cubanmiamiboy

Dearest Elizabeth-(she had confessed being annoyed at being called Liz)-,a drop dead gorgeous lady and a true ally to the LGBT community. I place her on the very top of my list for being one of the first public, tireless voices to speak up about the AIDS crisis during the 80's, at the same time that many others stayed silent, helping raise millions of dollars to fight the disease. My thoughts and prayers go out to her family, and to all the countless human beings whose lives have been positively impacted by her life and work of true LOVE. As someone said...somewhere, beyond the blue, I'm willing to bet you're enchanting the angels. You are resting in peace, Miss Taylor. One of my first memories of Miss Taylor on the big screen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN1VkQGzNgQ

Quiggin, the Cuban Coppelia goes back to 1948, and it was staged by Leon Fokine. That's the version Alonso staged in 1956 at the Greek Theatre in LA, from where Enrique Martinez took it to Ballet Theatre. Alonso left BT after that and joined BRdMC until 1959,

Dani Hernandez as Colin in La Fille Mal Gardee with Anette Delgado as Lissette Alejandro Virelles as James in La Sylphide with Sadaise Arencibia as The Sylph

Just as what has become a well anticipated tradition, new promotions in the Cuban roster have ocurred as a direct result of the most recent defections. The new Primeros Bailarines are Yanela Pinera, Dani Hernandez and Alejandro Virelles. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THREE...!!! http://www.balletcuba.cult.cu/Biografias/integrantes.asp.htm Miss Pinera as the Queen of Dryads in Don Quijote http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uI0twZw_8U Miss Pinera as Mme. Cerrito in Grand Pas de Quatre. Madame Taglioni: Viengsay Valdés. Madame Cerrito: Yanela Piñera. Madame Grisi: Anette Delgado. Mademoiselle Grahn: Sadaise Arencibia. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtXx6AtxTU8&playnext=1&list=PLDA0CE9C81EEA756C Yanela in Graduation Ball, as a very young student. She is the dancer standing toward the right wing.

Mr. Virelles has just been promoted to Primer Bailarin-(Principal Dancer)-!!! So there...just as a direct response to the most recent defections, NYorkers will be seeing him when at BAM... FELICIDADES, ALE!!!

Ravishing Miss Toumanova gives an electrifying performance of Fokine's miniature. I found it simply beautiful... Hope you'll enjoy it too. Edited to add: LOVE her strapless bodice...!!

Stecyk...with such glorious score it will hard not to enjoy your attendance even if the dancing doesn't do it for you-(which I'm quite positive won't be the case...and hey...take this from THE neophyte in Balanchinean repertoire). The opening tableaux/music bars are just so painfully beautiful... Edited to add: Please, report back if you spot Hayna Gutierrez in any of the leads...

Ballet choreography=Pointe work/toe shoes-(yes...bad ballet is still ballet). "And what about Scheherezade...?" Oh well, who knows...I don't have all the answers, you know... About claiming total orthodoxy, that's another matters, for which there's always enough room for a little bit of parody/comedy as with Les Trocks, a little bit of the circus/gymnastic dosage a la the Great Chinese State troupe clip referred by the OP or even for some Somova, as we all know...

About the "happy" vs. "tragic" finale I notice that in many sources the very fact of Odette and Siegfried being reunited in heaven post suicide is generally considered a validate data for the production to be said to carry a happy ending, unlike other versions-(like Nureyev/Fonteyn)-where the whole finale is turned into a very tragic affair with no reunion whatsoever. So then it could be confusing to read that this or that version has a happy finale just because the lovers end up being reunited in spirit, even after having commited suicide-(interesting how this is indeed a very happy thing if looked thru religious eyes, which is probably what the creators of the ballet had in mind) . So then I try to go easier by defining a "tragic" ending just when the physical death of Siegfried or Odette occurs, with or without the heavenly sequence, and then the "happpy" ones-(like the one still danced in Havana and also seen in the Ulanova/Dudinskaya/Sergueyev film)-where only Rothbart dies and Siegfried joins Odette on earth along with her entourage of newly transformed human maidens .

I know...even now, ten years after, I still get a little carried away sometimes-(last time was during Lorna's sister Lorena's great fouettes in DQ with the CCBM)-by whistling and the like. I got a couple of dirty looks and turned heads... Oh whatever...

Wow...what a beautiful woman!! Thanks cantdance for the clip.. Do I notice a STRONG resemblance with Kirkland...?

Ah...you lucky New Yorkers...!! (Patrick...Any goodies from Turandot or Traviata...? )

Definitely one of the most beautiful parts of the ballet for its powerful simplicity...

Ah...great news...! Now, THAT is something worth a trip... Also, interesting that the scene of the men being saved from the willis by the old villager happens AFTER Giselle's initiation...(I had seen it before, but right before Myrtha's first appearance...)

