FPF

Last year, the NY Times named Millepied as one of three frontrunners for the position (along with Whelan and Peck).

I'm with you on this--I was trying to consider what the author might have been thinking in choosing to use the word, perhaps not fully understanding the connotations.

She's no Diaghilev, but if you go by the definition of a person who manages a performance, Wendy has done that. I thought that this article was generally favorable to everyone discussed... e.g, Lourdes Lopez is described as "an eloquent, visionary leader," and Jennifer Ringer is described as "one of the most sought-after master teachers in ballet" and "just the kind of principled, considerate leader the company desperately needs." .... with the exception of Suzanne Farrell: Her relationship with the company is a bit complicated, and though she has an unparalleled mastery of the Balanchine technique, she doesn't have much experience—or interest, it seems—in programming contemporary work. And when asked about NYCB's sexual harassment problem in 2017, she responded with "no comment": Not exactly the hard stance against harassment that the new director needs to have. For everyone else, the negatives were primarily ; 1) reasons that they might not leave their current positions (Woetzel, Wheeldon, Lopez, ; 2) that they have indicated lack of interest (Peck); or 3) that they fit the company tradition, but the company might want to go in a different direction (e.g,, not hire another choreographer--Wheeldon, Millepied). For shmoozing and fundraising power, I suspect that Woetzel or Millepied are the best-connected. I agree that Stafford has been doing a good job--I've been really happy to see a number of dancers getting new opportunities. On the whole, I wish they'd just pick someone already.

Dance Magazine's analysis of the various candidates: https://www.dancemagazine.com/heres-who-we-think-the-next-nycb-director-will-be-2626189561.html

The entire SPAC NYCB season has now been posted: https://spac.org/calendar/calendar-of-events/?view=list&gen=2 Tschiakovsky and Balanchine: Serenade, Mozartiana, Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2: 7/16 at 8 pm; 7/18 at 2 pm SPAC premieres by 21st Century Choreographers: Varied Trio (in four) (Harrison/Frolich), New Peck (Stevens/Peck), The Runaway (Nico Muhly, Kanye West, Jay-Z, James Blake/Abraham); 7/17 at 8 pm Coppelia (Delibes/Balanchine, Danilova): 7/18 and 7/19 at 8 pm, 7/20 at 2 pm Gala: Apollo (Stravinsky/Balanchine), This Bitter Earth (Richter, Otis/Wheeldon), New Peck (Stevens/Peck); 7/20 at 8 pm

I didn't see a lot of ballet this year thanks to the shortened SPAC season, so my list is also short and I'm confining it to performances: Best: NYCB All-Balanchine program, especially Sebastian Villarini-Velez and Indiana Woodward's debuts in the third movement of Symphony in C; Justin Peck's Pulcinella Suite, and Robbin's The Four Seasons at SPAC; Stars of American Ballet Jerome Robbins tribute at Jacob's Pillow; finding Bolshoi and Royal Ballet programs in nearby cinemas Special award for scariest-ever Wilis: Cuban National Ballet at SPAC Worst: NYCB's lackluster tribute to Robbins at SPAC, featuring only 2 actual Robbins ballets, while 3 of only 7 SPAC performances were R + J Non-ballet dance: Best: Dorrance Dance at Jacob's Pillow, Paul Taylor at The Egg Worst: Ellen Sinopoli Dance at SUNY-Albany, in collaboration with SUNY faculty. The physics collaboration was OK, the rest was just tedious. At least the program was short.

I don't get to see the Paris Opera Ballet very often, but I road-tripped up to Montreal a few years ago when they were doing Pierre Lacotte's Paquita there. Karl Paquette was Lucien in that performance, which I very much enjoyed. In an interview at Danses avec la Plume (https://www.dansesaveclaplume.com/pas-de-deux/1044946-karl-paquette-jai-25-ans-dopera-de-paris-et-25-ans-de-bonheur/), he said that he was/would be teaching--hopefully he will be passing on his knowledge of partnering, etc. It was also interesting to me that even though he seemed to have a fairly slow rise through the ranks, he was very much in favor of the Concours.

I've seen her a couple of times at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, most recently as Frankie in Member of the Wedding this past summer. She's a pretty good actress, but the show was definitely stolen by Roslyn Ruff as the housekeeper, Berenice.

A number of U.S. theaters will be screening La Bayadere (my theater will show it on February 19). You can search here: https://www.roh.org.uk/showings/la-bayadere-live-2018

One of my favorite movies is not a Christmas movie, but does have a fabulous Christmas celebration near the beginning: Fanny and Alexander.

Just wanted to mention that the science in the NYT article is out of date--Creutzfeldt-Jakob is not caused by a slow virus, but is now known to be a prion disease: https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Patient-Caregiver-Education/Fact-Sheets/Creutzfeldt-Jakob-Disease-Fact-Sheet, caused by an abnormal protein that causes other proteins to misfold. I believe that I read somewhere that he may have received injections of animal glands when he was younger that were speculated to be the source.

The SPAC box office was open for a few hours yesterday, so when I went to order my classical season pass, I also passed on your comment (anonymously) and suggested to that 3 different weekend programs would help SPAC to be a destination, not just for locals like me. They said they agreed and would pass it on to the management...I really don't expect any action, but maybe they will think about it.

My favorite version is the NYCB Balanchine version, which is the one I grew up with and have seen the most. The snow scene has always been my favorite part. I also liked the old Joffrey/Arpino version. Least favorite: old McKenzie ABT version

Jacob's Pillow has announced the 2019 Festival lineup. Ballet companies include Ballet BC, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and Boston Ballet. Sara Mearns: Beyond Ballet will feature her in "multigenre collaborations." Plus a bunch more modern and other dance. Details here: https://www.jacobspillow.org/festival/ticketed-performances/

💯😁 I did have a lucky guess for the last question.

I would consider going to more than one Coppelia, especially if there are different casts, but I'm local. My guess is that there will be at least one other program given twice, a third program give once, and then the gala program, which usually has a new ballet(s) that is only performed that night. I think that they are trying to attract more unique attendees and getting people to come a second time, and are less interested in catering to more hardcore ballet fans. SPAC Director Liz Sobel said that she wanted to bring more variety to the programming, but my sense is that she's only interested in music and not in dance so there seems to be both fewer performances and less variety. I don't think this is great marketing--Glimmerglass, for example, has a few summer weekends where you can see all four productions in one trip, which helps to make it a destination.

SPAC has now announced that there will actually be 3 performances of Coppelia: the evenings of July 18th and 19th, and the matinee on the 20th. https://spac.org/calendar/calendar-of-events/?view=list&gen=2&mc_cid=5db66c137f&mc_eid=bee1c0630b The rest of the season will be announced in 2019.

Thanks for posting these pictures Tutu. I like the new- Columbine costume. I think it goes much better with the Harlequin costume than the previous one.

The Albany Times Union has posted that the NYCB will be performing Coppelia twice at SPAC next summer. No details on the specific dates or on the other 5 performances yet. https://www.timesunion.com/entertainment/article/Marsalis-Mozart-Coppelia-highlights-at-SPAC-13447745.php#item-85307-tbla-3 I love this production of Coppelia and haven't seen it for ~10 years. I hope there will be two different casts.

Great news! I agree that Ulbricht has been underused. There are some fairly petite ballerinas that he should be an appropriate height to partner.

Did you get any response from the Joyce? This would be a very concerning situation for me as I am very allergic to dogs and have asthma.

Quote by the original Coffee, Francisco Moncion: He'd danced the Coffee solo at the premiere, smoking a hookah and drinking a cup of coffee provided by four tiny parrot-costumed children from the school, then falling asleep. The solo has been rechoreographed and is now danced by a sensuous woman. ''When we moved into the big State Theater, it was felt there ought to be something for the daddies in the audience.'' Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1982/12/19/arts/new-role-for-a-ballet-veteran.html Does anyone know if the other divertissements also originally included eating/drinking the various sweets?

Story in the NYT about changes to Tea to tone down the stereotypes (NYCB is the focus, but other Nutcrackers are also mentioned): https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/arts/dance/nutcracker-chinese-tea-stereotypes.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Dance It looks like they've changed the hat and makeup for the man and eliminated the mustache, eliminated the black wigs for the women, and modified the choreography to eliminate the pointing fingers. And Coffee may be next up for revision.

I think Whelan would be an appropriate choice. As noted previously, Whelan was credited for changing the culture of NYCB, and the job ad specifically mentioned that they wanted a humane leader. She has run her Restless Creature and other projects, has taught, and has also recently staged Ratmansky, and had a very extensive NYCB rep. I've also never thought that Whelan was bitter--my sense of her is that she devoted herself, very single-mindedly, to her ballet career, without thought about what came next and was emotional about it. I find it just very human and honest of her. Maybe she showed too much of her inner turmoil at the time in Restless Creature, but when I saw her speak last summer, she came across as very warm, enthusiastic, and upbeat. Also, although Woetzel has other types of relevant experience, he has also never run a major company. And many other ADs, including Boal and Tomasson, have done very well leading major U.S. companies with little/no prior experience as ADs. Although the ad said that they wanted successful AD experience, these laundry lists of skills/experiences are often wish lists, and the lack of one qualification an otherwise excellent candidate may not be a deal-breaker if the other positives are thought to outweigh it.

He was obsessing about this in some of his earlier posts, too.