Helene

I accidentally blew up a cut and paste of the fifth Basilio, William Lin-Yee, who makes his debut here. (I cut, but didn't paste properly.) He is Carrie Imler's partner. They were beautiful together in "Diamonds" in the Fall. He's tall and has a plush movement quality, and in last year's "Giselle," he reprised Wilfried and debuted as Albrecht and Hilarion. I was hoping for a Biasucci Kitri, too, but it's not to be in this run. Four of the women are Principals: Korbes and Imler are doing it for the second time with new partners, and Rausch and Dec, each of whom danced Mercedes in the last run, are dancing Kitri this time. Rachel Foster is just coming back from parental leave: she was Seth Orza's partner last time. The only soloist to debut as Kitri is Elizabeth Murphy, who will also debut as Queen of the Dryads and dances one of Kitri's friends. She joined the company a few seasons ago from Ballet West and at the same time as Leah Biasucci came from Oregon Ballet Theatre, and she was promoted quickly and has been cast prominently. Leslie Rausch and Jerome Tisserand may have done the abridged school performance of Don Q in 2012. It's an expensive production to bring over, and usually licenses are for three years. I don't know if this will show again. I suspect ticket sales and a sponsor (or lack thereof) will determine whether it ever comes back. Don Q is hard for the men: there are two major male dancing roles, and three major male mime roles (Sancho Panza, Don Q, and Gamache), like "La Bayadere." There is a divertissement for the theater troupe among whom Kitri and Basilio hide, with roles for three men (Devil, Harlequin, King) and two women (Queen, Princess). They aren't listed in the Principal casting.

From the Seattle Times, an article on Allen Galli, who plays Sancho Panza to Tom Skerritt's Don Quixote in most of the shows: http://seattletimes.com/html/thearts/2025550902_allengallipnbxml.html It's not every choreographer or director and stager combo that can be that in tune in this kind of timing detail -- or every director or choreographer who gets it -- and it's great to see that Ratmansky and Marchiolli are this kind of team.

Toller Cranston died this weekend at 65 of a heart attack in his home in San Miguel, Mexico in the middle of the Canadian National Figure Skating Championships. Many of the skaters and commentators were able to pay tribute to him on air. From the CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/figureskating/toller-cranston-figure-skating-innovator-dead-at-65-1.2930759 He is best know for his skating; this amateur video of his exhibition programs at the 1975 World Figure Skating Championships shows so many of his virtues, and his commitment to dance and movement, but he was also a painter, with international gallery shows. museum shows, costume designs, and poster designs, and an author of several dishy books, including "Zero Tollerance." https://www.google.ca/search?q=toller+cranston+art&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=diLIVNLjGY_6yATgxYAg&ved=0CEgQsAQ&biw=1191&bih=676 From the Ottawa Sun: Rest in peace, Mr. Cranston.

It's not that I don't understand the frustration: I felt the same way about Anna Kisselgoff . (There just wasn't an internet around for me on which to voice my frustration.)

Bold is in his 30's, and even if the camera was rolling, he knows what to save for the stage. Francia Russell said they called him "Air Bold." When he's on, he's among the most dynamic and exciting of the men, and there are two dancers who really bring out the verve in him: Korbes, who will be his Kitri, and Imler, who will be his Mercedes. I think he's better suited to Korbes than Cruz, who looks better with taller dancers, like his wife, Lindsi Dec, and Laura Gilbreath, who's nowhere on the cast lists (In 2012, she danced Mercedes with Cruz, Queen of the Dryads, and one of the Kitri's friends, who gets a variation in the Act III PDD.) Cruz's Kitri (and Mercedes) is Lindsi Dec. Cruz has been having back issues intermittently in the last few seasons, which has limited his performances, but they are brilliant together, have said they love to dance together -- I guess not a given in general among couples -- and I'm pretty sure they are happy to be performing these roles with each other. I remember way back in the day when retired Principal Stanko Milov did a show with his choreography to his own music, he said that he created one of the PDDs for them inspired by their love for each other, but they were usually cast with other people. They did get to dance togehter their self-described dream work, "Petite Mort." One of the most moving dance performances I've ever seen was the two of them in the PDD from Ochoa Lopez' "Cylindrical Shadows," with its foreshadowing of death. (Now I'm getting verklempt at the thought.) She's got the devil in her when the tone isn't as serious, and I can't wait to see them here. I expect sparks to fly. Seth Orza is returning after being out for many months with knee surgery and rehab. Basilio is a tall order, but he's scheduled for one performance, with Elizabeth Murphy. I think the are a great physical match, and it's great for her to have someone with experience and focused on her debut performance. (His Kitri in 2012, Rachel Foster, is just coming back from parental leave and is reprising her Cupid.) Jerome Tisserand is a wonderful, elegant dancer and is great in comic roles, and he and Lesley Rausch have a superb partnership. He can do all of the show-off technical stuff, too, and with ease. They danced Mercedes and Espada in 2012, and he'll also dance Espada, but this time with Sarah Ricard Orza. Lesley Rausch is changing to Queen of the Dryads this year, perhaps because Laura Gilbreath isn't dancing this rep. I'm aiming to see as many casts as I can.

Again, you may speak for many here and many out there, but not all of us would characterize what he writes as you do. I don't think anyone can do that job and make everyone happy all the time. I don't like everything he writes or have to agree, but I'm always interested in what he says and where he's coming from.

Imler and Bouder both trained at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, too. I still miss Paul Gibson horribly. He was such a musical dancer.

Posted to PNB's Facebook, a video interview of Tom Skerritt by Carla Korbes. (I don't see it posted to YouTube yet.) https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152780174583952&set=vb.21358443951&type=2&theater&notif_t=notify_me Joining Korbes and Skerritt in rehearsal footage are Allen Galli as Sancho Panza, Batkhurel Bold as Basilio and towards the end, Lindsi Dec and Karel Cruz as Mercedes and Espada, Rachel Foster as Cupid, and Sarah Ricard Orza as Queen of the Dryads.

Full Principal Casting is up on the website for both weeks. Second weekend debuts: Lesley Rausch and Jerome Tisserand, as Kitri and Basilio on Thursday, 5 February Jahna Franziskonis as Cupid on Thursday, 5 February William Lin-Yee, Basilio (with Carrie Imler) on Friday, 6 February Elizabeth Murphy, Queen of the Dryads on Friday, 6 February Don Q Jan-Feb 2015 Casting.xlsx

The questions were pretty revolting. I can't believe I listened and didn't do something more interesting, like Swiffer the kitchen floor.

I agree that Q&A phase was a disaster, but Miss Ukraine did not answer the question at all, which was what is you country's biggest contribution to the world. Supporting the Ukranian army is not one of them. She had a translator, so it wasn't a matter of not hearing or understanding a question. Miss Universe does a lot of travel and outreach to Latin America, which is why many of the winners and finalists have been from Central and South America and speaking Spanish and not as much English. I know for the judges questions they drew from a hat, but it was an interesting test for them to respond to judges speaking accented English, something they're likely to encounter frequently on their tours.

I'm with you atm711: I enjoyed Grand Budapest Hotel so much.

Go Canada! She should have had curling brooms alternating with hockey sticks, though. The woman who won for best costume, Miss Indonesia, didn't even make the slide show .

Marcelo Gomes just tweeted that the Dancers Responding to AIDS performance ("Dancing with the Heart") tonight, Monday, January 26, has been cancelled because of the snow storm: It is, indeed canceled, not postponed, per the website. They are contacting ticket buyers by email. Due to the impending snow storm, this year’s Dance from the Heart at The Joyce Theater has been canceled. The safety and welfare of our audience and performers is our utmost concern. With a forecast of blizzard conditions and the reduction of mass transit service starting this evening, it's not prudent for us to continue with the show. Ticket buyers are being contacted by email with additional information. Unfortunately, because of the limited availability of the dancers, rescheduling Dance from the Heart is not feasible. We greatly appreciate your support and are heartbroken to not be able to share with you the incredible performances we had planned. What a shame. I hope everyone in the NY Metro area is safe and has heat and electricity through this storm.

Black Swan/White Swan is often gala fare: one PDD followed by the other. "Swan Lake Act II" is done a lot less frequently than the Pdd completely out of context. Sometimes Act III is performed alone, or more than just Black Swan PDD. I see your point about Otello/Othello, but there are movie remakes that veer from the original, and about Shakespeare or Swan Lake, changing the ending to be happy veers from the text, as did the tradition in England during certain eras of performing Shakespeare and launching into someone else's prose and poetry was robust. Shakespeare gets cut, just like there are cuts in operas. I'm not arguing that Orlando Ballet's production was any good. I don't think simply the choice of cutting Act I was as tragic as some productions of ballets that I've seen that are presenting what they are positing as the real thing, and the audience gets the contrast between lakeside and court through Acts II and Acts III. I think it's critical to show in any production that it's not just his birthday, but that his mother wants him to marry, but he doesn't.

It sounds like the approach Boito and Verdi took to "Othello" to create an "Otello" that wouldn't be as long as "Die Gotterdammerung" by dropping the first act and having the singers describe the Act I action in the love duet. Having two theatrical geniuses more than helped. Are they doing the long reconstruction of "Sleeping Beauty" at the Mariinsky? No, the dancers don't like it. I don't know if it ran long enough to determine if the audiences would have, once it was no longer a novelty. Look at what Balanchine did to different pieces of music: first leaving a movement out of "Serenade," then adding it back on the wrong order, changing the shape and character of the work. He rearranged the order of the Tchaikovsky for "Mozartiana, he chopped movements off of music like in "Scotch Symphony," and he dropped a movement (or two?) from the Mendelssohn string symphony he used for the "A Midsummer Night's Dream" Divertissement and edited out the center of the adagio movement, which changes character. He changed his "Swan Lake" Act II selections around several times, cutting, adding, and replacing. The Bolshoi chopped off a big chunk of the last Act of "Le Corsaire" to fit it into union time at the Kennedy Center. I'm guessing many people in the audience either didn't care if the ballet was shorter and jumped into the heart of the matter or read the website before the show or a preview and knew what was coming. I'm not sure if this a new approach for the company, or if recent repeat audiences knew what to expect going in. Orlando Ballet doesn't have scores of Vaganova graduates to perform the Act I dances, nor a bunch of aristocrats who needed time to settle in: there are 21 dancers and four apprentices in the company, plus students in the school. I would go in wanting to see how they were going to pull it off. Hill had to use his resources wisely to attempt it altogether, "Swan Lake" sells, and many people know the gist of Act going in. If you don't have a lot of people, Act I is the logical act to shorten or cut out. The inclusion of the pas de trois in Act III is interesting, because, musically, it's of similar character as the first Black Swan PDD music that was changed and which Balanchine used for "Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux." It could easily fly as a dance presented by Siegfried's friends as a tribute to him on his birthday, bringing on some of the softness of the original. I've long felt that the Dance of the Four Cygnettes right after the White Swan PDD is a colossal mistake in tone. Even if it didn't look quirky or funny to current audiences, it's an upbeat applause machine right after one of the most moving sections in all ballet and changes the mood and the audience's pulse, only to ask the audience to return to somber mood again right afterwards. I've also thought that it was suspicious that Odette and von Rothbart show up alone. If I were putting on "Swan Lake," their entrance would be preceeded by an entourage of four black swan sweeping in to present them, and the Dance of the Four Cygnettes would be the warm-up for the Black Swan PDD. So it's good that I'll never direct "Swan Lake." The core audience might not need truth in advertising, but from what you described, Birdsall, what they presented wasn't excerpts, which are stand-alone selections, usually without transitions between them, but an abridged, "Reader's Digest" version.

I'm really looking forward to her Mercedes this weekend. (Both of her Kitri's are next weekend, on Friday and Sunday matinee.) It's a new role for her, and she and Bold (Espada) are always terrific together. Bold's Mercedes in 2012 was Maria Chapman, but she hasn't been cast for anything so far since her parental leave started last spring.

Thank you so much, PeggyR! I hope I get to see Mungama sooner than later. Quiggin, yours was a perfect description of gala fare!

PNB has published a new video of Carrie Imler rehearsing Kitri's "fan" variation:

The Kitri/Basilio pairs for second weekend are up on the PNB website. Tom Skeritt and Allen Galli are Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, unless otherwise noted: Thursday, February 6: Rausch/Tisserand Friday, February 7: Imler/Lin-Yee* Saturday, February 8 matinee (1pm): Korbes/Bold (non-subscription) Saturday, February 8 evening: Rausch/Tisserand Sunday, February 9 matinee (1pm): Imler/Lin-Yee with Neubert/Porretta Sunday, February 9 evening (7pm): Dec/Cruz *First time in role

For all but a small blip in the history of the Cubs, that has required some fortitude

ABT isn't dancing most of the time the critics are reviewing NYCB. ABT and NYCB can't dance simultaneously on the same stage in the Fall, and there's a less than four-week overlap in the late spring/early summer. I don't remember any media blackouts on ABT performances until NYCB ends its spring season, and there was plenty of press around the Ratmansky "Nutcracker" when it first came out.

We just received the following info: DANCE STUDIES COLLOQUIUM presents Felicia McCarren Tuesday, January 27, 2015 5:30 - 7pm, CHAT Lounge Gladfelter Hall, 10th fl., Temple University Live-streaming at www.temple.edu/boyer/dance/RR The 2014/15 Dance Studies Colloquium continues Tuesday, January 27, 2015 with the first talk of the season, Felicia McCarren's Paris, Burning: French Universalism, Minority Culture and Hip Hop Dance 2001-2015. About Paris, Burning: French Universalism, Minority Culture and Hip Hop Dance 2001-2015 For two decades, le hip hop has shown another face of France: danced by minorities associated with immigration, it has channeled rage against racism and unequal opportunity and created a movement vocabulary for the expression of the multicultural difference that challenges the universalist discourse of the Republic. Championed by Socialist cultural policy, subsumed into the cultural heritage as concert dance and instituted as a pedagogy, hip hop has staged the burning questions of race and identity within the French Republic of culture. About Felicia McCarren Felicia McCarren is the author of Dance Pathologies: Performance, Poetics, Medicine (1998) and Dancing Machines: Choreographies of the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (2003) both from Stanford University Press. Her new book, French Moves; The Cultural Politics of le hip hop (Oxford University Press, 2013) exploring the urban dance of minorities in France, was awarded the 2014 De la Torre Bueno Prize, and the Oustanding Publication of the Year 2014 from the Congress on Research in Dance. She is Professor of French at Tulane University, in New Orleans. Also this week! Choreo_Drift: Choreography and Disenchantment with Felicia McCarren and Mark Franko January 28-30, 2015 Choreo_Drift is a series of actions and conversations exploring choreography, embodiment and power from January 28-30, 2015 at Slought and throughout Philadelphia. Speakers include Cristina Caprioli, Felicia McCarren, Mark Franko, Adham Hafez, and Mattias Gardell. ccap collaborators include Ulrika Berg, Philip Berlin, Emelie Johansson, Pavle Heidler, Sebastian Lingserius, Louise Perming, Pontus Petterson, and composer Yoann Durant. For full schedule of events and speakers, please visit the Slought Foundation website: https://slought.org/resources/choreo_drift ​ ​About Dance Studies Colloquium Dance Studies Colloquium is a dynamic interactive speaker series designed to facilitate a dialogue about emerging topics and issues related to dance. It brings together artists and scholars to explore how we assimilate ideas and events and our resulting actions within the field of dance. This free monthly event is held on Tuesdays from 5:30-7:00pm at the CHAT Lounge, Gladfelter Hall, 10th floor, Temple University (main campus).

It may also be a glitch, but, currently, on the Bolshoi "Swan Lake" page casting tab, they only have direct links to performances on the 23rd and 24th. You have to click the link for all performances to see casting for the 25th, which remains (as of now) Zakharova and Rodkin. If they update the site, we West Coast people who see it in tape delay at 1pm, should be able to know before heading out to the theater.

NYCB -- actually Ballet Society -- started out as the Mets with ABT decidedly the Yankees: ABT performed the full-length ballets that people other than Balanchine cult members knew and had seen from the Royal Ballet and Russian company visits and had all of the big money defectors, with casting prominently displayed in half-to-full-page ads in the NYT, while Balanchine (begrudgingly) eventually allowed casting to be posted in the lobby the week of and the dancers to be ranked and not displayed in alphabetical order. They even had a mainstream Hollywood movie, "The Turning Point," which was targeted to adults, not kids, unlike "Center Stage," about a thinly disguised ABT. What an ironic comment: the main dance critic of the NY Times makes it a point to travel to Podunkland yearly and to write about his visits extensively.