Haglund's Heel

Reminders: Paris Opera Ballet & Angel Corella's Barcelona Ballet

Just a reminder that tickets to the Paris Opera Ballet's performances during the Lincoln Center Festival go on sale to the general public this Monday.  They're on sale right now for LCF members. The company's six performances of its magnificent Giselle are sure to sell out quickly.  And you don't want to miss Bejart's incredible Bolero.  So hot!

Angel Corella's Barcelona Ballet will bring the electrifying Bruch Violin Concerto by Clark Tippet and other very interesting rep to City Center in April.  One of our Haglund'eelers just reported that tickets are up on TDF for those of you who qualify.  The company is presenting Swan Lake in Detroit at the end of April.  Haglund still has his fingers crossed that either Herman Cornejo or Sarah Lane or BOTH will dance.  That would be a trip worth making!

 

POB Update

The Paris Opera Ballet will present its programs at the Koch Theater instead of the Met Opera House!  After that scandalous pricing of the Mariinsky Ballet last summer and the Met's faceoff with the Lincoln Center Festival folks when LCF wanted to sell discounted day-of tickets at the Rubinstein Atrium, who is surprised that the LCF yanked their business from the Met?

Tickets are on presale for LCF members as of today with general sales starting on April 2.  But all seats have not been released for sale yet.  So, if you're looking for a particular viewpoint at a particular pricepoint, you may have to be patient and diligently check seating availability on a regular basis.

Prices are wide ranging with some reasonable points: $25, $65, $95, $125, $150.  When they finally open the 4th Ring to sales, those prices will be $25 and $65.  As we all know, the views from the 4th Ring are very good.  There are $25 seats in the 2nd and 3rd Rings right now.

Haglund is so excited about seeing the Paris Opera Ballet's homegrown artists that he's going to all six of the Giselles and both of the other programs. 

 

Giselle all over the place

The official Lincoln Center Festival dates for the magnificent Paris Opera Ballet's Giselle performances are Friday, July 13, Saturday July 14 (Mat & Eve), and Tuesday, July 17 through Thursday, July 19 - a total of six performances.  Don't miss this presentation by a glorious company that is truly a company in style, essence, and purpose – not a mumbo-jumbo pick-up company of itinerant guest dancers like ABT has become.

POB will present a program entitled French Masters of the 20th Century on Wednesday, July 11, Thursday, July 12 and Sunday July 15.  Pina Bausch's Orpheus and Eurydice with the Balthasar-Naumann Ensemble and Chorus will be presented on Friday, July 20, Saturday July 21, and the company's final performance on Sunday July 22.

If you're a Member of Friends of Lincoln Center, you already know that you can purchase tickets beginning tomorrow.  Everybody else will have to wait until general ticket sales begin.

Meanwhile, ABT's performance of Giselle next Sunday in Chicago is shaping up to be quite the event which Haglund plans to attend.  Yuriko Kajiya will debut as Giselle.  Jared Matthews will dance the role of Count Albrecht for the first time with ABT having just debuted with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet a couple of weeks earlier.  Devon Teuscher will debut as Myrtha.  Who's going to keep all of these excited dancers calm?  That task could fall to the steady Blaine Hoven who will be performing the Peasant PdD with Isabella Boylston.  Not sure who is slotted for Hilarion, but hope it's a veteran.

Can't wait to see Jared press a horizontal Yuriko into the air in Act II.  He will be phenomenal!  Anyone who chooses to see the Saturday performances probably won't see those two iconic lifts - but please report back here if you do.  It's just a rumor at this point in time, but the word out on Division Street is if the Counts on Saturday miss those lifts, the spectacular Myrthas are going to swoop in from the wings and lift the Giselles for them.  There will probably be a lot of trash-talking to go with it.  "Get the f__ out of my way, skinny boy."  Listen, those Myrthas can trash-talk like Larry Bird blowing his bad breath all over Scottie Pippen, and they're just as strong and fierce. They're not going to put up with Albrecht popping Giselle six inches off the ground and then letting her slide down his front while he twirls around.  No sir-ee, Bob.  And just imagine - imagine - what Mayor Rahm Emanuel will say if the Counts wimp out on those lifts.  Just imagine.

 

Paris Opera Ballet NYC July 2012

Just a reminder that the Paris Opera Ballet will bring its outstanding production of Giselle to Lincoln Center during its 12 day visit as part of the Lincoln Center Festival.  The company arrives on July 11 which is immediately after the end of the ABT season.

The Paris Opera Ballet has a strong national identity, a strong national style, a clear aesthetic.  It is admired the world over for the quality of the classical dancing that it puts on the stage. 

So before plopping down money for any of the 22 performances during ABT's spring season that rely on media-generated guest artists who represent an incoherent hodge-podge of styles, including some with no aesthetic at all, think about saving your money for the Paris Opera Ballet.  The tickets will probably be expensive, but you will be rewarded with impeccable style, good taste, and extraordinary classical dancing. 

Sign up here to receive early notification of Lincoln Center Festival and Paris Opera Ballet ticket availability.

Ballet Films Around Town

And before you could say Schoko Pfeffer-Nüsse five times fast, the holiday season has become gingerbread-packed with delicious ballet events that will keep everyone happy until NYCB’s winter season begins in January. 

 

Last night Haglund attended the inaugural screening of Film Nights @ Steps on Broadway.  Fabrice Herrault, esteemed faculty member at Steps and The Juilliard School, is sharing his private collection of ballet films on the Loft level at Steps over the course of the next several months.  Tickets are just $5.

 

The first presentation was the documentary “REFLETS DE LA DANSE” Reflections of Dance: Dance School of the Paris Opera – 1979.  What a treat to see the fresh-faced 15-year-old Sylvie Guillem working within the realm of classical perfection in the upper levels of the school – and never once did her foot come anywhere close to her ear.  The film showed the students in technique, character, and PdD classes and a final lengthy excerpt from the annual student performance. 

 

The remaining presentations in the series are:

December 4       Great Ballerinas of the 20th Century

January 22         An Exploration of 20th Century Choreographers

February 12       Famous Ballet Couples

March 19           Great Male Dancers of the 20th Century

April 16              Behind the Scenes:  Don Quixote

 

No small by-the-way, Fabrice has a film in this year’s Dance on Camera Festival at the Walter Reade Theatre in January.  CLAUDE BESSY, LIGNES D’UNE VIE (Traces of a Life) will be screened on January 28th @ 6PM and January 29th @ 4PM.  From the DFA website:

CLAUDE BESSY, LIGNES D’UNE VIE (Traces of a Life)
Fabrice Herrault, 2010; USA, 54m
Described as the “Golden Silhouette” by Serge Lifar, French ballerina Claude Bessy was an admired etoile of the Paris Opera Ballet and ran its prestigious school for decades. Americans know her as Gene Kelly’s partner in his “Invitation to the Dance.”  Herrault’s intimate documentary, narrated by his subject, features rare vintage classroom and performance footage of the dancer in her prime, including works by Kelly, Serge Lifar, and Maurice Bejart.  Intro/Q and A’s with director and star.

Followed by:
LES REFLETS DE LA DANSE (Reflections of the dance)
Nicolas Ribowski, 1979; France, 33m excerpt
Paris Opera Ballet School classes featuring former students of  Claude Bessy, including Sylvie Guillem and Elisabeth Maurin. Intro by Claude Bessy

Public Reception -  8pm-11pm

Miss this, People, and you may as well turn in your Balletomane Badges and resign.

Just a reminder about the December 19th showing of the Bolshoi's The Nutcracker, courtesy of Emerging Pictures Ballet in Cinema program.  Then on January 19th, be still your hearts, a LIVE screening of The Royal Ballet's Giselle.  EP's website is a slow work-in-progress.  So if you have difficulty finding the information you are looking for, just call them up.  Yep, if the website isn't functioning with the expected ease, call them up at 212-245-6767 and ask for Christiana, Devonna, or Barry.

Last but not least, Ovation TV is once again presenting its Battle of the Nutcrackers.  Here's your chance to see a variety of productions.  The Royal Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, Berlin State Opera Ballet, Bejart Ballet Lausanne, and Casse Noisette Circus versions will be aired on various dates.  Viewers then vote on their favorites and the winner will be announced on Christmas Eve.  RB's film features Alina Cojocaru and the Bolshoi Ballet's version features – breathe deeply, breathe, breathe, breathe – Irek Mukhamedov.  Please Santa, bring us our very own Mayerling soon.

La Danse: The Paris Opera BalletFebruary, March, April Schedule Updates

This remarkable film continues to make its way around the country.  Following is the latest update from the Zipporah Films website that covers February, March and part of April.  Haglund noticed that the distributor occasionally inserts additional cities and dates; so if you do not see your city on this list, check the Zipporah Films website frequently.  Don't miss this film.

OPENING JANUARY 29TH:
Austin, TX- Regal Arbor Cinema 8 @ Great Hills
Houston, TX- Angelika Film Center
Dallas, TX- Angelika Dallas
Ashland, OR- Varsity Theatre
Phoenix, AZ- Harkins Camelview 5
Minneapolis, MN- St. Anthony Main
Portland, ME- Movies at the Museum
Burlington, VT- Palace 9 Cinemas

OPENING FEBRUARY 4TH:
Spokane, WA- Spokane International Film Fest

OPENING FEBRUARY 5TH:
Atlanta, GA- LeFont Sandy Springs
Detroit, MI- Detroit Film Theatre
San Diego, CA- Gaslamp Stadium
San Antonio, TX- Bijou Cinema Bistro
Pittsburgh, PA- Harris Theater
Concord, NH- Red River Theatres

OPENING FEBRUARY 6TH:
Columbus, OH- Wexner Center

OPENING FEBRUARY 12TH:
Port Townsend, WA- Rose Theater
St. Louis, MO- Webster Film Series
Spokane, WA- Magic Lantern
Columbus, OH- Drexel East

OPENING FEBRUARY 14TH:
Winston-Salem, NC- Aperture Cinema
Ann Arbor, MI- Michigan Theater

OPENING FEBRUARY 17TH:
St. Helena, CA- Cameo Art House

OPENING FEBRUARY 19TH:
Grand Rapids, MI- Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts

OPENING FEBRUARY 20TH:
Portsmouth, NH- Music Hall

ONE DAY ONLY, FEBRUARY 23RD:
Stamford, CT- Avon Cinema

OPENING FEBRUARY 27TH:
Boulder, CO- International Film Series
Ithaca, NY- Cornell Cinema

OPENING MARCH 12TH:
Madison, WI- Sundance 608
Milwaukee, WI- UWM Union Theater

OPENING MARCH 16TH:
Normal, IL- Normal Theater

OPENING MARCH 24TH:
Montpelier, VT- Savoy Theater

OPENING MARCH 28TH:
Cleveland- Cleveland Museum of Art

OPENING APRIL 1ST:
Berkeley, CA- Pacific Film Archive

OPENING APRIL 10TH:
St. Johnsbury, VT- Catamount Arts

OPENING APRIL 11TH:
Shreveport, LA- Robinson Film Center

La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet – Updated schedule includes return to NYC

Zipporah Films has updated and somewhat changed its schedule for the U.S. showings of this remarkable film.  New Yorkers, note that it returns today to the Quad Cinema on 13th Street (times – 12:55 3:45 6:30 9:15 – $11; $8 for children and seniors).

As of today:

OPENING DECEMBER 18TH:
Memphis, TN- Studio on the Square
Durham, NC- Carolina Theater
Newport, RI- Jane Pickens Theater
Sacramento, CA- Crest 3
Boston- The Coolidge
Stamford, CT- Avon Theater
New York City- Quad Cinema
Rochester, NY- Little Theater
Harrisburg, PA- Midtown
Santa Fe- CCA
Kansas City- Tivoli 3
Lake Worth, FL- Playhouse
Palm Beach Gardens, FL- Mos'Art
Miami- Miami Beach Cinematheque
Coral Gables, FL- Cosford Cinema
Ft. Lauderdale, FL- Cinema Paradiso

OPENING DECEMBER 19TH:
Olympia, WA- Capitol Theater
Lakewood Ranch, FL- Lakewood Ranch

OPENING DECEMBER 22ND:
Vancouver, Canada- Vancity

OPENING CHRISTMAS DAY:
Wilmington, DE- Theater N
Boston, MA- Stuart Street Playhouse
Hartford, CT- Real Art Ways
New Haven, CT- Criterion
Denver, CO- Starz Film Center
Key West, FL- Tropic Cinema

OPENING DECEMBER 26TH:
Wilmington, NC- Thalian Hall

OPENING DECEMBER 30TH:
Hunter, NY- Mountain Cinema/Catskill Mtn. Found

OPENING NEW YEAR'S DAY:
Columbia, MO- Rag Tag
Salt Lake City, UT- Tower
Tucson, AZ- Loft Cinema
Omaha, NE- Film Streams
Waterville, ME- Railroad Square

