Helene

I might think there are more important things to spend limited funds on (or not), but either someone gave Farrell money to use as she wished, or she convinced someone to open their wallet(s) to fund this particular initiative. There's a lot about arts funding on which we don't get a vote nor any say in how the money is distributed, even through elected or appointed representatives. Often the reasons for funding are based in some combination of personal influence, charisma, networking, reputation, and initiative as well as past track record, rather than, for example, a board of peers or funding experts with their own criteria and biases.

If The Powers That Be (from above) wanted Tsiskaridze shut down, in my opinion, they would have forced the issue and installed their dictator when Iksanov showed he was not preparing to nip Tsiskaridze in the bud years ago. We don't know yet that they don't want Tsiskaridze reinstated: the only official info we have so far is that they don't want him to be General Director of the Bolshoi. Anton Korsakov stated in an interview (thanks to a translation by volcanohunter): With Iksanov gone, they can come up with some public dance about the terms, etc. if they want Tsiskaridze back, just like they did with Grigorovich, but perhaps with some behind-the-scenes carrot and stick, and if they don't want him back, having Iksanov doing the dirty work for the new General Director before they got rid of him is clever management and could have been part of the endgame for Iksanov.

Macaulay is speaking of current all-American ballerinas, but please feel free to discuss past greats. For me, using Macaulay's definition -- by "American-born" I think he means US-born" -- from the past at NYCB I would nominate Maria Tallchief, Diana Adams, and Allegra Kent, and from ABT Nora Kaye, Cynthia Gregory, and Eleanor d'Antuono. My inclusion of Kaye makes it pretty clear that I don't think a dancer has to dance Odette, even the one-act version, or Aurora to be considered a ballerina. I'm perfectly happy to call a Tudor muse a ballerina. Of course, his definition eliminates Paris-born Tanaquil LeClercq and Canadian Melissa Hayden.

Admin note: this thread is to discuss the inclusion of SFB dancers in Alastair Macaulay's article. A general discussion of the article can be found here: http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/37481-macaulay-on-all-american-ballerinas/ Beanie off. San Francisco Ballet has posted the news to its Facebook Page, just as Ballet Arizona (Jillian Barrell) and Miami City Ballet (the Delgados) have about their dancers: The New York Times name-checks our own principals Vanessa & Sarah in this celebration of the "All-American Goddesses" of ballet! http://nyti.ms/1a76HI2 Do you have an all-time favorite US ballerina? Maybe Maria Tallchief (pictured)? There is a wonderful Sam Falk photo of Tallchief taking a nap with her feet up on her dressing table. SFB asks a wonderful question and so did Jayne in the general discussion, and there's a new thread to discuss exactly that, Who Would Be on Your All-American Ballerinas List?

Thank you so much, volcanohunter -- it will be interesting to see if new management reinstates him.

I'm not sure what would have kept Zakharova in the production: either the Cranko people wanted Zakharova for the first performance of the role or they didn't. It seems that the only option Iksanov would have had was to overrule the Cranko people, in which case they could leave and take the ballet with them.

That's a great photo!

According to Google and bing translations of this interview with Anton Korsakov, Tsiskaridze's dismissal is "conditional" but the reason is translating as "because Kohl was a Great Idol nesvergaemyj" (bing) or "because Kohl - nesvergaemy Idol Grand" (Google) which aren't very helpful. http://izvestia.ru/news/553188

Using machine translations (Google and bing), I'm still not sure I understand the reference to Zahkarova, because I thought it was the Cranko stagers who decided on whether and when Zakharova would dance Tatiana, with Filin's stamp of approval.

WQXR (now part of public radio in NYC) has a number of archived radio programs available online, and they've been highlighting one each week on their Facebook page. Today's link is from 8 July 1979, 34 years ago: it's an interview Bob Sherman did with Alicia Alonso for the "Great Artists" series just as the company was preparing for to end its first North American tour with a three-week run in NYC before returning home for a short while and then heading on a European tour. There are musical excerpts from different ballets, such as "Giselle" and "Spartacus" interspersed with the interview. http://tinyurl.com/m2hrog4 For George Jellinek's "The Vocal Scene," while they mention various sponsors, they've removed the commercials from the archived programs, but for this one, they've left in several Manufacturer Hannover commercials. Two speak to the dangers of not having a will and doing proper estate planning, and one rather long one is more of an infomercial with Manny Hanny's officer-economist at the time.

That's too bad: I thought they had moved quickly to avoid a power vacuum.

Ismene Brown tweeted the news: According to various Internet slang sources "MFL" means "Marked for later." Here is Vladimir Urin's bio from the Stanislavsky Theatre website: http://www.stanmus.com/person.html?id=88 He was appointed General Director in 1995, which includes the time when Filin was AD of the ballet. He has a lot of theater background and experience, and I wonder if this will impact the productions at the Bolshoi Opera.

Many thanks, volcanohunter. Apart from his comments about schooling, it could be the same criticisms we hear about ABT.

Considering that ABT already has productions of all of the usual suspects, it's a pretty sure bet that one of the existing productions will be replaced. The productions that bring in the most revenue, are the most prestigious and have the big guest names, and on which traditional sponsors want to hang their nameplates are "Swan Lake" and "Sleeping Beauty," which are also the ABT productions that get the most criticism. I haven't seen the Swamp Thing, but my sense from what is written here, the criticism for the production has at least in part an affectionate tone, unlike for "Sleeping Beauty." I saw the first revised version of "Sleeping Beauty," which is a hot mess, and if there's anyone who can bring coherence, balance, and proportion to this ballet -- choreographically and dramatically -- it's Ratmansky. Not to be underestimated is his ability to involve every last person on stage and how he demands that every person who puts foot on stage is invested. (This aspect is missing in the film of "Don Q" because the editors had to choose one thing to watch at any momement, and outside the set pieces, at most 25% was captured.). Since the corps has to spend a lot of time carrying the figurative baskets of grapes, at least in a Ratmansky version, they'll be integral. They deserve at least this. I don't see anything sloppy about his "Don Q," which is put together with the precision of a room full of Swiss watches. There are a lot of things going on at once: it should be a perfect piece for our age of constant distraction, but it demands that the audience be it's own camera in many of the group scenes. However, where there was a plot point to be made, like Basilio feigning death, he seamlessly pulled back the distractions and the focus was on the point that furthered the plot.He also used the Grand Pas structure that Petipa used in more than one ballet, which was having two soloists take part in it. It softens the circus aspect of the "Don Q" Act III Pas de Deux.

Gentle reminder: Please do not post professional reviews in the company forums. These forums are here for our members to discuss what they've seen. If you like to discuss a published review from a mainstream publication or ballet professional's blog, please do so in the "Writings on Ballet" forum. A simple link to a professional review belongs in Links. Also, please limit quotes to 250 words from full-length articles, so that we are not in copyright violation.

Ratmansky's Don Q is traditional. There's a DVD/HQ digital download version available with Dutch National Ballet. He and Burlaka also collaborated on the Bolshoi's "Le Corsaire".

Read it, Buddy. And click on all of the video clips.

Many, many thanks to the translator

The Metropolitan Opera Gift Shop is having an online-only sale, and the following items are in the "Ballet" category: http://www.metoperashop.org/all-products/browse/sale/yes/orderby/new-arrivals/of11/BALLET These are all of the sale items: http://www.metoperashop.org/all-products/browse/sale/yes/orderby/new-arrivals I suspect shipping and handling would eat up the savings, but there's free shipping in the continental US for orders over $99. If you're stocking up holiday/birthday gifts and/or have your eye on one of the higher-price items that have been discounted steeply, like the James Levine 40th anniversary set ($130, from $200), for example, now's the time, and Met Members get a 10% discount. The sale starts today; I don't see an end date.

Many thanks for the news, JMcN, and congratulations to all of the dancers

Or as Beverly Sills liked to say, "I don't share credit. I don't share blame. I don't share desert."

It's in their ABT bios: Osipova Vasiliev Vasiliev joined the Bolshoi two years after Osipova was taken into the company directly from the school. Vasiliev was on the Bolshoi's 2006 London tour, and he got a lot of advanced publicity, including on television. He was a draw in his own right.

Just above the question about whether he regrets anything he's said and done is a 8-minute video profile with some footage of his dancing. What I find most amazing is how he can morph from powerful to clear and gentle without any seeming transition. (Quiggin posted the standalone video below.) We were privileged to hear Renno in Phoenix when he played for Ballet Arizona in at least one Balanchine program. Villella's comments about Paris made me think of former PNB Music Director Stewart Kershaw, who left suddenly after conducting the first production of Maillot's "Romeo et Juliette.". (Until then PNB had danced Kent Stowell's "The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet" to an assembled score of Tchaikovsky excerpts that Kershaw created with Stowell.). He was ecstatic about conducting the Prokofiev, a pinacle for him, and it could only go downhill from there, a musically mixed bag and a month-long run of sugarplums to face. After Paris, it must have felt like a bad hangover.

Villella created the hand from scratch. His words might not be gracious, but he wasn't hired to lead an established institution, and he gave far more to MCB, in my opinion, than he got. If the board decided at the end that the trade-off was no longer worth it or that he was endangering the institution, it certainly had the right make the choice it did, but I'm not sure why he has any more obligation to be loyal to it than Balanchine, who, when crossed, would say he'd leave NYCB and move to Switzerland to start a little company.

Some companies do have babes in arms policies for "Nutcracker" and family matinees or shortened versions appropriate for the attention span of younger children. (I've noticed that right befor the big Act II pas de deux in "Nutcracker" is a common time for kids to have had it and for families to bail.) For regular performances and companies where everyone must have a ticket, I'm sure the policy cuts down on the number of babies, because of the risk of wasting a lot of money for two tickets if the baby starts crying. However, given the number of crying babies in any program, although some where clearly the baby is there so that the parent can take a younger child to see "Cinderella," for example, it certainly doesn't stop people. Babies in general are more predictable that toddlers: parents can strategize around their sleep cycles, and I've been around scores of babies who slept through the act, were fed at intermission, and who settled in for the next act. One of the most annoying experiences I've had was the one time I was at the Palais Garnier. (Everything else I've seen in Paris has been at the Bastille.). I had a front row seat in one of the ground level boxes. The seats in the boxes are moveable chairs, but each is numbered, and they are arranged in rows. I take it it is impossible to see anything from the back row, because the young man in the back row kept encouraging his girlfriend -- literally pushing her chair forward -- to try to squeeze her way into the front row, and while there wasn't really enough room for one more, I would have been a lot more sympathetic and would have tried to aid her sightlines had they not treated this as the Tokyo subway.