Haglund's Heel

Countdown

Only 4 days until the beginning of Swan Lake Week.  Get your tail feathers ready!

Haglund's only concern is:

 

Will they be ready, too?!

ABT – Sle p ng Bea ty – 6/16

Well, yes, things are missing from this Sleeping Beauty production.

 

It is a staging derived from the misguided idea that a choreographically stripped-down Sleeping Beauty production, with obnoxious bright colors and dancers who resemble animated characters in video games, would attract a new generation of young ballet fans more than a bonafide classic production would.  There were few kids in the house last night and there were many empty seats.

But let's not dwell on the bad – there was lots of great dancing by Veronika Part, Stella Abrera and Marcello Gomes in the leads, god-like partnering by Gennadi Saveliev's Russian Prince, high & mighty hissing by Nancy Raffa's Carabosse,  impressive beats and elevation from Sascha Radetsky's Bluebird, grace and articulation from Isabella Boylston's Princess Florine, and fabulous fairywork, especially from Luciana Paris as Joy.

 

Veronika's Princess Aurora overcame some early nerves to deliver a beautiful final balance in the Rose Adagio with the help of Saveliev's steady preparation and supportive eye contact.  She was on her way to choosing him, of course, until she pricked herself with the spindle.  But put Veronika in a white tutu and the magic begins as it did last night in the Vision Scene of Act II.  Mystery, elegance, spirituality all were apparent as Veronika wove her way among the fairy attendants and danced her variations.  From Haglund's viewpoint, this Scene was Veronika's best and made it worth sitting through this production.

 

Marcelo's Prince Desire doesn't have a lot to do in this ballet and doesn't even show up until after the intermission, but he was magnificent last night, especially in the Wedding PdD where he and Veronika coordinated for three fantastic fish dives. During the Vision Scene his yearning and inability to grasp what he sensed was near to him was truly beautiful.

 

Stella's Lilac Fairy was all elegance and refined beauty.  Exquisite port de bras, lovely hands and fingers that made her lines look endless.  Her variations, especially the early one that included pirouettes closing cleanly in fifth, were outstanding.  Her series of battement fouettes to arabesque were just beautiful.

 

Bluebird and Princess Florine, though not one of Haglund's favorite parts of Sleeping Beauty, was quite becoming last night.  It did not look frantic as it sometimes can if placed in the wrong hands.  However, Bluebird has got to stop with the loud exhaling when preparing for his variations or when exiting into the wings.  It is most distracting and quite unnecessary. The heavy, noisy brise vole landings need work as well.  It is obvious that Princess Florine is honestly trying to open her eyes to the audience.  Haglund hopes she  keeps trying and that she finds someone in the Grand Tier or Dress Circle to dance for as opposed to looking down at Row L in the Orchestra.  Princess Florine was a great step forward for Isabella and it was a tremendous pleasure to see her featured so lovely in a true classical variation.

 

Gemma Bond, Melanie Hamrick, and Isadora Loyola were beautiful Lilac Fairy attendants.  Haglund wishes he could put his finger on Gemma Bond's transformation from last year.  Her dancing has a new soft quality to it.  Seeing Melanie Hamrick step out as a soloist in Lady of the Camellias made Haglund wonder how much longer she will be sadly under-employed in the corps.  Isadora Loyola is captivating – always involved in a story no matter what the steps are. 

 

Hee Seo and Sean Stewart played The Cat and Puss-in-Boots to their maximums.  The Cat needs more whiskers though - could hardly see them.

 

The character roles of King Florestan, His Queen and Catalabutte are dreadfully weak.  They really need to be pumped up choreographically, and Susan Jaffe, glorious in her days as a ballerina, needs character role training as does Clinton Luckett. 

 

The princes [Grant DeLong, Alexandre Hammoudi, Patrick Ogle, and Gennadi Saveliev] received a reprieve some time ago from their ridiculous original costumes and are now very handsomely attired and danced handsomely as well.  Again, special mention must be made of Saveliev's assistance to Veronika during the Rose Adagio.

 

As much as Haglund enjoyed seeing so many of his favorite dancers highlighted, he still wishes that this Sleeping Beauty would doze off for a hundred years.  It's not something to take kids to if you're trying to interest them in ballet.  Take them to Swan Lake instead.  Sorry, no Pump Bump Award today.

