Helene

[Admin Beanie On] I've edited this thread heavily to remove multiple ad hominem attacks and much discussing of the discussion. If you have problems with a post, hit the "report" button and do not discuss it on the board. Make your point and move on. Not everyone will agree with every post. [/Admin Beanie Off]

Which set of songs did Mearns and Reichlen dance to: I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise/Who Cares? (von Aroldingen) or My One and Only/Embraceable You (Morris)?

There's an announcement on Lorena Feijoo's Facebook page that she and Vitor Luiz are expecting a baby -- congratulations to them! There's also a link to her Facebook page to a site called "Odette's Ordeal", which hosts many dancers' blogs, explaining that this is why she won't be dancing Kitri this season.

Michael Popkin reviews Company XIV in "Snow White" at the 303 Bond Street Theatre for danceviewtimes.

My favorite from the "Dancer's Dream -- Raymonda" DVD is Claude de Vulpian, she of the exquisite feet. Alas, I can find no clips of her Raymonda on YouTube, although there's a with Manuel Legris and in a work called .

Here are Gilbert's three variations as Henriette: I wish this would be released:

Many thanks!

Did anyone in Seattle/Vancouver (on Seattle stations) see the PNB spot for "Don Quixote" during the telecast?

What is the difference between redundancy and layoff?

If this is a (much) cheaper package of pre-existing recordings, all three full-lengths are attributed to Nureyev. The "Romeo and Juliet from 2000 stars Monique Lourdieres and Manuel Legris\. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Romeo-Juliet-Paris-Opera-Ballet/dp/B00004RJEE The Bayadere from 1999 features Isabelle Guerain, Laurent Hilaire, and Elisabeth Platel: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rudolf-NureyevS-Bayadere-DVD-Nureyev/dp/B00004CYO7/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1326695055&sr=1-1 The Sleeping Beauty from 2001 features Aurelie Dupont and Manuel Legris. Legris gets first billing, even though she has the title role, although Nureyev usually pumped up the male roles in his versions: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sleeping-Beauty-Paris-Opera-Ballet/dp/B00005JI16/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1326695138&sr=1-1 Picasso and Dance is Le Train Bleu and Le Tricorne. No mention of Nureyev anywhere I can find.

The way reports have been written since the story broke, the ADs were given a directive to reduce specific headcount. Perhaps, at a collective level the numbers were negotiated, but nothing has been written to suggest that they were given a DKK amount to cut overall or from artistic HR. That could be short-sightedness -- i.e., not giving the ADs the chance to come up with their own solutions, such as across-the-board cuts or (more) job sharing in multiple theaters or administration -- it could be based in the economics of the long-term cost of benefits, such as pensions, for example, or it might have come as a bombshell with a short time to come up with a solution. There may be a contractual clause or unwritten rule that all theaters come up with the same type of solution. The headcount solution might be the best for the ADs regardless of whether it was imposed or decided voluntarily. For example, if the rep was changing to need fewer dancers overall or to need different types of dancers/singers, then it was an opportunity for ADs to make the change. In Seattle, for example, the dancers agreed to take pay cuts to preserve the numbers rather than lose members, and it was in their best interest, given the demands of the rep and inevitable injuries. Although Peter Boal has said repeatedly he'd rather do mixed rep where he can give many dancers the opportunities for leads instead of full-length story ballets where there are two-three leads and another few main characters, the full-length ballets lose much money less than mixed rep. No matter how you slice it, he needs warm bodies for the full-lengths. In a few weeks, PNB will perform Alexei Ratmansky's "Don Quixote", and even under the best possible circumstances -- everyone's healthy even though there are three extra performances (42% increase) over two weekends -- Dutch National Ballet, for which the work was choreographed, is larger than PNB before counting the 24 corps members, and the PNB dancers have a triple bill to perform five weeks later, and "Carmina Burana" a month after that. In the US the musicians, stagehands, and dancers have different unions which negotiate contracts separately, and while the same musicians can be contracted for multiple companies, the contracts are separate. In Seattle, the Symphony musicians are given the option to play for the Opera orchestra, while the Ballet orchestra is a separate entity. while in Phoenix, the Symphony musicians play for the Ballet when it performs in Symphony Hall, while the Opera orchestra is a separate entity. The Ballet and Opera have independent back stage and costume/set shops. My understanding is that while the different groups in Denmark -- musicians, backstage, dancers, and actors -- have different levels of power that shift, all are employees of the state theater, and that very well could mean fewer choices for solutions to the money issue, especially a sustainable one. It's not likely with the world economic climate that budgets will go up any time soon.

According to your own translation of the "Politiken" article, There's been no statement by the company or theater administration that the cuts were made on an objective basis, such as seniority, tenure, rank, or nationality and no statement refuting that it wasn't Hubbe's decision to make. According to Eva Kistrup's blog: The dancers who've been laid off have one thing in common: Hubbe hasn't or couldn't (in the case of at least one oft-injured dancer) use them. Laying off dancers that aren't useful to an Artistic Director is one definition of cleaning house. (Of course, there are other reasons good and bad that an AD can clean house.) It doesn't take insider information to come to that conclusion.

Frederick Ashton choreographed "Enigma Variations". Elgar wrote a ballet score called "The Sanguine Fan" written for galas performed for wartime charities in 1917. From this article it seems to have been presented only as a concert, recorded in a studio, and then fallen into obscurity.

Kistrup mentions three dancers retiring and eight cut positions, including a soloist, Lesley Culver, who was set to retire next year. How does the layoff affect her retirement earnings? Bowman is tall: perhaps ABT should be looking his way? Or maybe he'd like it in Seattle. Although RDB is part of a state theater, there doesn't seem to be a policy for layoffs to start with foreign dancers. One of my first thoughts when the issue was first raised was to worry about former PNB soloist Jodie Thomas, who has only been with a Company a few years. Hubbe wouldn't be the first Artistic Director to turn layoffs into an opportunity to clean house.

Please report if you go to see this.

The default iPhone ring is common -- I hear it go off in the bus on a regular basis -- and I've been in the theater where a phone starts ringing and a row of people jump to look in the purse under their seat or in the coat they are sitting on. (I would never look in my purse if the ringtone wasn't familiar.) I've also seen people around someone's ringing phone nudge or glare them into checking. There was no group action that was reported, possibly because people were sitting so close. A man in the front was coughing extensively at the beginning of a piece pianist Andras Schiiff was playing at Meany Hall (University of Washington) in Seattle. Schiff stopped, said something like, "When you're finished, we'll start", and walked off the stage.

The follow-up story was published in the New York Times; The only reason I knew that "Powered off" on my iPhone really means "Waiting to explode" was that I read the manual to be sure that the alarm would sound if the phone went into "Sleep" mode overnight.

I caught one reference, too, and I interpreted as a dark-humored joke about budget-cutting, which certainly makes sense if it's from RDB.

My favorite is "OMG -- it's whole milk!!!!"

I hope she's dancing in the HD version!

That certainly explains the long shot of the Dream Scene.

A reminder that in addition to the regular subscription performances, there are three additional non-subscription performances on Sunday, 5 February at 1pm Saturday, 11 February at 1pm Sunday, 12 February at 7pm Also, please note that all matinee performances, including the first Saturday subscription performance on 4 February (usually 2pm), start at 1pm .

According to the TV spot posted to YouTube, Tom Skerritt will perform the role of Don Quixote in the PNB performances of Alexei Ratmansky's "Don Quixote". February 3-5-- Extra non-subscription performance Sunday afternoon 5 February @ 1pm February 9-12 -- Extra non-subscription performances on Saturday afternoon 11 February @ 1pm (special start time) and Sunday night 12 February @ 7pm http://www.pnb.org/S...uixote/#Details

PNB just posted the TV ad spot to Facebook via YouTube -- the post says it will premiere during the Golden Globes broadcast -- with Rachel Foster as Kitri, Seth Orza as Basilio, Maria Chapman as Mercedes, and Batkhurel Bold as Espada. The Dream Scene went by too fast for me to identify the Queen of the Dryads (to the right) and Amor (in the middle). It also announces Tom Skerritt as Don Quixote.

On its Facebook page, Ballet Arizona just published a link to an article in "Arizona Lifestyle Magazine" that profiles five of its dancers -- Jillian Barrell, Russell Clarke, Tsu-Chia Huang, Shea Johnson, and Astrit Zejnati -- with a stunning photo of each by Rosalie O'Connor. http://www.pageturnp...1-AZLS/117.html I didn't realize the extent to which dancers can get offers based on the audition DVDs they submit. (I know if I were a young dancer in Seattle, I'd try to get Linsday Thomas to create mine.) The profiles are full of interesting info: How and how badly Russell Clarke was injured a few years ago and that he and Breanna Starke are planning a wedding for 2013, that Huang studies at a pastry school over the summer, that Jillian Barrell expected to go to college, how Astrit Zejnati started in dance, and Shea Johnson's history with Metropolitan Classical ballet.