bingham

Thanks Jane. Don't miss the Part-Gomes-Halberg cast. London audience is in for a treat with this cast.

The casts for the Romeo and Juliet run in Detroit are in the ABT site. Hee Seo and Cory Stearns will do their 1st R and J. It would be wonderful if ABT can get A Ferri to coach them.

Strangely enough, Two Pigeons. That absolutely broke my heart when I saw it.

It is also strange that none of the major US companies (as far as i know) staged it.Any reasons??

Very interesting. I hope ABT would also get help from the Danes when they do La Sylphide this June. Many of the main cast are doing it for the 1st time(at least with ABT).

The Finals of the Prix de Lausanne 2009 will be broadcast live in high quality on our website on Sunday 1st February starting at 3pm (GMT + 1)

http://www.prixdelausanne.org

Please also find a time converter here http://www.worldtimezone.com/

so you don't miss the broadcast.

What time would that be in EST? 2 American dancers(Karen Johnson and Skylar Campbell) are in the final group.A Chilean dancer who is training in Houston also made the final list.

Casting of ABT's Giselle run in Ottawa, Canada, is now up. Simone Messmer dances Myrtha on the 27th, and Maria Riccetto Giselle at the matinée on the 28th -- both debuts I believe.

David was scheduled to debut in Giselle with S Abrera last year but was cancelled due to Stella's injury. Although still scheduled to dance together in June at the Met, i hope Stella has recovered to be able to dance this debut. :beg:

Congrats to them both. I believe they are currently apprentices.

Ahh, the apprentice designation was not there yet when I saw the posting on January 8th.

And, vrsfanatic, I also checked that day to see if Isadora Loyala was still back in ABT II and saw that she still was on the 8th. So, the changes to the ABT dancers' listings were in the process of being made. I wonder if there are any more coming?

Caroline Duprot (from the Royal Ballet) and Kelley Potter(from the Boston Ballet) have been added to the list of Corp de ballet. There are also 2 new headshots of the gorgeous Thomas sisters.

Natalia,

The schedule is back with the addition of Nina A. with JM Careno in Swan lake

Is that the only promotion this season? Or will there be more as the season progresses?Part?Abrera?Seo?

Dec 27 update - Still no casting but I see that the KennCen website now shows that a pdd has been added to the mixed bills that commence the run -- either Flames of Paris (2 days) or Tchai pdd (once). Could this mean that DC will see the celebrated Mr. Simkin?

***from the KC website:

Feb. 17–19

Allegro Brillante

Choreography by George Balanchine

Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Flames of Paris, Pas de deux (Feb. 17 & 19)

Choreography from the original by Vasily Vainonen

Music by Boris Asafiev

Tschaikovsky, Pas de deux (Feb. 18 only)

Choreography by George Balanchine

Music by Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky

Brief Fling

Choreography by Twyla Tharp

Music by Michel Colombier and Percy Grainger

Pillar of Fire

Choreography by Antony Tudor

Staged by Donald Mahler

Music by Arnold Schoenberg

The casting is now in the Kennedy Center website.D Simkin and S Lane are doing the 2 Flame Of Paris PDD. G Murphy and C Stearn are doing the Premiere of Allegro Brillante and V Part/M Gomes are doing the Swan Lake opening night.

Natalia,

Very interesting. Is the large number of newcomers due to the retirement of the older corp members ? With Russian ballet companies, is there a retirement age for corp members or are they just "let go" as in American co?

I, too, felt that Tharp's tribute was too short. It was almost embarrassing, and certainly Tharp deserved more. But Marcelo and Lucia were stellar. I've never seen either one of them dance before, so this was a superb treat. He is so handsome and incredibly talented, and she is the perfect feminine counterpoint. Luciana, (to me, at least) bears a strong resemblance to a young Leslie Browne. I drank in every step with great pleasure.

She does resemble Leslie Browne. I have never seen her in a central role before but she proved to be a good partner to Marcelo. I hope this will lead to more prominent role in the future.

Edward Villella

Grant, his recent performance of the Pas from The Nutcracker was beautiful. His handsome looks were complimented by his ability to make his partner look like everything was effortless. He enabled her to go for anything knowing that he was there. He was beautiful to watch, and made his partner look even better.

