Real men wear pink gloves. And plenty of Wildroot cream-oil on the hair. "It has a subtle talc scent that blends well with other manly smells,” you may recall.
Both were important tools for Herman Cornejo’s Peruvian who was trying to win the most beautiful and seductive French glove seller this side of St. Petersburg in last night's Gaite Parisienne. But alas, pink gloves were no match for the much taller baron's pink jacket. In a blink of the pink, the baron had the glove seller wrapped up more artfully than Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrap air – at least for this evening. Tomorrow the game would start anew.
Along with Veronika Part (the glove seller), Cory Stearns (the baron), and a high stepping, high kicking cast of players, Cornejo breathed life into ABT’s fall season that has been suffocating from poor taste, bad judgment, and loosely focused dancing. He was as oily as the best of them – Johan Renvall, Julio Bocca, Gil Boggs – and sported an over-confidence that marked him as a loser the moment he appeared, like Groucho Marx crouched over chasing after Marilyn Monroe. Veronika’s glove seller was fizzy like a fox, selling everything she had to anyone willing to buy. To be sure, she would always get more out of every deal than she had to give out. A single, unshielded glance at those gorgeous, perfectly formed legs in an attitude with plenty of French attitude, and the looker was under her control.
Joseph Gorak stepped in for Eric Tamm as the Dancing Master and let rip some Plisetskayas to the back of the head in an overall outstanding performance. Joe should dance himself over to BAM to speak with the Mariinsky in January and then bolt from ABT without looking back.
The evening opened with Raymonda Divertissements that still lacked polish as it did on opening night. Hee Seo didn't do anything more with Raymonda than Julie Kent might be able to do with it these days, and frankly, that isn’t nearly enough. While we wouldn’t in a million years expect a performance on the order of Oleysa Novikova, we do expect some sense of regal and royalty. Dropping the chin and grinning doesn’t accomplish much. One wonders why the most difficult solo variation of Raymonda’s was not danced by Raymonda, but instead was assigned to a soloist. Was it because the first-cast Raymonda doesn’t possess the technical chops needed to dance it and so no Raymonda will dance it? Last night, some thought that was the reason. Apparently it’s still true that the royal family has its subjects perform all the hard labor.
The Jean de Brienne, James Whiteside, was as wooden and inelegant as ever. A couple of diagonal passes of cabrioles and a short spurt of coupe jetes had him looking like a stiff-legged monster on attack. His knees bent upon landing but there was never any sense of plie. His lines lacked grace and looked like a gymnast’s who you wished had some turnout.
The male pas de quatre didn’t embarrass itself like in past performances and managed a clean finish. Alexandre Hammoudi was replaced last night in the quartet. He had a terribly sloppy opening night in the pas de quatre and a poor showing in his variations when he subsequently danced the lead opposite Gillian Murphy. What is going on with this soloist? Ratmansky was able to turn him into a prince for Nutcracker but McKenzie can’t do a thing with him. His mandate seems to be to jump as big as he can regardless of what it looks like. His pirouettes and tours en l’air are all over the place. His lines are beginning to look as workman-like as Whiteside’s.
Tom Forster, on the other hand, holy cow. Such beauty, power and grace in Raymonda's male quartet. The eye is quickly drawn to this dancer as soon as he steps on stage, not because he is the tallest man on stage but because his dancing commands our attention. In many, many respects, he is on a par with Roberto Bolle already, particularly in the generous flexibility in the back, beautiful leg lines, and the gorgeous feet.
It was a pleasure to see the ease with which Skylar Brandt repeated her faultless variation. Christine Shevchenko struggled with the more challenging variation normally danced by Raymonda. Having seen Devon Teuscher sail through this tough section the other evening almost as well as the beautiful Christine Dunham did decades ago really rekindled some hope for this company. Maybe that’s putting too much pressure on this brand new soloist, but her pairing opposite Cory Stearns in Jardin Aux Lilas last week looked like it had classical stardom written all over it. Unfortunately, McKenzie’s current practice is to put the most competent classical artists on ABT's backburner for their entire careers while promoting or importing second rate dancers who look like they came out of a Salvation Army thrift shop. So let’s not get our hopes up too high for Devon.
Sarah Lane and Misty Copeland were an odd mismatch in their demi-soloist variation. Sarah’s confident but unpushy refinement opposite Misty’s I’ll-stoop-as-low-as-I-need-to-go-to-get-what-I-want – or whatever her current and ever changing tag line is – with chin forced up arrogantly was hardly attractive. Why does ABT continue to allow Misty to force the hyperextension in her knees? The legs are so mis-bent that they look like they are about to snap in two when she stands in a B+. It’s less noticeable in contemporary work where no tights or beige tights are worn, but in pink tights under a classical tutu, the excessive hyperextension is truly ugly, and it’s dangerous. It’s just one more thing that this dancer exaggerates beyond what she should.
It would have been interesting to see Sarah and Misty matched up in the variation that Devon and Christine did. It would have revealed a lot about who the better, more classical dancer is. Or forcing the actual Raymondas to do their own variations would have been enlightening as well.
The middle of the evening’s program, Bach Partita, was the most satisfying and well-danced piece on the program. Years ago, Haglund thought that in his next life, he would come back as Pinchas Zukerman’s violin on a Mozart night. Forget that. He’s coming back as Charles Yang’s violin on a Bach night. There were points in this ballet where one had to close the eyes and just experience the energy and life in the music. One wishes, though, that Yang would have been positioned less far to the left in the orchestra pit – more central – for the benefit of those on the right side of the house. Better yet, why not on the side of the stage? After all, Bach is the true star in this ballet and was being played in the house where the music always comes first in importance.
The cast was led by Gillian Murphy/Marcelo Gomes and Stella Abrera/Calvin Royal III along with Misty Copeland/James Whiteside. Skylar Brandt and Craig Salstein gave their little bit in the fourth section principal importance with their sparkling wit and technical brilliance that was tossed off with ease.
Gillian and Marcelo danced like branches budding off the Tharp tree – so perfectly bent to her style with an understated sass that was prevalent in Tharp’s earliest works. An unassuming balance on pointe that Gillian held so casually seemed even to surprise Marcelo who stopped himself from interrupting it too soon.
Tharp’s challenge when adopting ABT decades ago was to get the women to dance on pointe with the same casual, off-center aloofness that marked the style of her own company members when they danced in soft shoes. It set ballet on a new path that is now copied the world over but has never been replicated with skill equal to Tharp’s.
Stella and Calvin celebrated seamless harmony in their pas de deux that took them from one unlikely move to another. Stella’s 6 o’clock developpe with the front leg up Calvin’s chest didn’t stop for applause; it continued right over the top of herself as a somersault like a smooth shot of whiskey down the hatch. They were the most musical of the pairs – accenting split lifts with swift closings and just going on about their sparkling business with the air of nonchalance that endeared Tharp’s works to us.
It was difficult to watch Whiteside and Misty try to turn Tharp’s choreography into a muscly display of tricks without treats. There was no sense of casual I-could-do-this-everyday ease. The lifts and turns were labored and made as big and flashy as possible with no understatement or surprise inherent in them. They don’t get Tharp. Nor does the costume favor Misty.
We sure are glad that we’ve got Yuriko Kajiya and Jared Matthews this weekend in Giselle to save ABT’s fall season – oh wait, they quit, didn’t they? Something about seeking opportunities. It all sounds so sadly familiar.
The H.H. Pump Bump Award, the devil’s Halloween stiletto, is bestowed upon Stella Abrera and Calvin Royal who fanned the warm flickering flame of Tharp's genius in just the right way.
Devon did a FANTASTIC job with that primary solo in the other cast - and Gillian was lovely as the lead, though the solo didn't play to her strengths.
Posted by: rachel | October 30, 2014 at 12:57 PM
Right on both.
Veronika should have done Raymonda – including the hard variation – and left Gaite Parisienne to Hee.
Posted by: Haglund | October 30, 2014 at 01:25 PM
Good morning, Haglund.
I trust that tour visit to Detroit was successful. I look forward to your post about it.
While you were in Detroit, I continued my visit to New York and my run of attendances at the ABT season. I saw all three of the performances on Saturday evening and on Sunday at both the matinee and evening performances. May I post a comment about each programme? I expect that it will be my final post before I leave New York on the coming Friday en route by rail to Seattle.
Saturday evening's programme was Raymonda Divertissements/ Seven Sonatas/ Thirteen Diversions. I thought that the programme as a whole was, once again, poorly balanced. I would have preferred to see the Diversions replaced by something decidedly traditional and classical.
The leads in Raymonda were danced by Miss Herrera and Mr Stearns. I have at home the DVD in which Miss Herrera, then a mere 21 years of age, dances the celebrated Don Quixote pas de deux with the sorely missed Angel Corella, then about the same age. Ever since I first saw that piece, I have had a very soft spot for Miss Herrera. I was fortunate enough to see her dance with and for Mr Corella at the Teatro Real in Madrid, when his then Spanish company was giving a run of performances of La Bayadere. Also in the cast was none other than Miss Murphy. Miss Herrera, even in the company of such great artists, gave a marvellous performance. Since then I can't recall having seen her dance on a stage until Saturday last. Of course, she can no longer do what she could do so wonderfully all those years ago, but even so, intelligent use of what remains, coupled with tremendous experience, carried the day and resulted in a fine performance, although I suspect that many of us in the audience cheered enthusiastically as a mark of affection and respect for past glories. Mr Stearns had, I thought, a very good afternoon. As I have said in an earlier post, Mr Stearns seems to me to be dancing with much more polish and assurance than when I saw him last year. When he sprang out of the wings for his final variation, and then throughout the variation, he seemed to me to be excellent. His final drop to his knee was clear, clean and courtly.
Sonatas is, I find, growing on me the more I see it. One such piece in any one programme is sufficient for me but, as I say, this piece is drawing me in much more than it first did. There was a big and deserved round of applause for the excellent playing of the pianist, Miss Bilach.
Of the three pairs of soloists, I comment only upon the pair who stood out for me. They were Miss Lane, partnered by Mr Scott. Miss Lane continues to delight me every time I see her dance. Everything about her, the way she moves and the way she looks, is, to my eye, simply beautiful. On Saturday she was in good form.
So was Mr Scott, who, I must confess, has not had a comparable solo, at least not as far as I can recall, in any programme that I have seen. I thought that he was really very good. He does not have, sadly, the height of, say, Mr Forster or Mr Hammoudi, but he makes a very good partner for a ballerina of Miss Lane's delicacy and, at least to my eye, he complemented Miss Lane splendidly, and that is to say a great deal. Another young talent to watch.
Thirteen Diversions, as a piece, has not grown on me with repeated viewings. It remains, to me, clever but shallow and tediously repetitive.
The four couples were all good, but some of their performances were much more than that.
I apprehend, Haglund, that you are not an admirer of Miss Seo, but, partnered by Mr Gomes, I must say that I thought she danced very well. Perhaps that was because Mr Gomes brought out the best in her. He has, of course, height, strength, and huge experience; and his style is powerful and assured. They made an interesting and accomplished couple.
Mr Gorak, of whom more later, was as usual very good. His partner was Miss Copeland. She, also, is not one of your favourite dancers, but I thought that she was good: not great, but good.
Miss Abrera was partnered by Mr Forster. I have watched her whenever I can, having in mind your warm endorsements of her dancing when we corresponded last year. On this occasion, it was possible to get a good idea of her talents and, I must say, I thought that they were as good as you had led me to expect. Mr Forster cemented yet again the very favourable impression that he has been making during the 2014 Fall season.
The Sunday matinee was: Sinfonietta / Bach Partita / Gaite Parisienne.
