sneds

Hi! Acosta was with ABT just for the 2002 Met Season-I hope he returns in the near future to NY! I've never understood why ABT announces casting so far in advance-six months is a long time. It's misleading to people who don't realize or don't think about the fact that in six months a dancer could be sick, injured, pregnant, have left the company or changed their schedule. Obviously, ABT has the little disclaimer, but still why advertise casting that will, undoubtabley, be very different by the time the performances occur. ABT's rep should be able to attract subscriptions without the need to advertise star dancers-the idea of a subscription is to provide you with a variety of ballets and dancers. I prefer NYCB approach, whereby they announce the casting each Wednesday for the following week, and post changes to their online and NYS Theater cast lists daily. Changes do happen, but you don't buy tickets months in advance to see certain dancers and then be let down when they don't dance. Kate

Hi! There are at least three different awards that ballet dancers can receive from the Princess Grace-USA Foundation. There are fellowships, scholarships, and the Chris Hellman Dance Award which can be a fellowship or scholarship. In recent years they've also given dance honorariums. It seems that at least three, sometimes four or more ballet dancers get awards, as well as a few modern and ethic dancers. The fellowships, I believe, pay for the dancer's salary for one year (Michelle Jiminez in 2002-03 and Jared Angle in 2001-02 are recent fellowship awardees). There are also scholarships for stuedents-Ashlee Knapp received one in 2001-02. There also is the Chris Hellman Dance Award which is a dance (ballet fellowship). Ricardo Torres was the receipient last year. Kate P.S.

Hi! Actually, "With You, Without You" was influenced by Harrison's explorations into Indian music. Harrison studied sitar with Ravi Shankar, and the song is very reminiscent of traditional Indian music (I just got back from a trip to India, and it reminded me very much of some of the music I heard there). I also feel like I need to see Robert Hill's piece again to figure out how I feel about it. Unfortunately, tonight is my last performances, so I won't have the chance. In general, I like the choreography, but thought that the costumes did not flatter the body types of most of the dancers. Angel Corella was wonderful in his major solo, but collided with front-most wing when he exited the stage. I think it was just his arm, but I'm sure he has a good bruise to remember the premiere by! Kate

Hi! The awards ceremony was last night, but I can't find any news about it. Does anyone know who the dance awardees are for this coming year (Michelle Jiminez??)? Thanks! Kate

Hi! Dancing aside, I'd take Molina over Carreno ) Anyway, comparing Molina and Carreno is not really fair because Carreno has had years more dancing experience and is much more solidly built (perhaps it would have been better to switch Carreno and Molina in Symphony in C). BTW, is Molina actually 26 or 27, as I read somewhere??-he looks much younger. I didn't think that Part looked perturbed on Sunday night, but I'd agree that there were more than a few white knuckle moments. Again, Molina looked MUCH better in "Sin and Tonic" with Paloma Herrera, which leads me to believe that with Part there was just a huge mismatch. BTW, I'd agree with Leigh on Damien Woetzel. Sometimes you can almost see him thinking mid-air. kate

Hi! I don't have my old programs with me, but I'm almost positive that NYCB does double up corps roles in "Sypmphony in C"-just two or three though. Carbro-It looked to me as if Reyes was doing doubles to keep up with Corella. She would start a single and then see him doing a double and throw in a second rotation a bit late, thus the unsteadiness. I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only who's not fond of the doubles in Symphony in C-Reyes Corella and Murphy & Stiefel were both of out of synch in their attempts to get doubles in where singles would have looked much nicer! Dvorovenko was lovely in "Symphony in C "last night!! Having seen Carlos Molina in "Sin and Tonic", I think the mistmatch in size with Veronika Part was much more the problem than his partnering skills. Last night in "Symphony in C" he was clearly concentrating on the partnering, and there were some strained looking poses, but no real problems in his partnering. I'd fault the person in charge who cast them together-it's not fair to either dancer to be put in a situation like that. Plus, ABT can hardly afford to risk injury to any of it's male dancers! In contrast, yesterday afternoon, Molina looked very comfortable partnering Paloma Herrera in Kudelka's more modern ballet, "Sin and Tonic". He was relaxed enough with the technical part of the dancing that he was able to get into his character. I don't think Part is too tall for him-she's just a big gal for such a slender guy. However, Molina's long lines may make him look taller than he actually is. Sascha Radetsky and Michelle Wiles are also mismatched a bit in size, but he did not look at all strained or overly concerned with the partnering. I believe that they trained together at the Kirov Academy, and so have probably danced together for many years. Appearances can be deceiving-Kent and Corella are often paired, and though she is quite tall for him, he always look perfectly at ease with her, and thus the size difference is not so much an issue. Kate

