canbelto

Judging from the pictures she wasn't that much taller than the NYCB dancers of her time. What she did have was unusual proportions: extremely long legs, short torso, and a small head. From this youtube video I'd guess that she's about 5'6" just judging from how tall she is from her being flat-footed in the beginning compared with Jacque d'Amboise?

We saw Baryshikov,too. He left the orchestra just before us, going up to the mezzanine. Actually, I didn't see the trench coat and glasses; he was just in a turtleneck sweater. But my husband and I thought he looked bad. He had about 3 days beard growth and my husband thought he looked very haggard. My husband (who was standing near him) also said Baryshnikov was talking very softly, so good ears, cancelto. He seemed to be with a blond woman, who I did not recognize as Lisa Rinehart ( his partner). And yes, he comes to lots of performances but I've always wanted to respect his privacy and never spoke to him. I've seen him at the ballet many times but I've always been warned that he is a very private man and to respect his privacy. However at the end of the intermission I saw two girls running up to him and asking for selfies and he seemed very gracious about taking one with them. So ...

I was there for five of the performances. Audience reaction was very enthusiastic for all three Swan Lakes I attended, pretty enthusiastic for the Cinderella (not really surprising, since Vishneva is very familiar to NY audiences) and pretty muted for the Chopin.

I actually saw him after the first intermission and he was commenting on Chopiniana, a work he definitely performed often. And Mikhail Baryshnikov goes to ballets a lot. I've seen him at NYCB, Bolshoi, and Mariinsky when they visit. He keeps a very low profile and definitely exudes an aura of privacy but it seems as if his love for the art form hasn't dimmed.

I thought Without was very nice for about the first 15-20 minutes. Unfortunately, the ballet goes on for over twice that length. I thought it ended several times before it ended ... the lights dimmed, the stage cleared ... but then the music would start up again. Seen at intermission: Mikhail Baryshnikov in the lobby having an animated discussion. He was trying to go incognito with a black trenchcoat and sunglasses but he gave his dancer background away when he danced out a step and he pulled his arms up in a tight fifth position and the proud posture came back. So I can now say that I've seen Baryshnikov dance live.

The slip at the beginning of the Black Swan pdd can happen to anyone -- I've seen many great dancers take a tumble. What was disappointing was that after that Kondaurova sort of gave up on the performance. In her variation she was often either several steps ahead or behind the music, same with the coda. I gave up trying to figure out where she was supposed to be in as opposed to where she actually was in terms of the steps. She did finish the fouettes -- but several beats ahead of the actual music. I thought Askerov was really sloppy, and didn't have the lines necessary for Siegfried. I also thought the fourth act was disappointing -- neither Askerov nor Kondaurova really acted out the apotheosis transformation in any way. Both just walked downstage center and that was that. It was a bit of a letdown because I know Kondaurova is capable of a lot more than shown last night.

My least favorite thing about Ratmansky's Cinderella (and this is true of a lot of other Cinderellas) is he shows the stepsisters' "wickedness" by having them act like very bad dancers. But the perfect turnout and careful port de bras of Ekaterina Ivannikova and Margarita Frolova are well-trained Vaganova grads. It doesn't work, and it's not funny. Frederick Ashton sidesteps this problem by making the stepsisters wonderful dancers. In travesti, and in the British music hall tradition, but they are great dancers and the audience laughs along with them.

Thanks Natalia. She's still such a beautiful dancer. I echo everyone else's thoughts about the remarkable Lopatkina SL. I also am bummed that her "older" SL is the one that got preserved on video. That's a very beautiful performance, but very careful. I like the freer, more emotional SL she danced on Friday. For instance in the video she enters with short careful steps and no grande jete. Friday night it was fast skimming bourrees and then big grande jete. A couple of other standouts: Ekaterina Kondaurova as Stepmother! Wow wow wow she was the only part of Ratmansky's Cinderella that worked, IMO. A Real Housewife of the Neva type. Hilarious. Viktoria Brileva was excellent as the dancing instructor. Yekaterina Ivannikova stood out as the superior stepsister.

What was sadder was seeing the ever-radiant Yana Selina dance the third act "dancing girl" in Ratmansky's Cinders. I first saw Yana Selina maybe 10 years ago and she was so beautiful and radiant. 10 years later her smile still lights up the entire auditorium ... and she's still dancing smaller variations.

I saw it this afternoon. We don;t see much of the changes except Madge is danced as a man dressed in a suit, and the whole thing ends with a passionate kiss between James and Madge. Sebastian Hayes is a remarkable dancer. Amy Watson was replaced for all performances.

