its the mom
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Posts posted by its the mom
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1 hour ago, abatt said:
He will continue to dance with ABT during their Spring seasons at the Met
abatt, where does it say that he will continue for Met season? Am I misreading it?
I wonder if this will become more common.
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About the photo - I did not find it offensive at all, and I agree that it conveys more contemporary work usually done in the fall.
About Cirio - It was announced by English National that he would be a guest artist for the fall season: "Joining as Guest Artists next season are Jeffrey Cirio, Principal at American Ballet Theatre, who performs with the Company for the Autumn/Winter season ..."
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1 hour ago, mom2 said:
I attended both of the "international" evenings this weekend. Both evenings were wonderful - almost too much to take in!
I loved the couple from the Royal - they were clear standouts for me. I also really enjoyed the new ensemble work evening II, and I always enjoy the movement of Lil Buck and colleague. Just read the review in the NYT, which doesn't mention Lil Buck, which is unfortunate.
The opening number on Friday with the kids and Bill Irwin was also very special - what a great opportunity for the young ones!
mom2
I just wish the couple from Royal had the opportunity to dance with other dancers. I like the way the dancers from different companies have opportunities to perform with different people. Most of the dancers who perform together in Vail have very little opportunity to rehearse together until they arrive in Vail. And, of course, some of the contemporary pieces are being choreographed throughout the week. I think it makes for a very interesting show.
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Just saw this online about confronting biases in dance criticism.
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Just saw this over at balletco forum. Lots of changes at English National Ballet.
https://www.ballet.org.uk/blog-detail/promotions-new-dancers-joining-company-2017-18-season/
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2 hours ago, fondoffouettes said:
Or there's Semionova. It looks like she's dancing in one of Roberto Bolle's galas at the moment, so she has returned from maternity leave but has not been reengaged by ABT (unless they have plans to do so next season).
My bet is on Kotchetkova, though. Lane and Brandt are both filling the short girl role. And perhaps even Shevchenko could be partnered by Simkin, Cornejo or Cirio. She was partnered by Shayer in the Shostakovich Trilogy, and he seems rather short.
Edited to add: Oops. I now remember Shayer partnered Brandt, not Shevchenko.
Speaking of Bolle's galas, Cornejo (who was injured all last week) is performing Tchai Pas for the galas.
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50 minutes ago, nanushka said:
Did he languish? He joined in August 2015, and now he's going to Columbia. (He'd have had to start making plans for that after not much more than a year with the company.) Perhaps he just discovered he had a passion for something else?
1 hour ago, miliosr said:I don't think he's that tall either so he may have looked at the principal and soloist ranks and noted -- correctly -- that ABT already has plenty of shorter men in the upper ranks.
I was responding to this quote. I should have been more clear. He may have looked around and felt that he would languish in the corps, just as so many others. I am all for dancers re-creating themselves. They are very good at it and we can name numerous examples. However, I do think that many would have different trajectories in other companies.
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Boston does a good amount of neoclassical and contemporary works. If you read their bios, and I don't think the list is complete for either of them, you can see a good bit of Balanchine works:
Cirio: "His repertory includes roles in George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, Harlequinade, Ballo della Regina, Symphony in Three Movements, Melancholic in The Four Temperaments, the Third Movement in Symphony in C, Franz in Coppélia, Tarantella and Diamonds and Rubies pas de deux in Jewels." I also remember him doing A Midsummer Night's Dream, both Puck and Oberon.
Whiteside: "Whiteside's repertoire with Boston Ballet included Principal roles in George Balanchine's Theme and Variations, Coppélia, Ballo della Regina, Rubies, The Four Temperaments(Sanguinic), Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Who Cares?, Serenade, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Symphony in 3 and La Valse;"
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Just now, miliosr said:
I don't think he's that tall either so he may have looked at the principal and soloist ranks and noted -- correctly -- that ABT already has plenty of shorter men in the upper ranks.
I guess my point is that ABT is not the be all and end all. There are plenty of other companies where he would not have languished in the corps. It is a shame that someone with that kind of talent won't be dancing professionally. But I guess this is, in reality, another thread ... sit in the corps at ABT or move on to another company?
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6 minutes ago, miliosr said:
That's disappointing about Wexler. He was a principal at Texas Ballet Theater and took a demotion to corps in order to join ABT. I was following his path at ABT to see if he would be able to advance.
I agree. I saw him as a student when he studied with Peter Stark (in Florida), and thought he held great promise. Sometimes it is just a matter of picking the right company.
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6 hours ago, alexL said:
Sarah's Juliet will be heavenly!! She will be great in La Sylphide as well. Her partner better be Lendorf (who is probably the best James at ABT)
I have a feeling that some of the corp members will be promoted during the fall season(like Hoven and Cirio last year). My guess is Hurlin, Waski, and Shayer.
Hoven and Cirio were promoted this time last year, not in the fall.
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2 hours ago, Fleurfairy said:
Saturday has Cassandra Trenary dancing in the matinee and then twice in the evening. Can that be right? I don't know how intensive "Souvenir" is, but I do know Aurora's wedding pas de deux isn't a walk in the park.
We are not used to this at ABT, but it happens in other companies quite often, especially in smaller companies. Dancers do more than one ballet in a rep evening all of the time.
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"But I think that the hardest part about ABT for me is not the time situation but the fact that we only work thirty-six weeks per year. I get outside work but we’re not always available when other people want us to come. College is expensive. That’s still difficult, after all these years. I’m still collecting unemployment when I’m off."
This is not unusual for dancers and staff around the country. ABT may have less weeks of work than some companies, but they have more than others. That is why dancers try to obtain other dancing gigs or teaching jobs during the summer.
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9 hours ago, vipa said:
This whole thing creeps me out a bit. Sponsoring particular dancers and sitting on the board - really? How much does this affect promotions and casting? How much does Kevin M go to bat for talent that he wants to develope vs the money?
To sit on the Board, one must donate is my understanding. So, whether the money goes toward "sponsoring a dancer" or to buying new costumes for a certain ballet, etc., I don't understand what the difference is.
"Most major cultural institutions stipulate a minimum expected annual donation for their trustees; membership on the board of the New York City Ballet, for instance, typically costs $50,000 a year, according to people familiar with the policy. But institutions will often waive the rules for celebrities, who are recruited less for their deep pockets than for their ability to attract other people to the organization."
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/fashion/arts-groups-seek-celebrities-as-trustees.html
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I found this small extraction from Boston Ballet's older
contract:
http://bostonballet.net/?q=node/26
And this actual copy of an older contract:
http://irle.berkeley.edu/digital-collection/bargaining/pdf/0225.pdf
And an older one from PNB:
http://irle.berkeley.edu/digital-collection/bargaining/pdf/0351.pdf
Having trouble finding anything more recent.
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This article is an older one, but explains some of this concept. Again, I believe dancers would be protected here in the US from anything unsavory. I know in Boston, the dancers who are sponsored have the opportunity to sit with their sponsor(s) at the annual gala/ball. It really goes no further than that.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/15/arts/how-much-is-that-dancer-in-the-program.html
2 hours ago, sandik said:How much is the standard AGMA salary for a first year corps member?
It used to be that the AGMA contracts were published on the internet, but I am not sure they do that any longer. The first year corps member salary in an AGMA company varies from city to city and salaries are established in negotiations.
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Many AGMA contracts require that dancers who have been with the company over a certain number of years be told early enough in the season to be able to audition or prepare for their retirement. I know this is the case in Boston. I cannot imagine that ABT is all that different. I am sure Part knew well in advance that this was coming. We can speculate all we want about how it went down, but AGMA does protect them.
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1 minute ago, nanushka said:
I understand you didn't write it. I just wondered what you took it to mean, since you were apparently quoting it in support of your point. But perhaps you were just referring to the "two sides to every story" part? The rest of it seems to be making some strong assertions that are completely unsubstantiated.
