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Thank you @On Pointe for sharing this video of Bella Jones.  What a gorgeous dancer she is!  It's hard to believe that she is only 13 and doing this difficult variation so maturely.  If I was a director, I'd keep my eye on her for sure.

There are many jobs where masks are worn for countless hours at a time such as doctors, nurses, grocery workers.  If they are able to deal with wearing a mask for long durations, it really should not be an issue for us to mask up for a couple of hours in order to do our part to keep others safe.

@Buddy Thank you for always keeping us up to date on all things Mariinsky!  Lady of the Camellias happens to be one of my favorite ballets and I would love it if Mariinsky performed it.  My dream casts would be:

Marguerite- Viktoria Tereshinka, Ekaterina Kondaurova

Armand-Vladimir Shklyarov, Andrei Yermakov

Prudence- Nadezhda Batoeva, Renata Shakirova

Gaston Rieux- Philipp Stepin, Xander Parish

Manon- Olesya Novikova, Anastasia Kolegova

Des Grieux- Konstantin Zverev, Ivan Oskorbin

Olympia-Svetlana Ivanova (if she was still dancing) Elena Yevseyeva, Viktoria Brilyova

Amanda McKerrow and John Gardner would be a viable choice I think.

2 hours ago, lmspear said:

Competing with the Sylph by L. M. Vincent, MD came out in 1979 and received a lot of attention at the time.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0836224051/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_SV890MQ2WYZS21Y4FHPC

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to  have had lasting impact.

WOw!  Thank you for sharing this.  I had never heard of it before.

This article is so important and I wish I had access to this type of knowledge when I was training in ballet.  At that time there was no internet and only reviews in the newspaper and movies such as The Turning Point and Dancers.  My fears surrounding food, body image, etc. were very isolated and I felt alone.  It would have been very helpful to know that other dancers, professional dancers have the same fears and that every body is shaped differently.  In my ballet school, which was a serious school that put out several ABT principal dancers, a couple of girls were told to lose a few pounds, but they told me that I could not return for the next semester until I gained some weight.  That was very responsible on their part.  I just feel grateful that articles like this are more relevant and that prominent dancers are speaking out about body image.  It is a great thing that body sizes and athleticism are even being addressed.   Hopefully some young ballet students can avoid the pitfalls that I went through.

13 hours ago, Drew said:

I was intrigued to see the Raymonda debut as well. Hope it goes well!

Absolutely!  The role of Raymonda seems like one of the great tests of a ballerina's technique and stamina.  Iliushkina already has Odette/Odile under her belt, so I imagine this will be a success for her.  I would also like to see her as Princess Aurora.

Thank you for the link @Buddy   WOW!  Maria Iliushkina has a big debut as Raymonda.  Hopefully lots of videos will be posted.   She will surely be delightful in this role.

As always, thank you for sharing your insightful and well-written articles.  This one in particular, hit the nail on the head with the way I am feeling.  Personally, I would much rather see (and pay for) performances from the company vaults or dancers performing existing works, than avante-garde videos of new works being performed in apartments or various locations.  Perhaps I am old fashioned in my taste in ballets, but it is what I prefer.  I do love getting to peek behind the curtain into some of my favorite dancers' lives, but often what they share on social media eliminates the mystery for me.  

Yes!  Of course!  I'll email it to some of my ballet friends.

This is my cynical side speaking here, but it sure seems like a great way for Mariinsky to get people to buy extra tickets in order to distance themselves from other audience members.

Thank you @aqualia2008!!!  This is fabulous!  I especially love the clip from Le Corsaire.

This is very sad news.  A wonderful dancer and coach she was.  May she rest in peace.

17 hours ago, cyclingmartin said:

I gather that Yulia Stepanova has been out of action for some months. On her Instagram page she reported that this was because of injury; that was some time around last March. So I was glad to see her given main billing in several of the ballets advertised by the Bolshoi in October, November and December of 2020, including Carmen Suite, A Hero of Our Time and Symphony in C.

Was anyone from BalletAlert at any of these performances? Or has anyone seen reviews of them?  I'm just wondering if YS is back to her usual form as a dancer and actress. I do hope so.

Thank you for livening this thread up.  It is great news to hear that she is healthy and performing.  Yulia is a gorgeous dancer/actress.  Yes please - if anyone has any reviews I'd love to see them as well.

18 hours ago, canbelto said:

I'm a little confused about Lovette and her break with her parents. It sounds like she hinted that they're part of a fundamentalist cult? 

It sounded that way to me, too.  That must have been so hard for Lauren to separate from them.

