Helene

Second weekend casting is up. No debuts, but some of the casts have been mixed around. Here is the spreadsheet: DSCH Carmina Casting Weeks 1 and 2.xlsx

If we do, we'll post it. I hope all of the plans for the dancers who are leaving will be in the Encores program notes.

Murphy is the kind of dancer I'd want to see in anything she wants to dance.

Welcome to Ballet Alert! Leah!

I've never found Murphy's dancing harsh.

PNB's "Giselle," which goes back to the original, is a more full-blooded Giselle. There's a lot more mime, and, through it she says "No" and "Stop" a lot, and can be direct, willful, and strong. It's by no means a feminist screed., but she's not easily pushed around, by Hilarion, by her mother, or by Myrtha.

If Pereira was making her debut in "Raymonda," you don't know how much time she had to learn it. The casting change was as result of an injury to Bouder and was made public last-minute, which isn't proof of a short learning period, but an indication of one, and each Spring towards the end of the season when injuries and illnesses mount, there are a lot of people who have to be coached through whispers onstage because of so many last-minute rehearsals. I remember back in the day getting insert slips in the program where the list of substitutions was as long or longer than the actual cast lists and casting was like a game of Tetris. I'd be interested in hearing how she dances with a little time to let it sink in.

Gillian Murphy would be perfect for the PNB version of "Giselle."

You're welcome to add links and a short description to other blogs, but since only those by professional critics are official sources, posts and entries can't be discussed on Ballet Alert!, just like content from other discussion boards cannot.

I just realized that we don't have a consolidated list of blogs by Ballet Alert! members. If you have a blog in which you write about ballet -- it doesn't have to be exclusively --, please let us know here.

That is craziness. Either of those works is exhausting in itself. At least two PNB dancers said in Q&A's that there is no breathing room in "Vertiginous."

I love the back of Stella Abrera's dress.

Seats like that should be identified up front and sold as limited view, in my opinion.

Marina Harss has written a long review. I did not tally the words devoted to each dancer. http://dancetabs.com/2015/05/american-ballet-theatre-giselle-abrera-debut-new-york/

In the original cast listing for "The Concert" on the Robbins Foundation site-- it was not alphabetical -- LeClercq was listed first, as befits the lead: http://jeromerobbins.org/rights_trust/view/The-Concert-Or-The-Perils-of-Everybody The usual suspects for doing early stagings of Balanchine during Balanchine's lifetime are Boston Ballet and Pennsylvania Ballet, as Balanchine was famously generous and supportive to E. Virginia Williams and Barbara Weisberger, and the companies founded or continued by Balanchine alumni: San Francisco Ballet-- Lew Christensen in the 50's-70's and Helgi Tomasson from 1985 -- and PNB -- Russell and Stowell from 1977-2005, after Janet Reed and Melissa Hayden. Later possibilities are Kansas City Ballet -- Todd Bolender from 1980-1995 -- Miami City Ballet -- Edward Villella from 1986-2012 -- and Ballet Arizona -- Ib Andersen from 2000. It's in the rep of all of these companies except Kansas City Ballet, but only PNB lists the date of the company premiere. I saw BA do Theme in 2004, but I don't know if it was the company premiere.

Macaulay reviewed two performances of "Giselle," the evening and matinee. He wrote one paragraph each about Abrera, including the quote below, Shklyarov, and Boylston, and a single line about Hammoudi.

The NYPL catalog shows a few items on video, mostly from French video, with a match on Chauvire: https://nypl.bibliocommons.com/search?t=smart&q=chauvire&commit=Search&searchOpt=catalogue&formats=DVD|VC|FILM and none for the keywords "ballet" + "cbc" (44 items) + "chauvire".

I always thought Yakovson had broad attention from the Baryshnikov picture book which featured a spread on "Vestris." I assumed he was a major Soviet choreographer whose works weren't brought on tour.

David Hallberg has weighed in. He just tweeted:

We were able to find you, yudi! It's a tiny reference on the site. Unfortunately, we can't make UI changes when PayPal hosts payment processing, and they give us only a few options to customize. I would think this would be an important feature, but, alas, no

Angelica Generosa will be at the Vail international Dance Festival this summer: http://www.examiner.com/article/27th-season-of-vail-international-dance-festival-announced Carla Korbes will be an Artist in Residence. Both will perform in International Evenings of Dance I (August 7) and II (August 8) http://www.vvf.org/content/events/vail-international-dance-festival/2015-international-evenings-of-dance-i.aspx http://www.vvf.org/content/events/vail-international-dance-festival/2015-international-evenings-of-dance-ii.aspx Korbes will also appear in the Balanchine Celebration program (August 9): http://www.vvf.org/content/events/vail-international-dance-festival/2015-balanchine-celebration.aspx