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Sasha De Sola Instagram post from Washington DC: https://www.instagram.com/p/BpQEa7Al1Yg/?taken-by=sashadesola "Thank you for inviting us to the Capitol Building, for the once in a lifetime tour..." And here's one form Mathilde Froustey: https://www.instagram.com/p/BpQmWmTlhBK/?taken-by=lapetitefrench_ And Natasha Sheehan too: https://www.instagram.com/p/BpQXJ6rle0h/?taken-by=tippytoegirl

Makes me think that Issey Miyake should be designing tutus.

Welcome, Victorienka - Best of luck with your recovery. I think you will find plenty to read about and react to, on the Ballet Alert forum. Even though this forum is focused on the ballet audience (and their reactions to all things ballet), many of the posters are ex-dancers, or dance writers and so you can 'rub elbows' with many knowledgeable people. Have fun!

Trust In Me | Freely Mad Productions Director/Choreographer: Benjamin Freemantle Dancer: Jennifer Stahl Cinematographer/Editor: Madison Keesler https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul9Zvff3dZY

Houston Ballet (appeared in the Australian Ballet segment) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkbjvSCCU6o Het Nationale Ballet - Dutch National Ballet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkbjvSCCU6o

The week of October 22nd 2018, Rebecca and Michael will be airing a live interview with Helgi Tomasson from the Kennedy Center.

About time! ;) I recall that they did something like 24 interviews total at the SFB Unbound Festival, but I've wondered if we would actually hear them all.

Yes of course - thanks Apollosmuse. How soon I forget. ;) So Hummingbird, Fearful Symmetries or the new ballet currently in the works for the 2019 season...

Thanks for posting this information, Lynette H - we would never have known, on my side of the Atlantic, until some time in 2019. 😉 It looks to be, aside from Ratmansky's excellent Shostakovich Trilogy, all ballets created for the 2018 'Unbound Festival of New Works'. Choreographers like Liang, Pita and Scarlett have created other ballets on SFB, so it would be possible to substitute in an older work. Hopefully Londoner's will be given the strongest possible program, and not only "new" ballets.

Thank you for that information, Mashinka. I didn't realize that Ashton had been fading from the audience's mind in the UK. "Fans" may have not been the best word choice - I was thinking of the various dance writers who have celebrated Ashton by explaining how this or that aspect of his ballets/choreography is, essentially, "better than Balanchine". Tearing down one person to build up another is always a bad approach to art appreciation. It reminds me of a convention of the Pop music world - for the last 40 years or more it's been typical to hear that a band or individual musician is better/sells more/is more famous/ than The Beatles. No matter how inappropriate the comparison, writers continue to beat the dead horse. Balanchine, like The Beatles, is no longer an artist, he's an icon. And icons are mostly worshiped or abused, but in either case, dehumanized. There's an NYT article by Gia Kourlas about recent coaching changes at NYCB which hope to address 'musicality' issues with the repertoire. The news is both encouraging, and troubling, since the implication is that things have gone a bit awry over the years. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/05/arts/dance/new-york-city-ballet-coaches-ballet-masters-patricia-mcbride-edward-villella.html

Weirdly, the WBD website homepage appears to have the entire 15 hours available as a single video (and they also link over to their Facebook page). I haven't had the time or patience to sit through it all, but if anyone wants to get a sense of how it all 'flowed' together, take a look. On October 2, the WBD website was inaccessible for many of us. I did a server status check by way of the 'Is It Down Right Now?' website (www.isitdownrightnow.com), and they reported that "It is not just you. The server is not responding…probably the server is overloaded, down or unreachable because of a network problem…"

Australian Ballet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BWBnEXoJMk Royal Ballet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH109O7M9bc Bolshoi Ballet [Unofficial posts - I can update these links when the Bolshoi posts their official version (which may have edits)] Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWCT1NLbeVE Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z88kZ0RI9AU Paris Opera Ballet segment (unofficial) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63qM1LsVP5Y In the absence of SFB footage we have Maria Kochetkova with Norwegian National Ballet - World Ballet Day 2018: (unofficial) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVlMjTBG9qw

Interminably long given the social mores of many cultures over the past few thousand years. The good part is that mores can and do change. My brother always sites Mickey Rooney's portrayal of Mr Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany's as the most cringe-worthy portrayal of an Asian in Hollywood. But as you imply, there are plenty more. The Yunioshi character is so out-of-place in Tiffany's that it continues to be a wonder that director Blake Edwards had no issue with those scenes.

And that's OK with me. ;) Balanchine was trained in musical composition and performance, and played music throughout his life with friends. And he did his own piano reductions of orchestral scores. He was close to the music. Were Ashton and Bournonville 'musical'? Yes, and Balanchine, I believe, said so. And so was Fred Astaire (by Balanchine). Any suggestion by Morris and Jordan that Ashton's Stravinsky interpretations were more 'sophisticated' is just their opinion. Balanchine choreography is as sophisticated as the viewer likes it to be - it's all about the mind doing the interpretation. I never understood the insecurity of Ashton fans. Obviously there are going to be cultural preferences - Ashton created dances that seem to suit the British artistic taste well. And Balanchine, as many of us know, created works with American cultural references, so his choreography may 'fit' better to an American viewer, but one's mileage may vary.

Yeah! At least it made some sense in past, that during the SFB segment there were videos for PNB, Houston and other U.S. companies. It was all too diffuse this year. I liked the combined stream, personally, but it's good to hear that more regional companies are getting involved and putting videos online for WBD. PNB's choice of Dances at a Gathering rehearsal footage was a good one, imo.

A great question, and a very difficult one. But then that gives us all something to talk about. 😉 As other's have mentioned, the Balanchine 'style' (for lack of a better term) is intensely focused on musicality. No other choreographer to this day, has had a closer relationship to the music he was creating to and with. The subject has been written on in depth (for example: the Charles Joseph book, Stravinsky and Balanchine ) Balanchine made the not-so-obvious realization that what happens between 'positions' is at least as important as what happens in position, that in fact, how the dancer gets from one position to another IS the dance. Static poses are not dancing. So it's possible to think of the NYCB repertoire as an experiment in enhancing the musicality of classical ballet, to emphasize the dancing aspect over the storytelling aspect of classical ballet. That doesn't mean that all the dancers graduating from the SAB school are going to appear to us as musical dancers - artistry and musicality remain very difficult things to teach or coach. But each of Balanchine's favorite dancers over the years had a unique musicality - no two alike. Dancers like Marie-Jeanne (Pelus), Maria Tallchief, Tanaquil Le Clercq, Diana Adams, Allegra Kent, Violette Verdy, Suzanne Farrell and Patricia McBride all had "musicality" of one type or another. It's been tough to find video of modern era NYCB dancers like Tiler Peck and Sara Mearns, although recently the NYCB Paris tour was recorded for the DVD market (thank goodness). I personally find it easier to ascertain a dancer's "musicality" in andante passages rather than allegro dancing. That said, this video of Tiler Peck and Joaquin De Luz dancing in Balanchine's Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux gives you an idea of Peck's speed and precision, if nothing else. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_IOSmswrx4 Musicality is a tricky thing, because the musicality of a great classical musician like pianist Glenn Gould (just to pull a name out of a hat) isn't really the same as a great "pop" musician like drummer Bernard Purdie. The individual's relationship with music can vary considerably.

It just dawned on me that Aaron Robison isn't cast for any of the tour dates. Perhaps he's just concentrating on learning/developing roles in next season's ballets (fingers crossed).

Madison Keesler (dancer at SFB) just posted to her Instagram page about Marquee TV (and offers a coupon code). Marquee TV is an Internet arts subscription service. I had never heard of Marquee before, but I presume that Marquee.tv is similar to Europe's Medici.tv except that Medici.tv focuses on musical performances and Marqee.tv seems to be more about visual stage arts. https://watch.marquee.tv/ From Dance Spirit magazine: Meet Marquee TV, the New Netflix for Dance "Marquee TV just officially launched in the US, UK, and Canada, allowing users to stream all kinds of gorgeous arts content for about nine (US) bucks a month." https://www.dancespirit.com/marquee-tv-dance-netflix-2587280996.html

No, not yet. And if there are any 'politics' surrounding the inclusion/exclusion of companies, I've never heard any of it. The fact that SFB and NBC dropped out this year, may come down to lack of funds, but no one is talking. Does anyone know if they will return next year?

Hopefully the companies don't worry so much about the viewership of the live stream, because the archived videos on YouTube get far more viewers in the end. I found the Australian Ballet broadcast to be very 'down to earth' (befitting the Aussies), and informative. Some people will find that kind of pace dull, but for anyone wanting to know what company classes and rehearsals are really like, it's a great example. I'm glad to see the Bolshoi Ballet is having a regular class as well...

I've actually been getting a "The page isn’t redirecting properly" message when following that address. Two days ago, there was no problem, but now, nothing I do to adjust cookie settings makes a difference (in either Safari or Firefox). So I'm having to stick with the above Facebook schedule and links.

The Australian Ballet is broadcasting live now: https://www.facebook.com/theaustralianballet/videos/316808235540339/

From the WBD Facebook page - it's confusing because this implies there's no one place to watch the live stream: SCHEDULE (Click on the links to watch each company's stream)The Australian Ballet, Melbourne11:00-16:00 AEST (UTC+10hrs)Большой театр России / Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, Bolshoi Ballet, Moscow09:00-14:00 MSK (UTC +3hrs)Royal Opera House, The Royal Ballet, London12:00-17:00 BST (UTC +1hr)Guest companies:AUSTRALIA and ASIA The National Ballet of Japan, Tokyo - 11:00-11:15 JST (UTC +9hrs)West Australian Ballet, Perth - 14:30-14:40 AWST (UTC +8hrs)Queensland Ballet, Brisbane - 15:00-16:00 AEST (UTC+10hrs)Royal New Zealand Ballet, Wellington - 15:00-16:00 NZST (UTC +12hrs)MAINLAND EUROPE Nasjonalballetten UNG / Norwegian National Ballet 2, Oslo - 14:00 - 14:30 CEST (UTC +2hrs)The Royal Danish Ballet, Copenhagen - 14:15-14:45 CEST (UTC +2hrs)Bayerisches Staatsballett, Munich - 14:30-15:00 CEST (UTC +2hrs)Das Stuttgarter Ballett, Stuttgart - 15:00-15:30 CEST (UTC +2hrs)Wiener Staatsballett, Vienna - 15:15-15:45 CEST (UTC +2hrs)Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris, Paris - 15:30-16:00 CEST (UTC +2hrs)Het Nationale Ballet - Dutch National Ballet, Amsterdam - 16:00-16:30 CEST (UTC +2hrs)Kungliga Operan, Stockholm - 16:15-16:45 CEST (UTC +2hrs)Teatr Wielki - Opera Narodowa, Warsaw - 17:00-17:30 CEST (UTC +2hrs)UNITED KINGDOM Scottish Ballet, Glasgow - 11:00-11:30 BST (UTC +1hr)Birmingham Royal Ballet - 13:00-13:30 BST (UTC +1hr)English National Ballet, London - 14:00-14:30 BST (UTC +1hr)Royal Academy of Dance, London - 14:30-15:00 BST (UTC +1hr)Northern Ballet, Leeds - 16:00-16:30 BST (UTC +1hr)AMERICA and CANADABallet Concierto De PR, San Juan - 10:00-11:00 AST (UTC -4hrs)Carlos Acosta Acosta Danza, Cuba - 12:00-12:40 EDT (UTC -4hrs)Houston Ballet, Texas - 12:30-13:30 CDT (UTC -5hrs)Pacific Northwest Ballet, Seattle - 11:00-11:30 PDT (UTC -7hrs)Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York - 15:00-15:30 EDT (UTC -4hrs)Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal - 16:00-17:00 EDT (UTC -4hrs)

Miami City Ballet finally comes to town - to present George Balanchine's The Nutcracker https://www.musiccenter.org/tickets/events-by-the-music-center/Glorya-Kaufman-Dance/1819-season/george-balanchines-the-nutcracker/ George Balanchine's The Nutcracker® November 30, 2018 | 7:30 p.m. December 1, 2018 | 2:00 p.m. December 1, 2018 | 7:30 p.m. December 2, 2018 | 11:00 a.m. December 2, 2018 | 4:00 p.m. The Music Center's Dorothy Chandler Pavilion I just wish they were doing a Balanchine mixed rep of less-seen works.

Hi Terez - we discussed this somewhere or other on the forum, and let's just say that most people think she will end up in Berlin with Daniil Simkin (who she just danced with in Moscow, btw). But she's going to spend a season guesting with Norwegian Ballet. If it goes well, she may decide to guest there for some time. Who knows?