Haglund's Heel

observations 10/7

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded today to a Ukrainian human rights organization, a Russian human rights organization, and a Belarusian human rights advocate. Meanwhile Evgenia Obraztsova, Maria Alexandrova, Ekaterina Shipulina, Ruslan Skvortsov, and Alexander Volchkov, Vladislav Lantratov, Vyacheslav Lopatin, Anastasia Stashkevich, Ekaterina Krysanova, and Mikhail Lobukhin have all been suspended from the Bolshoi because they performed in a gala in Uzbekistan, a country which is allowing Russians to flee across its borders to safety.

Let's hope that the five men don't find themselves "drafted" into Putin's army.

Thanks much to the reader who brought this news to the forefront.

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We got an email this morning about a change in the NYCB's Winter Season schedule. West Side Story Suite has been replaced by Firebird. Hallelujah! Looking forward to more sensational performances by Isabella LaFreniere in the title role.

We also noted that single ticket sales for the January 27th performance of Firebird have been suspended. Perhaps this is indicative of an upcoming negotiated exit of a certain Firebird who has had ruffled feathers for several years now. NYCB tends to close off single ticket sales while it puts together the emails to subscribers and donors to give them an opportunity to buy tickets before the rush. We'll just have to wait and see...

 

 

observations 1/12

The choice of Tamara Rojo as San Francisco Ballet's next artistic director makes a lot of artistic sense. Whether it makes cultural and managerial sense remains to be seen. Putting aside the anticipated controversies regarding the Hernandez brothers, the SFB culture may take time to transition from the Icelandic cool of Helgi Tomasson to Rojo.  It is curious that Rojo would choose to take the reins of the second or third largest ballet company in a country where she never expressed much interest in dancing. One can count the minutes until certain ENB dancers decide to return stateside -- not that they would be the reason to run to an SFB performance -- the company is loaded with talent and will be able to survive any major defections.

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We're looking forward to the start of the NYCB season. Let's hope we don't hear any excuses about how certain dancers are trying to work themselves back into shape. If they're not performance ready, they should stay off the stage. Period. There are too many talented dancers who need and deserve opportunities that are being monopolized by the same old, same old. It's past time for some of these dancers who have had a stranglehold on certain roles for a decade to step aside and allow the audience to see new interpretations.

Perhaps the best casting solution would be to use all veteran principals for the new works exclusively – since veterans just love having new works set on them – and leave the Balanchine classics to the up and coming dancers. The Balanchine works are and always have been the "life blood" of the company; they deserve the best blood of the moment, not the tired blood from dancers who consider themselves ballerina blue blood. Even Eli Manning knew when it was time to step aside.

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Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema brings us Jewels on January 23rd. Check for your local cinema here. Thanks to the Russians for bringing us this masterpiece this year. Hopefully, the Mariinsky will be able to get into the U.S. in April for its highly-anticipated run at the Kennedy Center.

Here's the 1/23 casting:

EMERALDS
Two leading couples	Anastasia Denisova Evgenia Obraztsova Ivan Alexeyev Klim Efimov
Pas de Trois	Elizaveta Kruteleva Maria Mishina Denis Zakharov
	Xenia Averina Anastasia Dedikina Mariana Gomes Anastasia Grigorieva Polina Kolyada Olga Ladina Stanislava Postnova Alexandra Rakitina Tatiana Tiliguzova Olga Vdovkina
RUBIES
The leading couple	Elizaveta Kokoreva Dmitry Smilevsky
Soloist	Maria Vinogradova
	Mikhail Kemenov Artur Mkrtchyan Alexei Putintsev Pavel Smirnov
	Polina Afanasieva Bruna Cantanhede Gaglianone Ekaterina Klyavlina Elizaveta Kruteleva Olga Ladina Stanislava Postnova Alexandra Rakitina Lina Shevelyova
DIAMONDS
The leading couple	Svetlana Zakharova Jacopo Tissi
Soloists	Antonina Chapkina Anastasia Denisova Arina Denisova Xenia Zhiganshina Mark Chino Klim Efimov Fuad Mamedov Mark Orlov

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ABT has emailed around a video tribute to Stella Abrera who retired gracefully during the pandemic without the benefit of a farewell performance of Giselle. It's always nice to see video clips of Stella, but my goodness, McKenzie sanitized with stinky bleach his mistreatment of this artist to the point where it seemed like he was promoting his own big lie. Let's not forget that this artist was fully recovered and dancing beautifully while McKenzie continued to import guest artists and used his own talented dancers as wallpaper. It was only because Semionova got injured that Stella got her first Giselle at ABT.  The video tried to mix up the timeline and portray that McKenzie awarded her Giselle after her promotion. Pulleeeezze.

We wonder if this video is a warm-up for over-blown others to come.

 

Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema is Back

This Sunday - live from Moscow - the Bolshoi Ballet will perform SPARTACUS! We don't know if all the regular cinemas will be open, but the stream will be available at Empire 25 on W 42nd St & 8th Ave, Kips Bay 15 at 570 Second Ave., and at Union Square 850 Broadway. Check for your area here. 

CAST
Spartacus: Igor Tsvirko
Phrygia: Anna Nikulina
Crassus: Artemy Belyakov
Aegina: Svetlana Zakharova
Gladiator: Denis Savin
and the Bolshoi Corps de Ballet

This is sooo exciting. And to think that the Bolshoi's Jewels is coming up in January followed by Swan Lake and the Pharaoh's Daughter (Pierre Lacotte). How lucky we are to be able to see the Bolshoi's complete Jewels in January and then truck down to D.C. to see the Mariinsky's full length Jewels in April. You'd think that this would be a good year for NYCB to patch together a full Jewels, but no-o-o-o-o, they are presenting only 2/3 of the ballet as rep pieces.

Also, there will be a Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema Nutcracker stream on December 19th.

 

 

observations 1/8

Since we've missed every single Jeopardy clue so far tonight, let's take a break and talk ballet.

The Bolshoi Ballet casting for the 1/26 cinemacast of Ratmansky's new staging of Giselle has been announced as follows:

Giselle – Sunday, January 26, 2020 at 12:55 p.m. ET and PT, 11:55am MT, and 10:55am CT
Choreography: Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot, Marius Petipa
New Choreographic Version: Alexei Ratmansky
Conductor: Pavel Klinichev

CAST
Giselle: Olga Smirnova
Count Albrecht: Artemy Belyakov
Berthe, Giselle’s Mother: Anna Antropova
Hans, The Gamekeeper: Denis Savin
Giselle’s Friends: Xenia Averina, Bruna Cantanhede Galianone, Anonina Chapkina,
Olga Kishnyova, Elizabeta Kruteleva, Yulia Skvortsova, Tatiana Tiliguzova, Alexandra Trikoz
Peasant Pas de Deux: Daria Khokhlova, Alexei Putintsev
Bathilde: Nelli Kobakhidze
Myrtha: Angelina Vlashinets
Moina: Xenia Zhiganshina
Zulma: Anastasia Denisova

Check in with www.bolshoiballetincinema.com  for cinema locations and times in your city. By the way, if the cinemacast conflicts with your plans to see NYCB, keep in mind that Symphony Space will be showing Giselle on the following Tuesday 1/28 at 1pm.

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Speaking of NYCB – lots of fabulous casting has been announced for the first week of the Winter Season. Especially exciting is the featuring of Erica Pereira and Harrison Ball in Danses Concertantes which opens the season on January 21st and in La Source at the Saturday matinee. We've been fascinated by the growth of both artists in the past year and are looking forward to seeing what each brings out in the other. We're hopeful that Tiler and Tyler will be in awesome form for Allegro Brilliante on Wednesday the 22nd. All the casts of Stravinsky Violin Concerto look to rock this ballet. And at the Sunday matinee we'll be treated to the debuts of Brittany Pollack and Daniel Applebaum in Danses Concertantes and Mira Nadon with Adrian Danching-Waring in Monumentum & Movements.

We have tickets for every performance. See ya there.

 

observations 11/24

Like, not much has been going on – in terms of ballet, that is. A couple of cinema screenings are on the horizon:

The Royal Ballet's Nutcracker featuring Lauren Cuthbertson, Federico Bonelli, Francesca Hayward, Alexander Campbell, Gary Avis hits Landmark Cinema screens this coming Tuesday, November 26th. Here in NYC on West 57th Street, it will begin at 7PM.

The Bolshoi Ballet's new staging of Giselle by Alexei Ratmansky will be live-streamed on a delayed basis on January 26, 2020. Locations and tickets here.

Bolshoi in Cinema is promising a fresh cast for the Swan Lake transmission on February 23, 2020. Tickets here. Wouldn't it be nice if Alyona Kovalyova was cast as our Odette/Odile?

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NYCB's Nutcracker season opens this Friday. We'll catch up with the season during Week 2 when Maria Kowroski and Tyler Angle reprise their roles of Sugarplum Fairy and Her Cavalier.

We've gotten so tired of hearing some of the other veteran ballerinas in both of New York's companies publicly grumble about how they dread the season and how tired they get during this time of year. Instead of complaining, why don't they just step aside and let some of the deserving lower rank ballerinas have the opportunity? It seems that within all of the illustrious ballet technique they possess, one step is missing: the side step. The ability to step aside is an important aspect of ballet. How well or how poorly a ballerina executes her side steps will color our memory of her forever.

 

observations 10/27

Just returned from the Ballet in Cinema delayed broadcast of the Bolshoi Ballet's incredible Raymonda. What a mood lifter. What a spirit lifter. What a soul lifter Grigorovich's production is with its beautiful dancers, beautiful choreography, beautiful music, beautiful costumes, and beautiful scenery. It's ballet done right.

Locally, this cinemacast will be re-broadcast tomorrow October 28th @ 2pm AND November 5th @ 7pm at the Beekman Theatre, 1271 2nd Avenue. It will also be shown on Tuesday, October 29th @ 1pm at Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway. This is well worth spending three hours to see. Honestly, it's ballet done right.

The entire Ballet in Cinema lineup for the 10th anniversary season, which began today, is irresistible: Raymonda, Le Corsaire, The Nutcracker, Giselle, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, and Jewels.

Mark the link, check local listings, buy the tickets early: Ballet in Cinema

Late night edit:  We just learned that, unfortunately, the Beekman Theatre closed unexpectedly last month. How sad. But Symphony Space is still going strong!

observations 10/4

Tickets for ABT's fall season at the Koch Theater have been on Goldstar for quite some time. ($25-54) There's no suggestion of a bogus, obnoxious Costume Fee like the one they've loaded onto the tickets purchased through the theater's box office. The poor box office seems to be tiring of explaining to people that the entire Costume Fee is ABT's doing, and not the Koch Theater's fee. Forced donations and especially forced donations without a tax deduction will get ABT nothing but bad will. Right now, it looks like they may have to give away the entire season.

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Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema presents Raymonda on Sunday, October 27th at all the usual cinemas. Search locations here.

Raymonda – Sunday, October 27, 2019 at 12:55 p.m. ET and PT, 11:55am MT, and 10:55am CT
CAST
Raymonda: Olga Smirnova
Jena de Brienne: Artemy Belyakov
Abderakhman: Igor Tsvirko
Clemence and Henriette, Raymonda's friends: Anastasia Denisova, Maria Vinogradova

That costume –

 

observations 5/13

Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema's Carmen/Petrushka performance will stream at all the usual places this Sunday May 19th at 12:55 pm. In Manhattan, one can view it at Empire 25 on W. 42nd St at 8th Ave., Kips Bay 15 at 570 Second Ave., Union Square Stadium 14 at 850 Broadway. On Monday at 2pm and Tuesday at 7pm, the Beekman at 1271 Second Avenue will show it. Symphony Space will show it at 2pm on June 4th; tomorrow May 14th, they have a scheduled screening of the Bolshoi's Sleeping Beauty that was shown around town earlier this year. Speaking of Symphony Space, we should remind everyone that tonight Joaquin de Luz will perform Robbins' Suite of Dances in conjunction with the New York Dance Project. Performances are at 5:30pm and 8pm.

