Word: ballets
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...American Ballet Theater, its new million-dollar Cinderella is a crucial venture. In the past year, A.B.T. has been shaken by deficits, and in the consequent scuffles between the board of directors and management, Artistic Director Mikhail Baryshnikov offered with some asperity to resign. The troupe set out on its national tour last December with a lot to prove to creditors, audiences and itself...
Cinderella is not an obvious banner to follow into battle. In one form or another, the ballet dates back at least to 1813, but it has never been a truly popular theme. For A.B.T. the magic has worked: Cinderella has been a virtual sellout across the country, and, opening the company's two month New York City season last week, it proved to be a sumptuous, buoyant, surprisingly sophisticated show...
...Baryshnikov, who will remain as artistic director, Cinderella is a break with his Russian heritage. So far, he has staged two full-length ballets for A.B.T, The Nutcracker and Don Quixote; both of them are lively but well-mannered variations of traditional Russian models. That he wanted something bolder this time became apparent when he chose as co-choreographer Peter Anastos, best known as the former guiding spirit (and as Olga Tchikaboumskaya, prima ballerina) of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, an all-male travesty troupe. In such parodies as Go for Barocco (Balanchine) and Yes, Virginia, Another Piano Ballet...
Cinderella is neither parody nor camp extravagance, nor is it a conventional story ballet. The sets and costumes, by Santo Loquasto, are opulent, if heavy on glitter. The fairy tale is told straight, as indicated by Sergei Prokofiev's richly melodic score. But instead of emphasizing welling emotions and magic spells, the choreographers are brisk...
...choreographed by Alvin Ailcy, with music by Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays. The dance was inspired by the lives of certain stars of pop music, especially Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison, who were driven to self-destruction at the peak of escalating careers, described in the program as "a ballet about loneliness where a hero finds himself at the edge of a precipice...