Yet again, the programme was, in my view, unbalanced. It would have been much better to have started with either Raymonda or Jardin des Lilas, that is to say with a simple and attractive classical piece, followed by the long and abstract Partita, and capped off with a glass of French champagne, courtesy of Offenbach.
Sinfonietta is, I fear, another lost cause so far as I am concerned. I have done my best to understand and to appreciate it, but it simply doesn't do it for me, not even when some of the individual dancing was as good as some of it was on Sunday afternoon.
The Bach piece, rather like Sonatas, is gradually growing on me. Perhaps it helps to have seen it a sufficient number of times to know what to expect both as to content and as to length. I am still a long way off the "Bravo, bravo!!" shrieked with a sound like fingernails scraping blackboard / "woo", or "woo-hoo" shrieked like an adolescent schoolgirl at a rock concert / " This is REALLY special" not so much said as exhaled with breathless intensity. I am beginning to see, however, that there is more to the piece than the shallow louchness of, say, With a Chance of Rain.
The three principal couples were Miss Murphy and Mr Gomes, Miss Copeland and Mr Whitesaide and Miss Abrera and Mr Royal III.
What is there left to say about such a partnership as Miss Murphy and Mr Gomes? Two superlative performances dovetailed beautifully.
Miss Abrera was, once again, lovely to watch. Mr Royal I find an uneven dancer. In one of my first progammes of this season he had a very messy stumble-almost-fall moment, but I have seen him on other occasions dancing with a very nice alignment of arms and legs. On the present occasion, I thought that he made a very effective partner for Miss Abrera.
That leaves Miss Copeland and Mr Whiteside.
There is something about Miss Copeland's dancing that leaves me cold. I think that she does not have what I would regard as the ideal body for a ballerina: her lower legs, in particular, look to me , viewed at various angles, to be so painfully thin as to make me wonder how she manages to get the support that she must have. More importantly, however, is what I can best describe as a certain hard edge to her dancing. It works well enough in a piece like Rain, but it seems to me not quite to fit the mood of the Partita.
I could say the same about Mr Whiteside. I fear that I might have formed a bit of a mental block about Mr Whiteside because of some Youtube footage that I have seen, much of it actually produced by Mr Whiteside himself. It left me with the impression that Mr Whiteside has what I would call an attitudinal problem. The problem itself I would describe as a rather louche and aggressive machismo. I stress that what I have just said is very much a personal impression and that it might be as well mistaken as accurate. The impression is, however, strong and I fear that it tends to colour the way in which I respond to Mr Whiteside's on-stage presentation.
That said, it has to be acknowledged that Mr Whiteside has height and strength and that when partnering a ballerina as slight as Miss Copeland, he carries off with ease the shoulder throws, the body wrap-arounds and the like. He and Miss Copeland seem to me to be well matched and I thought that they did well enough what they had to do in the Bach. There simply wasn't that extra something.
Gaite Parisienne, as a piece, I like. I explained why in an earlier post and need not repeat myself.
I comment about two in particular of the performances : Mr Cornejo and Mr Gorak.
Mr Cornejo was, again, simply in a class of his own. His dancing was faultless and exciting. His characterisation was, again, a master class in the difference between comedy and slapstick. Mr Gorak, not substituting this time, was every bit as good as in his earlier performance which you, Haglund, so justifiably praised. Everything else was fine, but these two performances were stand- outs.
The Sunday evening performance, the last of this Fall season, presented Seven Sonatas / With a Chance of Rain / Gaite Parisienne.
All of the dancing in Sonatas was good, but, yet again, Mr Cornejo and Mr Gorak were stand-out performers. In a piece of this kind, characterization is not a relevant consideration. What is relevant is pure dancing technique : beauty drawn from abstract body movement. What a performer is Mr Cornejo! Every movement, fast or slow, grounded or aloft, linear or convoluted or spinning, was so clear, so clean, so finely carried off, as constantly to amaze and to delight the eye. I can say the same for Mr Gorak. He really has come along by leaps and bounds, ( no pun intended). His leaps are good and sound; he has excellent leg extension; he can actually extend a leg so as to create an exact right angle to his body; and he has a manner that conveys something of that special quality which cannot be described in bare words, but which is either there or it isn't. Mr Gorak is, of course, much younger and much less experienced than, say, Mr Cornejo, but I believe, having noticed him last year and having watched him with the keenest interest this year, that if only his teachers and mentors do not push him too far too quickly, he really could one day scale the heights.
I need say nothing further about Rain except, perhaps, to note that not even Miss Seo, Mr Gomes and Mr Gorak, three of the eight principals, could rescue this dismal exercise.
As to Gaite Parisienne, i need say nothing further about the piece, but would comment about three in particular of the performances : Mr Stearns, Mr Salstein and Mr Tamm.
Mr Stearns repeated his earlier performance as the Baron. As on that earlier occasion, he was elegant, polished and romantic in the best sense of that overworked description. This performance really put the finishing touch to the pleasure that I have had during this season from Mr Sterns's dancing.
It is very unfair to compare Mr Salstein with Mr Cornejo in the role of the Peruvian. I could see nothing in particular that was wrong with the technical aspects of Mr Salstein's dancing, indeed, quite the contrary. But, if I may say this without being unkind, Mr Salstein was more slapstick than comedy in his characterisation. Perhaps that would not have occurred to a viewer who had not seen Mr Cornejo earlier that same day; but I fear that it kept on occurring to this viewer, fresh from Mr Cornejo's dazzling assumption of the role. There was nothing wrong with Mr Tamm's Dancing Master and there was a great deal that was very much right about it, but to my eye, Mr Gorak had the edge. In fairness to Mr Tamm, I should stress that my last comment is a very personal reaction and I could understand that others, better informed about the technicalities of ballet dancing, might well have thought that the balance tilted in the opposite direction.
To sum up:
Much more careful balancing is a must if the greater part, let alone the entirety, of the Fall season is to be made up of triple bills. There is just so much abstract, gymnastic-style dance movement that an enthusiastic amateur like me can take. Beauty, Mr McKenzie, beauty, not arty-crafty posturing.
ABT has several splendid and promising young dancers. Miss Lane and Miss Abrera, among the ladies; Messrs Gorak, Forster, Scott and Tamm among the gentlemen. Let us all urge Mr McKenzie to hang on to them, to nurture their talents carefully and to forge from them a new vitality that will serve the company well when the time comes, as sadly it must do eventually, for the likes of Mr Cornejo and Miss Murphy to retire.
ABT should be building Miss Lane and Mr Gorak into a new standard partnership. They are well matched in age, in physical appearance, in talent and in promise. Remember how good they were in last year's "Tempest".
The current season has shown, with Rain, that the merely louche and the simperingly erotic can sell seats and can garner wild acclaim from certain sections of an audience, but that is not what ABT is, or at least it is not what ABT should be, about. I, speaking only for myself of course, go to ABT performances to see a great classical ballet company. I would never think of going to ABT were I in the mood for a cabaret or nightclub experience. It strikes me that the distinction has been somewhat blurred during this year's Fall season.
Was the experience overall worth the cost and the effort of securing a seat for eight performances? Yes, for the reasons that will be apparent from my posts. But there is a limit to the number of times when it will be worth that cost and effort when what is on offer is plain ugly.
Posted by: Mr S | November 03, 2014 at 12:21 PM
Good afternoon, Haglund.
What follows is a post that I sent in a week or more ago. I have a feeling that I did not manage to send it correctly, so will send it again, now.
Should my earlier post have in fact got through, then this one is surplusage and can be ignored.
Good evening, Haglund.
Last year I was in New York at the time of the ABT Fall season.I posted some comments about performances that I had seen and you were kind enough to publish them.
This year I am again in New York for my annual visit and, once again, have been able to time my visit to coincide with the ABT Fall season. I have a seat for eight performances and this evening's performance has me at the half way point. May I make some observations about my experiences and impressions thus far?
Perhaps I ought to begin with a general suggestion that you might think tongue in cheek, although I assure you that I am in deadly earnest.
I think that it would be a good idea to require that, say, once a quarter those responsible for the development of ABT's repertoire and for the programming of its seasons, especially the Fall season because it is so short, should be required to watch attentively the opening sequences in the celebrated conversation telecast by the BBC and conducted by Lord Harewood, sometime Director of the English National Opera, with the one and only Maria Callas.
Early in the conversation, Mme Callas says:
"I believe that when we go to the theatre, we go in order to experience something
better than what we normally have in life. We have enough of miserable situations.
When the public goes out, when he is improved and he breathes and he says 'That
was worth for', that is, I believe, our main purpose."
Mme Callas's English was idiosyncratic but its purport was completely clear and was greatly strengthened by her remarkably handsome appearance and her wonderful body language.
Mme Callas was speaking, of course, about the art of opera, but I can see no reason why what she said is not equally apposite to the art of ballet.
When I go to see ABT, at some considerable cost and having travelled half way around the world,
I do not hope to see so much, something better than what I normally have in life, but rather something that adds a special kind of beauty to what I normally have. I wish to see highly talented and attractive people dancing beautiful and inspiring choreography set to beautiful and inspiring music and set off by beautiful staging, scenery and costumes.
Judged by those criteria, I would have to say that this year's Fall season has been a decidedly mixed bag, with the balance tilting decisively in favour of performances that are not at all up to what I have always thought of as being the genuine ABT article.
My first programme was that of Friday evening last: Sinfonietta; With a Chance of Rain; Thirteen Diversions.
I thought that, to begin, it was a textbook example of poor programming. Each piece was not what I would call ballet at all. Each was clever after a fashion, but only in the sense in which pre-pubescent Slav girls perform regularly in the Gymnastics events of the Olympic Games. As I remarked in last year's posts, somebody like me, who has no ballet training and no technical ballet expertise, can get very little indeed out of this kind of repetitive modern dance idiom. It is, as I said, undoubtedly clever, but the cleverness is, in real ballet terms, all show and surface.
So, not much beauty in the choreography. The music? Sinfonietta is typical Janacek: jagged melody and rhythm, deft but not beautiful. Rain: unquestionably great piano music and very well played. Diversions: rarely performed Benjamin Britten whose music I find to be, in general, accessible with great difficulty. Actually, I thought that the piece, which I had never heard previously, was fairly easy listening, and it, too, was very well played.
I entirely agree with your criticisms of Rain. The title itself is pretentious piffle having nothing discernible to do with the action. I have sat through it for three performances. I have tried to see something worthwhile in it. I have failed completely. Judging from the whistles and the "woo"s from sections of the three audiences, it is clear that the calculatedly louche and the immaturely erotic can always get a few cheap laughs, even cheers. This is now ABT's notion of the ballet of the future, to borrow from the Artistic Director? To what a pretty pass that thinking has brought this great Company.
The staging. Well really,there wasn't any to speak of, so no beauty there.
Taken for all in all a very disappointing start to my run of performances.
The Saturday matinee brought a somewhat better programme: Raymonda Divertissements; Seven Sonatas; Fancy Free.
Raymonda was the first piece that I had seen during this season and thoroughly enjoyed. There was no scenery - why on earth not? - but the costuming was beautiful and classical. The music is, of course, superb ballet music. The choreography was beautiful, but it helped to have some idea of what the whole ballet actually is about, when performed in full.
Seven Sonatas was as good as last year, but I fancied that the choreography had changed a little. Is my memory awry, or did three couples instead of only one, previously do the finger pointing episode?
Fancy Free takes me into serious heresy territory. I know that everyone salutes the Jerome Robbins/Leonard Bernstein partnership, but I fear that it simply didn't work for me. I thought that the choreography was deft, as in flashy, but not what I would call beautiful. I thought that the music was raucous and uninteresting. The staging was fine, but no staging, however attractive in an Edward Hopper kind of way, can carry alone any ballet performance. Even Mr Siimkin, whom I have always liked since I first saw him in Company B, did not seem to me to be firing on all cylinders.