OPENING JANUARY 2ND:
Cleveland- Cleveland Museum of Art

OPENING JANUARY 8TH:
Tallahassee, FL- Tallahassee Film Society

OPENING JANUARY 13TH:
Columbia, SC- Nickelodeon

OPENING JANUARY 15TH:
Austin, TX- Arbor 8
Houston, TX- Angelika
Dallas, TX- Angelika
Ashland, OR- Varsity
Hanover, NH- Hopkins Film Center

OPENING JANUARY 16TH:
Albuquerque, NM- Guild Cinema

OPENING JANUARY 17th:
Nevada City, CA- Nevada Theater

OPENING JANUARY 20TH:
Santa Barbara, CA- UCSB Arts & Lectures

OPENING JANUARY 22ND:
Williamsburg, VA- Kimball Theater

OPENING JANUARY 24TH:
Nashville, TN- Belcourt

OPENING JANUARY 29TH:
Portland, ME- Movies at the Museum

OPENING FEBRUARY 4TH:
Spokane, WA- Spokane Film Fest

OPENING FEBRUARY 5TH:
Atlanta, GA- LeFont Sandy Springs
Detroit, MI- Detroit Film Theater

OPENING FEBRUARY 6TH:
Columbus, OH- Wexner Center

OPENING FEBRUARY 12TH:
Port Townsend, WA- Rose Theater
St. Louis, MO- Webster Film Series

OPENING FEBRUARY 19TH:
Grand Rapids, MI- UICA

OPENING FEBRUARY 27TH:
Boulder, CO- International Film Series
Ithaca, NY- Cornell Cinema

For updates, see Zipporah Films' website.

La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet – Upcoming Showings in a City Near You!

Haglund noticed that a lot of people were visiting this blog with inquiries about dates that this remarkable film will be showing in other cities.  So, he searched out the information on the production company's website.  Here is what they say as of today – but of course, check with your local movie theaters to make sure you have correct information:

LA DANSE- The Paris Opera Ballet will open in theaters nationwide. Please consult your local listings before heading out to the theater!

  DATE        CITY       THEATER

11/04/09 New York Film Forum
11/12/09 Baltimore The Charles
11/20/09 Chicago Music Box
11/20/09 Huntington, NY Cinema Arts Ctr.
11/20/09 Los Angeles Music Hall
11/20/09 Encino, CA Town Center
11/20/09 Pasadena Playhouse 7
11/20/09 Irvine, CA Westpark 8
11/27/09 Palm Desert, CA Palme D'Or
11/27/09 Santa Barbara Metro 5
11/27/09 Washington D.C. AFI Silver
12/04/09 Seattle NW Film Forum
12/04/09 San Francisco Balboa
12/04/09 Berkeley, CA Elmwood 3
12/04/09 Santa Rosa, CA Rialto Lakeside
12/04/09 San Jose, CA Camera 3
12/11/09 Portland, OR Cinema 21
12/11/09 Boston The Brattle
12/11/09 Providence Cable Car Cinema
12/11/09 Charlotte Park Terrace
12/18/09 Memphis Ridgeway
12/18/09 San Diego Gaslamp 15
12/18/09 Sacramento Crest 3
12/19/09 Olympia, WA Capitol Theater
12/25/09 Hartford Real Art Ways
12/25/09 New Haven Criterion
12/25/09 Santa Fe CCA
12/25/09 Denver Starz Film Center
01/02/10 Cleveland Museum of Art
01/08/10 Tallahassee Film Society
01/13/10 Stamford, CT Avon Cinema
01/17/10 Nevada City, CA Nevada Theater
01/20/10 Santa Barbara UCSB
02/06/10 Columbus, OH Wexner Center
02/12/10 Port Townsend,WA Rose Theater

To check for schedule updates, visit Zipporah Films.

La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet

Haglund attended the U.S. premiere of Frederick Wiseman’s documentary La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet at the Film Forum today.  Mr. Wiseman, himself, will be at the 8:30 p.m. showing this evening which is sold out.  This afternoon’s showing was nearly sold out as well. 

The film was a long one – 158 minutes – but it was glorious from beginning to end.  The Paris Opera Ballet Dancers are exquisite – especially when they are 20 feet tall and filmed from a low angle which further exaggerates their length. 

The only complaint that Haglund has is that Wiseman overdoes the audio on the film.  We hear every squeak, clomp and brush of the pointe shoes, all the grunts and heavy breathing of the dancers, and the amplified but mundane sounds of a clerk’s pencil eraser, a custodian sweeping paper, someone walking up the stairs, and lots of noisy traffic. 

