lovemydancers

My prayers to everyone in the destruction zone.

My cousin, his wife and toddler were evacuated from Brick, NJ via military vehicle during the height of the storm. In advance of the storm, they were advised to stock up on batteries, but not advised to evacuate. (Still wouldn't have been my choice to stay, but....) They are among the lucky as well. Four feet of water in their house and two lost vehicles, but three homes on their block burned to the ground because the fire department couldn't reach them. There were fatalities in their neighborhood as well. They are happy to be replacing things like carpet and sheetrock, at this point.

Winners include Beckanne Sisk of BalletWest and Turning Pointe.

http://www.pgfusa.org/awards-winners

On the other thread, Abatt said:

Wow. Good for Ms. Jaffe. It's a loss to ABT, though, since she apparently is coaching a number of the soloists.

I would not be surprised if Ms. Jaffe continues to coach specific roles at ABT. UNCSA's Chancellor, John Mauceri, states often that he has strong convictions that the Deans of the various schools at UNCSA should continue to work professionally in their fields as well as lead their schools. The Chancellor himself continues to conduct orchestras all over the world, including high profile Hollywood-type events.

I hope Ms. Jaffe is able to continue to coach at ABT. Dean Stiefel was not able to successfully serve two masters (administrative/teaching, vs. performing) in part due to scheduling challenges. Hopefully, Dean Jaffe will have a little more flexibility with coaching opportunities than Dean Stiefel had at the mercy of his performance schedule.

Just a quick internet search shows open auditions for Cincinnati Ballet (Cincinnati, Boston, NY, SF), Oklahoma City Ballet (SF, Chicago, OKC), Pennsylvania Ballet (NYC), Dayton Ballet (Dayton), Ballet Met (NYC, Columbus), ABT Studio Company (Long Beach, CA and NYC) and because it's so late in the season, I found references to now-closed open auditions at Kansas City Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, and Ballet Arizona. In 2010 San Francisco Ballet held open auditions for a specific position. Open auditions are expensive in time and money, although there are entry fees to offset some of the expense. I doubt artistic staff would waste its time and money to hold them, for most companies in several cities, if they didn't hire from them.

You are right, Helene, they do hire from them - one of my daughter's contracts was from an open audition with one of the companies you listed above. But also remember that some AGMA companies are required to hold an open audition by agreement, even if they are not hiring.

That was fun! Thanks for sharing!

There was a time when ballet dancers could continue well into their forties and fifties, albeit with steadily diminishing returns, but technical demands and the wider range of non-classical works ballet dancers are required to perform nowadays have more or less ended that.

I think this statement is key, and I suspect a fair percentage of retiring dancers do not want to continue in the dance world. Burnout aside, I can see how the perfectionist tendencies of these dancers could deter them. No perfectionist wants to risk producing anything less than they are (or were once) capable of.

A good friend is going. He has only been to one other ballet performance in his life, and all he can say is "Ah, Patricia McBride....". I'm looking forward to his reaction to POB's Giselle.

not crazy about the men's costumes in general, nor the ladies' costumes in rubies. photos are lovely tho!

Completely agree - I'm not one to get too hung up on whatever the traditional look is, but the ladies' Rubies costumes just don't suit the ballet at all.

Lane and Phillips dancing on the news in Chicago:

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video?id=8592774

I have had the same issue as kfw with being unable to title links. But everything else looks fine.

I wonder if the Board gave any thought to the fact that Linda Villella is the Director of the MCB School. If Edward leaves town, does she go too?

Columbus Dispatch review

BalletMet On Demand opens tonight:

On Demand

This is a great event, and really does attract folks ages 1-100. The variety of pieces has something for everyone and as Helene suggests, the casual, outdoor venue is perfect for those who want to try a non-threatening taste of dance or even just a nice, free evening out for the family. Last year the event was in conjunction with an organization called Waterfire, who gave a somewhat choreographed presentation of lighting small bonfires on the surface of the river and on the park grounds at dusk. This made a wonderfully unique backdrop for the dance performance which followed the lighting ceremony. The press release does not mention whether Waterfire will participate again this year, but regardless, giving the community free or inexpensive access to ballet is something BalletMet seems to do better than any other company I am familiar with.

Courtney Muscroft dances with BalletMet. She is lovely.

I think ABT also sells well later in the season because the kids are out of school by mid to late June.

...and the summer intensive students start arriving.

Beautiful as always, Ami.

Alice Reid obituary

After meeting Romanian emigre Vergiu Cornea she co-founded the Ithaca Civic Ballet in 1959, precursor to the now Ithaca Ballet Company. For the next 50 years, Alice nurtured and cultivated the fledgling ballet company, creating costumes for hundreds of ballets, using her painting skills to create more than two dozen backdrops, and making choreographies for countless ballets. Foremost in Alice's mind was that the ballet company must have a studio home, and a theater to perform in, both of which she accomplished. For more than half a century, keeping the ballet alive and vibrant was Alice's greatest love and most fervent interest. It was here, as a ballet teacher, with a uniquely generous, giving, warm, intelligent and incredibly welcoming personality, Alice touched countless lives for more than 50 years. Her ballet school never turned away anyone who could not afford ballet lessons.

Not to mention his DEMAND that his audience CLAP!

He was extremely generous when describing Allegra Kent and Karin van Arolingen.

Perhaps you missed it (since you were late), but Jacques reserved his highest praise for Melissa Hayden.

Peter Boal asked him to say something about his favorite dancer(s) and listed off about 20 names of the most incredible NYC based dancers we all know and love. I thought Jacques might beg off such a loaded question, but after thinking a while he strongly said: "Melissa Hayden". He then preceded to tell story after story about her including an extremely poignant one about how he went to visit her at her death bed (I doubt there was a dry eye in the place).

He spoke of Melissa Hayden in the same way at her memorial service/tribute performance several years ago. Animated storytelling at its best, all while sobbing uncontrollably. There was not a dry eye in the house then either, but it was an equal split between tears of compassion for D'Amboise, and tears of laughter over his wonderful stories. He clearly loved her very much.

Yes, for June 26th.

A friend who lives in Chicago purchased Giselle tickets mid-morning the first day they went on sale, and said much of the orchestra was already sold!

In all the time I've been attending ballet regularly (it's hardly rounding to say 40 years), I still don't understand. Are balances dancing?

Agreed. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. I didn't find that enjoyable at all.

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.

Yes, I hope this opportunity is more successful for him that Ballet Pacifica, but IS he resigning from the UNC position too? Where's the announcement of that? He seems to be have been involved with a lot of initiatives in the last few years, but though much is said of his dedication to these endeavors, he hasn't stayed very long at any of them. He is a talented dancer and insightful person, I hope he can 'dedicate' a few more years to this opportunity and truly make his mark at RNZB and elsewhere so that we in the USA notice too.

Yes, he is leaving UNCSA at the end of the school year. This was announced to the UNCSA community several weeks ago, by Ethan Stiefel himself. Here is UNCSA's press release. Press release