Helene

It sounds like from reports so far this season that this trial-by-fire that Hee Seo has endured has, indeed, made her stronger and shows that being able to build on a series of performances is what the home-grown Principals need. The guest Principals or established dancer Principals (like Vishneva) already have that experience when they come. NYCB has policy of casting up-and-comers in leads -- made possible by the mostly mixed-bill rep and A Midsummer Night's Dream with numerous principal roles per performance -- but ABT Principals are lucky to get more than one per season.

A lovely portrait of Julie Kent in "Vanity Fair" was tweeted by the magazine: it's a line drawing that pays tribute to her career. https://twitter.com/VanityFair/status/611664195000631296 It also appears in the original article. http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/06/julie-kent-abt-advice-from-a-ballerina

I'm very excited by it, particular the demands for petite allegro, which elude many of today's dancers, and reminds me of Joyce Di Donato's comments to a student at a recent Carnegie Hall master class in which she told the singer she could get away with her runs, because currently, her approach was passable, but that if she wanted to do them properly, she needed to do specific exercises daily. The standards for singing Handel and later bel canto operas were much higher in certain technical aspects in their day than in the mid- and late-20th century (to current day) revival periods, just like they are in ballet or in figure skating or gymnastics, where many of the transitions and continuous effects were shunted aside to make preparations for bigger technical elements. As far as the "love at first sight" awakening not making sense, I don't hear anyone complaining about Romeo and Juliet falling in love at first sight, even though he showed up to pursue someone else. When we last saw Aurora, she was about to choose between four suitors at her coming out party, something that alone would have signified great change, until interrupted by what she considered a death experience, emotions at high pitch. Just because she wears a tutu and doesn't have a tragic end doesn't mean she isn't a character full of young emotions, unless the dancer performs it as a technical display, like many singers treat Handel arias while ignoring the text.

To continue with that train of thought, there are numerous scores written after Bach's time that require different technique and style and have other technical challenges, and musicians are expected -- at least now, because there were periods in which this wasn't the case -- to match style and technique to the work, and to make extrapolated cadenzas and ornamentation seamless. Today's dancers, even at the Mariinsky and Bolshoi, have ample opportunity to show extension and extended technique in a wide range of works created in the last century.

Deborah Rutter, a musician who worked for Ernest Fleischmann at the LA Philharmonic, became ED of the Seattle Symphony during fundraising for and building Benaroya Hall, and lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association until she was named President of the Kennedy Center.

Jobs like that don't come along every minute, and Spring is the big season. She doesn't leave until October.

A great shot of Abby Callahan: https://twitter.com/PNBallet/status/611299852425801728

The Writings on Ballet Forum is meant to discuss reviews by critics, not to assemble them. We already have a Links forum, and they either are posted, or they will be.

"The Ring of the Nibelungen," arguably one of the greatest works of art ever created, also begins with casual cruelty too -- casual in that it is meaningless to the doer(s) who sorely underestimate the damage done by the slight to the recipient. The Court, whose behavior is supposed to appreciate and codify rank, regardless of how "nice" someone is, has made a great mistake, like the bride who only "casts" thin bridesmaids who look good in the photo op, and a great omission, and the best it can do is shift the blame and ask Carabosse to be bigger than it is, instead of making it right. Carabosse has power due to rank, not just malevolence.

Welcome, Steph! So few of us here are based in Europe or can travel to see many of the companies -- most of us are lucky when an European company tours to North America -- that we'd love to hear what is happening in Europe.

Petipa was already on the record toward the end of his life as bitterly aware of the changes that Gorsky, as a stager and virtuoso, and other male virtuosos were making to his ballets. He didn't have to wait until he was in his grave to roil.

Tonight's the last, alas, unless they bring it back. I know there was a showing where about 15 minutes in, there was an issue with the projector, and they stopped the showing. Tonight may have been a make-up showing.

I saw a pristine version on the big screen tonight at SIFF Cinema in Seattle. I was again astonished by Shearer's dancing, Helpman's partnering, tours, and batterie, and Massine's demi charatere genius. Also the tempi at she and Tcherina danced the selections from "Swan Lake" and "Giselle."

I think there are two unifying elements to performance: style and purpose. While it's great when a company has both, most companies do not have a unified style. Baryshnikov tried at ABT, but there wasn't the money to support that effort in the long run, and there's only so much that a two-year "finishing" course can do. One of the things I've learned from watching PNB do the Ratmansky "Don Quixote" is how powerful a unified purpose can be. That may be the greatest gift he bestows on ABT, whether then end result is his Shostakovitch trilogy or his version of "Sleeping Beauty."

Soloist Lauren Strongin has also left Houston Ballet and has joined San Francisco Ballet: https://www.sfballet.org/company/dancers/soloists

Then the program is mistaken.

PNB just posted a sweet photo of Maria Chapman, Rachel Foster, and Kylee Kitchens with their babies: https://www.facebook.com/PNBallet/photos/np.1434330122465578.688777437/10153085887528952/ Maria Chapman's daughter is coming up to her first birthday, and she said in a Q&A that there was about seven weeks between her daughter and Kylee Kitchen's son, and between Kylee Kitchen's son and Rachel Foster's daughter.

I need to see it from Gallery Upper or First tier. I apologize for such a perfunctory description. It was just so beautiful, and my brain is tied.

The evening performance focused on the Level V-VIII's and Professional Division students. In the class pieces, only in Level VII were there men. Level V's and VI's performed in ballet slippers, and performed with their geographical peers -- Seattle or Francia Russell Center on the Eastside -- while the VII's and VIII's performed in pointe shoes. The class pieces were choreographed by teachers and were performed either to recorded music or to Jeff Junkinsmith's piano accompaniment. I always find it interesting to see what challenges the teacher-choreographers create for their students, especially students in the V-VI range, where they are all over the map in terms of height and body development, which means that many are adjusting to new centers of gravity and weight distribution: last year's Level IV or V tech whiz could be struggling this year. The challenges that were common to all of the programs are the same that professional dancers face in large corps: staying in formation, maintaining the correct spacing, and making seamless transitions during formation changes. I was especially impressed with Dana Hanson's Level VII's, who performed in dark ink leotards and skirts to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." The pointe work looked very strong throughout, and the formations were crisp. Nancy Crowley's "Valse Fantasie" for the Level VIII's was more complex and included more solo work, partnering, and changing groups as well as more technically difficult elements, like double turns. Not surprisingly, it wasn't as clean on the whole as the prior group, but it had sweep throughout. My only distraction was the music: I kept expecting Melinda Roy to leap across the stage with those magnificent jumps from the Balanchine version. The program opened with Matthew Renko's "Danse macabre" for eight Professional Division students. Four couples stood in the corners wearing jackets over their costumes; once removed, they revealed what looked like a mix of costumes from "Who Cares?," with the women wearing socks over their point shoes. The theatrical conceit was a rehearsal, where one couple was having a difficult time with the partnering, and the tall blond dancer in the couple was giving him her best Barbara Fusar-Poli stare. The man, a tall, slender dark-haired dancer, then paired with a short dark-haired dancer, which worked a lot better -- except for his original partner -- until the end, where his new partner re-teamed with her original partner, and the blond partner dragged him off. "Danse macabre" indeed. The second half of the program was Doug Fullington's beautiful reconstruction of excerpts from "Le Corsaire." The precision of the scene changes, in which dancers moved furniture, platforms, flower beds, and props in an out seamlessly as the scenery dropped in and out, needed to be as accomplished as the dancing, and it was. In these selections, lasting about 30 minutes, Conrad was primarily a mime role, in the opening of the "Entree de Medora" and a partnering role, in the "Scene dansante" in the Grotto scene. Birbanto was the primary male dancing role, and Kyle L. Davis, partnering Grace Haskins in the "Danse des forbans" and the "Danse des corsaires" danced and portrayed the character brilliantly. Abby Callahan dances big and lush, and the style was challenging, but she was technically assured and projected very well, and her feet are wonderfully articulate. Angeli Mamon danced Gulnare and gave a convincing portrayal of the character, as did Joshua Shutkind in the short role of Seyd, and in the short glimpses we saw of the Odalisques, Daena Bortnick, Erika Crawford, and Shelby Whallon, who performed the "Entree & coda." The Professional Division students were joined by dancers from Levels II and up, who were pirates and villagers and danced in the centerpiece, four excerpts from the exquisite "Le jardin anime." The great advantage of "Le Corsaire" excerpts being done by the School is the great range of ages, sizes, and abilities in one performance. It looked like a society. My only complaint is that it wasn't enough: we need to see the whole thing.

