ABT Fan

Thank you Amy!

Amy, thanks for reporting this. What did Murphy and Abrera dance? Hopefully ABT will post some photos from the event to their site.

Thanks pherank. These videos are great!

Thanks for posting. Very cool movement patterns! If only I knew what they were saying.

I believe - correct me if I'm wrong - that maria kochetkova is a guest artist at ABT. I saw her Swan Lake (because I had a ticket for Cojocaru) and it was good but IMO not exceptional. Why is she a guest artist? I can't imagine that her name will sell tickets. Maybe her Russian name? If that is the case all the soloists should just add ova to their names. Yes, Maria Kochetkova is a guest artist. She replaced Alina Cojocaru at the Met's SB with Cornejo last summer. They needed a small enough dancer for Cornejo and Lane and Reyes (his usual partners) were already in SB on other days. I guess ABT liked that pairing enough to bring her back again next year. My feeling is that ABT wanted a seasoned principal to pair w/ Cornejo (and are perhaps looking forward = Reyes is about 10 years older than Cornejo and may be nearing retirement, so are shopping for a replacement now; and perhaps they know they will never promote Lane). I believe Lane should be promoted to principal as she has truly proved herself and she and Cornejo are a very good match. That's my take.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love David Hallberg, but can we even call him an ABT dancer any more? He's more like a guest, just performing every once in awhile. It's just another heavy hitting loss to ABT's principal roster without a satisfactory replacement to heal the wound. I'm a huge Hallberg admirer and am disappointed with how infrequently he performs w/ ABT in NY anymore. I understand and respect his Bolshoi obligations, but selfishly cannot live off of seeing him perform once/year in NY. Hopefully, he'll fill in some of the TBA's on the Met schedule (I would think at least one Manon). I agree it's odd that Part is scheduled for so many matinees; I'd love to see her in SL, but taking the day off for that isn't realistic.

Thanks abatt. I agree that's a strange announcement.

Thanks Dale. Lots of TBA's! I gather Osipova is not a guarantee otherwise she'd be announced as a guest artist. Happy to see: Gorak as the lead in Coppelia; Lane in T&V and as Coppelia; several soloists (and a corps member, Gorak) as the lead in Coppelia Confused by: No Hallberg/Osipova in anything, especially in Giselle; Boylston as Giselle (I love her but she's more of a Myrtha to me; she'd be great as Cinderella); Hammoudi with only one main lead and in Giselle (last Met season before he was injured, he had a big season planned for him; he was supposed to debut in Swan Lake, but no SL's for him this year. Lots of TBA's in other things, so maybe they'll give him more main roles.)

Fantastic news! Congrats to Mr. Whiteside! (I wish a few more promotions had been included.)

And November 6's performance of LS has been filled by Joseph Gorak. Both great news! (I'll be going on 11/6 so really looking forward to it!)

What a great idea! I wonder why that hasn't been done? Surely Koch, the parks dept, and Bloomberg could have sponsored something like that. Maybe our new mayor will next year.

I'm hoping the announcement will be for some well-deserved promotions (but no new guest artists)!

Thanks for posting that link. A terrific interview. Hallberg is a very thoughtful and honest speaker!

Fantastic! Thanks for posting.

I found it irksome in last night's episode that when performance snippets were shown, we weren't hearing the orchestration but the episode's music. I think once (or twice) they had both tracks of music playing simultaneously but the episode's music was much louder, so you really couldn't hear the orchestra. I felt bad for Zach when his wig fell off, but from what they showed it looked like he handled it well. Wardrobe malfunctions can happen to anyone. Yes, it wasn't great when Christiana fell off pointe during her pas de deux with Rex, but I didn't think it was the end of the world like they were showing it to be. I've seen many ballerinas in major companies do that (yes, it is still a mistake). Granted, I've missed a few episodes this season and thus probably the rehearsal footage for that section, and I don't know the choreography in that segment, so maybe the part when she fell off pointe was during a highly climactic moment in the pas (they didn't show enough of the performance for me to gather that). Anyone else have any thoughts on this part? Beckanne and Allison looked lovely during their performance parts. Too bad Allison's boyfriend couldn't be bothered to show up.

Thanks kbarber for the link. Golding is a gorgeous dancer (what jumps!) and very good partner. I'll be hoping he performs in NYC sometime in the near future.

Wow. Has he joined as a corps member, soloist...? I'm not on Facebook so I can't see if his FB page says so.

Thanks Ray, and yes, that's probably one of the most ignorant reviews I've ever read. I was born and raised in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, where this performance took place and this reviewer demonstrates why professional ballet ceased to exist in Northeast Ohio years ago. Long gone are Ohio Ballet and Cleveland Ballet due to lack of support, vision and sophisticated tastes (granted Ohio Ballet was also mismanaged). This reviewer clearly couldn't be bothered to do any research on Rite of Spring (other than to learn its premiere was met with riots) or the Joffrey. Geez, he can't even spell pas de deux correctly! I'm embarrassed for my hometown.

That is brilliant!! Bravo Simkin!

This throws light on something reported on one of our Bolshoi threads yesterday: that 30% of respondants to a question about the acid attack on Sergei Filin felt that throwing acid wasn't such a big deal. "Fanatics," indeed (to use a term embraced by Mr. Abramov). On the other hand, it is nice to hear that Abramov has, since experiencing a heart attack, given up encouraging his claques to disrupt the performances of out-of-favor dancers. I just finished reading this article, and boy was it enlightening. I still cannot believe Abramov made an "acid" joke. I wonder, are claques only in the Russian theatres, or do any of them travel with the companies when they go on tour?

Yes, Stearns will be dancing w/ the RB and Boylston will be dancing w/ the RDB during this time. See http://abt.org/insideabt/news_display.asp?News_ID=425. I was wondering if ABT was holding the "TBA" slot in Les Sylphides in November for Hammoudi; to see if he could recover in time for those performances.

I'll guess I'll have to listen to it because I really want to understand why she wouldn't be listed if she's a company member. Perhaps this next question would be better under a different thread, but if "there's a whole lot of national pride bound up with ballet in Russia" (and I agree with that), as why they don't like foreigner's in their companies, then why is the reverse OK - i.e. why is it acceptable to a Russian dancer for them to leave Russia and join another company in another country? Wouldn't they be considered a traitor? And, not just a traitor by their country and company but a traitor to themselves? Not to mention hypocritical. Forget "artistic expression" as a reason to leave a Russian ballet company. I'm merely talking about national pride. I pose these questions as honest questions. Not as an attack on anyone or on Russia, so I hope no one reads it that way. I'm really curious what the thought process and rationale is. You know the phrase: "you can't have it both ways"......

I noticed that Joy Womack is not listed on the Bolshoi's website under any rank. Her personal website says she currently dances with them: http://www.joywomack.com/?page_id=45.

Wow, what a shock. Terrible, terrible news.

The 2013 Princess Grace Award winners were announced today. From dancemagazine.com - http://www.dancemagazine.com/blogs/dance-glance/5315: "For 2013, the dancers and choreographers who have been recognized with scholarships and fellowships are Alexander L. Anderson (The Juilliard School), Skylar Brandt (American Ballet Theatre), Courtney A. Henry (Alonzo King LINES Ballet), Talli Jackson (Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company), and Rachelle Anaïs Scott (Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet). Three choreographers have received fellowships at specific companies: Rosie Herrera at Ballet Hispanico, Loni Landon at BODYTRAFFIC, and Robyn Mineko Williams at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. In addition, special project awards recognize choreographers Eric Kupers and Zoe Scofield, a works-in-progress residency has been awarded to Camille A. Brown, and a choreography mentorship co-commission award goes to Alex Ketley at the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC)." Tiler Peck won the 2013 Princess Grace Statue Award, which is given to a past winner who has "distinguish[ed] themselves in their artistic disciplines". The awards ceremony will be held in NYC on October 31. Here's the link to the Princess Grace site: http://www.pgfusa.org/awards-winners Congratulations to all of the winners!