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Casting for The Sleeping Beauty

Terez

By Terez
in San Francisco Ballet

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Katia Kapustin

Katia Kapustin

Posted
Posted

My apologies as I have no intention to highjack the postings about Sleeping Beauty but as we are on the subject above...

Drew, for now we can hold on having to fly to London :) as I was told by my UK friends that there are many cinemas all over USA showing her live performance as Juliet, directly from the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, in "Romeo & Juliet" on 11th June!  Here is a link so you can find your nearest cinema. 

https://www.roh.org.uk/showings/romeo-and-juliet-live-2019

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Dreamer

Dreamer

Posted
Posted
16 minutes ago, Katia Kapustin said:

My apologies as I have no intention to highjack the postings about Sleeping Beauty but as we are on the subject above...

Drew, for now we can hold on having to fly to London :) as I was told by my UK friends that there are many cinemas all over USA showing her live performance as Juliet, directly from the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, in "Romeo & Juliet" on 11th June!  Here is a link so you can find your nearest cinema. 

https://www.roh.org.uk/showings/romeo-and-juliet-live-2019

Unfortunately for US viewers, the broadcast of RB performances has been a continuing problem--there are very few theaters in the country that may screen it with a delay of several weeks.

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sf_herminator

sf_herminator

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Katia Kapustin said:

My apologies as I have no intention to highjack the postings about Sleeping Beauty but as we are on the subject above...

Drew, for now we can hold on having to fly to London :) as I was told by my UK friends that there are many cinemas all over USA showing her live performance as Juliet, directly from the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, in "Romeo & Juliet" on 11th June!  Here is a link so you can find your nearest cinema. 

https://www.roh.org.uk/showings/romeo-and-juliet-live-2019

 

48 minutes ago, Dreamer said:

Unfortunately for US viewers, the broadcast of RB performances has been a continuing problem--there are very few theaters in the country that may screen it with a delay of several weeks.

True, not many screenings in the US.  Fortunately for San Franciscans the screening are at the Clay Theatre on Fillmore.  For R & J, it will be screened on July 9.  In San Francisco, the showings are at the Clay Theatre in Fillmore.  This link has all upcoming screening in San Francisco at the Clay Theatre on Fillmore:  https://www.roh.org.uk/screenings?location=USA&showing=&northEastLat=43.6269362&northEastLng=-112.9574805&southWestLat=36.5259768&southWestLng=-126.9760352&centerLat=40.1692256&centerLng=-119.9667578&zoom=6&cinema=clay-theatre&dateTo=&locationLat=37.09024&locationLng=-95.71289100000001  

The next Royal Ballet screening will be Don Quixote on Tuesday 4/2:  https://www.landmarktheatres.com/Special-Events-San-Francisco.  I have attended a few of these screenings in the past, including the new Swan Lake from Liam Scarlett last summer.  

Edited by sf_herminator
to remove duplicatoins
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Dreamer

Dreamer

Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, sf_herminator said:

Fortunately for San Franciscans the screening are at the Clay Theatre on Fillmore.  I have attended quite a few of these, including the new Swan Lake by Liam Scarlett last summer.  For R & J, it will be screened on July 9:  In San Francisco, the showings are at the Clay Theatre in Fillmore.  For this production, it will be shown on Tuesday July 9.   

Thanks for the heads-up, sf_herminator! 😍

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pherank

pherank

Posted
Posted (edited)
5 hours ago, Katia Kapustin said:

Thank you for the list Dreamer. Interesting to note there have been very few invited guest artists at SFB.

I think it is great that the Director prioritises the development of his own dancers but in the Yasmine Naghdi case it was fully justified: Joseph Walsh had/has a partner to dance with and the SF audience got to admire and appreciate a stunning guest ballerina from The Royal Ballet in London. 

SFB has always focused on the development of its in-house "team" (differing from the usual ABT company model, for example). From school to Apprentice, all the way to Principal - it is possible for a dancer to traverse the entire hierarchy (though admittedly very difficult). But it is still necessary to bring in "fresh blood" from other parts of the ballet world - at one time there were dancers from 17 different countries at SFB. But the emphasis remains on developing the young dancers and giving them opportunities. That's the reason for our concern earlier in the thread about an outside dancer being brought in - (it's not a distrust of "foreign" dancers!) - there are a number of artists who are looking for big opportunities such as the Aurora role, and other than newly promoted soloist Wona Park, they aren't going to get the chance. Before this present 2 season run, the last time SFB performed SB was in 2008. A generation of young dancers may be waiting a very long time for another chance, and there's not going to be opportunity to "develop" a dancer as Aurora in the meantime, the workload is too heavy. Maria Kochetkova, when she was still at SFB, was one dancer who would go the extra mile seeking training outside the company for classical roles, but most dancers aren't going to all that trouble (and losing what is left of their free time).

