Helene

A lovely photo of Grant after the announcement: https://www.facebook.com/PNBallet/photos/pb.21358443951.-2207520000.1443511318./10153323167858952/

PNB published a short video of Benjamin Griffiths in the end of the opening scene from "Prodigal Son" where he's about to flee his family: https://www.facebook.com/PNBallet/videos/vb.21358443951/10153327598758952/ Some photos from "Prodigal Son": James Moore and Laura Tisserand Corps Studio shot of Laura Tisserand

Sadly, that turns into this type of everything-but-the-kitchen-sink routine in the So You Think You Can Dance franchise, this from Season Four Canada, which was generally so much better than the American version -- it starts around 3 minutes 12 seconds, which is in the URL, but our software somehow bypasses it if it's an embedded video:

Another discount code is "Olivier". You need to click the "Enter a password or discount link" on the "Get Tickets" tab, and then to click the "Show Available Tickets" button. Then you'll get a choice (assuming still available) of: GRB Opening Night Package/Whimmer* Opening Night Package $75.00 ($78.62 w/service fee): Ticket and Pre-Performance Reception at 10 Mercer with Patricia and Olivier GRB/Whimmer Preferred $45.00 ($47.57 w/service fee) : GRB Friends and Family Ticket Advance Reserved Seating $52.00 ($54.81 w/service fee) $57.00 at the door *Depending on the code you use.

We have a thread on the Bouder pregnancy here: http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/40681-ashley-bouder-announces-her-forthcoming-cygnet/?hl=cygnet

to her and the dad-to-be!

I wouldn't have guessed this, because they had lots of chemistry in the "Little Humpbacked Horse" when they performed it at the Met on tour about five years ago. Abderakhman just isn't Abderakhman unless Taranda is dancing it, and he danced the Bolshoi version. Thankfully, we have the DVD's of that.

We just received the following note to "Contact Us": If anyone is interested in contacting the person who wrote to us, please send me a PM or email to "Contact Us" above, and I will forward the contact email address to you.

That website is horrible, and it looks like in their recent revamp, the Metropolitan Opera in NYC has used it as a model of poor functionality.

Kimberly Falker interviewed Barry Kerollis for the "Balancing Pointe" podcast. In it he discusses his schooling and career to date, both as a dancer and choreographer, and about his "Core-ography" video project that launches October 1 on YouTube: http://balancing-pointe.com/109-barry-kerollis-free-lance-dancer/

Tonight, which is opening night of PNB's 2015-16 season, Peter Boal announced that Joshua Grant has been promoted to Soloist I am so thrilled for him: he has unmatched presence and dramatic certainty in everything from featured roles to the smallest cameos. Here is the press release: Pacific Northwest Ballet Artistic Director Peter Boal Announces Promotion of Joshua Grant at Opening Night. Seattle, WA – Following the curtain call for Christopher Wheeldon’s Tide Harmonic during Pacific Northwest Ballet’s season-opening performance of SEE THE MUSIC, PNB Artistic Director Peter Boal made a special announcement to the audience. “On rare occasions and when it is most well-deserved, we have the distinct pleasure of promoting dancers and tonight I have a promotion to announce. This individual has enjoyed a most unusual career path. Like many of his peers, his first job was as an apprentice with Pacific Northwest Ballet in 2001 and a few years later he left to join the National Ballet of Canada and later to try his wings as a principal dancer with Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. Those wings, and a pair of size 13 pointe shoes, brought him back to PNB as the Dying Swan for PNB’s 2008 Laugh Out Loud Festival, which in turn led to an audition and a return to this company. Since then, he has triumphed as a dancer, as a partner, and as an enthusiastic member of the team. By now I think you know who I’m talking about. Ladies and gentleman, introducing PNB’s newest soloist, Joshua Grant.” Joshua Grant is from Niceville, Florida. He trained at Northwest Florida Ballet, Harid Conservatory, and Pacific Northwest Ballet School, and he attended summer courses at Virginia School of the Arts, the Rock School, Harid Conservatory, and Pacific Northwest Ballet School. Mr. Grant joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as an apprentice in 2001 and was promoted to corps de ballet in 2002. In 2004, he joined National Ballet of Canada, and in 2006, he joined Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. He performed as a principal dancer with Trockadero until 2011, when he rejoined Pacific Northwest Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet. Mr. Grant has performed leading roles in George Balanchine’s Agon, Emeralds, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Demetrius, Theseus, Cavalier); Lew Christensen’s Il Distratto; Ulysses Dove’s Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven; William Forsythe’s New Suite and In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated; Kiyon Gaines’ Sum Stravinsky; Ronald Hynd’s The Sleeping Beauty (Gold and Silver pas de trois); Jiri Kylian’s Forgotten Land and Petite Mort; Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Roméo et Juliette (Paris); Peter Martins’ Fearful Symmetries; Margaret Mullin’s Lost in Light; Justin Peck’s Debonair; Crystal Pite’s Emergence; Alexei Ratmansky’s Concerto DSCH; Kent Stowell’s Carmina Burana, Nutcracker(Prince), and Swan Lake (Baron von Rothbart); Susan Stroman’s TAKE FIVE…More or Less; Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s Ballad of You and Me; and Twyla Tharp’s Nine Sinatra Songs. He originated a leading role in Christopher Wheeldon’s Tide Harmonic, and he has performed a featured role in Alexei Ratmansky’s Don Quixote. With Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Mr. Grant performed leading roles in Chopiniana, Gaîté Parisienne, Giselle, Go for Barocco, Majisimas, Paquita, Pas de Quatre, Swan Lake, Trovatiara,Vivaldi Suite, and La Vivandiere. He also performed the solo Dying Swan. At National Ballet of Canada, he performed leading and featured roles in John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet, Michel Fokine’s Petrushka, and James Kudelka’s Désir and Nutcracker. He also originated the role of the Horse in Kudelka’s An Italian Straw Hat. Mr. Grant has performed the Dying Swan as a guest artist on the Titus Command Gala in Dallas and for Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Laugh Out Loud! Festival. In 2008, he performed on the Royal Variety Show at London’s Palladium Theatre in the presence of HRH Prince Charles. For the remainder of the run of SEE THE MUSIC, Mr. Grant is scheduled to appear in Tide Harmonicon Saturday, September 26 (evening) and Sunday, October 4; and Prodigal Son on Saturday, September 26 (matinee) and Friday, October 2. Tickets to SEE THE MUSIC are available through the PNB Box Office, 206.441.2424, in person at 301 Mercer Street at Seattle Center, or online at PNB.org.

It sounds like NYCB is taking a page from the NYCB playbook:early in her career, his wife, Megan Fairchild, did four Swanhildes in a weekend in Saratoga Springs.

The photos are from Mme. Hermine. I just posted them because I have permissions to add files.

From Mme. Hermine; (click to enlarge): These are great -- thank you so much

Casting is up for second weekend: https://www.pnb.org/season/15-16/see-the-music/#casting Casting is posted in grid-like form -- yay! -- and to toggle between the two weeks, click the + sign. Here's the spreadsheet: See the Music Weeks 1 and 2.xlsx Major debuts: Tide Harmonic: Week 1: Adomaitis/Lin-Yee, Mullins/Griffiths, Merchant/Thomson Pasch/Wald, Biasucci/Suddarth, Murphy/Orza Week 2: Kitchens/Loch Prodigal Son: Week 1: Griffiths/RauschWeek 2: Renzo/Love SuddarthThe Concert: Week 1: Ricard Orza, Rausch, Davis, Kitchens, Orza, Adomaitis, Cardea, Biasucci, Mullin, Murphy, Clark, Pasch, J. Tisserand, Renko, Loch, SuddarthMIA from the cast lists: Lindsi Dec, Rachel Foster, Jonathan Porretta, Carrie Imler, and Karel Cruz. Check out many new headshots and the new usable format for showing the dancers, including the new corps and apprentice Angeli Mamon; click the photo for bio details (still coming for Pertl and Basso): https://www.pnb.org/artists/

Neil Patrick Harris has a new variety show, but I'm not sure it will stick and, if it does, whether younger audiences will watch. From the review of it on NPR, it seems to have more games and audience participation. Classic Arts Showcase was like a non-hosted variety show.

Thank you so much, Amy! PNB is a company of riches.

Thank you so much!

(This should be public-facing, because I logged out of Facebook and still could see it.) Doug Fullington posted this photo with at least part of his cast: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154186714933496&set=a.10150339881258496.419104.611483495&type=1&theater I recognize the three left-most people: Gonzalo Garcia, Kyle Davis, Angelica Generosa. Is that Tiler Peck next to Generosa? Justin Peck next to Doug?

"Where are the women in ballet?" is a question asked in many of the comments on NYCB's Facebook post where it promoted its "21st Century Choreographers" program with a handful of photos of, you guessed it, white men: https://www.facebook.com/nycballet/photos/a.194499540528.254487.112319735528/10156098519385529/?type=1&fref=nf

that this wasn't streamed...

From the Basco article (emphasis mine): "t happens"? Must be random.

I think there's a range of reactions to leaving ballet, and not all of them are based in negative feedback. I'm always glad when people come to their own resolution and find something "out here" that make them happy.

Barry Kerollis, who danced with Houston Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet before becoming a freelance dancer, choreographer, and teacher, is creating a video storytelling project featuring 12 dancers, all of whom have taken their ballet training to a wide companies and in different directions. The details are described in his Rocket Hub crowd-sourcing campaign: https://www.rockethub.com/projects/59298-core-ography-a-global-dance-storytelling-project#description-tab He has posted a preview video of his first interview with Pennsylvania Ballet Principal Lauren Fadeley to his blog, "Life of a Freelance Dancer": http://lifeofafreelancedancer.blogspot.ca/2015/09/core-ography-global-dance-storytelling.html In the preview Fadeley talks about her decision to leave NYCB. The launch date for this interview is October 1. If you open up the video in YouTube, you can subscribe to reminders. The 12 dancers scheduled are: Who are our Core-Artists? (subject to change) Bridgett Zehr - Freelance Artist (former Principal w/English National Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, & Houston Ballet) Brooklyn Mack - Principal w/Washington Ballet (former Principal w/Orlando Ballet & dancer w/Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre Studio Company. Princess Grace Fellowship Winner. Medalist - Varna, Jackson, Helsinki, Boston, & Korean International Ballet Competitions) Lauren Fadeley - Principal w/Pennsylvania Ballet & Capezio Brand Athlete (former New York City Ballet, Indiana University, Academy Award-winning film Black Swan) Andrew Brader - Complexions Contemporary Ballet (former Houston Ballet, Los Angeles Ballet, Ballet Met, Die Theater Chemnitz) Maria Chapman - Principal w/Pacific Northwest Ballet & MPG Sportswear Messenger John Lam - Principal w/Boston Ballet (Princess Grace Fellowship Winner) Kiara Felder - Atlanta Ballet Cervilio Amador - Principal w/Cincinnati Ballet (former National Ballet of Cuba) Shira Lanyi - Freelance Artist (former Principal w/Ballet Israel & Richmond Ballet) Allen Joseph - Freelance Artist (Glee - TV series, Festival Ballet Theatre, Cupcake Canne) Kara Zimmerman - Victor Ullate Ballet Company (former Joffrey Ballet, Senior Soloist w/Cincinnati Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet) Jessica Daley - Freelance Artist (former Koresh Dance Company, University of the Arts)