Helene

I wish I had been able to see that performance. I love Rebecca Johnston's dancing, and my eye is always drawn to her when she performs. (When I saw a redhead about to perform the Ballerina doll, I thought for a moment that it was she.) I hope this is the beginning of great opportunities for her.

Canary, All of the top schools require an audition, and if you haven't begun training yet, it's unlikely that you'd be prepared for one. (BTW, Guildhall in London is a school I saw over and over again in the English National Opera and London Symphony Orchestra program biographies.) You'd want to contact the school(s) to see if you can get a recommendation for a faculty member who teaches private lessons or who does private evaluations and recommendations.

It's not a period where the Company is performing in both venues. The Forsythe program doesn't begin until March, although it is conceivable that some of the company is tied up rehearsing that program.

You need to click the little British flag in the upper right corner of the site.

I loved Whelan's Aurora during the first year she performed the role in Martins' production. I thought her performance was very clean, direct, and unaffected, and that the core of the choreography shone through. I don't think it was Central Casting, but, nonetheless, I don't think she was miscast.

The dance team is Galler-Rabinowitz/Mitchell, and David Mitchell's mother wrote a letter to her congressman to derail the legislation that was added to the year-end appropriations bill; this was disclosed on an ESPN piece, which was repeated several times during the Grand Prix telecasts. (Originally designed to grandfather all green-card holders with "extraordinary" ability, for whom the citizenship process was speeded up to three years from five, the amendment was changed to grandfather the subset who needed citizenship for international competition.) Tanith Belbin is not the only skater or ice dancer who benefitted from the legislation: Maxim Zavozin, former World Junior champion with partner Morgan Matthews, was sworn in as a US citizen last week. Sergei Magerovski, who is married to former partner Rebecca Palmer, received his citizenship recently, as well. He and partner Tiffany Stiegler are still a bit new -- Stiegler switched to Ice Dance only last year and rushed through the Senior Tests to qualify for the US Nationals last year -- and their podium chances are remote, although they could finish above Galler-Rabinowitz/Mitchell. He benefitted from the marriage provision, which speeded up his citizenship, as did Denis Petukhov, who is married to partner Melissa Gregory and was sworn in last fall. In Germany Aliona Savchenko was granted citizenship; she and partner Robin Szolkowy are on the Olympic team. Savchenko/Skolkowy had to sit out of international competition for two years because she had competed for Ukraine as a junior. The two years on the ice with coach Ingo Steuer was time well spent; in their first year in international competition, they came in 6th at Moscow Worlds, and recently finished 3rd at the Grand Prix Final. They are a terrific team, and while a podium finish is an outside shot for them, especially if Shen/Zhao can compete, they should be on the podium after Totmianina/Marinin (and possibly Petrova/Tikhonov) retire at the end of this year, which they've announced. Sadly, there have been several lawsuits and controversies, which seems to be common in an Olympic year. In Australia, for whatever reason, the Australian Federation based Olympic team selection on the results of last year's Four Continents Champsionship. Miriam Manzano was beaten by Joanne Carter there, but later won the Australian Nationals, and has filed an official protest. (Manzano, in her late 20's, has outlasted her rink being burned down in the big fires a couple of years ago.) The French Federation said that qualification for the European Championships, where placement would determine who the second man would be at the Olympics, would be the highest total of the two top scores at French Nationals and a Grand Prix event. (Not all skaters said that they were aware of the rules well in advance of Nationals.) Although Samuel Contesti finished second in the LP at French Nationals, less than 1 point behind Joubert, and won the silver medal, he was fourth after the points were totalled. He protested, having beaten Dambier at all three French national events this year. The French Olympic Committee (CSNOF) determined that there should be a skate-off. which Contesti won. The French Federation added Contesti to the Europeans team in place of Dambier, but Dambier then filed an administrative protest, and the Cergy-Pontoise administrative court voided the test skate. Dambier will go to Europeans, with Joubert and Preaubert. The Japanese Federation decided to build its own software instead of using ISU software, and their version did not check for the Zayak Rule, which prohibits attempting more than two quad or triple jumps more than twice each in a long program. After Nobunari Oda was awared the gold medal at the Japanese National Championships, a review determined that he had violated the Zayak Rule -- although there was controversy over whether he actually attempted three triples twice -- and Daisuke Takahashi was crowned champion and earned the lone Olympic men's berth for Japan. Ironically, Kristoffer Berntsson of Sweden, who beat Takahashi at Worlds last year by one place, and who finished 10th at Europeans last year, may not meet the Swedish Olympic team's qualifying critera, having had a slow start on the Grand Prix circuit. The big sensation of the year is Mao Asada, who at 15, was born three months too late to meet the age qualification for the Olympics. She landed two triple axels, one in combination, at the Grand Prix Final to beat a jet-lagged Irina Slutskaya, the first time Slutskaya has lost an event since she was ill during the 2004 season. Her LP program was to the pas de deux from The Nutcracker. I saw her compete at Trophee Eric Bompard. I don't think her skating skills are in the same league as Arakawa's -- she also competed in Paris -- her line is a bit sloppy, and I thought her choregraphy was filled with juvenile mannerisms like all those little pseudo echappe's on toe picks, but she's a senior jumper, and her jumps have a rhythm and a flutter that is breathtaking to watch. She's also very musical. The non-sensation of the season was the Marshall's skating event, where while "celebrity" judges Peggy Fleming, Dick Button, and Peter Carruthers, critiqued the four invited skaters in the semis and the two finalists -- alternately Ladies and Men -- the East Coast TV audience called in to vote for who made the finals, and after the second program, who won the event. Michelle Kwan, still recovering from the injury that caused her to pull out of the Grand Prix this season, unveiled her Olympic short program to Totentanz, the same music Slutskaya is using. Sasha Cohen showed a partial version of her Rota Romeo and Juliet program, with some new David Wilson choregraphy. Kwan did not look good at all, with the timing of her jumps off, but she won the TV audience. The judges preferred Cohen and Matthew Savoie, who did not make it into the final. Beaucoup bucks were won by the winners of this popularity contest.

I think Prensa Latina may have been a bit overly enthusiastic and suspect that Mr. McKenzie might be a bit surprised by this.

I found the following new and upcoming releases listed on the Kultur website: Ballet: Picasso and Dance: Le Train Bleu, Le Tricorne (Paris Opera Ballet: Élisabeth Maurin, Kader Belarbi) Swan Lake (Anashvilli, Fadeyechev) (State Perm Ballet, filmed live) Don Quixote (Anianshvilli, Fadeyechev) (State Perm Ballet) Copelia (Bujones) (Release date 28 February 06) Sleeping Beauty (Bujones) (Ballet del Teatro Municipal. Release date 28 February 06) Modern Dance: Pulcinella (Alston) and Soldat (Page) (Rambert Dance Company) Denishawn Dances On! (Documentary with dance reconstructions. Release date 28 February 06) Denishawn: The Birth of Modern Dance (Documentary. Release date 28 February 06) Other Dance: Masters of Flamenco: Early Television Concerts Ragus -- A Uniquely Irish Experience VAI recently released Alicia Alonso: Prima Ballerina Assoluta.

I started to write a review in the airport on the way home, and I thought I deleted accidentally. I found it last week. I'd written the details of the scenes, but then ran out of battery. I'm going to finish it, which will mean three pages of the way the ballet is structured, and much less on the performances.

Many thanks to kfw for finding this news and posting it in today's Links: http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...ndpost&p=172736 I think this is great news for NYCB. A number of Bright Sheng's works have been performed by the Seattle Symphony, and his first opera, Madame Mao, was produced a few years ago by the Santa Fe Opera. I like his music very much; I often envisioned people moving to most of the pieces of his that I've heard.

I think it depends on how the dancer performs 90 degrees. A dancer can do an energyless 180, but the "ooo" factor is there. If a contemporary dancer does a perfunctory 90, particularly as an emphasized or closing pose, that dancer is saying to the audience, :rolleyes: "They're making me stop here, even though I would rather put my leg behind my ear." If a dancer makes an infinitely extending harp of a 90 degree arabesque with lovely arms and back, it's really something. In the Rose Adagio, the dancer is a princess at her coming out party. She's not Juliet. In my opinion, the tension of the scene is between the horrendously hard choregraphy and the modesty of the character, however excited she may be.

She's listed in imdb for her role in Six Weeks, and the site lists her birthday as January 26, 1969. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0372341/?fr=c2l...PTE_;fc=1;ft=20 Now, back to the topic at hand

I hope everyone has a happy and healthy New Year in 2006!

It's unfortunate when a young dancer is miscast, especially when the anti-hero is such a powerful and seductive role. The women sounded wonderful, though.

That's a tough one, Rosie. I travel to see ballet, but for me to fly and spend money on a hotel, at least one of the following must be true: someone whose opinion I trust has explained why it should be seen, it's important historically, or there is a dancer that I really want to see. It may be better to read the reviews of the Royal Swedish Ballet production to see if it's something you might want to see, before you commit to a plane ticket and hotel. For sampling different kinds of dance, I stick to video, local productions, or companies that are visiting where I happen to be visiting.

I think it's great that people are coming across older posts and polls, especially when they use "search." There's a lot of gold in the earlier discussions and topics.

Those are quite the red-and-black checked pants that Tom Gold is wearing.

And Robbins choregraphed one version of "Fall" in Four Seasons for her and Martins, with the alternate version choreographed for McBride and Baryshnikov.

Farrell is one of the subset of people whose mouth corners are downturned, which can be interpreted as a frown or unhappy expression. I always watch her eyes, which are more "active" than the bottom of her face. She also seems to have a droll, understated sense of humor, in which facial understatement, not a "get it?" smile, is most effective. bart: I, too, forgot to set the TiVo, and by the time I got home, it was too late

Finola Hughes of General Hospital fame was in pre-professional training as a teenager until she had a career-ending injury.