Helene

Same here: I used to work for Consumers Union (Newspaper Guild of NY at the time), and we'd usually get a new five-year contract at about three years after the old one expired, and retroactive back to the old one. We used to have one (the fourth) year to relax, and then the fifth year of being unsettled, knowing that it would be rinse-and-repeat within another year.

The NYT article is incorrect in several ways. The most glaring is that the International Skating Union has not yet decided what will happen with the Team Event standings -- or the singles standings in which Valieva was 4th -- and the IOC Council has to approve their proposal. They are planning to make some kind of statement tomorrow. (The ISU is in Lausanne, CET.) Valieva's suspension was always going to start from the date of her doping violation, which was in December 2021. A four-year suspension is among the harshest sentences that WADA asked for. There are repeat offenders who haven't gotten suspensions that long. All of her results in the four years are voided, and she's been ordered to reimburse prize sponsorship, and appearance money. Those international results would be a European championship gold medal and a Team Event medal, if the Russian team is not disqualified alone with her results. I suspect Russia will flip the bird at any thought of changing their internal results or prize money or post-Olympic appearance fees in Russia. For whatever reason, RUSADA, the national anti-doping agency was put back in charge after state-sponsored systematic doping was discovered in Sochi in 2014; however, Russian labs are not allowed to process the tests. Several official labs were chosen by WADA, and, after Russian Nationals, RUSADA sent their samples to the designated lab in Sweden. Sweden had decided to let Covid-19 rip, and their labs were short-staffed. However, all samples for the Olympics were supposed to be marked "Expedited," and the Swedish lab processed all of the "Expedited" samples before the start of the Olympics. Everything else was in a queue to be processed by the staff they had. RUSADA did not mark Valieva's sample "Expedited," the test wasn't processed until after the Olympics began, and the results were revealed after the Team Event, which is why the IOC put a stop to the Team Event medal ceremony. Had RUSADA expedited the results, it's possible that they could have quietly given her a 30-day suspension without making it public, she could have withdrawn from European championships for "health" reasons, and it might all have gone away quietly. Right now, the Russian Olympic Committee is pretending not to know why the sample took so long to be processed. (Google translate works here.) There was an three-person CAS panel on the ground in Beijing, and the case went to them in an emergency session. Even though WADA rules were very clear that, while being a minor meant that there were different rules for procedures for minors -- there is a nod for privacy -- there was no difference in sentencing for minors. That CAS paneled ruled that Valieva could continue to compete in the single's event, and their reasoning was to incorrectly extrapolate procedural rules for minors to sentencing rules. RUSADA was ordered to investigate and come up with a decision, which was laughable, and which WADA and the International Skating Union appealed to CAS, Nearly two years later, CAS ruled with WADA and the ISU. There is a 30-day limited scope appeals process. After the ISU decide what to do, Russia will decide on whether it will appeal the ISU decision.

Hello, Jorge -- welcome to Ballet Alert!

Thank you to the person who gave me a heads up that casting is up for first weekend and Odette-Odile/Siegfried casting is up for second weekend: https://www.pnb.org/season/swan-lake/ (Scroll to bottom) There will be five Odette-Odiles with two performances each; returning are Elizabeth Murphy and Leta Biasucci, both partnered by Lucien Postlewaite, and Angelica Generosa with Jonathan Batista, and two debuts by Elle Macy partnered by James Kirby Rogers and Cecilia Iliesiu with Dylan Wald. Since Postlewaite is partnering two ballerinas, performances with Elizabeth Murphy will be first weekend, including opening night, and with Leta Biasucci will be second weekend. Here's the link to a downloadable Excel file: As always, casting is subject to change. Edited to add: I've updated the Excel file include the Thursday, Feb 8 Principal Casting, which I missed for trying to get fancy. 2024 01 25 Swan Lake--updated.xlsx

Thank you so much @Anthony_NYC! I just ordered the .pdf only. The link to the site to download came in a separate email about five minutes later, not in the original receipt. It was some kind of internal forward (FW) from Eakins Press.

