Helene

JoannaA, Ballet Talk is an audience site, but our sister site, Ballet Talk for Dancers (or click link from the top of the page), might be able to help. Unfortunately, we don't share registrations, and you'll have to register separately for the site. But there's a wealth of information on the site, and it should be well worth your while.

Saturday, March 24 A profile of Jennifer Calienes, the director of the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) at Florida State University. A review of Odyssey Dance Theatre Jennifer Dunning reviews Charlotte Vincent's "Broken Chords"

Indeed, they have been promoted: Rachel Viselli "Joined in 1999. Promoted to soloist in 2004. Promoted to principal in 2007." Sarah van Patten "Joined as a soloist in 2002. Promoted to principal dancer in 2007. " Nothing yet on the Press Releases page.

There's an interview on podcast with Jean-Pierre Frohlich from the San Francisco Ballet website. (It's currently on the home page.)

Is the title of the dvd "Kirov Classics" Video? I would like to purchase it. http://www.amazon.com/Kirov-Classics/dp/B00006G8HI The contents of the DVD in the link are: Chopiniana (Asylmuratova/Zaklinsky/Pankova/Polikarpova) Petrushka (Vikharov) Barber's Adagio (Yevteeva/Eldaraliev) Le Corsaire (Kunakova/Ruzimator) The Fairy Doll (Leznina/Gruzev/Fadeyev) -- shown often on Classic Arts cable network Markitenka (Pankova/Vikharov/Sitnikova/Kultun/Zelenkina/Mrlnikobs) Paquita (Makhalina/Zelensky/Pankova/Sitnikova/Chicherin/Zhelonkina/Kunakova/Leznina/Koltun/Ivanova) (Apologies for any typos -- I copied the names of the performers off of the credits, and my handwriting's a little dodgy.)

I am so happy to hear your wonderful news, dancemomCA! Congratulations to your son :blush:

I am, too :blush:

I've been following the Men's LP over the Internet, and Kristoffer Berntsson just did a program with eight triples, including two triple axels, breaking his personal best by over 20 points!!!! His techincal score was 75.36. To put that in context, with the caveat that the scores aren't completely comparable, at last year's Worlds, only the medal winners (Lambiel, Joubert, Lysacek) had higher technical scores in their LP than he did this year, and only they and Sandhu had higher total LP scores. In Torino, only the top four men had higher technical and overall scores for their LP than Berntsson's in Tokyo. His combined score for Worlds would have put him 8th at Torino; Bertnsson's actual total score in Torino was nearly 45 points lower. I hope this is the beginning of a super career for him He did a disco program, which was really fun. I hope they play it over and over on Swedish TV.

I read all of the Nancy Drew books. We had a subscription and a new one would arrive every month or two. My favorite was the first, The Secret of the Old Clock. I also loved The Boxcar Children, a book whose full title I've forgotten and for which a search on amazon.com came up fruitless, but something like "[boy's name] and the Santa Fe Trail" and these biographies of famous people that were sold in our supermarket. It turned out that someone took actual biographies and edited and ghost wrote them into biographies for kids, which I didn't know until I read Eva Curie's biography of her mother, and I knew most of the narrative from the one I had read at 10. I don't remember if the biography of Anne Sullivan that I read 40 times was in that series, or the one of Juliet Low, founder of the Girl Scouts. I also loved a book that I seemed to have checked out of my town library at least once a month; it was a series of short biographies of great Olympic athletes, like Paavo Nurmi, Jesse Owens, Jim Thorpe, and Babe Didrickson. (I think it started with the first modern Olympiad and stopped with the 1964 Olympics.) And I liked the Doctor Doolittle books, and a Grimm's Fairy Tale book. I used to scare myself silly reading "Cinderella" and the tale of the sisters cutting off a toe and a heel, and having the blood rising in the stockings be the giveaway.

Natalia was planning to be there, and I hope she made it and will be able to post about her experiences. The German pairs couple who won bronze consists of Robin Szolkowy, who is/has always been German and Aliona Savchenko. He has some African descent through one parent, but he's been a German citizen. I think he has among the best posture of all of the pairs men. His partner, Aliona Savchenko, is original from Ukraine. She won Junior Worlds skating for Ukraine with Stanislav Morozov, who is now the partner of Tatiana Volosozhar. After the 2002 season, where she and Morozov placed 15th at the Olympics, they split. Savchenko found Szolkowy and started to learn German, and she moved a few months later. Because the rules at the time made all skaters sit out two seasons after they competed for another country, she and Szolkowy only started to compete internationally in 2005. The German government granted citizenship to Savchenko in time for her to compete at the Olympics in Torino. Volosozhar is one of the greatest women's pairs skaters I've ever seen, and their triple twist is actually better than the Chinese pairs's. I've been reading reviews of Volosozhar/Morozov's LP, and she has been getting raves. Sadly, two pairs who were planning to retire after last night's Long Program had to pull out with injuries, according to the ISU Day 2 Summary. Alexei Tikhonov injured his leg, and Mariusz Siudek injured his back. The Siudeks, though, had a magical LP skate at Europeans. Technically, there was an error or two, but it was one of the smoothest, quietest, most musical programs I've ever seen.

d'Amboise's dancing in the video was very much like it was onstage. By the time the ballet was made, d'Amboise had already suffered a serious knee injury and had given up all of his virtuoso parts. I don't know how many other roles he danced at the time; I did see him in Meditation in 1981, but I can't think of any other role I saw him in.

It's beautiful! It makes me feel like spring, on this rainy day in Seattle.

Maybe it was Kozlov. In 86-87 Kozlov shared d'Amboise's role Cornell Crabtree, who while at SAB partnered Darci Kistler in a school performance of the White Swan Pas de Deux, home videotape excepts of which can be seen in the documentary Dancing for Mr. B. (It's a bit cloudy and there might not be enough of Crabtree to recognize him.)Kozlov was at least in his mid-late 30's in 1986; Crabtree would have been, at most, in his mid-twenties. But he had a receding hairline, which sometimes made him look older.

I saw this afternoon's performance of the "Wheeldon, Duato & Balanchine" program. The opening ballet was Polyphonia, staged by Ben Huys. I can see why this ballet is entering more and more into company repertoires: the score by Ligeti is beautiful -- and any chance to hear Dianne Chilgren play, here accompanied by second pianist Christina Siemens, is a great positive, in my book -- and the choreography clear, precise, and directed. There are also two fantastic roles for women. The first and central role was danced by Maria Chapman with tensile expansiveness. While never indicating a story, through her phasing Chapman communicated an inner life and internal logic through movement in both of her pas de deux with Stanko Milov. Chapman is not an "in your face" kind of dancer in abstract works, but there's something deeply personal about her response to music, which I find compelling. In part VI to "No. 2 Hopp ide tisztan" Rachel Foster was given an opportunity to be featured and shine. In both the pas de deux with Josh Spell and in her solo, the was she used her arms and shoulders was exquisite. It's very easy to see how the experience of dancing this role could translate into beautiful epaulement in a classical role. The adagio pas de deux were more successful due to their clarity, in my opinion, than the faster ones, which I think were a bit of a muddle. As a result, Chalnessa Eames' and Miranda Weese's roles weren't as defined or impressive as Chapman's and Foster's. For the most part, dancers in solo and soloist roles at PNB dance as if each performance was an opportunity; while I've seen occasional performances I thought were misguided or miscast, I've rarely seen an underdanced one. Eames made the most of her role; Weese's approach was more casual, and compared to Chapman's quiet intensity in Part VII, she looked flat. Weese has had an upheaval, retiring from NYCB after a hectic Winter Season and making a move -- to the Seattle winter, which isn't easy -- and perhaps later in the season her energy will show through. It was great to see James Moore -- almost unrecognizable with his hair slicked back -- who seemed to disappear from prominence after his terrific performances in Kiss. He partnered Eames and was paired with Lucien Postlewaite, Weese's partner, in the dynamic Part V. From the overwhelming audience reaction to Nacho Duato's Rassemblement, I realize I am in the minority. Set to Toto Bissainthe's Haitian Voodoo slave songs, the ballet has big shoes to fill. Much of the vocabulary is similar to that in Jardi Tancat and Arenal, and the PNB dancers perform this very well. Where Duato extended the vocabulary, the range was hit or miss. Not with Carla Korbes in the main woman's solo role: she could have been a character from a Marquez novel, part birth mother, part bird, part hellion. Kiyon Gaines and Noelani Pantastico had a moving duet. Given any chance to really move, Jonathan Porretta will take advantage of it from the last follicle on his head to his toenails, and he absorbed the vocabulary like he had the magic language gene. I think the work is limited; when the program notes are more moving than the dance itself, I know I'm in trouble. The closest Duato got, in my opinion, to meeting the pathos of the music, is the choreography where the main male character, danced by Gaines, is beaten up by two soldier thugs. This ballet made so little impression on me the first time I saw it, that I didn't realize I had seen it before until I looked it up. I think Duato's vocabulary is more of a match to the songs of Maria del Mar Bonet. I don't think his choreography reflects the core of the music or its timeless yearning. The more I see La Sonnambula, the more I appreciate Balanchine's compact storytelling, which I missed completely when I saw it almost 30 years ago. It takes a superb dance actor like Christophe Maraval to establish the ruthlessness of the Baron in the few master strokes that he's given. Noelani Pantastico brought her Odile to The Coquette; she clearly enjoyed the badness of her flirtation with the poet, danced by Le Yin, and she was very confident in her charms and in invoking the jealousy of the Baron. Yin was equally the flirt, and while he was fascinated by The Sleepwalker, I wasn't convinced, though, that he had a poetic side to be attracted to her otherworldliness, which Louise Nadeau in her portrayal of The Sleepwalker gave him every chance and reason to. She was a ghost to follow anywhere, so lovely skimming across the stage. She was tangible and unattainable at the same time. Rebecca Johnston, a tallish, sumptuous redhead, and Kara Zimmerman, a shorter, slender brunette, have been paired in a number of recent programs, this time in the "Pastorale" partnered by Barry Kerollis and Anton Pankevitch. In classical roles, Zimmerman has the edge; in the neo-classical, it's Johnston who fares better, with her amplitude and gorgeous legs and feet. She (and Kerollis, too) were made for 17th century wigs; her face is cherubic but she has devillish eyes. It was difficult to take my eyes off Chapman in the Pas de Deux until Karel Cruz started doing entrechats quatorze (at least that's what they looked like). Porretta was a irrepressably charming Harlequin. I know everyone's busy, but male Guests, with the exception of Kiyon Gaines and apprentice Sokvannara Sar, were all from the Professional Division of the PNB school. It's great that they had the opportunity to dance, but experienced and jaded courtiers they were not, and the women, all pros, were leading them a bit. This program is important in two ways. First, Opening Night this past Thursday was dedicated to Ariana Lallone, who celebrates her 20th anniversary with PNB. Peter Boal concluded his "Director's Notebook" column in the program, On page 27 of the program is a full-page tribute to Lallone, featuring her in photos by Angela Sterling in a jete from the First Movement of Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet and a series of smaller photos of Lallone (some with partners) in her most celebrated roles: in the middle, somewhat elevated, Carmina Burana, Lambarena, The Moor's Pavane, Carmen, and Time and Other Matter. It includes a quote by her, This is also the program in which the dancers dedicated their salaries from Opening Night to Second Stage, the program that helps dancers transition to new careers and maintains a relationship with Seattle University, which allows dancers to earn credits towards an undergraduate degree. Carrie Imler did the pre-curtain speech. She mentioned that while she's been injured over the last three months, she, too, has been thinking about what comes next (but that's she's not planning to retire anytime soon, whew...) I hope she heals well and fast, and we see her as soon as possible. Also in the program (and in the opera program for Giulio Cesare) is an interview with Peter Boal about the upcoming "Celebrate Seattle" Festival, which opens next month with two weeks of Mark Morris' Pacific and Kent Stowell's Carmina Burana, followed by a week of mixed rep programs with choreography by Joffrey, Cunningham, Caniparoli, Gibson, Gaines, C. Stowell, Alleyene, and other choreographers with ties to the Seattle area. An excerpt from the interview sheds light on his approach for the Festival and his hopes for dance in Seattle:

Saturday, March 17 Claudia La Rocco reviews Ann Liv Young's Snow White. Jennifer Dunning reviews Paul Taylor Company Gia Kourlas reviews Le Vu Long's "Stories of Us."

Tomlinson danced two of Arthur Mitchell's key roles, "Phlegmatic" in Four Temperaments and the lead in Agon. He was also cast as Death (La Valse), Dark Angel (Orpheus), and another dark figure in one of the Balanchine one-offs (Persephone, maybe?). I tend to agree with Arlene Croce's assessment of Tomlinson's skills as a dancer, and it wasn't pretty. I found his upper body to be block-like, with little give and expression in his shoulders and neck. Nevertheless, I felt he was suspiciously typecast. I always thought Evans was capable of a far greater range than that in which he was cast. I hope Hall gets the opportunities he deserves. (If Apollo were cast by the physical beauty of the dancer, surely Hall qualifies.)

