California

Mearns is injured, as per her Instagram

ENB is bringing back Lest We Forget, September 20-29, 2018, at Sadler's Wells. I would urge anybody in the vicinity to see this. I was fortunate to see the premiere season in 2014 and it just blew me away. (They seem to have dropped the Firebird, which didn't work at all for this program.) https://www.ballet.org.uk/production/lest-we-forget/

Recently I noticed a video clip of a retired male dancer in North America teaching a class of young girls with a cane/stick of the sort you used to see with elderly ballet masters. He was using it for the usual corrections -- pushing shoulders down, feet out, etc. It occurred to me that this is a really smart thing to do in this day and age so there's no question about the appropriateness of corrections. I remember talking with some male middle school teachers years ago who told me they are never, ever alone with a student - whether in an office, car, bus, whatever. Just too risky. They wanted witnesses for everything and even touching that might seem appropriate to adults could be misunderstood. (Of course, that creepy doctor in Michigan apparently even had ways to hide his mischief from others in the room.) Better to overcompensate in this day and age.

I hate to think of how often that's used incorrectly, even in professional publications. Does nobody have copy editors any more?

Problems at the English National Ballet: the director's affair and "workplace abuse" http://metro.co.uk/2018/01/27/english-national-ballet-dancers-quit-over-directors-affair-and-workplace-abuse-7265687/

I've been fortunate to see many Friends open rehearsals over the years and Martins routinely coached principals in roles he created or performed. I always found it fascinating to see little details being worked out, especially in tricky passages. It's at least possible that the absence of that coaching is part of what people saw, although I'm dismayed at what sounds to me like a lack of professionalism on stage. Mistakes happen. Professionals learn to work past them and make it work regardless.

Thank you! It didn't occur to me to try that. Assume that was Sunday, March 18?

Not a full-length, but he's also still listed for two Firebirds (which I couldn't stomach sitting through ever again).

No disagreement here! I'm also planning to go to the first three days of Cuba, then train to NYC to see the SAB workshop, 1 or 2 Bayaderes (Teuscher-Ahn-Trenary looks promising), an NYCB Coppelia, the NYCB season closer (all-Balanchine!) and the premiere of Harlequinade. In May, the Osipova-Hallberg Giselle, maybe the Bolle Giselle (especially if it turns out to be his retirement), but otherwise Robbins week at NYCB. I wouldn't mind seeing Cornejo or Simkin, but they aren't worth a special trip at this point.

Going back quite a few years, they go on sale on a Sunday morning and they seem to try to avoid Easter. So the best guess is Sunday, March 25 - at least that's what I have on my personal calendar! Sometimes the Met ticketing site has that information, but I can't find anything (yet).

I share everybody's disappointment. I'm glad I didn't plan much in the way of NYC visits for spring -- and, thankfully, NYCB has some interesting things in their spring season. I guess it's time to focus on season announcements for 2018-19 and hope there are things worth visiting this fall -- Boston, Washington, Pennsylvania, NYCB, PNB?

He's been posting a flurry of Instagram photos at the Royal Opera House in recent days. He's still listed with Osipova for Giselle on March 1 & 9 (both sold out) and for Manon on April 5 & 13 (not yet on sale). I think that was all he was originally scheduled for.

Colorado Ballet is doing four performances of her Brief Fling, March 30-April 1. They also have In the Upper Room in their rep, although they have not done it in many years. https://www.coloradoballet.org/performances/ballet-directors-choice-2018 Gil Boggs, the company director, was in the ABT 1990 premiere: https://www.twylatharp.org/works/brief-fling

Yes. My mistake -- Kickstarter not GoFundMe. But years after they were pleased they got enough to go into production, they were sending out e-mails that they didn't have enough money for post-production at that juncture, so that delayed things even more.

The film has a long history. The producers were trying to raise money through GoFundMe back in 2010. In periodic e-mail updates they said that rights to filming were very expensive and they were glad to be able to film his Bayadere in Japan and something else in Brazil, as I vaguely remember. Then they had trouble getting post-production funding. So I'm glad they were able to release something at long last. I hope to see it someday. Donors got to watch a rough cut a couple of years ago that was available for just a few days on-line. So little of his dancing is available, this will be appreciated.

