naomikage

Diamond variation video on Paris Opera Ballet's youtube channel. Who is dancing?

Hilaire was a candidate to the La Scala Ballet artistic director job and was in fact the last contender to Bigonzetti who was eventually chosen.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/02/02/mauro-bigonzetti-to-direct-la-scala-ballet/?_r=0

I am not sure which date (probably on Sunday) but Kota Sato was Brother Clown and Jenna Savella was the shepherdess on one particular date (photograph of them in the costumes on his facebook).

Sato also was in this role in the Toronto run and he was brilliant.

I had seen her as Gamzatti while she was a soloist at Mikhailovsky Theatre, and that was perfectly suited for her character. And this year I saw her in The Bronze Horseman which was also superb, she put much into the drama as well with lyricism of fer dancing. I am very happy with her promotion and also wish she would get more major roles.

Trenary did look a little nervous in Sleeping Beauty, that was the last piece of the gala. But she did it very well with much freshness. Although the Ratmansky choreography was quite controversial among Japanese balletomanes, I enjoyed it, especially because Gomes's pattering was fabulous.

She was supposed to dance Don Q with Cornejo but that did not happen, I wish I could see her in that because she would be a good Kitri too.

Slightly off topic but the best part of the gala was Ferri, especially the bedroom scene from Roneo and Juliet showed such delicate and complicated emotion, very expressive yet natural and left the feeling of seeing the whole ballet. What an amazing artist she is! Also Ferri and Cornejo were fabulous in Le Parc and Rhapsody too.

In Japan, there was this All Star Ballet Gsla held by the impresario Japan Arts which invites ABT, Bolshoi and Mariinsky tours. It is a star studded gala with Ferri, Ananiashivilli, Murphy, Gomes, Cornejo, Lopatkina, Zakharova and Heymann (and some more) And in this gala, Trenary was invited as the only ballerina in her twenties and much likely to be her debut in Japan. They said it was by Gomes's recommendation and she danced Sleeping Beauty pdd and Toccare, both with Gomes (and she was lovely)

You can see by this that ABT is trying to make her the next star. Of course I see much potential in her.

Yes I also miss the 3 of them....This is a lovely photo. And am glad David looks fine.

From Yuriko Kajiya's instagram, here is a photo of David Hallberg reunited with Yuriko and Jared Matthews in Melbourne. (Houston Ballet was on tour in Australia)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BH2I9ALgNZt/

Try Hola extention

Press release

http://www.abt.org/insideabt/news_display.asp?News_ID=556

Principal Dancers for the 2016 Fall Season include Stella Abrera, Isabella Boylston, Jeffrey Cirio, Misty Copeland, Marcelo Gomes, Alban Lendorf, Gillian Murphy, Veronika Part, Hee Seo, Daniil Simkin, Cory Stearns and James Whiteside.

I am not sure this will be view-able in USA (possibly geo-blocked) but Arte will stream the July 16th performance of New York City Ballet in Theatre du Chatelet, Paris

The streaming will be on July 16 20:00 (Paris time) but I think it will be online for a while.

A clip from the final scene of Swan Lake at Milan

The Winter's Tale is quite a good, dramatic ballet, with lots of dancing in the 2nd act and intense,dark drama in the first and 3rd act.

There is a DVD available of this performed by the Royal Ballet and the recorded performance is brilliant, with great dancers Edward Watson, Lauren Cuthbertson, Sarah Lamb and Steven McRae, Federico Bonneli , and this is worth a look too.

The music with some of them performed on stage would sound better in live performance.

Of course the most juiciest cast is the second performance (which got reviewed in the NYT by Macaulay) so I recommend all to see this one. The first cast was IMHO dull, except for the young lovers in the 2nd act Jillian Vanstone and Naoya Ebe who are lovely.

Speaking of laughing at the death scene of Mercutio, I have had the same experience about 10 years ago at the MET, when Herman Cornejo was playing the role. There were a bunch of young (probably teenage) girls who were laughing out loud.

Last week Royal Ballet was performing Romeo and Juliet in Tokyo and of course no one laughed. Also not in ABT's Japan tour a few years ago.

I wished I could be there for Ferri's comeback as Juliet because I also went to her farewell performance in 2007. But anyway she will be in a gala in Tokyo next month with Cornejo, although not Juliet.

Nina Ananiashivilli still dances full length Swan Lake at her country with the 32 fouettes. I saw her in Le Corsaire nearly two years ago in Japan and she was still very strong, her fouettes were perfect. And she will appear in a gala this summer in Tokyo, Giselle and Swan Lake with Gomes, with also Dying Swan and a Georgian folk dance.

Maybe it might be an idea to invite her as a guest like Ferri.

Stars of the New York City Ballet, including Jacques d’Amboise, Melissa Hayden, Allegra Kent, Nicholas Magallanes, Janet Reed, Maria Tallchief, and Violette Verdy, in television performances from the Bell Telephone Hour (1959-1966) will be released.

http://www.vaimusic.com/product/4587.html

1. SOUVENIRS (13:19)
Choreography by Todd Bolender; Music by Samuel Barber
Dancers: Janet Reed, Marian Horosko, Roy Tobias, Jonathan Watts
and Corps de Ballet of New York City Ballet (1959)

2. CIRCUS BALLET (5:16)
Conceived and choreographed for The Bell Telephone Hour by Robert Pagent
Dancers: Allegra Kent and Tommy Rall (1961)

3. THE NUTCRACKER - Grand Pas de Deux (9:45)
Choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov
Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Dancers: Violette Verdy and Edward Villella (1961)

4. AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (7:05)
Conceived and choreographed for The Bell Telephone Hour by Gene Nelson
Music by George Gershwin
Dancers: Allegra Kent, Taina Elg, Jacques d’Amboise, Gene Nelson (1959)

5. ALLEGRO BRILLANTE (9:24)
Choreography by George Balanchine / Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Dancers: Maria Tallchief and Nicholas Magallanes and Corps de Ballet (1964)

6. YOUNG LOVERS (6:06)
Conceived and choreographed for The Bell Telephone Hour by Gene Nelson
Music: “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” by Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart
Dancers: Allegra Kent and Gene Nelson (1962)

7. WILD WEST DANCE (4:23)
Conceived and choreographed for The Bell Telephone Hour by Matt Mattox
Music: “Buttons and Bows” by Jay Livingston & Ray Evans
Dancers: Allegra Kent, Anthony Blum, Basil Thompson, and Ensemble (1966)

8. STARS & STRIPES (Excerpts) (10:12)
Choreography by George Balanchine
Music by John Philip Sousa, arr. Hershy Kay
Dancers: Melissa Hayden and Jacques d’Amboise
and Corps de Ballet of New York City Ballet (1959)

By the way, according to this interview in German with Malakhov, Polina Semionova is confirmed pregnant.

http://www.morgenpost.de/kultur/berlin-kultur/article207697913/Malakhov-tanzt-wieder-in-Berlin.html

An interview with Vaziev by Laura Cappelle

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/709e6db4-3223-11e6-bda0-04585c31b153.html

“Look at me. Do you think I would ask for people’s advice on repertoire? I would never have agreed to be a technical manager.”

Xiomara Reyes will head The Washington School of Ballet, effective September 1

http://dancemagazine.com/news/julie-kent-appoints-xiomara-reyes-washington-school-ballet/

Sounds quite fabulous.

Cyril Pierre joined the faculty of Kirov Academy in Washington D.C.

http://kirovacademydc.org/explore-kirov/dance-faculty/

https://www.facebook.com/KirovAcademyofBalletDC/posts/1197964190228107

Boston Ballet will be doing this Ivan Liska Corsaire next season. (in October 2016)

http://www.bostonballet.org/16-17season/

And now cast changes, Francesca Hayward replaces Iana Salenko in Romeo and Juliet of RB's Japan tour (performnace on June 17th), due to schedule conflict of Salenko in Berlin.

http://www.nbs.or.jp/blog/news/contents/topmenu/2016-12.html(Japanese)

Monica Mason was born in South Africa but her parents are British. Not a principal but a Principal character artist, Elisabeth McGorian was born in Zambia and brought up in Zimbabwe.

I am also disappointed that Yuhui Choe was not promoted.

The Royal Ballet will be touring Japan with Romeo and Juliet and Giselle next week, but although Akane Takata was highly praised as Giselle in Covent Garden she is not dancing Giselle in Japan. (also Ryoichi Hirano did Albrecht in Covent Garden but he will not be doing the role either)

As mentioned in the link to the Lincoln Center Festival, last time this company toured to NYC (and also Washington DC) the casting was announced 3 weeks prior to the tour. And their Giselle rum finishes on June 19th, so we can guess some time in late June or early July the cast is announced. It is very annoying and unfair that they announce this late each time indeed. This company is definitely not good in terms of marketing.

See this thread for the Lincoln Center information.

http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/41053-lincoln-center-festival-2016-season-announced/

I did see some performances of The Winter's Tale in Toronto and DC and I advise you to wait until the casting announcements, because this makes a big difference.

Here is the review by Alastair Macaulay, and IMO this is the recommended cast worth watching. (Doronina/McKie/Lunkina) I agree with everything he says here.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/22/arts/dance/review-dark-suspicions-in-jumps-and-gestures-in-the-winters-tale.html?_r=0

The other main cast (first cast in Toronto and DC) , Fischer/Stanczyk/Yu was so weak and devoid of dramatic quality. But I guess there might be more casts coming.