Ivy Lin

Really love these reports. Question: do Lamb, Nunez and Takada end the white swan pas de deux with the arabesque penchée? In the Dowell production they do not and go for the more old-fashioned fall-back into Siegfried's (actually Benno in the notation) arms.

Well part of the reason I wanted to stop blogging was I teach and my kids found my blog. A few of them got very out of line and said things like "Why are you going to the ballet when you should be in a Chinese restaurant making pork fried rice?" So I found out that on blogspot you can change your blog name and URL. So that's what I did. New url: http://humbledandoverwhelmed.blogspot.com Not sure if I'll be blogging anytime soon (think I need a break) but at least I'm not dealing with these comments anymore.

They have good chemistry although I think the fact that they've danced so infrequently together for the past 5 years or so showed. There were a few moments where dancers who are more experienced partnering each other might not have had an awkward stop. I think a lot of the things we say are "chemistry" are really partnering. The way a hand is right there to hold the other partner, the way their bodies align, etc. give the illusion of two people dancing as one and thus "chemistry." I will be interested in seeing them in the future and how they develop from here.

I appreciate all the kind remarks but as I said, I'm no more qualified to talk about dance than a fruit fly is. It was this realization that made me think "Wow I should stop."

David Hallberg and Natalia Osipova finished their Giselle performance here in the USA. Here's what I thought: http://poisonivywalloftext.blogspot.com/2018/05/robbins-festival-ends-supergiselle-at.html

I am fond of the Mariinsky video with Olesya Novikova and Leonid Sarafanov.

Hi, thankfully there are now more videos of American ballet companies. I think SFB has a Cinderella, Nutcracker, Othello and Little Mermaid out. NYCB has a Nutcracker from 2011 and a great all-Balanchine program of Walpurgisnacht/La Valse/Sonatine/Symphony in C. They've also released a host of vintage Balanchine programs on the vai label here: http://www.vaimusic.com/category/Balanchine.html

A wrap-up of the winter season: http://poisonivywalloftext.blogspot.com/2018/03/winter-season-diaries-all-stravinsky.html

I think the peasant pas de deux shows what hearty, healthy love between two young people is supposed to look like. It's a nice foil for the ethereal connection of Albrecht and Giselle that dominates act two.

Winter Season continues with the debut of a new work and Robbins' Four Seasons: http://poisonivywalloftext.blogspot.com/2018/02/winter-season-diaries-groundhog-says.html

Is Giselle being livestreamed?

In the U.S. the same thing goes for basketball/football players who become managers. Michael Jordan -- possibly the G.O.A.T. basketball player having a horrible time of it managing the Charlotte Bobcats. Isiah Thomas also a great player, ruins every team he touches. The best basketball coach of all time was probably Phil Jackson, who was a middling NBA player. People often marveled at his ability to deal with some of the most difficult, egotistical characters in the NBA, and also get the best out of players who on the surface were nothing special.

One of the most exquisite programs ever made:

I have a theory, based on nothing but instinct and maybe invalid, that great "star" dancers often make very poor artistic directors. One reason is that they were big stars, and probably spent the bulk of their career getting their way. If they came to company class people stepped aside. If there was a big premiere they expected to be cast. And most of them have/had a natural, prodigious talent that carried them far. When you run a company the ball-game changes. Not everyone in the company is going to be super-talented, and you have to negotiate with the labor unions, you have to do budgeting, you have to fund-raise. A lot of busy paperwork. IMO stars rarely have the temperament to be able to do all of that. Many get frustrated and try to fire most of the company. Few can truly put their stardom aside to deal with all the moving parts that running a company entails. People tend to glorify the Nureyev years at POB now because of all the talent he spotted and the high profile he gave the company. But he ran the company for less than six years and was in constant conflict with the dancers. He also left the company often to do guest dancing appearances. Mikhail Baryshnikov's years at ABT were also marked by constant tension with the dancers, high turnover, and some financial problems.

Except that when Angel Corella fired so many of his dancers there was a torrent of negative publicity and criticism. PA Ballet sales remain rather slow and there's no telling whether Corella's slash and burn tactics will be successful. So yes it happens in the U.S. too but when it does there is negative publicity about it.

I think an issue is that Tamara Rojo is not just the boss of ENB. She's also its headline star and romantically involved with a principal dancer. There are a lot of boundaries that I imagine get blurred when the boss is also the company's biggest star and her boyfriend is in the company. The turnover at ENB seems to be a reflection of that.

This picture really gives a great look into how the powder puff tutu is constructed:

A post-Martins NYCB Winter Season has begun ... http://poisonivywalloftext.blogspot.com/2018/01/winter-season-diaries-all-balanchine.html

Actually I always sort of wondered why the RB likes to have EXTREMELY wiggy productions. For instance I don't see why Ballet Imperial also needs those frosted blond wigs:

No tutus: No tutus: No tutus: No tutus: No tutus:

Chase Finlay is a beautiful dancer but also has been beset my a number of injuries the past couple years and is thus still getting his sea legs back.

The current males are a more motley crew. Joaquin de Luz is retiring, and Andrew Veyette and Jared Angle will probably retire in a few years as both are getting up there in age. Russell Janzen has a great partnership with Teresa Reichlen but isn't much of a virtuoso. Tyler Angle same thing: great partner, not so great virtuoso. Adrian Danchig Waring was the total package but a devastating injury seems to have slowed him down. Anthony Huxley and Daniel Ulbricht are great small dynamos. Amar Ramasar is also great but hes also leaving for a year to do Broadway. I like the newest principal (Zachary Catazaro) a lot. But in terms of promise i think the soloist Joseph Gordon has the most promise of all.

NYCB is my "home" company and I can't emphasize how much this news has distressed me. I feel horrible for the dancers, I feel horrible for the victims. I wrote a blog entry about some of the highs and lows and what this company means to me: http://poisonivywalloftext.blogspot.com/2018/01/a-post-martins-city-ballet.html

I kind of think that the makeup makes the Cavalier look like Prince Joffrey.

Another fun comparison: Symphony in C Old Karinska powder puffs for NYCB: New costumes: Mariinsky: Bolshoi: POB: Royal Ballet: