Haglund's Heel

observations 2/21

A sign of the times, unfortunately, at Shanghai Ballet which returned this week to rehearsals after the Chinese New Year break:

Wu Husheng, who we recently saw here in New York as Prince Siegfried in Shanghai Ballet's Swan Lake: "It's the first time in my life that I've trained with a mask on."  "I think I need to improve my physical strength because after a few motions, I found it difficult to breathe."

CNA Reuters photos by Aly Song

 

 

ABT@KC Giselle 2/16 – Brandt & Ahn

The impact of the ballet Giselle can be so powerful that it inspires forgiveness and thoughtfulness within the audience that lasts past the lowering of the curtain. So went the Sunday matinee performance at the Kennedy Center where aspects of ABT’s somewhat lusterless production of Giselle suddenly looked like polished 24 karat gold. At the end, the audience exited particularly slowly while murmuring wows and exclamations of how touching the performance was. So true.

This performance was to have included the debuts of Skylar Brandt and Joo Won Ahn, but Skylar ended up stepping into the role a few days early after the company’s celebrina simply could not go on stage the night following a reportedly brilliant performance by Sarah Lane and Daniil Simkin. Deja vu three years ago at the Kennedy Center when the celebrina couldn’t come to terms with Devon Teuscher’s brilliant success in Swan Lake and sustained a thought-injury before withdrawing from her scheduled performance (Just thinking about the fouettes makes me hurt, she said). But this time, she may have had extra reason to feel bad about having to follow Sarah’s brilliance. Maybe even some guilt. Time will soon tell.

 

So Sunday’s matinee was Skylar’s second performance. At the outset, it was apparent that this was an ambitious interpretation which had been set on her by one of ABT’s great Giselles, Irina Dvorovenko, and Max Beloserkovsky. Their version, which may have been founded on the principle The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer, was an interpretation that Skylar will grow into. However, we’re not sure that all of the difficulty designed into the variations will ever pay off in terms of risk-benefits. In Act I, for example, Giselle’s pique arabesques that roll down through the supporting foot and descend into penches were attempted with the face turned toward the audience from start to finish. The step is risky enough when the ballerina is focused on exactly where she is stepping and descending into the penche; not looking where one is going was, in this case, a rather perilous approach that resulted in some instability which carried into a few other moments in the variation. Further, the entire visual frame provided less foreshadowing of Giselle’s Act II deep penches. 

 

We have to take exception to some of the dramatic choices made in Act I. Giselle’s little fainting spell was suddenly a Code Blue cardiac arrest with googly eyes bulging and opened mouth gasping for breath. This is a classical ballet not a Quentin Tarantino movie. Life’s experiences are represented by dance in a musical and choreographic fashion, not depicted with brute realism for the purpose of shocking the audience. This needs to be toned down in future performances and certainly long before Skylar ventures anywhere near Juliet’s bottle of nasty-tasting potion where the temptation to offer gagging realism is almost irresistible. Again, the ballet is a representation through the use of musical and choreographic movements. It’s not realism. Giselle’s Mad Scene was also overloaded with enough shaking hands and arms to warrant a straightjacket. Less is more.

 

But overall, Skylar’s Act I variations were exquisitely danced with beautiful phrasing and style. We loved the delicacy of her pointes, the lightness in the diagonal of hops on pointe, and the sparkling joy in the manège of pique turns. For most of Act I she had to carry the drama and entire story by herself. Our Albrecht was mostly absent although his technical dancing was admirable. Thank goodness this ballet has an Act II where both of our leads rose to the heights that we had hoped to see.

 

The Act II awakening spin began with an unusually low lunge and whirled as furiously as we’ve ever seen. The ensuing sissone-assembles and coupé jetés seemed to be fueled by some unstoppable force. The pas de deux showed tremendous promise with Joo Won finally waking up dramatically to dance a love story filled with guilt and desperation. Finally Skylar had someone responding to her which seemed to propel her performance to an even higher level of grace and beauty. Unfortunately, the second overhead lift did not go well, perhaps in part due to the sluggish musical tempo. In fact, the tempi were erratic and odd throughout the performance. It brought back the nightmare of Irina Dvorovenko’s final Giselle in which the conductor (the same one as Sunday) lost track of what he was doing and sent the orchestra awry like we’d never heard before. 

 

Joo Won was beyond spectacular in his Act II variations — so spectacular that we instantly forgave his blankness in Act I. His diagonal of cabrioles must have been five or six feet off the ground and were punctuated with daringly dramatic backbends. His entrechat six were textbook perfect. And as equally important, he was convincing as Albrecht on his last legs, so to speak. The life had been sucked out of him and he was ready to give up until Giselle saved him with her love. 

