Haglund's Heel

NYCB 1/29 Concerto Broke-oh & The Goldberg Variations

New York City Ballet’s All Bach program of Balanchine’s Concerto Barocco and Jerome Robbins’ The Goldberg Variations opened last evening with a mix of inspired and flat dancing.

Concerto Barocco, which was led by Sara Mearns, Teresa Reichlen, and Ask la Cour, suffered from a lethargic pace and the two statuesque ballerinas' attempts to meet the speed sometimes looked effortful. In their defense, their legs are long and it takes more effort to get them up and down and around. Even considering that, the energy was low. Legs that extended to the back in low arabesques did not always have straight knees or uniform height. Coupes were not always in sync. The corps de ballet at times pushed like it expected a quicker tempo while at other times it seemed to luxuriate in not having to expend the customary wattage. This isn't how Concerto Barocco should be.

It’s time to up the amps in this ballet. We have yet to see Ashley Bouder and Tiler Peck dance the leads. Wouldn’t it be thrilling to see them take on this ballet together, and then in the following performance in the same week switch roles? Talk about the potential for electricity! While these two magnificent ballerinas are at their peaks, we need them to set as many new standards as possible. And we need to see them in Concerto Barocco before people start calling it Concerto Broke-oh.

Haglund wonders if Jerome Robbins might have been looking over his shoulder at Twyla Tharp when he set his ballet The Goldberg Variations in 1971 to Bach’s theme and 30 variations for piano. Tharp, a classically trained musician, had just tackled Bach with her curious Fugue (1970) a few months earlier. Fugue was comprised of 20 variations based on Bach’s The Musical Offering but performed without its accompaniment. It was also during this period that Tharp created The One Hundreds in which she had 107 dancers perform one hundred 11-second sequences of experimental choreography. Whatever she did at that time made news whether it involved getting crowds of non-dancers to try out her moves in an auditorium or performing in Central Park. Robbins would eventually approach Tharp, at the suggestion of Balanchine who had by then died, to collaborate on Brahms’ Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel. And of course, the two choreographers shared an admiration for Philip Glass; Robbins tickled the dance world with Glass Pieces in 1983 and Tharp rattled it with In The Upper Room in 1986.

So maybe The Goldberg Variations was Robbins’ effort to delve into Bach's architecture in the cerebral way that Tharp, the experimental force of the day in dance, had done so successfully. Ah, well. It’s a really long piece of music that doesn’t have much of an arc to help sustain choreography for an hour and twenty-four minutes. Cameron Grant played it beautifully, however, and there were a few times when Haglund was tempted to close the eyes and just listen instead of watching the ballet.

This was not choreography that thrilled, put you on the edge of your seat, or made you weep. This was “see the music” choreography that illustrated the circular evolution of Bach’s creation. It began with a theme danced by Faye Arthurs and Zachary Catazaro in court-like costumes. They also brought the ballet to its close having changed (evolved) into modern day dancewear - like the Uncola, the Uncostume of tights and skirted leotard.

Most of the dancers who performed the fourteen principal roles in this ballet were dancing them for the first time and exhibited great joy and energy. Abi Stafford with Daniel Applebaum and the charismatic Joseph Gordon, and Lauren Lovette with the brilliant Anthony Huxley and Taylor Stanley performed Part I. The men wore earth toned Uncostumes of tank unitards with shirts; Abi and Lauren wore skirted leotards in spring green and pinkish, respectively. The choreography wasn’t unappealing. It’s just that, like the Bach music, it did not vary in texture and intensity and it finally became tiring to watch.

Part II was led by Sterling Hyltin & Jared Angle, Maria Kowroski & Tyler Angle, and Tiler Peck & Gonzalo Garcia who were dressed in pastel dancewear. Lovely PdDs from everyone and sensational variations from Tyler and Tiler. All of the dancers eventually “evolved” into more sophisticated ballet costumes – the men in coats, the ladies in tulle. But even with these fabulous dancers on the stage, it became tiring to watch this ballet – we may have already said that.

