Helene

The seating chart says that my section begins with row B, which would make K the 10th row back (unless they remove some rows). I hope that's far enough back, but I'm sure there will be plenty to see. I appreciate the warning, though, and will assume I will miss some of the pointe work to avoid the risk being hit over the head by the person in back of me. The Sunday matinee sounds like a great time for a Ballet Talk get-together, at least during intermission, and maybe for a drink/snack after the performance, before everyone heads back to NYC if there's time. (I fly out the next day. Alas the bus to "Washington" is not to Washington State!)

It's been a while since we had a fundraiser -- Fall 2007-- and we were lucky to follow it with a good 2007 holiday season from amazon.com commissions, as well as with commissions from sales of Ballet Talk for Dancers logo items, but not unexpectedly, the drop in the economy has reduced those revenues significantly since last Fall. We are launching a joint fundraiser with Ballet Talk for Dancers to pay for our shared software, server, support, and email. Our target is $2200 between the boards, and we hope that if Ballet Talk has been valuable to you, you will support us. In the past we've set a target of $15, but we know times are tight, and truly appreciate any amount. There are two ways to contribute: by PayPal or by check (written out to me or Victoria Leigh). The PayPal link and mailing details are on this page: http://www.ballettalk.com/bt.htm Please write in your user name on your check or on a slip of paper with your check. We'd like to be able to thank you. (PayPal has removed the comments field from the payments screen, but we will have an email address to use to thank you, even if it's different than your board email.) Thank you! PS: If you've donated during the year through the option on "My Controls", this does not mean you

Mary Clarke's tribute was a beautiful one, and unusual for much dance writing now, for she establishes the context of Evdokimova's dance career and accomplishments.

Many thanks for the advice. When I know what day I'm traveling from DC to NYC, I'll use megabus. I've booked the train for Sunday morning, though. I know I'm going to be up late on Saturday night, and, unfortunately, I'll sleep through the bus ride and "Le Corsaire" if I have to get up by 5:30am. Everything else has fallen into place. Now the dancers just have to show up I had the same experience with the website -- I chose sections, and the system assigned the tickets. I just plunged right in on this one. Edited to add: I just found the seating chart for the Opera House on the Kennedy Center site, and for one performance, I'm in row K of the left section of the orchestra facing the stage, four seats from the center-most aisle, and for the other, I'm in the first tier, in the right hand section, row D, about center. I'd rather know bad news up front rather than be surprised later, and if there's something I need to know, I'd appreciate it if you'd tell me.

Thanks for the sharp eyes!

Beverly McKinsey was fantastic as Iris. This thread is making me relive my chlldhood

Barry Kerollis has a face made for ruffles, powdered wigs, and a mole by his upper lip. Week two casting is up, and the Odettes/Odiles and Siegfrieds are: 4/16: Vinson/Orza 4/17: Weese/Cruz 4/18 matinee: Nakamura/Postlewaite 4/18 evening: Korbes/Milov 4/19 matinee: Weese/Cruz 4/19 evening: Imler/Bold updated to Nakamura/Postlewaite In case anyone is attending matinees, they begin at 1pm on Saturdays and Sundays; that's an hour earlier than usual for Saturdays. The Sunday evening performance starts at 7pm.

Lynn Johnston started to re-work her comic strip "For Better or Worse" from the beginning, and this week's "new" storyline is about soap operas, namely main character Elly's decision to withdraw from the addiction, because, as she notes in today's strip, "I spend an hour every day watching inane, repetitive drivel" (panel 2) and "Soap operas are impossibly depressing, insulting, and a waste of time" (panel 3), and "They're also fattening" (panel 4, as she sits turns on the TV carrying coffee and a plate of cookies). I love soap operas! I wonder if they'd be in healthier financial condition if they went back to the radio. I can't watch TV and write specs at the same time, but I can listen to the radio and write.

I loved Larkin Malloy on Edge of Night! He had genuine, Level 4 nostril flare.

This may be coming together, although I won't be able to get home from DC Sunday night. If I use the Alaska 15K miles for a discounted plane ticket, the difference should cover the hotel room Sunday night, and I'd have most of Monday to be a tourist. Many thanks for the advice, nysusan!

Hmm, considering that there are many people who believe that judged Olympic events like figure skating aren't even sports, it's hard to imagine ballet being one. I think there is general confusion between "sport" and "competition". Poker is a competition. Dance competitions are competitions. They may have scoring structures that are similar to sports, and compulsory rounds where each contestant performs the same piece for apples-to-apples comparisons, but one thing that distinguishes most music and dance competitions from sport is the use of a jury, who may or may not award prizes, or may declare co-winners. In judged sported, the judges are expected to work independently and score immediately, and the only interaction is generally for post-performance reviews.

In an attempt to make lemonade of lemons, and in an attempt to stimulate the economy with my upcoming baby tax refund, I was thinking of taking the train to DC for the Osipova "Le Corsaire" on the 19th, and returning to NYC the next day for the Part "La Sylphide" at ABT. But looking at this cast list, PRINCIPAL CASTING (subject to change) June 16 at 7:30 p.m. Medora – Maria Alexandrova Conrad – Nikolai Tsiskaridze June 17 & June 20 at 7:30 p.m. Medora – Ekaterina Shipulina Conrad – Ruslan Skvortsov June 18 at 7:30 p.m. Medora – Maria Alexandrova Conrad – Alexander Volchkov June 19 at 7:30 p.m. & June 21 at 1:30 p.m. Medora – Natalia Osipova Conrad – Ivan Vasiliev June 20 at 1:30 p.m. Medora – Anna Nikulina Conrad – Alexander Volchkov should I see Shipulina before NYC, and actually pay attention to my best friend on whose couch I will be surfing on Friday night? There's a rare chance I could make the Osipova Sunday matinee, if I can figure out the logistics of getting there on time and stashing a suitcase, but that might be a bit much, since "I" and "leave at the crack of dawn" are rarely uttered in the same sentence.

We post links to articles in the "Links" section. If they are posted to a forum, we ask that you comment on them, or, as a rule, we will delete them if they are stand-alones. What do these cuts mean to you? What do you think of the decision to cut live music and three dancers but to keep community outreach and the ballet school? To me, these trade-offs show remarkable long-term thinking, looking at preserving the audience for the future, but this could cut into the upward subscriber trend in the seasons after next.