From the press release: Pacific Northwest Ballet Principal Dancer James Yoichi Moore Announces Retirement. To operate two Tutu School locations. 20-year PNB career to be celebrated at Season Encore Performance, June 9, 2024. SEATTLE, WA — Pacific Northwest Ballet principal dancer James Yoichi Moore has announced that after a 20-year career with the company, he is retiring at the end of PNB’s 2023-24 season. Moore joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet in 2004 and was promoted to soloist in 2008 and principal in 2013. His two decades with the company will be celebrated at the Season Encore Performance, Sunday, June 9 at McCaw Hall. Tickets to the Season Encore Performance, as well as the remainder of PNB’s 2023-24 season, are available through the PNB Box Office, 206.441.2424, online at PNB.org, or in person at 301 Mercer Street. “Growing up in San Francisco, I would hear people talk about this incredible ballet company up north, with six-foot-tall ballerinas and dancers with impeccable technique,” said Moore in his announcement. “Never did I imagine I’d have a shot to join their ranks, but in 2004, Kent and Francia offered me a contract, and everything changed. I am forever grateful to them for giving me a chance to be a part of this great organization. “The past 20 years have flown by in a flash. Every season filled with challenges, exhaustion, and thrill – key components for a supremely fulfilling dance career. I wish I could live the life of a PNB dancer forever, but I knew this day would come, and as I near my final performance, my gratitude for our company, and everyone who contributes to creating the magic on stage grows. “I’ve been extremely fortunate to have a director who’s believed in me from the beginning. As a student, and throughout my career, Peter’s trust filled me with motivation, bolstered me with confidence, and gave me the belief that I belonged. I am thankful beyond words.” “James Moore elevated PNB in every way over the course of a long and storied career,” said PNB Artistic Director Peter Boal. “The explosion of raw talent and presence that stepped, or rather shuffled, onto the stage in 2005 in Marco Goecke's Mopey signaled a new era for the company. James had a quality that reflected us - and yet he was the best of us, with soul bared, emotions raw, living in the moment and discovering infinite possibilities before our eyes. His Romeo and Prodigal Son pulled us into the futile realm of hope while his rhythm-infused romps as the father in Twyla Tharp's Waiting at the Station offered a new lens on humanity. Not only did he inspire countless choreographers, he inspired all who witnessed his complete investment in character, art, and movement. It's hard to imagine PNB without James, but he promises to continue to be a part of this family he helped create, and I promise to hold him to it.” Moore and his wife, Kristen, recently opened two Tutu Schools in Renton and Tacoma. (Tutu School is a boutique-style ballet school that caters specifically to children 18 months to eight years old.) “We are thrilled to continue a life in dance by offering the opportunity for young children to experience music and movement through our Tutu Schools in Renton and Tacoma,” said Moore. “Our kids, Julian and Layla show us every day the positive impact dance can have on young people’s lives, and they have inspired us to share this gift.” For more info, visit tutuschool.com/renton or tutuschool.com/tacoma. “James Moore had a career-defining moment and played a pivotal role in ushering in Peter Boal's contemporary vision to PNB audiences with his performances of Mopey by Marco Goeke,” noted former PNB principal dancer Noelani Pantastico, Moore’s frequent onstage partner, and Co-Artistic Director of Seattle Dance Collective, the company they founded in 2019. “After Mopey, it was clear that James had a spirit that transcended the stage and left audiences returning to see him in his range of programming. I was lucky enough to forge a partnership with James, one that, while dancing together, was hard to explain to anyone. We were just enmeshed. Beyond the stage, we created Seattle Dance Collective, which taught us how to build and run a nonprofit organization and helped us survive the pandemic while nurturing our artistic voices and voices for others. I have no doubt that audiences and colleagues will miss him. There is no one like James Moore. His generosity and thoughtfulness as a dancer, partner, and person make James memorable to everyone who has had the fortune of being in the same space as him. James leaves an indelible mark that has helped shape what PNB is today.” Early seed money for Moore’s Tutu Schools was provided, in part, by Second Stage, PNB’s career transition program for its company dancers. Conceived in 1999, Second Stage supports PNB dancers and PNB School Professional Division students in achieving their goals following a career in dance. Its resources allow dancers to take classes, get subsidized tuition at Seattle University, access mentors and vocation counseling, and receive grant monies. At its inception, only a handful of dancers actively planned for their career after dancer. Since that time, Second Stage has provided over $1.5 million in grants to over 200 dancers. For more information, visit PNB.org. James Yoichi Moore is from San Francisco, California. He trained at San Francisco Ballet School and the School of American Ballet, and he joined Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre in 2001. James joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet in 2004 and was promoted to soloist in 2008 and principal in 2013. James has performed leading roles in George Balanchine’s Coppélia, The Four Temperaments, George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Prodigal Son, Rubies, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Symphony in C, Symphony in Three Movements; Peter Boal’s Giselle; Val Caniparoli’s The Bridge; Alejandro Cerrudo’s Little mortal jump, One Thousand Pieces, and PACOPEPEPLUTO; Sonia Dawkins’ Ripple Mechanics; Ulysses Dove’s Serious Pleasures; Nacho Duato’s Jardí Tancat and Rassemblement; William Forsythe’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated, New Suite, and One Flat Thing, reproduced; Kiyon Gaines’ Sum Stravinsky; Paul Gibson’s The Piano Dance; Ronald Hynd’s The Sleeping Beauty; Jiri Kylian’s Petite Mort and Sechs Tänze (Six Dances); Jessica Lang’s The Calling and Her Door to the Sky; Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Cendrillon and Roméo et Juliette; Susan Marshall’s Kiss; Mark Morris’ Pacific; Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Before After and Cylindrical Shadows; Crystal Pite’s The Seasons’ Canon, Emergence and Plot Point; Brian Reeder’s Lost Language of the Flight Attendant; Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures at an Exhibition; Jerome Robbins’ Afternoon of a Faun, The Concert, Dances at a Gathering, Fancy Free, Glass Pieces, Opus 19/The Dreamer, and West Side Story Suite; Kent Stowell’s Carmina Burana, Cinderella, Nutcracker, Silver Lining, and Swan Lake; Susan Stroman’s TAKE FIVE…More or Less; Twyla Tharp’s Afternoon Ball, Brief Fling, In the Upper Room, Nine Sinatra Songs, and Waterbaby Bagatelles; and Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain pas de deux, Carousel (A Dance), and Polyphonia. He has also performed Marco Goecke’s solo Mopey and Molissa Fenley’s solo State of Darkness. Mr. Moore originated leading roles in Andrew Bartee’s arms that work, Caniparoli’s The Seasons, Cerrudo’s Memory Glow, Kiyon Gaines’ Do. Not. Obstruct. and Interrupted Pri’si’zhen, Gibson’s Mozart Pieces and Sense of Doubt, Marco Goecke’s Place a Chill, Benjamin Millepied’s 3 Movements, Morris’ Kammermusik No. 3, Justin Peck’s Debonair, Victor Quijada’s Suspension of Disbelief, Price Suddarth’s The Intermission Project, Tharp’s Opus 111 and Waiting at the Station, and Christopher Wheeldon’s Tide Harmonic, and featured roles in Dominique Dumais’ Time and other Matter and Christopher Stowell’s Quick Time. In 2019, Mr. Moore co-founded Seattle Dance Collective (SDC) with Noelani Pantastico. The initial impetus came from their mutual desire to curate shows enabling them to work directly with certain choreographers and perform specific pieces that, to date, had eluded them. Their mission quickly expanded to include a commitment to create unique opportunities for dancers and choreographers to collaborate for artistic inspiration and growth. For more information, visit seattledancecollective.org.

