Haglund's Heel

Habana mañana

NYCB performs at the International Ballet Festival in Havana beginning tomorrow night!  ABT - later in the week.  However, corpsman Eric Tamm will be blogging, hopefully with pictures, at this link beginning on Monday. 

Maybe Cuba has prohibited The New York Times from entering the country to cover the most important dance event of 2010.  Who's gonna blame them? 

 

 

Stiefel & Murphy headed down under

Tom Cardy of New Zealand's Dominion Post reports that ABT's Ethan Stiefel and Gillian Murphy will be joining the Royal New Zealand Ballet – he as Artistic Director; she as a principal dancer.  The article indicates that Murphy will continue to perform with ABT and elsewhere in the world:

While the Royal NZ Ballet was rapt with Stiefel's appointment, it had been unclear whether Murphy would perform with the company. However, Stiefel confirmed exclusively to The Dominion Post that she will dance here.

"Gillian and I committed to coming to Wellington and the [Royal NZ Ballet] together. Because of this fact, she will have a consistent performing presence with the company, while maintaining the key guesting and [American Ballet Theatre] engagements a ballerina of her stature should be doing at this point in her career. Perhaps, this is even bigger news than my becoming artistic director."

Sounds like a nice place to sun and swim but sure is a long way from New York.  Hope this opportunity for Stiefel works out better than the Ballet Pacifica and North Carolina School of the Arts gigs did. 

 

Behind The Times

Look, look, look.  Quick before you miss it.  The New York Times has published an entire article about the New York Philharmonic NOT GOING to Cuba – complete with one sentence about ABT and NYCB who ARE GOING to the International Ballet Festival in Havana.  It seems that the NY Phil's insistence on taking its rich donors on its trip is the obstacle to getting government approval.  Wow, what a worthy story - major news that's fit to print - far more important than the actual successful implementation of ABT's and NYCB's Cuba plans.  Geeze Louise.

Havana Times Interviews Xiomara Reyes

In connection with its comprehensive coverage of the 22nd International Ballet Festival in Havana, the Havana Times has just published an extensive interview with one of Haglund's favorite ABT principals, Xiomara Reyes, who grew up and trained in Cuba.  The interview is in Spanish, but the paper has informed Haglund that the English version will be uploaded Tuesday.  Look for that link here tomorrow.

Tuesday update:
Here's the link to the English translation.

 

Havana Times on the Ticket Line @ the 22nd International Ballet Festival

We all remember the superb coverage by the Havana Times when the Royal Ballet made its historic visit to Cuba last year.  This online newspaper is but two years old and has an impressive readership on the island and abroad.  Its writers and photographers are, of course, covering the 22nd International Ballet Festival in Havana and have begun with an article on the lines of people trying to buy tickets to see Jose Manuel Carreno and the American Ballet Theatre.  Danae Suarez writes:

"Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles!”  One of the most famous works of world literature begins like this.  And what also began like this was the line for tickets to enjoy the performance of the American Ballet Theatre, the prestigious dance company from the United States that will be visiting Cuba as a part of the 22nd International Festival of Ballet (Oct. 28 to Nov. 7).

As part of this event, and a source of pride for us, will be a presentation by the famed Jose Manuel Carreño during this festival.

As usual, The New York Times dance critics are snoring away.   

International Ballet Festival in Havana

 

This week Cuba begins welcoming the ballet ambassadors of the world to Alicia Alonso's 22nd International Ballet Festival in Havana, and this year, the U.S. government will allow two of the country's world class companies to participate.  While the frosty U.S.-Cuba undiplomatic relations may show signs of thawing, the relationship between Cuban ballet artists and this country's ballet community has always been warm and welcoming.  Cuba's development and contribution of some of the world's greatest ballet dancers has continued in spite of political turmoil, estrangement, and the country's extreme poverty.  Where governments and politicians divide people, the ballet unites them.  The world's gratitude for the Cuban culture's creation of Carlos Acosta, Jose Manuel Carreno, Xiomara Reyes, and many other great artists will never be diminished by anyone's political agenda.

 

The festival schedule on its website shows that over the next couple of weeks the Cuban people will be treated to performances by NYCB's Tiler Peck, Joaquin de Luz, Jared & Tyler Angle, Abi Stafford, Andrew Veyette, and Teresa Reichlen in a pastiche of repertory and PdDs that includes music by Gershwin, Sousa, and Kay – music that was intensely popular during Alicia Alonso's richest dancing years.  In addition to its two night rep program of Theme and Variations, Seven Sonatas, Fancy Free, Le Corsaire PdT, and Diana and Acteon PdD, ABT will participate in the concluding gala performances.  Jose Manuel Carreno and Sarah Lane will perform Tharp's Sinatra Suite, and Marcelo Gomes and Paloma Herrera will perform Balanchine's Tchaikovsky PdD.  The U.S. companies' contribution to the festival will be heavenly, but by no means will it be dominant.

 

Ms. Alonso has extra special tributes planned for the late Galina Ulanova and the vibrant Vladimir Vasiliev, full length Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, Giselle and Swan Lake productions, guest appearances by Tamara Rojo, Nehemiah Kish, Vladimir Malakhov, Jason Reilly, Guillaume Cote, Heather Ogdon, Roberta Marquez, Steven McRae, and much more.  Perhaps the defining moment of the festival will be the appearance of Vasiliev and Alonso together on the stage of the Grand Theater of Havana exemplifying ballet's great, great past leading us into the future.

ABT Met casting: Guest stars continue to bar company dancers' progress

Not much on the ABT calendar that encourages subscribing for the Met Season.  But it sure encourages resentment.  Big disappointments.  Big, big, big.

 

Far too many opportunities are being given to guest artists when the company should be promoting its long time servants.  Osipova has been handed five performances on the silver platter with no doubt a Don Q as a sixth.  It doesn't matter how good her Bolshoi Coppelia is, should she be handed 40% of ABT's Coppelia performances in lieu of the company's own dancers getting a shot at it?  It's remarkable that little Maria Riccetto was able to steal a performance away from her.

 

Only ONE Corella performance.  ONE.  Maybe we'll see him in one of the DonQ TBAs.  Hey, maybe McKenzie will match him up with Osipova so that his performance will be COMPLETELY OVERSHADOWED by the media's pathetic and predictable goo-goo-gaa-gaa over the Bolshoi ballerina.

 

Once again, we are being denied Abrera's Giselle – something for which we've been waiting many, many, many years.  Whereas before it was due to her unfortunate injuries, now it's because McKenzie wants to advance Hee Seo fast and furiously even if it means trampling over the other soloists who have earned their opportunites.  The Senior Soloist should be given her Giselle to dance.  Midlevel soloist Sarah Lane has already shown that she has a compelling Giselle to offer, having blown away a Texas audience with her portrayal a year or two ago.  We'd really like to see her as well.  Ms. Seo, the junior most soloist in the company, has plenty on her plate already.

 

STILL NO CORNEJO IN SWAN LAKE.  WTF?!  No Corella either.  Oh, but there is that teasing TBA on Saturday night.  Maybe McKenzie will invest in a guest artist to dance with Cornejo at his debut thereby COMPLETELY OVERSHADOWING his ten year battle to win the opportunity to dance the role here.  Wouldn't want to give Xiomara Reyes or Sarah Lane the opportunity to dance Odette/Odile, would we.  Screw that. 

 

And after beautifully carrying three performances of Cinderella during her debut season in the role, Abrera now gets one matinee performance with the tall glass of water as her prince.  Can't wait to see him try to hoist the feather light Abrera in those Kudelka lifts.  Sounds like another injury to Abrera waiting to happen.

 

Last bitching for the evening:  No MacMillan this season but we have to sit through McKenzie's Sleeping Beauty AGAIN?!  Gad Almighty, give us break.

ABT @ Frederick P. Rose Hall 10/12

Haglund needed a good night's sleep before trying to tackle his thoughts on what he saw last night at The Innovation Initiative, ABT's inaugural performance at Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall to show off the work of fledgling choreographers within the company.  The work presented was the result of a three week workshop which was originally promoted as being mentored by Ratmansky, Stephen Pier, and McKenzie - although their mentorships were not credited in the program, in the introductory film, or on stage.

Of course, the idea of The Innovation Initiative is a good one.  A choreography workshop sponsored by a company dominated by a single choreographer may not succeed, because the choreographic offspring will be mostly indoctrinated in a single vocabulary and sytax or aspire to be viewed as being indoctrinated as such.  But in a company with a rich choreographic vault that spans many styles and generations, an organic initiative may be the agar petri dish that provides enough nutrients to eventually sprout something of value.  So an ongoing choreographic laboratory is needed.  But it may not be such a great idea to present the choreography students' work – and they are students – in a high profile, expensive venue where the spotlight mercilessly illuminates not how far they have come but how far they need to go.  More frequent performances in a lower profile venue would be better.  Broadway productions often start out in a workshop format in some Downtown space before they get their producers' legs.  While that might not draw the tony donors, it could draw a new Downtown audience and persuade it to come Uptown.

 

As is now passé, the evening began with a film by Gravure that utilized someone's idea of innovative music that was just obnoxious in its effort to imitate the master composer Philip Glass.  Haglund would have appreciated the film focusing on what the mentors had to say about their work with the fledgling choreographers.  Haglund has heard Stephen Pier speak about choreography at Juilliard student performances and has always found him to be articulate and illuminating.  Once we got over the film, it was on to the four offerings of Gemma Bond, Craig Salstein, Daniel Mantei, and Nicola Curry.  Each choreographer had a different voice and expressed different values.  Each piece illustrated a few well thought out ideas and each included sections where the choreographer had struggled to force creativity and innovation and had finally given in to arbitrary virtuosity.

 

Gemma Bond used the piano music of Franz Liszt and four dancers – Gray Davis, Roddy Doble, Christine Shevchenko, and Katherine Williams – to illustrate what was perhaps the most successful effort of the evening entitled Manner.  She created some lovely lyrical phrases with reliance on port de bras that was beautifully executed by the women.  Haglund liked when the men held the women from behind who executed what looked like low, little temps de fleche.  He liked less the over-repeated combination of the women jumping at the men and crossing their legs around the men's torsos.  Gemma Bond's roots are in Ashton and MacMillan and both influences were evident in her piece - though they didn't necessarily combine comfortably.  Haglund loves Gemma and was reminded how badly ABT needs a full length ballet that utilizes Franz Liszt music, MacMillan's choreography, and Gemma reprising a principal role.  But Haglund doesn't want to get started again on the stupid, cowardly reasons that ABT refuses to present Mayerling to New York audiences who would fight to the death for tickets.  Cowardly.

 

Craig Salstein's When It's Over, It's Over employed three pieces of music from Puccini's La rondine, Mozart's Don Giovanni, and Korngold's Die Tote Stadt to make a statement about the operatic-sized drama of young love.  Stella Abrera, Jared Matthews, Lauren Post, Luis Ribagorda, Mary Mills Thomas, and Roman Zhurbin danced.  Each of the dancers spoke a few lines to frame the piece and convey how intensely over-important little things can be at that age.  The fashion unconscious Luis Ribagorda was rightly concerned about whether or not his purple shirt was an asset in scoring with his date, and he informed Roman Zhurbin that his black shirt was preventing him from getting a girl's attention.  Jared Matthews, still wonderfully carrying that Egyptian fever, impatiently huffed and puffed while he waited for his date, Stella Abrera, to show up.  She was two minutes late.  He was intolerant.  She eventually got fed up and pointed him out of her life.

 

Salstein's choreography was a bit like Ohad Najarin's in its humor.  Audiences tolerate a lot from Najarin.  Haglund remembers watching the Batsheva director stand at the foot of the New York State Theater stage strumming his bass guitar while his dancers zoomed around the stage.  Does he want to see it a second time?  Probably not.  But Salstein's choreography was easy on the eyes.  He recognized his dancers' individual skills and exploited them.  The PdDs, interactions, and solo work for Matthews and Abrera were the strong points of the piece. 

 

Tchaikovsky was Daniel Mantei's musical choice in his Armaments danced by Grant DeLong, Joseph Gorak, Nicole Graniero, Elizabeth Mertz, Kelley Potter, and Jose Sebastian.  Haglund was unsure most of the time exactly what was going on in this piece.  However, the last three or four minutes were compelling for the manner in which the movement illustrated the music.  No one should ever miss the opportunity to watch the developing Joseph Gorak in anything. 

