Helene

Casting for Week 2 is up on the PNB site: Thursday 24 March 7:30pm Pacific Pas de deux Maria Chapman Seth Orza Trio Karel Cruz Jerome Tisserand Jeffrey Stanton Quartet Carrie Imler Chalnessa Eames Sarah Ricard Orza Brittany Reid Place a Chill Margaret Mullin Chelsea Adomaitis Jessika Anspach* Jonathan Porretta Benjamin Griffiths* Eric Hipolito Jr.* Price Suddarth Ezra Thomson Kyle Davis* Ryan Cardea The Piano Dance Lesley Rausch Jeffrey Stanton Sarah Ricard Orza James Moore Chelsea Adomaitis Barry Kerollis Kylee Kitchens Andrew Bartee Concerto DSCH Pas de deux Maria Chapman Olivier Wevers Pas de trois Rachel Foster Benjamin Griffiths Jonathan Porretta Friday 25 March 7:30pm Pacific Pas de deux Rachel Foster James Moore Trio Karel Cruz Jerome Tisserand Jeffrey Stanton Quartet Carrie Imler Chalnessa Eames Sarah Ricard Orza Brittany Reid Place a Chill Margaret Mullin Chelsea Adomaitis Jessika Anspach Jonathan Porretta Benjamin Griffiths Eric Hipolito Jr. Price Suddarth Ezra Thomson Kyle Davis Ryan Cardea The Piano Dance Maria Chapman Seth Orza Rachel Foster Benjamin Griffiths Margaret Mullin Jerome Tisserand Chalnessa Eames Josh Spell Concerto DSCH Pas de deux Lesley Rausch* Batkhurel Bold* Pas de trois Chalnessa Eames* Lucien Postlewaite* Jerome Tisserand* Saturday 26 March 7:30pm Pacific Pas de deux Carla Körbes Olivier Wevers Trio Lucien Postlewaite Benjamin Griffiths Josh Spell Quartet Ariana Lallone Kylee Kitchens Laura Gilbreath Lesley Rausch Place a Chill Margaret Mullin Chelsea Adomaitis Leah O'Connor Jonathan Porretta James Moore Andrew Bartee Price Suddarth Ezra Thomson Sean Rollofson Ryan Cardea The Piano Dance Laura Gilbreath Karel Cruz Rachel Foster Benjamin Griffiths Margaret Mullin Jerome Tisserand Chalnessa Eames Josh Spell Concerto DSCH Pas de deux Carla Körbes Karel Cruz Pas de trois Carrie Imler Benjamin Griffiths Jonathan Porretta Sunday 27 March 1:00pm Pacific Pas de deux Maria Chapman Seth Orza Trio Lucien Postlewaite Benjamin Griffiths Josh Spell Quartet Ariana Lallone Kylee Kitchens Laura Gilbreath Lesley Rausch Place a Chill Margaret Mullin Chelsea Adomaitis Leah O'Connor Jonathan Porretta James Moore Andrew Bartee Price Suddarth Ezra Thomson Sean Rollofson Ryan Cardea The Piano Dance Maria Chapman Seth Orza Sarah Ricard Orza James Moore Chelsea Adomaitis Barry Kerollis Kylee Kitchens Andrew Bartee Concerto DSCH Pas de deux Lesley Rausch Batkhurel Bold Pas de trois Chalnessa Eames Lucien Postlewaite Jerome Tisserand *first time in role

The Wall Street Journal reported that The story was picked up in today's Daily Mail, which reported The main focus of the story was the sensationalist report on corps member Devin Alberda's recent Tweets which made fun of Peter Martins' DUI and either Justin Bieber or Martins' "Magic Flute" and "branded an Asian character in a production as a crude stereotype. I don't understand the Bieber reference and whether it's related to his Tweet that "Yellowface character in NYCB's 2010 revival of The Magic Flute the worst thing to happen to the Asian American community since EO 9066". He clearly knew it would either be seen by or passed on to The Powers That Be at NYCB -- he used the "dontfireme" tag -- but the virtual wall that's assumed in social media between the very public public and the very public private is so very alien to me.

True, but it's not questioning anyone's professionalism, necessarily. If a corps looks sloppy and uninvolved to one viewer, it looks, well, sloppy and uninvolved, no matter the good intentions behind the performance. "Messy" and "careless" are observations/criticism about the result. "seemingly not that interested in doing a good job" questions their professionalism, in my opinion, and with that I take exception.

I think that the odds are miniscule that an entire professional corps is not interested in doing a good job. They might look messy and careless; the same criticisms were made during Balanchine's time. The NYCB corps has had its periodic ups and downs, just as the Mariinsky and Bolshoi Ballets have, and I've read reviews that said that the POB corps has had periods of staleness. The Mariinsky has over 90 members of the corps de ballet, which is around the size of the entire NYCB, and over 80 dancers in the other five ranks. The Paris Opera Ballet has 40 quadrilles and 35 coryphees, not much smaller than the entire NYCB, and 154 dancers in total. POB's schedule isn't nearly as punishing as NYCB's, and NYCB has a monster-size rep each season, with at least 1/3 new ballets or revivals that haven't been performed in recent seasons. I don't know how to compare the Mariinsky's schedule, because they seem to split up the company and part of it tours regularly, which is hard, but the influx of new ballets isn't as great. Factors that influence how "on" the corps is -- and many fans would gladly give up clean lines for energy that is rarely matched, not that it happens all the time -- are illness and injuries, which impact rehearsal time, and replacement dancers, who are often rushed and under-rehearsed. Injuries snowball, particularly at the end of the long winter season, weakening the "system", which is software terms is called "technical debt", as well as coaching, managerial decisions -- ex: not renewing contracts of senior corps members to make room for younger dancers and/or reduce the company total -- and artistic decisions -- ex. the trade-offs between precision and limited resources under basic conditions. They do this, like almost all dancers outside of a handful of state institutions, under short-term contracts, without the luxury or tradition of being a civil servant with a state pension and near-guaranteed employment, including through pregnancy. (One look at the roster of Paris Opera Ballet shows multiple generations of families in dance.) They have to prove themselves over and over, sometimes under severe conditions, and they can be dropped fairly easily. It's wonderful to see companies with great corps traditions especially when they have the luxury of senior corps members, adequate rehearsal time, and substitutes who know the ins and outs of their roles. Or like in Seattle at Pacific Northwest Ballet, where there is often one ballet in a triple bill with a substantial corps, and the corps can concentrate on rehearsal that ballet and a handful of others for upcoming rep (as opposed to, say, 30 ballets) and perform once or twice a night for a maximum of four performances over three days, instead of two-three times a night, six to seven nights a week. NYCB never claimed to be either. They do something else.

My cousin left me a message that he is getting married in July in the New York area -- to him and his fiancee -- and I was poking around to see what was in NYC on either side, and the Mariinsky opens the day after his wedding! I'll be there Monday ("Anna Karenina") and Tuesday ("Little Humpbacked Horse"), and it will be great to see everyone who's there. I wasn't able to select seats, but once I chose a section/price and the number of tickets -- beware: the system defaults to "2" -- I saw my exact seat locations. If you reject the seats and remove from the cart, I don't know if the system is smart enough to remember what you rejected, or like Ticket Monster's system, will keep offering the same seat until it's assigned to someone else.

The press release will appear here when it is published: http://www.roh.org.uk/pressandmedia/pressreleases.aspx?page=0

You're right -- it was Zahorian with Luiz in the promo.

Ah, that was Bustamente, not Caniparoli in the video. I think this program is going to rock. I wish I could see it. Yes, yes, yes -- he is a beautiful dancer. I'm glad he's getting the respect of opening night -- I thought it would be Zahorian/Domitro, who were prominent in the promos -- but sad that he's not dancing the matinee, because I could have been there

Nikolai Tsiskaridze is hostile to the reconstructions. I remember in an interview the gist of what he rather smugly said was that the people reconstructing the works weren't around when the works were choreographed, so why should we take what they do seriously?

The opening pose, with 17 dancers in side-by-side diamond shapes, is one of the most beautiful and iconic images in ballet. The dancers hold the pose for several seconds before moving their hands and arms and finally the feet and legs, and you will get the full impact of the opening tableau longer than in most ballets. Also watch in the last performed movement for the tableaus for the leads that Balanchine took from statues. The ballet was first created in 1934 for the students of wide-ranging training and ability that were in Balanchine's classes. Quite a bit of the structure of the piece was determined by who showed up at rehearsals -- if there were five dancers, he choreographed for five dancers -- and what happened there: most famously, he left a rehearsal fall in the piece, although it is danced a lot more gracefully. There were far more leads, because he did not have a hierarchical company with first dancers; over time the various solos were grouped among three female leads. The third movement you see, which is the fourth movement of the music, was added to the work in 1940, and Balanchine tweaked with the work a number of times over the years. If anything is considered a signature piece for New York City Ballet, it is "Serenade". Enjoy!

Seattle Times has published the season's announcement: All Wheeldon: "Carousel (A Dance)," "After the Rain," "Polyphonia", "Variations Sérieuses." Love Stories: "Divertimento from 'Le Baiser de la Fée'" (Balanchine) "Afternoon of a Faun," (Robbins), pas de deux excerpts from "Romeo et Juliette," (Maillot), "Swan Lake" (K. Stowell), and "Sleeping Beauty" (Hynd). Not a lot for corps in this one. Maybe they'll all be rehearsing for "Nutcracker". "Don Quixote" (Ratmansky, after Petipa and Gorsky) "Cylindrical Shadows" (Lopez Ochoa), new work (Quijada), "A Million Kisses to My Skin" (Dawkins) "Carmina Burana" (K. Stowell) and "Apollo" (Balanchine) "Coppelia" (Balanchine/Danilova) plus "Nutcracker", "Encore Performance", "Next Step" (formerly known as "Choreographers' Showcase") "Cylindrical Shadows" is a beautiful work that was premiered by Oliver Wevers' company, Whim W'him, and hopefully Chalnessa Eames will reprise her part in the ballet: she was a knockout in it in January. Another hope of mine is that "Jewels" will be back in the rep the season after next.

San Francisco Ballet will perform George Balanchine and Alexandra Danilova's "Coppelia", a co-production with Pacific Northwest Ballet, from 19-27 March. On the website, there is a link to the "Behind the scenes" trailer for the production, in which Judith Fugate, who was in the original cast as Swanhilda's friend who finds Dr. Coppelius' key and is staging the ballet as she did for PNB, and Swanhildas Vanessa Zahorian, Maria Kochetkova, and Frances Chung and Franz's Vitor Luiz, Gennadi Nedvigin, and Tamas Domitro speak and rehearse. Is that Val Caniparoli rehearsing Dr. Coppelius? The clips are from PNB's production: Swanhilda-Mara Vinson, Franz-James Moore (who's from San Francisco), Jeffrey Stanton-Dr. Coppelius (danced with SFB before joining PNB), and Spinner-Chalnessa Eames. (Eames is wearing the black and white deco dress when Fugate talks about how she danced a third act solo at NYCB.) Full casting isn't up yet, but will appear here when it is: http://www.sfballet.org/performancestickets/casting.asp There are wonderful solos for women in the third act and some juicy doll parts in the second act for men.

San Francisco Ballet opens their performances of this co-production on 19 March 11, and in their trailers and in their 30-second TV spot they use footage of Pacific Northwest Ballet: http://www.sfballet.org/performancestickets/2011season/program5.asp?bcpid=702217074001&bckey=AQ~~,AAAABm817ak~,dMHthNCc4311l3r4zkFIbwQVzPEx76r4&bctid=712402170001 Click "Watch "Coppelia": Behind the Scenes" or "Watch Trailer". Mara Vinson is Swanhilda, James Moore is Franz, it looks like Jeffrey Stanton as Dr. Coppelius, and Chalnessa Eames is Spinner in the black and white deco dress.

to Mr. Kupinski!

Vasyuchenko partnered Bessmertnova beautifully in most of her filmed roles. I would have loved to see them dance together live.

Thank you! I do have a correction: I learned tonight through one of my Flamenco teachers in Vancouver that Mr. Salcedo has trained in many facets of Spanish dancing, including classical Spanish dance, as well as Flamenco, and from my description of what I saw, what Ms. de Luis choreographed was much more in the classical Spanish tradition than Flamenco. To criticize his dancing style is like criticizing a Paul Taylor dancer for dancing Paul Taylor and not Petipa, and for that I apologize.

Wow, this is going to be great! Those who are waiting for an Albrecht-Bathilde reconciliation at the end will not be disappointed.

