canbelto

I thought Tess Reichlen was magnificent last night in Momentum/Movements. Like a Greek statue. Just gorgeous.

I just hope Mearns dances Firebird! Can't wait to see that.

Well there was a collection of racist/bigoted comments she made. For instance, she said I was "wasting" myself trying to teach black and Hispanic kids. She also said that gays were just "men who hate their mothers." Too bad because she was an intelligent woman. As for Natalia Osipova she self-identifies as Russian even though her parents were born in Israel.

I've seen Russian professional dancers pose in blackface outfits for Pharaoh's Daughter and sometimes it does come across like they think it's like a very funny Halloween costume. I agree it's a sort of passive, unconscious racism that can be as harmful as the more active "go to the back of the bus" Jim Crow racism. Because the more active "go to the back of the bus" racism can be remedied with laws. This kind of "hahaha, this costume is so funny" racism is harder to combat and it's thus more pervasive.

Racism is a huge problem in Russia. I terminated a relationship with a Russian therapist when she told me that Natalia Osipova wasnt Russian because she was Jewish.

Hmm one thing about hive social media attacks though is that very often celebrities are advised to never comment about them, because any comment (even if it's "cut it out") is giving the stalkers the validation they want/crave. I know that for instance the Kensington Palace Instagram account simply deletes offensive comments about Meghan from their account. I'm not sure if Misty has the kind of following though that can truly be called a hive social media attack, so in her case I think a comment of "stop attacking ballet students, they're 14" is entirely appropriate.

On twitter it says she is coaching Momentum/Movements. Yay!

Well in light of recent developments, I decided to write about Megxit and operatic heroines who married into royalty and found out it wasn't all that: https://humbledandoverwhelmed.blogspot.com/2020/01/megxit-unhappy-operatic-princesses.html

Just saw the new Little Women. There are things I loved about this version and also things I really disliked. Here is what I liked: - I loved the flashback structure. I thought that it solved one of the biggest problems of the Little Women -- the warm, charming, but slow-moving first "childhood" half with the somewhat depressing, adult second half. By tying the two together constantly in flashback we see how childhood dreams dissolve into harsh realities. - I loved Saoirse Ronan as Jo. I love Winona Ryder but she wasn't strong enough as Jo. Ronan does have the fierceness and tomboyish-ness. - I LOVED Jo's bittersweet reaction to Laurie marrying Amy. Love is not always romantic and it's possible to be absolutely heartbroken that a childhood friend has now moved on. - The development of the Amy/Laurie romance. Thought it was well-done and believable. - I liked how Beth was portrayed as genuinely sickly from the beginning. It made her early demise believable. - I loved the really physical fight between Jo and Amy. There was nothing ladylike about it. In general I enjoyed the rough-and-tumble of this Little Women compared to the previous versions. Now with that being said, there's some things that didn't work for me: - Florence Pugh as 12 year old Amy: NO. She was a great adult/Europe Amy but as a 12 year old? No. Her voice is the deepest and huskiest of the sisters. - The very modern vocal inflections during the movie were jarring. - The scene with Meg at the ball cut one of my favorite scenes from the book: when Meg overhears the other girls making fun of her dress and socioeconomic status. - Professor Bhaer. I know Gerwig wanted it to deliberately be ambiguous if the ending was fiction or reality. But in this version the seem like they barely know each other and there's nothing to suggest Jo really likes him. - Meryl Streep as Aunt March. Yes yes I know Meryl is a goddess but sometimes I feel like her acting is now a collection of tics and mannerisms and this is exhibit A. But overall I enjoyed this version. I think it's a great supplement to the 1994 version. Both have their virtues and flaws.

Summerspace has never really left the repertory. NYCB just revived it. I think Cunningham's dance vocabulary will live on in modern choreographers. His focus on sculptural stillness, animal shapes and direction turning jumps are all over modern dance's DNA. No matter what you think of his work this is a striking, unforgettable pose: As is this:

Farley has had a number of injuries since joining. We don't tend to notice corps member when they go missing but injuries do tend to slow down your promotion process.

I think Wozzeck is more easily enjoyed if you think of it as a play with musical accompaniment. The text and action are really just as important as the singing. Much of the opera is in that medium of sing-speech. The orchestral accompaniment can be thought of as a horrific musical commentary. If you want arias or even lush easy to hum melodies it's not there. But if you think of it as a complicated play with musical accompaniment it's such a tightly organized drama. Over and out in 1 hour 35 minutes. Has to be the shortest opera in the repertoire? Even Elektra and Salome are a good 10-15 minutes longer.

Theater Development Fund. It's an organization that sells discount tickets. You have to be a teacher or government employee to join.

Well not everything can be Puccini ...

The opera is definitely a bit "difficult" but it's one of the greatest operas in the canon, IMO. Absolutely devastating emotional impact and the music maybe the most famous representation of German Expressionism.