volcanohunter
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Posts posted by volcanohunter
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Casting for Swan Lake
June 10 - Dronina, James, Hack
11 mat - Lunkina, Saye, Sato
11 eve - Ogden, Rudisin, Hack
12 - Dronina, James, Hack
16 - Lunkina, Saye, Sato
17 - Dronina, James, Hack
18 mat - Kochetkova, November, Bertinshaw
18 eve - Ogden, Rudisin, Hack
19 - Nabity, Gerty, Rudisin
22 - Kochetkova, November, Bertinshaw
23 mat - Ogden, Rudisin, Hack
23 eve - Pereira, Ebe, Sato
24 - Nabity, Gerty, Rudisin
25 mat - Pereira, Ebe, Sato
25 eve - Kochetkova, November, Bertinshaw
26 - Nabity, Gerty, Rudisin -
I'm sure it was entirely the fault of a wobbly internet connection!
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27 minutes ago, Drew said:
Do you know if it is geoblocked for certain parts of the world? The link took me to the announcement but when I failed to find a link to the actual performance I clicked on "info" and the performance window it seemed to be "greyed out." In any case I couldn't click on anything that worked to take me to anything other than background to the ballet.
I am not in Finland, and I was able to watch by clicking on the embedded video at the top of the page.
To double check, I set my VPN to the United States and was able to play the video. Could it be a browser issue?
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Well yes, I did qualify my observation.
Dutch National Ballet dancers have little choice but to become proficient interpreters of Hans van Manen, and there is a very forward sort of confidence in Smirnova's dancing that should translate well. But it may take time.
In this older clip Alexander Zhembrovskyy, who became one of Van Manen's favorite dancers, talked about getting used to the style, and although Frank Bridge Variations is a gentler piece, the rehearsal footage here reflects the deep and broad quality of Van Manen's movement vocabulary.
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Comparing it to performances by experienced interpreters of the ballet. They have deeper chassés, the characteristic Van Manen elbows and hands down pat, and of course the Tension of the Sexes that's always present in his double work.
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This video shows Smirnova rehearsing Hans van Manen's Frank Bridge Variations, a ballet that lived very briefly at the Bolshoi, although Smirnova did not dance it at the time. In the video she looks tentative about the style, but for all we know, it may have been the first day of rehearsals.
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I doubt ballet dancers even cross the minds of government bureaucrats putting together these lists. Easier to go by roll calls of congressmen who voted for certain legislation, including deceased members. (Five people are blacklisted from beyond the grave.)
If Ratmansky maintains Russian citizenship, I wonder whether it's even possible to bar his entry into the country. Of course, people may be arrested upon arrival, as Navalny was.
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The issue is that Possokhov is producing a new ballet for the Bolshoi right now, to replace works that Ratmansky and McGregor have withdrawn, and that in itself can be construed as a political statement. Ratmansky left Moscow the day large-scale bombing of Ukraine began. Even Plácido Domingo, who had found a very willing audience in Russia and had written obsequious letters to Putin, canceled all his Russian dates at that point. Many artists, mostly foreign, but some Russians, too, left the country. Instead Possokhov has gone in.
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Ugh. Thoroughly revolting. Frau Lejeune was correct. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Thank heavens for Hilaire.
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7 hours ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:
Robbins' 33 minutes of choreography somehow doesn't live up to the two minute clip of Rita Hayworth and Fred Astaire dancing that's projected on to the giant screen at the back of the stage when the ballet begins, and thus seems doubly disappointing by comparison.
Every attempt to replicate the magic of Astaire falls flat. It is folly to try.
Balanchine knew it: "He is terribly rare. He is like Bach, who in his time had a great concentration of ability, essence, knowledge, a spread of music. Astaire has that same concentration of genius; there is so much of the dance in him that it has been distilled."
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He did cite private family matters when he resigned, but golly. It's hard to imagine a closer connection to Vladimir Putin.
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The company just posted an interview with Hyltin.
"Hyltin considers herself so blessed to have been able to do what she loves that she’s retiring in order to help her daughter find that special something for herself. 'I love dancing so much,' Hyltin says. 'It’s been a gift to be surrounded by passionate people. That gives you confidence. I want to inspire that in my daughter, let her teach me where she should be. And for that I need to be present for her, not off dancing all the time.'"
https://saratogaliving.com/sterling-hyltin-new-york-city-ballet/
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On 5/15/2022 at 7:52 PM, pherank said:
It's hard for me to understand why someone would pay $500 and not pay any attention to the Covid protocol notices.
It's a particularly confusing time, when vaccination passports and masking requirements are disappearing in some areas and in certain settings. I would have stayed on the safe side and assumed that masks and boosters were required, but now especially patrons need extra reminding of what the rules in specific venues are.
On 5/15/2022 at 7:52 PM, pherank said:I've never understood how so many people can attend performances, but not want to talk about it in any detail online.
For one thing, sometimes they feel as though they are writing into a vaccuum and no one is interested or cares. A lot of commentary has moved onto blogs, Facebook and even, though it doesn't strike me as a particularly amenable platform, Instagram. On social media in particular, given the possibility of tagging performers, writers may not want another person to respond, "well, I thought dancer X was vulgar/sloppy/excessive/phoning it in/whatever," when there is a good chance that X will read the comments. Up until very recently I recorded my impressions of practically everything I saw, unless it was completely unmemorable, but I do it for my own benefit, to help me remember those performances in the future, not because I think anyone else would be interested in reading them.
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The National Ballet of Canada has announced preliminary casting for Swan Lake, albeit no dates yet.
The pairs include:
Jurgita Dronina and Harrison James (notable, because Dronina was never cast in the Kudelka version)
Svetlana Lunkina and Brendan Saye
Heather Ogden and Ben Rudisin (which, I think, marks the first time he is dancing a leading man)
Tina Pereira and Naoya Ebe
guest artist Maria Kochetkova and Siphesihle November (because he needs a very small partner)
Genevieve Penn Nabity and Christopher Gerty (and I do hope his grand allegro has improved since he last danced this role)
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On 4/6/2022 at 9:48 AM, volcanohunter said:
In late June the Bolshoi has scheduled two performances of the Postscipt program. This was very much Olga Smirnova's project and brainchild, centered around her performances in Wayne McGregor's McGregor + Mugler and Alexei Ratmansky's Souvenir d'un lieu cher. The program has also included Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Faun and Postscript by Sol Leon and Paul Lightfoot. Like Ratmansky, McGregor, Cherkaoui and Lightfoot have condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
It's now called Postscript 2.0, and the ballets by McGregor and Ratmansky are gone. Instead there will be brand new works by Konstantin Keykhel and Yuri Possokhov (which I suppose gives an indication of Possokhov's position). Tickets are still overpriced. Oddly, Ratmansky's Flames of Paris has been scheduled for July, even though it was thought the final run had taken place in April.
https://2011.bolshoi.ru/en/performances/postscript2022-6/
As expected the 30th anniversary of the Benois de la Danse will feature only dancers from Russian companies, and Svetlana Zakharova is listed as the gala's "artistic director" and top-billed performer. A celebration of the fact that these "ballet Oscars" (🙄) won't be handed out this year?
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I really felt for Ratmansky when he described the feeling of sand castles crumbling behind him as he made his departure from Moscow. Under any circumstances knowing that months of heart and soul, blood, sweat and tears have suddenly come to naught is extremely painful. But the haunting feeling that ballet doesn't really matter a whole lot in the face of such cataclysmic circumstances must have been eviscerating.
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8 hours ago, California said:
I hope Royal Ballet can figure out how to stream this as a fund-raiser for Ukraine. It looks like great fun!
Yes, it appears everyone had a grand time.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CdNshs_IJOi/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
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On 3/22/2022 at 10:52 AM, volcanohunter said:
On May 5th there will be a benefit performance of Swan Lake, during which Lauren Cuthbertson, Sarah Lamb, Marianela Nuñez and Natalia Osipova will share the role of Odette-Odile, while Vadim Mutagirov will be Siegfried to them all.
Gavriel Heine, who resigned from the Mariinsky in protest, conducted this performance. And in the end there were multiple Siegfrieds.
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I know from experience that letting a subscription lapse can be a point of no return.
I suppose it would depend on how invested you are in the season. Perhaps a reduced subscription? Seats in all areas tend to be available almost until the last minute, so I have little doubt that you could move your subscription to a less expensive part of the hall.
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Until May 8th at 23:59 CEST, the Dutch National Ballet is streaming its new production of Raymonda for €12.50. The performance stars Maia Makhateli, Semyon Velichko and Young Gyu Choi.
https://www.operaballet.nl/en/dutch-national-ballet/2021-2022/raymonda-stream
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1 hour ago, abatt said:
Ratmansky went out of his way to modify his own choreography so ASL could dance it as her final performance. Most choreographers would not permit any such modifications.
I happened to attend Jonathan Stafford's farewell performance. He danced the walking pas de deux with his sister in "Emeralds," and in "Diamonds" the entire Scherzo was eliminated to accommodate him, which I would call a huge modification (and a bummer, as I'd come to see the ballet, not him per se).
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I'm wondering whether any other aspect of the choreography had to be altered to accommodate diminished strength. Was she on her leg for supported turns? Was her middle wobbly when partners took her by the waist? Were jumps modified?
Of course a tiny dancer can be dead weight, and bigger, taller women usually go out of their way to help their partners in double work. And it's also possible for a female dancer to have plenty of strength and a great push-off, and for male dancers still not to want to lift her because her weight strains their backs.
(In general I am in favor of eliminating overhead lifts rather than demanding that female dancers be lighter, for the health of both sides. In that I advocate doing right by the dancers. Ballet is an art form, not a circus demanding acrobatic tricks.)
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Ratmansky didn't write "you were struggling," he wrote "the men were struggling." I also would have interpreted that as a reference to weight.
I didn't see her final performance, so my question would be: were modifications to the choreography limited only to lifts or were any other aspect of partnering or her solo choreography changed?
I suppose it would depend on how invested you are in the season. Perhaps a reduced subscription? Seats in all areas tend to be available almost until the last minute, so I have little doubt that you could move your subscription to a less expensive part of the hall.
Skorik
in Dancers
Posted
This is a matter of opinion.