Haglund's Heel

NYCB – The Nutcracker Opening Night 11/28

This story hasn’t made The New York Times yet, but there has been plenty of vitriol spewed by those guys Brux & Boggle on WRAT Talk Radio. They didn’t like what went down last night at the opening performance of New York City Ballet’s The Nutcracker. We wouldn’t believe the story ourselves if we hadn’t been there last night and seen it with our own eyes. In nearly a century of covering the goriest of Nutcracker battles, we’ve never come across anything quite like this before. Oh, you haven’t heard?

As fully expected, the Rat Patrol barged in and began wrecking havoc throughout little Marie’s Christmas Eve dream. Ugly, nasty looking things, they were. The toy soldiers were doing their best to beat them back through precision drilled musket firing while on their bellies, but there were plenty of casualties throughout the ranks. Tiny soldiers were picked up handily by the big rats and carried off stage to face their demise or be delivered to a dressing room to change into their Act II costumes.

Suddenly, The Bunny began pacing back and forth upstage, banging his little drum, and his lips were moving angrily. But what was he saying? The Bunny’s anger seemed to be growing and growing. He seemed suddenly full of rage and was speaking forcefully to no one in particular.

Haglund pulled out his opera glasses to focus on The Bunny so that he could read his lips. There was no mistaking what he was saying:

“I have a plan. I have plan, but I’m gonna need a few things. Nobody calls me vermin or rodent - not unless they want five or six shots in the freakin' face from this baby.”

The Bunny spun his drumsticks into a blur and suddenly he was holding a blast machine gun. The audience gasped. But it was too late. The Bunny tore off his bunny suit to reveal his true identity as Blastin' Rocket Raccoon, the cybernetically-enhanced and very fierce Guardian of the Galaxy. He set his gun sights on the Rat King who was by now twirling the little Nutcracker soldier around in circles while holding him by the ankles and counting down to a celebratory wishbone split.

“That rat dude there is gonna die,” sneered Rocket.

With that, he pumped ten rounds into the Rat King and then ran over and tied his tail into a sailor’s knot before blazing off stage-left into the wing. He was heard hollering, “That better get me a mention in the Times’ review.”

Thankfully, the scene quieted down quickly when it started to snow. The Snow Scene was beautiful with several new young snowflakes added to the squall, as is customary at NYCB. This year, they looked especially ready and up to the task, and everybody held onto their snowballs through the end of the act.

Before we forget, Devin Alberda was a sensational Soldier soloist in Act I. Excellent reverberation in the limbs, but also impressive entrechats six with flexed feet and tours with rotating spot. Avery Lin, Sawyer Reo, and Philip Henry Duclos were energetic and musically perfect in their roles as Marie, Fritz, and The Nutcracker. Robert La Fosse gave Herr Drosselmeier’s character just the right amount of darkness without making him seem creepy.

Act II featured Brittany Pollack and Adrian Danchig-Waring in Hot Chocolate, Georgina Pazcoguin as Coffee, Antonio Carmena as Tea, Daniel Ulbricht as Candy Cane, Erica Pereira leading the Marzipan Shepherdesses, Andrew Scordato as Mother Ginger, Ashley Bouder as Dew Drop, and Sterling Hyltin and Andrew Veyette as the Sugarplum Fairy and Her Cavalier. Everyone's Opening Night enthusiasm was high and energy was off the charts.

Georgina Pazcoguin’s Coffee maintained a real air of mystery about herself in addition to being seductive.

Erica Pereira was delicate but sure-footed in Marzipan. She seems never to struggle with technique and has a lovely demeanor on stage. We wish Peter Martins would figure out how to propel her to the next level in her artistry.

Sometimes our Dew Drop and Sugarplum Fairy seemed to be using enough force and energy to be dancing Stars and Stripes or Theme and Variations. There is plenty of room within their Nutcracker music to shape their phrases with more than just force. When every glissade, every pique, every temps de fleche, every transition step is as huge as it can possibly be, the audience gets confused about which part of the combination is the important trick and doesn’t know when to applaud. It’s not good to confuse the old audience or make them think that they should applaud for a glissade.

