BW

Right she was in Snow as well - I forgot. I'm glad you felt Erica P. did well. I'm looking forward to te Spring season. :grinning-smiley-001:

Can any of you comment upon Erica Pereira's performance in Spanish on Saturday night? I was not able to attend and am very interested in hearing about it.

Here in the NY Metro area on Thirteen: June 7th now, repeated June 11th on Thirteen. If you're not watching it you really should - if you like Gershwin.

For other areas, check your local PBS listings.

This is a wonderful film! :huepfen024:

That's right - music...now I remember. Thank you Farrel Fan and I just loved your explanation "I thought it would bring a fresh viewpoint, that of an intelligent audience member rather than a dance scholar, to the Times, and, equally important, livelier writing . For the most part this has been the case, except of course when he irritates me." :grinning-smiley-001:

Will someone remind me what Rockwell's background is? I remember when he first was taking over there were quite a few long involved discussions on his lack of exposure to ballet, etc.

It surely does seem that he put his foot in his mouth a few times, even for a critic.

In today's New York Times - John Rockwell's take on the performances: The Annual Workshop Performances of the School of American Ballet. Not having attended, I can't speak to it, but thought you all who did might.

nysusan, I attended last night's performance, too. I brought a friend who'd never seen a ballet before... I picked this night because I felt it would be a great introduction to NYCB and Balanchine and was not disappointed.

I will only add that besides Miranda Weese and Albert Evans in Concerto Barroco and the stunning Maria Kowroski, who I've missed, and her happy looking partner Charles Askegard and the wonderfully energetic, alive and in the moment Tiler Peck and Sean Susozi in Symphony C - my eyes were on Teresa Reichlen from her astounding performance in "Five Pieces, Opus 10" of Episodes and again in Symphony. Ms. Reichlen is a standout. I know she's been in NYCB for a while, but when I saw her last spring, I believe it was, in Midsummer, I was in awe - and I still am.

Not having been able to attend the ballet the way I once used to, last night reminded me how much I loved it. Thank you NYCB dancers!

sz Erica Pereira is only 17 from what I overheard from some of her fellow dancers who were raving about her performance

True, she will be 18 in January.

Thanks for continued feedback. Naturally, I'm very glad to hear the other performances went so well - including those soft landings. :gossip:

Thanks for the reports - wish I could have been there but was over at the NY State Theatre last night. ;)

Yes, liebs, it was Erica P. that I was especially interested in reading about. She was put in that role only a few weeks before the performance due to another student's unfortunate injury.

Oops, BSS, we must have been posting at the same time - thank you so much for your comments about the afternoon performance! :huepfen024:

The petite female.

Forgive me if this is the wrong forum to post this in...and I did look to see if anyone had already started a thread...

Please, if any of you attend this afternoon's performance - I would love to hear about it! I'm especially interested to read your impressions of Square Dance today. The young woman who is dancing the lead is an old friend.

Merde! to all the dancers in this weekend's performances!

I noticed this while flipping through an opera magazine at a friend's house. My first reaction was more shock and awe than happiness, because I am not a big fan of the never ending conquest of buildable space out in the Westchester/Fairfield county areas, but I suppose financial backing is financial backing - perhaps this will up the radio output, dirac.

I am sorry to have to report this and am sure you will want to change post, but I felt that many of your members might want to be notified of Rebecca Wright's death. It is very sad news indeed.

Here is a link to the thread on Ballet Talk for Dancers: Rebecca Wright. As of right now the Washington Post has two stories that are linked within... The New York Times, of course, has been notified of this great loss.

On NPR on Weekend Edition - Saturday, with Scott Simon, there was a piece about what's been going on at TWB. It was quite well done. If you missed it, you should be able to access it via the website at about 1:00PM. NPR's Weekend Edition - Saturday

Well, that is what I thought - about Robbins and Balanchine. Nice to be reminded that it has been done, and that it worked quite well.

Speaking of this sort of thing, what was Jerome Robbins' title while he and Balanchine were there together? Was there any similar sort of "association" as the type you, Farrell Fan, are suggesting should be able to work?

Unfortunately, I did not make it. I am so sorry I missed this, but I do appreciate everyone's detailed impressions of the company and a number of its dancers.

I need to go refresh myself as to who is in PA Ballet II and keep my eyes peeled for their names as well - though I do recognize several.

