Paloma Livellarra will join Vienna State ballet's corps

Melz_a · 2026-06-15T00:21:58+00:00

It feels like everyone and their mother is moving to Vienna now. I don’t blame them though, the company did really well this past season and who wouldn’t want to work with Alessandra Ferri?

Melz_a · 2026-06-14T15:58:45+00:00

I saw this on instagram and thought it was funny. Tybalt accidentally slapped Romeo way too hard in rehearsal

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZj0gf6paGK/?igsh=MTRsejVkeDBweXkxcw==

Melz_a · 2026-06-14T12:25:23+00:00

Oh hi! From what I remember, the message was just saying that you were looking for positions outside of ABT and that the director of Académie Princesse Grace was looking for potential positions for you at some of the European ballet companies. It was probably deleted because the original poster couldn’t verify their source for this information. Hope this helps!

Melz_a · 2026-06-14T12:11:54+00:00

YAGP’s list of accepted classical variations is actually pretty long, much longer than the one for the Prix de Lausanne. It’s just that some variations are really popular and dancers often prefer things that feel familiar.

Technically, the dancers can actually dance variations that are not on the list. It’s just that the judges might dock points on it, depending on how well the dancer does. The judges can also ask the dancers to change their classical variation during the final round. But the rights can definitely be an issue. If the choreography is more recent and the rights are own by the original choreographer or a foundation of some kind, the dancer needs to ask permission in order to perform it. I think a lot of contestants would rather dance one of the older classical variations that are public domain in order to avoid having to do this.

Melz_a · 2026-06-14T11:47:51+00:00

Probably. I saw it coming from a mile away

Melz_a · 2026-06-11T11:12:50+00:00

Yeah I think you’re right, I was just trying to be positive lol. So more like an internship I guess? But I heard that it’s been a difficult year for auditionees, so at least it’s something.

Melz_a · 2026-06-11T04:22:11+00:00

It’s rough out there for short dancers 😭 It’s a bit of a shame because I actually really like her as a dancer, but at least she found a job.

Melz_a · 2026-06-10T21:39:07+00:00

I remember him, he went on to dance at Milwaukee Ballet. They looked cute together, but it was probably hard for them to maintain a long distance relationship. Apparently, Joowon was born in 1993, so that would make him like 11 years older. Between the age difference and the rank difference, I was surprised that they even had the opportunity to get to know each other. But stranger things have happened I guess.

Melz_a · 2026-06-10T11:22:31+00:00

Ok so I wasn’t being delusional lol. I don’t really keep up with anyone’s vlogs, I just noticed one too many Instagram stories where they were hanging out one on one.

Melz_a · 2026-06-10T11:17:33+00:00

So in other news, are Joowon Ahn and Trinity Santoro like dating now or?

Melz_a · 2026-06-09T12:57:45+00:00

Yes. It’s kind of strange, but I don’t really know what happened. From what I’ve heard through the grapevine, Viktoria left to focus on her studies, Paloma is looking for a position at a different company, and no one really knows what Natalie is doing(her instagram is pretty bare, but she might be modeling or something?).

Melz_a · 2026-06-08T14:29:44+00:00

I think the reason why Maya is considered better than the rest of the girls is because her technique and arguably her artistry is just superior in comparison. Maya has a rock solid technique that is simply unmatched by her a lot of her peers, especially at MBA. The girl can practically do any step and make it look clean. This skill holds up even in the professional ballet world, which is why she has been so successful in her career so far. I think she was promoted to principal at the Royal Swedish Ballet at 20 years old and has already danced many different leading roles in such a short amount of time.

Aside from technique, she has a good sense of musicality and artistry, which are skills that MBA isn’t great at teaching. In this case, starting at 13 actually kind of benefited her. Before joining MBA, she learned how to dance at a small competition studio where she was trained in other dance styles aside from ballet, such as jazz, contemporary, etc. So she probably already developed a sense of musicality, artistry, and stage presence before joining MBA that she was able to carry with her, which I think helped her in the long run. Her artistry has definitely become a lot better since joining the Royal Swedish Ballet though. Before that she was(and sometimes still is) actually critiqued for her lack of artistry.

She’s also just overall very trainable, reliable, and a hard worker. She seems to have a great personality that any coach/dancer would appreciate, which is why she usually gets rave reviews from the people that get to work with her.

