program launches Friday, June 4 at 7:00 pm PST and will be viewable for two weeks, through June 18, 2021. The line-up features five premieres from Christopher D’Ariano, Joshua Grant, Miles Pertl, Lucien Postlewaite, and Leah Terada. All works are set on the Professional Division students of PNB School – the dance stars of tomorrow, online today! The program is managed by PNB faculty member and choreographer Eva Stone.

 Intended as a vehicle for emerging dance talent both onstage and off, NEXT STEP provides dancers, studio space, and rehearsal time for company members who wish to hone their skills of choreography...

I watched but kept wondering throughout most of the hour, "Is this film school or ballet school?" The young dancers seem very accomplished but these short films, planting gardens and such, did not  showcase their balletic abilities, with the exception of the very first one (Bright Young Things) set in a ballet studio, choreographed by Joshua Grant, to William Lin-Yee's music. 

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16 hours ago, Roberta said:

I watched but kept wondering throughout most of the hour, "Is this film school or ballet school?" The young dancers seem very accomplished but these short films, planting gardens and such, did not  showcase their balletic abilities, with the exception of the very first one .... 

I didn’t see it, but as you tell it, Roberta, this is professional marketing, not intended to showcase their balletic abilities, to give us a little free sample of that unusual thing they do to lure us in to see more, but to get us to form positive associations with these young people as people, not as performers, even, and maybe to be relaxed and curious about their main occupation - their careers, their calling, even.  In the rainy Pacific Northwest, nice people might plant gardens; how normal.  Who could be put off by that? We can relate, and isn’t that what the marketers are trying to archive?

 

 In the tropical Southeast, MCB’s publicity videos years ago showed some appealing MCB youngsters on the beach, also like normal people.  Nice kids who go to the beach in the afternoon.  Very positive.  (The website also had 90-second clips of some repertory, to be fair.)

 

But exactly why that’s supposed to attract a paying audience is not clear to me, though, and it doesn’t look like it’s clear to you either.  I like your idea of a showcase, or what I’ve heard of about some restaurants which lack business - they put a server on the sidewalk with a tray of samples:  Those who like a taste may go in and get a meal.  Not relating so much to the staff as people but to what they cook and serve, right?

 

It worked in the 70’s - the morning after an early Dance in America show on PBS, featuring the Joffrey Ballet, it was said that the line at the box office window of the New York City Center theater extended out the door and down the street.  Nowadays, if I remember correctly what I read, there’s no ballet on PBS because they think they don’t know how to market it.  What did they forget?  

 

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17 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

Sure, especially in light of the fact that the Gold and Silver Waltz was not choreographed on an Amazonian ballerina.

For the record, here's the original 1977 principal cast for Vienna Waltzes:

Tale from the Vienna Woods - Karin von Aroldingen & Sean Lavery
Voices of Spring - Patricia McBride & Helgi Tomasson
Explosion Polka  -  Sara Leland & Bart Cook
Gold and Silver Waltz - Kay Mazzo & Peter Martins
Der Rosenkavalier  -  Suzanne Farrell & Jorge Donn (the role was created on Jean-Pierre Bonnefous, but he was injured for the premiere, so Donn substituted as a guest artist.)

Karin von Aroldingen took over the Gold and Silver Waltz role after Kay Mazzo retired. Helene Alexopoulos, Maria Calegari, Rebecca Krohn, Lourdes Lopez, Lauren Lovette, Teresa Reichlen, and Jenifer Ringer have also been cast in the role. I can't discern a real thread connecting them except that they all looked grown up and glamorous in the costume. No one has ever looked as good in those red pants as Martins. 

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On 6/4/2021 at 8:04 PM, Drew said:

... live performance is such a challenge to capture on film or video even when the choreography is, technically, visible.

