Natalia

If my employer cooperates , I'm "in" for every performance with angelic POB Etoile Leonore Baulac and Bolshoi goddesses Olga Smirnova and Alena Kovaleva! Among the gents, Ovcharenko & Hugo M! Fingers crossed that the casting sticks.

Bravo, kfw! If folks chose to see/hear live hip hop performances (or other genres of popular music), they can do so at two dozen venues in DC or the burbs, on any given night of the year. It's bad enough for DC balletomanes that the Opera House of the KC is now devoted to musicals during a greater number of months per year.

Right! A little change from the norm but that's ok. I hope that Doug Fullington may have a helping hand in this, as he has spent time deciphering the Harvard Stepanov notes on HARLEQUINADE. Remember the wonderful Guggenheim presentation in Sept 2015, when Doug led comparison of Petipa & Balanchine versions of same numbers/solos, PNWB dancers demonstrating the Petipas, followed by NYCBers dancing the Balanchines?

As posted in our ABT forum, ABT will be presenting a full-evening staging (by Ratmansky) of Petipa's HARLEQUINADE in June 2018, during the company's Met season. So we will see two (2) stagings of Petipa's HARLEQUINADE during the 2017/18 season, as we already know about Yuri Burlaka's upcoming staging in Ekaterinburg, Russia (March 15, 2018). See post #13 of this thread. ABT news: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/05/22/arts/dance/alexei-ratmansky-plans-a-new-old-harlequinade-for-ballet-theater.html?smid=fb-share&referer=

Finally announced! I'll add this to the thread about Petipa 200th B'day celebrations. Interesting that we'll have at least two HARLEQUINADE reconstructions next season, as Yuri Burlaka is leading the effort in Ekaterinburg, Russia, in March 2018 (as announced last month). Both will be based on the Stepanov notation "Harvard Notes," so it will be fascinating to compare interpretations of the same notes by two choreographers, happening in parallel efforts.

Not at all. Same old/same old around me, in the less expensive 2nd tier sides. Maybe half of entire 2nd tier was sold. (I went only to the last of Peck's program, just for the Wheeldon, by the Joffrey...no problem buying last minute tik.) The "same olders" around me totally disgusted by the profanities yelled by the female vocalist of Abraham..."I am the black woman. F***!!!!".... sweet. Even the black lady sitting next to me was offended.

Dumb question: Did anybody actually see the Whipped Cream "float" this past Saturday? I saw a lot of cute characters from the ballet & got to hug the Pink Yak...but no float!!! Maybe it got lost at Times Square? The exhibit had ready opened and is lovely! Merde to ABT tonight. I'm looking forward to reports on the ballet's NY opening ...and the cupcakes!

Thoroughly enjoyed Here/Now #8 last night, particularly THE DECALOGUE. So happy to see Justin Peck's return to his pure neoclassical base. All 10 dancers were amazing but Rebecca Krohn was especially fluid, musical, and luscious! Those who stuck around the first three ballets - particularly the plodding STABAT MATER, despite fine dancing - were greatly rewarded in the end.

The 3 boys cast as kids in A1 of WC in Costa Mesa were Maloney, Klein & Shayer...they danced as communicants in the first scene along with Cirio .

I still think of Aran Bell as the little one in the competitions, LOL! Aran was in the Pas de 12 of WC in Costa Mesa but it was hard to tell faces under all the makeup.

Sorry to hear what happened last night to Cornejo. He is one of the three leads in Whipped Cream. I wonder if the other two leads as The Boy (Simkin and Cirio) will be also dancing Cornejo's performances or if ABT will be tapping one of the shortish virtuoso male corps members, such as Bell or Shayer, to this role? Whatever - certainly wishing a speedy recovery for Herman Cornejo.

Les Sylphides in the fall! Serenade and Symphonic Variations in the spring! No pandering to rock 'n' roll or hip-hop. A miracle! (Unless it sneaks in with one of the three World Premieres...)

Thanks, Buddy. Did you see her leading Etudes in the recent Bolshoi "Contemporary Evening" cinemascast? Aristocratic elegance. To the manor born. That "Platel vibe"! Lucky NYC, soon to see her leading Diamonds in JEWELS.

Sorry for Gillian...but I'm thrilled for Christina to get an evening reprise to her magnificent matinee Kitri debut!

Yup. To their credit the LC Hall of Fame communications staffer personally contacted, via individual email, everyone who had contacted her to complain about the original omissions of ANY person related to dance. After two rounds of back-and-forth (of we the dance fans not buying their explanations), LC came up with the conveniently-dismissive revelation that Balanchine et al were on this earlier list that nobody had heretofore heard about. The interesting thing is that I have none other than my (our) Facebook friend Alexei Ratmansky to thank for bringing the original omission fracas to light via a Facebook share. The power of social media. We later heard that the "Inaugural LC Hall of Fame" induction public ceremony (mid-June 2017) had been cancelled. No disrespect meant for the selected inductees Audra Mcdonald, Leontyne Price, Louis Armstrong, Placido & the other three but... You just don't mess around with the dance world!

