Amy Reusch

Okay. I'd agree with that... But I still think there's an interesting story here that's been lost to history of how this destitute street kid came to be of personal interest to a king: How did he come to audition? I can't help wondering if someone "found" him somehow and encouraged his tuition. Apparently he was extremely gifted, but that alone doesn't explain how he ended up in the theater. Or does it? I suppose that the opera ballet school attended to it's pupil's education beyond "pas", and that accounts somewhat for his language skills... presumably the opera encouraged a culture amongst it's denizens where more than one language was bandied about. The operas at that time in Sweden weren't all presented in Swedish were they? (that would surprise me).

I see, you are saying that you suspect Johansson's father might have been someone in the theater? (I'm feeling a little dense today)

Bournonville's mother was Johansson's father's housekeeper? I thought the article said Johansson was illegitimate... You must mean Bournonville's father... oh right, where's my grammar training.... you did mean Bournonville's father. But the quesiton was how did Johansson get his education? Do you mean from Bournonville? Very logical.

For me, musicality is when a dancer's rhythmic sense goes beyond mere accuracy.

And another article, about the Rockettes impact on Denver's Colorado Ballet Rockettes get a leg up on Ballet, CEO Fredmann fuming over DCA decision

And you have suggested that his mother may have been illiterate... It really makes one wonder who "found" him and how...

He uses the phrase 3 times and always phrased the same way.... January 10, 1837 letter to Bournonville: 1st paragraph: 2nd paragraph: April 16, 1837 letter to Bournonville: 3rd paragraph: I wondered if an ecol was some sort of virtuostic step (that required schooling to produce?)...

Speaking of BB doing their Nut in a convention center... may I say that I thought the Arie Crowne was a god awful space in which to see one's first ballet? What a cavern... how it dwarfed the energy of the dancers... spaces that big are perphaps better suited to Rockette type shows... or maybe marching bands would be even better... Why doesn't Chicago have a Lincoln Center either? It was once a centralized city, wasn't it? In the 90s when I lived in Chicago, the Loop was pretty dead... everyone was in the suburbs and getting anywhere involved long boring drives... very annoying to a NYer. At least LSD had a view. But there wasn't even a decent restaurant scene to support the theaters in the loop... it was like Wall Street, mostly closed down after the business day ended... no one hung out at bars or sidewalk cafes after a performance, or promenaded down the avenue... just long traffic jams of cars.

My apologies, Alexandra, the following is probably not the kind of discussion you were hoping for, but... What did Johansson mean when he said ? What is an ecol?

I'm waiting for LeighWitchel to suggest some Chance cards: Citywide Black-out, lose 3 rehearsals (move back 3 spaces).... Bizarre terrorist attack, (lose opera house?) Other Chance cards would have to include Principal Dancer injures self during Dress Rehearsal, and Blizzard (forfeit House)? Union Strike (pay fee) Instead of Pass Go, I think making it to the next fiscal year would suffice..... Community Cards should include grants, don't you think? oh, and of course.."great video", collect bookings. But Jail.... hmmm..... what would be equivalent? Lose Theater? Lose Artistic Director? How about simply "Economic Recession", lose one turn? Perhaps instead of houses & hotels, it could be venues; 250 seat house/ 1500 seat house.

One more link, (to keep these all in one place)... Boston Globe: The New York Grinch Who Stole Christmas I don't suppose it will make the newspapers, but I'm curious what the final toll will be.

If there can't be tangents, what fun would conversation be? Thanks for the Radio City history link. I had no idea... always assumed the Rockefellers owned the name!

Doesn't Radio City have a huge stage? So, wouldn't these touring Holiday Spectaculars be considerably scaled down? Does all the livestock tour as well? I was surprised to see Radio City referred to as a "former former Manhattan movie and stage palace". Doesn't it exist anymore? Do they not show movies there any more? My memory isn't great, but I thought seeing a movie was part of the show... I admit it's been a few decades since I've been...

Just to keep this somewhat handy... here are some of the news links Boston Globe Editorial and Boston Globe: Hynes center is eyed as 'Nutcracker' home and

Seems to me that I've heard that the Wang is not a very nice space to watch dance in. I can't remember why, whether it was a cavern or what... but if this move meant that Boston Ballet ended up performing in a better space, perhaps it's a good thing. However, is there actually another space in which it can present it's Nutcracker? Or does it have to re-think it's entire production and interaction with the audience? Can it's current production sets & choreography fit in another Boston theater? Or will it have to wait (can it?) until such a theater is built? What's the buzz? Here's a link to the discussion on this site's Boston Ballet forum No Wang for 2004 Nut

Mikko should have a conversation with Raymond Lukens about Miss Saigon and Hartford Ballet at the Bushnell.... or perhaps he doesn't consider Hartford a city.

Article on Wang Center shutting out Boston Ballet's Nutcracker next year This is a dangerous trend. It's what killed Hartford Ballet. American ballet companies need their Nutcrackers in order to survive. Ballet Chicago could never make a go of it in the '90s because of the Chicago Tribune's Nutcracker (they used to just shut down during Nutcracker season, considering that the was the best thing they could do for their dancers, to allow them to get work in other Nutcrackers)... Joffree-Chicago must be delighted that the Tribune is no longer producing it's own Nut. Although I was sorry to Ruth Page's production cease to exist, I was glad that there was now room for another company to make some money... (The Tribune took the profits and put them into literacy charities rather than into funding dance companies) I'd like to know how exactly the Wang expects Boston Ballet to survive without a reasonable theater for their Nut. Could someone enlighten me.... Aren't Broadway road tours "for-profit" endeavors? How do non-profit performing arts centers justify to themselves that it's ethical for them to present for-profit productions? Isn't this taking donations to subsidize profit for someone else? (Does this topic belong in Issues or Arts Management?) ~Amy

Closing with tableaux vivants seems as if it might feel like the rhythm of closing credit sequences in movies... particularly where they have little postcripts for characters in the movie... It would be an interesting (if expensive costume-wise) way to wind down a show... but what would become of the usual extended curtain calls? I suppose only a post-modern dance company could pull it off... (or adventures in motion pictures?) [see, Alexandra, if you encourage babble, it might burst forth from the wrong corner].

It was the New York Times. Baryshnikov made the front page when he defected. Dance is important in NYC. Unlike some other major US cities I've lived in. Yes or No? I can't decide. It continues to characterize ballet as some sort of weird fine art form whose denizens are out of touch with the rest of the world's ideas of what a woman should look like... on the other hand, it might pique their curiosity to see her dance... but I think the "nay"s have it.

A small amount of footage is usually also available for PSAs or VNRs, press footage... but it's a fine line, and the company that errs might be very heavily penalized for using "archival" footage for "commercial" purposes. I have a ghost of a memory that there's a specific number of seconds that can be used, but off the top of my head I can't think of it (been a mom & mostly retired too long now, I guess)

I was archival videographer for PA Ballet during Christopher d'Amboise's tenure. I can tell you that getting the rights (from the dancers' union AGMA, the orchestra's union AFofM, the stage hand's union IATSE, not to mention the choreographers, designers, composers, etc.) would make the cost of such a production very high... even just broadcast rights, let alone the distribution on VHS.... my guess is that it would probably not be profitable enough to entice some producer into the project. I'd love to see it happen though. I wonder if easier video distribution wouldn't have a little of the same effect the touring program of the NEA had for dance in the 1970s.... having a trickle-down benefit to all those entities who are so worried about the rights that the tapes can't be made. I'm not a producer and I've almost done anything for general distribution, so I can't tell you the costs involved... but I do know that when NYCB did it's Nutcracker film a while back, it was all done with a European orchestra in order to avoid the punishing costs of paying off the AF of M. Meanwhile, it can be difficult just to get the waivers for archival videos from the unions. I've heard stage hands complain that I'm taking money out of their pockets (for videos that live in a closet somewhere, not even the dancers performing being allowed their own copy). Say, are you a friend of that PA Ballerina principal, Dede Barfield? She's a native of Texas.

Marga, Ina & Inga, it sounds as she no longer looks like the photos (linked to earlier in this thread) at http://www.volochkova.nm.ru/foto_html/a_2_e.shtml Is it true? Are they likely old photos?

I've never met her in person, but I saw her height printed once as 5'6" & 3/4. I remember it very clearly because I was shocked that it was such a fuss. (being 5'10" myself). (BTW, I also didn't think Suzanne Farrell seemed as tall as she looked in photos when I met her in person.) Mel, am I right in guessing that you were plenty tall for a dancer? I remember Royes Fernandez telling me that at 5'8" he was considered the "tall man" at ABT. Times have changed, haven't they... now we hear more complaints of young dancers being told they're too short to have a career. But you know, just as men tend to add an inch to their height, women tend to cut one off... so perhaps it was taken from some publicity material. I don't know, if a tall woman with long legs wearing high heels is perverse, then merely wearing high heels for other than "corrective" purposes is perverse. She's right. God gave her gorgeous legs, she shouldn't insult the gift by making them look ugly in flats. Tall women often are encouraged by society to feel that there's something wrong with being a tall woman and so avoid anything that might make them look taller. They should be disabused of this notion! Tall women tend to have great looking legs, and should be encouraged to not to hide them. [Yes, I am over compensating for being a gawky teenager; it took Jacques d'Amboise & the milieu of tall dancers he chose to finally disabuse me of the "flats" notion]. You'd think at the "Bolshoi", they'd want them "big" for heavens sake!

Well, judging from the photos, she's certainly not as chunky as most of the ballerinas originating the roles she's dancing... but if she's close to 6 feet on pointe then she probably does weigh more (most ballerinas were pretty short prior to 1950 as far as I can tell). I don't know, they always made a big deal of how tall Cynthia Gregory was and how hard it was to get her a partner, and I think she's not 5'7"... times have changed. I think she looks beautiful... very much like a person and not like a waif... I think people who have a hard time relating to ballet because the women don't look like "real women" would find her appealing. She looks like a woman dancing, not a dancer dancing, if you know what I mean.

All right... I'll ask the question... Just how tall is she and just how much does she weigh?