vipa

The Ramayana in 4 paperback volumes. Margaret Atwood - The Year of the Flood David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest. Many months worth of great reading! I'm a lucky person.

-- Natalia Osipova: "the exceptional thrill came from the liftoff provided by her feet; in more than 30 years of watching ballet I've never seen that degree of spring." "Ms. Osipova is remarkable to watch just standing on point." I would really quibble with the implication that her liftoff is provided by her feet. Many things contribute to a big jump, such as the shape of the legs and the timing of the movement. She may use her feet well as part of the mechanics of jumping, but her feet do not provide "that degree of spring."

It would be very interesting to know the other ballerinas. When it was first staged for ABT, the cast was mostly principals and soloists,if i remember correctly. Yes the ABT cast of Birthday Offering was all soloists in principals - 7 couple if I remember correctly, and I think Julie Kent was one of the ladies. I don't see the newest soloist S.Messmer yet. Also Copeland, who seemed to be cast in so many things for the last 2 years isn't listed - not yet anyway.

Thank you for stating that so well. I so agree. At the same time I think that the audience for the film might be ballet goers. Even casual ballet goers would see that something is amiss even if they couldn't verbalize it.

Good for them. I wish ABT would go more into the video thing. I have to say, I enjoyed the SFB videos, but because of the format of quickly cutting from one ballet to the next, it was hard for me to distinguish the qualities of one dancer from the next.

I took her classes as a kid. A big difference between her classes and other classes was that all of her combinations moved from the one end of the room to the other, even the adagio.

Reply to myself - I guess I did know how to post a link! That easy huh!

I don't know how to post a link, but there is a short youtube video of Karz talking about her life and book. Also some footage of her dancing. You can go to youtube and search for Zappora Zarz or Sugarless Plum or copy and paste the web address found below. I can't wait to read the book.

I respectfully disagree. I really do not want to hear about a singer's cold, I wish those announcements would be banned. If not banned I wish that when the announcement was made, an offer of a refund or ticket exchange would also be made. As an audience member, I do not want to take anyone's indisposition into consideration. How can I lose myself in a performance if in the back of my mind is the idea that the performance that I'm seeing is not the best it could be. Imagine if we heard about every performer's problems: back's a little sore, going through a divorce, upset stomach etc. I could go on and on, but I feel like I am going really off of the Natalia Osipove@ABT topic. Sorry! But we on BT have been critical of many performers. If we knew the "inside scoop" of how they were feeling should we have been less critical?

It is so me to put my foot in my mouth. Again, I meant no disrespect to fans of Osipova. I only meant that there are ticket buyers, who are not regular ballet goers, who assume that the Russian import is superior. To those who point to exhaustion, fevers etc. I just have to say that for me the performance I see, is the performance I see. In opera I don't want to hear that so-in-so is not in good voice that day. I just think that if you go out there and do it there are no qualifiers, whether you are a tennis player or a ballet dancer.

I missed her Giselle, which friends of mine loved, and saw her Sylph. I am in the minority, but I find her sort of amusical. Even in the Youtube videos I've seen she seems to disregard the music and do her thing. For this reason I am avoiding her Sleeping Beauty (I never go to see R&J - not my thing). Does anyone else see this or am I crazy? As I said, I have friends who loved her Giselle.

Cabro, I think that is true in general, but if I remember correctly, a group of corps people became soloists in Aug. 2007 - Boone, Lane, Copeland, Kajiya and maybe some others. My feeling is that NYCB can carry a principal heavy company more easily than ABT because of their respective reps. NYCB can have a number of principal roles every evening. ABT because of the number of full length ballets, has fewer principal roles in general. Even now they end up with principals getting 1 or 2 shots at say Swan Lake or Sleeping Beauty in NY.

Agreed. I only saw her a couple of times at the end of her career when she was not performing much but WOW. It was a great thing, in my opinion, that Balanchine kept her on salary even though she performed so infrequently. I also saw her taking class, even that was special. BTW I see her often at ballet performance, most recently at Avery for ABT. She is always warm, pleasant and so unconventional!

I read it about a year ago and loved it. I've resisted seeing the movie. I'm waiting for the 3rd book of the trilogy that began with "The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo." Not as deeply human as "Time Traveler's Wife" but really fun read.

Interesting question. If they had a company of dancers, perhaps they could be the "Joffrey" of today. Back in the day, the Joffrey Ballet offered a group of dancers that were diverse, in many cases not ABT or NYCB material, but great and beloved by many (Crist, DeAngelo, Singleton to name a few). The company had a new age sensibiliy, along with revivals, and cheap tickets. I'm not saying that Morphoses should copy Joffrey exactly (which ultimately had to leave NY), but that there is a way to find an audience occupying a middle ground. To my way of thinking a company of interesting dancers is the key.

