Helene

Quiggin, that "Agon" sounds horribly disappointing.

Paris Opera Ballet's 2014-15 season has ten programs with : 1 classic, Nureyev's "Sleeping Beauty" (20 performances) 3 neoclassical full-lengths: Neumeier's "Lady of the Camellias," (14 performances) Cranko's "Onegin," (13 performances) Petit's "Notre Dame de Paris" (9 performances) 1 contemporary full-length: Preljocaj's "Le Parc" (19 performances) 1 modern full-length (with opera): Bausch's "Orphee et Eurydice" (8 performances) 83 of 129 (2/3) (None are new to POB; the Petit is from 1965.) In addition, there are 4 mixed bills of 10 (Teshigawara/Brown/Kylian), 11 (Cullberg/de Mille), 13 (Balanchine/Millepied), 12 (Robbins/Ratmansky) performances respectively. 46 of 129 (1/3) not including the Le Riche evening. The Paris audience is a lot more adventurous than the NY audience, and they are not dependent on donors + box office the same way ABT is. Still, they're performing twice as many full-lengths as mixed bills.

There are three different sets of dancers we're talking about: Guest stars International stars who are on the roster Home-grown Principal Dancers I don't see any dearth of the first group, who jet in for their one or two and get back on a plane. The issue there is more whether they can get permission to guest on those dates, if they belong to another company, or whether they can fit it into their schedule, if they are free-lancers. Okay, four: Maria Kochetkova seems not to need any sleep besides what she can catch on a red-eye.

There's a chapter in Joseph Mazo's "Dance Is a Contact Sport" about the making of "Cortege Hongrois" that quoted Balanchine: "I Made It for Millie." It was created for Hayden and Jacques d'Amboise for her retirement. He also made great character dancing roles in it for his confidant Karin von Aroldingen and Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux. It was never considered on par with his "Raymonda Variations," or "Pas de Dix," though, although I'm not sure whether it was for the choreography per se or because people expected something newer and more original for Hayden's farewell.

I appreciate the support, but am always a bit superstitious about receiving thanks until after it's done

Here is the text of the email Kaiser sent last week, forwarded to us by a BA! lurker: Dear friend of Pennsylvania Ballet, I wanted you to be among the first to learn that I am stepping down as Artistic Director of Pennsylvania Ballet. I think the culmination of our successful 50th Anniversary Season is an appropriate time for me to transition the Company over to new artistic leadership. Pennsylvania Ballet has been part of my life for 35 years now, first as a dancer, then as part of the Artistic team, and as Artistic Director since 1995. The Board of Trustees has formed a search committee to identify the Company’s next Artistic Director with the assistance of Michael Kaiser (no relation) of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management. I will serve as Artistic Director until the new Artistic Director is hired, and then I will assume the title of Artistic Director Emeritus. I must express my heartfelt appreciation to the dancers, orchestra, and staff of Pennsylvania Ballet who have openly shared their artistry and skill throughout the years to make this company what it is today. And most of all, I thank you, our audience. Your constant and enthusiastic support is an ongoing inspiration. I look forward to seeing you at the theater throughout the rest of our magnificent 50th Anniversary Season. Sincerely, Roy Kaiser The Ruth and A. Morris Williams Artistic Director

Maybe he'll do some early meetings with USC in the Winter-Spring 2015 range: Peter Boal is hoping he'll be able to visit Seattle to work with PNB dancers for the All Forsythe program, especially on "New Suite."

I can see why a move to another country might not appeal to a dancer with roots in his country, and/or why ABT might not be considered higher on the food chain than, for example, the Bolshoi or Mariinsky or NYCB, and/or why a dancer would be happier in a company where he would retire with a full pension, and/or why a dancer might want to live in Europe. However, there are many, many beautiful male ballet dancers for whom living in NY and dancing for ABT would be a plus. From what I've read here and seen sporadically over the last decade, some of them are even dancing with ABT now. From the outside looking in, the state, management, and development of dancers at ABT -- male and female -- is not making the ABT administration look competent or very bright.

