Haglund's Heel

RNZB – Giselle, the movie

On the eve of the premiere of the movie, Giselle, at the New Zealand International Film Festival, film director Toa Frazer spoke with The New Zealand Herald.  The film clips shown with the 11 minute interview are generating considerable excitement here at H.H.  Gillian Murphy looks mighty fine in the title role.

 

RNZB will bring a rep program to the Joyce Theater February 12th through the 16th.

And here's hoping for a complete clean-out of ABT's Giselle casting for the 2014 Met Season.  We need to see Murphy, Abrera, Kajiya, Lane, and Part (with Forster)  in the title role.  We've been gypped long enough.

observations 7/24

Maria Riccetto will dance Odette/Odile in four performances in a span of two weeks – including her career debut on opening night – when Julio Bocca's Ballet Nacional del Sodre premieres its Swan Lake August 8-21 in Montevideo. Maria's long, thin, and very graceful arms, expressive classical hands, long neck, and pure lines are going to make a stunning swan. Her Prince Siegfried will be the young and very charismatic Ciro Tamayo who was James to Maria's Sylphide earlier this year. Wow, four Swan Lakes in two weeks time. That's about 6-8 years of Swan Lakes for a ballerina at ABT thanks to all the guest artists and imports who poach performances.

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Simone Messmer will debut with the San Francisco Ballet on July 28th at the Stern Grove Festival.  She will dance the "German" section in Alexei Ratmansky's From Foreign Lands.  Her partners will be Shane Wuerthner, Luke Ingham, and Myles Thatcher.  She will also perform as part of the ensemble in the "Polish" section.

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Jesus Chapa-Malacara has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the production of his new book Esprit de Corps – A Ballet Photography Book.  The dancer participants include Michaela DePrince, Jared Matthews, Yuriko Kajiya, James Whiteside, Sterling Baca, Elina Miettinen, Sean Stewart, Cassandra Trenary, Patrick Yocum with more participants expected to sign on for the project.

 

Shane Wuerthner, Luke Ingham, Myles Thatcher

Shane Wuerthner, Luke Ingham, Myles Thatcher

Shane Wuerthner, Luke Ingham, Myles Thatcher

Shane Wuerthner, Luke Ingham, Myles Thatcher

Shane Wuerthner, Luke Ingham, Myles Thatcher

Shane Wuerthner, Luke Ingham, Myles Thatcher

Stella Abrera is the headline

Click on the article to enlarge and clarify.  Here is the full piece in the San Francisco Classical Voice.

Promote this dancer to principal without further delay and give us her Giselle.

 

Евгения Образцова, Дэвид Холберг - Онегин 7

... and most everything that came before it is close by this link if you look carefully and quickly.  Thanks to Светлана storming out of the Онегин  production, Дэвид may have found his career-defining partner in the beautiful Mariinsky ballerina Евгения who happens to look a little like Renée Fleming, another great Tatiana. He still has theatrical improvements to make, but they look very good together.

The dance gods work in strange ways.

 

RNZB – Petipa classics rockin' the island

It seems that the Saturday night Swan Lake performance in Wellington by Gillian Murphy and PNB's Karel Cruz coinciding with that evening's world premiere of RNZB's movie Giselle in Auckland where artistic director Ethan Stiefel and movie director Toa Frasier were taking bows may have been a little too much excitement for the Petipa gods.  Shortly thereafter, Wellington got a good shake from a 6.5 earthquake whose epicenter was only about 35 miles off shore.  Thankfully there were only a few injuries but there was significant busted glass and possible damage to infrastructure.  The area has experienced a flurry of small quakes in recent days.

A quick survey of online performance reports indicates that both Swan Lake and the new movie Giselle are megahits.  Tickets for RNZB's visit to the Joyce Theater February 12-16 are on sale now.

 

Saratoga Performing Arts CenterNational Ballet of Canada – Giselle 7/18 mat

Neither sweltering 95 degree temperatures nor dangerous dew points would stay this Giselleophile from his appointed rounds in Saratoga Springs where on Thursday afternoon the National Ballet of Canada presented its matinee performance – outdoors. The audience that braved the stifling heat was predominantly groups of senior citizens and a small group of youngsters. An elderly couple even brought their little certified therapy dog with them along with her little certified therapy water dish. Tail translation: the pooch was feeling privileged if not smug for having gotten in without a ticket. 

Manned golf carts branded with hospital insignia stood by at the top of the hill overlooking the amphitheater in case any of the old folks went into heat-related distress. Not only did none of the old folks wimp out in the heat, but they were the first to leap to their feet two hours later with a cheering ovation for the performers.

The performance began with the fetching former ballerina and current artistic director Karen Kain appearing before the curtain to thank everyone for coming out in the dreadful heat for the afternoon performance. Ms. Kain now qualifies as a senior citizen herself, but she looked like she could have strapped on a pair of pointe shoes and twirled out a Spessivtseva variation with no problem. We all should age so gracefully.

The National presented Peter Wright's production of Giselle which is still today danced by several companies worldwide. It's not one of Haglund's favorite productions of his favorite ballet mostly because of the inert reading of Albrecht, the insignificant entrance and departure of Giselle, and the transformation of the Peasant PdD to a PdQ with some of the most challenging aspects deleted. The company's dancers are worthy of an upgrade.

Back in the 1960s when Balanchine suggested the stage specs for the SPAC amphitheater, he probably never envisioned that an elaborate production of a fussy Petipa classic would be presented there. The stage lacks the kind of depth that is required to accommodate long lines of Wilis with accompanying scenery while still leaving space for the principals to bound around. It looked a little cramped, but everyone managed to adapt.

Principal dancer Jillian Vanstone was an exceptional Giselle in the afternoon and was reminiscent of Ms. Kain in aplomb and wonderfully centered technique. As the village girl in Act I, she combined qualities of sweetness and naïveté without degenerating into little girlness. The elements of her variations – pique arabesque penche, hops on pointe, balances, pique turns – were all tossed off easily and joyously.  Her mad scene was intensely captivating without the use of Osipova-like histrionics. So emotionally stirring were her Act II series of rapid entrechat quatre followed by the slow aching beauty of her arched arabesques that sniffles could be heard in the audience. Every moment that Vanstone was on stage was pure pleasure to watch.

Albrecht was danced by First Soloist Naoya Ebe, and here is where Karen Kain has her work cut out for her. Ebe very recently debuted as Albrecht; Thursday probably wasn't more than his second or third time in the role. From the waist down, he was a technical marvel: beautiful legs and feet with immaculate lines.  Pirouettes were impressive. Beats were okay. His lifts of Giselle were awesome. But from the waist up, nothing – literally nothing – registered. Albrecht was a complete blank: correctness without nobility, mime gesturing without any import or weight. In the Wright production, Albrecht doesn't have much character in the first place; but Ebe's Albrecht had none at all.

After a few shaking arms in her first arabesques promenade/penche, First Soloist Stephanie Hutchison delivered a mighty Myrtha full of revenge and determination. The shallow stage limited the size and scope of her grand jetes, but she was still able to convey a grand authority.  Myrtha's fierce attendants Moyna and Zulme were danced by Tina Pereira and Stacey Shiori Minagawa. 

First soloist Etienne Lavigne's Hilarion was a character toward whom the audience had to feel ambivalent.  One moment he was eliciting sympathy while appearing to be the right guy for Giselle.  The next moment, his angry, dark side emerged. Haglund wasn't so sad to see this Hilarion go into the drink.

The Corps de Ballet was uniformly excellent in all respects in both acts. Their feet were supple. Arabesque lines were strong. Port de bras was lovely. Everyone was engaged theatrically.

The National Ballet of Canada Orchestra conducted by David Briskin, who conducted for ABT for many years, sounded rich and forceful and was occasionally supplemented by the buzzing of nearby cicadas.

While it was very thoughtful of Karen Kain to come out beforehand to thank the audience for braving the dangerous heat to see the performance, Haglund thinks that we owe thanks to the dancers for performing under such strenuous conditions.  Hopefully, they'll stop by Saratoga Springs again soon.

The HH Pump Bump Award, a flaming hot Prada wedge-stiletto, is bestowed upon Jillian Vanstone for her beautiful interpretation of Giselle.

The aluminum ballerina

The winning sculptures from the 2013-2014 Model to Monument competition have been installed along Riverside Park South.  The competition is into the third year of a five year partnership between The Art Students League of New York and the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation to train artists to produce work for public spaces.

This beauty was created from formed aluminum by artist John N. Erianne and is entitled A Frolicking Stray.  She will balance en pointe over the water at about 62nd Street and the Hudson River through May 2014.

Click on each picture to enlarge.

Here's a map for this year's winners.

 

observations 7/15

Former NYCB principal Charles Askegard has been appointed Associate Artistic Director at Minnesota Dance Theatre in Minneapolis.  The company which was founded back in the '60s by Loyce Houlton is now directed by her daughter, Lise Houlton, who used to dance with the Stuttgart Ballet and ABT.  Charles' affiliation with BalletNext appears to have ended – at least on its website.

This is such a great opportunity for Charles to return to the company and school where he got his start.  And Minneapolis is an idyllic land in which to live if you're an artist or happen to love extreme winter weather.  Haglund has plenty of cold and snow stories from his dozen years living there. He hopes to have a good reason to return for a couple of days in March/April when ABT presents Giselle at the State Theater – that is, if some well-deserved, long delayed debuts are on the schedule.  Fingers crossed.

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The Paris Opera Ballet's 2013-2014 season includes a rep program of Miss Julie and Fall River Legend – an evening of razors, axes, and brutality.  Is the outgoing AD sending a subliminal message to the incoming AD?

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The music of Jean Sibelius' The Tempest is quite beautiful but not nearly as danceable as Tchaikovsky's version, which is equally stirring.

Here's hoping that the new ballet by Alexei Ratmansky which will premiere during ABT's fall season will be a lot more than the Ariel character hopping around like Puck in a different headpiece.

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NYCB single tickets go on sale on August 5th.  If anybody out there has even the slightest little inkling as to which Swan Lake will be Ana Sophia Scheller's debut, Haglund would appreciate hearing about it.  That first week of NYCB coincides with not only Roberto Bolle's gala at City Center but also the Royal Ballet's Edward Watson at the Joyce Theater in Metamorphosis.  It's going to be a very tough week for devoted balletomanes to schedule.  Maybe NYCB will help us all out by posting casting a bit early – but let's not count on that.

 

ABT – From the LA Times

LA Times staff photographer Lawrence K. Ho got some good shots of many of our favorite dancers. Go to the lukewarm LA Times review for lots more pix.

Stella Abrera and Eric Tamm in Symphony in C

Veronika Part and Thomas Forster in Symphony in C

WOW Eric Tamm

Green out of the blue

Who doesn't like to end the week with extra money? 

Thanks to today's unexpected and very handsome premium refund check from Aetna, Haglund's back pocket had some extra padding in it for about 25 minutes – which was all the time it took to get out of the bank and then down the 8th Avenue sidewalk through the cranky pedestrian masses to the Joyce Theater box office.

There's dance to be had in this here city in August.  From August 6th through August 17th, the Joyce Theater will present Ballet v6.0, a festival "to recognize the many dancers and choreographers who are creating work outside the traditional large company milieu and are forming their own small companies."  There will be a total of six companies presenting works including BalletCollective and Jessica Lang Dance, both of whom are debuting at the Joyce.

BalletCollective is the company formerly known as the Satellite Ballet and Collective which has given inventive performances around town in the past couple of years.  Troy Schumacher of NYCB is the group's choreographer and most of the dancers are usually from NYCB.  The highly collaborative artistic product always includes original music and digital artwork. From the Joyce Theater's page on BalletCollective:

The program includes a world premiere collaboration between Schumacher, composer Ellis Ludwig-Leone, poet Cynthia Zarin, and new music ensemble ACME, as well as a revised version of the company’s Epistasis (2012).

BalletCollective has two nights at the Joyce Theater – August 14th and 15th.

Although Jessica Lang has been working very successfully as a choreographer in our midst for many years, Jessica Lang Dance is only about two years old.  The performances on August 16th and 17th will mark the company's Joyce debut.  Members include the charismatic former Ailey dancer Clifton Brown.  From the Joyce website:

Live music adds a rich layer to the first of two NY premieres, From Foreign Lands and People, an elegant, comical ballet set to Schumann’s Kinderszenen Opus 15, while i.n.k. incorporates visual artist Shinichi Maruyama’s video projections and an original score created from liquid sounds by Jakub Ciupinski.

In Lang's works, the sets and costumes are never just sets and costumes.  They're always fully integrated into the choreography with refreshing originality.

So, take a look at what's going on at the Joyce in August.