observations 11-9

Now this is somekinda Grigorovich Lift! Holy Moly. Fearless Stella. And that Hammoudi can hit a moving target pretty well.

 

 

A post shared by Alexandre Hammoudi (@alexhammoudi) on Nov 8, 2017 at 12:24pm PST

 

We wonder if Jared and Yuriko have seen this video. Their performance of Ratmansky's Nutcracker is still one of Haglund's life's highlights. They were the first to pull off this lift. Speaking of Yuriko Kajiya, she will perform Aurora in the Australian Ballet's Sleeping Beauty on November 22nd @ 1:30pm and again on November 25th @ 1:30pm. The company, sadly, is pointing all of its publicity to the Fakerina Celebrina who dances the evening performance on November 22nd and who most likely will have a meltdown after observing Yuriko's quasar-like performance hours before. Oh, but her agent already has a boatload of excuses docked at the pier and is lowering everyone's expectations to below sea level.

If you're anywhere near Sydney on the 22nd or 25th, don't miss Yuriko's Aurora. The lovely Amanda McGuigan (formerly of ABT, too) will be her Lilac Fairy. The elegant, noble Andrew Killian will be her Prince Désiré.

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It's not too early to be planning our local Nutcracker tour this year. One we're not going to miss is Veronika Part as the Sugar Plum Fairy in Port Washington on Long Island at the Fadeyev Ballet Nutcracker on December 22nd & 23rd. (Tickets here.) Yaroslav Fadeyev and Veronika first crossed paths as students at the Vaganova Academy and subsequently at the Mariinsky Theatre. He is passing on the tradition to students at his academy in Greenvale.

 

 

Comments

[Marta]

Thank you! I've never seen that lift, what a sight! He makes it look so effortless and she's indeed fearless. Is the second one a variation on the torch lift?

[Haglund]

Yes, the second one is a Grigorovich Lift. It seems that there is a Western reluctance to credit Grigorovich with introducing it and its variations into ballet because of his association with all things Soviet.

[Dreamer]

I wonder if this is Veronika on the poster for Nutcracker at the Space Coast Ballet Company in Melbourne, FL? Company’s AD is former Mariinsky soloist Artem Yachmennikov which would explain a connection.

https://www.facebook.com/SCBCMelbourne/photos/a.284894041718079.1073741825.284891938384956/567506583456822/?type=1&theater

[Haglund]

It's either her or a twin sister who we didn't know about. Artem is certainly tall enough to partner her if he was tall enough to dance with Sofiane Sylve at SFB and also Zakharova. Good for Veronika!

[jose]

Alex does so well in his rehearsals but seems to underperform on actual performance. I hope this is a new beginning for him.

[Haglund]

Hi, Jose. I agree to some extent but it seems like he always shines in the Ratmansky ballets but flickers out in anything that McKenzie is directing. In Hammoudi's case (as it was with Radetsky and possibly other men in the company), McKenzie destroys confidence and focus and instills doubt in the dancer that the dancer is good enough to be dancing the role. Whether he means to do it (I'm of the opinion that he does it to maintain a sense of superiority) doesn't matter.

[Charles A. Hill]

It'll be ABTers Weekend at the Australian Ballet in the coming days. Too bad that you cannot hop and skip to Sydney, Haglund. Yuriko, David, the Fakerina. It's hard to fake the Rose Adagio balances. Maybe a camera will sneak its way into the Capitol Theatre on the evening of 22 November?

[Haglund]

LOL. I imagine that the Fakerina's handlers have already put together their video version of Misty's Rose Adagio before she's even tried to stumble through it. Or they might take Yuriko's performance video and paste Misty's pouty puss on the front of it. I can just hear her agent working the Aussie media: She's sooooo important to our community. She's nevvvvver gotten her due from ABT. Oh those technical problems? None of it matters. She doesn't have to do the steps because she's Misty Copeland. Get it?