cubanmiamiboy

If that working legal didn't whip to every single count of music all the way to a perfect 32 in total synchronization, then I must be living in another dimension.😎

Oh, and I DONT agree with your disagreement either, but that's the beauty of this board....the green light to "agree to disagree"...😎

I have always loved when a ballerina tells her audience how musical she can be by really twirling her leg along each of the counts of the 32 fouettes, whichof course...it is only achieved by doing singles. As high tech as the multiple pirouettes are during fouettes, the effect really loses momentum by deviating from the musical count. Here Rosario Suarez exemplifies this @ 3:18

Yep...she has really mastered them, so she certainly goes to a higher level, one that will never be reached by the likes of Seo or Copeland.

Very interesting article, CharlieH. The old ABT issue of ingrown talent vs outside hirings seems to weigh in this case. I hope Part doesn't get to be seen as one of those who , according to some views, come from the outside to steal spots more deserving of local talent. I wish her luck.

There are still dancers who have "ruled" de world of ballet in the grand scale, more than others who have given a more constricted career, repertoire wise . I'm thinking of the cross-country oceans artists...the multi company dancers, the endless searching souls, the fierce technicians...the larger than life personalities. I'm thinking of the likes of Markova, Nureyev, Fonteyn, Alonso, Baryshnikov, Kirkland, Polunin, Osipova. Those who seem not to have an end on their searching, and in the process achieve a phenomenal ability in everything they do.

I'll pass. Valdes is 40 already, so I don't know how much more energy she might have left to pull a Kitri at this stage of her career. Their production of Giselle is quite old, a mid century staging by Dolin/Alonso that did substitute a wonderful reconstruction by Mary Skeaping-(which included the rare Fugue of the Willis). If anything, go to see some charming details that are otherwise nowhere else to be found , like the original fast music ending finale-( instead of the arranged-for-Pavlova melancholic one used by ABT, and imported by Baryshnikov)-, or the 1920's Spessivtseva diagonal at the end of Giselle's Pas Seul in act I, inherited from Markova/Alonso. Expect also some cuts in the music, specially at the end of Giselle's initiation scene in act I,-(which you can see follows the pattern if this section in Markova's old film). I'm sure many will think of this production outdated, and will find some port de bras and other technical particularities somewhat old fashioned, but it'll be a good comparison point between what's left of the production that reached the West via Spessivtseva and Markova vs. the usual take that we all know , which basically cones from the mid century Soviet Union productions via Nureyev, Baryshnikov and Makarova after their defections . Another thing...will they use the Kennedy orchestra...? They might not have the money to do so, and if so...canned music could be. Not very appealing.

Gotcha. So she went on with penile implant surgery not because of the Trocks. I suspected that such case would had been VERY extreme...🤔 Obviously the troupe wants just biological males in their ranks.

Wait wait. Enlighten me, please here, cause I'm a bit confused. So this was a biological woman who joins this company disguised as a man who wants to perform women's roles and then the company catches her and ask her to get a penile implant in order for her to wear a tutu...?!? 🤔

Can you provide a link...? Now THAT is some news. So...Carabosse "in travesty"?-(which is fairly common)..Lilac..? maybe even AURORA..???? 🤔.

I actually agree very much with you about Cojocaru. She has had a very long and brilliant career with a wonderful spectrum of roles. She's definitely one tough competition for that "Uber versatile" Prima title. I must say that I notice that, even from the examples of the past, it is in the romantic repertoire where the best ballerinas have had the most troubles to fit in-(as with Plisetskaya and even Osipova in some people's eyes). Cojocaru, on the contrary, has always been the undisputed queen of those roles. No doubt.

But even Plisetskaya was known for not having really mastered the romantic roles, like Giselle or even Taglioni in Grand Pas de Quatre.

From the Smirnova's visa turmoil thread, that opinion stating she is the greatest ballerina in the world stuck to my head. I disagree, and would like to throw my two cents, from a completely subjective point of view. So here I go. I can't think of any ballerina who can take the title of "greatest ballerina right now" from the double bill named Natalia Osipova/Tiler Peck. No Smirnova...no Zakharova.,.no Valdes. Osipova and Peck. The complete package...fierce ballerinas who are wonderful in anything they do, from the romantic to the classical roles to the contemporary, much in the heritage of the most versatile dancers of the past-(like Alonso and Kirkland) Do you agree...? Do you disagree...? And if so...would would be your pick as the greatest, versatile wise...?

I wish there would be a complete record on how the ballet looked like in the 20's, both choreographically and in terms of props and costume design. It is a shame they didn't engage Danilova while she could to film a complete reconstruction of it. The original Chanel costumes are gorgeous, with the three different lengths for the muses skirts, and so are the headdresses. I remember the ballet as it is danced in Cuba, and it has a good share of props, including a chariot with horses up in the sky, where Apollo climbs at the end. There is also no staircase, but a rocky mountain instead. https://goo.gl/images/SsJJoA

It was a joyous ending for this season, with Apollo, beautifully danced by Renan Cerdeiro and company veteran Tricia Albertson as his Terpsichore. Every time I see this ballet I cant stop but visualizing the roaring 20's in Paris and Danilova, Lifar and Doubrovska dancing this revolutionary and angular choreography. The audiences must had been quite shocked I bet. I truly like this ballet because of its elegance and sharpness. There's never a dull moment on it. MCB does it with the original birth scene and ascension to Mount Olympus at the end. Ratmansky's work came next. I have seen good and bad from Alexei, and I think this is quite a very enjoyable work, given that it revolves around true balletic idiom. It is very energetic, quasi acrobatic., so one can enjoy a good share of pirouettes and jetes, and even a beautiful romantic pdd, along Shostakovich music. Two thumbs up. La Valse is La Valse. So elegant, so atmospheric... so chic...so Dior's "New Look" reminiscent. My mother even identified her teen years fashion in the dancers attires. I left the theater in good spirits. ;-)

Oh WoW. So no more "American ballerina in Russia" and no more Prima bars...? This doesn't sound promising...🤔

At the very end of the whole vlogging thing one can tell there is her desire to promote her Prima chocolate bars. And I'm sure many of those around her weren't happy to be unpaid members of her marketing campaign

I have been following her vlogs lately, and I must confess I was quite shocked to see her ranting about what seems to me just the regular ups and downs of any job environment at any place or country. We all have encountered laziness, preferential treatment, jealousy and everything in between virtually everywhere we work. Still we don't go on to film our complaints for a public YouTube video for everyone to see. I would expect that each and every single member of the troupe were asked for permission to be filmed while taking class, and I'm sure more than one unhappy colleague checked her complaints next morning. Throw in the mix that she's dealing with a VERY enclosed environment-(meaning Russia)- in which they still take pride, and then you have a perfect formula for disaster. She has vlogged just a couple of tmes since her move to Korea, which sort of tells you that she hasn't done too many exciting things over there.

Stay away from Copeland's.

Best movie of the year I saw was absent from the Oscars: the little gem called "God's own country". Gary Oldmam speech giving thanks to America was very beautiful. Kimmel was his usual clawnish self.

I wish they could brig in Polunin among all possible candidates. THAT would be something to see. Otherwise there are some others I know would be totally wonderful for her: Bolle, Muntagirov, even McRae. From ABT I would love to see Cornejo, in this stage of his career, being given the task. I know he would be his beautiful self even with La Osi.

My God. I'm doing all this work arrangements to be able to attend the Giselles and Harlequinades. I just hope Osipova at least sticks to her performance.

I did so, and I rarely leave a bad offering until the end-(the worse scenario has been dozing off, as with in ABT's "The Tempest"). This time though....it was just too much of the uninteresting stuff. It was getting on my nerves.

http://www.smdcac.org/events/dance-theatre-harlem Dance Theater of Harlem returns to South Florida after an almost twenty-year absence from our stages. Arthur Mitchell’s famed Dance Theatre of Harlem graces us once again with an eclectic and dynamic ballet repertoire. Program Brahms Variation | Choreography: Robert Garland This Bitter Earth | Music: Dinah Washington / Max Richter | Choreography: Christopher Wheeldon Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven | Music: Arvo Pärt (Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, 1977) | Choreography: Ulysses Dove Harlem on my Mind | Choreography: Darrell Grand Moultrie Now...I went to their website, and the program they will bring is quite the same as their upcoming NY season one...sans "Valse Fantaisie", which is the one I really wanted to see from them.😒. Grrrr...(why..???)

I went to see this against ALL my usually great instincts, mainly out of a self imposing mantra I have followed throughout the years.."Watch everything...the good, the not so good and even the bad"-(so I can really appreciate how good is the good). Also, Peck and Millepied were listed as choreographers for some of the pieces. And then...I left midway Peck's-(😶). Thing is...I can't help but to keep listening to that little voice that says...."I have seen THIS stuff done by ballet dancers, better shaped and better trained, and better choreographed",sometimes EVEN in tennis shoes-("In the Upper Room" always comes to mind, even not being my cup of tea). And then Ailey's "Revelations", or even my recent successful exposure to Graham's "Appalachian Spring". No...I am not totally divorced from contemporary works, but tonight the standards were too low-(at least to my taste). 🙄