Haglund's Heel

Happy New Year, Everyone

Party like nobody's watching –

 – because, basically, no one should be watching. Right?

Stay home. Stay safe.

 

 

 

Merry Christmas from Haglund's Heel

This year certainly has reminded us to be grateful for those little things we tend to take for granted every day:

A warm bed:

Friends you can count on:

 

 

Live Arts Global premiere 12/17

For a first shot, this was a pretty darned good result. The dancing was beautiful, the classical content was nutritious, the filming and editing took risks - some didn't pay off, some did - making the final product the vitamin-packed and delicious treat for which we have been yearning over the past ten months. A Night at the Ballet will stay online through Saturday, December 19th at this link.

Were we expecting Jac Venza-type brilliance? No. But Venza's "brilliance" was 75% experience. Surely he made his own early mistakes of blocking, frame-clipping, forced closeups, speed manipulation, etc., but ultimately he birthed artistic product that changed the artscape of America. Venza's Live From Lincoln Center and Dance in America rescued the broadcast presentation of the arts away from the advertising industry and nested it within the non-commercial PBS where it thrived for decades. Since many of us have some extra time on our hands these days, Haglund highly recommends revisiting this particular PBS dialogue with Jac Venza from 2012. It is a close-up of how he became a pioneer in a new media.

Highlights of the Live Arts Global program included Christine Shevchenko & Julian Mackay in the Don Quixote Pas de Deux, Sarah Lane & Daniel Ulbricht in the Flower Festival Pas de Deux, and Shevchenko and Aran Bell in the Balcony Scene from MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet. Their uplifting performances also brought a tinge of sadness about what we have missed in the past year while our theaters have remained dark. These artists are in their primes, but prime is a short span that follows a long span of preparation.

There are no shortcuts to acquiring a beautiful arabesque line, sparkling batterie, or the power and coordination needed to launch those skills into the air while making them look effortless and contributing to a storyline. We'll be reminded of that tonight when the Disney+ docu-series about the School of American Ballet premieres. Last night's program, however, showed the finished product of years of meticulous effort and constant, vigilant polishing. It was such a pleasure to see brilliant choreography that has stood the test of time in the hands of mature, capable artists who actually know what it should look like.

Fads come and go, but true classic style always survives. The current choreographic trends of arm waving, grotesque flexibility, empty amateurish melodrama, and Vogue posing will never be able to compete with elite-level classical ballet. But those trends show no signs of going away anytime soon. In fact, we fully expect to hear soon about the Real Ballerinas of Orange County ("RBOC") starring Natalie Portman and choreo-produced by Benjamin Millipied. You know it's coming.

Today we are happier in lockdown for having had the opportunity to see what Live Arts Global produced. Here's a little Dior tulle pump with a stylishness that transcends time for Christine Shevchenko, Melanie Hamrick, and Joanna DeFelice. We hope they stay on course and produce more evenings of ballet like this one.

 

 

Maria Riccetto appointed Artistic Director of Ballet Nacional del Sodre

Wow.

The rumor has been swirling for months. Now it's official. A huge congratulations to this former ABT gem and Uruguayan national treasure. Maria will become the next Artistic Director of Ballet Nacional del Sodre when Igor Yebra's term expires at the end of 2020. Here is the Google translation of the report from Montevideo.com:

Former dancer María Noel Riccetto will be the next director of the Ballet Nacional del Sodre (BNS), replacing the Spanish Igor Yebra, who will leave office at the end of 2020.

As reported by El País and confirmed by Efe, the former prima dancer of Sodre and awarded with the "Benois de la danse" in 2017 accompanied days ago the Minister of Education and Culture, Pablo Da Silveira, to a meeting with the dancers of the cast to be introduced in your new position.

Riccetto, who joined the American Ballet Theater in 1999, joined the BNS in 2012 as a resident principal dancer at the request of Argentine choreographer Julio Bocca, who was director of the latter between 2010 and 2018.

Her retirement from her dance occurred in 2019, the year in which she participated in "La Sílfide", "Noche Francesa" and the national tour of the BNS through the interior of the country to say goodbye to Uruguayans.

In addition, she at that time she returned to perform the work with which she obtained the Benois: "Onegin", by choreographer John Cranko, and she culminated her prestigious career with "Manon", by Kenneth MacMillan.

At that press conference in April 2019, Riccetto had assured that she was not going to move away from dance and that she was going to be available for whatever the Sodre needed. Now, a year and a half later, she made good on her promise.

Outside of dance, the future director of the BNS also participated as a jury for the "Got Talent" program and a few weeks ago was the protagonist of the presentation of the book "The balance of dancing", by Lucía Chilibroste, which tells her story.

Although she is already confirmed in her position, the official presentation still remains since Yebra continues to work at the helm of the cast and there are even pending performances of "La Tregua", the adaptation to the ballet that he made of the homonymous novel by Mario Benedetti, which is will take place in the next few days.

Maria has also recently become a judge on the Uruguayan TV program Got Talent. She's definitely got TV glam and confidence in spades. On a recent episode (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i4iL-esdhE ), she took over the stage at about 4:20 and directed the contestant into a star moment.

We've got great memories of Maria from her ABT days. Unfortunately, we never saw enough of her because she was another one who got sidelined while the company promoted guest artists. Let's pull out this old clip of her with Blaine Hoven on PBS's Sondheim Birthday Celebration:

 

Maria Riccetto and Blaine Hoven from Haglund's Heel on Vimeo.

 

observations 12/16

Busy, busy week coming up. Consult your calendars daily.

