canbelto

I kind of hope one person from the interim team takes over. At least we know that they all have good relationships with the existing company and all of them seem to be scrupulous people. One dancer has made a sort-of statement:

The comments about Martins from past dancers vs. present reminds me a lot of Bing Crosby's children. Both are probably valid. Crosby was at a different place in his life during his second marriage. I've no doubt that the Martins of the 1980's and 1990's is not the Martins of today. Back then the company was fighting for survival, Peter's attempts at choreography were met with derision, there was much criticism of the quality of performances, and tensions were high. Today the company is financially well-off, the roster is deep in talent at all ranks, and the company is getting great reviews from critics. But wow, what a sudden transition as we start the Winter Season.

Hmm ... I saw the original Raymonda at ABT. It was dropped because it was a very bad production, and ABT simply doesn't have the kind of dancers to do this ballet justice. It looked poorly rehearsed. This is a big ballet with a lot of dancers required and Raymonda is a VERY long part. I saw two casts who were alright but it just looked like a chamber version of Raymonda. Maybe if Alexei Ratmansky does a version it will be back .. he has the cache to demand rehearsal time and budget. The Mariinsky and Bolshoi themselves rarely tour this ballet.

Hi Tess recently did another lengthy podcast: https://www.whatsgoingonwithdanceandstuff.com/episodes/ep26withteresareichlen

I have only seen Edward Watson in videos of Mayerling, The Winter's Tale, and Woolf Works. Seems he's not really a white tights kind of dancer? He was absolutely demented and scary in Mayerling.

Looking at the spring the season ends with Coppelias, a role he's danced many times over the years. It would be a fitting sendoff if he were retiring.

If Joaquin de Luz is indeed retiring (or retiring his white tight roles) I'm glad I saw him this summer in Superjewels. He really showed how it's done and brought down the house.

Not just male/female relationships. There's a couple male-male couples at NYCB that are no more judging by social media.

Megan Fairchild has posted her own posting which seems to confirm that Joaquin will never dance Nutcracker again with NYCB. Take it for whatever it's worth:

Joaquin just posted this cryptic message on Instagram stating that he is dancing Nutcracker "with NYCB" for the last time:

Huh? I've never seen a version where there weren't women being sold. I think I've seen many versions. ABT, Mariinsky, Bolshoi, Vienna State Opera. I hadn't seen the ENB Le Corsaire but here is the synopsis right on their website:

I saw Steven McRae when the RB came to NYC and he danced Oberon in The Dream. I thought he was very elegant. I also liked him in the recent Nutcracker transmission with Sarah Lamb as SPF. I have videos of him La Fille Mal Gardee (IMO a bit mismatched with Osipova) and Rhapsody (liked that a lot). I didn't like his Rubies with Sarah Lamb though. I thought it was a bit too prim, not reckless enough.

I agree. I have seen several wonderful ballerinas tackle Manon. And while I'm glad I saw their performances I couldn't really say who was "better" -- to me the swoony poses, the overly acrobatic lifts, the somewhat tawdry choreography all meant every ballerina was sort of the same. Every Manon is going to swing her arms coquettishly in the first act. Every Manon is going to passionately throw herself at Des Grieux in the bedroom pas de deux. Every Manon is going to gingerly be passed around from one man to another in the brothel scene. Every Manon is going to lurch as if she's dying before throwing herself into those huge acrobatic lifts in the swamp scene. And every Manon that I've seen has played up the sophistication of the character. I actually think Mary Vetsera in Mayerling allows for more individuality. I've never seen this ballet live but I've seen the Lolita-like Mary's and also the predatory Mary's and the more childlike, innocent Mary's.

He says it in the recent podcast. http://conversationsondancepod.com/category/robert-gottlieb/

I don;t think Manon and Mayerling should be canned. But if we're talking about ballets with offensive/disturbing subtexts that need to go, I think those two ballets come to mind as having very disturbing attitudes towards women. As for classical ballets my jaw dropped when I read ABT's synopsis for Le Corsaire:

Uh, I know he's popular but Manon and Mayerling by Kenneth MacMillan certainly depict some violent attitudes towards women that are disturbing.

Part of the issue I've always had with KC honors is the narrator they choose to tell the honoree's story is often blander than the honoree telling her own story. Case in point: here's Carmen herself talking about how she met Alvin Ailey.

Mother Ginger and her Polichinelles: The Act 1 Stahlbaum home: Act 2 Land of the Sweets:

Re: Trump's absence, it's a good thing he wasn't there because I'm sure his presence would have brought discomfort to many of the honorees. OTOH it is extremely sad when you have a POTUS who can't make the most basic, fluffy, gracious speech for these types of occasions because of his toxic personality. Here is Misty and Fairchild: Here's Stella and also Ailey dancers in "Wade in the Water":

I saw the honors on TV tonight. I loved the tribute to LL Cool J -- it had some of the raw energy that was totally appropriate for the hip hop pioneer. This was hip hop before autotune. I also loved the tribute to the ever-gorgeous Carmen de Lavallade although I wish there could have been some context for her tribute -- like did they even mentioned she was an original member of Alvin Ailey? The tribute to Norman Lear had me thinking of how members of the Bunker family would have reacted to Trump. Archie might have supported him, Edith/Gloria/Meathead definitely wouldn't have.

Here's the complete episode which gives some backstory into their estrangement. They were close friends but fell out for a variety of reasons, most chiefly that Magic thought Isiah spread rumors that Magic was gay when Magic was HIV+. Isiah denied the allegations. That led to Magic blackballing Isiah from the 1992 Dream Team. One cool fact: both men have gay sons who say their fathers are 100% supportive. And Isiah's brother died of AIDS a few years ago. So clearly these men have grown a lot and I was very happy to see this.

Here's a picture. Looks like demi-pointe slippers to me.

Many contracts have a "morals" clause. This allows someone to be released from the contract and/or terminated if there is an egregious moral trangression. It was the morals clause that forced Loretta Young to pull off her massive baby deception: she gave birth to Clark Gable's daughter and then readopted her and thus raised her as her own daughter but told her daughter she was adopted. http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=124199&page=1 Gomes being a high-profile dancer and a face of ABT very well could have had a morals clause that was violated.

abatt that post was from December 6, before all this happened.

I took a look at his instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/marcelua/ And it's really sad to look at now. It's almost a picture history of ABT. The farewells, the debuts, the new works, the old works, and so on. It seemed as if the company was really his life.