Diana L

There was a performance last week in NYC at the Clark Theater featuring quite a few dancers from the NYCB (Janie Taylor, D. McBrearty, Jared Angle, Ryan ... (forgot his last name) Dena Abergal and a few others. And for the life of me I can't remember who was choreographing it. Maybe there's a link page to it. But did anyone go to the performance?

I think that when a dancer is compared to another dancer, that's unfair. I also don't like when a ballet is just panned because of "lack of rehearsal", I always get the feeling the dancers are being blamed for that. And even when they use nice words, like "womanly" any comments on weight are not kind.

I saw Kathleen Moore once and she soon retired after. She was someone who just wow-ed me.

I enjoyed seeing Scotch Symphony. Watching Janie Taylor emerge (and get promoted). I look forward to next season where some of the ballets above will be brought back, including "The Concert" which is one of my favorites. A big Brava to some of the senior corps dancers, particularly Amanda Edge and Elizabeth Walker, who are always so solid and whenever they are on stage I walk away happy. Disappointed that Rachel Rutherford didn't get a promotion, and I believe she missed the last few weeks due to injury, but that meant Janie Taylor took up some of those roles. And I lament not seeing Jessy Hendrickson back in full form. She's another solid dancer that I miss seeing dance. I'd like to see Martins choreograph a piece with different dancers. It seems he always picks the same 4 or 5. They're good, but they're not the only ones. It must be hard to dance these ballets after doing a month of the Nutcracker. Looking forward to Spring.

After checking out the book sale, I think a prima is someone who gets her biography published!

I just saw a special on Margot Fonteyn. I never saw her dance, but to me she seemed to be a prima ballerina for what she did off the stage as well. She was very complimentary of other dancers and seemed to be a good "spokeswoman" for the company. At NYC Ballet, I think right now, Darci Kistler and Kyra Nichols are the two primas. It helps that one is married to the Director, but they are commonly the two dancers the younger ones refer to as a role model. I think it's the grace they display on stage as well as off stage that stands the prima's out. And just to continue the question a bit, does one become a prima after you've been a principal over time? Do they have to wait towards the end of their careers. Say someone like the newly promoted Jennie Somogyi, is she a prima or is she too young?

Thanks for the info BalletNut. Lillian, did you mean that Martins sees Yvonne Borree and thinks Kay Mazzo? Or that Kay Mazzo wonders about Borree too?

I didn't mean SAB as the school. I meant who the school they originally learned from. A lot of these dancers seem to just show up at SAB having been trained before and use it as a platform to be seen for future jobs. This is going to be a dumb question, but who is Kay Mazzo?

I think Martins has hot/cold relationships with a lot of dancers. He loves them, works them to death and then practically disgards them when he finds someone new. There are some dancers then that he doesn't recognize yet who seem like such solid staples in the company (Elizabeth Walker/Amanda Edge). Sometimes I watch Yvonne Borree and I wonder what he was thinking. Doesn't the school that they come from deserve a lot of the credit as well? I went to a School of American Ballet Workshop performance and most of those kids dancing are now in New York City Ballet. And the ones that did the major roles are getting major roles in NYC Ballet too.

There is a lovely article and photo of her in this week's New Yorker magazine, article done by Arlene Croce

I'm new here and new to ballet. I've only been watching for about 2 years now, so you'll have to pardon my not knowing all of the terms. I went to last night's performance at NYC Ballet too. Here's my thoughts. Overall I didn't like the way the program was set up. It was really hard for me to watch 2 piano pieces in a row. 2&3 Part Inventions. I liked the piece overall, I thought the two lesser female roles were danced far better and seemed more rehearsed than the 2 female leads. I really enjoyed watching Eva Natanya too, she reminds me of a young Jennie Ringer. The musicality and the fact that she looks like she's really enjoying it. I thought Rachel Rutherford's solo was beautiful. She's a stunning woman and the way she swoons with her arms is just magnificent. Polyphonia. It reminded me of Episodes at some parts but I liked it overall. I really liked the lighting of the piece too. There was a section danced by Jennie Somogyi and Edwaard Liang were they waltz that was very clever. Wendy Whelan is a beautiful human rubberband! I really enjoyed watching how far (and seemingly easy) she could move her body. Jock Soto was very dark and mysterious opposite her. Overall I liked the piece, but it lacked originality. Some parts I thought (like the waltz) were very original, but I could have assumed it was a Balanchine piece (which in a way is an backhanded compliment too). Scotch Symphony. I had never seen this one before and I really loved it. A couple of other notes. The majority of corps dancers wore their hair in a low bun and there were a few girls that had the buns on top of their head. That may be nitpicking on my part, but it broke a pattern I noticed. Am I reading too much into that? Janie Taylor and Kyra Nichols. Taylor was great, lots of gusto, she just went for it. A little unpolished but Nichols makes up for that. She's the grand dame of the company and her little nuances were beautiful. I felt like she was what Taylor will be after she gets out of lass mode (at least in the ballet) so that was a nice complement of dancers. I really enjoyed Taylor though, watching her I wanted to go out and buy a kilt and bright red socks! I apologize for however raw this is, as a newcomer to ballet (and writing about it) it's overwhelming sometimes how much knowledge everyone here seems to have, please go easy on me