Haglund's Heel

"A" is for ArticulationNYCB makes it as clear as black & white 4/28-29

During the first two days of its Balanchine Black & White week, New York City Ballet fielded nine masterpieces with such clarity, graceful force, joy, and supreme artistry that it suggested a new zenith in the company's evolution. Everyone is dancing better than ever. Everyone seems to know that his or her purpose on stage is to reveal the brilliance of the choreography and the music rather than an individual star. It has been a magnificent start to the spring season.

Let’s race ahead to talk about last evening’s debut by Adrian Danchig-Waring as Apollo. We have, for the past couple of generations, been the fortunate recipients of a string of Apollos who embodied interpretations of some of the extraordinary Apollos from Balanchine’s lifetime. But one interpretation has always been missing - until last night when Adrian gave us the muscular, wild full-force Apollo from the days of Edward Villella. It’s been a while since we’ve had an Apollo for whom the choreography was not a technical stretch, and Adrian used his nearly unbelievable coordination to create shapes that were so clear that at moments it seemed like we were seeing the choreography for the first time. In his body, Apollo’s story unfolded as if in bold black print on a crisp white page. It just can’t be that we only have three performances of Apollo this spring and it’s not on the schedule for 2015-16.

Apollo's muses, Tiler Peck as Terpsichore, Ashly Isaacs debuting as Polyhymnia, and Lauren Lovette as Calliope, personified their art forms beautifully. The PdD between Apollo and Terpsichore was unusually smooth in those places where one might expect some bumps, such as when Terpsichore alights upon Apollo’s neck and their arms gently swim in opposite directions. The only thing that might improve this performance relates to cosmetics. Apollo's hair and skin makeup appeared to be a single hue under the stage lights where more contrast might have been better.

Tuesday evening marked the return of two of Haglund’s favorite ballerinas, Jennie Somogyi and Ana Sophia Scheller, who have been absent from the stage for way over a year. Ana’s Sanguinic section with Tyler Angle in The Four Temperaments revealed an authority and competence that we haven’t seen since, well, since Jennie Somogyi last performed the role a couple of years ago. Although very different in their approaches to Sangunic – Ana is more brightly classical while Jennie always had that marvelously lowered center that made her movement so fierce-looking – each is equally thrilling. The evening’s Melancholic and Phlegmatic variations were finely danced by Gonzalo Garcia and Ask la Cour. Ashley Bouder’s Choleric had the right touch of pepper and prickle. We really need to see her in more leotard ballets. Lydia Wellington (subbing for Faye Arthurs) with Andrew Scordato, Lauren King with Allen Peiffer, and Emilie Gerrity with Cameron Dieck skillfully danced the ballet’s Theme section.

Episodes, to the music of Anton von Webern, has never been one of Haglund’s favorites, but his appreciation of it hit an all-time high on Tuesday evening. Originally a cooperative effort between Balanchine and Martha Graham, the Balanchine section was extracted long ago and has always been presented by itself as an entire ballet. It can be tough on an audience because the music is so challenging to follow and one often cannot tell which part of the music the dancer is being responsive to or counting.

When Megan LeCrone and Sean Suozzi danced the first section, Haglund got completely lost. Not their fault. His mental dexterity should have been warmed up by the fine performances of the similarly neo-classical Monumentum pro Gesualdo and Movements for Piano and Orchestra which Maria Kowroski and Ask la Cour delivered to start the evening, but the old brain synapses were not synapping like they should have been due to hours and hours of jury duty this week. The second section danced by Savannah Lowery and Jared Angle, an angular PdD of extreme positions and manipulation, showed off these two dancers particularly nicely. Savannah shares many of the qualities and characteristics of Sara Mearns which is why her matchup with Jared was so appealing. At times, the squiring around looked a bit effortful, but overall, it was very enjoyable to watch.

