Helene

Here's a link to an interview on KPLU with Peter Boal and Seth Orza on "Apollo" and an article with excerpts from the transcript. http://www.kplu.org/post/pacific-northwest-ballet-old-apollo-teaches-first-timer

Casting is up for Week 2 on the website: http://www.pnb.org/S...Details-Casting Here's the grid for comparison: Apollo and Carmina Burana Weeks 1 and 2.xlsx Please note that there's an extra, non-subscription performance on Saturday, 21 April at 2pm. Major debuts in week 2 are Postlewaite and Orza as Apollo. Murphy as Terpsichore O'Connor and Adomaitis as Calliope Mullin as Polyhymnia Lin-Yee in "In Taberna" Imler reprises her Polyhymnia for the first time in week 2. I'm not sure if Porretta's performances in "In Taberna" are a debut, or if he performed the role in 2004.

Sorry, Golden Idol. You should be able to post to the Barcelona Ballet forum now.

I love her leotard: it would make a gorgeous swimsuit.

This year, there have been 2.5 non-ballet works: the Quijada "Mating Theory" and half of "Cylindrical Shadows", where there were two big chunks of what is recognizably ballet and whole sections that were not, and the Balcony Pas de Deux from the Maillot "Romeo et Juliette", which was packaged with two company premieres, "Divertimento from 'Baiser de la Fee'" and Robbins' "Afternoon of a Faun", and the Black Swan Pas de Deux and Wedding Act from "Sleeping Beauty." That isn't even a full evening out of six rep programs, which included three by Wheeldon, two more by Balanchine ("Apollo" and "Coppelia"), Dawson's clearly neo-classical "A Million Kisses to My Skin", Stowell's "Carmina Burana", and the Ratmansky "Don Quixote". This rep is squarely within the Russell/Stowell tradition, and they were the ones who brought in Nacho Duato's "Jardi Tancat", not Boal. (On the other hand, they also brought in Forsythe.) Most of the money that Boal has spent on new works has been for the "Coppelia" co-production with SFB and the Ratmansky "Don Q". Since the Maillot "R et J" is coming back for the third time and looks like a keeper, the company has invested in building costumes. (I don't know if they're building their own set this time.) I'm sure that the economy has slowed Boal down, but the "Swan Lake"s and "Sleeping Beauty"s, and "Coppelia"s that bring in revenue take slots away from "Jewels", too, not just another Kylian, for example, Tharp's work is in every major company in the US, and companies chomp at the bit to get work by Mark Morris, who choreographs ballet for ballet companies. The program PNB brought to the Joyce was Millipied, Liang, Tharp, and "Mopey", and only the latter is unusual programming for a US ballet company. While I don't think any of the works were particularly strong -- and the Millipied looked much better on the big stage at McCaw Hall and cramped at the Joyce -- it was not radical programming, for better or worse. I don't see a major change in profile, and so far, I've seen the dancers take the energy, sharpness, timing, and articulation they've learned from doing the Quijada and the most recent Goecke pieces, for example, and use it in neoclassical and classical works, and sandik has told me about trans-formative performances that have translated into big step up in projection and performances since in at least one other work I missed. If I never see "Mopey" or a work by Dove again, though, I wouldn't shed a tear.

In the PNB press release with the news that Postlewaite will join Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, the company also announced that Abby Relic is leaving the company at the end of this season: Ms. Relic participated in PNB’s Summer Course in 2004 and was subsequently invited to become a PNB School Professional Division student from 2004-2006; she joined PNB’s corps de ballet in 2008. Peter Boal remarked, “Abby has been a pleasure to work with since her days as a Professional Division student in our School. She stands out not only for her exquisitely arched feet, but also for her sunny smile and ready laugh. We will miss her presence on stage and off.” In addition to her work with PNB, Ms. Relic is actively pursuing her Pilates certification, performs with Seattle’s 127th Street Dance, and was recently featured in Pointe Magazine’s “On the Side” for her versatility as an artist passionate about both the ballet and hip hop genres. Ms. Relic states: "Although I feel very strongly about moving on to the next phase of my life, I have experienced a great deal of personal growth through being a part of this organization and I am very grateful for all the opportunities that I have been given. Quite frankly, I am deeply moved by the fact that opportunities for my future are continuously being presented by way of numerous people involved with PNB, and I feel very blessed." The press release also notes that both Postlewaite and Relic "will be honored at this year's Season Encore performance on Sunday, June 10." Before Season Encore, Relic will perform with 127 St. Dance Co. in "Memoria" on May 4 and 5 at 8pm at Broadway Performance Hall.

According to Lorena Feijoo's FB page, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lorena-Feij%C3%B3o/177243311883

I would have thought Louisiana, having once been a French colony, but no.

According to the caption, "Скорик, Корсунцев Адажио Одетты", which is "Skorik/Korsuntsev Adagio Odette" Watching her, I thought will all of her cool detachment, she looked more like a POB dancer than a Mariinsky dancer.

Thank you both so much! (The issue with the URLs is that they were missing a "Y" at the end of the video code.) I searched and searched through pages of "ОБРАЗЦОВА", but I couldn't figure out how to spell "Голдинг"!. The Obraztsova/Golding section is cut off prematurely to be followed by the Skorik/Patrick Dempsey Korsuntsev White Swan adagio.

