Haglund's Heel

What we missed.

The Santa Fe National UFO Center was in a whirl of activity on Saturday night as a ghostly light of overwhelming brightness shimmered and hovered in the skies over the city. Scientists ran outside hoping to catch traces of the long, wispy angel hair that has been known to fall from the skies after such sightings. Truth be told, the brilliant star was Stella Abrera as Giselle dancing the famous PdD opposite Sascha Radetsky as part of a performance by the Stars of American Ballet – a group conceived, produced, and directed by NYCB's Daniel Ulbricht. Those of us most wanting to see this dancer in the role that we have always known would catapult her career missed it all. But we can be grateful that there was a bonefide eyewitness who has filed reports with H.H. and on Twitter.

Click on the image to enlarge and clarify.

Why oh why oh why don't the best artists at ABT get to perform on stage in the roles they were destined to dance?  Abrera = the lilies, we all know that. ABT should clean out that tired, coasting Giselle crew and give us the company's own wonderful artists:  Abrera, Kajiya, Lane, Murphy, and Part.

We are grateful to Daniel Ulbricht for putting these opportunities together for all of the fine dancers in his group. Reports are that the Santa Fe crowd understood and appreciated all that they saw over the weekend including a fine NYCB/ABT combined cast for Robbins' Fancy Free. Wouldn't New York love to see more inter-company casts of Fancy Free?  Why is that so hard to arrange?

NYCB's fall season opens September 17th. Don't miss the Black & White programs, Prodigal Son, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, and all that the season offers.

 

Джозеф Филлипс - remember this name

Джозеф Филлипс, aka ABT's Joseph Phillips, has joined the brand new State Primorsky Opera and Ballet in Vladivostok, Russia which is on the S.E. seaside about 1½ hours flight from Tokyo and a few hundred miles from the North Korean border.  ITAR-TASS in Moscow reported it yesterday with a big headline. Here's the Google translator's version:

August 23 17:53, Friday - Last updated at 17:39 GMT

Moscow |

08/22/2013 4:53 Culture

The famous American dancer Joseph Phillips will work in Seaside Theatre of Opera and Ballet

Photo ITAR-TASS/Ruslan Shamukov

VLADIVOSTOK, August 22. / Correspondent. Itar-Tass Schatiloff /. The famous American dancer Joseph Phillips will work with the ballet company of Primorsky Opera and Ballet Theatre. Invitation to the new theater he received during the competition show, which took place yesterday in Moscow.

As told Itar-Tass administrator Theatre, Media Relations Oksana Gorbatenko, Joseph of awards - a gold medal at the American International Ballet Competition in Jackson. In 2006 he had the honor to light the Olympic torch at the International Ballet Competition in the United States. Now Joseph Phillips is an artist of the American Ballet Theatre. It is assumed that the dancer will be involved in the first production of the ballet theater, which will be the ballet "Les Sylphides" to the music of Chopin, choreographed by Michel Fokine.

In the ballet troupe will dance artists from seven countries: Russia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, the U.S., Brazil, Romania and Japan.

The first ballet premiere will take place before the end of the year. In terms of a new repertory theater, the grand opening is planned for September, and the ballets "Swan Lake" and "Carmen."

Opera and Ballet Theatre in Vladivostok - the second in the Far East. In the theater, there will be two rooms. Large - by 1.5 thousand people. The auditorium is designed in the shape of a horseshoe. The orchestra pit can accommodate up to 95 musicians. Small hall with a stage and seating transforming multi-purpose 300 seats. Currently, the construction has been completed, go to the last finishing works, landscaping and installation of equipment.

At the same time formed a creative team. Already fully recruited orchestra. Sixteen singers from Vladivostok, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Belgorod and Khabarovsk, as well as Ukraine joined the opera company and soon will begin rehearsals for the opera "Eugene Onegin", which will open on October 18 the first season of the theater.

