Haglund's Heel

Commitment to principles

It is curious that ABT, with its new found commitment to trying to play a leadership role in diversity community outreach and bringing greater numbers of black dancers to ballet companies (aka Project Plie), has decided to yank its relatively young Nutcracker production from Brooklyn, New York, the borough that has the largest black population in the U.S. city with the largest black population in the country, and transplant it to Costa Mesa in Orange County, California where there are almost no black people at all.

They’re fleeing Brooklyn and its nearly one million black residents and moving to Costa Mesa where there are only 1,719 black residents. That’s 1,719.

It is true that Costa Mesa's Segerstrom Center where ABT will dance and have its brand new school (a sister school to its JKO school in NYC) draws its audience from the much larger surrounding Orange County area. So, let’s look at OC.

In a May 2013 article, OC Weekly ran the numbers and found that OC ranks "as one of only two metro areas in the nation's 25 largest with an African-American population of less than 5 percent—and we'd clock in at a pathetically low 2.1 percent. Of all of OC's many embarrassments, this is by far the worst—2.1 percent?”  Wikipedia’s entry which was extracted from U.S. Census Bureau Statistics, shows a lower 1.7% as the black population of Orange County. And Orange County isn’t just not black; it’s white, rich, and Republican. It's hard to see how Project Plie will have much bend in the knees in OC.

While ABT may express its undying love for Brooklyn, the fact is that it is fleeing the community whose demographics it claims it wants to attract for its audience and company, and is taking up residence in a white, rich, Republican community.

Even though ABT may be quitting Brooklyn, it will go out in a blaze of diversity lip service. This December it has scheduled three Nutcracker performances where the leading role of Clara is danced by the company’s lower tier soloist who is a self-proclaimed black person with a self-propagandizing machine that buys media at the rate of a congressional candidate. On Wednesday she will be selling and signing copies of her Firebird book at BAM after her performance in order to help keep her coffers full.

Any mainstream media types who might want to search through the highly-orchestrated pandemonium on that official press day in order to ask Kevin McKenzie about the decision to trade poor black Brooklyn for rich white OC might have a hard time finding him. Word around is that he's fleeing Brooklyn a few days early so that he can catch a performance of Ratmansky’s new Paquita in Munich.

 

observations 12/13

Somehow it's fitting that on a day that the Dow plunged 315 points to close its worst week of 2014, ABT was at the exchange to ring the closing bell and celebrate its Nutcracker. Perhaps it was just a coincidence. Perhaps not.

But there will be celebration today when we watch Sarah Lane and Joe Gorak in performance at BAM and tomorrow when the glorious Stella Abrera debuts as Clara opposite Alex Hammoudi. What we really need, though, is some champagne-glass-smashing good news in the way of promotions for these two women who have long deserved it.

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OMG, the Mariinsky has added yet another performance to its BAM visit. Another Cinderella has been added for January 20th. Maybe we will really get to see Pavlenko in the leading role. Wouldn't that be terrific? Pavlenko ...

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NYCB is eating up a lot of Haglund's credit line this Nutcracker season. The December 27th performance will feature Lauren King opposite Jared Angle, and the December 28th matinee includes debuts of Ashly Isaacs and Taylor Stanley as Sugarplum and her Cavalier. We wouldn't miss either for the world.

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From India.com's news feed:

Kiev: The Kiev State Ballet School has refused to accept money raised by Moscow`s Bolshoi Theatre after it emerged the star dancer at a charity gala had supported the annexation of Crimea.

At the Bolshoi last Sunday, some of the world`s leading dancers from Russia, Ukraine and France put on a dazzling performance to raise money for renovations at the Kiev ballet school. 

The show was organised by prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova, who was born in Ukraine and trained at the school, which she said was in dire need of repair.

. . .

"The Ukrainian artists who participated in the concert appear to not be aware that the Russian dancer S. Zakharova signed a letter supporting the politics of (Russian President) Vladimir Putin in Crimea," wrote the school`s director Ivan Doroshenko in a letter published on the Ministry of Culture`s website on Saturday. 

"Otherwise, they would never have agreed to take part in this provocative farce."

. . .