✅ Tomorrow night, December 17th, marks the premiere performance of the online production company Live Arts Global which you can access at the YouTube channel through December 19th: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBmqDqr7kmEm_iwdKE_20Vg/featured . An idea spawned by Melanie Hamrick, Christine Shevchenko, and Joanna DeFelice, Live Arts Global is sure to help fill the artistic void as we await the reopening of our theaters. 

We're slightly confused by the Facebook info that shows the program will be available from tonight December 16 at 5PM Eastern through December 19th at 5PM; but this could make tonight's NYC Blizzard Watch all the more exciting! Here's the lineup:

The Nutcracker Grand Pas de deux 

Crystal Serrano & Aran Bell

Choreography / Lev Ivanov

Music / Tchaikovsky 

 

After The Rain 

Unity Phelan & Calvin Royal III

Choreography / Christopher Wheeldon

Music / Spiegel im Spiegel by Arvo Pärt

 

Romeo and Juliet Balcony Pas de deux 

Christine Shevchenko & Aran Bell 

Choreography / Kenneth Macmillan 

Music / Sergei Prokofiev 

 

On the Subject of Grace 

Antonio Douthit-Boyd & Kirven Douthit-Boyd

Choreography / Geoffrey Alexander

Music / Chopin No. 19 in E minor, Op 72, No.1

 

Flower Festival 

Sara Lane & Daniel Ulbricht

Choreography / August Bournonville

Music / Edvard Helsted 

 

Dying Swan 

Christine Shevchenko

Choreography / Michel Fokine

Music / Camille Saint- Saens, Carnival des Animaux

The Dying Swan is licensed with kind permission of The Fokine-Estate

 

Don Quixote Pas de deux 

Christine Shevchenko & Julian Mackay 

Choreography / Marius Petipa and Alexander Gorsky

Music / Ludwig Minkus

 

✅ Coming up on Friday night, December 18th, is the premiere of the Disney+ documentary series On Pointe which follows the goings-on at School of American Ballet. While not free, it's not expensive -- about $7 for one month for the whole Disney+ channel which includes some dynamite programing from National Geographic.

 

✅ Then on December 23rd, the premiere of Nutcracker at Wethersfield will stream for free through December 26th here: https://www.nutcrackeratwethersfield.com/stream

 

🐼 For those of you who are keeping track, last week's weigh-in showed our fluffy little cub Xiao Qi Ji up around 13.4 lbs. He's not exactly fast on his feet yet, but we've been impressed with his effort.

 

 

 

 

 

More of what we want to see is coming

The Nutcracker at Wethersfield, created and directed by NYCB's Troy Schumacher at the historic Wethersfield Estate in Dutchess County, New York, will stream from December 23rd through December 26th. Live performances reserved for high-end donors who are supporting this ambitious project began on December 4th at the Wethersfield Garden.

NYCB dancers participating per the website are Sara Mearns, Tyler Angle, Ashley Laracey, Taylor Stanley, Mira Nadon, Erica Pereira, Ralph Ippolito, Eliza Blutt, Gabriella Domini, Savannah Durham, Claire von Enck, Emma von Enck, Malorie Lundgren, Mary Thomas MacKinnon, Miriam Miller, Davide Riccardo, Kristen Segin, Mary Elizabeth Sell, Mimi Staker, KJ Takashi, & Cainan Weber. Per a recent I-gram post, it appears that Sasonah Huttenbach has joined the cast as has Julio Bragado-Young.

The media created for this project is elegant, enticing, gorgeous, joyous, and is filled with the beauty that we depend on Nutcracker to bring to us each year. Please take a look, mark your calendars to watch December 23rd - 26th, and consider cutting a year-end check to Schumacher's organization, BalletCollective Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. EIN 45-3021279. Support what you want to see, not what you don't.

https://www.nutcrackeratwethersfield.com/

https://www.nutcrackeratwethersfield.com/stream

https://www.instagram.com/nutcrackeratwethersfield/?hl=en

 

observations 12/3

So....we may get a little of what we're craving when Christine Shevchenko/Melanie Hamrick/Joanna Defelice launch Live Arts Global December 17th-20th with their digital streamed performance entitled A Night at the Ballet.

The program will be an hour long and include excerpts from Don Q, Romeo and Juliet, Nutcracker, and more performed by dancers from ABT, NYCB, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Marinsky Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, and former stars of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

This is a lovely, lovely poster from Christine Shevchenko's Instagram page:

If one goes to Shevchenko's I-gram page and clicks on the picture, it reveals some interesting tags of artists who we could conclude might show up on this program. We could show you that picture, but then, what would there be left for you to do? Not sure about the blurb under her feet, though; the two sides of the equation don't jibe – kinda like, "I'm going to eat this whole pumpkin pie and if there's any left over, I'll give you some."

This looks like it could be very worthwhile to tune into and perhaps even donate to if one wants to reward seriously real ballet.

Edited to add:

Shevchenko, Aran Bell, Sarah Lane, Joseph Gorak, Daniel Ulbricht, Julian Mackay, Crystal Serrano, Unity Phelan, Calvin Royal, Antonio Douthit-Boyd, Kirven Douthit-Boyd -- all set to appear. We're wondering whether Kimin Kim will, too, since he is tagged in the photo on Shevchenko's website and an unnamed Mariinsky performer is advertised. Also wondering if Melanie might perform. This Night at the Ballet is going to create some excitement -- no doubt about it.

Donate and sign up for the mailing list here: https://www.liveartsglobal.com/