Haglund's Heel

Enuff a'ready with the snow !

Are the guys in the Weather Modification Office drinking, or what?

This would be such a good day to stay in and watch the new Mayerling DVD with Edward Watson as Crown Prince Rudolf, but alas, that's one more thing we can't yet get in the U.S. along with the MacMillan bio by Jann Parry.

If we wish for it, it will come.

Wheeldon rolls away from Morphoses

While it’s not unexpected that Christopher Wheeldon has chosen to end working with Morphoses, it is rather surprising the less than elegant way in which he and the business-side of the company parted ways - at least as surprising as when he first announced the formation of his company three years ago.  Nevertheless, it is best that Wheeldon will again be focusing his energies on choreography alone. 

The Royal Ballet has shown great courage and assumed great risk in awarding Wheeldon the commission for its new Alice in Wonderland due to premiere in 2011.  In choosing Alice, the Royal Ballet has clearly defined its target as children and families.  So, if Wheeldon creates a weirdo production that is designed to appeal to either dark, adult interests or children’s familiarity with two dimensional, flat screen video game characters, he will have wasted the greatest opportunity of his career.

What can we expect from Wheeldon for this new production?  He has said in the past that he wants people to know that ballet doesn‘t have to be “a big, puffy, pink, glittery nightmare.”   However, all that is pink is not necessarily stink.

To get in the right choreographic mood, Wheeldon might consider camping out at FAO Schwartz’s on Fifth Avenue in New York to watch the kids.  The bigger and puffier the stuffed animal, the more attention it gets from the kids - and from adults who remember being kids.   Offer a little kid a big, puffy, pink, glittery, stuffed dog or a framed Jackson Pollock paint splat print, the kid will choose the dog every time.

The Metropolitan Opera’s imaginative productions of Hansel and Gretel and The Magic Flute with the most incredible scenery and effects and powerful, hummable music have managed to draw major audiences of kids and adults.  Both are productions that see kids and adults making return trips.  Of course, Ashton's Tales of Beatrix Potter is genius for its spectacle and choreography that grabs kids' attention from the first note of music.

Big, puffy, pink, and glittery works on kids - always has, always will.  FAO Schwartz knows that.  The Met Opera knows that.  Ashton certainly knew it.  Let’s hope Christopher Wheeldon remembers that it does.  And good luck to him with Alice.  We are all looking forward to it.

Disney applies to trademark "God"

Well, not really, but surely it is on the corporate agenda. 

Disney has, however, applied to trademark  Princess Aurora,  the principal character in many stage, ballet, book, and movie versions of Sleeping Beauty.  

This is such a ridiculous, over-reaching effort on the part of an unruly conglomerate to grab, monopolize, and illegitimately profit from the use of a character that has been in the public domain since long before Disney ever drew its first pair of mouse ears.   Charles Perrault identified L’Aurore as one of the princess daughters of his Sleeping Beauty character in 1697.  When Disney put together its cartoon in 1959, it applied the name Princess Aurora to Sleeping Beauty, borrowed liberally from Tchaikovsky’s score for the animated film’s music and lifted the name “Briar Rose” from the Brothers Grimm 1812 version of the story for use in the film.

Does Disney pay out fees to representatives of Perrault, Tchaikovsky or the Brothers Grimm every time it runs the cartoon?   Doubtful.   But Disney sure wants to be able to collect every time any ballet company performs Sleeping Beauty and utilizes the name Princess Aurora.

The trademark application number is 77130191 .  If you’re eagerly seeking frustration, you can muddle through the United States Patent and Trademark Office website and file a letter of protest.  One has to fumble through a lot of NEXT, NEXT, NEXTs and answer questions like "Your Title" for which Haglund entered "Ordinary Citizen."  Apparently, there are fees that should be paid, but somehow, the system accepted Haglund’s protest without the fee.  Just keep pressing NEXT and keep wondering what next, Disney?

Angel Corella in Vanity Fair

Mosey on over to the March issue of Vanity Fair to see Laura Jacob's Spotlight on Angel Corella and his company, Corella Ballet Castilla y Leon.  Angel talks about how he did not want to leave Spain when he was a young dancer but needed the opportunity to show the world what he could do.

Haglund remembers being in David Howard's morning class in April of 1995 when Angel had just arrived at ABT as a soloist.  During the break between barre and center, Wes Chapman, then an ABT principal with world class pirouetting abilities, munched on his breakfast muffin, as he usually did between barre and center, while deflecting questions about Angel.  "I haven't seen him yet," he said.  Someone probed, " I heard he can do nine pirouettes!"  There were aahs and whistles.  "I haven't seen him yet," said Chapman munching a big enough bite so that he could not talk.

We all soon learned that oh, Angel was so much more than nine pirouettes.  A generous performer, eager to please, eager to surpass your expectations, Angel has always been the dancer who dares you not to fall head-over-heels in love with whatever he is dancing.  He has maintained that infectious spirit during his 15-year career with ABT and now seems to be happily passing on that spirit to his young dancers in his own young company.

It looks like we're only going to get to see Angel dance twice with ABT during the Met season.  However, he will be performing with his own company when it takes up residence at City Center on March 17th.  He'll also be presenting his first choreographic effort.  The green beer will wait, people.  Let's have a massive and vocal turnout for opening night.

Big Steps

It’s good to see that Herman Cornejo is finally getting the chance to dance Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake.  Who’s giving him that chance?  Not Kevin McKenzie. 

Angel Corella’s new El Lago De Los Cisnes, a Petipa/Ivanov based production with Corella’s own adaptations, will debut for his company, Corella Ballet Castilla y Leon, during the last week of February in Spain.  Cornejo, a principal with that company, will dance the premiere with principal Adiarys Almeida.  Here’s an art photo of the two by Manuel los de Galanes taken from the company’s website. 




Come to think of it, Cornejo’s most frequent partner at ABT, Xiomara Reyes, does not dance Swan Lake with ABT  even though she has experience dancing Odette/Odile with the Royal Ballet of Flanders.

So who is getting the opportunity to develop a Prince Siegfried this year?  soloist Cory Stearns:  someone who has never been tested with the Swan Lake Pas de Trois; someone whose Von Rothbart is under-developed and peters out at the end.  When the company takes Swan Lake to Chicago in April, Chicagoans will be denied the opportunity to see one of the most magnificent Siegfrieds in the company, David Hallberg, while they are served up two helpings of Cory Stearns.  Hope they appreciate that.

*          *          *

It’s good to see that Sascha Radetsky is finally getting the chance to dance Basilio in Don Quixote.  Who’s giving him that chance?  Not Kevin McKenzie.

Radetsky has returned to the Dutch National Ballet, where he spent last season as Principal, to dance the role of Basilio in Alexei Ratmansky’s Don Quixote for three performances.  During the fall, he partnered Paloma Herrera  in the Don Q. PdD in Singapore.  Unfortunately, his progress in ABT’s Don Q. seems to have rolled to a stop with his fiery, cape-snapping Espada.  Here is Fabrizzio Ferri’s image:

So who is getting the opportunity to develop a Basilio this year?  soloist Cory Stearns:  someone who has never danced Espada; someone who was supposed to debut his Basilio in China during ABT‘s fall tour but had to withdraw suddenly due to illness or ill-preparedness or both.  Two other principals and two soloists had to step in to save the day. 

You gotta wonder.  You just gotta wonder.

Kings of the Dance and The Guest is Best con't

In the past, Haglund has taken issue with Gia Kourlas's ballet reviews but always enjoys her interview pieces with dancers which appear in TimeOut NY and The New York Times.  In today's NYT, Kourlas interviews ABT's Marcelo Gomes as he prepares for the Kings of the Dance performances at City Center beginning this week. 

Kings of the Dance are always terrific performances, and this year, with the expanded number of Kings – Marcelo Gomes, David Hallberg, Jose Manuel Carreno, Joaquin De Luz, Nikolay Tsiskaridze, Dennis Matvienko, and Guillaume Cote – are performances not to be missed.  Unfortunately, Haglund will have to miss them because there is not one seat in all of City Center that doesn't force a munchkin's legs past a 90 degree hip angle – a prohibited position for several more weeks. 

Everyone out in Haglundland should make a trip to City Center to see the Kings.  There are good seats left, albeit a bit pricey in Haglund's view.  All of these dancers are unique, interesting and very theater oriented.  One just never knows what Nikolay Tsiskaridze will do.  He really is a character worthy of some Jerry Seinfeld development.  Imagine Nikolay and Kramer hanging out at a bar.

Back to Kourlas's interview with Gomes.  Here's how it ends:

Unlike guest dancers that appear with the company, Mr. Gomes worked his way up.

“It really makes a difference,” he said. “I know how hard these guys work in the corps. I can relate to them.”

Mr. Gomes hesitated for a moment. “Because of that, when I come out at the top of the stairs in ‘Swan Lake,’ I can see the whole picture,” he continued. “I was a peasant. I was an aristocrat. I was Benno. And I was somebody standing in the wings. I went through all of the steps. For me the whole picture matters. It builds a company from the ground up.”

“I love seeing our wonderful guest artists,” he continued, “but my heart beats differently when I watch dancers that come from the company. I’m all for homegrown.”

We're all for homegrown, too.  So when Romeo and Juliet week arrives at the Met this year, and we are treated to a guest Juliet for a Saturday matinee who has never danced a step of MacMillan, never been entrusted with Juliet by her own famous company, and has a penchant for over-acting and hyper-animation – instead of a homegrown undeniable talent, Sarah Lane, who has been coached for Juliet by one of MacMillan's ultimate interpreters, Alessandra Ferri – let's all say a little louder "We're all for homegrown."

ABT continues to spend on female guest artists while ignoring development of the company's own female soloists.

It appears that Alina Cojocaru of the Royal Ballet will dance Aurora in ABT's Saturday matinee Sleeping Beauty.  Presumably* she will dance with Daniil Simkin, and ABT will make that its next "big press announcement" to try to spur ticket sales.

Maybe Haglund just needs a little more Percocet to calm down his seriously annoyed new hip.  He is simultaneously pleased about the opportunity to see Alina Cojocaru but unhappy that ABT's own extraordinary soloist women are again being denied a rare opportunity to dance a principal role.  Sarah Lane has proven herself far more worthy of a Sleeping Beauty principal role than the lackluster, reminds-McKenzie-of-McKenzie, duller-than-Sarah-Palin's-Tweets, sand-flavored, minor league soloist Cory Stearns.  McKenzie sets up all these high fallutin' standards for the women and brushes the standards off to the side when it comes to Stearns.  Our women soloists are going nowhere fast while McKenzie brings in guest artist after guest artist and continues to push Mr. Soggy Mash Potatoes down our throats at every opportunity. 

McKenzie seems hell bent on making Stearns into his own 1980s image - which in 2010 just isn't good enough - not in light of what we have seen these past two decades.  Why doesn't ABT bring in Carlos Acosta to dance with Michelle Wiles if it can't manage to pair her with an in-house principal?  Their Black Swan PdD was pretty spectacular a few years back.  Stearns and Wiles are Tweetie-sweeties so that apparently justifies giving Stearns a hog load of undeserved opportunities.  

What's Twitter-speak for box office backlash?

There was a time when guest artists were used to help push weeknight performance sales.  This year, McKenzie is using Osipova and Cojocoru for Saturday performances that always sell out no matter who dances.  What's the point of that kind of scheduling?

Haglund is going to make his Percocet cocktail a double.

*Update Feb. 10:
Today JM Carreno was slotted on the website calendar to dance with Alina Cojocaru in the Saturday matinee Sleeping Beauty for the Met season.  It's very nice to see that he is getting an additional performance.  However, it seems that this would have been the perfect opportunity for McKenzie to employ the philosophy he talks about of matching up experienced dancers with the less experienced.  Imagine the benefit that Sarah, Stella, Maria, or Kristi would receive from JM's experience.  Frankly, it is just unacceptable that Sarah Lane does not have a Sleeping Beauty this year considering her gutsy history and unquestionable success with this role.

Prokofiev RediscoveredNYCB's Adam Hendrickson premieres ballet at Yale and Carnegie Hall

This sounds like a very enjoyable evening, but one Haglund will have to skip 'cuz he's getting a brand new hip this week and won't be ready to negotiate the Carnegie Hall seats for a while.  Wow, ballet at Carnegie Hall – how often does that happen?

New York City Ballet soloist Adam Hendrickson's new ballet will premiere at Yale's Sprague Memorial Hall on Feb. 8, 2010 at 8pm, and also will be presented at Carnegie Hall's Zankle Hall Feb. 9th, 2010 at 8pm as part of a program featuring pianist Boris Berman.

Hendrickson's ballet is part of a program that will feature recently discovered Prokofiev work, all played by pianist Boris Berman. The ballet was commissioned by Yale University's School of Music, and features dancers Elysia Dawn, Colby Damon and Matt Renko, with costumes by New York City Ballet principal, Janie Taylor. Hendrickson's last ballet, with music by Aaron Severini, was in 2008 as part of the New York City Dancer's Choice event.

For interviews, or press tickets please contact: Deborah Broide, (973) 744-2030, [email protected]

Excerpts from the official press release:

Yale in New York
David Shifrin, Artistic Director
 
presents
 
Prokofiev Rediscovered
 
Premieres and Rarities
 
Pianist and Prokofiev specialist Boris Berman joins the Yale School of Music’s
exceptional students, alumni, and faculty in an all-Prokofiev program

Fragment from the opera Distant Seas (World Premiere)

Music for Athletic Exercises (New York Premiere) with original choreography by
NYCB's Adam Hendrickson

Music for the ballet Trapeze (New York Premiere)
Schubert waltzes transcribed by Prokofiev for two pianos (seldom performed)
 
Tuesday, February 9 at 7:30 p.m.
 
Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall

 Tickets: $15, $20, $25; students $10, $15, $20

The Zankel Hall concert will showcase three recently discovered Prokofiev works: a fragment from the opera Distant Seas (1948) receives its world premiere, while Music for Athletic Exercises (1939) and the complete music from the ballet Trapeze (1924) will be heard in New York for the first time.  In addition, Boris Berman will be joined by the dean of the Yale School of Music Robert Blocker in a rarely heard two-piano arrangement of a suite of Schubert waltzes.

ABT - Chicago casting

ABT has uploaded the Chicago Swan Lake casting on its Facebook page.  It pretty much mirrors what we will be seeing in New York in June including Roberto Bolle and Veronika Part.  One Prince Siegfried which Chicago apparently at this point in time will not see is David Hallberg.  What a shame.  Instead, Chicago will be served up two helpings of the impactless Cory Stearns. 

Swan Lake

April 15 @ 7:30pm
Herrera and Stiefel

April 16 @ 2pm
Wiles and Stearns

April 16 @ 7:30pm
Murphy and Carreno

April 17 @ 2pm
Kent and Gomes

April 17 @ 7:30pm
Part and Bolle

April 18 @ 1pm
Dvorovenko and Beloserkovsky

April 18 @ 5:30pm
Wiles and Stearns