Jeannette

Correction: I just rewatched Majisimo & it’s a dance for four couples...not three. Glad that I rewatched. The more, the merrier. Love it!

As I mentioned on another thread, I mostly loved the unabashed old-style classicism of Majisimo but appreciate the sublimity of Ben Stevenson's End of Time and the reprise of Liebestod with a different dancer than we saw at the Lazuli Sky stream. I also appreciated and enjoyed the mini-documentaries on BRB’s community-outreach programmes.

Here’s a Link to Pacific Northwest Ballet’s “First Look to the Future Gala” which live-streamed (free) last night but will remain up for four more days. Along with the important appeal for donations are some lovely ballet/dance pieces. The novelties: at the 20-min mark: the PNB premiere of resident choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo’s PACOPEPEPLUTO (to popular Dean Martin songs), performed by three men and at the 1hr-4 min mark: excerpts from Balanchine’s APOLLO (Terpsichore and Apollo soli + pdd) danced by newly-promoted principal Dylan Wald (Hurrah!) and long-time principal Lesley Rausch. https://www.pnb.org/season/events/first-look/livestream/ Congrats too to other dancers promoted: Angelica Generosa to principal (her SWAN LAKE Odile solo and coda of amazing fouettes here!) Cecilia Iliescu to Soloist (exc of Red Angels shown)

Thanks for the reminder. A very charming program. I adored Majisimo (Pas de six, 3 couples in Spanish dress) but then I’m a sucker for traditional-style ballets to gorgeous 19th-C music!

Pacific Northwest Ballet holds a virtual gala this Friday, 20 Nov, including announcement of dancer promotions (with excerpts of their dancing): https://www.facebook.com/PNBallet/posts/10158240746643952

Oh, I didn’t mean to impose work on you or anyone else, Alison! Since you mentioned not having this Rep 2 show information on the calendar, I thought I’d finish the circle and give you the rest...so that it won’t be a surprise when the next one comes around in February. Sometimes the details that may appeal to prospective subscribers/viewers are buried deep in announcements, e.g., a complete filmed Serenade as an “extra”...ahum, a complete Serenade!!! (Is my microphone on?) 🤣

In the US, now that there’s serious talk about a vaccine coming AND of a possible national database of vaccine recipients and of test results.... TicketMaster is exploring having each ticket purchaser include proof of having taken the vaccine (or a COVID-negative test) as part of the ticket-ordering procedure. Once at the theatre, ushers would verify status of each attendee as part of the ticket-scanning process. Arguments both ways - loss of privacy and govt control versus the ability to open theatres and attend ballets, etc. https://nypost.com/2020/11/11/ticketmaster-to-require-negative-covid-19-test-vaccination/

Alison, you may want to add to the calendar the following starting dates for the remainder of the 2020/2021 PNB Digital Season. The main link for all of this is PNB.org/DigitalSubscription . (There is a separate Balanchine Nutcracker option, as of Dec 11, to which I’ve not subscribed.) Starting Date Content 2/11/21 Romeo & Juliet (Maillot v.) extras incl full Robbins’ West Side Story Suite 4/1/21 Three World Premieres (by Wheeldon, Byrd and Cerrudo) Extras include full perf of a past Cerrudo ballet Little Mortal Jump 5/6/21 Coppelia (Balanchine & Danilova v.). Extras include full Balanchine Serenade & archived interview of Danilova. 6/10/21 Triple Bill: Silent Ghost (Cerrudo), Pictures at an Exhibition (Ratmansky) & world premiere by E. Liang. Extras include other full ballet by Liang: Distant Cries Access to each of the above regular rep shows is for five days. Nutcracker is different; read PNB web info.

Here you go. Link to info on purchasing, etc. https://www.pnb.org/season/rep2/ I just rewatched the Twyla Tharp chat and, oh my, she is indefatigable. A pure bolt of lightning. She had Peter Boal mostly speechless...and it’s hilarious how, throughout the interview, she’d poke Boal with questions ending in “Don’t you agree, Peter Boal?” “ Isn’t it so, Peter Boal?” Grandma pokes Little Lad. ROTFL!

