Helene

Ballet West posted a photo from Kimberly Ballard's and Michael Hansen's wedding last weekend: Congratulations to them

Boston Ballet posted about the grand opening of their new studios in Newton, with celebration from 9am-9pm today: Congratulations to the company!

Michael Breeden and Rebecca King Ferraro interviewed Zoe Zien about her experiences growing up in a family of arts professionals, SAB, her career at Miami City Ballet, and staging Justin Peck's work and working with him on Broadway for their Conversations on Dance podcast: http://conversationsondancepod.com/2017/09/05/zoe-zien-repetiteur-and-former-miami-city-ballet-dancer/

From The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/postscript-john-ashbery

From Houston Ballet's Facebook page: to MET dance Company and Center!

You're right, @mussel.

Very few NYCB members started at the school at 8-10, like at Paris Opera Ballet, the Mariinsky Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, and Bolshoi Ballet. Those programs are hardcore professional dance training, and the physical vetting process is beyond anything in North America and most schools across the world. Even then, if you've ever seen footage of the kids being selected, they aren't starting ballet from scratch, so "pure" is relative. Almost all of the students at SAB come into the Professional Division as teenagers, which means they've had extensive training elsewhere. Very few are NY Metro locals who started at SAB as children and made it into the Professional Division, let alone into the company. They often come from other schools, even if they're local to NY Metro, they take the summer program, and from there are invited to take the year-round program. Even if they're in the year-round program, they often do summer programs elsewhere. I'm not even sure the few dancers that started at SAB as children and made it to the PD and NYC, like Peter Boal, Jennie Somogyi, Michael Byars, and Judith Fugate, were "pure" SAB products, in that any of them might have done summer programs.

Choreographer Pat Graney has won the 2017 Crosscut Courage Award in Arts & Culture for her 25-year-old Faith/The Prison Project: http://crosscut.com/2017/08/meet-the-winners-of-the-2017-crosscut-courage-awards/

La Cour may have been the last one. He did have an inside track, though, as Nilas Martin's step-brother.

They have been few and far between, especially since SAB was bolstered by the Ford Foundation grant, but I'm not sure if any of the Danes did. I'm guessing that since the '70's, more men were hired with professional experience and no SAB training than women. Was Sylve the last ballerina who was hired directly into the company?

#TiaraTuesday: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10155173503713952&id=21358443951

If they are going to take the show on the road, they are going to need funding, and if donors and ticket holders don't want to support this, then they can't perform anywhere else, unless they can organize a fundraiser somewhere else. We know from experience that Seattle and San Francisco audiences were tepid about supporting their ballet companies when they needed to change venues in the same city. They're also a union shop with a union orchestra, so this will take negotiations, particularly if there are strictures against performing in venues that aren't unionized. It likely is too late to include them in performing art centers subscription packages, and many of these venues are booked for the season. Sadly, many dancers may now be fighting for survival, let alone where they can do barre, let alone perform.

Hopefully subscribers and ticket holders can be generous and donate their tickets.

What a great article!

On Thursday, September 7, from 6-6:30 Peter Boal will lead a half hour tour of his favorite pieces of art in the Seattle Art Museum for the "My Favorite Things" series. http://seattleartmuseum.org/visit/calendar/events?EventId=56021 SAM is open until 9pm on Thursdays, and every first Thursday of the month is free. (And every first Friday of the month for Seniors (65+).

I missed this from last week: a photo from Jacques d'Amboise's coaching session, here with Leslie Rausch, during the last run of "Jewels":

Macmillan

A video with very short snippets of Elizabeth Murphy/William Lin Yee and Lindsi Dec in "Emeralds," Leta Biasucci/Jonathan Porretta, Laura Tisserand, and Jonathan Porretta in "Rubies," and Carla Korbes/Bathkhurel Bold in "Diamonds":

Nice article in "Seattle Times" about planning this year's event, using lessons learned from past events, and entry changes: http://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/dance/sculptured-dance-returns-august-31-and-probably-so-will-the-crowds-but-go-anyway/