California

I just wanted to acknowledge the late Michael Smuin, who was co-director of the San Francisco Ballet until 1985 and later formed his own company. He died in 2007 and it's good to see that the company is still performing. His departure from SFB was not exactly cordial, as I remember. http://www.smuinballet.org/

Boston Ballet will perform the Ashton Cinderella next year, May 10-June 8, 2019. https://www.bostonballet.org/Home/Tickets-Performances/Performances/Cinderella.aspx This company is nice to out-of-towners by including two programs on the same weekends. Cinderella will be shown with 3 pieces by Yakobson and the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 May 16-June 9, 2019. https://www.bostonballet.org/Home/Tickets-Performances/Performances/Rhapsody.aspx I'm waiting to see what ABT does at the Met next spring, but it might be worth a train ride up to Boston to see these.

I'm wondering who else she is dancing with. She's much too young to phase down toward retirement. Please post if you see something about this.

I don't see this posted anywhere else... The Fall 2018 programs for Guggenheim Works and Process have been posted: https://www.guggenheim.org/event/event_series/works-process Single tickets go on sale August 7.

I'm thinking Bright Stream!

Yes! Partnering Sarah Lane? Boylston?

Very pleased to see that she agreed with the "intentional fallacy." https://www.britannica.com/art/intentional-fallacy

I'm showing my age here, but I'm reminded of typical mixed bills in the 1980s at the Kennedy Center (and the Met, as I remember): 4 short ballets. A typical program might open with a one-act Balanchine like Symphonie Concertante, end with something thrilling like Push Comes to Shove or T&V, with a couple of things in the middle, like a Tudor and a PdD like Black Swan, DonQ, or Corsaire. Of course, they also had so many big names that this would always work. I wonder if they could pull this off nowadays.

"Pre-professional" is an advanced training level at the JKO school and others around the country: https://www.abt.org/faq/jko-school-pre-professional-division/ The Studio Company (formerly ABT II) is listed under "training" but seems to be a notch above that: https://www.abt.org/training/dancer-training/abt-studio-company/ They receive full scholarships, stipends, and do not pay a fee to participate.

The dancers are back in the studio today, judging from social media. The roster of dancers has changed surprisingly little, although I suppose future announcements are still possible. https://www.coloradoballet.org/company/dancers Sharon Wehnert has retired as a principal, but that was announced a year ago. No other changes in principals (now 5) or soloists (5). In the corps, two apprentices have been promoted (Regan Kucera and Tyler Rhoads). So they now have 29 on contract, including the apprentices. I was surprised that nobody else departed, other than Wehnert. In previous years several moved on to other regional companies or retired from the profession. One theory: they are doing five programs this year, which are quite varied, so that might have made it very attractive to stay on. I confess that I was hoping for a promotion or two from the corps to soloist - maybe next year. Nothing announced for the Studio company yet for next year.

Another factor: Bolle must be thinking of an ABT-retirement program. It's a surprise he didn't do that in 2018! So they should do something he'd be great at. My wish list: Manon. I suppose Giselle would be okay, but they haven't done Manon in several years. Hallberg could also do it (he was supposed to do it with Osipova this spring at Royal). And in June, Aaron Robison, now of SFB, could be brought in as a welcome guest, as he did the role with Houston.

I just got tickets for the first weekend. Yes, plenty to choose from, apparently as there are no subscribers for this, although they seem to be holding back some of the best seats for Golden Circle (or whatever). I guess Glass is an acquired taste - I'm a big fan and the commissioned score for Upper Room is distinctively different from the excerpts Robbins choose from other works for Glass Pieces. Still, music by Glass is instantly recognizable after all these years. I love Upper Room and look forward to seeing it twice. Symphonie Concertante is an ensemble piece, along with the two female principals. I haven't seen it since the 1983 premiere at Kennedy Center. It's exciting to think this was once considered "lost" and I'm glad they were able to reconstruct it from notation. Still, out-of-towners don't have the luxury of being fussy about casting. We have to take what we can work into our travel schedules.

Yes. Look in Playbill for the Principal Dancers listings. All are "sponsored by..." Most are individual names as sponsors. The ABT Playbills also typically include an advertisement urging people to sponsor a dancer and this pitch is made at the annual Golden Circle luncheon. I see the same thing at regional companies. I don't begrudge companies using any angle they've got to raise money. Still, it's a little creepy to my mind, as it hints at the 19th century practice of dancers who were essentially mistresses to wealthy sponsors (or at least, that's the legend).

