California

San Francisco Ballet just posted some lovely tributes:

NYCB just sent out a Tweet mourning the passing of Elyse Borne. New York City Ballet @nycballet · 37m The New York City Ballet family mourns the passing of former Soloist Elyse Borne. As a répétiteur for the Balanchine Trust, she shared the legacy of Balanchine's choreography along with kind guidance and encouragement with dancers around the world. She will be missed.

I totally forgot this one: I saw that program of three new works last spring. Not crazy about any of them, but this was by far the worst.

Do you mean including dozens of students from their school? I daresay this is a widespread practice, even for ABT and NYCB. Or including an advanced student as Dew Drop?

Best: Lane and Cornejo in Manon at ABT Cojocaru and Cornejo at Vail in Ashton's Rhapsody and MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet Lovett and Gordon at Vail in Giselle Lovett and Whiteside at Vail in Duo Concertante Tharp's In the Upper Room at ABT Whiteside in Deuce Coupe at ABT Worst: Tharp's Gathering of Ghosts Lang's Garden Blue Most Painful: Royal Ballet's Mayerling at the Chandler

No doubt! Whether or not to capitalize is a personal choice. I know European-born American citizens who kept the lower case despite living for decades in North America. And plenty of Europeans take it upon themselves to un-Americanize the name of someone who capitalizes, as if they know better. My rule of thumb: each person gets to decide whether to capitalize or not. Please also note that many copy editors take it upon themselves to decide what they think is correct. Wikipedia thinks Kevin should be van der Perren: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_van_der_Perren I wouldn't be surprised if some sports writers decide for themselves that this is wrong and capitalize. Kevin should get to decide for himself. There's actually a corollary to this: in Europe, they alphabetize under the second (or third) name, not the van. In North America, the reverse: alphabetize under Van. But again, I can think of a Dutch-born academic who has lived in the US most of his adult life who kept the lower case van and alphabetizes with the second name. His choice. (I come from a family of "vans" so we have been keenly interested in this trivia.)

"Van" is very pedestrian: "from the" or "of the" with, typically, the name of a town following. Both Dutch and Flemish. The upper case Van is a common Americanization of the last name. Europeans use lower case van. (Source: family members with van names...)

Copeland just reposted the clip on her own Instagram. Looks like Copeland-Hoven have three performances in Costa Mesa. So that's two of four pairs posting rehearsal clips of the torch lift (the other being Boylston-Bell). Of course, the others might still do it, too. Wish I could see a few performances this year! https://www.abt.org/performances/master-calendar/

Pretty impressive from the Bolshoi, where Ratmansky was director from 2004-2008, so he was of course familiar with that move. Although it's great to see more non-Russians master the torch lift, the only people I've seen do the one-armed version you see in that youtube clip (at 3:14) are Russian (including two retired Russians from Colorado Ballet -- Alexei Tyukov and Maria Mosina). I wonder if Ratmansky is nudging the ABT principals to work toward that someday.

Hah! Thanks for posting. The first one looks more like (most) ABT dancers a few years ago -- essentially, like climbing up a ladder. Yuk.

Just posted by ABT: Hoven and Copeland nail the torch lift. Nice to see more non-Russians doing this.

Thanks for posting. Fun to watch. He is being given quite the run of the rep, isn't he?

I wish they'd post THAT clip. She says she'll post the entire thing on her IG TV, but I'm not finding that.

A few more clips of Marcelo taking class at the Colorado Ballet Academy. https://www.instagram.com/p/B5zFhfRgBE0XMWUk7wblvK2iAYco5LFQAAGwGA0/

Rehearsal clip of Bell and Boylston in the PdD -- am I mixed up or have they substituted a different lift for the notorious torch lift?

A puzzle: On the Instagram stories for the Colorado Ballet Academy for Thursday, December 5, there is one photo of Marcelo taking class at the Academy with the advanced/pre-pro students. (The company is over at the Opera House now for Nutcracker performances.) I don't see a way of copying those stories, but you could look it up to verify. I have heard nothing about his performing as a guest with anybody in Colorado, so I'm trying to figure out why he is in Denver. He performs as a guest with Sarasota Ballet, but I haven't heard of any other North American companies. If anybody hears anything, let me know. Not sure this will work -- stories from Facebook - it's the first image: https://www.facebook.com/stories/1582755978434541/UzpfSVNDOjI1MTA2OTE4NzIzODEzMTM=/

I don't suppose we'll ever know what's going on, unless somebody lets it all hang out in an interview. But there are several first-rate companies where she could be happy -- San Francisco, Seattle, Philadelphia -- I hope she is able to make a move that's mutually beneficial. I would happily go see her with any of those companies.

I saw that, too, but thought he was just retiring the role. Male dancers seem to "retire" their most demanding roles over a period of years -- Don Q, Bayadere, e.g.

I like that. The man's costume is understated, not silly, just vaguely Chinese. The choreography is impressive classical steps with only the slightest bow to "Chinese" stereotypes. Making it less "authentic" works for me!

A lone male with a pole jumping over a "dragon" (three people under a cloth thing). It's actually not as bad as some I've seen, but the silly caricature of an historic civilization always bothers me.

Only a handful of people on this site ever see the Colorado Ballet, but excuse me for a little hometown bragging today. Last night was the opening night of their Nutcracker season which is almost sold out already. Highlights: Francisco Estevez and Asuka Sasaki did a gorgeous torch lift in the PdD. They did this a year ago and I'm glad to see them make it a regular feature. There was a time when I never thought I'd see non-Russians do this at all, let alone well. They were my favorite pair in Don Quixote this fall and they are developing into a wonderful partnership. I was up front and caught some knowing smiles between them when they knocked out some great moves. Fun to see. Kevin Gael Thomas whipped off his revoltade 540 in the Russian dance. It's a regular trick for him, always done well. I see him throw it in whenever he can. Sean Omandan, newly promoted to demi-soloist, did his aerial walk-over, always a hit, in the Russian dance. MacKenzie Dezens did four solid Italian fouettes as Dewdrop. Tracy Jones and Fernanda Oliveira sizzled in the Spanish dance, as both did as Mercedes last fall. So much presence and charisma! Several dancers of color in the corps - very nice to see. This company has used their sets/costumes for 15 years -- after buying them from the San Francisco Ballet, so they're getting pretty rag-tag. They just started a big fund-raiser to get new ones for next year. Personally, I'd like to see them rethink the Chinese dance, as other companies are doing now.

That little scooch-forward-step she does always seemed awkward, but she made it work. I love the pas de trois with Minz, especially the way they pass her back and forth overhead. There's also some very tricky partnering you don't see elsewhere, e.g., when Baryshnikov uses one arm on her waist to turn her around. If you haven't looked at it recently:

That may be, although their Nutcracker (which opens Saturday) is doing exceptionally well. 15 of 26 performances are already sold out. I typically see discounted tickets on Goldstar and/or a 20% discount offer on Facebook -- none of those this year, which is a good sign, I think.

Colorado Ballet just announced four mid-season promotions. I don't remember them doing this in the past. Nicolas Pelletier promoted from corps to soloist. Sean Omadam, Emily Speed, and Melissa Zoebisch to a new rank of demi-soloist. (I'm glad to see this new rank as a way to recognize some of the more outstanding corps members.) https://www.coloradoballet.org/company/dancers https://www.broadwayworld.com/denver/article/Colorado-Ballet-Announces-Mid-Season-Promotions-20191127

Live stream of rehearsal of Waltz of the Flowers is starting now (12 noon PST) on Tuesday, 11/26.