Starr

"The largest, most majestic production of The Sleeping Beauty ever." Take that, Big Leningrad Company!

I like it.

I think I'll skip it. Saw the BLC and the Royal last season, think I need sometime off of SB. Well at least ABT can put Swan Lake away for a couple of years when touring. They are yet again doing it in my area, last 3 years we have had a Le Corsaire sandwich on Swan Lake bread.

Maybe disturbing was the wrong word. I just think that it's surprising that after such a long glorious career Bussell doesn't seem particularly happy with her career choice. It sounds like she started dancing because she wasnt good at anything else, and that she remained a dancer because of determination and lack of options, rather than love of the art.

I know ballet is a terribly demanding career, but Bussell seems to have been blessed and led a charmed life. Unlike, say, Suzanne Farrell, she didn't have moments when her entire career was in jeopardy, and she's married to a banker and has two lovely kids. Yet she still doesn't sound particularly happy about being a dancer.

Yes, she is blessed. Last year she and her husband sold there house in the range of 2-3 million pounds. British papers must have a thing for ballerinas & their houses. Another one I remember was Leanne Benjamin, who talked about how many times she & her hubby have bought houses(one at a time). Though I gather that sort of thing is common in London.

To be honest, I read a lot of interviews with dancers that sound like they are "cursed" with their talent or grouse about the hours, injuries, pay etc. Diana V. and Agnes Oakes come to mind.

Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, now R&J? I'll let more of the NYCB experts debate this, but it seems rather ABT/RBish.

Why? I'd think ABT has enough guys. I know they do. I understand Richardson, but Thomas? I just don't see the need, but maybe that's just me!

I have been scratching my head too.

I have to agree with you on with Louis & Monique. She was a half a step behind him. I don't remember him having Lisa do such hard steps last year. And that black lipstick on her(or anyone) is scary. In hindsight, I knew she was going to get voted off, but watched the results show anyway.

The choice of music is getting worse every week. Hopefully they saved the better choices for the last 2 shows.

By the way Emmitt & Cheryl were at the Texas Motor Speedway last night to give the command to start engines at the Craftsmen Truck Race.

Don't know about the rest of you, but this season is rather blah to me.

What keeps me coming back are Mario's adorable dimples.

Before this DWTS season kicked off, I'd never heard about half of the so-called stars, Mario included. (Ditto last year.) Except for Mario and his adorable dimples, I haven't come to care much about anyone.

I'd love to know how this show was pulled together. Where do the judges come from?

There's a lot of dead time, IMO, although the studio footage is marginally fun.

Len and Mario are also judges on the original BBC show "Strictly Come Dancing", I don't know anything about Carrie.

I remember Mario from Saved by the Bell (a Saturday morning teen show on NBC back in the early 90's), he had a mullet if I remember.

I had never heard of Willa Ford before this show. I was impressed with her improvement every week. I feel we are going to have a change in the voting if there is another season. Don't know about the rest of you, but this season is rather blah to me.

I'm envisioning Gelsey Kirkland standing at center Met stage taking a bow at the end of the Sleeping Beauty premiere. Shivers.

I was thinking EXACTLY the same thing (among other thoughts!!!) when I read Dale's post yesterday.

Richard

Okay, why do you both think that way.

I wish Great Performances had made more of an event of it. The narration was sparce, and when it was over, it was over ... and quickly. Nothing was made of the individual dancers. (While of course much time was devoted to listing every donor and production and technical person.)

My impression was that, as a television "event," it was a question of: "Let's just stick the DVD in the damn player and get it over with."

Well put. And I notice that all around the country it didn't air until 10pm. GOD FORBID they should pre-empt "Antiques Roadshow," episode 294,049.

That's why I dvr'ed it. . It was on here also at 10pm. I was too pooped after preview night for school(redistricted elementaries this year so my preschooler and 4th grader are at new schools this year). Also the 4th grader wants to watch(budding ballet fan).

The big question is will Tucker Carlson be as bad as ESPN's Kenny Mayne from last year.

I may be wrong but I think Springer might be a suprise.

Would presenting special subscriptions for out-of-towners be a good idea? An example would be weekend trios (Sat mat, eve, Sun mat). They could be sold as subscriptions before single tickets go on sale, so that out-of-towners would have a better shot at decent seating than if they had to achieve this by individual purchases

I think that would be a good idea, but this is coming from an out of towner.

I believe I could get excited about Gillian Murphy's Aurora! However, I'm not real excited about "Othello" being the full length at the Kennedy Center early next year. I wish it was "Sylvia."

I caught part of SFB doing Othello on PBS the other year(stumbled upon it). I didn't think it was that bad, I only saw maybe the last 30 minutes. I would pay to see that than Swan Lake, would love to catch Sylvia.

ABT executive director Rachel Moore featured in August's Vogue, which came out today. It's the age issue and she represents the 40s. In the picture, she's surrounded by students from the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of American Ballet Theatre.

Just got the issue in the mail today, it's just not a portrait of Rachel but an article too. Haven't read it yet, just glanced at it.

I have a feeling the screaming teenage girls are students at the summer intensive...

When I saw this ballet in Cleveland, Carreno was announced before the curtain went up as Ali(guess someone got hurt as he wasn't cast). You couldn't hear the other subsitition for all the screaming for Jose. Don't know if it was a bunch of teenage girls, but it was loud.

Yet another quotation, from Frederick Ashton. I don't know if it directly relates but it's a good sentiment:

"If you want to keep a company happy, you can't always look after the talented dancers, the ones with gifts—you have to look after people who've been loyal, who've been useful, who happen to be good partners, good mimes—they all have to be considered, they must also be treated decently, and if you do that I think you can hold a company. It's when you start abusing them and only looking after the talented ones that a company falls to pieces."

It's a good quote and I think it applies to all ballet companies, but then again you could apply it to any sort of business or sports team.

I had seen Herrera in Swan Lake, she was okay. I saw the Herrera/Hallberg LeCorsaire in Cleveland(picked that performance because of David really). I was pleasantly surprised with Paloma, perhaps the role suits her better. I have a feeling David gets cast with Wiles alot because of her height and the "marketing" of the 2 young and up and comers.

As silly as the plot is I rather like LeCorsaire, my husband loved it(I think we may have a new fan after all).

It has been this way for the past few years. One ballet for a week (more or less). Some ballets get more performances, some fewer, depending on expected ticket sales.

It makes rehearsing more economical, but it discourages the audience member who might want to see four casts of Romeo and Juliet, but not if it means seeing four R&J's in a row. It's even worse for ballet-loving tourists passing through New York. If you're in for 4-5 days and want a nice helping of ballet, are you really going to attend more than one Giselle?

One Giselle and one R&J would be enough for me! Being that I would be one of those ballet-loving tourists I would probably spend money on a NYCB ticket, since ABT comes to my neck of the woods.

I think they are coming to Detroit and dancing Swan Lake, not sure if I will go as I saw them do it in Cleveland last year.

Was the schedule like this last year? One ballet per week and trying to cram as many leads in as possible?

Swan Lake every year? It's a bit much but it seems like they do R&J just as frequently.

Saw the Thursday performance with Alina and Johan. She was well worth the money to stay for the second night, even though I saw the Kirov's Beauty in the fall.

I have to say I enjoyed the RB's Beauty better than the Kirov's just from the fact I think the story flows better with the Royal's staging. I think the Kirov's fairy tale characters were more fun to watch, the RB's dance with that English restraint.

We also had travel problems on Wednesday, but flying from Detroit. Our flight to BWI was cancelled and they wanted to put us on a 2pm flight. I asked if we could fly into one of the DC airports since we were going to DC. Got a noon flight to National.

My son and I enjoyed the Mixed bill, he really liked La Valse, though I thought it seemed to be "off". Tanglewood was interesting(anything new that Clement Crisp liked had me thinking I had to see this). Enigma would have been helped by better program notes. Gloria was interesting, but I didn't love it like the 2 older ladies in our box. They liked the "gymnastic" type lifts(their phrase not mine.)

Though I think I may have had the bigger problem that Chauffer before I even left the house. About 20 minutes before we left for the airport, lightning hit our house. Fryed 2 tv's, one computer and modem, a cordless phone and the motor on the awning for my deck. Husband luckily to care of eveything and it looks like the computer will pull through. It should be realeased from the computer hospital on Monday.

I'll be in DC for the Wed & Thurs. performances.

Congradulations to David! I kind of figured this was coming.

Here's the London casting for the mixed bill from earlier this season.

La Valse

Marianela Nuñez, Isabel Mcmeekan, Deirdre Chapman, David Makhateli, David Pickering, Gary Avis

Gillian Revie, Lauren Cuthbertson, Vanessa Palmer, Yohei Sasaki, Tom Whitehead, Joshua Tuifua

Tanglewood

Leanne Benjamin, Martin Harvey, Darcey Bussell

Leanne Benjamin, Martin Harvey, Marianela Nunez

Gloria

Alina Cojocaru, Carlos Acosta, Thiago Soares

Sarah Lamb, Edward Watson, Gary Avis

Still no casting list for Kennedy Center <sigh> but I did just notice that the description on the mixed bill has been expanded:

>>The company will also perform a program of mixed repertory to include two Ashton works--La Valse, with music by Ravel, and Enigma Variations danced to Elgar's beautiful score--as well as company dancer Alastair Marriott's new work Tanglewood, which uses the music of American composer Ned Rorem, and Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Gloria, an evocation of the tragedy of wasted life in World War I that is set to music by Poulenc. <<

Any thoughts on the addition of the Marriott and MacMillan pieces?

Tanglewood got good reviews in London. Did you get tickets for the mixed bill and Beauty? That's what I did.

Quick hotel suggestions (Note: I do this as a hobby, follow my advice at your own risk, please don't ask me to talk you through a bid, I just don't have the time, etc. . .)

Cancelable Backup - Book at a Choice Hotel through this link: http://www.smartertravel.com/hotel/mb.php?id=16348 . It's not super cheap (downtown DC is $145/night) but it gives you a room, and a "floor" so you know what to beat - and the reservation should be cancelable without penalty. If you find something better that's cancelable without penalty, book it! (CHECK THE CONDITIONS BEFORE YOU RESERVE!)

Priceline - Looking at a similar site (Hotwire), the going rate in DC for midweek in June (I did 6/21-23) is relatively high. $140 for a 2* hotel. This is significantly more than last year - my guess is a hotel will cost more as well. If I were bidding right now, I'd start at $60 for a 3* in Georgetown and expect it to be rejected. My offhand guess is a winning bid for a 3* will be between $80-$110 in Georgetown and a good deal less in Arlington or Alexandria. I also think brinksmanship may help here - hotels will load inventory onto Priceline about 1-2 weeks before the date.

To learn about how to bid - http://www.leighwitchel.com/blog/archives/travel/priceline/ start at the bottom and read up. Don't be freaked out by the detail - it is a tutorial so it goes through things in more detail than you may need.

I have followed your advice Leigh and have my cancelable backup(got a slightly better rate than I thought with my AAA membership) and will try priceline/hotwire to get a better deal.