Amen to that.

Paula Citron interviewed Mark Morris for the Ludwig van Toronto newsletter: https://www.ludwig-van.com/toronto/2024/01/16/interview-choreographer-mark-morris-talks-about-dance-burt-bacharach-and-the-look-of-love/

To me Coppelia at SPAC is the young Megan Fairchild doing all four weekend performances.

I can’t remember when this happened — maybe a Bolshoi Ballet program or a Met Live in HD — but the Scotiabank multiplex in Vancouver had people outside handing out vouchers for a free ticket to anything except maybe a live boxing broadcast. I’m surprised the theater didn’t make it good on the spot.

Back in the day, you couldn't see from any seat in City Center except for the front row of at least in the Mezzanine. Even before they fixed it, people who experienced NYCB at City Center before the move to Lincoln Center still said many NYCB ballets looked better there.

I was there, and I don’t remember Jaffe at all. But the only performances in Western Symphony I remember are the Leclercq and d’Amboise film excerpt from the Balanchine doc and Stephanie Saland in the second movement, also on film.

Jeremy Collins from ABT, Isabelle Guerin from POB, Zhana Apuyova from the Mariinsky Ballet, Viviana Durante from the Royal Ballet, and Ronald Perry from DTH were also guests for “Dinner with Balanchine.”

What beautiful dancers in the company!

There wouldn’t be a Met option in November-December. The house is dark from the end of January-end of February, give or take a couple of days, but it’s used for tech and maybe dress for the productions that will open the second part of the season. February 2 is when NYCB opened its first Nutcracker. “Christmas in July” as part of the regular rep might be the only option, but that would also mean schlepping the sets and costumes back and forth across the country. Would they even fit at the Met if they did at BAM? I don’t know what Segerstrom is like.

That dark period in February is also used for tech rehearsals for the second half of the Met season. This season, the Met has cut the number of total productions, but they still have the premiere of the “second” opening night of La Forza and the massive Turandot for re-opening week, first performances of Romeo et Juliette and La Rondine in March, El Niño and Fire Shut Up in My Bones in April, and The Hours and Orfeo and Eurydice in May. It’s got to be a lot more rational schedule, including fewer operas for the chorus to learn/relearn by cutting the number of operas and more performances of the one they have. I’ve wondered if they save more in overtime than they’d earn in ticket sales, and it should give the costume and set people more time and breathing room mid-season to be able to repair, care for, and store the physical productions.

Welcome to Ballet Alert!, @vivi!

From the press release: Pacific Northwest Ballet continues its 2023-24 Season with the return of 10 Performances Only! February 2 – 11, 2024 February 2, 8 and 9 at 7:30 PM February 3 and 10 at 1:00 and 7:30 PM February 4 at 1:00 and 7:00 PM February 11 at 1:00 PM Marion Oliver McCaw Hall 321 Mercer Street at Seattle Center Seattle, WA 98109 SEATTLE, WA – Pacific Northwest Ballet continues its 2023-24 season with Kent Stowell’s Swan Lake. Every element of this production was crafted to keep audiences on the edge of their seats, from the masterful choreography, stunning costumes by Paul Tazewell, and off-kilter scenic design by Ming Cho Lee, to the undeniably iconic score brought to life by the world-famous PNB Orchestra. Considered by many to be the greatest classical ballet of all time, Swan Lake provides the ultimate challenge for dancers: the dual role of Odette, trapped in the body of a white swan until an oath of true love sets her free; and Odile, the “Black Swan” temptress. Swan Lake runs for 10 performances, February 2 through 11. Tickets start at just $38. (Swan Lake will also stream digitally from February 15 through 19: Digital access is available by subscription only.) For tickets and additional information, contact the Pacific Northwest Ballet Box Office at 206.441.2424, online 24/7 at PNB.org, or in person at 301 Mercer Street. TICKET INFORMATION Tickets to PNB’s performances are available through the PNB Box Office: Phone - 206.441.2424 In Person - 301 Mercer Street at Seattle Center Online (24/7) - PNB.org Subject to availability, tickets are also available 90 minutes prior to each performance at McCaw Hall. (Advance tickets through the PNB Box Office are strongly suggested for best prices and greatest availability.) Tickets for the live performances of Swan Lake are $38 - $210. Groups of ten or more may enjoy discounts up to 20% off regular prices: Contact Group Sales Manager Julie Jamieson at 206.441.2416 or JulieJ@PNB.org for ticketing assistance. (Group discounts are not valid on lowest-priced tickets and may not be combined with other offers.) PNB’s digital presentation of Swan Lake (February 15 – 19) is available by subscription only ($160 for remainder of the 23-24 season). For additional information about special ticket offers including The Pointe, Beer & Ballet night, Pay-What-You-Can, TeenTix, senior/student rush tickets and more, visit PNB.org/offers. Caveat Emptor: Like many performing arts, PNB struggles with ticket resellers. At their most mundane, third-party sites buy up less expensive tickets and sell them for a profit. At their most dastardly, they sometimes sell invalid tickets at inflated prices. To enjoy the ballet at the best prices available, always purchase tickets directly from PNB. Suspected ticket scams should be reported to the Better Business Bureau. Health & Safety: At this time, masks are encouraged but not required as part of the PNB audience experience. For details and current information regarding PNB’s health and safety policies, visit PNB.org/Health. For info on McCaw Hall accessibility, visit PNB.org/Accessibility. The show must go on: Pacific Northwest Ballet is committed to honoring its performance calendar. Performances will not be cancelled for sleet, snow, or Seattle traffic. In the unlikely event that the status of a performance does change, an announcement will be posted on PNB.org. SPECIAL EVENTS PNB CONVERSATIONS & DRESS REHEARSAL Thursday, February 1, 5:30 pm Nesholm Family Lecture Hall at McCaw Hall Join PNB Associate Artistic Director Kiyon Ross, in conversation with a panel of Prince Siegfrieds (casting TBA). PNB Conversations offer in-depth interviews with artists involved in putting our repertory on stage. Attend the Conversations event only or stay for the dress rehearsal of Swan Lake. Tickets (suggested donation of $25) are available through the PNB Box Office. BALLET TALK Nesholm Family Lecture Hall at McCaw Hall Join dance historian Doug Fullington for a 30-minute introduction to each performance, including discussions of choreography, music, history, design, and the process of bringing ballet to the stage. One hour before performances. FREE for ticketholders. (There will be no Meet the Artist post-show Q&As for the run of Swan Lake.) ABOUT THE BALLET Swan Lake Music: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Op. 20, 1875 – 1876) Choreography: Kent Stowell Staging: Francia Russell (after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov) Scenic Design: Ming Cho Lee Costume Design: Paul Tazewell Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli Original Production Premiere: February 20, 1877, Imperial Ballet, Moscow, choreography by Julius Reisinger; restaged January 15, 1895, Imperial Ballet, St. Petersburg, choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov Stowell/Russell Production Premiere: October 1, 1976, Frankfurt Ballet Pacific Northwest Ballet Premiere: April 8, 1981; new production September 25, 2003 Running Time, Live: Three hours, including two intermissions Running Time, Digital: Approximately two hours and ten minute Swan Lake is considered by many to be the greatest classical ballet of all time. With its fantastical plot filled with romance, sorcery, and betrayal, Swan Lake offers dancers the ultimate challenge of a dual role: Odette, trapped in the body of a swan while awaiting an oath of true love to set her free; and Odile, the temptress daughter of Baron von Rothbart, who plots the downfall of Odette’s true love, Siegfried. Pacific Northwest Ballet’s 1981 production was a significant milestone as the first full-length ballet re-created for the Company. The current production of Kent Stowell’s Swan Lake, in a revised staging and featuring new designs, premiered in 2003 to open PNB’s inaugural season in Marion Oliver McCaw Hall. Swan Lake has inspired countless choreographers, who, in their own productions, seek to extend the ideas and meanings suggested in the work of its creators: composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and choreographers Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. Tchaikovsky composed his score for Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet in 1877, but it was not until Petipa and Ivanov’s St. Petersburg production of 1895 that Swan Lake took the form we know today. The original 1877 Moscow production, now generally regarded as a failure, actually achieved mild success and saw more performances over more years than most ballets premiered on the Moscow stage. Tchaikovsky longed for a successful revival of his first ballet, but died in 1893, and a memorial concert in St. Petersburg the next year included a revival of Swan Lake Act II, the first lakeside scene, with new choreography by Lev Ivanov, ballet master Marius Petipa’s assistant. The performance was a success and plans were laid for a revival of the entire ballet in 1895. Ivanov choreographed Act IV, the second lakeside scene, and Petipa supplied dances for Acts I and III. Although Petipa succeeded with his choreographic contribution, Ivanov’s lakeside acts provided the images by which Swan Lake has become iconic The 1895 revival of Swan Lake has served as the basis for nearly every production since then. The dual role of Odette/Odile remains a coveted challenge for dancers and is broad enough in concept to sustain an endless variety of interpretations. Following tradition, choreographers often have revisited Swan Lake, for the ballet lends itself generously to new stagings and new interpretations. Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Swan Lake dates from 1981, when Mr. Stowell and Ms. Russell mounted here the production they had first created for the Frankfurt Ballet in 1975. Preserving the best of the St. Petersburg original as it has come down to us through England’s Royal Ballet, Ms. Russell researched and staged what has long been regarded as the soul of Swan Lake—nearly all of Ivanov’s Act II, where music and dance are sublimely fused. Petipa’s Act I pas de trois and Act III Black Swan pas de deux were also retained. To enhance the story line, and following in the path of many choreographers, Mr. Stowell made important changes in the order of the musical numbers. He also re-choreographed most of Act I, the national dances in Act III, and all of Act IV, rescuing the usually forgotten last act with a radiant pas de deux and giving the conclusion dramatic power and unity. [Excerpted from notes by Doug Fullington. Click here for complete program notes.] FUN FACTOIDS: FEATHERS FOR THE FLOCK Swan Lake is the quintessential classical ballet, and producing this staggering production is no small feat. All of its elaborate costumes, including headpieces, bodices, tutus, and accessories, were made by the acclaimed PNB Costume Shop. One tutu can take up to 200 hours of labor and costs thousands of dollars, but once constructed, it will be used for hundreds of performances and fit many dancers with multiple sets of hook-and-eye closures. PNB’s current Swan Lake costumes were designed in 2003 by Paul Tazewell (Hamilton) and have been meticulously maintained and repaired as necessary in the years since. (The Seattle Times called the iconic tutus “as complex, and as beautiful, as a swan’s wing.”) For the 2022 run of Swan Lake, the PNB Costume Shop refurbished the production’s tacked tutus (so named because all the layers of tulle are tacked together by hand) and created 42 new bodices for the PNB Company dancers and Professional Division students (from the PNB School) dancing in the large corps of swans. (There are 24 swans on stage during a performance, but multiple costumes are created to fit multiple dancers.) The costume shop put in 1,900 hours producing the bodices, including 84 hours spent hand-sewing buttons and closures, and over 300 hours hand-painting feathery detail work. The project also entailed over 60 hours of fittings. The cost of rebuilding and refurbishing PNB’s swans and additional Swan Lake costumes in 2022 came to approximately $100,000; PNB plans to see these iconic costumes on stage for many more years to come.

Generally, younger people don't subscribe, but here they may be targeting single ticket buyers. @uptowner, are you a subscriber? I think the only way they'd tie age to a person is if they're part of the young people's group or have used the student discount. Or, if they have senior discounts, that would generally be flagged in someone's account.

ABT has more in common with most workplaces of its size than it has differences.

i just finished reading Patrick Stewart's memoir, "Making It So." What an era to be part of British theater! He's in his '80's, and a lot of his contemporaries and older idols have died, and it's easy to think of him as from a younger generation. He performed with so many greats, working his way up in the British theater. Most of the book is full of appreciation and generosity, but he doesn't pull punches the few times he describes situations where people were mean and power-hungry. One of these was when he was part of The Old Vic company. which was touring three plays headlined by Vivien Leigh and directed by Robert Helpmann in his post-dancing career. He gives Helpmann credit for his renown as a director and for having helped to great a safe space for gay people at The Old Vic. But he also described what a snob Helpmann was to the people he felt were beneath his attention, and he appeared to have had a PhD from the same school of making friends and influencing people that Jerome Robbins did: "By the end of the second week, those of us in small roles came to understand that Helpmann had no idea who we were and no interest in learning. If he wanted to make an adjustment in the staging, he would yell, 'You, over there! No, not you, you fool, you, the other other!' Or if he wanted to be a little more specific: 'You in the green shirt, horrible color, you're standing too close to Miss Leigh. Move! And you in the red time--go stand with green shirt.'" (p181). Then Stewart tells tells a short and sweet story about how Queen Salote of Tonga came backstage after a performance and wanted to be introduced to the cast. It could have ended a lot worse for Helpmann, but it was delicious nonetheless, and no one was fooled. I now have to go see the X-Men movies. I had no idea he was in them.

Almost no children in the non-professional track continue in ballet, whether by choice or because they are not accepted. The children in the Nutcracker are usually too young to be on that track. This is true across company schools, where there can be parallel tracks for high-level, but non-professional teenagers. That’s true at PNB, where the Professional Division is a 1-2 year program. SAB starts asking kids from across the country to stay for the year-round, pre-professional program when they are young teenagers, which creates that division early.

I'm always reminded of the scene in Clueless where Cher asks Lucy speak to the gardener in Mexican, and Lucy storms out, responding "I'm not Mexican," with Josh telling Cher that Lucy is from El Salvador. I also remember a documentary I saw years ago about Afro-Cuban social dance, in which a Flamenco teacher looked down her nose at Afro-Cuban dance, while talking about the superiority of European-based Flamenco. The exact origins of Flamenco are a bit murky like a lot of oral/song/dance traditions, but the mail influences were migration from India, the Roma in southern Spain, Sephardic Jews, and Moors, all of the Others (post-Moorish rule) in Spain, not the white, sanitized versions on Franco-sponsored Spanish TV. The history of European colonization of the Americas, and the importation of slaves from Africa, is as fraught in the Caribbean, and Central and South America as it is in North America, in addition to modern national borders.. While there are two common dominant official languages, Spanish and Portuguese, that doesn't mean that there is cross-racial and cross-ethnic national identification, except maybe during the football World Cup, even when confronted with prejudice from a different dominant culture. I think that's why for every two people who came from the Caribbean, Central, and/or South America, there are three opinions. Few people want to be boxed into an affiliation or definition of someone else's choosing. Almost every survey -- I don't remember the census specifically -- asks to differentiate Non-Hispanic Caucasian/White from Hispanic Caucasian/White. It's up to the respondent to check the boxes. Edited to add: and self-identification also extends to ballet. There was a PNB Zoom call in which several PNB ballerinas spoke about their heritage, or the term Amanda Morgan used in this blog post* of interviews by Amanda Morgan, Latine: https://www.pnb.org/blog/recognizing-hispanic-heritage-month-at-pnb/ (I cannot find the link to the recorded Zoom, and it might no longer be linked on the PNB site.) Edited again: the link to all of the PNB Is Listening recordings was on the bottom of the blog page: PNB titled this blog post Celebrating Our LatinX, Chicana, & Hispanic Dancers I think Amanda Morgan articulates it best: “Being an Afro-Indigenous woman I’ve found myself getting caught between how I can identify, and how people automatically identify me. My mother is from Dominican Republic and my father is Puerto Rican, so I’m full of many mixtures that originated on Caribbean islands. Growing up in Tacoma, there were not very many Puerto Ricans or Dominicans, so I always felt like I never fit in any mold. I wasn’t black enough to be black, was too black to be Latinx, and didn’t have indigenous ancestors from North America. Yet, with this revisitation of a civil rights movement, people are identifying fully how they want to, and learning their roots. I’ve taken the time to learn mine, and it has influenced so much of my work and how I interact in my life. I have ancestors that were conquerors from Europe, some brought as slaves from Africa, and the indigenous people of my homeland, the Taíno and Arawak people. They all make up who I am, and I cannot identify as just one thing. Being able to have so much history and culture to identify with used to seem so overwhelming as a kid, but now I’m so grateful and proud to have come from so much. It’s a beautiful thing, and a beautiful thing about the Latinx community.” At about 11:30, Clara Ruf Maldonado talks about tokenism, in companies and on posters.

I noticed from the credits that the staging was done by Nilas Martins and Christian Tworzyanski, and the casting on the screen matches what volcanohunter posted, although not broken down by movement. I disliked most of the costumes. The deconstructed bow at the sides of the First Movement women looked like something from an alien species in the Star Trek franchise. The Second Movement women's dresses looked like they weren't finished in time. Simple can be fine, but I think they were too much of a contrast with the First Movement, and I didn't see what differentiated the lead from the corps. The lead woman's bodice in the Third Movement had a nicer cut, in my eyes, to the corps', but the cups were distracting. I loved the design and cut of the Fourth Movement, but the gray, gah. It was like winter had arrived, when that movement usually lights up the stage. And that movement needs a go-for-broke and competitive yet playful approach. It's hard not to miss Damien Woetzel in it, but I've seen many a brighter performance. You can really see the originals through some of these performances, especially the fantastic First Movement soloist role made for Gloria Govrin, Patricia McBride's in the Second Movement, and Villella's in the Third Movement, in which Davide Dato showed the beautiful, springy jumps in the solo. You can also see why Hayden felt that Balanchine had not given his best to her, especially compared to the other three women's roles. I loved the leotards in Concertante.

To clarify, I mean Balanchine's original choreography, not the Petipa, which I assume was what, or closer to what, Danilova was dancing. The style had changed radically since Danilova's, and Hayden's is much closer to the way it's danced today than Hayden's was to Danilova's.