 |
 |
|
|
|
|||
|
|||
 |
|||
Corresponding Gotlieb Center exhibition
Boston Ballet artistic director Nissinen to discuss future of dance
By Brian Fitzgerald
|
|
Mikko Nissinen |
|
|
|
Last year, the Boston arts world mourned the Wang Center’s eviction of the Boston Ballet’s The Nutcracker — until critics saw Mikko Nissinen’s updated version at the Colonial Theatre and hailed it as fresh and more intimate.
Nissinen, the dance legend widely credited with helping the Boston Ballet Company leap to new heights during his four years as artistic director, will discuss the future of ballet and his vision for the company at the Tsai Performance Center on February 23. The evening, sponsored by the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, will feature a talk by Nissinen and a performance by Boston Ballet dancers of selections from the company’s spring repertory program Falling Angels.
In conjunction with the event, the Gotlieb Center will present Invitation to the Dance, an exhibition of personal papers and memorabilia from some of the 20th-century dance greats collected by the center. The exhibition will be on view at Mugar Memorial Library beginning February 24.
|
|
The Gotlieb Center’s exhibition Invitation to the Dance will include this photo of Gene Kelly (right) doing a soft shoe with Frank Sinatra at the 1948 Press Photographers’ Ball. Photos courtesy of Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center |
|
|
|
“We wanted to bring Mikko’s vibrant energy here to Boston University,” says Vita Paladino, managing director of the Gotlieb Center. “His enthusiasm and passion for dance is infectious and has revitalized the Boston Ballet. Our students should be aware of the company, this important time in its history and in the development of dance today.” Nissinen’s discussion, along with the exhibition, is part of the Gotlieb Center’s student enrichment series.
As artistic director, Nissinen has brought major choreographers to the Boston Ballet, including Jorma Elo and Lucinda Childs. In 2001, the native of Finland scored a major coup by persuading Peter Martins, the Danish ballet master in chief of the New York City Ballet, to choreograph a work for the Boston Ballet. Nissinen felt that the result, Balanchine Martins Balanchine — a tribute to legendary choreographer George Balanchine — fulfilled his goal of energizing and modernizing the company. Paladino says the collaboration was remarkable because of Martins’ reputation for being distant. “Many artistic directors have asked Martins to write a piece for their ballet company, and they were unsuccessful,” she says. “But Mikko Nissinen was able to get him to stage a commission. It was part of his effort to contemporize the Boston Ballet.”
|
|
Among the Gotlieb Center’s dance memorabilia is a photo of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers performing the musical number “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” from the 1937 film Shall We Dance. |
|
|
|
The related exhibition at Mugar Library will showcase a collection of photographs, correspondence, and memorabilia from the collections of film stars Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, English ballerina Dame Alicia Markova, director-choreographer Herbert Ross and his first wife, ballerina Nora Kaye, and others.
“We will display photographs of Markova from the beginning of her career, when she was hired at the age of 14 by Sergei Diaghilev’s company Ballet Russe,” says exhibitions coordinator Perry Barton. “We also have programs from her performances, sheet music, and books from her library.”
The Gotlieb Center’s Herbert Ross collection includes pages of the script of 1977’s The Turning Point, a story of the ballet world that Kaye produced and that did unexpectedly well at the box office. “We have photos from the movie, including those of Mikhail Baryshnikov in his American film debut,” Barton says.
Of particular interest, he says, is a series of letters from Romola Nijinsky, wife of Russian dancer and choreographer Vaclav Nijinsky — living in exile in post–World War II divided Vienna — to Colonel William P. Yarborough, provost marshal for the American Zone, seeking help and refuge for her ailing husband.
“We believe that the center should bring to the University individuals who can enrich students and serve as role models,” says Paladino.
Invitation to the Dance: An Evening with Boston Ballet Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen, moderated by UNI Director Bruce Redford, is at 7 p.m. Wednesday, February 23, and is free and open to all students, faculty, staff, and friends of BU and the Boston Ballet. Although free, tickets are required; contact the Tsai Performance Center at 617-353-8725. In addition, the Boston Ballet is offering tickets for its spring program Falling Angels at the Wang Center to the BU community at a reduced price of $15.
11
February 2005
Boston University
Office of University Relations