Kathleen O'Connell

OK, I just took a deep dive into Facebook's advertising support pages. I too thought that ad conversion tracking required a user to actually click on an ad, but no: Facebook will also track and attribute a conversion based on ad impressions - i.e., a user simply viewing an ad. From the "How does Facebook attribute actions to my ads?" page: "Facebook credits (or attributes) actions to your ad if someone viewed or clicked your ad and then took an action within a specified time period." "We report actions based on impressions (views) of your ad and clicks on your ad: Clicks: A person clicked your ad and took an action. This is called click-through attribution. Impressions: A person saw your ad, didn't click it, but took an action within the attribution window. This is called view-through attribution." "Facebook credits an action to your ad if someone viewed or clicked your ad and then took a desired action (ex: purchased a product on a website) within a specified number of days. The number of days between when a person viewed or clicked your ad and then subsequently took an action is called an attribution window." Provided the company has enabled (and paid for) the right kind of tracking, Facebook will flag the purchase (and claim a conversion) even if the user only viewed the ad - no need to click through!

Yes to point one; that is why I said Facebook doesn't (to the best of my knowledge) supply non-anonymized user profile data to its customers. That it could do so, I have no doubt. Re point two: I thought I was careful to draw a distinction between a company's official pages and ads and its dancers' personal social media postings. I guess not. I absolutely agree that companies should not require their dancers post promotional content in their personal accounts. That being said, Facebook and Instagram would no doubt serve a dance company ad to a user who was actively following one of the company's dancers, liked one of their posts, or shared it with their network. A personal account can be leveraged for promotion simply by giving Facebook or Instagram useful ad-targeting information. And of course dance companies can themselves share a dancer's personal content as a means of increasing reach.

I don't think this is very much different from what I was referring to with "engine of meaning." The plot is the mechanism by which the characters reveal themselves to us; they are what they do (or don't do, as the case may be) and how they do it. To me, a non-narrative ballet depicts or evokes an emotional state or a state of mind; it doesn't tell us much about what provoked that state of mind beyond the basics: "we're in love!" or "I grieve." A narrative ballet places that emotional state in the context of some specific action or situation: "the guy I don't love just informed me that the guy I do love has betrayed me and I am so out of my mind with grief that I will now proceed to dance myself to death." I don't ask for much plot; as Balanchine put it, how much story do you need? But I do draw the line at some things: a racist plot would be one. A frothy plot is fine; a contrived one less so. Plots also imply a moral arc: some are worth attending to; some are better off abandoned. And I absolutely agree with you regarding the affective potential of dance: it is body language in its most potent form. It is ideally suited to the ineffable.

Nope. I'm offended if dancers are cast because they are black.

Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram have a robust array of tools for marketers that would allow a ballet company to make a pretty direct link between ad views and subsequent ticket purchases, e.g., the Facebook Pixel and Offline Conversions API. Now, this applies to the company's own Facebook page and ads, but I would be shocked if Facebook, via its ubiquitous and exquisitely fine-tuned tracking tools, couldn't link someone who, say, liked Sara Mearns' Instagram feed to someone who bought a ticket to NYCB. That's how they make their money: they sell ads based on their ability to serve them to exactly the right people; and to know who those people are, Facebook tracks everything they touch online and off. (To be clear: Facebook uses this info itself; I don't believe it makes the individual profiles it compiles available to third parties.) If NYCB or ABT or any other company decided it wanted to advertise on Facebook or Instagram (and they may well do so already), those ads would end up in the feed of likely prospects. If Facebook wanted to tell NYCB how many Sara Mearns followers also bought an NYCB ticket, it could probably do so within a reasonable margin of error. Facebook also offers any number of tools to monitor engagement. If a company doesn't know the age, gender, and location of the people viewing its page or what content gets the best response or what people do after they see it, its not because Facebook isn't telling them. This Washington Post article identifies the "98 personal data points that Facebook uses to target ads to you." It's pretty startling. If I were a ballet company, I'd be creating as much shareable social media content as my budget would allow.

