Helene

Fantastic news!

You can eat well in Viictoria on a budget. If you like fish and chips and/or fish tacos and don't mind waiting outside on line, go to Red Fish Blue Fish. The fish is amazing. The cod's as good as most haddock. I would also look up the site for the TV show "You Gotta Eat Here" for suggestions on where the locals eat. You can take a city bus to and from Buchart Gardens, and they have afternoon tea. The Fairmont afternoon tea is overpriced and the room is huge and loud; it's fine corporate tea. There's another place that's a bit of a walk from downtown -- I'm not sure about public transport or the route -- that might be worth the cab or the walk. I'll try to remember the name and come back to post it. It's the White Heather Tea Room. Check for current hours and reservation info.

While in many ways Kochetkova would be crazy to go to ABT, she has spent so much of the last year on a plane, including back and forth to NY and Russia, and it might be an easier or no commute from NY metro.

I'm sorry Cojocaru won't be performing in "Swan Lake," but Maria Kochetkova is a gorgeous dancer.

Maybe it's the really fast arm circles that inspired the association.

I'm sure there are many companies who would be willing to take the risk that Cojocaru might become injured and not be concerned with her perfectionism. Her "Sleeping Beauty" (one of the greatest performances I've ever seen [on a NY visit]) and "Giselle" had NYers running out of superlatives. Carla Korbes is on the delicate side with regard to injuries, although more recently she's had the hard luck of having injured partners. It's part of the privilege of seeing some of the world's great dancers.

Sydney Dance Company is a contemporary dance company, not a ballet company, and the version they dance wouldn't resemble the Fokine (choreographed for Karsavina and Nijinsky). The most well-known version in the rep today is Frederick Ashton's, which was choreographed for Fonteyn and Somes, and which is available on YouTube in nine parts with Cojocaru and Bonelli, beginning with The right column will provide links to at least Part 2. The performance was filmed by BBC as part of a gala.

The food at the theater is pretty good to excellent, and, yes, they are efficient -- I once got there at 7:14 and was in my seat in the theater by 7:33 -- but the prices reflect the convenience, and it's pretty noisy.

Many thanks for your review, Anne, and for the links to Jane's review and interview with Bojesen. As an outsider, this was the most interesting full-company program of the season to me, although I really liked Ratmansky's "Golden Cockerel." Hopefully, this is a learning experience for Bojesen, and Andersen's revival sounds delightful, if not immune to a fascination with jesters. Jerome Kaplan re-worked his own designs for Maillot's "Romeo et Juliette" for PNB -- they were beautiful -- and he's designing the revival of "Giselle" for next season. (PNB rented the sets and costumes when it premiered, and I suspect Kaplan will not costume Hilarion with a dead fox for a collar.) One comment more in response to Jane's review is that Andersen's lineage is through the old school at RDB, even if he was hired by Hubbe: the wonderful and, in my opinion, unsurpassed "Dancing Bournonville" shows Andersen and Kirk being coached in the ballet by Hans Brenaa. (Seeing this documentary made me fall head-over-heels in love with Brenaa.) I am so glad you wrote about this documentary: it can't be praised enough. I love the moment where Brenaa tells Kirk, who'd been struggling with the timing on her solo, that she was the only one who didn't cry.

I just found a ticket envelope, and the 20% off at Ten Mercer is for entrees. That's still a good deal. I've always had wonderful food there.

PNB has a hit on it's hands with "Tide Harmonic." In my experience, Saturday matinee audiences tend to be on the measured side with their reactions, especially when the music is new, but there was an outburst after the ballet, and in the evening, there was a standing ovation in at least the Dress Circle/Gallery Upper/First Tier sections within three seconds of the curtain falling. (My reaction after the matinee was "Wheeeeeee -- I get to see this three more times!") That followed monster debuts in the "Agon" Pas de Deux by Laura Gilbreath and Joshua Grant.

If you like Thai food, you're in luck: there are at least four really good Thai places between a two- and a ten-block walk. There's also vegetarian Chinese food that's quite good and a wonderful Vietnamese pho+ restuarant also about 10 blocks away, and for an extra four blocks, you can have wonderful crepes at Citizen. There's a pricey but excellent sushi restaurant called Shiki about two or three blocks away. One Queen Anne Avenue a couple of blocks away there's a solid Greek restaurant that makes a fantastic spicy cheese appetizer next to a good Indian restaurant where we just ate tonight, which I think is called Roti across from Uptown, a great place to get coffee. I loved the food at Petit Toulouse -- it is small plates -- but weekend brunch tends to be reserved out months in advance. Your PNB ticket envelope should have a 20% off voucher on the back flap for Ten Mercer, if you want to splurge before or after the performance: they server food seven days a week from 4:30pm-10:30. Doug Fullington gives a pre-performance lecture which starts an hour before the performance, and if you can catch one, you won't be disappointed. There's also a Q&A after each performance with at least one dancer, and then tend to run about 40-50 minutes after the performance ends, so you'd have time to get a drink and at least a snack at Ten Mercer before or after one of these. This is the grown-up restaurant in the area, and it's very close to the hotel. Next weekend is the closing weekend of the Seattle International Film Festival, and three of the screens are a few blocks away from the hotel. Restaurants closer to Queen Anne Avenue tend to be fuller during the Festival than those down Roy closer to McCaw Hall, but there are so many of them, and many serious movie goers rarely have time for a slice of pizza between their 73rd and 74th movie.

Nevada Ballet Theatre has chosen Monique Meunier and Nilas Martins as co-directors of the Academy of Nevada Ballet Theatre. They will start their tenure in August. In this article, Peter Boal is quoted about the appointment: http://www.reviewjournal.com/entertainment/arts.culture.academy-nevada-ballet-theatre-appoints-new-co-directors

PNB just published a part of Christopher Wheeldon's lecture-demo from a few nights ago. In this section, the dancers demonstrate a piece of the ending that he then changed on the spot. (This may not be the final version, but it's great to see him work.)

Doug Fullington's segment ended at 36:12-ish. There's about 15 minutes worth of discussion and interviews on "The Rite of Spring" preceding Doug's segment as well. Right before Doug's is an interview with Seth Krimsky, Principal Bassoonist of Seattle Symphony.

Betty Cage gave the rights to "Symphony in C" to John Taras, surely as a lifetime trust, because the rights reverted after his death. Francia Russell said in a Q&A that Taras insisted that a single version of the ballet be used -- not the last one NYCB did during Balanchine's lifetime -- but that after he died, the ballet was no longer restricted to that version.

There have been many celebrations and acknowledgements of the 100th anniversary of the premiere of "The Rite of Spring," which debuted as a ballet score to choreography by Nijinsky. This thread is a place for the many non-ballet tributes to Stravinsky's seminal work. Here is a link to a page to Vicky Chow's (Bang on a Can) solo piano version: http://www.wqxr.org/...ow/2013/may/13/

We're going to have a software upgrade in the next week or two. The process is that I request an upgrade, and then I'm told when it's over. It could be a few hours or a twenty minutes from my request, depending on the work load of the production support teams. As always, any posts that are made from the time the upgrade starts until it is over could be lost. I'll post to this thread as soon as I make the request, so that you'll have fair warning.

Seattle radio station KUOW presented a long 100th anniversary segment today on Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring," which begins at 13:30: http://kuow.org/post/rep-jim-mcdermott-and-rite-spring From 29:11-36.12, segment co-host Marcie Sillman interviewed Doug Fullington on "The Rite of Spring" and dance. Enjoy!

That reminds me of traveling to Phoenix to see Ballet Arizona perform, because I loved Natalia Magnicaballi, who also danced with Suzanne Farrell Ballet, and on that trip, fell in love with Paola Hartley. Kaptsova was a lovely Gulnare in Washington DC when the Bolshoi toured there in 2009. I'm glad you got to see her, and thank you for reporting back to us about your impressions!

It's great that they're simulcasting this: it gives a lot more opportunity to celebrate.

In this interview for Seattle Met, Carla Korbes speaks about the "Director's Choice" program and a little about her history with Christopher Wheeldon: http://www.seattlemet.com/arts-and-entertainment/culture-fiend/articles/a-fiendish-conversation-with-carla-korbes-may-2013

I didn't look closely enough at the "Diamonds" couples: Matthew Renko is listed as Leta Biasucci's partner. He's been missed as he recovered from injury.

PNB just sent out an email with the post-performance Q&A schedule (as always, subject to change): Week 1: Friday 31-May eve: James Moore Saturday 1-Jun mat: Kiyon Gaines, Ezra Thomson Saturday 1-Jun eve: Laura Gilbreath, Joshua Grant Week 2: Thursday 6-Jun eve: Price Suddarth Friday 7-Jun eve: Carla Korbes Saturday 8-Jun eve: Rachel Foster, Benjamin Griffiths Sunday 9-Jun mat: Chelsea Adomaitis, Leah O'Connor

I just received an email from PNB -- it's either to the subscriber or account holders list -- that gave us wonderful news about current and former PNB dancers who've had children: That certainly explains why Chalnessa Eames has not appeared in the last two Whim W'him programs Congratulations to each family