Swine Lake

Rudolf Nureyev dances "Swine Lake" with Miss Piggy.

cool pic on Berlin State Ballet site

Wednesday section of ballet appreciation course

Due to popular demand, I am adding another section of my 6-week "Introduction to the National Ballet of Canada's season" course at the Walter Carsen Centre for The National Ballet of Canada 470 Queens Quay West, Toronto, Wednesday evenings 6 -- 745, from October 6 to November 10.
Enrich your experience of ballet in general and the seven programs in the National Ballet of Canada's season in particular with insights into the choreography, the design, and the music. Where appropriate and available, video clips will be used, along with demonstrations of certain steps and postures to help you identify distinctive choreographic styles. Depending on the repertoire, we may look at the ballet's performance history, learn about the choreographer's life and works and the historical context in which the ballet was created, examine the story on which the ballet is based, study ballet mime, and compare different versions of the same ballet. Deepen your appreciation of the technical aspects of dance by learning to recognize a different ballet step by name each week and understanding its physical challenges.
Course fee is $199. To register, please email me at toursenlair@gmail.com.

Ballet appreciation course

I will be teaching a 6-week "Introduction to the National Ballet of Canada's season" course at the Walter Carsen Centre for The National Ballet of Canada 470 Queens Quay West, Toronto, Tuesday evenings 6 -- 745, from October 19 to November 23.
Enrich your experience of ballet in general and the seven programs in the National Ballet of Canada's season in particular with insights into the choreography, the design, and the music. Where appropriate and available, video clips will be used, along with demonstrations of certain steps and postures to help you identify distinctive choreographic styles. Depending on the repertoire, we may look at the ballet's performance history, learn about the choreographer's life and works and the historical context in which the ballet was created, examine the story on which the ballet is based, study ballet mime, and compare different versions of the same ballet. Deepen your appreciation of the technical aspects of dance by learning to recognize a different ballet step by name each week and understanding its physical challenges.
Course fee is $199. To register, please email me at toursenlair@gmail.com.

Ballet trips in 2011

Here are the trips we're looking at for the first half of 2011. If you're interested in any of them, please get in touch at toursenlair@gmail.com Remember, you can join the group from anywhere.

San Francisco February 23 – 28, 2011: 4 performances
San Francisco Ballet: Classical Symphony (Possokhov), Nanna's Lied (Tomasson),
Artifact Suite (Forsythe)
Theme and Variations (Balanchine), Winter Dreams (MacMillan), another work TBA
Smuin Ballet: Brahms/Haydn, Bluegrass/Slyde (both Smuin), new McIntyre
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra: Schumann: Symphony No. 2 · Brahms: Symphony No. 2

Toronto March 3 – 6, 2011: 3 performances
Maryinsky (Kirov) Ballet: Swan Lake
Billy Elliot: The Musical
The National Ballet of Canada, American Ballet Theatre,
Royal Danish Ballet, Royal Ballet:
The Ninth International Competition for The Erik Bruhn Prize
(possible extension to March 9 for The National Ballet of Canada: Don Quixote)

Stuttgart and Paris May 3 – 13, 2011: 4 performances
Stuttgart Ballet:
Wed. May 4: Bolero (Bejart), Initials RBME (Cranko),
Frank Bridge Variations (van Manen)
Sun. May 8: The Lady of the Camellias (Neumeier)
Bolshoi Ballet:
Tues. May 10: Flames of Paris (Ratmansky)
Wed. May 11: Don Quixote

New York May 20 – 23, 2011: 2 performances
American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet: programs TBA

London May 24 – 29, 2011: 3 performances
Royal Ballet: Ballo della Regina (Balanchine), new McGregor, DGV (Wheeldon)
Manon
Scènes de Ballet (Ashton), Voluntaries (Tetley), Still Life at the Penguin Cafe (Bintley)

Washington, DC June 8 – 12, 2011: 2 performances
Royal Danish Ballet: Napoli
A Folk Tale
(both Bournonville, new staging by Nikolaj Hübbe)

Hamburg July 1 –11, 2011
7 performances
Hamburg Ballet: Midsummer Night's Dream (Neumeier)
Mahler's 10th Symphony (Neumeier)
Illusions – Like Swan Lake (Neumeier)
Polish Triptych (Neumeier), Dances at a Gathering, The Concert (both Robbins)
Seven Haiku of the Moon, Seasons – The Colours of Time (both Neumeier)
Nijinsky Gala (year-end gala)
Guest company TBA

Saratoga Springs, NY July 15 – 17, 2011
3 performances
New York City Ballet: program TBA

GET MORE BALLET OUT OF LIFE WITH TOURS EN L'AIR

Cool posters from the Hamburg Ballet

Celebration of dance at the White House

This was a fabulous hour of dancing, with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ashley Bouder and Daniel Ulbricht of New York City Ballet doing a very bouncy, if space-restricted, Balanchine Tarantella, Paul Taylor Dance Company, one of the Billy Elliots, Washington Ballet doing one of Twyla Tharp's Nine Sinatra Songs, all hosted by the equally charismatic Michelle Obama and Damian Woetzel. And you can see it all on YouTube!

