CriticalDance Forum

<BR>Ballet Pacifica<P><BR>Writes Vivian Letran of a Ballet Pacifica workshop:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>The dancers lunged, fell, reached and stretched under the direction of choreographer Rick McCullough as the music swelled. <BR> "Think Mel Gibson, 'Road Warrior,' " said McCullough, leading 12 Ballet Pacifica dancers to Benjamin Britten's "Sinfonia da requiem." <BR> "The world is a desolate scene. The sun is red-hot. So there's urgency and desperation," McCullough, 49, said. "I want the stage to pulse and flow like wind in the desert."<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Read the <A HREF="http://www.calendarlive.com/theater/20000728/t000070887.html" TARGET=_blank>full article</A>.

This sounds a little like what is going on at the Kaatsbaan International Center posted recently in dance miscellany <A HREF="http://www.nypost.com/07192000/entertainment/8084.htm" TARGET=_blank>http://www.nypost.com/07192000/entertainment/8084.htm</A> <P>Choreographer, Paul Vasterling of the Nashville Ballet (in Tennessee)(see miscellany) pops up here as having been one of the choreographers to work on this Ballet Pacifica project.<P>If I had been one of the dancers, I think I would have thoroughly enjoyed this!<p>[This message has been edited by Maggie (edited July 29, 2000).]

Looks like Chris Pasles didn't like Ballet Pacifica's 10th Annnual Choreographers' Workshop too much. According to Pasles, "Ballet Pacifica performance reveals strong efforts of dancers but missteps of choreographers," in this <A HREF="http://www.calendarlive.com/theater/20000731/t000071872.html" TARGET=_blank>LA Times article</A>.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Three of the four new works, all created by<BR> choreographers from previous workshops and all presented<BR> as works-in-progress, were hugely derivative. The one that<BR> wasn't was trivial in the extreme. <BR> * * *<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>surprise, surprise!

The LA Times article is in a style that I am becoming familiar with in the US Press - the 'pulling wings of flies' school of criticism.<P>Overall, it may have been a mistake to invite the Press, always assuming that they were invited. The pieces were described as works in progress. As such an audience gets to see some work fresh out of the Studio, which quite often is experimental and has not been rehearsed as much as work scheduled for a season.<P>OK, the first piece isn't as good as Paul Taylor, but then not much is. The fact is that workshop pieces have a higher failure rate than most, as seen in the Rambert Workshop sessions. It is a chance for those who would not usually choreograph on such dancers to try their hand etc. Thus, as an audience member I go with a different frame of mind for an evening where greater risks will be taken and there will be many failures.<P>On the other hand by going to a workshop producton at in the Clore Theatre Studio at te ROH I saw a work in progress, 'Symbiot', which was quite the most exciting new work seen in the ROH for the past few years. Similarly I saw a duet by Jonathan Burrows at Greenwich which had me in tears with its beauty. It is by no means clear that either of these fine works will ever see the light of day again. Thus, these wip sessons provided me with a unique opportunity.<P>Given the paucity of new ballet choreography, I think that there is a place for such sessions. They play an important part in the nurturing of new coreographers and innovative work and like a lot of lab. experiments many won't work; they require a different frame of mind from an audience and will not suit all, but it looks as though the management played fair here and described the evening to the punters for what it was. <P> <P> <p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited August 02, 2000).]