nanushka

The thing is, she's inconsistent. In some performances her expression is fine, in others it's really a problem, I think. So that suggests to me that there is an opportunity there for better control. A professional stage performer should be more on top of that; it would take training and practice. I know in some ways it's more cosmetic than integral, but it does have an impact (as does every visual element) on a performance.

Makes sense. Thanks for the details; I skip Nutcracker, so I'm not generally aware of how nearly sold out the run gets. Out of curiosity, did Balanchine tend to give a lot of new casting opportunities for Nutcracker, rather than sticking with the most common leads?

Are Nutcracker ticket sales very casting-dependent?

Yeah, in my experience the capitalization varies quite a lot on both sides of the Atlantic.

I recall from reports last year that Forster and Shevchenko nailed it.

The adult dancers are basically a fantasy projection (at least that's my interpretation) of the young Clara and Prince. They're obviously meant to double the children, as their adult counterparts. It's a pretty great solution to the (I think) inherent narrative problem of the ballet — i.e. that the most emotionally impactful dancing is done by ceremonial characters, unless adults play the children, which doesn't really work.

Right, I figured you had in mind mostly the more extensive (and single-foot) sort. Was just thinking, though, that they can at times be used to finer aesthetic effect. Unlike in Giselle, I find the ones in Ballo to be quite dancerly. Completely agree on the first point. On the second, though, were the expanding hops on pointe added for TV as well? I didn't recall that. In any case, they're still a fine addition to the choreography, I'd say.

I think the ones in Ballo Della Regina, at least, have tremendous aesthetic benefit, but that’s of course a subjective opinion. (And I suppose hops on both pointes may not be quite as painful.) Also the corps ones in final movement of Concerto Barocco.

And Joe Gordon is working on La Source:

Oh my. Domingo says that "gallant gestures are viewed differently nowadays."

An IG clip of Abrera and Forster rehearsing the Seasons PDD that connects to a complete video: I love how much the man really gets to dance throughout, in addition to partnering.

I'm pretty sure it's been done within the past decade. I saw it once, but I don't remember much about it. I was quite new to Balanchine then, and had mostly experienced classical ballet. I didn't like it at the time, I recall, though I might like it better now. I've been meaning to give this video a watch.

In my experience, hyphenated names are not uncommon among American millennials (especially those with upper-middle class, coastal, urban/surburban backgrounds), whose mothers have more often retained their "maiden" names (awful term) than those of earlier generations, and whose parents presumably wish their children to have both family names. In other words, I've known a lot of younger people who have had hyphenated names since birth. Intent vs. impact, ya know? Pretty clearly, Danchig-Waring was impacted, and in an apparently not wholly positive way: As for "just a social media post" — this is a repeated ("He does it a lot") bit of "cuteness" by the recent chief dance critic of the New York Times, and social media is no longer on the peripheries of the cultural conversation, so I'm in agreement with others who see this as self-indulgent, tiresome and discourteous.

Mozart's "Haffner" Serenade K.250 (eight movements, about 50 min.) was written as entertainment for wedding festivities, and when hearing it I always think it'd be lovely in the context of a reception or the like. (I always imagine an outdoor summer evening.) It's not necessarily music one wants to sit and listen to straight through in a concert hall, but it's quite lovely, including a multi-movement violin concerto of sorts:

It's not, as Trenary's post clarifies: