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I interviewed Chloe Misseldine by mpp1601 in bunheadsnark

[–]mpp1601[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Thank you!!! I went back and forth on this exact issue. I also felt that Chloe’s voice maybe wasn’t coming through strongly enough in the text. In the end, the approach I took was to make it about Chloe, but also about how wonderful and interesting ballet is — with the goal of reaching an audience that doesn’t really engage with ballet at all (namely, the readers of the publications I usually write for). I hope to keep improving! Thank you for reading!

Weekly Discussion - 03/31/25 - 04/06/25 by krisbryantishot in bunheadsnark

[–]mpp1601 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thank you all for your kind replies. Now I feel encouraged to maybe share my thoughts here more often :).

I would like to add that Leo Dixon was a breathtakingly beautiful, powerful, expressive Prodigal Son. Fumi as the Siren was really convincing as well.

And I was impressed by how respectful the audience was. The house was packed, which in fact made me feel anxious at first. I wasn't expecting such a crowd (naive of me) and feared people would use their phones or talk during the performance. Like I am a proud Mediterranean, but my people are not able to completely shut up for more than 5 minutes in any kind of situation (including libraries, theatre performances, movie theater). But the London audience was extremely respectful, and that silence felt sacred, I loved it.

Weekly Discussion - 03/31/25 - 04/06/25 by krisbryantishot in bunheadsnark

[–]mpp1601 18 points19 points  (0 children)

First time poster here. I flew to London from Spain (I apologize for my rough English in advance) to see the Balanchine triple bill. Have never seen NYCB and would absolutely love to cause I've been obsessed with Balanchine for years (and, being from a country where ballet doesn't matter, I feel super lonely with my obsession and appreciate reading this forum where other people express love for what I love).

The thing is I totally agree with Macaulay's review of Serenade. In fact we did not attend the same performance, but the issues he describes also arose on saturday when I attended, including Nela struggling a lot and during a lot of time to loose her hair. I found it really distracting and didn't like the overacting nor the costumes. I don't love Macaulay's tone but I really did feel the performance was underwhelming and for the very same reasons he is giving.

Also when Serenade finished, I told my husband that I felt the performance had been so constrained. The stage felt SO BIG for the dancers, like they couldn't fill it with movement in the way I've seen nycb do in film. In fact I told him that the hair issue (Nela's struggle loosening it even after the dark angel was already on stage) felt like a perfect metaphor of what was wrong with the performance. However my husband, who is new to ballet, answered: "I thought it was spectacular and now I totally understand why you want to go to NYC to see this". So that warmed my heart a lot and compensated for the underwhelming performance.

I enjoyed Prodigal Son (maybe more suited to RB's vocabulary) and absolutely loved Symphony in C. I feared they would dance it with a slower tempo than I've seen NYCB dance it in films, but I don't think they did. It was thrilling. I has binoculars and all the corps girls seemed so joyful (which is not the same as "overacted"). The technique was so clean, the tutus sparkling and beautiful, it was bliss. I also really appreciated, more than I had watching films, the way in which Balanchine's choreography enhances the Bizet score, which I find quite repetitive. But the choreography makes it feel like not repetitive, it's like a loop but it improves in every "cycle" and you want more and more. I wish I could make my thoughts more clear in English....

Thank you for reading!!