The trailer for "Pacific" is now up: In the foreground, Men's Trio: Josh Spell, light blue SAB short with "flexible" on the back, darker blue velour shorts Lucien Postlewaite, gray shirt, dark pants Benjamin Griffiths, light shirt, blue knee-length tights William Lin-Yee joins in later clips in all black. Women's Quartet: Leslie Rausch, red leotard, gray pants Laura Gilbreath, yellow leotard with floral pattern on the back, black tights Ariana Lallone, short black top over yellow leotard, black tights Chalnessa Eames, black shirt with dancers tableau over fuschia leotard, black tights In the still frame above, left to right: Lallone, Eames, Gilbreath, Rausch

Casting for Week 1 is up on the PNB site: Friday 18 March 7:30pm Pacific Pas de deux Carla Körbes Olivier Wevers Trio Benjamin Griffiths Lucien Postlewaite Josh Spell Quartet Laura Gilbreath* Kylee Kitchens Ariana Lallone Lesley Rausch Place a Chill Margaret Mullin* Chelsea Adomaitis* Leah O'Connor* Jonathan Porretta* James Moore* Andrew Bartee* Price Suddarth* Ezra Thomson* Sean Rollofson* Ryan Cardea* The Piano Dance Lesley Rausch Jeffrey Stanton* Rachel Foster Benjamin Griffiths* Margaret Mullin* Jerome Tisserand* Chalnessa Eames Josh Spell Concerto DSCH Pas de deux Carla Körbes* Karel Cruz* Pas de trois Carrie Imler* Batkhurel Bold* Seth Orza* Saturday 19 March 2:00pm Pacific Pas de deux Carla Körbes Olivier Wevers Trio Jerome Tisserand* Karel Cruz* Jeffrey Stanton Quartet Sarah Ricard Orza* Chalnessa Eames* Carrie Imler* Brittany Reid* Place a Chill Margaret Mullin Chelsea Adomaitis Leah O'Connor Jonathan Porretta James Moore Andrew Bartee Price Suddarth Ezra Thomson Sean Rollofson Ryan Cardea The Piano Dance Laura Gilbreath* Karel Cruz* Sarah Ricard Orza* James Moore* Chelsea Adomaitis* Barry Kerollis* Kylee Kitchens* Andrew Bartee* Concerto DSCH Pas de deux Maria Chapman* Olivier Wevers* Pas de trois Rachel Foster Benjamin Griffiths Jonathan Porretta Saturday 19 March 7:30pm Pacific Pas de deux Rachel Foster* James Moore* Trio Benjamin Griffiths Lucien Postlewaite Josh Spell Quartet Laura Gilbreath Kylee Kitchens Ariana Lallone Lesley Rausch Place a Chill Margaret Mullin Chelsea Adomaitis Leah O'Connor Jonathan Porretta James Moore Andrew Bartee Price Suddarth Ezra Thomson Sean Rollofson Ryan Cardea The Piano Dance Lesley Rausch Jeffrey Stanton Rachel Foster Benjamin Griffiths Margaret Mullin Jerome Tisserand Chalnessa Eames Josh Spell Concerto DSCH Pas de deux Carla Körbes Karel Cruz Pas de trois Carrie Imler Batkhurel Bold Seth Orza *first time in role

There was movement partly because some of the choreographers choreographed in both places. Robbins moved from ABT to NYCB; when Nora Kaye, ABT's most prominent dramatic ballerina moved to NYCB, Robbins choreographed the lead in "The Cage" for her. Tudor was most famously associated with ABT, but he did choreograph for NYCB, and he used Kaye as well.

That is great news -- to Mr. Shklyarov! http://www.mariinsky.ru/en/company/ballet/troupe/

I just got back from the matinee performance of Massenet's "Don Quichotte" (silver cast) following last night's performance (gold cast). In the post-performance Q&A, General Director Speight Jenkins said it was the first opera he produced without having seen it; he substituted it when another opera with a lead-bass role for John Relyea fell through. It was beautifully directed, with some of the most interesting and natural crowd work I've seen on the opera stage. Kudos to Beth Kirchhoff and her chorus and the small group of dancers for making this happen, and they sounded especially fine this afternoon from the second tier (top section). The sets were based on director Linda Brovsky's idea of using books as the central design idea instead of the standard naturalistic settings. Designer Donald Eastman created a set with huge volumes, two tall ones leaning on each other creating a passageway, several other upright volumes, and several horizontal stacks, one creating a large staircase and doubling as a dance stage and the other becoming Dulcinee's porch. Two large inkwells with giant feather pens were prominent set pieces for a couple of scenes, and the windmill projections at the end of the second part were made of the same striped feathers. A horse and a donkey were also prominent -- according to Jenkins, Brovsky wanted a realistic contrast to the book set -- and Don Quichotte and Sancho Panza made some wonderful entrances on them, including for DQ's solo bow after the opera. An interesting detail was that in the scene where Don Quichotte and Sancho Panza have infiltrated the bandits' camp, the backs of the books, and therefore their construction, were visible, and the show or camouflage side faced upstage. Each part began with the front scrim down and a folio of a book shown, with a quote from the latest English translation of "Don Quixote" on the left side in giant script and a print of Don Quichotte or Don Q and Sancho Panza on the right. One scrim had a flickering flame as it faded, another either rain or tears, and the final quote faded to dropout type. Connie Yun's lighting design was stunning, from the tableaus that looked as beautifully lit from the balcony as they were from fairly close in gallery upper to the nuanced lighting of the exterior scenes. On paper the first cast, with John Relyea in the title role, Malgorzata Walewska as Dulcinee, and Eduardo Chama as Sancho Panza looked golden, but I have my reservations. I don't love Relyea's voice: I hear a wide vibrato in the lower register and a rumble rather than a firmly resonant sound. (His upper register is clear and lovely.) I loved what he was trying to accomplish dramatically, shaping his scenes quite poignantly. Walewska has a very clean, steady sound, but until the marriage proposal scene in the fourth part, when she really opened up her voice, I heard very little color or changing dynamics: it was like shoes that had been polished but not buffed. If she was the most interesting woman in this village, it must have been an awfully dull village. Only Chama met my expectations, with a solid sound, fine acting, and agile movement. From the moment Daniela Sindram sang her first note as Dulcinee this afternoon, it was another experience entirely: she sang with a great range of color and dynamics, with shading from big fireworks to the gentlest of tones, and a great deal of agility and imagination. She was a superb actress, responding both vocally and physically to the other singers, and she moved with grace. She was also a deft comedienne. Nicolas Cavallier sang Don Quichotte, and it was interesting to see how for most of the opera, he and Relyea took almost opposite approaches musically and dramatically. Where Relyea was a gentle dreamer, Cavallier was forceful. In the scene after Don Quichotte fought the windmills and collapsed with exhaustion, when Sancho Panza helped Don Quichotte onto his own donkey, Relyea pulled himself up, where Cavallier was slumped over, almost broken. Relyea's interpretation was very poignant. Cavallier's was, for me, more true dramatically: the declamatory dreamers invoke more ridicule and backlash than the gentler ones. Musically the role was written for Chaliapin, and from the beginning of Cavallier's performance I could recognize a Chaliapin role. It was also clear that both Sindram and Cavallier were singing in French, which was a problem with their counterparts in the gold cast (but not with Chama's Sancho Panza.) Richard Bernstein was an excellent Sancho Panza in the silver cast, a combination of superb acting, singing, and great comic timing. He and Cavallier had a stronger dramatic dynamic going between them. Among the smaller roles, Marcus Shelton was a standout. He has a light tenor voice. As a former Seattle Opera Young Artist, he's probably too young to be at full strength, and I wasn't sure his voice would carry as strongly to the top of the house, but I was very happy to be wrong. Alex Mansouri, another former Young Artist, had very good stage presence as the roguish Juan. Sara de Luis is renowned in Seattle as a Flamenco dancer. She choreographed a few short passages and two extended passages, one in the first act, for herself, her partner Raul Salcedo, and several other male dancers, and a beautiful solo in the fourth part, in which she performed before, during, and after Dulcinee's big aria. (Her shoes sounded nail-less.) In the Q&A a woman in the audience noted her disappointment with the men, and, not unexpectedly, Jenkins defended the choice of Salcedo, who has an strong resume. I agree with the woman: there are a number of excellent Flamenco dancers in the Seattle area who project much more strongly. While I was not impressed so much by Salcedo's dancing, I was by his acting: he's a member of the ensemble and has to flirt repeatedly with Dulcinee and be chastised by de Luis' gypsy, and he did it in a very natural way. The music was written at the end of the 19th century, and on the surface it sounds simple and early Romantic, but that is deceptive. There is so much color and transparency in the score, and the orchestra, which doesn't get to play a lot of French music apart from Bizet and a bit of Ravel and Debussy for the Seattle Symphony, outdid itself for conductor Carlo Montanaro. It's music for which I think resistance is counterproductive: it's not Verdi, or Puccini, or Wagner. Its not even "Manon": its greatest hits aren't very well known. But once accepted, it's like a balm. I'm very grateful this opera was produced.

Thank you for the review, JMcN!

to all three!

It was a remarkable performance, especially since Rausch performed the same role that was made for Louise Nadeau, and Angela Sterling's photo of Nadeau in that ballet has become one of the images most associated with the Company.