Haglund's Heel

Sarahsota Swan

Jose Carreño has lined up Sarah Lane to dance the major Swan Lake PdDs with himself and Joaquin De Luz as her partners during the August 27th Festival of Stars which closes the Carreño Dance Festival in Sarasota, Florida.  She will dance the White Swan PdD with De Luz and the Black Swan PdD with Carreño.  The performance will take place at the Sarasota Opera House.

Performers for the evening include Gennadi Saveliev, Melanie Hamrick, and Jacoby & Pronk.

Click here to purchase tickets.

Much thanks should be extended to Jose for giving Sarah the opportunity that her home company has senselessly denied her.  How fast can we get the video up on YouTube?

 

NYCB's Rebecca Krohn – Summer Roadwork

Just another hot day in Manhattan as NYCB's beautiful, gracious, shimmering, and no doubt sweaty Rebecca Krohn (aka one of Haglund's favorites) prances around on the hot asphalt out on 7th Avenue in front of cameras for a Sony commercial.  Lots more pictures at the UK's Mail Online:

Corella Ballet in Tippet's Bruch Violin Concerto

Hard to believe that more people haven't viewed this clip.

The Corella Ballet Castilla y León is handsome in Clark Tippet's gorgeous choreography – on what appears to be a too small stage.  Such gorgeous music and costumes, too.  The clip below is from 2 1/2 years ago during the company's first year.  It has been performing Bruch Violin Concerto regularly since then.  It  looks so good that it could become a signature piece for them like Serenade has been for NYCB and T&V has been for ABT.

Imagine how fabulous this ballet would look on the George Balanchine Stage at Lincoln Center.  How great would it be to see the Corella Ballet fill in a few of the blank dates made available by NYCO's departure?!

 

 

 

ABT's Chronic GAS

 . . . that is, its Chronic Guest Artist Syndrome.  Any way you cut it, it still stinks.

At a press conference in Tokyo last week, a reporter asked a question regarding ABT's reputation as an importer of guest stars. (@ about 19 mins in the clip) McKenzie's vague, namby pamby answer confirmed that he is now trying to deny that there is any problem associated with either his regime's failure to develop the company's artistic talent or its narcotic dependence on guest stars who have been developed by other more capable artistic managements.   McKenzie argued, "ABT has always been a company of stars" and tried to spin the idea that ABT attracts the dancers from other companies for guest jobs as opposed to ABT going out and throwing those good old Yankee dollars at the guest artists.  Maybe after this week, the Yankee dollar won't be so welcomed overseas. 

McKenzie is still in denial about Baryshnikov's decade long directorship during which he broke the company's addiction to guest stars by developing in-house talent such as Susan Jaffe, Amanda McKerrow, Cynthia Harvey, Wes Chapman, and Cheryl Yeager.  Under McKenzie's eye, all of those talents would have languished in the soloist ranks at ABT.  Today, we have Stella Abrera, Sarah Lane, Maria Riccetto, Sascha Radetsky and Jared Matthews all being denied promotions to principal rank and important development performances season after season after season while McKenzie tries to buy his way out of the problem of an ever weakening top rank at ABT.  America's National Ballet Company is sending massive dollars overseas with each and every guest artist engagement, and is getting very little in return.  When the best seats in the theater have to be deeply discounted to $25 in order to draw people to see these less-than-the-best guest stars, then how much of a draw are they really?  When ABT has to engage the help of the uninformed local press to push the guest artists' popularity, how much of a draw are they really? 

The only reason that any dancer ascends to the top of his or her profession is because that dancer has been given stage opportunities with which to develop talent and familiarity.  ABT soloists' stage opportunities are being squandered on guest artists.  Think for a moment what Sarah Lane's Giselle would be like if she was given the same number of opportunities to dance it as Alina Cojocaru was given by her own company.  Stella Abrera, besides being a breathtaking Giselle, might well have the most dynamic, and markedly split personality Odette/Odile that we've seen since Cynthia Gregory - but she's not been given even a chance to develop it.  Maria Riccetto - what a crime that she was denied a Don Q at the Met this season while Cojocaru, who barely met the minimum technical requirements, was given two performances.  Do you want a glimpse of what Maria Riccetto's Kitri would look like?  Here's a clip that includes snippets of her Grand PdD with Carlos Lopez a few years ago.  (the actual dancing begins @ about 1'30" in) A FEW YEARS AGO - and we haven't seen this at the Met YET?!  Sorry, but Ms. Cojocaru didn't succeed with the hops on pointe, didn't even try the double turn in a la second, and didn't possess the strong pirouettes or any of the fire that is now recorded as evidence in Maria's performance.  And Carlos was fantastic, too, just fantastic!  Why didn't he get an opportunity to star at ABT?

One of McKenzie's most laughable statements in the interview in Japan was "We do now have a school.  The truth is it will probably be a little more from developing from within in the future."  ABT has had various schools for decades, long before McKenzie ever came to town.  The only difference is that there is a lot more of the donors' money being thrown at the JKO school.  And now McKenzie wants to reduce everyone's expectations about what will come out of it, because he wants to continue to throw dollars out the window at guest stars.  It's easier, especially when you don't have the skill to develop artists' talents. 

McKenzie has got to go.  He's got to be replaced before he turns ABT into PT Barnum & Bailey's Ballet of Guest Stars – "The Greatest Ballet Company on Earth"  "The Greatest Dancers in the World"  "The Greatest Stage in the World" "There's a sucker born every minute" and on and on.  The day is not far off when McKenzie will hire Funani, the pirouetting baby hippo, as a guest artist for the Met Season.  Hey, the UK has deemed her a "web ballet smash hit."  There's your next guest artist, folks.  Yes, folks, there's a sucker born every minute, thinks McKenzie, who also revealed in the interview last week that he has a 10 year plan of repertory all set and ready to go.  Ten more years of him at the helm is a long, long nightmare and too much Chronic GAS to suffer.

It's enough to give you gas

Once again, the guys in the Weather Modification Office must be drinking on the job.

 

UIEX: ABT II bites the dust; Studio Company rises from the ashes

Haglund had long wondered how in this economy ABT could afford to employ a second company with an extensive national and international touring schedule.  The Unofficial Information Exchange (UIEX) tickertape picked up a few tips and also registered that the ABT II dancer section was removed from the website.   This seems to be a permanent measure, that is, until the idea is born again in a few years.  It would be nice to hear that all of those talented ABT II dancers landed on their feet somewhere – hopefully a few of them in ABT's corps.

Re: the "new" Studio Company

ABT @ City Center

Per the brochure that arrived in the mail today, the principal dancers for the six-day run at City Center (can't really call it "a season") are:

Herman Cornejo
Marcelo Gomes
Paloma Herrera
Julie Kent
Gillian Murphy
Veronika Part
Xiomara Reyes
Cory Stearns

Note the name that is missing between Gomes and Herrera.  Where will he turn up?  Moscow, New Zealand, London?  Should be interesting.

The poverty-programing of this run is going to have the audience running in the opposite direction.  However, the performance on Friday, 11/11/11 will be packed just so everyone has a place to celebrate that marvelous looking date and also be together should the world come to an end.  It's also Veterans Day so it will be nice to see a performance of Compa–– oh, wait, ABT isn't performing Company B on Veterans Day.  Kind of a lost opportunity there, wouldn't ya say?  It probably would have even made the TV news coverage @ 11 (that's 11/11/11@11), especially if it ran 1st in the night's performance.  Oh, well. 

 

 

The arts are building

There is a flurry of new performing arts venue construction and major renovations going on during this stalled economy.

New York City Center opens its refurbished doors with a Grand Re-Opening Celebration on October 25th.  No program information yet, but you gotta assume the evening will include at least a little dance.

Down in Gainesville, Florida at Santa Fe College, they're about to have the inaugural performance in the new $17 million Fine Arts Hall which has a state of the art 606 seat theater.  September 24th is the date for the Light Up The Night program which will include an appearance by Jose Manuel Carreno and Sarah Lane.  Alberto Alonso served on the dance faculty at Santa Fe College for the last 15 years of his life.

Kansas City, Missouri is about to vault to the top with its brand spanking new 1800 seat Muriel Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts due to have its premiere performance on September 16th.  Placido Domingo will perform as will the Kauffman Center's three resident companies:  Kansas City Symphony, Kansas City Ballet, and Lyric Opera of Kansas City.  Additionally, KC Ballet is about to move into its brand new home, The Todd Bolender Center for Dance and Creativity, which has seven studios including one that can be converted into a 180 seat performing space.  Todd Bolender, you'll recall, danced for a very long time with NYCB and was the Artistic Director of the Kansas City Ballet from 1981 to 1995. 

In October KC Ballet will present the world premiere of Tom Sawyer at the Kauffman Center.  This three-act ballet is being choreographed by Artistic Director William Whitener to a commissioned score by Broadway composer Maury Yeston (Nine, Titanic, Grand Hotel).  Haglund blogged some details about the production several months ago here:  Pas de Twain.  It's exciting to see another new story ballet being developed, and one that is based on important American literature.  If only this could be a trend . . . .  Haglund is still tossing around the idea of going to KC for the premiere.  Hopefully, the NY Times will send its book critic, not its dance critic, to review this important event.  (The book critic recently wrote a meaningful and insightful review of Anna Karenina by the Mariinsky Ballet whereas the dance critic did not.)  It is doubtful that the current dance critic has much knowledge of or fondness for Mark Twain.  He would probably just blow his horn about whether or not he liked the choreography instead of writing about the importance of the event, the production, and the actual dancing.

KC's Tom Sawyer is further proof of the resurgence of creating story ballets in this country.  KC Ballet has the whole city involved in its Twainphoria.  All of Kansas City is reading and talking about Tom Sawyer and there's even a free download courtesy of the local library.

The Alabama School of Fine Arts is in the midst of building a brand new $8.3 million 500 seat venue for theater, music and dance which will open January 25th with a performance by soprano Angela Brown who you may recall from her holy moly performances of Aida at the Met Opera.  That's holy moly as in being screamed by the audience.  Ms. Brown will definitely test the roof and rafters of this new venue like few other sopranos can.  She received some of her vocal training in Alabama, but is originally from the Indianapolis area where there is impressive new construction underway for performing arts facilities.

In Carmel, Indiana which is just outside of Indianapolis, The Center for the Performing Arts, a three venue state of the art complex is receiving its finishing touches.  Michael Feinstein is the Artistic Director of the new center.  The 1600 seat Palladium Theater had its grand opening in January.  It's a beauty with a huge dome and limestone facade and columns.  The 500 seat Tarkington Theater, named after Haglund's relative Booth who was one of America's important writers from the first half of the 20th century, will have its christening performance on August 6th.  The press release mentioned that the evening would include a performance by American Ballet Theater dancers, but it did not give details. 

Choreographers should look more at American literature for inspiration.  Need a new children's ballet?  What about one based on some of Penrod's misadventures?  Give it an out-of-town premiere in the Indianapolis area where every other item in town is named after Tarkington.  Positive press guaranteed.  And then there's The Magnificent Ambersons . . . .

So that's the scoop on a few of the new performing arts venues that are springing up in places we don't read much about on a national basis.  Attention must be paid – to perhaps suggest another story ballet.  There are ideas everywhere. 

 

NYCB – Chase Finlay and Anthony Huxley promoted to soloist

NYCB's Chase Finlay and Anthony Huxley have been promoted to soloists according to Broadway World.  The appointments were announced today as the company concludes its Saratoga Season.

Good news, indeed!

 

Paul Taylor moving to Lincoln Center

The Paul Taylor Dance Company will have a three week season in the spring at Lincoln Center (Balanchine Stage) made possible by New York City Opera's exit.  This is TOTALLY AWESOME!  However, Haglund had to laugh at Paul Taylor's comment, "It puts us up in the big league."  Uh, no, it makes the Lincoln Center League a bit bigger and brighter.

Haglund is ready to buy tickets today, so long as the 4th Ring is open.  Hey, maybe PTDC should start its own 4th Ring Society.  PTDC 4th Ring Society would look damn good on a tee-shirt.