Haglund's Heel

NYCB 2/26Whew! What a relief! Now we can get some sleep!

        New York City Ballet closed the season with a terrific Sleeping Beauty that was a mere handful of balances short of spectacular. But we'll take it and be thrilled.

        It had been a stressful, head-scratching, hand-wringing 72 hours since Thursday's Sleeping Beauty which turned out to be like the perfect souffle that unexpectedly got knocked flat as it was nervously being pulled out of the oven. Did Chef Ramsey stop by to straighten out the kitchen staff with his charms? Whoever did, we're grateful.

        Our Aurora, Isabella LaFreniere, soared on her second try and delivered a truly beautiful, distinctive, authoritative, intelligent, principal-worthy performance. At her birthday party, Aurora was not a giggly, Tiktoking 16-year-old. Rather she was a teenager, impeccably groomed with royal manners, who was on the brink of being handed the kingdom once she found the right prince.

        Overall, the Rose Adagio was beautifully danced but for the attitude balances which while improved from the debut performance were not yet realized. However, the final arabesque balance was of such formidable shape and steadiness that we almost forgot the seven before it. Aurora's arabesque balance, rather than being static, grew and lengthened with the music. The prior attitude balances, however, were static attempts where the energy line from the foot to the head seemed perforated rather than flowing upward continuously. Though motionless, a balance is still an expansive movement -- an inner flowing of energy that rises and expands right through the top of the head. It's never about holding still although it may look so to the audience.

        Hats off to The Suitors Christopher Grant, Taylor Stanley, Gilbert Bolden and especially Harrison Ball who swiftly escorted Aurora around for the final promenade before she punctuated the phrase with her exclamatory arabesque.

        The Vision Scene was nothing less than triumphant. Aurora's apparition was elegant and soulful, almost whispering warm encouragement to Prince Désiré. Peter Walker as her Désiré fit the bill from head to toe. His partnering was impeccable and his solo dancing was outstanding except for a wild pitch on a double tour to arabesque.

        The Wedding PdD gave Désiré the opportunity to display some of the most tightly zipped-up legs during double tours that we may have ever seen followed by soft landings to clean fifth positions. Aurora's Wedding variation was pure heaven: delicate pointe work, beautiful shaping of the phrases, poise, and polish. The duo's first two fish dives were magnificent in their speed and daring. The third one was a bit more tentative, but oh my goodness, what a difference from 72 hours before!

        Emily Kikta as the Lilac Fairy was gorgeous as well. Sunday's performance just seemed more expansive, more confident, more meaningful in its presentation than Thursday's had been. The spotlight adores this ballerina. It is difficult to pay attention to anyone else when she is on stage. It is our hope that her ongoing stellar contributions will soon be rewarded with a promotion. While it is true that her glorious statuesque frame might limit the number of potential PdD partners, it should not limit her accession to the principal level. After all, the absence of height that indeed has limited potential PdD partners and roles for Daniel Ulbricht did not prevent him from rising to the principal level in a mere six years. There is some distasteful incongruence in a practice of holding back women because they are deemed too tall while advancing men who are deemed too short.

        After the performance, four new principals were announced: Emily Gerrity, Isabella LaFreniere, Mira Nadon, and Roman Mejia. Congratulations to all. So now it's 13:9. Why are there 30% fewer women than men on this company's principal roster? Who do they think sells the tickets? Why are the women standing for this? Where is the union on this? Optics matter.

        But we digress . . . (on and off, now and then).

        Our Act I fairies on Sunday included Olivia Boisson as the Fairy of Tenderness, Nieve Corrigan as the Fairy of Vivacity, Lauren Collett as the Fairy of Eloquence, Miriam Miller as the Fairy of Generosity, and Olivia MacKinnon as the Fairy of Courage. Ashley Hod returned as the scene stealing Carabosse.