 

The supporting cast included Catherine Hurlin as Myrta, a new role for her. As everyone knows, Myrta is homicidal, and Hurlin brought that out clearly with her facial expressions of revenge and unforgiveness. She also displayed some fierce grand jetes and strong arabesque lines. Rachel Richardson and Lauren Post as Moyna and Zulma didn’t leave much of an impression. Nor did the Act I Peasant PdD danced by Cassandra Trenary and Tyler Maloney. There was a time at ABT when this Peasant PdD nearly stole the show from starry principals. Roman Zhurbin was menacing (in a lovable way) as Hilarion and died a great, great death. Such marvelous pathetic grovelling at Myrta’s feet we rarely see. Lastly, the Wilis were serviceable, but not more. A lack of uniformity was particularly evident when they jete’d upstage into the wings after dispatching Hilarion.

 

We’re going to pitch an HH Pump Bump Award, a Louboutin custom-made pump, to both Skylar and Joo Won for their impressive early interpretations of Giselle and Albrecht. Both are bold risk-takers in their dancing. They possess staggering amounts of technique but also a sense of vulnerability that could be exploited in other dramatic roles. Should the stars align so that they get a Giselle slot during this coming Met season, you won’t want to miss them.

 

ABT@KC Running on adrenaline

Giselle, we can't bear to live without you. We're making good time, but Baby, this shortcut ain't for the faint of heart.

 

 

Most of the votes are in

It has been so stressful waiting for the official results of the New Hampshire Democratic Primary tonight. Everyone knows that the Airedale Terrier deserves Best in Show, but the favorite of the voters seems to be the Bernese Mountain dog, Tea Biscuit. We don't know if we can stay up late enough to post the final results. Candidates' tails are dropping left and right. Ears, too. It is such a confusing time, these times. We need our sleep. But having just gotten home from New York City Ballet, we need to share a few things.

Belles-Lettres has enjoyed the same cast each performance this season which has helped this ensemble ballet coalesce into something beyond its many individual parts. The crew brought in another very enjoyable performance tonight. Our eyes were drawn to the pairing of Lauren Lovette and Gilbert Bolden again. Bolden's paws are large enough that he really only needs one of them to take Lauren wherever he wants to take her. Speaking of Lauren, we saw her in grand size at the FIT exhibit "BALLERINA - Fashion's Modern Muse today. The exhibit is free and open to the public Tuesdays through Fridays from noon until 8pm and Saturdays from 10 am until 5 pm.

Pavlova's Dying Swan costume:

The exhibit includes a number of beautiful Balmain creations which were inspired by ballet costumes. Sara Mearns' wedding gown, designed by Marc Happel, is on display, as are Karinska's original Jewels tutus. It's really worth a trip down to the Museum at FIT on 7th Avenue at West 27th Street. The exhibit closes April 18th.

Back to this evening –

In Creases had a couple of new cast members. Rachel Hutsell performed the role which was danced last week by Emilie Gerrity, and Jules Mabie performed the role which was danced earlier by Taylor Stanley. Neither was particularly successful, unfortunately, and both looked unprepared. The leotard ballets are not going to be a good fit for any dancer with a protruding belly and folds over the waist elastic. The remainder of the cast danced brightly but, let's face it, In Creases will never be Best of Breed.

Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet was lovely again tonight. It's impossible to watch it too much. Emilie Gerrity and Taylor Stanley danced the Allegro with Miriam Miller as the soloist. Emilie and Taylor seemed to be feeling their way through the choreography during the early minutes. Then Emilie took a huge spill down stage; she was sprawled out there like road kill with pink spread all over the floor. But she jumped up and seemed to be okay. From then on, the two of them just danced happily like they were in their own world. Miriam's debut was okay but her performance was much less impactful than Emily Kikta's. The required strength and coordination always seem to be just around the corner for Miriam, and tonight was no different.

Indian Woodward and Ask la Cour repeated their fine Intermezzo from last week. Erica Pereira and Anthony Huxley were exquisite in the third movement Andante – there was a maturity that we don't often observe. Sara Mearns and Andrew Veyette dialed up the heat in the Rondo alla Zingarese with a fiery corps de ballet that was fanning their flames.

 

observations 2/7

The Varna International Ballet Competition has postponed or cancelled its 2020 event which would have been the 29th competition. Bulgarian media reports that the competition has been cancelled due to a lack of funding. The official Varna IBC website says that the competition has been postponed due to technical reasons. 

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Meanwhile, Russia is plumping up its artistic infrastructure with a couple of new big theaters in Perm and Yekaterinburg.

The new Tchaikovsky Academic Opera and Ballet Theater will be built on the banks of the Kama River and will be surrounded by a new park. There's no word on what will become of the historic Perm Opera and Ballet Theater, also known as the Tchaikovsky House – so named because he was born in the Perm region. Here's a peek at what the architects have planned:

In Yekaterinburg, Zaha Hadid Architects are designing a futuristic Sverdlovsk Philharmonic Concert Hall:

and this more intimate recital hall with picture window.

 

NYCB 2/5 – Cussed by beauty

Oh, wait. That should probably have been kissed by beauty. Please forgive the error, but yesterday was a day of nonstop cussing. Every time the CNN webpage updated, it caused more cussing. Cussing, cussing, cussing – all day long. By 4PM, Haglund didn’t think he had any cuss words left. He took a couple of swigs of ginger kombucha and found the strength to keep cussing. By 6PM, he was plumb wore out, and his lips were blue. He had cussed the day away and didn’t have anything left. It was time to go to the ballet to try to restore balance to life.

Haglund arrived at the ballet and found his comfy orchestra seat. It had been a fulfilling day of cussing and he was ready to relax. All of a sudden the hair on the back of his neck stood up and goose pimples erupted down the length of both arms. Standing in the next row and arranging himself in preparation to sit down was none other than Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the most famous reformed potty mouth of our generation. He claims that he now abstains from all cussing, but we bet that he fell off the wagon yesterday. Haglund had to restrain himself from leaning over to ask the mayor to share some of his choice stuff which was, in the good ole days, quite colorful and original. We’re happy to report that the mayor certainly seemed to enjoy what he saw on stage – just like the rest of us did.

 

Oh, that Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet by Balanchine was a beauty. The star of the night was Emily Kikta in the first movement Allegro. We think we’ve seen every one of her performances in this ballet including her debut years ago when she rocketed to our attention. Last night she burned bright as a Saturn V, full of that special balletic un je ne sai quoi that takes your breath away. Whenever Miss Emily arrived on stage, everyone else seemed to disappear; our eyes were glued to her. The broad sweep of her port de bras and the strength of statement in her arabesques were astonishing. Expansive just doesn’t get any more expansive than what we saw last night. 

 

Lauren Lovette and Ask la Cour plumbed the romance fully from the more moody Intermezzo. Lauren is dancing especially lovely this season and with great confidence. Ask’s performances this season have been a true joy to watch and this Intermezzo was no exception. Megan Fairchild and Gonzalo Garcia danced the Andante in an accomplished fashion. However, something was missing, but we’re not sure what – maybe color and tone. Teresa Reichlen and Adrian Danchig-Waring whipped the ribbons off the Rondo alla Zingarese. Terrific energy, smoldering rapport, and blast after blast of powerful dancing brought this ballet to a fitting climax. We’re surprised that the PC police haven’t yet slung their scorn at this and other ballets that feature gypsy themes and stereotypes; after all, the gypsies were persecuted ethnic itinerants. Just wait, it’s coming: “Cut the gypsy ribbons out of ballet!” “We’re so uncomfortable dancing those roles."

 

Also on the evening’s bill were two pieces by Justin Peck. The first, Belles-Lettres, which was created in 2014, is Peck’s most classical, balletic, and musical dance he has yet produced. The second, In Creases, which was created in 2012, shows his immaturity and proclivity for derivative movement. But then, Philip Glass, whose score Peck used for In Creases, derived many of his musical ideas for Four Movements for Two Pianos from his early works that comprised In The Upper Room. Maybe that’s why the choreography had a Tharp flavor to it. These days it is probably very difficult for any choreographer to listen to Glass’s compositions without wondering what Twyla would do with the music. 

 

Belles-Lettres will stand the test of time. Peck's musical and choreographic choices are married as in no other work that he’s made. Cesar Franck’s composition for piano and accompaniment is a lush, romantic score that makes the heart swell with joy. Last night the dancers worked seamlessly as an ensemble but managed to shine individually as well. Lauren Lovette regaled the audience with her luxuriant musicality and sheer joy of dancing. She was light as a piece of paper in Gilbert Bolden’s hands and clearly enjoyed the heights to which he lifted her. We thought that those two made a very attractive couple whose harmonies were both joyful and mature. Adrian Danchig-Waring & Indiana Woodward, Andrew Scordato & Unity Phelan, Brittany Pollack & Victor Abreu completed the couples with Anthony Huxley offering a dazzling and lyrical display of artistry as the sole man out, so to speak.

 

We need to mention that last week included superb performances from Emilie Gerrity in Stravinsky Violin Concerto. This masterpiece is in fine, solid shape for the coming years with Gerrity and Claire Kretzschmar leading the charge.

 

Once again last night, before the start of the performance and partially through the first ballet, the smell of burning weed and cigarettes wafted through the ventilation in the right side of the orchestra sickening patrons. Wherever it’s coming from – the side of the building, the roof, the basement, someone’s dressing room – needs to be addressed and snuffed permanently.

 

Our H.H. Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon Emily Kikta for her exquisite dancing in Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NYCB 1/30/2020 Please refrain from talking during the performance

NYCB may as well rename the New Combinations program the Red Ink program, because that’s all it will contribute to the company if it continues on this path. Here was a night of a world premiere by the most media-vaunted choreographer of the present time on a bill with the other two most media-vaunted choreographers of the time. Lots of groupies plopped their butts down into free seats. And yet, the house was far from filled for this purportedly momentous occasion. No one was sitting in the fourth ring, a third of the third ring was empty, and there were pockets of empty seats throughout the orchestra level, most notably large swaths of empty seats in the corners. The audience in attendance struggled with its customary first-night woo-whos. 

 

Obviously, a tremendous amount of effort and money went into the new Voices by Alexei Ratmansky: long hours of rehearsal, costume design and fittings, stage design and implementation, media marketing. But we kept hearing the choreographer say in interviews “I don’t know what’s going to happen” in regard to his new dance. In the real world where people are held accountable for results, we can tell you that “I don’t know what’s going to happen” doesn’t fly with executive managements. Managements don’t commit millions of dollars to a project without a dollar projection of its success. Further, managements don’t commit millions of dollars to a project just because the workers will feel good manufacturing it. The product’s prospects have to be that it will be good enough that people will buy it and then buy it over and over again. Unfortunately, not this time.

 

For a few years, we have observed that Ratmansky’s new original works haven’t been very new at all. There’s been new scenery, costumes, and even concepts, but the choreography has been the same predictable idiosyncratic, hyper-kinetic, over-stylized, desperate effort to be chic, relevant, funny, and classical all at one time. Is this an old fuddy-duddy you hear complaining? Perhaps, but it’s the fuddy-duddy who wholly embraced some of the most avant garde ballets of the 20th century: Robbins’ Moves, The Cage, and Glass Pieces; Massine’s Parade; Preljocaj’s La Stravaganza; Bejart’s Adagietto; Joffrey’s Astarte; Balanchine’s black & white canon; Graham’s Appalachian Spring; Jooss’s The Green Table; and some of the most avant garde choreography we’ve yet seen this century including Preljocaj’s Spectral Evidence and Snow White, Bigonzetti’s Oltremare, and Neuemeier’s The Little Mermaid. We’re not anti-avant garde. We’re anti-schtik, anti-throw the body around for no apparent reason, anti-gimmick, and we’re anti-money wasting.

 

In choosing to choreograph to Peter Ablinger’s Voices and Piano, a mash-up of intentionally inaudible recorded voices of Bonnie Barnett, Gjendine Slalien, Forough Farrokhzad, Nina Simone, Setsuko Hara, and Agnes Martin with a piano that follows their voice rhythms, Ratmansky chose to abandon all obligation to musicality. Sometimes the steps hovered around the piano’s individual notes for a few counts like a Twitter entry that purports to convey something thought provoking. The women soloists split their legs in developpes and jumps, threw themselves to the ground, assumed angry expressions, and performed steps and arm configurations as if they were trying to insert some dramatic meaning into what they were doing. Each woman’s solo was followed by an intermission where men paraded through in a line or a male soloist performed a balletic exercise in virtuosity. 

 

But we’re incredibly grateful – grateful that Ratmansky didn’t choose Ablinger’s selections of Gertrude Stein or Angela Davis for his choreography. Can you imagine? Glissade assemble sissonne sisso glissad assem siss gliss ade able onne glissonnable pow! shoot up the police station. So we’re grateful. 

 

The costumes hardly merited a designer per se — they were leotards, some drab, some shiny Lycra – but Keso Dekker got the credit. He also designed the scenery of a lighted voice graph that streamed across the back of the stage. We’re surprised that the piano and dancers’ sounds weren’t also graphed to add to all of the intellectual stimulation. 

 

The dancers, of course, danced their hearts out. They obviously loved the hyper-physicality and the honor of dancing in this new piece. We wish it would have been better and more worthy of their talents. We wish that Ratmansky would limit himself to making a single original ballet per year — something that he could put all of his energies into without being distracted by his next project or a deadline or an individual company’s expectations. What might his choreography reveal under those conditions?