Helene

Tiler Peck just tweeted a link to her new blog on the Body Wraps site: http://www.bodywrappers.com/ This is the direct link: http://www.bodywrappers.com/company_tilertalks.php

Thank you so much, sandik! I'm looking forward to seeing this program this weekend and to seeking out Dietrich's essays. For those thinking of going this weekend for the first time or to see it again, tickets to all four performances -- tonight (Thu), tomorrow (Fri), or Saturday night at 7:30pm and Sunday at 1pm -- PNB is offering a 20% discount on tickets: https://www.pnb.org/promo/modern?utm_source=Pacific+Northwest+Ballet&utm_campaign=eda477798e-Modern_Masterpieces_3_21_2013&utm_medium=email

Tsiskaridze is after Iksanov's job, and Filin's job is on the chopping block if Iksanov is canned. If the Bolshoi employees support Tsiskaridze for the job, I think the saying is, "Be careful what you wish for."

Here is the direct link to the video on YouTube. Many thanks Balanchinomane, for the heads up! http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oBG6rAlAyTw It was so nice to here Paul Boos speak. I remember him well from NYCB: he was a tall, lean dancer with spring and a soft, pliant quality.

We're a little over 75% there. If you've considered contributing to Ballet Alert!/Ballet Talk for Dancers, we'd really appreciate it if you do, so that we can turn off the fundraiser for another year. We don't ask for more than we need to manage the sites for a year.

There seem to be a lot of articles and reports of a meeting of the dancers in which they claim that the investigation was political and that Dmitrichenko is innocent and being railroaded, as well as questioning whether Filin was injured as badly as reported, although I'm not sure whether they mean altogether innocent, or innocent of planning an acid attack vs. a routine beating, in this case by a m?an who served prison time for killing someone in a routine beating. I'd call that a success, although it might backfire in the end, more along the lines of what Iksanov described as creating an atmosphere in which the attack took place. Of the dancers whose signature has been made public, have they been vocally pro-Grigorovich?

Tsiskaridze said earlier that anyone who knows a little science would know that it couldn't possibly have been sulfuric acid because if you add water to sulfuric acid, it becomes explosive, and since the guard and Filin rubbed snow on Filin's face and neck right after he was attacked, and he showered with cold water as soon as he was able to get back to his apartment and before the ambulance came, the snow/water would have done more damage than good. (Sulfuric acid needs to be added to water to avoid the reaction.) However, any one knowing how to use Google search and knowing a little science can make specious arguments, since the appropriate first response for sulfuric acid burns is to rinse with copious amounts of cold water. Running water over acid-burned skin is not the same as adding water to a container of concentrated sulfuric acid. Tsiskaridze brought this up ostensibly to argue that the authorities' story and methods were not up to snuff and that anything the police said should be suspect. That line of thinking has obviously worked in the theater, so why should he stop now?

I've been testing both sites over the last few days, and I get through right away with Windows 7 and Google Chrome, Firefox (PC version), and IE9 and with Lion and Firefox (Mac version) and Safari on my Mac, as well as Safari on my iPad (Gen 1, last operating system). Unfortunately, my MacBook is too old to upgrade to Mountain Lion, the latest Mac operating system. I'm not sure why I can see the form and get no errors, but others are having trouble seeing the form in the first place, seeing it on BT4D and not Ballet Alert, or getting error messages. Sometimes connecting to the server is delayed by 5-10 seconds, but I can see from the browser -- tab or message in lower left corner -- that it's trying to connect to First Data before I get the payment form. If someone would let me know what error message they are getting, and if you can tell if it's a connectivity error (time-out, page not found) or one that is branded "Your Pay Connect" or with any other logo, I might be able to troubleshoot further, and I'd appreciate it very much.

Ilya, thank you so much for your translations. They are a great contribution to the board.

Oh, yes! It's as if PNB has decided that mixed programs aren't going to sell no matter what's in them and that a mixture of neoclassical, classical, and contemporary doesn't please anyone, so the company might as well cede to modern/contemporary dance for them. I'm hoping that Boal was serious when he mentioned "La Bayadere" and that Doug Fullington can find enough notation for the company to stage it. Nakamura was breathtaking in the notated white act Pas de Deux in lecture-demos -- I think she and Postlewaite may have done it in two different presentations -- and that would be a great way for her to retire from the rep, followed by Encores, plus it give us more time.

I'm sad tat thre's no "Jewels."