        All the fairies performed their traditional choreography competently but we yearned for the beautiful shaping that Jackie Bologna gave to Tenderness and the lightning force of Alexa Maxwell's Fairy of Courage that we saw over the course of the run of Sleeping Beauty. We seem to be seeing both Olivia MacKinnon and Baily Jones featured in soloist roles, but as yet neither has distinguished herself beyond getting the steps right in ordinary fashion whereas Bologna, Maxwell and Collett have continually offered much fuller framed artistry. And now we've suddenly become aware of the exquisite length and beauty of one of the newest corps members, Dominika Afanasenkov, who got a handful of performances of the Fairy of Generosity. We'd like to see more of what these special artists have to offer.

    Since we're talking about the corps members, let's talk about the corps de ballet. They were nearly perfect in Sunday's closing performance. The Lilac Fairy's Attendants in Act I and the Nymphs in The Vision Scene danced with flawless uniformity. The Cavaliers all had mammoth sissonnes.

        This closing performance was such a strong team effort with so many brilliant performances that we immediately wished that Sleeping Beauty would return again next season. It offers so much more than either of the company's Swan Lakes. And right now, the company has the exact strengths that it needs to fill multiple casts who can easily pull off two weeks of performances.

        Our H.H. Pump Bump Award, Louboutin's Chick Queen stiletto, is bestowed upon Isabella LaFreniere for her amazing comeback performance of Aurora.

 

 

observations 2/24

        It wasn't exactly the debut we expected or wanted to see last night at New York City Ballet, but we're hopeful for a better outcome on Sunday. Debuting in the roles of Aurora, Désiré, and Lilac Fairy were Isabella LaFreniere, Peter Walker, and Emily Kikta. They all seemed to suffer from nerves.

        Aurora had troubles from start to finish --  let's look at a primary cause of many them. It has been a long, long time since we've seen a dancer knuckle over in her pointe shoe in the supporting foot as we saw with Isabella. The knuckling of the right shoe was so pronounced that it made ole Hag's foot scream with pain. How anyone could ever balance or promenade on such a knuckled over foot is a mystery. Then there were the ultra slow pirouettes. Too slow, too slow, too slow - the slowness was fatal to the fish dives - those fish were DOA. The pirouettes need to be like the snap of a finger and the flip of a coin. Big girls turn fast and always have: look at Cynthia Gregory.

        And the arabesques -- everyone's arabesques -- were not arabesques. They were just battements to the back with the idea that a high battement could be sold as a high arabesque. Nope, not with us balletomanes. From now on we're going to call them lemon arabesques. FYI, all you ballerinas/os out there, New York has a Lemon Law, that's right. Repair or refund.

        We did love Aurora's vertical-ness and uncluttered port de bras. It all made for a natural elegance, refinement, and sense of royalty. Her variations were quite cleanly performed. But overall, this performance was not stage-ready. Let's see what happens on Sunday.

        Our Lilac Fairy had some truly beautiful moments. The stationary shapes of her arms were exquisitely classical, but then when she started moving, the arms lost their classicism and went rather shapeless. Ick. Arabesques were not arabesques, but battements. The variations (excepting the arms & wrists & hands) were well danced and benefited from the statuesque beauty of the ballerina. Loved, loved, loved when she snuck up on Carabosse and the ensuing exchange.

        Lilac's Attendants were quite the mess. The line of them walking on pointe forward saw their heads going in eight different directions. Apologies to the couple in front of Haglund who may not have appreciated the breathy WTF.

        Actually, but for a couple of bloopers, Peter Walker had an outstanding debut as Désiré. When he arrived on stage, he demanded the viewer's attention with compelling mime and darned good dancing -- except for the bloopers on his turn/jump combo in the downstage corner, precisely the same place where Huxley blew out his combo. It was hard to tell if Walker could have done anything more with the fish dives. Isabella is a lot of legs to toss upside down, and her hesitation did not help Walker's effort.

        The fairies: Ashley Hod's Carabosse was boss. All the ladies dancing this role know it's a showstopper and they all will develop their individual evilness. Hopefully, somebody will look up Betty Davis and incorporate some of her innate genius into the role. Mimi Staker, Meaghan Dutton-O'Hare, and Claire Von Enck as Tenderness, Generosity, and Eloquence were quite confident and poised. Mary Thomas MacKinnon as Vivacity was also quite assured and technically sound, but those upper legs need to turn out everywhere, every time, and the heel of the shoe needs to be presented more than it was. Baily Jones as Courage was fine but for a small slip. However, we're not sure why this dancer was featured in a role that required lightning-like crackling brilliance.  We've seen her featured in a number of ballets over the past two years, but not much growth.

        The corpsmen who were cavaliers, however, were quite handsome and noteworthy -- especially Charlie Klesa, Christopher Grant, and Owen Flacke. NYCB needs to put Klesa and Grant in the front in everything. Everything. Legs, lines, handsomeness, height, and confidence.

        Looking forward to tonight and Sunday. Hoping for the best. Just a note on the lobby situation. If NYCB is going to paper the house with ticket deals and freebies, they should not make them all box office pickups. Why couldn't the extra hundreds and hundreds of people be encouraged to print out their own tickets or have what ever institution or apartment complex they're from print the tickets out? At one point last week, the house manager had to close the front doors and temporarily stop people from entering the lobby because the numbers nearly exceeded fire regulations. It was quite a chaotic situation.

 

observations 2/20

Looking forward to seeing a few more performances of Sleeping Beauty and even snagged a ticket to the hour-long Family Saturday program in order to get a glimpse of Emma Von Enck's preparations for an eventual Aurora which we cruelly got gypped out of this season.

Can't wait to watch Isabella LaFreniere tackle the role for the first time. In the past, tall dancers truly excelled in the role of Aurora - Gregory, Bussell, van Hamel. Aurora will dance opposite Peter Walker's Désiré, also a debut, and her debuting Lilac Fairy will be Emily Kikta!

This is what the Rose Adagio looked like 44 years ago. Cynthia Gregory's composure, refinement, adolescent excitement and technical fortitude that could not be knocked over by a Sherman tank are on display in this clip from PBS's Live from Lincoln Center in 1979. The whole performance which includes Fernando Bujones is in the Paley Center's archives. How Eric ever grabbed this fine clip, we don't know, but we're grateful; it was a historic performance.

There is a much lesser quality grab of the Wedding PdD with Fernando Bujones here. Patience is required but once you get to the meat of meal at 1.30, it is quite glorious. Just the ultra-slow developpe with bowed head at the beginning is worth watching over and over again.

We don't expect to see the experience of Gregory and Bujones when LaFreniere and Walker land on stage this Thursday, but we're pretty sure that they aren't going to waste time getting to the spectacular. And Emily Kikta's Lilac Fairy will have no trouble clearing evil from the court.

 

NYCB Sleeping Beauty 2/17

        It may be true that New York City Ballet performs Sleeping Beauty with historically accurate tempi, but is that a badge of honor or even a good idea? The general high speed of this otherwise gorgeous production by Peter Martins (after Petipa) made the performance seem clinical, even antiseptic at times as though much of the beauty of Sleeping Beauty needed to be cleansed of its graciousness and spontaneity to make room for more and faster steps. Two exceptions were Emilie Gerrity's lovely Lilac Fairy and Jacqueline Bologna's warm Fairy of Tenderness whose strength and benevolence were fully realized in these two fine debut performances. Their exquisite lines, elegant port de bras, and flawless control delivered just the right combination of authority and grace.

        Mary Thomas MacKinnon (Vivacity), Dominika Afanasenkov (Generosity), Lauren Collett (Eloquence), and Alexa Maxwell (Courage) each were striking in their traditional Petipa solos.

        Another highlight of this performance was Megan LeCrone's debut as Carabosse -- so unexpectedly and deliciously evil. She took over the stage in every scene she appeared while taunting, scheming, and terrorizing the court and fairies. This Carabosse was the strongest, most detailed character in the production. When she met up with Emilie Gerrity's Lilac Fairy, it was the battle of the eyebrows: arch vs arch. It didn't matter who won; the contest was such fun.

        Sara Adams and Roman Mejia dispatched their steps as Princess Florine and Bluebird with clarity and high energy. Bluebird's Basilio-like head throw as he was queuing up for one of his variations does not appear anywhere in the Audubon Field Guide under either feeding or mating behaviors; so, we're not quite sure what that was all about. However, Blue's diagonals were quite stunning, especially the brisé volés all of which looked like the Xerox machine gone mad. They just kept coming - one exactly like the other, over and over again. Sara's variations were highly competent, but work still needs to be done to rise above that level.

        The Court Jesters -- Victor Abreu and Christopher Grant led by Daniel Ulbricht -- were spectacular. Ulbricht is a true role model for high standards and consistency, and he clearly inspires those with whom he dances to reach for those heights.

        The Jewels were not exactly Van Cleef & Arpels, choreographically speaking. They could probably stand on their own or within another more neo-classical setting, but did not seem to fit well within the Petipa-based band of dances. Harrison Coll was not well-prepared for his role of Gold. Turns were messy and shuffling feet were unpointed throughout -- all of which would be fine in a sneaker ballet which this was not. Ashley Hod's Diamond, Emma Von Enck's Emerald, and Malorie Lundgren's Ruby were all skillfully danced with sparkling energy.

        Indiana Woodward and Anthony Huxley as Princess Aurora and Prince Désiré fulfilled their roles and delivered some truly magnificent allegro, but the fantasy fairy tale didn't really come through. The Rose Adagio was successful, but after racing through nearly all of it, the conductor had to brake to a crawl to get Aurora through her final set of promenades and balances. Overall, Aurora's dancing felt too much like a connect-the-dots exercise with little differentiation among Aurora in the three acts.  Désiré danced brilliantly but for an oops on a turn combination. Few dancers cover space with the silken, effortless speed and breadth that Huxley customarily delivers. His Désiré demeanor was quite good, and he was of course well-matched with his Aurora. But at this performance, rapport between the two main characters was not strong. Some of the staging for Désiré is annoying, such as when he basically steps into the wings to dump his sword & hat and then has to step into the wings again to retrieve them before sailing off with the Lilac Fairy to find Aurora. All we see is his back leg in tendu as he's fussing with his stuff. It's just weird.

        The H.H. Pump Bump Award, Jimmy Choo's Evil is more fun, is bestowed upon Megan LeCrone for her scene stealing portrayal of the Fairy Carabosse.

 

observations 2/12

        Last year on this date, Haglund was overjoyed at having just experienced an exquisite performance of Mozartiana danced by Tiler Peck and soloist Harrison Ball who two weeks later would finally be appointed to the rank of principal dancer, an event long overdue. We hailed his performance as a revelation, Danish-inspired, and an exceptional and startling reminder of the greatness of a past generation. And in what now seems like an eerie foreshadowing, we also noted:

As much as we love seeing Ball dance at this extraordinarily high level, we know that it often comes with great cost. We hope that this dancer will be able to intelligently moderate his intensity so that we may enjoy his dancing for many years to come.

        Here we now face Harrison Ball's premature retirement due to disabling injuries. It's terribly sad how the joy of dancing combined with the compulsion to meet standards of perfection, or even to push beyond perfection, can have such a toll. When dancers push beyond their own capabilities, they seem to have a physiological and mental need to do so. Their confidence is over-enhanced by endorphins and guided by a denial that there could be any consequence for making a herculean effort. It is a thrilling if not intoxicating way to live on the stage. But it has its costs as we continually see.

        So Harrison Ball will soon dance his final performance and will then concentrate on acting and choreography. We recently saw his first choreographic commission on stage when the New Jersey Ballet premiered his Purcell Suite, an astonishingly well-crafted, fully developed, beautiful work for twelve women with costumes designed by Zak Posen. The ballet found its first legs at the New York Choreographic Institute which provides development resources for budding choreographers. A preview glimpse of the ballet which was shown a year ago featured New York City Ballet dancers Mira Nadon, Megan LeCrone, Ashley Laracey, Ruby Lister, and Ava Sautter. Take a look.

        Just throwing this out there – why not present this ballet on the NYCB stage during Ball's Farewell Performance on April 30? Not only would it ameliorate the sadness of having to say goodbye too soon, it would happily introduce the NYCB audience to a choreographer who they can hope will one day make dances for the company that are as beautiful and sensitively musical as Purcell Suite. By the way, New Jersey Ballet will perform the ballet again on April 15 at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood.

