Haglund's Heel

Stella !!!!!!!

Finally, some respect.

Such great news!

Our new Principal, Stella Abrera.

Tom Forster and Luciana Paris have been long overdue promotions to soloist, as well. Skylar Brandt, Cassandra Trenary, Arron Scott - all fine choices, too. Misty Copeland, well, let's hope she keeps working so that we don't always moan that she didn't deserve it.

Congratulations to all.

 

The Royal Ballet – Weekend rep program 6/27-28

When Carlos Acosta retires next season, we hope that the Royal Ballet will: 1) livestream the event worldwide for free, 2) figure out a way to set up a jumbotron in Havana so that the Cubans can watch, and 3) set up a jumbotron in the theater in London so that Carlos can see his homeland audience cheering. What a career this man has had. He truly belongs to the entire ballet world.

Haglund had a little breakdown Sunday night after realizing that the Carousel PdD, in which Carlos and the lovely Sarah Lamb had just danced their hearts out, was probably a goodbye. Their performance was so incredible and moving that Haglund wanted it to be the end of his evening. Some things are just too good to be followed; anything that came next was going to be a downer. So, he skipped The Age of Anxiety and headed home.

The Carousel PdD was created by Kenneth MacMillan for a 1992 revival of the Rodgers & Hammerstein’s musical at the National Theatre. He died six weeks prior to the premiere. Even something as small as a PdD created for insertion in a musical could be a complete, stirring story on its own when left to the imagination and craft of MacMillan. Here Sarah Lamb as Louise, the daughter of Billy Bigelow, and Carlos Acosta as a carnival worker with the same tough likability as Billy, take up for a brief encounter – she's seriously looking for love, he’s not. He charms her; they dance; he walks away and breaks her heart. It’s such a simple, even ordinary story – a portrait to which nearly everyone can relate. But it becomes bigger than life on stage when painted with MacMillan’s huge, sweeping strokes of choreography that include dramatic exchanges and lifts that catch the climax of the musical phrases. It is all a perfect vehicle for Acosta’s tough charisma and Lamb’s delicate determination.

Haglund saw this cast twice and the alternate cast of Matthew Golding and Lauren Cuthbertson once. The alternate cast's interpretation was also very good but much safer dramatically.

This program included works by the Royal Ballet’s current lineup of in-house dance makers. All of the pieces were strong on concept and suggested that the choreographers have insight and skill – none of which was realized in the pieces presented. None of them seemed worth a second viewing although Haglund managed to sit through most of them three times.

Liam Scarlett’s The Age of Anxiety, set to Leonard Bernstein’s score which was inspired by W.H. Auden’s poem, is embarrassingly derivative and shallow. Choreography to Bernstein's music that shows three guys, including a sailor, in a bar who meet up with a 1940s game dame in a bright dress was fancy free of originality and Fancy Free imitation. Why on earth did the Royal Ballet bring this to New York?

The Aeternum Pas de Deux by Christopher Wheeldon should probably not be criticized so harshly because it was presented out of context. It may be that when surrounded by the rest of his full length ballet, it is illuminating. Here it wasn’t, and looked suspiciously like several other Wheeldon works that we have seen.

Wayne McGregor’s Infra, a multimedia-dependent unimaginative piece, continued to reveal the severe limitations of the choreographer’s vocabulary. He’s a science & math kind of guy, and we know that this and all of the Royal Ballet’s work is notated. So, we have an idea. How about going through the notation and measuring the frequency with which McGregor relies on splitting a woman’s legs to 180 degrees or farther. It is so prevalent that it begins to look like a speech stutter or insertion of meaningless filler-words in a conversation – like, you know, uh-uh-um, split. Measure the frequency of the other four moves that comprise most of the choreography and it all adds up to no new choreographic ideas imbedded in flashy production concept.

The lighting in this work and the horizontal transmission of LED figures walking calmly above while the dancers below engage in brutally forced extensions, gymnastic elements, and rapid arm minutiae convey the idea of the piece clearly enough. But it is repetitive and exactly what we’ve come to expect from Wayne McGregor. Someone should do the math for him so that he can see that he needs to expand his dance vocabulary instead of relying on expanding the women’s legs.

