Jeannette

According to the BNC’s own web page about the event - here - the Festival will span from 20 October to 13 November 2022, as on the title of this thread. At three weeks, this 27th edition will surely be the longest one yet. Perhaps they’re making up for the cancellation of the 2020 one during COVID?

Choreographer Jessica Lang is in Havana, creating a 23-min work to Mozart’s 5th Piano Concerto! This recent (2 Sept) article is in Spanish but includes many interesting photos of the initial rehearsals. https://www.juventudrebelde.cu/cultura/2022-09-02/joyful-we-una-semilla-a-la-esperanza-fotos Adding an article from Prensa Latina, in English, on the same topic: https://www.plenglish.com/news/2022/09/01/national-ballet-of-cuba-rehearses-piece-of-choreographer-jessica-lang/ One can get an idea of the Festival’s schedule here: https://www.authenticubatours.com/cuba-festival-tours/cuba-ballet-festival.htm As I get a full official schedule, I’ll try to share here. I’m wondering if Daniel Ulbricht will be taking a group of his NYCB colleagues this time, as he has in the past? p.s. Every article that I read has different dates for the Festival. Very frustrating!

It’s the end of August = end of summer = end of the ballet season in the northern hemisphere! Time for the list of Best/Worst: My favorite new works (or revivals) of 2022/23, seen either live or digitally: New works - DANTE PROJECT (Mcgregor/Ades) for RB; BEETHOVEN SERENADE (Lang) for Washington B; SHADES OF SPRING (Lang/Haydn) for Sarasota B); ARCHITECTS OF TIME (Farley/Israel after Stravinsky) for NYCB…even though a bit cluttered in the corps groupings; SNOW WHITE (Raffael/Eshima) for Carolina B; and FOUR SEASONS for B Arkansas (4 choreographers to Vivaldi). Revivals - PETAL by Pickett, seen in both Pittsburgh & Cincinnati; BIRTHDAY VARIATIONS by Arpino for Joffrey; VARII CAPRICCI (Ashton/Walton) in Sarasota; and SONG OF THE CRANES by Ufa Ballet (absolute rare gem, streamed April 2022). Least Favorite new work seen live…just one, thank goodness…but no question - EMANON - IN TWO MOVEMENTS (Jamar Roberts) for NYCB, due to cacophony of club-jazz music by Wayne Shorter as ballerinas in lilac chiffon dresses try to play it straight, but look like contestants in a Miss America talent segment. The only thing missing were taps on the pointes. On the bright side: EMANON didn’t go beyond TWO movements. It could’ve been THREE! 🤣 I’ve embraced my inner Clement Crisp!

State - Nina A’s group…hopefully with Oscar Frame among the dancers. Too bad that the Ukrainian Giselle isn’t booked at the Kennedy Center. Too classical?

I totally understand. In these tough times, it’s important to be selective. After a quick rail trip to NYC to see the Sarasota Ballet (fabulous as ever!)last Sunday, husband and I have no more ballet or other live theatre on our schedules. There’s absolutely nothing that attracts us to seeing ballet at the Kennedy Center or elsewhere in the region this season due to the overly-WOKE messaging and high prices. (We have to PAY for THAT?) I’m glad that we lived in the last era of quality non-woke ballet. The Sarasota programme of two fine Ashtons and a very pretty new work by Jessica Lang (to classical European music - shock!) was the perfect end to a lifetime of ballet going. p.s. If the National Ballet of Georgia’s April 2023 US tour features truly classical and traditional ballets, we’ll consider going to that. Otherwise, our wallets are closed.

I’ve no doubt that Lizi will flourish in Berlin. I believe that they’re repeating Marcia Haydee’s Sleeping Beauty in December…many solo-variation opportunities in that ballet. She’s just started in the corps, so that will be where we can see her in the near term but one never knows. It’s good that the incoming A.D., Christian Spuck, creates in the classical idiom. I love his Verdi Requiem, for Zurich (streamed & on DVD), which will be danced in Berlin next spring. Truly classical specialists who work hard should have chances to shine under this new Director.

Oh, that’s great news, Buddy! Remember how her Instagram had indicated that she was auditioning in Berlin two or three months ago? Glad that she got in. Parabens! So the two recent graduates of Vaganova who I admire the most - Lizi A. and Misha Barkidjija - have both safely landed at great companies…Lizi in Berlin and Misha in Melbourne. Berlin has been a “secret love” of mine for years. Since I’ve been following Evelina Godunova…the gold medalist at the last Moscow IBC (2017) before this year’s edition. Ratmansky’s spectacular La Bayadere recon was for Berlin. Lots of greatness in Berlin.

