The Dog Days of Summer

Well, sort of…

 

 

Ballet tends to shut down here during August; so, we’ve been filling our time by getting an early start on our Christmas cards, hanging out on the street down by the Trump Tower with a few thousand friends, dropping in on the museums, and seeing some theater.

 

We previously mentioned the brilliant performance of Tony Yazbeck in Prince of Broadway - he’ll be a clear favorite for a Tony. Try to see this show before the prices skyrocket. Seventeen musicals in one – every minute is heavenly. Coming up this October at the Cort Theatre is a revival of David Henry Hwang’s M.Butterfly with Clive Owen reprising the role originated by John Lithgow almost thirty years ago. Julie Taymor will direct. The choreographer will be Ma Cong who has been associated with Tulsa Ballet for 18 years as a leading dancer and now the company’s resident choreographer. He has created works for the Joffrey Ballet, Houston Ballet, Queensland Ballet of Australia, National Ballet of China, and several other companies. At the moment, deeply discounted tickets ($29 - $99) are available at telechargeoffers.com with the code MBMAIL718. You may want to grab a ticket for the second half of October rather than sleeping through ABT at the Koch Theater.

 

Instead of the fall season, they should call it ABT’s poverty season. It doesn’t matter who is cast, the works are mostly worthless drivel. Poor Frederick Ashton is not strong enough to hold this season up with his little Symphonic Variations. What a stroke of genius – not – by the marketing department to feature as the symbol of the season on its brochures and advertising the worst failure of the 2014 fall season – a tasteless piece of trash that helped start contributions and revenue plummeting the following year. While looking at the aggression displayed in the picture of James Whiteside and Misty Copeland as he angrily hauls the worried little Misty in her provocative costume on his back, we haven’t been able to remember whether this moment in the choreography occurred before or after Whiteside crouched down in front of Copeland, grabbed her tits, and furiously bounced them up and down. Good work, ABT. Fortunately, it appears that we won’t be subject to that “art” again, just the oh-so-sensitive pas de deux by two different dancers which the choreographer assembled with scraps from other works he made for other companies. But ABT is still trying to remind us of the violence of the piece to encourage us to buy tickets. What are these people? Morons? Truly, they all must be morons. 

 

But don’t worry. The Mariinsky Ballet and Pennsylvania Ballet will offer us the opportunity to celebrate holy communion in the memory of Petipa as we reflect on his genius and pray for his return. Angel Corella's new Sleeping Beauty at Pennsylvania Ballet will be performed from October 12th - 22nd. Single tickets aren’t on sale yet, but they will be soon. Mariinsky’s La Bayadere will be at the Kennedy Center from October 17th - 22nd. Pass the wine chalice and wafers, and let us bond and pray together.

 

Speaking of the Kennedy Center, it looks like this year’s honoree Carmen de Lavallade will refuse to visit the White House in December. Norman Lear won’t go either. Gloria Estefan plans to attend because the show about her on Broadway will close this Sunday and most everyone will then forget about her. Maybe she’ll change her mind and join the protest or maybe the entire event will be cancelled.

 

And speaking of protests, an important new exhibit opened last week at the Whitney Museum: An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1940-2017.  Incomplete, for sure, but there is a lot there worth remembering, or for many, worth seeing for the first time. The art posters created in response to the Vietnam conflict, mostly anonymously, had dramatic impact on the country’s conscience and were ever present in the nationwide – and frequently violent – protests which pressured the government to end the war. 

 

 

 

And a new piece:

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Haglund]

Thanks to our Washington DC Haglund'eeler for this article in this morning's Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/08/19/trump-first-lady-to-skip-kennedy-center-honors-over-concerns-of-political-distraction/?deferJs=true&outputType=default-article&utm_term=.c1b16fb1a596 It seems the KC Honors will be celebrated without a President and First Lady this year. Darn it, weren't we all looking forward to watching a public reprimand on PBS like the one Pence got when he attended Hamilton?

[Georgiann]

This piece is excellent, and puts into words everything I think and feel about ballet and politics. Thank you, Haglund! May you and your beautiful kitties enjoy your downtime.

[angelica]

The president would attend the ceremony only if HE were one of the honorees.

[Haglund]

Georgiann, thank you so much.

Angelica, if the KC Awards continue in their present celebrity-trumps-artistry direction, he could "earn" one soon.

[J]

Terrific commentary, as always, Haglund. And love seeing your beautiful sweetiecats.

[Marta]

Thank you, Haglund. That's a great piece! Having lived through the Vietnam era, I appreciate a glimpse of the exhibition.

I'm skipping fall ABT completely. The only attraction would have been Other Dances but not with those casts.

[Haglund]

Thanks, J and Marta.

I agree that Other Dances could be worthwhile, but the match-ups are not appealing at all. (If the two casts would switch partners, then there would be one performance to see.) Hopefully, Cornejo will get one of the TBAs. The dancer who I think could really bring this piece back to life is Shevchenko – paired with Gorak or the young corpsman Klein. That would create some buzz based on the artistic possibilities.

[melponeme_k]

I was only interested in Symphonic Variations and Other Dances. But I'm not paying for a whole ticket just so I can watch 10 to 15 minutes of one ballet.

The casting of Other Dances is just sad. There are so many newly promoted principals who could do this work justice. I wish Simkin/Lane had been cast, they would have been perfect for this ballet and it would have capitalized on their Spring momentum. Why wasn't Murphy cast with Hallberg?

[Haglund]

melponeme_k, Murphy wasn't cast with Hallberg because McKenzie knew that no one would go to the other pair's performances. Sad, but true. There simply isn't enough high quality choreography to make a season and there is too much offensive manipulation of the schedule to try to force people to watch what they don't want to buy. As you pointed out, melponeme_k, people are not going to pay for a whole ticket just to watch 10 to 15 minutes of one ballet.

McKenzie just keeps re-trying what doesn't work while hoping for a different result. It's moronic. Let us not forget that ABT is actually celebrating 25 years of this crappy kind of directing.

ABT will have to give away most of the house each night like it did during the Met Season and hope that everyone will be fooled into thinking they've got a sell-out. There are still plenty of fools out there who think they're seeing good ballet because a bunch of folks with free tickets (who will never buy their own or donate) are screaming their heads off.

[Melponeme_k]

It's obvious, the wrong ABT dancer was pushed out. There are a few that are not carrying their weight. Why they continue to stay is a mystery.

Meanwhile no one is doing anything in the way of building star power. Any sane company is continually experimenting with dance partnerships in order to get fans in seats. If something like Lane/Simkin fell into the laps of any other company...they would thank their lucky stars. What does ABT do? Separate them. Does anyone in their marketing department do any advising? Do they listen? Or is it still the PR for one dancer who will not be named?

Don't get me started on how the company neglects its Corps dancers. What is there for them to do this fall? Shouldn't they be included as part of the company?

[pennsylvania]

I'm just saying NO to the Fall season at ABT. Worthless drivel is right. Millepied is trash.

On the up side, Megan Fairchild is going to be cast as O/O at NYCB this fall. That is a performance I will make a point of seeing.

[Haglund]

Perhaps we should consider ourselves lucky that ABT didn't try to revive Ben's Bach masterpiece Troika. 🙄 Sorry to remind everyone of it...

[Kenneth Benson]

Looking forward: I hate Dylan, loveTharp. What to do?

[Haglund]

KB, give it a try. Current times are closer to the sixties and seventies than most people realize. Practically a reincarnation. Let's see what Twyla comes up with.

http://www.joyce.org/performances/twyla-tharp-dance