vrsfanatic

No, I do not think so. I had the pleasure of watching Ms Messmer grow as a young dancer and saw her do her first Sugar Plum at age 15. She was a fantastic talent as a blossoming student.

It is wonderful hear Ms. Messmer is having the opportunity to perform Sugar Plum. I know she has done it elsewhere but with little fanfare. Thank you for posting Jack Reed. Wish I could see her perform this role again. I hope it went well.

We attended Friday evenings opening night performance in West Palm Beach. Not being one who knows the company well, for me, the performance was well danced, yet not performed well. The dancers are without a doubt, well trained and the production values are wonderful. Overall, we found the performance to be lackluster and tiresome. The company is dancing well mechanically, with much less Balanchine "style" in the non-Balanchine works. This is a very positive thing, for this audience member. Ms Lopez spoke beautifully before the performance, My only wish, in her bio if only she could give the late, great Martha Mahr, the credit she deserves. South Florida/Miami has produced some of the most recognized names in American ballet for quite a few generations and the teachers and schools go unrecognized. While schools such as SAB, JKO and SFB, etc. may finish the students, fine early years of training are a must.

So happy to read of Courney Richardson. She was a beautiful child with a driving force behind everything she did at a very young age. I only had the pleasure of working with her a few times when she was a child but to this day she remains in my memory as a shining example of what every teach loves in a student. So very happy to read of her success. I know her family and ballet teacher were all in Ann Arbor watching with such pride. :-)

Arsht actually reminds me of a cruise ship. I always thought that was the theme...Carnival Cruise Lines, to be exact. :-)

Having seen Shurale in St. Petersburg two years ago, I would have to say it would be very expensive to tour and perhaps not so cost effective in doing so. While I enjoyed the ballet and all that it entails, including the dancing, I do not think it is a ballet that would sell well as a full length in the US. There might be excerpts that would do well in a repteroire setting however the entire ballet might have a bit too much character work for the American taste. Just an opinion.

I hear results from a HARID alumnus who is heading into the 2nd round. Her name is Beth Ann Maslinoff, principal dancer with Dance Alive in Gainesville, FL. I know she is the only American female moving forward. I do not know anything else.

Just a side note...before MCB, Judy Drucker also brought wonderful ballet to South Florida. Ms. Drucker's Concert Association was instrumental in bring various high level performing groups to South Florida. Since Ms. Drucker and her wonderful supporters are no longer active in the community, international exposure to first rate ballet companies does not happen here on a regular basis. One would think that with A. Arsht and Audre D. Carlin on the Board of ABT, at least ABT would be able to tour to Miami as they did when Ms. Drucker and Mrs. Carlin (AKA Audre Deckman Mendel) were teaming together to help to develop the arts in South Florida. As for Mr. Villella being upset, who can blame him? Having been in the ballet business my whole life, this situation is not unusual. I am sure we can all name names and companies that have had Boards handled these situations poorly. The directors I know generally do remain silent and move on. Keeping him on for more than a year cannot lead the company in a good direction. What was this Board thinking? Maybe it was in his contract that he would be given 18 months notice?

Thank you so much for your review. Seems like it was a lovely first. Hopefully more dreams to come...

Sorry, I did not see this earlier. Mr. Percival was a wonderfully knowledgable dance critic. His contributions to the art of ballet will be missed. Sorry Alexandra for the loss of your friend. May his family find solice in knowing there are many in the world who learned so much about ballet through his writings. May he rest in peace.

Thanks for the update on Boylston. Please do let us know what you think of her Swan Lake. I'd be there if I could!

M. Dumchenko was a marvelous dancer and a very kind person. She will be a wonderful asset to the coaching staff of Mariinsky. Odd to think so much time has passed.

Rest in peace Mr. Koegler. Thank you for all you gave to our wonderful world of ballet. A critic such as Koegler will be hard to replace. Perhaps not possible at all. He wrote reviews not critiques. A wonderfully educated man with such a passion for ballet.

Did anyone see Boylston's Met premiere?

This is a wonderful film. Hopefully everyone will get to see it on their local PBS station.

Thank you!!!

I could not copy it. It is Russian youtube. I have tried many time to post it, but the link is some media link and I cannot post it here for some reason. Sorry. I have tried and tried. It just keeps leading to my youtube account which I would prefer to remain private.

Since someone brought up Matthew Golding, run to youtube quickly, his gala performance with Obraztsova at Mariinsky is up and beautiful!

I saw a different program in Tampa last Saturday. The company looks good. It will be interesting to see a different program in West Palm. I will look for you Bart.

In true Russian spirit....wonderful story.

Thank you for the information on the dancers. I kept wishing you would say it was not from Vaganova Academy at all! I still have not been able to get past the 1st piece. Hopefully it gets better.

Oh my. Would love to be there. Bravo Marcelo!

Thank you so much for this news. I had been hoping so much!!!

Yes, you are correct its the mom. I made a mistake with the years in my haste. I will correct the dates above.

If I recall correctly, I saw her in Vaganova Academy in her graduation year of 2010. Her first year in Boston was this 2010-2011 season. The link provided was from 2009 Vaganova Academy production of Nutcracker season, I am assuming since that is the rehearsal I was very fortunate to see.