Haglund's Heel

Merry Christmas from Haglund's Heel

       

        We had a complete changing of the guard this past year. Meet Finale a/k/a Gala Grand Finale Sugarplum Fairy. Five months old. Born in a junkyard at the side of a busy highway.

        Changing of the guard is inevitable whether a cat, a ballerina, or a president. Cats sense when it’s their time to go, and they will let a listening caregiver know it. Presidents have a more difficult time recognizing when it’s time to step aside. But what is it about a ballerina who lived decades of privilege but now tunes out the music blaring that her time is up? 

 

        (Hold on, hold on. Since it’s Christmas, maybe old Hag should settle back into his ultra-courteous mode. Ah, that’s more like it. Feet up. Mug of warm something or other. Muffins in the oven. Tree lights twinkling.) 

 

        This year’s NYCB Nutcracker had a few prosaic principal performances and too few major debuts. The one debut that actually enhanced this already-stellar production with new brilliance was Taylor Stanley’s Drosselmeier. Eyes flashing, magic in every pocket, charmingly creepy — Stanley was a Brothers Grimm version born from his own imagination. Stand aside Marie, Fritz, Bunny, Soldier, and Rat King! Drosselmeier is the main story of Act I and worthy of a place in Act II — perhaps lurking under Mother Ginger's dress or shadowing Naomi Corti’s bold new Coffee. 

 

        We weren’t able to see all of the performances we wanted due to having to choose dates months in advance of casting, but we lucked out with a trio who easily scaled the cliffs and treacherous ice of Mt. Dewdrop, planted their flags, and quipped “Come on, is this really the top?” Tiler Peck, Mira Nadon, and Emma Von Enck gave three dazzling interpretations. Aurora’s, we mean, Emma’s was like none we’ve ever seen. She released energy like a cat with the zoomies.

 

        The Sugarplum Fairies and their Cavaliers were all fine and serviceable. Joseph Gordon made the strongest impression with the greatest energy and use of space during his brief time on stage. 

 

        The “dancing” children in Act II were always well-rehearsed and seemed genuinely excited to be on stage. Of course, the little Angels were all the talk around town because one of them was the daughter of a star — wait for it — pitcher with the Yankees and most recently the Mets. (We hope the Mets re-sign free agent Ottavino. The bullpen needs him.) Little Angel Ottavino was as cute as could be. The one unsmiling Angel may have been carrying a lot of baggage for her Mommy Dearest who continues to use her as a prop to promote her own postmortem career. 

 

        As we mentioned but are mentioning again because it’s worth mentioning, there were too few principal debuts this Nutcracker season. All of the well-worn principals were out gallivanting around the world making thousands and thousands of dollars as guest artists in Nutcracker. They didn’t need to hog SPF and Cavalier roles at NYCB where the casting in those roles has no impact on ticket sales. We may as well mention that the regular season casting has shone itself to be unnecessarily repetitive, too. When the season consists of very few programs and the ballets in those programs are repeatedly cast with the same dancers, it kills audience enthusiasm. We’re tired of it. NYCB is rolling in money. ROLLING in money. It can afford to rehearse new dancers in principal roles.

 

        Our final H.H. Pump Bump Award of 2024, a stylish witchy little stiletto with snake fangs, is bestowed upon Taylor Stanley for his revealing new Drosselmeier. It felt like we were seeing Act I for the first time.

 

 

 

 

Great sadness

NYCB Conductor Clotilde Otranto.

RIP.

Legacy.com

 

NYCB 10/10 Balanchine + Ratmansky - both in top form

        Thursday night’s Balanchine + Ratmansky program capped off the fall season like a royal's fascinator. Oh my gosh, watching this new generation fashion the masterworks onto their crowns — re-tooling the tulle, as the saying goes — has us fixated.

 

        Only the sickest balletomane would obsess over the perfectly crossed, perfectly maximum turned-out back heel of Mira Nadon’s bourrees coming downstage in the Preghiera of Mozartiana. The sight of her feet compulsively tip-toeing forward with the flat profile of that back heel peeking out on the opposite side nearly triggered a Paxil emergency. Her ensuing deep cambré engaged the sacral wings in a moment that seemed to resurrect and release the choreographer’s spirit. A memorable solo indeed.

