lisinka1

Many years ago (more than 8 maybe 10) the New York Times ran a photo essay on SAB's summer session. Aesha Ash and Riolama Lorenzo, then students, were shown in these photos. I found it to be very interesting and have followed these dancers since then. I was very happy to see both enter NYCB's corps de ballet.

Congratulations to Nina! She is one of the world's best ballerinas. I wish her, her husband, and her new arrival all of the health and luck in the world!

The sheer beauty of the human body's natural line along with the classical music.

Solor if you saw the version with Semenyaka/Mukhamedov I'd have to disagree with you. I thought that it was a beautiful production. I found it to be much more authentic than ABT's. I did not like ABT's production at all. They cut many out many scenes and the story just did not hold together. In the Semenyaka/Mukhamedov production I could actually understand the story and it made sense. Just my opionion though. :blush: I do not know of any other productions on video. Sorry.

After spending my teens dancing with a small local company on Long Island I can tell you about dancers on the smaller stages not being connect to a company. I was in a relationship with one of this company's principal dancers. He had trained internationally and according to him he was very well known in his country. He moved to the US to dance with a major US company. For whatever reason, things did not work out. He ended spending the rest of his career going from engagement to engagement with small companies in the US, Europe, and Asia. He did this to survive both artistically and financially. Many of these small companies do not pay a lot and living near a major city like New York is expensive. Many dancers need to dance just to survive artistically but cannot because there are not enough jobs with large companies out there. So they are driven to go from small company to small company to dance and to pay the bills. He was not the only one in this company doing this. Just about every principal in this company was because this company only offered employment during Nutcracker season. Like I said before, The Nutcracker is not enough to survive on artistically and financially for a whole year.

How does NYCB take the live performance photos in their weekly page called Front Row Center? Are the photos taken from the video of the performance or do they have a photographer actually shooting photos during the performance. The photos are usually top notch and look like they are taken at exactly the right moment.

Bart I do not have enough experience to answer your questions. However, I wanted to thank you for posting this article. I found it very interesting to read.

Sorry. My error. :blush:

My vote is for Petipa! The first thing that comes to mind is the Shades entrance in La Bayadere.

Wow - I bet Maria would be phenominal in that role. I wonder...did Pascal van Kipnis ever dance that role? She seems like she'd be great too.

Would Elizabeth's height be the reason that she's still in the corps? The principal women seem to be on the tall side. The shortest principal female that I can think of is/was Alexandra at 5'5".

I'm surprised that Wendy is short. She always looks so tall. Many years ago during a NYCB performance I purchased a pair of corps de ballet pointe shoes for sale. I purchased them because they were so tiny. Does anyone know how tall Elizabeth Walker is? I imagine she must be petite because these shoes are the smallest adult sized pointe shoes I think I've ever seen. They are very short and very narrow.

I would love to dance Theme and Variations with Damian Woetzel. I saw him perform this ballet a while back and he was just magical. The music and choreography are just brilliant. I love ballets with high energy levels. I would also like to dance in Apollo and Serenade from Balanchine. In the classical sense, I would want to dance Swan Lake with Mikhail Baryshnikov. He is just the right height for me. Who wouldn't mind being his partner? I think it would be fun to portray the good swan vs. the evil swan. I also would like to dance Les Sylphides from the classical repetoire.

1. The opening scene of Serenade. 2. The last scene of Apollo...makes me want to cry. 3. The theme from Swan Lake...ohhh always gives me chills. 4. I'm not sure how to describe this one but in Act IV of Swan Lake there is a very long piece that is just so lovely and sad. All of the swans dance to it. 5. Raymonda's variation where she claps her hands. 6. The finale of Sleeping Beauty.

In no particular order... 1. Raymonda - scarf variation and the one in the last act where she claps her hands. Ahhh...just gorgeous. 2. Kitri's variations from Don Quixote Pas De Deux and the variation in act I where she jumps with her leg almost touching the back of her head (is this a form of sissone?). Amour's variations in Don Quixote as well. 3. All three muses in Apollo. 4. Aurora's variation from the final pas de deux. 5. Female variation in the peasant pas de deux of Giselle.