Helene

On 29 December, after a performance of "Sleeping Beauty," Dutch National Ballet Director Ted Brandsen promoted former SFB dancer Isaac Hernandez to Principal Dancer (eerste solist). Here's the video: to Hernandez, one of my favorite men when he was at SFB

Ismene Brown has published an analysis and translation of end-of-2013 decisions about Bolshoi finances in 2014 to her blog: http://www.ismeneb.com/Blog/Entries/2014/1/1_Hopeful_end_to_Bolshois_horror_year.html The two main discussion points are that Urin plans to spend an accumulated 3.3m British Pounds in trust money on a series of projects, and that a 20-member group, including five artistic and five technical members of the Bolshoi in addition to ten from management, will work on the upcoming labor contract, including how to allocate the Presidential grants that used to be up to management, which for the ballet meant Filin. Brown's comparison of the annual budgets of the Bolshoi, compared to Royal Opera (2012) and Paris Opera are eye-opening, to say the least. (The NYCB's operating expenses in 2011 were 61m, 2/3 of the Bolshoi's current budget, which includes the opera, in a less expensive city overall.) What brought tears to my project manager/nerdy eyes was Urin's straightforward statement about what would happen after 2014, after they spent the reserves: either they'd get more board members (@250K Euros contribution/year), raise the yearly amount on existing board members -- presumably an "and/or" -- or create a budget with what they had. In a profession in which there is enormous pressure to agree to unrealistic budgets, that is a hurricane's worth of fresh air.

From an email from New York Theatre Ballet, The American Girl "Girl of the Year" was revealed yesterday on "The Today Show," and four students from Ballet School NY, the school of New York Theatre Ballet, were there to help: http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/american-girl-39-2014-doll-revealed-meet-isabelle-133258598--abc-news-parenting.html According to the ABC News story, From the NYTB email, She's casually dressed. Perhaps the tutus are part of the accessories (as in $110 for the doll + accessories) budget? (Edited to ad: oh, yeah: http://store.americangirl.com/agshop/html/thumbnail/id/2055/uid/533) Unfortunately, gender stereotyping is still in force; from the event website (click "Learn more"):

Here's a short promo video, from a link tweeted by Maria Kochetkova earlier in the week:

Generations of the same family are migrant farm workers, too. From what I understand, the gravy isn't all that good.

2013 * 2012 * 2011 * 2010 * 2009 * 2008 * 2007 * Through 2006 Tap vs. Pointe Shoes: the Corps in "Romeo and Juliet" from The Goldwyn Follies (1938) (Added 3 Jan 14) Vera Zorina and William Dollar in the "Water Nymph Ballet" from The Goldwyn Follies (1938) (Added 3 Jan 14) Vera Zorina in "Romeo and Juliet" from The Goldwyn Follies (1938) (Added 3 Jan 14) Cover Portrait of Tanaquil Le Clercq and Nicholas Magallanes in Les Illuminations (Added 11 Jan 14) Balanchine with Mimi Paul, Violette Verdy, Patricia McBride, and Suzanne Farrell Wearing the Original Karinska Designs in Jewels (Added 25 Jan 14) Patricia McBride and Edward Villella in Rubies Costumes for A Man Who Dances (Added 25 Jan 14) Natalia Makarova (Added 24 Feb 14) Galina Ulanova as Coralie"in Lost Illusions (Added 26 Feb 14) Galina Ulanova as Sylphide (Added 26 Feb 14) Melissa Hayden as Titania and Edward Villella as Oberon in Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream (Added 14 June 14) Ballet Russe "'Frozen' Motion": Vladimir Dokoudovsky, Tatiana Stepanova, and Nina Stroganova (Added 29 Aug 14) The Bolshoi's Susanna Sviagina, Alexander Radunsky, Galina Ulanova, Marina Kondratieva, and Raisa Struckova from the 1956 Tour to London (Added 22 Sep 14) Bolshoi Ballet Dancers in Rehearsal at Sadler's Wells, 1956 (Added 22 Sep 14) The Bolshoi's Sviagina and Struckova from the 1956 Tour to London (Added 4 Oct 14) Galina Ulanova, London, 1956 (Added 6 Oct 14) Galina Ulanova and Her Husband, London, 1956 (Added 6 Oct 14) Galina Ulanova, Her Husband, and The Mayoress of Stratford (?) (Added 6 Oct 14) Galina Ulanova at Stratford(Added 16 Oct 14) Portrait of Suzanne Farrell from Ballet of the XXth Century (Added 21 Oct 2014) Ulanova in Florence, 1951 (Added 20 Nov 14)