It's unfortunate that Jerome Robbins chose Chopin's Prelude op. 28, no. 7 for "The Concert"; the piece elicits more than a few giggles as the short overture to "Les Sylphides", but when the curtain rises on the breathtaking opening tableau of Fokine's almost century-old work -- it will be 100 years old this June -- all thoughts of ladies in pale blue leotards with pale blue feathered hats (or Trocks, for that matter) are banished, and a moonlit world is illuminated when the dancers begin to move on the intimate stage of the jewel-box Orpheum Theatre. Almost as exposed as a work by Bournonville, any unsteadiness, bobble, or effort telegraphs its way to the back of the theater and disrupts the illusion of lightness and clarity. It takes an exceptionally strong cast that can transcend technique and a corps that not only moves as one but breathes life into the tableaus to fulfill the promise of that great opening. As staged by Olga Evreinoff, the Ballet Arizona corps did both. Without a story -- no transformed swans, rejected and vengeful Wilis, or posse of The Sylph -- the women had two things on which to rely: style and the score. With legs hidden by long romantic tutus, style was concentrated primarily from the waist up, with the type of shading and sublety not typical in the neoclassical and contemporary repertoire, and often missing from performances of classical and Romantic works. In this corps I saw soft arms, shading in the neck and shoulders, and most remarkably, soft hands and fingers, down to the fingertips. In three performances, a broken wrist was a rare sight. If I wished for more, it was a bit more ease in the way the heads sat on necks, but there was no doubt as to the commitment to the work. In the matinee performances, Chelsea Wilcox, dancing the Valse role, was a grave and grounded presence, more Effy than Sylph in terms of weight, and she seemed to be focused more on technique than movement. She has a strong upper body, and she resisted every temptation to fudge, but this was more of a growth role than a fully realized interpretation. By contrast, in the evening cast, Michelle Mahowald's sculptural arms, hands, and shoulders, with many shades in epaulment and musical expressiveness took my breath away, and she, so lifted from the waist, danced with a lightness and effervescence, never once showing the work behind the movement. Natalia Magnicaballi, in the matinees, like many senior ballerinas in the main role, brought a presence and an elusive backstory, while in the evening, the company's junior ballerina, Ginger Smith responsed like a clean slate to the music's rhythm and flow. Magnicaballi danced to the beat, while Smith danced to the pulse. Where Magnicaballi was most musically informed was in her solo, where her expressive feet could have been playing the piano version of the Prelude. As the Mazurka soloist, Tzu-Chia Huang danced with lightness, ease, and refinement in the matinees, and Kanako Imayoshi danced with radiance and clarity, bringing air into what had been a bit constrained until that point. Ilir Shtylla in the matinee didn't match Astrit Zejnati's elegance and technique, especially in his legs and feet, but what I liked particularly were his expressive arms and the way he responded with his face and shoulders to each of Magnicaballi's whispers and promises. The evening cast presented a fully realized performance -- by the middle of evening performance, I forgot that it was being performed to a recording -- while the matinee cast show a work in progress, with the notable exception of Imayoshi. "Polyphonia" has been performed by many companies. I'd seen Pacific Northwest Ballet's version, but it took a second look with another company to prove why it has legs and that my initial impression wasn't based on specific performances: it is a musically specific and accomplished response to a beautiful and challenging piano score to music by Ligety. Here, it was more sensitively cast overall, with Smith (matinees) and Magnicaballi (evening) sharing the main role, both partnered by Ross Clarke. Again these two dancers gave very different responses to the same choreography. Magnicaballi's authority comes from her legs and feet, juxtaposed with a very still torso. I've never seen Smith dance anything other than from the center, radiating out to her limbs. Aside from the contrast that differences in height and frame bring, each dancer's movement quality illuminated different aspects of the choreography and the music. Clarke now dances neoclassical roles as if he were reared in them, and he was an equally fine partner to both dancers. Tall, regal Kenna Draxton isn't often cast as the romantic lead, and it was moving to see her dance the pas de deux and solo to the most haunting, romantic part of the score, her long, beautiful legs and feet as impressive in soussus or bouree as she was in full, expansive arabesque and failli. As tall as her partner, Shtylla, on flat, she towered over him on point, and yet he remained just as strong a presence. Zejnati was paired with Huang in the lightest of the couples, the scherzo counterpoint, and Huang's more classical approach, upright and precise, was a good contrast to her partner and to the other women in the cast. One of the highlights was the section for two men, danced by Zejnati and Daniel Marshalsay, whose combined energy snowballed. Zejnati has a master jazz musician's timing, that split second precision that is like perfect pitch. Marshalsay gave a very dynamic performance partnering Jillian Barrell, who just crackled in their fast-paced pas de deux, full of weight shifts and instant direction changes, going from full throttle to stopping on a dime, and giving the dance an esctatic sense of play. Cameron Grant was the brilliant piano soloist. If I had only seen Twyla Tharp's "Golden Section" (an except from the longer "The Catherine Wheel"), I would have thought that Tharp had no use for women. For much of the work, the women were in a bent-kneed hunch, any line obscured by Santo Loquasto's leg warmers, and Kenna Draxton, whose stature on point in the Wheeldon rose to the rafters, looked like the tall girl in junior high who's trying desperately to appear short. Much of the rest of the time, apart from the occasional solo, they were bounced off the men. By contrast, the men, who had the same array of bent-kneed chaines, looked expansive. Given the program, "Golden Section" provided much-needed roles for men in the company, and it was great to see Roman Zavarov, Joseph Cavanaugh, Humberto Bandera, and Ian Poulis (matinees)/Slawomir Wozniak (evening). Ross Clarke looked much more at ease in it than when the work was produced a few years ago, and it was a hoot to see him and Shtylla play air guitar. Who knew that the head-banded Shtylla, arms and shoulders all loosy-goosy and head bouncing like a bobble-head toy, could boogie like that? I didn't see, though, how apart from the human wheels towards the end, the choreography was a specific response to the music by David Byrne. If there was pattern and structure, I couldn't find it: why these groupings? Why this movement, now? To what end is much more understandable: the dancers looked ecstatically happy dancing this -- they left everything on that stage -- and each audience rose immediately after the final blackout, greeting the dancers with an uproarious ovation. People bounded out of the theater, raving about the work, clearly energized. I love this music, which normally would have me wanting to dance in the aisles, but by the third performance, I felt pounded into submission.