Great to read so much good news about this company - as well as Wheeldon's Swan Lake, too.

Thank you to everyone for being the eyes of those of us who haven't been able to make it to see these performances!

I'm particularly pleased to read your views lillianna - and would love to have been there with you. Maybe it's not too late for me if I can swing it. I'm thrilled to read about your loving Gabriella Yudenich in her role as one of the Big Swans! I can't help but think that Ms. Yudenich's dancing has as much to do with her background seeing that both of her parents, the late Alexi Yudenich, her father, and her mother Barbara Sandonato, were both breath taking dancers themselves. Although I have never had the pleasure of seeing Ms. Yudenich perform, I have seen her in the ballet studio where her classicism and artistry were plain for anyone to see.

I also enjoyed reading about the differences you noticed between this year and last year's performances.

Now I'll have to go over to search the links section to see if there have been any newspaper articles about this run of Wheeldon's Swan Lake - and read more about the Pennsylvania Ballet's performances of it. It seems like a run to Philly may just have to happen - and soon!

Again thanks to everyone who has posted and please let us hear more! I wish the PA Ballet would come to NYC - or the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College - to share their wealth with us up here.

Farrell Fan, I'm sure one of the Moderators can easily split off and merge Juliet's wonderful post - or it can always been quoted in full, too.

Here is an article about Alexandra Ansanelli in January 1st's issue called The Comeback Kid by Pia Catton wherein she has expressed my feelings exactly when she writes

When New York City Ballet principal dancer Alexandra Ansanelli dances--and even when she speaks about dance--she expresses an irrepressible sort of joy.

I look forward to hearing from Ms. Ansanelli in print in the not too distant future, I hope.

Such a great loss for NYCB. Of course I am speaking from my own selfish point of view because I have truly loved watching Ms. Ansanelli perform. There are so many highlights, but one that I will always remember was her performance in Wheeldon's Carousel - she was perfect.

I don't know why this has not been publicized as it's been a well known fact for quite some time. I look forward to learning more and wish Ms. Ansanelli the best in her future ventures - I only hope that she'll be in New York City for many of them!

Thank you Petipafan for those quotes.

lampwick :shhh: Try using Internet Explorer instead, if you're using a more "uncommon" browser such as Safari.

It sounded as if it were the stuff of dreams.

What do you all think of John Rockwell's appreciation of ballet these days? Although I did not have the foresight or good fortune to see this performance, I surely wish I had from his description.

It will be interesting to hear about Amanda McKerrow's final performance.

P.S. Good point about that front page photo, too!

Thanks carbo - I couldn't seem to find it this morning but knew it had to be somewhere! :blush:

You all probably caught this article in Tuesday's NY Times by Gia Kourlas Is It Fusion or Just a Mishmash of 2 Forms? - which I thought was a great article for it's general theme.

Within the piece Ms. Kourlas wrote:

...At its core, contemporary ballet is regurgitation - with point shoes and bare legs - of the modern-dance aesthetic. What many of today's choreographers seem to overlook is that when an art form is transported to a higher level, the result has nothing to do with borrowing from the past but everything to do with courage of conviction and imagination. Still, many contemporary-ballet choreographers are creating their own limitations by using the same rulebook.

Strangely enough, Suzanne Farrell's masterly reconstruction of Balanchine's "Don Quixote," a ballet from 1965 performed in June at the Kennedy Center in Washington, turned out to be one of the boldest choreographic experiments in recent memory. Full of psychological twists and technical rigor, the ballet had nothing remotely old-fashioned about it, and it revealed a darker, more mystical side of Balanchine. "Don Quixote" is at once timeless and contemporary. It needs to be seen by New York audiences; the Lincoln Center Festival and the Brooklyn Academy's Next Wave series seem to exist for the sole purpose of presenting ballet of this magnitude.

Thought if anyone missed this, they'd appreciate it.

Fortunately, she doesn't end her article on this note but, instead, goes on to say it's important to remember that "ballet didn't die along with Balanchine". She mentions current choreographers of talent by name... And, finally, Ms. Kourlas finishes off by placing her bet on ballet's "dark horse" Brian Reeder to win.

I do recall that earlier review, but had never known of that rule. So if a particular dancer falls flat on evening 1 and pulls out all the stops in the same role on evening 2, it's just too bad - they can't be reported upon? Say it isn't so!