Jump to content
This Site Uses Cookies. If You Want to Disable Cookies, Please See Your Browser Documentation. ×

Eshana

Member
  • Posts

    23
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Registration Profile Information

  • Connection to/interest in ballet** (Please describe. Examples: fan, teacher, dancer, writer, avid balletgoer)
    Fan
  • City**
    Auckland
  • State (US only)**, Country (Outside US only)**
    New Zealand
  1. Didn't know that the entirety of Neumeier's Dame aux Camellias had only ever been performed by the POB and never in America...I'm guessing that this could be it. No good reason, really, other than the fact that one of the leading dancers has this ballet on her bucket list alongside MacMillan's Manon. The popular 'black dress' excerpt is a perennial gala staple as well, and has been performed by SFB in that capacity.
  2. Yeah, I was thinking Swan Lake would be "one of the best-loved story ballets of all time" and not the "enchanting full-length for the entire family", although I don't see why SL couldn't be described that way also. I've no idea what the other full-length might be. Tan was born in 1977 on Valentine's Day, so she's 38. Feijoo is at least in her early to mid-forties. But yeah, SFB is looking a little short on the leading female side; promotions and new recruitments are probably due.
  3. The story ballet is definitely Swan Lake. It's pretty obvious if one has been paying attention to little slips here and there by those in the know. It's no wonder Tiit Helimets and Yuan Yuan Tan recently had a trial run with the Festival Ballet Theatre - I won't be surprised if they repeat their assignments next season just as they were paired together in SFB's all-new Swan Lake in 2006. I'm very curious about the Paris Opera Ballet work as well. And a bit OT, but in regards to Mathilde Froustey ever returning to POB, why would she when she's essaying Giselle, Kitri, Juliet and Odette/Odile at SFB (in just 2-3 seasons with the company), all roles that she'd never procure at POB even if she spent another 50 years there?!
  4. I think perhaps Messmer just missed life on the East Coast too much. I don't think Froustey will leave, at least not for the next season.
  5. I think it'd be interesting to see Yuan Yuan Tan as Kitri simply because she's such an adagio dancer that I wonder how'd she fare in an allegro role. It's also a bit difficult picturing her being fiery or coquettish; she seems too stately for that. I remember when SFB did Coppelia a few seasons back and wasn't surprised when she wasn't cast in it as she seemed ill-suited for the ballet.
  6. Considering that SFB is doing Giselle, R&J and Don Quixote next year, I highly doubt that Froustey would have left by next season when she's likely to be cast in the leading roles of all three of those ballets. Helgi may even be bringing those ballets next season because of her, or partly because of her - I remember reading or hearing that he asks his dancers which roles they would most like to essay, and then decides which ballets to stage based on that consensus.
  7. Interview with Mademoiselle Froustey for BCBG: http://vimeo.com/89036581 Her voice sounds like music and is so adorable, she is so effortlessly chic and lovely, and is just so French!
  8. Froustey has not performed well in the Concours (she even says that in the Pointe article). And the Concours is how you get promoted at POB. She's also a very emotive actress, in the style of Isabelle Ciaravola and Clairemarie Osta, both of whom were promoted very late in their careers. If you look at the dancers who have been promoted rapidly in the past 10 or 15 years, such as Aurelie Dupont, Dorothee Gilbert and Amandine Albisson, their style is fairly similar -- and quite different from Froustey's IMO. I'm glad she's finding success in the US. It was depressing to continually see her onstage in demi-soloist roles. I've seen Dupont in a number of things and have not been impressed at all (your mileage may vary, of course). I don't know, maybe one has to see some of these performances live to better appreciate them. Actually, I recall reading some reviews and comments of POB dancers' performances abroad (galas and tours and what not), and none of them were very effusive at all. They all went something like, we were expecting great things from the famed Paris Opera Ballet and this is what we got instead...
  9. Mademoiselle Froustey's performance of Giselle (along with a host of others) with SFB is now up at: http://vimeo.com/86094211 I found her simply lovely. She has a marvellously expressive face, and her acting is very natural and believable. The dancing is just so warm, open and engaging. I found that in Act 2 I was watching her face almost more than I was her limbs; that's how committed to the role she appeared to be. In the mad scene, I could trace the progression of her descent because the acting/mime was so clear and honest. Altogether, it was a very good production; only Tiit Helimets' costume in the first act struck a discordant note as the bottom half was so tight and flesh-coloured that it looked like he was dancing half naked. To be honest, I find Froustey a million times more appealing and engaging than many of POB's principal ladies whose performances I've seen online. I can't believe that she was passed over for promotion; that those other said ladies were considered superior. SFB had better do everything in its power not to let Froustey go; she is a treasure.
  10. We'll be seeing them onstage again in Helgi Tomasson's new piece, Caprice, which opens on April 4th; just substitute Damian Smith for another Australian, Luke Ingham. I'm very curious as to the dynamic between Yuan Yuan Tan and Maria Kochetkova - one is the company's prima and is now its longest serving principal, while the other hasn't been with the company so long but is rapidly eclipsing all others in prominence (thanks in no small part to her fantastic social media skills). I've been reading reviews of Ratmansky's Piano Concerto #1 (the last piece in the trilogy) as performed by ABT, and it looks like Diana Vishneva did a lot of dancing with Natalia Osipova and that the choreography involves them being very protective and conspiratorial with one another. I'm just very interested to see how Tan and Kochetkova replicate that kind of partnership in light of the dynamic that must exist between them. This new article from the San Francisco Classical Voice on Helgi Tomasson and his new creation also picks up on the dichotomy between these two ballerinas ("[they] can inspire a study in contrasts"): https://www.sfcv.org/article/helgi-tomasson-master-of-dance
  11. I'm really curious as to how Yuan Yuan Tan did as Nikiya - she has talked about how much she idolizes Makarova and how stressful the opening night of 'Shades' was. She also danced the White Swan recently in a gala tribute to Makarova at Lincoln Center (upon Makarova's personal invitation) so I assume they must have worked very closely on 'Shades' together. I had also hoped that Froustey would be cast as Nikiya, but unfortunately she was only assigned the first shade solo variation. Perhaps I shouldn't be, though; in the clips I've seen online of 'La Bayadere's' second act, the solo shades seem to have more to do technically than Nikiya.
  12. Thanks for this; she's just lovely. The televised version with Kochetkova hasn't the same charm, to be honest. SFB had better do its best to hold onto Froustey. From the little that I've seen of Sylve, one can never have too many French ballerinas in a company.
  13. I've seen Yuan Yuan Tan (would love to see the other casts too, especially Froustey) do the GPDD in Giselle, and my goodness, she was a dream: extensions for miles and with such a floating quality that if she'd been billowed off of the stage, I would not have been surprised. Try to catch her if you can - she is not to be missed.
  14. Eshana

    Yuan Yuan Tan

    Edwaard Liang's page on Vimeo has full-length performances of Ms. Tan and Damian Smith in "Distant Cries" (just performed in Stern Grove a few days ago), "Somewhere in Time" as well as Ms. Tan and Vito Mazzeo in "Symphonic Dances" (this entire ballet has been posted): http://vimeo.com/channels/478037/videos Ms. Tan is just utterly beautiful in these ballets (especially in "Somewhere in Time"; my goodness, look at that figure and those legs!), and Mr. Smith is equally as sensitive and committed. Ms. Tan remains the only 'name' ballerina that I've seen live in my ballet-starved country - she performed in a gala and did the 2nd Act GPDD from "Giselle" and, my word, she conveyed a sense of such lightness and fluidity that it seemed like a breeze could carry her off the stage at any moment. As a child I had seen her on the cover of Time magazine years ago and I remembered being struck by her beauty. I didn't know very much about ballet back then, but I now realize that she must have been quite esteemed to have been on the cover of Time. She doesn't seem to attract as much attention as some of the other big-name ballerinas on this board and elsewhere, and I've wondered why that is.
  15. And now Courtney Elizabeth leaves, too! That adds up to three principals and three soloists. I'm very curious as to who will be promoted in my favourite company.
×
×
  • Create New...