California

Thanks for this context. It's hard to think of another American company that has the size and wealth to stage the Ratmansky Swan Lake -- Miami? Joffrey? Boston? Houston? Guess we'll have to wait for the official press announcement from the chosen company!

I don't think Macauley would mention this unless he knew something - but that company surely would want to be able to make the official announcement itself. PNB's current Swan Lake dates to a 1981 production by the previous directors: https://www.pnb.org/repertorylist/swan-lake/ Doug Fullington of PNB worked with Ratmansky on the La Scala reconstruction. (This was mentioned in reviews, not rumors.) And Fullington has been in NYC this summer as a fellow of the NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts, giving him more opportunities to consult with Ratmansky? https://balletcenter.nyu.edu/cba/summer-2016-fellows/ SFB's Swan Lake premiered in 2009 and is by their current director, Helgi Tomasson. It was presented in 2016 and is scheduled again for 2017. The timing doesn't seem right to abandon that for a new version. https://www.sfballet.org/tickets/production/overview/program-6-2017 That history gives us reason to think PNB is at least a strong contender for the Ratmansky reconstruction. I hope it's for their 2017-18 season - I'll be there, for sure!

Yet, sometimes taking a chance pays off. The Colorado Ballet (to their credit) gave a young Chris Wheeldon a chance in 1997 to create his first full-length ballet, A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was a great success and it has been shown several times over the decades, most recently in 2014. As I posted at the time, you could see the early glimmerings of a Broadway musical in his production. http://coloradoballet.org/_blog/balletblog/post/about-the-choreographer-of-midsummer/

Gorak will be her Romeo at the Wolf Trap performance. Have they done this anywhere else? Simkin won't even appear as Mercutio, undeniably a superb role for him.

If you are visiting Colorado this summer (perhaps for the Vail Festival?), take a look at the exhibit "Rhythm & Roots: Dance in American Art" at the Denver Art Museum July 10-October 2. http://denverartmuseum.org/exhibitions/rhythm-and-roots The exhibit on "Why we Dance: American Indian Art in Motion" continues through August 15. Another exhibit shows posters created for various dance performances: July 10-January 8 The Museum also has several interactive activities in dance to complement these exhibits. http://denverartmuseum.org/dance DAM has reciprocity with major art museums all over the country for free admission to members.

Indeed! Although that move was not particularly strong with Cornejo or Hammoudi either this week. Marcelo can pull it off. And if you're in the mood to look at old recordings, see what Baryshnikov does with it in The Turning Point, which thoughtfully included much of the balcony PdD.

33 years ago she was 21 and Cornejo was 2. But I kept thinking during last night's performance that the first performers of that choreography in 1965 were Nureyev and Fonteyn, so it seems appropriate. They do seem to bring out the best in each other and I hope we can see them again in something. That Royal Ballet DVD with Ferri and Eagling is still available on Amazon. I'm glad that at least companies like the Royal make some effort to preserve great performances for posterity.

I saw it last Sunday matinee at 1/2 price TKTS and was surrounded by people, also on half-price, yet we still saw a lot of empty seats. Still worth seeing, if people haven't yet.

I don't want to take this too far off topic, but visas and passports are quite different things. Once inside Schengen, you don't even have to show a passport. Getting inside the zone is difficult and the EU fortified borders in 2007 around newly admitted countries - Poland, Czech R, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia were admitted Jan 1, 2008. But rules have just been tightened because of the migrant crisis. The bigger issue of concern for ballet is employability and training of dancers in other countries and how this might impact them. And trade could impact dance - will Freed shoes be sold without tariffs in the EU? So much is unknown at this point...

Abatt: The Broadway World review says all the jumps were removed. That might be why the choreography felt different? I guess I was oblivious to that!

At least from news reports, the UK was never in Schengen, although that might be wrong.update: According to BBC online, the UK and Ireland opted out of Schengen long ago, but have their own travel agreements for easy passage.

Anybody who saw her teenage Juliet last night would find that very plausible. I don't see Manon on any schedules for 2017, alas, but Onegin might be an option for her.

I can only agree with everything Laurel and others have said here. Ravishing performance. Ballet royalty in the audience. I spotted Robbie Fairchild, Tiler Peck, Damian Woetzel. I am sure there were many more.

Good points, but all the Juliets this week got only one performance each except: Vishneva (makes sense as a visitor, and the only ballet she is doing this season) and Seo - with two different partners. If there was a more junior dancer in line, she could have taken that second Seo performance and with Bolle, no less. I was wondering if Ferri was also attractive to give Cornejo a partner. All the other Romeo's are getting just one performance (except Gomes). All speculation, of course, but Ferri has done some theater pieces with Cornejo, and they seem to work well together.

Several articles about Ferri's return. One mentioned that she is being sworn in as a U.S. citizen tomorrow. I can understand why Ratmansky preferred U.S. citizenship, given political situation in Russia. Baryshnikov had no real choice after defecting and became a U.S. citizen in the mid-80s. Ferri's choice is a little more puzzling. She said she spends so much time in New York that she feels like a New Yorker. She also mentioned that Manon is an easier role for her than Juliette. Hint, hint!

