Phrenchphry11

Wow, I've never seen Jasmine Jimison dance, but that's very exciting that she's casted (for multiple performances!) Also, has Sasha De Sola performed the role before? I have a feeling she'll be excellent in it.

So far I've seen C and A as well. (Program B next week!) MADCAP is totally spectacular. Dani Rowe has such an endlessly creative, quirky, and unique style, and I'm so curious about her choreographic process and what goes through her mind to get such amazing inspiration. And yet, despite all the quirkiness, she still has a way to make the movement feel so poignant and poetic at the same time. Such a revelation, she's definitely the current/active choreographer I feel most excited about. (I remember her coming onto my radar when I saw For Pixie). I hope she's got lots more in store for SFB! MADCAP has such a way of drawing out some of the best qualities of its dancers too. Probably some of the best performances I've seen from Jennifer Stahl and Tiit Helimets. I've liked most of the other pieces. As others mentioned, some works are more creative than others. But I really do hope MADCAP makes it into the full-time rep, and maybe even picked up by other companies. If the purpose of next@90 is to explore the future of ballet, MADCAP definitely hits the mark.

Well, something came up last-minute, so I'm bummed to miss the Gala this week. I can't wait to read the reports though! The program looks interesting (aside from not a ton of virtuosic classical pdds!), but I definitely echo what others are saying. Seems like most of the principals are featured, but there's a LOT of the Hernandez brothers, and very little of the up-and-coming soloists. Julia Rowe and Isabella DeVivo were both dancers I had expected to eventually make it to principal, so it feels like a shame they aren't featured. It definitely seems that things are changing with the new administration. I don't want to be too tied to the old way of doing things, but I hope this doesn't portend attrition over the coming year. Since Sheehan came up, I don't think I saw her at all last season. Is she injured? I saw her a few years ago in Sleeping Beauty and was blown away, but I've seen hardly anything of her since.

Agree with all of the above. I've never seen Katherine Barkman dance before, but I just checked out some YouTube clips of her and she looks like a lovely dancer, but truthfully, I was expecting a Chuvas promotion over any external hires. I'm also surprised no Soloist -> Principal promotions since there's vacancy now. (Both Julia Rowe and Isabella DeVivo have been workhorses this entire season, so I expected them to be on the shortlist) I wonder if they're holding off on any big promotions until the new administration settles in?

I don't know much about quite a lot of the choreographers in this new festival, I'm curious about them though. Scheirer, Blanc, Breiner, Oishi, Roberts. Particularly glad Danielle Rowe is on the list though. Agree with others that my brow raised when I saw no Balanchine whatsoever in the season. However, I am delighted to see Thatcher's Colorforms in the programming - that was my absolute highlight of the digital season.

So I was just at the public dress rehearsal this afternoon, and I noticed the swans weren't wearing the feathered caps, but instead were wearing the more traditional-looking headpieces. Does anyone know if SFB is doing away with the feathered caps? I kind of liked those!!

Very good point @pherank - I definitely didn’t mean to imply any other departure is due to leadership changes, since it now seems pretty clear some of the others’ departures explicitly aren’t related.

Wow, that’s tough to read, and it sounds like there’s much more going on behind the scenes than I imagined. I was glad I got to be at his (and Freemantle’s) final performance. I know his initial hiring garnered lots of discussion here, but I thought he brought lots of energy to his performance and looked great in the Rhoden piece (which is very contemporary). I’m sad about all the departures I’ve heard of so far, but it does seem to be a particularly big loss to see some of the younger principals leaving.

Can't say I'm shocked. I only saw him perform once (opening night of Prism) and I honestly really liked his energy! It's a shame I only saw him in one role. Though I believe it came up in another thread within the past few years - I get the general impression Helgi likes gutsy, versatile dancers who learn new choreography quickly and are fairly adaptable (which I think contributed to the quick success of dancers like Wona Park, etc). It seems to me like SFB has quite a few promising male soloists who've been given lots of opportunities and are already pretty familiar with the rep and are very versatile (or at least have existing working relationships with the choreographers who have recently been brought in). Maybe an unfair comparison but Vladislov Kozlov also didn't stay super long at SFB (trained at Bolshoi just like MacKay), I wonder if rep played a factor in both departures. Or, it may have been for entirely personal reasons! At the very least I'm still holding my breath for other big departures in the coming weeks 😕

I just saw tonight's performance (March 7) and all I can say is woooowwwwwwww. Kuranaga and Greco were absolutely perfect. Kuranaga in particular looked to be having such an "on" night - amazing balances, risk-taking jumps, and the cherry on top was 32 foutees with doubles sprinkled in (not that I've ever seen her have an off night, but tonight in particular I was amazed). And Greco as usual was stupendous. Many gasps from the audience. Highly recommend seeing them if you get a chance. Also - SVP as Mercedes was fantastic. She's got wonderful musicality, flair, and charisma. Bittersweet now knowing this is her last season. Such an underrated artist, imo. Julia Rowe has been having an amazing season, too. I've always been drawn to her and her musicality - I've been hoping she's on the shortlist for a principal promotion, but who knows! Great energy from the cast in general. Lots of great acting and comic relief. All around a fantastic show. I might try to snag a ticket to see the other casts.

