Boris Eifman's Rodin

Rodin

Роден

chor. Boris Eifman  (2011)

Eifman Ballet of St Petersburg

Труппа театра балета Бориса Эйфмана

Toronto, 23 - 25 May 2013

Sony Centre for the Performing Arts

The highly emotive work, with a large cast, focuses on the creative and amorous lives of sculptors Auguste Rodin and the much younger Camille Claudel. It is complicated by the presence of a loving and jealous wife, and Claudel's descent into madness. 

Choreographer Eifman brilliantly captures the intensity of their creative work as they transform stone into powerful contemporary statuary. Individual tableaux are amazing. There is wonderful movement of a corps of workers in the foundry and in other scenes. I enjoyed the can-can episode in a Paris nightclub, and something more rural with happy peasants and the trampling of grapes — but their relevance to the main story is somewhat puzzling. 

Quality of dance throughout the evening was outstanding — I attended on the 24th. It was overall a powerful and at times fascinating performance, but Eifman's choreography with many flashbacks sometimes left me confused.

Bolshoi's "Romeo & Juliet"

Romeo & Juliet

chor. Yuri Grigorovich  (2010)

Bolshoi Ballet

with Anna Nikulina (Juliet), Aleksandr Volchkov (Romeo), Mikhail Lobukhin (Tybald)

The performance was powerful and emotive, with astonishing moments from a choreographic version that focuses on character and inner meaning. Mikhail Lobukhin was a virtuoso Tybalt, but I was underwhelmed by the two lovers.

simulcast from Moscow, 12 May 2013

last of the season

Willem Alexander

HM Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands abdicated on 30 April 2013, and was succeeded by her son Willem Alexander. The same day he took the solemn oath of office at a session of the States General — regalia were on display. In the Netherlands there is no coronation, and the king never in fact wears the crown.

Assemblée Internationale 2013

 28 April - 4 May 2013

 It's been an amazing week bringing together students and teachers from 18 leading ballet schools in 11 countries to interact in classes, colloquia, and performances. There were two evenings of programmes by the various academies to show something of their interests and special qualities. Some was classic but most was modern, even avant-garde. These evenings were entitled Ballet: Traditionally Timeless.  Then there was an intense programme of mostly student works, blending students from different schools — it was entitled Choreography: Fast Forward. The second part was a remarkable feat, live streaming of Stream, choreographed by Shaun Amyôt and Michael Schumacher. Using state of the art technology with the help of Ryerson University, it simultaneously brought together casts in Toronto and Amsterdam, seamlessly transcending space and time.

Participants:

Canada's National Ballet School, organizing

Royal Winnipeg Ballet School

École supérieure de ballet du Québec

Houston Ballet's Ben Stevenson Academy

Julliard School

San Francisco Ballet School

Escuela Nacional Cubana de Ballet

Australian Ballet School

New Zealand School of Dance

Royal Ballet School

Schule des Hamburg Balletts

John Cranko Schule

Palucca Hochschule für Tanz Dresden

Nationale Balletacademie, Amsterdam

Codarts, Rotterdam

Det Kongelige Teaters Balletskole, Copenhagen

École de Danse de l'Opéra National de Paris

EESA/CPD de l'Institut del Teatre, Barcelona

      Earthborn

       chor. Robert Binet (2013)

Édouard Manet (1832-1883)

Manet: Portraying Life

Royal Academy of Arts, London

cinema rebroadcast of exhibition tour, 28 April 2013

remarkable assembly of Manet's portraiture

many experts had trivial comments, but overall coverage of the show was excellent

                                       Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe  (1862)

Lewis Carroll's Alice

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

chor. Christopher Wheeldon  (2011)

Royal Ballet

with Sarah Lamb (Alice), Federico Bonelli (Knave of Hearts), Edward Watson (Lewis Carroll, White Rabbit), Steven McRae (Mad Hatter) 

I enjoyed the cinema broadcast from London of the clever and amusing ballet (co-production with the National Ballet of Canada). The British company did not dance better than ours, but they had artists to admire. The Queen of Hearts (Zenaida Yanowsky) was perfect in the grotesque role. Federico Bonelli was as accomplished as he was handsome. The casting could hardly have been better.

Iron Lady

Margaret Thatcher  (1925-2013)

Rt Hon. Margaret Hilda Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS

Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven

Her ceremonial funeral on 17 April 2013 is a notch below state funeral, a grandiose public occasion with military honours, attended by the Queen, and estimated to cost ₤10 million at a time of national austerity and intensive cost-cutting.

Praise from admirers has been effusive while, on the opposite, pop charts in the UK have seen the resurgence of a ditty from the 1939 musical, The Wizard of Oz:  "Ding Dong! The witch is dead".

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1979-1992, she was the first woman in that post. Relentlessly conservative, she was an admirer of economist Friedrich von Hayek, the opposite in values to John Maynard Keynes. She moved to privatize state enterprises and to remove controls in the financial sector. An enemy of unions, she left the mining industry in shambles. She did what she could to dismantle the welfare state. Famously she withdrew public funding of milk for children in the schools.

When in 1982 Argentina invaded and occupied the Falkland Islands, the UK sent a naval task force that in 74 days restored British sovereignty. Argentina lost 649 military personnel in that expedition, Britain 255, along with 3 islanders. The patriotic British public was happy. It remains to be seen what Argentine representative, if any, will attend the funeral this week.*

Since her time the important financial sector of the City has been in serious speculative trouble. High unemployment in the country has become endemic. British industry remains in deep decline. National ties of the United Kingdom have weakened with periodic unrest in Northern Ireland, and with evident separatism and local nationalism in Scotland and Wales. Class divisions in Britain are sharper than ever.

It was Russians who gave Lady Thatcher her most apt soubriquet, long surviving the cold war — iron lady.

* none did

                        

Football as dance

A dance tribute to the art of football

chor. Jo Strømgren  (1997, 2009)

Jo Strømgren Kompani  (Oslo)

Harbourfront, World Stage, Toronto

12 April 2013

I was expecting a team, but there are at most only four dancers on stage (one a boyishly cute girl). The piece has all the gestures and attributes of soccer from the mystique of the ball, opposition,  aggressions, coach, and referee. It is at times quite ingenious as individualities gradually express themselves, with even homoerotic moments. A collective shower à poil is a fitting end to an hour of clever mayhem.

rating: ✶✶✶✶ (of 5)

Gerhard Richter (German, 1932 - )

Gerhard Richter Painting  (Germany, 2011)

dir. Corinna Belz

rating:  ✭✭✭✭

Netflix

The documentary on this monumental German artist (born 1932) is skilful and very

interesting. It mostly shows him at work, with occasional commentary, and his succinct

views. My total ignorance of him is a surprise. His techniques are amazing though the abstract results mostly do not blow me away.

Toronto pandemonium

The Prime Minister, not often seen in Toronto, was recently on the tarmac at Pearson along with some other dignitaries, to take delivery of two visiting giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). Two Canadian zoos will be hosting them for the next ten years at a steep annual cost. The PM, peering into the one travel container, said some words about Sino-Canadian friendship. The Chinese Ambassador thought the reception for the bears was more impressive than what he got. The Mayor of Toronto, himself a bear, had no comment but seemed supportive. FedEx delivered the pandas to the Toronto Zoo with police escort. The pair, who may eventually breed, were headed for 30 days of quarantine.

[25 March 2013]

The annual fee to China for panda research will be paid by the federal government, but the local zoo will have heavy costs to house, feed, and care for the animals. Increased attendance at higher admission is expected to more than cover the outlay, as well in general to improve the zoo's local profile.

ZOO (Brussels)

Like me more like me

chor. Thomas Hauert  (2011)

ZOO (Brussels)

Brussels/Toronto Project with TDT

Two men come at each other in diverse and highly original ways with specific body  language, varieties of movement, occasional sounds, clothing changes, surprising drag, and partial undress. They appear to be lovers more in conflict and intense dialogue than anything else. The piece is avant-garde and always interesting but not, for me at least, homoerotic. I felt sympathy for each man's individuality but could not really relate well by the exhausted end. 

The choreographer, who also performs, is a Swiss who created his own company, ZOO.  He has had lots of experience on the lively Belgian dance scene, including with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s Rosas.

3 April 2013

Toronto, Winchester St. Theatre

Esmeralda

Esmeralda

Эсмералъда

chor. Jules Perrot  (1844), Marius Petipa  (1896)

recension  Yuri Burklava and Vasily Medvedyev  (2009)

Bolshoi Ballet

Балетная Труппа Большого Театра

with Maria Aleksandrova (Esmeralda), Ruslan Skvortsev (Phoebus), and Vyacheslav Lopatin (Acteon)

original simulcast from Moscow 9 October 2011

rebroadcast 31 March 2013

Not a major work, Esmeralda has lots of pretty dancing and some virtuoso moments. There is a vague connection to Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris, and even a hunchback in the cast. But essentially it is a trivial story where true love wins at the end. 

The Bolshoi cancelled the new version of The Rite of Spring, chor. Wayne McGregor, pending return of hospitalized director Sergei Filin. In Moscow they presented another new version by Tatyana Baganova, with guest dancers from Provincial Dance Theatre, but chose not to broadcast it.