Calvin Richardson’s The Dying Swan, Alastair Marriott’s Borrowed Light, and Bronislava Nijinska’s Le Train bleu ‘Le beau gosse’ – three solos for men – looked like offerings from the contemporary competition at YAGP. Don’t try to get away with this kind of stuff unless you are Acosta or Baryshnikov, because its success depends on tremendous charisma that none of this weekend’s performers possessed. Thankfully, each piece was very brief.

Frederick Ashton’s Voices of Spring was included in this Divertissements section of the weekend rep program. It was very nice to see  – mostly because it exhibited creativity and musicality that were missing from most of the other offerings.

Haglund loves the Royal Ballet and could not be more grateful for their visit to Lincoln Center. It seems they arrived wearing their best clothes and cape (Ashton and MacMillan) but unfortunately accessorized rather cheaply. Next time, hopefully they’ll go to the vault and bring out some of the fine jewels for us to see. And they need to find the courage to bring back Mayerling.

The weekend H.H. Pump Bump Award, one of pure class that never goes out of style, is bestowed upon Carlos Acosta who has brought us such joy and blockbuster performances throughout his career.

Lincoln CenterRoyal Ballet – Song of the Earth, The Dream 6/26

Gustav Mahler’s music has the ability to re-open the wounds of the listener’s soul and make them feel like fresh cuts. A ritardando passage of Mahler's flute notes can slow one’s breathing, cause the throat to tighten, and lower one into deep despair. His music often then brings the listener out of the sorrow and into a peaceful, transcendent place with its conclusion, though not always.

Mahler was described as a bridge between the music of the 19th century and the modernism of the 20th century. “The spirit can assert itself only through the medium of clear form,” he said. Conductor Bruno Walter believed that Mahler’s work survived due to the "coexistence of highly modern harmony and polyphony with profound depth of feeling, ranging from human to divine.” That description might well apply to Kenneth MacMillan's work, too.

MacMillan used six of the songs from Mahler’s Das lied von der Erde to make his groundbreaking ballet Song of the Earth in 1965.  The choreography, so highly modern that in its golden anniversary year, it looks like it could have been created last week; so strict in its form that it looks like its own brand of classical; so potent with feelings of sadness and acceptance that it brought to mind Tudor’s Dark Elegies, a masterpiece from 1937 danced to the five songs of Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder.

From the Kenneth MacMillan website:

MacMillan described the theme of his ballet succinctly: ‘A man and a woman; death takes the man; they both return to her and at the end of the ballet, we find that in death there is the promise of renewal.’ The central couple are part of a group of young people who are blissfully unaware of their own mortality. Among them is a man with a colourless half-mask over his face: he is Der Ewige – the Eternal One. In the English translation he is the Messenger of Death, which lends him a more sinister aspect. MacMillan liked to cast a slight young dancer in the role, apparently no more menacing than his companions, except that he knows what they choose to ignore. (Some interpreters, however, perform the Messenger as though he were Death itself.)

The Messenger shadows the leading man at the start of the ballet, and takes part in the men’s horseplay. He will be present, however briefly, by the end of every song. (MacMillan added him in the fourth song in 1990.) The leading woman appears in the contemplative second song, Autumn Solitude, in which the words reveal her loneliness, her fear of death and her longing for a companion. She is the MacMillan ‘outsider’, sensing that she does not belong to the light-hearted group who amuse themselves during the songs that follow. She finds a lover in a long pas de deux, only to lose him to death. In her final solo, she has to reach an acceptance of her loss, the return of her isolation and the inevitability of death. As she resigns herself to a fate beyond her control, the Messenger returns with the man, who is now wearing a white half-mask symbolising death. All three link hands and step forward together in slow motion, as if into eternity. The curtain falls on their still-pacing figures.

It probably would have been very helpful for the audience to have had a little bit of the above information in the Playbill rather than just it’s about “life, death, love, and eternity” which could refer to a Petipa classic.

Friday night’s performance featured Lauren Cuthbertson, Edward Watson as the Messenger of Death, and Ryochi Hirano. (Haglund also saw Thursday night’s cast which included Watson, Laura Morero and Nehemiah Kish but missed Wednesday night’s cast in order to soar with Veronika across the Plaza.)

Let’s just say that we can’t wait to see more of Lauren Cuthbertson this weekend, no matter what we have to sit through to do it. What a beautiful, compelling artist who had our attention and empathy from her very first step onto the stage. We couldn’t take our eyes off of her. Those arabesques of perfect geometry; the portrayal of searching, loss, and acceptance so clear in her face; the whole ballet made such clear sense. When she danced with Watson, his character became something that lurked in the back of her mind as opposed to being present literally. They were theatrically riveting together.

The corps de ballet and others dancing featured roles, particularly Yuhui Choe, were outstanding both nights but seemed to have more intensity on Friday night. The modern shapes of crossed forearms and elbows, and the strongly-angled legs were conveyed with more clarity.

The vocal soloists, Katharine Goeldner and Thomas Randle, were extraordinary. Since Thursday night’s performance, Haglund has not been able to stop listening to this Mahler work which is available in an especially fine 1959 Chicago Symphony Orchestra recording on YouTube.

The first ballet on the program was Ashton’s The Dream. Thursday and Friday were led by Natalia Osipova and Matthew Golding. Haglund was very happy to see Golding again – the last time being when he was carrying some spear in the back of one of ABT’s productions. He was outstanding technically both on Thursday and Friday, but much better theatrically on Friday. He will have to grow more into the role of Oberon. There is no sign of Anthony Dowell’s Oberon in his carriage or presentation, but hopefully there will be some day. Holding his character when not dancing seems to be one of his few weak points and making Oberon a little more fantastical without going overboard would help. But, boy, what an incredible dancer.

Without ABT’s installed claque and screamers, Natalia Osipova doesn’t appear to be much of a draw in New York. She couldn’t even sell out a quarter of the fourth ring for either night’s performance. Haglund found her completely unappealing in the role of Titania, although not offensive. She looked good in the strawberry blond wig and should consider that for her stage haircolor. She looks much less harsh without the black hair. The shapes of her feet are still hideous. The way she mashes up her shoes and makes them filthy actually compromises her balletic line. Her feet are quite misshapen and attached to muscly legs that don’t exactly sing the words “classical line.” Throughout each performance, she seemed to look for those opportunities where she could make something bigger. The chin was stuck out most of the night and her whole character bordered on Manon.

Valentino Zucchetti had a stunning performance as Puck on Friday night - much better than on Thursday. Right before an exit, he reeled off a turn that opened with a developpe to the front at about 170 degrees and he just held it there like it was some kind of an arrow directed toward the ceiling. He was very, very funny and charming throughout the night.

As in all previous performances, the corps de ballet amazed with its high level of competence and energy. Such beauty at the Royal Ballet . . .

So, it's time to go back to the theater to try to find Lauren Cuthbertson in something this afternoon, this evening, and tomorrow.  The HH Pump Bump Award, a little New York souvenir by Giuseppe Zanotti, is bestowed upon Lauren for her most wonderful performance in Song of the Earth. Love, love, love the Royal Ballet.

observations 6-26

We received a report on the Dame Monica Mason event that was held at Lincoln Center last Wednesday afternoon. Thanks much to Ellen for the comments which we've pulled up from beneath the original post:

Here are some of the highlights, in no particular order:

2 clips were shown, but neither had MM dancing. The first was a rehearsal clip showing MM co-coaching Song of the Earth. The second clip showed some current dancers doing a section from one of the songs; this was filmed at some public event (something like Works + Progress is my guess). MM feels it is helpful to expose potential audiences to pieces before they see them in the theater. You get a connection to the work before you actually see it. I immediately recognized the section when I saw the evening performance; I thought the dancing in the evening to be better than what was shown in the clip and I did get more insight into the piece.

MM talked extensively about her relationship with MacMillan as his assistant. He set her a 24-hour test: come up with a complete cast list for R&J. He ran his eye down the list and pronounced it boring. Why? Because it was his casting. He didn't want his casting, he wanted her casting. He said if a certain role was always done by a short dancer and you thought a tall dancer could do the role, well, then cast the tall dancer. Think outside the box. Go for it. MM mentioned more than once that MacMillan didn't like safe, he liked risk-taking.

Alistair M asked in the Q&A if MM considered Song as part of a trilogy with Requiem and Gloria. Essentially, she said no. She considers R and G to be a duo, but Song to be outside of that. She also considers Requiem to be a very Crankoish ballet. (For more than the obvious reason.)