My impression of Reiter's mention of Goldweber in the review was that she was surprised that there wasn't an official (with registered trademark) Balanchine stager to which the production was credited. There wasn't anything else in the review that suggested there was anything amiss with the staging. She liked some performers more than others, but a sense of spontenaiety and confidence is not something a stager can force from a dancer.

Wouldn't it be nice if a group of classically-minded dancers could form a mini-POB and take actual ballet on the road?

In James Kudelka's Four Seasons, a season-of-lifecycle ballet, there's a wonderful dancing part for an older dancer, and I saw Hazaros Surmeyan, a character dancer with National Ballet of Canada, perform it.

I particularly like the UFOs that rise at the beginning of the performance. I'd never thought of them that way before, and I suppose it was having been reared on the space race and "The Jetsons" that makes them so appealing.Their design, however, is not the fault of the architects or interior designers. The main chandelier was a gift form the government of Austria. I don't know if the baby versions (UFOs) were also part of the gift or were designed to match, but the Met wasn't about to insult a government based on bad or mismatched design. I once took a tour of Lincoln Center, and our guide told us that the Chagalls were hung backwards. The design on one side of each painting was denser and meant to be an outside border, but they were hung with the borders toward the center.

I haven't been to the Met for ballet in many years, and I don't remember seeing ballet from the Family Circle, so that I don't have a "barn" connection with ballet. I do with opera, but I like hearing classical music from the top of the house, and the trade-off is worth it. I still get chills when the little chandeliers at the Met rise at the beginning of a performance. (Although I expect the monster sculpture thingy at the center of the proscenium to fall into the orchestra pit.) The house that I find barn-like for ballet is War Memorial. It feels very far away in the Balcony, and after my last trip, in which I saw four performances from Orchestra, Dress Circle, and Balcony Circle, I've forsworn Balcony Circle. I feel like I'm about to take a dive from the top of a skyscraper, the rake is so steep. The new Four Seasons Centre in Toronto has a similar drop, but it's such an intimate house with its blond wood and sandy/beigy//taupy colors that I'm fine, if I don't look straight down I particularly like jewel box theaters, particularly the Orpheum, where Ballet Arizona was ensconced during the Symphony Hall renovation and where they perform their Spring mixed bill, and the Newmark Theatre, where OBT does its mixed bill programs that are unlikely to sell out the larger Keller Auditorium.

It's really sad the Meany has dropped the little ballet it had during the season; I dropped my subscription when ballet and Mark Morris were dropped from the schedule.Mark Morris is back in Seattle next year at the Paramount Theater for two joint performances of L'Allegro with the Seattle Symphony. Pre-sales started with subscription renewals for the Symphony. While it's not the same as adding the performances to the subscription schedule, it will provide advance cash flow (for at least some organization) and market to a classical music audience well in advance. The Meany stage is wonderful for medium to small troupes without scenery, and the theater is intimate, but not confined. Morris, in particular, has used live chamber music to great advantage when MMDG performed there for over a decade as part of the World Dance series. In the Spring 2006 issue of DanceView, Michael Popkin, in his review of the YAGP competition, wrote, The combination of a space on a human scale and the right acoustics a pianist or chamber group playing live music is one of the great experiences that a hall like Meany can provide, if the performers can take advantage of it.

Calegari was interviewed on NPR's "Morning Edition" years ago, possibly at the time she was dancing with Suzanne Farrell Ballet, and she mentioned "my husband, Bart Cook."

If I'm remembering correctly, Melanie Griffiths's first response was "Maybe" and when he objected, she said something like "If you want another answer, ask another girl." I always liked her for that.

I've seen photos of the inside of the Mariinsky Theatre, and the Czar's box gives me the willies. I don't know if I'd feel differently if I were in the theater itself. When I went to the Bolshoi Theatre in 2005 to hear Eugene Onegin, I had shivers, knowing that this was the same stage/house in which Plisetskaya, Vassiliev, Taranda, Ulanova, Vishnevskaya, Sobinov, and countless other great dancers and singers had performed. I didn't have the same reaction inside the house in Vienna. The Metropolitan Opera House is different, because the "Golden Age" performances took place at the old Met. I can say that there's a big difference seeing opera and ballet at the newly renovated McCaw Hall, the Opera House before the renovation, and the hockey rink where both performed during the renovation. Besides the accoustic improvements, and the great improvements backstage, McCaw Hall feels like home.