Free kittens from ABT

Anyone who buys a ticket to see ABT's guest artists this week in La Bayadere will receive a FREE KITTEN! Buy two tickets to see the guest artists, get two kittens and a coupon for a bag of litter. Buy three tickets to see the guest artists, get a FREE PONY. That's right, a FREE PONY, and it comes with an ABT brand on its butt. Whinny, whinny, neigh, neigh. It seems that sales are stuck in the stall.

ABT's website chapter on Olga Smirnova is growing and growing. They can't seem to make her pictures big enough. In order to boost their case about why you should run out and buy a ticket to see Smirnova, ABT directs the web visitor to a YouTube bootleg video of her performance in La Bayadere in Russia -- you know, the exact same type of bootleg video that ABT prohibits anyone from making of its own artists during a performance here.

Bootleg videos get a lot of credit for making the big reputations of many, if not most, of the dancers who ABT drags in here and puts on stage in place of the company's own artists. People in theaters around the world take snippets of video of dancers, place them on YouTube, and instantly there is chatter around the globe about these artists. The mainstream media picks up the chatter and before you know it, a reputation is made.

Imagine the recognition that ABT's dancers would have the world over if there were more bootleg videos of Met and fall performances floating around on the internet. The problem is that ABT doesn't want to lose control of the content because in their own shrinking minds they think that they are somehow losing money that could be made selling the videos (which they never would) and are completely blind to the marketing impact that these amateur videos have on the very focused core audience. And yet, they point potential ticketbuyers to bootleg videos when they are trying to sell a freakin' guest artist who can't sell herself or himself.

ABT can't seem to pull itself together enough to put performance videos on its website like nearly every other major company in the world does today. Historical performances of great artists disappear, and that seems to be just fine with ABT.

 

Comments

[J]

Your commentaries just get better and better, Haglund! Absolutely brilliant!

[Diana]

But Haglund, Misty Copeland says that ABT is America's "national company", it's most prestigious company, standing supreme over that sad also-ran, NYCB. It's on a par with the Paris Opera, the Maryinsky, the Royal Danish and the British Royal Ballet.

She wrote it, so it must be true.

Right?

[Haglund]

J, thank you, but I must disclose that the kitty is free clip art with a little embellishment on the rump.

[Genna]

Smirnova gets the same sort of promotion at the Bolshoi. For instance, her photo was on the official promo poster or photo online for the broadcast of Marco Spada, even though she was not featured in the lead role. She is no doubt a promising talent, but she has had help behind the scenes to promote her as the next great prima ballerina in Russia and now it seems here too. Other young talents do not have the benefit of promotion and hype right out of school. Smirnova should count herself lucky that ABT has agreed to be part of this machination. Are ticket sales still sluggish? I would think that a much promoted young dancer such as Smirnova would be a draw. I wonder what Kevin is getting out of this arrangement or if it's Ratmansky's influence. If I were Sarah Lane I'd be seething that a Russian soloist is dancing principal roles at ABT, knowing there's no way for her to break out of Shades solo.

[Haglund]

Diana, I've sent that book to the stacks in the basement to gather appropriate dust.

[Haglund]

Hi Genna.

No, tickets are not selling particularly well. Tomorrow's student rush should help a little bit. Sometimes there are last minute giveaways at studios around town. ABT may find butts for the seats but they won't be paying butts.

That website goo on Smirnova is a hoot. She's obviously a very talented artist, but the hype is making me gag.

[Elizabeth]

Oh how I enjoy your posts! It is a shame that ABT doesn't have a great YouTube channel like most other ballet companies. That really would be so useful in their publicity. NYCB did it right with their web series.

[Genna]

Also, how much of this notion of foreign guests being better, how much of this type of thinking is directly traceable to lazy critics? My opinion is a lot of this fawning over foreign guests start with lazy and uninformed critics and reviewers. They use their clout to perpetuate this stupid notion to fans who believe in reviews, reviews often based upon hype plus regurgitated hyperbole. I think a good critic would not hesitate to take ABT to task as to why no homegrown ballerinas are considered principal material, really all they are fit to dance are Shades? I'm not just talking about A.M. of NYT but other lazy critics who are very public about how excited they are of this current run of LBs featuring guest artists. I see this a lot on twitter and it bugs me that dance criticism today is nothing more than extension of official company press releases.

[Haglund]

Elizabeth, thank you. Yes, NYCB got it right, and they even used in-house talent to make it work. Dancer Kristin Sloan, who unfortunately experienced a lot of lay off time due to injuries, created a lot of NYCB's slickest video media with the strongest messages several years ago. NYCB has so much more respect for its in-house talent than ABT does and it shows in everything that the company does.

[Haglund]

Genna, I agree with you on the effect of lazy critics on the public's perception of guest artists.

I am looking forward to seeing Olga Smirnova dance with her own company when the Bolshoi arrives in July. If she had been the only guest artist during ABT's season, I would have purchased a ticket to her performance, but unfortunately, she is just one of many who ABT wants everyone to perceive are better than the artists from its own ranks.