vagansmom

Grr, not again!

In the ballet culture, kids take in messages about thinness in various ways. This is why I fear having someone like Wendy Whelan as head of NYCB and, therefore, SAB. Her ultra-thinness, a skeletal look, could trigger eating disorders in young students and dancers. It won't matter what she might say; her physical presence alone, in a position of power, has the potential to do plenty of harm.

Yes, nanushka, thank you.

I avoid both Boylston and Teuscher for the reasons given above. I avoid Copeland for her technical deficiencies. I avoid Hallberg and did so back when he was at his technical height because I thought he had a wooden affect. Sad that there are so many dancers I avoid at ABT. It's rarer for me to avoid principal dancers at NYCB.

Helene, you said the Kozlovs in the list of men, but I'm assuming - am I correct? -that one of them was Valentina Kozlova, who defected from the Bolshoi to join NYCB. So that makes 2 women that we know of, Sylve and Kozlova.

I'd love to keep Cruise out of it entirely. And I don't think they look the least bit alike, ....well, they both have brown hair.

If they substituted, I might be more interested in attending a performance or two. As it is, between the casting decisions ABT has made and the programs themselves, I'm not finding myself very interested. I'm not a Copeland fan; I avoid her performances because I find them too flawed. I'm not interested in AfterRite. In fact, I'm not much interested in anything that's not a classical ballet, but that has more to do with my pocketbook than anything else. I don't want to spend so much money on a risk at this juncture in my life. I AM interested in seeing Abrera, Lane, Trenary, and Brandt in principal and soloist roles.

Volcano hunter, I think of what you describe as "highly exaggerated" is actually a stage some SABers go through in their first year or 2 at the school, and that it does, as you say, "get toned down," before most students, those lucky ones who get the contract, arrive at the company. My daughter, who trained year-round at a Vaganova school, but spent a couple summers at SAB, found it amusing to see how the newbies would adopt what they thought were Balanchine mannerisms in the first week or so of the summer program. I actually think there's been less of that in recent years. There WAS a time, when I first started attending NYCB performances a lot (what I call "the Yvonne Borree years") where quite a number of the professional dancers seemed to have some extreme hand mannerisms, but it's been so nice in recent years to see that it's not as ubiquitous as it used to be.

I also saw Pereira in Coppelia and thought she projected beautifully as I was up quite high. She owned that role. Technically, she was strong and had such lovely port de bras, something quite a few NYC ballet dancers are lacking. I look forward to seeing her again.

That's actually a nice article, the nicest I've seen by Joy. I don't really consider it an interview since the thoughts are so fully realized that she must have written down responses. I think that she must be realizing that she doesn't do well as a team member and it sounds like she's looking to do what lots of ballet dancers do: be a guest artist. It allows for an independence she is always seeking. This might be the route that will make her happiest, assuming she'll get the invitations (I think she will). I wish her the best. In my opinion, her personality is fraught with social communication difficulties that I believe tend to make someone feel quite alone. She may yet find that therapy will help her the most. In the meantime, assuming she hasn't gone that route, I do think she's choosing the best path for herself.

I assume (uh-oh, there's that word again) the only reason they "cast mature" for Manon is to give roles to older principal dancers who've lost technique. While I do enjoy seeing these mature dancers use all the skills they've honed over the years (it reveals how dancing is so much more than technique), I would also love to see a younger dancer cast as Manon every now and then just for comparison.

I had assumed (very stupidly - forgetting there's an a-s-s in the word) that the statement was independent of management. I don't know where I got the idea that the dancers had together voted on presenting such a statement. But of course it would have to be approved by management at the very least. I do agree with those who say the statement was carefully worded, and I believe it's one that all people everywhere - whether dancers or not - whether incriminated or not - can support.

DC Export, those are my feelings as well. I too am a survivor of sexual assault.

And that might actually be McKenzie's design: Humiliate her till she leaves. She doesn't bring in the big audiences that technically inferior Copeland does, so he's not, sadly, going to care about Copeland's flaws. I wish Lane would go somewhere she's appreciated.

In her book, Kent states that she was financially ruined due to her husband's drug addiction, and that Balanchine knew it and graciously kept offering her roles to help her out financially. I remember her mentioning how everyone thought she was so creative and avant garde to be wearing safety pins as earrings (and necklaces, I think), but the truth was that she no longer had any jewelry so she was making do.

What gives me pause about Wendy Whelan at the helm (I know nothing about her qualifications) is her extreme thinness. She would also be director of SAB, and I shudder when I think of impressionable young dancers trying to look like her. And maybe not even just SAB students: I can imagine young professional dancers feeling an impulse to be thinner because the person who decides their fate is very thin. I worry that having her at the helm might trigger eating disorders. I say this with all due respect to Ms. Whelan. No matter what she might say to dancers about not trying to look like her, her physical presence, in a position of power, may hold greater power than her words.

There have always been retired dancers studying at the Columbia School of General Studies as well. I can't speak personally to current NYCB dancers studying there part-time, but I'm willing to bet there are some of those too. The G.S. program, at least 3 years ago, was affectionately nicknamed the "Tutus & Uzis" program due to the high number of ballet dancers and veterans that frequent the population. G.S. looks for individuals who pursued some other passion to a high degree of excellence for at least a year post high school. They want intelligent, independent learners with solid work ethic and organizational abilities (this, according to my daughter, who attended their program as a retired dancer and heard it constantly from professors in her years there). They have to pretty darn smart. Many take SATs all over again to get into the program and their scores are similar to that of the CC population. Professors also say that the G.S. students are the most focused and most mature students, and a great pleasure to teach because they care more about learning than a school social life. Their grades, which are not meted out separately from the Columbia College students, compare to those of CC students. The real difference is that social events are separated so they can be with others their own age. And for those who require a dorm situation, they are housed in their own GS wing, again out of respect for their more mature status. Makes perfect sense to me that ex-ballet students, current and retired dancers would populate GS. I wouldn't want to single out ex-SAB students. They are one dancer group of several who attend Columbia University.

I believe the spelling of Chase's last name is Finlay. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I wonder to what degree substance abuse has played a part in Finlay's behavior? From reading these many pages, I see that it's been commented on several times.

What's become clear to me as I read through all these posts is that I don't want to see the male dancers (I'm excepting Finlay because that appears to be different from the others, at least at this point) permanently banished from NYCB. I DO want to see, based on what I know so far - if the accusations are proven true - an amount of punishment that goes further than missing a fall/winter season without pay, and I DO want to see rehabilitation. A year without pay, to me, fits the actions I know of thus far, much better than just a season. And sometime during that year, some kind of residential treatment program for sexual offenses such as the ones that allegedly incurred. These men appear to seriously need to understand, at the gut level, HOW their actions, individually and collectively, have violated others. And then upon the dancers' return, a probationary period of another year that continues to include counseling with a professional outside of NYCB. If a rape did take place, that is something separate to my mind, a police matter. I wouldn't want that individual to retain any association with NYCB, if convicted. And I would hope that residential treatment for that crime would be part of any punishment. I'm uncomfortable with young careers being permanently ruined without getting another chance. These are young people who have the ability to turn themselves around. But I do feel that the chance must come with some hardship, hence something like a year's banishment without pay, and a residential program. I don't want to see blood; I DO want to see fundamental change within the individuals.

Yes, she's struck me also as someone with a very fixed mindset. But I have hope that, if she truly is at a turning point in her life, she will choose growth. Baby steps are fine.

I feel sorry for her and hope that she will be able to fashion a new career for herself, be it as a teacher or something entirely different. She's certainly got drive and ambition!

I'm sad for Carousel that it's closing shop, but I'm SO excited at the prospect of having Ramasar back at NYCB; I've missed him.

Do these ballet dancers videotape themselves? I'd love to see them work with an acting coach who tapes them. Sometimes, people think they're showing emotion because they're feeling it inside, but their faces are masks. A good acting coach can show them the footage and work with them to maximize their facial expressions.

And I always thought those speedy promotions for Herrera were to her detriment as an artist.