Hi! The winter season brochure arrived today, and had an updated roster. Yoel Carreno was hired as a soloist and Ask laCour as a corps member. Kate

Hi! Just out of curiousity, who is Hubbe's girlfriend? I wish magazines over here would pay more attention to ballet dancers! I may be mistaken, but I think Hubbe's performances in recent years with NYCB have been limited from time to time by injuries-especially a bad knee injury some years back. Also, I suspect that he was somewhat distracted from his dancing at NYCB during the period when he was in the running for the artistic director position at RDB. He's also a member of the permanent faculty at SAB. I do wish I could have seen the film about Hubbe that was made by his friend (and former NYCB dancer) Ulrik Wivel, which was shown last year (??) in NYC. I am very glad to hear that he is having a great year dancewise. One of my favorite memories at NYCB is of him in "La Sonnambula, which I saw in dress rehearsal and performance. And it was a delight to see him in "Who Cares" this past spring. I definately think James Fayette's great talent lies more in his partnering skills than his solo dancing, but he and Ringer have a magical connection when they dance together. BTW, from all that I've heard, Fayette is a wonderful person off-stage-as caring off the stage as he is with his partners on the stage. FYI-in researching for my SAB website, I've seen the websites/dancer bios for just about every balllet company in the US, and dancers almost always mention the fact if they are married to another dancer in the company. I'm sure Millipied is enjoying his last weeks with the wild 'do before it has to be cut for the NYCB winter season. I've wondered about Adam Hendrickson's future, especially with the influx of talented shorter dancers like Ulbricht & Carmena (and now Carreno). However, I think he's well on his way to a solid career. He's not that short-he's cast in the corps of many different ballets. Also, he seems to have made his mark on certain roles-he's my favorite Puck, and Martins has used him in several new ballets. And I don't think it is just height that has kept Gold as a soloist. I really like his dancing, but somehow he seems to lack something (which I can't put my finger on) essential to make the jump to principal. I do hope that whatever was on his mind is not serious... Kate

Hi! Have Neal or Hubbe actually performed the role with NYCB? (Sometimes dancers perform roles with other companies or touring groups that they do not perform with NYCB). The only two Prodigal Sons I've seen are Boal and Woetzel, and I thought that they've been alternating the role in recent seasons. Robert LaFosse also used to perform the role-he's in one fo the photos of Prodigal Son that is often used in the brochures. For the Siren..hmmm..how about Jennie Somogyi, Alexandra Ansanelli or maybe even Aesha Ash??? For the Prodigal...Millipied, Marcovici..also, I've never seen him dance, but perhaps Yoel (more frequently spelled Joel) Carreno might be a good Prodigal eventually. His half brother certainly is a good prodigal at ABT, though I tend to think Jose Manuel is to heavily built (muscular) for the role-just doesn't look drained/weak enough at the end. Speaking of new dancers, I can't wait to see Ask LaCour on stage. If I'm not mistaken, he's the first new Danish man in the company since Nikolaj Hubbe joined. Kate

Robert LaFosse is no longer listed on the website...

Hi! Ask and Nilas's mother is Lise laCour. She was married to Peter Martins, but I don't know about Ask's father. laCour's hiring at NYCB must be very recent since, as Alexandra points out, his bio is still up on the 2002-03 version of the RDB website. Kate P.S. Yoel is Jose Manuel Carreno's half brother and it's more often spelled Joel Carreno. If you search on Google with this spelling, you can find many reviews of his dancing. They seem to indicate that he has much of his brother's talent and is a good partner.

HI! The NYCB website has his names spelled as Carrenno, but that could easily be a typo. I think you are right about Carrenno-I just happened to pull his name up on a site about a performance in Israel. It's exciting to see that NYCB has hired some new male talent. BTW, Ask la Cour is about 20 and was in the RDB corps. Kate

Hi! The NYCB website lists two new dancers-Yoel Carrenno. I think the dancer is Israeli, but that is the only things I could glean from the web. Does anyone have info on this new dancer?? Ask Le Cour, Nila Martin's half brother who has danced with the Royal Danish Ballet has also joined NYCB. Kate

Hi! Part is scheduled for two performances of "Symphony in C"-she's dancing the 2nd Movement with Carlos Molina. I'm not surprised that she's only cast in a few things-as a new company member Part was probably not around when the new and newly revived ballets were rehearsed. Dvorovenko is one of the busiest women in the company. I hope that she has fully recovered from the injury that kept her off the stage during the Met Season. She's doing 1st movement in Syphony in C, Sylvia Pas se Deux and Grand Pas Classique with her husband. She's also doing 2nd Movement in Symphony in C with Gomes and Offenbach in the Underworld with Saveliev. Kate

Hi! Well, I'm not 100% sure that she'd doing 3rd Movement-the casting lists the four couples and I think it's in order of the movements. Herman Cornejo & Xiomara Reyes and Angel Corella & Gillian Murphy and Joaquin De Luz & Reyes are the other couples that seem to be dancing 3rd movement-all couples who are shorter. Also, Vladimir Malakhov, Julio Bocca, Guillame Graffin, Ashley Tuttle, Alessandra Ferri and Amanda McKerrow are absent from the cast list-unless they are in the Harrison Tribute or The Garden of Villandry. Does anyone know if they are injured or otherwise comitted? It seems a bit odd that six of the sixteen principals are not dancing at all. This situation puts a lot of pressure on the other eight dancers-Carreno, Gomes and Corella are dancing in almost every performance, and an injury to one of them would necessitate major casting adjustments. It was only a few years ago that Damian Woetzel had to do a performance with ABT because they didn't have enough healthy male dancers. Kate

Hi! The City Center casting was published in the ABT ad in the Sunday NY Times... Tidbits: *No casting yet for "Garden of Villandry" and some later performances of Robert Hill and James Kudelka's new ballets. The "Harrison Tribute" cast is listed as Company. *Meunier is apparently dancing the 3rd Movement of "Symphony in C" with Ethan Stiefel in at least on performance. This seems like a mismatch to me-she is tall and solid, whereas he on the short and slighter side. She's also doing the 1st Movement with David Halberg in another peformance which seems like a much better match. *From the corps, David Halberg, Carlos Lopez, Ricardo Torres, Angela Snow, Liz Gaither and Alina Faye are all being cast in major roles *Ananiashvili is doing one Symphony in C at the beginning of the season and then returning for Offenbach in the Underworld at the end of the two weeks. *No major absences, though Herman Cornejo is doing very little, at least on this version of the casting list. *Angel Corella is the "workhorse" of the season. If he appears in the Harrison Tribute (which he should if the cast is Company), he will be dancing in all but one performance during the two week run and dancing in the orignal casts of all four new ballets. *Kudelka and Hill have both cast Kent, Corella and Gomes in the major roles of their new ballets. Gomes is also in Lubovitch's ballet. Given that there is so much talent in ABT, it would have been nice to see the choreographers choose a wider ranger of dancers. I wonder if there were some unfortunate injuries during the key rehearsal periods... Kate

Hi! Jessica Flynn is an apprentice! I'm working on a new version of the webpage and updating the old version at the same time, so there are some glitches here and there ! I believe that all the Wien Award winners were given apprentice contracts, but there hasn't been an announcement from NYCB. It appears that NYCB doesn't officially announce apprentices-their names appear in the playbill when they perform and they are mentioned in one of the SAB newsletters. BTW, though Wien Award winners usually seem to get contracts, not every winner does get an apprenticeship. And some winners spend another year at SAB before becoming apprentices. The Rochester Ballet site is strange...the schedule mentions Nutcracker 2002, but the bios seems to be very out-of-date.

Hi! Sari Ostrum... She was an apprentice until some point in 2001, but I don't think she ever became a full member of the company. I believe she is dancing with the Rochester City Ballet now: http://www.rochestercityballet.org/meet_co...y/m_ostrum.html, However it's a bit strange that the bio doesn't mention her being an ABT apprentice, so I'm not entirely sure how up-to-date the Rochester City Ballet website is at this point. BTW, is she related to Ellen Ostrum, now an apprentice with NYCB? Kate

Hi! I've also been delighted with Jerome Johnson's dancing! He and Megan LeCrone are both from the NC School of the Arts, and have danced together in competitions and performances. Johnson received a Princess Grace Foundation scholarship in 2000 and was a Prix De Lausanne finalist the following year. If I'm not mistaken, he was only at SAB for a short time before becoming an apprentice and never was in one of the annual workshops. Aesha Ash has been given some good opportunities by NYCB-this past season she debuted as Hippolyta in "Midsummer's" and as the female lead in the Explosions Polka section of "Vienna Waltzes". She also got great reviews in Albert Evans' Diamond project ballet. She's a good dancer, but I think perhaps not yet ready for promotion. Kate