Yes and no. I think the ballet gives us leave to rage against the agents of Giselle's victimization: Albrecht's unthinking cruelty and the social structure that has trapped them both. Every now and then I do get annoyed with her having to save him, though.

Moderators - please move this to another thread if you think it appropriate! Nope. I'm taking the plots at their word. Indeed, I take plots both literally and seriously () because in narrative forms like story ballets they are the engine of meaning. This has nothing to do with "realism" in the sense of absolute fidelity to observed reality: a work can be both fantastical and serious at once provided it is intellectually consistent. That's what proper world-building is all about. What I'm arguing is that Swan Lake doesn't have the kind of intellectual, moral, or psychological consistency that, say, Giselle and La Sylphide have, despite the fact that both of the latter rely heavily on the supernatural. I think this makes them better ballets, but of course your mileage may vary. (If I never saw Swan Lake again, my life would not be materially altered for the worse, but I'd be absolutely disconsolate at the thought of losing La Sylphide, which I think is just about the most perfect story ballet ever.) Swan Lake's plot has the following key drivers: 1) Odette is under an enchantment from which she can only be released by an unbroken vow of first and true love. 2) Prince Siegfried must choose a bride at his 21st birthday ball, because that's what grown-up princes do. 3) Rothbart tricks Siegfried into breaking his vow to Odette via a ruse -- disguising his daughter Odile so that she looks like Odette -- perpetrated at the very ball at which Siegfried must choose his bride. 4) Siegfried rushes off to beg forgiveness for his (presumed) betrayal. 5) Note that there is no ending here! More on that below. (I'm talking about the 1895 libretto; the 1877 version is rather different in a number of key respects, including Benno's not being fooled by Odile and a rather grim ending which features neither redemption nor the triumph of true love over evil. It's a better plot.) So, Siegfried thinks he's (ahem no pun intended) killing two birds with one stone: he's being true to both Odette and his social obligation to marry. Siegfried isn't undone because he thinks Odile is smokin' hot; he's undone because he thinks she's Odette. In essence, Rothbart gets him on a technicality. As far as I'm concerned, this makes the ballet hollow at its core. We are set up to believe that Siegfried has done something for which he must beg forgiveness and by which Odette will be forever doomed, but what is his crime? Although he doesn't perceive the spectral Odette pleading with him not to be deceived -- which is potentially some kind of moral failing -- why would he when he has every reason to believe he's got the flesh and blood Odette right there in front of him? I've yet to see a staging where that spectral Odette is more than a dim figure far away from center stage; half the time the audience doesn't notice her. If Siegfried's crime is being deceived when he shouldn't have been, the staging and choreography need to make that the focal point of the act. (As it happens the focal point seems to be counting fouéttes) Now, I can imagine different staging / choreography that would render Siegfried's inability to perceive the spectral -- but true -- Odette a genuine moral culpability, but that would make it impossible for the same ballerina to dance both roles, and there isn't an AD on the planet who'd even think of touching that one. Finally, I think it's telling that every director seems to believe that they can change the ending without doing violence to the whole -- or perhaps even believes that by changing the ending they're fixing something. A Choose Your Own Adventure approach to dramaturgy doesn't suggest a coherent dramatic arc. In theory, my outline of the plot should have included the ending, but now we are treated to everything from living happily ever after to death and destruction. But no matter which ending we get, it doesn't really solve the problem of that hollow core. Not to digress too much, but here's my problem with the love-potion in Tristan: it absolves Tristan and Isolde of any moral agency. I'd find it a more interesting drama if Tristan and Isolde fell in love without the aid of a potion, despite their past history and in full consciousness of their transgression. I do give Wagner full props for the Tristan chord and the impact his use of chromaticism had on common practice tonality. (The Tristan Chord was my ringtone for a while, which is about the geekiest thing imaginable).

