canbelto

All autobiographies are inherently self-flattering or self-justifying. No one writes a book beating up on herself. Many politicians have written self-flattering autobiographies when they are on the cusp of a big campaign. If you're going to beat up on Misty for her book then you might as well beat up on Obama for "Audacity of Hope" and Hillary for "Hard Choices." Furthermore, I fail to see why there are so many assumptions about Misty's relationships with her colleagues. From all the evidence on public social media sites, ABT dancers (from the corps to ex-members to principals) have been nothing but supportive and gracious, beyond what they needed to express. But even if no one at ABT could stand Misty, that's neither here nor there. Competition and jealousy in companies is expected and a fact of life.

What;s missing in all this is the fact that Misty's self-promotion could have just as easily backfired. Ask Suzanne Farrell how it worked out for her when she complained about what she felt was unjust treatment of herself and her new husband by Balanchine -- Balanchine's reaction was implacable, and no company wanted to touch her. Suzanne probably considered her place in NYCB as irreplaceable -- for many years Balanchine refused to even have an understudy for "her" roles. Yet in one night she was gone, replaced in all "her" roles, name erased from the roster. Recently, Yulia Stepanova's fans were involved in a big social media push to promote her and complained of what they again felt was unjust casting. The reaction by MT management: Stepanova and her husband both gone from the company, despite some successes on a foreign tour. And, bringing this home to ABT, a few years ago Sarah Lane garnered a lot of attention for "coming out" as Natalie Portman's dancing double. She had interviews in the newspaper and on TV. Natalie Portman is married to Benjamin Millepied, a VIP in the ballet world. I don;'t know if Lane's career stalled directly because of the incident, but I do know that Lane's career did seemingly stall, and her husband Luis Riborgoda is no long with the company either. Misty took a risk and it seems to have paid off. I say more power to her. But it could just as easily gone the other way.

Misty's coworkers have expressed numerous nice messages on instagram and twitter supporting her during her O/O debut with Washington Ballet. This extended from principals to corps members from ABT.

To be honest, part of the reason this conversation is so heated is because Copleand dances with ABT, a company which (for better or worse) promotions and manager favoritism are viewed as often trumping individual talent, and several dancers have recently left under less than friendly terms, accompanied by scathing exit interviews which talk extensively about low morale, arbitrary casting, and a general bad work environment. Kevin McKenzie's management (or mismanagement) of talent are the real asterisks. That's not Misty's fault.

I saw the show last night. An understudy performed for Megan Fairchild but I thought the show was absolutely wonderful. Entertaining and funny. Josh Bergasse's choreography I thought was a lot more effective than Wheeldon's for American in Paris. http://poisonivywalloftext.blogspot.com/2015/04/on-town-best-in-show.html

Hi Amour, I saw this early on in the previews. Cope sings "The Man I Love" while writing a letter. Can't remember what other numbers she actually sings. Think she warbles something in "Liza." But have they cut down on the Henri is gay jokes? Because that was one of my major annoyances -- in Act One every single punch line seemed to be about Henri being gay, and in the second act that's all dropped over the way more serious backstory. I also felt that the romance fell flat. I didn't really swoon at the final ballet. I was glad there was finally some real substantial dancing, but it didn't make up for the previous 2 hours and 30 minutes. Also, I understand the orchestral re-arrangements have been redone since previews.

I'm not saying she's purely a soubrette, just that TPTB at the Mariinsky seem to have pegged her in the soubrette roles: Giselle, Kitri, Juliet, Kitri. She's not dancing O/O (except that once). And in MT management the prejudice against dancers who aren't natural O/O's seems very strong.

Novikova's emploi seems to be not favored by the Mariinsky and thus she's stuck in the soloist ranks. The last soubrette/ingenue type to get promoted to principal was Diana Vishneva and that was nearly 20 years ago.

If I'm not mistaken the raising the arms in fifth started with Mathilde Kscessinskaya who had wonderful balances and wanted to show them off.

Audience reaction was fairly tepid.

I was there last night. Full thoughts can be found on my blog (can be clicked under my signature) but to say I was disappointed would be an understatement.

I have a very long commute to work now and routinely bring along one of Croce's books for commute reading. This week I read her surprisingly positive review of MacMillan's Mayerling.

I've seen clips of Shirinkina's Raymonda on youtube. She's certainly not as strong technically as the other Raymonda's on the roster. She's a lovely lyrical dancer but terre a terre footwork isn't her strength.

I saw Frolova as a wicked stepsister and in Without in the BAM tour. I thought she had a very unique look -- striking features, red hair, not cookie cutter at all.

Also, if Veronika felt that management was callous, at least she can console herself with the fact that it's not personal. She joins a long list at ABT who spoke of a harsh, callous, management system and non-existent rehearsals and coaching. It seems to be the ABT way. The good thing was eventually it worked out for Veronika. She got to be principal and dances regularly in lead roles. There are so many other ABT casualties during the Kevin McKenzie era ...

Well ... at the time Veronika arrived I wouldn't be surprised if there was a bit of professional jealousy towards her from ABT's roster. She was already somewhat of an established star and I don;t think anyone anticipated that her road at ABT would be so rocky. She also admits in her interview that she came across as aloof and unapproachable at first, because she's shy and not used to the culture.

Nice interview. Very candid, although I was saddened to hear that she remains somewhat estranged from her family.

I have no idea but Dupont said this in an interview once:

Balanchine said that he couldn't "reconstruct" the Apollo premiere because if modern day audiences saw it they'd all be "laughing their heads off." I also wonder if Slaughter on 10th Ave. can be considered part of the roll call, as it was originally not created for the NYCB either.

One of her running themes is Sleeping Beauty. She goes into extraordinary detail about every production she ever saw, and it can be summed up in one way: she hated them all.

I really think Sara Mearns is having a standout season. I don't even always love her. But she made La Valse watchable and I thought she was outstanding in both Pictures at an Exhibition and Rodeo last night.

Lopatkina seems to do it the "Pavlova" way. I actually thought the back bend you were talking about was when the Swan's back faces the audience and she drops her arms and back, at 1:07 in that video. Anyway here's Lopatkina's and she seems to do the whole variation very similar to Anna Pavlova:

Here is probably the earliest extant video of Dying Swan. You can see the majestic back bend. I think it was part of the original choreography.

Gottlieb's a very tough critic but for me the ONLY must-read active critic. I don't agree with him often but I always appreciate the wit and bite of his reviews.

Fourth week casting up. Surprisingly Tiler Peck is not cast in Juliet.