Helene

From Paris Opera Ballet: https://twitter.com/operadeparis/status/662638274691899392 https://twitter.com/operadeparis/status/662608039992827904 https://twitter.com/operadeparis/status/662591487318867968

Thanks to a heads up from a fellow member: Leta Biasucci is out of first week's casting. Angelica Generosa replaces her in "Tempo Giusto" in "Sum Stravinsky," in "Signature," and in "Trio" in "Emergence" on Friday, November 6. Elle Macy replaces her in "Trio" in "Emergence" on Saturday evening, November 7. Margaret Mullin replaces her in the "Prologue" in "Emergence." The updated spreadsheet is here: Emergence -- Wks 1 and 2 Nov 6.xlsx

"Emergence" choreographer Crystal Pite has received a 2015 Mayor's Art Award in dance from Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. She was chosen by her peers. As a winner, she chose an merging artist from her field, and her choice was choreographer/performer Lesley Telford. http://www.straight.com/arts/570331/2015-mayors-arts-awards-recipients-announced

The PNB November newsletter description of "A Glimmer of Hope or Skin or Light": A dance-theatre-cabaret-glam-rock musical full of uncommon encounters, raucous spectacle, and virtuosic dancing, choreographed by KT Niehoff and set inside the labyrinthine chambers of The Bullitt Cabaret. It premiered in 2010 with another cast as part of ACT's Central Heating Lab. PNB patrons get 20% off using promo code IVORY. Thursday-Saturday, November 5-7 and 12-14. For more info and tickets: http://www.acttheatre.org/Tickets/OnStage/Glimmer

Hartley was one of the few featured dancers who survived the transition to Ib Andersen and thrived in the new rep. I so loved her dancing.

That first trip was a two-fer: it was during that trip that I discovered Paola Hartley, who rocked "Theme and Variations" with Astrit Zejnati, whom I was happy to see, as he had done two prior stints at Pacific Northwest Ballet. George Jackson deserves all the exposure and kudos he receives. Everyone knows Alastair Macaulay, and everyone should know George Jackson.

[Admin beanie on] A gentle reminder that discussion of professional reviews, almost all of which are found in Links, belongs in the "Writings on Ballet" forum. [Admin beanie off] Over the years I haven't liked many of the female dancers featured in Suzanne Farrell Ballet, but Farrell is limited to dancers who can get time off from their main companies or whose main companies' schedules are conducive to sharing. It is a great privilege for her audiences to see Natalia Magnicaballi and Heather Ogden, two of the great female dancers in North America. Seeing Magnicaballi with the company on tour in Berkeley in the early 00's was what made me travel to see Ballet Arizona, and we're lucky in Vancouver when NBoC does one of its rare (far) West tours and Ogden is featured. It's good to read that there are other fine female dancers in the mix.

Here are the links to the promotion announcement tweets, which will quickly disappear down and off the page after new tweets push them down the list: Premier danseuses: Sujets: Coryphees: Congratulations to all of the dancers on their promotions

"Danse avec la plume" is citable here as an official source, as it is much like Dance Tabs, a group of professional writers and journalists. "Dansomanie" is not an official source, as no other discussion boards are on Ballet Alert! This is the link to "Danse avec la plume" http://www.dansesaveclaplume.com/a-la-barre/35919-concours-interne-de-promotion-2015-du-ballet-de-lopera-de-paris-resultats-des-danseuses/ Be sure to provide links for online sources.

Here's the casting spreadsheet for both weeks: Casting has been updated. Please see below for updated casting: http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/40758-emergence-november-6-7-and-12-15/?p=363237

On Instagram: L. Tisserand and Bold rehearse the "Emergence" PDD. https://instagram.com/p/9kaMTCmekJ/

She's been clear that her dream is and has been to dance for the Bolshoi, even if she applies elsewhere. Who know what Vaziev will do now: he promoted Somova aggressively as head of the Mariinsky Theatre, and Womack may be his aesthetic. I can't fault her for wanting to go to a company that pays enough to survive: she can't live at home in Moscow.

Casting is up for week two: until next week, scroll down the page to toggle to week two: https://www.pnb.org/season/15-16/emergence/#casting There are debuts on Thursday, November 12: Margaret Mullin (with James Moore" in "Sum Stravinksky" (also Friday, November 13) A full new second cast of 14 for Price Suddarth's new "Signature" (Also Sunday, November 15) Sarah Pasch and Elle Macy (with Cecilia Illiesciu) in "Trio" section of "Emergence" Matthew Renko as "Bee Man" in "Emergence" Seth Orza iis featured second weekend in "Signature." Spreadsheet to follow.

I thought I remembered Ashton's name among the paragraph-long list of credits in the current production and assumed he had done one from which they mined something for the current mishmash, like "Someone else's 'Swan Lake,' but, back by popular demand, Ashton's 'Neapolitan Dance.'" It's good to have the record straight.

She's said in interviews that it was a green card marriage (or the Russian equivalent).

From the press release: San Francisco--CA—San Francisco Ballet has announced that two long-term Principal Dancers, Joan Boada and Pascal Molat, will say their goodbyes to the Company following the 2015-16 Season. A Farewell Performance is planned toward the end of the season, with the date to be announced. “Joan and Pascal are two exceptional artists who have given so much to the Company and our audiences over the years,” said SF Ballet Artistic Director & Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson. “I am grateful to each of them for all of their hard work and dedication and wish them the best of luck as they step into the next chapter of their lives—they will be missed.” Boada, who hails from Cuba, trained at the National Ballet School of Cuba before dancing with a number of companies including the National Ballet of Cuba, Le Jeune Ballet, The Australian Ballet, and Royal Ballet of Flanders. In 1999, Boada joined SF Ballet as a principal dancer and during his tenure, he has performed a wide range of works by choreographers including Sir Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, John Cranko, James Kudelka, Mark Morris, Alexei Ratmansky, Jerome Robbins, Liam Scarlett, Helgi Tomasson, and Christopher Wheeldon, among many others. In addition to having a number of roles created on him, Boada has also performed principal roles in many full-length productions including Romeo in Tomasson’s Romeo & Juliet, Prince Siegfried in Tomasson’s Swan Lake, Basilio in Tomasson/Possokhov’s Don Quixote, Aminta in Morris’ Sylvia, and Prince Gillaume in Wheeldon’s Cinderella. In 2003, he received the Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Best Ensemble performance with Lorena Feijoo in Tomasson/Possokhov’s Don Quixote. Molat trained at the Paris Opéra Ballet School and danced with a number of companies in his native France, including Royal Ballet of Wallonie, Royal Ballet of Flanders, and Ballets de Monte Carlo. Molat joined SF Ballet in 2002 as a soloist and was promoted to principal dancer a year later. During his career with SF Ballet, Molat has performed in ballets by a diverse array of choreographers including George Balanchine, John Cranko, Jorma Elo, William Forsythe, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Wayne McGregor, John Neumeier, Paul Taylor, Helgi Tomasson, and Hans van Manen, among many others. Molat has had many roles created on him and performed principal roles in numerous full-length productions such as Mercutio in Tomasson’s Romeo & Juliet, Hilarion in Tomasson’s Giselle, the Poet in Neumeier’s The Little Mermaid, Gremin in Cranko’s Onegin, and Aminta in Morris’ Sylvia. Molat has served as a guest faculty member with SF Ballet School and most recently, performed the role of Mercutio in the 2015 film of Tomasson’s Romeo & Juliet, as part of the inaugural season of Lincoln Center at the Movies: Great American Dance.

Evolution, unfortunately, connotes only movement forward, even if that's not what it means. Ballet technique has evolved, but my main objection is that evolution is characterized as forward progress in every way. This is belied by the original tempi and the steps that the dancers of the time mastered that are exceedingly difficult to perform with precision and at those tempi and with the appropriate character and style. It's not where the focus of today's training is, although the school for the Danish Royal Ballet probably has the most.

Just https://twitter.com/sfballet/status/661250171531952129https://twitter.com/sfballet/status/661250171531952129 by San Francisco Ballet:

Not that it is at all surprising that a male dancer from Ukraine with Russian training would be welcomed with open arms by a Western school -- particularly one whose reputation as a feeder of great talent into its main company was diminished -- and whose prodigious talent was so obvious I recognized it as he tendued back behind his prologue fairy partner in "Sleeping Beauty," and that a 5'6" American female dancer would not be embraced by a Russian company with more prodigious talent than it could cast, but to imply that Polunin, described as having spent twice as much time as his schoolmates in the studio because he wasn't in regular school as well, somehow had everything handed to him as if he hadn't done the work or had talent she can only dream of while poor she isn't a star at the Bolshoi is on the delusional side. News alert: men have an easier time being recognized for their work and talent than women in ballet. News alert: the West embraces dancers from the East as company members while the East doesn't embrace Western dancers. News alert: every year someone graduated at the top of his or her class, but that isn't a guarantee of anything except, usually, an offer for a corps position, joining other first-in-one's-class corps members. This was the reality she chose, as Polunin pointed out. A "Spiegel" online article on their opposite journeys: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/the-story-of-ballet-dancers-sergei-polunin-and-joy-womack-a-1059837.html 99 lb target weight for a 5'6" ballerina...

Episode 2 featuring ex Richmond Ballet and Israel Ballet Principal Dancer Shira Lanyi is now on YouTube:

Core-ography #2 with Shira Lanyi has now launched:

From PNB: https://www.facebook.com/PNBallet/photos/a.439537898951.224264.21358443951/10153381561418952/?type=3&permPage=1 From Daniil Simkin (for the win): https://instagram.com/p/9g3VUNha2B/

In the re-opening the wound category, Jahna Frantziskonis is blogging for SFB about their tour to China: http://sfballetblog.org/2015/10/china-tour-diary-week-1/

There are auditoriums where food and drink is not allowed, although exceptions are made for throat lozenges and very few people unwrap them before the curtain comes up. (Carnegie Hall has them in receptacles in the lobbies and tiers.) In those places, it should not be your problem. I was at a performance of "Dialogue of the Carmelites" in Vancouver, BC, and someone two sections over was crinkling a plastic bag for at least the first ten minutes of the performance.

The next live stream of a dance seminar from Temple University is: Tuesday, November 3 5:30-7:00pm ET CHAT Lounge, Gladfelter Hall, 10th fl., Temple University Deborah McCall www.temple.edu/boyer/dance/RR Body and Space: The Daring Experiments of Oskar Schlemmer’s 1920s Bauhaus Dance Theater The emergence of the Weimar Republic ushered in a time of creative fervor, including the Bauhaus, the innovative school for art and design founded by Walter Gropius in 1919. Heading its Theater Workshop, sculptor/painter Oskar Schlemmer reiterated Gropius’s themes of abstraction and standardization of form on the Bauhaus stage. Schlemmer’s 1920s experiments, meant to reflect the new technology of the time and the dilemma of humans in the machine age, inspired Kurt Jooss’s Green Table and paved the way for Cage-Cunningham’s chance composition, Alwin Nikolais’s transformation of the body through costume and props, the pedestrian movement explorations of the Judson Theater and the avant-garde performances of Robert Wilson, Meredith Monk, Laurie Anderson and David Byrne.