ABT's 6/6/21 LA show has a free livestream.  Sign up link https://themusiccenter.uscreen.io/programs/live-fzhh0k_gjvc   https://www.instagram.com/p/CPv9YFDHsiA/   10 dancers and 5 pdd excerpts.  By the costumes: R&J Seo-Forster, SLTeuscher-Stearns, DQ Shevchenko-Ahn. A Time There Was Williams-Hoven, ? Hurlin-Bell.  

I'm curious to how the simulcast tech compares to Wolf Trap. ABT and NYCB dancers are at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston SC.  Boylston and Gordon  https://www.instagram.com/p/CPrQvKfgaVP/

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6 minutes ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:

Karin von Aroldingen took over the Gold and Silver Waltz role after Kay Mazzo retired. Helene Alexopoulos, Maria Calegari, Rebecca Krohn, Lourdes Lopez, Lauren Lovette, Teresa Reichlen, and Jenifer Ringer have also been cast in the role. I can't discern a real thread connecting them except that they all looked grown up and glamorous in the costume. No one has ever looked as good in those red pants as Martins. 

I've only seen Mazzo on video -- Stravinsky Violin Concerto and, maybe, Duo Concertante? -- but I'd seen von Aroldingen many times in a range of roles.  After seeing von Aroldingen, I was surprised to learn that Mazzo was the original.

I think the ballet has an arc, from the innocents of Tales of the Vienna Woods, to the faux innocence of Voices of Spring -- anyone who has been to a traditional musical there will recognize the 40-year-old tenor star in his lederhosen playing a 17-year-old and flashing his teeth like a matinee idol -- to the demi-monde in Explosion Polka on the outskirts of Vienna, to the La Ronde sophistication of Gold and Silver, to the turn-of-the-century neurosis of Rosenkavalier, where the partner might be unreal, all wrapped up in the big denial finale before WWI sends everything crashing.

For Gold and Silver to work, in my opinion it has to be grown-ups playing a cat-and-mouse game, which is why von Aroldingen and Martins worked so well at it.  (Plus his ballroom dancing experience growing up in Denmark.)  I've only seen a couple of the other women at NYCB do the role, but the ones I did see didn't "get" it, even Calegari, who seemed more dramatically suited to Rosenkavalier, since she didn't seem to be interested in the give-and-take of Gold and Silver.  Play-acting it without chemistry falls flat, and it rends the arc of the entire work, at least for me.

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My recollection is that the male principal role in the Gold and Silver Waltz for the past 30 years has generally been cast with someone somewhat reminiscent of Martins in looks--ie., tall(ish) and/or blond--Nilas Martins,  Chase Finlay, Ask La Cour. I can't recall any one else off the top of my head. Maybe Hubbe?

I've watched Vienna Waltzes twice so far, plus another Rosenkavelier--I really enjoyed it despite the imperfections, especially considering that this was not filmed for the purpose of being aired. The finale doesn't have quite the same thrill of seeing it in person where it seems that the stage can't contain the dancers, but it thrilled me nonetheless, even watching on my laptop.

 

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I don't remember if there was any overlap, but because of Martins' retirement as a dancer, NYCB hired Otto Neubert from Stuttgart and cast him in many Martins roles.  I remember him in Gold and Silver with, at first von Aroldingen, and then Calegari.  He was elegant, but, at the time, was Not Martins, and he was never embraced in NYC.

He is now one of two Rehearsal Directors at Pacific Northwest Ballet, and he's performed character roles, like von Rothbart and as Don Quixote in the Ratmansky production.  While Tom Skerritt was a coup for the company as DQ, he's a film actor, and movement isn't his forte.  As the Don, Neubert was fiercely compelling. 

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I'm still quite glued to Der Rosenkavalier: Erste Walzerfolge. That's okay since we have until June 17 to take in all of Vienna Waltzes. Having never looked at this work carefully there's so much that I could write about at first glance.

What George Balanchine has done with the waltz as a point of department is very exciting. High swirling kick steps, arms way above the head, upper body sculpture, it's all new invention to this dance world. The women's flowing gowns, at one point, recall ancient Greek sculpture, the Winged Victory of Samothrace.