From listening to dancers talk about the summer intensives they've taken, it seems to me that they try to get a lot of different teachers and experiences while they have the opportunity, and that taking different programs and the direction in which the students are sent are often encouraged and enabled by their teachers. PNB published a list of where the PNBS students are going this summer, 34 in all. Two are PNB programs, the Francia Russell Center Summer Course (16) and Pacific Northwest Ballet School (17), and two are exchange programs, with the Royal Danish Ballet School (2) and National Ballet School (1). They range from schools with a neoclassical performance tradition to more classically oriented programs, likes American Ballet Theatre School and the Bolshoi School to more contemporary focused programs, like Lines Ballet School. It does seem that the PD's who just completed their first year don't attend summer programs, unless it's one of the exchange programs. I don't see any of the other non-graduates' names on the summer intensive lists.

Diana Vishneva just tweeted this message with a lovely photo of her, Gomes, and Ratmansky:

If that happens, it will be interesting to see what Paris thinks of the production, after all of those years with the overdone Nureyev version.

There was some more info in the program, with a page dedicated to the Dance Chance program, which celebrates its 21st year this year. So far, eight former Dance Chance students have gone/are going on to professional careers, with two dancing with PNB: Alice Cao (Ballet Memphis, American Repertory Ballet, Singapore Dance Theater, after receiving a degree in computer engineering at the University of Washington while studying ballet at PNBS) Carlos Cruz (Oregon Ballet Theatre) Enrico Hipolito (Ballet West II) Eric Hipolito Jr. (PNB, Ballet Arizona) Angeli Mamon (PNB) Ken Mankin (Kansas City Ballet II, Ballet Met II, Ballet Austin II) Anders Southerland (Houston Ballet II) Quinn Wharton (San Francisco Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago) Mamon, along with PD Amanda Morgan, was an exchange student with the Palucca School Dresden, and they performed with the Semperoper Ballet corps in "Swan Lake" this spring. Former Dance Change student news: Jade Butler is one of two local dancers who will move from Level VII or VIII to the Professional Division next year. (Ashley Baker is the other.) Kuu Sakuragi was nominated for a Princess Grace award and with Brianna Moriarty will be part of the Flemming Halby Dance Student Exchange Program and will study at the Royal Danish Ballet School this summer. (Eric Hipolito Jr. was part of the program years ago.) Bella Ureta will be a summer exchange student at the National Ballet of Canada School Mamon and Ureta were featured in this PNB video when they were training to perform with the PNB corps in "Swan Lake" this spring:

You're thinking of Kyle Davis who's been at PNB since 2008 choreographed for Next Step. Kyle (L.) Davis is a Professional Division student who was featured in Next Step and danced Birbanto in Doug Fullington's reconstruction of "Le Corsaire" excerpts tonight.

I'm at the evening show, and the program lists where PNBS PD's are going: Angeli Mamon, tonight's Gulnare, will join PNB. If she's an apprentice, the usual course, that usually means with "Nutcracker" and a December start, although Peter Boal said that practice for the new production will begin earlier at the beginning of August, and this year might be different. The fourth PD to join Ballet West II with Brittany Rand, Joshua Shutkind-- tonight's Seyd -- and Kyle Davis -- tonight's Birbanto -- is tonight's Conrad, Luis Morales Capetillo. Tonight's Medora, Abby Callahan, joins LA Ballet. Daena Bortnick joins Ballet Met II. Molly Brown joins Suzanne Farrell Ballet. Morganne Campbell joins Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre II. Grace Haskins joins Grand Rapids Ballet as a Trainee. Briana Moriarty joins Nevada Balket Theatre. Isaac Bates-Vinueza will attend the University of Wisconsin at Madison. William Keiser will attend Princeton University. Sarah Young will attend Indiana University.