Word: ballets
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Britain's Royal Ballet brings classics and a tawdry shocker...
...past month, New York City has served as a showcase for two of the world's top choreographers. First came the New York City Ballet's Tchaikovsky gala, a ten-day tribute to the Russian composer that also honored the company's legendary George Balanchine, 77. Then London's Royal Ballet held sway at Lincoln Center for three weeks, offering several works by Balanchine's contemporary Sir Frederick Ashton...
...stylish company noted for its sumptuous productions of the standard repertoire, the Royal is celebrating its 50th anniversary this season with a tour of North America. As the Sadler's Wells Ballet, it burst upon the American scene in 1949 with an exquisite Sleeping Beauty that introduced Margot Fonteyn to U.S. audiences. The Royal's reworking of the Petipa-Tchaikovsky masterpiece became its signature, and was featured on its current tour with a performance attended by the visiting Prince Charles...
Although Ashton retired as the Royal's director and principal choreographer in 1970 after 35 years with the company, he remains active, casting and rehearsing his ballets. "Some of the dancers ask for me specifically," he notes. "They get something from me they don't get from other people." A master of crisp classicism, Ashton cannot read music, but his feeling for it is strong. "My reaction is spontaneous," he says. "Once I've chosen the music for a ballet, I completely inundate myself in it. I listen to nothing else, so that it becomes part...
...finds matching grants for public television. It funds exhibits and theater productions, opera and ballet; it foots the bill for necessary but mundane chores which would never interest a private supporter, like the cataloguing of the Whitney's entire collection. It backs controversial exhibits which corporations hesitate to support. But most of all, a grant from the NEA legitimizes an organization in the eyes of corporate and private patrons. A theater company with a $100,000 federal grant usually finds private sector support much easier to come by. "The NEA has generated at least $5 for every federal dollar spent...