#ashley bouder

[lovelyballetandmore]

Kleber Rebello | Ashley Bouder

[dance-world]

Ashley Bouder - photo by NYC Dance Project - Ken Browar and Deborah Ory

[patricedumonde]

The Young Prima of the Bolshoi: Elizaveta Kokoreva

I have to preface this with the fact that I have been an avid Mariinsky watcher ever since my childhood. I grew up watching and studying the likes of Altynai Asylmuratova, Ulyana Lopatkina, Diana Vishneva, and Alina Somova. These dancers, to me, are the standard of classical ballet. The grace, the cleanliness of Mariinsky primas and the corps, has always felt transcendent. However, I have also found that Mariinsky dancers can sometimes lack passion and emotion on stage.

Bolshoi was a sharp contrast to this, as I found their dancers to be passionate and often, bravura. Sometimes though, in performing an exhibition of tricks (this, of course, is not exclusive to Bolshoi dancers), artistry and technique can get compromised.

One dancer I have been watching since her days at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy is Elizaveta Kokoreva. I think it's rare to find a dancer who has impeccable technique, charisma, showmanship, and vulnerability on stage.

I think you all know by now that I am a stickler to rules. I don't care for extra turns nor extremely high jumps if dancers are unable to start and finish in fifth. I think Liza makes terrific decisions on when to add embellishments. I think she's perfect for the Bolshoi because she has THAT showmanship.

Surprisingly, of all the variations she has performed through the years, her dream scene from Raymonda always stuck out to me because of her precision. If you were to cut her movement frame by frame, she is always picture perfect. If you are familiar with Lea Salonga and her diction, Liza is her equivalent in ballet! The clarity in each movement, it makes each step feel so crisp.

As always, there's still room to grow for prima ballerinas. Two observations for Liza, first is she's very controlled with her center. We can see how strong her core is from her balancing acts, those heavenly arabesques! Sometimes though, there are dances that require more softness and flexibility with the torso. Think, Ashley Bouder as Dew Drop for Balanchine's The Nutcracker. I think the slight stiffness can be seen in these steps from Grand Pas Classique and Coppelia. A more pronounced cambré would elevate the step.

Second, everything feels monotonous at times. She's already very reliable in executing every step with precision; she adds embellishments mostly by holding a balance a second or two longer or by slowing down a movement like an Italian fouetté. I would love to see stronger accents here and there, almost like an exclamation point. See below, when she prepares for her series of pique turns at the end of the Kitri variation. It's very soft when it could use more force.

Although it isn't pictured here, I think she has made significant strides in terms of artistry. She has proven to be versatile. I thought that her personality would be limited to more bravura roles, but I have genuinely enjoyed seeing her in Giselle and Chopiniana, and even more modern works like The Seagull and The Winter's Tale.

I think a lot of dancers can learn from Liza. It is evident that she is a thoughtful dancer as all her movements feel so sure. For those of you who don't know, Elizaveta Kokoreva graduated from BBA in 2019 and is now a prima ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet. She is, in my opinion, still an underrated dancer.

Credits to TheBunduBallerina on Youtube for all of these clips

[ballet-symphonie]

I’m pretty sure there’s nepotism and other shit going on at New York City Ballet, and I’ve stopped following them:

-there’s children and grandchildren of former dancers who got into the company. Roman Mejia is Paul Mejia’s son, Shelby Mann is the granddaughter of Jacques d’Amboise and the daughter of Charlotte d’Amboise and Terrence Mann (Broadway legends!) it makes me suspicious. I mean, Nilas Martins was in the company too, so I’m not surprised nepotism is still going on with the younger dancers.

-apparently there was/is body shaming? even at SAB I’ve heard rumors of kids having eating disorders. Also not surprising considering that the people who worked with Balanchine wanted a look and it was Balanchine himself who started the “skinny ballerina” trend that quickly spread worldwide. Ashley Bouder spoke up about how the higher ups body shamed her on Instagram live like a year ago, and none/few of the company members commented for support. They just posted it on their story. In general, Balanchine companies/schools tend to have a lot of body shaming, especially with how they treated Kathryn Morgan at Miami CB. CPYB (Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet) has a bunch of horror stories on Instagram account called @/cpybstories if anyone wants to read.

-I don’t know if this is really BS, but they still cast roles based on height/size rather than talent. I was hoping for Tiler Peck to do Diamonds but she got Rubies. Same with Midsummer, she didn’t/doesn’t really get Titania because she’s on the shorter side and from what I’ve heard, NYCB likes their Titanias to be tall. (I’m guessing she probably will never get Titania, just because she lacks emotion in her dancing. Saw her in Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker and she barely acts.)

-the company is still predominantly white. Even PNB is more diverse than them. The BIPOC dancers like Nadon, Mejia, Furlan, Chan etc are only popular just because they fit Eurocentric views of POC (they have lighter skin and straighter hair) plus Nadon is only half South Asian, Mejia is half Peruvian, so they aren’t full blooded POC. The only POC in recent years that didn’t fit those ideals was Amar Ramasar. The kids who appear on stage for Nutcracker, Midsummer, Sleeping Beauty etc are more diverse than the actual company members.

-They didn’t handle Alexandra Waterbury’s case well. Ramasar should’ve been fired and in prison before the pandemic and from the West Side Story revival (that didn’t do well regardless). It also makes me mad that Alexa Malone (soloist) is still dating him and the fact that he’s now a stager too…like he might mess around with the underaged apprentices/corps and the cycle will start again

-Don’t get me started on people like John Clifford and how he wrote public, sexist comments on how he hates crotch shots because of platter tutus. He and a bunch of other older trust people still defend these beliefs to the death.

Hello, there's a lot in here!

Regarding nepotism, the company definitely has a history of hiring both siblings and relatives. I would extend this to ballet in general, many successful dancers today are from dance families, such as Chloe Misseldine, Daniil Simkin, Maia Makhatelli, Vadim Muntigirov, Dmitri Smilevsky, Issac Hernandez etc. But I don't think that inherently means that the dancers benefiting from that knowledge base (knowing what to do, where to train, how to structure their day, exta tips and coaching etc) are undeserving of there spots. I don't think you can watch Meija dance and think he doesn't deserve to be where he is.

On body shaming. Yes, none of this is positive and none of it is news either. There has been a history of toxic body shaming culture at nearly every major ballet school worldwide. Balanchine companies have had a nasty history but so have numerous Russian, European, and Asian schools. It's not a problem exclusive to SAB/NYCB.

Yes, NYCB typecasts. I'm honestly quite a fan of it because I don't think it's realistic or responsible to expect every dancer to do everything well and it results in dancers on stage in roles that they're confident in and suit their strengths- which generally leads to better performances. I don't think there's a single dancer at City Ballet who has done all three leading roles in Jewels, Peck is not an exception. I don't believe it's height/size over talent, but a complementary mix of both. Some roles have been designated by the choreographer for X skills and others have been historically dominated by dancers with X skills. And like you mention, there are lots of other factors affecting casting besides just height, acting, vulnerability, partnership, and logistics, which all play a role.

I'm not sure I agree with you that the dancers you mentioned get attention because they are POC who fit Eurocentric standards. Chan and Nadon rightfully got attention for breaking barriers and becoming the first Asian principals at the company. Both have spoken at length aobut how their cultural background and upbringing has both helped and hindered their path. I'd argue Meija gets far more attention from his father than he does from his race and Furlan (if we're considering him popular which I probably wouldn't) for his technical merit. I also think you aren't looking at NYCB's soloist rank fairly, they have Black, Asian, and Hispanic dancers at this rank. Of course, the company certainly could be more diverse but they have the self-imposed limitation of hiring nearly exclusively out of SAB. You yourself noted that the school is more diverse, this is a result of several of their scholarship and outreach programs that have been implemented in the past decade or so. Those programs are long-term investments, they are building a more diverse company now - but these dancers are still in the school. And for what it's worth, PNB is not a low bar, it is by far the most diverse major company in the US and has made hiring decisions accordingly. Approximately 50% of the company is POC which is awesome- but this realistically isn't possible at NYCB because they're not going to be hiring from outside as frequently.

Of course, if not following NYCB would make you happier, then by all means do it. But if these issues are what's causing you distress, I don't think the solution is to simply follow other companies- many of these problems exist across the industy.

Regarding the Waterbury Case, I don't disagree with you but the law is complicated. I remeber reading the case when it came out and I think the main problem is that the case wasn't able to get to discovery because she didn't have enough facutal evidence. If that had happened, I imagine things would have looked a lot different. While I absolutley believe her, she was trying to fight too many battles at once, some of which weren't directly hers, and she didn't have hard concrete proof for most of it. Everything got muddled and I don't think she had the best council either. I don't have any doubt that there's so much more here that exists only in the memories of the individuals involved. But that doesn't count in front of a court - it's about what you can prove not what happened. And NYCB's liability is limited because she was neither an employee nor a student at the time of firing.

However, while I have no comment about his personal life, I agree with you about Ramasar's line of work. It's unfortunate and incredibly disappointing how the dance world regularly absolves men like Ramasar (he's not alone) and basically gifts them back their careers. I could list a whole troupe of men who've been given second chances they don't deserve. Winning in court is an uphill battle, especially when the prosecution is often not coming from a place of strength. I just hope that the slow but steady changes happening in the industry now will prevent history from repeating itself.

And Clifford....I don't have the energy to start with. There's a reason NYCB hasn't hired him back , he's not consistently teaching or running a company, and he's just running his mouth on IG.

[balanchine-ballet-master]

Above: The New York City Ballet leadership team. Left to right: Katherine E. Brown, executive director; Alexei Ratmansky, Artist in Residence; Jonathan Stafford, Artistic Director; Justin Peck, Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor; and Wendy Whelan, Associate Artistic Director. Photo: Erin Baiano via the NY Times

This is the second of several articles from The New York Times about the New York City Ballet, whose 75th Anniversary Season opens Tuesday, October 19, 2023.

NYCB at 75

New York City Ballet Was in Peril. Then Came a Revival.

The company has rebounded after the pandemic and a series of scandals, stabilizing its finances, revamping its culture and attracting younger audiences.

By Javier C. Hernández

The leaders of New York City Ballet filed into a banquet hall at Lincoln Center one day in the spring of 2022 for an urgent meeting.

The organization was in an uncertain position. It had lost about $55 million in ticket sales during the pandemic shutdown, and as cultural institutions reopened that season, there was no guarantee that audiences, or donors, would return in force. The company was still working to recover from a series of scandals, including accusations of abuse against a former ballet master in chief and an outcry over vulgar texts sent by male dancers. And the nationwide reckoning over racial injustice had brought fresh attention to the dearth of people of color on and offstage in ballet.

At a daylong retreat inside the David H. Koch Theater, the company’s longtime home, City Ballet’s board, staff and artistic leaders began to map out a strategy.

They would keep a heavy focus on George Balanchine, the company’s co-founder, while commissioning more works by living choreographers; they would redouble efforts to recruit Black, Latino and Asian artists and overhaul the company’s work culture; and they would continue to work to attract younger audiences in part by collaborating with pop-culture figures and investing in digital marketing.

“We came away with a mantra: we have to be excellent,” said Diana Taylor, the chair of City Ballet’s board, who organized the meeting. “And everything else comes under that.”

Above: the box office of the New York State Theater. Photo: Pentagram

Hit hard by the pandemic and other crises, City Ballet has led a spirited revival ahead of its 75th anniversary season, which begins this month, stabilizing its finances, revamping its culture and attracting new audiences.

While many cultural institutions have scaled back during the pandemic, City Ballet is growing: Its budget for the fiscal year that ended in June was about $91 million, compared with $88 million before the pandemic. Contributions and grants have risen sharply, totaling about $30 million last year, compared with $26 million in 2019.

Audiences were back at pre-pandemic levels last season, with attendance at 73 percent of capacity. And in a shift, the number of young people has increased: The median age of ticket buyers has dropped to 44, from 54 in 2008, and more than half are under 50, compared with roughly a third in 2008. (The Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic’s attendees, by comparison, still skew older, with the average age in the 50s.)

A new generation of dancers and choreographers has brought fresh energy, as have splashy premieres, including a recent collaboration with the pop star Solange Knowles.

“There’s an excitement and a drive,” said Selena Light, a 23-year-old employee at a technology company, who last season attended her first performance at the ballet, a premiere of an evening-length work set to some of Aaron Copland’s most popular music by Justin Peck, City Ballet’s resident choreographer.

“Especially after going through all the darkness of Covid,” Light added, “dance and ballet feel more relevant and alive.”

Above: Ashley Bouder in Balanchine's Donizetti Variations in 2010. Photo: Paul Kolnik

The company’s more than 90 dancers have sensed a shift as well.

Megan Fairchild, a principal dancer who first joined the company as an apprentice in 2001, said that a few years ago, when City Ballet’s scandals dominated the conversation, working there could feel like “watching an institution that we all very much cared about getting dragged through the mud.”

The pandemic was another setback, Fairchild said, but it also brought the company closer. “It was a difficult transition,” she said, “but we’ve all evolved.”

As City Ballet begins a new chapter, many challenges remain. Government aid that helped sustain the company during the pandemic has dried up, and subscriptions, once a major source of revenue, have dwindled. Audiences remain unpredictable, and recent economic jitters could make fund-raising more difficult. “I’m not sure we’ve reached a steady state yet, but it’s certainly on the upswing,” said Katherine E. Brown, City Ballet’s executive director. “There’s a lot of optimism. But there’s still anxiety.”

Above: Megan Fairchild and Anthony Huxley in Balanchine’s Raymonda Variations. Photo: Erin Baiano via DanceTabs

Only a few years ago, City Ballet’s success was far from assured.

In 2018, Peter Martins, the company’s powerful ballet master in chief, stepped down amid accusations of sexual harassment and physical and verbal abuse. That same year, the company fired two principal male dancers, Zachary Catazaro and Amar Ramasar, after they were accused of inappropriately sharing vulgar texts and sexually explicit photos of female dancers. The scandals roiled the company and became high-profile tests of the #MeToo movement.

City Ballet’s leaders vowed to take action, but the company struggled to move on. Martins, who ran the company for 35 years, continued to exert influence after his resignation, angering some dancers. And in 2019, an arbitrator ordered the company to reinstate Catazaro and Ramasar, alienating some women in the company.

Then the pandemic hit, forcing City Ballet to cancel hundreds of performances, disrupting the careers of many rising stars and delivering a financial shock. City Ballet, like other cultural institutions, reduced the salaries of dancers and other artists as it worked to weather the crisis.

When live performance returned in the fall of 2021, there was relief and excitement, as well as questions about the company’s future — how it should balance traditional fare with contemporary works, for example, and use technology to draw new audiences.

The company made targeting young people a priority, building on the success of pre-pandemic efforts. A program that offered $30 tickets to people between the ages of 13 and 30 surged in popularity during the pandemic. And the company’s art series, in which visual artists install large-scale works at the Koch Theater, continued to attract newcomers to dance. City Ballet also expanded its presence on Facebook, Instagram and other platforms, taking users behind the scenes of productions like “The Nutcracker” and posting interviews with dancers about their lives outside of ballet.

Above: Costumes for The Nutcracker in NYCB's Costume Shop. Photo: Henry Leutwyler via Vanity Fair

Taylor, a finance leader and the partner of former New York City mayor Michael R. Bloomberg who, in 2021, became the first woman to serve as board chair in City Ballet’s history, worked to galvanize donors. When a potential board member expressed concern about joining “my grandmother’s dance company,” Taylor assured her that City Ballet was not beholden to the past, noting premieres by Peck and others.

“Our challenge is, how do we keep up with current trends and current tastes while not sacrificing who we are and what we’re trying to do?” she said. “Balanchine was a great innovator in his own time. Innovation is good, but we also need to keep the excellence in everything that we’re doing.”

The company increased the annual amount required to join the board to $150,000 from $100,000. Donations rose significantly; the spring gala this year, which was attended by Bloomberg, took in $3.5 million, breaking records.

At opening night of the 2021-22 season, the first after the pandemic, the audience gave the company a standing ovation. Photo: Lexie Moreland via Women's Wear Daily

As the financial picture improved, City Ballet worked to make its culture more collaborative and inclusive.

The company has put in place better protections for dancers, instituting a code of conduct and hiring an intimacy director to care for the physical and emotional well-being of performers.

While the company was once known for a “fear-based work ethic,” said Jonathan Stafford, City Ballet’s artistic director, it has tried to give dancers more of a voice, meeting with them more regularly and offering more frequent feedback.

“We tried to be proactive,” he said. “We tried to think through, what does this company need right now? What do these artists need right now? How do we need to be as leaders? How do we need to treat people? How do we need to communicate with people? The company was pretty siloed for a long time. There was not feedback for dancers, there were not ways forward to improve or to know what was expected of you. We’ve tried to fill in all those gaps and offer more resources for physical health, well-being and recovery.”

Wendy Whelan, the company’s associate artistic director, said the administration had tried to get to know its dancers at a deeper level.

“We’re looking at the whole dancer,” she said. “It’s not just their body, their technique, but their mind, their spirit — everything.”

Above: Backstage at NYCB. Photo: Henry Leutwyler.

The national discussion over race has increased pressure on City Ballet to bring more diversity on and offstage. The company dance corps remains predominantly white, as do its audiences, but there have been signs of progress.

The company has hired more Black, Latino and Asian dancers in recent years and promoted them to key positions. As parts of its most recent labor contract with the union representing the dancers, the company formally adopted a policy allowing dancers to use tights and shoes that better match their skin tone, rather than standard pink attire. The company has also pledged to work to eliminate racial and ethnic stereotypes in ballet.

Programming has grown more diverse, featuring a greater array of choreographers and composers, helping draw new audiences to the ballet. In February, City Ballet presented “Fortuitous Ash” by the Thai American choreographer Keerati Jinakunwiphat, her first work for a ballet company. Last fall, City Ballet premiered “Play Time,” by the choreographer Gianna Reisen, with an original score by Solange. About 70 percent of ticket buyers for that program had never been to City Ballet before. The renowned choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, who spent the past 13 years at American Ballet Theater, recently joined City Ballet as artist in residence, a coup for the organization.

Above: The 2022 world premiere of “Play Time,” with NYCB dancers, from left, KJ Takahashi, India Bradley, Davide Riccardo, Indiana Woodward and Emma Von Enck. Photo: Julieta Cervantes for The New York Times

As the 75th anniversary looms, the company still faces challenges: the uncertain economy, increasing competition from streaming platforms for time and attention from audiences, and questions about its modern artistic identity as the Balanchine era grows more distant.

Peck, the choreographer, said it could become more difficult to keep staples of the repertoire “sharp and clear and potent” as the connection to Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, one of the company’s most influential choreographers, faded.

City Ballet is like a garden that “we have to continue to work on day in and day out, regardless of any success that we’ve had,” Peck said.

“Each year, it feels like we are always starting over again, as if it’s the first time,” he added. “If we don’t stay on top of it at all times, the weeds will overtake it, and it will lose its clarity and its order.”

Above: company curtain call, 2015. Photo: Kent G. Becker via Smithsonian magazine

[cgcart]

Week 16 17 April 2022 — 23 April 2022

"Be a Lamp, a Lifeboat or a Ladder." -Rumi

Metallic watercolors on black mixed media paper using a brush and a pointed pen nib. The silhouette is based on a photo of Ashley Bouder, Principle, New York City Ballet, taken for The Art of Movement by Ken Browar and Deborah Ory

[recentlyheardcom]

Ballerina Ashley Bouder claims she was body shamed by NYC Ballet board member

Ballerina Ashley Bouder claims she was body shamed by NYC Ballet board member

A New York City Ballet (NYCB) principal dancer has revealed she was ‘strongly encouraged’ not to perform at the famed troupe’s star-studded Fall Gala this year due to her ‘appearance’. Ashley Bouder, 38, has been a principal dancer at NYCB since 2005 and began her journey as a ballerina more than three decades ago at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. The 38-year-old reflected on her career in an…

[miss-mollys-ballet-blog]

New York City Ballet Prima Ballerinas:

Ashley Bouder in Rubies

Lauren Lovette in Raymonda Variations

Maria Kowroski in Russian Seasons

Abi Stafford in Russian Seasons

Megan Fairchild in Sonatine

Sara Mearns in Walpurchisnacht Ballet

Teresa Reichlen in The Prodigal Son

Tiler Peck in Tchaikovsky Pas De Deux

[balletroyale]

New York City Ballet in Libeslieder Walzer

[galina-ulanova]

Ashley Bouder performing The Dying Swan (NYCB, 2014)

[gramilano]

Sofia Coppola to direct a film featuring New York City Ballet dancers

New York City Ballet has announced that Sofia Coppola will direct a film for the digital season, which will premiere online on Wednesday 5 May.

David H Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, photo by Jon Simon New York City Ballet has announced that filmmaker Sofia Coppola will direct a film for the Company’s current digital season, which will premiere at NYCB’s 2021 Spring Gala – the Company’s first-ever virtual gala event – on Wednesday 5 May. The film will be shot at the David H Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, NYCB’s home since 1964, by…

[taffetastrology]

The signs as NYC Dance Project portraits - Part 2

Aries

Taurus

Gemini

Cancer

Leo

Virgo

Libra

Scorpio

Sagittarius

Capricorn

Aquarius

Pisces

[books0977]

Ashley Bouder in Firebird, New York City Ballet, January 2016. © Paul Kolnik.

Ashley Bouder dances with an almost aggressive streak. At one point she seemed so eager to escape the grasp of her partner, Prince Ivan (Zachary Catazaro), that she accidentally swatted away his hand with a great, resounding slap. Her interpretation of the magic bird is like that – a bit too sharp, too overpowering. But her musicality is so keen that it makes us hear the Stravinsky score all the more clearly.

[ballet-symphonie]

Quickfire Questions

In honor of World Ballet Day, I'm queueing this post! I'm trying to catch up on a lot of shorter questions on assorted topics. Gotta clean out my ask box! Enjoy!

Thoughts on Iana Salenko? Personally, I really like her

Love, love, love. Not only a fabulous dancer but her determination to continue to dedicate for the art form she loves through motherhood is so inspiring.

Hi Ale who is your fave male ballet dancer?

I have too many, but I'm still on such a high from that Kim/Shakirova DQ video that I'll just name him. Kimin Kim is the king everyone.

Shakirova is like fireworks there, and of course Kim is great 🤔 another addition to the “oh how i wish i was there seeing it live” list, so joyous to watch!

Trust me, I'm fully on their hype train.

What is your favourite role of Anastasia Matvienko?

Gamzatti is the first thing that jumped to my mind. I gravitate to her in more of the 'bad girl' roles. She also danced a very seductive, enrapturing Carmen.

Thoughts on Carlotta Onesti?

She's wonderful, always happy to support fellow Italianas dancing and doing well!

Ale, thoughts on Márcia Haydée? I think she is brilliant, one of, if not the best Juliet of all time, but I don't see much of her on the tumblr community :(

Ahh, Cranko's Muse. I should watch more of her. To be fair, a lot of 'old school' ballerinas don't get talked about a lot here, but especially not non-Russian or non-American ballerinas. She deserves more love. I mean for crying out loud, she originated some of the most widespread roles in the neoclassical rep today, Cranko's Juliet, Tatiana in Oneign and Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew. Absolutely a legend, but one that should be praised more for her accomplishments and her freedom to just dive into roles.

Any thoughts on Ana Turazashvili? I tend to really like her in roles like Queen of the Dryads.

Not a super memorable dancer to me, but I remember being very captivated by the Mata Hari project she shot with La Personne. Definitely someone with potential in the modeling/CF/ more silver-screen world.

Ale, very specific question!! Please, help!! Do you have any link to the performance of Legend of Love with Tereshkina, Osmolkina and Tsiskaridze? I don't even know if a full ballet recording of this performance exists, but I really want to see. I only saw some photos, but what a dream cast!!! I would probably cry a little if I'd had seen it live

I'm not sure a full recording exists and I'm not sure how much of that particular complete cast you'll be able to find. I did find a Mekhmene Banu and Ferkhad pas de deux with Tereshkina/Tsiskaridze HERE. This performance is from 27.05.2011 at Crocus City Hall, not the MT stage so that also makes recordings a bit less likely.

There are a LOT of recordings with Tsiskaridze, particularly with different ballerinas (eg Gracheva, Semizorova, Antonicheva) from the late 90s/early 2000s that you can simply find on YT by searching something like "Цискаридзе Легенда о любви"

Ale do you know anything about a ballet blog devil on point shoes? I’ve happened to look at some posts since it has like 8k members and the woman who runs it is a friend of Nikolai T aaand…boy oh boy….

Yes, this blog/TG channel is run by a very outspoken Russian balletomane named Irina. If nothing else....she ALWAYS has a comment.

What do you think of the ballet Mayerling?

Some epic pas de deux, and a great narrative arc for the male lead but this ballet gets really convoluted, really fast. Nearly have to watch and take notes to keep up with everything.

If you don’t mind me asking, what’s going with ENB?

Lots of turmoil internally under the direction of Tamara Rojo and then even more chaos seems to be following once it was announced that she is moving to San Francisco Ballet to be their new director. Lots of roster changes, generally does not seem to be the most uplifting and supportive place to work currently.

To me, Dewdrop is the Ashley Bouder role and I think the all the praise for it is understandable, watching her in it is one of those instant cheer-ups

If it's my choice to cast Dewdrop, I'm picking Tiler Peck. Every. Single. Time.

[balanchine-ballet-master]

Ashley Bouder and Jonathan Stafford in Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto #2 (sometimes called Ballet Imperial).