Haglund's Heel

Food for thought From Soup to Nuts

These are Campbell's tomato and chicken noodle soups in 1948, the year that New York City Ballet was founded by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein.

These are Campbell's tomato and chicken noodle soups 71 years later in 2019:

Not much tinkering there in 71 years, is there?

Despite product managers' efforts to come up with the next biggest thing, that is, the next soup that will make everyone forget tomato and chicken noodle, and despite their most dedicated efforts to move the art of soup forward into the next century, everyone still buys more tomato and chicken noodle soup than any other Campbell soup. 285,000,000 cans each year (200 million chicken & 85 million tomato).

Campbell knows that these core products are the pillars of its master brand. It doesn't expect people to conclude that it's time to try something else and to be daring, e.g., white cheddar tripe soup or chunky suspicious mushroom soup, just so the food critics will have something to write about. They don't take risks with their master brand core product, and they don't try to force people to buy something in its stead. These two soups are on the shelf wherever Campbell products are sold. And that's been the story for a lot longer than 71 years.

When the day comes that the only way one can buy Campbell's tomato or chicken noodle is in a three-pack with white cheddar tripe and chunky suspicious mushroom soups, that will signal great trouble for Campbell's and a great disregard for its loyal customer base. In a nutshell, it would be nuts.

Likewise, a spring program audaciously entitled Peck Meets Balanchine, with its irreverent implications and which sandwiches a single tasty patty between two big highly-processed nutritionless buns, has summoned ballet's Clara Pellers to sound off "Where's the beef? Where's the beef?!" As much as we admire and love Balanchine's Symphony in Three Movements, we're not going to plunk down money for a Clara Peller program that is two-thirds bread. Just sayin' ...

More beef, please.

 

 

 

 

NYCB winter season blahs are behind us

New York City Ballet’s Winter Season ended yesterday with a whimper rather than with a Balanchine bang – the type of bang that makes you wish the season had not ended and makes you immediately start looking forward to spring. But this final performance curiously had no Balanchine in it at all. It was a Robbins program of ballet lites. The lovely In the Night was bookended by Interplay and N.Y Export: Opus Jazz which featured several of the same dancers, not to mention similar costume colors, to go with the recognizably similarities in the choreography.

 

In the Night featured a cast of strong principals, who while perhaps were not having their best performances, did manage to make this nearly 40-year-old ballet seem timeless. The other two ballets featured competent enough corps dancers along with soloists Peter Walker, Sara Adams, and Indiana Woodward. Some of yesterday's corps dancers generally do fine in Robbins’ works but cannot distinguish themselves in Balanchine’s works – on occasion even looking out of place. We wonder what it’s going to take for Devin Alberda to stop looking for places in the choreography where he can rest. When will Lars Nelson acquire stretched lines and feet and any hint of a dancer’s presentation? We’re sorry if they did not in years past get the opportunities to dance that they felt they deserved, but honestly, there were and still are artistic reasons for that. 

 

However, there were some corps dancers on stage yesterday who delivered an extra kick in their performances that made them very worthwhile to follow: India Bradley, Mimi Staker, Emma Von Enck, Spartak Hoxha, Roman Mejia, and Gilbert Bolden III. We realize that Bolden’s physique is not yet what it should be, but we’re holding out hope for him because he’s got technique, power, and tremendous presentation. But what really intrigued us was the potential for electric performances if the immensely likable and technically gifted Mejia were to ever get paired up with the junior Von Enck, a hummingbird with uncommon articulation in her dancing. They never even came close to one another in N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz yesterday, but it was impossible not to notice how each one gave off similar vibes on stage.

 

The Winter Season offered fewer than usual highlights. Lauren King’s Lilac Fairy, Sterling Hyltin’s and Indiana Woodward’s Auroras, Theresa Reichlen’s Carabosse, Anthony Huxley’s Désiré, Maria Kowroski’s Mozartiana and Agon, and both Kowroski and Sara Mearns along with Daniel Ulbricht in Variations Pour Une Porte Et Un Soupir brought much joy. What the season was missing was a bigger share of defining moments by leading men. We can’t pretend that the company’s Winter Season didn't suffer from the absence of Danchig-Waring, De Luz, Ramasar, and Catazaro, and possibly even Veyette. It further suffered from the selfish grandstanding and lying by Ashley Bouder who seems to be on the verge of a breakdown and separation from reality. She even found the Instagram account of Jon Stafford’s in-law who had posted a congratulatory note about Jon. Bouder jumped on the in-law’s account to publicly admonish the relative for not also congratulating Wendy Whelan. As they say, who does this bitch think she is? Going after the new boss’s relative on Instagram is serial stalker behavior. Therapy is in order if not company discipline. 

