Haglund's Heel

observations 4/16

Now here's a book that Haglund couldn't pre-order fast enough on Amazon after reading this morning's NYT review of it in the Music section. Reynold Levy, who left his job in 2014 as President of Lincoln Center after a dozen years has written a tell-all book. Look out.

"They Told Me Not to Take That Job: Tumult, Betrayal, Heroics, and the Transformation of Lincoln Center" comes out on May 12th. Amazon claims that it can deliver on that date. If that happens, Haglund won't be picking up the office phone for a day or so – unless something earth-shattering happens, which is always a possibility, but he'll probably let the cats handle it.

Mr. Levy has a few things to say about a lot of people. He takes aim at Boards of Directors of New York City Opera and New York Philharmonic, and probably Boards in general judging from a brief and to-the-clear-point article he penned for Crain's last February.  "In search of accountability: Non-profits gone astray"  is worth a read.

So far, Haglund's favorite quip from Mr. Levy is about a bungling Board chairman: "He failed to lead, and he failed to leave." That's going to be on a lot of people's lips around town.

But according to the NYT article, Levy has some respect for New York City Ballet's fiscal managers. That's good.

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ABT's Works & Process Gig at the Gugg is this Sunday and Monday.

Three different presentations: Sunday afternoon, Sunday evening, and Monday evening. Here's a glimpse of some of the casting that came through in an email a few days ago:

Part 1:
1940–1965
Sun, Apr 19, 3 pm EDT
Panelists: Kevin McKenzie, Alex Ewing, Lupe Serrano
Principals and Soloists: Gillian Murphy, Xiomara Reyes, Joseph Gorak, Roman Zhurbin
 
Part 2:
1965–1990    Sun, Apr 19, 7:30 pm EDT
Panelists: Robert La Fosse, Ric Burns, Eleanor D’Antuano, Martine van Hamel
Principals and Soloists: James Whiteside, Stella Abrera
 
Part 3:
1990–2015    Mon, Apr 20, 7:30 pm EDT
Panelists: David Hallberg, Julie Kent, Kevin McKenzie, Ethan Steifel
Principals and Soloists: Marcelo Gomes, Julie Kent, Hee Seo, Cory Stearns

Watch it on line from the comfort of your couch via these links:

http://www.guggenheim.org/video/channel#upcoming-live-broadcasts

http://www.guggenheim.org/video/works-process-livestream-american-ballet-theater-at-75-1940%E2%80%931965-april-19-3-pm

http://www.guggenheim.org/video/works-process-livestream-american-ballet-theater-at-75-1965%E2%80%931990-april-19-730-pm

http://www.guggenheim.org/video/works-process-livestream-american-ballet-theater-at-75-1990%E2%80%932015-april-20-730-pm

We probably don't need to remind folks that the Gugg's livestreams have a certain reputation for not always being absolutely perfectly A-1 spiffy when it comes time to deliver. So, we recommend patience and a good supply of wine unless 3pm on Sunday is too early to drink. If they encounter problems, hopefully they will communicate via their Twitter feed like they did in the past.

Note that Robert LaFosse is on the panel Sunday evening. That sounds like it could be a lively and interesting discussion.

observations 3/22

Haglund wishes that he would observe some chatter somewhere about grateful choreographers banding together to create a Piece d'Occasion for Wendy Whelan's retirement during NYCB's fall season which she announced recently to The Atlantic. It only seems right.

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Reminder: The Guggenheim's Works and Process event with choreography by Emery LeCrone as danced by Tyler Angle, Teresa Reichlen, Stella Abrera, Alexandre Hammoudi, and others will be livestreamed Sunday evening at 7:30 at this link:

http://www.guggenheim.org/video/bach-interpreted-new-choreography-by-emery-lecrone

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How to spot the ballet dancer at the golf driving range: S/he sets up with the right hip back and out of alignment, mishits the ball, and then whispers, "Sorry." Oh, yes, it's true.

