Haglund's Heel

NYCB Jewels 9/20 & 9/21 Loaded with gems

        New York City Ballet dressed itself to the hilt with two more glistening performances of Jewels on Wednesday and Thursday. Every single debut was a 100 carat diamondized beauty set among the polished performances of gems including Ashley Laracey in Emeralds, Tiler Peck with Roman Mejia and Emily Kikta in Rubies, and Joseph Gordon in Diamonds. 

        Thursday evening Haglund became lost in Emeralds — spellbound, transported into an unblinking hypnotic state by Mira Nadon and Davide Riccardo and their rapport galore. There was something spiritual about this pair, an enhanced connection perhaps, that added to the fascination of this plotless work. And while it is tempting to focus here on Nadon’s luxurious style and mesmerizing movement, we have to say that our attention was drawn time and time again to Riccardo’s beautiful leg lines, generous arabesques, and articulate feet. We really need to see more of him in Balanchine’s principal roles. 

 

        Contrast this performance with the night before when Ashley Bouder embarrassed both the company and choreographer. Never have we seen such a swollen ballerina in a principal role at New York City Ballet. Never have we seen NYCB allow one egomaniac to soil Balanchine the way Bouder did on Wednesday night with her unprofessional appearance and her substandard dancing. And the air-biting to show what a glorious time she was having while flapping and jiggling her arm-flesh was just too much. She looked and danced like she was making a bid for a Jardiance commercial where the happy, fat lady celebrates how wonderful it is to be obese and how we should all normalize fatness. Frankly, we’re sick and tired of this dancer's selfish, toxic, ego-driven effort to push her way around a ballet company where she no longer fits. The constant excuse of her “possibly career ending” injury is worn down to its threads, and the ongoing use of her child as a shield from criticism is disturbing, to say the least. Bouder’s time is up. 

 

        We have to criticize NYCB management for allowing Bouder to bull her way onto the stage and for risking injury to a world-class artist like Chun Wai Chan by pairing him with Bouder and exploiting his good-sport nature. The effort it took for him to swing Bouder into the air looked like an invitation to a hernia. 

 

        Wednesday’s Emeralds wasn’t a total loss due to the exquisite performances of Ashley Laracey and Peter Walker. Laracey’s Keatsian sensuousness is the most beautiful we’ve ever seen in this role on NYCB’s stage. The generosity of her port de bras, the arch of her back, and her regal silhouette are breathtaking. Walker was perfection as a partner — gallant, attentive and strikingly beautiful in his lines and noble carriage. 

 

        Wednesday evening’s Rubies with Tiler Peck, Roman Mejia and Emily Kikta was thrilling from minute 1 to 19. Some years back when Tiler debuted in this role, Haglund thought it was a misfire. But her performance this week showed a wonderfully spirited, exceptionally fit, glowing artist who mined Rubies to extract and reveal her treasured musicality. Mejia came completely uncorked in the Villella role. His go-for-it-what-the-hell enthusiasm in this lines-don’t-matter role was so charged with electricity that it was almost fatal — he nearly killed us. The addition of Emily Kikta’s Tall Girl into this mix – well, it was definitely time to call the ambulances. She battement-ed her legs through the air like they were paddles at The Pleasure Chest.  

 

        Thursday’s Rubies celebrated a debuting cast of Emma Von Enck, Jovani Furlan, and Christina Clark. Sass-sational Emma with her aculeate feet and prickly charm ran away with this ballet. Jovani took a very good first stab at his role although he seemed less comfortable with the character portrayal than with the steps. Christina’s Tall Girl was in the mold of Tess Rechlein’s cool, confident interpretation with a coy ready-for-play aspect. The gasp-inducing length of her legs and the speed with which she could wield them was astonishing. She had all the technique, all the equipment, and all the confidence needed to deliver this role which has suddenly become the focal point of Rubies thanks to a bevy of strong new interpreters like Kikta, Nadon and LaFreniere. Looking forward to more from her.

