Victoria Leigh

Lots of traffic signals still out in this area and in DC. Power out in many places still, including Washington Ballet. We were not able to have classes Thursday, Friday or today. Not even sure about next week yet. The company is rehearsing with existing light in two of the studios, using flashlights in the dressing and bath rooms, and working with battery powered boom boxes. I'm going in to rehearse Pas de Quatre in a few minutes.....not quite sure what the situation will be, but my guess is that all the batteries must be dead by now!

Haven't talked to her, but she has been online today, so I'm assuming she is also one of the lucky ones with power

I'm in Bethesda, MD, two miles from the District and two miles inside the beltway. I never lost power, but was very lucky, as most around here did. Just across the street they are still dark. The traffic signals are almost all out all over the county and in the District. There are hundreds of trees down, and hundreds of thousands of people in the DC/MD/VA area who are without power. The Washington Ballet has no power yet, as of about an hour ago when I last checked. Schools are closed, so ballet classes are canceled too. It got a little scary here for a while, but was not as bad as expected, at least right here where I am. I've seen lots worse, growing up in Florida! However, there is still considerable flooding and damage in many areas, so "izzy" was not a "fizzy" at all. Hard to imagine what it would have been like had it maintained it's original strength!

I'm sorry, jazzerina, but I haven't been able to locate any information on this one.

Thank you for that information, soretoes, and welcome to Ballet Alert! Online

Interesting question, Glebb. I have asked so many people from the old ABT days. Gail was my roommate on tour for years, and I have not seen or heard of her since. No one seems to know. Maybe someone here will know something about her! I would love to be in touch with her again.

Then perhaps it should be a company of all soloists and no corps de ballet! Just kidding, but seriously, if this is the case, then they should not try to do Swan Lake or any of the classics. But do you really think he intended Serenade or Symphony in C, for instance, to not have the look of a corps de ballet? I'm afraid I will have to rather strongly disagree with a good, clean, together corps de ballet looking like robots, in Giselle or anything else. When there is a group dancing together, they are intended to be together and do the same thing at the same time, with legs and arms at the same place. Otherwise, you have chaos.

Mark, I'm not going to try to "give you a lesson in counting" on this format, however, to answer your question, YES, Stravinsky music usually needs to be counted and Tchaikovsky often does not! There are many examples, but works like Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, as well as many other very classical ballets have the type of score that is just very easy to hear and most of the melodies are clear and the phrases relatively even. With more modern composers, like Stravinsky, Bartok, Poulenc, etc., one often must count. Try counting Stravinsky's Les Noces, for example

Watermill, I think you have a point. Back in the "old days", when I was in ABT, there were far fewer dancers, and I really do think the corps was much better in terms of uniformity. Of course we also had Dimitri Romanov rehearsing us to the eyelashes!

I think it's very hard to make a group of dancers work perfectly together when their arms and legs are all over the place and do not have a consistent line. With NYCB, in terms of the legs, it's the tendency to have them out to the side instead of behind them, and with varying degrees of this, it's bound to look "off". With the arms, besides the broken wrists and stiff hands, it appears to me that there is no pattern to the way they move from one place to another. Again, creates a lack of consistency. This is a problem in the schooling, and it affects ABT as well, since their dancers are from all over the place and have not had the same schooling. Generally the coaching there works better in terms of getting them all to do the same thing, however, I too have seen years where the corps was quite underwhelming. :rolleyes:

Nor can I, Old Fashioned! Will be making trips to Houston again :cool2:

Barbara Bears has returned to the company, and will dance some Aurora's. Not sure which ones or how many. Julie Gumbinner is also scheduled for her first Aurora. The latest HB News Magazine also shows Barbara Bears in a photo from In the middle..... New dancers are: Andrew Murphy and Simon Ball, principals Corps: Michelle Carpenter, Ilya Kozadeyev, Frances Perez-Ball, James Gotesky, Pamela Lane Apprentices: Travis Bradley, Bridgett Zehr, Barry Kerollis, Erin Patak, Chavo Killingsworth, Alex Pandiscio

Unique, the Studio company is like an apprentice company. It is a small company of very promising young dancers who are almost ready for a major company, but need a couple of years of experience first. Same idea as an ABT II or a Joffrey II, etc.

I seem to remember seeing something somewhere sometime, about the POB School, in a film with Violette Verdy, who was a child in the film. Do not remember the title or anyone else in the film, nor where and when I saw it. The title "Le Petit Rat" comes to mind, but don't know why, and that may be just because the students at the school have that title? Not sure at all, but I'm pretty sure there was a film with Violette.

Oops, sorry mbj! I misread it. :mondieu:

I'm going to disagree with Mbj here, which is very rare indeed! I do NOT think it should or needs to be left to modern dance to teach ballet dancers to move. If they are taught to move instead of pose, meaning that ballet is taught with movement built in, as I believe it can and should be, then one will have dancers who can move. BALLET dancers who can move. I do agree that they are hard to find these days, but I do find them, and I do teach them to do it, so it is being done by some people. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of posing being taught, and a lot of dancers who do look wonderful at the barre and totally fall apart in the center. I see that too, and agree with mbj that is certainly exists. But that is the fault of the teachers, not of ballet. :rolleyes:

Giannina, it's lovely to hear such positive words about ABT! I'm especially happy to learn that Renata Pavam has been given something special to do. She was here with us for a short time when she was about 15 I think, during a vacation in her country, and she showed amazing potential at that time. A beautiful and very delightful young dancer!

Hans, how about Carla Fracci?

Nope, definitely not all female! Quite a few males, but there are some females too. B)

Lulu, we don't recommend using websites for ballet history. Although you can find some information that is accurate, there is probably a lot out there which is not reliable. We strongly suggest the library for this!

Not to my knowledge, glebb. I think Ballet Russe may have been the only company who did that?

Tudor's Romeo and Juliet!!!

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And not everyone in the USA uses center barre either, grace! I do not. I usually do a first center combination, prior to adagio, which uses the positions of the body with tendus or dégagés, temps liés or tombés, maybe a rond de jambe or two, sometimes using more tendus or even frappés, and sometimes adding pirouettes or pirouette preparations. I think this is basically the idea of what they do in "center barre". I don't see the need for a separate thread for arabesques, as they are "steps" too! In fact, they are steps, and I even prefer to think of them as things that move, as opposed to "poses", because poses become too rigid. :hyper:

Good idea, thank you Alexandra! :bouncing: