DancingGiselle

ABT's website has announced the casting for the company's upcoming appearance at the Kennedy Center. Is there any way to find out who's cast in Gong or in some of the smaller roles for the other ballets? The more I see of ABT, the more I develop favorites among the soloists and corps de ballet, and I'd love to know ahead of time if/when they will be dancing. Can I call their press or PR office, or is that rude? January-31, 7:30 PM Repertory Gong Company Afternoon of a Faun J. Kent M. Beloserkovsky Swan Lake Act III pas de deux P. Herrera J. Carreño The Green Table D. Hallberg Company February-1, 7:30 PM Repertory Gong Company Afternoon of a Faun S. Abrera D. Hallberg Swan Lake Act III pas de deux G. Murphy M. Gomes The Green Table I. Stappas Company February-2, 7:30 PM Repertory Gong Company Afternoon of a Faun M. Riccetto J. Carreño Swan Lake Act III pas de deux I. Dvorovenko M. Beloserkovsky The Green Table I. Stappas Company February-3, 7:30 PM Romeo and Juliet J. Kent M. Gomes February-4, 1:30 PM Romeo and Juliet X. Reyes J. Carreño February-4, 7:30 PM Romeo and Juliet I. Dvorovenko M. Beloserkovsky February-5, 1:30 PM Romeo and Juliet P. Herrera D. Hallberg

Hi every one, As I mentioned earlier, I saw the opening night performance (Dec. 7). Those of you who have seen ABT's Nutrcacker are right to be wary; I’m sure that it has not improved very much since it first premiered. The unicorn that randomly parades through the act II divertissements was annoying at best – whoever thought that it would be a fun and interesting addition to the production should be shot (or at least given a severe reprimand)! Anyway, in order to present my thoughts in a somewhat coherent manner, here’s my somewhat organized review: ACT I The ballet opens with Drosselmeyer (behind a rather pretty scrim) packing away toys in a large chest to give to children at the party. He is surrounded by five fairies – they seem to have no real role in the production but reappear periodically throughout it (esp. in act II). The next scene shows Clara playing with her dolls right before the party begins. She is alone on stage until her brother appears and then they make shadow puppets (I thought that was very cute). Clara was danced rather convincingly by Xiomara Reyes, who is not much taller than most of the actual children who appeared in the party scene! Her brother was played by a young dancer, probably from a local ballet school (the program lists the children but does not mention their affiliation). There were about 15 children all together in the first act (plus the mice – or rats? I didn’t read the program carefully enough to determine exactly what kind of rodents they were). They were decent enough, but they were given almost no choreography! There was a lot of running around and greeting each other, but that’s about it – for both the children and the adults. Even Clara hardly danced (she had a small solo when Drosselmeyer handed her the Nutcracker) – despite the fact that ABT casts perfectly capable adults (as opposed to young dance students) in the role! In general, a lot of good music in the first act was left unused. There were only about 5-6 adult couples, which made the stage feel very empty, even when they were dancing. The children’s dancing was limited to the march (is there a more specific name for that piece of music?), but it was quite underwhelming. The girls and boys formed two separate lines facing each other. The girls had their backs to the audience, so they completely blocked my view (I was sitting in quite close), and I didn’t even see much of the choreography. Drosselmeyer (Victor Barbee) presented three mechanical toys: a doll of some sort, a soldier, and a unicorn (no – not the same unicorn that runs around in act II!). Craig Salstein danced the soldier solo amazingly well; he combined the mechanical movements with beautiful jumps and received the night’s first round of enthusiastic applause (as opposed to polite applause). The unicorn and the doll danced decently but certainly not memorably. I forget who danced the former, but Misty Copeland danced the latter. The girl has great technique, but – forgive me for what I am about to write – a chest as large as hers just does not look good on a dancer! It certainly distracted me from her dancing (and I’m female). Moving on to the soldiers-mice/rats showdown. I don’t have much to say about it because no parts of it were particularly exciting. The soldiers just bumbled about while the mice/rats seemed well positioned to defeat them – at one point a mouse/rat single-handedly held back the entire toy soldier army! And then, inexplicably, all of the soldiers and mice/rats fled (along with the toys from under the Christmas tree). The Nutcracker (who had appeared earlier) stabbed the mouse/rat king, and that was that. The ballet did start to get interesting at this point. Herman Cornejo (who danced the Nutcracker) did all that he could with the role; he performed his trademark jumps and leaps even while wearing the Nutcracker head (I assume it’s a difficult to dance with it on!). After the battle was over, Clara and the Nutcracker were left alone on stage; a few minutes into a pas de deux of sorts she removed the Nutcracker head. I though the entire dance was lovely but it did leave me puzzled as to what it was trying to accomplish. It seemed too romantic for the Nutcracker-Clara relationship! Or am I just too used to watching Nutcrackers in which Clara is danced by an actual child enamored with the Nutcracker in a far less romantic sort of way? The snow scene followed the Clara-Nut pdd. The costumes in it were absolutely gorgeous; they were white with a touch of silver sparkles, and the skirts were wonderfully fluffy and reached a little bit past the knees. The choreography wasn’t super creative (none of it in this ballet was!) but it worked very well. The snowflakes did indeed look like actual snowflakes twirling in the air, which is a feeling I hardly ever get from the Nutcracker. Veronika Part made an appearance as the snow queen but was on stage for a far too short period of time! I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen her, but I know how much BalletAlert loves her, and I can understand why. She is regal and elegant, even imposing (it helped that she is about a head taller than Xiomara Reyes). I hope to get a chance to see her in some meatier roles. Well, that’s act I, and I unfortunately have to turn my attention to other matters for the moment. In general, act I didn’t succeed in conveying the magic that I associate with the Nutcracker, but all of the dancers who mattered – Reyes, Cornejo, Part – were well worth watching. To be continued… (I enjoyed act II quite a bit more than act I, prancing unicorn and all)

