Haglund's Heel

Music change for new Ratmansky

ABT announced today that the Shostakovich Symphony No. 1 that was supposed to be part of Ratmansky's Shostakovich Trilogy has been replaced by Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor for Piano, Trumpet and Strings - a lighter, much happier, less angsty piece of music.

Now this is interesting news.

[Pause for Haglund to adjust his 20/20 speculation spectacles.]

What if – just what if – Dmitri Maximovich Shostakovich were to drop by to play his grandfather's concerto at The Met?  What if – just what if – Maxim Dmitrievich Shostakovich were to drop by to conduct some of his father's music?  Listen up, folks, the two have recorded this concerto together with The Orchestre de Chambre I Musici de Montréal and are or have been Manhattan residents.  Here they are in the Allegro Moderato:

 

If Haglund is right on this, he may have to bestow a Pump Bump Award on himself.

And continuing the exercise in speculation, note that Ratmansky/Shostakovich are in the House of Balanchine on the same evening as ABT's premiere but also on the following Tuesday.  A Shostakovich as guest pianist or conductor at NYCB on Tuesday could turn Lincoln Center into Ratmansky-Shostakovich Central for several days.

 Let's dream about this for a while.

What to do with Symphony No. 2

It's kind of unbelievable that somebody hasn't created a full length story ballet to Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2.  It's only an hour long, but who would object to a double dose of that beautiful adagio that first appears at the halfway point – you know, the one that someone stole for a pop ballad back in the 1970's – Never Gonna Fall in Love Again. 

There wouldn't necessarily have to be any dark Russian political undertones in the choreography since Rachmaninoff wrote the whole thing while living in lovely Dresden, Germany far away from the turmoil of the time.

A rich performance of the entire symphony by the New York Philharmonic is uploaded on the NYPhil website for listening, although the link could expire this week or next. 

What a gorgeous, danceable, emotion- and drama-packed piece of music.

 

ABT – The Nutcracker opens at BAM – 12/7

Things are still soggy around the boroughs in New York from Hurricane Sandy.  The Christmas Spirit among the natives isn't as crisp and warm as it often is at this time of year.  "Muted" would be a fair description.  It seems that everyone is trying to feel happy while also wishing that the holiday season would hurry up and advance itself through the final page of the calendar.  A fresh calendar on the wall can sometimes feel like a fresh start, a fresh chance.

ABT opened its brief run of Alexei Ratmansky's The Nutcracker last night at BAM.  Everyone – the performers, the parents, the balletomanes, even the bartenders – were all trying hard to be happy.  The combined efforts seemed to push the struggling needle on the Holiday Fest-i-meter past vertical. 

There were new things to smile about.  It was noted that the Little Mouse, Justin Souriau-Levine, now in his third year of his created role, has grown slightly and has less difficulty scrambling up onto the kitchen furniture to reach the hanging sausages.  Philip Perez, also in his third season as The Nutcracker Boy, is finally as tall as – maybe even taller than his Clara, who was wonderfully dance-acted last evening by Adelaide Clauss. 

Xiomara Reyes and Eric Tamm danced the lead roles of Clara, The Princess and Nutcracker, The Prince.  Haglund can't recall seeing these two dance together and their performance occasionally looked under-rehearsed. Each had danced the role previously.  Reyes was a favorite Clara to Herman Cornejo's Nutcracker Prince for two years, and Tamm had a highly successful debut last year opposite Gillian Murphy when David Hallberg had to bow out due to injury.  So each dancer knew the role.  But Ratmansky's PdD is supremely difficult choreography and bears the burden of needing intensive rehearsal no matter how many seasons one has performed it. 

At the point of the Grigorovich lift where Clara is held vertically in the air, last night Xiomara was leaning forward, and Eric had to nearly run forward to stay under her.  The other partnering difficulties came with some of the poses at the end of phrases.  Much of the rest of the PdD went smoothly including the difficult supported turn in which Clara changes her spot so that she faces the Nutcracker Prince.

