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Made for San Francisco Ballet is the title of this program, and there's an early teaser video available for Myles Thatcher's new ballet: Ghost in the Machine 'The LA Times called Helgi Tomasson’s Trio, “elegant and engrossing.” The SF Chronicle said it was “sheer extroversion.” This program features the world premiere SF Ballet dancer Myles Thatcher's second new work for us, Ghost in the Machine. Christopher Wheeldon’s inventive and mystical Within the Golden Hour© completes this meditation on contemporary classicism and ballet at its best.' Myles should get a copyright for his ballet's name too. ;)

Yes, very intelligent questions, and they managed time well. I have noticed with that podcast and a couple others that I listened to, that they have an issue with the microphone sound levels (mainly for the interviewers, not the interviewees).

It's good you have family that you can stay with - the hotel, transportation and restaurant charges are immense these days. It's been "bumming me out". It would definitely be easier on the dancers to spread things out a bit - this will be at the end of the season too, so some of them may be banged up. I'm starting to wonder if the rest of the season is likely to be repeats of ballets that the dancers (and audience) already know.

Thanks Helene - very enjoyable. It's actually good to hear some information about the whole Balanchine to Martins transition period at NYCB, as well as to get more specifics on Boal's influences. I liked hearing about the various teachers and classes offered back in the day.

I've found the following reference online, in Nutcracker Nation: How an Old World Ballet Became a Christmas Tradition by Jennifer Fisher (Google book search) http://www.burntscarlet.com/_test/ballet-alert/nutcracker_quote.png (I don't have any OCR software at the moment to try to convert this to text)

I have to think this was a tactical decision by Tomasson to deal with the many retirements. There is a point when it starts to feel like all the air is being let out of the balloon. He's got to keep people excited about the future, not nervous and worried. To me, it was respectful to promote Stahl before, say, Strongin, even if Strongin is, talent-wise, deserving. That shows the management does not forget the people who have come up through the ranks, step-by-step (so to speak).

It's not over until it's over. ;) Does this mean Tomasson is also trying to pull in a dancer(s) from outside the company and needs to keep a space open? We'll just have to wait and see. Those announcements tend to come in late spring/early summer. Thanks for your thoughts on Morse.

Wow, isn't that interesting? If this is indeed the first instance of the "Nureyev era" Raymonda costumes, then yes, I think we can credit Barry Kay with the costume design. I can't really make out Fonteyn's headpiece in this particular shot, but the demi-soloists(?) behind her are wearing some type of wire kokoshnik. The patterns on the tutus are very similar to the later ones. I would say the overall effect is definitely Slavic - not reminding me of Provence or Hungary in the slightest. ;) Thanks RG!

There's no mention of Hernandez performing the Prodigal Son, which is the kind of role one dances before being promoted (not that Frankenstein's monster isn't good too). It is definitely time for Jennifer Stahl's promotion - she's made the necessary sacrifices. I've not seen as much of Morse, so it would be good to hear from other members on what they think of his dancing.

Promotions for Jennifer Stahl, Esteban Hernandez, and Steven Morse From a SFB email to subscribers: "...Soloist Jennifer Stahl has been promoted to principal dancer and Corps de Ballet members Esteban Hernandez and Steven Morse have been promoted to soloist, effective July 1. Born in Dana Point, California, Jennifer Stahl trained at SF Ballet School before being named an apprentice in 2005, a corps de ballet member one year later, and a soloist in 2013. Since then, she has created roles in works by Forsythe, Morris, Peck, Possokhov, and Thatcher and has performed numerous principal roles. From Guadalajara, Mexico, Esteban Hernandez trained at The Rock School in Philadelphia before joining SF Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet in 2013. He has performed a variety of principal and featured roles, most recently as Henry in Scarlett’s Frankenstein. Steven Morse from Harbor City, California was a trainee at SF Ballet School before joining the Company in 2009. As a corps de ballet member, he created principal roles in Scarlett’s Fearful Symmetries and Thatcher’s Manifesto. Please join us in congratulating Jennifer, Esteban, and Steven on their promotions and look for them in upcoming performances of Tomasson's Swan Lake and Made for SF Ballet." A hearty congratulations to Stahl, Hernandez and Morse!

I completely agree that Vishneva is dovetailing more than one issue together, as part of a general complaint about relaxing standards (and perhaps, quality). But I suppose she's trying to get a dialogue going. "Under Vaziev the Bolshoi is hardly performing its core repertoire any longer. (Count 'em: three performances of Giselle, four performances of Swan Lake, five performances of Spartacus in Moscow this season; audiences can't be too happy about this.) Frankly I don't know what sort of dancer it needs today." The Bolshoi just premiered The Cage apparently, so they're going to need something besides Moscow Ballet Academy or Vaganova training if they're going to keep that sort of thing up. ;)

Some further information around the arts funding fight - if the Admins think this should not be posted, I'm sure they will remove it. ;) Dick Blick Art Materials Stores and other arts-related organizations are emailing people regarding an organization named Americans for the Arts - "Americans for the Arts is committed to providing information on top issues affecting the arts today." So yes, this is about politics - sadly it has come to that. The NEA budget has been stated at $148 million. "As of 2014, only 4 percent of all arts funding in America ($1.2 billion) comes from public sources. While funding has increased numerically, it has not kept up with inflation, leading to a decrease of around 26 percent in public art grant money since 1995." Here's a list of what other countries put towards their arts and culture budgets: http://www.alternet.org/culture/culturally-impoverished-us-nea-spends-140th-what-germany-doles-out-arts-capita "In Australia, government expenditure for the arts and cultural activities in 2011-2012 period was estimated to be approximately $7 billion for a population of only 22 million."

