As Mel so kindly pointed out, this is the Silly Season. However I am waiting for someone to start a Grandly Silly thread, on a par with such classics as the Giselle from Hell, or the Fairies in Sleeping Beauty!

Well, do feel free! This is a site for do-it-yourselfers

How about some absurdly themed mixed bills programs. For example, NYCB always have All Balanchine, All Stravinsky, All Robbins, All American, All Tchaikovsky.... Programs. What's your silly ideas of All Fill-In-The-Blank Program.

How about an All Fowl Program:

Swan Lake (one act version by Balanchine)
le Chant du Rossignol (Ashton)
Firebird (Balanchine/Robbins)

All Femme Fatale Program:

Prodigal Son
Cage
Black Swan Pas de Deux

Good thought, mussel! We're nearly guaranteed to see all these programs for real within the next few years.

We could add "Carmen" (Petit's) to your Seductress program.

And how about Criminals at the Ballet! Ballet's Big Bad Boys:

Billy the Kid (Loring)
Undertow (Tudor)
Slaughter on 10th Avenue (Balanchine)

Without commenting on something I haven't seen, would it be too strange to wonder what would happen if Eifman were to do Petipa's life as a ballet?

Now you've hit on it -- I'll post this as a separate topic.

A good few years ago, the Royal Ballet did the ultimate themed triple bill:

Gloria

Valley of Shadows

Requiem

Yes, a death-themed evening, which opened the day after my grandfather's uneral, and left me somewhat traumatised.

i thought maybe a madness evening; it could start with Walter Gore's Eaters of Darkness. Anything we could add to the program?

Madness? Giselle, of course! (One act version forthcoming...)
Of course, if one insisted on keeping the second act, one could always put a footnote in the programme explaining that Albrecht was prone to hallucinations and Hilarion to paranoia.

Oh, lordy, you could have a madness week. The "mad" act of "Anastasia" should be mentioned.

There could be a whole Death is Sad week too (with apologies to Jane -- I wouldn't have wanted to see that one the day after a funeral). AND there could be an evening of Albioni's Adagio -- only those with purple, black or brown costumes need apply.

and i can see the radio commercials, too:

"American Ballet Theatre - their performances are INSAAAAAAANE!"

Travel Channel series:
A Month In The Country
Vienna Waltzes
The Daughter Of The Pharaoh

Slaves series:
Spartacus
Le Corsair
The Fountains of Bakhchisarary

All Girls, All The Time series:
Scherzo Ala Russe
The Dying Swan
Pas de Quatre

And finally in this election year:

A Political Bipartisan (sort of) casting of Sleeping Beauty

Aurora- Chelsea Clinton
King- Henry Kissinger
Queen- Madeline Allbright
Prince- Ron Reagan Jr.
Peanut (Lilac) Fairy- Jimmy Carter
Carabosse- Dick Cheney
Bob Dole- Viagra Fairy
John Kerry- Fairy of Thick Hair
George Bush Sr.- WASP Fairy
Lou Dobbs- Anti-outsourcing Fairy
Tucker Carlson- Bowtie Fairy
Michael Moore/Laura Bush- Big Bad Wolf, Little Red Riding Hood
Calabutte- Larry King
Jester- Jon Stewart, I know there is no jester in Sleeping Beauty, but it would be fun
James Carville/Mary Matlin- Puss in Boot, White Cat

PEANUT FAIRY!!!!!! :grinning: :grinning: :grinning: :grinning: :grinning:

Now I have to do some work today (!) but I think there are distinct possibilities for a casting of Swan Lake which features the Bush twins as Odette/Odile!

Oh, perky, reading your post was the perfect way to start the morning

perky, I love all your programs, but the Sleeping Beauty is priceless!

To commemorate New York's bid for the 2012 Olympic, NYCB put together an All New York Program for the visiting Olympia dignitaries:

West Side Story Suite
Rubies
Who Cares?

Slaugthers on Tenth Avenue was disqualified because it's not compatible with Olympic wholesome image.

An Avian Evening

Firebird
The Two Pigeons
Swan Lake White/Black pas de deux

How about a special evening for a fundraiser for the American College of Psychiatrists at the New York City Ballet:

AGE OF ANXIETY
GUIDE TO STRANGE PLACES
VALSE TRISTE
WHO CARES?

very versatile ballet, that Who Cares?....

Honoring the RNC:

GUIDE TO STRANGE PLACES
THE GREEN TABLE
world premiere: a new ballet set to Britten's WAR REQUIEM
CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS

One could do a program that consists only of different versions of the same thing from different companies, like a Don-Q-a-thon. :rolleyes:

What about a Giselle that uses the Jerome Robbins' ballet The Cage as its second act. After all The Cage is basically the second act of Giselle. The only differences is the Wilis are now insects and instead of Giselle saving Albrecht, which I never truly understood why - afterall it was his deception that drove her to madness and death, she kills him.

Because Giselle loves Albrecht, despite and still...

THE CAGE does have shades of GISELLE but the Novice ends up killing the intruder (well, 2 intruders actually) while Giselle steadfastly protects Albrecht and saves him from death.

