Drew

Thanks for these accounts of the production at La Scala.

Interesting news about Alizade --she always caught my eye. I hope she does well in her new company.

I finally got a chance to see some footage from World Ballet day (not close to all of it). The live classes and rehearsals are definitely a treat, but I found myself wondering if one reason the Bolshoi does so much that is pre-recorded is that they can then subtitle the segments (and so reach a bigger audience) rather than have interviews in Russian followed by someone--Novikova in this case--racing through on the spot translations/summaries of whatever was just said. (Some aspects of the Bolshoi pre-recorded interviews I enjoyed -- including the one with Tsvirko.)

I agree with Cubanmiamiboy that definitions and distinctions are different in the 21st century than they were in the past, not just in dance, but in many fields etc. But even now there are "ballets"--by "ballet" choreographers--that don't use pointe, and are still based in balletic tradition, including character dance traditions, and/or vocabulary. From recent premiers, I am thinking of Scarlett's Age of Anxiety. Robbins' Fancy Free which Scarlett seems to be referencing would be another. I think these works are more appropriately called ballets than anything else. (And I have never heard that their choreographers didn't think so--Scarlett doesn't seem to have objected to the Royal Ballet calling Age of Anxiety a "narrative ballet" on its website.) And of course there are works on pointe that barely seem to reference ballet tradition and many of them would be called ballets by most people. Especially when they are created on ballet dancers. Also, the mid-20th-century 'red line' between ballet and modern that was mentioned above has itself been subject to change and revision over time. I think that in an era when many modern dance choreographers work with ballet dancers (including on pointe) and ballet choreographers occasionally eschew pointe, that red line is not always easy to track. It zigs and zags a bit anyway. I actually am still in favor of maintaining some form of the distinction. I myself don't consider Paul Taylor or Kurt Joos a ballet choreographer--who does?--though I don't mind ballet companies taking either of them on now and then if the dancers can achieve the right technique. But I would be wary of using the modern-dance/ballet distinction in a way that banishes important repertory to the category of 'not ballets' when one might as well say 'not ballets that I like.'

I AM hoping for Lopatkina but decidedly not on opening night, not even the night after. (On those nights I have NO chance of getting to D.C. to see her.) Please save Lopatkina -- even if she 'deserves' an opening -- for later in the week!

I remember Melissa Barak's first ballet for NYCB being rather well received. That's why she was invited back--and more than once. (If the last one she did was a disaster, well, then that's a shame. She is not the only choreographer to have one.)

I also have come to like Hyltin a lot...and enjoyed reading about her Swan Lake. Won't be able to see it, but hope to see her dance later in the season.

Thanks for these photos. I'm pretty sure I saw this production but with Carmen Mathe as Aurora. (And, as a child, I was a particular fan of Dennis Poole.) Duffster--I think I must have seen you dance....

That's an interesting suggestion. If it's a stage performance, I'm not sure how I feel about the idea of elements being modified for broadcast performances .... though I wonder if some artists aren't doing it already. It might open a can of worms -- live acting/pantomime is also different than acting for the camera, etc. -- too many adjustments and one might as well be watching a studio performance and that's quite different from a broadcast of a theater performance. And I admit I have just not been bothered by stage make-up when I have seen "live from..." ballet performances (or when I have sat close up in the theater). Now you have put the idea in my head though...

Croce reviewed one of his early ballets very strongly; i always hoped to see some his choreography one day...RIP

She was also reported to have coached Osipova. For me ABT's ballerina lineup has been less than consistently stellar for a long time. But their current line-up (as a whole--I do not speak of every single dancer or every dancer in every single role) seems especially unformed--or under-formed--as thrillingly distinctive, major artists.

Sad to learn of this...When the company came to NY, I loved Perren's performance in Flames of Paris (and her flamboyant acrobatic pas de deux with Shemiunov was a special highlight at the last performance I saw--on a Saturday night). I've read fabulous things about a number of her roles -- notably Giselle and Medora. This seems really unfortunate...

Best of good fortune to her...

Some translations are incompetent of course--and all translations are, from a certain point of view, inadequate--but there is genuine debate among translators (and theorists of translation) about how much a translation should try to make a work sound 'idiomatic' in its new language and how much it should retain a bit of its 'foreign' flavor including unfamiliar idioms etc. For translators into English, the goal is then--at least as I understand it--to push the boundaries of English and make it feel and sound "Russian" or "Spanish" or "Italian" etc. ...(I have no opinion about the particular Russian translations being discussed.)

