Helene

Jackie Earle Haley was "Moocher", one of the four townie friends in "Breaking Away". (He's on the far right.) He was the one who got married in the film. He was nominated for an Oscar in 2006 for "Little Children". His current photo in IMDB makes him look more plausible as a sadistic Russian ballet teacher.

Macaulay's comment about Jennifer Ringer's weight is getting coverage in more than ballet press. Entertainment Weekly's "Pop Watch" Huffington Post In the Huffington Post, Jennifer Edwards gets quotes from Eva Yaa Asantewaa, who is not Macaulay's fan: http://infinitebody.blogspot.com/2010/01/summing-up-alastair-macaulay.html which is a bit like asking the Heritage Foundation to comment on Obama's healthcare plan. What I find, sadly, not amazing, is that Macaulay was far harsher on Jared Angle's weight, but it's the comment on Ringer that the non-dance media is writing about.

That's great, Cristian! Benno :)

There will be a presentation about the Goh Ballet's "Nutcracker" at Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch, in the Alice MacKay Room (Lower Level) on Thursday, 2 December at 7pm. The description reads:

Argh, even The Guardian doesn't mention his role in "Men with Brooms" as a stoner curling coach. It was a classic. I did find a mention in imdb that in the 2004 video "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King", Nielsen was the voice of the Mouse King in the English version.

I hope this works out for the company. A three-week tour will give the dancers a chance to explore some of the city while they're there.

He was a scream in "Men with Brooms". Back to his roots. Rest in peace, Mr. Nielsen.

Alexandra has wrote on an earlier thread in the "Writings on Ballet" forum: We have one thread to discuss Macaulay's "Nutcracker Chronicles" here: http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/32845-nutcracker-chronicles-nytimes/ Please discuss the project and reviews on that thread. The appropriate topic for discussion in the NYCB forum is members reviews of the production. [Admin beanie on] General complaints about critics should go to their employers. Specific, well-reasoned criticsim in response to review or writings are encouraged. We will edit without notice when a post violates the courtesy rule or is not official news and has nothing to do with the writing. [Admin beanie off] I'm closing this topic.

I just finished reading the November 2010 edition of "The Wagner Journal", which is edited by Barry Millington. In it there was a review of Katharina Wagner's Bayreuth production of "Die Meistersinger", and Millington wrote: Congratulations to Mr. Rutherford. I hope to hear his complete Hans Sachs one day. Also, in a review of this past summer's "Tristan und Isolde" in Seattle, Andrew Moravcsik lauded bass Stephen Milling, "[who] nearly stole the show with a world-class King Mark of deep feeling, his rich bass effortlessly filling the hall with exemplary German." I have no beef with Milling's German, and I'm not sure I'd have qualified the statement with "nearly", but Melot sings before King Mark, and it was Jason Collins' clear diction that made me aware for the first time in the performance that the opera was in German.

The "Lamberena" solo for Lallone. I think there's got to be something by Stowell for each. I don't remember "Carmen" well enough to know if there's an appropriate excerpt. I do remember Lallone having a solo part in "Zirkus Weill". Maybe Stowell's Act IV pas de deux from "Swan Lake" for Stanton, which Louise Nadeau danced for her retirement. The "After the Rain" pas de deux is a possibility, too; Stanton partnered Nadeau in it when it was last produced. Stanton is such a renowned partner that I'm trying to figure out how to fit them all in. Maybe "Who Cares?" from "The Man I Love" until the end? In the Balanchine Celebration NYCB used different men in each pas de deux; Stanton could dance them all, but the solos could be women who don't dance the pas de deux. I'm hoping for 2nd Movement "Symphony in C". Lallone and Stanton could dance the Mimi Paul pas de deux from "Emeralds". Maybe she and Stanton can also do the second "In the Night" pas de deux.

The pas de deux in the video with Herrera and Postlewaite is beautiful.

There was a wonderful article about Doug Fullington (doug on Ballet Talk) in today's Seattle Times about his role as Pacific Northwest Ballet's Casting Meister: http://seattletimes....tcracke26.html doug!

According to this article in the New York Press on Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, the choreographer will work with PNB in 2012. Lopez Ochoa has worked with PNB Principal Dancer Olivier Wevers' company, Whim W'him this year.

