While walking down 9th Avenue yesterday it occurred to Haglund that the romantic notion of beauty being frozen in time has really lost its appeal -- worn out its welcome. Tiler is still lovely in the digital image but the green hues are starting to look like moss. Who is that back there among the trees behind the wooden cross? Giselle in her tattered gown? It's past time to brighten up Lincoln Center with some new, vivid posters. Perhaps an image of a long, tall Emily Kikta in her Rubies outfit or Ashley Laracey in a Diamonds tutu or Ashley Hod and Savannah Durham in their Agon garb or Isabella LaFreniere and Christina Clark as Sirens would serve to brighten our frozen spirits.
Haglund is mostly sick of internet ballet. Sick of dancers turning into Twitterinas and Instarinas who try to convey that their boomarang clips are "art" -- worse, that they're "ballet." The constant begging for applause is not normal, People. It's not normal.
On a happy note, New York City Ballet's upcoming digital season which begins on February 22nd appears to promise some high-end internet ballet which will be staged on a – whatayoucallit – a stage. Prodigal Son, Theme and Variations, and Stravinsky Violin Concerto should be a sight for sore eyes. Hopefully there will be more dance and less talk.
There will be some "contemporary" premieres later in the season that are site-specific. This brings us to another gripe. In case anyone hasn't noticed, people are getting sick and tired of tribal politics, tribal activism, and tribalism entering every crevice of everything and even trying to become its own art form. The distinction between tribalism and extremism narrows every hour. Of course, tribalism brings in fringe money from fringe groups who dangle on the fringes of society - a society, where more and more often, reality is only an opinion. Some of our thanks for this can go to former glamorous and high-profile NYCB board member, Maria Bartiroma. What the heck happened to her? so many have asked.
New York City Ballet should be careful about promoting a revisionist history with such adaptations as "Our founders' mission was to preserve NYCB's extensive repertory, to create new works that reflect the times, and to make ballet accessible for all." That bolded phrase has been inserted recently as the company moves more and more toward substandard, non-balletic work that promotes tribalism.
How many works did Balanchine make during his long, long career that embraced tribalism or a political movement or even came close to reflecting the times? Damn few, if any. Balanchine's prolific years spanned two World Wars, the Holocaust, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, the Bay of Pigs, decades of painful segregation and riots, assassinations of King and Kennedys, the invention of television, the first walk on the moon, Roe v Wade, and on and on and on. Did he use the times as topics for his choreography? No, he didn't. In fact, he created beautiful work that actually distracted us from the ugliness of the times. He created beautiful works that served as a respite, not spit in the face. It would be in NYCB's best interests to come up with more beauty and less spit, more choreography that utilizes the balletic vocabulary and where someone's socio-political message is not the focal point.
People are sick of tribalism and extremism and nobody needs pompous lecturing from a bunch of ballet dancers. Nobody needs to hear their "take" on what is happening in our society. Just dance – or risk losing the audience.
