ksk04

After experiencing Giselle in 3-D I will be saying no thank you to this.

Legris was smart to leave when he did and manage the company in Vienna. Didn't POB have to emergency borrow some of his dancers for DQ this week?

Interesting. If true, is the Opera so thin on-the-ground in terms of pure, classical dancers that they have to import them from up the road? The Opera certainly doesn't seem to have a problem casting the modern/contemporary works Madame Lefevre loves so much.

According to the schedule, Maria Yakovleva and Denys Cherevychko from Vienna danced on 11/24, 11/27, and 12/3. From what I've read they were short notice substitutes though for whom I am not sure.

Legris was smart to leave when he did and manage the company in Vienna. Didn't POB have to emergency borrow some of his dancers for DQ this week?

I think the problem with that question, rg, is that almost all of the leading women at ABT simply could not dance with Simkin due to his height. Or are we discounting his height for the purposes of the question?

And I completely agree with the four points miliosr made.

Ok..so here I am at the Arena since 7:30 pm. It is 10:50 and no Madonna yet...

This happened to me when I saw her in October! Thought she was amazing though, and, yes, one of the few people I'd sit around for hours for. She looked like she was having a ball and I teared up during the Like a Prayer finale.

I wish I could explain what I mean. Again, I want to stress that I am not talking about leg extension (how high a leg can be raised). I am referring only to joint movement and the joint moving in the "wrong" way slightly (for lack of a better description since "wrong" is subjective.....many ballet dancers want hyper-extension in their legs).

I understand what you mean, Bart, having hyper-extended knees myself. You've been right with everything you've said about them so far and the challenges they pose to dancers. Many dancers are hyper extended, giving them a curvier standing line in arabesque. It's in "fashion" now but definitely was not in the past.

There are still some tbas for the Met, no? One wonders what Kevin's mindset is behind this. He only recently started giving Herman some of these roles and Herman is ten times the dancer Simkin is. The other question is, of course, who is he going to be partnering? I would assume this projects Boylston's promotion in the very near future, as every outing he has with Lane seems fraught with awkwardness due their completely different styles (note: I'm just going by what people say about their various outings together).

Martins then offered an explanation, which seems to be that audiences have slipped because the Cold War is over. (In other words, people were coming to see "heroes," not ballet). He then basically contradicted her, claiming (falsely) that the company has “sold our houses, all the time.”

I found this bizarre too. Isn't this exactly the opposite of what Balanchine was about? Obviously there were "stars" but the choreography was always front and center at NYCB. If McKenzie said this I wouldn't blink, but coming from the no star company this is a completely weird statement to make.

The injury was a torn calf muscle, according to this interview with him by Marina Harss for Dance Tabs. Torn calf muscles are incapacitating, but not uncommon, and dancers recover well from them.

http://dancetabs.com...atre-principal/

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.

Sorry, Goleizovsky's choreography. And one more observation - I thought the ending a bit dull. I favor the ending where Odette is fated to be a swan forever - this is the version I learned early on seeing George Balanchine's shortened version and this is the version I feel works best with the tragic nature of Tschaikovsky's fabulous music. Does anyone know a Swan Lake tradition where Von Rothbart's wing is torn off, besides this restoration?

The Mariinsky's version.

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!

The remainder of this mini-drama movement saw Van Patten seamlessly move from man to man. Well, I'm only sorry that Van Patten will be dancing Juliet this weekend with neither of these men; either one would make an amazing Romeo. [Of course, this 'menage' story is topic du jour in DC these days....a lady behind us whispered 'Which one of them is Petraeus?' LOL!]

Glad you enjoyed van Patten, Natalia! Thanks for the report.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sorry for the stupid question, but how does a tour a la seconde differ from a fouette?

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:

Among many things that Mr. Koch "stands for", it seems to me that the most (and perhaps the only) relevant one to this discussion board is that he stands for the prosperity of ABT and NYCB, and has been instrumental in enabling countless great performances that these companies have put on. Yet, somehow every time he makes a large donation to ballet he gets skewered on this board. I find this incomprehensible.

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.

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?

Poor Osmolkina....she just got those Swan Lakes too. How depressing. And what a trooper Shirinkina is.

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.

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.

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.

Isaac is in med school. He hopes to become an anesthesiaologist.

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.

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?