All in all, it was an okay evening. We’re going to save the HH Pump Bump Award for a future performance.

observations 1/30

ABT slipped another guest artist's name into the spring Met schedule without even so much as a whisper of an announcement. Denys Nedak will dance in Veronika Part's La Bayadere. Still unannounced are The Poet in two Les Sylphides at The Met and Paloma Herrera's Prince Desire in her Sleeping Beauty performance in Orange County. We could probably make a good guess, though. With both David Hallberg and Herman Cornejo sidelined with injuries, who knows what the spring season casting will actually end up being. Buyer beware.

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The Sarasota Ballet has created a brand new $1 million club for donors called the Pavlova Society and they have members!

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Haglund is anxious to dive into this book that came today. Hope it's as good as the cover. You can buy it here.

observations 1/28

According to Sputnik news source, this week the Mariinsky Ballet will discuss with the Kennedy Center the programing plans for its 2016 visit which Yury Fateev said would occur around the same time next year. He said that there is the possibility that the length of the engagement will be increased.

Haglund's vote would be to bring La Sylphide, Raymonda, and Giselle but his old bones have the feeling that The Great Gatsby might get thrown into the mix for 2016.

Fateev also stressed that the Rite of Spring was requested by the Kennedy Center for this year's program.

The Brookyln engagement was so successful; why wouldn't they want to come back again next year?

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Simone Messmer will perform with Tom Gold Dance on March 2 and March 3. We're not sure yet, but we think this might take place at the Kaye Playhouse. Details forthcoming.

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A little update to today's observations:

Tonight as the Mariinsky Ballet performs in Washington DC to music played by the Kennedy Center Orchestra, its own orchestra will perform at Carnegie Hall in a program of Shchedrin, Tchaikovsky, and Prokofiev which will be broadcast/streamed live by medici tv. Here's the link for the 8PM performance tonight. Gergiev conducts. Denis Matsuev is the pianist.

 

Mariinsky Ballet – Chopin: Dances for Piano 1/24

It has been a long time, if ever, since Haglund has sat through an entire evening of ballet during which the musical responsibility fell to a single piano. Two pianos, yes, but a single piano in the pit? It turned out not to be as tough as anticipated, and there were only a few minutes when he wished he could have been wrapped up in the harmonies of the magnificent Mariinsky Orchestra.  

The Mariinsky Ballet’s final program of their visit to New York was a mix of choreographies by Michel Fokine, Benjamin Millepied, and Jerome Robbins all set to the music of Frederic Chopin.

Chopiniana, which we know better in its Western version as Les Sylphides, has long been identified with the Mariinsky Ballet. Its unparalleled corps de ballet carries the ballet with the unmistakable imprint of Agrippina Vaganova’s meticulous standards and styling. On Saturday evening, the company’s corps and soloists were a classic-lover’s sight to behold.

How perfectly Yana Selina interpreted her Waltz variation with softness and lilt in the arms and a gorgeous musicality. Washington DC is truly lucky to have the opportunity to see her dance the lead in Le Spectre de la Rose this week. When the Mariinsky Ballet allowed her to dance it during the 2008 tour to NY City Center, Selina was the highlight of all of the performances - all of them. The fantasy that she conveys in her dancing is infectious.

Oxana Marchuk’s Xenia Ostreikovskaya's Prelude variation offered the delicacy and stillness on pointe that one expects in a world-class performance. She, too, conveyed a believable sense of fantasy.

Our leads for the evening, however, Oxana Skorik and Timur Askerov, were less impressive. The Sylph danced and looked like a generic Russian-trained dancer along the lines of Polina Semionova with harshly etched features in face and limbs. Maybe this just wasn’t the right role for her, but she sure didn’t convey the Romanticism and beautiful Vaganova-based lyricism that we have come to expect in Mariinsky dancers who embody Sylph roles. Take a look at Altynai Asylmuratova and Konstantin Zaklinsky. This is a contemporary standard worth trying to equal. Skorik painstakingly executed every detail - but without nuance, without any sense of perfume, without any joy, and without any reason to make us like her performance. Askerov, tall and obviously strong, seemed somewhat nervous. He’s been more likable in other roles such as his Siegfried to Kondaurova’s Odette/Odile via cinema last year. As with Skorik, there was no particular beauty in his dancing and his landings from jumps were clunky.