This year Tamm was a substitute for Cornejo who was not sufficiently recovered from an injury to perform.  Eric is one of the most gifted dancers in the corps de ballet who gets precious little spotlighted stage time except in Ratmansky's works where he seems not only to shine but to grow artistically with each opportunity.  He is natural prince material with beautiful masculine lines.  There's a sense of warmth and generosity that radiates from his chest each time he opens his arms to second position.  Last night his solo variations were the highlight of the evening with their soaring leaps and confident pirouettes.  Haglund has seen this Nutcracker more than a dozen times in its first two years, but last night for the first time, he noticed that as the Nutcracker Prince walked to the back of the stage to begin his variation, he paused to look up at the beautiful stars in the sky.  Tamm made it such a natural moment that for a second we turned our eyes to the heavens, too.

Xiomara had some technical difficulties last evening.  Her diagonal line of double step-over turns during the Snow Pas curved abruptly toward the center of the stage.  But at least these two dancers did the double step-overs and didn't change the choreography to the much easier double pique turns as some have done.  Again, her issues seemed related to not having had sufficient rehearsal to maintain the shape of the choreography.  But overall, she conveyed the youthfulness and charm of the young Clara with the grown-up, mature dancing of the Princess Clara.

There was fantastic dancing in the supporting roles, too.  In Act I, Gemma Bond and Craig Salstein as Columbine and Harlequin were captivating with their doll-like stiffness that combined with technical precision.  In Act II, the Arabian women seemed to be in heightened aggressive pursuit of their bare chested hunk, Patrick Ogle.  Mikhail Ilyin, Craig Salstein, and Arron Scott as the Russians got a great reception from both kids and adults for their precision slapstick comedy.

The Waltz of the Flowers continues to be one of the most beautiful sections of this Nutcracker.  The ladies could not have been more lovely in their multi-layered pink ruffles.

The Pump Bump Award, a creative stiletto of classic lines and interesting shading, is bestowed upon Eric Tamm, a princely dancer who Haglund hopes will be featured more prominently in major classical works in the spring season.

ABT – Symphony #9, The Moor's Pavane, In the Upper Room – 10/20

Cornejo, Jeter, Mearns, Rivera, Hallberg, CC, Somogyi -- it really hurts when some of New York's biggest and best guys can't take the field and play.  Sometimes the bench isn't good enough to win and sometimes, like yesterday, it's so good it makes you wonder why those players aren't starters all the time.

Yesterday due to an injury in the afternoon's performance, Herman Cornejo was not able to dance in the evening's performance of Twyla Tharp's In the Upper Room.  The last minute cast shuffle included Craig Salstein stepping in for Cornejo and Eric Tamm stepping in to dance Salstein's role.  Both of these guys gave fantastic performances -- big New York style performances.  Haglund was ready to stand up and cheer before the piece was half over.  It was another great performance of Tharp's masterpiece and closed the season in high style.

Symphony #9 got another good reading from Veronika Part, Roberto Bolle, Stella Abrera, Sascha Radetsky, and Jared Matthews.  The first entrance of Veronika and Roberto always says quite a bit about what is going on in this ballet and points toward the oppression experienced by Shostakovich and the ordinary Russian people during the Stalin era.  Once again last night, Veronika expressed horror and fear upon seeing all of the people dancing, knowing full well that what they were doing was forbidden and punishable.  But Roberto slowly led her into the merriment and she found herself enjoying the forbidden fun, too, although she was fully aware of the potential consequences for getting caught. 

Veronika projected two, sometimes three different emotions simultaneously and was remarkable in her ability to convey the predicament of the times.  (Speaking of the predicament of the Times, let's pause to relish in a little ridicule.  It's hysterical that Macaulay still hasn't figured out what's going on in this ballet.  How many NYT dance critics does it take to change a lightbulb?)  

Roberto is very quickly grabbing onto the Ratmansky style and even looked pretty good when dancing ensemble steps.  Haglund liked Roberto in this role very much.  Stella, Sascha, and Jared repeated their fine performances.  Jared added more punctuation to his dancing last night, no doubt still working off the adrenaline from having to step in for Herman at the end of this piece earlier in the afternoon.  Stella was simply riveting both dancewise and theatrically.  At one point in the ballet she stood halfway into an upstage wing while secretly glaring at the dancers in the middle of the stage.  Was she an informer?  Oh god, not Stella!