Thank you Amy for the link...

Copeland has a name that extends beyond ballet's "modest popularity" -- and most of us rather hope that will be good for ballet!

Very sad (and shocked) to read this news. I have vivid memories of seeing Renvall dance for the first time (without having any idea who he was) when he was brand new to ABT; he just soared across the stage in the Russian Dance of Baryshnikov's Nutcracker and we all felt a kind of thrill. And, of course, Renvall had a rare, shining beauty. Later when he took the role of Nutcracker Prince just watching him remove the Nutcracker mask and emerge in all his princely radiance was magical... Among the handfull of other times I saw him dance--including wonderful performances as the Bronze Idol already mentioned--I especially treasure a performance of Gurn in which his buoyant, easy, and just plain beautiful Act I varation stole the show, for a moment at least, from Baryshnikov's James. Also want to mention the warm way he smiled at Kirkland when partnering her in Great Galloping Gottschalk. Fluff made completely and utterly charming when these two danced it.

It's certainly a very interesting and seemingly deeply felt interview--I enjoyed reading it. But Herrera saying she doesn't want her career tarnished by the suggestion that media helped her arrive (which I think she does say, though there seems to be some disagreement) kind of implies she thinks others' careers are tarnished...that's what I was responding to...I suspect that she mostly wanted to convey that she does indeed feel "a dinosaur" (that's from the interview) and therefore that this was the right time to retire -- which the interviewer had asked her about.

I thought the part of Herrera's answer that Stuben quoted did take the discussion somewhat beyond dislike of people taking candid backstage shots, though that is where she started. Here it is with a few more of the sentences that preceded it: "My career has been so important to me, and I felt I wanted to end it here, to experience it how I wanted to experience it, fully, intensely. That’s how I want to take my leave, before getting mixed up in all this media. Now, if someone makes it you don’t know whether it’s because they really have talent or because the media helped get them there. I don’t want my career to be tarnished by that sort of thing. I don’t have Facebook or Twitter or any of that."

I also found this a very interesting interview. I think one should underline, too, that in context Herrera expresses feeling distant from the entire new "generation" that uses social media--which takes in a lot of dancers--and her comments, therefore, do not seem too pointed to me though she may have some people in mind. Whether or not her comments were pointed at a particular dancer or dancers, I think it's a bit over the top to use expressions like "tarnished" about careers that involve extra-dance publicity. I doubt Baryshnikov feels tarnished--or Darcey Bussell. Nor, in my opinion, should other dancers even if they aren't on the level of a "Baryshnikov" or "Bussell." People lament ballet being out of the mainstream, but it usually enters the mainstream due to extra-dance stories and events as in Cold War politics (which not only helped to fuel several careers but also fueled such artistically important events as NYCB tours to Europe) or as in movies (Red Shoes etc.). Today's mainstream is indeed very mediatized, so to speak, including a heavy does of self-promotion systems. Ballet may be rarified, but it does live on planet earth. I'm older than Herrera and occasionally have mixed feelings about social media and other kinds of self-promotion too...but I think ballet as an art is likelier to be tarnished by the ill discipline Herrera laments in young students. (Though her perceptions of that, too, may reflect a generation gap. I don't know.) Herrera herself got major roles almost as soon as she entered ABT and thus was spared the problem of how to get noticed by management etc. If only that could be the fate of all gifted dancers! Of course, Herrera did get noticed (one assumes) because of her prodigious talent as a dancer--absolutely. But not all talented dancers do...and an argument could be made that she never had quite the career as a mature ballerina that her exciting early performances promised. That was my own view.

Feel very similarly, I'm not sure what I will be able to get to this year, but there is a lot to be excited about in the choice of rep and I am!

Atlanta Ballet is reviving Princess and the Goblin--which they premiered a couple of years ago. I found it quite wonderful and am looking forward to seeing it again. I enjoyed Push Come to Shove in the days when Baryshnikov was dancing, but found it seemed thin after multiple viewings--even with the original cast. I would be very curious how it would seem in a revival...Baryshnikov channeled Tharp (Tharp as a dancer) in uncanny fashion--it is hard to picture that happening now with the male lead or having at all the same effect even if it did.

You may be thinking of Zhurbin who can be just remarkable in character roles and has been much praised for his performances by professional critics. (I thought he was terrific in Ratmansky's Firebird, and would be delighted if he were cast in Golden Cockerel.)

Welcome -- many of us in the U.S. are always eager to hear reports about ballet in the UK...

Well worth reading...eloquent even.