Helene

He should be searching here

Seattle lost a major philanthropist today: Costco co-founder Jeff Brotman died this morning at 74. He and his wife Susan Brotman have been major donors to Pacific Northwest Ballet, where she is a trustee. http://www.seattletimes.com/business/retail/costco-co-founder-brotman-has-died-at-74/ Rest in peace, Mr. Brotman, and my condolences to his family.

My thoughts, exactly for those Fridays

The foundation of both of their styles was the Imperial school, however, even the Vaganova site credits her with creating the school's method of pedagogy. And of course Petipa liked tricks, but they were placed in context. What came concurrently with his last years -- he was especially displeased with Gorshkov's staging of Don Q in Moscow -- and after him was both a change from the symmetry and style that is reflected in the descriptions and notations and that context. Under Vaganova it modernized, but like the Peking Ballet that toured the US in the '70's, with lots of acrobatics and without those pesky musical interludes that audiences, especially Western audiences, didn't get. Petipa was defined by the combination of mime and dance, and mime was integral to his long, leisurly ballets. What is actually left from the Petipa, despite all of the ballets that are attributed to him?

That's so true: I don't think he cared what Villella or Clifford smelled like Balanchine's morning class must have been like walking into the wrong entrance at Bloomingdale's back in the day and trying to avoid the spritzers when they spritzed first and asked forgiveness later.

And Balanchine based his teaching on the lessons he learned in the Imperial School, a methodology of practice and example, but that does make what he taught the Imperial style. And it doesn't make what Vaganova taught the Imperial style, either. Vaganova was the AD of the company as well as a teacher, and it was she who famously removed the mime from the classical ballets to make the ballets more interesting to audiences, who preferred the tricks. If that's not a distortion of Petipa, I'm not sure what is.

Most people overuse fragrance because they become inured to the fragrance and keep adding on until they can smell it. It's a bit like opiates in that respect. Balanchine used to give his dancers perfume so he could smell who was coming and going, so there's a good tradition of dousing. (I'd be sneezing a lot.)

Except that there are many questions about it, because she was creating a methodology to train dancers to be able to dance current choreography that was being created at that time as well as updated versions of the classics that already distorted the virtues and intent of Petipa's choreography, which had already started before the royal coach stopped showing up to bring him to work. The demands of that choreography were quite different, and, after stretching her method to an extreme, she finally called uncle when she thought it became too circus-like.

That's great news!

The business is much more complex than creating a scrappy start-up: ask all of the tech companies smothered by Apple, Microsoft, Google, amazon, etc. Distribution, shelf space, the huge cost of advertising, the clout of major companies all are huge barriers to entry.

Perhaps you'd like to provide links or quotes, because the only claims I can find on the English Vaganova site are that she created and codified her own teaching method: http://vaganovaacademy.com/A/Welcome http://vaganovaacademy.com/A/History

That is not true. A good source in English is Catherine Pawlick's book, "Vaganova Today." That's why I find it ironic: US ballet audiences had been exposed to very different kinds of rep, including Folkine, Massine, Nijinska, and Balanchine, ie mixed rep and some of it contemporary rep, not to mention the film ballets, many also choreographed by Balanchine, and the ballet-like performances in vaudeville. The expectation for ballet was different than full-length classics.

Good for Hallberg, too!

Considering that they started as a secret society, it's pretty amazing they ever survived, Lincoln Kirstein's friends or not. The irony was that the US was accustomed to a different definition of ballet, one that Ballet Theatre more emulated, which was the Ballets Russes model. Was it the 1949 Sadler's Wells tour to NYC where Fonteyn made her big sensation in "Sleeping Beauty" to beginning of the path to Americans having a taste for the full-length classics? Or did the Soviet company tours pre-date that?

Sorry for the multiple posts in a row: Ballet Alert! still only works for me on IE, which, in edit mode, has disabled the "enter" key. According to the Balanchine Catalogue, there were a number of revisions to the one-act "Swan Lake," and, happily, audiences haven't boycotted because the dance of the four little swans was replaced by "Valse Bluette.":

There's lots of evidence that many Balanchine ballets were produced for financial reasons, ie, to be popular fare to put butts in seats. "Vienna Waltzes," "Western Symphony, "Jewels," and "Stars and Stripes" among them.

My Google searches show no evidence that Martins has focused on classical ballets to save the company. Classical ballet is more than "Swan Lake" and "Sleeping Beauty": I don't see a full-length "Paquita," "La Bayadere," or "Le Corsaire," for example, and there's no Romantic-filtered-through-and-"after"-Petipa "Giselle" on the NYCB list of ballets. If you would share yours, I'd appreciate it. He hasn't created a new full-length since the financial crisis, as far as I know. Please let me know if I've missed any. I am putting on my Admin hat here: Our rules and policies are here, including our policy against discussing the discussion: http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/topic/34250-rules-rules-and-our-mission/ If you don't feel comfortable comparing two dancers on public forums, don't compare two dancers on public forums. If you don't want to read others doing this, we're not for everyone.

Madison Taylor, Elle Macy, and Noelani Pantastico are modeling Yumiko leotards, photographed by Angela Sterling:

Balanchine had planned to do Sleeping Beauty when he felt he had the right cast. He reportedly had found it -- Kistler as Aurora -- but he was too ill by then. Martins' full length story ballets: Sleeping Beauty -- 1991 (announced in 1987) Swan Lake -- 1996 Romeo + Juliet -- 2007 What am I missing? Balanchine's full length story ballet: Nutcracker -- 1954 A Midsummer Night's Dream -- 1962 They fit it onto the stage at City Center. Coppelia -- 1974 First two acts staged with Danilova. Harlequinade (1965) is a two-acter. I know that financial issues were cited for two major corps layoffs during Martins' tenure, and during the last, he took a pay cut. This was in 2009 when NYCB had amassed a $7m operating deficit after the US experienced one of the biggest financial catastrophe's in US history, and if "Swan Lake" was the antidote for that, there would be a lot more ballet fans. However, when I googled New York City Ballet bankruptcy, no results came up.

If Womack ever becomes a Principal at ABT, we can have a direct comparison.

It's not just money: there's also a hormonal aspect to what smells are pleasing, as most women who've been pregnant have experienced. I've already seen Purl Soho tout Christmas ornament kits, and Ravelry is full of ornament and holiday sweater patterns. I wouldn't be surprised if Copeland's younger fans found Modern Muse among their holiday gifts.

Most of our criticism says as much or more about us than our subjects. People can dislike Copeland's dancing for many reasons. People can dislike any dancer's dancing for many reasons. And they do. I haven't read that Copeland's new audiences are all children, and when she spoke in Seattle, adults far outnumbered people in their teens and younger. Copeland has many fans and adnirers, not all ballet fans, that are prime targets for the perfume ads, and if teenagers want to emulate her, I'm guessing the perfume will smell better than the fiid-smell bombs targeted to girls and teenagers.

Welcome to Ballet Alert!, Amanda!

They can't do it now without confiscating people's bags and making everyone turn out their pockets. Snacks have always been there. People don't smuggle in liquids quite as much.

And Gottlieb is no stranger to Miami City Ballet, founded by "Rubies'" originator, Edward Villella.