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Natalia

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  • Connection to/interest in ballet** (Please describe. Examples: fan, teacher, dancer, writer, avid balletgoer)
    writer; historian; ballet film collector
  • City**
    Washington, DC
  • State (US only)**, Country (Outside US only)**
    DC

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  1. ABT has a great history of diversity with Hispanics (Alonso!) and Asian-heritage (not just Hee Seo or Stella) ballerinas. I'm sure that they'll have a truly worthy black ballerina for the classics in due time. (I like Misty in contemporary.) It's too bad that ABT let Michaela De Prince "go" after she graduated from their school (eventually to Amsterdam). Maybe she'll be one of ABT's promised "exchange guests" in the future?
  2. I love Nicoletta in sweet soubrette roles, Lilia. She's adorable as Kitri or as the leading girl in The Garden of Lovers (opposite Bolle). She has a real "aire de angel" (as we say in Spanish) about her. I could picture her as the sweet Giselle. As a nasty villainess like Myrtha? You have to be kidding!!! (It's about the angelic face & manner; not height.) My comment was about the idiotic casting, not about Nicoletta herself. Could you imagine Evgenia Obraztsova or Sarah Lane as Myrtha? Misty: I saw the RAI telecast DVD. The MacMillan Juliet is her finest leading role, IMO. She excels in contemporary drama, even with weak "basic" technique. Bolle must have seen her fine performances at the Met the previous summer and got La Scala to extend the invitation after the originally-cast Juliet (Osipova?) pulled out. Just guessing.
  3. Is this acceptable? Is Misty Copeland capable of performing a single leading role in a 19th-C without having at least one major mishap in a key solo passage? No surprise about Nicoletta Manni not being an effective Myrtha. That's like asking Minnie Mouse to play Lady Macbeth.
  4. So happy for Xander Parish!!! Too bad that he won't be coming to Washington, DC this fall...instead of Askerov? We can wish.
  5. So many great (non-Grigorovich) productions in the Bolshoi's rep that they could've taken to NY this year. Very puzzling.
  6. The most satisfying major Bolshoi tour that I recall was the one in 2007 to the London Coliseum: Ratmansky's Corsaire, Bright Stream (in the gorgeous B. Messerer designs), and a mixed bill including the Wheeldon Misericordes and Class Concert, for starters. I saw all of these in a span of 3-4 days. DQ and maybe SL were also on that tour. The Hochausers know what to present. I would have taken the Megabus to NY to see the Bolshoi had they presented any of their recent stunning Petipa recons such as Esmeralda, Corsaire, Coppelia or Paquita Grand Pas (as part of a mixed bill). Or what about their Massine Triple Bill that includes Les Presages?
  7. Ms Grumpy is "She who rarely smiles" and totally lacks charisma: Mme Matvienko. I've bought tix to see one of the Batoeva-as-Gamzatti performances in DC but everything is subject to change.
  8. Batoeva brings the biggest excitement to the announced Kennedy Center casting (week of Bayaderes next October). Fingers crossed that the casting sticks. If things shuffle and I end up with yet another Gamzatti by "Ms Grumpy," I'll scream.
  9. So sorry to be reading this. Loved her in many ballets, especially in Namouna (title role). My first thought was that she is way too young to retire but, no, she graduated SAB in 1998 - almost 20 years ago. Yikes, time flies! She participated in the memorable joint performance by SAB and Vaganova Academy students at BAM around Jan or Feb 1998.
  10. The only clue in the mailer about Other Dances casting is the photo of Gillian (alone) on the back, in her OD costume...a far more balletic photo than what's on the cover.
  11. My first thought was "Hooters Ballet Theatre." Let's see a basic professional-ballet look. I thought, for a moment, that I had received a flyer for my local college's amateur year-end workshop.
  12. I've just received my flyer for the ABT fall 2017 season in the mail. Sorry to be so crude but...that has to be the least appealing cover photo for what's intended to be a ballet-marketing brochure. Good grief! They obviously were aiming for the least classical look possible! Yuk. (Those who got it know what I mean...it's not worth acknowledging who is depicted. I feel sorry for the man in the pic, who is a fine dancer and always looks good.) After seeing this, I've decided to completely forego the season & stay in Washington, DC.
  13. Even this is not as bad as the recent Bolshoi staging of Emeralds, in which the entrance diagonal of the "Mimi Paul solo" is done totally on pointe...even the usually flat-footed bowing movements.
  14. Indeed. Annette graduated in 1996...making her 38/39...contemporary with Veronika Part, Daria Pavlenko, Zakharova, Wiles, etc. The year 1996 was a great one for budding ballerinas!
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