Helene

Well, Cojocaru certainly isn't a "heave-ho" candidate. I don't remember how tall Lamb is.

A short interview with Maria Chapman on working with Alexei Ratmansky for "Don Quixote", from the PNB blog: http://blog.pnb.org/2012/01/don-q-behind-scenes-interview-with_24.html

I can't imagine that he won't resurface soon. He'd be a gift to any ballet company.

Wow, I wonder how that will play in Denmark. His message here is a lot different than not realizing his vision. I'm surprised that working in 50 opera houses over 30 years he never encountered the institutional/bureaucratic issues of a state theater, but, perhaps, in other roles he was shielded from it. Not playing for the ballet, though: those are fighting words.

The Dance on Camera Festival runs from 27-31 January in NYC. Full listing and more details for each film are here:\ http://www.filmlinc....dance-on-camera Ballet-related films are -- take note of the Q&A attendees: Balanchine in Paris Dominique Delouche, 2011 | Sat Jan 28: 4:00 pm | Mon Jan 30: 1:00 pm Q&A with Gabrielle Lamb, Violette Verdy, and Dominique Delouche on Saturday, January 28 screening! Drawing on highlights from his previous films on Alicia Markova, Nina Vyroubova and Violette Verdy, France’s leading chronicler of the process of ballet coaching adds new footage of former Paris Opera étoile and Balanchine muse Ghislaine Thesmar. PRECEDED BY: En Dedans (Gabrielle Lamb, 2011) & Figment (Gabrielle Lamb, 2010) First Position Bess Kargman, 2011 | Tue Jan 31: 6:15 pm Director Bess Kargman and subjects Rebecca Houseknecht, Aran Bell, pupil of former Paris Opera principal Denys Ganio, and Michaela DePrince (currently a student at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of ABT) will attend the screening. Q&A will with director Bess Kargman to follow the screening. This touching documentary follows six ballet students, aged 9-19, as they prepare for the Youth America Grand Prix, a top competition at which the world's leading dance companies and schools prospect for new talent. Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance Bob Hercules, 2011 | Fri Jan 27: 8:30 pm Standby Only | | Sat Jan 28: 1:30 pm Opening Night! World Premiere! This insightful documentary, executive produced by Jay Alix and Harold Ramis and produced by Una Jackman and Erica Mann Ramis, examines the life and times of America’s premiere ballet company—The Joffrey Ballet—who daringly combined traditional ballet and modern dance at a time when it was not routinely accepted. Makarova: In a Class of Her Own Derek Bailey, 1985 | Fri Jan 27: 1:30 pm Q&A with Natalia Makarova to follow the screening. Natalia Makarova, the legendary prima ballerina whose performances set the standard for artistry in roles such as Swan Lake’s Odette/Odile and Giselle, to name a few, demonstrates a touching humility and dedication to her craft in this intimate video portrait. The director shows her at the barre under the tutelage of the great pedagogue Irina Yakobsen, in candid conversation with choreographer Roland Petit; and in the creation of Petit’s ballet “The Blue Angel.” SHOWN WITH: Carmen Pas de Deux and Proust Pas de Deux Wayne McGregor – Going Somewhere Catherine Maximoff, 2011 | Mon Jan 30: 8:30 pm Introduction by Falling director Adriano Cirulli and Q&A to follow. British choreographer Wayne McGregor is a movement explorer who has been enormously influential abroad and gaining a following in the U.S. through his touring company Random Dance. Now, the resident choreographer of the Royal Ballet, he has created a style noted for its elasticity and extreme physicality. PRECEDED BY: Falling (Adriano Cirulli, 2011)

Like Pamela Rosenthal at San Francisco Opera and Gerard Mortier at New York City Opera before him. I'm not sure where, in this economy, one realizes one's great dreams, unless one has a sponsor as wealthy as Kekhman, but, oh, wait: Kekhman wants to use his money to realize his dreams.

