California

The National Endowment for the Arts has posted a statement announcing emergency grants for arts organizations in Texas and Louisiana. I would imagine there are dozens of art museums, theaters, etc. that will be in need of assistance: https://www.arts.gov/news/2017/statement-hurricane-harvey

Photos of the theater entrance: <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Earlier today <a href="https://t.co/3FUBZHEnxG">pic.twitter.com/3FUBZHEnxG</a></p>&mdash; Pu Ying Huang (@puyinghuang) <a href="https://twitter.com/puyinghuang/status/902008743260454912">August 28, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

They reposted on Instagram. this might work:

Miami City Ballet just posted a nice video, which somebody at Houston Ballet was able to share. I understand they had to shut down their web site, but apparently still have access to Facebook. If this doesn't work, search Facebook for MCB or Houston Ballet. <iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fmiamicityballet%2Fvideos%2F10154624574801090%2F&show_text=1&width=560" width="560" height="420" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" allowFullScreen="true"></iframe> <

So sad! Their season was to open September 8. Watching the news, it's only going to get worse. And we don't know anything about the homes of dancers and staff, who are not exactly wealthy.

This announcement just appeared on their Facebook; nothing about flooding at their buildings. I suppose that's good news. 12 hrs · Houston Ballet Academy 15 hrs · WEATHER UPDATE: Houston Ballet will be closed through Tuesday, August 29. All Academy classes, rehearsals and activities are cancelled including ECE's Dance Talk. Please continue to check back as we post updates.

I don't see any information on their Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram accounts. I wonder what's happening with their studios and theaters. Any news?

In past seasons, I've sometimes seen 50% off tickets to NYCB at the TDF ticket booths. I don't remember seeing ABT, but haven't been in town to check during the fall season. Look under "discount booths" to see what is offered for today and for tomorrow's matinees. https://www.tdf.org/ But you don't really know until the event has started if they will have things. If they do, you can typically pick out a seat once you get to the ticket booth. Note that they now have a ticket booth at Lincoln Center (In the Rubenstein atrium) along with the ones at Times Square, etc. Alternatively, if you join TDF, you can see offerings in all genres, including dance, farther ahead in time, but I don't think you can pick out a seat and you need to buy a membership: https://www.tdf.org/nyc/10/TDF-Member-Tickets

Sharon Wehner, who has been with Colorado Ballet for 20 years, just announced her retirement at the end of the 2017-18 season: http://www.westword.com/arts/colorado-ballet-principal-dancer-sharon-wehner-on-leaving-the-company-9372453 Valerie Madonia just left as director of the Academy and is now back in Telluride. The Telluride Arts site posted a very nice tribute to her: http://www.telluridearts.org/featuredartists/2017/8/16/featured-artist-valerie-madonia

Very nice story in Dance Magazine notes that both Colorado Ballet and Boston Ballet are meeting financial goals: http://www.dancemagazine.com/yes-it-is-possible-to-build-new-ballet-audiences-in-2017-2476154769.html?utm_campaign=RebelMouse&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_content=Dance+Magazine I wish ABT would consider some of their practices. At Colorado Ballet, subscribers get 25% off all subscription tickets AND all additional tickets for the rest of the season. They also use "dynamic pricing," as you see discussed in the article. I don't see many empty seats, even though they are in a large Opera House, seating 2225. https://www.denvercenter.org/plan-your-visit/theatres-seating/the-ellie-caulkins-opera-house

A very interesting video-instagram. She describes this Giselle excerpt in her comments as "Gelsey's ending." I had forgotten about this exit, but it's different from others who do running jetes. She's too young to have seen Gelsey in the theater. Perhaps she's seen some of the archival footage at NYPL?

Does anyone else find this puzzling? Yes, he's a great coach, he's worked extensively with NYCB, and I'm sure he's familiar with the various traditional SLs. But why not lean on a great ballerina, like Kopalkova or Jaffe or Makarova? Although I wish he were rehearsing her for his reconstruction, that seems unlikely.

Cut-backs in the NEA Dance Touring program haven't helped either. This is also another reminder that the cut-backs in PBS programming (Dance in America and Live from Lincoln Center) are even more unfortunate. DVDs and live-streaming help fill in the gaps, but note that we're mainly seeing European and Russian companies that way, not the American troupes. I have appreciated the live-streaming of some PNB events recently and wish other companies could figure out how to do that.

If you word search "state arts" there are quite a few references to the state arts councils. New York was the only one that pre-dated the NEA itself. With financial incentives from NEA, all the states (and territories) eventually established them. Nancy Hanks was a great promoter of the importance of state and local arts agencies. (So sad to see the picture of the Old Post Office on the cover of that report -- such a wonderful historic building, beautifully restored, re-opened in 1981 as the home of both Endowments, and named in honor of Nancy Hanks.)

Jackie, of course, had a lot to do with that, but she wasn't alone. There was also a major study by the Rockefeller Foundation of the need for Federal support of the arts and humanities in the early sixties. This led to the establishment of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1964 and the renaming of the National Cultural Center as the Kennedy Center. All this was wonderfully bipartisan, by the way. And we shouldn't forget the leadership Eleanor Roosevelt showed in the 1930s with the Works Project Administration which put artists on the Federal payroll. A wonderful history of this era: https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/nea-history-1965-2008.pdf

But this is my favorite -- a brief rehearsal clip of Tiler Peck in Tchaikovsky PdD

Clips from the second gala night, on Saturday:

We could, of course, broaden more -- children of famous people, children of people, people...drug problems are frighteningly widespread and have been for a long time. The wealthy do have an advantage of being able to afford better care to cure their addictions than most.

Very helpful, volcanohunter. Thank you! I'm pretty sure that Robbins said long ago that seeing the Joffrey's Parade revolutionized his own thinking about ballet. It would be very interesting to see a revival of that one. I saw an exhibit of Picasso's costumes for Parade at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia in 2016, but the Barnes seems to have removed their press releases on this. I don't recall if they were reconstructions of the costumes or the actual ones and who has custody of them. Here's a news article on them: http://www.mcall.com/entertainment/arts/mc-picasso-barnes-philadelphia-great-war-20160323-story.html

Interesting question...I realized I couldn't think of a single ballet by him, but found Gaite Parisienne on the ABT page. Didn't they do that a few years ago with lavish new costumes and it was something of a flop? I wonder how much has survived of the others, either in notation or film. http://www.abt.org/education/archive/choreographers/massine_l.html

I confess to enormous exasperation that the two Woetzel programs on Robbins are at the same time as Mariinsky performances! Couldn't they do one of these at a time that wouldn't conflict -- maybe Friday late afternoon or Sunday early evening? http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/event/MSDWA

Nice video clips of the weekend performances:

In the first act of Onegin at the Met, when a jumble of corps men as peasants come on with different tricks, there was one corps member who did the aerial walkover, but I could never identify him. When you read the detailed bios for a lot of these dancers, many seem to have some gymnastics in their background as children.

It's also not in the Denver Public Library nor the University of Colorado or California State University Libraries (although CSU has her cat book!). If the organizers of the Guggenheim program are smart, they'll find a way to get some copies made up for sale at the program and also through on-line ordering. The trick, as noted, is finding out who owns the rights now.

Here's Salstein teaching last class at the Met season -- he had them finish with cartwheels. He does seem like he's quite experienced at teaching. (Note that Hallberg skips the cartwheel.) He also taught the company class on stage for Friends in June.