 

observations 1/6

Stella Abrera and Alexandre Hammoudi will join Tyler Angle and Teresa Reichlen in the cast for Emery LeCrone's classically-based ballet to Bach’s Partita No. 2 in C Minor that will be presented on March 23rd and March 24th as part of the Guggenheim's Works & Process Spring 2014 season.

Vassily Primikov will perform the music. Costumes will be designed by Yigal Azrouël.

Emery will also present a second dance utilizing the exact same music but the choreography will be more contemporary in nature. It will feature Sarah Atkins, Kaitlyn Gilliland, Pierre Guilbault, Richard Isaac, Kimi Nikaidoh, and Alfredo Solivan.

General ticket sales begin on Januray 15th although priority ticketing for Guggenheim W&P members is in full swing through January 14th. Haglund will post the livestream plans if and when they become available.

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Just want to remind everybody that Cincinnati Ballet comes to the Joyce Theater May 6-11. The program includes Hummingbird in a Box which is set to seven brand new songs by Peter Frampton. Hummingbird was part of a full evening of choreography set to Frampton's tunes for which he and his band played live on stage last April in Cincy.

The Joyce stage is smaller than the one at the Aronoff Center where the Cincinnati Ballet premiere took place, so you might not think that there is much of a chance that Frampton will show up for the NYC gig. But this is freakin' New York, ya know, where freakin' anything can happen. And it would be just like freakin' Frampton and his freakin' sometime bass player, Willem Dafoe, to show up on stage for a gig for one or more of those Joyce dates. Don't be freakin' sorry you didn't get tickets.

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Also, don't forget to get your tickets to Royal New Zealand Ballet's debut at the Joyce Theater February 12-16th. We're getting their rep program while lucky L.A. gets the new Giselle production with Gillian Murphy making her U.S. debut in the title role. By the way, Gillian and Cory Stearns will be dancing the leads in Giselle with the Festival Ballet Theatre at the Irvine Barclay Theatre on March 22nd and 23rd.

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The Primorsky State Opera and Ballet Theatre is presenting a series of performances entitled "Bridges of Culture: St. Petersburg to Vladivostok" for which artists from St. Petersburg, Moscow, and that side of Russia are being featured in a variety of cultural works in the brand new theater in Vladivostok which is way over on the other side of Russia.

The special dance evening on January 19th will feature a one-act premiere by Artistic Director Aidar Akhmetov set to Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14 which incorporates poems by Federico García Lorca, Guillaume Apollinaire, Wilhelm Kuchelbecker, and Rainer Maria Rilke. The featured soloist will be Inna Ginkevich, former ballerina of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre.

By the way, Joseph Phillips' star continues to shine in Vladivostok.  Here he is executing the Grigorovich Lift in a recent performance:

And here he is in what appears to be Walpurgis Night:

 

So much of the rest of the world knows exactly what to do with ABT's talent.  Why doesn't Kevin McKenzie?

 

Program reminder ABT Works & Process livestream tonight

Just a reminder that ABT's Works & Process event at the Guggenheim Museum will be live-streamed at 7:30 pm (New York time) tonight at these links:

http://www.guggenheim.org/video/american-ballet-theatre-revivals

http://www.ustream.tv/worksandprocess

The company will present excerpts from revivals that will be part of its fall season.

After last spring's W&P disaster when Kevin McKenzie's two flavors of the month turned out to be as appealing as fish ice cream, it's hard to say who we'll see on the stage tonight. The last outing was embarrassing enough that the presentation was never uploaded into the Gugg's video library. Unfortunately, in order to save everyone from the fishy goop, we were also denied an archive of the elegant dancing of Stella Abrera in The Leaves Are Fading and the brief but insightful interview with her.

Expectations are not especially high for tonight's presentation, but we can always hope.

