Helene

I was surprised that Cruz was cast with Korbes only because in the Guggenheim presentation she was partnered by Orza, and I assumed too much from that. It makes a lot of sense physically, since Foster and Nakamura would look teensy next to Cruz, and Nakamura has such a simpatico presence with Postlewaite: he seems to anticipate her every breath. Rausch is long-limbed, but she's also a very cool performer in general, and Cruz really showcases his ballerinas; I'm not sure the stage relationship would spark there. Bold, even when his face is a mask, always seems to me to have energy bubbling under the surface, and I think he and Rausch will look great together. Cruz with Korbes makes a lot of sense dramatically, too, because Cruz is ardent but controlled, and Korbes is Ms. Drama.

According to the very detailed synopsis, after:

One week and counting down until the premiere! PNB has published two new videos. In the first Karel Cruz, who will dance Albrecht next Friday, opening night, to Carla Korbes' Giselle, discusses the role and what it means to him; there are some shots of the notation in the video, too: The second is "Myrtha and the Wilis". As Myrtha Lindsi Dec is wearing the blue leotard, Maria Chapman the black leotard, and Laura Gilbreath the aqua turtleneck no sleeve leotard. There are a couple of shots of Kylee Kitchens (light gray leotard and black tights) and Leslie Rausch (light blue leotard and gray sweats) as Moyna and Zulme. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8hdemk5xec&feature=relmfu

Announced in a .pdf dated 27-May-11 from a link here and sent in an email blast:

Oregon Ballet Theatre just announced that it has added ten new dancers to their roster, and in addition to the previously announced retirement of Anne Mueller and Mia Leimkuhler, who will attend Columbia Law School in the fall, five dancers will "pursue other opportunities". (Press release available on .pdf here.) In Seattle at Pacific Northwest Ballet, eight dancers are leaving at the end of this season: Jeffrey Stanton will retire. Olivier Wevers will direct his company Whim W'him full time, and Ariana Lallone joins "Teatro Zinzani"; Lallone stated in the press release that she wanted to stay another season and went into greater detail when interviewed for a Seattle Times article, and Wevers gave a similar reason for leaving. Barry Kerollis is joining BalletX. According to Rosie Gaynor, PNB will replace all eight positions. Miami City Ballet also has eight departing dancers. Eight to ten departures from rosters of 33-46 dancers is a significant change. None of these companies has had a recent change in Artistic Directors. Is there something in the water? Is there a change in the economic climate that I'm not registering?

Oregon Ballet Theatre has issued a press release (.pdf downloadable from this page and has issued an email blast to announce roster changes for next season, and the following ex-Miami City Ballet dancers will join the OBT roster next season:

"Theme and Variations" is now up. Jillian Barrell and Astrit Zejnati are scheduled for all performances of T&V.

Ballet Arizona has published casting for the first three ballets for next week's "Celebration of Balanchine" program ("La Valse", "Monumentum pro Gesualdo", "Movements for Orchestra"). The .pdf can be downloaded from here: http://www.balletaz.org/index.taf?mnid=team&ecid=1277371101 I've sent an email to note that "Theme and Variations" is not included on the current .pdf. Hopefully, this will be updated.

I thought he finally had it with Kirstie Alley. I am pretty surprised that Johnson and Ward won -- I thought that Alley would have had a bigger fan base, but I guess I underestimated football fans. I'm also surprised at how disappointed I feel, although I've really loved Johnson and Ward's simpatico partnership throughout, and I appreciate how he actually managed to lead her, or at least look like he was really leading her. There was a TV interview with Chmerkovskij and Alley aired before the final in which he answered the interviewer's question and said that it wouldn't be possible to top this season's partnership, and he implied that he wouldn't be back next season, if at all. That's what it sounded like when he thanked all of his partners last night, but I'm sure he would have liked to out with the win. I read a suggestion that Alley should return as the co-host with Tom Bergeron, which I think is genius.

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Casting for "Giselle" is up, and an exception was made to show casting -- always subject to change -- for both weeks. Not only that, PNB took pity on us and published the weekly casting in .pdf form by week to show all principal casting in grid form. Links are on the Casting page. (The drop-down format is still displayed.) to Gary Tucker for making this possible! In addition, I've attached an Excel spreadsheet provided by Mr. Tucker; I combined two so that both weeks' grids are side by side, and it can be downloaded from the link at the bottom of this post. The four main role combinations (Giselle/Albrecht-Loys/Myrtha) are: Korbes/Cruz/Imler (Friday, 3 June; Saturday eve. 11 June) Foster/Orza/Gilbreath (Saturday mat., 4 June; Sunday mat. [1pm] 12 June) Nakamura/Postlewaite/Chapman (Saturday eve., 4 June; Friday 10 June) Rausch/Bold/Dec (Thursday, 9 June; Saturday mat., 11 June) PNB Alumni and Artistic Staff who will be performing are: Melanie Skinner-Berthe: Friday, 3 June; Saturday mat., 4 June; Thursday, 9 June; Saturday mat. and eve. 11 June Uko Gorter-Prince of Courtland: Friday, 3 June; Saturday mat., 4 June; Saturday eve., 11 June; Sunday mat. (1pm) 12 June Otto Neubert-Prince of Courtland: Saturday eve., 4 June; Thursday, 9 June; Friday 10 June; Saturday mat., 11 June Dancers who are leaving at the end of the season will be featured as follows: Jeffrey Stanton: Hilarion: Saturday eve., 4 June; Thursday, 9 June; Saturday mat., 11 June Stacy Lowenburg: Bathilde: Saturday mat. 4 June; Friday, 10 June Chalnessa Eames: Peasant PDD (with Jonathan Porretta): Friday, 3 June; Saturday mat., 4 June Moyna: Friday, 3 June; Thursday, 9 June Berthe: Saturday eve. 4 June; Friday, 10 June; Sunday mat. (1pm), 12 June For my fellow ballet goers for whom our first thought after the company announced "Giselle" for this season was "Ariana Lallone = Myrtha", and hoped she'd do Bathilde, too, I offer a virtual weep-fest. Please remember: Sunday matinees start at 1pm There's an extra non-subscription matinee on Saturday, 10 June Review it here, please, please, please Giselle performance casting PRINCIPALS ONLY.xls

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I think you mean Ellen Bar, not Ellen Ostrom (the last name on your list). Bar has been appointed to Director of Media Projects.

Here are two older, sometimes meandering threads on "The Company": http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/11245-robert-altmans-the-company/

I disagree on two counts: first, this is exactly the kind of topic for which Ballet Alert! was established. Although the topic has the potential to become contentious, and is subject to the same rules and policies as any other thread on the board, it is an important one. Second, I disagree that the Mariinsky has dumped an evolving dance tradition because a small portion of the audience in the West reacts to tricks that belie the underlying aesthetic of their training. Where are these audiences? I'm sure promoters would love to know. The Bolshoi tried this in Vegas, to no success, stranding dancers in the US. It would certainly be easier for the Vaganova Ballet Academy to train the type of dancer we see in youth competition videos ad nauseum. Alina Somova, for example, is, or at least was, assigned opening nights in St. Petersburg, dancing for what is allegedly the most knowledgeable ballet audience on the planet. Was this due to audience demand? If not, why wouldn't the powers that be at the Mariinsky send her off as an import to get those valuable dollars, while casting the dancers who embody their training for the home crowd? The Bolshoi tours the US much more than the Mariinsky, and the Bolshoi has featured Maria Alexandrova, Natalia Osipova, Anna Nikulina, Nina Kaptsova, Ekaterina Shipulina -- more-so than originally planned for the DC "Le Corsaire's, due to injury to Nikulina and Osipova's emergency visit to a hospital -- and a much toned-down Svetlana Zakharova on recent tours. None of them come close to what was in the Storick video. If there's a Western influence, it may be in the rush to add contemporary and neoclassical works to the repertoire. However, the dancers we see are not part of a young group to which neoclassical and contemporary training have been added to the Vaganova curriculum. The Mariinsky doesn't have a subsection of the company that specializes in contemporary ballet that constitutes a substantial part of the repertoire, like Paris Opera Ballet. The Mariinsky is casting dancers with contemporary mannerisms and teenage competition aesthetics in "Swan Lake".

I've moved the posts about the current aesthetics of the Mariinsky Ballet to the following thread:

And sometimes a cigar is only a cigar ;)

It took a few minutes for me to figure out who "the young ASS" was. You might want to use her name rather than her initials. LOL. [ADMIN BEANIE ON] Yes, comparing American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet is a new topic that would belong in "Aesthetic Issues", but we ask that if it is opened, the conversation remain civil, as the topic has the potential to go straight into the sewer. Yes, please use names and not initials. Not all of us live in NYC ;) (Hard to believe, I know.) And please, please, please, please, please, use last names or full names. First names aren't helpful to a big chunk of our members/readers. Context is fleeting; for example, during the Royal Ballet visit to NYC in the '80's, "that beautiful corps dancer Pippa" could have meant any one of eight Pippas. And to me, "Ashley" will always be Merrill Ashley, not Ashley Bouder, just as Barber's "Adagio for Strings" reminds many of FDR's funeral, not JFK's funeral. [ADMIN BEANIE OFF]