Dreamer

Spartacus, wow. I wish our artistic directors could be that daring. Western Europe is still too long of a trip from the West Coast. But I would fly anywhere if the flight is no longer than 5 hours.

Smaller-to-mid size ballet companies in the US do not necessarily provide a more stable employment or a better pay. The recently folded Silicon Valley (former San Jose ballet) is just one of the examples. Its shutdown had a devastating effect on company's dancers. They were left with no severance pay or health insurance.

I expect there will be promotions and new hires to fill up the roster of principal dancers. I am sure Helgi wouldn't have scheduled Prodigal Son for the next season if he hadn't had dancers suitable for the role.

Somehow I am not surprised. Not that I wanted to see Osipova in the first place. Disappointed about the change in the program, though.

Detailed 2016-2017 season has been announced: Program 1: Haffner Symphony (Helgi Tomasson), Jiri Bubenicek (new work), In the Countenance of Kings (Justin Peckt) Program 2: Seven Sonatas (Alexei Ratmansky), Yuri Possokhov (new work), Pas/Parts 2016 (William Forsythe) Program 3: Frankenstein (Liam Scarlett) Program 4: All Balanchine (Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Prodigal Son, Diamonds) Program 5: Fusion (Yuri Possokhov), Arthur Pita (new work), Fearful Symmetries (Liam Scarlett) Program 6: Swan Lake Program 7: Trio (Helgi Tomasson), Myles Thatcher (new work), Within the Golden Hour (Christopher Wheeldon) Program 8: Cinderella (Christopher Wheeldon)

San Francisco Ballet disclosed some details of the 2016-2017 season in an email sent today to subscribers: "If you love to see new works, you’re going to love this season, which includes the North American premiere of Liam Scarlett’s daring new Frankenstein, a co-production with The Royal Ballet, and world premieres from Jiří Bubeníček, Arthur Pita, Myles Thatcher, and Choreographer in Residence Yuri Possokhov. You'll also enjoy the return of Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson’s Swan Lake, Christopher Wheeldon’s magical Cinderella, and works by William Forsythe, Alexei Ratmansky, and Justin Peck." I guess the company opted for safe choices in repertoire - Swan Lake and Cinderella are always a sell-out and Frankenstein is likely to generate a great interest- but to me it doesn't look very exciting.

In Helgi Tomasson's staging of Giselle at the San Francsico Ballet, a ballerina does the Spessivtseva diagonal instead of a mange of pique turns.

Here is a link to the discussion around entrechat jumps: http://dancers.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=2123 Obviously, even dancers can be confused on how to count entrechat.

On both nights (2/24 and 2/27) Kondaurova performed entrechat-deux. Her ankles barely crisscrossed though and it may have looked as simple sautees to some. In youtube videos, Novikova starts with entrechat-quatre but finishes with entrechat-deux. Odd-numbered entrechat jumps land on one foot, as MRR correctly noted in his post above.

I just returned from a few day voyage to Washington DC. It was a great trip and I got overloaded with art having spent most of my time either at the Kennedy Center or in one of the museums. It was also a great pleasure meeting some of the BA members and other ballet aficionados. I saw four performances (Ekaterina Kondaurova on 2/24 and 2/27 eve, Anastasia Kolegova on 2/25 and Oksana Skorik on 2/26). Counting another four performances in Costa Mesa in September 2015 I share the number of viewings as well the feelings of this ballet with BIrdsall---I can see it another dozen of times. All three ballerinas Katia, Oksana and Anastasia were a joy to watch. But I do want to single out Oksana Skorik who has now become my favorite ballerina. I have seen her a few times now and am able to form or rather change my opinion of her which was previously heavily influenced by numerous detractors. Oksana's movements have this plush elastic quality which I don't see in other ballerinas. It is not only that her long limbs can create the most beautiful lines but it is also how she gets there. Her swan neck, pliable back and super elastic muscles give otherworldly appearance to her movements. Kondaurova gave two memorable, almost flawless performances. Her Raymonda was aristocratic from head to toe, the center of attention for rival protagonists and the audience alike. Kolegova, who I saw for the first time, was a nice discovery. Being shorter that Skorik and Kondaurova she brings other qualities to the character of Raymonda and to choreography -- faster footwork, steadier balances and crisper relevé reveal a more youthful, energetic and charming heroine. The only problem I had with Kolegova was quite a distracting noise from her pointe shoes. But maybe this was some acoustic phenomena as I only experienced it in the boxes and not in orchestra seats. As far as the Mariinsky men go, I can't shower them with the same praise. At the San Francisco Ballet we are spoiled with clean virtuoso technique and feline jumps of our male dancers so that Mariinsky couldn't impress me with their often flimsily executed triple tour en l'air. I also like to share some of my seating experience at the Kennedy Center. I will never again buy tickets for the second row in the box tier. The second row is not stacked and one pays a premium price for a restricted view. I was quite content with row P in the orchestra (the last row of the orchestra section before the passage way) but my absolutely favorite seat was in row S (second row after the passage way behind the row with wheelchair seats). Overall, I was very happy I made this journey. Though I did get completely soaked in the big storm during my commute to the theater on February 24 but I still value it as part of my experiences.

