zerbinetta

This is major bad news. Plus Hubbe coming up. Argh ...

PeggyR, have you seen Luke Willis dance? He was my very favorite dancer with Aspen/Santa Fe ballet and he left the company last September for SFB. I imagine he's in the corps still.

A wonderfully funny review! I hadn't seen RN's Nut in a very long time but you brought it back to me so clearly. I never want to see it again.

Xiomara's head is not too big. Xiomara's head is perfect. Feh feh. Xiomara's feet are also perfect - not too big, not too small. Hmf ..

Puccini Songs premiered at the DiCapo theatre in NYC a couple of years ago and reprised recently during the company's performance in Patchogue. It's a lovely piece, musical and romantic, and Nilas has been tweaking it since the premiere. He definitely has an affinity for Puccini.

Could you elaborate a bit, please?

Amma will be the most beautiful vision in the theatre. Expect a lot of compliments.

Has there been any news in the condition of Julio?

We landed at Lincoln Center about 7:45 last night (for the opera, not the ballet) and there were many fire trucks and auxiliary vehicles from 62 to 63 Streets on Columbus. Lights flashing but no sirens. That's all I know.

When someone has touched your heart, even if you'd never met, there is such a sadness in losing her. I treasure the memory of Jennifer's Hermia in the Ashton Dream. She was always wonderful, whatever she danced, but her Hermia was an almost impossible combination of funny and touching, hilarious and heartbreaking. Condolences.

If memory serves, Sofiane does not join the company until January. I think she dances with the Het over the holidays.

Probably not bad for his savings account, either.

Magali was a uniquely beautiful ballerina, long and liquid and extraordinarily musical. She was one of my favorites. There were some back problems (she sent my husband to her back "fixer", which worked well) which limited her appearances from time to time. I especially hold in memory her Swan and her Sylvia pas de deux with Patrick Bissell. Also her Lady Capulet with Ron Tice as Tybalt was the hottest ever in my experience. She was not the sort of ballerina that drives crowds wild. She was one who took your breath away with her subtlety, beauty and eloquence. I remember Cynthia Gregory with a smile; I remember Magali with a sigh.

If you do find the funding for this, please be sure we see the feet when dancers are dancing. A pet peeve of mine is a facial close-up when we should be seeing a full-body shot.

The NY Times is reporting that there is some movement in the direction of negotiation and that the railworkers have agreed to go back to work. So be of heart, legwarmer.

Such a wonderful adjective for our gammygirl. Wearing warpaint and a feathered headdress?

Those tickets for Saturday evening's performance (Serenade, Carmina B) that I mentioned in my first post are still available - and free. Grand Tier, Second Row Center. I'd love to have someone use them who would enjoy the program. I feel guilty having them empty. PM me.

So maybe I should have closed my eyes and listened to the music. The Pennsylvania Ballet orchestra is better than good: well conducted, good instrumentalists, excellent solo musicians. Concerto Barocco is a ballet I find almost foolproof. Almost. Played as well as it was, it was still enjoyable but the women have stylistic quirks I do not enjoy: shoulders held rather high; heads held a bit forward; torsos unstretched. Arantxa Ochoa, whom I remember from her SAB days, danced the lead. Her turnout is less than ideal. which matters a lot in this piece. The company did all the steps, correctly and in the right order, phrasing and musicality evident. But that was all. A performance such as this would have been disappointing at an SAB graduation performance. Then came As It's Going, to Shostakovich. The composer's ballets are eminently danceable but his orchestral works would seem as choreographable as Beethoven's symphonies. This was no exception. There was a uniform blandness about these dancers, with the exception of Jermel Johnson, who has a unique movement quality that makes one watch him. And some brio - a quality pretty much lacking in the company as a whole. We left before the last piece, Lambarena. I leave it to others to tell me what we missed. If anyone would like a gift of two excellent seats to Saturday night's performance, PM me. I can highly recomment the soprano, Sarah Coburn, in the Carmina Burana. And the orchestra. It makes me sad to write this, especially considering the financial outlay on the part of the company. What with the orchestra transport, accomodations, per diems, etc., this has to be very costly. The money could have been put to better use on teaching/coaching salaries.

Ggobob, I envy you seeing Misty Copeland in the Sinatra piece. Cornejo is fabulous in the solo (except for the slides) and under most other circumstances steals the eye. But not with our Misty out there. A revelation!!!

I asked the Lombardo office what Swan "solo" Monique will be dancing. The reply: this is a "pastiche" on the Dying Swan solo, not the Act II solo from the NYCBallet Swan. Neo-Fokine perhaps? Sounds interesting.

