Ambonnay

I don't seem to be able to find enough to start a new thread, but leave these thoughts:

Bolle & entrechats (are those all entrechat-sixes??)

Here is Baryshnikov's version of the Albrecht variation, with no entrechats and with two series of traveling brise volees across the "diagonal" of the stage (see around 2:04):

I wonder what the third Albrecht variation Alistair M refers to, may be?

... "Mr. Gomes chooses the long series of entrechat-six that Rudolf Nureyev introduced to the ballet"

I was wondering what Nureyev looked like doing that, and found this (see around 1:50 of the video):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWTcf1j9GTQ

Could Hallberg be out-Nureyeving Nureyev in the entrechat-six'es initiated by Nureyev for Albrecht? I think each danseur has his own strengths. Hallberg's lines look more elegant while he is doing the entrechats, and his upper body and arms seems better than Nureyev.

Also, interesting that I don't recall Hallberg doing the steps that Nureyev does around 2:30 in the video. Did I just forget, or was it an artistic choice to only do part of what Nureyev portrayed around the entrechat-six'es?

Dance Magazine tweeted the more particular dates (?) of the ABT portion of the Havana festival:

"@ABTBallet has announced their first tour to Cuba in 50 years! Nov 3-6 at the Havana Festival"

http://twitter.com/Dance_Magazine

I don't recall having seen Gomes as Albrecht, but I recall that the NYT Reviewer for Hallberg's Albrecht with ABT last year said that only Gomes could match Hallberg's many entrechat six'es done as part of the Albrecht variation. This is a version of the Albrecht variation that not all danseurs perform, but it is something to be on the look-out for from Gomes in Act II.

At the very beginning of the linked video are the Hallberg entrechats in the Bolshoi version of Giselle from earlier this year:

Gomes and Kent will participate in this year's Indianapolis City Ballet "Evening with the Stars" event on Saturday, September 11, 2010, in Indy.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Indianapolis-City-Ballet/52102800431?ref=search

http://www.indianapoliscityballet.org/event-evening-with-the-stars-2010.php

Kent had paired Hallberg for the 2009 version of the event.

Certain ABT dancers will perform in Cuba, as part of this year's Havana International Ballet Festival. The festival occurs October 28 to November 7.

http://www.cubaheadl...t_festival.html

There will be a tribute to Vladimir Vasiliev and to Galina Ulanova (not necessarily together). The V Vasiliev tribute suggests to me that there is a decent chance Hallberg would participate, because (1) Hallberg participated in the tribute at City Center to V Vasiliev earlier this year, and (2) Hallberg worked with V Vasiliev in Russia in preparation for his debut as Albrecht in the Bolshoi's Giselle earlier this year.

Dancers from the NYCB, the Royal Ballet and La Scala, among others, are also expected to participate.

Here is an article on why Yuriko and Matthews were on SYTYCD, in the context of a description of an LA donor event at the Barths (the Barths are major ABT donors and sponsor, among others and the last time I checked, Hallberg, Reyes, etc.):

http://sanmarinotribune.com/article.cfm?articleID=22834

The SYTYCD lead judge "is so enamored of ballet that he hosted two ABT dancers on his show So You Think You Can Dance, on last Thursday’s broadcast. He serves as the competition show’s executive producer and lead judge. He met ballerina Yuriko Kajiya in Bermuda ...." So Kajiya was apparently dancing not because ABT designated her to, but because a donor and the SYTYCD contact had ties to her.

Interesting other info from the article:

-- October 12 ABT performance in NY: Bart announced "a new choreography project, with new works by four of the company’s dancers to be performed in New York City on Oct. 12. “If you’re in town; you shouldn’t miss it.”"

I wonder who the four dancers (seems to be present tense) might be? Maybe they might include Stiefel and Corella? Corella has done some choreo for his own company.

-- LA may get Nutcracker performances. "His [Kevin M's] announcement of the ABT’s five-year partnership with the Brooklyn Academy of Music to hopefully bring an ABT Nutcracker to L.A. drew an enthusiastic audience response."

-- The ABT has had a good season from a financial perspective: ""“We’ve had a really good season in New York and here in L.A.” said McKenzie, “there were people who told us this would not be a good ticket-buying season. But we’ve fared through both artistically and financially; and we met our goals.”"

-- Next year, "the ABT will return [to LA] with The Bright Stream, choreographed by artist-in-residence Alexei Ratmansky ...."

Kevin M says this about Hallberg, who does not appear in the slideshow regarding the performance at the Barth's: "ABT is also home to “the best dancers in the world.” McKenzie adds, “For example, for us it’s important to have David Hallberg, not the next David Hallberg; and you see that throughout the company. We use examples without imitating them.”"