The corps was fantastic as well -- Sean Stewart, Luis Ribagorda, and Zhong-Jing Fang looked especially fine in the choreography.  Poor Isadora Loyola hit the floor on both Friday and Saturday nights at seemingly the same points in her brief solo.  Haglund saw somebody else slip in almost the same spot during an ensemble section.  This choreography drives very quickly and changes direction without warning.  It's not practical to install airbags on the front of the dancers; so it's important to get the floor in perfect condition.  Besides, Ms. Loyola is always a dancer who Haglund looks for on stage, and he doesn't want to see her go splat on the floor again.

The final evening program also included The Moor's Pavane where Veronika Part's Emilia not only stole the white hanky from Julie Kent's Desdemona but also stole the show from Marcelo Gomes' Othello.  Cory Stearns's Iago was almost oily in his scheming manipulation of the other characters.  Haglund will definitely be making a trip or two down to Washington in April to see The Moor's Pavane.  If this cast holds together, DC is in for a big treat this year.

The final Pump Bump Award of the fall season, a Louboutin trott boot that will set you back $1,245, is bestowed upon Craig Salstein and Eric Tamm for heroically stepping into Tharp's In the Upper Room.  They really deserve to be moved into the permanent lineup in these positions:

ABT – Symphony #9 – 10/19

In another era in his home country, the ambiguities in Alexei Ratmansky's new ballet, Symphony #9, would have landed him in the crosshairs of the Soviet censors and possibly earned him a one-way ticket to a really cold place faster than he could say I didn't mean nothin'; I was just funnin' y'all -- or however one conveys y'all in Russian. 

The music chosen for the ballet, Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 9 in E-flat Major, op. 70, was a bitter disappointment to Joseph Stalin in 1945 because it was not what Shostakovich had said he would write:  a huge triumphant symphony that celebrated the country's victory over the Nazis and which included a massive orchestra, chorus, and soloists.  Basically, Stalin and the world's music critics were expecting the equivalent of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with a Russian Ode to Joy, because that's what Shostakovich initially led  everyone to believe they would get.  (Exhibit A for never letting artists do their own PR.) 

After a couple of false starts, Shostakovich's creative path and political conscience led him to compose a bright, cheery symphony with dark ambiguous subtexts dedicated to the brave, long suffering, ordinary people of Russia instead of the victory symphony expected by Stalin.  Ambiguity in any art was forbidden in the Stalin era when all art had to clearly project the party line.  Consequently, Shostakovich was severely censored for composing this symphony, and the work was banned from performance for several years.

While there is no narrative to Ratmansky's new work, there is plenty that points to Shostakovich's risky subtext.  Dancers cavort merrily -- but carefully -- while always checking for potential danger around them.  A hand to the mouth of another to quiet him, sideways glances to see who might be watching or following, dancers solemnly "getting in line" perhaps signifying that they are following the party line -- but the dancing continues.  In the end, one dancer -- on this evening, Jared Matthews -- spins fast turns in a la second under a light in the middle of a darkened stage as everyone else retreats out of sight-- perhaps signifying a real victory of the common Russian people over the oppression of their leader or perhaps signifying that regardless of the oppression, their dancing will go on.  It is a very hopeful, nearly jubilant ending.

In addition to Jared Matthews, two lead couples Veronika Part & Roberto Bolle and Stella Abrera & Sascha Radetsky create two very different dramatic pages, but on first view, it was difficult to read all of the differences.  The passion, vulnerability, and theatrical guardedness that Veronika brought tonight to her PdD with Roberto was a contrast to the bold, risky dancing of Stella and Sascha who suggested that they were more confident that they could dance as they wished and get away with it.  There was also a suggestion of subversion but that, too, will require another viewing to understand.

Stella was simply gorgeous in every step.  She has become quite the vehicle for Ratmansky's style and seems instinctively able to meet the challenges of his work while imbuing it with a deep musicality.  Roberto managed surprisingly well for his first shot at Ratmansky choreography, and it must have been a shock to him to experience just how energetically and freely Veronika embraced the fast and complicated PdD.  It ain't White Swan, that's for sure.  Sascha seemed very comfortable with everything thrown at him choreographically, and in the beginning of the ballet actually threw himself sideways into the arms of his fellow dancers.

The choreography was jam-packed with steps and fast changes of direction, as we have come to expect from Ratmansky, with grand sweeps of the upper body and port de bras.  Some of it was a bit too quick for the corps dancers tonight to execute neatly, but as we have learned from Ratmansky's previous work at ABT and NYCB, it can take time to settle into his works.

The costumes – black and white dresses for the women and dark pants and sleeveless shirts for the men – had images on them, but it was impossible to tell what the images were.  If it's important for the audience to see them, then reworking will be needed.

The symphony is a truly gorgeous piece of music.  There is an exquisite bassoon solo in the fourth movement that is impossibly sad and beautiful at the same time, and then it seamlessly continues into the joy and hopefulness of the final movement.  Haglund is happy to have become acquainted with Shostakovich's 9th.

The rest of the offerings on the program didn't add up to much tonight.  Morris' Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes with the first night's cast yielded the same empty result.   The central PdD from Tudor's The Leaves Are Fading was danced by Xiomara Reyes and Cory Stearns to no effect.  It will always have no effect without the rest of the ballet.   A second viewing of Daniil Simkin and Sarah Lane in Balanchine's Stars and Stripes PdD yielded even more to object to this time.  Since when does El Capitan march around with his toes turned out like a freakin' ballet dancer?  At least Sarah was trying hard to get the Sousa rhythm into her bones and there was more acceleration and energy in her movement.  Simkin was making a joke out of it –– while changing the choreography and inflicting dismal partnering on Sarah.  Honestly, why is the Balanchine Trust allowing this guy to run roughshod over Balanchine's choreography, spirit, and intent?  ABT should just make up a dance called "Daniil's favorite tricks to any music anywhere anytime," and trot it out for its rep program.  Let Herman and Jared give the deserved respect to Stars and Stripes.

It's really time for more tough love for ABT, but Haglund is too tired for it tonight.  The HH Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon Stella Abrera and Veronika Part who really made Ratmansky's Symphony #9 interesting to watch and worth a repeat visit:

ABT Firebird – round 2

Haglund had a different experience at Tuesday night's Firebird where the cast was Misty Copeland, Herman Cornejo, Maria Riccetto, and Roman Zhurbin.  The complaints about Alexei Ratmansky's ballet are the same, but somehow the production wasn't as annoying when steered by the ensemble instead of competing "stars."  The choreography for the title character looked much better on a Firebird with beautiful legs and feet and an expressive face.  Misty Copeland fit that bill on Tuesday night, and her on point interpretation of the mythical creature nearly induced a pyromaniac euphoria in the audience.  The whole cast gelled in a way that the opening night's didn't.  But still, the choreography was a lot of hurrying around with steps crammed into the music to cacophonic effect. 

Ratmansky is one of the busiest choreographers in the world today, but it seems that the business may be preventing his best efforts from being fully realized.  From Ratmansky, we need fewer poems and more poetry.

The evening included a tribute to AD Kevin McKenzie for putting in twenty years on the job.  In any other workplace, the guy gets a watch, a few kind words from the boss and co-workers, and then goes back to his desk to work.  Customers aren't usually asked to congratulate him. 

There were two films presented – a retrospective short about his career and later a humorous collection of other ADs around the world offering their congratulations.  For the occasion, Marcelo Gomes choreographed a brief ballet, Triptych, for Xiomara Reyes, Paloma Herrera, and Veronika Part to the Handel-Halverson violin and cello duet Passacaglia for Violin and Cello which was played live on stage by Charles Yang and Dane Johansen.  The quirky hand, arm, and head movements within the choreography for these beautiful ballet dancers wasn't especially appealing.  Nothing in it showed off the unique qualities of these wonderful artists.

As part of the tribute, Julie Kent and Marcelo Gomes performed a PdD from Cruel World which was created for Julie and Robert Hill by James Kudelka.  Yes, it is a cruel world for many of ABT's finest dancers – thanks to the director who was being celebrated last night.  His legacy will include wasting much of this talent, while substituting homely eastern European imports and has-beens who cannot dance as well as ABT's own artists.

The evening concluded with Wheeldon's Thirteen Diversions danced by the superb cast of Gillian Murphy/David Hallberg, Sarah Lane/Craig Salstein, Hee Seo/Gray Davis, and Devon Teuscher/Daniel Mantei.   

The Pump Bump Award, a gem of a red stiletto with steel reinforced and diamond heel, is bestowed upon Misty Copeland for her wonderful Firebird.

