Helene

MCB tweeted a link to the announcement: Miami City Ballet Announces New Dancers and Promotions Advancing Three and Hiring Three Dancers, Two from Miami City Ballet School Featured on Teen Vogue’s “Strictly Ballet” MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – For its landmark 30th Anniversary Season, Miami City Ballet announces the promotions of dancers Jennifer Lauren, Emily Bromberg and Jovani Furlan, as well as the additions to the company roster of Simone Messmer, Ella Titus and Mayumi Enokibara. Two of the new additions, Ella Titus and Mayumi Enokibara, will join the corps de ballet as recent graduates of Miami City Ballet School and the stars of Teen Vogue’s “Strictly Ballet,” a hit web series that followed the students’ journeys to becoming ballet dancers at a professional company. “We are thrilled to be promoting these wonderful, deserving artists,” said MCB Artistic Director Lourdes Lopez. “And we are so pleased to be adding three new members to our family just in time for the company’s 30th anniversary, including two recent graduates from Miami City Ballet School. Our audiences are really in for a treat this coming season.” Miami City Ballet is pleased to announce the appointment of Simone Messmer to the company, joining the ranks as Principal. Messmer began her professional career with ABT in 2003, rising to the rank of Soloist in 2010; and joined San Francisco Ballet in 2013 performing principal roles. Messmer trained at the HARID Conservatory in Boca Raton, Fla., Ballet Arts Minnesota and American Ballet Theatre, and was awarded the Leonore Annenberg Arts Fellowship in 2010. Promoted to Principal Soloist for the 2015-2016 season, Jennifer Lauren was named one of Dance Magazine’s “Top 25 to Watch” in 2014 and has been featured in principal and soloist roles, including the lead, Kitri, in Don Quixote, and this past season the ballerina in George Balanchine’s, Raymonda Variations.She joined Miami City Ballet in 2007 as a member of the corps de ballet and was promoted to Soloist in 2011. She is a native of Tuscaloosa, Ala., and danced for Alabama Ballet prior to joining MCB. Emily Bromberg has been promoted to Soloist, following her breakout role as Juliet in John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet during the 2014-2015 season, as well as numerous principal and soloist roles since joining the corps in 2010. A Boston native, Bromberg studied at Boston Ballet School and the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, D.C., and has performed with Colorado Ballet, Boston Ballet and Festival Ballet Providence. Jovani Furlan has also been promoted to Soloist, and danced the role of Romeo opposite Bromberg in Romeo and Juliet. Furlan has continued to impress with his growing repertoire of principal and soloist roles, including the lead in MCB’s premiere of Richard Alston’s Carmen. In the 2013-2014 season, his featured roles included Tony in West Side Story Suite and the rarely performed Paul Taylor solo in George Balanchine’s Episodes. Originally from Joinville, Brazil, Furlan trained full-time as a scholarship student at MCB School and received the Toby Lerner Ansin Scholarship Award in 2011, given every year to one of the school’s most promising dancers. Ella Titus, hailing from Clearwater, Fla., danced with the company in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™and Symphony in Three Movements as an apprentice. She trained at Miami City Ballet School and joins the corps de ballet for the 2015-16 season. Mayumi Enokibara, born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, received the Toby Lerner Ansin Scholarship Award in 2015 and also danced as an apprentice in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™ and Symphony in Three Movements as well as in Don Quixote. She trained at Miami City Ballet School and joins the corps de ballet for the 2015-16 season. “One of our goals at the School is to fully prepare students to seamlessly join the ranks of the corps de ballet at Miami City Ballet and to handle the demands of an incredibly versatile and eclectic repertoire,” said Darleen Callaghan, Director of Miami City Ballet School. “Ella and Mayumi are fully prepared to do this and it will be our joy to watch them grow and mature as professional dancers now, right here in our own company.”

