Helene

Thank you so much, volcanohunter I don't think there's any question that the Bolshoi is underfunded and the active dancers, especially the corps, are being worked to the bone.

Alagna's sister/agent's response was very different than an American PR response.

As reported in Links, former interim Artistic Director is now Managing Director of Bag & Baggage, an experimental theater company with which Mueller has performed: http://www.oregonlive.com/hillsboro/index.ssf/2013/07/anne_mueller_formerly_of_orego.html It sounds like they do interesting work. The timing was serendipitous. Congratulations to her

The Ashton has some exquisite parts to it and is beautifully constructed. My only reservation is that when Robert Helpmann and Frederick Ashton played the stepsisters, they overshadowed the rest of the ballet, in my opinion. This is a review of the Joffrey in the Ashton "Cinderella" by Cygnet which has a lot of description detail: http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/31157-the-joffrey-in-los-angeles-ashtons-cinderella/?hl=%2B%2Bcinderella+%2B%2Bashton This is a thread about comparing an older video of the Ashton "Cinderella" to other choreographers' versions, but Kudelka's wasn't mentioned: http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/17360-7-compare-other-cinderellas-to-ashtons/?hl=%2B%2Bcinderella+%2B%2Bashton#entry240456

"It's a little lower in rank than a soloist, but the pay is practically the same" (p. 18 in the original text). At the Bolshoi coryphées are members of the corps de ballet. The Bolshoi corps has three internal ranks: "artist of the ballet," "artist of the ballet 1st category" and "artist of the ballet 1st category - coryphée." I was told by a friend with theatre connection that coryphees at the Bolshoi are listed as soloist, and I assumed that everyone know it. But that might be incorrect. And this is something I cannot find from reliable official sources, so I apologize if it's not correct. This is what does not belong here: inside information that can't be verified officially. Whether coryphees are listed as soloists or as corps de ballet should be verifiable by official news about ranking -- dancers' statements are official news, whether they are correct or incorrect -- cross-referenced with the website rankings. If a dancer claims to be a coryphee and s/he's listed as a soloist, that would show that coryphees are listed as soloists, especially since a dancer wouldn't claim to be a rank lower than she is. In the US articles written about dancers often misstate their ranks, especially when a non-dance writer is doing a feature on "local dancer made good," in which case the ranks are often exaggerated. NYCB would have had 1000 Principal Dancers were these articles true.

Do not post that you might know or expect to find out unofficial news that can't be posted here. Period.

That is exactly our policy. Any mention on this board of "I know something/someone you don't" always has been verboten. Your peace of mind is your private concern.

Admin warning: It doesn't matter how personally invested anyone here is in this matter, or who can can get information on their own. Only official news on this board. If you want to discuss your own revelations, and you're not a dance professional, start a blog and discuss your views there.

I think it's written in the job description as, "A proven track record in Fundrai$$$$$$$ing is a must."

Tsiskaridze did a lot to become her management, and he was teaching her how to deal with him.

Wow! (In the PNB school performance of "Sweet Fields," both Perry and Kelsey Bevington were in the cast, and I left them out of my review, because I had no idea who was dancing what when.)

I don't see anywhere on the web (without subscription) that suggests that Petipa's father, also a dancer, changed the family name. However, the article on Jean-Antoine Petipa in the "Oxford Dictionary of Dance," which I don't have at hand, would likely say so if he did.

According to the interview, she was told to take on another coach partly because Tsiskaridze's teaching contract would not be renewed. If this is true, under other circumstances, she might have been amenable to some coaching from a female coach, but here she very well may have been motivated by loyalty: had she moved to another coach, even temporarily, it would be chipping away at his student base and that much easier to justify not renewing his contract as a teacher (which was separate from his contract as a dancer).

Thank you for the correction. I misunderstood an article about the Alderburgh Festival, thinking it called her performance there the last.

Ismene Brown posted a translation of most of Vorontsova's interview with "7 Days" to her blog: http://www.ismeneb.com/Blog/Entries/2013/6/30_Angelina_Vorontsova_tells_all.html

The gist of the article from machine translators (bing and google): Intro paragraph describing how Vorontsova resignation was confirmed by the Bolshoi, after having been reported a couple of weeks ago and denied by the ballerina. According to the Katerina Novikova, the theater had no intention of terminating Vorontsova. I think it is saying that the Vorontsova was unavailable for comment because she's dancing in a gala in Astana. From the interview: Ovarchenko doesn't understand why she resigned: she was given roles befitting her rank. Filin had higher-ranked ballerinas to cast in roles like Odette/Odile, but that there's always a chance that someone can't dance and that an opportunity will arise, and a dancer should be prepared to take these opportunities and use them to the fullest, like he did when he was given ten days to learn "Giselle." It's the role of artistic directors to determine who dances and who doesn't, and no one questioned Grigorovich when he did this. From Google Translate: Ovarchenko also doesn't believe Filin would avenge himself upon his return:

Those are smallish companies.

I thought Lane's comment about being coached by Susan Jaffe was interesting: Jaffe would surely have known from experience that with the limited coaching ABT dancers get, learning to see what to work on with limited or no coaching was critical. Do (dedicated) Russian coaches approach their coachees from a "Teach them to fish" angle? One performance of Aurora after five years? Ugh.

I finally got to watch this, and I'm very glad I ordered it. I really loved Lucette Aldous' footwork in the opening of "La Sylphide," and Flemming Flindt was flying in the Act II variation. (He looks like a dark-haired cross between Danny Kaye and Damien Woetzel.) Ballet Rambert did a very committed performance, and they told the story well. The bonus was a film of the Act II Pas de Deux with Flindt and Elsa-Marianne von Rosen. Her mime was in another realm and her pacing was so patient. Her upper body was very soft and graceful. I found "Flower Festival of Genzano" almost unwatchable. I would rather see the older kids in the RDB school or two randomly chosen RDB corps members dance it.

From Stephen Manes' "Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear" (p.708), I think that being a married white guy is a generally unspoken plus and may still be a job qualification for some boards. I would be "Call the ambulance" surprised if a gay man were hired to succeed Peter Martins, unless he's in the job until he's in his late '80's. What's interesting about ballet is that while boards are made of people who know each other from Harvard, Yale, and Wharton or are "Coogs," who are neighbors in Darien or The Highlands, and who can call Trey to get their kid a job, ballet dancers have different networks.