California

We seem to have exhausted the torch lift discussion (at least for this year), but here's another clip from yesterday, Maria Mosina and Alexei Tyukov, Colorado Ballet:

Great news! NYCB performance in Paris will be broadcast on PBS February 17 & 24 as part of the Great Performances series: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/20/arts/dance/city-ballets-stars-dance-on-television-wnet.html?_r=0

I, too, have all the VAI DVDs and they play just fine on my US DVD players.

Thanks for the Ratmansky posting - and now we know that he calls it a "torch lift" (we weren't sure what to call it a year ago) and includes the jump as part of the move. I sometimes wonder if ABT dancers (and others) look at our discussions to see what we're interested in!

I think I found the passage in Onegin -- at 0:55

Thanks so much, VolcanoHunter - really interesting and informative. I found the lift from Pharaoh's Daughter. It starts at 1:50 And with ABT doing a week's worth of Onegin's, we now know what to watch for in that lift. BTW - I noticed that La Scala recently added Onegin with Bolle and Nunez September 23 - October 18, 2017. I'm sure that wasn't there a few weeks ago, when I was looking at their Swan Lake schedule. http://www.teatroallascala.org/en/season/2016-2017/ballet/balletto7.html

BEST (in no particular order) (1) The staying power of Ratmansky's Trilogy - so glad we got to see it all again (2) Ratmansky's Plato's Symposium - hope they bring it back soon (fall 2017?) (3) The youthful energy and sparkling technique of so many new principals and soloists in Corella's Don Q for the Pennsylvania Ballet (almost makes up for the blood-letting) (4) The Vishneva-Gomes R&J - for the last time, we now know, at least at ABT (5) Getting to see Tyukov-Mosina one last time before her retirement in Swan Lake and the Grand Pas/Nutcracker (6) Baryshnikov in Letter to a Man - not really a ballet, but riveting and important WORST (1) Ratmansky's Golden Cockerel - what a big bore - never again (2) Wheeldon's American Rhapsody

Thanks for that clip of Stella. It looks like Hammoudi doesn't have the strength to get her all the way up without stooping down in the knees somewhat for the second push. And it really helps that the conductor hits the big chord just at the right time - suggests this was the version they planned all along. But this version looks so much better than the clumsy thing Copeland (and others) try - when it looks like they're stepping up a ladder first. It makes sense for partners to work out details that work for them. You do see lots of variation in any number of complicated partnering moves. But it would be nice if all got some coaching to find something that both works and looks good, whatever that is.

I wish we had some clips of ABT's best partners, especially Marcelo. If anybody finds some, please post. I saw the opening night a year ago with Marcelo and Gillian (filling in for Veronika Part, who cancelled for the Nutcracker season) and my memory is they did this quite well. At that point, we had already seen (and discussed) a rehearsal clip with Marcelo and Part, but it doesn't include the run-up. He is strong enough to hoist her up from a position standing still. But he does seem to use maximum effort and an unusually fast shuffling-run to keep her balanced. And it never looks sufficiently secure to make it one-armed.

Thanks for adding to the collection of clips, canbelto! Yes, the 2015 Bolshoi is pretty awful -- indeed, it looks just like the ABT version! Maybe that's the clip the ABT principals have been studying. The Maximova clip takes the prize - and it's one-armed, unlike the other two Bolshoi clips.

They have performed this every December since 2010. Ratmansky isn't trying for a reconstruction here - he claims credit for the choreography - so why leave in a move almost nobody (in ABT) can do after all this time? He was an accomplished dancer and then directed the Bolshoi Ballet for five years, so he surely knows what it takes to do those moves. There is plenty of challenging choreography in that PdD already, but perhaps he thought this would challenge the ABT dancers and raise their performance levels. Perhaps so much time has passed that he has decided it's too late to revise without everybody noticing. It's turned into a 32-fouette-like test of principal dancers -- everybody in the know is watching for it. On another matter: are the costumes the same as at the 2010 premiere? The tutu on Copeland in that clip doesn't look like the longer ones they wear now.

And two of my favorite Russians (Bolshoi- and Perm-trained) - entrance with the little jump, as in the Bolshoi clip above. This starts at 1:21:

Here it is -- at 3:15 - no stop, she just jumps into position: And none of the ABT lifts look secure enough to make this one-armed...

Thanks for posting that clip, which I hadn't seen before. So strange...if you look back at the clips from Bolshoi (and Bolshoi-trained) dancers from a year ago, they have the same running entrance, but she makes a fast turn so there's no break in momentum and he pushes her up. Surely they have looked at tapes of the Bolshoi dancers. Why the dead stop? Is it that difficult to learn how to make this a continuous movement with a turn?

A year ago, several of us posted clips of Bolshoi (and Bolshoi-trained) dancers doing that lift, and it can be really amazing, but I've never seen it done well by others. Given Ratmansky's tenure at the Bolshoi, it seems he was trying to inject some of that Bolshoi pizzazz into his new production. But it amazes me he hasn't seen the problems, helped with the coaching, or even replaced the move so it isn't such an eyesore.

