Josette

Thank you for the correction, milosr. Aaron Robison also danced with the Birmingham Royal Ballet and Corella Ballet before joining Houston Ballet.

New principal dancer Aaron Robison has most recently been a principal dancer with Houston Ballet. New soloist Angelo Greco has been dancing with La Scala Ballet.

At the final performance curtain calls, Grace Shibley was one of two female dancers pulled forward to the front by Ruben Martin Cintas for a special acknowledgement while the company on stage was applauding with the audience.

Congratulations to all the promoted dancers! So happy for all of them!

This is a gem! Love Conrad Ludlow and the muses, and it's great to four dancers with no tension in their hands, no pointy bird-of-paradise fingers. Thank you!

I agree with everything Sal wrote. I, too, saw the Saturday night performance with Vanessa Zahorian as Tatiana, Davit Karapetyan as Onegin, Sasha De Sola as Olga, Myles Thatcher as Lensky, and Ruben Martin Cintos as Prince Gremin. All the principals danced with grace and unbroken heartfelt emotion. The opening dance sequence with De Sola and Thatcher radiated with love. Karapetyan and Vanessa Zahorian's portrayals had great depth and were beautifully danced. Zahorian's ability to turn with incredible speed and then stop on a dime made the pas de deux particularly exciting and gave an emotional force. The performances were flawless and real. I attended the Saturday and Sunday matinee performances as well, with Carlo Di Lanno and Mathilde Froustey. I feel that Carlo Di Lanno did an admirable performance that was extremely well danced and thought out, but he presently lacks the depth that a more experienced artist can give Onegin. Di Lanno made all the right gestures and made appropriate faces, but his Onegin was cruel, boorish, and callous -- beyond arrogant - and I think that this is a matter of his not yet having the "life experience" to bring to the role that so many of the dancers who have danced Onegin talk about. It is hard to understand why anyone would be so blind so not to see this Onegin's cruel character. Not a hint of Di Lanno's natural charm that we see in other ballets surfaced in the role, so it was a bit of a one-note performance. I did not care for Mathilde Froustey in the role of Tatiana, thought her miscast and did not think she dances Cranko choreography with any distinction or understanding. The Saturday matinee had Tiit Helimets as Prince Gremin, who gave a subtle but charismatic performance, and he was handsome. The Sunday matinee was Gennadi Nedvigin's final performance and he was superb. His Olga was the beautiful Lauren Strongin, who I feel would have been an effective Tatiana given her range of expression and beautiful footwork in the Cranko choreography. But it was Nedvigin's show all the way from his entrance to the curtain calls. It was a very emotional ending to the season in San Francisco.

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing Scarlett's Frankenstein several times in the 2017 season irrespective of the mixed reviews and comments I've been reading in various forums. We shall see . . .

Thank you for letting us know!

I am happy that I will get to see Gennadi Nedvigin as Lensky in the final show.

Casting is posted on the SFB website for the first two performances of Onegin. For opening night, it shows Gennadi Nedvigin as Lensky, which is no surprise, but also Joan Boada as Prince Gremin.

GREAT NEWS!!

I'll go for Joseph Walsh!

There could still be considered to be an oral contract between Kobberg and the company, as surely there were material terms bargained for, agreed upon and executed, such as compensation and duty, regardless as to whether there was a formal job title. Kobberg's duties would not come under the job description of any similar person at the company. That's depending on what the civil statutes are Romania. It all is very underhanded and artistically stupid.

I will be interested in learning who will be cast in The Prodigal Son. It is such a plum role.

What a find this footage is!

I checked online and learned that no female dancer was promoted from sujet to premiere danseuse that year, which I believe means that no one dancer got a majority of points from the judges to be promoted. Two of the other female sujets that year who were competing, Laura Hecquet and Alice Renavand, were later promoted to premiere danseuse in other concours and then named etoiles. There is so much talent and accomplishment among the dancers at POB.

The strapontin seats were less expensive than the other orchestra seats. If you had one, you had to stand during intermissions so other patrons could pass through.

I'm seeing the Zahorian-Domitro and Chung-Luiz shows on March 11 and 12. Glad that Dores Andre gets two shows.

Oh no. He is such a wonderful dancer, with a plush, perfect technique, beautiful ports de bras, charismatic presence. One of my favorite male dancers and was a joy to watch every time he stepped on stage. This is hard to take - Pascal Molat, Joan Boada, and Gennadi Nedvigin all leaving. Sob. Atlanta Ballet should be thrilled to have him as director.

I am less than enthusiastic about the Ardani-sponsored groups at Segerstrom next season. We have had Les Ballets de Monte Carlo now every other season three times, and I thought Chore a waste of dancers' abilities. There was no intermission allowing escape. Same for Eifman; all the recent works we get from Eifman (every other season yet again) center on a self-referential creative genius and at least one person in a mental asylum; the choreography is leveraged lifts, unmusical, and lacks fluidity. Now it appears that Mikhailovsky Ballet will be coming every other season. I will look forward to seeing Edward Watson finally in person, and Shklyarov and Vogel - hopefully they will dance something worth their while. However, those Tour galas are usually jacked-up in price. I hope we get the new Ratmansky Golden Cockerel. They have to do a production to justify the ballet school. Where are San Francisco Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Hamburg Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, which have been at Segersrom in seasons past? Sigh.

I saw Benjamin Pech's first Prodigal Son at the Palais Garnier, sitting in the front row strapontin (center seat that folds up to allow people to pass) and he was so wonderful and unforgettable.

In California's link to Segerstrom's season next year, it announces also that Wheedon's An American in Paris is part of Segerstrom's musical theatre season in spring of 2017, as part of a National tour.

A few years ago, I attended a performance of NYCB's smaller touring group at the performing arts center in Northridge, California, and its artistic director was sitting directly behind me in an aisle seat. At intermission, he and his wife came back to the seats behind me and I heard them discussing in detail some of the dancers' performances In less than compassionate or kind terms, including more critical clucking during the second half of the show while the dancing was going on. It was shocking to me. I wish they could have refrained from this type of discussion at and during the performance itself. I and my friend beside me knew one of the dancers on stage who was a beloved NYCB principal, though fortunately Martins and Kistler didn't mention her. AD's need to be careful and tactful in the public or semi-public forum.

I also love Steven McRae for all the reasons you all state here plus his seemingly boundless energy and joy in dancing.

I also saw Zahorian in Classical Symphony and vastly preferred her to the orignator of the role, who had done her usual " Look at me, I'm so cute" act which made it hard for me to watch. Zahorian made much more use of her upper body and with great speed and daring, than the upright-upper body of the first cast dancer. Zahorian stood out also in Winter Dreams because of the genuineness of her acting. She never mugs and bless her for that. She fascinates me technically because her body seems to adjust itself in pirouettes when it looks like her weight is back, and she just keeps on turning.