vrsfanatic

Thank you YouOverThere for the update. I do read the links forum of BalletTalk a few times a day so I have already seen this article. Actually my questioning of the report in RM News was a bit sarcastic since I was well aware that Mr. Boggs was not a ballet master at ABT. This is not to slight Mr. Boggs in the least, I hope I am understood, I knew from years of experience with ABT and having done homework that he left ABT as a very respected principal dancer.

Yes, thank you YouOverThere, I did read the Denver Post this morning. This article is a bit more factual (well at least the way I seem to understand the facts). The RMN is rather embellished.

http://www.mariinsky.ru/en/info/tour Solar, here is a brief history from the Mariinsky website. Hopefully it has the information you are looking for.

Lupe Serrano had two children and resumed her career and in more recent times there have been many articles about ballet dancers returning to work following childbirth, J. Kent. N. Ananiashvilli, L. Anderson, M. Butler. In Russia it is quite common actually.

1993, Mr. Boggs is listed in a program as a principal dancer at ABT. Great to see he was elevated to the well deserved position. In May of 1996, Mr. Boggs was still listed as a Principal dancer. May 2, 1996 Don Q, N. Ananiashvilli/J. Bocca I am not really up on ABT ballet master employment between 1995 and 1997, however as I recall Mr. Boggs retired from ballet to become a golf pro. I remember his final performance with ABT. I sat next to his mother (I do not know his mother), who very proudly announced to the surrounding audience that Mr. Boggs was so pleased to become a golf pro. I do not remember the year. I do know however that it was after May 5, 1996. As of 1997 I have had students consistantly in ABT, in one form or another. Mr. Boggs has never been a ballet master during this time. I will continue to research, but it really does not matter one way or the other. Just a point of interest. Mr. Boggs is a qualified individual, a professional and a nice person. Later...a 1999 NYTimes article My Webpage

I am not quite sure where you are getting this information. Perhaps a little more research should be done. Mr. Boggs, I do not believe, was ever a Ballet Master at ABT. He retired as a soloist. He is a lovely man. If someone must replace Mr. Fredmann (very hard shoes to fill), at least Mr. Boggs is a kind person, with artistic knowledge. I have found the information or the source, however...http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/spot...4447748,00.html I have read the announcement in the RM News, but find it confusing. When the heck was Mr. Boggs Ballet Master at ABT? Is there anyone who knows the dates?

Congratulations to Mr. Boggs and family, as well as to Colorado!

Cleveland Ballet folded this year? How did I miss that one?

Golden Gate, I am not up on the latest edition of AGMA rules, but it used to be that extra dancers had to be paid a fee for performances of any sort. This included any children's roles in Nutcracker also. My only experience of being paid as an extra dancer in an AGMA company was back in the 1970s when we "students" were paid a per perfomance fee for our roles in Nutcracker or any other programs we performed in. This is one reason many companies have tried to keep the union out. It obviously can be a big financial commitment. Maybe someone else has more recent information?

Thank you for the information. Wish I could see it, but DC is still too far away.

Currently she is staging Valse Fantasie for Boca Ballet Theatre in Boca Raton, FL. I believe she is still living in the South Florida area.

I have never heard of a program called pre-Bolshoi that was more than the first two preparatory years prior to entrance examinations to either the Bolshoi or the Vaganova Academy. The Russian people love ballet. It was/is a part of their culture. There are many jobs to be had in dance... folk, musical theatre, dinner theatre, etc. During Soviet times children studied dance in clubs, like after school sports in the USA (remember it can be quite cold in the winter in Russia, so indoor physical activies could be of interest to the general public). There were many, many dance programs in many cities/towns. Perhaps this is what walboi's girlfriend called pre-Bolshoi?

Thank you for the update/outcome of this very important vote for the dancers at Colorado Ballet.

I am not sure if this has been released publically. I was fortunate to have been at a private screening in Miami. What a great evening it was indeed. Let us know if you find it somewhere.

Solar, it is Nutcracker time for me here in the US, no time to look at videos. Sorry! It is on my list for after NUT. I have to dig the video out in order to be able to look.

There are many theries regarding the death of the very great dancer Y. Soloviev however they are just speculation. Out of respect for his family, perhaps one should not speculate and gossip about the "what ifs" and "suppose this or that". The official word is suicide.

I was on the teaching faculty at Pennsylvania Ballet the year L. Sundstrom was first hired as a dancer. Before that, I believe she was at ABT. She was a beautiful dancer.

Thank you Major Johnson!

Thank you Andrei for the corrections! Is Marrussia a Russian name? I will go back to read the names again so I may make the corrections visually. Maybe next time I will remember the corrections you have given. Thanks!

The ballerina in this photo (according to the writing) is Pavlova. I have difficulty reading Russian script sometimes. I am able to pick apart some of what is written, but not enough to say for sure. I will show it to a Russian collegue. Maybe she will know. The letter does begin...Dear Marius...I believe. This ballerina is Bakerkina, according to what is written. St. Petersburg. She is not listed in the 1981 Russian language edition of the Ballet Encyclopedia. Again, I will ask my collegue.

The photo says Kaplan. I believe it is Semyon Shlyomovich Kaplan, a distinguished dancer/teacher, born 1911, danced with Kirov from 1930s-late 1950s, 1936-the 1980s with various breaks, taught in Vaganova Academy. Great photos...thanks!

I am dating myself a bit, but what about Jack Mitchell?

The plan at this point is to perform Fredmann's Nutcracker and Cinderella for a fee and Fredmann's approval of casting. The details can only come to light slowly. It is a sad and shocking episode in regional ballet in the USA, yet one that has been repeated many times. Hopefully one day the ballet boards and artists will one day be on an equal footing and be able to work together. :bash:

bart I am able only to speak of my experience working in a well known American ballet school with no syllabus for teaching prior to my studies in Russia. The school in which I currently teach approaches almost everything we do in a slow, methodical manner. For the most part, pre-Russia, I taught beginner through advanced intermediate levels of young students and many adult classes (I learned a lot about teaching with the adults). Luckily for me, the directors of the company as well as the director of the school all had a recognition of the fact that training ballet students well, at every level can build a school structurally and financially. The school director, a very famous American ballerina (a natural turner for her generation), had been known to have had a great technique and an interest in good teaching. The teachers all developed their own way of doing things and we made a generation of ballet dancers who have various abilities when it came to turning. Some better than others. The recognition that there are natural turners is a fact, just as there are some students who have a more natural jump. Even natural turners need to learn how to turn balletically. Breaking natural turners of there unballetic look while turning if they have been able to spin, just because they can spin any old way, is a most difficult thing to do, but basically they either change or they do not work at a professional level. Teaching pirouettes well, is always a challenge. Students pratice turning on their own without teachers in the room relentlessly. Go watch students left alone in a room in front of a mirror. They practice stretching and pirouettes. It is pretty tough to start jumping around without a technique class. Most teachers with whom I communicate professionally, approach the classroom work of pirouettes just the same as other movements in classical ballet, a lot of discipline mixed in with a little bit of loosening the strings so the dancers are able to figure out what their bodies can do in various circumstances. Part of teaching is the recognition that things will not always be perfect and the students must learn also to deal/cope with whatever comes their way.

MissChristine are you discussing pirouettes from 5th or 4th? If you are discussing from 5th then yes, the weight is on two feet in the preparation. FYI, Mezenseva may have been a very beautiful dancer but she is not, to my knowledge, a trained teacher from Vaganova Academy. I assure you what I have stated about the weight on the front leg in 4th position preparations, as well as in 2nd position(the supporting leg only), is the way it is taught according to the Vaganova method. What is confusing for many (an perhaps professionally trained dancers who graduated from Vaganova Academy as students) is the recommendation to push off from two heels. This is indeed a very important aspect of the turn however there is no weight shifting to the back leg in 4th position. The recommendation has to do with the full usage of the working leg so the student does not use the working leg weakly. Read Kostrovitskaya, 1995 edition, page 360. A pedagogy book is only a guide, nor an edict, therefore, I will email my student at Vaganova Academy an find out if perhaps they have changed how they are doing pirouette since I was certified to teach 10 years ago.