liebs Posted April 24, 2002 Share Posted April 24, 2002 Nichols will be back this season. Hallelujah! Ryan Kelly, Lauren Toole, Megan Pepin and Melissa Walter have left the company. Jerome Johnson has joined the corps. And, I saw Arch Higgins taking class so maybe he'll be back. Alex Ritter, a personal favorite, is one of the principals in Stephen Baynes ballet for the Diamond Project. Link to comment
linsusanr Posted April 24, 2002 Share Posted April 24, 2002 Does anyone have any idea as to where Megan Pepin went? Thanks! Link to comment
Juliet Posted April 25, 2002 Share Posted April 25, 2002 oh oh....I heard that Nichols was leaving. Also K. Houston, R. La Fosse, C. Schultz, as well as Alexopolous. we'll soon find out, I imagine. Link to comment
Calliope Posted April 25, 2002 Share Posted April 25, 2002 I heard also Elizabeth Walker was thinking of concentrating more on teaching at SAB, I hope that's wrong for the audience sakes at least! Link to comment
AmandaNYC Posted April 25, 2002 Share Posted April 25, 2002 I have orientation for the new season tonight, so we usually find out about changes in the roster. Not much info. usually about corps changes, but we'll see. I'll let you all know tomorrow. -amanda Link to comment
sneds Posted April 25, 2002 Share Posted April 25, 2002 Hi! Elizabeth Walker is the subject of this week's Dancer of the Week feature on the NYCB webpage. She mentions that she is teaching a women's B class every Monday at SAB, but there is no indication that she plans to cut back on dancing. Kate Link to comment
sneds Posted April 25, 2002 Share Posted April 25, 2002 Hi! Are you sure about Lauren Toole-she's still listed on the NYCB website and they usually make changes there ASAP (Jerome Johnson is now listed and Melissa Walter is no longer listed, BTW). Then again, our news sources may be faster than the NYCB webmaster's corrections!! I'm not surprised by the other possible departures. LaFosse hasn't danced much at all in the past couple of years, except in character roles like Dr. Coppelius or Drosselmeyer. He was on the panel at the Annual Luncheon in February and it sounds like he is very busy with cheoreographic committments outside NYCB. Kipling Houston has been around for a LONG time (25+ years) and has had a fairly limited rep as long as I can remember (which, to be fair, is not that long ) Nichols is also no spring chicken, and has two (?) young kids at home now. And I'm sure the corps dancers have decided, for various reasons, that their future lies in things other than NYCB. Good luck to all those dancers in their future endeavours!! Kate Link to comment
Calliope Posted April 25, 2002 Share Posted April 25, 2002 I don't think there was any printed indication of retirement, just talk from dancers. Link to comment
AmandaNYC Posted April 29, 2002 Share Posted April 29, 2002 Sorry for the delayed update. Didn't actually find out much more than what's already posted here. Nichols, Higgins, and Korbes are back taking class. No date of first performance yet. Lauren Toole was not listed on the roster we were given. No reasons or whereabouts info. given for her, Pepin, Kelly, or Walter. I'm back at the theater Fri. eve and Sat. mat., so I'll keep my ears *open*. -amanda Link to comment
flo Posted April 30, 2002 Share Posted April 30, 2002 Pepin took a leave of some kind, exploring other things. Maybe she'll return..... Link to comment
BalletNut Posted May 1, 2002 Share Posted May 1, 2002 Just out of curiosity, might one of those "things" be an acting career? She was one of the better actors among the dancers cast in the movie Center Stage, as I recall. Link to comment
Maxi3D Posted May 1, 2002 Share Posted May 1, 2002 If Megan Pepin is trying her hand on acting, I wish her the best of luck. It would be great to see her on the big screen again. She would be amongst the sisterhood of actresses today who have dance in their souls. Link to comment
Michael Posted May 2, 2002 Share Posted May 2, 2002 My Sixty-Four Thousand Dollar question is whether Miranda Weese is going to dance at all this spring. It's clear that the injury must have been a very serious one to have caused her to miss the entire Fall and Winter season too and now to be absent in the Spring as well. She has carried so much of the repertory in recent seasons. Link to comment
Calliope Posted May 2, 2002 Share Posted May 2, 2002 Is Jennifer Tinsley out with an injury as well? I haven't noticed her in casting at all. Link to comment