 

 

NYCB serves up the goodies 2/4 & 2/5

        Thank goodness these dancers deliver on weekends. How would we ever get along without our ballet Grubhub? Just open up the app on your phone and order up a crispy Firebird, a basket of 12-tone Epi-fries w/ricercata formaggio, some suds, and don't forget the Rondo snacks for Kitty.

         It was quite the weekend feast at New York City Ballet. Saturday afternoon the company gave Jared Angle one heck of a toast to his 25 year stage career with a fantastic Firebird performance. Ashley Hod was our blazing bird, Miriam Miller was our eager bride, and Christopher Grant was our hissing Kastchei monster. Jared as Prince Ivan seized the magic red feather one last time before flying off to Denmark to be a Ballet Master at the Royal Danish Ballet.  The final scene of this production gave Jared plenty of time to gaze around at the stage, his colleagues, and out into the house while thinking about having spent more than half his life there. We thought we saw the emotion rise in his face while the elf points of his boots curled a bit tighter.  

        Sunday afternoon's Fancy Free cast played to the Hollywood Bowl – a huge performance from sailors Roman Mejia, Harrison Coll, and Sebastian Villarini-Velez, and Passers-by Mary Thomas MacKinnon and Alexa Maxwell. Maxwell Read was the properly sober Bartender, and Nieve Corrigan waltzed on at the end to entice the sailors out the door. The whole cast deserved real suds in their mugs. Mejia let every turn and jump rip with his considerable maximum force. Coll and Villarini-Velez were so invested in their characters that we totally forgot that we were watching theater. MacKinnon and Maxwell enjoyed polished debuts and easily came off as being two who also were out on the town.

        Olivia MacKinnon and Indiana Woodward had lovely debuts in Robbins' Rondo. This dance is interesting to watch for a couple of times, but it does not bear a lot of repeated viewings. Also we noticed that from the seats in the rings, Susan Walters' miraculous piano playing sounded like it needed a mic. We didn't think this when sitting in the front of the orchestra. The piano was stationed more toward the back of the stage from where the sound dropped off pretty quickly.

        Episodes enjoyed a new cast. Isabella LaFreniere and Chun Wai Chan brought a depth to the first pas de deux that we hadn't noticed before. Her haunting eyes, his steady focus on her, their congruent lines – something was going on there but we didn't exactly know what. Ashley Hod and Gilbert Bolden III sliced through the second pas de deux while Emilie Gerrity and Taylor Stanley possessed a reserved beauty in the third. The Musical Offering as performed by Mira Nadon and Adrian Danchig-Waring was quite the relief musically speaking. We kept thinking, "Wow, reserve is really underrated." They just allowed the limbs, beauty of form, and the music carry us to the finale.

        We have been meaning to mention how happy we've been to spot Savannah Durham back in the lineup. Jacqueline Bologna, Naomi Corti, and the elegant Olivia Boisson are also claiming our attention. During the run of Walpurgisnacht Ballet, Mimi Staker kept catching our eye.

        So this coming week, we're taking a little breather until Friday. For some reason, when we come to the Ratmansky ballet, we keep hearing voices. At first we complained to the ushers that people were talking around us, but then we realized that it was all in our head. We're going to try to see somebody about it, though.

        Our H.H. Pump Bump Award, a Dolce & Gabbana sailor sandal, goes to the Sunday cast of Fancy Free who were footloose fantastic.

 

 

NYCB - Fancy Free, Rondo, Solo, Episodes 1/31

        Haglund stopped himself before he made the mistake of asking the young woman in front of him in the orchestra, "Did someone pay you to wear that obnoxious hat?" The baseball cap, pictured right, boldly says "Yes, I'm a Trump girl 2024." The word "girl" is in red lower case letters below the bold white uppercase letters of Trump's name. Since the woman seemed like she was hankering to deliver anyone she could a Boebert beatdown, Haglund shrunk back into his seat and covered his old brittle bones with his camouflage coat from under which he snapped this blurry photo.  He was afraid even to scowl at her -- unlike many others in the audience who were not within her striking distance and felt safe to show their disapproval.

