Helene

Well, they had to: after everyone woke up, Bonelli got the girl. In the Hynd production that PNB uses, one of them gets stabbed to death. Batkhurel Bold made wonderful sense of the scene. He had no problem dispelling the snakes and Carabosse's minions, but when he looked upstage at the castle, he turned his head simply from side to side to drink in the enormity of what was in front of him: it was much more than an enemy to fight. IWhen he encountered the dead suitor and carefully picked up the fallen man's sword, you could imagine that it had blood and guts on it: he didn't just flick it on his jacket like it was simply dusty, and the dead body was no big deal. The "What do I do now?" had a hint of "That's too easy, there must be a catch."

I've always been disappointed that Gary Avis doesn't have a chance to get chosen in the Royal Ballet DVD...

In an interview with "Westport Magazine," Maria Calegari reveals that when growing up in Queens she went to a progressive nursery school run by Jerome Robbins' sister: http://www.westportmag.com/w/News-2015/Maria-Calegari/

You have to love a photo in which Carabosse is part of the party with

That's assuming La Scala has the rights to film as part of the package. Zakharova sells DVDs in Europe, NA, and Japan. While she might not not be ideal, at least there's a lot more to "Sleeping Beauty" than Aurora's solos, and who knows the extent to which she will be committed to the style. From descriptions here and professional reviews, it sounds like Vishneva's style on Tuesday was a lot different than her style in Berkeley when she toured with the Mariinsky in the 00's.

Professional reviews in "Writings on Ballet," please. Please post your impressions here.

PNB did it with a caller in Vail once.

I think Bessmertnova was wonderful in "Raymonda," and I was shocked when I found out how old she was. As far as undisputed goes, we'll have to agree to disagree on that.

The last time PNB did it (2010) the women wore the tunics and the men wore the white shirts and gray tights like MCB.

Murphy has also done Ashton, and we can only hope that she's embodying Ashton's virtues. Ashton's idol was Pavlova, and his most influential teacher was Vera Volkova, with whom Ashton and Sadler's Wells dancers, including Fonteyn, defied de Valois and took class. Volkova was a student of Vaganova, but before Vaganova became Artistic Director and five years before she published her book on pedagogy. Bournonville and Petipa were weaned on the same breast of French ballet. It's not surprising that the roots are similar and that especially the variations for men were similar in style to Bournonville. Doug Fullington said in the Works & Process presentation where Jerome Tisserand demonstrated Desire's last act variation -- linked above by volcanohunter to start at that moment -- that it had everything in it and showed the transition from petite allegro to grand allegro at the time the variation was notated.

In an interview with Wilfried Hosl for Munich "Paquita", Ratmansky said, "You can't show your underwear to the Tsar! Just common sense, you know. Dont need to be an art historian to understand that." Look at the juxtaposition of: to: I'm not so sure whether the Imperial ballerinas who danced the work originally would have thought that Petipa needed enhancement , especially the Cecchetti-trained ballerinas whose footwork created a sensation.

Good for Mr. Geffen.

The Seattle Times season announcement includes a slide show with photos of five existing productions -- "Waiting at the Station," "Rush," "Emergence," "Fancy Free," and "Coppelia": http://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/dance/pacific-northwest-ballets-2015-16-season-balanchine-and-more/

Thank you for the confirmation for Semenyaka.

The two great Raymondas on DVD are Bessmertnova and Kolpakova. Both were in their 40's with cameras in their faces when they were filmed, and they were splendid.

The continually updated Twitter hastag is: https://twitter.com/hashtag/ABTSleepingBeauty?src=hash Searches on #‎proudtobeapartofABT‬ on Twitter and Facebook came up null.

A shot of the Sapphire costume tweeted by Paulina Waski: https://twitter.com/PaulinaWaski/status/573114888341483520 Gillian Murphy tweeted this Instagram link: https://instagram.com/p/zyyV7bnVQj/v

Here are some excerpts from Cerrudo's "Little Mortal Jump", which looks like a work for four women and four men: A description and photos from Jessica Lang's 4-minute solo, "The Calling": http://www.jessicalangdance.com/repertory/details.php?id=53 A short clip of "The Calling": "Year of the Rabbit" page on the NYCB website, which includes a promo video, an excerpt of a pas de deux, and a slide show: http://www.nycballet.com/ballets/y/year-of-the-rabbit.aspx

PNB posted its 2015-16 to its website: the Company will perform four triple bills, two full-lengths in addition to the new production of George Balanchine's "Nutcracker," and the PNB School will perform "Le Corsaire" in March! SEE THE MUSIC September 25–October 4, 2015 Tide Harmonic (Joby Talbot / Christopher Wheeldon) Prodigal Son (Sergei Prokofiev / George Balanchine) The Concert (or, The Perils of Everybody) (Frederic Chopin / Jerome Robbins) EMERGENCE November 6–15, 2015 Sum Stravinsky (Igor Stravinsky / Kiyon Gaines) The Calling* (Trio Medieval / Jessica Lang) New Suddarth** (Vivaldi Updated to Barret Anspach / Price Suddarth) Emergence (Owen Belton / Crystal Pite) Roméo et Juliette February 5–14, 2016 Music: Sergei Prokofiev / Choreography: Jean-Christophe Maillot DIRECTOR'S CHOICE March 18–27, 2016 Rush (Bohuslav Martinu / Paul Gibson) Little mortal jump* (TBC recordings / Alejandro Cerrudo) Year of the Rabbit* (Sufjan Stevens / Justin Peck) Coppélia April 15–24, 2016 Music: Léo Delibes / Choreography: Alexandra Danilova and George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust (after Marius Petipa) AMERICAN STORIES June 3–12, 2016 Fancy Free (Leonard Bernstein / Jerome Robbins) Square Dance (Antonio Vivaldi and Arcangelo Corelli / George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust) Waiting at the Station (Allen Toussaint / Twyla Tharp) NON-SUBSCRIPTION PERFORMANCES George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™ November 27–December 28, 2015 More Details Music: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky / Choreography: George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust / Sets & Costumes: Ian Falconer Le Corsaire: A Pirate’s Tale March 20–26, 2016 Music: Adolphe Adam with additional music by Léo Delibes and Cesare Pugni / Choreography: Marius Petipa (after Joseph Mazilier, in part) / Costumes: PNB Costume Shop

Just a note that many of Ratmansky's productions take some time to get into the bones of his dancer and that it's unlikely opening night will be set in stone: it's more like to be a work in progress, as least as far as details and timing are concerned.

Opening Day tweets (with photos): Courtney Lavine Diana Vishneva

If you mean the guy who's second from the left, next to Dylan Wald in the corner, it looks to me like Raphael Bouchard. (And I hope that's not just wishful thinking on my part.) These vacation break beards are killing me.

"Vertiginous" photo shoot video with Lindsi Dec: https://instagram.com/p/zf0cmtmeqt/?modal=true (For those not familiar with Instagram, the videos are short and they play in a continuous loop. To turn on or off, click on the video.)

I missed the #TBT hashtag .