aurora

Are you perhaps confusing her with Nina Ananiashvili who is retiring from ABT this season? I'm sure you wouldn't confuse the two dancers, but rather notice of the farewell...

Nina is retiring at the end of NEXT season, not this one.

I know nothing regarding julie retiring, but I would imagine it isn't the case. She is one of the longest lasting ABT principals and is married to Victor Barbee (associate artistic director) so if she was indeed retiring, I'm SURE the company would make an event of it.

I realize injuries happen, but it looks like Diana's condition was serious enough to stop selling tickets to her performances a long time ago.

I don't feel the ABT managemement has been completely honest about this situation and this is why I am not going to renew my subscriptions next year.

I don't really think that fair, not with the comments from vishneva's own website saying she was going to try and start rehearsals for Giselle. If *she* was planning to give it a go, why were they supposed to know better?

Furthermore, maybe I was lucky, but it doesn't seem like, with the exception of visheva, there have been a lot of major changes in the schedule this year, and injuries happen. Unfortunate but true.

Also interesting is a 2005 performance of the same troubadour variation. It looks quite different!

Since youtube links are now, I believe, allowed, I thought i would mention that available on youtube right now is footage from ca. 1905 of the royal danish ballet

Enjoy

I caught the opening of La Bayadere last night. I enjoyed Veronika Part as Nikiya immensely for the luxuriant quality of her movement and her downright astonishing beauty. At times, the tempo for her dancing was so slow that her movement appeared sluggish, especially during the Scene 3 dance in front of Solor and Gamzatti. From a technical standpoint, her performance was serviceable with an especially brilliant supported pirouette finishing attitude during the Act II PdD. I thought - why can’t she lay it on us like that more often? Other unsupported pirouettes in Act II were less successful.

Gomes’ Solor was fantastic in every possible way, as was Michele Wiles as Gamzatti. Michele’s Italian fouettes were brilliant, particularly with the way she whipped her head from back to front with a glance that said everything that needed to be said about Gamzatti’s sense of entitlement.

I thought much better of Veronika's performance than you did, I think. She got much more smoothly through the scarf section than did any of the dancers I saw from the Kirov in April.

I agree with you on Gomes' Solor, but not on Michelle Wiles. She is not a dancer I particularly enjoy, but I usually find her technically solid.

Her Gamzatti however did nothing for me. She was fine during the mime scenes, but she seemed to interpret the unlikeability of the character as a reason to dance with a harshness and brittleness that I found unattractive. I think someone mentioned it on ballettalk earlier, but she seems to have developed an odd hitch with her head in her leaps that is particularly unattractive--it looks like the head movement of a strutting pigeon.

Her Italian fouettes and regular fouettes were good, in fact her turning was on the whole, but for me there was nothing beautiful in her movements, and the solo in the engagement pas de deux, one of my favorite variations, was incredibly flat. Especially when viewed in contrast with the lushness of Veronika. I know that Nikiya and Gamzatti are very different characters, and that should be brought out in the dance quality as well as the mime, but I did not find this an effective way to do it.

just my 2 cents

ABT revived FRL for a fairly recent (4 years +/- ?) City Center season.

I don't know when they revived it, but they did it last (2007) fall City Center season. I thought Julie Kent was chilling.

There are certainly a number of dancers, and NYCB dancers, who have gone on to post-graduate education. Even some doctors and lawyers, so Damian is scarcely alone in his aducational achievements.

not many who've done it while still professionally dancing however (i think it would be impossible to become a dr or lawyer while still dancing, just due to the time constraints)

semi OT and potentially too late...

But if any other BTers are there tonight, say hi! I'm EASY to spot. I'm the woman with black shortish hair and a nose ring (the kind in the center). I think that's probably a sufficient description to make me stand out at the ballet, but i'll be wearing a black dress with black and white striped sleeves.

I'll be out on the terrace during intermission most likely.

I don't answer to aurora in real life (especially not at Sleeping Beauty), but I do answer to DT or delirium

I'm so sad to hear this, she is truly one of my biggest inspirations. I think the number in Singing in the Rain, with the green dress, is probably the sexiest thing I've ever seen in my life.