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Stories are being told. Elevated emotion expressed. All in the context of the waltz.

Suzanne Farrell amplifies all this. She makes it all personal and godlike. Her backbend exit is one of the finest moments in dance that I've yet seen.

Maria Kowroski is sophistication and fineness. Her dance is not as much an expression of life flowing intensity, like Suzanne Farrell, but more a heart-touching story being told, a woman in love.

The way that the dance ensemble concludes in the Suzanne Farrell video has its differences. I'm noticing the feet more than anything. The footwork is very precise and exciting in its exactness and speed. There's expression in this virtuosity, even meaning. In the more current version, the dancing is more expansive, the feet are further apart. It's more of a spectacle that's been fine tuned over the years and has a fairytale elegance that's almost magical. The women's gowns sail through through the heavens -- Hollywood and Broadway elevated to the stars.

 

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21 hours ago, maps said:

ABT's 6/6/21 LA show has a free livestream.  Sign up link https://themusiccenter.uscreen.io/programs/live-fzhh0k_gjvc   https://www.instagram.com/p/CPv9YFDHsiA/   10 dancers and 5 pdd excerpts.  By the costumes: R&J Seo-Forster, SLTeuscher-Stearns, DQ Shevchenko-Ahn. A Time There Was Williams-Hoven, ? Hurlin-Bell.  

....

By the dark-blue jazzy costumes, maybe Hurlin and Bell are dancing Let Me Sing Forevermore, the Jessica Lang-Tony Bennett ballet?

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ABT -- Dance at Dusk -- Live from LA

For 45 minutes after more than a year offstage I thought that these performances were very respectable.

Don Quixote pas de deux, performed by Christine Shevchenko and Joo Won Ahn. 

Swan Lake pas de deux  Devon Teuscher? and Cory Stearns?    

Romeo and Juliet pas de deux, performed by Hee Seo and Thomas Forster?

A Time There Was  pas de deux,   Soloists Katherine Williams and Blaine Hoven (a work featuring choreography by ABT’s Gemma Bond and music by Benjamin Britten)

Let Me Sing Forevermore? ("the Jessica Lang-Tony Bennett ballet," Roberta)   Cate Hurlin? and Aran Bell ?

(Thanks, Maps and Roberta for dancer identification)

 I await the day when Christine Shevchenko delivers facially like she did in LA awhile ago as Gamzatti, a truly great acting performance !  She danced quite well this evening. Devon Teuscher and Hee Seo were just fine. A Time There Was was fine. 

The last work, Let Me Sing Forevermore?, a sort of jazzy one, was fun. I was truly delighted by ABT's all jazz Indestructible Light in Costa Mesa with an all young cast and this one pointed in that direction. This sort of thing could work very well if of the quality of Indestructible Light. The two dancers certainly had the ability.

 

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6 hours ago, Buddy said:

ABT -- Dance at Dusk -- Live from LA

For 45 minutes after more than a year offstage I thought that these performances were very respectable.

Don Quixote pas de deux, performed by Christine Shevchenko and Joo Won Ahn. 

Swan Lake pas de deux  Devon Teuscher? and Cory Stearns?    

Romeo and Juliet pas de deux, performed by Hee Seo and Thomas Forster?

A Time There Was  pas de deux,   Soloists Katherine Williams and Blaine Hoven (a work featuring choreography by ABT’s Gemma Bond and music by Benjamin Britten)

Let Me Sing Forevermore? ("the Jessica Lang-Tony Bennett ballet," Roberta)   Cate Hurlin? and Aran Bell ?

(Thanks, Maps and Roberta for dancer identification)

....

 

Buddy, you are correct in the ID'n of dancers and the five pdd's. The livestream included one very quick flash of a playbill, just before the initial number.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity of seeing these ten wonderful ABT dancers perform live, that I'll overlook the less-than-optimal filming, missed entrances, missed start of Schevchenko's 32 fouettes in Don Q, etc. As a long-time ABT patron during their Met seasons, I was especially touched by seeing Forster as Romeo. Like many admirers, I'd waited for years to see him dance as a principal. I'm also glad that soloists Williams and Hoven got their chance to shine here, in the Gemma Bond piece. I'll admit to having a lump in my throat several times during this stream, camera quirks and all.