When or where did Grant danced the Nutcracker PDD? Thanks.

Yannick Bittencourt danced with the ABT Studio Co(ABT 2) 2 seasons ago. Congratulations to him.

Company B

Two words: Misty Copeland!

10 more words: Misty Copeland! Misty Copeland! Misty Copeland! Misty Copeland! Misty Copeland!

Did anyone else dance? Oh yes, did they ever! There was an actual baker's dozen of dancers, hot pastries fresh from the oven: German apple strudel (Maria Ricetto and Tobin Eason), puffy popovers (Arron Scott), curvy croissants (Nicola Curry), steaming muffins (Craig Salstein with his gaggle of swooning women), bittersweet chocolate mousse (Simone Messmer and Grant DeLong), spicy hot cross buns (the Joseph! Joseph! cast), all-American brownies (Joseph Phillips) and a tangy tropical tart (Misty Copeland). Paul Taylor's rousing, lively portrayal of the devil-may-care side of World World II masking the underlayer of devastation saw its premiere in 1991, first by Houston Ballet, then by the Paul Taylor company. Like "Overgrown Path", the ballet deals with mortality, but its take on death and its inevitability is totally different. Its characters begin as innocents, knowing what war does, but in their blissful youth, refusing to believe any of it will touch them -- until it does. In their innocence, they laugh, love and flirt, play-act and have wild fun. Then bodies start dropping, creating a new reality for the revelers.

The ballet is American, the America of the Europeans who peopled its cities 75 years ago and whose sons were sent to fight for it. The jubilation begins in low light to the Yiddish "Bei Mir Bist du Schon". The entire cast of 13 make the stage sizzle with their energy. With choreography based on the swing dances of the 40s -- the lindy hop, jive, boogie-woogie -- we experience pure joy and the beauty and exuberance of the young. A spirited polka follows, a good ol' German polka. If there's anything I know something about, it's the polka, so I must say that, while very well executed by Ricetto and Eason, I can tell that neither has had extensive experience with it. Still, it was very nicely done.

"Tico-Tico", a solo for a male dancer, was performed this night by Arron Scott. An ingenious piece of choreography, the dancer isolates his upper body parts into small bits that jiggle and undulate, pop and quiver as if he were in the throes of St. Vitus Dance -- or, to be current, maybe post-traumatic stress syndrome. Scott was so good that I've got to name him as my second most memorable dancer of the evening. The second part of the solo had him doing more traditional ballet steps like jetes, but I hardly remember any of that. Daniil Simkin and, from the cast list it looks like Mikhail Ilyin, share the part with him at City Center.

Bespectacled Craig Salstein was such a hoot in "Oh Johnny....", so much so that I watched him instead of the girls, so cannot comment on any individual female dancer. The story line: a bunch of girls hopes the nerdy boy (who didn't have to go to war) chooses one of them, but he outruns, outjumps, and outsmarts them. Nicola Curry, a lovely adagio dancer, gives the heartache of "I Can Dream, Can't I" an aesthetic, wistfully sensuous interpretation. Just beautiful!

Joseph Phillips, replacing Herman Cornejo, tackled "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy", a grueling athletic endeavor. Phillips is certainly up to the choreography and physical requirements, but he needs more time with the role to work on nuance and surprise. I wanted to see something special, at least once, but, aside from the whole dance making special demands on the dancer, Joseph was not able (yet) to give it a little more oomph here and there.

And then came Misty. If ever a role was made for a dancer, "Rum and Coca-Cola" was made for Misty Copeland. Exuding sass, magnetism, and intrigue with a calypso beat, she led her admiring soldier boys into a lustful frenzy. It helps that she, of all the women, looks best in the "Company B" costume, so sexy and fresh. Misty has a springy, high jump, an expansive way of moving, and sharp, precise technique. She performed this so utterly perfectly, that I wonder whether there is anyone at ABT who can touch her or even come close.

Simone Messmer and Grant DeLong were given the tail-end duet "There Will Never Be Another You". The story behind the dance is that of a couple who must part because of the call of war, ending with the soldier joining his unit and leaving his girlfriend in an emotional heap to suffer the torment of (perhaps permanent) separation. It was extremely well danced. The maturity that Messner gives us everytime she takes the stage graced this duet in smooth synchrony with DeLong's expressive partnering. Bravo! Poignantly danced and well-acted.

The return of "Bei Mir Bist du Schon" provides a summarizing coda for the piece and returns us to the festive atmosphere which took us into the ballet. The dancers all return with their vigorous energy and we are again allowed to forget.

The whole cast wore white jazz shoes for the ballet and the women wore either long skirts or trousers. The unifying accessory was a thin red belt for everyone, males and females. It is completely possible that this is a symbol of more than the blood of war. The ballet came out during the years when the AIDS crisis was on the front burner of the news constantly. Paul Taylor was deeply affected by the loss of friends and dancers and used that raw emotion as inspiration for some of his choreography. "Company B" could well be one of those works that reflected the senseless destruction wrought by the disease. There are more layers to this prickly rose of a dance than meet the eye.

Will ABT stage a new production or just revived the old Erik Bruhn production.Hoping they will use the Kobborg staging which Natalia danced in Moscow and David Hallberg in Tokyo.

According to an ABT press release dated today, the Bolshoi's Natalia Osipova will join as a Guest Artist during the Company’s 2009 Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House.

Double ace for McKenzie.

Marc ,

"Double ace" is right! Talk about injecting some excitement.

I'm looking foward to this!

Was there an announcement of the 2009 Met program? I guess, we will see Don Q

So in addition to doing Theme and Variations with Wiles, Cory Stearns will dance Jardin aux Lilas with Kent. Interesting...

He is also in the 2nd cast of Overgrown Path and the new Stalling work. Is there a promotion looming?

I just checked ABT for casting and saw "Flames of Paris" for Oct. 28. Was that always there? I don't remember seeing it before. Maybe I just missed it. What is it replacing and why? No cast for it.

That definitely was NOT there before, and neither was Tchai Pas at the 11/1 matinee, also with casting TBA. Flames of Paris is repeated at the 11/2 matinee and I think they added a few more performances of the Tudor Romeo & Juliet pdd. The addition of Flames of Paris is intriguing - dare we hope for a Ratmansky inspired guest ballerina?.

It will probably be Daniil Simkin's introduction to ABT audience

According to Kennedy Center website, ABT is doing the company premiere of Balanchine's Allegro Brillante in Feb,2009 as part of a mix bill. I guess this will be part of an all Tchaikoysky evening that Carbro mentioned in a previous post.This will be another challenge for the ABT ballerinas.Gillian will probably be ideal in the main role . Any other ideas?

So no Danny Tidwell, for whom the Met audience went even more nuts.

So what is Danny doing now? Does anybody knows?

In the video in addition to Mrs. Natalia Makarova, Ángel and Carmen Corella we can also see Adiarys Almeida and at the end Natalia Tapia with Iain Mackay.

I also put here links to other two bits of this same recording:

http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2008/08/24/c...1219578214.html

http://www.soitu.es/soitu/2008/08/25/infov...003_834682.html

I also recognize some well known Corps members, as for instance Cristina Casa whose photos are in our reports in fotoescena.

What a exciting event!!

Hi Carolina, How did the production go? We have not read any reports from the Spanish press.

Manon is more popular and liked in Europe than in the USA. It is not as well liked as Macmillan's Romeo and Juliet.ABT and Houston Ballet has done the ballet in the past.

American critics are usually dismissive of this ballet except for the main duets of the main characters.

Ratmansky made a lot of young Bolshoi dancers happy by casting them in big roles: sounds just like what ABT's youngsters have been missing, and audiences have been asking for. And some of that new Bolshoi talent is just what ABT's fading ballerina roster needs, and not just top-of-the-world stars Osipova or Vasiliev (yes a man, but at least as great as any of ABT's vaunted stars), but so many more... I wonder if he will be willing to revive any classics, as he's done for Bolshoi?

I think I'd rather he create, but also just kind of look over Mr. McKenzie's shoulder when anything is being "revived."

Drb, you got your wish.According to the ABT website, Alexei will choreograph a new ballet, set to Prokofiev, for the Met spring season.

According to his website, Daniil has obtained his US visa and will be joining ABT's rehearsal period on Sept 29,2008.