Haglund's Heel

Большой балет on TVKultura.ruSkylar Brandt & Julian Mackay in Ashton's Marguerite and Armand PdD

Oh my goodness. Our little Skylar . . . and that young Julian.

Extraordinary - the pairing, the performance, the lighting, the makeup. Both artists so good. What joy this brings.

They certainly got to Ludmila Semenyaka.

 

Lincoln Center 11/7 and 11/9Hungarian National Ballet Swan Lake & Don Quixote

By some strange coincidence Rudi van Dantzig and Andy Warhol showed up on the West Side of Manhattan on the very same day last week. The countercultural darlings of the ‘60s and ‘70s were represented by the Hungarian National Ballet’s U.S. debut in van Dantzig’s Swan Lake and the Whitney Museum of America Art’s retrospective of Warhol’s work. 

 

After spending an hour in the afternoon wandering through the Whitney’s member preview of the new exhibit, Haglund then sat through nearly four hours of Swan Lake at Lincoln Center which turned out to be as ordinary and uninspiring as a factory-made picture of a tomato soup can. "What was the point?” he asked himself over and over again. Why did the Hungarian National Ballet choose this particular staging of Swan Lake when there were so many others more worthy of its dancers and time? Why not honor the memory of Hungary’s most famous danseur, Ivan Nagy, with a production that honors his classical tradition? Nagy put Hungary on the map in the world of ballet; the Dutch choreographer van Dantzig made the Hungarians look like a bunch of ballet dilettantes. 

 

It’s hard to overstate how dreadful van Dantzig’s “contributions” to the choreography were. As a young man, he once dabbled in ballet for a time before transitioning to the modern idiom, but he was not one with great classical experience or knowledge. Imagine for a moment if Mark Morris decided to re-do Swan Lake – avec sérieux, that is. You get the picture in all its ordinary so-what-it’s-art dullness like a bunch of empty Coke bottles. Glissade assemble and grand jete ad nauseam – the most mundane classroom combinations mucking up Petipa and Ivanov for four hours were, to put it mildly, a disappointment. Van Dantzig couldn't even make the national dances look national. And here we were again with a choreographer screwing around with Swan Lake to try to make it all about Siegfried. Guys, get over it and find a new story. Swan Lake always has been and always will be about Odette/Odile. It will never be about Siggie, no matter what his sexual orientation. 

 

The Perm-trained ballerina, Tatiana Melnik, was lovely. Not a natural Odette physically, she is quite small with nice limbs and rather large untapered feet that tend to truncate any lyrical line. She delivered a sensitive performance of Odette as well as a deliciously dark interpretation of Odile. Her strong technique allowed us to enjoy some amazing balances throughout the evening. Pirouettes were her pocket change. But there was not much rapport between her Odette and the largely blank and struggling Gergely Leblanc’s Siegfried.

 

Throughout Acts II and IV, the beautiful Corps de Ballet women spoke as one with a clear Vaganova accent. The Four Little Swans were about as perfect as one could ask for.

 

This is a ballet company that has evolved way past the point in time when they should have an authentic Swan Lake set on them by a real ballet choreographer. Did somebody say Michael Messerer? The legendary teacher/coach/stager made the trip to New York to watch this troupe soar in his entertaining and authentic production of Don Quixote on Friday night. He originally made this production for the Mikhailovsky Theatre in 2012 which the company then toured here in 2014. What a thrill it was to spot him casually mingling with the crowd. 

 

A mere 48 hours after a rather dismal Swan Lake, the Hungarian National Ballet blazed through Don Quixote with jets on. Ms. Melnik as Kitri was a fiery phenom with complete command of the role. Igor Tsvirko, the Bolshoi leading soloist who recently joined the company, was a charismatic Basil. He is quite small with excellent technique that is well-suited for this role. But his lack of length in the legs meant that whatever technical tricks he performed didn’t have starry impact. He did, however, impress mightily with his one-armed lifts of Kitri, including one that he held unusually long and used his left arm to motion the audience to keep applauding. Loved the trick and the honesty.

 

Minjung Kim, a former student of Magarita Kulik and Vladimir Kim at the Korean National University of Arts, was exquisite as the Queen of the Dryads. Singing arabesque lines, softly gliding grand jetes, no-nonsense Italian fouettes, and a serene joy made her appearance one of the performance’s highlights.

 

Yourim Lee, two years out of the Korean National University of Arts, performed Cupid's petit allegro with outstanding clarity and charm. 

 

Balázs Majoros was a charming and cheeky Gypsy Boy who possessed Basilio-type qualities and technique.

 

And oh, that Street Dancer Karina Sarkissova. What a smoldering-one-moment, boiling-over-with-passion-the-next-moment performance she gave. In this outstanding production, the Street Dancer always steals the show no matter what company is performing. 

 

The Hungarian State Opera Orchestra played gloriously. After each performance, the conductor, Gergely Kesselyák, tossed his bouquet into the pit — a generous touch that one doesn’t see here very often.

 

Our H.H. Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon Karina Sarkissova for her burning Street Dancer in Don Quixote. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Balanchine: The City Center Years 11/1 and 11/4

When the Americans’ loudest complaints about Russian ballet dancing are the smiles and the rich operatic bows, you know their asses have been whooped. Apparently, no one should dare not dance Balanchine exactly as New York City Ballet does. By that, we mean ig-zakt-lee, not iks-hahk-lee or eek-zaxt-lee. When in Amerakuh, speak Amerakuhn dammit. (For the love of all humanity, please vote by the end of tomorrow.) Good heavens, some of this snooty-snoot that Haglund has been hearing about the visiting companies’ performances makes locals sound like a bunch of Parisians. 

 

Without a doubt, it’s important to ballet and also gratifying to New York City Ballet that companies throughout the world want to dance Balanchine’s great works and want their audiences to experience them. But there are no other companies on the planet that devote themselves to Balanchine’s ballets like NYCB does. There are no other companies on the planet who require potential dancers to push through the rigors of SAB, then take a daily class that focuses solely on the Balanchine-espoused technical demands, and spend all working hours trying to stay true to the underlying dancing principals that have made the company and Balanchine’s ballets so great. There are no other companies on the planet that do this. So why should anyone expect that a company that arrives for a festival will match NYCB musical counts (which can vary widely on any given night), NYCB aesthetic (which can vary widely on any given night), or any aspect of NYCB’s performances at all? Honestly, it sounds like the locals believe that the visiting companies were trying to be disrespectful since they didn’t mirror what is or has been seen here on NYCB’s stage. Maybe it’s time to look in the mirror, folks.

 

On Thursday evening, the Mariinsky Ballet’s interpretation of Balanchine’s Apollo was filled with stunning dancing, sensitive characterization, and elegant beauty. This crew hammered home how fundamentally important it is in this art form to start out with the right physical instrument. If the instrument isn’t right, the aims of the choreography cannot be achieved with excellence. Ballet isn’t about being the best average one can be. It’s not democratic. It’s not an art where we all vote on whether turnout, straight narrow legs, length in the limbs, a clear arabesque, and minimal body mass are important.

 

Xander Parish as Apollo clearly portrayed the young god who needed instruction from his muses. His boyish face showed the frustration of not yet being able to master his god-tasks. He conveyed Apollo’s struggle and disorientation as the liminality in his transformation to a full-fledged god. The moment when his head rose from the open palms of the Muses’ hands could not have been played more clearly. By delivering the expression with the force to reach the back of the Mariinsky Theatre, he may have whammed those in the forward rows of the NY City Center unexpectedly. But he was clear. His solos were technically and aesthetically gorgeous: shapes in the air, shapes on the ground, shapes standing still. It was impossible not to admire his artistry. We say this while clearly remembering how completely underwhelmed we were the last time we saw him on stage. Xander has quite literally made his own Apollo rite of passage.

 

Maria Khoreva, Anastasia Nuikina, and Daria Ionova as the Muses are all 2018 graduates from the Vaganova Academy. Khoreva, who danced Terpsichore, has already been promoted to First Soloist bypassing the ranks of Coryphee and Second Soloist, and doing virtually no time in traditional corps roles. What an amazing opportunity it was to watch this fledgling fly with such poise, precision, and grace. A couple of times, we thought that she veered dangerously close to turning her pas de deux with Apollo into a love duet, but we ultimately decided that she was expressing her love for her art form, not the hot god before her. Especially beautiful was the “swimming” moment while poised on Apollo’s back where the arch in her back and the length in her neck were extraordinary. The final pose with her arched torso tucked against Apollo’s arched back was a gorgeous image. Both Calliope and Polyhymnia danced equally well. Polyhymnia had a little struggle with the pique pirouettes to arabesque plié with the finger to the lips, but nothing more than what we’ve seen on NYCB’s stages from its long time principals.