An old college friend just posted this link this to Facebook: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2090264/Violinist-Lukas-Kmits-witty-response-interrupted-mobile-phone.html Scroll down to hear it.

I've heard it several times on Sirius, and have enjoyed it very much, but I was also able to move around, nosh, and be online at the same time, which is a much different experience. I was particularly taken by Joyce di Donato and Luca Pisaroni. I missed it this weekend, but I'm hoping Scotiabank Theatre in Vancouver will screen the second (Monday night) Canadian encore. (The second encore for "Don Giovanni" was packed.) The main criticism that I heard about it was that for the length, too much of the music sounded similar. A close friend told me that they weren't sure how to play it at first, but realized the audience loved the humor, and they emphasized this as the production went on. I often find that the camera work, especially close-ups, make the HDs more visually interesting than watching productions from the middle of the house and up. (I dislike using opera glasses.) It's easier to see detail, and some of the most criticized sets in Met productions, particularly the emphatically vertical ones, which look dark and ponderous in the house, look a lot better close up, Also, the lighting is more vivid in the HDs.

Both DVDs are part of a series of DVDs sponsored by the Gades Foundation in collaboration with the Teatro Centro in Madrid: http://www.flamenco-...es26112011.html The "Carmen" is the stage version of the collaboration between Carlos Saura and Antonio Gades at the same time the film "Carlos Saura's 'Carmen'" was being made. It differs from the film version. For example, one of the plot lines in the film was that Cristina Hoyos's character Cristina was told that she might be the best dancer, but that wasn't what he wanted for Carmen. In the stage version, she portrayed Carmen. "Fuenteovajuna" is based on a play by Lope de Vega, and the story is described here: http://en.wikipedia....i/Fuenteovejuna This is also a theater version performed by the late Gades' company. Gades was trained in classical ballet, classical Spanish dance, and Flamenco; he used the latter two frequently in his work. According to the description in the flamenco-world.com announcement, there is also folk dance in this work. Here is the link to the stage version of "Blood Wedding/Suite Flamenco", the third in the series. http://www.amazon.co...bxgy_01_01_t_lh This page has short videos of each: https://www.flamenco...3-dvds%29/5866/ Please note that these are all in blu ray, and there aren't regular versions listed on the amazon.co.uk site. I'll wait to see if they show up through US amazon in regular format. Otherwise I'll have to bite the bullet and pay in GBP and get a blu ray player: Gades is one of my dance heros, and I haven't seen either version. The UK amazon prices are cheaper than flamenco-world.com's price of 39.90 Euros each, even with the 10% discount being offered site-wide now, which would be eaten up by shipping, but the site says that there is "also" a blu ray version, and I don't see any mention of blu ray on the page with the video links.

I wish I could see that -- I think Messmer will be a splendid Gamzatti.

Thank you for the great news, Natalia, and congratulations to Ms. Nikulina, Mr. Dmitrichenko, and Mr. Zagrebin

Thinking it might be months before "Pina" made it to Vancouver, I ordered the DVD of "Pina", which I had shipped to a friend's house in Seattle, where I picked it up this weekend. There was a rattle in the box, and I thought that they might be 3D vision glasses, but alas, it was just the disk shifting around. As the bus passed the Park Theatre on Cambie Street, I saw the sign for the movie opening this Friday. I'll see it in the theater and compare it to the DVD.

That is quite a history, Michelle! Most of us here are audience only, but some did pre-professional training and there are current and retired professional dancers who post. Welcome to Ballet Alert!

I saw it a few weeks ago, and I share your love of it. Dujardin is so physically elegant that he is a joy to watch.

PNB just posted a link to a promotion and contest featuring free Don Q tickets: Pacific Northwest Ballet "Shopping at Pacific Place this weekend? Be sure to pick up a voucher for one FREE ticket to see Don Quixote!..." The details are here; but note there's not mention of vouchers/the mechanics of getting the tickets: http://www.pacificplaceseattle.com/donquixote Summary: Present $100 or more in same-day receipts to the concierge desk and get a voucher for one free "Don Q" ticket and 20% off more tickets Enter a contest to win three weekly "Tasty Tale" gift packages that include a pair of "Don Q" tickets and one grand prize which includes four "Don Q" tickets. The contest runs from 20 Jan-10 February, 8pm PST. The PNB post mentions "this weekend", but there's nothing I see that gives the date range for the promotion.

Excellent, Bonnette: the point of the migration was to improve speed/performance BT4D's migration took several hours, and ours seemed to be over before it started, but not quite... I just discovered an issue: I received notification about a new topic, but I couldn't find the topic on the new server. I suspect that the topic was posted to the old server before it was shut off, but wasn't included in the migrated database. I know I received notification of SimonA's post in the "NYCB Winter Season" thread; it's timestamp is 4:12pm (Pacific Standard Time). I don't have any other notifications, but I apologize if someone posted sometime between 4:12 and 5:22 or so (7:12-8:22 EST) and the post is missing.

Perhaps a memorial service -- it's done!

Sorry for yelling: we're being migrated to a faster-performing server today. The entire process will take a couple of hours after it starts, and there will be a message displayed about the server migration.

Merrill Ashley is listed on the NYCB website as a "Guest Teacher": http://www.nycballet...l/artistic.html Sean Lavery is listed on the faculty of SAB: http://www.sab.org/school/faculty.php

A gentle reminder that the board is a place to discuss points made in posts, but not a place for specific criticisms of a poster or politics that is not arts-related.

Here's the latest video, "PNB's 'Don Quixote' by the numbers", which, among other things, lists the five principal Kitri/Basilio combinations: Kaori Nakamura/Lucien Postlewaite Carrie Imler/Batkhurel Bold Rachel Foster/Seth Orza Carla Korbes/Karel Cruz Lesley Rausch/Jerome Tisserand There's also footage of Bold as Espada and Maria Chapman as Mercedes (also in the TV promo spot).

There are six performances with three casts: Nunez/Acosta dance opening night (20 April) and the performance you are planning to see. Cojocaru/Kobborg dance 24 and 28 (evening) April, and Morera/Cervera dance 28 (matinee) April and 2 May. Carlos Acosta doesn't dance that frequently, and he's known from the DVD of this ballet. On the other hand, the 26 April is the second performance with Acosta, and Cojocaru is a darling of the audience, with good reason. You're not planning to go to a matinee -- this is a family friendly ballet -- and Thursday night is the biggest night out for younger members of the audience, and that usually means a latish dinner and pubs/clubs, not really compatible with an early evening curtain. Is the non-refundable hotel a particularly good deal or a place you would like to stay? Is there another, comparable hotel available on Expedia or another travel site where you have to pre-pay, but can cancel for full refund anywhere from two weeks-two days before check-in? I'm hoping some of our London-based members will respond about tickets. When visiting London, I've always bought tickets after they've gone on sale to the general public, and I've never had trouble getting them, but there may be something specific to this ballet or cast that I'm not aware of.

National Ballet of Canada has published a video of Heather Ogden rehearsing The Rose Adagio and speaking about the role. There's also commentary by Karen Kain: http://national.ballet.ca/performances/season1112/The_Sleeping_Beauty/?utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=SleepingBeauty:RoseAdagiovideo&sourceNumber=9797#Video-tab I saw Heather Ogden perform the Act III Pas de Deux with Guillaume Cote at a Ballet BC gala a few years ago, and she was stunning.

There are far more performing opportunities for an amateur or semi-professional musician than as an amateur or semi-professional adult ballet dancer. The forum for adult ballet dancers, apart from dancers who performed professionally and perform character roles, is pretty much limited to class, and in some cases, local recitals.

Congratulations to Ms. Kampa