Helene

They are, however, intimately familiar with bad TV choreography.

Amazing, isn't it, that some members of one of the country's greatest arts institutions are doing an impressive reinactment of Junior High School.

Various thoughts: The critical question in my mind for a dancer in a company is whether he or she can fulfill his or her role in each ballet. At NYCB like at PNB and a number of other companies, a dancer may be a Principal in one role, and the back of the corps in the next one on the program. In this light I always think of the moment in A Chorus Line where Cassie is trying out, and the Director gives her correction after correction to stop looking so star-like and to blend into the rest. A Kirov corps member who tries to do a star turn in the middle of the corps of Swan Lake will not last long in that behavior. I've mentioned before that when I see a corps with members that look very different from each other, I tend to see the similaries, but when I see a corps with members that appear to look very much the same -- like POB, similar heights and builds -- I tend to see differences, which is why it's still possible to see that budding star in the Kirov corps. From all that's been published, there is deep competitiveness within ballet and sports. There's a reason that one of the platitudes that Kevin Costner teaches Tim Robbins in Bull Durham is "I couldn't do it without the team" and that we can laugh when we hear it in just about every post-game/post-championship interview. (I bet even Charles Barkley has said it.) And on the opposite side, for every "glass in the toe shoe" story, for example, there's a "I couldn't let my skates go unwatched, or someone would have damaged the blades" story. Or there's the example of the Seattle Symphony, recently the subject of articles in the Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer, where it was reported that a razor blade was hidden in the mail and a cup of hot coffee was put in the overhead mailbox of Principal Horn John Cerminaro, his car was keyed in the Symphony parking garage, and threatening calls were made to his home, for a combination of, according to these articles, ego and his connection to Music Director Gerard Schwarz, about whom the symphony players are split. (The implication being that if he was more likeable, they wouldn't hold it against him in quite the same manner.) Symphonies are even more reliant on teamwork and even more hierarchical than ballet, because except when the Principals have the night off, it's rare to be in a mini-soloist or leadership role in the equivalent of "corps." This is not a situation that can last long.

If this is the production that POB brought to NYC in the 1980's, I hope the costumes are the same. What I remember most about the production were the flowing silks.

That's odd, because "View New Posts" worked for me yesterday, and during the time Mme. Hermine reported she was getting the "flood control" message. I wouldn't have received that one, because Admins aren't subject to "flood control," but I would have thought I would have gotten the "search error" message to say there were no new posts since the last time I checked, if the comparison was done using date math.

I agree. I've been enjoying this discussion immensely.

90+ users is huge for us. Interesting. Mme. Hermine PM'ed me earlier to say that she was getting the flood control message. Flood control isn't dependent on the number of concurrent users; it's entirely based on the number of times an individual user attempts to post or clicks on the same command. (It's used to stop someone or an automated program from taking over board resources by posting continuously.) I'll check the tech forums to see if I can find something.

Francheschi, along with Lourdes Lopez and Carole Divet, was featured in a fashion spread in the 80's -- maybe the revamped Elle? -- modelling rare Fortuny dresses. In one of the photos was her unmistakeable profile. Her Craske/Cechetti training would have made her a more natural fit at ABT, for example, and so would her profile from the movie Fame. It's hard to imagine that she didn't have a choice of companies, but chose NYCB when she was chosen by it. So even if she wasn't a Balanchine muse, she must have been dedicated to Balanchine, having stayed in the company for many years as a corps member. The last role I remember her in was a demi-solo role in a Paul Mejia ballet.

Although she never taught him, according to Valeri Panov's memoir, Vaganova discovered him just before she died, after Panov's mother wheedled him into being in a position to be discovered.

If you click on "Ballets," there will be a list of the season's ballets. After you click on an individual ballet, if there's a graphic with two ballet shoes and the word "Distribution" to the left of the information about the ballet, a cast list will appear if you click it. If this graphic isn't on the page, the casting hasn't been posted yet.

The song "My Way" was actually written by two Frenchmen, Claude Francois and Jacques Revaux, and was a hit before Paul Anka used Francois' music and re-wrote the words in English, although Frank Sinatra is sometimes given a co-writing credit. The words to the original, "Comme d'habitude," and the song's many translations and local adaptations, can be found here.

We've reached the halfway point of our 2006 Fundraiser. Our costs have doubled since last year, so we need to raise twice as much to keep the boards running. We aim to raise exact costs. We were lucky that last year there were a large number of checks that came in after we closed the Fundraiser and that our amazon commissions exceeded our estimates, which is what subsidized the additional costs from March to September. This does not mean you if: a. You've already contributed b. You've bought your DVD's (CD's, books) from our amazon.com link and support us that way. amazon.com gives us a list of what is purchased but not by whom, so we can't thank you personally, but we do appreciate your ongoing support for the site. c. You gave us invaluable tech assistance for the site (tylerls )

Excellent news! Congratulations to the Alberta Ballet

That reminds me of Esa-Pekka Salonen's comment about his friend, Valeri Gergiev, (paraphrased) that Gergiev is happiest when he's conducting, because the podium is the only place he doesn't have to answer his cell phone. (BTW, veering off-topic for a second, Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra came through Seattle on their way to Vancouver, BC, with Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, with superb soloist Alexandre Torvadze -- what a privilege to hear him get organ-like tones from a piano -- and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 11. [My only beef is that during the ovation, he asked the woodwinds to stand together, instead of giving a solo bow to the English horn soloist.] And his cell phone didn't ring once.)

I would start with the Teatr Wielki site: http://www.teatrwielki.pl/index.php?nlang=en If you scroll down the home page, there is a list of ballets. They seem to reference "Ballet of the Teatr Wielki - Polish National Opera," except for Nutcracker, which is performed by students from the "Warsaw ballet school." In the theater's history page, there is a reference to "The Warsaw ballet company," which seems to be what they're referring to by the ballet company of the theater. (If you lose the English version, you can click the "English" icon in the upper right hand side of any site page.)

That's it, Paul -- thank you! That is my all-time favorite crowd scene, though I must admit, as someone who as a child was taken to Madison Square Garden each year to hear the Scottish tattoo and who waited impatiently for the sword dancing, I often get so caught up watching Effie and the children in the reel, that I miss the beginning of the James/Sylphide action and only catch them when it's almost over. And it's still my all-time favorite crowd scene.

Having just forked over my credit card number to a very nice man from the Seattle Opera, I'm going to answer this in a rather cynical way: my suggestion is to find someone who is already a donor who can bring you to a rehearsal so that you can decide for yourself whether it's worth it. Then if you decide it is, you'll be on their "make him into a repeat donor" list, instead of donating once and then stopping, at which point they'll put you on their "get him back as a donor list," which is more annoying than their "make him into a first-time donor" list. (In my opinion.)Whether a rehearsal is valuable to you depends on a number of factors: where it takes place, whether there are any concessions to having an audience, where you are allowed to sit, whether the technical aspects of a technical rehearsal are interesting to you or if it would drive you crazy if someone yells something about the lights and the dancer stops in the middle of a passage so that the techs can recalibrate a cue or adjust a light, if floppy legwarmers and a tutu will drive you to distraction, etc. All rehearsals, unless otherwise noted, supposedly run as if an audience isn't there, but I suspect that's not 100% true. I gave up on NYCB stage dress rehearsals because I really didn't like where we had to sit, and the people around me chatted way too much during the rehearsal, which made getting a few hours off from work not at all worth it. (But that was almost 20 years ago.) I prefer studio rehearsals, with dancers and the stager/choreographer, maybe some of the artistic staff, and a pianist. One of the best things I saw, I think as a low-level donor benefit at PNB, was a presentation in the studio by Francia Russell, Patricia Barker, and Benjamin Houk on how dancers were coached in and rehearsed Swan Lake in a studio. It wasn't strictly a rehearsal, because Russell made it into a teaching session for us, and the dancers spoke a bit, too. She pointed out how different dancers have different partnering needs -- these two had been partners for years and had premiered a number of ballets together -- and what the challenges of partnering Barker -- her legs are muscular and aren't strictly straight, and she said it made it hard to partner her in supported turns -- are compared to another dancer. But the thing I will remember most about it: I watched Hauk partner Barker from up close, and in the White Swan pas de deux, watched him in the passage where Odetted is in low arabesque and slightly atilt and then falls backwards into his arms. He initiated the entire movement with one hand under her ribs, and by holding the front of her ribs with his fingers, and pressing with the base of his hand into her back ribs. She swivelled and swooned. (Isn't physics grand?) The only dancers I've ever met (in the past) are those who've taught adult open classes, and occasionally, their dancing spouses and partners in passing, and one who brought a small troupe to Jacob's Pillow and to whom I babbled incoherently about a piece he had choreographed, until, much to my chagrin, I realized that Scotty wasn't there to beam me up when I had finally stopped.I have no interest in meeting dancers, either. I'd rather that they lead their regular lives and meet people in everyday ways, and that if I was ever in line with a dancer at the supermarket, at most we'd exchange the standard complaints about how slow the line is, just like other strangers.

We'd be very happy to clog up your mailbox , but, sadly, it takes a more concerted effort than list servs do. You can sign up to be notified when there's an answer to an existing thread by subscribing to a thread and to be notified if there's a new thread in a forum by subscribing to a forum. (Or sub-forum, like NYCB.) This is my long-winded, um, step-by-step post on the topic, but it's actually easier to do than it looks at first glance.

Looks like another juicy role for Rausch in a Dove piece.

One of my favorite series of crowd scenes is in Ib Andersen's Romeo and Juliet. The stage looked overflowing, and then I started to count, and realized that he made a relatively small number fill the stage.

Thank you for the update, Sandy. I think it's interesting that it's not just a blog -- there's a poll for people to vote on whether they liked, disliked, or had no opinion about each program.

I think we should all be horse people, addicted to dressage.

I'm glad you did bring it up. I think what he did was extremely brave. I do think, though, that he had more leeway in his career to make that change than a dancer does.

I'd like to address the Tiger Woods analogy. Woods has a few million dollars in the bank, and millions more coming in endorsement contracts. He plays a game that he can continue to play in his 60's. He could afford both financially and professionally to cherry pick the events in which he competed as he re-tooled his technique. There are relatively few skills that he needs to perform over and over again; the majority of his game, at that level, is mental: strategy, club selection, and focus. Part is in a much lower-paid profession, has a relatively short time in which she can perform, and, as a member of a company, must be ready to perform when cast. There are far more individual skills that Part needs in order to perform any given role; turning is just one of them. I've never seen Part or Woods, for that matter, live, only on film, but on film, both Woods and Part have extraordinary physical elegance.

Paquita, I hope you'll write a long post with your impressions, particularly of Tereshkina.