pherank

And don't we all have opinions? ;) The Nureyev "controversy" is a mess precisely because so many people are trying to weigh in on the ballet before it gets seen. But the only reason this project is happening is because a certain small group of artists got together, didn't bicker endlessly, and they finished the "first draft" of the project. There would be no Nureyev to speak of without Serebrennikov/Possokhov/Demutsky and the Bolshoi dancers involved. I give them all credit for making the effort. The rest of it is not about art.

Elizabeth Kattner-Ulrich's dissertation, The Early Life and Works of George Balanchine (published 2008), was available on Amazon, but now it's too expensive to contemplate (so look for the dissertation PDF online). That was, for me, an interesting read. I've been wondering if Elizabeth Kendall's Balanchine & the Lost Muse wasn't partly/mostly based on Kattner-Ulrich's research.

Dores Andre posted this "part 1" video that comes before the one above, and she identifies the "women" as being Myles Thatcher, Lonnie Weeks and Diego Cruz. And it's Emma Rubinowitz, Jahna Frantziskonis and Dores as the "men". "Lollipop" by The Chordettes (or it may be someone else's version) https://www.instagram.com/p/BXJ-XB1BIHZ/?taken-by=doresandre "Nitty Gritty" by Shirley Ellis https://www.instagram.com/p/BXJ_mPVBA7f/?taken-by=doresandre The problem is, I want to see the entire music video! Not 5 seconds worth. But Emma posted the following: "Happy national dance day. Aspiring to dance like this always. Full video coming soon...I mean never "

From the 2017 Stern Grove Festival: Masha looking sullen https://scontent-atl3-1.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/e35/20479204_131823280754454_1298716797989552128_n.jpg Joe Walsh with Orson https://scontent-atl3-1.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/e35/20478662_492251794445201_401356237020594176_n.jpg Ishihara, Rowe and Powell https://scontent-atl3-1.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/e35/20479159_131003094173899_7571814965305147392_n.jpg Natasha Sheehan https://scontent-atl3-1.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/e35/20482186_119511725355352_3844332283557314560_n.jpg "Woodland Nymphs" (Sasha de Sola's picture title) https://scontent-atl3-1.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/e35/20478460_1570821739647229_4912285741477789696_n.jpg

I've always enjoyed his acting too, his general demeanor in roles seemed quintessentially American, but never in a 'larger than life' manner - something more vague was constantly nagging away at him.

That's good of you. I did too. ;) It's a worthwhile collection - constantly growing - and it does take money to keep these websites afloat. I appreciate the fact that they actually review West Coast dance events.

I subscribe to email updates from the Fjord Review - an excellent dance review website - and today I received the following email: The Value of Criticism LETTER FROM THE EDITOR It is a pleasure to present the insightful, original and valuable writing on dance that features on Fjord Review. As you know our website and archive is freely accessible, and we rarely make a call for subscribers to support us. However, now is that time. Today I'm asking for two things from you: the first is maybe more important—feedback. What do enjoy reading on Fjord, and what do you want to see more of? Reply to this email with your comments, which I look forward to reading. The second is the easy part—a small donation. If each subscriber donates just $10, we will make our target budget for the remainder of 2017. Your gift goes towards funding the work of some twenty dance writers—they all happen to be women, if that is added inducement! It's an extraordinary time to be reflecting on ballet & dance. I thank you for your support, and look forward to continuing to publish work that gives vital critical context to new and repertory work on stages all around the world. Yours, Penelope Ford What you can look forward to... More stunning dance photography We love bringing you beautiful, inspiring and daring imagery by renowned dance photographers from around the world. Slated for 2017 are more exciting photographic projects as well as film. Please help us support the artists who create our stunning visual work. More features Our essayists have raised important issues in the ballet and dance world, writing on such topics as the feminine narrative, democracy, and the poetics of dance. If you like long reads that encourage you to think outside the box, support us: we will provide. Choreographer archives & interviews As well as our regular interviews with choreographers, artistic directors and dancers, we are in the midst of building a comprehensive choreographer archive, where you can easily find information on iconic makers and new and emerging talent. With your support, we can develop this new educational resource. The best dance writing Some have lamented the disappearance of dance critics posts from the major newspapers. Newsflash! They're probably not coming back. But take heart because at Fjord Review we provide weekly in-depth analyses of dance by top-flight writers, critics and scholars. And you'll be supporting a cast and crew of some twenty women! We believe in the value of dance criticism for dance, and we know you do too, so please help us support it! So tell me. . .what moves you? Reply to this email with your comments, and let us know your favourite sections on Fjord, or what you'd like to see more of.

I have no information on this yet - posted by Dores Andre https://www.instagram.com/p/BXJ_mPVBA7f/?taken-by=doresandre The "men" look to be Jahna Frantziskonis, Ellen Rose Hummel and Dores, but the "women"? Maybe Lonnie Weeks and Max Cauthorn…

The issue with dance on film is that certain things get magnified, or even distorted, on film/video that are experienced in a completely different manner by the audience seated hundreds of feet a way (and who can see the entire expanse of the stage, perhaps even up into the ceiling of the stage area). The atmosphere of a live performance can be a very different experience from what we get from a YouTube video, or a Blu-ray/DVD (with all the surroundings cut out, including the actions of Corps dancers). It just isn't the same experience - it is in fact an entirely new version of the 'dance'. I tend to prefer a 'natural' performance that doesn't appear to be too forced, too 'stagey'; however, in a traditional ballet role, it's often important for the dancer to project their characterization out to an audience of thousands. For the balcony audience, only large gestures will be apparent - subtle movements can barely be seen. If the performance is only for film, though, the cameras can provide more intimacy, and the dancers need to scale back their emotive qualities to match (presumably a director will help with that). But then we have the problem of lack of context when the cameras are zooming in too close to the soloists and favoring their faces or upper body, or just the lower legs, etc. over the whole body. A Balanchine or Robbins role would have to be approached differently from a traditional ballet role, but the approach for the dancers might still need to change depending on the intended audience (live, or at-home watching on TV/computer).

In the year 2017, the way in which a company deals with injuries, and injury prevention, says a lot about the management of the company and the company culture. It can also tells us about a company's plan for the future, or if there even is one.

I'm not sure where and when we posted links to some of these "Celebratory" videos from SFB, so I'll put them together here. Celebrating Gennadi Nedvigin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7woyrCNBFB4 Celebrating Joan Boada https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1NJ_hhmeSs Celebrating Damian Smith https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUm2xWYWp_Q SF Ballet's Damian Smith: On Partnering https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkUYsd4-al4 Celebrating Rubén Martín Cintas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLlGcV4acaI Celebrating Pascal Molat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ-W7kWT7Zg Celebrating Vanessa Zahorian & Davit Karapetyan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF78YmwNdp0 Celebrating Lorena Feijoo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVu1IO06v3w

I loved Woetzel's Vail videos on YouTube such as the Apollo ballet discussion/demonstration. You're right that it helps to find charismatic people to be the face for these events. But it's tough to find people who are appealing to both the young audience and the balletomanes. I don't know that SFB has discovered the perfect spokesperson for such events, but everyone involved is at least knowledgeable and well-spoken. I don't think Tomasson sees himself as being a public speaker - he's not a "media personality" (and we don't all have to be), so he doesn't lead these events himself.

SFB has pre-show sessions on particular dates (not all the time), but no post-show sessions that I can recall. I'd love to see even more of this type of thing, and I think SFB made the right choice to create live broadcasts of rehearsals for the UNBOUND Festival, which include short Q&A bits (with questions solicited from viewers on the SFB Instagram page).

Thanks very much for the report - I'm hoping the La Scala dancers come off well overall, and would like to hear more details about Manni's star turn (and also the Nunez performance). Following an evening program with a matinee though, isn't the best way to get great performances out of the soloists.

Boal may have realized it isn't worth his time unless they ARE charging for the information. I can't imagine Tomasson doing the same, but there are others in SF perfectly qualified to lead these sort of discussions. I think the audience enjoys this kind of thing.

LOL! Yeah, I'm not sure of the importance of the 101, 201, 202 designations, unless people are able to get some kind of academic credit for these seminars. SFB has 101 and 201 seminars as well: https://www.sfballet.org/explore/programs EDIT: the PNB classes you list sound great - 1 and 2 would both be useful to the ballet audience.

From the SFB email to subscribers - "Sign up for Ballet 202, a three-session seminar that will answer these questions and many more. You’ll meet Cathy Marston, who is creating a new work for San Francisco Ballet’s Unbound: A Festival of New Works in 2018, and can ask her questions of your own. Ballet 202 takes place August 14, 21, and 28, from 6 pm to 8 pm, in our building at 455 Franklin Street in San Francisco. There’s no pre-requisite for attendance." [There is a fee for the seminars, and subscribers will receive a discount if they log into the SFB website first, before registering.]

Лазер (Laser) is an experimental film starring renowned dancer Maria Kochetkova performing on an illuminated stage of laser light and fog. In a previous collaboration with director Tarik Abdel-Gawad (vimeo.com/96030980), Kochetkova danced within inches of a robotic camera precisely choreographed to capture her every move. In this film, Kochetkova navigates a world of floating light in a unique improvisation between dancer and environment. [No mention of whether Kochetkova is choreography her own movements, or just who the choreographer is.] https://vimeo.com/202330399 Director: Tarik Abdel-Gawad Dance: Maria Kochetkova Producer: Yovel Schwartz & Bill Galusha Director of Photography: Joe Picard & Devin Whetstone Music: Matthew Stone Design & Animation: Conor Grebel, Jason Kerr, Peter Clark

Ballet 202: Contemporary Ballet (2017) For those who want to know where the art form is headed. "Why does San Francisco Ballet value new work and what exactly is contemporary ballet? Does it require different training or skills to dance new works? Join us for this new interactive three-session seminar to find the answers to these questions. Plus, you'll get to speak with a choreographer who is creating a new work for SF Ballet’s 2018 Season." Features Meet and talk with a choreographer who is making a new work for SF Ballet Hear from dancers about how they prepare to dance new work Compare and contrast hair styles, costumes, and other production elements from contemporary and classical ballets Experience a panel discussion: Creating new works at SF Ballet Schedule Aug 14, Aug 21, and Aug 28 6-8 pm https://www.sfballet.org/explore/programs/ballet-202

Ah ha! I was wondering about that myself. I've already purchased UNBOUND seats through subscription, but I was thinking about getting some additional ones IF I could select the seats myself.

I think last night's server issues have been cleared up - I haven't run into any new glitches.

Moscow Times article - Abramovich Personally Intervened for ‘Nureyev’ Ballet to Be Performed This Year https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/abramovich-intervened-for-nureyev-ballet-to-go-ahead-58516

Thanks Apollosmuse - here's a link to some info about Ronny Greensberg. Personally, I'd like to see information about the rehearsal musicians on the SFB website too, as they are all part of what makes things happen. ;) Please congratulate SFB on a job well done - the presentation was well organized, and proceeded with few hitches. The dancers and choreographers all came off well. It looks like a few users ran into hiccups/glitches with the live stream on Facebook, but that is to be expected. I think users need to know that streaming hiccups can usually be helped by clicking the web page RELOAD button, rather than trying to stop and start the video with the Play/Pause controls (those don't effect the overall data stream).

SFB: "Thanks for watching Unbound LIVE. Now you’ve seen the rehearsals, we want you to see these ballets in performance next spring. How different will these ballets look once rehearsals are done, costumes are designed, and the dancers are onstage under the spotlights next spring? Find out. Unbound LIVE viewers get 30% off any Unbound performance, when you purchase by July 31, 2017.* Choose your performance dates and enter promo code UNBOUNDLIVE. We’ll divide the 12 ballets into four programs later this fall. So while you may or may not see the same three ballets you watched in this Unbound LIVE broadcast, you will see three world premieres on every program." https://www.sfballet.org/unboundoffer This first rehearsal video will be available for 60 days, or so we were told by host Jennifer Kovacevich. Looks like the video is available on the SFB Facebook page but users will need to skip over quite a bit of dead space at the beginning to get to the action (currently 14:00 though this may be edited out in the future). https://www.facebook.com/sfballet And for just the video without all the extra Facebook blather: https://www.facebook.com/sfballet/videos/vb.27923251292/10155274511401293/?type=3&theater And on the SFB website: https://www.sfballet.org/unbound-live Overall, a nice teaser. Although I'm much more interested in the work of certain other choreographers, still to come. Liang's PDD for Yuan Yuan Tan and Vitor Luiz had some interesting bits, and a nice flow, though I imagine it was exhausting for Vitor to perform so many lifts. Always great to see those two dance. Arthur Pita's piece was, naturally, the more unusual looking with all the plant/feather props (and difficult to decipher at this stage). I assume the rehearsal pianist is Jamie Narushchen, but if anyone knows different please let us know.

Reminder from SFB that today there will be live video on their Facebook page: "Curious what goes on behind the scenes during our rehearsals? Today we're offering special insider access with a peek inside Unbound rehearsals with choreographers Stanton Welch, @edwaardliang, and @arthurpita. Tune in on our Facebook page at 5:30 pm PST for Unbound LIVE!" #Unbound2018