Helene

Ismene Brown attempts to decipher the chaos that is Sergei Polunin's present career in her latest blog entry: http://www.ismeneb.com/Blog/Entries/2014/7/10_Manon_Russian-style_loses_something_in_translation_%28not_least_Polunin%29.html At the bottom is a translation of Tatiana Kuznetsova's review of the Stanislavsky Theatre's "Manon" in which Alban Lendorf replaced Polunin and which is referenced in Brown's earlier puzzle key.

You do realize he is now dancing two hours north of you and that you can go see him dance at Ballet BC this season. Just sayin'.

What are the numbers to suggest that Balanchine is moving out of the core rep? At PNB, in the last 20 years it hasn't: there wasn't a huge amount of Balanchine in the last decade of Russell and Stowell's leadership. There are more companies doing Balanchine rep now than there were in Balanchine's time, but now with a formal process of "You must prove you can do a "starter" ballet, and if you can, this is the progressive menu," and, of course, there are the requirements for using the original sets and costumes unless there is a pre-approved new production (Mariinsky and POB "Jewels", PNB "Midsummer Night's Dream," PNB/SFO "Coppelia") that effectively prohibit companies from doing some ballets, like "Liebslieder Walzer," "Vienna Waltzes," and "Union Jack," even if they could field the right number of dancers. My concern, voiced several times here, is that PNB has been more focused on the two full-lengths -- "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Coppelia" -- and will be focused next season (2015-16) on the newly designed "Nutcracker." I consider the upcoming "Jewels" a mixed-rep all-Balanchine bill despite the overarching theme, and at this point, I consider it a luxury because it's three short ballets, not because there was more Balanchine in 1995, and I fear that as a yearly production, "Nutcracker" will too often begin to "tick" the season's Balanchine box. I just don't know what companies had a substantial amount of Balanchine ballets but are no longer doing them. NYCB is doing more non-Balanchine a little over 30 years after Balanchine's death, but it's not like they are doing a small number of his works. (They had been mixed the great works that most wanted to see with other things that many didn't want to bother to see more than once, and for the last few seasons have reversed.) Did San Francisco Ballet used to do more Balanchine? Did Pennsylvania Ballet or Boston Ballet, companies that Balanchine himself gave rep to? Are we talking about Miami City Ballet?

These are sad days when retrospective listenings and viewings are in a big queue.

I'm posting this here, because it will impact so many companies going forward. The Royal Ballet School tweeted" Here's the full URL to their website, which lists all of the graduates and their new companies: http://www.royalballetschool.org.uk/the-school/alumni/graduate-contracts/ It's great that two are going to Sarasota, where Iain Webb is establishing an Ashton tradition, and four are going to National Romanian Ballet, which happily is getting well-deserved recognition through Cojocaru and Kobborg. (Two have Italian first and last names, and if they are Italian-speakers, Romanian shouldn't be that much of a stretch.) Congratulations to them all and to the companies that hired them

From the interview, She's not clear about what happened, but that's fairly standard from all of her interviews. Of course it's her prerogative to drop bombs like that she was afraid for her life and not elucidate, leaving underlying accusations in their wake, or being vague long after she had time to sort the narrative. The only things that are clear from this interview are that her dressing room mate, partly in order to defend the (unnamed) accused by shaking up the Filin trial, went to the press with Womack's story, and that Womack feels she did it out of love and concern for Womack, who feared for her life. (It isn't clear why she felt targeted specifically, when there was such a rift in the company and so many Dmitrichenko supporters.) Whether the woman handed over a fake interview using things or versions of things Womack had said, or things this woman observed and put in interview form, or the press turned what the woman told them into an interview, etc. isn't told. What she does say clearly is that she didn't choose to go public, but after the story was leaked and broke while she was on tour and not connected to the internet, and the Russian tabloids followed her after she returned from tour, she decided to speak to the LA Times and NYT.

The historical/literary ballet tradition is only partially robust because of The Revenge of the Full-lengths, which have cropped up again, like measles. While not exclusively narrative like Tudor, Wheeldon and Ratmansky especially have done many works with both strictly narrative content or with a narrative pulse, like the last Scarlett I saw, so there's some hope. The eponymous modern dance companies are still the model, with Paul Taylor and Mark Morris the most established and most flourishing, and many of Morris' -- sometimes literalky following the libretto in the lyrics --and some of Taylor's works are right in the narrative tradition. Far from being charitable, ballet companies are begging Tharp for her older works, like the ubiquitous "In the Upper Room" and "Nine Sinatra Songs," and if they can afford her price tag, for new ones. (PNB has had three in the last few seasons.) Mark Morris picks and chooses the ballet companies that do his work and for whom he creates new work, and there's a line-up for those (and companies that wish they could afford him). Surviving transitions are few in any sphere without institutions, and institutions are not what most modern dance companies are about. Balanchine and Martins (and Ratmansky for that matter) were born and bred in institutions. Balanchine famously said that when he would no longer be around, the ballets would look different. He assumed they'd be performed after he was gone. How many modern dance choreographers are willing for that to be the case? Look at the number who shut their companies down when they're no longer in control. The choreographers who make works for ballet companies are making them for institutions (probably within strict contractual limits), which generally means they have a better chance at surviving the choreographer's company.

Carrie Imler posted this as a public post to her Facebook page: I don't remember what she danced for her school graduation ballet in 1995, but to this day I remember feeling gobsmacked watching her. The great thing about dance is that the "blessed" stuff works both ways. Congratulations to her on her upcoming 20th anniversary

I'm also partial to their "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child." Rest in peace, Mr. Haden.

Calmels talks about his height and training in this podcast: http://balancing-pointe.com/fabrice-calmels/

Japanese ballet fans are among the most committed and knowledgeable I've encountered. However I would imagine it would be difficult, if not impossible, to score a big block of tickets for tour groups especially during the Festival.

Carrie Imler was asked about her "strategic summer schedule" by Dance Magazine: http://dancemagazine.com/issues/July-2014/Your-body-strategic-summer-schedule (with a lovely photo by Angela Sterling)

[Admin beanie on] Links to other discussion boards aren't official news on BA. Many have twitter feeds that you can sign up for to get the latest information from them. [Admin beanie off]

From today's Links in the NYT, Sulcas writes: Have there been any reports in the French media that he will continue to dance in projects and/or with his own troupe? Obviously in this excerpts program he didn't show long stretches of difficult classical choreography, but in what he did show, he looked like he was in his prime. Edited to add: I just realized there was a second article in the Telegraph, and Compton writes, I'd travel to see this.

Or Guillem.

If this is a wish list for a monster tour budget -- full company and orchestra -- but that still had to follow the laws of physics, where rights issues were miraculously sorted, where there were no worries about the trombones being left out, and where they could rehearse all of this stuff like they did for mostly similarly sized rep in at City Center in 1996, ideally, they'd take three programs for seven performances, 7-8 works they could mix and match, similar to what they did in 1996, when the company brought a Balanchine program and two mixed choreographer reps, including a repeat of the one of the Balanchine ("Divertimento No. 15). I don't remember everything they brought, but among them were their one-act "Paquita," "Jardi Tancat," the then-new Ton Simons piece ("The Tenderness of Patient Minds"), and I'm sure there was a Stowell one act. (The boxing ring one?) "Agon" and "La Valse" were the other two Balanchines that had premiered on that stage. If they were in Lincoln Center, they could bring the new Tharp. "Emergence," too, would work on those stages, but I wouldn't take the whole company to NYC and use a precious full slot on "State of Darkness" in any size theater. I'd bring "Square Dance" from the Balanchine, even if it hasn't been done for a while, the Dawson, "Sechs Tanze," "Variations Serieuses," -- although I really like the new Wheeldon -- and Concerto DSCH along with the Pite and Tharp. No one seems to like "Emeralds" as a stand-alone, but that's the one I'd bring, if I were adding a second Balanchine and wanted to add a little gloom. The Joyce is another kettle of fish, and the rep is specifically new work choreographed on PNB. The Tharp sets wouldn't work financially or physically. I might prefer "Sum Stravinsky" or "Matrix Theory" or "Afternoon Ball" to the Cerrudo, but the Cerrudo is part of the Nureyev Prize and comes with the gig, and I also thought it looked more coherent in the one performance I saw second weekend, although I missed Leah Merchant from first weekend. Since I'm spending other people's money, I'd love to see a Seattle Showcase joint venture at the Joyce with Whim W'him doing Wevers' new Poulenc, PNB dancers doing "State of Darkness," and maybe a Spectrum piece.

I don't know about Emergence fitting on the Joyce stage anyway, and it would mean a much greater expense shipping the entire company, when only about half will go for the NY performances at the Joyce. I doubt the sets for the Tharp would fit, although I wish NYC could see it. Since the Cerrudo was contractual because of the Nureyev prize, they needed pieces they could do with relatively small casts, since with seven performances in five days, anything without a second cast would be a risk, and 12 dancers likely would be the maximum per cast to be ideal.

I think if Guillem hadn't gone over to start hugging Bessy, Le Riche might have lost it there and then.

Am I getting this right that the solo was Le Riche doing a "Greatest Hits" memory track? The director cut out of an "Apollo" bit with a needless shot of Chedid while Le Riche was mid-air, and I think he ended with "Dances at a Gathering."

I thought the same about the second intermission. (In the US, it would be to sell drinks.) Maybe they performed it before Gallienne's speech and just broadcast the curtain during the pas.

I assumed Guillem had performed in the part that I missed. Perhaps if she wasn't performing, she wasn't expecting to take a curtain call, hence the way she was dressed. I'll track down that "Jeune homme"!

Osta walked off to the side (or offstage) right away, but their two girls stayed on for several minutes of the ovation until he sent them back to Osta. I found the gala full of feeling, especially with the men of the company joining him for "Bolero" which has to be one of the most fun ways to end a gala, cheese or no cheese, and the company clapping along from backstage along with the audience during all of his solo bows. Not everything has to be serious. I think it was great to have the big three of the choreographers from the latter half of the 20th century who were so associated with the company: Nureyev, Bejart, and Petit.

Many thanks, volcanohunter, for all of the ID's! I was wondering what happened to the "Apartement" excerpt.

I missed the first two pieces on the program*, because the feed froze, but I did get to see it from the "Raymonda" excerpt on. I don't understand more than a smattering of words in French, so I'm not sure who was dancing most of what I saw, aside from Le Riche. *Edited to add: three. I was posting at the same time as volcanohunter, and the solo with Chedid singing wasn't listed on the website. I'm especially sorry I missed him with the students. I'm not sure what Guillem and Chedid did -- I only saw them during the curtain calls, and she was wearing a big, loose bright yellow shirt over those tights -- but Guillaume Gallienne read a poem about Le Riche, which had the audience laughing. (If you have a chance to see Gallienne's "Me, Myself, and Mum" (or "Les garçons et Guillaume, à table!" the original French title, I'd highly recommend it.) "Bolero" has to be the most fun spectacle with which to end a gala. It gave a chance for the men in the company to honor him dancing rather than being bystanders. So many of them looked familiar, but the one I could definitely ID was Karl Paquette, one of the first men to join in and later one of his curtain call wingmen. There were a bazillion curtain calls on stage, in front of the curtain, with the company in the wings clapping along throughout the long ovation during his solo bows on stage. There was a fluttering of shiny confetti. Someone managed to get a paper-wrapped bouquet to the stage, which he held until the end. His partner/wife (I'm guessing) brought his (their) two daughters to greet him during one of the later calls and then went to the side (or offstage). I want the DVD! "Jeune homme et la mort" and "Bolero" were great!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able get the stream until after the first two pieces ("Les Forains" [Entrée des Forains] and "Le Bal des cadets" [solo du petit tambour]) and I have no idea what Guillem did. (I assume Chedid sang something, if he was involved.) This was a spectacular program to honor a treasured dancer. I would buy the DVD in an instant.