Haglund's Heel

2017, an odd year

Odd and ugly.

 

Let's hope that 2018 brings evenness to our breathing again and an improved ability to handle the hysteria whipped up by the media’s hyperbolic reporting to generate online clicks and income – and of course, to create the news rather than report it. At the end of the year, we are left with a toss-up question: Who is more untrustworthy? The government or the media?

 

The greatest losses to the New York ballet stage in 2017 were Veronika Part, who was booted by ABT’s moronic director in a disrespectful, mean-spirited, and unprofessional dismissal that shocked the ballet world, and Marcelo Gomes, who resigned from ABT under murky circumstances in the wake of the media’s piranha-like feeding frenzy on men’s genitals everywhere, workplace or not. The partnership of these two dancers, along with Bocca and Ferri, brought us perhaps the most magical classical performances of the last two decades – an honest, truthful magic that doesn’t come along very often on the ballet stage. These days, fake ballet partnerships are contrived by PR in order to push lacking, insubstantial, or homely dancers to the forefront.

 

ABT’s ass-covering public smearing of Marcelo, who was the remaining singular titan on its roster, really comes as no surprise. No one expects ABT to do anything the right way any more. It’s the simple truth. The company has dealt with actual workplace sexual harassment situations over the years while Kevin McKenzie was in charge. Its executive director, Louis Spisto, and later its Assistant Artistic Director, David Richardson, were both accused of repeated sexual harassment in the workplace. The claims against them eventually found their ways to the EEOC after which each man left ABT under a disturbing dark cloud. Given its experience, there's really no excuse for ABT not handling the current matter more diplomatically and fairly to the artist.

 

Look what we have lost:

Photos by Gene Schiavone

 

ABT’s opaqueness and its quick, thoughtless smearing of Marcelo hark back to the fearful reactionary over-reaching during McCarthy’s popularity. We are, of course, in a McCarthy-like climate at the moment, but this time, the media is the unbridled aggressor pitching to the public unsubstantiated claims including those from anonymous claimants. Hopefully, New York City Ballet will show more steadiness in its response to the dubious claims against its leader which are being peddled and promoted by The New York Times and The Washington Post. New York City Ballet and its audiences will be best served by Peter Martins remaining Ballet Master in Chief.

 

We closed out this miserable year by seeing two NYCB Nutcrackers, both of which we suspect included final role salutes by principals. Maria Kowroski danced a remarkable Sugarplum Fairy in which she continued to instruct us as to exactly what it means to stretch a tendu beyond its obvious point. No others in the company do so as clearly and elegantly; no others in the company possess limbs that even approximate the beauty of Maria’s. Without question, Maria has a lot of horsepower left in her engine. But if this was her final salute to the Sugarplum Fairy, it was a plum performance that we’ll always remember. In one of the most difficult PdDs that Balanchine created, she was at ease while being sublimely partnered by Tyler Angle. Both tricky pique pirouettes into penche arabesques were as smooth and unruffled as we’ve ever seen them — with the exception of Melissa Hayden in the 1950s-60s on TV. Maybe Haglund’s memory is playing tricks on him, but he has a strong recollection of Hayden doing double pique pirouettes with a blind catch of the wrists by her partner from behind. Maybe she just did that for TV though… 

 

Yesterday, Joaquin De Luz danced his final Nutcracker Cavalier at NYCB. Along with our sorrow of watching his amazing career wind down in the past few years has come a growing excitement to see what his second act will be. He has packed more than most into his long career beginning with the Victor Ullate Ballet Company followed by Pennsylvania Ballet, ABT, and his final and longest stint at NYCB. He has so much experiential knowledge and authority that his Act II in life may turn out to be more important to ballet than Act I. For his Cavalier variations yesterday, Joaquin opted to throw in double saute de basques with the manege of coupe jetes, a rarity among NYCB men. Rather than the turns a la second, he launched into a more difficult series of double tours/pirouette. His partnering of his illustrious Sugarplum Fairy, Megan Fairchild, was everything a ballerina could ask for. During a few lifts, he seemed to refuse to allow her to come down. It was a warm, generous, celebratory final salute to the Nutcracker Cavalier.

