Haglund's Heel

NYCB – All Martins Program – 5/14

Tonight NYCB presented its first ever full evening of repertory by Peter Martins.  Over the years, there have been complaints about his choreography mostly because it has never been as good as Balanchine's and many thought that Martins should be able to produce better work than what we were getting from him.  When his choreography began dotting the programs, there were cries that suggested Martins was reducing the Balanchine repertory.  Of course, that turned out to be not true at all, and in the past thirty years Martins has produced some pieces that have been enjoyable to watch and worth repeated viewings.

Tonight we got most of his "red" repertory:  Calcium Light Night - red unitards; River of Light - 33% of costumes were red; Fearful Symmetries - mostly red and red-related costumes.  The dancers in Barber Violin Concerto wore white.  Not coincidently, NYCB used the evening to host its first Ballet en Blanc Young Patrons After Party.  The audience was filled with college aged and just-post college aged women who were dressed in white and slightly over-accessorized. 

Calcium Light Night (1977) is a Martins piece that has stood the test of time and happens also to be the first ballet that he ever choreographed.  The music consists of nine pieces of music by Charles Ives including his composition Hallowe'en that Balanchine initially included in his Ivesiana but later cut from his own ballet.  Balanchine must have been genuinely impressed with Martins' first choreographic effort because he inserted Martins' Calcium Light Night into Ivesiana for several performances early on.  (Not making this up, folks.  It's in the Playbill.)

Last night's cast of Robert Fairchild and Sterling Hyltin injected new life and spunk into Calcium.  Dancing their solos mostly within and on the perimeter of a large rectangle of light on the stage floor with a corresponding rectangle-shaped lighting fixture overhead, these two gave the choreography the depth and unapologetic sass that characterizes the company these days.  Hyltin's angular and decisive movements challenged the viewer to try to figure out to which part of the complicated Ives music she was responding.  One thing that Haglund appreciates in this piece is how some of the more unique choreographic movements come and go without being repeated endless times to make sure that the audience has picked them up. 

The audience was then tortured with a "See the Music…" presentation that tried and failed to garner appreciation for Charles Wuorinen's derivative (from Ives) score that was commissioned by NYCB for Martins' River of Light.  How smart is it to force an audience to listen twice to music when there's a good chance that they won't even like it once? 

River of Light (1998) utilizes long rectangular piers of light on the stage floor on which each of the three couples enters the stage.  The lighting design culminates with a large circle of light in the middle of the stage for the final choreo-combo for all six dancers.  Savannah Lowery and Amar Ramasar were in black, Erica Pereira and Jonathan Stafford were in white, and Teresa Reichlen and Chase Finlay were in red.  By inserting the tiny Pereira in this cast of tall dancers, it became evident both what her shortcomings are and what Martins' plans for her may be.  It's been difficult to understand why Erica has not been able to shake the immaturity that lies within her presentation.  Her ballet technique has always allowed her to pretty much do any steps required, which is why she is a soloist, but she has continued to present like a student in much of what she dances.  Tonight the question was answered by watching her weak torso try to wrap itself around Martins' modern choreography.  With this observation came the recollection of another dancer who had the exact same problem until about four years ago – that being Sterling Hyltin who used to drive Haglund crazy with her dainty and immature approach to dance.  Then almost overnight the dainty immaturity evolved into a steely, aggressive and spunky brand of movement that is now a joy to watch.  Maybe this will be Erica's path as well, but how much longer will we have to wait?

The dancers in River of Light gave committed performances and there were some interesting choreographic moments, but not enough.  Stafford and Pereira executed some fine lifts in which he seemingly tossed her upward on the diagonal and then suspended her in the air using a single hand on the side of her waist farthest from him.  The piece is worth sitting through just to see those particular lifts.

Barber Violin Concerto (1988) received a fine reading from Ashley Bouder, Sara Mearns, Jared Angle and Ask la Cour.  You'll recall that this piece pairs two ballet dancers with two modern dancers to answer what might come from their various combinations.  Jared and Ashley reprised the roles that originally went to David Parsons and Kate Johnson of Paul Taylor Dance Company.  They were fabulous.  Jared really did look like he could have stepped into PTDC during the Andrew Asnes era, and Ashley's verve and humor kind of reminded Haglund of Mary Cochran. 

