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ksk04

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Everything posted by ksk04

  1. YES! How exciting. I haven't been able to muster up the energy to drive 40+ miles to see any of the broadcasts.
  2. Hmmm. Yes, sorry don't mean to get too technique oriented on here, but I thought there must be more to it the way you phrased your sentence! I find it odd, but I guess it's just my own training speaking. I guess I'll go investigate some precious 30 sec snippets left on the NYCB youtube channel and see if I can't see for myself!
  3. Is this different in Balanchine style than others? Heels should always stay on the floor in demi plie, only in grand plie at the deepest point of demi plie you can manage should they be released (at least this is how I was taught and have similarly taught when I teach). Otherwise you are shortening the calf stretch. But perhaps it's different for Mr. B...my experience is, admittedly, rather limited in respect to NYCB/SAB style.
  4. Must be fairly recent, maybe she got tired of everyone talking about how she and Hallberg wash each other out with their blondness? And I agree about her dancing. Interested to hear about the Bright Stream from everyone...got a long wait before I get to see it again for myself.
  5. Oh god, I thought it was such a waste of the dancers. I didn't have high expectations based on the choreographers selected but it was beyond banal. Remansos: why start off a show celebrating the Bolshoi's women, with a piece that focuses almost entirely on the men? This was basically the highlight the evening though (aside from the Pas de Trois) and very well danced. Ladies' solos: Semionova's was the most interesting, and it was at least charming. I actually didn't think it was that great, but after seeing the rest my opinion of it was raised. Fractus, with Krysanova, was HORRID. Every bad modern-high-extension-Wayne-McGregor-loud-rock cliche combined into one mess (maybe McGregor pulled his piece after seeing this?? Why did his piece get pulled? So many questions!). The drums gave me a headache. The McGregor replacement for Osipova and Vasiliev was a Bigonzetti, boring-total waste of both of their energies (again, like Giannina said--how was this tailored this their talents?). The Balanchine pas de trois with Shastekevish and Olga M(?) was a delight. CinqueInteresting concept...WAY too long. When I saw that this was supposed to be a 20 min piece that got bloated into a 45 min one I had a suspicion it would be less than ideal. At one point Kotchekova actually bit Shipulina's hand and dragged her off the stage hand in mouth?? Bizarre. Again, none of the solos played to any of the women's strengths with the exception of Kotchekova's solo, I would say. The dancers, of course, were all really working with everything they were given. Each of them is a delight and can do whatever thrown at them. The problem is there was so little actual dance. Okay, bad choreography can be overcome by many factors (music? personality? charm?), but if you are going to put Shipulina in a long grey dress with a slit and just have her basically stand in one spot for 5 minutes with a piano playing, you didn't try hard enough.
  6. Actually she didn't (I thought she did it too at first). The special effect company has a sample reel up showing their work on Black Swan and they use that pique sequence as an example of superimposing Portman's face onto Sarah Lane. http://www.lookfx.com/works.html (and then click on the Black Swan reel) Pretty interesting. I'm guessing the only work Portman actually did showing her feet are the scenes toward the beginning at the barre and one sequence where they are rehearsing the pas and you can see how badly her feet look.
  7. Here is some better info on the casting and how the program will run (maybe this is the piece you saw before, California?): http://www.presstelegram.com/ci_17089172
  8. Hmmm. So is this a "program" a la Beauty in Motion/Kings of Dance/Reflections? If so, ugh. The Ardani Arts stranglehold on the Center is getting to be too much. Is it took much to ask to just have a variety of actual ballet companies come for a week of performances that don't include starry galas and odd contemporary mashups with classical dancers trying to branch out??
  9. Not surprised...it results in additional income and stage time for the "chosen" dancers, while probably excluding those who the union has to work to protect the most (the corps). The original press release made it pretty clear it wouldn't just be a bunch of corps/apprentice dancers on the tour (not that the corps isn't great, but they did have a lot of starry names in the first roster). Doesn't bode well especially since there is probably lingering resentment from the corps and union over the layoffs and the way they were handled. Even if it's a rotational thing, for the corps dancers there's no guarantee they will still have employment when it finally gets to be their turn for the extra weeks and they are the ones who don't get to make up their extra income with guesting gigs and galas during the off season like many of the principals and soloists.
  10. I doubt the entire rep will be performed every night; I'm guessing (since they are modeling after Kings of Dance) it will be a rotational thing in order to include all the women each night--the solos will be different each night depending on who is doing the Pas de Trois, etc. This is how the Kings did it with The Lesson and their solos, so everyone got a bit of solo stage time and everyone got to do the "meatier" part once a tour stop. Who knows though? The only way I'm thinking we will find out ahead of time is if OCPAC scans in the program ahead of the show, as they did with the Bolshoi last year (very helpful when they do this!). I'm going to opening night so I'll be happy to pass on the info if you are going to one of the weekend shows.
  11. Well....I guess congratulations are in order to the future Mrs. Millepied and incoming Baby Millepied?? http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20453228,00.html
  12. In an interesting comparison: The NYTimes posted short clips (~45 sec) featuring of "Actors Acting" - two of whom are Natalie Portman and Vincent Cassel. Cassel looks like a natural dancing in front a mirror (did he get to show off any moves in Black Swan?) and Portman is practically stiff as a board as an exhausted glamour queen. Cassel: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/12/12/magazine/14actors.html?ref=magazine#10 Portman: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/12/12/magazine/14actors.html?ref=magazine#3
  13. Yikes, you'd think a year of training would soften up at least some part of her upper body. The things we taken for granted!
  14. With the price of tickets who can blame audiences for wanting to known casting up front? I would never pay to sit through a 3 acter with a few of the principals at ABT or the Mariinsky...but for example, with the Corella Ballet, who I am seeing next weekend, I have no idea about the casts and I am not bothered by that in the least. I'm not familiar enough with the company to have a strong opinion so it's kind of refreshing. If the cast lists were posted though, I admit I'd have likely made a different selection to see some faces I know. If anything more detailed casting seems like it would sell more tickets. If I knew certain dancers were in supporting, yet usually unannounced roles, I'd be more likely to see multiple casts to see some favorites. Similarly, those supporting roles might get me to a lead cast I previously avoided like the plague!!
  15. Hope this goes better than Ballet Pacifica....and I guess he is abandoning that school in North Carolina he has talked about so much about.
  16. Well, I'll be at the Sunday matinee. I've been wondering about casting too, though I don't have too much preference, aside from hoping for Cornejo to make an appearance somewhere (though he probably won't make it back from Havana with ABT in time).
  17. This doesn't look good for the Mariinsky, especially after Lobukhin leaving for the Bolshoi earlier this year. I hope it doesn't backlash with the management negatively onto his wife's career. Also the bit at the bottom of the description about Makhalina is a travesty.
  18. Veronika Part appears woefully underused, as is par for the course...two Myrthas, a Swan Lake, a Sleeping Beauty, and the Bright Stream. Such a shame, why promote the girl if you don't give her any new parts? Herman Cornejo does seem to be reeling in some new roles though, which is great for him. I enjoy Alina Cojocaru's dancing very much but as a Kitri...no. And with how many injuries she's dealing with (she just pulled out some dates for the RB this season) it's ridiculous she takes on this amount of guesting. I am thinking the tba for the Cornejo cast of the Bright Stream will end up being Sarah Lane. Who else would it be besides her or Reyes? And if it was Reyes they'd just announce it since she's a principal.
  19. I tend to agree! I've only seen it this way on video but I much prefer the way that Symphony in C looks with the tri-color Mariinsky tutus, for example.
  20. I would assume the lack of a Sugar Plum goes back to Ratmansky...don't most Russian companies forgo a Sugar Plum Queen and instead the lead ballerina of the whole thing (including who dances the Sugar Plum pas) is Maria (Clara)?
  21. I would assume it's being conducted exactly as Kings of Dance, in this way. Vasiliev is like the icing on the cake as when Alina Cojocaru performed on a few occasions in The Lesson with the Kings. The dance season at OCPAC is horrible now, but not just because they don't support American troupes. They seemingly refuse to schedule more than one classical ballet performance each season and can't bear to not have Don Quixote show up somewhere. Thank god for the Royal Danish this year. I wish they would bring back San Francisco Ballet, last at OCPAC in November 2008. They brought a rich repertory that was perhaps a little too contemporary for the OCPAC audience (Fusion/Possokhov, Within the Golden Hour/Wheeldon, Four Ts, Fifth Season/Tomasson, Joyride/Morris, Doule Eil/Elo). I went to the Four Ts program and it seemed sold out and enthusiastic. But if the problem was the rep, SFB has plenty of old warhorses they could haul down. I somehow doubt that LA Ballet or San Diego Ballet could fill that big opera house. ABT has made several visits, but not since fall 2008, as I remember. Perhaps one problem is finding underwriters to make up the difference from ticket sales, which apparently is very substantial (40-60%?). ABT, until this season, has performed annually at OCPAC - this has occurred for at least the last decade. They were here last year with Giselle, and the year before with a mixed bill that OCPAC helped fund (that godawful Tharp ballet Rabbit & Rogue) - they even filmed The Dream here for DVD release. I agree that the association of Ardani and OCPAC is truly ruining what used to be one of the better places without a resident company to see a variety of national/world class foreign companies in America (aside from the Kennedy Center). It's even worse that a place that used to book The Royal and POB is shilling Tour de Force as the major highlight of their season.
  22. If it's an American-made movie, I'm pretty sure Vincent Cassel is ALWAYS the villain.
  23. Wow, Anne Milewski left? She was a member of the corps for almost 15 yrs now, gotta be tough to lose one of the backbones.
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