Tag: Emerging Pictures

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The Royal Ballet’s Nutcracker

 

Yesterday I was invited to a pre-screening of a filmed version of the Royal Ballet’s Nutcracker, which will be shown later this month at cinemas in New York and around the country by Emerging Pictures’ Ballet in Cinema series. Check their website for local schedules.

The Royal Ballet version was very good, albeit different from what I’m used to (which, as a New Yorker, is basically Balanchine’s). The Royal’s was directed and choreographed by Peter Wright (after Ivanov), the orchestra conducted by Koen Kessels, and was originally shown at the Royal Opera House in Convent Garden in December 2009.

The biggest difference between this and Balanchine’s is that Clara and the Nutcracker Prince dance all throughout the second half, the Land of the Sweets (here called the Sugar Garden). They participate in the Arabian dance, the Russian dance, the Chinese dance, and the flower dances. The dancer who dances Clara (unfortunately, I don’t have a full cast list and didn’t get her name from the quickly scrolling credits at the end of the film, so I don’t know her name) was older – not a child – and she was a really beautiful dancer. Very fluid, light, willowy, with an innocence in her movement. Very child-like (in a good way, because it was called for here). At first I didn’t like that they danced throughout because I thought at points it almost looked like they were making fun of the various styles of dance. But then I realized, no they weren’t doing that at all; they were playing and having fun, like children would, and like audiences composed heavily of children would want to see them do, and would want to do themselves. The Nutcracker Prince’s name I do have – Steven McRae, and he was very good.

The Sugar Plum Fairy and the Prince were danced brilliantly by Miyako Yoshida and McRae. The ending pas de deux was a traditional one and it was danced just about the best I’ve ever seen it. Yoshida in particular was really stunning. She’s a small dancer but has a lot of power – particularly in her developes –  her leg just seems to shoot up there! Her assisted pirouettes and her fouettes done in a diagonal line were also stunning. She’s a fast, spirited dancer with great clarity in her lines, which were never over-extended and which she always finished with zest. But even with all the demanding athletics of that pas, she didn’t turn into an Olympic performance; she remained sweet and princess-like. It was really magical. It’s a performance I could have watched over and over again.

Drosselmeyer, the magician, really blew me away too. He is a main character here – he doesn’t just appear at the beginning to present the toys and give Clara her nutcracker doll; he acts as a guide all throughout the second half, bringing Clara and her prince on a tour through the Sugar Garden, presenting the various national dances to them. He’s clearly in charge of Clara’s dream, although at the end, there’s a little twist on that. You’ll have to see the production to find out what it is 🙂 And Drosselmeyer was portrayed very well by Gary Avis. It’s not a dance role, but requires a big stage presence and Avis really came through on that. He received lots of applause at the end and took all the curtain calls with all the main dancers.

The only thing I have to say – and this is not at all bad – but did Macaulay ever review dance in the U.K.? He was a theater critic for most of his career there, right? Because if he ever reviewed the Royal, I’d think he would have had to remark on the weight of some of the dancers. Some of them made Jenifer Ringer look like a twig. Not that they danced badly because of it. I think for a while I’m always going to be thinking “hey, she’s bigger than Jenifer Ringer, she’s bigger, she’s way bigger”…

Anyway, if anyone reading this is in the U.K. and / or has seen this production, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Photo taken from the Ballet in Cinema website.

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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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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.