On 8/30/2020 at 2:16 PM, Quiggin said:

If City Ballet has changed, it's perhaps because society has also changed. How people enter a room, how they walk on the street is different than it was 50 years ago.

My general impression about how Balanchine interpretations have shifted at City Ballet is that they seem to be cleaner and more finely detailed – due to greater technical proficiency of the dancers and the biases of different coaches or simply the mechanics of coaching and trying to carry certain remembered details over the years. Your eye is drawn more to a dancer's periphery, to fingers, forearms and feet, to their quickness and speed rather than how the dancer as a character is possessing space. Villella I thought was able to coach in an older way of being present. 

But music has changed too. Pianists don't play in big architectural contours like Sviatislav Richter but foreground more of the inner details and transparency – or so it seems from listening to the current Chopin Institute Festival in Warsaw, as I have been this week:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSTXol20Q01Uj-U5Yp3IqFg     

I love what you write here Quiggin. Especially your first paragraph. I think the same can be said for all art. As society changes so too does its art.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts here, Buddy. Sincere wishes from over here for it to all run smoothly. 🤞

On 8/2/2020 at 6:06 PM, canbelto said:

I contacted Ballet Arizona and they said they are fixing the problem asap with the incomplete Sylphide.

Thank you, canbelto! 

She has an impressive background. 
As a general viewpoint, I do not believe one must have had a career as a professional dancer in order to write well on the subject of dance.

What an achievement, Swanilda8! Congrats to you and I look forward to reading it. 

On 4/4/2020 at 2:39 PM, pherank said:

For that matter, it's better to go directly to SFB's YouTube Channel page and not try to run the videos through this forum. Performance will be better for you, and for the forum. Oh, and be sure to set the video quality to 1080p (click the Settings sprocket icon below the video timeline). And then click the Fullscreen icon next to the Settings icon to really see something.

Thank you dearly for these tips, pherank. 
I thought it was our ancient computer that was making the video playback so cumbersome... It is much better on the channel and with those settings.

Indeed - how fantastic to discover the wonderful world of ballet. I am happy you are here.
What a great idea to develop short stories. I do hope you share them 

Thank you for this, kylara7. I found the whole interview insightful. 
In particular, I found the part where it was expressed that, moving forward, holding companies accountable will be the most important of all: 

“You posted your black square on Instagram. Now what?”

Precisely.

16 hours ago, pherank said:

Available Now: SF Symphony’s New Digital Series CURRENTS

A symphony orchestra is the center of the community in which it sits, a place where all the musical currents of a city come together. As these currents move forward and change, we discover and change with them. What does moving forward sound like?

The San Francisco Symphony presents CURRENTS, a new four-part video and podcast series, which shares the music and stories of Bay Area communities by highlighting classical music’s evolving relationship with vital influences and influencers. Curated and hosted by conductor Michael Morgan, in collaboration with musicians of the San Francisco Symphony, CURRENTS matches bespoke performances and candid, personal reflections by members of the Symphony and local musicians, personalities, and creators to reflect a synergy of perspectives. Curious patrons are encouraged to continue the cultural dialogue through CURRENTS Explore & Create, a series of video conversations and activities curated and hosted by conductor Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser.

Episode 1 is available now. CURRENTS: Enter the Pipa explores the dynamic role of Chinese musical culture in the Bay Area landscape, in performances of music by composer Bright Sheng with pipa virtuoso Shenshen Zhang and members of the SF Symphony. Future episodes, to be released every two weeks, will explore Jazz, Mexican, and Hip Hop cultures.

https://www.sfsymphony.org/CURRENTS

The first episode, Enter the Pipa, is quite professional in its presentation - recommended!

https://www.sfsymphony.org/CURRENTS/EnterthePipa

This was, indeed, quite professional in its presentation. What an interesting series. Kudos to the San Francisco Symphony. Thank you for the recommendation, pherank!

On 7/12/2020 at 6:27 AM, Mashinka said:

Although I would swap MacMillan's R&J for Ashton's version any day, I have to say that the present crop of RB dancers seem to have resuscitated the old warhorse.    I am however bitterly disappointed that the performance by Francesca Hayward and Cesar Corrales  wasn't recorded for posterity.  In my opinion it was the best interpretation of the ballet that I've seen in decades and as Ms Hayward actually won the Critic's Circle award for 2019 for her Juliet I'm clearly not the only one to have been awestruck by her.

I would have loved to see this as well. My commiserations to you. 

Thank you for sharing this!
We are registered and looking forward to sharing a Napa Valley wine in honour of Mr. Luke 🥂

31 minutes ago, On Pointe said:

From the article:  "A CBC News investigation found black people made up 36.5 per cent of fatalities involving Toronto police, despite accounting for just 8.3 per cent of the city's population, in the period from 2000-17."

Words fail to describe how horrifically unjust and unacceptable these figures are. There needs to be systemic change. 

Unfortunately, I do not know the answer to this. I only have the current roster to reference. It sounds that, at least a couple of decades ago, there were significantly more graduates in the company. I think your point about the two organizations not being officially affiliated (and therefore the same level of “interest” not being there) is sound.

Ultimately, the fact that NBS graduates are dancing in world-class companies around the world speaks for itself.

Being more familiar with San Francisco Ballet I can definitely see what you mean about the time it takes to nurture home-grown talents. It does not happen overnight but it is possible. And what a treat for an audience to witness such development and growth.

According to the current company website, 43% of their total dancers are from the national school.
Of the principal dancers, the percentage drops to 31%.

Thank you for such a thorough account of the fact that there were more school graduates in the company in the 1980’s.

The correlation you make of there being far fewer graduates today (because the training standard is allegedly sub-par) is not causation.

There are many possible reasons why students from that school may not be joining the NBOC.

With the aforementioned numbers now settled, and getting back to the subject at hand, I must admit that I am in complete agreement with On Pointe on the following:

On 6/30/2020 at 2:26 AM, On Pointe said:

Sorry if I misunderstood your point.  I really don't understand why you bring up the treatment of indigenous Canadians in this discussion.  Apparently you don't believe that Canada is as racist toward black people as the US.  I do. But what we think has no bearing on Mr. Rose's lived experience.  You seem to be discounting it when you say "he may not understand that the reality of his bosses is different",  which is patronizing to say the least.  And you suggest that his discomfort is his fault for daring to dance with a big classical company,  with white male choreographers,  in the first place.  Please correct me if I am wrong,  but that's the message I got.

 

According to their own website the majority of their dancers trained elsewhere. You mention a “culture” that “strongly favors” dancers from this particular school and I find this puzzling. As has already been mentioned in this thread, this school is not the “official” school of this company. The relationship is entirely different, and at the end of the day the numbers clearly show the majority of their dancers are not from there anyway. 
Are there any of these “casting patterns” you are comfortable to share with us?

Principal 

National School Graduates: 4

Cote

Ebe

Saye 

Vanstone 

 

Graduated Elsewhere: 9

Campbell

Dronina

Lunkina

McKie

Frola

James

Ogden

Rodriguez

Stancyzk

 

First Soloist

National School Graduates: 6 

Daumec

Hack

Hawes

November

Pereira

Savella

 

Graduated Elsewhere: 7

Bertinshaw

Ishihara 

Macdonald 

Meiss 

Rudisin 

Thom

Howard

 

Second Soloist

National School Graduates: 6

Galway

Haller

Hosier

Koyasu 

Sato 

Skalnik 

 

Graduated Elsewhere: 2 

Chapman

Gerty

 

Corps De Ballet

National School Graduates: 8 

Guerrero-Trujillo

Martinelli

Nabity 

Peterson

Pugh

Skinner 

Wright

Zolty

 

Graduated Elsewhere: 18

Cumpston 

Estrada

Ferro 

Flaherty

Galli 

Haczkiewicz

Haneishi 

Jiang 

Law

Lazarus 

Miller

Oakley

Parets

Richman-Taylor

Rose

Wang 

Ward

Watembach

 

Apprentice

National School Graduates: 4

Gentes 

Lee

Miralles 

Waters

 

Graduated Elsewhere: 1

Albjon