Haglund's Heel

PTDC opens at Lincoln Center on Tuesday

TONIGHT at 8pm, Channel 13's NYC-ARTS will run a feature on the Paul Taylor Dance Company's season that opens this Tuesday at Lincoln Center.  The program will repeat on Sunday at noon.

 

Van Cliburn

 

 

RNZB – Made to Move opens

The Royal New Zealand Ballet opened its Made to Move repertory evening in Wellington last night with three brand new works including one choreographed by Ethan Stiefel entitled Bier Halle to waltzes by Johann Straus II with Gillian Murphy and Qi Huan in the leads.  To mark that occasion along with RNZB's 60th anniversary season, the local Wellington brewer, Garage Project, debuted a new craft beer, Hops on Pointe. 

Here are a few of photos from the RNZB FB page of Stiefel's new work.  Click to enlarge:

Javier de Frutos choreographed Anatomy of a Passing Cloud to Pacific Island sound clips, and Andrew Simmons created Of Days to music by Dustin O'Halloran, Ludovico Einaudi and Olafur Arnalds.  Here's an Of Days pic from the RNZB website:

 and Anatomy of a Passing Cloud:

Meanwhile, it sounds like the new RNZB Giselle feature film is coming together quickly.  There has got to be some kind of a trailer in the works, and Haglund will keep his eyes out for it.

Doesn't this look nice

 

 

Chase Finlay will debut at the Mariinsky Theatre in Apollo on March 10th during the International Stars Gala of the XIII International Ballet Festival.  His muses will be Maria Shirinkina, Nadezhda Batoeva, and Viktoria Krasnokutskaya, all from the Mariinsky.  He will also participate in the Divertissement section of the program.  There is no doubt that the Mariinsky audience will go nuts when they see his Apollo.

What a year this young man has had. 

 

NYCB Promotionmania!

What a way to end a fabulous Winter Season!  Eleven deserving artists promoted in one swoop.

Congratulations to the new Soloists:

Lauren King
Ashley Laracey
Megan LeCrone
Lauren Lovette
Georgina Pazcoguin
Justin Peck
Brittany Pollack
Taylor Stanley

. . . and to the new Principals:

Adrian Danchig-Waring
Chase Finlay
Ask la Cour

Viva Argentina and NYCB's Petiparina!

There is a saying that the devil is in the details.  In Petipa's ballets, particularly The Sleeping Beauty, the devil, God, truth, peril, and all beauty dwell within the details.  It takes a smartly skilled ballerina to sort them out, face them down, and ultimately live up to them in order to create Princess Aurora's three phases of development over an evening. 

Ana Sophia Scheller began developing her Aurora when she was a 13-year-old student at the Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires – the school that produced Julio Bocca, Herman Cornejo, Marianela Nunez, and Paloma Herrera to name a few.  She has a video of a childhood performance of one of Aurora's variations here on her YouTube account.  Even at that early age when most students are concerned mainly with whether they can hold a leg to the ear or eke out a messy fourth revolution in a pirouette, details were on her mind:  the high, high releves as she walked on demi pointe with straight knees, the full phrasing, the elegant use of the backs of her hands, the stretched fingers, the head held royally.  While it is a common problem among professional dancers to convey the youthfulness of the 16-year-old Aurora because they are usually much older, here we see 13-year-old Ana filling every musical moment in an effort to convince the audience that she is mature beyond her years.

Last evening, more than a decade after that student performance in Argentina, Ana debuted in the role of Princess Aurora at NYCB opposite Gonzalo Garcia's Prince Désiré with Savannah Lowery as the Lilac Fairy.  Never has Haglund been more convinced that Ana is a major ballerina in the making.  Major in this generation, perhaps eventually even more important.

In Act I, her Aurora had the butterflies in the stomach that one would expect in a debutante who perhaps was a little surprised to be suddenly presented with four potential husbands from whom to select.  She glistened with excitement while mindful of her royal manners.  In the Rose Adagio, she was the 16-year-old eager to grow up quickly and to demonstrate with authority that she was ready for all that awaited her.  The showy balances eluded her last night; once she leaned back so far that it looked like she might fall off pointe, but the strong arms of her attentive suitors brought her back to her plum line, and by the end of the final promenade Aurora's confidence and determination were renewed.  Her variation was filled with beautifully articulated phrases, small footwork, and glorious port de bras.  When one sees the importance and grandeur conveyed by holding the body high and keeping the arms low and forward of the body as Ana did last evening, one wonders why any dancer would ever do it any other way.

