abatt

Let us also know how Citronelle is. My husband and I are thinking of going there next time we are in D.C.

Wiles has black hair now? Yikes. Blonde looked so good with her complexion. She reminds me of a "Hitchcock Blonde."

There is a pizza place called Rigoletto Pizza at 208 Columbus Ave., very close to Lincoln Center.

In a review of Ms. Portman's new film, No Strings Attached, which also stars Ashton Kutcher, NY Times critic A.O. Scott writes: "Ms. Portman can now claim what appears to be a unique distinction: She may be the only Golden Globe-winning actress to simulate sex on screen with two former members of the cast of “That ’70s Show.”

I attended on Tuesday evening, and it was wonderful. I'm surprised the review doesn't mention how great Somogyi was too. I was particularly thrilled with Duo Concertant. For many, many years, the female role was not danced at the level it should have been at NYCB. With Hyltin, I could see each and every step gorgeously articulated. Robby Fairchild's performance was also fantastic. I have to say that I agree w. the review with respect to Whelan and Askegard. I'm usually a big fan of Wendy's, but I thought her technique was weak, especially her lack of clean lines. Askegard, who is the finest partner that NYCB presently has, also was lacking in technique. I'll chalk it up to the possibility that since it is the first rep performance of the season, maybe Whelan and Askegard are not yet firing on all cylinders.

Yes her speech contained too much information. Doesn't every mother want to hear her daughter gush to 17 million people how much her unwed pregnant daughter and her fiance love sleeping together? Not.

Really? I repeatedly saw Millepied during the broadcast. He was seated to Portman's right at the Black Swan table. I also saw him leaving the limo with Portman when they first arrived at the Red Carpet. Mlllepied wore a black tux, and he had a red handkerchief in the breast pocket of his jacket that was the same color red as the rose on Portman's dress. Portman's parents were also in the audience (the camera focused on them during Portman's speech). Portman thanked her parents for giving her a great life, and she thanked Ben for going on the journey to create new life wtih her. She also joked that Ben is a good actor because in the film he is asked whether he would sleep with Nina, and he snickers. Portman quipped that Millepied enjoys sleeping with her every night. Portman also thanked "sweet lips" Mila Kunis.

Yes, it was supposed to be Murphy. I am very disappointed that I won't see Gillian (bought my ticket for that casting), though I have never seen Kajiya dance so this will be a good opportunity to see her in T&V. Kajiya had better plan to bring her "A game" for T&V. It's one of the most difficult Balanchine ballets in the rep. Casting Kajiya (one of the shortest dancers at ABT) wtih Hallberg (one of the tallest) will certainly look interesting. Easy lifting for David, for a change. I'd be interested in hearing how Kajiya does in this ballet. I have been underwhelmed by many of her performances of technically demanding principal roles in the past. Hopefully she has improved. Since she is getting the opening night, I guess I will be reading about it in the press.

According to the Times, the union, AGMA, has moved to block MOVES on the ground that it violates the dancers' labor contract.

That's where the film reminded me of Kirkland's book... The director has mentioned in interviews that he read many books to prepare for writing the script. I think I recall him mentioning in one interview that he read Kirkland's book. By the way, Natalie gave a tearful thank you speech at an awards show recently in which she thanked Ben Millepied, her partner in the film and, "now in life." She also mentioned in an interview w. Access Hollywood that the director gave her the greatest gift by introducing her to Ben.

ABT has added some casting info on its website. Part's partner for SL is Cory. Bolle is partnering Paloma in Giselle. I'm not too happy about the Stearns partnership with Part for SL. I was hoping it would be Bolle. Also, Reyes will be partnered by Radetsky in Cinderella.

My problem with the movie is that it was so campy, but had pretentions of being a serious movie.

The official casting is now up on the NYCB website

I think Morphoses used to be a regular source of additional income for some NYCB dancers. Now that Morphoses (in its original incarnation) is finished, "Moves" seems like a great alternative for them to dance more weeks and earn additional money.

That may be true, but now that we have come to expect it, we are disappointed when it is not provided. ABT has been known during the last decade for the caliber of its men. When I want to see stellar female dancing, I often go across the plaza to see the NYCB ladies. Except for their guest artists (I include Vishneva in the guest artist category), many of the ladies at ABT on the principal level are, in my opinion, a disappointment.

I agree with you that he is not at the same level as the other principals, but at the same time it would arguably be unfair to him to continue assigning him so many lead roles every season without a promotion. Also, ABT's principal ranks among the males is getting old, as we have discussed on this board. Indeed, many of their principals only show up for the MET season. It is probably easier to sell tickets to out of town engagements when you are presenting principals in principal roles, instead of soloists and corps members. I'm hoping that Cory continues to develop and improve. Frankly, I was not a big Hallberg fan when he was a soloist, but he has worked his butt off to improve and become the incredible dancer that he is today. However, I think Hallberg's weaknesses were more amenable to improvement than Cory's. Hallberg's primary weakness when he was a soloist was his partnering skills. I think partnering improves with experience and age. In my opinion, Cory's weaknesses are technical - jumps and spins that are adequate, but not what we have come to expect of ABT males. I'm not sure that those technical issues can be addressed easily at this stage.

The Associated Press is reporting that Peter Martins was charged with DWI at 2 AM on New Year's Day at a checkpoint in Yonkers, New York. The AP also reports that Martins issued a statement through a spokesperson stating that he will not discuss the matter.