James Moore will dance Albrecht in Mara Vinson and Oleg Gorboulev's "Giselle" for Olympic Ballet Theatre on Sundays April 14 and 21 at 5pm at the Edmonds Center for the Arts. http://edmondsbeacon.villagesoup.com/p/olympic-ballet-presents-giselle-a-masterpiece-of-romantic-ballets/975655

That's exciting news!

There has been a casting update on the PNB website for "Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven" men on first weekend. Tisserand and Bartee dance with Cruz at the Saturday matinee and with Orza Friday and Saturday night. The Cruz/Bold/Lin-Yee cast is still listed for twice second weekend. Fingers crossed.

I just received the Week 2 casting spreadsheet from PNB; it should be up on the website soon. Rep 4 performance casting week 2.xls Principal casts for "Concerto Barocco": Thurs (21) and Sun matinee (24): Chapman/Rausch/Lin-Yee Fri (22): Gilbreath/Dec/Cruz Sat evening (23): Korbes/Imler/Bold Principal casts for "Mozart Pieces": Thurs (21) and Sat evening (23): Dec/Cruz, Nakamura/Griffiths/Moore Fri (22) and Sun matinee (24): Korbes/Orza, Samuelson/Bartee/Tisserand Principal casts for "Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven" Thurs (21): Dec/Kitchens*/Murphy, Cruz/Bold/Lin-Yee Fri (22) and Sat evening (23): Chapman/Rausch/Foster, Orza/Tisserand/Bartee Sun matinee (24): Dec/Gilbreath/Murphy, Cruz/Bold/Lin-Yee *first performance this rep There's a single cast for "In the Upper Room," same as Week 1.

It's great to hear about this program: many thanks!

A 25% discount except on the cheapest tickets is in effect for the first weekend of Modern Masterpieces (Friday eve and Sat mat and eve) until noon tomorrow PDT. https://www.pnb.org/promo/modern

The formatting on the website has been corrected: it is a male quartet with Cardea/Davis/Hipolito/Thomson. Here's the casting in Excel format: Rep 4 performance casting week 1.xls

PNB tweeted a link to a rehearsal video of Dove's "Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven." It opens with Joshua Grant (bandana) and William Lin-Yee (headband). Then Elizabeth Murphy (dark blue leotard) dances with Karel Cruz (blue hoodie). They are joined by Lindsi Dec (turquoise leotard) and Laura Gilbreath (white leotard). The three women in the latter 2/3 of the video are, l-r, Dec, Gilbreath, and Murphy.

I'm sorry: I thought you meant the fundraiser form. The fundraiser form takes the space of amazon.com box during the fundraiser, but it appears at the bottom of every page.

The donation form should be visible on Ballet Alert's nome page, to the right of the forums and just above the recent calendar listings. The amazon.com box is there when the fundraiser is closed, but there is one at the bottom of every page. Some ad blockers have suppressed the amazon.com box, treating it like ! Pop-up window, but this is the first time I've been made aware that the donation form isn't visible, and ad blockers should suppress the form on BT4D, too or show it on both sites, since the code is the same. Is anyone else having this problem? If so, what browser are you usung?

We've had some very generous responses from the Ballet Alert! crowd, and we thank you and the people who use and suggest to others that they use our amazon.com search box at the bottom of each page for amazon.com searches. Every donation supports the server on which both sites reside. We do have a bottom line for maintaining both of the sites, and we've tried to avoid having to have more than one fundraiser per year. To keep this to a minimum and to confirm that we serve a purpose, we need to receive moderate donations on a broad scale, and we hope that if you haven't already, that you will help us.

I want them to do the film thing where Imler dances both roles, but I've seen her in Diana Adams' role before, and she's really great in it.

I misunderstood -- I thought he meant he was calling to call off the attack altogether, not to give up for the night. That, too, contradicts the earlier statement attributed to him that when the beating didn't happen right away he forgot, and confirms one of the early reports that he confirmed when Filin was heading home. If a fellow dancer witnessed the stakeout, even if had no idea what Dmitrichenko was planning, he would have overheard Dmitrichenko's end of the conversation and was a witness to his friend's plotting. It would also counter the assertions that there was no way Dmitrichenko could be involved. No wonder he was a reluctant witness and resigned.

The most contradictory info is that Dmitrichenko was sitting in the car on a stake-out, but wanted to call the whole thing off, and then told Zarutsky where his target was. The entire time Anandurdyev was sitting in the car but didn't come forward: if I were Filin, I'd be livid.