Haglund's Heel

ABT Giselle 5/30 Marcelo's 20th Anniversary

Around 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon in Hell’s Kitchen, Goldie, the 12-year-old carriage horse got loose. She bolted from her stable and high-tailed it across W. 54th St. (of course, in the same direction as the traffic)  laughing all the way. No heavy harness, no blinkers, she was totally free and naked as a jaybird. She came to a red light at 10th Avenue and recognized that she should stop. Suddenly realizing that her hay was back at the stable and that she really didn’t need anything at the CVS across the street anyway, Goldie turned around and headed back to the barn to the relief and cheers of the startled humans chasing her.

A few hours later, our favorite middle-aged Albrecht, Marcelo Gomes, who is also 12 "in horse years", broke loose on the stage at the Metropolitan Opera House in a celebration of his two decades with ABT. Marcelo has been off-harness for years – to everyone’s complete delight – and like Goldie, has the sound judgement not to barge through red lights and, most importantly, always knows his way back home to the hay in Hell’s Kitchen.

On this night, Marcelo along with his lovely Giselle, Stella Abrera, and the commanding Christine Shevchenko as Myrta, gave a performance that we will celebrate for a long time – at least until they do it again, hopefully next year.

When Act I opened, we clearly had stepped into a scene where the romance was in full progress. This was not a boy-meets-shy-girl situation where suddenly love blooms. No. Giselle came skipping out of her little cottage in a sirens & lights kind of pursuit of Albrecht. She looked high and low all over the stage for him. She knew he was there somewhere. She had heard his teasing lip-smooches. Now she just had to find him. When she inadvertently nearly backed into him, it was only because he wanted to be found. This Albrecht had plenty of experience.

Giselle and Albrecht cavorted about with shooting jetes and springy ballonnes. When she doubted his love and decided to test it by pulling the petals out of a daisy (He loves me; he loves me not…), he wasn’t phased at all. He’d been in this scenario before and knew exactly what to do to come out a winner. Nobody plays this scene with greater wit and sincerity than Marcelo Gomes. His Albrecht cheated on the petal count by pulling on the blossom with the same ease as he cheated on Bathilde.

When Albrecht’s duplicity was discovered in a very public and embarrassing way, his reaction was both “Oh, no, look what I’ve done to these two women” and “Oh, no, I should have done it more skillfully.”

The dancing by our principals in Act I was mostly solid with a few disappointments. Thankfully, Giselle began her variation with pique arabesque to penche, but it had a very odd abruptness to it. The plie did not roll through the foot. It almost looked like a hop off with a battement of the arabesque leg. When it came time for Giselle to step up and dance her hops on pointe for Albrecht, there was a sudden look of death that came over her face after two hops. She put the other foot down to recalibrate and started anew. The hops made it to the end of the music but not very far along the diagonal. There was one other releve with the working leg in attitude front that looked less than 100%, too. And once again – which now confirms some kind of a management mandate – Giselle executed a beginner level single pique turn followed by a single stepover. Haglund’s grandmother could do that while holding her cane. Good grief. What next? Is McKenzie going to mandate that Devon Teuscher not do blistering fouettes so as to “level the playing field” for the company’s struggling Diva?

Other than those issues, this Giselle was extraordinarily well danced. Her mad scene of happy hallucinations followed by total breakdown and hysteria were rich with details. Albrecht’s own little mad scene wasn’t so bad, either.

At this point in the company’s history, there is no Giselle who has more classically pure lines and perfect placement than Stella Abrera. The stationary arabesque/penche in profile in Act II was the most beautiful we have ever seen, bar none. Her form in motion when dancing with the lilies, her arched jumps, arabesques, entrechats, tour jetes, and grand jetes are simply unalloyed balletic beauty – all accomplished while fully conveying the beauty of Giselle’s forgiving spirit.

Marcelo is but a notch off of what he was a decade ago in his technical matters. His jumps approximate what they have always been. His turns, the same, sometimes even better. Last evening, his 22 entrechats six were gorgeous even while they conveyed his growing exhaustion until he finally could do no more and collapsed.

Christine Shevchenko’s Myrta was even stronger than on Saturday. Her eyes had a wild expression – torment one moment, hell bent on destruction the next. Fabulous. She took such delight in destroying Tom Forster’s Hilarion who danced for his life magnificently. Christine's dancing was solid and strong but with little sense of an angry flowing spirit. That will come; we are sure of it.