When Jennie Somogyi and Craig Hall appeared for the third section, it was like Episodes had just been wiped with Windex. The clarity of the shapes, the musical continuity, the supreme coordination between the two artists made these few minutes the highlight of the evening. The final section, Ricercata, led by Rebecca Krohn and Adrian Danchig-Waring gave Haglund his own episode of fizzy felicity. Wow, has Rebecca stamped this section with her own gorgeous musicality. Few dancers can exploit the beauty of the lines of the neck and head the way Rebecca does.

Tuesday night also included Concerto Barocco led by Sara Mearns, Teresa Reichlen and Justin Peck. Their performance was far more than just competent but the ladies tended to luxuriate too much when the violins called for a more precise quality of movement with much more precise shapes. What are we missing by not seeing Tiler Peck and Ashley Bouder as the two violins? These two would take this ballet into the stratosphere in terms of precision and artistry. Here’s hoping that we don’t have to wait much longer. The corps de ballet ripped this ballet with energy and precision. They danced it like it was an honor to do so.

Wednesday’s Agon, led by Maria Kowroski, Amar Ramasar, Rebecca Krohn and Andrew Veyette was electric from its first second to its last. Maria and Rebecca each showed a forceful confidence wrapped in subtle allure. Amar’s partnering was spot on, and Andy displayed such great attitude in his crazy solo which ended with him walking to the front of the stage for a bow.

Duo Concertant, short but brilliant, saw a new pairing of Ashley Bouder and Anthony Huxley in his debut. While it’s true that Ashley will make anyone look like a fabulous partner, Anthony really did have his hands in all the right places when the right time came. The speed and precision in the dancers’ solos was breathtaking. Anthony covers space at the speed of light.

Symphony in Three Movements closed Wednesday evening. Sterling Hyltin, in one of her best roles, picked through the piques, turns, and sissonnes at cyclone speed. Her partner Taylor Stanley made a terrific debut, partnering with both strength and finesse. The other lead couples – Savannah Lowery with Andrew Scordato and Erica Pereira with Daniel Ulbricht – along with the incredible 16 ladies in white leotards and five couples in black & white delivered a superb performance. Haglund can’t wait to see it again this week.

When one has so many favorite ballerinas, it can be quite overwhelming when so many of them show up on stage at the same time to dance. The last 48 hours have delivered more astonishingly great dance than some companies deliver in eight weeks. What we are most grateful for this week, however, is having Jennie Somogyi and Ana Sophia Scheller back. They gave inspiring performances and we want them to share the first H.H. Pump Bump Award of the season, a strappy walking boot which was inspired by the artists at DonJoy Orthopedics:

Garbage in, garbage out at ABTManipulation & misuse of unverified statistics to promote a faulty star strategy

How nauseating it was to observe the self-satisfied smirking of ABT’s chief financial officer, William Taylor, as he ticked off one false statement after another as justification for ABT’s secret “Star Strategy” during a taped interview on the campus of Babson College last October. The video of the interview, uploaded to YouTube in December, was abruptly yanked from public view this past week after being discovered by the dance community. A spokesperson at Babson College confirmed that ABT demanded that the video be removed from YouTube. The company clearly wants to cover up what Taylor had to say. Fortunately, Haglund and others had the opportunity to watch the whole thing and make notes before it was yanked down.

Taylor, speaking on behalf of ABT during Babson’s Arts and Business Conversations series, disclosed that in 2008, ABT made a conscious decision to force a business strategy upon the artistic model that would ultimately reduce performing opportunities for the company’s own artists and result in truncated careers and lower incomes. He called it ABT’s Star Strategy, a strategy that would become a secret plan to replace the company’s own artists with other dancers from other companies who ABT deemed had benefited from recent media attention that they believed could automatically be converted into enough ticket sales to justify sacrificing the careers of the company’s own dancers and destroying the company’s future artistic vessels. Taylor claimed that there were only a handful of these “stars” around who could drive ticket sales and that all the top companies vied for them – none of which he substantiated. Paris Opera Ballet, Mariinsky Ballet, and New York City Ballet are considered the top companies – all of them well above ABT – and none vie for, beg for, or otherwise need any of the guest artists that ABT claims it does.

