trixiebeaumont

8 minutes ago, pherank said:

9 minutes ago, pherank said:

You mean, why was it handled so badly?   😉
We humans are not the most logical of creatures.

Lopez felt the need to get in her dig at Morgan, I'm assuming. That's why I think there's a personality conflict at work here. And obviously Morgan felt it wasn't just a temporary issue - she didn't see things improving anytime soon, so she moved on.
 

Very sad in this day and age. 
Hopefully she is moving on to bigger and better things!

8 minutes ago, pherank said:

To me, it was a combination of bad timing (for Morgan) and personality conflict. Bad timing because Lopez had someone she was looking to promote to principal, and obviously decided to do that during Firebird (so Morgan was sidelined to put the spotlight on someone else). And I assume personality conflict just because Morgan doesn't have any trouble expressing her views and intentions, but directors tend to like dancers who don't talk back or challenge anything that is going on at the company.

I do understand that, but Morgan was told her body was the reason she was pulled.  Difficult to understand this because she had been there working and was seen daily.  If there was such a problem, why not figure that out in the beginning?  

3 hours ago, pherank said:

Yep. In watching MCB videos over the last year, I was kind of shocked by how obvious the body type preference was. The company very much has a "look", in the same way that Mariinsky has a look. Obviously, that is going to work in the Corps' favor when dancing Swan Lake, or Giselle - traditional ballets. But in contemporary ballets, that preference tends to look pathological. It kind of creeped me out.

8 hours ago, balletforme said:

That artistic director tends to heavily favor a very thin dancer. It's well known.  

This is what is so annoying. Why would Lourdes Lopez even bother bringing in a dancer who didn’t fit that mold then?  Why teach her Firebird?  Why be interviewed with her, filmed and photographed while *teaching* her Firebird? Though Kathryn Morgan is actually quite small - she’s not emaciated and that was clear from the beginning. This situation has really affected my views toward LL and MCB.  

It was last week on @jimnowakowski on Instagram.  He was formerly with Houston Ballet.  A good interview!

11 minutes ago, jessa_sissonne said:

Do you know what IGTV channel this was?

Oops - on @jimnowakowski

I haven’t heard her - or read - that’s she making a lot of money. Just that she’s able to make money in general. She’s also been a guest instructor at BW. My hope is that she will dance professionally again in some capacity!  So sad about the Miami situation. Had such great hopes for her there!

She announced in an IGTV interview last week that she had left Miami for her own well-being. 

Does anyone know why Christopher Sellars was never promoted to Principal?  Seems such a shame!

1 hour ago, Dale said:

Tallchief was certainly not 5'9". There's a picture out there of Tallchief, Le Clercq and Adams in Apollo with Eglevsky and you can clearly see she's shorter than the other women. 

Wow, I missed a lot. I follow Kathryn Morgan and I did not see this on her feed (I follow way too many people and I miss things!). This is a real shame. It was the costume that should have been jettisoned, not the dancer. That unitard was tacky and distracting. All the costumes looked like they came from the Fredericks of Hollywood clearance rack. [I should apologize for missing the small children in the production when I talked about it on another thread. Evidently I missed them in the profusion of hot pink and yellow on the stage] I think Kathryn Morgan has something that can't be got with a diet or a tacky costume - she has a special way of moving and responding to the music. It should be nurtured. She would have looked smashing in a red tutu. 

I’ve read everything I could get my hands on about Tallchief since I was a child and have ever only seen a height of 5’9” for Tallchief.  Same online tonight when I looked again - from several sources. Le Clercq is listed at 5’8”?  But much taller en pointe.  I know it’s possible to contort one’s body to appear shorter - and photography angles can be deceiving - but have no other explanation for the disparity in the photo you reference. . 
 

Agree 100% with your assessment of Kathryn Morgan and that dreadful Firebird costume.  NO ONE looks good in that - and after seeing the performance on YouTube last week, think it more than ever. Very unflattering. 

Confirmed through many online sources she was 5’9”. I remember reading a story about her years ago that she was often considered too tall and large. Yet, she was the most famous ever. 

Ah, but Maria Tallchief who became known forever as Balanchine’s Firebird was not tiny!  I believe she was about 5’9” and not ultra thin, though I do remember reading she lost weight after joining Balanchine. A trend with him, I guess. Still, she was not a hummingbird of a dancer. 

Why such negativity towards Kathryn Morgan’s body?  Who says that dancers must only be a specific size in order to dance well?  It’s baffling in 2020 that dancers are still held to prepubescent standards.  We are discussing someone who is quite small naturally, but she has filled out as a woman. Does that make her a bad dancer or just not conforming to a preconceived notion of the perfect Balanchine dancer? 

I’m sorry, but I just don’t buy it. While I was not at the slaughter performance, I did see video and photographs and Morgan looked great. Again - Lopez did not hire her blindly!  

Lourdes Lopez knew who and what she was getting when she hired Kathryn Morgan. She wouldn’t have been learning the role of Firebird if Ms. Lopez didn’t see her doing it. 
 

On Kathryn Morgan’s Facebook group, she says that she had had her own Firebird costume made, but it was thought she wasn’t in shape enough to wear it on stage. 
 

I am horrified by this - in this day and age!