Haglund's Heel

ABT Same guest artist still injured

After having pulled Alina Cojocaru from her May 28th and 29th performances of Symphony in C due to her ongoing injury, the Royal Ballet has today announced that it is pulling her from her June 8th performance.  Really?  She's unable to perform the 2nd Movement Adagio and a short coda, but she's going to dance four acts of Swan Lake here less than two weeks later?  Are we supposed to have sympathy for her when she limps around and dumbs down the steps with perfectly upturned eyebrows while our own brilliant and capable Sarah Lane sits on the sidelines waiting for a chance to dance?

Jeeze Louise.  Could it get any more pathetic at ABT?

ABT – Don Q – 5/29 mat & eve

Yesterday's performances of Don Quixote at the Met had their ups and downs.  The ups of the afternoon performance belonged to Veronika Part in her debut as Kitri.  It's been a while since we've seen such a statuesque Kitri at ABT -- Cynthia Gregory and Martine van Hamel were the last ones, possibly.  The statuesque Kitris always have to avoid trying to be the cute, perky characters that one sees in the smaller dancers.  They tend to be more sophisticated, scheming, and in Veronika's case, delightfully bossy. 

Conductor David La Marche granted barely an extra smidgen in the tempo to allow those glorious legs of Veronika's to unfold in saute de chats.  Once they did, however, it was like watching a narrow-body 747 glide over the Met stage on its way to a soft, smooth landing.  In the Act III fouettes, however, Veronika took the 32R runway instead of the 32C, but managed to get to the correct gate without incident.  While some of the trickier footwork wasn't as articulate as hoped for – the pas de cheval in Act I didn't have much pawing to them – the overall dancing was finely detailed with the technique serving the story, not vice versa. 

The authority of Veronika's acting made the afternoon performance a hit.  We don't often get to see her comedic side.  It was devilish and slightly domineering.  When kneeling before Lorenzo in order to beg him to let her marry Basilio, she motioned for Basilio to join her by stabbing her finger to the floor which in dance-speak was an unmistakable, no-nonsense "Get. here. right. now!"  Her comedic skills almost even overshadowed her Act II Dream sequence when she danced as Dulcinea.  This was the Veronika to whom we are accustomed:  luscious musicality, flowing lines.

James Whiteside's Basilio was far from the caliber deserved by Veronika.  He could lift her and hold her in the air – with two hands.  He could partner her in pirouettes – for two revolutions.  He could balance her – for two seconds.  He had more eye makeup and lipstick on than Veronika.  His acting had too much of his flamboyant, clownish JBDubbs schtick with the cutesy Shirley Temple surprised lips and raised eyebrows.  After five minutes, it all seemed like so much Autotone.  His own variations were uneven in quality with some being good and others not.  He occasionally pushed for extra revolutions in turns when it was apparent he shouldn't have, and ended up falling out of them – like a soloist trying to get a promotion by being lucky with his pirouettes instead of consistent.  His back was as stiff as a board and his arabesque was limited. 

Kristi Boone and Jared Matthews were excellent as Mercedes and Espada.  Each had loads of Spanish flair and sported a mature and authoritative technique.  There was no guesswork from these two pros.

The evening's performance saw the return of Gillian Murphy who last danced in New York in ABT's 2012 Met Season.  She looked rejuvenated by the several months respite from the turmoil at ABT.  Her time in New Zealand seems to have relaxed her and made her dancing more joyful.  By the way, the Royal New Zealand Ballet's feature film Giselle is nearly finished and will be distributed later this year.  You can follow the progress and get updates on the special Giselle the Movie Facebook page.

Gillian's technique was on fire last night.  The sometimes stern determination which we've seen in previous seasons has been replaced with a joy and an excitement about being on stage.  Her pick work with her pointes was alive and vibrant without being noisy or over-done.  During fouettes, she opened the fan over her head and then lowered it down the front, all the while daintily fanning her smiling face.  It was technique-as-gift-to-the-audience as opposed to blasting it at their faces.  Her Act II Dulcinea wasn't as dreamy as it was efficient, but that act belonged to Stella Abrera anyway.  More below.

Gillian's Basilio was Denis Matvienko, the estranged Mariinsky principal who was recently unceremoniously fired as the AD of the Kiev Opera Ballet in the midst of some Russian political drama.  Who can keep up with it all?  A superb partner, Matvienko deserved every bit of the great confidence that Gillian gave him.  They appeared to enjoy dancing with each other, and his frisky, cheeky manner seemed to inspire Gillian to the same.  He had expression and mime in spades, and it all came across without him having to wear much makeup.  What a lesson it was for any dancer on stage who was watching him.  Unfortunately, a lot of his solo dancing was considerably less than great and was a disappointment.  His head and neck sunk into his shoulders when he turned and jumped -- exactly like a turtle.  He spun some big en dedans pirouettes with his knee parallel instead of turned out, but most anyone can do that.  His legs didn't always extend fully when they should have.  He's only 34 years old.  Maybe running the Kiev instead of dancing every day has something to do with it, but he should be better technically.

Stella Abrera and Sascha Radetsky delivered sizzling performances of Mercedes and Espada that probably made some of the audience want to follow them home last night.  Incredible technique and character from both, but literally peerless work from Stella.  Such elegance and purity of line.  Such aplomb.  Such crystalline positions.  Her Italian fouettes in Act II were so perfect and effortless that they could only have been done in Don Quixote's dream.  Her grand jetes streamed forward and landed silently.  As the others who Kevin McKenzie is pushing forward ahead her fumble and bumble around blindly, Stella is the epitome of elegance and accomplishment.  Every one of her glorious performances now make McKenzie look more ignorant and disrespectful of her artistry for not promoting her to principal. 

Joseph Phillips and Simone Messmer were an intense and smoldering Gypsy couple.  Phillips – aggressive and brilliant.  Messmer, a riveting performer with the technical chops of three dancers.  Both of these artists continue to be sadly under-used.  Their talents are so obvious, and yet they are not being given enough performances to stay alive, let alone thrive.  It would be a shame and a black eye for management if ABT were to lose either of them.

Craig Salstein, Roman Zhurban, Victor Barbee, and Arron Scott as Gamache, Lorenzo, Don Quixote, and Sancho Panza delivered hilarious performances with Salstein being especially disruptive wherever he went.

Amour at both performances was danced by Gemma Bond with sparkling beauty and pristine classical form.  When she exited downstage with a series of jetes, the shapes were exquisite – fingers, hands, wrists, arms, feet, the carriage of the neck, the height of the body in the jump.  What a beautiful example of how it all should be done.

The orchestra in the evening (Wilkins) was a lot more robust than the afternoon (La Marche).  The trumpets sounded pretty good which bodes well for the upcoming Shostakovich Trilogy.  There will be a lot of tricky, tricky trumpet tickling required in the music for Act III of the Trilogy.

Wednesday's Pump Bump Award, from Alejandro Ingelmo, is bestowed upon Stella Abrera for her unwavering focus, admirable stamina, elegance, and beauty in all of her work.

ABT – Guest artist still injured

Today the Royal Ballet pulled Alina Cojocaru from her next scheduled performances following her latest injury layoff.  She had been scheduled to dance in Symphony in C on May 28 & 29 but is unable to perform due to injury.

So, is ABT going to continue to hold open Herman Cornejo's all-important June 21st performance of Swan Lake for a perpetually injured guest artist while they have homegrown dancers who could deliver better performances in the first place?  Or maybe they have some Grade B regional company dancer they want to import as another guest artist or hokey "exchange dancer" instead of allowing the company's own brilliant artists to shine.

Let Sarah Lane dance Swan Lake.

 

NYCB final week includes

6/4 – Chase Finlay's debut as El Capitan in Stars and Stripes.

6/7 – Tiler Peck in her OMG role in Allegro Brilliante.

6/9 – Ashley Bouder & Andrew Veyette close out the season as Liberty Bell/El Capitan.

 

NYCB – Spools of Faile 5/24

Faile is back for another try.

The second installation of NYCB's Art Series, which again features the work of the Brooklyn art collective, is on display on the promenade level of the theater.  You'll recall that the first offering was the Tower of Faile, which had its unique charm and was interesting at first glance.  This one is entitled Faile Wheels.  Brown cylinder spools are lined up across the length of the promenade like a series of security barricades in front of a federal building. The top half of each spool is decorated with Faile's customary pop art, and it spins if one is so inclined to touch it and give it a whirl. 

Yes, these are touchy-Failey wheels.





Same burger, different bun.

Spools of Faile aside, there was some fine dance on the stage tonight in an All Balanchine Program of Serenade, Ivesiana, Tarantella, and Firebird.  Absorbing the genius in Marc Chagall's scenery and costumes for Firebird and then confronting the Faile exhibit rather clearly illustrated the difference between great art and great gimmick.

Erica Pereira and Daniel Ulbricht delivered a pretty big Tarantella.  Haglund was pleasantly surprised by Erica's sass and energy throughout.  She was trying hard to bring her energy up to Daniel's level – an impossible task – but she pulled out a pretty entertaining performance. Daniel whacked his tamborine until its metal jingles went spraying across the stage.  Add to that a blazing circle of coupe jetes that were especially exciting because they accelerated past the music as he exited into the wing. 

Serenade can seem like a hypnotic experience when watching it performed as gloriously as it was tonight.  One bar of music and you're in a trance.  Add the soft blue lighting and the long wispy tulle, and you can become so mesmerized that your eyes stop blinking.  Megan Fairchild's Russian was light and fleetfooted tonight.  Sterling Hyltin's Waltz was a bit too perky for some tastes, but she and Jared Angle found the right chemistry.  Megan LeCrone as the Dark Angel was wonderfully expansive.  Adrian Danchig-Waring stepped in for Ask la Cour and was an exceptional partner for the women.  The demi-soloists – Alina Dronova, Lauren King, Ashley Laracey, and Georgina Pazcoguin – were perfection.

Ivesiana was performed for the last time this season and is not on the schedule for next year.  What a terrific vehicle it has been to show off Ashley Laracey's unique dramatic abilities.  Peter Martins' ten-year corps investment in this dancer is about to be paid back in spades.  Just promoted to soloist in February, Ashley has been marvelous in an ever-increasing repertory this spring.

Ashley Bouder first danced Firebird as a fill-in on a moment's notice when she was a 17-year-old corps member.  A dozen years later, she continues to add shading and detail making each performance more magically musical.  Perhaps dancing within so much Chagall treasure has inspired her to enrich her interpretation.  Tonight she seemed as though she had emerged from one of his great murals. 

The Louboutin Asteroid H.H. Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon Ashley Bouder for her evolving Firebird.

  

More reasons to love Irina and Max

Thanks to Haglund'eeler "B" for dropping this video on our doorstep.  It's an interview with Irina Dvorovenko and Max Beloserkovsky from last fall that hasn't been seen by many people.  When the interviewer, Jolinda Menendez (former ABT soloist), asked at the 14:30 minute mark how Irina and Max thought ABT had changed since they joined, they jumped right into the guest artist situation and the adverse effects on the company's dancers.  They talked three minutes on the subject. 

It sounds like they have confirmed that the sidelining of our own gifted dancers and the importing of the junk from oversees was ABT's brilliant idea of a business marketing solution for the declining audience with no regard for the artistic consequences.  But what Koch, Kramer, Sosnoff, Barth, Brinn, Patrick and the others on ABT's board seem to have forgotten is the elementary never-ever-ever-wrong business principle:

The fish rots from the head down.

So now what are they gonna do?  They've steered ABT into a much worse position than before, but they're all too proud to admit they've made a tragic mistake. Donations are down 32%  Attendance is an embarrassment this season - they aren't even close to selling out Osipova & Vasiliev's SATURDAY NIGHT Don Quixote.  ABT is giving away tickets left and right.  Onegin was on TDF for over a month.

So what are they gonna do?  How about facing the reality that when you piss off your core customers and alienate them, the other customers also lose interest in your product?  How about not using the struggling economy as an excuse and face up to the reality that the rotting artistic fish head needs to be lopped off?  How about the board of directors hire Stiefel, Bocca, Corella, or Max & Irina as the new artistic director and then get the F– out of artistic decisions?

Advance to the 14:30 mark.

If Irina and Max have been as vocal inside ABT as they have been outside about the despicable importing practice, then maybe that explains a little bit why they haven't had many performances in the past few years.

 

ABT 5/18Irina Dvorovenko bows out in style

Irina Dvorovenko certainly left us with a memorable performance of Tatiana in tonight's Onegin.  It's hard to think of a performance of Onegin that has been more enjoyable.  In fact, the whole cast tonight – the same as the Wednesday matinee – delivered a powerful ballet equivalent of Renee Fleming, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Ramon Vargas, and Elena Zaremba in the Met Opera's own Eugene Onegin production.

What a pleasure.  What an honor to have been there.

Photographer Kent G. Becker had a very good view of the post-performance celebration.  His website is NotMyDayJobPhotography.  He let Haglund know that he's really busy this weekend, but he will be posting additional photos next week.  Here's a little sampler:

Photo: Kent G. Becker © Creative Commons

The First Position Pump Bump Award goes to Irina, the only one who has style enough to stand up in these Louboutins:

ABT – Onegin – 5/15 mat & 5/17

Onegin is about living with the decisions that you've made regardless of their consequences.  Pushkin's famous poem, Eugene Onegin, on which this ballet is based, delves into the noble feelings of honor and pride, the difficult sorrow that sometimes comes after having made eternal vows, and the inability to back down from challenges that have been thrown at you in haste or those which you, yourself, have thrown – "But the world's savage indoctrination fears the false shame of reconciliation."  It's a terrific poem that has a terrific stage life as both an opera and a ballet.

John Cranko's ballet version is a masterpiece from curtain-up to curtain-down.  It is built around two PdD for Onegin and Tatiana, a solo for Lensky, and a duel between Lensky and Onegin.  A scrupulously mannered community of nobles and countryfolk portray the society's calm surface beneath which the passions of the principals roil. 

The first major PdD occurs in Tatiana's dream in Act I.  Onegin swirls her around and she is flying on top of the world emotionally as she dreams of the passion she would have with Onegin.  At the music's climax, Onegin lifts Tatiana high into the air as she sits vertically on his hand.  At the exact same musical moment in the final heart wrenching PdD in Act III before Tatiana throws Onegin out the door, she is no where near on top of the world.  Instead, she's horizontally bent back on the floor under the weight of Onegin's desire and he yanks her up into a passionate sissonne momentarily breaking her emotional resistance.

Wednesday's matinee was as nearly a perfect ensemble performance as one could ask for and all the players on the stage enjoyed great chemistry.  Irina Dvorovenko, in her penultimate appearance with ABT, lived her Tatiana with honesty, depth, and passion.  Her early infatuation with Cory Stearns' Onegin was played with sincerity without trying to be too girlish. The excellent chemistry between Irina and Stearns was theatrically transforming throughout the evening.  Irina's face has always been one of the more beautifully expressive faces in the company since she joined ABT – never less than fully invested in her character's emotions and story – and it has been sad to see ABT sideline her these past few years despite the fact that her technical and theatrical skills have seemed to be at their twin peaks. 

Stearns extracted significantly more theatrical juices than in last year's performances even if they did sometimes look like they came from stage directions instead of from the fruit of the poem.  Rather than instantly becoming angry with Tatiana for being so persistent about her love for him, his character seemed to understand the fragile nature of her young feelings and tried to turn her down with some compassion.  There were noticeable improvements in his partnering, and he no longer looked like he was ready to collapse under the physical pressure of the choreography.  A couple of lifts where Tatiana was supposed to twist into a jump to Onegin's shoulder appeared to be modified or perhaps weren't as clearly implemented as they should have been.  Here's hoping that Stearns is on his toes for whatever Irina may throw at him tonight in her Farewell.

It was a thrill to watch Blaine Hoven and Gemma Bond in their debuts as Lensky, Onegin's poet friend, and Olga, Tatiana's pretty and flirtatious younger sister.  A few nerves took a couple of Blaine's turns off course at the very beginning of the evening, but his solo of lament in Act II was exceptional.  That was preceded by a fine dramatic confrontation with Onegin over his flirtation with his fiancé, the really-up-for-game Olga.  This cast was in tune with Pushkin's idea that Onegin flirted with Olga not just out of boredom but in order to show Lensky the fickle nature of Olga's commitment to him.

Vitali Krauchenka was pitch-perfect as Prince Gremin who Tatiana married for love and convenience but who didn't provide the passion that Tatiana had dreamed about since reading her romance novels as a young girl.

Friday night's cast of Onegin had really, really high points and a few really, really low points, but it averaged out to be a pretty good evening thanks to the masterfully detailed and nuanced performances of Diana Vishneva and Marcelo Gomes.  They have a way of calmly and patiently enticing us into their beautiful world, and then suddenly, they're ripping our hearts out as they scream-dance This is what our world is reeeeally like. Jesus. Last night's Act III PdD left the audience pretty wrung out and needing a drink.  Just as it oughta be. 

Jared Matthews reprised his superb Lensky from last year.  This guy has got it all – lines, technique, drama – and it all worked together brilliantly last night in his portrayal of Lensky as a somewhat naive poet who was finally pushed over the edge by Onegin's attention toward Olga. 

Unfortunately, Isabella Boylston's debut performance as the pretty younger sister of Tatiana didn't add up to much.  First, according to Pushkin, Olga is supposed to be pretty while Tatiana is the bookworm.  Second, Olga's variations have a lot of jumps in them, and Isabella's dumping of her upper body does not a pretty jump make.  Why hasn't someone insisted she fix this?  How difficult is it to say, "Your arms and elbows fly up way too high when you jump and it makes you look dumpy.  Fix it by tomorrow.  If you do it again on stage, you're demoted or fired."  What is so hard about saying that?  It's not a matter of Isabella not being able to fix it; it's a matter of her neglect and ABT's coddling attitude that causes them to look the other way because a perfectly formed jump might be a slightly lower jump. Circus trumps artistry – again. Nor was Isabella's acting serviceable, and she frequently licked her front teeth like she was trying to get lipstick off of them.  Her best theatrical moment of the evening was when she ran across the stage to hug Martine van Hamel's Madame Larina.

James Whiteside's Prince Gremin was like something out of the spook house. In Act II, it was painfully clear why Tatiana was so repelled by him.  Act III saw adequate partnering from him, but the strain on his face when he picked up the tiny Vishneva doesn't bode well for Veronika Part who has to dance with him in her debut as Kitri or Gillian Murphy who has to dance with him in Swan Lake.  What politics came into play that allowed this gothic-looking dancer from a less-than-top tier regional ballet company to waltz into ABT principal roles while the very capable and very handsome Eric Tamm and Roddy Doble waste away in the corps? 

It's not a Dance 10, Looks 3 world in New York - no matter how high the jump, how flexible the limbs, or how hard one cultivates celebrity.

Friday night delivered disappointments that dampened the high successes of Vishneva and Gomes.  The standout debut performances of Blaine Hoven and Gemma Bond at the Wednesday matinee were not surprises at all because the audience has known for years how talented these two are.  The H.H. Pump Bump Award, some true Louboutin poetry, is bestowed upon them.

LIVE Cinema PresentationJune 6 Mariinsky's Swan Lake in 2D & RealD 3D

Find your theaters and buy tickets HERE.

Conductor:
Valery Gergiev

Cast:
Odette-Odile:  Yekaterina Kondaurova
Siegfried: Timur Askerov
von Rothbart: Andrei Yermakov
The Prince’s Friends: Maria Shirinkina, Nadezhda Batoeva, Xander Parish
The Jester: Vasily Tkachenko

NYC theaters @ 6:30pm:

Empire 25 IMAX on 42nd Street @ 8th Avenue

Regal Union Square Theatre @ 850 Broadway

NYCB – All Martins Program – 5/14

Tonight NYCB presented its first ever full evening of repertory by Peter Martins.  Over the years, there have been complaints about his choreography mostly because it has never been as good as Balanchine's and many thought that Martins should be able to produce better work than what we were getting from him.  When his choreography began dotting the programs, there were cries that suggested Martins was reducing the Balanchine repertory.  Of course, that turned out to be not true at all, and in the past thirty years Martins has produced some pieces that have been enjoyable to watch and worth repeated viewings.

Tonight we got most of his "red" repertory:  Calcium Light Night - red unitards; River of Light - 33% of costumes were red; Fearful Symmetries - mostly red and red-related costumes.  The dancers in Barber Violin Concerto wore white.  Not coincidently, NYCB used the evening to host its first Ballet en Blanc Young Patrons After Party.  The audience was filled with college aged and just-post college aged women who were dressed in white and slightly over-accessorized. 

