cubanmiamiboy

I doubt it. I would think it is not even appropriate for a formal "all Robbins" night, but more for a ballet school performance

Thanks for the response Thanks for the response. I hear you...all the predatory,sexual innuendo on it, right...? Well...let's see. On the other side, I got bored by Circus Polka. It was mostly parents cheering at their little ones onstage. Lourdes Lopez performed the Ringleader.

Here I am, and once again faced with the unknown. The program includes stuff I am familiar with- ( In the Night, Other Dances, West Side Story)-, and some new to me material-(The Cage, Circus Polka). I am intrigued by The Cage, and have always loved Nora Kaye's iconic pic in her character. What am I in for....?

Whereas there are certainly truth and good intentions behind many of the current array of public figures sexual harrassment cases there is also, I am sure, those no so honorable people willing to jump on the "when in doubt, sue" wagon, foaming at the perspective of a big monetary retribution from a big pocket. We don't Marcelo's case deep in details, but he might very well be on either group. In any case, " ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat "

Today it was all about 80's Glam Metal. I am a sucker for them!!😎

Sexual harassment witch hunt can quickly turn from a valuable asset in the fight for equality to a terrifying blacklist designed either to end flirty interaction between men and women-(or men and men)- or to easily profit from it.

You might want to add "in NYC" to the otherwise too broad statement. I was a legal adult in full consent age by 16.

I think it is a tragedy that ABT, for example, can't think of a better solution for it's Raymonda than to drop it altogether from repertoire. Geezzz....so many double standards, so much puritanism....

Maybe Teuscher's, although I seem to remember I liked her rehearsal more than the actual performance.

Best: Kim's Solor, Osipova's Sylvia, Tereshkina's Nikiya, Jeanette Delgado's Walpurgisnacht. Worst: Copeland's Odile, Seo's Odile, Gomes' ABT departure.

I know some of this pics have been posted before, but here they are again. A pictorial tribute to the Imperial production. Stanislava Belinskaya as Clara Silberhaus. Sergei Legat as the Nutcracker Prince. Act II Lydia Rubtsova as Marianna,Stanislava Belinskaya as Clara & Vasily Stukolkin as Fritz -1892. Act I Stanislava Belinskaya and Vasily Stukolkin. Belinskaya . Act I. Belinskaya during the Battle Scene. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwjZl8CHuanYAhVB0GMKHSs_Bp0QjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fforum.littleone.ru%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D1693511%26page%3D159&psig=AOvVaw1PY9vJseoDroigINT-SDA9&ust=1514437711557598 Antonieta dell'Era as Fee Dragee and Pavel Gerdt as Prince Coqueluche. Olga Preobrajenskaya as Fee Dragee and Nikolai Legat as Prince Coqueluche-(and the infamous pdd upside down lift/swinging, in the second pic) Snow Scene corps.

That was a disgrace.

"Everyone" is quite an ambitious word...

Edited: double post.

We need both. I saw them by the Mariinsky, and yes. we need them.

Merry Christmas, y'all!!!!

I was able to catch a performance of the company's Nutcracker during my recent visit to London. To be honest, by now I don't have too many recollections of the performance, although there are some points that stuck to my mind. One thing I remember thinking was how lucky are we who have Balanchine's production at home. The Nutcracker is, to me, one of the most difficult ballets to stage, for which is a fine and dangerous line that needs to be defined in order to separate a mere "kid's Christmas show" from yet another XIX Century Petipa/Ivanov/Tchaikovsky masterpiece. So let's revisit some points. The ballet has a lovely intro, with a showing of the outside of the Silberhaus house and people ice skating. Clara is here not a little girl like Balanchine's, nor an adult ballerina like in Vainonen or Grigorovitch. She dances throughout the party in demi pointe-(I would love to get a final answer on the issue of the original Clara, S. Belinskaya, dancing on full pointe or demi pointe). Anyhow, the party doesn't look as well organized and structured as Balanchine's. The minuet is not as organic-(it looked rather like a fantasy dancing instead of a real salon piece), and the toys section was, frankly, quite boring...with many stories and sub stories going on that i had a hard time trying to follow. Here, again, the simplicity and beauty of Balanchine's toys section came to mind. The battle section. It is worthy to note than the Nutcracker character shifts between a young guy and a professional dancer. The end result of the battle is, surprisingly, the defeat of the toy soldiers, who end up being carried away in a cage by the mice, and a wounded Nutcracker on the floor. From there the Nutcracker morphs into the dancer and the young Clara into Clara-ballerina and they dance a very unimaginative long adagio to the Transformation scene music. Lots of dragging by the armpits...lots of lifts, lots of stage running...the works-(you know what I'm talking about). The Snow Kingdom. The snow scene heavily borrows from Vainonen's. I don't know how many snow scenes I have seen with the obiquitous circling of grand pirouettes for the corps. Here they show them too. I seem to remember that the mice make yet more showings here. They keep trying to chase Clara and the Nutcracker throughout the ballet. Act II The second act is more or less as every other Nutcracker. For every divertissement there is a distinctive backdrop with the given country landscape. The waltz of the flowers is done in its original form, with couples. At the end, young Clara awakes on her bed. Again and again, the more experiments I see trying to introduce a professional couple in the Nutcracker from beginning to end, the more I realize there's no point in doing so. The Nutcracker is definitely a troubled ballet in which the main pdd, and its dancers don't make it to the stage until the very end. Balanchine doesn't seem to lose sleep over it, and instead of all that Soviet mess of morphing Clara into Sugarplum to make her a dancing role for the entirety of the two acts, he wonderfully creates a highly stylized work with children in act I and great dancing in act II. More importantly, he REALLY permeates the ballet with magic, as Herr Drosselmayer does. His main balletic backbones here are his Sow Scene and his Waltz of the Flowers, and with only those too there is enough balletic beauty to go and watch the performance. No need to fill out Clara and the Nutcracker with a million steps all along the ballet. Why did I started with the ENB and end up with Balanchine..? Well, who knows. I guess I have grown to love his production.

It is painful to look at that page full of great mementos from his professional life. He would had had a Grand finale at ABT.

Yes. The canopy descends over the throne as Sugarplum takes the kids up there. It is indeed a pineapple, and those pieces on top are slices of the fruit. Act II had no projections. It was pretty much as we know it.

I am glad that Nuremberg stayed as Nuremberg. Transpositions are rarely successful.

I was just thinking about the same thing.

I saw two different casts. I had bought tickets for three, but one last minute substitution wiped off Simone Messmer from the Land of Sweets. So I got Tricia Albertson/Reyneris Reyes and Katia Karranza/Renato Penteado. The four of them are MCB veterans, Albertson, Penteado and Reyes probably in their 40's. They are not spitfires, but the quality of their artistry is wonderful. I truly enjoyed the performances. Also, there is this guy, Kleber Rebello, who is the BEST Candy Cane I have ever seen-(even compared to Ulbricht). I read a review by rg somewhere in which he agrees with me. The guy is weightless! As I said...I missed Messmer in the Sugarplum role, but I have never cared too much for her dancing.

You have really resumed much of my feelings, Jack. This art form has more or less stayed the same for centuries now. Live music, painted backdrops, dancing. This simple trilogy has really worked, and it doesn't require much "updates". I was just thinking last night...what would happen if right before a performance all this high tech computerized stuff shuts down...? No performance..? It really shouldn't come to such dependency on technology to present ballet. Sad indeed.

One thing certainly comes to-(at least my)- mind. There is a looming, grotesque, huge , and more importantly, DISGUSTING cloud of double standards in this particular purge. I am very reminded of a certainly biblical passage. I really wish Gomes well. He was probably the main reason for my ABT trips in the last years.

This upcoming season looks terribly uninspiring.