Diana Vishneva: Artist & Muse

Diana Vishneva, who has thrilled Center audiences many times, returns in Diana Vishneva: On the Edge. The brilliant dancer will perform two world premiere works choreographed especially for her by Carolyn Carlson and Jean-Christophe Maillot: Woman in a Room by Carlson and Switch by Maillot. In their respective interviews here, Carlson and Maillot discuss their collaborations with Vishneva and what to expect from these much anticipated new works. 

Woman in a Room, choreographed by National Centre for Contemporary Choreography Director Carolyn Carlson focuses on a woman reminiscing about many of her important life experiences. In Carlson’s interview, she explains how Woman in a Room is heavily inspired by Vishneva’s imagination. Carlson hopes that Woman in a Room will reveal a more personal side of this great dancer. The audiences, of course, are encouraged to interpret both the dancing and symbolism utilized in the work. 

With Switch, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo Director-Choreographer Jean-Christophe Maillot praises Vishneva’s ability to portray a personal relationships and experiences as well as a range of human emotions while dancing. Maillot’s choreographic vision is a reflection of a star’s life and her interactions with others – perhaps his interpretation of elements in Vishneva’s own life.

In both pieces, Vishneva’s talent and creative sensibilities come to life. Audiences are invited to view these revealing performance in Segerstrom Hall on November 6, 7, 9 and 10. For more information about Diana Vishneva: On the Edge, please visit www.SCFTA.org.

To enhance your experience, please join us for the free Preview Talks, one hour before each performance. 

Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev: Ballet's Power Couple

Osipova and Vasiliev. © Gene Schiavone

Gregory Wayne comments in DuJour magazine that not since Nureyev and Fonteyn have two dancers so captivated dance audiences as Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev. Wayne writes, “Now that the 2013 season is upon us, dance mavens are gathering again to witness the magic.” He is referring to Osipova and Vasiliev’s appearances in New York, but Southern California dance audiences can see them in a special program being created for them by the Center and Ardani Artists that will be performed January 24 – 26, 2014. The evening will include “The Kingdom of the Shades” scene from Petipa’s La Bayadère, Petit’s Le Jeune Homme et la mort as well as a world premiere work. As Wayne says, “The annals of millennial-era ballet have not seen a more mesmerizing duo than Ivan Vasiliev and Natalia Osipova.” Tickets to the Center’s engagement are available now through subscriptions to the 2013 – 2014 International Dance Series.

www.dujour.com/2013-06/1226/ivan-vasiliev-natalia-osipova-american-ballet-theatre 

Vasiliev in The young man, and death. © Damir Yusupov

Osipova as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. © Gene Schiavone

The Center’s 2013 – 2014 International Dance Series also includes an exclusive engagement by the incomparable Diana Vishneva, On the Edge, with all new choreography. Returning to Segerstrom Center are Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo with the American premiere of Jean-Christophe Maillot’s LAC (Swan Lake), the Hamburg Ballet performing the American premiere of John Neumeier’s award-winning production of Liliom and the always amazing Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Guest Blogger: Jean-Christophe Maillot of Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo

”There are short-cuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them.”
 – Vicki Baum

During National Dance Week (April 26 – May 5), we invited notable artistic directors, choreographers and experts for a special posting on Center Scene. Here, Choreographer-Director Jean-Christophe Maillot of Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo reflects on the complex yet enjoyable nature of narrative dance forms. Segerstrom Center will present Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo dancing their production of LAC (Swan Lake) March 6 - 9, 2014 as part of our International Dance Series. 

LAC (Swan Lake) by Jean-Christophe Maillot Ballets © Laurent Philippe

By Jean-Christophe Maillot
Choreographer-Director, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo
www.BalletsdeMonteCarlo.com

One could believe that the narrative ballet, in case it’s telling the story, would bring the audience from the point A to the point B, on contrary of so called abstract ballet that stays open to all the possible interpretations. It has been now 30 years that I experiment the narration in my pieces and finally things don’t seem so simple. For example I am not sure that all the people in the audience arrive to the same conclusion at the end of my performances. The point B is obviously not the same for everyone. So we could ask ourselves if the narration is a support for the comprehension or ... on contrary, as I think, a walking stick to venture off the beaten tracks. Inversely, the intrusions that I allow myself in the more abstract forms are not necessarily difficult to understand. 

Cendrillon by Jean-Christophe Maillot © Marie-Laure Briane

Certain movements talk by themselves, starting up simultaneous emotion in spectators. The reason for this is that we all have a body and in a certain way we are « already always » connected with what the dancer is doing on stage. If he jumps, if he curls up, or shakes, our body feels in its flesh what is happening and the sensations are more direct than through the story. 

It happens that Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo return today to the Segerstrom Center for the Arts to present LAC (Swan Lake). It is a narrative piece that confronts us with uneasy characters, filled with the contradictory desires that are conspiring against each other. The narration in this case complicates things but unveils more and lets everyone to the self-interrogation until the point they choose to reach. This is why I love narration. Because it cures us of the environment where the messages and codes are simplified to the extreme in order to satisfy populist stakes.