Much pleasure, much love, warmth, thankfulness, and much hope for a long-continued career were conveyed by the audience during the roaring ovation for Marcelo. He got the message. We’ll toss in a little Prada H.H. Pump Bump Award:

 

 

 

observations 5-30

Sarah Lane will dance Giselle again on Wednesday night - with Herman Cornejo! She replaces Maria Kochetkova.

Everyone, don't forget about the Rush Tickets ($30 with no fees) that are available for each performance.

Edited to add:
Thanks to Julie for observing that there will also be a change in tonight's Myrtha from Gillian Murphy to Christine Shevchenko.

ABT Giselle 5/27 mat & eveDeeply into the heart of the matter

Arguably the greatest classical ballet in history, Giselle possesses principal roles that are the most coveted by serious classical dancers the world over. The individual production almost doesn’t matter – Mariinsky, Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Ballet, or American Ballet Theatre – the ballet's themes of love, betrayal, revenge, and forgiveness come to a climax and ringing resolution at 4:00 a.m. no matter where it is performed. For classical dancers, it is the quintessential-reverential-penitential-existential equivalent of to be or not to be – that is even an understatement.

For much of each principal cast in Saturday’s two presentations of Giselle, it was the most important performance of their lives. In the afternoon, Sarah Lane and Daniil Simkin, long viewed as potentially well-suited to one another but over the years have struggled to read from the same page, took on the roles for the first time at the Met Opera House following a warm-up performance earlier this spring in Oman. Sarah’s acclaimed role debut came eight years earlier in Texas. For eight long years, she and we witnessed Kevin McKenzie import inferior guest artist after inferior guest artist for the role rather than allowing Sarah or other qualified ABT ballerinas to dance it.

In this pay-to-play ABT world where a dancer’s agent, sponsors, and those who have a financial interest in promoting a fake image are allowed to peddle free and discounted tickets to tour groups, hotels, and others, write off the cost as a business expense or in a few cases a charitable contribution, and thereby win casting opportunities and promotion for their client – in that kind of unscrupulous, dishonest ABT world, it is a miracle that Sarah Lane was even allowed this one matinee performance. And what a miracle it turned out to be.

Sarah’s Act I Giselle burst forth with lightness and joy – so ready for love even if it meant risking a fractured heart. Pointe shoe noise aside, Sarah’s technical offerings were nearly flawless. We wondered why in Giselle’s variation after the double attitude turns in front of Albrecht, she chose only a single en dedans pirouette that evolved into a single step-over turn. This was Sarah Lane who jingles triple pirouettes like loose change in her pocket. Was it her own decision to water down her virtuosity to a beginner level or was it imposed on her to make the previous night's Giselle appear not to be so wanting? We truly doubt that it was Sarah’s idea to water down the combination.

The delicate hops on pointe, the easy arabesques that descended through soft plies to deep penche position, the soaring jumps – all were done gloriously but also in complete service to the character and story. There was never a moment in Sarah's face when we did not see Giselle. All of her movements simply flowed like the music without tension, without artifice, without need for compensating or covering up technical inabilities. Her character's spell of near fainting caught us by surprise for the dancer's total surrender to the moment. Giselle’s iconic mad scene skillfully built to its climax as loaded spring after spring blew until she finally became totally unhinged. The expression on her face of her disconnect from reality registered with shocking realism.

Giselle’s awakening spin seemed to go from zero to cyclonic speed in a single second before launching her into floating assembles and tour jete passages that were at once calm and filled with furious energy – as though they could be no other possible way and as though Giselle had no control over the forces that whipped her spirit about like it was a fragile leaf. In the end, it was this Giselle’s unconditional forgiveness that made this performance among the strongest we’ve seen in years.

Daniil Simkin surprised us with his full-blooded reading of Albrecht. It was a complete pleasure to watch his mime which often was musically literal like one sees from the Mariinsky’s men. Most impressively, however, was that he did not engage in a single show-off-y moment the entire evening. Every remarkable leap and spin was laden with joy in Act I or grief in Act II. Like Sarah, he possesses so much technical ability that he seemingly doesn’t have to worry about the details that de-rail other performers who lose concentration. The right way of doing things is solidly in his muscle memory, and that frees him to concentrate on the theatrical aspects of the role. His portrayal of Albrecht was thoughtful and believable, and we expect it to deepen with each new performance.

In Act I, for some odd reason, the whole business of the daisy fraud where Albrecht rigs the petal count was done with Daniil’s back to the audience. Nobody saw what he was doing. Consequently, the joke did not work between Albrecht and Giselle. This is not television; it’s the cavernous Met where 3,000+ people are squinting to see what is going on. Few saw what Daniil was doing when he turned his back.

The two overhead lifts in Act II were a little shaky, but we’re not ready to pin that on Daniil. The two of them will work it out eventually. We truly appreciated Daniil’s choice of the diagonal of brises as opposed to the entrechats six, but he should have started them much farther upstage — even coming out of the dark in order to have the space in which to do them more furiously. Here, they were too perfect; there was no sense of impending collapse in them. They have to convey Albrecht being brought to his knees by Myrtha.

The Act II PdD looked quite smooth mechanically. Here again, they both were so technically strong that they could commit enormous energy to the theatrical elements. We were fully expecting Sarah to trounce all over our hearts here, but we were equally overcome by Daniil’s depth of sorrow and regret. A truly image-changing performance by Simkin.

Christine Shevchenko has made a fine start as Myrtha. This, her second performance of the role, revealed an icy witchy-ness. We were convinced of her deeply imbedded hostilities toward all men. Beautiful, too. But we needed more jump – not height, but more skimming, low-floating, distance-gobbling jetes.

Craig Salstein was quite excellent as Hilarion — acting and dancing. He had our attention every moment he was on stage, and in the end, our sympathies as well when the Wilis pushed him into the drink. Patrick Frenette made a strong impression as Wilfred. His first mime scene was especially clear. We would swear, however, that when he looked at Giselle, he was thinking, “She should be mine.”

Cassandra Trenary and Blaine Hoven managed a respectable Peasant PdD in Act I. She seemed more ready than he did, however, when it came time for their variations.

Gillian Murphy, David Hallberg, and Stella Abrera led the evening’s performance. David, of course, has just returned to ABT after nearly three years of absence due to injury. Many were beginning to doubt that he would ever return, and apparently, he did too for quite some time. Gillian has had to wait more than 20 years to dance Giselle at her home company – 15 of those years while at the highest principal level – due to a combination of (1) Kevin McKenzie’s over-reliance and unashamed preference for using guest artists instead of developing the company’s own talent and (2) McKenzie’s pigeon-holing of tall-ish, strong, authoritative dancers like Gillian as Myrthas. So basically, what we saw on Saturday night was something that few expected would ever come about – that’s in addition to Sarah Lane’s Giselle in the afternoon.

Gillian has also struggled with injuries this year: a withdrawal from a Swan Lake in Washington DC in January and withdrawals from two performances during the first two weeks of the Met season so far.

We were overjoyed at the sight of Gillian and David in Act I. Initially, it looked like we might be in for a very special evening. They physically complimented one another as Giselle and Albrecht. They obviously took pleasure in performing with one another. No one on the planet wanted more to be on the stage in this particular ballet at the moment than they did. But we needed confirmation of their value as ABT mega-principals. Instead we got confirmation of their vulnerability as human beings who were trying to will their bodies to do things that perhaps were not wise to do at this time.

Make no mistake, it was a strong and credible performance of Giselle by all on the stage. The audience got its money’s worth and plenty of pleasure, not to mention a sense of relief in seeing David Hallberg back home. The elegance and nobleness of his lines are still exceptionally beautiful. His dramatic skills have continued to mature and develop nuance. But what we also saw was that David’s left foot still would not support a pirouette and that he pushed with uneven force off of both feet in tours which sent them askew. In other words, he is still an injured dancer. It is common when dealing with injuries for the dancer to have to adopt and adapt to a “new normal” — yes, he will be able to do this, but not that; or, he will be able to do this if he can do this beforehand. It’s a whole series of equations to be thought out before every step. David is still thinking these out, certainly. But we sensed that he took a huge risk Saturday night. Maybe he got away with it this time. Maybe he will get away with it again. Maybe not. Clearly, he has the option of switching to being a left-turner to relieve some of the pressure from the left supporting foot. He might not be happy trying to work that out, but he’s more than capable of doing it.

Gillian, too, was not up to her personal par for the evening. We sensed that she, too, was dancing injured. An early indication of that was in Act I when she opted out of the pique arabesque/plie/penche and instead did that ridiculous wide-eyed glance over the shoulder that Julie Kent used to do when she could no longer do the other more difficult step. That was a disappointment because the arabesque/plie/penche clearly foreshadows the step that Giselle does in Act II as a Wili. It provides continuity in the story. It takes great foot and ankle strength to roll down softly from pointe to create a sense of fragility or a sense of ethereal spirit, and there wasn’t much of that going on in this Giselle. The jumps and fast pique turns in Act I were marvelous but we missed the sense of why Giselle was even doing them.

In addition to it being a wonderful night that marked the return of a much loved danseur and an opportunity for a long-awaited Giselle, it was a very stressful evening in which much risk was taken. That certainly accounted for why some of the magic was missing.

Stella Abrera gave her own miraculous performance as Myrtha: steely strong technique, lines that glistened in their clarity and beauty, detailed characterization that read well into the house. Probably more than anyone else, she understands the test that David Hallberg is putting himself through at the moment. She did the same thing several years ago. ABT made her pay for it dearly in delayed and denied opportunities, but she is thriving at the moment. We’re hoping for the best for David.

Also at the evening performance, Tom Forster gave a simply huge, magnificent portrayal of Hilarion – theatrically and dance-wise. The spotlight adores this man. Everything that he does on stage is first rate and fully formed. Bravo to Forster. Skylar Brandt and Joseph Gorak were sunny perfection in the Peasant PdD.

The H.H. Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon Sarah Lane and Daniil Simkin for their most wonderful Giselle and Albrecht. We are ready to see the replay ASAP.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ABT Whipped Cream 5/22"This kind of dessert can really make your reputation"

Julia Child lectured about dance, although she didn’t realize it at the time. Back when television was honest – thanks to no editing capabilities – if she accidentally broke a yolk in her kitchen, she made a joke out of it. Her kitchen counter was often cluttered, and she utilized tools that looked like they’d been used thousands of times over many decades. Her hand-mixer, for instance, had almost all of the paint rubbed off of its motor encasement. She even licked her fingers occasionally just like we all do in our own kitchens. One of Julia Child's tips to cooks was:

 

When you have a few cake formulas and filling ideas in your repertoire, you will find that it’s pretty much an assembly job – you can mix and match a different way every time.

 

That pretty much describes the new choreography that we see on the stages of New York by those who are much vaunted by, well, people who should know better along with people who know nothing at all. Same formulas, same filling ideas, different packaging.

 

But let’s talk about Mark Ryden’s delicious designs that are for the first time being adapted to the stage in ABT’s fantastic production of Whipped Cream as choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky. We saw the first two performances in Costa Mesa at the Segerstrom Center in March where the stage is not as deep as The Met Opera’s. The overall effect at the Segerstrom was one of more intimacy, and details of the designs were more visible. The curtain rose to reveal a country setting with a little white church from which children would blast through its doors to the outside in celebration of their Confirmations and climb aboard a pink flowered wagon to be driven off to the pastry shop. At the Segerstrom, the pony pulling the wagon seemed so much closer to the audience. Its eyes sparkled. Its magnificently coifed mane looked soft to the touch, and it pawed the ground like a real pony – as we said in our original review, it was better than a real pony. But on the mammoth stage at The Met Opera on Monday evening, the magic was less visible because the pony and wagon were so far upstage. We think that our pony needs to come more downstage, and he should give a whinny or two when the curtain rises. 

 

Already in the first scene, the darkness and Grimm-like layering of complexities in Ryden’s surreal world were evident. The children laughed, the children played, the children celebrated and climbed aboard a beautiful wagon pulled by a stunningly handsome pony – all against a backdrop of dark clouds with whipped peaks billowing above the sharp shapes of giant conifers. The sharpest of the shapes would appear in the final scene when the narrow, towering Nicolo, Master of Ceremonies slowly glides to center stage to marry The Boy (Daniil Simkin) to Princess Praline (Sarah Lane).

 

At the center of the Pastry Shop in Act I were cascading shelves where the confections, tea, and coffee were stored. For his much anticipated entrance back to the Met stage after a three year absence, David Hallberg did not rush down a ramp onto the stage nor did he leap from the wings with a splashy jete. Nope, he casually came out of the can. Of course, we are talking about the coffee can on the shelf as he was Prince Coffee. Costumed in blond and dark roast stripes with a Turkish fez hat, he was about the furthest thing from our fond memories of David Hallberg. But his dancing had the familiar grace that we had missed for so long. He steeped and stewed after Princess Tea Flower (Stella Abrera) who initially wasn’t that interested, particularly when at first it seemed that Prince Coco (Joseph Gorak) and Don Zucchero (Blaine Hoven) might be able to spice up her cup with a little more pleasure. But Princess Tea Flower and Prince Coffee swirled their aromas in a lovely PdD and discovered that they were one another’s true brew.

 

In Act II, The Boy (Daniil Simkin) who had been taken to the hospital after indulging in too many sweets in the pastry shop, had a series of nightmares until Princess Praline (Sarah Lane) arrived atop a huge white and pink snow yak with an army of characters to save him. We previously described their dancing when we reviewed the world premiere last March. Last night, they had even more charm and sweetness to go with their delicious dancing.

 

The production overall is a tremendous pleasure to watch – but not for the choreography which was for the most part inconsequential. The music by Richard Strauss in some places is not all that danceable. Ratmansky’s reaction to that seemed to be to cram in as many steps and as much choreographic minutiae as possible to win over the viewer – especially in Act I which was so over-choreographed that it became tiresome. This was the exact same type of over-choreographing that we saw in On the Dnieper which was Ratmansky’s very first ballet for ABT eight years ago. There, the Prokofiev music was not particularly accessible to dance; so, Ratmansky crammed a zillion steps and choreographic minutiae into it to compensate. Only at the very end of Whipped Cream, when Simkin performed his over-the-top happy dance to express his relief of being out of the hospital and his joy of finding Princess Praline, did the steps and the music appear to be in love. 

 

Complaining aside, this is a ballet very much worth seeing for its designs and charm. Just remember that its main course is dessert.

 

Wednesday afternoon, Devon Teuscher will debut as Princess Tea Flower. Given her affinity for Ashton’s complex and speedy choreography, we are sure that she will do well in this sudden and very taxing assignment in her schedule. As Julia Child said, If someone offers you a freshly caught whole large fish, like a salmon or a stripped bass, don’t panic; take it!

 

The H.H. Pump Bump Award goes to David Hallberg for his most welcomed return to his home stage.

 

 

observations 5-22

It looks like Gillian Murphy's hip needs a few more days to recover. Devon Teuscher will step in as Princess Tea Flower in Whipped Cream at the Wednesday matinee, her debut performance in the role. Here's hoping that Gillian's hip will be all spiffy and ready for Saturday night's Giselle.

If that matinee is loaded with kids, it is going to be craaaaay. . .

 

ABT's Whipped Cream opens tonight TAKE EVERY KID YOU KNOW TO SEE THIS

 

 

Haglund's review of world premiere in Costa Mesa last March
Review of second performance

observations 5-21

Casting change for next week's Whipped Cream has been posted. Due to Herman Cornejo's injury, Jeffrey Cirio will substitute on Tuesday night. Let's hope that McKenzie doesn't drop to that very low default position and bring in guest artists for ANY of Herman's other performances. He should remove the struggling ballerinas whose performances were being carried by Herman in the first place and put in a crew who are actual ABT dancers and who can do the steps.

Whipped Cream is a delightful ballet well worth forking over the bucks to take all the kids you know to it. Haglund missed the Whipped Cream float that was driving around Manhattan yesterday, but the video of it looked pretty cute. Some of us are old enough to remember how the circus used to parade the elephants and clowns through the streets to drum up excitement for its big top circus show. What a thrill that was as a kid to see. The irony of yesterday's parade of ABT's characters was that it occurred on the weekend during which the Ringling Bros. circus comes to its fateful end. Its very last performance will be tonight at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island.

From the video on ABT's social media page, it appeared that the Whipped Cream float might have been headed toward 9th Avenue yesterday where the 9th Avenue International Food Festival was in full swing with all its sugary funnel cakes, fried ice cream, chocolate covered crepes with powdered sugar and some of the world's best freakin' chicken empanadas from the famous Freakin' Puerto Rican Catering Company. All goodies will be available again today. Come on down to 9th Avenue!!!

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Casting for the tri-company performances of Jewels at the Lincoln Center Festival has been officially announced. The Paris Opera Ballet and the Bolshoi Ballet are treating us to more variety in the performances than New York City Ballet. What a shame that we will not see Maria Kowroski in one of the Diamonds performances. It's a real lesson to those of us who snapped up tickets to all five performances while anticipating variety.

While the casting doesn't mention the corps dancers for Emeralds, we hope to see some more of the beautiful Paris Opera Ballet dancers on stage. Welcome back, Paris Opera Ballet!

Thursday, July 20 at 7:30pm

Emeralds, Paris Opera Ballet
First Pas de Deux: Laëtitia Pujol, Mathieu Ganio
Second Pas de Deux: Myriam Ould-Braham, Mathias Heymann
Pas de Trois: Hannah O'Neill, Sae Eun Park, François Alu

Rubies, New York City Ballet
Leading Couple: Megan Fairchild, Joaquin De Luz
Soloist: Teresa Reichlen
Four Men: Harrison Coll, Spartak Hoxha, Ralph Ippolito, Giovanni Villalobos
Eight Women: Sara Adams, Likolani Brown, Baily Jones, Meagan Mann, Jenelle Manzi,
Kristen Segin, Sarah Villwock, Claire Von Enck

Diamonds, Bolshoi Ballet
Leading Couple: Olga Smirnova, Semyon Chudin
Soloists: Olga Marchenkova, Yulia Grebenshchikova, Ana Turazashvili, Alena Kovaleva,
Vladislav Kozlov, Artemy Belyakov, Klim Efimov, Ivan Alekseev

Friday, July 21 at 7:30pm

Emeralds, Paris Opera Ballet
First Pas de Deux: Dorothée Gilbert, Hugo Marchand
Second Pas de Deux: Léonore Baulac, Germain Louvet
Pas de Trois: Valentine Colasante, Sae Eun Park, Marc Moreau

Rubies, Bolshoi Ballet
Leading Couple: Ekaterina Krysanova, Artem Ovcharenko
Soloist: Yulia Grebenshchikova
Four Men: Mikhail Kemenov, Batyr Annadurdyev, Anton Savichev, Mikhail Kochan
Eight Women: Margarita Shrainer, Xenia Zhiganshina, Anastasia Denisova, Daria Lovtsova,
Ilona Matsiy-Kiryushkina, Xenia Kern, Bruna Cantanhede Gaglianone, Victoria Litvinova

Diamonds, New York City Ballet
Leading Couple: Sara Mearns, Tyler Angle
Soloists: Emily Gerrity, Laine Habony, Mary Elizabeth Sell, Lydia Wellington, Devin Alberda,
Daniel Applebaum, Aaron Sanz, Andrew Scordato

Saturday, July 22 at 2:30pm

Emeralds, Paris Opera Ballet
First Pas de Deux: Laëtitia Pujol, Mathieu Ganio
Second Pas de Deux: Myriam Ould-Braham, Mathias Heymann
Pas de Trois: Hannah O'Neill, Sae Eun Park, François Alu

Rubies, New York City Ballet
Leading Couple: Megan Fairchild, Joaquin De Luz
Soloist: Teresa Reichlen
Four Men: Harrison Coll, Spartak Hoxha, Ralph Ippolito, Giovanni Villalobos
Eight Women: Sara Adams, Likolani Brown, Baily Jones, Meagan Mann, Jenelle Manzi,
Kristen Segin, Sarah Villwock, Claire Von Enck

Diamonds, Bolshoi Ballet
Leading Couple: Alena Kovaleva, Jacopo Tissi
Soloists: Olga Marchenkova, Yulia Grebenshchikova, Ana Turazashvili, Angelina Karpova,
Vladislav Kozlov, Artemy Belyakov, Klim Efimov, Ivan Alekseev

Saturday, July 22 at 7:30pm

Emeralds, Paris Opera Ballet
First Pas de Deux: Dorothée Gilbert, Hugo Marchand
Second Pas de Deux: Léonore Baulac (Étoile), Germain Louvet
Pas de Trois: Valentine Colasante, Sae Eun Park, Marc Moreau

Rubies, New York City Ballet
Leading Couple: Megan Fairchild, Joaquin De Luz
Soloist: Teresa Reichlen
Four Men: Harrison Coll, Spartak Hoxha, Ralph Ippolito, Giovanni Villalobos
Eight Women: Sara Adams, Likolani Brown, Baily Jones, Meagan Mann, Jenelle Manzi,
Kristen Segin, Sarah Villwock, Claire Von Enck

Diamonds, Bolshoi Ballet
Leading Couple: Olga Smirnova, Semyon Chudin
Soloists: Olga Marchenkova, Yulia Grebenshchikova, Ana Turazashvili, Alena Kovaleva,
Vladislav Kozlov, Artemy Belyakov, Klim Efimov, Ivan Alekseev

Sunday, July 23 at 2:30pm

Emeralds, Paris Opera Ballet
First Pas de Deux: Laëtitia Pujol, Mathieu Ganio
Second pas de Deux: Myriam Ould-Braham, Mathias Heymann
Pas de Trois: Hannah O'Neill, Sae Eun Park, François Alu

Rubies, Bolshoi Ballet
Leading Couple: Ekaterina Krysanova, Vyacheslav Lopatin
Soloist: Olga Marchenkova
Four Men: Mikhail Kemenov, Batyr Annadurdyev, Anton Savichev, Mikhail Kochan
Eight Women: Margarita Shrainer, Xenia Zhiganshina, Anastasia Denisova, Daria Lovtsova,
Ilona Matsiy-Kiryushkina, Xenia Kern, Bruna Cantanhede Gaglianone, Victoria Litvinova

Diamonds, New York City Ballet
Leading Couple: Sara Mearns, Tyler Angle
Soloists: Emily Gerrity, Laine Habony, Mary Elizabeth Sell, Lydia Wellington, Devin Alberda,
Daniel Applebaum, Aaron Sanz, Andrew Scordato

 

 

ABT 5/15 & 5/17Don Quixote: What's old is new again

ABT's staging of Don Quixote is 22 years old, a relic of sorts in a time when the only good thing is the newest thing. But yesterday afternoon in the care of three of ABT’s brilliant soloists, each of whom dances better than selected principal dancers whom we shall not name, the production looked dusted off and sparkling like new. The last time this much new life was injected into Don Q, it was this exact same Wednesday matinee six years ago when soloists Yuriko Kajiya and Daniil Simkin danced their first leads in a full length ballet on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House. Stella Abrera and Jared Matthews were the smoldering Mercedes and Espada at that performance. Who will forget Simkin’s endless pirouettes or flawless overhead lifts. Who will forget Kajiya balancing effortlessly like a bird on a fragile twig and rotating her spot on her rotating fouettés? At the time, we described their performance as a commencement exercise of sorts like the graduation ceremonies that were going on in Avery Fisher Hall simultaneously.

 

At Wednesday’s matinee, Christine Shevchenko as Kitri, Devon Teuscher as Mercedes & Dryad Queen, and Blaine Hoven as Espada danced with the full-blooded commitment and technical skill that we expect from ABT caliber principals. Theirs were roaring performances by artistic Ferraris that have long been stored away in the ABT garage where so many great artists have rusted away while the management curried political and personal favors. It’s a shame that classical ballet isn’t important enough to warrant a special prosecutor.

 

Yesterday afternoon, the orange ruffles of Christine Shevchenko’s skirt flounced with the sass and confidence reminiscent of Irina Dvorovenko, who by the way looked beautiful in the audience. Shevchenko's strong attitude poses, well above 90 degrees and generously open, also reminded us of past great Kitris. Bold battement extensions with high torso, musical pirouettes that finished with exclamation points, feet placed so perfectly together that it seemed there might be magnets in the shoes, strong jumps with scrupulous form, and a flirty confidence emboldened with perfect lipstick – all gave us much cause to celebrate this new Kitri. And did she ever deliver the tricks of the trade in Act III! Let us chant again – If a ballerina can’t dance the steps, she shouldn’t even put on the costume.

 

Towards the beginning of Act III, Shevchenko was fairly relaxed and accidentally let loose of her fan while standing downstage center. As she paused to ponder this predicament, there suddenly appeared a speech bubble over her head. We cannot print what was in the speech bubble, but it evaporated very quickly as she retrieved the fan and sashayed her way to her next variation. Shevchenko’s display of power and precision in the fouetté sequence of the PdD were awe-inspiring. It was like the final blast of fireworks on the 4th of July when the explosions just keep coming. What a terrific way to cap off a terrific afternoon of authentic classical dancing.

 

But all was not good. Basilio was a huge disappointment as a partner and especially in his solo variations. Alban Lendorf, who possesses lines worse than Ivan Vasiliev and no tricks to compensate, was simply not up to the lowest acceptable standard for this stage. One would think that giving a new Kitri an experienced partner would be a good thing, but she did much better without him. He couldn’t spin her pirouettes, he couldn’t keep her on her leg or in some cases even get her there, and he struggled with his own modest triple pirouettes. 

 

Devon Teuscher and Blaine Hoven sizzled as Mercedes and Espada. My, my, my, are they ever a handsome couple – both so strong, so long and lean, and so freakin’ respectful of the classical requirements. They made a huge impact on stage together. What a Swan/Siggie matchup these two would make.

 

Blaine propelled his flexibility from 10 years ago with enormous horsepower. Damn! Those renverses and battements to the front were da bomb! We are so happy finally to see this dancer’s potential beginning to be realized. Devon simply knocked everyone’s socks off with her alluring beauty and diamond & steel technique. It’s not easy to make those Italian fouettés criss-cross with the exactness of a chef-made Pastiera Napoletana. Just ask Hee Seo who once again lost her footing on them during Monday night’s performance.

 

How happy we were to be able to welcome back to the stage Melanie Hamrick as a Flower Girl along with Kaho Ogawa. Both have such beautiful narrow limbs whose lines are like long notes of song. It was wonderful to see that Ogawa has much more to offer besides eight-revolution pirouettes, although we are very anxious to appreciate those once they get to the stage. 

 

Lauren Bonfiglio and Zhiyao Zhang performed admirably as the Gypsy Couple. Zhang has tricks, but they generally ended apologetically rather than emphatically. We could admire what he did, but sometimes it simply was too pretty for a rough, dangerous gypsy.

 

Rachel Richardson’s debut as Amour showed great promise. She had an immediately likable quality and had no trouble with the swift steps.

 

The Monday evening opening performance of Don Quixote had a splendid Kitri in Gillian Murphy whose Plisetskaya jumps are still stunning after all these years. But oh, what a responsibility she had carrying the entire show on her shoulders, although she got some help from Craig Salstein's hilarious Gamache and Thomas Forster’s not-to-be-outdone-by-Gamache Lorenzo.

 

Gillian flashed her fan and whipped pirouettes but could not whip any life into her Basilio. Cory Stearns has the physical features that any dancer would die to have – literally everything a male dancer could want – but there simply isn’t much life in his well-placed technique and admirable classical form. Prince Siegfried he can be; Prince Basilio doesn’t exist in ballet. A Basilio without technical virtuosity is not a Basilio. At the end of Act III, Stearns put a little umpf into his dancing, but it was a little too late. 

 

Hee Seo and James Whiteside were Mercedes/Dryad Queen and Espada, respectively. This was like mixing milk that was one day past its expiration date with tabasco sauce. Mr. Tabasco Sauce tried to be as flavorful as possible in order to mask the on-the-verge-of-going-bad milk. Seo didn’t seem thrilled with her Mercedes assignment and clearly didn’t invest herself in it. As Queen of the Dryads, she delivered a diagonal of grand jetes that were higher and more beautiful than we have seen since she was a corps dancer, but then her sequence of Italian fouettés were a mess — the kind of mess that comes when they are not practiced everyday.

 

Our Flower Girls, Devon Teuscher and Cassandra Trenary, were individually lovely in their variations, but the matchup of the two dancers was not all that pleasing.

 

Sarah Lane was the perfect Amour, as she has been for years and years, but honestly, with a little input from Ratmansky she would make a terrific Kitri. But it’s not going to happen under the narrow-minded McKenzie.

 

Luciana Paris and Gabe Stone Shayer as the Gypsy Couple may be the go-to couple this season in that role. Both are dancing their roles vibrantly and with full character realization.

 

In both performances, the Toreadors looked rather schoolish with the exception of Alexei Agoudine who on opening night was living the role like no one else. When he stabbed his sword, he stabbed his sword. 

 

So, we’re done with Don Quixote unless fortune shines down on us and Shevchenko turns up as Kitri on Saturday night instead of the one whose first performance brought comments like bland, off the music, heavy, only 22 fouettés that travelled all over, but we weren’t there so we’ll just have to wait for all that honest reporting from Gia Kourlas in the NYT where truth is hard to find.

 

The H.H. Pump Bump Award goes to Christine Shevchenko for her sassy and technically awesome debut as Kitri.

 

 

 

ABT Rush Tickets

From the Met Opera website:

ABT is offering a limited number of $30 Rush tickets for every ABT performance of the Met Season, except our gala performance, to be purchased online on a first come, first served basis. Rush ticket purchases will require registering in advance.

 

Kyra Nichols joins Indiana University

We all wondered what Kyra Nichols was up to when she and her husband, David Gray, announced their departures from Pennsylvania Ballet as ballet mistress and executive director. Well now we know!

Kyra has been named the Kathy Ziliak Anderson Chair in Ballet at Indiana University, the position previously held by the brilliant and much loved Violette Verdy who passed away in 2016.

Carla Körbes, former star of Pacific Northwest Ballet, will also join Indiana University's faculty as an Associate Professor.

 Thanks to Philly.com for breaking the news.