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Thank you, Moonlily. Réquiem por un campesino español sounds like a very interesting selection and a fine opportunity to keep your Spanish language "muscles" in tone.

On the other hand, I loved barre -- but not at first. After a while, it became a ritual of closing my mind to the rest of the day, feeling my body prepare itself for the dancing ahead.I really think learning a few basics, getting some ballet into your body, makes it easier to decipher still photos and diagrams. In class, you also learn to perceive movement better -- just by doing. Watching ballet performances becomes almost participatory as you feel your muscles sympathetically mimick (on a minute scale) the steps the dancers on stage do.

From the publicist: BALLET NY presents the 2012 New York City Season August 9-11, 2012 The Ailey Citigroup Theater Ballet NY presents its 2012 Season, including the World Premiere of Trois Mouvements by Artistic Director Medhi Bahiriand the Company Premiere of emerging choreographerJohn-Mark Owen's Triptych, from August 9-11, 2012 at the Ailey Citigroup Theater, 405 West 55th Street, NYC (at Ninth Avenue). Performances: Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday at 7:30pm, Saturday at 2pm. Tickets are $26 ($16 for students and seniors) and are available at www.smarttix.com or by phone at 212-868-4444. Trois Mouvements, a ballet for seven dancers (four women and three men), is set to the Concerto/Konzert Op. IX N˚2 for Oboe and Orchestra by Tomaso Albinoni; Triptych is set to music by H. F. Biber and Sergei Rachmaninoff. The program will also include a work-in-progress presentation of In the Garden of Souls, choreographed by Mr. Bahiri to music recorded by Azam Ali (vocal) & Greg Ellis (percussion) of the group Vas and a mixture of Middle Eastern, Indian and Far Eastern compositions. An encore of Agnes DeMille's duet from The Other will also be on the program. Dancers: Amy Brandt, Kelsey Coventry, Michael Eaton, Fidel Garcia, Katie Gibson, Jennifer Goodman, Jason Jordan, Luke Manley and Nadezhda Vostrikov. Founded in 1997 by former New York City Ballet Principal Ballerina Judith Fugate and International Guest Artist Medhi Bahiri, Ballet NY is a company of accomplished principal and soloist dancers, whose mission is to offer emerging choreographers the opportunity to create new works on those dancers. The Company is committed to keeping ticket prices affordable in an effort to attract, cultivate and educate new audiences for dance. The Company has performed in New York City at The Joyce Theater, Symphony Space, Marymount Manhattan College, The Miller Theater, The Ailey Citigroup Theater, around the country and in Mexico and Canada. For more information, visit www.balletny.org. Medhi Bahiri (Co-Artistic Director, Ballet NY) brings a wide and diverse background in dance to his position. He was Principal Dancer with Ballet West and Boston Ballet, and a member of Maurice Bejart's Twentieth Century Ballet. As Principal Guest Artist, he has appeared with Ballet National de Mexico, Ballet de Santiago, Chile, Universal Ballet of Korea, Ballet du Louvre, Tulsa Ballet, and Ballet Philippines. Touring in the United States and Europe, his partners have included: Cynthia Gregory, Ann Marie DeAngelo, Valentina Kozlova, Cheryl Yeager, Evelyn Cisneros, Marie-Christine Mouis, Christine Spizzo, Christina Fagundes and Laura Young, among others. Mr. Bahiri won the First Prize of the Prix de Lausanne dance competition, and was recognized for his outstanding artistic achievement and original style at the International Ballet Competition in Varna, Bulgaria. As a non-competitor, he was distinguished as Best Partner at the Jackson and Tokyo ballet competitions. Judith Fugate (Co-Artistic Director, Ballet NY), former Principal Ballerina with the New York City Ballet, danced roles in virtually every ballet in the NYCB repertoire, counting among her partners Peter Martins, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Helgi Tomasson. During her career she toured extensively with groups led by renowned artists such as Mr. Baryshnikov, Cynthia Gregory and Mr. Martins. Miss Fugate appeared on "Live from Lincoln Center" with Ray Charles in Peter Martins' A Fool for You. In the Metropolitan Opera's production of La Traviata, conducted by Placido Domingo, she was partnered by Fernando Bujones and Peter Boal. She left the company in 1997 to pursue a career as freelance Guest Artist and Co-Artistic Director of Ballet NY. Miss Fugate works as repetiteur for the George Balanchine Trust and the Jerome Robbins Rights Trust, staging these renowned choreographers' works worldwide. # # #

From the company: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BalletMet Columbus Presents For One Night Only Internationally-Acclaimed Dance Stars in Global Dance Stars Gala & Post-Show Celebration Honoring Artistic Director Gerard Charles August 18, 2012 at the Ohio Theatre COLUMBUS, OH – Dance stars from around the world will converge on the stage of the Ohio Theatre (39 East State Street, Columbus, OH) August 18 at 8 p.m. for BalletMet’s Global Dance Stars Gala. This one night only event will feature grand solos, pas de deux, and more performed by internationally-acclaimed artists from Houston Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, New York City Ballet, Northern Ballet of England, Tom Gold Dance, Broadway, and BalletMet’s own international cast of dance stars. The program will include masterpieces from the classical repertory as well as virtuosic selections from contemporary ballets. Tickets for the Global Dance Stars Gala start at $35 and can be purchased online through Ticketmaster (800) 982-2787, ticketmaster.com or at the CAPA Ticket Office (39 East State Street - (614) 469-0939). BalletMet’s beloved Artistic Director, Gerard Charles, will be among the event’s celebrants as he is fêted with an on-stage tribute and an exclusive post-performance party – Celebration of Stars – in honor of his 22 year association with BalletMet. Charles announced in May that he is stepping down to become Ballet Master at the renowned Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. Celebration of Stars is an opportunity to meet the international guests, mingle with BalletMet dancers and give Mr. Charles a fitting send off. Separate admission to the Celebration of Stars post-show party is $50 and includes wine and light refreshments. Tickets can be purchased only at the BalletMet Ticket Office (322 Mount Vernon Avenue, Columbus, OH) or by calling (614) 586-8665. Global Dancers – Global Dances The dance works featured on BalletMet’s Global Dance Stars Gala are show stoppers of the classical and contemporary repertory. Among them are: George Gershwin’s 3 Preludes Choreographed by former New York City Ballet principal dancer Tom Gold, Gershwin’s 3 Preludes will be performed by New York City Ballet/Tom Gold Dance soloists Abi Stafford and Jared Angle. Cleopatra Former BalletMet Artistic Director David Nixon – the current Artistic Director of Northern Ballet of Leeds, England – will gift Columbus audiences with a glimpse of his Cleopatra, a very recent collaboration with Miss Saigon and Les Miserables composer Claude-Michel Schönberg. Dancing the work will be two of the company’s established stars – Martha Leebolt and Tobias Batley. Madame Butterfly Choreographed by Stanton Welch, the former BalletMet Artistic Associate and current Artistic Director of Houston Ballet, the pas de deux from Madame Butterfly will be performed by Houston Ballet principal dancers Amy Fote and Simon Ball. Bringing Noise Broadway hoofer Marshall Davis, Jr., who appeared in Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk, and at BalletMet in the much-admired Simply Sammy, will bring his fiery footwork to the proceedings. Pulses, Chords, Passion Also appearing on the Global Dance Stars Gala is BalletMet’s own corps of extraordinary dancers performing Darrell Grand Moultrie’s sizzling Pulses, Chords, Passion, a work that received its world premiere during BalletMet’s 2011-2012 season as part of Jazz Moves Columbus, the company’s acclaimed collaboration with the Columbus Jazz Orchestra and WOSU Public Media. National Ballet of Canada principal dancers Greta Hodgkinson and Guillauame Cote will also appear on the program performing a pas de deux from the classical ballet repertory. * * * * * Single tickets for BalletMet’s Global Dance Stars Gala are on sale now and range in price from $35 to $100. Tickets may be purchased online through TicketMaster (800) 982-2787, ticketmaster.com or at the CAPA ticket office (614) 469-0939. For entrance to the Celebration of Stars post-show party in honor of departing BalletMet Artistic Director Gerard Charles, call (614) 586-8665 or visit the BalletMet Ticket Office (322 Mount Vernon Avenue, Columbus, OH) to reserve your $50 tickets. Subscriptions packages are now available to BalletMet’s exciting 2012-2013 season; so too are discounted group tickets. To learn more go to BalletMet.org. About BalletMet Renowned for its versatility and innovative repertory, BalletMet Columbus is a 501©(3) nonprofit organization that is among the nation’s largest dance companies, and its Dance Academy ranks among the largest dance-training centers associated with a professional company. Since its inception in 1978, BalletMet has added 154 company premieres to its repertoire and produced 142 world premieres. It has also developed DanceReach, a series of educational and outreach programs that serve nearly 30,000 people annually; through DanceReach, up to 70 scholarships each year give access to talented youth, many from minority and underserved groups, who cannot otherwise participate. BalletMet Sponsor Support BalletMet Columbus receives support for its annual performance season from The Columbus Foundation, the Greater Columbus Arts Council, and the Ohio Arts Council. Our media partners are ABC-6 and FOX-28, The Columbus Dispatch Group, Sunny 95, Time Warner Cable and WOSU Public Media. The Senior Dress Rehearsal sponsor is WMNI News Radio 103.9 FM/920 AM. Our retail partner is Kroger, and our season partner is The Ohio State University Sports Medicine Center. # # # WHAT: BalletMet’s Global Dance Stars Gala, a one night only event featuring dance stars from internationally renowned companies in a program of masterpieces from the classical repertory as well as virtuosic selections from contemporary ballets. WHEN: Saturday 18 August 2012 at 8 p.m. WHERE: The Ohio Theatre (39 East State Street, Columbus, OH) HOW: Tickets start at $35 and can be purchased online through Ticketmaster (800) 982-2787, ticketmaster.com or at the CAPA Ticket Office (39 East State Street - (614) 469-0939).

Symphony in C is not new to ABT. They did it during their 2001 City Center season.http://abt.org/education/archive/index.html

If someone offered me my choice of a Grand Tier or Orchestra seat at the Met, I'd opt for GT every time, but I like being somewhat elevated, so I can see everyone on stage and what they're all doing. Grand Tier is pretty far from the stage, but as Natalia notes, not terribly high. I depend on my opera glasses from time to time.

It's a six-performance season (assuming there's a Saturday matinee), so I don't think subscriptions, in the usual sense, are being offered. City Center usually offers discounts when you buy tickets for multiple performances and the seats are in the same price category. The more performances you buy, the greater the discount. This is City Center's pattern over many years, for many companies. I cannot promise that this policy will be in place for ABT 2012, though.

A friend pointed out that none of the clips in the American Masters Balanchine documentary exceeded 60 seconds, apparenly the standard for audio/video fair use. I hope that for this project, rights holders grant permissions for longer excerpts.

"Ugly" is not necessarily an insult. I read it here as "forbidding," consistent with the other descriptions Ms. Harss uses. I saw the premiere, and I thought the set had a cold kind of beauty. I much preferred it to the costumes, especially of the maidens -- so unflattering! And I mean "unflattering" as an unambiguous insult. The problem with this: Who the heck has the money nowadays to give this ballet 'a second chance'? It's easy for critics who get 'comp tickets' to write this sort of thing. Rarely have I experienced a ballet so ugly that I wouldn't give it a second chance. There has to be a redeeming value for a normal paying spectator (even if he/she has the money) to even want to set foot a 2nd time in the theater if the 1st viewing was klunker. Balanchine knew this and ensured that audiences 'got it' the first time. I've been going for $20 per shot ($25 on Saturdays). I don't mind standing on those rare occasions when I actually have to for the whole evening. It's hard to go to a performance of a ballet with a familiar title and familiar music and put aside all of our associations with the familiar version/s. I found myself resisting Ratmansky's choreography both here and in Nutcracker. For all my efforts to keep up, I'm still essentially a 20th Century gal, and Ratmansky is clearly making ballets for the 21st. It takes a concerted effort to be open to him. I'm giving myself at least two more opportunities with Firebird this season. I think that if you'd been around in 1957, you would have heard a LOT of grumbling at the premiere of Agon, people swearing they'd never return to it. It's 45 years old now, old enough to be considered a small-c classic, but it looks like it was made yesterday. What Balanchine did in 1957 prepared his audience to be ready to embrace, at their premieres in 1972, ballets like Duo Concertant and Symphony in Three Movements. My grandmother, born in the 1880s, took me to New York City Ballet a few times in the late '60s and very early '70s. She never did develop a taste for the leotard ballets.

During the Balanchine Centennial at what was still legally known as the New York State Theater, one of the photos displayed in the bay of the east elevator on the orchestra level was a photo of Vidal and others, including Jerome Robbins and an especially radiant Tanaquil LeClercq, at a picnic table. I don't remember whether Laing was among them.

We're happy to have you here, Tatiana. I think most of us here at BalletAlert! identify at least a little with your username -- we're all a bit of a dance nerd. Please make yourself at home and feel free to add your comments or questions where you feel so inclined.

Welcome to BalletAlert!, Eleni. The musical sequencing depends on which version you're referring to. ABT and the Royal Ballet are the same production, both staged by Natalia Makarova. Paris Opera Ballet, Mariinsky Ballet and Bolshoi Ballet each have their own, distinct versions.

My fave Mariinsky ballerinas as Titania! And Kondaurova is doubling as Hippolyta, too! I, too, am curious about the pivotal casting of the Act II Divert.

