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It's a pretty cramped dance schedule. Not only is the bulk of the ballet scheduled from late January to late March (the Washington Ballet's sole production at the KC is in February), but they've slotted in a bunch of modern dance in the same time period (Alvin Ailey is scheduled for early February, Paul Taylor for late February, and Twyla Tharp will overlap with the NYCB). Is there really an audience for 8 dance companies in 2 months?

The Washington Ballet will also perform at the Wolf Trap on September 5.

No mention of whether there will be live music at any of these. Does the Warner Theater even have room for an orchestra pit? I've been to a couple of concerts at the Capitol One Hall and found the acoustics to not be particularly good.

I don't know how many of you have heard of this show. It is an attempt to create something akin to a story ballet except using break dancing. It has a kind of difficult to figure out plot (at least for me, of course, I often have trouble figuring out the plot), something about 2 brothers and a sister in Chile during the reign of Augusto Pinochet leaving home and then getting caught up in a violent anti-government protest, arrested and beaten, the put on a boat to be sent into exile only to have the boat sink, and then eventually be re-united (except for the apparent wife/girlfriend of the younger brother, who drowned because there weren't enough life jackets). It was set to music by Sting (not AFAIK typical break dance music). I found it very entertaining, if not exactly Swan Lake. I don't know if it's typical for break dancers to portray characters in a story, but this group did pretty well. And of course there were the usual gravity-defying break dance moves. Attendance was pretty poor, aggravated by scheduling too many performances (even ABT would have trouble selling out a 2-week run). IMHO, it deserved better attendance, because it really was a quality show even if it wasn't quite up to the standards of the elite ballet companies. I've seen it 3 times.

Skimming through the Wolf Trap schedule, I noticed that the Washington Ballet will be there for a single performance on Sept. 5. The program will consist of Balanchine's Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Edwaard Liang's Murmuration, and a new work by Jennifer Archibald. The WB hasn't announced there 2024-25 schedule yet, but I wondering if this program will also be the opening program of their subscription season. Commissioning a new work for a single performance would seem unlikely.

Gil Boggs is going to perform the role of Dr. Coppelius for 3 performances in the current run of Coppelia.

How I managed to blow a chance to get a ticket for it is too painful to think about (all the standing room tickets had been sold, but they did end up with some returned tickets). Watching it 5 times wasn't enough 😢

The quote was actually from a post by Hippolyta, not from my post.

Yes, she definitely looked like principal material. Bell was the best of the 3 leading men that I've watched so far, by a fairly significant margin (I skipped the Friday evening show, which I might regret, so I didn't watch Stearns). I in a way feel like I'm watching Swan Lake for the first time. I'm focusing more on the supporting and corps dancing than I have in the past, and the ABT soloists and corps members have been IMHO very solid this week.

3 takeaways from the Thursday performance: - Devon Teuscher is a near-perfect Odette/Odile. - If Jake Roxander learns to jump any higher, he's going to need a parachute. - The Devon Teuscher/Joo Won Ahn pairing is less than ideal.

The KC will be selling standing room (according to a box office attendant), though only after all returned tickets are resold. I lucked into a free ticket (a seat, not standing room) for opening night. Na-na-na-Na-na. Isabella Boylston nailed the fouettes.

I just started looking at tickets for the WB's current run of Jazz Icons and found that ticket prices for the same seats are substantially higher for the Thursday evening and Saturday matinee performances than they are for the Friday evening, Saturday evening, and Sunday matinee performances (I missed out on the Wednesday evening performance). I'm wondering why, as I would have expected the Saturday evening and Sunday matinee tickets to be the most expensive. It doesn't appear to be a result of "airline pricing" (only about 60% of the tickets have been sold for the Saturday matinee).

All 7 performances are now sold out - 3 weeks in advance.

According to the Kennedy Center website, the leads are scheduled as: Wed - Boylston/Camargo Thu - Teuscher/Ahn Fri matinee - Misseldine/Bell Fri evening - Seo/Stearns Sat matinee - Brandt/Cornejo Sat evening - Hurlin/Whiteside Sun - Shevchenko/Royal

Not for those of us who have difficulty making plans and schedules much in advance and who are used to attending 2-3 performances.