Haglund was quite unprepared for the beauty of Ana's work in the Vision Scene which turned out to be the favorite part of the evening.  Her remote yet soulful yearning for Désiré was touching and his response to the vision was wonderfully believable and heartfelt.  There were times when Ana struck an arabesque pose that was so perfectly formed, symmetrical, harmonious, and full of breath that a whiff of Gelsey floated by.  We have a major ballerina in the making – one who, quite simply, gets what it is all about. 

The grand pas de deux in the final act was marked with beautiful fish poses and celebratory dancing – a fine finish.  Gonzalo Garcia was convincing, handsome, and sincere as Prince Désiré throughout the evening.  Haglund has seen him dance better with more control over pirouettes and landings from aerial turns, but last night, he was the perfect partner for Ana's Aurora.  The lifts in the Vision Scene were among the most magical ever.  He made every supported pirouette and pose look perfect.

Savannah Lowery's Lilac Fairy was stately and authoritative.  Troy Schumacher's brise vole diagonal in the Bluebird variation was absolutely brilliant.  Taylor Stanley's Puss in Boots to Sarah Villwock's White Cat was deliciously detailed and fabulously danced.  Rebecca Krohn's Diamond was flawless in its cut and clarity; her grand jetes to a stopped arabesque were perfect.  Jared Angle's Gold was both good and less so.  He's always impressive when he takes off but Jared's jumps don't seem to get to the end of his feet very often, which is to say, he's not using them fully. 

The H.H. Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon our newest Petiparina, Ana Sophia Scheller, for the brilliant and starry light of her debut as Aurora.

. . . to help us speculate about spring casting

Here is the full casting for ABT's first two performances of Symphony in C in Hong Kong as it appears in the performance program.  It may help us speculate about who we'll see in the secondary casting come spring.  It's good to see Blaine Hoven repaired, recovered, back in the line-up, and dancing with the lovely Christine Shevchenko.  The demi-soloists in the First and Fourth Movements look promising.  Fingers crossed that we get to see Stella Abrera in the First Movement in Washington DC – at least.

 

Books

There seem to be more than a few new ballet books coming our way in 2013.

Dancing on Water: A Life in Ballet, from the Kirov to the ABT
Elena Tchernichova, Joel Lobenthal, Joseph Brodsky
Scheduled for release in May and can be pre-ordered at Amazon with a discount. 

The book is the personal story of Elena Tchernichova, the Kirov ballerina who devoted twelve years to coaching ABT's artists including Gelsey Kirkland, Cynthia Gregory, Natalia Makarova, and Alexander Godunov (the guy in the mirror):

 

The French School of Classical Ballet: The First Year of Training
Vanina Wilson
Scheduled for release in August and can be pre-ordered at Amazon with a discount.

This is a thirty-three week training manual that covers the syllabus of "the French school" without claiming an association with POB, except for the mention that the author studied with masters of POB and its school.

 

Dancers: Artists of The Royal Ballet
Andrej Uspenski
Scheduled for release in September and can be pre-ordered at Amazon with a discount.

This is photography book, and the images have been captured by a First Artist of the company. There seems to be a slight difference in the title on the jacket and Amazon's title record, but they'll figure it all out for you if you place a pre-order.

 

The Making of Markova: Diaghilev's Baby Ballerina to Groundbreaking Icon
Tina Sutton
Scheduled for release in August and can be pre-ordered at Amazon with a discount.

The author had unprecedented access to Dame Alicia Markova's intimate journals and correspondence.  The book has 60 photographs.

 

Balanchine and the Lost Muse: Revolution and the Making of a Choreographer
Elizabeth Kendall
Scheduled for release in July and can be pre-ordered at Amazon with a discount.

This book is described as the first dual biography of the early lives of two key figures in Russian ballet: famed choreographer George Balanchine and his close childhood friend and extraordinary ballerina Liidia (Lidochka) Ivanova.

 

Anna Pavlova: Twentieth Century Ballerina
Jane Pritchard and Caroline Hamilton
Scheduled to be released on March 12th but is still at this moment available at Amazon as a pre-order with a discount. 

 

Additionally, there are new books about Daria Klimentova of the English National Ballet, the Birmingham Royal Ballet, a new International Dictionary of Ballet coming out in April for $375, The Green Table: Labanotation, Music, History, and Photographs by Ann Hutchinson Guest, and a new children's book When Stravinsky Met Nijinsky: Two Artists, Their Ballet, and One Extraordinary Riot by Lauren Stringer.

 

Edward Villella will chair jury at 2014 USA Int'l Ballet Competition in Jackson, MS

He will be only the third jury chairman in the history of the quadrennial competition established in 1979 and which next convenes in June of 2014.  The first chairman was Robert Joffrey, and the second was Bruce Marks.

Villella told the Clarion-Ledger newspaper that in the past he had hired dancers right off the stage during the competition.  In addition to serving as the jury chairman, he will teach classes and engage the public on behalf of the USA IBC.

The international competition is open to dancers from 15 to 18 years old and 19 to 26 years old.  In 2010, competitors and audience members from around the world pumped about $10.2 million into the Jackson and surrounding area economies, according to a University of Mississippi study.

 

Who is the new NYT Culture Editor?

Still no announcement.

He or she had better get installed fast, judging from the immediate and fast decline in the quality of the dance criticism.

Macaulay on PNB's first night: "All levels of the theater were full" – really, Alastair?  Eyewitness reports are that the first night was shamefully under-attended with nearly no one in the upper level.  This isn't the first time that Macaulay has blatantly misreported about a performance in order to improperly promote the artists. 

And there he goes again, mocking the audience members who, unlike himself, have true knowledge of what they are seeing on stage:  "the temptation is to rush immediately into dancer comparisons. Can its Carla be as good as our Maria and Sterling? How does its Seth compare to our Chase and Robbie?"

The absolute best thing that the new NYT Culture Editor could do is to completely eliminate all of the current writers on dance and go with stringers.  It would save the paper money, and readers would have a 50/50 chance of getting more professional reporting.  That's a much better chance than we have now.

 

NYCB – The Sleeping Beauty – 2/13

So, after a week of ugly, malicious, and downright beastly controversy over who would be this year's Top Dog – and the widespread disappointment that the honor didn't go to a "big dog breed" – the biggest dog of all, Mr. Gray Wolf, bounded onto the stage at the New York City Ballet's production of The Sleeping Beauty and nearly stole the show before he finally caught Little Red Riding Hood and carried her off presumably to experience further battering about his head from her little basket.  But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

NYCB's Sleeping Beauty opened it's two week run last evening to a nearly sold out house.  In fact, most of the performances are approaching sold out status.  Why such box office success?  Is it the magic of the story, the magic of the music, the magic of the dancing, or perhaps the magic of the scenery and costumes?  All of these things are important, of course, and they combine to create artistic success.  But the box office goes bonkers over Sleeping Beauty for the same reason it goes bonkers over NYCB's Nutcracker :  the inclusion in the performance of roaming packs of little theater animals who fully realize their upstaging gifts and their powers of persuasion to get their extensive networks of adults in their communities to open their wallets to buy entire families a night out at the ballet.  This production uses more than 50 children from the School of American Ballet including the approximately three foot tall Little Red Riding Hood.  That translates into a mighty reach into the local economy.

The production, Petipa-based with choreographic contributions from Balanchine and Peter Martins, moves at the expected NYCB-swift pace with little time for applause after each dancing segment.  The costumes and scenery are sumptuous and represent a lavish departure from the usual sparse production values of NYCB's ballets.  The use of backscreen projections to convey the castle, first from afar and then closer as the story and the audience approach the castle grounds, is a wonderful use of modern technology to help bring a very old story to life. 

Megan Fairchild and Joaquin De Luz gave committed performances as Princess Aurora and Prince Désiré.  We were convinced of the sincerity of Désiré's quest for ideal love and his belief that he had found it in Aurora – all helped by De Luz's mastery in dramatically punctuating the ends of his musical phrases.  Landing on one knee with his face turned toward the sky and his hands clutching his heart, he made the audience feel the depth of his commitment. 

Megan's interpretation of Aurora succeeded where youthfulness was expected but didn't convey the elegance of a young royal.  This is such a tough role to dance from both technical and interpretive standpoints.  Throw in all of the expectations created by great Auroras of recent generations – Viviana Durante, Cynthia Gregory, Larissa Lezhnina to name a few – and the bar has been set almost unrealistically high.  Megan aced the technical challenges, no question about that.  When the leg opened in developpe to the side, it was high and it was truly to the side position, but it wasn't turned out as it should be in classical technique.  Consequently, the whole shape of the position lacked the expected harmony, and the top of the foot was often more visible than the sole.  This seems to be okay in Balanchine ballets; not okay in Sleeping Beauty. 

Sara Mearns as the Lilac Fairy was astonishingly beautiful.  My, my, my, does she wear restraint and understatement well.  With lovely, fully formed, expansive port de bras along with a graciousness that isn't a requirement in her other rep, Sara calmed the kingdom following Maria Kowroski's delicious Carabosse's evil doing and set in motion the fairytale ending. 

Ana Sophia Scheller and Antonio Carmena danced the roles of Princess Florine and The Bluebird.  Haglund has never seen a dancer in any Sleeping Beauty production who looked good in The Bluebird costume – no matter what the shade of blue.  The blue tights and shoes are always uncomplimentary to the dancer's line while he's killing himself trying to beat his legs and jump high.  Bluebird flew about pretty well last night, and while the pas de poisson had good elevation, the shapes in the air were less than clear.  Princess Florine, somewhat under-employed in her role, ahr-tik-yuh-ley-tid every step with her gorgeous feet and maximum turnout while every inch of her upper body delivered the Petipa message.  Haglund is excited about her upcoming debut as Aurora next week.

Erica Pereira was brilliant as Ruby with strong jumps and cutting clarity.  As Gold, Chase Finlay finally showed us that he can manage good elevation in his jumps and delivered exciting finishes as well.  Lauren King was a vivid Emerald, full of life.  Teresa Reichlen's Diamond had some difficult moments.  The grand jetes to the stopped arabesque position were clunky.   Her variation seemed a little frenetic as opposed to sparkly which may have been from trying to dance the steps in too large a fashion. 

The White Cat and Puss in Boots, Lauren Lovette and Adrian Danchig-Waring, were feline fantastic.  The sound of her little slaps at him resonated to the upper rings.

The Wolf, Joshua Thew, and his Little Red Riding Hood, Claire Abraham, really did nearly steal the show with their chase through the "forest" (cleverly represented by SAB students) wherein The Wolf ended up knocking down the "trees" to finally catch LRRH.

The corps de ballet and the various fairies were all lovely.  Everyone seemed focused on moving through the positions with classical clarity.  Their arms, which don't always look elegant, did so tonight.

The H.H. Pump Bump Award, a Diego Dolcini multifaceted stiletto, is bestowed upon Sara Mearns for her graciousness and elegance as the Lilac Fairy.

The Village Voice on Roman Baca

Most Haglund'eelers in the NYC area are already familiar with the inspiring story of Roman Baca and his Exit12 Dance Company.  Roman is the front page story in The Village Voice this week.  Luckily for those in other areas who don't have access to printed copies of The Voice, the story, A Dancer's Tour of Duty, is also available online.  Take a look and visit his company's website.

I just put dancing away while I was in the Marine Corps. Except for the last day of boot camp, when I already had my papers. I marched right up to my senior drill instructor and snapped to attention, and said, "Sir, this Marine has something he wants to show you, sir!"

He said, "What?"

I said, "I want you to take a look at this." I handed him a manila envelope.

He pulled out the first picture, and it's a picture of me in a tunic and tights with a ballerina, from Sleeping Beauty. And he slowly shakes his head and goes, "Oh, Baca, Baca. I knew there was something weird about you."

Look for this cover on newstands:

Banana Joe peels off with Best in Show award

What a champ.

AP/Craig Ruttle

 

And the new NYT Culture Editor is . . .

? ? ?

The New York Times said two weeks ago that it would announce its new culture editor in two weeks.  No announcement yet.

It's hard to believe that the new culture editor won't be firmly enthroned in time to oversee the paper's all-important reporting on that all-important Best in Show prize at the Westminster Kennel Club Fashion Week Event on Tuesday.  Maybe the Times will send its chief dance bitch dog to cover the prancing pooches tomorrow night – unless the Times already knows who the winner is – because it's fixed -- not the dog, but the contest.  No, no, no, those dogs are not fixed; there'd be no money in that.  But the contest – now that's another matter. 

Let's look at the evidence.  When was the last time an Airedoodle or Beag-a-poo won Best in Show?  It's been a very long time.  If that mangy Russell Terrier wins in its inaugural breed year, then you'll know that the whole contest has gone to the dogs.  Let's hope that the new NYT culture editor is named tomorrow and that he or she doesn't indulge in any preliminary catting around in the newsroom before getting his nose down to the serious dog business.

Since it's probably not going to be on the new culture editor's radar, Haglund will remind everyone that tickets for the Paul Taylor Dance Company's March 6th performance are $5 and are still available at the Koch Theater Box Office and online.  No facility fees.  The tickets are a flat $5. 

This performance is going to be a fantastic 25th anniversary celebration of Speaking in Tongues and Brandenburgs.  There will be no better place to be on March 6th.  So, snap up your $5 tickets today for March 6th and grab a few for other performances such as Gossamer Gallants, Promethean Fire, and Esplanade. 

ABT – slight change to DC casting

ABT has moved Joe Phillips' debut as Ali in Le Corsaire from Saturday night to the Saturday 1:30 pm matinee on April 13th at The Kennedy Center.  Hopefully that casting will hold fast because it's the most convenient for commuters from NYC, and we'll get to see Luis Ribagorda debut as Birbanto in an overall strong cast of Cornejo, Reyes, Lane, and Simkin.