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Vito Mazzeo Leaves SFB?


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SFB posted on their facebook that Mazzeo's last performance with the company was last night. Was this announced ahead of time? Rough blow to have two male principals leave in the same season (thinking of Vilanoba at the end of the season too). Any ideas where he is going (back to Italy or back to the Royal??)? He's too young to retire.

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SFB posted on their facebook that Mazzeo's last performance with the company was last night. Was this announced ahead of time? Rough blow to have two male principals leave in the same season (thinking of Vilanoba at the end of the season too). Any ideas where he is going (back to Italy or back to the Royal??)? He's too young to retire.

That's a bummer, really - I don't think there's been any talk of Vito leaving this year. He's been a great asset to the company.

SF Ballet has developed a problem in that they have a large number of excellent male partners, but not nearly as many principal ballerinas. And if any of the women get hurt, or more than one, then the soloists have to fill in - which is great for them, but not as many stars means not as many tickets sold. And, this is just my opnion, so far none of the female soloists have the 'star' quality people like to see. Fine dancers, but not truly exceptional. I won't name names, but I don't choose to go to a particular performance to see one of the current female soloists. I go to see Tan, Kotchetkova, Van Patten, Feijoo, etc. All of those ballerinas deliver time and again.

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There was no announcement and it was only during the bows of Symphony in Three Movements when all the cast members started pelting Vito Mazzeo with red roses and a bouquet or two were thrown at his feet from orchestra or first rows of the audience did you suspect something unusual was up. Then Helgi Tomasson came out to present him with a bouquet and it became official.

At San Francisco Ballet Mazzeo danced McGregor Borderlands, Wheeldon Within the Golden Hour, and Ratmansky From Foreign Lands (often as the single vertical organizing element). He also danced Symphony in Three Movements with Yuan Yuan Tan, Plegmatic from The Four Temperaments, and the second movement of Symphony in C with Sofiane Sylve, all superbly.

He says in a recent Twitter entry that he will dancing with the Dutch National Ballet next year.

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Luke Ingham is new to the company this year, but he's been partnered up with YY a few times that I've seen, and I'm thinking that's a relationship they're trying to cultivate. The question I fret about, though, is when YY will retire. She's been dancing there a long, long time. And like Pherank said, there aren't currently a lot of star-quality soloists at this time. Gorgeous, accomplished dancers, yes. But not the kind that sear an imprint into your heart and you go back if only to catch a glimpse of them and their magic again. (Pherank, your list is mine, and I'm sure we'd both agree that Vanessa Zahorian is the first etc.)

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[Admin Beanie On]

For anyone who is not a member of the "Editorial Advisor" group:

Official news only. If it hasn't been published/announced by the company through word or action (retirement bouquet and solo bow, being removed from the roster), tweeted by a dancer on his personal blog or public ("like") Facebook Page -- not info that can only be accessed by personal invitation -- or published in the mainstream press in an article and interview, it is not official news.

"I heard" is NOT official news.

I apologize for having missed this thread and being so late to edit out the unofficial news.

[Admin beanie off]

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I was the one who provided info about certain company members leaving, and I didn't provide official sources because I didn't know they were needed. Those sources (albeit news/interviews that are not directly from SFB) do exist, however, and they aren't that hard to find on the Internet:

Damian Smith: http://nit.com.au/news/2178-damian-in-gala-performance-for-australian-ballets-50th.html (Note that the gala referred to was held late last year).

Garen Scribner: http://www.getthefive.com/articles/the-eye-candy/pro-portrait-ballet-dancer-garen-scribner-is-drive/ Garen has also referred to his leaving SFB for Nederlands Dans Theater on his public Twitter page.

Pierre's retirement has already been publically announced by SFB.

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Post info without links to official sources, not matter how easily found on the internet, is in violations of the Terms and Conditions and Rules and Policies of Ballet Alert! As we mention in them, we can't force you to read them, but we'll moderate the board as if you have.

Backstage rehearsal sheets and photos are not public, and therefore, not official sources, and the info in them is considered private to the company. I trust you won't post this info again.

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An interesting description of Mazzeo and Villanoba's final performances from Toba Singer:

"Symphony in Three Movements coincided with a special evening for San Francisco Ballet’s principal dancer Pierre François Vilanoba: his sudden retirement from the company. Villanoba, who is French, is a 15-year company veteran, and while his retirement was expected, that plan was fast-tracked by an injury during a performance a week earlier, and news of this, his last performance, spread mostly by word of mouth. Nonetheless, a shank of retired SFB dancers, as well as stalwart company members not scheduled to dance in this matinee, mobilized to offer support and participate in the moving if silent farewell at the close of the program.

Because of Vilanoba’ shoulder injury, he danced in the first half only of Symphony in Three Movements, and Vito Mazzeo, a principal dancer who believed he had danced his last performance with San Francisco Ballet just a few nights earlier, substituted for Vilanoba in the second half of the piece. Both partnered Vanessa Zahorian."

http://http://calitreview.com/37342/san-francisco-ballet-presents-criss-cross-francesca-da-rimini-and-symphony-in-three-movements/

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from @VitoMazeo1

April 20, 2013

eh sí...erano tre anni che lo volevo provare, siccome e' l'ultimo giorno prima di a dare all' HET ho fatto questa pazzia

roughly:

"And so for three years I wanted to experience [life at San Francisco Ballet?] and then at the last possible moment, I did this mad thing and threw myself over to HET ... "

Not the usual cautious career move but kind of wonderful ...

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Backstage rehearsal sheets and photos are not public, and therefore, not official sources, and the info in them is considered private to the company. I trust you won't post this info again.

I won't. The rehearsal photos were posted by SFB on their public Facebook page; are they then still considered private to the company?

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As I mentioned earlier, photos posted by companies and dancers on their public-facing websites, Facebook pages, blogs, tweets are official sources. If companies or dance professionals choose to make backstage photos public, that's their privilege. There is detail about official news our Rules/Policies threads.

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Mazzeo was unique here. I agree with everyone else, we're really giong to miss him. He was expecially fine also in Mark Morris's Beaux, where his wit turned out to be visible from the back. The's a delicacy abouthe way he projects -- but htere's no pallor to it -- it's a ravishing star quality. He's not our only wit -- at various times, Joan Boada, Taras Domitro, Damian Smith, James Sofranko, Pascal Molat have been wonderfully funny -- but Mazzeo's sallies are more like mood shifts that affect everything by creating lightness of heart all over hte stage -- more like delight than hilarity.

I hate to see him go.

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from @VitoMazeo1

April 20, 2013

eh sí...erano tre anni che lo volevo provare, siccome e' l'ultimo giorno prima di a dare all' HET ho fatto questa pazzia

roughly:

"And so for three years I wanted to experience [life at San Francisco Ballet?] and then at the last possible moment, I did this mad thing and threw myself over to HET ... "

As wrote and pictured in his first tweet "Il mio primo coccodrillo", the mad thing he wanted to try for 3 years was eating crocodile and he had it in his last day in SF.

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