Petra

You can buy calendars on Amazon. That's where I got my Blanachine 2004 calendar from. This year, I'm just using my work place's calendar - it has pictures of ships and trade routes with a kind of arty-archeological feel (that has nothing at all to do with the work we actually do here...)

I hope to catch this program. It looks like all these ballets are for comparatively large casts. That's great as I usually can't go to more than one performance and I enjoy the PA Ballet dancers so much.

Devil's advocate here - the Elgin Marbles are of course very accessible, as they are located in a free national museum in one of the tourist centers of the world and they have been well preserved as they have not been exposed to the very high pollution of 20th century Athens.

I'm no expert on the topic but I do think that the colonial 'robber-travellers' did believe that the cultural heritage of the Ancient world represented by items like the Elgin Marbles and the Obelisks, etc was also their heritage and by bringing these items to the West, they could be presented in all their glory.

Lillianna, I second your comments on the corps both with regard to this year's Ballo and last year's Concerto Barocco, especially as it seems to be a very young corps. I assumed that some were trainees or students as not all the dancers in the program are on the company list.

OF, I think you're filling the position of resident dance journalist admirably.

Well, I was EXTREMELY put off by the excerpts in the Telegraph. I am no prude at all, but I thought that a Margot Fonteyn biography which quotes Clive Barnes using the f word would not be a book I'd want to read. (Of course, I've been living in the US for over a year so I'm not really used to seeing the f word in newsprint as perhaps Brits are?)

After reading all the opinions here, I'm likely to try it - but I probably won't buy it. I'll take it out of the library and If the photos are amazing, I'll buy it later.

Thanks to all for your evocative and thought provoking reviews.

Leigh, you said that none of the Sylvias were really well cast. Who would you consider well suited to the role? (Anyone can answer of course, not only Leigh...)

I went to the Sunday matinee - what a fantastic program. The dancers seemed to be having a great time and that made it the experience extra enjoyable. All the ballets were new to me so this is a very rough review.

Ballo della Regina was beautiful - a wonderful world of mermaids. Is it really very short or was I just enjoying it so much? All the dancers were very sharp. Arantxa Ochoa breezed through the Merril Ashley part with so much grace. Heidi Cruz is an audience favourite but I wasn't that impressed with her in this ballet. The problem may be her tights that are quite unflattering. She seems to wear the same tights as the 'white' girls and that cuts her line, as there is a sharp difference between her arms and her legs. The costumes were gorgeous but I couldn't understand why the soloists were in pink. After reading the program notes, I suppose they were pearls??

Agon - what can I say, I'm just a sucker for 20th century modernism :blush: I haven't been blown away like this since the first time I saw The Four Ts. Seriously though, it's completely different - Agon is more formal and yet more playful. It looks like a ballet about dancing - the way the dancers bow and acknowledge the audience after some of the sections, the dancers clapping to each other's solos, the catch-me-if-you-can canon sections - so the tension between Ochoa and Rainey (as Natalia said, very hot) in the Pas de Deux is erotic without being menacing.

Slaughter was very light weight and IMHO Robbins does this better. I suppose this way the audience can leave humming a tune (unless you're tone deaf like myself and then you can only hum the Three Blind Mice bit from Slaughter). That said, it was laugh out loud funny at times and well executed. In fact, the two ladies next to me left at the end of the 'ballet within the ballet' as it really seemed that the curtain was coming down... Aay Aldridge was the Stripper and I have never seen a costume make such a difference in a performer: In the white dress she was a ballet dancer pretending to be a stripper and I was bored. The second she came out in the black dress, she was a sexy cabaret dancer having the time of her life.

Now that I've seen the PA Ballet giving Balanchine all they've got, I'm really looking forward to them doing Ashton (La Fille mal Gardee) in March.

Treefrog, I'm not surprised no-one's replied to your query about Bourne's Swan Lake as it really isn't a ballet by BA standards. There wasn't enough choreography for my taste (I like lots of steps LOL) and for a more or less knowledgable ballet-goer, a rethinking or a psychological take on Swan Lake doesn't seem as amaxingly original as it does to a casual theatregoer. That said, it is a very effective theatrical event and with the right expectations, very enjoyable.

You mentioned the prices - I'm sure you know that the UK and London especially are very expensive for someone with dollars. When my sister and I compare prices (books and children's clothes are our common interests), she often pays in sterling what I pay in dollars. OTOH they have universal free health care... :rolleyes:

Off topic -

Mel, do you really think there are countries that don't recognise the Geneva Conventions? I think usually the discussion is whether they are applicable - i.e. who is a POW? In any case, I believe that manu of the provisions of the Geneva Conventions are considered law by virtue of custom.

What an interesting programme (can't resist the oportunity to use this spelling) - just what I imagine an 'old' RB programme to be. B)

Hmm, I can only go to a matinee. On the one hand, I've never seen Ochoa - on the other hand, I don't want to miss Lorenzo. Perhaps I shall have to find a way to go to both!!

I recently read Winter Season and am now (very slowly) reading Holding on to the Air. Both are fascinating books. One of the amazing things about Winter Season is how, contrary to one's expectations of a book written by a corps dancer, it actually adds to the mystery and glamour of the ballet experience.

In that context, Holding on to the Air is also a very intriguing book as a collaboration between a very non-introspective Suzanne Farrell and the very introspective Toni Bentley who virtually deified SF in Winter Season. I think the combination works very well. At the end of the day, althugh the end product is clearly not 100% Suzanne Farrell, I think it's a much more interesting book than 100% Suzanne Farrell book would be.

Baryshnikov and Nureyev are, each in their own way, exemplars of the path they took.

Baryshnikov seems to be handling his career with grace and dignity and I don't think Nureyev would have completed his career any other way than he did. :sweating:

Thanks for all the advice. It sounds like a great production. I think we'll go - and fallback plan will be husband and son leaving after Act I leaving poor little me to 'sit through' Act II.

Treefrog - are you planning to support your local company and going to see them in DC? It would be great to meet you even if you aren't going to babysit for me!!

I will be in DC over Thanksgiving and the Joffrey Ballet will be dancing The Nutcracker at Kennedy Center. It looks wonderful, but I can't find anything on BT about it. I know some of you have seen it - what's it like?

Also - is it a production a toddler would enjoy or is it simply inappropriate to bring a toddler to the Kennedy Center Opera House?

about time. I've been checking their website for weeks now for info about the new season.

This is really strange. I fully support due process and administrative transparency - and wish that many other organizations were as open as PNB - but this is just too much information IMO. PNB already released a shortlist - let us know when you actually select someone - this could just set someone up for an embarassing situation.

Why it would be made? Perhaps to propagate misogyny world-wide.

I haven't seen Dogville, but I had my fill of LVT in Breaking the Waves and Dancer in the Dark.

LVT has chosen increasingly famous women to play the main roles in these movies and this choice proportionately increases the humiliation and degradation these ladies are subjected to.

Sorry for the rant - I really feel that LVT has achieved prominence by stamping on his leading ladies.

What was the breaking news for that broadcast?

Regarding Dale's comments on gambling, an acquantiance told me about a report he'd heard regarding the difference between the viewing patterns for the Olympics and for other sporting events. Usually, people like to watch live sports and reruns get much lower ratings. However, for the Olympics, prior knowledge of the results (i.e. an American winning a medal ) actually increases ratings. I can't remember where he said he'd heard this - maybe on NPR??

Perhaps it has something to do with money... In an increasingly corporatized atmosphere, it is easier to justify differences in salaries if the dancers are also in different ranks.

Only from a NYCB dancer:

Q. What was your favourite ballet moment:

A. My favorite moment was when I was thrown into the title role in George Balanchine's "The Firebird". It was thrilling. I didn't know what I was doing.

Perhaps the rationale was to show supporters (donators) that PNB will have a good director or two and to diminish the chance that people will be less willing to donate to PNB during this transfer period.

On the other hand, I wonder what the Washington Ballet feels when it sees its AAD on this shortlist.

Must say it's funny to see the candidate's children named in their bios. I wonder whether we'll see footage of Francia Russell pulling little Sarah Boal's thumb out of her mouth. :rolleyes:

Moira Shearer.

In the old Technicolour pictures she just looks