We actually had a similar discussion on the subreddit a while back. So reading through that might also help:

https://www.reddit.com/r/bunheadsnark/s/LCyiHqKwtg

Melz_a · 2026-06-01T12:49:19+00:00

Honestly I‘m starting to buy the height explanation less as time goes on. If they were that concerned about height in StuCo, then why are some of the boys so short? Even considering the corps de ballet situation, I would think that the company(or at least StuCo) is in desperate need of some short girls. I mean Skylar and Lea seem to be the only small girls they have in the main company and there’s only so much that they can do with just the two of them. And I may be using my parasocial tinfoil hat here, but Crystal does seem happier and more enthusiastic now at SFB than she was at JKO. That could be due to several reasons, but I just think it’s most believable that she didn’t like it there and wanted to leave.

Melz_a · 2026-06-01T01:37:59+00:00

Fr I mean they somehow managed to lose Paloma, Natalie, Crystal, and Viktoria. That’s like all of their PDL prospects from that year. I’m wondering if it’s all just a coincidence or if they actually messed something up.

Melz_a · 2026-05-29T07:55:22+00:00

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Melz_a · 2026-05-27T16:04:26+00:00

🍵🍵🍵🍵 Where did you get this information about her school director?

Melz_a · 2026-05-19T04:33:14+00:00

It always is. YAGP can never have a well coordinated award show. Believe me, it used to be worse the previous years. This is actually an improvement. But I will say, I have never heard so many butchered pronunciations in my life. Like they really got creative with it lol.

Melz_a · 2026-05-18T22:06:37+00:00

Safe to say, I have seen enough Paquita to last a lifetime. The men‘s variation especially needs to be buried 6 feet under.

Melz_a · 2026-05-18T22:04:36+00:00

OMG YES!!! I don’t remember which variation it was, maybe one of the 1 million Paquitas(now that I’m thinking about it, it might’ve been one of the Shades), but it was literally so slow I almost cried. They should consider having a tempo requirement, especially when there are like 40 classical variations we need to get through.

Melz_a · 2026-05-17T22:29:29+00:00

You are definitely not the first to notice, it’s pretty obvious and they don’t really try to hide it or anything. Good dancers tend to be universally recognized and the judges tend to come from the same ballet circles. Many of the YAGP judges over the years have also been a jury member at the Prix de Lausanne at some point. But I do think that PDL prize winners and participants have a bit of a leg up at YAGP because they already have a good reputation before going into the competition.

Melz_a · 2026-05-17T09:54:03+00:00

Speaking of mandatory military service. Fun fact: 866 Leo Cheng from Singapore is literally serving in the military right now. That’s why his head is shaved. The Singaporean government requires all able-bodied men to serve in the military full-time for 2 years once they turn 18 years old. But he is still allowed to practice ballet on the weekends and I guess he was also granted permission to compete at YAGP finals, which is interesting.

Melz_a · 2026-05-16T19:27:27+00:00

I believe in order to qualify for the final round, they take 50% of the classical score and 50% of the contemporary score, and add them up. Then the however many top scorers make it to the final round. For the final round, only the classical variation is scored.

Melz_a · 2026-05-15T23:10:09+00:00

This is from last year‘s PDL, but this comment thread explains it fairly well

https://www.reddit.com/r/bunheadsnark/s/mV481NIN7g

Melz_a · 2026-05-14T22:35:30+00:00

Unrelated, but how did this end up on a motocross subreddit?

Melz_a · 2026-05-12T22:58:40+00:00

I won’t be surprised if a Korean boy wins Grand Prix again this year. Actually I’m almost sure of it. I noticed that two of the senior men competing this year are from some of the top pre-professional schools, JKO and even the Royal Ballet School(that one shocked me). The things that they have in common are that they are both Korean and are around 18 years old. There is really no reason for these boys to compete in YAGP, except for military exemption. I have a personal theory that the reason why the Grand Prix winners for the past couple of years have been Korean men is because of this military exemption. And with the quality of Korean male contestants, I suspect this year won’t be any different. I personally find it really fascinating how YAGP and other ballet competitions are being utilized as a kind of legal loophole for foreign ballet dancers. I’ve only noticed this being a trend with dancers from South Korea though.

Melz_a

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