I'm going opening night (Dec. 7) with a friend. I doubt I'll be very critical of the performance -- I've always thought of Nutcracker as a ballet just to enjoy rather than critique -- but we'll see...

Is any one (besides me ) going? Or is it really not worth seeing? I'm going more for the dancers than the ballet, but I'd love to hear a bit about what people think. How does it measure up against other Nutcrackers? I just looked at the Kennedy Center website, and every single performance (7 total) is sold out. So DC audiences must be excited!

My second veiwing of RENT was actually on December 1 -- World AIDS Day. The date reminded me that the film is still very much relevant in some respects. I applaud all efforts to raise awareness about a disease that still claims too many victims every year. I love the music, which is a bit strange because in general I prefer the more "operatic" musicals -- or just opera in general. But I think the sheer exuberance (to use canbelto's word) just really carries both the movie and the musical (I assume) along. Although if I had to listen to the soundtrack or cast recording 800 times a day, I'm sure my ears would react against it! Anyway, I feel like I should get back to posting about ballet, but I can't help it -- I enjoyed RENT (the movie) much more than anything else I've seen -- on stage or screen -- in quite some time.

Yes, I saw the movie as well (in fact, I've seen it twice and I'm going again this weekend). I'm a casual musical fan -- I catch them when I can, but I much prefer ballet and opera so I definitely choose the Met or City Center over Broadway when I make it to NYC. But I do like to see musicals, and my favorite films are all musicals. I haven't seen RENT on stage, so I can not comment on how faithful the film is to the original. But after reading interviews with the cast members and the family of Jonathan Larson (creator of RENT), I get the feeling that the movie is as faithful as it can possibly be. More importantly, however, it stands on its own very well -- I think it will create a whole new group of RENT fans who have yet to see it on stage (like me). I do have the original Broadway cast recording, and although I'm sad about some of the ommissions, I understand that musicals on stage and on screen are different creatures. So in general I was very, very happy with the film, and it touched me in more ways than I thought possible. I apologize for posting a review so vague, but I can add some details later. I'm running late but wanted to add my two cents

