Predictions for 2003?

[Alexandra]

What will happen in Ballet in 2003? What do you THINK will happen? What do you WISH would happen?

[Dale]

What I wish for 2003 is for the ballet world to look to its past for its future by reviving and reconstructing old or "lost" ballets. Not only is it important to rescue great works before they are forgotten or destroyed, but they would provide new challenges for today's dancers (to go along with new works) and help educate today's dance makers of ballet history.

Cincinnati Ballet's recent Ballet Russe celebration is the perfect example. But also the Kirov's recent reconstructions, some of the Millicent Hodson reconstructions (ones such as Cotillion, where most of the original choreography was able to be dug up, not the ones such as Jeux, where everything had to be rechoreographed), and ABT's sometime revivals of Tudor's works, most recently Offenbach in the Underworld.

So I look to NYTB's upcoming evening of Tudor revivals of Les Mains Gauches and Judgment of Paris in May and the recent news (posted elsewhere on the site) about revivals of Ashton's Sylvia, Balanchine's Don Q and Petipa/Ivanov's Swan Lake. Even revivals at NYCB of Ballade and Piano Pieces.

[Fraildove]

i would hope that maria bystrova get more attention at ABT. She is a great talent that i think could be a truly great artist. Kind of specific and personal, but i would love to see it happen.

[Manhattnik]

Frank Andersen will engage Pierre LaCotte to stage a Galeotti Festival, replacing the scheduled Bournonville Festival.

"We shouldn't forget that Bournonville was only one of many great ballet masters who worked in Denmark, and helped make the Danish ballet what it is today" Andersen will say, in explaining that after Galeotti, the next ballet master to be honored with a Festival will be Flemming Flindt, followed by the Peter Schaufuss Festival.

[Alexandra]

I can't imagine the circumstances where Andersen would have a Schaufuss festival. A Peter Martins Festival would be more likely, I think. The last time Andersen had the reins at the RDB he had penciled in a Neumeier Festival, but fate intervened.

But since Bournonville is being turned over to a Danish modern dance company ("Napoli, the New City" will be unveiled this spring by Tim Rushton's New Dance Theatre and, if a success, will surely be part of the Bournonville Festival), perhaps the next call *will* be "Back to 'Galeotti!"

I won't make any predictions, there or anywhere. I don't have aesthetic liability insurance

[Manhattnik]

Ah, of course. Simultaneous Peter Martins Festivals in Copenhagen and NYC will make Martins the toast of two continents. Or, rather, the Old and New Worlds. How could I not have seen this coming? I can already feel the Trans-Atlantic excitement building.

But can Peter (M) do Elvis?

[Alexandra]

I didn't mean to skip over Dale's and fraildove's posts -- I hope there are more revivals, too, and I hope a lot of our New Yorkers will go see those Tudor ballets by New York Theater Ballet and report.

I've been very surprised that Bystrova has done more at ABT. She was very promising as a teenager, and I worry that her only sin now is that she's so classical. I hope she doesn't continue to languish.

My own hope for 2003 is that ballet companies generally:

1. Commission ballets instead of yet more contemporary dance works.

2. Emphasize coaching and and allot adequate rehearsal time for their repertory.