NYC Ballet Fans, part 2

I returned home from DC to find 3 more ABT brochures cluttering up my mailbox. I can see why they keep raising ticket prices; their postage expenses must be through the roof. :rolleyes:
I'm seeing NYCB's "Sleeping Beauty" on the 15th, if anyone would like to join me. :)
 
It's POB, but it might as well be NY ballet news.
Benjamin Millipied is the new AD of the Paris Opera Ballet.

I don't think it's the best of ideas, but time will tell...
 
Millepied was chosen by the incoming director of Paris Opera, and that guy is risking his reputation on him, rather than one of at least three former or soon-to-be-retired etoiles that were considered forerunners.

I suspect they think he'll be able to raise private funds as government funds start to dry up. I'm not so sure this will work, as Paris has a lot more to be dazzled about than the presence of Natalie Portman.
 
It's Prix de Lausanne week!

Miko Fogarty, from First Position, is one of the contestans (and she's Swiss, apparently!).
And, if you're into ballet tumblrs, vaganovaboy (who's canadian rs) is also competing.

I lurrve the video blogs :D
 
And if she ends up a lunatic, it's from her mom.

When I saw "First Position" the audience cracked up laughing everytime her mom or her brother appeared on screen. :lol:
 
I didn't know, up until the video blog, her father was Swiss.
Jules is a riot :D And that tiger mom :yikes: :lol:

And waht is it with the brazilian girls and Swanilda variation?
There's always one doing it (Marcella Paiva, Mayara Magri and now Letícia Domingues).
 
There are some great schools in Brazil. Carla Korbes studied at Ballet Vera Bublitz, which invited a Principal Dancer from New York City Ballet to dance Apollo with its young students. That's how Peter Boal discovered Carla Korbes and managed to convince her parents to send her of to NYC to School of American Ballet as a teenager. She danced with NYCB for a while, but Peter Martin's idiocy was Pacific Northwest Ballet's gain. (She'll dance Juliette in Jean-Christophe Maillot's "Romeo et Juliette on Friday/Saturday evening 15-16 February, when PNB visits NYC.) The New York Times critic, Alastair Macaulay, looooooovvvvvessss her.

The director of Centro de Dança Rio has partially funded training and trips to NYC for YAGP for her most talented students. Irlan Silva ("Only When I Dance") won the YAGP junior division in 2005 and got an apprenticeship through Prix de Lausanne in 2008. He went to ABT II from there and is now at Boston Ballet. He danced on the little stage at the Guggenheim during a 95th birthday tribute to Frederic Franklin, who staged the Raymond excerpts he and other ABT II members danced. (Lovely, elegant dancer.)

There's a long tradition of the schools in Brazil sending their kids to the contests for exposure -- most of the YAGP judges are from dance companies, and they're always scouting for kids for their school -- and, hopefully, scholarships and opportunities. Now that DVD's and videos are the road to getting auditions, it's a bit easier in less traveled parts of the ballet world, but while some of the best dancers I've ever seen, male and female, have come from South America, I think South America is sadly under-represented. (There was a little recognition boom when ABT had a group of excellent male dancers that people grouped together as "South American," which lumped in the Brazilians, the Cubans, and the Spanish.) Still, the competition circuit has become traditional, and a lot of the teachers/coaches go for the same variations, at least in the classical choreography.
 
^^ I knew most of this
I was just wondering if they would pick a different variation. ;)

A chance at a career in dance in Brazil is less than slim. There are, I believe, 4 companies with classical repertoire, and one of them, the Young Bolshoi Company only takes students from the Bolshoi School in Joinville. Kids here that are better than average and want a career in ballet have no choice but to go through the competitive circuit to be seen, since there's virtually nothing here.

Thanks for the info on Irlan, I didn't know he was in Boston.

