ballet-a-holic

Hello! I also saw the Friday evening performance. Julie Kent was very good in the first act, her mad scene being teriffic, and her second act was superb. Jose Manuel Carreno was very noble throughout the ballet, and his dancing, especially the second act variation, as mentioned earlier, was . His dancing always amazes me. They both looked very nice together and delivered wonderful performances. Erica Cornejo was a very big standout in the first act. I had never seen her dance before and was extremely impressed. My sister (who also dances) and my dance friends agree with me that she was so exciting to watch and so captivating! I was happy to see Gennadi Saveliev dance in the second act because I enjoy his dancing and thought he did a great job. It was a bit funny to me that when he was supposed to look tired by the end of his dance with the willis, he still had so much energy nonetheless and was still great to watch. Finally, when I have been reading the reviews of ABT on the boards, I know that Veronica Part has quite a large fan base and so I was very interested to see her dance as Myrtha. First off, she was so tall on stage, she made you give her your attention. She had beautiful arms and impressed me. She seemed to improve throughout the evening as her jumps started shaky and not as controlled (her height a factor, perhaps?) but later got under control and displayed beautifully high jetes. She also kept in character the entire time and was a very cold Myrtha. Overall, I had a wonderful evening seeing ABT's Giselle. It was a solid production, and even the corps was very impressive in the second act! The dancing was very beautiful, and I hope they return to Chicago again sometime soon.

I saw it on Feb. 13. I very much enjoyed it being a dancer who has never seen any Ashton ballets with the exception of La Fille. "Les Patineurs": This ballet was a very cute and enjoyable ballet. The scenery and costumes were great as was the choreography! Dancing-wise, it was very nice. They definetally did a very good job . There were also some definate standouts; Masayoshi Onuki with a great solo full of elevated but light jumps and multiple turns and much energy. Another was Deanne Brown who had a duet part. She had fantastic stage presence and mastered beautiful but strong 28 fouette turns with an occasional double easily in a solo moment! "Monotones I and II": This started off with Monotones I and lead to Monotones II. They are both beautiful and interesting pieces. The cosutmes and lighting also added a cool effect. Monotones I was done nicely. I felt the two female dancers were a little off balance in some spots, but they (along with Calvin Kitten) made beautiful positions nonetheless. Monotones II was performed with nice musicality. The choreography obviously called for a flexible female dancer. The dancers all seemed very controlled in this piece and the music was great, too. These were probably my favorite of the whole performance. "A Wedding Bouquet": I would like to say first off that I thought the narrator was a fun touch to this ballet. It was a lot of acting, not so much dancing and was very fun and playful. Deanne Brown was great again as the maid, Stacey Joy Keller had great presence as the bride, Britta Lazenga was very funny as a drunken Josephine, Elizabeth Mertz was a very dramatic (that it was funny as it was supposed to be I assume) Julie? Julia? (I don't have the program with me.) And Jennifer Goodman was so cute, playful, and joyus as the part of the dog! It was a very nice evening and I very much enjoyed it.

You are welcome. Hope it works out!

I am aware which one you are discussing- are they with the slave girls (referring to the PBS 1999 ABT version)? If so, I am not sure where to get a copy, maybe amazon.com or borders.com? I also believe there is a post discussing the music, too, so it may discuss where to get one. There is a website I came across while searching for a classical piece and it has many classical recordings. The website is iclassics.com. I hope that was at least a little helpful.