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
No comments:
Post a Comment