Casting for the first week of Swan Lake is up: http://www.pnb.org/season/swanlake-cast.html Odette/Odlie and Siegfried pairings: 4/9: Nakamura/Postlewaite 4/10: Korbes/Milov 4/11 matinee: Imler/Bold Vinson/Orza 4/11 evening: Nadeau/Cruz

Maybe I should have said "wavier" -- your hair doesn't look straight to me when you're onstage. Do I need new glasses? Does Bandera have curly hair?

Thank you so much for your review, Krystin! Roman Zavarov is about the same height as Joseph Cavanaugh, give or take a few inches, but has never struck me as being noticeably tall. According to the cast list on the website, the tall-tall men in this ballet were Ross Clarke and Ian Poulis (matinee, which you saw). Clarke is also listed for "Polyphonia"; he and Zavarov both have straight dark hair. Poulis is more slender than Clarke, and his hair looks lighter and curlier.

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Many thanks for the review, PeggyR. I would have loved to have seen Altman in "Stravinsky Violin Concerto". She does have an amazing back: in the Spanish in "Swan Lake", her backbends were knockouts. Except when von Aroldingen danced her original role, at the NYCB performances that I saw, the male principals more often made a bigger impression on me than the women. It's interesting that you write about Altman and Waldo, whom I loved in the mid-late 90's, but whose performances I have found to be more and more tepid over the last decade, but not their partners.

George Jackson reviewed 'Peter Pan' for danceviewtimes. The composer is Carmon DeLeone. www.danceviewtimes.com Click on For Children Only? (apologies: I haven't been able to figure out how to link from my phone, and it's not displaying the whole URL)

How could I have forgotten Candy from Bonanza??? David Canary is wonderful both as the cunning Adam and the child-like Stuart.

That's absolutely OK, since we're a discussion board, not a fan board, and well-reasoned criticism is always welcome here.

Yes, you're absolutely right -- it was 'Palmer'. I loved Mitchell as Michael in 'The Turning Point'. One of my favorite older soap actor did not play a villain. He was Douglas Watson, who played Mac Corey on 'Another World' until he died of a heart attack while on vacation, and Romeo to Olivia de Havilland's Juliet at the Broadhurst Theatre, a production in which Balanchine choreographed a dance for the Capulet ball. (no 278 in the Balanchine Catalogue.)

He was a puppy compared to the grand patriarchs -- James Mitchell (Tyler Cortland, "All My Children"), Joseph Mascolo (Stefano DiMera, "Days of Our Lives"), Charles Keating (Carl Hutchins "Days of Our Lives"), John Aniston (Victor Kiriakis, "Days of Our Lives"), John Colicos (Mikkos Cassadine, "General Hospital) -- although he had it all over Edward Quartermaine, in my opinion.

I was on a bicycle trip in New Zealand in 1997, in which we'd arrive in a town in the late afternoon, shower, and hang in our rooms resting until reconvening before dinner. I started to watch the Australian soap "Home and Away", which was broadcast in the early evening. In about three days, I knew all of the characters and relationships. Fast forward to 2002 when I first visited Australia, and while I had to figure out who a few characters were, it only took a day or two. A year later, I took another bicycle trip to New Zealand, turned on the TV, and within 20 minutes had caught up. So you don't even have to watchs soaps every month to keep up with them. That early evening timing was wonderful for soaps, especially with so few women home in the afternoons. I'm fairly sure I saw "The Guiding Light" in Europe, and I think it was "The Young and the Restless" that was all the rage there.