canbelto

Omg! F bombs! Brand her with the scarlet A! And race has nothing to do with this. As I said, this is just the way girls fight. I deal with it every day.

Just saying this is baby cakes compared to the online shaming, fighting, bullying, airdropping of photoshopped photos, name calling, and the tears and drama that occur on a daily basis between “friends” on social media that teachers have to deal with every day. So ppl who aren’t used to these online wars and takedowns might be shocked at some of the harsh language used by Alexandra but it’s simply the “fighting language” used today. It is what it is.

I'm not saying this is right, but as I said, as a high school teacher, this is just the way young people deal with conflict. This is what I deal with everyday.

Maxwell outted herself with a statement and made a countercharge against Waterbury. These two ladies obviously don't like each other and as I said this is the millennial way of announcing they don't like each other.

The comments by Waterbury about Maxwell aren't very nice but as a high school teacher I know this is how younger people fight. They do it all via social media.

She's not harassing Maxwell. They have a strong personal conflict.

You're just trying to slut shame her.

I'm not comparing Ramasar's case to the Unbelievable case. I'm saying that once someone has been charged prosecutors can bring in evidence from cases that were previously dropped due to lack of evidence. In this case, the serial rapist was charged with "Marie's" rape even though she recanted the evidence. So if there are more pictures out there circulating Finlay can be held accountable for them even if Waterbury doesn't know about it.

It's still a crime if you don't get caught when you do get caught. For instance there was a rape case where a woman recanted her testimony under pressure. Her pictures were later found in the house of a serial rapist who had been terrorizing Washington State. His rape of the woman who recanted her accusation was added to the prosecution and he is currently serving life in prison with no possibility of parole. The whole thing was made into a Netflix series "Unbelievable." It wa salso the subject of a Pulitzer Prize winning article. https://www.propublica.org/article/false-rape-accusations-an-unbelievable-story

Revenge porn is actually a crime now. Were Finlay's actions enough to qualify as revenge porn? Probably not but they were pretty close. So that's to stop the "it's not a crime' canard.

Faye Arthurs has a really great article about Voices: https://www.fjordreview.com/new-york-city-ballet-ratmansky-voices/

Ratmansky is quite open that he decides casting and demands long rehearsal periods and great commitment to his projects. Hurlin and Shevchenko are people he's advocated for a long time, before they were soloists or principals.

Well I've watched the whole thing now and totally love it. https://humbledandoverwhelmed.blogspot.com/2020/01/ratmanskys-new-old-giselle.html

I actually really disliked the ending. I love the simplicity of the "new traditional" ending where Giselle returns to her grave. It's incredibly peaceful, and gives a sense of closure. She arose from the grave, and it makes sense that she returns to it. I also like the way Giselles usually become more and more distant from Albrecht once dawn comes. Here the back and forth before she sunk into a grassy knoll just seemed fussy.

The Balanchine ballet that actually has a very Eastern flavor is Symphony in Three Movements. The central pas de deux when done right is supposed to have East Asian accents.

The choreography of Bugaku IMO isn't strong enough to be revived as more than an occasional specialty. This is not a Turandot or Madama Butterfly situation where the music is so strong that it will always be in the rep. If a company wants to acquire Balanchine in their rep, they're going to go for Apollo/Serenade/Symphony in C/Jewels/Agon/4T's/T&V every time. For the companies that specialize in Balanchine it might be cool to see once or twice. I have seen it maybe once or twice and never thought I was looking at more than B minus Balanchine.

No one said that.

Desi was heavily involved in all aspects of I love Lucy though so he was creating his own character. It's a bit like Seinfeld mirrored a lot of Jerry Seinfeld's own personality. This is more akin to a Japanese soprano singing Madama Butterfly. She wouldn't be wearing yellowface but Madama Butterfly is a Westernized fantasy of Japanese geisha. Very different from, say, Kenji Mizoguchi's films about geisha (his own sister was sold into a geisha house and he was close to her and took his inspiration from many things he witnessed).

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.