SimonA

I'm thinking of coming down to Miami for the first time for the Ratmansky premiere and was hoping for seating advice at the Arsht Center. What are the sight lines like? Any places I should avoid (there's some kind of lighting booth in the orchestra?)? Thanks!

Discounted orchestra seats available for $39 for Wednesday and Thursday: http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/event/BQBSE?promotionno=221914

I've been informed by another (usually reliable) observer that they weren't piqués but rather fast single pirouettes from 5th.

Reduced to $30... I have an extra ticket for the opening night performance of ABT's Sleeping Beauty on May 29 at 7:30 (Murphy/Gomes). Side Parterre Box 6, Seat 3 (in the front row of the box). Face value, including fees, was $101. I'm selling for $30 and can meet at the theater before the performance. Thanks!

Casting is up: Le Sacre du printemps (Stravinsky/Hodson inspired by Nijinsky) Pavlenko (1/27, 29, 31m, 2/1m), Petushkova (1/28, 30, 31e) Le Spectre de la Rose (Weber/Fokine) Shapran & Kim (1/27, 30, 2/1m), Selina & Stepin (1/28, 31e), Krasnokutskaya & Popov (1/29, 31m) The Swan (Saint-Saëns/Fokine) Lopatkina (1/27), Shapran (1/28, 31m), Skorik (1/29, 31e), Kondaurova (1/30, 2/1m) Paquita Grand Pas (Minkus/Petipa) Soloists: Lopatkina & Ivanchenko (1/27), Kondaurova & Yermakov (1/28, 31m), A. Matvienko & Askerov (1/29, 31e), Skorik & Ivanchenko (1/30, 2/1m) Variations: Ivannikova, Shapran, Sodoleva, Asaben, A. Matvienko (1/27, 28, 31m); Nikitina, Shapran, Sodoleva, Asaben, Kondaurova (1/29); Ivannikova, Kondaurova, Sodoleva, Asaben, A. Matvienko (1/30, 2/1m); Ivannikova, Shapran, Sodoleva, Asaben, Kondaurova (1/31e)

All remaining orchestra seats for the Sat and Sun Don Q matinees are being discounted for $35. Offer Number "177159." http://www.kennedy-center.org/events/?event=BOBSE&promotionno=177159

I saw The Dream opening night but missed the first half of the program. It was a joyous performance of a beautiful, warm, funny, tender and moving ballet. There aren't enough superlatives in the language for Cornejo's Puck, who stole the show. The pas de deux, for me, didn't quite ignite. Kent was stylish and idiomatic, with gorgeous epaulement, but her dancing was somewhat careful. Gomes' technique wasn't perfect, either, as he had some trouble holding the attitudes in the mirror adagio (in the "Y pose"). Still, minor quibbles in what was a buoyant performance. And, yes, the orchestra was somewhat sloppy, but I'll take the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra any day over ABT's often wan, listless, and scrappy in-house band. The children's chorus did have a false entrance in the coda, which was somewhat distracting...

Aargh!

Has casting for this season been posted anywhere?

Just FYI -- The last time I visited the NYPLPA in June, I was required to sign up for a library card simply to view the videos (and not check anything out), which I had never had to do before. The process was relatively painless, but it took up about 15 or 20 minutes of my viewing time.

Such hopes dashed already on opening night. Osipova out injured, replaced by Reyes in the Corsaire pas de deux (Boylston replacing Reyes in Symphony in C).

A persistent debate in literary criticism. "Motiveless malignancy." "Ontological absence." Spurned homosexual desire. Pick your poison.

I saw Corsaire on Thursday. I'll leave my thoughts on the dancing for another post, but, in brief, the new production is not very different from the old one (at least, as I've seen it on the 1999 DVD with Stiefel, Kent, Malakhov, et al.). It's essentially the same in spirit, and quite similar in detail. The only narratively significant departure -- to the extent that narrative is significant at all in this silly ballet -- is that

I didn't notice any changes.

How was Veronika Part in the Balanchine slow movement tonight?