Yossi

Yossi  (Israel, 2012)

הסיפור של יוסי

dir. Eytan Fox   איתן פוקס

rating:  ✭✭✭

The film is a sequel to the earlier Yossi & Jagger  (Israel, 2002) and spends a lot of time referring to the experience of a previous love between two soldiers. The principal, now a cardiologist, closeted and unhappy, by chance meets a soldier during a trip to Eilat and a relationship develops. It is a sentimental story that does little to explain the attraction of the older man to the gorgeous youth played by Oz Zehavi. 

I saw the film at TIFF Bell Lightbox, 30 March 2013.

                               עוז זהבי

David Hallberg

David Hallberg

Bolshoi Ballet

Балетная Труппа Большого Театра

American Ballet Theatre

Renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz recently shot this superb danseur for Vogue. Other wonderful images of him are appearing in CR Fashion, by photographer Bjorn Iooss. 

I shall reblog most of the photos at  http://emeritusblog.tumblr.com, a specialized site for male dance.

Emergence

Emergence
chor. Crystal Pite  (2009)

National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
23 March 2013


With a cast of 38 dancers  who often swarm and cover the stage, the scene is primordial like the programmed life of insects. I still find the piece, which I have seen before, original, strange, and powerful, even electrifying. It is a different allegory on life, essentially insects, a wonderful challenge for much of the company.

The Four Seasons

The Four Seasons

chor. James Kudelka  (1997)

National Ballet of Canada

Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts

23 March 2013

with Guillaume Côté (The Man)

The choreography never excited me, and despite action on stage all four of Antonio Vivaldi’s  familiar  concerti can feel somewhat tedious. Certainly Guillaume performed well, and I liked him better than Rex Harrington, the original principal. My succinct comment on the piece is: 

Antonio Vivaldi's Le quattro stagioni (1723) — four concerti become in ballet a life journey from the vigour of youth to a troubled old age and ultimately death.

vernal equinox 2013

                                        vernal equinox 2013

                                        20 March 2013

                                        1102 UTC

                                        0702 EDST

                                        Stonehendge

Vaslav Nijinsky (1890-1950)

Nijinsky

chor. John Neumeier  (2000)

ballet based on the life of Vaslav Nijinsky (1890-1950)

National Ballet of Canada, Toronto, 2 - 8 March 2013

on 2 March 2013, evening

with Guillaume Côté (Vaslav Nijinsky) and Heather Ogden (Romola Pulszky)

The performance was moving, powerful, and polished, often with a large cast on stage. Guillaume Côté went through an astonishing array of movement and emotion as Vaslav, ranging from the euphoria of artistic achievement through depths of emotional despair and ultimately madness. Alter egos were ingenious reminders of Nijinsky's great performances and creations in Spectre of the Rose, Afternoon of a Faun, Petrushka, and more.  Heather Ogden was a wonderful support, reflecting Romola's love throughout. An innocent and bewildered Petrushka, portrayed with feeling by Aleksandar Antonijević, slumped at stage right in deepening shadow. A remarkable Dylan Tedaldi shadowed the principal's ultimate emotional and mental collapse. In Nijinsky John Neumeier has created a highly imaginative, nuanced work worthy of his subject.

La Bayadère

La Bayadère

Баядерка

chor. Marius Petipa (1877)

recension Yuri Grigorovich (1991)

Bolshoi Ballet

Большой Театр Балета

with Svetlana Zakharova (Nikiya), Vladislav Lantratov (Solor), Maria Aleksandrova (Gamzatti), Denis Medvedev (Bronze Idol)

simulcast from Moscow, 27 January 2013

Cineplex Toronto

[note after seeing the show:]
wonderful simulcast on giant screen of an epic ballet, danced with minimal mime and much passion — Kingdom of Shades sequence was pure beauty; Bronze Idol was virtuoso muscle

Embattled but still mayor

With Divisional Court ruling that Toronto City Council Decision 52.1 of 25 August 2010 was a nullity, the city’s XL imperfect mayor Rob Ford is off the hook on a technicality for now. Supreme Court of Canada, if it accepts to hear an appeal, may decide differently. At issue is conflict of interest that could remove the mayor from office. Meanwhile the Gardiner Expressway is crumbling and Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation is looking to build a lucrative casino somewhere in town — some decisions need to be made that are not nullities. As The Economist observed (1 December 2012), “A city and its government are stuck in gridlock.”

Ontario
Superior Court of Justice
Divisional Court
Magder v. Ford, 2013 ONSC 263


Among the more competent and sensible members of Toronto City Council is Councillor Josh Matlow (Ward 22 St Paul's) who comments on the civic circus:
I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues on the priorities of Toronto residents, including fighting gridlock, improving and expanding public transit, poverty and housing, our natural environment, building a beautifully designed and age-friendly city, and ensuring that we manage our city's finances in a thoughtful and responsible way.

26 January 2013