Helene

Thank you, Kaysta. I'm sorry about the ads.

I didn't get stuck with the ads, but the stream wouldn't start moving for me until T&V. Does anyone know who danced it?

Jessika Anspach, who will be the last corps member hired by Russell and Stowell after Brittany Reid retires, wrote about her love for "Swan Lake": http://www.4dancers.org/2015/04/searching-for-swans/

Ballet West just tweeted: According to the World Time Clock, Utah is currently on Mountain Daylight Time (MDT), not Mountain Standard Time (MST). I don't know if that's what they mean to say, in which case the stream will start 4pm Pacific Daylight Time and 7pm Eastern Daylight Time???

http://www.theutahreview.com/dance-elevated-with-ballet-wests-almost-tango/

Ballet West just tweeted, (And in these performances you can see the cast of "Breaking Pointe" .)

If you want to discuss critic/critical reaction, do so in the "Writings on Ballet" or on the Copeland thread in the "Dancers" forum. This is not new.

Dance Critics Association (DCA) tweeted a link to an article by Michael Kaiser in the "Huffington Post" about major donors. While he concludes that most organizations keep their major donors in check in terms of influence, he gives examples (no names) about organizations in his experience who haven't, and he considers them complicit in their own struggles when circumstances change: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-kaiser/when-donors-have-too-much_b_6968666.html

ABT's website is horrific. If you didn't know anything about ballet, you might conclude that it's a third-rank regional company that performed four weekends a year from their website. It's also confusing to be partially represented on the Met website, which is decent as these things go for opera, but not so much for everything else. The Kennedy Center's website is equal-opportunity bad for everything but their listings. The news has been retweeted many times on my feed, from individuals, companies, and organizations, and I'm connected to a very small number of them.

I'd give the same advice at the Palais Garnier. I had a ticket to one of the front seats in a side box for the opera, and the boyfriend of the woman behind me kept pushing her forward towards the very small space between me and the other front row person. It was a constant annoyance, and I would never do it again, if the seats behind me are moveable.

DTH's rep includes a lot of things, but what they're bringing on the road varies widely. A blanket recommendation to see the company without checking what rep they're bringing for someone who wants to see more of the same -- ie, "Swan Lake" isn't' especially helpful. I wouldn't even give an unqualified recommendation to see the Royal Ballet's "Don Q" without finding out whether it was the dramatic/tragic aspects the person liked, in which case I'd be sure to find out if they think they'd be interested in comedy. "Cult of personality" is one way of putting it. Being taken by someone's story is another. See: Baby Ballerinas, circa Balanchine's time. Those three certainly made their mark as dancers beyond the label. I suspect some of the audience came back to see more ballets that didn't include them, and others just came because of the publicized phenomenon and moved on.

Thank you so much, AlbanyGirl -- we really appreciate it. I think we'll get there for credit card processing, but I need a little more time.

It's simplistic to paint everyone who doesn't admire Copeland and/or like her dancing as a hater. It's also simplistic to assume anyone who either likes, dislikes, or is neutral about her comes at it from the same angle. For people who are happy to see a woman of color lead a ballet because who they see reflects them, their families, and their community, then the suggestion to see DTH makes logical sense. For people who are happy to see a woman of color triumph in an overwhelmingly white art form in an overwhelmingly white company, not so much. For someone who came to see Copeland dance and fell in love with the classical ballet -- not neoclassical or contemporary ballet -- and wants to see more of it, why would you tell them to go see a Dove/Byrd/Garland triple bill like DTH is bringing to Ravenna? It's like a Korean person whose first opera was "La Traviata" asking for suggestions like it and sending them to see "Wozzeck" because it's an all-Korean cast. Wanting to advise someone on how to get a good dance education in DC means that DTH is one of a dozen companies to recommend, if they are presented there. Unless you know what it is that grabbed someone and what's important to that person, a blanket recommendation is about as useful as most generalizations. Sometimes there's an intersection, a bull's eye, or an unexpected response. Many times, it's a miss. I can't speak for the New Yorkers where DTH is based, but the last time DTH crossed my path was when they brought Rasta Thomas in "Apollo" to the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, before the shut down. It's hard to say much about what you don't see. I also disagree that Copeland has taken away opportunities from other dancers in terms of media attention. That is old school, where a few papers and magazines controlled content. She made her own opportunities, getting press coverage for her book, in black media, and the general media, which rarely covered ballet at all, followed suit.

It was probably not a good idea to look at the border guard like it was a weird question when he seemed surprised that I would see the same show three times, but it threw me for a loop. I guess not very many balletomanes pass through his station. I would have seen Miami City Ballet do the Balanchine program all four times in Vancouver, if I didn't have opera tickets to two casts for "Semele." Carla Korbes is scheduled for one more performance of "Swan Lake," this Saturday at 1pm. Do not miss it. She is going out at the top of her game, and that's a very high summit.

Case in point: we're here at PNB's "Swan Lake," and next to the ticket booths is a coloring station. From the looks of the crayons, it was well used by many of the children we've seen in the lobbies, and the young girl in the row ahead of me has her stuffed swans on her lap -- one black and one white.

[Admin beanie on] Official news only. Not naming names alone does not make news official, and unofficial news has been removed. [Admin beanie off]

Forsythe will be teaching in southern California for part of the year, and I can't imagine that North American companies won't be lining up to take advantage of that. I also never underestimate the ability of a marketing department to characterize "Swan Lake" as "enchanting" or "family fare." "Sylvia" is a beautiful work, but I don't think it was re-staged more than once, and not for a while. PNB is scheduled to perform the SFB/PNB co-production of "Coppelia" in April 2016.

Sklute said,

Ballet West announced roster its roster changes: Retiring during the 2014-15 season: Christiana Bennett (Principal) -- after the Almost Tango program this April and Innovations this May Haley Henderson Smith (Principal) -- after Swan Lake in February Promotions: Emily Adams to Principal Beckanne Sisk to Principal Allison DeBona to First Soloist Sayaka Ohtaki to First Soloist Chase O'Connell to Soloist Jenna Rae Herrera to Demi-Soloist Joining Ballet West: Chelsea Keefer from Tulsa Ballet Laurel Benson from Ballet West II Oliver Oguma from Ballet West II Anisa Scott from Ballet West II Lucas Horns from Ballet West II The announcement also notes, "Plans are underway for a special tribute in honor of Ms. Bennett as part of the close of the current season as well as during the 2015-16 season Gala in November." Full announcement, including Adam Sklute's words about Henderson Smith and Bennett. https://www.balletwest.org/news/ballet-west-announces-2015-16-roster-with-exciting-promotions-new-faces-and-notable-departures Congratulations to all of the promoted and new dancers and best wishes to Bennett and Henderson Smith for their futures

We detoured to Messmer on the Froustey thread, so it's only fair According to this interview from Danses avec la plume from June 2014, Google translates this to:

Ballet Arizona performs one mixed bill at the Orpheum each season in the Spring. The rest of the performances have been in Symphony Hall for a number of years. The Orpheum is one of the old jewel box theaters, but there is no orchestra pit. I saw one performance there with a live pianist for Andersen's piece to Shostakovich's Preludes and Fugues, but the pianist subsequently became ill, and they used a recording for the other performance(s), like for the vast majority of ballets performed there. The Mercer Arena was, indeed, a converted hockey rink was where Pacific Northwest Ballet and Seattle Opera performed when the Opera House, renamed McCaw Hall, was being gutted and retro-fitted to meet seismic building standards in 2002-3. It has not been used since. There was a plan to convert it into offices, rehearsal studios, workshops, and storage for Seattle Opera, which is located off campus, but that never came to fruition. I've sat all over the house at Symphony Hall. I liked the main floor seats all the way over to the far sides, because you can see between heads. The main floor is broken by a wide aisle, and I prize the first row after the break, since there are no heads in the way. I haven't loved being in the center of the main floor, because you never know how tall the people in front of you will be. I also like the first row or two of the Balcony, but it seems farther away than the Second Tier in McCaw Hall. In the Balcony for the Balanchine program, you'll likely be able to shift seats if you don't love them. The Maricopa Manor is a block away from a major intersection and light rail stop, but Central Avenue is wide with light rail in the middle of the street. The sound tends to dissipate even at the stop.

Froustey was able to take a leave if absence. That might be a practical solution were she to test the waters with the Rojo approach.

She'll be only 37 at the end of June and isn't at the mandatory retirement age. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleonora_Abbagnato

Joshua Grant will dance Basilio in Ballet Northwest's "Don Quixote" from May 8-10 in Olympia: http://www.thurstontalk.com/2015/04/06/ballet-northwest-presents-don-quixote/

We are still trying to get the form up, but don't have a new ETD yet.