GeorgeB fan

I just came across this over on You Tube. Simply marvelous! Jerome Robbins presented the film tribute. Jacques d'Amboise told us a wonderful, funny story about Danilova teaching him how to bow in front of an audience after giving a performance in a ballet. Then Darci Kistler and Robert Lyons from the New York City Ballet performed the White Swan Pas de Deux in her honor. It wasn't the finest performance I've seen of that dance but I have to admit while watching it I couldn't help but think it was a better representation of Danilova's art then compared to last year's tribute to Natalia Makarova. Perhaps that had to do with the fact Danilova tribute focus on just one long dance instead of a patch work of dances that wasn't edited all that well together. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlEyNcdhFcY

And her statement somewhere in the middle: Just read the entrie interview. Liked it. She very diplomatic. She seems to know how to reveal things without being too revealing and she apparently has a mastery at side-stepping the more hot botton questions with relative ease. She appears confident, strong and very assure of herself. Who knows in the long run having a female running the biggest ballet company in the world is just what the Bolshoi needs at this time. Here's to her sucess until Mr. Filin is able to return...and if she is successful...hopfully Mr. Filin will keep her own as an official AAD.

He does seem to have diarrhea of the mouth! I highly doubt - or at least I hope not - Mr. Tsiskaridze had anything to do with Mr. Filin horrible attack, but the man is not making himself a sympathetic figure in this terrible mess. He comes off arrogant, cocky and smug. Whether he realize it or not he's behavior is unattractive. Now I'm not saying he's wrong at what he's talking about...I have a strong feeling the management isn't all that clean with innocence themselves...I'm just saying Mr. Tsiskaridze isn't doing himself any favors. I mean when making statements questioning whether or not Mr. Filin was actually attack with acid...I'm mean c'mon...WOW!! I get his desire to defend himself but he's coming off sounding cold and heartless.

Here's the complete Kennedy Center Honor tribute for Natalia Makarova http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QMtk872YVk

Just finish watching the broadcast. Marvelous...simply wonderful. Obviously there was some editing when it came to the dancing but it wasn't so distracting in which you couldn't enjoy the beauty as well as the obvious joy the dancers had at honoring Natalia. A beautiful tribute to a great artist!!

I think the true brilliance of Marcelo Gomes is that one's personal sexuality is meaningless when on stage. Artistry is what's important when everything is said and done. I mean no question the fact that Marcelo is gay certainly destroys the stereotype of gay men being "girlish" in attitude for lack of a better phrase. He does bring a wonderful masculinity and strength to his elegant and noble dancing. But more then that, Marcelo is a gifted partner. He is extremely attentive to his ballerinas. He makes sure they shine as beautifully as possible. You just know his ladies feels safe and protected in his strong yet loving arms. The ladies actually seem more alive with Marcelo. They seem more daring, more animated; they seem to glow more in their dancing and in their characterization. They seem to become these glorious creatures who have become free to fly as high as they wish because they know they have someone there to catch them, not just in terms of dancing, but also in terms of emotion. Marcelo allows them to be uninhibited, which in turns, makes the ladies extremely exciting to watch. And the sexual chemistry Marcelo exudes with his ladies - especially Diana Vishneva - is fabulous to watch. When he's on stage he is completely and totally in love with the woman he's dancing with. Marcelo is gay but there's no question he has a great love and respect for women and he shows that every time he's on stage with them. For my money, Marcelo Gomes is the BEST male partner currently in ballet...not to mention the best actor.

I'm African-American. I love ballet but I am aware of the fact there are very few ballet companies in the world that has black dancers of African descent much less children studying at their world famous ballet schools. I mean that's just the reality. So I've come to accept there will be times - in certain ballets - in which dancers will darken their skin for a role in which they will be dancing. I remember when ABT revived Fokine's Petrouchka some years back. One of the main characters of course is The Moor. Marcelo Gomes performed that role and his skin was darkened. I had no issues with it...mainly because his make-up was tastefully done. It was not insulting nor disgusting to watch. When ABT performed Othelle, once again, Gomes danced the title role and once again I didn't have an issue with his make-up because it was tastefully handled. When I mean "tastefully handled" I mean the make-up just darkened his skin to perhaps a medium brown. That's it. Nothing more. Totally acceptable. When I watched this video of Pharaoh's Daughter I was distrubed - and I'll be honest - I wasn't able to finish watching it. The moment those children appeared a shot of anger went through me because their make-up was disgusting and completely unnecessary...and the costume and choreography didn't help things. The reason why I was offended wasn't because of the darken make-up. If you notice the ballerina, who was also wearing darken make-up, she was fine. I have no issue with her make-up at all. It was tastefully handled and well done. It was the white make-up that surrounded those children's eyes and lips that I was most disgusted with. That white make-up over their darken make-up plays into the stereotype of the negative facial images of blacks. And because they're kids, there's a word for it: Picaninniy. That white make-up is demonstrating those kids have all the stereotypical images of blacks: the bulging stupefied eyes with the big wide, ugly lips...big enough in which they could stuff a huge slice of watermelon in their mouths with no problem. That added make-up made those kids offensive to look it...at least for me. And as I mentioned the choreography didn't help much. In that first segment the kids had their hands up in the air, their palms facing the audience, their fingers stretched wide and they're jumping sideways back and forth on their legs. For a second I thought I was watching a minstrel show and I'm pretty convince that thought would have never crossed my mind if those kids wasn't wearing the white make-up. I probably would have simply thought the choreography was cute for the kids, but with that added make-up, I couldn't help but think something else. The Bolshoi took the make-up too far and I have a strong feeling they know it. After all they didn't dare put that white make-up on the ballerina. Could you imagine the uproar if that would have happened? They probably thought because they were children they could get away with it. No.

That would be lovely of Mr. Dowell. I've always wanted to see that ballet live! Another ballet I would love to see ABT perform is Balanchine's romantic Liebeslieder Walzer. Obviously the dancers would have to be extremely well-rehearsed but I think ABT has a collection of dancers who would more then do justice to this exquisite ballet. I could easily see... Visheva/Gomes - perhaps in the Violette Verdy role Kent/Bolle - perhaps in the Diana Adams role Abrera/Hammoudi - perhaps in the Melissa Hayden role Osipova/Hallberg - perhaps in the Jillana role. And that's just one group. We could also have...Cojocaru/Kobborg {if he's a guest artist}, Dvorovenko/Beloserkovsky, Part/Muntagirov {if he's a guest artist}, etc. The combinations are endless.

Is there any real chance ABT can perform A Month in the Country? I've always wanted ABT to perform that ballet, but from what I understand Anthony Dowell own the rights to the ballet, and so far he has only allowed The Royal Ballet to perform it. Has things change on that account?

Here's a video of James Whiteside from the Boston Ballet YT page http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx4cWoy6JNQ&feature=relmfu Here he's dancing the second act Pas de duex from Giselle with Boston Ballet's Misa Kuranaga. He has to be well-trained and rehearsed but I do see potential.

Yes I couldn't help noticing that myself! Nice! LOL. I thought it was lovely that Amanda McKerrow and her husband came back to pay tribute to Ethan. When Ethan first started with ABT he and Amanda was partnered quite frequently and they danced well together. If I remember correctly at Amanda's farewell performance, Ethan was her Albrecht to her Giselle. In fact I believed Gillian Murphy was Myrtha and John Gardner danced Hilarion. It was an incredible performance that night and a fabulous farewell for Amanda. I can't help but think those two couples are probably wonderful friends off stage.

Unless I'm mistaken - and I have no problem with correction - but this the first time I've ever seen an "ALL MARTINS" program. On Tuesday, May 14th and on Saturday, May 18th at 2pm we'll be having: Calcium Light Night River of Light Barber Violin Concerto Fearful Symmetries Pretty gusty I guess. At least he seemed to have put together some of his "best" ballets on the program. It certainly will be interesting to see how many seats will be filled on the days of those performances.

It seems I'll be doing nothing but repeating what has already been mentioned. But here goes... Balanchine: The Step PDD from Emeralds Diamond PDD Agon Divertissement PDD from A Midsummer Night Dream Tchaikovsky PPD Second PPD from Stravinsky Volin Concerto Duo Concertant Nutcracker PPD Robbins: Afternoon of a Faun Other Dances Tudor: Leaves are Fading MacMillian: Balcony PDD from Romeo and Juliet Bedroom PDD from Manon Ashton: Final PDD from A Month in the Country Oberon and Titania from The Dream Wheeldon: PDD from After the Rain. There's a video on YouTube with Damian Smith and Yuan Yuan Tan from San Francisco Ballet that is simply breathtaking!! Jiri Kylian: Nuages - I discovered this on YouTube. Beautifully profound. And of course the following... Black Swan PDD Giselle PDD - Second Act Sleeping Beauty Grand PDD The Shades PDD from La Bayadere

This remind me of that old phrase: "If it ain't broke why fix it?" Personally I love the black and white: simple, direct, sleek, and stylish. What more do we need? But who knows Mr. Happel could happily surprise us with his designs. But I can't help but wonder what the Balanchine purest are going to think...especially if the new costumes are a major miss.

Okay I'm seriously hooked!!! If at all possible please continue posting the latest episodes. I haven't been so quickly hooked over an import series since Downton Abbey. Why can't American television produce something this good to watch??

I think the Marinsky's Uliana Lopatkina perfectly demonstrate that "coquetterie" quailty that Petipa may have wanted for that variation. Her hands barely touches each other when she claps them together. She's very soft, very serene. Very much the ideal Princess. Very much the way Novikova performed it. The first time I saw Sylvie Guillem danced Nureyev's version I didn't care for it. I thought the choreography was too harsh, not very stylish and that Guillem was selling it too hard. Then I saw the Bolshoi's Maria Alexandrova perform the choreography and suddenly it was marvelous. She was still commanding, still impressive but suddenly you didn't see the dominatrix...you didn't see the hard sell. Instead we witness an aristocratic queen of imperial nobility, self-assurred and self-confident in her station in life. She didn't have to sell anything. She's just IS. I guess this is a perfect example of dancer's own personal interpretation of a variation. Some leaves one dry while others open up doors you never thought possible. Like Lopatkina, I also noticed that when Alexandrova claps her hands it's done very silently - except at the very beginning and towards the final end - and when they do they time their claps very carefully. They don't do it merely for the sake of doing it. If you look at Guillem or Pontois they seem to be clapping all the time and with greater strength. They don't seem to time their clapping with the music as the Russian ladies do. But I've always thought - and I could be wrong - that the Russian ballerinas seem to have a better understanding of this great variation then almost any other ballerina in the world.

This is a fun thread. So wonderfully educational! If I may... I think the fantastic Jean Babilee would be admired in any generation in which he would danced in. Natalia Osipova could still take lessons from Cynthia Harvey when it comes to dancing Don Quixote in terms of clarity, smoothness and most importantly musicality and benefit greatly from it. If Harvey was dancing today at the height of her powers, she would easily be the top rank principal prima ballerina at ABT.

A good comparison. I remember a number of NYCB fans was wondering when Peter Martins was going to take Korbes out of the corp and make her a soloist. It took him forever despite the fact she was dancing soloists, and in some cases, prinicpal roles for a long time to great success. When he finally made her soloist it was too late. She was out the door following Peter Boal to PNB, and even though it's been some years now, I still think losing Korbes was a serious lost to City Ballet. But I bet if you ask Korbes she would regard it as the best decision she made in terms of her career. Perhaps an even better comparison is Miranda Weese. Soon after Korbes left City Ballet for PNB, Weese - who was a principal with City Ballet - did the same and joined PNB as well. From what I understood one of the main reasons why she left City Ballet was because it was so overcrowded with prinicpal dancers she rarely got the chance to perform despite being one of the company's then strongest ballerinas. Isn't that one of the reasons why Osipova and Vasiliev left the Bolshoi? To be able to dance more as well as perform in a more variety of roles? Yes this is a shocking departure but for O&V this maybe the best choice for them. After all when everything is said and done they have to think what's best for themselves and not for others.

I could be wrong - so please anyone correct me if I am - but wasn't Tsiskaridze dropping hints that he would have liked to have considered for the position of Artistic Director for the Bolshoi during the last crisis when the AD left the company early this year before Sergei Filin was given the job?

I was surprise by the direction and editing. Matthew Diamond in general is excellent when it comes to directing dance on film and Girish Bhargava is by now a legend when it comes to editing dance on film. So it was disappointing. But then I started thinking that perhaps Diamond and Bhargava was overcompensating over the fact that the ballets was being filmed on such a small set. I mean the studio appeared to have been pretty tiny. When looking on the studio recordings of Balanchine back in the 70's, the studio was much bigger, making it possible perhaps to film those ballets with greater flexible and finesse - and of course Balanchine was there making sure they were filiming his ballets correctly - LOL. With this recording everything looked so claustrophobic, and I grant you, the extreme close-ups didn't help matters. It looked so cramped and I think that crampness may have stole some of Diamond's and Bhargava's abilities at recording those dances as well as they should have been. That said, I still highly enjoyed the program. Square Dance I thought was danced wonderfully. You got the sense the dancers were truly enjoying themselves which in trun made me enjoy watching them. The choreography looked flesh, spirited and exciting. If I have one negative is that Renan Cerdeiro didn't perform the male solo as well as I would have hoped. Not that he wasn't fine - he was - but there was no sense of melancholy meditation to his movement in the choreography. Of course I've been spoiled by Manuel Legris's interpretation of the role thanks to the Balanchine Celebration video so comparing Cerdeiro to Legris is probably an injustice to Cerdeiro. Despite it not being among my favorites, Western Symphony was nice and well danced. But the music sounded as if it was being performed way off in the distance in the beginning. The volume recording appeared to be on the low button instead of high. As for Tharp...the less said about that "ballet" the better. A Robbins ballet would have been better or perhaps something by Christopher Wheeldon. Doesn't MCB perform Wheeldon? That would have been great. I enjoyed the show and was glad to have taped it. MCB did themselves proud!!

Speaking of Balanchine... I completely understand the idea of NOT wanting to see ABT become the second version of NYCB, but I think there's enough ballets in Balanchine's canon in which ABT can borrow from it without the chance of ABT transforming themselves in a second version of Balanchine's company. Select correctly, Balanchine's ballets could be extremely beneficial as well as challenging for the dancers as well as the audience who get to see Balanchine perform in a different house, with a different sensibility at approaching his work. I would love to see ABT take on the huge challenge at performing Balanchine's Liebeslieder Walzer. The first time I saw that ballet I wasn't impress. In fact I was bored. But on second veiwing, I totally fell in love with it and have been every since. And from that moment on I couldn't help but wonder how the dancers of ABT would perform this exquisite ballet? ABT could invite Karin von Aroldington to stage it and work with the dancers and just thinking on who the eight dancers could possibly be is actually endless. David Hallberg, Maxim Beloserkovsky, Marcelo Gomes, Jared Matthews would be wonderful - I think - as the gentlemen. Julie Kent, Irina Dvorovenko, Diana Vishneva {guest}, Alina Cojocaru {guest} would be enchanting as the ladies. Not to mention all the wonderful female soloists: Stella Abrera, Isabella Boylston, Maria Riccetto, Yuriko Kajiya who could possibility dance the roles. As I said just thinking on the casting itself is endless.

Speaking of Antony Tudor... Can someone explain to me why ABT hasn't performed Echoing of Trumpets since the mid 90's? Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that ballet generally regarded as one of Tudor's greatest masterpieces? I've never seen the ballet live, but I've seen clips of it and base on that, I would pay top dollar to see it perform live on stage. It seems to be a great work of dance theater. But I'm not an expert. So I asking: Is this ballet worth reviving, and if it is, who could you see dancing it?

I would absolutely buy tickets to both! I completely agree with angelica!!!!

I just watched some videos of Vadm Muntagirov on YouTube. He seems to be very talented. It's not surprising he's developing a strong fanbase with ENB's audience. ABT would be very lucky to have him. But it does bring a thought in my head. I don't mind ABT inviting guest artist to perform a full season. But what would be the attitude of ballet companies across the world towards ABT if ABT start this massive shopping at scooping up other dancers from other companies? How would ABT be perceived by their company of peers? As a company who steals, or worst, a company that can't develop it's own natural talent in their own backyard? Either way it certainly wouldn't look all that favorable to ABT. In a way - without meaning too of course but with a cynical way at looking at things - they could be broadcasting to the ballet world their stable of dancers are rather weak. Something I don't think any ballet company wish to have as a reputation.

I actually admire McKenzie's production of Swan Lake. I enjoy the touches of innovations he brought to the ballet: the prologue in which we see Von Rothbart seducing and capturing Odette; in the ballroom scene I loved how he made it very clear that each divertissement actually presented the nationality of each princess; I love how he split the role of Von Rothbart in half, giving us a highly suave and menacing one in the ballroom scene as he danced with the princessess {you understood very clearly how those ladies could easily fall underneath his seductive spell}, although I have to admit I wish they would re-costume the Von Rothbart we see at the lakeside. He's too much the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Granted, Von Rothbart is an evil sorcerer and he isn't often seen in productions as human but that costume makes him look like a camp cartoon character, that you can't possibly take seriously. My problem with the production - AND IT'S A HUGE ONE - is the absence of a full third act. I have no problem with McKenzie combning the first two acts. But the last two acts should remain separate. We need to have that final act at the lake. We need to see in full detail, Odette's heartache at realizing that she will forever be a swan. We need to see her go through the pain at being betrayed by Siegfried. We should see Odette's fellow swams helping her through this pain as she tries, for the first time, to kill herself. We need to see Von Rothbart tormenting her over his momentary victory at destroying true love. We need to see Siegfried rushing to Odette, begging for forgiveness, with her forgiving him, but realizing her time in this world is over as both she and Siegfried make the pack to kill themselves. We need to see Von Rothbart fighting against it because he knows if they die, he in turn would die himself and his spell would be broken. We need to see love triumph over evil. We get all of that in this production...but can you say "Rush Job??" Everything is speeded up. We don't get any of the beauty, any the detail characterization through dance; the corp is barely used with any significance. We don't feel any real depth of emotions happening between Odette and Siegfried; you don't feel the struggle of Odette at forgiving Siegfried, nor do you feel the true depth of Siegfried's sorrow at condemning Odette at being a swam for life. We get none of this with McKenzie's production and we should. This is a tragic romance...but with this production...we don't get any of the tragedy nor romance. The final act should be highly emotional and powerful. With McKenzie's you feel as if you're at an auto race, timing at how fast the race would finish. McKenzie needs to give us a third act and he should pattern it after the wonderful third act production Frederick Ashton created for the Royal Ballet as shown in the 1982 video of Swan Lake as danced by Natalia Makarove and Anthony Dowell. Now that's an awesome third act!!! La Fille Mal Gardee - At this point I'm thinking there must be a legal reason why McKenzie hasn't brought this joyous ballet back to the Met. What a fantastic crowd-pleaser and the company did a marvelous job performing it. The critics loved it, the audience loved it and you got the strong sense the dancers adored performing it. The ballet has four terrific roles in which McKenzie could probably cast from Prinicpal down to Corp de Ballet and not make a bad mistake in the casting. It needs to come back ASAP! The Sleeping Beauty - It's a joke - YUCK!!!!!!!!