Helene

Sarah Kaufman has written an article in "The Washington Post" about the impact of Kickstarter in dance. The most striking numbers are: and She then goes on to discuss why this is so, but it certainly bypasses traditional grant committees and large donors, exposing standards, taste, and levels of expertise to the marketplace.

I love when this happens. I remember reading an interview with Helen Mirren many years ago, maybe soon after the release of "Excalibur," in which she talked about how less stratified acting was in England compared to the US: actors did all genres, from Shakespeare to what we'd consider soft-core porn, without having to worry about how it would affect their career. In the US there was always the concern about being typecast in "lesser" genres and never getting out. There are a number of US soap actors and actresses who've done theater and film before joining soap operas and have gone back and forth, most notably Lane Davies of "Santa Barbara," but most of the soap actors who became famous in film or more prestigious TV shows haven't looked back until their older years.

I remember pages and pages about the dance she and Balanchine did, his courting through her mother and "poor Eddie Bigelow," her decision to marry Mejia, Balanchine's reaction, etc. She might have been frustrating in what she chose to disclose and her point of view, and she didn't give details about her later relationship with Mejia, but a big chunk of the book before she left the company was about relationships.

In the Balanchine bio on PNB, d'Amboise and Farrell danced together in "Apollo," as Apollo and Terpsichore, with Gloria Govrin*, and, if I remember correctly, Patricia Neary, and "Movements for Orchestra." (This entry in the NYPL catalog says there's a film of a "studio rehearsal.") There was also a clip of them dancing together in "Meditation" that was excerpted in "Elusive Muse;" the NYPL catalog lists this as having been broadcast (with three other PdD) on WNET in 1966. They are also a couple in the complete "Davidsbundlertanze," one of the last works Balanchine choreographed, which was produced by CBS. There's an entry for a stage rehearsal By the time of the late '70's "Dance in America" video, d'Amboise had given up many of his virtuoso roles, and it was Peter Martins who partnered Farrell, in d'Amboise's role in "Diamonds" and in the roles Balanchine created for Farrell and Martins: "Chaconne" and "Tzigane." The NYPL entry for "A Stravinsky Portrait" dated 1972 reads (emphasis mine): According to the entry for this 1982 videocasette, it's a complete recording of the "Apollon musagete" filmed in Hamburg for German TV in 1966. The company went to Germany to film a bunch of ballets during the period that Farrell was not in the company.

"mythomaniac" -- no kidding, as Newman's short interview with him in "Striking a Balance" shows.

I didn't realize that Merkuriev came from the Mariinsky. I loved him in "Le Corsaire" when the Bolshoi brought it to DC.

Almost all of the discussion has been around the women. What is his record on casting the men? The last time I saw the Mariinsky was last summer, in "Anna Karenina" and "Little Humpbacked Horse," and from what I saw, the casting was superb. Of course, these were Ratmansky ballets, not the classic classics.

PNB just tweeted a link to this 2001 photo of Ashley Bouder and Carla Korbes in "Vogue": https://twitter.com/PNBallet/status/238331219899736064/photo/1

Golub is an example of the difference between ballet and opera rep casting: in an opera rep company, someone who sang the equivalent of Juliet one night could easily be cast as Little Swan the next.

Nickwallacesmith also re-posted a lot of the Soloviev videos, many of which disappeared, maybe when Ketinoa's entire channel was shut down when the Balanchine Trust objected to a tiny minority of the videos. NY audiences got a chance to see POB dance "Suite en Blanc" this summer.

From Robert Tracy's "Balanchine's Ballerinas": She also does a handstand in "Stravinsky Violin Concerto" towards the end of Aria I, the same section with the bridges. There's nothing in the interview or bio intro that mentions any formal gymnastics training, only early private ballet lessons, and her comment is "My schooling was Russian, and my first love was the Bolshoi...", but it's clear that she was tumbling/gymnastics-oriented as a child.

Nichelle Nichols -- wow!!!!!!

With that core strength, I bet she never fell of the balance beam.

About ballet rep, dancers in companies with mixed training, primarily neoclassical companies, often say that it's difficult on their bodies to mix rep, since the demands on them made are very different. I can't imagine what it's like for a company that is heavily, if not exclusively, based in training for a specific rep to keep changing back-and-forth. To apply the opera rep model makes much less sense for ballet: while singers can change their training approach based on the role -- recent Seattle Opera Turandot Marcy Stonikas said she doesn't train Leonora in "Fidelio" and Turandot on the same day because the tessitura is different -- unless they are big stars in rep companies, while the roles make different demands on their voices, the hierarchy traditionally has not been as rigid in opera rep companies. In opera someone who sang Wotan -- or any other long, difficult role/one that carried an opera -- on one night might sing Pope Leo in "Atilla" or Pimen in "Boris Godunov" the next. This happens among younger dancers -- tonight's Swanhilde on Sunday afternoon might be next Friday's Swanhilde's-Friend-Who-Finds-The-Key, but it's rare for Principals in companies to take on smaller roles, even if it would be wise for them to be cast that way to preserve their health. No one would expect a soprano to sing Turandot, Violetta, Abigaille, Brunnhilde, and Donna Anna every night for a week. Singers who do one or two roles at a time have breaks between performances, and often schedule Mozart or another vocal-health-restoring composer among their engagements. Dancers are reliant on management to make those decisions for them, and it's often not pretty. Mariinsky bass Evgeny Nikitin talked about this in the "Sacred Stage" documentary. He said that when he gets a contract in the West for one or two roles over a few months, it's like being on holiday, but when he's in his home theater, changing roles from night to night is what keeps his voice in shape. Dancers at the Mariinsky don't have the same luxury.

It's so nice to hear about Richardson and Boada of Royal Flanders Ballet. I saw them in a performance of "Apollo" in Gent in 2008, and I was impressed with both of them. I can picture them in "After the Rain", PDD. I'm also thrilled to hear about Kochetkova and Nedvigin, two of my favorite dancers at San Francisco Ballet.

No, I doubt Russell would consider Fateev her equal, but, then again, there aren't that many people on the planet who are. (Originators of roles who can coach them are another story.) Nor would she expect the Mariinsky to dance Balanchine in Balanchine style after having so little experience and training in it, and she would know from personal experience, having been one of the first two stagers, along with Suzanne Farrell ("Scotch Symphony"), sent to the Mariinsky to stage Balanchine ballets, in her case, either "Theme and Variations" or "Ballet Imperial." If he claims expertise, which I wouldn't be aware of, it's not just "self-styled."

Phyllis Diller died today at age 95. From the "New York Times": http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/21/arts/television/phyllis-diller-sassy-comedian-dies-at-95.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all Rest in peace, Ms. Diller.

Fateev worked in Seattle on Balanchine stagings, and Francia Russell, one of Balanchine's earliest hand-picked (in the 60's) stagers and one of the ballet's most respected, said very good things about him, and she's not the easiest person in the world to please.

The opera house in Gothenburg, Sweden is built at the edge of water and looks like a ship. I've heard the new opera house in Copenhagen described that way, but I didn't get that impression when I visited last.

RDB goes to Ofelia Beach for Ballet Relay today through Wednesday for free performances. bing translates the Facebook post as: Check out the photo:

This stunning Marc Haegeman photo of Smirnova and Chudin in "Diamonds" appears in a two-page article in "Dance International" Magazine:

She dances the Lilac Fairy. I've seen her. We're anyone to remove SB from the repertoire, they would lose her performance.

It's written by George Jackson. Thank you for this.

Vaganova was many things, but a pure traditionalist she was not. She slashed mime from the classical ballets, a 180 from the idea of reconstructions. She actively adjusted her methodology to support current changes in choreography, and only stopped when she thought the trend had gone too far in the direction of gymnastics/circus. Somova's prominence in the company, her aesthetic, her technical weaknesses, and the years of awful, artistically suspect coaching of her were Vaziev's brain children. If Fateev hates reconstructions, he would hardly be the only one: the company's prima, Uliana Lopatkina, leads that faction. The Mariinsky New Year's Eve celebration DVD, which, ironically, features the Wedding Act reconstruction, ends with the chorus onstage in formal wearing, crowned by Lopatkina, in elegant clothing, making a grand entrance worthy of Cinderella in the Ashton, and Gergiev defers to her like a suitor. She's on the record for not liking the reconstruction and not wanting to dance it, so it's easy to do the math.

Not that I remember. At one point, they put the swords down on the floor in a crossed position, but if I remember correctly, they weren't holding them during this choreographic motif, which was repeated.