canbelto

Well I tried to like it, but ended up leaving after two acts. I found it choreographically very empty. Bored out of my mind.

Doesn't get happier than this: And this:

Saw last night's delightful performance. Sterling Hyltin's bourrees were to die for in La Sonnambula, and Lauren Lovette and Craig Hall were wonderful in the pas de deux. Slaughter on Tenth Avenue was also an absolute delight. Veyette whom I don't normally like was really fun as the hoofer and Mearns was great as usual as Striptease. Her voluptuous body really works for her in this role. Prodigal was a disappointment. Ulbricht has all the jumps and explosiveness but seemed to think this was the Jester. And Maria K. seemed rather rote and routine as the Siren.

Anyone wonder if Julie Kent can really make it through her scheduled performances? Her technique the last couple of times I've seen her has really eroded.

I have a feeling this schedule will be shuffled quite a bit with all the TBA's.

Hyltin I think was promoted too quickly. In the first few years after her promotion she was pushed into a bunch of roles and in each of them was sweet, charming, but not much more. Her dancing has much more power now -- more boldness in attack, more clarity. I still think some of her roles are a bit too coy (Terpischore for example) but she's definitely a greater overall artist.

I think he's talking about the lifts being overhead as "Soviet." There's a film with Dolin and Markova where he lifts her but not overhead. But this might have been specific to Markova because she was famous for being very particular about lifts. She wanted to maintain the illusion of weightlessness so she disliked any lifts that would have required her to visibly push off the ground.

There's legendary stories of certain opera singers entertaining groups of claques in their apartments with fine wine and food. I'm kind of surprised though that an old-fashioned claque still exists at the Bolshoi. I had thought in the age of the internet and youtube the "claque" has sort of morphed into a few select fans who will promote certain dancers in social media, upload private flattering films to youtube, and whatnot.

I've watched most of the available Youtube clips and this sounds like a weird thing but the Bolshoi's Onegin almost seems too "nice." Weird because they have such a history and reputation of strong acting but everything is played at this slowed, garden-party speed that takes away from the ballet's more veristic moments. There's little of the passion and fire I'd expect from a performance of Onegin.

Clips of Obraztsova: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbSO8UQx2-o

Friends? I'm not so sure after the publication of d'Amboise's memoir which included some incredibly harsh commentary about Suzanne Farrell's behavior before she left the NYCB and after she rejoined. Farrell in d'Amboise's memoir comes across as entitled, selfish, and manipulative. It's hard to know if there was a rift or whether d'Amboise was airing some long-held grievances and resentments but I was shocked because no other NYCB ballerina receives criticism as harsh as d'Amboise doles out to Farrell. It seems as if the disrespect Mr. B showed the other dancers in the company when he was most infatuated with Farrell is a wound that hasn't completely healed. Perhaps that explains why Farrell's company remains a sort of lone-wolf pick-up company -- she's really working all alone, without the cooperation/support of her former NYCB colleagues.

Gospel implies that there's some unshakable truth about a performance and that frankly is NOT a critic's job, to either repeat praise or spout meaningless superlatives. That's the job of a press agent. Reviews that I disagree with are some of the most informative reviews I've ever read. For instance I once read a film critic's takedown of Ginger Rogers. I didn't agree and still don't agree, but after that review I did watch the Astaire/Rogers dances with a different eye. I saw how the choreography carefully highlighted what Rogers could do and hid what she couldn't do.

To each his own but I've seen Veronika Part's Aurora and I wouldn't call it the jewel in any ballet company's crown. I found her horribly miscast. When I saw her as Lilac Fairy it was a different story altogether -- all was right within the kingdom. Anyway I still think attending six out of seven ballet performances more than fulfills the duty of ballet critic.

When Suzanne Farrell Ballet first started its operations I remember reading the gushing reviews. Those high standards are difficult to maintain for a pick-up troupe without a steady roster, and now the critical shine has worn off. Sad, but true.

He attended six out of seven performances. I'd say whether you disagree with him or not he did his job as a ballet critic. As for "all-American" ballerinas I'd say Tiler Peck and Sterling Hyltin are the embodiments of the "American" ballerina: wholesome-looking, technically fearless, unpretentious and un-mannered in their dancing style. I never saw her live but Patricia McBride from the videotapes would strike me as having the same qualities.

It's also the ABT's version of Sleeping Beauty that leaves watered-down opportunities for the up-and-coming corps members or demi-soloists. SB is traditionally considered an excellent opportunity to show the top-down strength of a company, but with the current staging it's become just another showcase vehicle for the Star Ballerina and the Star Dancer. The fairy variations in the prologue and the divertissements in Aurora's wedding are either cut or presented in such a disjointed way that it's hard for anybody to shine, and that's a shame.

Wow that interview is kind of sad. It's good she's going to SFB and starting fresh, but it sounds as if company morale has deteriorated rapidly from the recent exit interviews.

Here's a peek at Zhiganisha:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWjONrIx1fY Nastya Zaklinskaya is the middle girl in the Arabian dance. You can see that her face looks strikingly like mom's.

I will say though that ballerinas are constantly praised for their beauty both here and by critics, and they should also accept the flip side. For instance hardly a review of Maria Kowroski fails to mention her physical beauty. Aesthetics are just an important part of ballet, like it or not.

My question is - Why assign weight as the problem. When I saw Mearns in the Winter Season there was a performance when she looked like she was holding back, and wasn't herself (I later learned that she was injured), but I didn't attribute it to weight. I didn't assign the problem to weight. But dancers often say that when they have a long layoff due to injury they gain weight, so it's not a surprise Mearns was a little heavier during the Winter Season since she had been injured for a long time.

Diana Vishneva has it listed on her website that she is guesting at the Bolshoi in this.

Sara did look heavier during the Winter Season, when I saw her in Swan Lake and Serenade. But she was coming back from an injury. In the spring season she looked back to her old shape. Her build is wide-set and there's nothing she can do about that.

Indeed, I would never put any credence in slime balls that hide behind anonymity. A good journalist wouldn't bother with a source that can't be verified. Racism and Xenophobia is rife in Russia, even worse than in the rest of Eastern Europe. There is a definite pecking order with the ethnicities and in a TV documentary of a few years back, I was surprised that Tartars are considered the bottom of the heap. Georgians are low in the pecking order too. Tsiskaridze is far from alone among dancers to use that kind of deplorable language, but sensitivity over religion is growing throughout all Europe. Russia and Eastern Europe however find the concept of political correctness totally alien. Doesn't make it acceptable though, especially since as you point out Tsiskaridze is himself part of an ethnic minority. As for anonymous sources ever heard of Watergate and Deep Throat!?

I'm NOT defending Tsiskaridze "going there" with Iksanov's ethnicity, but unfortunately "going there" about ethnicity seems very much accepted in the Russian press. I've said this before but during the Olympics there were two star gymnasts on the Russian team -- Aliya Mustafina and Viktoria Komova. I was shocked to read Russian articles that made some ugly references to Mustafina's Muslim/Tatar ethnicity and compared her unfavorably to Komova, who was constantly praised not just for her talents but for her "Soviet" looks. (I assume the writers meant that she was blonde and blue-eyed.) Even after Mustafina proved herself to be the more consistent gymnast at the Olympics the ugly comments continued. I read an interview in Pointe Magazine in which Natalia Osipova said that much of her family lives in Israel and her parents moved back from Israel to Russia. Not surprised that she'd keep her Jewish heritage quiet in a climate where low-blows about ethnicity seem to be accepted in the press.