Black Swan movie at Toronto International Film Festival

From wrestling to classical ballet, director Darren Aronofsky has crafted another exquisite cinematic exploration of identity and performance. Black Swan is psychologically thrilling cinema at its finest. As the artistic director of a world-class ballet company (a stand-in for the New York City Ballet), Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel), starts the new season by firing his vitriolic, aging prima ballerina (Winona Ryder). Lecherous and manipulative, Thomas decides to stage a new and cutting edge production of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, a ballet that requires one dancer to portray the two sides of the Swan Queen: the innocent and naïve White Swan and the sensual and seductive Black Swan.
Nina (Natalie Portman) is a timid but dedicated dancer in the company. Like most ballerinas, dancing is her life and her overbearing mother (Barbara Hershey), a former ballerina, ensures that her life is comprised of nothing but ballet. In a state of continual childhood innocence, Nina dances by day and sleeps by night under the watchful eye of her suffocating mother. A technically flawless dancer, Nina is perfect for the role of the White Swan. But she lacks the passionate abandon that is needed for the other half of the role. When a new dancer, Lily (Mila Kunis), joins the company, she has all the sensual energy that Nina lacks. Intimidated by this power, Nina becomes obsessed with her rival and the two form an uneasy relationship where Lily tries to help Nina reveal her repressed dark side through drugs, sex and wild debauchery.
But as the role begins to consume her, strange things happen to Nina. Her body changes, as does her mind, and the line between the production and reality begins to blur in a terrifying transformation.
With stunning visuals and masterful performances, Black Swan combines a rare mix of beauty and grotesquerie to shape a remarkable narrative. Potent and dazzling, Aronofsky’s latest feature is a testament to his visionary talent.
Monday September 13
9:30:00 PM
ROY THOMSON HALL

Tuesday September 14
11:00:00 AM
VISA SCREENING ROOM (ELGIN)

Saturday September 18
9:00:00 PM
RYERSON
Tickets are $22.25, ($19.25 for students and seniors) for the Elgin and Ryerson screenings, $43.25 ($21.50 for students and seniors) for the gala screening at Roy Thomson Hall.
Purchase anytime between September 3 and the day of screening at the Festival Box Office, by phone 416-968-FILM or online at tiff.net
1.Pick up at Festival Box Office or Venue Box Office
*If film is off sale:
Additional tickets may become available at 7am day of screening – go to Festival/Venue Box Office
Sometimes there are unused seats because not all ticketholders show up. These are made available to the Rush Line at the Venue Box Office (10 minutes before the screening)

Ballet appreciation course

Due to popular demand, I am adding a second session of my six-week ballet appreciation course, Introduction to the National Ballet of Canada season, on Tuesday evenings, 6 - 7:45, to accommodate those of you who can't attend on Monday mornings. The course will go from October 19 to November 23, at the National Ballet of Canada offices at the Walter Carsen Centre, 470 Queens Quay West, just west of Spadina, on both the Spadina and Exhibition streetcar routes. I have been having a lot of fun researching this course and I have many juicy tidbits to impart!

Here is the course outline:

Enrich your experience of ballet in general and the seven programs in the National Ballet of Canada's season in particular with insights into the choreography, the design, and the music. Where appropriate and available, video clips will be used, along with demonstrations of certain steps and postures to help you identify distinctive choreographic styles. Depending on the repertoire, we may look at the ballet's performance history, learn about the choreographer's life and works and the historical context in which the ballet was created, examine the story on which the ballet is based, study ballet mime, and compare different versions of the same ballet.  Deepen your appreciation of the technical aspects of dance by learning to recognize a different ballet step by name each week and understanding its physical challenges.

Tours en l'air helps you not only to get more ballet out of life, but also to get more out of ballet.

Course fee is $199. To register, please email me at toursenlair@gmail.com

Dance event at the White House

The White House Dance Series: A Tribute to Judith Jamison will be streamed live on whitehouse.gov from the White House's East Room on Sept. 7 at 5 p.m. Dancers from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Billy from Billy Elliot the Musical, The Washington Ballet, Super Cr3w, and New York City Ballet.