Helene

Four Otto brothers: David and William (NYCB), Phillip (Milwaukee Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, and PNB), and the youngest, Eric (was ABT, NYCB, Met Opera Ballet in 2007). Both William and Eric Otto also performed in musical theater, Eric in "Movin' Out" on Broadway and tour. I don't remember the show William was in or whether it was Broadway and/or tour. According to the SAB Alumni Directory, William Otto is Artistic Director of New Haven Ballet, a position that his brother Phillip held before he moved to Alabama to head the Huntsville Ballet. I suspect they have the wrong brother listed, since the New Haven Ballet homepage lists Noble Barker as AD (site updated a few weeks ago). According to this article from this past June, there are five dancing Kaiser brothers, other links show four of whom danced in ballet: Russell (NYCB, now on Boston Ballet faculty), Roy (Pennsylvania Ballet), Kevin (Pacific Northwest Ballet), and Dan (Pennsylvania Ballet). Ken performed in Off-Broadway musicals and teaches tap at the school he runs in Tacoma. So there were four ballet dancing brothers apiece for the Ottos and Kaisers. There were also two Otto sisters. Deborah Otto-Jones teaches on the faculty of Saratoga Ballet Academy, for which David Otto is Artistic Director. I thought she danced professionally, but I can't find any link on the Internet for her as a performer. There's also a Christine Otto listed on the faculty of Saratoga Ballet Academy, but don't know the relation, if any. There's no mention of any sisters in any of the Kaiser links I found. When poking around, I learned that both David and William Otto attended North Carolina School of the Arts and that the Kaisers grew up in Federal Way, Washington, just south of Seattle. Both Kevin and Ken Kaiser are in the Puget Sound area.

In "Elusive Muse" she is filmed walking a little dog.

I love it!!!! Especially considering that for all the flack opera (and ballet) gets about unrealistic plots and big emotions, surely the story of "Don Giovanni" is more plausible than say, Marlena is possessed by the devil, who is exorcised by a guy who's memory has been wiped out, and who originally came back to Salem as her late husband (post tragic accident and post plastic surgery), who happened to be a priest, and who eventually marries her at least twice as himself, although two decades later, who "himself" is is still up for grabs ("Days of Our Lives") The Cassadines have some device that will freeze the world if the world does not come up with the ransom the Cassadines demand, only for the world to be saved by Luke, Laura, a secret agent with an Australian accent, and his girlfriend Tiffany, a super-model who stumbles around on stilettos on the secret island where the device is kept ("General Hospital"). Just sayin...

In opera, certainly singers mark. They can sing at a lower volume and/or transpose the music down an octave, for example. When an actor "phones it in" during performance or rehearsal when s/he's expected to perform, s/he will be told to stop marking. One of my favorite operatic rehearsal clips was one that was shared by George Jellinek on his radio program, "The Vocal Scene". Maria Callas was in a stage/orchestral rehearsal of "La Sonnambula", I think in London. Everyone assumed she would mark, and if I remember correctly, she might have started that way, but then got carried by the music, giving the most glorious full-out performances of the sleepwalking scene ("Ah! non credea mirarti"), complete with the rapturous verbal responses of the maestro.

I think that last year, even with the old site, that they posted the season on the "What's On?" calendar in at least two rounds. When I did our calendar, I had to go to the .pdf file for the full season. It's silly for them not to have a link from "What's On?" to the .pdf file, though. If the press release link wasn't posted on the "Ballet Talk on Tour" thread, I wouldn't have known where to find it.

I just received an email from New York Theatre Ballet about its joint memorial for Sallie Wilson: The invite was "printed" over a beautiful photo of Sallie Wilson by Zachary Ferguson.

"Marking" is not dancing full out and indicating the movement. It can be anything from doing a 45-degree arabesque on demi-pointe (where in performance it would be a high arabesque on point) to performing a movement on the ground instead of in the air to using ones arms and/or fingers (such as twirling them to indicate a pirouette). (Oops -- writing the same time as Hans!)