Helene

This quote (without the caps ) is from Barbara Newman's book, Striking a Balance: Dancers Talk About Dancing, which is my alltime favorite book about dance. It is a volume of interviews with 25 dancers (in the revised edition) around a particular role, in which the answers have been woven together into multi-page narratives that cover much more. Many of the dancers in the original volume danced with the Royal Ballet, with a few from New York City Ballet (LeClerq, Ashley) and ABT (Marks). Aniashvili is one of the dancers added in the revision. I'm fairly certain there is at least one other mention of the Bolshoi tour in the book.

Miami City Ballet is one of the finest ballet companies in the US. The Artistic Director is Edward Villella, who was one of the great stars of New York City Ballet and for whom George Balanchine created many roles. The Company is featured in the June/July issue of Pointe Magazine. We have an entire forum dedicated to Miami City Ballet: http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showforum=57 Feel free to read through to get a sense of what our posters think about Miami City Ballet. Radchenko seems to have those two companies. The reviews from people here who've seen the companies are not very good. The critical press is mixed. [Edited to add: bart and I were posting at the same time]

I never quite believe stories that include Emeralds, Rubies, and Diamonds in the original Jewels, because both Melissa Hayden and Arthur Mitchell spoke about how originally, there was to be Sapphires for the two of them, which was ultimately replaced by Emeralds. Each expressed disappointment with being left out of Balanchine's great new ballet and being off his creative radar. (Sorry, Scrooge again. But I have no doubt the Balanchine was inspired by the jewels he saw in Van Cleef & Arpels' window.)

Or swans. I'm fairly certain that the mechanical swans in the Seattle Opera production of Lohengrin entered stage left. (But I can't remember where they exited.)

I read the sentence "Aria Alekzander, Joseph Gorak, Devon Teuscher and Faye Hideko Warren, students from the 2006 New York Summer Intensive, will be joining ABT’s Studio Company" as a statement of fact, not as a statement on the selection process, but I can see how it might be read differently. Congratulations to all of the new Studio Company members.

In today's links there was a review of the Royal Ballet's Sleeping Beauty by Robert Gottlieb, in which the last paragraph began, There are artists, like Luciano Pavarotti in his pre-Three Tenors days, who always play themselves. That's not to deny that a Pavarotti had a golden, honeyed voice, and in his early-mid '70's recitals had the patience to treat every song like a precious jewel. But there is no doubt that the artist supercedes the material. I've seen Vishneva live once, in Sleeping Beauty, and didn't for a moment think I was watching Aurora. There were some very lovely things that she did in that performance, but I felt like I was watching The Diana Vishneva Show. (Someone has to be Scrooge...)

A few disjointed thoughts, I've read books and articles that have said that corps dancers tend to be grouped into "rights" and "lefts" for ballet after ballet. It may have been in Toni Bentley's book Winter Season in that there was a statement that it's easier to learn a last-minute corps part to one's "natural" side. In Merrill Ashley's memoir, she wrote about how Balanchine would choreograph or change to her stronger side most of the time. An example she gave in which he didn't was in Ballo Della Regina, in which he replaced pique turns, which didn't film well, for the Dance in America taping, to fouettes that were difficult for her, and then left them in the stage version. Skaters in general spin and turn to one side only. It's a very big deal when a competitive skater does turns to both sides, and there's a special rule under the New Judging System for this, so that the double-sided spin is not counted as two individual spins. Ilia Klimkin is known for his camel spins to both sides. Jeff Buttle has done them, and I think Kwan had early in her career. John Curry insisted that members of his skating companies be able to spin to both sides, although I don't think he required this of guest stars, like Dorothy Hamill. It is a rare skater who spots jumps, because spotting slows down the rotation. Kevin van der Perren did spot, at least until last season. (I haven't seen any of his 2006 performances.) I'm guessing that the same thing is true of spins. It would be impossible to spot a layback spin. Suzanne Farrell had a corner from which she made most of her Balanchine entrances. It would have looked odd if she had entered from the other side.

Admin Propeller Beanie On This isn't in response to any post so far, but before the competition heats up, I want to be clear about the rules for posting about Varna, because there were misunderstandings during our discussions of the recent Jackson IBC: 1. Only official news may be posted about competitors and results. This is limited to published or broadcast results and to eye-witness accounts from the point of view of an audience member. The only exception is: 2. If you are a dancer who is already registered here as of today, posting under your own name, you may post your own results. This means: no info from parents, teachers, classmates, friends, or co-competitors. This is standard Ballet Talk policy. We realize that there are different rules on Ballet Talk for Dancers and want to be clear up front. Admin Propeller Beanie Off

I was trying to take that into consideration, but which leg is the equivalent of the standing leg -- the take-off leg, which varies by jump -- or the landing leg?

Here is Arlene Croce's review from July 23, 1979, from Going to the Dance: I would have loved to see her dance Lynn Seymour's role in A Month in the Country.

In a post-performance Q&A, in response to a question about upcoming promotions, Peter Boal spoke about how while, if there's the money, there is room in the soloist ranks -- there were only five last year at PNB -- there is little room in the Principal ranks, because Principals don't leave/retire very often. Patricia Barker has announced her retirement after next season, although that's based on her personal choice, as her dancing has even gotten better over the last two years. But as far as I can tell, there are no equivalent arguments for and against retirement that I read about Kistler and Nichols in the NYCB threads or that I've read about ABT dancers in the past, or Principals being miscast in roles that are beyond their current abilities, which are pretty awesome.

Left turners, like Plushenko, land on their right leg for all jumps, but for the three hardest jumps -- Axel, Lutz, and Flip -- pick with their right leg and take-off from their left leg, which takes strength. The Toe loop takes off from the right leg with a left pick. The two edge jumps, both unassisted, take off from the right and land on the right, which takes a different kind of strength. What confuses me, though, is that left turners in figure skating lead with their left side. In ballet, the standing leg for left turners is the right leg, but the left shoulder leads the turns.

I liked Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton a lot, as well as Joseph Ellis' Founding Brothers. I disliked the much lauded David McCullough biography of John Adams; I had to force myself to finish it.

It's often the quieter, less bravura aspects of technique that get lost in a discussion of a dancer's technique, the assumption being that arms and line are the "easy stuff" than any dancer can do if s/he put his or her mind to it. (If they are so easy, then why do so relatively few actually do them?) While there were steps and moves beyond Saland's technique, it wasn't just as a dramatic ballerina or late muse of Robbins that she was noted for: she had some of the most beautiful basic technique of anyone in the Company. For example, I don't know of any other dancer at NYCB who did sur le cou-de-pied with the same quietness and precision as she. It seems like a small thing, but then so does tendu, and it's the basis for developpe.

That is precisely what Caro covers in the third book, Master of the Senate. To understand why these roles conflicted, Caro gives an understanding of the institution of the Senate and its aims, and why Johnson was an immediate outsider the moment he became VP. He was rather surprised by this development himself.