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@volcanohunter thank you os much for taking the time to translate that. It sounds like he said nothing of much importance. Alina Somova is not my favorite Mariinsky ballerina but I did enjoy watching dancers in some of the other roles.

Love the video Buddy! Thank you!

Yes, I'd love to hear the translation for the introduction as well! Alina Somova is not one of my favorite Mariinsky ballerinas, however one cannot help but be charmed by her. Alina radiates a sincere innocence and radiates sunshine. She certainly shines as Princess Aurora. What I admire about her the most is how hard she has worked throughout her career to become the dancer she is today. She naturally has very long and hyperextended legs, extreme flexibility and most likely instability in her ligaments. One can only imagine how difficult it would be to wrangle those lovely long legs of hers. In my opinion, she lacked strength in the beginning of her career and didn't always have full control over her long limbs, but she has gained so much strength and stability and has become a world-renowned ballerina. Kudos to her!

You could be correct as I do not know why she left. If she had gained weight, she certainly lost it as she looks like pure perfection to me. Chinara is very feminine, strong, and gorgeous.

Oh thank thank thank you @Buddy for sharing this! Absolutely I remember Chinara Alizade and I always thought she should be promoted. Well it looks like she is more than prospering at the Polish National Ballet! What a treat to get to see her dance a principal role. Chinara makes an absolutely divine Princess Aurora. Her legs and feet are mesmerizing to my eyes. She also has such a beautiful face. What a lavish production indeed! This was basically a feast for my eyes!

Oh I love this! Thank you VERY much for sharing!

Oh my goodness that was hilarious!!! My favorite part was the "Cat Turd Beach". Thank you so much! Thank you so much Helene!!!

Oh thank you @Helene! The Dolly Parton video looks like will be fantastic. Dolly is like a ray of sunshine! In the hopes of levity, I'd like to share a video I made. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYR5BI4c5GA

Bolshoi is streaming Swan Lake live right now!!!

WOW! Thank you for sharing this. What a beautiful performance from the entire cast. From the principals to the corps - great ballet company. The dancer that stood out to me the most was Jeanette Kakareka dancing the walking pas de deus in Emeralds. It looked like she was ademi-soloist in Diamonds as well. Alina Somova was gorgeous, too. Very nice camera work.

Just got word that Alvin Ailey in Los Angeles is cancelled

Thank you @aqualia2008 for another wonderful video! Lebedev really has a beautiful facility to work with. His feet and ankles are gorgeously arched. He has great technique - landing in 5th very cleanly. My only wish is that he wouldn't lift that hip up so high in order to get his arabesque higher. I imagine he is quite flexible in those hips.

That was fantastic!!! Made my day! Thanks for sharing that!

WOW! This sounds like a wonderful and exciting opportunity for David. Congratulations to him! He did his long rehab with the therapists at the Australian Ballet and in his book he mentioned how highly regarded the company.

Thank YOU for sharing your story. Much like you, my eating disorder started a long while ago (early 1990's) and it would have been so helpful if we had someone like Kathryn Morgan who spoke openly about this sort of thing. For me it felt like suffering silently and alone and I thought it was normal. Kudos to people who are opening up and starting discussions about this. I am sorry that you had to go through that.

Thank you so much for posting this and welcome! This video touches me quite personally because at age 12 I had my first of 4 hospitalizations for anorexia and I was also a serious ballet student. My situation was different because I was never told to lose weight. At the Washington Ballet School, I was not allowed to audition for the Nutcracker until I put on some weight and at the Academy of the Maryland Youth Ballet I was asked to leave until I gained weight. Luckily these 2 ballet schools acted responsibly in my situation. This is a really tough issue because ballet does have certain aesthetics. If a dancer really is having an issues with too much weight there needs to be a better way to address it and to help them. Ballet involves scrutinizing every inch of the body in front of a mirror every day so that alone can cause issues. Many ballet companies employ beautiful dancers who aren't stick thin and hopefully more companies can catch on. Today's choreographic demands require a lot of strength and an undernourished body will not be able to keep up. Thank you Kathryn Morgan for shedding some light on this situation so we can try to come up with better solutions.

Actually I had started this thread: https://balletalert.invisionzone.com/topic/45241-ballet-wish-lists-for-companies/?tab=comments#comment-421302 Your idea of naming it "If I were Diaghilev" is fantastic!

Thank you! In terms of stats, I suppose it's just nice to be in communication with other like-minded ballet lovers who enjoy staying up to date on all things ballet! But it would be fun to have "fantasy ballet" leagues!!!

Emily12 I couldn't of said it better myself. As a fellow actress, many casting decisions are simply out of our control and so much more goes into that than talent alone. It is probably the same in ballet. Also I agree that Sarah Lane has had many great roles and opportunities.

Back in 2012 or so, ABT brought Sleeping Beauty to Los Angeles and Christine Schevchenko was the Songbird Fairy in the prologue and nearly stole the show.

Josette thank you so much for your thoughts in this performance. I am glad that we both were so moved by it. It was a truly magical performance!

Please accept my apologies for coming so late to this conversation but I was very happy to have found it as I was at that Sunday matinee performance. The reason I am commenting is that I was so moved by the performance that I still think about it. It is almost 11 years later and the memories that stand out the most are Irina Dvorovenko as Giselle, Veronika Part as Myrtha, and the glorious corps in Act II. Irina moved me to tears with her portrayal. Never before had I seen the vulnerability and the "weak heart" of Giselle so clearly. Her mad scene was fantastic. it is no surprise that she is now an actress. Veronika was a force to be reckoned with while being velvety smooth. The wilds were fantastic!

@The Traveling Ballerina thank you for your wonderful review! In fact, thank you for all of you reviews. It gives me greats pleasure to read them. That photo of Hee Seo from the first act is sublime.

Agreed on San Francisco! Boston would be a viable option as well. Miami City is very Balanchine heavy. Agreed all around! Great company, great rep, great city! They both would do well there. Houston Ballet seemed like an especially good option for them since they are heavy on the classics and MacMillan and they seem to like petit dancers.

For a long time now I have felt that both Sarah Lane and Skylar Brandt would do quite well at Houston Ballet.