canbelto

Would love to see Indiana Woodward as Juliet.

Hmm getting back to the heart of the matter ... any ideas for where Chase Johnsey might find a new artistic home? He is extremely talented. The original founder of the Trocks Peter Anastos later became a choreographer and writer.

Chase Johnsey really is very talented and I hope he finds a new artistic home. I mean look at this. It's delightful:

T. Angle has also been replaced in Chaconne.

The Froustey interview about the POB training really makes me wince. She's not the first dancer to talk about how relentlessly harsh the training is. I hope things have changed.

Anna Nikulina was dancing a lot before Vaziev. She's a favorite of Grigorovich and also of Tsiskaridze and both remain influential at the Bolshoi. She's also the preferred partner of Denis Rodkin. During the 2014 tour to NY she got leading roles in Swan Lake and Spartacus.

I am generally not a fan of Russians dancing Balanchine as I think they don't get the speed and quick footwork but I saw Smirnova's Diamonds live and this video confirms my impression of her live is that there is nothing egregious about her dancing. It might not be to your taste but I don't see any "cheating through flawed technique." If someone wants to give me specific instances in this clip of her terribleness I'm ready to be enlightened but I don;t see anything horrible about this.

Anthony Huxley did dance Mozartiana with Sterling Hyltin a few seasons ago.

Last year Chase Johnsey won the Best Male Dancer Award in the UK's National Dance Awards: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/feb/06/chase-johnsey-success-national-dance-awards For some more samples of Chase's talent as a dancer he does fouettes that would certainly make some ABT ballerinas green with envy:

My pick is Roman Mejia. He is super-talented.

If you watch the YT video Chase specifically says that this is a pattern of behavior and restrictions on what they're allowed to wear, act like, etc. and it's been ongoing for several years. Either way sad situation and I hope he finds a company because he is VERY talented.

Hmm, I always thought it was just etiquette to call people by what they self-identify as. For instance if someone insisted on addressing Barack Obama as "Kenyan" wouldn't that be really rude and disrespectful?

I did read that. I was shocked. I've seen many ballet companies where ballerinas do not wear their hair long at all and actually are rather androgynous off the stage. This seems to be a form of discrimination that is surprising for a company that, as I said, was probably considered a safe space for many gay male dancers to express gender non-comformity in their dancing.

The puzzling thing is why the Trocks would be willing to lose their best dancer (IMO -- I saw the Trocks a few times and Johnsey was absolutely the star of the evening) over what seems to be a private choice when he's off the clock. It's not as if these dancers are so recognizable offstage that the company has to protect a certain brand. Chase Johnsey (and the other company dancers) could probably walk down any street anywhere unrecognized as Yakatarina Verbosovitch (his stage moniker). There is no sexual misconduct/abuse here. This sounds like discrimination.

Well despite having 14 principals NYCB's male roster is somewhat spotty. Amar - gone for a year to do Carousel Ulbricht/Huxley - brilliant dancers but limited by height and physique in what roles they can do de Luz - see Ulbricht/Huxley and also, retiring Garcia - see Ulbricht/Huxley, currently injured J. Angle - dancing less and less, good for partnering but that's about it Ask La Cour - always very limited in rep That leaves only Taylor Stanley, Russell Janzen, Adrian Danchig-Waring (just back from a devastating injury),Tyler Angle (more known for his partnering than anything else), Zachary Catazaro and Chase Finlay to carry most of the male principal workload. Finlay is right now not that great of a partner. Catazaro and Finlay have also had a number of injuries.

I was at a performance of Donizetti Variations about three years ago where he was dancing and you could tell he was in trouble. Sure enough after a hard landing he limped offstage and did not return for the rest of the ballet. Ashley Bouder and the quick-thinking corps improvised the closing minutes of the ballet. He was out for awhile (this was the day before the premiere of Justin Peck's Rodeo, and Justin had to dance in place of Andy). Since then he's not been the same dancer. NYCB has quite a few dancers who have never been the same after some injuries. Ashly Isaacs is another one. She used to be a technical phenom. Then an injury, and since then she's been very inconsistent.

The Wind Still Brings brings back unpleasant memories. It's like 20 minutes of my life I'll never get back.

Indeed, there are a few people who have transitioned who have made it clear that they did not have the removal surgery. Caitlyn Jenner is one.

I don't know if we were watching the same performance but Maria had difficulty in the many pirouettes of the Theme and Variations. She was never a strong turner to begin with but now it seems as if a single pirouette has to be so carefully prepared that it loses all its effect. I also thought one of her feet looked sickled. I agree her Preghiera was beautiful but that's five minutes in a 30 minute ballet that also calls for lots of quick allegro footwork.

Agree that Adrian's muses handled that move beautifully. Also think they handled the knot sequences well. Indiana Woodward was a lovely Calliope. Good debut for her. Calliope's variation isn't one I normally pay much attention to but Woodward brought a lot of charm to it.

The squatting/extremely bent leg pirouettes are something Balanchine used time and again. It's here in Apollo: It's something NYCB dancers should be able to master since they have to do it so often.

I went to four performances this week. Overall impressions here: http://poisonivywalloftext.blogspot.com/2018/01/winter-season-diaries-all-balanchine.html

Ok I was at the performance tonight and can pinpoint the partnering blooper between Sara and Adrian because it happened tonight here. It's the moment when the ballerina does a series of supported pirouettes while nearly squatting on the ground. Here's the Suzanne/Peter video. Go to 3:01: Tonight Mearns simply put her hand on the ground to prevent falling but didn't actually break the flow of the choreography. Andrew Veyette is definitely injured as he was replaced both in the afternoon matinee (Cortege) and tonight in Divertimento.

Thanks Drew. I agree that she is jumping better in these clips than what I remember seeing in 2014. I still see a carefulness and preparation that wasn't there previously. Her jump used to be one of those light, buoyant wonders that only the Bolshoi could produce. Here she is right before her Achilles tendon injury: The Achilles heel injury is devastating and it's rare for dancers or athletes to fully recover. Jennie Somogyi never really recovered after her two Achilles heel injuries.

Luckily WBD is preserved on YT and so you can watch Boris Akimov's entire class here: At no point does Alexandrova ever push anyone. She looks to be at her usual place in the barre. Her purple outfit seems like the typical ballet class outfit -- they're not students at the academy anymore, and most of the dancers seem to be in some mismatched warmup clothes. The only thing that seems to denote her prima ballerina status is the fact that unlike the other ladies her hair is coiffed and very done-up as if she wanted to look her best on camera, while everyone else is wearing some variation of the sloppy bun.