observations 1-31

Thanks to CMM for alerting us to the new casting for the premiere performances of Ratmansky's Whipped Cream in Costa Mesa in March.  Stella Abrera, David Hallberg, Sarah Lane and Daniil Simkin will star in the world premiere on March 15th and at the final Sunday performance. The second night and Saturday night boasts Herman Cornejo, Cassandra Trenary, Hee Seo, and Cory Stearns. Gillian Murphy, James Whiteside, Simkin, and Lane will dance at the Saturday matinee.

Haglund is approaching Whipped Cream exactly as he approached the Met Opera's Hansel and Gretel. On the surface, it will be for kids with all the fantastical scenery and costumes designed to appeal to their little imaginations. But it will also include enough impressive dancing to appeal to adults. Haglund loves the Met Opera's Hansel and Gretel. Hopefully, Whipped Cream will be good, too.

Seeing Hallberg and Abrera together for Whipped Cream will be nice, but it ain't gonna be no Giselle. Come on, ABT, fork it over. Get it on the schedule somehow, some way, somewhere -- and we are not talking about Oman, either.

––––––––––––––––––––

In other good news, a brand new David Howard Foundation Scholarship has been inaugurated at Ballet Academy East in Manhattan. The scholarship will be awarded annually to a BAE student to help support tuition and housing. The first recipient is Tallison Costa from Brazil.

This is such good news. We all miss David Howard so much. Still today on the ballet stages of New York, Houston, San Francisco, and other places, one can see his positive impact on dancers. He did so much to help students understand the whys & hows of good classical technique. It's nice to see BAE, one of the top ballet schools in New York, create this opportunity for students.

Comments

[guest]

Why's the Oman casting taking so long to post? Not that I would be going over there, but I'm curious. I noticed on Shevchenko's Instagram that she's dancing Myrtha in Oman, so I wonder if Sarah Lane will be Giselle, as she is at the Met. You can learn a lot from that Instagram...

[melponeme_k]

I'm really curious about the choreography and how it will play against the music. It's Strauss which means really dense orchestral sound. Could it overwhelm the ballet and be the reason why it never took off when it originally premiered 1920 something?

Great news about the California premiere cast for the ballet. I wonder why the NY premiere is missing the female lead still.

In regards to Oman, Simkin's webpage lists April 8th as his debut with ABT's Giselle. I wonder if that means Lane will be his Giselle for that date.

[Silvie]

I hope Lane is Simkin's partner in Oman. She could really use a test run in front of an audience before her MET debut. To shake off the nerves of a new major role.
I don't mean to be pessimistic, but height wise Copeland could also be Simkin's partner (kill me now). Both ladies are around the same height. I really hope it's Sarah though. Fingers crossed once again.

[Haglund]

While I certainly want Sarah to get the opportunity to dance Giselle ASAP, I think that ABT should have a healthy debate about whether or not to even make that tour to Oman next month. The president has further destabilized an already unstable situation for Americans who travel to that part of the world. Oman is only 500 or so miles from Yemen. Worse yet, there is no way to predict what an unstable president might do while the dancers are out of the country. I simply cannot believe what is happening.

[CMM]

...and now we have good news for the Met Gala cast of Whipped Cream, as well.

[Haglund]

Thanks CMM.

[Haglund]

Just to clarify CMM's observation, the gala cast for Whipped Cream is now complete on ABT's calendar. Simkin, Abrera, Hallberg and Lane will dance the opening performance at The Met and the premiere at the Segerstrom. Very happy about that. Haglund will, of course, be reporting on and reviewing the Costa Mesa world premiere in March and can't wait to see it and witness the return of Hallberg to the line-up.