Helene

From the Ludwig van newsletter: https://www.ludwig-van.com/toronto/2023/02/03/scoop-national-ballet-principal-dancer-piotr-stanczyk-retire-november-2023/?ct=t(RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN)&mc_cid=8780c56d98&mc_eid=170c6ba80f Hope Muir, Joan and Jerry Lozinski Artistic Director of The National Ballet of Canada, has announced that Principal Dancer Piotr Stanczyk will retire in November 2023 after 25 years with the company. He will continue to perform during the winter and summer of 2023, with his final performance during the fall 2023/23 season. “During his distinguished 25-year career with the National Ballet, Piotr has both touched and thrilled audiences with his magnetic stage presence, explosive technique and sensitivity,” said Muir in a statement. “It is my great pleasure to have watched and worked with such a nuanced and generous artist, and I am honoured to have acquired a special work, to be announced in February, in his honour for his farewell performances next November.” Piotr also commented. “The National Ballet has been my creative home for many years, and I am so grateful for all the opportunities I have been given. This company allowed me to grow as an artist, dance so many challenging and rewarding roles and to work with the world’s greatest choreographers. I will truly miss my amazing colleagues, coaches and, of course, our wonderful audiences. I look forward to savouring these last performances and celebrating with everyone next November.” There's also a link to YouTube to his part of The Men of National Ballet of Canada and list of career bullet points, ending with Piotr Stanczyk’s farewell performances in November 2023 will be announced at a later date.

Almost every printed program in the US that I've gotten for ballet or opera has been advertising-based and free. Sometimes the cast lists are printed and attached into the central section of the programs (around the staples) and sometimes there are separate stand-alone sheets. Sometimes there are dedicated lists by performance, and sometimes all of the casts are listed, with the dates showing who is dancing/singing which performance, which is also true for most touring companies*, where the presenter arranges for the programs, usually by everything for the month. The only time I've seen only Principals listed, but the rest of the cast displayed in the venue -- in this case, written on a stand-alone easel -- was for Houston Ballet's The Nutcracker, sometime in the 00's or teens. I remember trying to scribble down the names in time during intermission, and then having trouble reading some of my handwriting. *Edited to add: But it's really frustrating when they have a list of dancers in the program or on a lobby white board, ie, Odette {Ballerina 1), (Ballerina 2), {Ballerina 3), etc., but no list of who is dancing which performance, argh. Starting from the '70's, I attended performances Europe where you had to pay a nominal (coin) fee for the printed cast sheet, while in other places, notably L'opera Bastille in Paris, the cast sheet was printed on a small-ish slip and was free. You could buy the booklet for a larger fee. I don't have the few I bought anymore to see whether those booklets were subsidized by advertising. There are companies that do archive their casts and/or programs online, and they can be printed out/saved, even with a screenshot, but all three I know about are opera companies: Seattle Opera and San Francisco Opera have searchable archives on their sites and digital versions of the cast list pages by opera+run, and Met Opera has the substantial Met Opera Database that, unfortunately, hasn't been updated since the cyber attack. NYCB doesn't have as many performances as Met Opera to track (or for as many years), and the opera and ballet numbers are similar enough in Seattle and San Francisco.

From Alastair Macaulay's Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/p/CoSk34NjXac/ (Be sure to see all three panels)

Dylan Wald is no longer on the cast list as Albert (Sunday, February 12 at 1pm). Lucien Postlewaite will partner Madison Rayn Abeo. https://www.pnb.org/season/giselle/

I was poking through the cast list and just saw that Ryan Cardea is dancing Hilarion on Friday, February 10! I'm so glad he's being given this opportunity.

A snippet of Kuu Sakuragi in the Peasant Pas male solo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CoIa1uJM-HS/

A very short clip of Madison Rayn Abeo and Dylan Wald and a photo of Sarah-Gabrielle Ryan and Kyle Davis > : https://www.instagram.com/p/CoGMlJkSxP1/ And a short clip of Cecilia Iliesiu: https://www.instagram.com/p/CoEU0rwv7kw/

A reminder for Thursday, February 2's events; tickets are $30: Marcie Sillman interviews Peter Boal, Doug Fullington, and Marian Smith [followed by the Dress Rehearsal] https://www.pnb.org/event/giselle-dress/ PNB Conversations begin at 5:30pm in the Nesholm Family Lecture Hall, with a Dress Rehearsal Performance to follow at 7:00pm in the Susan Brotman Auditorium. Seating for the dress rehearsal opens at 6:30pm and is general admission in First and Second Tiers, on a first-come, first-served basis. (No seating is permitted on the main floor level). https://order.pnb.org/23-conversations/giselle

It will be great to see Wald back onstage! There's also a second new cast, Sarah Gabrielle Ryan and Kyle Davis on Saturday evening, February 11 (7:30pm). Here's a link to the downloadable Excel file: Giselle 2023_01_24.xlsx

Macy is cast as Myrtha in the Opening Night cast 😊. From PNB's Instagram, a snippet of Juliet Prine and Mark Cuddihee rehearsing Peasant Pas de Deux: https://www.instagram.com/p/CoBK-WvJd_L/

Luders danced and partnered everyone in everything. It's a shame it took so long to bring him back.

PNB just confirmed on Instagram that the stream will be the Opening Night cast: Leslie Rausch and James Kirby Rogers: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn2FwFIp5v-/ (It's in one of the replies indented below the question.) Edited to add: And there's a photo of Elle Macy rehearsing Myrtha with the corps, so second weekend! https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn4sOEhJxmZ/

Here's the downloadable Excel sheet: Giselle 2023_01_24.xlsx Kyle Davis is back, for those wondering.

Breaks at concerts don't feel as long, because concert halls are lit more brightly, and you can read the program notes, plus you get to watch people move things around, tune the piano, watch the musicians come on stage, etc. They can feel very, very long when you're in the dark and all you see is a curtain, and some vague movement in the pit. I remember one performance of Liedeslieder Walzer where in the pause, as it seemed to grow longer and longer, the whispers turned into a full-voiced conversation about how the Yankees would do that season until the dim "pause" lights were lowered.

Alastair Macaulay tried to make the same point a dozen years ago. He was excoriated for it, and Jenifer Ringer got universal sympathy and a book deal. But his real criticism was about Jared Angle, for whom it was water down a duck's back.

Elle Macy and Dylan Wald are engaged and will be married in four months: https://www.instagram.com/p/CnYVta5rNCV/ Congratulations to them

I loved Sarah Ricard Orza's Giselle. I miss her dancing terribly...

Casting is usually two Tuesdays before Opening Night and will be at the bottom of this page: https://www.pnb.org/season/giselle/ We should know around January 31 for at least first weekend. Lesley Rausch (2011), 2014 and Lucien Postlewaite (2011) are the only dancers who performed Giselle, Albrecht, or Myrtha in the previous runs; Rausch also dance Zulme in 2011. In 2014, James Moore debuted as Hilarion and he danced Peasant Pas, as did Leta Biacucci and Anglica Generosa/Kyle Davis. Elizabeth Murphy danced Moyna and performed Bathilde, and Elle Macy performed Berthe. Ryan Cardea and Ezra Thomson performed the Old Man in both productions. I may have missed them, but I don't see any posts about rehearsal clips/photos or dancers' rehearsal comments about casting from public media about the 2020 revival which was cancelled on March 23, 2020, and was scheduled to run April 10-19, along with the Giselle Symposium. I would think that there would be overlap between 2020 and 2023 casting, since it was just a few years ago.

If showing advertisements with ballet dancing is only appealing to its current, hardcore audience -- aside from Nutcracker -- then ballet has no future. A few people showing up because they like artsy commercials are unlikely to show up a second time if they don't like what ballet is, and they're going to tell their friends, whether in person or on social media. I don't know if this is still true in pandemic times, but there was a lot of hair-pulling about the aging of audiences, and someone did a study to find that younger older people were replacing older older people. Some of the reasoning was that when people became empty nesters, some of whom were downsizing and moving back to cities, they had time and more disposable income, as well as new proximity to performance venues.

I think I may have seen Jared Angle live once, perhaps in a Liam Scarlett piece that had a big cast and dark lighting, but every time I've seen him on video, I've loved him, and that includes his most recent performances. Royal Danish Ballet shoudl thank its lucky stars.

This article on Rojo and Executive Director Danielle St.Germain has info about the choreographers in the next@90 program: https://www.nobhillgazette.com/arts_and_culture/performing_arts/next-generation-leadership-and-artists-step-on-stage-at-san-francisco-ballet/article_3b27f2f8-7d77-11ed-acba-6f8da0c32454.html

That's like when Martins made Esctatic Orange and then there was Verdant Music and Purple. If I remember correctly, Purple is part of the Esctatic Orange score, but was added later. But it did take an existing piece and expanded it to a full evening. Martins A Schubertiade was a long work and was a compilation of music by Schubert. But I can't find a running time for it. Liebeslieder Walzer has a long pause, but that's for the set and costume changes, as the women have to squeeze their feet into pointe shoes after dancing the first part in heels, oy. The longest ballet I ever saw was Neumeier's Mahler Symphony No. 3. It was about a week long. The Met Opera is going the way of many other houses in the US by eliminating intermissions. There is nothing unusual anymore about a 75-90-minute stretch of opera with only a minute or so pause for a set change, if that. The new Fedora combines Acts I&II and is 75 minutes long according to the Met website. L'elisir d'amore's first act is about 75 minutes, too, depending on the conductor.

From the email I just received from NYTB School: Diana Byer to be honored with Lifetime Achievement Award!   Martha Hill Awards Now in its 22nd year, The Martha Hill Dance Fund continues to perpetuate the legacy of a remarkable woman whose influence in the world of dance education and performance knew no bounds. The Awards Gala will be held on Monday, February 27, at 6:00pm at Manhattan Penthouse. “The Martha Hill Awards continue the legacy of Miss Hill by recognizing those who have exhibited stellar achievement in teaching, performing, and nurturing future generations of dancers in a way that embodies Miss Hill’s commitment to the art form,” said the Fund’s president, Vernon Scott.

The constraints for changing employers when applying for a green card depend on the type of visa and whether or not a dancer is sponsored by an employer. There are reasons for not applying for a green card, just as there are reasons for not becoming a citizen of the US, like the lifelong requirement to file US income tax returns on worldwide income, regardless of where you live. While the pandemic may have tilted the scale in terms of travel, she hasn't confirmed that she actually did apply for a green card.

McKerrow and Gardner are now the most well known Tudor experts for staging. I wonder if there's a breakdown of the rep at ABT, like NYCB had for the Robbins rep, where specific Assistant Ballet Masters focused on his works from when he was still with the company.