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Roster Changes at ABT


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Frankly, Kristi Boone hasn't really been doing much for several seasons now. She did a few runs of "Giselle" as Myrtha but otherwise her roles have been ones that could be done by an accomplished corps dancer. Her retirement will open up a soloist spot for a deserving corps dancer like Gorak.

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Frankly, Kristi Boone hasn't really been doing much for several seasons now. She did a few runs of "Giselle" as Myrtha but otherwise her roles have been ones that could be done by an accomplished corps dancer. Her retirement will open up a soloist spot for a deserving corps dancer like Gorak.[/quote

I agree completely. Or if her spot has to go to a female I'd vote for Shevchenko or Teuscher.

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Just back from my one ABT-Kennedy Center performance this season (Sat. matinee DON Q w/ Boylston/Simkin...see other thread on the season for my report). I just read the entire roster of ABT dancers and am shocked to no longer see Joseph Phillips' name. Does anyone know where he went? Wow.

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Just back from my one ABT-Kennedy Center performance this season (Sat. matinee DON Q w/ Boylston/Simkin...see other thread on the season for my report). I just read the entire roster of ABT dancers and am shocked to no longer see Joseph Phillips' name. Does anyone know where he went? Wow.

His move to Vladivostok was reported in these forums last summer:

http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/37688-joseph-phillips-has-moved-to-vladivostok/

I haven't been able to find much on his activities over the past year. I agree with what others have said about Kristi Boone. There has been a feeling of stagnation over the past couple years, which may of course be beyond her control.

I was always thrilled whenever I would open my playbill and find Riccetto cast in a soloist role. She was one of ABT's most musical dancers, and brought beautiful technique to her roles. That said, I found the telecast of her Swan Lake with Julio Bocca's company to be merely proficient. It showed she could carry a full-length ballet, but it may not have made the desired impact on ABT's management, assuming they tuned in. As much as I loved her dancing at ABT, I'm not sure she is a dancer with great dramatic depth or acting ability.

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16-35.

It depends on the dancer and the company. If a dancer is being fast-tracked, like Darci Kistler and Patricia McBride were, in a company like NYCB, where almost all of the dancers are home-grown -- ie, have spent four-seven years at SAB -- and the Company has a policy of promoting on promise as well as after it has been long earned, younger dancers are given great opportunities up front, and the Company has the money and promotes fairly regularly -- like NYCB for most of last four decades -- the dancer could spend a year or two as a corps member before being promoted to Soloist and another one-two years to become a Principal. If the Company has a policy of bringing in most of the Principals from the outside, like ABT, and doesn't promote all that regularly, or if the Company doesn't have the money -- hard to make the case for promotions when the corps is being cut -- it can take forever. There are also companies like POB where dancers compete for empty spots in the ranks before Etoile, and that depends on how many dancers leave a guaranteed job with a pension. There could be years before a spot opens, and then there's a lot of competition for the spot. (I don't know if there are any age restrictions or maximum number of times a dancer can compete for the spot, de jure or de facto.)

For a long time at PNB, for example, Russell and Stowell would hire dancers as Soloists from other companies, and most would be promoted to Principal the next year, after they had spent a year proving themselves in Principal roles. There also wasn't much money, and the rank of Soloist was skewed in this way. It's rare for any dancer to make it up the ranks quickly, and almost all promotions in the last two decades, aside from the brought-in-as-soloist-with-the-expectation-of-making-Principal have been long overdue, based on the roles the dancers have been carrying. Imler, Postlewaite, and Porretta were exceptions to the rule.

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16-35.

There are also companies like POB where dancers compete for empty spots in the ranks before Etoile, and that depends on how many dancers leave a guaranteed job with a pension. There could be years before a spot opens, and then there's a lot of competition for the spot. (I don't know if there are any age restrictions or maximum number of times a dancer can compete for the spot, de jure or de facto.)

There is no general (admitted/Legal) age rule at POB, but the past years have seen some kind of regularities in promotions. I guess that independently from the concours system, it comes also from the AD politics. No maximum time as well, you can compete each time positions are available in the next level until your retirement age (42,5)

Due to the age pyramid, position are quite frequent (although not always numerous) in the lower ranks (coryphées, sujet), of course less often as Premier/première Danseuse, but positions are more or less still available every one or two years... Some time, "older" dancers are not competing because the imposed variation doesn't suit them, sometimes because there are just a couple of positions and obvious younger talents in the ranks. But usually, it seems dancers like to compete even if they have few chances to be promoted because it means for them the possibility to work on solo variations and to perform on the main stage alone, even if conditions are not the best.

It's different for the competition to be Premier Danseur/Première Danseuse. It is quite rare that you can be promoted after you reach your mid-30s, mostly because they are the "stock" to become Etoile. However, I think Christophe Duquenne was promoted very late as well as Stéphane Phavorin, perhaps because few positions were available in their age group before.

As for Etoile, technically gifted are named fairly young and it feels like -recently at least- artistically brilliant are named later, when you don't expect a dancer to dance physically demanding classics and also they seem artistically needed for the company repertoire.

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Does ABT have a standard time that apprentices are promoted to corps (or not)? I've been listening to Balancing Pointe podcasts to find that NYCB typically chooses apprentices after the Workshop performances and announces the corps promotions at the end of the Saratoga Springs season, unless they pass the magic number of performances (currently six) that gives them an automatic promotion. (Not exclusively: one dancer said she and another dancer were chosen right before Nutcracker, and another had been chosen the month before.)

The apprentices who don't get contracts can stay at SAB until the following audition season (Feb-Mar). I hope the same is in place at ABT, since the audition season is over.

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WOW! Congrats to them all! Very glad to see Zhurbin get a promotion; didn't see that one coming.

BUT....not Eric Tamm??? He should have been promoted with all of the soloist/principal parts he's been dancing for a few years now. Am very unhappy he was left out.

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WOW! Congrats to them all! Very glad to see Zhurbin get a promotion; didn't see that one coming.

BUT....not Eric Tamm??? He should have been promoted with all of the soloist/principal parts he's been dancing for a few years now. Am very unhappy he was left out.

It seemed like they were trying him out for awhile but more recently he hasn't been given as many of those roles.

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WOW! Congrats to them all! Very glad to see Zhurbin get a promotion; didn't see that one coming.

BUT....not Eric Tamm??? He should have been promoted with all of the soloist/principal parts he's been dancing for a few years now. Am very unhappy he was left out.

Absolutely thrilled for Joey and Roman!!! (As we all hoped for!)

Devon and Christine are very deserving of their promotions too. I agree about Eric Tamm...it seemed liked he was on the promotion track and then it stalled, but he's still getting all the roles and performances (and does them well).

Isabella's promotion = I'm not surprised...but do I think she's ready, no. But with Paloma retiring at the end of the 2015 season, Julie very limited in roles, Hee's need to solidify her technique, the company is needing another ballerina who can dance the entire companies repertoire. The promotion was definitely needed in therms of timing, but I do hope that other soloists (cough Stella cough) will get a chance to dance some principal roles during this time of transition for the company.

Overall, this list of promotions makes me happy as the company is indeed working to fill those holes in the roster, but it may still be a few years until we see true payoff.

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