Haglund's Heel

ABT – Seven Sonatas, Black Tuesday, In the Upper Room – 11/13

When the Mecca Shriners got kicked out of Carnegie Hall because their meetings generated too much cigar smoke, they built a new temple on 55th Street which today is the New York City Center.  The building was completed in 1923, just a few years before Black Tuesday, and was lost by the Shriners following the stock market crash of 1929 when they could not longer afford the taxes.  Toward the end of The Great Depression, the City of New York decided to turn the temple into a performing arts facility. 

The crescent emblem of the Mecca Shriners has long carried the motto, “Robur et Furor” which means "strength and fury" and  also includes a five-pointed star.

Perhaps without intending to be so, ABT's final performance today in City Center had to have been some kind of nod to the Shriners because there was a hell of a lot of strength & fury, smoke, and even a cigar.  And there were stars – stars from one end of the stage to the other, across the back, and of course all over the ceiling of this extraordinary and breathtakingly beautiful theater. 

Where modern architecture has become known for its engineering marvels, this theater is a prayer of craftsmanship and artwork.  You can see and feel the pride of the artisans and craftsmen whose hands created the designs and moldings inside the theater.  You can see and feel the pride of the art restorers who Q-tipped the arabesque ceiling and wood carvings along the walls back to their exquisite beauty.  New York City Center is truly a Temple for Dance, which we have, in part, because of misfortune dealt by the bad times of The Depression. 

Sunday's matinee performance opened with Ratmansky's Seven Sonatas performed by Julie Kent, Xiomara Reyes, Yuriko Kajiya, Alexandre Hammoudi, Herman Cornejo, and Gennadi Saveliev.  Although Hammoudi does not have the technical gifts of David Hallberg, he had a more natural rapport with Julie.  He's a handsome guy, although we don't see him smile enough.  He was fairly charming as he went from handsome guy pose to totally clueless when Julie disappeared from the scene.  Julie danced beautifully in this ballet which illuminates the exquisite lines of her legs and arms and encourages her playfulness.  Saveliev had more energy than earlier in the week and delivered an enthusiastic duet with Kajiya.  She was just lovely, but looked too young for Saveliev and too young for the group as a whole.  Haglund prefers her as part of the alternate cast.  Cornejo and Reyes were so spontaneous in their relationship on stage and enjoyed such high energy that Haglund has decided to see an extra one of their Nutcrackers at BAM.  There are no princes who look better in white tights than Cornejo. 

Seven Sonatas has grown more meaningful and valuable with each season it has been performed.  The addition of Blaine Hoven and Maria Riccetto to the alternate cast has added new strength to it.  Their PdD on Saturday night was the most beautiful that Haglund has ever seen either of them dance.  There was a softness in Blaine's great strength that complimented Maria's strength in emotion.  And wow, did they ever look comfortable dancing with each other.  The splendid alternate cast on Saturday night was a tribute to the North Carolina School of the Arts which contributed to the development of four of the six dancers including Hoven, Riccetto, Joseph Phillips, and Jared Matthews.  The luminous Christine Shevchenko and stunning Sarah Lane rounded out the cast. 

Haglund hopes that Seven Sonatas remains with ABT as a proprietary piece.  While Ratmansky may have a financial incentive to have his ballets danced by as many companies as possible, ABT has a need to develop exclusive and unique repertory which will draw audiences to see work they cannot see elsewhere that is danced by artists for whom it was made.

The second piece on the program was Paul Taylor's Black Tuesday.  Once again, ABT delivered a fantastic interpretation with especially strong performances from Craig Salstein as the cigar-chomping chap in "Are you making any money" with Misty Copeland, Zhong-Jing Fang, and Elina Miettinen.  Sean Stewart in "Underneath the Arches" with Julio Bragado-Young made us yearn to see him featured more in major ballets.  While he seems to be cast a lot in modern choreography - not a complaint - he is a very fine classical dancer who we need to see more frequently.  Gemma Bond gave a huge, endearing performance as the finger-gun shooting waif in (I went hunting) and the Big Bad Wolf was Dead.