PNB’s second 2020/21 digital program was, to me, far more satisfying than the first one, as it was structured closer to a “live” show - a quadruple bill of two 20-minute premieres book-ending two familiar brief pieces. Best of all was one of the two longer works: Jessica Lang’s Ghost Variations, to the music of Robert and Clara Schumann, is a real gem...traditional ballet, to classical music, that is meant to be danced on a proscenium-stage setting. The modern take on 19th-c costumes (tulle & pointe shoes for the ladies!) and atmospheric lighting (large shadows of background dancers) were pitch perfect. And what gorgeous dancing by the eight dancers! I particularly loved a lyrical pas de trois for three ladies (Leta Biasucci, Angelica Generosa and Elizabeth Murphy), as well as a haunting final pdd for Elle Macy and Dylan Wald. Ghost Variations is a keeper...which I plan to see as many times as possible before viewing rights expire early next week. The other premiere - Penny Saunders’ Wonderland, to a score by Michael Wall that in spots echoed known tunes by Satie and Saint-Sean’s - was basically a made-for-the-camera video...although shot on or around PNB’s main stage in Seattle (MacCaw Hall), it was gimmicky and unsatisfying. Thank goodness, what followed was better! (Do catch a shorter - and far more enjoyable - film, Alice, also by Saunders, meant to be a companion piece to Wonderland. Alice is magnificently played by long-time PNB ballerina Noelani Pantastico.) In between, we are treated to two works, the most satisfying being a four-minute male-bravura bit of Twyla Tharp’s Waterbaby Bagatelles (great fun...but I wish to see the whole thing!) and a six-minute modern-dance arm-waving duet by Susan Marshall for a pair, appropriately titled Arms. This was the obligatory “educational castor oil” for traditional ballet lovers...take your “medicine” and you’ll be rewarded with happiness...and indeed we were in the last work of the program, Ghost Variations! The roughly-one-hour-long main program is complemented by over one hour of delightful “extras,” including the aforementioned Alice, PNB Educ Director Doug Fullington’s always-insightful intro chat, two repetitions of Arms (one including a in-studio performance by PNB A.D. Peter Boal and Jim Kent), and Boal’s rollicking chat with Twyla Tharp (in which she reveals her work for an upcoming US television “American Masters” special to air in the spring, for which she’s been creating new works on Zoom with great dancers like the Mariinsky’s Maria Khoreva and ABT’s Herman Cornejo, across Intl time zones!).

Exactly. I briefly “did the math” on years and began going through my sources on ‘60s NY ballet then thought, “Heck, does it matter?” It could’ve been any of MANY dance companies in the NY area at the time. She could’ve gone by a stage name. Maybe she danced as corps and family members just remembered that she was a “ballerina”? It doesn’t change the beauty of the story, does it? Oh, jeez. The lady has since passed away. Enough of Macaulay’s investigations!

A lot of these streams (not just those offered by ENB) are already commercially available on DVD...such as that Corsaire with Cojocaru and theKhan Giselle.

Not sure if this was mentioned elsewhere but I just received an email from Sadlers Wells announcing a free virtual Global Gala on 5 December. The email itself mentioned some of the participants (Osipova & Acosta included). Registration link: https://www.sadlerswells.com/receive-updates-about-sadlers-wells-global-gala/

Yes, big thanks to all reporters! Someone above mentioned that this performance was filmed. Would it be for a future pay-to-view streaming opportunity? I would gladly pay a reasonable amount to see this, even with the repetition of Elite Syncopations, which was on last month’s streamed program.

Wonderful, Jan! I was thinking about many folks’ (legitimate) comments about Our Waltzes being too similar to Robbins’ DAAG. Yeah, dancers dance to romantic piano music. But weren’t so many of these sorts of works prevalent in the 1970s (DAAG coming in ‘69)? Even the Trocks with Yes, Virginia, Another Piano Ballet. Even Robbins himself (In the Night, etc.) Yet, to me, the settings and atmosphere are different - one seemingly outdoors in an Eastern European village...people who work the land; the other, in a ballroom in an aristocratic home in Caracas...at one of those the-dansants or debutante balls that were prevalent among “polite society” back then. Also, how would I or anyone else in the audience in any venue visited by Ballet Intl de Caracas in 1979 have ever heard of DAAG or Robbins in that pre-internet era? I read about it 10 years later in microfilm of the NYTimes in my university library. As a teen in an auditorium in little Caribbean island, Nebrada’s Waltzes was unique bliss! It still is, for me, compared to all works in that genre that I’ve since seen. p.s. Nebrada worked at the Harkness Ballet in NYC in 1969 so, of course, would’ve been fully aware of DAAG.