 

The reality is that Stafford is the new artistic director. Period. The reality is that Wendy Whelan is going to be doing pretty much exactly what Sean Lavery did for many years as Assistant to the Ballet Master in Chief, Peter Martins. Lavery planned the seasons, taught, coached, and whatever. That’s what Wendy will be doing in addition to going out and looking for new choreographers - which makes us all nervous. And while we commend Stafford for his generous attitude toward Wendy and the projection of partnership, the fact remains that he will be supervising all artistic matters and that includes what Wendy does. If Wendy’s ideas about new choreographers are a bust, Stafford ultimately will be held accountable. 

 

It’s only seven weeks until the start of the spring season. Here’s hoping that we see the return of Danchig-Waring, Ramasar, Catazaro, and possibly Veyette along with the return of all of those ballerinas who have been out with injuries. We could have a spring season filled with extraordinary dancing or a spring season filled with pettiness, identity politicking, and egomaniacal maneuvering. Place your bets.

 

 

Finally ...

New York City Ballet announced today that Jon Stafford has been named to the position of Artistic Director of BOTH NYCB and SAB. An excellent choice, we believe. In fact, our first choice from the very beginning. In fact, our first choice going back to when Stafford retired and took up posts at both NYCB and SAB years ago.

The company also announced that Wendy Whelan will be Associate AD. We hope that works out and that it doesn't evolve into a political divide the way it did when Suzanne Farrell joined Peter Martins' team. We also hope that Sarah Jessica doesn't start parading Wendy around as "the face" of NYCB.

Announcement

 

Hitchcock by BalanchineVariations Pour Une Porte et Un Soupir 2/26

A new set of Jaws chewed its way into the House of Balanchine last night. Debuting in the role of the all-powerful, seductively sinister Door in Variations Pour Une Porte et Un Soupir, Sara Mearns may have initially looked like she bit off a little more than she could chew, but she ended up gulping down this role whole. 

 

For those who don’t get Haglund’s Jaws reference, it comes from the enormous black fabric attached to the Door that billows and morphs into various shapes until in the end it looks like the enormous dorsal fin of you-know-who. After 20 minutes of torturing, testing and bumping the Sigh to the sound of threatening creaks, screeching hinges and – dare we say – jack-hammering teeth, the Door’s billowing blackness washes over the Sigh like a big wave, and she swallows him whole, finally closing her arms over head more like a Venus flytrap clapping shut. The end. Period. Try going to sleep after that.

 

The Sigh, one of Daniel Ulbricht’s most masterful takes on a character (the other being Prodigal Son which we will see this week also), whines, pines and pleads for the Door’s attention. “I want IN!” he cries while pounding his fists in the air. He whimpers. He slides about the stage in frustration. He becomes exhausted only to rise again to try another tactic to get the Door to open. He’s got OCD like a mouse on a treadmill or a dog chasing its tail. He wants IN – or as Alfred Hitchcock might have suggested, perhaps he really wants OUT. Perhaps he wants the Door to open to let out a Sigh. This unique theater piece by Balanchine really needs to be performed more frequently than it has been. It teases the imagination like nothing else that he created.

 

The H.H. Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon Sara Mearns and Daniel Ulbricht for masterfully turning the stage into a Hitchcockian organism where we could delight in the horror instead of being repelled by it. We should remind everyone that Mearns’ I Married An Angel will be at NY City Center as part of the Encores Series. Seven performances will run from March 20 through March 24. Tickets here. And Ulbricht’s annual Dance Against Cancer Benefit is slated for April 22nd at Alice Tully Hall. Tickets here.