 

. . . and we're live

. . . from the couch in trendy Hell's Kitchen awaiting the introductions for the Guggenheim's Works & Process which tonight will be presented by ABT.

 http://www.ustream.tv/worksandprocess

✔ pencils sharpened

✔ erasers cut off

✔ Mac cache emptied

✔ cell phone silenced

✔ wine poured

7:35    It seems things are off to a tardy start.

7:38    John Meehan would make a very good director for ABT.

7:42    Why does ABT keep torturing us with this Morris nonsense?  Yes, the dancers have nice feet and legs.  It's as elementary and unsubstantive as it can be.

7:44    McKenzie managed to say plenty of nothing in that little interview.

7:51    Gray Davis and Stella Abrera are sublime in The Leaves Are Fading in one of the secondary PdDs.  That McKenzie took away the leading PdD from this beautiful ballerina in the prime of her career is criminal.  It was kind of cruel of John to suddenly bring up Giselle when everyone knows that is exactly the role Stella should be dancing but hasn't been allowed.  Her grace and demeanor while being interviewed were exquisite as well.

8:10    The Swan Lake excerpt was not very encouraging.  What is wrong with Hee Seo's back that she can't bend it more?  No expression.  Fine feet and legs.  The only way to describe this is the "Stepford ballerina syndrome."  One compliment for her:  the mime about the tears looked similar to Nina's in that the tears went all the way down over the edge of the tutu. 

8:15    It's very nice that the pre-professionals in the JKO are learning to dance completely without affectations.  The problem is that they are turning out dancers without perfume, without lovely organic qualities in their dance-speech.  It's like computer-speech.  ABT should stop all this pretense and just teach Vaganova in the upper body and POB in the legs and feet.

8:27    If you look at videos of Veronika Part and others as students at the Vaganova school, you see immediately that they already had that special perfume.  While they didn't have affectations, they did have something special.  These young students are plain toast.

8:30    Joe Gorak is a little too lovely in that Bournonville.  Maybe it's the small stage.  Bujones.  Bujones.  Bujones.  Bujones.  That's what we need. 

8:32    Isabella Boylston in the Kitri solo was like something from Amateur Hour.  No spark.  Horsey.  Muddled.  No expression or worse an unpleasant one.  ABT shelved Yuriko's brilliant and charming Kitri for this?

8:33    Arron Scott's ball dance pretty darned good.

8:50    The Moor's Pavane registered well on this stage.  Alex Hammoudi is not a natural choice for The Moor and his character was much less developed than Tom Forster's Iago.  Stella, intensely dramatic.  Hee Seo, a fish out of water: steps, yes; character, no.

8:58    Ratmansky's Carnival of the Animals is a nice piece for students, but it tends to get a little too precious. 

More than ever, Haglund intends to pay to see only the dancers he wants to see at ABT and will not pay to see amateurish or half-baked interpretations.  If it turns out that he only goes to a couple of performances at the Met this year, then maybe he'll be able to afford this little Chesterfield that he wants so badly.

ABT – Casting for Works & Process 4/21 & 4/22

Here's the program and casting for the Guggenheim Works & Process program that ABT will present on April 21 & 22 at 7:30pm.  It is titled "What makes an ABT dancer?" The promo includes this pretentious line, "American Ballet Theatre was founded on the principle that its dancers must be as versatile as the repertory is diverse."  That would probably amuse Lucia Chase.  How come there's nothing in her biography about the founding of her company around a fancy defined aesthetic principle like that?  Answer:  Because it was all made up by Kevin McKenzie and Co. as a way to try to differentiate ABT from all other companies.

Maybe we'll hear how those other companies like NYCB, Mariinsky, and Paris Opera Ballet were NOT founded on the principle that dancers must be as versatile as the repertory is diverse.

The first program on Sunday evening will be livestreamed at this link at 7:30pm:

http://www.ustream.tv/worksandprocess

PANEL
John Meehan, Moderator
ABT Artistic Staff
 
PROGRAM (excerpts will be performed)
Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes
Choreography by Mark Morris
Staged by Tina Fehlandt
Music by Virgil Thomson
Costumes by Santo Loquasto
Danced by Isabella Boylston, Thomas Forster, Joseph Gorak, Arron Scott
 
The Leaves are Fading (Second Pas de Deux)
Choreography by Antony Tudor
Staged by Amanda McKerrow and John Gardner
Music by Antonin Dvorâk
Costumes by Patricia Zipprodt
Danced by Stella Abrera and Sascha Radetsky
 
Swan Lake (Act II Excerpt)
Choreography by Kevin McKenzie after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov 
Costumes by Zack Brown
Danced by Hee Seo and Alexandre Hammoudi
 
ABT Curriculum Demonstration
Raymond Lukens with the ABT Studio Company
 
Flower Festival in Genzano (Excerpt)
Choreography by August Bournonville
Music by Edvard Helsted
Costumes by Santo Loquasto
Danced by Joseph Gorak
 
Don Quixote (Solo from Act I)
Choreography by Marius Petipa and Alexander Gorsky
Music by Ludwig Minkus
Costumes by Santo Loquasto
Danced by Isabella Boylston
 
A Month in the Country (Excerpt)
Choreography by Frederick Ashton
Staged by Anthony Dowell and Grant Coyle
Music by Frederic Chopin
Arranged by John Lanchberry
Danced by Arron Scott
 
The Moor’s Pavane (Excerpts)
Choreography by José Limon
Music by Henry Purcell
Arrangement by Simon Sadoff
(From “Abdelazer,” “The Gordion Knot Untied,” and
the pavane from “Pavane and Chaconne for Strings”)
Direction and Reconstruction by Clay Taliaferro
Costumes by Pauline Lawrence
 
The Moor                  Alexandre Hammoudi
His Friend                 Sascha Radetsky
His Friend’s Wife      Stella Abrera
The Moor’s Wife       Hee Seo
 
Les Carnaval de Animaux (Excerpts)
Choreography by Alexei Ratmansky
Staged by Tatiana Ratmansky
Music by Camille Saint-Saëns
ABT Studio Company

Why doesn't ABT get brave and have a question and answer session at these events?

 

Petit F5

A little refresh & update on live-streams and screenings:

Wednesday 4/25 @ 8PM (EDT) – Ballet Next will live-stream its event at Manhattan Movement & Arts Center on its website:  http://www.balletnext.com/  Performers will be Michele Wiles, Charles Askegard, Kristi Boone, Misty Copeland, Ana Sophia Scheller, and Georgina Pazcoguin.  They will dance choreography by Brian Reeder, Askegard, and Margo Sappington.

Friday 4/27 @ 3PM & 7PM – the movie Joffrey – Mavericks of Dance opens a run of several days at Cinema Village in New York.  Former Joffrey company members and Dance Magazine's Wendy Perron will host several Q&A sessions on selected dates.  You can purchase tickets in advance here.  A list of upcoming screenings in other cities can be found here.

Sunday & Monday 4/29-30 @ 7:30PM (EDT) – The Guggenheim's Works & Process Series presents a preview program of ABT's Spring Season at the Met Opera House which focuses on the characters at the hearts of the ballets including an excerpt from Firebird performed by Misty Copeland.  The program will be live-streamed both nights at:  http://www.ustream.tv/worksandprocess

Royal Danish Ballet @ the Gugg's W&P – Utroligt!

Well, if you missed tonight's live or live-streamed presentation of Works & Process at the Guggenheim, you missed one of W&P's best dance programs.  Featuring the Royal Danish Ballet with commentary by John Meehan and Nikolaj Hubbe, the program had a huge amount of dance and charm.  Haglund has his tickets to the RDB's presentation at Lincoln Center in June, and hopefully you have yours, too.

Hubbe is an engaging speaker and Meehan is an easy facilitator.  He drew out of Hubbe that the RDB has engaged Alexei Ratmansky for a commission next year.  Hubbe also identified several young European choreographers who he is investigating for work - the next generation so-to-speak.

Hubbe noted that the Danish trek to NYCB included Stanley Williams, Erik Bruhn, Ib Andersen, Adam Luders, Peter Martins, and himself.  It's hard to believe that the Danish women haven't migrated to NYCB in greater numbers, because they are fantastic.  Beautiful, soft, pliable feet that articulate the steps with crystalline clarity.  Gosh, the last Danish woman to make her mark on the New York dance stages was Toni Lander at ABT, wasn't she?  Anyway, the women were incredible, and La Sylphide in June is going to be a "Do Not Miss" event.

GODE NYHEDER!  If you missed tonight's program, you have another chance to see it tomorrow night at 7:30 pm (Eastern U.S.).  Click here tomorrow night:

 http://www.ustream.tv/channel/worksandprocess

The program content is listed in Haglund's earlier post here.

Guggenheim Works & ProcessRoyal Danish Ballet – Live-Stream Event

Haglund wants to get this posted right away so that The New York Times dance writers won't be disappointed when they come trampling over his blog looking for something to write about. 

Bad news:  The March 20th and 21st Guggenheim Works & Process presentations of the Royal Danish Ballet are sold out.

Good news:  The event will be LIVE-STREAMED on the Guggenheim Works & Process website on both dates.

At 7:30 pm (Eastern Time U.S.) on Sunday, March 20th and/or Monday, March 21st, please click on this link to join the audience from the comfort of your own couch with your own wine and your own sizable sandwich:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/worksandprocess

This is going to be jam-packed with dance.  The Works & Process folks sent Haglund the following program rundown:

PANEL
Nikolaj Hübbe
John Meehan
 
CAST
Susanne Grinder (Principal)
Gudrun Bojesen (Principal)
Amy Watson (Principal)
Kizzy Matiakis (Soloist)
 
Jean-Lucien Massot (Principal)
Thomas Lund (Principal)
Ulrik Birkkjær (Principal)
Nikolaj Hansen (Soloist)
Alban Lendorf (Soloist)
Alexander Stæger (Soloist)
 
PROGRAM
Excerpts from Bournonville Variations
Music: Bournonville schools arranged by Martin Åkerwall
Danced by Alban Lendorf, Ulrik Birkkjær, Thomas Lund, Nicolai Hansen, Alexander Stæger
 
Excerpts from Lost on Slow
Music: Antonio Vivaldi
Choreography: Jorma Elo
Costumes: Annette Nørgaard
 
2nd movement
Danced by Kizzy Matiakis, Amy Watson, Jean-Lucien Massot
 
4th movement
Danced by Jean-Lucien Massot
 
The Jockey Dance
Music: C. C. Møller
Choreography: August Bournonville
Costumes: Jens-Jacob Worsaae
Danced by Thomas Lund, Alban Lendorf
 
Excerpts from A Folktale
Music: N. W. Gade, J. P. E. Hartmann
Choreography: August Bournonville
Pas de sept
Danced by Gudrun Bojesen, Susanne Grinder, Kizzy Matiakis, Amy Watson
Ulrik Birkkjær, Nicolai Hansen, Alexander Stæger
 
Excerpts from La Sylphide
Music: H. S. Løvenskiold
Choreography: August Bournonville
Costumes: Mikael Melbye
 
The Window Scene
Gudrun Bojesen, Ulrik Birkkjær
 
The Death Scene
Gudrun Bojesen, Ulrik Birkkjær
 
Excerpts from Napoli
Music: E. Helsted, H. C. Lumbye, H. S. Paulli, Ole Bull
Choreography: Nikolaj Hübbe
Costumes: Maja Ravn
 
Pas de Deux from 1.act
Susanne Grinder, Alexander Stæger
 
The Tarantella
All

There will be an opportunity for online viewers to Tweet with one another during the program @worksandprocess.  The March 20th Chat Moderator will be NYCB's Ashley Bouder, and the March 21st Moderator will be Candace Thompson of The Winger and DIY Dancer.

Don't miss this great program.