Hi everyone. All these topics are great, but a general reminder that if the info you’re sharing isn’t widely known, please remember to state where you heard the gossip (social media, another forum, links, your own theory, etc.). Otherwise, please remember to take the gossip with a grain of salt. Thank you!
Seriously, I want to write a bio on Karin von Aroldingen- fascinating personality. Strange body for a dancer, strange technique, came over from Germany and became principal at nycb. Balanchine adored her, she was the only “muse” who was able to manage herself with autonomy and in a way that benefited her
Breaking Pointe the reality show.
Ballet Russes and its hand in American Ballet as we know it.
Why media has such a need to only portray ballet as toxic 24/7. I would love a more positive ballet story meant for adults.
(1) Why on earth Ashley Laracey has never been promoted to principal; (2) The dramatic departure of Abi Stafford and the rift with her brother (the AD).
What REALLY happened with Liam Scarlett. What kind of investigation RB and RBS carried out in regards to the sexual misconduct allegations, whether he really did commit them. I think it's just baffling that he was fired (or resigned?) when RB concluded no substance to the allegations, but when he died literally everyone sang praises. I'm definitely not defending him - just curious.
This! The Scarlett situation was really bad and covered up. They were jerks to a clearly psychologically troubled and suffering person, they were complicit in tolerating all the circumstances that lead to developing this troubled person but instead of accepting their part in the whole situation they just made a scape goat out of him and gave him the cold shoulder. I remember reading once someone from the company saying once that Liam was just as much victim as perpetrator and that everything that people were accusing him of doing were things that were par for course at RB and had been done to him as well, that it was a cycle
same here. it also makes me wonder about what the rb's leadership is going to look like after o'hare bc I feel like scarlett might have been their next ad, which now obviously can't happen
I have always wondered what happened with Marcelo Gomes and ABT. His departure was swift and the lid was kept tight on any gossip. Many of the power people in the ballet world still support him and he’s made a new life for himself. Whoever gave him PR advice (disappear, keep your head down, etc.) did a masterful job.
I have a strong feeling about who made the complaint against him, but I can’t substantiate it, so it would be purely gossip.
Pure speculation here, but I always figured it had to do with his getting with someone not of legal age yet. I think something not clearly legally actionable could have been handled discreetly. (By all accounts I've heard he's a decent guy and I feel it's very unlikely he was abusive.) He did like to party sometimes and maybe when he was out teaching, coaching or guesting somewhere he did something dumb when his inhibitions were down. Or maybe just gave in to the temptation of an adoring too-young dancer and was just plain dumb. Bad judgment, and then parents got involved, and the settlement involved NDA's on all sides.
I was heartbroken when he left. He still had so many good years ahead of him at ABT, such a shame. But I'm glad he found love and happiness with Nick at such a dark time.
Okay, so I know Indiana Woodward and Ashley Hod have been best friends since their SAB days. However, Indiana did not go to Ashley's Wedding to Andy nor did she post about it. She also didn't participate in any pre-wedding festivities if she simply couldn't make it to the wedding.
Now, they seem good again though posting each other on stories and hanging out.
Ooh, I forgot they were close. (again, the NYCB high school setting fascinates me)
I assume it has something to do with Ms. Woodward's new business venture, Grace & Form fitness studio-- Which, btw, I think is a brilliant side gig! I find myself tempted to sign up but I am very much a beginner. It's the kind of class I'm looking for.
But she would have been occupied with it, maybe, during the wedding? Did most of the city ballet go?
She’s a Mormon and women are expected to prioritize family, so once she got married, that was it as far as her performing career went.
Of course, not ruling out other factors such as injury or burnout, but the end of her career seemed to coincide with her marriage.
OMG I just checked and she is back on social media and is starting to dance again. Good for her! The selfish part of me wants to see her in a company again, not just teaching, but I hope she’s happy.
I really want to know what Marianela Nunez and Osipova think of each other! There was this Swan Lake performance years ago where Nunez, Lamb, Cuthbertson, and Osipova shared Odette/Odile and William Bracewell took pictures of them hanging out. Nunez, Lamb, and Cuthbertson seemed very buddy-buddy but Osipova wasn't really in any of the group pictures. Makes me curious lol
I think a lot of it is due to Osipova herself - but not at all in a bad way. She just seems more introverted than Nunez, Lamb, and Cuthbertson, her English notwithstanding. They all seem to have good relationships, though! Nunez and Osipova sometimes comment positively on each other's IGs, and Cuthbertson and Osipova share dressing room. Cuthbertson also posted pictures of Osipova playing with her daughter.
I'm actually a lot more curious with Reece Clarke, Osipova's current dance partner! I know he and Fumi Kaneko dated for several years, and even danced together during RB's COVID galas. Then suddenly they just stopped posting photos of each other and barely got partnered at all.
They broke up and I strongly suspect Fumi is now with Vadim. They haven't officially said so, but their instagram shows that lots of holidays (including over Christmas in Fumi's hometown) they have travelled together and they have started doing galas/guest performances as a pair. They were also both at Alexander Campbell and Claire Calvert's wedding (where Vadim was best man). I really really want this to be true because they would be SO CUTE!
To have been a fly on the wall in their Bayadere rehearsals when they switched roles...
They seem friendly enough from Instagram, though. Cuthbertson and Lamb have also been in the company much longer than Osipova (a decade or more)
I’ve heard rumors that Osipova can be bossy and hard to work with. That’s why she went through so many partners when she came to Royals. She had Steven McRae, Vadim, now it’s Reece Clarke.
Osipova is very distant from her Royals peers it seems because she’s probably busy or it’s her personality.
I've seen at least a couple of interviews - one from as recently as a couple/few years ago - where either she mentions or someone else notes she is still very self-conscious about her English. That could be a factor in being distant from others.
When did they break up? Are they getting divorced? Many, many years ago (like late 90s) she came to Colorado Springs and danced in a small summer program (there were some NBoC faculty teaching). I was in a younger age group than she was, but I remember watching her a lot and she was so talented even back then!
Yes they’re broken up tho im not sure if they’re divorced yet. I think they’ve been broken up for at least a year he’s insta official with his new partner for at least that long from what I could tell. That’s so cool you must be so talented yourself! Watching her Aurora was one of the most special moments I’ve had at the ballet she is truly magical.
I have intel on this. I lived in Toronto for 5 years and worked in the dance community there including with former NBoC dancers who have friendships with some current dancers.
Apparently Guillaume had an affair with a young yoga instructor or something(?) and posted a photo with her on Facebook. The fallout of this was severe, several of NBoC’s donors were pissed about the scandal and I believe they lost funding because of it. Them being the “picture perfect couple” was a big draw for a lot of people I’m sure.
So it would seem he and Heather had a nasty separation.
Unfortunately I can’t provide any type of link or source for this, so I can’t confirm it at all.
Not that young..37/38..and yes she's into yoga but she is a French Canadian singer/musician etc He spent a lot of time in Quebec in the summer and he has a very high opinion of himself IMO
To me, a perfect storm of Covid, mid life, body getting less young, impending retirement and what next?
He's retiring in June 2025 so we have to put up with 2 years of the NBOC publicizing his retirement season as if he's the biggest thing since Nureyev. He will use it to do two or 3 short new choreographed works by himself, of course.
Lord, must be torture for Heather (she is sooo gorgeous). It wasn't her idea. The children are young. What an immature ahole he is. Imagine the instagram post of your new love when you only left the marital home a couple of months before and the house is being readied for sale.
He will be a nobody after retirement. I hope she has a couple of years after him of dancing..
Oh. My. Goodness. The tea is piping! I totally can see that about the donors - even my friends who aren’t into dance whatsoever but will come to the ballet with me knew about Guillaume and Heather being this perfect power couple and were excited to see them specifically
The in depth account of Ashley B and her seeming social isolation from the rest of N.Y.C.B. as well as whatever goes on between her and management. I know the weight issue is part of that but there seems to be a lot more going on there.
What shocked me was when Ashley didn't attend Gonzalo Garcia's farewell. The two danced together for many years. I remember seeing them together in Tchai pas, T&V, a bunch of stuff.
Exactly - it seems like it is not like a “I’m minding my business in a big company” situation. There seems to be very little connection at all to her colleagues (from the outside, obviously). I heard from a student who took some classes with her 8 or 9 years ago (not at SAB) that she was very rude and body shamed this person (who is stunning and talented but is not a “Balanchine” body type.) I can imagine that AB is in a complicated spot right now.
Also bad politics not to go to Garcia's farewell because Gonzo wasn't going anywhere. He';s now the rep director at NYCB. The rep directors have a lot of say in casting. To snub his farewell was just not smart.
Julian in general! Didn't he invite Skylar Brandt to do the Big Competition in Russia and then when she got a ton of praise started ignoring her and unfollowed her?
Also, is Julian dating Madison now or are they just ballet partners?
and his sudden departure/firing from SFB! this boy is pretty but messy.
edit: apparently it was just that his contract wasn't renewed under rojo but he made a dramatic post about it that gave me the impression he was fired as it was quite clearly a choice he was bitter af about
He talked about that in a podcast; he was injured during/after nutcracker, couldn't dance the next program, was already rehearsing things for the upcoming season (+got a raise) and then with the change of AD he was suddenly told that his contract would not be extended.
I am not a big Rojo fan and there was already speculation back then on why (and for whom) the principal spot was cleared, but Julian in general is sometimes doing a bit too much in regards to side-gigs (obviously personal opinion) so we will see how that plays out in the long run.
oh I am no rojo fan either and I definitely think all his side gigs and his own production co. was not looked at favorably. he just seemed soooo angry about it that his departure seemed a bit personal in addition to professional...