 

Lastly, because our hope and optimism are pathological and probably fatal, we must report that Julio Bocca announced that he would not continue with SODRE as either a teacher or coach following his exit as Artistic Director which occurred today. He had previously said that he would. That leaves him free and clear to accept whatever reasonable offer ABT’s board could come up with to end our decades long misery under McKenzie. Julio said that in the coming year, he has plans to work with ABT, San Francisco Ballet, Orlando Ballet, and English National Ballet. He’s going to set Le Corsaire on Paloma Herrera’s Ballet Estable del Teatro Colón. It sounds like he’s getting a second wind…

 

For Ballet Nacional Sodre's final performance under his direction, Julio chose an outdoor venue in beautiful Punta del Este on the Uruguayan peninsula where 5,000 people watched the company free-of-charge from beach chairs and the like under a moonlit sky —  just as people did in 2007 when Julio gave his farewell performance in Argentina. He’s not shy about saying how proud he is of the company he grew during his time in Montevideo. In reference to his upcoming work at Teatro Colón, he said (courtesy of Google translater),

 

"I hope they get used to my way of working. I have my form, and you saw the results, everyone saw them. We went to the Cannes festival this year and critics compared it to the Paris Opera. There is a way of working that is mine and I hope that the Colon can absorb it as they absorbed it here. I hope everything goes wonderful. I want to see what I can give that remains in the theater. I'm going to do something specific that is Corsair, it's to go, to work as we work, with excellence, those who are fit will dance, the idea is to open the curtain and make it a function of excellence."

 

If there is a god, he will bring Julio to us to end our nightmare.

 

Julio taking a final bow in Punta del Este:

 

 

Merry Christmas

Life is messy.

    

 

But at the end of the day, all the colorful flimsy paper goes to the trash heap and then to the dump where it will soak up the pungent odor of rancid reactionary over-reach and other garbage.

This is what remains:

 

 

1st Preview Performance Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

The monstrously multi-talented Robert Fairchild is now on stage as the title character in Ensemble for the Romantic Century’s production "Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” at the Signature Center. Last night’s first preview performance was delayed some 45 minutes due to technical/electrical difficulties, but once it finally began, the current in this play’s highly creative and complex circuitry charged through two hours with more than a few sparks of high voltage brilliance.

Written by Eve Wolf who used Mary Shelley’s famous novel as source material, the play conveys clearly how the horror story was born out of Shelley’s life pain from the deaths of all of her children. The viewer sees and most importantly feels the transference of her personal pain to her fictional monster. 

 

This is a hybrid play-musical that features the music of Liszt, Bach, Schubert, and Busoni played live on stage by three extraordinary soloists: Kemp Jernigan – oboe, Steven Lin – piano, Parker Ramsay – Organ/Harpsichord. The music alone is worth the price of the ticket. In fact, Mr. Lin’s performance of Franz Liszt’s Variations on “Weinen, Klagen, Sorge Zagen” will, by itself, bring Haglund back for another performance. Also featured is Mezzo-Soprano Krysty Swann who on the first night performed rich interpretations of four selections from Franz Schubert. Even though the songs with translations were in the Playbill, the English translations were projected as super titles which helped the audience connect their meanings to what was happening on the stage as it was happening.

 

Our star of the evening, Robert Fairchild as Frankenstein’s Monster, first appeared in a convulsive dance about the re-birth of a corpse as bolts of electricity crackled through his veins. This and all of the other movement in the play was Fairchild's choreography. Much of it, if not most, conveyed brilliantly the story of this manmade human-like monster who craved love and human interaction and only became violent when rejected by the people around him. The choreography and the performance of it were mesmerizing for the tension created, the explosiveness, and the ultimate surrender to fate. When the Monster began to speak, his words revealed a fragile soul and desperate need for love. His words were honest and pleading, although in Act II they tended to be in an unvarying higher register too much of the time. This was another stellar performance by Fairchild. For the first time, Haglund can say that he’s happy that this man left the ballet stage for theater. Our next couple of decades are going to be richer for it.