A lot of the dancers in old movie musicals make me cringe a bit. She was always exquisitely beautiful.

EIGHTH WEEK

Mon. Eve., July 7, 8 P.M. GISELLE – Ananiashvili, Corella, Saveliev, Murphy

Tues. Eve., July 8, 8 P.M. GISELLE – Kent, Stiefel, Radetsky, Wiles

Wed. Mat., July 9, 2 P.M. GISELLE – Dvorovenko, Hallberg*, Stappas, Murphy

Wed. Eve., July 9, 8 P.M. GISELLE – Herrera, Gomes, Saveliev, Part

Thurs. Eve., July 10, 8 P.M. GISELLE – Reyes, Cornejo*, Stappas, Wiles

Fri. Eve., July 11, 8 P.M. GISELLE – Vishneva, Carreño, Saveliev, Murphy

Sat. Mat., July 12, 2 P.M. GISELLE – Dvorovenko, Beloserkovsky, Stappas, Part

Sat. Eve., July 12, 8 P.M. GISELLE – Kent, Stiefel, Radetsky, Wiles

Interesting that all the Myrthas are principal dancers except Part, who has been doing the role for some years. I would have thought that perhaps one of the new soloists might have gotten a Myrtha (Kristi Boone perhaps? From the little I've seen of her, she would seem to have the stage presence and size for the role...)

Thank you for all the reports on Part's Swan Lake everyone!!!

While on paper this looks to be a perfect match, I sense that maybe it's not a very easy relationship.

Was this the first time Hallberg and Part danced together?

No--I think they did Sleeping Beauty together last year if I'm remembering correctly (anyone sure?).

But this is (as far as I know) the first Swan Lake they've done together--the prior 3 years at least she had been cast with Gomes.

All in all, I am with drb---she should have been named Ballerina....

count me in as well--hopefully this will be the season. After all, she still has some bayaderes to do...

but in my view she is now, without question, the best odette/odile (whole package) they have.

What a surprise! you all know by know that I think she's fabulous.

I was hoping other people would have beaten me to this, as I have a headache and am not really up to posting a real review right now, but I wanted to report that Veronika Part was fantastic today (I thought anyway!).

Her Odette is always breathtaking, but her Odile was a far cry from the last time I saw her (in 2005), when I would have described it as somewhat tentative.

She OWNED the stage this afternoon. She was confident, glowing and evil, and if anyone has ever looked as drop dead gorgeous in that tutu I've never seen them (that was just the icing on the cake though).

You could dislike her take on the character (I know some people prefer a more subtly evil Odile), but her confidence was magnetic and she had no technical difficulties at all. Her fouettes were singles and on the slow side, but solid (I didn't fear she would fall out of them as I did both Vishneva and Somova in the Kirov season) and still, travelling only slightly forward in a straight line towards the end I believe.

David Hallburg was his beautiful self, and gave a very nuanced performance (I don't think I've ever seen a Prince so distressed in the 4th act) and his leap into oblivion was a thing of beauty!

Kudos also to the most sensuously evil Von Rothbart of all time, Marcello Gomes. He was hypnotizing.

Fernando was about 5'10". I never measured him, but he was a good hand taller than I.

I'm sorry, but I just had a mental image of someone nonchalently whipping out a tape measure and holding it up to him, and it was fabulous!

I didn't mean to imply he was only 5'7", only that en pointe, Gregory did appear taller than him.

Bujones I think was also 5'7" or 5'8"(??).

I think at least a bit taller, because he regularly partnered the 5'7" Cynthia Gregory, who did not loom over him when she was en pointe.

I don't know about that--in both the black swan and paquita videos that are available on youtube I'd say she did loom over him.

They look great together but she is considerably taller than he is when on pointe.

No one get too excited, but I sifted through the press releases for the last several ABT principal promotions and observed a pattern:

Murphy and Gomes - May 24, 2002

Reyes - April 1, 2003

Cornejo - June 17, 2003

Wiles - June 28, 2005

Hallberg - May 5, 2006

My fingers are crossed, too, Barbara.

true, but last year all the promotions were immediately after the spring season...