Back to Carmen and Petrushka – we have casting:

Carmen Suite:

Carmen           Svetlana Zakharova
Jose                 Denis Rodkin
Torero              Mikhail Lobukhin
Corregidor       Vitaly Biktimirov
Fate                 Olga Marchenkova
Tobacco Girls  Olga Kishnyova, Yulia Skvortsova , Victoria Yakusheva

Petrushka:

Petrushka        Denis Savin
Ballerina          Ekaterina Krysanova
Moor               Anton Savichev
Charlatan        Vyacheslav Lopatin

 

Also coming up is the Landmark Cinema's stream of the Royal Ballet's triple bill of Wheeldon's Within the Golden Hour, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Medusa, and Pite's Flight Pattern. The single showing is Tuesday, June 18th at 7pm. Unfortunately this conflicts with Herman Cornejo and Sarah Lane in Manon at the Met Opera House.

 

observations 1/21

Who cares...

Feeling warm and toasty thinking about the opening of NYCB's Winter Season tomorrow. 

For those who did not have the chance to see the Bolshoi's production of La Bayadere in the cinema yesterday, you may access it on the Bolshoi website: http://media.bolshoi.ru/play#/vod/play/435   Registration is required. We recommend entering an alternatively-factual birth date when requested, and perhaps be prepared for election-interfering spam mail in the run-up to 2020. But hey, it's a small price to pay to see such glorious dancing.

Both Olgas delivered truly outstanding dancing but Marchenkova's Gamzatti was one hot, fully loaded baked картошка. Happily, Smirnova's Nikiya was quite an improvement over what we saw her do some years ago while guesting at ABT, but still, her face is somewhat frozen. Even when she smiled, there seemed to be a disconnect with the expression of her eyes. But she delivered a lot of gorgeous dancing. Artemy Belyakov's Solor was one that Haglund could replay all day long. In fact, that's what he's been doing today while he waits for it to warm up outside. Solor's cabrioles were beaten so clearly and slowly that they looked like they were being done under water. All of his dancing was handsome. True, dancing in white pants doesn't invite the same level of critical scrutiny as dancing in white tights. But he looked pretty darned classically lined from head to toe.

While Makarova's staging may still be a favorite due to her treatment of the final act, there is room in Haglund's heart for yet another La Bayadere. How great it was to see such dedicated artists who respect the fundamentals of the art form (excepting Smirnova's ill-placed extensions in the last act pdd) and dance with selfless belief in the value of their art. Yesterday, the corps' Kingdom of the Shades was as good as we've ever seen.

observations 10/31

While having just spotted the citizen in the West Village who always marches in the Halloween Parade as the guy from the movie The Birds who is being chased by a flock of black crows with explosive rage disorder, Haglund was somehow reminded that the Bolshoi in Cinema broadcast of La Sylphide will be on Sunday, November 11th at 12:55pm. It will be at all of the usual places in New York. From the promo it looks like the cast will include Daria Khokhlova and Artemy Belyakov. Look for tickets and cinemas here.  [Edited 11/1 to call attention to Irina's comment below regarding the announced casting of Stashkevich and Chudin.]

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There are a few reserved seats left for the Tuesday, November 13 Landmark Cinema's presentation of the Royal Ballet's Mayerling starring Gary Avis, Sarah Lamb, Steven McRae, Kristen McNally, Laura Morera, James Hay, Nehemiah Kish, Meaghan Grace Hinkis, Mayara Magri. Do not miss this. Tickets here.

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Only three weeks until the start of NYCB's Nutcracker Season and only a couple of weeks until the first casting is announced. Let's hope that some of our corps favorites are over their injuries and back on stage to dance along side the wonderful brand new soloists.

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And lastly, we're excitedly ticking off the nanoseconds until the Balanchine Celebration begins tonight at New York City Center. Hopping up & down excited, we are!