3 months ago
This week on Bill Green's Maine, We're seeing who is Olympic bound at the Maine Winter Sports Center in Fort Kent. We'll catch up with best selling Irish author John Connolly, who makes Maine his home half of the year. And We're dancing into the holidays at the Victorian Nutcracker ballet.
This Weeks Blog From Bill:
November 21, 2009
2009-20
This wraps up a busy period for Bill Green's Maine. Four shows in four weeks is a lot, even though we were in pretty good shape scheduling wise when we started into the November ratings month.
One of the reasons is we made hay when the sun shone. We shot the first piece on the biathlon center back in late September. We had to do it then in a sense. Most of the athletes are now on the trail trying to make the Olympic team.
It's been a long strange trip since the Maine Winter Sports Center began more than ten years ago and we may be producing our first local Olympic athletes this season.
Even if a Mainer doesn't make the team, the center is the home of the US Biathlon team and several members of the team train and live in Aroostook County. It will be fun to follow their progress as the Vancouver Olympics approach. For more information on the Maine Winter Sports Center and US Biathlon, check out the following websites.
Author John Connolly may have deserved better than he got from me. It was a classic example of a reporter who had not read the books, trying to interview an author! John is a wonderful interview and carried it beautifully, having been all over the country and in several others answering questions, just as inane as mine. Now, I have read The Gates and am reading my first Charlie Parker Novel, Dark Hollow. I'd like to get another crack at John!
It's nice to meet John, whose career has already taken off, but is now going to another level. I think the interview gets across a couple of reasons I think John is successful. He's hard working and talented.
Our final story was filmed last December. The Portland Ballet's Victorian Nutcracker was beautifully choreographed and staged. It takes the classic ballet and gives it a Portland setting. In fact, it is set in the Victoria Mansion and historic characters of Portland actually appear in the ballet, replacing Tchaikovsky's characters, although the story of the Nutcracker remains the same. For more information on the Portland Ballet's Victorian Nutcracker, check out the website.
Several other ballet companies perform the Nutcracker each Christmas. The Maine State Ballet annually stages the George Ballanchine rendition of the Nutcracker. Ballanchine choreographed and premiered the Nutcracker in the 1950's. It became a sensation and has been stage annually in New York. It is this version that has played a major roll in making the Nutcracker the Christmas tradition it has become. It's artistic Director Linda Miele danced with the New York Ballet and Ballanchine. She was recently appointed repetiteur of the Ballanchine Trust. For more information on the Maine State Ballet's Nutcracker, check out the website below.
Other Maine companies staging the Nutcracker this Christmas include Bangor's Robinson ballet. They perform weekly throughout Eastern and Downeast Maine. For more info check out their website.
The Atlantic Ballet will perform in Camden on December 4th.
The Bossov Ballet will present the Nutcracker in Waterville as well
That is the complete rundown of Nutcracker Ballets throughout Maine-as far as I know!
That kicks off our Christmas season. Thanks so much for watching and have a very Happy Thanksgiving.