The documentary follows rehearsals and portions of performances of Genus by Wayne McGregor, Paquita by Pierre Lacotte, The Nutcracker by Rudolf Nureyev, Medea by Angelin Preljocaj, The House of Bernarda Alba by Mats Ek, Romeo and Juliet by Sasha Waltz, and Orpheus and Eurydyce by Pina Bausch. 

Haglund found the rehearsal footage of the contemporary works far more interesting than the actual performance clips.  The dancers were intensely focused when working with the choreographers and truly seemed to be devouring the new works.  Watching that process was watching theater itself.  But when the actual choreography appeared on the stage, it was just not that great.  There was a performance clip of Medea killing her children that was rather gruesome for the amount of “blood” used, but the actual movement or dance was not particularly compelling.

On the other hand, the rehearsal and performance clips of Paquita and The Nutcracker were fantastic.  The word Paquita certainly must be French for Paris Opera Ballet.  Haglund hopes they bring their production to New York in 2012.  Such beautiful style with no grossly overdone extensions.  In fact, dancers were cautioned about extensions being too high, knees being too high, and even passes being too high,.  There were complaints about plies not being juicy enough and an exchange between ballet masters about a dancer not getting her heel down on a plie.  When one ballet master defended it as an evolution, the other ballet master disagreed sharply and quipped that Suzanne Farrell’s faults have become other dancers’ qualities. 

The arabesques in Paquita with the front arm parallel to the floor were exceptionally beautiful.  All of the dancers’ feet were gorgeous with ample arch to them.  During supported pirouettes and fouettes, it was hard not to focus on the rotation of the supporting feet because they were so beautifully shaped.

It seems to take a very long time for a dancer to rise to the level of Etoile at the Paris Opera Ballet:  Letestu 10 years; Dupont 11 years; Cozette 9 years; Gillot 14 years; Ciarovola 19 years, to name a few.  True, they enter the company at an early age, usually 18 and much younger; but that is still a long time for a dancer to ferment.  Nevertheless, the institutional results are remarkable, as you will see from this film.

Paris Opera Ballet – 2012 NYC / Wash. DC Tour!

As most know, the Frederick Wiseman film La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet opens tomorrow at the Film Forum in Manhattan.  Diana Barth, who writes for the Epoch Times and The New Millennium, has an interview with POB Artistic Director Brigette Lefevre in the current edition of Epoch Times.

At the very end of the article, Barth notes that the Paris Opera Ballet has not been to New York since 1996 and follows with Lefevre's announcement that she is bringing the company to New York and Washington DC in 2012!

On Haglund's Calendar – La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet

Frederick Wiseman's hotly anticipated film La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet opens at New York City's Film Forum  (209 West Houston, between 6th and 7th/Varick) on Wednesday, November 4th  for two weeks only.  Show times are 1:15 pm, 5:30 pm and 8:30 pm, and it appears that tickets are $12. 

The bigger-than-life Paris Opera Ballet on a bigger-than-life movie screen!   That's double the bigger-than-life experience for only $12!  Don't miss it.

 

 

Paris Opera Ballet - New Robert Wiseman Film

David Ng reports in the Los Angeles Times Culture Monster  that Robert Wiseman's newest ballet film, produced in partnership with PBS, is scheduled to be released in the U.S. this November.  It's not clear whether "release" means on PBS, in theaters, or available on Amazon.  It's entitled  "La Danse -- Le Ballet de l'Opera de Paris."   Ng writes:

Wiseman spent seven weeks filming the Paris company at work, documenting the process of mounting a ballet production from the costume workshops and lighting design all the way up to public performances. He also spends time with individual dancers to chart the different stages each takes to become a star (or étoile) in the company.

According to Wiseman's production company, the film follows the rehearsals and performances of seven ballets: "Genus" by Wayne McGregor, "Le Songe de Medée" by Angelin Preljocaj, "La Maison de Bernarda" by Mats Ek, "Paquita" by Pierre Lacotte, "Casse Noisette" by Rudolph Nureyev, "Orphée and Eurydice" by Pina Bausch and "Romeo and Juliette" by Sasha Waltz.

Perfect timing for the release.  When you're finally all Nutcrackered out, you can watch the impossibly beautiful, impossibly brilliantly-trained, impossibly talented Paris Opera Ballet in a variety of unseasonal works.