Jeannette

Small reminder that the finale of the Men’s event is tomorrow. While the heavy favorites are from Japan (Hanyu, Kagiyama) and the US (Chen), Russia’s Kolyada, in 4th place after the short program, is also contending for a medal, with his Nureyev-inspired long program (music of White Crow). The 24 men begin at my 6am est...so 10am in the UK/11am Sweden. Kolyada skates in the last group of medal contenders...around 9am my time...1pm UK. Skate order: http://www.isuresults.com/results/season2021/wc2021/SEG002.htm

Peggy was my start, along with the Protopopovs in Pairs. (I’m sure that there was a Men’s event too but I just recall watching Ladies & Pairs.) In San Juan, Puerto Rico, dad brought home a little b&w TV set to watch the 1964 Winter Games from Innsbruck. It wasn’t live but that didn’t matter to a 7-yr-old kid. In those days, the island got American-TV shows flown daily from Miami to the two local stations. Shows arrived in “cans”! We saw the main shows of the three US networks but certainly our household watched CBS on a regular basis because of the cultural offerings...and to listen to spoken English. (People may be surprised to learn that Puerto Rico is not officially bilingual...less so now.) I also had CBS to thank for regular bits of ballet, seen on the Sunday-night Ed Sullivan variety show.

It is a sport. Next year Russia will likely field a completely different (younger) team, who are currently a year too young to compete - Valieva, Usacheva & Khromikh. It’s almost a factory system...a skating equivalent to the Vaganova Academy, with a specific short-term goal. Tiny body-mass index allows for tight revolutions and ethereal light quality. (The plastique that many admire in Russian ballerinas.) The miracle is that “old gal” Tuktamysheva made the World team but only because next year’s wonder babes are too young for 2021 Worlds. Already the age limits were raised to 15.5 yrs old (10-15 yrs ago). Champions like Sonja Henie (early years) or Tara Lipinsky would’ve been too young to attend some of the Olympics and Worlds that they won, if today’s age limits had been in place.

I’ve seen a Soirée Musical by Tudor, perf by ABT’s JKO School and ABT Studio Co. https://www.antonytudor.org/ballets/soiree-musical Did he also create a ballet to Moments Musicaux?

Wow, Alison. I just got my email from Sarasota Ballet and was about to post the news & link. First reaction: YIPEE!!! 🎉 🥳 🥂 Second reaction: Booked ticket on the spot! 💳 It’ll be great to see SB’s Facade & Valses again — they were among the glorious offerings of the 2014 Ashton Festival that I attended — but this will be my first view of the fully staged Paradise Garden. p.s. For anyone lamenting the withdrawal of Serenade, please note that a complete archival Serenade will be presented as an extra to PNB’s Coppelia (begins May 6).

Exactly...my eyes went to that. So which Ashtons? Edited- we now know. Fine! No Cinderella, Fille or Sylvia. Sigh...beggars can’t be choosers.

One of my favorite ballets of all time is Alberto Mendez’ Tarde en la Siesta, a Tudoresque work for four ladies, to romantic piano melodies by Lecuona. Given Acosta’s wish to share his heritage - as with recent streams of Majisimo and Our Waltzes - maybe this would be a nice addition to the rep, to showcase ballerinas? p.s. I seem to recall that Acosta included this ballet in the rep one of his early tour groups...at Sadlers Wells? p.s.s. Tudoresque is nice...and what about a Tudor or two?

Yes! In that case, let’s move Les Rendezvous - with the “gates” design - to the top of the list. I’m not sure how much longer my scratchy film from ca1978 (Tait/Ashmole) will last. Time to have it in hi-def, with a new 2021/22 cast. I’d buy it just to have that glorious pas de trois on my big screen...but, of course, there’s so much more!

Re Cinderella - Bring back the gorgeous designs that we saw in the late-1960s recording with Sibley/Dowell! Back to greatness. If the ROH could bring back the perfect 1946 designs for Sleeping Beauty, they can return to a better Cinderella. And while we’re on the theme of older-but-better designs: How about a return to the gorgeous Les Rendezvous designs of yesteryear (light & fluffy...blue skies & gates)?

Ashton’s Cinderella

Ballets de San Juan’s unusual take on Hamlet, to the music of Jimi Hendrix. The one-act work was choreographed by Ricardo Melendez. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8grEc1J0Tc

Bravo, Mr. Henry Danton! What a story. Did I spot some clips of him dancing in the original Symphonic Variations?

Agreed, Stucha. It also makes me wish that there would be a good professional recording of NYCB in Ratmansky’s Namouna - A Grand Divertissement, a spectacular ballet to the same Lalo music utilized in Suite en Blanc. In fact, Ratmansky used the entire one-hour score, in the correct order of numbers in the original 19th-C Namouna at POB...and kept a bit of the narrative, too.

Oh my; these are just preview snippets. Luckily, some are now on YouTube, such as the one of Twyla coaching Misty & Herman via Zoom. Hope that you’ll be able to see this. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g4bB09SJQ7g

I received mine yesterday. Just finished my laundry & opened the computer. Ready to rock & roll with Jane Pritchard & the STR gang!

The preview clips are all there; Zoom session at the top, then scroll down for all of the others. I’m still dumbfounded by Twyla’s flexibility at age 79, as shown in the footage of her home workout routine. 😮 The full documentary doesn’t premiere until 26 March. You haven’t missed it. It’s supposed to stream, too. It’s not just a TV broadcast. (darn autocorrect)

Just watched this and...wow. What a gift from the Royal Swedish Ballet. Not just Suite en Blanc; the Ben Stevenson pdd was exquisite.

March 8 marked the one-year anniversary of my last live ballet: ABT in Ratmansky’s Of Love and Rage in California. 😢

This is the curatorial team led by Ms Jane Pritchard, yes? So sorry to read this news. I’ve signed the petition and shared with ballet friends on Facebook.

In a preview of the upcoming (26 March) PBS TV documentary on Twyla Tharp, we see the choreographer creating a new work via Zoom with ABT principals Herman Cornelius and Misty Copeland. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/how-twyla-tharp-works-during-pandemic-ef7xoq/17449/ That website includes a number of other clips from Twyla Moves!

Oh, no!!! 😢 How sad. Well, I’m glad that we know about her, albeit belatedly. She’s certainly left her legacy to the world. ps - Nov 2019...exactly when Alicia Alonso passed away in Cuba.

I truly love this very traditional-style ballet, Naomi M. Thanks for the suggestion! Now I wish to see more choreography by Ms Aniko Rekhviashvili, who apparently has created a lot of good work during the past 30 years, yet the world hardly knows of her (in this “HER-story” “Women’s MOVEment” era). Too conservative for sophisticates? For starters, she directed the National Ballet of Ukraine since the ouster of Denis Matvienko in 2013, until just recently, when ex-ballerina Olena Filipieva took over. Interesting bio: http://www2.opera.com.ua/en/kerivnictvo/staff-177/ Anybody who cares about women in positions of power in ballet should care about these people.

Hi. I was there in ‘08, in the context of my int’l relief work. Wondrously beautiful country! Alas, the big ballet venue in Tbilisi was closed during that period but I’ve had the opportunity to see the main ballet (which Nina A. directs - Lali Kandelaki extraordinary ballerina) and folk (Sukhishvili) troupes on tours elsewhere; love them both! Wow! 😃

I was blessed to have gone everywhere on earth where I wished to go - bucket list completed by age 60! My sincere hope is that the younger balletomanes will have the opportunity to do the same, if they wish (to travel freely & to experience live ballet on the world’s great stages)!

Glad that it worked out, Jan! At least it happened. Which was not the case with others.... Some troupes’ promised (scheduled & announced) free streams were cancelled without warning! Such was Ballet West yesterday, not showing the previously-scheduled FACADES (by Garrett Smith)... When I tried to ask questions on their Facebook page, my Qs were erased. On the upside, they’ve kept Balanchine’s RUBIES up past one week. The same thing happened with the Puerto Rican company’s (Ballets de San Juan)Thursday-evening series this week...never showed the scheduled final ballet in the series, GEOMETRIA DE AMOR & gave no notice or explanation. I was really saddened by that cancellation, as the ballet is danced to the music of my parents’ favorite composer, Bobby Capo (1950s popular-romantic composer & singer from PR). Sigh. If companies announce & schedule a stream, raising folks’ expectations, I wish that they’d have the common courtesy of at least acknowledging that a ballet has been canceled (or postponed). The same pattern occurred early last summer...remember after the #BLM situation, when streams were pulled...