abatt

Based on what I've seen of the folks who come to her performances, and at the stage door after one of Misty's performances, a substantial amount of teens and kids comprise her fan base. In the past, she has marketed herself, in part, as a role model, for kids and young adults. The target audience for this perfume is women in their 20s and up. PS: The reason most of the perfumes targeted at teens smell bad is because they are cheap. Marketers know that teens earn little or no income, and don't have money for fancy perfume. More power to her. I hope it works it out well for her and Estee Lauder.

I'm not really sure of the age bracket of her primary fan base. It's pretty unusual to have the same person conquer the Barbie doll market and the children's book market, and at the same time have influence over the demographic for the Estee Lauder fragrance market. My impression is that the bulk of her fan base is young kids and teenagers. Is that the market that would go out and buy Modern Muse fragrance? I guess time will tell.

Misty has signed on with Estee Lauder, and is their new spokeswoman for the fragrance Modern Muse. (Kendall Jenner was their former Modern Muse spokesmodel.) http://www.elle.com/beauty/makeup-skin-care/news/a47049/misty-copeland-estee-lauder-modern-muse/

There is always going to be an amazing pool of talent at NYCB, particularly the pool of women. Pereira might have made it to principal in a smaller, regional company. Ditto a lot of other perennial soloists at NYCB. However, the competition among the ladies at NYCB will always be fierce, no matter what .year you graduated from SAB.

I think McKenzie would salivate at the chance to bring Osipova back to ABT. She sells out the house. I'm wondering if McKenzie is going to attempt a reuniting of Osipova and Hallberg at the Met next season. If the Royal can do it, why not ABT. If ABT is only inviting one guest per season now, I'd much rather have a guest appearance from Osipova than another performance on the Ferri Comeback Tour.

MIsty sells a lot of tickets in the US because she has a big fan base. Her claim to fame is that she had a tough childhood, but overcame the obstacles. Also, she does not have a "ballerina" body, and overcame discrimination. Her fan base in the US isn't necessarily filled with people who regard her as a great technician or an awesome actress. It is based on respect and admiration for her life story, and her celebrity. As long as she keeps filling seats, ABT is more than happy to oblige and overlook her shortcomings. She is not the only "prima" at ABT who lacks technique, but she is the only person who can fill up an auditorium for ABT.

I think the Mariinsky and the Bolshoi visit London much more frequently than New York. Since each company seems to visit London every 2 years or so, this diminishes the demand over time. The demand in NYC is much more pent up because the visits to NY are far less frequent.

I agree w. Vipa. I don't think any of the long term soloist ladies - Pereira, Lowery, LeCrone - will be moved up to principal. They do not get a volume of new lead roles, which serve as Martins' test to see how they can handle the principal workload. Even Laracey is a long shot. It will be interesting to see if Marrtins casts any of the leads for SL in the fall with people at the soloist level. Then we will get a pretty good sense of who he is eyeing for potential promotion. As an aside, Janzen was the only soloist who had a lead role during the last run of SL, and he was the only person who ultimately was promoted to principal during the last round of promotions. Catazaro was supposed to do Siegfried but got injured during the last run. Surely his will get his Siegfried during the upcoming run in the fall, if he healthy.

They have been offering discounts for Taming all over the place. You are right - during the last visit with the "warhorse" ballets, every show sold out at full price. I think it was only the critics who complained about "warhorse" ballets -in particular Macaulay. I'll take the warhorse ballets any day over Taming. It only adds insult to injury that this production is under1 hour 50 minutes including a 20 minute intermission. Not much for your money.

I agree, volcanohunter. A complete waste of time, energy and money. Even though it was incredibly short, I was still bored. What a waste to bring some of the greatest dancers of the world to NY on a rare visit, and present this.

I think this cinema broadcast will be a repeat of their Shrew cinema broadcast of last season.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/arts/dance/bolshoi-ballet-taming-of-the-shrew-review.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Farts&action=click&contentCollection=arts&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=sectionfront NY Times review of Shrew.

Just back from Taming. So glad I did not purchase tickets for additional performances. While not the worst ballet I've ever seen, it certainly makes the worst 10 list. The most exciting part of the evening was a fire alarm that went off during Act I, and kept beeping for a good 10 minutes. What a fiasco. Very simplistic and boring choreography. The best part was a pdd for Smirnova and Chudin in Act II. Question: The website says this production is 2 hrs, 5 min., including intermission. In actuality, it started at 7:30 and ended at 9:20, including the intermission. Did they cut a portion of the ballet for the NY engagement?

