Balletwannabe

Maybe whoever chose Ramasar thought his photo was more eye-catching for the article because he's a very handsome guy? I don't know. Sometimes people don't have an agenda and just make quick decisions. **Of course Catazaro is a very good looking man as well, but everyone has their own preferences.

I can't agree more.

I don't understand why this happens in ballet? Seems to be a common theme of not showing up for retirements if you're not bff's with the dancer. How about just showing respect for their art whether or not your friends.

Oops, I scanned the email so fast I missed the Nov 1st date. Thanks for clarifying.

Masks no longer required at the Koch.

I read the entirety of Kanye's tweets, as well as the full interviews after the white lives matter business. I listen to everything he says after controversies because it's always more than the one-liners that you pick up in media. I'm not going to argue about it. All I'm going to say is he gets the attention he wants. He's not a normal person, if that wasn't obvious. He's never actually saying exactly what he appears to be saying (he's the biggest internet troll there!). I'd be shocked if NYCB did anything about it.

They kept Peter Martins ballets... Why would they do anything about Kanye's music? His art stands alone from the person he is IMO. He's well-known to stir up trouble on purpose. NYCB knows this.

Is Ashley Hod a soloist? I've only seen her a couple of times but I thought she had striking form & strength in her dancing.

NYCB just doesn't know how to use social media to their advantage. They could encourage their dancers to have an official presence on Instagram, but they don't. These are all beautiful people & athletes. They could post aesthetically pleasing dance photos & relatable content (behind the scenes photos/videos). There are people ("influencers") on Instagram who have zero talent, do nothing but post beautiful photos and get huge followings. Yes no one cares about the dancers... but why would they? Where are they supposed to get to know them if not on social media? Wendy Whelan *could* have a huge following if she wanted it. She could post old photos of herself & promote the company. I don't think any effort is being put into teaching staff & dancers how to utilize Instagram to its fullest.

The general public loved the on pointe series and still ask about those students on social media. They should do a series on company life.

I don't have any issue with people being honest about what they like seeing- but the verbiage I've seen used (not just here) is definitely fat shaming her, so I just think people should be honest- the audience prefers underweight dancers. Elite female ballet dancers (and elite athletes in many other sports) in the best of shape really can't help but be underweight. And again, that doesn't mean that they're not healthy. BMI charts have nothing (or very little) to do with health.

I went last night to see Hyltin, was not disappointed, she was magical. I passed Ashley Bouder on the street before the performance...she is not overweight. I'm going to take a guess that most of the NYCB dancers would fall in the underweight category on a BMI chart. This is to say nothing about "health", they could ALL be healthy, but my point is, we're conditioned to seeing super skinny, so in comparison, Bouder looks out of place (and I would note, one of the corp members as well, I don't know her name), despite being a perfectly average size. Just keep that in mind next time someone on this website comments "I wish they would eat a hamburger". What you're really saying is "I wish they would eat more, but not too much, because there's an aesthetically acceptable weight for a dancer and they must remain in that razor thin margin". You can't win with the audience when it comes to weight, always something to say. So to comment on her dancing: her footwork was wonderful. I don't feel like her upper body (expressiveness, port de bras) matches the quality of her pointe work. Megan Fairchild on the other hand had the whole package last night. Just my opinion.

Post-childbirth is a whole different story than still being pregnant with your first child. I'm amazed at what Megan Fairchild's been able to do with having had twins as well. There's no surgery to be had for childbirth effects, and "bouncing back" really just means putting an incredible amount of time & effort to try and build/maintain strength in your pelvic/core area. Mom ballerinas have to work 2x as hard and they don't get enough credit.

Nevermind, was able to read article.

I was very confused as well... Looks like a dance show my kids would put on in my living room.

I no longer identify myself to people as "traditional" and "conservative" anymore, because people often think it means what you've described here, and I don't want any part of that.

Phelan is glorious in this role. Ball was thoroughly entertaining. I don't know if I'm just nit-picking, as I've never actually seen Midsummer's.. but I didn't love Maxwell as the butterfly; my eyes are often drawn to legs/feet, and there just wasn't the strength in technique that I saw, for example, to contrast: Pazcoguin, who I thought gave an exceptionally strong performance. Woodward was lovely, but I think I would have preferred Peck; I felt like a more mature dancer would fit this role better. Woodward has such a young/baby face look (this isn't an insult, she's young and beautiful!). Take my review with a grain of salt, I never danced myself, I've only discovered ballet about 10 years ago.

Not everyone wants to go to the ballet (coerced by friends?)- I saw someone at Nutcracker stare at their phone the entire time (not NYCB). I also know someone who got up and walked out in a rage because there was no singing (they thought the story ballet was...a Broadway show??). Some people are clueless.

I totally missed that she was one of the ballerinas who had a baby during the pandemic. How wonderful! It's great she was able to fully enjoy what she loved and now it was finding something new to love. Wishing her the best.

At one of my birthday parties a few years ago I had a brother announce big life changing news- I was so happy about it, it didn't occur to me that I was supposed to be upset. Not that I care if Abi was...I just don't think it's news worthy.

If it really were about weight, and the emotional distress from that, then NYCB sure owes Kathryn Morgan a heck of a lot of money. Ringer too, and I'm sure many others whose weight was pointed out over the course of their career there. Except those women understood that the job required a certain weight. Is it "shaming", to ask that a dancer be fit for their job? Again- I don't even believe that comment was about weight, but just for arguments sake.

Still unclear to me why that comment would taken as body shaming. I assumed it was about technique in partnering.

Elite athletes in the Olympics; purely judged with scores/numbers. No one can blame anyone for being pushed out. Most athletes are not good enough to perform at the elite Olympic level. It's brutal, to spend your whole life training and then simply not being good enough. But at least it's measurable. In ballet, an art form, it's relative ..yes there could be politics involved, but for the most part I think we should give the choreographers & leadership the benefit of the doubt, they're just doing the best they can? When your job involves your body, mental health is at risk. I don't believe we're in a good position to judge whether or not roles were taken away because of legitimate reasons or not. A whole other topic ..but no, we're not still in a pandemic according the Dr. Fauci, so that's really no longer a good reason for opting out of your job (this isn't a comment directed at A.Stafford).

ASL this is a discussion board so there is going to be criticism. I know what it's like to go through trauma, and my advice to you is to stop coming to this website to read what people are saying about you. Take care of yourself. You're right, no one knows what you've been through, and no one will ever understand, no matter how many times you try and defend yourself. You owe no one an explanation.

Hope this doesn't seem harsh but just from someone who is interested in ballet and never danced myself- my impression from reading about Copeland's career is that she hadn't quite "made it" yet- she had received the principal title, but from what I've read over the years didn't seem up to the level she could potentially climb to (she seemed to admit that herself?) - she was working with that (I forget his name) teacher, completely re-working her technique, but then barely dancing to show whether she had reached a new level (of artistry as well as technique).. I just don't see how she would satisfied with her actual dancing career (as an artist, not an "activist")...but perhaps too many injuries made that impossible.