Barber Violin Concerto has always seemed like an unfinished dance.  There's a group dance for all four, then a PdD for the ballet couple – beautifully danced last night by Sara and Ask, and finally a PdD for the modern couple.  It ends without any kind of a wrap-up. 

The evening closed with an energetic performance of Fearful Symmetries (1990) to John Adams' score of the same name.  Did Martins borrow a little from Balanchine's Stravinsky Violin Concerto – well, yes.  But his ballet stands on its own and is welcome relief from so much emphasis on PdD and the resulting boredom for the audience.  Here we saw the NYCB dancers flying like we want to see them fly.  The corps and demi-soloists ripped it from the first note of music to the last.

Rebecca Krohn and Adrian Danchig-Waring had terrific debuts as one of the three principal couples:  mega-blasts of energy with finite control.  Tiler Peck & Taylor Stanley and Ashly Isaacs & Anthony Huxley completed the principal cast and blew through the choreography like they were going through a wind tunnel. 

The H.H. Pump Bump Award, combining classic with modern, is bestowed upon Jared Angle and Ashley Bouder for their high-spirited performance in Barber Violin Concerto.

NYCB – All Balanchine – 5/11 mat

Mark your calendars.  Next weekend is the 40th Annual Ninth Avenue Food Festival.  Hard to believe that it's that time of year again.  The old avenue sure has seen its share of funnel cakes, zeppoles, shark-kebobs, fried oreos, corndogs, and falafel-this & falafel-that.  This year's festival could prove especially interesting because, as you've no doubt heard, the 17-year cicadas are coming to town.  Billions of them.  According to a confidential source at the Cicada Tracker, some newly hatched bugs were spotted in Short Hills, New Jersey on May 1st with 9th Ave or Bust stenciled on their theater cases.  As soon as they've figured out how to transfer from the NJT 70 to the NJT 114 to get to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, we should hear them arrive. Billions of them.

Wouldn't it enliven Balanchine's Ivesiana if we tossed in some cicadas?  Consider Central Park in the Dark with a swarm of cicadas chasing after Ashley Laracey and Zachary Catazaro.  By the way, those two delivered another wonderfully mysterious performance of that work this afternoon.  Janie Taylor and Anthony Huxley repeated their haunting interpretation of The Unanswered Question, and Teresa Reichlen and Ask la Cour performed the PdD In The Inn for the first time.

A mostly new cast delivered a sensational performance of Who Cares?.  Sterling Hyltin and Amar Ramasar were enchanting and playful in The Man I Love while conveying an innocence and honesty in their PdD.  Ana Sophia Scheller brought romance and exquisite lines to her rendition of My One and Only.  Ashley Bouder soft-shoed her pointes through I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise with charm and style – a masterful performance.

The demi-soloists in Who Cares? were on fire.  Haglund is ready to see Devin Alberda take the spotlight in something really big.  He's showing new strength, stamina, and a maturity that make his whistling clean technique look like the best on stage.  Ashley Laracey was a standout in this ballet, too.  Boy, does she ever know how to punctuate a musical phrase beautifully.

Tiler Peck and Gonzalo Garcia found the spirit within Tarantella, but Gonzalo wasn't as ready for the challenges of the PdD as Tiler.  His center wobbled all over the place on several turns and his feet slushed through a lot of the allegro.  It was particularly noticeable because he was dancing with someone who has a gyroscope in her middle and wouldn't be able to slush her feet if you asked her.

Stars and Stripes had bright spots and a few problems today.  Troy Schumacher had a commanding and triumphant debut as the lead in the Third Campaign.  He delivered clean, snappy pirouettes and precise tours en l'air. Tyler Angle's debut as El Capitan showed that he was born to dance the role, but needs to get a few more performances under his belt.  His interpretation employed the delightful humor that we used to see in Damian Woetzel.

Lauren King seemed a little unsure and careful as she led the First Campaign.  She met most of the technical challenges except for that silly diagonal of releves while holding the foot in hand.  The website casting didn't indicate that this was her debut in the role, but Haglund can't recall seeing her in it before.  Her customary energy was missing today.  Same problem with Megan LeCrone's Second Campaign: not enough energy and reach with the legs.  Sara Mearns had a few problems with Liberty Bell today, but it was still quite an impressive performance.  It looked like she opened the throttle all the way a little too early and didn't have both hands on the steering wheel yet.  By the midpoint, however, she had it all under control.  She and Tyler blazed to the finish in good style.

The H.H. Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon Troy Schumacher for a debut in Stars and Stripes that made the audience snap to attention.

NYCB – Spring Gala – 5/8

It was one of those nights when you wished you could be in two places at once.  While NYCB was presenting its Spring Gala at Lincoln Center, the newest production of On Your Toes starring Irina Dvorovenko and Joaquin De Luz was premiering a few blocks away at New York City Center.  Toes is on the blog calendar for Thursday night.

Maybe now that Haglund has been reunited with his identical twin brother from whom he was separated at birth, he will be able – with the help of his newly-found brother, Curly Toaz – to do blog justice to all the great dance that is happening around town.  It's true that Curly dances around more in the modern/experimental circles and eschews ballet, but all that could change once he becomes acquainted with Haglund's favorite ballerinas. We'll just have to wait and see.

It was an interesting evening at NYCB: two pieces of Wheeldon, two pieces of Robbins, two pieces of Balanchine, a guest clarinetist, and Queen Latifah.  It was far from the worst gala ever, but not close to the best, either.

The two Wheeldon pieces opened the program.  First, Soiree Musicale to music by Samuel Barber which Wheeldon made for the School of American Ballet workshop 15 years ago, had some lovely and interesting sections, but the various parts didn't add up to a significant whole.  The Tango movement for Brittany Pollack and a dozen men held most everyone's attention.  Brittany is another one of those dancers who grabs the light the moment she enters the stage.  Polished, confident, and beautiful from head to toe.  The Scottische movement with Kristen Segin and Indiana Woodward, who were joined by Ralph Ippolito and Peter Walker, had the imagination, invention, and beauty that now and then springs up in Wheeldon's work and causes our hopes for him as a choreographer to spring up, too.  The costumes for the ladies, designed by Holly Hynes, were gorgeous Romantic length tulle skirts in shades of plum-red, violet, and blue. 

Wheeldon's second offering, a PdD for Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild called A Place for Us, was a bore.  The music by Andre Previn and Leonard Bernstein was performed on stage expertly by guest clarinetist Richard Stoltzman and pianist Nancy McDill, but the music was a poor choice to use for a ballet.  It had no energy.  It had no emotion.  It had no distinctive elements that caused one to listen intently.  The choreography was Wheeldon's same-old, same-old PdD routine that didn't go anywhere and just had the two dancers manipulating around within lighted squares on the stage floor while trying to be dramatic by using minimal gestures.  It ended with the gimmicky trick of a supported pirouette in which Fairchild walked away from the spinning Peck into the darkness and left her rotating to the blackout.  Mostly, the piece was a lot of lovey-dovey manipulation and simplistic gestures that were supposed to mean – what?  Yes, the dancers were beautiful.  Yes, the dancers did everything exceptionally well.  Yes, the dancers exhibited great emotion.  But at the end, the viewer didn't care.  The costumes by Joseph Altuzarra were basic ballet lingerie-inspired costumes.  She was in a blue shorty.  He was in white tights and an Apollo shirt that had both shoulders.

Taking us to the intermission was the "Cool" excerpt from Robbins' West Side Story Suite which was energetically led by Andrew Veyette's Riff and the Jets. 

The second half of the evening was the stronger half.  The Akhnaten section from Robbins' Glass Pieces, which premiered 30 years ago this Sunday, showed that this little section could almost stand on its own as a dance.  Philip Glass' music drives its way into the nervous system and makes you feel whatever the dancers are doing on stage.  It's the viewer physically sensing the rhythms and pathways in the music combined with seeing choreography that illuminates those rhythms and pathways that sets off that viewer's organic response.  Haglund still loves the final backdrop that looks like graph paper.  How many people even remember what graph paper was?  It's still cool, though.

Finally, we got to the Balanchine pieces.  Queen Latifah walked thoughtfully to the downstage corner to  sing Gershwin's "The Man I Love" while Sterling Hyltin and Amar Ramasar danced the corresponding section from Who Cares? with youthful and carefree joy.  Haglund enjoyed their interpretation very much and finds the match-up of these two artists intriguing.  Queen Latifah handled the amplification well, much better than our singers in Thou Swell last week, and delivered a standard interpretation of the classic song.

It was the Fourth and Fifth Campaigns from the good old Stars and Stripes that finally delivered the hungry gala guests to their dinner tables.  Ashley Bouder's Liberty Bell strutted her piccolo pointes from one end of the stage to the other.  She had to dispatch an errant feather that drooped down the back of her head, but did so with musical precision.  Andrew Veyette's El Capitan took an El Slipperooni onto his face on an exit but recovered without slipping out of character.  Veyette is looking mighty fine this season.  Lines are cleaner; center is truer; elevation is fabulous; go-for-broke energy and confidence are high.

Capsule summary:  Balanchine and Robbins still reign; Wheeldon would be helped if he were more careful about his choice of music. 

The feathery Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon Ashley Bouder and Andrew Veyette for their sensational Fourth Regiment Campaign which Haglund saw tonight for the fourth time in the past nine days.

NYCB – Ivesiana sneaks in under cover of darkness – 4/30

It's only about two months between the end of NYCB's Winter Season and the beginning of its Spring Season but it can seem like an eternity.  When the curtain rose tonight on the first performance of this spring, the energy which the dancers were holding inside themselves detonated with explosive jubilation. It happens at just about every first performance of every season – that's why Haglund never misses them.

Tonight's All-Balanchine program included the not often performed Ivesiana - a four part modern experimental piece that actually used to have six parts before Balanchine trimmed two of them away.  The music used is four unrelated modernistic pieces by Charles Ives.  Unlike much of today's modern music, Ives' isn't difficult to listen to in the sense that it offends the ears.  But it is difficult to follow rhythmically; so it may be best to just think of it as background music to what's going on on the stage instead of trying to find a relationship between the music and the choreography.

It's entirely possible that Balanchine and Ives crossed paths as some point in their lives.  Ives was said to have enjoyed attending the New York Philharmonic concerts in New York City, and Leonard Bernstein even conducted the world premiere of one of Ives' symphonies on live radio in 1951.  So it's possible that George and Charles knew each other.  Balanchine premiered his Ivesiana a mere four months after Ives died in New York in 1954.

It's a strange piece – strange but interesting, especially if one takes into account a few pieces of locally relevant information.

The first of the four sections, Central Park in the Dark, shows us lovely Ashley Laracey wandering apparently through Central Park at night unable to see anything in front of her, in back of her, or around her.  What she doesn't see is a large population of dark figures who are flowing all around her.  Ashley has an encounter with a man, Zachary Catazaro, and they engage in a difficult conversation via PdD.  It's never quite clear what they meant to each other or whether she was happy about the fact that she met up with him in the dark.

That flowing population of dark figures, spirit type figures, is pretty curious because of what it suggests.  We tend to forget that Central Park was built on top of Seneca Village, the home to many free African Americans and German and Irish immigrants until New York City took their property by eminent domain in order to construct the park in 1857. The Village was demolished, buried, and Central Park was built on top of it. Seneca Village had at least a couple of cemeteries and there doesn't appear to be any record of the graves being moved to other locations.  In other words, there are plenty of people buried under Central Park, and that means plenty of spirits to rise and roam at night and perhaps cause directional difficulties for a pretty young woman wandering through the park by herself.  Never mind all the pets that continue to this day to be buried there and what their roaming spirits can do.  (Listen, just because no one else seems to have come up with this scenario doesn't necessarily mean that Haglund is wrong or that he's got the Giselle Wilis permanently on the brain. Someone will probably read it here and conclude that he's right, and then copy it in their DanceTabs review or some other such place.)

The second section of Ivesiana, The Unanswered Question, also took place on a darkened stage. Janie Taylor flowed onto the stage atop the shoulders of several men.  She was lighted but the men were in the dark; so, the concept was that she was elevated and moving on her own power.  She swirled around and about all over the stage, never touching the ground with her feet -- think of Gerald Arpino's Round of Angels from 1983.  Her suitor, Anthony Huxley, tried everything that he could think of to reach her to no avail.  So, The Unanswered Question was how to get to Janie.

In The Inn was the only piece of the four that was not in the dark.  Here we saw Sara Mearns and Amar Ramasar engage in a fun, sometimes competitive PdD that was clearly a distance from the action of the first two darker sections of this dance.

The final section, In The Night, saw the brief return of the population of dark figures simply moving across the stage – in the dark.

Haglund enjoyed Ivesiana as an experimental piece and plans to go back Wednesday night to see it again. 

The evening opened with a sensational performance of Who Cares? by Tiler Peck, Robert Fairchild, Ana Sophia Scheller, and Abi Stafford with some excellent demi-soloist work by Devin Alberda, Ashley Laracey, and Savannah Lowery.  Haglund has been watching this ballet for a long time and cannot remember ever seeing anyone fill out Fascinatin' Rhythm the way Tiler does.  She and Fairchild are 1920s Gershwin glam personified.

Megan Fairchild and Joaquin De Luz spun through Tarantella with pristine pyrotechnics and plenty of flair.  It is going to be great to see De Luz on stage in On Your Toes next week.  He's another one with a great big Broadway stage personality.

What an outstanding Stars and Stripes tonight.  Ashley Bouder and Andrew Veyette as Liberty Bell and El Capitan were superb.  Terrific chemistry.  Dazzling technique.  Bouder's musicality was pure genius.  Daniel Ulbricht led the Third Campaign through its precision moves with perfection.  This regiment was on fire tonight, especially Devin Alberda and Zachary Catazaro.

The audience saluted Stars and Stripes with several well-deserved curtain calls tonight.  Haglund will salute Ashley Bouder with the HH Pump Bump Award for her brilliant Liberty Bell.

UIEX Update – NYCB reality TV series for real

LAST AUGUST, the H.H. Unofficial Information Exchange (UIEX) tickertape was whirling around chasing its tail in a frenzy after getting a tip on Sarah Jessica Parker's new idea to produce a reality TV show based on NYCB.

Well, folks, once again, the UIEX is the first ballet news source to get to the market with the official word.

TODAY, AOL announced at its 2013 Digital Content NewFront event that in conjunction with its mandate to conquer online video content through its ON Network, it will develop 15 original unscripted shows one of which will be Sarah Jessica Parker's City.Ballet - "covering the cut-throat world of the New York City Ballet." 

Man oh man, this is exciting. Tonight at the first performance of NYCB's fabulous spring season, Haglund will keep both eyes peeled for any of that cut-throat business that we just know is going on. Anyone who thinks hanging around the water cooler will get you an earful hasn't hung around the rosin box.  Cut-throat through and through.

 

Program ReminderLive From Lincoln Center: Carousel

This Friday, April 26, at 9:00pm (Eastern) PBS's Live From Lincoln Center will broadcast the New York Philharmonic's production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel in which NYCB's Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild dance.  It also stars Kelli O'Hara, Nathan Gunn, and Stephanie Blythe.

Check local PBS listings to confirm time in your area.

 

Update Apr 26

Wow, Live from Lincoln Center, what a fabulous presentation. Wow. Thank you.

 

Jennie Somogyi is back!

NYCB confirmed on its FB page that Jennie is back in the lineup. 

What a joyous celebration that will be, particularly for those of us who watched her limp from the stage after rupturing her Achilles tendon 16 months ago. 

The company posted a picture of her with Sebastian Marcovici in Sonatas and Interludes with the dates May 29, June 1 Mat, June 4 & 8 Mat and then confirmed 45 minutes ago that yes, she is back.

Can't wait to see her leading those rough & tumble Sanguinistas this fall in The Four Temperaments.

 

NYCB Spring Season opens in 12 days

Here it is almost two months later and NYCB still proudly proclaims on the front of its website that it promoted ELEVEN of its own dancers.  Maybe the company should keep it on the front page of the site all year long.  It means a lot.  It means that the organization's First Class coaching team is skillfully developing its talent organically.  It means that the company isn't throwing money at imports while its own dancers wither on the vine.  It means that they're building up this city's and country's culture from its very core (and corps) in a way that we all can be proud.

And so it's time to celebrate again that NYCB's spring season is nearly upon us.  It's less than two weeks away and some fabulous casting has been announced.  Maria Kowroski in Slaughter on Tenth Avenue; Ashley Bouder in Stars & Stripes; Fairchild, Peck, Scheller, and Stafford in Who Cares.  That's just a little of the first week.

Let the dancing begin.

 

"Little Dancer" musical by Susan Stroman planned for Kennedy Center

While no casting has yet been announced, the producers released the information that NYCB's Tiler Peck portrayed the dancing & singing Little Dancer in the workshop production last summer.

The brand new production will take its inspiration from Degas' sculpture of The Little Dancer for which he used a 14-year-old student from the Paris Opera Ballet, and will open a six week run at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater in October of 2014.  According to Susan Stroman, the musical will be cast with strictly classical ballet dancers who can sing.

Michael Kaiser of KC said that the center is producing the musical by itself "with hopes that it will have a life later."  Is he talking about Broadway? 

There just has to be a part in this musical for Robert Fairchild.

The Washington Post is all over this story.

 

Just throwing it out there . . . .

Never has NYCB had more dancers who would thrill the ballet universe in the traditional Petipa role of Kitri.  Think of Bouder, Mearns, Scheller, Peck, Hyltin, and Reichlen tearing up the stage in Don Quixote.  Ana Sophia Scheller has already danced the role with one of the greatest ever Basilio's, Julio Bocca.

Why is it impractical to think/wish/petition/dream that NYCB could partner with Bocca in his new production in 2014, perhaps helping to arrange an infusion of Balanchine into Bocca's own company in Uruguay as an exchange for allowing his new production to be adapted for NYCB?

 

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.

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.

NYCB – Blizzard? – 2/8

The only blizzard that materialized in Manhattan tonight was the blizzard of beautiful white tutus whistling through Balanchine's Symphony in C with the speed of an Alberta clipper descending from the Canadian winterland.  Wow, did everyone pick it up tonight, including the conductor who picked up the pace considerably from last night and got the dancers' blood pumping like they needed it to be. 

The cast had several substitutions this evening that were announced at curtain.  Ana Sophia Scheller and Chase Finlay danced the First Movement; Teresa Reichlen and Ask la Cour danced the Second Movement; Erica Pereira and Antonio Carmena danced the Third Movement; and Lauren King and Taylor Stanley repeated their outstanding Thursday night performance in the Fourth Movement.

Haglund is running out of superlatives for Ana Sophia Scheller.  This was such an assured, confident, glistening, calmly energetic, linear-perfect, and perfectly executed performance that it's hard to imagine seeing it danced any better.  Chase Finlay was superb as well in a gutsy performance of multiple pirouettes and tours.  What a handsome stage presentation he has.  In fact, tonight all of the men were outstanding with forceful, big dancing and spot-on partnering.

Tess and Ask were stunning in the adagio.  She was simply fearless in an adagio that is one hazard after another – fearless with a sense of serenity.  Ask was in full cavalier mode tonight with assured hands, great strength, and sensitive rapport with Tess.

Erica and Antonio breezed through the third movement.  Lauren and Taylor combined her radiance with his stage magnetism to look like a star couple in the making.  When Lauren performed her complex diagonal of turns, Taylor was at the end point with his eyes and broad smile fixed on her as though he was creating a solid line of energy between them.

The program also included a highly spirited performance of Alexei Ratmansky's Concerto DSCH with the principal cast of Janie Taylor, Ashley Bouder, Tyler Angle, Joaquin De Luz, and Gonzalo Garcia.  Joaquin and Gonzalo are always particularly delicious in this ballet because they are so keenly on the exact same wavelength in terms of humor, and they dance together like brothers.  Ashley was in phenomenal form as she has been all season.  She held her own with Joaquin and Gonzalo, and her own sense of humor worked well with theirs.  The corps work in DSCH looked especially sharp and fresh tonight.  Cameron Grant was the superb pianist.

Justin Peck's new work Paz de la Jolla received committed performances from the cast of Sterling Hyltin, Tiler Peck, Amar Ramasar and 15 corps dancers.  The middle section of this ballet continues to impress through its imagery and choreographic vision, and of course, the dancing, but the pyrotechnics in the first and third sections still seem superfluous. 

The evening's Pump Bump Award, a metallic stiletto sandal from Moda Spana, is bestowed upon Ana Sophia Scheller whose evolving artistry is such a pleasure to be witnessing.