Do not despair. First of all ABT is very bad about listing complete castings, for example Blue Bird pas does not appear in SB. That is just one example. (A pet peeve of mine, NYCB does much better in this respect). Second you never know what "company" might mean. In the Avery season the Barton piece was cast as "company" but there were clearly principal roles. In the Millepied piece, only the pas couple was listed, but clearly Simkin (I don't remember who else did the role) was featured. Third there are many months between now and the Met. Interestingly many of the same ballets that are cast for the spring are still TBA for DC in January. Just keep following casting as the months go by!! It ain't over til it's over, or til the fat lady sings or something like that.

I'm hoping Simkin/Lane get the SB tba. Lane has had success in SB and as Gamzetti (last spring) interesting that she hasn't been cast. Also interesting that Part has Aurora again. Many months for cast changes, it will be fun to keep an eye on things. This is why I no longer buy subscriptions. I wait for casting and buy individual tickets.

I was also there, and sadly there were many empty seats. I enjoyed the Ratmansky piece, and think it might be a keeper. The cast danced well. I must say my eye always goes to Sarah Lane because of her beautiful port de bras and the wonderful openness of her upper body. Her partner Joseph Phillips won't be in the corps for long. I wish, however, that Ratmansky did not go with the cliche of the cutesy short person's pas de deux. Yes, play to their strengths of moving quickly (and these 2 did so without ever seeming rushed) but all that looking under the arm cute stuff is - well as I said - a cliche. One of Three - I can't comment upon it too much because my mind sort of wandered. It didn't seem to have much to do with the music. Other Dances - the opening duet - matching lines and musicality were glorious. The rest I felt lacking. These are world class dancers who are great, but I was disappointed in some ways. I felt that in Hallberg the "Russianisms" such as the head shaking and folk dance movements seemed plastered on. There was nothing organic or, to my way of thinking, fun about them. Murphy of course showed me steps that I didn't know were in the thing (I've seen it a few times before, including Makarova/Baryshnikov), but she too seemed to be missing a sense of fun. The lifts seemed lacking in the sense of abandon that the music asks for. There is a lift in which she is held sideways, and then drops to his arms and is turned around (a bad description, I hope you know what I mean). It was done well at every stage, but you saw every stage (lift, drop, turn) and so there was no sweep or sense of abandon, it looked cautious to me. Millepied - I don't think it's a keeper, but I think it shows he could make a keeper. Oddly, for me the pas was the weakest part (I say this because of the discussion of the Boylston/Millepied relationship). My husband told me that this was the section during which he watched the musicians. In the opening movement I liked the way Millepied explored and developed the theme of the angles he had the dancers make. He did this in movements and patterns. Of course the Simkin moments were very, very entertaining. Will this be a problem in casting? Can anyone else do it? Does his understudy have a slightly different version? I too enjoyed watching the dancers warm up, mark, practice between ballets. I wonder how the dancers felt. As a comment to my last question. My husband, who was with Dennis Wayne Dancers, said he loved the opportunity to be onstage before an audience before the actual performance (this was part of the D. Wayne thing)

I can't imagine Part as Giselle because she is too tall. I can't see Part as Giselle either. It's not a height thing. For me it's a rightness for a role. Part did not prove to be as a good Aurora as she was a Lilac Fairy. I'm still hoping for Lane/Simkin in some major partnership. Maybe Giselle is too much to hope for.

I have many musician friends who will complain now and then about conductors in "pick up" orchestras, and say that in desperation they sometimes all agree to take cues from the 1st violinist. Leadership is needed, it is usually the conductor. but if a work around is needed it is not "every person for themselves."

There seems to be at least one cast change. According to the NYTimes ad Salstein is instead of Phillips, in new Ratmansky - probably dancing with Lane. I was kind of looking forward to Phllips. Anyone else notice other changes?

Marga, I know you have history with Isabelle and are a fan. I agree that she is very talented. That said, to compare her with Suzanne and by implication Ben M. with Balanchine is a little far fetched. That said I hope Isabelle isn't suffering socially from being cast in a principal role, and I hope she does well. I just think the Suzanne comparison is really premature.

DeborahB: To be clear, what I meant by making the observation that Boylston and Gomes are the first team is to indicate that I don't understand what weight your prior indication that there is an alternate team should be accorded. Obviously, it's desirable to be on any team of a work like this. And it is obviously better to be on the first team than to have the same role on the second team, all other things being equal. Also to be clear, I'm not saying Bolyston is necessarily not deserving. Just observing that I personally find it difficult to believe, as cynical as I am, that her being Millepied's girlfriend is IRRELEVANT (ie has no relevance, not even a de minimis one) to her choice as first team ballerina. It should be noted that Bolyston might (?) not be the only one who is deserving. Nor is she necessarily the most deserving, however qualitative and subjective that assesment may be. Agreed, giving a deserving corps member an opportunity is wonderful. Being a deserving corps member who is in a relationship with a choreographer gives you an advantage over other deserving corps (or even soloist) dancers.

I think there might have been another discussion about this to link to, but I'm not sure. I saw Fonteyn live with Nureyev. It had moments that were glorious, but I suspect that this was never her best role. My all time favorite - Cynthia Gregory. To me she had all the elements to make it work. I don't want to make this a Part love/hate discussion, but for all her beautiful moments, her technical failings ruin it for me. That is just me, and I understand how others can disagree