"The money raised during this concert is not comparable to the thousands of dead, the hundreds of thousands of square kilometres of territory, the tens of billions of hryvnias that Ukraine has lost," said Doroshenko, referring to the bloody conflict in the east of the country where the government has been fighting Russia-backed separatists for the past eight months. 

"Needless to say, the choreography school of Kiev renounces the `help` of Svetlana Zakharova," he concluded, while accepting that the school was still in need of help for rebuilding work.

 

 

Check this out in Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair has a humongous dance article by Laura Jacobs in its January issue – on stands now. The historical account of Balanchine's The Nutcracker at New York City Ballet features fabulous pictures and great quotes from the old-timers, like:

“When we first lit (the tree) at the State Theater we had a call from Con Edison on the West Side,” says (Barbara) Horgan. “There seemed to be a surge consistent with our performances—the candy and all that. They could always tell when we were doing Nutcracker because we pulled so much power.”

This production continues to pull power in so many ways and is one of the great joys of Christmas in New York. Last night the production was featured on ABC World News Tonight's "Made in America" segment. Yes, that little Nutcracker toy from Act I is made in America as are all the dancers.

 

observations 12/10

A new authentic Cuban ballet school with a pre-professional program has popped up in a western suburb of Chicago.

The Alma Dance School in Wheaton had its grand opening last week. Its directors are Vilma Machin, who danced in the Cuban National Ballet for six years and subsequently the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami, and Guillermo Leyva, who danced with Ballet Monterrey, Joffrey Ballet, and Ballet de Camaguey in Cuba under the direction of Fernando Alonso among other places.

This is a serious school that offers elementary through pre-professional levels including pointe, partnering, repertoire, and character classes. No drop-in classes permitted; girls must wear pink tights and alignment belts.

Parents in the western 'burbs of Chicago should definitely check out this school. The Cuban curriculum has produced some of the world's greatest dancers, and is not a bad place for a student to start.

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ABT opens its "Never again" Nutcracker season at BAM this Friday before fleeing town to the west coast where the competition isn't so stiff. Their television commercial for the run features none other than YURIKO KAJIYA as Clara with Alex Hammoudi. LOL, that's right, just continually remind everyone of the company's artistic losses.

With Alexei Ratmansky off-site and unable to coach, it appears that Kevin McKenzie is dumbing down the steps – again. This was confirmed in the WSJ video clip from Misty Copeland's relentless barrage of "I'm the greatest star and you won't even know I can't do the steps because I'll just change them" PR. What is the problem with picking up both feet under the body, extending one leg forward, and bending backward while looking upward? Yes, it is a hard step to do, but every Clara in this production has made the effort (with varying degrees of success) – but they have made the effort. Why must Misty Copeland change the choreography to a big forward lunge that is infinitely safer but completely out of style and changes the character of the choreography? And doesn't anyone on ABT's artistic staff pay attention to this dancer's big shoulders that ride up two inches when she throws them back behind her ears? The artistic staff seems to be so used to seeing her faults that the faults have become invisible.

And pardon the inelegance of this question, but since when is giving away free tickets the equivalent of attracting new audiences to ballet, and when is the fraud going to stop?

 

observations 12/7

What are you waiting for?

Tickets for Christopher Wheeldon's An American in Paris, starring Robert Fairchild, at the Palace Theatre on Broadway went on sale to the general public yesterday. There will be wide interest for this show among tourism companies, and tickets will go fast. It won't be like Nutcracker tickets where you can always get some kind of a seat at the last minute.

Buy now or be sorry.

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Single tickets to the Mariinsky Ballet at BAM go on sale to the general public tomorrow. Don't wait to buy for these performances either or you'll be stuck empty-handed.

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The Clive Barnes Foundation announced its nominees for the foundation's fifth annual awards presentation which will occur on January 26th. A selection committee (per website: Alexandra Ansanelli-on hiatus, Siobhan Burns, Diana Byer, Frank DiLella, George Dorris, Barbara Hoffman, Arthur Mitchell, Patrick Pacheco, James Sutton, Valerie Taylor-Barnes Damian Woetzel-on hiatus, and Craig Wright) chose the nominees.

