Haglund's Heel

ABT – What we're missing . . . Part II

To further torture us and make us suffer our loss, the Dutch National Ballet has planted on its website an
18 second video of its new principal, Sascha Radetsky, in his variation from the Giselle Act II confrontation
with Myrta.  Click on Radetsky's bio for the clip at www.het-nationale-ballet.nl/.  Look at those brises and those seises that open to second before closing!

 

 

 

 

 

ABT - Thoughts on Nina's Retirement & the Flower Guy

 

Nina Ananiashvili will retire from ABT in June - a mere 16 years after she arrived to dance her first Odette/Odile in 1993. Hard to believe that so much time has passed. New Yorkers never allowed her to be a guest artist - we claimed her as our own, rightfully or not, from day one. We allowed her guest appearances with that other company in Moscow, but her home was the Met stage.

Nina and Bocca in Swan Lake. Do you remember those? If you were there, you’ll never forget. And Nina at curtain call traveling from one end of the stage to the other acknowledging the cheering audience always with a special thank you to her most adoring fan: the guy in the audience who at every performance raced to the stage with an arm full of flowers and passionately cried out Nina Assoluta! Nina! Nina! Nina Assoluta!  So many flowers. Over the years he probably spent the equivalent of a down payment on a BMW with low mileage.

Haglund worries about the flower guy. What will happen to him when Nina retires? How will he handle his grief, his loss? Nina will go on to dance a bit more and build her State Ballet of Georgia. But what will become of the flower guy? Will he ever feel the passion again? Will he really be okay?

You know, these artists retire and go on to great and satisfying second lives. We don’t have to worry about them. But we should worry a bit about those who are left behind and who invested years watching, admiring, and singing the artists’ praises - like the flower guy.

Copyright © 2009

Baryshnikov @ Barnes and Noble 3/10

 

The good news is that Misha's new book Merce My Way sold out tonight at Barnes and Noble at Lincoln Center where he spoke and was interviewed by Joan Acocella.

 

The bad news is that Misha smiled way too much for Joan's liking and she had to straighten him up with a few glowering glances that would have made Madame Periaslavic proud.

 

Even though the event was advertised as Acocella interviewing Baryshnikov, there was very little interviewing going on.  Misha spoke about whatever came to mind – touching on his new BAC facility to his decision to leave ABT to his acting to why he chose to photograph Merce Cunningham's company to his upcoming performance schedule. 

 

The turnout for  the event was impressive.  The event enclosure was stuffed with bookbuyers and the line for non-bookbuyers who wanted to hear Misha speak snaked through the bible book section and way past the men's restroom on the 3rd floor of Barnes and Noble.  It spilled over to the fourth floor cafe where people crowded around two television monitors that broadcast the event on the floor below.  Listeners hung on his every word.  This was not Kissinger or Greenspan or the Dalai Lama or Sean John Puffy.  It was Baryshnikov.  Interestingly enough, he has a following of people who genuinely want to hear him speak about his life.  Well, it is an interesting life, isn't it?  He's gone off in a lot of different directions quietly and modestly making a lasting impact on whatever he chooses to do.

 

Yes, listeners hung on every word.  Haglund hoped to hear Misha say how much he still loved and missed Giselle and how sorry he was for betraying her, and above all, that his soul has never stopped aching for her.  Perhaps that will be another interview – later in life.