Helene

Is it possible that your thesis will be turned into.a book? The subject is fascinating.

I think Fateev's predecessor did significant damage on his own. Skorik is not the first long-limbed, big-extensioned, thin dancer promoted by Mariinsky management.

I'm so .glad for you, ballet_n00b! Alexandrova is one of my favorite dancers ever. You are in for such a treat

No one is forced to attend any performance, aside from people who work for the theater during performances. If subscribers don't like what they see, they can stop subscribing. It's a combination of the "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me" and the "Insanity is doing things the same way and expecting different results" principles. If enough people stop buying subscriptions and avoid performances by specific dancers or in general -- there is another important ballet company in St. Petersburg -- then the Mariinsky will suffer from it financially to the extent that these ticket sales make up their budget. I doubt it will make much of an impact, though: "Swan Lake" packs houses on it's name, aside from the dancers, even among audiences who have the experience to be more discriminating. That doesn't mean one shouldn't mourn for a lost tradition or lost standards, although, happily, the major training academies more than once have saved their companies in the long run from years of poor management choices -- it's when the schools run out or are dismantled that the center falls out, like the lost generation of Russian figure skaters. It doesn't mean being happy that a major joy has been taken away. However, company management isn't hired or supervised by public or expert opinion, and, in general, is accountable to their higher-ups, who care to the extent they care and agree with us and act upon it to the extent that they do.

Management can cast anyone they want. They can call dancers by any rank they want. That doesn't mean that anyone has to buy it.

[Admin beanie on] Please do not presume on the board to know what someone's viewing experience is. The only thing anyone "needs" to do here is abide by the rules and policies. [Admin beanie off]

Ballet dancers make companies under extraordinarily competitive conditions. From the moment they enter a school to the moment they step off stage, they are judged and subject to teachers' and managements' decisions. There are very few situations where either a dancer's union gets a management decision overturned or company members are judged by a panel including their peers, like the POB promotion system for lower ranks. Unless the dancer has powerful protectors, in or outside the theater, the dancer is at the mercy of whoever is in charge of the company at that time. That person's taste and judgement -- good, bad, or indifferent -- determine their fate. Canadian Pairs skater David Pelletier once said about figure skating judging, "f I didn't want this to happen to me, I'd have gone down hills on skis." Dancers are in the same boat. They may pull their hair out and rage against the injustices, but they know what they're getting into from an early age -- that it's not a pure meritocracy -- and, unlike skaters, they look in the mirror most of the day and their competition is standing right next to them. It's pretty amazing they go through this so that we can watch them.

I second Kathleen's hope that you can see "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The last three times I've been in NYC during the NYCB season, that's what's been playing, and it's a great way to see so much of the company's talent featured in one evening.

No one has to understand anyone else's enjoyment of or appreciation for any dancer. This is a discussion board, not a court of law.

Yes, that's Enrico Hipolito, who's in the Professional Division and was in the "Swan Lake" corps just last month.

From Ismene Brown's blog, an article from Interfax, with a warning that at the top are photos of Filin's burned skin Filin’s eyes are permanently closed* *While they wait to see if an eye tissue transplant takes. and from Business Gazette, word from Tsiskaridze: They’re using my name for PR for themselves

Casting's up for the first week of "Director's Choice," and, as always, it is subject to change. It should be published to the website soon at this link: http://www.pnb.org/S...oice/#Castingin In the meantime, here is the spreadsheet, which includes corps casting for "Diamonds." Rep 6 performance casting week 1.xls Principal Casting: Agon Friday, 31 May: PDD-Rausch/Cruz; 1st PDT-Poretta/Kitchens/Murphy; 2nd PDT-Chapman/Tisserand/Bartee Saturday, 1 June matinee: PDD-Rausch/Cruz; 1st PDT-Poretta/Kitchens/Murphy; 2nd PDT-Griffiths/Kitchens/Murphy; 2nd PDT-Dec/Gaines/Thomson Saturday, 1 June evening: PDD-Gilbreath/Grant; 1st PDT-Griffiths/Kithens/Murphy; 2nd PDT-Dec/Gaines/Thomson New Wheeldon All performances: Dec/Tisserand, Foster/Moore, Gilbreath/Bold, Korbes/Grant Diamonds: Friday, 31 May: Korbes/Cruz Saturday, 1 June matinee: Nakamura/Orza Saturday, 1 June evening: Korbes/Cruz I'm looking forward to seeing a Rausch/Cruz pairing in "Agon": (Rausch has danced it before with Bold.) Of the partnerships in the new Wheeldon, only a Foster/Moore pairing was at all predictable. Orza's partner for "Diamonds" in the last run was Mara Vinson.

I somehow doubt the Salzburg "Traviata" was less expensive than re-staging the Zefferelli the Met already owned because of the salaries of the professional dancers. I may be getting the production backwards, but didn't guests Nichols and Woetzel do the central Pas de Deux in the old production under Volpe and not the troupe members? Of course, troupe dancers fill in where having beautiful movers enhances a production without doing much dancing, like in "Francesca da Rimini" and "Parsifal."

That is true, but so are the singers. The ballet may have been a key element in the 19th century, but through the post-war 20th and 21st, many of the built-in ballets have been cut from productions. Is it an opera company's responsibility to keep a staff troupe with full benefits, when ballet isn't an integral part of modern operas or modern opera productions, which the Met is doing more of? As much as I'd like to see employed dancers, I don't think they should, nor do I think the Met should make dance a priority in how it spends its money. The "new" production of "La Traviata" was an import of an important, much-talked-about production from the Salzburg Festival in which the inclusion of professional dancers would have been moot. I don't think the Met should base its choice of productions on whether there are dancers in them.

I remember in the '80's when Suzanne Farrell's signed shoes sold for $50, when the other shoes were much less, even for Principals. For fundraisers, it isn't at all unusual to have higher prices, especially if they're relatively rare, like from a white-shoed role.

According to the New York Times article, the eight remaining dancers in the Metropolitan Opera ballet have agreed to severance buyouts, which include cash and two years on the medical and dental plans. (After that, they should be eligible for COBRA.) From now on the Met will hire dancers for each production they're needed. I don't see any reason to think they'll reduce the number of dancers they use. One of the reasons cited by Peter Gelb is that outside choreographers want to bring their own dancers (like Mark Morris) or hire dancers in their own styles. One thing I found curious: it says that the Royal Opera House, Paris Opera, and La Scala have troupes that present their own ballet evenings. Do Royal Ballet and Paris Opera Ballet perform in Royal Opera and Paris Opera performances as a rule? Do RB and POB divvy up the dancers between ballet and opera performances? I thought only La Scala did.

The Royal Opera House had an "Ask Joyce" feature, in which members of the public tweeted questions for visiting artist Joyce DiDonato, and she tweeted back the answers using the @RoyalOperaHouse account. The Q&A's are compiled here. Once exchange was: As if I didn't need another reason to love JDD.

PNB posted a video of Francia Russell rehearsing the first Pas de Trois from "Agon" with two casts. Allan Dameron is the pianist. The first cast is Jonathan Poretta with Elizabeth Murphy (light leotard) and Kylee Kitchens (black leotard). The second cast is Benjamin Griffiths with Brittany Reid (aqua leotard and print skirt) and Chelsea Adomaitis (dark blue leotard). I'm not having much luck identifying the other people in the studio. Maybe Ezra Thomson (unless another man also has creative facial hair) and Jessika Anspach (in gray over white).

I have no problem with cold. Neither, from all accounts did Balanchine: his favorite dancer from his Mariinsky/school days, Gerdt, was also considered cold. Cold is very different than stiff. One of my very favorites, Tereshkina, is a cool dancer -- some consider her cold -- but I don't find her stiff at all. It will be interesting to see what her dancing is like when she comes back from maternity leave, as becoming a mother has changed the dancing of many ballerinas.

If I'm understanding the chronology, according to Dmitrichenko, he had a conversation with Zarutsky, in which he railed against Filin, and Zarutsky offered to beat Filin up, to which Dmitrichenko agreed. Nothing happened for months, at which point Dmitrichenko stopped thinking about it, but during which time, Zarutsky planned the attack, buying the car battery and cooking down the battery acid to make it potent. Then Zartusky demanded payment and Dmitrichenko's help in staking out Filin to see when he'd leave the party. Dmitrichenko said he feared not paying him, and it's quite possible he was afraid not to do the stake-out. He enlisted a fellow dancer who has admitted to being in the car and described Dmitrichenko's behavior; this dancer was never arrested, and even if Dmitrichenko's defenders are arguing the police beat or coerced a false confession from him, the police did not have the fellow dancer in custody to do the same. Dmitrichenko had to do three things: 1. accept Zarutsky's offer 2. pay Zarutsky and 3. do the stakeout, and he told a judge he had done the first two, and there's a witness to the third. The first two required zero planning or attention span on his part. I don't understand the argument that Dmitrichenko couldn't possibly have been involved because he was one to lash out and that was the end of it: he did lash out to Zarutsky, and he was too frightened to cross Zarutsky by not paying him when Zarutsky contacted him after months. The only thing that required any initiative on his part was the stake-out, for which he enlisted a fellow dancer (without telling his colleague what it was about). As far as him not plotting, he vented, a thug offered to beat up the enemy, and how is a guy, especially one with a short fuse, supposed to turn down that offer without looking like a wimp? A guy who says he has nothing for which to apologize because he only wanted his boss beaten up, not attacked with acid, is generally not the kind of guy who would say to a thug, "That wouldn't be right."

Dessay is featured in the documentary "Becoming Traviata," reviewed in the NYT a few days ago: http://movies.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/movies/becoming-traviata-directed-by-philippe-beziat.html?_r=0 It may address at least some of her physical approach to roles.

Ismene Brown just tweeted a link to her blog for the news from isvetzia.ru that Dmitrichenko's lawyer is disputing Filin's medical condition. From Brown's intro to the translation: This is a link to Brown's blog post that described the treatment of his skin, including some photos that are not for weak of stomach. http://www.ismeneb.com/Blog/Entries/2013/4/25_How_doctors_saved_Filins_burned_skin_with_cell_treatment_-_pictures.html

Parts 3 and 4 are listed on a BA tweet as: Saturday and Sunday, May 18-19, 5pm and 10pm. (I'm not sure how to read this, i.e., if show is repeated, or if the Saturday show is at 5pm and the Sunday show is at 10pm.)

From the WQXR blog: the Boston Symphony Orchestra has named Andris Nelsons as its new Music Director, to fill the vacancy left by the then-ailing James Levine; he's signed a five-year contract beginning with the 2014-15 season.

It is like watching a house disintegrate bit by bit.