Stecyk

She is beautiful, isn't she? We're lucky to have her performing for us.

Regarding Jaciel Gomez, the program states:

Jaciel Gomez

4th Season with Alberta Ballet

Pinar del Rio, Cuba

Favorite Repertoire includes Swan Lake, Giselle, Mozart's Requiem

We're fortunate to have our Cuban born dancers.

cubanmiamiboy, thank you for your reply and your enclosed YouTube of Gutierrez. Alberta Ballet is lucky to have her.

The whole ballet company seemed to enjoy performing. Don Quixote was one of Alberta Ballet's stronger performances. Unfortunately, our ballet company lacks sufficient resources for live music. Given how well everything was presented--including a live horse--the lack of live music was notable by its abscence.

For those that might be attending in Edmonton this coming week, the two dancers for Kitri are Hayna Guitierrez and Nicole Caron and the two dancers for Lorenzo are Jaciel Gomez and Garrett Groat. Guitierrez danced all three evening performances and Caron danced the one matinee. Gomez danced one evening and one matinee; Groat, two evenings.

Calgary Herald: Review: Alberta Ballet dazzles with Don Quixote (see excerpt below)

Alberta Ballet marked its 48th season Thursday night at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium with Don Quixote, that wonderful monument to excess and a remarkable, Spanish-themed classical extravaganza.

It’s a sign of how much Alberta’s largest arts organization and second largest dance company in Canada has changed. Only very good companies can mount Don Quixote because the pressure to both delight and get it right is high, but Alberta Ballet delivered unequivocally.

As a layperson not versed in dance, I enjoyed Thursday's performance. I particularly enjoyed Hayna Gutierrez as Kitri and Jaciel Gomez as Lorenzo. And, I thought the costumes were gorgeous and the lighting was very good.

Yedlin: Arts organizations pay the price for flawed federal rules (see excerpt below from Calgary Herald)

It’s not only businesses that are being negatively affected by recent changes to federal rules governing temporary foreign workers.

Arts organizations across the country, from ballet and symphony to opera and theatre, are also affected, in varying degrees.

And the sad fact is the federal government, through Employment and Social Development Minister Jason Kenney, has said there will be no further changes to the TFW program until after the next federal election — in late 2015.

And here is a link to a podcast "Alberta Ballet and temporary foreign workers" from Calgary CBC Eyeopener.

For all arts organizations, these federal laws for temporary foreign workers are not helpful.

If you have a moment, please consider contacting your member of parliament.

At the Scotiabank Theatre Chinook in Calgary where I usually view ballet theater performances, the Bolshoi performances were usually better attended than the Royal Opera House performances.

Assuming volancohunter's count is correct with a reduction from 65 to 24 theaters, it's likely that fewer people in Canada will see ROH performances. For example, I am unlikely to make a transition to a different theater. Depending on the contractual terms, ROH might earn less than it did before. Of course, without knowing the actual terms and the number of viewers, it's all just speculation.

I plan to write a quick email to Cineplex stating that I hope that it and ROH are able to come to terms next year. It's an unfortunate situation.

I am not sure if this is correct location for the following Washington Post link Bolshoi Ballet’s Sergei Filin, nearly blind but unbowed: ‘The dancing, I see perfectly’.

If this location is incorrect, please forgive me and move it to its proper location.

The brutal attack made headlines around the world and scandalized the renowned ballet company, a symbol of Russian pride and perfection. The 43-year-old director emerged with third-degree burns and an uncertain future. Filin’s livelihood depends on a sharp eye for detail, but after 27 surgeries in Germany, he sees very little. Nothing out of the right eye; 50 percent out of the left, on a good day.

For those interested, BBC Hardtalk has a 23 minute interview with Tamara Rojo.

According to the website, there remains, "7 days left to listen," and today is March 26, 2014.

For Alberta Ballet patrons, here's an Edmonton Journal article that might be of interest: Dance preview: Alberta Ballet’s production of Giselle a premiere for the company.

Unfortunately, Mariko Kondo, cast to dance the lead on opening night, injured her ankle in the final week of rehearsals and will no longer be able perform. Akiko Ishii steps in now from the rehearsal wings to dance Giselle, alternating with Hayna Gutierrez for the run.

...

Alberta Ballet’s Giselle features the sets by Gianna Quanranta and costumes by Anna Anni of the American Ballet Theatre.

“It was incredibly humbling when the costumes arrived from New York and inside the costumes are still labelled with all the previous dancers’ names: Mikhail Baryshnikov. Natalia Makarova. Our dancers have some big shoes to fill!”

Yes, there are many great photos. Below, I have selected a few of those that I like.

• Beatriz Stix-Brunell in Ballo della regina
• Carlos Acosta and Natalia Osipova in Romeo and Juliet
• Yuhui Choe as The Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker
• Carlos Acosta as Basilio and Marianela Nuñez as Kitri in Don Quixote
• Melissa Hamilton in Sensorium
• Marianela Núñez and Artists of The Royal Ballet in Serenade
• Sarah Lamb and Federico Bonelli in DGV
• Eric Underwood and Zenaida Yanowsky in DGV

This list is by no means exhaustive. Rather, I just wanted to demonstrate that there are other worthwhile photos in the Flickr account.

I searched this site for "Flickr" and didn't see any posts.

So I thought you might appreciate knowing about Royal Opera House Covent Garden's Flickr account.

For example, here's a post from today, showing a picture of Carlos Acosta in Romeo and Juliet.

Figures in Flight - A documentary about dance in prison

Above link takes you to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Radio Program site called the Sunday Edition.

Susan Slotnick is always moving. She is sixty-eight. A woman with presence. For decades, she has taught dance to children and teens in her hometown of New Paltz, New York, bringing good posture, proper foot position, a lot of discipline and the joy of movement into their lives.

But her star students are a little less fresh-faced.

They are convicted murderers, drug dealers and sex offenders: Many have spent more than half their lives behind bars.

Every Sunday for the past seven years, Susan has driven an hour up through the mountains to the Woodbourne Correctional Facility to see them, teach them.

Thick steel doors are buzzed open.

Guards lead a dozen men - in their baggy prison sweats - into a classroom.

Chairs and tables are pushed aside. A cassette tape is turned on.

And for six hours, Susan leads them through exercises and dances until their muscles ache, and she is satisfied they have the moves down pat.

Here's yet another sad tale. Justine Sacco, the communications director for InterActiveCorp, is alleged to have made some rather unfortunate comments on Twitter that resulted in her termination of employment.

For those interested, you can read the New York Times article A Twitter Message About AIDS, Followed by a Firing and an Apology. If the article is unavailable, you can find lots of other stories by Googling her name.

On Friday, IAC officials quickly responded to the Twitter post, putting out a statement that called it “an outrageous, offensive comment that does not reflect the views and values of IAC.” But it said it could not contact Ms. Sacco. “Unfortunately, the employee in question is unreachable on an international flight, but this is a very serious matter and we are taking appropriate action.”

By Saturday afternoon, Ms. Sacco was no longer an employee at IAC. The company’s statement also said:

There is no excuse for the hateful statements that have been made and we condemn them unequivocally. We hope, however, that time and action, and the forgiving human spirit, will not result in the wholesale condemnation of an individual who we have otherwise known to be a decent person at core.

Bloomberg Video Interview with Kevin O'Hare

Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) –- In today’s “In The Know” segment, The Royal Ballet Director Kevin O’Hare discusses growing the business of ballet by taking the live show and simulcasting it to a global audience inside cinemas around the world. He speaks to Anna Edwards and Mark Barton on Bloomberg Television’s “Countdown.” (Source: Bloomberg)

The Guardian references this interview in the following article Royal Ballet plans reality TV-style live broadcast for 2014].

Earlier this week, Kevin O'Hare, director of the Royal Ballet, gave an interview to Bloomberg TV, discussing the business model of the company's live screenings at cinemas. Much more interesting to ballet watchers, however, were two footnotes to the conversation. One was O'Hare's quiet but firm riposte to the disparaging remarks Carlos Acosta made recently about the lack of dedication among today's young dancers. O'Hare admits on camera that fewer members of the internet generation may be drawn to ballet, at least at first, but insists that those who do have no lack of passion and talent.

Even more intriguing is the comment O'Hare lets slip about plans for a 2014 repeat of the Royal Ballet Live experiment, launched in 2012. Allowing cameras backstage to film classes and rehearsals, this day in the life of the company was streamed live on YouTube and the Guardian website to an international audience that surprised even the company. No date has been announced for the second live broadcast.

