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That's fantastic!!! Congratulations to Kyle!

Thank you!!! Just finished watching it! Here are my thoughts: The sets for the first act were beautiful. Personally I prefer that all of the corps women wear pointe shoes in that first act rather than character shoes and I thought that the costumes for the two women in the PDT could have been prettier. However, the dancing was lovely and I loved Seigfried's first variation. Lebedev is a truly magnificent dancer. Acts II and IV were lovely. The swans were fantastic as were the three big swans. IMO the cygnets were ALMOST perfect except for the heads. The turning of the heads was spectacular but the amount that the chins were lowered was slightly off. Truly I am just being nitpick here as overall the dancing was magnificent. Act III was great. The Black Swan PDD is usually my favorite and they did not disappoint. Lebedev and Borchenko make a strong pairing. I had already seen this and previously commented but I was reminded how superb they both are. Beautiful Swan Lake indeed!

@aqualia2008 I was just watching this video that you had posted on your Youtube channel (to which I am a delighted subscriber): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csKsvS4NJ4I WOW! The subtle nuances that she adds here are tremendous. The tempo in the pas de deux seems a little slow. In her variation she added a fouetté in that pirouette to attitude turn and I LOVED it!!!!!!! The way she uses her head and hands really give her Odile a devilish color!

Oooooohhh!!! Great topic you started! Ekaterina Borchenko has quite a beautiful facility to work with and she uses all of her gifts so well. Those gorgeous legs and feet of hers looked smooth and strong in the Queen of the Dryads. But her Swan Lake is superb! What an actress she is - portraying Odette and Odile with such specificity and depth. I especially loved her Odile. She combines her femininity, lovely face, gorgeous arms and epaulment, and strength using that amazing Vaganova training.

Thank you @sf_herminator!!!! Please do share your thoughts on tonight's performance! Enjoy!

thank you @sf_herminator for the link to Misa's interview. In 2018 I had the pleasure of seeing her as the dewdrop fairy in Boston Ballet's Nutcracker and she blew me away. Her musicality, phrasing, jumps, speed, and lightness were so beautiful. San Fransisco Ballet has quite an impressive roster off dancers.

Thank you for the update! I am delighted that Eleonora can have a proper retirement performance dancing some of her favorite ballets.

Thank you so much to all of the board administrators and ballet fans who add so much to this site. Ballet Talk brings me so much pleasure on a daily basis to be able to be "in the know" about so many different ballet dancers, companies, and to have access to the extensive knowledge of so many balletomanes. I have deep gratitude to everyone who has contributed to this and to those who continue to keep it running so well. Ballet Talk allows us to have the stats and info the same way that sports fan have about their favorite players and teams.

This is a sad situation all around. But I do think that Misty Copeland could have handled this differently by directly calling out the company versus posting a photo of young ballet students. In my opinion, Misty has every right to be upset and speak out about it but these students probably had no idea it is upsetting to many people and most likely were just very excited to be performing in such a big ballet.

Maria Bulanova is still listed as dancing in the the role of Zarema in Fountain of Bakchisarai on January 25 of this year. Oh I hope it is a mistake that she has been removed as she has been given some great roles and is a lovely dancer.

Thank you for the news @Ashton Fan. A big congratulations to Reece Clark on his promotion!!! It makes me happy to see Mendizabel getting a shot at the role of Titiana as I have always admired her dancing and acting abilities. Last Spring I saw the Royal Ballet in LA do Mayerling and she was Empress Elizabeth. She was fantastic!

Thank you @Princesspanda for starting this topic as I did get tickets to Program 5 and will be traveling there to see it. In my opinion, SF Ballet is always worth the trip. Thank you to everyone else who has provided more info.

This would have to by my favorite as well due to my own personal nostalgia, my love for the beautiful pas de deux for Kirkland and Baryshnikov, and the Buffoon Pas de Quatre. Sadly this version did not allow for showcasing as many dancers as other productions. I think the Nutcracker is a great opportunity to show off lower ranking dancers. I also happen to enjoy the Motion Picture Nutcracker from PNB with the amazing Maurice Sendak designs. The cast for that ballet was amazing. Of course I think the best version would be Balanchine's. More recently I have become a fan of Mikko Nissinen's version for Boston Ballet. It features a Clara who is professional level student.

The same thought crossed my mind as well. Schevchenko looked divine in the Swan Lake footage but it would seem to make more sense to be showing Nutcracker footage.

Here is a nice interview with Christine Schevchenko speaking about the Nutcracker and her new book "The Style of Movement". https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/video/4253710-dancer-christine-shevchenko-talks-the-nutcracker-playing-in-costa-mesa/

Hello Ballet Alert People! This seemed like a fun discussion to start. What ballets (full length or one act) would you like to see added or brought back to specific company's repertoires? This could be totally realistic or a fanciful wish. Here is my list I will start with: MARIINKSY - Coppelia, Manon, Onegin PARIS OPERA BALLET - La Fille du Pharoan, Les Sylphides BOLSHOI - Fancy Free, Dances at a Gathering ROYAL BALLET - La Dame Aux Camelias

Etoile Eleonora Abbagnato will be performing Le Parc on December 23 for her farewell performance. IMO this will be a lovely ballet for her to exit with. There is a great video on the Paris Opera website on this link. https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/magazine/parcours-detoile-with-eleonora-abbagnato?utm_source=Selligent&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=&utm_content=&utm_term=_

If anyone saw May Nagahisa's Giselle with Philipp Stepin I would love to hear about it.

For those of you that are fans of Kristina Lind, you may enjoy this video of the Munich Ballet Company Class from World Ballet Day 2019. Lind is vey prominent. At the barre, she is on one of the barres on the left part of the screen. She stands behind a beautiful dancer in a black t shirt. Kirstins is in all black with pointe shoes on. In the center, she also stays to the left and wears a purple leotard with black shorts. Kristina is such a divine dancer and those feet n' legs...dreamy... Yana Zelensky teaches this fantastic class! Very good for strength building with simple yet challenging combinations. The dancers are top notch!

A lot of my early ballet viewing was on VHS tapes but the first ballet I saw ABT do live was Romeo and Juliet. So I will start there. 1. Romeo and Juliet - Marianna Tcherkassky and John Gardner 2. Giselle - Alessandra Ferri 3. Don Quixote - VHS with Cynthia Harvey and Mikhail Baryshnikov 4. Le Jeune Homme et la Morte - Mikhail Baryshnikov in the opening scene of White Nights. The music got into my soul... 5. Triad - VHS with Amanda McKerrow, Robert La Fosse, and Johan Renvall

According to this article she was in Concerto Barocco at the 2019 workshop performance. Lovely photo of her! http://www.seeingdance.com/school-of-american-ballet-12062019/

Congratulations to all who were promoted! So they get to choose their variations or are they assigned?

@Sebastien Yes I had the same thing so I just gave up. If you find a solution please let me know.

It's funny that you should mention their pointe shoes as a week prior I had seen them do Jewels in Los Angeles and noticed the same thing. Hopefully Gaynor can find a way to keep their shoe more comfortable and durable while making them more aesthetically pleasing. A few years ago I was fortunate enough to see them do La Bayadere in DC. Kondaurova was Nikiya and Batoeva was Gamzatti. It was heavenly. Thank you for your detailed review!

Very exciting indeed! I would love to see Charline Giezendanner promoted to Premiere Danseuse.