 

        The performances on Wednesday and Thursday gifted us with two new remarkable Diamond ballerinas — each so different yet so unmistakably right for the role. Unity Phelan was quite introspective but lovely nonetheless. This role was originally made for the most introspective Balanchine ballerina ever. One rarely got to gaze into the eyes of Farrell or crack her sense of privacy. That characteristic works well in Diamonds. We kept watching Unity Phelan and thinking that this is the way it was intended. Her technique has steadily gained strength and it was difficult to find any glaring technical weaknesses in her performance on Wednesday. However, she may never be a favorite of those who have become addicted to the excesses in Sara Mearns' highly individual interpretation and who consider any Diamond not like her to be a flawed gem. Also a different Diamond was Isabella LaFreniere whose orthodox technical foundation and verticalness allowed for another distinctive interpretation — one with more regal ballerina authority. The breadth of her movement and the sweep of her limbs were stunning in this ravishing debut opposite Chun Wai Chan (also debuting) who likewise is a more orthodox trained dancer. His solos were gorgeous in form, grace, spin, and articulation. His partnering was sublime.

 

        The Thursday evening Jewels was loaded with excitement and artistic growth — all of it an immense pleasure to witness. But the one performance which we keep replaying in our minds is that of Ashley Laracey’s Emeralds on Wednesday. Our H.H. Pump Bump Award, courtesy of Manolo Blahnik, is bestowed upon her. 

 

 

 

 

 

NYCB Opens its 75th Anniversary Season 9/19

        Opening Night of New York City Ballet’s 75th Anniversary Season had a circusy feel to it – as though we had somehow stumbled into the middle of Massine’s Parade. A line of picketing musicians oompa oompa-ed up and down the sidewalk in front of Lincoln Center while onlookers spooned gelato into their mouths and divided their attention between the picketers and the video art installation hanging on the front of the Koch Theater. 

        Once inside the theater, however, the lucent genius of Balanchine’s Jewels was everyone’s focal point – everyone including the more than 200 NYCB alumni who came to town to celebrate the company’s diamond jubilee. 

 

        The cast of Emeralds included principal debuts by Indiana Woodward and Tyler Angle who proved to be an unlikely couple but danced well. We look forward to Indiana’s subsequent performances where we can expect more musical shading and the luxuriant texture that we love to see in her dancing. It’s impossible not to appreciate Tyler’s partnering skills, but they come at a cost which may now be too high to pay. The combination of bulk & baldness distracted us from Indiana’s elegant efforts. 

 

        Emilie Gerrity and Adrian Danchig-Waring were pointe-walking perfection in their PdD – a wonderful match in terms of tone, artistry, and refinement. They could have been walking down a path under lit lamps in Central Park like so many couples do. 

 

        The trio of Sara Adams, Sebastian Villarini-Velez and Brittany Pollack was vibrant and buoyant. The corps de ballet was school-like and uncertain about their marks but we immediately noticed Sarah Harmon’s new peaceful confidence and long elegant lines.

 

        The Rubies cast couldn’t help but strut its best stuff to Stephen Gosling’s brilliant playing of Stravinsky’s Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra. What a romp by Megan Fairchild, Anthony Huxley, and Mira Nadon! Fairchild, cheeky & flirty with chop-busting technique, knocked out the funny turns with elbows down and wrists limp as though she could have been holding a martini at the same time. Huxley, who in recent seasons has become a much more relaxed and vibrant performer while delivering his impeccable technique, offered just the right amount of showiness to compliment Fairchild’s performance.

 

        What is there left to say about Mira Nadon’s Tall Girl soloist with all the little guys clamoring around her? She made each one think they had a chance when in fact none did. As she baited her way off the stage with one risky arabesque penché after another, it was clear that her evening plans included bigger fish. This Tall Girl could battement her leg to her nose and swipe a guy's wallet at the same time. She had the club patrons gladly emptying their pockets to see her whack an attitude foot to the back of the head and throw in a few dizzying pirouettes.

 

        Sara Mearns and Russell Janzen gave out-sized performances in Diamonds. Janzen had a stamina and forcefulness in his dancing that we haven’t seen in several years and which made the prospect of his retirement this week all the more sad. Mearns has tamped down the excessive emotional output in the ballerina role and seemed particularly strong and secure in her own dancing. While each dancer was individually appealing for different reasons, they didn't particularly compliment one another although their love for dancing together was palpable.

 

        The Diamonds corps de ballet had some obviously ragged moments last evening – lines along the left side of the stage were particularly abhorrent at times. Some of the men didn’t seem to know where they were supposed to be. However, the corps women who performed the demi roles: Olivia Boisson, Christina Clark, Meaghan Dutton-O’Hara, and Mary Elizabeth Sell were magnificent.

