Helene

2010 2009 2008 2007 Through 2006 2011 Alexandra Danilova as the Sleepwalker and Frederick Franklin as The Poet in Balanchine's Night Shadow (Added 5 Jan 11) Frank Hobi and Ruthanna Boris in the Blackamoors' Dance from Balanchine's Night Shadow (Added 5 Jan 11) Two Masked Ball Dancers, As a Fan and Fish, from Balanchine's Night Shadow (Added 5 Jan 11) Broadside of Opera and Ballet Performances in London, 15 December 1832 (Added 3 Feb 11) Mia Slavenska as Natalie Karine the Film Le Morte du Cygne (Ballerina in the US) (Added 3 Feb 11) Anna Pavlova and Aleksandr Volinine in Ivan Clustine's Snowflakes (Added 9 Feb 11) Annabelle Lyon as Queen of Hearts and William Dollar as The Joker in Card Party (Added 14 Feb 11) Steven Caras Photo of Patricia McBride and Mikhail Baryshnikov in La Sonnambula (Added 18 Feb 11) Suzanne Farrell and Corps as the Royal Canadian Air Force Regiment in Union Jack (Added 19 Feb 11) Suzanne Farrell as The Siren in Prodigal Son (Added 22 Feb 11) Illustrations of an 1853 Fire at the Bolshoi Theater (Added 25 Feb 11) Allegra Kent in Star and Stripes (Added 28 Feb 11) Tamara Grigorieva s "The Hand of Fate" in Cotillon (Added 2 Mar 11) Candle from George Balanchine's Funeral Service (added 3 Mar 11) Program Notes from John Neumeier's Lady of the Camellias (Added 3 Mar 11) Igor Youskevitch (Added 7 Mar 11) Suzanne Farrell in an Advertisement for the Nina Ricci perfume "L'air du temps" (Added 7 Mar 11) Marie Vernon, Goddaughter of Theophile Gautier (Added 9 Mar 11) Nikolai Hubbe and Lloyd Riggins in Jockey Dance (Added 11 Mar 11) Paris Opera Ballet's Micheline Bardin and Max Bozzoni (Added 11 Mar 11) Anna Pavlova as Fenella in The Dumb Girl of Portici (Added 13 Mar 11) Alla Sizova as Aurora (Added 14 Mar 11) Vera Zorina, Lew Christensen, and Corps in the Swan Lake Scene from the Movie I Was an Adventuress (Added 14 Mar 11) Rebekah Harkness Announcing "Ballet Farm for Men" (Added 14 Mar 11) La Source (Added 14 Mar 11) Carlotta Brianza (Added 2 Apr 11) "L'Etang Fleuri" from Nemea (Added 2 Apr 11) Catherine and Dorothie Littlefield (Added 11 Apr 11) Tamara Toumanova (Added 11 Apr 11) "Dinner with Balanchine", 27 June 1993, Program, Correction Slip, and Schedule (Added 19 Apr 11) Alicia Alonso and John Kriza as Lisette and Colin in La Fille Mal Gardee (Added 21 Apr 11) Photo Including Balanchine During the Production of the Broadway Show "The Lady from Across" (Added 25 Apr 11) Six Bolshoi Ballerinas Land at Idlewild for First NYC Tour in 1959 (Added 9 May 11) Taisiya Nikolaevna Kasatkina by the Legat Brothers (Added 17 May 11) Allegra Kent and Jacques d'Amboise in Balanchine's Swan Lake (Added 23 May 11) Vera Zorina in On Your Toes (Added 7 June 11) Opening Night Curtain Call, Bolshoi Ballet at the Old Metropolitan Opera House, April 1959 (Added 7 June 11) Nora Kaye and Igor Youskevitch, "Black Swan" (Added 17 Jun 11) Suzanne Farrell in Chicago City Ballet's Production of Cinderella (Added 25 Jun 11) Kenneth MacMillan, Frederick Ashton, and Margot Fonteyn in Ashton's Cinderella (Added 25 June 11) Allegra Kent and John Clifford in Dances at a Gathering (Added 25 June 11) "Principals of de Diaghileff's Ballet Russe" (Alexandra Wassilevska, Valentine Kachouba, Flore Revalles, Lubov Tchernichowa) and Serge de Diaghileff (Added 25 Jun 11) "Waltz of the Snowflakes", New York City Ballet (1958) (Added 25 Jun 11) Vera Zorina in On Your Toes (Added 26 Jun 11) Alicia Alonso in Fall River Legend (Added 1 Jul 11) Alicia Alonso in Black Swan "Pas de Deux" (Added 1 Jul 11) Eglevsky and Toumanova in Massine's Labyrinth (Added 6 Jul 11) Balanchine Working with Dancers in The Figure in the Carpet (Added 8 Jul 11) Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in Balanchine's Poker Game (Added 18 Jul 11) Ballet Russe in Poker Game (Added 19 Jul 11) Alicia Markova and Her King in Poker Game (Added 19 Jul 11) Alicia Markova in Poker Game (Added 19 Jul 11) Alicia Alonso as Lizzie Borden in Fall River Legend (Added 20 Jul 11) Poster Depicting Swan Lake for an Open Air Performance in Moscow's Gorki Park (Added 20 Jul 11) Finale of Folkine's Bluebeard (Added 20 Jul 10) Two Illustrations of the Premiere of Raymonda (Added 21 Jul 11) Metropolitan Opera Auditorium for 1959 Bolshoi Ballet Opening Night (Added 23 Jul 11) Cafe Society with Joseph Johnson as The Champ and Dorothy Swain as The Chorine (Added 24 Jul 11) Ladies' Better Dresses (Added 24 Jul 11) Kay Mazzo and John Jones in Jerome Robbins' Afternoon of a Faun (Added 25 Jul 11) Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes in Rehearsal (Added 30 Jul 11) Moira Shearer as Titania in rehearsal for an Old Vic Production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (Added 30 Jul 11) Tableau from Max Reinhardt's Production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (Added 1 Aug 11) Sergei Berezhnoi and Tatiana Terekhova in Diana and Acteon Pas de Deux (Added 4 Aug 11) Sergei Berezhnoi and Irina Kolpakova in Giselle (Added 4 Aug 11) Pages of Programs from Ballets USA Tour to St. Louis in 1958 (Added 10 Aug 11) Niels Bjorn Larsen as Tybalt in Ashton's Romeo and Juliet (Added 16 Aug 11) Gelsey Kirkland and Ivan Nagy in The Sleeping Beauty (Added 16 Aug 11) Moira Shearer and Lucia Chase in the Crush Bar at Royal Opera House (Added 20 Aug 11) Moira Shearer and Michael Somes in Cinderella (Added 23 Aug 11) Alicia Alonso as Lisette, John Kriza as Colin, and Edward Caton as Simone in La Fille mal gardee (Added 24 Aug 11) Norma Vance and Dmitri Romanoff in the Pas de Deux from Les Patineurs (Added 24 Aug 11) Members of the Littlefield Ballet and Caption with Dancer IDs (Added 25 Aug 11) Vera Zorina and Charles Laskey in "Princess Zenobia" from On Your Toes (Added 28 Aug) Ray Bolger, Tamara Geva and George Church in "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue: from On Your Toes (Added 28 Aug) Leningrad Kirov Ballet in The Sleeping Beauty (Added 29 Aug 11) Peter Martins' Farewell Performance, the 1000th NYCB Performance of Balanchine's The Nutcracker (Added 1 Sep 11) Mikhail Baryshnikov in The Prodigal Son (Added 11 Sep 11) Andrei Eglevsky in Helen of Troy (Added 11 Sep 11) Nancy Unger and Ivan Allen in Swan Lake (Added 12 Sep 11 Ballets: USA on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in "Mistake Waltz" from The Concert (Added 12 Sep 11) 1975 ABT Gala to Celebrate the 35th Anniversary of National Ballet of Canada (Added 18 Sep 11) Asylmuratova Sleeping Beauty Cover Photo from Kultur Recording (Added 20 Sep 11) Anna Platonovna Domershchikova (Added 23 Sep 11) Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov Backstage After Baryshnikov's US Debut in Giselle (Added 30 Sep 11) Margot Fonteyn and David Blair in Paul Czinner's Film of The Sleeping Beauty (Added 30 Sep 11) Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes in Paul Czinner's Film of Ondine (Added 30 Sep 11) Scan of the Program Insert for the Jerome Robbins Award 2011 (Added 1 Oct 11) Photos from the Presentation of the Jerome Robbins Award 2011 with Chita Rivera at the Lectern (Added 1 Oct 11) Andre Eglevsky as the Spectre (Added 17 Oct 11) Nijinski in the Costume That Caused His Dismissal (Added 18 Oct 11) Beryl Grey as the Lilac Fairy (Added 24 Oct 11) The Last Act of Frederick Ashton's Cinderella (Added 26 Oct 11) Tamara Toumanova in Les Sylphides (Added 31 Oct 11 Photos, Monitor Shots, and Invitation to the Private Reception to Celebrate the Gift of the Baryshnikov Archive to the New York Public Library (Added 2 Nov 11) Marie Jeanne in Les Sylphides (Added 9 Nov 11) Allegra Kent and Conrad Ludlow in Swan Lake (Added 15 Nov 11) The Party Scene from Act I of Alexei Ratmansky's The Nutcracker (Added 25 Dec 11)

It's got a story, but it's not like most story ballets. It was the first Balanchine I saw, and to put it mildly, I didn't like it at all, and avoided Balanchine until "Bouree Fantasque" was on a program I wanted to see at ABT, and which hooked me. Years later, I came to like "La Sonnambula" very much. It is not typical of the Balanchine rep, at least that which has survived.

I just received an email from David Leonard, Managing Director of Dance Books Ltd. in the UK, that he is closing the retail side of Dance Books Ltd, but will remain in business as a publisher. There will be an ongoing sale to liquidate inventory, with new items added daily, but with the caveat that some items have small qualities and may run out of stock. The direct link to the sale page is: http://www.dancebooks.co.uk/catalog/sale.asp Many thanks to Mr. Leonard for his contribution to the dance community

In case you didn't see this morning's post by rg about this in "Heads Up!" the Pacific Northwest Ballet presentation of "Giselle Revisited" in the Guggenheim's Works and Process series will be streamed live from this site on Sunday, 9 January, at 4:30pm PST (7:30pm EST). http://www.ustream.tv/channel/worksandprocess Carla Korbes, Seth Orza, Carrie Imler, and James Moore will dance excerpts from "Giselle" to illustrate Doug Fullington's presentation. (That's doug on Ballet Alert!) Peter Boal and scholar Marian Smith ("Ballet and Opera in the Age of 'Giselle'") join Doug on the panel. If you don't have a ticket, the 5:30pm start time is not feasible, or you do have a ticket and want to see both the Seattle and NYC presentations, set your alert for this online presentation.

In case you didn't see this morning's post by rg about this in "Heads Up!" the Pacific Northwest Ballet presentation of "Giselle Revisited" in the Guggenheim's Works and Process series is sold out, and for those of you won't be there Sunday at 7:30pm EST, the program is being streamed, live, from this site: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/worksandprocess Carla Korbes, Seth Orza, Carrie Imler, and James Moore will dance excerpts from "Giselle" to illustrate Doug Fullington's presentation. (That's doug on Ballet Alert!) Peter Boal and scholar Marian Smith ("Ballet and Opera in the Age of 'Giselle'") join Doug on the panel.

