All Activity

SF Ballet and NYCB on Jewels On Saturday, April 10, join SF Ballet Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson in conversation with former New York City Ballet principal dancers Kay Mazzo, Mimi Paul, and Edward Villella as they share their thoughts on Balanchine’s iconic ballet Jewels. Tickets are $20, and donors get $5 off classes. https://www.sfballet.org/productions/celebrating-jewels-2/

Got it! I may not have ever posted except to say hello. I've been a reader of the site on many occasions though. Thanks for the response.

I too watched the interview/coaching session of the Siren last night, and I found it surprisingly lackluster. The interview portion was repetitive and superficial, with Kowroski, Clark, and Jackson repeating the same things: don't overact, you grow into the role, and the cape should be expected to malfunction. Then on to the coaching session. Unfortunately, it had nowhere near the nuance and interest of the City Center Studio 5 series with Tiler Peck/Merrill Ashley and Sara Mearns/Nina Ananiashvili. It shows Clark going through the cape solo again and again, with Lisa Jackson saying things lik

NYCB has an in-depth article about Prodigal Son: https://www.nycballet.com/discover/stories/spotlight-prodigal-son/

An update on how the impact on the arts, including dance, is playing out. "Devastating, unviable, admin overload: UK stage companies count cost of Brexit" https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/feb/24/uk-stage-companies-brexit-europe It's all very depressing.

Here's the link for those interested in watching. https://youtu.be/Wz1yfSLH3o4

Just watched the Prodigal Son discussion/coaching session. Confession, I'm not the biggest fan of "story" ballets, and I've seen Prodigal so many times over so many years, that I've been avoiding it for quite a while. Seeing this renewed my interest. I can't wait to see the stream of the ballet, but more than that I can't wait to see it live again. My appreciation for the work has been renewed

Streams from the Vienna State Opera 23 February - Kátja Kabanová 24 February - Věc Makropulos 25 February - Příhody lišky Bystroušky 26 February - Carmen 27 February - Giselle (production by Elena Chernishova) 28 February - Le nozze di Figaro https://play.wiener-staatsoper.at https://www.wiener-staatsoper.at/en/staatsoper/media/detail/news/current-streaming-schedule/

It's not exactly my opinion. It's true that I know very little about minority Slavic languages, such as Kashubian, Upper Sorbian or Lower Sorbian. But I can assure you that there are no -s plurals in Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovakian, Slovenian or Ukrainian. -S plurals are the norm in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese, but not in Italian or Romanian, and not in most Germanic languages either.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Poet Who Nurtured the Beats, Dies at 101 An unapologetic proponent of “poetry as insurgent art,” he was also a publisher and the owner of the celebrated San Francisco bookstore City Lights. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/23/obituaries/lawrence-ferlinghetti-dead.html If you ever lived in San Francisco, you likely know about the Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and his beloved City Lights bookstore. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE_8WK3tBuE

Some fun window shopping: Van Cleef & Arpels has created a trio of watches inspired by Balanchine's Jewels...which itself was likely inspired by Balanchine's walks past VC&A, a series of emerald, ruby, and diamond brooches by the brand in the '40s, or through conversations with Claude Arpels — depending on which source you look to. Not in my budget, but fun to look at. "Bringing the inspiration for Balanchine’s masterpiece full circle, Van Cleef & Arpels has placed each act on the wrist in a trio of timepieces that use gem-setting, enamel painting and mechanical watchmaki

Due out sometime this year (2021) is the animated film “Mavka, The Forest Song.” According to the video to be found at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3Ne0swwtnc a Mavka (plural Mavky) is closely related to a Rusalka except that Mavky live on land - Forests, Meadows or Mountains. (Thus connecting a Mavka with Rusalka and by extension with a Vila and a Wili.) Also based on that video a Mavky can be similar to the Wilis from the ballet “Giselle” in that in some cases Mavky are women who end their lives because of unrequited or tragic love and refuse to go to the underworld. A di

Again thank you for your comment Volcano Hunter. I suspected that no Slavic language forms a plural by tacking on an “s” at the end of a noun, but I wasn’t sure of that, so I am glad you offered your opinion. As to what can be gleaned about the ballet by studying folkloric sources maybe nothing. I started this topic with the two paragraphs which inspired the ballet, then compared those paragraphs with a description from the Marius Petipa website and pointed out that they do not agree. As simple as that. In addition the world premiere of the ballet was in Paris the year prior to the Saint

Free Pointes of View LecturesOn the first Wednesday after each SF Ballet Digital Program premieres, listen to a free interview on the SF Ballet Facebook page and YouTube channel. March 10 includes Carrie Gaiser Casey, PhD, Dores André and Jahna Frantziskonis on Program 03. On April 7, Sasha De Sola, Sasha Mukhamedov, and Pascal Molat discuss Jewels. And April 28, join Tiit Helimets, Elizabeth Mateer, and Joseph Walsh on Program 05.

What a remarkable coincidence that Teresa Reichlen should have given birth just a few days before being featured in the stream of a ballet based on a tremendous story about—at least in part—the nature of parenthood! Furthermore, this is happening under the worldwide tribulation of a pandemic, which adds even greater resonance to the phenomenal parable of Jesus! Whatever criticism one may proffer about Balanchine's treatment of the tale, and particularly how he handles its climax, Prodigal Son nonetheless remains a spectacular achievement for the choreographer and serves splendidly as a monumen

AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE AND NATIONAL SAWDUST PRESENT THE WORLD PREMIERE OF WHAT BECOMES OF LOVE? CHOREOGRAPHED BY SONYA TAYEH, THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 6 P.M. ET ON FACEBOOK Rhye. Photo: Emma Marie Jenkinson. Sonya Tayeh. Photo: Shervin Lainez. In a unique collaboration, American Ballet Theatre and National Sawdust, the non-profit Brooklyn-based music venue, have joined forces to present the World Premiere of What Becomes of Love?, a dance film choreographed and directed by Sonya Tayeh and set to music by Rhye (Mike Milosh). What Becomes of Love? will b

Maria Bulanova (cont.) This afternoon she performed Medora (Le Corsaire) and it's already on the internet. She seems to have a very good video following. For fouetté fans, she performed all doubles, closing with a triple. I don't believe that I've seen this before and all as clean as can be. She's a picture of health and often a charmingly lovely burst of vibrance. Also posted today from Wednesday, Oxana Skorik (Odette/Swan Lake) with Nikita Кorneyev. Along with her always exceptional dancing, it's an unusually fine and penetrating expressive performance, especially in faci

I forgot to mention that SFB has made the 2021 Virtual Gala (edited version) available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjejgK61gjs

Lovely thank you for posting.

Tess Reichlen just had her baby. Congratulations Tess! https://www.instagram.com/p/CLktSu9gN_E/

As far as I know, no Slavic language forms a plural by tacking on an -s at the end of a noun, but that's true of many languages. I'm also not sure all that much about Giselle can be gleaned by studying folkloric sources. Ballet's wilis probably owe more to the imagination of Gautier, and I've learned not to expect anthropological accuracy in ballets.

Pelléas et Mélisande from the Grand Théâtre in Geneva, staged and choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet.

Thank you volcano Hunter, for your comment. I have found cases where the plural of names of female beings similar to the “Willis” is formed by an “i” or “y” at the end instead of an “s” and in the Encyclopedia Britannica article the plural of Vila is formed by an “e” at the end. As there is no one plural ending for vila (vila/wila) it also seems that the characteristics of a Vila, Rusalka or Mavka varies across the Slavic Language area. Tom,

If you posted before, no. If you never posted, then in August, when we tried to do our semi-annual purge of members who had never posted and hadn't logged in within the last year, the software ignored the "not logged in in more than a year" input and purged everyone who had never posted. I posted about that back in August.

Was there a site reset or something? Anyone know why I couldn't even use the "forget" password button to get back on?