Alexandra

There was a Callye Robinson with MCB last season, but I didn't find her name on the current roster. There's a Callie Manning presently dancing with MCB. Can others more familiar with the company help on this one?

I mailed the final copies to U.S. subscribers yesterday. Overseas issues will go out Saturday. In this issue (another double one, to catch us up): Contents Has Time Run Out for the Sugar Plum Fairy? by Alexandra Tomalonis Scoops, Scandals and Aesthetic Gossip Books New and Noteworthy Discovering the Dancers of the Pennsylvania Ballet by Dale Brauner Pirouettes: What Makes Them So Challenging? by Victoria Leigh What Did They Wear Before There Were Tights? by Mel Johnson Two Ballerinas from the Time of Coppelia by Alexandra Tomalonis Who’s Dancing Where Now? Rosters of dancers and artistic personnel of the Kirov, Paris Opera, Royal, Stuttgart and Royal Danish Ballets; American Ballet Theatre and the New York City Ballet

With many thanks to the New York Public Library (and Mindy Aloff), we have the complete catalogue of its current Balanchine exhibit on DanceView Times: Balanchine at the New York Public Library If anyone has a chance to go see this, please tell us what you especially liked (or didn't).

I agree with Dale's explanation, but humor can backfire, and I think this has more of a chance of doing so than provoking discussion. I'm sure everyone wishes Tewsley well, and there's nothing funny about being injured.

I'm pretty sure it is, HF -- I don't know who the Effy, though.

I thought someone had posted a link to this earlier, but couldn't find it; apologies if this is a repost. There is a brief trailer on the company's web site of La Sylphide: http://www.kgl-teater.dk/dkt2002uk/ballet03/frame.htm This is not a direct link. Click BALLET in the lefthand nav bar. Then click on the photo from LA SYLPHIDE. You'll have three choices, depending on your connection, and there's an instruction in Danish to download Windows Media Player if you don't already have it. There are two trailers, one of the dancing (about 2 minutes, mostly of Rose Gad wiith Mads Blankstrup, although there are split-seconds of others in rehearsal) Nikolaj Hubbe, who staged the production, is talking (in Danish) throughout. There's also a separate trailer that's only of him talking.

I haven't seen much of Fairchild, but I think Michael's comment about the "fee" quality matches what I have seen -- I think she has mystery, and she's one of the many NYCB dancers I hope to be able to watch grow up in that repertory

Not to mention "banished with only partial pension" Not to mention "What really happened was that some of the younger dancers wanted to dance new choreography and some of the older dancers wanted to choreograph."

It is interesting to wonder why one partnership works and another doesn't (I always found Makarova and Dowell's dancing together very much in concert -- so maybe this, like many other things, is in the eye of the beholder.) Sometimes it's personality, sometimes it's situation -- not a ballet performance, but Twyla Tharp choreographed a dance for herself and several men -- dont' remembe the name of it; it was on the program she did for herself and Baryshnikov. In this dance, she was partnered. I was sitting quite close and it seemed, to me, as though she hated every minute of it, hated being off the ground, hated not being in control. No vulnerability here, no swooning into partners' arms. That was just personality, to me. And sometimes it just might be the same kind of chemistry or lack of chemistry that happens, for no reason we can put a finger on, in ordinary mortals as well

I'll start I'll pick someone who is no longer dancing -- and I'm sure is the Favorite of many here, so apologies in advance -- but I never cared for Merle Park. I admired her musicaliity and her professionalism (I once saw her dance at a small local company here, for an audience of about a dozen, and she danced as though she were at Covent Garden, with a full house). I just didn't like her dancing. I thought she approached every dramatic role in the same way. I thought her dancing was artificially light. ("It has no guts to it," to steal a comment form a colleague about another dancer.) I'd also say I lost count long ago of a dancer who I did not like the first, second, third, fourth of x time I saw him/her, and who I would see later -- with another company, in another type of role -- and change my mind.

Welcome, Marie-Adelaide -- Thanks for posting a new topic for discussion, but I think I have to put up a gentle warning. This is the kind of topic that could lead to trouble Trashing dancers for sport isn't what we do here. I'm going to leave this thread open for awhile and see what kind of answers we get -- it could be a good topic for discussion if we keep it general. "I don't like this type of dancer, or "I never cared for so and so because" . If the posts are within our rules and the spirit of this board, then we can go ahead. If it goes overboard, I'll celete offending posts and close the thread.

