Helene

Lesley Rausch debuted as Giselle last night, and she was exquisite. Her Albrecht, Batkhurel Bold, was the first of the PNB Albrecht's to be a genteel man in love with Giselle. Until then, the Albrechts were on the caddish end of the spectrum. Rausch's second performance will be this Saturday afternoon, which is a non-subscription performance and a great chance to get seats usually taken by subscribers.

Confirmation that the name of the dancer from OBT who will join PNB in the fall: it's Leta Biasucci.

Peter Boal confirmed that there would be eight hires, all as corps or apprentices, and he's confirmed the following five: Two professional division students, both of whom have been in "Giselle" and other productions this year, Sarah Pasch and Steven Loch Matthew Renko Someone from Ballet West A woman from Oregon Ballet Theatre, whose name I only heard partially and don't recognize from the current company roster. The rest are not announced, as they're still making decisions. According to the Renton Reporter, Kiyon Gaines has been promoted to Soloist for next season.

I suspect this was filmed at the dress rehearsal, the first time the dancers worked with the orchestra. I saw the Saturday night performance, and it didn't looked yelled from where I was sitting in the Gallery Upper, which is fairly close to the stage. Some things did on Opening Night, which was the first performance with orchestra for that cast, too, from the secondary characters. It took until Saturday afternoon for the tempos to set and for the performances to look synced.

I am very sorry to hear this, Marga. The cross next to her name on the NYCB website is an official source by BA policy, since it is confirmation of her death by the company. Rest in peace, Ms. Morris.

to Ms. Boylston on her promotion!

Many thanks, Gary. [ADMIN BEANIE ON] I cannot emphasize enough that it is against Ballet Alert! rules to post news without attribution to an official source. It is not only possible to jump the gun and post news prematurely, but this instance shows how wrong information can get posted and rumors started, and which can be hurtful to the people involved. I apologize to Ms. Eames for not catching this when first posted. [ADMIN BEANIE OFF]

The daisy picking scene and Hilarion's interruption, with subtitles! Giselle: Kaori Nakamura -- I love the little foreshadowing of the Mad Scene Albrecht: Lucien Postlewaite Hilarion: Jeffrey Stanton

A new video, of Lucien Postlewaite in Albrecht's variation:

I'll have a much longer review after next weekend's performances, but of weekend one, the most coherent, seamless, and wonderful performance from the acting to the dancing to the mime was Saturday afternoon. Rachel Foster and Seth Orza danced Giselle and Albrecht, Jerome Tisserand Hilarion, and Stacy Lowenburg, Bathilde. Foster and Orza reprise the roles at the last performance of the season, this coming Sunday afternoon -- her Mad Scene is not to be missed -- but Tisserand dances Hilarion with Korbes and Cruz on Saturday evening, with Batkhurel Bold dancing the role on Sunday afternoon, giving him a break after dancing Albrecht on Saturday afternoon.

When they do the ballet version of "The Devil Wears Prada", Carrie Imler gets to be Meryl Streep.

I'm sorry it was such a waste of time and money, YouOverThere, but your topic title made me laugh and laugh.

Peter Boal described in a Q&A how it takes four stagehands pulling at the same time to lift the veils. (Everyone wants to know, and it was very smart of him to just describe it, instead of being coy.) Did the border person try out the mime in the program? That could have taken a while in itself.

OK, people -- we know you've seen it. What did you think?

Tonight is the dress rehearsal, and tomorrow is the big opening! The local press and arts blogs have been following this premiere, and it even got a mention in Alastair Macaulay's review of ABT's "Giselle" earlier this week. Peter Boal has published his letter for Giselle [my notes]: For people attending first weekend, there will be plenty of critics there, too

As it turns out, everyone backstage was very busy: The art of playing against the Cup

He had been married before.

Congratulations

Reminds me of how the only soap opera my father would ever watch was "Edge of Night" -- my sister and I recorded it every day on the Betamax -- because he thought "Raven" was so beautiful, and how my friend's father's eyes would light up during discussions of "All My Children": he would always say, "Oh, that Erika..." I don't think my first boyfriend in NYC ever got over Susan Freedman's Coffee I'm glad Mr. puppytreats liked it!

For Mirren this would have been a homecoming, since she is of Russian descent.

My bet is on d'Amboise to be one of the few men who will neither be disconcerted nor get rolled over by the randomness of their conversation...