NILAS MARTINS DANCE COMPANY: Program for performance November 11 (Sunday) at 7PM Patchogue Theater for the Performing Arts Patchogue,, NY: Excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake (Peter Martins) Swan Lake, the last of the great 19th-century Russian ballets, is a work of emotional intensity, inventive choreography and glorious music, a lyrical and moving musical/psychological dance drama. Although Swan Lake was also the last of the famed Tschaikovsky-Petipa-Ivanov ballets, it was actually the composer's first ballet score. In 1875, Tchaikovsky had received a commission from the Moscow Imperial Theatre (now called the Bolshoi Ballet). He was paid 800 rubles for a new four-act ballet, a sum that was nearly half of what he earned during a whole year teaching at the Conservatory in St. Petersburg. Tchaikovsky, who thought that ballet was "the most innocent, the most moral of the arts," suggested the libretto for Swan Lake. Years earlier, for a family entertainment, he had composed a short ballet based on a German fairy tale about a wicked sorcerer who turns young girls into birds. He expanded this story into Swan Lake, a moving ballet of romance and tragedy. Enchanted by sorcerer Von Rotbart, Odette, the Swan Queen, assumes her human form only between the hours of midnight and dawn. It will take the pledge of eternal love by a man who has forsaken all other women to break this spell. Prince Siegfried falls in love with Odette and pledges his eternal love to her. During a gala reception at the palace, Siegfried is tricked into proposing marriage to Von Rotbart's daughter, Odile. His betrayal seals the Swan Queen's fate, she forgives him but casts herself into the lake, freeing the Swan Maidens from the curse and destroying Von Rotbart's power forever but leaving Siegfried grieving for his lost Swan Queen. Act II White Swan…..pas de deux Odette, the Swan Queen-Abi Stafford Prince Siegfried- Nilas Martins Prince Siegfried meets Odette, the White Swan Queen. They fall in love and he pledges his eternal faith to her. (Pause) Act III The Jester’s solo The Court Jester-Daniel Ulbricht During a grand reception at the royal palace the court jester performs a lighthearted entertainment for all. (pause) Act III Black Swan…..pas de deux Odile, the Black Swan-Ana Maria Scheller Prince Siegfried-Charles Askegard During the reception, the evil von Rotbart arrives with his daughter, Odile. Bewitched by her beauty and von Rotbart’s magic, Prince Siegfried proposes to Odile and betrays Odette. (Pause) THE SWAN……solo Monique Meunier -Intermission - PUCCINI SONGS Eleven Songs by Giacomo Puccini (Nilas Martins)© NMDF Puccini Songs is a totally unique interpretation through dance of songs composed by Puccini over his creative lifetime and performed here in the original version accompanied by piano and sung by soprano and tenor. In these songs the listener will hear some strains later developed in some of Puccini’s most popular works including his first great international success- Manon Lescaut his exceedingly popular- La boheme and his later bittersweet - La rondine. Here, choreographer Nilas Martins creates an abstract modern yet romantic style very faithful to the emotions expressed in these songs. The first song, A Te is a lover’s affirmation of his faith in the woman he loves. The Salve Regina! is a supplicant’s prayer sung by the soprano voice but interpreted by a male dancer. The apotheosis, Ad una morta, becomes a solo for a man feeling the full sense of abandonment while Mentia l'avviso becomes a haunting and moving pas de deux of resolve. Storiella d'amore is a sweet bon-bon of two youngsters in first love, Morire? becomes a grand pas de deux; a man and a woman contemplate the 'other shore of existence' while life rushes on. E l’uccelino images a happy little wren in a tree, observed through the window. Sole e amore, setting the basis of the Act III quartet from La boheme, becomes Puccini’s paeon to the famous musician Paganini. Casa Mia! a solo recognizing the universal need to have something of one's own and the exquisite Sogno d’or a mother’s golden lullaby to her sleeping infant with the guardian angels swirling in the baby’s dream and finally Terra e mare which touches all the elements of human relationships. A te (To You !) Tenor Salve Regina ! (Hail Holy Queen !) Soprano Storiella d’amore (A Little Love Story) soprano Ad una morta-spirto gentil (To a Dead Girl-Gentle Spirit) tenor Mentia l’avviso (The Warning was False) tenor E l’uccellino ( And the Little Bird…) soprano Morire? (To Die?) Tenor Casa mia! (My House!) Tenor Sole e amore (Sunlight and Love) soprano Sogno d’or (Golden dream) soprano Terra e mare (The Earth and the Sea) soprano Cast: Ashley Laracey, Monique Meunier, Erica Periera, Arch Higgins, Nilas Martins, Daniel Ulbricht Julianna Di Giacomo, soprano John Matz, tenor Pacien Mazzagatti, pianist Stage manager/Lighting Director…Mark Mongold For The Nilas Martins Dance Company…Nilas Martins, Artistic Director Robert Lombardo, Managing Director (From the Press Release received 11/8 from the offices of Robert Lombardo)

An "unexpected" injury? Prithee, what might expected injuries be?

So Giselle, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, La Sylphide, etc. should all be consigned to the dustbin? And perhaps the 20th C Ashtons, Crankos, etc. as well? This isn't a matter of taste; it's a matter of soul. I'll bet the gentleman from the Arizona Republic adores Forsythe.

These are wonderful. Thank you. I needed an Alexandrova fix.

Lowell Smith was a riveting, smoldering and intense dancer. If Nijinsky had come back to life and was dancing next to Lowell Smith, I would have been watching Lowell Smith.