This is how to ask a direct question: By the answer, I think Lopez is pretty direct about addressing her intentions for the company going forward, and that it will be a continuation of the Villella legacy.

The Balanchine is a one-act ballet, all based on Act II, but he used the music from Act IV to end it, according to the Catalog. Does anyone know if NYCB has danced the one-act version since Martins produced his full length.

Gavin Larsen, who danced with Oregon Ballet Theatre until 2010 and is on the school faculty, will teach in the Shreeveport (Louisiana) Metropolitan Ballet summer program: http://dance.broadwa...ogram-20120406# I just found this: http://www.eflorida....al.aspx?id=1472 I thought Louisiana had the largest francophone community in the US, but I was wrong.

This looks like a TV ad for Carmina, except it's probably too long to be one: The male soloist is Christophe Maraval, whom I still miss terribly.

NYCB mostly doesn't do Petipa. NYCB does Balanchine's Act II of "Swan Lake", and the pas de deux and Odette's variation look like most of the other "After Petipa" versions, which is why the Balanchine Catalog says "Choreography: By George Balanchine after Lev Ivanov" and about the original: The first two acts of Danilova's and Balanchine's "Coppelia" were "after Marius Petipa (1884; revised 1894 by Lev Ivanov and Enrico Cecchetti), with additional choreography by George Balanchine" -- most notably Frantz' variation for Helgi Tomasson -- according to "Choreography by Balanchine."

That's so hard to tell, though: "The Sleeping Beauty" rushes by at lightning speed, and the only time I can focus is during the projections, when there's no dancing.

There's almost no company in the world that is a ballet company by that definition, because apart from the original choreography from the notated reconstructions, everything else is "After Petipa". From Doug Fullington's excellent "After Petipa" presentation, which will be online from the Guggenheim next month, we saw a reconstruction of a beautiful, intricate variation choreographed for Gorsky, the same Gorsky who "streamlined" Petipa ballets to modernize them, starting in Petipa's lifetime, and according to Catherine Pawlick's book "Vaganova Today", Vaganova herself was responsible for stripping much of the mime from Petipa's ballets. It's possible to argue that we see more of Petipa in Balanchine's original, neo-classical ballets, than we see in productions that tout themselves to be "After Petipa", and Balanchine is what Miami City Ballet does best.

"Liebeslieder Walzer", my favorite ballet of all, is tricky, too because it's a two-parter, although with pause, not intermission, and it dominates a program. I think that is rightly so, but if the audience doesn't like it, the program is in huge trouble. Russell also mentioned the cost of the sets and costumes required by the Trust: her sons had to get special permission from the Trust for the company to perform excerpts for Russell and Stowell's retirement tribute performance. At one one, Russell said that PNB and SFB talked about co-sponsoring and performing "Vienna Waltzes", but that never came to pass. There are waltz ballets that are neo-classical and would provide a big contrast to a "Liebeslieder" or "Vienna Waltzes", which in these economic times could only happen if someone made a monster, restricted donation for it, since I'm not sure PNB could afford the "Rosenkavalier" costumes alone, such as Peter Martins' "The Waltz Project", which I've seen at least once outside NYCB. (Maybe in SF?) "La Valse" would fit the theme, but is a bit macabre for Valentine's Day.

MCB does story ballets, and quite well, but these are the neo-classical story ballets, even if "Coppelia" Acts 1&2 were based on the classical version. What they haven't done well from many reports is the classical story ballet rep.

I love Cote and his wife, Heather Ogden, but the NBoC season runs November-June, and this year they have two programs and their big gala running in June.

First weekend casting is now up on the PNB website: http://www.pnb.org/Season/11-12/ApolloCarmina/#Details-Casting

I haven't seen Golding live or Polunin on video -- Emerging Pictures isn't showing the Royal Ballet in Vancouver, only the Bolshoi -- so it's hard for me to compare stage presence. From the video, I wasn't wowed by Golding's stage presence as much as pure technique in the Hallberg mold, and Basilio is not a princely role, but he did lots of virtuoso things without breaking any form or line or the big "Ta-da, look at the pirouettes I just did!!!!!", which is usually a good indication of being a good prince. I know there was recent news about budget cuts in the Netherlands, but I don't see what ABT would have to offer Golding that he's not getting in Europe, unless he wants to be in NYC. I can't believe they let him get away in the first place.

Nikulina has two partners from which to choose.

Milov did at least one work for PNB's Choreography Workshop when it still used company dancers -- now it uses Professional Division students -- a series of pas de deux to his own music, and another for "Out on a Limb" a program by the Seattle group Simple Measures, which presents music and dance in community centers and encourages audience participation. (Their motto is "Any closer, and you'd be licking varnish.) Milov's piece, for him and Julie Tobiason, was set to songs and movements by a range of composers, and had some of my all-time favorite pieces. It would have been interesting to see what direction his work has taken since 2008.

It also speaks to coaching. Ballet Arizona, a smaller company than MCB, has no fewer neoclassical ballets in it's rep, with the occasional Tharp, but when Olga Evreinoff stages a work for them, like the "Raymonda" Act III suite, or "Les Sylphides", or "Don Quixote", although they'd never be confused with the Mariinsky Ballet or POB, they make those stylistic differences. When the company danced "Giselle", the Wilis, many of them students in the school or apprentices, made the distinction between Romantic and neo-classical or classical.