ABT's Gala Gaffes

The latest casting for the spring season as posted today includes a lot more minuses than pluses.  Ethan Stiefel has withdrawn from all performances because he's not in performance condition. Duh.  How many years has it been since Stiefel has been in top form?  Gotta wonder why ABT still carries him as a principal when he has danced so few performances over the past several years and has not delivered particularly spectacular efforts.  Well, if they piss him off, there goes Gillian out the door, too.

The pluses of the amended casting include Jared Matthews getting the Saturday matinee Coppelia with Maria Riccetto while Daniil Simkin gets slotted into Osipova's Coppelia dates.  The Riccetto-Matthews Coppelia may end up being the breakout performance of the season.  Haglund is even thinking about springing for a more expensive ticket to see them.  Saturday, June 18th 2pm - be there or be sorry.  It is fantastic to see that Isabella Boylston will dance in The Bright Stream on Friday and the Wednesday Matinee (replacing Hee Seo, who is coming back from a long injury layoff) with Simkin who is now dancing in The Bright Stream four times.  (Isabella is a must-see in this.  Her quality of dancing, in particular, her jumps and balletic line, are much prettier than the guest artist who the uninformed media can't stop goo-goo-gaa-gaa-ing all over.)  Paloma Herrera's Swan Lake will now be with Gomes instead of Stiefel.

The big minuses include that Gillian Murphy's Don Q is now with Stearns.  McKenzie continues to shove Stearns, a utility-grade dancer, down everyone's throats to the point that it is gag-inducing.  For the Opening Night Gala – the GALA – we have to squirm in our seats while Stearns shuffles around in his what's-the-opposite-of-virtuosity in the Black Swan PdD and then in a PdD from Lady of the Camellias with Julie Kent. 

There's been some unfortunate Myrtha shuffling as well.  Stella Abrera's Myrtha has been moved to the Wednesday Matinee performance with Hee Seo as Giselle and David Hallberg as Albrecht.  That's really unfortunate.  Over the past couple of years, the Wednesday matinee of  Giselle has twice been scheduled for Abrera's debut in the title role but she had to withdraw due to injury.  Now, instead of giving her another shot at it, McKenzie is making her dance Myrtha to Hee Seo's debut in Giselle - a Giselle which Stella, herself, should be dancing.  While Seo is often a lovely dancer, she has not performed since being named a soloist last summer due to injury - withdrawing from the November Havana performances, the December and January Nutcracker performances, the London performances, and the Moscow performances.  McKenzie has taken her out of The Bright Stream, but is still giving her the opportunity of a lifetime in Giselle while denying it to Abrera and forcing Abrera to watch someone else dance her debut on the stage.  It really stinks.  It really stinks.  That matinee Giselle belongs to the senior soloist - not to the most junior soloist who has yet to perform since being promoted.

Now we come to Mr. Bolle.  He is dancing four performances this year – four – and continues to be called a principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre.  How freakin' ridiculous is that?  He's not even dancing in the Opening Night Gala - which is why we're getting stuck with Stearns dancing with Kent in Camellias. Bolle actually dances more performances at the Hamburg Ballet where he is a guest artist than at ABT.  This runabout should be removed from the roster.

Who is dancing in the Gala?  The JKO kiddies.  Look, the kiddies are having their own recital at the Kaye Playhouse on May 10th and 11th.  Anyone who wants to see them can attend that recital.  The Opening Night Gala is not suppose to be recital kiddie stuff.  What's the point of putting the kiddies on stage instead of giving a few of the supremely talented company soloists or select corps dancers an opportunity to shine?  Why not show off the brand new Erik Bruhn Prize winner, Joe Gorak, instead of all these kiddies?  Why not show off Misty Copeland, who, by the way, brought ABT a quarter of a million dollars from pop-star Prince - does ABT really think they would have gotten it without her?  Why not show off Sarah Lane who has done quite a bit to raise ABT's profile among movie goers? 

Who is doing the thinking at ABT – anybody?

 

Comments

[K]

Amen to all accounts.

NYCB, the anti-story ballet company, managed to turn Black Swan into huge box office success and they had Portman's boyfriend...Portman's dance double would be WAY more exciting because of the "controversy." It's such a lost opportunity (especially for-I am assuming here-Cornejo and Lane!).

[Haglund]

Hi K.

Lost opportunity is almost an understatement. Michael Kaiser would never have let ABT WASTE such an opportunity. Did they learn NOTHING from him?!

[Rivkindr]

Can't wait to see both the Riccetto/Matthews Coppelia and the Kajiya/Simkin DonQ. Yuriko is such a sparkling performer I'm really hoping it's a breakout for her as well! Scheduled the rest of my tickets mostly to see Kent and/or Gomes because so much of the other casting was mismatched this season. I can't understand why they just won't let Stella dance. When SHE dances with Hallberg it's a great look for both of them. Sigh.

[Haglund]

Hi Rivkindr. Totally agree on all points. Stella and Hallberg are THE magical pairing. Gotta think that the problem is that Hallberg has trouble lifting anyone but the tiniest dancers. He rarely ever dances with Part or Wiles in full lengths, and the Russian press noticed he was having trouble lifting Murphy.

[kay]

Hallberg, already in London, revealed the fact that he had some difficulty in lifting Murphy. During the first performance of T&V, their final pose was uncomfortable and unbeautiful where Murphy was unstably sitting on the edge of Hallberg's shoulder, struggling to keep smile, and at the same time, not to slip. He managed not to drop her until the curtain began to fall, but, unfortunately, before the curtain hit the floor, she abruptly slipped from his shoulder. One London reviewer recommended Hallberg be matched with a lighter partner.

[Haglund]

Hi Kay. Thanks so much for the comment. Hallberg's upper body strength issue is just so fixable, you got to wonder why he's not spending time in the gym with a true trainer (as opposed to some physical therapist) in an effort to build those shoulders and arms until they bust out of the costume. His current state of upper body lean-ness is not attractive.

[kay]

Well, as the NYT's chief reviewer so loves his lean-ness, he may not be able to do that, even if he knows and even wants to do so. - it's a joke :-)

[Haglund]

LOL.

[michael]

paloma herrera's swan lake with marcelo gomes is great news! i saw paloma with ethan last season. it was the first performance i saw of ethan's, after having watched marcelo and roberto, and i was severely underwhelmed. plus he did not do anything for paloma. marcelo and paloma would be a better match!

[Haglund]

Totally on the mark. Paloma and Marcelo will be fantastic!

[Rachelmarch]

Totally agree - Paloma and Marcelo sparkled in Brief Fling at City Center a few years ago. Kevin Mackenzie really needs to focus on bringing his men along faster (Matthews, Tamm) and letting the shorter men who don't have Mackenzie's body type dance (Radetsky in a non-villan role? Arron Scott has some beautiful underutilized dancing in him) and/or make some hard choices re: his less fluid, tall principal women. There are really only 5 men now handling the whole season - Cornejo, Gomes, Simkiin, Hallberg and Stearns. Bolle and Max are only doing 4 nights and Angel at 1. Makes NO sense. Why not bring in MALE guest artists to dance with the women we have, rather than give 12 nights away to female guests when we have plenty of beautiful women who could step up quickly...Riccetto, Kajiya, Lane, Boylston....

[Rachelmarch]

Or how about finding the right more contemporary ballet and borrowing Ailey's beautiful Clifton Brown for a week. Talk about graceful strength....

[Haglund]

Hi Rachel. Totally agree regarding Matthews and Tamm. Also, moving someone like Joe Gorak up to an Espada and Benno is not rushing things at all. McKenzie has really dropped the ball on dancer development. It's almost as though there is a paralysis from analysis. These people can dance - let them! Combined with his anti-Baryshnikov bias against short dancers, he's also taken a step backward by relying so much on guest artists. Remember when Baryshnikov cut out most of the guest star business (except for himself, of course) and began pushing his own dancers at ABT? McKenzie seems to be doing just the opposite on purpose. What we really need is a Debut Subscription Package or a Debut evening to allow the soloists and some of the soloist-level corps dancers to drop their machines into 5th gear.

[Rachelmarch]

Seriously. Without a fall season the past few years so many of them are bored and unseen...and then Kevin wastes them all in Matinees when the younger NY patrons (and junior council members) are at work. He should be building support for his growing talent, not making them feel stuck.