Haglund was at the premiere of Benjamin Millepied’s Without in 2008 at the Joyce Theater when his company Danses Concertantes, a group made up of all ABT dancers plus Celine Cassone, presented an evening of Millepied’s choreography. At that performance, Maria Riccetto & Alex Hammoudi, Melissa Thomas & Thomas Forster, and Gemma Bond & Eric Tamm turned this ballet into the first clear and convincing evidence of Millepied’s potential as a choreographer. His penchant for imitating Jerome Robbins may have been clear, but there was more – a keen sense of lyrical phrasing, not overly-packed with detail but rich in sweep. There were the outlines of a story, but like so many emerging choreographers, he could not develop within the outlines.

The Mariinsky dancers brought an inherent elegance and style to Without and danced it impeccably except for an isolated fall by Margarita Frolova, who otherwise was a highlight of the piece for her vibrant, expansive dancing, and chic. Anastasia Matvienko and Konstantin Zverev made more of a story out of their central PdD than Haglund remembered from 2008, but it was still a little vague about what was going on except for the obvious loss of a life partner. Matvienko was a lovely dancer with theatrical qualities but didn’t come across as being more than a good soloist. She held nothing artistically unique that compelled one to watch her in this ballet or in her performance of Cinderella last week, which is a common problem for a lot of technically advanced dancers these days.

The final ballet, Jerome Robbins’ In The Night, illustrated where Millepied came up short. The three couples created vastly different characters and relationships, unlike the couples in Millepied’s work who all seemed to be telling the same vague story. Anastasia Matvienko and Filipp Stepin were a whirlwind of emotion. Viktoria Tereshkina and Yuri Smekalov were argumentative and comic. Yekaterina Kondaurova and Yevgeny Ivanchenko were grand elegance personified.

The formal evening length costumes, designed by Anthony Dowell, were both opulent and graceful. Kondaurova’s copper dress was magnificent with her copper colored hair. Haglund would love to know the story of how and why Anthony Dowell hooked up with Robbins to create the costumes for this ballet, but, oh, are we the richer for it. Every time Kondaurova and Ivanchenko left the stage, one waited for them to return. Their handsomeness was overpowering. Ivanchenko had more grace and effortless style in his partnering than we saw from anyone else in the Mariinsky’s lineup this time at BAM whether dancing in the Robbins ballet or as Siegfried with Yuliana Lopatkina. There was a confident generosity in his partnering that seemed to be missing from the upcoming generation of Mariinsky men.

The H.H. Pump Award, a Christian Louboutin stiletto of classic elegance that never goes out of style, is bestowed upon Yana Selina, for her lovely Waltz in Chopiniana.

NYCB on Balanchine's birthdayEven better with age

Don’t forget to save time to wander around the Dustin Yellin exhibit on the Promenade Level at New York City Ballet. The artistry in each glass cabinet is developed a little bit like the artistry of a dancer – by the slow, careful layering of the details of the art, slide upon slide, to build a sculpture of rich composition. Yellin layered 28 individual slides of glass for each cabinet, gradually deepening the color and adding more beautiful detail to each sculpture. Coincidentally, 28 is the age around which many ballerinas reach a point when their artistry becomes saturated with color, layer by layer, and a full picture of their gifts becomes clear.

Last night on the 111th birthday of George Balanchine, NYCB celebrated with a program of works that represented a few slides of perspective from the less abstract side of its co-founder.

The number 111 is said to have special significance – according to the card & palm reader who works from a table on the sidewalk outside the nail salon on upper 9th Avenue. She said that observing 111 could be a sign of great golden opportunity about to come your way. She wasn't kidding. The evening turned out to be golden in many ways.

