balletmama

Alexandra, what I am saying is that I think Xiomara's range is likely to increase as she matures.

I would agree that Reyes is demicharacter, at least at the moment. And although I dislike intensely the emphasis on certain physical standards, which strikes me as at times fetishistic, I must admit that I found the size of Reyes' head distracting when I saw her in Giselle last year. On the other hand, her ebullience draws the eye; she conveys real joy when she dances. I am thinking that maybe with time she will develop more of the elegance and subtlety I would associate with a prima ballerina (like Kent).

Ferri is lovely, too, but I have to say that having seen Julie Kent as Juliet I am afraid to ever go see it again. (Fortunately, most people don't have this reaction after enjoying a perfomance!) There was the simplest gesture of the hand she made in the balcony scene -- nothing to it at all, and yet incredibly eloquent, one I will never forget. Medora, I think the answer to your question is probably that you can't go wrong. Wow, your first live ballet! Have a wonderful time...

It's interesting to imagine the effect a p.r. campaign to push these men might have. There is a real parallel here between their packaging and that of the Three Tenors. Yesterday, while driving my favorite young dancer to class, I heard Sound Check on WNYC, which had a program about Jose Carreras. In talking about the Three Tenors, the opera critic (I think it was Fred Plotkin) said the three tenors do not draw people to opera; they only draw people to themselves. He also complained that they sing too much pop music and don't do it well.

Calliope, they didn't say much about why they encourage dancers to compete. I'm sure we can all guess that prestige is a factor, though several dancers mentioned the excitement of meeting dancers and ADs from around the world. When John Meehan was talking with Michelle Wiles and David Hallberg, he observed that the Bruhn prize is a way for corps and solo dancers to get to the next level.

No, Sarah Lamb is a beautiful dancer and a company member at BB. Last summer I believe she talked to the students at the SDP about her experience in Jackson; if not, she certainly took class with them, which they found exciting. Sarah Lane was a student dancer from Rochester, NY, at the Boston Ballet Summer Dance Program two years ago. Now she is in ABT Studio Company.

I doubt I will make it to Saratoga this summer, but do want to suggest that those of you who are doing so consider staying in a bed and breakfast. This has always been part of what makes Saratoga fun for us, because there are gorgeous, Victorian b&b's up there with congenial, interesting hosts and wonderful breakfasts, and they are reasonable. I have trouble remembering names, unfortunately, but I do remember that the Apple Tree Inn in Ballston Spa is lovely, and there are many others reputed to be good, such as Six Sisters and the Westchester House, right in Saratoga (easy to find via Google). I am sure rkoretzky may have some recommendations of her own.