 

 

Bouder's on the pity-pot

How disappointing that Ashley Bouder has elected to act like Carabosse because she was not allowed to reign over the opening night of Sleeping Beauty and had to defer to a brilliant and beautiful colleague who better embodied the role as intended by the choreographer. According to her latest emetic rant to the NYT, it has nothing to do with her dancing and everything to do with her outspokenness. After all, Aurora on opening night belongs to her, right? She owns it, right? She’s entitled, right? Ashley may be confusing the fairy tale world with the real one. Her thickness and the coarseness in her dancing no longer make her a good fit for Aurora which was clearly evident last week. She’s lucky that she wasn’t pulled from it permanently.

 

Peter Martins changed casting all the time when he was the director, and at the last minute. The casting of his productions is his. The casting of Ratmansky’s productions are his own decisions. (We may have that to thank for not ever having to witness the gruesome accident that would be the Celebrina’s Aurora at ABT.) Moving Bouder from opening night to third cast was not a last minute change. It was made weeks ahead of opening night, before casting was announced to the public, and was an alteration to the let’s keep everything the same so as not to ruffle anyone’s feathers preliminary casting. The casting was announced on January 30th. Here we are three weeks later, and Bouder is now ranting to the press because she didn’t get opening night. When is this crap going to stop?

 

For Martins, protecting the integrity of the performance always took precedent over protecting the egos of dancers. His sudden changes in the casting of Serenade when NYCB traveled to Saint Petersburg in the early part of this century is a huge chapter in the documentary Bringing Back Balanchine. Cast changes are a fact of life. For 30 years NYCB’s dancers lived with sudden cast changes — happily, because it often meant someone would receive an unexpected opportunity. We wonder how Bouder concluded that the changes weren’t made in part due to Martins’ preference for Janzen over Garcia. We wonder if Bouder objects to putting the best overall pair on the stage on opening night? This sense of entitlement by some of these on-their-way-out ballerinas and their willingness to mount (and NYCB’s inability to stop) a media campaign of juvenile complaining every time they don’t get their ways is disgusting. Hopefully Ashley will be spared her entire life from ever having to work in the real world where one has to do tasks one doesn’t like while taking orders from a person one doesn’t like eight hours a day. And oh my goodness, she calls Martins a “tyrant” because he moved her to third cast. Yes, that’s exactly what a “tyrant” is folks — at least it's Ashley’s high school equivalent understanding of the term.

 

It’s hard to understand why NYCB, given all of the damage that its employees including Bouder have caused it, doesn’t institute rules against going to the press with employment complaints. My goodness, do we see the violinist at the NY Phil running to the NYT to complain about not getting an opening night or about a nasty rehearsal? Do the singers at the Met run to the press to complain about casting? More importantly, why don’t we see the NYT publishing complaints from its own women employees about inappropriate conduct within NYT? Why won’t the NYT publish complaints among its employees of Jewish faith about the paper’s treatment of Israel? Here’s the answer: The NYT will not permit among its employees the type of outspokenness that Ashley Bouder enjoys and exploits to the detriment of NYCB and her colleagues. Publicly pointing a nasty middle finger at Sterling Hyltin for defending her boss could not be more Carabosse-like.

 

Bouder is not bigger than NYCB and should not be permitted to act like it. She’s closing out her career inelegantly and hoping that she can create interest in her dancing by complaining about everyone else. It’s a shame when someone thinks their only path to being a hero is to claim victimization, like Smollett.

 

 

observations 2/20

This afternoon New York City Ballet filed its answer and a motion to dismiss the Waterbury complaint which it expects to be heard in court on April 22. The company has filed only on behalf of itself, not SAB, and explained that SAB is a separate entity neither owned nor operated by NYCB. So, it seems that a separate answer from SAB can be expected shortly.

All of it seems to be very straight forward and persuasive, particularly the memorandum of law.

In addition to taking the wind out of Waterbury's sails, these responses will probably leave Alastair Irrelevant and Gia Klueless feeling terribly dejected and depressed -- perhaps even crushed. Interestingly, NYCB's law firm is also the NYT's. Perhaps that's why Irrelevant & Klueless have cut back on their nasty, baseless attacks and bullying. Possibly someone roped them back into their smelly, manure-filled stalls.