With regard to Megan Fairchild's interrupting, I do tend to agree that I would have loved to hear Lauren be able to delve deeper into her story.  But I thoroughly enjoyed the interview regardless.  Lauren sounds like such an insightful, kind, and honest person.  Hearing her voice is delightful!  May she have a wonderfully fulfilling life ahead of her.

@Drew it was my pleasure!  Chinara always stood out to me when she was with the Bolshoi and I am so happy for her that she is dancing in principal roles.   Especially Marguerite in La Dame Aux Camellias.

For the Chinara Alizade fans out there, myself included, here is a video from World Ballet Day with her being interviewed and some performance clips.  Her segment starts at 06:10 

3 hours ago, Buddy said:

I was kind of thinking (and hoping) that you’d drop by. Thanks for your thoughts and additions, especially since we agree a lot.  😊

By the way, I’m quite impressed by the artistic quality in the making of this video. Any thoughts from our more visible ‘technical’ experts, Quiggin, Pherank, anyone ?   Among her other fine qualities, it seems that Ana Turazashvili keeps good artistic company as well.

 

I've been so busy watching all of the World Ballet Day videos and absorbing all of the beauty.  My favorite parts are watching the company classes.  Bolshoi's livestream was phenomenal.  

@Buddy she is beautiful indeed!  Other important roles she's danced include Gulnare in Le Corsaire and Princess Mary in A Hero of Our Time.  https://www.bolshoi.ru/en/persons/ballet/1297/

5 hours ago, BalanchineFan said:

Are you thinking of any men in particular? I don't see a huge crop of tall corps men, particularly now that Silas Farley is gone. There's Preston Chamblee, but the other tall-ish men are much newer and haven't done as many  (any) leading roles. If you look at the NYCB principals and soloists, there will soon be a shortage of tall men. No Ask, no Gonzalo. Andy Veyette, Adrian D-W, Jared and Tyler Angle will all have been in NYCB about 20 years by Fall 2021. Russell Janzen has graying hair. I'm not judging any of the men (and they were all dancing GREAT last we saw them in person), but there's a lot of rep and only so much Harrison Ball, Taylor Stanley, Joseph Gordon and Peter Walker can be expected to do. They needed Jovani Furlan and I think they need Chun Wai Chan, too. If he's tall. Among the current NYCB men Roman Mejia is the only one I see having a definite promotion in his future.

You make great points.  Aaron Sanz is a favorite of mine, but I forgot that he was a soloist.  Roman Mejia would be the next contender, in my point of view, but I didn't think about the height needs.

Congratulations to Chun Wai Chan!  That is great for him, but I am wondering why they would bring in an outside dancer who never studied at SAB when they already have plenty of great male cops men that could be promoted.

@Buddy Here is a Youtube video just added showing the performance that @ellecatalano mentioned.  Than you @ellecatalanofor bringing this to my attention.  It is PHENOMENAL! 

@Buddy I hav eno doubt that they had a successful debut.  Elizaveta Kokoreva especially as seen in this Raymonda variation.  From seeing this, I'd say she has a bright future!  

6 hours ago, Buddy said:

If there’s anything that I appreciate from the performing arts at the moment it’s a burst of sunshine. Looking through the video clips of recent Mariinsky performances I found Nadezhda Batoeva’s Don Quixote which I’ve already mentioned. From two days ago, I just discovered Renata Shakirova in Concerto DSCH. Both these fine artists fall into my Sunshine category. They are vibrant on stage and were exactly the same in real life when I had a chance to chat with them very briefly a few years ago at a reception. I’ve seen Alexei Ratmansky’s Concerto DSCH at least once, and what I recall most is his sense of humor or whimsey. It’s similar to what I like very much in some of George Balanchine’s and Jerome Robbins’ works. Renata Shirkirova handles this in Concerto DSCH — delightfully.

 

 

I couldn't agree more!  Those three ballerinas are absolutely the epitome of sunshine.  It seems that every major ballet company has a few "sunny" dancers on their roster and these three definitely represent the Mariinsky.  Twice I have had to good fortune to see Nadezhda Batoeva perform live.  She was Gamzatti and absolutely dazzled with her steely technique and powerful fouettés.  She was also the lead couple in Rubies.  WOW!  She has so much charisma and sass!

@Syzygy Thank you os much for sharing this.  What a wonderfully honest essay she has written.  Hopefully her openness will inspire others to talk more about this prevalent issue.  Just this morning I was listening to an older podcast episode of The Wonderful Dance and Ballet Podcast about this very topic.  The episode is from 9/22/2019.  Definitely worth a listen.