She feels things happen as they ought to. If Song had been done on the Royal instead of Stuttgart, she feels a very different ballet might have resulted. It is what it is because it was set on Stuttgart dancers, not Royal dancers.

She talked about trying to get dancers to listen to the music. You can't count the Mahler; it is not 1 2 3 4 5 6; it could be more like 1 2 3 444444 5 6, and the dancer needs to listen to it. One dancer listened to the score for days, but wasn't hearing the music. When she queried said dancer on whether he heard strings or woodwinds, he had no clue. It's a flute she said; you need to listen for the intake of breath before the flautist begins to play. This should impact the dancer's performance. She said it also makes a big difference that the singers are on the stage. You can hear their breathing onstage and it affects your performance.

She feels that there is truly no such thing as a plotless ballet, no matter how abstract it might seem. When you put a man and a woman on stage, there is a reaction of some kind; otherwise, she said, it is not a performance.

She talked about the importance of notation; while she thinks filming is helpful (they couldn't have remounted Sylvia without archival footage that came to light), she thinks notation is still the most important record of anything, because very, very rarely is anything notated incorrectly. She declared herself frankly shocked that Pater Martins and NYCB don't notate.

The bottom line for me was that this is a very articulate, intelligent woman who doesn't stumble over her words or hesitate. No um every other word, like a certain AD who can't seem to string two coherent sentences together.

If I think of anything else, I'll let you know.

Thanks, Ellen!

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We observed that Maria Kochetkova recently corrected the description of herself on her Twitter page so that now it reads that she is a Guest at ABT, not a Principal dancer.

 

 

 

ABT Swan LakeVeronika takes flight – 6/24 Evening

Every year it seems that we depend on Veronika Part’s Swan Lake to save us from so much misery in ABT's season. Not only did she save us again last night, but she gave us new reason not to jump off a cliff ourselves: Veronika’s Swan Lake is even better than ever.

After the rather small dancing in Act I on Wednesday evening, Veronika's entrance in Act II was an avian miracle that dropped gently from the night sky, legs outstretched reaching for the Earth, her body high and straight to brake against the wind. Her wings lifted above her head with a flutter, and then, oh lord, Odette began her story….

“The lake is filled with my mother’s tears; the evil one turned me into a swan queen; I need someone to swear his love to rescue me.” Just as Haglund was about to jump over the side of the tier and rush to save Odette, her Prince Siegfried, Cory Stearns, showed some signs of life. "Before I agree to save you, we need to dance a little and test the waters, so to speak,” he seemed to convey. Haglund wanted to scream, “Just look at her! Siegfried, when in your career are you ever going to dance with anything more miraculous?”

Veronika’s expressiveness in the role of Odette has always been honest, genuine, and heartbreakingly beautiful, but last night she exhibited a new depth of emotion conveyed through the slow unfolding of her long limbs and the pliancy of her torso that devastated the viewer. One knew that she was living Odette’s predicament – not acting it – and that her deep reach into Odette’s soul was possible only because of decades of absolute devotion to her art form.

The delicious evil in Veronika’s Odile came not from glaring looks or an imposing lifted chin. There was nothing haughty about this Odile; she was pure seduction. Siegfried wasn’t her first victim. Her playbook and history already had so many chapters that it was as thick as a Manhattan phonebook. She had Siggy’s number, alright, and he was helpless.

Technically brilliant throughout the night, Veronika balanced, turned, jumped, and drew shapes and stories with her limbs like Aivazovsky's brushstrokes creating The Ninth Wave and The Storm. Her fouettes travelled slightly forward but maintained clear form and she firmly held Odile’s character while performing them.

Regardless of what other companies may have done, this company’s and most major companies’ 21st century stagings require the ballerina to make the effort to do the 32 counts of fouettes. Every ballerina has to invest the effort to make them happen. Sniff at them, if you will, but they are a rite of passage, a measure of technical ability and fortitude, and if a ballerina can’t do them and other spectacular technical maneuvers when they are part of the staging, she has no business demanding that she be handed the role to perform. ABT History may have been made yesterday afternoon at the matinee performance when the dancer attempting to convince everyone of her exaggerated worth became the first ABT ballerina in history to bail out of the sequence at the halfway point having possibly planned to in advance. Less time spent cultivating celebrity and more time spent addressing glaring technical deficiencies should be the mandate. Those who sniff at the 32 counts of fouettes never give any valid reasons for doing so. Everyone who CAN do them, DOES.

Let’s talk a little about the other players in last night’s performance. Cory Stearns’ Siegfried didn’t come alive until Acts III and IV. The great energy he showed in his variations in La Bayadere earlier in the season was gone. He had difficulty getting up in the air except, curiously, in Act III when Marcelo Gomes’ Von Rothbart was observing from his throne. Stearns always performs better when Gomes is on the stage, too. There is more life in his step, more energy in his dancing, more drama in his posture. Stearns’ partnering of Veronika was fine except for a little mess up in a finger pirouette in the Act II PdD. He finally convinced Haglund that he cared about Odette in Act IV, but seeing that earlier would have been better.

Happily, Marcelo Gomes’ Von Rothbart becomes more operatic each season. Every year we wonder where he will take the character next. It’s evident that not many on the stage even know in advance where beyond the steps Marcelo will take the character. Everyone in Act III always seems to be a little more alertly on his or her toes when Marcelo is performing this role so as not to miss an opportunity for spontaneous interaction.

Thomas Forster as the Von Rothbart swamp creature acquitted himself well. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to catch his performance of Von Rothbart’s alternate personality on Tuesday night, but we heard it went well, also.

The Pas de Trois was a minor event in last night’s performance. Cassandra Trenary was lovely but inserted way too much Princess Florine into her variations. Luciana Paris had some nice moments but it was disappoiting to see her not be able to manage the flying entrechat six or the entrechat six in place. She didn’t even try to do them, but come to think of it, neither did Hee Seo ever make the effort. Zhiyao Zhang had some nice qualities in his dancing last night but there was no sense of urgency at all. It was all too pretty. This Pas de Trois crew needs to go back and take a look at the Cornejo-Reyes-Cornejo tapes or more recently the Hoven-Abrera-Riccetto tapes to see how to sell this dance. Last night’s interpretation had McKenzie’s boredom in every step.

Melanie Hamrick was drop-dead gorgeous dancing among The Aristocrats, as one of the Two Big Swans, and in the Spanish Dance. There has always been such incredible potential there and it hurts more and more to see it go to waste.

The corps de ballet was exceptionally brilliant last night. Haglund was so surprised at their crispness and energy. They all seemed totally up to the standard being set by Veronika Part.

We wish Veronika could dance another Odette this week but alas it seems that won’t happen. She’s such a treasure to this company – whether they know it or not – and is one of the greatest Odette/Odiles of our time. We have a special H.H. Pump Bump First Position Award that we have been saving all year for Veronika:

 

The Royal Ballet Gala - The Dream 6/23

Thoughts strayed to another Puck tonight at the Royal Ballet’s Gala performance of Frederick Ashton’s The Dream. Albert Evans, who for many years danced a brilliant and unmatched Puck in Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the same theater, passed away last night. May he rest in peace.

The Royal Ballet’s gala program was a brief evening so that the gala folk could get to their dinners. For the next three nights, The Dream will be on a program with MacMillan’s Song of the Earth.

It’s been more than a decade since the company made an official visit to New York. Its week at Lincoln Center is being sponsored by the Joyce Theater and it promises to be a treat as the company presents a wide array of repertoire later in the week in addition to The Dream and Song of the Earth. Members of the New York City Ballet Orchestra are in the pit for the engagement. This evening it was interesting to hear an interpretation of Mendelssohn’s bright music that was sometimes quite different from what we’re accustomed to hearing in that theater for New York City Ballet’s version or in the Met Opera House for ABT’s version of the RB production. At times, Conductor Barry Wordsworth delivered an almost chamber-like delicacy in the strings. The Brooklyn Youth Chorus, also in the pit, had a bolder, much richer sound than we usually hear in that theater – all of it very pleasing.

The highlight of the evening was the final Pas de Deux - always beautiful and tonight exquisitely danced by Sarah Lamb and Steven McRae. Gosh, does she ever have lines that are like pure notes of song along with feet that are so supple, she couldn’t possibly have had much of a shank in those shoes, if at all. It makes such a difference in quality when the ballerina is strong enough to dance without so much cardboard and paste in the shoes. Fewer and fewer are willing to do that these days; it’s part of the art that seems to have been lost. What was so noticeable in the quality of Sarah’s dancing was quite simply the good taste and high quality in every step and gesture. While there were few surprises, it still managed to seem fresh and original.

Steven McRae delivered wonderful variations in the PdD but prior to that point was a little incomplete in his interpretation. He didn’t use his eyes as dramatically as Anthony Dowell did or as the Oberons at ABT who Dowell set the work upon do. In most of ABT’s memorable Oberons (Stiefel, Gomes, Hallberg, Stearns), one can always see Anthony Dowell in their postures, the whip of the head, and use of the eyes. There wasn’t much of that visible in McRae’s interpretation.

James Hay as Puck was delightful – not quite up to our own Herman Cornejo’s blazing dancing – but nevertheless superb. Bennet Gartside as Bottom along with the Rustics (Sander Blommaert, Benjamin Ella, Kevin Emerton, Erico Montes, and James Wilkie) skillfully dispatched some of Ashton’s most brilliant character dancing. The comic sparring of Itziar Mendizabal and Johannes Stepanek as Helena and Demtrius was sometimes easily anticipated. Christina Arestis and Valeri Hristov as Hermia and Lysander were charming although Christina had a little bit of trouble bringing those long limbs to a sudden stop once or twice.

The Corps de Ballet Fairies and the special Fairies – Cobweb, Moth, Mustardseed, and Peaseblossom – were extraordinary in their flight, lightness, charm, and coordination. Our hats are off to this corps who revealed the beauty of Ashton’s sweeping and bending in the bodies. A special little winged HH Pump Bump by designer Sarah Webster for all of them:

The Social Promotion of Misty Copeland

The pushing forward of Misty Copeland to the next level when she has failed to master the skills required at the current level and may never be able to master them would be Social Promotion at its most flagrant. ABT would be conveying  that the integrity of the art product that it puts on stage is less important than the personal success of this one overly ambitious, whiny individual. ABT would be conveying to all of its dancers that lying about one's past and one's accomplishments and making false accusations, as Misty Copeland has done over and over again in her book and in interviews, will get one ahead more quickly than hard work. ABT would be conveying that after 14 years with the company, it’s not necessary to meet the technical and artistic requirements of any role in order to get cast in it; you just need to find a hungry agent who will promote your whining and false victimization to the media. For Copeland, who has never been able to do the harder steps in her roles, ABT has just eliminated them to make her look like a success.

Misty Copeland’s skyrocketing media career for the past 18 months has been supported on a platform of lies studded with false assertions of victimization, false assertions against her colleagues, false assertions against the art form that initially embraced her, and the most arrogant refusal to recognize all of those black dancers who came before her and paved the way for her success. She has been on a rampage to win her promotion despite her obvious deficiencies. It has been one of the ugliest examples of a selfish opportunist  proclaiming that the end justifies the means, any means, no matter how immoral or unethical or untruthful. And it has been a story too appealing for the mainstream media to resist or even to check for authenticity. Copeland’s story has made her a lot of money and brought her more and more media opportunities that she has exploited in her all-out effort to win a principal title at ABT without the customary qualifications. She still can’t do the steps while everyone around her does them better and better. People know that she is a fraud, but it doesn’t matter to Copeland because being a fraud pays better than being truthful and authentic.

This past fall Misty Copeland won her Artistic Director’s heart by standing on stage and having her tits pummeled by a white guy as choreographed by Liam Scarlett. It seems that Kevin McKenzie may have believed that there is a potential new ballet audience out there that gets off on watching a white male rough up the tits of a black woman in front of thousands of people and have her act like she enjoys it, and McKenzie wanted that audience to come to the ballet. Poor Sarah Lane in the alternate cast preferred not to volunteer to be a victim of sexual violence on stage for the benefit of her Artistic Director’s vision – a reluctance that did not serve her well in the spring castings. Lane, unquestionably a much better dancer than Copeland, failed to win castings in Romeo & Juliet, for which she had already been trained, or in Swan Lake, a ballet in which her performance had been acclaimed internationally. Those roles were given to the one who invited ABT to pummel her tits on stage – Copeland. Because of the lack of these major performing assignments, we probably will not be seeing Sarah Lane promoted to principal despite the fact that she is unquestionably a greater artist than Copeland.

