15 replies to this topic

[flo]

Several apprentices got corps contracts last month:  Alina Dronova, Sophie Flack, Dara Johnson, Teresa Reichlen, Sean Suozzi.  Amar Ramassar got his in July.
Also, some SAB students were apprenticed for Nutcracker, so we will see more new faces when the season opens.

[sneds]

Sean Suozzi got his contract a while back..he's not new.  Daniel Ulbricht also got his contract!!!! Yay!!!  

Also, Elena Diner is now Elena Stein (marriage?, if so congratulations!).
Kate

[sneds]

Flo...
Do you know who the new apprentices are at NYCB? I'd love to have the info for my webpage (see below)
Thanks!
Kate

[liebs]

I think Ashlee Knapp and Savanah Lowry were both made apprentices.

[pookey]

Megan Fairchild was made an apprentice

[Juliet]

Katie Bergstrom, Lauren Fadeley,  Megan Fairchild,  Ashlee Knapp,  Megan LeCrone, Savannah Lowery.....

Jerome Johnson and Christian Tworzyanski....

These are the definite announcements for now.....

Good wishes to all--

[Michael]

Re the new corps contracts -- has anyone left the company, or does this mean that NYCB is expanding the number of its dancers?  

One of the reasons that none of the Wien award winners got apprenticeships last spring, at the time of the SAB Workshop, was that there simply wasn't room.  Has that changed?

[ November 15, 2001: Message edited by: Michael1 ]

[Michael]

Based on a quick check of NYCB's website, it seems that Jenny Blascovich, Andrea Hecker and Aubrey Morgan may have left.  (The Queen is dead.  Long live the Queen).

At least six dancers in, three out, would mean the company is indeed growing, and it was very large already.  I have to think that, with benefits, even a new corps member would have to cost the company at least 70k a year.   Fundraising and revenues are good, chez City Ballet, which has new endowments also for stuff like choreographic institutes.  Is there a larger company in the world today, numbers wise, than NYCB?

[ November 16, 2001: Message edited by: Michael1 ]

[Estelle]

I think that the POB is larger (but I don't remember the exact figure (at least around 120).
Perhaps also the Kirov and the Bolshoi? But of course, having large public subsidies help...

[sneds]

Hi!
I've read that the NYCB dancers' contract stipulates a minimum number of dancers in the company, and I believe that the number of dancers has been hovering around that key number. Martins may be covering his bases in case he has more retirements/injuries/illness. Remember the Margaret Tracey is set to retire in February, and that many of the principals are older or dancing "part-time" i.e. Robert LaFosse, Darci Kistler.

Also, not every dancer can dance every role, and Martins may be thinking ahead to replacing "role" gaps in the company. For instance, Dan Ulbricht, who is along the lines of Adam Hendrickon and Tom Gold, may eventually fill in the gap when Gold moves on-Gold is in his (mid?) thirties and a part of the cheoreographic institute.
And of course, the heavily Balachine rep of NYCB is often taxing, requiring lighter loads for corps dancers and more "back-ups" in case of injuries. It's not like in one of ABT's big story ballets where a slightly injured dancer can still be used in a "non-dancing" role to "decorate the stage".

POB is definately larger..but I think that's a whole different ball game. Doesn't POB essentially break into two companies?

Kate

P.S. If I were Martins, I'd have all ears open to the troubles over at ABT. Perfect time to convince one or more of their great young male dancers that NYCB is more stable/better paying/etc. etc. place to dance.
(Thinking of Michael1's comment about Wien award winners..neither of the 2001 male winners has been given an apprentice contract...does this say something about the male talent or lack there-of at SAB? )

[Estelle]

[quote]Originally posted by sneds:

POB is definately larger..but I think that's a whole different ball game. Doesn't POB essentially break into two companies?

---

Not really: there often are two parallel series of performances, one in Garnier and one in Bastille, but as far as I know there are now two really separate "groups" in the corps de ballet, it depends on each production. And there often are dancers who dance in both productions in the same period (mostly among the principals, but also among the soloists and demi-soloists). At the end of the season, there sometimes are so many injured people that one wonders if the company actually is big enough!     

By the way, Kate, your SAB alumni page is very interesting.

What are the Wien awards winners? Is it a special award for the "best" SAB students? It must be frustrating for those young dancers to be told they are excellent, yet not to have an opportunity to get an apprenticeship into the company...

[ November 16, 2001: Message edited by: Estelle ]

[Juliet]

While not venturing to Know Better than Anyone Else, I would submit that online musings about decision-making at NYCB is neither helpful to Peter Martins in his decision-making, or productive of anything which might even approach helpful, either to the administration there or to the dancers being discussed.

The Wien award is given to dancers of great ability and promise.  Company rosters thin for various reasons--dancers leave because they are not happy with how they are being utilized, their goals change, they want to change locale:  a huge variety of reasons.  Similarly, the administration hire dancers for a variety of reasons:  not all having to do with ability or how many awards received.

Sometimes it is a question of a "look," sometimes a matter of work practices, sometimes personality meshing/clashes---the level of dancing at any professional school is going to furnish many talented and committed people.  They are not all going to get contracts with NYCB and in some cases, it is true that the match with another company would be far better.  

I would submit that discussion of these students'  futures isn't appropriate here--when they are all in companies and dancing for the public, then we can review how clever and far-thinking a particular administration was to snap up this particular talent.

City Ballet has a very  wise and very generous policy of allowing dancers from other companies to take class.  Just because Joaquin de Luz has been taking class does not mean that he is going to jump ship--it might, but again, it might not.  I am sure that Peter Martins is astute enough to take who he thinks he can use and it is no reflection on the "male talent or lack-thereof at SAB."

I do not think that anything other than congratulatory messages toward the new apprentices  are in order on this board.  Remember, these are students and the level of self-criticism is high enough in this art.

On another note:  yes, NYCB is large, but Kirov and Bolshoi are larger.....
although who knows what the situation will be for the future.  Things seem to be in a great state of flux...

[Alexandra]

While it's always good to remember that it's possible that the people we write about read this board, I don't want that to squelch discussion.  All of Juliet's points are good ones, but I doubt that Mr. Martins, or other company directors, are looking for advice from the internet  smile.gif   It probably doesn't hurt them to know what their audience, or at least a vocal part of it, is thinking.

[Michael]

OK, is there a bigger company numbers wise in the US than NYCB or how do the numbers compare with ABT, Seattle, San Francisco, or Miami?

I agree with you Juliet that discussing students is out of bounds.  When they become apprentices, on the other hand, the company puts them on the stage and it's fair for the audience to comment.  I don't think that I post on the board because I think that the company should notice my comments or will.  It's more that I want to share my perceptions and reactions with others in the audience.  Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of the new corps members and apprentices this fall  because they always dance a lot in the Nutcracker, it's for that they're particularly needed over the next six weeks, sometimes two performances a day.

[ November 16, 2001: Message edited by: Michael1 ]

[Juliet]

Nope, I think that NYCB is the largest game in this country.........

I agree that discussion of apprentices is appropriate, but I just didn't think that an examination of the selection process ought to go any further, that's all.

In any case, with the huge number of  holiday performances that these large companies do, all hands are definitely needed--San Francisco,  and Pacific Northwest, for example, as well as Boston Ballet's....do they utilize students much  and in what roles?