This is what I was thinking throughout "Orpheus." Both of them, but especially Moncion, are so vivid. The only time I'd ever seen Moncion, who was on the roster the first few years I attended NYCB, was as a very kindly Drosselmeier in "Nutcracker." I had seen the same clips as everyone else of Diana Adams from the Balanchine bio on PBS, but to see her in a complete role was such a privilege. I can't wait until Volume Two finally gets delivered. Also, watching "Serenade," I could understand why Barbara Bocher fell for Herbert Bliss. The dancer who blew me away, though, was Patricia Wilde: what a dynamic dancer she was!

I just got to this and consumed it over two days. The writing style was a bit overblown, but I found it energetic and engrossing, and the people she writes about spring to life vividly. What was impressive is that in a career that lasted from when she was 14 to 18, she was immensely curious and took advantage of all of the culture around her when the company was on tour, whether she was followed by a chaperone or was out on her own navigating Italy without speaking the language. She was no bun head. I wonder what would have happened had she taken the opportunity to dance at La Scala instead of returning to NYC. That seemed to be the experience that changed her views about Balanchine's choreography and the way dancers were treated. In addition to the abuse she suffered by Robbins, she also describes how he intimidated her into spending many hours after hours in the studio, including teaching him the monster choreography that Balanchine did for "Firebird," which she writes Robbins took and used in one of his Broadway shows. (She thought she was working with him on something for the company.)

We're getting ready to upgrade to a minor version of the software. The release is mostly fixes, not new functionality, and the board should look and function pretty much as it does now. The aim is for the beginning of next week. As always, I put in an upgrade request, and our software providers get to it when they can. That's usually quickly, sometimes almost immediately, but if they have a very busy time or something with higher priority, it could take a while, which is why we always struggle with the trade-off of shutting the board down until it's over or keeping the board up and risking losing a few posts along the way, because they don't make it into the saved database. We usually choose the latter. I'll create a new thread just before I send the request.

I remember from the VHS tape of ABT (ABT now?) with interviews in between pieces when Corella said he loved to work with Herrera because they were young and always gave 110%. Seattle audiences got to see her Giselle with Stiefel and Abrerra, when ABT toured there in 2001.

It's not just PNB and PB: look at the headline of a recent review of SFB from Saturday's Links: S.F. Ballet revives 2 Balanchine works, and it's about time Then look at the trend of PNB's Balanchine programming: more family-friendly full-lengths, like Coppelia, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and next year's Nutcracker, replacing the Stowell version, all of which have tons of kids which put families' and friends' butts in seats, as other types of ballets fill in the diminishing mixed bills. I am grateful that we're getting Jewels next season instead of a Coppelia repeat, but a three-Balanchine-ballet season is becoming a rarity, and I've given up on seeing a revival of Mozartiana, danced by PNB in the '90's, or PNB premieres of Davidsbundlertanze, Liebeslieder Walzer, Ballo della Regina, Monumentum/Movements, or Episodes. If half or full slots can be taken by solos like State of Darkness and Mopey, it seems to me that there could be room for Tarantella or Tchaikovsky PDD. Ballet Arizona gives fewer performances and has one fewer subscription program per year, and is just as dependent on full-lengths as PNB and many companies are becoming, with two mixed bill programs annually in an indoor theater (not counting the Botanical Gardens), yet it has continued its annual All-Balanchine program, with three-four Balanchine works performed annually, the exception being 2005, with two Balanchine and one Andersen work, the year after the Company produced two separate Balanchine programs to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Balanchine's birth. They once performed Rubies, too, as part of the mixed bill in the Orpheum, but because, at most, they can have a soloist or two performing live music in that theater, they rarely program Balanchine to recorded music. The Children of Balanchine companies were viewed as places where a diverse approach to coaching and staging Balanchine's works by people who had learned their roles directly from the choreographer or from the originators of the roles would perpetuate the original intentions, energy, and approach to his choreography. As they leave the companies they either founded or strengthened or they put Balanchine's works on the back burner, not so much.

Bass-baritone Nicolas Cavallier may not be a dancer -- at least he may not make a living as a dancer -- but tonight he gave a stupendous set of physical characterizations in his portrayals of the four villains in "The Tales of Hoffmann." Taut and elegant, he never once came close to the hammy. Had he been born in Denmark, he could have been one of the great Bournonville character dancer/actors. I don't remember his singing separate from his acting: it was all of one piece. It really doesn't get any better. William Burden, from whose throat gold poured all night, threaded together the facets of Hoffmann the lover, as different as the women in each act, into a powerful Epilogue. Kate Lindsey was deft as the Muse and Niklausse. Norah Ansellem sang all four soprano roles. She'd sung Antonia before, and that seems where her voice was most comfortable, but it was really interesting to see her explore the upper and lower registers through Olympia and Giulietta. In a ballet connection, Eric Neuville, who sang Nathaniel in the Prologue, is married to retiring PNB dancer, Liora (Reshef) Neuville. Chris Alexander's direction is a sheer delight, visually and dramatically, and he directed, and Yves Abel conducted, with deft hands. This production is inadvertently Speight Jenkins' last, since he cancelled "Die Meistersinger" for the summer, replaced by the third Wagner Competition. It's really a great production to end with, however sad it was to lose the Wagner because of the economic realities. Jenkins made a short speech after the initial curtain calls, in which the cast was joined by conductor Abel and then Alexander and two members of the production team. He told three stories about his time as General Director, and he told us in the Q&A that he has three different stories for each of the performances. It's impossible for me to think of Seattle Opera without him.

It has to be, because Francia Russell describes doubling up in the corps for the ballet, and I think Allegra Kent did, too, either in an interview or her book. Once Russell had to do corps and Third Movement soloist and described having to tear one hairpiece out between movements. Symphony in C has 48 roles: one Principal couple, two Demi-Soloist couples, and six women. That's 36 women and 12 men. I don't even know if Ballet Society had 36 women in 1948.

According to Francia Russell in a PNB Q&A, when John Taras had control of "Symphony in C," given to him by the original person who inherited them [betty Cage], he insisted on his version, and Peter Martins told Taras that NYCB would not perform the work rather than perform that version. Taras relented. Russell was having the same issue, and got special permission to stage a different version for a one-off gala performance, and Taras died months before PNB performed the ballet in Fall 2004 during Russell and Stowell's last season. I remember the same mid-80's performances of "Palais de Cristal" the same way that Dale did: that there were differences in the choreography. I seem to remember them most in the Second Movement, particularly that the ballerina held arabesque while holding onto the arm of her partner, which was not in the NYCB version, perhaps in place of the developpe in second? I didn't like the costumes from the 80's, and I look forward to seeing Lacroix's versions. Aside from the "Rubies" skirts, which grown on me more and more, his decor for "Jewels" is my favorite.

When I lived in the Boston area many moons ago, Coolidge Corner was right around the block!

I wish I were going to be in Quebec in October. I'd love to see that Palais de Cristal.

There are a lot of dancers out there doing stellar work. Just because we haven't heard of them, doesn't mean that we're not missing great things through our ignorance or practical lack of access.

Obraztsova got married this weekend! Here are David Hallberg's tweets: Headed to Evgenia Obraztsova's wedding. So happy for her. Beautiful spring day. pic.twitter.com/Emg81mt6w0 https://twitter.com/DavidHallberg/status/460285869241688064/photo/1 Dear partner and friend Evgenia Obraztsova. With love.. pic.twitter.com/IRuedADjpQ https://twitter.com/DavidHallberg Happy married couple. pic.twitter.com/DNvDYBvG9Z https://twitter.com/DavidHallberg/status/460684409310810113 Congratulations to Ms.Obraztsova and her new husband

Heather Watts said in her Ballet Initiative interview that she understood why as an ex-wife (her term) it wouldn't work.

Only official news, please. (I've removed some posts that don't have links to official news.)

With all of that bowing and dropping to the knees, we'd certainly find out what was under them .

David Hallberg tweeted:

Radetsky had a classroom scene that was cut from the movie, which is really too bad, but it is in the DVD outtakes.