California

Very interesting! Here's a different link that goes directly to the recording: https://pnballet.podbean.com/e/alexei-ratmansky-pnb-s-conversation-series/

I'm planning to buy the stream of the PNB program Thursday, mainly to see the new Ratmansky. Royal Ballet has just announced a streaming service, but it seems to be stuff they have already released on DVR plus some embellishments, not their current season, unless I'm reading this wrong. 99 GBP a year. https://london-post.co.uk/the-royal-opera-house-launches-its-brand-new-streaming-service/

The Colorado Ballet performs in an opera house with 2200 capacity. For shows like Dracula this month and Nutcracker, they sell out. But for less popular programs in the spring, they sell only the first two rows in the top two tiers. Seems a good solution for keeping some cheaper seats available and I wonder why NYCB doesn't do that. Koch holds 2586, not that much bigger than Denver.

If you follow Daniil on Instagram, be sure to look at his stories (which, alas, I can't link to here). Baryshnikov was also in the audience Saturday night and there's a nice shot of him with Daniil backstage.

Another thing that hasn't aged well: the belief that children/marriage and a career in ballet are mutually exclusive.

The Turning Point shows up periodically on cable. It's now on Cinemax/Max, but I don't know for how long. Schmaltzy, hokey - but those dance sequences never grow old.

Thanks for the update. Ratmansky has been a real leader in supporting Ukraine. And it's clear in all his social media postings how passionate he is about this. Looking forward to the digital program!

Thank you for this report! I'm really looking forward to the digital program. If you follow Ratmansky on social media, you know that he's very invested in the Ukrainian cause. I'm still hoping they will find a way to show broader audiences his Giselle reconstruction with the United Ukraine dancers. A North American tour would be ideal if they can find the funding. The way things are going, we aren't likely to see the Bolshoi do it and the version he staged for the United Ukrainians comes very close to that.

Really fascinating! Thanks for posting. And isn't it sad we don't have more venues where work like this can be published, now that Ballet Review has shut down. http://www.balletreview.com/

Anna Kisselgoff's 1983 review addresses some factors that might have motivated Balanchine: https://www.nytimes.com/1983/07/08/arts/ballet-la-sonnambula.html I don't know if that is public access, so here are some interesting insights: As a ghost story derived from 19th-century sleepwalker tales, it would seem too romantic for his taste. And yet it moves along anything but literally. For although the ballet has a story, it is one told on an allegorical plane. A baron holds a ball. A poet enters, flirts with the baron's mistress, but is drawn into a fatal encounter with a sleepwalker, the baron's wife. Themes rather than narrative hold sway. The poet is the artist alienated by society. The beauty he seeks in life is available to him only in death. Repeatedly, the social dances of the guests symbolize a frivolous society that covers up feeling. When the poet dies, it is his fellow artists - the dancers hired as entertainers - who carry him and place him in the arms of the sleepwalker.

I'm very interested in reports on Ratmansky's new Wartime Elegy, which I plan to see on the digital subscription. Was he there for the bows?

This is one program I plan to see on their digital offering. I'm very interested in Ratmansky's new piece.

I saw the final three performances, with Alina Cojocaru on Friday evening, Elizabeta Gogidze at the Saturday matinee, and Christine Shevchenko Saturday evening. Ratmansky was seated in the audience at all performances and he came on stage with a Ukrainian flag Saturday evening when they all sang the Ukrainian national anthem. Each performance opened with God Save the King and closed with the Ukrainian anthem and several flags held up by dancers. I don't have the greatest memory for details, but this version was very similar to Ratmansky's reconstruction for the Bolshoi in 2019, which I saw on a live stream in a movie theater in January 2020, before everything shut down. The Ukrainian version includes the Willis Fugue (which I love!), the ending when the earth swallows Giselle and Bathilde reappears, lots of mime, and very different choreography for things like Albrecht's solo. Considering the circumstances and the fact that dancers came from different companies, the corps was really marvelous in their lines and symmetry, in both the first and second acts. I remember Cojocaru fondly from guest appearances with ABT long ago. Sadly, although her interpretation is a lovely as ever, her technique was overshadowed by the other two I saw, especially in things like height and speed. Shevchenko was powerful in all aspects. Gogidze was a wonderful surprise and I hope a North American company finds a way to bring her over. Her little entrechats in act II were gorgeous. Audiences seemed almost sold out at the performances I attended. Now I wonder: what happens next? This week depended on the generosity of so many for costumes, sets, orchestra. I can't imagine they have funds to visit North America, although I am confident they would draw huge crowds. I hope the dancers aren't turned lose to fend for themselves again.

Not a great deal in the US either and I'm really annoyed that it is not included in my annual subscription to Marquee. I have to pay extra, too. Having seen this in the theater last Monday, I can't really recommend it.

If you follow Hallberg on Twitter, you'll remember that last year he was looking for a recording of the Cranko R&J, which had just been released on DVD (as was Onegin). Perhaps he just wanted something different from the MacMillan version most companies use.

The announcement and a short video are also on Yosvani's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CifXfkvgwn4/ I don't know what his plans are post-retirement. He spent several months this summer in England as a guest teacher at several companies, as he documented on Instagram. He was a principal with ENB for many years before leaving for Australia and then the US.

Not sure where to post this...Baryshnikov was having fun yesterday in Vogue's fashion walk in lower Manhattan. Everybody wants to see him move - so he moved! He's 74 years old -- he can goof around if he wants to! https://www.instagram.com/p/Cibg6Y0LOUb/

The Drury has announced that the Monday matinee of Nureyev Legend will go on as scheduled: "In accordance with the wishes of the Royal Household, performances will continue until further notice. https://lwtheatres.co.uk/whats-on/nureyev-legend-and-legacy/

And look at the origins of the money for the Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Ford Foundations (and many others). They do a lot of good now, but historically those individuals did enormous damage to the country. It's interesting that Sackler money is being rejected now with the public awareness of the opiod crisis - or, at least, their name is being removed even if the money isn't being returned.

PBS has had what it calls "enhanced underwriting" since the early 90s - essentially 30-second commercials to offset the loss of federal funding. https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-1995-06-07-9506070196-story.html

I'm struck in that excerpt by the detailed reporting on Balanchine's moods, thoughts, and emotions while touring the Soviet Union. I hope the book (which I pre-ordered) includes detailed explanations of her sourcing -- interviews at the time? dancers' memories now? journals (did he keep one?)? Apollo's Angels has brief endnotes, but I hope we see more in this one.

I wonder if there is a connection to the Vilar Performing Arts Center in Colorado! In the US, the desperate search for donors, rewarded with naming opportunities, is also widespread. https://vilarpac.org/

I'm a subscriber and it looks like they are charging us an extra $9.99 to "rent." They have had surcharges on other things, which I find annoying, after buying a one-year subscription. I hope I'm misreading this!

And at the beginning of the Met season, his DonQ with Hurlin was cancelled and Ahn substituted. At the time, no explanation, but he was seen in rehearsal clips for Love and Rage, so the GUESS was to be safe and avoid injury for the premiere of Love/Rage. It's possible he's just been cast so much he needs a little rest or perhaps he has a slight injury that he doesn't want to take risks with. Pure speculation for all of this, but it does seem puzzling.

The @ABTofficial photo posted today on Instagram includes Bell in a flesh-colored costume (does anybody recognize that?) and he is listed on the press release today. But his own Instagram has been quiet since a clip of Don Q from the spring. He also hasn't joined several ABT principals at a whirlwind of international festivals in the US and elsewhere this summer. Concerning... https://www.instagram.com/p/ChptJEsp2YI/