Andrew Veyette was on fire. He is to ballet what John Misha Petkevich was to ice skating back in the early ‘70s. Remember how Petkevich threw those crazy spin jumps, and it looked like he never had any idea how they would land? Well, that’s Veyette. He just goes for it and seemingly figures out where it’s all going while he’s up in the air. On Friday night, his finishes were on the money each time and were pretty thrilling.

And so we begin the Nutcracker season. The first H.H. Pump Bump Award, a glittery stiletto adorned with bunny ears by Qian Jibaby, is awarded to the young performer who portrayed the all-important Bunny on opening night. We don’t know his or her name because the Bunny’s identity is not specified in the Playbill, but we’d recognize the serious little face anywhere.

Yuriko Kajiya promoted to principal!

Wow. It didn't take long for Artistic Director Stanton Welch to recognize what a miracle he has in Yuriko Kajiya. After her performance last night during which she opened the run of Houston Ballet's The Nutcracker as the Sugar Plum Fairy opposite Charles-Louis Yoshiyama's Prince, Welch walked on stage and announced her promotion to principal dancer.

It restores one's faith in how America treats its authentic classical ballet stars and makes so many of us in New York so happy and proud.

This pic is from her and Jared's recent Detroit performance of Giselle. We can hardly wait for Houston to see them in this ballet.

 

Simone Messmer & Adrian Danchig-Waring in New Haven Ballet's Nutcracker!

 

Simone Messmer has surfaced! Happy Thanksgiving. Thanks be to Terpsichore.

Simone and NYCB principal Adrian Danchig-Waring will be the guest principals with the New Haven Ballet in its production of The Nutcracker at the Shubert Theater, so says this report. It appears that Simone may be a late substitute for Savannah Lowery who was originally scheduled. Oh, dear.

Performances will be on Friday December 19th at 7pm, Saturday December 20th at 1:00 and 5:00, and Sunday December 21 at 1:00 and 5:00.

It being Thanksgiving Day, we can't confirm that Simone and Adrian will dance all five performances. We'll try to do this tomorrow. However, if any Haglund'eeler around town has the information, please drop us a note.

This is such good news. So many have missed Simone's powerful, dramatic, and articulate dancing since she departed. A match up with Adrian seems pretty darn near perfect. Can't wait to see them.

 

observations 11/27

Roddy Doble will dance the principal role of the Snow King opposite Ashley Ellis' Snow Queen in Boston Ballet's December 4th performance of The Nutcracker. Roddy was a standout performer in everything he danced at ABT, but never got the respect that he deserved when it came to casting.

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The Russian National Ballet Theatre is bringing Swan Lake to the Lehman Center in The Bronx for one performance on Sunday, April 12. Haglund is becoming more and more interested in the second and third tier companies coming out of Russia because they compare favorably to some of what we have to endure in the way of classics from our so-called national ballet company.

There isn't likely to be a live orchestra, but one will see classical artists who graduated from most of the major schools in Russia. There are some clips of the company on YouTube which confirm that they have some very talented dancers.

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Peter Boal will perform the role of Drosselmeier at NYCB's December 13th matinee of The Nutcracker as "research" in connection with Pacific Northwest Ballet's acquisition of the Balanchine production next year, according to various media reports. Research, right. Anybody who doesn't think that Boal has his sights set on being Peter Martins' eventual successor hasn't been following his parade of trips to NYC to promote his work as artistic director in Seattle and remind everyone of his connections to this area. There is, of course, the possibilty that he also will be shopping for an underutilized ballerina or two to fill Carla Korbes' unfillable shoes.

Ashley Laracey will debut as Dew Drop at the December 10th matinee performance. That is shaping up to be a good performance with Erica Pereira and Anthony Huxley as SPF and Her Cavalier, and the lovely Alina Dronova who always is exquisite leading the Marzipan crew.

The ravishing duo of Rebecca Krohn and Amar Ramasar will lead the Saturday November 29th matinee and Sunday November 30th evening performances.

We wonder who Lauren King will dance with this year since her customary partner, Robert Fairchild, is busy performing in An American in Paris. She would look fabulous with many, but how about handsome Craig Hall or the interesting Peter Walker or the magnetic Harrison Coll or ultra-magnetic Taylor Stanley?

By the way, tickets to An American in Paris at the Palace Theater in New York go on sale one week from this Saturday.

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Yuriko Kajiya will lead the Opening Night cast of Houston Ballet's run of The Nutcracker tomorrow night. Jared Matthews will dance the Prince in the second evening's performance. We miss them here and will never forget their thrilling and beautiful performances in Ratmansky's Nutcracker at BAM last year. They were the best pair ever.

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Cynthia Harvey will be the Jury Chair for the 2015 Prix de Lausanne which will take place in February. Other jury members include Ethan Stiefel, Franco De Vita, Chi Cao, Lisa-Maree Cullum, Simona Noja, Lidia Segni, and György Szakaly. 

 

Miss "I will what I want" gets sued for doing what she wants

Misty Copeland, her manager Gilda Squire, and Harpo, Inc. (that's Oprah Winfrey's Harpo) were sued today in Connecticut District Court by legendary photographer Harvey Edwards for copyright infringement (17:101). (Court case number 3:14-cv-01762; RFC case number C-H14-1762M)

The complaint centers around the unauthorized use of Edwards' very famous images entitled Leg Warmers and Ballet Slippers including during an OWN TV program that devoted some time to Copeland.

A quick search of the internet shows that the photographer has for several months been reaching out over social media to complain about unauthorized use of his iconic images in material that features Copeland.

David P. Friedman and Kristen L. Zaehringer of Murtha Cullina LLP are counsel for the plaintiff.

What dancer over the age of __ doesn't remember those posters? Haglund had the Leg Warmers poster hanging on his bedroom wall for years. We'll try to keep everyone updated on the case, but those Haglund'eelers who are members of the bar in addition to frequenting the barre might be able to help us out with information.

Edited to add: Here's a link to a PDF copy of the complaint.

 

Mikhailovsky Ballet – Don Quixote 11/21

While sitting in the midst of a mostly Russian-speaking audience at Friday night’s Don Quixote by the Mikhailovsky Ballet, it occurred to Haglund that perhaps, just perhaps, this company didn’t travel all the way from St. Petersburg for his personal enjoyment or the enjoyment of the American audience that we commonly see at ballet performances at Lincoln Center. They came for the more than 1-1/2 million Russians who live in the tri-state area. Occasionally, the local Russian population shows up at Lincoln Center for a ballet performance of an American company that features a star from back home, but never in the numbers that they do when a company arrives from St. Petersburg or Moscow. There's nothing unusual or wrong with that. Americans living around Osaka probably flocked to Nishinomiya recently to watch Robinson Cano, Evan Longoria, and the MLB All Stars play a group from the Hanshin Tigers and Yomiuri Giants in an exhibition game even though they might not routinely attend local Japanese baseball games. They were probably pretty thrilled to witness Evan Longoria hit a grand slam home run and didn’t much care that it wasn’t the World Series.

At last night's performance, audience members warmly appreciated the artists in this colorful and attractive production, but didn't go overboard the way that they sometimes can do. The evening's lead performers were younger, less experienced dancers who stepped on stage without the benefit of already having big reputations to help prop them up.

There is a facial expression that dancers sometimes can’t hide when accepting applause following a variation. The bottom half of the face has a confident smile and genuine appreciation of the audience’s response, but the eyes subtly reflect the realization that they could have done everything a lot better and a wish for the instant do-over that they never will have. They know that they had the ability to knock it out of the park like Evan Longoria, but it wasn’t their night to do it. And so it was with our young leads last night at the Mikhailovsky. Angelina Vorontsova as Kitri and Victor Lebedev as Basilio gave an okay performance that was not the best that they could give and certainly not the best that they will give in the future. It was, however, our last look at them for a while.

Ms. Vorontsova is already somewhat known – not for her dancing, but for being a protégé of the controversial Nikolai Tsiskaridze and as the girlfriend of the Bolshoi dancer convicted in connection with the attack on Sergei Filin.

Lovely, strong feet with high extensions that she forced to their maximums throughout the night, Vorontsova was clearly in her elements of vibrancy and power. That was all fine for the joyous and natural Kitri in Acts I and III, but she did not have the delicacy, maturity or purity of line to pull off Act II’s ballerina solos. And, yes, she was a little fleshy in places that tended to catch the light, particularly during the grand pas in Act III. A beautiful and very charming smile along with youthful energy took her a long way in the performance. Right now, she has good basic carpenter tools but not the craftsmanship needed to carve out a Kitri that is unique or extraordinary in any way. Her series of fouettes were done with her hands on her hips for all 32 counts but for some reason they didn’t look particularly spectacular. She was able to hold attitude poses on pointe for extra counts but they didn't hold much value and sometimes interfered with the musicality of the dancing phrases.

Basilio was a big stretch for Victor Lebedev, who is a more natural Albrecht or prince type. He isn’t yet strong enough to pull off a convincing Basilio and would have looked better opposite a ballerina with a similar lengthy physique. He did not attempt any one-armed lifts and he had some difficulty manipulating Vorontsova as she dropped from an overhead lift into a fish position. Otherwise, his partnering was smooth, particularly in the rotation of Vorontsova’s pirouettes. His own pirouettes, however, were not quite as pristine as he would have liked although a few clean double tours interspersed with pirouettes were a good sign of better things to come. His final series of turns a la second were a blaze of power and perfection without moving out of place - the kind of performance that makes you want to check back with this guy on a regular basis.

Ekaterina Borchenko danced the Queen of the Dryads by the book without making any mistakes but without making herself interesting. Espada, Mikhail Venshchikov, and the Street Dancer, Valeria Zapasnikova, were sufficiently dramatic but not particularly sultry.

A cohesive crew of soloists and demi-soloists wearing orange sherbet colored tutus in Act III, led by Anna Kuligina and Ms. Zapasnikova, were as skilled and personable in their dancing as any major company anywhere. They looked, for all intents and purposes, like the future stars of the Mikhailovsky Ballet.  

Here in the land of legendary Don Q performances, it would be easy to sniff at what's not spectacular. But we won't. These very young artists, several of whom eschewed the traditional paths through the ranks of the more prestigious Bolshoi or Mariinsky to join the Mikhailovsky, have shown that while they may just be getting started, it won't be long before they are upholding Russia's ballet tradition without the aid of anybody else's stars.

observations 11/18

The fix is in.

ABT has rigged the press coverage of its Nutcracker performances this year. Other than the opening night performance, they are presently offering only two press nights: Misty Copeland's second performance on December 18th and Hee Seo's second performance on December 16th. Yes, their second performances. lol.

It seems that ABT doesn't want any press coverage of either Sarah Lane's or Stella Abrera's performances in the leading role as Clara, even though Stella, one of the two most classically empowered and refined artists in the company, will be debuting in this production and Sarah's previous performances have been among the most beautiful of all. That's understandable: these two remarkable soloists make Hee Seo and Misty Copeland look like KMart jewelry every time they are compared. No disrespect intended to KMart – they have a decent housewares department. If one wants single pique turns, single step-over turns, simplified & slowed down choreography, or a noisy power drill, KMart's the place to shop. If one is looking for upscale classical ballet, try these dates December 13 @ 12pm (Sarah w/Joseph Gorak), December 14 @ 1pm (Stella w/Alexandre Hammoudi), December 19 @ 7pm (Sarah w/Joseph Gorak), and December 20 @ 2pm (Stella w/Alexandre Hammoudi).

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Style and substance.

Gelsey Kirkland Ballet will present its exquisite production of The Nutcracker at the Schimmel Center on December 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21. Use the discount code FRIENDS by December 5 to save 10% on any evening performance.

Let us step back in time to consider what it meant to dance like the light: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6NCE9GlU7s

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Dates to remember:

12/6 Tickets for An American in Paris at the Palace Theater on Broadway go on sale to the general public. Mastercard presale in process now.

12/8 Single tickets for the Mariinsky at BAM go on sale to the general public.

2/4  Single tickets to the Scottish Ballet's acclaimed production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire go on sale at the Kennedy Center.

 

 

observations 11/14

Excellent all around casting for New York City Ballet's first week of The Nutcracker.

First week's rotation:
Sterling Hyltin & Andrew Veyette with Sara Mearns as DD
Rebecca Krohn & Amar Ramasar with Abi Stafford as DD
Ashley Bouder & Joaquin De Luz with Teresa Reichlen as DD

Emily Kikta and Claire Kretzschmar debut as lead flowers in the Krohn/Ramasar cast.

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Indianapolis City Ballet will present its 2014 gala Evening with the Stars on November 22nd. Look at this list!

Herman Cornejo, Principal Dancer, American Ballet Theatre
Alessandra Ferri, International Guest Artist
Gonzalo Garcia, Principal, New York City Ballet
Marcelo Gomes, Principal Dancer, American Ballet Theatre
Melissa Hamilton, First Soloist, The Royal Ballet
Alexandre Hammoudi, Soloist, American Ballet Theatre
Paloma Herrera, Principal Ballerina, American Ballet Theatre
Maria Kochetkova, Principal Ballerina, San Francisco Ballet
Vitor Luiz, Principal Dancer, San Francisco Ballet
Gennadi Nedvigin, Principal Dancer, San Francisco Ballet
Luciana Paris, Corps de Ballet, American Ballet Theatre
Veronika Part, Principal Ballerina, American Ballet Theatre
Iana Salenko, Principal Ballerina, Berlin Ballet
Eric Underwood, Soloist, The Royal Ballet
Veronika Verterich, Dutch National Ballet Studio Company

Also, ICB will soon announce the details about next year's 2015 gala program which will be nationally broadcast on PBS and a performance in 2016 that will be broadcast with worldwide cinema, commercial television and DVD distribution.

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Sarah Lane and Luis Ribagorda will star in the Georgia Ballet's The Nutcracker on December 5th. If you are in the Marietta area, you do not want to miss this!

 

Mikhailovsky Ballet – Giselle 11/12 matinee

When America’s middle tier ballet companies tour Eastern or Western Europe and present Balanchine works as part of a program, there are probably some in the audience who are disappointed because they were expecting to see something on the level of New York City Ballet. After all, the dancing comes from America; it’s Balanchine; there are standards to uphold. When a ballet company from St. Petersburg comes to a major stage in New York with Petipa on its main course platter, it’s hard not to expect something tasty through and through. Expectations are high because St. Petersburg is, practically speaking, Chez Petipa.

So it was somewhat disappointing to see that the Mikhailovsky Ballet’s Giselle really didn’t approach the level of the extraordinary Giselles that St. Petersburg has exported to us over the years. There were some satisfying moments in Wednesday afternoon’s performance – it’s always nice to discover promising new dancers – but overall the performance was a snooze that didn’t wake up until Albrecht’s variation in Act II.

The 2007 production by Nikita Dolgushin is thin on mime, simplifies some of the choreography, and employs an odd usage of the quite stunning scenery.

Our Giselle and Albrecht for the afternoon were Anastasia Soboleva and Victor Lebedev. Both are quite young – she graduated from the Bolshoi’s feeder school in 2010 and he graduated from the Vaganova Academy in 2010. But it was not the debut for either even though at times it looked like it might have been.

When Soboleva popped out of her cottage for the first time, we instantly fell in love with her exquisitely long and finely shaped arms, her beautiful face which looked as though she could be our own Sarah Lane’s sister, and her wholesome, unaffected charm. But some labored hops on pointe, the substitution of attitude turns with the leg in front instead of behind, loosely pointed feet, and some miscalculated arabesques in Act I dampened our enthusiasm. Act II, however, revealed a more composed and focused artist but still there were some technical problems in Giselle’s variations. The developpes a la seconde were shaky and extremely high but without a finely formed foot at the end. The penche arabesque was frightfully unsteady. But here in Act II, Soboleva was able to transform her character from life to spirit through the use of her delicate arms and elegant neck.

In Act I, Lebedev’s Albrecht was not particularly engaged in what was happening on stage, but he likely wasn't too worried about it because of what he had up his purple sleeves for Act II. A beautifully proportioned danseur whose turnout escapes him frequently, Lebedev raised his dancing another level or three in Act II. In his variations, he flew down the diagonal with assembles each of which ended with a soulful and extraordinary flexible backbend. His arabesques and attitudes were gorgeous in form, dramatically balanced, and exceeded those of Giselle’s. His pleadings with the Wilis and his efforts to escape to the right and then to the left conveyed his desperation and his loss of will. When Myrtha finally commanded him to perform his entrechat sixes, it seemed that he had nothing left to give. But oh wait, 35 entrechat sixes later, he finally flung himself onto the forest’s floor in a heap of exhaustion. The roar of the audience drowned out the howling of the hungry Wilis. Giselle burst into the action, and saved him.

The forest scenery in Act II curiously rose up and down, sometimes creating the effect of being blown by the wind. Giselle’s grave was in the downstage corner, but there were other graves along the back of the stage. When Giselle made her final exit, she bourreed not toward her own grave but upstage toward the other grave markers in the back. It looked like maybe she might return to a grave other than her own. Wouldn't that be an interesting twist?

Myrtha was performed by Irina Kosheleva. Though magisterial, her grand allegro often seemed forced. The front leg and foot of the grand jetes were high above a dropped torso. There was no sense of wisp or flight in her jumps. Irritated woman, yes; vengeful spirit, no. After seeing Sam Shepard’s take on revenge in A Particle of Dread (Oedipus Variations) at Signature Theatre on Tuesday night, we think perhaps someone should give him a shot at enhancing Myrtha’s scheme. Holy bloodbath, Batman; but Shepard sure does have a way with words.

Hilarion, in this production referred to as The Gamekeeper, was excellently portrayed by Andrey Kasyanenko. His dance to the death before Myrtha and the Wilis was one of the most dramatic sections of the performance.

The demi-soloists and corps de ballet were proficient in both acts. Act I included a nice touch in which the peasants, both men and women, criss-crossed the stage in a manner that seemed to foreshadow the voyage of the Wilis in Act II. The Peasant PdD was performed by Anna Kuligina and Ivan Zaytsev who had all of the correct technical change in their pockets. The Wilis were mostly very lovely if at times a little noisy in the feet.

It was a treat to see the Mikhailovsky Ballet with its very own artists instead of a crew of imports who obscure the true picture of the company. We’re going to check back in on Victor Lebedev on Friday for Don Quixote to see what his Basilio brings. In the meantime, we’ll bestow upon him the H.H. Pump Bump Award, a Gucci stiletto in royal purple.

Houston Ballet - Detroit 11/2Yuriko & Jared in Giselle

There is no ballet that makes Haglund love the art form more than Giselle does. No ballet restores his faith in the art and energizes his commitment to its artistic principles more than Giselle. There is no ballet that more beautifully stirs the complexities within the question of what it means to be human and then proposes an answer.

On Sunday afternoon at the Detroit Opera House, Houston Ballet presented a production of Giselle that was stellar by any standards – from the principals to the corps de ballet. The staging by Ai-Guil Gaisina, long associated with the Australian Ballet as artist, teacher, and coach (and before that the Stanislavsky Theatre), was first presented by Houston Ballet in 2011. It is a traditional, carefully detailed production with beautiful designs by Peter Farmer. In Act I, the roof of Giselle’s house had fallen leaves scattered upon the shingles. In Act II, a delicate moon watched over the forest from a distance. The Act I costumes were a tasteful combination of fall colors: pale yellow, warm brown, and burnt orange - all of which made autumn look like the best season of the year.

Having seen Yuriko Kajiya’s Giselle debut and Jared Matthews' near-debut as Albrecht two and a half years ago in Chicago (before they quit ABT), Haglund fully expected to feel quivers on Sunday. He also expected to see the best Giselle performance of the year. But three days later, and after considering a half century of Giselles attended, he’s still convinced that Yuriko Kajiya offered a miraculous performance in the title role - one that hopefully the rest of the world will one day see.

In Act I, Giselle's unforced, uncalculated naiveté combined with formidable but unshowy technique to articulate her young love - probably her first love - in which she had no inkling of the depth of the hurt that she was about to experience. Perfect attitude turns followed by delicate ballonnés, lovely arabesques that were effortlessly sustained, quick little hops on pointe that seemed so spontaneous – all were danced as traditional variations by Yuriko. But it was the foreshadowing of heartbreak and the final shattering of Giselle’s life that set this Act I interpretation apart and above so many others’.

The "insanity" that so many who have grand delusions about their own artistry overplay was in this performance seemingly portrayed as the confusion and life-flashing-before-one’s-eyes that come at the end of one’s being. When Yuriko’s Giselle came to the edge of the stage and looked out, we all were suddenly in the midst of her grief. She stared motionlessly while the sadness in her eyes sapped her life away. A couple of small tremors in the arms signified that the end was near. And when it finally came, there was both relief that Giselle’s pain had ended and grief that she was gone.

Yuriko’s Act II elevated her Giselle above most others in memory. Part ghost, part angel – her serenity was expressed with a slight smile throughout most of Act II. When the light caught her face, it was the moon’s light reflecting her peaceful acceptance of her state and her confidence in saving Albrecht. She felt nothing but love and forgiveness toward him and wanted nothing in return for it. Her movement was filled with such lightness that one could sense the air under her sweeping arabesques and tour jetes. Occasionally she caught an unexpected moment of stillness in a balance that contrasted so beautifully with the quickness of the feet. The arms and the hands created continuous curves that we don’t see from any other artist anywhere.

As Albrecht, Jared was not an opportunistic cad – the more common interpretation these days. Instead, he truly loved Giselle and was simply too confident in his ability to pull off his well-intentioned ploy. Either Jared is getting more handsome or else Houston Ballet has much better makeup artists on staff than ABT. Maybe it’s both. Not only did he look fabulous, but his dancing was in top form and more secure than we’ve ever seen before. In Act II, Jared performed both the entrechat sixes and the brises that travelled down the diagonal and ended with a confrontation in front of Myrtha. The entrechat sixes were absolutely wonderful. They moved forward as Albrecht signaled more and more desperation with his arms. When he got to the front of the stage, his face and body were filled with exhaustion and hopelessness.

Jared’s partnering was as skillful as ever. His lifts of Yuriko in Act II were epic; the lowerings so slow and so easy that they reinforced the perception of Giselle as a weightless spirit. Time and time again throughout Act II, Jared guided Yuriko into those iconic poses. The supported arabesques with Yuriko leaning forward over her pointe while Jared leaned back and away were images of such classic and romantic beauty that they will be forever remembered and will serve as the standard by which all others will be measured.

A few words about the remarkable theatrical performance of James Gotesky as Hilarion. Oh, it hurt badly to see this man thrown into the drink by the vicious Wilis. His heart was always in the right place and he would have made a wonderful husband for Giselle. True, he was clearly backwoods in comparison to the slick Albrecht and maybe a little too sooty, but he had the audience pulling for him even though most knew that he didn’t stand a chance.

This production nixes the soloists’ Peasant PdD in favor of four couples (Giselle’s friends) who dance together and in pairs. There seemed to be more choreography for them than in the Peter Wright production danced by the Royal Ballet and National Ballet of Canada that also nixes the Peasant PdD, and it seemed a lot more interesting - to the point where Haglund didn’t miss the Peasant PdD at all.

The corps de ballet was outstanding in both acts. Such natural acting and energetic dancing in Act I. In Act II, the Wilis were beautifully in sync in their voyage in which the lines of ghosts crossed one another in arabesque. Maybe one could quibble with the sneering of the two Wilis who had the privilege of tossing poor Hilarion into the wash. But other than that, all the ladies were perfectly Xeroxed from head to toe in their presentation, and they danced and breathed like menacing sisters.

It has been such a privilege to be in the audience for the performances of Giselle by Yuriko Kajiya and Jared Matthews. They are the future of this particular ballet in this country, and one hopes that we'll have many more opportunities to see them perform it. It doesn’t matter where they perform these roles next, Haglund will try his hardest to be there.

The H.H. Pump Bump Award, a 24K gold stiletto by Stuart Weitzman, is bestowed upon Yuriko and Jared. We sure do miss them in New York, but we have tremendous respect for what they have accomplished and have the greatest optimism for their futures.