Haglund's Heel

1/21 & 1/22NYCB opens with a whimper, not a bang

NYCB got off to a somewhat insignificant start to its Winter Season. There was no anthematic Serenade to open the gates of Balanchine. Rather, there was a mostly forgotten, mostly unimportant but for its rich production designs, mostly low energy Danses Concertantes that was supposed to welcome the masses home. How does one make a tiny glissade, tiny assemble with tiny beat followed by tiny pique attitude not look like a 4:30 p.m. classroom combination at Steps? It’s up to the artists to figure that out. They were still working on it opening night. Maybe tonight will be better or at least good enough to talk about later.

 

Movements for Piano and Orchestra was in top form with Teresa Reichlen and Ask la Cour supported by Marika Anderson, Ashley Hod, Emily Kikta, Isabella LaFreniere, Miriam Miller, and Gretchen Smith. This was an extraordinary display of kinetic geometry. Powerful forces of energy, impactful attitudes, razor sharp accuracy of positions all combined to make this performance memorable. Such a great job from everyone. Monumentum pro Gesualdo faired less well. A strange and unattractive combination of corps physiques led to audience wincing. But Teresa Reichlen and Ask la Cour made the short piece watchable.

 

Stravinsky Violin Concerto suffered similarly in the corps; there were some wide torsos that the lighting spread across the stage. However, it was an absolute thrill to see Adrian Danchig-Waring dancing his best, his most powerful, his most joyful, and showing his leadership skills. This was the level of dancing one hopes to see every night at NYCB. His partner, Sara Mearns, was confident and capable but there wasn’t that mesmerizing rapport that we saw when Sara danced this ballet opposite Taylor Stanley a while back. We really want to see those two tangle or tango in some tangy duet again soon.

 

Lauren Lovette and Joseph Gordon are each growing as principals. Their limbs looked lovely together in Stravinsky Violin Concerto, and they both had the same level of youthful energy. Again, it’s a question of the dancers being able to figure out how to add depth and texture to the dancing (without relying on the eyebrows) to bring the most power to the choreography. If a dancer isn’t born with the ability, he or she has to figure it out. We can feel it emerging from these two dancers which makes us keen to buy more tickets.

 

Wednesday evening’s Allegro Brillante was led by Tiler Peck and Tyler Angle and a superb corps. Tiler’s tempo seemed to be a notch down from her most exciting performances of the past, but she in no way disappointed. She can tear through a diagonal of chaines like no one else and can stop them on a dime with a mischievous smile. In some respect, we wish Allegro Brilliante was scheduled for the latter part of the season, because Tiler is just revving up the steam after being out for so long with injury. However, Tyler Angle no longer fills the demands of Allegro Brillante. Yes, he is a reliable partner, which is incredibly important and valuable, but the form and technique for the rest of the ballet simply are not there. 

 

The lovely surprise of the the night was La Source performed by Megan Fairchild and Gonzalo Garcia along with Emma Von Enck in a debut that we just cannot stop celebrating. Now there is someone with innate stage power. Emma already has enormous style that adds even more light to the brilliance of Balanchine’s choreography. Ravishing Megan and elegant Gonzalo seem to be reaching their pinnacles of artistry at precisely the same time. What a stunning performance they gave us!  Karinska’s pink tutu for the lead ballerina – one of her best – made Megan look divine. They don’t come any more beautiful or perfectly matched to a ballerina’s physique and temperament. Megan’s leg lines are at their longest ever and fully stretched without being hard-looking. Each step was articulated not with a show-offy “See what I can do” but with a love of the music and choreography. Gonzalo’s allegro was crisp and clear as could be, and he had fine control of his turns. This was such a delightful ballet that, yes, we bought more tickets.

 

Firebird received a good performance from Ashley Bouder, Andrew Veyette, and Emilie Gerrity. We’ve seen Ashley dance the Firebird for many years and are familiar with what she does with it. It doesn’t seem to be a role that enables a dancer to develop much beyond the steps; so, repeated audience captivation comes from seeing what dancers’ different physical properties bring to the ballet. We look forward to seeing Sara Mearns’ debut and wish we were also seeing Isabella LaFreniere’s delayed debut as well.

 

For whatever reasons, our enthusiasm after the first two nights of the Winter Season is not as high as it usually is. The season should always start with a bang, not a whimper. What’s coming for the rest of the Winter Season may not lift our spirits much. We’ll just have to wait and see.

 

Our H.H. Pump Bump Award, designed by Nicholas Kirkwood, is bestowed upon Megan Fairchild, Gonzalo Garcia, and Emma Von Enck for their glistening performance of La Source.

 

observations 1/21

Big opening day today.

NYCB opens its winter season.

Impeachment trial opens in DC.

Counsels for NYCB, SAB, Finlay, Ramasar, Catazaro, and Longhitano finally get to argue in court their motions to dismiss the Waterbury suit.

 

observations 1/14

Today Haglund encountered a huge flock of swans hiking west down W. 62nd St after rehearsal. The Shanghai Ballet opens its Swan Lake on 1/17 at Lincoln Center. We'll be there for the Friday and Saturday evening performances. NYCB Orchestra is in the pit. Tickets are reasonably priced from $36. The company has been directed by Derek Deane for a while now which suggests that all their ducks swans will be in a row. Not a pinky will be out of place -- just the way we like it.

––––––––––––––––––––

NYCB posted the second week of casting. Ashley Bouder is still listed for all of her performances next week and additional performances in the second week even though she's currently walking around in an ortho boot – again. Here's wishing for more transparency.

This could be a stressful evening. The Jeopardy gladiators clash again tonight followed by the can't-get-the-fire-going Democrats in debate over each other's purity.

 

 

observations 1/8

Since we've missed every single Jeopardy clue so far tonight, let's take a break and talk ballet.

The Bolshoi Ballet casting for the 1/26 cinemacast of Ratmansky's new staging of Giselle has been announced as follows:

Giselle – Sunday, January 26, 2020 at 12:55 p.m. ET and PT, 11:55am MT, and 10:55am CT
Choreography: Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot, Marius Petipa
New Choreographic Version: Alexei Ratmansky
Conductor: Pavel Klinichev

CAST
Giselle: Olga Smirnova
Count Albrecht: Artemy Belyakov
Berthe, Giselle’s Mother: Anna Antropova
Hans, The Gamekeeper: Denis Savin
Giselle’s Friends: Xenia Averina, Bruna Cantanhede Galianone, Anonina Chapkina,
Olga Kishnyova, Elizabeta Kruteleva, Yulia Skvortsova, Tatiana Tiliguzova, Alexandra Trikoz
Peasant Pas de Deux: Daria Khokhlova, Alexei Putintsev
Bathilde: Nelli Kobakhidze
Myrtha: Angelina Vlashinets
Moina: Xenia Zhiganshina
Zulma: Anastasia Denisova

Check in with www.bolshoiballetincinema.com  for cinema locations and times in your city. By the way, if the cinemacast conflicts with your plans to see NYCB, keep in mind that Symphony Space will be showing Giselle on the following Tuesday 1/28 at 1pm.

––––––––––––––––––––

Speaking of NYCB – lots of fabulous casting has been announced for the first week of the Winter Season. Especially exciting is the featuring of Erica Pereira and Harrison Ball in Danses Concertantes which opens the season on January 21st and in La Source at the Saturday matinee. We've been fascinated by the growth of both artists in the past year and are looking forward to seeing what each brings out in the other. We're hopeful that Tiler and Tyler will be in awesome form for Allegro Brilliante on Wednesday the 22nd. All the casts of Stravinsky Violin Concerto look to rock this ballet. And at the Sunday matinee we'll be treated to the debuts of Brittany Pollack and Daniel Applebaum in Danses Concertantes and Mira Nadon with Adrian Danching-Waring in Monumentum & Movements.

We have tickets for every performance. See ya there.

 

NYCB – Resting on Nutcracker

New York City Ballet’s 2019 Nutcracker season wasn’t exactly a disaster. Day-old bread isn’t a disaster either; it’s edible.

While dancers complained about hearing the music for the Sugar Plum Fairy over and over again in malls and in stores everywhere, the public complained about being served up the same ballerinas over and over again in the iconic Sugarplum Fairy role while being denied the joy of unwrapping new Sugar Plum Fairies at Christmastime. It was the type of entitlement-casting that Wendy Whelan and Ashley Bouder have espoused over the past few years. Tenure doesn’t belong in professional ballet any more than it belongs in professional football. Eli Manning doesn’t have tenure. Tom Brady doesn’t have tenure. They have to continually prove their worth every week by winning — not by going on Instagram. 

 

Week after week during this Nutcracker season we saw names go up on the casting sheets for Sugarplum Fairy that should not have been there more than once or twice in the season but ended up being posted four and five times over the course of the run. And week after week, ballerinas cancelled their shows as easily as cancelling a manicure appointment. Abi Stafford cancelled five dates while still performing across town in Dances Patrelle’s student Nutcracker. Abi, who has 20+ years in, has for the past few years seemed to be an auxiliary principal who was coasting along on tenure. She announced that she won’t retire until 2022 when she graduates from law school. If ever there was a ballerina who should be retired now, it is Abi. NYCB is no place for a coasting principal ballerina who is hanging on for the employee benefits. Maria Kowroski cancelled half of her Sugar Plum Fairy performances after a disappointing start to the season. Sara Mearns cancelled a performance after combining NYCB responsibilities with various outside gigs that proved too much for her calf to sustain. We were spared four or five performances of Bouder in SPF, a role now unsuited to her, only because she got injured prior to the season. But her sense of entitlement propelled her to force herself back to the center of attention despite her chronic tendon problem. 

 

So we didn’t get a new Sugarplum Fairy for Christmas. Not Maxwell, not Clark, not Kikta, not LaFreniere, not the ever-accelerating and charming half-pints Magill and Junior Von Enck. But the old girls can breathe easier – whew, tenure saved their asses again. Thank the gods for entitlement in Club Ballet, right? Too bad about all the empty seats but, like, so what?

 

Haglund only went to a few Nutcracker performances this year due to the pricing and casting. The most stellar performances came courtesy of Lauren King who, along with Brittany Pollack, is woefully underemployed as a soloist — overdue for promotion to principal, ready to take on Allegro Brillante, Theme and Variations, and other big ballerina roles. Lauren had the misfortune of coming into the company at the same time as Tiler Peck and Sara Mearns who immediately garnered everyone’s attention. She has kept her nose to the grind working diligently which has resulted in a steady but mostly inconspicuous rise to exceptional excellence. Her Sugarplum Fairy glistened in articulation and glowed with warmth. The speed and lightness of her Dewdrop left contrails when she jumped or spun her chaine turns.  

 

Also outstanding was Sean Suozzi whose Herr Drosselmeier was mysterious with a dab of oily. Materializing from and disappearing into the darkness with the deftness of a magician, he was the family member who no one really knew. 

 

We caught the penultimate performance of the season led by Tiler Peck and Tyler Angle. Clearly, Tiler’s back was bothering her. Flexibility was non-existent and the arabesques were achieved more by opening up the hip than by using the back. It seemed to be a premature return to the stage — a risk not worth taking, particularly when there are very capable junior ballerinas lined up waiting for their first starts. Tyler, aside from expertly protecting his ballerina, had a dreadful performance. The Cavalier has so little to do in the way of a variation, but somehow, it eludes many of the NYCB men time and time again. This time, Tyler struggled through the majority of his turns a la seconde and then finished with his ass to the audience — and laughed about it. There seems to be a lot of that going around: screwing up on stage and laughing about it. How about being embarrassed, humiliated, and apologetic for not being prepared to dance the role?

 

Cainan Weber, an apprentice, showed great promise as the lead Candy Cane. He had a minor mess-up with the hoop but his energy, charisma, and joy of dancing made him very watchable. Kennard Henson, who had a fabulous performance as the Soldier earlier in the season, flatlined as Tea. He’s got a mammoth gymnastic split jump but doesn’t have a double pirouette or a double tour. How did this guy get out of SAB without being able to do a double pirouette and a double tour? How can double pirouette be a problem for any dancer in the New York City Ballet?