 

NYCB 2/13 – Sleeping Beauty opening night

Love worked out well for the young couple on the first night of New York City Ballet’s The Sleeping Beauty, the 28-year-old beauty of a production created by Peter Martins after Petipa and which incorporates Balanchine’s Garland Dance. In a sense, this version is streamlined the way that Balanchine streamlined his Swan Lake. It is packed with high energy dancing, and it moves forward turning Perrault’s pages like an Evelyn Wood speed reader.

But is it too fast? Not really. The music never accelerates to the point where Valery Gergiev takes his score with the Mariinsky Orchestra. You want to hear fast? Take a listen to his Sleeping Beauty. And then who would care to argue with Maestro Gergiev that he’s not conducting Tschaikovsky at the right speed? The NYCB production feels rushed, in part, due to the abbreviated bows after the variations, the rushing off stage, and then – wham bam – we’re into the next dance. Pauses customary in other productions are not there. Nor are the dancers permitted to schmooze with the audience at the end of their variations the way other companies’ dancers do, including Gergiev’s. Further, the entire score which usually runs about 160 minutes is not used. Whatever non-dancey music that went unused would have slowed down the pace a little. But honestly, Haglund did not mind being able to exit the theater at 10:05 pm.

The evening’s Aurora, Sterling Hyltin, fit the role perfectly: quick, light, sharp, and warm as a stream of morning sunshine. Those pas de chat in her first variation were tucked under her as neatly and effortlessly as a marionette’s feet pulled up by strings. The series of double pirouettes with various port de bra endings that travelled upstage were nailed confidently. There were lovely musical moments such as when she rotated a low arabesque upstage achieving the most harmonious line with her limbs and a lovely tilt of the head upward. Overall, her dancing was wonderfully elegant with softly bent wrists, relaxed hands, and an overall softness in the shoulders.

 

In more than a half century of watching Sleeping Beauty, Haglund has seen the Rose Adagio performed perfectly perhaps twice, but not more than that. And yet, he’s seen probably 100 Rose Adagios that he enjoyed of which half he also admired. If an audience member needs to express disappointment in any performance of the Rose Adagio that does not meet his idea of perfection, then he’s really saying more about himself than the ballerina’s performance. Perfection in the Rose Adagio is a fairly uncommon occurrence. Struggling with one or more of the eight balances is what we see most frequently from everyone. Success is a range, not an all or none event.

 

On Wednesday evening, Sterling Hyltin was never in danger of losing her balance in the Rose Adagio and managed to find a fleeting fifth position with arms overhead each time. Her form was darned good. Overall the entire section was very pretty with no hint of boastfulness or arrogance. She was a 16-year-old trying to make a tough choice among suitors who were vying for her. Jared Angle, Ask la Cour, Andrew Scordato, and Taylor Stanley as the suitors of Europe, America, Asia and Africa played their very brief roles like they wanted us to remember them. Some of the dagger looks that Scordato threw at the other competing princes were priceless. 

 

Russell Janzen’s debut as Prince Désiré got off to a very good start in the Hunt Scene and Vision Scene where his search for love and distress were conveyed convincingly at the foot of the stage. But his stamina fizzled out noticeably later on. His double tours were not always secure and his manège of coupé jeté en tournant began to fade halfway through.That said, Janzen was loaded with princely quality and partnered Aurora elegantly. Even the quick save of the third fish dive in the grand pas de deux looked calmly gallant. By the way, all of those fish dives were done with one arm and with beautiful form. 

 

Teresa Reichlen, gracious and confident as the Lilac Fairy, danced with a spaciousness and grandness that conveyed her ability to protect the entire kingdom. She should be commended for keeping her straight face when Maria Kowroski’s Carabosse engaged her in the Death vs. 100 Year Sleep Debate. Aaron Sanz’s richly dramatic and acutely musical Catalabutte walked the fine line between character and caricature. 

 

Emilie Gerrity as The Fairy of Tenderness and all of the Jewels: Anthony Huxley (Gold), Megan LeCrone (Diamond), Brittany Pollack (Emerald), and Ashley Laracey (Ruby) gave outstanding performances. Erica Pereira and Daniel Ulbricht danced the Princess Florine and Bluebird segment as well as or better than we’ve ever seen in any production anywhere.

 

The Corps de Ballet in the Vision Scene made Haglund’s heart sing. Those ballonnes flying across the stage were a sight to behold and were made all the more beautiful by their speed. 

