Haglund doesn’t usually engage in year-end evaluations or those best/worst lists that are meaningless, yet so popular. But he does always reflect on the out-going year like many people do.
This year while lounging in the new executive offices on the remote Wild West Side and peering out over Hell’s Kitchen into Midtown Manhattan (see below) ––
–– he realized that 2013 had been a bit meh in terms of ballet. Maybe meh is a little unfair. We had our fair share of spectacular ballet moments here, most of which were provided by New York City Ballet. But in 2013 Lincoln Center Festival let us down by failing to include a major classical ballet company in its line-up, and ABT continually disappointed for all the reasons regularly recorded in this blog. We didn’t see the Mariinsky, Bolshoi, Royal Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet or any major classical company visit New York City. National Ballet of Canada brought its Giselle to Saratoga but not here. San Francisco Ballet stopped by with a mostly contemporary program and an exceptional Suite en Blanc, but we didn’t really get to see the company use its classical or neo-classical chops in a major way.
So if the year wasn’t loaded with highlights, what saved it from being a disappointment? Interestingly enough, what saved the year for Haglund were a couple of revelatory performances in different mediocre productions of the same classical ballet.
NYCB’s Ana Sophia Scheller in Peter Martins’ production of Sleeping Beauty and ABT’s Sarah Lane in the McKenzie/Kirkland production gave defining performances – crowning achievements in which they established themselves as major Petipa ballerinas worthy of any ballet stage in the world. To his credit, Martins clearly recognizes and appreciates Ana’s gifts and is providing her with opportunities that have allowed her to mature at a sensible pace. To his discredit, McKenzie has shown little more than contempt for Sarah’s talent, maturity, determination, strive for perfection, and unwillingness to discount herself while he wastes his own time on homely utility dancers who he hopes will somehow save his miserable, dwindling legacy. That Sarah was able to deliver such an incredible Sleeping Beauty performance with a subpar partner who couldn’t stop himself from knocking her off balance or messing up her pirouettes is further proof of her steely resolve not to lose focus on her path.
Nearly equal to these Sleeping Beauty performances were Ana Sophia Scheller and Stella Abrera in their respective company’s 1st Movement of Balanchine’s Symphony in C. They each were so right, so full of understanding in how to deliver the choreography, and technically and artistically prepared to the maximum. Each unquestionably represented the heritage of her company, and yet, it would have been so easy to see each artist succeeding in the other one’s company. As with Sarah, McKenzie wants us to forget about Stella and focus on his homely and inept substitutes that he ushers around promoting as ABT’s dismal future while the burning heart and soul of ABT’s bright future (Abrera, Lane, Kajiya, Matthews) are slowly snuffed out.
After reading Alastair Macaulay’s latest fictional account of certain ABT performances, it’s apparent that The New York Times has more journalistic credibility problems than just those related to Dasani. Macaulay doesn’t seem to let the facts get in the way of the picture he wants to present. His criticism of Sarah Lane as not being able to sustain lead roles or that she allowed the audience to know that her Sleeping Beauty performance wasn’t going the way she hoped is rubbish and unsubstantiated. His comment that "clouds occasionally passed over her charm” – honest to god, did that really get past a sober editor and go to print in The New York Times? His compliments directed toward Joseph Gorak's and James Whiteside's partnering in this year’s Nutcracker are absurd considering each failed miserably from a technical standpoint. Gorak had to abort completely a less than difficult lift in the Snow PdD and showed great difficulty with most others. It was not an acceptable performance – for whatever reason – and he was replaced by Jared Matthews in his second scheduled performance.
Maybe Macaulay sat too far back in the balcony for these performances or perhaps after four years he hasn’t yet been able to pick up enough of the choreography to know whether or not the dancers are completing their assignments. To be so factually mistaken about what occurred in performances and then misleading so as to create a false record makes the gray lady yellow beyond jaundice.
Happy New Year, Everyone!
Thank you, Haglund, for this year-end summation. Since you have tactfully sidestepped documenting the "worst" of 2013, I will gladly step in to carry that torch.
The absolute worst of the worst was the promotion of James Whiteside to principal dancer. He is so far below ABT principal caliber that it is sickening to see his name in large capital letters on the roster. Oddly, members of a certain ballet online forum seem to react positively to his performances, as does Alastair Macaulay, which makes me wonder about the future of classical ballet. Speaking of torches, if Whiteside is allowed to carry the torch for classical ballet in America, the same torch that Hallberg appears to have cast aside in the ill-advised interest of reinventing himself as a powerful, large-muscled Russian dancer, I'm afraid that an entire generation of dancers such as Matthews, Forster, and Tamm will be overlooked and unappreciated. Or perhaps they will decamp, as did Joseph Phillips, to far away places where ballet is still considered a high art form.
Another worst is to see the magnificent performance of Sarah Lane in Sleeping Beauty documented for all posterity on the Times's web site as one that didn't measure up. I can't imagine what Macaulay thinks he saw as a cloud passing over Sarah's face, but it certainly wasn't the joy she radiated as she confidently did a sequence of triple pirouettes as well as executed other Petipa land mines with far more ease and eloquence than a certain other ballerina who has recently caught the AD's eye.
Last but not least, I am completely in agreement that perhaps the saddest of all was the absence of Stella Abrera from any meaningful leading roles in the spring season. I'm tired of her playing second fiddle to various lesser dancers while she deserves the concertmaster's chair. You have been my voice in the public arena where Stella is concerned, and I need say no more, only that we must never give up hope. She is a diamond in ABT's crown.
Posted by: angelica | January 03, 2014 at 04:13 PM
Happy New year to you Haglund, I've really enjoyed your blog and look forward to reading your future articles.
Roll on 2014
Frank
Posted by: Frank Forster | January 03, 2014 at 07:28 PM
Frank, thanks much for reading H.H. and Happy New Year to you, too.
Haglund
Posted by: Haglund | January 03, 2014 at 09:15 PM
Thanks, Angelica, for "highlighting" the worst of 2013. I agree with you. 2014 is already slated to be worse than 2013 with the emetic casting of Whiteside and Isabella Boylston in Giselle while ABT's true Giselles and Albrechts sit out the year once again -- the main point being that we, the audience, will be denied the best that ABT has to offer while being offered riffraff as a substitute. It is hard to think of two dancers at ABT who are worse choices for the principal roles in Giselle. They'll look like Popeye and Olive Oyl and turn the greatest ballet ever made into a freakish cartoon. McKenzie may be hell-bent on shoving homely dancing down the audience's throat, but the collective regurgitation may hit him back in the face.
Posted by: Haglund | January 03, 2014 at 09:55 PM
Happy New Year and I look forward to your posts in 2014. Kent
Posted by: Kent Becker | January 03, 2014 at 11:35 PM
Thanks, Kent. Happy New Year to you, too. I look forward to seeing many more of your great photos in the coming year:
http://www.notmydayjobphotography.com/browse
Haglund
Posted by: Haglund | January 04, 2014 at 08:15 AM
Love your posts! Happy New Year!!
Posted by: J | January 04, 2014 at 12:44 PM
Great photos, Kent! Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: angelica | January 04, 2014 at 03:41 PM
Happy New Year, J, and thanks for reading H.H.
Posted by: Haglund | January 04, 2014 at 07:28 PM
Here's to a new year to be filled with more inspiring performances and deserving promotions (or at least deserving attentions). I have hope that this year ABT will have a mini revolt within its soloist ranks, we already saw some publicly speak up about unfairness of not even given chances to prove themselves. All due to Kevin's love of sloppy imports or in one disturbing case, a wannabe, s&m porn star.
Hopefully this is the year Julie Kent gracefully bows out (3 seasons too late), and lends her clout to support Sarah and Stella. Also hoping Macaulay actually goes to see performances he reviews instead of imagining weird stuff in his head. Also hoping he actually attains some semblance of taste instead of praising the likes of Osipova as greatest ballerina alive. Also hoping NYCB tones down some of its female soloists' tendencies for "jazz hands/ arms", I saw too much of that recently, or maybe it's just gotten too out of hand (pardon the pun) and I'm noticing it more.
Posted by: Genna | January 05, 2014 at 09:07 PM
Happy New Year, Genna. Your wishes are mine, too.
Posted by: Haglund | January 06, 2014 at 07:29 AM