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Drew

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Everything posted by Drew

  1. Bulanova has a picture of herself in the ballet on Instagram, so she is cast - just not in a principal role. I can't deny that I would like to see this but I would not be able to bring myself to send any money the company's way at the present time so I would not be willing to pay for a livestream or broadcast even if one were available. Tereshkina looks like the prima ballerina she is --and Shakirova like the prima she may one day become -- in the bits of video available. Lacotte's version at the Bolshoi, though splended to look at, and a dancer-showcase, is much of a muchness for my taste: by getting rid of more or less all pantomime and character dancing and choreographing almost every role in a similar style I find that it creates so much uniformity across the episodic multi-act ballet that it starts to dull the impact of all the dance highlights. Or at least so it seems on video which is the only way I have seen it. When the current Mariinsky team talks about adapting to modern audience tastes I hope they have not followed a similar route of slashing Petipa's varieties of stagecraft. I do appreciate that the Mariinsky spares us the black face used by Lacotte and the Bolshoi.
  2. I wasn't following Duato very closely and was caught by surprise--just my ignorance. I somehow never knew he had gone back. I do view non-Russian artists who choose to work in Russia under these circumstances differently than I view Russian artists. Let's say, less charitably....
  3. Here is an Instagram post from Macaulay about non-Russian artists choosing to work with Russian Ballet companies today--I learned from this that Duato has returned to the Mikhailovsky: https://www.instagram.com/p/CqHfcXKs2Sd/ More on the same subject and Juan Bockamp also working on Pharaoh's Daughter at the Mariinsky: https://www.instagram.com/p/CqGKNBwAuQV/
  4. Drew

    Sarah Lane

    Ahhh...I missed your reference--I went through the thread too quickly and missed the Metropolis interview. I understand now what you were saying.... (I still feel some human sympathy for her situation having seen her put together with several male dancers who were very inexperienced at the time...And she may have thought that by saying "weaker partners" without naming anyone she was being sufficiently vague: she danced with Gorak---I even liked them together in The Tempest, but I also later saw him essentially destroy an entire classical pas de deux with the very strong Boylston--and when young, Simkin was no prize partner either. I saw Lane and SImkin in a peasant pas de deux way back when and ....well...no comment except to say, of course he got much better as he developed. But yes, what was quoted was not the most tactful thing for her to say.)
  5. Drew

