Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Perfection is said to be in the eye of the beholder.
But artists look at what they create before the audience does, and the folks at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre are confident that 'The Sleeping Beauty' is a perfect way to celebrate the opening of its 40th-anniversary season."
10 comments:
Last night, a group of us went to see this production of Sleeping Beauty, and for many of us it was our first experience at a ballet. I truly enjoyed the experience, or most of it. The music Tsachofsky (not spelled right) composed for this ballet tells a powerful story, and propels the ballet along. Every character has their own theme, strongly contributing to the ability of the audience to understand the ballet. The entire story falls, i feel, into the two middle (of four) acts of this ballet, so the first and last act seemed long and unnecessary- this may be a convention of ballet which i do not understand, but it lost me. Overall, seeing this performance was an eye opening experience into another form of theatrical entertainment. The pittsburgh ballet pulled it off wonderfully.
I pretty much grew up around this story. This story has been in my life for quite some time. I've always been drawn to ballet, and I have yet to see a Pittsburgh ballet show. From the sounds of it this season was really thoughtfully put together. Like Mr. Kanny said, this show will definitely draw in a range of audiences, from the older, more seasoned members of the community, to smaller children seeing another version of their favorite story, to even a bunch of eager college students. I'm hoping that I get to see this piece, as well as the other shows in the Pittsburgh Ballet Company's season this year.
They did pick a number of pieces that have a great reputation to them, but they are using a lot of Tchaikovsky. Don't get me wrong, he was a phenomenal composer, he put out beautiful work, but I'm worried that there isn't a ton of variation. I wonder if the board considered this when choosing the season, and what there reasoning was around this choice.
I have also already seen this production and for me it was a first time experience. I have never been to the ballet, and it was a rather mixed experience. I thought the show itself was absolutely beautiful and the dancing was superb. However, after about ten minutes the music seemed, though beautiful, very repetitive, as was the dancing. I guess that's just a part of dance, there's not that much plot being told which is what i'm used to. Still, I thought the show was beautiful. I just wish under the polished, pretty surface there had been something a little more.
i wish i had gone to see this production, but it makes me wonder how good it was when the article starts with the phrase "Perfection is said to be in the eye of the beholder.". that made me think this was going to be a bad review, seeing as one of my friends said that at times it was boring.
i recently saw a movie about ballet and it looks really intense. The thing i love about ballets is how graceful the dancers are. i hope to catch a ballet soon in the future.
Saw this the other night, after doing a research project on the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater for Susan Tsu's class. Have to say I was dissapointed. I am not an expert in ballet or dance of any form but it was long and tedious. I expected it to be exciting and to read this article saying it can be "long" but parts were cut, is kind of eye opening. Now I am sure to the dancers and patrons of dance it was exciting, but it was not something that excited me. IT was great to see a different form of art presented but it was just to long for me. To classical. I am looking for something new.
I went to see Sleeping Beauty the other night, and I thought that it was very well performed. However, in order to enjoy ballet, you kind of need to have the patience for it, because the third act was very long. Instead of being chiefly about plot, the ballet emphasizes the emotions and reactions of the characters through dance, and while it is very beautiful and the performers are excellent, it can get slightly redundant after a while, particularly in the third act of Sleeping Beauty. Nevertheless, I thought that the ballet was very well done.
I love this ballet, I think it was a completely appropriate choice for the opening season. One of the reasonshat I like the show is that it lets all the dancers showcase many of their talents. Also, I love he story and it is so beautifully put together. In further reading of the article I found it really refreshing to hear that Orr listens and takes into account what the dancers themselves have to say about their parts or ideas they have. Because I is good to have an open mind, since some directors can only see their way and it doesnt benefit the overall look of the show
I also went to see sleeping Beauty, and I wasn't really blown away. While the dancing was, at times, wonderful, the general meaning behind the story was lost. Even if I don't talk about the lack of plot, they didn't capture any of the feeling behind the story. The principle dances were amazing though. Aurora was absolutely superb--standing on point for almost 10 minutes, mostly without support. And The evil fairy was wonderful as well. But, I wish more attention had been payed to the corps de ballet. They made several (small) mistakes, and were never in sync with each other. Not to mention 2 male soloists who almost fell over while landing the same jump. I think the show could have benefitted from more rehearsals, and a judicious eye editing the script.
My last experience at the ballet was at the Pittsburgh Festival of Firsts' production of "Radio and Juliet" last year. The production combined the fast paced music of Radiohead with ballet movements only sped up. The mixture of modern music and classical dance forms created a unique art form. I would love to see a similar approach to "Sleeping Beauty". Perhaps a more innovative approach would add interest and prevent the story from falling short in the middle. And from the comments I see on this post, it appears that their is significant interest for a modernized twist on classical ballet.
I think that ballet should be advertised more among the school of drama. I knew about the upcoming season, but a lot of my colleagues didn't. We get so many emails about plays and musicals which is great, but I feel the dance aspect of entertainment is sometimes lost to us. I think that seeing more ballet could help every option. They can look at the different aspects of dancing as compared to vocally performing and let it inform their performances more. Also the design for ballets is quite breathtaking and I would love to see more of it.
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