Free Ballet in the Park! Summer is here and Boulder Ballet is back with Ballet in the Park, our eighth-annual FREE outdoor concert series! This family-friendly concert features excerpts from the season, along with new classical and contemporary works. Stay after the show to meet the dancers and delight in the spontaneous dancing on stage by children from the audience. Bring the family, pack a picnic, and enjoy a beautiful summer evening with Boulder Ballet. Performance length is approximately one hour. Voted “Best Live Dance Group” by Boulder Weekly, who called us “…one of the most talented, engaging and lively groups of dancers this side of the Bolshoi.” June 17 at 1pm Broomfield Amphitheater, just north of the Broomfield Library June 23 at 7pm Civic Green Amphitheater, Highlands Ranch June 24 at 7pm Central Park Bandshell, Boulder, at Canyon and Broadway For directions to the show, and for more information about Boulder Ballet—including classes and our upcoming thirtieth season—please visit http://www.boulderballet.org.

Nice to meet with new and old BalletAlertniks, indeed! On the subject of the costumes, Nikiya makes significant appearances in Act III, after the Shades Act, to disrupt the marriage of Solor and Gamzatti. What she's wearing is not merely an extra costume for curtain calls. Her Act III costume is harem pants, as seen here: http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kw2j9b3hyM1qa76wbo1_500.jpg

Myrta is serving collective justice on a class of people for their collective wrong. Giselle, as the junior member of this sisterhood of Wilis, is not the decider.

Thanks for the introduction, TenduGuy, and thank YOU for taking the time to enroll. I hope we'll be hearing from you regularly on your wide range of interests.

Hi, there, Zachary! We're happy to have you here. I'm sure you'll find plenty of information -- and opinions -- about Vaganova Academy and also its offshoots here, and of course the magnificent Mariinsky company. I hope you'll also add to the talk in those forums, and perhaps you'll also be prompted to check out other companies and see what they're doing.

Even the Cojocaru's Giselle opposite Corella's final Albrecht (probably) in New York was a far cry from a full house. So sad. And while I wasn't at the Tuesday Bayadere, the Wednesday's triple-NewYork-debut had a very sad turnout.

The statue is actually ON the staircase, where the two sides converge before the final climb to the GT level. It is probably the worst possible spot in the whole house to meet. It will impede everyone using the staircase.The Grand Tier is really THE intermission destination for viewers on several levels -- it has two bars that also serve light bites, and the Patrons' Lounge is on that level. It can be a madhouse. On the other hand, no one GOES to the Parterre as an intermission destination, so it will be much calmer. If you're nervous, just ask the usher for directions. Or, take the elevator (elevators are slow) and push the button for Parterre. BalletAlertniks can meet by the costume display. Once on the Parterre level, you absolutely can not miss the costumes. So sorry you won't be there, Helene.

Thank you, Susan. I posted a link to a photo of the staircase with description on the other thread, here. Double posting only to avoid reading someone's "But I thought it was on the other level!" BTW, surprising how difficult it was to find a clear photo of that iconic staircase! Members cannot post photos. Only rg and administrators have permission. Photos take up expensive bandwidth . If there's a picture of yourself on another site, and if it's visible to the public, you can link to it.

The TOP of the stairs, where the arc is uninterrupted, is the Grand Tier, which tends to be very busy. The level directly above the orchestra is the Parterre, with less traffic and noise and probably more congenial. If it turns out to be a large gathering, there will be less of a problem of everyone being able to hear everyone. In this photo, you can see some men descending toward the Orchestra. Above them is the railing of the Parterre Level (with illuminated costume displays), and above that, you can see the base of a sculpture of a kneeling nude. The central stairway, which ends in a curl around the columns unseen in this photo leads to the Grand Tier.

Don't forget, before her promotion, Ringer was away from the company for over a year, until she was persuaded by James Fayette (not yet her husband) that her future lay there. If I recall, Judith Fugate and Nichol Hlinka, who both lost a couple years to illness/injury, were each promoted to principal 9-10 years after joining NYCB.

The only reason I can imagine for the entrechats is if Albrecht's brises are so poor he's dropped the step from his vocabulary . The passage is not about Albrecht's gorgeous arches or the precise articulation of his batterie. Here see a contest of wills here between Myrtha and Albrecht. I can almost feel the tension between them, pull-release, pull-release, like a rubber band.

Thank you for the brief biography of Marie Vernon, aviator. I could easily relate to those fans disappointed by Mlle Vernon's premature retirement. Welcome to BalletAlert!