I take classes at Vera Bublitz school :) (well, adult ballet) and it's needless to say Körbes is everywhere there.
I remember it was a huge deal when she and another student of the school went to NY for classes, our local paper basically followed their every move.
 
beepbeep said:
^^ I knew most of this
I was just wondering if they would pick a different variation. ;)
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:o Never. It's much easier to coach The Same Thing, and if they're doing Swanhilde, they will stand out from all of the Don Q's and Esmeralda tamborine solos :)

beepbeep said:
A chance at a career in dance in Brazil is less than slim. There are, I believe, 4 companies with classical repertoire, and one of them, the Young Bolshoi Company only takes students from the Bolshoi School in Joinville. Kids here that are better than average and want a career in ballet have no choice but to go through the competitive circuit to be seen, since there's virtually nothing here.
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This just sucks, because there's so much talent :( It does mean, though, that NYers get to see the Brazilian dancers in competition, at least. (I get to see Vitor Luiz, if I'm lucky, when I get to see San Francisco Ballet.)

beepbeep said:
I take classes at Vera Bublitz school :) (well, adult ballet) and it's needless to say Körbes is everywhere there.
I remember it was a huge deal when she and another student of the school went to NY for classes, our local paper basically followed their every move.
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That makes sense: in the "Only When I Dance" documentary, there were huge posters of Silva in his dance school, like a :rockstar:

She's a gorgeous, gorgeous dancer. We are so lucky that she's in Seattle.

Marge_Simpson said:
One of the many wonderful dancers that Kevin let get away. :mad:
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McKenzie and Martins have a stupid contest going.

ETA: Korbes got a mention in the New Yorker preview blurb about their upcoming tour to NYC in a couple of weeks:
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/dance/pacific-northwest-ballet-city-center
 
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Speaking of Vera Bublitz, where is Norton Fantinel now? He was with the Washington Ballet for a season or two. Just when he started getting principal roles, he left. Very talented.
 
Norton is in São Paulo, with the São Paulo Dance Company, I believe. I'm on my phone, so confirming it right now is a bit of a pain...

Who knew my little school was so famous :D

ETA: Yes, that's where he is
http://spcd.com.br/bailarinos.php scroll down for him.
 
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Must have excellent training there! Holly Calmes husband did some great photos of Norton and some of the Washington Ballet women in DC. I will look for a link. Here you go: http://www.pbase.com/rcalmes/dc_dancers

Aurora Dickie is in them as well. And Diana Albrecht who also trained in Brazil.

Nayon Iovino also was in Washington for a few seasons -WB gets a number of dancers from YAGP.
 
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kwanfan1818 said:
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McKenzie and Martins have a stupid contest going.
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And Marge_Simpson and I and every other NYer who goes to dance on a regular basis are paying for it. Right now Martins is winning the stupid contest in my book. A friend and I went to City Ballet last Thursday; it was one of the most uninteresting, meh, dispiriting evenings I've seen in a long time. My next ticket to NYCB is not until June and it's a good thing; maybe by then I will actually want to see them again.
 
I'm so sorry, emason. I had been hearing about a lot of great performances of the Balanchine/Tchaikovsky programs, but I guess it didn't last :(

Rob said:
Nayon Iovino also was in Washington for a few seasons -WB gets a number of dancers from YAGP.
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He's dancing for Ballet Arizona now. I think he joined at the end of last season. Ib Andersen gave him the lead in "Rubies" last June.

Another dancer from Brazil, Gleidson Vasconcelos, is in the company. He studied at Studio Arte Danca.

Why so many great men and so few woman, apart from Korbes and, back in the day, Marcia Haydee?
 
Carla Korbes and Pacific Northwest Ballet are coming to City Center for an All-Balanchine program on Wednesday, 13 February, and for Jean-Christophe Maillot's "Romeo et Juliette" on Friday, 15 February and twice on Saturday 16 February. Gia Kourlas wrote this story on Korbes, with quotes; it was published in Friday's NYT.

In the Balanchine program, she's dancing Terpsichore in "Apollo" to Seth Orza's Apollo. Orza was also at NYCB, and had just been promoted to Soloist there when he came to Seattle with his wife, Sarah Ricard, who had left NYCB the year before. (I didn't see her cast in "Nutcracker" or in "Romeo et Juliette", which opened in Seattle on Friday; I hope she's okay.) He's also her new partner in "Romeo et Juliette", which they'll dance on the 15th and 16th evenings. Kaori Nakamura and James Moore are the matinee Juliet and Romeo, and they're fantastic, too.

There's a 20% discount for buying tickets to both programs.

"Romeo et Juliette" is an interesting choice for New York, because it's not choreographed in the typical NY aesthetic. It's very Euro-contemporary. There's a short video clip on the City Center site that emphasizes the lyric side more than the :drama:

http://www.nycitycenter.org/tickets/productionnew.aspx?performanceNumber=6711

I think the average ABT fan will like it more than the average NYCB/Balanchine fan. However, it's not like the Macmillan.

Here's a short video the company published with the two couples at the time, Korbes and Lucien Postlewaite, who now dances with Maillot's company, and Nakamura and Moore. The practice clips with them give a better sense of the drama:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f5BjpC161A
 
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I saw PNB when they were at the Guggenheim awhile back, and would love to see them at City Center. Unfortunately I'm seeing NYCB on the 15th and I have to work on the 16th and 17th. So I'm going to have to miss them. :(
 
What about the 13th?

I just read that TDF has discounted tickets, but I'm not sure for which performances.
 
I've seen Concerto Barocco and Apollo at least a dozen times apiece, so I didn't even try to get that evening off. I really wanted to see R&J but the only way I could work it would be to call in sick, which I really don't want to do.
 
City Center sent me a discount offer for PNB, and since I love the music for R&J so much, I bought a ticket for Friday the 15th. I shall report. I'm also considering getting a ticket for the flamenco program in March, but haven't 100% decided yet.
 
Rob said:
Must have excellent training there! Holly Calmes husband did some great photos of Norton and some of the Washington Ballet women in DC. I will look for a link. Here you go: http://www.pbase.com/rcalmes/dc_dancers

Aurora Dickie is in them as well. And Diana Albrecht who also trained in Brazil.

Nayon Iovino also was in Washington for a few seasons -WB gets a number of dancers from YAGP.
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Thanks for posting that, Rob. Norton is a lovely young man. I believe he returned home because of his mother's health. Hope all is well there now. Speaking of YAGP - my studio is hosting the master classes for the southeastern semis March 1-3 in Atlanta. Wish me luck. My little pre-pro has 10 dancers entered, and although I am not a "competition" person, this comp is very different, and our girls are really being very supportive of one another. I am not expecting anything except for perhaps one young lady who has made it to NYC twice before but hasn't won anything beyond that. All she wants is to be seen by people who might hire her in a year or so. I haven't been in the midst of this type of thing, ever, so you all send good thoughts my way.
 
I am now the proud owner of 14, yes, 14, ABT brochures, all claiming that it is my LAST CHANCE to renew my subscription.
Ha! I am just waiting for single seats to go on sale.
Rob, are you still planning to come up for Onegin? I swapped out the NYCB ticket I had for May 18th so I'm planning to see Onegin then.

Much as I despise Daniil Simkin and am still :huh: that he was promoted, this is really good news for me. As he is now a principal, I will never be surprised to see him listed in a program without knowing it in advance, ie in the peasant pas in Giselle. :HA!:
 
Single tickets go on sale this Sunday.

As of now, I'm only planning to go on May 17th (Onegin, with Gomes and Vishneva) and the Swan Lake matinee on June 12th. (I hate ABT's SL but I must see my handsome guy Alex debut in this)
I have my NYCB subscription to take up the slack.

I just noticed that Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty will be at City Center this fall. It looks quite voidy, so I should probably see it. Info here:
http://www.nycitycenter.org/tickets/productionNew.aspx?performanceNumber=7280
 
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