Helene

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I had just been thinking that we should move this thread to the ballet forum, but I didn't know he had been with Ballet Theatre. Thank you for the information.

Oh, PeggyR, : and For a moment I thought I was still on Figure Skating Universe, reading reviews of the Ladies' Free Skate from the European and US Championships When I read the cast lists for this run, I was bummed that I would not be able to see Maria Kochetkova with either Karapetyan or Nedvigin, and from your description, I was right to be, but now I'm even more bummed that I won't be able to see Damien Smith, either.

Michael Fabiano has been having a very successful early career so far, and from what I've heard of snippets online, his performances in the film were representative. Ryan Smith got some wonderful reviews after the competition during the year before he died. Alek Shrader, who to me sounded like he had terrific underlying technique, has been taking it slow and steady. He was featured briefly on a SFB promotional video that was published to YouTube for an abridged, family performance of "Elixir of Love" (in English), and his voice sounds stronger and more bright. Angela Meade made a rave debut at the Met in "Don Giovanni" as a last-minute replacement last season. She is the one who fascinated me most, because she sounded so old-fashioned in the best way. I wasn't surprised when she mentioned Callas and Caballe as her idols, and she seemed to be striving for bel canto quality. Thanks to a poster on Opera-L, here is a link to Jamie Barton's debut recital at Carnegie Hall on 5 March. What a brilliant selection of material. I'm still puzzled by one of the judge's comments that Kiera Duffy's voice sounded like it belonged in European houses. Maybe she would have been just as inaudible as half the cast in the Handel I saw at the barn on the Dallas fairgrounds, but I know someone who saw the competition live, and said she was quite audible with good tone.

I haven't read this in a long time, and someone more familiar with the story may have more (and/or more correct details), but in Suzanne Farrell's memoir "Holding on to the Air", she describes being taken, maybe by Balanchine, to a burlesque or cabaret performance. She watched one performer who looked down -- her description might have been that she looked "bored" -- until she raised her eyes. Farrell said that she stored that one to use sometime for herself. I think it was in "Union Jack" that she did: in the first section, she used to lead her regiment eyes down, until she got downstage and lifted them, to great effect.

Tickets are now on sale -- I just bought mine: http://www.vancouver2010.com/more-2010-inf...t_131938XN.html

Among his many roles in a long career, James Mitchell played the choreographer Michael in "The Turning Point". Rest in peace, Mr. Mitchell.

Interesting. The Powers That Be have regularly allowed Francia Russell to stage the versions of many ballets that she danced and/or learned from Balanchine, and I've seen at least four authorized productions of the full version of "Apollo". After seeing the full-length version, the shortened one seems so wrong.

Marcie Sillman, who has done many dance pieces for KUOW-FM in Seattle, reviewed Whim W'him for Artdish:

There is a MacDonald's in downtown Seattle that blasted country music out into the street for the same reason. The guys at the Harvard Coop record department used to change the happy baroque music or romantic symphonies every night 15 minutes before closing to Bartok string quartets, George Crumb, or Schoenberg to clear out the people who would have thumbed through the records indefinitely. It worked like a charm.

I'm in Tallinn. The judging so far has been horrific. Savchenko/Szolkowy were by far the best of the night, with Kawaguti/Smirnov having mistakes on the twist (crash on the set-down) and lift (she was out of balance on the landing), yet they are only .2 in front. At the same time, in the Tango Romantica Compulsory Dance, Domnina/Shabalin, who skated slowly, and with very little knee-bend between them, are five points ahead of their nearest competitor. Part of me doesn't want to go back to the rink today.

According to Miami City Ballet blog, Amanda Weingarten has been promoted to soloist at Miami City Ballet. There's an interview with Weingarten about the promotion at the link. Congratulations to Ms. Weingarten.

Thank you, Juliet. I just changed the title.

George Jellinek, former music director of WQXR and host of "The Vocal Scene", has died at age 90. http://www.wqxr.org/articles/wqxr-news/201...llinek-90-dies/ Mr. Jellinek was responsible for my music education. For decades I listened to his weekly show, when he played rare recordings of artists who were no longer available commercially -- hard to believe in this day of reissues to DVDs -- in musical essay form. Almost every one of my favorite singers I heard exclusively through him until relatively recently. Janet Malcolm wrote this article in 2004 on him and the last broadcast. Rest in peace, Mr. Jellinek, and condolences to your family, immediate and cultural.

That's a fascinating approach, and it's great to hear how well he sounded, since it's likely to be issued on DVD and around for a long, long time, given the popularity of the broadcast and the opera. Word. Case in point: "The Audition". Sadly, too late for me

Michael Upchurch gave the opening a rave review in The Seattle Times. Seeing him write, makes me sorry I censored myself from posting, "If you can't buy a ticket, mug someone for theirs." He concludes: In her preview for Seattle Times, Sandra Kurtz wrote: There were times when I thought I could feel a touch of the spirit of Mark Morris in the room, not just for the humor, but for the way in which the dancers, when in groups, looked like a real, interdependent community, and the hand dance, the kind of beautifully focused section that spun itself into continuing revelation.

(Shuuuuuushhhhhh)

I saw it in Seattle with Dance Theatre of Harlem, and it was wild. Jackson describes it perfectly: "The god's daemon seemed to speak through him. "

Thank you for the review, PeggyR! Wow, if there's an HD to DVD candidate, this "Carmen" is one of them. It's a bad break for Kwiecien to have been ill. Teddy Tahu Rhodes is a fine singer who's spent years trying to live down a beefcake image. (Directors routinely figured out ways to have him go shirtless on stage.) It's too bad he looked hesitant -- did he even have a stage rehearsal before going on? -- because he's known as a convincing actor.

This topic is dangerous turf, especially for current dancers, since there is a lot of pressure worldwide for thinness, sometimes extreme and unhealthy thinness. While dancers who aren't "stickarinas" might appreciate the appreciation, it's a double-edged sword, and being on this list won't necessarily be perceived as the compliment that is meant. I'm going to close the thread.

All performances are sold out, according to the Whim W'him Facebook page, but I saw the dress rehearsal tonight, with the props, costumes, and lighting and all three pieces look great. What's really remarkable that except for a couple of water bottles in the blocking rehearsal I saw last week, the choreography for "3Seasons" was just as clear without the props as with them. (With them was richer, but there wasn't anything obviously missing without them.) "X stasis" looks just as fine close up in the space at On the Boards as it did on the McCaw Hall stage when it was danced in the Choreographer's workshop. All four seasons of "3Seasons" are danced, three to the Vivaldi score and one to an original score by Byron Au Yong, played by an ensemble of cello, violin, drums, and very small (toddler?) piano. The dancers know only before the piece begins which movement they will dance to the Au Yong score, and it's not announced. Tonight, the third part was by Au Yong, and in the center of two sections that sounded a bit like social dance music was a section that resembled a George Crumb sound scape. The choreography fit the score really well, however different it was from the Vivaldi. In "FRAGMENTS", which I had never seen before, there are two remarkable solos. In his preview for The Seattle Times, Michael Upchurch wrote, The male solo, to Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus", quoted by Tchaikovsky and used as the opening movement of Balanchine's "Mozartiana", was beautifully danced tonight, but Wevers' demonstrating it must be extraordinary. There is so much beautiful detail for arms and hands in "3Seasons" and lovely work for the ensemble. In all three works, Wevers explores many kinds of relationships with depth. The only way I can describe the experience of watching it is that it's like being in Finland, taking a cold shower, then a sauna, then a run through the snow and a jump into an ice bath, then getting raked and beaten on the back with birch branches, then soaking in a tub, and then having a massage. Each one is so different, but the key is getting them all in a row, as one experience.

Ben Huys was a beautiful, elegant dancer. I wish I had seen his Apollo.

Thank you, Quiggin! I had forgotten Eglevsky. Ib Andersen cast Astrit Zejnati, a medium-haired and height dancer in Phoenix two productions ago, and a brilliant young, slender dark-haired dancer, Roman Zavarov, last season. I loved both interpretations, both quite different from each other.

In my favorite of Rohmer's, "Boyfriends and Girlfriends", the smart guy is allowed an occasional logical cutting remark, while the women are allowed the occasional emotional burp. I always feel I'm being let in to see a peep world I didn't think existed, and that peep is enough.

Apollo was created for Serge Lifar. Lew Christensen was the earliest American dancer to make an impact, followed by d'Amboise and Villella, and then by Martins in an American company at NYCB. (I much preferred Andersen.) Those are five very, very different dancers. The idea that Apollo can only be a blond classical statue is a bit recent and in my opinion, limiting and myopic.