mussel

I was so glad they dumped "Call Me Ben", at least for this farewell performance, and replaced it with Who Cares? I was planning on catching up some reading between the intermissions. Philip Neal used to dance the part that Robert Fairchild danced yesterday, it's kind of symbolic hand over to the next genernation of dancers. I agree Neal retired too soon, he's still in top form. All three performances are wonderful all around.

I am so glad with the fall season that the ballet seasons get to spread out more evenly through out the year. There used to a long stretch of time with no ballet performance at all, now the only ballet-free months are August, March & April. I wish NYCB could start the spring season in mid April, so there's less overlap with ABT Met season. Is the fall season going to be a temporary arragnement? I understand the fall season is possible because City Opera had to cut short its seasons due to its financial situation. Once NYCO gets back on its feet, are they going to reverse back to the original arrangement? I hope NYCB and NYCO will work out a deal to make the fall season permanent (if it's not already is), may be NYCO can have a shorter fall season starting in mid October thru late November, a spring season in March & April and a summer season starting in mid June. I agree with abatt that NYCB should just cut its losses, there's no point of throwing valuable rehearsal and stage times at a dud.

"Call me Ben" returns for the Winter season??!! Why??!!

Opening night gala ticket discount code: MVS10. 3rd ring ticket discounted from $72 to $32.

Very sad news coming from Poland this weekend. My heart and prayers are with the whole country. This tragedy gets me thinking. When major companies tour, do they have traveling plan not put the entire company in the same plane or bus? So that when, god forbids, catastrophic accident happens the entire doesn't get wipe out in one swoop. With their heavy touring schedule, this is especially true for ABT and Maryinsky, and to a less extent, RB, NYCB, and Bolshoi.

My joke was pretty lame. There're some hilarious April's fool ballet jokes in another ballet forum site, like Royal Ballet's going to stage SB on ice at the ROH; a long lost Giselle 3rd act was discovered at, of all places, Univ. of Montana; and new EU safety rules to limit the number of pouettés and to require dancers to wear hard hats during performances. Even funnier were people's reactions, they fell for the jokes, their posts were pure gold, ROFL funny. I wish I could post the links to the jokes but I understand posting links to another ballet forums is forbidden here.

According to the today's New York Ledger, a deal is being finalized between NYCB and Citigroup for a $200 million endowment donation to be paid over 10 years at $20 million per year. In exchange NYCB will be renamed New York CitiBallet effective August 1, 2011. Is Citigroup in a position to make this kind of commitment? Didn’t it receive Federal bailout money not long ago? I don’t understand.

Thanks also to singerwhomoves for her heads-up on NYCB's TDF availability. The discount last spring season was wonderful, but it seems to be discontinued for the upcoming winter rep season as I can't find it anywhere in the NYCB site. Does anyone know if they still have the same discount this season? 3rd ring price jumped from $64 last spring to $72 this winter season, a 12.5% increase or a whopping 25% annualized increase! I thought the dismal state of the economy would hold down price a bit.

Local TV commercial spot for ABT at the National Theater in Beijing: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTI1MTYwMzIw.html

Reported in today's Times: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/...-on-ballerinas/ I am excited, I can't wait. This is the first mass market main stream movie about ballet for a very long time. (Since Turning Point & White Night?)

I don't want start a new thread, so I post my Lilac-related question here. If Lilac's gift to Aurora was to neutralize Carabosse's curse, what was the gift that Lilac was about to grant when she was interrupted by Carabosse?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/arts/10linc.html State Theater will always be State Theater to me. I'd like to learn more detail about the $150 million second phase renovation of the theater.

I don't know if this is the appropriate forum to post this. I have 2 extra tickets for sale for this coming Sunday 3PM NYCB Hubbe farewell soldout performace. They're in 3rd ring row C off center full view. I am selling them at cost which I paid $63 each plus service charge for a total of $130. I'd like to conclude the transaction by this Sat. Anyone interested please PM or email me. We can arrange a pick up location in Manhattan. Thanks.

It looks like the everyone is going to be on stage according to NY Times:

Does anyone know anything about the NYCB special castings of 2000th performance of Nutcracker on 12/19? The website lists multiple castings for the same lead rules: Dew, Plum and Cavalier. Does that mean the waltz of flowers and grand pas are going to be performed multiple times with different casts? Following quote from NYCB's site doesn't give out much detail:

Not necessarily. Bolle has expressed his strong desire to dance with ABT or NYCB. His New York debut with the Royal Ballet at the Met meant a great deal to him because it was the best chance to score an invitation. So if this is the last chance Ferri can make that happen for her friend, then why not? Here the quote from the Bolle interview on the eve of RB's visit to the Met: Full interview: http://www.ballet.co.uk/magazines/yr_04/ju...rview_bolle.htm

The Dream(!) and no mention of Othello. I believe these are ballets that Acosta is going to perform during the next Met season. So we almost complete the puzzle: The Dream Manon Swan Lake La Bayadere R&J Othello Sleeping Beauty Mixed bills (?) Will the Dream be considered as part of the full length line-up or as mixed bill program? If it's the latter, what's the one remaining full length? Which ballet is going to pair with the Dream? T&V, La Sylphide, Les Sylphides, Apollo....? Chances are the Sleeping Beauty is going to be a new production, if that's the case I hope McKenzie doesn't butcher SB the way he did with Swan Lake. And we need 2 intermissions with Beauty. It seems to me ABT tries to wrap up every evening before 11PM, to do that with Beauty that means cuts?

Any ideas what the program line up is going to be like? My best guess, based on audience attendence, is that Swan Lake & Le Corsaire will be back. So will Cinderella since new production usually comes back for at least one more season. Since ABT is going to perform Othello and Kingdom of Shade during its upcoming Kennedy Center season, Othello and La Bayadere will probably be in the line up too. What else? Quoted from OCPAC: Which ballet will that be? I hope it will be the new old Sleeping Beauty ABT-RB co-production, but if that's the case it wouldn't be a world premier.

So we are going to have a 2-week non-stop run of Sleeping Beauty this coming Winter season, what's your casting wish list? For Aurora, Prince Desiree, Lilac, Carabosse, Gold & Jewels, Blue Birds...? Debuts, returning favorites?

Don't forget about the extra slots from the new opera house. I doubt NYCO will have a Sept-May non-stop season like the Met Opera does. So NYCO will need to fill its own house while it's not performing. With 1,800 seats, the new opera house is perfect for many companies who may find NYST (almost 3,000 seats) too big.

From today's New York Times, "City Opera Plans New Hall With Ties to Lincoln Center.' Will ABT move in and become Lincoln Center's newest constituent? If ABT moves in, how is it going to fill the seasons with NYCB? How about maintaining the spring Met season with an expanded fall season at the State Theater? Fill the slots with Alvin Ailey, Paul Taylor, DTH and visiting companies? There are so many possibilities but I really wish ABT will move in and have a permanent home at Lincoln Center.

TWO (2) Cubans! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Are they Cuban or Cuban-American? They have been dancing with ABT for so many years, I'd imagine they've naturalized already. I don't understand all the fuss about their original nationality, once naturalized they are as American as everybody. As far as I know there's only one class of citizenship.

From the NYT preview section:

IIRC, Gomes and Murphy were promoted in 2002 while Reyes and Herman Cornejo in 2003.

I can imagine ABT would love to have her. If she were to move to another company, I'd rather she stays put in New York and picks ABT.