bingham

WOW!!!! What great news.Maybe, this is the reason that the Met spring season has not been announced. It is usually mentioned in the NYT New Season section but there was no mention in last sunday's Times.

ABT's website is really out of date. I know one dancer that has had a corps contract with another company since July 1 and up until now was listed on the ABT website as a ABTII member.

Isadora Loyola was featured in a small role in Orange County a few months ago I cannot imagine she has been demoted.

Isaac Hernandez,who is joining SFB, is no longer listed in ABT2 site.

Too bad we won't be able to see her dance in NYC.

In ABT's website, S Tanatanit, A Piris nino, A Mcguigan,S Dmochowski pictures are gone. I wonder if there will be any new promotions this year?They promoted a big (for ABT) batch last year.Any ideas?

Roberto Bolle's picture is in the list of principal dancers in the ABT website.(V Malakhov is gone).Was there any announcement of his joining next season?

You are welcome, FF!

I've been perusing the Archives page (link in my post above) and the list of libraries is now HUGE! (Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find a link to the list of tapes, and another to the libraries which have copies. It's in dozens and dozens of libraries around the world. If you live near a major university, you will be able to view these tapes.

Do you have to be a dancer or dance student to be able to view these tapes?

ABT did a wonderful production of La Fille... in 2003(or 2002?) and i often wondered why they have not done it again.I remember it getting very good notices at that time .I wish they would revive it in the 2008 season at the Met. Herman and Sarah would be perfect in the main roles.

The Calendar on ABT's site now lists some casting and lots of TBAs.

This spotty first announcement is normal for ABT's City Center season. Check regularly for updates.

I don't think they have started the rehearsal period yet.It is not expected for the casting of the new revivals and production to be announced until the artistic staff has seen the dancers perform.The cast that were posted are essentially the same from the last CC season.

Just took a quick look at the casting in the Times. A lot of TBA's. I am disappointed that there is no Lane/Corneja Ballo. I say Kajiya last year and thought she was miscast. I am so glad that Thomas is being given Jardin. For me (I am not able to go on Thursdays) wanting to see Lane is a problem but I'll probably get a ticket for 11/2 to see Thomas in Jardin. Ballo is TBA for that date. It probably won't be Lane as Kajiya is the Corneja partner for that ballet.

What do you all think?

I have not seen the Times casting but ,maybe, Sarah will be partnered by D Simkin. Is he cast in any ballet?

There are new videos in you-know-where-site of Whitney and Albert Davydov dancing Harlequinade PDD during the Varna IBC.

Here are photos of the Awards Ceremony:

http://sportnitanci.com/webga/thumbnails-1903-page-4.html

I do not know Ms. Jensen personally, nor have I seen her dance, but the blonde in the blue tutu receiving a trophy from Vladimir Vasiliev looks extremely like prior photos of Ms. Jensen (and I believe she was the only blonde winner). The same dancer appears on clickable sets (as numbered at page bottom) 8, 10 (bearing the torch and setting the eternal flame), and 11.

Can anyone confirm her identity? The site tends not to ID subjects.

At the top of the page one may connect to other photos from the competition.

Varna IBC may be terrible at communication, but they sure know how to cap off an event!

I have not seen her either ,except in videos in you-know-where-site, but that blonde seems to be her. She looks very tall.I hope this won't be a problem in the ballet company that she will eventually join.

Going to Varna's site list for 2006 winners:

"SPECIAL DISTINCTION - VARNA 2006" - Diploma and Medal - IVAN VASILEV - BELARUS

This is exactly the full translation of Whitney Jensen's award this year. I find it amazing that this has not been seen as "news" (at least as findable via Google news search) in America! She is from Valentina Kozlova's school in New York City. Congratulations to her! And I hope she'll eventually get some extremely deserved publicity in her own country, or city (wake up, New York Times).

In addition to the above-mentioned award, she was also awarded a"bronze statuette for her performance in the classical repertoire".

What’s missing: principal dancers Corella, Carreno, Dvorovenko and Beloserkovsky.

I had forgotten that Danil Simkin (not sure about the spelling) will be joining ABT in Oct as a soloist. Though I will miss the above dancers, I'm looking forward to seeing Simkin. I've only seen him once, and he was VERY impressive.

