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I am in total agreement with you on Olga Marchenkova. In my opinion, Margarita Shrayner should be next in line. Congratulations to all of the promoted dancers!

Yes - that was wonderful when Shipulina, Kaptsova, and Krysanova were all promoted within weeks of one another. Of course, Krysanova is a bit young than the other two. It is similar to when Isabelle Ciaravola was nominated Etoile at POB in her mid-thirties and Stella Abrera becoming principal at ABT in her mid-thirties. These are not common practices, but when it happens it can be inspiring for other ballet dancers.

WOW! That is fantastic news! Congratulations to Denis Savin! It fills me with joy that Bolshoi promotes dancers regardless of their age as he has been with the company sine 2002. Very well deserved!

Just watched her dancing Princess Aurora Act 3 variation. Yes indeed she sure looks like Maria Iliushkina! What a beautiful dancer Anastasia is. According to her Instagram page, she is a student at Vaganova. If the Mariinsky hires her, I'm sure they'll give her some soloist or leading roles to see how she does.

According to Ruslan Skvortsov's Facebook page, he is now "ex" premiere of Bolshoi status. I so Hope that he will continue to dance as he is one of my favorite male principals with the Bolshoi. He is an amazing parter, too!

According to this video, it seems that the Beautiful Svetlana Ivanova has retired. Svetlana always lit up the stage whenever she was on it. Each time I have seen the Mariinsky in person, she has always stood out with her delicate beauty, great technique, and gorgeous legs and feet. Wishing her a wonderful next chapter. She will certainly be missed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyQ5qFokTAY&t=0s

@miliosr Thank you for that link. One of my favorite things is to see company class! The Raymonda rehearsal boasts an impressive cast!

Indeed! It must have been very fresh on his mind. It was nice to get his personal perspective and his trajectory.

Thank you for mentioning that interview. Here is a link to it from 2006. http://auguste.vestris.free.fr/Interviews/JGBartEnglish.html

Very interesting about the Indianapolis 500. It is true that the year is organized by money. Halloween items are already in the stores! Also thank you for the link to the SF Ballet survey.

Thank you for your reply as it really make sense to me why this baller can be enjoyed all year round. When done well, the Nutcracker is truly magical. I remember seeing the Maurice Sendak version for PNB on television many years ago. That was probably my favorite.

Thank you all so much for your replies to my question. I see on the Bolshoi website that they plan to perform it this September. https://www.bolshoi.ru/en/timetable/ It must be an American tradition to perform it yearly during the holidays.

Hello Fellow Ballet Alerters! Mariinsky and Bolshoi tend to perform Nutcracker throughout the year. Most other companies tend to keep Nutcracker for the holiday season. Does anyone know why this is? Thank you!

This is a super fun compilation. Not sure if anyone has posted it here yet or not.

Thank you for the news @volcanohunter. This was inevitable and I hope that Edward Watson gets the retirement performance that he hopes for. He has been of my favorite male dancers with the Royal Ballet. Dramatic roles seem to be his forte and he has moved me on many occasions. Royal Ballet dancers will be very lucky to have him as a coach!

Lately, I have been reading through many older threads here and I just love this one. Some of my favorites include (in no particular order): -Diana Vishneva -Ekaterina Kondaurova -Anastasia Kolegova -Julie Kent -Ekaterina Shipulina -Yulia Stepanova -Yumi Kaneko -Maria Vinogradova -Maia Makhateli -Anna Tsyganova -Susan Jaffe -Aurelie Dupont -Irina Dvorovenko -Marianna Tcherkassky -Moira Shearer There are so many beautiful dancers that it is hard to choose!

Just finished the Royal Ballet's stream of The Sleeping Beauty. It was fantastic! Just as fantastic as Romeo and Juliet. Fumi Kaneko made a beautiful Princess Aurora. Her Rose Adagio was absolutely stellar. Fumi is also very beautiful. She reminds me a bit of Julie Kent in terms of her facial features. Every variation she danced was pristine and so well rehearsed. Gary Avis stood out to me as one of her foreign suitors in the Rose Adagio. Any ballerina would be lucky to be partnered by him. Frederico Bonelli was princely and performed his role well. First Artist Genna Storm-Jensen was the Lilac Fairy and did a beautiful job. Her variation in the prologue was excellent. All of the fairies were excellent. The corps de ballet looked great. Matthew Ball and Yasmine Naghdi almost stole the show with the Bluebird Pas De Deux. These two are some of the most exciting Royal Ballet principals in my opinion.

Sarah will very much be missed. What a beautiful woman and dancer. She exuded such warmth and gravitas. Best wishes to Sarah for her next chapter!

Just finished watching Snowblind and I loved it. This is the first time I am seeing anything choreographed by Cathy Marston. Had I not read about it first, I would have been a little confused in terms of the corps representing snowfall and the elements. Sarah Van Patten was so powerful and poignant in her portrayal. Mathlide Froustey was very well cast as the young caretaker and was expertly partnered by Ulrik Burkkjaer. This ballet is a dramatic one indeed and may not be loved by all audiences, but I truly enjoy these types of ballets. I thought that the choreography was very effective in showing the depth of emotions that the characters were going through.

Happy Birthday Alexandra!!!!! Thank you for this wonderful place to discuss all things ballet.

Oh aren't they wonderful?!?! Megan just put up an interview with Indiana Woodward which is very interesting.

Agreed on all points, but I did watch the interview with Hammoudi. The video where Isabella Boyton interviews Cynthia Harvey was almost unwatchable and I was unable to get past 10 minutes in. Perhaps I have been spoiled by Megan Fairchild's excellent interviewing skills, but Boylston was lackluster. Cynthia Harvey is a legend to me and needed a better interviewer. ABT is going to need to start upping their level of videos...

Just finished Pacific Northwest Ballet's dress rehearsal of Swan Lake. Standout performances for me were Kyle Davis as the Jester, James Moore as Wolfgang, Leta Biasucci is the Pas de trois, as a cygnet, and Neopolitan. Angelica Generosa was also quite fantastic in the Pas de trois. Kyle Davis stole the show for me as the Jester - he is quite a turner! Leta is lovely in everything she does. In this version, Wolfgang dances in the first Act and has a comedic role. The corps de ballet looked really good. The cygnets really impressed me. PNB is more a neoclassical company so my thinking is that their Swan Lake needs to be viewed with the understanding that it won't be like a typical Russian or more classical version. For me, understanding this makes it much more enjoyable. Do I prefer a more classical version? Yes, but I love PNB so they will always get my support. Some of the costumes could be updated or changed - mostly in the 3rd act divertissement. The Princess costumes were a bit fluffy and a couple of them actually had midriff showing which I thought looked strange. But the swan costumes were beautiful. Onto our leads - Noelani Pantastico is a beautiful woman with a feminine body and she used it especially well as Odile. Her Odette was lovely, but I would love for her to extend her arabesques for just a second longer in certain places. Her Odile was great, strong fouettés. Seth Orza was a strong and caring partner. What a handsome dancer he is. A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to see them both in Dances At A Gathering.

Sadly, I agree with you. They used to be my absolute favorite company filled with my favorite dancers. It has been a number of years since I have seen them as I feel that their quality has gone down. Hopefully that can recover from this. They'll need to try something different than what they're currently doing as it doesn't seem to be working.

@Buddy thank you so very much for sharing that Mariinsky link. I found the Misdummer Night's Dream to be very enjoyable. It was especially nice to see the beautiful Yana Selina and Zlata Yalinich who has gorgeous legs! Skorik looked lovely in this role.