I noticed that with the snow we had recently, the PNB website had a red notice at the top of the website to say that the day's performance(s) was on as usual. The year or two before the last major snow storm, which also hit the weekend before Christmas, there was a windstorm that knocked out power through a big swath of the Seattle/Eastside/Mercer Island region, which also impacted last-minute ticket buyers.

It just dawned on me that this is the penultimate day of 2013 and that 2013 marks Ballet Alert!'s 15th year anniversary! How time disappears... So many thanks to Alexandra for launching this site in 1998, when the Internet was in its toddler days as a far-reaching public entity. We've waxed and waned in fulfilling BA!'s mission to serve as a place to discuss classical ballet, but the standard is still there for us to try to meet. I'd also like to thank dirac for her commitment to providing Links at least six days a week, and for always adding links as they surface after the current day, and to Mme. Hermine for posting lLinks on the other days. rg shares his his wonderful collection of historic photographs and postcards that grace Ballet Alert! . BA! would not be the same wonderful resource without them. Thank you to Carley, our tireless site Registrar, whose work is almost entirely behind the scenes, and who continues the non-stop effort to battle the spammers who try to infiltrate us, and to our Moderating team. We appreciate the people who donate to keep us up and running, and our members, whose participation and insight makes us an online community. Happy almost New Year to all!

The elephant in the room is that ballet is danced mostly by women, and dancing, at least in most of the West, is not considered a proper man's occupation -- like nursing and social work, for example -- and women are almost always paid less. Edited to add: this may not be the case at Royal Danish Ballet and/or Paris Opera Ballet, where the dancers unions traditionally have been strong, to reflect the social safety network of their respective countries.

Ismene Brown has been given a shout-out by Wendy Perron in "Dance Magazine" for her translations and summaries of the news from the Bolshoi (scroll to bottom): http://www.dancemagazine.com/blogs/wendy/5554

Thank you for enlightening us on the benefits of being an uneducated laborer in New York.If you consider a college education the only form of education, then perhaps "uneducated" is accurate, and I know a number of stagehands and lighting people personally who went to my university. Were the benefits to cost an employer a generous 40% of yearly salary -- and there is no Social Security paid after the base wage of ~113K -- that accounts for 30K+ in taxes paid by the employee. Even if the carpenter, for example, did not have a mortgage, s/he would still be able to itemize based on NYC/NYS taxes alone, plus the exempt amounts for every member of the household. $60K would mean total tax of 120%.

This great piece from 2003 that Alexander Meinertz wrote on "Etudes" for "Dance View" and published online ( ) gives a lot of background on the evolution and style of the work, including the changes from the 1948 original and the 1952 production for Paris Opera Ballet: http://www.danceview.org/commentary/etudes.html He wrote: I've only seen it with a single ballerina, when Marianna Tcherkassky danced it in 1987 with ABT, and when Christina Olsen danced it in Copenhagen in 2003. "Etudes" was on a program with "La Sylphide." A casting shuffle moved Lund from James to one of the Soloherrer in "Etudes," but just from that glimpse of Lund, I knew I was watching a very great dancer. The RDB program from 2003 lists one ballerina and three solo dancers, but also lists three "Sylfider": Olsen, Mette Bodtcher, and Josee Howard. Is it possible that Sand and Goth were the Sylphides in the original?

Taking the outlier compensation for stagehands is like taking the compensation for the most highly paid construction worker in the same market and attributing it to all construction workers, or taking what Johnny Depp or George Clooney makes and assuming all actors are highly compensated.

It's also their standard MO to compare compensation for stagehands to compensation for ballerinas, instead of lawyers, bonds traders, plastic surgeons, etc.

The latest is NYCB Corps de Ballet member Olivia Boisson: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/balancingpointe-journey-into/id764593885

When the NYCB orchestra was contemplating a strike, a member said that the players made less than garbage men. Balanchine replied that they had to pick up garbage for a living.

CBC broadcasts/streams the Metropolitan Opera Saturday afternoon broadcasts on CBC Radio 2. Ben Heppner, who live tweets at least during the live broadcast, is the host. From what I understand, the Eastern broadcast is real time, but the Pacific broadcast starts at 1pm. You have to use the Pacific player link to stream it: http://www.cbc.ca/video/radio-popup.html#networkKey=cbc_radio_2&programKey=pacific I'm listening to "Tosca" now, and they're broadcasting the intermission features.

As part of the Wagner Centennial year, the BBC Proms presented concert versions of Wagner's "Ring of the Nibelungen," "Tannhauser," and "Tristan und Isolde." This past week BBC 3 rebroadcast them, and they are available for seven days after the rebroadcast by clicking the "Listen Again" button on the following pages, which also include the cast lists: Das Rheingold (rebroadcast Monday, 24 December): http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/whats-on/2013/july-22/14582 Die Walkure (rebroadcast Tuesday, 25 December): http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/whats-on/2013/july-23/14584 Siegfried (rebroadcast Thursday, 27 December): http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/whats-on/2013/july-26/14594 Die Gotterdammerung (rebroadcast Friday, 28 December): http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/whats-on/2013/july-28/14608 Daniel Barenboim conducted the Berlin Staatskappelle and the Royal Opera Chorus. Three different Wotans, two different Siegfrieds, and one goddess as Brunnhilde: Nina Stemme. I've been listening all week. One of my favorite scenes is the Waltraute (Waltraud Meier)/Brunnhilde confrontation in "Die Gotterdammerung." I'd always loved the narrative, but never appreciated how it's part of a pattern in The Ring in which the participants are tone-deaf to and/or underestimate their audience: Alberich to the Rhine Daughters, The Rhine Daughters to Siegfried, Mime to the Wanderer, Wotan to Fricka, Brunnhilde to Siegfried (in "Siegfried"), and Brunnhilde to Siegmund, and Waltraute to Brunnhilde. The latter two are structurally similar, because the message each brings is "This is important to me and my interests, so it must be important to you and yours" -- Waltraute is still channeling Brunnhilde from her Todesverkundigung days, except she sticks to the script -- and all these years while I'd been distracted by the story in Waltraute's narrative, I'd always thought it an irreconcilable situation, missing the possibility that if Waltraute had any insight -- not that she had much experience by which to gain it -- she might have framed her request differently.

Thank you so much, Anne!

"Seattle Times" published three photos of this year's "Nutty Nutcracker": http://seattletimes.com/html/picturethis/2022523993_thenuttynutcracker.html These are the type of things the dancers change.

Funny, that's the performance that made me pick those twenty years as my time-capsule choice. Different strokes.

There seem to be some Balanchine-affiliated people whose videos have remained up, including Clifford's. I'm hoping this is a good sign.

I love the fir forest sketch, even if I'm glad the snow we had here for a couple of days has melted away and the heather outside my window is in full bloom, yikes. Merry Christmas, rg, and to everyone who celebrates today and in January.

We shut down a consolidated thread because it had a big target on its back, and we were not interested in helping the Trust do what it thinks is its job. We've never had a rule about posting Balanchine videos: we've had a reminder at the head of the videos forum that posting them not only targeted the videos for removal, but also that the publisher's entire account could be shut down by the Trust.

If I had to choose two decades of ballet to take with me to a desert island, despite what I'd miss, I'd choose 1946-1966. Slicing that into one decade would be a lot harder.