The Sunday matinee offered Rain and I need not add to my previous comments about the piece; Jardin aux Lilas and, again, Thirteen Diversions. About Diversions, too, I need say nothing further save in one respect to which I shall come a little later.
For me, Jardin des Lilas was the genuine ABT article. Everything about it was beautiful. The story line was no more than a narrative fragment, but it was sufficient to give to a non-expert like me a comprehensible story line that was enough to make sense out of what one was seeing on the stage.
And this evening: repeats of Rain; Raymonda and Sinfonietta. I have nothing to add about the pieces themselves.
How do the dancers stack up this time around? Well actually there have been some very interesting performances.
Gillian Murphy can dance for me in any performance she pleases. She is beautiful, stylish, graceful, strong. I could watch her all night. When she was onstage in Raymonda, she showed, minute by minute, step by step, that indefinable spark that turns technique into art.
Sarah Lane, whom I praised many times last year, is as good this year. More, please.
Joseph Gorak impressed me so greatly last year, that I sprinkled my posts to you with the question why he had not been promoted to soloist. Now he has been so promoted. ( Of course, I can scarcely suggest cause and effect). I like what I have seen of him thus far this year, but he has not had much in the way of a role that provides any distinctive personal showcase for him. More, please.
Mr Hammoudi is, for me, an interesting discovery. He starts with that great advantage to any male dancer, height. He has saturnine good looks. He is the perfect partner for Miss Murphy. I cannot really offer an informed opinion about his technique except to say that it seems to me that his elevation in jumps is a bit uneven; but I thought that he carried off very well overall his difficult solo variation in Raymonda.
You praise Mr Forster and I agree entirely with what you say in that connection. On Sunday afternoon he substituted for Mr Tamm in Diversions, partnering Miss Murphy, no less, and I thought that he did a notably good job. He was, I thought, strikingly good in this evening's Rain, partnering Miss Lane. He, like Mr Hammoudi, has that great advantage of height. Partnered with a really fine ballerina like Miss Lane, he never looks for an instant as if he is going to have a
little difficulty or two in doing the required lifts and supports. One to watch. More, please.
And some final suggestions:
Divide the Fall season into a week of triple bills and a week devoted to one thrilling full length work with alternating casts. This would enable people like me, who cannot be in New York for the Spring season at the Metropolitan Opera House, to see at least something of the full-length repertoire of the Company.
Programme the triple bills so that, if we must endure a piece like Rain, then that experience is made a little more palatable by framing it between two beautiful classical pieces. How much better, for example, to have programmed Jardin des Lilas, followed by Rain, followed by Raymonda.
Having seen the quarterly replay of Callas/Harewood, those attending should have to write out one hundred times and word for word everything said by Mme Callas in that particular passage to which I earlier referred, but adding: "This takes only elegance, refinement, style and good taste."
With compliments,
Mr S
Posted by: Mr S | November 03, 2014 at 12:30 PM
Mr S:
Thank you so much for your articulate and very thoughtful comments. I'm sorry that your previous comment from the week before didn't get published. I know that there is a length limit on comments but don't know the exact number of characters. Sometimes very lengthy comments end up going awry or being perceived as spam by the comment filter. But I thank you for taking the time to repeat your remarks. They were certainly worth it - and as of today, have been read by many.
Your observation about the quality of ABT's fall programing was right on the money. Many nights there was only one piece worth seeing, and sometimes the casts were contrived to serve up the unpalatable dancers with the best which made people stay away altogether. The big new piece of trash presented this fall just underscored the grave condition of the artistic direction.
There is no doubt that the majority of the large repertoire that ABT lists on its website consists mostly of junk which the company will never, and should never repeat. It's money wasted.
Seven pieces of choreography for two weeks of performances makes it clear that ABT is in a deep and disgraceful artistic hole. In the first four DAYS of New York City Ballet's fall season, we saw 17 different works. SEVENTEEN IN FOUR DAYS compared to seven over two weeks for ABT.
Eurotrash seems to be ABT's new solution to the problem of not having good new choreography.
Posted by: Haglund | November 04, 2014 at 08:44 PM
Hello there,
In an attempt to discover more about ABT's lineup of dancers, I have gluttonously consumed many of your past reviews and posts. However, while entertained, I find myself still stumbling about in the dark. You've certainly sold me on Abrera but do I want to see her paired with Gorak in Cinderella? Seo and Stearns have gotten their share of criticism and praise and yet their frequent pairing is making me consider seeing them in Giselle, Cinderella, and La Bayadere. Would you please indulge a new reader with a somewhat predictive post about the best options for the upcoming 2015 ABT season were we only to see one performance from each production?
Posted by: cat | November 10, 2014 at 07:39 AM
Hi Cat. Thanks much for reading H.H.
Choices heavily depend on what the ticketbuyer is looking for. Is one looking for dancers who can actually do all of the steps or is dumbed-down pretty dancing okay? Is one looking for intelligence in the artistry or is a connect-the-dots performance okay? Does it matter whether the artists who are paired compliment one another or is it okay that their primary purpose is to offset each other's weaknesses?
Unfortunately, there is more to avoid in ABT's spring season than to run toward.
Sadly, at present, there is only one Giselle performance that will hit all of the marks for many of us: Xiomara Reyes and Herman Cornejo on the evening of May 27th. It will be her last, and it is a performance one doesn't want to miss.
For Sleeping Beauty, Sarah Lane and Herman Cornejo at either the May 30th Matinee or on June 11th is the best overall bet.
La Bayadere is best skipped this year except for perhaps Veronika Part's and Gillian Murphy's June 4th performance with a marginal guest artist as Solor.
Cinderella is a no-brainer: Abrera and Gorak. Murphy and Hallberg would also be good, but the chances are iffy for Hallberg to make it through the season without injury cancellations. Nor is there much hope at the moment that his dancing will be in its top condition due to injuries and extended layoffs. Therefore, any advance purchase of a ticket for any of his performances is taking a risk.
I recommend taking a chance with New York City Ballet's new La Sylphide which will premiere on May 7th and have seven additional performances (12th, 16th Mat & Eve, 17th, 23rd Mat & eve, 24th). Tickets are less expensive; sight lines are better; dancers are better; orchestra is better; and Martins' Bournonville heritage makes us very optimistic that the production will be fantastic.
Posted by: Haglund | November 10, 2014 at 09:17 AM
I will not pretend to have exacting standards as dance is in no way my area of expertise. I appreciate the elegance of the lines and the spectacle of the production and costumes without a real understanding of the craft or context the way someone might appreciate the aesthetic value of a painting without knowing anything about the techniques employed or its significance in the larger context of the discipline. I've only ever seen one ballet performed live. I just pulled out the program which was actually covered in a fine layer of dust. It was Sara Mearns in Swan Lake. I thought she danced beautifully and delicately though I remember being rather disappointed at the corps.
My preference, even as a neophyte, would be to see the best. Even if I can't appreciate each movement and I'm not aware of whether the choreography is lacking, I'd like to have some assurance that I'm seeing a performer attempting to perform the piece as intended (to reference your complaints about Julie Kent). I don't have an unrestricted budget (though we'll see how the incentives offered by the new municipal ID's changes that) and I wouldn't want to settle on something substandard because my taste might not be refined enough to appreciate all the differences. It's always better to start with a good foundation, isn't it?
Thank you for your recommendations and advice. I'll see what I can manage with my schedule in the spring. I may take a chance on other performers just to see the productions for the first time. But I'll definitely put Cinderella and La Sylphide at the top of my list.
One last thing, would you recommend Romeo and Juliet with Vishneva and Gomes?
Posted by: cat | November 10, 2014 at 11:12 AM
Hi, Cat. Yes, Vishneva and Gomes in Romeo and Juliet would be my choice as would Veronika Part's Swan Lake.
Posted by: Haglund | November 10, 2014 at 11:20 AM