Please note that the Bloomberg link in the Guardian ariticle is incorrect; however, I have provided the correct link at the very top of this post.

Alberta Ballet postpones new work with Joni Mitchell Source: Calgary Herald

There will be no new Joni Mitchell ballet in 2014.

That was the news Tuesday, when the Alberta Ballet announced on their website that they have postponed their second collaboration with Mitchell.

According to Ismene Brown's blog entry with commentary and a translation of an article in ITAR-TASS, noticeably not Izvetsia, senior coach Maria Kondratieva and group of dancers want to testify to rebut Tsiskaridze's characterization of Filin on behalf of themselves and other Bolshoi dancers. The group includes Obraztsova, Smirnova, Rebetskaya, Lantratov, Ovcharenko, and Medvedev.

http://www.ismeneb.com/Blog/Entries/2013/11/26_Bolshoi_teachers%2C_dancers_demand_to_refute_Tsiskaridze_in_court.html

http://www.ismeneb.com/Blog/Entries/2013/11/26_Bolshoi_dancers%2C_teachers_demand_to_rebut_Tsiskaridze_in_court.html

Helene's link didn't work for me. I am posting a slight modified link above. Perhaps the blog changed its link afterward.

Mods, if desired, please feel free to update Helene's link and delete my post.

For those interested, an article by Melanie Trottman of the WSJ: When a Facebook Rant Gets You Fired.

Workers fired or disciplined for bad-mouthing employers on social-networking sites are fighting back using a decades-old labor law—a new front in the murky battle over what workers can do and say online.

Since the rise of Facebook and Twitter, companies believed they had the right to fire employees who posted complaints or hostile or rude comments online about their employers.

But in recent months, workers have sought to solve their very modern employment predicament by using the law that kick-started the U.S. labor movement: the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. The law gives private-sector employees certain rights to complain about pay, safety and other working conditions. It doesn't protect simple griping.

American steps into Bolshoi Ballet corps

By Sergei L. Loiko, Los Angeles Times

October 12, 2011

Reporting from Moscow — When the Kings of the Dance tour — a showcase of some of the top male dancers in the world — premiered at the Stanislavsky Musical Theater last week, the representative of the legendary Bolshoi Ballet was South Dakota-born David Hallberg. An American in the Bolshoi? It was unimaginable just months ago.

But the Bolshoi did imagine it, and on Sept. 21 what some dubbed a defection in reverse was announced, recalling the days when heralded dancers, Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov among them, fled the Soviet Union for Western companies.

A Canadian friend writes, after reviewing the video, that "Sun News is trying to be Fox News North. The Gillis interview occurred in more-or-less their first week on the air and everyone agreed the vitriol was meant to attract publicity."

After your comment, I looked to learn more about reactions to the interview itself. I don't watch Sun News, and I am not even sure it's available. In any event, its viewership was and likely remains small.

Analysis: So far at least, this Sun doesn’t shine on TV

What if they launched an all-news channel and hardly anyone watched?

The fledgling right-wing Sun News Network has barely registered on the audience charts since its launch April 18, with its ratings falling to as few as 4,000 viewers after its first week on the air.

But media analysts say the early numbers may not matter all that much in the longer run.

That’s because the low-budget digital channel will draw most of its revenue from subscribers who sign up for specialty offerings bundled together by satellite and cable TV carriers.

I believe the interview occurred 1 June 2011 and the station began broadcasting mid April 2011. Your point about the station possibly wanting to garner attention, however, survives.

It's interesting to note that the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council was overwhelmed with complaints.

Complaints re interview with Margie Gillis on Sun News Network

This note is directed to those persons who:

may be contemplating the filing of a complaint with the CBSC regarding the interview with Margie Gillis on an episode of Canada Live; or

have filed such a complaint since June 8.

While the CBSC wishes to thank everyone who has taken the time to send a complaint to the CBSC concerning the Krista Erickson interview with Margie Gillis on an episode of Canada Live, the volume of complaints already sent to us exceeds the Council’s resources.

Here's an informative response:

Sun News, Margie Gillis and misinformation

Anyone who watched the SunNews interview with Margie Gillis was not only treated to a whole whack of spray tan and shouting, they also heard a lot of misinformation about the arts community. Despite her best efforts, Gillis' saint-like patience couldn't quite cut through interviewer Krista Erickson's agenda, and today, the Canadian Dance Assembly National Council sent a myth-busting document to members of the media.

...

1) The cultural sector has about 600,000 workers, which is about double the level of employment in the forestry sector in Canada (300,000) and more than double the level of employment in Canadian banks (257,000).
 Source: A Statistical Profile of Artists in Canada: Based on the 2006 Census, Hill Strategies Research, 2009

I encourage you to view the last link that outlines five key benefits or factors for supporting dance. I also encourage you to read some of the readers' comments to the article. While some objected to the interview, there were a couple of responses out of the 12 that questioned tax payer funding. (There were 13 responses, with one being a blank edit.)

It was definitely a hard-hitting and uncomfortable interview. I hope it causes people to discuss the role of the arts in our society.

It looks as if Miss Gillis had no idea that the numbers and harsh attacks would be part of the interview. The whole thing-(regardless of the veracity and good intentions of the anchor)- looks to me as plain bullying, to be honest.

Perhaps. I would expect, though, that this interviewer (and I don't even know who she is) is known for her aggressive style. So then the questions become, a) Should Gillis have expected or anticipated a difficult or challenging interview? and b) Should Gillis have known the numbers and been able to speak to them regardless?

I do agree with you, cubanmaimiboy, that the interview looked unfair. Gillis was clearly overwhelmed and likely not even able to think clearly during the heat of the interview. That goes to my opening quote from my email.

Brutal! And painful to watch...

I hope this doesn't give ideas for ambush interviews of artists to a certain "news" network in the US. The current NEA Chair has been doing a good job talking about the "multiplier" help to the economy of arts grants. Those grants create jobs, both directly and indirectly. Any artist interviewed in this economic climate needs to come prepared to talk about that. I hope this interview gives everybody a "heads-up" for future attacks. The amount of money is so piddling, but clearly an easy target nowadays.

I echo your comments. It was uncomfortable watching, wasn't it? And this video came from a Canadian new station. Canadian news tends to be polite.

Everyone knows of the financial difficulties that most economies are facing, so there's no need to rehash them here. In my email conversation, the other person made the same point you made--that is, those receiving funding need to be prepared to discuss and defend their funding. And it shouldn't be a matter of special preparation. It should be just part being a publicly funded artist.

When I saw the interview, my first reaction was like yours. That is, it was an ambush. But then on reflection with my email friend's comments, I agreed that those who receive funding should know their numbers and should have some strong talking points.

I hope we as a society do not become so mean spirited that we fail to recognize the benefits of our artistic communities.

Here's a video interview of Margie Gillis concerning artist funding.

I found it a harsh, uncomfortable interview. But an interesting interview, nonetheless.

I found it harsh because Gillis seemed unprepared. In an email to a friend, I wrote the following:

(excerpt)

Margie Gillis was a good sport to put up with such boorishness. She went to a gun fight with a water pistol. By that, I mean that she wasn't adequately prepared while the interviewer had all the facts and figures at her fingertips. Margie Gillis left bullet ridden.

As I pondered over this interview, I thought about were the points that the interviewer raised and the responsibility of artists who receive funding to support their positions. In essence, should Gillis have been more prepared to articulate his viewpoints? Reflecting on the interview was the interesting part.

Anyway, I will let you view the interview, which lasts for about twenty minutes, to reach your own thoughts and conclusions.

Here's another article for those interested:

A recent New York court ruling alerts employers about social media policy

Earlier this month, a federal judge handed down a ruling (PDF) that the Buffalo, New York based non-profit Hispanics United of Buffalo must reinstate five employees that were fired for posting comments about their workplace to their personal Facebook pages.

The Bolshoi Ballet picks up an American accent

By RIA Novosti commentator Olga Sobolevskaya

For decades, ballet stars from Russia and the former Soviet Union have been joining Western companies as fully-fledged members. But the idea of a Western dancer becoming part of a Russian troupe is unheard of - until now.

Moscow's Bolshoi Theater has broken new ground by inviting David Hallberg, of the American Ballet Theater (ABT), to be a guest dancer for the upcoming performing season. The Bolshoi's new season kicks off at the end of October, with the reopening of its historical building, following a lengthy renovation.

I've added a link to a podcast concerning the Hallberg/Bolshoi at Bart's link.