Indeed she is...and Sarah Lamb was filmed in Elite Syncopations for the commercial DVD a few years ago.

So sorry about your bad experience, Ian. Well, I suppose that my husband and I got lucky with our BRB streaming experience this time...watching from the Washington, DC, outskirts. A spectacular, life-affirming show! Wow - where to begin? Will take the three works in order, starting with my absolute fave, as it was the gem of my ballet-viewing youth in San Juan, Puerto Rico, with Nebrada’s Ballet de Caracas on tour. His masterpiece and a jewel of Latin American ballet - Nuestros Valses (Our Waltzes), to romantic piano music by Latin composers (to my ears, so reminiscent of my Puerto Rican danzas). I particularly treasure the virtuosic “Red pdd” - here spectacularly rendered by Momoko Hirata & Cesar Morales, although all five couples performed commendably. The brief but powerful solo Liebestodt (Panov/Wagner), seemed to distill a man’s life into five minutes of sculptural brilliance. “Bravo!” to dancer Brandon Lawrence! Lastly, the world premiere piece - a visual feast of movement, design and sound: Will Tuckett’s Lazuli Sky, to a John Adams score. The ballet for 12 dancers presented exquisite movements against gorgeous projections with smart costumes, particularly in the middle segment, in which the six ladies wore white crinoline-capes maneuvered into constantly-changing formations...like our ever-changing lives nowadays. A totally satisfying evening of dance but one that, for me, will forever be remembered for the tremendous gift to We Latino balletomanes who grew up with Nuestros Valses - now magnificently captured on film - the ballet of my heart. Carlos Acosta - Mil gracias por traernos este tesoro! And Gracias, Birmingham Royal Ballet, for this special program! 💗

Neither for me. The only one that is passable is the last one, Thank You, New York, by Peck...which I found touching as a six-minute piece of cinema, not a dance. Otherwise, I seriously question the waste of resources in such a venture, other than to tick-off some PC boxes.

I’m so looking forward to watching this today. The smartTV and refreshments are ready. Cheers to all! 🥂 🎉 🎊

My heart goes out to all of you in the UK. I’m afraid that we’re headed in the same direction here, certainly in the Wash, DC, area...added to COVID, the fears of demonstrations for many reasons (economy, elections, BLM) have prompted all downtown DC merchants to board-up buildings. It all ties together.

Did anyone else watch this? Wow, so creative! I especially loved Agnes Su’s extremely glowing and positive piece, Resonanz...the penultimate one performed. Try to watch it before it disappears.

Oh, company classes are a big part of WBD every year...which is why I hardly ever watch. However, as the RB is a special favorite, I made a point of watching live. i also agree that fully-staged performances are not the focus of WBD. However, I was pleasantly surprised by Berlin, Tokyo & Hong Kong’s offerings, which I discovered when searching on YouTube. Are there other staged ballets or excerpts?, I wonder.

Other than the RB class and the Tchaikovsky pdd rehearsal, I didn’t bother following WBD live. I mean - how many company classes can a human being observe in a day? Bo-ring!!! Later, I searched “World Ballet Day 2020” on YouTube and most of the major and minor segments are up. Among the very few that gave us substantial portions of filmed staged ballets in costumes/sets were Hong Kong Ballet (A1 of Ananiashvili’s Don Q), National Ballet of Japan (Also DQ) and Stattsballett Berlin (Pas de Quatre and substantial parts of Corsaire). Almost all of what’s on YouTube for WBD is in the form of a company class. 😴 💤

Watching company class live now...so nice!!! 👌 🥂 Marianela & Vadim rehearsing Tchaikovsky pdd, 50 minutes from now. 🥳

Wonderful news from SFB! A true digital season with complete works - either full-evening ballets or triple bills of complete one-act works. However, it is not cheap - $34 for access to 1 show (for 24 hrs) or $289 for full season pass (longer access for ea show). The latter half of PacificNW Ballet’s digital season will also be like this...full works in spring/early summer.