Jayne

back to Breaking Pointe - I grudgingly watched the show on the CW website. Regarding the copywrite - would it apply to Paquita? They appeared to use a Maly stager, so I assume they were not using the Balanchine variations choreo. Is the music or russian choreo to Paquita copywrited, or has it long expired? If the latter, then CW should have shown more dancing with the correct music under it.

did any of you watch the BB youtube piece on Mr. Whiteside? He states he attend the ABT summer program for 2 years in a row, before moving on to other programs. So I think he was a known quantity to ABT. How is that any different than any of the corpsmen at ABT? I'm not sure. But I'd have to see him perform on stage (not just youtube) to have a better idea of his qualities.

I'm glad he's going to continue to share his talent

I doubt McKenzie would have been satisfied with a glass ceiling at "flagship soloist" playing Princess Aurora's father, etc.

I think it's pretty natural for a European art form to have a heavy following of European descendants in the New World. Do we hold other dance styles to the same standard as ballet? If Disney made a TV show about Vietnamese Americans performing in a traditional dance school - would she twitter that there are not enough white or black people participating?

I think it's hard to become principal material when you're never offered the opportunities for full length ballets. ABT has a wealth of principal women - both foreign and domestic. But perhaps Abrera, Seo and Copeland will land elsewhere as principals. SFB has been known to hire stars away from other companies, and Houston has hired a few (and was home to another African American principal, Lauren Anderson, who could coach Copeland for the full lengths). Copeland is from California, maybe the chance to finish out her career where family can come see her? There are plenty of daily flghts from the major Los Angeles Airports that go to San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose.

wow, that is a good price! Thank you so much for the link, it is enormously useful.

I suppose lots of people have bad days at the office, and when you can find videotape on youtube of mistakes, and edit them together, it looks far worse.

I also saw the 3rd performance on Saturday night. I don't have my program in front of me, so I'll try to do this from memory. Jerome Tisserand made an excellent Franz, he doesn't have much air on his jumps, but he is so smooth and secure in them. He had a couple of centering issues on some spins, but his lifts made Swanhilde look light as a feather. He acts well, and has matinee idol good looks. The slicked back hair is a good look for him. While I think Kaori Nakamura is the best dance-actress at PNB (especially in soubrette roles) I looked forward to seeing Lesley Rausch, and she didn't disappoint. She had the pique, youth, and aplomb that makes the character so appealing. I liked, but didn't love William Yin-Lee as Dr. Coppelius. The character was a little one dimensional to me, Jeffrey Stanton is the gold standard in this role. The costumes and sets continue to please the eye, and the little girl corps seemed better practiced this time around. The corps looked fine, but again, the acting in the 1st act was inconsistent - especially for the Hungarian dance - which needs smiling throughout. I know the cast had a large sprinkling of professional students, and there were a few standouts (unfortunately without my program in front of me, I cannot ID them, perhaps I will come back tonight and edit this post). Leta Biasucci is a real steal from OBT. She is definitely on the soloist-track for 2013. And deservedly so. She played the best friend (who finds the key) and in the 3rd act leads one of the golden hours. Carrie Imler performed a lovely Prayer to great applause, Laura Gilbraith performed a servicable Prayer (I think the steps are somewhat unexciting after all that preceeds Prayer, so all dancers get a humdrum response from the audience), and Maria Chapman made Spinner stand out (of course That Dress is also an attention-getter). Kiyon Gaines substituted for Bakhurold Bold as the lead in Discord & War with Lindsey Dec. I thought it was awkward at the debut, and still think it's strange, but it is a fun dance to watch. I had a 4th row seat, so facial expressions were very clear to me. D&W dancers seemed to shift from big smiles to stern looks throughout the performance. All steps were big, and looked imposing after the delicacy that came before it. IMHO, they should stick to stern (as D&W in real life isn't a happy occasion). Mr. Gaines' headdress kept falling back. I still think this is the best Halloween costume, ever. The audience was involved, and seating was about 80-85% full. I heard a lot of Russian around me. I went to the discussion afterwards, but can't think of anything to add that hasn't already been stated on the boards. After the 2nd act, my seatmates were talking about one dancer who looked startlingly gaunt. I much prefer the physiques of Carrie Imler and Leta Biasucci. The extra muscle that Ms. Imler and Ms. Biasucci carry allow them greater physical control, stronger jumps, cleaner steps, and more believably youthful faces.

I watched a bit this morning, rain drenched, but colorful and fun. I wouldn't want to stand for 3-4 hours straight, as the Royal family must do. The event struck me as a bigger version of the Opening Day of Boating Season when the Conspicuous Consumption boats parade through the Montlake Cut after the rowing races.

think of it as stimulus spending. If everyone grand quit spending money - a lot of employees would be laid off. The Gloriana employed British ship builders over the past 2 years, and frankly, even in a recession, we all need a reason for a party. I read that the British pay about 69p each for the Queen. But the return is about 2.50 Sterling in tourist dollars visiting Royal related sites.

Theme & Variations - looks very clean.

Exactly my thoughts (except I only watched one episode of "Laguna Beach" and gave up, so never saw "The Hills). In trying to capture the daily grind, they focused on some pretty banal stuff. I would have preferred more time spent on the practice sessions, because Ballet West does have some beautiful dancing. Meh, I'll give it one more episode before I quit. Maybe I'm just not the CW target market / demographic - they want the same girls who watch "America's Next Top Model".

If you're a student in one of the big regional companies, or at SAB, then the audition tours are part of your program. But if you're a Brazilian kid from a barrio, or a Japanese student from a small town, then these competitions are important to win - in order to secure a summer or year long scholarship at one of the big programs. Most people don't live "happily ever after" at the age of 18. There's still a lot of life to live, with all of its ups and downs. About a dozen years ago, a college chum turned his favorite hobby into his profession. He moved 800 miles away, his girlfriend quit her job to move with him. He lasted about 2 years, and then quit to return to an 8-5 job in his original city. Why? Turning his hobby into his job ruined all the love of it. I did the same thing about 7 years ago, accepting a position with a non profit that I admired and had volunteered for extensively. But the internal staff politics and micromanagement drove me insane, and I left after 14 months. Sometimes we dream of how our future will be, but reality doesn't match our dreams.

Do ABT female soloists / principals ever get poached by other companies?

I commend the designer for taking a risk on the Rubies costumes. I was expecting the design to be more flapper, perhaps not an exact replica of the NYCB costume, but with jewel placement that looks more like this (for the decoration design, not necessarily the loose costume): http://en.wikipedia....26full_crop.jpg I don't think the Bolshoi design is a failure, I like the movement of the silver layer, perhaps if there was a matching ruby layer just above that was equally flashy.

I immediately thought of Elvis Stojko when I read your comments.

and another... BTW, the Bolshoi Jewels has a few Dress Rehearsal videos now up (I like the costumes!). Nice to see the company really embrace the challenge.

there's no fool like an old fool.

I was disappointed, I thought the costumes would be more strongly similar to the Junon dress, but I do like the tiaras. They are replicas of the Kokoshnik "hen's comb" style, which was popular in the late 19th century among royals - an imitation of the Russian peasant Kokoshnika headdress style - which the Tsarina then copied, and then the other royals had to have them too. http://orderofsplend...alexandras.html (the jewelry section of this website was fun to explore, makes you wonder which tiaras will be worn this summer for the Queen's Jubilee - maybe they will pull some of the rarely worn ones from the vault for the newer royal ladies to wear?)

I saw this documentary tonight on Xfinity under the "free movies" category, watch it if you can! I think it's also on youtube.

booo! Skip Swan Lake ppd and Baiser divert and show us *all* of Million Kisses! I never posted my review of the show, but that was one of the best experiences I've ever had as an audience member. I felt like I was walking at dawn on a beautiful early summer day, with the dew fresh on the grass, the air full of promise and birds chirping flirtations. And that was even with some hand-hold misses and one fall in the performance! Baiser left me cold, and as we've already discussed, the SL ppd isn't nearly as effective out of context. If anything, I'd rather see the Diamonds ppd as a prelude for next season, since I just saw an SL excerpt last fall. Unfortunately I don't donate nearly enough money to PNB to throw my weight around regarding programming choices. ;)

Sandik - thank you for finding that dress link, it's gorgeous and I hope the NYCB corps agrees! Regarding the velvet for the men, my first thought was of pragmatism, Velvet is hot and doesn't stretch much, this can be very important for male dancers. But hopefully there will be stretchy inserts at the seams.

Per the Saturday matinee I saw today, here are the pieces scheduled so far for the Season Encore: After the Rain ppd Apollo Black Swan ppd Carousel (A Dance) Prodigal Son ppd Romeo et Juliette Balcony ppd Coppelia excerpts Divertimento from 'Le Baiser de la Fee' A Million Little Kisses To My Skin

Tamara Rojo http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/dance/9201064/Tamara-Rojo-named-English-National-Ballets-new-Artistic-Director.html