 

 

NEWSFLASH – Sir Paul McCartney commissioned for ballet score!

Oh please, Let It Be in New York.  Let It Be.  Let It Be.  Let It Be.  Let It Be.  Whisper Words of Wisdom.  Let It Please Be in New York.

Sir Paul McCartney revealed to the BBC that he's writing music for a ballet.  No further details but Sir Paul is no stranger to NYCB and attended SAB's winter ball.

Here's the link.

 

Image from guestofaguest.com.

Taking a Snooze on Sleeping Beauty

 It's that difficult time of the season again – when rare opportunities to see favorite soloists and corps members shine must be weighed against the anxiety and disappointment produced by watching a corrupted production of a classic. 

 

Haglund will see only a few, or a couple, and save his dollars for Swan Lake.  He will be skipping Saturday evening's performance in protest of ABT allocating its very, very scarce resources toward training a Bolshoi ballerina guest artist to dance a very basic classical role that her own company has not yet seen fit to assign to her.  In casting the Bolshoi ballerina guest artist, ABT has literally cast aside one of its own rising stars and an audience favorite, Sarah Lane, who proved herself as a sparkling and beautiful Aurora in previous seasons. 

 

The Bolshoi ballerina guest artist no doubt will hold her Rose Adagio balances from here to the end of time and will vault herself higher than LeBron James, but Haglund doesn't care.  When the self-proclaimed America's National Ballet Company casts aside its own home grown and remarkable talent for the slick tricks of an import, it's time for patrons to reassess where they demonstrate their generosity.

 

Ditto for Romeo and Juliet.

ABT – All-American & All-Ashton – 6/12

Haglund was up early Sunday morning pinching the petunias in the windowboxes while he reconsidered the five hours of ballet that he watched Saturday at the Met.  The All-American Program in the afternoon featured Tharp's The Brahms-Haydn Variations, Taylor's Company B, and Robbins' Fancy Free.  The evening program, designated as the All-Ashton Program, included Birthday Offering, Thais PdD, The Awakening PdD, and The Dream. 

 

Haglund has never hidden his preference for full length story ballets, but he enjoys good mixed repertory programs as well – they just don't usually leave him happily emotionally devastated or exhilarated at the end of the evening like a good story ballet does.  Judging from the full crowds at Lady of the Camellias and Don Quixote and the painfully thin crowds at the repertory programs this week, a lot of New Yorkers seem also to have a preference for the full length story ballets. 

Nothing wrong with that – despite NYTimes critic Alastair Macaulay's claim that "As soon as American Ballet Theater introduces mixed bills to its repertory, the whole climate improves" and all of the specious arguments that followed in his review.   He's simply registering his well-known preference for mixed repertory evenings as opposed to full length ballets.  Despite the marginal attendance and corresponding low revenues, Macaulay called for ABT do more mixed repertory evenings which would have a further negative financial impact on the company.  He also recently implied the need for enforcing ethnic stereotypes for performers in Don Quixote so that they look or actually are Hispanic.   Haglund hopes that the NY Times hurries up and starts charging for online access to its content so that Macaulay's twisted wisdom will essentially disappear from the current readership's radar.  He can't irritate or misguide who he can't reach.

 

The afternoon's All-American Program included a strong showing of The Brahms-Haydn Variations with Stella Abrera & Alexandre Hammoudi, Xiomara Reyes & Herman Cornejo, Paloma Herrera & Marcelo Gomes, Hee Seo & Gennadi Saveliev (replacing Part & Hallberg), and Sarah Lane & Carlos Lopez.  Herrera was clearly in her element, custom-made for her by Tharp, and she beautifully illuminated the music with her harmonious lines and articulate feet. 

 

Herman Cornejo was fabulous as the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B, Gillian Murphy was lovely and sentimental in "I Can Dream, Can't I?" and Craig Salstein tore up the stage in "Oh Johnny."  Tico Tico was a little bland and again miscast - Daniil Simkin in the earlier cast and Mikhail Ilyin in this cast.  What made Andrew Asnes so profoundly funny in this role was his size.  He was one of the bigger, burlier PTD dancers and he isolated his tics in his big joints making them look as though they were completely possessed by some foreign energy.  Putting little bones in the role kind of destroys the effect.  Cornejo or Salstein could probably recapture Asnes' humor in Tico Tico.

