And Still More Ballet Quibbles and Bits . . .

'Swan Lake' Follow-up:

New York City Ballet just published two very brief clips of Teresa Reichlen and Russell Janzen dancing in Peter Martins' 'Swan Lake'.
  

Teresa Reichlen in the first lakeside scene in Peter Martins' 'Swan Lake'.  Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

The first is from the lakeside pas de deux and shows the couple's long lyrical lines which I wrote about after seeing them dance together at the September 22nd dress rehearsal:

https://www.facebook.com/nycballet/videos/10156127522740529/

The second shows Reichlen's incredible series of fouettes in the ballroom pas de deux.

https://www.facebook.com/nycballet/videos/10156127554185529/

Tess and Russell will probably become the company's hot new couple.

Another NYCB Apprentice:

Alston Macgill has just been named an apprentice by New York City Ballet.  Alston performed the role of Odette in Balanchine's one-act 'Swan Lake' at the 2014 SAB Workshops and danced Bournonville's 'William Tell' pas de deux at the 2015 SAB Workshops.  She comes from Savannah, GA, and just turned 18 in September.  What a smashing birthday present for Alston!

The 'Looks' from NYCB Fall Fashion Gala as seen in Elle and New York Magazine's 'The Cut':

Here's a link to 44 pictures of the costumes designed by five fashion designers for New York City Ballet's Fall Gala:

http://l.facebook.com/l/GAQGfv6sY/www.elle.com/culture/art-design/news/g27044/backstage-at-the-new-york-city-ballet-gala-fall-2015/

And here's a link to New York Magazine's 'The Cut' with more photos of the Fall Gala costumes:

http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/09/fashion-takes-center-stage-at-the-nycb-gala/slideshow/2015/09/30/new_york_city_balletgala/

Of course, for 'The Cut' the costumes and who designed them are more important than the dancers who are wearing them (typical of the style-obsessed media I suppose).  

Rebecca Krohn with Amar Ramassar, Ask la Cour and Robert Fairchild in Peter Martins' 'Thou Swell' in cosutmes by Peter Topping of Oscar de la Renta.
Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

Fortunately, we'll never have to see the costumes for Peter Martins' 'Thou Swell' again -- a one-time-only showing of luxuriously vulgar designs by Peter Topping of Oscar de la Renta.

Ballerinas on Broadway:

On Monday, October 5th, we attended a NYC Ballet seminar entitled 'Ballerinas on Broadway'.  Joan Quatrano moderated a panel of three ballerinas associated with the Broadway musical revival of 'On the Town':  Megan Fairchild, Sara Mearns, and Georgina Pazcoguin.  Megan originated the role of Ivy Smith (Miss Turnstiles) and played her for about 10 months.  Sara Mearns' boyfriend, Joshua Bergasse, is the choreographer of the show and Sara performed a 'dream ballet' once during the show's run.  Last summer Gina became a member of the show's ensemble and the understudy for Miss Turnstiles and then danced the role for two weeks after Megan left the show and before Misty Copeland came in for the end of the show's run in early September.

Megan Fairchild as Miss Turnstiles with ensemble in the revival of 'On the Town'.  Photo from Time Out NY

The seminar audience heard a lot of useless information  about 'putting on a show' including definitions of colorful Broadway terms.  They also heard quite a bit about the contrasts between Broadway and NYC Ballet.  Most of this came from Megan, who is a real chatterbox.  Most of Sara's comments concerned background about Josh's choreographic process, while Gina seemed content to talk about her experiences in the show when she was asked.

For me, the most interesting part of the discussion was not about 'On the Town' and Broadway, but about how the NYC Ballet is embracing new media and encouraging its dancers to engage with the public using Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms.  Sara has an Instagram feed and Megan has a webpage and posts podcasts.  Sara said that she wanted to connect with future generations of dancers in a medium that they utilize and understand.

SAB's 2014 Workshop Performances Back on PBS:

This past August Live from Lincoln Center rebroadcast the School of American Ballet's 2014 Workshop Performance -- first broadcast on PBS in December, 2014.  Unfortunately, the show had been edited from 90 minutes down to 60 minutes for the rebroadcast, which left much of the rehearsal and interview material from the original show on the cutting room floor.  It was still fun to watch the dance portion of the 50th anniversary Workshop Performance once again -- and marvel at the payoff on many years of arduous training.   Several of these students have gone on to dance professionally in companies across the globe.

SAB on 'Live from Lincoln Center'

We taped the School of American Ballet Workshop Performance shown on 'Live from Lincoln Center' on PBS on Sunday afternoon.  It seemed like a strange time to air it -- but maybe it was smart counter-programming for PBS to spotlight these graceful young athletes as an antidote to all of that football mayhem on other channels.  The broadcast was extremely well done.

We had seen two of the three Workshop performances back in June, so we had a pretty good idea of the shape of the performances.  What was truly exceptional, though, was how well they were filmed and pulled together as a coherent TV show.  Too often, dance on television is difficult to watch because the cameras insist on close-ups or tracking an individual dancer when there is a larger -- and usually better -- stage picture that is being ignored.  Here the cameras pulled back to include the entire stage (or at least the entire dancer), closing in for close-ups only when there were infrequent static moments.  Feet were not chopped off and there was also sufficient screen space around the dancers to allow them to move -- and boy can they move!

By the way, here's a link to Alistair Macaulay's review of the broadcast in last Friday's New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/12/arts/dance/live-from-lincoln-center-to-air-curtain-up.html?


Beyond praising this broadcast, Macaulay bemoans the lack of American companies in the high-definition broadcast of dance performances.  I would add that this in part due to the intransigence of the various unions required to stage and broadcast dance -- they have allowed the market to shift to overseas dance companies.

Balanchine's 'Serenade' at the 2014 SAB Workshop Performances.  Addie Tapp's grand jete among the corps.
Still from 'Live from Lincoln Center' broadcast.

Balanchine's 'Serenade' is really about all of the dancers -- the seventeen member corps as well as the five principals -- interacting and creating beautiful shifting patterns and perhaps telling a story or several stories or no story at all.  Suki Schorer's meticulous and vivid staging was beautifully captured on camera.  We got close enough to the student dancers to feel the adrenalin rush of their performance as well as their caring, careful execution of Mr. B's steps and never losing the beauty of his sweeping patterns.  And we got a brief snippet of Ms. Schorer preparing the students for the performance and another snippet of the leads, 16-year-old Dammiel Cruz, talking about his training and preparation.

In the excerpts from the Balanchine/Danilova 'Coppelia' we got close enough to see the solemnity and mischievous joy of 24 little girls dancing in one of Mr. B's great ballets for children.  And we could watch them interact with four lovely student ballerinas -- providing each with an animated frame of changing patterns for their solos.  Then we saw the concentration of 18 advanced students making the best case for the 'War and Discord' divertissement -- one of Mr. B's least persuasive pieces of choreography.

Finale tableau from Balanchine's 'Swan Lake' with Alston Macgill and Joshua Shutkind.
Still from PBS 'Live from Lincoln Center' broadcast.

Then in Balanchine's one-act 'Swan Lake' we saw the ballet cycle of life happening before our eyes -- Darci Kistler, who was coached in 'Swan Lake' by Alexandra Danilova for her Workshop performance in 1980, coaching Alston Macgill in 'Swan Lake' for the 2014 Workshop performances -- promising student taught by former star ballerina becomes a radiant star ballerina who becomes an inspiring teacher for the next generation of promising students.

One thing to note here is that the 'Live from Lincoln Center camerawork brought us close to the gallant partners, especially in 'Serenade' and 'Swan Lake', who allowed their ballerinas to shine.  Having watched them in Adagio Classes with Jock Soto and Darci Kistler, I've come to appreciate the special accomplishments of these self-effacing young men.  This broadcast allowed the entire viewing audience to see their strength, their poise, their determination to get beyond the mechanics of a partnership into the artistry and chemistry that make each pairing special.

The Fourth Movement of Balanchine's 'Western Symphony'.  Clara Miller wows the corps with her pointe work.
Still from PBS 'Live from Lincoln Center' broadcast.

Finally, we witnessed the exuberance of the final movement of Balanchine's 'Western Symphony'.  Susan Pilare, the wonderful SAB teacher and stager, drove her student cast hard in the months leading up to the June workshop, but then encouraged them to go on stage and have fun.  They obviously did -- and the PBS audience did, too.  It was a wonderful conclusion for a wonderful broadcast.  

Bravo, PBS 'Live from Lincoln Center'!  Bravo, SAB faculty and students!

Ballet Odds & Ends . . .

I just wanted to share a few bits about ballet that have recently come to my attention.

Wendy Whelan's farewell evening in her own words:

Here's a slide show of photos by Henry Leutwyler from Wendy Whelan's farewell evening on October 18th along with Wendy's comments on each:

http://www.vulture.com/2014/10/wendy-whelan-last-performance.html?mid=facebook_nymag#photo=1x00012

I was really impressed with the range and depth of her thoughts on her retirement from New York City Ballet.

Wendy Whelan's shoes for her final performance.  Photo by Henry Leutwyler

Second Season of city.ballet on AOL:

The second season of city.ballet is now up on AOL at:  

http://on.aol.com/show/517887470-city-ballet/518489161

There are 12 segments, each from 5 to 9 minutes long, covering various aspects of New York City Ballet.  The clips were taken during the company's preparation for the Fall Season that ended October 19th.  They feature several dancers and cover their lives both within the company and in the outside world.  Each segment is a small gem that can enhance viewer's understanding of what it's really like to be one of the exotic creatures that we see on stage a few times each year.  Gee, they're not so different from the rest of us!

city.ballet 'logo' from AOL

SAB Workshop on PBS 'Live from Lincoln Center:

PBS has announced that it will broadcast the School of American Ballet's June Workshop Performance on Friday, December 12th, at 9:00pm (hardly live, but certainly worth the wait).  The all-Balanchine program includes 'Serenade' (to Tschaikovsky's 'Serenade for Strings in C'); excerpts from Act II of 'Coppelia'; 'Swan Lake' (Balanchine's 1-act version); and the fourth movement of 'Western Symphony' (to Hershey Kay's music based on American folk themes).  You may recall my post about this program which you can read here:


http://zylopho.blogspot.com/2014_04_01_archive.html

There's a short PBS 'tease' clip of the students in 'Serenade' here:

http://video.pbs.org/video/2365363809/

You'll recall that I wrote about the workshop performances in my posting here:

http://zylopho.blogspot.com/2014/06/school-of-american-ballet-workshop.html 

By the way that's my most popular post so far -- thanks for your support.

Addie Tapp (now a Boston Ballet corps member) and Preston Chamblee (now an apprentice at NYC Ballet)
performing George Balanchine's 'Serenade' in the School of American Ballet Workshop last June.
Photo is a still from PBS Live from Lincoln Center broadcast to be aired on 12/12/14 at 9pm.

'Ballet 422' coming to movie theaters near you:

The documentary movie 'Ballet 422', which was well-received at film festivals this fall will be opening in movie theaters in February, 6, 2015.  It provides a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of New York City Ballet's 422nd original ballet -- Justin Peck's 'Paz de la Jolla'.  You can see the movie's trailer here:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1484789521803444&set=vb.1400931226855941&type=2&theater

Look for movie theaters near you displaying this poster.

Nutcracker couples rehearse:

Finally, around the Rose Building (where both the School of American Ballet and NYC Ballet have their studios) we're starting to see George Balanchine's 'The Nutcracker' taking shape for its annual season (this year from November 28th thru January 3rd).  Ballet master Albert Evans was rehearsing with Teresa Reichlen (Sugarplum) and Ask la Cour (Cavalier) on Tuesday afternoon.  On Thursday afternoon Ashley Bouder and Joaquin De Luz were rehearsing the grand pas de deux before a studio doorway packed with rapt students plus the School's Executive Director, Marjorie Van Dercook, and me.  And many of the younger students are busy rehearsing to be guests in the Party Scene, Mice, Angels, and Candy Canes.  And the older students are learning the Dewdrop and Sugarplum variations and the grand pas de deux from the wonderful faculty -- many of whom have danced those roles themselves.

Teresa Reichlen as the Dewdrop in George Balanchine's 'The Nutcracker'.  Photo by Andrea Mohin for NYTimes