Haglund's Heel

Do Not Buy ABT Fall Tickets unless and until...

they remove the FORCED CONTRIBUTION of $2.50 for each and every ticket to cover costume refurbishment.

This is outrageous. Donations to ABT and its costume restorations are by definition tax deductible donations. However, ABT is forcing each and every patron to shell out $2.50 per ticket, not tax deductible, as a forced non-deductible fee to contribute to their costume fund. Did anyone see any mention of this added forced contribution fee in the fall brochures? Any explanation on the Koch website? Any pre-disclosure whatsoever?

Discussions this morning with the Koch Theater revealed that this was solely an ABT decision, not a Koch Theater decision to tack on this non-deductible FORCED CONTRIBUTION. ABT could have incorporated $2.50 into the base ticket price and simply used it for the costume fund. Who would care? But by separating it and forcing patrons to donate to their freaking costume fund is a disgusting disgrace, ESPECIALLY GIVEN HOW MUCH MONEY THEY HAVE WASTED AND SQUANDERED IN THE PAST FEW YEARS ON SLEEPING BEAUTY WIGS AND COSTUMES, TEMPEST COSTUMES, GOLDEN COCKEREL COSTUMES and so forth. When ABT stops squandering patrons' voluntary donations on oversized productions, then maybe people will VOLUNTARILY contribute more to its costume fund. But FORCING people to contribute? They can go screw themselves.

Express yourself: 212-477-3030

Ask for Chief Philanthropy Officer Georgia Siampalioti or Executive Director Kara Medoff Barnett, make that Kara Madoff Barnett.

 

observations 7/12

Well, this takes the cake.

Today is the due date for Plaintiff Waterbury's counsel's replies to the defendants' motions to dismiss. So far only a response to Jared Longhitano's motion has been filed. The plaintiff's response is the Trump classic "facts don't matter" when it comes to motions to dismiss. AND he attached a long, gossipy affidavit from Winston Nguyen about NYCB's culture. Nguyen is the scumbag who was sentenced to Rikers Island for stealing $335,000 from a blind elderly man and his wife while he was their home health aid. He used the money for trips, meals, and ballet tickets according to the prosecutor.

https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20170825/upper-east-side/man-indicted-grand-larceny-stealing-from-elderly-couple-ballet-tickets-trips/

Then when he got out of Rikers, he tried to sue the Department of Corrections Commissioner because he wasn't given socks and newspapers while in prison.

https://nypost.com/2019/07/09/ex-rikers-inmate-files-suit-against-doc-chief-cynthia-brann/

Could this get any more ridiculous? We're sure it will.

 

ABT – Sleeping Beauty 7/2

Why do people invest large sums of money in antiques and devote such passion to them? Is it so they can fuss about authenticity or distinguish themselves with their knowledge of the period? Is it so they can tell people not to sit on them or not to place coffee cups on them without double doilies?

This is Haglund’s antique book cart. It’s a stylish mid-Victorian piece that, according to an appraiser, was probably wheeled around by a nurse in a New England hospital to offer books to patients. What apparently makes it unique and valuable is the tiny, hardly visible brass beading around the back wheels. What knocked the value out of the book cart was Haglund’s father’s efforts to restore and refurbish it to make it look good in our 20th century livingroom. "Don’t put any heavy books on it,” he warned through his teeth. “This antique will pay for your grandchildren’s college,” he promised. Today the book cart, which is worth less than $700, sits in Haglund’s maison in shrine to a giant long-gone relative. 

 

That is where the mind strayed Tuesday night during those long sections of ABT’s restoration of Father Petipa’s Sleeping Beauty when not much was happening except for a lot of parading around by people in expensive costumes. Six million dollars was spent on this production, none of it spent on bionic limbs for the dancers. But who needs bionic limbs when you have Herman Cornejo – the Colonel Steve Austin of ballet who can blast through special high-risk missions of Ratmansky allegro like they're just another day in the M2-F2 aircraft or working on the moon as a member of the Apollo 17 team. To digress momentarily as we do only occasionally, let us say how incredibly disappointed we will be if Colonel Cornejo doesn’t show up in at least half of those five Apollo missions scheduled for the fall season. 

 

Now where were we… Oh yes – Sleeping Beauty.

 

Most people actively engaged in the ballet world in some manner would agree that there is great value in a historically based reconstruction of Sleeping Beauty. But to be sustained in the repertory, performances must appeal to and be attended by a lot more paying customers than the relatively small group in and around the ballet world. When Haglund reviewed the Orange County premiere performance of ABT’s staging by Ratmansky in March of 2015, he noted that "The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment performs its music on period instruments in an effort to achieve a performance quality closer to that representative of the time in history when the music was composed.” The OAE is perhaps the most well-known orchestra in the world to perform classical music in its historical style, but its audience size does not approach the size of audiences for major orchestras and never will. The OAE’s last charity financial report shows it survives on income of less than $4 million per year and yet, the orchestra has a solid reputation within its relatively small market niche for doing important work. ABT needs 10-15 times that amount to survive.

 

Even though ABT’s production of Sleeping Beauty has some fine features, it likely will continue to struggle to find its paying audience because it doesn’t meet the evolved expectations of the typical or “lite” ballet goer. While walking home from Tuesday night’s performance, Haglund heard two distinct and separate groups of people talking about how pretty everything was but that it was way overdone with too little dancing. Expectations were not met. Comparisons were being made with the production at NYCB which moves along a lot more quickly and is not as stuffed with over-the-top costumes. There are reasons that  Sleeping Beauty productions (Bolshoi, POB, Mariinsky, and NYCB) evolved the way they did over the century to look as they do now. Not all of the reasons are invalid.

 

 Our cast on Tuesday evening did a fine job for the most part. In addition to Cornejo’s blistering allegro variation of scrupulous Brisé Volé that clearly brushed through fifth position and crossed in the air, we enjoyed Sarah Lanes’s Aurora who developed from an excited 16-year-old to a vision of Prince Désiré’s quest for love to a mature and commanding life partner for him. Aurora's Act I Rose Adagio was music-caressing with overall successful balances in attitude. Her variations, swift and sunny, were propelled by joy, not athletic showmanship. In Act II Sarah danced divinely and vividly as the Vision of Aurora that  compelled Désiré to continue searching for her. Act III’s famous Pas de Deux was further refurbished by Ratmansky who replaced the fish dives with stunning poses in which the ballerina snapped her supported en dedans pirouettes and then fell into Désiré’s arms finishing with arms overhead in fifth position and head turned to a 90 degree perfect profile toward his face which was in profile toward her. The working leg simultaneously snapped to a gorgeous leaning efface devant developpe. The result was a climactic pose held through the climactic notes of music that very nearly matched the thrill of the fish dives that we’ve been accustomed to seeing – but maybe not quite.

 

Our beautiful Lilac Fairy, Christine Shevchenko, possessed all the expected authority and commanded complete control over her repeated releve arabesque fouette sequence. Skylar Brandt as the Canary Fairy chirped cheerfully and fluttered bourrees at hummingbird speed. The Candide Fairy danced by Paulina Waski experienced some awkward wobbliness. The staging of Violente, danced by April Giangeruso, tried too hard to make the fairy humorous. Stephanie Williams as Wheat flower and Rachel Richardson as Breadcrumb danced competently. Keith Roberts displayed a theatrical authority as Carabosse that we wish we had seen in him when he was a dancing principal back in the day. Alexei Agoudine as Catalabutte stole every scene that he was in — in fact, ran away with every scene except in those where Roman Zhurbin’s unflappable, ever-smiling King Florestan was competing for the spotlight.

 

Devon Teuscher’s Diamond Fairy was almost Ashton-like in its charm and vividness. Brittany DeGrofft, Courtney Lavine, and Melanie Hamrick were fine as Gold, Sliver, and Sapphire, but not at their best. Katherine Williams and Blaine Hoven encountered no problems as Princess Florine and The Bluebird. It is unusual to see such a big guy as Blaine dance with such fleetness and allegro clarity. Bolle certainly could as could Marcelo Gomes. Clearly, Blaine could have stepped in at a minute’s notice as Désiré when needed on Monday rather than pushing Aran Bell into dancing four performances this week and risking injury. 

 

The character divertissements in Act III didn’t possess a lot of charm except for perhaps Red Riding Hood and The Wolf danced by Betsy McBride and Patrick Frenette, who was also an outstanding English Prince in Act I. The corps de ballet was serviceable throughout the three acts. However, the lack of uniformity in legs, arms, and girths was sometimes distracting.

 

Our H.H. Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon Herman Cornejo for his stinging allegro that packed the poison of a hundred hornets. It killed. We died happily. On to Apollo!

 

 

 

 

 

observations 7/1

Well this certainly caught our attention. The Joyce Theater is really upping its game this year with its Ballet Festival. What a great August we're going to have:

Program A – August 6-9

Curated by Kevin O’Hare

Featuring:

Artists of The Royal Ballet Lauren Cuthbertson, Nicol Edmonds, Sarah Lamb, Romany Pajdak, Calvin Richardson, Marcelino Sambé, Joseph Sissens, Beatriz Stix-Brunell and Edward Watson

Works by Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, Wayne McGregor, Christopher Wheeldon, Liam Scarlett, Calvin Richardson, Charlotte Edmonds

 

Program B – August 10-11

Curated by Lauren Cuthbertson

Featuring:

Artists of The Royal Ballet Lauren Cuthbertson, Nicol Edmonds, and Marcelino Sambé

Artists of the National Ballet of Canada Skylar Campbell, Hannah Fischer,

Spencer Hack, and Xiao Nan Yu

Artists of the American Ballet Theatre Aran Bell and Devon Teuscher

Two Sides by Juliano Nunes

New Work by Stina Quagebeur

New Work by Gemma Bond

Darl by Jonathan Watkins

Dialogue Dances by Robert Binet

 

Program C – August 13-15

Curated by Jean-Marc Puissant

Featuring:

Artists of The Royal Ballet Sarah Lamb, Romany Pajdak, Calvin Richardson, Marcelino Sambé, Joseph Sissens, and Beatriz Stix-Brunell

Artists of American Ballet Theatre Zimmi Coker, Thomas Forster, Anabel Katsnelson, Betsy McBride, Courtney Shealy, Cassandra Trenary, and Stephanie Williams

Special Guests:

Joseph Gordon (New York City Ballet)

David Hallberg (American Ballet Theatre)

Erez Milatin (New York Theatre Ballet)

Then and Again by Gemma Bond

Song of a Wayfarer by Maurice Bejart

Elite Syncopations divertissement by Kenneth MacMillan

 

Program D – August 16-18

Curated by Edward Watson

Featuring:

Artists of The Royal Ballet Edward Watson and Sarah Lamb;

Special Guests:

Robert Fairchild (formerly of New York City Ballet)

Maria Kowroski (New York City Ballet)

3 with D by Javier de Frutos

New Work by Mauro Bigonzetti

New Work by Laila Diallo

TBD Solo

Cristaux by Arthur Pita

 

Sarah Lane's Odile 6/26 Letter to Haglund

Hi Haglund,

I still can't believe it but I was able to make it to Sarah's Black Swan last night.

After a long day at work, I took a short nap and woke up at 7:40 pm to Sarah's Instagram story announcing her last minute Black Swan. Even though the show was already ten minutes in and I live an hour away, I knew I had to get to the Met somehow. So I threw on some fresh clothes and ran to the subway. I arrived just as intermission was ending and the second person I saw leaving gave me their ticket after I fairly begged. I got in and act three had already started. An usher told me about the movie theatre on the left side of the orchestra where I could watch. I got there during the peasant pas.

Even though I was watching through a screen, Sarah blew me away. I've been wishing for her Swan Lake ever since I got to see her debut two years ago. She was just amazing. Especially with Herman! The two of them were on fire.

I actually discreetly filmed from Rothbart and Odile's arrival to the end of act three. Haglund, would you be interested in this footage? I don't know what your opinions are on filmed shows and absolutely don't want to offend you. I just thought that since you're such a big supporter of Sarah, you'd be interested in seeing a somewhat decent video of her Black Swan. I haven't uploaded the nearly twenty minute video yet but will if you're interested. If not, I completely understand and hope I haven't offended you.

Thanks, as always, for your reviews and news alerts.

Are you interested? she asks. Haglund immediately went to the vault and fished out his hottest summer H.H. Ballet Warrior Pump Bump Award and sent it off via ScootExpress Courier to this devoted fan. Voilà, here's a link to the Black Swan PdD.

What a treat this is! Thanks much to this devoted fan for sharing with all of us her story and video.