annamicro

Quite a lot of names, having not seen all of them I cannot guess which one is a mispelled "Rojo"... I'm very happy for Shklyarov success: he is a wonderful dancer and I fell in love with his dancing (and acting) in a Romeo and Juliet seen a couple of yers ago... And later I was absolutely charmed by his Alì (with Somova as Medoara and Kozlov - not at ease with the role- as Konrad, the difference of quality was almost disturbing...)

Wow! Anyway, I didn’t say that Nunez is unmusical: I said that for me she doesn’t “use” the music as great artists do. As I said, I consider her a top dancer, but nothing more and that’s not enough for me. In my opinion, she seems to do everything (steps, acting) she could be taught to do and that’s just not enough. You like her “facial expressions” and those are the things I like the less of her, so probably our tastes are just antithetic: I’m sure we will survive perfectly to that. If you think that her acting in Gamzatti was excellent (I’m not saying it was “wrong” or really “bad”), just look at what a clever dancer like Masha Alexandrova (for sure not a “weak” dancer) can do with that role and have an idea of how many aspects and facets that can be explored and shown. I’ve not said that Soares is always “an embarrassment”. He was (and Nunez too, and also unmusical in that specific occasion) awful in the Tchaikovsky pdd I mentioned. To say that he is a principal because of Nunez could be unfair, but it was the only reason I found. Now I’ve discovered that he is a principal because he is tall, ok. I think that you can pay the salary (or bonuses) you want to people if they have to do a certain job, but for me one should be a principal (with all the prestige connected to that status) not for what he is asked to dance but for what he “really” is. (of course I understand that to have always a “principal” performing on stage has greater commercial appeal, but unfortunately that doesn’t change the quality of the performance). I’m afraid that that Swan Lake pdd was more or less of the level of the other two I’ve seen by them and more or less of the level of the majority of the rest I’ve seen of the two together.

I agree. I’ve not seen the filmed performance of Swan Lake, but I’ve seen them in October (and I saw Nunez dancing also with Acosta). She had great critics, but at that time I thought that it was just something used to mask the fact that the company was performing without people like Cojocaru, Lamb, Rojo and Yanowsky (alphabetical order). Nunez is a top level dancer and gives high professional performances, but I’ looking for a deeper artistic dimension. To me she seems to remain only on the surface of characters (her Gamzatti, for example is no more than a stereotype) and I just cannot “see” the music when she dances: in Swan Lake, to my ears (but also to the ears of several friends – some others loved her, of course), she was almost “tuning down” the music, giving it no volume and no colours, giving nothing and taking nothing from Tchaikovsky wonderful score. When I knew that Nunez and Soares (!!!) were going to be filmed I was EXTREMELY surprised: sorry, but I prefer swans that can “sing”. This Marianela & Thiago thing is very pushed (and probably gained also a principal promotion to him), but I saw yesterday by a friend the film of the Tchaikovsky pdd they danced in Osaka in July 2008 and I thought that it was really embarrassing to see such a performance from two dancers “labelled” as Royal ballet principals…

Spanish press (http://www.adn.es/cultura/20090604/NWS-0959-Martinez-Joaquin-Oscar-Jose-Luz.html) says that the winners are Joaquín de Luz & Ivan Vasilev and Kirsty Martin & Natalia Osipova; José Martínez & Wayne McGregor for choreography. I've not seen the news on the Benois prix web-site yet.

It was for me too. And for many many others. When reading enthusiastic comments, I often think to exaggeration, but, believe me, this is not the case: it’s more understatement. After such a long waiting it seems a dream to have seen such a miracle twice in five days. After her first show, on the 18th, Alina Cojocaru said she started rehearsing Giselle only on Monday: 5 days for a masterpiece. As Leonid wrote, in those top level performances, there were some minor falters (if they can be called that way…after 5 days of rehearsing and 11 months without performances!) and she preserved herself a little bit in first act main solo, but the artistic level of the shows, the intensity, the spontaneity and the poetry, were extraordinary, close to perfection. I remember Alina complaining after her recorded shows in 2006 that “when we dance Giselle here (in London) it seems that the magic never comes out”. Maybe just the tension caused by the cameras, but, even if those shows were beautiful, I knew she was right. Nevertheless I fully understood the complete sense of her words watching their Giselle in Madrid the past year and even more on Saturday and Wednesday: we all were transported in another world. The second act, especially, was just sublime. Johan Kobborg was in fantastic form: a magnificent actor, as always the most perfect of partners and an absolutely brilliant dancer (his solo in the second act popped out on youtube few hours ago: watch it!). What a joy to see again the splendid Cojocaru in full health and back on stage and what a joy to watch again that wonderful partnership: a rare and precious thing to preserve as the most valuable treasure.

The clip was removed and the channel, with many Balanchine clips, was closed: "bloeedsinn" cannot say if she was warned before, because she was not checking regularly her e-mail box. I met that girl in Paris (freind of a friend: it's a small world!!!) this winter and she survived well... Among the others I remember Dupont, Semionova and Villa. There were two clips, with many dancers, at the end.

And there is Giselle pdd too (not sure if I can add the link, but I think that the clips are not yet available through youtube search engine...).Unfortunately I've never seen her dancing live, but she was the first Sylph I've ever seen and she is till now my favourite. May she rest in peace.

Waiting to have Alina Cojocaru back, also a musical partner for Johan Kobborg would be really appreciated. At least by myself.

No, Onegin is not part of that documentary. The clips are probably from the film of the performace shown live on screens in Trafalgar Square and other locations on June 17th 2004.

It's a pas de six with a main couple (Morera-Cervera in the film).

There is also the the Aragon-Cué "Blancanieves" (Snow White in Spanish), danced a few times by Tamara Rojo and available as DVD. I don't know if they are plannig to propose again the full ballet, but Tamara is still dancing the pdd in some galas.

Alice in Wonderland has a balett sounds great to bad i can´t see it but when it will be put up in Sweden or Denmark i would love to see it Not Sweden or Denmark, anyway English National Ballet has in its repertoire Derek Deane's Alice in Wonderland. The music is a mix of Tchaikovsky's works.

Many people had difficoulties, I could just listen to the music... I tried a home made solution uploading the clips on NeroVisionExpress and it worked. But I'll try your advices to resolve radically the problem. Thanks a lot!

Hello everybody, I couldn't agree more: I saw her Giselle live in Turin (December 23rd) and it was a stunning performance. After that I saw the Moscow one and, even if also her debut was very interesting and promising, the improvement in just one month and two shows was really impressive. I was looking forward her debut as Sylph in the Bournonville/Kobborg Sylphide and now Bolshoi web-site is announcing her name for the first night on Feb 20th! The Russian version of the site is confirming the announced partnership with Lopatin, not sure which one is more up-to-date…in any case: Good luck to Natasha!