Birdsall

I never saw Jazz Calendar, but it was the highlight of last night's performance! The designs were very colorful and fun, so I suspect they are the full designs and credited to Jarman, Natalia. I was surprised how much I enjoyed this frothy and fun ballet. It was very jazzy and modern, yet very balletic and beautiful. I thought Wednesday's Child had to be the sexiest ballet piece ever created! I think Jazz Calendar would me a great addition to any company's repertoire and Sarasota Ballet really came alive in it. The show started with Balanchine's Apollo, and I was happy to get a chance to see the "birth" scene which I hadn't seen before in person. Ricardo Rhodes was a warm Apollo and was better at the grown man as opposed to the child (better in the second variation). I feel that when I've seen this at Miami City Ballet there was a more smooth and crisp attack to the moves, but Rhodes was more human and warm, so it was a case of losing something but gaining something else. I think when he relied on elegance he was more confident than when doing the acrobatics. The show ended with Nureyev's version of Act III of Raymonda. Barry Kay's designs (sets and costumes) were gorgeous. The choreography was interesting when I compared it in my mind to the Mariinsky's version (the version I am most familiar with). Nureyev's version adds variations from other acts and a pas de trois, by the way. He seems to have taken the ballet and embellished it to make the choreography even harder. It ends up being almost like Paquita in structure! His version has a modern feel to it while still evoking the feel of Imperial Russia. However, this is where this sweet little gem of a company falls a bit short. After seeing Mariinsky dancers in the full Raymonda and having that in my mind I doubt any company can actually dance this ballet with the imperial hauteur that the Mariinsky does. Of course, this is a different ballet (Nureyev's) however related it may be, and Sarasota Ballet gave their all, and for a small company that is nothing to sneeze at! Danielle Brown created as much hauteur as a non-Mariinsky dancer can in Raymonda's variation doing Nureyev's "Oh, I have a headache" moment (hand up near forehead) better than more famous dancers. I point this out because I hate the hand on forehead moment in Nureyev's version but Brown made it more understandable as a movement of passion. Overall I enjoyed seeing this version very much although the male pas de quatre showed a weakness among the males with lots of messy landings. However, if you paid attention mainly to everything else they were quite admirable. A very enjoyable evening but I feel this company's talents were showcased best in the Ashton ballet Jazz Calendar. There was a joy and love of dancing among all the dancers in that piece that you do not see in the international companies. That was the ballet I was the least interested in but the one I loved the most among the three!

I saw Margarita Frolova last summer as Columbine in Le Carnaval, and she was an absolute delight. Her flowing arms are something that seem to only come naturally to Vaganova grads. This video shows off her artistry....

Let me know if you have time to meet during an intermission.

I am going to this show this coming weekend, so I will try to report. I like this little company very much. I have grown to like it better than Miami City Ballet. They are doing much more interesting things, and from what I have seen they seem to stress the upper body as much as the lower, which is something I really like.

Nina Stemme's Brunnhilde in SF's Ring in summer 2011 was phenomenal!!!! It was truly an experience of a lifetime to hear the role sung so well even including small details like Brunnhilde's trills. So it is good to see her get some interesting roles at the Met. She seems determined to specialize in the Birgit Nilsson roles, and I hope she is up to that continuing challenge. Unless her voice has taken a turn for the worse since I saw her, I think her Elektra and Turandot should be very fascinating. In contrast, I am at a total loss to understand why Radvanovsky keeps getting bel canto roles all over the world. Donizetti's Three Queens require so much in terms of drama and artistry and pure bel canto line. I just heard parts of her recent Norma at the Liceu. I know a lot of people love her and think she's wonderful, but I just do not "get" her at all. To me she sounds like an inexperienced student in this repetoire. I wish for the days of Jane Eaglen to come back after hearing Radvanovsky, and Eaglen was treated as a disastrous Norma at the Met, but most of us had no idea how low the bel canto ship would sink in years to come. It truly pains me to see how this repetoire (which was a favorite for well over 20 years) is sung today.

