37 replies to this topic

[carbro]

:huepfen024:
In my time zone, it is tomorrow!

[Marga]

Mine, too. I just changed "tomorrow" to "later" after I realized it.

[mom2]

It was quite the evening, wasn't it?





I have checked online versions of the Star, the Globe, and the National Post - nothing yet. Grr.

Off the topic of the competition, what did everyone think of the performance of Voluntaries? I thought it was wonderful (save for the difficulty one corps couple had with some lifts), but my husband - who would have rather been at a hockey game - wasn't overly impressed.

[Leigh Witchel]

The Bruhn competition doesn't have the same sort of structure as other competitions - it's all in a single performance and announced on the spot - so unless I've got our current rules wrong you should be able to report the results if they were officially announced at the public performance - rather the same way that if Karen Kain came out at the end of the show and announced they were adding another performance of X to the season, it would be allowable here. The thing that's off limits is news that isn't meant to be public.

So spill

[Natalia]

Who won??? What the crap....that's what these boards are for - to report the news! I did not wait until the papers hit the street to report on umpteen competitions that I've attended during the past 10 years, writing to all of you from places like Varna, Moscow, Shanghai, Jackson, etc. What's so holy about this one? Spill the beans, please...Who the blankety-blank won????

[mom2]

Let me start by telling you about the drama.

The first portion of the evening was the classical repetoire. ABT presented the Grand Pas from Sleeping Beauty, The Royal presented Bluebird pdd, NBOC was Le Corsaire, and the Royal Danish did pdd from Flower Festival in Genzano.

All did well, but the standout HAD to be Keiichi Hirano from NBOC with his gravity-defying leaps. Absolutely amazing....until the point that something went wrong and he had to limp off the stage!!! (this was in the final section of the pas). His partner was dumbfounded no doubt, the orchestra played on, and finally the partner (Tina Pereira) filled in the music with some turns in the middle of the stage.

Needless to say, we had no idea what the next portion of the evening would bring.

After intermission we were told that Keichii had injured his achilles and couldn't continue. Luckily for Tina and the audience, Guillaume Cote had stepped in and partnered her in the balcony pdd from Romeo and Juliet (Cranko).

That will give you a taste of the evening....more in a few moments.

m2

[mom2]

OK, next installment....curious yet??

For the Contemporary section of the evening we saw the following:

Royal Danish: Opus, Chor. Tim rushton

Royal: R and J balcony scene (MacMillan)

ABT: exerpt from Petit Mort (Kylian)

NBOC; Balcony Scene, R and J (Cranko) - with Guillame Cote partnering Tina Pereira.


I have no idea how the nboc costumes arrived so quickly, but they did - Cote and Pereira did wonderfully. Ms Pereira was truly a star under the circumstances.

I loved the performance of the couple from the Royal Danish - had never seen that piece before.

Misty Copeland was stunning in Petit Mort - I think she stands out much more in the contemporary work - at least she did last night.

The women from RDB and Royal Ballet were wonderful in both of their pieces, but the women's prize went to Tina Pereira.

The men's prize went to Ulrik Birkkjaer from the Royal Danish Ballet. I enjoyed him very much, and I also enjoyed the RDB choice of pieces. This is a very talented young man.


m2

[Helene]

Thank you, mom2!

Congratulations to Ms. Pereira and Mr. Birkkjaer! It's great to know that the RDB school is training men in the great tradition of the company.


BTW, Leigh is absolutely right about our policy: a public announcement (or posting of the winners) is official news.

[Marga]

..... and finally the partner (Tina Pereira) filled in the music with some turns in the middle of the stage.

What made the audience gasp was that those turns were fouettés, which, of course, are part of the female variation in Corsaire, but during the immediate confusion following the injury, the stage was bare as the orchestra played on. Suddenly Tina Pereira ran into the center of the stage and began to turn, and continued turning -- her fouettés propelling her to the front of the stage -- during the music for her partner's tours à la seconde, finishing with not a grand flourish, but a sort of petering out before the count in the music was up, and assuming a pulled-up-in-fifth, down to b-plus school ending as the music came to a close. The audience greatly appreciated her quick-thinking bravado and aplomb.

[mom2]

Thanks for that Marga!

To be honest I wasn't completely sure that she had done fouettes. That's what I was recalling, but most of my brain was still on "oh no! what happened!!"

You describe it much better than I would have been able to!

m2

[ami1436]

Would love to hear your thoughts - those of you who were there - on what you saw!

[EvilNinjaX]

I second Marga's comment. I've been going to Dance Teq on and off for over 4 years. I also wanted to add that they have some wonderful pianists as well, that make taking class there a real pleasure. I've mostly taken class with Kevin Pugh, Cindy Macedo, and Martine Lamy. Each have really different teaching styles, but all are excellent. It's a great environment because the classes are a mix of adult students, professionals, and everything in between and no one is competitive at all. Let me know if you have any more questions about the studio.

Well, I went to Dance Teq on Sat morning 11-1230. It was a wonderful class and i enjoyed it very much. Thanks for the recommendation.

-goro-

[Natalia]

Thanks for th results!

Could somebody please simply post the names of the competitors - 1 man and 1 woman representing each of the 4 or 5 ballet troupes? For example, was Yao Wei the representative of the Royal Danish Ballet? (I had heard possibly yes...in which case, I'm amazed at anyone who could have bested her, as she is extraordinary.)

Congrats to the winners!!!

[mom2]

Competitors:

American Ballet Theatre:

Misty Copeland and Jared Matthews

The National BAllet of Canada:

Tina Pereira and Keiichi Hirano

(originally Bridgette Zehr was scheduled to compete, but withdrew due to injury)

The Royal Ballet:

Yuhui Choe and Fernando Montano

The Royal Danish Ballet:

Yao Wei and Ulrik Birkkjaer

[Paquita]

Just quickly, a few of my impressions:
The standout performance last night, for me, was "Petite Mort" hands down. Misty Copeland and Jared Mathews are both lovely dancers, but their Sleeping Beauty pdd just didn't do it for me. But when they came back in the contemporary round I was really blown away!
I was also very impressed with the Royal Ballet couple. Fernando Montano in particular has gorgeous lines and epaulment in all his jumps. Wonderful stage presence also.
As for the NBoC dancers, Hirano's entrance was so daring it commanded everyone's attention. His performance was confident and clean-- he looked better than I have ever seen him. What happened during the coda is very unfortunate. I hope he will be back in time for the spring season. Depending on how serious the achilles injury is, it can take months (Rex mentioned that he had a similar injury recently).
I have always been a fan of Tina Periera, since her first soloist part in Monotones I. It was nice to see her back, and performing so well despite the circumstances.
The young dancers from the RDB were both excellent and after all the Petipa, their "Flower Festival" pdd was a nice change of pace. Also, these two dancers seemed to have the best rapport/partnership on stage. I quite liked Opus as well, although it was a bit generic. I'm not crazy about the music (Valentin Silverstrov), but the choreography highlighted the dancers' lyricism and expression. Both Yao Wei and Ulrik Birkkjaer will be ones to watch in the future.
And yes, Voluntaries was good except for some syncronicity issues in the corps. In terms of the principals, it doesn't get much better than yesterday's cast: Greta Hodgkinson, Aleksandar Antonijevic, Xiao Nan Yu.