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.

NYC Ballet 'Swan Lake' Dress Rehearsal

On Tuesday afternoon, September 22nd, I attended the 'dress' rehearsal for Peter Martins' 'Swan Lake' which was opening later that evening.  The idea that it was a 'dress' rehearsal seemed pretty casual -- most of the corps dancers were in practice clothes, except the men wore their garish orange boots.  Even the principals weren't in pristine costume -- Prince Siegfried wore grey sweatpants over his costume through much of the first scene and Odette wore footless tights.

The 'orchestra' consisted of a piano in the pit 'conducted' by Stuart Capps and a violinist who showed up in time for the solo violin passage in the lakeside scene.

Still, it was an opportunity to see a brand new Siegfried, Russell Janzen, perfectly paired with a lovely Odette, Teresa Reichlen.  They are both tall, slender dancers with long arms and legs.  The pas de deux in the first lakeside scene was notable for their long, beautifully coordinated lines and for Russell's partnering of Tess with steady calm.  Surrounded by a corps of swans in drab and raggedy practice clothes Tess and Russell indeed stood out.   

Teresa Reichlen and Russell Janzen in the pas de deux from George Balanchine's 'Diamonds' from 'Jewels'.
Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

At this rehearsal, Taylor Stanley in the role of Benno danced the pas de trois with Indiana Woodward and Sarah Villwock.  Ms. Woodward and Ms. Villwock are new to their roles and there were still a few kinks in the pas de trois to be ironed out later in a rehearsal studio.  Harrison Ball danced the Jester -- a role I dislike and find hard to judge objectively.  It's showy and requires a bravura dancer.  Harrison seemed to be having an off day.  Gwyneth Muller was regal as the Queen, although she or a page or lady-in-waiting need to mind her train which was doubled back on itself here.  The children from the School of American Ballet were well-drilled and adorable -- although they were still getting used to the Theater's stage and the adult dancers surrounding them.

In the lakeside scene, the four cygnets -- including Claire Von Eyck at one end of the chain -- were brilliant.  Silas Farley waved Von Rotbart's flaming orange cape with panache.  Although the role of Rotbart was created by Albert Evans, I see no reason to continue casting minorities -- Silas and Preston Chamblee in the current run -- in this role.  It's way past time for New York City Ballet to introduce color blind casting in all of its works and move beyond this type of tokenism -- it's racist and appalling.

This cast will  be dancing Thursday evening, September 24th -- when Russell will make his debut as Siegried -- and again at the Sunday, September 27th, matinee.

Following the rehearsal of the first half -- I'm never sure if it is two scenes and one act or two acts with no intermission -- of 'Swan Lake' there was a rehearsal of the pas de quatre from the ballroom scene with Megan Fairchild, Ana Sophia Scheller, Tiler Peck and Joaquin De Luz.  This stellar cast did a partially danced walk-thru of this so-so piece of Martins' choreography.  I assume that they've danced this enough times that they were saving themselves for the performance that evening.  It was a rather lackluster finish to a spotty afternoon.

On a different note, Jared Angle was listed in the handout as one of the 'rehearsal masters' and was on stage offering pointers to Reichlen and Janzen about their performance.  Does this portend a transition from principal dancer to artistic staff in Jared's future?  If so, the NYCB website hasn't caught up with the news.  We'd hate to see Jared stop performing, but he's a great addition to the artistic staff with a wealth of experience dancing a wide range of roles.

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!

2014 School of American Ballet Workshop Program -- It's all about the anniversaries

When I first learned of the program Peter Martins had selected for the School of American Ballet's 2014 workshops (on Saturday, May 31st at 2pm and 8pm and gala performance on Tuesday, June 3rd at 7pm) it seemed a bit of a jumble.  But the more I've looked at it the more Peter's choices make sense to me.

First, it's all Balanchine choreography, because he co-founded the School with Lincoln Kirstein in 1934 -- making 2014 the School's 80th anniversary year.

The opening work will be 'Serenade' to Tschaikovsky's 'Serenade for Strings' -- because it was the first work that Balanchine choreographed in America.  He made it in 1934 (also it's 80th anniversary) for SAB students.  According to legend Balanchine incorporated things that actually happened in the School during that first year -- creating each section for the number of students who showed up for class that day; using a student's late arrival for class and finding her place in the opening formation; incorporating a student's stumble and fall to the floor.

The opening moments of Balanchine's 'Serenade' from an earlier SAB Workshop performance, 
photo by Paul Kolnik

But 'Serenade' is far from improvised and remains one of the most cherished works of the Balanchine repertory.  It will be staged by Suki Schorer for the workshop.  Suki has staged this work many times before for SAB performances -- and also for companies around the world as a repetiteur for the Balanchine Trust.  

