Barnett Serchuk - Page 11

2012 did not bring the two works I've been anticipating for years: choreography to Schubert's Fifth Symphony and Haydn's Symphony no. 100, also known as the Military. I'll probably never get to see them but since it's the end of 2012 I can keep dreaming. Every year I read about choreographers and dance companies commissioning new music from conservatories, graduate schools or established composers. Sometimes (but rarely) it's good, most times forgettable (I am sure that I hear rumblings already.) So I'm putting in my two cents for Schubert and Haydn, both of whom have had works choreographed to their music, but not my particular symphonies.

There are a million of them. I picked a few that I thought would be of interest to both dance fans and non dance fans alike. The most interesting is the reconstruction of the original SLEEPING BEAUTY ballet. Let us know if you'd like to know about more dance films on Youtibe. And they're free!!!

As we approach the end of 2012 Broadway Dance World would like to pay tribute to those who passed away this year. Besides dancers they were teachers, musicians, scene designers, composers, administrators, writers, producers, scene designers and board members. Some were very prominent, others had fleeting careers. It does not make a difference. They gave of themselves and for that alone we owe them our gratitude.

For many dance enthusiasts the question persists: do we need another book unearthing more about George Balanchine or Jerome Robbins? Barbara Bocher answers that question in her memoir The Cage, named after one of Robbins' most noted ballets. If any ballet could serve as a metaphor for her brief career, The Cage would certainly be it.

2012 marked the passing of Yvonne Mounsey at the age of 93, a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet and the founder of the Westside School of Ballet in Santa Monica, probably one of the finest dancing institutions in the United States.

What I would like to see in the coming year is the creation of new dance works that will take a place on the universal choreographic stage. I don't mean a novelty created for one season that disappears quickly into the annals of dance books. I want a creation that spans the decades. when I consider those universal works and the ones of which I'd like to see more, my thoughts go immediately to George Balanchine's Serenade, a piece that has been with us for almost 80 years.