canbelto

Firing 40% of his company? Wow, that's harsh.

I'm puzzled by the repetitiveness of the Winter Season programming. So many Sleeping Beauties, and only a few mixed bills. I mean, the Allegro Brillante/Swan Lake/4T's mixed bill and Sonnambula/Prodigal Son/Firebird is good, but do we need it to see each of them a staggering 6 times? There are also 14 total performances of Sleeping Beauty. The spring season is a huge financial risk. 3 straight weeks of Peck/Ratmansky/Wheeldon/Martins/other new choreographers is IMO sorely testing the NYCB base audience's love for contemporary ballet.

Kaysta it might be useful next time you see this ballet to remember that Stravinsky called this his "war symphony." The corps formations are often thought to represent a line of soldiers.

If you follow Maria K's instagram she;s been quite open and honest about her struggles to get back in shape after giving birth. And by shape, I mean strength and conditioning. As always, she looks gorgeous.

I went to two performances and enjoyed them immensely. The company has a wonderfully vigorous, energetic style of dancing. Nathalia Artha, Jeanette Delgado, and Simone Messmer were simply incredible dancers. More thoughts here: http://poisonivywalloftext.blogspot.com/2016/04/miami-city-ballet-paints-town-red.html

I'm really dubious that for two years Johan Kobborg was working as AD sans contract. I assume there must have been some contract about his salary, his duties, etc. Unless he was actually given a vaguely worded role like "artistic consultant" or something. So either his contract was cancelled by the new director, or this was a massive case of failing to read the fine print in a contract.

Johan tweeted this morning that ONB received a letter requesting that the license to certain ballets be withdrawn. It seems that after some tense negotiations it will not work out after all (this is based on Alina and Johan's tweets).

Fonteyn's earthy sense of humor can be seen here in this interview. She turns what seems to be rather stuffy questions into an extremely funny anecdote.

I went tonight. I actually really enjoyed the show, and was completely entranced by Lillian diPiazza and Arian Molina Soca. What a beautiful couple, and they really smoldered despite the less than great choreography in Keep. More thoughts here: http://poisonivywalloftext.blogspot.com/2016/04/pennsylvania-ballet-contemporary-ballet.html

Another Bock/Harnick musical opened. She Loves Me right across the street from Fiddler on the Roof. For my money it's the better revival. Zachary Levi and Laura Benanti are absolutely wonderful, as is Jane Krakowski. http://poisonivywalloftext.blogspot.com/2016/03/she-loves-me.html

If you go to the Met website the "TBA's" have been filled out by Whiteside and Hammoudi. Hallberg will not be returning.

I found this video comparing 4 Raymondas in the Cortege Hongrois variation:

The last few times I saw Prodigal Son at NYCB, it seemed to be staged as a quaint museum piece. The audience laughed throughout. It was a revelation to see how seriously the PNB performs this -- there was no laughing from the audience. It was a very serious, stern morality tale.

Osmolkina was beautiful! I hadn't seen her in years. I'm really happy Lopatkina brought some dancers that usually are relegated to being the "home team." Too bad Popov got injured.

Well while we're on City Ballet wrap-up I was shocked at how out of shape Robert Fairchild looked yesterday in Agon.

I caught one performance (Thursday). Highlights: James Moore's wonderful Prodigal Son. Very vividly acted, and the lust/rebelliousness was much more direct and explicit than I've seen in NYCB dancers Noelani Pantascino and Seth Orza in the second pdd of Violin Concerto. Really captured a playful mood Lowlights: Lesley Rausch as the Siren - just didn't have the physique for the role Leta Biasucci smiling nonstop during Square Dance at the audience. I've always considered Square Dance a ballet where its important to establish a sense of community, so mugging towards the audience is a no-no. Smile at your partner, not the footlights.

I too had a wonderful time. I thought the LHH excerpt between Shklyarov and Lopatkina was adorable and made me cry, because we haven't seen this partnership nearly enough. I also loved the Fountains of Bakschisarai finale. More thoughts here: http://poisonivywalloftext.blogspot.com/2016/02/a-very-mariinsky-weekend-part-two.html

Osmolkina danced Scheherazade with her husband Zuzin.

I agree that the dancing was exquisite but I was not happy with the suitcase-ballet way the programs seem to have been put together. I can't believe they staged Spectre without adding the iconic window -- that's like doing Apollo without the lute. Also why waste Lopatkina's talents on something like "Pavlova and Cecchetti"? The second half of the ballet picked up considerably. I thought Lopatkina's Firebird was so amazing I'm surprised she never made this a regular in her repertoire.

Wow this was exhausting, an early morning day trip to Washington DC. But I'm so happy I went -- great to meet Birdsall and Drew in person, and also saw a wonderful performance of Raymonda! Kolegova is a dancer I've never seen before but she was exquisite and has great terre a terre technique. Loved her fast diagonal of entrechats. More thoughts here: http://poisonivywalloftext.blogspot.com/2016/02/a-very-mariinsky-weekend-part-one.html

I think the romantic looks and "chemistry" is a very modern 20th century thing. Alicia Markova said that ideally, Odette should never look at Siegfried in the White Swan pas de deux. She's a Swan Queen, and she doesn't trust him.

Next thing we're going to find out is that Millepied drowns puppies.

The "pick your own subscription" package is weird. Certain dates seem blocked off (particularly weekends). They still want you to buy specific day-of-the-week subscriptions. This is like dinosaur-era policy.

sonatina, I think you saw the wrong cast. I don't mean Megan and Gonzalo aren't wonderful dancers, but this ballet is really not their thing. Woodward and Hyltin IMO are the best Sylphs and Huxley is the best James. How was Tiler tonight? She was tremendous last night.

Depends on what you're interested in: If you're interested in vintage ballet/Balanchine, hard to beat this series: http://www.vaimusic.com/category/BALANCHINE+NYCB.html Other great videos: Fille Mal Gardee La Bayadere Sleeping Beauty Swan Lake Cinderella Giselle