Wednesday night with Murphy and Hammoudi was a bit of a let-down after Vishneva-Gomes. The highlight for me was Jeffrey Cirio as Mercutio. Where Hammoudi is utterly packing in presence, Cirio totally commands the stage, even in crowd scenes. Add that to a crisp, sparkling technique and he is really someone to watch, as others have noted. I don't know how you teach Presence. Hammoudi does the steps, but you are never compelled to watch him. Nothing is special or astonishing or even done full-out. He looks like a gangly, awkward teenager. That might have worked with a flat-chested waif, but Gillian is quite visibly a mature woman. Their partnering seemed studied, well-rehearsed, cautious. Gillian showed real abandon in solo turns, but didn't seem to trust Hammoudi completely. The house seemed nearly sold out and quite enthusiastic about Cirio, as well as Hammoudi-Murphy.

Had he done the partnering with Boylston at BAM? I don't know. It might be that Lane was easier to partner at BAM, even with the problems others here have noted.

Marcelo and Diana were truly sublime Tuesday night. They were scheduled to do this on a Friday night in 2015, but she cancelled with injury just a few hours before the performance, as I remember. But such a great partnership - I just wish we had more of it on tape for the ages. The only other performance that even came close in my memory was Hallberg-Osipova a few years ago - the performance when the audience demanded (and got) bows after the first act. Was that in 2013?

I'm guessing these were performances at BAM? I saw the first weekend at Segerstrom in December 2015 and Gorak bailed at literally the last minute. I had to look back at my postings, but he was scheduled to partner Boylston at the Friends dress rehearsal on opening day. We were kept outside 15-20 minutes before the scheduled starting time. The mimeographed program said we'd see Boylston and Gorak, but Gorak was gone and Stearns appeared in practice clothes (with everyone else in costume), with Ratmansky himself coaching them. Much speculation at the time (was Gorak injured? Was he spooked by the partnering? Was she spooked?) - but he performed lesser roles that run, so it didn't appear to be an injury, but he never did the lead that run.

She said long ago in a social media posting that she "wasted" five years in the corps at English National Ballet. I don't see that on her web site, but she does talk about portraying Alice in Alice in Wonderland, which seems like a role that would fit her. She doesn't mention any other roles at ENB, so perhaps she was only in the corps there. And the SFB site mentions both Royal and ENB, though nothing about rank. http://mariakochetkova.com/balletrusse/english-national-ballets-alice-in-wonderland

I don't think anybody has noted this yet (apologies if they have...): at the Saturday evening 6/18 SL, Zhiyao Zhang was Benno. Although some of his partnering seemed nervous and unsteady, I was so impressed by his leaps and turns. He has a long, high, luxurious leap that gives the illusion of just hanging in the air mid-jump. I was startled when I noticed this, but by golly, that part of his technique is stunning and consistent. I hope he is able to develop the other elements of his overall technique. I liked Kochetkova better in this than I did in her Corsaire a few weeks ago. She seems to be coached by Kolpakova, judging from her numerous Instagram photos. But there is something strange about how she is absorbing the coaching - she will show carefully worked out fluttering arms and head and then repeat it down to the last tiny detail -- which made it all seemed artificial, done-by-rote, instead of genuine expressiveness. Her fouettes (sorry!) were impeccable -- alternating singles and doubles right to the end, with little travelling. Boylston at the matinee seems to be growing in this role. But what others seem to like as sharp, very defined transitions too often struck me as jerky and too-harsh. She made a wise choice on the fouettes -- 32 perfect singles. Nothing fancy. Not much travelling. The message: if you can't do the extras perfectly, don't try. Stick with the basics. Marcelo with Boylston was sublime, as always - such a great dancer-actor. Cornejo with Kochetkova seemed to have a little less energy than usual, but still superb overall.

All 501 ©(3) organizations file a 990 tax return with the IRS. These are public documents. Many groups post their own on their Web site. Groups like Guidestar collect them. And you can request them from IRS. I understand that IRS is making them more readily available on their Web site. But, as abatt points out, they only report category totals, not all line item expenditures. I work with a 501c3 group and we have no further reporting requirements other than to our board. For royalty payments, I assume each arrangement is negotiated, depending on audience, number of performances, etc. I understand that Balanchine let DTH perform his work at no charge, to help them get started, eg.

Ratmansky was just sworn in as a US citizen a few weeks ago. Several news reports. Of course, he can still work worldwide, but I assume he likes it here.

I'm quite certain I saw Baryshnikov with ABT at the Met in July 1976. I remember that mainly because it was the big Bicentennial year and a trip to NYC was part of a visit with a sister. (In January 1976, ABT was at the old Uris Theatre, which I don't think exists any more, so I'm thinking that the July season was the first at the Met.)

Yes, presumably with Marcelo. Onegin or R&J look like possibilities in 2017. Let's just hope it's not also HIS retirement performance, which I fear will come along soon.