A note from Admin, for clarification: Links to blogs, public Facebook pages, Tweets, etc. by dance professionals, dance critics, and members of the mainstream press are valid for Ballet Alert! Links to those by fans aren't, however articulate or informative.

Thank you, bbh! I missed your post before I responded above. It was the Dove I missed.

Then I'm not sure from the closing credits what work he was dancing in all black, since they say: It's not "Sechs Tanze". Maybe the Dove I missed? Maybe another Dove I saw?

Lucien Postlewaite: I'm not remembering in which ballet there was a Gorilla, lol. Clips from: "Prodigal Son" (Balanchine). I think the Father is Otto Neubert. "Romeo et Juliette" - Romeo (Maillot). Jonathan Porretta (Mercutio) is to the right. I'm not certain who the Benvolio is to the left. My guess would be Josh Spell. Then Postlewaite and Carla Korbes (Juliet). "Red Angels" (Dove) "Dances at a Gathering" - Boy in Brown (Robbins) "A Midsummer Night's Dream" - Oberon (Balanchine) Not sure about the ballet where he's in black, but from the end credits, by process of elimination, it's by Todd Bolender "Petite Mort" (Kylian) "West Side Story Suite" (Robbins) "Square Dance" - Man's Solo (Balanchine) "3 Movements" (Millepied)

Mearn's attitude turns in the variation were luscious.

Hey, don't you go dissing Kate Jackson: she was the smart one. I found Pennefather dull the few times I saw him dance.

vipa, don't forget the Met HD broadcasts: http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/broadcast/hd_events_template.aspx?id=11964 There are eight left this season, and for ~$20, you can taste test the operas to see if they are in styles and/or productions you like, and then invest the money in live tickets. (Ballet and opera habits can get pricey ) I saw the "Damnation of Faust" HD in Seattle and flew to NYC to see it live.

Joseph Mazo mentions this in "Dance Is a Contact Sport", when he describes Kent leaving rehearsals to take care of her kids when the clock said so. Kent spoke about this sadly in the "Dancing for Mr. B" documentary when she describes how divided she was and how Balanchine stopped making ballets for her.

I haven't seen it, and I would have loved to, but I couldn't travel for any of the performances The last "Pelleas" I saw was last January at the new Opera House in Copenhagen. Designer Johannes Leiacker used the revolving platform to create three sets, but as the opera progressed, he added trees into the interior sets, so that the line between in and out of doors was blurred. Watching the Copenhagen Ring DVD's, the Fricka reminded me of an Ibsen character, although "Das Rheingold" was set in the '20s and "Die Walkure" in the '50s.

I'm so glad to hear it! I love Finley, and over Sirius, I thought he was great in the season premiere, and even better today. I listened to it twice today: once live and then again in the CBC2 tape delay. It was heaven

The Nobel concert is available on medici.TV for free streaming: http://www.medici.tv/#/playlist/

I do remember seeing a movie set during wartime -- I assume WWII, like just about everything else from my childhood -- and in it there was a soldier who was taking a bath in a barrel -- no nudity on screen, of course -- and a giant beetle or scorpion was heading towards him, with ominous music. I asked my grandmother, who was from Odessa, what it was, and she told me it was a snake. I was pretty sure it wasn't a snake, but she insisted, and I've remembered that for about 45 years.

I suspect that she didn't take me to either the Christmas or Easter spectaculars, and I think they did changed shows pretty frequently.

For my entire childhood, a few times a year my grandmother would take a day off from working at my grandparents' store and take me to NYC to see the Rockettes and a movie. Of course, the current crop of Rockettes are the grandchildren of the woman I saw

I'm using Firefox 3.6.13 on a Mac, and I can see the search box on all pages, plus the footer "banner" ad at the bottom of each page. When I had AdBlocker on, I couldn't see it at all. I couldn't figure out a way to tweak the settings to show me our amazon boxes as an exception, but I'll keep trying. What I haven't been able to find is a way to align the box properly with the logo. We get commission on sales net of returns. However, there's no penalty or harm using the search box for searches. The second iteration displays to show unread content: if the second listing is bold, like in your example, it means unread; if it's in regular type, it means you've read all of the posts. The caveat is that to maximize server efficiency, this isn't realtime: there is a delay until the core database is updated. I haven't been able to find anything in the "Help" forums that explains the difference. I know that the new PM notifications -- there are a handful of types -- don't all re-set all counters when you look at a message, which is annoying.

Happy New Year, Cristian, and to all Ballet Alertniks and your families!!!

Thank you, innopac. On my DVD, Memoire is straightly followed by La Fille du Pharaon. I bought this DVD in 2008 summer on Amazon. The running time written on the box is 84 mins. But (now) on Amazon.com it says 90 mins. I just found the DVD, which I think I had bought from amazon.com, too. The sequence in the booklet and the DVD is the same that innopac describes: (Opening) Manon (Macmillan, Semionova/Zelensky) (Intro) Wie lange noch (Pastor, Hoffmann/Kaftira) (Intro) Memoire (Lestel, Baey) (Intro) My Way (Thoss, Da.Simkin/Dm.Simkin) (Intro) La Fille du Pharaon (Lacotte, Alexandrova/Filine) (Intro) The Moor's Pavane (Limon, Jue/Roublot/Herment/Franciosi) Who Cares? (Hoffman/Kaftira) (Intro) The Sleeping Beauty Grand Pas de Deux (Jude after Nureyev/Petipa, Kutcheruk/Mikhalev Amsterdam (van Cauwenbergh, Da.Simkin/Tuma) Les Bourgeois (van Cawenbergh, Da.Simkin) Raymonda Adagio, Act II (Petipa, Alexandrova/Filine) The Intro to "My Way" is 0:52 and "My Way" is listed as 5:07, which looks like the missing 6 minutes. I wonder if there were rights issues with the music when your DVD was distributed.

I'm with you on "Saturday Night Fever". The opening sequence of Travolta trucking down the street to "Staying Alive" carrying paint cans never fails to give me chills. Edited to add: I think it was during an interview with Terry Gross on "Fresh Air" that Travolta describes how the music was supposed to be one of the softer songs, but he insisted on "Staying Alive" because of the tempo and beat.

Seattle Opera just announced its 2011-12 season: "Porgy and Bess", July/August 2011 (Gordon Hawkins, Porgy; Lisa Daltirus, Bess; John DeMain, conductor; Kabby Mitchell, choreographer, as noted in the PNB forum) "Carmen", Fall 2011 (Anita Rachvelishvili, Carmen; Pier Giorgio Morandi, conductor) "Attila", January 2012 (John Relyea, Attilla; Ana Lucretia Garcia, Odabella; Carlo Montanaro, conductor; Bernard Uzan, director) "Orphée et Eurydice" February/March 2012 (William Burden, Orphee; Davinia Rodríguez, Eurydice; Gary Thor Wedow, conductor; José Maria Condemi, director; Yannis Adoniou, choreographer) "Madame Butterfly" (Patricia Racette, Butterfly; Stefano Secco, Pinkerton; Julian Kovatchev, conductor; Peter Kazaras, director) I think the winner is "Orphée et Eurydice". I loved Rodriguez's Lucia this season, and William Burden's voice is one of the most beautiful I've heard live. I'm annoyed that two pieces I would gladly miss, "Porgy" and "Butterfly", have Hawkins and Racette. Decisions, decisions, especially now that it's an expensive trip.

Kabby Mitchell, who was formerly a soloist with PNB, will choreograph for Seattle Opera's 2011-12 production of "Porgy and Bess": http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thearts/2013810044_operaseason31.html?prmid=head_more I haven't seen any of his latest choreography. I'm glad he's getting the opportunity on the McCaw Hall stage.