California

At the Friends open rehearsal Monday afternoon, I noticed a pair getting ready for that lift in the wings. (I couldn't see if this was Semionova or Herrera or Part, so I'm not judging any of them.) A second man was standing in front of them, facing both, lifting her up onto his shoulder. The pair then makes their entrance. It looks very daring when they enter during performance and I'm guessing they all need that extra boast off-stage to get into position. Another lift that looks unbelievably difficult comes when the pair is in the center of the stage, he gets her around the back of his neck and she somehow ends up head down in front of him. Yikes! It looked difficult in performance and in rehearsal. It wouldn't be at all surprising if somebody got injured during one of those.

Baryshnikov has some interesting things to say about the attack (and about Ratmansky):

Diana Vishneva posts a little information about her Met 2014 plans on her web site: definitely Giselle, maybe Swan Lake. http://www.vishneva.ru/en/questions?p=2

Gillian Murphy will be replacing an injured Carla Korbes in Swan Lake with the Royal New Zealand Ballet July 18 - August 24. Lucky New Zealanders! http://www.nzballet.org.nz/news/news/rnzb-announces-cast-change/ http://www.nzballet.org.nz/shows-and-events/the-vodafone-season-of-swan-lake/casting/

I agree. I saw Murphy and Gomes Monday night. Both are great, individually and as partners, in this ballet. They repeat at the Saturday matinee, which I would recommend if you can only see one.

At the Friends dress rehearsal Monday afternoon, we got a printed program that said Osipova, Cornejo, Vasiliev, and Salstein would be rehearsing Act III. Instead, we saw Reyes and Cornejo in practice clothes in the far back corner running through a PdD, with plenty of other dancers out front doing various practice elements. Reyes also practiced some solos in practice clothes to the orchestra accompaniment. There were so many dancers on stage at that point, I couldn't tell if Vasiliev was there or not. Part, Semionova, Herrera were all there in costume at least for one of the acts.

Macauley's review of Swan Lake just appeared on-line. Diplomatically, perhaps, he says nothing about Vasiliev as Rothbart: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/24/arts/dance/american-ballet-theaters-swan-lake.html?ref=dance

I saw three of the SLs this year (Murphy/Whiteside, Kochetkova/Cornejo, Kent/Gomes). I agree with most of what has been said, and add just a few more points: Murphy: I saw her in SL a year ago with Gomes and thought she was not quite 100% this year -- balances not quite as sustained, turns not quite as fast. I don't know if that was the new partner (Whiteside) or the brief illness that took her out of the Ratmansky a few weeks ago. She added one detail to the fouettes I don't remember seeing before: on a couple of the rotations, she fluttered her arms up and down in swan arms! The physics of making that happen while turning are mind-boggling. Kochetkova: I look forward to seeing her again in SL. Sparkling technique, speed, elevation. Kent: This was exceptionally moving and dramatically appropriate, as others have noted. I don't have a problem with simplifying some of the choreography, but she's really pushing the envelope at this point. Some of the fun of SL is seeing how different dancers execute the famous "bits" of choreography, and she has dropped much of it -- the schooching backward arabesques in Act III replaced by a small circle of pique turns, e.g. I only counted 24 fouettes (all singles), but that might be my mistake. In II, I noticed an example of the vaunted Gomes partnering: she was in arabesque, on pointe, let go of his supportive hand, but lasted only a second or two - she started to learn forward and his hand was at her waist in a nano-second to support her. Cornejo: Wow! What a debut! I saw him in Mercutio and Puck last year and the speed, height, precision, energy were all there in his Siegfried. I can't wait to see him in this again. He also seemed to have worked out all the detailed acting throughout very effectively. One odd thing in his variations in Act I: he almost always looks straight at the audience, rarely the party-goers. Isn't he supposed to be entertaining his subjects in this? (Gomes does this a little, but not as noticeably.) Gomes: Along with his luxurious dancing -- never rushed, always in perfect form, I loved his detailed characterization. He lived this character start to finish. Kent and Gomes: A very nice touch during the second all-stage curtain call: They walked to opposite corners, stage front, turned their backs on the audience, and gave long, sweeping gestures to acknowledge the corps. It was so coordinated that it looked like they had done this before (has anybody seen this before?) or had planned it beforehand. Gomes does a gesture like that himself during curtain calls, but I haven't seen both principals do this. Both came up through the ABT ranks themselves, of course. Vasiliev: This was painful to watch. He threw in his usual tricks and the audience loved it, but he seems such a mismatch size-wise. Perhaps they need to make some alterations in that costume for him, so he looks more like an aristocrat and less like a jester. Matthews and Whiteside: I thought they were both very effective as Aristocratic Rothbart -- menacing, sinister, manipulative.

His complete commencement speech this morning has been posted by Northwestern University. He has some interesting things to say about the arts: http://vimeo.com/68869537

Thanks to LaKarsavina, curtain calls June 19 - evening (Boylston-Simkin): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpNnJH4IAdw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhVDqSfNFe4

At least somebody had the good judgment not to cast Vasiliev at the Saturday matinee with Gomes as Siegfried. What an interesting third act that would have made!!! I think ABT audiences are seeing pretty clearly why the Royal Ballet did not offer a position to Vasiliev. I almost feel sorry for him. It's going to be hard to find appropriate roles and partners other than Osipova. He needs to invest in some serious coaching -- soon!

Curtain calls from June 17, thanks to LaKarsavina:

Most readers of this board probably already know this, but for those who don't: Gomes is purple Rothbart in the ABT Swan Lake on DVD from 2005 (along with Corella and Murphy): http://www.amazon.com/Tchaikovsky-American-Ballet-Theatre-Corella/dp/B000AYEI9A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371569322&sr=8-1&keywords=swan+lake+abt It's distressing that so few of Gomes' performances are available on DVD.

Publishers seem to have come up with good solutions for the physical media storage problems. E.g., Amazon is selling the Balanchine Essays-Arabesque as a "copy-on-demand" DVD. At least some textbook publishers (e.g., Wadsworth) print some texts with limited readership only on-demand, when ordered by a bookstore. So the cost of making and storing physical DVDs doesn't seem to be the issue. That takes us back to problems getting releases from all the performers and other groups involved in the creation of the work. Royal Ballet seems to have figured out how to make it work, so why POB doesn't release more is a mystery.

I have the impression that his interaction with soloists is so compelling because it reflects genuine friendship and respect, not acting (although he is a superb actor as well). One of his many endearing qualities is the way he always signals back to the soloists and corps to acknowledge their contributions during curtain calls. He himself worked his way up through the corps and soloist ranks, so that partially explains it, of course, but it always seems very genuine to me.

I saw the complete "Light / The Holocaust & Humanity Project" (choreographed by Stephen Mills of Ballet Austin) last spring, performed by the Colorado Ballet. It is emotionally draining and exhausting. The last segment, "Hush," is a lovely and very welcome denouement from the 90-minute ballet, quite different from all that came before. I loved the Philip Glass music for that segment so much, I ordered it as soon as I got home from the theater. More information is here: http://www.txnp.org/Article/?ArticleID=15714 But let me hasten to add that overall it is an enormously important ballet. In Denver, it was linked to a wide range of community events. But "Hush" is not typical of the overall ballet.

Belatedly, I just want to point out how often (on this board and elsewhere), Vasiliev is described as "stocky" and "chunky" - words that are usually reserved for men who are a bit on the chubby or overweight side. It does seem appropriate to point that out, especially as it interferes with his line.

Thanks, Aurora, for the wonderfully detailed report on the Osipova-Hallberg R&J. I'm curious about one thing: I saw their R&J a year ago at the Met and the audience went wild at the end of Act I, demanding a quite unusual curtain call (which many found inappropriate, I later learned). Did that happen again this year? It's also interesting that this was apparently the only R&J of the last four performances that did NOT go on sale at the TKTS 1/2 price booth. What have the houses been like this week?

The TDF site has $31 tickets for both performances of Sylvia on Wednesday, June 26. I don't know if that means cheap tickets are also for sale at the Atrium, but it might be worth checking.

Oh, for sure, and I suspect that was the explanation. But why are the Met Opera ushers so fussy? Nothing is visible on the stage in the way of copyrighted designs until the curtain calls, which they do nothing to stop people from photographing and videotaping. I've noticed several episodes when visitors just wanted a photograph of themselves standing in the theater before the performance and ushers rushed to stop them.

This seems to vary by theater. At the Met, ushers are very fussy about the "no photography" rule before the performance, even just for audience members who want to record their presence in the theater. But during the bows, flashes go off constantly and nobody seems to be trying to stop that. At the State Theater, ushers are adamant before, during, and after about their "no photography" rule. I tried to take a picture of the theater for "Book of Mormon" long before the performance began, as there was a decorated stage exterior visible, and an usher immediately stopped me.

So sorry. The article is dated yesterday, June 11. Let me try this one: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/12/business/judge-rules-for-interns-who-sued-fox-searchlight.html

This has more to do with the use of unpaid interns than "Black Swan," but the interns just won their lawsuit that they should have been paid for the work they did on the film: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/12/business/judge-rules-for-interns-who-sued-foxsearchlight.html?_r=0 I would guess that dance schools and companies using unpaid interns will be taking a close look at this decision. EDITED: That link apparently expired. Try this one: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/12/business/judge-rules-for-interns-who-sued-fox-searchlight.html

According to the press release, this was her first time in the role in New York. I have no idea where she performed it before - does anyone know? http://www.abt.org/insideabt/news_display.asp?News_ID=439

Dance magazine just sent out a tweet that Kochetkova is also replacing Cojocaru in SB: I don't see this yet on the ABT site.