I hope ABT is at least thinking about this in its long range plans. A new Mayerling would be nice along with a few oldies but goodies. Has anyone heard about any celebration plans?

Maybe invite New York Theatre Ballet?

Did I say Mayerling? I did.

As I approach my own centenary, senility is such a warm feeling.

Oh well, don't I know the feeling!

Ok, how about a wishlist for a theoretical program honoring Tudor's 100th birthday?


They can be revivable or not, this is just what we would LIKE to see.


Mine:


Undertow

Judgement of Paris

Romeo and Juliet (not to be confused with another current thread!)



Of these I only have firsthand knowledge of R&J

I would love the chance to reconnect to Tudor's works, never having warmed up to them when they were in the active repertory. (Except for Pillar of Fire.)

Miami City Ballet is introducing Lilac Garden into their rep in the spring. It's their first Tudor work.

Oddly, I once lived not far from the Rinzai Zen Center on East 30th and had the chance to meet Tudor, who resided there, on several occasions. But I never even heard that this was the world-famous choreographer. I guess another hierarchy of values were in force there.

We need at least two programs if we're going to celebrate the Tudor Centenary Celebration 2008:

Dark Elegies
Pillar of Fire
Lilac Garden

For an opening gala, the main pas de deux from The Leaves Are Fading, which Amanda McKerrow could restage based on personal coaching by Tudor.

Gelsey kirkland could help in the staging /coaching of "leaves are fading'".I never saw her in Lilac Garden but imagined her Caroline would be great.
Joe

I only saw it once, but An Echoing of Trumpets was a very powerful commentary on the horrors of war. (Probably not a good companion piece to The Green Table.) And while the ballet as a whole was a mess, many of the dances in Tiller in the Fields were gorgeous. Maybe someone could resurrect them in a suite form. Of course, it wouldn't be Tudor then, would it? I couldn't imagine the estate granting rights to do that.

I've never seen Undertow, and I'm wondering how Shadowplay would look on this generation of ABT dancers.

Here's the Tudor oeuvre as listed on ABT's website:
Dark Elegies
Dim Lustre
Echoing of Trumpets
Fandango
Gala Performance
Goya Pastoral
Jardin Aux Lilas
Judgment of Paris
The Leaves Are Fading
Little Improvisations
Nimbus
Offenbach in the Underworld
Pillar of Fire
Romeo and Juliet
Shadow of the Wind
Shadowplay
The Tiller in the Fields
Undertow

Not The Tiller in the Fields, especially with the rest of the list. ( )

I would hope that ABT wouldn't limit itself to just one program. You'd have to present more familiar works like Lilac Garden, Dark Elegies, Pillar of Fire and The Leaves Are Fading, but also ballets seen less frequently like Judgment of Paris, Undertow and Dim Lustre. Definitely Romeo and Juliet. Perhaps the Royal Ballet could be persuaded to take Shadowplay on tour. Ditto for the Royal Swedish Ballet with Echoing of Trumpets. Does anyone out there think a revival of Tiller in the Fields is worth attempting? I never saw it, which is why I ask.

What was so awful about it? Do tell.

I don't remember it in detail, but I do remember it not being particularly subtle.

I remember reading many years ago that a full evening of Tudor works was a somewhat difficult sell, and somewhat difficult for the non-balletomanes to sit through, because so much of the choreography and drama relied on the strings without benefit of the brass, percussion, etc. (Wish I could remember where I read it, 'cuz it was a darn good analysis.) So, "we" will have to be careful about that in "our" programming. Also, we must have a photography exhibit to go with the celebration. And don't forget the on stage panel discussions - this is something that The Juilliard School could do for everyone. Can you imagine - Gelsey, Sallie Wilson, Amanda, Cynthia G. all on stage for a Tudor panel!

The pillow. Kirkland came out at the end with a pillow stuffed under her costume -- a pregnancy pillow.

I've seen Offenbach, Dark Elegies, Romeo and Juliet, Undertow, Dim Lustre and Shadowplay. (And Leaves, Jardin, Pillar of course. ABT did them regularly through the '70s and early '80s.) Back then, the ballets were in an awkward stage. The aesthetic was pretty much dead by then -- it was the High Abstract Period -- and, try as they might, the dancers were always judged (rightly, I'm sure) as not being up to the earlier standard. The centennial would be a wonderful opportunity to really restage them, not as hand-me-downs that didn't quite fit the current cast, but as fresh works.

