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KarenAG

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Everything posted by KarenAG

  1. I watched "Serendade" and "Symphony in C" last night to prepare for my Saturday with George. Did you watch these on YouTube? What is the symphony in C you watched? I've never found a full-out production of it anywhere... Thanks for any info, puppytreats.
  2. I just preordered my copy, too! Thanks for the heads up, Marcomus.
  3. Hello, All, One year at SPAC, I bought a pair of point shoes for $10 from a basket of shoes (which were indeed stinky), the proceeds going to NYCB. I chose the most gently used and they turned out to be Faye Arthurs, who is a corps member. Her feet are very tiny! Most of the shoes in the basket were pretty beat up and I was happy to find Faye's pair in very good condition - the satin on the points isn't even torn. They are so pretty and the pink color of the satin is exquisite (they're Freeds). I'm going to have them bronzed and either make them a sculpture or outfit them to a base for a lamp with a shade - I think that'd be really nice!
  4. I'm going to the matinee on January 19 and the free demo on Balanchine's Ballerinas at 5 pm and I'm thrilled that Tiler Peck is dancing Allegro Brillante because I've heard nothing but great things about her dancing that ballet. When I set up my 3-performance subscription, I struggled to decide which performances to see, but I'm happy with the matinee, that I'll be there for Balanchine's birthday celebration and the events attending it, and I just may stay on and go to the 8 pm performance as well, taking in some dinner near Lincoln Center between shows. I'm thrilled I'm seeing so much great Balanchine! And yes it will be a long day for me, puppytreats, also, because I am traveling to and from from Albany! As for NYCB's SB, I saw it many, many years ago at SPAC, so seeing it in February will be a treat.
  5. Oh yes - my first ballet event of 2013 (outside of watching DVDs from time to time, including Nutcracker once more today ) will be on January 19 when we visit Lincoln Center for NYCB's matinee of Balanchine and Tschaikovsky, including Allegro Brillante! Can't wait!!
  6. Happy New Year to all at BalletAlert! and may the year be happy, healthy and peaceful for you all! Looking forward to 2013 and exciting discussions with you over the year. -Karen
  7. Oh, well, I was way off, thinking the author was Kay Mazzo! I have heard of this book though not much, and never checked it out, but I will now. I love those kinds of books, which become instant history. Thanks for the tip, sandik, and Season's Greetings to you.
  8. Hi Sandik, thank you for your comment - is that book by Kay Mazzo, a principal dancer with NYCB? And do you know the name of the book? I just checked Amazon and cannot find it. Any assistance you can provide is greatly appreciated. I loved 'Dance as Life' and am shariong it with my Aunt, who lives in NYC and loves ballet - she's going to enjoy it very much, I think.
  9. Oh dear! Another late night. But it will be worth it to see Natasha - she is a charmer! Has anyone read Franklin Stevens' book 'Dance as Life'? Ms Makarova is featured prominently in it with her staging La Bayadere for ABT and his depiction of her is very vivid.
  10. Welcome, pasdequatre and happy holidays. I, too revere Balanchine, and sometimes, I think he's perhaps the greatest choreographer. He moves me to tears. But my experience in discovering him is the opposite - almost all of my ballet enjoyment is the result of NYCB summering at Saratoga and seeing them perform most of my adult life - for awhile it was the only ballet-going I did and seeing them perform for over 30 years makes it the single most important and profound ballet experience I have been fortunate to have. Then I became aware of other ballet companies and their aesthetics and so on. And they are so great! But my ballet journey will always lead back to Balanchine. And I understand what you mean about the ballets giving you the music. Some of the music Mr. B choreographed was unknown to me until I saw the ballets. My first listening of Bizet's Symphony was when I first saw Symphony in C performed! As for the ballets themselves, I adore Apollo, Concerto Barocco, Four Temperaments, Midsummer Night's Dream, Scotch Symphony and so many others, but I think the Balanchine ballet that is closest to my heart is Symphony in C. Such a masterpiece and a great homage to the grand Russian Imperial balletic tradition. This winter I will see Allegro Brillante again after many years - so wonderful! I look forward to your posts and discussions about Mr. B. -Karen
  11. This is fun! Sometimes our venerable sprite is just called the Sugar Plum, rather than the Sugar Plum Fairy. bart, is 'Confiturenberg' another name for Land of the Sweets?
  12. Sorry, Goleizovsky's choreography. And one more observation - I thought the ending a bit dull. I favor the ending where Odette is fated to be a swan forever - this is the version I learned early on seeing George Balanchine's shortened version and this is the version I feel works best with the tragic nature of Tschaikovsky's fabulous music. Does anyone know a Swan Lake tradition where Von Rothbart's wing is torn off, besides this restoration?
  13. I really enjoyed this performance and watched parts of it a couple of times - will do so more over the weekend if it's available. Borchenko is a lovely Odette, though very cool, and a very capable Odile. I think the corps is stunning.- Borchenko and her swans had lovely port de bras - so soft and graceful - and their feet are gorgeous. I liked the quietness and restraint of the dancing - nuanced and meaningful without a lot of spectacle. Lebedev is very delicate and dances delicately, so graceful and again, quiet power. He is very young but manages to conveys 'young masculine' despite his very delicate aspect, and he will grow as an actor and grow into that role as he matures. So, so sorry no Russian Dance - it's one of my favorites and is either not performed to my satisfaction or not performed at all! I would want to see a really traditional sort of performance with that dance - the prospective bride or something like that in traditional Russian folk costume - a little like Maximova's dancing the Russian dance to Goleiovsky's choreography. And definitely danced en pointe. I loved, loved, loved the sets, especially Act I, and the costumes were mostly gorgeous. I'm thinking of the white brides and the Spanish dancers and the Queen Mother, especially. It was interesting that Odette's tutu wasn't different then the other swans' tutus. I saw no real difference, anyway. I thought her black swan tutu was terrific. Does anyone know what kind of tutu, specifically? I would say pancake tutu but the tutus did fall over the circumference a bit, forming a kind of fringe. Very pretty. In Act II, I really liked how the swans came out and surrounded Prince Siegfried in an effort to shield him from hunting Odette - the scene was dramatic and poignant - and then they posed! - how beautiful! The love duet was very satisfying, too. Well, that's all I can think of right now - anyone else's thoughts?
  14. I should also say I didn't need to install anything, that I was aware of. Thank you, California, for your help with this, anyway.
  15. Hello, Aqualia, I have a question - Do I have to register with Paraclassics? I don't see how to do this on the website. Or will it just play when I access Paraclassics at 10am tomorrow? (I live in New York State). Any help you can provide will be helpful and thank you.
  16. Thank you. I should have checked to see if this had been discussed before starting the same type of thread.....
  17. Good morning, All, We have a lovely Thanksgiving Day shaping up here in upstate New York - warm enough to comfortably celebrate outside a bit. I was on the ABT website yesterday for Nutcracker performances to find that Herman Cornejo (dancing with Xiomara Reyes) has been replaced with Eric Tamm. For my part, I am so disappointed because I really love his dancing and I was looking forward to seeing Xiomara and Herman dance together. They seem like a perfect ballet partnership and complement each other. I've never seen them dance together except in the Swan Lake DVD. Does anyone know? Was Herman injured? I hope not. -Karen
  18. Greetings to Ballet Alert! and my fellow US members and ballet lovers, and any other members celebrating today, Joe, Fergus & I wish you a peaceful, safe and very happy Thanksgiving 2012. (Fergus is our Golden Retriever). - Karen
  19. I don't know how to load YouTube clips but check out the fun Obama line dance called the "Yes We Can, Can" with music by the Pointer Sisters.
  20. I can't stand that it is called the Koch Theatre! I still call it the New York State Theatre because that's what it is! Egos be damned!
  21. Joe and I wish everyone who lives in the NY metropolitan area and New Jersey our thoughts, our prayers to you during this difficult time.
  22. what fun! Will share this with my hubs, Joe,. when he comes back from walking Fergus.
  23. Hi pbl, Welcome to Ballet Alert! I suggest you purchase these two, IMO indispensible resources: Gail Grant's book Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet (Dover Books) and the DVD The Video Dictionary of Classical Ballet (Kultur). I use them hand in hand in 'lessons' I devise to technically learn how ballet steps work and coordinate (without being a dancer myself).
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