 

        At the conclusion of Jewels, the 200+ alumni gathered on stage in front of the current company members to take bows. Edward Villella and Allegra Kent, grasping their canes and each other, were among the many stars present last evening who catapulted NYCB to the forefront in the 20th Century. In 25 years at the 100th Anniversary, Mearns, Janzen, Fairchild, Huxley, Danchig Waring, Gerrity, Nadon, Woodward, and Angle will be among those standing in front as ones who helped move the company's level of dancing into the 21st Century. What a party that will be for those of us who can hang on to make it.

 

        The H.H. Pump Award, an Acquazzura cocktail sandal with (un)caged vamp at Bergdorf’s for $1450, is bestowed upon Megan Fairchild for the standard-setting quality and charm of her performance in Rubies on this opening night.

 

 

 

observations 9/14

Here's the NYCB cast sheet for Week 2 that is posted in the lobby. No changes yet to Week 1.

        Just curious -- who out there in NYC currently receives free individual health insurance from his employer? According to NYCB, the musicians have received free individual health insurance for many years and are the only NYCB employees who do not currently pay any part of their individual health insurance premiums. Haglund's experience over the past three decades has been to pay as much as 80% of the cost of health insurance and never less than 50%. Right now, he pays $165 per month for Medicare coverage and an additional premium for prescriptions. Why in this day and age should the NYCB orchestra expect free health insurance when that would surely mean that their cost would be factored into the premiums of other NYCB employees?

        And why is the orchestra arguing a comparison with 2019 wages? 2019 is history. Everybody suffered financially in 2020 & 2021, and nobody - especially those who had to start over multiple times in new jobs - had a sense of entitlement to 2019 wages.

        Haglund's sense is that both sides in this contest are probably lying to some extent which is why neither side will release to the public the actual salaries & benefits paid. IMO, as a nonprofit organization that relies on the generosity of its supporters and the aid of government, NYCB & the union should release lists of salaries & benefits with names redacted so that the public knows where to place its sympathies.

        Every time there is a hike in ticket prices or facility fees or service fees, we should wonder why the orchestra members do not pay health insurance premiums.

        Lastly, why don't all the Lincoln Center resident companies and their unions have enough muscle to collectively negotiate favorable health insurance premiums for the many thousands of employees?

 

observations 9/12

This is a drop dead gorgeous coffee table book. Oh my goodness. While the choreography for which these costumes were designed was mostly forgettable -- with the exception of the brilliant Spectral Evidence by Angelin Preljocaj, Polaris by Myles Thatcher, and Belles Lettres by Justin Peck -- the costumes were nearly always a hit. We've always wondered why the Fall Fashion Gala tradition is said to have begun in 2012 when, in fact, Stella McCartney contributed major designs the previous fall.

The costumes are glorious, the photography is stunning, and the textual feel of the book is rich. On Amazon.

Haglund's all-time, forever favorites by Valentino (ohhh to touch that silk):

 

observations 9/5

        So . . . along with today's announcement of some fairly interesting casting for New York City Ballet's opening week of Jewels came the announcement that the NYCB Orchestra has authorized a strike in the event that contract negotiations stall. Nothing's ever easy in this city. Let's hope that everyone stays calm and focused and continues to negotiate in good faith so that we can enjoy a wonderful 75th Anniversary Season. Rather than anyone screaming and threatening, why not make the artists' salaries public so that the public can make a judgement about where to place its sympathies. No names -- just a list of salaries & benefits.

        We're extremely happy with the many upcoming debuts, particularly seeing Mira Nadon and Davide Riccardo together in Emeralds; Emma Von Enck, Jovani Furlan, and Christina Clark in Rubies along with Isabella LaFreniere and Chun Wai Chan debuting in Diamonds -- all will be spectacular. The casting of Ashley Bouder in Emeralds is simply indicative of a problem unresolved. A month ago she was performing out West:

        The Verdy role in Emeralds requires lovely arms. Luckily we'll see the most beautiful arms on the stage when Ashley Laracey performs the other principal role in the same cast. The differences in fitness and stage readiness will be both startling and troubling. Are we looking forward to seeing Tootsie Rolls waving around to Faure's lovely music in the Verdy role? Afraid not. But that isn't Bouder's concern. So long as she can count on five people sitting in the front row right corner cheering her on, she will soil Balanchine from one end of the stage to the other.