My hope is that if they do a longer run they are more likely to bring two different programs instead of just one, so they could bring a classical ballet and a contemporary one at the same time sort of how they alternated Swan Lake with Cinderella and the mixed Chopin bill in NY recently.

It looks like the Mariinsky Ballet may be in talks with the Kennedy Center for a longer run next season: http://sputniknews.com/art_living/20150128/1017453908.html

Indeed! Yes, try a Ring Cycle. LOL You feel like you've run a marathon after the week is over even though you have simply sat in a seat for 4 long operas! Glorious music, but I think it is trying even for the most devoted art lover!!!! I keep saying to people, "Most artists suffer for their art. Wagner wanted the audience to suffer too and have to hold their pee!" LOL

The Mariinsky ushers tend to stay outside in the lobby, so they do not see the phones, and it was a shock the first time I went, b/c people whip out their phones and iPads and snap photos during the performance and even take short videos totally out in the open. I guess the majority are not doing this, but a lot of people do it compared to American audiences, and that is probably because the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg is like the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Russians from all over want to have a memory and also all the foreign tourists. So people are snapping away before the performance, during intermissions and during curtain calls. Almost everyone. And as I said there are a few people doing it during the actual performances as well. It is not uncommon to see someone hold up an iPad and snap a picture during a performance far away from you. I have learned to tune this out for the most part, b/c you can't fight City Hall, and what is going on up on the stage is usually so wonderful that I can tune everything else out. But people here on BA should be aware. Don't expect it to be like the Kennedy Center! You will see cameras before during and after the performances snapping away!

maps, I think the lighting must have been adjusted, b/c I saw the Dying Swans easily in all 4 shows I saw. I mean, it was dark, but you could see the dancer without any problem.

The moment I was talking about was about 2:27minutes and I guess Lopatkina stays fairly upright. I thought I saw another video of her going all the way back. So maybe Shapran was doing it the "traditional" way.

I have been attending opera much longer than ballet, and I used to be the "young person" (the hope for the future, I guess) that someone used to say, "Nice to see a young person at the opera!" That was in my 20s and 30s (half Asian so look even younger than I am, so even in my 30s I looked 20something). Now at 47 with salt and pepper hair nobody makes that comment anymore! LOL But my generation of friends will ask me to take them to an opera or ballet once and for them it is an event, "Oh, I'm going to the opera with my opera friend tonight!" and they love it as a one time event, but they never seem to want to go again despite saying how much they loved it. Yet they will spend HUNDREDS for a ticket to see Madonna or U2 or some other pop act. I just think that the U.S. culture is geared so heavily toward pop culture. I have given up trying to convert friends into opera or ballet lovers. I just go by myself (and even leave the partner home most times). Anyway, from my personal experience among my friends I can't seem to find many people all that interested in ballet and opera. And that is why many of us come to forums like this to actually talk to people who hold similar interests. I really don't know why so many Americans have zero interest in opera and ballet nowadays. It is sad.

I wonder if they will bring Raymonda to the Kennedy Center? That is much closer and much cheaper for me to fly to. I am hoping. Raymonda is wonderful. Lopatkina, Tereshkina, Novikova, and Kolegova are all great Raymondas to see! Each one has her own unique way.

