annamicro

He will probably make a ballet from this...be ready for the next season!!! ;-)

We can add the very recent Edvin Revazov in Hamburg. In any case hair color cannot be a criterion for selection: if necessary hair can be dyed. There are blond dancers used to darken hair for some roles: I remember Eleonora Abbagnato doing that when dancing Myrtha.

Interesting considerations, Meunier. Just a quick reminder, maybe not for you, but for your readers: Jason Reilly is from Stuttgart, not from Hamburg. In Hamburg, Alina Cojocaru has already three partnerships of the level you saw on Saturday, with Thiago Bordin, Carsten Jung and Alexandre Riabko. In April she is dancing Romeo and Juliet with another principal of the company, Edvin Revazov, and will hopefully have th fourth great partner in that company. Yesterday the theatre was full of Germans and I recognized some Hamburg regulars.

Just for the statistics, also Bolle danced Lensky and later Onegin.

"Thought Johan was implying it was *his* last Swan Lake (which it may be, for all I know)." As he was saying after the show, it's supposed to be also Kobborg's last Swan Lake (at the ROH for sure, and for the moment also in the rest of the world... but who really knows about the future? :-) )

isn't easier to think that an international top athlete like Felix Sanchez speaks English? if I remember well he lives in Los Angeles. Fiona May won 2 world championships for Italy (plus a silver and a bronze, and 2 Olympic silver medals) and is very popular in Italy, not just for her successes as a long jumper.

After the podium Felix Sanchez stopped to be interviewed by Fiona May for Italian TV and said that when it started raining during the ceremony the he thought that the rain were his grandmother’s tears of joy; she died the past year and was the one pictured in the photo. “I felt her running at my side”, he said. He was very serene during the interview, but it was an extremely touching moment (Fiona May was very close to tears when translating it).

I think it really depends on personal taste: so many great athletes and sports to look at! She didn’t mention any swimmer or diver, but having to pick one out, for me it would not be Phelps: he has a good style and is elegant enough, but doesn’t really emerge for that. Anyway he remains a swimmer enjoyable to watch, on the contrary one I respect for his records but cannot really admire because he was very powerful but not extremely good looking in water was IanThorpe. But for the "unxepected treat" of beauty and elegance, I’d make two other names: Alexander Popov and Krisztina Egerszgegi. She was the second to win three gold medals in the same race (200 m backstroke)… she stopped after Atlanta at 22, but her best time in 1996 was unbeaten until 2007 and her world record –set in 1991-was surpassed only in 2008: that means that she would have won easily also in Sidney 2000, at 26, and maybe in Athens 2004, when she was still just 30!). In London I really loved Sun Yang elegant free style!

She danced it with her Company, the Mihailovskij.

Me too. But my payment process wasn't pain free: I had to reload the final page and I even received two confirmation texts from my bank. I was confident everything was going to be resolved very soon, anyway wrote to the box office to point it out: I had a gentle reply saying they had already noticed the mistake and my credit card statement was amended the day after. I had several problems with error pages, but the complete booking process worked much better than before, IMO (except for tickets avalability, unfortunately...).

Sylvie Guillem in an inteview to treasure, interesting and even entertaining, for the friends who understand Italian (for the others, it's well worth to look for a translator :-) ). Many many points to think over.

I loved it a lot but at the same time more of less agree with your points: watching the show I was thinking how youth can a matter of perspective, but my idea is much more than Vera was looking much older than Natalya. Being Cojocaru not tall casting can be a problem, but I think than a taller but young and fresh looking Vera could work better. Even if Kay danced well, I would have also expected a Kolya with the physical proportions of James Hay and this with a Natalya Petrovna of any size. I will see Yanowsky cast on Friday, but I suspect I will agree with you, having thought that this was something definitely lacking in Tuesday performance. Anyway I enjoyed it and think Cojocaru, Bonelli and Bhavani made a great show.

