Helene

A new video on local radio person Spike O'Neill's prep to appear as Grandfather in PNB's Nutcracker: PNB announced on Facebook the following media guests during the season's run: Local celebs are donning their dancing shoes and joining the cast of Nutcracker! Our all-star line-up is: Kaci Aitchison of KCPQ, Luke Burbank and Dave Ross of the Ross and Burbank on KIRO Radio, 102.5 KZOK: The Classic Rock Station's Danny Bonaduce, The Bob Rivers Show Spike O'Neill and Seattle's favorite weatherman, Steve Pool of KOMO News. Someone nominated Rick Steves in the replies

Simkin tweeted: Got promoted to Principal with ABT. B00ya! Congratulations to Mr. Simkin

Just a note to reiterate our policy on Facebook: "Like" vs. "Friend" Only public ("Like") pages of dancers, choreographers, companies, administrators, etc. are official news on Ballet Alert! If you have to "Friend" a ballet professional or are given permission to be part of a discussion group, that page is considered private, and the news posted there is not official news, because the person has limited access to those who have been approved as friends. This applies even to those people who automatically accept everyone as a "Friend," because they can change their status to a more private one at any time. Twitter, though, is entirely public, and all tweets from the people themselves are official sources here.

We just received the following press release regarding a memorial service and two celebrations that will be held for Mr. O'Connor: MEMORIAL FOR PATRICK O'CONNOR New York Service to be Held on December 15 A memorial service for editor, dance critic, poet, and author Patrick O'Connor will be held in New York City on Saturday, December 15, at 11:00 AM, at the Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, with a reception to follow. All who wish to attend are welcome. For the convenience of his many friends across the country, additional celebrations of Patrick's life will be held in Los Angeles, California, on Sunday, January 20, 2013 and in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Sunday, February 24, 2013.

Well, my first reaction wasn't appropriate for the board.

The second ballerina role was my introduction to Ashley Bouder, and it was clear where she was heading. The first second ballerina I saw was Maria Calegari in 1982 -- Kyra Nichols was the lead -- and she did the lead role in 1986. I was lucky to have seen Miranda Weese in the NYCB version (with Philip Neal) in 2004, and then in "Ballet Imperial" with PNB in 2007 (with Casey Herd), and then the Third Movement in 2008 for Casey Herd's farewell performance. (He moved to Dutch National Ballet.)

It would make sense that she'd be viewed as the weakest winner until this season: there were only six episodes and six couples. The pros hadn't hit their stride yet. If all of the winners had been compared after their sixth episode, it might tell a different story. Does anyone know who was jumping up and down when they did the backstage shots?

From TenduTV's Facebook page: There's a link to the promo video in this FB entry.

I just received the following press release from Oregon Ballet Theatre: This is not good news.

According to "Choreography by Balanchine" (Catalogue), for There are two strains of the ballet: 1941 -> 1964, "with augmented corps de ballet and minor revisions" (The version Francia Russell notated and stage for PNB and I'm guessing for the Mariinsky Ballet as one of the first two ballets -- the other was Suzanne Farrell's staging of "Scotch Symphony" -- officially staged for the company.) 1950-> "1973, with deleted pantomime and new pas de deux added in second movement; somewhat different groupings in third movement." (What NYCB performs now.)

Sorry, but the "Dance Magazine" article doesn't say that: it says that somehow Rojo found out that the ENB board was planning to force his resignation a second time last Fall, she contacted them, they interviewed her for a job that wasn't yet open, and when the job was open, they hired her. If the board had already forced his resignation once, but he kept his job because of dancer support, and she got wind that they were planning to do it again, it makes sense that would conclude that they were serious about it this time, and it would stick. Did she break into a Board meeting and steal memos about the second forced resignation? Probably not. The Board let it slip, deliberately or inadvertently, but if it was the latter, they could have put her off when she approached them, and even have decided that to hold it against her. So either they planned to find a replacement before they had an opening, or that happy opportunity fell into their lap, and they took advantage of it. Given the circumstances, and the likely disgruntlement and dissatisfaction among the dancers the sacking would bring, it was a good tactic on their part to have a short selection process and a pre-vetted candidate. She has nothing to be surprised about if they use the same sleazy tactics on her to find her replacement, just as Tsiskaridze should never be surprised if this should backfire on him in a similar way going forward. He seems to have been caught by surprise that in the electronic age, the petition would have been kept secret, though.

They do it in Seattle: http://www.pnb.org/AboutPNB/Repertory/BalletImperial.aspx

I watched again, and while there are a bunch of programs to ballet music -- in the final group at the NHK Trophy Ladies Free Skate last weekend, there were "Don Q," "Sleeping Beauty," and "Swan Lake," none of them convinced me that they had to be using those scores. Two small exceptions were Elene Gedevashvili's circular footwork, in which the combination of steps and interpretation matched the music beautifully, and some swan arms by Asada that were subtle and well done. The only program that I think matches the music and tries to do a figure skating version of classical ballet, in this case "Sleeping Beauty," is Gretchen Donlan/Andrew Speroff's Pairs FS; unfortunately, they haven't performed it that well this year, but here was their performance from last year's US Nationals: They've changed it somewhat this season to adjust to the rule changes, but it's substantially the same, with element highlights on the music, which is not the typical murderous collection of death by 1000 cuts.

SFB has a contest going on, and the prize is two VIP tickets to the "Nutcracker" on 26 December. http://www.sfballet.org/holidaychallenge?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_campaign=NutcrackerHolidayChallenge2012 Mon, Nov 26 — Nutcracker Holiday Challenge #4: Twitter The challenge: Put yourself in the Twitter shoes of Nutcracker's #1 villain: the Mouse King It isn’t easy being the villain, and as Nutcracker draws closer, where better for the Mouse King to try and rehabilitate his image than Twitter? SF Ballet challenges you to send us one tweet as the royal rodent himself, imagining what he might say in 140 characters to repair his dastardly reputation. Tweet us @sfballet and use the hashtag #MouseKing—our favorite tweet will win its creator two “Winner’s Box” tickets to SF Ballet’s Nutcracker on December 26 at 7pm. Contest closes 4pm Thurs, Nov 29, 2012. Winner will be announced later that day. Limit one entry: read full terms and conditions.

Links, please, to an official source that ties Eagling's sacking to Rojo's appointment. Other ballet discussion boards are not official sources.

It was the second highest-watched episode in TV history -- the only one that was higher (in the 50's) was the last episode of M*A*S*H.

It's true: I was waiting some better performances of the Tchaikovsky attempts before posting, but Asada ("Swan Lake") had a very weak outing earlier today at NHK Trophy. (Maybe she'll be stronger at the Grand Prix Final in a couple of weeks: it's being held at the Olympic venue in Sochi.)

We don't have JR Ewing to kick around anymore: Larry Hagman died today in Dallas at 81 after a battle with cancer after spending Thanksgiving with family and friends. Here are some initial articles: http://www.dailymail...tle-cancer.html http://www.usatoday....-ewing/1723837/ http://www.nytimes.c...s-at-81.html?hp I'll always remember him from "I Dream of Jeannie": his comic timing in that show was superb. Rest in peace, Mr. Hagman.

For the second time this season, Meryl Davis and Charlie White performed their "Giselle" Short Dance, this time at NHK Trophy in Sendai. For those who are unfamiliar with the Short Dance format, it's a poor compromise between the old Original Dance, in which skaters had to perform a program to at least two of a list of pre-defined rhythms, allegedly related, and sometimes to a given theme, and the Compulsory Dance, a set pattern that all skaters had to perform, usually twice in succession, but sometimes three, to the International Skating Union CD for the pattern, which cycled around four-six musical tracks. (The skating order determined which track the skaters would use.) The requirements for the Short Dance are to use the pre-defined rhythms and to included, in addition to a lift, a set of twizzles (side by side moving turns on one leg), and a pre-defined type of footwork (this season non-touching), a Compulsory Dance pattern, to music of the skaters' choice, but to a defined meter. This year's Compulsory Dance pattern is "Yankee Polka," which was created from a longer program by Judy Schwomeyer and Jim Sladky from the '70's. Choreographer and coach Marina Zoueva, who has a credential from GITIS, created "Giselle" from three Act I excerpts. Davis/White perform the "Yankee Polka" section at the end. It's remarkable how many Ice Dance teams manage not to make dances out of the material, but here's a lower-ranked team, Penny Coomes and Nicholas Buckland -- their coach is Evgeni Platov, the 1994 and 1998 Olympic Ice Dance champion (with Oksana Grishuk) -- which performed to a different type of dance, with the Yankee Polka starting before the halfway point: Daisuke Takahashi just can't stop dancing: I have a paid subscription to TVTeka to be able to watch the Russian "Sport" channel live, but I love going back to YouTube, just to listen to the Italian commentary. Not that I understand much beyond "Fantastico!" and "Que programma," but they sound so musical and like they like things they see.

I know that the politics of state companies in particular are hornets' nests of intrigue, making the Balanchine succession at NYCB and various coups at companies like SFB look like playground spats, but to think that major Bolshoi artists were convinced of three different scenarios -- Iksanov was leaving on his own, Iksanov was being dumped, Iksanov's contract could not be renewed legally because of term limits -- there must have been a storm of angst. Ratmansky was lucky to get out of the viper pit.

Such a lovely illustration! I hope that you and all Ballet Alerters who celebrate Thanksgiving have had or are still having a great one! And in the spirit of Small Business Saturday, for those with local ballet companies, "Nutcracker" tickets are a good way to support local businesses.

Ballet Arizona announced a " Nutcracker" ticket sale from 9am Friday, 23 November-Monday, 26 November, with a 40% on the following performances, excluding the $26 tickets: Fri, Dec 7, 7:30pm Sat, Dec 8, 2pm and 7:30pm Sun, Dec 9, 1pm and 5:30pm Fri, Dec 14, 7:30pm Sun, Dec 16, 5:30pm Wed, Dec 19, 7pm Use the promo cde "TURKEY".

Many thanks for your review, Tara! It took me a while to realize that Michelle Vagi is Michelle Mahowald's new name? I was afraid she had left the company.

Thank you for posting, Tardis. It's exciting to hear about Stenson again. He seems to have a carrer niche, as rare as finding a good Siegfried: singing the most difficult, often-skipped arias, as if they were written for him.

Wow. Wow. If he duped the signees by misrepresenting what was going to be in the letter -- getting advanced approval is par for the course -- did he really think 1. There wouldn't be retractions? 2. That the retractions wouldn't go public? 3. That the signees would be too embarrassed to retract? Mr. Tsiskaridze was born in the wrong era. Thank you so much for all of the translations and keeping us up to date, Ilya