There you go, jsmu...they're human...just like us...! I know...I've never seen a ballerina throw those arrows during the coda the way she did...! Vipa...try to get her in a romantic role , Giselle if you can. At this point I believe that would be her strongest point... And about this... ...here's Zakharova's Carmen, just to make some comparisson... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vw6bbqXm2A

duffster...we were writing at the same time, with a difference of just two minutes...

Thanks for the input, Helene. I could only think of kaye, Moylan, Eglevsky, Tallchief and Hayden as the most famous examples of the switching wave-(BTW...were they all principals at the moment..?)-, but I'm more curious as those who DID NOT decide to leave BT-(probably so they would not compromise their stardom position and also due to repertoire issues)-, so that's why I could only think of Alonso, Youskevitch and Kriza, so I was wondering if there were other famous principals who didn't make the experimental trip...(Serrano maybe...?)

This is a question that I've been molding ever since I started reading biographies of dancers who made their career in America, and particularly Alonso's own accounts. I have a BT booklet from 1956 that shows only four Principal dancers: Alonso, Moylan, Youskevitch and Kriza. For what I've seen it looks as if when Balanchine started his company, almost everybody decided to switch at some point-(even Moylan, right...?). So my question, out of curiosity, goes as... Which other Principal dancers never joined City Ballet from that era, and even from the 60's...? Would the list be reduced then just to Alonso, Youskevitch and Kriza...? What about Lupe Serrano...? According to the ABT website, she was a Principal as back as 1953, but she doesn't appear in the booklet I have... Anyway, I'm sure some of the most experienced posters here will shred some light in the subject... Thanks in advance...!! Edited to add: I guess I'm not taking into consideration those BRdMC dancers that guested for periods at BT...

I just saw her dancing at Carreno's Gala, and I wish I wouldn't have been the witness of such unfortunate night for her. Never seen a ballerina completely lose her spot the way she did during fouettes-(Black Swan)- and then decide to just stop them altogether at around 15. I guess it was the right thing to do, since she was completely out of control and ready to fall at any moment...Her partner in the PDD, Igor Kolb, didn't make things any better for her either, BTW... Still, it was very sad to see it happen...

So after thinking about it-(for almost four years... )-, here are my picks. Best Odette live. Mme. Josefina Mendez-(RIP). I saw her live in the role only once, and she was past her prime, but few times-(probably until Lorna Feijoo came along)-have I seen such exquisite portray of the Swan Queen. Best Odile live.Aurora Bosch-(The BEST "bad girl" the Cuban ballet ever had....) and Rosario Suarez-(the one and only Charin, of course...)

Oh, jsmu, I actually DID see her amazing performance in Ballo when she premiered it in Havana...back in 2000! And for the record, she gave an outstanding performance, but with a little detail. Right during some silly little running section, she slipped and took a grand fall on her butt...! That was one of the very few times I've seen a Principal fall during a performance, but because it happened in such non difficult part of the choreography, she just got up and danced the rest of the whole thing better than before. . Interesting enough, the incident can't be proved, because when they showed the video on TV later on, the very moment had been edited by repeating a previous fragment in slow motion. It took only like two seconds, so for those who hadn't been there, it never happened. But hey...I KNOW!! Anyway...Miss Feijoo was, as usual, just divine. And here's Merril Ashley's quote: "If I was reduced to one ballerina in the world, Lorna would be the one I'd want to see in anything..." Lorna in Carmen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGkpvfeUMMY In Giselle-(Spessivtseva's solo) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCxFjiwYGWc In Cinderella http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GhbyENq9Rs&feature=related

Last night the Cleveland Orchestra once more gave us an outstanding performance under the conduction of charismatic director Giancarlo Guerrero-(currently working with the Nashville Symphony). The program opened with Dmitri kabalevsky's buoyant overture to his opera "Colas Breugnon", which set the mood for the rest of the night with its brisky, vibrant mood. Then we had Elgar's "Enigma Variations", always enjoyable in its portrayal of all the different characters for which the initials of each theme stand for. Number nine, the adagio "Nimrod", of course always a winner. After Elgar we were offered the main course...the T-bone stake in the form of Mendelssohn's sublime"Violin Concerto in E minor", which brought to the stage the magnificent Italo/German violinist Augustin Hadelich, who literally made his violin SPEAK, particularly during its devilish solos. He received a long ovation, and so then decided to give two encores-(I only identified one...Paganini's "Caprice No. 24"...of course, always an audience's favorite). The night ended with Ravel's "Bolero", which never fails to always make me wonder how Miss Rubinstein endured dancing to such a long composition on top of that table... Wonderful concert.

Program III is at the Kravis, West Palm this weekend. I hope bart is planning to attend and report back.

Please, it'sthe mom, tell us about it when it happens...! In Don Quijote with Oscar Torrado http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzY9j6oVOvI&feature=related In the Black Swan with Toto Carreno-(with a very scary moment toward the end of the coda) In Coppelia, with Igor Yebra.

Those shared by real life couple Jennifer Kronemberg and hubby Carlos Miguel Guerra-(MCB)- during bows...! Their kissing moment has become somehow a trademark of the curtain calls moment...