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Great interview. I had no idea she spoke English fluently, and she lived in Bethesda (where I was born).

I believe this was mentioned in passing somewhere in this forum..."Tiit Helimets and Co." - performances in Helimet's native Estonia with dancers from San Francisco ballet as well as other companies. SF Ballet dancer Quinn Warton is the videographer and director. I thought some people might be interested in the short video below... "Tiit Helimets and Co.- The Estonian Tour This summer, Tiit Helimets, Principal Dancer with San Francisco Ballet, is leading an ensemble of 11 world class dancers, Tiit Helimets and Co, to his homeland in Estonia, where they will perform works by some of the greatest American choreographers of our time, including George Balanchine and Val Caniparoli." "Eastern Odyssey" Trailer And more info on the project here... http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2146329285/tiit-helimets-and-co-estonia-tour-2011 Quinn Warton mentioned in an email that he is working on the final edits, but also trying to secure rights to music, so at this point isn't sure of a release to DVD. But something to look forward to.

I've been investigating this myself, but have yet to run into any actual reviews. There are short mentions of the Hamburg tour on the SF Ballet Blog site home page: http://www.sfballetblog.org/ "I Love to Tour" (Tan), "Happy to be Home" (Helimets) and Frances Chung's snapshots. Maria Kochetkova blogs about SF Ballet at the Bolshoi (which apparently received a lot of press in Russia, but nothing over here) http://www.sfgate.com/performance/article/Kochetkova-blogs-about-S-F-Ballet-tour-to-Bolshoi-3689000.php

Hah! That's so easy. We've got to get ourselves some more laws then. ;) Too bad that the reality is a legal morass that causes a great deal of stress for artists and arts administrators (who are not, of course, lawyers, so they need to come up with money they don't have to employ legal teams), and in the end, a great many things don't get done. And money is not made that could be... This actually does relate to Breaking Pointe since licensing rules determine to a large degree what actual ballet content can be shown. Btw, a nice discussion of the Balanchine video troubles is available here: http://balletalert.i...anchine-videos/

The Balanchine Trust is always going to approach things in the same manner, as they follow copyright law to the letter. From their website: "Can I post footage of my company, which was licensed the rights to perform a Balanchine ballet, on my company’s website or social media site? The Trust is supportive of companies posting footage for promotional purposes of the Balanchine ballets they have performed. Prior to posting, this footage must be sent to the Trust for approval and fall within the following parameters. The entire video is to be no longer than 3 minutes, with no continuous footage of choreography beyond 30-40 seconds. The video must contain the copyright credit which can be included where other credits are listed: Name of Ballet (italicized) Choreography by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust" Period. End of story. Presumably the TV show licensing is very similar to the above stipulations for footage - that's why Breaking Pointe shows us only tiny bits of Emeralds. The problem being that the laws being relied upon were poorly written and have become a big impediment to the sharing and enjoyment of creative works. Ironically, for much of the world, anything to do with Balanchine is just a pain in the neck to get a hold of. Who wants to pay $250 for a copy of the The Balanchine Celebration VHS tape (and that's just Vol.1) because it won't likely ever be made available on DVD? New Yorkers are spoiled in being able to see Mr. B programs, but the rest of us are lucky to see one Balanchine piece a season at a regional ballet show. Yada yada...

Exactly. Some of the most 'informational' scenes in film are only 10 seconds of celluloid. There's a remarkable lack of courage, and interest, by the TV production team. I get the feeling that the ballet company aspect is just a side story to them, a prop, and nothing more. I've managed to watch all 6(?) episodes, but it's a bit like seeing a car wreck for me. I can't say I've gleaned anything useful from my viewing. Better for teenagers to read, "Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet" than watch TV. (Not that I actually loved that book, but it IS full of details about daily life within a moderate-sized ballet company, and you get a good picture of the world of arts administration.)

I was speaking to the manner in which it was done, not whether Adam Sklute should complain or not. Most of the YouTube commentators like to talk about "kickn' ass" but they're just kids sounding off. But I'm not going to get into a discussion of whether or not Sklute (or the conductor) is bad at his job. Breaking Pointe is 'reality' TV, and thus a form of 'entertainment'. And not to be trusted for the information it presents. At this point I would be more interested in hearing from Sklute and the company about what they thought of their portrayal on the show. So much of this looks staged for cameras (and edited down to tiny sound and visual bites) that it's difficult to tell which parts are unrehearsed reality caught on video.

Beautifully put, LiLing, and I totally agree with you. My wording to the YouTube crowd was simpler, but basically contained the same meaning: that ballet was in fact the combination of all these elements and would not be ballet without the union of these groups. The thing that struck me later was that most of the young dancers were of the view that they didn't need live music (which was just a pain in the neck to them), and they were leaving me with the impression that the music was fairly unimportant to what they wanted to do. Of course this was just a few complaining voices, but it was sad to hear them sound so disconnected from the music.They are here to dance/move their bodies and that's all they want. So very different from the opinion of dancers such as Suzanne Farrell, Aurelie Dupont, Maya Plisetskaya, etc.

I happened to get into a 'friendly' argument about this subject on YouTube. I tried to explain to people that it wasn't the Creative Director's place to tell off the Conductor in front of the ballet company and rehearsal staff (sounds like career suicide). But the young commentators said things like, "I think they need someone in place that can and will say to the conductor look get your #$@%! together or go home." I think we can all sympathize with the dancer's frustrations, but if Ballet West really wants to be a top level company, then all personnel will have to behave and perform like top professionals. I personally have been really disappointed with the show's need to play up the reality TV aspects and basically use the ballet sequences as props. As I mentioned on YouTube, "The show is missing out on a rare, excellent opportunity to educate the TV audience about the world of ballet. Instead, we get 80% young adult relationship angst, and 20% ballet bits and pieces with no explanations for anything that is being seen. Really dumb." My only correction to this statement now would be 90% relationships and 10% ballet. The finale used 3 to 4 second edits of dances compiled into no more than 40 seconds of footage. "WTF?" as my young YouTube friends would say. Audience members who have no background in ballet or the music of ballet don't learn a thing. What is Paquita, and why do they dress in that fashion? How is Emeralds different from Paquita? Why did they pick these ballets to do? Who is the 'stager'? Does the stager work for Adam, the Creative Director? Why does anything happen the way that it does?!!! I feel for them, I really do.

The "big three" mentioned by most critics and knowledgeable balletomanes are NYCB, ABT and the San Francisco Ballet. And they quite naturally have the three largest budgets of the American companies. There's lots of arguing about who gets to be in the 2nd tier, but PNB, Miami City, Houston, Joffrey, perhaps Boston, are most likely in that group.

I mentioned this elsewhere, but I do find Nina Ananiashvili's Firebird interpretation from the Liepa staging to be the best I've come across. In fact, all the Mariinsky soloists have taken to mimicking her performance in the latest productions of The Firebird. Kondaurova is closest in feel, but she's not the actor that Ananiashvili was.

I just wanted to add that of the performances of Petruschka that I've seen (or watched on DVD), the 2002 production named "Return of the Firebird" (shot for film) with Andris Liepa as Petruschka, is outstanding. His performance is physically astounding and emotionally wrenching. I also happen to find Nina Ananiashvili's Firebird interpretation (on the same DVD) to be THE ONE. In fact, all the Mariinsky soloists have taken to mimicking her performance in the latest productions of The Firebird. Kondaurova is closest in feel, but she's not the actor that Ananiashvili was. Anyway, look for the "Return of the Firebird" DVD (directed by Liepa too, btw), as two of the ballet's on the disc are a most own. Youtube does still have this video sample:

FYI: I metioned this previously on BalletCo... Paris Opera Ballet étoile Marie-Agnès Gillot is preparing her first choreographed piece for the POB (2013). Looks to be part of a Cunninghman tribute. There is video (in French) announcing this at: http://www.operadeparis.fr/en/saison_2012_2013/Ballets/gillot-cunningham/decouvrir/presentation/video I don't happen to speak French so I'm not sure of the details. She has done some short modern pieces for outside projects, but I believe this would be her first full length project for the POB. Note that Marie-Agnès Gillot was the first dancer in the history of the Paris Opera Ballet to be made an Etoile not at the end of a traditional ballet, but after a modern dance performance. Seems to me that it is unusual for a female étoile to create a dance at the POB (especially while still on the active roster). Hopefully this goes well for her. I imagine the POB wouldn't even be chancing this project unless the intial work looked promising.