 

As Sleeping Beauties go, this is a beautiful one. Wednesday night’s dancers delivered performances with tremendous commitment and pride. And why shouldn’t they? This is one of the biggest financial and artistic successes that Peter Martins made for NYCB. The company needs to dance it. We’re glad that they do.

 

The H.H. Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon Sterling Hyltin for her glistening Aurora on Wednesday evening.

 

 

 

Ater-ballet

Ater: a Latin adjective that means dark, gloomy, black, dismal, malicious, or unlucky.

 

New York City Ballet served up a heap of that this past week on the George Balanchine Stage at Lincoln Center. Some of it was sophisticated art that remains groundbreaking after nearly a half century while some of it was insipid cliche. 

 

We have long speculated that George Balanchine made Variations Pour Une Porte et Un Soupir (February 1974), in part, to remind his runaway muse that he could always build a better mousetrap than Maurice Bejart, who had previously choreographed to the same score, and thus entice her to beat a path back home to his door from Brussels. Complete conjecture is, of course, one of our specialties here on H.H., but we tend to be lucky with some of our guesses. The muse resumed communicating with Balanchine that same year and arrived home in 1975. Prior to Balanchine’s Variations, Bejart had used the same Pierre Henry sound score for a then-risky work in which his dancers improvised movement at every performance. His dancers mostly did the limb-whipping, joint-snapping, and floor-work that today’s choreographers think they have invented as the next greatest thing and the necessary antidote to classical/neoclassical ballet. Balanchine, we argue, made much better use of the sound score.

 

Composer Pierre Henry was one of the inventors of musique concrète, a quasi-genre in which noises are “sculpted” into new forms of non-traditional music. His Variations Pour Une Porte et Un Soupir spans 25 mostly 1-2 minute segments of which Balanchine used 14 and Bejart used 16. Henry's titles for the Variations included Swinging, Bray, Singing, Fever, Snoring, Gymnastics, Waves, Trance, Anger, Breathing, Death, but their compositions came entirely from manipulating the sounds of human sighs, a creaking & slamming door, and a musical saw. When married to the choreographic imaginings of Balanchine, these noises became anthropomorphic. The door was perceived to be threatening – at times sounding like it was swinging back and forth in unhinged anger. It groaned warnings –– this as Maria Kowroski (the Door) unhinged her hips to slice through the air with her legs. There were sounds like a power tool that was “waiting" for something to hammer or cut. And there outside the door was Daniel Ulbricht’s Sigh — whimpering, whining, desperate for the door to open — clearly begging without knowing the trouble for which he was asking. He pleaded and pleaded for the door to open while trying every conceivable method to get to its other side.

 

Attached to Maria’s white unitard was a billowing black caped dress that nearly filled the stage. She disappeared under it time and time again and then reappeared like some non-negotiating lethal force. The prop dress which was manipulated off-stage by handlers repeatedly swelled into an ominous black form and then sank. At one point, the back of the cape assumed the form of a huge black dorsal fin with a pair of pectoral fins forming on the sides. No, we mean a huge dorsal fin as big as – as big as – yes, as big as JAWS. And there was Maria in her white unitard as the underbelly of this huge fin-like cape. Let’s pause to point out that following an extensive public relations and marketing campaign that went on for months, the novel JAWS was released to the public in February, 1974 – the same month as this premiere – and shot to the top of every bestseller list. Nobody has to agree with Haglund about the caped dress taking on the shape of a terrifying shark fin, but everyone will agree after watching this piece the next time. (Just when you thought it was safe to stop reading Haglund…)

 

Variations Pour Une Porte et Un Soupir is one-of-a-kind in the Balanchine canon and everywhere else. It’s so good and so unique that in almost 50 years, it has been, possibly, the single Balanchine idea that no one has imitated. 

 

In contrast, Mauro Bigonzetti’s In Vento included a lot of rehashing of concepts from his previous two works for NYCB, Vespro and Oltremare. [Ed. Note: Thanks to the HH'eeler who subsequently pointed out that In Vento preceded Oltremare, not vice versa.] When the line of dancers began walking in single file at the front of the stage from right to left, we immediately thought that they all had forgotten their suitcases until we realized that was Oltremare we were remembering. When Harrison Ball performed a brilliant solo of taxing air and floor work, we wondered why the on-stage piano had been omitted that evening until we realized we were remembering similar choreography in Vespro. Even the corps work looked similar, although it was sometimes hard to tell because the stage lighting was the same dim lighting that Bigonzetti offered in Vespro and Oltremare. He’s a choreographer who truly doesn’t want the audience to see what is going on.

 

But we didn’t confuse everything that we saw. When the male dancers picked up the women to spin them like windmills and then stopped them upside down with their legs up in the air in V-shapes with the men’s chins stuck pointedly toward the women’s anal areas, we figured out where the title In Ventro (in wind) came from. That must have been as nice to rehearse over and over again as it was to watch.

 

We thoroughly enjoyed the Jerome Robbins program of Interplay, In the Night, and N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz – a whole evening devoted to three distinct groups of friends dancing together. Interplay illustrated the spirited play yard one-upmanship among the type of carefree youths recognizable from our own lives. The youths in N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz had a New York Broadway energy and more grown up ideas on their minds. In the Night gave us three adult couples, each at a different point in their love affairs. Sterling Hyltin and Tyler Angle were in potent fresh love; Sara Mearns and Ask la Cour were a couple who had been together for a while — now comfortable going through the same motions although their sizzle had seemingly fizzled. Tiler Peck and Jared Angle were in the throes of a challenging lovers’ quarrel: No, I quit, Maybe, Now, Yes, I don’t want to talk about it, Never, I give up until tomorrow but I desperately need you tonight. 

 

Robbins was always able to pick the right music for his dances, even when there was no music at all. Morton Gould’s Interplay between piano and orchestra told the story before Robbins set a single step. In Robert Prince’s composition for N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz, the trumpets wailed more seductively while the bass powered a simmering passion that Robbins' choreography captured.The melancholy in Chopin’s Nocturnes demanded an under-lighted stage for In the Night where a variety of emotions swirled in privacy. Robbins had a knack for finding the right music for creating dances – a knack in short supply among today's choreographers making work at NYCB.

 

Maybe it’s time for a Directors’ Choices Festival at NYCB. The Music Director and Artistic Director should choose the music for all of the new choreography to ensure that each evening is balanced and that regardless of the choreographic content, the music will be enjoyed/appreciated by the audience. The music comes first. Then send out an RFP (Request for Participants, not proposals) in which ballet choreographers are invited to create ballets in which they have absolutely no say in what the music is, how many or which dancers are used, or what the costumes and scenic designs are. None. They don’t even see the designs until the dress rehearsal. All they have to do is create choreography. AND they must agree to submit their creations to a rigorous, heartless, brutal editing process by NYCB's Artistic, Music, and Costume Directors and possibly other producer-types. It’s time to get serious and stop wasting wads of money on whatever kitsch or offensive crap can be sold. 

 

Our H.H. Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon Daniel Ulbricht and Maria Kowroski for the extraordinary theatrical experience that they delivered to us in Balanchine’s Variations Pour Une Porte et Un Soupir.

 

 

 

 

observations 1/31

Haglund'eelers are snapping up the tickets to the February 19 screening of the Royal Ballet's La Bayadere at Landmark Theater Cinemas on W. 57th St. We all recall how the RB's Swan Lake sold out quickly which necessitated opening up a second screening room for the overflow crowd; but there is no guarantee that another screening room will be opened this time. So, we recommend getting your tickets ASAP. No opportunity to see Marianela Nuñez should be missed.

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Haglund is skipping the Justin Peck premiere this evening. Of late, the choreographer hasn't made enough progress and has continued to offer up the same schtickky pseudo-intellectual pop dope accompanied by media which suggests it's like some gift from Christ. On a program where NYCB has elected to celebrate, promote, and normalize the violence and misogyny inherent in rap music, it all becomes too easy to walk away from. 

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In our review of NYCB's Tschaikovsky program, we neglected to mention the outstanding debut that Emilie Gerrity made as the Dark Angel in Serenade. A dancer who possesses near-perfect physical and technical form, Emily is a full-service ballerina who excels in the stark black and white ballets as well as the lusciously romantic ones. Burned into the memory is the image of her in Serenade where her stationary arabesque ascended slowly until it pointed to the heavens.

We're happy to report that on Tuesday evening, Teresa Reichlen soared in Tschaikovsky PC 2 as we hoped she would following her timid performance last week. Her temperature was perfect for the main ballerina role: slightly cool, approachable, confident. The dancing was strong, assertive without being brash, and glamour-worthy of the tiara atop her head. Loved the performance.

But Mozartiana -- good grief, what a miscast. Such bull-in-a-china-cabinet mucking around we got from Sara Mearns. Clomp, clomp, clomp went the hops on pointe with cutesy expression. She seemed to be having such a good time missing her steps and trying to turn them into artistry. And, trust us, whenever anyone hears a ballerina publicly over-proclaim how important a role is to her and what it means to be allowed to dance it, you know damn well that she knows she should not be dancing it. But she was having such a wonderful time...  How about thinking more about the quality and integrity of what one is putting on stage rather than whether one is having a great time. Hopefully, this is the last season that we'll have to see Mearns in Mozartiana.

We found Harrison Ball's Gigue pretty darned pleasing -- dancing, musicality, and especially expression. The only thing we object to were those moments where it looked like he might consider them a place to get a little rest. The front attitude in plie that came at the end of a musical phrase arrived on time but not with the punctuation that one sees in Ulbricht's performances where there are definitely no resting places.

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In the Department of Who Takes Their Arts Seriously: There was an uproar among the public and performing artists this month in Kyrgyzstan when the Kyrgyz National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater allowed their theater to be used for a Cyber Sports tournament of Dota 2, the multi-player computer game devoted to violence and war. Such was the uproar – which included baritone Tair Beisheev's public declaration that a "terrible event" was taking place where great names, the sons and daughters of Kyrgyzstan had performed – that the director of the theater was dismissed by the country's Culture Minister. The country's Prime Minister signed a decree relieving the director of his position. Aren't we lucky here in America where Kanye West's violence and misogyny can be glamorized and normalized on the ballet stage in the name of promoting diversity without any such consequences?

 

NYCB Week 1Serenade, Mozartiana, Tsch Piano Concerto No. 2

Somebody’s out of shape.

A month and a half of holiday eating and then – wham bam! – it’s right into a string of seven performances at NYCB without so much as an episode of Law & Order with chips from the couch for a breather. But that’s the balletomane’s life. Truth be told, the law & order on the George Balanchine Stage at Lincoln Center during the first week of the Winter Season certainly helped to calm our junk food/anxiety/political pangs. 

 

Balanchine, Stravinsky, and Tschaikovsky kept the goings on stage on the straight & narrow. Energy was high, fifths were flat, and the dancing was in service to the art. The Corps de Ballet in Serenade has never looked more ravishingly beautiful or moved with a greater sense of sisterhood than they did last week. The women entered the stage time and time again as if carried by winds and often exited with faces turned upward to the sky to catch the light. 

 

Two casts of principals complemented the Corps de Ballet stars for the four performances of Serenade. Tiler Peck’s wondrous Russian Girl caught the spirit of the corps and danced with a vibrant independence and luscious musicality. Hers was the highlight performance among the principals. Lauren Lovette’s debut as the Waltz Girl in the alternate cast showed great promise. She also showed lovely musicality but on a smaller scale. And while the pairing of Lauren with Ask la Cour looked odd, it really didn’t hurt their individual performances. Ask’s debut in this role showed him to be in very good form and partnering with his usual elegance and faultless coordination. Aaron Sanz debuted and danced the other male role in all four performances. It’s a tougher assignment than the male role that is matched with the Waltz Girl because this secondary male must partner each of the three women principals as well as a slew of corps dancers who come flying toward him at full speed. Aaron didn’t allow himself to become overwhelmed although his concentration and determination were evident. This guy’s classical dancing and dramatics in the core repertory could take NYCB to a new level in the near future so long as he does not get injured from being over burdened with partners who are too large or thrown into too much worthless new choreography that relies on stupid pet tricks. He’s among the most handsome dancers in the company with an extremely readable face; he doesn’t need to wear more makeup than Sara Mearns. 

 

Speaking of makeup, if a dancer has a hard feature, is it really wise to emphasize it with black-red lipstick? Half of the principal ladies in Serenade seemed to think that black-red lipstick would make a difficult smile more appealing. It doesn’t make thin lips look bigger, and it has an extremely unflattering effect on a dropped expression. 

 

Mozartiana received exquisite readings from both Maria Kowroski and Sterling Hyltin although on different scales: Maria’s dancing in Mozartiana continues to burn with ever-increasing brightness like our own aging sun in our solar system; Sterling’s interpretation of Mozartiana is just beginning to form and release glow and warmth. Both artists seem to understand that they can trust the choreography and do not need to over-do facial expressions or convey faux happiness or drama. The lightness and weightlessness in their dancing and interpretations revealed the brilliance in the choreography.

 

Tyler Angle and Anthony Huxley each responded to the lightness of their ballerinas in kind. Tyler is dancing superbly this season with speed and articulation that one normally doesn’t see in a man his size. Anthony’s dancing has reached yet another level of brilliance. His every moment on stage is polished to perfection. In Mozartiana – first of all, he kills in the white tights – he blitzed through the allegro knocking out batterie with such straightforward clarity that it made one wonder why anyone else would have to struggle with it.

 

Daniel Ulbricht and Troy Schumacher shared performances of the Gigue, and both danced the steps cleanly and with energy. What made Daniel’s far more exciting was his intensity and his ability to dance on the front of each note — always on the music, but on the very front of the note.

 

Completing this program was the Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2. Ashley Bouder, Joseph Gordon and Lauren King led the first cast; Teresa Reichlen, Tyler Angle, and Megan LeCrone led the second. Lauren King’s performances were unquestionably the highlight of the current run. She out-danced, out-graced, out-performed everyone else and made this ballet about the “turning ballerina” which is what her role is nicknamed. Lauren’s progress over the years has been slow & steady - an anomaly at NYCB where the stars tend to rise quickly. But good heavens, she stole the show in this ballet and probably would have been more watchable in the lead ballerina role.

 

Ashley Bouder got her allegro steps just fine but offered little else. The upper body and arms were graceless. Due to the buildup of the muscles in the shoulders and arms, her port de bras is now shorter than ever. The extension of the leg and foot in developpe, while accurate, is not a particularly lovely line and shape. From the first note, it did not seem like this was a good matchup of dancer and ballet. Ashley is quite wonderful to see in lightning fast allegro of the Concerto DSCH variety, but big ballerina roles should be shelved. 

 

We can’t say what might have happened to Teresa Reichlen in the alternate cast, but her performance looked like her timid debut from several years ago. Fortunately, that debut was followed by powerhouse performances that demonstrated her ownership of the role. Hopefully, we’ll see that again in the coming week.

 

Megan LeCrone did not fare well in TPC 2 either. Joyless dancing with stern concentration made the role look terribly small and unimportant. 

 

As for the men, Tyler Angle once again delivered a solid performance as Teresa’s partner while powerfully and cleanly dispatching the allegro. Joseph Gordon enjoyed an excellent debut, but his matchup with Ashley was not pleasing. He was mesmerizing during the Andante non troppo when he partnered the two lines of women. Everything was vivid and worth watching: his own lines, his face, his reverie, his gracious manner with all of the ballerinas. Wherever his heart went in that section, we went, too.

 

The new costumes for TPC 2 were likable for several reasons: the blue-gray-navy color scheme is a bit unusual but handsome; the sparkles look good; the bodices are elaborate enough to go atop tutus. The only objection to this costume (as well as the previous ones) is the length of the skirt combined with the weight of the fabric which gives it a cocktail dress look. A cocktail length skirt looks fabulous overtop stilettos. Not so over a flat foot. Nor is the clingy cocktail length the best friend to the short leg. The cocktail length also looks odd below a tiara-ed head. Tiaras go with tutus or floor length gowns, not cocktail dresses. The combination of tiara and elaborate bodice over somewhat plain cocktail skirt yielded an unbalanced look. That said, we’ll take ‘em. They are an improvement over the peachy things of the past — they're just not the tutus that we had our hearts set on.

 

Our H.H. Pump Bump Award for last week’s Tschaikovsky program is bestowed upon Lauren King whose name was on the lips of many after each of her three glorious performances.