I agree! I remember an interview with Ratmansky from several years ago in which he said he didn't understand the American revulsion at blackface. I will be very interested in hearing about his Bayadere reconstruction for Berlin this November. Has he been a US citizen long enough now to understand?

Yes, startling and horrible that people would murder for car mirrors. I was reminded of a conference I attended in the US in the late 80s with scholars from the Soviet Union. Each had a $100 bill provided for expenses from their government. They wanted someone to drive them to the nearest Sears store so they could stock up on ... wait for it ... windshield wipers. They were apparently regularly stolen and people would uninstall them from their own cars whenever they parked, if they could. We forget what it can be like in some of these countries elsewhere on the planet. (which is not to say that there aren't also crimes in the US which are hard to fathom...)

Interesting. I have not yet seen the Gomes film, but several years ago I saw the rough cut from the filmmakers, which they put on-line for just a few days for donors to the project. That's where he gave the quote on this being his last performance, but it's possible that was cut from the final film. Presumably, Vishneva talked him into one more season! PS: Still waiting for my own copy of the film, which was promised to donors over a certain level. I gather they postponed this perk until after they had exploited the potential for theater showings.

Some might remember that Marcelo Gomes did Bayadere with Vishneva in 2012 in Japan and it was filmed for Anatomy of a Dancer. At that time, he said that was his last Bayadere, but he continued with Swan Lake and several other roles long after 2012. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2012/08/03/stage/world-ballet-festival-shows-how-japan-has-jetd-its-way-onto-the-world-stage/#.W0zcJ9VKjIU

What a treat - thank you. Don't you wish we could get lengthy clips like that of Met performances? I wish we could see some of the tricky partnering in Act II, but I guess beggars can't be choosers!

This was ten years ago, but I went to a performance of the LA Ballet in Kammermusik No. 2. She came out on stage first and gave a fascinating, detailed explanation of how this had been choreographed, as she was in the original cast. First, Balanchine had the two women in unison. Then, once they had that nailed, Balanchine said: now, we're going to stagger your start times. The performance was in an auditorium at UCLA with recorded music, but I've appreciated that ballet ever since. I hope she is still providing that kind of insight, which is priceless and something you can't get elsewhere. I look at their schedules from time to time. LA is a tough market, in part because of the monstrous drive times for so many just to get to the theaters where they perform. She has managed to keep going despite all that, so plaudits for that alone.

I don't think anybody has mentioned Manon, for which there are several recordings. My favorite is Rojo-Acosta: https://www.amazon.com/Manon-Royal-Ballet-Yates-NTSC/dp/B01I05K9WU/ It's also free on Amazon Prime.

Another Robison fan! He was scheduled to do Sleeping Beauty with Alexandrova at ENB in June, but had to cancel due to injury. Still, I'm hoping he will do SB with SFB next March. I wasn't interested in seeing yet another SB, but he'd be worth the trip, I think. Hope they announce casting early on. https://londoncoliseum.org/whats-on/the-sleeping-beauty/

The George Balanchine Foundation has what they call the Interpreters Archive on tape. I remember seeing one on VHS with Alonso back in the 90s that was in my University library collection. I'm pretty sure that was T&V, although it's been a long time. Apparently these are now available at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division at the NYPL. http://www.balanchine.org/balanchine/03/gbfvideoarchives.html

No problem. Others on the board can tell there are a lot of us who have seen Aaron in the theater and are very excited about his return to North America. I wonder if ABT will look seriously at him to beef up their Met schedule in 2019. The SFB schedule ends on May 12, so he could join in June! https://www.sfballet.org/

I just assume there are private factors we'll never know about -- perhaps some of the much-publicized hostile environment issues at ENB, or personality clashes, or personal relationships. No doubt unknowns we'll never really know were also behind the movements of Cirio and Kochetkova. I'm disappointed he won't be doing ENBs Manon next winter, a role he knows from Houston Ballet. Very glad I didn't plan anything to see that!

San Francisco Ballet just sent out e-mail with a link to this page, announcing that Robison will return for the 2019 season. Yippee! I might need to rethink my travel plans for next spring! http://archive.skem1.com/csb/Public/show/aqeu-qn0uf--haz56-1hpenb50