Interesting that Eric Tamm was once again occupying a role for which Hallberg was the first cast: the second dancer role in a "Lady of the Camelias" excerpt. He has done that on a few occasions now, including in On the Dnieper. To me, Tamm has the leg lines and general body shape that (on a relative basis) most resemble a younger Hallberg, from the men in the corps (not that anybody's lines can rival Hallberg's lines).

From the over 50 pictures, it seems like, at the principal level, at least Gillian Murphy and Veronika Part attended. Many soloists were present, including of course Yuriko/Matthews, Cory Stearns, Stella A, Sasha R and to-be-soloist Hee Seo. Hoven was also present.

Good news re: David Hallberg, Gillian Murphy, Blaine Hoven, Cory Stearns and Maria Riccetto (and a number of NYCB dancers) performing at the Nantucket Atheneum Dance Festival this weekend:

http://www.nantucketatheneum.org/dancefestival/Program.html

Hallberg/Murphy dance "Other Dances" -- I have never seen Hallberg perform this, so looking forward to this very much.

Riccetto/Stearns dance Romeo & Juliet PDD.

Riccetto/Hoven dance Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux.

I just bought a ticket for the Saturday evening performance. There is also a performance (seems to be the same program) on Friday evening. Despite the name of the festival, the venue is the Nantucket High School auditorium.

There are no more prime orchestra tickets available. I bought a ticket in the very side of the orchestra, but reasonably close to the stage, at $60.

It may be difficult not to stay the night Saturday night if one wanted a direct flight back to NYC (e.g., Delta or JetBlue), even though the performance begins at 6:30 pm. Nantucket Visitors' Center may have updates on any B&B availabilities, but The Nantucket Inn & Conference Center (close to the airport (ACK) and requiring a short shuttle into town) has rooms available (not inexpensive, however).

Benjamin Millepied is the artistic director of this festival. There are lots of NYCB principals dancing.

I was alerted to this by Hallberg's recent tweet re Nantucket.

The Fall for Dance festival at City Center includes an ABT performance as part of the October 8 and 9, 2010 performances: the Thais Pas de Deux. Tickets not yet available for purchase and casting not described.

http://www.nycitycenter.org/content/ffd10/amer.aspx

http://www.nycitycenter.org/tickets/productionNew.aspx?performanceNumber=5328#programs

Agreed they were weak. Yuriko was smiling too much (showing a lot of teeth, which is not usual for her) for the role, and, more significantly, her Kitri lacked intensity. It was as though she were dancing a practice round in a ballet studio, with respect to the enthusiasm and energy level she showed. She did several balances. The first, while she tried to hold it for a while, involved a slight, but noticeable, wobble. Matthews had little stage presence on the TV.

There is now a NYT review by Alistair M on Jacoby/Pronk (not sure if this belongs in this thread:

Though the two "are tremendously chic and wholly efficient, their dance style strikes me as more superficial than substantial; and, more importantly, their taste in choreography objectionable".

Alistair M talks about the quartet, entitled "Change Me" that includes Hallberg. "Here Ms. Jacoby endures faintly molesting attention from Mr. Hallberg, as does Mr. Pronk from Mr. Mujic, before Mr. Hallberg has a lie-down while Mr. Pronk and Mr. Mujic competitively pursue Ms. Jacoby. It is hard to like anyone here, since whoever's playing the objective of desire is always plainfly manipulating the situation."

I think part of the reason Alistair M may have seen this performance is because Hallberg was dancing. It's nice for a dancer if the NYT dance critic is your fan. Alistair calls Hallberg "a celebrity", although I am not sure if that has positive or negative connotations in my own eyes. Alistair M does not succumb to the temptation of including a Hallberg photo in this review.

A general sense on Hallberg during the balcony scene, from the 2009 Indiana collaboration with Kent:

(newly posted video)

(also contains some Manon PDD excerpts)

(middle section includes Hallberg snippet)

The video can't capture what Hallberg/Osipova achieved, but the costumes were similar and one can get a very rough indication.

A recent Dancepulse episode features Hallberg:

"I saw the Nutcracker, and I fell in love with ballet."

I think Gomes and Hallberg both benefitted from their participation in the Kings of Dance tour, in terms of increasing their visibility to the dance-related professionals (not just dancers, but admin, ballet co management) in Russia, esp Hallberg who has participated for more than one year.

Also, in connection with Vishneva and Bolle, I was wondering when/whether a dancer is allowed by ABT to be a principal at ABT and another company. What are their respective relationships with other ballet companies? Could Osipova, while retaining principal status at the Bolshoi, become in the future an ABT principal, for example?

Some nice Vishneva/Hallberg photos:

http://www.rantingdetails.com/my_weblog/

Further below are some Sleeping Beauty photos, including the Osipova/Hallberg performance.

