Sarah & Angel – Swan Lake rehearsal

Here's a little video of Sarah Lane rehearsing Swan Lake with Angel Corella.  They look so beautiful together.  The Spanish press has been fairly excited about Sarah's "Black Swan" connection, and it sounds like she was grilled pretty thoroughly on it in this interview.  The accompanying article in Spanish is here.

Also, Angel has changed the name of his company to Ballet de Barcelona because it has just relocated there from Castillia and Leon.

 

 

Post Update with Additional Info:

Here's a link to another article and interview with Sarah.  The Google translation to English is rough, but a couple things ring loud and clear.  Sarah notes McKenzie's preference for tall men in leading roles and the corresponding limitations it presents for the smaller women in the company, and she echoes frustration with losing opportunities to guest artists.

 

Comments

[Angelica Smith]

Haglund, I hereby canonize you as St. Haglund for bringing us this beautiful video of our own Sarah Lane rehearsing Swan Lake with Angel Corella. Now wouldn't it be extraordinary if they were to dance a pas de deux when his company comes to New York? Now wouldn't it be more extraordinary still if her own company were to recognize what a gem they have right before their own eyes? Sigh.

[Haglund]

Thanks, Angelica. I just posted a little addendum at the bottom of the post with a link to another article that includes some important items.

I wonder if Angel has ever danced with anyone as small as Sarah. They look so beautiful together, and I wonder if she might extend his classical career and even renew it here.

Maybe Corella Ballet de Barcelona will mount a Giselle soon.

[Angelica Smith]

Haglund, you are a fountain of great ideas! Fonteyn and Nureyev in reverse!

[robin]

Thank you so much for posting this haglund! Beautiful!

Also i saw another spanish article this morning where corella mentioned perhaps doing manon.

[A.]

She's stunning. It's terrific she has this opportunity, but I think it's a shame ABT hasn't put her more in the spotlight. Shame on you Kevin!

[A.]

Also, I think it's unfortunate her rise to stardom has been marred by "Black Swan." She is talented enough not to need Natalie Portman as a doppelganger/marketing gimmick.

[Haglund]

Yes, she certainly is stunning and beautiful. Black Swan is a mixed blessing, certainly - the way Center Stage was for Stiefel. That movie is HOW old? - and yet the press in New Zealand can't stop writing about it when ever Stiefel's name is mentioned.

[Kay]

:35 is pure beauty! I hope it went well for her.

[Haglund]

Can't wait to hear something.

[Clemence]

Her and Corella really make a magnificent pairing, their chemistry is wonderful. I wish I could have seen this. Thanks for finding this stuff and sharing it with us!

I agree with everything she is saying but I wish someone would give her some media training or something. Ballet is an art but there are a lot of off stage politics and elbow rubbing and I hope she doesn't alienate donors and benefactors (a lot of whom seem really enamored with Millepied and probably Portman's star power as well since that is now part of the Millepied package). Am I being crazy? I don't really know anything about this stuff.

[sillypants]

I love her. She's so amazing. Unfortunately she was not well-paired with Joseph Gorak for her 2011 Nutcracker performances. Gorak is an excellent male dancer, but he is not strong enough to partner (yet). However, he is tall.

On a different note - is Natalia Osipova a principal dancer with ABT like Diana Vishneva is? As in, does she split her time between two different companies while holding principal status with both? Or is she simply a guest artist who gets to perform a lot with ABT? she is listed as a principal dancer on their website. This may account for all the ballets she's set to perform at the Met this Spring and "Giselle" in Chicago in March.

[Haglund]

Hi Clemence. Thanks for stopping by H.H.

I don't know how enamored the donors are with Millepied. Sarah's Spanish media coverage wasn't anywhere near the size of her ABC-TV News coverage last year which didn't seem to hurt anyone. Millepied's supporters may have noticed like the rest of us that he's kind of lost his focus on choreography.

SillyPants, I saw Sarah and Gorak in both of their performances and thought they looked pretty fabulous together. Gorak was dancing with a foot injury on both occasions which may have well hampered his ability to press weight into the foot to do lifting and other partnering. We'll just have to wait and see what develops.

Osipova has a multi-year contract with ABT. Vasiliev - who knows. He's shown on a YAGP poster as an actual member of ABT, but ABT calls him a guest artist.

I expect further drama from the recent Mikhailovsky pullout from their summer performances at Lincoln Center. One year Osipova was "mugged"; another year she "lost" her passport. What's it going to be this year? I suppose O&V will figure something out after O finishes her big debut in ABT's new Ratmansky "Firebird" next month. McKenzie had better have his guest star casting well-covered - or better, rethink it all now.

[Clemence]

That's good to know, thank you!

I also don't understand why I seem to be the only person in the world who noticed the inappropriate way he lifted her in black swan. I don't know if I can post images, here is a link to a screenshot: http://i40.tinypic.com/dz77ea.jpg. Not safe for work maybe? It's an interesting place to put your mouth to say the least. I've never danced ballet though so maybe I'm missing something...

[Haglund]

LOL. That's a picture of Natalie and Benjamin. Maybe that's what got them going, so to speak.