Terez

"... Kochetkova, who will be spending more of her time at ABT - perhaps all of her time." Yikes. I hope not all of her time!

I wish Pascal Molat would wait a year or two... : (

Oh, wow, I'm so grateful for the link, pherank. I guess I could have searched it out myself, but it was so nice to come here, see people's comments, and hop right over there. I had a pathetically small amount of real-time watching on the actual day, and I felt sort of cheated all day long. Did get to watch a nice chunk of Liam Scarlett rehearsing Frances Chung and [who was her partner here?]. Absolutely loved it. Really quality work to watch. I comforted myself with the fact that I'd had quality if not quantity. But I'm really enjoying watching the link to SFB company class right now. ... Who can tell me who the younger guy is, with a green (pale olive) tee-shirt and dark hair is? He looks fairly new (as in, not one of the soloists or principals). He's got gorgeous form and a real instinct for musicality. Anyone...?

Wow, great article, great discussion here!

Wonderful! Katherine, I know about your great blog, but not these others. Mine is The Classical Girl at wwwtheclassicalgirl.com and I write about classical music as well as ballet-related stuff. As well, I review San Francisco Bay Area ballet performances for Bachtrack and link them up on my site. I also recently published a ballet novel, but I don't think this is the appropriate place to be leaving a link for that, so I'll just urge any interested readers to seek out the link and details of the novel at The Classical Girl. And it's with particular pleasure that I see new names and sites on this thread. I've been blogging for almost 3 years, and I thought I knew the other dance bloggers. Pleased to meet you, others!

Well, two big pieces of news -- and yet, both of them, not unexpected. Happy for all of us that Froustey is staying, and wishing the best for Bianco in her new endeavors!

Phew. Glad to see that msg from the SFB regarding Kochetkova remaining. Was having an anxious few minutes there, reading all the news about the ABT promotions. Thanks for posting that, volcanohunter.

Exciting news, all of this. I was searching around earlier in June but am only now coming upon the announcements. Sorry to see Kristina Lind go; she was lovely. Josette, I am so very happy to hear the news about Simone Messmer - I've been Googling her over the past year, wondering where she'd gone. Great to learn she landed in a great place. And of course it's always thrilling to see a dancer promoted from within. André has been going gangbusters all season long; I'm not surprised. Although I do agree that her true challenge has just begun, in making her style stand out from the other extraordinary principals. A tough act, that.

Chiming in very late (oh, just twelve months!) to say I really enjoyed reading this novel, and would recommend it to other ballet-savvy people. I hated the end portion of the story, but sometimes I just choose to ignore the unsatisfying ending and still consider a book to be an excellent read. Shipstead did really good job for someone who doesn't know the ballet world. I didn't mind that it was thinly disguised NYCB. Adrienne Sharp is another dance writer whose fiction is so very close to real people and events, but she, too, is another exquisite dance fiction writer. (Although her prose is more dark in mood.)

Saw the performance last night - it was a treat to see Joseph Walsh perform with Maria as Waltz Couple. They paired well together. He also paired well with Lorena Feijoo in Lambarena. Nice versatile dancer; great addition to the SFB roster, it would seem. RAkU was just astonishing. Right now, casting isn't showing any other female besides YY taking that role. I'm not surprised; she is so iconic in it, so inimitable. The ballet was so well done, so affecting. I'm still sort of reeling over the intensity of it. (I've never seen it performed before.) I wish I could see the Wed pm cast perform in Serenade - sounds like a great mix of dancers. If anyone's going tonight, I'd love to hear your impressions. Always fun to see the new dancers in good roles, i.e.: Carlo di Lanno, paired with Sofiane Sylve.

Saw the commercial too! It made me smile. Good on her.

Thanks for the news, Theo. I've been wondering about her (and that her tenure with the SFB was so brief).

Great stuff, great comments! I'm very grateful the Bolshoi now has their 4-hr feed up on YouTube. Saw none of them on 10/1.

Case in point - they just interrupted the grand allegro section of company class to do an interview and run a Nutcracker promotion. Sigh...

Macnellie - I am so with you. So very frustrated that the SFB is giving this local newscaster so much chattering time during company class. I so enjoyed watching big chunks of class for Australian Ballet, RB, Nat'l Ballet of CA, and here I was thinking "my" company would be my favorite. Instead it's proving to be the most annoying one, with constant, constant voice-overs to interview people. During company CLASS? Really? Call me a too-long ballet student that I should find that poor etiquette, but it's really grating on me. It's almost like the SFB is dumbing down the whole process to maintain mainstream attention. None of the other companies did this with their classes, or did I just sit and watch all the right spots? Biggest surprise enjoyment so far: really, really enjoyed watching Natl Ballet of CA's class. Loved the ballet master, loved the dancers' energy and efforts, loved the camera work. Would love to hear others' comments about all the represented companies and their filming choices. (I've yet to see more than 10 mn of the Bolshoi, sadly. It's a West Coast problem...

Peggy, the roster was looking rather slim, I thought today, particularly the soloist section. (No Messmer, Wuerthner, Quenedit.) There are "image coming soon" spots for 4 new dancers (2 new corps dancers I hadn't heard mentioned) and I see that Marie Claire D'Lyse is off the corps list, as is Nicole Ciapponi. Sorry to see the last two go - they were lovely corps dancers, both of them. And sorry to see that Messmer wasn't back for the season after all.

Very cool news! I'll bet Grace Shibley and Julia Rowe were happy to hear the news. (And I'm still waiting for Julia Rowe to get bumped up to soloist...)

Waiting for the SFB to show it on their roster before I cheer...

The SFB roster as of Aug 9th is very much confusing me! That would be great if Messmer remained there for the upcoming season, but we all know that Ruben Martin Cintas and Damian Smith aren't going to be around. Do you suppose they were getting a little crafty, trying to beef up the roster for a PR angle while touring? But they're most decidedly done touring now...

Wow, what a cool new career for Altman! (I'm particularly tickled by the "butcher's assistant," Peggy. Thanks for the Instagram link.)

Aww, what fun news to hear. Always makes me smile. Helene, that link didn't work for me; it led me to an advertisement page. (It happened on another page/link too. Now I see that SFB allowed their domain to expire on 7/9. Yikes, that's a whoopsie! Hope they address that fast.)

Great information to hear - thanks, as always, Peggy. You are my go-to person for news about the SFB, that's for sure! Joseph Walsh sounds like an exciting addition. I always enjoy seeing the list of new dancers, although I suppose this isn't an official 2015 roster, is it? Bet there's one or two more surprises to come.

Wow, that's wonderful for him! Very cool to see/hear.

I'd wondered if a promotion to principal would be dangled if they lost Froustey. Could Messmer's departure be based on the sense that Froustey appeared to be favoring remaining in San Francisco? Very sorry to hear the news that she'd be leaving. I hope they promote Julia Rowe to soloist; she's ready for it, and is suited for it, from what I've seen this season. Palacinky - yikes, that is a shock that an argument like that would be kept in the public eye. There's still a pretty solid code of etiquette about what the public should or should not be exposed to in ballet. Or maybe that's "pre-social-media-days thinking." The old days. (Like... eight years ago.)

Oh, yay, great news, and yes, Pherank, I agree, this was something that felt imminent. Really glad for him. He's got some growing into the role at some levels, but his performances in partnering YY, particularly in Hummingbird, just made my instincts scream "yes!" Great news (atop the sense of loss I feel at losing Smith and Martin Cintas, and the bad news I just learned, that Simone Messmer won't be returning).