Calcium Light Night (1977) is a Martins piece that has stood the test of time and happens also to be the first ballet that he ever choreographed.  The music consists of nine pieces of music by Charles Ives including his composition Hallowe'en that Balanchine initially included in his Ivesiana but later cut from his own ballet.  Balanchine must have been genuinely impressed with Martins' first choreographic effort because he inserted Martins' Calcium Light Night into Ivesiana for several performances early on.  (Not making this up, folks.  It's in the Playbill.)

Last night's cast of Robert Fairchild and Sterling Hyltin injected new life and spunk into Calcium.  Dancing their solos mostly within and on the perimeter of a large rectangle of light on the stage floor with a corresponding rectangle-shaped lighting fixture overhead, these two gave the choreography the depth and unapologetic sass that characterizes the company these days.  Hyltin's angular and decisive movements challenged the viewer to try to figure out to which part of the complicated Ives music she was responding.  One thing that Haglund appreciates in this piece is how some of the more unique choreographic movements come and go without being repeated endless times to make sure that the audience has picked them up. 

The audience was then tortured with a "See the Music…" presentation that tried and failed to garner appreciation for Charles Wuorinen's derivative (from Ives) score that was commissioned by NYCB for Martins' River of Light.  How smart is it to force an audience to listen twice to music when there's a good chance that they won't even like it once? 

River of Light (1998) utilizes long rectangular piers of light on the stage floor on which each of the three couples enters the stage.  The lighting design culminates with a large circle of light in the middle of the stage for the final choreo-combo for all six dancers.  Savannah Lowery and Amar Ramasar were in black, Erica Pereira and Jonathan Stafford were in white, and Teresa Reichlen and Chase Finlay were in red.  By inserting the tiny Pereira in this cast of tall dancers, it became evident both what her shortcomings are and what Martins' plans for her may be.  It's been difficult to understand why Erica has not been able to shake the immaturity that lies within her presentation.  Her ballet technique has always allowed her to pretty much do any steps required, which is why she is a soloist, but she has continued to present like a student in much of what she dances.  Tonight the question was answered by watching her weak torso try to wrap itself around Martins' modern choreography.  With this observation came the recollection of another dancer who had the exact same problem until about four years ago – that being Sterling Hyltin who used to drive Haglund crazy with her dainty and immature approach to dance.  Then almost overnight the dainty immaturity evolved into a steely, aggressive and spunky brand of movement that is now a joy to watch.  Maybe this will be Erica's path as well, but how much longer will we have to wait?

The dancers in River of Light gave committed performances and there were some interesting choreographic moments, but not enough.  Stafford and Pereira executed some fine lifts in which he seemingly tossed her upward on the diagonal and then suspended her in the air using a single hand on the side of her waist farthest from him.  The piece is worth sitting through just to see those particular lifts.

Barber Violin Concerto (1988) received a fine reading from Ashley Bouder, Sara Mearns, Jared Angle and Ask la Cour.  You'll recall that this piece pairs two ballet dancers with two modern dancers to answer what might come from their various combinations.  Jared and Ashley reprised the roles that originally went to David Parsons and Kate Johnson of Paul Taylor Dance Company.  They were fabulous.  Jared really did look like he could have stepped into PTDC during the Andrew Asnes era, and Ashley's verve and humor kind of reminded Haglund of Mary Cochran. 

Barber Violin Concerto has always seemed like an unfinished dance.  There's a group dance for all four, then a PdD for the ballet couple – beautifully danced last night by Sara and Ask, and finally a PdD for the modern couple.  It ends without any kind of a wrap-up. 

The evening closed with an energetic performance of Fearful Symmetries (1990) to John Adams' score of the same name.  Did Martins borrow a little from Balanchine's Stravinsky Violin Concerto – well, yes.  But his ballet stands on its own and is welcome relief from so much emphasis on PdD and the resulting boredom for the audience.  Here we saw the NYCB dancers flying like we want to see them fly.  The corps and demi-soloists ripped it from the first note of music to the last.

Rebecca Krohn and Adrian Danchig-Waring had terrific debuts as one of the three principal couples:  mega-blasts of energy with finite control.  Tiler Peck & Taylor Stanley and Ashly Isaacs & Anthony Huxley completed the principal cast and blew through the choreography like they were going through a wind tunnel. 

The H.H. Pump Bump Award, combining classic with modern, is bestowed upon Jared Angle and Ashley Bouder for their high-spirited performance in Barber Violin Concerto.