 

        The Theme et Variations by Nadon and Peter Walker gleaned the musical wit from Tschaikovsky’s re-telling of Mozart’s work while stunning with its split-second coordination in the pas de deux. Walker’s variations were excellent—only occasionally over-powered at the expense of plush landings. The leg lines and batterie were crystal clear. He possessed a beautiful arabesque profile on both the right and left sides. The final single tour, double tour combination was not quite what it should have been on the landing, but we’re not sure why. We’ve seen and admired the form of Walker’s double tours since he was a soloist. The assemblage of those mile-long legs in the air was a stunning sight to behold but the tentativeness of and reluctance to finishing on the knee suggested some kind of impairment. Nevertheless, this Mozartiana performance by Nadon and Walker made us some new beautiful memories that we will hold onto for a long, long time.

 

        Miriam Miller and Aaron Sanz in Monumentum pro Gesualdo followed by Dominika Afanasenkov and Davide Riccardo in Movements for Piano and Orchestra continued to inject new life and clarity into these esoteric Balanchine pieces. We liked the idea of different casts dancing the two works because it promoted the idea of considering each ballet on its own merits without the influence of the other. The easy length and gentle geometry of Miller and Sanz contrasted nicely with the acute shapes and seriously straight lines of Afanasenkov and Riccardo. 

 

        Emma Von Enck’s explosion of energy in Concerto DSCH set a new standard in this ballet. She’s a Ratmansky dream come true — a dancer who can actually give even more than he asks for. What an absolute delight it was to watch her take blistering command of the stage — propelling herself through the choreography as though the steps were trying to catch up with her energy. What a bright lightning bolt. However, does any of this make up for not casting her as Aurora and Coppelia? Nuh-uh. Grudge intact.

 

        Unity Phelan and Adrian Danchig-Waring were an appealing couple who brought the ease and flow required in the pas de deux. The whirling around of the ballerina in the air did not look like a strenuous windup for a hammer throw as it did in the previous cast. Harrison Coll and Sebastián Villarini-Vélez offered great charisma along with fetching tours and allegro. 

 

        Haglund kept watching the corps in Concerto DSCH, not only because Gilbert Bolden III and Davide Riccardo were making it impossible not to watch, but because Owen Flacke and Samuel Melnikov suddenly looked mature, commanding, and both huge men could move like the wind — at Ratmansky velocity. 

 

        The H.H. Pump Bump Award, a Manolo Blahnik revealing pump, is bestowed upon Mira Nadon for her memorable Mozartiana that fully revealed the beauty of the choreography.

 

 

 

NYC Ballet Gala 10/9 Signs pointing to nowhere . . .

        . . . before pointing us the wrong way into the water.

        The New York City Ballet Gala performance taxed our patience as we have come to expect over the years. Gianna Reisen’s Signs included a lot of hugging & tugging & skipping & sudden pauses to express emotion about whatever. “But we want to act and emote on stage” the dancers seemed to be saying. How about trying some ballet steps and leave the acting to the professionally trained actors? Ballet dancers create such a kerfuffle when models or actors are shown in ads or online pretending to “do ballet”. But they have no problem wading into areas on the stage that are outside their bailiwick.

 

        Reisen’s Signs offered no signs of progress for the choreographer. Dull beyond dull, academically cute beyond cute, at times it showed great admiration for Twyla Tharp — who by the way will be blowing the roof off here next week with In The Upper Room. Reisen’s Signs is not NYCB main-stage ready. The content is not there. The organization is not there. The creativity is not there.

 

        Choreographer Caili Quan checked all the boxes for NYCB: female, non-white, young, photogenic & personable, not too terribly ballet-ish. In her choreography entitled Beneath The Tides, here the principal dancers went again: “We want to act.” There was too much emotional display over nothing and a lot of watered down ballet-ish movement.  We can’t even give the costumes by Gilles Mendel a good grade. Different? Yes, sort of — corsets on both men and women. But the overall effect was hodge-podge. We were able to appreciate Tiler Peck’s costume and output which reminded us of her output in Justin Peck’s works — right down to the fouettes. In fact, it was Tiler Peck who saved the evening with her own choreography.

 

        Peck’s Concerto for Two Pianos is technically, musically, and artistically skilled and a joy to watch. Her problem, though, is the same as other choreographers who have first-cast her in their new works. Once Mira Nadon (or Tiler Peck) originates a role, it will be a long, long time before anyone else can make balletomanes happy in it. Nadon, Chun Wai Chan and Roman Mejia dazzled in the work. The corps de ballet ran with the choreography like race horses. This is what they have been brought up to do since they were foals. 

 

        It seems impossible for New York City Ballet to put on a gala without wading into identity politics these days. Can’t the company stick to dancing and fashion? Can’t we just put tribal politics in ballet aside? Detractors within ballet continually try to claim that women are its victims from grand plies to grand battements. Last evening's emphasis at NYCB’s gala that all of the choreographers for the evening were women was a point made to underscore how the ballet brotherhood has locked out women from choreographic opportunities. All of those obnoxious white males who have been monopolizing ballet choreography over the years — you know, Twyla Tharp, Agnes de Mille, Susan Stroman, Anna Marie Holmes, Bronislava Nijinska, Alicia Alonso, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Birgit Cullberg, Ninette de Valois, Martha Graham — they’re getting their comeuppance now, aren’t they? NYCB has Tharp choreography socked away in the basement. It has Taylor-Corbett, too. And Stroman. And Nijinska. If the company truly wants to celebrate the accomplishments of women choreographers, why not stage a celebratory evening of Tharp, Taylor-Corbett, Nijinska, and Stroman? The truth is: ballet hasn’t locked out women from choreographic opportunities; the post-boomer generation simply forgot about women for a time while free-riding along on previous women’s generations’ accomplishments.

 

    Everyone should go see McNeal at the Beaumont Theater. Robert Downey Jr. is brilliant. The play offers a lot to think about in the way of borrowing others' work for one's own, quoting others' work, using others' work as a so-called tribute or inspiration.

 

 

 

NYCB 9/26 Impressive debuts

        The final performance of the Masters at Work series included successful debuts for Unity Phelan, Peter Walker and Miriam Miller in Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2. All three clearly had decided beforehand that any errors were going to come from giving too much, not too little. Not only was Unity competent and beautiful, but she was able to add elements that none of the other current interpreters could — such as an arabesque that rose above 90° and a breathtaking and beautifully placed a la second extension that was exclaimed by a magnificently arched foot. Her joy came across as authentic. Her energy was not compromised in any way. Her turns and grand allegro were on the money. This was a very, very good debut performance with the promise of future spectacular ones. We’re not sure why at times Unity seemed rushed — perhaps from trying to make every movement as large as possible or perhaps from her realization that this was a one & done performance that she wanted to make the most of. We wish after the first dismal performance by Sara Mearns, management would have made a complete substitution with Unity. 

        Peter Walker’s debut began with almost overpowering force — like he was trying to be someone else. Peter Walker is good enough to dance this ballet as Peter Walker. He doesn’t need to be anyone else. When he finally settled down, we were able to appreciate his beautiful lines and blazing batterie. His deportment in the central portion of the ballet clearly conveyed his sincerity and the feeling of loss. The few awkward partnering moments with Unity seemed born from over-excitement by both dancers. All of these nerves would have subsided at a second performance if only they had been given one.

 

        Miriam Miller in the soloist role had high energy and danced beautifully but did not have the confidence to try to steal the show. We needed something in between Serenade and Slaughter from her. If only there had been a second performance . . .

 

        While we understand that these days featured corps roles tend to be handed out based on seniority, neither Kristen Segin nor India Bradley captured the elegance of the two women who performed forward-pitched arabesques with the male principal during the center section of the ballet. Both seemed quite awkwardly and uncomfortably perched during each instance. The corps de ballet as a whole danced splendidly in each performance of this ballet.

 

        This evening included repeats of Duo Concertant with Megan Fairchild and Anthony Huxley, and Glass Pieces with Unity Phelan and Adrian Danchig-Waring.  All gave strong, satisfying performances. The Corps de Ballet rocked Glass Pieces, as they tend to do.

 

        Our H.H. Pump Bump Award, a Jimmy Choo jeweled sandal, is bestowed upon Unity Phelan for her promising debut in Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2. 

 

 

 

 

NYCB 9/25 Mozartiana, M&M, Concerto DSCH

        How freakin' lucky are we at the ballet to be able to listen to a program of four of the greatest composers to ever live! Tschaikovsky, Mozart, Stravinsky, and Shostakovich. That is one huge musical program -- more substantial than what one will likely hear these days at Geffen Hall. NYCB not only comes through with the biggest ballet but with the biggest music played brilliantly by the New York City Ballet Orchestra. Call us grateful.  

         In some respect the ballerina in the Preghiera section of Balanchine’s Mozartiana serves Tschaikovsky’s adaptation of Mozart’s Ave verum corpus like the choir of voices serves Mozart’s hymn. They both tap into the divinity of the music allowing its humanity to flow freely as song. Tiler Peck used reserve and texture in her eloquent interpretation on Wednesday evening. The reserve was the hard part while the musical texturing was innate. Her elimination of the extreme cambré didn’t go unnoticed but it didn’t soil the performance either. Tiler’s elegant curves in the elbows and the length of the triceps in the upper arms revealed a new eloquence in her port de bras that, if one can even imagine, enhanced her storied musicality. The subtle peeling apart of the palms to open a fifth position overhead was one of many details in this exquisite performance.

        The pas de deux with Anthony Huxley revealed slight imperfections while also promising something new and interesting. What could these two offer one another? How might they inspire and challenge each other? Huxley’s allegro solos astonished in their clarity and effortlessness. His allegro sprang from joy and anticipation — always on the “o” of count one, the “f” of the four, the “e” of the eight.

 

        Troy Schumacher’s Gigue was enjoyable, and we were glad to see him back in top form. The Menuet crew of Christina Clark, Naomi Corti, Meaghan Dutton-O’Hara, and Malorie Lundgren were mostly precise but offered some unhelpful facial expressions.

 

        My oh my, how a fresh coat of paint can make the old walls new again. Mira Nadon and Adrian Danchig-Waring brought a daring amount of glamour and sensuality to Monumentum pro Gesualdo and Movements for Piano and Orchestra. It takes a lot more than just the right physiques to bring these two abstruse creations by Balanchine to clarity and to fasten them securely to Stravinsky’s musical ideas. Enlightening, to say the least, were these performances where strength and beauty were equals.

 

        Ratmansky’s Concerto DSCH saw the performance levels of David Gabriel and KJ Takahashi soar to their next stages. Both of them — so charismatic and confident. Indiana Woodward as their scampering compeer blazed through her allegro like her feet just couldn’t stop even if she wanted them to. Sara Mearns and Tyler Angle showed great joy in their pas de deux. However, Tyler appeared to be dead-lifting Sara most of the time. Can he accomplish that and make it work? Yes, he’s that strong. Should he have to? No.

 

        The corps de ballet in DSCH was ready to go. We need to make a special mention of Mary Elizabeth Sell who always excels in this work. Stephen Gosling's piano performance was worth the price of the ticket.

 

        The H.H. Pump Bump Award, black lace from Manolo Blahnik, is bestowed upon Tiler Peck for her dancing in Mozartiana — not yet at the center of her bailiwick but soon could be.

 

 

 

NYC Ballet 9/21 evening Intelligence For Our Times

        The highlight of Saturday evening was Lar Lubovitch’s Each In Their Own Time, a pas de deux he created for New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival in 2021 to Johannes Brahms’ Eight Piano Pieces. Lubovitch was 79 years old when he created this dance to Brahms’ 188-year-old piano cycle using a style of choreography steeped in the classical ballet idiom several hundred years old and reflecting the 20th Century influence of Jose Limon. The end result was a sensitive, universal, timeless portrayal of two human beings connecting through dance, connecting through music, connecting via their educated instruments that allowed them to speak with unusual eloquence.

        Susan Walters beautifully performed the Brahms from her piano positioned up stage and properly amplified while Adrian Danchig-Waring and Taylor Stanley amplified the beauty of Lubovitch’s signature style — oceanic in its flow with swirling undercurrents and waves washing over the music. 

 

        Indiana Woodward and David Gabriel brought imagination to Balanchine's Divertimento from Le Baiser de la Fée and handled the intricate, difficult choreography with ease. Alston Macgill and Mary Elizabeth Sell were lovely demi-soloists, and the corps included newer members and apprentices who at times wore terrified expressions which we assume will subside quickly.

 

        Sara Mearns and Tyler Angle performed Christopher Wheeldon’s This Bitter Earth. It was all competently and smoothly danced, but Wheeldon’s casting of this ballet is curious because the choreography clearly calls for subtle and languid qualities such as those found in Wendy Whelan, Ashley Laracey, and Yuan Yuan Tan of San Francisco Ballet. The dancers managed all the positions and partnering, but to what end, we’re not sure.

 

        Jerome Robbins' The Four Seasons included standout performances by Olivia MacKinnon in Spring and Ashley Laracey in Summer. The sweeping romantic pas de deux showed MacKinnon at her best and gave her ample opportunity to show us that she could inhabit a role with style, particularly when partnered by the skilled Chun Wai Chan. Ashley Laracey’s engaging mysterious quality was perfect for the sultry Summer section. Her partner, Davide Riccardo, responded with his own sensual, alluring style. Summer never felt so hot.

 

        Erica Pereira, Devin Alberda, and Andres Zuniga skated through the Winter section in a lively manner. The fabulous Fall section was led by Unity Phelan and Andrew Veyette with KJ Takahashi as the little goat. No complaints at all about Unity’s output; she was gorgeous and danced impeccably. Veyette — what can we say — he held nothing back. He simply would not let go of any turns and pushed his grand allegro to its maximum. He was at times thrilling because the viewer had no idea if he was going to survive what he set out to do.

 

        The H.H. Pump Bump Award, A Jimmy Choo blue-green sea sandal, is bestowed upon Adrian Danchig-Waring and Taylor Stanley for their moving interpretation of Lubovitch’s thoughtful and highly crafted ballet.

 

 

 

NYC Ballet 9/17-18Ready or not, here we come!

        The theater doors sprang open and in we ran on the first night of New York City Ballet's Fall Season. As if in a game of Hide & Go Seek since June, we had counted a hundred days with our eyes closed and now we were on the hunt for Balanchine.

        Boy oh boy, did we ever flush out of hiding a magnificent performance of Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 by Tiler Peck, Chun Wai Chan and an energized corps de ballet. Following a polite, somewhat colorless grand allegro solo by Olivia MacKinnon in the opening moments where she wove in and out of a circle of corps women and danced her steps spiritedly, Tiler calmly walked from the upstage wing to the center of the stage and began a master class in what it means to be a ballerina. She is in terrific physical shape with new length in her port de bras and upper back & neck. Her speed seemingly required no force — almost as if her joy propelled her. Watching Tiler embrace Tschaikovsky was to watch a dancer literally living the music. As much joy as it was for her to dance, we hope she understands the incredible joy it brought to the audience. Chun Wai Chan was the perfect partner and seemed to find a new comfort in releasing emotion. Beautiful batterie and grand allegro although the size of that grand allegro may have gone down since his Houston Ballet days. The composite elegance of Chan and Peck was so natural and effortless that it made their pas de deux a dance of one.

        Unfortunately, the performance on the second night didn’t rise anywhere near to what we witnessed on the first night. Haglund knows that Sara Mearns has a tribe who will gush over anything and everything she does. But honestly, her performance on Wednesday wasn’t good and at times was mediocre. She shuffled through allegro, “kind of” doing beats while showing great effort. She fell off point while doing a couple of simple fouettes. The throwaway arms and arabesques were worse than we’d ever seen them. At one point in the last section when she and her partner were standing watching the soloist dance, Sara just let her arms hang at her side like she was standing on the subway platform waiting for a train. From her first entry until her final step, there was a serious question as to why this ballet was in her rep. Her partner, Tyler Angle, on the other hand, made it clear that he was committed to delivering a respectable performance without fudging beats or heaving grand allegro like a DSNY worker heaving a load of trash into the back of a truck. Angle was good, very good in every respect.

 

        The star of this performance, however, was the soloist Emily Kikta who simply stole the show with her glamour, expansive dancing, speed & clarity, rapport with the audience from the orchestra up into the tiers, and all around generosity of artistry. She should have been dancing the lead ballerina role on this night — and on future nights.

 

        The corps de ballet was ready on night one and busted out of the gate at the bell — racing their hearts out. As the women shared the stage with Tiler Peck in the initial section, they beamed and seemed inspired to give even more. We’ve seen this before. When Tiler comes out and dazzles with her grace and artistic force, the whole corps de ballet responds by raising its level even higher. 

 

        Duo Concertant received fine performances from Megan Fairchild with Anthony Huxley and Indiana Woodward paired with Taylor Stanley. Huxley, in particular, possessed style in spades. Duo is his surfing speed. 

 

        Glass Pieces was a little rough on the first night and gave the impression that it was slower than usual. The initial crowd sequence included some innovative randomness that was cleared up by the second night. By the third performance, everyone was up to high speed and dancing with the verve and joy that makes Glass Pieces so enjoyable to watch. Unity Phelan with Adrian Danchig-Waring and Ashley Hod with Aaron Sanz were handsome pairs and displayed eloquent lines in the central pas de deux.

 

        The H.H. Pump Bump Award, a creative beauty from Badgley Mischka, is bestowed upon Tiler Peck for her glorious performance in Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2. What a pleasure it is to watch this artist lovingly create a new piece of art every time she takes the stage.

 

 

NYCB 5/14 – Contemporary Choreography I

        Tuesday evening’s Contemporary Choreography I program was not the spectacular, uplifting evening that we expected. 

 

        Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures at an Exhibition was originally a hyperkinetic romp of artistry to Mussorgsky’s music which was inspired by an art exhibition of the work by Mussorgsky’s friend, painter Viktor Hartmann. Since the premiere of Pictures at an Exhibition nearly ten years ago, Ratmansky's homeland, Ukraine, has been shattered by Russian ethnic aggression which has, for the time being, re-shaped his artistic output. His most recent creation for NYCB last February, entitled Solitude, drew its inspiration from a journalist’s photo of a Ukrainian father kneeling over his son who had just been killed by a Russian bomb. Somehow Solitude with its clear imagery, some of which was also in Ratmansky’s earlier Pictures, reverse-informed that earlier work on Tuesday and made it decidedly more political than it was originally. The characters in Pictures at an Exhibition were far more dark, serious, and angry than they were a decade ago. When the men lifted the women from behind who then aimed one leg out in front like a rifle, it seemed to have a hostile and militaristic seriousness that was not present at the premiere in 2014. The solo for Baba Yaga, which originally depicted a whirling unhinged crazy character (Amar Ramasar) was on Tuesday more menacing when danced by Chun Wai Chan. Almost from the outset, the viewpoint from Solitude had suddenly influenced Pictures at an Exhibition. In any event, we’ve all seen enough of women holding their legs like rifles in Ratmansky’s choreography — and in Wheeldon's.  

 

        From a technical standpoint, Pictures at an Exhibition was strong and vivid. Mira Nadon’s uninhibited dancing in The Gnome was anything but the flailing abandon that audiences lapped up a decade earlier. Mira had absolute control over her wicked wildness. Her impulsivity was engineered to perfection. What a joy it was to witness this dancer apply her imagination to her art. Emma Von Enck, another protostar who is just heating up and was promoted to principal on Thursday evening, thrilled with her articulation and surprise punctuation of phrases. Alexa Maxwell showed great lyrical skills and promise in her adagio with Tyler Angle. A slight stuttering on an exit where she was supposed to rise from Angle’s torso was an insignificant blip in an otherwise beautiful pas de deux that brought us exquisite imagery such as Alexa “in flight” over her partner’s right shoulder.

 

        The opportunity to hear Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition played in its original piano solo form by Stephen Gosling is an opportunity that should not be missed. On Tuesday, his dazzling mastery over a grueling 35 minutes pretty much exceeded everything else on stage that night. 

 

        Ulysses Dove’s Red Angels received strong performances from Mira Nadon, Dominika Afanasenkov, Adrian Danchig-Waring and Joseph Gordon. It seemed a little subdued compared to the last performance of this ballet that we saw outdoors at Lincoln Center where Ashley Hod, Davide Riccardo, Emilie Gerrity, and Peter Walker devoured the choreography like a school of sharks and in doing so sent the Damrosch Park audience into a feeding frenzy.

 

          Gianna Reisen’s Play Time should be renamed Waste of Time. We cannot complain enough about the waste of money, time and talent that this nonsense represents. NYCB should be embarrassed about allowing this piece back on its stage. Actually, NYCB should be punished for allowing this piece back on its stage. There weren’t 30 seconds of watchable choreography. If the idea behind Play Time was to be obnoxious, juvenile, and TikTok-ish, well then, success! This piece had no chance whatsoever of succeeding because its musical foundation was sawdust. 

 

        Glass Pieces completed the evening with a gorgeous PdD by Unity Phelan and Adrian Danchig-Waring. How can we not miss the length of line that Maria Kowroski brought to this ballet? However, Unity’s lines were beautifully shaped, and Adrian’s extraordinary partnering created an effortless quality that nearly looked celestial. The soloists in the Rubric section were an odd collection of dancers who were either emotionally flat or trying way too hard to be dramatic —  while intentionally throwing their ribs out as far as possible. The Corps de Ballet was mostly fine on this first night, but lacked energy. Samuel Melnikov as the first man out of the gate during Akhnaten covered the stage impressively with his length and power.

 

        The HH Pump Bump Award is bestowed upon piano man Stephen Gosling for his superb solo playing of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

 

 

NYCB Tonight!

Very much looking forward to hearing Stephen Gosling play this tonight at NYCB: