Category: Film / DVD / YouTube / Livestreams

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Sneak Peek of ABT’s New Nutcracker

The Guggenheim just sent me the above video, which is of their Works & Process event a few weeks ago that I’d attended and written about a bit here, featuring excerpts of ABT’s upcoming Nutcracker at BAM. It starts December 22nd – getting excited!

Also, yesterday I attended a screening of the Royal Ballet’s Nutcracker, as part of Emerging Pictures’ Ballet in Cinema High Definition film series in theaters across the country. I’ll write about it soon. They put on a very good, very different Nutcracker!

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My Take on BLACK SWAN

 

I saw it over the weekend. Overall, I thought it was hilarious. Totally campy and just plain funny. Way too silly to be scary though. And I think Aronofksy was going for both. So, to me, it failed to that extent. But it may have just been me. Maybe I just have a dark sense of humor, because I went with two friends – one a ballet fan of the Gelsey Kirkland era, the other not. They both loved it and were on the edge of their seats throughout, although they also laughed quite a bit (particularly Gelsey Kirkland friend). Gelsey Kirkland friend said it reminded him of Dancing on My Grave. I must read that! I don’t know why I haven’t yet…

Anyway, so if you don’t know the story, it’s about this young ballerina who dances with a New York City ballet company housed in the Koch Theater. The artistic director (played by Vincent Cassel) is basically Peter Martins but with brown hair and a French accent.  Peter Martins guy tells the company that they are doing a new production of Swan Lake and to attract new audiences, they are going to cast a brand new ballerina, a new face. The old prima, Winona Ryder, is approaching menopause anyway. Never mind that she looks the same age she did in Reality Bites, at least to me. Apparently this company doesn’t have a system of principals and corps members because no one has any idea who the new face is going to be.

Peter Martins guy soon reveals that he favors Nina (Portman), but thinks she can only do the White Swan. He thinks she’ll have trouble with the Black Swan (he never uses the names Odette and Odile, which I know annoyed some ballet fans on Twitter, but I think it would have alienated non-ballet audiences had he used those names). He tries to seduce her (literally) in the name of getting her into the character of the Black Swan, which of course in the film is characterized as a sinister, conniving slut. But maybe he goes too far and unleashes the inner beast in Nina. She suddenly seems hell-bent on destroying herself (and she’s had problems in the past with self-mutilation and, it’s hinted at, anorexia). Or, maybe it’s that a new dancer from San Francisco (Mila Kunis) is trying to destroy her in order to take her place as the lead. My biggest problem with the movie is that it’s billed as a thriller but we never really find out the answer to that question. At the end, you’re still left wondering WFT was that about??? I mean, you’re left wondering that with many David Lynch films too, but with those, if you think long and hard enough, you can piece it all together. This, I don’t think so. I think it was just meant to be scary, sexy, creepy, gory camp.

For serious ballet fans, you have to suspend disbelief. Natalie Portman I thought did an excellent acting job, and her dancing is very very good for someone with very little training. I know Sarah Lane was supposedly her double, but you never really see any stunning dancing. The camera mostly focuses on Portman’s arms – and Benjamin Millepied did say he focused on the port de bras when training her and Kunis because you just can’t teach someone with no training to go on pointe and do the fouettes and pirouettes and all. So, you simply have to suspend disbelief that someone at Nina’s level would land the lead in the first place. And if you’re looking for thrilling dancing – the fouettes, the lightening-speed chaine turns, a beautiful pas de deux, etc., you’re not going to get it.

When we were all walking out, I did hear a couple people say now they wanted to see Swan Lake. Of course I hope it renews interest in the ballet, but it does worry me a bit that people will be disappointed, because the film makes it seem like the black swan pas de deux is a sex scene. The Peter Martins character keeps yelling at Nina to “seduce me, seduce me!” During a break he rhetorically asks Millepied (playing the role of Siegfried) if he would ever sleep with Nina (except he termed it differently). No one in the audience laughed but me. What am I the only New Yorker who reads the tabloids??? But in the ballet, the ballerina seduces both Siegfried and the audience with her allegro dancing, with her athletics. It’s more dance than theater; the seduction is in the dancing not the acting.

The whole thing had a Valley of the Dolls feel to it. Barbara Hershey is Portman’s mother, and she seems a bit off herself. You sometimes wonder if the mother (who never made it out of the corps, and who left ballet to have Nina) is trying to sabotage her daughter as well. There are some really funny (though I’m not sure if they were meant to be) screaming screeching cat-fight scenes between the two of them. But I think the funniest are between Winona Ryder as the aging ballet star forced into retirement and Nina, particularly those involving discussions of how to get ahead in the ballet company (guess; not by great dancing)… I miss Winona Ryder. I miss movies like Heathers…

Anyway, I still don’t know how to feel about this movie. I’m happy that it’s put ballet on people’s minds again, but how misleading is it to what an actual ballet performance is all about? What do you guys think? It seems to have received fairly good reviews from the film critics.

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Black Swan-Inspired Fashion

I was flipping through Marie Claire and saw this spread on current fashions inspired by the Black Swan movie:

They also had a spread on fashions inspired by Burlesque, the new film starring Cher and Christina Aguilera:

And then as I kept flipping through the magazine, it seemed I kept spotting more and more Swan-looking garb:

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Benjamin Millepied Interviewed at Black Swan Premiere

This is actually a pretty interesting interview, by Amy Kaufman, of the Los Angeles Times, at the Black Swan premiere in LA. Millepied talks about the differences between working with trained and untrained dancers, and how he trained the untrained specifically for film. When asked whether Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis are ready to join a ballet company, he says “oh no”! 🙂

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Riccardo and Yulia Cha Cha in Japan

Above is a video of U.S. Latin champions Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko dancing recently in Tokyo at the World Superstars Latin Dance Festival. This is an annual festival (there’s one for standard ballroom as well), where the top Latin and ballroom dancers are invited to perform a showdance in each style. I’ve always wanted to go, but have never been able to. I’ve heard it’s prohibitively expensive! But I almost always buy the DVDs of the performances (they’re usually available from DanceVision), which come out a couple weeks later.

According to this write up, the Latin performers this year included, in addition to Riccardo and Yulia, my favorites Sergey Surkov and Melia, and Slavik Kryklyvyy and Anna Melnikova, as well as current world champs Michael Malitowski and Joanna Leunis. Some year I must go!

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Emerging Pictures’ Ballet in Cinema Series

Here’s an addendum to my earlier post on Emerging Pictures’ exciting new Ballet in Cinema series.

All of the showings on the schedule I posted are at the BIG Manhattan Cinema except for the December 19th Nutcracker, performed by the Bolshoi. That one is at the Kew Gardens Cinema in Queens.

There is one additional performance:

The Nutcracker, performed by the Royal Ballet, December 26th, 3:00 p.m., at Symphony Space (this one is recorded).

For other performances in the series, and for people outside of New York, you can consult the Ballet in Cinema website for further showings. You can search for showings by typing in your zip code. I am told you should check the website frequently as it is updated often.

I’m very excited about this, as you can probably tell 🙂 The Metropolitan Opera has been very successful with their in-cinema showings, really brought opera to younger audiences by making it more affordable and engaging in this way, and has increased opera’s popularity. I hope this series will do the same for ballet.

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The Flames of Paris, and Emerging Pictures’ Ballet in Cinema Series

 

Yesterday, I was invited to a preview of a filmed recording of the Bolshoi’s The Flames of Paris. The film will begin showing in New York at the BIG Cinemas Manhattan on November 2nd and will be broadcast nationally in over 30 locations starting on that day as well.

This film is the first in Emerging Pictures‘ Ballet in Cinema series, which, like the Met Opera’s high definition series, is a series of live (or recorded, but most are live) ballet performances that will be broadcast in various movie theaters. I’m psyched about this, especially since I’d bemoaned that ballet didn’t have such a thing when the Met Opera first started their film series.

Flames, by the Bolshoi, is the first ballet, and, as I said, it begins showing on November 2nd. That performance is recorded. Here is the rest of the schedule:

The Nutcracker, performed by the Royal Ballet (London), December 1, 2010 (Recorded)
The Nutcracker, performed by the Bolshoi, Sunday, December 19, 2010, 11 a.m. EST (Live)
Giselle, Royal Ballet (London), January 19, 2011, 2:30 p.m. EST (Live)
The Class Concert and Giselle, by the Bolshoi, January 23, 2011 11 a.m. EST (Live)
Caligula, Paris Opera Ballet, February 8, 2011, 1:30 p.m. EST (Live)
Don Quixote, Bolshoi, March 6, 2011, 11 a.m. EST (Live)
Coppelia, Paris Opera Ballet, March 28, 2011, 11 a.m. EST (Live)
Coppelia, Bolshoi, May 29, 2011, 11 a.m. EST (Live)
Children of Paradise, Paris Opera Ballet, July 9, 2011, 1:30 p.m. EST (Live)

At this point I’m not sure of all the locations or the time on the top date, but will let you know more specifics when I know. For now, for more info, visit their website or Facebook page.

Anyway, on to The Flames of Paris. This production is from March of this year, in Moscow, and stars Natalia Osipova, Denis Savin, and Ivan Vasiliev (as excellent a dancer as Osipova). It was originally choreographed by Vasily Vaynonen and performed in 1934, but Alexei Ratmansky has reconstructed it. Music is by Boris Vladimirovich Asafiev, a Russian and Soviet composer, and is based on songs of the French Revolution. Interestingly, it was Stalin’s favorite ballet, which confuses me, unless Ratmansky substantially re-worked things, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

It’s set during the French Revolution and tells the story of a pair of brother and sister peasants, Jeanne and Jerome (Osipova and Savin), a Marseillais (revolutionary fighter) named Phillipe (Vasiliev), and Adeline (danced by Nina Kaptsova), the daughter of the local Marquis. Jeanne and Jerome are young, energetic free spirits at the beginning of the ballet but, upon meeting Phillipe (whom Jeanne eventually falls in love with) become revolutionaries too. Adeline, bored at one of her father’s aristocratic parties (and perhaps jilted by a man there as well – I couldn’t really tell), wanders off, and eventually finds herself in the camp of the Marseillais. She hooks up with Jerome and they fall in love.

Eventually, as well all know, revolutionary fervor leads to the deaths of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. During the last scene, Adeline sees her father, the Marquis, dragged toward the guillotine. She becomes hysterical and begins rushing toward him, trying to save him. Jeanne and Jerome try to hold her back – Jerome out of love for her and Jeanne seemingly out of now hysterical patriotism, demanding the Marquis’ death along with the other Marseillais. But Adeline won’t leave the executioners alone, and when they discover who she is, she is put up on the platform, under the guillotine as well. The ballet ends with her crying and looking terrified as the guillotine comes down on her head.

Jerome keels over crying and Jeanne comforts him, but then, as he is given Adeline’s head wrapped in some kind of gauze, Jeanne is lifted and off she goes with the other Marseillais fist pumping in the air, French flag overhead, with the creepiest most possessed, horror movie-esque look in her eyes I may have ever seen.

When I left the theater I felt very unsettled and more than a little scared of revolutions in general and the uncontrolled murderous mob activity they can lead to. Unless Ratmansky completed changed the ending, I don’t see how this was a piece of propaganda, glorifying the French Revolution and likening it to the equally glorious Russian. I thought Ratmansky had been criticized for bringing back two Soviet-era propaganda ballets – this one and Bright Stream – during his time at the Bolshoi. I feel like either I missed something, or he changed things. New Yorkers will be able to see Bright Stream at ABT next summer.

Anyway, the dancing was tremendous, and Natalia Osipova is just as spellbinding on screen as she is onstage. She just moves so fast and with such precision and power and impeccable technique; when she’s done you feel like you can’t believe what you just saw. I can’t imagine there’s going to be another dancer quite like her. She’s also a very good actress. She had the tomboyish, peasant-like gait down solid here; there was no flirty Kitri anywhere in this performance. She also, as I said, perfectly embodied the almost crazed Marseillais, sad for her brother but too hateful toward the Marquis to feel much for Adeline.

Vasiliev is also an excellent dancer, and his final final pas de deux with Osipova was fantastic. Crowd went wild, of course. And Russian crowds are a bit more fun than American 🙂 They clap in unison, all clapping on the same beat, as if they’re cheering the dancers on to do an encore to the rhythms they’re making. But there were no encores, just bizillions of bows. I realized that the ABT production of the pas de deux, during their City Center season a couple years ago, was altered probably to suit the strengths of Daniil Simkin. Vasiliev did none of those crazy over-rotated barrel turns that Daniil in known for and I thought I remembered a no-hands fish at the end of the ABT performance?… It wasn’t here. Also, they remained dressed in their regular street clothes; no fancy princess tutu for Natalia.

I thought Savin, tall and wiry, was a bit out of control in his dancing in parts, but maybe that was just part of the character. I think the Russians try to move the audience, to tell the ballet’s story, with their acting just as much as with their dancing, which is somewhat different than American-trained dancers, who seem to focus more on technique and movement quality than characterization. I thought Nina Kaptsova was a beautiful dancer. And she was perfect for the part of vulnerable Adeline. But I’m sorry, I can’t help but feel for anyone who has to share the stage with Osipova!

I loved the camera work – it panned in and out, just like in the Met’s HD films, homing in on various characters at certain points in order to make it more cinematic.

I’m really looking forward to the other performances. We don’t otherwise see much of the Bolshoi, the Royal and the POB here and, if the other films are as well-made as this one, I feel like you do get a very full experience.

Above photo (of Osipova, Savin, and Vasiliev) taken from here.

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Natalie Portman Black Swan Interview in UK Express

Natalie Portman talks with the UK Express about how much harder her role in Black Swan was than other film roles she’s had.

“’There were a few days when I thought I might die, literally,’” says Natalie. ‘Maybe I’m being dramatic but it was a huge challenge. I’ve worked on projects that are similarly emotional, but to have the physical side at the same time was something. To express feelings with your body, not through words, is tough for any actor.'”

Wow. That’s what dancers are – actors plus elite athletes 🙂

Read the rest of the interview here.

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Dancing at the Movies

An old friend from graduate school whom I recently re-connected with on Facebook sent this to me. Fun! Needs a little more ballet though 🙂 Anyway, happy Labor Day everyone!

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Wendy Perron, Esteemed Editor-in-Chief of Dance Magazine, Recommends Swallow on Twitter!

How awesome is this!: “Tonya Plank’s SWALLOW is a real page turner, & she shows that lawyers get as intensely nervous as dancers.” From Wendy Perron, E-I-C of Dance Magazine, via Twitter. I’m so giddy 🙂 I’d run into Ms. Perron at an Alvin Ailey season preview Tuesday night and when she told me she was reading my book and enjoying learning about my other life, I almost fell off my chair! I can’t even express how honored I am that she even decided to pick the book up!

The Alvin Ailey season preview was excellent, by the way. Their NY City Center season doesn’t begin until December but I think it’s going to be really fantastic. We got to see a sneak preview of The Hunt, by Robert Battle (incoming Artistic Director), which is an African dance depicting how men prepare for an actual hunt but that also serves as a metaphor for how dancers train and prepare to execute a difficult dance. I can’t wait to see that one in full, as well as The Prodigal Prince, by Geoffrey Holder. That one originally premiered in 1968 and Holder was there to talk a bit about it. Really sweetly funny man! It’s about the Haitian artist, Hector Hyppolite, known as “the Haitian Picasso,” and it’s a narrative filled with lots of beautiful African dance. We also saw Camille A. Brown’s Evolution of a Secured Feminine, which I remember from a Fall For Dance program a couple of years ago. It’s a one-woman solo that I liked very much and will, for the first time this season, be performed by someone other than Brown herself.

I enjoyed seeing all my favorite Ailey dancers again – and on a small stage this time (it took place in the Citicorp theater in the basement of their studios instead of City Center), and I was particularly happy to see Briana Reed again. She is one of my favorite women in the company – strong and very dramatic and an intense mover – and I missed seeing her last season. I think she was out with an injury for most of it.

Also, Judith Jamison revealed that Ailey will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Revelations this season, which means the cast for some performances will be increased to 50 dancers! They’re also making a film about that dance, which will be shown at all of the performances, and there will be a lot of live music, some of which Jamison will herself be conducting. Sweet Honey and the Rock will also perform live. And, there will be nice tributes to Denise Jefferson, Joan Weill, and to Jamison, who will be serving her last season as Artistic Director.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking of moving out of New York for a while, but I’m now thinking I’m going to wait on that for at least a few months. There are too many exciting things happening this fall – from Ailey’s season, to New York City Ballet’s first ever fall season, to ABT’s first Nutcracker, to of course the regulars like Fall for Dance and the Guggenheim Works & Process series. I think I need to wait a bit. Plus, I’ve made so many wonderful friends here, and I’m so involved in the dance scene, and every time I think of leaving NYC it really saddens me. But of course with the internet, friendships can easily survive physical distance these days. And I’m sure there are dance scenes everywhere, maybe just not of the same intensity. Who knows, maybe I just need a top-floor apartment somewhere else in the city… Upstairs Godzilla has moved out but her furniture-throwing legacy — an extremely creaky ceiling that sounds like it’s going to fall every time the new upstairs neighbor so much as shifts his weight (and which the landlord won’t fix) — remains…

Oh, one more thing (I know this post is very rambling): Ms. Perron mentioned to me that she saw a preview of Mao’s Last Dancer, which she thought was very good, and that it opens this weekend. So, I know one thing I’ll be doing this weekend. So excited for good ballet movies!