West Side Story Suite
A great way to keep warm and enjoy the longer evenings can be found at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts from November 8-18th. The 2007/2008 season of the National Ballet of Canada is opening with a tribute to the great American Choreographer, Jerome Robbins. A triple bill of Robbins' finest short works, Glass Pieces (1983), In the Night (1970) and West Side Story Suite (1995), all company premieres, will mark the tenth anniversary of his death.
Jerome Robbins is world renowned for his work as a choreographer of ballets as well as his work as a director and choreographer in theatre, movies and television. Although he began as a modern dancer, his start on Broadway was as a chorus dancer before joining the corps de ballet of American Ballet Theatre in 1939.
While embarking on his career in the theatre, Mr. Robbins simultaneously created ballets for New York City Ballet, which he joined in 1949, and became Co-Artistic Director with George Balanchine. Mr. Robbins directed for television and film as well, with his co-direction and choreography of West Side Story winning him two Academy Awards. After his Broadway triumph with Fiddler On the Roof in 1964, Mr. Robbins continued creating ballets for New York City Ballet.
In addition to his two Academy Awards, Mr. Robbins's awards and citations include four Tony Awards, five Donaldson Awards, two Emmy Awards, the Screen Directors' Guild Award and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. Mr. Robbins was a 1981 Kennedy Center Honors Recipient, was awarded the Commandeur de L'Order des Arts et des Lettres, was an honorary member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and was awarded a National Medal of Arts as well as the Governor's Arts Awards by the New York State Council on the Arts.
Some of his Broadway shows included On the Town, Billion Dollar Baby, High Button Shoes, West Side Story, The King and I, Gypsy, Peter Pan, Miss Liberty, Call Me Madam and Fiddler on the Roof. In 1989, Jerome Robbins's Broadway won six Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Director. He was awarded the French Chevalier dans l'Ordre National de la Legion d'Honneur. Jerome Robbins passed away in 1998.
Young readers (aged 16-29) can get $20.00 tickets to West Side Story Suite through the National Ballet's youth discount program Dancebreak
Photographs by Nancy Paiva. Image credits to the Artists of the Ballet in West Side Story Suite
Comments (2)
this image is a perfect dance photograph, technically perfect, well composed and capturing the spirit of the work. Congrats !
Triple Bill a Double Sensation.
I would like to preface my mini review by acknowledging to all an extreme prejudice towards Balanchine and Cranko as my preferred ballet creators. Jerome (real surname) Rabinowitz doesn?t do it for me. Glass Pieces was a bore. The music, courtesy of Philip Glass, did not inspire and the choreography belongs in a gym glass-Not on stage for a paying audience. To top it all off it was obvious from my view (Ring 3) that some dancers forgot their steps and/or timing. The set was a definite eyesore with the dancers showcased in front of what appeared to be a bland shower tile.
In the Night, featuring the music of Fr?d?ric Chopin, was much more appetizing for my ballet palette. I do wish the choreography would have filled the stage a tad more.
As for the cherry bomb to top off this mixed program, I?ll rate West Side Story a Double Sensation. The dancers for the NBoC can certainly silent act and dance; Songbirds they are not. They should limit singing to the privacy of their shower. Call me Simon Cowell-There were several verses which required the plugging of ears as their pipes evoked memories most undesirable of a TTC subway car screeeeeeeeeeching to a halt! I?ve seen many a musical at the Stratford & Shaw Festival as well as various theatres in Toronto and thus feel I am qualified to judge who is a double, and who is a triple sensation.
Fortunately the singing of the professional singers was much more desirable ? especially the performance of Shaw Festival sensation, Jeff Madden. It all worked: the fight scenes exploded onto the stage, Guillaume C?t? (QB of the Jets) and Piotr Stanczyk (QB of the Sharks) were suitably cool and tough, and Greta Hodgkinson plus the rest of the gals danced up a storm. That?s quite a compliment when you pause to imagine what My Fair Lady would have been like had Marni Nixon suddenly appeared to sing whiles Audrey Hepburn danced. I do believe everyone, including the musical players, were a tad too pumped up for the season opener. Yes, even the orchestra was pitchy. Indeed, sometimes less IS more.
No doubt the National will tour West Side Story out West and to the nation?s capital. I hope this isn?t the direction Mrs. K plans to take the National for the future. It barely qualifies as ballet, evokes too much Americana, and they really don?t have the pipes to indulge in Broadway musical fantasies. I had a good time entertainment wise and let?s leave it at that. Too bad the prince of cool, the late Steve McQueen, never stretched himself to be a Jet. In the meantime, get cool, stay loose, save yourself some bucks and beat it to an on-line store to buy the DVD version of West Side Story.
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