Dreamer

Agree. I love how Cubans do fouetté turns—they beautifully show the working leg in the perfectly turned out second position at a 90 degree angle and then quickly whip it to turn. You could take a snapshot of their fully stretched leg a la second! The entire ire company looked terrific. I have not seen a single sickling or incompletely pointed foot. And five turn pirouettes seemed to be a piece of cake for these dancers. And how about eight or nine supported pirouettes? Easy. At some point, Rafael Quenedit used just one hand to spin Grettel Morejón around. Too bad, the Kennedy Center changed the initially announced three performances of DQ to just two. I am sure the third one would be a sell out as well.

At the beginning of tonight’s performance of DQ, there was a tribute for the 40th anniversary of Alicia Alonzo’s appearance at the Kennedy Center. Then she waved to audience from her box. I am glad I got to see her.

I have single tickets in Orchestra section for Don Quixote and Giselle performances of Cuban National Ballet at the Kennedy Center. Don Quixote— 5/29/18 at 7:30 pm, seat X106, $79 SOLD Don Quixote —5/30/18 at 7:30 pm, seat S128, $89 SOLD Giselle—5/31/18 at 7:30 pm, seat T116, $89 Giselle—6/1/18 at 7:30 pm, seat G103 (front row), $89 Giselle—6/2/18 at 7:30 pm, seat O114, $99 SOLD These are electronic tickets that can me emailed. Please PM me if you are interested

I also saw Bizalion in Val Caniparoli’s Ibsen’ House and in Frankenstein (Victor’s mother).

I think that many audience members would like to see a Russian or a Cuban or a French star joining the company. For me, the company looks stronger then ever before but I woudn’t mind if a yet not widely known dancer with strong classical training from a Russian or other European company joins the company at the soloist level. Adding “new blood” would definitely bring excitement and healthy competition and also help avoid complacency and stagnation.

The SFB doesn’t come to an end with Kochetkova’s departure. Its roster of principals is still quite strong. Besides YY and Sophiane Sylve, it has a beautiful and sensitive Sasha de Sola, a technically and musically impeccable Frances Chung, an expressive, quick-footed, distinguished by her clean attack and chiseled lines Ana Sophia Scheller, an elegant and emotive Sarah Van Patten and a lithe and svelte Mathilde Froustey. Not to mention a slew of very promising soloists and corps de ballet dancers. I do not expect Kochetkova’s place to remain unclaimed.

It does not look that Kochetkova is leaving SFB to take up a position at ABT. SFB and ABT seasons do not overlap, so having a bi-coastal engagement seemed to work just fine for her. The commute between NYC and SF is actually not that bad, even when one needs to have a couple of coaching sessions early spring before the start of the MET season. Her more exhausting travels would have been to Europe and Japan.

Considering that the announcement of Kochetkova’s leaving has been made so late into the season without giving her audience the chance of digesting and preparing for it, I have to wonder if it was a somewhat impromptu decision on her part.

I feel very fortunate that I got to see Masha develop from a practically unknown corps dancer to one of the world most sought after ballerinas. But the news doesn't come as a big surprise to me. Throughout the season I had a feeling it might me her last one at SFB. I don't think it was a particular successful and fulfilling year for her. Best of luck to Masha in her future endeavor.

From Mathilde Froustey’s Instagram: she will be dancing Nikiya with the Kremlin Ballet on May 11. Congratulations!

Although I do not endorse or support any negative videos of Misty Copeland (or any other dancer for that matter) but I believe that in our day and age biased, offensive and embarrassing video compilations directed at public figures, politicians or celebrities are inevitable. I am not suggesting that the anti-Copeland campaign is appropriate or justified, I am just not surprised by it. There are quite a few ballerinas/dancers who were and continue being regularly trashed and humiliated on social media with many video, posts and comments discussing their mistakes, flawed technique, lack of artistry and yes, laziness. For most parts, Copeland was spared of such vicious treatment and public shaming. And with her well-oiled PR machine she can quickly respond and quench any attempts of questioning her technical prowess or exposing her flaws. I can’t really feel sorry for Copeland as she seems to be perfectly capable and absolutely determined to fight back. It remained to be seen if her fighter’s spirit will help her become a better technician.

I don’t think Isadoda will be set on a full ballet company, just a few dancers at most. In one of her interviews, Osipova mentioned Shklyarov as a potential partner.

Can’t wait to see Scheller and Greco in Don Q next year!

pherank, I partially agree with your assessment. By the way, I was one of those people who at first did not accept Dores Andre’s promotion. I just did not see her as a versatile dancer but in the past two years I have become a convert. I can’t think of any performance in which Dores would have left me unmoved. As far as other ladies you mentioned go, Wona Park is definitely a stand-out. But she is too young and needs some time to develop and gain more experience. I see a potential in many corps dancers but Madison to me is already beyond that—she has style and grace, solid technique and experience with many soloist parts and even a principal role (the title role in Khan’s Giselle). I understood that British audiences were quite fond of her during her time at ENB.

I would love to see Madison Keesler promoted to soloist—such an elegant and intelligent dancer.

I am so happy that the company starts it’s US tour on the West coast and I can catch them before my departure to DC to see the wonderful and always exciting Cuban National Ballet. Does anyone know if the National Ballet of Ukraine will be performing to live orchestra or recorded music? The listed venues make me suspect it will be the latter.

Yes!!! Big shout-outs to Wei, Lonnie and Benjamin. I am especially happy for Lonnie who has been steadily developing his artistry to become quite an exceptional dancer.

Kochetkova may lack dramatic expressiveness but she is technically flawless. I’d rather see her than a ballerina with supposedly “true acting chops” incapable of executing fouettés. At this moment, there are no dancers at ABT who would merit a cross country trip for me, so I am saving my funds on supporting regional companies where one can witness some extraordinary talent.

When the company comes to town, it always advertises heavily, sets up a ticket booth inside shopping malls and its volunteers pass out fliers at other art venues and on public transit. Either the company has unlimited budget for promotion or their volunteers is a group of extremely dedicated people.

There were instances in the past when Osipova withdrew from a performance when her scheduled partner became unavailable. In 2014, the performance of Swan Lake at the Mikhailovsky theater in which Osipova were to dance with David Hallberg was replaced by a mixed bill program. Though Osipova did appear in one of the replacement pieces. Shklyarov is a wonderful dancer and great partner to Osipova but he never danced des Grieux before. Is there no other dancer at ROH capable of learning and dancing the role?

Joaquin De Luz will be Maria Kochetkova’s partner in Other Dances on March 21 and 22.

Many thanks to Buddy, mnacenani and MadameP for their reports from Saint Petersburg, especially for the comments on the Sleeping Beauty. I also very much appreciated the posted videos. Watching them took away my anxiety over missing something incredibly rare and supposedly glorious and breathtakingly beautiful. I sleep much better now knowing that I haven’t really miss much. I may sound sacrilegious but I much prefer “streamlined” productions where some non-essential scenes (e.g. Scène des tricoteuses) or non-dancing characters from Act 3 Wedding Scene are eliminated, provided, of course, it has superb choreography and follows the original musical tempo. I guess this explains why I enjoy the production of Sleeping Beauty at San Francisco Ballet so much—it clocks in just under 3 hours but has a constant stream of pure dance joy, fast and precise foot work and opulent costumes including gorgeously embellished pancake tutus. My major problem with Vikharev’s reconstruction are the costumes, which, to me, look too cartoonish and more like illustrations to the children’s book if Pierrot’s fairytales. I am also not a big fan of large flapping tutus and stark contrasting colors. I don’t find the purple-mustard-white color of Aurora’s wedding tutu particularly appealing. Plus, all these hideous wigs! They make these beautiful dancers look so unattractive. And lastly, the wedding is not a wedding when it doesn’t have the fish dives.

Same as sf_herminator, I was not sure I wanted to see Frankenstein again this year. But when the casting was posted and I saw the name of Ulrik Birkkjaer who joined the company this season and whom I had never seen in full-length ballet I decided to give it a try. And I was so glad I did because I greatly enjoyed the performance. I also couldn’t miss the opportunity of witnessing Aaron Robison so I ended up seeing the ballet twice. I am not sure what has changed but the ballet felt different this year, more refined, coherent and better interpreted dramatically. Maybe this always happen when dancers take on a more familiar ballet they feel more comfortable and can dance it with a greater sense of abandon and inner freedom. Notes to add: The printed cast sheet did mention Aaron Robison appearing as a guest artis courtesy of English National Ballet. The recording of the ballet score was likely happening through the entire run as the same announcement was made before the Wednesday and Thursday performances.

Hallberg has been replaced by Matthew Ball for March 9 performance of Giselle. ROH website has updated the cast.

I have mixed feelings about the instances when politics gets brought into the art. On the one hand, I support anyone’s right to express their political views. On the other hand, I loathe when protesters disrupts performances. Especially when they chose the wrong target (one example springs to my mind is when Poosy Riot’s supporters mistook Temirkanov for Gergiev).