ABT's Firebird – 6/11A hotdog with too much relish and bun

Why do ballet choreographers keep trying to redo more famous choreographers' ideas?  Is there a shortage of source material for new ballets?  Has all the "good" Shakespeare been choreographed?  Have all the interesting characters in Greek mythology already danced across the ballet stage? Has ballet exhausted its literary source material?  If ABT spends one more cent on someone's "rethinking" of someone else's successful, literary-based ballet, the company deserves to lose its audience, go broke, and go out of business.

ABT's new Firebird choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky isn't the worst thing that ABT has put on the Met stage, but it might be the worst re-creation of a ballet it has tried to sell.   If a viewer had never seen Firebird before, he might be able to sit politely through this version, politely applaud, politely smile with lips together, and politely keep his disappointment to himself.  But choreography that banks on the ignorance of the audience instead of its experience is, at its base, offensive, and the substitution of gimmickry for ballet vocabulary is repugnant. 

Slides on pointe, spinning arms overhead, tossing apples, steppy trick-for-the-sake-of-trick phrases that matched the musical counts without revealing the beauty of the music itself – this is not the stuff of genius.  The production values were high in their stimulating effects on the senses without ever transporting the viewer to the place where the artists were telling the story. 

Within the first five minutes, Haglund was ready to go home.  The choreography was a bunch of steps that had nothing to do with any of the characters' predicaments and did little to convey the story of the Firebird.  The dancers, of course, managed the steps mostly perfectly, but there was no reason for us to care.  The PdDs were tricky without being the least bit interesting or musically fulfilling.  The final few minutes of the glorious and passion-filled score had men wearing white suits rolling out from inside tree trunks and then jumping up and down in saute passes.  Add maidens in white dresses with really bad blond wigs, and you get the picture.

Haglund is disappointed – in part, because he wanted so badly to see a new beautiful production of Firebird but also because ABT created expectations that that's exactly what everyone would see.  But that wasn't what was delivered.  What we got was some cartoonish, Dr. Seuss-inspired mess of a ballet.  Thank goodness Firebird is the second half of next week's double bill that includes Ashton's glorious, never tiring, genius creation The Dream.  Haglund won't be the only one leaving at intermission.

Last night's program included Wheeldon's Thirteen Diversions in which a number of ABT's supremely gifted soloists and corps members starred as principals.  Stella Abrera and Eric Tamm were sublime in their PdD to the solemn Chant of Benjamin Brittens' Diversions for Piano (left hand) and Orchestra, Op.21.  Eric Tamm personifies romance from head to toe.  He partners gallantly and poetically like Ivan Nagy used to do and is such a joy to watch whenever he's on stage.  Stella was out of this world gorgeous in her musical phrasing; her shapes in sudden stillness were poignant and beautiful.  Misty Copeland and Gray Davis infused their PdD with controlled passion.  Misty has blossomed so beautifully in these past two years and offers such a grown-up elegance these days.  The marvelous principal cast was completed by Maria Riccetto with Craig Salstein and Christine Shevchenko with Daniel Mantei.  The superb corps danced mostly in partial darkness, but oh how easy it was to spot Gemma Bond with Joseph Gorak for their classicism and class.

Also on the bill was Balanchine's Apollo - the earlier, longer version that includes a birth scene and a final journey up the steps to Mt. Parnassus.  David Hallberg was a fine Apollo who didn't dance the role with his weight into the ground the way the Apollos at NYCB do, but nevertheless, his was a handsome and dramatic reading.  The acute thinness in his arms and shoulders created a youthful impression, necessary for the early section, but didn't serve the image well when he raised his arms in Apollo's iconic pose.  Hallberg's PdD with the stunning Veronika Part as Terpsichore was nearly perfect and was without the struggle we have seen when these two danced in the past.  His long legs, her long legs.  His blondness, her dark beauty.  His gorgeous feet, her gorgeous feet.  His uncompromising form, her uncompromising form which last night included a 180 degree extension with no perceptible displacement of the hips. Kiss. 

Stella Abrera could dance Calliope at NYCB.  Her lines were as sharp and clear and neo- as could be. The overall quality of her dancing is higher than other principals and guest artists, and she clearly improves with each stage appearance.   So why has McKenzie truncated her career?  Hee Seo didn't have the technical chops for the role of Polyhymnia, in particular the "pique pirouette to arabesque sequence with the finger to the lips," and she looked out of her element. 

Even though this performance of Apollo was very enjoyable, Haglund prefers the NYCB's version of Apollo that ends with the sun-fan pose. 

The Swarovski First Position Pump Bump Award,  is bestowed upon Stella Abrera, who ABT continues to underrate and under-appreciate, but who excels in every role given to her and deserves so much more respect and opportunity.

 

 

Firebird clip

Here's a news story that focuses on Misty Copeland, who this ABC affiliate has been following since she was very young.  The clip includes a few seconds of her Firebird dress rehearsal with Herman Cornejo and Roman Zhurbin. 

 

Merde to Misty and Isabella Boylston this weekend in their debuts.

"Always be a first rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else." – Judy Garland

 

ABT – Firebird costume photos

Yesterday the costume maker Cygnet Studio published snapshots on its Facebook page of some of the corps de ballet costumes from Ratmansky's new Firebird for ABT; so, of course, all you Haglund'eelers get to see them, too.  Haglund likes the green costumes a lot - they're kind of Dreamy in the Ashton sense.  He hopes, however, that whoever wears the cream and yellow dresses doesn't end up doing steps recycled from NYCB's Namouna.  Click on each photo to enlarge it.

Here's a Paul Kolnik photo from NYCB's Namouna:

Misty

Misty let the bird out of the flames:

= ticket sellout for Misty's performances.  Yeah, Baby!  They need to give her the opening night of Firebird at The Met and sweep Osipova and her circus performance out the door.

 

Charms, dreams, and variations on the SwanNina Ananiashvili & the State Ballet of Georgia

Nina Ananiashvili and nine dancers from her State Ballet of Georgia along with eight Georgian musicians charmed a full house at Avery Fisher Hall Saturday night.  The audience was mostly Eastern European.  Everyone seemed to be dressed to the nines.  No one heeded the no flash camera rule, and it seemed everyone had a camera despite security's scrutiny at the ticket entrance.  Well, you know, it's Nina.  The ushers were helpless. 

There was no real need to throw bouquets on the stage - not when you could walk right to its edge and gently lay the roses on the marley and have Nina come over, pick them up, and shake your hand as happened after her second performance of the Dying Swan.  Yes, the second performance.  You see, Nina performed the Dying Swan twice last night – two different versions.  The first time she bourreed out with her back to the audience, arms rippling as only Nina can do.  The swan's death ended abruptly and tragically – with the swan resisting to the end as it spun a half circle on the floor to its final pose.  The second version saw Nina bourree out facing the audience, arms rippling.  This time the swan died with a quiet sense of resignation, sorrow, and peace.  The Dying Swan was kind of the best part of the evening which was focused on the early choreography of Alexei Ratmansky.  Nina was the one responsible for Alexei getting his first choreographic opportunity at the Bolshoi, and as they say, the rest is history.

Charms of Mannerism (1997), Bizet Variations (2008), and Dreams about Japan (1998) offered a glimpse of Ratmansky's progression as a creator.  The Bizet Variations most closely resembled the current state of his development.  With its three couples engaging in their individual stories with lovely lyrical, flowing choreography, it reminded Haglund of Seven Sonatas – a whole lot.  The Charms of Mannerism and Dreams about Japan reflected Ratmansky's habit of ending a piece with everyone in the cast grouped together on the stage staring at the audience, sometimes waving happily.  We've probably seen enough of that;  it appears in both The Bright Stream and The Little Humpbacked Horse.  In Charms and Dreams, Ratmansky tried to employ humor which often seemed unsophisticated and sometimes even geeky.  Haglund thinks it's time to get serious about generating new work that doesn't repeat old choreographic ideas or resort to overdone humor.  Hopefully, we'll get something like that in the new Firebird for ABT.

Nina only brought nine dancers with her.  The women looked and danced like a cohesive unit whereas the men were far more varied in appearance and ability.  Philippe Solano excelled in his Sagi Musume solo in Dreams about Japan, a version of which you can watch here.  There were lots of interesting moments in his solo which were then interrupted with arbitrary ballet tricks.  Ratmansky inserted fouettes and pirouettes in much of the evening's choreography by force rather than by integrated design, but for what reason?  We've seen this trait in other of his works.  If it has to do with what he perceives are audience expectations or its understanding of ballet, then it's truly an insult.  Besides, everyone knows the ages-old rule in ballet:  when you don't know what to do, soutenou – not fouette and pirouette – those don't even rhyme.

Anyway, Haglund wants to report that Nina looked and danced wonderfully.  Her leg lines are still long as we remember them, her face still beautifully soulful, her connection with the audience still from her heart to ours.  Many thanks to Nina for the charms, dreams, and above all the many years of her Swan:

Ananiashvili @ AFH in Ratmansky program

Nina Ananiashvili will return to Lincoln Center with dancers from the State Ballet of Georgia and Musicians of Russia in an all-Alexei Ratmansky program at Avery Fisher Hall on Saturday, November 5 at 7:30 p.m.  Tickets are on sale now from $35 to $150.  Tickets for a reception are also being sold.

The program will consist of Ratmansky's Charms of Mannerism, Bizet Variations, and Dreams About Japan.

Performances will also take place at Brooklyn Center for the Arts on Friday, November 4 at 7:30 p.m and at the G.W. Lissner Auditorium in Washington DC on Sunday, November 6 at 6:30 p.m.

This is awesome news!  Buy online at lincolncenter.org or at the AFH box office.  For performance/reception tickets, call 646-383-7972 (International Concerts).

 

Earthquake totally expected

A few minutes after ABT announced via the Segerstrom Center's Facebook page and BroadwayWorld.com that it was handing over a plum premiere performance of its new Firebird to a freakin' guest artist, the East Coast delivered a 5.8 earthquake.  Enough said.

Congratulations to Misty Copeland and Isabella Boylston for getting some well-deserved recognition in being designated as also-leads in Ratmansky's new production which will premiere in March 2012 in Costa Mesa, CA.  Regardless of the obvious pressure that will be placed upon them, it is hoped that neither of these wonderful dancers will feel the need to adopt any of the tasteless Osipovisms that the uninformed media goes goo-goo-gaa-gaa over. 

ABT's Chronic GAS continues.  Stay tuned for the announcement about Funani, the pirouetting baby hippo and ABT guest artist, coming to a theater near you. 

 

New Ratmansky Firebird for ABT

Sometimes wishes come true - just not in the order you want them. 

Back in November 2009, ABT teased its audience to design the 2011 season.  Haglund took it to heart here  and listed his 1-2 wishes as Mayerling and a new production of Stravinsky's Firebird that makes good dance-use of the final five-minute musical orgasm.

Well, we haven't gotten Mayerling YET (Come on, Lady MacMillan.  We truly, truly need your help on this!!!), but it seems that we will see a new Firebird by Alexei Ratmansky in 2012.  At least, that's what the local paper is reporting.  This is all assuming that Mr. Ratmansky doesn't burn out by then.  He has set an unimaginable pace for himself in choreographing new full length ballets.  He just finished ABT's Nutcracker.  Now he's in Moscow working on a new full-length ballet Lost Illusions with music by Leonid Desyatnikov for the Bolshoi.  Soon he'll be at The National Ballet of Canada working on a new full length Romeo and Juliet to Prokofiev.  Then comes the new ABT Firebird.  Throw in a few assignments for short pieces - like the one this spring for ABT at the Met, and you have a manufacturing and creative output rate that rivals Apple's.

But this is pretty exciting news.  Several years ago, many cried their eyes out when a planned production of Firebird had to be cancelled by ABT for bugetary reasons.  Can't wait to finally hear that big Stravinsky music in The Met.  How wonderful it would be if Mr. Ratmansky incorporated just an itsy-bitsy amount of the Fokine choreography into his version – otherwise, we may never see it performed again.  Odds are good that Mr. Franklin could help with the steps.

Ratmansky will create Romeo and Juliet for The National Ballet of Canada

Haglund is going to pencil-in on his calendar the November 16, 2011 world premiere in Toronto of Alexei Ratmansky's Romeo and Juliet for The National Ballet of Canada which is marking its 60th anniversary this year.  Richard Hudson and Jennifer Tipton, who collaborated with Ratmansky on The Nutcracker for ABT, will be part of the production team which will have use of the company's brand new $4.4 milllion (Canadian) 59,000 square foot production center.  The music will be Prokofiev's score. 

Here's the NBC's press release.  Haglund will keep a close watch on this event and bring you the details as they evolve.