Haglund's Heel

NYCB 2/26 & 2/27 eveEndless restless legs

If the New York City Ballet dancers were to line up while sitting in second position splits – pointed toe touching pointed toe – their combined legs would almost be as long as the Chrysler Building is tall, or at least they would measure up to the beautiful sunburst tiara that crowns it. Think about that. It’s a lot of leg. The Chrysler Building, nearly 90 years old and considered to be the most beautiful Art Deco skyscraper, was completed shortly before Balanchine arrived in America. While other buildings of the time used stock materials in construction, the Chrysler Building was all custom made and hand-crafted in sheet metal shops located in-house on the 65th and 66th floors. In other words, the beauty and art were created in-house.

Back to the legs.

Friday and Saturday evenings, NYCB repeated its black & white Balanchine program of Episodes, Agon and The Four Temperaments with new casts that included several debuts as well as seasoned veterans who showed renewed vibrancy.

Episodes looked much better with longer, leaner legs that were able to bring the geometry to life. Megan LeCrone and Andrew Scordato led the Symphony section with calm authority and a sense of sufficient rehearsal.

On Saturday evening, Teresa Reichlen succeeded in form more than Savannah Lowery did on Friday, both with Jared Angle. When Jared walked forward while holding Teresa upside down behind him with her legs rising above his shoulders and bent 90 degrees at the knees, it was as if there were two right angles with an Angle in the middle, kind of like this: |_O_| . Lovely as Teresa was, we were still missing that young Claire Kretzschmar who was positively electric in this section last fall and who seems to be out this winter.

Unity Phelan debuted in the Concerto opposite the handsome, never-on-stage-enough Craig Hall. This young dancer with the most charming Irish name just competed her second year as a corps member but already has tremendous composure to go with her steady technique and lovely presence. The duo was complimented by an outstanding quartet comprised of Sara Adams, Alina Dronova, Kristen Segin, and Mary Elizabeth Sell.

Russell Janzen debuted in the Ricercata opposite the ever-symmetrically gorgeous Rebecca Krohn. Where in a previous performance Sara Mearns tended to push at the audience with her movement, Rebecca allowed a more organic flowing of the dance with no hard sell. Russell with his steady hands the size of bear paws did not let anything go awry. There was a nice, understated chemistry between the two.

Of most interest in the two performances of Agon was the debuting Miriam Miller who is in her first corps year but danced the principal role of Titania in Midsummer Night's Dream as an apprentice last year. This very tall dancer is still learning how to wield her legs at NYCB-prescribed speed. The iconic phrase early in the PdD where she did a couple of quick en dehors turns and sliced the air with a rond de jambe to a back attitude that wrapped around her partner needed more slice. On both nights, the attitude leg arrived quite a bit after the count. She was rock steady during her debut performance while a little less so on the second night. There's no denying the potential and beauty of this dancer. One sensed that her partner, Amar Ramasar, felt her pressure and came prepared to anticipate everything that might go wrong while allowing nothing to go awry. He was simply phenomenal.

Ashly Isaacs loaded the Bransle Double and Bransle Gay with allure and outstanding footwork. Her partners Joseph Gordon and Harrison Coll were excellent. Gordon’s confidence reflects the many opportunities that he has received this season. A fabulous Fancy Free debut, an okay Who Cares debut, and solid corps work all point to some big steps on the horizon. Coll is right behind him, and we can’t wait to see him rise to more challenges.

Ashley Hod, Gretchen Smith and Andrew Veyette completed the cast. Everything is in place for Ashley to bolt forward. She looks and leaps like a young doe, and sparkles on stage while hitting every mark, every line, every pose with confidence and accuracy.

The Four Temperaments closed each program with brilliance from Teresa Reichlen as Choleric. Now here is someone with double leg length who knows how to wield her limbs at NYCB speed. After a slow start to the season, Teresa burned the marley with a blistering intensity that truly surprised us. Adrian Danchig-Waring’s Phlegmatic made the oddness of the arm choreography and hunched torso look beautiful. Sara Mearns and Tyler Angle danced the Sanguinic section without any problems. Gonzalo Garcia on both nights registered very dramatically in the Melancholic variation. The three-part Theme was danced splendidly by Lydia Wellington & Peter Walker, Lauren King & Daniel Applebaum, and Ashley Laracey & Cameron Dieck.

