Helene

Is there another official source for pre-casting, like the mainstream press, a dancer's (official) website/public-facing Facebook/Instagram/tweet, etc.?

My stats were based on Principal casting, and the importance should be somewhat equal. Yes, if you don't like ABT Principals, who were cast in 68% of the rep before substitutions, then you're not going to be happy with ABT, especially if a small percentage of those Principals that you do like are replaced by dancers that you don't. 17-18% were filled by Soloists, again before substitutions.

Where is the pre-distribution/early casting published, then?

I can't find an active casting link on the Paris Opera website. Would you please tell me how to find it?

I did the stats in the original Copeland thread at the beginning of May, before Hee Seo got a bunch of new assignments and, I believe this was before Abrera got her Giselle. At that point, 12% of all Principal roles in full-lengths and 11% of Principal roles including mixed bills were assigned to guests. Nearly 90% of Principal roles were assigned to dancers on the ABT roster. http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/39465-misty-copeland/page-47#entry353576 Bobstone17's location is LA. If that is where Bobstone17 has been seeing the Company, LA gets a different experience with casting, which is dominated by the ABT roster. Guests don't go to LA. "Nutcracker" will no longer be seen in NYC, and the dancers for whom members have been craving promotions -- not everyone for all -- were cast prominently. "Sleeping Beauty" was important enough for Vishneva to have made the trip. Perhaps the Company looks different in another city, where rehearsal time has been concentrated on limited rep, and to fresh eyes.

It is a destination company and has been for a long time: just off the top of my head, Makarova, Fracci, Baryshnikov, Bruhn, Godunov, Ananiashvili, Vishneva, Bocca, Careno, Corella, Stiefel, Simkin, Cornejo, Gregory, Orr, Marks, Lander, Bolle, Semionova, Whiteside, McKerrow, Renvall, Radojevic, van Hamel, why even Kevin McKenzie. All danced in other companies, leaving from all ranks and joining at all ranks. As frustrating as McKenzie's casting and promotion practices have been, 7/10 Soloists and 4/16 Principals hail from the Studio Company, and three more Principals joined as corps and were promoted through the ranks during his tenure.

I am glad to see dancers taking their careers in hand and seizing opportunities. Congratulations to them.

ABT as the world's best is a minority opinion. It has declined over the last decade as iconic performers have retired and/or left. If McKenzie was successful at the beginning of his directorship, that doesn't, by definition, mean he is successful now with the challenges the company faces.

https://twitter.com/nycballet/status/613422552426393600

Tweeted by San Francisco Ballet:

Here's a link to the photo: http://www.robertaonthearts.com/images/photos/sblanecornejo3ro.jpg

This is sad news. My condolences to his family and friends. Rest in peace, Mr. Evans.

Both Lane and Cornejo danced the older version, where they did the fish dives. I'm not sure if they ever danced SB with each other, though. I know Cornejo performed with Kochetkova. The costumes and sets were based on the London production. You don't have to agree with or prefer the choice, but it was a legitimate one for a production where the dancing mostly followed the notated text. Ratmansky didn't even have to allow the fish dives.

The commentators are very chatty, and the Russian commentator is speaking in both Russian and English, like Katerina Novikova for the Bolshoi broadcasts. (She also does French.)

She has also appeared in galas. She is well known in the NY Russian community, who tend to fill the theater for Russian performers. She was beautiful in the "Little Humpbacked Horse."

Lane and Cornejo were the one couple who opted for the original choreography and did not do the fish dives, but it wasn't because they were not able.

"Song to the Moon" from Rusalka is very popular.

The Tchaikovsky Vocal Competition is currently live on medici tv for subscribers. It's piano accompaniment, and it looks like each singer will sing three selections. I'm more impressed by Emilia Ablaeva than either soprano finalist in this year's "Singer of the World" competition. Here's the list of singers: http://tch15.medici.tv/en/live/voice These maybe available to everyone later.

There are a number of interviews in Barbara Newman's "Striking a Balance" in which the speakers, who danced 50 years ago said similar things about technique: (paraphrasing): "Now they need to do 32 fouettes on either side to pass the RAD exam" and "Nureyev came and raised the technical bar for men and what I had no longer sufficed." There's not much argument that high extensions and other extensions of technique are built into most neoclassical and contemporary works, but adding these "improvements" to classical rep instead of maintaining distinct styles in ballet is a big issue. In theater during various times, people mashed up Shakespeare, abridging, changing the endings and extrapolating other text and poetry into the performance, and there have been plenty of periods where original musical style has been superceded by contemporary aesthetics, made possible by the increasing number of highly trained musicians. I'm sure a lot of people found Shakespeare performances dull when the original endings and the text were restored. I think it's a valid argument that some of the additions/substitutions served the same purpose as the original text, speaking to many levels and in the vernacular, the same way that a deliberately virtuoso showcase part could be changed to show off more advanced technique, but in ballet, most of the contrast and context has been lost. I'm not a fan of emploi by body type, but rather by style, and the contrast in style was cooked into classical ballet, whether by contrast in dancers/part or within a ballet, like Dream Act Kitri vs. the rest of the ballet Kitri. That there is text to which to return for Petipa ballets allows the ballet world to reclaim if not always the original score, at least the first written records of it, like the originally oral epic tales. I think some of the reconstructions are hitting people the same way the restoration of Shakespeare's text and original instrument performances are, which is a step back from forward progress, since our bias tends to equate advances in technique and moving forward as progress which should be unilaterally applied. It's also early in the performance stage, where dancers across-the-board are not close to mastering the style and technique and the comfort and ease that comes with that mastery. The Rose Adagio is meant to have meaning. It is too often danced as if it is an out-of-context exhibition or exam piece. Similarly, the Lilac Fairy variation. Technique "in service of" is a lost concept. As far as Rojo's performance, every balance check/adjustment as she prolonged the balances made her look less and less competent, aside from the distortion of style. When all a dancer is selling is technique, this is not a good thing.

I've changed the title. Condolences from, The Joffrey Ballet Marina Harss News on: Artforum

Copeland is one of the few non-Principals to have high-visibility guesting opportunities. (I do not consider starring in semi-pro companies among these opportunities.) Stiefel gave at least on when he headed NZ Ballet, and that was a direct ABT connection. It usually takes that promotion to be considered for them. That is a win-win: exposure, money, experience, some coaching, and sometimes new roles for the dancer and a more experienced and satisfied dancer at the simple cost of giving permission, where it's necessary contractually.

If they don't know Obraztsova from her other NY appearances,YouTube,etc., they know she has a Russian last name and is a guest artist. The NY Russian audience certainly knows who she is. Many people judge quality by t ranking in the program. I'd be rich if I got a nickel each time I heard an audience member cross-reference the program to a roster and express dismay that "She's just a soloist" or "He's only in the corps."

It is difficult for ABT Principals to get their heads around a given role, since they're cast once or twice. Dancing more means getting more and/or bigger roles. Guesting certainly helps.

Staying in shape to do Principal roles is what they're trained to do and what they aspire to do. What would be next for Copeland are new Principal roles and more performances of the ones she's got. I'd also expect her to get more guest invitations.

I wasn't quite a girl when Joseph Mazo wrote, "Dance Is a Contact Sport" and quoted a Spring season NYCB insert that had multiple substitutions in a given performance, with descriptions about who was injured at the time, and who was able to do this movement of a ballet, but not that, given the injury. Edward Villella described how towards the end of his career, he had to crawl to the bathroom in the morning, and he couldn't walk until after his daily massage. I don't think this is a new thing at all. "Nutcracker" runs for the corps -- and the students who go from (mostly) class to performing every or every other night -- and the ends of Spring seasons after many weeks in a row of performances often lead to cascading injuries.