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Helene

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Everything posted by Helene

  1. Many thanks to the people who responded to our fundraiser, both here and on Ballet Talk for Dancers -- and many of you post to both. We have reached our goal, and the annual fundraiser is now closed for the year!
  2. Many thanks to the people who responded to our fundraiser, both here and on Ballet Talk for Dancers -- and many of you post to both. We have reached our goal, and the annual fundraiser is now closed for the year!
  3. Helene

    Darcey Bussell

    Drew, What a wonderful appreciation of Bussell's dancing.
  4. I've opened up a new thread here to discuss what is upcoming in Holland and Belgium.
  5. In the thread about the EBU Ballet Competition, Pamela Moberg wrote: From the schedule on the Het Nationale Ballet website, she will be able to see a number of Balanchine ballets, two Robbins ballets, and a Wheeldon ballet (Continuum). There will be pieces by Hans van Manen, Rudi van Danzig, and five choreographers whose work I haven't seen: David Dawson, Martin Schläpfer, Krzysztof Pastor, Toer van Schayk, and Ted Brandsen. There will be a production of Swan Lake by "Rudi van Dantzig, after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, in collaboration with Toer van Schayk." However, according to the website, "In his choreography, Van Dantzig has retained the surviving parts of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov's original ballet of 1895, in particular the second 'white act' and the spectacular Black Swan pas de deux with its 32 fouettés. The newly choreographed sections, however, have a searing emotional charge. And with his imposing set and costume designs inspired by seventeenth-century Dutch masters, Toer van Schayk contributed in no uncertain way to the overwhelming success of this Swan Lake." Here is the link to the website: http://www.het-nationale-ballet.nl/index.p...ason_next&s=149 The schedule for the Royal Ballet of Flanders is posted on this thread: http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=19601 Looks like a lot of ballet, with the possible exception of "Uncontainable, April 20: project for young up-and-coming choreographers." The schedule for 2005-6 at La Monnaie in Brussels shows three days of performances by the Bolshoi next February (19-21): two of Giselle and one of an excepts Gala. The rest of the season is booked with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's company "Rosas" (modern) and Tanztheater Wuppertal. http://www.lamonnaie.be/demunt-1.0/program...74&seizoen=2005 Does anyone know of any other companies in or planning to visit Holland or Belgium, or anything about the choreographers whose works will be performed by Het Nationale Ballet?
  6. On figure skating boards, there is a custom of starting "I Am An Outcast" threads in the off-season, where people can voice unpopular opinions, because the rules are that there can be statements and no arguments. I'm not suggesting that this happen here, but in responding, I'm thinking I may have to duck!!! Over 30 years ago, Baryshnikov defected to the West, became the exemplar of virtuoso technique, and inspired a generation and a half to increasing technical heights. Baryshnikov's ballet performances, with the exception of his dancing in Twyla Tharp's choreography, have always left me cold, and I think it's because while he was the gold standard of technical prowess, I was never convinced through phrasing or characterization that he was an artist. He was clearly the product of unequalled institutional training and coaching -- the equivalent of being well brought up -- and had the taste to keep his virtuosity from overwhelming the ballets, but, with the few (Tharp) exceptions, I wasn't convinced of a need to convey, which I think is the hallmark of an artist. For me, an artist is someone who, when a young dancer watches and says "I can do that," and performs the same with impeccable technique, classicism, and restraint, he actually can't "do that." (Although, he may very well be on his way.) Bruhn is dancer who is polarizing in this way at one extreme, and to give a current example, it sounds from chiapuris' description of the popular Israeli dancer in the Moscow International Ballet competition, Vladimir Kuklachev, that Kuklachev might be at the opposite extreme.
  7. Thank you lkresge for posting this! The link to the note on the SAB site is: http://www.sab.org/schoolnews.htm There's also a lovely picture of Peter Boal with some of his students, and a short goodbye to him, as well as an announcement that Nikolaj Hübbe will join the SAB faculty in September. Note: I moved this thread from Recent Performances (where the SAB workshop discussion took place) to the NYCB forum, so it would be seen by all NYCB posters.
  8. The link to the BT4D Pointe Shoe forum is: http://dancers.invisionzone.com/index.php?showforum=44 A number of topics on the forum raise and address -- directly and indirectly -- issues that are pertinent to the thread: 1. How much leeway does a young dancer have to choose, particularly those who are trained from children in the institutional training schools like POB, Bolshoi, Maryinski, Royal Ballet School, Royal Danish Ballet, where their first pointe instruction is in the school itself, vs. most of the schools in the US, where many to most of the pre-professional students come to the schools with beginning pointe training from elsewhere? 2. What is the institutional pressure to change in schools and in companies? 3. How much do individual teachers influence shoe choice? 4. How does the shoe choice affect physiological development, strength? 5. How accommodating are various shoe types to special needs (unusually shaped feet, bunions, etc.)?
  9. I think it's great that people are seeing the ballets multiple times and giving us a first-hand comparison. I wish I could be in your shoes!
  10. Phillipe Candeloro is the name of the skater. He won bronze medals in two Olympic games and has been skating professionally ever since.
  11. [ADMIN BEANIE ON] I think it's important to step back a moment to the purpose of the site, which is to provide a place for people to discuss ballet. As long as criticism follows our Courtesy Policy, it may be expressed on the board. No one need apologize for or justify courteous, well-reasoned criticism. [ADMIN BEANIE OFF]
  12. It's a good thing we don't hear the backstage singing, or out the window would go the perfume and magic of Liebeslieder, Symphony in C, et. al. We would just think, "drunken sailors in tutus."
  13. I've been browsing through Barbara Newman's Striking a Balance, in which a number of dancers interviewed spoke about the mime in Swan Lake, and in the back of my mind I'd remembered that Antoinette Sibley said something true to my heart: Donald MacLeary may have summarized the issue with mime most efficiently:
  14. It's time for our annual joint fundraiser, where we ask for your help to support the cost of running Ballet Talk and Ballet Talk for Dancers for the upcoming year. Our goal is to raise $1,000 for both boards, and we will remove these announcements when we've crossed the goal threshold. There are two options to donate: through PayPal and via check. If you'd like to donate through PayPal and don't have an account, there is a sign-up option on the payments page. Personal accounts are free and allow you to pay by credit card or checking account. (Checking account takes several days to verify.) Edited to delete link and add: FUNDRAISER FOR 2005-6 CLOSED -- we have reached our goal! We are very serious when we say that any amount helps, and we are grateful for all support. For a link to the Mini-FAQ in our "About This Site" forum, which includes more information about the PayPal process, please click here.
  15. It's time for our annual joint fundraiser, where we ask for your help to support the cost of running Ballet Talk and Ballet Talk for Dancers for the upcoming year. Our goal is to raise $1,000 for both boards, and we will remove these announcements when we've crossed the goal threshold. There are two options to donate: through PayPal and via check. If you'd like to donate through PayPal and don't have an account, there is a sign-up option on the payments page. Personal accounts are free and allow you to pay by credit card or checking account. (Checking account takes several days to verify.) Edited to delete link and add: FUNDRAISER FOR 2005-6 CLOSED -- we have reached our goal! We are very serious when we say that any amount helps, and we are grateful for all support. For a link to the Mini-FAQ in our "About This Site" forum, which includes more information about the PayPal process, please click here.
  16. It's time for our annual joint fundraiser, where we ask for your help to support the cost of running Ballet Talk and Ballet Talk for Dancers for the upcoming year. Our goal is to raise $1,000 for both boards, and we will remove these announcements when we've crossed the goal threshold. There are two options to donate: through PayPal and via check. If you'd like to donate through PayPal and don't have an account, there is a sign-up option on the payments page. Personal accounts are free and allow you to pay by credit card or checking account. (Checking account takes several days to verify.) Edited to delete link and add: FUNDRAISER FOR 2005-6 CLOSED -- we have reached our goal! We are very serious when we say that any amount helps, and we are grateful for all support. For a link to the Mini-FAQ in our "About This Site" forum, which includes more information about the PayPal process, please click here.
  17. It's time for our annual joint fundraiser, where we ask for your help to support the cost of running Ballet Talk and Ballet Talk for Dancers for the upcoming year. Our goal is to raise $1,000 for both boards, and we will remove these announcements when we've crossed the goal threshold. There are two options to donate: through PayPal and via check. If you'd like to donate through PayPal and don't have an account, there is a sign-up option on the payments page. Personal accounts are free and allow you to pay by credit card or checking account. (Checking account takes several days to verify.) Edited to delete link and add: FUNDRAISER FOR 2005-6 CLOSED -- we have reached our goal! We are very serious when we say that any amount helps, and we are grateful for all support. For a link to the Mini-FAQ in our "About This Site" forum, which includes more information about the PayPal process, please click here.
  18. It's time for our annual joint fundraiser, where we ask for your help to support the cost of running Ballet Talk and Ballet Talk for Dancers for the upcoming year. Our goal is to raise $1,000 for both boards, and we will remove these announcements when we've crossed the goal threshold. There are two options to donate: through PayPal and via check. If you'd like to donate through PayPal and don't have an account, there is a sign-up option on the payments page. Personal accounts are free and allow you to pay by credit card or checking account. (Checking account takes several days to verify.) Edited to delete link and add: FUNDRAISER FOR 2005-6 CLOSED -- we have reached our goal! We are very serious when we say that any amount helps, and we are grateful for all support. For a link to the Mini-FAQ in our "About This Site" forum, which includes more information about the PayPal process, please click here.
  19. It's time for our annual joint fundraiser, where we ask for your help to support the cost of running Ballet Talk and Ballet Talk for Dancers for the upcoming year. Our goal is to raise $1,000 for both boards, and we will remove these announcements when we've crossed the goal threshold. There are two options to donate: through PayPal and via check. If you'd like to donate through PayPal and don't have an account, there is a sign-up option on the payments page. Personal accounts are free and allow you to pay by credit card or checking account. (Checking account takes several days to verify.) Edited to delete link and add: FUNDRAISER FOR 2005-6 CLOSED -- we have reached our goal! We are very serious when we say that any amount helps, and we are grateful for all support. For a link to the Mini-FAQ in our "About This Site" forum, which includes more information about the PayPal process, please click here.
  20. It's time for our annual joint fundraiser, where we ask for your help to support the cost of running Ballet Talk and Ballet Talk for Dancers for the upcoming year. Our goal is to raise $1,000 for both boards, and we will remove these announcements when we've crossed the goal threshold. There are two options to donate: through PayPal and via check. If you'd like to donate through PayPal and don't have an account, there is a sign-up option on the payments page. Personal accounts are free and allow you to pay by credit card or checking account. (Checking account takes several days to verify.) Edited to delete link and add: FUNDRAISER FOR 2005-6 CLOSED -- we have reached our goal! We are very serious when we say that any amount helps, and we are grateful for all support. For a link to the Mini-FAQ in our "About This Site" forum, which includes more information about the PayPal process, please click here.
  21. It's time for our annual joint fundraiser, where we ask for your help to support the cost of running Ballet Talk and Ballet Talk for Dancers for the upcoming year. Our goal is to raise $1,000 for both boards, and we will remove these announcements when we've crossed the goal threshold. There are two options to donate: through PayPal and via check. If you'd like to donate through PayPal and don't have an account, there is a sign-up option on the payments page. Personal accounts are free and allow you to pay by credit card or checking account. (Checking account takes several days to verify.) Edited to delete link and add: FUNDRAISER FOR 2005-6 CLOSED -- we have reached our goal! We are very serious when we say that any amount helps, and we are grateful for all support. Mini-FAQ How does the joint fundraiser work? Announcements for the fundraiser are posted her and on Ballet Talk for Dancers. As soon as we cross our targeted goal, we will remove the announcements. In the past we've found that donations from members of each board match the costs for that board proportionally. What if I post to both boards? You may donate by clicking the link to ballettalk.com from an announcement on either board. What sites will this take me to? The link in this annoucement is to the ballettalk.com site, which redirects posters to our hosted boards. If you click the "PayPal Donate" button, you will be directed to a customized "Checkout" page on the PayPal site (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr) How do I fill in the form on the PayPal site If you already have an account, it's a very easy process: fill in the amount, login, change the shipping option, and click "Pay." The first step is to fill in the amount in the Amount input box in the top of the form. If you already have an account, fill in the log-in information at the bottom of the page and click "Continue." If you need to sign up for a PayPal account, click the "Click Here" button in the middle of the page, and follow the sign-up process instructions. You should be sent to the "Make Your Payment" page at the end of the process, but if it doesn't appear, you can start from the "PayPal Donate" button on the ballettalk.com site, fill in the Amount, and log-in. If you've logged in, you'll go directly to the "Make Your Payment" page. From the "Make Your Payment" page, under "Shipping Options," you can select "No Shipping Address Required" and click the Pay button. What does "Finance_BT_BT4D" mean? This is an email address to which all of the invoices for the board are sent and all finances are managed. Is my donation tax-deductable Ballet Talk and Ballet Talk for Dancers are not non-profit, charitable organizations, and donations to the sites are not itemizable. However, dance professionals may be able to deduct donations as a business expense. Where does the money go? The fundraiser proceeds pay for the monthly board fees, including bandwidth and hosting support; email service; technical modifications; and version updates.
  22. At the Saturday night performance of Arizona Ballet's closing triple-bill, which included a new Ib Andersen ballet, Agon, and Theme and Variations, Andersen announced during the post-performance Q&A that ticket buyers could turn in their ticket for a free ticket to the final, Sunday afternoon performance. While I don't remember him saying so explicitly then, he has, in Q&A's, encouraged the audiences to see different casts in the ballets, which is a great way to educate an audience. (Seeing those three ballets in successive performances is a great way to educate anyone.) If the house is not going to be full, it's a chance to make a last-minute decision, particularly at a time when the audience is excited by what they just saw. Hopefully, they'd even bring a friend to the performance. (To anyone who paid full price for Sunday, the person holding the free ticket already paid full price to see the performance once.) Principal dancer Paola Hartley, who danced the lead in all five performances of Theme and Variations, said in response to an audience question, that while she gets nervous before a performance, in Theme, because she can hear the spontaneous ooh/aah/gasp from the audience as the curtain goes up on a full stage of women in tutus and chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, it put her at ease, and was so gratifying, that it made her want to give back to the audience the gift they've just given her. Many PNB dancers have said that they can feel if there is electricity in the air from the audience. In the Saturday afternoon performance, some audience members were standing and clapping as soon as the ballerina jumps up onto the cavalier's shoulder, when she still has several bars of port de bras left! The evening audience was equally enthusiastic, even if they waited for the end of the ballet to stand. It's got to be demoralizing to end a season with a half-empty theater and not much noise. While the size of the audience is not necessarily correlated to enthusiasm, odds are better with a fuller house, as long as the audience isn't a gala audience.
  23. The central pas de deux, created for Kirkland, is performed as a gala excerpt. In a performance captured on tape and released commercially (ABT Now), Amanda McKerrow and John Gardner performed it, and retiring Ballet Arizona ballerina Yen-Li Chen-Zhang performed it at a special, final performance.
  24. And, hopefully, now that it's been done in a three-truck, commute-ready production, NBoC will bring it to Vancouver. We hope to hear from those who are attending
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