"Too Far Afield," by Günter Grass. Maybe my fault because I don't know German history in such a detail able to help me to navigate more easily through the book. Nor I know Theodore Fontane, even if I enjoyed some of his novels, well enough to understand all the citations coming from Grass hero "Fonty" (named after Fontane). I gave up quite early. I've never read The Golden Bowl, but Henry James is an author I really like. The one I have difficulties with is Nathaniel Hawthorne. The oddest relationship I have with a book is with Anna Karenina. I started reading it more than 25 years ago: I started it and stopped a few times, then read the whole first volume (my edition is in two), made some other attempts, and finally was able to finish it. When my sister read it several years later, I was still remembering it in detail, and every time I opened it (at any point) I was just absorbed and couldn't stop reading it. I read it again the past summer, just before Mariinsky Anna Karenina. If you ask me which book I would bring with me on a desert island, that is Anna karenina. Of course I love the beginning, that I've read more than10 times, but my favorite page ever is for me another Tolstoj incipit: the first page of Resurrection.

IMO Kermess in Bruges is much less a rarity than Prince of Pagodas is, but Kermesse is very a enjoyable ballet! Advertising is the secret: unfortunately, as happened with La Sylphide the Royal Opera House seems to be perverse in not advertising good things, when at the same time is loudly pushing roboant mediocrities. Here is a very young Johan Kobborg dancing Karelis solo from Kermesse in Bruges:

He confirmed he is leaving. It was said that Tuesday Sylphide was his last "dancing" show, so I assume he could be on stage in less relevant roles again before the end of season. If I understood well, he is starting a career as Ballet Master.

With a change of partner: she seems to dance with Sascha Riabko and not Thiago Bordin...

I suspect it is http://www.londonbusinessnetwork.com/2012-information/using-the-london-2012-brand I don't know if they registered also other translations, for sure the Italian version "Più velocemente, più in alto, con più forza" is not very attractive...

She named him so many times that probably it was unnecessary to repeat it.... What a loss was to have her out of Onegin!

Thank you John. An additional note after my quick message of yesterday: since the first edition in 1992, Alina Cojocaru is the only dancer to have been awarded more than once with the Benois de la Danse (her first was in 2004 for Cinderella). She shares the honour with Jiri Kylian, awarded twice of course for choreography. Laurent Hilaire was awarded once as a dancer and a second time for "Life Achievement"

Alina Cojocaru won for the second time the Benois de la Danse, for her first full length cretad role Julie, in Neumeier Liliom. Congratulations, Alina. Thank you mr Neumeier and Hamburg Ballet for giving her such a fantastic opportunity, crowned with this well deserved prestigious prize. Among male, the winner were Alina's partner in Liliom, Carsten Jung, and Mathias Heymann of Paris Opera. The prize for choreography went to Lubovich. If anybody has the link to Benois site, please post it: I have to run back into the House for Ballo della Regina! :-D

"Lack of imagination?" That was my first thought. There is also a new "Streetcar Named Desire" (I've seen only the Nuemeier one, I don't know if there are other). It seems that people has not imagination enough to think to new plays or novels...well basically maybe they don't read,... For Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella it's different because there is a famous music (or more than one) to use and maybe inspiring.

I saw the Bolshoi dancing La Fille mal Gardee. I cannot talk of the style, but generally speaking I wasn't impressed: it was as they were lacking of comic timing. And that was really surprising since they are so funny in things like The Bright Stream: probably they have a different kind of humor in their DNA. The main problem with many RB men and DQ at the moment is quite basic: there are classical steps to do. That problem is present at any level of the ranking, even if it becomes dramatically evident with some principals. One should think about the fact that for Basil only two names come out: a member of the company (in my opinion cast against type) and a guest.

So I could apply. But I'm afraid the only requested selection criterion I have is that' I'd love to work with her.

I loved her performances in Milan...

I was in Hamburg also on the 21st for the Little Mermaid I've seen Alina and Sascha the first night and also on the 1st of November, this time with Silvia Azzoni as Manon: these three (and the rest of the cast too) made for me the best show I've ever seen in my life! I bought a ticket for the next one (24th of June) in January I loved your comment on the first show (what a compliment to be defined the new Marcia Haydée by you!!!) and I'd have loved to discuss some things with you but it took a long time to return to this world and put together all my ideas! I asked Alina about next season and she talked of Liliom only for the moment...of course I hope in much more!