Kaysta

I'm going to withhold judgement until I actually see the ballet, and I know at this point I will most likely be in the minority, but I kind of hate the costumes, especially Peck's, which take away her natural shape and make her look roundish (and I suppose more birdish). Maybe after I see the ballet, I will love the costumes. I admit I'm not familiar with the story.

It makes me sad to think that ABT won't ever stage this again. Can't they just take out the religious aspect of it? Girl engaged to "good guy" but good guy off at war. Girl dreams of "bad guy", bad guy tries to abduct her, good guy kills bad guy. Girl and good guy live happily ever after. How is that all that different from other story ballets like La Bayadere and Swan Lake (except it's "bad girl" and her father) Others might disagree, but I think they should let Ratmansky restage it (if he wanted to do it), he would take the Disney aspect out of it and do it justice. But until then, I guess I'll be happy with seeing it performed by the Mariinsky in DC in February.

Thanks, but unfortunately it looks like I won't be making the trip. The weather reports are hedging on whether it will hit Philly directly, or it will be a more southern storm hitting Baltimore/DC. Either way, I'd either be driving out of a lot of snow or driving into a lot of snow, neither of which I'm excited about doing. I offered the tickets to a friend in Baltimore if she can get there. I am super bummed though, because I really was looking forward to seeing this wonderful company again. But I guess I'll just have to take another trip to Toronto soon! If other folks go, please please please come back and tell us how it went!

So, a snowpocalypse is forecasted for this weekend. Of course this is scheduled to happen during a performance of something I've been looking forward to seeing, after a winter of no snow. I'm hoping they are wrong, and we are not going to get a foot of snow, because I really don't want to miss my Saturday matinee performance. Maybe during the seance we can ask if the spirits are predicting snow?

The moments that stick out to me are: Best: - Stella Abrera in Giselle (highlight of the year for me) and Stella's subsequent well deserved promotion - Ratmansky's Sleeping Beauty (especially Gillian as Aurora and Stella as Lilac Fairy) - Cote/Lobsanova cast in Ratmansky's R&J in Toronto - Marianela Nunez as Lise in La Fille Worst: Hee Seo being recast into half of my ABT performances (even though I swear I like Seo in certain things)

Just looked up last years festival and it looked awesome, going to put this on my calendar! Plus I've been hoping for a reason to trek up to Montreal!

Birdsall, you have made me very excited to see Kolegova now! Thanks for all of the information, I can't wait till February!

Wow, those pictures are awesome, thanks for posting. Especially the Fonteyn and Preobrajenskaya!

Thanks for the casting. I'm kind of disappointed in not seeing Somova, as I wanted to see her live, to come up with an opinion on her. I don't know much about the cast I'm seeing (Kolegova cast), so at least I'll be exposed to some unfamiliar dancers. I, too, wish Shklyarov was coming to DC.

Good point about the height differential. I was just looking at a bunch of photos of Pierina Legnani and she probably woudn't even be allowed on the stage today (though I don't how tall she is, she does look kind of short). As a non-dancer, I admit that I have no experience with how (or if) extra weight hinders technique/line or affects partnering. I will admit that I don't prefer super skinny dancers (I am personally not a fan of Sylvie Guillem, even though I know she is an incredible dancer), and only once did I notice that a dancer appeared a bit on the heavy side. Korbes is, was, and always will be gorgeous to me. But personally I've dealt with body issues my entire life (I am the most unathletic person on the planet, I sit behind a microscope all day, and I like to eat!) so I do feel bad when dancers like Morgan or Korbes or Jenifer Ringer have to deal with public criticism of a very sensitive issue (although I guess as dancers, they are used to dealing with it). Anyway, it sounds like Morgan has done a fantastic job and enjoyed much success with online videos, and it makes me happy to see her still dancing just for the pure love of it. Very inspiring.

Congrats to Gabe Stone Shayer!

It's interesting to see the change in aesthetic today compared to historical photos from the late 19th early 20th century, her weight would have been acceptable back then. Though I assume technique and partnering is more complicated today. I'm glad she has made a career with her youtube stuff and is performing again. She is still beautiful to watch. If it's what she wants, I hope she gets back into company shape and keeps performing.

I always enjoy a live performance much more than a video tape. Plus, any chance I get to see Cote dance, I'm taking.

Indeed, congrats to Ms. Young as well! Always exciting to see new faces come in for the met season. I'll look out for both of these young ladies in DC!

Gisele Bethea, a young and promising member of the studio company has been promoted to apprentice! Here are some links for some of her youtube videos from 2014. https://www.youtube.com/embed/uvpdkhcs90A https://www.youtube.com/embed/apywUNjoau4

If you don't consider four years a product of JKO, then you don't consider 90% of NYCB dancers a product of SAB. I don't have an opinion on the JKO school one way or the other, but quite a few of their graduates (whether they received a substantial part of their training there, or were "finished" before entering the Studio company) are promising dancers in the ranks of ABT.

I think Calvin Royal and Skylar Brandt are far from dry and are potential principal dancers. But that is just me.

Jaime Alexander stole the show, her dress was stunning.

I liked them as well. I love how Ratmansky always uses so much color in his productions. I wish I could make it out to Zurich to see this, but hopefully La Scala will perform it for a few years, as I'm thinking my next vacation might be Italy in 2017.

The facebook post has really gone viral: the link to the below article was posted by NYCB's facebook page! http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2016/01/04/pennsylvania-ballet-philadelphia-eagles-tutus-facebook

I wish I could see multiple casts, but unfortunately I can't make the 3 hour drive twice in two days, and I'm already spending the following weekend in DC for ABT. I hope others are planning to attend though, so we can get some reviews of the different casts.

Very good. Again, keeping in mind I have untrained eyes, I thought technically she was spot on. Very crisp foot work (which is a must for Dewdrop!) I didn't think she was as good as Bouder (who I saw in the cinema) and she didn't exude the warmth of Reichlen (who I saw last year) or Alexandra Hughes (at PA ballet), but I definitely wasn't disappointed in seeing her and would be happy to see her again in the future.

I will watch out for him! I guess because of Cote's injury, this will be his and Rodriguez' debut performances?

No, it's sickening, because a lot of Misty's fans are young, both black and white. And bringing a family to the ballet at 120.00 bucks to sit in the top tier at the opera house is difficult for even middle class folks. And to charge double the other shows, when Misty is performing a whole 8 minutes is crazy. She's not dancing Aurora. And with that, I'm done discussing this.

If you look at the Friday night Misty performance it is selling far under the Saturday non-Misty matinee (and the Sat matinee is still half the price of Misty's two shows) That is not supply and demand. That is taking advantage of a marquee name to maximize profit.