Flying in from California for the performances on February 25, 26 and 27. Would be thrilled to meet some of the folks whose posts I've been reading for years,

It is obvious that Mr.Millepied got frustrated by his inability to bring the changes he wanted. Maybe he was given false promises and got the wrong impression of the extent of his authority when he signed up for this job. But he chose to show his annoyance with the dancers and not at the managers/administrators who would be more directly related to the cause of his frustrations. It is also ironical that Mr.Millepied criticized the dancers for not being up to standard in classical ballets in which he himself had absolutely no experience.

I was at the evening performance of January 30 and Maria Kochetkova did not dance in Pas/Parts. She was replaced by Dores Andre. It led to a lot of confusion about the cast since Dores was scheduled to dance her own part but moved into Maria's role, someone else took over Dores's part, and yet another dancer (I believe it might have been Isabella DeVivo) filled in the remaining spot. The duet marked in the casting sheet as Maria Kochetkova/Francisco Mungamba was performed by Dores Andre and Henry Sidford.

This is a great news about Dana. I am glad she has a steady job in the ballet world. I know that she is also choreographing and there were even a couple of short films of her work at the San Francisco Dance Film Festival last year but I didn't get to see it.

I didn't mean any offense to tall people and apologize if my statement came across as such. My intention was only to state the fact that the raking of orchestra front was not that great but I failed to rightly explain it. And thank you for being considerate of people seating behind you.

I always had better luck with orchestra seats in a less expensive section starting with row R. On those occasions when I had more expensive tickets that were closer to the stage (row E-H) I had my views blocked by a tall person seating in front of me. I would also recommend choosing the seats as centered as possible. The side seats close to the exit doors give an angled view of the stage which might be less than ideal.

Last September Osipova cancelled her performance of Swan Lake at the Mikhailovsky in which she was originally partnered with Hallberg. "Natalia Osipova decided not to perform in this ballet with a different partner" – was the official explanation by the management. http://www.mikhailovsky.ru/en/press/news/replacing_the_performance_on_september_11/

Coviello is not an unfamiliar partner to Osipova. Besides Manon she dances R&J and Swan Lake with him.

Just a few days ago at the news coneference for Sadler Well's upcoming season Polunin criptically complained about unwillingness of "big theaters" to let him and Osipova dance together. Well, it is quite obvious now which "big theater" he had in mind.

I bought a create-your-own series of 3 performances subscription two years ago and I will never do it again. ABT's exchange policy is awful. When I wanted to exchange my tickets and called the box office I was told I could only do so in person. Don't they realize they have subscribers who live on the opposite coast and for whom a trip to the box office is not a feasible option? When I finally got a manager on the line he agreed to acommodate my request but I was subjected to a new dynamic pricing on a couple of tickets. The price of the third one happened to be less than that of the original ticket and this difference was turned into a donation. I was not allowed to apply it towards the higher priced tickets. So, I personally don't see any benefits of becoming a subscriber. Not until ABT changes its outrageous exchange policy.

There are always two sides to every story and so far we've only heard the one told by Joy. My initial empathy for her plight gradually turned into annoyanace with her constant whining and blaming everyone esle for her problems and it got to the point where I almost think of her as an ungrateful and self-righteous person. I take all her stories with a grain of salt.

The recent Mariinsky's tour to California was partially organized by Ardani. Danilian's agency managed the performances in Costa Mesa and Berkeley and this was reflected in higher ticket prices than those offered at the Music Center in Los Angeles . As I understand it all logistics issues of a tour are handled by Ardani.

Why would anyone boo? Oksana gave a beautiful performance that evening, her technique was flawless and every step breathtakingly beautiful. The audience was delighted about her promotion.

Congratulations to Oksana Skorik who was promoted to a principal after tonight performance of Raymonda.

On La Scala website it says: "The Ballet Direction has decided to commit the performances to Jacopo Tissi, young and talented artist, graduated at the Ballet School of the Teatro alla Scala Academy in June 2014".