It has just been announced over here that NYCB will at last be returning to London, to appear at the Coliseum in March 2008 with 4 different programmes.

Delight at the news is slightly tempered by the facts that the booking opens NEXT WEEK and the top price is £95 - about $190 at today's exchange rate. There are so far no details of what the programmes will be - surely they'll tell us before we have to book?

You can see the press release (and also details of the other companies in this spring season) at

http://www.sadlerswells.org/home/press.asp

Booking for this season has now opened, and they have got as far as telling us the titles of the four different programmes, though not their contents.

1 Balanchine
2 Robbins
3 Modern Masterpieces
4 Ballet on Broadway

1 and 2 I can work out - but could anyone make a guess about what sort of things we might expect to see in programmes 3 and 4?

I guarantee you you'll have Wheeldon and Martins on program 3. Maybe Polyphonia but it could be some newer Wheeldon.

4 is probably West Side Story Suite and Slaughter on 10th Avenue, Maybe excerpts from Double Feature by Stroman?

Program 4 might also include Wheeldon's "Carousel - A Dance".

Or the Balanchine/Gershwin Who Cares?

The four programmes have now been announced:

1. Balanchine: Serenade/Agon/Symphony in C

2. Robbins: Four Seasons/Moves/The Concert

3. Four Voices: Carousel/Sakouski/a ballet by Bigonzetti/Russian Seasons

4. Broadway: Thou Swell/Tarantella/Western Symphony/West Side Story Suite


I have mixed feelings - programme 1 is all extremely well known over here and something a bit more unusual would have been welcome; on the other hand it wil be interesting for us to see how NYCB does them (and we can compare their Serenade with the RB's, which they're doing a couple of months later). I'm very pleased we get Carousel and Russian Seasons. Any comments from NY?

I'd be interested to see what you think of Symphony in C in the same way, Jane. It all depends on casting at NYCB (the wrong dancers in the wrong movement and it's lackluster) but I'm on record about how . . . special the RB's conception of Bizet is.

Bigonzetti. Lucky you.

Why Tarantella on a Broadway program?

Well, I did rather wonder if the reason they're bringing things which are in the RB's repertory is to show us how they should be done!

This discussion raises interesting questions about just HOW and WHY a touring company selects the ballets for their international tours. Do they do any kind of market research? Is their main concern didactic, financial, the desire to do what they do best?

In case anyone's in any doubt, I'm not complaining about having to watch Serenade/Agon/Symphony in C - I just wonder why they've chosen such well known pieces. Maybe as Bart suggests the answer is 'to sell tickets'.

By the way who dances Zakouski these days? I wonder if we might get to see Hubbe in London?

I believe Spring 2008 is when Hubbe officially takes over the Royal in Copenhagen.

But it's only an hour flight away, right? You could get lucky.

So, you're not big on zetti?
(Sorry. My fingers did it of their own accord. )


I was wondering same. Because it's light -- unless you're the one dancing it?

I doubt the motive per se was to rival or show up the RB - more like, this is Balanchine's company, and we're here to display some of our signature works.

And why Thou Swell in "On Broadway"? Or anywhere?

"Anywhere?" is a good question. But if they must, and they have a Broadway-themed program (even in name only, and not content) that's where it belongs.

I guess Western Symphony is set outside the Saloon on Dodge City's Broadway.

Why not Slaughter on Tenth Avenue? Thou Swell has those ridiculously expensive costumes--I suppose they have to be worn *sometime.*

And Tarantella is the Napa Valley version which derives, no doubt, from Frank Loesser's B'way musical "Most Happy Fella".