Just an Observer

How would one know from the Boylston Simkin video that their performances weren't more a function of inadequate rehearsal time, than their being not suited to the choreography? 

For instance, would one ever see a similarly inadequate performance of of ANYTHING from companies like Royal Ballet, POB Mariinsky, etc, which put great resources into rehearsals and training? 

Sorry.

Second Krysanova-Chudin Don Q link should have been:

On the topic of Krysanova, here she is with Chudin. 

Speed, elegance, musicality (both she and Chudin) 

I was there today as well, in the side rear orchestra (Rush ticket), and surrounding audience was well-behaved.

And - perhaps it was due to my being somewhat far from the stage and also not being such a technical maven -- I enjoyed the performance perfectly well.

(I DO know enough, however, to have picked this Odette/Odile over several of the other ones being offered this season ...)

Once the Wed night Swan Lake became available, why was it given to Seo, rather than Abrera or Lane? The Misty casting  I get - - - she attracts an audience that otherwise would not attend. But Seo? 

I attended the Sleeping Beauty Live in HD and was surprised at the seemingly poor quality of the transmission, which was dark and didn't seem any where near HD clarity. I'm curious to know whether others felt the same way and whether the poor quality was typical of other Bolshoi broadcasts. Interestingly, the Youtube posting of the performance, while it was up, was very much HD and far superior to what I saw in the the NJ theater. 

Devil's Advocate question : Given that every production has multiple performances with different principals each night, what's so terrible about having certain nights for pop star fans and the others for the more knowledgeable? It's not like the Met, where there's no way of avoiding singers not up to the part, unless one skips the production entirely. Nor is like a team sport, where the whole team would be affected, were one of the key players not at a professional level.

Juliet not using her hands in terms of support while being lifted I think has a great deal to do with how Romeo is supporting and lifting her. In the Ferr/Eagling, Cuthbertson/Bonelli, Girkland/Dowell pairings when Romeo lifts Juliet he's not only using his hands and also his forearms when lifting Juliet which gives Juliet a greater sense of support making it possible for her to rise both her arms. At least that's how I'm seeing it.

See 6:34 here, is the difference more due to her being older than in the Eagling performance or perhaps due to Eagling's having more upper body strength and being able to do the lift differently?:

Also the press lifts. Do they now just let every Juliet use her downstage arm to balance on Romeo's shoulder? Every Juliet I saw except maybe Obraztsova (I can't remember) did that. Did the arms lifted skywards die out with Ferri? Macmillan would not be happy methinks.

YouTube search for Rome juliet balcony yields multiple performances. For someone relatively new to this, could you explain what ferri does differently?

How would Lane and and Gorak (or anyone else who hasn't been rehearsing for the role) be able to step in on one day's notice?

I was there as well.

Agree 100%

Flowing, delicate movement.

Magnificent realization of character.

Magnificent sense of music.

A privilege to have been there.

The "Black Swan" controversy was an issue for the movie, not ABT.

And Millipied is married to Natalie Portman, who was "exposed" as not having danced what people thought she had.

Not faulting Lane. Agree that it would be cruel and unjust for it to be held against her, if that were the case - - - and no one will know to what extent this is true.

So, there must be a reason other than her dancing that causes Lane to be overlooked or, more actively, ignored? Is it because of her "Black Swan" controversy?

Benjamin Millepied and Kevin McKenzie are colleagues and friends, I would assume.

With the enthusiasm expressed here, does that mean you would pick Wed evening cast over Mon evening's?

I suppose that Mon night, Murphy/Gomes is the performance to choose.

If I can't make it that night, which of the other Mon-Thurs performances would be second choice?

Found last night's performance beautiful and wonderfully moving.

Vishneva was all fluidity, grace, and emotional expressiveness.

Gomes' rock-steadysupport and slow lowering of Vishneva was key.

I felt privileged to have been there.

Seating Question:

Is BAM balcony equivalent to Koch 4th tier, in terms of distance from stage?

Regarding London's not selling well and New York's doing better:

1) Were it not for the turnout of Russians coming to root for the home team, seems to me that Koch Theater would have been much less full as well.

2)As for discounting, what were they, who were they offered to, and how does one find out about them?

I attended three performances in $29 seats, courtesy of Craigslist, and wondered how many more seats would have been sold had anything else been available for less than $89. The Fourth Ring was either closed entirely or fairly empty, with seats almost as expensive as the rest of the house.

From my perspective, Sarafanov did exactly what he should have, much better than the other Albrechts I've seen on video (other than Hallberg) who save their strength and do less than 10, but fall to the floor AS IF they'd just danced themselves to exhaustion.

Better an actor-dancer like Sarafanov who truly DID exhaust himself!

How is it that faked exhaustion for the sake of an elegant fall to the floor would have been better?

(BTW, young Lebedev also did 32 at the matinee, which might also be why Sarafanov decided to do his young colleague a few better the next day. Even so, I didn't see it as hot dogging -- especially when having to be on the same stage as Osipova. Did Sarafanov do the extra set at the Tues night premiere?)

Wasn't being ironic at all.

I realize that as a non-expert there are things I would miss, particularly imperfections, no different than the way an expert singer would hear an aria or expert appraiser would look at a diamond, as compared to an amateur.

However, I did think that I could sometimes (perhaps) be less likely to be caught up in the details and (perhaps) more able to see things in terms of overall impression, without being distracted by all the little things that went wrong.

And, of course, being that I was thrilled just to be there, as opposed to comparing what I saw to memories of ideal performances of the past, I would naturally be more positive.

Saw two performances of the Mikhailovsky Giselle (Wed aft with Soboleva and Thursday evening with Osipova), first time having seen classical "story" ballet in person, save for non-story NYCB performances almost 40 years ago. Looked at this board for the first time, to read others' impressions (which I did and which I appreciate) and I have a couple of comments as an amateur observer.

Enjoyed both performances immensely, which is why I immediately bought a ticket for Thurs night right after seeing the Wed matinee.

Interesting contrast between Soboleva's elegance, fluidity, lyricism, and expressive use of entire body (particularly her arms) for effect with Osipova's quickness, athleticism, dramaticism, and soaring, but with almost no added expression from her arms.

As for the men, my amateur impression, contrary to the expert observers here, was that Sarafanov's waving and collapse during his (more than) 32 (!) entrechats sixes were entirely in line with the story: Of course he collapsed roughly -- he was supposed to be dancing to exhaustion! I saw the waving, not as grandstanding to the audience, but as his pleading with Myrna to be allowed to stop. And, if anything, would have found it quite odd (and out of character) for his supposedly exhausted character to do anything other than roughly collapse, let alone finish in perfect form!