Sascha Radetsky as Albrecht

Here are саша радецки (Radetsky) and his beautiful Giselle, Г.Цолмон, in the final moments of their performance at the Mongolian State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet a couple of days ago.  The source of the photo is the Mongolian News organization's Facebook page which updates almost every minute. 

Haglund wishes he could identify the lovely ballerina in English but this blog's Cyrillic Specialist has been away on a special assignment which has made reporting on this particular story a little more difficult than it should be.  Nevertheless, this beautiful picture says it all --

 

Comments

[Angelica Smith]

Dear Haglund, G. Tsolman would be the transliteration.
Sincerely, your Cyrillic specialist's cousin, Russian major in college in her previous life.

[Haglund]

Thank you!

[Kit]

I literally squeed when I loaded your page and this headline popped up! Right-click, save! :) Recently, it was Gillian's debut as Giselle. Today, news about Sascha's Albrecht! McKenzie, wake up and smell the talent!

[Haglund]

Totally agree.

[robin]

Wow. Beautiful.

[K]

Beautiful. Wish we could have taken a field trip to NZ and then headed up to Mongolia to see this. World tour to see actual ABT dancers lead productions!

[Haglund]

No kidding.

Here's the actual link to the FB photo in case anyone wants to share or "like".

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=493665127334094&set=a.373791735988101.92786.161097230590887&type=1&theater

[Kallima]

Getting goosebumps. Thank you for posting!

[Haglund]

Me, too, Kallima. It is such a shame that McKenzie continues to deny Radetsky the leading roles that he deserves. Radetsky should get one of those Swan Lake TBAs. Jared Matthews should get the other one. These guys have achieved what they need to do the job through long, hard years of work and commitment to ABT. Instead of giving them the chances they deserve, McKenzie is handing undeserved chances over to the new soloist imported from Boston who has a sweet and useful connection to ABT's JKO School principal and his partner. It makes me sick.

[Kallima]

It is sickening when you can see not only the results on stage, but also the connections working behind the scenes that make these things possible. And I bet you have a view and follow things keenly so you get a lot of this.
I prefer getting the suitable kind of goosebumps from an emotionally touching performance that does the ballet justice, rather than goosebumps from all the horror that strikes me from everything that is going wrong with a performance.

[Haglund]

I agree with you totally, Kallima.

While I haven't been able to find an English translation of reviews for either of the Radetsky/Tsolman performances, it appears that a lot was written about them and that the performances brought the Mongolians to a standing ovation. That's very nice to hear, but it would be nicer if we actually got to see Radetsky dance the role in NY.

[Kit]

Not Sascha-related, but I can't believe I never remembered this potential name mix-up 'til now:

Kevin McKenzie, clueless ABT AD, with
Kelvin MacKenzie, reviled former editor of the British tabloid The Sun (and persona non-grata to most people in Liverpool).

(Though as loathsome as the former can be, there's a special circle of hell for the latter because of his handling of the Hillsborough tragedy...)

[Haglund]

True, true, true, Kit. I made the same connection a while back:
http://haglundsheel.typepad.com/haglunds_heel/2012/05/the-long-goodbye.html

Both are disgustingly celebrity-obsessed.

[Kit]

Thanks for the link. Missed that post. I must ask, what Millepied's good points are (as a choreographer)? I have this irrational dislike of him, stemming from how his relationship with NP seemed so 'set-up'.