ABT made the conscious decision to go out and buy artistic product created by others rather than replace the failing artistic and executive directors and the fumbling stumblebums who call themselves ABT’s marketing professionals. It was a conscious decision to save the captain of a sinking ship and his 1st mate while allowing the passengers to drown. It was the signaling by the members of ABT’s board that their friendship and devotion to Kevin McKenzie outweighed their sense of responsibility to the institution.

There is evidence everywhere on the internet (videos, published interviews, etc.) that confirms ABT never disclosed to the dancers that their reduction in stage time, loss of opportunities, loss of advancement and corresponding income were all part and parcel of a meticulously designed strategy by management and board to do just that – to create and reinforce a public perception that ABT’s own dancers were little more than the wall paper behind a few guest artists who were imported because they had managed to acquire a media following. In fact, ABT aggressively promoted the guest artists themselves while barely lifting a finger for the company’s own artists.

At approximately 11:24 into the interview, Taylor misrepresented that in the previous season, Diana Vishneva had opened a new production on a Monday night which saw sales of 105% while on Tuesday night a dancer who Taylor claimed “doesn’t quite have that star quality” only sold 40% of the house. Taylor emphasized the words Monday and Tuesday while widening his eyes to suggest how amazing it all was. But what a bald-faced lie.

The only new productions in the previous season were Cinderella and The Tempest, neither of which had Vishneva in the cast. In the preceding 2013 Met season, the only premiere was two-thirds of the Shostakovich Trilogy which opened on a Friday, not Monday. In addition to Vishneva, the opening cast included Semionova, Gomes, Cornejo, Messmer, Salstein, Hallberg, Boylston, Kent, Stearns, Osipova, and Vasiliev. Given that cast, what fool would conclude that it was Vishneva who filled the seats to 105% - if, in fact, they were filled with paying customers? What fool would expect that the premiere night of a production, regardless of the night of the week, would not automatically sell better than the second night? ABT could put Vishneva in a cast on a Monday premiere night and again on Tuesday night, and the premiere night would automatically sell better. What fool doesn’t know that a Monday night premiere would draw additional audience simply because New York City Ballet doesn’t perform across the Lincoln Center Plaza on Mondays?

At around 13:51 of the tape, Taylor told his audience that Osipova & Vasiliev departed ABT and went to the Royal Ballet. Yes, he clearly said that Vasiliev went to the Royal Ballet. Taylor then said that the following Met season ticket sales didn’t do as well; now “ we’re trying to bring them back,” he said. The 2014 season omitted Osipova, but we still had Vasiliev’s hams in Don Q, AND ABT imported Smirnova, Tereshkina, Shkylerov, Kotchetkova, Cojocaru, Jackson, Muntagirov, Matvienko, Watson, Lendorf, and Nedak. Cojocaru and Matvienko withdrew because of injury, but ABT still employed 10 so-called star guest artists and still couldn’t achieve sales as good as the year before. Why were any of these people invited back? Taylor didn’t volunteer any explanation as to why his secret star strategy with 10 so-called stars, including Vasiliev, didn’t maintain sales. Based on his strategy, one would have expected sales to actually improve over the previous year.

In discussing the so-called stars that ABT hires, Taylor explained how they had already built up their reputations through the media and he said that ABT didn’t have anyone like that. He quickly added with throat giggling glee and a knowing nod of the head “except for Misty.” Clearly, Taylor and ABT’s board and management fully approve of Copeland’s methods of attracting attention - from her book full of undocumented accusations, aspersions, and lies about her circumstances and accomplishments, to her provocative photos including those of her bare tits and ass that she distributed to her underage minor fan base on Instagram, to her full-blown exaggerations about her own importance, to her disrespect of her colleagues whom she calls underdogs, to her campaign that is designed to take the focus off of her actual dancing ability. ABT is so enamored of Copeland's ability to flaunt herself that they continually engage her personal agent to run the media for the ABT galas. For every gala, Copeland is featured prominently whereas the other soloists with whom she must compete are blacked out from media coverage or given a minimal appearance. The agent invites celebrities to the gala who have a financial or social investment in Copeland to further raise her profile on the occasion. In addition, Copeland's agent has wormed her way onto the advisory board for ABT’s Project Plie and has unfettered access to both artistic and administrative management for promoting her client. “Oh, Kevin, you have to promote her. You don’t understand what she means to our community. Please, please, please…” –  (add tears, promises of contributions, maybe even a peek under the blouse.)

It just doesn’t seem to matter how badly or how un-star-like Copeland’s actual dancing is. The bar has been set so low for her by ABT, by the media, and by a few supporters that anything she does correctly is deemed miraculous. It just doesn’t seem to matter that she is and always has been the weakest dancer in the soloist ranks. It just doesn’t seem to matter that choreography has to be dumbed down for her. It doesn’t seem that she has the will or the smarts to accomplish her goals honestly, nor does it matter to her. Sadly, she pursues media coverage instead of pursuing the balletic technique and aesthetic that elude her.

But let’s get back to Taylor who admitted that ABT couldn’t make its Nutcracker at BAM financially successful. The moderator pointed out that nearly every ballet company has a Nutcracker and that they are always cash cows, but ABT’s lost money. Taylor replied that it was because they could not charge the prices in Brooklyn that they needed to charge. He didn’t explain, however, why so many $20 and $30 seats stayed empty. He offered that ABT was moving the Nutcracker out to Orange County, California which he described as a very wealthy community where they will be able to charge the prices they need to charge. Yes, and it's 74% white and 2% black whereas Brooklyn is 42% white and 34% black. So much for ABT’s dedication to its vaunted Project Plie.

Taylor stated multiple times how he had the numbers, the statistics, to prove that the secret “star strategy” worked. But he offered no explanation as to how his numbers accounted for the popularity of company dancers cast alongside the so-called star, or the effect of what is concurrently on the stage at NYCB, or the actual programing content, or the effect of the day of the week, or the effect of the company’s own advertising of guest artists and its corresponding absence of advertising of its own dancers. In short, it’s all a secret because the strategy would not stand up to independent scrutiny nor would it conform to the type of care and nurturing that a board of directors of a non-profit is responsible for delivering.

ABT has become a cesspool of corrupt influence and bungling business practices all simmering under a cover of secrecy.

How did this even get into the news?

Fifteen-year-old Gearóid Solan has been accepted into the upper level of the Royal Ballet School at Covent Garden beginning with the fall term having received a waiver to the minimum entrance age requirement of sixteen.

• He’s Irish – as in born, bred, and living in Ireland. In fact, he’s the first Irish boy to be accepted by the senior school at the Royal Ballet in 30 years (per the Irish Independent online edition).
• He credits his mum with pushing him forward.
• He’s presently searching for a grant to offset the €41,000 annual cost for tuition and accommodation. He’ll have to cook for himself, though, when he gets there.
• His role models are Carlos Acosta and Ivan Vasiliev.
• Nobody at his academic school bullied him for being a ballet dancer.

We have to ask again. How did this get into the news?

Some PR agent needs to get a hold of this kid and show him the ropes on how to get his victimization some attention. There’s money to be made in complaining about the decades of discrimination that the Royal Ballet has dealt Irish artists. There’s money to be made in trashing mum for holding him back (surely there’s some incident somewhere). There’s money to be made in exaggerating the family’s downtrodden financial circumstances and suffering. There’s money to be made in complaining about how Carlos and Ivan are his role models, because there aren’t any Irish male stars in the Royal Ballet to look up to. And there is a heap, a huge heap of attention waiting for him at The New York Times if he will just think real hard and come up with an instance where the kids at school teased and belittled him for dancing.

Judging from the attention to form and detail that the young Mr. Solan shows in his port de bras in the brief clip of an early performance with the Irish National Youth Ballet attached to the second link below, we think he’s going to do more than just fine over the next three years. And if anyone hears that Mr. Solan has a Go Fund Me or other such effort on the web, please let us know so that we can pop a few coins in and pass the word along. It’s always nice to support a non-complainer.

http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/stage/ireland-s-ballet-boy-1.2187743
http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/theatre-arts/irish-boy-15-first-in-30-years-to-be-accepted-by-prestigious-royal-ballet-covent-garden-london-31172359.html

The crime of waste at ABT

 

How does McKenzie sleep at night? How can he continue to deny ABT's audience the opportunity to see the glorious Stella Abrera perform Giselle, the role that she was destined to dance and has danced to international acclaim, while he soils ballet's most important classic with muck season after season? The horsey, slovenly, homely dancing of Boylston; the incompetence of Kent who will weep all season long and drag her kids out on stage at every opportunity as some kind of protection from criticism for staying a decade too long; the paint-drying dullness and instant fatigue-inducing of the technically impaired Seo; the empty, mechanical, artless waste of Semionova; the manic slop of Oslopiva — all of these nobodies, has-beens, and can-never-bes soiling the Met stage while one of the company’s most important artists is stuck trying to make a hometown career out of doing an excerpt during a lecture-demo on a postage stamp-sized stage to the academic tinkling of a piano? Why doesn't McKenzie do everyone a favor by stepping off the curb in front of a speeding import.

 

observations 4/16

Now here's a book that Haglund couldn't pre-order fast enough on Amazon after reading this morning's NYT review of it in the Music section. Reynold Levy, who left his job in 2014 as President of Lincoln Center after a dozen years has written a tell-all book. Look out.

"They Told Me Not to Take That Job: Tumult, Betrayal, Heroics, and the Transformation of Lincoln Center" comes out on May 12th. Amazon claims that it can deliver on that date. If that happens, Haglund won't be picking up the office phone for a day or so – unless something earth-shattering happens, which is always a possibility, but he'll probably let the cats handle it.

Mr. Levy has a few things to say about a lot of people. He takes aim at Boards of Directors of New York City Opera and New York Philharmonic, and probably Boards in general judging from a brief and to-the-clear-point article he penned for Crain's last February.  "In search of accountability: Non-profits gone astray"  is worth a read.

So far, Haglund's favorite quip from Mr. Levy is about a bungling Board chairman: "He failed to lead, and he failed to leave." That's going to be on a lot of people's lips around town.

But according to the NYT article, Levy has some respect for New York City Ballet's fiscal managers. That's good.

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ABT's Works & Process Gig at the Gugg is this Sunday and Monday.

Three different presentations: Sunday afternoon, Sunday evening, and Monday evening. Here's a glimpse of some of the casting that came through in an email a few days ago:

Part 1:
1940–1965
Sun, Apr 19, 3 pm EDT
Panelists: Kevin McKenzie, Alex Ewing, Lupe Serrano
Principals and Soloists: Gillian Murphy, Xiomara Reyes, Joseph Gorak, Roman Zhurbin
 
Part 2:
1965–1990    Sun, Apr 19, 7:30 pm EDT
Panelists: Robert La Fosse, Ric Burns, Eleanor D’Antuano, Martine van Hamel
Principals and Soloists: James Whiteside, Stella Abrera
 
Part 3:
1990–2015    Mon, Apr 20, 7:30 pm EDT
Panelists: David Hallberg, Julie Kent, Kevin McKenzie, Ethan Steifel
Principals and Soloists: Marcelo Gomes, Julie Kent, Hee Seo, Cory Stearns

Watch it on line from the comfort of your couch via these links:

http://www.guggenheim.org/video/channel#upcoming-live-broadcasts

http://www.guggenheim.org/video/works-process-livestream-american-ballet-theater-at-75-1940%E2%80%931965-april-19-3-pm

http://www.guggenheim.org/video/works-process-livestream-american-ballet-theater-at-75-1965%E2%80%931990-april-19-730-pm

http://www.guggenheim.org/video/works-process-livestream-american-ballet-theater-at-75-1990%E2%80%932015-april-20-730-pm

We probably don't need to remind folks that the Gugg's livestreams have a certain reputation for not always being absolutely perfectly A-1 spiffy when it comes time to deliver. So, we recommend patience and a good supply of wine unless 3pm on Sunday is too early to drink. If they encounter problems, hopefully they will communicate via their Twitter feed like they did in the past.

Note that Robert LaFosse is on the panel Sunday evening. That sounds like it could be a lively and interesting discussion.

Reports from Down Under re: Stella Abrera's Giselle

More Updates (scroll down and see comments)

We'll update as we receive more. This report just into H.H. from Anna C. after the second performance at the Australian Ballet which concluded an hour or two ago:

She was divine. Those arms! That face! That lightness! Didn't hear a block hit the notoriously noisy SOH stage all night. The beginning of the mad scene, huddled in the middle of the stage, tear-inducing.

Act II was beyond beautiful. I have no words.

Thanks, Anna! (She was in Row S and zoomed the camera lens to get this shot of bows.)

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4/15 PM Update:

H.H. just got another report in from Joanne A. who saw Stella's second performance. Joanne may be able to forward pictures of the evening's program to us a little later. Here is what she wrote to us:

Well Haglund, what a lovely night from the whole company, the Australian Ballet really can pull off the big classics. But to Stella, her Giselle was light, joyous, flirty and so in love. When she first sat on the bench and let Albrecht (Ty King-Wall) sit beside her, her face was a study of the tension of early attraction. She has the most beautiful arabesque! Sweet, light jumps and what lovely feet she has, and beautiful, beautiful arms. Her hops en pointe down the diagonal were a study in devotion to Albrecht. It seemed to me they had decided to play it as if this was not their first meeting - they were quite openly in love. Her mad scene was nicely played, she found the right kind of dramatic and I felt her betrayal and heartbreak. Albrecht's despair was also real, and he left that final tableaux heartbroken.

Act 2 was beautiful, the combination of Stella's expressive feet peeling away from the floor into those lovely arabesques and developpes with gorgeous arms and upper body makes a romantic tutu perfect for her. The 'dead arms' of Giselle are so hard to get right, but Stella's were light as air. When the morning bell tolled, her love and forgiveness as she wrapped Albrecht in her arms was so poignant. Poor Albrecht, I didn't want her to bourree off the stage into her grave either!

As for the rest of the company, the Peasant Pas de Duex was a picture. Brett Chynoweth and Miwako Kubota danced right on through a couple of nervous spots and in all were just lovely. I don't know who's coaching the male dancers right now, but both Brett and Ty King-Wall landed some excellent jumps. Clean batterie and great elevation. Ty's series of triple tours followed by seemingly endless entrechats had the normally reticent Sydney audience very happy when he finally collapsed in his Act 2 exhaustion. Valerie Tereshchenko as Myrtha comanded the stage and I hope this turned out to be a promotion performance for her. So nice to see this depth of talent emerging in the company. Brett, Miwako and Valerie are definitely three to watch.

All in all a performance to remember and I'm so glad I managed to make it along. I really hope you get to see Stella's Giselle one day soon!

Joanne, thank you so much for your report. We're all dying here. Just dying.

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4/16 PM Update

How nice it is that there is one ABT soloist who is garnering praise and accolades for her actual dancing and artistry this week.

From Australian dance critic Valerie Lawson:

Stillness and speed, spine chills and tears: Stella Abrera triumphs as Giselle

Stella Abrera, guesting for the Australian Ballet as Giselle, gave an extraordinary performance this week, dancing the role with such subtlety and nuance that her transition from a naïve young woman to a spirit was a joy to watch.

