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'Personal issues' probably had something to do with her decision as well. People do get hung up about being in San Francisco - as if anything else would be a loss. Very few of my friends stayed in the city for long. We mostly ended up in the north Bay Area which I remain very loyal to even though I've had to relocate. I personally love trees, mountains, rivers and the ocean. Why live in the inner city when it's possible to live on the side of Mount Tamalpais with a view of the entire region? Or on a country road in Sonoma County? San Francisco is great for an evening or weekend getaway, but to live in? That takes a very urban-oriented person. Coincidentally, Masha spent some of her very brief vacation periods exploring Marin, Big Sur and Santa Cruz. Though I now wonder if that was really more her husband's choice than hers. Froustey had the right idea - the only way to get anything close to your money's worth, and get a large living space, is to look outside of San Francisco. And you have to deal with the commute, like everyone else. I tend to agree with your assessment of Kochetkova as "more a free agent than a company person". But to her credit, she always worked hard and danced when she was asked to dance. But I don't think it's in her nature to be a "den mother" as someone once termed Lorena Feijoo. Masha looks out for Number 1 at all times.

That should settle it - you don't have to waste any time or money flying to SF in the future. Leave it all to the rest of us. ;) Everyone has their particular likes, dislikes and prejudices. I've long appreciated Masha, but that doesn't mean there weren't other SFB dancers I liked better, or as well, in certain kinds of roles or in particular choreography. No one artist can be all things to all people.

This isn't a new situation for a West Coast company. Tomasson knows his job - he's proven that. And the dancers come to him a great deal of the time, so it's not a case of having to steal dancers from other companies. I'm not worried. Retirements happen, and as long as talented young dancers enter the ranks the company will continue moving forward. Unusual talents are not something that can be easily predicted. There's only one Tan, one Sylve, one Kochetkova. Schools have never been able to produce major talents on order. So we all wait, and watch... There's no lack of talent so far. It's difficult to know just how much growth a dancer is capable of, and how much natural-born acting skills they may possess in addition to their athletic abilities. That's why every large company brings in a certain number of known talents from outside. Masha leaving does free up a position, so it will be interesting to see if Tomasson promotes from within or finds someone new to bring in.

As far as I know, the ABT arrangement is over. Kochetkova just got back from South America - no one has as crazy a schedule as she does. Masha just doesn't take time off.

It may well have to do with when contracts need to be signed (Helene might know when that happens for SFB, I don't). And even if she and Daniil are, for example, talking to Berliner Staatsballett about Masha appearing there, it may not be the time to sign contracts or get any guarantees from the management.

I've said in the past that companies located in cities (like SF) need to do a lot more to help their employees find affordable housing (or create it). This figures into the survival of the art form, so it's time for the ballet organizations to get creative in another way. No Corps member can afford their own SF apartment unless it's shared with 2 or 3 others (couples, or not). Or they can somehow stand to live in the most dangerous and ugly parts of the inner city. Not recommended for a 18 year old dancer, or anyone else.

You have insider information. ;) I remember it being next to impossible to get any details about Messmer when she was in SF. Messmer and SFB was a situation that never really jelled. SFB never needed Messmer, but it would have been great to have her as part of the team. I think in her mind, it was time to be a principal and she didn't want to jump through anymore hoops to get it - she was looking for a company to say, "you will be our star!" But that wasn't going to be SFB. I think Masha has achieved all that she needed to at SFB and is trying to figure out how she will finish her career, and where. And of course, what will she do afterwards? She hasn't shown an interest in teaching, yet (not everyone has that gift, either).

LOL - I wonder if Helgi Tomasson can either. The SFB school maintains a shared home - similar to a dormitory, for the students, and it has been a big success. It seems to be time for the SFB organization to create a similar shared building space for the new professional dancers, instead of just forcing everyone into the local rental market, which is a nightmare even for people who know the area. Obviously, older dancers and veterans with the company will always be looking for their own housing opportunities, but the world has changed. Shared living spaces are going to become more prevalent in the big cities.

;) Kochetkova's unique quality seems to be her ability to sponge up many disparate styles and dance them all believably and effectively. In that respect, she has helped to shape what people have come to expect from all SFB principals, as much as Tan, or Sylve.

That is my feeling as well. The ABT diehards never really warmed to her - it's always been the young audience that follows Masha religiously. With her good friend Daniil Simkin leaving ABT for Germany, it looks like the pull is definitely towards Europe. And although I don't have proof, it seems like her marriage may have dissolved a while ago, so it is possible she feels less emotional attachment to SF with her usual male partners retiring.

I don't consider myself a fan of Hughes, exactly, but The Breakfast Club was a 'classic' of its type and era. Even with the stereotypes on display, his depictions of teens felt real to me - except that my high school was never that nice looking. ;) One thing I've never forgotten - the Bender character (played by Judd Nelson), looked, sounded and behaved remarkably like someone I went to school with. Same general background as the character. And I think many audience members were reminded of people that they had grown up with.

Long ago,SF Ballet under Michael Smuin performed his To the Beatles ballet and it was quite underwhelming for me. I don't think the music is a good fit for ballet (true of most Pop music). I'm not convinced anyone has come up with a truly clever way of integrating Pop with ballet (that is recognizably ballet).

I just received a mailer today from SCFTA, and they've added a Mark Morris Dance Group production of Pepperland, June 14-15, 2019.

Ringwald gives an example in her article of someone (Emil Wilbekin) who benefited psychologically from watching Hughes films. Every person has a different experience of a film, or individual artwork though. We don't all share the same experience when viewing/listening to/touching art. For some people, the only acceptable function of art is to create "beauty", and avoid "ugliness", but that argument quickly bogs down in people's conflicting definitions of beauty and ugliness. It also doesn't mention another important psychological function of art - an aspect the artists themselves often rely upon - a process for healing and increased understanding of a wide array of experiences. But we don't heal from "beauty" necessarily - we heal from injury. Artworks can admit to the negative and the ugly, and help us to process the darker aspects of life. They can also help us to appreciate things that initially we ignored, or were once "not our cup of tea". And then there is the idea that artists are "preserving culture", and culture is one vast amorphous entity consisting of more than the "pretty", the "elegant", or "classy" (conveying status). Art for an artist does tend to be a much more compelling and involving experience than it is for the occasional viewer/listener. The best art tends to be greater than the sum of its parts. That's why attempts to reduce the artwork to a terse description of some negative content - 'the ballet depicts a rape, so I don't recommend seeing the ballet', are often not fair or accurate. And most artwork just has to be experienced firsthand so viewers can have their own experience of the artwork and draw their own conclusions. Otherwise, the only experience anyone is having is of the text in a critical review. Good for the writer, maybe, but not good for art.

The situation you are describing definitely sounds like a bad one. The way healthcare is set up in my U.S. state makes that kind of situation much less common - unless the citizen simply refuses to sign up with a reputable healthcare service. I can go straight to the Emergency Room of my HMO (healthcare managed organization) or if if that simply isn't possible, then I can go to whatever ER is nearest and my HMO will pay for it in the end. That happened to me a while ago when I needed to be seen at an ER in British Columbia - but my HMO in the U.S. came though for me and payed the bills. And now, back to Feminism and Ballet - Did anyone happen to read MaCaulay's article Of Women, Men and Ballet in the 21st Century? https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/12/arts/dance/of-women-men-and-ballet-in-the-21st-century.html "Still, it can be no accident that so many female dance makers came from modern dance rather than ballet. No ballet maker has achieved the revisionist power with which Martha Graham showed women rewriting both history and myth. Could this yet happen? Can anyone, female or male, give new — feminist — meaning to pointwork?"

I don't know what culture you are referring to in the first paragraph above. The situations will be different in different areas of the world of course. Truthfully, my interactions with medical receptionists go like this: MR: Hi. ME: Hello, I have a 3pm appointment with Dr. ________. [I hand over my medical identification card and my driver's license which has my photo on it] MR: OK, the co-pay will be $_____ today. ME: [I pay with a credit card] MR: You can take a seat in seating area 2 - the nurse will call your name. Not very exciting and not really aggravating to me. It's the doctors that run the gamut in "bedside manner": I've had good ones that try too hard to be ingratiating and give me too much information. I've had doctors who clearly go through the day robotically keeping to company policies and have nothing much to add or say about my medical condition (or whatever happens to be the reason for the visit). I've had a few doctors who seemed annoyed because my issue was not of interest to them. I've had pompous sounding doctors who spend more time talking than listening, and I've had doctors who empathized to such a degree that it was a little creepy. Truly, all kinds. But the number of people in all those interactions that were obviously trying to get in a my way and make sure I had a bad experience was very, very small. Most people I meet are aggravating unintentionally - they are simply too focused on their own issues/beliefs/values and don't see how they might be rubbing someone else the wrong way. And if they do notice what has happened, then their mind looks for a way to make it the other person's fault. ;)

So many implications, so little time. ;) I read it differently - if Black lives matter too (as well) then there must be an argument being put forward that something matters, and it isn't Black lives. Western societies often make lofty pronouncements and grand assumptions, but both individuals and groups of people can, and do, fall through the cracks, or are purposefully left out of these schemes. Reminding people that Black lives matter certainly should make it clear that there is an "overdue balancing of accounts", but many non-Blacks get defensive and just wonder why the message doesn't include them. Those are insecure people (as most humans are). And funnily enough, they don't feel empowered by society either - the "Trump Nation" is full up with people who actually feel that they have been left behind, and that minorities are getting more help in life than they are. That may sound ignorant or crazy to some, but those are real feelings even if they are sometimes based on mistaken notions. And then there are the cases in which deserving people are shut out of opportunities because of quotas that needed to be filled (by law). If you're the one getting left out, the supposed fairness of the situation is going to be lost on you. I don't blame the people who try to make a positive difference (within their beliefs) and make mistakes, or fail entirely. They made the effort in life. It's the people who purposefully make someone else's life more difficult, or virtually impossible, that are the issue for me.

