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Thanks for this reminder. Premiers by company dancers are a nice way to develop in-house choreographers but one can't help feeling that they may be another money-saving measure as well. The Schreier premier is the highlight for me --and a chance to see her Pleiades Dances in the theater. After that, the Paquita--which is both a wonderful slice of classical dancing and, of course, rather a test of where the dancers are as classical dancers. When it was danced by the company during Nedvigin's first season, the "second" cast, which was the only cast I saw, struggled--at least so it seemed to me. And the dancers who were (to some extent) exceptions--Mara, Nash, and Rogers--are all of them no longer with the company. I will be curious to see Giselle as well, but probably take a pass on Nutcracker. Of course, I'm assuming that the Covid situation in GA will be well under control . . . if there is any doubt . . . well, no live ballet for me.

I had recently read about the quarantine issue and was wondering how that impacted Osipova. (Though if that's behind her decision, she has not said so...) I assume one problem traveling/guesting dancers have is that the scheduling is done ahead of time but Covid makes things unpredictable.... (Kekhman accused Ananiashvilli of lying a few months back--dispute over directorship of Novosibirsk ballet--so that's kind of his m.o.)

With Covid raging out of control in Russia mainly due to low vaccine take up., she's right to stay put. Also if she went almost anywhere abroad right now she faces ten days of quarantine on return. He should show more understanding.

Wow -- this is really bad and sad.

I'm glad Merchant spoke out. She's long been one of my "desert island" dancers in the company. If she were leaving on her own, I'd just feel sad, but since she's not, as audience, I feel robbed.

Leah Merchant has released a statement on her Instagram on her departure. https://www.instagram.com/p/CQT7TJogcwo/?utm_medium=copy_link

An interesting, moving, and enjoyable read...and what a striking portrait of Mitchell's huge presence, on-stage and off.

I am, too. I attended part of an online Zoom conference she organized, and one of the best takeaways was the often ignored Black foundational teachers: most of the dancers interviewed had their early training in neighborhood schools. Ballet training doesn't start the moment a student joins a pre-professional program.

Finals are on now. Here's the link to BBC 3: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_three

This summer, Jacob's Pillow has very limited capacity on site, but they are also offering streaming for their programs and also for some programs from other locations. The streams are free, but there is a fee (as far as I can tell, you can add several different streams to your shopping cart but the fee stays the same, so the more streams you decide the see, the cheaper per stream). You do need to sign up in advance. Dates and times (* indicates ballet program): * July 1, 7:30 pm, Crystal Pite's Body and Soul, Paris Opera Ballet (this streams from the POB) July 8, 7:30 pm, Nrityagram (Indian classical dance), streaming from Bangalore July 15, 7:30 pm, Dorrance Dance--(I recommend, especially for anyone who hasn't seen her work before or only her ABT works--I'd love to see this myself, but will be at SPAC for NYCB). July 17, 3:30 pm, Eastern Woodland Dance (local indigenous dancers) July 22, 7:30 pm, Contra Tiempo July 29, 7:30 pm, Ballet Hispanico August 4, 7:30 pm, Brian Brooks/Moving Company August 19, 7:30 pm, Dallas Black Dance Theater August 26, 7:30 pm, La Tasha Barnes Presents the Jazz Continuum September 2, 7:30 pm, STREB *September 9, 7:30 pm, Ballet Coast to Coast, features Boston Ballet, Houston Ballet, and PNB performing separately and together Note that the Pillow has other streaming programs available, including PillowTalks, family programs, and school performances (and I make no guarantees that I didn't miss any of the main performances). https://www.jacobspillow.org Also, through tonight at 7 pm, they are streaming their Global Pillow gala featuring Black Grace (New Zealand), Candoco Dance Company (United Kingdom), Companhia Urbana de Dança (Brazil), Germaine Acogny (Senegal), Hong Kong Ballet (Hong Kong), Nederlands Dans Theater(Netherlands), Nrityagram Dance Ensemble (India), Paris Opera Ballet (France), and others. Global Pillow also features Dormeshia, the recipient of the 2021 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award, who premieres a new work. https://www.jacobspillow.org/events/global-pillow/

San Francisco Ballet School has posted their virtual end of year performance. From their Facebook: The 2021 Virtual Festival celebrates the resiliency of the San Francisco Ballet School community who kept dancing during the pandemic. The program showcases the student body, from Level 1 to the pre-professional Trainees. School Faculty members share how they adapted to teaching ballet virtually. And three newly captured ballets, including two world premieres, anchor the evening. We’re offering our community the chance to watch the full program for free, or with a suggested $29 donation, from June 18–24. Sign up to get the link in your inbox here → https://bit.ly/2ThB6Bh #balletinbloom #sfballetschool

The Stuttgart Ballet in a program of works by Christian Spuck, Marco Goecke, Edward Clug and William Forsythe. On demand until June 21.

I'm surprised the article totally avoids mentioning fellow DTH alum Theresa Ruth Howard. Her Memoirs of Blacks in Ballet website https://mobballet.org/index.php/about-us/ is phenomenal and the NYT even did an article on her last August. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/06/arts/dance/theresa-ruth-howard.html

Good points for sure! I hope that their rep brings in the revenue that they are hoping for. But I do agree that nothing they're performing warrants a plane trip.

Viewers in the UK, US and Canada can purchase access to the British Ballet Charity Gala featuring Ballet Black, Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, New Adventures, Northern Ballet, Rambert, Scottish Ballet and the Royal Ballet, and hosted by Darcey Bussell. The stream will be available until July 18. https://stream.roh.org.uk/products/british-ballet-charity-gala The program includes pieces by Sophie Laplane, Will Tuckett, Jonathan Watkins, Kenneth Tindall, David Bintley, Matthew Bourne, Yuri Possokhov, Andrea Miller and Valentino Zucchetti.

That Swan Lake was in the works for a long time. If they looked at other options in DC next season, Giselle must have seemed like it had great potential as a safe money-maker after the long drought of serious revenue. Not something I'd jump onto an airplane to see, but still...

A lot of seasons look like this: companies need to get people in the theater or streaming and to refill their coffers.

And there was this: The photos are wonderful.

Is it just me, or does the 2021-2022 rep seem a bit boring? Perhaps one less full length and another mixed-bill.

Nice piece with photos on former dancers from the early days of DTH in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/17/arts/dance/dance-theater-of-harlem-pioneers.html?smid=url-share I did think it was a bit unfair regarding Misty Copeland and Virginia Johnson. And while the article cites Debra Austin and Aesha Ash at NYCB, there's no mention of Cynthia Lochard, Myrna Kamara or Andrea Long, or Anne Benna Sims and Nora Kimball at ABT. (Not to mention Llanchie Stevenson, a DTH pioneer who converted to Islam, gave up ballet, married and had seven children!)

The Song Prize has been awarded.

Links went out for the program, and it's a weeper.

I do wish that the ROH's marketing department would buy themselves a thesaurus as they are working the words "excited ", "exciting", "thrilled"and "thrilling" to death. The truth about the forthcoming ballet season is that the two new works make it interesting and the works selected for revival come as no surprise at all and even when their casts are announced are unlikely to excite or thrill. With the casting which has been announced for the first booking period the season remains an interesting one rather than an exciting one. In my view the 2021-22 season as a whole is far too serious and would have benefited from considerably less earnestness and a bit more frivolity in the mix. A revival of Fille even if only for eight performances would have been a great improvement. The 2021-22 season is essentially a conservative one much of which is designed to generate income. It holds few surprises because most of its contents were originally programmed for the 2020-21 season. Kevin has promises to keep in terms of premieres and major debuts in Swan Lake. The Dante Project was supposed to be premiered this season and was intended to be the last work which Watson appeared in as a dancer and company member. At the same time a number of younger company members several of whom have recently been promoted to the rank of principal were prevented from making their scheduled debuts in Swan Lake by the pandemic which is why the ballet is being revived. I understand why Romeo and Juliet and Nutcracker are being programmed but not why there are quite so many performances of either ballet. I can't help thinking that another revival of Coppelia would have been in order if only to provide a choice of ballets at Christmas. The 2019 revival was very successful and left most people who attended those performances wondering why Coppelia had been out of the repertory for so long. Even if I end up disliking it I am intrigued by the thought that Wheeldon is making a ballet based on " Like Water on Chocolate" to me it seems as improbable and potentially as foolhardy as making a ballet based on Rostand's Cyrano Bergerac. The best news for me is the Ashton mixed bill and the fact that it does not include Marguerite and Armand. The return of Scenes de Ballet is welcome but I do wish Kevin would permit us to see a much wider range of Ashton's output rather than a selection of works which simply reflects his own likes and dislikes. Daphnis and Chloe would be at the top of my list for revival closely followed by his revivable works from the 1930's including Apparitions and A Wedding Bouquet.

Interesting article regarding a feud between Osipova and the "Banana King" https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/18/arts/dance/natalia-osipova-mikhailovsky-feud.html

Washington Ballet has just announced their 2021-22 season: https://www.washingtonballet.org/seasons/2021-22-season/ Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Giselle, Next steps