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4 hours ago, Roberta said:

Buddy, you are correct in the ID'n of dancers and the five pdd's. The livestream included one very quick flash of a playbill, just before the initial number.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity of seeing these ten wonderful ABT dancers perform live, that I'll overlook the less-than-optimal filming, missed entrances, missed start of Schevchenko's 32 fouettes in Don Q, etc. As a long-time ABT patron during their Met seasons, I was especially touched by seeing Forster as Romeo. Like many admirers, I'd waited for years to see him dance as a principal. I'm also glad that soloists Williams and Hoven got their chance to shine here, in the Gemma Bond piece. I'll admit to having a lump in my throat several times during this stream, camera quirks and all.

Yes, Roberta, it was really nice to see live dance again. The announcer said that it's the first performance at the Center in fourteen months.

I'm quite ballerina focused, so I'm glad that you pointed out your feelings about Thomas Forster and I join you in congratulating him. I often miss what the men are doing because they are intended to be somewhat invisible, but the ballerinas would never shine the way that they do without them.

As sort of an aside, I remember Veronika Part dancing one of her exceptional Swan Lakes with a partner that was relatively new to it. For me, she commands the stage completely, but this evening it seemed that she stood back somewhat in order to let him shine a bit more. I thought that it was a fine gesture, if in fact it was her intent.

I've seen a fair number of Odette/Odiles (Swan Lake), most of them quite fine, each one bringing something special, and I thought that Devon Teuscher, in her turn, did a very fine interpretation. I've always liked Hee Seo. She was invited to two Mariinsky Festivals and I thought that, in essence, she shone at both of them.

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Buddy said:

As sort of an aside, I remember Veronika Part dancing one of her exceptional Swan Lakes with a partner that was relatively new to it. For me, she commands the stage completely, but this evening it seemed that she stood back somewhat in order to let him shine a bit more. I thought that it was a fine gesture, if in fact it was her intent.

I was curious about the partner in the Swan Lake you mention.  I  loved Veronika Part and saw her In SL several times. I recall Stearns and Whiteside, neither of whom I liked.  Can't remember the other partner though.

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8 hours ago, Marta said:

Buddy said:

As sort of an aside, I remember Veronika Part dancing one of her exceptional Swan Lakes with a partner that was relatively new to it. For me, she commands the stage completely, but this evening it seemed that she stood back somewhat in order to let him shine a bit more. I thought that it was a fine gesture, if in fact it was her intent.

I was curious about the partner in the Swan Lake you mention.  I  loved Veronika Part and saw her In SL several times. I recall Stearns and Whiteside, neither of whom I liked.  Can't remember the other partner though.

If you are a Friend of ABT (not sure where the cut-off is), you have access to ABT On Demand. It includes a full-length recording of ABT's performance of Swan Lake in 2014 in Australia with Veronika Part and James Whiteside. 

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18 hours ago, Marta said:

Buddy said:

As sort of an aside, I remember Veronika Part dancing one of her exceptional Swan Lakes with a partner that was relatively new to it. For me, she commands the stage completely, but this evening it seemed that she stood back somewhat in order to let him shine a bit more. I thought that it was a fine gesture, if in fact it was her intent.

I was curious about the partner in the Swan Lake you mention.  I  loved Veronika Part and saw her In SL several times. I recall Stearns and Whiteside, neither of whom I liked.  Can't remember the other partner though.

I believe that he was one of the two that you mentioned, Marta. He was having a better than usual night, from what I had read, and she seemed to me to be letting him take more of the  spotlight to encourage him.

Thanks, California. We actually had a brief discussion.

https://balletalert.invisionzone.com/topic/46164-abt-veronika-part-swan-lake/

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