Haglund's Heel

observations 12/27

Former NYCB principal Sébastien Marcovici, currently Ballet Master at Benjamin Millepied's L.A. Dance Project, has just taken up the additional post of Ballet Master at the Paris Opera Ballet - this according to several FB pages. That seems like a good idea in order to maintain and expand the Balanchine rep and POB's more ecclectic works.

Meanwhile, former ABT principal and recent accomplished/respected/knows-what-he's-doing Artistic Director at RNZB, Ethan Stiefel, is now officially listed as a member of the company's teaching staff at ABT.

How about some requisite daily push-ups for the ABT principal men who can't lift Giselle over their heads?

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[Wrapping the H.H. Speculating Spectacles around the ears.] We wonder if Angel Corella has noticed that beautiful Sarah Lane's schedule is free during Pennsylvania Ballet's second week of Swan Lake performances in March. Wouldn't that make for some craziness if Sarah and perhaps also Herman Cornejo showed up for a performance of Christopher Wheeldon's Swan Lake? Come on, Angel, think about it. Please. You could charge double for the seats and still sell out in the blink of an eye.

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As the Mariinsky Ballet's January visit to BAM growers closer, we've noticed a slew of very interesting sponsors for their visit.

In addition to the leadership support from Frederick Iseman (thank you very much, Sir), the principal partners include Yoko Nagae Ceschina who is a friend of Valerie Gergiev and violinist Maxim Vengerov for whom she purchased a 1727 Stradivarius. Ms. Ceschina sponsored the New York Philharmonic's controversial trip to Pyongyang, North Korea in 2008 and currently sponsors Maestro Alan Gilbert's Music Director Chair.

Huge Russian corporate sponsors have signed on, too. VTB Bank (60% owned by the Russian government), Sberbank of Russia (also majority government-owned), and the Russian conglomerate Renova Group that holds interests in oil, aluminum, energy, and telecom sectors now have their logos prominently featured on the BAM website.

Renova Group's main owner, Viktor Vekselberg, is the third richest person in Russia with some calling him the number one wealthiest. Mr. Vekselberg holds the largest collection of Faberge eggs in the world - 15 in all. He has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to return Russia's great art to its homeland. In addition to the Faberge eggs, he returned the Lowell House Bells at Harvard University back to the Danilov Monestary. In 2005 he got burned by Christie's auction house after paying millions for a famous painting purportedly by Russian artist Boris Kustodiev which turned out to be a fake. Mr. Vekselberg was able to recover his millions from Christie's, but it took about seven years to do so.

We wonder if these extremely important and generous sponsors will show up for the Mariinsky Ballet's performances in Brooklyn. We hope so, because we need to thank them.

Wow, that's a lot of year-end news. Hope it's not too much for the BalletAlertniks to copy & paste.

 

UIEX: ABT City Center Season

Haglund is reading between the lines again.

Driving the Unofficial Information Exchange's (UIEX) ticker into a whirl is The Street's observation that City Center just announced its new iPhone app that can be used to purchase tickets to:

"City Center performances of Encores!, MTC, the Pearl Theatre Company, the Fall for Dance Festival, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre and Paul Taylor"

The positioning in the sentence of ABT between Alivin Ailey and Paul Taylor is interesting - if it is also calendar positioning.

 

NYCB Wins McCartney ballet score!

Surely Haglund will win some well-deserved prize for being the first to sniff out the McCartney/Martins story on his Hunch-O-Meter LAST JUNE!  Well, it's now official.  NYCB gets the McCartney score for next Fall's Gala.  Peter Martins will contribute the choreography.  Haglund hopes it has a whole lotta dancers in it, because those NYCB dancers will be killing each other to get on stage in it.

Here's the link to the local paper's article.

 

McCartney ballet score now "a show"

The buzz about Paul McCartney's new ballet score is picking up.   The score is now being referred to as "the show" which will open in New York before transferring to London.  Does this have Twyla's finger prints all over it, or what?   Haglund always pegged her as the John or Ringo type, but who can really tell?  Supposedly, an announcement will be forthcoming from Sir Paul in a few weeks.

Haglund's Hunch-O-Meter workin' overtime

Haglund wonders — way back in the early '60s — which Beatle Twyla was going to marry.  One would guess today that John was her favorite Beatle, just on the strength of style and resemblance: 

 

But looks can be deceiving.  And let the truth be known, every girl wanted Paul.  For the sake of fairness to the group, girls divvied the Beatles up because, well, everyone could not marry Paul. 

 

Girls who were a bit far from being conventional beauties often were drawn to Ringo for his nose or George for his incisors and rail-thin physique.  There was a Beatle appropriate for every girl to marry.

 

Haglund wonders — after all these years of scheming — has Twyla finally found a way to arrange a marriage with Paul?  Is SHE the choreographer for whom Sir Paul McCartney is writing his ballet score? 

Whoa, wouldn't that be a freakin' world event!

Haglund Hunch-O-Meter Gone Wild

This is just too big to let go of.  Who is going to be the choreographer for the new ballet score by Sir Paul McCartney?

The Haglund Hunch-O-Meter needle is swinging wildly, wildly, and even more WILDLY. 

See that Winter Season premiere by Susan Stroman on the NYCB calendar?  Could it be her?!

OK, Haglund'eelers, let's get to work and sniff this out.  This scoop could win us another year-end Baggie Award over on The Ballet Bag where they are currently highlighting their visit to the Tokyo Ballet with a side trip to the famous Chacott dancewear store.  Look at all that stuff!  

NEWSFLASH – Sir Paul McCartney commissioned for ballet score!

Oh please, Let It Be in New York.  Let It Be.  Let It Be.  Let It Be.  Let It Be.  Whisper Words of Wisdom.  Let It Please Be in New York.

Sir Paul McCartney revealed to the BBC that he's writing music for a ballet.  No further details but Sir Paul is no stranger to NYCB and attended SAB's winter ball.

Here's the link.

 

Image from guestofaguest.com.