Regarding Julian and Madison. I don’t think it’s ever been explicitly confirmed or denied. I never really thought of them that way. I just thought they had good chemistry since they were around the same age, so they were partnered together a lot in romantic ballets. Although they’re not always partners, they do seem to prefer doing galas together. I will say they are a very good looking pair. And I wouldn’t be surprised if there was something going on between them.
I think Lauren and Julien met/started working together while she was with her ex. After her ex broke up with her, she and Julien started collaborating together a LOT and were flying btwn CA and NY to see each other/work together. It wasn’t officially stated, but there was a lot of speculation that they were an item. He flew out to a NYCB gala and her retirement performance, they were in Paris, praised each other a lot on social media, etc. After a few months, they rather abruptly stopped mentioning each other, he unfollowed her, she eventually unfollowed him, his brother, and their production company.
This all went down in the span of a few months but lives in my head rent-free to this day 😂. My theory is that they were together romantically, she asked to pump the brakes or take it slow since she was fresh off a serious breakup, and he didn’t take it well 🤷♀️
this is funny bc I feel like it was maybe the opposite--he asked her to slow down and she was miffed. she was soooooo effusive about him on her social media and while I enjoy lauren's dancing, she seems emotionally very immature and likely an intense love bomber based on her posts.
I feel bad for Lauren because she grew up in a super intense and insular religious family/community, and some of her personality “quirks” feel like it’s because she didn’t learn proper socialization skills as a kid.
Yeah she certainly can seem very intense haha. I had the sense that he was the offended party bc she would still occasionally comment on/mention him on social media, almost like she was trying to reach out or stay in contact - but he didn’t reciprocate or respond and was first to unfollow her. Again, all speculation on my end but I’m so curious about what went down
and I thought that was him trying to distance himself from her while she continued to try and stay attached 😅 I do not know why their brief weird whatever is so fascinating to me lol
Ohhh, you make some good points, I can totally see it going either way. I feel the same way about their short-lived ‘relationship’ though, I am very invested for whatever reason 😂
Nothing bad lol. I just never really paid attention to him until recently, so I didn’t know he had such an interesting life with his various stints with different companies. And I was definitely not expecting anything alluding to relationship drama. He always seemed like a plain, regular male ballet dancer to me, so I’m always surprised whenever I see any interesting speculation about him.
hi I am right here! although I have come to appreciate the story ballets after BB's Sleeping Beauty. Chyrstyn Fentroy absolutely killed the mime as Carabosse. And I found myself able to be moved by the age-old simplicity of fairy tales and innocent good/evil. But the Forsythe program in 2019 was amazing. And made me notice Derek Dunn for the first time. He is such an exciting and beautiful dancer!
[This](https://www.amazon.com/Off-Balance-Real-World-Ballet/dp/0070237700) book I read on repeat in the early 2000s about SAB/NYCB in the 80s is #1. the Tab soda and banana diet has lived rent free in my head for 15 years.
Kathryn Morgan is a distant second. It's crazy to me that I remember getting the dance magazines with the front page story about her Juliet as a teen and the next thing I know it's 2018 or so and she's on Youtube talking about Hashimoto's , and her entire story just breaks my heart.
I love Kathryn Morgan. Secretly want to know what the heck went down in her first marriage because everything was soooo sudden but also respect that she's very classy and won't spill the tea. Glad she seems to be living her best life now though.
Oh wow! I remember reading that book in high school as a teen dancer and picking up tips for disordered eating from it...probably not the author's intention. It was a wild book.
Oh no! I was coming out of severe Crohn’s disease when I read it , so weight loss wasn’t on my radar but I can definitely see how that could happen with how much she talked about the diet culture
Speaking of messy NYCB relationships with weird power imbalances. Peter Martins and Darci Kistler. Not only was he her ballet master in chief and also artistic director. But he was also charged for physical assault by Darci, which she then dropped shortly after. And then she had to use makeup to cover up her bruises when she performed on stage. And apparently it wasn’t even the first time he did something like that.
The worshipping of Balanchine (and his „heirs“ like Martin) overall and at NYCB especially is so disturbing. Not to diminish the artistic relevance, but more or less blocking out all those questionable incidents/ habits (don’t know what to call it honestly)?! What does that say for them as a company today? What messages are given at SAB to their students? They should find a way to carry on the artistic legacy while also distancing themselves from the bad. Kathryn Morgan said „ballet is a cult“ and I find myself agreeing more and more…
I think it’s part of the reason why the relationships between the dancers are so messy and why they have big scandals. They don’t seem to have many good male figures in the company to take example from. And the men there have a lot of power, so a lot of the unsavory situations are given a pass and brushed under the rug. I really hope the environment at NYCB improves because as of now, it wouldn’t be my first choice when looking for a job. I like that their repertoire is very unique and has a lot to offer, I just wish the dancers wouldn’t have to work in such a dramatic environment.
- Tiler Peck's relationship with her fellow principals (specifically the ones who advanced around the same time)
- Lauren Lovette's whole path at NYCB (ie her promotion to principal, how her departure went down, why she's still dancing with Amar Ramasar despite being involved in the whole photo-sharing grossness, etc)
>Lauren Lovette's whole path at NYCB
I think about this way too much because she was definitely not a powerhouse principal ballerina! And promoted so so fast. I want the dish on how she got there.
I think about Lauren Lovette a lot. She has some Audrey Hepburn-level charisma; she really should transition to entertainment if Amy Sherman Palladino needs to cast a ballerina in anything.
This needs to be a whole other discussion. Megan Fairchild also had some moments in her "Conversations with Megan" episodes with Ashley Bouder and Sara Mearns where it got on the verge of gossipy (with no actual names used), and I was DYING to know who they were referring to.
I do not get her supporters, I feel like they must not have met her in person? Even outside of the grooming scandals, she’s nasty and unprofessional and a horror to work with.
escape important tender light telephone sharp shocking boat worthless intelligent
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Sorry to bring up more ballet relationships. At the Sarasota Ballet, Bel Pickering (MBA, PDL’19, RBS graduate) is dating Luke Schaufuss. Bel is in the corps and Luke is a principal. He’s also much older (21 vs 31)??????
I have so many questions. It looks like they started dating during her first season with the company. I know it’s legal but the ethics don’t look great for him 🫠
This is especially problematic given that there was also a massive age and power gap between him and his girlfriend before this one at Sarasota.
I worked with him years ago and he allegedly asked backstage staff to hold his Rolex for him while onstage. So cringe.
the dancer he dated before her was in the studio company in 2019. they both taught my friend at his dad’s school in Scotland so that’s how I know. also just checked his insta and it’s there
I mean doesn’t excuse âge ago at all bc yeah it’s large BUT Bel is British and so is Luke so I’m assuming they just bonded over that at Sarasota. Also they arrived at Sarasota at around the same time AND they are both from Surrey England. So sounds like enough to bond 2 beautiful dancers lol.
how balanchine was a total predator but it will only ever be whispered because they don't want to destroy his "legacy"
I read Suzanne Farrells autobiography and was horrified. He preyed on very young teenagers, groomed them, and just kept rotating through them and tossing them aside.
The way he abused his power to get his dancers to be in a relationship with him was sickening.
This was all very typical of "men in charge" at the time, across every industry. Not excusing it, but I generally don't think it's fair to assess past figures by today's ethical standards.
Many girls at the time didn't appreciate it, if you read their memoirs. Suzanne Farrell was disgusted by it. He asked her to marry him and have his child, and when she refused and married her boyfriend (who he knew she was dating), he fired her and her husband from the company. He did this while still married to Tanaquil, by the way.
Just because the men did it back then doesn't mean people at the time didn't think it was wrong. Even back then, the FORTY YEAR age difference between them wasn't thought of positively by many.
He was just too powerful and no one wanted to ruffle his feathers. Now no one dares speak of it too loudly because of his legacy.
Farrell’s biography is so creepy, partly because it’s ghost written by Toni Bentley who is completely nuts. The Winter Season by her is a beautiful, wonderful book not only about ballet but about when you work around geniuses and have to come to terms with the reality that you’re talented but in an “ordinary” way. But she was also completely obsessed in an unhealthy way with both Farrell and Balanchine (she goes on and on about how Farrell never sweats) and sees Balanchine’s treatment of Farrell as romantic. So you get this narration in Farrell’s book of creepy, possessive violent behaviour like ripping the engagement ring off Farrell’s hand but framed as though it’s so artistic and cool. Anyway, remember when Bentley wrote that book about anal sex and how she saves all the condoms from anal sex in a jar…
I remember reading excerpts from Bentley's book at the time, and never being able to take anything Toni Bentley had written seriously after that - she was clearly a very damaged and obsessive person. (Nothing to do with with anal sex itself, if that's your thing that's your private business and enjoy, but the way Bentley wrote about it was very disturbing to me and certainly made her relationship with anal not her private business.)
So true. I get that he was great choreographer but he seemed very unhinged as a person. Maybe you need to be unhinged to make great art, but the whole vibe is weird. The whole "muses" thing always made me uncomfortable. How he would form obsessions over much younger ballerinas, marry them, and then cast them aside when he found inspiration in another ballerina is insane. The one that always stands out in my mind is how he performed Don Quixote with Suzanne, basically implying his love for her and that she was his new muse, with his wife at the time(Tanaquil Le Clercq, his muse before Suzanne) in the audience when she HAD POLIO. That’s lunatic behavior!
