DAE News: October 6, 2003
Contents:
Thank you for all the support that made it possible for us to make 10 years of concerts allowing
55 dancers,to work making
6 musicians,
5 costumers,
4 lighting designers
5 photographers and
2 drag queens (extra points for knowing who and when)
29 new ballets andthat never would have seen the light of day otherwise.
2 new musical commissions
We can't do it without you.
Learn to knit in time for the holidays! I'm teaching a beginner workshop in November on Monday evenings in Midtown Manhattan beginning October 27. All the information you need is at http://www.danceasever.org/DAEclasses.htm#beginner
If there's enough interest I'll schedule a sock class, an entrelac class and/or a repeat of "17 Stitches No Knitter Should Be Without". Interested? Email me back!
The Auction was one of our best years ever, raising $2700 for the company. Thank you to everyone who knit and bid. In the raffle, our grand prize winner was Marina McIntire from the West Coast, and I'm dying to know where she's going to go! Congratulations, Marina, and send us a postcard! Other prize winners are still being notified; we're at winner #10, so if you haven't heard from us yet, you may still have won!
Suzanne Farell half-price tickets at NJPAC on October 11! Interested? There's an online offer described at Ballet Alert - http://balletalert.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=13732&st=0&#entry111033entry111033 - this offer expires on October 9!
I help out at balletalert.com, which is fast becoming part of a very interesting family of websites founded by Alexandra Tomalonis, www.danceviewtimes.com. As a sample, I'm going to recommend an article by a friend (and magnificent writer), Paul Parish. Paul captures the surging churn of Rubens' "The Road to Calvary" in an essay that will interest not just dance fans but anyone attracted by art, poetry, or just beautifully expressed thought. Read it at http://www.danceviewwest.com/archives/090103.html
And how did it go? It went. It's done now, I was pleased I had done it, I'm already on to other things.
What was I was most pleased with? Commissioning Evren's score for The New Rome, which I think is worthy of being heard as a concert piece. I hope that will happen. Close behind were David Quinn's costumes. He outdid himself this year, and of course the performances of the dancers, especially the newest to the company.
What I was least pleased with? Usually, our performances steadily improve from the first to the last. It wasn't that way this year, with weaker and stronger performances oscillating from night to night and even from ballet to ballet in the same night. I wish we had more consistency this year, but I think some of that may have had to do with using live music, which adds an extra element of complication to a performance.
The biggest surprise? Even though we were in a less prime location, we beat our ticket revenue from last year by at least 10%. Who'da thunk it.
What's next? Not much of a rest, actually. I'm going on a busman's holiday next week to Paris and London, specifically for my brother's wedding in Devon (I'm best man! And good grief, I haven't yet written the toast to the bride. . .) I connived trips to the Paris Opera Ballet and Royal Ballet as bookends. If any of my friends will be in Paris on the 13th and 14th or London on the 20th or 21st, I'd be delighted to see you if at all possible. After that, it's Ann Arbor for the Balanchine symposium at the end of the month, and the Kirov in Detroit.
There should be a reasonable amount of Leigh in Print soon as well; I'll be writing on all those travels, and will let people know when they're set for publication.
I'm knitting again too, finally. No matter how hard I try to knit when I'm producing the concert, I just can't. There's way too much static in my brain to sit still and knit.
As ever,
LAW
Leigh Witchel [dae@panix.com]
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