Helene

This article mentions "injuries", unlike the first which notes that Mullin is injured. :(

It looks like they didn't stream this at all today. Whether it will appear in their 7-day archives is still up in the air.

Sorry, I was editing and accidentally edited it out. I think it is denial.

I arranged my whole day around this I'm happy to buy the DVD: I just hope they release it!

When you click on either of the two links, or when you click on a link or video icon on one of the pages (and, if so, which page)?

I tried both links to the RAI5 site and can't find a way to attempt to watch the stream.

He was more and more focused on choreography and less on dancing before he even met Portman. Peter Martins has been his boss; Millipied's working relationship with NYCB has been Martins' responsibility. Retiring from dancing after over a decade is hardly unheard of: not every man is Jacques d'Amboise. If he had gone to law school, would there be nearly as much snark about it?

I just saw an article on the "Tuscon Weekly" website that explains Margaret Mullin's absence from the roster: she, a native of Tuscon, and Kiyon Gaines, who is also not on the current cast lists, were to dance at Ballet Tuscon's opening gala this weekend, for Mullin, on her way to NYC to be honored for her Princess Grace Award. Lindsi Dec and Karel Cruz will dance the "Esmeralda Pas de deux", choreographed by Ben Stevenson, in their place. I hope she has a speedy recovery.

Many thanks for the video links, Natalia! For those who wonder how to find the rest of them in order, if you click on the uploader's name, you can find a list of that person's last three videos featured to the left, and the link below brings to all of the videos. Scroll down until you get to the first. (As of now, only a handful of them come up as suggestions to the right of the actual video.

Sorry to yell, but I'm hoping that we can upgrade our site to the next version tomorrow, Thursday 27 October. In the past we've usually been upgraded within an hour of our request, and I've taken down the site as soon as I make the request until I finish modifying and testing. Our provider is very busy these days with upgrades, including server and database upgrades and moves, and when we did the BT4D upgrade, it took about five hours for the request to go through, another seven hours to re-index the posts, and then another few hours to make the modifications and test them. As a result, I'm not going to take down the site until I see that the upgrade is in progress. Please note: this means that you may be in the middle of a post, which will be lost when I take the site down. Also, there are features that will be disabled: if you see anything new, please do not get used to it, because it might disappear. I haven't been able to figure out how to get rid of every avatar (picture) placement on the screen, and there will be instances of those dorky outlines of shadow heads around the site. If you're planning to write anything complicated -- and tomorrow is the Raymonda from La Scala stream -- please save it to a text file, Word, or other document program before attempting to post, or you may lose it all. I haven't quite figured out everything about the new upgrades, but the UI is a bit more streamlined, and stuff has moved around. I'll try to document these as I find them. I still can't get the amazon box to align properly at the top of the page, and it will be moved to the bottom of the page after the upgrade. Our logo might have instructions to go to the bottom of the page.

Is this still happening? I can't replicate it. We're going to upgrade to the next version very soon. (Hopefully tomorrow.) Please tell me if you're still experiencing it.

The casting for both weeks of "Giselle" was announced at the beginning, but to get two weeks is an exception and a bonus for which I'm grateful.

Tristan strikes me as a mature young man. I have no sense of height -- I think because Derek looks like a 15-year-old, he must be short!, and I had no idea that Hope Solo and Maks Chmerkovsky were so tall -- but if Tristan is on the tall side (is he tall enough for Solo?), I wonder if that would have worked, since Roberts and Kosovich aren't on the show. He seems to be a stickler for basics, and he's not trying to force Nancy Grace into being a femme fatale: he'd much rather see her in proper hold. I've always thought Hope Solo was beautiful, and it's great to know how much so she is in person. I fell in love with Nick Kosovich when he performed a standard dance with a pro -- maybe his wife -- either a season he was on or maybe the season following his last appearance, and he pointed the toe of the foot of his outstretched leg. That was it: I became an instant uber.

You were right, Sandy -- casting is out, and Sarah Ricard Orza and Karel Cruz are dancing the leads in "Aurora's Wedding" on the first Saturday matinee (4 Nov) and second Saturday evening (12 Nov) . Here's the grid in Excel Love Stories Casting as of 25 Oct 11.xlsx -- as always, schedule and casting is subject to change: Please note that Sarah Ricard Orza is listed as "Ricard" in the grid. "Orza" = Seth Orza. There's an excellent mix of experienced and younger dancers in the PNB premiere of "Divertimento from 'Baiser de la fee'": Kaori Nakamura/Jonathan Porretta -- he will be great in Tomasson's solo -- and Rachel Foster/Benjamin Griffiths with multiple performances, and single performances with Liora Reshef/Matthew Renko and Leta Biasucci/Kyle Davis. Davis recently performed the reconstructed Cavalier solo from "Black Swan Pas de deux" in Doug Fullington's "After Petipa" lecture-demo. For "Afternoon of a Faun", also a PNB premiere, Carla Korbes/Batkhurel Bold, Foster/James Moore, and Leslie Rausch/Seth Orza each have two, with Kylee Kitchens/Jerome Tisserand in the last performance. For "Romeo et Juliette 'Balcony Pas de deux'", Rausch/Tisserand join Korbes/Lucien Postlewaite and Nakamura/Moore, who danced those roles the last time the work was performed. Lindsi Dec/Bold and Laura Gilbreath/Karel Cruz perform "Black Swan Pas de deux" with Carrie Imler and Postlewaite. Lots of opportunities in "Aurora's Wedding", with newcomers, debuts, second chances, and veterans. Sara Ricard Orza dances Aurora with Cruz.

I'm thinking about the height issues in ballroom. Listening to David Pelletier, who is partnering the first female hockey player to skate on Battle of the Blades, when asked about lifting Bonhomme -- Pelletier's not taller than 5'10", and he may be shorter than that -- he said that he's lifted men, in practice and shows, and that it's all technique. He also said he appreciates skating with Bonhomme, because as an athlete, she's very aware of her body, and when he gives her a physical instruction, she knows what he's talking about. They've done some very nice lifts and partnering moves in the last five weeks. The hardest part for her was wearing a dress. It took four weeks, and the show made a big deal about it, but she did it, and she looked great in it. Could this have translated to ballroom? With van Amstel? If not, is there a pro this season that might have been better for Solo?

After seeing Hines Ward beat Kirstie Alley last season, I think you're right. I think JR's the best dancer of the lot, and I hadn't ever really noticed how beautiful Karina Smirnoff is until this season, but I've enjoyed Ricki Lake and (gasp!) Derek Hough's last few choreographies more than JR and Karina's. It's like Hough is doing for Lake what poor Tristan McManus cannot do for Nancy Grace. I thought I was seeing things: she looks kind of soft and underwhelming to me this season, but not knowing enough about technique, and tending to watch the star more than the pro, I though maybe she was just burned out. I really like his choreography for her: he keeps her from looking as silly as the costume department keeps aiming for. I thought the backstage this week was interesting, where she seemed to want more complicated, and he pointed out the bad position her shoulder was in in hold. He's pushing for basics, which is what she needs, because she's neither a natural mover nor a theatrical performer. It seemed to get him out of his shell in moving, not just Rocky-posing, but, oh, Chaz was so unhappy after the judges' comments this week. It's not that I think the judges should lie, but I think they should get two points across: how the celeb stacks up against the competition and/or an expected level, and how the celeb has improved. It's not even always what they say, but how they say it: exactly how is Len's dyspeptic head-shaking going to help Chaz, when Chaz is working within his limits? I know they're going for Good TV (whatever that means), but I find it horrible when the judges are going after the pros in a back-handed way: the celebs are trusting these people, and here the judges are telling them that the pros are incompetent. (Only a few talk back, like Ballas and Kane last season.) The celebs might get some input into what they feel comfortable with or suggesting what they might try, but their main choices are 1. try to do what the pro asks them to do or 2. not try to do what the pro asks them to do. For example: when Hope Solo said she wasn't going to waste time on rhumba walks because they were a small percentage of the routine, she was doomed: it was like saying, I'm not going to waste any time on tendu This pairing makes me want to put my eyes out. Maybe on paper Phillips and Dolovani -- both elegant and quieter personalities -- and Solo and Chmerkovsky -- both with great energy and power -- looked good, but I think maybe the opposite might have been true. Chmerkovsky's personality, I think, is too emotional and theatrical for her. I get the impression that Solo would have been fine with a more "Hoosiers"-like drill approach: these are the pieces, and this is how they all go together. (If they're going to bring in Buddy Schwimmer, maybe they can coax Gene Hackman out of retirement.) She looks devastated trying to get the "sexy" and missing it. Or at least one definition of "sexy". Of course she would respond to the three members of the troupe, but as soon as she was back with him, and he was on her case, she would revert. Hasn't he done this for a bazillion seasons? Has he learned nothing about fear in his time? I have no doubt that he cares, but I'm wondering how smart he is. He so reminds me of a Jewish mother, wanting the best for her kids, but making their heads explode. Of course, all of these opinions are based on edited slices, and maybe the pros do bring in other people to help. I would have loved to see her with van Amstel, and he's been around to perform and choreograph. (Even with their heights, maybe they could have been a Suzanne Farrell and Ib Andersen pairing.) She seems to go in and out from minute to minute. I wish she had the kind of choreography that Hough is doing for Lake and McManus is doing for Grace, where they look, to a casual view like me at least, like dancing, rather than performing showpieces. The costume people must hate her, because they could hardly have made her look worse, and unless she had an injury of some kind or couldn't practice in heels, those boots could not have sabotaged her more, except maybe the very bad poncho.

That's definitely Sarah Orza in pink, but the man in the corner looks to me like Karel Cruz. I didn't mention them, because it's possible that this was filmed during rehearsals for "After Petipa", in which Orza danced the reconstruction of the "Bluebird Pas de deux" with Jerome Tisserand, and in which Cruz danced the reconstruction of Prince Desire's "Wedding Pas de deux" variation.

Read Manes' book, and you'll see why it wouldn't be a good thing from the company's point of view. (Plus, you'd want to give Paul Gibson, champion scheduler, a knighthood.)

I don't know what the contract says, so I don't know if the company is prohibited from posting the casting ahead of those 10 days, but why would they if they could? There are companies like ABT, which has already posted casting for their late spring/early summer performances at the Met. ABT is on a union contract, but it's not the same union, and probably not the same contract, as PNB's.

No later than 10 days. I don't think there's any requirement to make the casting public, but the dancers must know at least 10 days ahead of time what they are expected to dance.

When people see Francia Russell's PNB stagings, they are often an older version than the DVD versions. Also Balanchine changed ballets for the filmings from the late '70's shot in a Tennesee studio. Some changes he kept -- in "Dancing for Balanchine" Merrill Ashley noted that the circle of pique turns didn't film well, and he changed the choreography to add fouettes, and she was rueful that he kept them -- and others people would never see in any version on stage. Similarly in "Dancing for Mr. B", Maria Tallchief relates that she said she was teaching the versions that she knew, not the most up-to-date versions, and he agreed. When John Taras owned the rights to "Symphony in C", he insisted on specific choreography, and Francia Russell said in a Q&A that Peter Martins told Taras that if he insisted on it, a different version than performed by NYCB, Martins would pull it.

Leslie Rausch and Batkhurel Bold rehearse the "Wedding Pas de deux" from "Sleeping Beauty": Casting for Week 1 should be coming up soon: I learned from Stephen Manes' "Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear" of the contractual reasons why casting must be published 10 days ahead of time.

Then everything would come full circle, since Ballet Society was set up like an underground club for the arts.

What a beautiful smile! Many thanks to the Sadler's Wells dancer and you for sharing the photo with us

Natalia originally posted here: I've split off the posts about BOLERO to create a topic of its own, found here: Thank you, Natalia!