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[dirac]

A Reuters story on David Hallberg's leap to the Bolshoi.

http://www.reuters.c...E78K3WU20110921

The Bolshoi's reputation abroad has been steadily on the rise since the Soviet Union collapsed two decades ago. This, coupled with financial incentives, are behind the West's new interest in working in Russia, Iksanov said.

"Local salaries have come close to global standards, and this has created a significant change," he said, adding that Russians working abroad have been trickling home since 2003.

[dirac]

Various items related to "Ocean's Kingdom."

A story on Stella McCartney's costumes, with slideshow.

http://www.wwd.com/f...e-right-5199823

When Paul McCartney spoke of plans to write an original score for the New York City Ballet, his daughter Stella piped up jokingly that she would handle the costumes. By chance, Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins’ teenage daughter, Talicia, was thinking along those same lines and encouraged her father to line up the fashion designer.

Related item.

http://www.dailymail...tutu-sight.html

The high-powered collaboration of music, dance and fashion sees the designer join forces with her father Paul McCartney, 69, for the new ballet production that is part of New York City Ballet's Fall Gala.

With final adjustments being made to outfits, headdresses and looks, the London-based designer, who celebrated her 40th birthday last weekend, said she was working until the eleventh hour on the dance clothes.

Preview of the ballet, with clip:

http://brooklyn.ny1....ney-s--kingdom-

So just how big a deal is it that Paul McCartney is the composer? Well, by taking a look at the publicity poster, it's clear McCartney gets top billing even over the name of the ballet.

"He [McCartney] saw the ballet for the first time last week. Loved it and had some good suggestions and I took them," Martins said.

Related.

http://www.nme.com/n...mccartney/59350

Paul McCartney has posted a clip of his ballet composition 'Ocean's Kingdom' ahead of the show's opening night in New York tomorrow (September 22).

The video, which you can watch by scrolling down and clicking below, shows rehearsal footage of the Beatle working with the performers and talking about the piece set to debut at New York City Ballet. There will be four more performances of the composition this month and then five additional shows in January 2012.

[dirac]

Michael Henry writes a blog post about the experience of collaborating with Ballet Nouveau Colorado on the ballet "Intersection."

http://www.huffingto...y_b_974441.html

Even though I've seen the performance of Intersection a handful of times, Sunday night, within minutes, I was weeping. I weep easily and all (I'm a poet), but the terrible beauty of expression in the dancers' bodies and movements, the music and multimedia images Garrett has chosen -- everything coalesces into a stunning unity I never could have imagined when writing the poems or contemplating the story. And yet it all rings so true.

Words in great poems can be gorgeous and capital-T Truthful; but the rare ability to express complex ideas through the movement of bodies is beyond language. And the BNC dancers are so adept at bringing the Intersection characters to life, imbuing them as actors would with their own emotion and wisdom; each character has become something I didn't envision, and I love that. Ballet is an art I knew little about before I met Garrett, but now I think I understand its almost primal power to move an audience.

[dirac]

Reviews of the Royal Ballet in "Jewels."

The Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph...den-review.html

Jewels, the 1967 three-parter with which the Royal Ballet this week launched the final year of Monica Mason’s directorship, is often billed as both Balanchine’s response at the time to the sparkling displays in Van Cleef & Arpels, and as the first ever full-length plotless ballet. The latter boast is just about fair, the former debatable.

The Arts Desk:

http://www.theartsde...ls-royal-ballet

Last night opened Dame Monica Mason’s final season as director of the ballet, and perhaps she hopes that Jewels will show the Royal as adept in all the great ballet styles - the French of Emeralds, the American of Rubies, the Russian of Diamonds - that haunt Balanchine’s imagination in this radiant, wonderfully constructed ballet about ballet. In the event, the show was more of a demonstration of sound English style, polite, right, not over-enthusiastic, and lacking imaginative relish except from a few exceptional individuals.

For one thing, the right conductor for Fauré, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky would be someone with more zing in his baton than Valeriy Ovsyanikov, with fresher eyes on the familiar....

The Evening Standard:

http://www.thisislon...den---review.do

Quieter charms were provided by Emeralds, which opens the evening. Tamara Rojo and Ryoichi Hirano (replacing an injured Federico Bonelli) were the lead couple, although Leanne Benjamin and up-and-comer Alexander Campbell (recently arrived from Birmingham Royal Ballet) also shone.

The Financial Times:

http://www.ft.com/cm...l#ixzz1YcTOVxS6

The Royal Ballet opened its 65th season at Covent Garden on Tuesday night. Not necessarily an important anniversary, but it will bring the close of Monica Mason’s decade as director of our national ballet next summer. To recall the company as it was 10 years ago, after the dreadful year in which Ross Stretton’s directorship had reduced the troupe to a confused and uncertain state – the Queen’s Golden Jubilee gala remains a nightmare for those who sat incredulously through it – is to recognise how much Dame Monica has achieved in re-invigorating the company and its identity.