cinnamonswirl

^ It's been mentioned in interviews that Portman did "a lot" of her own pointe work (whatever that means), and there was a charity auction a few months ago where she donated a pair of her used pointe shoes. She probably did the piqué turns herself. If I remember correctly, they were single piqué turns en dedans, which are relatively easy. With all the intensive training she had, I would think they would have been in her grasp. (En dehors turns, also known as lame duck or step-over turns, are a lot harder.)

NYCB is doing Swan Lake right during the lead-up to the Oscars. The Oscars are on February 27, and SL runs February 13-26. Clever programming by Martins.

I guess Legris is recruiting all of his old colleagues? The choreography this year is by Jean-Guillaume Bart.

Oh I hope you're wrong I'm going to get tickets for 2/12, and while I don't mind seeing Vishneva or Tereshkina twice, Somova instead of Lopatkina might make me cry.

Thanks for the link. ^ I believe Letestu was scheduled for opening night with Jose Martinez. Martinez injured himself just before the dress, and was replaced by Paquette. In the end, Emilie Cozette and Paquette danced opening night. Martinez can't be too badly injured because he's still scheduled to partner Lopatkina.

Men's Results: Quadrilles : 1. Pierre Arthur Raveau, promoted 2. Hugo Vigliotti, promoted 3. Alexandre Gasse, promoted 4. Julien Cozette, promoted Coryphées : 1. Daniel Stokes, promoted 2. Yannick Bittencourt, promoted 3. Marc Moreau, promoted 4. Cyril Mitilian, promoted 5. Allister Madin, promoted 6. Grégory Dominiak Sujets : 1. Florian Magnenet, promoted 2. Audric Bezard 3. Mallory Gaudion 4. Yann Saïz 5. Aurélien Houette 6. Fabien Révillion No big surprise about Magnenet, he's been cast quite a bit recently. Is Julien Cozette related to Emilie?

From NYCB's Twitter: "The White House will live-stream of the dance event on Tues. Sept 7. Workshop is at 3P, perf. is at 5P. You can find it at whitehouse.gov"

Has anyone seen Twilight? What did you think? Red Angels, which I love, has come back into the rep at least once, but I don't think Twilight has.

Isn't Balanchine's the only version with a Dewdrop? Most others I've seen just have the corps in the waltz of the flowers.

Pointe Magazine just tweeted that Hallberg & Murphy are dancing the Nutcracker premiere (Clara & the prince):

Kathryn Morgan and Robbie Fairchild are part of the On The Town editorial on page 595 in the September issue of American Vogue (Halle Berry cover). I think Morgan is wearing the Sugar Plum Fairy costume (the pink one).

When I talked to my grandmother over the weekend she asked if I'd seen the NYCB ad in the Times "where Maria forgot her pants."

Another (creepy) Black Swan photo http://suicideblonde.tumblr.com/post/903042587/bohemea-natalie-portman-in-black-swan-scary

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2010-07-22-blackswaninside22_ST_N.htm

Ashley Bouder mentions that Chrosniak was hired: http://www.vyou.me/ashleybouder (click on the question about dancers from Carlisle).

Kathryn Morgan tweeted a link to photos from the trip to Greece: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=188840&id=510105185&l=d225d88f27 From this picture http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4855809&id=510105185&l=d225d88f27 it looks like the muses were Maria Kowroski, Janie Taylor and ??

The first clip, of Ashley Bouder & Benjamin Millepied in The Four Seasons, is from a video Kristin Sloan/NYCB made about their London trip. I think the last clip is from an NYCB video as well. Not sure about the second.

When NYCB did Apollo in Paris in 2008 the cast was Sebastien Marcovici, Tess Reichlen as Calliope and Sara Mearns as Polyhymnia. Agnes Letestu from POB was Terpsichore. Also, according to his Twitter, Marcovici just danced Apollo in Athens.

Unfortunately, it seems that the video isn't available any longer (it says "an error occurred"). I was just able to access it. I'm not sure why. Not anymore, it was withdrawn "according to a copyright claim by the George Balanchine Trust" per YouTube's announcement at the top of the page. Anyone else think someone from the Trust reads this forum? I've noticed a number of clips that were on YT for a long time, but were deleted shortly after being mentioned on BT.

Looks like SeejayLurtzmann's account has been deleted That was a real treasure trove of amateur videos of POB.

They can compete in the external competition. If you look at the external results from previous years, I think you'll see that a number of the successful candidates (such as Marine Ganio) are in fact graduates of the school. Also, some of the candidates are very young, and I believe they can repeat their final year and do the internal competition again. They are some POB-trained dancers in German companies, and also at other French companies like the Opéra de Bordeaux. I am surprised they're aren't more at American companies though. Such a pity they're so few places this year.

I thought the performance got better as it went on. I thought she looked very tense the whole time, which I suppose isn't surprising (but contrasts with Alessandra Ferri and Kyra Nichols who looked totally carefree at their farewells). Anyway, Monumentum and Movements looked tentative, and so all of those arabesques where the ballerina pulls herself off balance looked to me like mistakes instead of intentional movements. And the ballets as a whole didn't have the same crisp impact they did with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet in DC a couple of weeks ago. Midsummer Night's Dream was sweet and charming, as it always is. I was sad to see that Kistler cheated almost all of the arabesques (secabesques), and I'm not sure why since her extension to the back was fine in Movement/Monumentum. Funny to see Henry Seth switch roles from Bottom to Rothbart in Swan Lake. I liked Danses Concertantes, which I had never seen before. It's kind of a compendium of ideas and themes that he explored more fully and more effectively in other, greater ballets. But it's a lot of fun to watch -- and the costumes are gorgeous. Good fit for Megan Fairchild. Swan Lake was gorgeous. This is where Kistler finally came alive. I'm not a huge fan of Martins's SL in general, but I do think the final act is very effective. And the ending -- the backlighting as the sun rises, and then Odette and then other swan corps bourréeing back off into the wings -- was absolutely beautiful and a wonderful, fitting way to end the performance and her career as a principal. I am very happy to have that memory as my final image of Darci's dancing. (I do have to comment on Rothbart's costume though. Has the cape always been orange like that? And orange streaks in his hair? I don't remember him looking like someone dressed in a cheap Halloween devil costume in the past. Maybe I just blocked it out?) The goodbyes at the end were quite sweet. Albert Evans, Jock Soto and someone else I'm 90% sure was Bob LaFosse came back to present her with roses, as did Yvonne Bourree. Maria Korowski, Ashley Bouder and Kistler's partners from the evening (Charles Askegard, Jared Angle, Sebastian Marcovici). They came out individually, while the younger principals came out as a group. Kistler's mother and brothers were there as well, which was nice. And Peter Martins and Talicia, of course. Overall it was a wonderful afternoon.

I'm not shocked. That's New York. Muggings unfortunately happen. Thankfully not as much as they used to, but they do. It's an unfortunate side of working and living in the city. I doubt she was targeted because she is a dancer. Still, I know from personal experience that it is a traumatic event, and I do feel for her. My real question though, is why on earth did the muggers did her pointes? The hammer, ok, but pointe shoes? What do they plan to do with them? Sell them on eBay?

An expressionless performance, but wow, technically Gilbert was very polished even as an advanced student. Her control is amazing. I'd love to see what she'd do with Balanchine's Walpurgisnacht -- to the same music -- especially since she's more developed artistically now.

La Petite danseuse is being taped this month. The expected cast is Clairemarie Osta, Delphine Moussin, Elisabeth Maurin, Mathieu Ganio, José Martinez and Benjamin Pech. The others are being recorded next season. I hope everything is released on DVD. Sometimes things are taped and broadcast (like the Nouvel An a la Bastille in 2008 and the Robbins program) without any apparent intention of releasing a DVD.