If new ballets acquired by the New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre could spend six weeks in a Broadway-style out-of-town tryout in a suburban Toronto theater, we might get a lot better stuff come opening nights here in New York. Choreographers could see what works with the audience, test out solutions, and fine tune the steps, sets, music, and costumes. But in ballet there's no money to do that.
Even if NYCB or ABT could afford a little breathing room to look at a piece on stage for a while before opening in New York, it's not likely that they could get it. Case in point: who really thinks that The New York Times won't send a critic to Bard this fall for the new Volpi ballet or to Orange County in March to assess Ratmansky's new Firebird before it opens in New York during ABT's spring Met season? Those are going to be "on the record" premieres just as though they had occurred in Manhattan.
The conglomerate media is under intense pressure to be the first to shout out the news. The Times got its nose out of joint last winter when Ratmansky's Nutcracker opened with a "preview" performance to which the press was not invited. Bloggers and forum posters, who bought tickets to see the performance, raved about the production all over the internet and bought more tickets before the Times or any other paper got to throw in their two cents worth of "influential" criticism. Haglund proudly confesses to being among those who spoiled the party for them.
Last week before the McCartney/Martins Ocean's Kingdom premiered, it had already failed in the eyes of many critics who didn't just write reviews that essentially said, "I hated it." Instead, they said, "I hated it. You disappointed me (again), and I want to hurt you."
As Haglund sat watching and listening to Ocean's Kingdom again last night, it seemed that this ballet has lots of possibilities that a strong editor or someone functioning as an executive producer could sift through to make the piece enjoyable for everyone. The ballet suffers from too much collaboration. It needs to be cut down. It needs more steps and greater differentiation among the PdDs. It needs to rein in the costuming. The lighting and set designs are keepers, however.
By the way, it could have been a lot worse. Imagine if Peter Martins had brought in a freakin' guest artist to dance the principal role. Jeez Louise, let's not go there right now.
Between now and the Winter Season, can we expect anyone to work on Ocean's Kingdom? Hope so – there's much to gain by doing so and much to lose by not. Sir Paul mentioned on NPR that he's going to write a piece of "experimental" music. Wouldn't it be nice to see the NYCB dancers get a crack at that?
Only 222 calories and that's not an estimate.
Haglund, I do think that a great choreographer shall arise....but it won't be in ABT or NYCB. I have a gut feeling that greatness isn't fostered by established institutions, but arises mysteriously in the most unlikely of places.
Posted by: diana | October 01, 2011 at 12:17 AM
You're probably right, and we may just have to accept that another great one will not come along in our lifetimes.
Posted by: Haglund | October 01, 2011 at 10:43 AM