Wow, what a fun evening! SPOILER ALERT: If you are going tomorrow night, read no more, because I am going to tell highlights of the dancers' stories, which won't change between now and then, I suspect. This was an evening devoted to dancers' experiences of competitions. They were all pretty sane on the subject. John Meehan was the moderator. First we saw Sarah Lane and Danny Tidwell of the studio company in the pas de deux from Le Corsaire. Having seen Sarah Lane at the Youth America Grand Prix and Boston SDP, we were naturally excited to watch her now...She and Tidwell were terrific, with lots of audience appeal. The Meehan "interviewed" them. Young dancers might be interested to hear that Lane auditioned for ABT and did not make it. Then she won the silver at Jackson...Also, at the YAGP her music stopped in the middle of her variation, and she danced right through till the end and received a standing ovation. Kevin McKenzie saw the tape and decide to invite her into the studio company. Next we saw Sarawanee Tanatanit, from Thailand, who was recently promoted into the corps. She did a modern piece choreographed by Peggy Baker to Scriabin...lovely. I guess she came to the studio company after winning the Prix de Lausanne. Next came Michelle Wiles and David Hallberg in the Grand Pas Classique...It was a very small stage and we were extremely close to it, maybe 10 feet away, and Michelle looked a bit frozen for much of the pas. She and Hallberg talked afterward in a friendly way about how they competed for the Erik Bruhn prize and she won and he didn't. Also Michelle expressed her disappointment at having won at Varna and then only being offered a place in the studio company! Gee, life is rough! Craig Salstein did a jazz solo he had performed at the age of 11. Then we saw a video of him performing a jazzy number on Star Search, introduced by Ed McMahon. He noted that he was up against 4 other young boys and observed gleefully, "I'm here! Where are they?" He was very comfortable talking to the crowd. He said he decided to switch from jazz to ballet because in ballet a career can really take off; I think that was the first time I had ever heard of anyone pursuing ballet because they thought it was a hot career path. ;-) Gillian Murphy and Marcelo Gomes performed in a pas de deux from Robert Hill's Baroque Game. They were gorgeous; it was beautiful partnering. They talked about having rehearsed endlessly to go to a competition (Paris? Can't remember) and Murphy injuring her fourth toe and being unable to put on a pointe shoe. Gomes went with two other dancers. Angel Corella did Corsaire. The stage had a low ceiling; we were a bit worried he would hit it. (Same concern about Michelle Wiles.) Corella talked about how he was supposed to send a video to ABT but couldn't get one together; he did an audition in ABT's studios and asked McKenzie immediately afterward whether he could sign a contract as a principal. McKenzie apparently inquired as to whether he had ever been a principal before, and when the answer was no, Corella got a soloist contract. Last came Amanda McKerrow in the Prelude from Les Sylphides, which she performed to win the Moscow prize in the early 80s as a student at the Washington Ballet School; Meehan observed that this simple though lovely piece does not usually win ballet competitions. Of course, the fact that she also did Bluebird and the third act Sleeping Beauty probably helped ;-) Not to mention being Amanda McKerrow! After all the variations and the brief interviews, they all danced in the finale. What an amazing evening -- an intimate setting, beautiful performers, dancers telling their stories, and even a reception afterward, all for an amazingly low ticket price. Thank you, Alexandra, for posting the press release here on BalletAlert.

To me this is the core of the matter. I think the people who put together the program were thinking back to the old days when Baryshnikov was a heart-throb (sp?) and wanting to recreate that. But although we heard a lot about Baryshikov's love life, in fact it was his fantastic leaping that got people's attention.

Not everyone had the same reaction to Malakhov's warm-up clothes...Here's a conversation I overheard after an adult dance class: "How was the show?" "It was great. They were all amazing! There was the Spanish guy. And the American guy. And the Russian guy." "What was his name?" "I can't remember; it's too hard. He talked about going off to study ballet as a child. It was Be- something." "Oh, that's Maxim! Maxim Belotserkovsky? He's the one married to Irina Dvorovenko!" "Oh yes, that's right. Yes, that was him." No one mentioned chest hair or motorcycles. I voted for him...

It is a wonderful piece, a memoir originally written in Spanish that so well describes that period in modern dance in NYC and very touchingly conveys what it is like for a dancer who comes face to face with her limitations. In the end, she has wonderful memories. I identified with her and her friends' arriving after the first intermission for NYCB performances and getting in for free. Did the same thing in those days myself, during college.

This was PBS, after all, and not the Fox channel. I found the effort to disprove people's stereotypes -- which amounted to pandering to those stereotypes -- offensive. The Three Tenors managed to garner a very large PBS following just by singing. I think PBS would have done far more to build an audience for ballet by showing the men's humanity -- instead of the corny chest hair and macho wisecracks -- and filling the home screen with more spectacular ballet dancing. They came close to the mark, in my view, in the portrayal of Malakhov, letting him tell the story of his childhood and coming of age as a dancer, not making him take off his Riot of Color (thank you, Manhattnik!), and showing some beautiful leaps.

It's true, BW. I wish I could remember what the product was! Then I would know what to boycott! ;)

Tried to find the original thread but did not succeed. Those of you who have seen the now infamous "Without sports they'd just be dancers" ad campaign, featuring professional cheerleaders, will enjoy this item from today's Metropolitan Diary in the NY Times. This poster, observes Times reader Ginger Curwen, is displayed on the No. 1 train that stops near the Joyce, Broadway, and Lincoln Center. "A dancer (or dance appreciator), presumably, has cleverly amended the slogan by taping alternative signs on the second and sixth words. The new, imporoved, and culturally currect poster of the cheerleaders now reads: 'Without dance they'd just be trophies.'" I like to think that the culprit was a BalletAlertnik. ;)

Treefrog, time to get satellite with the PBS national feed?