Jennifer Lauren was a highlight of MCB's tour to Vancouver as one of the demis in "Ballo" and in one of the demi couples in"Symphony in Three Movements." Congratulations to the newly promoted dancers

According to Mary McDonough Murphy's 2012 documentary on Lee, Capote saw the manuscript once, and it would have been completely uncharacteristic of him to not have claimed credit outright, despite what Capote's exchange with Cavett is meant to imply, while his jealousy of her success and wish to undermine her was quite in character. The long rewrite process and inputs of her editor have been long- and well-documented. The archives that contain the history of the manuscript from her agents seem to show that the manuscript she showed Capote wad"To Set a Watchman" and was transformed into "To Kill a Mockingbird." https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/rbml/2015/07/14/go-set-a-watchman-in-the-papers-of-harper-lees-literary-agents/

It sounds like from Gopnik's description that Atticus' character is depicted mostly in his arguments with his daughter. ETA: This in from critic Maureen Corrigan: http://www.npr.org/2015/07/13/422545987/harper-lees-watchman-is-a-mess-that-makes-us-reconsider-a-masterpiece

With much of the advanced word containing the shocking news that the noble Atticus Finch from "To Kill a Mockingbird" has turned into a racist in "Go Set a Watchman," Adam Gopnik, writing in "The New Yorker," has other thoughts: He goes on to discuss the Southern Agrarians.

I think that is a cousin to Theresa Ruth Howard's discussion about how there is room for one story. I just finished reading Bill Russell's book "Red and Me," and he wrote about the unofficial quota in the NBA at the time, one that capped the number of black players to three. Like with the Negro leagues, it was clear what talent was playing in an elite league or in the pipeline. (In the case of basketball, it was college basketball, and the talent was out in the open, for people willing to look.) It is great to see more and more companies starting to hire black ballerinas as corps and apprentices, but we are pretty much blind to who is in the pipeline, and the Misty phenomenon of inspiring young women to take notice of ballet and to believe they could become professionals will take years to come to fruition. It would be disheartening if Copeland's promotion was singular, and it was another false start, like the Lochard-Ash-Kamara years at NYCB and then, for a long time, nada.

I do, too, and I'm glad Moreno is being honored. She's the gold standard for every ballet dancer who does Anita in "West Side Story Suite". I wonder why the Eagles and not another band. Are they notable for something in particular? Edited to add: Way to go to honor Carole King, both as a performer and songwriter. Some interviews: Rita Moreno on Fresh Air, 2013, on publication of her memoir "Rita Moreno on Latina Longevity in the Arts" from 2007 Rita Moreno on Fresh Air, 2003 Rita Moreno on Latino USA George Lucas on Fresh Air, 2010 Carole King on Fresh Air, 2012 Cicely Tyson on Tavis Smiley

Conductor Leonard Slatkin named his "10 Forgotten American Masterpieces," and Morton Gould's score for "Fall River Legend," to which Agnes de Mille choreographed her ballet, is one of them. http://blogs.wfmt.com/offmic/2015/07/15/leonard-slatkins-10-favorite-forgotten-american-masterpieces/

The link on which in choriamb commented was to the "Sylvia Pas de Deux " in which van Hamel, with Patrick Bissell, was fantastic. Many thanks for posting it, fondoffouettes -- MvH was a goddess!

The two Balanchine ballets that I've seen ABT do that NYCB doesn't have in its rotation are "Bouree Fantasque" and "Symphonie Concertante." I could imagine them doing a notable "La Sonnambula."

There's limited partnering in "Spectre." I wonder if they can cast tall for the woman.

The name Miles Pertl sounds very familiar. I think I might have seen him dance when he was a student at International Ballet Academy, whose founder Vera Altunina was a panelist at the DCA conference on "Giselle." The dancers in the school get lovely training. Here is the press release: Pacific Northwest Ballet Artistic Director Peter Boal Announces New Hires for 2015-2016 Season Seattle, WA –Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Artistic Director Peter Boal has announced the hiring of six new dancers to join the Company’s ranks in the upcoming 2015-2016 season. Guillaume Basso, Henry Cotton, Cecilia Iliesiu, Miles Pertl and Madison Sugg will all be joining PNB as members of the corps de ballet. Mr. Boal also hired Angeli Mamon as an apprentice, making her the first female student from Pacific Northwest Ballet School’s DanceChance program to join the Company. Guillaume Basso is from Dijon, France. He trained with Sylvain Boniface at the Conservatory of Dijon and with Bernard Boucher at the Paris Opera Ballet School, and he attended a summer course at Houston Ballet School. Mr. Basso joined Houston Ballet II in 2010 and the Joffrey Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet in 2012. While a member of Houston Ballet II, Mr. Basso performed leading and featured roles in Jules Perrot and Jean Coralli’s Giselle, John Neumeier’s Nijinsky, Marius Petipa’s Paquita, Raymonda, and Swan Lake (Black Swan pas de deux); Ben Stevenson’s The Nutcracker; and Stanton Welch’s Blue, Brigade, and Long & Winding Road. At Joffrey Ballet, he performed leading and featured roles in Gerald Arpino’s Viva Vivaldi, George Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante, Alexander Ekman’s Episode 31, Robert Joffrey’s The Nutcracker, and Yuri Possokhov’s RAkU. Mr. Basso was a semi-finalist in the 2010 Prix de Lausanne and 2014 Jackson International Ballet Competition. He has also performed as a guest artist with the Grand Theatre of Dijon. Henry Cotton is from Portland, Oregon. He began his training at The Portland Ballet and continued at San Francisco Ballet School. He attended summer courses at Pacific Northwest Ballet School, San Francisco Ballet School, and the School of American Ballet. Mr. Cotton joined San Francisco Ballet as a trainee in 2013, and joined Oregon Ballet Theatre as an apprentice in 2014. While a trainee at San Francisco Ballet, Mr. Cotton performed and toured with the company, working with numerous choreographers, including Christopher Wheeldon. He performed roles in Helgi Tomasson’s Giselle and Nutcracker and Wheeldon’s Cinderella. At Oregon Ballet Theatre, he performed works by George Balanchine, Nacho Duato, Nicolo Fonte, James Kudelka, and Ben Stevenson. Mr. Cotton has also performed as a guest artist with The Portland Ballet, performing Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, among other works. In 2014, he performed in the 10th anniversary festival of Men in Dance. Cecilia Iliesiu is from New York, New York. She studied at the School of American Ballet and also with Francois Perron and Deborah Wingert at Studio Maestro. She attended summer courses at Boston Ballet School, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Chautauqua Institute, San Francisco Ballet School, and William Forsythe’s ART of workshop under Kathryn Bennetts. Ms. Iliesiu joined Carolina Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet in 2009 and was promoted to soloist in 2014. At Carolina Ballet, Ms. Iliesiu danced leading and featured roles in George Balanchine’s Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet, The Four Temperaments, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Rubies; Marius Petipa’s Giselle; Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free; Christopher Stowell’s Rite of Spring; and Robert Weiss’ Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake. She also originated numerous roles in ballets by Zalman Raffael and Robert Weiss. Miles Pertl is from Seattle, Washington. He trained at Pacific Northwest Ballet School, International Ballet Academy in Kirkland, Washington, and the John Cranko Schule in Stuttgart, and he attended summer courses at San Francisco Ballet School. Mr. Pertl joined Stuttgart Ballet as an apprentice in 2010 and was promoted to corps de ballet in 2011. He next joined Het Nationale Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet in 2012. While a member of Stuttgart Ballet, Mr. Pertl performed leading and featured roles in Bridget Breiner’s Double Bass Concerto, Marco Goecke’s Black Breath, and Kenneth MacMillan’s Concerto. At Het Nationale Ballet, he performed leading and featured roles in Juanjo Arques’ Roulette; Frederick Ashton’s The Dream (Lysander); George Balanchine’s Agon, Serenade, and Symphony in C; Jorma Elo’s Shape; Michel Fokine’s Les Sylphides; Marius Petipa’s Giselle (Peasant pas de deux) and Raymonda; and Peter Wright’s The Sleeping Beauty. In 2007, Mr. Pertl won the Youth America Grand Prix Semi-Finals in San Francisco and Youth America Grand Prix Finals in New York. He has also performed as a guest artist for gala performances in England, Italy, Moscow, and New York. He has choreographed works for the Noverre Society in Stuttgart, Danza Estate in Gubbio, Italy, and New Moves in Amsterdam. Madison Sugg is from Gig Harbor, Washington. She trained on scholarship at Tacoma City Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet School and attended summer courses at American Ballet Theatre and Pacific Northwest Ballet School. She participated in PNB School’s exchange with the Palucca University of Dance in Dresden, where she also performed with Dresden Semperoper Ballett. Ms. Sugg joined Ballet West as an apprentice in 2014. At Ballet West, Ms. Sugg performed roles in George Balanchine’s Square Dance, Willam Christensen’s The Nutcracker, and Adam Sklute’s Giselle and Swan Lake. Angeli Mamon is from Seattle, Washington. She trained on scholarship at Pacific Northwest Ballet School, beginning as a DanceChance student in 2003. She attended summer courses at PNB School, Miami City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet School, and the School of American Ballet. In 2014, Ms. Mamon participated in PNB School’s exchange with the Palucca University of Dance in Dresden, where she also was a guest apprentice with Dresden Semperoper Ballett. While a student at PNB School, Ms. Mamon performed corps de ballet roles in Company performances of George Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Serenade, Peter Boal’s Giselle, Alexei Ratmansky’s Don Quixote, and Kent Stowell’s Nutcracker. She also originated a leading role in a ballet by Kyle Davis for PNB’s annual NEXT STEP choreographers’ showcase and performed leading roles in dances from Le Corsaire for PNB School’s Annual School Performance. PNB congratulates our newly hired dancers!

Which dancers would you look forward to seeing in the newly announced rep?

PNB shared the happy news that Lesley Rausch and Batkhurel Bold are engaged -- congratulations to them both https://www.facebook.com/PNBallet/photos/a.439537898951.224264.21358443951/10153154913873952/?type=1&theater

Megan Fairchild has teamed with the Balancing Pointe podcast on a new feature called "Ask Megan," which will run every Monday. The first question was about what it was like to be in a Broadway show, and her thoughts about returning to NYCB full-time. She answered with a detailed description of preparing for the shows and spoke about her training regimen and how she is getting ready for the transition: http://balancing-pointe.com/ask-megan-juliet-asks-about-a-typical-day-on-broadway/

PNB just re-tweeted a link to this "Pointe Magazine" blog entry about Elizabeth Murphy's leotard line launch (on Etsy), along with a video created by Patrick Fraser: http://pointemagazine.com/blogs/pacific-northwest-ballet/pnb-soloist-elizabeth-murphy-releases-leotard-line Availability in the Etsy store is listed as August 2015: https://www.etsy.com/search?q=ballet%20dancewear%20label%20dancewear I think I recognize a number of her colleagues as models: Elle Macy, Laura Tisserand, Leah Merchant, maybe Carli Samuelson, Leslie Rausch, and Emma Love Suddarth?

Houston Ballet just posted this lovely message to its Facebook page:

Here's the season preview video:

Is the magazine in charge of writing bios? I would doubt they do more than try to hunt down bios from the performers or companies, who are expected to submit the bios. Bio writing is one of the subjects for which Kiyon Gaines sought mentors for the choreographers in PNB's "Next Step" program. If the performers/companies don't respond and/or they are last-minute substitutes, I would guess that it's a last-minute scramble by the staff to get something in the program. We recently had a discussion about Matthew Golding, whose bio on matthewgolding.com does not mention that he danced with Angel Corella's company between ABT and Het National (sic) Ballet. His Royal Ballet bio leverages the one on his website. http://www.roh.org.uk/people/matthew-golding

Jim Nowakowski has made Top 20, one of ten "Team Stage" dancers led by Travis Wall, on this season's "So You Think You Can Dance." http://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/so-you-think-you-can-dance-12-top-20-video-meet-the-finalists-201597 (It took a while to find an article that had contestants last names, which they appear to relinquish.) His Instagram and Twitter descriptions currently read, "Ballet Dancer. SYTYCD Season 12!" I hope he can take it all the way.

Here is his updated bio on the Houston Ballet website: https://www.houstonballet.org/Inside-Houston-Ballet/Dancers/Jared-Matthews/ Congratulations to him

According the Travis Wall, choreographer/leader of "Team Stage" on the current season of "So You Think You Can Dance," the dancer he considered the strongest has opted to go to USC instead: http://www.ew.com/article/2015/07/08/so-you-think-you-can-dance-travis-wall-introduces-team-stage-mentor-blog