By the way, what in the world is going on with ushers in America nowadays???? A young boy a couple of seats in from me was taking a selfie of himself and the Kennedy Center auditorium (and I was too), and the usher came over and chastised us. I asked her why we couldn't take pics of ourselves before the show started since it should disturb nobody and she said it is not allowed to take pics inside the auditorium. I told her I understood why that rule is in place for DURING the performance but not before and told her everyone is snapping photos of themselves at the Mariinsky Theatre before the show (and many take pics during the show at the Mariinsky) and it is much more beautiful and needs more protecting from bulbs flashing, but they allow selfies and pictures there all the time. She told me, "That is Russia!" I also snapped a shot of the NYCB theatre when I was in NY last and an usher rushed over and chastised me. It was 30 minutes before the show was starting. So I wasn't disrupting a performances or bothering performers and I did not use flash (and I didn't use flash at the Kennedy Center either). I read on here that someone was taking pics with her friends during an intermission at the Met, and an usher chastised her. I find it really ridiculous that these ushers are stopping people from taking pictures of themselves at very plain 1970s theatres while gorgeous theatres like the Mariinsky allow it. The Kennedy Center, the Met, and David Koch Theatres are actually sort of ugly compared to European theatres, so they should be complimented anyone wants to take their pictures there!!! Does anyone know the rationale behind not allowing pics BEFORE the show begins? I find it ludicrous, and I must have taught in public schools too long, because I came close to turning into a student and saying, "Nobody really wants a pic of your ol' stank theatre! Get out of my face!" LOL (it's a joke!!!!)

Thanks, Canbelto. That is nice to compare and contrast. It seems as though the back bends are slightly different in that video although still far back. Kondaurova and Skorik and other Mariinsky dancers do the back bend like in the third act of Swan Lake where they come down to the floor and then move the one leg back behind them and then bend all the way backwards. I think Tereshkina often looks like she is folding herself in half like a suitcase when she does this in Swan Lake. I believe Lopatkina does this also in the Dying Swan but not quite as deep. Kondaurova did it deeply. Shapran seemed to just put her arms behind her and maybe tilt back an inch if even that. Skorik did a deep back bend too.

Had to literally run out of Sunday's matinee, get my bag out of coat check, get into a taxi and catch my plane back to Florida, so just now writing a review. Rite of Spring thoughts: For the final show yesterday I sat higher up (row 1 second tier) and the sound of the orchestra was so much better. Someone above commented that it was a shame the Mariinsky Orchestra did not come to DC for these shows, because they would have been louder, and I thought the same thing sitting in Orchestra for the other 3 performances, and it is possibly still a correct thought. But yesterday sitting high up the orchestra was so much louder for Rite of Spring which made it a more exciting musical piece. Rite has moments that should be very loud. I know when I used to mainly attend opera I preferred to sit higher up because you could gauge how well a singer's voice filled the auditorium. Orchestra seating is notoriously bad in some theatres for sound and the Kennedy Center Opera House seems to have muffled sound while sitting in orchestra. So opera lovers out there, DO NOT SIT IN ORCHESTRA at the Kennedy Center judging from my experience this weekend. For ballet orchestra is good to see faces, etc. Sitting high up I could see that the floor was indeed green (with maybe a few other colors mixed in) so Natalia was correct about them using the entire sets. I do love the colorful sets and costumes of Rite. After yesterday's show I advise people to sit high up for Rite if possible also whenever they see it, because I was able to see patterns in the choreography that I never caught from the other three performances of this run or from the commercial video of this. There are some interesting things, but I still view this as "modern dance" and not really ballet (my own personal opinion; others can disagree). I know this is considered an "important" work in the history of ballet and of music, and I do enjoy the music (as a great example of 20th century music), and I guess it is fascinating to see it as a ballet to some extent. I think seeing it 4 times in a row almost killed me though! LOL I don't think I ever need to see it again! I actually enjoyed seeing it live the first night (Friday) and thought throughout, "Oh, I don't remember that from the video...." so it kept me interested, but the second and third times felt like an eternity but then the final time seeing the patterns made it more interesting. To me Rite of Spring is like eating your spinach that you mother tells you to (actually I like spinach as an adult). But it wears me out! I even said this after one of the Rites, "That ballet wears me out!" and two people walking past me laughed out loud. I agree that Pavlenko was the best Chosen One. She even seemed ultra committed during curtain calls staying in character with turned in feet. I have to hand it to her that she gave her all. Petushkova can be excellent in some things, so do not dismiss her for future roles. Her Indian Dance in Bayadere last summer knocked my socks off! So even though her Chosen One at other performances were weaker than Pavlenko, don't avoid her. She can be great in the right role. Le Spectre de la Rose Out of the two Girls I saw I preferred Yana Selina. She had the flowing arms I associate with Mariinsky dancers. I thought Shapran was good at times, but there is less flow there and I wonder if her time at the Stanislavsky (Moscow style seems to want less flowing arms) changed her style. Just a wild guess. I don't dislike Shapran at all. I just felt like Selina had the stereotypical Vaganova/Mariinsky style. Selina also kept her eyes closed, although Shapran did too at yesterday's performance, so maybe she simply needs more performances. To my disappointment Stepin was replaced by Kim yesterday as the Rose (I had already seen Kim). Kim impresses with his leaps but I was wanting to see how Stepin would do in this Rose role to compare. Latypov was the best Rose (for style) at the Saturday matinee although his final leap out of the window was not as impressive as Kim's leaps. As said above, Kim does have the ability to look as though he is hanging in air for a split second. Dying Swan Yesterday was Kondaurova again and overall she was the best of the 3 Dying Swans I saw (Kondaurova, Shapran, and Skorik). Despite minor mistakes each performance (during Paquita when she did a variation and even as the lead one day) Kondaurova has a way of carrying herself and moving that beat out the other two, in my personal opinion. To clarify, she did not make mistakes in her two Dying Swans....it was always during Paquita. I know this is a picky detail but her back bend (when the swan bends backwards with chest in the air) was the most amazing. Shapran stayed up not even really attempting the famous pose, although maybe the back bend is a modern add-on. Does anyone know? Maybe Shapran did it traditionally. Paquita Grand Pas Yesterday was Skorik and Ivanchenko again, and I have to honestly say that Skorik did the best fouettes out of the three leads I saw (Skorik, Kondaurova, and Matvienko). I am pretty sure she threw in triples. Can anyone confirm this? So technically she is world's apart from when we were first noticing her. She also seems to have much more confidence on stage judging from her demeanor. My only hope now is that the confidence will enable her to start to create a "perfume" or regal/noble carriage that many of the corps girls already know how to present in the smallest roles or in corps dancing. Ivanchenko is Ivanchenko. He is a solid partner and nice arms for a male. Nice lines. But you almost want to fall asleep. I have always wanted to like him but there is something so ho hum about his dancing. In contrast, the best male of this weekend was Andrei Yermakov (or Ermakov depending). In his turns the way he moved his arms and hands were so beautiful. I think Yermakov and Latypov were the stand outs at the Kennedy Center at the shows I saw. And that is unusual because normally I fixate on the ballerinas. RUN to see Yermakov!!!! He is amazing! He has gorgeous port de bras for a male coupled with dynamic acrobratics! Among the soloists in the grand pass... I thought they all did well all nights. Ivannikova messed up the Italian fouettes one of the nights, but the other shows she was terrific, and yesterday the audience roared after her Italian fouettes. Kondaurova's style was at her best in the 2nd variation (and Shapran at other shows was good too) even with a fall off pointe (Kondaurova, not Shapran). I suspect Kondaurova is going through some kind of injury b/c she keeps having slight tiny mishaps which was not the case in years past. Asaben was nice in the Amor variation. Marchuk lights up the stage with her smile and cute, delicate personality in the 4th variation. I think she would be a delightful Masha. Matvienko was great in the grand jetes variation. Yesterday it was a treat to see Latypov again in the pas de trois with Batoeva and Selina. All three were wonderful! Overall when casting was announced I felt it was B casting and B repetoire, but overall it was very enjoyable! Glad I went!

Marchuk danced 4th each time. Last night like you I noticed Kondaurova danced what is traditionally the lead's variation but I have read that dancers can choose from a variety of variations so if the lead doesn't want to dance that she can choose another and so can the other dancers. However, the Mariinsky does have a "traditional" set of variations that tend to stay in the same order. But supposedly it is not set in stone. In fact, the Vaganova Academy did Paquita during its graduation shows last summer but did different variations if I remember correctly. Since Matvienko has been dancing the grand jetes variation throughout the run at Kennedy Center it was probably the variation she feels best at and wanted to do it as the lead one last night, so Kondaurova took over the variation that would normally be the lead's. This is my assumption. Of course, Fateyev probably had to approve all this (my guess).

You said Marchuk did the 3rd variation again. Only point this out because there was confusion throughout this thread. Marchuk did the 4th variation. Don't mean to correct but people were confused and it keeps staying confused. Marchuk was listed in the program and on the Kennedy website as the third, but that is incorrect. She was the 4th variation. Ermakov was divine in the matinee performance. He did such elegant movements with his hands and arms that most males never do.

Just my humble opinion: Yana Selina was much better than Shapran as the girl in Spectre de la Rose at both shows today even keeping her eyes closed. Latypov was better in the matinee but Kim was better than last night. I feel I deserve a medal watching Rite of Spring 3 times in a row and a fourth tomorrow. Will never want to see it again in my life!!! Despite not being perfect for the role I think Kondaurova was the best Dying Swan out of the 3 I saw (Kondaurova, Shapran, and Skorik). She did the back bend the best where the swan practically folds in half backwards. Shapran barely went back.

Marchuk has been doing the 4th variation. Asaben has been doing the 3rd "Amor" variation. The website and programs have the two mixed up.

I agree with what Amour says above, and I think Ermakov was a GOD! The way he moved his arms as he turned....so elegant! Despite her minor flubs mentioned above Kondaurova (who is not a fav) had what Skorik lacked....a regal quality....and I say this feeling that Kondaurova is not the most regal dancer but much, much more than Skorik although Skorik did better fouettés!

I pretty much agree with comments above. Kim is great at jumps. One irritating thing is his landings look totally wild to me, barely an approximation of 5th but for the acrobatics he is great. Shapran was nice but did not create magic for me as the sleeping girl. Maybe more rehearsals for Spectre were needed. Skorik and Ivanchenko were announced as if last minute replacements for Paquita, but they had been listed on the Kennedy website for last night. The program listed Kondaurova and Yermakov. I think the printed program is totally mixed up on the casting for the days. Skorik has definitely improved and is technically fine and gained confidence (triples during her fouettés), but almost every corps girl up there had more regal and elegant arms than she did. Her musicality is sometimes on and sometimes off but it is no longer a face palm situation. Kondaurova is not one of my faves (usually ultra strong in classical roles, more Bolshoi-like; not like the delicate flowers Mariinsky ballerinas usually are), but for most of the Dying Swan I enjoyed her, although some of the final arm flailing looked a bit over the top...that's her "strong" personality coming through. I like her but I don't see what others see in her. If she were at the Bolshoi she would be one of their best, but I like her less at the Mariinsky. I don't really like Rite of Spring but the paintings and costumes are nice and the score is an important work in 20th century music. But it does seem like choreography by a madman to me. However, I found myself enjoying it as just a piece of theater (as opposed to ballet). I was surprised I had fun watching it but maybe because as I sat down the lady next to me and a Russian guy were finishing a heated conversation. He called her an ignorant American and she said he should go back to Russia! LOL So the primitivism of Rite seemed fitting after that. Ironically the Russian seemed to enjoy all the flawed dancers while the "ignorant American" loved the better ones.

Marchuk is blonde with a huge smile and danced the 4th variation last night.

It is wonderful news that the pas de trois is included. I didn't think it would be. My partner is treating me to this trip as an early Birthday present (while he stays home to take care of the dog), so I am going Friday-Sunday.

My only disappointment in the past with Shapran is that she does the Spessivtseva variation in Giselle in a modifed way. Basically, she does not hop on pointe the whole length of the stage. Instead, she sets the foot down, and she turns a couple of times and does a few more hops and then puts the foot down and turns and then continues. At least that is how she danced it at the Mikhailovsky. Maybe this is a viable alternative that has been done in the past (I know Skorik has danced it that way also), but I think most fans love to see Mariinsky dancers hop across the entire stage during the ballones (and they usually hop forever across that long stage at home)...