AB'sMom

I was wondering the same thing. Perhaps it has to do with the changing of Artistic Director of the company? Maybe Jaffe will get to decide if she gets to keep the job permanently and then drop the Acting.

When I said she didn’t live in an insulated world, I meant that she didn’t still live at home with her parents like a young child. And she has traveled the world and met people from many countries, though I do understand your point that the ballet world is quite insulated. My daughter has been doing ballet since she was 3 and is moving across the world to continue this fall, but she is also very politically and socially aware. That could be more to do with her and our family and the fact that we live in the US, though.

My daughter used to order Grishko pointe shoes directly from Grishko and they shipped from their factory in the Czech Republic. This was 2-3 years ago, so I’m not sure they still have a factory there. (As a weird aside, Nikolay Grishko had signed a deal with someone else to distribute Grishko pointe shoes in the US so he got sued for selling direct to the US. Now he sells shoes under the name Nikolay in the US and Grishko worldwide. The distributor sells shoes under the Grishko name in the US).

I accept no age-related excuses for Maria Khoreva. She is 21, nearly 22 years old. She is not a child living in an insulated world.

In what Maria Khoreva had originally announced as her “time to leave Instagram” post, she had also posted a link to her Telegram, which no longer appears. The ROC Olympic ice skaters are still using Instagram. I’m wondering if they are being allowed/encouraged to still post but are being monitored. Also, I was surprised to see that Kimin Kim is still in Russia.

Victor Caixeta has joined Dutch National Ballet.

Segerstrom is only about 40-45 miles from Los Angeles, but in Southern California that can mean anywhere from 1 hour to 3 hours, depending on traffic. ABT has done their Nutcracker and usually one other performance every other year for the past five years without having any noticeable impact on Los Angeles Ballet. Honestly getting people to drive from one side of LA to the other is difficult enough, let alone regularly driving to Orange County.

Dutch National Ballet has moved all of their performances of Raymonda to April, which means canceling the performances of Made in Amsterdam that were scheduled to take place then.

Young Clara never wore pointe shoes in the production, so they must have just had her in pointe shoes for the photo with Murphy when she was young. It’s interesting to me that they used to use slightly older kids for the role of Clara. Hurlin did it when she was 14 and 15. Now the kids are almost always younger. My daughter did it when she was 11 and 12 (though I think she was the youngest at 11). There was one 14-year-old in Costa Mesa, but she was very small. The average age definitely seems to be around 12 now.

Yes, my daughter was supposed to attend and was notified earlier today that it is cancelled.

My daughter said New York City Ballet cancelled The Nutcracker tonight.

You make a good point. Ballet companies tend to be made up of young, healthy people. If they are all fully vaccinated and only get mild illness, if any illness at all, then is it really necessary to cancel shows? I guess until COVID officially transitions from a pandemic to an endemic virus, cancellations will still happen. The NFL just announced that they aren’t going to test fully vaccinated players unless they have symptoms.

Studios don’t always have poor ventilation. Someone mentioned Aran Bell. I’m not sure which videos they are talking about, but most of the studios at Segerstrom Center have ceiling heights of over 30’ and they installed massive ventilation and filtration systems during the first year of the pandemic. The whole place was completely closed to dancers (including students at the school) for all but a few weeks for a full year. They are currently testing ABT company members before they enter the building.

I was recently on an international flight and overhead a conversation between the two strangers seated behind me. Apparently the woman is an opera singer and had flown to Amsterdam to perform. Two weeks later she was going to be in Madrid. The man next to her commented about how her job was so much more interesting than the typical 9-5. Her friendly tone briefly dropped when she responded, “How many days have you worked since COVID began?” It’s terrible to see things starting to shut down again for live performers.

Hurlin is still scheduled to do two shows with Bell, but it looks like he is also replacing Forster for Shevchenko’s shows.

Is his wife (Jaclyn Oakley) going too?

I mentioned living in a densely populated county because it means there are a lot of ballet studios in my area. California has very strict reopening guidelines right now. Yesterday the Bay Area moved into the next tier, which means ballet classes can have 25% capacity now. (Room capacity, not 25% of normal class size). Unfortunately where I live the county refers complaints to the cities and the cities turn a blind eye or suggest contacting OSHA.

If only that were true of every school. I can only name one school in my very populous county that remained closed when the law required it, and even now the county only allows 10% capacity.

Meanwhile the Met has announced that they will remain closed through the entire 2020-2021 season.

It definitely seems like dancers at ABT and NYCB are still spread out all over. Some are working on projects, some aren’t. Megan Fairchild is posting from France and says she intends to stay until November.

Such happy news!

I am concerned for the schools attached to companies. Most seem to be offering classes virtually for the fall, in accordance with health ordinances. Unfortunately many other ballet studios are ignoring the rules and holding in person classes. My daughter’s studio is not only losing money while they are closed, but losing students as well. I’m not sure if the same situation is playing out everywhere, but knowing the competitive nature of many ballet students (and their parents), I imagine that it is.

An 18-year-old quarterback for Georgia State has been diagnosed with a heart condition as a result of Covid-19. He credits the team procedures and testing for doctors discovering his condition. Were he not a college football player he may have never known and assumed he was healthy. A German study has found heart abnormalities in patients months after they recover—in patients who were feeling healthy and had assumed they had fully recovered. So no, Covid is not Ebola, but it is a virus with still unknown lasting effects in many people.

It’s hard to pin down who he is talking about because no men were promoted two years ago. If you go back three, Royal was the only male dancer promoted. This seems most likely since it was two promotions back.

I was confused by that statement as well. I thought maybe he was talking about Calvin, with the implication being that the statement was directed at black male dancers in particular. The other dancer he speaks of was obviously still promoted, though, so regardless of whether it was an appropriate statement to make, it clearly didn’t keep the other dancer from being promoted.