California

Very interesting that they acquired Manon! The only other North American companies permitted to do this are ABT and Houston, I believe.

Thanks for those references to other productions that used some of the Tsch pas music. Very interesting historically. I wonder if contemporary productions, at least in North America, avoid it because the Balanchine Tchai pas is now so sell-known. I remember listening to an orchestral recording of what claimed to be the "real" score back in the 60s. I was startled that so much of the familiar music from the ballet was re-ordered.

Do you remember a specific company/production that used that music in the full-length Swan Lake? I've seen a lot of Swan Lakes and have never heard that used. But, I suppose, anything is possible...

I have to think they're rehearsing for something else. The story, as I understand it, is that the ballerina for the first performances of Swan Lake, at Bolshoi, didn't like Tchaikovsky's score and was substituting music by other composers. Somehow word got back to Tchaikovsky and he wrote the music we know as Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux to appease her, but she didn't like that either. That score was found in a Moscow library in the early 50s. Balanchine bought the rights and choreographed the PdD. That Bolshoi version flopped and Tchaikovsky went to his grave thinking it was the fault of his score. Petipa started over for the version that has come down to us and it was a great success. Excuse the lack of documentation, but I'm away from home at the moment. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this.

Strange! This morning it was scrolling across the top, but now it seems to be gone.

The Web site now says people at the cancelled performance should contact the box office to exchange for another performance in the 2020 season. No mention of refunds, but I am guessing the fine print somewhere covers this.

Thank you for this review! I love both Simkin and Lane and this sounds like a wonderful experience for all. Fortunately, they are doing Giselle again in NYC on Saturday, June 13 at the matinee. Stella's retirement is that evening. I suspect a lot of us will be at both.

Wow! Notable absences: Copeland, Cornejo, Lane And Lane is notably absent from the engagements in Chicago, North Carolina, UAE, Detroit!

Boston Ballet has announced their next season, although many details are missing in the mixed bills. I was pleased to see Wheeldon's Midsummer Night's Dream and recommend it. This was his first full-length ballet, in 1997, commissioned by the Colorado Ballet. I saw it in 2017 and it's delightful. https://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/19/arts/earthbound-all-in-the-moonlight.html https://www.coloradoballet.org/balletblog/about-the-choreographer-of-midsummer Here's the Boston Ballet announcement: https://www.bostonballet.org/Home/Tickets-Performances/Performances/Season-Announcement.aspx Triple Bill Thursday, Nov 5–15, 2020 Choreography William Forsythe The Nutcracker Friday, Nov 27–Dec 31, 2020 Choreography Mikko Nissinen Titans Thursday, Feb 18–28, 2021 Choreography George Balanchine, William Forsythe, Alexei Ratmansky A Midsummer Night’s Dream Thursday, Mar 4–14, 2021 Choreography Christopher Wheeldon The Sleeping Beauty Friday, Apr 30–May 16, 2021 Choreography Marius Petipa ChoreograpHER Thursday, May 20–30, 2021 Choreography Nanine Linning, Tiler Peck, Melissa Hough, Shantell Martin and Lia Cirio

UPDATE: Casting is listed by clicking on the name of each ballet here and clicking "read more": https://www.washingtonballet.org/events/balanchine-ashton/ Marcelo is doing Meditation Saturday matinee and Sunday night. He's doing Allegro Thursday and Saturday nights.

A nice surprise: Marcelo Gomes will be a guest artist in the Washington Ballet's Balanchine-Ashton mixed bill at the Kennedy Center Feb 19-23. He'll dance in Allegro Brillante and Meditation for Thais. Their site doesn't say which performances he'll be in. https://www.washingtonballet.org/events/balanchine-ashton/

While reading this thread about outside instruction, I was reminded of David Howard's teaching of Gelsey Kirkland and many others. I suppose that was an unusual situation. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/19/arts/dance/david-howard-revered-teacher-of-dancers-dies-at-76.html

I think San Francisco would also be a good home with their rep -- full-length classics, Ratmansky. I don't know enough about Boston or Miami...

Darn! I was so pleased that Aaron Robison had rejoined the company and hope his injury wasn't career-ending!

The publisher's web site has a complete list: https://www.loa.org/books/591-dance-in-america-a-readers-anthology Croce has three pieces. Kisselgoff has just one, an introduction to a book, not one of her reviews. The blurb on the Amazon site that I quoted was apparently provided by the publisher. The same language appears on the publisher's page: https://www.loa.org/books/591-dance-in-america-a-readers-anthology

"Here are the most acclaimed dance critics, including Edwin Denby, Joan Acocella, Lincoln Kirstein, Jill Johnston, and Clive Barnes. . . " I wish that Croce and Kisselgoff were considered among the "most acclaimed." I wonder if there were copyright/permission issues with them, too, along with John Martin.

Ratmansky just posted on Facebook a link to the last 16-minutes of Act II, including the Fugue: https://www.facebook.com/irina.potapova.7965/videos/2442091219376527/UzpfSTEzNzc3MjM0Mzg6MTAyMTU3NTYwMzUwMzg2Nzk/

Stearns and Lane will be doing Swan Lake with the Richmond Ballet Feb 14-16! Replacing two dancers from the National Ballet of China. If I lived in DC, this would be worth the drive to see! https://www.styleweekly.com/Studi/archives/2020/01/31/richmond-ballet-recasts-swan-lake-due-to-coronavirus-travel-advisory

Me, too! I was planning on most of R&J week, especially to see debuts by Lane and Bell, regardless of their partners. I'm not a big Stearns fan, but he'll be a great partner for a much-deserved debut by Lane.

I wonder if Scarlett was scheduled for a visit to oversee final rehearsals. That would have made for an easy decision. But now that there's a lot of publicity, that alone could drive the decision. Still, NYCB hasn't jettisoned Martin's ballets for those reasons (although the investigation absolved him of wrongdoing).

San Francisco Ballet just sent out a tweet that Scarlett's Hummingbird on Program 2 is being replaced. The web site doesn't say yet what the replacement is: https://www.sfballet.org/productions/classical-revision/ Here's the Tweet: San Francisco Ballet @sfballet Programming change: Liam Scarlett’s Hummingbird will be replaced on Program 02 (2/11–22) in light of the announcement that The Royal Ballet has suspended Scarlett while an investigation is underway of allegations of sexual misconduct. 1:15 PM · Jan 30, 2020·Twitter Web App 4 Likes San Francisco Ballet @sfballet · 9m Replying to @sfballet The decision is made out of respect for the ongoing inquiry in London, the dance community at large, patrons of SF Ballet, families of the SF Ballet School, and artists of the Company. When available, replacement programming will be updated on our website:

My understanding is that she never becomes a wili, despite their efforts to "induct" her into their group. She does sprout wings in this version, but she never wears the crown of white roses that the others do. She earns the right to rest in peace and not have to come out every night through her forgiveness and love of Albrecht. Something that bothers me in some other productions: she appears with both wings and white crown right away, as if she's already a wili

Colorado Ballet just announced their 2020-21 season: https://www.coloradoballet.org/performances/2020-2021-season Giselle Nutcracker Great Gatsby Wizard of Oz: This was co-produced last year with Kansas City Ballet and Royal Winnepeg Ballet. Huge hit that sold out before the open. Ballet Masterworks

I love the "tabletop" lifts in Lillies, but the alternative we saw Sunday is not that unusual. e.g., Bolle-Zakarova do this version. See 1:17:35 And he's strong enough to master the overhead if they wanted to do it. (I'm pretty sure I've also seen it elsewhere in contemporary productions.)

I think I found the Bolshoi Video channel -- too late for this Giselle, but useful for future broadcasts: https://www.bolshoi.ru/en/about/press/articles/broadcast/bolshoi-video/?sphrase_id=96866 to set up a free account: http://media.bolshoi.ru/login If I understand this, the broadcasts are available for 24 hours only, so Giselle is gone. But that seems to be where Hallberg and Harss got those clips.