SPAC's Pre-Performance Talks

SPAC's Pre-Performance Talks 2011 Pre-Performance Talks are made possible by:
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05/11/2019

Pre-Performance Talks are online now on S**C's website. It is going to be a beautiful week with NYCB and three weeks with The Philadelphia Orchestra. These company residencies are my inspiration to get through these Saratoga winters!

02/07/2019

Mel Tomlinson has passed - he was a miracle. Truly.

03/22/2018

Maestro Stephane Deneve touching history - oh my gosh, how cool! BTW, he opens The Philadelphia Orchestra's summer season at S**C on August 1st. Can't wait!

THIS MONTH IN HISTORY – Rachmaninoff prepared a score of his 2nd Symphony for The Cleveland Orchestra in 1928. Today, conductor Stéphane Denève studied that score and heard the Orchestra’s first recording of this symphony! Discover more from the archives here: http://www.clevelandorchestra.com/About/Orchestra-Archives/from-the-archives/2015-0-20-Recording-Rach-symphony-2/

02/28/2018
EMERALDS Pas De Deux (Balanchine/Faure)

Several times Sean Lavery joined us at the Pre-Performance Talks. He was so humble, and funny. Sean was also a huge resource of knowledge and insight into the Balanchine rep. He has died too young, too soon. Cancer cut his career short and now it has taken his life. I post this film footage of him dancing a pas de deux from "Emeralds" with Karin Von Aroldingen (who died last month) so that we may all remember and take pleasure in the beauty and elegance that Sean brought to the stage. The two of them are dancing on air, a piece of heaven. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQoRgvH_iaE&sns=fb

Here are Karin Von Aroldingen and Sean Lavery in the central Pas De Deux from EMERALDS originally choreographed for Mimi Paul and Francisco Moncion...two of ...

08/13/2017
Bob Cafaro

He is all about health, and the cello! Bob Cafaro of The Philadelphia Orchestra is an inspiration; he was diagnosed with MS years ago but no trace of it can be found now. Next week we have a lunch date at...yep, Four Seasons Natural Foods on Phila Street.

My first food in 18 hours - at Four Seasons Natural Foods Cafe in Saratoga Springs, NY. I love eating here & I love Saratoga!

07/22/2017
Review: Balanchine Jewels from Paris, Moscow and New York

“Jewels” has long been a perfect introduction to ballet’s poetry....
A. Macaulay

The Lincoln Center Festival celebrates the 50th anniversary of George Balanchine’s “Jewels” with three of the world’s foremost ballet companies.

07/08/2017

SILAS FARLEY - need I say more?! We LOVED his Talk, and the little Girl Scouts he met afterwards loved him too!

07/07/2017

Taylor Stanley was powerful in his premier tonight in Stravinsky Violin Concerto - first aria. Bravo! He is riveting on stage. And humble off stage.

07/06/2017

Tonight's Talk with principal dancer, Taylor Stanely - SOLD OUT. Friday's Talk with NYCB's Wardrobe Mistress will feature costumes! 30 seats available BUT you must reserve your spot. Call the S**C Box Office, 584-9330 OR reserve online.
See you at a Talk soon.....

07/05/2017

Tonight - SOLD OUT
July 6 - principal dancer, Taylor Stanley
July 8 matinee - corps dancer, Silas Farley
Very few seats left, but there are a few!

06/23/2017

NYCB opens at S**C July 5th. Peter Martins does the Pre-Performance Talk that night!

06/20/2017

Pre-Performance Talks are free, but reservations are a must.

06/13/2017
Sara Mearns Makes Like the Wind (and Like Isadora Duncan)

Fascinating that she feels the need to stretch her dance vocabulary when she is already one of the most creative forces out there! The always inspiring Sara Mearns!!

A brilliant ballerina takes on a Duncan solo, “Narcissus,” that is far removed from her ballet universe.

05/24/2017
Wendy Whelan: The First Time I Danced a Balanchine Ballet (the Day He Died)

Wendy Whelan is a Balanchine dancer, though she never danced "for" him, she was the body he choreographed for and we have all been witness to that truth.
"All I wanted to do was to slip my body into Balanchine’s choreography that day..." beautifully said Wendy!

The former City Ballet principal recalls learning of the choreographer’s death, and longing to nurture a sense of connection with him.

05/10/2017
Juilliard Names Damian Woetzel as Its New President

Wow - big news for NYCB alums, Juilliard, and yes, the Arts! Congratulations to Damian Woetzel - always an audience favorite on stage, and off as well!

Mr. Woetzel, a former New York City Ballet star, has never worked in academic administration. He will replace Joseph W. Polisi, who plans to leave in 2018.

