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ksk04

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Everything posted by ksk04

  1. Very very interesting interview. Thank you for posting. His comments about the company's turnover in corps dancers and also "tricks" on stage are...interesting.
  2. The problem is the orchestra has almost no rake and the seats are not spaced unevenly (to prevent someone's head right in front of you)--coupled with the crummy seats that California describes, the orchestra is problematic if you are shorter, or have a short torso (like me!). Last time I ended up standing, though an usher did offer to find me another seat when I mentioned the problem, because otherwise I was just sitting and listening to music (though I've also sat and not been too bothered). Obviously people sit there all the time, but I agree that a little bit further back and higher would be my ideal in this particular auditorium (and I usually prefer watching from closer/in the orch as well). But take a look at some photos of the interior and make your own decision!
  3. Glad you enjoyed van Patten, Natalia! Thanks for the report.
  4. Fortunately/unfortunately I usually am staying with friends/relatives when I'm in SF, but I second whomever said not to rely on MUNI after an evening performance. I've been "stranded" before, and since we didn't sign up for a cab at intermission had a heck of a time trying to hail one in the surrounding area since they are all headed to the cab line (think we ended up walking the whole way home in frustration, which was not ideal). During the day though it's a breeze, and taking Bart/MUNI in and a (pre planned) taxi out is a very, very easy option if no hotels in the area work for you. If you do end up staying in the surrounding area of the Opera House, plan one of your meals at Brenda's...it's fantastic! And, if you've never been to the Opera House I would strongly suggest avoiding the back section of the orchestra unless you're on an end. I have never been able to see over the heads of people in front of me.
  5. You're welcome--there's also this for more info: https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/static.roh.org.uk/news/new+folder/Swan+Lake+Cast+Sheet+ENG.pdf The cast sheet I got at the theater only named Yanowsky and Kish. I would like to add I really enjoyed the behind the scenes videos, especially the one for the corps. Overall the RB continues to be great at these broadcasts, though they do run a bit long. Since we aren't getting them live, it'd be great if they could TRIM the intermissions and play those behind the scenes videos through them, rather than having the broadcast run for 3 hr 22 minutes. My theater doesn't turn on the lights during intermission, so sitting in the dark for 2 x 15 minutes gets a little old.
  6. Did anyone else go to the RB Swan Lake w/ Yanowsky and Kish that was broadcasted today? It was an enjoyable show overall; I know that I've read much complaining about the costumes but (aside from the swan tutus which I still despise) I thought everything looked very lovely. Though I also liked the designs of Dowell's Sleeping Beauty and that was apparently very hated by many who frequent the RB. The pd3 was Yuhui Choe (who is lovely), Alexander Campbell (also lovely and better here than as the Bluebird in the broadcast last year, though not quite as good as his Mercutio from the R&J); and Helen Crawford I THINK, who was techically good, if a little rushed but looked very aged with new blonde hair. Bad makeup also maybe? I've never seen Yanowsky live, but have seen bits online. Honestly I was expecting to enjoy her more than I did. I found her arms and upper back to be really unexpressive, which is a crucial skill in Swan Lake (may have been spoiled by all those Mariinsky SLs I just saw though). I thought she played Odile a little too girlish, for her height and age. I wanted more delicious evil. In acts 2 and 3, she seemed a little tentative technically speaking (she fell out of the fouettes at the end of pdd and also fell out of one of her attitude turns). I know she's recently had two children so I assume that has something to do with it. Her best go was in Act IV which overall was infinitely more fulfilling than the Mariinsky production. I quite liked her there. Kish was a good Siegfried, though he had a few technical issues in act 3 as well. He was a good partner and generally charismatic. In the swan corps special mentions go to Hikaru Kobayashi who was one of the big swans. She practically floated every time she was in movement. Really beautiful. Also Emma Maguire, who has stood out in every RB broadcast I've seen for her really crisp and clean dancing. She lead the swan corps out, as well as the cygnets, and also was one of the princesses in Act 3. I hope there are opportunities down the pipeline because she is/was wonderful. Head scratching was Laura Morera, a principal, in one of the Act 3 diverts. This repeats in theaters on Nov 6 in the evening, I believe.
  7. Poor Big Red! I mean, I know we were all flabbergasted when it came to two seasons ago with ABT's male principal problem, but a ballet company like the Mariinsky shouldn't be running into a ballerina shortage. On the home front it seems like same 2-3 soloists are doing the entire rep for this month while the "main" company is on tour. It's mind boggling.
  8. Fouettes are what you see female ballerinas doing in the codas of DQ, Swan Lake, etc. They whip the leg from front to seconde then get pull into posse while turning. This motion repeats. See: Turns a la seconde are usually done by men and the leg remains in seconde while turning. See:
  9. actually i disagree; i don't think he stands for ABT's and NYCB's prosperity but for the perceived benefit that a grand effort to bolster their stability does for him,i.e., the publicity. Agreed. On top the the fact that his political policies directly affect his relations to the arts. Where the support for the National Endowment for the Arts? For smaller, regional companies? Someone else mentioned he contributes to PBS...great-his political policies want to remove funding from all of these organizations that he supposedly values. I guess for him that'd be great--companies would be ever more reliant on individuals who would have ever more control over the artistic management of these companies. Not the future I want, so forgive all of us if we are suspicious of his motivations.
  10. I think this is a good thing. Two full weeks is better than whatever they've been able to cobble together at CC for the past few years, and if it goes well there should be the potential to do additional weeks, I assume. Do they get custody of NYCB's orchestra too?
  11. Poor Osmolkina....she just got those Swan Lakes too. How depressing. And what a trooper Shirinkina is.
  12. ksk04

    Skorik

    When Paul posted that yesterday I did a bit of looking on youtube and almost no ballerinas perform that step; it's not limited to the Mariinsky. Aside from Lopatkina doing it only the two times, Letestu does it in the POB DVD (she also adds double ronde de jambe en l'air before the developpe) and Nunez does it in the RB DVD. Even Tereshkina has omitted it recently, and I couldn't find another video of her doing the variation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J_iy060j6Y I think it's must be a coaching preference, because, from my own experience, it's not the most difficult step, especially when you are considering the steps necessary to perform the ballet as a whole.
  13. For awhile I assumed they were keeping him on the roster to keep Irina, who is still in her peak (in comparison to Max, who has, by all accounts, slowed way down). But now Irina is only dancing two performances in spring...so that's clearly not it either. Obviously something is up behind the scenes, but who knows what.
  14. I saw Marcelo dance Basilio with Gillian out here with Festival Ballet a few years ago and he was more than good. He's not a technical trickery powerhouse, but he has the charm and vigor you want for DQ. That he is similarly not cast with Part in Swan Lake is baffling as he is not down to dance Siegfried at all (yet). I get that they are probably trying to ration him after the past few years but throwing Cory into every role doesn't seem like the best solution. Performance count for the principal men so far is Stearns 12, Gomes 9, Hallberg 9, Vasiliev 8 (though 4 of those are Ali), Cornejo 7, Bolle 5, Max 0.
  15. Wow! I did wonder why he left instead of Boone, as he always seemed to get the meatier roles a la Roman Zhurbin and she never seems cast much.
  16. Veronika is taking over the rep! Too bad she remains saddled with Cory for almost all of it. Glad to see Sarah down for Aurora again as well. Looks like there are tbas with Herrera for R&J, Gillian in Swan Lake, tba cast for Swan Lake, tba with Herrera and Osipova for Sylvia, and tbas with Xiomara and Gillian in Sleeping Beauty. Debuts? Guests?? Thoughts?
  17. Lucky Berkeley!! I think I remember reading the mediocre reviews from last summer's Met engagement re: Korsuntsev. Anyway, I liked his presence the best and if I had to pick a partner to dance with it'd be him. Thanks for posting the Gene Schiavone pics, Natalia & nysusan (and I agree that the one Skorik pic pretty much sums up my feelings towards her as well); he was snapping away behind me during the Kondaurova show on Wednesday. Re: the ending. The feather fight is beyond embarrassing. I took a friend to one show and she asked "am I supposed to take this seriously?" But I guess most productions have embarrassing parts (I'm thinking the Purple Pimp/The Swamp Thing/that damn stuffed swan); it just seems that for something like Swan Lake by the Mariinsky we should expect a little more. edit: She looked incredibly nervous on opening night, I thought. I did feel bad for her and that's not what I want to feel while watching a ballet performance.
  18. Nysusan, yes thanks for reminding me that Skorik/Shkylarov didn't do any of the overhead lifts in the act II pdd. For the diagonal they did a modified arabesque promenade, I think, and for the overhead split lifts immediately before the diagonal they subbed in alternate steps. I wanted to see if Kondaurova or Kolegova did them the same way, but they did them "regularly." I also saw the Saturday matinee with Kolegova and Korsuntsev. I think I've read a lot of criticisms of Danila's acting before but he was practically Daniel Day Lewis in comparison to Ivanchenko and Shkylarov. Lopatkina has clearly trained him well. I too would have preferred to see him with Kondaurova. He seemed the most engaged of all of the dancers onstage, and thoughtfully responded to all of his partners even those he only partnered in big group numbers. He also tried out this new and interesting acting technique where he MADE EYE CONTACT with his partners. Hope the word spreads around that this is something you can do if you want to attempt to relate to other people on stage. I thought his best moment was after the Act III pdd where he pledges his love to Odile: he looked so dumb and happy at knowing he could have her that I actually teared up a little at his crestfallen face afterward. Kolegova was the most remote of the O/Os for me, but I think that was purposeful. She is extremely glamorous (looks like an old movie star with her new dark hair and her big eyes). Her performance was more static than Kondaurova's but not quite the pose-a-thon that was Skorik's. She's clearly a capable and beautiful dancer, but it's hard to follow the memories of Kondaurova from the other night. Kondaurova never stopped moving, and I prefer that to turning the Act II pdd into a bunch of static arabesques and attitudes with no quality of movement in between. I think that Danila must have the strength of several bulls as they slightly flubbed a shoulder sit in Act IV and he just carried her in a semi-sitting/semi-extended position at his chest level across the stage to not mess up the counts. My partnering experience tells me that is not the most fun position in which to hold a lift. Vasily Tkachenko has his best outing as a Jester. He's a great actor and dancer (he didn't have the slight wobbles of the Wed night performance). The audience has loved the Jester at every show. Each performance has been a battle of wills not to laugh at the floppy fish death of Rothbart. Is there not a more dignified way for him to go?
  19. Thanks for confirming who the Desdemona and Emilia roles are in The Moor's Pavane, Marga (as well as for the rest of the report!)
  20. SCFTA has a capacity of around 3,000 seats. That's a lot to fill every night, though one would assume Swan Lake would sell easily. Tier 3 which has been closed off this week has only around 600 seats. In general, ballet never sells out the hall. In general, the hall rarely sells out anything (not even Les Miserables here this summer managed to sell out more than a few nights). For whatever reason the Bolshoi sold out Dorothy Chandler (same-ish capacity) in their run of Swan Lake this summer, though they only had 4 shows. A quick google search tells me the Met has around 3,800 seats and the Koch 1,900 seats for perspective.
  21. SCFTA released a promo for Friday evening's show (Kondaurova). Use the code ENCORE and receive 50% off Orchestra/Tier 1 (B or C pricing) tickets. Online or on the phone. Wish I didn't already have plans!
  22. I believe we had a topic like this last year, keeping track of where our ABT dancers will be guesting this winter when not gracing the BAM stage. I received a brochure from Festival Ballet, who perform at the Irvine Barclay, today: Irina/Max (12/14-16) will be dancing as usual. Misty Copeland was listed on the promo materials I saw last month (and still remains on their website), but now appears to have been replaced by the dynamic duo of Stella Abrera/Sascha Radetsky (12/22-24). (Carla Korbes also dances 12/19-22). Please keep us updated from your neck of the woods!
  23. I don't think we would be seeing much more of Big Red around here if she was attacked by a bat at our theater! I heard several people around me worrying about getting pooped on. For the record, I have been going to SCFTA regularly for many many years and I've never seen any loose animals in the auditorium (aside from when the Lion King comes around!)
  24. Was it a bat or a bird that found its way in?! It was all anyone in my section could focus on during the intermission. I was worried it would be flitting around stage during the final scene, but it conveniently disappeared. I did notice none of the ushers were making a move to do anything about it...nice work, guys.
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