NYCB cancels 2021 winter and spring performances

Say it ain't so. Say it ain't so.

We will have to wait until September to see NYCB on stage in person per the company's announcement today. It is also tragic that the "good news"  they wanted to publicize is that they plan to waste their first year back on a bunch of  ballet-ignorant experimentalists who don't know their asses from a hole in the ground. Perhaps that was just NYCB's way of softening the blow and the disappointment of the cancelled seasons: Heck, we were just going to miss a bunch of crap anyway. Thanks for telling us.

That first season back had better be loaded up with all things pretty by Balanchine. It's best to withhold those donations until the schedule comes out.

Maria Kowroski and Ask la Cour will officially retire in October; Gonzalo Garcia will retire in February. It would seem that others might just disappear without fanfare. It is possible, you know.

And in other news to go with these times, a full nest of Asian Giant Murder Hornets was discovered in a tree trunk in Blaine, Washington which is at the Canadian border. They probably had plans to visit selective polling sites in eleven days.

Our hope is that in eleven days, we will experience euphoria that will take us all the way through to the middle of next year.

 

Comments

[Diana]

Interested and intrigued to read that Chun Wai Chan is joining NYCB for 21-22. He is one of my long time favorites at HB, so I was disappointed to see him off the roster. Here's hoping that by winter/spring 2022 I can confidently plan a trip to NYC to watch some ballet.

[Jeannette]

Oh, such sad news, Haglund. So there goes the abbreviated Kennedy Center spring season, which was to have included NYCB in Midsummer Night’s Dream in March. I doubt that ABT’s Don Q in April, at the Kennedy Center will happen.

I’m feeling bad for all U.S. theatre workers right now.

[Haglund]

Here's a link to the announcement on the website:
https://www.nycballet.com/about-us/for-the-press/new-york-city-ballet-will-not-perform-at-the-david-h-koch-theater-during-the-winter-and-spring-of-2021

It's so sad how they treat Balanchine like a footnote to the season.

Tanowitz Shamowitz.

Meanwhile, the cub is up to 6.5 lbs and now measures as wide as he is long - which officially makes him a ball of fur.

[Noelle]

Just curious, I thought you could only join the company if you went to SAB? I know there have been exceptions to this rule, I just wonder how they make these decisions? Does Houston Ballet do a lot of Balanchine rep? Regardless, looking forward to seeing him perform someday!

[Haglund]

De Luz, Askagaard, Hubbe, Sofianne Sylve, Garcia were just some of the exceptions to that rule. Martins, himself, came from elsewhere.

Chan may be a wonderful dancer, but hiring him smacks of obsessive-compulsive diversity disorder (OCDD). There are lots of guys in the corps who deserve soloist rank: Mejia, Knight, Riccardo, Hoxha, Fahoury - but there's no room.

[Steph]

Chan leaving HB is a shock. He is really HB's stand out male dancer. His Albrecht and Siegfried are unmatched. It seems like an interesting shift. HB still carries a heavy classical rep and I can't recall any Balanchine. Perhaps his work with Hong Kong Ballet shows he is versatile. His contemporary work is very good, but as an audience member his classical work is just breathtaking.

I wonder how he will fit in at NYCB. It doesn't seem like a natural transition.

[Diana]

Agreed, Steph. I was really enjoying his partnership with Kajiya in the classics. Even my sister, a casual ballet goer, had started insisting we switch our tickets to see them.

HB does a fair amount of Balanchine - I recall Symphony in C, Ballo, and Serenade in the past few years, but agreed again that it doesn't seem like a natural transition for Chun Wai. But I hope he does well if only because I'm quite fond of him and want him to succeed :p

[yukionna]

I'm curious as to why they're bringing in another dancer from the outside. I don't think it's for diversity, as Anthony Huxley is Asian. There's a couple of Asian men who have reached the top ranks at prominent companies such as Ryoichi Hirano at the Royal Ballet and Kimin Kim at the Mariinsky.

I'm completely unfamiliar with Chun Wai Chan. I tried looking him up on YouTube, but haven't found much in the way of recent performances to evaluate his technical skills. I hope he's a tall technician. He looks tall to me, but it could just be his longs legs Maybe we might get a tall couple for Tchai Pas and T&V. I hope he does well in the company.

[Haglund]

I don't think that Chun Wai Chan is tall. He's barely even with little Yuriko Kajiya when she is on pointe.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=438274480439794

Edited to add: If NYCB wanted a big guy who can move like the wind, they could have considered Tom Forster or Blaine Hoven, each of whom already has an NYC following that desires to see more of him. It may be that it was Chan's goal to get to New York and live the New York dream. He's certainly enamored of his own beefcake shots which he floods his Instagram account with.

I'm still not sold on the soloist who they brought in last year, Furlan. Gifted technician, tall enough, handsome, but is lacking in the bona fide type of artistry that makes a dancer stand out and makes him worth watching closely. He lacks a voice, so to speak.

[Steph]

He is not tall. I couldn't say exactly, but his incredible stage presence is because of his ability to perform and have beautiful technique simultaneously. Not height. He's definitely under 6', and I would say probably closer to 5'10".

He does seem to enjoy smizing for Instagram, but lately that seems to be a trend amongst all of the male dancers (and the women too).

[Haglund]

True, Steph.

I imagine the next 10-11 months will bring more surprises.

[yukionna]

I haven't had many chances to see Furlan perform, but my memory of casting was that he was partnered with Fairchild and Bouder (or am I misremembering that?).

If the external hires aren't on the taller side, I can't really see the logic. As far as principal men go, NYCB has to fill the spots left behind by de Luz, Finlay, Catazaro, and soon la Cour and Garcia. Maybe J. Angle will consider retiring soon as well? That's four men that usually partner the taller women, and NYCB has many tall women in the corps and soloist ranks that are very much underutilized. The company has no shortage of talented short male dancers. Not that there aren't talented tall men in the company, but it seems to me that the promotion of tall women is bottlenecked by not having enough tall male partners in the upper ranks.

I'm totally in favor of poaching Hoven, but ABT has recently promoted Forster to principal.

[Haglund]

I tend to agree, yukionna. Of the tall-ish soloist men, only Peter Walker appears fully ready to move up to principal. (I'm not overlooking Harrison Ball, but he cannot be considered tall.) Aaron Sanz is on the cusp of being ready, but each little push seems to bring on injuries. Daniel Applebaum looks to be on track, but he needs upper body strength and hardiness that can only be developed through stage experience in principal roles. Meanwhile, there are several tall and tallish men in the corps who are just hanging around. The tall Scordato seems to be destined to be in the corps forever even though NYCB has been able to use him in principal roles, and he's shown his value in soloist roles as well. He's overlooked not because of his own merits as a dancer, but perhaps because he's not much in the way of media candy.

There are many extremely talented tall women in the corps who may not ever get their chances to rise because of management's slowness in finding tall, qualified men. They seem to be enamored of Gilbert Bolden who certainly has charisma and partnering talent, but he hasn't seemed to focus on both slimming down and lengthening his lines -- which are two different things. His hyped interest in pointe work is only making his thighs bigger.

After so long a time in which no principal promotions were made, it seems odd that the company would try to make a media event out of hiring a soloist who won't dance here for another year. What does that say to the rest of the company?

They need to move Emily Gerrity, Brittany Pollack, Erica Pereira, Lauren King, Walker, Ball and perhaps Sanz & Applebaum up and fill in the soloist ranks with some of the deserving corps women (Kikta, Maxwell, Hod, LaFreniere, Clark, Nadon, Mejia, Knight, Hohxa, Fahoury and others). Making an event out of hiring an outside soloist was insensitive and lacked managerial good sense.

[Elizabeth]

Hello Haglund. You and I are in total agreement about making a big deal about hiring Chun Wai Chan as insensitive. Not great for company morale. Chun looks like he is a fantastic dancer. It just seems a bit odd that they would choose to bring him in as he has never had SAB training and only has very little rep that is similar to that of NYCB.

[Jeannette]

Haglund, heaven help us NYCB traditionalists if what the company is cookin’ up for the future is anything like the “New WorksFestival” Mini-film shown last night. Somebody must have money to burn on this sort of venture. I suppose that it ticks some boxes. Ridiculous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihw4QM7YebQ

[Haglund]

I totally agree, Jeannette. The whole thing was a pile of excrement. A total misuse of resources. Frankly, I don't give a damn how much the dancers enjoy dancing that crap or how meaningful it is for them or for the choreographer to make it. I don't give a damn about their opinions at all. And OMG all the pseudo-intellectualizing being substituted for skill and trying to justify the concept... I'm only interested in the work product, and this work product should be subject to an immediate FDA Recall before it makes a lot more people sick.

[mt]

The thing that bothers me about this kind of "work" is that you don't need dancers like NYCB, or really any professional dancers to do it well. Any talented student or amateur with stage presence can pull this off. Even I could do this stuff today. There's no there there.

And 100% I don't care what their "motivations" are for any of this. It's PC BS.

[Haglund]

ITA, mt. Last night's offering was even worse than the night before. By the time we get to end of the week, we will have seen so much awful stuff that it will make Peck look like a genius in the last piece. As you say, anyone could do the stuff that these "choreographers" have come up with. For NYCB, it amounts to sandbagging.

One of the attractive lures of this bespoke post-modern choreography is that the dancers don't have to meet the exacting demands of anyone as they generally do in classical work. It's heavenly collaborative. Everyone gets to express their opinions and feel good about themselves.

Compare that to today's rehearsal of the Bolshoi's corps de ballet in the Snowflake scene which starts at 2:07:24 in this World Ballet Day video. Vaziev has clear standards and clearly communicates them to the dancers and everyone else. He even told the seated ballet mistress to stand up while assessing the dancers. It's impossible not to admire the serious effort of every person on stage and the outcome of that effort.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeYU-OeWuyM&feature=emb_logo

[mt]

I just watched the first 10 minutes of that rehearsal. Oy. We are doomed.
Sadly, our once American spirit, aptitude, energy and discipline are being sapped away by our self indulgent, resting on our laurels enchantment with ourselves. Oh boy-How wonderful we are just because we are all different!!!

There is the fear also that works like these that take less talent to perform will come to dominate American ballet companies coast to coast. Will this translate to re imagining traditional ballet technique, ballet bodies, ballet discipline? Ballet performed by everyone of every type?
You already know the answer.

[Haglund]

All true. Classical ballet will be replaced by 21st century folk dance that focuses on tribalism and politics--because that stuff is easier than classical ballet and performers will not have to risk failing the standards of an art form. "I'm OK. You're OK. Let's all have a nice day. And at the end of the day, everyone will get a trophy." 🏆🏆🏆

[Nancy]

I watched that Bolshoi Snowflake rehearsal. Amazing. So committed to perfection. He said at one point: "a little late or a little early it is over. It is time to close the curtains."

This is why the corps is the star of the show in Russia, as well as the individual soloists.

I saw Vaziev on World Ballet Day several years ago. At the time I thought his approach was too extreme. Now I see it differently. He knows every single dancer and their individual quirks. He sees everything and everyone.

I have also seen my own daughter do corps practice in her studio (in Australia). The teachers chosen for this are also old school, perfectionists and they sound similar. Importantly, the students expect this kind of rigour and enjoy the pay-off.

[Haglund]

ITA, Nancy. Vaziev is a very effective director. He knows each corps dancer's name and focuses on her individually for phrases of music while calling out a set of corrections. You just know that every dancer is listening to him and applying those corrections to herself.

I found the ballet mistress in the Bolshoi rehearsal of SL just as articulate and demanding. I didn't understand a word she was saying but could immediately recognize the changes that the dancers made in response to her direction.

Art is serious there, not kindergarten playtime or group therapy where people go to feel good about themselves.

[Shawn]

That Vaziev rehearsal restored my faith not just in ballet but humanity.

Meanwhile NYCB is gleefully parading these Trojan-horse numbers. My is it easy to achieve equality of outcome by destroying the good.

I came across a profound idea the other day, which is that we have another term for art that serves an instrumental purpose, for art that's "relevant," and "timely," and that furthers an agenda such as promoting female choreographers.

That other term is advertising. Yes, there can be some beauty in advertising, which is an applied art, but it's only incidental.

Great art is necessarily pure art, in which the only agenda is beauty itself. More of the latter, please.

[Haglund]

Beautifully said, Shawn, and also sharp as a Damascus sword.