05/01/2017
The Philadelphia Orchestra's Mongolian debut is not quite off

I hope the wonderful Philly Orchestra does figure out a way to make a concert in Mongolia work - what a fabulous connection to forge.

The Philadelphia Orchestra may still visit Mongolia on its spring tour of the Far East, though definitely not with its entire contingent.

04/07/2017
Articulate with Jim Cotter - Joseph Conyers on the Bass, Bodybuilding, and Obsession

Last summer the Pre-Performance/Concert Talks met Joseph Conyers for the first time. He inspired as he talked about his mission to bring music to young people. And then there is this side to the Philly bassist - obsession is the word!

“I think every musician has a little bit of a slice of obsessive compulsiveness in their DNA,” says Joseph Conyers, assistant principal bassist for the Phila...

03/22/2017
Trisha Brown, Choreographer and Pillar of American Postmodern Dance, Dies at 80

So unexpected...avant-garde dance maker Trisha Brown is gone, and it doesn't seem right. I had the opportunity to know/meet her when she was inducted into the National Museum of Dance's Hall of Fame while I was the Artistic Director there. Small story: Before the Induction I met her accidently and informally in our local grocery store, by the cheeses, and because I had some news to deliver that was a painful saga (to me) of what went wrong and who didn't do what I felt compelled to interrupt her shopping. She watched me with a gentle smile as I apologized for administrative things that were out of my control, and then she threw her arm wide and proclaimed "Off with their heads!" ... and god damn it I liked her so much!! She was spirited and a one of a kind dance artist.

Ms. Brown’s choreography, showcased primarily in New York, helped shape generations of modern dance creators into the 21st century.

01/29/2017
New York City Ballet’s Very 21st-Century Steps

Sounds like Justin Peck's new ballet - "The Times are Racing" may be just the thing we need, right now!

The company performs premieres of two works, by Justin Peck and Pontus Lidberg, that embrace modern sensibilities.

01/17/2017
Martha Swope, 88, Who Etched Dance and Theater History in Photographs, Dies

The passing of a great photographer, Martha Swope. "Delia Peters, a friend who danced with City Ballet, said in an interview: “Having been a dancer, she understood the timing. She understood what they were going to do, she understood where the pictures were going to be.”

Ms. Swope produced hundreds of thousands of images of performers in action, and by the time she retired, her studio contained more than a million images.

11/04/2016
When These Dancers Collaborated, 2 Learning Curves Met as One

This says something (albeit the read may be a bit esoteric at times) about dancing for the sake and feeling of movement...and trusting that dancing without pretension will procure results that SPEAK.
For my students - this is what I mean when I say "stop working, relax, don't think about technique". Make your dancing an experiment and an experience. Good on Sara Mearns!

Sara Mearns, the New York City Ballet principal, worked with the contemporary choreographer-dancer Jodi Melnick. Both benefited.

07/25/2016
Review: ‘Scherzo Fantastique’ Brims With Liberated Energy

A fab evening that featured a world premiere by Justin Peck: S**C celebrated 50 years in style! And Alastair Macauley nailed it, this line in particular - "Mr. Peck has learned from Balanchine the fun of math as drama:"

Justin Peck’s vivid work makes a formidable impression, a remarkable achievement for such a young, prolific choreographer.

07/05/2016
Capital District YMCA

This is what S**C has been up to - Youth in Motion! Thanks to my colleague Dennis Moench, and the National Dance Institute (Jacques D'Amboise program in NYC) a union has been created that benefits kids and exposes them to dance by doing. See them perform on the amphitheater stage this Friday at 7pm!

We are taking a sneak peek at our Youth In Motion project, a collaboration with S**C and the National Dance Institute.

06/27/2016

"Doug Varone and Dancers" in performance - a few pics of the action. Next up on stage is "Twyla Tharp Dance" on Thursday, June 30th. Now that is a great way to end the month. Psst, she is presenting a WORLD PREMIERE that night: Beethoven Op. 133.

06/21/2016

Dance is on stage, S**C's 50th anniversary celebration has started; it is fun, the joint is jumping! This is my first post in ever so long; there will be many posts and pictures this summer to make up for my quiet. "Doug Varone and Dancers" opened the season on June 17th, a contemporary dance company that moves on high octane, slicing through the air with the upper body and arms as vigorously as a ballet dancer pricks (pique) the floor with her point shoes. The audience sipped sparkling wine (Mionetto Prosecco) while being whipped around by "Castles", "Strict Love", and "Lux". Great music, 9 dancers who gave it their all, and that feeling you get after a performance that tells you - the arts! the world is better because there is dance! My heart was happy.

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SILAS FARLEY - need I say more?! We LOVED his Talk, and the little Girl Scouts he met afterwards loved him too!

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