 

Fancy Free's cast of Simkin, Lopez, Radetsky, Riccetto, Boylston and Post is looking better - with Lopez and Radetsky understandably holding the piece together with their experience.  Simkin missed a couple of musical cues - got there a bit earlier than the other two sailors - but his characterization continues to build.  The PdD (Radetsky & Boylston) continues to improve with Radetsky encouraging Boylston to bring more to her character.  She will eventually. 

 

The evening performance of Birthday Offering was beautifully led by Stella Abrera and Eric Tamm with the other principal ballerina roles danced by  Renata Pavam, Gemma Bond, Hee Seo, Simone Messmer, Maria Riccetto, and Christine Shevchenko.  During the first group dance, there was a little timing mess-up among the line of women where four of the them were on one count while three were on another count, but it all smoothed out quickly.  Abrera was gorgeous in the role originated by Margot Fonteyn and she handled the complexities and balances of the PdD as smoothly as Irina Dvorovenko did earlier in the week.  Tamm is one darned beautiful dancer with a soaring jump, crystal clear beats, easy arabesque, and danseur noble all over his upper body.  His partnering of Abrera was on spot.  Simone Messmer had the more sensational of the variations with deep backbends and stabbing footwork - a terrific performance.

 

Diana Vishneva and Jared Matthews gave the Thais PdD an exotic and mysterious reading – helped along by dramatic but uncredited lighting.  The audience fell under this Ashton spell as soon as the curtain opened to reveal Matthews in a burnt orange-ish costume standing spotlit on the dark stage.  The story was already in progress and the audience arrived just in time for the climax and resolution.  The music, Massenet's "Meditation" from Thais, is perfect for the dramatic lifts and couplings which are sometimes slightly obscured by the woman's long orange scarf so as to further the mystery of what is going on under there.  The Thais PdD was very warmly received by the audience.

 

In The Awakening Pas de Deux from The Sleeping Beauty, David Hallberg conveyed his wonder and near disbelief of the beauty of the Princess (Veronika Part) before him.  She twirled and melted into his arms with just the right combination of grace and shyness, her legs and feet assembling the most gorgeous passes, attitudes and arabesques.  Lovely, but all too brief. 

 

The Dream closed the evening with Xiomara Reyes, Cory Stearns, Daniil Simkin in the leads.  Reyes, one of ABT's finest dance-actresses, always shines in this role which exploits her wide-eyed wonderment and touch of goofiness.  Haglund was pleasantly surprised at Stearns' strong performance.  More than half of his arabesques made it to 90 degrees and a couple even exceeded 90 in plie.  His variations were clean and careful, if a bit under-energized, and his mime was complete and convincing.  But this ballet is all about Puck, and tonight's Puck – though a work in progress – was mighty impressive.  Simkin tore threw the choreography masterfully taking control of the evening and wowing the audience with his elfish humor and monster technique.  Hopefully in time he will compact the energy more and make less of his pirouette preparations, but he was – in a word – fantastic!  He was even funny upon realizing that he was not holding the red flower prop that he needed in order to sprinkle the magic dust on Demetrius.  No matter.  Magic dust is magic dust and it came from the end of his fingers instead.

Stella Abrera, Jared Matthews, Maria Riccetto, and Sascha Radetsky as Hermia, Demetrius, Helena and Lysander were exceptional as the confused couples and showed great comedic timing.  Sarah Lane (Peaseblossom), Anne Milewski (Cobweb), Renata Pavam (Moth) and Gemma Bond (Mustardseed) were especially funny in their reactions when discovering Titiana had fallen in love with Bottom.

Haglund bestows this Fairy Pump Bump Award on this afternoon's The Dream for bringing its magic to the repertory:

 

 

James Wolcott: Always worth reading – but especially today.

Here's a little tease:

The Balanchine purists have become a pox on ballet, a reactionary drag that betrays Balanchine's forward spirit.

Here's the link.

Ballet Cop on the Beat – at the Grand Tier Bar

Warner:   They seem smaller this year.

Haglund:  Who? What?

Warner:   The Bolle Slurpees  – they’re smaller this year – less mint, more fizzy.

Haglund:  Well, you know, he’s a year older and not as much of a novelty anymore.  He went on ABT‘s disabled list, but then flew right back to Italy to perform in Mats Ek’s weirdo Giselle.  That’s gonna piss off a few people.

Warner:   No kidding.  If he’s too injured to dance his ABT commitments, he shouldn’t dance anywhere.  It’s pissin’ me off.   Why doesn’t the guy get his ankle fixed - probably because he’ll lose too much money during rehab.  It stinks. These drinks are awful.  Really watered down.

Haglund:  Bolle’s got to economize like the rest of us.  You know, “do more with less.”

Warner:   Who’s Les?

Haglund:  ROFL, literally, Man.  What do ya suppose that Jared Matthews drinks?  Probably some type of wheat grass juice with crushed vitamins —

Bartender:  Did I hear you say you want a Jared Matthews?

Warner:      Yeah.  Two shots of Jared Matthews – right here.

Bartender:  That’ll be $50.

Warner:      Come ooon. Gimme a break!

Bartender:  Sorry.  Premium priced.  This year’s gonna be his year.

Warner:      Where’s UC31?

Haglund:    Working.

Warner:     I thought you said he was gonna be here tonight.

Haglund:    He’s working on a Buy & Bust Op in the Parterre.

Warner:     Who’s the perp?

Haglund:    I dunno - some blond lady.

Warner:     Aren’t they all blond in Parterre?  Kind of a challenge to find one who isn’t.

Haglund:    Look, UC31 said he’d meet us here at the bar if he could —

UC31:        — Right here behind ya, Man. 

Haglund:   Didn’t see you, Man - what’s with those dorky glasses and funny hair?  You look like – you look like —

UC31:       Garrison Keillor.

Haglund:  No kidding!  You do!

UC31:     Thanks, Man.  I spent hours in the Precinct Make-Up chair for this assignment. 

Warner:  Did you get the perp yet?

UC31:     Not yet.  Can’t find her.  Too many blonds in Parterre.  Gotta leave tomorrow for Italy on a new assignment - something to do with Bolle dancing completely nude while he’s injured.

Warner:  Be careful out there.

UC31:  Thanks, Man.  The stakes are high - they tell me.  But I'll have to see it for myself.

ABT – Wednesday matinee & evening 6/9

Haglund was happy for the rare opportunity to see both the matinee and evening performances on Wednesday.  The Met was nowhere near full for either, which is a shame, because there was a lot of dynamite dancing on display.

 

Both programs opened with Twyla Tharp's The Brahms-Haydn Variations which Tharp created for ABT ten years ago.  It is a busy piece of choreography of mostly PdDs that reflect the inspiration Tharp derived from the unique dancers who originated their roles – especially Paloma Herrera and Julie Kent, who danced in the afternoon.

 

Herrera and Marcelo Gomes embraced the choreography like an old friend – its intricate interweavings of limbs, lifts and turns so suited to Herrera's exquisitely tuned instrument. 

 

Kent and Sascha Radetsky had a quieter, gentler PdD that prompted Haglund to ask, "Why haven't these two dancers been paired before?"  They were extremely attractive together, and when Kent smiled at Radetsky one could see his tension melt and the joy of his dancing shown through.  He is a perceptive and strong partner and one wonders if he might be the partner who could keep Julie dancing for a long time to come.

 

Gillian Murphy and Jose Manuel Carreno as the lead couple danced with high energy and Murphy scored those impressive pirouettes.  But folks, then came the evening performance led by Stella Abrera and Alexandre Hammoudi, and it was a whole other level of energy. 

 

Abrera was phenomenal in this ballet, and danced with the sparkle and skill and confidence that just seemed impossible considering all the months, years really, that she has been out injured.  Tharp's accents were so crystal clear in Abrera's command that one could nearly hear Tharp's voice barking approval.  This woman is on fire this season, no doubt about it!

 

Xiomara Reyes and Herman Cornejo danced the PdD that Kent/Radetsky danced in the afternoon.  It looked very different but equally beautiful.  Reyes brought a modesty and shyness to the piece whereas Kent was all elegance and poise.

 

Michele Wiles and Cory Stearns attempted the PdDs that Herrera and Gomes inhabited during the afternoon.  Wiles is not the dancer to cast in a PdD that requires torso flexibility and horizontal lifts.  Put her upright and she is astonishing.  Turn her loose on a cleared stage and she will kill you with her brilliance.  But she does not wear Tharp well, and Stearns wears it worse.

 

Both programs included fabulous editions of Jerome Robbins' Fancy Free.  The afternoon was danced by Cornejo, Ethan Stiefel, Carreno, Abrera, Murphy and Leann Underwood.  The evening was danced by Daniil Simkin, Carlos Lopez, Radetsky, Maria Riccetto, Isabella Boylston, and Lauren Post.  Julio Bragado-Young was the bartender for both performances.

 

The afternoon's performance was understandably stronger given the experience of the cast.  Carreno was so hot,  Cornejo - so funny, and Steifel - so full of charm.  Throw in the cunning experience of Abrera and Murphy, and when it was all over, you just wanted to hit the replay button immediately.  Steifel's PdD with Murphy had him working so hard to impress her, and when he finally won her over, the whole episode became magical – the most terrific F.F. PdD Haglund has ever seen. 

 

The evening's F.F. included Simkin's New York debut as the first sailor.  Not a bad effort, and the characterization will come with time.  Radetsky danced the rumba as the third sailor for the first time in New York but also performed the central PdD with Boylston.  Radetsky was workin' what needed to be worked in that rumba and was very funny.  The PdD with Boylston needs a lot of seasoning.  It was nice to see Isabella's eyes look out every once in a while, but we have to see a lot more of it. 

 

Sandwiched between Tharp and Robbins were Taylor's Company B in the afternoon and Ratmansky's On the Dnieper in the evening.  Company B looks a little thin on the huge Met stage, but it was well danced, especially by Craig Salstein, Joseph Phillips and Misty Copeland in Oh, Johnny!, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, and Rum and Coca Cola, respectively.   Haglund was not all that impressed with Simkin's Tico-Tico probably because of the great memories of PTD's Andrew Asnes's hysterical rendition. Haglund overheard some audience members say they had come to ABT just for this piece and to hear the music of the Andrews Sisters.  They were very, very happy with what they saw.

 

Haglund has now seen On the Dnieper five times and has finally figured out why he cannot be at ease with liking it:  the level and intensity of the virtuosity within the choreography - especially the corps' – is not supported by either the music or the thin story.  Much of the time, the choreography comes across as steps for steps' sake and not to illuminate the story or to make us hear the music any more clearly.  The solos are extremely complex, physically demanding, and were admirably danced last night by Gomes, Herrera, David Hallberg and Veronika Part, but "the why" of all this intensity was never conveyed.  Still, the scenery is truly lovely.  Haglund hopes that Ratmansky will continue to revise On the Dnieper as he suggests he will, but no revisions were apparent last night. 

Haglund awards this sparkly Pump Bump of diamonds and gold for Abrera's sensational performance in The Brahms-Haydn Variations and for Stiefel's and Murphy's PdD in Fancy Free:

 

ABT – All Ashton Evening – 6/8

The first week of repertory got off to a fine start last night with the All-Ashton Program.  The evening opened with Birthday Offering where EVERYONE is a principal, all the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and the dancing is above average - wait – woe – WAY above average.  No doubt, Alastair will find some woe to wite about.  He sat a couple of wows forward of his normal post – in Clive Barnes' seat or just behind it – probably trying to channel Clive to share his thrill about an entire evening of Ashton's works:  "But Clive, Birthday Offering wasn't as good as it used to be because all the girls aren't really principals."  Stuff a powdermilk biscuit in it – because last night all the ladies reined supreme.  Each of the seven ballerinas danced with a stage presence that suggested she was the only one who was wearing a tiara.  Everyone superbly managed the tricky changes of direction for which Sir Fred was known and admired – pirouettes stopping and reversing, landing with the foot front, landing with it back, landing in arabesque, extended front, side, stopped just in time to start again in a different direction.  It was all very challenging stuff which each lady peformed expertly. 

Standout performances from Simone Messmer (Variation 4) and Stella Abrera (Variation 5) have to be mentioned only because they, well, stood out for their phenomenal control and glamor.  Stella will dance the lead in this ballet with Eric Tamm on Saturday night.  Irina Dvorovenko and Max Beloserkovsky danced the PdD last evening, smoothly manuevering through the complicated balances and supported turns.  The seven gentlemen gallantly watched over the ladies' variations from the back of the stage and then contributed their own handsome chorus of batterie.  A terrific performance from everyone including Sarah Lane (Var.1), Isabella Boylston (Var. 2), Veronika Part (Var. 3), Leann Underwood (Var. 6), Salstein, Simkin, Saveliev, Radetsky, DeLong and Hammoudi.

 

Birthday Offering was followed by the Thais Pas de Deux (Diana Vishneva and Jared Matthews) and The Awakening Pas de Deux (Paloma Herrera and Cory Stearns).  These pieces were presented at the Opening Night Gala with the same casts with essentially the same results.  Diana, fewer than 24 hours after tearing the heart out of the audience in the exhausting role of Marguerite in Lady of the Camellias, gave a very dramatic reading of this love duet with Jared who continues to astonish us with his progress and sincerity in performance.  When Jared slowly ran his hand down the side of Diana's arabesque, it was totally believable as being in the moment.  At bows, Diana looked spent - and so she should be.  Hope someone gave her a lift home last night. 

Awakening came off a bit better for Paloma who seemed more comfortable with the choreography and managed to accentuate her lovely feet and legs.  Cory again illustrated his marginal arabesque, droopy attitude position, and new last night – a lack of understanding that doing a prescribed small leap is not the same as "marking" a large leap.

 

The highlight of the evening was the return of The Dream with Herman Cornejo as Puck, Julio Bragado-Young as Bottom, Gillian Murphy as Titiana, David Hallberg as Oberon, Stella Abrera and Jared Matthews as Hermia and Demetrius, and Maria Riccetto and Sascha Radetsky as Helena and Lysander.  Right at the start, though, Haglund has to complain about the horn playing in the orchestra.  Some of it was pretty darn awful - sharp, flat and plain old sour.  However, The Young People's Chorus of New York City which was tucked underneath the stage overhang sounded beautiful.  Bravo to them!

 

But this ballet is all about Puck.  And no one delivers the character's confusion more brilliantly than Herman Cornejo.  Immediately after the performance, Haglund had to come home and have another dose of Dream on the DVD before going to bed.  Herman flying around the stage sprinkling his magic dust on all the wrong people is a sight to behold.  The elevation, acute speed, and expansiveness that characterize Herman's Puck have always been on the verge of unbelievable but it is his comedic timing and commitment that make it all so wonderful.  Absolutely brilliant.  Julio's Bottom was a cute ass that every woman would fall in love with and it was oh, so good to see Julio back on his hoof-pointes again!  Gillian and David delivered beautiful PdDs and danced stunning variations as well, but, as Haglund said, it's all about Puck.  Abrera, Matthews, Riccetto, and Radetsky were all fantastic as the mixed-up lovers who Puck finally straightened out just in time for the familiar strains of Mendelssohn's tune commonly known as Here Comes the Bride. 

 

The corps was exquisite in The Dream.  However, a problem always occurs at the start when the ladies pointe shoes are noticeably loud as the fairies are bourreeing to the very quiet violins.  Wish there was a way to fix that, but don't think there is since the Met was designed to pick up small sounds on the stage and carry them out into the house. 

Haglund is so happy to see The Dream back in repertory and bestows these lovely Pump Bump Award slippers in honor of the return of Puck and Bottom:

NYCB – Call Me Ben – Barak Premiere 6/5

Mobster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel hated the nickname Bugsy and refused to allow people to call him that to his face.  The nickname referenced ‘bugs’ as in a little crazy in the head, as in bugs in the brain.  Bugsy’s early Mob career was as a hit man and bootlegger in the New York and surrounding areas.  He achieved considerable respect from the Mob bosses who eventually dispatched him to Las Vegas where he embarked on huge construction projects including the building of the Flamingo Hotel and Casino.  Due to excessive spending and mismanagement of Mob funds by Bugsy, the Flamingo was not completed in the time or manner as expected.  This embarrassed and angered the Mob which became fed up with Bugsy's antics and ordered a couple bullets to his head – delivered while he was relaxing and reading the newspaper one evening. 

So, is there a good ballet in all this?  Yes, there is.   Did we see it in Melissa Barak’s “Call Me Ben” which premiered at NYCB last evening?  Mmmmmm . . . .

What we saw was the ballet equivalent of an off-off Broadway production that needs reworking and the heavy hand of an experienced producer who can weed out what doesn’t work and pump up what does before the production lands on a prime stage.  The problem – ballet doesn’t have anything like a Hal Prince, and ballet company Artistic Directors are reluctant to seize that kind of authority over new choreography.   Worse problem – the current crop of youngish ballet choreographers have not been embraced by choreographic mentors who can help guide them and temper the auto-praise and false-hearted applause that is so pervasive in the theater community.  "Wonderful, wonderful, Darling, kiss, kiss."

So Haglund calls on Twyla Tharp and Susan Stroman to go see “Call Me Ben” and then grab Melissa Barak by the arm and begin the long mentoring process of developing this enormously talented choreographer.  Twyla had the benefit of working with Baryshnikov and Robbins; Stroman with Mel Brooks.  Each of these women owes it to the art form to reach out to the next generation of choreographers and help push them forward.  If Melissa doesn’t hear from either one of them, she should reach out to them.

Haglund hopes that Melissa found the time to catch John Neumeier’s Lady of the Camellias to get a glimpse of a superb ballet by one of the art form’s few living great storytellers.  There is one more performance this Monday.  No one should miss it.

Melissa’s latest offering has a number of elements new to her choreographic style which show her eager to expand her craftsmanship and willing to take big risks to accomplish something unique.  The ballet utilizes dialogue effectively to move the story along.  The dialogue (co-written by NYCB's Ellen Bar) was crisp and humorous, but was delivered with the afraid-of-the-sound-of-their-own-voices style by dancers  who were being asked to speak on stage for the first time.  The lines should be executed with the power of a grand jete, not a bourree.  Robert Fairchild, as Bugsy, showed the most theatrical polish with his lines and God only knows how many Broadway stages he will dress when he’s finished at NYCB.

One of the effective devices used in the piece was when Bugsy was engaged in a spotlighted affair downstage with Virginia Hill (played by the glamorous Jenifer Ringer) and he suddenly began thinking about his wife and kids who were depicted in shadowed form upstage.  It worked. 

Another device was the use of a long table around which the Mob bosses conferred and reluctantly voted to order the hit on Bugsy.  The same table was used in an earlier scene where Bugsy argued over the Flamingo’s construction plans, and it was used again when a deflated Bugsy sat down on the eve of his execution.  It worked.

The scene after the hit was one of the most energetic of the evening as SAB students Joshua Shutkind and Kyrian Friedenberg came flying out of the wings as the paper boys pushing the latest headline about Bugsy’s demise with their enthusiastic “Extra! Extra! Read All About It!”

The actual ballet choreography was full of craft.  Melissa’s ability to string steps together, to create a sensual and dramatic PdD, to move groups around and to create an arc continues to progress.   The conflict and development, the climax, the resolution were all dealt with clearly through the choreography and dramatic staging, but the dancers were sometimes reluctant to infuse the steps and acting with their own senses of drama and comedy.  This was new territory for them as well.  Everyone should just cut loose.

The music, a commissioned score by prodigy Jay Greenberg, had a tremendous amount of drama built into it.  He clearly took his assignment seriously.  If we could entice the very young Mr. Greenberg to hang out with ballet dancers (they're cool, young, funny, and just as obsessed as composers) and become enamored of the art form, we might benefit from some beautiful new ballet scores.  However, choreographers could now look at Mr. Greenberg’s existing body of work for lush melodies and inspiration for romantic ballets.

The Santiago Calatrava painted backdrops included huge palm trees that evoked the idea of Las Vegas and then a darker, reddish watercolor for the latter part of the ballet around the time that Bugsy takes the hit. 

The costumes by Gilles Mendel were beautiful time-inspired pieces, but were designed to be a show in themselves.  

The lighting design by Mark Stanley was excellent especially in its dramatic spotlighting and shadowing.

So, in summary, “Call Me Ben” wasn’t really ready for a prime stage, but it clearly illustrated a burgeoning choreographic talent who we need to watch closely and for whom we need to offer as many non-prime stages as we can find for the incubation of her craft.

Haglund bestows this Calatrava-inspired Pump Bump Award to Melissa's new work which was a brave new step in the right direction: