Natalia
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Posts posted by Natalia
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Isn't Marcelo's debut as Prince Coffee this afternoon? I close my eyes and picture him slowly rising from the tin can. Wish I could be there. Reports, please!
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Thanks, Peg! Please let us know how we may be able to access the audio, if you find out. I scanned the NYRB website but couldn't find a link or even a mention of the event.
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32 minutes ago, bingham said:
Zhong jing Fang, Paulina Waski and April Giangeruso for soloist. More principal parts for T Forster and soloist parts for Grey Davis.
I couldn't agree more, Bingham! I'd add Lane and Schevchenko for Principal, Royal and Shayer for Soloist. I guess that we'll find out in a week or so...during the Tchaikovsky Spectaculars!
I hope that there are no departures.
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If Lane is yet again passed over for promotion...that would be tantamount to what's happened to Emanuel Thibault at POB.
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16 hours ago, Jayne said:
The NYT is not fake news, nor is its Arts section fake news. Just because it is underfunded, or one does not agree with its critics does not make the paper fake news.
Fake news is the proliferation of false webpages based out of eastern europe that wrote racy headlines with articles mixing recycled wire news facts with false facts. These websites imitates newspapers, but had zero editors, ethics boards, fact checkers, professional journalists, or source confirmation policies. They made many Macedonian teenagers and young adults six figure incomes through online ad sales.
I don't always agree with many editorial policies at the Wall Street Journal, but WSJ is just as much a legitimate news organization as NYT, WaPo, or the Chicago Tribune.
Rant over, back to dance writing.
Not just in EasternEurope, Jayne. All over.
I happen to (mostly) love Alastair's reviews because he's not afraid to be "anti PC." Too bad that he & other legit arts critics get less and less space to publish nowadays.
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26 minutes ago, California said:
...Copeland rode in on the yak to thunderous.....
I can hear the screams now. That procession is wildly cheered, regardless of who is dancing; with Misty atop the yak, it must be doubled or tripled in intensity.
Thanks so much for the report.
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Even better...film of Osiel Gouneo & Viengsay Valdes in Alicia Alonso's version of the Diana & Acteaon pdd, during the most recent festival on Havana. His solo begins at 4:40...sassy walk and all. Wow!
He is something else. I wish that he is finally settling down to a long-term company in Munich, after his quick stints in Norway & ENB. This brilliant dancer deserves to be a permanent Principal, rather than hopping to a different place every one or two years.
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2 hours ago, MadameP said:
Yes, Oscar Frame is going to Bolshoi as well as Geraschenko and Sevenard. He is British incidentally, not American. He trained at the Hampton Academy in the UK before winning a scholarship to the Kirov Academy in 2011 and then transferred to Vaganova in St Petersburg in 2016.
Whoopee, Mme P! Thanks for the news, clip and correction on Oscar's citizenship. He was so superb all those years at the Kirov - including his "first graduation" performance in the lead of KAB's Paquita Gnd Pas, May 23, 2015 - that we love to also claim him for ourselves. I was pleasantly surprised when I learned that he had gone to Vaganova in Jan/Feb 2016 for 16 months of "finishing school." Cheers, Oscar Frame!
From the KAB Facebook...Oscar chose the Bolshoi among four offers, including the Mariinsky!
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On June 10, 2017 at 3:44 PM, toitoi43 said:
Two other male Vaganova graduates will also be joining the Bolshoi along with Sevenard.
Is the USA's Oscar Frame among them? I know Oscar from DC's Kirov Academy so am extra curious about his progress.
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Any reports on Misty Copeland's long-awaited debut as Princess Praline last night? Did she appear atop the big white yak in the hospital-room procession in Act II?
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Cheryl Yeager's lovely daughter, Hannah Marshall, is now in the ABT corps.
I fondly recall Hannah's Swan solo in Ratmansky's Carnival of the Animals with JKO/ABT Studio in 2013.
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1 hour ago, Helene said:
I couldn't remember Yeager's name off hand, but yeah.
And it was the same set-up: bringing up a home-grown generation. Most of the non-import Principals and Soloists started in ABT I/Studio Company and have made it up the ranks.
Cheryl Yeager was a gorgeous Aurora in the Macmillan version...petite beauty, like Sarah Lane now. She and Amanda McKerrow were the two petite ballerinas of the '80s. Both were among the many ABT ballerinas of the 80s that had Washington DC-area connections...through either Washington Ballet or Maryland Youth Ballet, then in Bethesda, MD. That's before Kirov Academy existed.
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Apparently, Osiel Gouneo danced as a guest star of the Nov 2016 25th Int'l Ballet Festival of Havana...Diana & Acteon pdd w/ Viengsay Valdes! So his departure must have been friendly, with ability to travel back & forth.
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Link to our thread on the 2011 Kennedy Center tour. Post #3 ISU report on Magia de la Danza...and Osiel...then Gounod!
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15 hours ago, Jayne said:
Oseo is continuing the long tradition in the dance world of changing your name to help your career.
There seem to be a handful of women who professionally use just their first and middle names. Others try to soften harsh surname spelling. Newsreaders and actors do it too.
As long as Oseo is a great performer then the audience won't care. Unless he does the Prince Nelson symbol name change. That was a head scratcher.
Who is "Oseo"? He didn't also change his first name???
Cubanmiamiboy, Osiel Gounod and Osiel Gouneo are definitely the same wonderful dancer. What could be more artistic and soft sounding than Gounod? Goo-noh...two beautiful syllables?
He was still Gounod during the last BNC tour to the Kennedy Center (2011?) when I "discovered" him at age 19 in Coppelia pdd in "Magia de la Danza." Neither he nor his partner Grettel Morejon were yet Principals...not even close to the first two ranks. They were the babes. Both turned out to be the highlights of that night. I'm sure that his departure was a huge shock to Cuba...just like Romel Frometa left a few years later...and other up-and-coming men before that. It seems that whenever a Cuban danseur in on the cusp of greatness, he leaves.
The young lad who was being "pushed" during my working visit to Havana last March '16 was one Rafael Quenedit (assume related to other famous Cuban Quenedit dancers who left a long time ago?). Quite wonderful with the trademark Cuban endless pirouettes.
Montage of solos of Rafael Quenedit, the 2nd-3rd excerpts being the Paquita segments in the performance that I attended March 2016. Remember, at this point, he was just into his 2nd season as a professional.
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5 hours ago, cubanmiamiboy said:
Out of curiosity.
Aside from her racial driven controversy. Has it been a precedent in the history of ABT where a Principal dancer has been singled out as so technically weak as Copeland..?
I know it has happened at City Ballet...but the category I see Copeland in public discussions I only remember having it seen with Skorik before...not even Somova or Seo.
Any such precedent in ABT history....?
Absolutely. In the late 70s and through the 80s, many ABT aficionados complained about Leslie Browne's prominence despite relative tech weaknesses, just because she was a star of the hit film THE TURNING POINT early during her career. In the end, she built a nice specialized rep for herself in dramatic ballets, esp. the Tudors.
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Why did Osiel change his name from Gounod to Gouneo after 2013? Did he want a more Spanish-sounding name? Yet, he did so after leaving Cuba for Europe.
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Everyone must cheer extra loud when she stars in Mozartiana next week. Sending much love her way.
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3 hours ago, sandik said:
I recall having several of these discussions when Copeland was first promoted, and the situation has not magically improved. There is, in the ballet world as well as most of the rest of American culture, implicit racial bias. To be fair, most people work hard to eliminate the examples that they know, but that is only a fraction of the problem. I've only seen Copeland dance on video, so I won't make any claims about her skills in the classical repertory here, but I applaud her willingness to speak up about these biases.
The fact that we keep hashing this out, over and over again, says a great deal about the presence of bias in the culture, here and at large.
Agreed. Italy may be ahead of the USA in this regard. The first and ONLY commercial DVD of Misty Copeland in a full-evening-length classical ballet is her La Scala Romeo & Juliet, opposite Roberto Bolle. It's a beauty.
For all the yak-yak and smug self congratulations for being PC, American public TV (PBS) has yet to program a live or taped full-length ballet starring Misty. We don't need more documentaries or 1-minute spots on TV.
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40 minutes ago, CTballetfan said:
Thank you so much for the correction! The running times on the synopsis on the ABT webpage is incorrect then. I feel better and look forward to the performance.
You're most welcome, CTballetfan! Enjoy the show.
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9 hours ago, nanushka said:
I don't think it's incorrect; I think it's just that the initial one-movement piece had the same title so there are two different listings for the piece. They often list different versions under the same title in their rep listings. Perhaps the only way in which their website could be described as "comprehensive."
The titles differ slightly. Note spellings in the listing to the left of this page:
http://www.abt.org/education/archive/index.html
The first (short) version is Aftereffect. The longer, newer one is AfterEffect. Each has its own entry. The write-ups and dancers' names differ too...more dancers for AfterEffect. The latter entry is now missing the timing but it's a 38-40 minute orchestral work.
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CTballetfan, I see your point and you are correct about WC. Both Golden Cockerell and Whipped Cream make for shortish "full evenings." So will Harlequinade which, at NYCB (with exact same length of the gorgeous 2-act Drigo score), is always followed by another ballet - usually The Concert or other light-hearted one acter.
No worries with the Tchaikovsky evening, as I've explained above.
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1 hour ago, CTballetfan said:
I'm trying to find out how long the July 6 program is, because I have a ticket, and ABT does not make it easy. It took me a long time to find the synopses of these pieces on their website, along with the total time of each piece. Finally, buried somewhere I found the info, and to my surprise the total dance time is 65 minutes. It breaks down so: souvenir d'un lieu cher is 14 minutes; nutcracker Pas is 13 minutes; Mozartiana is 27 minutes; After Effect is 11 minutes. Only 65 minutes of dancing! I presume there will be one 20-minute intermission, but nowhere is that stated. I always thought that a ballet program should have around 90 minutes of dancing. On the Whipped Cream thread someone said that ballet is only 75 minutes. Those of you who are knowledgeable, what do you think of an evening where there is only 65 minutes of dance? Blink during one of the short pieces and it's gone. And I paid a premium price--$145--for center orchestra. Please weigh in with your thoughts. Was I robbed? Should ABT note on each program, as NYCB does, the length of the ballet so the patron does not have to hunt for it and can decide before buying if the price is worth it to them?
AfterEffect is actually quite long: about 40 minutes. Gomes initially choreographed an 11-minute version to one movement of the Souvenirs de Florence score. We'll be seeing the version with all four movements. The ABT web has separate descriptions for each version.
Both Tchaikovsky mixed bills will be substantial.
So your show should include about 95 minutes of dancing. With two 20-min intermissions, the full evening should run about 2 hrs, 15 mins...start at 7:30, end 9:45ish.
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Just saw this press release with a segment on the upcoming Tchaikovsky program. The Ivans will dance to the Nutcracker Trepak. So the Aurora/Desire pdd will not be chopped, as happened in 1921-London (and other versions) to make room for the Ivanichki. Yay!
June 2017 Vaganova Academy Graduation
in Kirov-Mariinsky Ballet
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Russian TV report on the actual graduation ceremony at the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoe Selo, outside St-P. "Ballet Tsar" Tsiskaridze looks very comfy on the balcony.
Боже, Царя храни!
http://tvkultura.ru/video/show/episode_id/1516839/video_id/1645330/brand_id/19725/