nanushka

17 minutes ago, Drew said:

I feel this way too...and can only guess how discouraging it is for her...

Yes, especially after seeing what happened to other dancers (e.g. Part, Lane) who, despite principal status, were given fewer roles than (IMO) they deserved.

7 minutes ago, BalanchineFan said:

I can't find the livestream. Do you have to become a member?

You do have to register by email, but there's no fee.

Over the last 30-40 years minus the last 10, I'd say. There's been a noticeable change.

6 minutes ago, pherank said:

But ABT has been relying on an 'international stars' model for decades. The stars had precedence over dancers who had come up slowly through the ranks.

That's a pretty outdated description of ABT, though. None of the current principals were really international stars before coming to ABT. James Whiteside is the only current principal who did not enter the company in the corps or even earlier. The vast majority were in the Studio Company or ABT II.

9 minutes ago, cobweb said:

Come to think of it, if NYCB needs to focus on smaller-scale works, how about putting in Liebeslieder Walzer? It's smaller-scale than either La Valse or Slaughter, and I for one would be at every performance. 

But La Valse and Slaughter were both seen in the Fall, weren't they? While that makes them unexciting for those of us who attend numerous performances, I think that's precisely why they're programming them again. I suspect it's been very difficult for them to get in the studios with the recent COVID spike. Liebeslieder hasn't been done in a number of years so would require a good deal more rehearsal time.

Not saying I don't agree it'd be great to have more variety — just that I don't think it's only about "smaller-scale works." (I think Diamonds was problematic not only because it's larger-scale but also because of the amount of rehearsal that means it'd require.)

In addition to the Giselle, I found Simkin's Whipped Cream with Sarah Lane to be particularly memorable — a top-notch performance.

8 hours ago, mille-feuille said:

This program feels like a random grab-bag rather than a cohesive evening.

I think that's what it is, in fact — i.e. they're putting together the programs they can based on the limitations they're currently facing.

I agree @Olga and think you may be right @Balletwannabe. They were a bit slow to require the vaccine in the first place IIRC, so it may be just a matter of time.

When is the last time Copeland performed in a classical (or neoclassical) ballet? Though I don't follow her career closely, I feel like it's been quite some time, and perhaps not only due to covid.

Here are some excerpts from that performance:

1 hour ago, BalanchineFan said:

I don't see what baldness has to do with dancing ability. Tyler Angle is not playing a "young prince", except for Swan Lake, and is it... impossible that a young prince would be bald? Not to my mind. I also love seeing older dancers in roles.

... I was surprised, but happy to see the bald head. Better than the toupees many men wear, imo. I think ballet needs to loosen up on many of these preconceived ideas of what is "appropriate."

I completely agree. And I suspect that, for many, any initial distraction would diminish over time, as this (hopefully) becomes more normalized. I found Angle's previous look (obviously artificial) to be distracting too. It's a natural function of aging for some men. I don't see any reason why they should be prevented from dancing certain roles just because they don't have a full head of hair. The shaved look is quite common nowadays for men with thinning hair, and on many it looks (IMO) much better than the alternatives.

(That said, if I were in a position to do so, I might suggest that Angle not go full-on shaved, but rather buzzed. I think on his head that would look optimal. But that's just my personal opinion.)

48 minutes ago, vipa said:

I too would love to see Laracey in Balanchine's SL. Mozartiana? I'm probably in the minority here but I'd love to see Tiler Peck, with her special brand of musicality.

I'd see that! I don't know that her Preghiera would particularly do it for me, but I'd love to see her tackle some of those variations especially.

It's just a glitch. It's listed for not only January 20 but also the 18 & 19. The description is the same as for fall season opening night, and it leads to the page for the Sept. 21 performance.

And we don't know seem to have sufficient data yet to determine for sure that Omicron is actually milder than earlier strains — or if it only looks that way statistically because so many more vaccinated people are getting infected, resulting in a lot of mild cases. The actual mildness of the virus can't be determined until there's enough data comparing Omicron vs. non-Omicron outcomes in unvaccinated and/or immunocompromised people.

I too have uncertainties about the cancellations, but they might be truly necessary if there are enough cases all at once that the required onstage and offstage roles can't all be filled.

54 minutes ago, Helene said:

Edited to add:  but she does describe that Joo Won Ahn, who danced the rest of the performance, had to come from the hotel.

Ah, that explains why they had the orchestra play the whole PDD.

38 minutes ago, Helene said:

Of course, it's not just dancers who are exposed:  it's Ballet Masters, stagers, costumers and dressers, who do fittings, too, accompanists, office people, cleaning people, security people, and backstage people, and not all of them are young and healthy.  Plus the orchestra.

All of whom, depending on company and location, may be required to be vaccinated. So in that way it's like many workplaces in the U.S., with vaccine and mask requirements in place (to varying degrees, on the latter). In many of those workplaces, when there's one (or more than one but unrelated) positive case — if anyone even knows about it — things don't shut down. I do hope we get to a place where that can be the norm, even if we're not there yet.

1 hour ago, cobweb said:

I was very much looking forward to a performance tomorrow of Mark Morris Dance Company, at Berkeley, California's Zellerbach Hall. Just got an email -- positive covid test in the company, performance cancelled. Wow, what a bummer. And awfully expensive for an arts organization. Having it affect me personally makes me wonder more about this - who is going to pay for these cancellations, is it the dance company or the presenter? Also, is this really necessary if no one is actually sick/symptomatic? 

I too have wondered if these closures are necessary, @cobweb. I'm 100% in favor of vaccine and mask requirements, but I haven't thought through (or heard full enough explanations of) why closures would be necessitated just by a positive case or two among a fully vaccinated company.

10 hours ago, Lauren said:

I do not believe vaccine requirements are reasonable for entry into a theater....and as we are actively seeing...they DO NOT WORK in terms of allowing the show to go on.

That's due in part to the fact that we're dealing with a new variant, for which three vaccine shots (the original two plus a booster — the latter of which many people haven't yet gotten) are needed in order to achieve the same degree of protection we used to have against the original COVID variants. The virus has changed, in large part due to insufficient worldwide vaccination rates; that's just a fact we need to respond to and deal with now.

10 hours ago, Lauren said:

I accept the general idea that vaccines prevent serious hospitalization for the vaccinated person. But if you've had the virus and aren't afraid of getting it again....the only reason is to "protect others" (which doesn't actually apply since the vaccine doesn't prevent transmission or breakthrough infection)....or to box check and be able to do things.

While it's true that vaccines don't "prevent" (i.e. eliminate) transmission or breakthrough infections, they do significantly reduce those occurrences. And at the scale of populations, those reductions can make a huge, impactful difference. Too many people seem unwilling or unable to think on such population-level terms.

1 minute ago, Balletwannabe said:

That's a weird thing to say considering we have all been risking Covid by going to live performances with thousands of people.  We too, are living our lives, by going to the ballet.  So I guess this judgement is on us all as well.

Oh indeed. I don’t exempt anyone. But there are different degrees of risk.

I meant to suggest that there’s a cost to all of our risky behaviors, some more than others. We each decide how much risk we’re willing to take (for ourselves and others) to keep “living our lives.”
 

I think it’s good to keep that in mind as we make those decisions.

2 hours ago, Balletwannabe said:

My posts were in defense of him. If it's poorly ventilated, I see it as useless.  If it's like what you're describing, then I also see it as useless.  Seriously I don't know if anyone has seen dancers close up dancing?? Their droplets are spewing everywhere, regardless of masks; unless it's an n95, which no one is wearing.  And then when they're not dancing they're having water breaks where they're heavily breathing trying to catch their breath...again, droplets, everywhere.  And don't even get me started about the fact that dancers hang out together outside of the studios... Honestly, just think about it for a second and you'll see how little masks in these situations actually do.  My daughter will wear the mask as a student dancer, next to another student dancer, and then go for a sleepover that night with said student... Few people have stopped living their lives outside of the studio.  Young people are not living in a bubble.  The two New York City ballet dancers who guested recently for a Nutcracker show... shared a hotel room.  It's right on their IG stories.

800,000+ dead in the U.S. alone but at least we haven’t had to stop living our lives.

Yes, right — exposure following contraction. I was referring to exposure of the vaccinated person, sorry to have been unclear. I meant that vaccines don't protect against exposure of the vaccinated person (as @pherank said above), but they do protect against contraction (as @aurora said above); and thus they limit further exposure, contraction, serious illness and/or death of others.

Medically, exposure typically means (potential or probable) contact, I believe, so I'd say vaccines neither limit nor protect against exposure. Vaccines protect against contraction; masks limit exposure.

For those who've seen the role performed by dancers who aren't really "jumpy spitfire turners" (not necessarily short — though there's often a correlation), have any made a strong case for the casting of the role in this way? Or is it generally those who are cast "to type" that really do best with it? 

Was LeClercq actually pretty tall? I think I've heard she was actually more average height but looked leggy. (She'd always looked tall to me in videos.) What was her height?