Drew

Attending the enchanting Fox is itself an event and the Cobb energy center is well outside the city center (insofar as Atlanta has a center) — though I guess it is central to its own section of the very spread out Atlanta. I always laugh (grimly) when Atlanta Ballet thanks Fulton County for its support right before its performances in....Cobb county. The latter is notably absent from the list of public and private supporters being announced. (The Fox is in Fulton County.)

That said, sightlines at the Fox are horrible, parking can be a little complicated and of course being able to offer a longer run of Nutcracker could be great for the company. Cobb energy center has excellent sight lines and is in other respects a very pleasant contemporary venue. You feel like you are in a classic Hollywood movie amidst the Egyptian decorative motifs of the Fox Theater ladies room — Gone with the Wind premiered at the Fox — but there are a lot more stalls at the Energy Center.

The old baseball venue—Turner Field—moved out to Cobb a few years back. It is actually the same exit off the highway as the Energy Center.  It sparked some debate, but Atlanta Ballet is unlikely to generate the same level of interest or concern as the Atlanta Braves.

Congratulations to her!

Sounds like a thought-through and thoughtful decision. 

I also would love to see Tereshkina in D.C.

In video of the Mariinsky Romeo and Juliet, her ‘companion’ is an absolute stand out. It made me want to see her in a slew of other roles.

Ivanova danced Kitty in Ratmansky’s Anna Karenina when the Mariinsky brought it to NY. (She was lovely, but the role does not reveal much.)

On 7/16/2019 at 9:08 AM, annaewgn said:

Really??? Nuikina gets two shows, and in a role she's never even done before? There are other dancers in the company, who have performed this role, that I'd much rather pay money to see. 

And from what I've seen, again, Khoreva is technically stunning, but boring artistically. Smiling isn't the only way to portray a character. 

Nuikina was announced for California Gamzatti performances before she was pulled from her debut in St. Petersburg. It is possible the casting will change...though who knows?  I liked Nuikina as an odalesque in Corsaire when I saw her dance in D.C.—her dancing seemed rather better than what one can glean from youtube. Haven’t the faintest if she would be ready for Gamzatti. 

And fortunately, Khoreva did not at all “smile” her way through Medora at the performance of Corsaire I saw her dance. Her stage presence did still seem quite undeveloped, but I at least appreciated that she didn’t overcompensate, so to speak, or seem affected in any way. If my plans pan out, I likely will see her in Paquita—and that may well be a better role for her at this stage than Nikiya.

(I have a long wish list of other dancers I hope to see in Paquita in a range of roles—and they include dancers at the very start of their careers, long established principals, and everything in between.)

Edited to add: Tereshkina IS a stunning Nikiya! 

Congratulations to all of the promoted dancers 👏 ....

I don't have a lot to add to my original comment. I think the dancers of the Royal who work with McGregor regularly made a great case for his Infra when they brought it a few years ago--and Woolf Works, which I have only seen on video, seems to offers much of interest. The two other McGregor works that I have seen (Engram and Eden, Eden) have both set themselves within ambitious intellectual contexts and I admire intellectual ambition. But I still stand by my original comment....I don't think McGregor's work is above some serious questions on the part of lovers of classical ballet. (Or lovers of dance.) And I have been puzzled by his fallback explanation in response to one of the criticisms--the criticism of the violent distortions of women's bodies on display in a great many of his works--to which he responded that it is just a matter of formal experimentation, lines and shapes. He is a choreographer who constantly invites one to think about philosophical/literary/scientific frameworks and interpretation, and whose choreography in Infra for instance has "allusions" not only to urban anomie and modern technology, but to explicit sexual acts including oral sex--but when challenged on how he deploys women's bodies in his works, suddenly plays the formalist? 

For obvious reasons I hesitate to compare the Royal's dancers in McGregor with the Mariinsky's whose McGregor performances I have only seen on youtube fragments. Certainly the Royal's dancers have the advantage-- when it comes to McGregor's choreography--of working with him regularly.  I will look out for your thoughts on the Dante Project.

I admire your open-mindedness, but I would have thought you could feel comfortable sticking to your guns on McGregor. The ‘extremes’ of his idiom seem to me to raise several questions .... 

I tend to feel that, given the current state of their repertory and programming policies, no-one should be promoted to principal at ABT until they have established that they can carry full length ballets--ideally in both the nineteenth-century and 20th-century repertories, though I certainly accept that dancers have different strengths and weaknesses.

For that reason, I'm always more curious and concerned about casting/opportunities--which can be very slow-going at ABT--than rank.  I'm a Forster fan and I would think it close to a scandal if he were promoted to principal without having proven himself in successful performances of major full-length roles such as Siegfried or Albrecht on the one hand and Romeo or Des Grieux on the other.

A miracle cure for whatever has prevented Lendorf from achieving full and lasting recovery from injuries would certainly be a wonderful turn of events. . .In any case, here's hoping great futures await Aran Bell and Joo Won Ahn...

Eager to read more of your thoughts and hope it’s the dancing that is earth-shaking the rest of this weekend...

10 hours ago, sandik said:

I did see this on one of the Nureyev and Friends tours in Vancouver BC in the late 1980s. 

I remember it too! I think Dennis Wayne’s company may also have danced it. At least I have a memory of seeing it with them as well.

I have tickets since my dates in London are dictated by work and my opportunities to see any kind of ballet are very limited. For me, therefore, it's Spartacus opening night and Swan Lake over the weekend....no matter who ends up dancing. 

5 hours ago, NinaFan said:

Agreed

I've never attended a performance where a dancer was sick before the performance and chose which sections to dance.  They withdraw completely. 

I remembered reading about Makarova choosing which sections to dance in a performance of Don Quixote...and found a review. Not illness but tendonitis was the official reason given:

"Miss Makarova did the solo now usually done by one of the flower girls and Miss Shibata did Miss Makarova's. Throughout the evening, Miss Makarova was reportedly dancing with a case of tendonitis. As a result, in Act I, her leaps were ingeniously simulated by having her lifted in the air by several men. Others were done for her by Miss Menendez or by Rebecca Wright, truly outstanding as the Cupid. Nonetheless, the good spirits provided by Mr. Dowell and Miss Makarova triumphed over all."

Here is the link: https://www.nytimes.com/1979/06/04/archives/the-dance-debuts-in-quixote.html

I will be unable to get to NY for any of this, but am delighted they have commissioned a new work by Gemma Bond. And if Lendorf returns--that would be great.

The post above by @Ashton Fan  made me curious about the Wise Virgins. There is a tiny clip with Fonteyn, filmed in 1970 Hall gives the ballet's premier date as 1940.  NB he typically introduces his clips with still shots, but there is video:  

I have been reading about this--it sounds as if it was an extraordinary evening!

4 hours ago, miliosr said:

I would agree with you about the "sense of atmosphere". The costumes (but for the men's), lighting, music, props and sets all worked together to create an otherworldly effect. I do wish Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui had left things with Perseus giving Medusa's head to Athena and then Athena's priestesses rejecting Poseidon one-by-one. It was the perfect ending. 

I smiled a little when I read your original post and then the above post....Mileages really do vary--I liked the solo for Medusa at the end; actually, it was my favorite part of the work because it seemed to concentrate and express her emotional journey in a way the ballet's ultra-stylizations did not allow for elsewhere. It also gave me a sense of release that the priestesses rejecting Poseidon did not quite do, since I had understood that Medusa had not had the option to reject him (that she had been raped)....

That said, I was a little less keen on the ballet overall than Mashinka or you, but I will try to watch it again....

I have no idea and no opinion whether she will ever be a principal dancer at the Royal or whether she ought to be, but I can think of a number of principal roles I would be curious and/or even eager to see Melissa Hamilton dance.

I see she seems to be cast in limited ways, but I am also very curious about the future of Hamilton who strikes me as remarkably talented as well. A genuinely distinct dancer. 

 And a decade ago Osipova gave some of the most remarkable performances of Swanilda I have ever seen. Wish she could have revisited the role at the Royal.

Delighted to read of Sambe’s promotion! Hope I have a chance to see more of him in the future.

There is, as Mashinka indicated, at least one other thread about this: looking at dates I see this one may have been the earlier thread but the conversation most recently has been continued at greater length on the other...don't know if it's practical for moderators to consolidate or not...

5 hours ago, maps said:

 

https://www.mariinsky.ru/en/playbill/playbill/2019/6/6/1_2000

And so Bulanova is Medora on June 6.  

I loved Bulanova as the third odalesque....thought she had real stage presence too. (More so at this early stage than Khoreva.)  And wonderful eyes! Very intrigued she is gettng a chance at Medora and wish I could be there.

P.S. I see that I already oohed and aahed over Bulanova above. I’m going to let the repetition stand! 

9 hours ago, sandik said:

 

ABT has gone through multiple "glory days," and will likely have many more, unless disaster strikes.

I would add that ABT currently has a major, internationally renowned choreographer creating and staging for them on a regular basis--something that has not been true in decades (and decades). I know not everyone shares in admiration or liking for Ratmansky's work, but his presence alone makes ABT today an important company in the world of ballet.

My personal ABT "glory days" when it comes to the ballerina roster are the Fracci/Makarova/Kirkland/Van Hamel (etc.) era.

Very dismaying news....

1 hour ago, Helene said:

Iliesiu came from Carolina Ballet, where she had been a soloist.  She had a major health challenge soon after she joined PNB:  she was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre, an auto-immune disease, which she wrote about on her blog.  You would not know it watching her dance since her return, but it is such a privilege to have her back.

 

One knows that dancers are tough but a huge"WOW!" from me on reading Iliesu's blog entry on Gullain-Barre:

"My mind knew the mechanics of a plié, but my muscles had no idea what to do. I commanded my legs to bend over my knees, but there was no connection. I had to be taught a plié like it was my very first ballet class ..." 

I have never seen PNB live--hope to do so at some point. I will be in Seattle in early January for work but unfortunately, that will be post-Nutcracker and pre-Cinderella.