So this happened.
So this happened.
Posted on June 08, 2025 at 12:10 PM in New York City Ballet | Permalink | Comments (4)
Notwithstanding Taylor Stanley’s impetuous, scene-stealing Puck, New York City Ballet’s Friday evening performance of Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream caused more wince than wonderment. Sure, the kids were cute enough. But how long can one sit there and witness the women heaving unsightly ill-positioned attitude derrière after ill-positioned attitude derrière thrown out from the side like gymnasts pandering to judges for a 10? Honestly, it seemed to be a main & monotonous foul in both acts of the ballet and came to a painful head in Act II when the six Divertissement ladies faced the audience and bent over in penche attitude. Oy, no two extended legs were even similar, let alone the same. What a mess to see. We noticed this issue in Ballo as well when a soloist grossly threw open the left hip in order to make the grand jete en attitude appear more grand. No, it’s not Balanchine technique, People; it’s bad form.
Posted on May 31, 2025 at 08:37 PM in New York City Ballet | Permalink | Comments (4)
Posted on May 26, 2025 at 12:19 AM in New York City Ballet | Permalink | Comments (4)
Posted on May 16, 2025 at 10:51 PM in New York City Ballet | Permalink | Comments (4)
In a stunning but artistically important move, Cassandra Trenary will leave ABT to join the Vienna State Ballet as a principal dancer working under the guidance of Alessandra Ferri who is about to become the company's director. Vienna dances traditional ballets but also more wide-ranging, artistically adventurous works, which it can afford to do with generous governmental support. It does not live or die by the commercial successes of its Swan Lake and Nutcracker.
This is how it should be at ABT & NYCB. A principal dancer should give the best that they have while it is still the best that can be had in their company's signature works and then go feed their artistic souls elsewhere. Don't hang out so we can watch the technique start to decline, steps drop like ATT cellphone calls, and artistry stagnate while upcoming talents wither away waiting for opportunities.
Haglund had kinda hoped to see Trenary lead Lady of the Camellias, but it doesn't seem that production will land on ABT's stages any time soon. Best of luck to her, and we hope that other local talents are watching her move closely.
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We're pretty excited about some of the upcoming casting for the first week of NYCB's Spring Season. Big, big opportunities for Owen Flacke, Ashley Hod, Domenika Afanasenklov, and Charlie Klesa. We're relieved to see Isabella LaFreniere return after being on the IL for too long. And we are looking forward to the cast of tall Muses in Apollo - Nadon, Miller, Kikta! Soooo, how's that broken foot coming along on Davide Riccardo -- anybody know? We're fairly anxious to get him back but we certainly don't want a repeat of Harrison Ball's foot history that ended his career.
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At this point in time, we have to recommend saving your money by giving Roundabout Theatre's Pirates, the Penzance Musical with David Hyde Pierce a pass. Pierce is in way over his head as Major General Stanley. At 66 years old, he's a very old 66 and tends not to move his body in this dance-heavy musical. His voice is weak and the patter songs are colorless and less than entertaining as he struggles with the speed and lyrics while standing still. Ramin Karimloo as Pirate King carries the show -- even with leaving his shirt on but, of course, unbuttoned. Warren Carlyle's choreography holds up well and basically holds up the show when it really shouldn't have to. Haglund may go again when the understudy for Major General Stanley steps in.
Posted on April 11, 2025 at 09:35 AM in American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet | Permalink | Comments (2)
Not many people know that the Iowa River which runs through the middle of the University of Iowa campus in Iowa City has long been home to a population of trumpeter swans. Most of them nest upstream along the shores near the Coralville Dam just north of the city. But back some 50 years ago, it wasn’t unusual to see them in pairs puttering along close to the campus riverbank when Haglund would walk across the river footbridge to his Iowa Writers’ Workshop sessions. Finding elegant swans in Iowa City where everything was designated as Hawkeye-this or Hawkeye-that somehow always seemed improbable — as improbable as finding an elegant Iowa swan at New York City Ballet where the ecosystem doesn’t include a natural habitat that would suggest one could flourish.
Posted on February 28, 2025 at 12:30 PM in New York City Ballet | Permalink | Comments (3)
Blondie & Dagwood, Marmaduke, Little Orphan Annie, L’il Abner, Barney Google — just a few of the colorful Sunday funnies that came to mind during the opening Swan Lake performance. We don’t often traffic in controversy, but is there any possible quid pro quo that New York balletomanes could offer New York City Ballet to dismiss this production with prejudice? We have to think of something.
Posted on February 22, 2025 at 10:11 AM in New York City Ballet | Permalink | Comments (12)
Posted on February 13, 2025 at 05:57 PM in New York City Ballet | Permalink | Comments (2)
Posted on February 08, 2025 at 08:08 PM in New York City Ballet | Permalink | Comments (9)
Posted on January 31, 2025 at 01:07 PM in New York City Ballet | Permalink | Comments (12)