Haglund's Heel

UIEX: New York City Ballet Reality TV Show

The UIEX ticker tape is whirling around this morning at cyclone speed.  The NYCB stock price is skyrocketing.  What's happening?  What's happening?

Well, folks, this is why you pay Haglund the big bucks –– to sniff out this information and get it to you before anyone else can.  This is why the New York Times and the minor league ballet forums read H.H. everyday – to find out what they should be talking about and what's fit to print – of course, never letting on where they read it first.

Is NYCB going to be the subject of a Sarah Jessica Parker-produced reality show?  Nigel Lythgoe told Variety's  AJ Marachal that talks are going on.  We don't know what network - CW, Ovation, Oxygen, Fox, ABC, whoever – it doesn't matter.  Well, of course, it does matter, but we're not going to quibble with SJP about that, are we?

This is such great news.  Wouldn't it be fabulous to start filming with the Valentino-costumed NYCB gala next month?

 

Maria AND José Carreño in The Merry Widow

Wow, did Maria Riccetto's opening stint as Principal Ballerina just get better! 

José Manuel Carreño has signed on as well for The Merry Widow at Julio Bocca's Ballet Nacional Sodre.

Gotta love these guys – Bocca, Carreño, Corella, Stiefel – for so strongly supporting the supremely talented ABT ballerinas who McKenzie has pushed off to the side like roadkill.

Ballet Boy New Zealand

Ballet Boy New Zealand is a new blog authored by 12-year old Salem and his mother.  Salem has appeared in numerous productions of the Royal New Zealand Ballet including Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty, and is currently appearing in Cinderella.  He's studying ballet (RAD course) and contemporary dance and works with a personal fitness trainer to improve his balance, coordination, and strength.  He aspires to be a member of RNZB when he gets a little older.  Salem has Asperger's Syndrome.

 

ABT – another unnecessary import

Yesterday Kevin McKenzie suggested that he made 22 hiring errors in ABT's corps de ballet by importing an average dancer from a regional company to be a new soloist at ABT instead of promoting from within the enormous wealth of talent of the corps.  Haglund's Heel first reported on the acquisition several months ago when the info turned up on the UIEX.   That it took so long for ABT to come clean about its latest failing is no surprise. 

McKenzie's actions indicate that even though many of the corps men have been cast successfully in soloist and principal roles and have proven their abilities and worth, not ONE of them is acceptable to him to be promoted to the rank of soloist.  Not Eric Tamm.  Not Joe Gorak.  Not Roddy Doble.  Not Luis Ribagorda.  Not Roman Zhurbin.  Not Blaine Hoven.  Nope - not one of them is as valuable as an average dancer who comes from a regional company but who has the all important, coveted exhibitionist quality that McKenzie can't seem to sell tickets without.  The ballet dancer as exhibitionist is ABT's current artistic direction. 

The new average dancer had better be able to pick up ABT's tallest ballerinas or there will be plenty of screaming. 

And the corps guys who McKenzie claims aren't good enough – please have some respect for yourselves and get the heck out of here. 

 

Maria Riccetto soon to be The Merry Widow

ABT wasted no time trying to erase Maria, Corella, Stiefel, and Saveliev from our memories by unceremoniously ripping their identities from the website.  What exhibitionists will McKenzie import next instead of promoting the enormously talented dancers within the ranks of ABT?

Meanwhile, Julio Bocca knows that he has struck gold in hiring Maria to be his Principal Ballerina for the next year.  Julio will always be gold in our hearts.  Always.

 

Lincoln Center Festival – In Paris

There are a limited number of tickets remaining for the final five performances of In Paris which opened tonight at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College, and Haglund recommends you try to snatch up one of those tickets to see this highly creative theatrical production starring Mikhail Baryshnikov and a team of actors/singers/musicians who are outstanding in every way. 

Based on a short story by the Russian writer Ivan Bunin (1870-1953), the play is performed in Russian and French with English subtitles. The Playbill includes an insert that is an English translation which can be read in five minutes - a good reason to get to your seat early.  Oddly, the weakest parts of the production were an instance or two of over-reaching for humor and the more formal aspects of the choreography - the latter attributed to Alexei Ratmansky. 

Baryshnikov is pretty darned captivating as a socially awkward retired Russian general who falls for a younger waitress in a restaurant.  Very, very creative work by this team. Bottle instruments, huge postcards that evolve into other things, a revolving stage, beautiful voices, subtitles that no one can complain about, mice, a dog, a little aerial work, and a well-told story all made this a very enjoyable evening of theater.

Boy, the Lincoln Center Festival folks are doing a bang-up job this summer!