pherank

All politics aside, congratulations to Aurelie Dupont on her promotion to Ballet Mistress at POB. Bon courage!

Yes, congratulations to Mr. H. The LEAP college program has proven itself a success. There have been quite a few SFB dancers enrolled in the program in recent years, and they do eventually make it through. ;)

I noticed the mention of SF Ballet in their advertisement too, but SFB is offically at the Les Etés de la Danse Festival at that time. Les Etés de la Danse Festival

Another year with SFB will be a great expereince for Froustey, no matter what happense afterwards. She'll need to get used to the Principal's grind: it's a lot of work. Interestingly, I've seen no official announcement about Messmer, and she remains on the SFB website as a soloist. Aside from one performance review mentioning that she would leave, there's been no word from SFB, Messmer or anyone else for that matter. It's possible she just needs a vacation to sort things out - and SFB is giving that to her. But will she appear at all on the summer tour?

Oh yes, SF is a "foodie" heaven. ;) Perhaps Ms. F. decided she could get enough decent foie gras and pate to keep her happy.

Great find - many excellent dancers/performances.

While it is still available from Indiana's WFYI station - the Indianapolis City Ballet Gala - inlcudes interview and complete PDD dance footage of Yuan Yuan and Damien Smith. Definitely recommended for fans of Tan and Smith. http://www.wfyi.org/programs/a-perfect-balance/television/a-perfect-balance [The intro shows clips of all the gala dancers, but for the section on Tan and Smith, jump to 33:05]

Thanks for the heads up, Naomikage. In the last few weeks it has looked like she had made her decision - she has been preparing with the company for the summer tour. I'm sure it was a difficult decision for her, with no perfect solutions, but I'm glad to see she will stay put for a while. I'm happy to have a completely Paris-trained dancer at SFB. What I wonder is if she was able to work out anything with POB that would allow her to dance with them on tours, or for guest performances. I know that would make Ms. F. happy.

I find I have a lot of trouble viewing videos on this website. I do think they need to be encoding the video differently - I finally had to download the movie and use the VLC media player to see something. Quicktime wouldn't play the MP4 at all. Anyway, If you like leaps, spins, fouettes, etc. then have a look. Something about this production reminds me more of 1937 rather than 1967, but that may just be the grainy look. ;) The Arabian Dance segment has some of the oddest choreography that I can remember seeing in Nutcracker. The Russian Dance is missing its audio track.

http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/38192-graduation-ball-le-bal-des-cadets-de-basils-ballet-russe/?hl=%2Bgraduation+%2Bball

David Lichine's comedic Graduation Ball features a fouette competition - I appreciate the humor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtQI_15mGmU

From the SFB Blog - Shannon Marie Rugani: A Hiddent Talent http://www.sfballetblog.org/2014/05/hidden-talent/#more-9058

Thank you - another great addition to the Ballet Initiative library of interviews. It's worth noting that Balanchine earned royalties whenever his ballets were performed (as any choreographer should). And my understanding is that Balanchine lived mainly off this royalty money as well as his various Broadway/Hollywood fees. When the time came that Balanchine had to accept a salary as part of the NYCB creative directorship (I believe the Ford Foundation had insisted on this as part of their grant conditions), he apparently used the money to pay Barbara Horgan, rather than himself.

Perhaps this is too "cute", but Masha Kochetkova happened to post this video: "My first fouettés on the Bolshoi Theater stage when I was 15" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjBpuURJDUQ That must have been the last time it took 2 danseurs to lift Ms. K. ;) Presumably it demonstrates the Bolshoi Academy's approach to fouettés.

