Helene

Oops, it wasn't the 1981 tour, it was 1985. I saw it with Leslie Collier and Anthony Dowell (swoon).

Here is a link to a review of the ballet in the Observer from March 2005: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/stor...1441539,00.html The male lead was originally choreographed for Baryshnikov. I saw this ballet during the Royal Ballet's New York tour in 1981. I vaguely remember a virtuoso-ish part, but it was Ashton, and was a challenge, although never a circus role.

NYCB has seen the retirements of key dancers this year. I remember the same feelings when McBride and Farrell retired with a few years of one another, and another Sunday night in which Luders and Horiuchi retired together. And then Andersen and Cook, my two all-time favorites of the men I've seen live, and I thought, that's it, it'll never be the same. And it was never the same, but different. These dancers can't be replaced, but the Company has a wonderful roster of dancers to cherish, and a School that keeps producing so many, that many other companies are lucky to have the graduates on their rosters.

There are three issues here: 1. The NYCB website no longer has a listing for Ansanelli on its roster. This is a published statement by the Company, and when it became a statement, it became allowable on this site. The NYCB press office is not the only source of published information. At least up until now, no other publications or critics that we know of have spoken about the issue on record. 2. When reliable sources' statement are published, then they are allowable on the site. Until then, they are, for the purposes of this board, gossip. 3. Gossip is not an issue of true or false. Veracity, in whole or part, doesn't stop information from being potentially damaging or embarrassing to the people involved, and the scope of what they want published -- and a sense of privacy -- should be up to them until it's published and on record. The mission of Ballet Talk is to discuss classical ballet performances and issues. It is not Ballet Talk's mission or responsibility to disclose information about careers on a "right to know" basis. We are not a fan board. It is up to dancers, companies, and journalists to decide whether and when to speak, what to speak about, and whether this should be published. As Leigh Witchel stated on the original thread, we're not trying to stop people from speaking about how much they're going to miss Ansanelli as a dancer or to express hope that she'll dance again.

naomikage, I'm glad the typhoon bypassed Tokyo, especially after the earthquake. On behalf of the many ABT fans on this board who could not be there, thank you for describing these ABT performances for Ballet Talk.

This is true; Ansanelli is no longer on the NYCB roster on its website. There's been nothing else in print; if there's any public announcement, we'll be sure to post it. [ADMIN BEANIE ON] For everyone, please no speculation on the board until we get word in print. [ADMIN BEANIE OFF]

That's what laptop batteries are for

Senior moment.

As an opera fan, I don't have a problem with convention, and, apparently, neither does the opera-going world in general, given the proliferation of recent productions of Handel operas, which were once intermittent and mostly vehicles for specific stars, like Giulio Cesare for Sills and Treigle. I find relevance in timelessness and ceremony, even if I won't get over a strong dislike of Albrecht, knowing the convention of the girl whose love redeems the hero I don't have a problem with bombast or sentimentality or when done well. The reason I called Spartacus a bad ballet is because for me it doesn't build very well and I find it repetitive, especially in the theater. Watching it end-to-end, I find it tedious, but taking out the Vasiliev film and watching excerpts of him and Liepa is a total thrill for me.

I don't think US News and World Report has done for ballet companies what they've done for college ratings But in the US, in most unofficial "ratings" I've seen, the top 2 are considered NYCB and ABT, which is why I think San Francisco Ballet has been so adamant about trying to gain an international reputation. To use a sports analogy, this is like Michelle Kwan beating Sasha Cohen at US Nationals for the last two years, but placing behind Cohen at the World Championships, and SFB wants to be Sasha Cohen. Of the "regional" companies -- i.e., everyone but NYCB and ABT, I don't think there'd be that much argument among people who've seen many US companies that SFB, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Houston Ballet, and Miami City Ballet would be in the Top 10. What's common to them all is a strong artistic vision and longevity of Artistic Directors, although eyes are on Houston to see if what changes the newish artistic leadership will bring, and would have been on PNB, had Boal not been chosen. Pennsylvania Ballet and Boston Ballet have had their ups and downs over the years, but they're fairly well known and seem to be on the upswing. Pittsburgh was making a run for it under Patricia Wilde, but seems to have artistic and financial issues now. Living on the West Coast, I've been able to keep an eye on two companies who are turning to a more classical rep: Ballet Arizona under Ib Andersen and Oregon Ballet Theatre under Christopher Stowell, and they are both on the rise.

