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volcanohunter

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Posts posted by volcanohunter

  1. I wish they would use the production team that does Britain's Royal Ballet productions as these seem generally well thought out and sensitively shot, but perhaps there are diplomatic issues that would block this?

    To answer your question and mine, the film was directed by Ross MacGibbon, who has oodles of experience shooting the Royal Ballet, and he had an English crew. http://londondance.com/articles/interviews/ross-macgibbon-ballet-3d-live-screen/ So my best guess is that the crane made him temporarily take leave of his senses. At one point, I think at the beginning of the csardas, he even had his "boom mic in the shot" moment where the moving crane was visible at the top of the frame.

  2. This report is a summary. The footage of Tsiskaridze speaking dates back to April when he went to court in an attempt to overturn the formal reprimands made against him by the Bolshoi. The report speculates that he could find himself in the same position as Anastasia Volochkova, formally employed by the Bolshoi Theater, but not likely to perform there again.

  3. Today's NY Times states: "During an interview in February, Mr. Iksanov said he had no legal basis for dismissing Mr. Tsiskaridze and hoped that he would resign voluntarily. 'Our labor legislation is very humane,' he said. 'He has been on pension for more than a year. I cannot send him to retirement, because according to Russian legislation, it’s a lifetime contract. He can stay at the theater until he is 100.' Ms. Novikova declined on Sunday to comment on what had changed since then."

    Thank you. This explains Tsiskaridze's comment. What has changed, indeed? Unless the Bolshoi is going back to Tsiskaridze's accumulated reprimands as grounds for dismissal.

  4. They haven't terminated his contract: they've opted not to renew it. What contract or civil law has management broken?

    I'm sure it will go to court, but under what principle would he win?

    I have to plead complete ignorance of Russian labor law, but judging by the comment Tsiskaridze made in the linked television report, Bolshoi dancers have greater job security than their American counterparts. He states that as a full-time, salaried dancer, he cannot be dismissed unless he writes a letter of resignation, and since he has not done so, the theater has no grounds for dismissing him. I don't understand how the system works, but if you look at the roster of the Bolshoi's dancers, listed underneath the principals and soloists is a group of dancers identified as "working under contract." This implies that their status somehow differs from that of all the other dancers. Prior to this season all of them were included in the various soloist ranks. http://www.bolshoi.r...persons/ballet/ One of the charges made by Sergei Filin's detractors is that he "forced Andrei Uvarov to write a letter of resignation," which implies that if Filin wanted to put Uvarov out to pasture, it was not enough simply not to renew Uvarov's contract.

    I am surprised by this turn of events. In that part of the world, it is not uncommon for opposition politicians to release information as a pre-emptive strike. They may say, "I am about to be arrested," or "Our party offices are about to be raided," or "Compromising information about me is going to be leaked to the press," in the hopes of preventing the authorities from doing so. Often times it works. The government backs off and says, "Oh no, we have no intention of doing such a thing. So-and-so is just being paranoid." I thought that Tsiskaridze spent the last number of months talking about the Bolshoi's attempts to get rid of him by not casting him and depriving him of students because he believed that the Bolshoi management would be loath to prove him right. I guess the management's dislike for Tsiskaridze outweighed the fact that a dismissal would give him the persecution card to play.

  5. By my best count, Tsiskaridze gave 13 performances at the Bolshoi this season: 6 as Rothbart, 2 as Albrecht, 1 as Petit's Germann, 2 as the Nutcracker Prince, 1 as Conrad and 1 as Prince Désiré. That's fewer than Marianna Ryzhkina, the Bolshoi's oldest principal (15 so far), but significantly more than Anna Antonicheva (4). He is not scheduled to dance again before his contract expires, in which case this may have been his last performance at the Bolshoi: http://www.bolshoi.r...#20130605190000

  6. Who was listed as director of the broadcast? I suspect the film had two things going against it. One would be James Cameron's team, instead of a crew that specializes in filming live theater performances. I don't blame cameramen who are following instructions. I blame the director for choosing lousy shots, and since there are multiple films of this production available for reference, there's no excuse for not mapping out a good plan.