General tickets went on sale this morning a few minutes ago. If you're interested in the Ratmansky/ABT programs April 30-May 1, don't wait - most tickets are already sold (apparently to friends/donors). https://www.guggenheim.org/event/event_series/works-process?utm_source=hootsuite&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=wp-facebook

I watched it once and don't think I could stomach sitting through it again, the story was so saccharine and predictable. Radetsky did a little dancing, but not enough to make it worthwhile. Coincidentally, Amazon Prime just added the first season of Flesh and Bones to its free collection. The first episode of that was so Black-Swan-icky I don't think I could watch any more of that either. Fortunately, I had White Nights on my DVR and watched that for the umpteenth to remember what a dance movie could be like - some actual dancing worth seeing!

Administrators: could you fix the topic? It should be December 2016!

The National Endowment for the Arts just announced a new round of grants, including many for ballet. The complete list is here - if you search "ballet" or "dance" you find many festivals and art education events that include ballet: https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/fall-2016-grant-announcement-state-listing.pdf Individual grants of special interest: American Ballet Theatre: $90,000-2017 domestic tour Aspen Santa Fe Ballet: $20,000-national tour of dance performance with new works Atlanta Ballet: $20,000-restaging of Possokhov's Firebird Ballet Metropolitan: $20,000-"Romeo and Juliet" by Edwaard Liang Ballet West: $20,000-National Choreographic Festival Bard College: $20,000-SummerScape Festival including "revival of previously lost Jerome Robbins ballets" [unnamed] Boston Ballet: $60,000-presentation of "Artifact" by William Forsythe Carolina Ballet: $10,000-presentation of "Carmen" by Robert Weiss Charlotte Ballet: $10,000-world premiere of "Wuthering Heights" by Sasha Jones Cincinnati Ballet: $20,000-new work by Jennifer Archibald Houston Ballet: $50,000-premieres by Kylian and Bintley Joffrey Ballet: $20,000-new work by Alexander Ekman Kansas City Ballet: $20,000-support presentation of "The Lotttery by Val Caniparoli and others Miami City Ballet: $60,000-creation and presentation of "The Fairy's Kiss" by Ratmansky Milwaukee Ballet: $10,000-new work by Timothy O'Donnell New York City Babllet: $100,000-Festival of Contemporary Choreographers Oregon Ballet Theatre: $20,000-new dance works Pacific Northwest Ballet: $60,000-Rep Program 6 (Pictures at an Exhibition) Tulsa Ballet Theatre: $20,000-new work by Edwaard Liang Vail International Dance Festival: $10,000-support for 29th Festival

A year ago, I saw Boylston with Stearns and wrote on this site: The matinee with Boylston and Stearns did have a major disaster on the torch-lift, but I'm not sure the audience recognized that one either. He first turned on the diagonal to get into position and, near the end, slipped. He didn't fall, but it was noticeable and I wonder if that spooked both of them. When she ran toward him, she really slowed down as she approached. He tried to heave her upward (she was no help at all), got her as far as his shoulder where she just sat, while he had both arms wrapped around her legs in front. Very clumsy and awkward. If they had planned to simplify the lift, it would have looked better (just a standard shoulder sit), but this seemed to to be a "save" to avoid catastrophe.

In 1980, PBS broadcast Two Duets, which included Baryshnikov and Makarova doing Other Dances. Tobi Tobias interviews Robbins and they show Robbins rehearsing them. He mentions that they have been performing it with other partners, but doesn't say who that might be. You can watch it at the NYPL Dance Collection. https://catalog.nypl.org/search~S99?/Xrobbins+other+dances+baryshnikov+makarova&searchscope=99&SORT=DZ/Xrobbins+other+dances+baryshnikov+makarova&searchscope=99&SORT=DZ&extended=0&SUBKEY=robbins+other+dances+baryshnikov+makarova/1%2C15%2C15%2CB/frameset&FF=Xrobbins+other+dances+baryshnikov+makarova&searchscope=99&SORT=DZ&6%2C6%2C

Small world! I was in that audience -- Chicago's Auditorium Theatre, April 19, 1979. The rest of the program: Ballo, Agon, Vienna Waltzes. There was only one other performance of Other Dances during that 2-week engagement, the Sunday (mat), April 22. I also saw them do Coppelia at the Kennedy Center that October, but he was injured a few days later (cancelling Dances at a Gathering) and I think that was the end of his performing career with NYCB. Of course, they might have done OD at a gala or special event later.

Just announced: a baby boy: http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/08/entertainment/mick-jagger-baby/index.html She's still listed on the ABT dancer site: http://www.abt.org/dancers/detail.asp?Dancer_ID=126

When I took a tour of the Met Opera House years ago, they pointed out the soundproof room in the back for people with crying babies. I haven't seen anything like that in the State Theatre, but they seem to need it - more importantly, they need ushers who will escort people from the theater after a reasonable warning. They do at least have closed circuit TV where people could watch (and hear) the rest of the performance.

I tried to paste in the other thread's URL and am getting a message that it's "forbidden" - I have no idea what that's about. But now it seems to be embedded here: