Natalia

Exactly my point. Thank you, Mazurka. Why did ABT drop the Jurgen Rose designs?

I just cranked up the meter for SL. The reports on fouettés in the earlier ballets were more felicitous.

Indeed. The development office needs some "satisfaction"!

Definitely skipping this, even though some great dancers are scheduled. I'd make the extra effort for a fully-staged traditional classic like Sleeping Beauty but not Jewels or Taming. Looking forward to reports!

Thanks for your insightful posts throughout the season, Ashton Fan! Did you have the opportunity to see the recent new works by Crystal Pite (Flight Pattern) and Liam Scarlett (Symphonic Dances)? If so, any thoughts?

I got to love this ballet 30 years ago, when the Natl Ballet of Canada toured it to the Kennedy Center (also filmed around that time, starring Augustyn and Allemann). Beside the acting, I especially adored the richly substantial designs by Jurgen Rose...wow!!! Those swishing ball gowns at the start of A3!!! I have not seen the ballet in the newer designs by Santo Loquasto. How do they compare to the Jurgen Rose sets/costumes?

I believe that you're correct, Dreamer, based on communications I've had with attendees. If my contacts are correct our Fouetté-o-Meter indicates: By # of Performances: 25% Eight performances yielded two successful sets of 32 fouettés = 25% fouetté-sequence success rate. ....or.... By # of Ballerinas: 33.33% Six Odiles (two had two chances) yielded two successful sets of 32 fouettés = 33.33% fouetté-sequence success rate. Anybody who attended the final Seo &/or Copeland performances welcomed to provide details, if so inclined. Just because the fouettés may not have gone well doesn't mean that they weren't great performances in other respects. My Fouetté-o-Meter is rusting. Time for an oil change, since it won't be needed for Onegin.

Now we know that Lopatkina has retired. We're lucky that we got her in early 2015 as Paquita & Dying Swan...and Brooklyn got her tour in Jan 2016 (while DC had Raymonda with Skorik).

Do you really think that things will change tonight?

Excellent. So the final tally for the week is 2-of-6 Odiles succeeding with fouettés...33.33%. Veronika & Devon rock!!!!!!

As part of my own personal "tribute" to Lopatkina's retirement announcement this morn, I've been spending a marvelous day going down memory lane with my DVDs. I started by watching the Japanese series of DVDs of various VaganovaAcademy season-end performances in which Lopatkina took part, culminating in the DVD on Dudinskaya's graduates in 1991. Those young ladies - even most who were NOT selected to go into the Kirov - knew how to perform zippy, well-centered fouettés...displayed en masse in Sergeyev's From Lande to Vaganova "classroom-style" ballet. Is it that American & other non-Eastern European dancers are not taught the fouettés...or fouettés are deemphasized in the West...fewer tricks? In her own year-end performances at the Vaganova/Mariinsky, Veronika Part was not among the stronger fouettés artist in her class (1996 - Nekipelova, Ivanova, Zakharova & others were stronger)..but she sure could crank them out in a pinch. It's served her well at ABT...whether or not she succeeded in today's matinee performance.

Waiting for the fouetté-o-meter report on Part! She's done all 32 in the past. Will she make it 2-out-of-6 for the week (# of Odiles performing the 32 fouettés this week)?

Now there's a fine thought...Lopatkina as possible new AD of the Mariinsky. Gergiev can move Fateev to head the Mariinsky's branch in Vladivostok.

Very sorry to hear this news. So no tribute farewell performance? That's it - she's now retired? So many amazing memories of seeing her live from very early Giselle and Myrta, Lilac Fairy, Raymonda's friend, Neumeier's "Pavlova & Ceccheti" miniature...guesting in DC's Kirov Academy in early 90s w/ Swan Lake pdd & "Russian Dance"..my witnessing her very first full Nikiya at the MT (& many yrs later in DC), early Ratmansky "Fairy's Kiss"...then the agonizing multi-year wait after her big injury...then Scheherazade, Sound of a Empty Pages, La Valse, Trois Gnossienes, Carmen...Raymonda, Diamonds, Legend of Love, Anna Karenina, Paquita Gnd Pas...finally that marvelous last "gala" at BAM in Jan 2016. How lucky that one of her last big tours was at our doorstep! Here's wishing her a wonderful next phase in her life! I selfishly wish that she'd "pull a Wendy Whelan" and continue performing in some way but teaching & coaching the new generation would be fine too.

Yeah, that's what I'm waiting to read, with an emphasis on the fouetté-o-meter.

Cubanmiamiboy, you were at Monday's dress rehearsal. Did Lane try & do the fouettés there? You mentioned earlier that Lane was one of two O/O's present (with Teuscher). This was a public event for ABT donors/fans...so not a secret

Since this was originally to have been Kochetkova & Simkin, I suspect that the "Brighton Beach Brigade" was there en masse, especially vocal for Russian dancers. Lane had to win them over. They already know & love Simkin.

Having absorbed the reports of Sarah's O/O, as well as having recently witnessed her Giselle & Princess Praline, I still hold hope that she will be promoted at the end of the Met season. Do others feel like me...or will ABT use the excuse of last night's tech glitches - esp. the fouettés - to hold her back? Hope not.

Yesssss, Nina!!!! Time to sleep. Yikes. Have really enjoyed the comments & reports.

Another zippy-singles, perfectly-centered fouetté queen: Olga Chenchikova!!! She was a "turning beast" even more so than Tatyana Terekhova, who was also spot-on. Saw them both in the Kirov's '86 Wolf Trap tour - Olga in SL, Tatyana as Paquita. Those were THE days!

Yes - 32...as there are in some choreographies of the Coppelia and Harlequinade PDD's codas (competition editions). Oh...let's not forget the coda of Paquita Grand Pas, another vital set of 32s.

That's what I recall from Part's completed 32 singles at the Kennedy Cntr in Feb 2009...but that was over 8 yrs ago. Since I mentioned the 2009 tour...that's when Michele Wiles performed the most astonishing set of 32 fouettés...sequence of multiples 1-1-3s through the first half, then singles until the last one being a quad....dead-center with no traveling. Murphy also rock solid with doubles sprinkled with singles in one of the KC tours. Ah, memories!

Thanks for the candid reports on Sarah's debut. It sounds like mostly a triumph. Was not expecting the perfection of her Giselle but...drat those fouettés! Still...thrilled to read about the overall beauty of her portrayal in the lakeside scenes. So this week so far we've had one out of five ballerinas complete the 32 fouettés. Hmmm. Part will be the sixth & final Odile of the run on Saturday afternoon. (Seo & Copeland will have 2nd chances - Fri & Sat eves, respectively.)

Half an hour into A1. They must be waltzing by now! Simkin slicing through the air. Amazing pas de trois team. Grab you bows, Siegfried & Benno! I can see it by osmosis...happy spirits!