Helene

I've been working on the calendar entries for Royal Danish Ballet, and I found the following performances on the Calendar at the Royal Theater: Åben Dans -- Jeg ved hvor din hus den bor Skuespilhuset Lille Scene (Royal Danish Playhouse) 7-9, 11-12 March, 2013 Dansk Danseteater -- Love Songs (Tim Rushton, with Caroline Henderson) Gamle Scene 24-26 May, 2012 Akram Khan -- Desh Skuespilhuset Lille Scene (Royal Danish Playhouse) 5-6 June, 2013

Welcome, gratarolli! We hope you enjoy our forums and discussions. Some of our favorite dancers are from Brazil

I think there's a big difference between an administrator or a coach teaching an athlete or dancer what it means to be in "shape" to be successful in that pursuit or demanding that they be so, and your smoking example, where the health benefits are equally applicable to the teachers and students. Fateev doesn't have to go onstage. Lincoln Kirstein didn't have to be a twig to head School of American ballet. I wouldn't expect them to live the monkish, disciplined lives of athletes or dancers when their professions don't require it, because their expertise and duties are not dependent on it.

That's true for a lot of them. On the other hand, Elisabeth Platel, who runs the POB school, and Asylmuratova, who runs the Vaganova Ballet Academy, both look as if they could step on stage tomorrow, at least from the last film documentaries in which I've seen them, and that's probably not a co-incidence. They could carry their lipstick in their collarbones. There are also different standards for men and women.

The late Charles France of ABT wasn't svelte, either. If you look at coaching videos in Russia (and older ones from the Soviet Union), many of the older coaches, especially, are quite heavy, when they had been a lot thinner as dancers, even if they came from generations where proportion and balance, rather than thin-ness was prized. They don't need to be svelte to impart their knowledge, nor do they need to be svelte to administer a company.

In "Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear," Carla Korbes described how when she was at NYCB, Peter Martins would tell her she needed to lose weight, she would, he would reward her with roles, and she would become weak and get injured, a vicious cycle that lasted until she moved to Seattle to join PNB. (Not that she's been injury-free since she's been here, but she looks gorgeous.) At the end of Wiseman's "La Danse," Brigitte Lefebvre is giving a career review to a young corps member who looks like she'd snap from blowing out a birthday candle, and that dancer happily tells her boss how she's lost weight as she was told, much to Mme. Lefebvre's satisfaction. My stomach did a 360 at that one. I rather watch "barrels" and "tanks" dance.

NYCB just tweeted Wedding bells continue to chime at NYCB. Congrats to Soloist Craig Hall & Frank Wildermann (Photo by: Erin Baiano) pic.twitter.com/dVYz03VW Check out the great photo of the happy couple, and congratulations to them both

Welcome to Ballet Alert! Mr. Dery. I look forward to reading your book when it is done. For anyone who does not have Private Message (PM) access, if you would like to contact Mr. Dery, please send an email to the "Contact Us" link at the top of the page, and we'll forward your contact details to him.

[Opening this thread for guest appearances by Ballet Arizona dancer.] Paola Hartley and Astrit Zejnati will guest with Shreveport (LA) Metropolitan Ballet in "The Nutcracker" from 1-2 December. This announcement gives a detailed description of Ms. Hartley's background and a shorter one for Mr. Zejnati's: http://broadwayworld.com/article/Guest-Artists-Announced-for-Shreveport-Metropolitan-Ballets-THE-NUTCRACKER-20120904 I didn't realize that both Marcia Haydee and Ivan Nagy headed Ballet de Santiago (at different times).

There were plenty of complaints when Balanchine produced ballets in leotards. "Agon" or pretty sets? "Concerto Barocco" or pretty sets? "Four Temperaments" in leotards or the Seligman monstrosities that make nice photos? "Cinderella" is not a pretty story, and the score is pretty tough. Having seen a handful of Ratmansky's ballets, including one dud ("Anna Karenina"), I'll give him a chance no matter what he does.

From Catherine Pawlick's book, "Vaganova Today": Terekhova, pp.107-8 Terekhova speaks as if this always was the aesthetic and body type at the Mariinsky Theatre. Perhaps Terekhova's memory doesn't extend farther back than the '60's or '70's, but this aesthetic was in place well before Fateev. Christiakova, p.140 Assymuratova, p.176

This strikes me as the only sane thing to do.

Well, then, she must be prepared for Opening Night if she's an old pro at carrying full-length ballets on tour and has been reviewed regularly.

One tour <> every tour. Carrying a full-length ballet is also another kettle of fish. The build-up to one is good for her and good for the company.

Stepanova is clearly talented, but bravissima to Kondaurova: what mesmerizing authority. They always need to sell tickets early in the week. People who want to see the Mariinsky on the weekend will go no matter whom is cast. Shrinkina is an interesting choice for the opening night reviewers, since she's a dancer who has generated interest and isn't a dancer they've seen every tour, plus there's the distraction of "What do we think of Ratmansky?" and how has this production changed since the last time. If she gets middling reviews, I suspect they will also have a caveat about the production and the "sour" score.

For the upper rank promotions, Peter Boal makes a front-of-curtain speech on opening night. The PNB website shows that all four of last year's apprentices -- Angelica Generosa, Steven Loch, Charles McCall, and Sarah Pasch -- are now members of the corps. Congratulations to them all! The most recent "Getting to know PNB's corps de ballet dancer" on PNB's blog is Ms. Generosa: http://blog.pnb.org/2012/08/getting-to-know-pnbs-corps-de-ballet.html

I love how the New Jersey Symphony is not in the "New York area," especially since the train ride from Newark Penn Station to New York Penn Station can be shorter than taking the A train from Washington Heights to Penn Station. Schwarz was a very divisive figure within the Seattle Symphony, especially his last decade or so -- even some of his strongest supporters within the Symphony thought he stayed too long, and that any conductor would be less effective over time -- but he had very strong support from some wealthy members of the board and within the philanthropic community, even with Jack Benaroya's death, or he wouldn't have had the opportunity to have made that mistake. When I look at the networks of dancers within Facebook, it's easy to see that the dance world is closer to two degrees of separation than six. The same is true for a lot of these musicians, who went to music camp, school, summer programs, summer festival programs, etc. with so many of their colleagues in addition to film soundtrack -- a lot is based in Seattle -- orchestra, chamber music, side project, soloist, and pick-up orchestra work. It must have been like a big reunion party, and I'm so glad they're doing this.

Ballet Arizona just posted this link to a two-page spread in AZ-Lifestyle Magazine with an interview with Ib Andersen and a beautiful Rosalie O'Connor photo of Andersen coaching Roman Zavarov, I think, in "Prodigal Son"? If the page doesn't fit on your screen after you zoom in, hold down your cursor on the page to move it up and down. (Took me a while to figure this out.)

Alley looks great!

This could have been the solution to getting her out of the host spot for good. Bummer.

That wasn't my question, which was, weren't the majority of corps members career corps members, dancing third swan from the back, with no chance for solos after their graduation performances? In Soviet times, they couldn't leave and take those soloist and principal positions in other companies.

A reminder that the sold-out presentation in the opening Works & Process at the Guggenheim Museum on Sunday, 9 September at 7:30pm (EDT, 4:30pm PDT) will be streamed live: link here and there are still tickets left for the Monday, 10 September repeat presentation at 3pm. We who've been following PNB for a while will be surprised to learn from The New Yorker that "nder Peter Boal’s direction, this dynamic company has become a major interpreter of Balanchine." I realize that if no one hears a tree fall, etc. etc., but the blurb-writer might have looked back in his or her own magazine's archives to refer to Arlene Croce's review, "The Regions in Brooklyn" from April 23, 1984, (also pp.189-194 in "Sight Lines") where she wrote, and Writing for the New York Times Jack Anderson disagreed. I also realize that in 1984 Brooklyn and BAM did not have the cachet they have now, so performances in Brooklyn might as well have been in Seattle for many. (Or as "Sex and the City"'s Steve said to Miranda, "'Broken, broken, broken'... You mean 'Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Brooklyn'...") But fast forward a dozen and a half years later to PNB's first City Center appearance in 1996, Anna Kisselgoff lauded the company ("The pickings have been unusually slim on the ballet scene this fall. But the Pacific Northwest Ballet from Seattle, which made its Manhattan debut on Tuesday night at City Center, would stand out in the richest of seasons.") and "Divertimento No. 15." While many of us appreciate what Peter Boal has brought to PNB -- artistically, including the dancers that followed him, and the national attention -- Francia Russell was hand-picked by Balanchine as a stager before Boal was an embryo, and Balanchine was the company's calling card before he was a member of NYCB.

Historically speaking, weren't the vast majority of dancers at the Mariinsky career corps members, just like at the Bolshoi, POB, RDB, with few if no chances for solo roles, regardless of their talent? The break-up of the Soviet Union was the first driver that gave all but dancers at the highest level leverage to move.