NY Ballet fans

[Holley Calmes]

Thanks for the excellent and very detailed reports, Rob. How cool to sit behind Kolpakova! Wish I had been there too.

[kwanfan1818]

Kolpatkova was such a gorgeous dancer. Very luckily, she was filmed in a short version of "The Sleeping Beauty" and the Kirov version of "Raymonda", and even though she was in her 40's, she was amazing.

Marge_Simpson, I'm not a big fan of "Coppelia" -- although I love Balanchine's Act III, especially the kitchy "War and Discord" -- but the Mariinsky's is a Sergei Vikharev reconstruction of the late 19th century version by Petipa and Cecchetti, I assume from the Stepanov notations. I'm also not a fan of "Don Quixote", but I saw the Alexei Ratmansky production, mostly based on the Petipa/Gorsky, at PNB last night, and it was amazing, 100x better than the recorded version by the Dutch National Ballet, and that's not the filmmakers' fault.

[IceAlisa]

I have no other place to do the ubering for Yuan Yuan Tan whom I saw in Evgeni Onegin last night. :swoon: x 1,000. She was her usual sublime self. YYT gives every performance a 100%. So expressive and technically superior to pretty much every other dancer in the company.

Ruben Martin Cintas was a very appropriately snooty Onegin, to the point of comedy. He did have some technical difficulties as did Jaime Garcia Castilla.

Olga danced by Dores Andre was a nice new discovery, a very pleasant and competent dancer. A corps mention goes to Koto Ishihara, great technique and illusion of weightlessness/effortlessness that comes from the core strength emphasized by the Mariinsky (although I am sure she didn't train there) that I especially admire in ballet and skating both. I hope she gets promoted.

Funny comment of the night belongs to my friend: these men gear up for their pirouettes with so much effort, it looks like they are going to do a triple axel. My poor indoctrinated friends! :lol:

[IceAlisa]

Three more things: thank you, kwanfan1818 for the youtube video on the production of Onegin. It was a lovely evening and a beautifully done story, as advertised. Finally, someone should skate to it, such gorgeous music. :)

[beepbeep]

Rob, thanks for your impressions on La Bayadère!

I love reading everyone's impressions whenever you guys get to see live ballet, we never get any live stuff here (except for cinema live transmissions), so it's greatly appreciated. :cheer:

Here's some Prix de Lausanne 2012 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrSeGgAC0_E&feature=youtube_gdata) :)

[Holley Calmes]

oh beepbeep....I had my whole day planned out and then you went and posted that link! But thank you so much for doing so-such lovely young dancers....I'll enjoy watching it all-though perhaps not all today! I have two of my young dancers in the company where I work competing in the Youth America Grand Prix in March. One of them made it to the New York City finals two years ago when she was 14. Crossing all my fingers and toes and wish I could go see them but I'll be in NJ.

I know that info is not "NY Ballet" but......it didn't take up much room.

[SaSherka]

Another non-NYC ballet post:

Going to Boston Ballet's Simply Sublime on Saturday
http://boxoffice.bostonballet.org/storefront/2012_Single_Ticketss/csimplysublime-p1.html
see Feb 18 casting:
http://www.bostonballet.org/site/templates/tickets_landing.aspx?id=18508

What should I know? =)

[mrinalini]

I came across this clip (http://yue.cntv.cn/nettv/yinyue/special/C27612/classpage/video/20110926/100061.shtml) (about 16:30 in) of Yuan Yuan Tan dancing a pdd from John Neumeier's 'The Lady of the Camellias' via Ballet Alert and was just about blown away. I've always loved her dancing but have found that she can occasionally be a bit remote, but here she was just gorgeously emotive.

And here's (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmRpNwb0NZ0) a very cute clip of SFB's Maria Kochetkova (I can't decide if she or YYT makes for a better Tatiana in 'Onegin'!).

[IceAlisa]

I will decide for you ;)

YYT ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mrinalini]

I will decide for you ;)

YYT ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

C'mon, Alisa, tell us how you really feel. ;)

I tend to agree. Maria is a lovely, pert dancer but she's just not gifted with Yuan Yuan's long, slender limbs and innate elegance. Even YYT's fingers are long, and just so perfectly suited for ballet! She and Ruben Martin were so good-looking together in Onegin. :swoon:

Here's (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VibqEWACdRo) more heaven from YYT and Damian Smith, and by the beach during sunset, no less. Simply entrancing. :swoon:

[Marge_Simpson]

I love the way YYT uses her legs...like exclamation points.

[IceAlisa]

Ha ha, I've been a YYT uber for a while now. :) She was born for ballet, you are right, mrinalini. And yes, with Ruben Martin Cintas together they do look wonderful.

ETA: I consider her one of the most expressive dancers, having seen her in The Little Mermaid (blew me away, she owned that show) and Onegin. I have seen her in other productions as well. It's hard to find fault with her line and dancing.

[Rob]

Another non-NYC ballet post:

Going to Boston Ballet's Simply Sublime on Saturday
http://boxoffice.bostonballet.org/storefront/2012_Single_Ticketss/csimplysublime-p1.html
see Feb 18 casting:
http://www.bostonballet.org/site/templates/tickets_landing.aspx?id=18508

What should I know? =)

Les Sylphides should be done with very precise technique, rolling through the feet, with very quiet landings. Which is hard because the music is soft.

I have only seen one Christopher Wheeldon piece I haven't liked and it was an early one. He used to be with NYCB and then had his own company.

Symphony in 3 Movements is an interesting piece. The music was one of the first pieces Stravinsky did after coming to the US and it is his response to World War II. Balanchine choreographed it for the famous 1972 NYCB Stavinsky festival. It is one of his timeless classics. If it is well done, it
is absolutely stunning.

I don't know most of the dancers, but Kathleen Breen Combes (in the Balanchine piece) was with the Washington ballet for a short time, and I thought she was very talented. She was very young then.

[Marge_Simpson]

Is anyone planning to see Eifman's "Rodin" at City Center this weekend?
I'm going on Sunday; I think this looks pretty awesome. Most people I mention Eifman to seem to either loathe his ballets or think the man is a genius; I'm firmly in the latter group. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqh3Nwd6Wcs

[IceAlisa]

I like his work. Hope he comes to the Bay Area. Please give us a review, Marge. :)