onxmyxtoes

Tickets were not made available to the public. It was an invitational event.

My favorite translation is "hosekarenyo" And thank you for translating Batsuchan. The dancers had such sweet words!

I'm interested to see if Irina does the wedding variation tonight. Last year in Los Angeles, she and Max skipped the solo variations in the wedding pas.

Did anyone notice that Colin pronounced "Balanchine" strangely? Sounded like "Balan-sheen"

From new corp to international star! Love it!

That was so nice to watch! I hope Cory continues to develop upper body strength so those traveling lifts don't look like so much work! But I think he's improved so much from before!

I hope this does not offend anyone, but just wondering if he is more prepared to run a company now. He went to California to direct Ballet Pacifica. The company suffered with financial troubles, he left them, and then the company AND the school closed in less than a year. Then he recently resigned from his position as Dean of NCSA. I hope this isn't a pattern... Article about the Ballet Pacifica situation : http://articles.latimes.com/2006/mar/31/entertainment/et-pacifica31 http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2010/sep/03/uncsas-dance-dean-to-step-down-ar-395844/ In the above article about NCSA, they mention that he stepped down so he could do some more dancing. Now, he's taking an AD role. I just don't know what to make of this.

I'm interested in seeing Corella partner Vishneva in Swan Lake. I was saddened that he had to pull out of Romeo and Juliet with her last season. Now I am deeply saddened by the lack of R&J in their season! Can't believe it!

Has Courtney Lavine been promoted from Apprentice to Corps de Ballet?

David's entrechat sixes look more like vibrations than beats, which I think is beautiful, especially in the land of the willies. Unless you are looking carefully, you don't notice that he is changing legs with each jump. I think Bolle's sequence was entrecha quatres with a few sixes at the end (the front leg of his fifth position does not change until the end).

wrong post.. oops

Seo was cast as bluebird for one night and was stunning. I was on stage for all of the rose adagios, and Part's were by far the weakest. She kept her eyes dropped the whole time and once or twice lost her balance completely and grabbed the hand of her partner very rapidly. Apparently, the audience did not see this. I thought Stearns looked really clean in his solos. His technique is really strong. However, I don't think the partnership between Sterns and Part is good at all. I don't think they have a good connection on a personal level, and physically they are a bad match. They had a lot of difficulty with the turns in the fish dive in the dress rehearsal. They didn't even complete the last one. He might have needed to keep his hands on her because she is too tall for him.

I really respect his commitment to the art AND how he is using his twitter more and more. We can only hope that he will update his blog on The Winger soon ETA: Where is Jacob's Pillow? Is it in Massachusetts?

I'm kind of glad that I didn't try to see yesterdays matinee. I had already purchased a ticket to the evening to see Corella and Vishneva, so I needed to go in the evening. However, it seems like many people who wattched both were underwhelmed by the 2nd performance.

That's what I was trying to say. The bedroom and crypt scenes were so good, so I think it's hard to make an overall judgment without having seen those two scenes. I agree about Simkin and Salstein not dancing together with the music. I thought Salstein was behind, but in any case, they were not together. The trio outside the Capulet party did seem poorly executed. They were never together and I don't think the 3 of them looked that great as a trio. I would actually like to see Simkin paired with Hallberg and see how that goes. I popped into the Met when the matinee cast was performing the same dance and thought they looked excellent. David looked amazing and even better than when I saw him Tues night (in that dance). For some reason in the beginning of the ballet, I felt like Gomes was a bit tired. It might be because I knew it was his 3rd Romeo of the week and was expecting him to be not as fresh as he was on Monday. However in Act 2 and 3, I did not feel that way at all. I was completely moved by the way Marcelo and Diana "killed" themselves. It seemed completely different than the way all the other ABT ballerinas do it. It seems like Hee, Paloma, Gillian were all coached by the same person, and therefore they all die in similar ways. Yet, in tonight's performance there were some really touching moments that I had never seen before. For instance, when Marcelo drinks the poison he holds on to Diana's hand. Also when Diana realizes that Marcelo is dead, I could hear her crying/screaming in my head. None of the other dancers did that for me. Additionally, the way Diana raised the dagger high above her head seemed dramatically appropriate for the action. Lastly, she took longer to get into her final resting pose. She spent time to caress Marcelo's face, and only at the last beat of the music did she end in the famous ending pose. It was so poignant and such a nice variation from the rest of the Juliet's crypt scenes.

Ambonnay- that's too bad you left during the 2nd act. I thought the performance got incrementally better when the acts changed. I completely agree about the point you made on Vishneva's womanly dancing in the Capulet ball. I was surprised that she matured so drastically before meeting Romeo.

This is OT too, but does anyone know a good place to eat dinner before tonight's show? I tried to reserve the pre-show dinner, but they are full. I would like to have a nice meal tonight. Also, does anything special happen on the last night of the season? I've never been to an event like tonight!

Mymsyb- no, I wasn't kidding. I'm not that familiar with Wiles which is why I asked. I had taken a class with her earlier that day when I realized that she didn't do Juliet. From what I know about her, I wouldn't think she'd be a natural, but I was just wondering why she seemed to never have done the role

I'm also curious why Michelle wiles doesn't do Juliet. She and Veronica are the only female principals without Juliet in their rep.

Like ambonnay, I noticed that Hallberg kept his "ballet form" during the whole ballet. Even when he's suppose to be wild and reckless, he holds his body like a noble danseur.whole getting scolded by Paris, he stands in 1st position. This is consistent with he character he plays. He really is such a pleasure to watch.

Ambonnay- I felt that David's Romeo was more mature than marcelo's therefore older? Either way, they have different approaches I'm at the matinee right now with Cory Sterns and Hee Seo I feel like Cory hasn't had time to develop his character yet. He was just smiling throughout the first act without much expression. Hee is so fluid and dances with such musicality. She really hears the Prokofiev score. Actually Cory seems to be dancing through the music while Hee IS the music.

Ambonnay- how did you post so quickly? I saw the same show and right when I got back I saw your post!! Speedy!! I definitely think David and Marcelo have different approaches to Romeo. As David said in the recent ABT e-newsletter: "[Romeo's] life seems incomplete. Once he meets Juliet, he never questions it again." The way I saw it, David's Romeo believes in finding "the One" and is not too interested in Harlots. He thinks he loves Rosaline, but is tentative and shy. We see a change in his approach when he sees Juliet. Immediately he realizes that she is "the One." He goes for her right away without inhibitions. I loved David's performance tonight. He looked wonderful on stage. I didn't see Marcelo's performance last night, but I've seen him before. I think he has Romeo more on a testosterone high and basically wants any girl he can have. I remember he placed a huge kiss on the bride's cheek (during the wedding procession in act 2) and was much more into the Harlots. Of course his love for Juliet was much deeper, but he showed more uncontrollable adolescent desire than Hallberg. I'll be watching the gomes/Vishneva performance on Sat. night so I can confirm or deny my above statements about Gomes. I'm pretty curious about Osipova. I can't really imagine her as Juliet, and I wonder how she'll do on her Juliet debut!

I booked a trip to NYC this summer to watch him. I'm so sad now. I do love Gomes so so much... but watching Angel in Romeo has been a dream of mine. Guess it's not going to come true this year

I'm admitting that I watched So You Think You Can Dance tonight. But I think anyone who watched it will say that Alex showed incredible versatility tonight!

Daniil is a great Benvolio. He's probably doing Benvolio.