Many top NYCB stars (and a handful from ABT) are featured in this year’s Vail Dance Festival NOW: Premieres show, live-streamed last night but still up on their YouTube site. Not sure for how long. Watch while you can! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cAOh1ni0Qr0 Most of the ten new ballets are rather brief, although the last one on the show, by Justin Peck, lasts about 40 minutes. Watch out for Siesta…a solo for amazing Roman Mejia! Or the expressive Sara Mearns’ unusual pas de deux (MASS) with a bass-baritone. I also loved Tiler Peck’s pas de trois (Variations on a Theme, to Corelli) for the three young Ukrainian scholar-ballerinas. Oh…and the return of Justin Peck to dancing in that last piece, especially his tender pdd with his real-life wife, Patricia Delgado! Lots to love in this show. 💕 p.s. Sorry about the title of this thread, as this is now 2022. It’s still the tail-end of the 21/22 season…and the Vail Festivals are quite NYCB-centric. 😉

Wow… First the passing of Clement Crisp, then the closure of Dance Books earlier this year. Now this. My heart is in my stomach. I’ll never forget visiting their office with my mom (one of our trips from San Juan)…seeking the building in the courtyard…climbing up narrow steps…meeting Ms Mary Clarke no less…& a bunch of other really nice people. 😭

Direct link to Monday night’s Vail NOW Premieres livestream, discussed two posts up: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cAOh1ni0Qr0

🎉 A now-too-rare livestream! 🎉 Mon, 8 August at 7:30PM USA Mountain time: Vail Dance Festival will livestream the NOW: Premieres program. Announcement below but it should be the same YouTube channel. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h71gZhPhkUw Info on the dancers, incl Roman Mejia and several other NYCB stars. Seven new ballets, incl one from Justin Peck. https://vaildance.org/event/now-premieres-2022/ No word on whether or not the stream will remain up to view later. It may be necessary to catch it live…sorry for UK and Europe. 😔

Release day pushed even further out, to 15 November 2022. Still US$250 on USAmazon. https://www.amazon.com/Petersburg-Noverre-Marius-Petipa-Russia/dp/1839984163/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=1C3DDZK7WJACJ&keywords=Marius+Petipa+Wiley&qid=1659534244&sprefix=marius+petipa+wiley%2Caps%2C151&sr=8-1 So what’s going on?

Maybe they're preparing Nijinska’s version of “The Three Ivans” from among her contributions to Diaghilev’s 1921 Sleeping Princess (Beauty)? Ratmansky was working on bringing that back to life at ABT a few years ago…just as he brought back “Porcelain Princesses” (also Nijinska).

It also happened in my family, in Puerto Rico, through my grandmothers’ generation. Families were usually quite large then…as per tradition and religious obligations. All of the maiden-aunts who I knew died in the late-1980s…so these were women born ca- 1900/1910s. Everything changed with my mom’s generation. Careers, fewer kids, etc. Interestingly, one of the maiden aunts in my life was the only woman of her generation who had a driver’s license. She traveled a lot, too, when she wasn’t taking care of my great-grandma…during those periods, one of the other four sisters (including my grandma) temporarily moved in to keep great-grandma company. In many ways, Aunt Carmen had the most fun…now that I think back.

It seems as if LWFC is not on the USA schedule for Cinemas presentations in 22/23. Must be due to some arrangement with ABT, which will premiere the ballet in March 2023 in CA before the summer season at the Met. https://www.balletherald.com/the-royal-ballet-2022-2023-season/

Oh…she looked alive to me…Miss Munoz. Sorry - the stager. Oops.

Thanks, everyone. Just watched this, with all of the sound. Very promising choreographer!

Not a full ballet…but ballet is the subject of this SkyNewsAustralia segment an hour ago. Related to an earlier thread but this is a TV segment, so I’m posting it here. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X3HxfwOABew SNAustralia is a conservative outlet that normally mocks Wokeism. Still…it’s the subject of ballet on TV. Good to be exposed to all sides.

See this thread, Buddy: https://www.balletcoforum.com/topic/25911-has-lili-asvajanishvili-left-the-mariinsky/

Anna-Marie Holmes was among those dancers with the Buffalo troupe - a regular guest star, in fact. Isn’t she a specialist in staging revivals? Brahms and Chopin were among the ballets performed by Buffalo in ‘69/‘70. Clips of a film of a B-R de MC performance of [Bach] Etude can be seen around the internet, taken from the wings by either Ann Barzel or another private filmmaker. One wonders if more was filmed or notated-recorded in some other manner? So there you have the makings of a glorious triple bill of Nijinska’s best known neo-classical ballets!

Sergei Vikharev used to talk about studying films of “the Western tradition” for performing Sleeping Beauty, as he prepared his 1999 recon for the Mariinsky.

I think that the author meant: Great works of the ballet companies in the West = The Royal Ballet’s tradition, via N. Sergeev’s notations from Tsarist-Petipa time. As opposed to the East (USSR-heritage)…K. Sergeev’s lean & trim versions of the classics.

Shale is now in the next-to-highest rank, First Soloists. Julian is in the very highest rank, Principals. https://www.staatsoper.de/en/bayerisches-staatsballett Congratulations to both!

Lynn Garafola’s LA NIJINSKA is a Winner! 🥳 I was determined to finish reading the tome and, dog gone it, I did…with one week to spare before traveling back to the US from my gig in Colombia! One chapter a night after work, at the hotel, did the trick. LA NIJINSKA is an altogether magnificent biography of one of the most important classical ballet creators of the 20th Century. It’s meticulously researched, yet simply (clearly) written so that both specialist and generalist can swim through each chapter with little pause. This bio now fills what was a major gap in ballet history. I especially appreciate the descriptions, via letters and reviews, of her most important lesser-known works, e.g., Chopin Concerto, [Bach] Etude, and Brahms Variations. One or two of these are apparently salvageable, as Ms Garafola mentions in a preview chat on YouTube…ballets having either been filmed privately in the 1950s/60s or carefully notated. Wouldn’t it be grand to see a reconstruction or two of these much-lauded yet truly rare works from her post-Diaghilev years? 🙏

I remember Third Ring closed quite often even before COVID, for what they anticipated to be low-selling mixed bills.