Adam

You know, they missed a big opportunity. They should have had the curtain open on Irina in that dress, next to Sasha Radetsky in the big cape from the opening of "Manon".

Well, Gillian and Ethan are artistes - they're free to do what they wish. If Angel can do 5 double tours en l'air instead of 8 (and, by the way, he was superb yesterday evening in "Le Corsaire" - he must be reading these!), then Gillian and Ethan can change the number of fouettes and entirely eliminate variations and go right to the coda. Why hold them to a different standard? It's not what they omit - it's how well they do what they chose to do.

Yes, it was Gemma. I was privileged to see her working with Georgina at the ABT Studios recently and she's terrific. She was working on Le Corsaire, "just in case". One of the contributors commented to me, "A corps dancer learning Medora? 'Just in case'?" Well, Gemma is in the corps at ABT, but she was a first artist with the Royal for five years.

I thought Sarafanov was good, too. But some of the people who are more knowledgable than I am seemed to feel that his partnering skills were weak, and that the only thing he really excels at is jumping and turning.

Angel is one of my favorite dancers, so I was disappointed that he didn't do the 8 without prep. Perhaps he needed the prep, and that limits the number he can do, because there's not enough music to do 8 WITH prep. Or perhaps he had to add the preps because he was only going to do 5. But I was expecting more, just as a ballerina who does 20 fouettes is going to get called on it, no matter how well she does them.

As for the bag searches, they routinely do them at the Met and the State Theater. I was quoting someone else who said the bag searchers weren't in evidence. Believe me, they were there, as I've learned not to let them get near my opera glasses! (The stick is supposed to enable them to pull the bag open without inserting their hands. This way they aren't handling anything. But several of the guys use the sticks to rap on anything that's in a case. Like a pair of Zeiss opera glasses. Ouch!)

I hate to say this, but I noticed no bag searches at MOH, but lots of discrete security. That is the way it should be.

They were there, just as always, just inside the ticket-takers. The same guys as usual hitting your opera glass case with those sticks to see if they explode.

Although this is going to be deleted or heavily edited (I'm not allowed to disagree with the other people here), I must say that I don't agree with that. I like Angel, but you have to dance what's listed in the program.

Considering the extreme historical literacy of the people on this board, I'm truly amazed to see anyone take the position that as long as it's good, the dancer can do whatever he wants. Even in this very thread, there are comments about the dancers "cheating" because they're in shadow.

Many of the people who post here seem to have seen, in person or in archival films, every performance of every ballet by every dancer. If a dancer blinks at the wrong moment, someone (not necessarily you, Mme. Hermine) posts something along the lines of "Everybody knows that Shade #27 is supposed to blink her left eye a fraction of a second before the other shades do, as Vaganova specifies in the third supplement to her treatise, which was never published, but I have a microfilm copy of the manuscript which I made on my most recent trip to the State Archives in St. Petersburg. For me, the timing of that left eye blink RUINED the whole piece for me."

For that matter, how does carbro know that was Conrad's solo that Cornejo did? Maybe that's how HE does Lackendem's solo! He can do whatever he wants! All we know is that it was Conrad's MUSIC to which he was dancing.

Double tours en l'air sans préparation. It was my understanding that technique doesn't give the dancer carte blanche to change the choreography, no matter how outstanding his technique is for what he's substituting.

For you celebrity-spotters:

All in the same row: Matt Lauer and Al Roker (in a cream-color suit; perhaps he had the Good Humor concession), Jeff Zucker (president of NBC-Universal), Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos, and Donald Trump, wife and Donald Jr. Trump was the only person in the house with a bodyguard - I suppose he was afraid Ed Fox was going to ask for an autograph.

The bodyguard was in a tuxedo, but still acting thuggy, pushing people out of the way - why do the big donors put up with this? Trump has no interest in, and makes no contributions to, ABT. I was standing next to them, and actually heard the bodyguard say, "Dis way, boss". Behind that row, Maria Bartiromo. All with spouses. All the way on the side of the house, I saw Freddie Franklin and Broadway star George S. Irving.

As for the performance, I have to ask: was my count off, or did Angel only do 5 tours, and with prep? I'm kind of new to this, but it was my understanding that the 8 tours are no more optional than the high Cs in "La Fille du Regiment". It doesn't matter how well you do what you do, you're expected to do the tours.

Last month, people were saying "Sarafanov isn't all that" and "the Kirov men aren't in the same class as the ABT men". But Sarafanov did 8 (I counted 9 at one performance). I was sure that whoever the ABT sent out would match it.

He's joining ABT as a Soloist in the Fall.

http://www.abt.org/insideabt/news_display.asp?News_ID=222

I'll be there, too. Are we talking about the "Will Call" window on the West side of the lobby, or the "Current Sale" window on the East side of the Lobby? I think if we get five more to show up, they do a private performance of the piece of our choice, don't they?

BTW, I've never seen the Mariinsky before, but does anybody know many people who say ANYTHING is better now than it was before? :-)

What I did - and I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner! - is go to the Mariinsky's website. They have bios - in English - of all the dancers (except for the corps, unfortunately), with headshots. Now I know who I'm watching!

http://www.mariinsky.ru/en/ballet/soloist

Thanks for replying. (You seem to agree with Gottlieb, who loves the ABT men, and can't stand the ABT women.) Of course, I have my favorites, but I won't post which ones they are (my friends know). But I will say that, as for the ABT's "Etudes", I can't wait to see what Cornejo does with it.

I have to ask this, because I'm relatively new. It's a bit off-topic, but I'm posting it here since everybody has seen the Mariinsky. (Anyway, the Mariinsky's not doing a performance until tomorrow, so we have a few moments.)

This is the first time I've seen the Mariinsky. I know the ABT extremely well. I'd like to hear how the people who've been posting comments on the Maryiinsky dancers would compare them to those of ABT. I've had friends make comments placing the ABT and its dancers all over the range of quality - comments on the company range from "not much better than what you'd see in a regional company" to "best in the world". And, while I won't name names, comments on individual dancers were similar - "S/he'd be a star anywhere" to "A principal? S/he couldn't be in the Corps at the Paris/Bolshoi/Royal/Mariinsky."

I was so amazed by Sarafanov on Friday night that I came back on Sunday to see those prep-less double tours again. I counted 9 on Sunday! I'm sorry they're not doing it again this week!

I want to thank sz for having something positive to say about Somova. I really think at this point we have a reverse-Emperor's-New-Clothes thing here. Instead of it being a situation where people are rushing to rave about the next big thing, they are competing here to make petty and downright nasty comments about her. I'd never seen her before, but to read most of the comments here, it seems she can't do anything right, including her hair. If I were Somova, I'd be afraid that the people here were going to rough her up and post the video on YouTube.

Parenthetically, I note that I haven't posted since I had my knuckles rapped a few months ago. A post of mine was "edited" by one of the moderators a few months back because she considered my statement that someone who was posting negative comments "likes who he likes and we're not going to be able to reason with him" to be unduly critical - on my part! I asked the moderator what happened to that part of my post, and was told that she deleted it because we're not allowed to attack other people. Apparently, my position of "let him have his opinion" was deemed an attack on the people who were preparing the tar and feathers for him.

Meanwhile, a scurrilous, ad hominem comment that Somova has hair extensions like a Brighton Beach Russian girl is left untouched.

I wasn't there, but my friend said the dancers didn't seem to be concerned. Apparently, they knew what was happening, but my friend said that the audience was both scared and annoyed. The alarm was not only distracting, but people were whispering "Is it a fire? A bomb? What's going on?"

Ken Tabachnick sent an e-mail to people who complained which read, in part, "Thank you for your call about the performance of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker on Tuesday, December 11. The alarm that could be heard during the second act of the ballet was due to the malfunction of a new alarm system that has been recently installed at the New York State Theater. It was immediately apparent to the theater staff, and to the fire department which responded, that this was a false alarm, and it was therefore determined that it was not necessary to halt the performance. We recognize that events like this can be upsetting and are examining our customer communication procedures."

Does anybody know anything about the alarms at the New York State Theater yesterday, December 11? Apparently, there were alarms going off backstage during the performance, audible throughout the house, completely disrupting things. The performance just continued through the alarms without any announcement being made.

I recall that, about two years ago, New York magazine's annual "Who Makes What in New York" cover story reported that the salary of an ABT principal is $177,000. It didn't say (1) whether that applies to all principals, or (2) whether that includes everything they make, even when guesting with other companies, or just for ABT appearances - and the number of ABT appearances varies widely depending on which dancer it is. Some principals opt out of the fall City Center season, and others don't tour to certain cities. And, even within a season - say, the Met spring season - not all principals dance the same number of performances. So it's entirely unclear what the $177,000 represents.

On the one hand, it sounds like a lot, compared to what most ballet dancers make. On the other hand, it's about what a first-year associate at a New York law firm makes - the difference being that the associate's salary will go up over the course of a career that will last for another 40 or 50 years, while that represents the short-lasting peak of the ballet dancer's dance-related income.

As for Xiomara in Fall River: Xiomara? As an axe murderer? Reminds me of Jeff Foxworthy’s story about his friend asking him if he minded if the friend asked out Foxworthy’s former girlfriend. Foxworthy said, "Don't you remember me telling you how she chased me around a parking lot with a butcher knife? "And the friend says, "Yeah, but she's really cute."

I never cared for "Sinatra Suite". You'll see more impressive dancing at any competition (say, the Manhattan Amateur Classic in January, or the one at Columbia on December 1). Now, it's obviously not the fault of the ABT dancers - it's the choreography.

I asked one of the women in my office, who was a regular at the Kirov and the Bolshoi when she lived in Russia. She said (and this is kind of funny) "It was Ukrainians - Russians wouldn't do this. Okay, maybe in Brighton, but never at the Met or City Center, and certainly never at Maryiinsky or Bolshoi. We even bring change of shoes when there's snow, so that we look right." Okay, it's Ukrainians? I'll have to ask the Beloserkovskys.

I can tell you that in New York (including the Met and City Center), it seems quite common for Russians to bring soup, sandwiches and jars of pickles and to walk around and call out to their friends during the performance. They generally come as families and large groups, and people who know each other will buy an entire row, or several seats in each of several rows in a section, which exacerbates their wandering around. Various Russian friends have made similar comments to me, along the lines of, "We come to socialize, not to watch the ballet" and "We're there to see our friends, not the ballet."

Although I had the same experience at the Bolshoi performances two years ago, and at last year's Ballet Stars at the NY State Theater, this isn't a ballet thing - it's a Russian thing. (Okay, perhaps a Ukrainian thing - not every person was being disruptive, and I can't tell the difference between a Russian accent and a Ukrainian one.)

As I believe I mentioned, the same thing happened last year at an Argentine tango performance which, for some reason, was heavily advertised on a Russian-language cable television station. Virtually the entire section in which I was sitting was taken up by Russians (Ukrainians?).

Usually, the audience for tango in New York is American tangueros, many of whom I know, and Argentines. I wonder who'll turn up at Brooklyn College for Boccatango next month? And, as I said, I shudder to think of what the Kirov audience will be like.

How about this, then? It's an actual temporary tattoo that was made for distribution at a family day. Appropriate for a ballet company or a bad idea?

http://www.artik.com/Images/TATTOO/CORPORATE1.jpg

A navy tattoo? What, on the girls or on the sailors? Seriously, we're talking real tattoos here, and those don't change with the costumes. So that anchor for Fancy Free tonight might look a bit out of place in Leaves Are Fading tomorrow.

Is that any worse than the noisy, unruly adults that are the bane of my existence?

I really worry about what will happen during the Kirov season, as I recall how it was when the Bolshoi was at the Met. I expect I'll hear from a few people about this, but a Russian friend of mine confirmed my perception. I'd asked her about whether Russian audiences tend to be less, uh, attentive, because I was concerned that I might be unfair, and she said, "It's different for Russians. We don't go to the ballet to watch the ballet. We come to socialize AT the ballet."

On the tattoo issue - why pick on just the men? Vishneva has a large tattoo on her hip/upper thigh (commented on previously in other threads, I believe), which I first spotted when she did "Manon" (she doesn't wear tights in the last act).

Now that I know it's there, I can see it through the tights, too. Hey, no wonder Siegfried gets all confused - Odette and Odile have the same tattoo!

You forgot another piece entirely, didn't you?