The HH Pump Bump Award, an Art Deco-ish stiletto with spring loaded strap, is bestowed upon Teresa Reichlen who has certainly come alive at the end of the season to deliver several spectacular performances.

NYCB 2/25 – Episodes, Agon, 4Ts

Wednesday evening’s New York City Ballet program featured three ballets from Balanchine’s Black & White anthology in reverse chronological order. For some reason, the Playbill didn't make note of or explain the concept of the B&W ballets which would have been helpful to those in the audience who didn't understand why there were no costumes or scenery.

Episodes, the 1959 ultra neoclassical ballet to the orchestral works of Anton von Webern, opened the evening of a week of performances dedicated to the memory of Violette Verdy. Balanchine choreographed the opening Symphony section of Episodes for Violette’s articulate feet and alluring perfume. Unfortunately, not much of that was included in last night’s performance. Abi Stafford and Zachary Catazaro were a mismatch in every way. Their performance was mostly efficient, except for a muffed descent from a lift, but it seemed under-rehearsed and as though there had been no time to plan out the quality of the steps. While watching this section, our eyes continually went to Gretchen Smith in the corps who might have been a much more interesting choice for the lead. This is just the type of role in which she would excel.

Savannah Lowery & Jared Angle, Ashly Isaacs & Taylor Stanley, and Sara Mearns & Adrian Danchig-Waring completed the principal cast of this overly-long balletic experiment that on this night tested little and proved nothing.

In the 1957 masterpiece Agon, Teresa Reichlen & Adrian Danchig-Waring were daring and exact in the Pas de Deux. Rebecca Krohn was riveting in the Bransle Gay and smoldering in the Bransle Double.  Robert Fairchild, in his debut, delivered a Sarabande that conquered the difficult musicality while enriching it with personality. We’re going to cut him some slack for bunchy thigh muscles and occasionally sickled feet, because he hasn’t yet reported back to full-time duty at NYCB. His phenomenal Broadway stint in An American in Paris concludes in a couple of weeks which will give him plenty of time to regain his form for the NYCB spring season.

Lauren King, Ashley Laracey, Devin Alberda, and Daniel Applebaum added polish to this principal cast.

The last ballet on the program and the oldest was The Four Temperaments, the 1946 masterpiece to Hindemith’s commissioned score. Its highlight came in the bold reading of the Melancholic variation by Anthony Huxley. He was despondent, pensive, anxious – conveying all through deep backbends and weighted steps that suggested the heaviness of his mood.

The Sanguinic variation by Tiler Peck and Tyler Angle was marked by a high degree of chipper-ness and an even higher degree of technical blast and wizardry. Tyler seemed inspired by Tiler to raise his level of allegro to a brilliance that we haven’t seen yet this season.

Ask la Cour’s Phlegmatic was cool and calm, but one could sense optimism bubbling just below the surface - an undeniable trait among the company's dancers on what is a very happy stage these days. Savannah Lowery’s Choleric was less sharp in temperament and technique than we’ve seen in other recent Cholerics; her anger was more bold attitude than crossness.

The three variations of the opening Theme were danced by Megan Johnson & Andrew Scordato, Brittany Pollack & Aaron Sanz, and Emilie Gerrity & Cameron Dieck. Megan has one of the most pristine arabesque lines in the company, beautifully-placed extensions, and an uncommon serenity. It has taken a while for her to mature, but she is now an eye-catcher in the corps. Aaron Sanz, a third-year corpsman making his debut in the Theme, has also been featured in the corps during much of the season. He’s still very young but with solid technique and partnering skills to go with his Clark Kent-like jawline and Superman good looks. There seems to be no end to the line of beautiful, talented people who show up at SAB’s door and make their ways into this company.

The HH Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon Anthony Huxley for his dynamic Melancholic variation in The Four Temperaments. Everything he dances these days seems to be gold leafed.

Sylph Wrap

On Thursday night, La Sylphide ascended into the heavens for the last time this season with a more than respectable performance by Megan Fairchild, new to the role this season, and Gonzalo Garcia. Megan might have been our favorite Sylph last year if she had been around to benefit from all of the attention given to the original staging. But alas, Bonne Megan was on Broadway at the time. The only thing missing from her interpretation on Thursday night was the skimming quality in grand jetes and petit allegro, all of which bobbed up and down too much. Otherwise, she was spot on with her character while her articulate feet were as pliable as a soft stick of butter.

