ABT La Bayadere Flyer features Part

[Adam]

I don't see any other comments on this, although I'm sure many of you have seen this. Perhaps nobody looks at the mailings, because we've long since known about the performance schedule.

ABT just sent out a special mailing for La Bayadere. Just the one ballet, but it's a 6-page full-color flyer like the season brochures. On the page that normally says, "Principal Dancers" featuring color headshots, there are portraits of 10 dancers. Nine Principals, and, yes, a "new" Principal-ish color portrait of Veronika. Of course, she's generally in one or two of the performance photos in these brochures, but I've never seen one with a "Principal" Dancers page (although not labeled as such) that had a headshot of her on it.

[FauxPas]

Adam, Veronika is dancing Nikiya twice, including the opening performance of this season's revival on Monday, June 23rd. Therefore to leave out her picture would be wrong since she is dancing the lead twice. I wonder if her getting this plum is partial reparation for pulling her out of the role of Aurora in "Sleeping Beauty" in which she opened the new production last year.

Nice to think that it is a preview of things to come but I think it just reflects that she is leading the opening night cast. I would so LOVE to be very, very wrong about this, however...

[Adam]

Adam, Veronika is dancing Nikiya twice, including the opening performance of this season's revival on Monday, June 23rd.

I understand that that's the reason. What I was pointing out is that they decided to have a page of headshots, and included her. Nine of the ten dancers are Principals. When was the last time that was done? I've never seen any Soloist get a headshot included on a page that contains nothing but headshots of Principals, even when the Soloist is dancing a leading role. In the past, it didn't matter if a Soloist was dancing a leading role; the Soloist still didn't get included in a page of Principals.

In fact, it wouldn't have surprised me if the "types" of publicity were something in the Principals' contracts. Some Principals might have a problem with including a Soloist.

I keep having to qualify this, but I'll say it anyway: yes, Soloists dance lead roles. Yes, some Soloists may be "better" than some Principals. But the fact is that they're not Principals. For example, they don't get their name in the top paragraph of dancers when the Company's members are listed. "Should be", "could be", merit notwithstanding, a Soloist isn't a Principal.

That's why I am amazed that the New York Post has, on two different occasions that I have seen, referred to Dvorovenko as "THE principal dancer of the ABT". Plainly, the items were plants from a publicist. If I were an ABT Principal, I wouldn't be happy to see another Principal referred to as THE principal dancer. Another reason why I know that it's not a misstatement by the Post is that Max and Irina's personal website says that they are "The Principal Dancers in American Ballet Theater". And, no, I'm not buying that they don't know the difference between "THE" and "A" because there are no articles in the Russian language.

[sealings]

there are several other typographical errors on their website, including a missing possessive and missing conjunction in the paragraph right below that heading. it could very easily be a translation issue. i also doubt they formatted the html themselves, with or without the intention of demeaning anyone in the company.

[carbro]

Veronika Part is performing (twice!!) a ballerina role in the ballet, ergo, for the purposes of the brochure (notwithstanding her contract with the company) she is filling a principal part.

I wouldn't make anything more of her prominence in the mailing than that.

[Dale]

...especially because the company has done the same thing before.