One of the reviews of ODESSA mentioned "...it clocks in at 20 minutes." The short Tarantella will precede it, followed by a pause.

Thanks so much for these reports, everyone. ABT seems to be in grand form, early into the season. May it continue. It's great that Simkin's Basil has been professionally filmed, thanks to the Japanese commercial DVD from a few years ago, with Kajija as Kitri and, I think, Part as Dryad Queen.

Sandik-yes, the older BAA festivals included new works but they weren't pandering to PC topics and weren't so obviously "modern dance" rather than classical ballet. Loved Liang's WUNDERLAND (Washington B), Ib Andersen's DIVERSIONS (B Ariz), and Wheeldon's RUSH (Oregon BT), for ex. Wonderful works! Drew-the LC "founders" were hastily added after so many ballet/dance aficionados went up in arms about the original seven inductees. Suddenly it was, "no need to add Balanchine et al because they're already there..." Huh? Did we miss some old induction ceremony? I do appreciate Sandik's opening up the topic for discussion. I've noticed slow changes in programming options and was wondering what was up. For ballet, "el colmo" (Spanish for "the straw that broke the camel's back") came when I saw the ballets programmed for Ballet in America IV, as compared with the three wonderful past Ballets in America I, II and III.

I think that age and experience (and taste in line with those who buy tickets) are the keys to programming ballet & other traditional classical performing arts. At the Kennedy Center for many seasons now, Suzanne Farrell (hey, she's an artist too!) had led the ballet programming with exemplary taste, within a tight budget. For example, she led and programmed three fabulous editions of the Ballet Across America mini-festivals. But now the 4th edition was turned over to Copeland and Peck...and it was an altogether different festival. Perhaps it's an attempt by the KC to bring in younger audiences? But what was wrong with having ballets that appealed to we traditionalists? It takes an experienced artist like Farrell, who has led a long quality life, to have the judgement to program quality that appeals to my demographic that adores classical arts and, hey, can pay for it. Here's what I think is really going on. In the case of the KC, politics has taken over. I believe that the current political tinge of the Board likely swayed Copeland and Peck in making the choices in companies and works for the last festival. Sad to think that the huge hit of the 3rd festival - Sarasota Ballet in Ashton's Patineurs - would never have been considered by the current hyper-liberal Board. Poor old Ashton - just not "with it" enough for today? It's also sad (and funny) to realize that the current KC Board & leadership, in their zeal to "right the wrongs" of the past, thinks it necessary to create a Dept of Hip Hop with a Director of Hip Hop (one "Q Tip"), when one can find 100s of venues catering to hip hop within a 50-mile radius of Washington, DC! I thought that the entire idea of building the Kennedy Center was to have a haven for the fine performance arts that cannot be readily seen in the commercial world. ps - I write just about the KC. I'll give someone else the honor of writing about the recent brouhaha concerning the selection of the first inductees to the Lincoln Center Hall of Fame that omitted Balanchine, Kirstein & Robbins. I guess they aren't considered to be "with it" for today?

Thanks. I already have tix for both shows on Saturday. May also try to catch first-cast of ODESSA, Tues or Wed, as reviews were so positive for that crew. Sorry that Amar Ramasar won't be on this tour.

Opening up the thread, as the list of ballets to be presented was just finalized today. http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/event/BRBSD

The Kennedy Center has just divulged the name of the "new Peck" ballet to be presented in its 2nd program: TIMES ARE RACING (a.k.a. "Sneakers"). So now I'll be seeing DECALOGUE in NY this Saturday night. Final list of ballets to be presented in DC next month: http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/event/BRBSD

ABT's Facebook announces the creation of the official WHIPPED CREAM ballet cupcake! This is in collaboration with Magnolia Bakery of Columbus Avenue. Calorie count not provided. https://m.facebook.com/AmericanBalletTheatre/photos/a.122834101857.133692.15817871857/10155029550806858/?type=3&source=48

Interesting. And how was our Kitri in her debut...including the Coda of the PDD? I bet that the audience went wild for Mlle. Copeland and team.

I saw three performances on Costa Mesa and, boy, did I LOVE it!!! Perhaps because I saw shows on the weekend, after the troupe had ironed out the kinks from the premiere, I saw a very tidy & lively corps. Watch out for the amazing March of the Sweets early in A1 by 12 male corps...not to forget the Waltz of the Whipped Cream Ladies that ends A1...oh, and that beguiling Parade of Princess Praline around the start of A2! Heck, too many corps highlights to name. If I end up going to NY for NYCB's last viewing of a Program 8 of the Here/Now (incl. DECALOGUE) on Saturday, I'll make a point of looking out for that float in the morning. Bring out the Yaks, baby!!! It'll be a mini-Macy's Parade in spring *, as someone else pointed out...and with all the "stuff" going on in DC nowadays...boy, do we need a little "Yipee" in our lives about now! * = Between the Whipped Cream Float and last week's "motorized Sean Spicer podium" driven by comedienne Melissa McCarthy through the streets of Midtown Manhattan, Macy's should be all set for a springtime parade.