Hi abatt, Nunez is a technical monster, a real standout dancer and slowly becoming the RB's go-to girl, she's always worth the price of admission. At the start she was often cast as the soubrette, or secondary non dramatic principal. She's without doubt one of the top technicians in the world. She came to prominence at the same time as Cojocaru, and fell under her shadow after Cojocaru's starmaking rise to fame after the two Giselles in 2001. Cojocaru got the meaty roles, Nunez got the show off demi caractere roles which was a pity as Nunez is a very credible, striking dramatic dancer too, she's been coming into her own of late and getting those big meaty principal parts, she definitely worth seeing. Pennefather is pretty dreggy. A political promotion to Principal to counter the non-British principals at the RB complaints. Very bland, technically patchy, but tall and good looking but so what? He's paired with Nunez a lot he's the Hardy to her Laurel, the Marge to her Homer, the Scully to her Mulder, the Kate Jackson to her Farrah Fawcett, the Tonto to her Lone Ranger and the Richie to her Fonzie. But Nunez is worth the price of admission alone. Thanks Simon.

I'm not familiar with Nunez & Pennefeather. For those in the know, will they give a great performance?

In the Dec. 31 edition of the NY Times, each of the cultural critics was asked to write about the event in 2011 he is most looking forward to. Macaulay wrote that he is looking forward to seeing Ms. Mearns take on new roles. He calls her the great American ballerina of our era. No argument from me on that one. What new roles are we looking forward to seeing her in? If I were in charge of casting, my choices would be the girl in pink in Dances at a Gathering, Mozartiana, the lead in Apollo, and the final section of the Vienna Waltzes. I missed her last year in Cortege Hongrois, so I hope I can see her in the role this season. Any thoughts? Is Sara the great American ballerina of our era?

I missed the Sunday evening performance due to the blizzard. Since my tickets were in the orchestra, this was a considerable loss. Despite the massive snow storm and the 40 mph winds on Sunday evening, ABT has taken the Draconian position that there are no exchanges of any type. I have been a subscriber at BAM for a long time, and after a huge snowstorm they allowed all ticketholders to exchange their tickets into another performance. (BAM's website clearly indicates that the no exchange policy is ABT's policy, not BAM's policy.) At the MET Opera approximately 6 years ago, they allowed ticketholders to exchange into certain unpopular, undersold operas if they had to miss a performance because of a huge snowstorm that year. After a huge snowstorm in February 2010, the New York City ballet allowed ticketholders to mail in their tickets with a list of three dates for spring 2010 rep performances, and they permitted an exchange into one of the dates if available. In sum, ABT is the only organization which has acted, in my opinion, in a completely unreasonable manner on this issue. I think they will find that their customer service (or lack thereof) will hurt them in the long run. It's shortsighted. They could have easily permitted people who could not attend because of the blizzard to send in their tickets to ABT and provide a list of 3 dates for an exchange into a spring performance at the MET. Additionally, given the huge number of unsold seats at the Nutcracker, they could have allowed a standby line for ticketholders on other performance dates. Instead, they chose the most inflexible route. Of course, I know they have no obligation to provide assistance.

As someone who was recently priced out of Fort Greene, it isn't like the area is exactly the ghetto. I guess from what you say it isn't attracting wealthy people from Manhattan or the suburbs, although other factors such as the need to build an audience for something new, the fact that a good portion of the run is happening after Christmas (which I do think harms a ballet that people associate so strongly with the holiday) might also be at play here. But you have brownstones going for over 2 million a few blocks from BAM (and it was an area with no real price drop during the recession) and fantastic restaurants like No. 7 greene, so let's not extend the impression, if indeed it exists, that the area is poor. I have no problem with Fort Greene. I've been going to BAM for 15 years. However, I think there are many people who still have preconceived negative notions about the neighborhood which may no longer be applicable. Seemingly all of Brooklyn has undergone "gentrification". Also, if you're a family looking for a day of fun, the logistics of going from BAM to Manhattan to view the X-Mas tree, the Macy's windows, FAO toy store or other Manhattan attractions may not be terribly appealing.

The Ratmansky Nutcracker is filled with High Concept Ideas. However, the choreograpny is frequently at odds with the music. I have to agree about the Snowflake misfire. It wasn't so much that making them scary was a problem. For me, the real problem is that the music they are dancing to cries out for a whirlwind of expanisve dancing. Instead, the ladies are doing small jumps in place, and they are frequently stretched out on the floor. Judging by the large numbers of empty seats in the orchestra and mez that I have seen in the online select your own tickets system, and have also observed at the theater, it would appear that ABT has grossly miscalculated its pricing structure. Wealthy suburban families are not flocking to Fort Greene. ABT must have spent a fortune on advertising, but it did not seem to matter.

I saw Paloma and Cory last night. They were not nearly as thrilling as Murphy and Hallberg. Their first act pdd looked very careful and labored. They both looked better in the grand pas in the second act. However, Cory's jumps are relatively low to the ground, and he doesn't have the beautiful line of David Hallberg. The first lift in the grand pas was shaky. The other lifts were smoother. I liked Paloma in this role, but she was not as thrilling as Murphy. There were acres of empty seats in the orchestra.

Millipied hardly ever dances with the company anymore. He missed the Fall 2010 and Nutcracker 2010 seasons entirely. He was cast in two ballets during the Spring 2010 season, and the NY Times correctly noted that he lacked stamina in one of those performances. Will we see him during the Winter 2011 season on stage? Who knows.