AmandaNYC Posted May 2, 2002 Share Posted May 2, 2002 Oh, I did forget to mention Miranda Weese. She did have an operation. Sounds like healing/recovery is slow-going. It didn't seem clear whether she could return this season or not. -amanda Link to comment
Alexandra Posted May 2, 2002 Share Posted May 2, 2002 I deleted a post from this thread that violated our posted No Gossip Rules. For those who aren't familiar with our Rules, especially new posters, please check the Rules Posts on the About the Site thread. Thank you. Alexandra Link to comment
AmandaNYC Posted May 5, 2002 Share Posted May 5, 2002 More info about dancer injuries. I don't know if anyone had posted some of this last season. I was talking to one of the dancers who has been in the company a long time yesterday, and she agreed with me that last season saw an unusual # of injuries. She added that many were major. Both Weese and Sloan have hip injuries. Angle and Crenshaw broke a foot. Abergel had a foot injury. She should, at least, be back in Vienna Waltzes. Weese apparently has a ways to go in recovery. Sad to hear. BUt, I guess it's the nature of *beast*. -amanda Link to comment
Manhattnik Posted May 5, 2002 Share Posted May 5, 2002 I think we have our answer to Kyra Nichols' status now, given that she's cast to dance Vienna Waltzes this week. I'll certainly be there! Link to comment
Kevin Ng Posted May 6, 2002 Share Posted May 6, 2002 I am so glad to hear that Kyra Nichols is back dancing with NYCB; and I envy those of you who can see her performances this week. I did see Nichols in Vienna Waltzes when I visited New York in 1996; her Mozartiana in the same season was sublime. In my opinion Nichols is still the greatest classical ballerina in the world today. Link to comment
glebb Posted May 6, 2002 Share Posted May 6, 2002 The first time I saw Nichols, she was in the corps and it was announced before the curtain that she would dance the first violin in 'Concerto Barocco'. She was quite wonderful in the role she origniated in 'The Four Seasons'. One of my favorite ballets to see her dance was 'In G Major'. Link to comment
Kevin Ng Posted May 7, 2002 Share Posted May 7, 2002 Nichols was divine in "Concerto Barocco". I am lucky to have seen her in the role of the first violin back in 1999 when NYCB held a "Balanchine Black and White Week". Jenny Somogyi danced the second violin role. Link to comment
Michael Posted May 31, 2002 Share Posted May 31, 2002 It has taken a good amount of time for this to register with me, but Elena Stein has also apparently left the company. What made me realize it was seeing Bouder and Mandrajieff cast in Mercurial Manoeuvres, in the roles Chris Wheeldon made on Stein (when she was Elena Diner) and on Aubrey Morgan just two years ago. An awful lot of turnover even for a company this size. Link to comment
sneds Posted May 31, 2002 Share Posted May 31, 2002 Hi! I don't think the turnover at NYCB is unusual for a company of that size. There seem to be periods when little changes, and then periods when many dancers leave for other challenges and companies. That's the natural aging process of a company-especially in the corps where dancers may realize that they are probably never going to be soloists, and decide to dance elsewhere or pursue another career. Also, at smaller, more regional companies, the dance seasons are shorter and the workload less grueling, thus dancers are likely to hang around longer. Actually, if you read my post on the stats of NYCB vs ABT, it turns out the majority of the corps have been at NYCB for at least 4 years, many for far longer. Also, just because a ballet is not being danced with the orignal dancers does not mean the dancers have left (though in this case they have) since there are almost always multiple casts. Kate Link to comment
Michael Posted May 31, 2002 Share Posted May 31, 2002 Well anyway I'll miss Elena Diner, she was an important member of the corps and a beautiful dancer. Link to comment
AmandaNYC Posted May 31, 2002 Share Posted May 31, 2002 Actually, as someone who has been watching NYCB for 10+ years, the corps- female, specifically-- is particularly young right now. Even the older corps dancers with whom I have spoken have said they go to class and don't know who a lot of the dancers are. In '95 there was the mass... turnover, too. So, there are bursts. But, right now there are a great deal of dancers who came of the school 1999-2001 (counting apprentices). I usually pride myself on knowing who all the dancers are by the time they get a contract. Not so anymore. -amanda Link to comment
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