Yaaayyy I just clapped and my roommate was all surprised and wondered what the hell happened! I am thrilled for all, but mostly for Unity, Indiana, Joseph and Harrison. These are not surprising and they were a long time coming. I am thrilled to see them finally happen!

Did anybody see Unity Phelan's Dewdrop? Would love to hear some thoughts.

The Miami Herald review of the premiere:

http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/article109940677.html

It's a harsh one, but some of the points match some of yours, cubanmiamiboy. 

 Patricia Delgado had surgery a few weeks ago: 

I am not sure where Jeannette is.

On 8/19/2016 at 5:37 AM, Emma said:

The website has been updated to include the recently promoted apprentices.  Congratulations to Christopher Grant, Rachel Hutsell, Sasonah Huttenbach, and Alston MacGill!

That's great, and I am pretty excited about Alston. I've never had the chance to see her dance but have heard great things about her. It is no surprise she was hired in the Corps.

Thanks, I'm catching up now. I'm watching Megan prepping before the evening ballets. I did start watching the D class yesterday and got to hear a bit about from Suki but then had to run. It doesn't sound like I missed a lot, but I did love hearing so much from Suki.

The quality of the Facebook live feed is great. I wasn't expecting this. This is fun so far. I will miss some of the ballet sadly, but I am hoping I will be able to replay it later on! Great initiative.

How were Bouder's first shows back after her maternity leave? 

Ashley Bouder has announced her return to the stage on her Instagram account.

First two performances:
Vienna Waltzes (2nd waltz) on Friday September 23 at 8pm and Sunday September 25 at 3pm

A nice article in the NYT on some of the dancers in Paris:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/14/arts/dance/new-york-city-ballet-savors-the-city-of-light-paris-theatre-du-chatelet.html?smid=tw-nytimesarts&smtyp=cur

Congrats to Silas on his engagement!

Congratulations to Alec Knight who has been promoted from apprentice to the Corps de Ballet!

http://www.nycballet.com/Dancers/Dancers-Bios/Alec-Knight.aspx

Oh yay! I remember him from the Teen Vogue series! Congratulations to him!

Kind of unrelated, but Ashley Bouder's baby girl is so long! Look at those legs!

Ah yeah, I'm actually French myself, and wasn't sure if maybe that was the correct way y'all write it in English. But it sounds like the NYT just doesn't realize they aren't spelling this correctly. I thought "on point" was wrong, but wanted to make sure. Fix it, NYT!

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/28/arts/dance/miriam-miller-talks-about-her-success-at-new-york-city-ballet.html

Grammar question, but shouldn't it be "on pointe" and not "on point" ? It's bugging me, but I don't know if I'm in the right.

What really made me laugh was when she was trying to correct him and she was just too short she had to jump

I think that there will be more promotions at the end of the season. There is definitely some room in the soloist and principal level. Predictions: Joseph Gordon and Unity Phelan or Indiana Woodward to soloist.

I agree with your predictions. I wouldn't mind if all 3 get promoted ;) Don't they usually do a bunch of promotions after Saratoga too?

A little fun and giggles to brighten up your hump day! Nathalia Arja attempts to teach ballet to Rob Gronkowski.

https://www.facebook.com/miamicityballet/videos/10153440803101090/

This video came up in my trending topics on Facebook. Already over 1 million views!

How exciting! Congratulations!

https://www.miamicityballet.org/press/miami-city-ballet-announces-company-roster-2016-17-season

Promotions:

Nathalia Arja - soloist to principal soloist

Chase Swatosh - corps to soloist

Shimon Ito - corps to soloist

New members:

Lauren Fadeley - joining as soloist from PAB

Amir Yogev - joining as corps dancer from PAB

Alaina Andersen - in the corps after 2 years as an apprentice

Luiz Silva - in the corps after 1 year as an apprentice

Yeepee for Nathalia Arja! I was hoping she would get promoted after the fantastic year she's had!

Anybody was there for Maria's return in Vienna?

On the NYCB Instagram account she was saying she has some foot pain, and being off for so long, she is having a harder time dealing with it so for now she has to limit her performances:

"I'm hoping to dance Apollo and Everywhere We Go in Paris, at least -- and Mozartiana and Symphony in C are on the back burner. I just have to see; my foot's been giving me some issues.

I've had issues with it my whole career, but having been off it so long, I've lost all of that strength to hide the issues, so now they're very visible and they're like, every time I start to do something, or move fast -- it doesn't have the strength. And getting that back has been really hard. I've had to start over like three times -- this spring, I wanted to do Midsummer, I wanted to do Dances (at a Gathering), I was supposed to come back for Everywhere We Go and I was possibly going to do Diamonds -- but now it's just Vienna.
You make a plan, but it's not always what you think it's going to be. Which is tough, because you have an aspiration of what you think you'll come back to -- but at the same time, maybe I wasn't ready, or maybe I needed more time with the baby.

I hope I can come back and do all my roles. I hope my body lets me. It's a challenge; I feel like when I first started back, I thought 'Oh, this is never going to happen!' and my body was like nuh-uh. You realize that you lose all your muscles in your core, so lifting your leg is so hard. Front and back I can do now, but the side is still hard and I end up doing weird things with my hips.

I spoke with (retired Principal Dancer and mom of two) Jenny Ringer and she said, "Maria, honestly, it took me six months both times I had the babies. And all of a sudden, it just clicks; all of a sudden my body just started to work." So, we'll see."

I did not want to create a whole new thread for this, but Ashley gave birth to a baby girl today! Congratulations to her and her fiance!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BE-cFx1v_4f/

Casting for Week 5:

http://www.nycballet.com/NYCB/media/NYCBMediaLibrary/PDFs/Press/Casting/NYCB_Casting_May-17-22,-2016_lobby.pdf

WOW! Those are some incredible videos.

And that's her latest one, literally 5 days before her due date! My mind is blown.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEq0_bQP_2Z/?taken-by=ashleybouder

That doesn't explain them shutting down Devin Alberda's instagram account.

This isn't hearsay--although it is of course only his side of the story.

From the one remaining photo in his account posted 19hrs ago:

"As some of you may know, @nycballet has always been resistant to my photographic project. This year has been the most difficult so far and unfortunately the company has recently suspended my photography privileges backstage indefinitely.

I will continue to post photographs from the studio and pray that my privileges will be reinstated."

All the comments people are leaving on this photo (I did as well) are very heartwarming and coming as much from NYCB patrons to simple fans all over the world. Maybe the NYCB team (and/or the Trust, if they are the reason behind this) will see the support and all the good marketing and free publicity he's brought to the company.

I am very confused about NYCB/The Balanchine Trust's media strategy. While it's one of the best I've seen, it could still be significantly better.

First, I don't know whether any of you follow Devin Alberda's instagram account, but it's filled with gorgeous photos of the dancers in class and backstage. Apparently something went down (compensation negotiation failures perhaps?) and his backstage photography privileges have been suspended. I personally thought this was great marketing that NYCB should have taken advantage of.

Second, I don't understand why The Balanchine Trust is so aggressive against YouTube videos featuring Balanchine choreography. I much prefer to see a performance on YouTube and get a sense of whether or not I'd enjoy it before purchasing tickets. Therefore, I am much more likely to purchase tickets for ballets I've seen at least clips of, and these clips make me more excited to see the performance live.

Just ranting -- thanks for listening.

I wanted to post about Devin's photographs but didn't know where to put it. I totally agree with you!! His photographs were stunning, and I am so sad everything is gone. To be honest, I stumbled on his photographs a while ago on IG, and I didn't even know who he was at the time, but I just found his work so beautiful, I had to follow him. His photographs honestly sparked my interest in NYCB and in getting to know the dancers better. He captured the essence and beauty of ballet incredibly well. I live in Miami, but through his account, I felt like I too was part of the audience and could experience the magic, even so far away. I do find it very nice and touching that many other dancers in the company have been posting some of his photos on their own accounts as support.

It is very unfortunate he is not allowed to post any more photos. I don't know what went down, but I think social media is the way to go nowadays for basically every business and that includes companies. I LOVED it when Miami City Ballet did a whole Snapchat story with behind the scenes videos of their Midsummer's performances. On top of that, they post tons of videos and photos from the wings and rehearsals on their own IG account. They are making ballet very accessible, especially to the younger generations, and it's wonderful. That's what helps fill the seats.

Similarly, I agree on the YouTube videos. It is not because I have seen a performance on YouTube that I am less likely to go see it live, if that's what they worry about. On the contrary, if I love it, I'm much more likely to go buy a ticket to see it.