Helene

It sounds like Fairchild is coming into her own.

Just a note that the yearly lists of photos that rq has posted to Ballet Talk has been moved to the following forum: http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=20257 The lists are compilations of links to photos posted in threads in many forums, including this one.

And the fourth week is up...

I hope this is not written with Toni Bentley, who, in my opinion, made Farrell sound more like Bentley than Farrell too much of the time.

I travel to San Francisco and Phoenix several weekends a year to pack in two-four performances of the ballet, and I've also travelled to Berkeley for the Kirov and Suzanne Farrell Ballets. Vancouver is a 2.5-4 hour drive north, depending on the border crossing, and I've gone there several times in the last few years, when National Ballet of Canada and Les Grand Ballets Canadiens de Montreal have toured there. When I travel for work, if there's a ballet (or opera) performance, I try to attend, particularly in the airline hub cities (generally Copenhagen and London). When I went to Australia to see performances at the Adelaide Festival in 2002 and the Ring of the Nibelungen in 2004, I planned my time so that I could see Australian Ballet performances on my way in and out of Sydney, and caught an anniversary performance of the ballet in Melbourne. When I was invited to have Thanksgiving with a group of college friends last year in London, my plans for the week were based on the schedule of The Royal Ballet, which was playing Sylvia, over what was in Amsterdam or Copenhagen those two days. (I don't think there was any ballet that Monday or Tuesday in Paris.) I've never taken an extensive ballet vacation, although within the next five years, I want to save up enough vacation time to take a 10-day cruise from Moscow to St. Petersburg, surrounded by a few extra days in Moscow at the beginning for the opera and ballet, and then staying on in St. Petersburg for the White Nights Festival. A girl can dream, right?

Or use the "BT Amazon Mini-Store" link under the logo -- it's one of the items in the store.

I want to thank everyone who donated to our annual fundraising campaign. Between the two boards, we've raised enough to cover our costs to the summer, and the amazon.com commissions should cover the rest until next fall. There's just one piece of housekeeping: before I deposited the checks, I wrote each donor's board name on the envelope. Or so I thought. I missed one . If there's someone who donated by check and did not receive an email or PM to thank you, and your location is west of the Rockies, I'd appreciate it if you'd PM me or email us through the "Contact Us" link above. And thank you, too, to everyone who purchases through this site's amazon.com links -- the BT Amazon Mini-Store and the search box next to the BT logo. There were enough purchases from July through September to bump our percentage up a notch, which helped a lot.

Click, "Descubre el nuevo spot Freixenet!" -- to see the full commercial "El making of" -- to see how the set was put together in a warehouse to a jazz version of the main theme of Swan Lake, more clips of Corella warming up and practicing and doing a low, turning ballroom lift with Paltrow -- wow! -- shooting the group of models in gold at Montjuic, etc. "Cordon Negro" -- to see a short, animated commercial clip. I suspect high-speed Internet access may be needed to view without choppiness. Thank you, CarolinaM!

To go one layer down, for the first seven decades of the 20th century, the middle class aspired to adulthood. In a youth-focused culture, where "sixty is the new forty," aspirations have gone south.

My pessimistic self thinks that the only way classical ballet can be promoted so that it stays classical ballet -- without the second coming of a Balanchine-Ashton-Tudor triumverate -- is if men are respected and rewarded for doing it. At this point many boys face physical and emotional abuse from their so-called peers for wanting to become dancers. I think the best form of education is the programs like Jacques d'Amboise's, where dance is brought directly in the schools. Phil Otto managed a similar Pacific Northwest Ballet program in Seattle schools after he retired from the company. He was also teaching open classes, and one day he told our class that early on, some tough-looking kids came up to him when he was on his way to teach at one of the tougher schools in Seattle. Phil's a big guy, and it's hard to imagine any stranger with any hope of long life expectancy confronting him, but he said he was a little worried until they asked him whether he was the "dancing guy." When he told them "yes," they offered to watch his truck while he was in class. I hate to be cynical, but if some tough-looking guys gain respect for dance and start watching the backs of the younger "dancer dudes," and make harassing them a dangerous choice, we can go to the next educational step, which is exposing dance to their peers.

When I first saw the title of this thread, I thought it would be Wheeldon. From an outsiders point of view, I hadn't read enough about McGregor's work with the RB to suggest that the relationship was long or strong enough to predict this appointment.

In Balanchine's Ballerinas (p.68) Boris describes how she had turned down Balanchine's invitation to join Ballet Society in order to dance Giselle with Denham, who had previously contracted her for the ballet, and how Balanchine refused to let her join the Company when she returned: Edited to Add: And this, from Boris in Repertory in Review (p.121), picking up from where Kirstein urged her to choose something with costumes:

I saw her as Clara last year -- she did a lovely job, including some well developed bits between her and the Pasha. That particular relationship can be interpreted sveral different ways, and I'm always interested in seeing the choices people make with it. Oh, duh, of course she danced these roles last year

Thank you so much for the dual report, flipsy! It sounds like a combined all-star MCB cast between the two performances, with a great deal to compare and contrast. It was also great to hear about one of the child performers at NYCB becoming a professional dancer, and I look forward to hearing more about Zoe Zien over the course of the season. It's also great to hear about performances in which the drama was as satisfying as the dancing. (BTW, I envy whatever weather is in Florida right now. It's snowing in Seattle and 85% of the people here have no clue how to drive in snow...)

I wonder how many more times we will read variations on a theme of "All kinds of people, trivially and profoundly, have tried to pin down dance, to define what it is and is not, and some of them get quite feisty if you challenge their definitions" between now and then. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/24/arts/dan...&_r=1&ref=dance

Lynn Seymour notes in her autobiography that as great as her friend and classmate at the Royal Ballet School, Marcia Haydée, was, she could never be offered a job with the Company because she was a citizen of Brazil. Seymour was eligible as a Canadian citizen.Regarding Eagling's citizenship, it may be possible that he became a dual citizen at birth or as a child -- unless he was born to foreign diplomats on Canadian soil, he should have been a Canadian citizen by birth -- and by the time he joined the Royal Ballet, the Justice Department had decided, based on a late 60's Supreme Court decision on dual citizenship, not to make him choose.

Week 2 is up, and Körbes makes her debut as Clara and Flora. She is paired with Maraval, so I have to decide whether or not to risk missing her being paired with Maraval and wait until the week 4 posting is up -- I have tickets for that week with some friends -- or try to catch her next weekend. Decisions, decisions. Week 2 has an impressive array of Peacocks: Kitchens, Chapman, Rausch, Brunson, and Lallone. Did anyone see Körbes or Lowenberg last week? Chapman and Cruz dance Clara/Prince this Sunday evening.