angelica

I totally agree with everyone who loved Sarah Lane's Giselle. The heartfelt applause she received from the audience made me think there were many attendees who believed, as I do, that Sarah's promotion to principal has been long overdue, and especially how long this performance has been eagerly awaited. In particular, what struck me about Sarah is that she is a short dancer who dances TALL. Her almost 6-o'clock extensions seemed just right for her stature, rather than a standard crowd-pleasing gesture. Her leaps occurred as 180-degree splits high off the ground. As an innocent peasant girl, she was completely believable, and as a will (just try to type that with autocorrect!) she was as light as a feather. I had only one moment of anxiety, when Daniil Simkin, who was a more than adequate Albrecht overall, lifted her into the air and it seemed she had to adjust her position so as not to fall. When she did those barely supported grand jetes from downstage left to upstage right, getting higher and longer with each successive one, she barely touched the ground in between, giving the sensation that she was flying through the air, something I haven't seen the likes of since Ekaterina Maximova did them that way in 1965. With Theme & Variations, Sleeping Beauty, Whipped Cream, and now Giselle under her belt, having given five-star performances of each of these, it would be fair, right, and a tremendous relief to those of us who support the company, if ABT were to finally give Sarah the recognition that she deserves. Are you listening, ABT? KarenAG, I'm so sorry you missed this!

I, for one, am thrilled that David will be dancing with Gillian in her debut Giselle with American Ballet Theatre.

ABT should have their performance filmed. Not only would it be a gift to audiences today as well as future generations, but it could be sent into space in a time capsule. Are you listening, ABT?

I, too. How many New York debuts that day? Sarah, Christine, Gillian, and the return of David to his home company. Is it Simkin's debut too? Please correct/add if I've got this wrong. I'm going by memory. Thank you, David, for working so hard to come back to us. We have missed you greatly.

Thanks, ABT Fan, I hadn't seen either of these before. Stunning!

Thanks, abatt! Somewhere I saw a clip that included this and the two other debutantes, Sarah Lane and Gillian Murphy.

Has anyone heard anything about how well the debuts in Giselle went in Oman?

You can now buy "performance only" tickets to the Gala performance of Whipped Cream on the regular ABT web site. Just as an example, there are Row A Dress Circle tickets available (admittedly not center, but not terrible) for $100. I'm going to the Gala performance, but If I were free for the Tuesday Cornejo Whipped Cream, I would also go to that.

I suspect that today the site was sluggish because this was the first day that single tickets were made available to the general public, so that traffic to the site was especially heavy. It's good that you did it today, especially if seats are going quickly.

I do think the hunt is quite a procession. But you got me on R&J!

And of course Act 1 of Giselle with its procession of royalty, including two borzois, who every once and awhile don't obey their handlers' commands, which makes for an amusing moment. I imagine the dog gets fired after such a performance. And Romeo and Juliet (Act II?)

I'm a member (at the Patron level) and bought tickets by phone today, including performance-only tickets for the Gala. I was allowed to pick my seats and the representative was both knowledgeable and helpful.

I'm a fan of Sarah Lane also, and would love to see her promoted to Principal.

Vipa, I totally agree. I never buy tickets for any of her performances. And it would be a tribute to the reigning Swan Queen if Veronika could get two performances of SL in a season before it's too late.

That's a great image, dirac, and probably exactly right!

Having just seen the performance of Walpurgisnacht (on a recording I made of the PBS airing) I'm a newly converted fan of Sara Mearns. I saw her live last week in Thou Swell, and I must say that when performing alongside Rebecca Krohn and Teresa Reichlin, Mearns looked, to my eyes, very wide. The sash around her waist in the blue costume only emphasized that. However, in Walpurgisnacht I thought she was sensational in every way and I'm so glad to have this on DVD so that I can watch it many times. I think Macaulay's comments were well deserved.

So glad I could help this forum in some small way, since I derive such pleasure from reading it, as well as some great tips--got a front row seat in the second ring at NYCB because a member (can't remember who) was kind enough to post when casting went up. And that is just one example.

And I just realized, Helene, that I could have searched my Trash folder for Ballet Alert and deleted the ABT posts and sent the NYCB ones all at once, instead of a gazillion separate emails. Well, hopefully there will not be a next time, but if there is, that's what I'll do. In the meantime thanks for this great forum. Also, you may have noticed that sometimes two and three posts are in a single email, if they were together in my Trash folder.

ABT Fan, thanks so much for posting the clip of Sarah and Daniil. I am definitely going to see her debut. She has posted a few other clips online (e.g., studio rehearsal clip of her opening Aurora variation) and it's always such a joy to see such beautiful dancing/acting. We've waited a long time for this Giselle.

mnacenani, if you haven't seen the DVD of Nina Ananiashvili dancing O/O at the age of 29 with the State Ballet of Perm, I highly recommend that you do so because I think you'll find what you're looking for. Her partner, Alexei Fadeyechev, alas, is extremely dull, but Nina is extraordinary. I learned later that she didn't even know they were filming her that night. The DVD is probably available on Amazon and also from that web site that sells many ballet videos, I think it's Kultur.

Osiel Gouneo is the embodiment of every great male dancer I've ever seen, all in one package: Nureyev, Baryshnikov, Hallberg, Stiefel, Corella, Carreno.

At this point, I have a severe case of Hallberg Deprivation, and am so excited that he's coming back. I'd go to see him in almost anything. I hope that ABT gets its spring season casting sorted out soon, because casts have been shuffled around so much I may have to change all six performances of my six-performance subscription!

I think of the role of Purple Rothbart as a stepping stone towards larger roles. I remember when Marcelo Gomes first danced it and then leapt into principal roles the next year. I don't remember the others who were on that trajectory, but I know there were some. Sterling Baca danced the role last season and then became a principal dancer at Corella's Pennsylvania Ballet.

As a fan of Sascha Radetsky, I lasted all of 30 minutes, but I'm bailing now. Thanks again for the link, laurel!

Thanks, Laurel! I am a Sascha Radetsky fan, especially after attending a Spotlight Seminar in which he talked about his career in ballet as well as his writing. And I'm a fan of Stella as well (which has nothing to do with this movie, but still....) This will be great to watch during tomorrow's winter weather advisory. Again, thanks so much!