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elena

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  • Connection to/interest in ballet** (Please describe. Examples: fan, teacher, dancer, writer, avid balletgoer)
    Fan, ballet goer when possible, dancer
  • City**
    San Juan
  • State (US only)**, Country (Outside US only)**
    Puerto Rico
  1. Thank you, you put into words what I could not. I’m a xennial myself, but I also feel mortified while reading people worry about the men involved. Taking and circulating naked photos with no consent? If true, that in itself should mean those people should never work in NYCB again, though I guess suspension is considered enough by the administration for such a violation.
  2. I think technology/YT/live broadcasts are helping, though some may think the opposite. I live in Puerto Rico so we don't have many ballet performances in theaters (and when I do attend performances some, frankly, aren't up to par - while others are.) The Bolshoi Ballet live broadcasts are always soldout here, and increasingly I see more young people attending. Being able to find out about events, dancers, etc. online made me shell out quite a bit of money last year to go watch ballet in the theater in NYC, because a video can never replace that experience. I have taken "non-ballet fans" to the broadcasts or sent them links to videos online and it has sparked an interest in them for ballet - some have decided to attend the theater when travelling, which they wouldn't have ordinarily. I also think that the "arts fandom" could be more disperse now than some decades ago, where many of the fans were concentrated in more 'cultured' cities (no offense meant, I just mean that the people in those areas were the ones exposed to these performances, and now people all over the world have exposure, while those that can actually attend because they are close don't make - or want to make it- it for various reasons). There is also something about taking for granted what you have regular access to, plus the arts competing with a plethora of other options/activities. On a sidenote - the arts are seen as "feminine" (at least where I'm from), and I think that also plays a role in the cultural support it gets on various levels. Again, no offense meant.
  3. I was lucky enough to watch him and Viengsay dance "Swan Lake" here in Puerto Rico about two years ago, with Ballet Concierto of PR. It was a real treat. They brought the house down - and I remember thinking I hoped that he would go on to bigger things, like Carlos Acosta. It makes me happy to see that people have noticed him.
  4. This is expected but makes me very sad. I never got to see her live, but I watched and bought as many of her performances as I could find. I think of her as an intelligent and intuitive artist, both in her approach to dance and the roles she took/avoided. So musical and elegant... a Swan Queen for the books.
  5. I definitely can see what Mearns POV was when she tweeted those things (and it's a human reaction.) As someone mentioned, she may have a different outlook some years from now when she isn't in the middle of it all. My issue is that, when addressing what Burke wrote, both she and Macaulay misrepresent what she said as they argued against it; they make her article seem superficial when it isn't. That doesn't do a real service towards defending the work either. Artists are free to create work but an essential part of art is what the viewer feels as well.
  6. I haven't seen the ballet but I thought Burke explained her point well. She challenged the shallowness with which she perceived the violent acts against women were handled in the work. That's a valid critique. Women's role in ballet is complicated, but I do feel in this day and age some new works can feel dated on the gender front when choreographers unconsciously rely on the - not sure what to call it - antiquated standard ballet vocabulary (ie woman suffers violent act and in response slaps the man in the face and everything carries on; uninventive choreography that relies too much on the male dancer showing the audience how bendy the ballerina is and so forth.) Of course she is not saying only good acts or simple issues should be the subject of ballets, and it's a logical fallacy to argue from the premise that she did, as Macaulay and Mearns have done.
  7. elena

    Olga Smirnova

    I just got back from watchinng Smirnova in SB - we receive the broadcasts later in Puerto Rico - and I loved it. I enjoyed Olga Smirnova a lot - and indeed way more than I expected. She is not a typical Aurora either, but she makes it work in her favor more than Zakharova does (in my humble opinion). You can tell she and Chudin dance a lot together, she trusts him and lets go. I hope their dance partnership continues to grow. Stepanova was as beautiful, graceful and protective as I expected her to be in her role of Lilac Fairy. I went with a friend who had never seen a full length ballet. She enjoyed it and left wanting to see more ballet.
  8. I just watched it and enjoyed it a lot. His talent cannot be denied, which really is part of the problem. Unlike most ballet dancer documentaries, this one scratched more than the surface of his life. It really made me understand why he seems to have such a love-hate relationship with dancing. His family made a lot of sacrifices to finance his dance education, and they let him know it. A lot of emotional pressure for someone since a young age. It also has great footage of him dancing ballet and filming the "Take me to Church" video.
  9. Thanks for the summary! I watched this last year and always wanted to know what the judges said.
  10. For anyone that has HBO, this is available on their site (HBOGo). I just finished watching this. I was surprised at the level of animosity Urin has towards Filin.
  11. Aside from how the title is bestowed, what makes someone a PBA? (I have my own ideas, but I'd like to read others). Why, say, is Lopatkina mentioned over Vishneva?
  12. I really hope they release a DVD... we don't get the screenings in Puerto Rico. I watched the rehearsal on the RB's stream on World Ballet Day and enjoyed it very much.
  13. Thanks for the information all! I would prefer a Lopatkina Nikiya above the others mentioned as the possible casts (if it even gets released). Oh well... Tereshkina and Kolegova are better than Skorik, so at least there's that. I wonder if Lopatkina is dancing less because she is choosing to wind down her career, or because she is being given less opportunities. I would imagine she has more say than other dancers there, aside from Vishneva perhaps.
  14. The translated article states at the end: "For example, the third and the most difficult variation in “The Kingdom of the Shades” is danced by Stepanova essentially flawlessly. This is why it has been selected for being recorded." Does this mean they are coming out with a DVD of this ballet? I have the previous version with Komleva/Terekhova. I hope they do not choose to record Skorik as Nikiya, I can think of many others who should be preserved in this role for posterity (my ideal would be Vishneva, but failing that, I'd prefer Lopatkina). I searched to see if this was posted about but couldn't find anything, perhaps there was a problem in my search terms. As far as the rest of the discussion in this thread, I think it's just very embarrassing (or should be) for the MT, to have recent top Vaganova graduates choose to go elsewhere because they are not valued at the Mariinsky. I won't say anything more, as it has been discussed pretty well already.
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