Finally, the season came to a close with one fine ass kicking performance of In the Upper Room led by Mr. Kick Ass Sascha Radetsky.  Sascha, Blaine Hoven, Patrick Ogle, Gillian Murphy, Kristi Boone, Misty Copeland, and Luciana Voltolini stomped themselves to the point where those guys in the white coats should have come in, wrapped them all up securely, and taken them away for a little rest.  An unbelievably high energy performance today, and the theatrical fog behaved itself.  Seeing Blaine finally cut loose and unleash such power today was pretty thrilling.  And Patrick Ogle!  No problem keeping up with Radetsky and Hoven.  But he needs to get his face up more.  His body and weight were down fabulously, but his face was, too.

The bombers were excellent today as well.  Gennadi Saveliev found the energy of a 25 year old and was picking up his legs and feet like we haven't seen in a while. Craig Salstein nearly spun his a la seconde turns into orbit.  He and Arron Scott are ready for Stomphood, but they were awesome bombers.  Paloma Herrera as the lead bomber lady was in her element with the Tharp off center partnering and had a spirited engagement with Saveliev in the PdDs.  The bomber twins, Maria Riccetto and Isabella Boylston, had more unity than earlier in the week although these dancers are not an especially good match up.

The fall season MVD Pump Bump Award (winged Adidas $306) goes to Herman Cornejo and Sascha Radetsky who led the company this week with their expected, but never taken for granted, high style and energy.

Flash mob in Times Square

Some tourists were surprised yesterday around noon when West Side Story broke out unexpectedly in the middle of Duffy Square in Times Square. 

This Tuesday marks the 50th anniversary of the film West Side Story, and about 50 or so dancers, including many who danced in various productions of WSS and others who are in current Broadway productions of other shows, were brought together by the folks at DanceOn to spontaneously celebrate the anniversary.

Here's the YouTube clip.  Note the surprise of the big guy carrying the little pink gift bag.

 

ABT Da bomb diggity – 11/11/11

How often to you see the audience stop the show and make it start over? 

That's what happened tonight when the theatrical smoke in In the Upper Room went bonkers and billowed out into the audience.  The Mezzanine section revolted and began clapping and hollering to stop the performance.  The music stopped.  The curtain came down.  A lady's voice came over the PA apologizing for the technical difficulties – not for gassing the audience – but for "technical difficulties" and a few minutes later the performance started again.  Pretty cool, indeed.  Pretty hot performance, too.

Well, the Tharp Bombers are back.  Tonight Nicole Graniero and Skylar Brandt brought back those ballistic pointes that Luciana Paris, Yuriko Kajiya, Laura Hidalgo, and Maria Riccetto made famous.  An absolutely fab job.  Nicole and Skylar knew the steps and were joined at the hip every step of the way.  Their male counterparts, Eric Tamm and Joseph Gorak, went toe to toe with the ladies in precision and energy.

A highlight though was seeing Herman Cornejo and Sarah Lane claim ownership of the lead PdDs with such pronounced authority.  The partnering, hazardous as it is, came off without a hitch .  They are heavenly handsome together and possess so many of the same lyrical qualities and  clean footwork.  It has also become a trusting partnership.  The greatness is there to grow.  Hopefully, they will get more chances and more meaningful chances to cultivate that greatness.

Herman, Eric Tamm, and Joe Gorak executed some superb ensemble work.  A couple of times while dancing with Herman, Gorak got caught "thinking" at the end of a phrase and held it too long which threatened to stove Herman's momentum.  As he was dancing around the stage with Herman, Gorak had a "Is this for real?" look on his face.  Awestruck.  Well, who wouldn't be.  Just don't mess up Herman's timing.

The main Stomper ladies, Luciana Paris and Simone Messmer, had all the requisite sass and weight in their movement.  Devon Teuscher as the third Stomper lady and Katherine Williams as the Stomper turned Bomber lady have a ways to go to find the curves and edges in the Tharp style.  The Stomper guys, Cory Stearns, Jared Matthews and Roddy Doble, were nicely synchronized but Cory and Jared came off as too balletic with their weights high and light instead of being into the ground.  Stearns totally missed the seat lift toward the end.  He simply didn't have the strength to lift little Luciana Paris into the air.  This doesn't bode well for his lifts in Act II of Giselle which are coming up in 2012.  These ongoing upper body strength problems in some of ABT's men are so unnecessary and addressable. 

Tonight's program opened with Black Tuesday which in some ways felt more authentic than earlier in the week.  Simone Messmer's Boulevard of Broken Dreams solo conveyed the heartbreak of broken dreams whereas Misty Copeland's interpretation on Tuesday, while beautifully danced, lacked the character's disappointment or angst. 

Herman Cornejo was pure genius in Brother, Can You Spare a Dime.  "Half a million boots went slogging through Hell, and I was the kid with the drum!" brought Herman's knees marching high to his chest with his head raised toward the sky desperate for recognition.  The desperation and struggle permeated his posture.   At Wednesday's performance, Daniil Simkin's desperation didn't register in the body although the dancing was magnificent from a technical standpoint.

The standout on Wednesday was Gemma Bond as the smallest, most grimy Dickensian creature you could imagine who stole the show with her solo in I Went Hunting and the Big Bad Wolf was Dead.  You could see her on the dusty streets of any big city during The Depression picking pockets and scheming her way through daily survival.  Nicole Graniero was outstanding in the role in tonight's cast as well.  It was terrific to see these two ladies step out for some well deserved solo work. 

Also on Wednesday, Sean Stewart and Julio Bragado-Young in their duet to Underneath the Arches neatly conveyed two downtrodden chaps trying to make the best of a bad time in their lives.  All they had left in their lives was their own manufactured joy.  Stewart exemplifies the Paul Taylor dancer and is one of the best dance chameleons in the company when it comes to manuevering back and forth between classical and modern repertory.

The other piece on tonight's program was Volpi's Private Light which just gets worse with each viewing.  While it's true that failure is a large component of innovation, the companies who live and die by organic innovation know that in the innovation process you want "to fail early, fail fast, and fail cheap" as Proctor & Gamble's CEO once said.  You don't drag it out and keep spending money while trying to persuade people how wonderful your crappy product is.  This piece by Volpi should never have made it to ABT's main stage. 

Tonight's Norma Kamali First Position Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon the Bombers for resurrecting the spirit of Tharp's masterpiece:

ABT - Opening Night Gala 11/8

Is it Gal-la? 
Is it Gay-la? 
Is it Gaw-la? 
What's the difference?!
Does it matter what ya caw-ll it?

So might Mel Brooks sing in a funny musical about opening nights filled with polished, fabulous, entertaining dancing.  There was a point in tonight's ABT Fall Gala program when Haglund wished that Mel had been there and that he and Muffie what's-her-name and some of the other society folk who were over-dressed  but wearing less than they should have been, would have jumped on stage and started dancing.  At least it would have been good for a laugh.  Or Nina Ananiashvili, looking lovely seated in the Orchestra, could have jumped on stage with Robert La Fosse or Robert Fairchild, both of whom looked handsome in the Orchestra, for an impromptu Pas de Trois. Or Mr. Franklin could have pulled up a chair on the stage and told some funny stories about really dancing in the real Gardens of Villandry.

Tonight's program just made Haglund weep.  If it hadn't been for the Stompers from In the Upper Room and Frank & Ava gloriously swirling through "My Way", it would have been a night to forget before it destroyed anyone's sleep. 

After the customary speeches, the program opened with The Garden of Villandry by Martha Clarke, Robby Barnett and Felix Blaska to music of Franz Schubert played live on stage by a pianist, violinist, and cellist.  Two men and a woman walk-dance through the gardens and we're supposed to guess which of the guys is really the third wheel in the relationship as they politely pull away at the woman who clearly admires and has good use for both of them.  Julie Kent, Roman Zhurbin, and Julio Bragado-Young did everything they could with what they were given.  This is a novelty piece to see once, smile about what's beneath the quaintness, and then cross it off your list forever.

Next came Tharp's Sinatra Suite danced by Luciana Paris and Herman Cornejo.  Their shoes were slick on the floor, and there were a couple of bad slips, but the performance was more than okay.  Luciana glams up like Ava Gardner.  Herman has plenty of suave, but a little too much respectability.  Together they made it all work nicely - very romantic with just a tinge of antagonism.

Demis Volpi's new Private Light took us to the intermission.  During the second presentation of last month's Guggenheim's Work & Process program which previewed the ABT Fall Season, Demis Volpi rehearsed Cory Stearns and Simone Messmer in a section from his new work.  In one difficult PdD movement, Volpi instructed Messmer to "just relax and let yourself be manhandled."  She was compliant and the end result satisfied Volpi.  In the New York Times recent preview piece, Volpi is described as rehearsing two dancers in a kiss by telling the man “You’re a rough guy giving a really rough kiss,” he explained. “She’s a thing. She’s not a person you have to take care of."  Those two instances pretty much sum up the tenor of his new piece.  It's manipulative with men aggressively handling women - sometimes lifting them by their heads and putting them into their proper places. 

There is almost no dancing per se in Private Light but for bourees and some solo center barre work (tendu, coupe developpe, etc.) for Joseph Gorak who apparently stepped outside of the sect's activity to act independently.  The other dancers then approached him with scorn and snatched him back into place within the sect.  Let's see, what else.  There's a lot of angst - over what, we don't know.  But when you're in your twenties, there's angst in everything, even in a loaf of bread.  Let's see, what else.  Oh yeah, couples do a lot of kissing to a mish-mash of solo guitar music performed by, ahem, Christian Kiss.  Two women do some kissing - most likely inserted to pander to Alastair Macaulay.  The men slam themselves to the ground a lot.  They are shirtless and dressed in little shorts.  The women wear similar shorts with flesh-colored leotard tops which are probably supposed to suggest that the women might be shirtless.  Would anyone be surprised if Volpi lobbied for a little topless costume for the ladies?  Imagine how famous it would make you as a choreographer if you could be the first one to get ABT to embrace nudity on stage.  Perhaps another time, Demis. 

After the intermission, we welcomed back Tharp's In the Upper Room, 25 years young.  The problem tonight was some miscasting and missing cast.  You can't omit Gomes, Cornejo, Hallberg, and a few other veterans and not have it hurt.  The stompers saved the day.  Sascha Radetsky led this piece the way Stiefel used to - keeping everybody's energy high, making sure nobody let up.  He was phenomenal tonight.  The guy is so ripped that when he pirouetted, your own eyes would go a little cuck-coo trying to follow the image of his spinning torso muscles.  Blaine Hoven and Patrick Ogle kept up the pace well and really danced fabulously.  The lady stompers - Kristie Boone, Gillian Murphy, Misty Copeland, and Luciana Voltolini - embraced the cardio-dance like they were in heaven dancing it. 

The bombers were where all the problems were tonight.    Most notably, Isabella Boylston, while looking lovely, was also in her own world musically, messing up not only Maria Riccetto but also Luciana Voltolini (she both stomped & bombed) and the group pointe work by dancing ahead of the others or holding a renverse or arabesque just a little bit longer which made the other dancers look bad.  If this were an isolated instance, it wouldn't be worth mentioning.  But Isabella has badly marred ensemble work in Bright Stream, as one of Giselle's peasant friends, in Thirteen Diversions, and now In the Upper Room - just to name a few instances in the past year.  Her penalty:  McKenzie awards her with four principal debuts in the Spring Season including two lead principal roles while the long-time, ultra-talented soloists who rarely miss a step and are consummate team players are made to stand down.  Why should Isabella even care about the quality of her ensemble work?  Also miscast tonight was Gennadi Saveliev.  He is not a Tharp dancer in any way, shape or form, and much of the time it looked like he was marking his way through the steps.  Arron Scott and Craig Salstein danced very well, and either of them would have been a better choice for Paloma Herrera's partner in the central PdD than Saveliev. 

This fall season is not selling well for ABT.  It's not the economy.  If people have money to go to the opera and to the philharmonic and to Carnegie Hall, they have money to spend on dance.  They just don't want to see these kind of poorly designed programs out of ABT.  Everyone expects better.  No pump bump award for this evening.

RNZB takes Sleeping Beauty on tour

RNZB is on the first leg of a national tour of its enormously successful Sleeping Beauty.  From the Southland Times review of last night's performance in Invercargill:

"Performing for a near-full theatre last night, the strongest performance was from Aurora, played by guest soloist Stella Abrera of the American Ballet Theatre, who conveyed strong emotions with her face as well as her movements, which were precise, elegant and even breathtaking in the final act."

Charms, dreams, and variations on the SwanNina Ananiashvili & the State Ballet of Georgia

Nina Ananiashvili and nine dancers from her State Ballet of Georgia along with eight Georgian musicians charmed a full house at Avery Fisher Hall Saturday night.  The audience was mostly Eastern European.  Everyone seemed to be dressed to the nines.  No one heeded the no flash camera rule, and it seemed everyone had a camera despite security's scrutiny at the ticket entrance.  Well, you know, it's Nina.  The ushers were helpless. 

There was no real need to throw bouquets on the stage - not when you could walk right to its edge and gently lay the roses on the marley and have Nina come over, pick them up, and shake your hand as happened after her second performance of the Dying Swan.  Yes, the second performance.  You see, Nina performed the Dying Swan twice last night – two different versions.  The first time she bourreed out with her back to the audience, arms rippling as only Nina can do.  The swan's death ended abruptly and tragically – with the swan resisting to the end as it spun a half circle on the floor to its final pose.  The second version saw Nina bourree out facing the audience, arms rippling.  This time the swan died with a quiet sense of resignation, sorrow, and peace.  The Dying Swan was kind of the best part of the evening which was focused on the early choreography of Alexei Ratmansky.  Nina was the one responsible for Alexei getting his first choreographic opportunity at the Bolshoi, and as they say, the rest is history.

Charms of Mannerism (1997), Bizet Variations (2008), and Dreams about Japan (1998) offered a glimpse of Ratmansky's progression as a creator.  The Bizet Variations most closely resembled the current state of his development.  With its three couples engaging in their individual stories with lovely lyrical, flowing choreography, it reminded Haglund of Seven Sonatas – a whole lot.  The Charms of Mannerism and Dreams about Japan reflected Ratmansky's habit of ending a piece with everyone in the cast grouped together on the stage staring at the audience, sometimes waving happily.  We've probably seen enough of that;  it appears in both The Bright Stream and The Little Humpbacked Horse.  In Charms and Dreams, Ratmansky tried to employ humor which often seemed unsophisticated and sometimes even geeky.  Haglund thinks it's time to get serious about generating new work that doesn't repeat old choreographic ideas or resort to overdone humor.  Hopefully, we'll get something like that in the new Firebird for ABT.

Nina only brought nine dancers with her.  The women looked and danced like a cohesive unit whereas the men were far more varied in appearance and ability.  Philippe Solano excelled in his Sagi Musume solo in Dreams about Japan, a version of which you can watch here.  There were lots of interesting moments in his solo which were then interrupted with arbitrary ballet tricks.  Ratmansky inserted fouettes and pirouettes in much of the evening's choreography by force rather than by integrated design, but for what reason?  We've seen this trait in other of his works.  If it has to do with what he perceives are audience expectations or its understanding of ballet, then it's truly an insult.  Besides, everyone knows the ages-old rule in ballet:  when you don't know what to do, soutenou – not fouette and pirouette – those don't even rhyme.

Anyway, Haglund wants to report that Nina looked and danced wonderfully.  Her leg lines are still long as we remember them, her face still beautifully soulful, her connection with the audience still from her heart to ours.  Many thanks to Nina for the charms, dreams, and above all the many years of her Swan:

NYCB coming to a cinema near you

Tuesday, December 13 marks the first of hopefully many live HD transmissions by NYCB to movie cinemas across the country, and hopefully across the world eventually.  Five hundred theaters will receive the inaugural live transmission which will, of course, be The Nutcracker.  See NYT article here.

Don't forget that Live from Lincoln Center will present a live performance of NYCB's The Nutcracker on PBS the following evening, December 14 at 8PM.  Check your local PBS channel listings.  Here in NYC on WNET 13, the presentation will be rebroadcast on December 16 at 1:30AM and December 18 at 12:30PM.

This is great news, and boy, don't we need a little of that these days.