Short answer: 1) I don't find that the transition from swans to maidens to swans again is clear enough theatrically and I find the attempted mimesis of the whole swan arms thing utterly annoying. 2) Plot silliness masquerading as eternal truth. Ether Sigfried is a giant dolt for not being able to distinguish Odette from Odile or the whole broken vow thing is a false test: if Odile is in every way a faithful replica of Odette, and Sigfried thinks he's asking for Odette's hand, he hasn't broken his vow in any meaningful sense. (I have a similar problem with Tristan and Isolde: how meaningful is their love if a magic potion was required to achieve it, but I digress ...) 3) Meh. Not a fan of maiden-as-love's-victim. Give me Swanilda, thank you very much.

I should have worded my original post more carefully. There have been many seasons in which NYCB exclusively cast Von Rothbart with dancers of color: Fall 2015, for example, when Silas Farley and Preston Chamblee alternated in the role, which unfortunately makes it seem like skin color is the determining factor. I sat through more than one performance featuring the magnificent Albert Evans as Rothbart and the underwhelming Nilas Martins as Siegfried. I dunno, maybe I was in the tank for Evans, but that just seemed nuts to me -- and unfortunately it's a pattern that seems to have persisted. It strikes me as tone-deaf at best (especially in the current environment), and it pains me every time it happens. The company has plenty of good things it could (and should!) give both Farley and Preston to do, and its version of Rothbart isn't much of a of break-out opportunity in any event. ABT's situation is very different: many of its principal and up-and-coming dancers rotate through the "Purple Rothbart" role and it would be surprising if a dancer the company viewed as a genuine prospect didn't get a crack at it. There is little doubt in my mind that ABT cast Royal in the role because of his talent and I would have been happy to see him perform it. Finally, I gather I am the only balletomane on the planet who doesn't like Swan Lake. Heck, I don't even like the Maryinksy production. But yes, I find Martins' version a special kind of hell. (My favorite version is Matthew Bourne's; that's how warped I am about this particular ballet.)

Sigh. This is a tough one. I despise Martins' Swan. First and foremost, it's an ugly production - any eyesore pure and simple. The sets and costumes aren't just hard to look at: they aren't theatrical - i.e., they do nothing to help tell the story by providing context or a dramatic frame. This is a problem because Martins has so stripped his version of any effective storytelling that it leaves his dancers without much space to create a genuine, dramatic resonance. T. Reichlen and T. Angle -- who managed to wring a whole Tudor ballet out of the last five minutes of the "Wienerwald" section of Vienna Waltzes (that's the first section) -- could do nothing with it despite some pretty glorious dancing. So, there are dancers one wants to see, but they're pitted against a production that works against their talents at every step. In any event, I've vowed to stay away from this production until Martins decides to stop casting Von Rothbart with dancers of color.

This is was my dream program when I was an absolute newbie, so I don't think I can take any credit for great insight. But maybe we can say Balanchine is a very good tutor!

I have a whole archipelago of desert islands! But here's the first I ever stuck my flag into: Serenade Apollo Four Temperaments

Agree, agree, agree ... plus, I'd rather see musical singles than doubles and triples that have no relationship to the music. A single perfectly timed with a cymbal crash has much more éclat than a random double or single. The composer put all those flourishes in the music for a reason - make them count! But yup, it's a practice video and Brandt is a serious artist - I think we can count on her to give it her all.

Helene, I love the idea of Episodes as a palate-cleanser.

I absolutely agree about the sad omission of anything from ABT's jewel box of Tudor! Per the repertory page, here's what they have: Continuo Dark Elegies Dim Lustre Echoing of Trumpets Fandango Gala Performance Goya Pastoral Jardin Aux Lilas Judgment of Paris The Leaves Are Fading Little Improvisations Nimbus Offenbach in the Underworld Pillar of Fire Romeo and Juliet Shadow of the Wind Shadowplay The Tiller in the Fields Undertow The Theater Formerly Known as State is a far better venue for most of the Tudor rep than the vast reaches of the Met and it's a part of the company's heritage that they should both conserve and celebrate. A revival of some of the lesser known (and maybe just plain lesser) works might be too much to ask for, but why not take the opportunity to put the new / newish crop of principals and soloists through their Jardin or Pillar paces? That being said, there are things on the fall calendar that are worth seeing, especially Ashton's Symphonic Variations and Ratmansky's Serenade after Plato's Symposium. I try to see all the Ashton I can and while I'm not a Ratmansky completist, I found Symposium well worth a second look. Fortunately, both are on the 10/21/17 matinee program with Other Dances and the Ratmansky premiere (with Shevchenko and Royal), so I grabbed a ticket.

It may have been Hackbarth's choice. New York and NYCB isn't for everyone and she might have discovered that during her apprenticeship. Since she has already studied in Germany, going back might have had some appeal to her. Or she might have liked Semperoper's more eclectic repertory, or the opportunity to dance in a smaller company with more opportunities, etc, etc, etc. I think we naturally assume that NYCB is the end goal of every SAB student & apprentice, but it must sometimes happen that other opportunities have more appeal. PS - I wish her well! I saw her in a couple of things and thought she had a genuine and lovely stage presence.

Hackbarth has joined Semperoper Dresden. If I'm not mistaken, she studied at the Cranko School in Stuttgart for a time.

Oh, I will miss them both! I got a chance to see Dronova dance in a number of ballets last season, and she looked terrific in everything: she was much more than a reliable corps stalwart. Alas, I didn't get to see Arthurs in much since her return from maternity leave, but I'd certainly hoped to see more of her.

For what it's worth, I didn't find "With a Chance of Rain" particularly vulgar or unballetic. The real problem with the Copeland / Whiteside duet was that it came far to early in the ballet; had it come later the audience would have had more context with which to evaluate those gestures in terms of the particular world (or community or society - pick your term) that Scarlett was evoking on stage. I promise you, they weren't there merely to titillate us: they were there to tell us something about that couple and their relationship. I would actually like to see the work again, but won't be able to this time around.

Pantone has created a standardized color in honor of The Purple One: Love Symbol #2 or, officially

I did see Kira Nichols and Sean Lavery perform Other Dances at NYCB. They may be casting it with shorter dancers now, but that wasn't always the rule.

I've enjoyed what I've seen of Feld's choreography, especially The Unanswered Question (NYT review here), but I suspect he won't be considered a capital-M major dance-maker once the dust has settled on his generation of choreographers. His truest and best legacy lies elsewhere: Ballet Tech, which is now part of NYC's public school system. Here's a recent NY Times #SpeakingInDance item featuring three of the school's students performing some of Feld's '80's choreography. Here's a TDF article about the school and its mission. And, he was one of the founders of The Joyce.

NYCB has presented quite a few Feld ballets over the years, mostly between the late 80's - early 00's. I liked them. In no particular order: The Unanswered Question Backchat Étoile Polaire Organon Intermezzo No. 1 A Stair Dance I don't think the company has presented any of these within the last decade, which is too bad.

While the lede doesn't top the absolute perfection of "Headless Body in Topless Bar," there's a kind of breeziness to it that evokes the big-screen screwball comedy depiction of journalism in a bygone era, featuring madcap heiresses, fast-talking dames, and cigar-chomping copy desk veterans pounding away on typewriters. You can practically see Barbara Stanwyck racing to the phone to dictate her story to the copy desk before the late edition closes. Of course the real story is sadder than that, and would be much sadder still for a young man or woman without Ms. Martins' financial and social resources, as the Post's readership is probably keenly aware.

I'm happy to grant Ms. Martins and her family their privacy, but Lordy! can I give that NY Post article one big giant eye roll: Honestly, I don't know whether to laugh out loud or just throw down my pen and slow clap in admiration.