Columbia program breaks the ballet barrier, but not the bank

For Columbia students who want to see ballet, but don’t want to drain their bank accounts, CU Arts and New York City Ballet have collaborated to make ballet performances more accessible and affordable for students.

Students may now participate in the “Columbia Thursdays at NYCB” program, whereby students may buy discounted tickets. There is also one performance every season called “Columbia Night,” during which there is often a reception during intermission or an opportunity to speak with a choreographer. This year’s “Columbia Night” performance will be “Swan Lake,” performed on Feb. 11.

This series at NYCB has grown out of a Columbia Alumni Arts League initiative, which three years ago worked with NYCB to begin a similar program for alumni. Now, NYCB’s discounted performances are available to all members of the Columbia community.

Malwina Lys-Dobradin, Columbia’s Arts Initiative’s Manager of Alumni Relations and Development, said that these programs have been organized, in part, to make ballet more accessible to those who may not know as much about the art form by engaging students, alumni, and faculty in what she described as a “more social” environment. Karen Girty, NYCB’s marketing director, agreed, and said that Columbia students “have a propensity for the arts to begin with,” and that the goal of programs like these is to expose students to ballet.

When asked about the formation of the relationship between the Arts Initiative and NYCB for these programs, Eleanor Milburn, who works with Lys-Dobrabin, said that this ballet company is “one of the great cultural organizations” in New York. NYCB is different from other ballet companies in that it “focuses on the Balanchine choreography and has repertoire different from just the classics,” she said.

This season, though, is a bit of an anomaly for NYCB. While the company usually presents programs that include two or three one-act ballets by Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and other contemporary choreographers, the 2010 season includes many full-length story ballets, such as “Romeo + Juliet,” “Sleeping Beauty,” and “Swan Lake.”

At the most recent “Columbia Thursday,” NYCB performed “Romeo + Juliet.” It was, unfortunately, not one of the better dance interpretations of Shakespeare’s tragedy. Kenneth MacMillan’s version, for instance, which is in the American Ballet Theatre’s repertoire, is more tightly choreographed and full of life. Martins’ choreography relies too much on repetitive partnering—there is a lot of spinning in Romeo and Juliet’s pas de deux—and he forgets to let his characters live and love joyously while they still can. In the famous balcony scene, for example, a point during which the title characters ought to be marvelously alive, Romeo carries Juliet draped over his shoulder as if she is already dead.

Still, the dancers performing the title roles, Robert Fairchild and Kathryn Morgan, danced their parts with grace and poise. And there are many exciting ballets in the season to come. Barnard senior Judy Estey, a dance major, says that she has already seen Balanchine’s “Jewels” twice, and is eager to see it again. The Arts Initiative’s collaboration with NYCB may just encourage students new to ballet to see “Jewels,” and other ballets, for the first time.