 

Thursday night’s program included NYCB in Concerto Barocco. It was danced dreadfully slowly which made it a bore. Maybe the tempo was adjusted down so as to avoid problems dancing in the smaller space. Both Maria Kowroski and Abi Stafford danced as though they were tired. Russell Janzen dispatched his partnering duties reliably and cleanly.

 

The Royal Ballet couple Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Marcelino Sambé brought their game up considerably from the night before and delivered an energetic Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux. 

 

The San Francisco Ballet’s Divertimento No. 15 suffered some from the narrow stage. These are excellent dancers who would have appreciated being able to really cut loose for the New York audience, but were somewhat confined. Their dancing was scrupulous and refined, however.

 

Sunday’s closing performance of the festival included the Joffrey Ballet in The Four Temperaments. Jeraldine Mendoza in the Third Theme and Yoshihisa Arai in Melancholic were commanding. Unfortunately, the rest of the company didn’t match them in authority. Given the difficulties that Christine Rocas and Victoria Jaiani had with Sanguinic and Choleric, respectively, we wondered if the Joffrey had actually danced The Four Temperaments much in Chicago. It was not a fully baked loaf, so to speak.

 

Along with the Mariinsky’s Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux redux, the Paris Opera Ballet performed the Divertissement Pas de Deux from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Taken out of context, this PdD was not very interesting. The dancers (Sae-Eun Park and Hugo Marchand) were like print & plaid together. Neither made a strong impression in this dance even though we know from having seen them perform before that they are fantastic dancers.

 

American Ballet Theatre’s Symphonie Concertante to music by Mozart turned out to be one of the highlights of the three performances that Haglund saw - for two reasons. First, NYCB doesn’t dance the ballet so we have no idea what it would look like if dispatched with Balanchine styling and speed. Second, ABT danced it very, very well in their own style. Christine Shevchenko, Devon Teuscher, and Thomas Forster were an elegant and glistening trio of academic beauty. For quite some time, many have wondered why Forster has been so underutilized in major full length works at ABT. While we were certainly transfixed by the beauty of Shevchenko and Teuscher, we suddenly snapped to a new alertness when Forster arrived on stage. For such a huge man, he certainly moves with the grace of a panther. Charming, handsome, killer lines, gorgeous feet, huge jumps, beautiful pirouettes, youthful arabesque. And his dancing has always been superior to the management-favored, audience-abhorred James Whiteside. 

 

ABT’s corps looked very comfortable dancing on the smaller stage. Tidy lines, bright smiles, lovely port de bras, no need to rush or stretch to reach a position. It all looked very pleasant. No stress, no mess. We can’t fail to mention how gorgeous the Theoni V. Aldredge tutus were. Every woman on stage looked like a million dollars.

 

Our H.H. Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon the Mariinsky Ballet for their Apollo.

 

 

New York City Center Balanchine: The City Center Years 10/31

Halloween is one of those unofficial holidays when people pretend to be something they are not. It’s very big in New York – as is St. Patrick’s Day when everyone pretends to be Irish in order to celebrate the Irish. Nobody complains to Horst McSchmidt that he's not really Irish on March 17th; it wouldn’t be in the spirit of the holiday to do so. Besides, Horst just might know a little more about what it means to be Irish than those with authentic green in the family tree.

This all really doesn’t have much to do with last night's opening performance of New York City Center’s grand celebration of Balanchine in conjunction with its marking of the center’s 75th anniversary – well maybe a little. 

Balanchine and the New York City Ballet were in residence at New York City Center from 1948 until the company moved to Lincoln Center in 1964. Many of his most famous works were created during this period. Almost immediately following NYCB’s move to Lincoln Center, the Joffrey Ballet moved into City Center where they stayed for the next 30 years before decamping to Chicago. While it doesn’t seem that City Center, which is run by former Joffrey Ballet dancer Arlene Shuler, will be offering many remembrances or postcards from the past Joffrey residency (other than a Studio 5 discussion in April), the Joffrey Ballet will make a pilgrimage back to the old Mecca Temple to perform Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments three times over this weekend. 

Getting back to last night’s opening performance which included some spectacular dancing within the overall good performances - it also included spectacular music. The New York City Ballet Orchestra, which is playing for all performances, was energetically conducted by Andrews Sill and Clotilde Otranto. 

Miami City Ballet presented a neat, academic Serenade except that in addition to the two scheduled falls in the choreography, there was a third unscheduled fall. Everyone seemed okay afterward, though.  Much of the corps de ballet danced with the joyless, sometimes nervous sternness that Haglund recalls in Lourdes Lopez’s own dancing many years ago. Simone Messmer as the Waltz Girl danced exquisitely and forcefully, but had a demeanor of Myrta throughout much of the ballet. Emily Bromberg’s Dark Angel possessed just the spirit that one wants to see in the role. Her stationary rotating arabesques on pointe began to turn immediately upon hitting the pique arabesque which was lovely to see. Jeanette Delgado as the Russian Girl was the soul of this Serenade. It seemed like she simply could not contain her explosive energy or stop herself from devouring every inch of the stage. She danced as though she dearly wanted to jeté over the orchestra pit and into the audience.

The Mariinsky Ballet’s Viktoria Tereshkina and Kimin Kim gave a knock-out performance of the Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux at high speed. We simply don’t have anyone in either of New York’s companies who can dance like that. Sad to say, but true. Of course, the Mariinsky doesn’t have a lot of other dancers who can fly like Kim or charge with the grace of Tereshkina, either. The Mariinsky brought their best for this — no surprise there. Haglund loved their every step, their musicality, their respectful rapport, and the joy with which they expertly and cleanly dispatched the choreography. The speed was easy for them. Kim’s grand allegro was huge, but it was also beautifully lined and stretched. Tereshkina has always been a goddess in everything that she does. It was wonderful to see just how warm she can be and how she reached out to establish a rapport with the audience.

The Royal Ballet presented Tarantella danced by Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Marcelino Sambé. We can’t say that there was anything wrong in what was danced, but it did seem lacking in flavor. We’re not saying that it was bland, because it wasn’t. It just needed some more spice.

New York City Ballet closed the program by ripping through Symphony in C. (Much thanks to Conductor Otranto for keeping everyone aflight.) It was a very good performance, but not close to the best that we have seen these principals dance. Tiler Peck, Sara Mearns, and Ashley Bouder seemed sluggish like they were coming back from a few days off. Lauren King in the Fourth Movement was brilliant - so absolutely ready and eager for every step. In her few years as a soloist, she has developed gorgeously and is now so ready for much bigger leading role challenges. We remember when she was first promoted how her legs and feet needed so much work. She put the work in and it has paid off beautifully. We note that the brand new soloist Claire Kretzschmar now faces challenges very similar to those that Lauren had, and we are excited to watch her develop and improve, too.

The men in Symphony in C (Tyler Angle, Jared Angle, Anthony Huxley and Taylor Stanley) came fully prepared to impress. And they did. But so did demi-soloists Aaron Sanz, Daniel Applebaum, and Peter Walker whose long, clean leg lines and powerful jumps had greater impact. Just want to remark how beautiful those tall corps women were and how impressive their speed was. We’ve been watching Miriam Miller pick up speed like she was skipping gears this year. In Symphony in C and earlier this year in Concerto Barocco, she kept up with the 5-footers without reducing her range. And hopefully, we will soon see a lot more of that Sequoia with long graceful limbs, Christina Clark. How about a Dewdrop at the end of the month? 

Our H.H. Pump Bump Award, Louboutin's studded metallic leather stiletto, is bestowed upon Viktoria Tereshkina and Kimin Kim for bringing the daring, the energy, the preciseness, and the elegance to Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux.

 

 

 

observation 11/1

Leo from LA alerted us to the fact that the Met Opera's website is showing Olga Smirnova for Gulnare on June 12 & 15 and Lescaut's Mistress on the 17th and the 20th. See below. Hopefully, this is an error. We'd hate to see Stella's dwindling performances gutted even more.