canbelto

The casting sheet has not come out but if you click on the individual performances you can now see who is cast from November 29-December 2nd. In short: Thursday Nov 29: Kowroski/T. Angle/Bouder Friday Nov 30: Mearns/Janzen/T. Peck Dec 1 mat: Woodward/Ball/King Dec 1 eve: T. Peck/Gordon/Reichlen Dec 2 mat: Pereira/Huxley/Gerrity Dec 2 eve: A. Stafford/J. Angle/Kikta

This is a good example of "ana chic." I saw Maria Khoreva dance Terpischore at City Center. She in no way shape or form looked unhealthily thin. However this picture is shot from a weird angle designed to make her look all bones and no muscle. This is what I mean by "ana chic" because it's a distortion of how she actually looks.

I'm not sure it's gotten better. I think with social media many dancers become fixated on how X dancer looks, and I've seen "you're so thin I want to lose 15 pounds by next week but how can I" type comments on instagram pages. I've also seen some dancers pose in a way that can be construed as "anorexic chic." Maybe this is not intentional as dancers often get offers to pose/model and many of them are promotional glamor shots. But the message still seems to be "thinner is better." One thing that has changed with time is that I see the same kind of comments and also the "ana chic" pictures equally among males and females. It used to be considered primarily a female problem now I see both males and females who seem to struggle with body image issues.

Mr. B took a shine to countless excellent dancers in his lifetime. He remained on good terms with a vast majority of his dancers and used his influence to help them in their next endeavors, whatever they happened to be. This ranged from him offering senior faculty positions to Alexandra Danilova and Felia Doubrovska, to helping Steve Caras pursue his interests in photography. I don't think John Clifford's feeling that he is special and the rightful heir to the throne can be blamed on Mr. B.

Speaking of 1965, you can sense Balanchine's obsession with Farrell in this PBS documentary filmed around that time:

Since this is a public-facing FB post. Again, this "you're doing it ALL WRONG EVEN IF YOU WATCHED MY VIDEO AND EMULATED ME" is not a way to start off running a company ...

But to be fair to Balanchine in the early years he choreographed a number of works that were meant to pay for his more experimental stuff. His one act Swan Lake, his Firebird, and of course his Nutcracker were meant to be cash cows that would fund, say, Agon. As Suzanne's mom said, "He was a genius!" And so his big cash cows became critically lauded. Jewels was another work that was meant to be a cash cow and it was and still is. I don't see anywhere near the same level of talent in the choreography Clifford has posted. He keeps mentioning his ballet version of Casablanca but i don't see companies knocking down his door to stage Casablanca. Besides company founders who build companies from the ground up I think are often given more leverage. For instance Serge Diaghilev, Ninette di Valois and Sir Frederick Ashton all had enormous egos but hey, they made it, they built it, it was their company. That's not the situation now with NYCB.

This attitude is problematic on so many levels. He says he'll "only" work for Mr. B. Mr. B is no longer with us. If he becomes AD of NYCB he will be working "for" the board. Also him bragging constantly about his own company when they folded very quickly is not a great thing to have on his resume.

On instagram stories Preston Chamblee is rehearsing the Nutcracker pas with Claire Kretzschmar.

There is a YT clip:

First week of casting is out: https://www.nycballet.com/NYCB/media/NYCBMediaLibrary/PDFs/Press/Casting/NYCB-Casting-Nov-23-25-2018-lobby.pdf

It was this way in Balanchine's time too. Eddie Bigelow and Betty Cage were responsible for the day to day administrative issues in the company.

I don't think it's a matter of Park being short so much as Marchand is really tall (6'5").

I think it might have worked better in the summer when most companies are not having a season and then we could have had a more substantial sampling from, say, the Mariinsky, POB or Royal Ballet. But as it is their companies are having really busy seasons and so they would only send over a small group (or in the case of POB or Royal only two dancers).

Anyone see this? Know the premiere was today.

I think all signs point towards Wendy Whelan.

They also didn't really do the fishdives. It was more like Kim picked up Tereshkina and dipped her forward to suggest a fish dive.

I attended the first three performances. Here's what I thought. I disagree by the way about Scotch Symphony. I thought it was wonderfully charming and can't fathom why this is considered "minor Balanchine": https://humbledandoverwhelmed.blogspot.com/2018/11/international-festival-of-balanchine.html

I'll have much more to write later but Sara Mearns had a bit of a stumble at the beginning of the adagio. She recovered quickly and did that famous developpe balance to penchee sequence just fine, but you could tell she was rather tense and her hands were shaking.

And to be fair to Dupont, perhaps she stayed away because she respected his space and knew that her presence wasn't welcome? I was at a farewell where the AD came out and gave the ballerina flowers and it was clear from the frosty body language that his flowers and presence was neither welcomed nor appreciated. It was very awkward.

Hoffalt in happier times ...

That's a shame. I remember Hoffalt dancing with Dupont (beautifully) in an HD of La Bayadere a few years ago. You think she'd respect his time as a colleague and his service to the company. Did she not present him with any flowers or anything?

One more example of musicality: Johnny Weir times every movement, every jump, to something in the music. He's never just "doing the steps" over music. You can see that in the way he accelerates his final set of spins as the music speeds up, or he lands from a jump just as the music ends a phrase. Again, I think this is innate. There are many remarkable skaters who do not have this musicality.

I think musicality is innate. Some things can be coached. But you don't even have to be much of a dancer to be a musical dancer. Take this example: No one would ever say Zero Mostel was a good dancer. However in the limited dance moves he does do, his character makes a clear arc from the milder fantasy that starts "If I Were a Rich Man" to the almost surreal, bizarre center of the song as his dreams become more and more extravagant, to the final moments of the song when he is bursting with exuberance thinking of all the things he dreams for but doesn't have. The way he shakes his body to the rhythm of the song makes you "see" this music. I've seen "If I Were a Rich Man" countless times sung my many different artists, many of whom were better singers than Zero Mostel.

I like Stella a lot but what could anyone do to hold McKenzie "accountable"? Throw acid in his face? Herman Cornejo was born in 1981. He joined ABT in 1999 and was promoted to principal in 2003. He isnt the best example to use for slowly developing ABT careers.