California

His casting for the Met is now "TBA." He's still scheduled to choreograph for Washington Ballet next spring. I wouldn't be surprised if his retirement performance is in Russia with Vishneva.

This happened so fast that they haven't even removed him from the list of dancers on their web site or casting for the Met season. I'm as stunned as everyone else, I suspect.

Obratzsova (sp?) is one ABT guest star I wouldn't mind seeing again in the theater! I hope they release this on DVD. Ratmansky has an interesting take on the ending - no PdD with rag-doll-dead-body of MacMillan, which is a relief. They hold the other's hand while taking the poison and then the knife. They have a few moments with both alive for an actual PdD. Suggests there might be some interesting twists earlier in the ballet.

This trailer for the new film about Marcelo Gomes was just sent out by e-mail. With so little film of him in his prime, this is nice to see: Trailer for Anatomy of a Male Ballet Dancer https://vimeo.com/247345734

Jacob's Pillow Festival for 2018 (June 20 - August 26) has been announced, including Royal Danish Ballet, Houston Ballet, and Ulbricht's Stars of American Ballet. https://www.jacobspillow.org/festival/ticketed-performances/

The National Endowment for the Humanities today announced 253 new grants, totalling $12.8 million. https://www.neh.gov/files/press-release/december_2017_neh_grant_awards.pdf Of possible interest to Ballet Alerters: Washington, DC: Howard University Outright: $99,948 [Humanities Initiatives: HBCUs] Project Director: Ofosuwa Abiola Project Title: The Africana Theatre and Dance Collection as a Teaching Resource Project Description: Student training in archival methods, cataloguing, and digitization, leading to the establishment of an Africana Theatre and Dance Collection in Howard University's Founders Library. Illinois: Links Hall, Inc. Outright: $12,000 [Common Heritage] Project Director: Meida McNeal Project Title: From Warehouse To Web: Digitizing House Music Ephemera and Material Culture Project Description: A digitization day and a public symposium focused on the history and material culture of African American house music, dance, and culture in Chicago from the late 1970s to the end of the twentieth century. Missouri: Angela Miller Outright: $50,400 [Fellowships] Washington University in St. Louis Project Title: The Arti–tic and Literary Circle of American Essayist and Art Patron Lincoln Kirstein (1907–1996) Project Description: Preparation of a book-length study of the New York artists and authors associated with critic and cultural figure Lincoln Kirstein (1907–1996) who resisted Abstract Expressionism during the mid-20th century.

Although this was published in 2010, when the economy was still struggling, it's an interesting overview of what it costs to join the boards of prestigious NYC institutions: $250,000 for Lincoln Center; $10 million for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. NYCB is mentioned, although they don't put a dollar figure on their board membership. I'm guessing it's more like Lincoln Center http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/arts/03center.html

She posted this just 12 hours ago. https://www.instagram.com/p/BclLbjRhXsI/?taken-by=saramearns

I don't want to drag this too far off topic, but there have been numerous allegations and law suits against many professors around the country for inappropriate conduct with their students. The Chronicle of Higher Education has been naming names for years of the alleged perpetrators - faculty at many famous institutions: Yale, Columbia, Berkeley, U of Colorado-Boulder, Northwestern, etc. Here's just one example of this problem at Berkeley, from a well-regarded site in philosophy: http://dailynous.com/2017/03/23/sexual-harassment-assault-retaliation-lawsuit-john-searle/

NYCB just announced its interim leadership team: "The group overseeing the artistic management of City Ballet will be led by Jonathan Stafford, a ballet master and former principal dancer with the company. Joining him will be Justin Peck, City Ballet’s resident choreographer and soloist, along with Craig Hall and Rebecca Krohn, both ballet masters." https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/09/arts/dance/team-to-lead-city-ballet-during-martins-sexual-harassment-probe.html

Vail posted a clip of Peck's 10 years at Vail. They have several dancers who return frequently, but this is unusual:

Martins is taking a leave of absence from both NYCB and SAB, according to this new story from the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/new-york-city-ballet-leader-to-take-leave-amid-sexual-violence-allegations/2017/12/07/9b4e4884-db7a-11e7-b859-fb0995360725_story.html?utm_term=.556c8aa9c291

A Nutcracker Flash Sale: Great Savings on Great Seats! Journey to the Land of the Sweets for Philadelphia’s most beloved holiday tradition. Giant mice, dancing snowflakes, a growing Christmas tree, and an enchanted nutcracker are sure to delight the inner child in everyone. Today and tomorrow only- Use the promo code SUGARPLUM to save 30% on select seats to performances on 12/9 (7:00pm) and 12/17 (5:00pm)* GET THE DISCOUNT

Don't forget higher education. Lecherous professors have been busted -- and named -- for years now and it continues to this day. Best source: Chronicle of Higher Education. For decades, colleagues whispered about this, but wouldn't name names. Now they do, and it's for the best.

As others have pointed out, it's gotten really difficult in recent times to distinguish The Onion from "reality." Sometimes I feel like I'm living in The Twilight Zone.

If you read McKenzie interviews over the years, he says, essentially, that the ABT board was desperate, that everybody else had turned them down, and McKenzie was a last desperate hope. So the lack of management experience almost didn't matter. It's a very different story now, with people like Steifel, Corella, and Bocca around.

I would think the board would look to prior experience managing a major company -- Steifel's experience at New Zealand Ballet and Corella's at Pennsylvania. But don't forget Bocca's in Uruguay. We all love Gomes, but he hasn't had any management experience with a ballet company - that would be quite a gamble.

Nothing yet. And $2500 is pretty steep for that perk. I'd rather get the opportunity to buy tickets at least a week before general public -- something many companies do.

The fact that they haven't updated the web site is telling -- I wonder if they have gotten a lot of complaints, especially from major donors: http://paballet.org/support/giving-levels-benefits/

Alarming - a $4 million swing in one year, even allowing that there might be some timing oddities that make it seem even worse than it is. (e.g., perhaps a super-big gift that came in one year, instead of being spread out over two) But signs of trouble have been there for a long time. E.g., the 2017-18 rep includes Sleeping Beauty in the fall and Swan Lake in the spring. Most 2nd and 3rd tier companies program two guaranteed money-makers a year -- Nutcracker + a reliable warhorse (often Swan Lake or Sleeping Beauty). The fact that Pennsylvania was scheduling both in the same year is ominous -- they need the money, need to rebuild audiences, etc.? What blockbusters do they have for next year? Don Q again, so soon after last year? Another trouble sign this year: the frequent flash sales, last-minute bargain prices on orchestra seats, etc. I have seen several of their programs since Corella took over and always enjoy them. This is not NYCB or even ABT, but worth seeing. I hope they can work through these problems.

Osipova-Hallberg are also doing Manon at the Royal Ballet on April 5 & 13. http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/manon-by-kenneth-macmillan

It's very peculiar. If you look at their Friends levels, nobody gets advance notice of casting or even an opportunity to buy tickets before the general public! The Development Office needs to take a serious look at that! http://paballet.org/support/giving-levels-benefits/

In the publicity still photo on the KenCen e-mail, a pair was doing the famous torch lift - looks like the end of Act I with snow, etc. Did they actually do that?

We don't get to see much MacMillan in North America, alas. I'm still hoping, however, that Houston Ballet brings its Mayerling to Lincoln Center next July to fill the hole left by the POB cancellation. I can dream, can't I? I think I made that point some time ago during the floods, but I'm hoping that somebody from Houston or LC reads this board!

I assume that this could be figured out from the 990s filed with the IRS, which has to include grants and gifts, although a lot of other things are on that form and it might not all be itemized. But remember how much aggressive fund-raising went on for the three-company Jewels last summer -- all sorts of high-cost Friends options + very expensive tickets.