Donizetti Variations, from 1960, received a joyous, impish performance from its foremost interpreters of the 21st century. As is her custom, Ashley Bouder challenged her partner to keep up with her blazing technique of fiery allegro and smoking hot turning ability. Joaquin De Luz, whose golf-like “handicap" when dancing with Bouder is a meaningful 8 years, is always up for game. He never gives less than 110% in any performance, and his benchmark is often much higher. And so, we were treated to a spectacular display of multiple turn sequences, flying pas de chats, huge coupe jetes, and other marvelous strokes of genius in the “take over the stage and house” performance of the night. At one point, De Luz made the audience chuckle when his uninhibited determination yielded a loud grunt as punctuation to a final double tour of a big variation.

The corps de ballet – Sara Adams, Alina Dronova, Emilie Gerrity, Megan Johnson, Claire Kretzschmar, Kristen Segin, Devin Alberda, Daniel Applebaum, and Troy Schumacher – seemed inspired by the spirit that Bouder and De Luz brought to the performance.

Sterling Hyltin debuted in La Valse (1951) opposite Jared Angle and gave a terrific first performance in a role that requires layering of nuance and drama over time. What came across most clearly was her pathological attraction to the decadence of the time and her complete inability to resist it. Her dancing, of course, was incredible. She let loose just as Janie Taylor, the most recent inhabiter of the role, would have done.

Ashley Laracey and Zachary Catazaro in the Fourth Waltz were a whole story unto themselves. Wow, does she wear an intoxicating perfume in this ballet. Catazaro looked very good, very dramatic; let’s hope that this dancer who has been plagued with injuries since his promotion to soloist stays on stage for the whole season. Lauren King was marvelous along with Antonio Carmena, too. She is another natural for this ballet with her unique sense of drama.

Overall, this was a wow-wow-wow performance of La Valse. All the ladies were swishing their tulle and pony tails with French ooolala and the men were as elegant as could be. Watching this from the rings was such a good reminder of the utter brilliance of the choreographer to convey the madness of the time through whirling patterns that looked completely out of control but which were in fact extremely tightly controlled. We’re so happy to see this ballet back this year.
 
Maria Kowroski and Tyler Angle delivered a dazzling performance of Chaconne. This piece to Gluck’s ballet music from the opera Orfeo ed Euridice showed that in 1976, Balanchine was still master-engineering innovative combinations and testing his ballerina’s mettle. Supported finger pirouettes en dehors, en dedans, en dehors, en dedans are an insane request to make of a ballerina, but last night, Kowroski and Angle made the sequence look ridiculously simple. The whole PdD was an example of masterly coordination of supremely difficult choreography performed as though it were a stroll in the park.

Erica Pereira and Anthony Huxley made a good start with the soloists’ PdD, but then ran into a little bit of trouble with the final promenade. For a few confused moments, it appeared that Erica might have to push herself around in a circle while on pointe with her leg behind her. With a little more notice, she probably could have done it. These two dancers were made for one another. In addition to being a physically attractive pair, the temperament that each reveals in his/her dancing is wonderfully compatible with the other one’s.

The corps de ballet in Chaconne shone brightly. Alina Dronova got to step out of line for a few sparkling phrases. She is such an energetic and likable dancer as is Megan Johnson who continues to mature. Both dancers also performed spiritedly in the corps for Donizetti Variations.

This is a tough decision as far as who gets the H.H. Pump Bump Award, because the evening was filled with so much extraordinary dancing from every level in the company. But we think that Maria Kowroski imbued Chaconne with a distinctive artistry that probably rivals the originator of the role. And so, this long, lean stiletto by Michael Antonio that shows off the foot instead of the shoe is bestowed upon her.

 

NYCB – A Night for Fine Art 1/20

NYCB's Art Series got off to a fine start tonight. The exhibit by Dustin Yellin is fantastic. Large glass cases contain marvelous sculptures made out of trash and other stuff you might see in a subway maintenance professional's collection instrument. Dustin apparently creates from the dustbin. But it is extraordinary.

