California

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

The 7 bus, which goes right by Penn Station, is also full of ballet goers.

The 7 bus, which goes right by Penn Station, is also full of ballet goers.

I'm in the minority with Batsuchan. I saw both Monday and Tuesday nights and I think that's it for me and this ballet. Although Macaulay has been rapturous about the choreography, I grew weary of the constant finger stabbing by the seasons and stars, although some of their group formations were mildly interesting. Even with stellar leads (notably Gomes with Kent on Tuesday), they just don't have all that much interesting dancing. Let me note how dramatically superb Gomes is -- his facial expressions are so spot on for each moment -- a great "dancer-actor," if that's the word (along with all his other much-appreciated talents). I realize most loathe the Ben Stevenson version (which ABT did at some point in its history), but in many respects it does a better job in capturing dramatic details that help the narrative work, even when the dancing doesn't. E.g., in Stevenson, the step mother is a major character, especially in Act I. Her presence explains why the hen-pecked father tolerates the step-sisters' antics. In Ashton, the stepmother is already dead, so you wonder why the father can't get control and protect his daughter. E.g., in the orange-sharing sequence in Act II, one of the step-sisters in Stevenson's version accepts an orange from Cinderella and does a double-take of recognition (you seem familiar...), but that's missing from Ashton. In the Act II ballroom, the stepsisters in Stevenson's version do their display mainly for the prince, so it makes sense that they are still delusional in Act III and think they have charmed him. Ashton has them performing for courtiers. Stevenson also adds a little surprise and pizzazz -- e.g., in Act I, a smoke "bomb" for magical transformation from beggar to fairy godmother, instead of just a darkened stage with a double disappearing. Perhaps the biggest problem for all the versions is that the story is so silly (love at first sight and all), with an inscrutable score. It's interesting that so many have tried their hand at Cinderella, but no version really stands out as THE definitive take on it.

My guess for the Baryshnikov role: Cornejo and Simkin.

Let me just add my praise of the Sat matinee with Vishneva/Gomes. Stunning. I have the DVDs with Acosta/Rojo and Dowell/Penney, so I had a sense of what to expect in the theater, but I can't wait to see it again some day - if not ABT, perhaps another major company. (I see that Osipova/Acosta are doing two performances this fall with Royal, but I won't be able to get there. With luck, they'll show one of those in the movie theater and release it some day on DVD.) I saw the Kent/Bolle (Thursday) and Reyes/Jackson (Friday) before Saturday and I'm glad I did - they would have been more disappointing with the contrast. Reyes did a very credible job, but Jackson seemed wooden to me. I kept waiting -- in vain -- to see a spark between them. In the last act, when he should be overwhelmed with the developments, he just seemed to overdo everything - too extended, too strong. I noticed Gillian Murphy in the orchestra Friday, perhaps to lend support to Reyes? It was fun meeting some Ballet Alerters at the intermission.

Please don't forget the many excellent female critics and dance historians. A few of my favorites (along with those already mentioned): Arlene Croce, Anna Kisselgoff, Selma Jeanne Cohen. And several female philosophers are publishing important work on dance (e.g., Barbara Montero at CUNY, Anna Pakes at Roehampton in the UK). Anna Hutchinson Guest (theory and notation) should also be noted.

How about Martin Scorsese? His favorite film is the Red Shoes: http://www.timeout.com/london/film/martin-scorsese-discusses-the-red-shoes-1