Helene

Casting for the first weekend is up on the PNB website: http://www.pnb.org/Season/14-15/Nutcracker/#Casting Here's the spreadsheet with casting as of today: 2014 PNB Nutcracker Casting .xlsx (You don't need to be logged in to download.)

It's writing a job description to retroactively justify the choice or writing one fro which only the person you want to hire qualifies.

Thanks for posting this: I must have missed a tweet.

Ismene Brown has translated and written an intro to an interview with Bolshoi spokesperson Katerina Novikova for her blog: http://www.ismeneb.com/Blog/Entries/2014/11/22_Katerina_Novikova_on_todays_Bolshoi.html

My charge, in case it wasn't clear in the first place, is that not only did you misrepresent what Martin Luther King, Jr. was saying, but also the context, which was a future, sadly, much farther away, than many had hoped, and his continual fight against racism. As far as your general arguments, you've done nothing to convince me that your assertions that the ballet world is overwhelmingly liberal and that the people in it are overwhelming trying to do the right thing, and, as a result, this negates one woman's experience which she's detailed, and, in fact, she has been given preferential treatment because of her race.

Or the odds of benefiting any individual are very small, and that there's been no convincing argument, but only the assertion, that Copeland has benefited from being black, when the odds for it are slim, and in the profession she is in, with its ingrained paternalistic culture, where speaking out about anything can be a career killer, the odds are even smaller. Questioning a story is not offensive in itself; we're discussing the basis for questioning it. From what I've read on this thread, you've offered no specifics about why you're questioning the details she's provided about her personal experience. First, the assertion that an alleged liberalness surrounding ballet -- perhaps someone should alert the Koch Brothers, Altria, Exxon Mobil, etc. or for that matter, Balanchine, and his administrator who voiced anti-Semitic rants against Ruthana Boris and kept his job -- means that Copeland must have been treated preferentially because she was black, ignores the wide range of political beliefs and backgrounds of the board members, donors, administrators, and artists in ballet, not to mention ignoring institutionalized racism in liberal institutions. That ballet someone how transcended race, that everyone in ballet is trying to do the right thing and is color-blind except when they're treating people of color preferentially, is an opinion, but hardly as substantiated one. That someone never discounted the character needed to endure racism or any other '-ism, nor was he an example of someone who did not call out racism when he saw it or believed that the conversation was over.

Wow, congratulations to him. (I still miss his dancing.)

It's right here. Cover up that nipple, strumpet! I think that's a great photo.

I'm not sure I understand your argument: are you saying that in other worlds -- examples: the world of figure skating, the world of astrophysics, the world of speed skating, where blacks are underrepresented -- claiming to have encountered racial discrimination would not have an impact on a career trajectory? If that's your argument, then it follows that race may be a bigger issue in ballet than elsewhere, and she would be right to bring it up. Or are you saying she wouldn't be a star in any other field, because the same claim could be said of most major league athletes and biology professors if they we in another field. If anything, ballet is closest to figure skating in that it is judged, and competitors and dancers have a deeply imbedded cultural aversion to speaking out against authority. They are still "boys" and "girls." Speaking up about race could easily have blown up in Copeland's face, given the culture of ballet. It was a huge risk for her to take. That it hasn't backfired is rather remarkable. Copeland has been outspoken about the people who have helped her. Were you there to witness and affirm that the people whom she said blocked her did nothing of the sort and helped her instead? If I follow you correctly, you dismiss her experience and her conclusions through an assumption that everyone she encountered was entirely decent and had the best intentions. Because if that's a real place, I want to work wherever that is. She has told her story and her experience, giving details, and she was there to experience them. Her judgement is likely off here or there, because she's human and no one is completely objective, but to exact a standard of perfection would dismiss all biography, all autobiography, and all scholarly research. I must have missed those photos or that film, but I remember what the great actor Helen Mirren said in interviews when "Excalibur" was released, that in England there weren't the strict typecasting of work, and actors did everything from Shakespeare to soft porn. I prefer broader and more complex role models, and ones that do not dismiss female sexuality.

As far as selling tickets is concerned, there is very little difference. Companies hire dancers to sell tickets. If dancers are well known outside a very small number of aficionados, they bring in new audiences and audiences that are interested in ballet, but need to be sold, ex: the ones that will only buy tickets to see "Giselle" if Osipova is dancing because she got a big article in the preview, not to see the Bolshoi or whatever company she's performing with on any given day and any number of great dancers they might bring. As far a Copeland selling herself solely on the basis of race, I think that is a very narrow and short-sighted way to describe it. She is claiming that her talent and artistry have been held back because of racism, which many audience members, although certainly not all, believe is true. It is just as much an argument about suppressed talent as it is about race, even if the race angle is what distinguishes her from other dancers for any number of reasons that have not captured the public imagination and have stuck beyond a single campaign. As a result of this interest by the public, she is able to sell tickets, and that is music to a company's bank account. As long as she sells tickets, there will be audiences who decide on whether she has talent and artistry. I have no idea if this is correlated in any way, but I've noticed recently that in Met in HD series, the camera people who film the audiences at the beginning of the broadcast have been choosing as many people of color and as many young people as possible, whereas in the past, it seemed like they were focusing on the average, older audience member. The ideas that perhaps if people see an audience like them, they will come to the theater more, and, perhaps in time, encourage their children to attend and participate, and that the more traditional demographics begin to see that the audience is more than themselves, are another critical aspect of diversification in any of the arts. I hope the audiences that Copeland brings into the theater stick, and that this is part of the legacy of the discussion she has re-opened.

The basis on which a dancer self-promotes is irrelevant: if Washington Ballet were interested in being more inclusive, they would have hired a black ballerina before Copeland, with her fame, came along and was a name that sold tickets. Ballet Gala X and Company Y could have hired many ballerinas with Kochetkova's training and lineage, but they hire her, because she sells tickets. I don't think it's ironic at all that ABT has created Project Plie, which addresses the issue of making ballet education more inclusive, while not affecting how she is cast.

Misty Copeland's stage career at ABT has not gone anywhere past any one of her peers since she's spoken out. If Washington Ballet has hired her, they've got someone who will sell tickets, regardless of the reason. Assuming that Washington Ballet is trying to do the "right thing" is entirely unsubstantiated, or they would have hired an unknown black ballerina to dance Odette/Odile. I doubt Maria Kochetkova would get hall of the opportunities she has taken advantage of if she didn't self-promote herself vigilantly, given her relatively low-level Russian credentials (but impeccable training). Kochetkova is an example where self-promotion has a direct impact on a stage career, something that hasn't happened for Copeland. Since there has been no attempt at affirmative action that I know that comes even close to leveling the playing field, calling it privilege is, at best, misguided, and, towards the other end of the spectrum, offensive.

I emphatically disagree that her story of overcoming racism and mentoring black student dancers is outside or separate from ballet: her story is intrinsically linked to ballet, because that is her experience.

I'm not sure how race is a huge element in her favor now if it's not helping her ballet career. ABT hasn't promoted her and ABT hasn't given her more chances than her peers. Perhaps she's getting more press than she would if she were white because she's part of a discussion whose time has come and that it has more traction and importance than whether a dancer appears in a movie or walks out of various contracts.

Copeland is marketing herself, and if there wasn't a buyer for it, she would be obscure. She is exploiting an angle, but doesn't make that angle or her point of view any more or less legitimate, and it's resonating enough for there to be a continuing discussion in the first place. I fail to see how there is black privilege of any kind simply because a black woman can speak about race in mainstream social and predominantly white media. I would call that creeping closer, however slowly, to parity, and not even close to privilege. There are many ways of talking about the experience of race. They are not more or less legitimate because they cause discomfort or violate someone's social code. As many people have shown by comparing her career trajectory with her peers from ABT II, she is getting no more and no less than them except Hee Seo: she is pushed by ABT no harder than Lane or Abrera, for example, despite the great differences in their social media and general press presence. I don't remember Copeland saying she was the first black Odette/Odile. As far as I know, she's the first black ballerina to dance the role with one of the two major dance companies in NYC, and as much as San Francisco Ballet would beg to differ, those two are considered the top two in North America. China-born Tzu-Chia Huang dance Odette/Odile with Ballet Arizona. I would bet that few on this board know who she is. More likely know Kuranaga because a few have ventured northward, and more likely know Anderson because of the articles written about her: it's not like Houston tours frequently to NYC. How many people here actually saw Anderson live? In NYC Copeland is not invisible like most ballet dancers on this planet, whether they're white, black, Native American, Latina, or Asian, because she's a member of a NY company.

Cojocaru danced in Moscow, and Ismene Brown weighed in today: http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/culturehousedaily/2014/11/english-national-ballets-star-ballerina-infuriates-fans/ It's not that I don't get the disappointment in not seeing Cojocaru, and would be angry if I bought a ticket because of the publicity machine that said Cojocaru would be performing. but I can also appreciate having both Neumeier and the Bolshoi owing you one, and since the company would have an audit trail of many of the tickets sold, ENO might be able to turn it around by scheduling Cojocaru in Milton Keynes in the future and offering a pre-sale and discount to those whom missed her the first time, but, instead, got to see a rising young star.

Ulanova is buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. There is a life-sized half sculpture of her: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=20399

Here's the press release: KIROV ACADEMY OF BALLET TO PERFORM AT NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART Washington, DC – November 17, 2014 – Kirov Academy of Ballet of Washington, DC will perform in the National Gallery of Art’s West Garden Court on Sunday, November 23, 2014 at 3:30 pm. The presentation immediately follows a lecture entitled Inside Look: Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, by Daphne Barbour, senior conservator, department of object conservation, National Gallery of Art; Alison Luchs, curator of early European sculpture, National Gallery of Art; and Shelley Sturman, senior conservator and head, department of object conservation, National Gallery of Art. The lecture takes place at 2:00 pm in the Gallery’s West Building Lecture Hall offered in conjunction with John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ world premiere musical Little Dancer. Audience members of the 3:30 pm performance will take a journey back in time as they “encounter” Kirov Academy of Ballet dancers acting out a scene from Degas’s 19th century creative world. The period is the 1800s when dancers in white romantic tutus begin their exercises for a rehearsal of ballets destined for the great stages of France. As light filters through the dance studio, a ballet master enters and sees the Little Dancer deep in thought about the rehearsal, which will begin momentarily. This is a lovely opportunity for the audience to take a moment to breathe in the beauty of classical ballet and art. The interlude will begin with sounds from the lilting pocket violin, in the beautiful West Garden Court, where time stands still for the dance.

Judith Cruickshank wrote an obituary for Nina Timofeyeva in "The Guardian": http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/nov/16/nina-timofeyeva?CMP=share_btn_tw

When there was a professional figure skating circuit, and Dick Button created his "World" professional championships, which were actually limited invitationals, it was the rare newbie professional out of the eligible ranks that won anything. They would come in and do programs with the equivalent of the 32 fouettes and 180 degree extensions, but it was the professional skaters, with lower jump difficulty but more artistry in their programs who would win the titles, as the marking and judging criteria were different, and the seasoned professional's programs were different. I'm talking about roles and choreography where the technical demands weren't at the extreme, and where there wouldn't be arguments about changing the text because a dancer couldn't do the brise voles or whatever anymore and where the dancer wouldn't be comparing him- or herself to him- or herself in the same role a decade apart.

When dancers say they want to go out at the top, though, very few have the opportunity to dance in roles where they would continue to be at the top, and among the ones who do, they are almost always character roles. Most dancers have the choice of doing another Kitri or Odette or "Agon" Pas de deux that wold be compared to their Kitri or Odette or "Agon" Pas de deux from five or ten years before. If there aren't roles to grow into and be compared to other people who've done those roles, and it isn't in the mindset of the dancers that these roles are valuable, not the consolation prize, there's no incentive to continue.

[Admin beanie on] A reminder that the company forums are for members to describe what we see, not to discuss critics' opinions. Critics' opinions should be discussed in "Writings on Ballet," and quotes are limited to a 250-word excerpt, link to the review, and commentary on the opinion. [Admin beanie off]

I wonder how the upper body parts were notated. Do you think the notations would be supplemented by the photos from that period, to get upper arms and stance?

If I were in NYC, I wouldn't care how good "The Flames of Paris" is: I would rush to see those ballerinas.