Helene

Lorena Feijoo posted on Facebook today that she and her sister, Lorna, are going to be interviewed on MTV, and they've asked people to submit questions for the interview. If you want to submit one for consideration, please go here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lorena-Feij%C3%B3o/177243311883 It's very exciting that they have five interviews coming up.

The author, Stephen Manes, is well known among adults for his columns on technology in "Forbes" and "PC World" and his book "Gates: How Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented an Industry—and Made Himself the Richest Man in America", and among children for his many books, including "Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days!" Here's another review, this one from KPLU: http://www.kplu.org/post/seattle-author-looks-inside-land-ballet I'm very much looking forward to reading this.

If it is at all possible to see "All Wheeldon": go. Each work alone would be worth the price of the ticket, but together the program is a knockout.

The roster is printed in the Encore program, and no dancers other than the ones previously announced have been added to the corps and apprentices ranks. Garcia and McCall are listed as Professional Division students playing "Crew" in "Variations Serieuses". I hadn't seen the ballet before, and I thought "Crew" was made of PNB IATSE stagehands.

Oh, great casting for Orange County! The green-eyed monster is plaguing me now...

I have to say that my immediate reaction to this can't be written here. Suffice it to say,

She was, along with the other three original cast member soloists: Bonita Borne, Stephanie Saland, and Sheryl Ware. I saw Debra Austin dance once, when Pennsylvania Ballet came to BAM in 1985 and brought a triple bill: "Bolero", "Awakening" -- both by Robert Weiss -- and "La Sylphide". I wasn't impressed by "Bolero", but I loved Austin's dancing, here with Roy Kaiser. All three female leads were great, Austin, Melissa Podcasy in "Awakenking", and Tamara Hadley as the Sylph.

Amen, Fraildove.

Does anyone know if Cynthia Lochard every reached soloist level at NYCB? I know I saw her in demi- and soloist roles. Neither Google nor bing is helpful with this info, but I did learn that after NYCB she danced with Sydney Dance Company and Bangarra Dance Theatre, and then studied Pilates, became a grand master teacher, and opened a studio in Sydney: http://www.pilatesm.com.au/our-instructors/

Yes, in the Dancers forum: http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/index.php?/forum/10-dancers/

It's almost impossible to answer that question, which structurally is a closed "Yes"/"No" question. What an AD decides to promote or choose a dancer, there are many legitimate factors that go into the decision, including many moving parts; just a few are current and upcoming rep, the dancers already in the company and what their career trajectories are, including their types, which used to drive the roles in which they would be cast more strictly but still does to a degree, existing and potential partnerships, coaches, temperament, etc. The bigger the company, the more relationships -- the formula is (N * (N-1))/2, where N is the number of people involved -- and the more complicated the Big Picture. A perfect fit for a company one year might be completely different from what they need the next year. All of these things can be used as excuses to mask decisions based in active or passive racism, sexism, agism, and just about any -ism in the book. Most of the time rationales/rationalizations are not aired publicly, if at all. If you don't have incriminating documentation or speech, you're left with results/behavior. Does the behavior of a small organization -- most regional US companies have 30-50 dancers, and ABT and NYC have less than 100 -- be large enough to establish a legally significant pattern of discrimination? Word.

This is great news for the company!

There are a lot of excellent ballet dancers on this planet. ABT has a reputation of being one of the best ballet companies in the world, with one short season, one long season, and a "Nutcracker" run, not to mention touring. The dancers are among the best-compensated (including benefits) outside the state-run institutions with substantial pensions, and the company still has a lot of prestige, despite our grousing. Ananiashvili's and Careno's retirement and Stiefel's and Corella's transition from dancing into artistic directorship, for that matter, were hardly unexpected; it was just a matter of the exact timing. It was only a matter of time before the street went two ways, and considering Hallberg's partnership with Osipova at ABT, and his style, that he'd be the one invited. This is a tremendous opportunity for an Artistic Director with foresight and imagination.

I just received an email from PNB: for 20% off tickets to opening weekend, use this link for online sales: https://www.pnb.org/Account/Promo.aspx?promo=whee or call 206.441.2424 and use the promo code Whee! Friday, 23 September 7:30pm Saturday, 24 September 2pm & 7:30pm

It's still the norm that dancers of all levels in the top tier companies, regional, national and international, remain with their original companies, with maybe one change along the way, but that's not guaranteed for any specific dancer. ABT has invited dancers to be Principals with the company when they are also Principals with their original companies, like Natalia Osipova. With Hallberg dancing with ABT and the Bolshoi, it becomes reciprocal.

In the September 2011 issue of "Hemispheres", United Airlines' inflight magazine, a photo of the new Center graced the table of contents page, and the Kaufmann Center of the Performing Arts was listed in their Culture feature as #8 in the Architecture category: http://www.hemispheresmagazine.com/2011/09/01/the-big-ten-15/ The gorgeous photo of the building in its city setting in the print edition isn't on the website, sadly.

It took until the 14th minute, because in the first minute or so she let Ernie Manouse's two questions about whether she ever thought she couldn't dance ballet and why she chose ballet over other forms of dance drop like the rocks they were. I can't imagine someone starting off an interview with Sarah Mearns and asking her those questions. Off topic, I loved her comment about competing with a fellow student: it wasn't about being the best in class, but about being better than the last thing they did. "Pas de save" has made my day. Thank you so much for posting this, Simon. I love listening to people who like to talk, and I'd be in heaven to hear her and Jacques d'Amboise in the same discussion, wherever it went.

"Variations Serieuses", The Trailer The Ballerina: Laura Gilbreath The Premier Danseur: Seth Orza The Ballet Master: Jonathan Porretta The Stage Manager: Lindsi Dec The Conductor: William Lin-Yee The Young Protegee: Sarah Ricard Orza

This is huge! Congratulations to Hallberg

Casting is up for Week 2: http://www.pnb.org/Season/11-12/AllWheeldon/#Details-Casting Here is the spreadsheet with both weeks combined: Rep 1 performance casting weeks 1-2 combined.xls Casting in Week 2, Thursday and Friday nights: New Demi-soloists in Carousel (A Dance): Leah O'Connor/William Lin-Yee and Brittany Reid/Eric Hipolito, Jr. New Principal Casting in "Polyphonia" Lindsi Dec/Seth Orza, Kylee Kitchens/Ezra Thomson, and Elizabeth Murphy/William Lin-Yee join Maria Chapman/Karel Cruz. Three new names: "Carousel (A Dance)" Corps Women: Macy. Corps Men: Garcia, McCall.

And, finally, a snippet of rehearsal for "Variations Serieuses": Laura Gilbreath, Jonathan Porretta (blue tank and black shorts) and Seth Orza.

It took Balanchine a number of years to get that look, and the Mariinsky, Bolshoi, and POB self-select for it. If every forty-something classical/neoclassical ballet AD decided to change the aesthetic today, despite having been reared and successful in the current aesthetic, it would take a while to change the bodies in the pipeline, and then only a handful trickle into large major companies each year. It's easy for Hollywood or modeling to change the aesthetic on a dime. They toss out the old with regularity now, and as long as they're looking for young, they're looking at bodies and faces, which don't require years of training.

I should have been clearer: by "Arthur Mitchell roles" I meant the major ones created for him that are still in the rep, especially "Agon" and Phelgmatic in "Four Temperaments". I think there was only one production of "Slaugher on Tenth Avenue" during his six or so seasons with NYCB, and during that run I'm not sure he was cast. (I saw a half dozen performances with Joseph Duell, Robert La Fosse, and Christopher d'Amboise.) Balanchine cast Mitchell like a dancer he wanted to see, whereas Tomlinson, was cast differently. (He did do some other roles, like the revival of "Kammermusik No. 2".) I do remember Suzanne Farrell writing or saying -- maybe in her memoir? -- that The Powers That Be at the Ed Sullivan Show made Farrell and Mitchell dance behind a screen when they did an excerpt from "Slaughter", but Mitchell led them out from behind the screen. It's not helpful because it can mean a range of sizes, most of them vanity sizes. Even size "00", beloved of preteens who shop at Hollister, isn't helpful. I think the original question in the topic was why, for the very few black dancers that have danced ballet professionally, have there been no prominent dark-skinned female dancers, when this does not seem to be the case for men. We've veered off into a discussion about body type, which we have flogged several times before. I do think the underlying factors are the same: look at the contestants of the Miss Universe pageant, where almost every candidate, and especially one of the 20% who are considered in the running, conforms as closely as possible to a Caucasian aesthetic and a Barbie doll figure. In India where things aren't remotely politically correct, there are non-stop TV commercials for skin lightening products, and in the marriage ads, which already are divided by religion and ethnicity in the sub-heads, the typical "ask" for a bride, or the way a bride is advertised by her relatives as being a good catch, is "light-skinned and from a good family". The ask for grooms is "[has great job/education/owns land] and is from a good family". (And those are just the ads in English.) A glance at "School Daze" tells a similar story. I'm of the school that stylistic uniformity should trump physical uniformity, and the DePrince of the Gamzatti video could be my cup of tea. Not remotely so is the DePrince in the YAGP video, who looks more Mariinsky or POB than a typical American ballet dancer.

So you think that this particular aesthetic taste is racist? I'm a bit confused by this conclusion, since there haven't been many muscular woman of any race who've risen through the ballet ranks, at least of what are considered the world-leading companies. I wonder if Karin von Aroldingen would have gone anywhere under Peter Martins or any other AD apart from Balanchine, who adored her. I watched any number of big, lush movers at NYCB top out at senior corps, or, if they were very lucky, soloist. They'd get a stab at Hippolyta, and they be great in the role, but that was pretty much it. NYCB had any number of Lifetime Achievement Promotions to Principal, but Arlene Croce suggested in a "New Yorker" review that Nichol Hlinka, who was hardly big and muscular, got her promotion because she lost those last extra pounds. To my eyes, it meant her muscles became more elongated, because she didn't look like she had any place else from which to lose the weight. Watching both the Kirov and Mariinsky corps over the last couple of years, I was astounded at how uniformly thin the calves of the corps women were at the Kirov, and at the Bolshoi, the exceptions seemed to be the tallest dancers in the corps, who also looked older than the wispy women. The only things I've seen of Michaela DePrince are on YouTube, and she looks like two different dancers in the clips, both posted in 2009: If all I saw her in was the modern piece, and that video was indicative of her body type -- as thin as the women at the Russian companies and POB -- I wouldn't look twice: she does little but 180 extensions to the side and over 180 extensions in her jumps, with her back leg bent. I assume from the description that her physique is closer to the video where she did in the classical variation, where she had a softer sense of style and phrasing, although she overdid it with the extensions there as well, in my opinion. That was a very different kettle of fish. Mel Tomlinson may have made it to Principal, but when you look at his roles, they were the Arthur Mitchell roles, Death, Dark Angel, Pluto. Not the romantic roles or the few Princes.

The 3D was odd, and I'm not sure why it wasn't filmed like a regular movie, but I was very happy to see Osipova, and just about everyone else I know was very impressed with Kondaurova's Myrtha. I thought it was fine, but wasn't blown away. --- Scotiabank Theatre in Vancouver is selling tickets to the Bolshoi presentations, but since they start at 1pm PST, they aren't live unless they're starting in Moscow at midnight Nothing on the Royal Ballet, but it's possible that the Park Theatre, which is the other Met HD venue -- one I'll be spending a lot of time in, since the only seats left in either Scotiabank theater for the Met HD series are in the first five rows -- will show them. I'd certainly be interested in "Sleeping Beauty".