stuben

Just curious if Copeland can sing? Is this something in her future...to be moving towards Broadway? In case things don't go her way with the ballet world?

This has already been posted on the thread but confirming this from Bard in Oct.: <http://www.bard.edu/news/events/?year=2015&month=10> The Green Table by Kurt Jooss, with live music Company B by Paul Taylor World premiere of a new work by Mark Morris, with live music Perhaps a preview of fall? Anyway, hope everyone enjoys their 4th on BA!

After reading so much about the future of ABT, which we all agree will be interesting to see, I am just hope I can continue to hear about the 3 wonderful ballerinas who have given us all so much all these years, I will surely miss Kent, Herrera and Reyes next season I hope we will continue to hear about new chapters in their lives. Does anyone know of their plans? I only read in the program that Reyes will continue teaching, which is so commendable of her to pass on knowledge to the next generation. Where and when and hope we will continue to see her dance somewhere in the US? In the NY Times interview about their retirements, Herrera mentioned she is not one for social media, which I can't blame her myself sometimes, but then again I haven't seen anything further and just so sad if she just disappears from us all. We all can assume Kent will be around knowing whom her husband is, so I hope she will now enjoy her lovely children for a while before making her decisions. I wish all three would somehow pass on their torch or stay in the game as I have kept watch of another favorite couple Dvorovenko and Beloserkovsky. Guess I am just old fashioned and love to see those I enjoyed watching all these years continue to florish.

IMO, perhaps in age since I believe Lane is older than both, however, Lane has an extensive repertoire as compared to both, especially with Trenary whom I have only seen doing "cute and flirty" roles, and I guess time will tell if either can indeed competite in skills as Lane.

Thanks for the reminder laurel! I recall her performance as well and I believe that was my first time seeing Simkin partner, and felt he wasn't ready then. Lane remains a special place in my heart and, I too cannot understand, like many on BA as to why she was overlooked again :/ As for Simkin, I still love him in his solos but still have my doubts about his partnering, as recent as the Swan Lake with Boylston, IMO she was holding her own and it seemed as if he was concentrating so much they lost the connection, at certain parts it was quite evident that he wanted to be sure she was partnered well and forgot the theatrics part. Thus far he did very well as Bluebird, however, that was not a full length ballet and not quite as intense of partnering as SL or SB. I wish only the best for Lane and IMO, it remains to be seen with Simkin's partnering skills.

This is probably more of the Wish list from another thread than this one, I thought I would do a bit of research and came up with a few more that maybe ABT should consider, if their some of their own dancers can have these why can't they consult them or whomever did all these sites? http://www.gillianmurphy.com/ http://www.nicolegraniero.com/ http://www.marianelanunez.com/ http://www.paulinawaski.com/ I guess I just want to see something fresh after all these years.

Thanks to both your thoughts about this as I can easily explain to my grandchild about weight and ballet issues. Much appreciated.

Not sure if anyone on BA saw this video put out by the Time 100 issue about Copeland on changing the face of ballet: < One quote within the video puzzles me, she says she wants children to know that you don’t “have to be a white woman that’s rail thin” to make it in ballet. How shoud a white woman take this? First, I wouldn't think there is anyone overweight who can get into ballet, I would think all those dancers have to be in shape? Plus as I see it there are "thin" black dancers in other companies as well as one in mind at ABT, Lavine?

Thank you for the response aurora

Thanks for the explanations Pique Arabesque much appreciated! Seems to be that NYCB has a bit more fair playing field if that is the case? Since my question would be how would any AD see successes if some of the talented corps is not even given the chance to audition for the roles? Perhaps roles are given based on height and need? Then again, how does Martin do what he has done to nurture his corps or dancers?

I have to admit I am not as knowledgeable as yourself Natalia and many others on BA about the qualifications for promotions, so I am curious if these are merit based as what I have seen with some competitions. Since several of the recent promotions, other than Stella's, seems a bit odd to me. Just based on what I have seen and read, IMO, one or two of the recent moves are a bit sooner than I would have thought, just based on experience. With one or two well presented and danced roles/parts IMO doesn't warrant the moves. Does height or need come into place for considerations? Then again perhaps this will give opportunities to further coaching and hopefully improvements, however, there are a few left behind whom would have done likewise as well if they were given the same opportunity.

Check out the Roster Changes at ABT as I posted the same link, great minds think alike

It is just overall quite interesting to me that very little is mentioned the fact that Stella is a Filipino/American and maybe someone can confirm on BA that she maybe the first as well to become principal at ABT? I am glad to have found this article to finally give her some credit in the media: http://thefilam.net/archives/18842

Thank you for the understanding abatt and agree about Boylston as I did get to see her several times this season, the last was Swan Lake and she did exceptionally well. As mentioned, now Copeland will have to proof herself especially with more chances of coaching compared to the talent left behind in the corps who, IMO, can use more funding for coaching opportunities.

I guess I have been misunderstood Plisskin with my comment, and do apologize to anyone on BA who may think I am on the "hate" bandwagon, I have not even mentioned that word, merely observation with all the media hype. The word hate is not in my vocabulary and as far as I am concerned has done nothing good for this country or anywhere. I do however feel that equal time for equal promotions would be the gracious thing to do. Perhaps ABT marketing should learn from Copeland's PR agents as to how they can promote the entire company, it worked for her so there is something to learn from ... this may gain ticket sales too!?