Thanks for this link - definitely worth a look. It's a very personal take on the ballet company environment, and that makes it an engaging read. It was brave to take on Ratmansky's ballet themes and social media statements, and mature to recognize that all individuals exhibit contradictions in their personalities and work. Bouder does something here that most writers forget all about: she defines the term central to her argument. "Feminism is the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes" While reading this, I was reminded yet again how terminology runs our lives and gets us into (often unintended) trouble. The term "feminism" can't help but denote the existence of a "masculinism" as its opposite/opponent (most people would say "patriarchy"). And the terms and their referents form a dichotomy that makes no allowance for in-between or grayscale states. And that's not very lifelike at all. But Bouder defines 'feminism' as being a theory of "the political, economic and social equality of the sexes", and so tries to be much more inclusive. I can guarantee that so-called opponents of feminism don't define the term feminism in the same manner, and they are very much hung up on the female-centric implications of the term. The same kind of problem arises around the slogan, "Black lives matter". People who are bothered by this phrase like to come back with, "ALL lives matter", which also happens to be an easy way of avoiding the issue. I always thought the slogan should have been: "Black lives matter too." That alters and makes more specific the implications of the phrase. In that case, less vague is better. I'm personally looking for a more inclusive term to supersede ones like 'feminism' and 'patriarchy/matriarchy'. I don't know if this would be considered off-topic, but I would also recommend Molly Ringwald's New Yorker article, What About “The Breakfast Club”? Revisiting the movies of my youth in the age of #MeToo. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/what-about-the-breakfast-club-molly-ringwald-metoo-john-hughes-pretty-in-pink It's an interesting read, but, Ringwald fails to do what Bouder got right - she doesn't define terms, and is full of assumptions about what is right and wrong, what is ugly or beautiful, etc. Her assumptions/beliefs are probably part of the reason why she has a difficult time understanding how artwork can contain negative or violent content and still provide the audience with catharsis, a sense of well being, or inspiration, or even an "ah hah!" moment of enlightenment. I get the feeling that Ringwald tends to take film content very literally, and misses many of the overt implications. But, I could be wrong. ;)

http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/topic/43650-legend-of-love/

Thanks for posting the video - I hadn't watched a Mariinsky performance in a while.

There have been many arguments about how well the style/techniques have been preserved through the Martins era. Many of the original SAB teachers were gone by the 1990s. Naturally, that led to some alterations in the look (depending on who the students were training with). Suki Schorer and Stanley Williams remained for a while. Stanley Williams is a case in point: he was expert in the Bournonville tradition, which Balanchine admired, and so Williams couldn't help but pass along some of that aesthetic as well in his classes. But he made conscious alterations to fit with the 'Balanchine program', and provide Balanchine with young dancers who could do what he asked of them. Edward Villella credits Williams for transforming his dancing. These days, another generation of teachers is at work, so things change, sometimes noticeably, sometimes almost imperceptibly. No dancer at the Vaganova Academy dances as they did at Vaganova in the 1930s...

From an older TimeOut article: https://www.timeout.com/newyork/dance/tiler-peck It's often difficult to gauge height unless we know for certain the exact height of someone/something standing beside the dancer. Peter Martins, even at his present age, tended to tower over many of the NYCB women. But many of the male principals in companies are not all that tall themselves - we don't get a good sense of actual size looking at PDD couples for example.

Tiler Peck is 5' 5". Maria Kochetkova is just 5' tall. It's often seen as a disadvantage for a female dancer to be that short - there's a long running prejudice against truly short dancers, but, most female ballet dancers tend to be fairly short and lightweight women. Small is easier in terms of partnering, and tall, heavier people simply use up a lot more energy to make the same movements.

Unfortunately, the little that I've seen of Morgan's dancing has only been on video. I gather that she was like by Peter Martins, so she probably would have kept getting plum roles had her health not gone haywire. Kathryn Morgan's videos are definitely helpful in explaining the stylistic differences between what is taught to SAB students, and say, Vaganova students. She doesn't really go into an analysis of Balanchine ballet roles or choreography, but it's really helpful, I think, to learn about the SAB approach to the basic positions, port de bras, etc. Balanchine was too clever to simply stick to a mechanical presentation of these same positions and steps in his choreography - once dancers had the core classical techniques down cold, it was time to learn to deal with off-balance movement, dancing "big", and development of musicality in all movements...

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