{"id":3709,"date":"2012-09-17T15:39:10","date_gmt":"2012-09-17T19:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/?p=3709"},"modified":"2012-09-17T15:39:10","modified_gmt":"2012-09-17T19:39:10","slug":"pacific-northwest-ballet-new-york-season-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/pacific-northwest-ballet-new-york-season-preview.htm","title":{"rendered":"Pacific Northwest Ballet – New York Season Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pacific Northwest Ballet<\/a> – \u00ad New York Season Preview
\nWorks and Process at The Guggenheim<\/a>
\nSunday, September 8, 2012<\/p>\n

\"Apollo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This lecture and performance given by Artistic Director Peter Boal and Pacific Northwest Ballet dealt with the endlessly fascinating topic of Balanchine\u2019s choreography.\u00a0 I have found that no matter how long I spend in the theater seeing Balanchine\u2019s works and reading about them, there\u2019s always something new to learn, which so enhances my appreciation of the work.\u00a0 Mr. Boal along with the gorgeous\u00a0 dancers of PNB, Maria Chapman, Carla K\u00f6rbes, Seth Orza, Lesley Rausch, Benjamin Griffiths, and Matthew Renko, explored the topic of changes made throughout the lives of the Balanchine ballets.\u00a0 Ballets discussed included Apollo<\/em>, Four Temperaments<\/em> and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux<\/em>.<\/p>\n

There have been a host of different reasons for the changes made to the ballets.\u00a0 Mr. Boal told us that in the case of Apollo<\/em>, \u201cthe boss\u201d (Diaghilev) told Mr. B (who was 24 years old when the ballet received its world premiere) to make the changes.\u00a0 At other times, choreography was adjusted to suit different stages and different casts.\u00a0 Mr. Boal, who ironically was awarded his first contract with New York City Ballet on the day Mr. B passed away, learned the choreography from Peter Martins, Jerome Robbins, Suzanne Farrell and others from NYCB.\u00a0 When he went on to learn the same roles with other companies, including PNB, he found their choreography to be different from NYCB\u2019s version, and different from one company to the next.<\/p>\n

I have only ever seen New York City Ballet\u2019s production of Apollo<\/em> performed live, with its unadorned costumes and bare stage, so I found it really interesting to see still photos from the Ballet Russes production which included ornate costumes (the first round chosen by Diaghilev and a later version created by Coco Chanel) and a set incorporating Mount Parnassas.\u00a0 Quite a contrast.\u00a0 Mr. Boal also showed film clips of Jacques d’Amboise dancing the role in 1960, and Mikhail Baryshnikov performing it in 1978.<\/p>\n

\"Apollo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Even as a very young choreographer, Balanchine made the deliberate decision to remove entire passages of the story of Apollo<\/em> and he was bold in answering his critics when they challenged him on that score.\u00a0 \u201cI can do with my ballets whatever I want.\u201d\u00a0 He understood the power that existed in editing one\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

It was wonderful to have Mr. Boal draw our attention to details in the choreography that helped to tell the story.\u00a0 After Seth Orza danced the first solo with lovely and quiet control, Mr. Boal described the movement in such beautiful language, saying that the dancer was to move like a \u201cnewborn colt\u201d.\u00a0 A series of piques which melt in plie symbolize the way a newborn\u2019s legs might fail beneath the weight of his body as he first figures out how to walk.<\/p>\n

Carla K\u00f6rbes\u2019 Terpsichore left me swooning — she is just stunning.\u00a0 Mr. Boal pointed out that in her manege, her saute arabesques lead with the chest, rather than with the arm.\u00a0 This one subtle little difference made her appear as if she was floating above the ground.\u00a0 As Mr. Orza and Ms. K\u00f6rbes danced together, Mr. Boal pointed out that Terpsichore doesn\u2019t \u201cengage Apollo with the eyes\u201d, but rather with the hands.\u00a0 It\u2019s such a small detail, and so crucial to the story being told by the movement.<\/p>\n

\"Apollo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ben Griffiths\u00a0 performed a more current version of Melancholic<\/em> from Four Temperaments<\/em>, with heaviness in his shoulders and softer lines while Matthew Renko danced an older version which was sharper and more forceful.\u00a0 Mr. Boal pointed out that in the current version, the stage is empty when the music starts, and that can build tension before the dancer even steps on stage.\u00a0 The audience becomes concerned that the character is late, or that the dancer may have missed his cue.\u00a0 In the earlier version, Apollo is on stage when the music starts.<\/p>\n

Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux<\/em> has had the most revisions.\u00a0 Designed with the intention of being a \u201cshowstopper\u201d Balanchine and other choreographers constantly adjusted it to showcase the different strengths of the different dancers who performed the piece.\u00a0 A series of fabulous film clips were shown, alternating D\u2019Amboise\u2019s performance with Baryshnikov\u2019s, illustrating the differences in choreography for each dancer.<\/p>\n

PNB closed out the evening in spectacular style, performing an excerpt from the ballet.\u00a0 Though the stage was too small, and there was a wobble here and there, they delivered the most rousing performance that made me want to jump to my feet.\u00a0 This is a wonderful company that we in New York City just don\u2019t see enough of.\u00a0 Their lines are so pure and their movement is so fluid.\u00a0 But beyond that, the dancers possess great charisma.\u00a0 Their dancing was playful, and they seemed to be enjoying themselves so much that the audience could not remain unaffected.<\/p>\n

In addition to performing at Fall for Dance in October, Pacific Northwest Ballet will return to City Center to perform an All Balanchine Program and Jean-Christophe Maillot\u2019s Rom\u00e9o et Juliette<\/em> in February 2013.\u00a0 Tickets are on sale now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pacific Northwest Ballet – \u00ad New York Season Preview Works and Process at The Guggenheim Sunday, September 8, 2012 This lecture and performance given by Artistic Director Peter Boal and Pacific Northwest Ballet dealt with the endlessly fascinating topic of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,20],"tags":[431,433,430,247,138,432],"class_list":["post-3709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dance","category-karen","tag-apollo","tag-carla-korbes","tag-george-balanchine","tag-guggehneim-works-and-process","tag-pacific-northwest-ballet","tag-tchaikovsky-pas-de-deux"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3709"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3724,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3709\/revisions\/3724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}