Interestingly, this turned up on a Google search -- quite a bit of detail about apprentices from SAB: "Apprentices are paid the equivalent of a first-year corps member’s salary, which is prorated according to the number of performances danced each week." But what is the pro-ration based on? Is it assumed that all corps members do X number of performances each week? https://sab.org/winterterm/career_planning/nycb_apprentice_program.php

The use of a different score for the Bournonville version is an interesting historical detail. At least according to some, Bournonville could not afford to purchase the rights to the French score and commissioned a new one. See "musical notes" near the bottom on this site, e.g.: http://www.bournonville.com/bournonville14.html "Baron Herman Severin Løvenskiold, a composer who has since been neglected, composed the music for Bournonville's version of La Sylphide. There was not enough money to buy the admired tones of Schneitzhoeffer's original Paris production. Instead, Bournonville worked closely with the 20-year-old nobleman Løvenskiold, with the intention of creating new, melodious and dramatically illustrative music that could support the ballet master's version of this story. "

I would go to that! A couple of years ago, there was a hint that a movement from Push would be shown at an ABT gala, leading some of us to wonder if they were bringing it back. But that seems to have fizzled. And I love Upper Room, which is now in the rep of several companies, including Colorado Ballet. Royal Ballet has a new piece she choreographed for them last fall. I don't remember reviews on it, but she's still working: http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/the-illustrated-farewell-by-twyla-tharp

Although Push premiered in January 1976 and his directorship didn't commence until 1980. I don't know who had the idea originally to invite Tharp, but I remember a sense that Lucia Chase was trying to bring in lots of work (new and otherwise) for him to perform. I'm a fan of Push -- silly at times, but never boring. And it provided all sorts of opportunities to show his technical ability, doing things we had never seen before -- like the multiple pirouette sequence in the last movement where he lifts the supporting leg off the ground. (We saw that again in his Tchai Pas when he filmed it with Balanchine. It also appeared in Robbins' Four Seasons; Robbins actually choreographed a different variation for Martins to use in that piece.) And for quite a few years -- when many performances sold out before casting was announced -- it was one sure guarantee that you'd see him that evening, as no other male performed it for many years.

There is a small bit of her variation in Giselle near the end of Act II on the 60 Minutes interview. It starts at about 13:00, waist up, but then does show full-body performance. She's on cocaine during this, but it's still amazing to see - and scary. Dancing with Bissell.

I was really hoping POB would give me a good excuse for a trip to Paris in 2019. Very disappointed! I have been hoping to see their versions of La Sylphide and Giselle. Maybe next season!

Indeed! She was also supposed to do Push Comes to Shove, but thought it was silly, and Marianna Tcherkassky took that role instead.

Yes. The cocaine problems started in 1980 before she was to return to ABT when Baryshnikov took over as AD. Patrick Bissell introduced her to it. (Dancing on My Grave, pp. 224ff)

The only film I know of for their Don Q PdD was taped in July 1976 at Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts outside Washington. It was released many years later on video (although they omitted the opening of Push, which was performed at Wolf Trap). The delay reported at the time was that Gelsey refused permission, but she finally agreed when they added that statement from her at the end of the tape. Gelsey was at her unhealthy anorexic worst then. After that summer tour, he headed off to start filming The Turning Point; she had originally been cast, but the directors said they couldn't use her and cast Leslie Browne instead. And the gossip columns were filled with stories of him and Jessica Lange. She was back in good form for his Nutcracker in December 1977 and his new full-length Don Q in spring 1978. And the T&V on Live from Lincoln Center was also in the spring of 1978 when she was in good form. But something amazing to note about that performance: it was the fifth and final section of the evening performance for him! It opened with the first movement of Push with the original cast (Tcherkassky and van Hamel), then the Coppelia PdD with Gelsey, Vestris, Spectre (with Tcherkassky) and finally the Don Q PdD. (There were orchestral interludes between each piece.) He was 28 years old. And they did this on two consecutive nights at an outdoor stage in hot, humid DC. It's pretty amazing when you look at this.

Nijinsky for sure. Such a legendary figure, yet there is no film of him at all. At least Pavlova had Hollywood friends who got some of her movement recorded for posterity and we can get a slight sense of her movement quality. Nijinsky was in his prime when film technology existed and it's such a terrible loss that he was never filmed. I've always wondered if that was a decision of Diaghilev. I saw a claim somewhere that Nijinsky prohibited film, but do we know that was his decision? We know that Diaghilev did not want Ballet Russes filmed, as he thought people would stay away from the theater. As far as I know, only one bit of film of Diaghilev's company does exist. Such a loss to later generations!