Jump to content
This Site Uses Cookies. If You Want to Disable Cookies, Please See Your Browser Documentation. ×

Roster Changes 2017-2018


Recommended Posts

Roman Mejia has also received his corps contract, per the NYCB website.

Was there a change to how apprentices become corps members? I thought that once you hit nine performances you automatically get promoted to corps de ballet. I checked my playbills and there were a few other apprentices who had nine shows under their belt. Maybe the Swan Lake courtiers/villagers don’t count?

Link to comment
2 hours ago, yukionna4869 said:

Roman Mejia has also received his corps contract, per the NYCB website.

Was there a change to how apprentices become corps members? I thought that once you hit nine performances you automatically get promoted to corps de ballet. I checked my playbills and there were a few other apprentices who had nine shows under their belt. Maybe the Swan Lake courtiers/villagers don’t count?

Typically apprentices are offered a one-season contract. At the end of that season they are either let go or accepted into the corps. I think an exception was made for Mejia.

Here's a video about apprentices:

 

Link to comment
4 hours ago, yukionna4869 said:

Roman Mejia has also received his corps contract, per the NYCB website.

Was there a change to how apprentices become corps members? I thought that once you hit nine performances you automatically get promoted to corps de ballet. I checked my playbills and there were a few other apprentices who had nine shows under their belt. Maybe the Swan Lake courtiers/villagers don’t count?

I've always wondered-- does the nine shows refer to actual performances performed or the number of roles performed across the rep, regardless of the number of performances? It just seems like they would all get corps contracts so quickly if the former, but I never attended frequently enough during a single season to confirm.

Edited by Emma
Link to comment
43 minutes ago, Helene said:

Since a dancer could end up doing four different roles in Nutcracker easily -- parent, snowflake, flower, Spanish corps -- I'm guessing that Nutcracker counts as one, unless maybe the dancer also did a "named" role?

I believe it's 9 different ballets. Not # of roles or performances.

Link to comment
On 11/11/2017 at 12:18 PM, canbelto said:

Typically apprentices are offered a one-season contract. At the end of that season they are either let go or accepted into the corps. I think an exception was made for Mejia.

 

Maybe this SAB's website on apprentices also needs to be updated.  It says apprentices can dance in up to eight ballets. It used to be that the ninth ballet apprentices performed would make them corps members automatically. I have 10 playbills from the fall season where both Roman Mejia and Gilbert Bolden are listed. They were also both in the new Reisen ballet that I didn't see.

I re-listened to Unity Phelan's episode of Conversations on Dance. She said during her apprenticeship, she wasn't cast in a ninth ballet because it would automatically grant her a corps contract. But she also said that the apprentice contract has changed. I just don't know what the changes are. Perhaps they just raised the threshold of how many ballets an apprentices can dance.

Link to comment
1 hour ago, yukionna4869 said:

Does that mean if an apprentice does six performances of Swan Lake, that counts as one?

I believe that's the case. Otherwise every woman who is an apprentice during Nutcrackers,  would get a contract at the end of a couple of weeks of doing Waltz of the Flowers. 

Link to comment

Is it being in nine ballets in a whole year (ie, 2017-18 annual season) or per season (Fall 2017, Winter 2018, etc.). On some podcast (probably Conversations on Dance), I think a couple NYCB dancers have spoken reflected their experiences of getting their corp contract, and I may be mistaken, but I got the impression it is that number per season. Then once the next season starts, you are back at zero. That would make sense as to why Nutcracker never counts--it is one ballet for an entire "season."

Edit: It was in Unity Phelan's interview (around 10:40 in)--she mentions she was kept out of the walking part in Glass Pieces  (so I think it is any part no matter the size? Which makes sense as it is likely a union-based rule) since it would have been her ninth ballet. The hosts ask her about it, and she adds more clarity that makes it sounds like it is per season (like being in nine ballets during Winter 2018 season equals corps contract, but if you only have eight or less, you start back at zero during Spring still being apprentice). Maybe I am mistaken, though.

However, this may be may be a moot point as she mentions that apprentices now have signed contracts, so the whole ballet quota may no longer be a thing!

Edited by wonderwall
Link to comment

Not sure if this is new (apologize if it is old news), but in a recent story (will disappear after 24 hours) on Olivia MacKinnon's public Instagram, she and her sister, Mary Thomas, were in the Nutcracker (Olivia as Marzipan and Mary Thomas in Spanish)--so it looks like she is also an apprentice. So, another sister duo!

Link to comment

I learned from this article posted in Links that there are seven NYCB dancers earning their degrees -- :bow: and  :flowers: to them all! -- and three will be leaving NYCB at the end of this season:

Quote

Three dancers are retiring from the company at the end of this season, with their final Lincoln Center performances on Sunday, the last day of the season. All are college graduates. Mr. Dieck, 30, has a job waiting: He will begin as an investment banking analyst at Credit Suisse. The other two, Likolani Brown and Savannah Lowery, both 33, will pursue medical degrees.

Best of health and happiness to Dieck, Brown, and Lowery -- I still have chills remembering her stellar Hippolyta during a random visit to NYC -- and luck and success in their new pursuits.

Link to comment
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...