    The other problem was probably Valery Gergiev, who does not specialize in conducting live ballets. I remember a terrible moment in the Mariinsky's 3D Nutcracker at the end of Act 1, when the snowflakes seemed to be totally lost as they made their exit. It was probably the only time I'd ever seen the Mariinsky's corps completely out of sync and off the music. I figured it had to have been Gergiev's fault and that it wouldn't have happened with a journeyman ballet conductor on the podium.

  7. You have a lot of stamina, Natalia. I would be so overwhelmed by the onslaught of low camp that hospitalization would probably be required.

    Oh, but she was so thoroughly charming, and the fact that she required big, tall leading men is one of those movies' big plusses. Though asking us to believe that she and Ricardo Montalban could be twins in Fiesta does stretch credulity. Watching Montalban dance with Cyd Charisse more than makes up for it, and the sight of Williams impersonating Montalban in the bullring is worth the price of admission.

  8. Now this is a real shame. Johan Kobborg was supposed to choreograph the 'Four Seasons' ballet in a new ROH production of Verdi's Les Vêpres siciliennes in the fall. Now, apparently, the ballet has been dumped (boo!) and Kobborg and the Royal Ballet are no longer involved. It would seem that the director doesn't want the whole ballet. (I realize it's a long opera, but the ballet is part of its grand opéra identity.) Final tie to the ROH severed.

    http://www.roh.org.u...res-siciliennes

  9. A Royal Ballet performance of Frederick Ashton's version with Alina Cojocaru and Federico Bonelli in the leads was filmed by the BBC some years ago, but it has not been released on DVD. You can, however, watch it on You Tube. Note that part 3 is out of sequence on the playlist.

  10. ‘It takes eight large cameras including three in the stalls and one on a crane above the dancers, as well as on stage and in the orchestra pit.

    'It’s not discreet, it will feel more like a Hollywood set than a theatre for the night but it really captures movement in space. With a pirouette, when the dancer’s leg extends it flies immediately at you. It’s just stunning.’

    http://www.dailymail...a-near-you.html

    Ah yes, the Mariinsky skycam. Nevertheless, I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best.

  11. Quite a few of ABT’s principals were developed at least partially from within, because despite their varied backgrounds they started their ABT careers in the corps de ballet: Herman Cornejo, the just-retired Irina Dvorovenko, Marcelo Gomes, David Hallberg, Paloma Herrera, Julie Kent, Gillian Murphy, Hee Seo and Cory Stearns. It’s not an alien concept for ABT. But all except Seo and Stearns are over 30, and apart from Hallberg the others have been principal dancers for at least ten years. So the mechanism for promotion has largely ground to a halt, and if the ranks of leading dancers are going to be replenished constantly by stars eager to spend springtime in New York, pretty much everybody else is stuck where they are. But it wasn't always that way.

  12. Isabelle Ciaravola was made a POB étoile at age 37, even though the company was perfectly aware that she would hit mandatory retirement age five years later. If ABT were indeed investing resources in developing younger dancers, that would be one thing. But Irina Dvorovenko's recent interview suggests that it's not. Instead, she points out, ABT is hiring already developed leading dancers into whom other companies had invested time and resources.

  13. I agree that a campaign should not explicitly ask for Abrera's promotion, but a lot of "I love Stella!" responses after her performances would reinforce the vociferous reaction Jayne rightly suggests.

  14. Have you considered organizing a Twitter campaign? ABT has an account, and tweets in favor of Abrera would have the benefit of being public, wouldn't they?. (I am a Twitter ignoramus, so I really don't know.) I've sent e-mails to all sorts of people and organizations, but I'm often left wondering whether they ever reach the intended recipient or simply end up deleted by the gatekeeper.

  15. The Bavarian State Ballet will do a live stream of Terence Kohler's new ballet Heroes on Saturday, June 1, at 1:30 p.m. ET. Based on the story of Prometheus, it is set to music by Lera Auerbach and Alfred Schnittke.

    http://www.bayerisch...orstellung.html

    Streams from the Bavarian State Opera are only available live, and can be viewed at this link:

    http://streaming.staatsoper.de/

    No subtitles, but this introductory video includes both German and English speakers.

    http://www.bayerische.staatsoper.de/888-ZG9tPWRvbTEmaWQ9Mjg1NyZsPWRlJnRlcm1pbj0-~spielplan~oper~veranstaltungen~videobeitrag.html

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