Helene

The first time I saw her was after she came back from maternity leave; she would have been in her late 30's at the time. Although I think her child was adopted, and that she wasn't returning after childbirth, her speed astonished me, and she left some of the younger dancers, who were barely alive when she was made principal dancer, in the dust. Lincoln Kirstein credited her with saving the company. Joseph Mazo, in "Dance as a Contact Sport", described her extraordinary energy and stamina, letting out a little whoosh of breath backstage after an enormously difficult variation, and heading back out again, while her fellow dancers were doubled over, completely out of breath. I always thought she was very true to herself as a dancer. Not that PATRICIA MCBRIDE came before the choreography, but that her dance essential qualities -- speed, joy in movement, and grace -- were always present, regardless of the work.

That is the finest tribute to him that I've heard or read.

I know that Walter Cronkite was not in the arts, but he was too important a figure for his death on Friday to go un-noted. From the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...mp;hpid=topnews http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...id=opinionsbox1 From The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/us/18cro...tml?_r=1&hp http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/arts/tel...praisal.html?hp Rest in peace, Mr. Cronkite.

I don't get to see SFB that often, but when I have, his dancing has been wonderful. I will miss him, but I wish him luck in the next phase of his career

I saw her live once, in "The Leaves Are Fading", but she was a shadow of herself then, compared to this. My favorite parts of this clip are the first 1:50 and the last 1:30. The mime at the beginning and end is so intense from both, and mime is the only place, apart from the solo, that Dowell registers to me, apart from the short snippet where he's on the floor after the lift and is emoting to her. In the solo, to me he only shows up the lack of imagination in the choreography; a less academic approach -- although it was very beautiful -- is the only thing that pushes through it. (It's clear that Dowell would be amazing in a version that had serious choreography.) Apart from that, Kirkland steals the entire show. I couldn't keep my eyes off her, except when the camera didn't oblige.

Frank Hobi was Ruthana Boris' husband.

Until there is official information -- interview, dancer's blog or website, newspaper or magazine article, etc. -- we won't know the breakdown.

Many thanks for the news, and I hope I can make it to the US performances. Re: the signature line, which is a quote from a very wise person on the Opera-L discussion group, it is an aspiration. The first and probably biggest step is to know that there is a difference.

Le festival d'ete de Quebec opened last Thursday, and as part of it, Jordi Savall and his Le Concert des Nations performed at the Palais Montcalm. The program was called "Tastes of the Musical Galant form Lully to Boccherini", with music by Lully, Biber, Corelli -- the concerto Balanchine used in "Square Dance" -- Avison, Rodriguez de Hita, and Boccherini. This concert sounded so much better than even the wonderful one in Berkeley, which was in a church with no sound-proofing whatsover and rather weak acoustics in general. The wood-lined Raoul Jobin Hall in Palais Montcalm is not only gorgeous, but its acoustics are very live. It is very sound-proof: Palais Montcalm is next to Scene Metro in Place d'Youville, one of the three main festival stages, and as we left the building, we heard the very amplified Mexican singer Lila Downs and her band. Each of the pieces was rich and strong, using multiple techniques. (In the Boccherini, the cellists strummed their instruments like guitars.) Mr. Savall spoke in beautiful French to the audience. If I got the gist of it correctly, the first encore was a traditional French dance song played at weddings and celebrations, and the second was dance music from an opera, but he turned his head when he said its name, and I missed it. For their final encore, they repeated a movement of the Corelli, and "Square Dance" was once again playing in my head. Starting with the Corelli, the strings were split into three, with the high strings split in two and the cellist, viola da gamba, and bass in the middle. Enrico Onofri was phenomenal on the violin concertino. It's rare to hear that much passion and pathos in most string playing in this period; he played it as if he were singing.

Thank you so much for your review of Corella Ballet, sunday! I hope to return to Spain and to see the company someday.

Rest in peace Mr. Goding.

Here's the link: http://www.artsjournal.com/foot/2009/07/go...nd_gillian.html

I'm thrilled that it was Part.

Apollinaire Scherr reviewed the Murphy and Hallberg for her blog "foot in mouth": It sounds like quite a cast. I wish I'd been able to see Murphy live when I was in NYC a couple of weeks ago, but "La Sylphide" isn't her rep.

Many thanks, Agnes Y!

In today's Links was a review by Robert Gottlieb, and at the end of it he praised Messmer with glowing words: http://www.observer.com/2009/theater/meet-...natalia-osipova (This may have been the most un-snarky review I've ever read by him...)

Any word about whether this will eventually be a DVD?

You have so many that when a DVD is re-released with new cover art, it would take you too long to see if you actually have it before you order it

4mrdncr, you are killing me!

perky!

I know this isn't in the spirit of this thread, but I what comes to mind immediately is Arlene Croce's comment in a review that "If Giselle herself called up Jaffee during the Mad Scene, she'd get a busy signal." (Of course, that was back in the day when busy signals existed.)

That is perfect!

I'm currently in the middle of Michael Pollen's "In Defense of Food". I'd just finished Paul Tough's book on Geoffrey Canada, "Whatever It Takes", and Sarah Vowell's "Assassination Vacation". (I love my Kindle.)

In doing some Google searches on the dancers who are not on the roster, I found that Courtney Clarkson received her degree from St. Mary's College of California this year. http://www.linkedin.com/pub/courtney-clarkson/4/891/b5a

That is great news about Hernandez!