Pollack was definitely in the running, but she will be taking a leave of absence in 2018 to work on Broadway in Carousel. I think under those circumstances it is not likely that she would be in contention for a promotion during the 2017-18 season.

With Scheller gone, and Krohn imminently retiring, can we expect one or more promotions to principal during the coming season? Of the ladies, I think Ashley Isaacs and Unity Phelan are in the running. On the men's side, Catazaro. Laracey is a lovely dancer, and I hope she is promoted, but she doesn't seem to be on management's radar as a top tier talent.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/arts/dance/new-york-city-ballet-designers-fall-fashion-gala.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Farts&action=click&contentCollection=arts&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront She will become a ballet mistress at NYCB.

For what it's worth, A. Macaulay's instagram account contains mini reviews of almost all of the Jewels performances. He specifically notes that the women of the second Emeralds cast (that is, the Gilbert cast) were superior to the women of the first cast (Pujol cast).

I thought Marchenkova was fascinating as the tall girl on Sunday afternoon. First, she has great flexibility, so she could lift that leg and smack herself in the head with it with no difficulty. I loved her sexy and sultry demeanor. Very fun to watch. The lead cast in Rubies, not so much. A word about the Sat matinee Diamonds cast. Alena Kovaleva (spelling?) was striking. What long legs and gorgeous feet. I was entranced. She was a little young for the part, but she has exquisite lines. Looking forward to seeing more of her, and her excellent partner (Tissi?) in the future. Seeing Shrew this week, I suspect, will not be as exciting as these Jewels performances. Going from the sublime to the ridiculous. How sad that traditional tutu ballets with large casts, set to classical music, are now either out of fashion or just too expensive to mount.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/28/arts/dance/understanding-george-balanchine-jewels-new-york-city-ballet.html?_r=0 I thought this might be of interest re Jewels.

Mearns emotes in anything she does. Some feel that she over-emotes where it is not even appropriate. In Diamonds, however, it works.

Laughed out loud when I read your comment, Natalia. Canbelto, the photo is Misty and James Whiteside.

Yes, Hod was definitely a Diamonds soloist. Habony was not there. Mearns' Diamonds interpretation is completely different from Smirnova's. Smirnova is an aloof queen. Mearns invests the pas with more romantic drama and interaction with her partner. Both interpretations are fascinating. Agree w. NYSusan that the Bolshoi was not impressive in Rubies. It's like they were speaking a foreign language that they had learned through some Rosetta Stone tapes rather than through language immersion with native speakers. I also thought Gilbert was wonderful. She deeply arched her back, which is exactly what was missing on opening night from the first cast. Also, Gilbert did not have the odd head movement affectations that we saw on opening night. The walking pdd was also better than opening night, but still not memorable. Home team NYCB does it better.

NY Times review: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/21/arts/dance/balanchine-jewels-lincoln-center-festival-city-ballet-bolshoi-paris-opera-ballet.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fdance&action=click&contentCollection=dance&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

Bolshoi blew me and Mr. Abatt away too. Such grace, beauty and elegance from the corps on up to the leading dancers. The Bolshoi dancers must have the longest limbs and necks in the business. Pure JOY to watch. Smirnova and Chudin in the pas were ethereal and breathtaking. Rubies was electrifying. Megan F. is far from my favorite interpreter of the Rubies, but she was good enough. Reichlin and DeLuz have never been better. Outstanding. POB was disappointing in some ways. As noted elsewhere, in the walking duet some of the staccato movement of the ballerina in the walking duet was left out. Why?! Also agree with the post above about Pujol's overly affected head movements. Also, I found the costumes for Emeralds to be poor. The skirts seemed to have stripes of different shades of green (forest green, turquoise), but where was the EMERALD coloring? Also, too much sparkle in the skirts. Great to see so many friends there last night. The crowd was jazzed for this special, extraordinary event. Thanks to the Festival for this outstanding presentation.

No, the stacatto movement of Emeralds was actually left out of the portion that canbelto was alluding to. It was not merely obscured or softened. My jaw dropped.