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Thursday, April 28


dirac

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A review of the Joffrey Ballet in "Of Mice and Men" by Kyle MacMillan for The Chicago Sun-Times.

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Because of its narrative simplicity and emotional power, this story, which takes a tragic turn when Lennie accidentally kills another worker’s wife, turns out to be well-suited to adaptation as a ballet.

That became clear Wednesday evening when the Joffrey Ballet presented the world premiere of Cathy Marston’s intense, involving dance setting of the book in a program paired with George Balanchine’s “Serenade.” The duo offering runs for nine more performances through May 8.

Lauren Warnecke's review in The Chicago Tribune.

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“Serenade” is a relic, important to the history of American ballet and a rite of passage for this great American ballet company. Their performance, though not perfect, was pretty darn close. Soloists Victoria Jaiani, Gayeon Jung and Valeria Chaykina give commanding performances. And, of course, Tchaikovsky’s score pierces to the core, a salve for our souls so beautiful it’s almost hard to keep your eyes open.

 

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A review of New York City Ballet by Ivy Lin for Bachtrack.

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The serene ensemble piece Divertimento no. 15 looked the most ragged: corps formations were not always uniform; Unity Phelan and Joseph Gordon ran into some partnering problems; and in the Andante, the numerous exits and entrances between the five female soloists and three male soloists was not as seamless as it could have been. It was still a lovely performance. Indiana Woodward was a standout in the Sixth Variation, her footwork was so fast and crisp. Emilie Gerrity in the Fourth Variation continues to have some of the most classical épaulement in the entire company. I’ve often thought of Divertimento no. 15 as Balanchine’s most pleasing ballet. Not the greatest, but the harmony of the steps is enchanting.

 

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A review of New York City Ballet by Mary Cargill for danceviewtimes.

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"Allegro Brillante" has no regrets in its blazing celebration of classicism.  It opens in the middle of this celebration as the corps seems to toss steps to one another. Tiler Peck and Roman Mejia were the central couple. Mejia danced with his familiar and welcome unexaggerated generosity, bounding through the air. Peck attacked the cascade of steps like she was unpacking a barrel of diamonds and tossing them to the audience. She danced her solo, with its fast footwork, quick changes of direction, and impeccable musicality with an ease which left the audience gasping at the daring simplicity of perfection.

 

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New York City Ballet's 1972 Stravinsky Festival is remembered by participants.

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Kay Mazzo, principal dancer

The festival was a breakthrough moment in Mazzo’s career, with parts in Balanchine’s “Violin Concerto,” “Duo Concertant” and “Scherzo à la Russe.”

When Balanchine choreographed, “it was the way he taught class, nothing dramatic,” Mazzo said. “He would go from studio to studio, ‘Violin Concerto’ in one room for two hours, ‘Firebird’ in another for an hour.” Balanchine didn’t use counts as much as rhythms when demonstrating the steps, she said. “You would do it again and again until it was what he wanted. He put that music into your body, and once you knew what you were doing, you felt there could be no other step for that music.”

 

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Toni Bentley writes on appearing in "Serenade." 

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I grab the crisp tulle and pull it up flat against my tighted legs, look down and line up my feet, inside ankles locked together, and then let loose the tulle, refluffing it to remove any finger indents or creases while not budging my feet. My head is turned ever so slightly to the right and the cheek barely tilted, ear toward to the shoulder. Mr. B always told us to turn the cheek as if waiting for a kiss. The kiss of fate, the kiss he might bestow. Being so young, we didn’t know we had already been kissed, being there with him and all.N


 

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 Alberta Ballet presents "Cinderella."

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“I wanted to extract themes that I felt would be relevant today, reimagining the story that reflects society as we see it now,” [Christopher] Anderson says. “Obviously, it’s still centred on Cinderella, but we tried to remove the concept of her being rescued, and really tried to highlight her independence and made her more of a dreamer, with her resilience and optimism that allowed her to live out her ‘happily ever after.’”

 

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Sarasota Ballet announces its 2022-23 season.

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First up, the ballet will welcome dancers Macarena Gimenez and Maximiliano Iglesias, both of the Ballet Estable del Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Both have had significant experience with lead roles at Teatro Colón, with Gimenez participating in the Latin-American tour of Paloma Herrera’s Farewell, the Latin-American Festival in China, and the Festival Internacional de Ballet de la Habana in 2018.

 

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A review of Toni Bentley's "Serenade: A Balanchine Story" by Peter Tonguette for the National Review.

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In fact, throughout the book Bentley advances an argument subtler and more sophisticated than her cursory comment that Serenade “freed” women from men: Though the ballet demonstrably loosed ballerinas from male partners and the other clunky accoutrements with which they were encumbered in earlier warhorses such as Giselle — “Balanchine looked at women dancers and found that we were more than enough, so he dispensed with wings, veils, princes, cads, mothers, fiancés, and pending nuptials,” Bentley writes — it was still a ballet dreamed up, and executed, by a man. “Our individual ambitions subsumed in our far larger common goal: to dance Balanchine’s ballets as he wanted them,” she writes. “It was his vision for ourselves, individually and together, to which we were devoted. Devoutly devoted.”

 

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A review of the Ballet of the Hungarian State Opera by Ilona Landgraf in her blog, "Landgraf on Dance."

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The new triple bill from the Hungarian State Opera’s ballet company, aptly titled “Without Limits”, certainly offers a whopping amount of dance. Harald Lander’s “Études” (1948), a one-act homage to the formal classical technique, contrasts with William Forsythe’s sprightly “The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude” (1996). A new version of another purely classical ballet – Marius Petipa’s Paquita Grand Pas (“Paquita Suite”) – opened the program. “Without Limits” was shown at the Eiffel Arts Center, a former railway maintenance and engineering complex transformed in 2020 into the Hungarian Opera’s second stage in Budapest. The capacious, light-filled venue houses a modern 500-seat stage, rehearsal and storage space, production workshops, and an exhibition area. The toot-toot of the historic locomotive located in the foyer calls the audience back after breaks.

 

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