Ballet Fans - NYC Ballet Web Site

[barbk]

The NY Times has an article mentioning that the ballet is trying to get more interaction between dancers and audiences, and mentioned the NYC Ballet's new website featuring principal dancers. It is quite good -- besides the more standard bio info, there are some quite interesting interviews, performance clips, and some responses that are truly funny. Jenifer Ringer on most memorable or outrageous NYCB experiences:

"There are so many: the Nutcracker Prince throwing up during party scene and then eight of us snowflakes slipping and falling in it... the Dances at a Gathering performance on the severe rake of the Palermo stage in Italy where the throws went horribly wrong and I was mid-air looking down at the catcher and previous girl tangled together on the floor... arriving onstage during the intermission before Dances at a Gathering in Japan and learning that my partner was injured and in five minutes I was about to perform the hour-long ballet with a new partner... making an entrance during A Midsummer Night’s Dream three eights of music too early and dodging through the corps happily doing my steps, all the while thinking that it was the entire corps and the orchestra that were wrong, not me. "

I enjoyed the series a lot, and thought others might too.

http://nycballet.com/dancers/

[viennese]

"the nutcracker prince throwing up during party scene and then eight of us snowflakes slipping and falling in it"

!!!!

I thought that only happened in ballet school productions, when little kids gorge on candy at intermission and then...uh oh, curtain time.

[Holley Calmes]

barbk - Thanks so much for this link! I can't wait to get into it.

Barf stories-3 years ago at Nutcracker one of our little Angels barfed just on the edge of the stage in the wings after being on stage to start act 2. This is the only case I've experienced happening ON STAGE. Now, there's plenty of barf that happens due to nerves just prior to going on. And it seems that Nutcracker and its unending rehearsals happen at a time of year when the kids are just back in school and sharing viruses, helped along by the cooler weather which means more closed up environments. I've had more stomach flu around Thanksgiving than at any other time, and it was always something that was going around the studio.

In fact, we have a tradition called "The Curse of Week 2 Nutcracker." We do 16 performances over 3 weekends, and by week 2 everyone is usually either throwing up, running for the toilet, sneezing, coughing, or feeling faint from fever. And that's dancers, parents, backstage volunteers, staff, and stage crew. But the show must go on.

[Satellitegirl]

hilarious stories, thanks for sharing lol

[emason]

I was at City Ballet on Thursday night; their programs are opening now by having one or more of the dancers come out and talk to the audience before the curtain goes up. On Thursday it was Jennifer Ringer, who was dancing in Robbins' The Four Seasons. JR was quite entertaining; she talked about all the various roles, corps and lead, she has had in different performances of TFS. I thought it was most interesting that she has been extensively coached in the Fall lead, but has never actually danced it. She has danced all 3 other leads though; on Thursday night she was Spring.

[Jot the Dot Dot]

I saw the Toronto Ballet doing Nutcracker. I'd recommend it to anyone.

[Marlowe]

thanks BarbK.