For anyone who wants to know what dancing in 'Serenade' feels like, I suggest that they get their hands on Jenifer Ringer's new book, 'Dancing Through It', wherein she describes just how dancing in 'Serenade' (at the Washington Ballet School, at SAB and at NYC Ballet) changed her life. 

Jenifer Ringer & Philip Neal in Balanchine's 'Serenade, photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

The second work will be selections from the last act of 'Coppelia' which was co-staged by Balanchine and Alexandra Danilova in 1974 (40th anniversary) for New York City Ballet -- based on original choreography by Arthur Saint-Leon in 1870, restaged by Petipa in 1884 (130th anniversary) and by Cechetti in 1894 (120th anniversary).  The Petipa/Cechetti version is the one that Balanchine and Danilova would have known from their student days at the Maryinsky in Saint Petersburg.  Mme. Danilova had a long and distinguished stage career and was a noted interpreter of Swanilda, the heroine, in 'Coppelia'.

Alexandra Danilova coaching Helgi Tomasson & Patricia McBride in 'Coppelia',
photo by Martha Swope

The selections from 'Coppelia' are being staged by SAB several SAB faculty members -- Sheryl Ware, Katrina Killian, Lisa de Ribere, Yvonne Borree, and Jock Soto.

When Mme. Danilova began to teach at SAB in 1964 (50th anniversary), she persuaded Balanchine to present the annual workshops as a way to showcase the students' talent and hard work and give them invaluable on-stage experience. Balanchine resisted calling them 'graduation' performances because it sounded too final and too judgmental, but agreed that a public showcase at the end of the school year for a select audience would be appropriate. The first workshop was performed in 1965, making the workshops in June, 2014 the 50th workshop performances. 

Of course, Peter Martins knows that the inclusion of 24 little girls in this section will add to the demand for workshop tickets, as parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and siblings will have to be accommodated.

Balanchine's one-act 'Swan Lake' based on Ivanov's choreography of the lakeside scenes for the Maryinsky was also selected by Martins as a tribute to Mme. Danilova, who was a renowned Odette/Odile.  

Alexandra Danilova as Odile in 'Swan Lake', photo from the Bettman Archive

Balanchine created this 1-act version for Maria Tallchief (his third wife) who has been deemed America's first native-born prima ballerina.  There is a wonderful photo of Mme. Danilova coaching Darci Kistler and Cornell Crabtree for the 1980 SAB workshop. 

Cornell Crabtree and Darci Kistler being coached by Alexandra Danilova for the 1980 SAB Workshop,
photo by Carolyn George

Darci, of course, went on to a distinguished career at New York City Ballet where in 1982 she was the last dancer to be promoted to principal by Balanchine before his death in 1983.  She became a full-time member of the SAB faculty in 1994 (20th anniversary) and retired from NYCB in 2010. Darci is staging the 'Swan Lake' excerpt -- symbolically closing the circle of ballet life -- student-performer-teacher.


It will be interesting to see if they use the ice cave scenery and/or the black costumes for the corps that are the current decor for the New York City Ballet version or hark back to earlier, more traditional decor. 

The last work on the program will be the final movement (Rondo) of 'Western Symphony', the four movement work to traditional American folk music orchestrated by Hershey Kay that Balanchine created in 1954 (60th anniversary). 'Western Symphony' is Balanchine's buoyant tribute to the mythical American West of cowpokes and dance-hall girls. The finale finds the enormous cast all on stage doing fouettes as the curtain descends.  It's a favorite workshop closing ballet because it provides parts for lots of advanced students to perform a high-spirited, yet classical piece to familiar music.  

The original fourth movement cast was led by Tanaquil LeClercq and Jacques d'Amboise.  LeClercq was Balanchine's muse (and his fourth wife) from the late 1940's through the mid-1950's when this work was created.  Known both for her superb classical technique and her sly humor she was ideally cast as the strutting dance hall queen in the extravagant, black hat:  

Tanaquil LeClercq in costume for 'Western Symphony'

You can find a black & white video of the original cast performing the entire work here:
http://www.ina.fr/video/VDD11021500/western-symphony-video.html
The music in this video is extraordinarily fast, but the insouciant personalities of LeClercq and d'Amboise come through clearly in the fourth movement (Rondo).

The excerpt from 'Western Symphony' will be staged by Susan Pilarre who has staged it for several prior SAB workshop performances.

So this workshop program has a lot to do with anniversaries and tributes.  It provides challenging roles for the students, interesting contrasts in mood and style, and ends with a crowd pleasing bang!  

In order to get a jump on all of those little girls' families, go to:
https://www.sab.org/news_events/workshop_performances/tickets.php 
for tickets to the Saturday, May 31st performances, or to:
https://net.sab.org/development-/workshop-benefit-ticket-order-form--for tickets to the Gala Workshop Performance on June 3rd. You'll see the ballet stars of the next generation performing in works by the greatest choreographer of the last century.