California

An interview with Baryshnikov and Dafoe about "The Old Woman" was just posted: They will be performing this at BAM June 22-29, 2014. Tickets go on sale January 13. http://www.bam.org/theater/2014/the-old-woman

The NYCB Calendar just added some extra events for the Balanchine's Birthday celebration on Saturday, January 25, 2014: Adult Movement Workshop - 11:00-12:15 - Rose Bldg. - $15 (+$3 facility fee): On-stage demo - 4:15-5:15 - Theater - free: They also list two children's workshops at 12:45 p.m. that day.

It does seem that the focus on Swan Lake was directed toward newbies, as that got so much attention with the Black Swan film. I gather that the NYCB ticket office in recent years gets calls asking when Natalie Portman is dancing (!). Do remember that NYCB is also trying to attract hip, young New Yorkers with the fashion designer galas the last two fall seasons and the furniture designers from last spring. And then there was the Paul McCartney score to attract aging baby boomers writing their wills. Whether any of that is working, well...we don't really know. More traditional outreach includes, of course, things like student/senior/veterans rush the hour before curtain and 2/1 discount offers. I don't know if NYCB (or ABT) does much of that or how successful it is around the country. I hate to see empty seats in a theater -- once the performance is over, they're gone forever. Aggressive outreach to people who are currently on very tight budgets (but might not always be) just seems important to me for all kinds of reasons.

One thing NYCB is doing right: At the 1/2 price TKTS booth at Time Square, I noticed last spring some NYCB performances on the big list of available tickets. Lots of tourists are on tight budgets and only go to things they get from TKTS, at least from the huge crowds I saw, many of them young.

Thinking through Dance will also be available next month on Amazon-US: http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-through-Dance-Philosophy-Performance/dp/1852731656/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383953318&sr=8-1&keywords=thinking+through+dance Walking and Dancing is available from Amazon-US now: http://www.amazon.com/Walking-Dancing-Three-London-1951-53/dp/1906830657/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383953457&sr=8-1&keywords=Walking+and+Dancing%3A+Three+Years+of+Dance+in+London%2C+1951-53 [with the usual reminder to go through the Amazon box on this site when ordering[

At the Friends luncheon last winter, when Parker made a presentation about this series, she said that she is trying to figure out how to get tourists who always take in a Broadway show to venture a little farther north to Lincoln Center and take a look at the NYCB. I do think that was the primary audience for the AOL series.

So the film came first before the company itself visited the US. I'm seeing lots of dates on the web for the first US visit. Does anyone have a reliable source on this?

That final scene is available on the DVD Stars of the Russian Ballet: http://www.amazon.com/Russian-Ulanova-Plisetskaya-Vakhtang-Chabukiani/dp/B00197YZAE/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1383867599&sr=1-1&keywords=stars+of+the+russian+ballet I just took another look at it after seeing the still rg posted and it's fascinating for historical reasons. Odette and the corps of swans are transformed into young maidens in long white dresses. They claim this is the only existing film of Ulanova as Odette. (Natalia Dudinskaya does Odile.) The Soviets seem to have had fun experimenting with film techniques in the 1950s, as it has lots of gimmicky things - e.g., a cartoonish swan flies overhead at the end of the Black Swan PdD. This portion of the film is actually short, with only a few highlights from the full-length ballet. (Excerpts from The Fountain of Bakhchisarai and The Flames of Paris are included on the 82 minute DVD.) A few more historic details: This was filmed in 1953, the year Stalin died (in March of 1953) and I believe that was also the year of the Bolshoi's first visit to New York (am I correct on the year of the first visit?). I distinctly remember being taken as a young child to see ballet films from the Soviet Union shown on Sunday afternoons at the local movie house far from New York and I have a hunch this is one of the things I would have seen. I.e., the thaw in the cold war marked by that first cultural exchange after Stalin's death included the movies, not just the New York visit.

I just watched the entire series and loved it. My naïve question: I can't find the photo credit for the still shot in the background on the right of the female dancer in lavender. It seems to be Sarah Jessica Parker and we know from her bio that she was in the ABT corps for a time when she was younger. Do we know when/where/by whom this photo was taken?

Robert Gottleib's just-published review includes a photograph showing Simkin's whiteface. But note that hands, feet, and ankles are left in their natural flesh color. With the big push to bring in more dancers of color, it would be nice to avoid thinking that facial colors need to be altered, no matter the reason. Ratmansky's use of black-face in a Bolshoi production made many here cringe, even though that could also be rationalized as dramatically necessary. http://observer.com/2013/11/three-for-three-at-abt-ratmansky-and-tharp-show-the-way/

Just one quick issue as I wait for my flight home: Gabe Shayer was spectacular as Ariel in Tempest, in a role that seemed tailor-made for Simkin. But did Simkin use whiteface make-up Friday night? His skin is flesh-colored, not literally white. I saw both performances, but can't recall at this point. The whiteface on Shayer seemed awkward, to put it mildly. Why not let both of them show their actual skin color?

I saw the rehearsal Friday afternoon and also the performance Friday night. I'll be interested in other impressions. Partita: The music was a solo violinist (Charles Yang), who played the entire thing from memory standing in the orchestra pit. Pretty amazing and he came up on stage for bows. I believe he has worked with Marcelo Gomes before on Marcelo's choreography. Stella's partner Friday night was Calvin Royal. I'm just guessing that he had a schedule conflict Friday afternoon, but it did seem odd for a principal role to miss the last rehearsal. I'm so pleased to see him getting these opportunities. He made a spectacular debut last spring at the Met in one of the new Ratmansky Shostakovich pieces. I was much more impressed at the performance and realized they were quasi-marking at the rehearsal. Much more in the way of clever details Friday night. At the bows, Marcelo led Twyla out from the wings. She seemed to appreciate the details he worked in throughout. Instantaneous standing ovation when she came out. I must have seen this in 1983 when it premiered at the Kennedy Center, but I have no memory of it at all. Susan Jones (the rehearsal master, who also took bows with Twyla) talked about the reconstruction process during their Works & Process a few weeks ago at Guggenheim. It was never notated and they had only two poor-quality archival tapes to work from, so one wonders if parts were just re-choreoghraphed. None of the original dancers would be with the company at this point and Jones herself never danced in it. It's definitely worth seeing - somehow it's distinctively Tharp, but much more subdued/classical than other pieces. No set or backdrop. Les Sylphides: I know others were pleased that Foster got the opportunity to be the Poet, but he was a big disappointment. His partnering, especially lifts, seemed painfully awkward - like a student who has no idea how to lift a ballerina. He never seemed to straighten his legs. His walks across stage seemed pedestrian with no presence or regal bearing. He so badly needs some coaching in this. I had read about the discovery of the Britten orchestration, but haven't seen this in a long time (either in performance or on DVD) and didn't recognize differences. Presumably there were differences in which instruments took which parts, as the Chopin was originally for piano solo. Mark Morris' Gong closed the program Friday. Juxtaposed with the Partita, it gives new meaning to "gimmickry." I don't recall ever seeing this before and perhaps I'll appreciate it more on a second viewing. I was amazed at how many principals (never mind soloists & corps) who were in both Partita and Gong -- Marcelo, Gillian, Stella, e.g. What a work-out for these people! There was an exceptionally long intermission, but they needed it.

Have you tried searching Google-Images? I just entered: John Jones dance - and quite a few things come up. I don't know what he looks like, so I have no idea if he's in any of those photos. If you have the name of a company he danced with, you might try Google-images again, perhaps: John Jones company name. Good luck!

Given that the Kennedy Center and SPAC engagements sound as if they are definite, and given the cancellation last year of the Mikhailovsky at Lincoln Center, one has to wonder if the ABT non-compete clause is involved again. Both Vasiliev and Hallberg are scheduled with ABT in June in ballets the Bolshoi says it is performing in New York (Don Quixote and Swan Lake, respectively). Vasiliev did Don Q with the Bolshoi on October 4 & 6 with Ekaterina Krysanova. Hallberg did SL with Zakharova September 27.

