Haglund's Heel

observations 7/26

Kennedy Center announced that it will rev-up to full scale performances in January 2021. The season includes ABT's Don Quixote in April, which, of course means that we will most likely see it during the shortened five-week season at The Met. NYCB will present A Midsummer's Night Dream in March. Alvin Ailey will open KC's dance card on February 2nd. Paul Taylor Dance Company and Ragamala Dance Company are part of the season, too. Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo makes its debut at the end of February with Jean-Christophe Maillot's Cinderella. You may recall that former NYCB dancers Christian Tworzyanski and Lydia Wellington now perform with that company. Subscriptions available right now.

Available here for $10:

How many new lame joke dances about wearing face masks do you think we will we see during the 2021 season? Hopefully none.

 

 

The red wine is flowing

Nina Ananiashvili recently posted a series of chats with her former colleagues including Giuseppe Picone and Julio Bocca. Both interviews are a combination of informative conversation and hilarious memories.

Giuseppe recalls touring Japan with Nina's gala group and hitting the town's bars, massage parlors, and cold plunges as the only Italian with a bunch of  Russian guys (Possokhov, Filin, Belogolovtsev, Uvarov). Giuseppe talks about his time at ABT and how he decided to leave due to the lack of coaching and preparation for performances. He recalls debuting principal roles without stage rehearsals which he considered unacceptable.

Julio recounts his audition with Baryshnikov, how he danced 200-220 performances per year by flying around on the Concord, how he credits his discipline and original training for his ability to come back quickly from injury, how to use class as a place to work on yourself as opposed to simply warming up for the day, and his farewell performance in Argentina when Nina danced with him.

Three artists who we miss seeing on stage:

Nina chats with Giuseppe Picone:

Nina chats with Julio Bocca:

 

 

observations 7/21

To follow up on our July 8th post, we extracted and compiled another searchable list of ballet and dance organizations from CNN's most recent list of PPP recipients. A lot of dance organizations throughout the country received a heap of cash through the CARES program.

Download PPP - First Round CARES (PDF)

Recipients are supposed to meet the SBA's definition of a Small Business. New York City Ballet doesn't qualify as such and thus did not receive PPP funds – although SAB, an independent entity, did receive a bundle. It seems that most of the non-Small Businesses who received billions of dollars through the CARES program are a secret -- for now. But as we know, when it comes to government handouts, no secret is safe.

 

 

observations 7/19

The first installment of New York City Center's Studio 5 series, which featured Tiler Peck being coached by Merrill Ashley, was a bit dull perhaps because it was over-burdened with details. However, Tiler looked lovely.

July 30th may prove to be more interesting when Nina Ananiashvili provides some online Swan Lake mentoring to Sara Mearns. (Hopefully, the moderator will keep his gaping mouth closed.)

When Sara Mearns was 2 years old and presumably not quite yet in pointe shoes, Bolshoi ballerina Nina Ananiasvili was a guest artist at New York City Ballet along with the incredible Andris Liepa. Together they danced Raymonda Variations and Apollo. Both danced in Symphony in C but with different NYCB partners. Nina danced the 2nd Movement  with Otto Neubert, and Andris danced the 3rd Movement with Melinda Roy. This all occurred in 1988 – five years before Nina first danced with ABT.

Sometime following her stint with NYCB, Nina stared down the increasingly restrictive Bolshoi and told them that she would quit if they didn't allow her to dance with other companies in addition to the Bolshoi. They blinked first. In 1993, Nina found herself on ABT's stage which she would call her second home for the next 16 years.

We're looking forward to this session on July 30th which becomes available at noon for a full week. Even though Sara is considered by some to be a Titan in Swan Lake on her own stage, she has never danced Odette/Odile in a traditional Petipa/Ivanov version of the ballet. What are we missing because of that? Might Nina be able to influence Sara just as Ulyana Lopatkina influenced Maria Korowski's Swan Lake? Not likely if this session is their only meeting. What we can hope for is that they will establish a rapport that perhaps will lead to something more. Let's also hope that Sara chooses to wear a practice tutu instead of the cut-off, cut-up garb that dancers think helps them relate to the common folk who are more interested in athleticism than artistry. Over the past four months, fans have seen enough of this garb. We miss the real ballet costumes and magic that they convey. Besides, who in their right mind would consider not wearing a practice tutu to rehearse Swan Lake with an iconic Bolshoi ballerina such as Ananiashvili?

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People, listen.

We have to do better than this -- especially on 10th Ave in Hell's Kitchen where there seems to be a wide range of interpretive citizen compliance.

This is not HK Cool:

However, ten blocks south, this dude is definitely HK Classic Cool.

 

observations 7/10

Tonight at 8pm Lincoln Center at Home begins streaming its wonderful staged production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel with the New York Philharmonic. The performance features dancers Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild and stars Kelli O'Hara, Nathan Gunn, Stephanie Blythe, Jessie Mueller and Kate Burton. The dancers are, of course, superb but, honestly, Stephanie Blythe steals the show as Nettie singing You'll Never Walk Alone.

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SAB's Workshop digital performance continues until Monday July 13th at 7pm.

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Only $13 on Etsy.

observations 7/8

We may not ever see a celebratory PR release from ABT about this, but yesterday's data dump by the SBA & Treasury shows that the company received between $5 million and $10 million in forgivable loan funds from the federal government's Payroll Protection Plan to retain 226 jobs.

The School of American Ballet received between $1 million and $2 million to retain zero jobs. That's right -- zippo jobs. If they don't spend 75% of the money on payroll but opt to spend it on other eligible expenses, the portion of the loan forgivable will be reduced. Haglund's 2013 1.4 GHz Apple processor loudly labored through the 26 MB 661,219 lines of .csv data dump but could not find any mention of NYCB, although it was reported somewhere yesterday that the company did receive funds. Maybe someone out there with a faster processor can glean more from the spreadsheet which can be downloaded here. [Edited to add: We found a much better, more easily searchable database here. Plug in the state and all or part of the name for results. This database shows N/A when # of jobs retained is zero.]

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater received between $2 million and $5 million to retain 419 jobs.

Ballet Hispanico received between $350,000 and $1 million to retain 29 jobs.

NY Phil received between $5 million and $10 million to retain 250 jobs.

NY City Center received between $2 million and $5 million to retain 194 jobs.

Even the New York City Opera received between $350,000 and $1 million to retain zero jobs. That's right--zippo jobs.

The shows will go on...maybe.

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An HH PSA:

WE

ARE

SERIOUS.

 

 

observations 7/1

Thank goodness there will be no spitting on the baseball field or in the dugout during the abbreviated MLB season this summer. Banned due to coronavirus concerns. Nor will the pitchers be allowed to lick their fingers before grasping the ball. Banned. How will they ever get their spit on the ball, you ask? Luckily, the commissioner didn’t think to ban actually licking the baseball; so perhaps we’ll see some of that. You know when the pitcher pauses before his wind-up and puts the glove right next to his face? Watch for a little tongue action this summer. But seriously, won’t it be great to see this little bit of recovery get going? We need some baseball relief from all these ballet videos.

It seems that more relief could be on the way just in time for mid-summer sales. Governor Cuomo found some special HEPA filters that he wants shopping malls to install in their HVAC systems to filter out coronavirus while thousands of customers wander around the malls leisurely shopping. That sounds like a good idea that could be adapted to theaters. Let’s hope NYCB was watching the Governor’s briefing the other day when he was talking about the filters, because his eyes really lit up. Surely NYCB could swipe a few bucks from its endowment cash pile of $220 million to purchase some HEPA filters for the theater’s ventilating system. They’re about $11 for a 2-pak for a Kirby sweeper. Listen, this would be the perfect excuse to raise those Facility Fees to $10 per ticket.

 

Wear a mask.

 

We're just foolin' with y'all.