Tours en l'air organizes ballet-themed escorted holidays to see the best companies perform great ballets in beautiful places. You can join a trip from anywhere. A highly knowledgeable balletomane who has enjoyed 100s of performances in over 20 cities around the world,I speak English, French, and German, and am a Travel Industry Council of Ontario certified Travel Counsellor. I also teach ballet appreciation courses.
For a taste of what our trips are like, follow https://www.facebook.com/toursenlair/ on facebook.
Tours en l'air Ballet Holidays are offered in partnership with CWT Victor Travel, 101 - 8800 Dufferin Street, Concord, ON L4K 0C5, 416-736-6010, TICO # 1892647

SUBSCRIBE TO E-NEWSLETTER

SUBSCRIBE TO E-NEWSLETTER:
Privacy policy: we will not sell, rent, or give your name or address to anyone. You can unsubscribe at any point.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Royal Danish Ballet visits Washington and NY

There's a great opportunity coming up to see the Royal Danish Ballet delight us with the joy that is Bournonville as only they can perform it, without even leaving North America.
I had been looking at a trip to Washington DC June 8-11 to see the full-length Bournonville ballets Napoli and A Folk Tale.
However, the RDB has just announced that they will also be visiting New York the following week with a slightly different program but still offering a lot of Bournonville. American Ballet Theatre is also in season that week so now I am looking at a New York Bournonville-a-thon instead of (or in addition to) a Washington one. PLEASE LET ME KNOW (toursenlair@gmail.com) AS SOON AS YOU CAN IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN EITHER OF THESE TRIPS AS I HAVE TO START PLANNING THEM IN DETAIL NOW.
The June New York trip would look like this:

Tuesday June 14: American Ballet Theatre, Alexei Ratmansky's The Bright Stream
A comic ballet in two acts, The Bright Stream, set to music by Dmitri Shostakovich, tells the story of the members of a Russian farm collective in the 1930's and their humorous interactions with a group of visiting performers during the harvest festival.

Wednesday June 15: Royal Danish Ballet mixed program:
Flemming Flindt's The Lesson (about a deranged sadistic dance instructor who kills his students, this ballet created in 1964 is a famous part of the RDB rep)
Bournonville Variations
Jorma Elo's Lost on Slow
Set to music by Vivaldi and danced by a stunning cast of three women and three men.With geometric sharpness and quick isolation of body parts, the dancers go through a tempest of arbitrary gestures, tightly woven motifs, and doll-like maneuvers. The soft-slippered, ornate tutu-ed ballerinas slither in and out of the arms of their male counterparts in striking stances--sometimes frozen, sometimes trembling. It is a sophisticated, macabre dialogue of tongue-in-cheek mime/modern dance and human puppetry.
Napoli Act III

Thursday June 16, ABT: Coppelia
Friday June 17, RDB: The Lesson and La Sylphide
Return Saturday June 18 (or stay another day if desired, with the possibility to see La Sylphide/Napoli Act III twice more on the Saturday)


For complete info about the Royal Danish Ballet's US tour, visit: http://kglteater.dk/Alle_forestillinger/Turne_10_11/Ballet_Turne_US/RDBallet_US_Turne.aspx?sc_lang=en

Your video treats of the week
Some fun items I've gleaned from the web that I know you'll enjoy:

Fancy Feet: 5 ballets danced in unusual footwear
a look at five non-pointe shoe moments from Birmingham Royal Ballet's recent and current repertory
http://www.brb.org.uk/Fancy-Feet.html

Ballet Black opens up dance world
An interesting BBC item about Ballet Black, a UK company for black and South Asian (what the British call "Asian") dancers:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12375332

As usual, Dutch National Ballet has great video (both rehearsal and performance) posted, this time about its current mixed program: Serenade, Ratmansky's On the Dnieper, Pastor's Dumbarton Oaks, Balanchine's Tchaikovsky pas de deux.
http://extra.het-ballet.nl/alarusse/

The National Gallery of Australia has just opened an exhibit featuring many of its Ballets Russes costumes. Fabulous website and short video here:
http://www.nga.gov.au/Exhibition/BalletsRusses/Default.cfm?MNUID=6

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Discount on new Robert Tewsley book


A fabulous new bio and photo book about Robert Tewsley is to be published this fall. The publisher is offering a pre-publication (until May 31 only) discounted price of only 22.80 euros plus 3.90 euros shipping anywhere in the world. At current exchange rates this works out to about $38-$40 Cdn. The book will include text in English and German, and beautiful photos (not that there are any other kind of Robert Tewsley!) from his career with The National Ballet of Canada, Stuttgart Ballet, and elsewhere. Makes a great Christmas gift for any ballet lover. Not available through Canadian bookstores.
To order online, please visit the publisher's website:
http://koenigshausen-neumann.gebhardt-riegel.de/product_info.php/info/p7012_Robert-Tewsley--Dancing-beyond-borders--Robert-Tewsley--Tanz-ueber-alle-Grenzen--zweisprachig-Deutsch---Englisch--Subskriptionspreis-bis-31-5-11----22-80-danach-ca----30-00--ca--128-Seiten.html

50% off Onegin performances

Hot News about National Ballet of Canada Onegin performances in March! NBOC is offering a special 50%-off four ticket package for orchestra seats for all performances. Per-ticket price including service charge works out as follows:
Orchestra 1.1 (centre orchestra) $96
Orchestra 1.2 (side orchestra, front to back) $86
Orchestra 1.3 (rear orchestra) $73
Order directly from the National Ballet 416-345-9595 (not through the website)
Casting, according to the grid posted on the NBOC callboard (subject to change) is as follows
Thursday March 17: Jelinek, Yu
Friday March 18: Antonijevic, Rodriguez
Saturday March 19 matinee: Maddox, Ogden
Saturday March 20 evening: Cote, Hodgkinson
Sunday March 21 matinee: Jelinek, Yu