Here is what the installation looks like from the tiers. Click on each picture to enlarge:

There are no name plaques in the exhibit; so, as yet, we don't know the name of each piece of art or what inspired the artist to create it. It would be helpful if NYCB would create an information handout that patrons can pick up when they mingle about on the promenade.

We're sure that this is a dancer:

Here's a close up of the dancer's abdomen:

Our complete guess is that this one was inspired by Kastchei and his sidekicks from Firebird:

Haglund's favorite:

The center of his stomach:

Totally trash and very cool.

Thought you might want to see the back of Ulyana Lopatkina's head as she was ordering a drink from the bar tonight. Wow, what a beauty. She was decked out in a chic Odile black outfit. We're sure that she enjoyed the program tonight.

The evening's all-Balanchine program included Serenade, Agon, and Symphony in C.

Erica Pereira made an impressive debut as the Russian Girl in Serenade. She had the swiftness of limbs, the joyous energy, and as always, the pristine technique that made highly complex matters like those fast single tour jetes that change directions look like play. The constant vague sniping about her by newspaper critics is really unwarranted. She might not be their cup of tea, but she is an accomplished, reliable soloist who is a joy to watch and whose artistry grows every time she lands on stage.

Sterling Hyltin and Teresa Reichlen performed the Waltz and Dark Angel roles. This isn't my favorite role for Sterling, and tonight it didn't look like it was her favorite either. She looked a bit fatigued. Tess had more energy, held her arabeques beautifully, and danced with her accustomed abandon. Robert Fairchild looked in good dance shape having recently returned from Paris where he performed in Christopher Wheeldon's new American in Paris. Previews open in New York on March 13th. You better believe that Haglund will be there. Wherever Fairchild was taking class while in Paris, it was a good one and seems to have lengthened his upper leg lines. The feet, however, were still floppy. Ask la Cour completed the cast and also seemed to be in great shape. His grand jete exit from the stage was huge.

The corps de ballet danced with glorious energy and abandon. For the most part, these were women who have been with the company for a while which made for an especially cohesive and confident performance.

Agon received a very strong reading this evening from everyone, but the standout performance came from Megan LeCrone who sliced through the choreography as sharply as Chef Morimoto slices through fish at the Chelsea Market. Maria Kowroski, Amar Ramasar, Andrew Veyette, Lauren King, Ashley Laracey, Devon Alberda, and Daniel Applebaum completed the cast.

The thrills in Symphony in C were delivered by Ashley Bouder in her debut in the First Movement with Chase Finlay who was fully focused on partnering Ashley but may have been a little unfocused on his own variations during which some of the pirouettes came unraveled. Otherwise, Chase looked great. But Ashley Bouder was phenomenal. Never mind the perfect technique, she found so much room in the music to shape the phrases distinctively that it was hard to believe that this was her debut in the section. She and Tiler Peck own the First Movement of this ballet. These two dancers are the only ones who accent the thrilling Fourth Movement combination that includes a single fouette so the working leg gets to second position on the beat instead of swimming up through the count to second position.

Sara Mearns and Jared Angle were stunning in the Second Movement although some of us wish her tutu could be tacked down so that the ballerina's ass doesn't moon the audience when she goes for the deep penche arabesque. The partnering was wonderfully secure and allowed Sara a great deal of freedom to push the movement as far as she wanted to take it. The speed of the finale was a bit of a problem for her, though.

The Third Movement, danced by Lauren Lovette (a debut) and Gonzalo Garcia, got off to a slippery start when Lauren skidded on the stage but luckily she saved herself from a disaster. Both performed well; Gonzalo's diagonal of saute grande ronde de jambe was quite nice.

Brittany Pollack and Adrian Danchig-Waring breezed through the Fourth Movement. Her traveling diagnonal of turns was fast and clean.

The evening's Pump Bump Award, a Christian Louboutin eco-trash stiletto worn by Beyonce, is bestowed upon Dustin Yellin and Ashley Bouder for providing the finest art of the evening.

