5 posts tagged “pnb”
I am equal parts euphoric and anxious about my upcoming trip to NYC. Eager to go, but feeling quite tense about how I'm ever going to be able to cram in half of the things I want to do (and keep up my energy to do so). Still, I feel better having connected with a few friends over the past couple of days and made some at least tentative plans. MBF is attempting to pick up some tickets for a few NYCB performances even as I bang away at this keyboard.
I'm a bit disappointed at the ballet programming, or, not so much the programs themselves this time, but the repetitiveness (i.e. not only the same program, but the same cast each time). I probably will only be able to go two performances. It seems more worthwhile at this point to use the rest of the time to do other things rather than sitting through the same thing more than once. But we shall see. It looks as if NYCB is moving away from the dreaded "block programming" in its spring schedule.
Meanwhile, I will be going to the ballet here again tonight. Same program as last week, but with an entirely different cast. The PNB production of Jewels even has drawn the (favorable) attention of the New York Times. I'll wait until I've had a chance to see this other cast to compare/share notes.
Well, maybe change did happen in other ways too (or I'm just getting weak), but I found the ballet performance far more enjoyable than I was anticipating. Mark Morris' A Garden was pleasant and, as might be expected, stronger in the group sections than the variations (if you can call them that). But then again, the same could be said of the other pieces. Kiyon Gaines' M-Pulse showed impressive use of the stage. I didn't care for the commissioned score all that much (school of John Adams and all that) -- it sounded like the soundtrack for a movie I didn't want to see. The biggest surprise was Benjamin Millepied's 3 Movements (Steve Reich music, urgh) -- the first one of his pieces that I actually liked (though I'm having a hard time remembering exactly what I liked about it). Only the ending is a bit weak, but the music never really resolves into an ending either, so I guess that's understandable. It perhaps was too soon to see William Forsythe's One Flat Thing, reproduced yet again, but it still held one's attention and the dancers clearly enjoy doing it. I'm not sure why the audience doesn't seem to "get" it or is even offended by it. For the first time I noticed the absence of Noelani Pantastico, who brought a sort of insouciance and buoyant sexual energy. The usually excellent Kaori Nakamura seemed a little too dour and cheerless here. Maybe it's the height situation. I couldn't help thinking what if Linda Hunt had played Anybodys in West Side Story (did she?)
I'd almost forgotten, but then again, it's not such an inspiring program. Last month, however, I did take in a performance given by the Chamber Dance Company which featured reconstructions of three pieces by Loïe Fuller that still seemed to crackle with the shock of the new. I'm trying to read up on Fuller, but why oh why are all of the books I have picked up so far (mainly academic) such dreary reading?
More happily, it's now so easy to find a copy of the Lumière Brothers' early film of Fuller in action:
It may not be Fall for Dance, but the ballet season out here officially kicked off with a lecture demonstration by Twyla Tharp to promote the upcoming All Tharp program at Pacific Northwest Ballet.
I was groggy and jet lagged after still trying to recover from my recent trip to New York (more about that in future posts), a day full of work, and thinking about my dinner (the program was at an ungodly early hour) but it was fun to see some dance again. Most especially to see the Divine Carla back on stage and looking to be in great form.
Tharp gave props to archives (her own, anyway) more than once. She spoke briefly at the beginning (in a nice touch mentioning the money nobodies for their support, but not by name) and presented two of the new pieces on the program straight through (with the dancers in practice clothes and live music). There was time for a brief (but probably not brief enough) Q & A at the end.
I won't say much about the new works until I see them in a real performance next week. One was set to a Brahms quintet (Opus 111) and the other, Afternoon Ball, to a piece by (still living) minimalist composer, Vladimir Martynov. I preferred the former to the latter, which was kind of inscrutable, but featuring what I first thought was a "jester" figure (bad enough), but in her discussion later, Tharp referred to the "clown" tradition (even worse). I didn't get a good view of what the set was supposed to be from the side of the auditorium in which I was sitting, so I'm probably missing something about the significance of the ending. More when I have had another viewing and time to digest.
She also tried to peddle some bullshit re: the second ballet about its connection to the world of the absurdists, Beckett, et. al and The Little Match Girl. I saw the "alienation" she mentioned clearly enough, but never would have come up with TLMG from that. Strange the fascination with that story (and H. C. Andersen's own with ballet) and the various artists it has inspired. When I read in a theatre program that Martyn Jacques was working on a new version with the Tiger Lillies a few years ago, I thought he was just taking the piss, but apparently it did happen. The somewhat creepy, yet undeniably moving, Hollywood cartoon version from the 1930s, however, probably is definitive. And, interestingly, uses Brahms, I think. Watch it for yourself!
I recently returned from San Francisco. It was so exciting to be in a real city again. Too bad there wasn't much going on in the way of performing arts at the time, though I did get to take in a few museums. Best of all was the the Legion of Honor art museum (you've seen it if you've seen Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo). It was my first time there (on other trips it seemed either to be closed or too much of a bother to get to--the latter not true) and both the collections and the surrounding park were beautiful.
Soon heading off--for a whole week this time--to NYC. Again, before the "new season" cranks up into full gear, but I imagine I will be able to find something to do.
When I return, the ballet here will be starting up. I am so eager, having been deprived of seeing any dance since early summer. So, I guess that was Twyla Tharp I saw in the produce section of the supermarket earlier in the summer.
The display board outside of McCaw Hall amused me. If only the former was true.