 

Mia Vallet as Mary Shelley got off to a slow start in Act I when she was difficult to hear sometimes and her delivery not always convincing. But in Act II, Mary Shelley’s pain and desperation came through loud and clear. Paul Wesley as Percy Shelley/Victor Frankenstein/Felix, despite having three roles to play, did not make a strong impression, perhaps because his dialogue was not particularly strong — or not nearly as strong as Mary Shelley’s and the Monster’s. Rocco Sisto as De Lacey/William Godwin and three child actors, Shiv Ajay, Peyton Lusk, and Avey Noble rounded out the talented cast.

 

The set design by Vanessa James included strong but barren trees, one with a single black bird sitting on a branch. Projection design by David Bengali was most notable for the fascinating video backdrops of birds which the Monster chased and roaring sea waves into which he disappeared. Beverly Emmons’ lighting design was both pleasingly Gothic and Romantic.

 

There is a discount code floating around for tickets. Try MSFTCHARGE at Ticketcentral.com. Tickets are also available through TDF. The official opening night is December 27th. Performances until then are considered Previews and may undergo some changes until the opening night.

 

NYT trips over its own Holy double standard

“[Glenn Thrush] behaved in ways that we do not condone.”

“While we believe that Glenn has acted offensively, we have decided that he does not deserve to be fired,”

sang The New York Times about its own employee today when it reinstated disgraced reporter Glenn Thrush who was suspended from his NYT White House beat after allegations that he sexually harassed women while working at NYT and his previous employer Politico.

The Times said that Thrush was undergoing training “to improve his workplace conduct.”

To review Glenn Thrush reports, please go here:

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/20/16678094/glenn-thrush-new-york-times

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2017/12/05/why-the-new-york-timess-investigation-of-glenn-thrush-is-particularly-tricky/?utm_term=.ec34d13f698e  Please note in this article how the Executive Editor at the New York Times said that the results of the Times' investigation of Thrush likely would not be shared with the public, considering that it’s a personnel matter. 

Meanwhile, NYT's chief dance critic, Alastair Macaulay, who was arrested, jailed, had his computer confiscated, and had his London home searched by the police while being "investigated for sexual crimes against children" as he described in his own words, is loudly calling for the removal or resignation of Peter Martins from New York City Ballet while falsely claiming that "The evidence of physical harassment here has not been disputed and is not to be doubted". Really? Now the NYT's authority over the justice system includes certifying evidence and erasing anything that doesn't agree with its quick conclusion.

Many wonder how NYT could allow a writer who was investigated for paedophilia-related crimes where so many questions still hang in the air to remain on staff and continue to attend children's performances and write about them. Who would be surprised if he were scheming to manipulate a professional dancer into allowing him to have his picture taken with the dancer's toddler or among Nutcracker child performers so that he could publish it on Instagram in order to "prove" his trustworthiness? Who would be surprised? We see no hands raised. Dancer-parents, beware, unless you truly want your children to be used by Alastair Macaulay for his reputation enhancement.

Let us point out that there has been no evidence of any crime or abuse by Peter Martins despite the five people quoted by the NYT or WP.

No one witnessed Martins manhandle or try to strangle Kelly Cass aka Mrs. Peter Boal. No one heard him angrily say, "You fucking bitch, why won't you do what I tell you" which, by the way, would not be a crime or abuse. In fact, the only "witness" that the media has been able to come up with admitted observing Martins standing over the dancer but then the witness rode off in a limousine with Martins and a group of dancers who were trashing Cass.

A disgraced student who was humiliated in front of his peers on stage after being disruptive during a dress rehearsal decades ago has now come forth with meticulous details about the exact fingers that Martins used to hold the back of his neck overly tightly which he apparently could see perfectly with the eyes in the back of his head.

A fired dancer has come forth saying that Martins threw everyone out of his office the same way by grabbing the back of their necks and kicking them out -- no one else has described that as abusive. According to the NYT, she also clearly said that Martins was "allowed" to be aggressive. She didn't say allowed by whom and apparently the NYT investigative journalist 🙄 didn't bother to ask who "allowed" it.

And former soloist Jeff Edwards has offered no details about the abuse which he complained about to management and the union decades ago, and which he claims the union did not think warranted addressing. It was not unusual for union-management issues to be addressed via phone calls and conversations without evolving into grievances. Edwards and the media tried to claim that a request by dancers to include a contract clause about abuse was ignored. In a quick re-write of the online version of the news article, the Times added a quote from Lindsay Fischer who made it clear that the abuse clause was indeed considered and abandoned by the dancers and union because they believed sufficient protections were in place.

And lastly, there is John Clifford. Can't we just forget him, please? Jeeze Louise, people. Open your eyes.

NYCB should not retreat like a doggie with its tail between its legs after being newspaper-whipped by a bully. If the NYCB wants to change the tough management style of the chief, there are constructive ways to do it.

 

NYCB Nutcracker 12/12

Haglund is very excited about seeing next week's first performance of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein by the Ensemble for the Romantic Century on the Irene Diamond Stage at the Pershing Square Signature Center at 42nd St and 10th Ave. Robert Fairchild is the choreographer and will dance the title role. Get your tickets now, because the production has a short run of thirteen performances preceded by six preview performances. 

 

Speaking of horror, Haglund needed a respite from the swirling controversies created by our local tabloid's galvanizing of its perceived occult powers to create a fictional monster. So he took in Tuesday evening's Nutcracker at New York City Ballet. It was heartening to see the artistic growth continue among many of the company’s dancers.

 

Lauren Lovette enjoyed a fine debut as Dewdrop. One doesn’t generally think of Lauren as someone with blazing NYCB brand speed but she proved otherwise on Tuesday night. Not only did she have the speed, but she had it without looking hurried. Only some of the circular virtuosity elements danced to a slower tempo held less authority; a quicker tempo might have emboldened her or possibly led to a disaster — who can say which? In any event, it was a joy to see this debut.

 

Emilie Gerrity and Aaron Sanz, paired as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Her Cavalier, were beautifully matched in line and unfussiness – ever elegant, mindful of exactness without over-articulating the steps, and clearly loving the music. Emilie’s concentration was at times intense as she beautifully discharged the steps with a sense of command. Aaron had the sure, precise partnering hands of someone who had been performing this role for a long time, even though he is relatively new to it. His own variation was handsome and much better than last year’s effort. However, we have to raise an eyebrow at the choice of some of NYCB Cavaliers (including Aaron) to walk out to center stage in preparation for the turns a la second but wait around and “prepare” for four or five counts before starting the turns. It amounts to truncating from the front end. Come on, guys…

 

Emily Kikta's Coffee was as bold and flavorful as they come. She found the sultry and mysterious aspects of the role as clearly as anyone we’ve  seen. Great rapport with the audience which seemed mesmerized by the extraordinary length of her limbs.

 

Giovanni Villalobos had considerable and uncharacteristic trouble as the Soldier in Act I. Not much went right for him – not the beats with flexed feet, not the 1-1/4 revolution tours, not his pirouette. He has danced this role much better than he did on Tuesday night.

 

The Tea trio in Act II (Troy Schumacher, Rachel Hutsell, Emma Von Enck) has been politically cleansed of any reference to Chinese to appease those who were “truly offended” by what they were absolutely certain was Balanchine's racist effort to convey inferiority of the Asian race. Rather than substituting some other verifiable authentic Chinese choreographic elements, the dancers simply smoothed out the arms and hands to look like, well, nothing. Gone was the character makeup; so everyone looked like they were in a rehearsal. Is everyone happy now? Perhaps some will want to cleanse the Latino out of the Hot Chocolate section. But why stop there? There are people who could get a lot of attention by attacking the Spanish “stereotypes" in most productions of Don Quixote and demand cleansing. (Pardon us while we take a short break from writing this review to watch the universally adored CSI Special Victims Unit that graphically illustrates every stereotype under the sun along with gory realistic violence to women – oh, and makes the television executives a sh__load of money.) Cleansing in the arts is such a dirty business.

 

Lauren King has been dancing lead Marzipan for a number of years, and it has been fun watching her develop in the role. She now has stunningly gorgeous legs and feet – all beautifully turned out, and a center plumb line that becomes more impressive every year. On Tuesday she nailed those precarious pirouettes to the knee and played her flute for all it was worth. We’d like to see how her Sugar Plum Fairy is progressing this year, but tickets have become unjustifiably expensive.

 

Anthony Huxley ran a perfect race as Candy Cane. 

 

The children, leads and party kids, were all as joyful and professional as they are every year. 