That sounds exhausting. ;) But I admire your ambition. I was never much of a film festival person either it's too much for my brain to take in all at once. Thinking about the numbers - it seems pretty obvious that we are talking about small scale works, and what we might see is a lot of PDD and PDT oriented pieces. Which could be a great chance to see the younger dancers dancing soloist parts. If there was an average of, say, 6 dancers, per ballet, 12 works would require 72 dancers. So there's a question of how many appearances the dancers will be able to make in the festival. As of today, there are approximately 69 dancers in the company. But 3 more will be gone at the end of the season. And the number of injured dancers is always changing - we can't really guess about that for next year. It's going to be very busy for SFB.

Very nice write-up, Quiggin, thanks. I wonder what Ptashka considered the "right time to show your bottom"? Like you, I was probably most affected by the brilliance of the Stravinsky Violin Concerto (both casts the two first nights were excellent). But it was a great program, period. Definitely worth seeing more than once, with different casts. With all the personnel changes happening at this time, it does feel good to be able to say that I once saw Yuan Yuan Tan, Sarah Van Patten, Luke Ingham, Tiit Helimets, Sofiane Sylve, Vanessa Zahorian, Aaron Robison and Carlo Di Lanno all dance Stravinsky Violin Concerto.

The inaccuracy was brought up in the comments section of the article and Bauer acknowledged her mistake.

I laughed out loud when I saw this photo in the Claudia Bauer review - I wonder if Kenneth MacMillan would have liked this? http://cvj1llwqcyay0evy-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/gs-cream-daniil-simkin-alexei-agoudine-injection_1000.jpg

Sounds like you are a happy camper, Drew. I have to agree about the lighting choices for Scarlett (and quite a few other modern works). I'm not crazy about the costume or music choices that Scarlett works with either, but I realize it's all about working with contemporary artists, such as they are. It's good to hear that the Gemma Bond piece was a success.

I'm not able to access The Times pay site, but in the short Telegraph posting she just states, "If you look at conditions at the school now, they are so much improved. It is warm, clean, well refurbished. I remember how it was in my time. There were holes in the floor and it was always terribly cold, because the window frames were not fixed properly. But there was good discipline and we were very concentrated." I don't see any reason not to believe her (especially since there are other dancers/ex-students who can back this up). And we are talking about the long Russian Winter here, which will kill a person in short order, if they are not properly protected. I imagine it's pretty easy to be cold in the older, historic buildings, and upkeep has got to be quite expensive. But the conditions were even worse for past generations. Danilova and Balanchine dealt with truly awful conditions at the time of the revolution and immediate post-revolution period. Plisetskaya's generation was operating in straightened circumstances too. Fortunately, the Russian state decided that ballet was still of importance to the culture, but there was never much money devoted to the Bolshoi and Mariinsky infrastructure during the U.S.S.R. period. The authorities are not about to show cracks in the practice floors. ;) The Cubans have had some of these same issues for many years. They can't even go about hiding the dilapidated look of their ballet buildings.

What you say about your relative is very interesting, Vagansmom. Not a particularly proud episode in American history. Let me see, in the 40s volume, there's Lillian Ross's Come In, Lassie! (On the Red Scare in Hollywood). The 50s volume has Notes and Comments (On the case against Senator McCarthy) by E.B. White. I think there are other brief mentions in other articles, but the volumes tend to have a little of everything, including short fiction and poetry selections.

I'm not crazy about Tsiskaridze's personality, but so far, he's gotten good reviews for his efforts. https://www.gramilano.com/2015/11/nikolay-tsiskaridzes-first-two-years-at-the-helm-of-the-vaganova/

Kids these days!!! Most of these complaints are half true - and half myth. In some ways, in theory, it could be a good thing for Mariinsky to learn some Bolshoi methods, and vice versa. But the "purity" of the institution supposedly gets lost. If it ever needed to be looked after. It would actually be great if someone could put together some of the best generational laments as they've appeared over the centuries.

It does seem that the mistake often made is to wait too long to start bringing up the young dancers, so that they don't get enough time dancing soloist roles with the veterans (while they are still dancing at their peak), in order to LEARN from those people. At SFB, Tiit Helimets and Sofiane Sylve have both expressed interest in mentoring, and teaching/coaching (Sylve has been a guest teacher with the school for some time). Mentoring should be an important part of the ballet world, but often seems to be an overlooked approach in everyday business at the companies. I can't help but feel bad for a number of the Corps dancers who are not moving up, but have been dancing demi-soloist and even soloist parts admirably, for a while. I'm glad to see Jahna move up, but there's 3 or 4 other women and at least one man who need to move on too. It's hard to see the talented ones go, because there isn't enough career progression.

It can be very effective though, unless the current local has little remembered history (not impossible in parts of North America). But then there's the matter of "which culture's history do you mean?" I haven't heard of a Nutcracker for the Sioux Nation, or Cherokee tribes, but what an interesting challenge. In most of the Nutcrackers that I've seen, the "location" merely provides a starting point for the Act One sets and costumes - and the designers often play fast and loose with those references.

I see you've edited your post, Drew, but I'll just say that what you were describing is basically the SFB production in a "Nutshell" (shall we say?) It's not at all wistful or nostalgic, really, imo. But anyway, Possokhov will do what he will do. He's an intelligent man, so hopefully something good will come of the effort. But I can't imagine Atlanta Ballet really has the budget to do something on the scale of the SFB production's ACT 1 (ACT 2 employs a much more minimal stage setup). I'm as curious as anyone to know what he might come up with. Could it be he will draw upon his early days at the Bolshoi and borrow from that tradition?

Frances Chung prepares for Swan Lake https://www.instagram.com/p/BRzDJp4AMWp/?taken-by=franadian Yuri Possokhov's Fusion https://www.instagram.com/p/BRrlL53A9XU/?taken-by=franadian