Her James, Gonzalo Garcia, was vivid in his theatrical storytelling but less so in his allegro which needed some Vitamin Battu. Earlier in the run we expressed unhappiness when a James opted to spring three double tours to the right without the middle one going to the left. Garcia chose to do all three to the left without changing direction for the middle one. Come on, folks. This is New York. This is New York City Ballet. Why can’t the gentlemen do double tours to left and to the right? Perhaps Martina can help. So, today we introduce our new column entitled ASK MARTINA.

First question: Martina, the men at New York City Ballet are having trouble with double tours. Can you give them some pointers?

Martina’s answer:
(hover over picture and click on white arrow)

 

A video posted by Só bailarinos (@sobailarinosrenato) on Dec 2, 2015 at 11:38am PST

Thank you so much, Martina. We will file that away for the next time Theme and Variations is on the bill. Just to clarify, that was 10-year-old Martina Miró who has been on the YAGP circuit since the time she started walking.

Megan LeCrone and Joseph Gordon repeated their sparkling performances as Effie and Gurn.

The witches, Harrison Coll, Spartak Hoxha, Ghaleb Kayali and SAB student Sawyer Reo have been outstanding each night throughout the run during their brief scene when Madge (on this night, the marvelous Gretchen Smith) stirs up the pot and poisons the scarf that she tricks James into wrapping around the Sylph which ultimately kills her.

We noticed something about the witchwear. While all of it is appropriately drab, only Madge is in frayed tatters. Her garb is mostly black but underneath are shreds of fabric that bear the clan colors of the community that abhors her but respects her fortunetelling abilities.

What is Madge's story? Did she at one time wear a tartan plaid smock or perhaps a kilt? Was there a James figure in her history? It's worth considering and enriches the sense of story. Unfortunately, the only thing that the New York Times could come up with was a flippant remark about Madge looking like a 1960s hippie. Perhaps the Washington Post will do better in a couple of weeks when NYCB takes this fine production to The Kennedy Center. WP certainly couldn't do worse.

Also on the bill Thursday night was Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 led by Tiler Peck, Amar Ramasar, and Lauren King. Wow, did these three ever elevate the brilliance of this ballet in only their second performance of this masterpiece. This was PC2 at breakneck speed, just the way we like it. Tiler mined diamonds from the musical passages throughout her solos and the elegant PdD. Amar was attentive and worked hard to achieve in most cases the clarity in his allegro solos. The revelation of the night was Lauren King's bold, musically vivid, technically pristine, mature interpretation of the turning ballerina. Whoever has been working with this dancer deserves our admiration. The way she snapped the torso to the front on turns made us snap to attention in our seats. On the horizontal scale of soloist to principal, Lauren is at an 8-to-9 right now having made tremendous strides in the past year.

We wish that NYCB would update this ballet's costumes. Haglund has never liked the idea of tiaras with this type of dress gathered at the waistline. The dresses look too much like the woman's costume in Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux and the colors of the corps, soloists, and principals are neither distinguished nor do they compliment the choreography.

The HH Pump Bump Award, a stiletto of silver leaves from Giuseppe Zanotti, is bestowed upon Lauren King whose steady progress along with that of a number of other soloists keeps us eternally in the ticket line.

 

NYCB – La Sylphide Saturday and Sunday evenings

When New York City Ballet announced in 2014 that it would import its first 19th Century story ballet, Bournonville’s La Sylphide, there were cries among some of the long-faithful that the company was meandering down the balletic path to some horrific state of syncretism. “You’re trying to mix religions,” they cried without realizing that the spiritual paths of Bournonville and Balanchine had already crossed many times throughout the company’s history.

Well, it proved to be a tremendous idea, and the current program on display which pairs La Sylphide with Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 delivers a premium evening of ballet. There are only three evenings left and Haglund expects to be there for two of them. He’d be there for all three except for the fact that Dmitri Hvorostovsky is in recital at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday night. The great baritone has had a very challenging year, humbled by a brain tumor, and has had to face all of the uncertainties that come with the diagnosis. Haglund is disappointed to miss so many important NYCB debuts on Wednesday, including Lauren King’s first crack at the turning ballerina role in the Tschaikovsky, but he’ll be there for the second performance on the next night.

Saturday evening saw the minting of a promising new Sylph, Indiana Woodward, opposite the brilliant James danced by Anthony Huxley. There is a lightness and sparkle in Indiana’s expression that makes her a natural for this role. It took all of ten seconds to become convinced that she was an elf — an endearing one with a proclivity for mischief. Her variations included the deep, lengthy plies and clear footwork that one looks for in this ballet. There was a problem with the plie arabesque fouette on an exit, and the distinctive shape of the Bournonville arms in second position for grand jetes was muddied, but otherwise, most of the elements were glistening.

With theatrical authority and blistering allegro, Anthony Huxley commanded the evening like he was born to the role of James. The pleasure of watching this young man’s rise has been great, and we are tremendously excited  to see what his future will bring. We were wowed by Huxley's debut last year, but this year his confidence is in full bloom, and he looked like he was thoroughly enjoying every minute as James. Where last year he appeared to be reading his mime, this year he was speaking it. The only thing missing from Saturday night’s performance was one double tour to the left in the Act II variation. Come on, now. Three sets of echappe battu with double tours to the right simply isn’t as exciting as sandwiching a left turn in the middle. We know that there is internet evidence of a high profiled person doing this, but it was when he was with the Ukrainian company in 1991, not the Royal Danish Ballet. We want our James to aspire to this from 1988 (Hübbe) or this from 2000 (Cornejo).

Sunday evening Tiler Peck was our Sylph to Andrew Veyette's James. Tiler's Sylph was more knowing and sophisticated than Indiana's. She mined musicality from the phrases like few other dancers today do while paying keen attention to stylistic details. Her James dropped his head to peer down at his feet on every assemble and rumbled through the variations without much respect for Bournonville.

Joseph Gordon (Saturday) and Troy Schumacher (Sunday) had just the right sunny dispositions for Gurn and tackled the allegro admirably.

Megan LeCrone (Saturday) and Lauren King (Sunday) as Effie, the young innocent who gets left behind by James but manages to find true happiness with Gurn, were each refreshing. Their mime seemed spontaneous and heartfelt, and their Act I character solos were lively.

Marika Anderson (Saturday) and Gwyneth Muller (Sunday) were superb as Madge, the witch who sets up everyone's fates. On Sunday night, Gwyneth's masterful final scene wherein she gloated over the slumped body of James brought the darkness of this story to full light.

The H.H. Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon Anthony Huxley for his brilliant James on Saturday evening. Let's hope that he and the rest of the company are getting hooked on story ballets.

 

NYCB 2/12 – La Sylphide, Tsch Piano Concerto No. 2

This week Haglund hopped on the M-11 bus and rode down to the West Village to visit the Derek Zoolander Center for People Who Don’t Age Good, a temporary pop-up shop at the corner of 8th Ave. & 14th St. that has a lot of Kiehl stuff in it. There wasn’t much happening there except for nonsense and a hard sell for people to see some lame movie. As most H.H. readers know, Haglund is not exactly aging good or gracefully, but he’s not going to spend $50 on a pot of cream the size of a quarter to erase all that hard-earned character around the eyes, not when a little cheap concealer will do. Now, before anyone goes thinkin' that aging good is some kind of an oxymoron, you better get yourselves to New York City Ballet in the next week to see La Sylphide that is not only aging good but, at nearly 180 years old, is still one of the most ridiculously good looking ballets of all time, to borrow one of Derek's phrases.

NYCB’s production of August Bournonville’s La Sylphide to music by Herman Severin Løvenskiold premiered last year to considerable acclaim with casts that surprised us with their commitment to the Bournonville style and to the heart of this classic. The scenery and costumes by Susan Tammany take some getting used to and may not be everyone's cup of British tea, but they don't offend the senses.

The biggest delight of last year’s run was the debuting pair of Lauren Lovette and Anthony Huxley. (Wow, what a day and evening of sacred spirits that was, do you remember?) Unfortunately, Lauren is not quite ready to tackle that role again after many months of recuperation from surgery. But we have a couple of new Sylphs to fill in for Lauren and for Ashley Bouder who is out cultivating a Bouder-sprout or sprite. Corps dancer Indiana Woodward and Principal Megan Fairchild will each sprout wings, lose them, go blind and die for the first time this year. On the men’s side, it doesn’t look like there will be any debuts in the role of James, but one never knows. Joaquin De Luz had to withdrawn from his performances and is being replaced by Andrew Veyette, who opened the run last night opposite Sterling Hyltin.

Bournonville's pristine choreography was not made to be danced in the brutal manner that Andrew Veyette did in James’ variations last night when forced energy trumped all sense of proper style. With a penchant for throwing the head up as a way of camouflaging a stiff back and marginal arabesque, he strained and chopped his way through the variations without any of the buoyancy or ease that one expects to see. Arms flying every which way, frequently higher than they should have been, didn’t help the picture which was one of non-commitment to Bournonville style.

Sterling Hyltin was a lovely Sylph although not quite as spiffy and polished as last season. Some of the generous slow plie that contributes to airiness was curtailed. Now and then an arm in second position went above the shoulder or behind it. But Sterling presented an authentic character, an endearing sprite who wasn’t so much a mischief maker as someone simply trying to figure out how to get what she wanted. Her bourrees rippled softly as did her arms from the elbows to the fingertips. The profile line from the top of her head down the neck and through the shoulders was wonderfully Romantic. Her effortless jumps created pretty arcs.

Daniel Ulbricht’s Gurn had the commitment to Bournonville style that was missing in our James. The stage brightened considerably whenever he appeared whether dancing or not. Gurn has some of the most pleasing choreography in the ballet including fabulous grand jetes en tournant that soared around to the back while his head looked over his shoulder to the front. Ulbricht made those especially beautiful last night, and of course, his petit allegro was brought to us by Mr. Clean. Hopefully, we’ll have an opportunity to see his James in the not too distance future – this Sunday’s matinee wouldn't be too soon.

Brittany Pollack as Effie hit the mark with both dancing and character. Georgina Pazcoguin's portrayal of the witch Madge was a rich combination of evil, conniving, and wit. In her few spotlighted steps, corps dancer Sara Adams created the type of sylph-ish magic that we want to see more of before too much time passes.

The other half of the program was Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 for which we were treated to a beautiful performance by Teresa Reichlen and Tyler Angle, and a cautious Ana Sophia Scheller as the turning ballerina. We hope Ana is not injured again, but she was definitely holding back last night after a little stumble at the start. Tess, on the other hand, was vibrant and moved with a freedom that we haven’t seen all season. Tyler also was sensational – those turns to the knee behind the ballerina where he has to quickly get back up to catch her on balance were really spectacular. What an opportunity for catastrophe there is in this choreography!

Formerly known as Ballet Imperial, which Balanchine created in 1941, the ballet was reassessed by Balanchine in 1973 to remove the allusion to Imperial Russia. He ditched the tutus and decor in favor of simpler designs and renamed the piece after the music. Haglund loves the old tutus, though.

Last night's corps de ballet was okay except for a couple of problems with the men’s partnering while holding the women in penche arabesque. This ballet is brand new to a lot of the corps dancers who may still be figuring things out. We expect by the end of the run that the corps work will have the same blistering brio as Theme and Variations.

Haglund will revisit this program tonight and tomorrow night and perhaps again next week. In the meantime, the HH Pump Bump Award, a 2016 Louboutin, is bestowed upon Daniel Ulbricht for his spot-on dancing and portrayal of Gurn.

Violette Verdy

 

RIP

NYCB 1/21 and 2/6 Mat Ballo della Regina, Kammermusik No. 2, Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3

In case anyone is having trouble clearing his or her mind of the puppymonkeybaby that danced through the pet-door last evening during the Super Bowl, don’t worry, we won’t remind you of it. Puppymonkeybaby, puppymonkeybaby, puppymonkeybaby. Just let it be and it will go away on its own –– after it licks your face three times.

Enough lightheartedness. It’s time to get back to the serious business at hand. Haglund caught some brilliant performances at NYCB last week that he wants to share.

Balanchine’s Ballo della Regina returned this season after a lengthy absence. Originally made for the fleetness and long legs of Merrill Ashley, Ballo has received extraordinary performances from different types of dancers over the years including the luminous and dazzling Kyra Nichols. This season New York City ballet fielded two casts, one led by Megan Fairchild and Joaquin De Luz during the first week of the season; the other led by Tiler Peck and Gonzalo Garcia on this past Saturday afternoon.

Megan began the evening performance on January 21st with a studied tone and surgical precision but eventually relaxed and let the joy of her dancing shine through during the later parts. Within the first minute or two of this performance, it became evident that the technical level, speed, and clarity that were the extraordinary exception among a few dancers three decades ago, are now common characteristics that run throughout the principal, soloist and corps de ballet ranks at NYCB. It was no less than astonishing to see the finely finished ballerina quality of soloists Ashley Laracey, Erica Pereira, Ashly Isaacs, and Lauren King.

This past Saturday afternoon (Feb. 6) Tiler Peck debuted in the role and also started out a little studious. But that didn’t last long. Like a tennis pro who unerringly finds the sweet spot on his racket strings, Tiler blazed through the allegro, possibly on a single breath, and found those moments where she could make winning shots by stamping her own musicality with indelible ink on the choreography.

One such moment came in the diagonal phrase where the ballerina performs pique turns and finishes by popping out a strongly accented arabesque, all of it at a blistering pace. There is no room for error or hesitation or thinking twice. Somehow, Tiler found room in the music to finish those arabesques with arms in wide open second position turned to the audience – and then paused there in a completely stopped position to twinkle her eyes and smile at us.

The matinee’s demi-soloists Sara Adams, Alexa Maxwell, Emilie Gerrity and Brittany Pollack were superb, also. Brittany looked ready to take on the principal role just like she has, this season, looked ready to take on Theme and Variations.

At the Jan. 21st performance Joaquin De Luz  was in fine form while on Saturday Gonzalo Garcia offered some of his most polished dancing of the season.

Kammermusik No. 2 as executed with the vibrant energies and sharp attack of Rebecca Krohn and Abi Stafford with partners Ask la Cour and Adrian Danchig-Waring on Saturday afternoon was much more satisfying than the depleting energies of Teresa Reichlen and Sara Mearns on Jan. 21st when it looked like they might pass out before finishing this non-stop sprint that goes on for twenty minutes. Even Amar Ramasar’s vitality and spirit couldn’t lift the quartet (completed by Jared Angle) past exhaustion.

Both performances of Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3 were gold. Tiler Peck with Andrew Veyette on January 21st and Megan Fairchild with Joaquin De Luz on Saturday Afternoon delivered the goods in spectacular style. Veyette gave perhaps the best turning performance of this ballet that we have seen from him. Also remarkable was Zachary Catazaro who danced the Elegie opposite Teresa Reichlen on Saturday afternoon. We may have mentioned before that Catazaro owes us a Siegfried from last year when he had to cancel his Swan Lake debut due to injury. We were reminded of that throughout this section as we watched his sorrow haunt him, as we watched him search through the lovely ladies on stage for his one & only, as we watched him plead with her.

The HH Pump Bump Award, a Regina tango shoe, is bestowed upon Tiler Peck for her brilliance in Ballo della Regina.

 

observations 2-5

Thanks to our Haglund'eeler in far off places for alerting us that filmmaker Greg Vander Veer uploaded to Vimeo last week his 2010 film Keep Dancing which follows Donald Saddler and Marge Champion around town and through the years. It includes footage of the two of them, both 90 at the time, rehearsing in the 8th Avenue Midtown studios that they rented a couple of times each week to keep their moves fresh, so to speak. The film won many awards during 2010. Ms. Champion is 96. Mr. Saddler died a little over a year ago at age 96.

Vander Veer noted that it would only be available for free viewing for a limited time.

Keep Dancing  It never gets old.

Reminder – Prix de Lausanne finals livestreamed Saturday

Starts at 9:00 am Eastern time; 3:00 pm Lausanne time – tomorrow.

The jury includes Julio Bocca, Jan Broeckx, Lucinda Dunn, Viviana Durante, Marcelo Gomes, Luca Masala, Elisabeth Platel, Nikolai Tsiskaridze and Ruheng Zhao. Just seeing the names Viviana Durante and Marcelo Gomes next to each other gives us goosebumps. Imagine what they would have been like in Mayerling or Manon.

Here's the link:

http://concert.arte.tv/fr/finale-du-44eme-prix-de-lausanne

If this link proves difficult, try navigating through the front page of www.prixdelausanne.org. Their YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/PrixdeLausanne may only be showing pre-recorded sessions, but you may want to check anyway if the above links aren't functioning for you.

 

 

Millepied is (French) toast

Benjamin Millepied has resigned, been removed, been relieved, been accommodated, whatever, from his position at the Paris Opera Ballet. All of the players will put the best face on this situation, but the reality is that his appointment was a threat to the POB's classicism from the git-go.

Here's Millepied's Twitter resignation and here is an interesting take on it from The Guardian including "it was clear that all was not well after he lambasted the ballet’s hierarchical structure in a French television documentary."

 

And this is fabulous: Aurelie Dupont takes over as Director. True class. We love the Paris Opera Ballet. Love, love, love.