California

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

Oh thank you for the heads-up -- I would miss this otherwise. It's now on the MSNBC web site. It's part of a story on food stamps (which Abrahams once needed). His interview starts at about 2:33: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/all-in-/53108739#53108739

In spring 2012, the Colorado Ballet presented a program called "Tribute" with choreography by three female choreographers (Emery LeCrone, Jodie Gates, Amie Seiwart), in honor of the two women who founded the company, Lillian Covillo and Freidann Parker: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_20290901/review-from-colorado-ballet-three-new-dances-knowing Gates is the new director of the USC Kaufman School of Dance: http://kaufman.usc.edu/

Kyle Abrahams was just interviewed by Chris Hayes on "All In with Chris Hayes" on MSNBC. I believe that show will be rebroadcast in a few hours. They include several clips of his dancers, along with discussion about how important the MacArthur money will be for the company.

I looked over the list quickly, but only noticed Julie Kent at ABT and Sonia Rodriguez at National Ballet of Canada. It's a pretty offensive list for us North Americans. I think we all understand that no publication, not even the NY Times, can afford to send critics to see everything. A list of critics divided by continent, perhaps, could have selected honorees from among the companies they could realistically see. And it's really odd that they didn't list the names of the critics somewhere. At ballet competitions, the names of the judges are known to everyone, aren't they?

I wish they had posted the list of fourty (sic) critics who came up with that list. It has a very heavy European slant. Not a single dancer from NYCB?

Too early...I have a typo in the heading. It should be: "MacArthur" -- can an administrator fix that? Thanks!

Two choreographers are among the recipients this year: Alexei Ratmansky & Kyle Abraham: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/25/arts/macarthur-genius-award-winners-named.html?hp&_r=0 For several winners, including Abraham, the award will give them the financial stability to focus on their work for the next several years. This article says nothing about Ratmansky's plans and, with his numerous worldwide commissions, financial stability doesn't seem to be an issue for him. So it will be very, very interesting to see what his plans are. He can continue to focus on choreography, rather than directing a company, but that seems to be what he was going to do anyway.

Interesting tidbit in that caption: they were the first Soviet dancers "allowed permission by their government to visit America." That makes me wonder which other dancers left the Soviet Union without permission between 1922 and 1934 - the earliest defectors?

A new Kickstarter project has just been announced to make a documentary on Misty Copeland: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/819201034/a-ballerinas-tale

NYCB just sent out some "flash footage" of Swan Lake with Mearns and Angle on opening night: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10153259583265529&set=vb.112319735528&type=2&theater

I'm not sure if this is related to the archives mentioned in the previous message, but in July 2013, DTH got a $49,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to work on some preservation issues concerning their archives: The source document (listing all grants awarded by NEH in July 2013) is here: http://www.neh.gov/files/press-release/july2013statebystate.pdf

It's risky to try to identify people by race or ethnicity. The U.S. Census for the last several 10-year censuses has used self-reporting rather than having the census taker decide which race/ethnicity to count (as they used to do). Especially in major metropolitan areas, names, appearances, place of birth, etc. don't necessarily tell you anything. This is even more so now with increasing interracial marriage. I assume ABT has figured out how to handle this (probably some kind of self-identification). Promoting "diversity" is a good thing and I think most of us have a general sense of where we hope we are headed, even if we might disagree on precisely what that means. When I look at the rosters of several companies, I see a wide range of names, appearances, and skin tones, but we all hope it gets better.

If you search YouTube, she did Giselle with Mariinsky in 2010 with Sarafanov. Perhaps she's performed there in other roles or with other partners as well... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk6gJFjwmjs