Plisskin

You can barely find actual dancing of "America's National Ballet Company". They had an opportunity to showcase it here and instead decided to do a commercial. Le sigh. If they don't survive COVID I wouldn't be surprised. Maybe ABT folding would be a blessing in disguise by getting a new AD and board with better artistic vision and integrity. Lord knows ABT has needed it for years now. I feel sorry for the dancers.

To me it sounds more like he'll be a guest artist or "principal" like Bolle who only dances a few times w/ ABT out of the year. Congrats to Daniil. He'll probably have better opportunities to grow further at Staatballet.

Tragic. Veronika isn't my favorite dancer, but compared to the majority of female ABT principals right now who have technical issues or are ungraceful, she is a god send to ABT. What a stupid decision. You could always count on Veronika to give a beautiful and technically proficient performance rather than worrying if she'll not be able to complete the choreography. Shades of Irina whom Kevin also did wrong. 

20 hours ago, Fraildove said:

Sorry I'm so late commenting. One thought and one interesting observation. Someone asked why she still does all these competitions? Usually it is to gain exposure from other directors and to build your resume, or in the case of having three Mariinsky dancers already highly admired, it's because the company they work for are sponsoring those dancers to add more visibility to the company and show 'dominance' over other companies. But what has me thinking that Joy had an entirely different motivation for entering this particular competition (by the way she is now in korea competing at the Korean International Ballet Competition... ?)? I have an inclination that encouraged by her silver in Varna, her promotion at the Kremlin, I think she truly felt she would be able to win gold and prove to everyone at the Bolshoi she was right and they were not. She would be vindicated. This is hinted at in one of blogs when she talks about dancing at the Stanislavskiy in a tribute to her teacher, who had won an award. She describe how *Yulia Makhalina (99% positive that is who she said, I just cant make myself to go back and watch it) and

 

I hope she had different reasons for participating because if not, she proved to them once again that they made the right choice... Which dancer called her out?

18 minutes ago, Tapfan said:

No worries.   I'm not suggesting that anyone should feel obligated to support black ballerinas just because they are black. I suspect that not even the angriest most bitter, old-school black female classical dancer wants or needs that kind of condescension.  Copeland's work is out there to be judged just like ever other artist.

 

What I don't get is the out-sized - at least to me- annoyance she generates in some folks as if she stole something from someone.   All truly gifted dancers are going to rise, along with some who are not so gifted.    Isn't that what the ballet establishment has been saying all these years?  If that's true, then what happens to Misty is irrelevant.

 

The reason I've mentioned the lack of attention given to other black female dancers is that some, not all, but some folks who've been critical of Misty's promotion to principle, have indicated that her supposedly undeserved promotion would hurt the chances of other dancers of color who come after her. Apparently, everyone will expect black female dancers to be sub-par because Misty is. 

 

I just found this concern for all the future black swans to be suspect considering the fact that the only time anyone ever talks about a woman who happens to black in the field of classical dance,  is when they want to criticize Misty. The rest of the time, black women are invisible.  You'd think they'd talk about somebody else who's black on occasion if just by accident. 

I don't really get it either. Misty isn't the only principal on ABT's roster who has weak technique or other deficiencies.  And I do agree with you that the only time other black or part black ballerina's are even brought up is to bring her down. Ordinarily though they are not mentioned. It's really not even that serious. When I'm in NY to see an ABT performance their are principals and soloists that I don't like (a few of them are championed to the high heavens on this forum) and I don't really understand their promotion, but I just don't buy a ticket to their performance and leave it at that. 

I finally got a chance to watch the Moscow competition and I wasn't overly impressed with Joy to be honest. There were 2 American girls dancing in the junior division who were much better (one of them won the gold). She should stay were she's at and really appreciate her position at her current company. She's not bad but just kind of vanilla. Kinda bland. Not trying to be harsh when I saw that but it's what I think. I've seen much better dancers languishing away in the corp at ABT. I still enjoy her vlogs when she does do them, which isn't as frequent anymore.

Another imported, (short) male principal who can't dance as good as people like Calvin, who've been sitting in the corp for 6+ years. Yay? Congrats to Blaine Hoven, whom it took ABT 13 years to promote to soloist, but as for Cirio I think this is yet another, sad and terrible decision by McKenzie. I feel bad for the dancers they have whom are just as good or better than Cirio, languishing away in the corp.

I wouldn't blame him for leaving. He's a beautiful dancer with gorgeous line and good technique that has been languishing in the corp for years. They'd rather import dancers like Cirio (nothing against him but there is enough good dancers in the corp like Calvin wasting away Kevin could promote to soloist) instead of promoting Calvin.

I found some fan recorded video's on Youtube of ABT's new Sleeping Beauty for those of you who are going to see the new production for the first time and are curious about the choreography and costumes. Vishneva is Aurora and I believe Cassandra Trenary, who is having her debut as Aurora, is Princess Florine but I'm not sure.

https://youtu.be/3wMnCLDmfJ0

https://youtu.be/4jCTAJLv1Vo

https://youtu.be/Q4EP3R8zcFQ

https://youtu.be/QDMqBwXBtGk

We finally get to see another front view of Joy's dancing:

If you have Netflix you can now watch Misty's documentary "A Ballerina's Tale" on there. I'm half way through it and it's really good.

Hmm, a Harvard degree and ballet school isn't really the same.... I consider dancers like Vishneva or Guillem to be a product of their schools. They didn't just get 4 years or 1 year of training (basically finishing schooling) at POB or the Vagonova. More like 7+ years of training, beginning at the young ages of 11. Their foundation is with the school they graduated from, not 1 or 2+ ballet studios like most American dancers. I can see I'm not going to agree with anyone here (this is completely off topic to Harvey's appointment anyway) so I will respectfully disagree and bow out.

If you don't consider four years a product of JKO, then you don't consider 90% of NYCB dancers a product of SAB.

I don't have an opinion on the JKO school one way or the other, but quite a few of their graduates (whether they received a substantial part of their training there, or were "finished" before entering the Studio company) are promising dancers in the ranks of ABT.

If they only studied there for 4 years then no, I don't.

I believe Brandt and Royal got the bulk of their training elsewhere. Royal was only at JKO for only 1 year before joining the Studio Company then not long after joining the company. Brandt I believe studied at JKO for 4 years. Longer than Royal, but I personally wouldn't consider 4 years a product of JKO. I've noticed that ABT likes to claim quite a few of the dancers are products of JKO when their not.

I've seen the JKO students and I wasn't impressed. The training method, combining the French, Russian, and Italian schools sounds great, but actually seeing the students I was quite let down. Artistically their is nothing there. And technically they weren't very impressive either. No offense but if I had a child interested in ballet I wouldn't send them there. The JKO students that have impressed me usually didn't come up from from the school but have trained elsewhere prior, like Waski.

Her family seem pretty well off judging from that video where she went home. I was surprised by that when their have been a slew of articles about her over the years where she says she struggles financially.

I'll admit that I find her V-logs entertaining (and I'll keep watching), but in the long run I think they will hinder her career. She reveals too much about her coworkers ( I remember in one video she talked about some incident with on of the female principals there. So much second hand embarrassment for her when she talked about that...) Just from the video's I've seen of her dancing, she's lucky to be a soloist to be honest. At most, I'd have her as a Coryphee. Their is no characterization or interpretation when she dances. She just executes the steps and not much else. People love to bash Oksana Skorik but even she has more characterization than Womack...And she does come across as entitled. No matter what job you have, you can't just take off and go home because "your tired and worked hard". Especially during a busy time in your company...There has been many times I wished I could say "peace out" to my manager and go on a holiday, but it doesn't work like that in the adult world.

But really, she should be very greatful that the Kremlin took her in after the Bolshoi fiasco and lying about how in love she was with her green card husband. Which she might be grateful . I can't judge too harshly on someone's life who I don't know from 10 minute video's and her interviews...But I will forever sideye a lot of sketchy things she's done in the past, and her continued lie of calling herself a principal...

I didn't particularly like her Odette, but her extensions make me swoon, especially with her right leg. Was she partnered by the same dancer in Swan Lake and Don Q? Because I thought her Siegfried did her absolutely no favours either...

Her Kitri on the other hand makes me wish for a DVD quality release of that performance, because she was perfect. The role seemed to fit her temper much better and she really brought a lot of charm to the bravura.

No. In her vlogs she said her partner didn't like her. He and other company/staff (?) members blamed his performance and lack of chemistry with Joy on her. She's danced a lot with the guy in the Don Q performance. They seem to have a good working relationship.

