abatt

This issue came up about 15+ years ago when a colleague of mine, whose wife was a principal at NYCB at the time, gave a pair of used autographed pointe shoes to one of the important partners in our company (as a present to his young daughter). He thought the partner gave him an odd look because the shoes were used, even though this is the tradition. (He also explained that given how much each pair of shoes costs, there was no way he would be giving away a pair of unused pointe shoes.)

There is also a lot of that Slavic flavor in certain sections of Dances at a Gathering.

For all of you Mearns fans, she posted on her twitter page that for Week 1 of the Winter Season she is scheduled to appear on Jan 16, Jan 19 and Jan 20. She is doing the Balanchine Swan Lake w. Jared Angle on the 20th. No mention of what she will perform on the other dates, but I would bet it is Serenade (Dark Angel). Counting down the days until the return of this magnificent company of dancers.

For me, Peck danced like someone who was a Robbins dancer. I don't think Peck was trying to copy Makarova. She was bringing her experience from dancing numerous Robbins roles to this particular performance. The leading Robbins roles that, for me, stand out in her rep is the Girl in Pink in Dances at a Gathering and Fall in Four Seasons. I had never seen her in Other Dances before the broadcast. I wish they would give her a shot at In G Major.

Happy New Year to all, and thank you to everyone who makes Ballet Alert possible.

Tonight's Live From Lincoln Center on PBS will be the NY Philharmonic's salute to Marvin Hamlisch. Numerous Broadway stars, including Raul Esparza, Audra MacDonald and Kelli O'Hara will perform.

Where is that photo from?

Since "On Your Toes" has come up on this thread, I thought I would mention that Encores at New York City Center will be presenting that musical May 8-12, 2013. Casting is not announced for Encores productions until a few weeks before the show, so there is presently no casting info.

One of my friends believes that Makarova was also a trail blazer for ballerinas who wanted to have children and then return to continue dancing. I don't know enough about that issue to judge whether that's the case.

Kobborg must know that this forum is populated by ballet enthusiasts who focus on every single detail, and are not general, casual observers of ballet. If he doesn't like criticism, he shouldn't read the comments on here. I thought it was very interesting when I read a comment from Carrie Lee Riggins (I think) on Ballet Alert a few months ago in which she said that ,in retrospect, various comments/criticisms she had read on here regarding her performances were truthful and correct. Even if Alina's performance was mostly very good, but had some weak points, people on this board are going to discuss them. Cojocaru and Kobborg are principals at one of the best companies in the world. Why would he focus on a few negative comments here, on a forum that isn't even read by the general public?

There is a review up in the NY Times re all of the recent Nutcracker debuts. The review also includes comments regarding some other dancers who were not debuting major roles. I assume it will be in tomorrow's links section. I wish I could have seen Lovette, but the timing just didn't work out. Maybe next year.Bring on the Winter Rep season.

Here is an artcle on the costumes in this film, from the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/30/movies/awardsseason/jacqueline-durrans-costumes-for-anna-karenina.html?ref=awardsseason In addition, there was a very interesting article in the Washington Post regarding the choreography in the film. It was in the Links section a few days ago.

I'm not sure if this was posted in another forum previously. The American Masters series on PBS will be running a program tonight on the Joffrey Ballet. Check your listings. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/joffrey/trailer-joffrey-mavericks-of-american-dance/2367/ Above is a link from PBS regarding the show.

This possibility certainly crossed my mind too. I would love to see the actual footage of Part's performance in order to answer that question. We'll probably never know, though.

Yes, Julie Kent is a beautiful woman. Definitely. However, Hallberg is relatively young, and he looks even younger than he is. That's why their partnership in this particular ballet didn't work for me.

I wish they would have included an excerpt from On Your Toes,with Kowrowski dancing Makarova's part and Woetzel as her partner.

As a practical matter, Peck had previously learned Other Dances when NYCB revived it recently. (She and Bouder alternated the role.) Maybe it would not have been practical for someone to learn the role from scratch in order to perform for 3 or 4 minutes on a TV show. Since Other Dances was created on Makarova, I thought it was a good idea to include it. I enjoyed Peck's performance more than any of the other dance performances. She dazzled. Cojocaru did look robotic,but even worse was the lack of flexibility in her back. It didn't matter much that Part is not a fouette machine, since the camera operator spent most of that portion of the performance on Makarova's face, not Part's dancing. As much as I enjoyed watching the R&J pdd w. Kent/Hallberg, I found the age difference between these dancers distracting and problematic. (Those television close ups only added to this issue.) AT this stage, the only age appropriate partner at ABT for Kent is Bolle, in my opinion.

http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/how_mack_got_her_groove_back_EsQPie6dI4GwEm43iyCBTP For all of you Alicia Graf fans, here is an article about her in today's NY Post. She is one of my favorite Ailey dancers, although I still wish she could revisist the days when she was performing Balanchine works. If you want to look at the photo that is referenced in the article, I've linked it below. http://www.nycitycenter.org/tickets/productionNew.aspx?performanceNumber=6718

The camera work was awful. I thought the same thing as Helene - why are they focusing on Julie Kent's hand when there are two gorgeous dancers on stage? Why are they cutting to Makarova's expression when Part is doing her fouettes? I thought the most spontaneous and exciting dance performance was from Tiler Peck. She was the only person out there who looked completely free and danced with abandon. .I also thought that opening the segment with the student was quite charming. The most cringe inducing moments came in the tribute to Dustin Hoffman. Neither Naomi Watts nor Liev Schreiber have much connection to Dustin Hoffman. Couldn't they get some more of his important co-stars (Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise) to say something. Why was Laura Osnes singing a song from My Fair Lady???

The New York Times ran an article (below) regarding the purported similarities between ballet and video games. Personally, I don't buy it. However, I have to admit I have never played a video game. http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/26/game-theory-video-games-are-more-like-ballet-than-movies/?ref=arts I thought this might be a topic worthy of discussion.

I thought Play Without Words was the best of the Bourne productions.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/balletopeningnightat-la-scala-canceled-as-chorus-members-go-on-strike/?ref=arts

What do you mean about Kistler being "at her new school". Isn't she still teaching at SAB, where she has been for many years?

You are referring to the Nutcracker. Gergiev is talking about a Swan Lake that will be filmed.

Here is a reference in a Reuter's article to Gergiev's position concerning the open letter. http://www.nytimes.c...y.html?ref=arts Gergiev states, "There's nothing terrible happening in the Mariinsky - no way."