lacdescygnes

This was largely my impression as well when I attended Saturday evening - I found Kondaurova's expression oddly blank throughout, and her protruding ribs distracting from the rest of her line. The third act with the Shades was lovely of course, and I enjoyed the Divertissements more than I usually do. Askerov was a very good Solor - great jumps, and I enjoyed Batoeva as Gamzatti.

I never cared much for Kochetkova, but she can at least execute the steps... I hope this does not mean that Cornejo will be saddled with Copeland for the Met season - that would be a waste of his great talent! He and Brandt were great in Le Corsaire - hopefully that's the pairing they are working on.

I just bought tickets to the same performance! I skipped last year's Mariinsky run, and have no desire to see Skorik again, but I've never seen Kondaurova live, so I'm very excited

It was, at least in the paper version I received

I doubt that Vishneva, having danced Onegin for her farewell would return the very next year to dance the same ballet. We're not sure how long Ferri will keep returning, and if she does next year what role she will choose. But you're right - we don't know anything for sure at this point.

That may be the main issue for ABT if they want to show Onegin again next year - without Vishneva, Ferri or Bolle (although he may come), they won't have as compelling a set of casts. As much as I'm happy to see the rising crop of soloists this year (and I really loved Brandt in Le Corsaire), I'm not sure that they have the acting experience to pull off the part of Tatiana. Could Gomes partner Part?

Yes! I attended last night's performance and I really loved the corps segments, particularly the supported grand jetes. This was my first time seeing Onegin or a Cranko ballet for that matter and I very much enjoyed it. I think that the cast played a big part in it - Bolle and Ferri and Simkin and Lane were wonderful in their respective pas de deux, and I thought their acting was spot on. Simkin has really matured in that regard. Even Whiteside surprised me in a good way (I don't usually very much care for him) by delivering a solid partnering performance in Act III. I don't know that I would say there wasn't enough dancing - certainly no fouettes, but the various lifts demand so much trust and precision, it's equally demanding, I think, only for a different part of the dancers' skill. And they're wonderful to look at, at least to me.

Thanks, Drew - my memory was off, it was the Ratmansky piece I was thinking of, not something by Wheeldon, that she staged. I should have taken notes!

I did not seem to find a thread started yet on the documentary about Wendy Whelan "Restless Creature": https://www.filmlinc.org/films/restless-creature-wendy-whelan/ The film was directed by Linda Saffire and Adam Schlesinger and follows Whelan through her severe hip injury, surgery and rehab, and decision to retire from NYCB and pursue contemporary dance. I attend a screening at Lincoln Center this weekend, which was followed by a Q&A with Wendy Whelan and Adam Schlesinger. The film appears to be distributed somewhat widely in independent movie theaters. A few thoughts: - The movie spends more time than I would have expected on her injury, including filming in the operating room during her surgery. I could have done with more ballet and less blood! - I did not know how strained her relationship with Peter Martins had become during her last years at NYCB. There are always two sides to every story, but he seemed keen to have her retire several roles, such as the Nutcracker, which she didn't think she was ready to let go. The two are apparently barely on speaking terms at this point, which is sad considering how much they have both brought to NYCB. - There was some discussion of her partnerships with Jock Soto, Craig Hall and most recently Tyler Angle. Lots of great rehearsal clips as well. However, she does not seem to have kept in touch with any of the current NYCB dancers, and is not doing any coaching there. Which is a shame since she was one of the last ballerinas who worked directly with Robbins. She did work with PNB on staging a Wheeldon piece - she appears to have a great connection with Wheeldon and Ratmansky, as evidenced by the pieces they created for her farewell. Has anyone else seen the film? What did you think?

Justin Peck's Instagram mentions "17+ casualties and counting". I know injuries happen, but it seems higher than average. Not sure that the whole Here/Now festival was fully thought through if this is the outcome. And selfishly I don't get up to NYC until the 19th, so I hope there will still be dancers standing then!

There are 2 possible options, and I haven't done serious research to see which is the true origin of the current version that the PoB dances today. Serge Lifar was of course with Les Ballets Russes before he joined the Paris Opera Ballet in 1929. Lifar's French Wikipedia page lists Le Spectre as one of his roles/ballets in 1931. I assume that this was still Fokine's choreography, or at least something very close to it. The other most recent source I have found is Nureyev - here is a link to a page about Nureyev and Le Spectre: http://www.nureyev.org/rudolf-nureyev-main-roles-ballets/le-spectre-de-la-rose-fokine-rudolf-nureyev. I would assume that the version that he brought with him when he defected was the by then classic Soviet Liepa version. I didn't find a video, but he must have been astonishing in this role.

I was at the performance on Monday. Due to my own rather mixed feelings about the programming, I opted for cheaper seats on the second tier rather than splurging for orchestra. And I skipped the rest of the week. I regretted my choice of seats twice during the show: first, Abrera and Gomes were predictably wonderful in Leaves are Fading. As is wont to happen when this beautiful piece is performed by great dancers, I found it too short! The second piece I wished I had had better seats for was Imprint/Maya, which was very powerful and moving. Desmond Richardson just filled the stage with his presence and was amazing, especially for a dancer who supposedly retired! The rest of the program was fine - I was pleasantly surprised by Nashville Ballet, whom I didn't expect to be as polished as they were, but their piece lasted too long I thought. The Peck PDD was pleasant enough, but I've already forgotten it. The piece for the JKO students was rather mediocre I thought. And the films were not bad, but it irked me to see them listed in the program as if they were actual performances. The theater was pretty full, and there were loud cheers when Misty Copeland appeared to introduce one of the pieces. I suppose that's a good thing! Did anyone go to another performance?

I have seen two performances of Le Spectre de la Rose - Kimin Kim of the Mariinsky and Herman Cornejo of ABT. Kim's was my first live experience with that ballet, coming on the heels of having seen Nijinsky's original costume in the Ballets Russes exhibition that the National Gallery of Art held a few years ago. I found the piece beautiful. Of course after seeing Cornejo, who is bar none my favorite dancer at the moment, I could see all that was lacking in Kim's performance in terms of expression, height, etc. I never thought of Cornejo as androgynous, not in the way Nijinsky was anyway, but he is absolutely marvelous in the role. I hope ABT will let him dance it again soon!

Hi everyone, I've finally taken the plunge after reading the forum for a long time! I'm based in Washington, DC although I go up to NYC often and see both NYCB and ABT regularly. I grew up in Paris so POB will forever have a special place in my heart - and I will always compare the other ballet's corps to POB's, which to me is the gold standard. What else? Like most kids, I took ballet for a few years, but was never good enough to consider any kind of advance training. I still take the occasional class as an adult though. I'm looking forward to participating in the discussions!