Yes, he is impressive but what is he going to dance?Aside from Company C, i could not think of anything else that Kevin would let him to dnace in his 1st ABT season. Anybody ?

The 2008 Varna ballet competition has started this week. Anyone knows of American contestants in the competition? Natalia?

I attended the Wednesday matinee of “Giselle”. I have a Saturday matinee subscription (two subscriptions actually), but I switched to the Wednesday matinee so I could see Abrera and Hallberg. I saw them dance in “Les Slyphides” at City Center about three years ago, and thought Stella and David would be wonderful as the leads in “Giselle”. Unfortunately, that was not to be. For a while, it looked like I was going to see Dvorovenko as “Giselle”. I’ve never seen Irina as “Giselle”, but I don’t think it would be a good part for her. (Anyone attending the Saturday matinee, please post and let me know how Irina and Max did in “Giselle”.) I don’t think Irina has the innocent quality Giselle needs, but I could be wrong. And Paloma Herrera (who I saw dance “Giselle” in 2006) was one of the worst “Giselles” I ever saw. Her dancing, her acting, everything was really off. (Gomes, however, was fantastic as Albrecht.)

So I was very happy to see Cornejo and Reyes as Albrecht and Giselle. Thursday night’s “Giselle” must have been out of this world, because I really loved their performances on Wednesday afternoon. I saw Xiomara dance “Giselle” in 2005 (with Corella), and as good as she was then, she was even better at Wednesday’s matinee. Her Giselle was so young and so in love with Albrecht. Her mad scene was absolutely heart breaking. And in Act II her lightness and incredibly fast footwork was just perfect.

Herman’s Albrecht broke my heart even more than Xiomara’s Giselle. I think his Albrecht loved Giselle from the very beginning. He seemed even younger than Giselle. I got the impression Albrecht pushed his real life way to the background, and didn’t even think about it or his fiancée when he was with Giselle. In Act II Herman was the most devastated Albrecht I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen “Giselle” close to 30 times). I started crying as soon as he appeared in Act II, carrying flowers to Giselle’s grave. I don’t always cry when I see “Giselle”. I think, for me, it has to do with the power of Albrecht’s performance and the chemistry between Albrecht and Giselle. In 2006 I saw Vishneva and Corella in “Giselle”. I thought both danced beautifully, but for me there was no chemistry between them. So I didn’t cry. But on Wednesday afternoon, I wept bucketfuls. Both performances were so real and so moving I feel sad thinking about the Reyes/Cornejo “Giselle” even now.

Other performers stood out too. I definitely agree with all the posters who have commented on Isaac Stappas’ incredible performance as Hilarion. And I always love seeing Susan Jones as Berthe. She was like a real mother, not a corps member made up to look older. Her relationship with Reyes’ Giselle was very close and loving. Gillian Murphy was the best Myrta I’ve ever seen, and other posters have described it better than I ever good. (I don’t think Gillian would be a good Giselle however. I hope she never dances the part. She’s just too powerful, too strong. I remember my disappointment years ago seeing Cynthia Gregory dance Giselle. She was just too strong for the part. I didn’t believe for a minute she had a heart condition. Did Gregory ever dance Myrtha? I think she would have been outstanding in the part. Lastly, Sarah Lane and especially

Mikhail Ilyin were wonderful in the peasant pas de deux. What an exciting dancer Ilyin is! And after seeing him as Birbanto in “Le Corsaire” and the lead peasant dancer in “The Merry Widow’, it was the first time I got to see what Mikhail really looks like.

Colleen, if you thought Cynthia was too strong as Giselle, you should have seen Martine Van Hamel danced it for one performance with C Tippet in late 70's(or early 80's).Imust add that her 2nd act was beautiful. Clark was such a strong partner that he helped a lot in giving the illusion of lightness. Cynthia did Myrtha a few times.

Nina I vs. Nina II

Act I was overall better on Monday, however, Act II was slightly better last night.

I found Nina's acting more calculated and theatrical in Act I last night while missing some of the touches she did on Monday. For example, missing last night was the hollow, haunted stare Nina did as Berthe mimed the Wili tale. There was a touch more mischievous playfulness with Angel and greater spontaneity. However, José's taller build and maturity matched up better with Nina - with him she didn't need to work so hard at the girlishness. As for the truncated hops on pointe in the Spessivtseva solo, they were stunning until she lost momentum and the inserted pirouette was impressive. The mad scene may have been even better. Overall, still wonderful.