Abrera moved from playfulness to modesty, from fragility to frenzy, and finally to a state of grief so intense in the mad scene that her depiction was one of the most moving, tear-inducing I’ve ever seen.

. . . .

Her stillness, as well as her speed, was a major factor in her performance.

As she learns the truth about the deceitful Albrecht, she stands still for what seems like a very long time. Her back is curled over, facing away from the audience, her legs placed in an unballetic position in what could be a moment from Mats Ek’s contemporary and gangly Giselle.

. . . .

She was promoted to the rank of soloist at American Ballet Theatre in 2001 but why she is still a soloist and not a principal is a puzzle.

Much thanks to Valerie Lawson for such an eloquent review.

What a crime to all of ballet that an artist who is deemed brilliant in Giselle internationally cannot dance the role in her own country with her own company while an artist who cannot execute the iconic steps and convey the characters of Swan Lake in tryout after tryout is handed the principal role on a silver platter on the home stage.

What a cesspool of corrupt influence American Ballet Theatre has become.

 

Jennie Somogyi and Ana Sophia Scheller return!

NYCB posted the first week's casting, and our Jennie is back! Hallelujah! She will dance opening night, April 28th, in Balanchine's Episodes and in all of the performances of Episodes that week. Never has Haglund ever looked forward to Episodes like he is right now. Hallelujah!

Ana Sophia also returns on opening night in The Four Temperaments and in all 4T performances during the first week.

Let's be clear – we're not looking for engine-revving comebacks after these torturous injury layoffs of way over a year. No, no, no. Moderation is the key to success here. Moderation. Just get these dancers back on the stage. If they need to stop mid-dance and mark a few steps with their hands, that's okay with Haglund.

Much more to look forward to in the first week. Adrian Danchig-Waring will debut as Apollo on Wednesday. (Haglund needs a pinch on the arm.) The muses will be Tiler Peck, Ashly Isaacs (also debuting), and Lauren Lovette. On the same program, Anthony Huxley debuts opposite Ashley Bouder in Duo Concertant, and Sterling Hyltin will lead Symphony in Three Movements with Erica Pereira and Savannah Lowery.

What a week this will be!

 

observations 4/14

The NYT has posted an online correction to it's review of The Washington Ballet's Swan Lake:

The review also referred imprecisely to the casting of two African-Americans in the lead roles. Dance Theater of Harlem used such casting in presenting one act of the ballet in 1980. Thus, while the Washington Ballet says that its casting for a full-length “Swan Lake” is a first for American Ballet, this production was not the first time two African-Americans were in the lead roles in an American production.

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Interesting cast changes to ABT's Met Season today.  Stella Abrera and Isabella Boylston have been switched in Les Sylphides. Stella will now dance in the cast that features Veronika Part, Joe Gorak, and Sarah Lane. This suggests that she will dance the central PdD with Gorak. Although we know how beautiful Veronika is in the PdD, we can't see Gorak as a realistic partner for her. But, hey, McKenzie has done much odder things. Stella and Joe previously danced Les Sylphides together in Washington DC in 2014.

Also, the ladies have been added to Fancy Free: Kent and Paris for the first cast and Murphy and Abrera for the second cast.

Since everyone in the world already knew that Olga Smirnova is still injured and unable to dance, ABT finally scratched her from the La Bayadere schedule along with Semyon Chudin. Ticket sales were terrible anyway - doubly terrible considering it was a Friday night slot. Hopefully, no guest artists or other imports will be re-inserted. We think that Stella Abrera and Tom Forster should be Nikiya and Solor. ABT should also dump one of the flagging Giselles (Boylston, Kent, Seo, Semionova, Osipova) and finally give the audience the chance to see Abrera's acclaimed Giselle. Why do we have to put up with such muck while the best dancers are kept in the garage under a tarp?

 

April 28th

is going to be a big, big day around these parts.

Two weeks from today, New York City Ballet opens its Spring Season with a huge week of Balanchine Black & White repertory followed by its brand new La Sylphide.

Also on April 28, the nominees for this year's Tony Awards will be announced. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.

Just in case anyone is interested, here are the members of this year's Tony Awards Nominating Committee from the official website. It's good to see the dance-friendly names of Shuler, Gennaro, Shelton, Levy, Byrd, Redden, Bernstein, and Harrington within this prestigious list:

2014-2015 Tony Awards® Nominating Committee
As of 4/8/2015

Douglas Aibel – Artistic Director, The Vineyard Theatre

Arin Arbus – Associate Artistic Director, Theatre for a New Audience

Ira Bernstein – Former producer/general manager/stage manager/casting director

Susan Birkenhead – Lyricist

Donald Byrd – Choreographer

Ben Cameron – Program Director for the Arts, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

Mary Schmidt Campbell – Dean, Tisch School of the Arts at New York University

Veronica Claypool – Arts Management Consultant, Full Circle Management Group/former general manager

Paul Cremo – Dramaturg/Director of Opera Commissioning Program, The Metropolitan Opera

John Darnton – Former Cultural Editor, The New York Times

Jacqueline Z. Davis – Executive Director, The NY Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center

Rick Elice – Playwright

Harvey Evans – Actor

Paul Gallo – Lighting designer

Kent Gash – Director/Founding Director, NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ New Studio on Broadway

Liza Gennaro – Choreographer

Jenny Gersten – Former Executive Director, Friends of the High Line

Wendall K. Harrington – Projection designer/lecturer

Philip Himberg – Artistic Director, Sundance Institute Theatre Program

Jack Hofsiss – Theatre/film/television director

Julie Hughes – Former casting director

Stephen Karam - Playwright

Corby Kummer – Senior Editor, The Atlantic Magazine

Dick Latessa – Actor

John Leguizamo – Actor/playwright

Kate Levin – Cultural Assets Management Principal, Bloomberg Associates

Reynold Levy – Former President, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

Sara Lukinson – Documentary film producer/television writer

Patricia Marx – American humorist and writer/former television writer

Jim McLaughlin – Former Producer, CBS News/TV feature and documentary producer

Roger Morgan – Lighting designer/theatre designer

Debra Monk – Actor

Katherine Oliver – Principal, Bloomberg Associates - Media and Technology

Christian Parker – Chair, Columbia University MFA Theatre Program

Ravi S. Rajan – Dean, School of the Arts – SUNY Purchase

Nigel Redden – General Director, Spoleto Festival USA/Director, Lincoln Center Festival

Susan H. Schulman – Director

Arlene Shuler – President & CEO, New York City Center

Linda Shelton – Executive Director, Joyce Theater Foundation

Wynn Thomas – Production designer

Robin Wagner – Scenic designer

Preston Whiteway – Executive Director, The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center

 

observations 4/13

High praise for Christopher Wheeldon's An American in Paris from Charles Isherwood in today's NYT:

The city of light is ablaze with movement in the rhapsodic new stage adaptation of “An American in Paris” that opened at the Palace Theater on Sunday, directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, a gifted luminary of the ballet world. This gorgeously danced — and just plain gorgeous — production pays loving tribute to the 1951 movie, to the marriage of music and movement, and to cherished notions about romance that have been a defining element of the American musical theater practically since its inception. Just about everything in this happily dance-drunk show moves with a spring in its step....

His conclusion:

“An American in Paris” weds music and movement, song and story with such exhilarating brio that you may find your own feet fidgeting under your seat before it’s over, and your heart alight with a longing to be swept up in the dance.

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We got a tip here on the blog that Yuriko Kajiya and Jared Matthews will be Nikiya and Solor in Stanton Welch's La Bayadere when Houston Ballet visits Canada next month. It would have to be in Alberta. It couldn't be in Ontario...

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Meanwhile, we saw this sad sign tacked to a bulletin board in the laundromat on 10th Ave. It seems like a good deal at first glance, but there's something fishy about it.