Helene

Please discuss. We want to know!

Teaching in Paris and being the Rector of the Vaganova school are very different things. As far as being media-savvy, Tsiskaridze had his own TV show/platform -- I don't know if ths is possible with his new position and has been the "go-to" interview/comments on TV and in print. As far as the "graveyard" of the Vaganova/Mariinsky, again, Pawlick's book is illuminating. I wouldn't assume the details of what Tsiskaridze means by this until he makes them clear.

I think there are personality-related reason why the two might clash, but they're not co-leaders: as rector, he'd be her boss. From an artistic point of view, Tsiskaridze's teacher, Semyonova, studied directly with Vaganova. The NYT obituary for Semyonova said, From Catherine Pawlick's book on Vaganova, Vaganova did the same as a teacher and director. If there's a difference in tradition, it's the difference between evolution and stasis. Tsiskaridze has made a point of espousing his religion. I'm not sure whether he is devout or culturally affiliated with Russian Orthodoxy, but he used it in his published attacks on Iksanov. They both have very negative opinions of historical reconstructions and are loyal to the versions of the ballets on which they were raised.

Bumping this up: this presentation takes place on Tuesday, 12 November.

Dancers from Houston Ballet are performing a new Stanton Welch ballet to music by Chopin played by Lang Lang at the Theatre des Champs-Elysee, 31 October-1 November and 3-4 November. Details are here: http://www.theatrechampselysees.fr/danse/danse/lang-lang-dance-project-1?utm_source=mail2&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Houston%20Ballet%20Tours%20to%20Paris

When I bought CDs for "The Nose" about a decade ago, I listened to it a lot, and since then only once or twice a year, especially since I'm a Sirius and medici.tv subscriber, and there's so much to listen to on YouTube and not enough hours in the day. I'm also a big "Wozzeck" fan, and I'm so disappointed the Met didn't include it in the HD season.

Unless you have an official source that links to the behavior for your conjecture, do not post that conjecture.

[Admin beanie on] Unless there is an official, reputable source for any interpretations of Vishneva's comment, do not discuss it here. [Admin beanie off]

That was heroic.

Vishneva also weighed in on Tsiskaridze, according to this article in "The Telegraph": http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/10415329/Ballerina-Diana-Vishneva-criticises-change-at-Vaganova-Ballet-Academy.html

Vishneva posted the full statement in English to her public Facebook Page: But it is, and it is entirely up to Tsiskaridze whether to allow them to stay at all. If he does allow them to stay, they might not like what he offers. Whether it is still comfortable for her there after what happened to her parents is questionable. She may want to join them somewhere else, or she may want to stay. Other dancers who worked hard for 9 years at Vaganova to get into the Mariinsky Ballet have left, and other dancers who worked hard for 9 years at Vaganova to get into the Mariinsky Ballet thought better of it and never joined. If the school in Moscow has really deteriorated, perhaps Moscow would snap them up. Considering how many Mariinsky trained dancers are joining the Bolshoi, they could cut out the middleman and give them the same excellent training as students.

Tobi Tobias gave it a very positive review, but more importantly, gave a detailed description that included many vivid and evocative photos: http://www.artsjournal.com/tobias/2013/10/something-old-something-new.html It sounds like the production values were great, and you can get a glimpse of what it looked like, which may be enough.

I don't know anyone who has argued that Dmitrichenko knew that acid would be the means of attack. The question is whether under Russian law, he's responsible for the outcome, having contracted for a beating and having set the gears in motion.

The remorse thing was a temporary phase when he changed lawyers. There is the pesky problem of the fellow dancer he brought along to the stakeout who heard him give the signal that Filin was leaving, although he didn't know the context at the time. With all of the support Tsiskaridze has gotten from those high in government and close to Putin, and the sacking of Iksanov, I'm surprised she hasn't been told to make it go away by pinning the entire thing on the acid-making hit man.

First weekend casting has been posted on the PNB website; as always, this is subject to change. http://www.pnb.org/Season/13-14/KylianPite/#Casting For first weekend, opening night, Friday, 8 November casting is identical to Saturday, 9 November evening casting, except that Sarah Ricard Orza and Kiyon Gaines perform one couple on Friday and Liora Neuville and Ezra Thomson dance the same roles on Saturday night. New company member Raphaël Bouchard makes his debut in a featured role with Jahna Franziskonis on Saturday afternoon in the same couple. If I remember "Emergence" correctly from when National Ballet of Canada brought it to Vancouver a couple of years ago, everyone and his cat will be cast in it, and Bouchard make be making his company debut on Friday night in that. (Of course it could be that NBoC danced it so big it looked like it had a cast of thousands.) The Saturday matinee cast is completely different, and it should be exciting to see all of the dancers with so many featured roles. There are six couples each in "Petite Mort" and "Forgotten Land," eight dancers in "Sechs Tanze," and everything from featured solo roles to featured sextets in "Emergence." There will be lots of busy people, and these dancers have featured roles in all four ballets first weekend: Rachel Foster, Kiyon Gaines, Andrew Bartee, and William Lin-Yee. No Korbes or Renko, though, but Renko could be corps in "Emergence" and there's always hope for second weekend for them. I hoping the few other corps members who don't have featured roles are healthy and in the corps and featured second weekend. There are some interesting partnerships: the "Prologue" in "Emergence" is cast with very tall men and shorter women, Rachel Foster with Charles Grant and Margaret Mullin with William Lin-Yee. Maria Chapman is paired Andrew Bartee in "Petite Mort" and Steven Lock as the Gray couple in "Forgotten Land." Most dancers switch partners from ballet to ballet, and that's always good to see.

I'm not sure why dancers of any rank who aren't in the final curtain calls, covering, or with another obligation (post-performance Q&A, gala party) would need to stay after their last ballet. I would think companies would want the dancers to get as much rest as possible instead of staying around the theater, unless they wanted to watch their peers, since many describe that it takes them hours to come down from a performance, and they still have to be back in class the next morning.

Why should she be shy about accepting the cash? She was selected by the committee for her output -- she didn't apply for it -- and she wasn't given the cash for making speeches and shaking hands. A nice thank-you note should have been fine.

Judith Mackrell weighed in for "The Guardian": Fired Bolshoi dance Nikolai Tsiskaridze gets controversial new job: Star's appointment to head up the prestigious Vaganova dance academy raises stark questions about the future of Russian ballet and the content and the headline match. Dmitirichenko should be cheering, since Tsiskaridze will likely get out of testifying, although I don't know why he is testifying, and I would not be surprised if this was part of the reason for the timing now and if Dmitrichenko's case were to be swept under the rug.

Maybe I'm reading into the LA Times obit.

I think it was in the Kirstein bio that stated that Balanchine and LeClercq were on the verge of separation before the tour where she contracted polio. My memory is a bit murky, but I believe she was about to start the process, but it got delayed, and then she became ill and paralyzed, and they remained married until he wanted to marry Farrell. According to Adams' obituary, she married Ronald Bates after divorcing Hugh Laing in 1953. (None of the other obituaries mention timing of her second marriage.) They were married at least until 1971; in "Dance as a Contact Sport," Joseph Mazo wrote, "Ronnie Bates is married to Diana Adams, who was one of the company's finest ballerinas some years back. They have a daughter who looks like a Christmas tree angel." (Georgina Bates) They were married in 1963 when Adams was pregnant and taught Suzanne Farrell her role in "Movements for Orchestra" from her living room couch. If Adams and Bates had, indeed, gotten married in 1953 or 1954, what Wilde described would have been during the early years of their marriage, which lasted in some form or another at least for 17-18 years and survived a Balanchine intervention. For someone who counseled his dancers not to get angry or waste energy, he certainly wasn't averse to creating circumstances that were emotionally explosive.

Several times a year we file threads from "Heads Up!" and "Recent Performances" into the appropriate forums. In the last clean-up, I noticed that there were some forums that were becoming unwieldy -- I couldn't find anything in the Ballet Videos (etc.) forum -- a couple of categories where important info was being buried, and a number of static company forums. I've created a forum called "Ballet Presentations, Lectures/Symposium, Exhibits, and Awards", and the "Ballets Russes Celebrations" forum is now a sub-forum under that. This can include discussions of cross-discipline presentations, etc. The Ballet Videos, etc. forum now has five sub-forums: DVD's/VHS/Downloads "Live" in Cinema, Streams, Webcasts -- this can include archives, and "Live" is in quotes for us West Coasters who get things on tape delay. Interviews/Podcasts/Discussions -- can be audio or video Photography -- this small sub-set of important posts was getting buried in the main forum Documentaries/Features If you post these to the main forum, that's fine: we'll file it for you. I'm still in the process of filing, which is a work in progress mainly due to the quirks of our search engine, which, for example, comes up with "No topics found" when I search on "DVD." Where there were no posts in a company forum for years -- up to six years for a couple of them -- I've removed the sub-forum and consolidated the posts into "Other American Ballet Companies," "Other Russian Ballet Companies," etc. It's not that our Admins don't think they're important, but we don't have members who are posting about them. The trade-off was between the Video forums, which is now the most active, and dormant company forums, and there are a couple fewer forums than before the change. Which leads me to: As more and more people using their phones and smaller devices, it means a lot more scrolling. It also means slower resolution if cellular data is being used. Please be judicious in quoting entire posts to address a single point, and please do not quote an embedded video. A lot of the time, the discussion is easy to follow without quotes. I know the latest version of the software makes it tricky, sometimes impossible, to get in and out of the quote boxes. The easiest way to edit in and around them is to click the light switch icon in the upper left corner of the formatting options, just above the "B" (bold) option. The formatting will look like a typewriter -- for those who remember what this looks like -- and all of the formatting codes will show. If you click the down arrow on your keyboard, you should navigate outside the quote box, and then if you click the little switch icon to toggle it, you'll be back with full formatting options.

Guillaume Cote just tweeted a photo with Julie Kent, because they'll dance "A Month in the Country" together: https://twitter.com/guillaume__cote/status/394955122973110272

According to Ismene Brown's latest blog: http://ismeneb.com/Blog/Entries/2013/10/29_Asylmuratova_said_to_be_still_considering_options.html Rector Dorofeeva submitted her resignation and has been hired by Kehkman as Deputy Director of the Mikhailovsky Ballet. Asylmuratova has not yet submitted her resignation. According to this article and a related blog entry with a translation of an interview with Tsiskaridze (dated 28 October), he had already spoken with Ministry of Culture in September 2012. Tsiskaridze's specialty in law school is Employment Law.