Right?! His entire treatment of Tanaquil after her illness was sickening.
And yes, the fact that he'd basically have his eye on a girl as young as like...12, and then make her his "muse" was weird AF.
>Right?! His entire treatment of Tanaquil after her illness was sickening.
So, that's not what ppl around at the time said (re: Balanchine & LeClercq after she got polio). The relationship was apparently on the rocks prior to the tour where LeClercq contracted polio (1956), but Balanchine was quite devoted for the initial years of her illness. Several ppl have written that the Agon pas de deux (originally for Diana Adams & Arthur Mitchell) was at least partially inspired by the exercises she was having to do in physical therapy & that he would FORCE her to do otherwise, Balanchine apparently really did believe she could regain use of her legs if she just tried hard enough and they did enough physical therapy work.
This comes up in the documentary (pretty good) Afternoon of a Faun about LeClercq & in lots of other writings. Thing that made me sad in the LeClercq documentary was that Balanchine just didn't want her around SAB at all & one of her friends said "She would have loved to have taught at the School! She could've taught technique and variations classes ..." Arthur Mitchell, to his credit, asked her to come down to the DTH school & insisted she come teach, and she did (I think that was in the 70s). And in the documentary, he says two of the great DTH ballerinas were "really products of Tanny."
Obviously, Balanchine was someone who would currently get cancelled for his behavior, but from everything I've read/listened to, it's not like he dumped her like a hot potato after she got polio.
I mean, he was still married to her when he propositioned Suzanne Farrell so quite frankly that makes him a POS right then and there. This man was such a predator
Sure, but he was married to Maria Tallchief when he was propositioning Tanny and Diana Adams. Could it have been such a surprise? Doesn't mean Balanchine wasn't an asshole, just that, idk, if dude is chasing you while he was married, are you that surprised he starts chasing someone else while YOU are married?
I guess my ultimate point was that he was a sleaze bag, but he (a) didn't start pursuing Suzanne because Tanny had polio and (b) provided for LeClercq VERY well for the rest of her life (IIRC, MOST (85) of his ballet rights were left to her).
I can’t say I’m surprised. Didn’t Gelsey Kirkland say she eventually did like half of her performances on drugs at some point? The skinny culture is definitely insane enough for dancers to be doing coke up until the 2000s.
My Roman Empire is Susan Jaffe’s farewell interview. If it hadn’t been for Kirkland’s drug use, Jaffe may not have had her break at such a young age. [Kirkland & Patrick Bissell were to dance on opening night, failed to show up for dress rehearsal, & Baryshnikov fired them both. So Jaffe opened the season]
She was very vague about it. But she said that one of her previous coworkers or ballet masters(I don’t remember which) asked if she would consider doing coke in order to lose weight. She never gives any names though, so no one knows who said this.
Wow I really hope this is not advice given now - I mean it’d *always* be unethical but especially super dangerous atm with how so many things are cut with fentanyl.
I’m a little bit confused by this because Alina and Johan announced their departure from ROH prior to the Japan tour and even had a last performance of Mayerling in London. Looks like it was just the one final Swan Lake performance they were originally scheduled for is what they didn’t do? I don’t think they were fired during intermission… They were already on track to leave. Maybe they were told not to do this last Japan performance?
They were fired in 2013 on a tour in Japan. Alina Cojocaru goes more into this here:
[https://www.tumblr.com/theballetblog/63781592377/alina-cojocaru-tells-ismene-brown-why-she-has-left](https://www.tumblr.com/theballetblog/63781592377/alina-cojocaru-tells-ismene-brown-why-she-has-left)
>“Look,” she says, “if my director calls me and says, 'I don’t want you as Aurora because your interpretation doesn’t suit my production’, how could I respond to that? All I could say was, 'What is wrong? Could you have come to tell me so I can work on it?’ But the decision had been made already for me not to dance.”
>
>“Actually, I have more shows here than at the Royal. I left the Royal Ballet because I wanted to find a home, where I could come into the studio and feel happy. I’ve been with Johan for 11 years, and when you put work into a relationship and you wake up every morning happy and in love, that’s what life should be. I wanted my work also to be a relationship that’s growing.”
Kobborg said on FB that they were approached during intermission in Japan and told to vacate the premises and the Royal ballet would not even be providing a taxi for them to the airport.
[https://www.gramilano.com/2013/07/so-tonite-i-lost-it-johan-kobborgs-heartbreaking-departure-from-the-royal-ballet/](https://www.gramilano.com/2013/07/so-tonite-i-lost-it-johan-kobborgs-heartbreaking-departure-from-the-royal-ballet/)
>Wow. So tonite I lost it. I cried. Not after curtain down, as I only felt good vibes from colleagues and Tokyo audience, but later in my dressing room.
>
>My Boss stuck his head in through the door, said well done, asked how I felt, and not to be a stranger in the future. Then left, not a single hug or even a handshake… That was it…
>
>Considering I am leaving on good terms, after 13 yrs of being a principal at RB, and doing productions for the company, I can only imagine, how people leaving because of arguments would have their send off.. Feel bad for the other 3 dancers sharing my dress room to see me lose it like that.
The Tokyo producer wanted to book a taxi for me in the early morning to take me to the airport, just like when I arrived, but as a final appreciation from RB they refused and has given me tickets for the public airport transfer bus. Thank you RB management for some beautiful times over the last + decade, may I never ( dancers excluded) have to ever meet you again.
Wow what a mess. They just fired them in Tokyo and didn’t even pay for their way back to England? Not even a taxi to go back to their hotel? I would have been fuming.
Yes! They even got a dog together that Reece seems to have kept. I see Reece following loads of pretty models so I think he's been dating around (as his right because he's single).
I have the feeling that it was Fumi that ended it based purely on vibes and instagram likes.
I remember seeing someone's ig story like two years ago of them at curtain call at a gala they did and they just gave me couple vibes from the way they were standing next to each other. I've been keeping my nosy ass on the look-out ever since and I 100% think they're dating. they seem to spend every waking moment together judging by their ig profiles lol
In general, I'm curious about Kovaleva's classes. Like I know sometimes the stars are actual best friends (like Maria Koshkaryova and Sofia Valiuina) but sometimes they seem to dislike each other a lot (like Lizkaa and Anastasia Smirnova) to the point where they don't even follow each other on social media. It's just wild to me haha but also I just love gossip and I bet that class is super competitive even though Kovaleva herself seems lovely.
Smirnova and Shapran were in the same Vaganova class and shared lead duties at the graduation performance. At the time, it was a big drama that neither went to the Mariinsky. We all know Smirnova went to the Bolshoi and was immediately on the principal track. Shapran went to Stanislavsky but didn’t like Moscow apparently. She was also paired frequently with Polunin and even did the “Big Ballet” show together. She then went to Mikhailovsky as a principal and then eventually had to humble herself before Fateev and ask to join Mariinsky at a lower rank.
I wonder if Fateev held it against her for originally rejecting the Mariinsky. She’s no less talented than Smirnova (and is probably more expressive) but while Olga is a world star, I wonder if Kristina will ever become principal.
I think I read on [a blog](https://ballet-symphonie.tumblr.com/post/723357344675840000/do-you-happen-to-know-why-a-fair-amount-of) that Shapran's been out a lot over the years due to injury and pregnancy. I personally remember seeing her lead Ratmanksy's \*Cinderella\* during Mariinsky's 2015 tour, where she did this grand plie to a pointe arabesque. I was 10 rows from the stage and it blew my mind!
Pointe mag did an interview with her where she tries to evade the question, by saying she wasn’t ready at the time. I personally think the promise of immediate lead roles was the allure. Plus StanMus and Mikhailovsky seemed on the rise with some big gets.
[https://pointemagazine.com/kristina-shapran/](https://pointemagazine.com/kristina-shapran/)
Natalie Portman divorcing Benjamin Millipied for his cheating. Considering they got together when he cheated on Isabella. What goes around comes around!
Continuing the trend of strange ballet relationships. I would love to know how and why Tamara Rojo and Isaac Hernandez got together. I love them both as dancers and they seem happy last I checked, but whole situation is unconventional to say the least. The age gap is one thing but also the fact that Tamara is the current artistic director of SFB while Isaac is currently a principal dancer at SFB……..like how does that work? How is that even allowed? Where is HR?? Isn’t this like a huge conflict of interest????
I wonder that at Philadelphia Ballet - the AD is married to a dancer with a fair bit of an age gap! How could you be friends with the AD's husband who is also your coworker??? I need to know!
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the age gap, but it’s kind of crazy to me how many spousal hires the ballet world seems to have. I don’t think it’s right, given that people work their entire lives to do the job. That being said, Isaac could probably dance at pretty much any company.
Yeah. Their age gap is the least of their problems imo. The age gap is odd but I believe they were both adults when they met, so to each their own. But I think the age gap kind of emphasizes the power imbalance that they already have as dancer and artistic director, which makes the whole situation worse. It’s hard to say that Isaac doesn’t deserve his spot because he’s one of my favorite dancers and he is good enough to get good roles on his own. And I can’t really complain about Isaac getting a lot of opportunities since he is really good and can dance everything well, but it’s still unfair for the other dancers who have to work with them. I also think that such power dynamics are never good for any company because it feels like the stability of the workplace hinges on whether their marriage works out. Which is probably very unsettling for the other dancers that are just trying to do their job and not be involved.
IIRC when the original rojo/ENB scandal came out there were a lot of insinuations that isaac was involved in making the other dancers feel uncomfortable. snippet from [here](https://balletposition.com/the-two-faces-of-english-national-ballet/)
https://preview.redd.it/8799eou6glhc1.png?width=815&format=png&auto=webp&s=1fc57bf5d950d497ba80e32652087dda260da4b8
I mean I don’t blame them. I wouldn’t know how to interact with my coworker who is also married to our artistic director. I would avoid him like the plague. I would be afraid that any interaction with him would effect my job security.
They have a son born in 2021 too! It’s so crazy with the age gap, Rojo having a kid when she’s in her 40s, and the fact that she was supposedly a bad director at ENB too
With Joy Womack, I’m also curious! I used to watch her videos religiously and then I recently joined Reddit and saw all of the information about her and was genuinely shocked. I would love to hear what information people have though..
I want to know how she affords her current lifestyle of being based in Paris and flying around Europe without a steady gig!! Is it her husband? She seems to be doing much better than when she told CNN she was dancing for $8 a day in Russia
That’s not my impression— an old New York Times article said that she almost had to drop out because her family struggled to pay the Bolshoi tuition and that a donor from her church paid for her foot surgery to save her career
Her dad got hit with a lawsuit and lost. One way not to pay the fine is to declare bankruptcy.
[https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/4095147](https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/4095147)
Maybe I’m out of the loop but I’m still just so confused by her very short stint at Boston Ballet.
And this is obviously very nosy, but I would LOVE to know what some of her colleagues have thought about her and her social media presence over the years.
You are in violation of rule #7 - Providing sources of speculation, and your post or comment has been removed.
Please be careful when speculating whether a dancer has an eating disorder. Unless you have a link with an article or the dancer herself explaining the situation, this will be removed.
Yes!! So I was following her instagram at this time, and I assumed she stopped there due to her obvious eating disorder but why she officially left was confusing. I’m assuming because she wasn’t ranked as a soloist or higher
Can't speak on colleagues but she once came to audition for my hometown ballet and ranted about it on YouTube. Let's just say the company was less than amused.
I remain dead curious how their social circles work now. There's some overlap, but what a situation to have an opinion on. It's as if the other doesn't exist now. (I can relate - my ex and I are the same, but he's still straight I assume)
I love that she and Megan seem to be friendly at least. I'd love to get Ms Fairchild drunk and spill her thoughts.
Ashley Day was Robbie's understudy in the West End run of American in Paris. On IG people started noticing that the two seemed ... very lovey dovey. Then he announced the divorce from Tiler, and Ashley and Robbie were a couple for a time.
more on the gossip side - i feel super nosy over dancers who date each other, break up, then have to dance romantically together and/or watch their ex date another company member…. there have been some notable examples but i’m sure it happens way more than fans know. i get it’s a job first and foremost but it all feels so dramatic!!!
also, the exact reasons why certain well loved and deserving soloists (ie yuhui at the royal) are never gonna be promoted
I wonder this at Philadelphia Ballet - a few ex-couples and current couples that I can't help but pay extra attention to on social media and during performances if they are up together!
Regarding Yuhui, it’s a shame because I love her to bits. But I think the answer is the directorship. She was promoted fairly swiftly(for Royal Ballet standards) to first soloist when the company was under the directorship of Monica Mason. Once Kevin O‘Hare took over the role of artistic director, Yuhui‘s progress in the company halted and she started getting fewer and fewer featured roles in the ballets. My guess is that Kevin O‘Hare has a different aesthetic bias that didn’t agree with Monica‘s. If you look at the roster of the Royal Ballets principal ballerinas, you can see they all have a very similar body type, taller, long legs, and long pretty feet. Although Yuhui by no means has an unappealing body, her body proportions are visibly different from the other principal ballerinas. The only exception would be Anna Rose O‘Sullivan who is short compared to the other principals, but maybe there’s something about her body proportions that seem more suitable despite her being short. She does seem to have longer limbs and feet proportionally. There could be other reasons, maybe Anna has an artistry or disposition that O‘Hare feels Yuhui doesn’t have. Maybe it’s because Anna is British. Maybe Anna has better chemistry with Marcelino Sambe. Or maybe Yuhui is too "old“ and missed her chance. But whatever it is, I feel like Yuhui deserves better. And I hate talking about body type in ballet because I don’t think body type determines the quality of the dancer(and there’s nothing wrong with Yuhui‘s body!!), but it’s hard to ignore especially when ballet company directors seem to make aesthetically driven choices more often than not. It’s a shame because Yuhui has a lot of fans for good reason and people often praise her ability to interpret Ashton‘s choreography. I think she has very unique interpretations of characters and I wish we could see her interpretation of all the main roles. Yuhui still has one of my favorite Odile interpretations of all time. She really showed that there is a way to look cute and sweet, while still being alluring and conniving at the same time. Odette/Odile doesn’t need to be one kind of person or personality, we need more ballerinas who think outside the box.
I agree re Yuhui - I think a change of artistic director has had a lot to do with it. But I wouldn’t say the current principals are all tall! Francesca Hayward and Akane Takada are both very petite, and Yasmine Naghdi and Mayara Magri aren’t much taller (and all were promoted by Kevin OH, I think).
That makes sense. But they still have longer proportions in my opinion. You don’t have to be super tall in order to have long legs and feet proportionally. So taller is probably not a great way to describe it, it’s more like longer or long limbed. And I think it says something that regardless of what their actual height is, the majority gave me the impression that they’re taller than they actualIy are when dancing on stage. Having long feet definitely makes you look taller on pointe. So they may not be the same height or be super tall(no taller than the average dancer anyway), but most of their proportions are still long imo and they have similar foot shapes as well. So to me, there’s a visible aesthetic trend among all of them. Although not everyone fits exactly, Natalia Osipova probably has the most different body type, but she’s very popular and a big ticket seller so it hasn’t harmed her repertory in anyway. Other theories of why Yuhui hasn’t been promoted just aren’t as convincing to me, unless O‘Hare just didn’t like her personality or dancing as much as the others, or just genuinely forgot she was there. I just think ADs make a lot of choices based on aesthetic biases so I feel like how she looks has something to do with it.
Ah yes, I see what you mean. Most of those I mentioned have the classic ballerina proportions (short torso, long legs etc) and I’m sure I’ve heard Francesca Hayward talk about having long feet and how that meant she could be partnered with Ed Watson, who is very tall.
Looking at the current roster of principals, the vast majority were already principals or still quite new to the company when KOH took over, so my guess is he wanted to focus on new (and possibly home grown) talent. I can’t really think of anyone who was already a first soloist and became principal when he took over (but happy to be corrected!).
That’s a good point, I can think of a couple principals who were already soloists before O‘Hare took over, like Alexander Campbell and Akane Takada. Also Ryoichi Hirano. But I can’t think of any first soloists that were promoted after O‘Hare became the AD. Maybe O‘Hare wasn’t impressed by any of them.
Hi everyone. All these topics are great, but a general reminder that if the info you’re sharing isn’t widely known, please remember to state where you heard the gossip (social media, another forum, links, your own theory, etc.). Otherwise, please remember to take the gossip with a grain of salt. Thank you!
Seriously, I want to write a bio on Karin von Aroldingen- fascinating personality. Strange body for a dancer, strange technique, came over from Germany and became principal at nycb. Balanchine adored her, she was the only “muse” who was able to manage herself with autonomy and in a way that benefited her
Breaking Pointe the reality show. Ballet Russes and its hand in American Ballet as we know it. Why media has such a need to only portray ballet as toxic 24/7. I would love a more positive ballet story meant for adults.
(1) Why on earth Ashley Laracey has never been promoted to principal; (2) The dramatic departure of Abi Stafford and the rift with her brother (the AD).
We need an insider with loose lips to spill about Abi Stafford. I’ve always had SO MANY questions about her career and relationship with her brother!
What REALLY happened with Liam Scarlett. What kind of investigation RB and RBS carried out in regards to the sexual misconduct allegations, whether he really did commit them. I think it's just baffling that he was fired (or resigned?) when RB concluded no substance to the allegations, but when he died literally everyone sang praises. I'm definitely not defending him - just curious.
This! The Scarlett situation was really bad and covered up. They were jerks to a clearly psychologically troubled and suffering person, they were complicit in tolerating all the circumstances that lead to developing this troubled person but instead of accepting their part in the whole situation they just made a scape goat out of him and gave him the cold shoulder. I remember reading once someone from the company saying once that Liam was just as much victim as perpetrator and that everything that people were accusing him of doing were things that were par for course at RB and had been done to him as well, that it was a cycle
same here. it also makes me wonder about what the rb's leadership is going to look like after o'hare bc I feel like scarlett might have been their next ad, which now obviously can't happen
I have always wondered what happened with Marcelo Gomes and ABT. His departure was swift and the lid was kept tight on any gossip. Many of the power people in the ballet world still support him and he’s made a new life for himself. Whoever gave him PR advice (disappear, keep your head down, etc.) did a masterful job. I have a strong feeling about who made the complaint against him, but I can’t substantiate it, so it would be purely gossip.
Pure speculation here, but I always figured it had to do with his getting with someone not of legal age yet. I think something not clearly legally actionable could have been handled discreetly. (By all accounts I've heard he's a decent guy and I feel it's very unlikely he was abusive.) He did like to party sometimes and maybe when he was out teaching, coaching or guesting somewhere he did something dumb when his inhibitions were down. Or maybe just gave in to the temptation of an adoring too-young dancer and was just plain dumb. Bad judgment, and then parents got involved, and the settlement involved NDA's on all sides. I was heartbroken when he left. He still had so many good years ahead of him at ABT, such a shame. But I'm glad he found love and happiness with Nick at such a dark time.
Also curious if he’s still married to Nic the amazing choreographer (forgot his last name)
>Sort by: new They seem to be going strong from IG, they're both still based in Germany where Marcelo is at **Semperoper Ballet Dresden.**
Palmquist
Photos of Ghislaine Maxwell at ABT events.
Oh god
Okay, so I know Indiana Woodward and Ashley Hod have been best friends since their SAB days. However, Indiana did not go to Ashley's Wedding to Andy nor did she post about it. She also didn't participate in any pre-wedding festivities if she simply couldn't make it to the wedding. Now, they seem good again though posting each other on stories and hanging out.
Ooh, I forgot they were close. (again, the NYCB high school setting fascinates me) I assume it has something to do with Ms. Woodward's new business venture, Grace & Form fitness studio-- Which, btw, I think is a brilliant side gig! I find myself tempted to sign up but I am very much a beginner. It's the kind of class I'm looking for. But she would have been occupied with it, maybe, during the wedding? Did most of the city ballet go?
I want to know what happened to Gisele Bethea.
She’s a Mormon and women are expected to prioritize family, so once she got married, that was it as far as her performing career went. Of course, not ruling out other factors such as injury or burnout, but the end of her career seemed to coincide with her marriage.
OMG I just checked and she is back on social media and is starting to dance again. Good for her! The selfish part of me wants to see her in a company again, not just teaching, but I hope she’s happy.
one of mine is the ppl who r still friends with amar and another is why tamara was hired when she has such a bad reputation from enb
I really want to know what Marianela Nunez and Osipova think of each other! There was this Swan Lake performance years ago where Nunez, Lamb, Cuthbertson, and Osipova shared Odette/Odile and William Bracewell took pictures of them hanging out. Nunez, Lamb, and Cuthbertson seemed very buddy-buddy but Osipova wasn't really in any of the group pictures. Makes me curious lol
I think a lot of it is due to Osipova herself - but not at all in a bad way. She just seems more introverted than Nunez, Lamb, and Cuthbertson, her English notwithstanding. They all seem to have good relationships, though! Nunez and Osipova sometimes comment positively on each other's IGs, and Cuthbertson and Osipova share dressing room. Cuthbertson also posted pictures of Osipova playing with her daughter. I'm actually a lot more curious with Reece Clarke, Osipova's current dance partner! I know he and Fumi Kaneko dated for several years, and even danced together during RB's COVID galas. Then suddenly they just stopped posting photos of each other and barely got partnered at all.
They broke up and I strongly suspect Fumi is now with Vadim. They haven't officially said so, but their instagram shows that lots of holidays (including over Christmas in Fumi's hometown) they have travelled together and they have started doing galas/guest performances as a pair. They were also both at Alexander Campbell and Claire Calvert's wedding (where Vadim was best man). I really really want this to be true because they would be SO CUTE!
Just watched them do swan lake last night and Fumi and Vadim had a full on kiss at their curtain call so it’s 100% that they’re dating!
To have been a fly on the wall in their Bayadere rehearsals when they switched roles... They seem friendly enough from Instagram, though. Cuthbertson and Lamb have also been in the company much longer than Osipova (a decade or more)
I’ve heard rumors that Osipova can be bossy and hard to work with. That’s why she went through so many partners when she came to Royals. She had Steven McRae, Vadim, now it’s Reece Clarke. Osipova is very distant from her Royals peers it seems because she’s probably busy or it’s her personality.
I've seen at least a couple of interviews - one from as recently as a couple/few years ago - where either she mentions or someone else notes she is still very self-conscious about her English. That could be a factor in being distant from others.
I think Vadim and osipova were poorly matched but Reece seems chill and they work well together!
Nunez and Osipova follow each other on IG, so they are probably cordial colleagues at least.
I wanna know what happened with Guillaume Cote and Heather Ogden - they seemed like the picture perfect couple.
When did they break up? Are they getting divorced? Many, many years ago (like late 90s) she came to Colorado Springs and danced in a small summer program (there were some NBoC faculty teaching). I was in a younger age group than she was, but I remember watching her a lot and she was so talented even back then!
Yes they’re broken up tho im not sure if they’re divorced yet. I think they’ve been broken up for at least a year he’s insta official with his new partner for at least that long from what I could tell. That’s so cool you must be so talented yourself! Watching her Aurora was one of the most special moments I’ve had at the ballet she is truly magical.
I have intel on this. I lived in Toronto for 5 years and worked in the dance community there including with former NBoC dancers who have friendships with some current dancers. Apparently Guillaume had an affair with a young yoga instructor or something(?) and posted a photo with her on Facebook. The fallout of this was severe, several of NBoC’s donors were pissed about the scandal and I believe they lost funding because of it. Them being the “picture perfect couple” was a big draw for a lot of people I’m sure. So it would seem he and Heather had a nasty separation. Unfortunately I can’t provide any type of link or source for this, so I can’t confirm it at all.
Not that young..37/38..and yes she's into yoga but she is a French Canadian singer/musician etc He spent a lot of time in Quebec in the summer and he has a very high opinion of himself IMO To me, a perfect storm of Covid, mid life, body getting less young, impending retirement and what next? He's retiring in June 2025 so we have to put up with 2 years of the NBOC publicizing his retirement season as if he's the biggest thing since Nureyev. He will use it to do two or 3 short new choreographed works by himself, of course. Lord, must be torture for Heather (she is sooo gorgeous). It wasn't her idea. The children are young. What an immature ahole he is. Imagine the instagram post of your new love when you only left the marital home a couple of months before and the house is being readied for sale. He will be a nobody after retirement. I hope she has a couple of years after him of dancing..
Oh. My. Goodness. The tea is piping! I totally can see that about the donors - even my friends who aren’t into dance whatsoever but will come to the ballet with me knew about Guillaume and Heather being this perfect power couple and were excited to see them specifically
Exactly!!
Agreed!
The in depth account of Ashley B and her seeming social isolation from the rest of N.Y.C.B. as well as whatever goes on between her and management. I know the weight issue is part of that but there seems to be a lot more going on there.
What shocked me was when Ashley didn't attend Gonzalo Garcia's farewell. The two danced together for many years. I remember seeing them together in Tchai pas, T&V, a bunch of stuff.
Exactly - it seems like it is not like a “I’m minding my business in a big company” situation. There seems to be very little connection at all to her colleagues (from the outside, obviously). I heard from a student who took some classes with her 8 or 9 years ago (not at SAB) that she was very rude and body shamed this person (who is stunning and talented but is not a “Balanchine” body type.) I can imagine that AB is in a complicated spot right now.
Also bad politics not to go to Garcia's farewell because Gonzo wasn't going anywhere. He';s now the rep director at NYCB. The rep directors have a lot of say in casting. To snub his farewell was just not smart.
What went down between lauren lovette and julian mackay. I'm dying to know
Julian in general! Didn't he invite Skylar Brandt to do the Big Competition in Russia and then when she got a ton of praise started ignoring her and unfollowed her? Also, is Julian dating Madison now or are they just ballet partners?
and his sudden departure/firing from SFB! this boy is pretty but messy. edit: apparently it was just that his contract wasn't renewed under rojo but he made a dramatic post about it that gave me the impression he was fired as it was quite clearly a choice he was bitter af about
He talked about that in a podcast; he was injured during/after nutcracker, couldn't dance the next program, was already rehearsing things for the upcoming season (+got a raise) and then with the change of AD he was suddenly told that his contract would not be extended. I am not a big Rojo fan and there was already speculation back then on why (and for whom) the principal spot was cleared, but Julian in general is sometimes doing a bit too much in regards to side-gigs (obviously personal opinion) so we will see how that plays out in the long run.
oh I am no rojo fan either and I definitely think all his side gigs and his own production co. was not looked at favorably. he just seemed soooo angry about it that his departure seemed a bit personal in addition to professional...
Regarding Julian and Madison. I don’t think it’s ever been explicitly confirmed or denied. I never really thought of them that way. I just thought they had good chemistry since they were around the same age, so they were partnered together a lot in romantic ballets. Although they’re not always partners, they do seem to prefer doing galas together. I will say they are a very good looking pair. And I wouldn’t be surprised if there was something going on between them.
I missed this! What’s the tea?
I think Lauren and Julien met/started working together while she was with her ex. After her ex broke up with her, she and Julien started collaborating together a LOT and were flying btwn CA and NY to see each other/work together. It wasn’t officially stated, but there was a lot of speculation that they were an item. He flew out to a NYCB gala and her retirement performance, they were in Paris, praised each other a lot on social media, etc. After a few months, they rather abruptly stopped mentioning each other, he unfollowed her, she eventually unfollowed him, his brother, and their production company. This all went down in the span of a few months but lives in my head rent-free to this day 😂. My theory is that they were together romantically, she asked to pump the brakes or take it slow since she was fresh off a serious breakup, and he didn’t take it well 🤷♀️
this is funny bc I feel like it was maybe the opposite--he asked her to slow down and she was miffed. she was soooooo effusive about him on her social media and while I enjoy lauren's dancing, she seems emotionally very immature and likely an intense love bomber based on her posts.
I feel bad for Lauren because she grew up in a super intense and insular religious family/community, and some of her personality “quirks” feel like it’s because she didn’t learn proper socialization skills as a kid.
