Drew

Smirnova has not been denied a visa at any time since 2022. She and her partner were denied visas to dance at a YAGP gala back in 2018 because--at least according to the state department-- YAGP applied for the wrong kind of visa. (At the time many of us though this was silly and were quick to assume Trumpian craziness.) It is extremely unfortunate that a misunderstanding concerning Smirnova has been perpetuated by our discussion here. Edited to add: I see that @volcanohunter addressed the 2018 visa denial above giving more background as to the issues. .

The issue raised in the assemblyman's letter is not Russian nationality but institutional affiliation with the Mariinsky whose head is a very close ally of Putin. I find it less problematic for someone to be banned for that reason than for someone to be banned on basis of nationality or even citizenship. Akhmetshina is not listed on the Mariinsky's website or on the Bolshoi's--she is not a member of those companies. In fact, according to an interview in Vogue, after one competition in Moscow her entire career has been in the West. In any case, there is no Russian institutional affiliation that links her to the likes of Gergiev, nor has she been through the ideological machinery that sends artists to perform in the Crimea. [Ballet fans may be intrigued to learn that, like Nureyev, Akhmetshina is from Ufa. She even specifies in the Vogue interview that "I am from the Republic of Bashkortostan in Russia..." and in another (12/31/2023 NYTimes) that she is half Tatar and half Bakshir --so shades of Nureyev there too.] Whatever the personal situation or political stance (if any) of Khoreva, Kim, and Nagahisa they "represent" a major Russian institution closely tied not just to the Russian state but to Putin personally. Akmetshina does not. One might argue that the situation does not merit banishing them from American stages; on the other side, I suppose some might argue that even Akmetshina should be banished. But I feel I understand the difference between the cases. (And, all that said, it also wouldn't surprise me to learn that there are inconsistencies in how companies and theaters go about addressing this issue, and any one controversy may have spillover effects to other situations.) YAGP seems to have though they could open a little chink in the balletic iron curtain and ride out the controversy, but the Koch theater is technically owned by New York State and gets money from them, so it's no great shocker the theater caved in once the issue was raised in Albany. I say, "the theater" because Khoreva's Instagram says the theater cancelled the appearance . But who knows how this played out. She herself probably doesn't. I am inclined to think that the original invitation to the Mariinsky dancers was insufficiently thought through. I don't think this is just 20/20 hindsight on my part because...well...when I saw their names listed for the gala I was very surprised. When I saw the appearances had been cancelled, much less surprised. I can imagine what YAGP might have been thinking (I edited this post to get rid of those speculations) but in any case, for the current context, they were mistaken....

I had been surprised to see Kimin Kim, May Nagahisa, and Maria Khoreva scheduled for the YAGP gala in New York. According to Khoreva's instagram the Koch theater has canceled their appearance, so I guess I wasn't the only one caught by surprise. I have many questions about what happened and why, but my first three or four would be for YAGP -- which got a lot of (deserved) positive publicity for helping many young Ukrainian pre-professional dancers at the start of the war. https://www.instagram.com/p/C57MVRFO2U_/

Stricken today as I learn of Maurizio Pollini's death. I haven't attended many great piano recitals--certainly not since childhood (Horowitz repeatedly and Rubinstein once--sitting on the stage, but these were all my mother's doing). One that I did attend as an adult was given by Pollini at Carnegie Hall in the 90s. By the time I learned about it, the day had arrived and the concert was long since sold out. I somehow felt compelled to rush to the theater to see if I could get in. (I mostly reserve this kind of impulse for ballet.) And I did get in. I haven't been able to confirm exactly what the program was, but my memory is that it offered something an education for the ears--Chopin to Liszt to Boulez--so that by the time you got to the Boulez you had been, in a sense, aurally prepared for it. Anyway - it was an enthralling performance! May he rest in peace...

Goodness--I also was thinking of Dowell!!! For sheer beauty of movement I still find him unequaled among male dancers I have seen. (A remarkable actor in certain roles, too, so I wasn't sure how my image of him fit with the discussion. But certainly not a flamboyant actor.)