Edited by pherank
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Katia Kapustin

Katia Kapustin

Posted
Posted

I totally understand your point pherank, no doubt there must have been some young (hopeful) soloists dreaming of dancing Aurora, at least Wona Park was given the opportunity. I assume the Director took it all into consideration but perhaps felt that for a soloist to debut as Aurora with an established Principal such as Walsh - dancing his own debut - was not the best solution. I am sure they will be able to develop in other classical roles to come.

The R&J cinema screening in San Francisco is on July 9? How strange because the Royal Opera House link to the live R&J screening shows June 11: the date Yasmine Naghdi is performing Juliet in Covent Garden. 

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mira

mira

Posted
Posted

I'm guessing that SFB Artistic Staff had Frances scheduled for Aurora and possibly Ana Sophia if she was ready so they probably didn't expect they'd need to teach it to another SFB dancer this season (everything is rehearsed in the summer/fall).

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Drew

Drew

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, pherank said:

 Maria Kochetkova, when she was still at SFB, was one dancer who would go the extra mile seeking training outside the company for classical roles, but most dancers aren't going to all that trouble (and losing what is left of their free time).

I suspect many of them would be willing to get extra training/coaching, but it's costly. Kochetkova presumably has additional income from her guest appearances that many young dancers don't have. 

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Dreamer

Dreamer

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Katia Kapustin said:

The R&J cinema screening in San Francisco is on July 9? How strange because the Royal Opera House link to the live R&J screening shows June 11: the date Yasmine Naghdi is performing Juliet in Covent Garden. 

There is a thread on this forum discussing the issue around RB broadcasts in the US.  Last time I saw the same day broadcast (it was never live on the West Coast) was Osipova/Acosta “Giselle”. Then we completely missed a couple of seasons until the broadcasts resumed in select theaters.

https://balletalert.invisionzone.com/topic/44149-20182019-royal-ballet-cinema-in-usa/

 

Edited by Dreamer
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pherank

pherank

Posted
Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, Katia Kapustin said:

I totally understand your point pherank, no doubt there must have been some young (hopeful) soloists dreaming of dancing Aurora, at least Wona Park was given the opportunity. I assume the Director took it all into consideration but perhaps felt that for a soloist to debut as Aurora with an established Principal such as Walsh - dancing his own debut - was not the best solution. I am sure they will be able to develop in other classical roles to come.

Walsh actually debuted last season (with Kochetkova), and it was the same deal in which he had only a few days to learn the role (same thing with Swan Lake), but Tomasson seems to have figured out he can count on Walsh to learn quickly (poor Joe). Fortunately the Désiré part is not that demanding. Actual development is definitely an issue at SFB - the schedule is so compressed and intense (lots of demanding choreography) that the dancers don't get as much time as they would like to feel comfortable in a piece before performing. C'est la vie?

OFF TOPIC:
There's a YouTube video from an ABT dancer that mentions that ABT dances 64 performances in an 8 week stretch, and that got me to figuring out how many times SFB  performs in a year (of the North American companies, I think NYCB dances the largest number of shows per year).

Current season: January to May 2019, with tour immediately following in early June, festival appearances and Nutcracker run. [EDITED]
(What we don't know is if there's going to be any special added "tour" dates in the Fall)

SFB Gala: 1 performance
Program 1, Don Quixote: 11 performances
Program 2, mixed rep: 7 performances
Program 3, mixed rep: 7 performances
Program 4, Sleeping Beauty: 9 performances
Program 5, mixed rep: 7 performances
Program 6, mixed rep: 7 performances
Program 7, The Little Mermaid: 9 performances
Program 8, Shostakovich Trilogy: 7 performances
London, Sadler's Wells Tour: 9 performances
Festival Napa Valley:  1 performance
Stern Grove Festival: 1 performance
Nutcracker: 31 performances
_________________________
TOTAL: 107 performances

Edited by pherank
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Dreamer

Dreamer

Posted
Posted (edited)
40 minutes ago, pherank said:

Walsh actually debuted last season (with Kochetkova), and it was the same deal in which he had only a few days to learn the role (same thing with Swan Lake), but Tomasson seems to have figured out he can count on Walsh to learn quickly (poor Joe).

Last year Walsh got injured and didn’t dance in the Sleeping Baeuty.  Kochetkova’s partner was DiLano. It was a quite awkward pairing as she was way too short for him. Kochetkova was scheduled for the opening night but got moved and had only one performance. 

Edited by Dreamer
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pherank

pherank

Posted
Posted
34 minutes ago, Dreamer said:

Last year Walsh got injured and didn’t dance in the Sleeping Baeuty.  Kochetkova’s partner was DiLano. It was a quite awkward pairing as she was way too short for him. Kochetkova was scheduled for the opening night but got moved and had only one performance. 

As soon as I posted I kind of knew you were going to say that, Dreamer. You've got a good memory for these things.   ;)
I didn't have time to verify before I went off to make dinner. So I stand corrected. I'd forgotten exactly when Walsh dropped out of the season with injury. The good news is that he got a chance to return and dance SB and Anima Animus (in DC) as was originally intended.

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pherank

pherank

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, mira said:

They also danced 4 or 5 shows at the Kennedy Center and 3 shows at City Center Oct/Nov 2018.

Thanks much, Mira. I was just thinking about the Kennedy Center shows (see above), but I guess I shouldn't count anything from 2018. I'm going to assume that SFB performs the same number of Nutcracker shows in December 2019, so beginning with the SFB Gala, running through the June tour and July festival appearances that gives us a pretty good idea of an average number of shows.

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Dreamer

Dreamer

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, pherank said:

As soon as I posted I kind of knew you were going to say that, Dreamer. You've got a good memory for these things.   😉

Having a good memory is not nearly as impressive as having psychic abilities. That question of yours about three pregnancies was prophetic 😎.

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pherank

pherank

Posted
Posted
22 minutes ago, apollosmuse said:

quicksilver was danced by the SF Ballet School Trainees.

Thanks, Apollosmuse. It looked like Natasha was wearing stage makeup so I wondered if she ended up taking part in the matinee performance, but the photo could have been taken today.

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pherank

pherank

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, apollosmuse said:

The SMAT was quicksilver and Sleeping Beauty Act III :)

I'm sure the kids had a great time! The ACT III dances are high energy.


Hilarious posting by Jen Stahl (who has played both the Lilac Fairy and Carabosse):
"We talked it out and realized we actually have a lot in common"
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu79kfaAQZT/

Frances Chung trying on Jen's Carabosse headpiece, and expression:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BvArgFggxbT/

And a statement from Sasha De Sola about dancing Aurora:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu__WnFnZqR/

Edited by pherank
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Laurent

Laurent

Posted
Posted
On ‎3‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 12:25 AM, Katia Kapustin said:

On the subject of the Rose Adagio and so-called "milking the audience" (something Bolshoi dancers do a lot). It all really depends on how the ballerina projects herself during those difficult balances. The Rose Adagio is a great showcase of virtuosity, of mastering technic and having strength. If the ballerina looks strained and seems to struggle when holding onto each balance it may look as if she is "milking the audience" but if she fully masters her balances and holds each balance  with ease, then I don't feel the ballerina is "milking it". If she has full mastery of her balances why not showing it.

You are absolutely right. These tours de force appeared precisely as showcase pieces and during that period it was quite common, and expected, to have encores. Audiences often demanded that a particular variation, pas seul, or fouettés, were repeated. Complaining about "milking" (??) It sounds like uttered by somebody who doesn't understand the genre. The ballet "Sleeping Beauty" is a child of the era that created ballet-féerie, with its glitter, sparkle, little concern for dramatic contents and, as its pinnacle, the étoile-ballerina. This is when this term becomes widely used.

Balletomanes prone to making proclamations about technical superiority of some dancers over others because of what the former ones are capable of, in some of those tours de force, (the supposed "inferior" ones are, invariably, the ones that they seek every opportunity to denigrate), should be reminded of what they are most of the time unaware, and what they may not see. The actual pointe shoes worn by various ballerinas in such pieces can be very different. If we are talking about the soloists of Royal Ballet, the pointes worn by Marianela Nuñez (I examined them), or by Lauren Cuthbertson, are 'pointes' only in name. In reality these shoes have massive blocs whose shape and a very large area facilitate balancing and make, for example, diagonals with multiple  tours en pointes much-much easier. Many times when I look at the pointe shoes worn by some of today's ballerinas considered to be virtuose, my first reaction is, what an astounding virtuose must then have been, in comparison, such Amalia Ferraris, or the queen of Paris, 'divina' Elena Cornalba, or even Carlotta Brianza, the original princesse Aurore...

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sf_herminator

sf_herminator

Posted
Posted

Jasmine Jimison will get another chance as The Enchanted Princess tonight (hope to see Jahna back onstage soon):

Saturday, March 16, 2019 – 8:00 pm

Composer: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Choreography: Helgi Tomasson after Marius Petipa
Conductor: Martin West

Aurora: Yasmine Naghdi, Guest Artist Courtesy of The Royal Ballet
Prince Desiré: Joseph Walsh
Lilac Fairy: Koto Ishihara
Bluebird: Esteban Hernandez
Enchanted Princess: Jasmine Jimison

 

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