Helene

For a lot of us, as expressed here, we just aren't bothered much by technical issues if there are compensating aspects, and, especially, if we like the dancer. Part has had more of us than Seo. (although I like "Hee," a combination of her names). I'm hoping to read after this season's trial-by-fire for Seo that the tide has turned, although, like with Part, not everyone is going to love her, ever.

You can prefer one to the other, and think that one is dull, doesn't work dramatically or structurally, and the other is more exciting, works better on today's dancers, etc. However, the idea that variations and dancers should be judged entirely based on difficulty and a dancer's integrity and competence should be questioned for choosing a technically "easier" variation is competition mentality. You are welcome to disagree.

Aurora wrote: I pointed out that, actually, it was the case at the time for Part among Ballet Alert! members. sidwich did not claim that every Ballet Alert! member agreed, and Part was as much of a lightening rod about her dancing as Copeland is now. Ballet Alert! members' opinions are not, of course, necessarily universal. However, there was much carping about Part's technical deficiencies, almost as much as about her not doing the "harder" option for Lilac Fairy in the new Ratmansky, as if this were the YAGP finals. Copeland's technical proficiency vs. Part's technical proficiency is a different issue. How much the technical issues impacted people's enjoyment of both dancers' performances is also very, very different.

Since the discussion was technique, sidwich's quote selection does not misrepresent the majority opinion posted here, regardless of what members may have thought about other aspects of her performance.

[Admin beanie on] Many thanks to the people who reported content that blatantly violates Ballet Alert! policy. Please do not quote posts in violation and respond to it on the board: that is discussing the discussion and makes clean-up a lot more time-consuming. That's what the "Report" button on each post is for. [Admin benie on]

A) Secretary of Defense B) Captain of the Starship Enterprise C) Gotham City Commissioner D) President of FIFA E) Lead Singer for the Rolling Stones

It is really nice to hear of Simkin in the context of a partnership. The ABT performance threads read like both he and Boyston could really use a good one.

Amen to that.

That he hasn't promoted her means he hasn't succumbed to pressure in the five years since the media has paid attention to her story, and in the 18 months since her book began to be publicized. In the last season his actions support a plausible alternative narrative that he is giving opportunities to her -- and not her exclusively -- that puts the performance quality in her hands on the biggest stage and allows him to evaluate them. Several major critics have weighed in to say she shouldn't have to reach a higher bar than recent promotions, and one said she's been auditioned enough already. If he promotes her, all of the groundwork has been done, and the stage is set. "On their radar" is irrelevant if they haven't even announced a plan, other than Project Plie, let alone put anything into action. Typically savvy arts organizations publicize their outreach and community efforts as much as possible, partly to justify foundation funding and individual donation requests. The new audiences are not going to know that ABT is interested in them through telepathy or because of the misguided assumption that if you build it, they will come. It's possible, and it's possible that ballet lost additional potential audiences in the past because of discussion of eating disorders, and how many people did NYCB lose when it was published that Peter Martins was arrested for beating Darci Kistler? As to whether a charge of racism would be fatal in today's climate, the last year, Eric Garner was killed by the NYPD, and while removing the Confederate flag from state premises in SC is a promising development, I'm not as optimistic that it would matter as much as you fear. I also think were McKenzie to hire three outside ballerinas, and there were feature articles about them, there would be people who wouldn't care about allegations of racism and would go see them. More Russian dancers hired? More tickets sold in the NY Russian community who won't buy a ticket to see Copeland, Abrera, Lane, Seo, or even Murphy. I understand why you think it would be a risk for McKenzie to not promote Copeland after calls for her promotion, but it's the summer, and people have short memories. There's always something new to hijack the news. The press moves on, no matter how good a person's PR agent is. However, while I don't think it is, sadly, much of a risk, I think of the scenarios, the biggest risk is one in which McKenzie promotes another female Soloist to Principal, but not Copeland.

I don't think there's any proof that it's been a motivator to date. I never claimed that he's feeling no pressure. I simply think that his behavior and decisions to date have shown that he has not made it a deciding factor. If only that were so. ABT has made no effort to capture that audience with a website that was barely current when Bill Clinton was President, or to have a robust social media presence. I see no real effort whatsoever to capture that audience. And for those who argue there was no money, in the late '90's and early 00's, Francia Russell said several times in Q&A's that the PNB camera used to record archive performances was on the brink of extension, and they didn't have the $10K to replace it. Fast forward to 2008, and PNB got a $750K grant from the Wallace Foundation "for website re-design and expansion" as part of $7.7m granted to Seattle arts groups for new media and audience building projects, which they leveraged to include a robust video program and social media presence, was the subject of a young audience building study, and just received another $565K for the first cycle of a six-year Wallace Foundation initiative "to test the efficacy of creative involvement and cultural associations with new work, to generate a greater affinity among the millennial audience. PNB will build from a highly successfully program that has previously engaged teen and young adult audiences." There is money out there, perhaps not nearly enough, but a lot, and for those organizations who have strategy, vision, and initiative, ie. for those whose strategy for building young audiences is more than "Let Misty bring them in, and let's hope they stick." If ABT is called "racist," the only new audiences/potential donors that ABT stands to lose are Copeland's new audiences and people who stray in on their own, due to lack of a strategy to actively build audiences. Donors are trickier, because, typically, younger people attend first and donate later, after they have more discretionary income, and it's an investment game. The WSJ isn't the only one talking about this: most major critics have said, in effect, "Just do it." I agree that the biggest risk would be to promote another ballerina, but not Copeland. (Were McKenzie to promote Hammoudi, for example, I don't think it would have the same impact.) I think it would be a mistake on McKenzie's part, but there are only a few numbers to count: donation $/trends, board composition, and ticket sales for Copeland's performances, before and after. How do you calculate potential audience? The data isn't there to know whether generations earlier than baby boomers will follow the patterns on which arts organizations have come to rely and whether race is a big motivator? Before Copeland's story was prominent in the press, how many protests by allegedly socially liberal 20-somethings were there about the racial composition of ballet companies? There are better measurements of how this audience feels about gay rights, and if there was a groundswell accusing ABT of homophobic practices, and no gay Soloist could make Principal with the company, there's enough research to show that a groundswell could be expected. When was the last time ABT has been in control of the message?

According to this article, they met at Dutch National Balket: http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/theatre/the-new-carlos-acosta-matthew-golding-interview-9444158.html

There are many non-professional voices that can impact politicians, governments, social policy, and businesses, for example that can be impacted by groundswells. Far less so, if at all, for arts organizations that are funded primarily by ticket sales + private donations. Unless not promoting Copeland will make major donors walk, the worse case scenario if Copeland is not promoted is that her audience will stop buying tickets, and then ABT would be back to business as usual. Or maybe some will picket the Met. Were there to be a groundswell against ABT, who would those people be, and why would ABT care? Do you think that the core ABT audience is going to walk -- if you read BA! you might think the opposite would be true, that it would walk if she is promoted -- or that the board members are going to resign, if the general blogosphere or twitterati create a groundswell or a Senator to weigh in, about which I have doubts ? I don't even think Oprah would make a statement, unless Copeland were to retire, because that could backfire. This isn't the Met where there are board members who are affiliated with conservative Zionist groups who could quash the HD "Death of Klinghoffer," and that was hardly a popular groundswell. This isn't an election with a finite date, or a position that is limited, like a CEO, where if person "A" is chosen, person "B" is rejected. If Copeland isn't promoted now, she can be in the future. ABT can always take the "not ready yet, maybe later, we look forward to the day we can" stance. As far as thinking McKenzie wants to avoid more criticism, he's proven that he's impervious to it so far, and I have no reason to think this will push him over the edge.

I don't know if Whelan was the original Fairy of Courage when Peter Martins' "Sleeping Beauty" premiered, but she danced the role in the ballet's first season, and she was a stellar Aurora a few years later: aside from Judith Fugate's "Vision" act, she was by far the best NYCB Aurora I've seen, because she danced it simply and on her own terms. She also danced in Peter Martins' "Swan Lake," which I've never seen. I never saw her dance the Balanchine Act II, but Wikipedia says she did, and Balanchine's version is strictly classical, perhaps the only strictly classical work he did. You can argue that NYCB's classical rep is not extensive, or that NYCB dancers shouldn't be held to the same standards as ABT dancers when performing the ones they do, but she did dance the two major Petipa ballerina roles, and she can be compared to anyone who danced those roles and carried those ballets.

The standard San Francisco Ballet season runs from mid-December with "Nutcracker" and then from the last week in January to the first or second week of May. (Next season, from January 24-May 5, 2016.) This doesn't include any touring; the only "tour" that currently is on SFB's website is a performance at Stern Grove. Since ABT has no trouble with casting Kochetkova as a guest with limited rehearsal time, she would miss the beginning of the ABT season, were she to become an ABT Principal. This year, it was mixed rep at the beginning of the season. I don't know when rehearsals for SFB's season begin. It may be possible for her to perform with ABT during the Fall season without interfering with her SFB schedule.

Ballet companies/institutions that comment on social and political issues is ballet news. Clever images, all. Thank you for posting!

Without a predetermined end-point, that's not possible, but if I were a programmer, I could imbed one of those constantly increasing counters, like the amount of polar ice that is melting as we speak.

We just received the following message from PNB: As you know, our corps de ballet member Charles McCall retired from PNB at the end of the season. He is now ready to “unveil” his next work-in-progress project, and you - and all of your friends and family - are invited to attend and observe: The Changeling Project A FREE presentation Cornish Playhouse 201 Mercer Street at Seattle Center This Sunday, June 28 at 3:00 pm (followed by Q&A) Thursday, July 2 at 6:00 and 7:00 pm (The Thursday performances will be further development of the project based on feedback from the Sunday presentation.) Charles, along with poet Adriana Campoy, was a recipient of one of Cornish Playhouse’s first Arts Incubator residency grants. Charles and Adriana are developing a poetry-music-movement piece entitled “The Changeling Project.” The work will center on the character of a changeling, a child of two worlds. In the piece, they will explore the balance between two different worlds that we may find ourselves in, either through blood in the form of mixed race, or by association in environments that differ from our internal worlds. Adriana Campoy is a published poet whose dance training includes Velocity Dance Center in Seattle, Shawl-Anderson Dance Center and Berkeley Ballet Theater in Berkeley, CA, and Escuela de Baile Flamenco Jose de la Vega in Barcelona, Spain, among others. Joining Charles and Adriana in this performance are Lauren Kirchner and Patrick Milian. For more information about the Cornish Arts Incubator residency, visit cornish.edu/playhouse/arts_incubator or contact Rosemary Jones, Director of Communications for Cornish College of the Arts: 206.726.5169 or rjones@cornish.edu.

Promotions in North America are not awarded by concours, where there's a fixed place and time and a structured series of performances, then a decision, and only if there are a set number of places to be had. There isn't a fixed date on which she'd be promoted or not: it could happen any time or never. McKenzie could decide he needs to see more of her in other roles and/or see if she continues to be box office before making the decision, while, at the same time, checking to see what's available in the marketplace for Principal dancers. Were he to promote another in-house soloist to Principal and not promoted Copeland, then there would be an uproar, just as people here have pre-announced their uproar if Copeland is promoted. If he does nothing, there's still always that chance for another season.

Sadly, Polunin has a reputation for not finishing what he started and admitted drug use. I suspect insurance for him would be costly, although he has the temperament and technique for it, if he can translate that temperament into film.

First, I wouldn't presume to speak for all seasoned fans, and second, there are seasoned professionals on the record as thinking she is quite something. Simkin bills himself as a Principal, because he holds a Principal contract with ABT, and ABT bills him as a Principal. Copeland is very much not like Bocelli and Jenkins, in that she dances for a ballet company in the wide range of its rep. She is not a cross-over artist in a cross-over rep anymore than Baryshnikov was a cross-over artist during his ballet years, simply because much of his audience was new, or he was interviewed regularly, or any more than Beverly Sills was a cross-over artist for hosting the Johnny Carson show or Richard Tucker was for being acting cantor at synagogues.

And where has this groundswell been in the last five years since she began to be interviewed by the mainstream press, with a major increase in interest since the publication of her book? She's said she encountered racism since those interviews began. The press has been running with it, although her narrative has many other aspects. It's hardly hidden, and, yet, no immediate groundswell of negative publicity. She's been a soloist since 2007, longer than she was a corps member. As far as selling tickets goes, the story is always more interesting when someone is trying to attain their goals and immediately when they achieve them than much long after they have achieved them. That's why fairy tales end with "Happily ever after," unless Stephen Sondheim finds them interesting.

There have been multiple descriptions of what Copeland actually performed in NYC: Half fouettes with some doubles for the first half seem to be consensus. There have been multiple descriptions of what she did next: Pique turns Pique turns in a circle Pirouettes from fifth in place Pirouettes from fifth in place, except she traveled Pirouettes from fifth intended to travel and did Marina Harss wrote, "Most noticeably, Copeland seemed to lose her nerve about halfway through the famous fouetté turns in the coda of the third act pas de deux, opting instead to finish with quick single pirouettes from fifth. That’s a bit like an opera singer deciding not to go for the high notes in a famous aria – not the end of the world, artistically speaking, but people notice." I think this eliminates pique turns/pique turns in a circle, but Harss doesn't mention the pattern. Alastair Macaulay wrote, "The only obvious technical feature in which Ms. Copeland can improve is the notorious — and overrated — fouetté turns. She did the first half of the usual quota, though wandering across the stage; then she did a series of quick single turns — a smart alternative since they had more musical dynamics than most accounts of the fouettés." Pia Catton wrote, "Critics will debate her modification of a famous and traditional sequence of turns, but debate itself is also a ballet tradition." Sarah Kaufman wrote about her Washington Ballet O/O debut, "She has technical challenges yet to master — controlling her whipping fouette turns..." I think if Copeland had done fouettes and something else in Washington, DC Kaufman would have mentioned it, but she might have been edited or didn't think it was important enough on which to spend part of her words quota.

Why would ABT care about certain members of the public concluding it was a racist employer? Unless there was a groundswell of negative publicity -- and I haven't seen those follow-up articles, aside from a few that talk about the dearth of black ballerinas across North American companies, and the statements by other black dancers that they've gone to Europe to escape discrimination, ie, not tied specifically to ABT -- major donors stopped donating and the cause was specifically due to perceptions of racism at ABT, or board members resigned for the same reason, there's no reason to change artistic policy. The idea that Kevin McKenzie would "have" to do anything unless his bosses -- ie, the board -- demanded something of him is highly questionable.

One of your concerns is that we won't know if Copeland is promoted, whether this was entirely merit-based. It's not my concern, but my response to that concern is that she could just as well have not been promoted earlier because the merit of her dancing was veiled by the obstacle of racism, and once removed, she can be judged on the merit of her dancing. We've been debating how much Copeland should have known and researched before proclaiming herself the first black soloist at ABT. You've been calling this a lie. I believe my post speaks to another possibility and is quite pertinent to the debate. Just one of several details discussed many times. I think this is a logical extension of your characterization of Copeland's statement as a "lie" repeatedly in this and prior Copeland threads. "Lie" means she knowingly spoke falsely with the intention to deceive, and there is no proof that she did, and not calling her a "liar" doesn't diminish this charge. The other possibilities are that when she claimed to be the first black soloist at ABT she was sloppy, ill-informed, or mis-informed, didn't do her research at all, did her research to the standards that my 8th-grade teacher would have scoffed at, but college professors see regularly now, didn't ask the right people, didn't dig deep enough, saw nothing of her heritage reflected in what ABT choose to recognize and came to the wrong conclusion, etc. You characterize any of the other possibilities as "excuses," when I think they are valid possibilities. Most of them don't speak that well of her. I think she would have had to be dumb to knowingly speak falsely with intention to deceive: most of the people who know, trained, and danced with the other black soloists are alive and well and could easily have "exposed" her. I find it curious that ABT never made the correction -- "Miss Copeland is third in the fine line of black soloists at ABT, and we are proud to have her" -- since it is their history that was misrepresented, and it's not as if they risked not having access to her had they done so. The assumption that Copeland/Copeland's PR agent had full control of how the narrative was spun and weighted is also up for debate, regardless of the impacts -- positive and negative -- that narrative had. She most likely had most control over what was in her book, although her publisher's editorial staff and/or legal team might have had some say in it. While there is currently a storm of predictions of and support for her promotion in the mainstream media, it isn't clear whether her PR efforts delayed the casting that could support her promotion and the promotion itself, since there have been many benefits to ABT from this delay: packed houses and high ticket sales for the journey to the top, passionate support from her followers, snowballing free publicity in the mainstream media that dovetailed nicely into ABT's 75th anniversary celebrations, the biggest name recognition among the general public in the US for a ballet dancer for many, many years and, once again, tied to ABT, and fierce debates among fans, stoking the Copeland vs. Abrera vs. Lane debates.

I don't know if non-subscribers can access the archives for long, ie, if you start listening, whether it will prompt you to subscribe. But it's worth a shot: http://tch15.medici.tv/en/candidates/voice Pick a candidate and scroll to the "His Performances" or "Her Performances" section and click the photo. The video should load, and if you scroll, you'll see the rep. (It may be in a different order than sung.) Every contestant sings a song by Tchaikovsky, and it's a wonderful opportunity to hear that rep. There's an amazing amount of young vocal talent coming especially out of Russia.