She indeed has PR agent or agents to do all this, I totally agree Plisskin. She was on the news all last night and I saw her again this morning, she is everywhere. Stella accepted her promotion with grace and humility being the more deserving one. I understand all the hype and appreciate the reasons, however, I just feel this is a bit over the top for my taste. I just feel after seeing her dance that this was not a talent driven promotion, but now that it is done she will have to proof herself worthy. I guess there is a saying: Be careful what you wish for!

Isn't Baca or Royal just as tall? I would think they would be wonderful tall partners, I have seen both and believe they have done more than Davis or Mantei? I might be that I missed shows they have been in.

Ratmansky did indeed give those young ladies a boost in their advancements, which is why my previous post about the depth of Trenary's work is lacking to be advanced so quickly even with talent, however, there may be other factors unknown to us on BA. Totally agree with developing the corps but I would think Giangeruso and Waski would certainly be reviewed for the Myrtha role before Forsythe. As I have seen both in SB as fairies and both have been noticed by MacCaulay.

If you mean Baca then it might very well be if based on their bios on the website, at least he joined a year later than Brandt and a month later then Trenary. Hard to calculate age unless the dancers bios gives their age when they joined, as with Waski, it is clear she would be the younger amoung these ladies since her bio states her joining at 16 in 2011, easy math for that.

I believe so and actually am shocked that Royal was not in the mix in today's announcement, I guess we all have our own favored dancers and true as bingham mentions their time will come and I certainly hope so as well. Good obervation nanushka, but this "breakout" season seems to be more in the Sleeping Beauty camp with Florine and fairies, possibly a Ratmansky favored dancer too. Whereas Shevchenko has had a wider range in her repertoire. If this is now the new norm, I do hope they will nurture young talents like Waski whom Macaulay has noticed as well, as I have noticed her in the Nutcracker for several years, and during the last fall season as well as the most recent big swans, I do look forward to seeing more of her.

Thanks for this detailed posts for all and glad to see Stella finally got what is so well deserved. Happy for Paris as well after all these years of wonderful repertoire in her pocket, however, it is interesting to see Trenary with such seeming less experience as written compared to the rest to be judged so quickly, she is quite talented as I have seen her in Chinese for the Nutcracker and lead flirt, very similar roles IMO. I have read conflicting thoughts from other blogs about her PDT looking quite similar to Florine, perhaps her promotion is justified to fill a need/gap.

If this is true, I just hope this won't be another overworked dancer, running back and forth, who ends up bailing with injuries right before another ABT season. BTW I guess no news about Moore's replacement in this announcement? Nor changes to the much anticipated AD changes?

Finally had time to do my weigh in for whatever it is worth, the show was a sell out for what I saw and actually over heard one young gentleman, who most likely is a tourist in town, mentioning to someone on his cell that he wasn't able to get a ticket so he had to settle for across the theatre to the RB. It was quite funny for me as I can tell he had no idea what he was seeing, whomever was on the other side of the phone was encouraging him to see a ballet. The audience seems to have had many young people there and perhaps from all the various summer intensives that has begun around town. I was mixed in my feelings with the partering, I have to admist many things said may be very subjective and I do hope to be more objective to what I have to say. I loved both Simkin and Bolyston in their perspective dances and throughly enjoyed the performance, but I have to be honest that I didn't feel the connection in certain parts of the show. Their techniques are as always amazing to me, but if felt that Simkin was concentrating a bit too much to get the partnering right then his theatrics that was needed, IMO. With this said, this is a good partnership to start with and I know they will do well with more given opportunities together to become the much loved Corella/Herrera one day. For the rest of the show, I felt the corps swans started a bit messy (timing of legs) but ended on a nice note, both Cygnettes with Copeland, Brandt, Lane and Aihara, as well as Big Swans with Waski and Hamrick were very together. I had wished to have seen the much talked about Shevchenko on this thread, but sorry to have missed her in this particular performance. I was hoping she would be one of the princesses as I felt they could have used her. Based on what I saw, I feel that ABT should definitely consider coaching several of these talented young dancers as I feel their talents need to be nurtured to do great things for this company. Well, again, many things can be said and hope to have given a less subjective opinion, but overall I am glad I was there to see some of my favorites stars and enjoyed a nice afternoon.

That is indeed good to hear, I was mostly just curious about the Rock school based on some comments on this feed. I have yet to see her perform this season, guess I was missing her cast. I hope to see her dance at tomorrow's performance and will certainly look for her in the program.

I have heard through the years that they do produce quite a few wonderful dancers for other companies. I have also heard that they do excel technically amoung other schools. I tend to agree after seeing a few of their students at one of the regional YAGP competitions a few years ago, however, it seems they show great skills with lots of tricks, and I have to agree that the audience loved it, but is that enough for an all round dancer? I would guess musicality or mime/expressions should be equally important? I am guilty when I say this too, as I do applaud great "tricks", but then I feel robbed when I see a dance showing wonderful technique without any change in emotions or expressions in certain roles.