canbelto

Here's a great compilation of Bob Fosse dancing.

She wanted to try the classics and was a principal for the Royal Ballet for a few years. But then she quit dancing altogether. There was a long piece on her in Elle magazine: http://www.elle.com/culture/a39990/alexandra-ansanelli-prima-ballerina-career/ The piece requires some reading between the lines.

Thanks for the review! I think the horse and donkey are important mostly for those who have read the book. Rocinante and Dapple are a big part of the book. Glad to hear Batoeva did great. I read an interview with her in dance magazine where she said she was almost expelled from the Vaganova multiple times and said she could only dance character roles: http://www.dancemagazine.com/nadezhda-batoeva-2307032142.html If this video is a judge she's a real charmer:

To see just how much they look alike:

Hmm here's a picture of Alena Kovaleva. I think she looks so much like suzanne farrell down to the underbite.

There's a dedicated YT'er who uploads a lot of POB performances. Not going to point out the name but ... he just uploaded a Jewels from 2003 today. Definitely back then they were very acceptable in Balanchine.

Really? I have seen the POB dance Robbins and IMO they actually fare worse than Balanchine. It's as if they're speaking an entirely different ballet vocabulary. That deliberate casualness that was so important for Robbins eludes them.

I actually remember the first time I saw Jewels (maybe 15 years ago) it was at NYCB and it was not a happy experience. I love Maria Kowroski but turns have always been iffy and that night the final pirouettes in the finale of Diamonds were particularly rough. She actually fell over. I think it took her many years to finally develop enough strength in her legs. I also remember that the Rubies was with Alexandra Ansanelli, who back then was being cast in nearly everything. Her Rubies was actually sort of like Ekaterina Kryasnaova's -- full of big grins right out to the audience. I remember liking Jenifer Ringer (???) in Diamonds. But yeah, not a performance for the ages and not the best intro to the ballet.

FWIW, some of the most unidiomatic Balanchine performances I've seen (that have actually made me want to cover my eyes) has occurred right across the plaza at ABT.

Anyone see the different Rubies cast this afternoon with Lopatin?

I've always thought of Other Dances as a short dancer ballet. Maybe because Makarova and Baryshnikov were both short dancers, and then in NYCB the casting is still short dancers (Tiler Peck, Joaquin de Luz, Megan Fairchild, Gonzalo Garcia).

I saw the moment you're talking about and think that in this case it's more of an accent being different rather than an outright distortion/deletion of steps (the way the first night POB did not do the staccato arabesques in the walking pas de deux). Also (and I think this is important) many of the dancers who made those 1970's films have spoken about the tiny cramped TV studios being very difficult to dance in and Balanchine being unhappy with the results of most of those films. As much as I adore the Farrell/Martins video the tininess of their dancing space is very apparent and this pas de deux really needs a large stage to breathe. I appreciate this video but I am sure their real-life performances in a theater were very different and had a different impact.

Hmm I don't think Smirnova is short. And at CB the ballet continues to be cast with tall women -- Maria Kowroski, Tess Reichlen, and Sara Mearns (the three active Diamonds) are all tall. And I don't think Suzanne was actually that tall. I think her very long feet made her tall on pointe. I think in actual height Suzanne might be closer to Smirnova than Kowroski or Reichlen.

Um who is on the cover? I received a brochure a few days ago but didn't really look at it and recycled it.

I have a video from 2014 and 2016 of the Bolshoi and the gloves were not there in either performance. So it appears they are a brand new addition.

AFAIK the selection process in the elite Russian schools do look at your parents, your siblings, etc. But it was apparently the same for gymnastics or figure skating. These children were being funded by the state to be the best in the world. I understand it's a bit different now and that parents' incomes is now an important factor about whether you get accepted to these schools or not.

My favorite number in the show is actually that murderers' row of dancers:

Idk why this has become so contentious. I think part of the uniformity one sees in the Russian companies' corps is also the way their companies have a feeder school and in those schools kids as young as 10 are vigorously selected to have the "right" proportions, looks, face, everything. Russian ballet dancers are also told very bluntly that they must be "perfect weight" which apparently is your height in cm - 110 = kg. With that being said both the U.S. and Russian ballet companies have issues about accepting diversity within their ranks. It's not a problem unique to one country.

Farrell/Martins at least in the video are also very remote and chilly. Actually Mearns' take on Diamonds isn't even the orthodox NYCB take on Diamonds. Wendy Whelan, Teresa Reichlen, Maria Kowroski also all less emotive than Mearns.

Karen, thanks for your thoughts! I'm so happy you got to see this Superjewels! I think maybe in retrospect I'm being too hard on the POB's Emeralds. In recent years NYCB has had Tiler Peck do the Violette Verdy role and dancers like Ashley Laracey and Sara Mearns the Mimi Paul role. But I do remember when Peter Martins himself seemed to have trouble casting this ballet in a way that he never did for Rubies and Diamonds. I remember some real miscasts as well. I was thinking that some of the oddities of the Bolshois' Rubies seemed to come from a place of being overly scrupulous. It's as if they wanted to avoid ANY accusation that they were overacting, hamming it up, distorting the music or steps, so it was as if they were afraid to actually dance. But risk-taking is part of Rubies' DNA -- it's not supposed to look tasteful.

Hmm FWIW I once was at a Home Depot and a Russian guy came up to me and spoke nearly perfect Chinese. He said he grew up in an area where the majority of people had Chinese descent and picked up the language as a child. There's a lot of Russian ballet dancers (past and present) who have a central Asian look that is not anywhere near what I'd call looking "white." One example: Ana Turashvilli:

I just died of cuteness.

I wouldn't call this "the upper body of a track and field star": She does look like Patti Lupone but that's not a bad thing. I adore Patti.

This might be sort of delicate to ask but ... when did the Bolshoi men become so pretty? The ones I saw on the tour have these elegant insteps and slender thighs. Very different from the old-school Bolshoi dancer, who could do all those lifts in Spartacus without breaking a sweat. You know, strong upper body, thick thighs, powerful jumps. Like where did these types of dancers go?

I agree that Kiss Me Kate is by far the best adaptation of Taming of the Shrew, and it's due to the excellent music and lyrics of Cole Porter. It just gives a level of lightness and champagne to an otherwise somewhat tawdry story. I mean how can you not love this: