Haglund's Heel

Chicago – Auditorium TheaterJoffrey Ballet – Giselle 10/28 matinee

"Space is the breath of art," he said. "To know what to leave out and what to put in; just where and just how, ah, that is to have been educated in knowledge of simplicity.”  

We don’t know if the famous Chicago resident Frank Lloyd Wright attended the ballet much. But we imagine that he could have been overcome with emotion at the sight of the Wilis criss-crossing the stage in their arabesque voyage – simple recurring steps embedded in the architecture of a simple recurring melody, and graceful limbs as lines intersecting the wide-curving hems of the Wilis’ tattered gowns. If Wright had witnessed the Joffrey Ballet’s new Giselle at the Auditorium Theatre, where he had been a young draftsman on the original Auditorium project in 1885-89 while working for the Adler-Sullivan firm, he might have been inspired to create yet another new style of architecture — one that combined the art of human motion with nature.

The Joffrey’s new Giselle has been staged by Lola de Avila, the master teacher/ballet mistress with lengthy stints at San Francisco Ballet School, School of Victor Ullate, National Ballet of Spain, and her own school and company in Madrid. Previously, she worked with Joffrey AD Ashley Wheater on Giselle when both were affiliated with the San Francisco Ballet. This staging had its premiere five years ago at Oregon Ballet Theatre. The Joffrey’s earlier Giselle staged by Frederick Franklin premiered in 2007 shortly after the company announced that Ashley Wheater, a Joffrey dancer in the 1980s, would be the new AD.

On this tenth anniversary year of Wheater’s appointment, the Joffrey has gifted Chicago with a Giselle as beautiful as they come. Peter Farmer’s exquisite designs courtesy of Oregon Ballet Theatre are gorgeous. The Act I village radiated warmth and charm – Giselle’s little house defined by its large window and door that were shaped like modified church lancet windows. The costume colors were an extension of the scenery’s autumn foliage and only slightly brighter. In Act II, the tulle of each Wili's bridal gown was individually marked with streaks of “dirt” from the waist down to suggest where she slept after roaming the forest each night since dying after being jilted.

The Act I Peasant Pas de Deux by the fleet and articulate Anais Bueno and Greig Matthew flowed with a Bournonville-like ease rather than being a collection of hard tricks executed under stress as is commonly seen in other productions. The Peasant ensemble and especially Giselle’s Friends were squeaky clean in their group allegro dances – from every dancer, the second foot in each glissade was just as fully stretched as the leading foot. 

Rory Hohenstein portrayed Hilarion as a bright but complicated guy who truly loved Giselle but was at a loss how to deal with the handsome interference who sashayed into the village and swept her off her feet. His Act I moment of realization that Loys was actually Duke Albrecht of Silesia was mimed with acute clarity as he thought back to his confrontation when Albrecht reached for his sword that was missing from his side. His self-satisfaction of pointing out the deception to Giselle was quickly followed by his impatience and hurt that she wouldn’t believe him. His desperation and death in Act II captured the audience’s sympathies; we all knew that he was the right one for her.

As Giselle and Albrecht, Amanda Assucena and Alberto Velazquez were that technically well-matched couple who would not match-up in life where the economic and status barriers to love were too high. 

Assucena, a soubrette rather than a willowy Giselle, excelled as the village girl in Act I and transformed herself admirably to exceed the lyrical demands of Act II where her pique arabesques that rolled down into penche revealed extraordinary flexibility in the back. The torso seemingly didn’t need to bend forward at all when the back leg extended upward to create the widest possible arc of Giselle’s hem. It was the type of arabesque that only a ghostly spirit could do.

Velazquez, of handsome classical lines and effortless technique, showed stunning strength in Act II where he exceeded 32 entrechat six before collapsing in exhaustion. His Albrecht was truly despondent and lost in the wilderness as he tried to find and re-claim Giselle. One of the overhead lifts went slightly awry, but other than that, this Act II appeared to be flawless. 

Nicole Ciapponi as Myrtha gained strength and authority as Act II progressed. Her final variation that began with missile-like grand jetes revealed Myrtha to be un-hinged and vowing to dispatch Albrecht. Cara Marie Gary and Anais Bueno as Moyna and Zulma and the Corps of Wilis beautifully conveyed the sisterhood of spirits.

On this tenth anniversary of his directorship, Ashley Wheater may actually be close to turning reluctant Chicago into a Ballet Town - something that no one before him has been able to do. There has always been so much competing culture in the city that classical ballet has had trouble getting its fair share of attention. With productions like this new Giselle and with the Joffrey’s new residency at the Chicago Lyric Opera House beginning in 2020, everybody else had better look out.

The H.H. Pump Bump Award, with straps of prickly myrtle, is bestowed upon Rory Hohenstein, whose Hilarion left us with the strongest impression in an afternoon of all-around exceptional performances.

 

 

 

 

Road update

We didn't mean to startle anyone by driving the wrong way up 9th Ave yesterday but we were in a hurry to get out of town and on the road to Chicago.

And we made it to Chicago with time to spare. It's cold here today! Time to hit the Magnificent Mile for some shopping before showtime at the Joffrey Ballet.

observations 10-27

When the two titans of ballet in New York meet for the first time in a neutral foreign arena, you know it's going to be a good show. And it was. Hats off to Sara Mearns and Marcelo Gomes for superb performances in The Red Shoes at City Center where Matthew Bourne's latest production has a brief run through November 5th. We loved watching these two artists step out of their cushy comfort zones and use their artistry to capture and tell a famous story like The Red Shoes.  Mearns in a red wig without a lot of eye makeup was fascinating to watch. It may be the first time we've ever been able to actually see her honest expression as opposed to just seeing her makeup move on her face. Marcelo as the ensemble player who was actually the star, played the struggling composer, Julian Craster,  perfectly. The production has its problems, but its stars tonight made them seem unimportant.

Now it's time to climb into the Gisellemobile and head off to Chicago. What an October this has been!

 

observations 10-24

Haglund has never seen a Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema screening so packed as it was Sunday afternoon for Le Corsaire. Every seat was taken and people were standing along the sides and a few were sitting on the aisle steps to watch it. Quite possibly there were more people at this movie than were at ABT’s Sunday afternoon performance at the Koch Theater. What?! You mean people would rather watch a ballet movie than sit through ABT’s Her Notes and Thirteen Diversions? Say it isn’t so! The movie was fabulous. Most of the choreography was familiar to us but the Bolshoi dancers pushed the pedal to the metal unlike what we generally see here in Le Corsaire. 

Then Sunday night we all trucked up the street to the Ailey Citigroup Theater for the Hearts of Houston Benefit. Beautiful Yuriko Kajiya with Connor Walsh from Houston Ballet and the Cuban Council on Circular Abracadabra from Pennsylvania Ballet (Mayara Pineiro and Arian Molina Soca) were the highlights of a terrific evening; Daniel Ulbricht, too, whose series of brisé volé at sonic speed were quite unbelievable. All of the performers generously volunteered their artistry as did the choreographers who permitted their dances to be performed. The premiere of the Second Movement from Ben Stevenson’s Martinù Pieces, a brand new ballet that he was choreographing when Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, revealed quite a storm of emotional outpouring from the Texas Ballet Theater dancers, Carolyn Judson and Alexander Kotelenets. The entire ballet will have its world premiere in March in Fort Worth.

It was either very nice or very stickin’-it-to-you (or both) of HB’s board chair to acknowledge to the audience that she understood how much New Yorkers missed Yuriko and Jared but that they were very much appreciated and loved in Houston. Sitting in a center row was ABT’s unappreciative and entrenched monarch who was moronically oblivious to the icy stares he got from ABT’s estranged patrons in attendance. And so it goes…

Next up, Marcelo Gomes and Sara Mearns Friday night in The Red Shoes at City Center. Wear red, people. Then the Gisellemobile will be on the road overnight to Chicago.

 

 

Mariinsky Ballet La Bayadere – 10/17

The ritual fires burned brightly Tuesday evening as the Mariinsky Ballet began a seven-performance run of La Bayadere at the Kennedy Center which ends today. The company has been dancing this production since 1941 and continues to dance it peerlessly and with dedication. But this La Bayadere is more of a cherished relic than a living, breathing Petipa treasure. The improvements made to the staging over the years have been dancer-dependent. Brilliant artists such as Viktoria Tereshkina and Kimin Kim who led the cast on Tuesday have brought their own starry technical feats and eloquent interpretations to their roles. Still, the Mariinsky’s La Bayadere is like a valuable antique book with missing chapters and some loose pages that might be out of order. The binding on this ballet needs to be repaired; its spine needs to be straightened and reinforced. But there are other problems as well.

No company disrupts a ballet's story line quite like the Mariinsky with its lengthy operatic curtain bows between each act. Act I of its La Bayadere concluded around Gamzatti’s fierce face and clenched fist as she resolved to eliminate Nikiya. Then everyone came out with happy smiles for extensive bows. Act II ended with Nikiya’s tragic death. Then everyone came out for happy bows. The effect was to make the performance seem like an evening of three separate ballets. We had Acts I and II that were somewhat related, and then we had the Act III Kingdom of the Shades that was a distinct and separate ballet all itself with little, if any, connection to what came before it. But if one is Russian and one has always viewed La Bayadere this way, it all must make perfect sense. The Kennedy Center audience was slightly confused, and some members started to go home after the dramatic end to Act II.

Our principals (Tereshkina as Nikiya, Kim as Solor, Anastasia Matvienko as Gamzatti) easily rose above the imperfections of the production to deliver admirable performances. Tereshkina, perfect in every technical matter, painted a warm yet troubled Nikiya in Acts I and II and then exquisitely etched her pristine, beautiful portrayal of Nikiya’s shade in Act III. She is the bona fide queen of the Mariinsky Ballet these days: the integrity of her dancing knows no compromises; she resists all temptations to engage in vulgar modern adaptations in order to impress the ignorant. While so many of the Mariinsky ballerinas these days drift toward a generic Western off-standard, Tereshkina maintains much of what we remember from Natalia Makarova’s style — even the occasional tendency toward dryness. But there was no dryness on Tuesday. Tereshkina’s Nikiya was filled with ecstatic but vulnerable love in Act I and spirited defense of that love in Act II. Her Temple Dance in front of Solor and a gloating Gamzatti revealed tenderness through melting back-bends and the most astonishingly controlled developpes from releve to arabesque followed by soft roll-downs to plie that were quiet pleadings. Her Act III Shade made the difficult pirouettes with scarf seem simple with her neat, effortless closings of the feet in fifth position each time. 

Anastasia Matvienko as Gamzatti had the dramatic flair for the role and considerable strength of technique but there was no length to her limbs which also displayed substantial hyper-extension. Consequently, her balletic line did not sing as it should. It simply suggested power, which perhaps, was okay for the role of Gamzatti.

Kimin Kim has seemingly overnight become the Mariinsky’s most dramatic, most accomplished danseur in the Petipa classics. Every movement, no matter how slight, conveyed drama and storyline in La Bayadere — his sudden glances and use of his head were as sharp and communicative as spoken words could ever be. His double cabrioles were marked by power and clarity; his pirouettes punctuated with exclamatory finishes. His was some of the grandest classical dancing by a danseur that the Kennedy stage has seen.

The three shades – Valeria Martynyuk, Yana Selina, Anastasia Lukina – were masterly in their solos with Yana Selina offering a sterling performance. Haglund just adores her and dreams of what might have been if Selina possessed another simple inch in arm length. 

The Mariinsky Corps de Ballet in Act III did not disappoint. The 32 shades magically appeared one at a time from the darkness above center upstage rather than entering from the side creating a cinematic effect. Each artist was invested in the perfection of the scene; their integrity almost overwhelming to watch.

The HH Pump Bump Award, a Fiji diamante gold stiletto, is bestowed upon Viktoria Tereshkina, Mariinsky’s current gold standard and a standard for everyone, for her exceptional performance of Nikiya. At times we thought that we, rather than Solor, were the ones hallucinating.