Sarah should sue - not only because ABT placed her in an uncomfortable position where she had to express reluctance to submit to sexual violence on stage for their benefit, but because ABT failed to promote her while promoting the one who would go the limit for the Artistic Director. It would be a good thing to sue ABT (and all of its directors) at this time, because there is a very real need to make ABT disclose its criteria for employing and promoting artists in an era when the public has little confidence that such decisions are being made ethically by this publicly-funded and tax-funded institution. It would be a very good thing to sue ABT (and all of its directors) at this time to force the transparency that it owes to the public that funds it. A GoFundMe effort would probably raise enough money from sympathetic balletomanes to fund the suit and a big party afterward.

The Social Promotion of Misty Copeland at the exclusion of better dancers – which would include most everyone in the company, but in particularly soloists Sarah Lane and Stella Abrera – is based on ABT’s misguided decision to use race as a marketing tool. Copeland delivered a race-based challenge to them for which they have tried to develop a race-based solution that makes them look like a winner. Neither the problem nor the solution bears any authenticity. It is all pure gimmick.

Many African-Americans object to Copeland and ABT using race as a marketing gimmick, and Haglund has heard from several of them. A former professional ballet dancer in a top tier company very recently wrote:

"I have been increasingly irritated by what I’ve seen as the use of race as a marketing tool in ballet. As an African American ballet dancer myself, I find it not only embarrassing and ridiculous, but it also pays a tremendous disservice to the many incredible dancers out there—past or present—who have stood on their talent and artistry alone.”

Those African-American women soloists at ABT who stood on their talent and artistry alone, and paved the way for Misty Copeland have yet to be honored by her. She doesn’t want anyone to think of any black female soloists at ABT except for her. She has trampled over them from the beginning without ever looking over her shoulder. It is selfishness, greediness, and dishonesty sanitized by what may pass as good old aggressive PR work. But it is what it is.

Before ABT rewards Misty Copeland with a social promotion for her own aggressive social promotion, the company should think about the long-term harmful effects - the further alienation of donors, subscribers, followers, and all those who used to think that ABT was a company of some integrity that was committed to producing high end art, not artifice.

 

observations 6-21

It seems that the "star power" of Maria Kochetkova is dragging down sales to Herman Cornejo's Swan Lake scheduled next week. Haglund knows people who would like to see Herman but are staying away because of the unappetizing guest artist who not only has no audience pull, but is an audience repellent. Maybe Rachel Moore can sign her up for a long term contract before Moore pulls out of ABT with her tail between her legs to go wreck some other organization.

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One would think that when a guest artist is dismissed for unprofessional behavior that the New York Times would dig into it the way they dug into the firings of Gelsey and Patrick Bissell decades ago. Isn't the buying public who invested in the guest artist's performances due an explanation? Oh, wait - maybe we can ask her ourselves if she shows up for performances next week with the Royal Ballet.

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There is lots to be excited about with Pennsylvania Ballet's 2015-2016 season. Angel Corella's brand new Don Quixote in March will likely be one of the most important dance events in the U.S. Haglund already has his subscription ordered and Amtrak tickets for the premiere.

 

Jared Matthews promoted to principal dancer

This is great, great news. So very deserved. Houston Ballet: Well done!!

Congratulations to one of our most favorite home grown talents ever. Here are Jared and Yuriko as Romeo and Juliet. What a shame to have been denied this performance in New York:

Skip the wrapping and ribbon

Rachel Moore's present to ABT on its 75th Anniversary is to bail out on the declining institution. Now if we could only get the same present from her mate on the artistic side.

The LA Music Center has hired ABT's CEO as its new president and CEO, replacing 65-year-old Stephen Roundtree who resigned last December after 12 years to take over the Center Theatre Group which is one of the LA Music Center's tenants. The CTG had been rumored to be the group that would be hosting Susan Stroman's Little Dancer with Tiler Peck later this year. As of December, though, it was still in the discussion phase.

Mr. Roundtree's last reported salary at the Music Center was $740,889 with benefits of $109,398. Moore's last reported salary at ABT was $291,537 with benefits of $9,117.

Good luck, L.A.