Helene

From the William Taylor presentation, which has been removed from YouTube, that seems to be, if not the deliberate strategy on ABT's part, the logical result of their personnel strategy. An Osipova, Semionova, Obraztsova, or Vishneva has cut her teeth on most, if not all of the principal roles with other companies before dancing them at ABT. They come in with a lot of experience, even if the productions differ. They can do one performance of this or that with a solid basis. Good for the ABT ballerinas who go to other companies for the experience of the major roles. Their own institution is putting up a wall against their development at home, and it's a win/win for them and the audiences. It might not be so great for the hometown ballerinas, though, because someone always loses in this equation. If you look at the Artistic Directors, company staffs, school staffs, and ballet boards of directors, what else would you conclude?

You don't have to like Copeland, and you are entitled to your opinions, which, again, are that: opinions.. That doesn't make them facts. There are many knowledgeable people who believe that Copeland has perfectly fine, if not stellar, classical technique, and that her ranch is full and her herd thriving,. (Maybe it's apt then that she's been cast in Rodeo.) Given the predominance of full-lengths at ABT, she's easy enough to avoid, if that's your wont. There are plenty of dancers at ABT that I avoid during my visits, but that doesn't make them bad dancers. They just don't interest me. And, given how few performances that any of the leads get in any rep, there's no danger of any one dancer dominating the rep or opening nights, which often happens in smaller regional companies or which happened in the Farrell era because Balanchine could and did.

[detour] It would be great if you could put your cursor in the box and edit away, but the software is very fussy, and it can be frustrating, especially when it tries to "fix" it and misses. The safest way to edit a quote is to click the little light switch icon in the upper left corner (over the B button) in the editing controls. This will display the post in a typewriter typeface with all of the formatting codes. The trick to editing is to be sure that the code at the beginning of the quote: [_quote name="[board name of person you're quoting]" post="" timestamp="[long number"_] and the end of the quote: [_/quote_] are complete. There is no _ before and after the brackets ([_ or _]); I needed to add them or the examples would have been quoted The key is to make sure these are intact. Often the beginning or end brackets are deleted, and then the post looks like this: [quote name="Barbara" post="353213" timestamp="1430399423" * Sorry for the long quote; I guess I don't know how to quote only a small piece of a post. [/quote * *Missing brackets The downside is that each paragraph displays as one long line in this editing mode. You can always toggle the little light switch back and forth to see how the post will look. Or you can just leave the entire quote, and we'll often come in and edit it, even removing the quote if it's an obvious response to the preceding post. We do that because scrolling on mobile devices and tablets is tedious. We also try to fix "broken" quotes when we find them, so you don't have to sweat it. [/detour]

If there were "plenty" of black ballerinas, we wouldn't have been having many conversations about the dearth of black ballerinas, and AD's would say, "What are you talking about: look at our schools and rosters," instead of, "We'd love to, but there aren't any we can hire or in the school pipeline." You may prefer Lavine, but you haven't compared or contrasted their dancing, and if I understand you correctly, you are judging Copeland by short YouTube clips. You may believe that this is valid, but, because this is a public forum, readers will take this into consideration when giving weight to your opinions, just like everything else posted here. As far as dancers criticizing their peers, it so rarely happens publicly that we avidly await bios to get those rare snippets. Copeland is a ground breaker in any case, just as Hallberg is, and just as Womack is. (I believe Womack is the first American to graduate with a red diploma, the equivalent of summa cum laude. A quick search on Womack brings up two pages of threads, including Links pages with interviews and news, including one dedicated to her when she graduated from the Bolshoi. She left the Bolshoi, asserting she was told to prostitute herself to a sponsor to get ahead.) They were not ground breakers in the way they first claimed. If anything, Hallberg's mistake is simply self-aggrandizing, while being the first black female soloists in two decades supports her claims about the difficulties black ballerinas have faced. There are rules governing who can write and edit Wkipedia pages, and Wikipedia frowns upon people who are involved from doing so. Chances are, the info on Wikipedia is sourced to the original error, and the original author has moved on. There's nothing to stop you from making that correction. Not knowing Russian is no better reason for David Hallberg to not know of other American dancers who danced with the Bolshoi any more than for Copeland not to know of other black Soloist ballerinas. Ballet history is sadly sparse and generally transmitted orally.

I will object to Copeland making the claim if she was unaware that it was not true and continued to make the claim. I do not object to her making mistakes, any more than I object to Hallberg making his mistake. I do not otherwise distinguish between the two mistakes, regardless of anyone else's characterization of Copeland's as a victim's story or Hallberg's status, star or not.

Do you call out everyone who calls Jackie Robinson the first black player in a professional white league as a liar? There's a difference between not telling the truth/lying and being mistaken. Copeland wrote a book for a Simon and Schuster imprint. My experience in the publishing world is not recent, but my friends still there assure me that while copy-editing and fact-checking at major publishing houses aren't what they used to be, they still exists. If there were factual errors in her manuscript, then her publisher is partly responsible for putting them in print.

Thank you for the heads up!

Kevin McKenzie isn't on the record as far as I know, but I doubt even he, whose judgement is so regularly brought into question here, gave permission for these dancers to appear to gain artistic credibility, which was Tapfan's original point ("Nobody in classical ballet goes on those shows* for artistic credibility.") Huge ratings and exposure, yes. *defined as "dance reality shows." I'm not so sure Tapfan's assertion is true for the ballet-specific series, like NYCB Sarah Jessica Parker series, and for all of the drama on "Breaking Pointe," even with the crappy editing and the mixmatches between music and choreography, Allison DeBona made a great case for herself as a dancer. And she's been promoted twice since it was filmed, relatively older, as she went to college before she danced professionally and was several years behind her peers. Their efforts might not be credible for people who like their dancers to have mystery -- I admit to wishing that Martine van Hamel sounded smarter on the ABT at 75 stream from the Guggenheim, but no one forced me to watch -- or be annointed by the artistic staffs without any discernable outside influence, but the dancing in those shoes speaks for itself.

I transcribed that wrong. I'll fix it. http://www.rickey.org/misty-copeland-guest-judge-multiple-episodes-think-can-dance-2014/263180/ And I do not intepret "a major breakthrough for classical ballet" to mean going on the show to gain artistic credibility any more than Fabrice Calmels did when he was a judge on "So You Think You Can Dance," and

Not everyone who lives outside NYC has not seen Copeland, Abrera, and Lane live. She didn't do it to gain artistic credibility: the show gained artistic credibility by having her on it, just as they gain artistic credibility by having judges with experience in other forms of dance.

There are descriptions of her dancing on the performance threads in the ABT forum and the Washington Ballet "Swan Lake" thread. Threads like these in the "Dancers" forum are about the dancers, either meta or details, and threads about polarizing dancers tend to read like this one. It's not at all interesting that no record of her recent "Swan Lakes" are on the web, because there are five types of clips on the web for any dancer: 1. Self-produced video, often by choreographers 2. Full-performances on DVD, television, and movie/live performances, which are often removed for copyright violation. Promo excerpts can often be found on YouTube. 3. Short promo footage released by the companies 4. Short video footage from news sources from the rare times news outlets care 5. Black or gray market private recordings of live performances. (The Russian companies have allowed some very high quality full performances to be taped within the theater, but that is very rare.) Since ABT is as forward-thinking in its use of video as it is in website design, there is little footage of any of the dancers unless they perform with other companies. It is quite common for dancers, choreographer, and companies to link to video footage on which they appear on websites, blog, and social meta, just as it is common for artist management firms to have artists pages with video and audio links. These are almost always short clips. While I think it is ill-advised to respond to the bait when the term "black dancers" is really supposed to mean "black ballerinas," I think it can be perfectly logical to dislike Copeland and like many black male dancers, because there are so many more black male dancers to like or dislike than black ballerinas in America, where many people's experience is binary, due to the small data pool. To quote a friend, ballet already has long had affirmative action: for boys. It is very possible that if the competition for spots for men were as vicious as it is for women, AD's would never hire/have hired a black male dancer, but that ship has long sailed, because AD's have fewer choices. There are people who clearly dislike that she has been outspoken and feel this gives her an advantage over other dancers who they feel are more deserving. However, that is not the only option, even if it's repeated. There are people who don't like Copeland's dancing. They would not like her dancing if she had never said a word. They would not like her dancing if she were white. They would not like her dancing if she danced like Margot Fonteyn. There's no reason for anyone to jump on the bandwagon. For one, different dancers' experiences are different. For another, why expose themselves to resistance and risk when she's pushing at the head of the pace-line? As far as impressions, everyone is entitled to theirs, but it doesn't make them facts.

Nancy Lorenz, author of the 2014 novel "The Strength of Ballerinas," has a blog on ballet: http://www.nancy-lorenzauthor.com/blog/

Being cast in Ratmansky's "Sleeping Beauty" is not the same thing as having been cast in the Kirkland/Chernov/McKenzie mess, and the Ratmansky is the most talked-about and eagerly-awaited production in ABT's Spring Season. McKenzie could have skipped Lane and hired another outsider for this. According to their official bios on the ABT site, Stella Abrera: Lead roles in full-lengths: Gamzatti in La Bayadère Ballerina in The Bright Stream Fairy Godmother in Frederick Ashton's Cinderella Cinderella in James Kudelka's Cinderella Myrta in Giselle (See correction from page 35) Lead roles in neoclassical short ballets and feature roles in classical ballets: peasant pas de deux in Giselle Princess Florine in The Sleeping Beauty the Girl in Afternoon of a Faun Calliope in Apollo the violin in Symphonie Concertante leading roles in Ballet Imperial, Symphony in C, Symphonic Variations, Les Sylphides, The Birthday Offering, Symphony #9, Symphony in C Sarah Lane: Lead roles in full-lengths: Swanilda in Coppélia Gulnare in Le Corsaire Clara in Alexei Ratmansky's The Nutcracker Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty Miranda in The Tempest Myrta in Giselle (See correction from page 35) Lead roles in neoclassical short ballets, legacy rep, and feature roles in classical ballets: Princess Florine in The Sleeping Beauty Sugar Plum Fairy in Kevin McKenzie's The Nutcracker the Snow Queen in Kevin McKenzie's The Nutcracker Manon in Lady of the Camellias leading roles in Theme and Variations, The Leaves Are Fading, Raymonda Divertissements, Symphony in C Misty Copeland: Lead roles in full-lengths: Gamzatti in La Bayadère Clara in Alexei Ratmansky's The Nutcracker Odette-Odile in Swan Lake Swanilda in Coppélia Lead roles in neoclassical short ballets, legacy rep, and feature roles in classical ballets: Mercedes in Don Quixote Driad Queen in Don Quixote Cowgirl in Rodeo the Firebird in Alexei Ratmansky’s Firebird peasant pas de deux in Giselle Leading roles in Birthday Offering, Duo Concertant, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux There's no mention of Juliet in Copeland's bio, but there are Odette/Odile and Cowgirl, which suggests she's already danced them. From what I remember, the O/O debut was on tour. I don't know when she first danced Cowgirl. If anything, Copeland may be catching up in the number of leads, but she's hardly overtaken her peers.

Both Precious Adams and Michaela DePrince have described discrimination they have faced, which is directly or indirectly attributable to the institutions where they studied. DePrince has also written a book, and her AD had to put a press moratorium, she was in such demand. Kevin McKenzie hasn't treated Copeland any differently than her peers at the Soloist level in terms of casting or rank, so whatever people's "perception" of how she's allegedly pressuring McKenzie, it hasn't worked. He might just be milking it for all it's worth, keeping the public wondering "Will he or won't he?"

Copeland's social media push started out no differently than the others'. No one can force anyone to follow/"follow" anyone else on social media, just as no one can stop anyone from posting and documenting their lives on it. The difference is that the mainstream media has decided that Copeland and her story are worth following. Copeland didn't self-publish: Simon and Schuster chose to publish her story with its limited resources. Oprah had to decide that she would be featured. The "Time" editors had to decide to put her on the cover. No matter what she put out there on her own, she wouldn't be a media presence if the multi-billion dollar media industry didn't think her story, among millions of American stories, was not only worth telling once, but ẃorth following. I don't see comparable criticism for Tiler Peck, who had a very public engagement and marriage mainly on social media -- which most dancers have kept on their private Facebook pages -- but also including the NYT spotlight, and who publicizes her non-ballet forays, like "Little Dancer." I would argue that there's more social significance to what Copeland is doing than Peck's nuptials, but the NYT knows its audience. Both NYCB and ABT get tons of free publicity out of it. But it doesn't go beyond the small ballet community and a social community unless the mainstream media makes its decision that it's a mainstream story.

Tzu-Chia Huang and Ilir Shtylla have been major dancers with the company, giving many beautiful performances. I'm glad the company understood what a shock and disappointment it would have been for them to leave without letting the audience know ahead of time. For much of the time I saw the company, Magnicaballi and Zejnati were often cast together, but in Balanchine, at least, her partnership with Shtylla was at a different level. Huang and Zejnati were also a wonderful pairing: they looked more harmonic together. The audiences on April and the May 2 matinee will see them in "Stravinsky Violin Concerto." In 2012 their performances together in this work are among my greatest ballet memories. Hartley dances with Zejnati at the final performance. The "Mozaik" excerpt will be danced by Huang and Zejnati according to the casting .pdf.

I say, "Good for them" to the people who refuse to concede all of the power to their "betters" and take matters into their own hands.

NYCB used to sell out (or be close to selling out) Sunday night performances by scheduling them as special retirement performances. Off the top of my head, I remember seeing McBride, Tomasson, and Farrell retire that way. Luders' (Divertissement) and Horiuchi's (Oberon) joint retirement performance was in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Peter Martins retired with a performance "Nutcracker" with Suzanne Farrell. (I saw the second-to-last one.) It makes sense to publicize and announce retirements/departures. The audience has had a stake in dancers long before social media. Many of us would like to pay tribute to dancers who have enriched our lives through their performances, regardless of rank. It's a win/win for the companies and the audiences.

I don't see an expiration date, but I just received an email with a no-fee offer for Carmina/DSCH tickets by using the promotion code "GOLDEN."

Or some of us who have rejected specific criticism of the dancer who is the subject of this thread, because we don't agree with that criticism.

It's a very flexible format.

The connection between alphabetical listing, which is quite rare in ballet companies in the US, and hierarchical listing, which is ubiquitous, is that there is a direct connection in most companies between whose retirement is announced, how it is announced, and whether there is a special celebration. At BA, it's impossible to know what the connection is. Since most of my trips to Phoenix were to see the season-ender, which was rarely anything other than the last performance of a run -- I missed the Sunday matinee just once between 2004 and 2013 -- I've witnessed the conventions of retirement for many in the last decade:the extra bows, the bouquets, the embraces. I've been very surprised to see dancers leave who were prominent, but without an announcement. Without rankings, It's impossible to know what the convention is. Occasionally the press will pick up the news, and then there is a mention of a dancer who has been cast in the corps. I've seen a special retirement program once: in 2004 there was an early evening extra program created for a retiring dancer who had been the prominent ballerina under Andersen's predecessor and who, with her husband, had a local school. David Hallberg flew in after performing with ABT the night before, to partner her in "Theme and Variations." This year, the company announced that they'd add an excerpt from Andersen's "Mozaik" to the final performance of the Balanchine program in honor of Hartley and Zejnati, again unusual in my experience. NYCB announces retirements of Principal Dancers and publicizes their farewell, usually in a dancer-specific program, which the company can manage because it's still a mixed bill company, although there are exceptions, like Stephanie Saland, whose last performance was during the day-long Balanchine Celebration.. People retiring in the Spring at ABT retire in full-lengths, because that's what the rep is, and there aren't many specialists in the contemporary rep who are Principals, like some POB etoiles, especially after the Tharp dancers were gone. PNB does its Season Encores, which is a hybrid that allows the company the flexibility to create an excerpts show around all active/healthy departing dancers based on their prominence, usually, but not exclusively, from the season's rep. I don't know of a similar, regular program elsewhere among North American companies. Announcing retirements sells tickets to that program, and in some cases, to programs that come before them.

I'm not sure if this is still true for NYCB, but the only way we used to know that a dancer was retiring or leaving if they were not a Principal Dancer with a dedicated farewell was that they got a solo bow in front of the curtain. Now it may be on social media. Ballet Arizona doesn't even list dancers by rank on the website or, at least until two years ago, in the program.

Here's the trailer: https://www.facebook.com/PNBallet/videos/vb.21358443951/10152964946938952/?type=2&theater&notif_t=notify_me

My point is that racism is hardly the only negative topic on which ballet professionals won't make criticism. On the whole, ballet professionals either don't address criticism directly, or, on occasion, either deny it or claim that it isn't as bad as it used to be and point to a program. I disagree. She could have been passive, and had she been promoted, there will be people who would think she got it on account of race because McKenzie couldn't resist the publicity or the chance to be the one who made the first black Principal Dancer at ABT.