Natalia

Just as FYI...no intention to push my personal beliefs. Link to the Romanov Holy Martyrs icon, as it relates to the issues surrounding the topic of this thread (why some in the Church are protesting the film):

Wow...but not a total surprise. I guess that Fateev is totally banking on Renata Shakirova for the future.

I don't think that there'll be any on-stage speech or tribute. We audience members in-the-know will cheer extra loudly during FOUR Ts bows & curtain calls. Happy that I had long-ago planned to attend on Saturday. Scheller is a lovely dancer...yet another example of the greatness of Argentines in ballet! Even though she's joining San Fco Ballet, I hope that she might be invited by Paloma Herrera to guest-star at the Colon-Buenos Aires, where the height of the ballet season coincides with the off-time in the USA.

Thanks, I was wondering, as it happened in a split second. LOL!

DC Export, the male in TARANTELLA is always this lively & bouncy. Probably the most eager beaver I've seen was Baryshnikov...a borderline lunatic flapping & bouncing next to McBride!!! I still laugh just thinking about it.

Opening night at the KC. Absolutely love-love-love Ratmansky's ODESSA!!! The steps, execution, the costumes (tacky polyester is just right here), the mood lighting, the music -- oh, how I love the music! The theme is part Grigorovich's GOLDEN AGE - with its 1920s nightclub for criminals - and part bastardized IN THE NIGHT (featuring three couples in diverse stages of a relationship). What a cast, especially the three principal ladies...Sara Mearns, Sterling Hyltin, Ashley Bouder...partnered by Stanley, DeLuz and T. Angle. Tall blonde Claire Kretzschmar was a corps standout here, as she was in Peck's Decalogue in NY. I can't wait to see this dramatic-yet-flowing ballet again on Saturday night (alternate casting). Peck's RO-DEO, starring Peck & Peck, almost bested ODESSA...but it was very exciting too. I don't quite get why the cowboys look like soccer players but no matter - it was fab movement to four famous portions of Copland's score for the old RODEO. The final Hoedown had the audience tapping its feet & cheering. Two Balanchines opened the program. First came a crisp, neat SQUARE DANCE starring Megan Fairchild and Chase Finlay...he tall & elegant and she maybe a bit too soft & sweet...but a legitimate alternative to the sass and zing of Ashley Bouder in recent memory. The audience seemed to love TARANTELLA but I found Erica Pereira a tad too pert & definitely "off" the music in several spots, especially her diagonal of pirouettes en attitude. Spartak Hoxha, on the other hand, was spot-on in his musicality and seemed to be having the time of his life...although I may have blinked when, at one point he seemed to slip and/or dropped the tambourine. I literally looked into my purse to grab a cough drop, when I heard a slight thud and the audience gasping. So what exactly happened? But it was all about the two newest ballets tonight. ODESSA and RO-DEO were the clear winners! I'll return for the Saturday double header (Prog B at matinee & a repeat of today's program at night).

Ooooooo... Should I be preparing another unexpected Megabus trip to NY?

Sign me up, Jayne! Assume that funding will somehow come.

I guess that most of Miami's apprentices & younger corps come from their own school too? Among the male grads, I hope that Jonathan Alexander got into NYCB or another great company.

Congrats to Septime! We'll miss you in the DC area. A witty, fun member of the community (ballet or otherwise).

NYCB's week at the Kennedy Center opens tonight, starring the "survivors" of the recent Here/Now Festival in NY. Ratmansky's ODESSA gets its local premiere today.

Amy (DarkDancer06 on YouTube): Your beautiful tribute video has made it onto Ismene Brown's column on Vikharev! (Scroll down...an overall great article) http://www.theartsdesk.com/dance/sergei-vikharev-master-ballet-reconstructor-1962-2017

Thanks, Jack...and writing through breakfast, no less. Sounds like a winning group of senior SAB students, including maybe a few apprentices for NYCB and the other fine companies (PNB, MCB, etc.) that often hire from the school?

Thanks for all of the reports thus far. Another performance that I wish I could have seen but, alas, I live down in "The Swamp" a 4-hr bus ride down I-95. Agree that ABT has an abundance of fabulous ladies primed for promotions. I truly hope that it's this "home team" that will be elevated, rather than - ahum - you know what I mean...outsiders brought in... I hope to see all of these up-and-comers in featured roles when I'm back in NY for some of the "Tchaikovsky Spectacular" performances in early July. Maybe by then the promotions will have been announced? Lastly - Was America's new Superhero, Gray Davis, on stage last night as a pirate? I hope that he was noticed & cheered in some way.

I'd love to hear about tonight's SAB Workshop Gala from Jack or others who may have attended! I was mostly impressed by what I saw at the Sat matinee. I can only imagine how it went tonight. Also, I'm wondering if/when the new NYCB apprentices will be announced?

In Edinburgh?!

Fascinating, Jack. Thank you for this link to one of the many treasures of the Frick, my favorite art museum in the Big Apple.

Right. Certainly for the Balanchine "Black & White" works.

Forgive me, Jack; I was going Scots Crazy. I almost added another Balanchine work with a bit of Scottish-sounding music: the 3rd movement of Bizet-Symphony in C (middle section when the demisolo couples do a little squared dance). Nah. Sylphide should be followed only by one ballet, so I'd hope for Scotch Symphony. Good grief, I had almost forgotten Tricolore. Enjoy tonight's big SAB benefit!

Gnossie, I suspect that the reason why lots of the ornamentation & details of the original productions were lost was financial. Only a handful of enormous, state-funded theatres could ever produce the Vikharev reconstructions as intended, with the luxurious natural-fabric costumes and the hand-painted multi-layered drop scenery. Those five great Vikharev productions (Beauty, Bayadere, Flora, Coppelia & Raymonda...the FabFive) have spoiled us forever. Once you've seen the highest quality, it's hard to go back to El Cheapo, no matter how great the staging or the quality of the dancers. Once you've driven a Porsche, are you be happy with a Chevy? (How I long to see ABT's Sleeping Beauty in the Mariinsky natural-fabric costumes & sets...banish the La-Z Boy thrones forever! But that will likely not happen.) It's too soon after Vikharev's passing to know if his current commissions for Ekaterinburg and Moscow may be picked up by someone else. If such news may come, please report here. For now, we continue to mourn.

Choryphee? But not yet. When April, Calvin & Gabe are promoted, I want them to be Soloists, not Choryphees.

Understood, Gnossie. Dudinskaya was still alive; she passed away six months after the "new/old" Bayadere premiere. I saw her in the hallways of the theater and she seemed very sad. I could understand the sadness, even though I much preferred then, as now, the Vikharev reconstructions. Everything would be solved if the Soviet-era works - which, to me, display their own unique beauty - would be appropriately credited as being "K. Sergeyev after M. Petipa" or "Chabukiani after Petipa," or etc. The "older guard" should stop insisting that the Soviet versions are pure and true Petipa. p.s. Like you, I was at the premiere of Raymonda in Milan. And at one of the first Coppelias in Moscow (Sunday matinee w/ Osipova). And Flora in StP...and Lacotte's premieres in Paris & StP...Ratmansky's Swan in your city. Will PM you. Stay strong.

Thank you for the Kommersant link, Gnossie. I'm glad that Kuznetsova had the courage to write truths about the oppositions to the recons in the MT (esp. Bayaderka, one of several Vikharev-recon premieres that I had the honor of attending). Indeed, it's amusing how certain hypocrites crawl out of the woodwork. Yessss, Vikharev was a wonderful dancer, too! I will especially remember him in Balanchine's Bizet/Symph in C but all of the above excerpts are great, too.

Thanks, Helene, and to Drew for apology/comments. This film is a fascinating topic. I intend to see the movie...and to later atone for the sin of having watched it.

I beg your pardon. Do you realize the rudeness of your comment, Dirac? (I think you don't...not like you...but...) This is an insult to the Orthodox Christian religion. No need to agree with the beliefs of a religion but please respect others' beliefs. Nicholas, his wife and five children have been canonized in the ROC. We pray before their icon. The mocking tone of your (and Sandik & Pherank's) comments, is uncalled for. Such rudeness is not the norm on a Ballet Alert ("a place for civilized discourse"). Would it it be ok to insult Islam or Judaism (or other belief...even atheism)? I believe that the ROC goes too far in banning the depiction of saints in performing arts...but I still take offense to your and others' mockery of my religion. Kindly apologize. Alternately, please delete those comments & I'll gladly delete this post.