Moderators -- please move or remove this topic if you feel that it is inappopriate. I read BalletAlert religiously but almost never post. That said, I do want to raise an issue that has been bothering me for some time now. We were discussing questions surrounding the legalization of drugs a few weeks ago in my advanced Russian class (here in the US) when my professor casually mentioned that almost every one he knows in the performing arts community uses some sort of illegal (in the US) drugs. He directed this comment specifically at me, as I never hide my passion for ballet and opera in class. I proceded to argue with him, saying that there have been famous and not-so-famous cases, but by and large dancers and singers are drug-free (refering to the illegal kind, of course). I would not have been bothered by this remark had he not proceded to bring it up in class again and again. He is from St. Petersburg and, due to his academic and literary pursuits, he knows quite a few people from the dance community in that city (he is friends with Chemyakin, for example). He keeps telling me that I cannot close my eyes to the fact that the dancers he knows use a number of drugs, saying they can't get through a performance without them. I bring this up because I am bothered by these comments -- but perhaps I am being too sensitive? I know there are dancers out there who use drugs -- Gelsey Kirkland is only the most famous case -- but I doubt that many do. Or am I indeed closing my eyes to "the truth"? I have gotten to know a few dancers over the years, but I admit that I really have no details about the personal lives of, for example, ABT's stars -- nor do I wish to. I simply turn to all of you because I would like to know (a) is drug use indeed more common in the dance world than I would like to acknowledge and (b) what should I tell my professor? The latter is indeed just a personal problem, but I do wish he would drop the subject...

I went to the Opera Insights lecture last night at the Kennedy Center and am sad to report that most of the ballet has indeed been cut from the Wash. National Opera's production of "I Vespri Siciliani." Mr. Wayne Conner gave a great lecture outlining the history and the story of the opera -- the only part of his speech that I disliked (wrong word?) was the part about ballet. He made some remarks that sounded like the ballets in Verdi's operas were completely extraneous and the only purpose they served was to entretain the audience, who expected a little dancing in their stage spectacles. I don't want to misquote Mr. Conner, but his implications truly offended me a bit. I would have liked to ask him some questions (esp. about the need for a choreographer if the ballet has been cut) but unfortunately there was no time for that. Still, the production should be quite exciting and I'm attending opening night this Saturday.

The press release for "I Vespri Siciliani" mentions nothing about dance in the opera, but Vladimir Angelov (who has recently choreographed for the Washington Ballet among other companies) is listed as the choreographer. That's promising!

Thank you, carbro! I've only seen Ethan dance a few times over the past couple of years during ABT's appearances at the Kennedy Center, but I'm certainly a huge fan (as huge as I can be from a distance). I'll miss him terribly if his engagements at Ballet Pacifica keep him too busy to dance with ABT during the company's annual stints in DC. And he might even take Gillian with him to CA (in the most recent issue of Pointe, she says something about how much she'd love to dance with Ethan's company). *sniff*

July 5 -- Tereshkina(Med.), Kuznetsov (Con.), Osmolkina (Gul.), Fadeyev (Lan.), Sarafanov (slave) Opening night performance looks the most promising (as it should, I suppose). I haven't seen Tereshkina in the role but she never fails to amaze me. The Kuznetsov casting seems more of a hit-or-miss, but I predict a hit. He and Tereshkina tend to dance together especially well, and it's a partnership that the Mariinsky has been really pushing as of late. July 6 -- Somova, Shishov, Novikova, Korsakov, Semionov I've never seen Somova in anything (well, not that I recall, anyway) so no comment there. Shishov is a powerful up-and-coming dancer -- a real crowd pleaser. He was the highlight of a lackluster Don Q I saw a while back. Korsakov seems promising as Lankendem -- I've only seen him a few times, but his beautiful, light, and energetic jumps always stand out for me. I saw Novikova's debut as Gulnare and she danced it better than I expected (not that I had much upon which to base my expections...) She stumbled here and there, but hopefully she's taken care of that by now, and she outshone Irma Nioradze's Medora (for whom I cared very little). July 7 -- Gumerova, Ivanchenko, Golub, Sarafanov, Fadeyev I am very biased against Ms. Gumerova -- I have yet to see her dance anything even halfway decently -- so she ruins the cast for me. But maybe I'm being unfair? I saw Ivanchenko dance Conrad about two weeks ago while I was still in Russia and he was quite good in the role. Not amazing, but there was nothing about which I could complain. He outshone Igor Zelensky's slave in that particular performance so I was sad to see that he didn't get all of the applause he deserved. July 8 -- same as July 5, except for Korsakov as slave July 9 (mat) -- Tkachenko/Vostrotina, Ivanchenko, Novikova, Korsakov, Semionov This seems like a strong cast. I've never seen Vostrotina in anything, but from Natalia's post it seems like Tkachenko would be the better Medora. July 9 (eve) -- combo of July 6 and 7 casts July 10 -- Gumerova, Kuznetsov, Osmolkina, Korsakov, Sarafanov I won't be anywhere near DC, but if I were, I'd see opening night or July 8. Otherwise, July 9 (mat) or July 6.