I still say that Giselle should have killed the jerk.

You'd like the Trocks version, then, GeorgeB Fan. Albrecht pleads, Giselle looks at him and shrugs, as if saying, "So what do you expect ME to do about it?"

And then there was Myra Kinch's delightful "Giselle's Revenge"....

Dear GeorgeB fan!
One must be (or have been) a very young girl deeply in love for the first and only time to understand why Giselle did what she did. You are analyzing that which cannot be analyzed.

And then there are some of us who were once very young girls who were deeply in love and still thought Giselle was a twit to save Albrecht.

Sorry to hear that, HF. My heart is still very tender for the earliest objects of my peri-adolescent affections, some 40+ years later.


Ditto Juliet (and Romeo), which is why Shakespeare made them so young. Very few 23-y/o's would fail to see that life can continue without the beloved.

This is fun! I had no idea that my simply suggestion of using Jerome Robbins' ballet The Cage as the second act of Giselle would created such a discussion! But since it has let me explain my reasons.

I think that Albrecht is one of classical ballets all-time creeps disguising as a hero. His a nobleman disguising himself as a peasant so he can get himself some - y'know - from an unexpecting peasant girl. A peasant girl with a bad heart. That's why her mother Berthe is so worried about her doing so much dancing. And Albrecht knows it - he's right there when Berthe mimes her concerns for her daughter, but that doesn't stop him! Nooo! And here we have Giselle, a sweet, gentle, innocent highly trusting person who allows herself to completely fell in love with "Loys". And if that is not bad enough - hello, Count Albrecht is engaged to be married to another women, which makes the creep a two-timer! And he's a coward too. When his future father-in-law and his daughter shows up for the first time he couldn't runaway fast enough. And his insensitive. When Bathilde and her father The Duke returns he quickly acknowledge them and for a few moments completely disregards Giselle. This is of course done in a very public place. Giselle is embarrass, humiliated made a complete fool of by Albrecht - it's no wonder the poor girl goes off the deep end and dies.

Which makes me always wonder why is it that Hilarion is viewed as the villian in the ballet. Yes he's gruff, rough around the edges but I also felt he truly loved Giselle. Some views his actions as selfish when he expose Albrecht. And that's maybe true. But I also feel he was trying to protect Giselle. I admit that alot of my feelings about Hilarion comes from former ABT's soloist John Gardner's performance as Hilarion. He always played him as a man truly in love Giselle and not so much as a villian. When he's killed in the second act I feel disappointed.

True enough, GBF, as far as you go. But Albrecht was not a 20th/21st Century guy governed by today's morality. I'm sure through his eyes, he had the droit du seigneur, surely nothing important enough to be considered two-timing by Bathilde. She was most likely selected as his bride by his parents. As a nobleman, he felt entitled to seduce the girl, never even considering until it was -- in every sense -- too late, that he might lose control of his emotions.

There is also an implicit religious message in this ballet. Lest we forget, Giselle's grave is marked by a cross. If the ultimate lessons of Christianity are forgiveness and redemption, they are right there in Act II.

Is there anyone still around who knows some of the Kinch rep?

This discussion is starting to sound as if it belongs in the archives. Which reminds me that while I was browsing through the Swan Lake section, I hit on a silly season reason why Siegfried can't distinguish between Odette and Odile. Here's the conversation as he tries to apologise to Odette:

Odette: You Me Love Not.

Siegfried: I You Love. I Sorry.

Odette: You Me Betray Why?

Siegfried: Me, Eyes Shortsighted!


With the death themed programmes in mind:

(On the Dance Macabre by Sait Saents)
This dance of death which sounds so musically
Was sure intended for the corps de ballet.
Anon.


I borrowed this idea from mussel:

ALL BALANCHINE TRIBUTE TO ATHENS OLYMPIC GAMES:

Apollo
Orpheus in the Underworld
Afternoon of a Faun

And last, the PARADE OF THE DOLLS:

Petrushka
Coppelia
The Nutcracker
La Boutique Fantasque
Die Puppenfee

Just a few more triple bills, mostly suitable for companies with very wide-ranging repertoires:

HAPPY FAMILIES

Fall River Legend
Elektra
My Brother, My Sisters

TRAINSPOTTING

Le Train Bleu
Union Pacific
The Road of the Pheobe Snow

BUGS and THINGS

The Life of the Bee
The Spider's Banquet
Les Papillons

TRANSPORTS OF DELIGHT

Landrover
A Streetcar named Desire
Filling Station

THE CONCERT

Overture
Concerto
Symphony

WATER, WATER

Lake
The River
Ocean's Motion


and, picking up on pmeja's idea,

GROUNDHOG DAY

Carmen (Petit)
Carmen (Ek)
Carmen (Alonso)

how about a shakespeare marathon? at the end everyone is either dead(the dancers) or asleep(the audience)

Goodness, Im still laughing sooooo hard over Perky's post....toooooo funny--you have just changed my rather poo day into something grander

I also like the idea of a Shakespear Marathon----it would not be a proper tragedy if the dancers did not all die at the end