Wow, what a great thread. A lot of vicarious pleasure, since I am mostly in the NY metro area lately...For those of you coming here, I want to echo Leigh's comments on Mee Noodle. Also try Pam's Real Thai on 49th off 9th. Also cheap, also no decor, also good. And for a place to stay -- not at hostel rates, but below the usual NY prices -- do a search on Club Quarters, a chain of nice corporate hotels that rent out to the public on weekends at fairly decent rates.

I see on the San Jose Silicon Valley site the usual link to "Dancers" is missing. Instead one clicks on a link to -- I am not making this up -- "Cultural Athletes." http://www.balletsanjose.org/culturalathletes.html I am hoping this is tongue in cheek. Otherwise, for me it conjures up Fascist and Soviet art... ;)

Obviously there was a time when the desire for uniformity was an excuse for all sorts of discrimination. I see no need for that sort of uniformity and don't think anyone would defend it today. Now...perfect uniformity brings to mind the Rockettes, and I wouldn't defend them either, not that they're asking me to. ;) There have been ABT performances I've seen in which the corps looked, well, surprisingly ragged...not dancing together. The last time I saw ABT, in Giselle last spring, they performed together absolutely beautifully, by which I mean they were dancing together but that each dancer was absolutely lovely and radiant and not like a cut cookie...

"Tableau." Yes! Thank you, Leigh. A much better term than "pile of bodies." I learn so much here on BalletAlert.

Thanks, Alexandra. Actually, I had seen Leigh's picture, but I am not always skilled at connecting a photo with its corresponding live person, especially in a crowd. (The bottom picture of Major Mel, however, is quite another story. He is instantly recognizable in person!)

Many thanks to Leigh Witchel for rounding up us BalletAlertniks and giving us free tickets to a wonderful performance by Paul Taylor and Paul Taylor II yesterday in the LaGuardia HS auditorium in Manhattan. What a nice opportunity! The studio company did Company B, which was thoroughly enjoyable, and that's saying a lot because the last time I saw it Francie Huber was dancing. The main company did a preview of Promethean Fire, which will have its NY premiere in March, I believe. The latter, performed to several Bach pieces, had some lovely moments of partnering, as well as a heartbreaking assemblage of the dancers into a pile of bodies. Somehow it still felt to me like a performance that hadn't quite "gelled;" I would like to see it again. The dancers in both companies are so beautifully trained. What a joy to hear the incredibly enthusiastic young people in the audience. My favorite young dancer and I got to meet and talk with rkoretsky, which was great! Tried to imagine whether the other people around us might have been BalletAlertniks, but no luck. Leigh, wanted to say hello as you suggested, but the only man in our vicinity who seemed to be in your age group was wearing a fedora. Was that you? I figured if you had been planning on a distinctive hat you would have mentioned it for identification purposes, so I didn't pursue it...Thanks again.

Just wanted to revive this thread because saw Chicago tonight and was so disappointed...All the edge was gone! And the tension! In place of the Fosse, "In your face" style, there is cheesecake begging to be loved! I may need to go see the show again, as a kind of antidote. Desmond Richardson was listed as one of the dancers...?

Does anybody know how to find a recording of Sleeping Beauty by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Wordsworth conducting? This is the music for the lovely Viviana Durante video. I have spent ages looking through Amazon and CD Now and the public libraries' catalogs...no luck. Everything else I have listened to seems to be at a faster tempo.

For those of you who can never get enough of Nut, The Royal Ballet's Nutcracker will be televised tonight on PBS, 8 pm in the NY area (on 13). Alina Cojocaru is Clara. For more info go to www.pbs.org.

The institutional nature of Baryshikov's center has not yet been fully revealed in public, which is why my comment is relevant to a theoretical discussion. Stay tuned.