nanushka

Sounds like they’re hoping to cash in on people’s pent-up desire for live entertainment and holiday cheer.

It's possible that Abi Stafford herself requested that J. Stafford and Whelan not come on stage. We don't have the full story.

I agree, @vipa.

Yes, @BalanchineFan, without knowing much context the Instagram message struck me initially as perhaps referring to the general experience of being in the company, not to one or another administration.

Yes, correct, but almost surely not the same. If the company can afford to promote for a “full” standard roster, they should, IMO. That said, I’m delighted and satisfied by those promotions that have been announced.

Well, yeah, but personally I think it's a good thing when workers are appropriately compensated for their labor. I understand if there's a need for caution now, financially, but I certainly don't think promotions should be withheld for any sort of "motivational" purpose. Promote them and pay them, if they're dancing the roles. Until tonight, I had never truly gotten the appeal of Megan LeCrone. I loved her in Agon. Maria K was fantastic. Those legs will be missed.

Yeah, check your email for the original PDFs. (I think mine took a little longer than usual to arrive.) Mine too look normal: one page, with area/section listed.

Exactly, chance plays a huge role. Mozart’s father was a court musician. It’s not like he surveyed the field and chose the most lucrative path. And his achievements likely contributed to the very endurance of (some of) his chosen forms.

Love that story, @Jacqueline! And I agree about the Royal Navy — and about Woetzel!

I have to say my own response to Union Jack wasn't all that terribly different. (Exaggerating.) ((But only somewhat.))

Shaved heads on men have been quite in style for some time now.

Jeez, a guy doesn't have a full head of hair so we can't accept his dancing in a non-narrative neo-classical tutu ballet? The dance world has (mostly) gotten used to other ways, equally irrelevant to actual dancing, in which dancers were previously thought to "not look the part" (e.g. skin tone). Maybe over time we'll all get a little more used to this too and find the lack of a full head of hair to be less distracting? I certainly found Angle's former fake hair to be pretty distracting too.

I was not able to attend but heard from an audience member in orchestra that Angle had a shaved head. I think that's great. It's about time that a male principal with significantly thinning hair be able to present in a way that is maximally attractive, rather than having to mess around with prosthetics that look obviously artificial just to uphold an outdated danseur ideal. I can't believe they're allowing an extended pre-performance period of maskless refreshments but no intermissions. That's ridiculous. What on earth is the rationale?

Yes, that's exactly the sense I got. I didn't fully realize it until you said it.

I'm not sure of anything — it's possible the indication on the casting sheet is a mistake, carried over from a draft they had when no intermissions was the plan. But that would seem unusually careless, and the current designation certainly communicates (rightly or wrongly) a plan for no intermissions. (That's how they've always indicated a pause without intermission on casting sheets in past seasons.)

I'm quite disappointed to see that they are going forward with no intermissions, just "pauses." The YOUR SAFETY page on their website no longer indicates that there wouldn't be intermissions, and when they went ahead with the mandatory vaccination policy there was good reason to think they'd dropped that plan. It's frustrating — and fairly nonsensical — that they have not.

They haven't had a regular season in a year and a half. I'm okay cutting them some slack this time. They may have needed more time than usual to work some of it out.

The principal casting page is here, accessible from the main page via the upper left menu SEASON & TICKETS --> PRINCIPAL CASTING. So it appears it's just not up yet.

...or your funding!

Maybe they’d ask for a letter from a religious leader? (Is the burden on the individual to follow up and find that out?) Otherwise yeah, I don’t know.

There were some training videos of Copeland posted on YouTube awhile back (maybe late 2019?). I didn't look at them closely, but I recall some people writing on the forum about some visible difficulties she seemed to be having.

I hope we see more of this. It may be the only way for performances to continue throughout the coming seasons, unless the broader situation takes a significant turn for the better.

Copeland is on the ABT roster; my understanding is that she's not performing in the fall season but is still in the company, and that's not unheard of for higher-profile ABT principals. I think the next Met season will be where to look in order to get a sense of the current state of her technique and her position in the company.

I'm disappointed that in order to see Forster's Albrecht I'll have to see Murphy's Giselle again; I was hoping he'd continue to be paired with Shevchenko. Brandt/Cornejo/Hurlin and Trenary/Royal/Fang should be exciting.

The Atlantic reports on "an array of new polls" showing that "the vaccinated, across party lines, have kind of had it with the unvaccinated":