Guest Blogger: Boris Eifman of Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg

“You have to love dancing to stick to it. 
It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, 
no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, 
no poems to be printed and sold, 
nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive.”

– Merce Cunningham

CELEBRATE NATIONAL DANCE WEEK 
April 26 – May 5 
Join us during National Dance Week for new postings in Center Scene by noted artistic directors, choreographers and experts. 

Boris Eifman's Onegin © Valentin Baranovsky

Boris Eifman

By Boris Eifman
Artistic Director, Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg
www.EifmanBallet.ru

The language of body is one of the most ancient. It fixed the memory of sensual life of our ancestors’ many generations, making dance a unique way to express the emotional world of the human. With plastic, feelings, movements of human nature and the most complex intellectual and philosophical ideas cannot be displayed. So, in the artist’s hands, dance is a very delicate tool that can be used as a means to cognize the secrets of being. 

Boris Eifman's Onegin © Gene Schiavone

I have been engaged in the development of human body’s expressiveness for many decades, using it to investigate the individual’s inner and mental world. One of the most important creative tasks for me is to restore the lines that always united the ballet and psychological theatre, but were lost in the 20th century, an era of choreographic abstraction. Psychology must be inherent not only in drama, but also in dance. Keeping this fundamental approach, I create major ballet performances that are distinguished by acute intensity of emotions, serious dramatic basis and deep philosophical content. Coming to our ballets, the spectator finds the most important thing – catharsis, a powerful emotional shock that cleanses the soul. The concealed, true magic of art is expressed with similar impact. 

Dance is a universal language of spiritual communication, rejecting cultural, national or any other barriers. Reflecting on the eternal themes of freedom, love, human passions, our company performs with equal success in America, Asia, Europe, and Australia and constantly evokes in hearts of the audience the most vivid emotional response. I am delighted that, owing to the support of Ardani Artists Management and direction of Segerstrom Center for the Arts our theatre has an opportunity to perform its art on this excellent modern stage for interested and appreciative audience in America, every meeting with which becomes truly memorable for us. 

Boris Eifman's Russian Hamlet 

Celebrate National Dance Week April 26 - May 5

 “We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.” 

–  Friedrich Nietzsche 

During National Dance Week, the Center will post a special Center Scene entry from a noted artistic director, choreographer or expert. 

Diana Vishneva as Giselle © M. Logvinov

The Pointe of Dance
By Elizabeth Kaye
Author of American Ballet Theatre: A Twenty-Five Year Retrospective 
Ms. Kaye will conduct many of the Center’s preview talks prior to performances in the International Dance Season. She will be the guest speaker for the Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg May 3, 4 5 in Segerstrom Hall.  

Curiously enough, no one knows precisely how the pointe shoe came into being. What is known is that, on March 12, 1832, the pointe shoe transformed ballet when Marie Taglioni, dancing the Sylph in La Sylphide, rose to her toes and floated across the Paris Opera’s stage, enchanting an audience that had never seen such a wondrous, exquisite and mystical creature. 

Until that night, ballet was dominated by men, whose good fortune it was to dance in tunics and tights that freed them to leap and swirl, while women were encumbered by massive headdresses and skirts, corsets and shoes with heels. 

This changed in the early 19th century when the public’s preoccupation with the supernatural permeated ballet and led, in turn, to its Romantic era. The great Romantic ballets – La Sylphide, Giselle and Ondine – told of mortal men who fall tragically in love with gossamer, supernal females. 

LAC  (after Swan Lake) by Jean-Christophe Maillot
© Angela Sterling

To portray such delicate beings the pointe shoe was essential, for it allowed a ballerina to move in ways that endowed her with an otherworldly aspect and transformed her into an extraordinary amalgam of woman and goddess, sprite and spirit. Such a dainty creature required feather light attire, so heavy, floor-length costumes were abandoned in favor of skirts contrived from graceful layers of tulle that fell just to the calf, thus revealing, and highlighting, the arching beauty of dancing feet. 

Taglioni, all air and light, made an art of this new way of dancing; she took what could have seemed no more than a trick, and made it a style. As a result, the cult of the ballerina was born; ballerinas became ballet’s dominant force and were worshipped. Taglioni’s own followers were so fanatic that they ritually boiled her pointe shoes, cut them up, and ate them! 

Billy Elliot: More Than Ballet

Billy Elliot The Musical is the story of a young boy who aspires to a career in ballet, but people are often surprised that the show also encompasses tap, hip hop, jazz, acrobatics and folk dancing. Even walking becomes a form of expression. 

The diversity was very deliberate. Said choreographer Peter Darling, “I didn’t want to convey the notion that only one form of movement is of value. I wanted to use as many different forms of movement as possible. We’re celebrating dance; dance is worthy of celebration and all forms of dance can tell a narrative.” 

Darling infused the ballet choreography with contemporary movement, steps that would contradict traditional classical dance. When Billy auditions for The Royal Ballet in the number “Electricity,” the ballet he performs includes street dance, hip hop and acrobatics. “The idea is that The Royal Ballet is looking for young dancers with potential, who are phenomenal movers,” says Darling. “And Billy shows that he’s a phenomenal mover who can also turn three pirouettes. Ballet can be one of the most thrilling things you’ll ever see, because of the amount of training, technique, and strength required to do it. The training enables the body to do things that are phenomenally difficult. You’re able to travel through the air. It’s got a great freedom to it.” 

To learn more about Billy Elliot The Musical, please visit SCFTA.org. 

2013 - 2014 Season Announcement

The Center is proud to announce its 2013 – 2014 Season, featuring the very best in performing arts across dance, Broadway, jazz, cabaret, classical music, enriching family entertainment and more.

Information for renewing season ticket holders for the upcoming season will be sent to current subscribers, with new priority order for new season tickets available soon. Single tickets will go on sale approximately six weeks prior to individual engagements.

For more information and detailed descriptions, please click the respective series titles or visit SCFTA.org.

International Dance Series

• Diana Vishneva: On the Edge (November 6, 7, 9 & 10, 2013)

• Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev (January 24 – 26, 2014)
• Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo: Swan Lake (February 27 – March 2, 2014)
• Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (March 27 – 30, 2014)


Broadway Series

• EVITA (December 10 – 22, 2013)

• The Wizard of Oz (February 11 – 23, 2014)
• The Book of Mormon (May 13 – 25, 2014)
• Jersey Boys (June 24 – July 13, 2014)
• Ghost The Musical (July 22 – August 3, 2014)
• ONCE (August 19 – 31, 2014)


Curtain Call Series
• Priscilla Queen of the Desert (October 22 – 27, 2013)
• CHICAGO (January 28 – February 2, 2014)
• I Love Lucy® Live On Stage (March 18 – 23, 2014)


Special Bonus Productions






• Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (January 14 – 19, 2014)
• Mamma Mia! (April 8 – 13, 2014)


Jazz Series

• Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club® featuring Omara Portuondo, Eliades Ochoa, Guajiro Mirabal & Barbarito Torres with special guest Roberto Fonseca (September 17, 2013)

• ACS: Geri Allen, Terri Lyne Carrington and Esperanza Spalding (October 25 & 26, 2013)
• McCoy Tyner and Joe Lovano (December 13 & 14, 2013)
• Dr. Lonnie Smith (February 21 & 22, 2014)
• Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Wynton Marsalis (March 14, 2014)
• Fred Hersch Trio (May 2 & 3, 2014)


Cabaret Series 
• Bernadette Peters (October 11, 2013)
• Marilyn Maye and Clint Holmes (November 14 – 16, 2013)
• Peter Gallagher (February 13 – 15, 2014)
• Patti LuPone (March 22, 2014)
• Jimmy Webb and Maureen McGovern (April 11- 13, 2014)


Concert Series

• Pacifica Quartet with Marc-André Hamelin (November 12, 2013)

• Jeffrey Kahane, Joseph Swensen and Carter Brey (December 12, 2013)
• Emerson String Quartet (January 10, 2014)
• St. Lawrence String Quartet (February 20, 2014)
• Philharmonia Baroque Chamber Players (March 16, 2014)


Family: Discovery Series
• The Okee Dokee Brothers (December 7 & 8, 2013)
• Still Awake Still! (February 8 & 9, 2014)
• Cre8tion: Fluff (April 5 & 6, 2014)
• Bristol Riverside Theatre: The Little Prince (April 26 & 27, 2014)
• Lightwire Theater: The Ugly Duckling and The Tortoise and The Hare (May 17 & 18, 2014)


Family: Explorer Series

• Perth Theatre Company: The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer (October 18 – 20, 2013)

• The Intergalactic Nemesis Book Two: Robot Planet Rising (November 9 & 10, 2013)
• Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (January 17 – 19, 2014) – Explorer Series subscribers have a unique and special opportunity to see the full production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast in Segerstrom Hall as a part of their subscription package.


Opera Series






• LA OPERA In Concert: Falstaff (November 26, 2013)
• LA OPERA In Concert: Thaïs (May 27, 2014) – previously announced for May 22, 2014

Rodin Acclaimed in Russia!

© Gene Schiavone

© Gene Schiavone

News from Russia: Boris Eifman's new ballet Rodin has been nominated for four prestigious Golden Mask Awards. This is Russia's most coveted award for the arts and Rodin was nominated for Best Ballet, Best Choreography – Boris Eifman, Best Dancer – Oleg Gabyshev and Best Ballerina – Lyubov Andreeva. Center audiences will have the chance to see Rodin in its West Coast premiere May 3-5 as part of the International Dance Series. Segerstrom Center itself won a Golden Mask in 2007 when Diana Vishneva: Beauty in Motion garnered three.