 

The final offering by Nicola Curry was set to Maurice Ravel.  Entitled La Relation, it was danced by Isabella Boylston, Sarah Lane, Devon Teuscher, Alexandre Hammoudi, and Joseph Phillips.  Here we have a dance maker who enjoys stringing together steps like a novice poet who begins writing because he loves the musicality of rhyming language.   But rhyme for the sake of rhyme, like en dedan pirouettes for the sake of spinning en dedan pirouettes, tends to have a shallow effect.  So let's flush all of this out of Ms. Curry by casting her in de Mille, Tudor, Neumeier, and MacMillan so that she thinks about something in addition to stringing steps and so she can absorb the influences of brilliant, weighty choreographers instead of today's trite, lightweight, hit or miss, media-savy but marginal contributors to the revolution – who shall go nameless in today's post.

 

Just want to mention how Haglund thought it was in such bad taste to eliminate Beloserkovsky, Dvorovenko, Corella, and Carreno from the company principal listing in the program - especially Carreno given his high profile on the Cuban tour.  If you're going to X-out Carreno, why not X-out Stiefel, too?  This was not the fall season where only those who participate get listed in the program.  It was a one-night affair where no principals participated and so it was really a slap in the faces of those long time,  highly-valued performers who were omitted from being identified with the company. 

 

No Pump Bump Award for last night's program.

 

 

 

It's late.

The 33 miners are on their way up.  The Hang Seng Index is up over 100 points.  We're digging out.  Haglund will blog about the Innovation Initiative tomorrow.

 

 

Heard on the street . . .

Episode One here.  Episode Two here.

[Somewhere on Lafayette Avenue.  In Brooklyn.]

Reggie:    Hear that?  Isn't it a little late in the season for the ice cream truck?

Reilly:      Wait a minute!  Hold onto your tail.  Something looks a little suspicious!

Reggie:    Oh man.  How lame is that?!  But do you think we could sneak in and —

Reilly:      No!

 

Fall for Dance – Friday 10/8 Saarinen, Dresden Semperoper, ABT, Ronald K. Brown/Evidence

Haglund never saw John Logan's Broadway play "Red" – the production about artist Mark Rothko and his murals for the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York, but wishes he had.  Nor has he ever been to the Four Seasons Restaurant for anything other than one overpriced lunch, and wishes he hadn't.  But it only takes a quick glance at any of Rothko's abstract expressionist paintings to see that they were the work of a complicated mind.  Last night at Fall for Dance Tero Saarinen performed Man in a Room by Carolyn Carlson which was inspired by the paintings of Rothko, who committed suicide in 1970.

 

Unraveling is a good theme for choreography – unraveling of a mind, unraveling of a relationship, unraveling of society.  There's a beginning with opportunity for foreshadowing.  There's the chaos in the middle.  And then there is the end.  Saarinen explored an unraveling artist's high anxiety through movement and theater to riveting effect using a fascinating score compilation of Gavin Bryars' A Man in a Room, Gambling and Apocalyptica.  Bryars' compositions have inspired Lar Lubovitch's choreography with great success most notably the beautiful impressionistic ballet Meadow. 

 

Saarinen moved chaotically about the stage that included an artist's work bench on which tubes of paint and folded clothing were neatly arranged.  He stumbled, jumped, flailed, looked out at the audience with convincing crazed expressions.  The score included the accented voice of a man who was offering instructions on how a professional gambler cheats at cards – how to deal oneself an extra card, how to dispose of it, how to hide cards.  The voice explained that the gambler's thrill was not in the winning but in the game of chance itself.  Saarinen picked up a tube of paint, put a dab on his fingers, and began smearing his body with strokes of paint while reacting to the sensation of each "brushstroke" with a range of expressions perhaps suggesting that this particular artist's drive was for the sensation that comes from the act of painting as opposed to the development of a finished piece of art.  The performance ended when a row of lights at the back of the stage was turned onto the audience while Saarinen's form slowly came to the edge of the stage and then retreated back into the lights.  A very stirring performance - one which Haglund intends to see again tonight.

 

The second offering on the program was William Forsythe's The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude by the Dresden Semperoper Ballett.  The piece was described in the Playbill as a perfect stylistic exercise in all aspects of neo-classical ballet.  Well, mostly - just omit perfect and all.  It was very well danced by some very competent technicians.  However, Schubert's Allegro Vivace Symphony No. 8 in C major is a huge orchestrated offering that needs more than just five dancers on the stage – especially when it's so freakin' loud.  But the flat tutus were funky and interesting.

 

ABT's offering at Fall for Dance this year was Frederick Ashton's Thais Pas de Deux performed by Hee Seo and Jared Matthews – a terrific choice.  Haglund was surprised by the extent to which this little ballet pulled in the attention and appreciation of the mostly non-ballet crowd.  The dancers gave a first rate performance.  Watching these two emerge as artists this past year has been joyful for Haglund to witness.

 

Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, A Dance Company closed the evening with Grace, one of Brown's rousing compositions which he originally created for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater to music by Duke Ellington, Roy Davis Jr, and Fela Anikulapo Kuti.  It's a little long but that problem is mitigated by the infectious energy of its handsome dancers.  Haglund looks forward to seeing it again tonight.

 

Haglund bestows this BCBGeneration abstract expressionist beauty of a Pump Bump Award on Man in a Room as performed by Tero Saarinen:

 

 

 

NYCB – Fall Gala 10/7

Well, we had ourselves one heck of a Fall Gala performance at NYCB last night.  The company's first fall season has been one of strength and smarts.  Night after night it has delivered performances of high content and quality at affordable prices. The theater has become a refuge where the public can get a little respite from the crappy economy, crappy politics, and crappy news of the day and just chill out in a comfortable chair and be inspired and transported by masterful music and outstanding dancing.  Rx = NYCB.

Haglund has said this before – Listening to Bernstein in Lincoln Center is almost a holy experience.  Last night's program opened with a rousing rendition of his Candide Overture.  Usually performed across the Lincoln Center plaza by the New York Philharmonic without a conductor in deference to Bernstein's memory, last night it was splendidly led by Faycal Karoui.  The orchestra literally rose from the pit for the occasion and seemed inspired through every note.  Haglund must commend Maestro Karoui, not just on the conducting, but also on the shine of his shoes which could be seen from mid-house.  No details were overlooked last night, that's for sure.

Not one boring, pandering speech was part of the program.  The company launched right into Jerome Robbins' I'm Old Fashioned.  No surprise - Haglund loves I'm Old Fashioned.  Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth glided and swooned across the floor bigger than life followed by mere mortals Rebecca Krohn, Jenifer Ringer, Maria Kowroski, Adrian Danchig-Waring, Jonathan Stafford, Tyler Angle who connected beautifully with the music and each other.  The women were ravishing; the men were in Fred's image but with more hair; and the swirling corps was mesmerizing. 

Following the single intermission of the evening, Plainspoken, a new piece set to a boring commissioned score by David Lang with boring choreography by Benjamin Millepied was performed by Sterling Hyltin, Teresa Reichlen, Jennie Somogyi, Janie Taylor, Tyler Angle, Amar Ramasar, Sebastien Marcovici, and Jared Angle.  A few years ago when Millepied created a piece called From Here On Out for ABT, he must have meant that literally.  Ever since – pardon the plainspeaking – he's been feeding us the same gruel: the same walking/marching/running around, the same poses, the same jumps, the same angst, the same lighting, the same type of music, the same type of costumes (excepting the really bad costume choices of Why am I not where you are), the same gobbledygook.  Millepied has run out of good new ideas and has returned to marginal ones that were never fully developed, never bothered to be revised, but received enough attention to garner him another commission or two.  He needs a new idea or two.  Despite the strong cast, this piece had little to offer but more of the same gruel.  As usual, there were many in the audience who received comp tickets who hooted and hollered in approval at the end.   What a waste.

Ashley Bouder and Daniel Ulbricht blew through Balanchine's Tarantella with huge performances including a mindboggling supersonic circle of coupe jetes from Ulbricht.  You can't ask for anything more when these two perform this dance.  It doesn't get any better than what was delivered last night.

