Haglund's Heel

Program reminder: Paquita livestream on Sunday

The Bavarian State Opera Ballet will be livestreaming a performance of its brand new Paquita, as reconstructed and refurbished by Alexei Ratmansky, on Sunday 1/11 at noon Eastern time (6pm Central European Time). Here is the link which, historically speaking, has not always worked perfectly in the U.S. for other of the presentations at Bayerische Staatsoper:

http://streaming.staatsoper.de/

If the link doesn't work, go to the link below and scroll down halfway to the instructions and technical requirements for the livestream. You can even perform a little "pre-test" prior to the live transmission just to make certain you are A-okay:

https://www.staatsoper.de/en/staatsopertv.html

Casting info is here:  https://www.staatsoper.de/en/productioninfo/paquita.html

 

observations 1/6

Thanks much to MRR for this unofficial tip on ABT's Costa Mesa casting for the new Sleeping Beauty that he received from an acquaintance who is attending:

Tuesday, March 3 at 7:30pm - Vishneva/Gomes
Wednesday, March 4th at 7:30pm - Murphy/Whiteside
Thursday, March 5 at 7:30pm - Hee Seo/Stearns
Friday, March 6 at 7:30pm - Herrera/TBA
Saturday, March 7 at 2pm - Boylston/Gorak
Saturday, March 7th at 7:30pm - Vishneva/Gomes
Sunday March 8th at 2:00pm - Hee Seo/Stearns
Sunday, March 8th at 7pm - Vishneva/Gomes

It's interesting that Vishneva is shown to be dancing so many performances, particularly back-to-back on Saturday and Sunday evenings. What a nasty, nasty shame that Sarah Lane has been excluded from the Auroras for these premiere performances. And honestly, what an artistic compromise it is to plant such an unclassical, unappealing dancer as Boylston in Petipa's most exquisite jewel. Maybe this is just preliminary casting being thrown-up ;-) at the area market in order to have something out there when single tickets go on sale this coming Sunday. No Sarah Lane, no Stella Abrera, no Veronika Part as Auroras. Cheat. Cheat. Cheat.

Update 1/7: ABT's website now shows the Sunday 3/8 evening cast as Murphy & Whiteside.

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Interesting news from Sarasota Magazine that Joe Volpe, the retired GM of the Metropolitan Opera, has joined the Board of Directors of Sarasota Ballet. Volpe and his wife, Jean, who sits on ABT's Board have long had ties to the Sarasota area and are now official snowbirds on Longboat Key along with their 32 ft Pursuit yacht.

Says Joe: "My wife is not a beach person. My hidden agenda was to get involved with the ballet and maybe Jean would find [moving to] Florida a lot more acceptable. It's all working; we're quite excited about it."

Says Jean: "Iain Webb is building a wonderful company. I came down for the Ashton Festival and there were people there from all over the world."

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The Mariinsky Ballet's casting is starting to show the typical signs of late-date fraying. Daria Pavlenko has been scratched from Cinderella. What a disappointment. Then there are the three evenings of the faux-Mariinsky ballerina Oxana Skorik who not many are interested in seeing. Her Swan Lake is the most poorly sold so far; and her rep program that does not include Lopatkina is not doing so well either.

 

observations 1/1

As of this moment, the Mariinsky Ballet's performance of Ratmansky's Cinderella on January 20th will be danced by Nadezhda Batoeva and Vladimir Shklyarov. Ms. Batoeva has been with the Mariinsky since graduating from the Vaganova Academy in 2008 and is a Second Soloist who has danced a lot of featured roles, including Cinderella. This, according to the Mariinsky website; the BAM website still shows the performance as TBA.

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Here is the link to watch for signing up for the NYC municipal ID that will get you (and in many cases, your guests) into lots of free stuff offered by 33 cultural institutions including NYCB, many museums, Carnegie Hall, Botanic Garden and on and on and on. (ABT is not a participant.) Of course, IDNYC is just for NYC residents.

In extending this offer to all city residents, the city hopes to de-stigmatize its effort to bring undocumented immigrants out from hiding and into mainstream life where they can function, prosper, and of course pay taxes (especially that all important social security tax) rather than struggle to get by on sub-minimum wages paid by a cheating business owner who is hiding them and expoiting their vulnerabiltiy while not paying his share of unemployment and social security taxes. Haglund knows that he's not the only old gray geezer balletomane who needs the social security system to last a few more years.

Everyone who lives in the city and supports its great culture should support this inititative and sign up the whole family (everyone 14 years old and older). Then, sign up for every benefit from every participant organization and go crazy trying to take advantage of all the free cultural opportunities. Go crazy trying to visit 33 cultural institutions multiple times this year.

IDNYC means easy access to culture for a lot of people who could not otherwise afford access. Those who are actively concerned (or pretending to be concerned) about the limited access to the arts for the city's less advantaged need to get busy and get everyone signed up.

Secondly, signing up and using the heck out of the benefits of the NYC municipal ID will result in a high measure of interest in the arts which could very well translate into greater government support. You know that NYC will be measuring the success of this program in cold hard numbers. If not many people take advantage of the arts when they are FREE, why should government agencies throw more tax money at the arts? If less advantaged families don't want to experience the arts when they are FREE, why should the government then give money to the arts organizations to reach out to less advantaged families?

Be counted for the sake of the arts in this city and sign up for the Municipal ID and all the organizations who are participating. It's not like NYC is asking for information about you that they don't already have. Oh, one thing more - if you were an actual paying member of any these organizations' patron programs from 2012 forward, you don't get the free deal for that organization. It makes perfect sense.

Sign up, be counted, help support the arts, and help the city with its immigration initiative. There are no losers in this plan, except perhaps for a few Republicans.

