Marga

Thanks, lmspear, for posting this link. I just watched the whole 50 minutes of it. Wonderful!

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edited to remove identifying elements

Thank you so much for this! I was addicted to this show - "Hart to Hart", it was called - and never missed an episode. I love the long, sustained beginning as the opening credits are shown - a real ballet class, with the teacher's voice heard, not a cut-short segment of tiny sound and sight bites like we get these days.

Wouldn't it be great if other companies did this? What a wonderful preview of Het's new crop of dancers!

Wish I lived close enough!!

Joey Gorak is very deserving of it. Congratulations to him!

Thanks, MRR - this is wonderful.

Gomes is introduced with the correct pronunciation of his name (naturally!): "Marselo Gomesh", which is the Portugese pronunciation. Years ago in a magazine interview, Marcelo was asked how to pronounce his name, and he answered the same way, Marselo Gomesh, adding that he didn't mind how it was pronounced. What a guy! It's lovely to hear him speaking Portugese in his resonant voice, isn't it? (Listening as I write, I heard him mention Fernando 'Bujonesh'.)

It's great he got such a long TV interview, including several videoclips of his dancing. He looks fantastic gesturing and speaking, sitting so straight, yet relaxed. He plants a nice smooch on the host's cheek at the end.

Listen up, American TV! Who'll be the first talk show host to give Marcelo Gomes equal time in English?

Daniil Simkin just danced his "Les Bourgeois" solo on 'So You Think You Can Dance'. He was not announced earlier, just prior to his coming onstage as a "surprise". We know he's in Japan right now, so this was obviously taped last week when he tweeted the picture of the SYTYCD set.

The biggest surprise for me was Isabella Boylston as the ballerina, whom I've never seen dance before, and made me literally gasp when she jumped out from the wings at the end of the big Act 1 men's dance. She had the biggest jump this side of Osipova, and hit her pique arabesque balance en pointe, and held it. She was dancing pretty great in general that afternoon, and I'd go see her dance again.

BTW, Simkin and Lane are not that young - both 25 or 26.

Actually, Daniil is still quite young. He's 23, turning 24 in October. (Sarah Lane is 26 as you surmised.)

I was also impressed to see Skylar Brandt as one of the cygnettes—isn’t she only an apprentice?!

Skylar Brandt is corps de ballet. And, IMO, there's nothing 'only' about any of ABT's apprentices!

The NYT article is not so much an article as part of an ongoing new series which features a different celebrity each week, a human interest column for all intents and purposes. The structure is always the same: what the chosen celebrity wears on each day of the week and why. It's called "What I Wore".

I think it's wonderful that a celebrity from the ballet world was chosen so early into the series.

When non-smokers have to move, their liberty is curtailed.

As a non-smoker, I agree with your statement 100%. As a home-birther, I agree with homebirth advocates who have cogent reasoning behind their choice. As a breastfeeding mother, I agree with (and can present) all the logical reasons why breastfeeding is the superior infant feeding method. As an Estonian whose countrymen were kidnapped, tortured, killed, and sent to Siberia in cattle cars, I agree with all who explain why Communism is evil. As a proponent of Vaganova training, I agree with those fanatical Russians who see it as the epitome of ballet training and hoist it high above the R.A.D. and Cecchetti methods.

Although my examples don't all qualify as danger/no danger, they show more than personal preference. They are my deep-seated beliefs. However, my musing "why should anyone's liberty be privileged?" is a philosophical query that has nothing to do with personal preference, law, or morality.

This thread has a polarizing influence (is that statement discussing the discussion? I can't tell anymore!) which will continue to separate us into factions as there is no real final answer to the topic at hand: dancers who smoke. Not that there has to be a final answer (now I'm rambling). I'm just interested to see what new thoughts will emerge from this think tank (is that sentence discussing the discussion? Oh dear, I just don't know!) Moderators, feel free to take a scalpel to my post.

re: Wiles, in what turned out to be last perf. w/ ABT, all the audience knew, if it stayed for curtain calls, was that McKenzie himself presented her w/the last of 3 bouquets she was given during the bows.

all that could be learned for the meaning of the bouquets, in asking around after the fact, was that indeed it was Wiles last perf. with ABT and that it was her wish that no special 'deal' be made of her final appearance, wishes that ABT chose to honor.

Stearns gave her what seemed a very heartfelt kiss in front of the curtain, even tho', apparently, he hadn't known, until, one presumes the bouquet presentations and the appearance by McKenzie, that it was her final perf.

Did anyone see the advertisement in last Sunday's NYT Magazine for First Republic Bank? It pictures Michele Wiles with her husband and the quote, seemingly attributed to both of them, reads "When my business was growing, I received an Eagle Loan from First Republic. Their quick turnaround was critical to my success." Under the quote both names are printed, James McCullough and Michele Wiles, along with their occupations. I was perplexed by this and reread it a few times last Sunday. I began to wonder if they're in business together now.

Here is a quote from the section about Michele Wiles in the Feb-March Pointe Online magazine, from an aricle about dancers married to non-dancers:

McCullough believes that their all-or-nothing vocations bring them closer. He says, “I’ve learned to love ballet almost as much as my own job.” Though it’s hard to put a finger on how, Wiles feels that her experiences with McCullough “translate to more expansive dancing.” She says that being a married to a non-dancer makes her world a bigger place. “James has exposed me to things I’d never experienced,” she says. “I come home and there are scientists in our living room! He’s opened my eyes.”

For the full article:

Married to Normal Folk

So whose liberty should be privileged, that of the person who is doing no potential harm and causing no annoyance, or that of the other guy?

This question of yours, kfw, is the crux of the matter. Delving further - and getting more philosophical as well as political: why should anyone's liberty be privileged? History has shown us, and world events continue to show us, that, despite written constitutions, democratic discussions, common sense and logic, liberty (in general) is not an equal-opportunity privilege for all human beings.

Cigar boxes were made of real, if light, wood back in the day. I remember going to the Rheinbeck Aerodrome with my father and noticing that the old open planes were repaired with parts of old cigar boxes: you could see the logos and decorations.

One of my most memorable childhood activities was creating cigar box gardens, miniature architectural displays, really. Our elementary school teacher had us make them and I got hooked, creating many more after the class assignment. All I had to do was ask the corner candy store owner for an empty cigar box when I wanted to start a new one. I filled the box with dirt, dropped in grass seed, landscaped (the creative part), then waited for the grass to grow. The inside of the cigar box lid was painted and illustrated to complete the diorama.

(Helene, The mere mention of Rhinebeck brings back a flood of memories, too...)

Marga, you reminded me of the omnipresent "highball" of my youth. Requiring frequent use of the ice-cube tray...

...All of this was observed, by this particular kid, through a warm, slightly cloying, very familiar fog of white-gray smoke. Ash trays were on every table. By the end of an evening some of these were overflowing.

Cigarettes themselves seemed normal, as did smoking. But old butts were always, imo, disgusting.

I just wanted to tell you how nostalgic you have made me, Bart! I miss my father terribly, and all his siblings. All 5 brothers, 1 sister, and their spouses - everyone of them except for my mother - smoked and that smoky haze was part of every family gathering. Ironically, the children - my cousins - don't smoke and my own foray was relatively short-lived.

Folks smoked in their cars, too, so anyone being transported by a smoker had to inhale the smoke encircling their heads. How many of us spent our childhood sitting captive in such cars? As smoking was considered normal, no one said anything. I'm surprised that more people haven't succumbed to smoking-related diseases now that a few generations have grown up having lived with the smoking addictions of those close to them.

Did that smoking pattern ever become widely socially acceptable among other groups and areas?. In my suburban family, I recall adults of both sexes smoking at table with the coffee -- after dessert -- but never (NEVER !!! ) before.

My blue-collar worker father always smoked throughout his dinner, cigarette in one hand, fork in the other. My (classy) mother, who has never smoked, just learned to live with it. To me, it was a normal thing to see while I was growing up in suburbia on LI in NY. Oh, and my dad's highball, which he made for himself after getting home from work, sat to the upper right of his plate. He sipped it between bites and puffs.

This has not been nearly as entertaining as a night at the ballet, but, taken as a roundtable discussion or salon piece, it held one's attention right through to the end. (And now I have embarrassed myself by blatantly discussing the discussion as if I held myself in such high esteem as to be exempted from the forum rule!)

I am the mother of a non-smoking ballet dancer. What has concerned me most about the dancers smoking issue is having watched young students develop into fine dancers who, despite being smart young women, began to smoke in their late teens as a way to keep thin. (I, as a dance major 46 years ago, did the same thing, and smoked until pregnant with my first child, as I was still involved in ballet, and, of course, was addicted after 8 years of daily smoking. I have not smoked at all in 38 years, however, and don't miss it one bit.)

Given what I saw happen with so many young ballet dancers, I don't believe that their role-model dancers had as much to do with their starting to smoke as did the beginning of the most intense phase of their dance careers. Coffee and cigarettes go together for dancers all over the world as the most popular way to skip meals. One of my peers back in the day lost a tremendous amount of weight (she became anorexic before we knew the word for it) and survived on only black coffee and cigarette smoking, which she took up at age 21 when her dance career was on the brink of becoming something special.

It's John Clifford himself who is posting his pics to the site!

Someone emailed me the link to the Administration names on the website. But guess what, NO LINKS, NO EMAIL ADDRESSES!! Sure makes it seem as if they don't want to hear what we have say (good or bad)!

Here it is, just for the record: http://www.nycballet.com/company/personnel/administration.html

I can't decide whether to be angry or depressed.

There is a "Contact Us" at the very bottom of the page. It opens to the following page (an email address, street address, and lots of 'important' phone numbers):

Contact NYCB

Marnee Morris died on May 28th, 2011. Her children have started a facebook page in tribute to her and to remember her and ask for posts from those who knew her. The page is called 'Marnee Morris Memorial'. I got the information from Linda Hamilton who posted it on her facebook page.

A second way to do it is to 'copy' the part you want and hit "add reply" (next to 'start a new topic') at the bottom right of the page. When you get to the box to write your post, press the quote icon (little picture of a quote cloud, like in the comics) which is the third icon going in from the left on the menu above the writing box. You'll see brackets with the word 'quote' in them followed by brackets with the word 'quote' after a slash mark appear in the writing box.

Position your cursor between the two sets of brackets (you can make them go farther apart by using the space bar, if you like) and 'paste' your copied part of the post into the space. Then, go ahead and add your response. You'll get a nice box around the quote when your post is posted.

(Alternately, you can 'paste' your post part first, then highlight it,

I'd be grateful if someone could explain to me how you get those boxes around parts of posts to which you want to respond.

and then, press the quote icon. I just did that above. These two ways do leave out the original poster's name, date, and time of post, though.

If your don't want the original poster's name, necessarily, then you can also manually type in a (bracket - the word 'quote' - end bracket) at the beginning, and (bracket - forward slash - the word 'quote' - end bracket) at the end of your quote.

(If I actually put in the marks I described, it would come out

In conclusion, all roads lead to Rome!

I hit "reply" (next to 'edit' below the post) so that the whole quote comes up with the HTML. Then I delete the parts of the post I don't need for my response.

For example, here's your entire post brought up with all the codes by pressing "reply":

I'd be grateful if someone could explain to me how you get those boxes around parts of posts to which you want to respond. I don't seem to be able to figure it out and always end up using quotation marks, which aren't nearly as graceful and clear. Thanks,

angelica

Here's your post with part of it removed manually by me:

I'd be grateful if someone could explain to me how you get those boxes around parts of posts to which you want to respond.

When you delete the extraneous parts, make sure you don't delete the part between the first set of brackets you'll see when you hit "reply" (nor the brackets!), or the word 'quote' (the endquote) in the last set of brackets (nor the brackets). If you do accidentally delete the endquote, just type it in manually. It's needed to close the quote off and make it appear in a box.

Wow...I notice we have moved a little from past times' feelings about the Benois and its winners/nominees...

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

The above quote was mine and I've always been positive about the Benois Prize. I even wrote a step-by-step explanation of how the nominations and selection of winners works. It's on BT somewhere in the posts from a few years ago.

With the above statement I wanted to make sure that people read Isabella Boylston's name again, in case they missed it going over the list. As you champion your favourite dancers, I champion mine!

I think I could also 'get into' Let the Great World Spin. NYC was my stomping ground even though I didn't quite live there. City life was in my blood and I spent so much time and many stays there with people who lived in various parts of town that I would probably relate to the book quite intensely. NY was teeming was 'characters'! (I tried to get an apartment in 1969, but $300/mo. was just too high a rent for my earnings!)

Thank you for the recommendation!