Helene

I don't think this is Director's Choice-specific, but PNB posted this TGIF video to its FB page: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152056935228952&set=vb.21358443951&type=2&theater Kiyon Gaines is leading the ensemble, and I think left to right is: Chelsea Adomaitis (?) after a few seconds, William Lin-Yee, Lindsi Dec, Joshua Grant, and Elle Macy, who pops on the right.

Casting is up for first weekend of Director's Choice: http://www.pnb.org/Season/13-14/DirectorsChoice/#Casting Here's the Excel workbook for those who'd like to download it: Removed, because week one has been changed (see below). Originally, Director's Choice was planned to feature four female choreographers, but due to schedule conflicts, Crystal Pite and Alejandro Cerrudo switched places in the schedule. It made logical sense to have two very small cast works and one medium-sized short work on the same program as a work that used every dancer who could stand ("Emergence," a known quantity). It got trickier for Cerrudo, for whom this was the first time he's worked with the company and he's creating a new work, not re-staging and/or adapting an older one. (Cerrudo spent time with the company work-shopping; from what I saw of a piece of rehearsal earlier this week, the company's experience with "Petite Mort" is helpful.) Given his movement style, it's not surprising that his casting overlaps with the Fenley -- three of the five dancers who've dancer or are learning "State of Darkness" are cast among the three women and seven men in the Cerrudo -- and there's a second cast learning the piece. James Moore, the only returnee from the original "Kiss" will perform with Carla Korbes, marking her return to the stage. Leah Merchant, one of the three women in the Cerrudo, will dance "Kiss" with Seth Orza [edited to add: debut changed to second weekend). This rep is thin for a lot of the company; I suspect they've got their hands full for rehearsals of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for April, and then there's the season-ending "Giselle," with new costumes and sets by Jerome Kaplan that should be gorgeous. Like the Kylian/Pite rep, there are only pointe shoes in one work, the Stroman. Directors Choice 2014.xls

Matthew Renko is cast for opening weekend Saturday: http://www.pnb.org/Season/13-14/DirectorsChoice/#Casting (choose the matinee from the drop-down box)

It would be nice if some figure skating choreographers made this the third CD in their collection.

She spoke about "Romeo and Juliet" in Seattle as well,and mentioned the kiss as her first.

There was a meeting upstairs about raising the minimum wage in Seattle to $15, and at one point, there was a loud crash. (Possibly a fallen rack of chairs.) I think her comment was a quizzical, "Go [or yay?] minimum wage," which cracked everyone up. She would know: her husband, James Fayette, was involved in the dancers union at NYCB. Ringer mentioned how she had been in Boal's farewell performance, and he told us how she had made a path of rose petals for him that led to the stage. I'd only seen the early part of her career live. She came across in person as lovely as she did on stage, and with a great sense of humor. (I'd never seen her in a humorous role on stage.) She was very funny describing how when she was first sent to ballet class at five, she didn't understand all of the weird things she was made to do. "This wasn't anything like dancing to ABBA!" She did a book signing afterwards.

Congratulations to Mme. Albisson

Bumping -- this is tonight!

Many thanks, silvermash!

Was this season programmed primarily by Lefevre?

According to the Royal New Zealand Ballet website, Ethan Stiefel will not renew his contract with Royal New Zealand ballet and [h]e will return to the USA at the beginning of September to pursue new opportunities in his homeland."

What I appreciate most about the Stowell version is the fourth act: there's a long, beautiful dance for the swans and a pas de deux that balances out the second act. I've always thought of it as like the Wedding Pas de Deux in "Romeo and Juliet" as opposed to the Balcony Pas de Deux: by Act IV, their eyes have been opened.

I was on the East Coast for a bar mitzvah and to see my cousins in DC last week, and it made me smile to remember how Carley would email me whenever she went to DC to see her own family there for a holiday or bar/bat mitvah and ask me to watch registrations while she was gone. Even though email, I could hear the "kvell" in her voice. I had to fly west on Saturday night, and, after some last minute switches, came back to the city Friday night and realized that I could see part of the NYCB matinee. Before the performance, I went to the cafe where the Lincoln Center Chamber Society performs and where we'd had a meal or two, and while I was ordering, I willed two couch seats by the windows we had shared to remain open. After, I sat on the wedge of concrete seats outside the cafe, where we would meet and chat until I followed Carley blindly to her favorite diner. Alas, Bouder wasn't cast for Saturday afternoon. Carley loved Bouder like I love Imler; we had both seen a glimpse of each other's great ballet love and realized that while each was unique, like Patty and Cathy, they both shared the Carlisle DNA through Marcia Dale Weary, and both of us wished the other lived and danced close by. The dancer I was trying to watch through her eyes was Mearns, here in "Acheron," and Mearns was everything Carley had described so well. Kowrowski danced the second variation of "Walpurgisnacht" with the kind of wit and esprit that only a senior dancer with deep roots can, the type of performance that would have a place in Carley's long reference. Most touching was Reichlen Hyltin* in "Afternoon of a Faun." After the kiss, she appeared transformed as a person, the first time I'd seen it interpreted that way. I don't know what Carley would have thought of it, but I miss the conversation we would have had. I've long had a ritual where at each performance at a theater I grew up in, I walk around the Fourth Tier balcony twice, tweaking the beads each time with a remembrance. On Saturday, I added a third circuit and tweaked the beads in memory of Carley. This one stays. *A friend just reminded me it was, indeed, Hyltin in "Faun." I had Reichlen on my mind after reading Marina Harss' review of the Sunday closer.

Right there in all caps . I had always thought it was an educational branding thing, I get the "seeing" as "understanding" rather than visually seeing, but it is a questionable use of the phrase, since it has a specific meaning in NYCB lore, and Balanchine was noted for not wanting to explain.

Are these surprise lectures, or is there a way to know ahead of time if they're planned.

Paco de Lucia was one of the great Flamenco guitarists, but also one who integrated many types of music and instruments into Flamenco and pushed the boundaries, and who is mourned by many across genres. During a visit to Peru, he saw the rhythm box used there and modified it: the cajon is now ubiquitous in Flamenco performance. (The traditional cuadro is voice, dance, guitar, and palmas [rhythmic hand clapping].) The last time he was in Vancouver, he closed the Vancouver Jazz Festival. He learned the shape of Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez" by ear; he didn't read music. Here is the mournful adagio: He also played himself in "Carlos Saura's 'Carmen'":