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Joy Womack


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Just based on the dancing that I've observed with my own two eyes, at Kremlin Ballet in Moscow, Joy Womack is a lovely dancer. I like that she has a distinctive personality and is not a cookie-cutter swan, yet has always been technically adept in what I've seen. I don't understand the negativity but, then again, I do not follow vlogs or any other social media sites of dancers.

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2 hours ago, CharlieH said:

Just based on the dancing that I've observed with my own two eyes, at Kremlin Ballet in Moscow, Joy Womack is a lovely dancer. I like that she has a distinctive personality and is not a cookie-cutter swan, yet has always been technically adept in what I've seen. I don't understand the negativity but, then again, I do not follow vlogs or any other social media sites of dancers.

 

I haven't followed Joy Womack that closely and like you I haven't seen much of the social media comments. I did see one video clip that I liked very much.

 

Charlie, since you were based in Moscow for four years, maybe you would care to do some posting at the Bolshoi topic. I was at the Bolshoi theater for the first time last year and it was the best that I've ever seen the company. Perhaps being on their own stage can make a difference and you might be able to tell us about this. You can always start your own topic at the Bolshoi topic space.

Edited by Buddy
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In her newest vlog (How To Read the Signs that it's Time to Move On), she seems like she wants to move on but is still holding onto the Kremlin at the same time. She also talks about how was has been treated there since she got back. It honestly just doesn't seem to be a good fit, but I can understand wanting to feel safe and not risking losing a job in Moscow.

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On 9/19/2017 at 10:44 AM, Nzoia said:

 

I wonder if she has given up the Kremlin, or whether she is a dual principal at the Kremlin and Universal.  Does anyone know?

Interesting that Sarah Lane posted on instagram that she'll be guesting with the Kremlin on Sept. 20 doing O/O

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Actually, Sarah will be part of the International Ballet Festival at the Kremlin Palace. Starting today until Sept. 29 there will be a different production performed every day. All the principal roles are done by guests (Polina Semionova and Nicoletta Manni are among them, and of course Sarah Lane will be there for Swan Lake next Friday. Lane will be dancing with Vadim Muntagirov from the Royal Ballet).

Anyway, Lane's (and everybody else's) show has nothing to do with the current or future tenure status of anyone from the Kremlin Ballet, so not really relevant to Womack's relationship (or lack thereof, should that be the case) with the theater.

For more info:

http://kremlinpalace.org/en/content/calendar

http://kremlinpalace.org/en/events/vi-international-ballet-festival-kremlin-swan-lake

 

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Given her employment history, I highly doubt any major American company would want her. If she did come back to the US, it would probably be as a traveling guest artist like Adiarys Almeida. We'll see how she does in South Korea. I can't picture her being any happier there either.

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Joy Womack was due to dance Aurora with the Istanbul State Ballet this past Wednesday.

 

Kuznetsova posted a review on the Kremlin Festival last week with the sarcastic observation

that "Sarah Lane becoming a principal shows what a wonderful land of opportunity the US is" !

 

I regret very much I could not see Adiarys Almeida (my Zaharova Cubana) dance Kitri on 28th

September - I was in Moscow but booked for something else. Kuznetsova wrote somewhat nice

things about her I was told.

Edited by mnacenani
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Korea's Universal Ballet is financially backed by the Unification Church(they have the ownership of the ballet company to be exact) so if high salary is what Womack wants, they can afford it. There are several former Vaganova graduates and Mariinsky dancers in Universal Ballet (Konstantin Novoselov, Anna Tolmacheva, Yekaterina Krasyuk). Semion Chudin also had danced at Universal Ballet early in his career. 

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Joy did an hour-long interview with a podcast done by the dance network. She mentions she will be starting with Universal Ballet on January 22nd.

A few interesting tidbits/markers:

  • 18:00 min: She addresses the whole "first American" at the Vaganova 18 minutes in.
  • 36:00 min: Leaving Bolshoi Ballet
  • 43:00 min: Reactions to her videos at the Kremlin (mentions those in the Corp there were often not motivated)
  • 47:00 min: Mentions having done auditions before getting the over at Universal Ballet, which she found humbling. She says that Julie Kent couldn't give her a place at the Washington Ballet.

Here is the youtube video of the interview (also shows her as it was filmed):

 

Edited by wonderwall
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Interesting.  

She said she wanted to come back to America to dance (even if it was in the corps) and didn't get any takers (she specifically mentions ABT and Washington Ballet, but I wonder who else she reached out to?).

I think she is a lovely dancer, and is certainly talented enough to dance with many companies in the US.  Was she turned down because they think she'll be a distraction?

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She was in Atlanta and Houston so maybe she tried out there.  She also did an Instagram livestream where she mentioned sending applications to La Scala and the Royal Danish Ballet but not getting any responses. 

I do wonder if she realized she needed to play nicer. This interview seemed to be an attempt to clear the air in regards to many of the controversies surrounding her. 

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There is also the matter of fitting into the look of a company and being adaptable in terms of their rep. I've never seen Womack live. On video I've only seen her doing very classical parts, and in those I think she's quite competent. I don't know how she'd fare going from Balanchine to Peck to Crystal Pite to Wheeldon etc. I also don't know how well she would cope with dancing in a group whether corps or as a soloist. I may be wrong, but to me she always seemed pretty set in her ways in terms of performing. It's hard for me to imagine her working with a choreographer. Again, I've never seen her live and I have limited knowledge, it's just my impression.

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