Haglund's Heel

Calm is her super power

Sitting through the shimmer and glimmer of five performances of Jewels last week was certainly worth the increased posterior spread. And we wouldn’t have missed the first performances of Raymonda Variations or Variations Pour une Porte et un Soupir either.

Something strange and a bit wonderful happened during the week. Three times. While watching Diamonds we kept asking ourselves "Who is this new Sara Mearns?” Several times we thought, “Okay, now here is one point where she always goes way over the top into drama queendom and doesn't recover from the self-indulgence. Wait – did we miss it?” As the ballet progressed with this uncharacteristically calm, serene, yet authoritative Mearns, we suddenly noticed that her partner, Russell Janzen, was delivering a performance marked with sincere emotion and loving support of his ballerina – as opposed to usually only noticing his fine partnering, beautiful lines, and handsomeness during pauses in the ballerina’s emotional meltdown. There was a new balance to their performance. No longer was this a diamond solitaire. It had been replaced by a pavé setting that unleashed the light and grandeur of Balanchine’s masterpiece. All three performances were immensely enjoyable. And Janzen owned a terrific manége of coupé jetés entournant throughout the run along with solid turns a la seconde.

 

What a magnificent debut Mira Nadon made in the role of the Tall Girl in Rubies. It’s arguable whether she is really tall — she’s more like the small forward on a basketball team, but she tore through the role like a power forward. Strongly arched feet at the top of lethal battements, a winning seduction that she used to control all of the men on stage, fabulous speed and strength — all propelled her to a huge success.

 

Megan Fairchild and Gonzalo Garcia in the same cast were da bomb. The energy, playfulness, and sharp-shooter technique were off the scale. We have never seen Megan dance better than we saw this past week.

 

We finally got a revelatory performance of Emeralds at the last performance with Lauren King and Daniel Applebaum in the leads. Finally there was eloquence. Finally there was honesty and expressiveness. Finally there were long lines of excruciating beauty. Jeeze, these two make a handsome pair on stage. There was a small snafu on a promenade that brought Lauren off pointe, but other than that, we must say that it was a beautiful rendering of Balanchine’s exquisite choreography. 

 

Emilie Gerrity in a role debut as the ballerina who walks on pointe was mesmerizing. There was an understated beauty in her dancing that compelled the viewer to lean closer to see her. Andrew Scordato was her elegant partner.

 

We noticed early in the week that a brand new Sequoia with long, narrow branches has sprouted in the Emeralds forest. The gorgeous apprentice, Savannah Durham, stunned Haglund with the length and beauty of her port de bras, her swan-like neck, and aristocratic profile. And there she was dancing opposite one of Haglund’s favorite Sequoias, Christina Clark, who we hope we'll see in soloist roles soon.

 

The program of Ramonda Variations, Variations Pour une Porte et un Soupir, and Wheeldon’s DGV: Danse à Grande Vitesse included some fine performances. Megan Fairchild and Anthony Huxley were ravishing in the leads. But they took none of the spotlight away from the five women soloists – Sara Adams, Ashley Hod, Emily Kikta, Kristen Segin, and Mary Elizabeth Sell – who delivered outstanding performances of their extremely difficult material. (There was a magnificent face plant early on which was all but forgotten by the end.) Every one of these dancers possessed outstanding technique and fresh enthusiasm.

 

Variations Pour un Porte et un Soupir received a superb reading from Sara Mearns and Daniel Ulbricht. If it went on a little too long, overplaying its good ideas, we’ll overlook that because of its unique place in the Balanchine canon. It may never become sacred, but it will always be a respected example of the breadth of Balanchine’s genius.

 

The H.H. Pump Bump Award, a Manolo Blahnik richly jeweled stiletto, is bestowed upon Lauren King and Daniel Applebaum for literally saving Emeralds last week.

 

 

 

NYCB Opening Night 9/17 NYCB arrives adorned with Jewels

It felt like a gala last night, didn’t it?

 

The lobby and promenade crackled with excitement from the high-powered patrons, high-voltage balletomanes, high-heeled junior bunheads, and the high-fives among friends “Good to see you! It’s been a long three months.” Damned long, if you ask Haglund.

 

But this was not an official gala, only the opening night of New York City Ballet which delivered what the crowd always wants: top drawer Balanchine. Truth be told, the crowd craves Balanchine whether it comes from the top drawer or the lower shelf — it doesn’t matter.

 

Balanchine was a Master Jeweler long before he choreographed Emeralds, Rubies, and Diamonds. He borrowed liberally from previous gem ballets to make the evening-length Jewels. The formations in Emeralds, the little wrap around of the arms when the man stands behind the woman in Rubies, much of the adagio in Diamonds — it’s in his earlier works. But what the Master Jeweler did was to assemble some of his life’s best ideas and apply a lifetime of craftsmanship and an ever-evolving musicality essentially to re-create to make something totally new. 

 

Last night’s cast featured some of the company’s most senior veterans along with a mingling of blazing upstarts and solidly evolving soloists.

 

Emeralds, led by Abi Stafford with Amar Ramasar and Unity Phelan with Ask la Cour, had some very lovely moments. The corps de ballet, which included several apprentices, experienced isolated problems lining up, but as a whole captivated with sweeping movements and elegance. Unity Phelan has grown enormously into the role of the woman who walks the length of the stage on pointe and ticks off time as she lifts her arabesque. Ask la Cour provided her with all the security she could ask for and conveyed warmth and nobility. Amar Ramasar looked to be in fine shape; his legs in those white tights were stretched tautly and lined all the way to the toes. Abi Stafford delivered lovely musicality in her dancing, but we have witnessed her dance much better than last night. Her back was noticeably stiff, and she occasionally had to re-set the positions of her feet in the first adagio. Abi isn’t the only dancer in NYCB who has sagging triceps, and that problem does much to mar performances where the choreography calls for beautiful port de bras. Hyperextending the elbow or the little pinky finger does nothing short of making the problem more apparent. The soloist trio of Georgina Pazcoguin, Sara Adams and Sebastian Villarini-Velez were not optimally matched. Sara has lovely feet which are always strongly pointed no matter how high the leg is thrown; not so with Georgina who also exhibits sagging triceps. Sebastian handled the partnering efficiently and displayed some handsome lines of his own.

 

Sterling Hyltin and Andrew Veyette were sensational in Rubies. She skittered across the stage like a stone skipping across the surface of a brook. Sometimes it looked like her feet weren’t even touching the floor. And there was Veyette, gall dang, having his own Renaissance and looking more vigorous and engaged than we have seen him in years. But this night’s Rubies was stolen by Emily Kikta whose dazzling “Tall Girl” –– surrounded by the shortest corps dancers available –– grabbed the black & white keys away from pianist Stephen Gosling and played them for all they were worth. So commanding, so stylish, and so, so likable. 

 

Maria Kowroski and Tyler Angle delivered a sublime Diamonds. The softness of the feet as Maria walked with heels lifted along the diagonal on her first entrance is a new element that appeared last season, and it has an exquisite effect. On this night, Maria most evoked the poetry that the company wants us to think about this season in its Poets of Gesture campaign. As difficult as this role is and as many times as Maria has danced it, she continues to try to make it richer for us each time. It has been such a blessed gift to have watched all of these years. Tyler danced a superb variation and seemed to be in top shape at the beginning of this season. Gallant and noble to the power of 10 doesn’t sufficiently calculate how he impressed with his partnering of Maria. We have yet to figure out why in his variation he beats the assembles going left but not to the right. Perhaps there is no deep meaning to be mined from it...

 

Our first H.H. Pump Bump Award of the season is bestowed upon Emily Kikta, who dances with the saturated color of a Sunrise ruby, which by the way, was named after a 13th century poem.

 

 

 

observations 9/8

This morning NYCB introduced its new podcasts with fabulous content.

http://podcast.nycballet.com/welcome-to-city-ballet-the-podcast

http://podcast.nycballet.com/hear-the-dance-a-history-of-new-york-city-ballet-part-1

http://podcast.nycballet.com/hear-the-dance-a-history-of-new-york-city-ballet-part-2

observations 9/3

Here we go...

NYCB's fall season opens in two weeks, and the first week of casting has been announced. Fabulous Jewels casting all around with a new Tall Girl strutting to the center on Thursday, September 19th: Mira Nadon debuts. Equally exciting is Emilie Gerrity's debut in Emeralds on Saturday evening in Haglund's new fav cast of Lauren King and Daniel Applebaum -- don't miss them! Nor do you ever want to miss Emily Kikta's Rubies Tall Girl (Tuesday and both performances on Saturday). The beauty of Diamonds depend on their polish, and we have the brilliance of Maria Kowroski & Tyler Angle, Teresa Reichlen & Russell Janzen, and Sara Mearns & Janzen throughout the week. 

Speaking of Diamonds, Zachary Catazaro paired up with the Bolshoi's glistening Alena Kovaleva for the PdD at a Gala in Chile in August. Do you remember how she made our hearts flutter when she danced the lead in Diamonds during the Jewels Jubilee a couple of years back?

Meanwhile, ABT is limping along trying to stick it to patrons with its forced costume restoration FEE added to fall season tickets. It's pathetic that they think cable company model pricing is going to help their reputation and sales.