I called BAM and ABT to clarify whether it is BAM membership or ABT membership that is talked about, in terms of having access to earlier purchase of tickets. It is NOT BAM membership.

ABT members at Dancer's Circle levels are expected, at least based on current info, to have the same access to date of purchase as ABT Met subscribers who are not ABT members. ABT members at sufficiently high levels of membership may get even more special privileges re: booking the Nutcracker (to be determined), similar to their privileges re: Met seasons tickets.

Ticket prices will start at $15 for balcony partial view, going up to $95 for Prime Orchestra or Prime Mezz. There are some $30 tickets, but, other than that, I am not sure what the levels of pricing are in between.

The current expectation might be that casting NOT be announced before the late August purchase date! That might be pretty bad for me, because I only want to see Hallberg as cavalier.

I don't know whether the above will remain accurate, so treate as preliminary background info only.

From the ABT Calendar, one can already see the show times currently scheduled for the Nutcracker. Note how early the evening performances generally are, presumably to allow children to attend. Many days have two performances, but not necessarily at a consistent time every day.

Hallberg is the ideal cavalier, but I noticed that Stiefel's bio on the ABT website includes the following:

"His roles with the Company [ABT] include ... the Cavalier in The Nutcracker ...."

Did the ABT have a Nutcracker at some point in time since Stiefel joined ABT in 1997? Hallberg's bio also indicates that he has performed with the ABT as the Cavalier, and he has only been with the ABT since 2001 (when he started as corps member).

When Hallberg is not performing, Stiefel may be a good choice. The role is not so technically demanding, at least to my recollection based on other productions, that it would tax Stiefel's current abilities and Stiefel also has the look of the cavalier. BTW, I hope Ratmansky will rein in Kevin M when it comes to background scenery and costumes -- this production of the Nutcracker should not be kitschy or too colorful. Does the choreographer have a say in such matters?

volcantohunter -- Thanks. The photo previews of the views are based on there being no orchestra, as far as I can tell (see the Orchestra previews closest to the front). I wonder how that is going to work.

Does any member have a sense as to what the first three rows of Orchestra are like?

I might have to join BAM to get access to seats I would like.

Any thoughts on side boxes or other places where I can get a close look at the dancers' faces and lines, and where, even if partial view, I can see most of the stage, would be really appreciated What I would be looking for would be something like the second or third-closest box to the stage in Side Parterre, at the Met.

I'd love to see Hee Seo as Sugar Plum, and of course Hallberg as the cavalier.

Dale and richard53dog -- Thank-you

Do you know if the PATH train runs late enough to take people back to Manhattan after the performance in the wintertime? I wasn't sure if summer hours are different.

DeCoster:

Thank-you! I just bought a ticket because of your info. Seven Sonatas is included.

Could you include some restaurant suggestions, when you have a chance? I prefer classical or modern French and very close proximity to NJ PAC please.

I'm sheepish since my dance vocabulary is dicey and I never seem to take in all the details that other BT posters do

I felt that way with respect to my vocabulary when I first started posting , and I'm definitely towards the beginning of the learning curve when it comes to ballet. But I just started describing ballet like I would describe other experiences. I might not know all the technical terms (although I am trying to learn them), but I can see the steps.

Barbara: If you have the time, please provide a report after your viewing of the piece

A Club Pointe newsletter contains discussion about this upcoming Stallings piece:

http://campaign.constantcontact.com/render?v=001p0G3IzaXxpxzD5oY4538mHhTHp9QAhccSZU-Mrwe25st0vPc4V1vsEk76fKUJQFB80VZ66nQ5thJtTXrR3JgNzs8K3-qB3Ixws120ULiyDPT3_XRnUsocCJjtBf0-2Fd0iY2JGUuRfw%3D

The 2007 Osipova interview from which the NYT article draws the ballerina's indication of her desire to suffer is linked:

http://www.ballet.co.uk/magazines/yr_08/feb08/interview_natalia_osipova.htm

Some excerpts:

-- Osipova on why she wanted to do Giselle (Bolshoi): "I wanted to do something diametrically different [from Kitri], and I’ve always been attracted to ballets with some kind of dramaturgy, which offered a chance to act. Plus, I desperately want to suffer on stage. I feel close to such roles. I am drawn to Juliet, but Romeo and Juliet is not in our repertory now. So that’s how I came to Giselle."

-- When asked about her plans/dreams: "I dream about serious, major work – about Juliet. I would really like to dance it now, at my age, not when I am thirty. I don’t even care which version I dance. I’ve been invited to Stuttgart. Perhaps, I’ll be able to dance Cranko’s “Romeo and Juliet” there..... [she discusses several other potential roles] ... It would be interesting to dance “Sleeping Beauty”, but it’s performed so rarely that I am unlikely to get it. In that ballet I would have liked to dance the happiness of youth. After all,I am still so young."