Drew

I feel this way too...and can only guess how discouraging it is for her...

The value of a school-centered approach (for companies that have the resources) is enormous. Even ABT has been working to make that happen in recent years. Many ballet fans feel this way. Me too. (Schools do seem to go through ups and downs. I remember how excited people were when they saw what was happening under Claude Bessy at the POB school.) For my taste, the occasional relation with guest artists would not have bothered me at ABT had it remained more limited—especially given their (to my taste often dull) repertory and the need to fill the Met—but over-reliance on guest artists, especially those who only came in for a one-shot performance and, at times, the company’s seeming failure to fully develop internal talent did bother me. As noted by others, that has gone through a sea change in recent years. But actually it’s a kind of uneven history—seasons with heavy-reliance on guest artists years at a time....and then the emergence of more dancers from the ranks and then the pendulum swinging back. A stable school could make a big difference as it already seems to gave done.

Do you not trust the company's board on these issues? Have their members expressed a desire for that kind of change? That is, I'm imagining these or related questions would have been brought up in the interview/vetting process. As you may know, the director of the ENB school is Viviane Durante, and Rojo presided over brand new digs for the school as well--neither of which things suggest she thinks a company's school is unimportant. I don't have figures, but the school website lists about 20 alums who are in ENB at the present time including soloists, a principal, and what they call a "leading principal." (Overall, that would be less than the percentage at San Francisco of dancers from their school but over 30 percent of ENB's dancers--and one doubts their school has the pick of the crop in London.) Tomasson had a super distinguished tenure at San Francisco. Bravo to him! But it wasn't an easy transition (as noted by others above) and he did/does bring in dancers from outside the company-- Mackay recently but quite a number of others -- not as guest artists but as soloists and principals, and I would be surprised if Rojo didn't do that as well. Naghdi even made a guest appearance--very rare at San Francisco. Which I agree is a good thing. For all I know Rojo will be a bust in San Francisco, but I think she's a very compelling figure and am "rooting" for her and the company 100 percent.

I think being close to New York is a double edged sword for ballet companies that aspire to be (or are) "world class"....San Francisco and Pacific Northwest Ballet perhaps have some advantages...

I was mildly surprised by this announcement, but fact is, she could have been the fairy godmother of ENB rather than its Director and still wanted to see what she could do someplace else. (And that's without the impact of the pandemic--which has caused a lot of people to rethink what they want/need from life.) It doesn't odd to me that almost any artistic director would want the San Francisco job. Vis-a-vis ENB, it is a slightly larger company which, for starters, may appeal to her. (These are delicate matters, but I'd have thought it's slightly more prestigious internationally as well though presumably not in the UK). And as you mentioned, ENB has to tour throughout the UK--that's their raison-d'être--and the touring may also mean there is a limit to the kind of development of new repertory that interests Rojo. I suppose it may be she has been promised resources in San Francisco she doesn't have at ENB, though I agree with what was said above about her needing to learn a new donor community. And yes, one suspects San Francisco's audiences' apparent openness to new repertory appealed to her as well...

Thank you very much! (I know I'm an idiot...) Relieved, too, that it's April which gives a lot of time to see how the Pandemic/Endemic situation progresses....

When do seats go on sale to (non subscribing) public? I have tried to find this online but had difficulty. In all of the announcements about the season I see that subscriptions are on sale, but nothing about when individual seats will be available. (I realize there must be some obvious place I am not looking, but if anyone can tell me the answer I'd be grateful.)

Congratulations to Kokoreva. Based on video, I believe I would love seeing her live. The Raymonda Act III variation she did in the broadcast was a WOW! for me.

I don't have a clear cut "position" on whether a company like this does better hiring from within its own ranks and alums or going outside. Certainly this is not centuries' old company with a byzantine bureaucracy where any "outsider" is likely to be eaten alive. But at the least Rojo seems to me a very interesting and even an exciting choice, as she seems to have found intelligent ways to be 'of the moment' at ENB while still being committed to classical ballet...Since San Francisco Ballet has a lot of great dancers as well as great ballets in its repertory of course one hopes the transition won't be too bumpy even if it's bound to be somewhat bumpy. This is from the Guardian's piece on Rojo's move: "The acclaimed dancer – who has introduced groundbreaking works into the ENB’s repertoire, including more than 40 works choreographed by women – will step down in late 2022 to take up the role of artistic director at San Francisco Ballet....Rojo has been credited with giving ENB a new, international allure, through innovative and risk-taking commissions such as Akram Khan’s Giselle. "She also led ENB into a new chapter in 2019 by moving it into the RIBA award-winning Mulryan Centre for Dance in east London, several months before the pandemic hit. Since then, she’s been a strong advocate of the arts, after ENB had to furlough 85% of its workforce and many of the staff, including Rojo, took pay cuts." https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/jan/11/tamara-rojo-to-leave-english-national-ballet

It's exciting that the company is so awash with talent (though sad that their opportunities to dance are still being impacted by the pandemic)...But a huge YES from me to Laracey getting opportunities in Mozartiana and the one act Swan Lake. Even though I wouldn't be able to see any of her performances, I would be pleased just to know they were taking place. And, of course, whoever gets cast--the options already mentioned above include a slew of wonderful dancers--I plan to be reading about the performances here. Edited to add: Farrell was incomparable in Mozartiana, but I did enjoy Hyltin in the ballet when I saw her dance it a few years back--her debut season in Mozartiana I believe.

I remember when I began taking Mr. Drew to the ballet. After a couple of years, he had seen Giselle and Swan Lake (repeatedly even) and we were gearing up for his first Bayadere. I started to give him a little synopsis and as I got to the part of the story where the nobleman betrays the woman he had sworn to love, Mr. Drew said to me something along the lines of "oh that's what happens in all of them..."

Happy New Year to you too Buddy and to you @ECat. Pacing...Hmmm...Stepping aside from Giselle, I've noticed Khoreva's turns along the dialgonal are faster than I'm used to seeing at the Mariinsky; I quite like that as long as she looks relaxed and on axis when doing it and ends securely (all of which she usually does in the video I have seen and as best I remember, too, when I saw her live). I don't think I would mind at all seeing some more speed in turns from the Mariinsky's featured dancers. In an interview given shortly after she joined the Bolshoi, Stepanova said that was one of the first things she worked on with her coach there. But you were writing about the corps in the December 19th Giselle excerpts. I actually thought one dancer looked clearly misaligned at a moment when the corps was standing along the sides of stage framing the action (camera angles play a role here and perhaps it was not as clear from most of the audience). Also, the exact positioning of the dancers' hands/fingers wasn't the same when they were posed along the side of the stage. I won't say I've never seen that at the Mariinsky because I have, but not that often or at least not that obviously, so that was my main concern....

I was a little confused by this. Smirnova made a guest appearance with the Mariinsky, dancing with Shklyarov, and a chunk of that performance got posted on youtube dated December 19--if that is the footage you are discussing, then I agree with you that there is some beautiful dancing--but that was the Mariinsky's production, not Ratmansky's "historically informed" production for the Bolshoi...It's possible Smirnova's dancing was still being influenced by her work with Ratmansky, and perhaps that is what you meant (?) -- but it has, for example, a very different ending to the ballet than the Ratmansky production (which was broadcast). I did see the broadcast of the Ratmansky production when it was first done and found it very worthwhile and enjoyable viewing. And quite a bit of that has turned up on youtube as well -- her Albrecht for that production/performance was Belyakov.

Oh dear. That's distressing to read. I suppose there may be personnel issues affecting the new production (including backstage staff) that don't affect Nutcracker but who knows? I certainly hope ticket sales aren't the deciding factor. It's such a great score and, as noted above, I have been very curious how that production turn out as well as how it is received. In the U.S. it sometimes feels as if any ballet title that isn't ultra-familiar has no chance...

Congratulations to her. I don't know the Boston Ballet dancers and went to look for some footage of Fentroy on youtube. There is very little and all of it of dates way back--but what there is does show her a beautiful dancer. (It would be great to see something more recent.) Here she is in a video posted in 2018 rehearsing Forsythe's Pas/Parts and talking about her work on it.

I'm not a huge Nutcracker fan and the only production I ever went to night after night (the seasons when I could) was Baryshnikov's when ABT performed it in D.C. And that was almost exclusively because of Kirkland's Clara which remains one of my greatest ballet-going memories. The video, lovely as it is, doesn't begin to capture the wonder of her performance and, in fact, I believe it was shot before she had ever danced the ballet on stage. Moreover her Clara was full of subtle variations from performance to performance even when dancing with the same partner. And she danced it with a few different partners including Dowell and Cragun. But I don't think of her as dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy--I think of her as dancing Clara. SPF? I'm the person who wrote that their favorite Sugar Plum Fairy was Jenifer Ringer. I do have mixed feelings about Balanchine's Nutcracker even now in part because of the placement of the SPF variation at the very beginning of the second act which, to me, undermines some of its magical impact. It's as if Odile came on at the beginning of Swan Lake Act III before the ball was even underway and performed 32 fouettes there and then. (I exaggerate...a little...to explain my feelings.) I haven't seen any of the current NYCB SPFs -- the one I would most like to see I think is Hyltin, but I doubt it's in the cards. On film/video--I've always loved the footage of Larissa Lezhnina dancing the SPF variation in the Kirov's production. I would LOVE to have seen her dance the role.

What a great photo! May she rest in peace.

May she rest in peace....

Absence? I'm puzzled...Her posts on Instagram show her dancing in Nutcracker. (Actually I was hoping to read about some of these performances.)

Welcome--and thanks for telling your story. It's great you have been able to choreograph in recent years in addition to everything else! You have probably seen this site has a number of ballet history discussions...

Nice to hear from you again Buddy--hope you have been well. Some other video of the Illiushkina/Caixeta Bayadere debut has been floating around on Instagram and youtube. Much of what I saw looked lovely--I'm very much looking forward to seeing these dancers develop. (Or, more likely in my case, reading about their development.)

In addition to everything else these prologues undermine the mystery of the characters' actual entrances as traditionally staged...I can't say the Nutcracker prologues irritate me as much as the Swan Lake ones do because...well, I'm not as invested in the Nutcracker, but still....Glad you are seeing a lot of great ballet.

I don't think it's realistic to expect most children to sit for the whole thing without a break.

Sounds like a great performance. Looking forward to reading about the other casts you get to see...

THANK YOU! I am rushing from one work crisis to another but watched the first few minutes and can't wait to see the rest. I hope they leave it up for the rest of the day....