Marga

I've been trying and trying to get to my post from a few years ago where I explained in detail how the Benois nominations work, but the site is not letting me see my own posts nor is it responding in "search" mode either. I tried to manually find the topic by scrolling through appropriate categories, but had no luck finding the previous Benois thread. Sorry!

I am so excited that the right couple won! Nicole and Derek truly deserved the win! (Sorry to chime in before the regular reporters of DWTS, but, as I said, I'm so excited!) I think the viewers have become more discerning over the seasons and use the judges' opinions and knowledge to form their own. Having a large fan base may not be something a celebrity contestant can rely on in future competitions.

It is one of my favorite parts of the ballet. It really takes us luxuriously into the transition between worlds.

Ah, but David's name was not there when I posted! I thought it odd that he tweeted that he had won, yet the Benois website did not show his name. Only two were on the list last night - Hélène Bouchet's and Thiago Bordin's. Wonderful that David Hallberg tied with Bordin! The article about the Benois Prize (see links) mentioned that the prize for choreography was not awarded.

Congratulations to Isabella Boylston and David Hallberg (ABT) for being nominated!!! That's a big honour in itself!

The Google diddle on Friday, in honor of Tchaikovsky, featured San Francisco Ballet principal dancer Tiit Helimets. (I'm sorry I don't know who his partner was). The letters spelling Google in that one were subtly indicated by the movements of the corps de ballet behind the lead couple. Really neat.

I was very glad to read Deborah Jowitt's review of opening night in The Village Voice. It was refreshingly positive and gave me food for thought. Now I'm ready to see both ballets again! As a blogging ballet reviewer, I'm attuned to minutiae. Sometimes I need to get the negative things off my chest in the first flush of passionate afterglow after the ballet is over. When I was a young dancer myself, I only saw the good! Now I'm a curmudgeonly armchair critic and feel it's my duty to report both negative and positive aspects of all I view. Deborah Jowitt spoke so glowingly and in such detail about both ballets, making me enjoy just reading her review immensely. Contrary to my initial reaction, I wish I could go back and see both ballets again.

Here is some of what I wrote on Facebook about the Ratmansky after I arrived home last night -- my just-having-seen-it reaction: The Ratmansky did go on forever. That is a negative. The Ratmansky was full of beautiful patterns and interesting choreography. That's a positive! There was a lot to love. It opened with a group of female dancers in black, swimcap-like wigs wearing long, flowy, mid-calf-length yellow dresses and a sailor-suited boy (Fairchild). The black-capped chickies flew by from time to time throughout the ballet. The (fantastic) soloists wore short tutus reminiscent of 50's swimsuits with their strapless tops and little skirts. They were in shades of blue, the colors of the ocean. Then there were a few copper-headed and costumed dancers. I don't know what they represented. At times the stage lighting made the floor look sandy. In total, it made me think "Oh, beach blanket bingo ballet!" I would think that Ratmansky would leave the very Russian penchant for coiffing their dancers with awful identical wigs behind. We don't do that in America! We don't like to see it! Maybe it would work in England, where the same costuming crime has been committed in some Nutcrackers, but NOT HERE! That was a big negative. About my Petipa reference: In a few of the overly long sections, while the soloists were dancing, the corps - both boys and girls - posed in half-reclining positions on the floor, positioning their arms across their bodies, hand to opposite shoulder, heads turned to the side - and similar still-lifes. I didn't get it. Why channel Petipa? The music, despite its 19th century origin, sounded more modern than classical to me. Pleasant, pretty music, but alien to such stilted-position choreography. Wendy Whelan was stellar! Jenifer Ringer, too! Robbie Fairchild, Sara Mearns, Megan Fairchild, Daniel Ulbricht, Abi Stafford - all were a treat for the eyes and performed at high energy and with strong technique. Daniel Ulbricht had lots of side-split leaps to do and he soared! I wonder how high his jumps measured? Robert Fairchild had a long string of entrechats to perform, and I couldn't help wishing his feet were like David Hallberg's or Marcelo Gomes's or any of that ilk. There were so many beats, I was sorry that Fairchild didn't have the feet to impress. Besides not having supremely arched feet, his beats were a little back-to-front instead of sharply scissorlike and side-to-side. I was up too high and unable to see the things that you get to enjoy when you sit close. It was impossible for me at that height to identify any of the corps members under their bathing caps ;) and that was a great disappointment. Among those that I wanted to be able to identify were Lauren King, Likolani Brown, Erica Pereira, Stephanie Zungre, Zachary Catazaro, and Justin Peck. The movement was so swift, and I only guessed at who was who. Overall, a beautiful ballet that was way too long and too hodge-podge. I've said my piece about the headgear. Would I see it again? After it's shortened, yes. Benjamin Millepied's ballet impressed me hardly at all. I disliked the music and the costumes weren't the greatest, either. Sean Suozzi was. So was Kathryn Morgan. The Calatrava structure was a huge, stage-spanning, half disk - not unlike the 45 records of our youth, with the large hole in the middle - strung with enormous harp-like strings which quivered occasionally as if caught in a passing breeze. It was positioned obliquely across the back-of-the-middle of the stage and the dancers mostly entered through its portal (center hole). Only once during the relatively short piece did the shape move in its entirety by dipping downward toward the floor. Ratmansky's ballet, btw, was performed on a bare stage.

On its Facebook page it only says "Tribeca". I can't find the studio address on the official site either.

I can attest to that. It's happened to me twice over the last 25 years, but I hardly think that Evan has the time to eat as many carrots as is required to turn orange (I ate 20 to 30 large carrots a day - in summer when they were freshly pulled out of the ground, they were exquisitely sweet and more desirable than any other food). I think he's into bad airbrushed makeup. I just googled "evan lysacek orange" and came up with this tidbit from February after his gold medal win: Full article here: Evan Lysacek Wins Gold, Is Orange Kate Gosselin can't be voted off the show fast enough for me. She's whiny, self-absorbed, and such a terrible "dancer" that I can't even watch her.

Here is another very informative article about Arnold Spohr and his contribution to Canadian ballet: Arnold Spohr obituary

Arnold Spohr was a respected influence - a mover and shaker - in Canadian ballet. He was greatly responsible for guiding Evelyn Hart to stardom. Affable when speaking from the stage, pre-show, he was known to be a relentless taskmaster. He will be deeply missed. Arnold Spohr obituary written by Evelyn Hart.

That's funny. It works fine for me. The YAGP thread is in BT4D's Cross Talk.

You'll have more luck finding out names of winners at the YAGP thread on Ballet Talk for Dancers. Here is a link to a post with the main winners: YAGP winners Also, have you been to the YAGP site - YAGP.org? Here is the page with all the scholarship winners: YAGP scholarship winners

I also care very much about the centenaries of these great modern dance pioneers. Nikolais/Louis was one of my favorite modern dance techniques to learn. It made a body feel good and accomplished. Influenced by Mary Wigman and Hanya Holm among others, Nikolais and Murray Louis developed a basic technique which was a whole-body training applicable to many other modern techniques. Improvisation was an important component. I wish I could have spent longer studying this technique. Walking in New York two years ago I was surprised to look up and see a street named "Anna Sokolow Way". I took a picture of it and told my daughter, who was with me, about Ms. Sokolow. Later I learned that it was the first time a New York street had been named after a female choreographer. Like Nikolais, Hawkins was a forerunner in multimedia use. He needed live music for his dances and visual art as a further accompaniment. I was fascinated with the shapes he had his dancers make and the way he used costuming. I remember that Hawkins and Martha Graham were married for a time. He danced with her company in the 40's and was her first male dancer. To me, all three are pillars of modern dance.

On Bravo right now in Toronto and environs: fascinating look into the life of Alberto Alonso....I'm going back to watching it....! Here is the thread about this documentary: Dance of my Heart

Thank you so much for this wonderful information, Helene!

I saw that too and was very happy to see that Darius Barnes and Matthew Renko are now with Suzanne Farrell Ballet after having been let go from NYCB in that grand sweep at the beginning of this season.

The following was just posted to the NYIBC Facebook page: The board, staff and volunteers of the New York International Ballet Competition mourn the death of our inspirational founding Executive Director Ilona Copen. Over the past 25 years, Ms. Copen profoundly changed the lives of young ballet dancers from all over the world. Her guiding principle was to develop each dancer's potential through education and coaching. Ms. Copen's approach to the advancement of dance as an art form combined with her generous nature made her a moving force in the creation and operation of the World Dance Alliance and the International Dance Committee of the International Theater Institute-UNESCO. Always reaching out with an open heart and a helping hand she built life-long relationships in and out of the dance world. We celebrate her immense talent and capacity to galvanize people into action. Her passion, leadership, and warmth will be deeply missed. The funeral services will be held Monday, February 22, at 11:45 am, at Riverside Memorial Chapel, 76th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, Manhattan.

Here are a couple of links, Bart. The Buttons/d'Amboise commentary is very figure skating-ish! Katherine Healy - Jackson 1982 The end of the clip made me laugh. Katherine has just come offstage to face d'Amboise and his microphone. He asks her, "Katherine, what happened?!". She looks at him not comprehending, then replies, "Oh, I just slipped!" D'Amboise, attempting to instill the interview with some excitement, valiantly pursues the cause of the misstep which Katherine continues to shrug off. Funny stuff. Katherine Healy - Jackson 1982

That's a very interesting function of the corps, Alexandra. I'd love an example or two, as, much to my chagrin, I can't think of any at the moment.

Amen.

Well, there's the Panama National Ballet, but the gala being held there probably has more to do with the fact that Panama is where the Tencers spend their holiday break every year with their family. The dancers loved the warm weather, though!

Oh, how I wish I could have seen this!

The gala was held earlier this month (Jan. 4th) in Panama. It was also held in Bucharest (Romania) a few months ago. The dancers in Panama were Daniil Simkin with Natalia Domracheva, David Makhateli with Shoko Nakamura, Lucia Lacarra with Marlon Dino, Desmond Richardson, Denis Matvienko with Anastasia Matvienko, Agnes Letestu with Jose Martinez, Alina Somova with Vladimir Shklyarov. Interest is always very high.