 

Sweeping out 2014

Let’s start with a few final Nutcrackers.

Haglund caught yesterday’s NYCB matinee which was the second performance for a crew of newbies. Emilie Gerrity as Sugarplum, Taylor Stanley as Her Cavalier, and Ashley Hod as Dewdrop were proof of the remarkable depth of talent in this company and the variety of stage personalities.

Emilie displayed a beautiful, creamy texture in her dancing. Her movement was unhurried but always on the music and glistened with energy. She was immediately likeable without being pushy, as they say in sales. We knew that Taylor Stanley was going to out-cavalier nearly everyone. So handsome with princely authority and graciousness, he showed great confidence in Emilie while always being spot-on with his hands when she needed him. He acquitted his variation well, but could have used a brisker tempo for the turns in a la seconde. Ashley Hod was gorgeous as Dewdrop. Her limbs are extraordinarily long – really, really long – and she seemed to have them well under control. When those legs extended in a saute de chat, they were quite the beautiful sight. None of the difficult tricks were a problem for her, and she tossed them off with a warm, genuine smile.

Unity Phelan and Silas Farley poured spiced brandy into their Hot Chocolate. Alexa Maxwell could have used some in her Coffee although she managed the choreography very well. Claire Von Enck as the main Marzipan Shepherdess got the steps, but didn’t present with the polish and authority that Alina Dronova and Erica Pereira did earlier in the season. One of the highlights of the afternoon was Harrison Coll’s Candy Cane.  Haglund is loving this dancer more and more. He seems ready to explode with energy every time he is on stage and has an engaging stage personality. Not everyone who debuted in this role this year cleared the hoop, but Coll made it look easy.

Haglund also caught the second performance of Lauren King and Jared Angle. Teresa Reichlin substituted for Tiler Peck as Dewdrop. Lauren showed great progress in this role, and seemed to relish the freedom that came with having such a fine partner. She held the stage and the attention of the audience magnificently. Her technique was secure, and she danced with more spaciousness than in the past. Jared was quite wonderful as a partner, but oy, those turns in (far from) a la second with a flexed foot were horrendous. As the saying goes, "You grew that leg; now lift it.” It’s really time for Jared to walk away from this particular role.

Erica Pereira and Anthony Huxley shone brilliantly as Sugarplum and Cavalier earlier in the season. Triumphant might be a more appropriate description. First, the pairing of the two dancers was exquisite, if not perfect. She made him all the more handsome; he made her all the more elegant and grownup. Erica built the energy and excitement into her role gradually so that when she hit and held her glorious arabesque balance following the tough promenade in the PdD, the audience went bonkers and roared as the two dancers finished off with a magnificent fishdive that was a bold exclamation point to their very significant artistic statement. Both dazzled in their solos, but together they were magnificent. Haglund hopes to see this pairing a lot more in 2015.

So, 2014 is behind us, and we’re as thankful for that as not.

The highs included:

Yuriko Kajiya and Jared Matthews in Giselle with Houston Ballet, and Yuriko’s moving Prayer variation in one of her final appearances in Coppelia with ABT.
Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild in Who Cares.
Our Trumpeter Swan, Veronika Part, as Odette/Odile.
Denis Rodkin as Spartacus.
Maria Kowroski and Tyler Angle in the rebirth of Chaconne.
Stella Abrera’s triumphant and exquisitely danced performances with Alex Hammoudi in Ratmansky’s Nutcracker.
Rebecca Krohn, Amar Ramasar, and Abi Stafford in Balanchine’s Nutcracker.
Anthony Huxley in everything he danced.

Most interesting nights at the theater included:
Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures at an Exhibition for NYCB.
Edward Watson at the Joyce Theater in The Metamorphosis.
Angelin Preljocaj’s Spectral Evidence at NYCB.

The year’s cinema highlights included:
The Bolshoi’s presentations of Ratmansky’s Lost Illusions, Pierre Lacotte’s phenomenal Marco Spada, and their incredible, unmatched Nutcracker by Grigorovich with Denis Rodkin and Anna Nikulina.
The Royal Ballet’s presentation of Sleeping Beauty with Sarah Lamb and Steven McRae.

Thankful to the internet for:
World Ballet Day in London, Sydney, Moscow, Toronto, and San Francisco.
Veronika Part and Jared Matthews in Ratmansky’s Seven Sonatas at the Mariinsky Festival.
A glimpse of Veronika’s Giselle at the Mariinsky Theatre.
A glimpse of Stella Abrera’s Giselle at Ballet Philippines.

The clearest example of best and worst:
Best: all casts of Duo Concertant at NYCB
Worst: all casts of Duo Concertant at ABT

Greatest sadness in ballet in 2014:
Losing Ivan Nagy.
The senseless departures of Yuriko Kajiya, Jared Matthews, Sascha Radetsky, Eric Tamm, and Luis Ribagorda from ABT that followed on the heels of the senseless departures of Roddy Doble, Simone Messmer, Joseph Phillips, and Irina Dvorovenko.

2014’s lows:
The long injury lay-offs of Ana Sophia Scheller, David Hallberg, and especially Jennie Somogyi.
ABT's continued over-reliance on inferior guest dancers and the marginalization of Sarah Lane and Stella Abrera, who McKenzie undoubtedly hopes he can finally get rid of this year.

Without a doubt, the worst of the worst in 2014 was the relentless propaganda from Misty Copeland with her false claims of victimization from racism, false claims of accomplishments, and substitution of media saturation for the hard work required to build a career honestly. Her twisting of Kevin McKenzie’s testicles to get principal castings that she neither deserved nor could perform better than her more deserving colleagues drove away support from all of ABT – now a disgusting cesspool of corrupt influence and declining artistic standards.