From PNB, this press release: Pacific Northwest Ballet Principal Dancer Jeffrey Stanton Announces Retirement Final Performances During 2010-2011 Season Seattle, WA – Pacific Northwest Ballet Artistic Director Peter Boal and principal dancer Jeffrey Stanton have announced that Mr. Stanton will be retiring at the end of the 2010-2011 season, following a 23-year career, 17 years of which were spent with PNB. “As I look back at my ballet career I feel a tremendous amount of pride and gratitude,” said Mr. Stanton in his announcement. “It seems only yesterday I was a student with high hopes and dreams to fulfill. What happened was everything and more than I ever hoped for. I can now retire from my professional ballet career knowing that I gave it everything I had. My hope is that it’s been as rewarding to the audience as it has been for me.” Mr. Stanton trained at San Francisco Ballet School and the School of American Ballet. In addition to classical ballet, he also studied ballroom, jazz, and tap dancing. He joined San Francisco Ballet in 1989 and left to join Pacific Northwest Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet in 1994. He was promoted to soloist in 1995 and was made a principal in 1996. He is originally from Santa Cruz, California. “Jeff is a true Prince in every sense of the word,” said Mr. Boal in his announcement. “He not only more than fulfills his princely obligations onstage in Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker, but he is a Prince offstage too, leading by quiet example, carefully guiding new partners in new roles, and continually demonstrating the perfect work ethic. Jeff is perhaps the best hoofer I have ever seen in Slaughter on Tenth Avenue. During one of his triumphant performances in this role he suffered a severe sprain of his ankle. Sitting in the audience, I never knew. Jeff continued to dance with all of the charm and swagger that the role required. Audiences would never have guessed that Jeff left the theater that night in a wheelchair. Jeff has been the consummate professional who has served PNB admirably during his long tenure with the Company.” "From heart-throb Prince to heart-breaking Romeo to scintillating, top-hatted tap dancer, Jeff Stanton has done it all at PNB – and done it with virtuosity, strength and the sensitivity of the true, committed artist,” said PNB Founding Artistic Directors Kent Stowell and Francia Russell, who hired Mr. Stanton in 1994. “When Jeff joined PNB he was a promising, attractive young dancer we hoped would become an ideal partner for our tall ballerinas. From the first day he began to fulfill our dreams. His technique gained elegance and assurance and his conscientious, graceful partnering was an immediate hit with all the Company women. Not only Kent but guest choreographers creating in many styles almost inevitably chose him for their works. Always a hard-worker in the studio, Jeff displayed onstage the courage and accurate theatrical instincts that can't be taught. A quiet charisma uniquely his own never failed to surprise and delight us in the inevitable transformation we saw as he went from rehearsal to performance. “Jeff has been a brilliant dancer, great colleague and stalwart Company member for seventeen years – a lifetime in dance and a gift to his artistic directors. It is our hope that, when he retires from performing, he will pass on everything he knows to future generations of young dancers. But we will always picture him onstage: handsome, sure and, in all ways, generous." Highlights in Mr. Stanton’s career include his performance in the role of Demetrius in the BBC's 1999 film version of Pacific Northwest Ballet's production of George Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream, filmed at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London. He originated leading roles in Susan Stroman’s TAKE FIVE…More or Less; Stephen Baynes' El Tango; Donald Byrd's Seven Deadly Sins; Val Caniparoli's The Bridge; Nicolo Fonte's Almost Tango and Within/Without; Kevin O'Day's Aract and [soundaroun(d)ance]; Kent Stowell's Carmen, Palacios Dances, and Silver Lining; and Christopher Stowell's Zaïs. Mr. Stanton has performed as a guest artist for Le Gala des Étoiles in Montreal, Prague Gala of Stars, and the TITAS Command Performance of International Ballet in Dallas, Texas. In 2000, he participated in The George Balanchine Foundation's Interpreters Archive series, dancing excerpts from Balanchine's Episodes, coached by Melissa Hayden. He is also featured on the 1999 danceWORKS fitness video. Other Leading Roles: George Balanchine's Agon, Apollo, Ballet Imperial, Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet, Chaconne, Coppélia (Dr. Coppelius), Diamonds, Divertimento No. 15, Emeralds, The Four Temperaments, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Demetrius, Divertissement pas de deux), Serenade, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, Stars and Stripes, Symphony in C, Symphony in Three Movements, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Theme and Variations, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, La Valse, Western Symphony, and Who Cares?; Todd Bolender's Souvenirs; Val Caniparoli's Lambarena; Dominique Dumais' Scripted in the Body; Eliot Feld's Intermezzo; William Forsythe's Artifact II and In the middle, somewhat elevated; Paul Gibson's Diversions and Rush; Ronald Hynd's The Merry Widow (Count Danilo) and The Sleeping Beauty (Prince Désiré); Robert Joffrey's Remembrances; Jiri Kylian's Petite Mort; Edwaard Liang's Für Alina; José Limón's The Moor's Pavane; Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Roméo et Juliette (Paris); Peter Martins' Fearful Symmetries and Valse Triste; Mark Morris' Pacific; Marius Petipa's Le Corsaire Pas de Trois, Don Quixote, and Paquita; Jerome Robbins' Fancy Free, In the Night, and West Side Story Suite (Riff); Kent Stowell's Carmina Burana, Cinderella (Prince), Delicate Balance, Firebird, Hail to the Conquering Hero, Kammergarten Tänze, Nutcracker (Prince), Quaternary, Swan Lake (Prince Siegfried), The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (Romeo), and Zirkus Weill; Lynne Taylor-Corbett's The Ballad of You and Me, Mercury, and The Quilt; Glen Tetley's Voluntaries; Twyla Tharp's Nine Sinatra Songs; and Christopher Wheeldon's After the Rain pas de deux. At San Francisco Ballet, he performed leading roles in works by Lew Christensen, Agnes De Mille, James Kudelka, Mark Morris, and Jerome Robbins.

He was noted in Alastair Macaulay's review of Suzanne Farrell Ballet:

I didn't realize until I read George Jackson's review of Suzanne Farrell Ballet that Sokvannara Sar joined the company this year.

To go off topic again, I saw that "Journey", the same weekend I saw "Movin' On." (Not a good weekend.) She played Mary like a sloppy drunk with a borderline personality, and she did dominate the production with the inappropriateness of her characterization and how it grated. Given that, I can't imagine her as Camille. There's nothing soft about her. Dennehy was great: everything was personal. I wasn't as taken with Hoffman, but I was impressed with Robert Sean Leonard, who played Edmund. I'd never seen him onstage, only in film, and I was surprised at how natural and three-dimensional he was, which isn't always the case with film actors, especially contemporary young(ish) romantic lead types.

Oh, dear. (Are you sure you weren't watching me in Intro Flamenco class )

Ovation TV has amped up its "Battle of the Nutcrackers" to include five this year. Here's the info, including a link about voting for your favorite:

Sarah Ricard Orza and Seth Orza will perform with the Dallas Ballet Company on 3-4 December at the Granville Performing Arts Center in Granville: http://1037litefm.radio.com/2010/11/16/2010-christmas-events-in-dallas-fort-worth/

The other day I spoke to a woman who spent several years in Stuttgart in the early '70's. She was able to see Haydee and Cragun many times and attended the first performance of "Romeo and Juliet" after John Cranko died. She described how at the end, for 2-3 minutes the audience sat in silence, before someone began to applaud, and how after that, the ovation lasted 10 minutes.

I agree 100%. The last time I saw him live was when he came to NYC and performed Cyrano and Benedict in the same mini-season. I can't wait to see this, even if it's onscreen.

Here's a video with clips from all three ballets and freeze-frame shots of Angela Sterling photos:

It's the same program, and I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of it.

Anne-Sophie Mutter, Yuri Bashmet, and Lynn Harrell performed three early works for string trio by Beethoven tonight at the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver: Trio No. 3 in C minor, Op. 9, Serenade in D Major, Op. 8, and Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 3. It was remarkable to hear three powerhouse musicians play together with such subtlety. Having a viola instead of a piano join the violin and cello results in a much more blended sound, as if they were breathing together. If you get a chance to hear them play, grab it. Thursday is Remembrance Day in Canada, and even the punk clothing store mannequins are wearing red poppies. After the intermission, Bashmet and Harrell returned to the stage wearing poppies on their jackets. It's possible that Mutter did, too, but I was in the nosebleed section, and she was wearing a orangey-coral spaghetti strap baby doll top; it would have blended in if she did.