Helene

Yes, he is. When I saw "Sleeping Beauty" in London about five years ago, I thought I was a genius because, knowing few of the Royal Ballet men, I recognized how great he was among the line of Prologue Fairy partners, who, essentially, lift, promenade, and tendu. "Oh," I thought to myself, "Alert Monica Mason!!!!," until late in the performance he was featured in a Wedding Act Pas de Trois. Talk about . Which reminds me of the time I didn't read the program before the performance and thought I had heard the Next Great Baritone sing Yeletsky's aria in a performance of "Queen of Spades," at the Met, and it turned out to be Dmitri Hvorostovsky, whom I didn't recognize because they put him in a brown wig .

I add my congratulations, and I hope you can sweep up your partner and go to Russia! There are even boats that go from Moscow to St. Petersburg and back

This video is from the Bolshoi appearance.

The way I read this, the dancer would have to draw upon his or her pension before he or she stopped performing for this to be applicable. If the dancer did not, the dancer would not convert from lifetime employment to a fixed-length contract.

That's quite a punch list. Drew, thank you so much for your descriptions of the new theater: I feel like I had a personal tour of the Mariinsky II

I think it's pretty clear not only what the source includes as invitations like those extended to Zakharova and that she doesn't include his appearances to date at POB under this definition. You can argue with her definition; I could argue with Tsiskaridze's of the "world's greatest dancer." There's clearly snobbism bandied about. Below the translation of Tsiskaridze's comments in "Le Figaro," Brown, by the way, includes a translation of the article which quotes Elena Andrienko and her praise of Tsiskaridze. In the "Le Figaro" interview, Tsiskaridze stated that Vorontsova would be resigning from the Bolshoi.

I just received the following notification: We want to let you know that ‘Getting to the Lisner’ has completed funding. They raised $40,711.00 including your contribution! It was a campaign that earned whatever it raised less fees, even if it didn't meet its $75K target. I did some more poking, and because they are a verified 501 © 3 organization, and this is verified by Indiegogo and noted on the project page, they get a 25% fee discount.

"A source that can't be verified"? Do you mean the journalist doesn't know who the source is, or that what the source says can't be verified independently? None of us know whether the latter is true, and there's nothing to indicate that the journalists didn't now who the source is. The source says that Iksanov linked Tsikaridze to the porn scandal and the person's reasoning is that Iksanov would not have without proof, because he would not break the existing laws to make an unsubstantiated claim. That's more credible than claiming that a self-confessed "I just wanted him beaten up" accused conspirator couldn't possible have had anything to do with the attack because he didn't have a long enough attention span or follow-through, when, as dancer representative, he put together an administrative charge of corruption against Filin. That doesn't make the reasoning about Iksanov right, but at least it's plausible. The person who said he has "no invitations" specifically mentioned major companies and was not talking about a connections troupe in Israel or the ballet equivalent of The Three Tenors. I'm sure if Peter Boal invited him to PNB or Helgi Tomasson to San Francisco Ballet, the Bolshoi person wouldn't have considered that anything, either. That might be snobbery coming through, but isn't Tsiskaridze among the biggest snobs out there when it comes to the Bolshoi and proud of it? Under Stalin Georgians were closer to the top, but it's always so heartwarming to see someone who experiences prejudice dumping directly on someone who is not only lower on the ethnic totem pole, like the title of a 1993 Toni Morrison article in Time Magazine ("On the Backs of Blacks") -- because a person acquires the ethnicity that is the "lower" of his parents' -- but one that is associated with a source of chaos and terrorism, killing children in schools, etc.

This is a very unusual quality. It reminded me of something Arlene Croce wrote about Suzanne Farrell, (Originally published in The New Yorker, July 23, 1979 and republished in Going to the Dance p.203)

According to this article from the Russian press that Ismene Brown posted to her blog, there may already be a provision in which lifelong contracts can be terminated by an action of the dancer, who then transitions to fixed-term contracts: http://www.ismeneb.com/Blog/Entries/2013/6/10_Tsiskaridze_has_only_himself_to_blame.html

It's not getting any prettier: Ismene Brown has a translation of an article in Moskovsky Komsomolets in which two anonymous insiders from the Bolshoi, as Brown puts it, "cut Tsiskaridze considerably down in size." http://www.ismeneb.c...f_to_blame.html What's interesting is their take on the contract issue. One source says in response to The other source says,

Paul Taylor is choreographing a new work for his company, and it will premiere at the Vail International Dance Festival on 5 August at 7:30pm in the Gerald R. Ford Ampitheater. Also on the program: Other acclaimed choreographers presenting new works include Larry Keigwin, who will premiere a ballet featuring his own Keigwin+Company joined by stars from the International Evenings of Dance; Memphis jooker Charles “Lil Buck” Riley, who will assemble a cast of urban dance stars; contemporary dance poet Brian Brooks; and modern dancer Fang-Yi Sheu. Full details, including casting and evening repertoire, to be announced soon. Program and ticket info: https://www.vaildance.org/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=F9DB4724-8704-4C04-9F91-DD638781E66C&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::context_id=2BC15953-9EAC-421E-AF36-149EA2B17B6B

Polunin is scheduled to dance in at the Vail International Dance Festival in "International Evening of Dance I and II" on 2 August 3 August

I may be wrong about this, but I don't think they edit the live stream when they broadcast with a tape delay. That's been my experience with the Bolshoi "live" ballets -- we're on tape delay in Pacific Time -- and the Met in HD "Encores." The latter are generally edited when they are later shown on PBS, with most, if not all of the interviews at the end or cut.

I may be wrong about this, but I don't think they edit the live stream when they broadcast with a tape delay. That's been my experience with the Met in HD "Encores." These are generally edited when they are later shown on PBS, with most, if not all of the interviews at the end or cut.