I think it says a lot about Russians that they can come to the West (particularly the U.S.) and not be in a hostile work environment and even reach stardom (Kotchekova, Baryshnikov, etc). But when it's the other way around, Americans dancing in Russian company's generally don't get treated very well unless your David Hallberg... Which, even with Hallberg I'm not so sure about that. Let me go look at some older interviews...

So glad she joined the Bolshoi. They recognize talent. Like Zakharova, Obraztsova, and countless others, the Mariinsky will regret letting her go. The Vaganova trains such great dancers. But the Bolshoi usually gets them while the Mariinsky loves dancers like Somova and Skorik...

I kind of wish Novikova would leave for the Bolshoi but I guess she's happy at the Mariinsky.

Why would she? She was supposed to have retired with a "Sleeping Beauty". The schedule was set. The fact that SHE decided not to perform in "Beauty" and dance something else probably meant that ABT had to do some very quick juggling. I find it remarkable that ABT was able to give her a slot and in a ballet she preferred. OK, so it was a matinee, but I think they did the best they could, given the circumstances. I can't speak to any thing else regarding her retirement, but her final bow was lovely and well earned. If she was unhappy about the circumstances it certainly didn't show.

I am aware of what happened. I just thought she might have something more negative to say about it. It really isn't any more serious that.

That line about people's career being tarnished by the media I don't agree with and think it's tacky. I guess she's referring to Misty Copeland with it? Nevertheless, she's entitled to her opinion. I never found her dancing compelling at all but interesting interview. I was surprised she didn't have more negative things to say about ABT's handling of her retirement performance.

Frailove, I think she needs guidance as well. Some things she's said in interviews she should have definitely kept to herself. Especially revealing her salary and criticizing Russia. Being that she has lived there for quite a while now, she should know that, unlike the U.S., making remarks criticizing their government, especially as an American, wouldn't go over well. Honestly, I haven't recalled very many American ballerinas who have done this either. And this is the internet age and there are, I'm sure, plenty of Russians in her company who understand English on some level. I believe all of that got back to the Kremlin staff. I also think her lies about being a principal at the Kremlin and first American to graduate at the Bolshoi are foolish. I believe she does it to boost her profile on social media. Probably for her Prima bars as well. Kind of like a "Principal Ballerina Joy Womack uses these!" type of thing to appeal to young dancers who are trying to make it or look up to her dancing.

I found this latest vlog of Joys' interesting:

Apparently, there was an incident between her and staff over her nationality where they were mean to her. She did a classic break down and cry on Youtube video. I'm guessing this is why she was auditioning for POB and Los Angeles Ballet. Even though she loves that country I think her not being so rah rah Russia in some recent interviews probably got back to them and that's why they treated her that way. Russia isn't exactly a country where you can criticize their government and not have a lot of people feel a certain way. Especially as an American working at a Russian state theatre like the Kremlin... She should leave Russia imo. If she wants to stay in Europe there are plenty of better company's elsewhere. They definitely pay more than that 100 or so USD a month she's making dancing at the Kremlin.

I would really love to know what her position at the Kremlin really is. I don't care what country your in, but a principal doesn't dance one of the 4 cygnets in Swan Lake. I would be really surprised if POB took her. If she wants to leave Russia but stay in Europe I think a more realistic company to go to would be somewhere like ENB or maybe the Royal. Dutch National Ballet would be a pretty good option.

I know that she isn't dancing as much or many of the 'leading' roles she has alluded to, and in recent posts has seemed a bit down. I'm surprised about Paris Opera though. The dancers there are all brilliant and competition for any role, even corps, is stiff. I wish her the best, but wonder why she feels that she should only automatticaly be dancing principal roles after just graduating a few years ago.

She just posted today on her YT Channel- her daily vlog series ( called Project Prima) that she is in Paris to audition for the Paris Opera Ballet.

That's surprising. I never would have thought she would try to leave audition for a non-Russian company after certain statements she's made about Russian ballet. I wonder if anything has happened at the Kremlin.

Ballet is stereotypically, and historically seen as being for thin, white dancers. Misty is saying you don't have to look like that to be successful in the art form. I don't really see what's so confusing or offensive about the video.

Btw, per Forster's Instagram, it was Leanne's last performance 5 days ago during the Swan Lake run. Sad to see her go and sad that she didn't get more opportunities. She was a lovely dancer. Wonder if she'll continue elsewhere or if she's retiring from dance entirely.