I thought Fang was excellent as Mama Elena in Like Water for Chocolate just this past summer. I'd be happy to see her name on the program in future. In any case, retirements can't be expected to solve deeper structural problems: ABT needs to be dancing much more. Until that lack of performing time is solved--more weeks in New York and/or more touring time--everything else seems something of a stop gap. The programming for the summer is disappointing...

Welcome to Ballet Alert @alynedamas. According to the Petipa Society website created by Amy Growcott the ballet was not preserved except, via notation, for one variation: "The Pearl was performed often throughout the early 1900s and was given its final performance in 1910, after which, it fell into obscurity. Only one variation from The Pearl was notated in the Stepanov notation method and this variation is part of the Sergeyev Collection....The only number from Drigo’s score that is used today is a pizzicato variation, which is used by Yuri Burlaka in his Rose Pas de quatre as the variation for the goddess, Aurora." Here is a link to the website's entry on the ballet--It does not include the scholarly sources for the entry. You can also find a bit of information on the website itself about its creator. (I apologize if this website was already known to you, but from your question I thought perhaps it was not.) https://petipasociety.com/the-pearl/

Congratulations to her-- A wonderful ballerina!

A news feature in ArtsAtl that I had missed mentions that the Balanchine/Danilova Coppelia next season in Atlanta will use Pacific Northwest Ballet's production--ie not the Ter Arutunian designs used by NYCB. The PNB sets and costumes are by Roberta Guido di Bagno. I looked at a bit of video of the PNB production on youtube and if the Act I and Act III costumes for Swanilda are anything to go by, then it should be a gorgeous production. I will look up what PNB threads on the production have had to say about it on this site, but in the meanwhile, here is a link to the ArtsAtlanta piece about the new season: https://www.artsatl.org/news-atlanta-ballets-2024-25-season-to-include-coppelia-three-world-premieres/?fbclid=IwAR0Jd8uuAAL9Xi6LWJ6cb0kF6y8D_bmTSr1geOgh9Ov0DoOX18s6gPuRI44

Atlanta Ballet has announced plans for the 2024-25 season. For me the two most compelling programs are also, happily, two programs that will be accompanied by the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra. The best of the news is that the company will be dancing the Balanchine/Danilova Coppelia in March. (On the announcement it says the choreography is by Balanchine, but I assume that this is the Balanchine/Danilova version NYCB dances which they also call "after Petipa" on their website.) Coppelia is one of my favorite ballets and it has one of my favorite ballet scores. I LOVE this production and, being as 'objective' as I can, I will say, too, that Coppelia is an ideal choice for the company and its school. (I should say that Atlanta Ballet has danced a version of Coppelia before--according to the season announcement that was over 20 years ago. I never saw it.) Their February program is the other program that will have a live orchestra: it will offer the world premier of a new version of the Rite of Spring choreographed by the company's choreographer in residence, Claudia Schreier, alongside Helgi Tomasson's 7 for Eight, which the company has danced previously. I was a little bemused by the timing because their February program is often advertised as something appropriate for Valentine's day--sometimes with special Valentine's-themed offers included--and Rite of Spring is not exactly a champagne and roses kind of work. However....Saint Valentine was violently martyred, so maybe it fits after all.😉. The season will also see world premiers by Kyon Ross and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. Both choreographers the company has danced before. Notably, the Lopez Ochoa premier comes in the wake of the company dancing her full-length Chanel Ballet, a "world premier" co-produced with other companies and actually first danced by Hong Kong Ballet. I'm pleased to see this kind of continuing collaboration with such a prominent choreographer. The season will also see a return of Liam Scarlett's Catch. The latter was created for Atlanta Ballet in 2019--according to the publicity at the time, it was created in something of a rush and when I saw the ballet the weekend it premiered that is exactly what it looked like. I'm hoping that the revival allows for enough rehearsal that one can better determine what the ballet actually has to offer--and how (or whether) it fills out Scarlett's oeuvre. For me, though,next season's headline is Coppelia...and the two main sub-headlines are the premiers by Schreier and Lopez Ochoa.

I am migraine prone and have difficulties at altitude, which has kept my Vail fantasies in check. But maybe see if your doctors would 'pre' prescribe for you some headache meds suitable for migraine and also nausea. (Not opioids or anything addictive of that kind--but there are drugs that work better for Migraine and related Nausea than what's available without a prescription. Since I'm not a Doctor I don't want to list drug options for another person, but you could ask your doctor and likely s/he will have ideas.) I do hope you are able to go and have a great time! I have often thought about it.

No video can convey the excitement and impact of a world-class live ballet performance. It was great to read @balletlover08 's review which helped to convey that excitement and impact--I hope many more live performances are in your future. I don't get to see many such performances these days, but I'm older and over the course of a lifetime have a seen a lot, so I shouldn't complain. And I'm also a fan of the Kennedy Center. And thanks to everyone who has been writing about the performances of all the casts!

if Goecke is a choreographer loved by directors and dancers and "all the other German dance critics" as you describe, then rather obviously one critic's attack on his work had not damaged his career in any fundamental way. His ability to choreograph and develop his art was not suffering. In fact, if Goecke's work is as widely admired as you report, then his physical attack on this one critic seems all the more childish and misogynistic --and would make me a little wary of trusting him not to explode similarly in other situations. Hüster's writings are not the issue. I do read German--and there is Google translate to help when I hit a roadblock. When the attack happened, I made a point of checking out some of her reviews --out of curiosity, not because I thought that anything she wrote could justify Goecke's appalling response. She could be biting. But I've seen as bad and worse on multiple occasions in the New York Times and even the New York Observer. She is not the first biting critic in the history of ballet -- and he is not the first artist to be on the receiving end of such criticism. (Ask William Forsythe, ask Wendy Whelan, ask Ed Watson; heck, in the New Yorker Croce once referred to the Bejart repertory as "diseased." Goecke can get in line.) I also read Goecke's own statement about why he did what he did and it was shocking to me. What he called his "deep apology" was immediately followed by pompous declarations of his philosophical intent ("to start a conversation...") and continued vituperation against his victim. When you are still blaming your victim, then you are not making an apology at all, but giving excuses under the disguise of an apology. And once you attack someone physically you have put an end to any possibility of conversation. Of course he didn't want to converse with her--he wanted to degrade and humiliate her. (My quotes are from a New York Times article from February 16, 2023.) I believe strongly in second chances and comebacks when people make missteps at work or in their private lives--even some very bad ones. Nor do I think such chances should be dictated by someone's gifts as an artist: the same compassion should be shown to all. That said, in a case of this kind, it's not enough to just forgive and forget, no matter the seriousness of the actions involved and without some reckoning. Had Goecke shown genuine remorse, made genuine amends, and faced some serious consequences, then I might better understand the willingness to bring him back into the dance/ballet fold --even if I personally don't agree that such physical violence should be quite so quickly overlooked. But I haven't seen such a reckoning. He lost some work, but still continues to have his ballets staged regularly even though this all happened barely more than a year ago. As for genuine remorse? genuine amends? or a period away from the stage to take stock of why he lost control (that is, take stock without blaming his victim)? I haven't seen or heard anything like that.

What a fabulous quote!

There is a whole miniseries on Apple TV + entirely devoted to Chanel vs. Dior called The New Look--I've only seen the trailer, but I'm guessing a series called The New Look must be team Dior. The whole idea of the two designers as, at one time, rivals, with different visions of femininity and different experiences of the war seems to be in the air. To be clear regarding the ballet though: Dior as a character makes no appearance in it at all, though the synopsis mentions him as the designer of the New Look. After the WWII episode and Chanel's fall from grace -- she is shown being forced to leave France -- there eventually emerges a line of women in voluminous skirts that are suggestive of his designs. From the ballet's point of view the New Look harked back to the older feminine ideal that Chanel had always fought against, and in these final scenes I mostly enjoyed its staging of the way Chanel's work frees women's bodies from certain types of silhouettes. But Chanel's personal nemesis in this ballet is Wertheimer--which left me uneasy for the reasons I went into above. Popularity-wise, at least, I had thought Chanel had something of a mini-come back later in life. Until prepping to see this ballet, I had forgotten that Jackie Kennedy wore Chanel --and was wearing Chanel the day Kennedy was assassinated. That's the blood covered suit...