drb

A detailed synopsis of Kudelka's very contemporary Cinderella is given toward the bottom of http://www.nac-cna.ca/en/nacnews/viewnews.cfm?ID=901 Some bits: Act 1 Not so very long ago, in a suburb of a rich and fashionable capital city, a young orphaned woman called Cinderella lived with her Stepmother and two ambitious Stepsisters... Act 2 In the palace, the Prince was very uncomfortable. He was depressed by the chic young women vying for his attention, seeking fame and riches. He felt like a complete outsider even at his own party....As the clock struck twelve, the courtiers underwent a horrible transformation into Pumpkin-heads, attacking the terrified Cinderella... Act 3 ...They had a fairly fashionable afternoon wedding but then, instead of a lavish honeymoon abroad, the Prince and Cinderella did what each of them would love best for the rest of their lives: they retired quietly to the garden, where they would always find peace and love in making their garden grow.

September's ABT Footnotes casually mentions that ABT will premiere James Kudelka's Cinderella at its 2006 Spring Season at the Met. This is reported in its Guggenheim "Works and Process Series" (Guggenheim box office for tickets 212-423-3587) listings: "May 14 and 15 ABT and James Kudelka, featuring excerpts from the new production of Cinderella, which premieres during the 2006 Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House." I assume that this is the NBC production favorably reviewed on this site: http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=16816 I also note that the Boston Ballet will give 11 (!) performances of this work in October. I remember that ABT's old production instantly made my DO NOT SEE list, so look forward to what would seem to be a major upgrade.

Here are five fairly large photos of Lopatkina as Nikaya. Two appended photos are of Lunkina in DQ. Click on each to make large. http://www.bolshoi.net/photos/brajnikov/page-lopatkina.htm

Ashley--as in greatest dancer whose first name isn't Alina--Bouder!!! Bring on January, NYCB!

Thank YOU, NYSusan, for the memories! Regarding Ms. Gregory's show, I made the same mistake as you, but without the happy spousal denouement! "Big Cyn" was my first American favourite, as my conversion from the Grateful Dead et al to ballet was beginning! Then I discovered vulnerablity, Natasha, Gelsey.... But there is something to say for the Larger-Than-Life stars like Gregory and Nureyev. By the way, I recall when sitting next to her at a performance at the Met, that she was (compared to "normals") a wisp of a woman, I doubt she was as large as, say, Michele W or Maria K. Rudy was pretty small too, surely many of ABT's current men are taller. But they both filled the Met's stage, making it seem as humanly hospitable as City Center's was for most other dancers. Who are today's Larger-Than-Lifers? Probably Sylvie Guillem, perhaps Carlos Acosta? La Sylve also seems to have some of this quality.

While yet another year passes without awareness of City Ballet's superstar Ashley Bouder, Costas again delivers some fine photographs of the company. The price is right, if you click Amazon above. The photos: Jan: Somogyi, Orza, Suozzi in Tchaikovsky PC2 Feb: Whelan, Martins in the Michaelangelo pose from Apollo March: Corps in Raymonda Variations Apr: De Luz in Tarantella May: De Luz/Edge, Borree/Hubbe in Harlequinade (no offence, but should have been Ansanelli in her all-time great performance) June: Kistler, Martins in Duo Concertante July: Whelan, Askegard in Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet Aug: Rutherford, aloft in La Valse Sep: Hubbe in Donizetti Variations Oct: La Sylve, Evans in Ivesiana Nov: Woetzle in Prodigal Son Dec: The Company in Nutcracker

Here is an interview with Alihaydee Carreno and Rolando Sarabia from December, 2003, regarding their performance of Romeo and Juliet. Four photos. Between the last two photos he discusses how working with her has helped him mature as an artist. http://www.lajiribilla.cu/2003/n137_12/137_15.html

The New York Times (31 August 2005) has an article on "The Cuban Nijinsky", Mr. Sarabia: http://nytimes.com/2005/08/31/arts/dance/31danc.html In part: Officials at the Boston Ballet said they still hoped to hire Rolando Sarabia as a principal dancer. "He still has some working documents to sort out before we can offer him a contract, but we certainly would expect to," said Valerie Wilder, the company's executive director. "I'm glad he's here now and we can look forward to having him here on the stage in Boston."

Osipova in flight: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v629/div...xot/Osipova.jpg

Here is an appreciation of Ms. Gregory from Dick Andros, a NYC ballet teacher from whom she took class: "Can you imagine how nervous I was when she took my class the first time? What saved me was the thought I could only be me and if she didn't like it she could leave. I had to wait to see if she would return. Cynthia has taken my class many times since, and I am always in awe of her. She never changes the combination that is given, nor does she ever look down her nose at what is given or said. In my dictionary, Cynthia would be the definition of ballerina." The full article: http://michaelminn.net/andros/biographies/...ory_cynthia.htm

ABT's site has finally posted some casting. Still lots of gaps. http://abt.org/performances/default.asp Click "view full calendar"

When I was a "beginner", in the early 70s, Cynthia was The Star at ABT. Her Swan Lake was on a grander scale, with a very dramatic, glamorous, erotic Odile. And she did the 32's (not at all exceptional by today's standards, but special then, when many ballerinas stopped at 16 or 24...or none). She loved to show off her long balances (not always steady, but long and cheers-inducing). Of course, along came lyrical Natasha Makarova, with her "double-jointed" body and wings--wings that were real, and extended from the middle of her back to beyond her fingertips. And from then on Odette-with-a-Russian-Soul defined Swan Lake. Still, the Gregory/Kivitt partnership had a long and popular run. Nureyev admired her, and the Bolshoi, it was said, offered her a contract, but she chose to take a year off to be a housewife in California instead (more details may be found in Gelsey Kirkland's autobiography). Lucia Chase often programmed Grand Pas Classique for her--it was a sure-fire ticket seller--and I saw the performance with the cigarette. Her recent GPC's had become more-and-more flippant, and I gather that this was her chosen way out of the role. In fact, Lucia never "let" her perform it again. An authentic big star, but greatest American ballerina? There was Suzanne Farrell across the court at Lincoln Center....

The Bolshoi site seems to be reworking some of its English right now. But from the summer Met program Natalia was listed as corps (as Marc said re the Russian list), the fifth ( lowest) category. She was a standout in the first variation of Act 3 Grand Pas in Don Q, and as a shephardess in Spartacus. Not to worry, though, as she was still a student in September 2003, when she was the sensation of the La Scala Gala. There, she was considered moving in a modern piece and spectacular (if "too gymnastic") in a solo from Esmeralda. One of the photos above does exhibit a rather high extension... .

Here are some photos of the young Bolshoi dancer who was so impressive in Don Q and Spartacus at the Bolshoi's Met season this summer: http://www.mmv.ru/p/ballet/2005/osipova.html and http://www.bolshoi.ru/ru/theatre/ballet_tr...6=info&id26=269

A photo of Carlos Acosta from the film: http://www.miamifilmfestival.com/miff_scan.../dance_cuba.jpg

The photo can be seen here: http://www.sfballet.org/subscriptions/index.aspx

Two more of Marc's beautiful photos of Evgenia as Juliet accompany his review of the ballet in danceviewtimes. Thanks! http://www.danceviewtimes.com/2005/Summer/06/kirovrj.htm

Quoting Joan Acocella in the New Yorker: "That Ratmansky revived this piece and memorialized its luckless creators would be almost enough: an act of justice. That the ballet, in addition, is so very good makes it something like a miracle, and a beacon." The full article may be found, courtesy of Ballet Talk's Links: http://www.newyorker.com/critics/dancing/?050822crda_dancing She also seemed impressed by some of Ballet Talk's favorites from the Met run: "Apart from Alexandrova, however, the supreme pleasure of the season was the junior dancers: among them Ekaterina Shipulina, Natalia Osipova, Andrey Bolotin, and Gennady Yanin. One after another, they scooped the music out of the air and turned it into riveting, this-is-my-moment dancing. They will be the company's next stars."

1. Symphony in Three Movements (Balanchine/Stravinsky), Finale 2. Giselle, Act 2, criss-crossing hopping wilis 3. Union Jack "God Save the Queen" 4. Jardin Anime 5. Swan Lake, Act 4, Sorrow

One ballet is common to every (enumerated) list so far, "Sleeping Beauty." And only a couple of times is it the same variation! Maybe it is not such a bad ballet after all!

Rolando Sarabia, 24, First Principal of the National Ballet of Cuba is reported by IBLNEWS to have defected and is now in Boston. http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=e...%3Doff%26sa%3DN

1. Preghiera, Mozartiana, Suzanne Farrell 2. Odette's "I'm a swan again" exit, Act 2 Swan Lake, Natalia Makarova 3. Aurora, the Vision Scene from Sleeping Beauty, Ashley Bouder 4. Entrance to the Ball, Ashton's Cendrillon, Alina Cojocaru 5. Giselle's Act 2, as performed as one continuous variation by Amanda McKerrow edited to reflect Hans's point that a variation is a solo

Many of her fans were unhappy about her underuse at ABT, in such contrast to her early years at NYCB. Here, in the announcement of her promotion to soloist at NYCB in 1997, we can see how active she once was. One year later came her promotion to Principal. "Monique Meunier, 24, who is half-Cuban and half-Ecuadorian, was born in Los Angeles, California. In 1988, Ms. Meunier entered SAB, and in January of 1990 she was asked to join the Company as a member of the corps de ballet. Since joining New York City Ballet, Ms. Meunier has danced featured roles in George Balanchine's AGON, APOLLO, BOURREE FANTASQUE, BRAHMS-SCHOENBERG QUARTET (4th Movement), COPPELIA, HARLEQUINADE, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, THE NUTCRACKER ("Sugarplum Fairy", "Dewdrop", "Arabian", and "Hot Chocolate"), RAYMONDA VARIATIONS, STARS AND STRIPES, STRAVINSKY VIOLIN CONCERTO, TSCHAIKOVSKY PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2, WESTERN SYMPHONY and WHO CARES?; in Jerome Robbins' FANFARE and GLASS PIECES; in Peter Martins' THE SLEEPING BEAUTY ("Lilac Fairy"); in Richard Tanner's ANCIENT AIRS AND DANCES and SCHOENBERG/WUORINEN VARIATIONS, and in William Forsythe's BEHIND THE CHINA DOGS and HERMAN SCHMERMAN, and in Christopher Wheeldon's SLAVONIC DANCES." If her omission from the current ABT roster was not just a slip of the pixle, let us hope she finds a dancing home that will enable her to fulfill her awesome potential.

It seems from a 1999 Dance Magazine article that his"discovery" was widely publicised. The article gives details of his association with Sir Fred and Pierre Lacotte. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_..._73/ai_53663447 Respect, Mr. Bell.

If you click on Requires Real Player, they'll give it to you for free. I guess you mean the second photo, the "a la Sylvie" position.