tutu
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Posts posted by tutu
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Hallberg’s Albrecht was so ultra-refined and aristocratic, it seemed at odds with Cojocaru’s unmannered girlishness. Of course, I don’t know how Cornejo would have played Albrecht, but it seemed like Hallberg and Cojocaru were working with two different interpretations, and I chalked that up to the last minute cast change. I fervently hope that Cornejo is well and able to dance in Swan Lake.
In a weird way, this worked for me. They're so obviously from completely different worlds, so incongruous, and Giselle is just stunningly naive: how can she not realize? These are two people who never were even supposed to meet and whose worlds would never intersect, and Giselle's shock is almost a realization of, I don't know, social stratification—that she was never supposed to marry someone refined, that Hilarion really was the most sensible match, that her village is insignificant to a whole class of society. The mad scene's as much a realization of what surrounds her and the forces governing her world as it is her shock of betrayal.
(I'm realizing now that it might not be a good idea to read Pikkety before the ballet.)
In any case, that mad scene: Cojocaru plays it with this dead-eyed vacancy that is absolutely disturbing. It didn't feel silly last night; it felt like her soul had been sucked away.
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Very glad to have opportunity to see the new ballet stars at Mikhailovsky Ballet: Kristina Shapran, Angelina Vorontsova, Oksana Bondareva and others.
Is Shapran at Mikhailovsky now? I thought she went to the Stanislavsky (Polunin's new home) after graduating from VBA
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Congrats to all!
I'm still hoping for a surprise Biasucci promotion, given the number of principal roles she's been performing (with aplomb!).
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My guess: Leta Biasucci, William Lin-Yee and Andrew Bartee or Eric Hipolito to soloist, Jerome Tisserand to principal, and... I'm not sure.
Raphaël Bouchard was a soloist at BMC--perhaps they'll promote him to soloist here, as well?
[Edit: I forgot Lin-Yee, but he's tall enough for many of the soloist women and hasn't exactly been slacking. I'd be a bit surprised to see him passed over.]
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The chapter Bolshoi appears almost closed, the pictures show Joy now with little dogs and little children and her main mission in the world - for now - is to raise money for a cancer-ridden teacher. These are all very smart moves. That they are also quite "transparent" is a different story.
The teacher in question is Vasily Vorokhobko, a repetiteur at the Bolshoi Ballet, and she began raising money for his cancer treatment in September, before any of the brouhaha surrounding her departure.
Thank you very much for clearing this up. But when I look at this auction now
http://www.forvasily.cloudandvictory.com/
and see that Joy Womack bids on several of the items, even bought one of them, - the Bloch Gift Certificate -, then I'm getting confused again...
What's the confusion? She likely approached the companies to donate specifically to her teacher's fund—that is, the companies gave in-kind donations to the auction, not to Womack. Then she bid on some of the items, using her own money.
It's something that happens frequently in fundraisers: an event chair will approach companies, ask for in-kind donations for an auction, and then will also bid on the items they like. Not exactly unseemly behavior.
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Hi l'oiseaubleu! Not off the top of my head, but Ismene Brown's blog may be able to direct you to additional resources. Good luck!
Edited to add: This post's eighth paragraph might be a very, very early starting point.
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The Morning News has published a story describing a talk Womack gave at a Virginia library five days before leaving, and may have summed up the whole mess perfectly:
Joy’s fairy-tale role as the first American to dance with the renowned Bolshoi had become a cautionary tale for those same young dancers she had hoped to inspire.
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Is it wrong she desires solos? Not at all. But there aren't enough roles and too many dancers.
I think part of the issue may be that she was treated differently almost as soon as she was put in the company, to hear her tell it. Around 21:00-23:00 of the Ballet Initiative podcast are quite revealing: she describes it "almost being harder" because she wasn't put in the corps, but was given soloist roles immediately.
It's possible that they didn't cast her in the roles they'd asked her to learn, but it seems it wasn't quite a case of her waiting to be noticed in the back of the corps.
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Red diploma means you've graduated with perfect marks in academic subjects and perfect marks in every artistic subject. From what I gather, it's not given out terribly frequently, but someone else can probably speak with more authority as to this point.
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It's not surprising she felt frustrated, but she's really not much different and no more special than almost every other corps member of the Bolshoi. If she wanted something different -- she could have read Plitsetskaya's memoir to see that the Bolshoi in her head had little to do with reality -- she wasn't going to get it by magical thinking.
By some accounts, though, Womack wasn't coming up with these ideas about being different herself—or at least not on her own. Didn't she receive a red diploma? And the repeated statements that she was "widely expected to be soloist" in 2013 or similar—those can't have come without at least a bit of support from other sources.
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I don't like McGregor's works because they seem empty. There's lots of strenuous pulling and stretching of limbs into extreme positions, but no real choreographic content.
With you on this one. Choreography with extreme extensions, in the kind of early Forsythe vein, can be really interesting (see David Dawson), but in a lot of places Borderlands seemed like it was playing on the kind tropes that really emerged about 15 years ago—extreme extensions, rolls through the torso, "O-ing" and "U-ing"—without the underlying structure / innovation that would make the movement compelling.
Gorgeous dancing for the McGregor, though; the dancers seem quite comfortable in the movement vocabulary. And there were moments that did feel choreographically complete, particularly towards the very end.
Trio was pleasant enough (though, abatt, I'm with you on the clichéd second movement). Looked like it was full of tricky technical moments, but corps and soloists alike breezed through them. Loved Ghosts, and loved Sofiane Sylve in Ghosts, and was reminded in several places of Carousel.
Was impressed throughout with the dancers: all (especially women) seemed really strong technically, able to adapt to different styles with aplomb. Looking forward to Cinderella next week!
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Oof. I paid $47 for the far (and I mean far) left just yesterday. Wish I'd waited one day for better sight lines at a lower price.
It might be worth just paying the $25, and selling one of the tickets you have (or get a friend to come along). ;)
I've done just that—which means I have a spare ticket.
I don't think I can sell it at this point, so do any BTers want a ticket to tomorrow's show? PM me, and I'ill be happy to drop off at box office for will call.
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(Code is valid for Orch B and Orch C seats.)
Oof. I paid $47 for the far (and I mean far) left just yesterday. Wish I'd waited one day for better sight lines at a lower price.
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Joyful last performance before Nutcracker: Sara Mearns and Sterling Hyltin in Episodes and Duo Concertant; pitch-perfect 4Ts. Symphony in Three a bit ragged, but exuberant all round--infectious delight radiating from stage. Orchestra sounded great.
Hope all involved are celebrating--they earned it.
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In "Waiting for the Station,"
In Couple 2, Jonathan Porretta partners Laura (Gilbreath) Tisserand on Sunday, 6 October. He's paired with Rachel Foster in all other performances.
Really?!? Now there's a height difference if ever I heard one.
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Nicole Ciapponi is now listed on the SFB roster, and her bio is active, too.
The first sentence of her bio should read, "Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Nicole Ciapponi trained [with/at] Goh Ballet..." But I'm not sure if contacting the webmaster would change anything.
It's interesting that in last year's booklets, she was listed as joining the corps de ballet in 2010. Now her bio says she joined in 2013.
Wasn't she a trainee first? Maybe that was the source of the mixup?
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If NYCB and ABT both have unsalvagable SL's, which American SL do you recommend?
Houston (Stanton Welch)
San Francisco (Helgi Tomasson)
Pacific Northwest Ballet (Kent Stowell)
Joffrey Ballet (???)
Boston Ballet (Nissinen)
Have I missed any?
PNB's got a stupendous Act IV. Really, really beautiful work for the corps and a wonderful pas de deux.
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Sorry for the dupe post, and thanks for fixing, carbro!
My City never looked better
Ahem. My neighborhood never looked better!
Really? I saw my block in that video; carbro, I've probably passed you on the street before.
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Daniil Simkin has just released a short video on his daily routine. Worth a watch
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Saw Reyes' second performance, and the only thing I'd like to add is that Devon Teuscher was breathtaking as Diana. What an upper body!
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Some really lovely clips of Shibley collected here:
and of Rowe here:
Looks like both have a fair amount of soloist and principal experience.
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In an interview with Time Out New York, beloved ABT soloist Simone Messmer announced she'd be joining SFB for the upcoming season:
Time Out New York: What rank are you going in as?
Simone Messmer: Soloist. Their rep is great. There’s all the Balanchine, a lot of new choreographers, which always works well for me, and enough full-lengths that there will be time to work on them. I have 13 weeks of rehearsal. Actual rehearsal!
Time Out New York: Did you audition for other companies?
Simone Messmer: No. I looked at the rep. I looked at who was running the company. I looked at the staff and in all honesty, I’m a New Yorker. I do not want to live in many other places, so San Francisco was the one place. I sent a small reel; they called me when I was in Beijing and said, “Come now.” I ended up flying from Beijing straight to San Francisco. And because Beijing’s pollution is so bad, my wisdom tooth got infected; I ended up having emergency oral surgery and having two teeth removed and my jaw scraped 12 hours before my audition. The dentist was like, “Don’t move for two weeks.” I was like, “Okay.” [Laughs] So I did my audition 12 hours later on only ibuprofen. I looked like I had been punched in the face. I couldn’t talk. I was like a chipmunk. It was the worst-case scenario. And 17 hours of jet lag on top of everything.She also mentioned several more dancers joining the company, though not by name. Have any other announcements been made?
It’s funny: I think there’s a soloist from the Paris Opera going to San Francisco. And a boy soloist from the Bolshoi.Regardless, you're lucky, SF! Messmer's a very special dancer.
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For corps promotions, I'm on the Skylar Brandt-Joseph Gorak bandwagon.
I love this video of a 14-year-old Skylar Brandt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ziMTZM104I
Mathilde Froustey
in Dancers
Posted
The Vimeo channel "Loulou loves ballet" has five high-quality Froustey videos that have been uploaded in the last six months: Don Q, two Giselles, Grand Pas Classique, and Nutcracker pas.