ABT – Washington DC casting alert

The cream has risen to the top for the second night of Les Sylphides in Washington DC next month. According to the Kennedy Center website, the Four-Star cast for Wednesday, April 16th is now:

Veronika Part
Joseph Gorak
Stella Abrera
Sarah Lane Melanie Hamrick (just edited on KC site and now appears on ABT site)

Seeing as Joe is not really tall enough to partner Veronika, it would seem that Stella just may get to do the PdD. She was exquisite in 2005 when dancing the role opposite Marcelo Gomes, and we can expect that she will be even better now. Back then,Tobi Tobias wrote that she "looked windswept, miraculously so" and "Here she took wing, soared, was thrilling. She was weightless and buoyant as gossamer, yet impelled by surging energy. I haven’t seen anything like it in Les Sylphides since the days of Lupe Serrano and Sallie Wilson."

The first evening's casting is:
Hee Seo
Cory Stearns
Stella Abrera
Sarah Lane

 

Comments

[angelica]

Dare we hope for next year in New York?

[Haglund]

No. ABT's best dancers will not get the spotlight while McKenzie and Koch are running ABT. It's that simple.

[angelica]

You make a good point, Haglund. Now that ABT has paired Smirnova and the unexpressive painful-for-me-to-watch Muntagirov in Bayadere, and is having Boylston in the same performance as Tereshkina, I don't even mind that I'll be out of the country that week.

[Haglund]

Well, you won't be getting any reports from me on either performance. Neither Boylston nor Seo should be cast as Gamzatti - especially not when Abrera is getting only one chance and NO CHANCES for a full length LEADING ROLE - the ONLY soloist not getting one. As for Tereshkina, she's a beautiful dancer, but I bought a ticket to see her in Swan Lake in Washington DC and ended up tossing it out because she was removed from the lineup. I'm not going to reward her and ABT for stealing yet another opportunity from a home grown dancer. Her partner, Vladimir Shklyarov, who is designated as one of those hokey "exchange artists," is n.o.t.h.i.n.g. to coo over. And Muntagirov, how did he ever get a return trip ticket? Ambien in ballet shoes.

What's with the "exchange"? It's all such a crock of bull & crap. A guest artist is a guest artist is an import is a job lost by an ABT artist. Call it an exchange, call it a pink elephant, it is what it is - an opportunity lost by an ABT dancer who sincerely deserves it more.

[dc]

This casting is enticing for the second night, except that Simpkin is still in The Dream that night. Can't do it.

[Haglund]

Hi dc. I'll be skipping The Dream in order to make an earlier train back to Gotham City. Simkin was pretty good as Puck although he can't hold a candle to Cornejo. It's Whiteside who is the objection as far as I'm concerned, particularly since he is replacing Stearns who previously did an outstanding job opposite Reyes in The Dream. In some ways, they were better than the other couples, and the time that Stearns spent with Anthony Dowell really paid off. But for the spring season at The Met, Stearns is getting saddled with The Tempest and doesn't get The Dream - although Gomes seems to be able to dance both. Honestly, ABT just can't stop shooting itself in the foot.

[fondoffouettes]

While it would be nice to see Part dance the PdD someday, she took my breath away in the Prelude role last fall. The still, quiet nature of the choreography is made for her and highlights her best qualities, not the least of which is her ability to conjure a Romantic atmosphere with her gorgeous arms. I would be curious to see what Gorak can do as the poet, and I imagine his ever-graceful dancing and noble, Hallberg-esque bearing would suit the role perfectly.

It's a shame to see Abrera featured in fewer roles these days, though I imagine she will be wonderful in Sylphides. With the exception of Murphy, there aren't really any super strong Gamzattis in the company these days. Why not give Stella a role she has danced many times in the past, unless there is a diminished technique we are not aware of?

[Haglund]

Hi, FOF.

True what you say about Part's Prelude. It's another one of her historic interpretations for which there appears to be no filmed performance.

You're right about the Gamzatti situation at ABT. Murphy no longer dances the role, and so there is only one strong & accomplished interpreter of the role, Abrera, who is getting one single performance this year. It is our loss, but that doesn't seem to matter to ABT who keeps pushing more and more unclassical mediocrity down our throats.

[Haglund]

FOF, my mistake above: Murphy is indeed performing Gamzatti once in addition to her role later as Nikiya.