Helene

February 11, 2017 at 6:49:59 AM EST (notification date) @variated posted: Hope you don't mind a stranger interrupting but I am a London ballet watcher (have only ever seen the odd NYCB dancer at galas in Europe) flying to NY today and after some cancelled evening plans have just bought a last minute ticket for this evening's Beauty. Am very excited to see Boulder and Mearns live but was wondering whether there is anyone in the minor roles who may be interesting to look out for? Local views much appreciated (can reciprocate with RB, ENB, POB for anyone travelling t'other way) thanks

February 8, 2017 at 8:49:11 PM EST (notification date) @chicagoballetomane posted: I can't believe Cameron Dieck is performing a featured role 15 times that week! Including all 3 ballets on some nights!

I think I captured them all, and the way you sent them was more than fine @angelica! I think there were some missing -- notifications only list the most recent post it detects after a log, and there could be posts between that post and the post in the next notification -- but I've tried to group them so that they make sense, starting with the next post.

@angelica has forwarded us the motherlode of notifications I'm putting them in the order of notification, and I'm trying to group together quotes and responses. After I post, all dates are notification dates, not the posting times, since there's a delay. But they should reflect the general time posts were made.

The subject of chapter 11 of Dr. Melissa Klapper's "Pirouettes from the Past" podcast is "The History of Dance Teacher Organizations in the US" can be downloaded from iTunes or on an Android device or found here: http://balancing-pointe.com/pirouettes-past-chapter-11-history-dance-teacher-organizations-united-states/

Rebecca King and Michael Sean Breeden interviewed Doug Fullington about "Baiser de la Fee" for their podcast, "Conversations on Dance": http://tendusunderapalmtree.com/dance-historian-doug-fullington-le-baiser-de-la-fee/

If I had been living in a co-op instead of a condo, the co-op board might have booted me from the building after the commotion I made early in the morning when I learned that Shizuka Arakawa won the Olympic gold medal in 2006 ;) Congratulations to all of the dancers I got to see some of them on Opening Night last Fall.

We've lost the original 2017 Winter Season thread, and apologize to all who posted their impressions. If anyone received email notifications that a new reply was posted -- they should include the text of the post, and even if deleted from your Inbox, they may still be in your deleted items/trash folder -- we'd appreciate it very much if you would forward them to us at pavlova.nijinski@gmail.com. We can try to recreate the thread the best we can. ETA: Please see the post below.

I changed the title to make it more inclusive. There was a "Dancer News" section in the "Cendrillon" program. It noted Imler's and Bold's impending end-of-season retirements, that Ruat has joined the company -- she was one of the corps women in the ball scenes in at least one cast, but those wigs were so extreme, I could barely recognize any of the dancers -- and that Amanda Clark danced her last performance with PNB in "Nutcracker." (The last time I captured casting, she was cast as the Harlequin doll in the last, evening performance.) From the program: Clark earned undergraduate and a master's degree while at PNB and is one smart cookie. I will miss her dancing. It's always sad to lose a senior corps member, one who creates the fabric and texture of the ballets. I was glad to see her featured in the "Giselle" photoshoot: she was the poster girl for the new PNB production. Her departure could explain the mid-season hire. According to the program notes, "Ms. Ruat performed works by Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, Michel Fokine, Jiri Kylian, Kenneth MacMillan, and Rudolf Nureyev, among others."

That sounds wonderful...

Other casts that I saw were : Porretta, Eames, Postlewaite, Chapman, Tisserand (2008) Porretta, Eames, Wevers, Lallone, Stanton (2010) Griffiths, Chapman, Bartee, and the Tisserands (2010)

Just like this season.

I'm really happy to see "Afternoon Ball" on the menu. I wasn't sure I'd ever see it again. Here's the trailer:

From Millipied's "Appassionata" it was easy to envision Elle Macy as Mother, but, wow, wow, wow, she was spectacular as Fairy, too, in one of the most wonderful debuts by a dancer at the beginning of her career I've seen: she commanded the stage. She and William Lin-Yee were fabulous together in the opening pas de deux, with their long matching lines and amplitude; we learned later that he injured his shoulder during that pas, and with help from Boyd Bender during a quick change, somehow heroically not only made it through the end of Act I without any indication of injury, but his big scene with Elizabeth Murphy's Cendrillon that followed was intense and potent. (Seth Orza danced Father in Acts II-III.) Murphy was very moving as Cendrillon.

Allegra Kent wrote a memoir called "Once a Dancer," and she told part of her story in the documentary "Six Ballerinas." The short answer is, she grew up in California with a stage mother, joined NYCB early, married the photographer Bert "Loves Women Too Much" Stern, and Balanchine kept her on the payroll until the early '80's to help her support her three kids. (All described in her grim memoir; here's a review of it by Joan Acocella.) She got three kids and some lovely photos from the marriage, including some with her children. She was one of Balanchine's muses, but she kept having kids and leaving rehearsal to take care of them -- Mazo describes this in "Dance Is a Contact Sport" -- and while he was clearly loyal to her, as her commitment to ballet waned, at least the kind of commitment he demanded, he stopped choreographing for her, which she describes in the "Six Ballerinas" documentary. She joined NYCB very early, at about 15. Balanchine created great roles for her, some are "Divertimento No. 15" (First Soloist), "The Unanswered Question" from "Ivesiana," -- there's a section of it with someone else (Suki Schorer?) dancing in the Balanchine bio (video, PBS) -- First Movement of "Stars and Stripes," "Concerto Op. 24" (Third Movement) of "Episodes," lead in "Bugaku" -- revived "La Sonnambula" for her -- in the "Six Ballerinas" documentary there is a scene of her coaching Darci Kistler and Ib Andersen in it -- and cast her in many of his iconic roles, like "Agon" Pas de Deux, "Symphony in C" Second Movement, and the Act II Divertissement of "A Midsummer Night's Dream":

Google translate does a fine job with it. https://translate.google.com/ Paste the link into the left box.

Rebecca King and Michael Sean Breeden interviewed Misty Copeland for their podcast "Conversations on Dance:" http://tendusunderapalmtree.com/misty-copeland-american-ballet-theater-principal-dancer/

Boston Ballet's run of "Artifact" beginning this month is arguably the most important set of ballet performances in North America this season. Leigh Witchel previews it for his new site dancelog.nyc. http://dancelog.nyc/?p=256 Be sure to watch the videos. If someone here doesn't go and report back, I am going to cry.

It was a different variation, and it's more than piano. She was 13 at the time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TklGvFRydHo

We just got a message to our Contact Us link that the music is on a Dmitri Roudenev ballet class CD. There seem to be a number of them, but they may be in an accessible music library. Ms. Rodriguez has a video link and has written to the Vaganova school: I found a video of a young Zhiganshina There is another video published four days earlier: I thought there was a video of her from around 2011 with her dancing the same variation to a piano, but I can't find it. Many thanks to new member @tabitha for letting us know!

As you might say, sandik, April Ball is all that and a bag of chips. I could see from her performance why Dec was to be cast as Mother/Fairy. (Peter Boal said in the post-performance Q&A last night that he lost two dancers who were to dance the roles: one [Dec] broke her foot, and the other is pregnant [Tisserand].)

There is a lovely article in the NY Times about Philippe Jordan, the Music Director of the Paris Opera: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/arts/music/philippe-jordan-paris-opera-music-director-a-conductor-who-excels-at-juggling-jobs.html Despite talk/wishful thinking that the Lepage Ring at the Met would be mothballed, it's set to return in 2019: And:

No, the 2017 schedule hasn't been posted: the only info that's been "leaked" (by the company) is the 2017 "Jewels." What I posted is my wish list in response to the idea of a Robbins program.

I hope she doesn't give up classical ballet. I loved her in everything I saw her in when I was lucky enough to see the Bolshoi tour.

The Cage. The Cage. The Cage. And a return of Dances at a Gathering.