That was it. Yikes.

I wish someone would pony up for Romeo & Juliet... I've heard so many good things about it... with several people preferring it to the more prevalent Prokofiev treatments. It's a one-act version, isn't it?

I hope atm is reading this thread and will comment, because she saw Tudor when it was Tudor. I saw his R&J in 1976, with Hilda Morales and Fernando Bujones, and I just remember it as one very, very, VERY long act.

I saw it with Makarova and ???, and my memory jibes with yours, Alexandra.

John Prinz danced it with Natalia makarova.
Joe

R&J is the one to revive--maybe they could throw in 'Dim Lustre'--but this is definetely the way to go--with the original sets, please. With all the histrionic interpretations out there I think we all deserve to see this one. I was fortunate to see Markova and Nora Kaye as Juliet with Hugh Laing. What a pleasure it would be to see the subtlety of the bedroom scene---Hugh Laing, with one brief jesture in a longing glance at the bed said more than all the 'throw-them-up-in-the-air' lifts. And think of what a great antidote this would be to the coming NYCB version


In Balanchine's Complete Stories of the Great Ballets, there is a very good commentary by Martha Siegel of the Boston Globe.

Right, that's the pair I remember. But Carla Fracci also did it in the early 70s and I don't remember who she was paired with. Maybe Nagy?

Alas, almost all my programs from this period are gone.

my programs show that in '76 tudor's R&J was danced both at the Met and the NYState Th.
the Met run had the following casts:
seymour & bujones
prinz & morales
then in the NYST
prinz & morales
i can't recall if makarova danced it during these runs (or later). i seem not to have a program w/ her participation, but i know she danced this rep.

I remember seeing "Undertow" around 1993 or so with Johan Renvall as the young man who is so ground down and disaffected by urban poverty that he turns into a killer. I think the story still works and it wouldn't seem dated, especially at City Center with its greater intimacy. Ethan, Angel and Herman (perhaps Sascha Radetsky too) would all be good choices for the male protagonist. That is my candidate for revival.

I imagine Julie Kent would make a lovely Juliet in the Tudor version though I have never seen this ballet.

Faux Pas

As to the matter of how these ballets can be reconstructed, the current Miami City Ballet newsletter has an article (with photo) about repetiteurs for the current season. They have already had Donald Mahler down to set Lilac Garden. He's described as having "trained under Antony Tudor and danced for the National Ballet of Canada."

Does anyone have any pesonal knowledge of Mr. Mahler's work? And what about the way that Tudor ballets are currently passed on and protected in general?

The pas de deux that led to the pillow/pregnancy in Tiller in the Fields might be worth reviving--perhaps for a gala in Tudor's honor.

Personally, I'm most curious about Echoing of Trumpets with Romeo and Juliet a close second. However, Lilac Garden is my favorite of the Tudor ballets I have seen--including one performance with Kirkland as Caroline. (I found her performance very moving.)

The Leaves Are Fading with Kirkland was, as I remember it, a transcendent experience--but from all reports the ballet has quite survived quite beautifully with other casting. I hope they do revive it for the centenary.

I would love to see the Tudor Romeo & Juliet again. I saw it many years ago with ABT. Music by Delius (correct me if I'm wrong). A subtle and beautiful ballet

Three current stagers of Tudor's ballet are Airi Hynninen, Sallie Wilson and Donald Mahler. Mr. Mahler is the ballet master of the Antony Tudor Trust and was responsible for the recent ABT revivals of "Pillar of Fire" and "Dark Elegies". I believe that Sallie Wilson was the usual regisseur for the Tudor repertoire at ABT until about a decade ago but ABT has used Mahler exclusively more recently. Sallie Wilson seems to have severed her activities with ABT. Wilson has centered her activities on the New York Theatre Ballet which is headed by Diana Byer.


http://www.villagevoice.com/dance/0322,foo...s,44421,14.html

http://www.danceviewtimes.com/dvny/aloff/2003/092903.htm

Thanks, FauxPas. The Mindy Aloff piece from DanceView Times is especially good and provocative.

It's sad that the small companies willing to commit to such works lack the resources to do so at the highest level. And that the companies that DO have these resources may fear not being able to sell the number of tickets necessary to pay the bills. Even those who don't particularly like or "get" Tudor -- and I am one, for the most part -- should value the chance to see these works done well and with sincerity, and to be able to place them in the context of ballet history and the big tent of ballet styles.

I also believe that James Jordon(Ballet Master at Kansas City Ballet) is Tudor Stager.

As a sidebarre, 2008 will also be the 100th anniversary of Jose Limon's birth. More reason to celebrate!

Would it be out of character for The Joffrey to take on some Tudor? They used to pride themselves on some of the historic repetoire... Is this too different from The Green Table? (I haven't seen the company live in a very long time).

I remember that one of the most imposing photos in the ABT souvenir book I got in 1971 (and is long gone) was of one of the principal dancers in The Moor's Pavane. Unfortunately, I don't remember which of the men was in the photo. Marcos Paredes? Royes Fernandez? Bruce Marks?

The NYPL Digital Photo Library has 1977 studio shots by Kenn Duncan of Paredes -- and Sallie Wilson -- in the work, and the earliest ABT shots listed are from 1973. The ABT website lists the cast for the 6/27/70 ABT premiere as: Bruce Marks (The Moor), Royes Fernandez (His Friend), Sally Wilson (His Friend's Wife), and Toni Lander (The Moor's Wife). ABT could revive this work, since it's part of their heritage, as are several of the Tudor ballets.

I remember finally seeing Jardin aux Lilas in the 80's, with Martine van Hamel as The Older Woman and I thought she was the highlight of the work. The first time I attended a program where this ballet was listed, and it actually wasn't replaced at the last minute, van Hamel broke her foot on her first entrance (later reported in the New York Times), was swept offstage by her partner, and the curtain came down.

Perhaps Boal will heed the anniveraries call at PNB. The Company has performed The Moor's Pavane twice in the last decade, the last time being last year, and both Jardin aux Lilacs and Dark Elegies are on the "Active Repertory" list, although I don't think either has been performed in the last 12 years.

The picture from The Moor's Pavane that has been burned into my memory for years and years is one of Sallie Wilson and Eric Bruhn. The other two dancers, I believe, were Cynthia Gregory and Ivan Nagy. That picture was worth a million words.

So, our 2008 season, aka The Tudor Centenary Celebration, is shaping up nicely with significant and new Tudor selections (with all the peripheral celebratory trimmings) and Limon's The Moor's Pavane. Also celebrating a 100th birthday will be Les Sylphides. And for the new choreography offering, perhaps someone will use a composition from 1908 - for example, Rachmaninoff Symphony #2. (I will veer from this conversation only momentarily to say that I would pay dearly to see a substantive, classical ballet set to Rachmanioff's Piano Concerto #2 on the big MET STAGE.)

I really believe that if the collective heads of ABT think creatively, they can come up with a Tudor Celebration that will be a smashing success - both artistically and from a marketing standpoint.

If you consult Google, you'll find that some sources give his birth year as 1908 -- others as 1909.

I'm hoping for 1908. Back in high school I was assigned that year as the subject of my senior European history paper. The biggest event I could find was the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina by the Austria-Hungary. After several months of ploughing through microfilms of the NY Times I became, I am cetain, the world's greatest adolescent expert on that aracane topic.

I wish I'd known about the birth of Tudor to provide a little relief from Balkan politics.

Since Tudor and Limon both taught at the Juilliard School, I'll do a variation on this theme and suggest what each man's base company should revive in 2008 as a tribute to the other man.

For the Limon Dance Company, revive Tudor's Dark Elegies from its repertory -- I've heard their performance of this work was very expressive.

For ABT's 2008 City Center season, revive The Moor's Pavane and let Marcelo Gomes have a go at The Moor.

If the ABT brass don't want to stage the Limon version of Othello so soon after staging the Lubovitch version of Othello, then pick up on Julio Bocca's experiment-in-a-void performance of Limon's solo Chaconne at the Spring 2006 Gala and turn Cornejo, Corella, etc., loose on it.

having seen the limon co. dance DARK ELEGIES off-pointe i for one would veto this being done again. i thought this modern-dance choice of soft slippers over pointeshoes quite literally flattened the full effect of tudor's careful and artful creation. to me the ballet was barely half there w/o the intended pointework.

rats.... it sounded like a very cool idea.

Julliard should sponsor a joint centenary conference on the two and host college performances of the rep.