        Thank goodness we found distraction in the fabulous dancing during the evening. Fancy Free's cast included several debuts -- Maxwell Read as the Bartender; Lauren Collett, Indiana Woodward & Malorie Lundgren as the new Passers-by; and Jovani Furlan as the new squid -- among veteran sailors Daniel Ulbricht and Joseph Gordon. These last two could have been holed up at Rudy's on 9th Avenue during Fleet Week. After their final unsuccessful pursuit of the lovely Ms. Lundgren, they probably went back to Rudy's and hung out with the pig. Over the years, that pig has worn quite a few white Dixie Cups among other styles.

        Fancy Free was a total delight mainly because veterans Gordon and Ulbricht knew how to convey their characters as well as any sailor knows how to tie a bow line or a clove hitch. Gordon's sailor had come ashore in New York City fewer times than Ulbricht's sailor but both were game ready for everything the city could offer them. Ulbricht with his swagger and eager jumps; Gordon with his coltish suaveness, somewhat untried, but nevertheless self-assured; Furlan with his winning attitude but obvious concentration on the steps -- all created very distinctive characters. These were not three sailors on leave; these were three fully drawn characters who just happened to be sailors on leave.

        Indiana Woodward and Lauren Collett as the two main Passers-by played their roles fairly well and danced them expertly, but we were always aware that they were "playing" their roles. These characters shouldn't be played as caricatures.

        Isabella LaFreniere and Mira Nadon debuted in the rarely performed Jerome Robbins' Rondo which was created in 1980. The ballet is for two women both dressed in skirted leotards with only a shade of difference in the pink colors -  one had more peach undertones while the other had more violet hues. Anyone familiar with Balanchine's Symphonie Concertante would immediately recognize the concept in Robbins' piece of the two women answering and quoting each other with the same or similar steps. The steps themselves and the mood of the piece were similar to other piano ballets created by Robbins except this time he summoned Mozart instead of Chopin for his inspiration. Much of the ballet's success during this evening was due to the extraordinary instruments of LaFreniere and Nadon. To see each artist featured on an uncluttered stage performing Robbins' complex musical phrases as though they were simple conversations was quite wonderful.

        Anthony Huxley performed his Solo by Justin Peck to Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings. Again, it was the individual qualities of a special dancer that made this so watchable. First created for NYCB's Digital Spring Gala film during the COVID-19 shutdown during which Huxley performed in practice-type clothing, Solo now sports a distracting Raf Simons costume design of sleeveless coat over a red long-sleeved leotard atop black tights with white spots. But the theme of a solitary individual grappling with his solitary thoughts on a stage by himself was not disturbed. The swoopy, sometimes manic choreography expressed by Huxley's articulate feet was similar to other Peck dances including his sneaker ballets.

        Balanchine's Episodes closed this particular program which kind of declined energy-wise after starting with the high energy of Fancy Free. But Episodes is a compelling work that was expertly danced by those in the company who specialize in Balanchine's black & white canon. The opening episode featuring the stark, clear geometry of Megan LeCrone and Andrew Veyette also featured corps dancers who are noted for being Theme specialists in The Four Temperaments where line means everything.

        Emily Kikta and Alec Knight in the second episode were brilliant. Kikta's glorious height and beaming face grab the stage light like no other dancer currently in the company. She makes us watch her. Knight is doing fine, progressing well, and we hope that we don't again lose him for any length of time to injury. His career has had enough interruptions just as it seemingly got going.

        Unity Phelan and Harrison Ball in the third episode fared well thanks to Ball's sensitive partnering and Phelan's lovely leg extensions.

        Miriam Miller and Russell Janzen led the final "Musical Offering". While Miller is clearly a different type of dancer than others who have graced this role, she brought a calm, thoughtful interpretation without any underlying angst to her dancing. Physically, she and Janzen were a beautiful, mesmerizing match. Their gears meshed so well that we can't wait to see them together again.

        The H.H. Pump Bump Award, a filled-to-the-brim beer boot, is bestowed upon Daniel Ulbricht and Joseph Gordon for their continued brilliance and ever-evolving interpretations in Fancy Free.