Mariinsky Ballet – Swan Lake 1/16

Several times during Friday evening’s Swan Lake in which Ulyana Lopatkina danced the role of Odette/Odile, Haglund wondered whether the performance had been photoshopped. The degree of perfection in terms of – well, let’s summarize – in terms of everything that is important to a performance of Odette/Odile was nearly unbelievable.

First there was the perfect physical instrument – a 5’9” IMAX ballerina whose artistic resolution is the clearest on the planet at the moment and whose divine interpretation was pixelated from a palette of the most complex saturated colors. Bigger. Than. Life.

Then there was the unwavering conviction to academic principles, a faithfulness to the beauty of classicism – ballet’s scientific method that must be employed to reveal the truth within Petipa’s classics.

When Lopatkina made her first entrance as Odette in Act II, she did not repeat the mistake of Viktoria Tereshkina the night before who landed her grand jete with a loud thud. Rather, the force of the impact with the less than optimal stage floor was squeezed through her foot and ankle softening the landing after which her arms floated back behind her with a slight flutter. The entrance was magnificent. Lopatkina has so much length in the arms that when she gently touched the backs of her wrists together overhead in the iconic swan movement, she still maintained an elegant roundness in the port de bras.

Swan Lake is as much about what Odette/Odile does with her arms and upper body as with her feet and legs – a fact lost on those who are pushing American portrayals toward punchy, muscly exaggerated caricatures. While many American performers struggle – if they even try at all – to find the clear first position of the arms and coordinate everything else from it, that natural eloquence seems to be bred into each Mariinsky ballerina’s being. Every principal's, soloist's, and corps dancer’s wrists broke with the same gentle elegance. Every hand was shaped the same way in order to extend the line of the arm. The coordination was textbook perfect and amounted to a masterclass in why and how arms and hands matter in classical ballet.

Ms. Lopatkina gave a dramatically generous performance of Odette. Her limbs and bending torso communicated an unexpected vulnerability and sadness. At times she looked out toward the balcony with eyes pleading for help. The intimate setting of the BAM opera house allowed us such a close reading of her artistry that, again, details became visible as though on an IMAX screen.

As magnificent as her Odette entrance was for its sheer beauty, her arrival as Odile was equally magnificent for its unexpected and excited rush for game. Standing atop her pointes, she was a giant force of sparkling black beauty, red hair, and teasing eyes. Again, her coordination was supreme. The sequences of double pirouette, en dehors attitude turn that ended in plie had an element of reckless daring without an iota of caution or uncertainty. She was an all-powerful evil diva on the order of Maleficent who would toy with Prince Siegfried and then turn away from him disgusted. Finally, this glorious 41-year-old mother of a teenager who has come to epitomize the 21st century Mariinsky ballerina, sent Siegfried and the audience over the top with a blast of 32 fouettes (with 32 releves) that were performed on the proverbial quarter coin. All in all, a most impressive performance.

Yevgeny Ivanchenko as Prince Siegfried did all that he needed to make sure that Lopatkina gave an extraordinary performance. His interpretation of Siegfried was classic Kirov/Mariinsky in which the character was secondary to the ballerina’s role. There were no flashy dramatics or spontaneous improv that we have become addicted to in the West. Every step, every gesture, every brow movement was by the book and beautifully so. Ivanchenko conveyed the Prince’s melancholy with the type of understatement that one would expect from royalty. While the princesses from whom he was to select a wife danced joyfully, his slow but continuous gesturing at the side told his story of uncertain commitment. While it was easy to recognize in parts of his performance where his technique could have been stronger – the right arm in his preparations for double tours became vertical to his chest and the shapes of his grand jetes were a bit rough – this artist who has been dancing with the Mariinsky for 23 years retains beautiful classical lines and a velvety smooth texture in his dancing. Above all, his rapport with Lopatkina and their obvious joy in dancing together gave the performance an extra richness.