All the versions I've seen of Cinderella have seasons variations.

Hmm. I guess I don't judge a dancer based on a less-than-two-minute variation on national tv that might not have been the best circumstances for performing. I've seen Misty in other roles. She's capable of much more than she showed on the McBride tribute.

And you don't find MacMillan vulgar at times? For instance I think Manon has some of the most vulgar choreography I've ever witnessed. Just because it's done in fancy wigs and period dress doesn't mean it's not vulgar. And anyway, I'm also not sure what Scarlett being British has to do with him choreographing a piece for Misty/Whiteside that might have involved some more, uh, modern ballet vocabulary.

That's an odd assumption to make. Many choreographers make changes after the debuts because they realized some effects didn't work out as planned. It's not unusual at all to see changes in the second and third performances. We don't know who Scarlett's first picks were, and whether he was happy with the performance from Copeland and Whiteside.

Arlene Croce's love for Twyla Tharp can also I think be attributed to her preference for this kind of spunky American exuberance -- the high energy, peppy Tharp trademark. I don't think Tharp's material merited Croce's ecstatic reception. p.s. I also think it's somewhat remarkable that a critic as high-profile as Arlene Croce was able to remain, in a way, completely anonymous. I looked for a picture on google images and was able to find none. We knew about her beliefs, her tastes, her opinions, but nothing about her personally. I'm not saying that's a bad thing but it's just remarkable especially now with social media and the 24 hours news cycle that she was able to live a completely anonymous, private life while also wielding so much power on the New York dance scene.

By chance I was reading Robert Gottlieb's latest review of the Alvin Ailey season. He's a dance critic with a similar "art for art's sake" aesthetic preference (although not the rigidly conservative credentials of Arlene Croce). The difference seems to be tone -- a lot of Croce's later reviews had the feel of a political soapbox rant ("Multicultural Theatre" is another in that vein). Here's another one of Gottlieb's reviews about Bill T. Jones. Again, the verdict is similar, but the tone not abrasive. As for the Schindler's List reference, I think IMO that kind of showed how rigidly didactic Croce was. I wonder what she'd say about Diary of Anne Frank? Or maybe I don't want to know.

I think if she'd kept the discussion to "victim art" she might have been okay (although some people might have been offended). But she also took a swing at "the community and minority-funded lobbies," "the sixties," the "AIDS quilt," "Schindler's List," and finally lumped up the whole show as the "church service that sells out the Brooklyn Academy." Also ironic that she said "with the righteous I cannot function at all." One of the most appealing things about Croce's own writing is her righteousness. She was so sure that her opinions were the only correct ones that it's easy to read them and get swept into her sharp, evocative language. If she said Swing Time was better than Top Hat, well, when you read that book, you do agree that Swing Time is better than Top Hat.

In a review she wrote: So basically, yeah, she responded to it exactly as I would have expected her to respond to it.

Well one of the things is that Croce throughout her long career was given the luxury of almost limitless print space and editorial support. But one of the things about reading "Writing in the Dark" was that her essays in the 90's became less about dance and there were more and more rants. With that being said I'd love to see her write more, particularly that long-awaited book on Balanchine (is that ever going to happen?)

Well as a follow-up, seems Croce still stands by her essay: http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2006/sep/28/dance.iraq

I think in general, if you're going to dip into a culture wars debate, especially about issues as volatile as AIDS, homosexuality, the Holocaust, and "victim art," the issues you raise are better received if you acknowledge your own political background/beliefs.

One of the things about Arlene Croce is that when she wrote "Discussing the Undiscussable" she didn't acknowledge her own background and the prejudices that might have seeped into her own views on the work. Croce started off writing in The National Review, and was/is her whole life a staunch conservative. She was also obviously a very intelligent dance critic and I still read her three volumes (Afterimages, Sights and Sounds, Going to the Dance) for some of the most intelligent, incisive dance commentary ever written. But stepping into the heated culture-wars of that time while disguising it as a dance review was the wrong step. "Discussing the Undiscussable" belonged in the op-ed pages, not the dance column.

Bart, that's wonderful to hear your reviews. I know Sarasota Ballet is doing a wonderful job presenting Ashton works, and it's a shame that the Royal Ballet neglects these same works. I hope they eventually receive enough funds to tour. That would be wonderful!

According to Nicola Curry's instagram (public), Eric Tamm's Nutcracker performances will be his last with the company. Wow.

Per Nicola Curry's public instagram, Eric Tamm's performances with the ABT during Nutcracker will be his last with the company.