California

So many things that would be great for the 2018 Lincoln Center Festival: along with the ENB Giselle, it would be nice if they brought some of their "Lest We Forget" program from 2014. And how about the Houston Ballet's Mayerling? They need venues. They are the only people in North America who have been permitted to perform it. Or perhaps they could all head to the Kennedy Center for 2018-19.

Their former, long-time executive director, Michael Scolamiero, will take over at Ballet West this fall, after a stay at Miami City Ballet: http://www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2017/09/20/ballet-west-hires-a-new-executive-director/

People vary a lot re: how the altitude impacts them. I live at 5K in Denver and hate visiting Vail -- even though I'm partially acclimated. I've skipped the Festival the last few years although I suppose I might try it again some day. I'm also not crazy about their schedule. I'd like to do a few intense days -- watch class on stage + afternoon rehearsals + evening performance. But it's such a mish-mash of stuff geared toward permanent residents that it can be pretty boring during the day. And once you've walked around the touristy stores and restaurants, not much for non-golfers and non-hikers to do. Meanwhile, I'm watching for announcements about the 2018 director at Vail. I wonder if Woetzel will continue once he takes over as dean at Julliard.

Vail's altitude at 8,022 feet makes it difficult to pop in and out, too! http://www.vailgov.com/visiting/high-altitude-health-tips I remember Instagrams from great dancers like Daniel Ulbricht reporting how hard it hit them. Even these athletes need a few days to adjust and dance in peak form.

ENB just announced their spring season for 2018: https://www.ballet.org.uk/whats-on/ Voices of America Sleeping Beauty Emerging Dancers

Four days ago, Tiler Peck posted on Instagram that she looks forward to performing Swan lake this fall: Here's the text she wrote with this: "First day back at #nycballet started a new ballet and rehearsing Swan Lake... in absolute heaven ❤️just like how I feel dancing this Midsummer pas! Dancing literally heals the soul and some things feel like treasures to get to dance"

Here's the program: https://ibstage.com/ibstagegalas/ibgalas2/

Today's live stream is available on YouTube. Tiler Peck does Stars & Stripes, starting at 1:38. Lots of other goodies!

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has committed $1 million to cultural organizations impacted by the hurricane. https://www.neh.gov/news/press-release/2017-08-30

Houston Ballet just posted this on their Facebook page -- the embeds don't work so well, so I'll paste it in: A MESSAGE FROM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR JIM NELSON AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR STANTON WELCH: The Houston Ballet family’s thoughts go out to our beloved city as it contends with the ongoing crisis caused by Hurricane Harvey. We are grateful to be able to share with you that our dancers, artists, and staff are safe, although many have been displaced and otherwise affected by this terrible storm. We want to update you on the status of Houston Ballet’s activities as the new season approaches. Due to a disruption of the company’s systems from a power outage and minor water damage that caused our ticketing and email systems to go offline, our offices are closed and will remain closed through Labor Day. Furthermore, our season-opening performances of "Poetry in Motion", scheduled for September 8-17, have been unavoidably cancelled. We will endeavor to reschedule those performances in the coming months. We are hopeful that "Mayerling" will be able to open the season with performances beginning on September 21st, as previously scheduled. This plan, of course, depends on the availability of the Wortham Theater Center, which has incurred some storm-related damage, as previously reported. In advance of Harvey, Houston Ballet personnel relocated a substantial portion of our valuable costumes, including those for "The Nutcracker", from the Wortham Theater basement to a safe location. And, we are so pleased to report that the warehouse where all of our sets and additional costumes are stored sustained no damage. While the recovery from Harvey will be difficult and prolonged, we join all Houstonians in our steadfast belief that our great city will emerge stronger than ever. -------------- I'm amazed they expert to go ahead with Mayerling September 21, but if they've been working on it for a long time, perhaps that makes sense.

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