Drew

Sad news....may she rest in peace.

Great news about Denis Savin! I think I've pretty much exclusively seen him on video--but what a memorable artist. Always --

7 hours ago, naomikage said:

Simone Messmer is now a member of Ballett am Rhine in Dusseldorf, Germany.

https://www.operamrhein.de/de_DE/ensemble-und-mitarbeiter#taenzerinnen-und-taenzer

https://www.operamrhein.de/en_EN/person/simone-messmer.216564 

Very glad she is with a company again. Hope she finds it a fulfilling place to work!

21 hours ago, altongrimes said:

Drew, I hope you get this. Yes. I think it was Instagram. It is among those videos that I have had for several weeks. I'm not as conversant with the computer as I would like but perhaps there is a way I can send it to you? Looks like I could email it to you if you find that acceptable? Perhaps, that would be unwise, however, for your security.

It's kind of you to ask -- if you can figure out how to send it via the message function inside Ballet Alert, then that would be great. But if you can't, please don't worry. I enjoyed just reading your description of seeing the snippet of Abraham's work with Calvin Royal III!

24 minutes ago, altongrimes said:

While luxuriating in just a snippet of Kyle Abraham's "An Untitled Love", featuring Calvin Royal III and an unnamed female partner at The Fire Island Dance Festival, I was smitten by the brilliance of this piece. This was performed outdoors and appears to have been framed and even more inspired by the arrival of a sultry Summer's evening by the sea. How I delighted in the construction of the piece. One moment, the couple seemed in normal conversation together as if completely oblivious to the art form in which they were about to participate. Suddenly, in the most delightful and seamless transition, they burst into dancing the languid rhythms of a hot August night. This juxtaposition of casual space against these intermittent explosions of their delicious Summer dance caused such a firestorm of creative excitement within me that I just had to get on Ballet Alert and share the creative joy of this discovery.

Sounds wonderful--was the snippet on Instagram?  (Various youtube searches didn't seem to turn this up.)

WOW!

4 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

The season has barely begun and already the theater is being forced to improvise in less-than-ideal conditions. Yesterday on her social media Kristina Kretova announced that in the interests of safety, she was withdrawn from a performance today and sent into self-isolation. So, presumably, was Denis Rodkin with whom she'd been rehearsing. As a result, Olga Smirnova and Ruslan Skvortsov, who danced Onegin yesterday evening, were forced to dance it again today at noon, which is madness in the case of this ballet. I think it would have been more responsible to cancel the performance.

Wow! or, rather, once again.... shudder ....

6 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

Not unrelated. Anna Netrebko is in hospital with Covid-19 after singing in the Bolshoi's production of Don Carlo last week. It was the theater's first production of the season. The performance on September 10th was cancelled after Ildar Abrazakov became ill. He subsequently tested positive. Netrebko was tested then, but at the time her test came back negative.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/17/arts/music/anna-netrebko-coronavirus-bolshoi.html 

I shuddered reading this....

12 hours ago, ECat said:

According to this video, it seems that the Beautiful Svetlana Ivanova has retired.  Svetlana always lit up the stage whenever she was on it.  Each time I have seen the Mariinsky in person, she has always stood out with her delicate beauty, great technique, and gorgeous legs and feet.  Wishing her a wonderful next chapter.  She will certainly be missed.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyQ5qFokTAY&t=0s

I had missed this news. Thank you for passing it along. Ivanova has been an exceptionally lovely presence at the Mariinsky--I join you in wishing her a wonderful next chapter....

59 minutes ago, BalanchineFan said:

What comedy roles are you thinking of? I never saw Maria Kowrowski in The Concert.  

I was thinking of Wheeldon’s Variations Sérieuses....I think it dropped out of the rep so people don’t remember it much...,

A wonderful —and beautiful—actress. May she rest in peace.

Welcome @TheAccidentalBalletomane  —    rapturous” is a perfect word for how wonderful ballet can be.

I think many of us are mourning the loss of live performances. Next year in the theater!

Please delete

I'm kind of ecstatic with excitement for the dancers and trust this will be  be a shot in the arm for company morale. I think most if not all of them have great futures ahead of them!

Perhaps, when I allow myself to think more coldly about the matter, I do find it...risky...to promote dancers to principal who haven't proven themselves in multiple principal roles and--in the context of ABTs repertory specifically--who haven't shown repeatedly that they can carry multiple full length ballets. I love Trenary (as I do Brandt) but Trenary's full length leads have been what? A very successful Aurora and a very charming Princess Praline (I saw the latter and read about the former)....? Is there another that I've forgotten? Forster (one of my favorites!) has danced what in terms of principal roles in full length classics? The lead in Nutcracker? Royal...purple Rothbart? etc. etc.

If the spring season had happened as planned, then most of these new principals dancers would have been "tested" in new full length roles and perhaps the company feels that under these extraordinary circumstances they should be given the promotions they would have likely earned especially since a number of them waited more than long enough to be cast in major lead roles. But to me it still ends up a bit of a gamble even if an exciting gamble because of the talent involved....Anyway, the future will tell if these promotions are a stroke of genius or a rear-guard action as the company looks to the future...

And finally--I missed a number of Lane's most acclaimed performances and never had the chance to admire her dancing as many others on this site do.  But I did see her dance remarkably in Ratmansky's Shostakovich Trilogy and The Tempest as well as giving a number of terrific soloist performances. She was also my favorite of the three Princess Praline's I saw. Her career is--from the outside looking in--another puzzlement.  I hope she is still with ABT but if not, wish her a fabulous future.

Congratulations to Avsajanishvili --

On 9/3/2020 at 3:07 PM, Tom47 said:

While I can’t be sure that we will ever get to a society where people are not taught that there is something wrong with nudity, I feel it is clear that we are heading toward such a society.  This is based on changes in people’s behavior, particularly the behavior of women, including the reduction in the amount of clothing women are willing to wear.

Tom,

I think (young) women are, in some contexts, implicitly and sometimes explicitly encouraged to wear less and less (by advertising for example) for reasons that don't necessarily have anything to do with thinking nothing is "wrong" with nudity.  That is, women's fashions sometimes have less to do with freer, less repressed or neurotic views of the body than with the  commodification and hyper-sexualization of women's bodies.  The latter is entirely complicit with puritanical views of nudity, and definitely not a benign "let it all hang out" emancipation from body or gender hang ups.  Of course, I am speaking primarily about the United States...other societies may reflect other norms etc.

On 8/17/2020 at 9:20 AM, Tom47 said:

In a society where people are not taught that there is something wrong with nudity, which we are heading toward, nudity in ballet would be just another “costume.”  The only reasons for wearing a “garment” would be for protection or support or for decoration or the showing of status, although at times the nude body would not need decoration.  Nudity would not be anymore distracting than the wearing of a costume and no one would worry about children seeing nudity and no one would be upset by being seen nude.

 

Tom,

I read your post with interest...What strikes me though is that ballet (classical ballet--not dance in general) emerged in a court society in which nudity was definitely neither a norm nor an ideal nor an acceptable social alternative so that even it were true that "we" are heading in that direction, ballet itself as an art form would be substantially changed if nudity were considered just another costume. And at a certain point it might no longer be ballet. It might be dance; it might be great art; and it might even be something ballet companies included in their repertories now and then just as they now include Martha Graham or Paul Taylor. But not ballet. (And yes....these distinctions seem important to me.)

That is, I suspect certain ideals and norms are baked into the ballet cake -- you can push them, prod them, revise and reform them--indeed have to do so to keep the art alive--but at a certain point you are no longer eating cake.  (For example when movement no longer stands in any relation to turn out whatsoever, not even a negative relation.) So I think I agree with critics cited above who see ballet as a stylization of the human body that extends it in certain ways and am skeptical that nudity could be merely another ballet costume.   But I suppose it will be choreographers whose work finally decides the matter not my speculations!

(The above goes along with your premise, but honestly I'm also not convinced we know which way these things are headed socially.)

A wonderful ballerina -- stunningly beautiful (and great at comedy too). I very much hope she can give a live farewell performance.

16 hours ago, Mashinka said:

Some information about Montes here:

http://www.roh.org.uk/people/erico-montes 

I believe he teaches and choreographs outside the company, perhaps he sees that as his future.

 

 

Thank you -- I often think how hard it must be for dancers who were planning to retire at the end of this season to have "lost" their final season dancing. (I assume some retirees I read about have re-assessed due to the Covid19 time away, but they too are ending their careers in an unexpected way that may feel abrupt and a little sad.)

Big news--sad that Watson's final season was no season at all. (Something he shares with any number of dancers and a real loss for all of them and their audiences.) He's a remarkable dancer and has had a remarkable career.

I'm a little sad about Tristan Dyer as well--I only saw him twice (once in Scarlett's Age of Anxiety and once as Benno in Scarlett's Swan Lake) and found him quite interesting both times. (I don't remember ever having had the chance to see Montes).

Wishing all three dancers wonderful and exciting futures...

I had not posted this before but a few days back Atlanta Ballet cancelled its Nutcracker season.  I can only guess at the financial repercussions. Its season is now supposed to begin in February...Supposed...

5 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

The first story links to a report from the RBC agency, which is considered entirely legitimate in Russia. The second is a translation of the first part of that RBC story, although it doesn't go as far as the quote from an anonymous Mariinsky dancer describing the situation. 

Thank you. Goodness knows under the circumstances it’s easy enough to believe several of the artists have fallen ill. Wishing everyone a swift recovery .....and prudent leadership.

Not entirely unexpected reports of Coronavirus among the artists at newly reopened Mariinsky and Bolshoi theaters (I think only the former has had public performances); these websites are both ostensibly news sources, but I don't actually know how to evaluate these stories (esp the 2nd one which comes from a website with which I'm completely unfamiliar); I did notice on Instagram today three Mariinsky dancers I follow posting photos of themselves with masks --something I had not seen before from them:

https://www.corona24.news/c/2020/08/08/rbc-reports-on-the-bolshoi-and-mariinsky-theaters-infected-with-coronavirus.html

https://www.archyde.com/in-the-bolshoi-and-mariinsky-theaters-artists-were-quarantined-society-rbc/

Welcome to Ballet Alert -- it's great that you have developed a passion for learning about ballet. It is a wonderful art form.

2 hours ago, dirac said:

You weren't off by much, alas. Farewell, Miss Melly. Odd how Leslie Howard, Clark Gable, and Vivien Leigh all died relatively young. She was already the last surviving star of GWTW by 1968.

From what I read, she died in her sleep at home....That seems like a gentle ending and I hope it was. May she rest in peace.