Helene

In this past week's "Falstaff" Live in HD, one of the women said that director Robert Carsten suggested that they watch "The Women" to see how they acted and moved, even though the movie was made before the '50's, where "Falstaff" was set. Rest in peace, Ms. Fontaine.

Go to PNB's presentation to see Doug Fullington's stagings/collaborations to put the notated scores on the stage.

The Balancing Pointe podcast tweeted today that they are accepting questions for Amy Brandt for an interview tomorrow, 17 December: We'll be talking to Farrell Ballet dancer and Pointe Magazine's "Ask Amy" tomorrow-Send us your questions for Amy Brandt and we'll ask her! Questions can be tweeted to @BalancingPointe, which also has a Facebook Page, where longer questions can be left: https://www.facebook.com/balancingpointe/posts/246262842204148

Mel Tomlinson was a soloist at NYCB.

Signor Verdi was a "flip-the-bird" kind of guy. I loved "Falstaff." Maestri is Falstaff. I hadn't noticed before how much the end of "Falstaff" resembles the end of "Don Giovanni" before. In the earlier opera, Don Giovanni is dragged to hell, and when the complete version is done -- the production I saw in Tallinn left out the final scene -- the characters are trying to decide what to do next, and they don't understand how much they relied upon Don Giovanni as a life force and to give purpose to their lives, if only to avoid him. Suddenly, he's gone, and the world is missing something. In "Falstaff," Sir John tells them all directly, and, of course, he doesn't die, but the idea that a larger-than-life character, for good or worse, attracts and enriches the world, is similar, however much trouble he causes.

Here is an article published by CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/peter-o-toole-dead-at-81-1.2465117 RIP, Mr. O'Toole.

Unfortunately, it's still news over 50 years later.

Outside Cuba, that's sad, but true. In the cast I saw of PNB's "Nutcracker" the party children looked like a mini United Nations reunion. In the toy house (to the Mother Ginger music), which uses more advanced, although not yet Professional Division students, it made me want to weep at the contrast.

Ida Praetorius just tweeted the happy news about Dean, with a link to her full message on Instagram: https://twitter.com/ipraetorius/status/411772990184235008

Two women, Kimberly Falker and Marge Porter, have created a website at www.balancingpointe.com and a podcast that launched on 30 November 2013. As Falker describes in the intro podcast (#1), she and Porter are mothers of daughters in pre-professional training programs. Their curiosity about dance training expanded to the ballet world at large. So far there have been 10 podcasts in addition to the intro. I learned about it from a tweet by Allison DeBona, who is interviewed in episode 11. The podcasts can be downloaded from iTunes, which offers a subscription option: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/balancingpointe-journey-into/id764593885 I'm listening to it now, and Falker, as a ballet parent has a different set of questions, at least so far. Other dancer interviewees include Megan Fairchild, Tiit Helimets, Ben Davis, and Dylan Gutierrez.

The worst of the worst for 2013 was the acid attack on Filin, leaving him mostly blind. Who knew that the worst of 2012 were the threats against him that were brushed aside? It makes all of the politics surrounding Gergiev and Tsiskaridze at the Vaganova Academy, which in other years could have been the year's worst, pale by comparison.

I don't see any ballet companies or choreographers in that description. Modern dance companies and festivals received a boatload of $$ in grants. Cal Perfs received money for a non-ballet Mark Morris work, and the usual suspects, like the usual ballet companies, were grantees. That would be an appropriate topic in the "Modern and Other Dance" forum.

My apologies: Ballet Met is the other company to use their money for a Wheeldon ballet.

The list of ballet companies grantees are: Aspen Santa Fe Ballet ($20K, touring) Atlanta Ballet ($20K, new work) Ballet Austin ($10K, multimedia collaborative new work) Ballet Memphis ($10K, new work) Ballet Met ($20K, new work) ABT ($70K, new work) Ballet West ($20K, new work) Boston Ballet ($45K, new work, company premiere) Carolina Ballet ($10K, new work) Cincinnati Ballet ($10K, new work) Dance Theatre of Harlem ($30K, national tour) Grand Rapids Ballet ($10K, new work) Houston Ballet ($50K, company premieres) Joffrey Ballet ($20K, new work) Louisville Ballet ($15K, new work) Miami City Ballet ($50K, company premiere) Milwaukee Ballet ($20K, new work) Nashville Ballet ($20K, company premiere) New York City Ballet ($80K, new work) North Carolina Dance Theatre ($10K, new work) Pacific Northwest Ballet ($45K, sponsor mixed program of new and old) Pennsylvania Ballet ($30K, company premiere) Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre ($20K, new work) Richmond Ballet ($20K, new work) San Francisco Ballet ($70K, new work) Smuin Ballet ($10K, company premiere) Tulsa Ballet Theatre ($20K, company premieres) Washington Ballet ($20K, new work) Five companies -- Boston, Houston, Nashville, Pennsylvania, and Smuin, in addition to Alvin Ailey -- raised the money based on presenting Kylian works. PNB and Tulsa Ballet Theatre are doing Cerrudo works. Grand Rapids Ballet and Washington Ballet are doing works by Ochoa Lopez. ABT and Joffrey are doing Wheeldon ballets. San Francisco Ballet received the second-largest grant for ballet; the description lists a commission by Ratmansky. One step removed is that PHILADANCO received $50K to work with Ulysses Dove's brother to reconstruct and present Dove's "Bad Blood," which means we will likely see it at PNB in the future. Arts presenters and festivals that typically present ballet are: Chicago Dancing Festival ($20K) Dance St. Louis ($30K) Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival ($80K) Joyce Theater Foundation ($80K) New Orleans Ballet Association ($40K) Virginia Arts Festival ($15K for the Dance Theatre of Harlem residency) Administrative/marketing entities across dance are: Career Transitions for Dancers ($10K) Dance/USA ($80K) Dancers' Group ($10K, to support "In Dance" publication) Dance Works ($30K) International Association of Blacks in Dance ($10K)

When "Rigoletto" was being staged, Verdi knew he had a hit on his hands with "La donna e mobile," and he tried to keep the rehearsals closed. However, the song was leaked or extracted by a spy, and, before the premiere the organ grinders were playing the tune on the street. Public exposure leading to familiarity is one of the reasons that opera was a popular art form in its day. I see commercial uses of the "Nutcracker" as positive reinforcement of the score in the general public's imagination, especially children's, since they thrive on repetition and juxtapositions of music and context.

Or what's left of Asylmuratova's old job.

In later-breaking news today, Deborah Rutter, President of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, and former Seattle Symphony Executive Director, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Executive Director, and Orchestra Manager of the Los Angeles Philharmonic has been named successor to Michael Kaiser as President of the Kennedy Center when he steps down in August 2014: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Kennedy-Center-names-1st-woman-to-lead-arts-group-5051720.php I was lucky enough to meet her briefly during the fundraising efforts for Benaroya Hall. When she and Gerard Schwarz were at loggerheads, I know whom my vote was for leaving. She is renowned as a fundraiser and for creating financial stability while at the same time expanding programs in education and into the community. Ms. Rutter.

Particularly coming from a skater who was runner-up on Dancing with the Stars and commented about how physically strenuous that was in interviews during the competition.

Russell and Stowell in recent years have never sounded happy about the film. I'm not sure if it's the way it was filmed or the business/distribution aspects. I'm glad it's available, though. It also has some aspects that are different from the stage version, including a long opening scene in Drosselmeier's workshop and having the dancer playing the adult Clara do the toy ballerina solo, shot inside a doll house. The lobby looked like an ice dance warmup: many kids dressed up all sparkly and nice with very casual, but warm, waist-length jackets on top. The lobby was packed with kids and picture-taking, but in the top tier, a married couple crouched in back of the Clara/Prince poster with the cut outs for faces as their children looked on. Commented one, "Mom, Dad, you look so siiiilllllllly."

For small, local auctions for charity, especially to support a person, this is very common, especially when, while the auction is open to the public, the target audience is small. Also, often in a small group, people don't know what they should bid, are afraid of looking cheap, and don't bid at all. Many auctions have people set up in advance to be the icebreakers, and sometimes with money fronted by the sponsors. She didn't do that: she was transparent about bidding.

Marcie Sillman interviewed Andrew Bartee: http://www.marciesillman.com/2013/12/andrew-bartee-complacency-is-not-option.html

An artcle about Sarasota Ballet explains the Farrell photo:

Arianni Martin was cast in Ib Andersen's "Cinderella" this fall, and she and Eric White will do three performances of the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier, according to the Ballet Arizona "Nutcracker" casting .pdf, downloadable from this page: http://balletaz.org/performance/next-season-nutcracker/ She's also dancing: Snowflake Marzipan Randy Crespo is cast as: Herr Stahlbaum Soldier Doll Mouse Arabian Coffee Russian Trepak Alejandro Mendez is cast as: Spanish Chocolate Russian Trepak Parent Soldier Doll Mouse

Ib Andersen was interviewed by NPR in Arizona, and he focused a lot on the score: http://kjzz.org/content/12238/bringing-dramatic-twists-christmas-ballet

Rest in peace Mr. Bolotin. My condolences to your family.