 

observations 10-21

Aussies are in for a treat when Yuriko Kajiya arrives to dance The Sleeping Beauty with The Australian Ballet in a couple of weeks. Treasure the moment. She's the real deal -- Old World soul and grace, New World technique. We're not sure of her exact dates because the Aussie Ballet website doesn't seem to have casting posted although it is pushing the ABT Fakerina's dates prominently. What a shame, not to mention a sellout of standards. To our Aussie friends downunder, call Australian Ballet to get Yuriko's Sleeping Beauty dates without delay. We promise that you will end up trying to take her home with you at the end of the performance.

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Quick reminder about the Hearts for Houston Benefit Sunday night. We're very excited about this effort, particularly the Madame Butterfly PdD created for Yuriko and Connor Walsh by Stanton Welch and the new ballet by Ben Stevenson.

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Speaking of Madame Butterfly, Haglund caught the first Preview performance of M.Butterfly at the Cort Theatre a few weeks ago. The new choreography by Ma Cong of Tulsa Ballet is probably the most interesting aspect of this revival of David Henry Hwang's hit from 1988 which now seems so dated. Clive Owen gives a slickly detailed portrayal of Rene Gallimard; Jin Ha's performance as Song Liling depends too much on unfortunate and obvious stereotyping. M.Butterfly was groundbreaking back in the '80s but may not have sufficient universal truths in it to be compelling theater today. But thank goodness it's not another Disney affair.

 

observations 10-18

There seems to be a change in the ABT casting for the new Ratmansky dance but the ABT website and the Koch Theater website don't jibe. According to ABT's calendar, the premiere tonight will be danced by Christine Shevchenko and Calvin Royal with a repeat at the Saturday matinee. However, the Koch Theater's website is showing that they will dance all of the performances. -- none danced by Boylston and Lendorf.  Given the fact that Hammoudi has replaced Lendorf in the first performance of Symposium, we deduce that Lendorf is injured - again, or still. And so it goes...

If Shevchenko and Royal are going to dance all of the performances of the new Ratmansky, it might be worth taking a chance on one of their dates if there is even one other ballet on the program that is worth seeing with a full cast that is also worth seeing. It will be hard to find, but we may make the effort. At least that's what our tired brain is thinking at 4:30am as we rumble along Amtrak's rails up the Northeast corridor from Washington.

 

Hearts for Houston Benefit 10/22

Just a reminder about the upcoming benefit that Yuriko Kajiya and Jared Matthews are producing at the Ailey Citigroup Theater on Sunday 10/22 to benefit the United Way of Greater Houston who will use the funds raised for recovery efforts from Hurricane Harvey.

We are noting again that there will be a world premiere by Ben Stevenson O.B.E., the long time director of Houston Ballet, discoverer of Li Cunxin in Beijing, and currently the director of Texas Ballet Theater in Fort Worth. Mr. Stevenson and the legendary Freddie Franklin together co-directed the Washington Ballet in the '70s where Mr. Stevenson choreographed his beautiful production of Cinderella, recently re-staged on the Pennsylvania Ballet. He has been awarded three gold medals in choreography at the Varna International Ballet Competitions.

It is a huge honor that Mr. Stevenson is making a special piece for this benefit, and it will be our only chance to see it.

Tickets are available here. More info here.

It always ends in confetti

Robert Fairchild signs off the season and signs off his NYCB career. Looking forward to the next brilliant chapters of his story.

 

It always ends in confetti from Haglund's Heel on Vimeo.

 

Pennsylvania Ballet – Sleeping Beauty 10/12

Philadelphia can boast a lot of firsts in America: first art museum, first zoo, first university, first hospital, first public library, first stock exchange, and – trumpets and drum roll, please – first performance of Sleeping Beauty. Yes, it’s true. The Philadelphia Ballet under the direction of Catherine Littlefield staged the first American Sleeping Beauty at the Academy of Music in 1937. Eighty years later in the very same theater, Pennsylvania Ballet premiered a brand spanking new Sleeping Beauty conceived by its never-sleeping star artistic director, Angel Corella. 

Most of the balletomanes who swing in Haglund’s circle have enough love in their hearts for more than one version of Sleeping Beauty. The music, the fairytale, the theme of goodness triumphing over evil – all together will sustain variations in choreography so long as the Petipa heart beats strongly, which it certainly did at Thursday night’s premiere. 

At 2 hours and 40 minutes with two intermissions, this was a slimmed down Sleeping Beauty – not an ounce of extra flesh on her anywhere, and she looked marvelous. Corella’s own choreography woven around the iconic variations and PdDs by Petipa was refreshing. We wish that so much of the mime had not been stripped from the story, but the resulting lively pace of the production seemed attuned to the expectations of the local audience. The costume designs by David Walker were tasteful and traditional – some with a hint of Spanish influence such as the generous lace and bolder color palette used for the corps ladies in the Act II Vision Scene.

The Prologue, perhaps the strongest part of this production, revealed the women of Pennsylvania Ballet to be extraordinary classical artists of great refinement. Alexandra Hughes’ Fairy of Passion pointed her fingers with authority but didn’t convey over-the-top dominance as we have seen in other productions. Ana Calderon’s Fairy of Eloquence conveyed canary qualities without looking like a windup toy gone crazy as we know can happen with this role. Yuka Iseda's Fairy of Generosity was lovely running on her pointes. Mayara Pineiro’s Fairy of Vitality launched buoyant jetes and exuberant piques. So Jung Shin as the Fairy of Purity was perhaps the highlight of the Prologue for her fluid port de bras.

The Lilac Fairy, Dayesi Torriente, at first appeared too tall to be dancing among the other fairies in the Prologue. But once she took the stage alone as the Lilac Fairy, she was brilliant and carried a sense of grandness that emanated from her back. All of her battement fouettes were clean as a whistle. What a beautiful dancer — of course, Cuban trained.

Act I with its difficult variations for Aurora and the Rose Adagio revealed the lovely Oksana Maslova mostly up to the tasks. Some nerves registered early on which also could have been the nervous excitement of a 16-year-old at her big birthday party. Her first variation was more wild and free than royally mannered. Yes, that right leg aimed toward the ceiling several times in developpes, a signature of Oksana’s dancing. Unfortunately, in the classical tutu we could see underneath that the hip was turned over instead of turned out and the leg was not rotated. But as the ballet progressed through the acts, Oskana’s dancing became more refined just as we would expect from a maturing Aurora. Aurora's Rose Adagio balances were quick but didn’t include eye contact or communication with her princes. These balances are always stressful, but they should be more than just balances.

Act II introduced us to Sterling Baca’s dashing Prince Desiré – wholesome, full of confidence and authority, and handsome as could be. His own dancing throughout Act II and Act III was superb. This wasn’t the performance in which to take risks, and he didn’t. He powered through his grand allegro variations impressively and partnered Aurora sensitively. And yes, he managed all of the fish dives with one arm. In jumps, however, Sterling’s feet tended to look relaxed rather than strongly pointed, but other than that, his performance was premiere-worthy.

The Act II Vision Scene seemed curtailed and rushed. That may be because so much of the mime was cut. The Awakening went by so quickly that it didn’t even warrant listing in the Playbill program. It was the Cliff’s Notes version of the Cliff’s Notes of the Awakening scene. It took all of 5 seconds for Prince Desiré to realize that he had to give Aurora a smooch, race up to the bed and land a quick kiss on her face, get her off the mattress and down to center stage and persuade her to say, "Yes." It was very fast.

Act III had a good assortment of traditional characters. Jermel Johnson as Gold and Alexandra Hughes as Silver with Ana Calderon, Alexandra Heier, and Nayara Lopes as the Precious Stones added star power to the act. Yuka Iseda’s Princess Florine sparkled but her Bluebird, Aleksey Babayev, was more power than pristine in his taxing solo. Puss ’n Boots, White Cat, Red Riding Hood, Wolf weren’t danced as big as they most surely will be later in the run.

The H.H. Pump Bump Award, a Giuseppe Zanotti double strapped rose gold stiletto guaranteed to stretch out the tops of the ankles, is bestowed upon Sterling Baca for his fine debut in Pennsylvania Ballet’s world premiere of Sleeping Beauty.