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[Please delete or move if this is in the wrong place] The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune has reported that Kaitlyn Gilliland is this year's Janice Levin Dancer, and that she will receive the award on Feb. 10 at the Annual Luncheon.

Chelsea Adomaitis is now listed as an apprentice on the website.

Though there's nothing I can find on the PNB website to confirm, according to the Joyce website, PNB will perform in New York on January 5-10.

Exactly. Martins's duties as AD are akin to those of other leaders in other fields who earn similar or higher salaries.

Hadn't ever heard of PAMTGG before BalletTalk, but a little Google turned up this review from Time Magazine: Priceless line: "If nothing else. PAMTGG leads one to wonder what kind of magic he might work if his fancy were caught by a roller derby or a pro football game."

Thanks to all commenting! There's so much information about Kirkland's personal demons, and relatively little about her performances. It's wonderful to be able to read all of your reminiscences. (Please keep 'em coming!)

Sorry if this is in the wrong place. This is the first time I've started a topic. There's a YouTube video from the '80s of Gelsey Kirkland and Anthony Dowell performing the R&J Balcony pas. (It's the first result in a search for "Gelsey Kirkland Juliet") The performance is beautiful. Did any BTers see her during Kirkland engagement with Royal Ballet? or, for that matter, any recollections of any Kirkland performances? What was it like to watch her onstage "in real time"?

So sad.

I wasn't going to be the one to bring this up, but I'm too snarky to control myself: An AD can't do that (at least at NYCB, and, from what I know, ABT too). It has to be some major breach: being arrested for a major crime etc. Like, say, being arrested for felony cocaine possession? Edited by Admin: There is no known real life example of a conviction that has been made public by the company, the court system (where almost all are documented in the public record), or by law enforcement.

Of course, gaining soloist roles is, in a way, very different at a company like PNB, where senior soloists are all but required to do soloist or demi roles simply because of the size of the company. There are, according to PNB's "Company Overview," 51 dancers at PNB. At City Ballet, there are over 51 dancers in the corps alone.

There's something that's troubling about the assumption that the corps members are "dead wood" who are holding back the growth of the company. Though I don't know the inner workings of NYCB, I would imagine that there is a role for reliable senior corps members--that is, the corps de ballet is not simply a place for the next round of soloists, fresh out of SAB, to cool their heels. If these senior dancers are consistently cast in corps roles (and NYCB's corps is quite large) and consistently do their job (show up for rehearsals, arrive at the theatre at their designated call times, and dance the roles with a high level of technique) who's to say that they're a liability to the company? While it's fun to look for the hot new face from Workshop in the corps, that doesn't necessarily mean that the new girl is dancing the same ballet at a higher level than the existing members. As an audience member (and this is embarrassing to admit) I often fail to pick out specific corps members as looking especially beautiful unless they have recently performed a soloist role (including at Workshop) or unless they have an extraordinary facility (i.e. Kaitlyn Gilliland). If the level of the company has advanced enough that a senior corps member has fallen behind, that's one thing. No one wants to see a dancer stick out "for a bad reason." However, there are a limited number of people who can catch the director's eye, and soloist roles, or rather, lack thereof, don't necessarily mean that a dancer's bringing down the corps. Some have referred to the idea of "artistic and technical stagnation," I'd like to raise the point that it's possible that a director may lose interest in dancers even as they are still growing. Look at, for example, Callie Bachman, who two years ago received an extraordinary amount of publicity. Has she been given soloist roles? Is that a reflection on a loss of potential? While it's likely that it took her some time to recover from her injuries, it's doubtful that she suddenly lost whatever qualities drew Martins's interest in the first place. Cruel as it sounds, it's more likely that, when she was not in front of those who decide casting, she was, to be frank, simply not there--almost forgotten. I don't mean to fault Martins. It would be an extremely tall order, essentially impossible, for Martins, or any other AD, to be expected to constantly be paying full attention to every dancer in a company of NYCB's size. ADs are human, after all. What I do mean to say is this: if a director's eye is caught elsewhere, it doesn't mean the dancer in front of him has lost ability or has failed to grow. On a separate note, even if it's optional, I would imagine that not attending company class makes it much harder for a dancer to advance. Company class is likely one of the few places that a dancer really has the chance to show himself or herself off if he or she has not been given soloist roles, as a corps dancer doing their job shouldn't look especially different than their colleagues. (In class, it's probably more acceptable to throw in those 4 pirouettes.)

I'm with you, DeborahB. Flack: "...the company was given other options: pay cuts, a hiring freeze, but they didn’t want to do any of that. So [AGMA is] obviously upset with the situation too." I'm certain that there's a procedure in place (at other companies with AGMA, at least, and of course at ABT with the IAA) wherein the dancers can vote through the union to allow their own pay freeze. If company administration was given such an option and opted for firings instead, that's, to say the least, very disheartening. If the dancers voted for their peers to be fired rather than to take a pay cut or freeze, that's also very disheartening, though I doubt that this is the case; AGMA would not likely be described as "upset" with action democratically decided through the union, and it's hard to believe that such action would be taken given the camaraderie that Flack describes in the interview. If the situation is so bad that with senior staff taking a 10% cut and union-authorized pay "adjustments," then NYCB's in a more stressful fiscal situation than they're letting on. If the possibility was never entertained, that's also very disappointing--a kind of passivity of the union in the face of crisis. I (a self-admitted cynic) was not completely surprised to hear someone (finally!) say, "It seems like, in a way, he was just cleaning house of the people he didn’t like for whatever reason." As Flack said, "It kind of feels like they spun it the way they wanted to and it’s not very truthful." Applause to Flack for her courage and insight.

Lola Cooper is going to Carolina Ballet, along with 1, possibly 2, other PD girls.

:)

Nikolaj Hübbe Robert Fairchild Zachary Catazaro Jose Carreño Maxim Beloserkovsky Cory Stearns Ruben Martin Sean Orza Lucien Postlewaite Seth Orza Jerome Tisserand

I'm almost certain that all of the video clips that they showed were the Kristen Sloan creations that were on the website, though there was no acknowledgement, at least during intermission, as to the original source The dancers were brilliant, really brilliant. As far as the production itself goes, I've seen it before, and I'm not exactly a fan.

I'm so glad to see this return--and even more so because I'm itching to see the extraordinary performance I anticipate from Carla Körbes. Now, if there was also an opportunity to see Rachel Foster take on the role, I don't know how I would be able to contain my cumulative happiness.

I'm leaning towards Mashinka's assessment.

Raina is currently a student at School of American Ballet. She did not appear in last year's Workshop because she was recovering from an injury.

I wasn't sure where to post this, but the Synchronous Objects website (http://synchronousobjects.osu.edu/) launched today and has proved to be a really interesting asset in approaching "One Flat Thing, Reproduced," even though the performances were months ago. The site is the result of the Forsythe Company partnering with OSU to explore the piece. From the "Introduction" link on the main page:

Helene, I believe you may be thinking of Claire Stallman. She has very blond hair and a very young-looking face, and she's the same dancer who was the last member of the corps to exit and posed in the doorway in Slaughter on Tenth Avenue. I can think of others who might fit the bill, though, if this guess is wrong.

I've loved Thomas's dancing in so many different roles; she's a dancer who can adapt to any part. (And I mean any. Thomas is great everything: in Balanchine and in Tharp, in character-driven roles [i.e. the Maillot R&J nurse], and in abstract roles [for example, the Forsythe with the tables]. She's a chameleon in the very best way.) She has wonderfully refined technique, and she also has a definite presence onstage. When she's cast, you count on a superb performance. In short, the Danes are very lucky! Best of luck to Thomas. We'll certainly miss her terribly

I understand the appeal, but, honestly, $150 for a pair of "smelly old shoes"?

Indeed! When I saw your comment, I did not expect to see the name of such a young dancer! I remember that Megan Johnson received a glowing mention in a June 08 review in the NY Times of the workshop performance at SAB of Concerto Barocco... Correct me if this is wrong, but I was under the impression that she performed the 2nd movement pdd in the workshop performance. However, there seems to be no indication on the casting of which lead Johnson will be performing. Any information? I would imagine they would have the senior dancer perform the pas, but this is City Ballet, after all...

I'm currently reading it and I'll offer some embarrassingly oversimplified, inadequate, and likely inaccurate interpretation as to application of NNT's ideas to dance... The human need for narrative is obviously present in dance audiences. The fact that the overall trend is for ballets in general to become more abstract over time (à la Balanchine's leotard ballets vs. any Petipa) is no accident, nor is it odd that story ballets usually sell more tickets than abstract works. People like a story. Not much more elaboration is needed on this point. PNB's performances of Forsythe's "One Flat Thing Reproduced," though receiving applause, also have caused practically vitriolic reactions (as a relative term for arts audiences, that is ): audience members walking out, complaining to house management, etc. The work's been described as "organized chaos," but the knowledge of certain so-called principles behind it (I'm speaking purely from anecdote here) i.e. awareness of Forsythe's conception of the extension of classical symmetry to asymmetry and awareness of the way in which the dancers react to one another's movement--in other words, the structure, the "narrative" of the work-- makes it much easier to watch. Even with such knowledge, though, it's a relief to notice the moments of unison that emerge seemingly out of the blue in "One Flat Thing." Each recognized connection, reaction, and/or chain of events makes the work that much more familiar, "narrated," and easy to watch. How many times have you heard people around you say, "What was that about?" or "Explain to me what just happened," particularly after contemporary "plotless" work? Probably too many times to count. I could pat myself on the back for not longing for narrative as an audience member, but that would be ignoring the fact that as someone who's seen a lot of dance, I have my own "narratives" of recognition of, at the very least, choreographic structure that resembles what I've already seen, under the umbrella of references to other works, as well as, particularly in many contemporary pieces. My own expectations are in some way, met. The end of "Artifact Suite" is immensely satisfying, practically a revelation. Perhaps it's because of the return of the familiar "narrative," the most simple, unison arm movements from a corps in an unmistakable formation. One thing I can't leave off saying in any discussion of "The Black Swan" is that I'm stunned by NNT's accuracy in "predicting" the current financial crisis. He spells out in such clear terms precisely the way in which this problem has emerged and the failures of the structure of the markets that made them so very vulnerable to the "Black Swan" of home prices dropping.