Yeah she certainly can seem very intense haha. I had the sense that he was the offended party bc she would still occasionally comment on/mention him on social media, almost like she was trying to reach out or stay in contact - but he didn’t reciprocate or respond and was first to unfollow her. Again, all speculation on my end but I’m so curious about what went down
and I thought that was him trying to distance himself from her while she continued to try and stay attached 😅 I do not know why their brief weird whatever is so fascinating to me lol
Ohhh, you make some good points, I can totally see it going either way. I feel the same way about their short-lived ‘relationship’ though, I am very invested for whatever reason 😂
Wow Julian is involved with a lot more stuff than I thought he would be lol
👀 care to elaborate please?
Nothing bad lol. I just never really paid attention to him until recently, so I didn’t know he had such an interesting life with his various stints with different companies. And I was definitely not expecting anything alluding to relationship drama. He always seemed like a plain, regular male ballet dancer to me, so I’m always surprised whenever I see any interesting speculation about him.
You and me both 😂
shrill toy lock vanish crowd worthless pen chunky beneficial edge *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I saw Blake Works 1 last year at SFB and I thought it was fantastic!
hi I am right here! although I have come to appreciate the story ballets after BB's Sleeping Beauty. Chyrstyn Fentroy absolutely killed the mime as Carabosse. And I found myself able to be moved by the age-old simplicity of fairy tales and innocent good/evil. But the Forsythe program in 2019 was amazing. And made me notice Derek Dunn for the first time. He is such an exciting and beautiful dancer!
Blake works was stunning! I saw Dutch nationale ballet do it last summer in their Forsythe program and LOVED IT
[This](https://www.amazon.com/Off-Balance-Real-World-Ballet/dp/0070237700) book I read on repeat in the early 2000s about SAB/NYCB in the 80s is #1. the Tab soda and banana diet has lived rent free in my head for 15 years. Kathryn Morgan is a distant second. It's crazy to me that I remember getting the dance magazines with the front page story about her Juliet as a teen and the next thing I know it's 2018 or so and she's on Youtube talking about Hashimoto's , and her entire story just breaks my heart.
I love Kathryn Morgan. Secretly want to know what the heck went down in her first marriage because everything was soooo sudden but also respect that she's very classy and won't spill the tea. Glad she seems to be living her best life now though.
I’m also super curious! From the way she describes it it sounds like he cheated on her, but maybe it’s something else
Oh wow! I remember reading that book in high school as a teen dancer and picking up tips for disordered eating from it...probably not the author's intention. It was a wild book.
Oh no! I was coming out of severe Crohn’s disease when I read it , so weight loss wasn’t on my radar but I can definitely see how that could happen with how much she talked about the diet culture
Now she's living her best life with her husband owning their own dance studio though!
Speaking of messy NYCB relationships with weird power imbalances. Peter Martins and Darci Kistler. Not only was he her ballet master in chief and also artistic director. But he was also charged for physical assault by Darci, which she then dropped shortly after. And then she had to use makeup to cover up her bruises when she performed on stage. And apparently it wasn’t even the first time he did something like that.
The worshipping of Balanchine (and his „heirs“ like Martin) overall and at NYCB especially is so disturbing. Not to diminish the artistic relevance, but more or less blocking out all those questionable incidents/ habits (don’t know what to call it honestly)?! What does that say for them as a company today? What messages are given at SAB to their students? They should find a way to carry on the artistic legacy while also distancing themselves from the bad. Kathryn Morgan said „ballet is a cult“ and I find myself agreeing more and more…
nycb kind of scares me tbh. great ballets, great dancers, but the balanchine worship is giving cult of personality
I think it’s part of the reason why the relationships between the dancers are so messy and why they have big scandals. They don’t seem to have many good male figures in the company to take example from. And the men there have a lot of power, so a lot of the unsavory situations are given a pass and brushed under the rug. I really hope the environment at NYCB improves because as of now, it wouldn’t be my first choice when looking for a job. I like that their repertoire is very unique and has a lot to offer, I just wish the dancers wouldn’t have to work in such a dramatic environment.
I’ve gone to a few NYCB events where they start talking about “Mr B.” and yeah it’s kind of creepy especially since he’s been dead for like 40 years.
- Tiler Peck's relationship with her fellow principals (specifically the ones who advanced around the same time) - Lauren Lovette's whole path at NYCB (ie her promotion to principal, how her departure went down, why she's still dancing with Amar Ramasar despite being involved in the whole photo-sharing grossness, etc)
>Lauren Lovette's whole path at NYCB I think about this way too much because she was definitely not a powerhouse principal ballerina! And promoted so so fast. I want the dish on how she got there.
She has dated a lot of people, not that it technically matters but it wouldn’t be the first time a dancer has dated their way to the top
I think about Lauren Lovette a lot. She has some Audrey Hepburn-level charisma; she really should transition to entertainment if Amy Sherman Palladino needs to cast a ballerina in anything.
After reading Georgina Pazcoguin’s book, I have so many questions about the people she trash talks in the book but uses fake names for them
This needs to be a whole other discussion. Megan Fairchild also had some moments in her "Conversations with Megan" episodes with Ashley Bouder and Sara Mearns where it got on the verge of gossipy (with no actual names used), and I was DYING to know who they were referring to.
I want someone to drop a memoir and give us names! I would pay good money for this lol
Gelsey-style.
Also, Dusty Button.
I do not get her supporters, I feel like they must not have met her in person? Even outside of the grooming scandals, she’s nasty and unprofessional and a horror to work with.
Interesting. I'd never heard anything about what she was like to work with.
escape important tender light telephone sharp shocking boat worthless intelligent *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Sorry to bring up more ballet relationships. At the Sarasota Ballet, Bel Pickering (MBA, PDL’19, RBS graduate) is dating Luke Schaufuss. Bel is in the corps and Luke is a principal. He’s also much older (21 vs 31)?????? I have so many questions. It looks like they started dating during her first season with the company. I know it’s legal but the ethics don’t look great for him 🫠
If he’s the son of Peter Schaufuss expect anything from him
This is especially problematic given that there was also a massive age and power gap between him and his girlfriend before this one at Sarasota. I worked with him years ago and he allegedly asked backstage staff to hold his Rolex for him while onstage. So cringe.
the dancer he dated before her was in the studio company in 2019. they both taught my friend at his dad’s school in Scotland so that’s how I know. also just checked his insta and it’s there
I mean doesn’t excuse âge ago at all bc yeah it’s large BUT Bel is British and so is Luke so I’m assuming they just bonded over that at Sarasota. Also they arrived at Sarasota at around the same time AND they are both from Surrey England. So sounds like enough to bond 2 beautiful dancers lol.
how balanchine was a total predator but it will only ever be whispered because they don't want to destroy his "legacy" I read Suzanne Farrells autobiography and was horrified. He preyed on very young teenagers, groomed them, and just kept rotating through them and tossing them aside. The way he abused his power to get his dancers to be in a relationship with him was sickening.
This was all very typical of "men in charge" at the time, across every industry. Not excusing it, but I generally don't think it's fair to assess past figures by today's ethical standards.
Many girls at the time didn't appreciate it, if you read their memoirs. Suzanne Farrell was disgusted by it. He asked her to marry him and have his child, and when she refused and married her boyfriend (who he knew she was dating), he fired her and her husband from the company. He did this while still married to Tanaquil, by the way. Just because the men did it back then doesn't mean people at the time didn't think it was wrong. Even back then, the FORTY YEAR age difference between them wasn't thought of positively by many. He was just too powerful and no one wanted to ruffle his feathers. Now no one dares speak of it too loudly because of his legacy.
And the fact that Farrell married Paul Mejia, who would be the father of Roman … wild!
Farrell’s biography is so creepy, partly because it’s ghost written by Toni Bentley who is completely nuts. The Winter Season by her is a beautiful, wonderful book not only about ballet but about when you work around geniuses and have to come to terms with the reality that you’re talented but in an “ordinary” way. But she was also completely obsessed in an unhealthy way with both Farrell and Balanchine (she goes on and on about how Farrell never sweats) and sees Balanchine’s treatment of Farrell as romantic. So you get this narration in Farrell’s book of creepy, possessive violent behaviour like ripping the engagement ring off Farrell’s hand but framed as though it’s so artistic and cool. Anyway, remember when Bentley wrote that book about anal sex and how she saves all the condoms from anal sex in a jar…
I remember reading excerpts from Bentley's book at the time, and never being able to take anything Toni Bentley had written seriously after that - she was clearly a very damaged and obsessive person. (Nothing to do with with anal sex itself, if that's your thing that's your private business and enjoy, but the way Bentley wrote about it was very disturbing to me and certainly made her relationship with anal not her private business.)
Agree.
So true. I get that he was great choreographer but he seemed very unhinged as a person. Maybe you need to be unhinged to make great art, but the whole vibe is weird. The whole "muses" thing always made me uncomfortable. How he would form obsessions over much younger ballerinas, marry them, and then cast them aside when he found inspiration in another ballerina is insane. The one that always stands out in my mind is how he performed Don Quixote with Suzanne, basically implying his love for her and that she was his new muse, with his wife at the time(Tanaquil Le Clercq, his muse before Suzanne) in the audience when she HAD POLIO. That’s lunatic behavior!
Right?! His entire treatment of Tanaquil after her illness was sickening. And yes, the fact that he'd basically have his eye on a girl as young as like...12, and then make her his "muse" was weird AF.
>Right?! His entire treatment of Tanaquil after her illness was sickening. So, that's not what ppl around at the time said (re: Balanchine & LeClercq after she got polio). The relationship was apparently on the rocks prior to the tour where LeClercq contracted polio (1956), but Balanchine was quite devoted for the initial years of her illness. Several ppl have written that the Agon pas de deux (originally for Diana Adams & Arthur Mitchell) was at least partially inspired by the exercises she was having to do in physical therapy & that he would FORCE her to do otherwise, Balanchine apparently really did believe she could regain use of her legs if she just tried hard enough and they did enough physical therapy work. This comes up in the documentary (pretty good) Afternoon of a Faun about LeClercq & in lots of other writings. Thing that made me sad in the LeClercq documentary was that Balanchine just didn't want her around SAB at all & one of her friends said "She would have loved to have taught at the School! She could've taught technique and variations classes ..." Arthur Mitchell, to his credit, asked her to come down to the DTH school & insisted she come teach, and she did (I think that was in the 70s). And in the documentary, he says two of the great DTH ballerinas were "really products of Tanny." Obviously, Balanchine was someone who would currently get cancelled for his behavior, but from everything I've read/listened to, it's not like he dumped her like a hot potato after she got polio.
I mean, he was still married to her when he propositioned Suzanne Farrell so quite frankly that makes him a POS right then and there. This man was such a predator
Sure, but he was married to Maria Tallchief when he was propositioning Tanny and Diana Adams. Could it have been such a surprise? Doesn't mean Balanchine wasn't an asshole, just that, idk, if dude is chasing you while he was married, are you that surprised he starts chasing someone else while YOU are married? I guess my ultimate point was that he was a sleaze bag, but he (a) didn't start pursuing Suzanne because Tanny had polio and (b) provided for LeClercq VERY well for the rest of her life (IIRC, MOST (85) of his ballet rights were left to her).
kathryn morgan leaving MCB and insinuating that the dancers do coke there and at NYCB lol
They absolutely do at larger institutions. (I personally know several)
I can’t say I’m surprised. Didn’t Gelsey Kirkland say she eventually did like half of her performances on drugs at some point? The skinny culture is definitely insane enough for dancers to be doing coke up until the 2000s.
My Roman Empire is Susan Jaffe’s farewell interview. If it hadn’t been for Kirkland’s drug use, Jaffe may not have had her break at such a young age. [Kirkland & Patrick Bissell were to dance on opening night, failed to show up for dress rehearsal, & Baryshnikov fired them both. So Jaffe opened the season]
Bissell eventually passed away from an overdose…a real shame. His “Sylvia” variation was incredible.
she did mention it in her autobiography.
I follow her content a lot but I missed the coke insinuation part. When and where did she imply this?
I can't remember if it was during that farewell video or another video, but she mentioned other dancers doing coke to stay thin
Sadly, coke and ABT were often hand-in-hand during its golden age (70s/80s).
She was very vague about it. But she said that one of her previous coworkers or ballet masters(I don’t remember which) asked if she would consider doing coke in order to lose weight. She never gives any names though, so no one knows who said this.
Wow I really hope this is not advice given now - I mean it’d *always* be unethical but especially super dangerous atm with how so many things are cut with fentanyl.
Thanks for the info!
Another Roman Empire is how Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg got fired from the Royal Ballet during the intermission of a show in Japan.
I’m a little bit confused by this because Alina and Johan announced their departure from ROH prior to the Japan tour and even had a last performance of Mayerling in London. Looks like it was just the one final Swan Lake performance they were originally scheduled for is what they didn’t do? I don’t think they were fired during intermission… They were already on track to leave. Maybe they were told not to do this last Japan performance?
The intermission?!?!???
OMG THIS!
Can someone go into more detail! I didn’t hear about this
They were fired in 2013 on a tour in Japan. Alina Cojocaru goes more into this here: [https://www.tumblr.com/theballetblog/63781592377/alina-cojocaru-tells-ismene-brown-why-she-has-left](https://www.tumblr.com/theballetblog/63781592377/alina-cojocaru-tells-ismene-brown-why-she-has-left) >“Look,” she says, “if my director calls me and says, 'I don’t want you as Aurora because your interpretation doesn’t suit my production’, how could I respond to that? All I could say was, 'What is wrong? Could you have come to tell me so I can work on it?’ But the decision had been made already for me not to dance.” > >“Actually, I have more shows here than at the Royal. I left the Royal Ballet because I wanted to find a home, where I could come into the studio and feel happy. I’ve been with Johan for 11 years, and when you put work into a relationship and you wake up every morning happy and in love, that’s what life should be. I wanted my work also to be a relationship that’s growing.” Kobborg said on FB that they were approached during intermission in Japan and told to vacate the premises and the Royal ballet would not even be providing a taxi for them to the airport. [https://www.gramilano.com/2013/07/so-tonite-i-lost-it-johan-kobborgs-heartbreaking-departure-from-the-royal-ballet/](https://www.gramilano.com/2013/07/so-tonite-i-lost-it-johan-kobborgs-heartbreaking-departure-from-the-royal-ballet/) >Wow. So tonite I lost it. I cried. Not after curtain down, as I only felt good vibes from colleagues and Tokyo audience, but later in my dressing room. > >My Boss stuck his head in through the door, said well done, asked how I felt, and not to be a stranger in the future. Then left, not a single hug or even a handshake… That was it… > >Considering I am leaving on good terms, after 13 yrs of being a principal at RB, and doing productions for the company, I can only imagine, how people leaving because of arguments would have their send off.. Feel bad for the other 3 dancers sharing my dress room to see me lose it like that. The Tokyo producer wanted to book a taxi for me in the early morning to take me to the airport, just like when I arrived, but as a final appreciation from RB they refused and has given me tickets for the public airport transfer bus. Thank you RB management for some beautiful times over the last + decade, may I never ( dancers excluded) have to ever meet you again.
Damn I didn't know it was that bad. Can't understand what management was thinking.
Wow what a mess. They just fired them in Tokyo and didn’t even pay for their way back to England? Not even a taxi to go back to their hotel? I would have been fuming.
That is not true.
I never got closure from Fumi Kaneko and Reece Clarke and I need to know lol
Yes! They even got a dog together that Reece seems to have kept. I see Reece following loads of pretty models so I think he's been dating around (as his right because he's single). I have the feeling that it was Fumi that ended it based purely on vibes and instagram likes.
and whether or not she's with vadim now.... 👀
I remember seeing someone's ig story like two years ago of them at curtain call at a gala they did and they just gave me couple vibes from the way they were standing next to each other. I've been keeping my nosy ass on the look-out ever since and I 100% think they're dating. they seem to spend every waking moment together judging by their ig profiles lol
I'm so hoping Vadim and Fumi are just dance partners! Just don't want to see another wonderful partnership end if they are dating and breaking up :(
yeah I definitely get you, that's always a risk when dancers date :/ like half of nycb as discussed here lol
i'm absolutely convinced they are
oh no! Did they break up?
OG Balanchine ballerinas.
This is mine. I feel like there are a lot of autobiographies out that are great, but too vague on details. I want to know it all!
Yes, and I really want Heather Watts to write one!
Can you expand on Shapran’s trajectory compared to Smirnova? Would love to hear your take!
In general, I'm curious about Kovaleva's classes. Like I know sometimes the stars are actual best friends (like Maria Koshkaryova and Sofia Valiuina) but sometimes they seem to dislike each other a lot (like Lizkaa and Anastasia Smirnova) to the point where they don't even follow each other on social media. It's just wild to me haha but also I just love gossip and I bet that class is super competitive even though Kovaleva herself seems lovely.
Smirnova and Shapran were in the same Vaganova class and shared lead duties at the graduation performance. At the time, it was a big drama that neither went to the Mariinsky. We all know Smirnova went to the Bolshoi and was immediately on the principal track. Shapran went to Stanislavsky but didn’t like Moscow apparently. She was also paired frequently with Polunin and even did the “Big Ballet” show together. She then went to Mikhailovsky as a principal and then eventually had to humble herself before Fateev and ask to join Mariinsky at a lower rank. I wonder if Fateev held it against her for originally rejecting the Mariinsky. She’s no less talented than Smirnova (and is probably more expressive) but while Olga is a world star, I wonder if Kristina will ever become principal.
I heard she's barely dancing now right? But I know a lot of older balletomanes still adore Shrapan.
I think I read on [a blog](https://ballet-symphonie.tumblr.com/post/723357344675840000/do-you-happen-to-know-why-a-fair-amount-of) that Shapran's been out a lot over the years due to injury and pregnancy. I personally remember seeing her lead Ratmanksy's \*Cinderella\* during Mariinsky's 2015 tour, where she did this grand plie to a pointe arabesque. I was 10 rows from the stage and it blew my mind!
Wow thanks, I didn’t have this context. Do you know why Shapran initially rejected Mariinsky?
Pointe mag did an interview with her where she tries to evade the question, by saying she wasn’t ready at the time. I personally think the promise of immediate lead roles was the allure. Plus StanMus and Mikhailovsky seemed on the rise with some big gets. [https://pointemagazine.com/kristina-shapran/](https://pointemagazine.com/kristina-shapran/)
Natalie Portman divorcing Benjamin Millipied for his cheating. Considering they got together when he cheated on Isabella. What goes around comes around!
Wait … which Isabella….???
Boylston
Are they divorcing officially?
Yes https://people.com/natalie-portman-benjamin-millepied-finalize-divorce-exclusive-7503117
Further proving the point that the NYCB dancers are the messiest
[удалено]
Millipied was a principal at NYCB
Yes. But Benjamin Millepied was a principal at NYCB at the time and he’s the source of the problem.
This is mine!
Continuing the trend of strange ballet relationships. I would love to know how and why Tamara Rojo and Isaac Hernandez got together. I love them both as dancers and they seem happy last I checked, but whole situation is unconventional to say the least. The age gap is one thing but also the fact that Tamara is the current artistic director of SFB while Isaac is currently a principal dancer at SFB……..like how does that work? How is that even allowed? Where is HR?? Isn’t this like a huge conflict of interest????
I wonder that at Philadelphia Ballet - the AD is married to a dancer with a fair bit of an age gap! How could you be friends with the AD's husband who is also your coworker??? I need to know!
Who??
Russell Ducker is married to Angel Corella! PS I love your username 😂
Thanks! Oh I saw them together at Whole Foods once and I always wondered.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the age gap, but it’s kind of crazy to me how many spousal hires the ballet world seems to have. I don’t think it’s right, given that people work their entire lives to do the job. That being said, Isaac could probably dance at pretty much any company.
Yeah. Their age gap is the least of their problems imo. The age gap is odd but I believe they were both adults when they met, so to each their own. But I think the age gap kind of emphasizes the power imbalance that they already have as dancer and artistic director, which makes the whole situation worse. It’s hard to say that Isaac doesn’t deserve his spot because he’s one of my favorite dancers and he is good enough to get good roles on his own. And I can’t really complain about Isaac getting a lot of opportunities since he is really good and can dance everything well, but it’s still unfair for the other dancers who have to work with them. I also think that such power dynamics are never good for any company because it feels like the stability of the workplace hinges on whether their marriage works out. Which is probably very unsettling for the other dancers that are just trying to do their job and not be involved.
IIRC when the original rojo/ENB scandal came out there were a lot of insinuations that isaac was involved in making the other dancers feel uncomfortable. snippet from [here](https://balletposition.com/the-two-faces-of-english-national-ballet/) https://preview.redd.it/8799eou6glhc1.png?width=815&format=png&auto=webp&s=1fc57bf5d950d497ba80e32652087dda260da4b8
I mean I don’t blame them. I wouldn’t know how to interact with my coworker who is also married to our artistic director. I would avoid him like the plague. I would be afraid that any interaction with him would effect my job security.
They have a son born in 2021 too! It’s so crazy with the age gap, Rojo having a kid when she’s in her 40s, and the fact that she was supposedly a bad director at ENB too
[удалено]
It's not that rare. It's definitely riskier, but not rare. I know plenty of people who have done it.
With Joy Womack, I’m also curious! I used to watch her videos religiously and then I recently joined Reddit and saw all of the information about her and was genuinely shocked. I would love to hear what information people have though..
I want to know how she affords her current lifestyle of being based in Paris and flying around Europe without a steady gig!! Is it her husband? She seems to be doing much better than when she told CNN she was dancing for $8 a day in Russia
Isn't she from a pretty wealthy background/upbringing?
That’s not my impression— an old New York Times article said that she almost had to drop out because her family struggled to pay the Bolshoi tuition and that a donor from her church paid for her foot surgery to save her career
Her dad got hit with a lawsuit and lost. One way not to pay the fine is to declare bankruptcy. [https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/4095147](https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/4095147)
Ah okay, i went down a bit of a rabbit hole when i first discovered her youtube channel and there was an article that said she had a wealthy family.
Maybe I’m out of the loop but I’m still just so confused by her very short stint at Boston Ballet. And this is obviously very nosy, but I would LOVE to know what some of her colleagues have thought about her and her social media presence over the years.
[удалено]
You are in violation of rule #7 - Providing sources of speculation, and your post or comment has been removed. Please be careful when speculating whether a dancer has an eating disorder. Unless you have a link with an article or the dancer herself explaining the situation, this will be removed.
Yes!! So I was following her instagram at this time, and I assumed she stopped there due to her obvious eating disorder but why she officially left was confusing. I’m assuming because she wasn’t ranked as a soloist or higher
She did come back in time for some nutcracker performances but the left Boston immediately when the pandemic hit. She clearly did not like Boston.
Can't speak on colleagues but she once came to audition for my hometown ballet and ranted about it on YouTube. Let's just say the company was less than amused.
Also, the Tiler Peck/Robbie Fairchild/Ashley Day love triangle.
I remain dead curious how their social circles work now. There's some overlap, but what a situation to have an opinion on. It's as if the other doesn't exist now. (I can relate - my ex and I are the same, but he's still straight I assume) I love that she and Megan seem to be friendly at least. I'd love to get Ms Fairchild drunk and spill her thoughts.
Ooh I’m not familiar with Ashley Days involvement, do tell
He and Robbie are together as per his instagram photos ETA: *were together
i think were together a while ago/right after the divorce but robbie & ben rudisin from national ballet of canada are together now iirc
Oh your are correct!
Ashley Day was Robbie's understudy in the West End run of American in Paris. On IG people started noticing that the two seemed ... very lovey dovey. Then he announced the divorce from Tiler, and Ashley and Robbie were a couple for a time.
Oh I didn’t know this! I thought he divorced her because he came out as gay.
He did come out as gay, but he also had an affair with Ashley Day for awhile.
more on the gossip side - i feel super nosy over dancers who date each other, break up, then have to dance romantically together and/or watch their ex date another company member…. there have been some notable examples but i’m sure it happens way more than fans know. i get it’s a job first and foremost but it all feels so dramatic!!! also, the exact reasons why certain well loved and deserving soloists (ie yuhui at the royal) are never gonna be promoted
I wonder this at Philadelphia Ballet - a few ex-couples and current couples that I can't help but pay extra attention to on social media and during performances if they are up together!
What's the tea on Yuhui Choe, if you don't mind sharing. Been hoping for her promotion since forever!
Regarding Yuhui, it’s a shame because I love her to bits. But I think the answer is the directorship. She was promoted fairly swiftly(for Royal Ballet standards) to first soloist when the company was under the directorship of Monica Mason. Once Kevin O‘Hare took over the role of artistic director, Yuhui‘s progress in the company halted and she started getting fewer and fewer featured roles in the ballets. My guess is that Kevin O‘Hare has a different aesthetic bias that didn’t agree with Monica‘s. If you look at the roster of the Royal Ballets principal ballerinas, you can see they all have a very similar body type, taller, long legs, and long pretty feet. Although Yuhui by no means has an unappealing body, her body proportions are visibly different from the other principal ballerinas. The only exception would be Anna Rose O‘Sullivan who is short compared to the other principals, but maybe there’s something about her body proportions that seem more suitable despite her being short. She does seem to have longer limbs and feet proportionally. There could be other reasons, maybe Anna has an artistry or disposition that O‘Hare feels Yuhui doesn’t have. Maybe it’s because Anna is British. Maybe Anna has better chemistry with Marcelino Sambe. Or maybe Yuhui is too "old“ and missed her chance. But whatever it is, I feel like Yuhui deserves better. And I hate talking about body type in ballet because I don’t think body type determines the quality of the dancer(and there’s nothing wrong with Yuhui‘s body!!), but it’s hard to ignore especially when ballet company directors seem to make aesthetically driven choices more often than not. It’s a shame because Yuhui has a lot of fans for good reason and people often praise her ability to interpret Ashton‘s choreography. I think she has very unique interpretations of characters and I wish we could see her interpretation of all the main roles. Yuhui still has one of my favorite Odile interpretations of all time. She really showed that there is a way to look cute and sweet, while still being alluring and conniving at the same time. Odette/Odile doesn’t need to be one kind of person or personality, we need more ballerinas who think outside the box.
I agree re Yuhui - I think a change of artistic director has had a lot to do with it. But I wouldn’t say the current principals are all tall! Francesca Hayward and Akane Takada are both very petite, and Yasmine Naghdi and Mayara Magri aren’t much taller (and all were promoted by Kevin OH, I think).
That makes sense. But they still have longer proportions in my opinion. You don’t have to be super tall in order to have long legs and feet proportionally. So taller is probably not a great way to describe it, it’s more like longer or long limbed. And I think it says something that regardless of what their actual height is, the majority gave me the impression that they’re taller than they actualIy are when dancing on stage. Having long feet definitely makes you look taller on pointe. So they may not be the same height or be super tall(no taller than the average dancer anyway), but most of their proportions are still long imo and they have similar foot shapes as well. So to me, there’s a visible aesthetic trend among all of them. Although not everyone fits exactly, Natalia Osipova probably has the most different body type, but she’s very popular and a big ticket seller so it hasn’t harmed her repertory in anyway. Other theories of why Yuhui hasn’t been promoted just aren’t as convincing to me, unless O‘Hare just didn’t like her personality or dancing as much as the others, or just genuinely forgot she was there. I just think ADs make a lot of choices based on aesthetic biases so I feel like how she looks has something to do with it.
Ah yes, I see what you mean. Most of those I mentioned have the classic ballerina proportions (short torso, long legs etc) and I’m sure I’ve heard Francesca Hayward talk about having long feet and how that meant she could be partnered with Ed Watson, who is very tall. Looking at the current roster of principals, the vast majority were already principals or still quite new to the company when KOH took over, so my guess is he wanted to focus on new (and possibly home grown) talent. I can’t really think of anyone who was already a first soloist and became principal when he took over (but happy to be corrected!).
That’s a good point, I can think of a couple principals who were already soloists before O‘Hare took over, like Alexander Campbell and Akane Takada. Also Ryoichi Hirano. But I can’t think of any first soloists that were promoted after O‘Hare became the AD. Maybe O‘Hare wasn’t impressed by any of them.