ABT – Sarah Lane & Joseph Gorak 12/21

Whoa, old Haglund had to have a drink to steady his nerves after getting home from this afternoon's debut performances of Sarah Lane and Joseph Gorak in The Nutcracker at BAM.  Going forward, the rule for these big double debuts is going to be to start steadying the nerves a couple of hours before getting to the theater. 

The good news is that the overall performance wasn't as bad as the two principal dancers may think it was.  Mistakes were made.  From an audience perspective, some mattered and some didn't.  Neither dancer fell.  Nobody was dropped.  There was a near catastrophe or two, but near never earns a chalk mark.

The Snow PdD encountered more of the problems.  From the start, it seemed like the dancers were off track and each was unsure what the other was going to do next.  Their simultanous diagonals of pique turns were marred when Sarah appeared to truncate hers.  But they pulled their communication and coordination together and had a much better PdD in Act II. 

Haglund has never seen Sarah and Joe dance together in anything.  If this was their first performance together, the lack of familiarity contributed to any awkwardness.  It's going to be a while before we refer to Joe as Mr. Sure & Steady Hands.  He had difficulty rotating Sarah in turns, and by the end of the day, she had lost confidence in him and applied very little force to her revolutions.  They managed the final Grigorovich-inspired lift very well, and the audience rewarded them warmly for it.  Most of the other lifts were good enough for two-point baskets, but none swished through the net, as they say.  One in particular bounced around on the rim for an eternity before going in which caused a few gasps in the audience.  Despite these difficulties and the immense pressure of these debuts, there was a natural chemistry between the two dancers and a similarly high sense of professionalism. 

The principal solos were more than serviceable.  No big exciting risks were taken, but there were many very pleasing things to see:  Gorak's smooth musicality and feet which are more beautiful than Hallberg's.  He didn't push for huge jumps, but the forms were exquisite.  He launched some very nice multiple pirouettes, but then got greedy and tried to eke out an extra revolution that marred the perfection.  Sarah's shoe blocks were noisy during her variation.  Her jumps were big.  Her turns were mostly secure, including a couple of slow ones with lingering balances, but it was not a day for her to take risks.  The choreography for the principal dancers is inordinately complicated and fast, and allows little margin for error.  At times it is thrilling; at other times it just looks busy.

No doubt about it, Sarah and Joe are handsome together.  Both have sunny dispositions and elegant presentations.  While Sarah is best matched with Herman Cornejo, a partnership with Joe Gorak could turn out to be just as satisfying.  But today's performance was undercooked.  One wonders whether these two dancers had the same amount of personal preparation time with choreographer Alexei Ratmansky as the original couples who premiered last year.  If they didn't, then Ratmansky bears responsibility for today's performance not rising to the level of the premieres last year.  Other people, as well as Haglund, were impressed enough by the potential evident in today's performance to buy tickets for the final New Year's Eve matinee in which Sarah and Joe will perform again.  Hopefully Ratmansky, himself, will devote some of the next week to making sure that the final performance is the best that these two dancers can give.  They deserve it and so do we.

Imperfections aside, Sarah Lane and Joe Gorak brought a little extra light into one of the darkest days of the year.  Their Pump Bump Award is a Louboutin stiletto of delicate lace and leopard cub print that have been joined together by rebellious leather seams:

Comments

[Lorry]

Gorak's feet are more beautiful than Hallbergs? That alone warrants a trip to NYC! I must see feet more beautiful than DH in person!

[Haglund]

I wish to call your attention to Mr. Bolle's feet, etc.
http://operachic.typepad.com/opera_chic/2011/12/touched-by-bolles-feet-for-the-very-first-time.html

[Angelica Smith]

Thank you, Haglund, for bearing the anxiety. I would have been on the edge of my seat as well. I'm going to consider their debut an Open Dress Rehearsal and hope they will bring the house down at the December 31st performance.

[Haglund]

Hi Angelica. I LIVE for that type of anxiety but yesterday's had the old heart pumping pretty fast.

All the elements for success are present for Sarah and Joe to be phenomenal together. They just have to organize them.

I just saw that Eric Tamm is replacing David Hallberg for tomorrow's matinee with Gillian Murphy.

[robin]

Oh, sorry the debut didnt go better for them- i really wish i could get to see this cast. Hope the next one goes smoothly. Saw xiomara & herman last night- they were absolutely delightful! The entire show was so great i couldnt sleep!

[Haglund]

I know, X & H are perfect for this Nutcracker.

[Clemence]

Hi, this is my first time posting here. Thanks for the always informative and up to date commentary, I one for one immensely appreciate it. I was really hoping for a better debut for Lane. She's been a soloist since 2007 and I worry for her prospects. I was hoping to come on here and find you raving. What a disappointment. Given that Boylston just got promoted and already has a slew of principal roles lined up (I'm sure aided by the fact that she snagged the sponsorship of the likes of Arlene Cooper) it seems to my untrained eye that things aren't look that great for Lane beyond the soloist level. I've been endeared to her ever since she had the gumption to tell hollywood where to put it.

[Haglund]

Hi Clemence! Thanks for stopping by H.H.

The performance was certainly an aberration in terms of quality for Sarah. All dancers have lousy performances now and then. Last night Simkin in Chinese dropped his partner and then fell on top of her which was just the beginning of the problems.

It is a shame how Sarah and the senior soloists like Abrera and Riccetto are getting the short shrift. IMO, Boylston has shown extremely brightly in only one role - The Bright Stream. Her presentation in most of the rest of the rep has been either corps-like or simply a cardboard pasted smile. Like Hee Seo, who is being pampered to principal roles without ever having been able to carry a soloist's load of work, there is a lot of unattractive "na na na-na na" in her. And both demonstrate their disdain for ensemble work.
They apparently excel at working the decision makers.

[Angelica Smith]

I'm so relieved to hear you say that about Isabella Boylston. Please tell me that I only dreamed there was a photo of her in the New York Times as Giselle and that it didn't really appear there.

I do think, however, that her stick-it-to-you attitude relates more to the fact that the infamous choreographer of Black Swan ditched her in full public view in favor of Natalie Portman. How hurtful that must have been for her. Not that that's an excuse to promote her, however.

[Connie]

Dear Haglund - I consider you a dear friend for keeping me up to date on the ballet scene in New York, but now I must scold you. There is room for successes for all the lovely soloists at ABT and the success of one does not lessen the opportunities for others. They all have different qualities and are all needed. To Ms. Smith I need to point out that the picture in the New York Times stated "in Giselle" not "as Giselle". Please get your facts right before unjustly, gossipy, and speculatively dumping on others.

[Haglund]

Hi Connie. Thanks for following H.H.

I wish it were true that there is room for successes for all the soloists and that one's success does not lessen the chances of others, but at ABT that simply isn't the case. The most minor, least experienced female soloists are being pampered with leading principal roles while the senior soloists who have acquired the requisite polish and experience for leading roles are expected to be satisfied with secondary parts. I've been in the audience for more than 50 of this company's performances this year alone and have seen nothing that even slightly suggests that Isabella Boylston and Hee Seo, the most junior and least experienced of all soloists, should be leap frogging over the other talented soloists for leading principal roles which have the potential of elevating one to a principal rank. ABT's casting reflects a pushing of the "flavor of the week" mentality instead of serious artistic development.

[Angelica Smith]

And Ms. Smith would like to add that her statement about Isabella Boylston was said in sympathy with the sense that Ms. Boylson was badly wronged in full public view (the media made much of this, not Ms. Smith) and how humiliating it must have been for her. She fully sympathizes with Ms. B in that regard. As for Giselle, the Correct Answer would have been that Ms. Smith only dreamed the photo, that it was, in fact, Ms. B "in" Giselle. A mere correction would have sufficed.

Ms. Smith does not gossip nor does she speculatively dump on others. She did see, in The Bright Stream, that when Julie and Isabella were dancing the same steps, Ms. Kent was elegant and Ms. Boylston paled in comparison. She also recognizes that Stella and Sarah, although senior soloists, have not gotten their fair share of roles and are in danger of losing their opportunities in the face of less accomplished dancers being cast ahead of them.