cubanmiamiboy

I'm not sure if I want to laugh or cry over it....probably both. And BTW...he's wrong about the skating rink... http://www.kendallicearena.com/

Ha...just a couple of years...? Oh wow, you lucky NY'rs... I saw the performance with Herrera and Gomes replacing Stearns. I brought along my friend, who was exposed to his very first SB live. I LOVED Paloma in the role. I actually saw her Aurora some years ago when ABT brought this production to Miami, and I must say I liked her way more now than back then. Her Rose Adagio was magnificent. No bubbling balances, but instead very centered, strong and just wonderful. She placed her hands up there en couronne, and didn't seem to be in a rush to hold the suitor's hand right away, just as many ballerinas do. I'm probably one of the few that believes that a ballerina ought to be in control of the signature technical challenges of a given ballet, and otherwise she should not be performing it.. Aurora is a demanding role. The ballerina dances a lot, and Herrera really conquered the hard technical passages. I didn't think I was going to like her that much. Gomes was just as wonderful. He partnered Herrera to perfection, and he's just a pleasure to watch. Handsome, elegant, with such noble carriage and so engaged in the whole atmosphere of the story. He and Herrera looked very believable together-(something that doesn't happen all the time). Part was very beautiful as Lilac-(I had seen her in the role also years ago, and I remembered her more insecure...but not this time). I particularly enjoyed the Vision Scene, with its message of untangible love conquering. Misty Copeland danced Violante. There's a physical detail in Copeland that bothers me-(I've seen her a couple of times onstage). She has hyper curved lower legs, and I noticed that the effect during chainee turns is weird. Because her legs don't create a straight line, when together they separate from the knees down, and then the chainee turns loose very much its magic, which is largely based in placing both feet as close as possible while executing the steps. In general she danced fine, but I don't think she is Principal material. Was it me or this I noticed Vasiliev somehow heavy during his Bluebird solos and coda...? I keep saying I think he's gaining some weight. I also didn't find him particularly engaging this time. His Orion was better. I don't have too much complains about scenery and costumes. One thing I would had liked is that they had not erased that much the characters divertissements. At least they could had leave the cats. I must say this will stay as one of my all time favorite SB.

I saw the Saturday matinée performance with Murphy/Matthews and then that very evening performance with Reyes/Cornejo. Well, what a pleasure was to see these strong veteran ladies of ABT being so commanding of the stage with their junior partners. Murphy was absolutely beautiful, particularly in her sparkling seduction scene outfit in the cave. She was a vision of beauty with that bright red hair. As some have commented already, I noticed a dangerous moment during the initial lift of Sylvia during the last act PDD adagio. Matthews struggled a lot while carrying Murphy center stage, to the point that I thought he was going to drop her. Luckily, that didn't happen, but that definitely spoiled the rest of the pas for me. I noticed in both performances that the effect of the parade of Sylvia to the stage by Aminta resembled that of someone carrying an umbrella on top of the head. Sylvia's position all the way upright with the grabbing of her leg plus the flat tutu placed horizontally over Aminta's head didn't look particularly pretty to me, something I hadn't noticed in the Bussell/Bolle video. I have to go back to it and check to see what was done different to this effect. As I said, Murphy was just a goddess per se. Tall, commanding, beautiful, strong...she had it all. Her technique is wonderful, and she really stood up for me over everybody else onstage. On the contrary, Matthews lack of ballon made for a less than perfect performance, although I generally enjoyed his dancing. I guess it is really hard to make a mark while dancing in a company surrounded by some of the best, with the likes of Vasiliev, Cornejo, Gomes or Bolle jumping around day by day. That very evening, Reyes demonstrated she's really an old school trooper. Saturday night...a packed house full of people grinding their teeth for a last minute cancellation of their top diva, dancing in the middle of way younger male stars such as Cornejo, Vasiliev and Siimkin, with probably not too much rehearsal time, and still delivering such wonderful performance...? Wow...SHE is my type of dancer. I realize Reyes has had a difficult although long career. The fact is that she has always been considered "not really suited" for this or that role, and still has done them all with such consistency, gusto and high technical level, despite having been labeled by many as a matinée dancer. No, I think Reyes was the real star of this run of Sylvias. I give the big prize to the ballerina who goes thru it all without fear, who is consistent, reliable, who throws herself into either Giselle, Odette or Kitri with the same energy and still makes it for a great night at the ballet, without having ever had the title of "my favorite dancer". I will always remember her performance, for which she completely erased my high frustration over having been again thru the pain of yet another trip from out of town ending in a cancellation of the diva. Good for you, Xiomara. I'm very happy to have seen you in the role, flawless turning like the best of turners and telling all this young gods of the dance around you that this short limbed Cuban ballerina has what it takes to substitute the favored Russian goddess anytime. Vasiliev was amazing, as usual. Thing is...I notice that every time I see him, which has been in between long periods of time, he always looks stockier to me. Could it be that he has actually put more bulk into his body, particularly his lower part...? That wasn't too noticeable in his Orion covered costume, but rather very explicit in his bluebird attire in SB. I found myself wondering if I would enjoy him right now as Albrecht, although the black outfit against the dark backdrop of the romantic ballet could be very beneficial to him rather than the bright environment of Beauty. Dancing wise, he was amazing as Orion...his cambres during jumps are a thing of marvel. Wow..what a wonderful back does he has. Cornejo was beautiful to watch. I have nothing to say against anything I saw from him. Everything was a joy...dancing, looks, rapport with Reyes-(they look as if having a great understanding toward each other's dancing). Definitely great. As per the ballet itself...well, I'm a sucker of Tchaikovsky's ballet tunes, and I could be one of the few that hasn't still incorporated the Sylvia score completely into my mind. I must say I much prefer Coppelia's music, and I would be VERY curious as what the treatment of Petipa was back in the days to this work. Must of all I enjoyed the classical PDD, tutus and all. I found the first act too bucolic for my taste, but that's just me, I know. This question is for doug...is this ballet notated...? Very nice to have seen fellow BT'rs during intermissions! Thank you, blond Susan, for your response to my original idea of a post performance meeting. I didn't realize it was going to be so difficult to go back up the stairs after the performance. I waited instead outside to see if you were going to exit, and after a while I though you were gone! Oh well, another time, another performance, another trip for sure.

The future is ensured, ballet world... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhXO8ALk1A4

Hello there! So you too got bitten by the "ballet bug"?...Be ready for a wonderful trip, my friend. Welcome! Oh yes...and let me know if you get to see the divine Lorna Feijoo, one of my all time muse...

Weeell..YOU are the NYer, so I'm open to suggestions..! Is there a low key joint around the LC to have a couple of drinks..? (Nothing fancy...you know...)

If Wikipedia can be trusted, I think Julie Kent at 44 is oldest. Herrera was born in 1975, Kent in 1969, Murphy in 1979. I can't find a birthdate for Reyes in a quick Google. A few more: Vishneva 1976, Cojocaru 1981, Semionova 1984. Reyes' age came via a friend who studied with her at the ballet school. So Kent is 44...wow. Good for her!

Cristian, just a reminder: it was Vishneva who cancelled that time. Osipova danced (as Gamzatti) as planned that time. That's correct Birdsall, it was Vishneva who was injured for Bayadere. Perhaps cubanmiamiboy is thinking of the following week, when Osipova was injured and was replaced by Bolyston in Bright Stream. You guys are right. Same performance-(Bayadere)-different Russian diva-(Vishneva). I must say that in that event I was very happy to see Part as Nikiya, particularly during the white act. Reyes is 40 already-(is she the oldest at ABT...?)-, and I have a thing for the mature ballerina, which usually gives certain depth to performances in absence of fireworks. In any case, I know she can still turn like a 20 something. I'm happy anyway to see her now that she must be toward the end of her career. Anway...the gathering proposal is still being offered! So, this is me down below, for ID matters. https://www.facebook.com/#!/cristian.rey.5249

I'm sick and tired of this situation. Last time I made arrangements to see Osipova in Bayadere, was the same...I ended up with Part. Now, after months planning this trip, here comes again the non show. I changed the name of the thread from Osipova to Reyes. Poor Xiomara seems to have the "filler" tag in her forehead. I will be cheering my fellow Cuban anyway, definitely.

Oh...all the big stars! Kschesshinskaya, Preobrajenskaya, Karsavina, Pavlova, Nijinsky, Spessivtseva, Markova, Toumanova, Alonso, Youskevitch, Chabukiani, Dudinskaya, Chauvire, Bruhn, Fonteyn, Nureyev, Fracci, Kirkland, Misha, et all...

Edited: From Osipova to Reyes.

Oh, Cristian, that's great news, you lucky devil ! Have a wonderful time (how could you not?! ).. ~Karen oh, I will...oooooooooooh, YES!

PC...but right now, as writing this response, your post above comes as "Helene, on...said"...without any symbol at the end...Let's see if I came out of the blue box after posting... Edited: Yep..out of the blue box! ;-) If this is really bothering you, click the little light-switch button--the first one on the top left of the reply area. It'll go to a basic version with the code for quotes showing, and you can type after the quote tags. To get it back with your bold, italic, etc options, just hit the button again. You can always hit the button, start typing, then hit the button again once you know you're out of the "quote area" Ok...let's see...just clicking the light switch and responding...

Is the working leg in second in fouettes classical style, though? It's beautiful, controlled, and accomplished, but the leg is still high. Well...it could be that those were the fouettes I got to know, before getting exposed to the Rusian fouettes... There were some other ballerinas that would lower the working leg slightly, but still, one could see the full development of the ronde de jambe that make the step really beautiful. Here's a perfect example, the equally divine Aurora Bosh @ 11:48 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQhtwUMdoxc vs..."something" @ 2:40... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDfFAljt4JM Edited to do the "light switch trick"... Edited to declare that it worked!!!

Definitely. The three things I really care when watching fouettes are 1: placement of the working leg. 2: Absence of traveling and 3: Syncopation with the 32 counts. Sadly, all three points are highly diminished nowadays...

I really miss the times when ballerinas would pull perfect single fouettes on the beat all the way to the iconic 32 and working leg looking in a perfect straight horizontal position a la seconde. I just saw a video of Osipova, and realized that due to her efforts on super speed and multiple pirouettes, her working leg ended up pointing completely toward the floor, with her knee totally bent. Examples. "Old school" at 03;19... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=611ewQH_2HA vs. "New fouettes" at 08:13 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXh3Wl08mW4 Plus...I really like when the ballerinas finish their fouettes in full pointe-(as Charin does it in the above Black Swan, and Valdes still does)-, rather than braking harshly on flat foot due to the previous high speed of the multiple pirouettes...

PC...but right now, as writing this response, your post above comes as "Helene, on...said"...without any symbol at the end...Let's see if I came out of the blue box after posting... Edited: Yep..out of the blue box! ;-)

Oh Helene...all this Firefox, Safari vocabulary is like chinese to me... (I know...my bad...). I don't understand nothing on operating systems, and usually get to do things by clicking everywhere. I will keep traying to quote, so let's se....

' formatting, which is great.The problem is, when you save, the only thing that's saved is this: or and the text in the quote box appears below outside the quote box, as if it's part of the new post. The only thing we can do until this is resolved is to put a divider between what is being quoted and the response: This is the post quote, this is the post quote, this is the post quote This is the post quote, this is the post quote, this is the post quote ------------- (or ********************* or //////////////////////////) This is the response, this is the response, this is the response This is the response, this is the response, this is the response ================================================================= Response. I don't get any option on how to get my response out of the quoted text... Oh...did I...? For some reason I was able to quote here, but couldn't get out of the blue box in the Moscow competition thread...

' formatting, which is great.The problem is, when you save, the only thing that's saved is this: or and the text in the quote box appears below outside the quote box, as if it's part of the new post. The only thing we can do until this is resolved is to put a divider between what is being quoted and the response: This is the post quote, this is the post quote, this is the post quote This is the post quote, this is the post quote, this is the post quote ------------- (or ********************* or //////////////////////////) This is the response, this is the response, this is the response This is the response, this is the response, this is the response ================================================================= Response. I don't get any option on how to get my response out of the quoted text... Oh...did I...?

' formatting, which is great.The problem is, when you save, the only thing that's saved is this: or and the text in the quote box appears below outside the quote box, as if it's part of the new post. The only thing we can do until this is resolved is to put a divider between what is being quoted and the response: This is the post quote, this is the post quote, this is the post quote This is the post quote, this is the post quote, this is the post quote ------------- (or ********************* or //////////////////////////) This is the response, this is the response, this is the response This is the response, this is the response, this is the response ================================================================= Response. I don't get any option on how to get my response out of the quoted text...

Natasha...Is this the first time this has been predicted...?

Congrats, Toto!

RIP, David. May this hideous illness be swept away from the face of earth forever and ever at some point.