The Corps de Ballet did not disappoint. They were everything one expected to see in a Mariinsky corps but still snatched the breath away with their beauty. When the curtain rose on Act IV, the tableau of the groupings of swans by the lake was an exquisite geometry of port de bras lines crossing atop the circular shapes of the tutus. Again, to see this in the intimate setting of the BAM opera house was an exceptional opportunity. Of course, the close vantage point sometimes had its drawbacks. From his seat in the Mezzanine, Haglund observed all of the mechanical devices involved with the pretty scenery swans that swam across the back of the stage. Then there was the shoe sound bouncing off the stage floor….

What can be added to “perfect” for the four Cygnets? The sound of their shoes was perceptible also, but it was so narrow that it sounded like the shoes of a single dancer.

Among the national dances, Olga Belik and especially Boris Zhurilov stood out in the Hungarian Dance. Zhurilov is quite the charismatic dynamo, and as we saw yesterday in his Summer variation in Cinderella, he has some big technical chops, too.

This Joker character who shows up in various productions of Swan Lake sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. In this Mariinsky version, the character mostly worked because – aside from his spectacular dancing – he actually helped move the story along. He was charming in his effort to sell the attributes of each princess as the less-than-interested Prince walked down the line assessing them. Yaroslav Baybordin pulled off the character very well if occasionally mussing (but also saving) a landing from a jump.

The Mariinsky Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev sounded magnificent. Now and then, Maestro Gergiev tweeked the tempo oddly in an effort to help the dancers on stage look their best which didn’t always succeed, but overall, it was an enormous pleasure to hear the grand Tchaikovsky score played with the importance and drama that it deserved.

Haglund loves this production including the “happy” ending that has become a faux controversy. What’s the difference between Odette and Siegfried ending up together alive in the present or ending up cooing together in the Hereafter as in other productions? They’re both happy resolutions that occur after Von Rothbart meets his doom. The ripping off of Von Rothbart's wing and his death scene that followed were good theater.

We are very fortunate and grateful that the Mariinsky Ballet brought one of its most famous ballets with its most extraordinary interpreter to New York. As we know, those two events haven't coincided much in recent years. The H.H. Pump Bump Award, a glistening Borgezie Princess Constellation stiletto first position award with 1290 diamonds, goes to Ulyana Lopatkina.

Royal Ballet @ Lincoln Center June 23-28

And we're getting a fabulous mixed bill instead of the Don Q that the company is taking to Washington DC and Chicago, says NYT.

How perfect of the Royal Ballet, how considerate, and how completely understanding of them to come to Lincoln Center at precisely the perfect time so that we do not have to suffer through ABT's hideous week of Swan Lakes - (save 1-1/2 performances out of 8). Many of us could not be more happy nor more grateful.

Ashton's The Dream and MacMillan's Song of the Earth will comprise one program. McGregor's Infra, Scarlett's Age of Anxiety, and some Divertissements including the pas de deux from Wheeldon's Aeternum will be the second program.

Halleluja!

Joyce Theater, ChelseaRoyal Danish Ballet Principals & Soloists – 1/13

Lots of people in the world are fortunate enough to see great ballet but we in New York really take the cake. Where else can one see, in a single week, the best Bournonville dancers, the best Petipa dancers, and the best Balanchine dancers on the planet dance their masters' greatest works? We should feel guilty about our wealth and privilege of seeing the Royal Danish Ballet, the Mariinsky Ballet, and the New York City Ballet power up their greatest works for us all in a span of one week. But in true New Yorker fashion, most of us just complain about the cold. Well, it was cold yesterday – a double gloves day, to be sure.

But that didn’t stop everyone who could get a ticket from showing up at the Joyce Theater in Chelsea for the opening night of the program being presented by The Royal Danish Ballet: Principals and Soloists which is a small touring group of thirteen dancers put together by the young, charismatic Ulrik Birkkjaer, a principal dancer with the company since 2009. Haglund first saw the RDB as a touring group when Flemming Flindt brought the same type of program to Cincinnati more than a half century ago. It didn’t matter then and it didn’t matter last night that the music was recorded or that the stage was bare of scenery.

The Danes brought a delicious program of small bites – a sampler plate of the most flavorful Bournonville forretter. This was no basic rye bread and herring evening, either. The six excerpts presented spanned 45 years of Bournonville’s creative output and included the pas de sept from A Folk Tale, pas de deux from The Flower Festival in Genzano, Jockey Dance, Act II of La Sylphide, the pas de trois from Le Conservatoire, and Act III from Napoli.

With the exception of the wing loss, blindness, and ultimate death in La Sylphide, the whole evening was a very happy, witty, uplifting affair. No other company in the world has dancers whose feet are as flexible and articulate as hands. Watching Susanne Grinder travel from point to point could leave you spellbound if you focused on the soft bending soles of her shoes.

And all those en dedans pirouettes that finished (mostly) in fifth position – they’re always so much harder than ripping off multiple en dehors revolutions that end with the dancer falling off releve into fourth position. And those pique arabesques that rotated to a la seconde position and returned to arabesque, the true sautes ronde de jambe, the buoyancy of the batterie, pirouettes with the foot sur le coup-de-pied, the presenting hands in the port de bras, and the chasse contretemps where the back leg ended up in front – all performed with calm clarity and loving detail by the dancers. The precise use of the upper body with the eyes always either following the working leg or the presenting hands (as opposed to appearing to look in a mirror or throwing the chin at the audience) makes these dancers look among the most educated that we see in New York.

Gudrun Bojesen and Ulrik Birkkjaer were Haglund’s favorites in the Act II from La Sylphide. According to the program notes, James "falls in love with La Sylphide and follows her into the woods. She becomes his destiny and the cause of his breaking away from the bourgeois world to which he is about to commit himself“ by marrying Effie. It’s a little twist on the ballet’s commonly understood theme of James losing the wonderful life he could have had because he chose to chase after the unattainable. Ms. Bojesen, who has been with the company more than twenty years, was the ultimate romantic sprite who floated so gently from point to point that you fell under her spell right along with James. Birkkjaer, who danced in three of the six ballets, had wonderful ballon and airy jumps. He made it all look so effortless. RDB icon Sorella Englund's Madge cast a wide, wide spell with her incredible mime.

It’s not often these days that we see truly great classical ballet at the Joyce Theater which generally presents more contemporary programing, but we’re seeing it there this week. Thanks to Ulrik Birkkjaer for putting together this tour. He’s taking home the H.H. Pump Bump Award, a Camilla Skovgaard original which reminded Haglund of New York's new Calatrava Path Station.

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A couple of interesting cast changes for New York City Ballet's first week have been posted. Ashley Bouder will replace both Tiler Peck and Abi Stafford in the First Movement of Symphony in C for all performances during the first week. This will be her debut in the First Movement. Erica Pereira will replace Ashley as the Russian Girl in Serenade; it will be her debut. Lauren Lovette will make her debut in the Third Movement of Symphony in C a little earlier than expected, and will dance it opening night in place of Erica.

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It's baaaack!

NYCB Art Series. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.

This year everyone in the audience on the special Art Nights will receive a Dustin Yellin glass psychogeo-something-or-other as a commemorative souvenir. Yellin, a Brooklyn artist, will have his glass sculptures – "window sandwiches," he calls them – from his "ongoing Psychogeography series" installed in the theater as this year's Art Series exhibit which will be on display through the Winter Season. We can't wait to see how Yellin incorporates NYCB artistry into his own.

Here's a photo of part of Yellin's project from an article in Papermag:

Photo: Dustin Yellin

For the special Art Night performances on February 12, 19 and 27, all tickets are priced $29. As in previous years, the exhibit will have special non-performance hours during which the public may visit for free: February 12 through February 22 - 10am to 5pm Mon-Fri; 10am to noon Saturdays; 10am to 1pm Sundays.

It's only three years old, but this Art Series is turning into a must-attend event each year. Do not miss this exhibit or the fantastic winter season that begins on January 20th with a phenomenal program of Serenade, Agon, and Symphony in C.