Haglund's Heel

Guest review from Mr. S.

Mr. S. made his annual trek from Australia this fall to enjoy the cultural offerings at Lincoln Center including performances at ABT and the Metropolitan Opera. His visit possibly came slightly too early to enjoy some of his favorite dancers and some unique New York experiences. We wonder what he would have thought of the crazed opera lover who sprinkled someone's cremains in the orchestra pit during an intermission of Rossini's Guilluome Tell this past weekend at the Met. That's true love and devotion for opera. Haglund would opt to have his own cremains sprinkled at a performance of Giselle, but the risk of that performance being led by the likes of __fill-in-the-blank__ would be too great and might further stress his departed soul.

Mr. S. stopped by Philadelphia on the way to New York and caught the opening night of Pennsylvania Ballet's Cinderella starring Sterling Baca and Oksana Maslova. We've already printed his review of that performance elsewhere, but will reprint it with the full review for everyone to read.

We thank Mr. S. for generously sharing his observations and opinions, and are on-board with him 100% in his request for ABT to present at least one full-length classical ballet during the fall season.

Good afternoon and evening, Haglund.

Another year, another visit to New York, another ABT Fall Season.

And, if I may presume, another collection of impressions and reactions.

Before going to ABT, may I say something about the Pennsylvania Ballet?

As it happens, I was in Philadelphia for a week before coming to New York. My week included the opening night of the 2017 Season of the PB and so I had the good fortune to see the opening performance of Cinderella.

The first thing that I noticed was that the audience was thin on the ground, especially for an opening night. I appreciate that the Academy of Music, splendid auditorium that it is, needs a very substantial number of people to fill it. Even so, the view into the auditorium from where I was sitting, in the second parterre box at stage right, was one of lots of vacant seats. I found that mystifying, because the evening's performance was, at least to my amateur eye, a very accomplished one. In hoping, as I very much do, that the PB will go from strength to strength, I admit to a strong bias which can be expressed in two words: Angel Corella. I have seen Mr Corella dance with ABT. I have the ABT video on which he and Paloma Herrera dance the Don Quixote pas de deux, one of the most dazzling ballet performances that I have ever seen. I saw him dance in Madrid a performance of La Bayadere, opposite both Paloma Herrera and Gillian Murphy, a high-powered cast  if ever there was one, and a performance to match. I think that it is a crying shame that his imaginative plans for bringing the great art of classical ballet to life in his own country fell apart for want of political and public support. I cannot think that I am alone in hoping that Mr Corella will crown a magnificent career in dancing classical ballet with a matching achievement in passing on, both as director and as occasional choreograper, all the things that he undoubtedly has to teach to a new generation of classical ballet dancers. Bocca di lupo, Mr Corella.

When I read the cast list, I noticed at once the name of Mr Baca. It was familiar to me from last year's ABT Fall Season and I was naturally interested to see what he might make of a real leading role in a different company. He was, in a word, terrific. He looked good and moved well. He had a presence and a stylishness that fitted his role like the metaphorical glove. His partner was Oksana Maslova, whom I had not ever seen. She was perfect in the title role. She is slender and graceful and she has, or at least had in this particular role, a fragility, an air of innocence, that were completely right for the role.
Together , she and Mr Baca made a partnership of which any ballet company would be rightly proud. In the final pas de deux they danced an action that appears also, if memory serves, in the great pas de deux from the final act of Sleeping Beauty: the danseur takes his weight on an extended leg which is bent at right angles at the knee; he holds out an extended right arm which the ballerina uses like a barre; she does a set of spins and then goes with her partner into a dramatic fish dive. The effect, on this particular occasion, was simply electrifying. All in all, a splendid evening of classical dance.

And now to ABT. This year, ABT has, in my own case, some stiff competition from the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic. I have been, thus far, to the evening performance on Friday last; to both performances on Saturday last, and to yesterday's, ( Sunday's) matinee. I have yet to see the performance scheduled for the coming Wednesday evening and the matinee scheduled for the coming Saturday.

Before I began writing, I had a look at your website and noticed a long posting about the current ABT Season. I have deliberately left it unread until I finsh these notes. I am interested to see whether, and if so to what extent, my amateur impressions and reactions accord with your much more, and better,  informed opinions.


SOME GENERAL IMPRESSIONS

My advocacy has not proved equal to the task of persuading the ABT Directorate to include in the Fall Season just one full-length ballet, so that those of us who cannot be in New York for the Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House have at least some chance of seeing the Company in some setting other than that of a succession of bits and pieces. Never mind. To borrow from Company B: "But I can dream, can't I?". As somebody, (I can never remember who it was), famously remarked about miracles: the only thing that is really strange about them is that they do sometimes happen.

Secondly, I have found myself thinking time and again this year how important to a ballet is the score to which it is being danced. Several of the ballets which I have seen this year have been abstract to an extent that simply doesn't work for me, and yet the music chosen for them has been great music, sufficient to carry off reasonably pleasantly what I might call the whole package.

Thirdly, I have found myself lost once again in admiration for the musicianship of the artists who provide solo accompaniment for a particular ballet. It is one thing to play an instrumental solo standing with the orchestra, with good lighting and with the guidance of a conductor. It is something else again to be a solo pianist, seated in semi-darkness at the extreme stage left of an empty orchestra pit and accompanying dancers who are performing on a stage floor that is at a much higher level, with all that must be entailed in terms of co-ordinating music and movement. There have been several examples this year and I believe that they should always be given a deserved particular cheer.

Fourthly, where, oh where is Mr Cornejo? He is still named on the ABT website as a
Principal, but he does not appear on the Principals' Pictures page of this year's programme book. His absence, with continuing memories of dazzling performance after dazzling performance in season after season, has been for me one of this year's big disappointments. He can't have left ABT, can he?

SOME IMPRESSIONS OF SOME BALLETS

1. The Brahms-Haydn Variations

I have seen, thus far, three performances of this ballet. My response to the ballet as dance theatre remains much the same as it was last year. I realise that to say that one has not been quite bowled over by a Ballet choreographd by Twyla Tharp is a modern equivalent of saying something which, in an earlier time, would have one burned at the stake for heresy. And yet, hard though I have tried, I just can't see it as great ballet. I think that it is clever as a series of snappy dance movements. I admire, (who could not?), the vitality and dexterity of the dancers. The piece continues for me, however, to miss that extra something, call it grace or elegance perhaps, that knits together disparate elements into a thing of simple and unmistakable beauty. In the end, it means no more to me  than an exercise in interesting abstractions that leaves a viewer, to borrow from James Bond, diverted not stirred.

The music is, of course, another matter entirely. The Variations are a great Brahms work. When they are played as well as they have been played at my three performances, then they really do lift the spirit so that the performance as a whole becomes more than the mere sum of its parts.

Of the three casts which I have seen, i would award the palm to the Sunday matinee vast which  included Gillian Murphy and Marcelo Gomes in partnership. More later of them and  of other particular artists.

2. Her Songs

I have seen, thus far, two performances, the first of them on Friday evening having been the world premiere.

The score was wholly unknown to me and, I imagine, to most other members of the two audiences. It consists of a series of piano sketches composed by Fanny Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn's sister. The sketches were composed as musical impressions of experiences of herself and of her husband throughout a year spent in travel. The sketches are presented in the ballet as programme music grouped under the five headings: January; February; June; December; and a so-called Postlude.

The difficulty that I had with this new ballet was that, for all of its presentation as programme music, it was in fact not really programmatic at all but, rather, yet another set of interesting but not in any way stirring abstractions. Had I seen this ballet with no assistance from programme notes, it would not have occured remotely to me that I was hearing musical sketches of travel experiences spread over a year or, indeed, over any other temporal span.

I felt, as I watched, that it need not have turned out like that. Instead of the stark and wholly unrelated sets and costumes, might it have improved matters to have used the modern possibilities of screen projections to have given at least some pictorial clues supplementing the programme headings? I thought so.

The two casts were identical . More later about particular artists.

3.  Daphnis and Chloe

This was another ABT first, with choreography by Benjamin Millepied, and it has been my biggest single disappointment to date in the current season.

This score was composed by Ravel to a commission from Diaghilev. It is a masterpiece of French Impressionism in music. But it is not an impressionistic ballet: it is a narrative ballet retelling in music and dance a story taken from the literature of Ancient Greece. The score provides, indeed, for a form of Greek Chorus.

I was really looking forward to seeing something really special in the form of beautiful action spelling out beautifully and against a setting of beautiful sets and costumes, all in tune with a line from Longus , the original author, quoted in the programme note: " for no man has been able to avoid the shafts of Love, nor will be able, as long as eyes can see AND BEAUTY REIGNS" (My emphasis).

Well, one could use any number of adjectives to describe this staging, but beautiful is among the very last that would occur to me. The costumes for the men looked to me, as soon as I first saw them, like standard issue airline pyjama suits with slightly shortened legs. The was no scenery to speak of, just regularly juxtaposed geometric forms. Principal among these was a disc representing the sun. Pan, a God of the Ancient Greeks and whose intervention is decisive in the original story of the ballet, was neither seen nor even remotely represented. When the baddies got their just desserts, Pan did not enter upon the scene, but the sun disc became ever more intensely red until the baddies simply fell down, for all the world like sufferers from a fatal overdose of sunstroke. As I suggested in connection with Her Notes, why on earth could there not have been some really imaginative screen projections bringing a classical, narrative ballet to classical, narrative life? Only asking, only asking.

Very good orchestral playing. An excellent Chorus whose members performed, I thought, herocially given that they were standing throughout, wedged like sardines in a small area at the extreme stage left of the orchestra pit. Some good dancing, of which more later.

4.  Serenade After Plato's Symposium

This ballet had its premiere during this year's Spring Season at the Met. The score is by Leonard Bernstein: the title of the ballet is the title of the score. The score is played by an orchestra and a violin soloist and it was very well played by both at each of the three performances that I have seen thus far.

It might be useful for any reader of these notes to take the measure of this piece by referring to the following excerpt from the programme notes:

" .... .... ....(A) group of men convene (sic!) and deliver speeches on the topic of love, with each man bringing a unique perspective to the proceedings. They explore how love can help the soul to understand truth in the pursuit of wisdom and beauty".

Actually, they do no such things. A cast of seven men and, briefly, one woman, dressed in variegated but rather uninteresting costumes, jump here and whirl there, occasionally touching hands, occasionally draping arms languidly around shoulders, and occasionally resolving into groups of bystanders who reminded me, ( my fauly entirely, as I must confess), of the groups of male dancers in the "Working for the Yankee Dollar" sequence in Company B last year: emotionally challenged frat boys.

The sole female appears twice. On the first occasion she dances an obtuse sequence with her male colleagues. On the second occasion she appears standing alone up against the extreme stage left , while the seven men arrange themselves into another Company B tableau. For me, one of the highlights of the performances was to watch, not the expressions of the seven men, but that of the sole woman, Miss Seo on two occasions and Miss Teuscher on the third. Both, but Miss Seo in particular, looked to me as though she was thinking, with every justification as it seemed to me,  some such thought as : " I don't really think so"; or "Why don't you boys just grow up?"; or " You can't be serious - give me a break!"

After one of my performances, the husband of a couple in the two adjacent seats said audibly enough for me to hear: " I didn't get it". I did not catch his wife's reply, but I did summon up sufficient self restraint to refrain from leaning over and telling him that I entirely understood and felt exactly the same.

This time, the score was not equal to the rescue. It was not exactly atonal, but it struck me as uneven and unmelodic.

5.  Symphonic Variations

A one off, slotted in on Saturday evening between Plato and Daphnis and Chloe. Choreograpy by Sir Frederick Ashton. Music by Cesar Franck, the Symphonic Variations for Piano and Orchestra.

The ballet was, as such, something of a mixed bag for me. I always think of Ashton as one of the greatest choreographers of narrative ballets ever to emerge from the Royal Ballet. This is certainly not that kind of ballet. It is, rather, an example of a great narrative choreographer trying his hand at something abstract and different.

Does it work? In the end, not for me. It is redeemed to some extent by Ashton's exceptional touch in the matters of that cool elegance and fundamental beauty to the eye that are the hallmarks, at least as it seems to me, of his great works choreographed for the Royal Ballet. And, once again, the score made the whole something greater than a mere sum of the parts.


SOME IMPRESSIONS OF SOME DANCERS

Miss Murphy, Miss Murphy. What is there left to say about this outstanding artist? Whenever she is on stage, however unpromising the material with which she has to work, she is a class act -class as in masterclass, I should perhaps add in this Age of Grievance, Real or Imagined.

Mr Gomes. To my eye, very good indeed in the current season. Not only does he have height and bearing; he has experience to burn, and it shows. His partnering of Miss Murphy during the performances which I have seen to date, has provided some of my most enjoyable moments of the current Season.

Mr Simkin. The stand out solo in Saturday evening's Plato. It required great agility and precision. This time, Mr Simkin made it  work, as he does, at least for me, generally but not inevitably. He dared mightily and he brought it off excitingly.

Mr Gorak. Still one of my favourites, because, for me, when he takes off he really does soar. Very good work in Plato. Twice announced to dance one of the three principal male roles in Daphnis and Chloe and twice replaced. Does Haglund know why? His dancing in other demanding roles does not suggest injury or illness. In any event a distinct disppointment for me. But repaired in large measure by:

Mr Hoven. There are several good things to say about Mr Hoven in this Season, but for me the great achievement is that he sunstituted for Mr Gorak at both the Saturday performances after having danced the same role on the preceding evening and he turned in a fine performance on all three occasions. Great dancing; great stamina; great professionalism.

Mr Lendorf. New to me and interesting because, according to the programme booklet, he joined ABT last year as a Principal, no less. Having watched him in works as diverse as Brahms  - Haydn, Plato and Symphonic Variations, I think that I can see why. Great agility, great poise, great polish. Great expectations.

Miss Abrera. One of Haglund's favourites, but I had never been fortunate enough until Friday last to see her in a major role. On Friday she danced Chloe opposite a very good Mr Stearns and I believe that I can see what Haglund finds so attractive. She has a fine overall classical style, with poise and grace to spare.  And a final word for

Miss Lane. I have not seen her during this Season  in anything where, at least to my amateur eye, she has had a real chance to shine. In anything that I have seen her dance this Season she has been, of course I would say, as good as I thought her to be last year. Why am I not seeing her in more and more prominent roles? Only asking.

Well, Haglund, there it is for ABT 2017 thus far. Please forgive the length of this posting. There is always, may I say in mitigation, so much that the ABT Fall Season, with all its ups and downs, leaves one fired up to say.

I trust that you are well, happy and flourishing.

Always cordially,

Mr S

ABT – Watch out for the Siren 10/26

In Manhattan a siren is heard about every three minutes or so in nearly every neighborhood. We’ve learned to tune out most of them. Even walking along the sidewalk in Hell’s Kitchen when Engine 54 with its catchy painted slogan Never missed a performance barrels by with its 120 decibel trumpets, we just nod respectfully and let it pass without even covering our ears. Every so often, however, a siren comes by with such striking force and drama that it causes us to pause in admiration of its beauty and power. Yes, of course we are talking about Veronika Part in her debut as The Siren in last night’s performance of Balanchine's Prodigal Son opposite Daniil Simkin. Who else would we be talking about?!

Oh my my. As Veronika’s Siren stalked Daniil’s young and impressionable Prodigal Son around the stage, it almost seemed time to call the police; but even their sirens would have been no match for Veronika's. She was going to get her man-boy and he was going to like it – at least initially. She wrapped herself around her victim like some sexy python-lady, tender at first, and then she went for the hard squeeze. And it was all but over. It was a miracle that he managed to survive her. But he did. When after a few days of hard partying he struggled to his knees for the long crawl of repentance back to his father, he was truly defeated and humbled.

Simkin’s Prodigal Son is not yet close to the interpretative level of Daniel Ulbricht or Joaquin De Luz who currently perform it at NYCB or to Angel Corella whose performance in the role left vivid memories. Given the infrequency that ABT performs the ballet, he may never have enough chances to perform the role in order to build into the character but we’ll take what we got last night. His attraction/fear of Veronika’s Siren looked authentic. It was not the wild ride he had with Irina Dvorovenko some years ago, but it was pretty darn good.

The Drinking Companions (listed in the program as Ahn, Frenette, Holloway, Lyle, Ogle, Sumitani, Vendt, Whiteley, and Zhang) easily measured up to the Companions at NYCB, and may have even been slightly more impressive due to their generally larger size. Alexei Agoudine and Sean Stewart danced and mingled well as the Servants to the Prodigal Son. Initially we were paying close attention to their main stage duet until we noticed Veronika’s Siren up stage with her back to the audience begin pawing with lingering fingers at the hesitant-but-receptive Prodigal Son. Then we couldn’t take our eyes off the action at the back of the stage.

Also on the program was Ashton’s Monotones I and II for which we had the good fortune of a cast change in Monotones II. Veronika, Cory Stearns and Thomas Forster replaced Hee Seo, Alexandre Hammoudi, and Sung Woo Han. The grande adage à trois of the twin men partnering the moon-inspired woman between them exquisitely echoed many of the formations and movements seen in the terrestrial-inspired Monotones I which was performed by Stella Abrera, Joseph Gorak, and Isabella Boylston. Stella and Joseph have complimentary physiques of length and grace. Isabella, with her dropped pelvis and dreadful upper body simply looked out of place – in the trio and in the ballet. While we understand how much it pleases Stella to dance the role created on her late coach, Georgina Parkinson, we would prefer to see her advance to the role in the front and see Isabella moved to the role in the back - if only for the sake of the audience.

Sandwiched between the Ashton and Balanchine was Ratmansky’s Serenade after Plato’s Symposium. It doesn’t compare favorably to either of the other dances on the program. Overly packed with steps, underwhelming in drama or narrative, oddly costumed, and minimally lit, the whole dance was quite simply virtuosity for virtuosity’s sake. The virtuosity was fabulous. The virtuosity was impressive. The virtuosity stunned in some cases. So what? Haglund loves over-the-top virtuosity when it is presented honestly, like in Etudes, Theme and Variations or even in Le Corsaire. In Symposium, there was an effort to make us think that it was all so very important and meaningful, but it was a failed effort. The dancers loved doing all the steps, loved showing off with virtuosity, loved pretending that it was intellectually stimulating. So what? They didn’t pay $100 to watch it.

The H.H. Pump Bump Award, a jeweled stiletto with octopus tentacles hugging the heel, is bestowed upon Veronika Part, the Siren of every man’s dreams.

 

Pennsylvania Ballet – The slipper fits 10/22

It would be hard to find a Cinderella ballet that we don't love. Well, the Mariinsky found one; but mostly, Cinderella is a winner whenever she sweeps into the room swirling to Prokofiev. It’s one of those (politically incorrect, according to a vocal minority without daughters) stories about goodness in the world winning out in the face of ugliness by being patient and always doing right without stepping on anyone’s toes. In the end, the ugliness reforms its ways and everyone gets along. Such a terrible story. So harmful to the psyche of little girls. Yeah, right. Girls will never achieve happiness by taking the “high road” and brushing off nastiness. In two weeks, the glass slippers will be under a pantsuit and girls of all ages everywhere will feel like Cinderellas.

Pennsylvania Ballet just wrapped up its run of Ben Stevenson’s rich production of Cinderella at the Academy of Music. Initially created for the National Ballet of Washington in 1970, it has been performed by many companies all over the world from Queensland to Portland. George Balanchine chose it for the Geneva Ballet when he was the artistic advisor for a time. The production was also presented by American Ballet Theatre where Angel Corella danced the roles of Prince and the Jester and still regrets not having had the opportunity to chew scenery as a Stepsister. In recent years, Stevenson has reworked sections of the ballet for different companies, and the sets and costumes, originally by David Walker, are for the Pennsylvania production by Patty Greer McGarity (costumes), Virginia Vogel (costumes), Thomas Boyd (sets), and Steven Rubin (sets).

Our draw to go to Philly for a performance was the Prince, Sterling Baca, who was one of the many talents suffocating in the ABT corps from lack of oxygenating opportunities until Pennsylvania Ballet Artistic Director Angel Corella threw him a lifeline with respirator. We came home Saturday night with new favorites among the ballerinas to go along with our already-favorite Lillian Di Piazza and Mayara Pineiro.

For the eleven performances of Stevenson’s Cinderella, Corella put together six different casts of Cinderella and Prince that spanned the ranks of the company. Three corps women were dropped off the edge of the diving board into the principal ballerina deep-end of the pool to swim for the title role. Two corpsmen and a soloist joined them as Princes. This type of growth-oriented casting should bring some calm to those still worried about whether Pennsylvania Ballet will lose its Balanchine bravery. This was his tradition which continues today at NYCB and also in Philadelphia.

At the Saturday 5PM performance, Oksana Maslova and Sterling Baca were bona fide fairytale from head to toe. Ms. Maslova along with Sara Michelle Murawski as the Fairy Godmother and Yuka Iseda as the Spring Fairy yielded checkmark [✔︎] arabesques and attitude positions with such flexibility that one wondered if they even had 33 vertebrae among the three of them. Ms. Maslova’s were of particularly fine form with a beautifully lifted torso and no visible strain. Her Cinderella was not a helpless captive victim but more of a young girl who realized that she couldn’t choose her relatives and had to make the best of her family situation with all its dysfunction. Her dreams and imagination were set free by joyous dancing with her broom and by keeping the memory of her birth mother alive even when that prompted scorn from her stepmother, the rather glamorous looking Holly Lynn Fusco, who one would never have guessed could have delivered the likes of Charles Askegard and Ian Hussey as the Stepsisters. There could be another ballet for discovering who their real father was.

When Sterling Baca's Prince arrived at the ball to trumpeting fanfare in Act Two, he did so in royal form with beautifully stretched sautes and arabesques. Nothing in the world would make him pause on his quest for the woman of his dreams until he met the unexpected gaze of Sister Askegard’s eyes and nearly came too close to her purpose-filled lipstick. He looked at her curiously before suddenly pulling his head back like he’d just sniffed ammonia – all of it tickled the audience with its perfect comedic timing.

The PdDs danced by the Prince and his Cinderella were filled with dreamy romance and elegance. A difficult double fish pose that went right and then left was done with such ease that we were disappointed we didn’t get to see it a second time.

In addition to the lovely Yuka Iseda as the Spring Fairy, this cast had the luxury of Lillian Di Piazza as the Summer Fairy, Mayara Pineiro as the Autumn Fairy and Dayesi Torriente as the Winter Fairy. Jon Martin, an instructor in Pennsylvania Ballet’s school whose own pedigree goes back to Ruth Page and Harold Lang, was the Priest who performed the nuptials of Cinderella and the Prince. The Corps de Ballet supplemented with apprentices performed with precision and joy.

All through the performance we were impressed with Baca’s confidence and the sturdiness of his technique. The stage walk in deep parallel plie at times looked a little like a Marx Brother, and there is a need for continual attention to turnout and stretching the fronts of the ankles, but overall, this performance was triumphant. We are very excited about the prospect of seeing his Ali in Le Corsaire this spring after he works intensely with Corella.

The HH Pump Bump Award, a Stuart Weitzman Cinderella glass ankle boot with diamonds, is bestowed upon Sterling. We’re glad that he didn’t go any farther away than Philly.

 

 

ABT – New is not always better – 10/20 & 10/21

Home decor is a very personal choice. It reflects the inhabitant’s personal preferences or perhaps just a desire to impress others. Designers run the gamut from traditional-oriented to post modernist-oriented to those who have no style at all except to combine elements to make something different and conversation-worthy. There’s nothing wrong with that. However, something that Haglund would never do is invest in a beautiful handmade silk antique oriental rug and then arrange Ikea furniture on top of it. That was the feeling of what was happening while watching the two new works presented by ABT during the first week of its fall season.

Benjamin Millepied set his Daphnis and Chloe to Ravel’s lush, at times hushed, at times passionate multi-hued score that conjures up a strong sense of French Impressionism from first note to last. It is Ravel’s longest work and requires some amount of patience for the modern non-Ravelomane to enjoy for its full 55 minutes; it is more often performed as an orchestral suite than in its entirety. While we admire Millepied for accepting the challenge to choreograph the full score, we think he would have achieved a better outcome by choosing to work with the orchestral suite – and perhaps ignoring the simple story altogether.

The choreography per se included inventive, pleasing patterns for the corps de ballet that were responsive to the music and at times even illuminated the music for the viewer. The PdDs for Stella Abrera (Chloe) & Cory Stearns (Daphnis) and Cassandra Trenary (Lycenion) & Blaine Hoven (Dorcon) were strongly designed as well. The artists themselves were superb and a joy to watch. Stella gave the classic lyricism a contemporary tone like few others are able to do. It made us ache to see her as Juliet. Cory’s own dancing had more weight to it than we usually see - again, very respectful of classical form without making it look archaic. Cassandra and Blaine were riveting in their PdD, solos, and dramatic connection.

Unfortunately, none of this saved the ballet from being an excruciating bore that was spoiled by its floundering narrative efforts. Adding to its problems was the obnoxious geometric scenery including a Henri Bendel-inspired B&W striped front scrim on which a large projected black square morphed into a rectangle and a circle. When the curtain finally disappeared to reveal large colorful geometric shapes hanging over the stage, that is when the Ikea connection was made. The connection was made stronger when the women changed from flowing white dresses to mustard, green, or blue dresses with our principal couple in bright red. The men’s costumes of pajama type knee-length pants and loose shirts followed the same color scheme. Let us repeat that the artists danced their choreography wonderfully; even James Whiteside as Bryaxis managed to wow with his steps.

Within the corps, Gemma Bond, Alexandra Basmagy, and Courtney Lavine were eye catchers for the sweep of their movement. Sign up old Haglund for the Jonathan Klein and Marshall Whiteley fan clubs. Whiteley was substituting for someone, perhaps Gray Davis, but holy moly does his dancing ever resonate. He’s a large man with feline grace. His turning coupe jetes had a freakish similarity to David Hallberg’s (of years ago) in their snap, trajectory, and the height of the torso. (Where is that Hallberg, anyway?! Do we have to send out a special posse for him or is he going to surrender peaceably to the ballet again soon?)

Jessica Lang’s Her Notes received its world premiere last night. Set to excerpts from Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s Das Jahr (trans: The Year), it hinted at a weighty meaning related to Hensel’s difficulty getting recognition as a composer due to the gender stereotypes of her time, but never clearly conveyed it through the choreography. Instead, the narrative relied entirely on a piece of scenery – a large plate of glass through which Gillian Murphy attempted to step when it was vertical and ended up pushing through when it was suspended horizontally as the proverbial glass ceiling.

Were the steps lovely? Yes. Was the corps work interesting? Sometimes. Were the artists appealing? Always. Do we have a strong desire to ever see it or Daphnis and Chloe again? Nuh-uh, but we probably will anyway.

Trends in choreography - make that, bad trends in choreography spread like antibiotic-resistant bacteria. One of the worst trends right now is this "in-between” choreography - in between abstract and narrative where a story is hinted to exist but character development is weak or nonexistent. Instead, the audience is served up dark stage lighting to create moodiness and drama along with music that suggests importance, but there is very little character development.

There are plenty of 20th Century examples from whom to learn character development: Roland Petit, Agnes De Mille, Antony Tudor, Kenneth MacMillan, John Neumeier, John Cranko, Birgit Cullberg. This in-between abstract/narrative model is cheapskate stuff, and we wish that today’s choreographers would stay away from narrative unless they’re going to make a total commit to it. And they should stop relying on production elements to save their choreography.

The most enjoyable ballet on the Thursday and Friday programs was Twyla Tharp’s The Brahms-Haydn Variations on Friday evening. No pretense there. Gillian Murphy and Marcelo Gomes demonstrated what it means to be experienced. They found plenty of room within the steps to create a human relationship and to communicate their own joy in dancing Tharp’s Finnegans Wake-like craziness. The exquisite Christine Shevchenko, dancing with Joseph Gorak, looked like the heir apparent to many of Gillian’s roles. Sleek, bold without being unrestrained – her dancing, not her showiness, spoke for itself. We just wish we could get a little more length out of those arms for the White Act ballets surely in her future. In the meantime, we are anxious to see her Kitri, hopefully, this spring.

The principal cast included Sarah Lane and Skylar Brandt who danced with Craig Salstein and Arron Scott - all of them as appealing as any cast we’ve ever seen in the ballet’s 17-year history. We can’t say that about Isabella Boylston and Alban Lendorf, however. We will just never get behind Boylston’s sloppy-with-style interpretation of everything or the collapse and loosening of the torso in order to throw the leg up. Lendorf - we still don't understand the point of adding him to the principal roster. He can partner and is an accomplished technician, certainly, but he has no length to his line which is distorted and densely-muscled.

Ashton’s Symphonic Variations (Brandt, Teuscher, Copeland, Salstein, Whiteside, Cirio) on Thursday looked terrible. Weird terrible. Like the-choreography-was-beaten-into-them terrible. Leaden terrible. The exception to all this was Skylar Brandt who had the springy lightness that we see when the Royal Ballet performs this ballet. Haglund watched the whole thing while wondering why Gemma Bond wasn’t dancing in this with Skylar. The men seemed better rehearsed although no less tense and leaden. Maybe we’ll like the other cast better; surely Cassandra Trenary will have springy lightness. There can be no Symphonic Variations without springy lightness. This was torture.

Oy, oy, oy. ABT should try to schedule its fall season before NYCB's season, not immediately afterward.

The HH Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon Blaine Hoven for his exceptional dancing in all three pieces on Friday night and ending the evening as strong as he started. He is looking magnificent. Here’s hoping that we get to see him leading a big Petipa classic this spring with a truly Petipa-worthy ballerina.

observations 10-21

How great to see that Semionova's picture and bio have been removed from ABT's website. There is still more clean-up needed, however. Nobody needs Kochetkova at ABT when they've got Sarah Lane, Skylar Brandt, Cassandra Trenary, Gemma Bond, and Catherine Hurlin. No need at all.

We wish ABT would get its Kennedy Center casting out so that we can pre-plan to see Devon Teuscher in Swan Lake.

NYCB – Gleaming sums it up

“Meow. This represents too much sitting.”

Well, yes, perhaps. But in our defense, we did stand up several times to applaud which, according to the fitness app on the Apple Watch, counts as vigorous exercise. And Mr. Kitty, as the song goes,  If lovin' this is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.

Sunday’s final matinee was an exclamation point to the declaration New York City Ballet made over the course of its fall season: It is at its strongest ever in its glory-filled history.

Its net assets/fund balances are 600% of ABT’s ($210 mil to $32 mil). Its total revenues are twice that of ABT's ($105 mil to $48 mil). It even has more than 3X the number of volunteers willing to give their time (250 vs 70). (Info taken from the most currently available Form 990s.) 

It sources 100% of its artists from its own school.

It does not rely on guest dancers, freelancers, or imports from lesser companies to augment its ranks.

Its dancers are without question the most talented in its history.

Its bench is so deep with talent and accomplishment that it could serve as two other companies.

The Balanchine, Robbins, and Martins repertories are being danced with as much or more verve, pristine technique, and artistry than ever before. Of course, there are a few adjustments that need to be made – most notably in Jewels which we hope by its 50th anniversary celebration will be wiped clean of the swan-y melodramatics that have crept into Sara Mearns’ Diamonds as well as the Siren influence that Ashley Bouder chose for Rubies. We also hope to see Andrew Veyette regularly performing at the high level that he did on Sunday opposite Ashley Bouder in Stars and Stripes. Somehow he rose above the morosity and uncaring that has burdened his dancing in the past to make us admire him once again.

Sunday’s Glass Pieces was a stunner. Rebecca Krohn and Amar Ramasar in the Facades PdD revealed the beauty of the planes and angles of Robbins’ choreography. The Rubric section spotlight fell on Unity Phelan, Emilie Gerrity, Lydia Wellington, Joseph Gordon, Andrew Scordato, and Cameron Dieck, all corps members functioning as principals in caliber and confidence. Emilie’s arabesque had such length and beautiful curve that it snatched our breath away. Andrew Scordato has continued his artistic growth spurt – his grand allegro stretching more than ever before and his partnering acquiring a new elegance and sensitivity.

In Stars and Stripes, Lauren King gave her baton majorette duties an expert twirl and led her regiment vivaciously. Within her First Campaign, Indiana Woodward and Alexa Maxwell marched brightly. In the Rifle Regiment, Megan LeCrone wasn’t as confident as we’ve seen her before but nonetheless striking in her technical abilities. Her Second Campaign included more Stars of Tomorrow than we could count including Ashley Hod, Claire Kretzschmar, Emily Kikta, Unity Phelan, Miriam Miller, and the gorgeous Isabella LaFreniere who we now look for in everything.

Troy Schumacher as the leader of the Thunder and Gladiator Regiment pulled it off in the near vicinity of Daniel Ulbricht and his recruits were a little sharper than in previous performances. We’re always looking for Harrison Coll, Aaron Sanz, Silas Farley, and Harrison Ball – such a diverse group of artists who all coalesce smoothly.

What can one say about Ashley Bouder’s Liberty Bell? Haglund was sitting close enough to the stage that he thought he heard the members of the Thunder and Gladiator Regiment yell at her something like Take us home, Mama! (It could have come from the orchestra pit where Clotilde Otranto was stoking the Sousa to white hot flames.) Bouder blazed through Liberty Bell with a special eagerness and joy, seizing and exploiting pauses in the music to tint her musicality with a bit of extra color. And as is often the case, she brought out the spirit in her partner, Andrew Veyette, who gave perhaps his best performance of the season and one that seemed truthfully joyous.

Peter Martins Thou Swell has really taken on a life of its own with the current cast of Sterling Hyltin, Rebecca Krohn, Sara Mearns, Teresa Reichlen, Robert Fairchild Amar Ramasar, Jared Angle, and Ask la Cour. When it returns at the end of the Winter Season on a program with Wheeldon’s Carousel and Balanchine’s Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, be sure to catch it if this cast holds for the run.

The entire NYCB corps de ballet has danced with gleaming beauty and pride this season. It instills such anticipation for the wonderful things in store for the company’s future. Haglund wants to share that about seven or eight years ago he received an email from a corps dancer’s mother following an NYCB Nutcracker review on H.H. She thanked Haglund for writing about the individual corps dancers and especially her daughter in the review and went on to say “She claims that her father and I are the only ones who ever see her on stage.” [Shaking pointer finger at corps de ballet] Don’t ever think that. Don’t ever think that the audience doesn’t see corps dancers as individuals with unique gifts. And don’t torture your parents with false claims of insignificance because you are dancing in the back of the corps of the New York City Ballet.

Haglund keeps hearing murmurings and guessing about when Martins will step down (or aside) for a successor. This talk never coincides with any complaints about the company or yearnings for a change in direction of its artistry. Admiration for Martins’ accomplishments has never been higher, and it is well-earned. The successor-talk all stems from his age (69 turning 70 next week) and his longevity (30+ years) as director. It seems that those big numbers are automatically a cause for concern for some younger people who have no other basis for concern or older people who have stopped thriving in their golden years. It is ageism, plain and simply. We are at a clear-thinking point in history where we are about to on-board a 69-year-old New Hire as the Leader of the Free World. She has 30+ years of public service, too. So long as Martins’ love for his job and his health hold out, we hope that he’ll stick it out for at least another two terms of office and pave the way for a much smoother succession than he experienced.

In celebration of this past season’s strengths, we bestow the H.H. Pump Bump Award, an Alexander McQueen design that features a collection of paths to form its beauty, on Peter Martins because in addition to his unqualified deserving of it – we just like to be controversial.

observations 10-18

Our own Simone Messmer will debut as Giselle in Miami City Ballet's opening performance on Friday, October 21 at Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. Her Albrecht will be her frequent partner, Rainer Krenstetter. Very excited to see some photos/footage of this. Evelyn Hart, herself a magical Giselle at Royal Winnipeg Ballet, has been coaching the casts in Miami.

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Herman Cornejo and Alessandra Ferri have added some excerpts from Ashton's Rhapsody to the Friday, November 4th program of the Vail Dance Festival - New York Remix at City Center. The first night Herman will dance Apollo.  Tickets to the three-night event are not selling as hotly as the producers probably hoped. There are unfortunately a few unappealing aspects to it cast-wise which may be keeping sales slow. The three programs are designed along the lines of Fall for Dance but tickets are not exactly $15. Maybe they'll show up on TDF later.

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Our own Sterling Baca got rave reviews for his opening night performance as Prince Charming to the beautiful Oksana Maslova's Cinderella at Pennsylvania Ballet. We look forward to trotting down to Philly on Saturday to see him in his second performance – oh, and Charles Askegard as one of the Stepsisters.

 

NYCB – 10/14Robbins' Dances at a Gathering – about as storyless as an Auden haiku

Two decades before creating Dances at a Gathering, Jerome Robbins was immersed in bringing the complicated souls of Leonard Bernstein's and W.H. Auden’s Age of Anxiety into ballet form. Auden’s Pulitzer Prize-winning poem of 1947 inspired Bernstein to write his symphony in 1948-49. Robbins tackled their complex poetic and musical themes in 1950. It’s now easy to see how Robbins found kindred clan among Auden and Bernstein. All three artists’ work addressed the difficult search for meaning in life and acceptance of oneself in a post-war world emotionally charged with uncertainty and false ideas.

Age of Anxiety would not be the last time that Robbins turned to either Bernstein or Auden for inspiration. The composer and poet were major creative forces in the mid-20th century as Robbins would also come to be.

Robbins work figures prominently in the last half of New York City Ballet’s current fall season. Glass Pieces, Dances at a Gathering, Firebird (co-choreographed with Balanchine) all look to be in fine shape and are blessed with interpreters who sense the significance of the choreography as opposed to themselves.

Some claim there is no story in Dances at a Gathering, Robbins' classic from 1969 set to a collection of Chopin waltzes, etudes, and mazurkas. Perhaps there is no narrative, but there is plenty of story with a final tableau that wraps it up somberly.

Toward the end of Dances at a Gathering, the dancers wander onto the stage, milling casually as though relaxing at a picnic after a bout of play. A man dressed in green kneels down to place his hand lovingly on the earth, perhaps on a much missed soul’s resting place. Suddenly the piano music erupts into a con fuoco passage of rumbling notes that prompt the dancers to race toward the edge of the stage and peer outward as if looking into the sky for signs of a storm. They relax, but then without warning, the con fuoco rumbling returns and the dancers search the sky with concern and anxiety in their eyes. The music’s fury quickly subsides and the dancers stroll off into the rest of their lives just like W.H. Auden observed in his 1965c. nontraditional haiku:

Thoughts of his own death,
like the distant roll
of thunder at a picnic.

Last evening Megan Fairchild (in apricot), Rebecca Krohn (in mauve), Lauren King (in blue), Sterling Hyltin (in pink), Sara Mearns (in green), Robert Fairchild (in purple), Chase Finlay (in green), Zachary Catazaro (in blue), Gonzalo Garcia (in brown), and Harrison Ball (in brick) knit together their close community with dreamy lyricism, subtle humor, and exuberant play. Lauren, who danced the blue role in all of the performances with both casts this season, did so with a new poised beauty and rich musicality. Rebecca’s lovely lines and textured lyricism were as delicate as a mallow blossom. Harrison debuting in the ballet showed that, in addition to dancing with great respect for form and high energy, he can also muster up a little rapport with his partner.

Ashley Bouder’s Firebird, Zachary Catazaro’s Prince Ivan, and Ashley Laracey’s Prince’s Bride made a terrific go at bringing the Balanchine/Robbins Firebird to full life. Bouder took a spill early on when it appeared her leg buckled under her, but she completed the performance without any hint of injury, dancing with her unique electrical charge and fearless blaze. Going forward, however, we'd prefer to see her fanny splats rather than the limb twisting that occurred in last night’s spill which triggered audience heart arrhythmia.

Zachary brought a life to Prince Ivan that Justin Peck couldn’t find in the first cast. He allowed the Kastchei subjects to heave themselves at his middle with the force of a hairpin hitting a 1-Tesla magnet. This artist's dramatic output is utterly believable no matter what he’s dancing. He still owes us a Swan Lake debut from a year ago, and the interest on the debt is piling up.

Ashley Laracey’s Bride had the requisite beauty with a slightly mysterious air. She looked stunning in her red bridal dress.

The HH Pump Bump Award, Paquetá Dumond's stylishly complicated stiletto, is bestowed upon Rebecca Krohn whose mauve role in Dances at a Gathering was especially lovely.

NYCB 3rd Week Symphony in Three Movements, the highlight again

We wish it were called Symphony in Six Movements and would go on twice as long. And when the New York City Ballet dancers get inside the Stravinsky music as they did on Saturday evening, stoking it with attitude and fanning the sparks into white-hot flames, we wish it would never end.

Capping the finish to a double-duty Saturday in which he appears to have danced in six ballets, Aaron Sanz performed the lead opposite Sterling Hyltin with polish and confidence that belied his inexperience in the role in which he debuted only a few days earlier. We’ve written about his natural geometry, his Superman good looks, his focused efforts in the back of the corps. Saturday night brought his unexpected rapport with Sterling – a back’n forth exchange so genuine and comfortable that they could have been longtime partners. Together they had the striking aesthetics and sharpness of Nesmuk Damascus Chef’s knives. (Who really pays $3000 for a kitchen knife, anyway?) The entire cast, including Ashley Hod whose own blades sliced through the choreography with precision, was phenomenal.

The evening's Stravinsky Violin Concerto seemed lethargic in places. When Lauren Lovette, new to this ballet, jumped into those sudden second positions on pointe, her arms were very slow to get to their V position high above the shoulders rather than getting there instantly with a strong statement. It was like what we’d expect from ABT if they ever danced this again. Sara Mearns, also new to Stravinsky Violin Concerto, hasn’t found her force in this ballet yet but surely will. However, both dancers had the right energies and attitudes when dancing in front of the corps — steps that they’d done many times before becoming principals. The overall output in this ballet on Saturday simply didn’t look Balanchine Bright enough. Still, even a subpar performance of this masterpiece can leave the audience more than satisfied.

Last Tuesday evening and Sunday afternoon, performances of Glass Pieces, Thou Swell, and Stars and Stripes made for a balanced program all of which was highly enjoyable. Yes, that’s what Haglund said, Thou Swell was good. In the hands of Robert Fairchild, Sterling Hyltin, Amar Ramasar, Rebecca Krohn, Sara Mearns, Jared Angle, Teresa Reichlen and Ask la Cour, this Martins tribute to the music of Richard Rodgers has Broadway pizzazz and enough glitter and feathers to rival the West Village Halloween Parade.

Jerome Robbins' Glass Pieces rocked with outstanding corps work in the Akhnaten excerpt and a confident Rubric solo from Ashley Hod.

Stars and Stripes belonged to Megan Fairchild’s Liberty Bell at both performances, although Daniel Ulbricht in the Third Campaign was "the very model of a modern major general" whose Gilbert & Sullivan recruits were having trouble keeping up with him. Every time he danced with the corps it was crystal clear that he was right and they were late and slightly dull on the edges.

Megan engaged in a little parade trick-riding that Betty Boop could only dream about. Whether preening her head feather or saluting the crowd, she sizzled as the true leader of the night’s band while fluttering her eyes and smiling sweetly.

 

Saturday night appears to have been the last Symphony in Three Movements that we’ll see from NYCB through the 2016-2017 season including Kennedy Center and Saratoga dates. That qualifies as torture. Torture, we say! Maybe someone could re-think all of those La Sonnambulas and one-act "Swan Lakes” coming up in 2017 to make room for one or two more performances of this bona fide masterpiece.

The HH Pump Award, another black and white masterstroke of genius by Louboutin, is bestowed upon Sterling Hyltin and Aaron Sanz for their unforgettable performance in Symphony in Three Movements.

The eyes have it

Oh, yeah, this new Ratmansky Whipped Cream has great possibilities with Mark Ryden designing. Here are a few we might consider:

 

 

Available for casting. Call agent:

 


We should expect more wigs. Hopefully, they will be much better than in the past.