The black hats, black stockings, and high energy of the final movement and finale of Balanchine's Western Symphony closed the evening with Miss Kitty and Matt Dillon smoking and smoldering across the stage pretending to be Sara Mearns and Charles Askegard.  Can't fool the audience one bit with that act.  No sirree.  My, they were sassy!

Bernstein, Gould, Gotttshalk, Kay, Robbins, and Balanchine made for a very fine evening indeed. Haglund awards this lovely golden bling Pump Bump to I'm Old Fashioned for bringing back the old time glamour:

 

Chest relief

Back in the Stone Age, Haglund spent some questionably productive time in the Iowa Writers' Workshop where students read one another's work and then sat around a table and said things like:  "Wow, I can identify with that" followed by "Wow, I can really identify with that" followed by "Why don't you send it to The New Yorker – just to see what they say."  Then dream dasher Professor Leggett would chime in with "Save your stamps, guys, we're not quite there yet."  Back then, it was always a hard but valuable lesson when Big People asserted their authority and yanked your head out of the clouds.  But that was then and this is now.  Today we're cultivating Generation Y or more aptly Generation Y Not?  This is the generation of no hard lessons.  It's been widely described as the generation where everyone is brought up believing he's a winner just for participating - "the trophy generation".  It's the generation of media-manufactured successes.  It's the generation for whom every creative act is art for which one wants to be instantly recognized, compensated, and appreciated.  This is no truer than in the field of choreography.

 

The  doctrine that anything new is better seems to be pervasive as is the idea that classics need to be re-thought, re-tooled, re-imagined to make them relevant to the next generation as opposed to allowing the next generation to mature to a point where it can appreciate what has stood the test of time.  Craftless art product that utilizes no acquired basic skills and disciplines, but hurls into being like some creative vomit, is cheered by its makers as the true art of our times.  Is this art product actually art any more than "cheese product" is actually cheese?

 

Where aspiring artists have no original ideas, they simply and boldly take someone else's genius and re-manufacture it as their own.  The results are things like Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake and Mats Ek's Giselle.  If Matt and Mats called their pieces something else and did not try to capitalize on the geniuses and successes of Petipa, Coralli, and Perrot, would the ticket-buying public pay any attention to them?  Would notable ballet dancers even pay attention to them? 

 

And then there are the matters of what dancers need and desire in order to express themselves and nurture their talents.

 

Haglund believes that ballet dancers should do whatever they want or need to do to fulfill their artistic souls.  If they need to go off and engage in contemporary, unballetic, edgy, experimental performances, they should certainly do so.  Just don't expect your audience to follow you.  Your audience was in love with ballet before you came along and it will be in love with ballet after you are gone.  Don't confuse the audience's love for the art form as a love of you, and do not be disappointed, resentful, discouraged, angry or confused when your audience does not follow you on your path.  As a performer, you may know what is best for yourself, but it's not likely that you know what is best for the audience or the art form.  It is not your responsibility or duty to "shock" the audience, to expand the audience's interpretation of what ballet is or to "educate" the audience in any way.  The audience is the all-powerful consumer that will wield its dollars as it sees fit.  If it chooses not to wield its dollars at a production or performance, it is not because the audience is ignorant, unsophisticated, narrow minded or uncaring.  It is because dance as a performance art is also an art that requires consumption, and consumption decisions are made freely based on a fluid slew of factors.

 

Not many of us live our lives completely fulfilled, not wanting, not disappointed, not annoyed that we can't do or have something or other.  As people rack up achievements, they change their goals and with that the renewed opportunity for gains, losses, happiness, and disappointments is also created.  So ballet dancers who want to seek out new performance challenges and opportunities for themselves should certainly do so.  If they need to leave the art form to do so, so be it.  Just don't expect the audience to follow.  Because, once again, the audience was in love with ballet before you arrived, and it will be in love with ballet after you are gone.

Haglund just looked out the window to see that Habitat for Humanity is building small, old-looking, brick row houses across the street which blend in with this lower class neighborhood's architecture.  Backlash or progress?  Perhaps both.

Heads up: Corella Ballet Castilla y Leon in the U.S.

Look what the Corella Ballet Castilla y Leon is bringing to the U.S. over the next several months:

 

Bruch Violin Concerto – by Clark Tippett and one of Haglund's favorite rep pieces

Clear – by Stanton Welch

Solea – by Maria Pages

DGV – by Christopher Wheeldon

 

Who gets to see all of this?

 

Los Angeles       11/5 thru 11/7

Santa Barbara    11/8

New Orleans       05/14

Seattle               05/19 thru 05/21
Charleston          05/27 thru 05/29

New Yorkers will be thoroughly enjoying Angel and Carmen in Solea this week during the Fall for Dance season at New York's City Center, but it would sure be nice to someday see the whole company in Bruch Violin Concerto.

NYCB – Concerto Barocco, The Magic Flute, Stars & Stripes 10/2 matinee

Haglund wonders what those NYCB dancers are sprinkling on their Wheaties in the morning.  My goodness, they were on fire at the Saturday matinee. 

 

Haglund understands that Friday evening saw some difficulties with Concerto Barocco.  He wasn't there and cannot speak to the complaints.  However, at the Saturday matinee – with the exception of the first two or three minutes of the ballet when some were not as steady and ready as they should have been – the ballet looked super.  The adagio with Abi Stafford and Justin Peck was lovely and coordinated smoothly - especially the somewhat horizontal slides on pointe that evolve into a fouette arabesque.  Those are, more often than not, a struggle for everyone, and it was nice to see them succeed so eloquently this afternoon.  Abi's extension of the musical phrases was beautiful and a reminder that Concerto Barocco does not have to be all steely and angularly abrupt.  Justin Peck has some nice qualities as a partner and showed elegance that Haglund had not observed in his dancing previously.  Ellen Bar as the other violin gave a strong, confident performance as well.  The corps looked well rehearsed and everyone seemed to be actually dancing instead of concentrating on executing the steps.  Again, Lauren King stood out - not because her feet and legs were any crisper or cleaner than the other corps dancers, but because her overall performance was so coordinated and her upper body was so easy to watch whereas many of the other women's arms and legs seemed unnecessarily abrupt.  Haglund cannot wait to see what Peter Martins' plans are for this talented dancer, because she is uniquely beautiful and expressive in much the same way as Jenifer Ringer - but of course, more strawberry than brunette.

 

Haglund just can't stay away from The Magic Flute.  Today's principals were Tiler Peck and Joaquin De Luz.  Have to say that they were slightly more proficient technically than the Thursday cast and quite a bit more advanced in the theatrical and mime aspects of their roles.  However, Haglund absolutely loved the vibrancy and youthfulness that Megan Fairchild brought to the role of Lise on Thursday and thinks that it is perhaps a more natural fit for her than for Tiler Peck who portrayed the character as more mature and sophisticated.  De Luz was in his natural element as Luke.  There was story in his every step and gesture - and all of it, such a pleasure to watch.

 

Haglund meant to mention in the first review of The Magic Flute that he was elated to see that one of the greatest Bunnies in the history of all Nutcracker Bunnydom, Ever Croffoot-Suede, has re-emerged on the big stage – sans bunny ears and sans the very stern bunny concentration which reflected the enormous pressure under which the Bunny performed its awesome heroism – to dance free in curls and a little dress.  Ah yes, life after Bunny Duty discharge can be blessed bliss.

 

Stars and Stripes was given an out-sized performance by one and all.  Erica Pereira led the first campaign.  She executed everything very well but there is an immaturity about her performance – or perhaps it is really only that her face looks so young – that makes Haglund feel like he's watching a student recital.  The technique seems to be in place firmly, but the dynamics of performing are not.

 

Gwyneth Muller finally got to officially debut in the lead of the Second Regiment.  She was thrown into it on Thursday night following Savannah Lowery's unfortunate injury.  She seemed a little leaden in her jumps, and her movement wasn't as precise as the other four principals. 

 

Daniel Ulbricht repeated his masterful performance leading the Third Campaign on Thursday night.  He made the crowd crazy - happy, happy crazy.

 

Ashley Bouder and Andrew Veyette carried the Fourth Campaign.  Bouder's Liberty Bell was more in control than Sarah Mearns' on Thursday, and her movement was, well, clear as a bell – but still explosive.  Veyette had a relatively good performance - relative to some of his other performances during these past three weeks.  He punctuated his variations nicely and securely partnered Bouder.  He's a dancer who is quite good in most respects, but not exceptional in any.  Haglund wishes that Veyette would work toward being exceptional in just one area, for now. 

 

People, you have two more chances to see The Magic Flute:  Sunday matinee and Wednesday, and two more chances to see Stars and Stripes:  next Friday and the final Sunday performance.  And, the Fall Gala on Thursday will be packed with dance and include the Overture to Bernstein's Candide.  Hasn't this been a fantastic first Fall Season?!

 

So, [drum roll, please] Haglund bestows this autumn leaf inspired Pump Bump Award to the cast of Stars and Stripes for bringing the afternoon to a burning and colorful peak:

 

NYCB The Magic Flute - a cute toot

What a brilliant evening at NYCB on Thursday! 

 

The program opened with a splendid performance of Serenade from Ashley Bouder, Rebecca Krohn in her debut, Jenifer Ringer, Ask La Cour, and Jonathan Stafford.  Rebecca came out with a roar – perhaps due to nerves – which suggested that work needed to be done on smoothing out the upper body and arms and making the movement less abrupt.  But then in the final two movements as the dark angel with hair down, she was a different dancer:  very steady when steady was called for with generous, sweeping movements that had been missing earlier.  Ashley and Jenifer each gave inspiring performances using the music to its fullest.  Ashley's beautifully crossed beats and Jenifer's arabesques denoting longing were especially lovely.  Ask La Cour is turning his role in Serenade into one of his best.  His manipulation of the dark angel's promenade in arabesque was flawless this evening.  His partnering of all of the women was lush and romantic.  His demeanor was poetic and soulful.

 

Peter Martins' The Magic Flute returned to the repertory Thursday, and Haglund has to say that it's a keeper for sure.  The original production was created by Martins at Balanchine's suggestion for the SAB students in 1981 and was taken into the company in 1982.  The production is not The Magic Flute story and music familiar to Met Opera goers.  Instead of Mozart, Martins used the score by Riccardo Drigo which is very danceable, hummable, and is full of beautiful melodies.  The story is a simple one:  boy and girl who are in love are being kept apart by parents; a magic flute descends from the sky which when played by the boy makes parents, peasants, and everyone else dance against his or her will; the lovely Oberon intervenes in the chaos and unites the boy and girl forever. 

 

The whole ballet was charming from start to finish with thoughtful, interesting choreography and substantive corps work integrated into the story.  Absolutely amazing is the best way to describe the performances by Megan Fairchild as Lise and Andrew Veyette as Luke along with a slew of character roles impressively played by Adam Hendrickson, Henry Seth, Christian Tworzyanski, Andrew Scordato, Ralph Ippolito, Gwyneth Muller, Devin Alberda and Ellen Ostrom.  The stage was packed with kids who were in complete control of the audience's attention – and not simply because their entire families were seated in the theater.  The costumes and scenery, new this year, were elaborate by NYCB standards.  One aspect of the costumes that Haglund didn't care for was the use of black outlining or edging for so many costume parts.  It made the costumes look like they came out of a kid's coloring book.

 

Haglund recommends that everyone see The Magic Flute.  You will be happily surprised.

 

Stars and Stripes closed the evening with rousing allegro performances from Daniel Ulbricht in the Third Campaign and Sara Mearns as the Liberty Bell.  Unfortunately Savannah Lowery suffered an injury from a fall she incurred while leading the Second Campaign.  One of her solos was omitted from the section, and she was eventually replaced for the finale. 

This ballet is a crowd pleaser for its Sousa music and its regimented technical spectacle.  Daniel Ulbricht doesn't just do fast, tidy double tours, he does them with amazing elevation.  As with Ms. Bouder, his crossed beats were a delight du jour.

The corps was tremendous in all three pieces on Thursday.  However, Haglund must mention Lauren King as one to watch closely in future performances.  She truly is a gem undergoing polishing.  This evening she was one of four demi-soloists in Serenade and The Magic Flute.  A magnetic performer with a beaming smile, she seems to be having the time of her life dancing in the corps at the New York City Ballet.

The evening was a testament to powerful programing packed with variety, grand music, and magnificent performances.  But even Haglund is shocked to be bestowing this Sizzle silver Pump Bump Award on Peter Martins' The Magic Flute: