Tuesday, August 30, 2011

YAGP documentary "First Position" is now touring film festivals - premiering in Toronto












A film by Bess Kargman


A year long journey following six ballet dancers as they prepare for YAGP (Youth America Grand Prix) the most prestigious international ballet competition for students. Watch as they sacrifice, struggle and succeed in the highly competitive world of ballet.

Website

Unofficial Trailer

Facebook updates

UPDATE: FIRST POSITION'S world premiere will be on Sunday Sept 11 in Toronto. The theater seats 500 people and when tickets go on sale we will put up a link. There will be a second screening there on Sat Sept 17. Tickets for World Premier in Toronto go on sale 9/3/11. The third week in September the film will be screening in Boston and the 4th week in Vancouver.

ANNOUNCEMENT: First Position will be playing at film festivals in the following cities this fall/winter: Toronto, Boston, New York, Vancouver, San Francisco and Tel Aviv. This is a partial list. Other film festivals in cities around the country (and world) will be determined late August.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Superstars of ABT to perform Firebird in Orange County, CA Spring 2012!

Segerstrom Center will celebrate their 25th Anniversary Season with American Ballet Theatre's world premiere of Alexei Ratmansky's new production of The Firebird. March 29 - April 1, 2012 in Segerstrom Hall.

Scheduled to perform in The Firebird:

Natalia Osipova: Born in Moscow and a soloist at Bolshoi Ballet, 2009 Spring Season marked Osipova’s first appearance with American Ballet Theatre where she also currently performs as soloist.

Misty Copeland:
Misty Copeland took her first ballet class at the age of 13 in San Pedro, California at the San Pedro Dance Center. In 2007, Misty Copeland became a soloist at ABT.

Isabella Boylston: Started dancing at age 3.
Boylston won the 2009 Princess Grace Award and was nominated for the 2010 Prix Benois de la Danse. Recently promoted to ABT soloist this summer 6/2011!

Read more and get tickets - available to the individuals February 2012
































Saturday, August 20, 2011

VIP Screening of Masha (Maria Kochetkova Documentary)

Wednesday night we were able to attend the screening of "Masha" . It's a documentary by Bronwen Parker-Rhodes following ballerina Maria Kochetkova as she prepares for a performance of a new solo work at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

We felt very privileged to be able to view 30 minutes of footage from the documentary which is still a work in progress. We had attended "Reflections - The Bolshoi Project" at OPAC (Orange County, CA) and were able to enjoy many behind the scenes footage from this show, including Maria using facetime during a fitting. She would describe the alterations using the video phone and then ship the costume back to the designer. Pretty cool =)

It was a small group of adults but the theater at Dolby Labs was pretty much full. Robbie was the only child. Maria had kindly left her a signed magazine at OPAC at the security desk months ago and remembered doing so. She was very sweet and gracious. Down to earth, beautiful and so tiny. As you can see not much bigger than Robbie who is 12! But, she is pure muscle and her divine artistry comes through in the film. She is a true artist and you can feel her passion for dancing and like many ballerinas, I think it is safe to say she is a perfectionist with an incredible work ethic. You have to buy the DVD just to see what she rolls out her muscles with and how she stretches her back! =)

She also let us know that San Francisco Ballet will be returning to Orange County to perform Romeo and Juliet this fall! Not sure yet which show she will be performing Juliet.

San Francisco Ballet
with Pacific Symphony

September 27, 28, 30 & Oct. 1, 2
Segerstrom Center for the Arts

Naturally we are very excited for the release of the completed documentary, seeing how we pretty have every ballet doc ever made! We have uploaded more photos, like Robbie with her Masha autographs, on www.facebook.com/balletbabble .


Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Launching our new Barre Page on the blog!

We will embed videos on the BARRE page so you can practice at home and follow along! First up Elissa!