I think there certainly have been partnerships where there was a spark, but I'm not sure it's always sexual orientation that's the key player. (I saw Kirkland and Dowell fall in love on stage during the snow scene in Baryshnikov's Nutcracker. Never seen anything like it before or since. They began the pas de deux as two Nice Ballet Partners and at the end, you were worried they'd run off together and wouldn't come back and do the second act.) I can think of some men who handle their partners as though the'yre turning meat on a spit -- no sparks, no interest. And some have been ....I guess we have to go here.... straight and some have been gay. And the reverse. Perhaps it's more a matter of acting ability than sexuality? Some people can pretend to be another person, and others cannot. I realize we're trying to do fouettes in quicksand here -- although it's a legitimate question and certainly something people think about and talk about. What is the chemical spark? It goes beyond real life sexuality. I talked with Kronstam (who was homosexual) about this in the interviews for my book. He would say "we had a chemistry" with Dancer A but "I always found it hard to make love on stage to [Dancer B]; there was just nothing between us." (I thought your description of the Alonso-Youskevitch partnership was clear, atm, for what that's worth. Did you read that at his funeral, Alonso sent a wreath that said "For my Albrecht"?)

dima, I think liebs took your question to be about having a place to post about dance peformances you're seeing -- this part of the board is for DANCE WATCHERS. As far as questions for students go, you might want to try www.danceart.net They have boards for all types of dance. We want to keep the focus of our technical sections on ballet. The purpose of that part of the site was to provide support for students of classical ballet.

Elena, I just emailed you, because we came up with a phone number, which I don't want to post. I forwarded your question to a German colleague, who writes: "The two Bulgarian dancers are Mariana Hadjiyska and Ogrian Hadjiyski. They live in Stendal [snip phone number]... They may know about Karine Lindenberg. Supposedly she lives in a village near Hamburg [snip more specific location]."

Thanks for that link -- and for the poll. Although if you added "None of the Above" you might get a few more responses.......

No apology necessary -- it's not the first thing one would think of Here's a link too that review (also posted on Links Thursday, but it's good to have links to reviews on the company forums too) Dance: Lulu. A Monstretragedy

Re Detroit, no one has questioned the quality of the performances. Good, bad or fantastic, some performances did not sell well.

Good points -- thank you, Inga. A colleague of mine also pointed out that this most recent American tour was not a sell out in all cities (Detroit, for example, not a city accustomed to seeing a lot of ballet, did not sell out all performances, I'm told.)

Reinhard, I hope you're on the way to recovery! I, too, look forward to your review. Thank you for posting these, but I had to trim the quotes from the Financial Times review since that was published in English. We have to be careful because of copyright laws -- we can link to reviews in newspapers and magazines, and quote about 250 words, but no more than that. I think we could get away with the Koegler review, because that is your translation, but we can't for an English review. If you find other reviews in English, please post a link!

Hi, Jim -- Thanks for this. I'm going to move this into the New York City Ballet Forum, which is where posts about performances, other company new and issues go (I know you're new and it takes awhile to find one's way around!) Did anyone else see this performance? Other Nutcrackers?

Thanks to Dale for typing in that long long list! A friend emailed me this morning (I still haven't seen it) with one thing that was left off -- Introduction, by Costas Chapter 1, The Art of George Balanchine by George Jackson The order of the book is then: Chapter 2, The Life of George Balanchine, Clive Barnes, followed by the ballet essays and at the end, the Trust and the Foundation by, respectively, Barbara Horgan and Nancy Reynolds. ----------- I've known Costas for years, and two stories about the photographs I don't think he'd mind my telling are these: One, he would get to a rehearsal early and sit underneath the piano, so that people would forget he was there. And two, there were times when he would be alerted to a rehearsal on short notice. He was teaching (mathematics, at a New York private school) and would go to the headmaster and say he was "having palpitations" and needed to be excused for the rest of the day. I'm sorry if the printing process has given the prints a garish tone, as kfw mentioned above, because I love his photographs.

Since the review is headlined: "Suzanne Farrell Gets Her Revenge," I can understand why Farrell Fan is happy Here's a quote:

In the interest of fairness, considering the discussion of Caroline Cavallo on another thread, I wanted to report that I had a long talk with a Danish friend (former RDB dancer from the Brenaa era) who'd seen all the "La Sylphides" this season. Like me, this person had found Cavallo too bland as the Sylph in prior years, but thought she was excellent when dancing with Hubbe, really transformed, much more relaxed and with a deeper understanding of the role.

Nice line, Mel It seems that the European companies' management thinks that a ballet company can be run like an opera or theater company, or an orchestra (choose the repertory, hire a few people, then rehearse). Well, yes, but...... Gergiev doesn't have to teach each instrumentalist his part and THEN make them sound like something. And the American companies' (nonartistic) management often think they can be run like Wal-Mart.

Very interesting, Marc -- thanks for the report. The company will be here for the rest of the month (the opera opens next Tuesday, the ballet company follows the following week) so maybe something will surface in the American press.