    Sarah Lane

    To my knowledge, Lane only "called out" Cornejo for not being available to rehearse with her because of his injuries--and his frequent injuries have not been a secret to the public. In nothing I read did she say he was a poor partner or imply he didn't have reasons for not being available to rehearse. Did I miss something? Because in those comments I don't find what she said particularly harsh. It explains why they stopped dancing together and I rather appreciate having some kind of explanation. Of course, from the "outside" it's easy to see that refusing to dance with such a major male star was almost bound to damage her career, but obviously from the "inside" the limited rehearsal time was a situation she was not comfortable with. I think Cornejo is one of the greatest male dancers I have ever seen (and I date back to Nureyev and Bruhn); I'm not the same kind of fan of Lane, but I liked her dancing--in some roles I liked it a lot--and I could wish, for her own sake, that she had found a way to continue dancing with him. But I don't think she was being particularly harsh about him as a partner--just a little more candid about what she went through than we are used to from ballet dancers.... Edited to say: @AB'sMom does point me to a different interview below which I had missed....
  6. I fully sympathize with the desire of some ballet lovers to see this production come to fruition--to a great extent, I feel it myself--but that is not a reason to sprinkle fairy dust over a painful situation. The company's actions can only be described as "moral" if dishonesty, with a dollop of opportunism (Candeloro), and cynicism play a role in one's notions of morality. And it is dishonest and cynical for the Mariinsky to pretend that the Pharoh's Daughter is not Ratmansky's production and/or for them to hand his work over to another artist to claim as his own tout court and/or to reinterpret (Candeloro). The result may well be a very fine ballet production--not all art is born amidst moral conditions (far from it) --but that doesn't make the conditions of this production other than what they are. Which is very equivocal.
  7. What sad news--a great, great ballerina. What I remember best from seeing her -- and I saw her live very little -- was the role Ashton created for her in A Month in the Country. A tremendous performance. Keith Money's photos of her performances as Juliet and in The Invitation (Macmillan's ballets, also created on her) made huge impression on me years before I saw her in the theater. Her intensity leaped out of those photos.... May she rest in peace.
  8. Thank you--I had no idea of any of this. Huge Brava from me! (Oh and the one time I saw her dance live -- in Little Humpbacked Horse--I thought she was delightful!)
  9. Are people responding to the book or the article? I read the article and hadn't thought one could tell that much from it as to what the book really has to say or how much actual reporting it includes. But there is no reason why someone who didn't make a success of her time at SAB might not have insights into the culture there. In my own workplace people who, for whatever reason, don't "succeed" sometimes have views distorted by bitterness and sometimes, on the contrary, have views whose accuracy is enriched by their more troubled experiences. And people who do succeed can have their own blind spots. As for the singular focus on Balanchine at SAB: it was his school for his company, so what else should one expect? But that an appropriately respectful and even appropriately reverential attitude to Balanchine occasionally turned and turns weirdly worshipful in the precincts of SAB and NYCB seems to me kind of self-evident.
  10. If you are able, then please do write about it.
  11. Marina Harss tweeted a link to this discussion by Hannah Schmidt -- https://van-magazine.com/mag/wiebke-huester-attack/?amp
  12. Absolutely! It's no apology at all. And I do not give him points for honesty when the honesty amounts to justifying his abusive behavior. He has honestly shown us that he thinks he was provoked by his victim and that despite his actions he deserves a sympathetic hearing. The reviews? I have been curious. too, just how harsh they were (and they had some stinging lines for sure...) But once he physically assaulted the writer it doesn't matter what her reviews said or how they said it. Oh...and Wendy Whelan put up with just as bad from a powerful reviewer at a major paper through much of her career. Can reviewers be out of line? Maybe, though I'd be wary of drawing that line too narrowly. But consider, for example, that in the past Alexander Eckmann found some critics pretentious or ridiculous and made a popular ballet about it (Cacti)--which is now performed all over the world. THAT is an artist's response. I don't even like Cacti all that much but I still think it's an artist's response and an artistic one. William Forsythe was ripped to shreds contemptuously by the NYTimes when Boston Ballet brought his works to New York a few years back; HE sent the Boston dancers a supportive and kind message since they had, in effect, gotten ripped for bringing his work to NY. That's a humane response. But I don't blame Goecke for not being a clever enough choreographer or not being saintly under attack. I don't even blame him for WANTING to smear dog feces on someone (though it's not a desire to boast of). I blame him for his violent assault ....and for being sanctimonious and self-important about it afterwards. And I beg leave to doubt Goecke would have smeared feces in the face of a male critic. Or someone physically bigger than himself.
  13. What very sad news! I saw him just once or twice--but always memorable. Just a stunningly beautiful dancer--
  14. Thank you for the update. I hope the new Cinderella production is a big success.....
  15. I remember quite a few years back seeing what seemed to me a rather wrong-headed performance of Symphony in C at the Royal Ballet. When Morera came out to lead the 3rd movement, I breathed a sigh of relief: 'at last...somebody is moving without looking careful...' From what I have read, it's likely the company's performances in Symphony in C have gotten a lot better since that time, but Morera brought some life to the proceedings when, to my eyes, the rest of the company was still figuring things out. Hope she continues to pass on her knowledge to future generations at the Royal Ballet and elsewhere...
  16. Welcome @LupusMelis --it is always great to hear about ballet events in London. I look forward to reading your posts on the London Ballet Circle.
  17. Hope you feel better soon and that everyone in your household stays safe. It's hard always to know how best to make these decisions about going out etc. I have a somewhat Covid-vulnerable partner and am myself a little older (and cautious by nature), but that takes a toll too...
  18. It probably isn't but at least on video, to my eyes, Sevenard's Act I dancing had that quality.
  19. Yes, Ratmansky’s name has been removed from certain ballets, but that is not what I was basing my comment on. I was basing it on the video I saw. They are dancing Grigorovich’s production of Giselle. Edited to add: it is far from Grigorovich's worst production.
  20. The excerpts I've seen all look to me as if they come from Grigorovich's production. Kokoreva and Sevenard also made debuts as well as Sergeyenkova. I'm trying to pace myself watching video excerpts that have been posted of all these debuts. At this point, I've only watched video bits of Sergeyenkova and a few seconds of Kokoreva (Giselle's Act II opening) but not enough of either to say much. Though anyone can see Sergeyenkova is a "no-go" zone for people who dislike extremely high extensions in Giselle. I did watch and very much enjoyed video of Sevenard's dancing throughout Act I and a bit of Act II. Her classical simplicity gives her Act I a very natural quality. I thought she was lovely and would be more than delighted to see her Giselle in the theater.
  21. Thanks for the report on ENB -- I was especially pleased to read about Brooklyn Mack --
  22. Very sad on reading this news--but she had a great, accomplished, long life making strong contributions to American ballet. I saw her as a child (my memory says Etudes) and also have vivid memories of a family member discussing a performance I did not see (unfortunately) of Swan Lake--apparently it was a rip-roaringly exciting night--one of those you-had-to-there evenings--and Royes Fernandez, too, danced at the very top of his game. (Actually my family member thought he was over the top of his game of his game that night, dancing the best she had ever seen him by some measure. But mostly she was raving about Serrano.) May she rest in peace.
  23. Another vote for Davidsbündlertänze -- a beautiful, very moving ballet. I actually find it flawed too -- flawed because it almost seems overly personal or lachrymose at times. The shadowy "critics" are kind of kitschy as theater (and Schumann went mad from syphilis not mean reviews). But still a masterpiece -- with nothing else like it in the Balanchine repertory notwithstanding some similarities to Liebeslieder. Its complexity and even its rather peculiar (for Balanchine) tone seem to me very much reasons for NYCB to keep doing it. And yes, please, while Farrell and Watts and others are still around to coach it or otherwise offer advice.
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