PeggyTulle

Any idea on when the NYC casting will be up?

2 hours ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:

So, I note that the "Board and Staff" section on NYCB's website is divided into three pages:

Board

Administrative Staff, headed by an Executive Director (Katherine E. Brown), which includes Executive Offices, Communications, Development, Marketing & Media, Education (not SAB), Volunteer Services, Operations & Company Management, Production & Design, Music Department, Costume & Wardrobe, Health & Wellness, Finance & Admin, Human Resources, IT, The George Balanchine Trust, and NYCB Moves.

Artistic Staff, headed by the Interim Artistic Team, which includes Ballet Mistress (Dunleavy), Ballet Masters, Resident Choreographer, Guest Teachers, Children's Ballet Master, and Assistant Children's Ballet Master. (This is also where you'll see Balanchine and Kirstein listed as Founders and Balanchine and Robbins listed as Founding Choreographers.)

Will the new AD only be in charge of the Artistic Staff, or will he or she also have responsibility for the Administrative Staff?

Put another way, does (or will) the Executive Director report to the Board or to the AD? (I have no idea who the Music Director, Andrew Litton, reports to ...) 

ETA: I would love to see the actual job posting, but it looks as if it hasn't been made public.

 

 

 

It's my understanding that the AD and ED both report to the board (at least this is how it is at other large companies). Artistic staff report to the AD and administrative staff report up to the ED.

Casting for Napa and Stern Grove are up. 

FESTIVAL NAPA VALLEY

Friday, July 27, 2018 - 6 pm

TARANTELLA
Composer: Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Choreographer: George Balanchine
Conductor: Martin West

Sasha De Sola, Esteban Hernandez*

Pas de Deux from THE INFINITE OCEAN
Composer: Oliver Davis
Choreographer: Edwaard Liang
Conductor: Martin West

Yuan Yuan Tan, Vitor Luiz

YOUR FLESH SHALL BE A GREAT POEM
Composer: Chris Garneau
Choreographer: Trey McIntyre

Benjamin Freemantle

Isabella DeVivo, WanTing Zhao*, Jennifer Stahl

Steven Morse, Jaime Garcia Castilla, Alexandre Cagnat, Davide Occhipinti*, Lonnie Weeks

IN THE NIGHT
Composer: Frédéric Chopin
Choreographer: Jerome Robbins
Pianist: Roy Bogas

Dores André, Joseph Walsh
Sofiane Sylve, Tiit Helimets
Sarah Van Patten, Luke Ingham

Pas de Deux from DON QUIXOTE, Act III
Composer: Ludwig Minkus
Choreographers: Alexander Gorsky and Marius Petipa
Staging and Additional Choreography: Helgi Tomasson and Yuri Possokhov
Conductor: Martin West

Ana Sophia Scheller, Vladislav Kozlov

STERN GROVE FESTIVAL

Sunday, July 29, 2018  - 2 pm

SERENADE
Composer: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Choreographer: George Balanchine
Conductor: Martin West

Waltz Couple: Sarah Van Patten, Luke Ingham
Russian Girl: Frances Chung
Angel: Jennifer Stahl
Dark Angel: Ulrik Birkkjaer 

TARANTELLA
Composer: Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Choreographer: George Balanchine
Conductor: Martin West

Sasha De Sola, Esteban Hernandez

Pas de Deux from THE INFINITE OCEAN
Composer: Oliver Davis
Choreographer: Edwaard Liang
Conductor: Martin West

Yuan Yuan Tan, Vitor Luiz

Pas de Deux from DON QUIXOTE, Act III
Composer: Ludwig Minkus
Choreographers: Alexander Gorsky and Marius Petipa
Staging and Additional Choreography: Helgi Tomasson and Yuri Possokhov
Conductor: Martin West

Ana Sophia Scheller, Vladislav Kozlov

RODEO: FOUR DANCE EPISODES
Composer: Aaron Copland
Choreographer: Justin Peck
Conductor: Martin West

Dores André, Ulrik Birkkjaer

Max Cauthorn, Hansuke Yamamoto, Wei Wang

Jaime Garcia Castilla, Steven Morse, Myles Thatcher, Sean Orza, Henry Sidford
Nathaniel Remez, Diego Cruz*, John-Paul Simoens, Solomon Golding, Lonnie Weeks, Alexandre Cagnat

Casting is on the website:

https://www.houstonballet.org/globalassets/pdp/201718-season/swan/swan-lake-casting.pdf

ENB will put Cirio closer to his girlfriend (Whitney Jensen, who is at Norwegian National Ballet).

36 minutes ago, pherank said:

....But to show that ballet is a small world - here's a video of Gorodiskii dancing a PDD with Ana Sophia Scheller (in 2015):

Yes, it's small. But from IG posts and this past Pointe article, they are dating/significant others.

Youtube videos and IG clips seem to show Gorodiskii at a lot of galas and one-offs. He seems to dance with bravado, but maybe without much care to details like clean 5ths, pointed toes, and timing. Will be curious to see how he gets cast and performs in the corps.

Dancers missing from this year's roster, that I can tell of:

• Maria Kochetkova (freelancing)
• James Sofranko (AD of Grand Rapids)
• Jillian Harvey
• Blake Kessler
• Rebecca Rhodes
• Isabella Walsh
• Benji Pearson
• Larisa Nugent

Also, apprentices promoted to corps appear to be:

 Ethan Chudnow, Anatalia Hordov, Carmela Mayo, and Swane Messaoudi (no Benji Pearson or Larisa Nugent listed on the corps page)

Apprentices are also listed on the website:

Esteban Cuadrado, Max Follmer, Jasmine Jimison, Joshua Price, Leili Rackow, and Jacob Seltzer

Nicolai is Ana Sophia Scheller's bf.

A few dancers have posted on their public Instagram that they (or fellow dancers) are leaving.

Isabella Walsh (c/o Shene Lazarus):

Blake Kessler:

Via Shene:

Benji Pearson:

And via Shene:

21 hours ago, PeggyR said:

I agree (hope) that Hummel may be next; she's very musical.  Bizalion only showed up on my radar from her Lilac Fairy performance -  mature, polished, beautiful port de bras - and I look forward to seeing her development.

Ellen has definitely put in her dues and danced wonderfully over the past few years. I, too, hope she gets the recognition she deserves. Bizalion danced Carabosse, too, and was in "Bound To".

Interesting promotions. I was expecting Ludmila Bizalion and maybe Ellen Hummel before Lizzy Powell... 

Interesting to note, Wona Park is listed in Frances Chung's role for 4/28. This is the only major casting switch that I've seen so far for Unbound.

Saturday, April 28, 2018 - 2 pm

LET'S BEGIN AT THE END
Choreography: Dwight Rhoden
Music: CJohann Sebastian Bach, Philip Glass, and Michael Nyman
Conductor: David Briskin
Piano: Mariya Borozina, Natal'ya Feygina

Wona Park, Angelo Greco

Esteban Hernandez

Sasha De Sola, Benjamin Freemantle
Jennifer Stahl, Ulrik Birkkjaer

I swear there was a Maria-is-leaving thread awhile ago in the SF Ballet company folder, but it seems to be missing. Seems relevant to the ongoing discussion about the company roster and promotions. I am certainly sad to see her go. She's always been a bright, shining light on stage! With Maria and the company announcing her departure on public social media, maybe this will make way for some additional promotions for the women?

Wow, I didn't see this one coming. I'll miss seeing her energy and finesse on our stage.

Is it odd that promotions for the men were announced, but not for the women? 

I would think the Robbins program could be great for an upcoming tour.

Ah, Helene, she probably was in the corps, but I remember that she stood out with her rock-solid technique and how she made every step look effortless!

I remember seeing Square Dance years ago with... Frances Chung, perhaps? It was a lovely performance with tons of crisp, clean fifth positions. I'd love for it to come back.

And The Little Mermaid: yes, there's a ton of everything thrown into that ballet. But it's still beautiful. If anything, I feel like having everything thrown in sort of sways you to the Mermaid's side. She's in over her head, with so much visual and physical noise around her. I'd love to see Lauren Strongin or Wanting Zhao take on the lead role. Maybe we'll finally see Madison Keesler as the princess? I think she understudied it years ago.

On 3/12/2018 at 2:29 PM, sf_herminator said:

Initial reaction:  WOW to the Fancy Free casting.  Not a single principal male - one soloist and two corps.  Lonnie dancing in two pieces.  So excited for opening night!!! 

This is interesting, and also exciting. Makes me also think about promotions and such for the coming year, as Lonnie and Ben were also highly featured in some of the webcasts and such for the upcoming Unbound series.

Anyone know what's going on with Jaime Garcia Castilla? I feel like he dances so rarely these days. (Admins, feel free to remove if this isn't appropriate)

Aaron Robison is listed on the casting page opposite Frances Chung!

Thursday, March 8, 2018 - 7:30 pm

Choreography: Liam Scarlett
Music: Lowell Liebermann
Conductor: Martin West

Victor Frankenstein: Aaron Robison
Elizabeth Lavenza: Frances Chung
The Creature: Vitor Luiz

Whoa, amazing for Natasha! The student matinee is usually abbreviated, right? And that casting isn't normally posted is it? 

9 minutes ago, pherank said:

can guess that Tomasson wants to ease Sheehan into things - she still has many things to learn about, and this is her first year as a professional dancer. She's gotten a lot of publicity for someone who hasn't even danced a season with a professional company. ;)
If she paces herself, she can hopefully have a long, long career.

 

I swear that Natasha was part of the corps last year. Wona just joined the corps from the school trainee program, so I, too, am surprised to see her in a "lead" before Natasha.

8 hours ago, miliosr said:

Ex-San Francisco Ballet member Moises Martin (brother of Ruben) has an interesting post on his Instagram feed today. It doesn't qualify as official "news" but you might want to check it out.

His account is private.