<BR>Diablo Ballet in Balanchine's "Apollo"<P><BR>It looks like Diablo Ballet has won yet another convert among SF Bay Area dance writers. Rachel Howard writes in the SF Weekly:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Last Thursday, a little Walnut Creek dance company known as Diablo Ballet traipsed down south to appear in Los Angeles' first-ever ballet festival, Ballet Fest 2000. Diablo was the only Northern California company to share the festival's three programs with Southern California's usual suburban-based suspects. ... based on the reputations of each company Diablo may well be sending those other troupes back to suburbia with their tutus between their legs. Diablo's dominance says a great deal about L.A.'s long-parched dance scene, to be certain, but it says even more about Diablo and the great leaps forward it has taken over the last three years. Bay Area critics have raved about Diablo's progress for years ...<P>This fall, after seven years of preparation, Diablo will open its 2000-01 season cityside, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on Sept. 15 and 16.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><B><A HREF="http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2000-08-23/dance.html" TARGET=_blank>Click here for the full article</A></B><p>[This message has been edited by Azlan (edited August 26, 2000).]

Reviews of the BalletFest event mentioned in the SF Weekly article can be found at the <B><A HREF="http://www.criticaldance.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/000352.html" TARGET=_blank>BalletFest thread</A></B>.

Also, read my <B><A HREF="http://www.criticaldance.com/interviews/ljonas991011.html" TARGET=_blank>interview of Diablo Ballet AD Lauren Jonas</A></B> in the interviews section.<P>Azlan<P>PS - While there, you may want to look at the new <B><A HREF="http://www.criticaldance.com/interviews/gmurphy000816.html" TARGET=_blank>interview of Graeme Murphy</A></B>, AD of the prestigious Sydney Dance Company, by our Sydney-based correspondent, <B><A HREF="http://www.criticaldance.com/whoweare/jleake.html" TARGET=_blank>Jennifer Leake</A></B>.<p>[This message has been edited by Azlan (edited August 26, 2000).]

I enjoyed reading the SF Review interview with the lovely Lauren. I'm dying to see the company now and their version of the very fine 'Apollo'.<P>Another good point of the article was that an advert on the same page gave me a link to a Zoot Suit company and next time I'm in SF I am going to make the suit below mine, unless they have anything brighter, of course:<P>

The gauntlet has been thrown down! We MUST take a collection to get Stuart to the city by the Bay so we can see him in that suit!

Still laughing Stuart, do miss your humour.

Well, Shag, to see Stuart in that suit, you'll have to come to the Bay Area that weekend...

Stuart, thank you for the sweet compliment, it means a lot coming from you. And, I'm glad you enjoyed the article. As for the suit, I think you would look rather dashing in it and it's just your color too! <p>[This message has been edited by Lauren (edited August 26, 2000).]

At the risk of a personal repercussion, I have to admit that while I enjoyed the last two Bay Area performances of "Apollo" by Diablo Ballet, there were a couple of things about this production that I was not completely satisfied with, namely that the prologue and the epilogue were deleted from the ballet, due to "not enough dancers" in the company.<P>Now, to minimize the personal repercussion, I must say that I am looking forward to this company's West Coast premiere of Trey McIntyre's "Touched," especially after enjoying his incredibly stylish and energetic "Bound" in Houston. <B><A HREF="http://www.criticaldance.com/reviews/houston-bound.html" TARGET=_blank>Follow this link to my review of "Bound"</A></B><P>And, yes, Stuart would look great in that suit. We would have to have another party in his honor. Please bring your own sunglasses.<p>[This message has been edited by Azlan (edited August 27, 2000).]

Lauren, delighted that you think the red zoot suit is 'just my colour'. I suppose it does match the colour of my nose!<P>Realistically, that suit is just not going to be suitable for my Amnesty International meetings with senior execs of major companies. So I think I'll have to buy this one as well. Love those chains!<P> <p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited August 27, 2000).]

Blair Tindall previews Diablo Ballet's season opener in this retrospective article about the company:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>But this particular afternoon, it was time to rehearse "Touched," a humorous piece by Houston Ballet choreographer Trey McIntyre that will receive its West Coast premiere during the Diablo's opening performances. ...<P>Corinne Jonas, 32, stopped to watch her sister, Lauren, sift through a cardboard box of costumes and props on loan from Houston. Pulling out a flashlight resembling a barbell, she described how new techniques demanded by the work are harder than they seem.<P>"It looks like we're just playing, but it's carefully calculated," said Corinne Jonas. "Not only do we manipulate the lights to look like tightropes, we have to remember not to shine them on each other, or to blind the audience."<P>Visiting Houston choreologist (a dancer who notates and teaches choreographic sequences -- enabling the troupe to start without McIntyre) Joyce Ulrich cued a Dave Brubeck tape, and Corinne Jonas, together with Tina Kay Bohnstedt and Kelly Teo, raced around the dance floor, bunching together and spinning apart in a hybridized, jazzed-up routine.<P>It's fresh inspiration like this that gives the group its momentum -- and critical acclaim. Still pumped from an August 2000 Los Angeles Times review calling the Diablo a "major discovery," Lauren Jonas dreams of the future.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><BR><B><A HREF="http://www.contracostatimes.com/timeout/stories_feattop/x15diablo_20000915.htm" TARGET=_blank>More</A></B>

This discussion continues in our reviews thread at:<P> <A HREF="http://www.criticaldance.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/000392.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.criticaldance.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/000392.html</A>

having only just now read the tindall article - AFTER having read the REVIEWS in the other thread : <BR> <A HREF="http://www.criticaldance.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/000392.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.criticaldance.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/000392.html</A> <P>i am wondering now about this, given that ulrich made a big fuss about someone called Pech. please can you tell me who actually founded the company? i.e. did tindall get it wrong in this preview article?:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>"Out there" is also a good way to describe a regional company founded by a<BR> business-challenged ballerina and a structural engineer with a penchant for<BR> dance. <P> "The Regional Center had just opened, so Lauren and I thought, 'What about<BR> starting something here?'" said Diablo co-founder Ashraf Habibullah, whose<BR> Berkeley-based firm, Computers and Structures Inc., makes earthquake<BR> engineering software. The two met when Habibullah took a beginning ballet<BR> class taught by Jonas. Once their project was under way, Habibullah took a<BR> year off from work, and Jonas jumped into arts management.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

As I understand it from the company and others I've talked to, the company was conceived of and put together initially by Jonas and Habibullah.<P>Pech was invited later to become a co-AD along with Jonas. He resigned abruptly after a year or so.

thanks! so tindall didn't get it wrong. i just like to have my facts straight!