Tonya Plank's Blog, page 44

COMMENTS UPDATE

Okay you guys should be able to comment again! I deactivated the Disqus commenting system for the time being. I may or may not install the new plugin – still deciding on that. I'd switched to Disqus in the first place because my Wordpress comment queue would get so much spam. But the Disqus one eventually begin getting spammed like nuts as well, although not as badly as Wordpress… So we'll see.

Anyway, for now the commenting system is just the regular Wordpress one. Since it's been a year and ...

ALICIA ALONSO 90TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION AT ABT

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Last night was a very special night at ABT; the company put on a special show in honor of Alicia Alonso, the former ABT ballerina from Cuba who's credited with bringing ballet to Latin America and bringing Latin American stars to the world, who turned 90 years old this year.

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The evening began with a short film including interviews with Alonso reflecting on her career and clips of her dancing. The most amazing such clip was at the end of her dancing, I think La Sylphide, and she was doing tiny ...

BARYSHNIKOV DANCING IN L.A. FOR $350+ PER TICKET

Monday night Baryshnikov will be dancing in a one-performance-only show in Los Angeles. Ticket prices range from $350-$1,000 (top end includes a dinner with the man himself). Wow. Good thing we got him for only $20 a pop of BAC! It's for a good cause though — proceeds go to the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation (it's actually their annual gala, and Baryshnikov is dancing a Cunningham piece set to John Cage).

MORE PIX OF WHEELDON'S ESTANCIA

Here are a couple more photos of Wheeldon's Estancia, which I wrote about here.

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Tiler Peck and Tyler Angle above, and below, cast.

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Both photos by Paul Kolnik, courtesy of NYCB.

ANOTHER GOOD SWALLOW REVIEW

From Elizabeth A. White at Musings of an All Purpose Monkey:

"Plank has created a wonderfully three-dimensional and quite believable character in Sophie, and Swallow presents an almost painfully realistic portrait of a young woman's journey from emotional repression and self-doubt to emotional freedom and self-assurance."

Read the rest here.

Thank you so much, Ms. White! I'm so beyond thrilled that people are really liking the book!

BENJAMIN MILLEPIED IN DETAILS MAGAZINE

Says writer Katherine Wheelock: "…Millepied, 32, has the potential to become rarer still—that once-in-a-generation crossover star and actress-courting boldface name previously embodied by Mikhail Baryshnikov."

Read the rest of the article here.

Above photo taken from Details, by Eric Ray Davidson.

CHRISTOPHER WHEELDON'S ESTANCIA

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Last Saturday night was the premiere of Christopher Wheeldon's new ballet, Estancia, at New York City Ballet. Everyone in the audience seemed to go wild over it. When it ended, I overheard people saying they didn't want it to end, and others saying they thought it was his best work, and in the lobby, several of my friends said they really liked it. I thought it was so so. And definitely a departure from Wheeldon's usual.

Estancia is a story ballet, set to to music by Alberto Ginastera, that...

SWALLOW REVIEWED ON BASIL AND SPICE

I love this review, from a writer, Randall Radic, whom I met on Facebook.

Here's an excerpt:

"Plank's writing style is fluid and easy to read.  And she certainly has a knack for getting inside the heads of her Ivy League characters.  Her portrayal of New York's hoity-toityness provides a crispy snap-crackle-pop kind of humor to the story.  And even though Sophie is a product of Yale Law School, she's really just a small-town hick from Arizona.  Which means she's like a vegetarian at a Kansas...

ABT'S LADY OF THE CAMELLIAS NOT VULGAR!

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Photo by Gene Schiavone, of Roberto Bolle and Julie Kent in Lady of the Camellias, taken from ABT website.

I was so busy last week carting pounds and pounds of books back and forth from the Javits Center – and killing my back and shoulders in the process, that I haven't had time yet to figure out how to reinstall my Disqus system, which means you still can't comment here, unfortunately. Sorry! I was going to wait to write about ABT's Lady of the Camellias (and their other ballets I've seen...

BEA

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You guys, I am sorry about being out of it the last few days. BookExpo America is currently underway at the Javits Center and my week is nuts. But I promise to get up a review of the two ABT Bayaderes that I saw last week — especially since it was Cory Stearns's debut as Solor and Hee Seo's debut as Gamzatti! I will write more later this week, after all the madness has ended. In the meantime, here are some photos of BEA thus far. Above, the entrance, although early in the week there wasn't...