 

We were hoping for better performances from Daniel Applebaum and Megan LeCrone this season. Applebaum looked almost sickly weak as the Cavalier to Lauren King’s Sugarplum Fairy. He looked more emaciated than in the past and couldn’t muster the strength in his long arms to lift Lauren as he should have. His variation looked like he was marking the steps and his feet were not strongly pointed. Speaking of which, we didn’t see Megan LeCrone point the supporting foot on very many of the saute arabesques in Dewdrop. It was nice to see short spurts of festive expression, but overall, it was a dark, dark Dewdrop.

 

Props to the Snowflakes and Flowers for thrilling Haglund for the zillionth time. We only saw one little dark-haired dancer who couldn’t beat the cabrioles to the back – repeatedly – but everyone else seemed to take pride in doing them magnificently. There is enough outstanding talent in the women’s corps to make another entire company of stars. Why can’t some of the tenured primas take a Nutcracker season off once in a while to allow the company to rejuvenate? It’s time to get re-building the House of Balanchine so that it looks like the House of Balanchine again as opposed to an assisted living facility for dancers who can’t leave the stage.

 

Our Nutcracker season-ending H.H. Pump Bump Award of diamonds and gold is bestowed upon the many ladies in the Corps de Ballet who should know we all feel your frustration and to Lauren King who hopefully will soon be recognized for the exemplary ballerina that she is.

 

 

observations 12/27

NYCB is continuing to offer tickets through TDF, although they appear to be in very limited batches. Within the hour, they loaded up the 12/30 matinee in which Lauren King and Daniel Applebaum will dance SPF and Her Cavalier. Also available at the moment are the 12/30 evening and the 12/31 matinee. $40 plus $4 service fee.

We need to see more of Lauren and Daniel together in principal roles. They are among the more ideally suited pairs at NYCB at the moment.

In the same performance, Kennard Henson will dance Tea. FYI, this past week, Henson took the role of the Soldier to a stratospheric level. Never have we seen the Soldier lean backward like Henson did in that performance. Mimi Staker will lead Marzipan at the 12/30 matinee. She's been simmering in the back of the corps long enough now. Also, the gorgeous Emily Gerrity will be the 12/30 evening performance Dewdrop.

 

NYCB Nutcracker 12/5

It may not be a good sign for a ballet performance when the activation of the scenery becomes the highlight. Last evening’s performance of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker at NYCB delivered the ever brilliant electrical voltage that sparks the magic in this production, but it was a little low on human voltage.

We’re still a ways out from Christmas. Three weeks is an eternity if you’re a six-year-old waiting for Santa. So perhaps as we get closer to Christmas and the supply of sugar-loaded treats backstage increases, the children in the cast will become more irrepressibly fizzy in their excitement. They were a very well rehearsed bunch, however. The Bunny possessed a new Clint Eastwood swagger. Silas Farley’s Mouse King was very lucky that he didn’t lose his tail during the Bunny Blitz, that brief but important few seconds when the Bunny saved the Nutcracker from the Mouse King’s skewer by yanking the Mouse King’s tail.

 

Our Marie, Nutcracker Prince, and Fritz were all delightful as were the Angels who were uniform and steady as they floated along the stage carrying their little evergreen trees.

 

The best dancing of the evening came from Peter Walker in Hot Chocolate and Daniel Ulbricht as the lead Candy Cane. Walker drove through the Spanish rhythms with dominating intensity. His partner, Ashley Hod, who is still working her way back from a long injury layoff, danced carefully, but it was a relief to see her back on stage in a featured role. Alexa Maxwell, who also has been out for a long time with injury, was one of the outstanding Marzipan Shepherdesses led by Lauren King.

 

Daniel Ulbricht has been dancing the lead Candy Cane his whole illustrious career but his energy and commitment are just as high as in his early years performing this role. He still is the one who can stir an audience from its sleep as soon as he bolts out on stage with the hula hoop. Last evening his entrance was the turning point for this performance. All of a sudden, the whole evening acquired a sense of celebration –– and the kids in the audience were instantly ready to dance. Ulbricht and Erica Pereira will perform the Nutcracker leads on Sunday, December 22 at 5pm. At that performance, Isabella LaFreniere will dance the Dewdrop. By the way, there are tickets to a couple of NYCB Nutcracker matinees on TDF at the moment. It’s an unusual occurrence to see the company’s Nutcracker on TDF, but it means that more of the faithful core audience will be able to afford tickets. 