There are always two sides to every story.
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Playing devil's advocate here. We never know exactly what has taken place behind the scenes, how long she has known that her contract would not be renewed, and what the offer was in terms of non-contract renewal. One other observation is that some dancers prefer not to have a send-off. Possibly my favorite ballerina ever, Larissa Ponomarenko, who was a Principal with Boston, decided it was time to retire. They offered a send-off (a la Yury Yanowsky two years ago), but she preferred to go quietly.
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12 hours ago, nanushka said:
Saturday night:
Was a bit less bothered by the schlagobers waltz choreo.
Was even more bothered by some inhibiting costumes, especially Don Zucchero's sack. It takes a lot to make me think well-executed (by A. Scott) double assemblés (probably my favorite male step) are ugly.
I agree completely and this expresses kind of what I've felt all season, in the little I've seen of him. Calvin Royal danced this last night and the contrast was striking: a taut, energetic performance. It's a chicken and egg question for me. Is Gorak disspirited because he's not advancing or is he not advancing because his performances have been beautiful but a bit flat?
Thomas Forster and Blaine Hoven were fabulous in the Cocoa and Sugar roles on Saturday afternoon. Those two are future principals in my opinion. I hope they start using them more.
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44 minutes ago, Natalia said:
Oh well, there was no harm in hoping. Maybe at company class this morn...about an hour from now (10am)???? Classes are earlier on matinee days.
Classes are actually later on two show days because they do not do as many rehearsals.
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9 hours ago, canbelto said:
I always associate Other Dances as being exactly wrong for Hallberg and Seo. It was made on Baryshnikov and Makarova, two very short dancers. Their compact size and Russian folk dance familiarity are part of the ballet's DNA. At NYCB it's still cast with short, terre-a-terre dancers. de Luz and Peck, or Garcia and Fairchild.
I think the last time ABT performed Other Dances, it was Hallberg/Murphy and Gomes/Part. Not sure if that is correct.
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1 hour ago, Fleurfairy said:
Interested about Hallberg as well. From what I heard/saw this season, his dancing was tentative. This obviously is due to coming back from his serious injury, but it made me wonder if he will ever be the same. Kind of like how Darci Kistler (whom I adored) had that terrible ankle injury. And she came back, but her dancing never quite had the same fearlessness. And Hallberg is not on the young side of his career either.
He was not tentative in his last show of Onegin in any way, at least in my opinion.
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57 minutes ago, Kaysta said:
I don't disagree that the current ABT principal roster has its weaknesses, and I completely understand how people who have been following this company for many years (especially those that lived through the golden era of the 80's to early 2000's) feel those weaknesses much more than I would. But the way out of this is not through short term one night only guest artists every night, as a few folks on this board seem to yearn for (though I'm not against having one or two per season.)
Why would any young talent want to go to a company where they know the chances of promotion are so slim and that outside artists will dance all of the coveted roles? Think of how much ABT has lost from this policy (Jared Matthews, Simone Messmer, Yuriko Kajiya, Sterling Baca, Maria Riccetto to name a few). No other company in the world operates in such a manner (with guest artists dancing almost more than their own dancers). And while I understand, as a balletomane, why it was awesome to see these world superstars in NY on a nightly basis, I strongly believe it is one of the reasons why some might see the company as "struggling" right now. ABT needs to go through some growing pains to get back on track.
I believe I have made my opinion known, so I'll stop posting about it and let it go. Besides, I'm veering us off topic.
I am only going to say this. Agreed.
Daniil Simkin Joining Staatsballett Berlin/Is Now Leaving (Announced May 2023)
in Dancers
Posted
Additionally, this comment is interesting, "Mr. Simkin said he hoped to dance in works by Mats Ek, William Forsythe, Crystal Pite, Ohad Naharin and other choreographers whose work is less frequently performed in the United States." I know there are many patrons of ABT who complain about the company doing contemporary work, but dancers do seek it.