What a treat - thanks for the link (which is still working in the U.S.). I especially enjoyed seeing Matthew Golding in the finale. As has been discussed elsewhere on this site, he languished in the ABT corps for five years, moved to the Dutch company, and was just named Principal at the Royal Ballet. He's partnering Osipova in Sleeping Beauty next year at the ROH.

Me, too. I am working on a possible trip in spring 2014. With the cost of a trip like that, the little bit extra to be a regular Friend seems worthwhile, but I don't really know. It appears there are rehearsals and tours restricted to Friends, correct? I do vaguely remember repeated crashes of the ROH ticketing site reported on Twitter.

Casting is posted for the Kennedy Center visit in January 2014: http://www.kennedy-center.org/events/?event=BOBSG

You might want to look at a recent DVD by the Bolshoi of Giselle, credited to Grigorovich (recorded in 2011, released in 2012) with Svetlana Lunkina and Dmitry Gudanov: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0072A4I2W/ref=oh_details_o08_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 The most annoying changes are to iconic choreography. E.g., the tabletop lifts in Lilies PdD are replaced with two unimpressive vertical lifts. Changes in the production design are puzzling and/or annoying, e.g.: *The peasant women in Act I are dressed in gauzy long dresses in autumnal colors; perhaps they are supposed to anticipate the tutus of the Wilis, but they don't look like peasants. *The peasant men appear late in Act I, after the royal party has come and gone. Earlier, when it was just women, they were carrying baskets of grapes. Are women the only ones who collected grapes in that era? *The Peasant PdD comes late in Act I and is performed for the entertainment of the other peasants, not the royal party, which has long since departed. *Hilarion enters in Act II empty-handed and wanders around like a drunk. No homemade cross, no flowers. *Hilarion is "frightened" by white lights going off and on in the forest. No Wilis anywhere. *Albrecht enters carrying a large bouquet of white roses. Roses? Yes, that's very clear in the photographs in the accompanying brochure. Lilies are used in the rest of the act. Is this supposed to show that roses are more "royal" than lilies? I don't get it.

Only the videos on the first floor can even be checked out. I haven't noticed if they have DVR players there. Everything in the third floor research collection must be watched on the premises on their video screens.

I found a clip of Hallberg and Osipova in Giselle in Russia (Bolshoi?) from 2010, so that seems at least a possibility. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePnOyaE7-3I And they did ABT's Giselle in 2012: http://www.danceviewtimes.com/2012/05/osipova-and-hallbergs-giselle.html

Giselle opens tonight. They have announced a 15% discount on all remaining tickets for the run through October 13. Use the promo code: GHOST http://tickets.coloradoballet.org/single/EventListing.aspx?promo=1331 I sat in on part of a theater dress rehearsal a couple of days ago for Friends. They rented sets and costumes from ABT, and they look gorgeous on the Caulkins Opera House stage.

A discussion of Sleeping Beauty will be presented November 12 at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center: http://lc.lincolncenter.org/shows/208653?show_date=2013-11-12%2018:00:00

At least in recent years, the first mailing about the spring Met season, including principal casting, has gone out in mid-October. A few things change by the time the season rolls around, but not that much. So, presumably, negotiations with principals are nearly complete, if not already done. That first mailer is promoting subscriptions and single tickets typically don't go on sale until the first Sunday in April, but at least in recent years, there are still plenty of great seats available in April.

According to this recent interview, Copeland is preparing the lead in Coppelia and will premiere it in NYC in the opening night cast: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/24/misty-copeland-memoir-exclusive_n_3982378.html

I won't try to connect the dots here, but Kent danced recently at Carreno's Sarasota Festival: http://carrenodancefestival.com/performance-and-ticket-information/ And Carreno recently performed Basilio with San Jose Ballet, which he now directs, although he also says his "dancing days are over." http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Ballet-San-Jose-s-new-artistic-director-4610734.php