Pretty cool, isn't it? Some have commented that The State Primorsky Opera and Ballet's brand new theater is nicer looking than the Mariinsky 2.  Here's a construction pic:

Construction photo:

 

Another construction photo:

The inaugural general artistic director and chief conductor of the theater is the very young Anton Lubchenko who was appointed last January. He already has a little bit of ballet conducting experience including an appearance with the National Ballet of Canada.  He's out of the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory and was invited by Gergiev to apprentice-conduct at the Mariinsky.

This is a fantastic move for Phillips, who is one of the many under-used talents at ABT where the hopelessly inadequate director continues to waste and demoralize the company's homegrown talent.  We'll miss seeing Phillips on the stage, but we will be following his career for a long time to come. Here's hoping that he makes it easy for us by keeping his website up to date with lots of videos. The theater has registered an English language website but has not uploaded any content yet.  That's understandable; they're very busy.

Congratulations to Joseph Phillips.

observations 8/19

Renewal letters for Society NYCB (aka 4th Ring Society) will be mailed out this week according to the theater box office. The agent was quick to add that there was no price increase. That is, the membership is still $20. But as most of us know, the "facility fee" has been raised to $3 per ticket, which now will represent a 20% charge for members. Kind of an excessive burden for the most loyal audience, isn't it?  A local Haglund'eeler let us know that last week she was able to renew her membership over the phone. 

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ABT's tickets for Alexei Ratmansky's Nutcracker at BAM go on sale today. There are several must-see casts this year. Most notably, Jared Matthews and Yuriko Kayjia finally get paired up. It was totally worth the trips up to Westport, Connecticut last year to see them perform together in a local Nutcracker production and to Chicago to see their Giselle. It's hard to watch them without asking yourself Why aren't these two glorious, homegrown artists principals? 

Anyone who even loosely follows ABT does not want to miss an opportunity to see Eric Tamm as the Prince opposite Gillian Murphy's Clara. They were fabulous together in 2011 when Eric had his stunning debut.  He's homegrown, too, but his elegant and gallant manner make him look like he is straight out of the Royal Ballet soloist ranks.  Maybe that's why the Ashton stagers favor him. Here's hoping for a Tamm/Abrera pairing for Ashton's Cinderella this spring.

Lucky for us, Sarah Lane and Joe Gorak are paired up again. Last time around, their performances were hindered because of Gorak's injuries in both feet. This is an ideal match-up of artists. Knock-on-wood for both to be 100% this December. Once again, you'll be asking yourself why these two world-class homegrown artists are only soloist and corps.

Finally, when was the last time any of us got to see Veronika Part and Marcelo Gomes paired up for three performances over nine days? The needle on the H.H. Paranoia Indicator is nervously fasciculating at the possibility that maybe this generosity in the casting is a setup for a horrible spring in which we may not see them together at all. Haglund is going to grab tickets to their three Nutcracker performances and stick them under his pillow before the week is out and continue to pray on his knees each night for a Veronika/Marcelo Swan Lake next spring.

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Meanwhile, Stella Abrera and Sascha Radetsky are touring around the west as part of Daniel Ulbricht's Stars of American Ballet troupe. Tiler Peck, Robert Fairchild, Rebecca Krohn, Lauren Lovette, and Jared Angle are on the tour as well. Haglund is watching the news on this group very carefully, because when it gets to Santa Fe this weekend, someone is dancing the PdD from Giselle. The H.H. Gisellemobile is in the shop undergoing extensive maintenance; otherwise, we'd be on the road to Santa Fe in a heartbeat.

 

Joyce Theater's Ballet v6.0 FestivalBalletCollective – 8/14

Impulse is the mischief in the creation of art because it's so much more attractive to the artist than discipline, honed craftsmanship, and clarity of purpose.  In BalletCollective's presentation at the Joyce Theater of The Impulse Wants Company, a new work choreographed by Director/Resident Choreographer Troy Schumacher, those were the three elements missing.  The company's media talking point that the ballet was created in just ten days signaled a departure from the group's original and admirable artistic method of slow-simmering its creations, workshopping them in Michigan, and revising them before presentation on the New York stage. 

The Impulse Wants Company seemed like a beach romp interrupted by serious solos that didn't really convey the reasons for all the dramatic contemplation.  A poem by Cynthia Zarin apparently was part of the collaboration and was inserted in the Playbill.  Whether or not it helped the dance product can't be said.  Choreographic looseness and dependence on pedestrian-style movements to link the piece's important moments now seem to be the company's adopted style.  Regardless of the choreography, it was, as always, a pleasure to see this collection of dancers in whatever it was they were doing.  And with the addition of Kaitlyn Gilliland, a much admired NYCB corps dancer who retired after only a few seasons, it wouldn't matter if the dancers were riding blue Citi Bikes around on the stage – Haglund would still want to see them.

A revised version of an earlier work, Epistasis, comprised the last half of the evening and included the strongest choreography.  The solo originally danced by Teresa Reichlen was superbly performed by Kaitlyn Gilliland, a dancer of similar goddess-like qualities and wingspan.  Having seen the original work just twice, it was hard for Haglund to determine what had been revised, but the whole piece seemed to better convey the concept of epistasis, which in genetic science is the concept of how genes are modified by other genes. Individual dancers would set off movement in others to create a choreographic chain reaction that grew into energetic ensemble work.  Taylor Stanley and Lauren King reprised their intriguing solos and along with Ashley Laracey made the case for being three of the more interesting dance/actors on the New York stages today.  Among the group of eight NYCB dancers promoted to soloist by Peter Martins last winter, all three of them can command attention even when they are standing perfectly still. Stanley, in particular, has a gripping stage presence of such magnetic force that you wished he'd never left the stage during the performance. 

David Prottas, Meagan Mann, and Harrison Coll rounded out the cast and contributed as equals to the other artists.  Prottas' taxing solo in Epistasis was a huge dose of grand allegro marked by impressive thrust and speed.

The American Contemporary Music Ensemble performed the music by composer Ellis Ludwig-Leone for Impulse and by composers Nick Jaina, Nathan Langston, Amanda Lawrence, and David Moss for Epistasis.

Since BalletCollective is such a collaborative project, and since it's hard to say that anyone's performance stood above all others', Haglund will bestow this Pump Bump Award on the entire ensemble. 

Editor's note:

BalletCollective's Director Troy Schumacher dropped us a note to clarify that he'd been working on Impulse in bits and pieces since November 2012, and that the "10 day" reference made by the company was about being able to put together and clarify what had been worked on and for Troy to choreograph the bulk of the piece before a private workshop in NYC in June. 

 

Livestream - Julio Bocca's BNS Swan Lake

The FB page Julio Bocca en Uruguay has provided two online links for viewing Ballet Nacional Sodre's Swan Lake live national television presentation this Friday night (8/16) and repeated on Saturday.  Maria Riccetto will dance Odette/Odile and Ciro Tamayo will portray Prince Siegfried.  As we know from past experience, sometimes these livestream connections work in the U.S. and sometimes they don't.

For Friday night 8pm Montevideo time (7pm New York):

http://www.adinettv.com.uy/canal/69

For Saturday night 9pm Montevideo time (8pm New York):

  http://www.adinettv.com.uy/canal/68

The FB page is not the official BNS page but is maintained by one of Julio's greatest admirers. It includes up-to-date info, great pictures, and links that document the fantastic job that Julio is doing with the company in Uruguay. BNS recently revived its own FB page, but we're glad that Julio Bocca en Uruguay is still functioning.  (Maybe we should say that in our very best Spanish – tap, tap, tap www.translate.goog......)

Hola, Ro! Tu página de FB es fantástico. Sigue así. Por cierto, hay un rumor de que Julio está trayendo Ballet Nacional Sodre al Lincoln Center de Nueva York el próximo año. ¿Sabe algo de eso? Si usted desea viajar con ellos, usted es siempre bienvenido a dormir en mi sofá.

Apparently there were issues with the scrappy musicians' union in Montevideo which caused Julio to make a late decision to proceed without live music.  Even after offering refunds to ticketbuyers who might be disappointed, BNS's performances are still sold-out. Uruguay loves Julio. Don't we all.

 

observations 8/13

Here's a beautiful obituary for David Howard from the U.K. publication The Telegraph.  Today Haglund has been remembering David's wry sense of humor that tended to clarify the problems before him rather quickly, e.g., "I suggest you finish your beats before you land" and "I said e-paule-ment, not a-ppal-ing." He will be missed.

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The Royal New Zealand Ballet's movie Giselle, starring Gillian Murphy and Qi Huan, has been chosen to be screened at the Toronto International Film Festival September 5-15.

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Diana Vishneva stars in AllyCat the Ballet Cat, a new children's video that you can purchase here for $16.75.  Click on the image to enlarge.

 

David Howard RIP

David Howard, the extraordinary and beloved ballet teacher who guided so many along the honest path of true classicism, has followed his pattern of energy to its ultimate plane. 

Never employing gimmicks or fads and not one to mince words for someone who might not be paying attention in class or one who displayed an exaggerated sense of self – he could always be counted on for the type of honesty that made a dancer's excuses evaporate. He was a giant guardian of the classical art form. So many dancers owe him so much.

Rest in peace, David Howard.

Ballet Nacional del Sodre Swan Lake premiere

Listen to this incredible ovation that Julio Bocca's Ballet Nacional del Sodre received last night at the premiere of its new and completely sold-out Swan Lake. Listen to the roar when principals Maria Riccetto and Ciro Tamayo came out and then again when Julio presented the flowers to Maria. God bless Julio for bringing Maria's Odette to the stage and accomplishing what Kevin McKenzie wouldn't even lift a finger to try to do. 

Thanks to Ro Gutiérrez for the clip. 

observations 8/8

Baritone Thomas Hampson will join the Paul Taylor Dance Company in performances at Lincoln Center during the company's 60th Anniversary Celebration which runs from March 12 through March 30.  Mr. Taylor's new creation American Dreamer will have its New York premiere and is set to songs by Stephen Foster which Hampson will sing.  During his stint with PTDC, Hampson will also be moonlighting over at the Met Opera in the title role of Wozzeck opposite Deborah Voigt.

PTDC is planning a special Taylor Alumni Weekend on March 22-23.  Many favorites are on the schedule this spring including Airs and Piazzolla Caldera. Tickets to the general public go on sale on September 16th. You can order earlier if you're a donor.
 

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Maria Riccetto debuts in Swan Lake tonight with Julio Bocca's Ballet Nacional del Sodre in Uruguay.  All 20,000 seats for the performances from August 8-21 have been sold out and so next Friday night's performance (8/16) will be televised live on TV Ciudad and then again nationally on Saturday night on Television Nacional de Uruguay (TNU). 

Julio has given serious ballet fever to all of Montevideo which has become wild to see whatever his company puts on stage. Twenty thousand tickets to Swan Lake sold in a city of 1.3 million is impressive considering that ABT cannot sell 30 thousand tickets to Swan Lake in a city of 8+ million. And then to negotiate to have it broadcast nationally – twice – is kind of hard to beat, wouldn't you say? Imagine how great it must be to work for Julio.  Imagine learning Romeo, Basilio, Siegfried, and Albrecht from Julio.

 

RNZB – Official trailer for the movie Giselle

Check this out. 

There seems to be a lot to look forward to here – not necessarily Giselle's NYC subway ride – but the Peasant PdD looks intriguing and the Wilis look gorgeous.  Apparently Albrecht performs the entrechat sixes in Act II instead of the dramatic diagonal of brises that AD Ethan Stiefel made so desperate and heroic when he danced the role with ABT.  Note how easily Albrecht lifts Giselle over his head.

Hopefully, the folks at Rialto Distribution will release this film in the U.S. soon.