sandik Posted June 5, 2017 Share Posted June 5, 2017 1 hour ago, Jack Reed said: You got me going now, Natalia. With two sailors and a girl in a cafe, A la Francaix starts out like Fancy Free, so don't you want that one on the program, too? Earlier. As the opener? Then La Sylphide, and Scotch. And A la Francaix to end up, to leave the audience dissolving in helpless laughter, not to mention fatigue? No? No, I suppose not. Why stop at a single program -- why not a festival? Link to comment
Natalia Posted June 5, 2017 Share Posted June 5, 2017 9 minutes ago, sandik said: Why stop at a single program -- why not a festival? In Edinburgh?! Link to comment
sandik Posted June 5, 2017 Share Posted June 5, 2017 58 minutes ago, Natalia said: In Edinburgh?! It could start there, and tour. Summer is coming, people, and it's getting close to silly season -- perhaps we should spend a little time programming a fantasy festival? Link to comment
Natalia Posted June 6, 2017 Share Posted June 6, 2017 I'd love to hear about tonight's SAB Workshop Gala from Jack or others who may have attended! I was mostly impressed by what I saw at the Sat matinee. I can only imagine how it went tonight. Also, I'm wondering if/when the new NYCB apprentices will be announced? Link to comment
canbelto Posted June 6, 2017 Share Posted June 6, 2017 I went to the evening performance. Been real busy but will write up when I get the time. Link to comment
Jack Reed Posted June 6, 2017 Share Posted June 6, 2017 (edited) On 6/5/2017 at 8:31 PM, Natalia said: I'd love to hear about tonight's SAB Workshop Gala from Jack or others who may have attended! I was mostly impressed by what I saw at the Sat matinee. I can only imagine how it went tonight. Also, I'm wondering if/when the new NYCB apprentices will be announced? Just briefly, as I am at breakfast, but Gabriella Domini is such a Sylph! Such a "natural"! Did Martins program Scotch on her account? You could think. It's not just the lightness, the willowy quality, it's the stage presence - for example, she lifts her partner's droopy arms, tilts and turns her head to check - yes, that's right - and moves on - these touches of the role are built-in, or course, but she doesn't show them, do them, she makes them. Three times I've seen her - the first time - well, okay, we're not supposed to write about rehearsals, but it was then I felt rewarded for the effort it cost this old man to get here from Chicago. I'm sorry for Natalia not to have seen this unimaginably wonderful creature, but there will be other opportunities (speaking of apprentices). But in the company she will not have the same association with such teacher/coaches as Suki Schorer anymore. On the other hand, she was satisfying in Scenes de Ballet too; it didn't take moment to pick her out, paired as the dancer are in that, she doesn't really have a double. Yes, there were others on stage, notably Andres Zuniga - notable for the nobility he brought to his role, not to mention his partnering - everything she needed, as far as I could see, and his own fine dancing. Not bad for a teenager? Pretty good for any dancer! And there were other ballets, and I look forward to canbelto and others to round out the picture. Edited June 7, 2017 by Jack Reed Link to comment
Natalia Posted June 6, 2017 Share Posted June 6, 2017 Thanks, Jack...and writing through breakfast, no less. Sounds like a winning group of senior SAB students, including maybe a few apprentices for NYCB and the other fine companies (PNB, MCB, etc.) that often hire from the school? Link to comment
Helene Posted June 6, 2017 Share Posted June 6, 2017 I can't remember any dancers Peter Boal has hired directly out of SAB. Either they were NYCB dancers -- the Orzas, Korbes, Lin-Yee, and Renko early (ish) in their careers and Weese at the end of hers -- dancers with other companies who had studied with Boal when he was teaching at SAB -- Griffiths, for example -- or they were SAB students who did their last year or two at Pacific Northwest Ballet School, and got into the company in the standard route: Apprentice, Corps, etc., like Generosa and Dammiel Cruz, who attended SAB as a kid and was one of the rare locals who progressed into the Professional Division. Boal also hired back dancers who had been in the company (Grant) or Professional Division students of PNBS who've danced elsewhere (Taylor, Pertl, Ryan), as well a dancers from other companies, some of whom had little or no SAB training, which makes sense, because even the youngest of his former students are out of school by now. But it sounds like a bumper crop at SAB, and maybe if there is a dancer or two who doesn't fit Martins' type needs at the moment or would be typecast and not given opportunities in roles that they'd get in smaller companies. Link to comment
balletforme Posted June 6, 2017 Share Posted June 6, 2017 I think that about 5 women are being taken as apprentices (India Bradley, Gabriella D., Neve Campbell, Mary Thomas???). Link to comment
Helene Posted June 6, 2017 Share Posted June 6, 2017 19 minutes ago, balletforme said: Neve Campbell Who knew she was making a comeback at 43 . Link to comment
balletforme Posted June 6, 2017 Share Posted June 6, 2017 HA! I think that the girl's name is Corrigan. . .Neve Corrigan? I looked it up. Sorry. Link to comment
Helene Posted June 6, 2017 Share Posted June 6, 2017 , from someone who posted the title of the movie with Pavlova as "The Dumb Girl of Porcini." Link to comment
Natalia Posted June 6, 2017 Share Posted June 6, 2017 I guess that most of Miami's apprentices & younger corps come from their own school too? Among the male grads, I hope that Jonathan Alexander got into NYCB or another great company. Link to comment
Kathleen O'Connell Posted June 6, 2017 Share Posted June 6, 2017 2 hours ago, Helene said: I can't remember any dancers Peter Boal has hired directly out of SAB. Lucien Postlewaite? Link to comment
Helene Posted June 6, 2017 Share Posted June 6, 2017 Postlewaite was a Russell/Stowell hire, and may also have come directly from SAB. I know they hired Jonathan Porretta directly out of SAB. Jonathan Porretta has told the story several times of being in class, thinking that the "old" guy sitting in front watching was a donor, and, with a friend, doing all kinds of over-the-top impersonations of dying swans, etc. (And for anyone who saw Porretta in his early PNB days, imagining what extra "over-the-top" was is a stretch.) Finally his friend said, "You know who that guy is, right? He's Kent Stowell, AD of PNB." Porretta thought it was all over, and he had blown his chance. Then Stowell went up to him in the hallway after class and offered him an apprenticeship! They had already been given a heads up by someone at SAB, according to one of them at a Q&A from a while back. Link to comment
Kathleen O'Connell Posted June 6, 2017 Share Posted June 6, 2017 Ah! I got the Russell/Stowell - Boal timeline wrong. I did see Postlewaite in a couple of SAB workshops, and assumed he went straight to PNB (much to my chagrin, since I really liked what I saw), but perhaps there was an intermediate stop along the way. Link to comment
sandik Posted June 6, 2017 Share Posted June 6, 2017 More and more, companies are bringing potential hires in to their school programs (PNB does a "Professional Division" that generally lasts two years), so when you look at their roster they have the little asterisk that says "PNB School." But it doesn't always mean that they did the bulk of their training here. I think of it like finishing school. And then there's the summer school aspect -- so many kids go so many places for summer sessions, in a variation of an audition. I can't remember off the top of my head if Angelica Generosa did a summer session here, or if she did the PD program, but she came directly from SAB. Helene -- do you know? Link to comment
Helene Posted June 6, 2017 Share Posted June 6, 2017 Postlewaite may have come directly from SAB to PNB, but something in the back of my brain thinks he spent a year in the school first. Things shifted under the Russell/Stowell years: At first, most of the Principals seemed to be hired directly from the outside, with a few exceptions, like Barker. When I first started seeing the company in the '90's, they tended to hire in dancers as Soloists for a year or so, and then promoting them to Principal, like Stanton, Nadeau, Gibson, Maraval, Nakamura, and Wevers, although they also hired Le Yin directly as a Principal. Lisa Apple was hired as a Soloist took a bit longer to get to Principal. They also hired some lovely Russian-trained soloists. (Or maybe corps and made soloists.) San Francisco Ballet was a great poaching ground for them. Gradually, as they built the school, the students started to rise more regularly through the ranks, or at least to be cast as if they were rising. They promoted a few through, like Imler, Bold, Pantastico, and Porretta -- officially announced under Boal in his first year, but usually the contracts are done the spring before. Some more were already soloists and were promoted to Principal under Boal, and as the years have gone by, he's brought many of the Russell/Stowell corps members through the ranks, like Rausch, Dec, Laura Tisserand, who all came through the school, and Foster, Moore, who came straight into the corps from other companies. Among the Soloists, Joshua Grant was hired by R/S as an Apprentice in the early 00's, left in 2004, and then came back under Boal, who promoted him to Soloist. All of the other Soloists and all of the current corps are Boal hires, either from the School as apprentices or from other companies. Edited to add: I'm remembering Generosa from a Next Step or school performance, but that could be my mind playing tricks on me. Link to comment
Emma Posted June 6, 2017 Share Posted June 6, 2017 Don't know why I remembered this existed but it helps! "When Boal offered Generosa a PNB apprenticeship (from SAB), he suggested she spend a few months in the PNB School’s professional division to help her adapt to the company’s style" http://www.dancemagazine.com/on_the_rise_angelica_generosa-2306926573.html Link to comment
susanger Posted June 8, 2017 Share Posted June 8, 2017 In her review of the workshop gala performance, Marina Harss names the new apprentices: "After the show, eight new apprentices were named: Gabriella Domini, Nieve Corrigan, Mary Thomas MacKinnon, India Bradley, Andres Zuniga, Gilbert Bolden, Darius Black and Roman Mejia. Congratulations to all." http://dancetabs.com/2017/06/school-of-american-ballet-workshop-performance-new-york/ Link to comment
canbelto Posted June 9, 2017 Share Posted June 9, 2017 A bit delayed, but here's my thoughts on the SAB workshop: http://poisonivywalloftext.blogspot.com/2017/06/spring-diaries-dolls-house-part-2-sab.html Link to comment
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