I also have no experience with Royal Ballet dancers, but I'll put in my two cents. I've waited for dancers at the Kennedy Center (Washington DC) and they have always been most obliging when it comes to signing programs and posing for pictures. I've also waited for dancers at the stage door in St. Petersburg (Mariinsky and Mussorgsky theaters) -- although I'm often the only one to do that (not counting the poor friend who accompanied me to the ballet and is now forced to stay until I collect some autographs). These dancers are always pleasantly surprised by my requests -- I guess it's not a tradition among Russians to wait for dancers after a performance -- and I've only had positive experiences with them to date. So go for it, I say! I certainly will if I'm ever in London (or elsewhere) at a Royal Ballet performance.

The always amazing Margot Fonteyn.

WOW!!! Those are some expensive seats! I hope the ballets turn out to be worth it -- I'm leaving St. Petersburg a few days before the festival starts, so I won't be able to catch any of them, but I guess I really wouldn't be able to afford good seats anyway (although I pay the regular, non-foreigner price).

Who danced the Moussorgsky Giselle, DancingGiselle? I've seen Lomachenkova & Khabilulina in the title role, both ethereal, light, tender. In other words, easy-to-lift and very effective in Act II! Unlike Gumerova, who is rather big-boned and earthy. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Irina Perren danced Giselle -- she was also very ethereal, light, and tender in Act II, and she had a rather good mad scene in Act I. One of my main problems with Gumerova was that her mad scene involved some painfully bad and muddled acting. I had explained the plot of the ballet to friends who had never seen it before, but during intermission they told me that I must have remembered it wrong -- there was no way that the end of Act I was supposed to be a mad scene. It was THAT unconvincing!

I'm going to have to disagree with Ballet Lovers a bit on this one. Giselle is one of my favorite ballets (hence my user name), so I always look forward to seeing it performed. Unfortunately, my first Giselle at the Mariinsky was a HUGE disappointment. It wasn't all terrible, but it was listless, boring, and chock-full of technical mistakes. Well, the first (and biggest) mistake wasn't technical -- it was a mistake in casting. I bought my ticket hoping to see Daria Pavlenko, but she was replaced by Ms. Gumerova, who was absolutely awful in the role. She danced very mechanically, and she had the stiffest shoulders and arms I've seen in a long time -- so not Giselle! She captured none of Giselle's innocent enthusiasm and regarded her partner (Mr. Kuznetsov) as simply another dancer on stage, not as the love of her life. When she knelt down to bring the fabric of Bathilde's dress to her face, she reminded me of a fashion designer critically examining the quality of the material... I know that I sound harsh in appraising Ms. Gumelova, but I've seen her dance two roles -- Kitri and Giselle -- and she was VERY miscast in both. I haven't seen her do any Balanchine or Forsyth or anything (although I've seen these performances at the Mariinsky) so I suppose I have yet to see her at her best... Otherwise, the rest of the cast was okay but everyone (with the exception of pavel Moskvito, maybe) made huge mistakes and in general danced very listlessly. The entire performance was, in a word, boring. I regret the fact that I convinced my friends (who know very little about ballet) to come. On the other hand, I saw quite a good performance of Giselle at the Mussorgsky the following night. It wasn't amazing, but it was about two hundred times better than this one...

Wow, the webiste is indeed a bit out of date, but until the International Ballet Festival it was my only source of information about the dancers. I'm most excited about Victoria Tereshkina. I've only seen her in Swan Lake as Odette/Odile but I liked her quite a bit. When did she join the company?

Thank you, Natalia, for your wonderful reports! I still have yet to post my own observations -- I saw the Daria Pavlenko benefit, Manon, and Swan Lake. While I'm not an expert I did take extensive notes on all three and do wish to share them, but my schedule has been so hectic I hardly ever find time to go to an Internet cafe. I promise to post them within the next few days, while they are still (somewhat) timely.

Grrrr, I missed this on TV last night -- and for what I thought was a good reason. I was at the Mariinsky and had the "pleasure" (note sarcasm) of spending three hours watching Alexei Ratmansky's version of "Zolushka" (Cinderella). I found the performance rather dull and uninspired -- I'm sure I would have had a better night had I spent it at home in front of the TV.

Thank you, Natalia! I have much to learn about ballet here in St. Petersburg, but I have several months ahead of me. Yes, you're right: Lopatkina did dance "Legend of Love" recently, which I was unable to attend. And I think Pavlenko was listed for Forsythe and/or Balanchine, although I can't confirm because none of my acquaintances in the city caught that performance. I just bought a few more tickets for late March/early April, so I will have to double check the Mariinsky website to see if any of the principals are listed for those performances (the tickets are so cheap, I buy them without knowing -- or caring -- who's dancing). I would love to post a bit about the performances (although today I'm already running late, so that will ahve to wait). Sofia Gumerova (who, as a first soloist, is the highets-ranked dancer I've seen thus far) danced her first Kitri last Wednesday, but I must admit that I was less than impressed by her performance. Technically, she was a bit shaky once or twice -- which is something I would have overlooked, had she not seemed a bit emotionally empty in the role. But perhaps I judged her more harshly than I should have, due to the fact that I was not a huge fan of the Gorsky version. On the other hand, I enjoyed "Fountain of Bakhchiserai" quite a bit on Sunday, with Yekaterina Kondaurova as Zarema and Xenia Ostreikovskaya as Maria. I figured that the Mussorgsky dancers are also probably Vaganova trained (or something similar). As I said in my first post, I have really taken a liking to several of them. So I shouldn't be upset about the fact that I haven't seen any Mariinsky dancers dance -- sometimes I see the best dancing from those who weren't even offered a contract with the Mariinsky!

I have yet to see an opera conducted by VG (in Russia or elsewhere), but to everyone I've met in St. Petersburg, he is an absolute genius. "You haven't listened to an opera until you've listened to one conducted by VG," they tell me.

I did not start reading this forum until a month ago, when I arrived in St. Petersburg to study at the Smolny Institute for five months. Thus, I am quite ignorant about Russian ballet and have at least one (for now) pressing question about it. I have been to the Mariinsky many times in the last month and have several tickets for the weeks ahead. I have seen several good dancers, but I'm always surprise to find afterwards that they are either first or second soloists or coryphees. Not once has a dancer listed as "principal" on the Mariinsky website danced the principal (or any other) role in a production. I have tickets for the Daria Pavlenko and Ulyana Lopatkina benefits, but other than that, when do they dance in St. Petersburg? Another (less pressing) question: from where does the Mussorgsky get its dancers? I've seen some in the past few weeks who were better than any I have seen thus far at the Mariinsky.

I saw the performance last night (Friday, Dec. 17) and I was quite impressed by it. I too was a fan of the Mary Day version but I think I like this one even better. Here’s my take on it: Thumbs up: – The beautiful sets and costumes. I loved them all (see below for my few exceptions) and was glad to see that the production did not scrimp on them. The dresses in the party scene were gorgeous, bustles and all. – The children in the production were absolutely wonderful. Mariana Olaizola danced Clara and Timothee Courouble danced Fritz – I had seen both of them in rehearsal and was glad that they ended up dancing the night I went. The little mice were among the most adorable creatures that I have ever seen, the soldiers in the battle scene were perfect. They received a spontaneous burst of applause for their marching and formation. The clowns – esp. the little one – were hilarious. – The four animals in the second act (fox, squirrel, deer frog) that enter and then watch from the side seemed were not necessary yet still added a great deal to the ballet. They were so adorable – I wanted to jump on stage and hug one – and they remained in character the entire time they were watching the performance. Little touches like that made this Nutcracker truly magical for me. – The Anacostia pdd was one of the highlights of the second act. Laura Urgelles and her partner (Alvaro Palau?) Were mesmerizing. Coffee is usually my favorite of the divertissements, so I was a bit nervous before it began, thinking that Anacostia Indians was such a random choice, but I did like it. – Maki Onuki and esp. Brian Malek were a wonderful surprise as Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier. I have not seen either in any big roles, so I was a little disappointed when I heard that they would be dancing the most important pdd in the production, but I ended up falling in love with them. Brian Malek – who just graduated from North Carolina School of the Arts last year – was amazing. He struggled just a tad in the lifts, but he was a very attentive partner otherwise and took my breath away in the variations. He has beautiful pirouettes and an incredible lightness to his jumps. I hope to see more of him in the near future! – The little comic touches that made the ballet such a joy to watch, esp. in the party scene. Thumbs down: – The failure to identify the dancers for each night in the program. I had nose-bleed seats (I’ve spent too much money on holiday presents, it seems, so I abandoned my usual place in the orchestra) and even with binoculars I could not identify some of the dancers, esp. the students. I am a HUGE fan of Michele Jimenez – in my eyes she can do no wrong, even when perhaps she is not the best suited to the role – but she had the night off. I guess I should have checked in advance ... – The dancers in the snow scene and, to a lesser extent, in the waltz of the cherry blossoms, sound like horses when they came down from jumps. I can’t remember the last time I saw a ballet performance when the corps was so incredibly loud. It completely ruined the magic of the snow scene for me – falling snow does NOT make that kind of noise. – Speaking of the snow scene – I did not like it. I expect quite a bit (too much?) from this scene because it is what made me fall in love with the ballet when I first saw it live about 6 years ago. I expect it to be absolutely magical, and the choreography just did nothing to capture that for me. I felt it was too mechanical. I like Laura Urgelles and Alvaro Palau as the Snow Queen and King, but otherwise the scene fell flat. The costumes were also way too blue. White or silver are snow, blue is water. – Where was the cat? I saw some rehearsals with the cat in the cardinal dance and liked the concept quite a bit. – Parents who let their crying children continue watching the performance. I know the Nutcracker is a family ballet and all, but I still pay the same price to see it (well, not this time since I had cheap seats, but you get my point).

I was lucky enough to see this wonderful production live. I don't have the program with me, so I'm not 100% sure about this, but Gillian and Ethan performed a pas de deux from "The Flames of Paris." There is a ballet by that title, isn't there? Ayway, like Placido's guest apperance (and the guest appearances of several other musicians, a singer, and a tango dancer), Gillian and Ethan's pdd had nothing to do with the opera itself. Nonetheless, I enjoyed all of the "divertissments" quite a bit. The opera itself was very good -- and quite hilarious. I enjoyed Anderson and Brendel as well as Jesus Garcia in a supporting role.

I don't post often on this site, but I do keep up (or at least, try to keep up) with the threads! The Washington National Opera recently opened its 49th season with Giordano's "Andrea Chenier" and premiered its second fall production, Britten's "Billy Budd," last Saturday. I went to both performances and enjoyed both quite a bit. Since this is more (live) opera than I've seen in the past two years combined, I'd love to discuss them with any one who went or is just interested in hearing about them. The Kennedy Center ballet season doesn't begin until early October, but I'm happy to keep myself occupied with opera until then!