Hi! I suspect that Stephanie probably did give up dancing. In all my research for my SAB website, I've never come across her name at any other company or ballet website. Recently, I came across an article by Susie Eisner, who was the Marie in the other cast of "The Nutcracker". The article was about taking her young daughter to see the NYCB "Nutcracker". She stopped dancing a couple of years after the publication of the book and is now Susie Eisner Eley. She's a writer and has written for DanceSpirit and DanceTeacher among other publications). Susie Eisner's Nutcracker prince, Sean Savoye (who is shown with cast on his wrist in the book) did however go on to join NYCB and was in the corps until he retired a few years ago. It's interesting to note that the subject of "A Very Young Dancer", Katherine Healey, did go on to a highly successful ballet career. She never danced with NYCB, but was a principal dancer with the Vienna Opera Ballet and a soloist with the English National Ballet. Her Nutcracker Prince was Peter Boal, now a principal with NYCB. There's also a small picture in that book of Kyoko Ina, who is now a 5 (?) time US Pairs champion and world bronze medalist. Of all the other "A Very Young..." books, the only other person I know of that's gone on to success in their sport is Debbie Malloy, the older sister of the girl in "A Very Young Rider". Kate

Hi! All the talk has been about NYCB, but it looks as if ABT is going though some major changes. Yan Chen, Clinton Luckett, Yu Xin, Sean Stewart and Rosalie O'Connor are definately gone. If one is to trust the updated ABT website, Jerry Douglas, Erin Ackert and Giray Atalay have also departed. Jennifer Quent and Christin Severini are listed on the separate corps page, but not on the main roster page (www.abt.org/dancers/index.html), which leaves some question as to the current accuracy of the roster on the website. We already know about the two new soloists (Part and Meunier). Kate

Hi! NYCB only brought half the company to the Edinborough Festival in 2001. The whole company went in 2000, but it was just too difficult to find appropriate housing for such a large group, so in 2001 only the dancers needed for the repertory went on tour. The remaining dancers remained in NYC and rehearsed for the Asian tour. I believe that NYCB split into two groups in 1998 so that the company could perform in two locations. Kate

Hi! There were no brochures at the NYS Theater today, but mine arrived in the mail today. Melissa Walter is also not on the roster. I did the math, and based upon the roster in the brochure, the company is six dancers smaller-one less corps dancer and 6 fewer soloists. Kate

Wow... Martins has gone from ten male soloists to four in less than a year. The only ones left are Gold, Houston, Angle and Higgins, the latter two just returning from major injuries. And if Angle returns to his pre-injury quality, he deserves a promotion too. Hofmans is a big loss-he never seemed to have gotten a niche in the rep, so I'm not overly surprised that he's departed. While there's talent in the corps, there was only one male apprentice last year, so Martins has got to import talent or push this year's apprentices through quickly. I'm not shocked about the corps ladies, but am very surprised about Stuart Capps. He just debuted as Bottom and also had another major role in the ballet. Speaking of Bottom-with Ritter and Capps now gone, it leaves Houston and Fayette to carry on the role. Oh, from what I've read the new ballet must be the new one to be choreographed by Susan Stroman (which could also be a Rodgers ballet). I don't know about a Stravinsky Festival, but hasn't there been discussion of a Robbins Festival. The ballet mix is nice...can't wait to see Coppelia, but did want to see Dances at a Gathering again. Guess you can't have everything. Sigh.. I'll have to grab a copy of the brochure when I'm in town on Thursday. kate

Hi! I haven't heard or read anything about Carmena & ABT. Perhaps you are thinking about my post referring to the recent NYCB Dancer of the Week profile on Carmena , or the profile itself. In the profile, the story of how Carmena got to SAB is mentioned: He was a Prix de Lausanne scholarship winner, and intended to go to ABT (the studio company). However, at the time he didn't speak english very well, and somehow it was understood that he meant SAB (instead of ABT). I have absolutely no idea if he's ever considered ABT. There are so many factors in deciding which company is best for any one dancer-salary, repetory, artistic direction, existing talent (i.e. ABT already has many talented, shorter men). Kate