cubanmiamiboy

Saw it too...precious indeed, Carbro. Jane, for the hint!

Nureyev. Dame Markova or Mme.Danilova?

Hey bart...I wish i could have found Tharp's work just as an

Odette's mime. "Diane & Acteon" or "Tarantella" ?

I wonder if you ever found out any more about Mme Karina? I am interested as I have a signed photograph from her (in Dying Swan costume) and other photographs, she was a visitor to my aunt's family living in London in 1920s. I found the clip of her dancing the Dying Swan by Googling "Mme Karina ballet". Apparently she was a prima ballerina at Covent Garden and also the Royal Danish Ballet. If you're still out there would love to know any more! Julia Hi, vjn452, and Welcome to BT! . I just watched the clip, and i found it fascinating. The sight of this little silent gem is precious, and i just added it to my playlist of Dying Swans. The order now goes like this. Pavlova, Karina, Ulanova, Plisetskaya, Moiseyeva, Makarova and Viengsay Valdes. The only data i found about Mme. Karina was in the book "The Art of Ballet", by Mark Edward Perugini, who briefly describes one of her performances on page 315: "The appearance of that dainty Dresden-china dancer Mme. Karina in a graceful little dance-scene, "The Colour of Life", the expressive music of which was by Miss Dora Bright. Mme. Karina, another dancer who hails from Denmark won instantly appreciation from the beauty of her work and is indeed notable for her precision, grace and distinction" http://books.google.com/books?id=LOxCAAAAI...7NtAQ&hl=en Not a lot, but still...

He,he...when i see some of this dances being called "mambo" or "cha-cha-cha" is like if they were trying to convince me while watching Tharp's "In the upper room" that is "Giselle" what's being presented...

Mmm...only if you were give someone like, let's say, Veronika Part to partner. When she came over with ABT's "Belle", i perceived some struggling...

bart, I want to apologize if i sometimes get delayed on my comments. I'll try to get better at it, i promise... I LOVED "Square Dance", which was also a first timer for me. The quick tempo of the baroque music, the lightness of the dancing, the graciousness of the poses, the simplicity of the set and costumes and among all the beautiful dancing, that of Jeanette Delgado and Jeremy Cox in their solos, was enough to make SD my favorite, second only to Bourree Fantasque which still tops my newly created Balanchine list, and followed by Serenade...(so far). I've always loved watching dancers doing entrechats, and wow, did i get to see a lot of them...Congrats to the Corps again. They showed a nice uniformity which gave the ballet the right feeling. "Tarantella" was danced over the three days by Mary Carmen Catoya/Renato Panteado, Tricia Albertson/Alex Wong and finally my favorite cast, Jeanette Delgado/Renato Panteado. Delgado and her endless wide smile gave to the piece a latin flavor that suited very well its folk feeling . Panteado seemed to have more chemistry with her than with Catoya. Wong put some funny accents to it, and Albertson was kind of contained on the role. Yes, the tempo gave it by the pianist was faster than when i've seen it with orchestra, but particularly Delgado/Panteado seemed to be totally comfortable with it. "Sonatine" , as Leibling said, was cut from the opening night, (why...?). What a beautiful little gem. I absolutely adored its subtle feeling and high doses of lyricism. On Saturday petite Haiyan Wu was like a little bird, fragile and light. On Sunday, beautiful Deanna Seay gave the role more grandeur and nobility. Looking forward to hear impressions from other Floridians.

Friday 28. Arsht Center, Miami Tharp/Costello's "Nightspot" How should i start Nightspot's review?. Correct, by being sincere . Fact: I didn't like this highly anticipated World Premiere . What happened...?, good question. First, let me highlight some nice stuff. If a face comes to my mind paired with some wonderful electrical dancing tonight, that would be that of Jeremy Cox's solo. Now, If i was to do a fast recounting of this ballet, i wouldn't really know where to start. The story...(Was any, wasn't...? (well, some others figure, I got confused trying to make some sense out of it) .The Latin flavor trying to be exposed by some dancers , like Isanusi's (is he the only one who knows how to dance a guaguanco...?) did little to make things better. The mish-mash of music and rythms was even more confusing. The music changed the whole time ...vals, cabaret-like, ballroom, even rumba and tango with no justified reason. Oh, and meanwhile everyone was spinning and jumping in and out, in and out like there was no tomorrow...continously. Some of the segments remainded me a pseudo-Balanchine bad try. Carlos Guerra, in his last appearance before having surgery, didn't seemed to look up to his regular physical capabilities. Some of his solos did little to make things better. It looked as he was dancing "Giselle" in that hideus red costume. His wife , Jennifer Kronemberg, is still a wonderful thing to look at, no matter what she does onstage... What a whole mess. Didn't care to much for the whole thing. Maybe mañana I'll change my mind. I guess I'm still cranky, because after the performance, i realized that my car was almost stolen outside the Center. Otherwise, my review could have been probably softer...who knows Square Dance Tarantella and Sonatine coming next...

Yes, cahill, i will be there tomorrow night, if i can make it thru the traffic. ( The'll start at 7:30, and getting out of work at 7 to get to the Center on time from North Miami Beach takes implies some stress, not to mention the Winter Music Conference traffic going on...) I will, and will try to do it ASAP... ...i REALLY hope is not ...don't think so. DJ Guetta will be spinning at Cameo 'till sunday morning...!

Oh, dear...the old Tchaikowsky/Sobeshchanskaya/Minkus ordeal...I'm always curious about what happened to that first Minkus version of the PDD music (that's if Tchaikowsky REALLY wrote a whole different set)

Papeetepatrick, NBC has had "Napoli" and "Flower Festival..." in its repertoire for a long long time now...I saw fragments of them several times during the Havana Ballet Festivals. They are favorites among Havana's audience.

Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County Ziff Ballet Opera House March 28-30, 2008 Friday, Mar. 28 at 7:30p.m. Saturday, Mar. 29 at 8p.m. Sunday, Mar. 30 at 2p.m. PROGRAMME: "Square Dance". Balanchine/Vivaldi-Corelli. "Sonatine". Balanchine/Ravel "Tarantella". Balanchine/Gottschalk and World Premiere of "Nightspot". Twyla Tharp/Elvis Costello

From the Sadler's Wells Website: "Last summer Carlos Acosta delighted audiences and critics alike with this awe-inspiring Olivier award winning show. Renowned for combining Cuban passion with remarkable technical virtuosity, watching Carlos Acosta dance is an inspiring experience. Here he is joined by guest artists from The Royal Ballet, including Caroline Duprot, Zachary Faruque, Mara Galeazzi, Valeri Hristov, Sarah Lamb, José Martin, Tamara Rojo and Zenaida Yanowsky, in a programme that combines classical ballet alongside contemporary works." http://www.sadlerswells.com/show/Carlos-Acosta Bravo Carlitos!!

Yes, former National Ballet of Cuba's Ms. Adyaris Almeida,ex Cincinnatti Ballet Principal and current Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami Principal (recently performed in their Swan Lake in Miami), is also on the move. I personally talked to her about it, and she was very excited. Here's a link to her page: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...endID=109388074 According to Joseph Gatti's myspace page (linked from Adyaris's--they are a couple), he's dancing there as well. Here's an interesting article related to their departure from CB. http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art.../ENT/802150311/

Yes, former National Ballet of Cuba's Ms. Adyaris Almeida,ex Cincinnatti Ballet Principal and current Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami Principal (recently performed in their Swan Lake in Miami), is also on the move. I personally talked to her about it, and she was very excited. Here's a link to her page: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...endID=109388074

I take your meaning, but yes, I am interested -- up to a point. Mmm...interesting, which leads me to wonder, (and ask you, if i may), if that statement only applies to the dead. What about on the others..? Are we still "interested" to know if certain living legends (Farrell, Fracci, Alonso, and so on) are sexually fitted or not...? What would be the difference...?

Note to add: The Program credits stated "Carmen":Choreography by Jimmy Gamonet de los Heros. Instead it should have stated "Carmen":Choreography by Jimmy Gamonet de los Heros after Alberto Alonso.. Give credit to those who deserves it.

Is it really essential to know about how "mechanical" in sex are our favorite artists...?, (Honestly, I've NEVER been a bit interested in knowing if some of my close friends, let along my dancing idols, males or females, are good or not under the sheets. I still think that she could have mentioned as many sexual partners as she wanted, if she was really convinced that by doing that she would sell more books, but still, she went too far with the "mechanical" thing.)

Last night I went to see BG's Program III . I’d never seen this company before, honestly speaking, due to , what I wrongly thought, their lack of classical repertoire. I never knew that they did pointe work. Well, I was wrong, they do. For what I read, this is a small company that, as bart noted, was created as the result of some conflicts between its Artistic Director, Jimmy Gamonet (former main choreographer of MCB) and MCB, resulting on his exit and that of MCB’s prima ballerina Ileana Diaz. Now, I’d heard many stories about Ms. Lopez' career upon her 1982 graduation , her unparalleled 17 tenure as MCB’s prima, and her highly acclaimed partnership with fellow dancer and husband Franklin Gamero. I never thought that she would still dancing. Wrong. Ms. Lopez danced last night, and she danced beautifully. First things first. The program consisted of “Divertimento Espagnol",“Grand Pas Classique” and ta-dah..CARMEN!!. "Divertimento Espagnol" featured Gamonet’s own reinterpretation of “Paquita” ,using some of its music, basically from the Grand Pas and including new arrangements for soloists and corps in an effort to launch parades of dancing without argument and dazzling choreography a la Balanchine’s "Pas de Dix" . The result wasn’t that satisfactory. There was a mish mash of steps all over the place, and an obvious neo-Balanchinized atmosphere that didn’t quite work, due to, I think, choreography overload, maybe more successfully achieved if being done by more experienced dancers. Still, there were highlights on this performance, and there were during the PDD, danced by Hiroko Sakakibara and Andres Felipe Figueroa. Ms. Sakakibara brought the house down with her series of fouettes at the coda, doing doubles and triples and little traveling , finishing with dignity on pointe. Mr. Figueroa, despite having an extreme boyish look and petite complexion, showed nice pirouettes a la second and clean cabrioles. He also performed a series of jete menages, trying to dazzle to a maximum, but the steps tired him. Still, overall, they made a nice impression, and the audience rewarded them with lots of applauses. The corps, as I said earlier, was due to perform complex steps the whole time, and although sometimes uniformity wasn’t totally achieved, its general impression was that of a dignified work. Then we had "Grand Pas Classique". I really didn’t like Gamonet’s own bland version of Gsovsky’s work , and while Paul Thrussell did a great job on his variation, Jessica Colina wasn’t up to the choreographic demands, even being altered and slowed down to better suit her. Specially disappointing was the famous sequence of fouettes. Thankfully then we had Gamonet’s own version of "Carmen" to invigorate us after the intermission. This was very special, because as soon as I opened the program, there it was, Ms. Lopez would be performing the infamous character, so of course , the night had been set to be all about her, the star of the show. Before writing anything else, I want to note that it is difficult and almost unfair to compare any ballerina in this role to those who have made it a masterpiece via the two most famous choreographies, Zizi Jeanmaire from Petit's version and then Maya Plisetskaya and, of course, Mme. Alonso from Alberto Alonso’s take on the work. In the case of Petit he was quoted as saying that only "a few" dancers have achieved the ideal of "Carmen" after Jeanmaire. About Alonso, well, i think by now everybody can imagine what do i think about her interpretation, which can be found on Youtube. Still, as soon as Ms. Lopez erupted onstage, she immediately took over the whole space with her powerful projection, in which I could detect right away the “diva” gene on her. The audience ovationed her right away with devotion, and she seemed to be pleased about the immediate recognition. During the entire ballet she totally exuded her own brand of contrastingly delicate and fiery sexuality against Simon Silva’s arrogantly passionate Don José. Specially beautiful was their languid dance during the Bedroom scene, which they performed with high doses of subtle suggested eroticism , without vulgarity, something that is not always achieved nowadays on this type of scenes in modern choreographies. Iliana Lopez' performance left me reassured on my theory that every company needs, like it or not, its own set of “primas” and "primos", (if i may). I know this is something that many directors try to avoid,specially here on the States, perhaps after Balanchine's own concept, but based on my own experiences and growing watching a company where the star system is emphasized and praised, (NBC), and after seeing the way Ms. Lopez’ electrifying presence totally won us last night, it made me crave for such a figure to be part of MCB. Sarabita was, back on the days, one of the kind, but for some reasons, he doesn’t seem to be part of that philosophy anymore. Who knows why… Kuddos to Paul Thrussell for his Escamillo . This guy is still a powerful dancer, and one can tell that a good schooling has been part of his formation. I’m very happy that I went to see this performance. Last night, I could really say that I saw, more than a dancer, a truly BALLERINA.

Beautiful pic indeed. rg. Happy Easter to you too!!!

Beautiful picture. I specially love the double feathered headpiece. I wish they would still use them...

If i can make it after work thru the traffic, i'll try to go to this performance. Ballet Gamonet is a similar story as Wheeldon's "Morphoses". This is the program for tonight. Divertimento Español - Jimmy Gamonet De Los Heros (Composer: Leon Minkus) Grand Pas Classique - Jimmy Gamonet De Los Heros (Composer: Daniel Auber) Carmen - Jimmy Gamonet De Los Heros (Composer: Georges Bizet) http://www.balletgamonet.org/programs3.htm