 

Our Dewdrop last evening was Megan Fairchild whose gracefulness kept her hardy technique from looking like hardy technique. It’s a little disturbing how Dewdrop at NYCB has, in a few instances, evolved into a Kitri-like character. Flash and dash, mug and slug. That’s not Dewdrop. Megan had the right idea and the right balance.

 

It’s difficult to write about our Sugarplum Fairy and Her Cavalier. The role of Sugarplum Fairy has more grand allegro in it than all of Maria Kowroski’s other repertory combined in most years. This role has considerable sentimental value for any long-term ballerina, but it is also a role that perhaps should be the first one retired due to its difficulty. Peter Martins was absolutely right to withdraw the role from Wendy Whelan’s repertory over her objections and probably should have done it a few years earlier. Her whining about it simply underscored how important it is for the company to have a strong leader who can honestly tell a dancer when she no longer looks her best in a role. It takes a strong leader to maintain that NYCB owes the audience the best that it can deliver.

 

Some jarring adjustments to the tempo by Andrew Litton in order to accommodate Maria simply magnified leaden feet and legs that were not as steady as in the past. Stamina was missing. Pirouettes were wobbly. Her Cavalier, Tyler Angle, appeared to run out of gas when it came time to do the turns a la seconde and even during the manège of coupé jetés. This performance was being filmed; large cameras were set up on both sides and in the front of the first tier. Unfortunately, this was not a performance that we’d like to see commemorate either artist.

 

The Corps de Ballet looked very strong in the Snowflake and Flower sections. It is so wonderful to see our Sequoias back moving at full speed: Christina Clark, Isabella LaFreniere, Ashley Hod. The newest Sequoia, Savannah Durham looked lovely as well. She lost her Snowflake crown at some point but that just made it easier to follow her. She has such beautiful feet, but she hasn’t quite found all of her legs yet. There is a lot to manage there and a lot to rev up to Balanchine’s speed.

 

Meanwhile, the pint-sized Emma Von Enck moved with extraordinary speed and grace among the Snowflakes. She’s the equivalent of a hummingbird in pointe shoes. 

 

We’re going to keep checking TDF for Nutcracker tickets, because we’d really like to go back several more times this season to see all of these wonderful artists.

 

The H.H. Pump Bump Award, a Louboutin red limited edition for 2019, is bestowed upon Daniel Ulbricht for always bringing such a high level of professionalism to his performances, in particularly at this time of year in his role as the Candy Cane.

 

 

 

 

observations 11/24

Like, not much has been going on – in terms of ballet, that is. A couple of cinema screenings are on the horizon:

The Royal Ballet's Nutcracker featuring Lauren Cuthbertson, Federico Bonelli, Francesca Hayward, Alexander Campbell, Gary Avis hits Landmark Cinema screens this coming Tuesday, November 26th. Here in NYC on West 57th Street, it will begin at 7PM.

The Bolshoi Ballet's new staging of Giselle by Alexei Ratmansky will be live-streamed on a delayed basis on January 26, 2020. Locations and tickets here.

Bolshoi in Cinema is promising a fresh cast for the Swan Lake transmission on February 23, 2020. Tickets here. Wouldn't it be nice if Alyona Kovalyova was cast as our Odette/Odile?

––––––––––––––––––––

NYCB's Nutcracker season opens this Friday. We'll catch up with the season during Week 2 when Maria Kowroski and Tyler Angle reprise their roles of Sugarplum Fairy and Her Cavalier.

We've gotten so tired of hearing some of the other veteran ballerinas in both of New York's companies publicly grumble about how they dread the season and how tired they get during this time of year. Instead of complaining, why don't they just step aside and let some of the deserving lower rank ballerinas have the opportunity? It seems that within all of the illustrious ballet technique they possess, one step is missing: the side step. The ability to step aside is an important aspect of ballet. How well or how poorly a ballerina executes her side steps will color our memory of her forever.

 

observations 10/16

The oral arguments in the lawsuit Waterbury vs. NYCB, SAB, Longhitano, Finlay, Catazaro & Ramasar have been further postponed to January 21, 2020. It seems that they had been postponed to November 7th without documents being posted online. Now they are being postponed again.

––––––––––––––––––––

Reminder: ABT's Koch Season is on TDF (with no costume fee) but now only two dates remain: Sat. Oct. 19th@2pm and Sun. Oct. 20th@2pm. Tickets are still available on Goldstar.com (with no costume fee) for Oct. 19th@2pm, 20th@2pm, 22nd, 23rd, 25th, 27th@2pm for $25-$54 depending on performance.

NYCB – A tipsy close to the Fall Season

Did the dancers of Sunday's finale enjoy drinks before closing down the office with Symphony in C? Oy. 

Ashley Bouder and Joseph Gordon leading the First Movement were nothing but business as they stapled down every last step to the stage – bam bam bam. Sterling Hyltin and Amar Ramasar were like the paper in the copy machine gone wild in the Second Movement. We’ve never seen so much off-partnering from these two. But it didn’t compare to the paper jam of demi-soloist pair Megan LeCrone and Christopher Grant that brought them to a complete halt on a pirouette while stuck facing one another. Grant, who usually maintains a serious-to-threatening facial expression while dancing (as does his partner), must have suddenly figured that he should try to do something right to make up for the faux pas; he instantly began smiling from ear to ear. We had no idea that the guy had such handsome teeth. The verve and efficiency of Indiana Woodward with Sebastian Villarini-Velez in the Third Movement and Brittany Pollack with Andrew Scordato in the Fourth Movement were a much needed distraction.

 

What saved this performance of Symphony in C was the sparkling Corps de Ballet. All of the ladies were ravishing and danced full-heartedly, but we simply couldn’t take our eyes off of Christina Clark, Emily Kikta, and Ashley Hod. Mira Nadon and apprentice Savannah Durham were pulling our glance, too, and it was a relief to see Isabella LaFreniere popping into the finale. Among the men, Spartak Hoxha was unmatched. It didn’t matter that he was usually in the back row, his ferocious allegro was easy to spot. 

 

More care should be taken with Symphony in C’s casting. It requires commanding ballerinas who possess the strength to project endless elegance through regal lines and imperial footwork. It is not about smirking at the audience in the First Movement or exaggerating the plies in eschappes while looking down at the feet as if to instruct the audience to do so, too. It’s not about whacking the leg back into an arabesque during the Second Movement and throwing the arms around without any sense of how they relate to the lines of the legs and the rest of the body. It’s not about trying to be cute and cheerful in the Third Movement. It’s not about blending in with the proletariat in the Fourth Movement. 

 

We should have seen at least one full and brilliant new cast in Symphony in C this season — and in the other major Balanchine ballets as well. Fielding essentially the same cast or the same two casts for each performance discouraged ticket buying. And enough is enough with these autumnal ballerinas who think they are entitled to own roles that could be danced better and with a fresh interpretation by other dancers. When a young, brilliant dancer is given an opportunity to dance a major role, it does not mean that the audience should be sentenced to watch her/him for the next 15 years to the exclusion of others—and that goes for Nutcracker, too. Here’s hoping that the Winter Season casting for Swan Lake and the major Balanchine ballets is mostly wiped clean and refurbished with new talent. 

 

The fall season brought forth stellar dancing from Emilie Gerrity in Serenade, Emeralds, and Summerspace. She is clearly already a major ballerina of great range and should be under the spotlight a lot more frequently. Let’s keep her healthy, please.

 

Still out with injury: Aaron Sanz, Alexa Maxwell, Tiler Peck. We hope that these three and all the others who missed the Fall Season for physical reasons will return for a glistening Winter. 

 

The “seasonal wrap-up” H.H. Pump Bump Award, a gleaming but cuffed & caged stiletto, is bestowed upon Emilie Gerrity and Spartak Hoxha for distinction in performance throughout the four weeks of the Fall Season.