A few departures announced today, it seems (SVP in the other thread). Hope this doesn't mean more announcements soon. Some of her social media postings have indicated she's been interested in acting and other pursuits, so I wonder if some management changes gave her the final push to make a career transition. Nevertheless, I'll really miss her. She is a very charismatic dancer.

Sad, but not surprising. I'm somewhat bracing for some of the longer-tenured dancers to not stick around for the management change. Nevertheless, she brought so much to the company - most recently with Mrs. Robinson, but also with her tremendous acting abilities in both classical roles (her Mercedes in DQ stands out to me) and contemporary work (Snowblind is another that stood out to me, along with the Siren in Prodigal Son). And so much more. I'll eagerly follow the next chapter of her career.

I was in attendance last night! Overall, a fabulous program, and I liked the tribute video for Helgi. As much as I'll truly miss Helgi as AD, his choreography is the thing I'll miss the least. Nothing wrong with Trio, but it felt a bit thin and shallow, especially compared to the emotional depth of Mrs. Robinson that followed it and the complex corps work of Symphony in C. The dancing was solid though. Glad to see Norika Matsuyama with such a big solo role. I adored Mrs. Robinson and am so glad we finally got to see it. Certainly not a feel-good piece, but really thought-provoking and I'm curious to see other dancers' interpretations of the role (SVP was our Mrs. Robinson). SVP certainly stole the show, though. The sets and costumes captured the mid-century modern aesthetic very well. I'm so thrilled that SFB has commissioned this work from Marston - an interesting followup after snowblind. One little snafu last night - there was a set mishap! The hedge seemed to get stuck on a crease in the flooring and nearly toppled! I was amazed the dancers kept going as if nothing happened, though. Last night was my first time seeing Symphony in C! Last movement looked a bit out-of-sync, but it's certainly a very challenging movement, so I can't blame the dancers! Julia Rowe was the MVP for me here - she had the third (jumping) movement, and I was so impressed! She's got such a solid jump and made it look easy! I definitely hope to see Mrs. Robinson again - either this run or future runs.

Ooof - I was sort of hoping they'd hire someone with stronger ties/history to SFB (Sofiane, maybe even Sarah Van Patten?) Or some sort of team model like NYCB has. On the bright side, Rojo has been getting good press about some of her new rep (Akram Khan, also a new version of Raymonda I read about recently). Would love to see some of those works on SFB stage. However, other than that, I can't say I feel super thrilled about it. Her relationship with the Hernandez brothers feels like a clear conflict of interest, and there's lots of unsavory reporting about her out there. I do agree it's impossible to please everyone with an AD choice, so I think some attrition was probably expected regardless, but I do really worry about this. I'm pretty sure Madison Keesler was one of the dancers who left ENB under Rojo. I wonder what other dancers are thinking.

Jumping in to say I finished the book and really liked it - I do think some of the coarseness of the language isn't for everyone, but I like that overall she clearly reveres ballet as an artform and takes a pretty realistic and nuanced approach to ballet in the 21st century. I liked how honest Gina was that ballet is a physical/visual art - so to some degree there will always be pressure to look a certain way - but I liked the nuanced point she made that more often than not the pressure to be stick thin is tied to artistic directors wielding power over young dancers. The book was pretty short, I got through it in maybe 2-3 days. Perhaps this would have taken the book too far into the gossip territory, but Gina kept alluding to the tumult immediately after Peter Martins left. I wished she had dug in more there, and I wanted more around how they picked the new leadership team, what has changed in NYCB since (if anything!), and what the future holds for NYCB. We got very little insight into the post-Martins era. I also wished she spent more time reflecting on her time on Broadway. I think those bits were the most interesting, since I know so little about the Broadway world! I can very much see why many NYCB dancers end up doing Broadway stints, as it seems like a much healthier atmosphere! If I had a bone to pick, I'm surprised she tired so much of dancing Nutcracker (and repeatedly called out how devoid it is of artistic expression compared to, say, The Cage) yet didn't seem to have the same issues performing on Broadway. I assume part of it is the easier pace on Broadway with ample understudies, etc, but I'd love to know more.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/arts/dance/mitchell-button-dusty-button-abuse.html Hopefully this story isn't too off topic, but it seems relevant due to some of the Diversity & Inclusion discussions and #MeToo discussions happening in other threads. A few years ago I used to follow Dusty Button on Instagram, and even before that, I remembered seeing a nice profile on her on the news about her joining the Royal Ballet School, and I was inspired by her and felt she had quite a bit of talent. (I've never seen her perform live) Well, fast forward a few years later after she abruptly left BB, I started getting some odd vibes from her - particularly an interview about her philosophy around coaching and how she didn't mind being "harsh" on students. Well, fast forward to today, the story really makes me feel sick to my stomach. Never would I have imagined she'd be implicated in sexual abuse while at BB (and the allegations against her husband are even less savory - I won't list them here). I feel heartened by Boston Ballet's emphatic response. I hope these responses will usher us towards a new era where sexual assault and misogyny is taken more seriously in professional companies. I fear stories like this are only the tip of the iceberg.

Wow, I did not know of the existence of this SF Ballet 2021 instagram page - I don't have an actual instagram account so I can't actually view who follows/likes the posts. However, I feel shocked, yet not surprised. Reading about the Lopes Gomes racism case in Germany (among other allegations of racism elsewhere), I'm not surprised dancers at SFB also feel the racism and discrimination - nothing about SFB seems all that different or unique from other major global companies. So I'd only expect that dancers in SFB feel a lack of representation in casting decisions, hiring, how big donors are sought, and types of choreography commissions, as dancers evidently do elsewhere. I can't help but feel a little bit skeptical about this posting: https://www.instagram.com/p/CK95tP1gZmv/ The group demands that 3 out of the top 5 AD candidates identify as black or indigenous people of color. The other AD thread has a list going of likely SFB candidates, and very very few of them are people of color. I think the best we can hope for (realistically) is a strong ally who will fight for representation and diverse choreography commissions. But that may be defeatist of me.

What a real shame. Selfishly (because I'm based out of SF) I would have loved for her to have joined SFB. Echoing what others are saying about short dancers at SFB - with Maria Kochetkova and later Wona Park and others - I think Sarah Lane would have had a much clearer path forward as a short dancer in the company. I worry that Sarah has somewhat missed the window of being able to join a new company as a principal. Especially in this (almost) post-COVID world, ballet budgets are probably already stretched thin.

I'm honestly just thrilled to see a new season lined up! Eagerly awaiting when I can return back to the opera house. I'm not sure what I was expecting from this season - it maybe seems a little less bold/risky than I would have expected coming out of a pandemic, but yet, I think it makes sense to go back to some of the more "bread and butter" ballets to draw audiences back. Don Q is so much fun and gives dancers lots of opportunity (both in dancing and acting) and I think SFB has a good roster of dancers extremely capable of excelling in Swan Lake. It seems like no Danielle Rowe work this season? I was really looking forward to seeing more from her.

Ha, well there's no "quota" per se, we just have to interview at least one diverse candidate for any role. So we could still continue to hire straight/white/etc candidate over the so-called "diverse" candidate, it's more about exposure to a broader pool of candidates. It's taken from an NFL hiring policy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooney_Rule

I appreciate you making this thread, @pherank. It's good food for thought. I do wonder if there are ways I could make a better impact on pushing for diversity - unfortunately I'm nowhere near the financial position needed to make an impact on hiring one diverse dancer, let alone anything more impactful than that! I do hope that hiring decisions to replace Tomasson are done with thought as to the future of ballet and diversity and inclusion. Agree hiring MacKay was a missed opportunity, despite the videos I've seen of him that show a very talented dancer. Slightly off topic, but after reading the Liam Scarlett thread and thinking about culture, diversity, respect, etc in the ballet world - it's clear to me it's all so complicated and ballet is fundamentally not a progressive artform (at least not in its current state). But who's to say that can't change! I think it'll take lots of work and lots of time to see real fundamental change. However, it would be heartening to see large-donor-level interest in making an impact when it comes to diverse hiring. You know, it's interesting you bring that up - at my current place of work we've instituted the "Rooney Rule" where we have to interview at least one minority candidate for every role we have open. I wonder if that's something that can be done in the ballet world.

Just wanted to say thank you so much @Drew for what you wrote - it resonated with me. I'm truly heartbroken to hear of Scarlett's passing. So many of his works resonated with me, not the least of which was Frankenstein. I really hope there is a path forward for us to be able to continue to watch and appreciate his works. I do think Ratmansky somewhat misses the point about "cancel culture" - in our current society, nobody has the right to employment, and there should be consequences for bad behavior at work. However, reflecting on a lot of the current toxicity in the ballet world, I wonder if there was a way for Royal Ballet mentors and staff to intervene sooner when it came to Scarlett - I don't think Scarlett's actions happened in a vacuum. Banishing him from all of ballet simply isn't a path forward. Rooting out bad behavior on a case-by-case basis (especially in such a complex, not especially progressive culture as is in the ballet world) just simply won't work long-term - there absolutely need to be systemic changes.

Wow, I'm so happy for her! I remember a few months back she linked to a podcast she gave about struggling with infertility. It was so heartbreaking to hear how she really felt she gave up so much to dance, so I'm glad she was able to get pregnant after what seemed like many many ups and downs.

Wow, no more Frantziskonis? I'm really surprised, she seemed to be doing so well at SFB lately. Any idea of where she's going? Jimison got promoted really quickly, but she was fantastic in Colorforms (as was the whole cast, really! Everything about that piece was executed perfectly, imo!). In some ways, I'm a bit relieved - less attrition than I was fearing, I was worried Covid would cause a lot of dancers to rethink their careers and living situations.

Wow, I'll really miss seeing her onstage. Though, given how candid she was about reconsidering her relationship to ballet in her Megan Fairchild interview, I can't say I'm too surprised. That NYT article is fascinating, though! I feel heartened that Lovette sees her role as a full-time choreographer as an opportunity to improve some body image issues in the ballet world. Here's the Fairchild interview for those who have not watched: