AB'sMom

I was at the show last night. I was so pleased to see Patrick Frenette get such a great opportunity. I was also really impressed with Fanqi Li in I Now, I Then and with Chloe MIsseldine in Orlando. I don’t think I’ve seen Heo Seo very much except in Nutcracker (I guess I usually choose different casts) but absolutely loved her in this.

Some discounted seats on Goldstar as well.

It has to be tough without their own opera house. I know they tour, but for the most part it seems to be feast or famine with performing. They have long breaks where they aren’t performing and then have to shove a bunch of different ballets into a super short timeframe. It seems unsatisfying artistically and also more likely to cause injury.

I personally know writers who suffered to make ends meet during the WGA strike. My point about the difference with AGMA and some of the other unions was more about how the entire membership of AGMA doesn’t stop working when one company is having a contract dispute. I would like to think that shutting down an entire industry results in quicker contract resolutions, but they can drag out for quite a while even in those circumstances. 

I was wondering the same and assumed they are just working and being paid under the terms of the old contract. I guess it isn’t shocking that they aren’t striking because they probably can’t afford to. The AGMA situation seems unique compared to other unions because each company has different terms so the entire community of AGMA dancers doesn’t strike to support dancers at an individual company and there doesn’t seem to be a fund to support dancers if they want to strike.

I check AGMA’s website periodically and they still haven’t posted about a new agreement. It’s possible that there is one, but usually they post updates. The dancers remaining quiet about the situation seems unusual.

Especially since it is a student show with guest stars in the lead roles.

According to Pointe Magazine:

American Ballet Theatre principals Gillian Murphy and Aran Bell will appear in Jerome Robbins' Other Dances during NYCB's 2024 spring season.

How much longer is the commitment at Segerstrom? I can’t imagine bringing the sets back and forth between New York and California. It used to be a full house every year in California but I confess I’ve skipped it the last couple of years. 

I’m not sure if this is the correct place to post this:

For the space of one evening, the “Gala des Écoles de danse du XXI^e siècle” will allow students from several international institutions to perform on the Palais Garnier stage.

On this occasion, the Paris Opera Ballet School is inviting: The Canada’s National Ballet School / L’École nationale de ballet du Canada (Toronto), The Dutch National Ballet Academy (Amsterdam), La Fondazione Accademia Teatro alla Scala (Milan), The School of the Hamburg Ballet John Neumeier (Hamburg), The San Francisco Ballet School, The Royal Ballet School (London), The Royal Danish Ballet School (Copenhagen).   

https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/season-23-24/ballet/gala-des-ecole-de-danse

The event sold out immediately, probably due to presale to subscription members. What an incredible opportunity for the students.

Dutch National Ballet is performing Raymonda Dec. 9 - Jan. 1 if anyone is going to be in Amsterdam. 

I’ve seen a lot of taller dancers with shallow pliés/tight achilles. I think it’s often a physiological thing with longer limbs.

Yes, and also for Camargo. 

Casting has been posted. No Misty. Teuscher/Ahn, Seo/Camargo, Hurlin/Bell, Brandt/Cornejo, Shevchenko/Forster, Boylston/Whiteside, Trenary/Royal, Park/Stearns. The only combo doing 2 shows is Seo, Teuscher, Hurlin and Brandt. 

Minimum wage jobs tend not to require extensive experience. Professional ballet requires nearly a lifetime of training.

Daniil Simkin is dancing at the Dutch National Ballet gala on June 28th, so that’s a few days of the Met season when he won’t be available.

So many people in what are essentially finance and fundraising positions getting paid a decent wage despite clearly not being good enough at their jobs to bring in enough funding to pay the dancers a living wage. 

Just a quick note on the flooring…it isn’t just vinyl marley, there is also a structure underneath of some kind of sprung flooring. So while ABT and NYCB both use flooring from Harlequin Floors, they may not use the same subfloor. (I learned way too much about this while fashioning a home studio for my kid during Covid lock-downs).

Dutch National Ballet is filming during their production of Giselle on October 26 and 29. It will be shown in cinemas on January 21, 2024.

According to their Instagram the cast includes Olga Smirnova and Jacopo Tissi.

www.giselleballetcinema.com

My daughter and her ballet friends call them Farches (faux arches).

I wonder if that’s why there haven’t been promotions yet—no new contracts to sign.

I’m not sure about this show, but in the Netherlands they usually don’t post casting until about two weeks before the show. The entire run of Swan Lake was sold out before they even announced casting.

Is it always necessary for Juliet to be a shorter dancer? I find it interesting that taller dancers are often stuck in mom roles and shorter dancers are usually cast as younger people. I know plenty of short parents with tall teenagers. Why can’t the acting and dancing portray the characters without height coming into play? We have people playing Juliet who are clearly advanced in age, even from a distance, but a youthful-looking tall dancer isn’t cast nearly as often. Will Chloe Misseldine never get a Juliet because of her height?

But the thing is, they aren’t really coming through the school pipeline. The studio company is largely made up of dancers recruited from YAGP, Prix de Lausanne and other pre-professional schools, like Royal Ballet School. It’s rare for a student to have spent even a year at the JKO school before joining the studio company.

I was lucky enough see her in Swan Lake in Amsterdam this past March.

BTW, when I initially posted about this I kept getting error messages saying it couldn’t post, so now it is listed three times. I don’t know if someone can delete the other two.