As an aside, there is a rave review of the Goldner book by Macaulay in today's NYTimes

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/03/books/03maca.html?ref=arts

Hope it is ok to post it here (as opposed to in links) but it certainly seemed appropriate to do so.

I found it made me want to purchase the book, quite badly.

Aurora, if she dances Flames of Paris you are definately going to see her jump!

Mashinka, you are totally correct of course. I have a cold and my brain is slow. There is a ton of jumping in the pdd, I was just thinking of the female variation from it, which doesn't have much and is a bit "cutesy" in my view.

Thanks for reminding me!

Natalia Osipova's appearance at the April 21, 2008 YAGP Gala at City Center, where she is listed as dancing Flames of Paris with Ivan Vasiliev, is confirmed on her website:

April

...

New York, Youth America Grand Prix Gala 2008 - 21

Bolshoi Theatre, "Le Corsaire", Medora (debut, with Sergei Filin) - 30

Also noteworthy is that her debut (delayed from early January) as Medora is now scheduled for April 30. This is confirmed on the Bolshoi's site (Russian Version). Ivan Vasiliev is listed there in Pas d'Esclave. Since, as may be read in Sergei Filin's thread under Dancers, according to the Moscow Times he retires at the end of April, having him as her Conrad is a singular honor.

Hooray! I can't wait to see her. I wish it was something else (I want to see her JUMP!!) but still it should be fabulous, and its a fantastic variation for him.

Anyone else going to be there? (YAGP gala, not Le Corsaire unfortunately)

I was very, very annoyed by Alistair MacAuley’s review. He should return to UK, I think.

Oh no, you wanted him and you're stuck with him as Alistair MacAuley is one emigrant I really don't want to see returning. I seem to remember some 15 pages eulogizing over A.M. on this forum when he first went to the New York Times with mine being just about the only dissenting voice.

so please forgive this Londoner with a very long memory for saying: I TOLD YOU SO.

I wish he would just review the ballet(s). There is never much of a review--ballet history? yes. But review of dancers, not so much.

as was quoted in today's links, he said the most recent visit to the Kirov left him thinking:

“Maybe I don’t like ballet after all?...Almost all of it left me cold."

His friends admitting they felt the same reassures him that he does in fact like ballet, however I've seen nothing in any of his reviews for the times to indicate that he likes very much of it, certainly anything that isn't by Balanchine. I think perhaps he should ponder the question some more.

It wasn’t too long ago that a woman anywhere would have been considered fairly tall at 5’7â€; these days it seems to have been downgraded to medium height. There was an article in Vogue awhile back about the actor Jennifer Connelly, who is also five-seven, and there was the same implication that she’s on the short side. It is short by model standards, but not by too many others, I should think.

Unless you have a mother who is 6'--then you get referred to as "the shrimp." Thanks mom!

Aurora (not bitter!)

Vishneva.

ABT or NYCB?

ABT

since it got ignored earlier...

Osipova or Somova?

Story.

White or Black swan pdd?

Black swan pdd (actually depends on the dancer and the day but generally...)

Osipova or Somova

Iain Mackay (principal at Birmingham Royal Ballet) is joining Angel Corella's Ballet de Espana as a principal dancer.

http://www.brb.org.uk/4441.html

Is there any other news of company members yet?

Yes, former National Ballet of Cuba's Ms. Adyaris Almeida,ex Cincinnatti Ballet Principal and current Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami Principal (recently performed in their Swan Lake in Miami), is also on the move. I personally talked to her about it, and she was very excited. Here's a link to her page:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...endID=109388074

According to Joseph Gatti's myspace page (linked from Adyaris's--they are a couple), he's dancing there as well.

It must have been sometime last year or the year before - someone on BT had commented on mime in Balanchine (was it popularlibrary, perhaps?) and somehow there was discussion of d'Amboise miming something to Farrell in the Diamonds pas - had it disappeared after the first season? I cannot remember and fear that this may be a misremembering (I do remember talk of mime in other places), but it is quite an *odd* misremembering.

I'd say last year. I remember it too but I can't remember what thread it was on either. So basically my reply has no point except to say you aren't misremembering, the discussion did happen.