There is a short review of the production here: http://www.countrylife.co.uk/culture/article/532191/Paris-ballet-review-Miss-Julie-Fall-River-Legend.html The author mentions that the performance she attended was sold out. And some images: http://www.danceeurope.net/gallery/fall-river-legendmiss-julie-paris-op%C3%A9ra

I didn't mind the "fluffy cake" tutus in that they impart a sort of "retro" look; however, the originals were fairly discreet in size: Toumanova with Roger Ritz, as Black Diamonds http://lesballetonautes.com/2014/05/09/le-palais-de-cristal-la-cousine-du-vieux-continent/ There is also a nice photo of the soloists with Balanchine as the backdrop for this video of Bizet's Symphony in C: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVxRWvKSQ-g

Agreed, although in the video segment of Froustey, she's doing just fine until her partner intercedes and throws off her balance and speed. In the Valdes segment (same video), her partner handles the situation beautifully. And Valdes does something fascinating with her right arm, and I can't tell if it is designed to increase momentum , or if it is intended as a kind of visual detail to trick the eye. Murphy has a tendency to drop her right shoulder/arm and that muddies the look a bit in her pyrotechnics. It is fascinating how individual looking some of these fouettes are. I realize that it depends on the particular role/ballet being danced, but in these videos most of the dancers keep their arms out straight to as this seems to be the better way to maintain balance and gather momentum (dancers please feel free to comment). The POB dancers share a common approach, whereas the Russians appear more eclectic to my eye.

Just a great photo (by Erik Tomasson) - Masha and Hansuke Yamamoto in Yuri Possokhov's Classical Symphony : http://danceviewtimes.typepad.com/.a/6a00e39823a9018833019b00b776df970d-pi

From California, I've tested the video broadcast in Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome (all on a Mac) and each have loaded properly, though with Safari it recquired a second try - I recieved a blank video space the first time.

That was really enjoyable. Great to see an earlier Balanchine work that has been well preserved. Even the camerawork was decent. And the ornate costumes (Lacroix?) interested me - a good choice to keep the colors dark and saturated though to keep the decorative appliqué from looking way over-the-top (as with the pink costumes). But it felt a little weird to watch a POB production without Letestu, Dupont, Osta, Pujol or Gillot (though those last two are still with the company). Very much a view of the new generation of POB. Note that I watched this in the U.S. without any special software 'maneuvers'. Shocking. EDIT: Millepied's Daphnis et Chloé has some terrible Op Art geometric visuals to watch during the musical introduction, as in, "lets throw in something completely unrelated to the myth or musical thematics and see what happens!" Golly. Mixing impressionist music together with plainly soulless, anti-organic visuals and you get a needless disruption of the mood that should be created by this passionate music. Not a good start to a ballet. But we do get to see Dupont dance, and that is something.

I've been looking about for digital footage of Robbins' Dances at a Gathering, and this is what I've been able to find so far: NYCB MOVES http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoigxYt5Hgk Agnès Letestu http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iZKny3M_MA Ludmila Pagliero and Karl Paquette http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OzNee8cDfk Mathieu Ganio http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S7SY0bx0VQ Simon Valastro (dancing same solo variation as Ganio) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6FwqhgOIjI Violette Verdy coaching Isabelle Guérin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaCpQzkc1ik Hamburg Ballet trailer for Robbins program http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_uq9j0r0aY If anything better (and longer) can be found please feel free to add those links...

When I came across the "Amazing Fouettés" videos on YouTube, I couldn't help but be reminded of this thread. Many well known dancers are shown, and it is interesting to see their different approaches one after another. So for your enjoyment (or displeasure): Begins with Yuan Yuan Tan, Evgenia Obraztsova - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtJ2R_i6Too Includes Viengsay Valdés and Mathilde Froustey - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4NVP-tjKk8

I'm just realizing that Froustey is one of the Corps dancers in the POB's video release of Rubies (Jewels). Somehow I missed that before. So she can be seen dancing in an 'official' video release.

Photographic evidence strongly suggest that Sarah Van Patten has married her fiancée - So congratulations to them both. https://www.facebook.com/sarah.vanpatten From Frances Chung:

Maya Plisetskaya solo scene from the ballet Romeo And Juliet - reminds me of a silent film from the 1920s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwvW99hIBuM Swan Lake, 1957 (complete) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRGCH3koS2k The Sleeping Beauty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHqOtWnOa3w