Act II started off strongly with Murphy's sovereign Myrtha. Totally agree with above posters re: the Giselle's initial spinning after her resurrection - much faster and the jetés were so high! Much better also was the exposed solo opening to the grand pas de deux with the ecartés to each side - much smoother and more balanced. José has some nice individual touches. On the overhead lifts he is able to rotate Giselle making her seem to levitate in a circle in the air. Angel just held Nina aloft. José also tossed in some of his "speed-up/slow-down" pirouettes and the brisés were good if less light and quick than Angel's. Oddly in their exit before the coda, Nina sailed through a high jump offstage but José didn't jump, he just ran after her. Spur of the moment choice or sparing himself after an earlier injury a few weeks ago? He looked fine elsewhere.

Also, José did more business with the lilies than either Angel or Ethan. In the first entrance one of the lilies fell on the floor - ever the pro he worked the moment - he stooped on one knee and picked up the fallen lily and pressed it tenderly to his cheek. I forgave him right there. At the final curtain, earlier in the week Angel and Ethan dropped the bouquet on the grave and walked downstage broken-hearted. José following the grand Russian drama queen tradition currently exemplified by Vladimir Malakhov, did the clutching the lilies to his chest, stagger backwards in a daze letting the lilies slowly drop the ground one by one and finally crumple to his knees in tears. YES! Give me the drama my Cuban guapo!!!

Lots of flowers again at the curtain but no confetti shower. Nina and José both caught flying bouquets from the audience to the audience's and their own delight.

The City Center schedule is up on the ABT website calendar. It includes an addition of a new work by Lauri Stallings on those nights that include Baker's Dozen. They term it a new work, so I guess we can assume it's not going to be a ballet. Her latest work for the Atlanta Ballet was to rapper Boi something or other music. Lord, please don't test me with something like that.

Thursday: Xiomara Reyes, Herman Cornejo

Wow!

Carbro, please give us more details

If he donated the same amount to fund more rehearsal time,hire better choreographers-stagers,coaches and designers, i would not be too upset if they renamed ABT to Koch Ballet Theatre.

Everybody had already described the exquisite,very moving Giselle of Nina and Angel last Monday night . I just want to add how exciting the Brises that Angel did near the end of 2nd act and the supported hops that Nina did near the end of the same act.I thought they were as good as i remember Natalia and Misha dancing many years ago.

Kudos to ZJ Fang for her beautiful Zulma.I hope this improves her promotion chances.

This is a very curious announcement. Will ABT not perform at City Center in the fall of 2009? Contract up or something? Avery Fisher is a strange theater to perform a "visual" art. The seats are not as raked as they should be for everybody to see the dancer's feet. The stage is not very deep. The balcony seats are very far away from the stage. There's no pit. If ABT can't perform at City Center for its Fall season, maybe it would be better to perform at BAM or even Juilliard's theater space. I hope we find out the explanation for this, maybe in the NY Times.

In the Times article, it mentioned that CC will be closed for the delayed renovation during 2009.It also mentioned that ABT will have a 3 week fall season in 2008. Could this be a typo error or is ABT extending thier 2008 fall season?

For those of us in ABT's touring cities, we have something to look forward to in the coming season. According to the membership office, Giselle will be the 2008-09 touring production for Miami and, I assume, elsewhere.

Bart, maybe you will see first the much-awaited but postponed joint debut of Stella and David in Giselle

In the latest Playbill ,Christine Shevchenko, Devon Teuscher, Katherine Williams and Roddy Doble are now listed as member of the corp. Congratulations to all of them.

I don't remember any recent season where so many members of the corp get important soloist roles and making the most of the opportunity given to them( esp Melissa Thomas and Leanne Underwood in thier 3rd Shade debuts.)May Kevin continue this new policy.

How about Aurelie Dupont and a younger teri hatcher?

My guess is that the Balanchine Police caught up with it and removed it.

I just checked the brightcovetv site and i could not find it either.I googled"joseph phillips dancing ballet" and the video appeared at the brightcove site again.

Why would the "BP" removed it? It seems like an official recording from the NCSA.