The orchestra played sublimely for Klinichev in Don Q and Romeo and Juliet last year in Seattle. Raymonda sounded quite lovely under Sorokin in Berkeley.

mussel and carbro, Thank you for posting the announcement, and for your descriptions of a fantastic end to the night

The NBoC website has a short interview with Stephanie Hutchison.

Or that she thought that a bouquet of wildflowers presented by a poor old lady was more precious than the flowers she received from the princes.

He hasn't spoken publicly yet, but if there's an article or interview, we'll be sure to post a link to it.

I have a thing for Spartacus, especially Maris Liepa's Crassus from the film. He's just so baaad. (The character, I mean.)

We've expanded the video policy earlier today. Here is the link to Elite Dance that DancingPixie posted originally: http://www.elitedance.com/videosearch/updateme.htm This is a great site! Thank you DancingPixie

We've expanded the downloads policy to include additional types of sites for which links can be posted, and it now includes film and music. The new policy is located here.

Help and Search Options There are four ways to search: 1. Site Search, from the Search link, the Search Box, or through My Assistant. 2. Forum Search, from the input box towards the bottom left of the forum screen. 3. Topic Search, from the input box towards the bottom left of the thread. 4. Help Search, from the input box that appears when you click the Help link at the top right of each page or through My Assistant. General Rules: 1. Your search string must be at least 3 characters long. Sadly, that means a search on most companies' abbreviations won't work. 2. HTML keywords and extensions like ".img" and ".html" will be blocked by the search function. 3. The search should not be case-sensitive. Error Messages: There are two types of search error messages: 1. Incorrect Input, which occurred when search for +bolshoi + ratmansky (with an incorrect space between the "+" and "ratmansky" "One or all of your search keywords were below 4 characters or you are searched for words which are not allowed, such as 'html', 'img', etc, please go back and increase the length of these search keywords or choose different keywords." 2. No results, which occured when searching for "ABT": "Unfortunately your search didn't return any results. Try broadening the search parameters by searching by different keywords or altering the format of your search. Remember to use the wildcard '*' to increase the number of matches. Apple* will match 'apple' and 'apples'." 3. In addition, we've experienced "permissions" errors when using the search function when searching for three-letter keywords, and in other circumstances we can't isolate. * It's not clear that search is entirely predictable. If you receive an error message, it's worth trying again. * If there are no results found, a Search Again? link appears.> If clicked, you will be navigated to standard Keyword Search method, regardless of the method used for the original search. 1. Site Searches: Keyword Search from the Search Link * When you click the Search link, the default search box will appear. > Enter a text string into the search input box. > Optional: Advanced Usage Help+ The search function supports either/or, multiple words (any order), like, and exact string match searches. + By clicking the Advanced Usage Help link under the search input box, the syntax will appear in a pop-up box. > Select Search Where or accept the default. + Options are "All Forums" (default), or a single forum which you may select from the drop-down box. > Select Sort Order or accept the default. + Options (radio buttons) are "most relevant" and "most recent first" (default) > Click the Perform the search button. * The search results will be displayed by post, with the highlight word(s) displayed in bold red behind a yellow background. Advanced Search from the Search Link* Click the More options button at the bottom of the Keyword Search screen. * Make the following selections or accept the default: > Search by Keywords (required) > Filter by Member Name (optional) + Enter part of or an entire username into the input box provided to the right of the keyword input box. + You may select "Match Exact Name" by clicking the checkbox under the member name input box. > Search Where + Options are "All Forums" (default), or a single forum which you may select from the drop-down box. + The option to search in sub-forums is chosen by selecting the checkbox next to "Search in child forums if sub category is chosen?" (default=checked) > Refine Search + There are four options:(1) Search posts from...* Select the date range from the drop-down box> Options are "Any Date" (default), Today, or 7, 30, 60, 90, 180, or 365 days * Select "Newer" (default) or "Older." > Enter the keyword(s) into the input box in the upper left corner. > The Advanced Usage Help link is visible from this screen. (2) Search Where * Options are “Search entire post” (default) or “Search titles only” (3) Sort results by… * Select the sort option from the drop-down box.> Options are “Last Posting Date” (default), “Number of Replies,” “Poster Name,” “Forum Name.” * Select “descending order” (default) or “ascending order.” (4) Result Type * Select “Show results as topics” (default) or “Show results as posts.” * The search results will be displayed by post, with the highlight word(s) displayed in bold red behind a yellow background. Search from My Assistant* When you click the my My Assistant link from the upper right side of any page, the third option is Search posts for. * Enter the search phrase and click the Go button.> You can use the Advanced Usage syntax and wildcards, but there is no explanatory link to these options from My Assistant. * The search results will appear as a list of threads without highlights, and the search word(s) appears in at least one post. 2. Forum Search * In the bottom left of each forum and subform, there is an input box with the text "Enter Keywords." * If you click on the input box, the text "Enter Keywords" will disappear, so that you can enter your search text.> You can use the Advanced Usage syntax and wildcards, but there is no explanatory link to these options from the Forum Search. * Click the Search forum button to start the search. * The search results will appear as a list of threads without highlights, and the search word(s) appears in at least one post. 3. Topic Search * In the bottom left of each thread, there is an input box with the text "Enter Keywords." * If you click on the input box, the text "Enter Keywords" will disappear, so that you can enter your search text.> You can use the Advanced Usage syntax and wildcards, but there is no explanatory link to these options from the Thread Search. * Click the Search Topic button to start the search. * The search results will be displayed by post, with the highlight word(s) displayed in bold red behind a yellow background. 4. Help Search There are two ways to access the help files: 1. Through a Help Search from the Help link on the top right of the site or My Assistant 2. By clicking on a Help Topic link from the Help link on the top right of the site. * To search, enter the keywords in the input box and click the Go button. * The search results will appear as a list of help topic links.> We've found this most reliable using a single word; the Advanced Usage options don't seem to work in Help Search.

If you select the " Reply" button from a post (which quotes the post in the reply), or the Reply button from the bottom of a thread, you're in "Full Reply" mode, where you'll see a list of formatting buttons above and smilies to the left of the reply input box, where you type your post. Directly above the smilies are two choices: * Guided Mode * Normal Mode. If you want a simple way to bold, italicize, underline, Enter a link to a web page, enter an email address (a@b.com), OR you can select Guided Mode.When you click one of the formatting option buttons, a box will open up prompting you for text to bold, italicize, underline, turn into email text, or quote. Once you click the "OK" button, the system will add the formatting tags and add the text to your reply. For links to web pages, the first prompt is for the URL, and the second is for the text you want to display. This works the same way as if you had pressed the button. If you have a long quote, depending on your operating system (Windows, Linux, Mac) and your browser, your copy function may paste only up to the first carriage return/enter into your post, although I was able to use "Select All" to Leigh Witchel's entire Bolshoi review page from DanceViewTimes into a quote. If you decide to add (more) formatting to text that already appears, switch back to Normal mode. I don't see a setting to make this the default selection, but if I find one, I'll post it.

Thank you for the heads up and for following the offer to its conclusion. I've changed the title of the topic, so that readers know it's no longer available.

Actually, many dancers who retire leave to have normal lives: families, new professions, time off to think, school, and adventures they've put off to avoid injury. There's nothing specifically ominous in leaving ballet without having 15 minutes of fame and a big announcement or even ending up as a result in a Google search.

Welcome to Ballet Talk, naomikage! Many thanks for your post on ABT's performance in Tokyo. I hope everything is okay now in Tokyo. The New York Times article said that 5 people had been injured.

Or are acting as soloists in an orchestra. Of the women who were hired during his tenure, the women had signiificant orchestra or chamber music experience. Talent is a given at that level, but orchestra playing is different than solo playing, and being a good orchestra member is collaborative.

Of the 33 violinists listed on the NY Philharmonic website, 15 of the 31 with links to their bios attended Julliard. Since racial reverse discrimination wasn't cited in the article, I'm curious as to why it is relevant that "several" are Asian. In fact, 10 of the violinists in the orchestra are Asian, 9 of them women, 5 of whom joined the orchestra between 1977 and 1998, before Mr. Polezhayev arrived at the NY Philharmonic. While pedigree doesn't always an orchestral musician make, of the seven women who joined the orchestra during Mr. Polezhayev's tenure, one was hired as the Assistant Concertmaster -- not a position that one expects the person filling it to fail probation -- two were Concertmaster Glen Dicterow's students, one had substantial experience playing for the Pittsburgh Symphony orchestra and was Associate Concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Opera and Ballet Theatre orchestra, one studied with Joseph Silverstein at Curtis and then played for the New Jersey Symphony, one won the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition and played in an orchestra under Menuhin, and one was a child prodigy growing up in St. Petersburg before playing in the New Jersey Symphony and is a world-renowned chamber music player. NY Philharmonic auditions are blind, which means that of the eight musicians who were on probation, seven were women who had earned their spots through their playing ability, not their gender or race or name, although it would be difficult to imagine that Dicterow couldn't recognize the playing of his own students, if he were among the selection committee.