California

Was the house reasonably sold? The Theatre Development Fund has had $34 tickets for the entire run for weeks and still does.

With 9 SLs in Australia and some principals missing, this would be a golden opportunity to give some soloists a chance -- Lane, e.g. I can't imagine that Vishneva or Cojocaru will join the tour. Copeland made her company debut in Coppelia in the Abu Dhabi engagement, although she had already been announced for the Met season by then, too. Perhaps an out-of-country debut is a good way for some to shake their nerves before trying this in NYC. It's interesting that word about Copeland leaked out early (as it also did for her Coppelia). Mmm...wonder who leaked it!

Gillian just tweeted that she will be doing SL in Australia, too. But there are a lot of performances to cast!

Speaking of Tweets, Hallberg is usually very active and sent out quite a few last week regarding Giselle. But radio silence on the Swan Lakes and Dreams ahead.

Wendy Perron of Dance Magazine just tweeted that Misty Copeland will do O/O on the Australian tour. What roles has she done in NYC this season in SL? Anything other than the four little swans? Any BAers in Australia? Apologies! I didn't notice that onxmyxtoes had posted this. As I haven't seen any SLs in New York this year, I'm still curious what roles she has had.

It's an interesting conflict of interest. Can one make innovative artistic decisions for one's company if one is benefitting financially from the (perhaps mediocre) status quo? Funny -- the first thing I thought of was NYCB and all those Martins ballets! PS: I have a lot of trouble editing those quotes!

Was anybody at the open rehearsal Monday afternoon? Bolle sent out a re-tweet that Bolle and Seo were substituting at the last minute in the Act II rehearsal for Hallberg and Semionova. That all happened, of course, before the Murphy injury Monday night. So, that opens up different possibilities -- e.g., that Hallberg just didn't feel ready for SL with Polina (or vice versa). On a related matter: I don't know that these details have ever been made public, but how are big stars paid when they cancel a performance (like Cornejo last week) or add ones (like Gomes, several occasions this season)? I assume these are negotiated individually for the big names, but for Marcelo's sake, I hope he's getting major pay for each performance!

It depends a lot on which box! The ideal boxes in the Parterre level are 5 & 6 -- three in from the stage. You're still close to the stage, but with minimal loss of sight in the far back corner on your side. Boxes 1 & 2 do lose some of that back corner, so you have to pick carefully, depending on the ballet. For R&J, don't sit on the side with the balcony set, as you'll miss that. For Giselle, avoid the side with the grave. Never, ever sit in the second row of any of the side boxes. The Met crams way too many chairs into the boxes, for one thing, and the back row is seriously obstructed. I've never found a perfect seat at the Met. I normally like to alternate between up-close to see details and farther back to see overall patterns. But the first tier at the Met is awfully far back (and among the most expensive seats). Orchestra seats are a problem in every theater for me, because of the heads in front of you. Side orchestra on the aisle usually works as you're at a slight angle with no heads (and many recognizable critics sit there, which tells you something). What's peculiar about the Met is that the first six rows or so actually slope downward away from the Pit. I was in the fifth row, side orchestra, on the aisle for the Reyes Manon (which would have been a spectacular seat in other houses) and was shocked that I could not see feet! I suppose those seats work for tall people. For me - never again. So the side boxes are a worthwhile trade-off if you like to see principals up close and are careful in choosing.

And Hallberg just sent out this tweet a few minutes ago: David Hallberg ‏@DavidHallberg 3m Thank you again @DancingAlina for a show that has stayed with me all day today.

I have never understood ABT's lame subscription program. You pay full price for the tickets and do not get any sort of discount for additional purchases. NYCB and companies all over the country offer perks like that and seem to be doing well. Presumably, somebody at ABT crunched the numbers and decided they do better insisting on full price and then papering the house with student rush and studio give-a-ways. I tried a pick-your-own trio at ABT a couple of years ago with very detailed instructions on preferences and that's what I got. But I could have gotten those when singles go on sale in April at the same price. If you live in NYC, you can trade subscription tickets, I gather, but I can't think of any other perks. Here's the package of perks at San Francisco Ballet -- pretty nice: http://www.sfballet.org/tickets/subscribe/subscriber_benefits

Thank you, nysusan, for posting this photo of Mosina and Tyukov from the Colorado Ballet. I never miss any of their performances here in Denver and encourage anybody else who has a chance to see them to grab it. Their Giselle last October (5 performances over two weeks) was as extraordinary as anything I have seen anywhere. Twice, he just swoops her up without any apparent effort and they hold that balance forever. (BTW - I usually refer to that as the tabletop lift - has anybody else heard that?) Both are Russian born and trained (she at the Bolshoi, he at Perm), but they have been in this country for many years. Alexei was the one who explained at a Q&A/luncheon last year why he does the brises. And he does them beautifully, even though he's rather tall.

She'll have to buy her foie gras out-of-state -- it's been banned in California since 2012: http://articles.latimes.com/2013/aug/30/business/la-fi-foie-gras-20130831

Those of you looking forward to Cojocaru/Cornejo next week in SL might want to look at this short video clip, just sent out by Kobborg: http://instagram.com/p/pe-rriKdMO/# Marcelo, ever the gentleman, posted this still yesterday: http://instagram.com/p/pelZwhiuaX/#

Thanks to Batsuchan for the link to those wonderful clips of Vishneva and Gomes in Giselle. We complain constantly that ABT should be recording these marvelous performances for distribution on DVD or PBS. We can thank Mariinsky for recording them, instead. Perhaps someday they'll release the complete performance on DVD!

Vol. 3 will be released July 1, 2014, with excerpts from Swan Lake and Coppelia: http://www.amazon.com/Balanchine-York-City-Ballet-Montreal/dp/B00K64TMBI/ref=sr_1_3?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1403207390&sr=1-3&keywords=new+york+city+ballet+in+montreal

Note that the only casting announced so far for the La Scala production is Zakharova and Hallberg. As Ratmansky seems to have a lot of control over the casting in his ballets, we might wonder if that means Hallberg will also be in the ABT production in 2015 at the Met and perhaps even the Segerstrom premiere. It's interesting that Bolle, a La Scala principal, is not listed, nor is Osipova, a regular La Scala guest and Ratmansky favorite. Of course, this might change: http://www.teatroallascala.org/en/season/opera-ballet/2014-2015/sleeping-beauty.html

PBS is showing an on-line sneak preview of the film Thursday, June 19 at 8:30 Eastern (the site says EST, but I'm guessing they meant EDT): http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/tanaquil-le-clercq/online-sneak-peek-screening-with-the-film-director/3094/

Let me comment on the entrechats vs. brises discussion here. I had a very interesting exchange last year with Alexei Tyukov (trained at Perm) at a luncheon/Q&A when Colorado Ballet did Giselle. All three male principals there do the brises, and I was curious how they decide whether to do those or the entrechats. (Gil Boggs, the company director and former ABT principal, lets them decide which they do.) Alexei pointed out that the brises on the diagonal come straight at Myrtha and capture the dramatic point that Albrecht is under her spell. The entrechats are typically done facing the audience, ignoring Myrtha and losing that dramatic point. Made a lot of sense to me. The gold standard for the brises is Baryshnikov in the 1977 Live from Lincoln Center performance with Makarova (later released on VHS) -- fast, far off the floor, covering the stage, gasp-inducing. They look equally exhausting as the entrechats when well-done (as Alexei's definitely were). My memory is that American audiences had not seen the brises variation when Baryshnikov did those in the 70s. When I look at various recordings, Nureyev does the entrechats, but the Russian-trained dancers seem to do both versions. PS: I am so jealous of all of you who got to see the Vishneva-Gomes Giselle on Monday. As both are in their mid-30s, we have to wonder how many more years they'll be doing this ballet. I'll have to arrange my travel in 2015 to make sure I see this while they're both still in their prime!

I skimmed it. He does provide a lot of detail on his interaction with Balanchine, which is interesting. I was struck at how informal and un-bureaucratic Balanchine was in those days in hiring dancers, letting them take leaves of absence, etc.

Indeed! Apparently the Kaplan Penthouse only holds 250 people in a performance set-up. It's pretty amazing the LCF management didn't anticipate the huge demand for tickets for this event: http://yourevent.lincolncenter.org/venues/stanley-kaplan

Will you be seeing La Scala Ballet in Milan? If so, please post advice on getting tickets, seating, etc. http://www.teatroallascala.org/en/season/opera-ballet/2013-2014/opera-balletto-1.html

This overlaps forum topics. Let me just add links to their bios here: Anna Pakes (Roehampton): http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/staff/Anna-Pakes/ Barbara Montero (CUNY): http://www.gc.cuny.edu/Page-Elements/Academics-Research-Centers-Initiatives/Doctoral-Programs/Philosophy/Faculty-Bios/Barbara-Gail-Montero Ann Hutchinson Guest (Language of Dance Centre): http://www.lodc.org/about-us/dr-ann-hutchinson-guest.html

As I've said before, the incompetence of the management of the LCF never ceases to amaze me. I thought they had hit a low water mark with the ticket fiasco earlier this year...This is the kind of amateurish error you expect from the community theater in Podunck (with apologies to Podunck...).

If anybody managed to get tickets to this event with Sergei Filin, you'll have to tell us about it: Meanwhile, add this to my list of complaints with the management of the Lincoln Center Festival. I first learned about this in an e-mail as I was getting ready to board a plane home from NYC. I tried to grab a ticket via my Smartphone, but their site wouldn't accept the Friends code they had sent. By the time I got home and could try again on a regular computer, it was "sold out." For special events like this, especially those that will go quickly, we should get a "heads-up" e-mail at least a few days before tickets become available. I guess that didn't occur to the LCF staff.

It seems the oranges have appeared in several versions of the story, with different import. This 1893 book, Cinderella: Three Hundred and Forty-five Variants of Cinderella, Catskin, and Cap O'Rushes published by the Folklore Society, can be downloaded for free on PlayGoogle - then search "orange." https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=3mkKAAAAIAAJ&rdid=book-3mkKAAAAIAAJ&rdot=1