 

For a couple of hours, everything was beautiful at the ballet. Thank you.

 

Our H.H. Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon Aaron Sanz for his enchanting Cavalier. But we don't think that he should try wearing it since it's made out of old newsprint, has no support, and has so many holes that it won't hold water, let alone a foot.

 

 

Royal New Zealand Ballet hits back at former dancer's claims of abuse

Well, gall dang, a ballet company finally stood up to a disgruntled former dancer's claim of "abuse".  Yeah, it happened on the other side of the world, but hey, that's a start.

To a dancer's claim of constant belittlement, being silenced, shunning, physical and verbal abuse, and, get this, "the list goes on" the RNZB said:

"The allegations made in this interview by a former employee, regarding the company's internal culture and working practices, and the actions allegedly taken or not taken by our Board to address concerns raised, are malicious, false and completely rejected by the Board," the RNZB said in a written statement.

It said the allegations have damaged the company and everyone who works with and for the RNZB.

"As a responsible employer, the Board of the RNZB takes, and has always taken, employees' concerns, particularly those alleging any kind of bullying, intimidation or abuse, extremely seriously. We have zero tolerance for behaviour of this kind. Should allegations be made, we have robust processes in place to investigate and resolve any issues."

According to the website Stuff.co.nz, "The [RNZB's] statement said it was a matter of record the dance company, which receives $5.4 million a year in public funding, had experienced "some workplace issues in the past". It said at that time, the board had initiated a formal process of fact-finding and facilitation, with the help of independent external advisors, and a number of recommendations had been made."

Since when is an employer who tells an employee to shut up considered abusive? Dancers need to join the real world. The idea that they are entitled to express their own opinions whenever and to whomever they want and that they must be listened to is inconsistent with what is permitted in corporate America.

So there ya go ...

 

It's enough to turn a person into a Republican

Now the New York Times has uncovered five people who claim they were either physically or verbally abused by Peter Martins, and the chief dance critic has taken time out from admiring little children's bodies to weigh-in with a proclamation that it's over for Martins.

None of us has yet to hear Martins' side of the story on any of this. Apparently it doesn't matter. Apparently, each such case is immediately black & white to the NYT and will remain so unless and until Martins agrees to be examined by the Times in it's media court. Ain't gonna happen.

The NYT has found yet another angry dancer who was let go by Martins last year to claim abuse. She claimed that he treated all the dancers the same way when he kicked them out of his office. That's hundreds of dancers. What do the non-fired dancers say about this?

And then there is Jeff Edwards who told Dance Magazine years ago that he left NYCB for Zurich and Lyon to "expand both his choreographic and geographic frame of reference." There wasn't even a hint that he wasn't getting along with Martins. (Nor was there disclosure about the injury and surgery that kept him off the NYCB stage for a year and half and how he never got back all his juice.) Now he has told the New York Times or the Times has chosen to interpret his current comments as saying he left NYCB because Martins was abusive. He didn't stay long in Zurich or Lyon. He didn't stay long in Washington. He was even teaching some classes at ABT, but that didn't last long.

Now a kid who was misbehaving during a dress rehearsal and was disciplined by Martins "in front of the whole cast" is now claiming he was abused. Undoubtedly humiliated. Maybe even some of the other kids were laughing at him as Martins pulled him around. Was he invited to leave SAB or did he quit? We haven't heard yet. "Dropped out" is a pretty ambiguous term often interchangeable with flunked out or suggested out.

And John Clifford saw stuff....

What an age we live in when people who claim they are crime victims opt to go to the media for a trial by press rather than to the police.

Stay calm and carry on

So the wife of the man who has been making frequent trips to Manhattan from Seattle to make hokey presentations in order to position himself as a contender to replace Peter Martins when he retires has now tossed out some media candy about how in 1989 Martins tried to physically harm her. Now Martins wants to take a leave. How low can this go, and who would be surprised if Heather was helping to instigate some of the current controversies? And why are the Boals running to the media instead of seriously approaching the Board of Directors with their info?

We hope that NYCB's Board refuses Martins' request for a leave and throws its support behind him until something that warrants the Board not supporting him turns up. If they grant his request, the only person who could get the company through the Nutcracker season while preparing for the winter season with the least amount of disruption would be Jon Stafford. But we hope that the Board will have the balls to support its AD.

NYCB in 1989 was filled with unhappy dancers, some mediocre, who publicly expressed their disrespect for Martins and blamed him for not being Balanchine. It was an ugly time, and it is a shame that Peter Boal's wife is trying to resurrect it.

 

observations 12-6

The gorgeous Valerie Tereshchenko just won the prestigious 2017 Telstra Ballet Dancer of the Year Award.  Telstra, which has partnered with The Australian Ballet to make the award annually since 2003, does so to support the aspirations and development of the elite dancers at the company. The winner gets $20,000 (AUD).

 

Meanwhile,  across the Tasman Sea, American Patricia Barker is making New Zealanders unhappy because she hasn't hired any new NZ School of Dance graduates for the Royal New Zealand Ballet which she now directs. This is the first time in more than two decades that a NZ School of Dance graduate hasn't joined the company. To add insult to injury, reportedly more than half the dancers have left the company either by their choice or hers. Well folks, the Prime Minister is investigating. That's how seriously they take their national pride. Even the nation's rugby experts are weighing in on the ballet situation (click red link for story) and pointing out how the depth and breadth of rugby talent and leadership being developed in New Zealand by New Zealanders is an immense source of pride.

The good news is that RNZB's Tonia Rose Looker, who Ethan Stiefel recognized as a bright talent when he was the Artistic Director at RNZB, has hopped the Tasman Sea to accept a position in the Queensland Ballet corps. One of Haglund's all time favorite ABT Tharp Bombers, Laura Hildago, is a longtime principal there, and former RNZB-er Lucy Green who joined last year was just promoted to principal by Artistic Director Li Cunxin.

Hopefully, Ms. Barker will not try to Americanize the RNZB either with dancers or in management style. Cultural sensitivity and respect might help here. What worked in Grand Rapids or in Seattle may not work on the other side of the world.

 

observations 12-4

While The New York Times is busy front-paging every sexual exploit it can find, could it perhaps reserve a moment or two to investigate its chief dance critic's arrest and jailing by the Scarborough police in England in 1998 for his unauthorized photographing of children on a beach? His hotel was searched. His computer was confiscated. The police in London were contacted and his home was searched. Can't the The New York Times investigate one of its own and report on it?

Alastair Macaulay wrote an article about his nightmare of being arrested for such innocent activity and published it in the UK's Telegraph complete with a smiling picture of himself. This was in 2005, fewer than two years before The New York Times hired him as its chief dance critic. Did they investigate that incident as thoroughly then as they are investigating all of the claims they have been publishing over the past month?

"At 6.15pm, I was detained by two policemen. It seems that, among all the people on the beach, one father and his brother had decided that there must be something wrong about the photographs I had been taking.

They had gone to the lifeguard. The lifeguard had rung the police. The police had activated a close-circuit television on the beach, recording my actions, and then they came to the beach to take action."

It was a safe strategy for Macaulay to write his side of the story because he knew that the police would never get into a public debate with him over their evidence or what the disposition of the matter was. Was he simply released without charges or was there a more ambiguous disposition of the matter -- perhaps a warning of some sort or a caution or a stay-out-of-our-town mandate? We don't know, do we? But if this set of circumstances involved any other well-known figure in the dance world or on its fringes, you can bet that The New York Times would be writing about it with captivating click-bait clarity. The New York Times would be digging into whether and why the police, as Macaulay claimed in his article, destroyed all of the evidence.

"I speak of them now from memory, for my films were subsequently destroyed by the police and Crown Prosecution Service" 

He writes that as if it were the most casual thing in the world.

Until very recently the article that he wrote was easily retrievable online. Today, curiously enough, the Telegraph can't find it for you if you ask for it through a regular web browser. However, ask for it through a new private window on a web browser, and voilà.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3638958/The-CCTV-recorded-me-taking-two-photographs-one-of-a-group-of-children.html . (Haglund will always be able to provide anyone with their own copy, if they want one.)

It seems that The New York Times has a double standard when it comes to investigating and reporting on its own. 

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Speaking of fancy dancing, this lady is werkin' it from the window of the American Folk Art Museum gift shop across from Lincoln Center: