observations 3-15

Well, this is exciting.

NYCB has announced its casting for the Kennedy Center performances March 27th through April 1. Obviously, the company is priming us to come down from NYC by the busloads to see some of these important debuts (*). The Saturday matinee is especially tempting:

GLASS PIECES: Hod, Gordon, Mann, Scordato, Habony, Chamblee, *Reichlen, Danchig-Waring

FANCY FREE: *Mejia, *Coll, *Villarini-Velez, *Woodward, *King, Miller, Villalobos

THE FOUR SEASONS

JANUS: Farley,

WINTER: Dieck, Pereira, Ippolito, Gordon;

SPRING: LaFreniere, *Lovette, *Huxley;

SUMMER: Frances, *Gerrity, Stanley;

FALL: Chamblee, T. Peck, Catazaro, Ulbricht

 

The same casts also dance during the Saturday evening performance. Something tells us that Fancy Free is about to strut into a new fancy future with these debuting dancers.

 

Tess Reichlen and Zachary Catazaro will debut in the Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux on Thursday evening. Something tells us that those fish dives are going to be pretty exciting

 

On Wednesday evening, Indiana Woodward and Roman Mejia will debut in Peter Martins' Zakouski. Something tells us that these two will make this into a whole lot more than simple hors d'oeuvres.

 

See y'all on the Amtrak.

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As promised, Haglund skipped down to the Whitney Museum of American Art in the Meatpacking District to preview the new Nick Mauss dance-focused exhibit that includes works from the Whitney's collection and borrowings from other museum collections and private collectors. It officially opens tomorrow. There are some very interesting pieces on display but we can't say much about the live dance action that was part of the exhibit. It was the typical modern dance fare in black and white unitards that screamed 1970s college dance major in the Phys Ed Dept. The dancers worked hard and they all executed the choreography neatly, but it was what it was.

 

But there were a lot of worthwhile items hanging on the walls and resting on pedestals. Most worthy was the video installation on the wall right in front of the elevators – a looping collection of Ann Barzel's snippets of mid-20th century performances including:

 

Harlequinade – 26 seconds B&W from 1956. Boris Romanov's choreography for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo featuring Alicia Alonso as Columbine and Igor Youskevitch as Harlequin.

 

Aurora's Wedding – 1 minute, 26 seconds B&W from 1941. Bronislava Nijinska's choreography with scenery by Leon Bakst for the original Ballet Russe and performed by Nana Gollner and Paul Petroff.

 

Ballet Imperial – 1 minute, 2 seconds in color from the 1940s. Balanchine's choreography performed by Nicholas Magallanes and Mary Ellen Moylan. Oh, the costumes are gorgeous.

 

There are about ten clips in all that run continuously. They're fascinating as was Miss Barzel.

 

The exhibit includes a picture of Jacques d'Amboise in a costume for Lew Christensen's Filling Station which was made for Ballet Caravan in 1950.

 

Several Elie Nadelman scuptures are on display including this lovely lady who rotates on her pedestal. Elie Nadelman created the two big sculptures that grace each end of the Promenade in New York City Ballet's theater.

 

 

There is a 1933 bronze sculpture of a naked man walking created by Gaston Lachaise. The naked man is Lincoln Kirstein. Though Kirstein never met Diaghilev, he possessed one of his calling cards. It, too, is on exhibit. How refreshing to see a simple name on a calling card without two email addresses, five social media contacts, a website, three phones, fax number and a secretary's contact. It's quite elegant in its simplicity, isn't it?

 

Costume designs for Balanchine's The Night Shadow which he made for Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1945 are on loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The drawings by Dorothea Tanning are inserted in frames made out of the same soft pink leather as is used for ballet slippers.

 

The exhibit officially opens tomorrow. If you plan to go, save time to see the Incomplete History of Protests exhibit, too.

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This weekend the Haglund crew is off to Philly again to see Pennsylvania Ballet's new glorious Swan Lake. Sterling Baca and Lillian Di Piazza will be the leads on Saturday evening.

 

We're hoping to see big theatrical and big dancing strides made by Sterling: a big, big expressive Siegfried whose face seeks out the spotlight, lightning bolt energy in jumps, and atomic turns with triple exclamation points at the end. We want to feel his performance in the back row upstairs. This is not the time to show us a version of Sterling; we want to see Siegfried in all his pain, confusion, desperation, and of course majestic elegance. We want it all and we want it big!

 

Let's go let's go let's go!

 

 

Comments

[SherryD]

Friends and I are also excited about the trip to see the Swans. We are feasting on Friday evening, Saturday matinee and Saturday evening performances. Wow! What a treat.

[Haglund]

Totally jealous! It's quite possible that Mayara Pineiro at the matinee might be the biggest heartbreaker of them all.

I can't wait to see these dancers in Jewels in May!

[yukionna]

NYCB’s casting for the KC makes me want to take a week off work!

I hope some of those debuts make their way back to NYC. I’m particularly curious about how Teresa Reichlen will do in Tchaikovsky PdD. I never thought of Catazaro as a technical powerhouse, but I’m so interested in seeing how he’ll do those roles (Tchaikovsky PdD & Four Seasons).

[Iris]

Roman is getting some truly remarkable castings! He's a great kid and should flourish with these opportunities. I'll see if I can swing a quick trip down to see him for the performances on Saturday...

[Lillian]

Are you going down to the Kennedy Center for the Ballet Nacional de Cuba in late May/early June? They're doing two days of Don Q and then four days of Giselle.

[Haglund]

Lillian, I certainly am!

[Marta]

Hi Haglund,

Along with yukionna, I'm very curious about Reichlen and Catazaro in Tchai PdD. I'll be seeing this ballet in NY in April. I don't think of either dancer as having fast feet, particularly Catazaro. Am I wrong that Farrell & Martins occasionally danced this work?

[Haglund]

Yes, Marta, Farrell & Martins did, indeed, dance it and quite fabulously: https://vimeo.com/189230579

[yukionna]

There’s also this clip of the female variation: https://instagram.com/p/Bcp5AjMHiGv/

[Haglund]

Thanks for the link, yukionna.

[pennsylvania]

I think Tchai Pas suits smaller dancers (both the male and female roles), so I'm skeptical of Teresa Reichlan in this role. But we shall see.

[Marta]

Thanks, Haglund and Yukionna, for the clips! Haglund, I believe yours is from The Turning Point and I hadn't watched it for a while. Love it! Those are some wild fish dives. Never saw the other clip of ballerina's variation and how I wish we could see more.