Helene

It's hard to imagine that Kaufman has been watching ongoing performances of Balanchine by San Francisco Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Ballet Arizona when she writes: That's not to say I haven't seen emotionally inscrutable performances by Natalia Magnicaballi at BA or Batkhurel Bold at PNB, for example, but time after time, I've seen anything but skinny, emotionally guarded dancers. (They are fast, though.) And I'll take the naked stage over Tony Walton's sets for SFB's "Jewels" any day of the week. When she wrote I doubt she had seen Ginger Smith and Astrit Zejnati or Tzu-Chia Huang and Ross Clarke in the Kay Mazzo/Peter Martins roles in one of Balanchine's most abstract creations, "Stravinsky Violin Concerto", in which each couple painted a strikingly different portrait of a relationship through choices in phrasing and dynamics in complete service to the score. The audience met the end of Aria II by the first couple with an intense silence and by the second with audible sighs. I doubt the ache of real life escaped anyone. These are not isolated examples that I've seen in the last decade.

As an infrequent visitor I didn't have a sense of VanderStoep, a relative newcomer to the company, until, ironically, "La Valse", but Wojtowicz showed that she was most capable of principal roles with her splendid Polyhymnia. Clarke, who did get many more opportunities, was giving richer and deeper performances with every program. He's too young to retire! He did look so happy, though, didn't he? My original seat was in the second row of the back section, but in the middle, so that when the entire row in front of me filled with short ladies except for single tall man with big hair who sat directly in front of me, it was only a decade of Feldenkrais that allowed me to make the micro-movements to see anything around his head for the Stravinsky without blocking the people behind me. I retreated to the back row for the rest of the program, and although I thought I recognized the woman who handed Clarke his bouquet as Elizabeth Conway, and Clarke as Clarke, it was such a shock, I wasn't absolutely sure. Thank you for posting the ID.

There were two ceremonial bouquets at the end of today's performance, the season ender: Karen Wojtowicz, who gave a superb performance as Polyhymnia in "Apollo", and Ross Clarke. It's a good thing we don't have an animated weeping icon, because I'd use up all of the board's bandwidth with it x 1000000000.

I hope people see this and comment. I was on a plane when this was shown on the West Coast today (starts mid-morning here), and I'm going to be on another plane during the US re-broadcast and unable to be in Canada for the Canadian one I love Lawrence Brownlee -- he's one of my favorite singers on stage today -- and I would have loved to hear Elina Garanca. I was hoping when these started that they'd release a lot more DVD's than they have, and the best stuff, maybe apart from the "Eugene Onegin", is still in the vault. I'm not counting on a release of this one.

Thank you for the heads up, sandik! (Waaaaah!!!! I'm going to be out-of-town....)

At least these dancers have the consolation that the "history" he's so glad to get rid of is also classical ballet, which they represent.

I'm hoping for three Juliets, especially since it's the beginning of the season, and I hope there's an understudy. I think Rachel Foster would be terrific; I'd also love to see a tall Juliet. Young teenage girls are often taller than the boys.

Many thanks, jllaney! I don't think ballet companies will have a problem, as long as they stay away from ballerinas with slightly olive-tinted tan hair, worn loose.

I've never been sure whether the "t" was pronounced, so I've never said it out loud. But I suppose I have no excuse, with the Internet so close and all

Moderator Note: At the request of several members, I've split this off from the original thread (concerning the Merce Cunningham Company). It deserves a discussion of its own. Bart Another senior person really sticks his foot in it, although this time it is Orlando Ballet Artistic Director Robert Hill: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-story-1...0,2938084.story

Here's the notice we received: It's an online auction at eBay, and bidding closes Saturday. The shoes are listed under "Autographed Prima Ballerina Ballet Slippers" on Page 2, just under Jennifer Love-Hewitt's Autographed Shoes.

The Met is in the processing of re-engineering the older broadcasts before they release them for Sirius radio, and I assume for the Met Player as well. Just the other day they released a Sutherland/Horne "Norma" from the early '70's. It's taking them a while, but many more will make it into the library. If I'm at home, and the radio is on, it's Sirius Met Opera Radio 80% of the time, especially when the broadcasts are playing. I switch around during the aria/song/solo music that plays between broadcasts, since Sirius is a set schedule, not on demand. And every time they resurrect the Sills/Verrett "Siege of Corinth". The only thing I find hard to get used to is that except for live broadcasts, it's straight through: although they have a set of behind-the-scenes interviews, which I hate to miss, usually the most you get between operas is a Sirius plug. (Right now they have opera singers say "You are listening to Met Opera Radio Sirius" in their native language, introduce themselves, and then say it in English.) As soon as one act is over, Margaret Juntwait is giving the synopsis of another. There are no fridge or bio breaks, except between operas! That makes "on demand" that much better: put it on hold, grab a sammy, and then continue. I'm just waiting for them to stream to iPhone. Then I'll be an even happier camper. The saddest thing about the Sirius/XM merger is the loss of Vox, the 24/7 vocal channel on XM whose music director was Robert Aubry Smith. XM had broadcasts from other companies, which are probably available over the internet on local radio stations, however long they survive, but mainly a wide range of vocal music programmed by Smith. He now has the overnight show on the classica station at the combined XM/Sirius, but it's while I'm sleeping... Ballet only works so well on streaming devices. The ballet YouTube excerpts look miniscule on my iPhone.

Thank you for the heads up, insider. The direct links to the .pdf files are here: Apollo La Valse Stravinsky Violin Concerto "Apollo" looks great. I loved Wojtowicz's Amor in "Don Q" a couple of years ago, and I'm glad to see she's in a featured role. I missed Paola Hartley in the last program: I would have loved to see her in "Les Sylphides". It looks like Ian Poulis is playing "Death" in "La Valse": that will be i*n*t*e*n*s*e. Magnicaballi in the von Aroldingen role is counter-intuitive, but I bet it will be grand. So many opportunities for so many dancers!

According to National Ballet of Canada:

I'm happy to announce that our joint BT/BT4D fundraiser goal has been met, as of today. I'd like to thank everyone who donated for their generosity . I'd also like to thank everyone who purchases from our amazon search box at the top of the site. Revenues from amazon are at least 25% of our annual budget, and every last commission helps: even when you find that $.99 used bargain from a third party-seller ( ), it all adds up. We get commissions on everything you buy from amazon or third-party sellers on the amazon site when you use our custom search box (here or on BT4D): everything from miso soup to chain saws to perfume to vacuum cleaners to pens to downloads to stuffed bears, as well as those quaint old stand-byes, books, by which I mean the touchable, bound, analog kind. One request: if you search through the ASIN number (amazon's internal number), we don't get credit. Please search by name or artist or key word, and use that useful ASIN number to confirm that you've got the right product, especially critical with the sketchy info that appears with most ballet DVD's, and the unreadable cover art. Thank you again!

Apollinaire Scherr reviewed the program in The Financial Times. Nearly Nintely, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York Ms. Scherr followed up on her blog "foot in mouth": http://www.artsjournal.com/foot/2009/04/po...ghams_near.html

The timing seems dumb, but contractual, and she'll be moved if the webmaster has his/her act together when her contract kicks in. Bad timing is what happened to former Colorado Ballet dancer Crystal Hartford, from today's lead Links:

Jerome Robbins' "The Cage". Definitely not fluffy.

I hope whoever is ill gets well soon. The announcement and changes are also on the casting list on the SRB website: http://www.sfballet.org/performancesticket...ng.asp#43680798 From Rachel Howard's review of "Russian Seasons", I suspect this is a stronger program. It will be interesting to see how the other ballets look compared to "Rubies" in the same program. For tonight's cast they put together the women from two different casts from opening weekend: LeBlanc and Altman. I've read numerous observations that Altman is usually a reserved dancer; as Tall Girl, she was not, and I think that that this pair is best matched, and not only physically: Altman had a bit of wryness that spiced it up, just one eyebrow raised temperamentally. Tomorrow afternoon, Zahorian gets a new Tall Girl, Lily Rogers. From what I saw of Rogers in "Diamonds", I think they, too, might be more suited as a pair. I would have loved to see Kochetkova in "Rubies", and I'm glad she's paired with Domitro, who's less muscular physically and dynamically than Molat. Did anyone see any of this week's performances of "Jewels"? If the website is up-to-date, last Wednesday, Sofiane Sylve and Quinn Wharton danced the second couple to Feijoo and Damian Smith's first couple, with Elizabeth Miner and Clara Blanco making their debuts in the Pas de Trois, and last night, Rachel Viselli and Ivan Popov danced second couple to the Kochetkova/Nicolas Blanc first, with Isaac Hernandez in the Pas de Trois. Also Yuan Yuan Tan danced "Diamonds" in both performances -- she's on all of the posters, and I was wondering when she'd dance the role. Please tell us how it went!

That is such sad news; she was only 70. My condolences to her company and especially to her husband, Vladimir Vasiliev. RIP, Miss Maximova.

I find it remarkable that no one will touch Cunningham's recent work and criticize it. Balanchine, for all of his choreography, was consistently criticized in his late career: nothing was ever as good as "Agon" -- 1957! -- the quality of the Stravinsky Festival ballets was such a surprise -- this after only a few years of not creating ballets -- Jerome Robbins spoke to the future with his emotional engagement, whereas Balanchine was a cold fish, and the big event of 1968 was Robbins' return, etc. etc. All of the "Wow, Chaconne/Mozartiana/Davidsbundlertanze, didn't know the old geezer still had it in him" commentary didn't stop until his final illness. Of course, by then, for all of the arguments over legacy, and whether it would have been better in the long run artistically to let the company die with him, there was an institution, and institutions have a life of their own.

The Mission Statement I'm talking about is a legal requirement of setting up a 501-c-3 organization, not anything the company is putting out otherwise. Most are constructed to be vague enough to allow the organization to do as it wishes, but there's still a legal requirement to comply with it. Cunningham's is more direct than most; see the Paul Taylor Foundation's for vagueness. The legacy issue is also important to donors, especially when a company that is dedicated to the art of one person who is either elderly or ailing, and when it isn't clear that there is an institution to continue the legacy or should be. New York City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Mariinsky Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, etc. were all institutions for decades or centuries before the founders and/or resident geniuses died or left the company. The people who feel it is important to support Merce Cunningham's foundation in an effort to continue his legacy might not agree with you about the direction of the company -- in fact, they may be of the opinion that fresh air is what is needed, or that new things have to be tried, even if they fail, to avoid turning into a museum, -- or they may feel that time is critical to save it in any fashion, with the hope that the current administration is replaced before they kill it altogether. For other donors, supporting a genius, no matter how s/he behaves, is more important than the matter of trashing loyal, long-time dancers. Donors enable a lot of behaviors, some of the bad, and like investing anything, it's a trade-off of values. Who knows whether if the money had dried up, he'd have gotten back in a bus with a group of dancers and start over, wheelchair and all.

I saw Ansanelli do a fabulous imitation of Fonteyn in the opening of the Fonteyn movement of "Homage to the Queen" last year: same eyes, same head tilt, same neck. It was quite remarkable.

Yes, my fingers got away from me. Are you arguing that Cunningham is not making the artistic decisions himself? If so, then there is an issue, and possibly a legal one: using the money from the Foundation for a mission other than the stated one, on which people/foundations donate and get tax deductions, when he is not acting as the artistic director. If you are not, but are arguing legacy, that's a separate issue. If Cunningham himiself fired three senior dancers for whatever reason, and left the communication to a mouthpiece, I can argue that it was a mistake, I can argue that it was an unprofessional way to handle it in the press, but, ultimately, the buck stops with him, however old he is.