Episode 154: New Combinations: The Naked King
City Ballet The Podcast
New Combinations Host and Associate Artistic Director Wendy Whelan is joined by Artist in Residence Alexei Ratmansky this week as the countdown to the choreographer's next world premiere—and the 500th work created on the company—continues. Commissioned by Serge Lifar in 1935, the score, by the little-known neoclassical composer Jean Françaix, adapts Hans Christian Andersen's "The Emperor's New Clothes" for the stage. Among the ballet's unique challenges was the casting of the title character, which Ratmansky shares requires a "fearless" dancer with "charisma and a sense of humor." (23:53)...
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Episode 153: New Combinations: The Wind-Up
City Ballet The Podcast
This week, New Combinations host and Associate Artistic Director Wendy Whelan is joined by Resident Choreographer Justin Peck to discuss his upcoming world premiere. As Peck describes, the work takes inspiration from the score, the first movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 3—the Eroica or "Heroic" Symphony—and celebrates the six "superheroes" of the cast. Choreographing to Beethoven presents unique challenges, but as Peck explains, this is part of why he chose the piece, along with the joy playing it brings to the NYCB Orchestra. (24:05) Edited by Emilie Silvestri Music: "Sisyphus"...
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Episode 152: Hear the Dance: Antique Epigraphs
City Ballet The Podcast
We're launching a new season of City Ballet The Podcast with an enlightening Hear the Dance conversation on Jerome Robbins' Antique Epigraphs. Host Silas Farley is joined by former NYCB dancers and original cast members Maria Calegari and Heléne Alexopoulos, and current Repertory Director Rebecca Krohn, who performed several roles in the work and now coaches today's performers. They describe learning this lyrical ballet, following the delicate Debussy score through its unique solos and romantic passages for the cast of "eight glamorous women." (49:32) Written by Silas Farley Edited by...
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Episode 151: The Rosin Box: Acting and Emotions
City Ballet The Podcast
The Rosin Box heats up this week with a lively conversation shared by hosts Claire Kretzschmar and Soloist Aarón Sanz and their guests, Principal Dancers Gilbert Bolden III and Sara Mearns. They talk about acting and emotions onstage, including their favorite roles, techniques and practices, and hilarious memories. Whether conveying the characters in a narrative ballet or achieving the appropriate expressiveness in an abstract work, the dancers describe the need for extensive preparation—and life experience—to achieve an instinctual, organic performance. As Sara relates, the "half a...
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Episode 150: The Rosin Box: Dancing with Props
City Ballet The Podcast
Listen in on another intimate conversation around The Rosin Box with host Claire Kretzschmar, joined this week by Principal Dancer Taylor Stanley. The topic is all things props, which provide essential context and character development for many of the company's story ballets and "teach you how to remain calm in the moment," as Taylor shares. From training with a professional swordsman in preparation for Romeo and Juliet, to maneuvering the candle in La Sonnambula's haunted pas de deux, Taylor describes many of the playful, challenging, and transformative props used by dancers every season....
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Episode 149: Rosin Box: Inspiration and Motivation
City Ballet The Podcast
Hosts Claire Kretzschmar and Soloist Aarón Sanz are back for another cozy conversation around The Rosin Box. This week, they're joined by Soloist Alexa Maxwell and Principal Dancer Gilbert Bolden III, who have plenty to share about inspiration and motivation, whether for their daily practice, during repetitive performance periods, amidst injuries and other challenges, and beyond. Alexa shares that it's all about the music—she's a "classical music girly"—and that she likes to bunhead out as she's learning a new role; for Gilbert, new audience members, quiet instances of beauty in his...
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Episode 148: New Combinations: Jamar Roberts
City Ballet The Podcast
Associate Artistic Director and host Wendy Whelan is back for another enlightening New Combinations conversation. This week, she's joined by choreographer Jamar Roberts, whose newest work for the company will premiere during the Fall Fashion Gala on October 8, timing he describes as "full-circle," considering his own forays into fashion design. His collaboration with designer Iris van Herpen has been uniquely fruitful, as well as his selection of music by Arca, with both informing this ballet that speaks to the times—"but dance," he adds, referring to the joy and beauty the work also...
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Episode 147: Hear the Dance: The Goldberg Variations (Part 2)
City Ballet The Podcast
In the second part of this deep dive Hear the Dance discussion of Jerome Robbins' The Goldberg Variations, host Silas Farley is joined by former NYCB Dancers and current Repertory Directors Christine Redpath and Jean-Pierre Frohlich. Redpath, an original cast member of Goldberg, digs into Robbins' approach to the creation of this remarkably multi-faceted ballet, while Frohlich remembers the adjustments the choreographer made through the ensuing performances. Both talk about coaching Goldberg on today's company members and the ways in which the work has influenced the dancemakers of today....
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Episode 146: Hear the Dance: The Goldberg Variations (Part 1)
City Ballet The Podcast
In a special two-part Hear the Dance Episode, host Silas Farley leads us on a wide-ranging discussion of Jerome Robbins' 1971 ballet The Goldberg Variations. In this first part, Farley is joined by former NYCB Dancer Bruce Wells, an original cast member, and current Principal Dancer Emilie Gerrity, one of the ballet's present-day interpreters. Wells shares the challenges Robbins faced after an injury forced him to choreograph from a wheelchair, as well as highlights from the year-long creative process. Gerrity describes the "class" section of this monumental ballet as "simple but beautiful,"...
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Episode 145: Hear the Dance: Ballade
City Ballet The Podcast
Hear the Dance host Silas Farley returns for a deep-dive discussion with former Principal Dancer Merrill Ashley and Repertory Director Glenn Keenan on George Balanchine's Ballade, a ballet returning to the NYCB stage after a hiatus of more than 20 years. Keenan shares that when she was a student at the School of American Ballet, Ashley's "humongous care and attention" as a teacher helped shape her approach to her current role, and that watching Ashley in the studio today has been both helpful and inspiring. Ashley recalls the surprise of learning that Balanchine had chosen to make this first...
info_outlineHear the Dance host Silas Farley returns for a deep-dive discussion with former Principal Dancer Merrill Ashley and Repertory Director Glenn Keenan on George Balanchine's Ballade, a ballet returning to the NYCB stage after a hiatus of more than 20 years. Keenan shares that when she was a student at the School of American Ballet, Ashley's "humongous care and attention" as a teacher helped shape her approach to her current role, and that watching Ashley in the studio today has been both helpful and inspiring. Ashley recalls the surprise of learning that Balanchine had chosen to make this first work post-heart surgery on her; as he told her then, Ballade is "like skating," though she describes it as one of the most challenging ballets she ever performed. (1:02:43)
Written by Silas Farley
Edited by Emilie Silvestri
Music:
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major (1931) by Igor Stravinsky
Ballade for piano and orchestra, Op. 19 (1881) by Gabriel Fauré
Music performed by New York City Ballet Orchestra with NYCB Solo Pianist Elaine Chelton, conducted by Hugo Fiorato
Reading List:
Dancing For Balanchine by Merrill Ashley
Mr B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century by Jennifer Homans
Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life by Jean-Michel Nectoux, Translated by Roger Nichols
Dancing Across the Atlantic: USA – Denmark, 1900-2014 by Erik Aschengreen and Grete Hvam