This year's dance nominees are Christoper Bloom (Ballet Hispanico), Russell Janzen and Harrison Ball (NYCB), and Devon Teuscher (ABT). All are truly outstanding dancers. But those who saw Devon Teuscher perform the Fairy Godmother solo in Frederick Ashton's Cinderella last year know that Clive Barnes would have spent an entire review extolling the virtues of her performance.

 

observations 12/1

The Mariinsky Ballet has added a Sunday, January 25, 3:00 pm "Chopin: Dances for the Piano" performance to its BAM schedule, possibly due to demand. Sometimes It's hard to gauge demand for BAM performances because they engage in the practice of blacking out seats to make it look like there is a greater demand than there is. Whatever the reason, that's good news about the added date.

There is no indication (yet) that the added performance will have a different cast than the one on January 24th.

Single tickets went on sale today to BAM members. General ticket sales begin on December 8th.

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One of our Washington, DC Haglund'eelers was recently in Sydney, Australia and caught a performance of ABT's Gillian Murphy dancing Nikiya in the Australian Ballet's new La Bayadere opposite Kevin Jackson. The production is by Houston Ballet AD Stanton Welch, who was long associated with the Australian Ballet as a performer and resident choreographer.

Thanks to JN for sending along these photos to share with everyone. She's the only one around here who will have had the opportunity to see Gillian's Nikiya this season. ABT has slotted Gillian only as Gamzatti for the spring Met Season while giving away four performances of Nikiya to guest artists and two more to an import. Only two of the eight performances of ABT's La Bayadere will be led by a true ABT ballerina in the leading role of Nikiya.

Bows with Gillian, Kevin Jackson (Solor) and Laura Tong (Gamzatti):

A better picture of Laura Tong's costume:

Laura Tong as Gamzatti with the Raja:

This poster outside the front of the Sydney Opera House depicts soloist Robyn Hendricks. JN saw her dance the role of the 3rd Shade at Gillian's performance and said that she was very impressive.

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Speaking of Stanton Welch, he has scheduled Yuriko Kajiya and Jared Matthews to dance the Act II PdD from Giselle at Houston Ballet's December 5th Jubilee of Dance in Houston. Thanks for this heads-up from Haglund'eeler Patricia.

Lucky Houston.

They're going to go crazy.

Watch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

NYCB – The Nutcracker 11/30 eve

What a glorious Sunday evening at The Nutcracker! The performance was so filled with magic and dazzling dancing that at its conclusion some in the audience were saying Let’s come again.

Rebecca Krohn, Amar Ramasar, and Abi Stafford as the Sugarplum Fairy, Her Cavalier, and Dewdrop gifted performances of such elegance and beauty that we’re hoping Santa will put them on the Nutcracker schedule at least one more time before the end of the year.

Here were artists with the refinement and opulent musicality that one dreams of seeing at each Nutcracker performance. When Dewdrop began her difficult series of releve turns in place, she looked not like a trickster but like a music box ballerina easily rotating in the middle of all the sparkling jewels. Sugarplum and Her Cavalier swirled like smooth candy in the making – their classical lines so complimentary, their joy so genuine, and their sense of humility in their technical accomplishments so refreshing.

Meagan Mann’s Coffee was a captivating brew with a hint of cinnamon. Boy, did the house get quiet when she and her bells slinked onto the stage. Anthony Huxley lit up the festivities as Candy Cane. This man is growing as an artist at an exhilarating speed; it will only be a matter of time before he is lighting up all of Manhattan. Ashley Laracey’s Maripan Shepherdess was exquisite with crystalline clear pointes. She will be debuting as Dew Drop at the December 10th matinee. The children’s cast was the same as on opening night, but thankfully, Rocket Raccoon stayed clear of the area.

There was charm in the unexpected on Sunday, too. Following a noisy slap of Snowflake arms, somebody's snowballs came flying downstage center and landed like they were ready to take their solo bows. And when Marie took her bow at the end of the Snow Scene, she made a nice one-handed catch of her own crown as it slipped off her head.

The H.H. Pump Bump Award, a Jimmy Choo design that illustrates less is more, is bestowed upon Rebecca Krohn, Amar Ramasar, and Abi Stafford for their perfectly pitched performances on Sunday evening.