California

Great question, and probably needs to have its own thread somewhere... Martins, Boal, Tomasson and Villella are the obvious ones to come to mind. And now, Suzanne Farrell and Lourdes Lopez, obviously. I think Paul Meija could certainly be considered a "son", but he has had to move about from company to company. He worked with Maria Tallchief originally at the Chicago City Ballet (but that project lasted only about 10 years I believe). Even someone like Lew Christensen (who danced for Balanchine in the early years) could be considered a "son of", I suppose. It's gets complicated deciding on how much influence Balanchine had on a person's artistic life. I'm not sure that anyone has ever bothered to put together a list, but between Balanchine and the various Ballet Russes troups, seeds were planted in many places in the U.S., Britain, Australia, and the Continent. It would make for a massive family tree. John Clifford directed the ill-fated Los Angeles Ballet long ago and now works as a Balanchine stager. The current LA Ballet is directed by Colleen Neary. Please also note that Boal's predecessor, Francia Russell, was a Balanchine alumna. Ib Anderson, director of the Arizona Ballet, and Ethan Steifel, now director of the New Zealand Ballet, are two more that I can think of.

The complete schedule just appeared on the NYCB web site: http://www.nycballet.com/Season-Tickets/Calendar.aspx#family events=1&performances=1&special events=1&talks/demos=1&sunday=1&monday=1&tuesday=1&wednesday=1&thursday=1&friday=1&saturday=1&s=5/1/2013&e=5/19/2013

Try Googling "loose nukes" and Ukraine for sources, e.g., the Council on Foreign Relations: http://www.cfr.org/weapons-of-terrorism/loose-nukes/p9549

I know a little about how some of the countries of the former Warsaw Pact (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary) were finally admitted to the VWP (Visa Waiver Program) in 2008. The State Department has some kind of formula for determining the likelihood that admittance without a visa would admit persons presenting a risk to the U.S. (terrorism, etc.). I don't know if they determine that through surveillance, failed Visa applications, or something along those lines, and I don't remember how low the risk assessment has to be to be added to the VWP program. I know the Slovaks were very angry (as I assume the others in this group were) that American citizens were admitted to their country without a visa and that they had all contributed soldiers to George Bush's so-called "Coalition of the Willing" and yet we refused to admit them to the VWP. It was a major point of annoyance for them, and I'm glad to see they have now been admitted. Do note that your passport is issued by your home country, not the country you are visiting. Countries like Ukraine and Bellarus, which are reportedly hotbeds of "loose nukes," are not on the VWP list. So citizens of those countries have to go to the U.S. Embassy for an interview (and perhaps further investigation) to determine if it's safe to let them into the U.S. I noticed that Saudi Arabia is no longer on the list. After 9/11, there was some controversy that admission to the U.S. was too easy. I just noticed that Poland has NOT been admitted to the VWP. Sorry!

Could you give us a little sense of what the difference were? The changed ending of Four Ts is legendary, but not the Symphony in C changes.

Americans are very spoiled in being able to travel to so many countries without a visa. We forget that we require citizens of many of those countries to obtain a visa just to visit the U.S. as a tourist. Currently, the U.S. allows tourists from only 37 countries to enter the U.S. without a visa: http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/without/without_1990.html For all the others (including Russia and most states of the former Soviet Union), the application fee alone is $160, and you have to pay that whether or not it is approved: http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1263.html

Tiler Peck continues to amaze. She is technically so sharp - precise, fast, awe-inspiring. But her expressive skills are also superb. She seemed to join in a little toward the end in the singing, which was interesting -- she might have another career after her NYCB days are over (which won't be for a long time, I hope). The final song was a disappointment -- too much talk-singing to enjoy its familiar strains.

But also remember that in 1982, dance was coming off an extraordinary "dance boom" fueled by the likes of Baryshnikov, Kirkland, Makaraova, etc. So the percentage decline is more understandable once they started to step out of the limelight.

The complete show is now available on-line, for free! http://video.pbs.org/video/23649751 Thank you, PBS. Doesn't it make you wish there were more American performances shown like this?

A typo, I think? These premiered at the opening night of the 1972 Stravinsky Festival. Nancy Goldner's book The Stravinsky Festival does list them as premiering on June 18, the first night. Divertimento from Le Baiser de la Fee is listed on the third evening, June 21. Sorry -- I wasn't clear. The Stravinsky Festival was 1972, not 1970. 1970 was the apparent typo.

A typo, I think? These premiered at the opening night of the 1972 Stravinsky Festival. http://www.nycballet.com/Ballets/S/Symphony-in-Three-Movements.aspx I did not have the great good fortune of seeing the Festival, but I remember mumblings beforehand that Balanchine was a burnt-out has-been and the Festival changed all of that. I'd be curious if that's the sense of others who saw that remarkable opening night. (In one of these amazing coincidences of history, the Watergate burglary was the night before.)

I once looked at archival tapes of early performances of Symphony at the NYPL Dance Collection. Initially, there were no pink leotards. Everybody was in black and white. (I don't recall if the opening corps was in all-white or black and white.) But apparently -- as others have suggested -- the complexity of different layers of movement was so dense that the differential of colored leotards was needed.

NEA just announced a new round of grants, including one to Sarasota for the Ashton programs: For the complete list of grants: http://www.nea.gov/news/news13/ArtWorksMarch2013CouncilByState.pdf

Mikhailovsky just sent out a Tweet. Osipova will finish their season in Sleeping Beauty, with Vasiliev, on July 31. Vasiliev will also do Flames of Paris July 22, 24, 26. http://mikhailovsky.ru/en/afisha/2013/7/

Cynthia Gregory also did Giselle in that era, partnered by Ross Stretton: http://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/16/arts/ballet-cynthia-gregory-in-giselle.html

Thanks for posting that schedule. Looks like he'll skip the fall ABT season the first two weeks of November. He did participate in the City Center season in fall 2012, so this is a disappointment.

Nothing yet on the TDF site, but if it's only in previews, it might be early.

Although the War imagery did not come from Stravinsky's publishers - it came from Stravinsky, in many, lengthy quotes. It's interesting that Balanchine did not choreograph this until 1972, after Stravinsky's death, for the Stravinsky festival, 28 years after the music was composed. But it's reasonable to think Balanchine understood and shared Stravinsky's intense feelings while seeing the devastation of WWII on their first home, Russia, and their adopted home, western Europe, as they watched from the safety of the U.S. If his late friend could capture this in his music, could Balanchine express those feelings in movement? It's certainly possible and appropriate to look at the movement in purely dance terms, but the war imagery gives us a different set of insights into both of them.

The war imagery in the movement derives from Stravinsky's comments about the war's influence on the music. Here's a good essay from the LA Philharmonic with several of these comments: http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/symphony-three-movements-igor-stravinsky For example: Much has been written about the movement, of course. Many see the front lines of battle in the long diagonal line of corps in white leotards. You can see fixed-wing aircraft in the arms in some sections and the crashing of bombs with emphatic two-footed jumps in others. One can see the choreography as pure abstraction but it's hard to un-ring the bell once you know Stravinsky's inspiration, which would surely have been known to Balanchine.

Very astute observation! These happen to be two of my very favorite ballets (and I continue to be dismayed that a complete recorded performance remains unavailable anywhere - I would happily purchase both). It's interesting that they were created about a decade apart and deal with very different situations: Symphony is bringing order out of the chaos of WWII and Pieces is bringing order out of the chaos of NYC in the early 80s after a decade of decline. Another detail in Pieces that intrigues me: in the last movement, there is a section for the ensemble of male soloists that reminds me of the West Side Story dance "Stay Cool" -- a photo of which is on the NYCB site right now - the crouching move forward, the snapping fingers. And that's consistent with your observation of bringing order out of chaos.

PNB posted some footage of her in rehearsal in the Third Act.

This is the pas de deux "Toccare" Gomes choreographed for Hammmoudi and Abrera, but I can't find my video of it:

I don't know if many readers of this board live in Texas, but if you do, let me recommend the Midland Festival Ballet Giselle this Sunday April 21, 2013. The guest principals, Maria Mosina and Alexei Tyukov, from the Colorado Ballet, are just spectacular. They did a lengthy excerpt from Act II at a little fundraiser organized by the dancers in Denver a few weeks ago, and I have enjoyed seeing them in many classical roles in recent years. You won't be disappointed. http://www.midlandfestivalballet.org/giselle

This was Gomes' choreography for five men in Kings of the Dance, with an original score by Guillame Cote (better known as a principal dancer with National Ballet of Canada): This is a solo he did several years ago: I thought he did a pas de deux for soloists from NYCB last year, but I can't find it back on YouTube.

I dug out my ancient tape of "Live from Studio 8H." The set for DAAG consists of two ladders, a large spotlight on a wheeled dolly, what seem to be the backs of several scenery flats, a practice barre pushed against the wall, a couple of bentwood chairs, and a post with numerous lights of the sort you might see in the wings. Across the entire back is a thin white floor-length curtain, of the sort you might see in a studio with big windows or perhaps on a stage, with part pulled up to reveal a pile of props that I can't make out. The dancers are wearing the same costumes you see in a theater performance and the grand piano is at the far left front, as you would see on stage. During each segment, the other dancers sit on the floor by the wall or lean against the piano, watching. Once you see it in this setting, it's hard to forget it, even when they perform on a bare stage.