Helene

Regardless of whether I agree or not, I think such a statement should be accompanied by some sort of authoritative reference. She was either cast in the role or type of role in Boston, or she wasn't. If she wasn't, then her talent wasn't considered great enough to supercede whatever casting considerations the AD had in making his own choices. If she's cast at the Mariinsky, then one can assume that she compared favorably in Management's mind over the other, healthy dancers who could have been cast, and in a way that was important to them. AD's have lots of reasons for casting the way the do, and they do it on their own timetables. Dancers respond in their own ways with their own reasons, and, in this case, a more renowned company was willing to give her what she wanted on her own timeline.

Yes, I did mean Ton Simons. Thank uou for the correction. PNB performed a work by Simons during their 1996 tour to City Center.

La Fosse also said that the women of NYCB were a lot more independent (generally) in PDD than the women of ABT.

I guess that despite the generational difference in choreographers, the contemporary rep doesn't feel that much different to me than it did under Russell and Stowell, and I suspect, if anything, the rep at POB might shift a little, but laterally, and may even become more neoclassical.

Boal has shifted the rep somewhat at PNB, and it feels much worse because he replaced my favorite Kent Stowell work after "Nutcracker" with the Maillot "Romeo et Juliette," but Russell and Stowell brought in William Forsythe, Nacho Duato, Thom Willems, Dominique Dumais, Tetley's "Firebird," "The Moor's Pavane," and they started the Choreographer's Showcase for in-house choregraphers, and even gave Mark Morris an opportunity before he was anybody. (Not that this went very well, but they did.) I can't remember if R&S first produced Tharp. Peter Boal wasn't the first AD to bring in contemporary choreography or modern dance works into PNB. Except for "One Flat Thing Reproduced," about which I have my own private disaster scenario when I watch it, I don't find the contemporary works Boal's brought in as particularly edgy, if some of them are quite moving. He's fortified the neo-classical rep just as much, with works by Wheedon, Ratmansky, and Robbins. Russell and Stowell didn't have a lot of money to spend on new choreography. Stowell provided the company with much new choreography. POB is going in the opposite direction, hiring a choreographer as AD, although with a company that size to run and a massive bureaucracy, I don't see him dominating. He also has a bigger budget to hire choreographers, and POB is catnip in a way that a company in a city that many Americans couldn't find on a map when Russell and Stowell came (and some still think is in California) is not. He might end up bringing a more neo-classical focus to the company. Whether the audience will like this is another story.

In one of the Q&A's Peter Boal said they taped down the dimensions of the City Center stage in the big rehearsal studio so they'd have an idea. My favorite pairing of muses at PNB is still Carrie Imler's Polyhymnia and Leah O'Connor's Calliope. Each of them was fabulous in her solo, but what made it really great is that they weren't so broken up by not being chosen -- no having to deal with that ego for very long -- and they were dynamite together after the Terpsichore-Apollo Pas de Deux, flying down the stage in diagonal with the mirror en dedans pirouettes. They were like partners in crime, and they had great chemistry together. Imler's "Square Dance" is probably my favorite thing I've ever seen in almost two decades of watching the company, and there have been a lot of highs along the way. I think it's a shame she wasn't showcased in this program. Korbes deserves all the accolades she gets, but she's not the only ballerina out here. I understand wanting to showcase the younger and up-and-coming dancers, but I wonder if a Nakamura/Imler "Concerto Barocco" would have settled the opening nerves that every reviewer I've read so far has written about. There should have been more than one performance of the Balanchine program, and by the second day, the young-uns could have shined.

to Anspach and her fiance!

Maybe if the Prodigal Father begs.

BA posted photos of their Romeos -- Nayon Iovino, Slawomir Wozniak, and Junxiong Zhao -- and Juliets -- Tzu-Chia Huang, Amber Lewis, and Jillian Barrell to Facebook, and today they posted: Didn't see Nayon Iovino and Jillian Barrell in last night's performance of Romeo & Juliet? No worries, you can see them perform again tonight! Tickets are still available by calling our Box Office at 602-381-1096 or online at http://balletaz.org/performance/romeo-juliet/ There's a lovely photo of the two of them. So we know at least who one couple is!

From the PNB Blog: Sarah Ricard Orza's impressions from the audience of the All-Balanchine program last night: http://blog.pnb.org/2013/02/opening-night-view-from-audience-sarah.html

More from PNB's Facebook Page: Jean-Christophe Maillot is in the studios with us today and tomorrow. New York is about to see a new kind of Romeo and Juliet! The photo is of William Lin-Yee being lifted by the two acolytes. I think that's Andrew Bartee on the left in the image in the mirror. New York will see Carrie Imler's comic timing, acting skills, and full commitment to a character on Sunday when she performs Nurse in "Romeo et Juliette," but, sadly, they won't get to see this: Imler's in black, Adomaitis is in the red leotard, and Angelica Generosa is in the back to the right.

But those idiots' complaints about Douglas' hairstyle speak to the same issue and aren't so easy to dismiss. Winning does not preclude discussions of race, ethnicity, or class. While the joke circulated during the London Olympics -- Q: "What do you say when a mixed race woman, a Muslim immigrant, and a ginger walk into a bar?" A: "May I buy you a drink?" -- is heart-warming and hopeful, not everyone is ready to sing "Kumbaya."

Tonight is Opening Night of Ballet Arizona's "Romeo+Juliet," choreographed by Ib Andersen, and it runs through Sunday. I don't see casting posted to the website, but I did find a link to a .pdf feature, "Meet our Juliets": BAZ-Romeo_Juliet_Performance-Meet-Juliet1.pdf The three Juliets are Amber Lewis, Jillian Barrell, and Tzu-Chia Huang. This is my favorite classical/neoclassical version of the ballet. The choreography is terrific, and Ib Andersen is a master of clear storytelling.

Marina Harss interviewed Sara Mearns for "Dance Tabs" and followed up a week later on her foot injury: http://dancetabs.com/2013/02/sara-mearns-new-york-city-ballet-principal/ I found it inspiring how Mearns used her time during her back injury. She turned a difficult time into an opportunity. The Kolnik photos are gorgeous.

Tour video 1:

Then it must be O'Connor to the far left and Adomaitis to the far right. I was confused by O'Connor's height relative to Love, but she may be doing a deeper plie at that point. Also none of the three have dark hair in their official portraits, but that also could be the lighting. Thank you for the ID!

They got there in one piece, including the musicians! Here's a photo that PNB just tweeted of a curtain call after "Agon" https://twitter.com/...3839104/photo/1 I'm to say I can't tell who three of the corps women are from their photos. I'm assuming all are as listed in the PR casting. From L-R: Either Chelsea Adomaitis, Jessika Anspach, or Leah O'Connor -- probably O'Connor Emma Love Elizabeth Murphy -1st Pas de Trois Jonathan Porretta -1st Pas de Trois Kylee Kitchens -1st Pas de Trois Batkhurel Bold - Pas de Deux Lesley Rausch - Pas de Deux Jerome Tisserand - 2nd Pas de Trois Maria Chapman - 2nd Pas de Trois Andrew Bartee - 2nd Pas de Trois Either Chelsea Adomaitis, Jessika Anspach, or Leah O'Connor Either Chelsea Adomaitis, Jessika Anspach, or Leah O'Connor -- probably Adomaitis

No need to apologize, hydraulix, for bumping up a thread on a wonderful artist. I'm glad you shared with us your impression of her performance.

My bad: I just didn't know how to search for them . There are a lot more than I thought, but, sadly, so far, not the ones I wanted.

You have reached the Ballet Alert!, the audience site. You will find plenty of information on pointe shoes at our sister site, Ballet Talk for Dancers (BT4D): www.dancers.invisionzone.com You must register separately for BT4D. We hope you'll join in our discussions about performances, ballet news, aesthetic issues, ballet videos, etc. from the point of view of the audience.

I don't think that artists should be mute. I have no problem with an artist criticizing theater management. There's certainly nothing wrong with supporting colleagues and refusing to act against them. Peter Boal received both external and internal criticism when he refused to renew Ariana Lallone's contract, when she'd been dancing beautifully and planned to retire the following season. (Unlike at the Bolshoi, he didn't have to pay her after not casting her.) Helgi Tomasson has gotten his share of criticism over the years at San Francisco Ballet, and Peter Martins might just as well as have a target printed on his front and back. As far as criticism of the reconstruction of the theater, unless he has proof that Iksanov personally was responsible for substandard work, his constant carping, and the underlying mantra that such things wouldn't have happened in the past, and the current administration is undermining the glorious past, as if Brezhnev was still in charge, just shows what he's made of. The building had serious infrastructure problems that had to be addressed, and like in many major infrastructure overhauls, once the patient is opened, they found much more structural damage than they had estimated: the foundation of the building was compromised. If his sense of business and projects is so naive that he thinks that when scope is changed radically, the completion date can be moved only so far, and there is a limit to money, that every detail will be as originally hoped and planned, he has no business running a candy shop, let alone a major theater. Where is his criticism of where the real power lay in the project: high in the government, with contractors who were connected every which way from Thursday, or the people who realized that the project wouldn't be giving unlimited funding, etc. That wouldn't help him with his ultimate goal, though. When an artist questions the legitimacy of management and actively attempts to undermine it, it's a step towards an environment where management can be treated as illegitimate In the US, the Birther movement questioned the legitimacy of the Obama presidency, and that was one of the things that has lead to voiced threats against him and the government over gun control. Attempting to exploit a chaotic situation, especially in times of economic difficulty and volatility -- Weimar Germany comes to mind -- and attempting to distract whoever is in charge in order to take over is a classic response, and, luckily, he was caught and exposed. Not exactly stellar recommendations for a position that must be led from strength, or, as Mashinka put it, "there are fathers/husbands/boyfriends/’protectors’ with mafia links and deep pockets the pressures on a director to be his own man with regard to entry into the company, promotions and distribution of roles must be immense." As far as there being much-admired athletes and artists of Muslim descent in Russia, Iksanov is neither artist nor entertainer. Plenty of people in the US admire LeBron James and Seal, but Cornel West is still stopped by the police on the NJ Turnpike when he drives to his Princeton teaching position.

It makes sense for them to release the HD version of a very popular ballet to see how much the viewing audience and people who couldn't go on the day will buy it, a built in audience that isn't quite the same for studio performances. Sadly, the Met has released few Live at the Met performances on DVD, mostly the usual suspects. At least many are broadcast on Public TV.

There aren't many "Soviet" performers of any stripe at this time, and certainly not Soviet female gymnasts. The longing for such makes a good target audience for such comments.

Lovely photo!

Peter Boal's latest Tweet: Impressive studio run-through of # ConcertoBarrocco today. Curtain rises on # PNBAllBalanchineprogram in 24 hours. Can't wait. No word about the orchestra yet. Fingers crossed.