Haglund's Heel

Royal New Zealand Ballet hits back at former dancer's claims of abuse

Well, gall dang, a ballet company finally stood up to a disgruntled former dancer's claim of "abuse".  Yeah, it happened on the other side of the world, but hey, that's a start.

To a dancer's claim of constant belittlement, being silenced, shunning, physical and verbal abuse, and, get this, "the list goes on" the RNZB said:

"The allegations made in this interview by a former employee, regarding the company's internal culture and working practices, and the actions allegedly taken or not taken by our Board to address concerns raised, are malicious, false and completely rejected by the Board," the RNZB said in a written statement.

It said the allegations have damaged the company and everyone who works with and for the RNZB.

"As a responsible employer, the Board of the RNZB takes, and has always taken, employees' concerns, particularly those alleging any kind of bullying, intimidation or abuse, extremely seriously. We have zero tolerance for behaviour of this kind. Should allegations be made, we have robust processes in place to investigate and resolve any issues."

According to the website Stuff.co.nz, "The [RNZB's] statement said it was a matter of record the dance company, which receives $5.4 million a year in public funding, had experienced "some workplace issues in the past". It said at that time, the board had initiated a formal process of fact-finding and facilitation, with the help of independent external advisors, and a number of recommendations had been made."

Since when is an employer who tells an employee to shut up considered abusive? Dancers need to join the real world. The idea that they are entitled to express their own opinions whenever and to whomever they want and that they must be listened to is inconsistent with what is permitted in corporate America.

So there ya go ...

 

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The gorgeous Valerie Tereshchenko just won the prestigious 2017 Telstra Ballet Dancer of the Year Award.  Telstra, which has partnered with The Australian Ballet to make the award annually since 2003, does so to support the aspirations and development of the elite dancers at the company. The winner gets $20,000 (AUD).

 

Meanwhile,  across the Tasman Sea, American Patricia Barker is making New Zealanders unhappy because she hasn't hired any new NZ School of Dance graduates for the Royal New Zealand Ballet which she now directs. This is the first time in more than two decades that a NZ School of Dance graduate hasn't joined the company. To add insult to injury, reportedly more than half the dancers have left the company either by their choice or hers. Well folks, the Prime Minister is investigating. That's how seriously they take their national pride. Even the nation's rugby experts are weighing in on the ballet situation (click red link for story) and pointing out how the depth and breadth of rugby talent and leadership being developed in New Zealand by New Zealanders is an immense source of pride.

The good news is that RNZB's Tonia Rose Looker, who Ethan Stiefel recognized as a bright talent when he was the Artistic Director at RNZB, has hopped the Tasman Sea to accept a position in the Queensland Ballet corps. One of Haglund's all time favorite ABT Tharp Bombers, Laura Hildago, is a longtime principal there, and former RNZB-er Lucy Green who joined last year was just promoted to principal by Artistic Director Li Cunxin.

Hopefully, Ms. Barker will not try to Americanize the RNZB either with dancers or in management style. Cultural sensitivity and respect might help here. What worked in Grand Rapids or in Seattle may not work on the other side of the world.

 

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The Royal New Zealand Ballet has appointed a retired American ballerina as its next Artistic Director.

Patricia Barker, former star of Pacific Northwest Ballet and currently the AD at Grand Rapids Ballet, will begin with RNZB later this month. Wow, one more huge step forward for RNZB!

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Haglund has received some inquiries regarding his references to TDF; so here is some information. The Theater Development Fund distributes deeply discounted Broadway, theater, and concert tickets to its members who pay $25 $34 annually to join (the price went up). The tickets cost $9-$47 with the high end being for top Broadway productions and the low end being for Off-Off Broadway performances. Many, many ballet and other dance performances are frequently listed for sale.

To qualify to join TDF, one must meet one of these criteria:

• Full-time students (high school or above)
• Full-time teachers (primary or junior high school faculty, high school faculty, university or college faculty, teachers of drama/dance/music)
• Recent graduates (26 years of age and under)
• Full-time union members
• Retirees (no longer working and at least 62 years of age or older)
• Full-time government employees/civil servants
  
• Full-time staff members of not-for-profit organizations
• Full-time non-exempt employees (full-time hourly workers - 40 hours a week - who are eligible for overtime pay)
• Full-time arts professionals
• Members of the armed forces
• Freelancers
  
• Full-time clergy

Tickets are always limited, so interested members should check the TDF site everyday when they are looking for a specific type of performance. Oftentimes, TDF is the best deal in town. Why not join today?!

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ABT is losing its concertmaster, Benjamin Bowman, to – drum roll, please – The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra! He will become concertmaster along with David Chan for the 2017-18 season.

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It sure is interesting how the New York Times hasn't been able to find its way to the Met Opera House in order to accurately review this flurry of debuts that are reviving ABT's heart and soul, most importantly Sarah Lane's Giselle, Christine Shevchenko's Don Quixote, or Skylar Brandt's Medora. The recent switch to People Magazine content is unbecoming to the old grey lady. We wonder if that will be the case when the Lincoln Center Festival presents its Jewels concoction of three different ballet companies in July or will we be once again treated to Macaulay's insipid, monochromatic dogpile-worthy compare & contrast dumbstertation that is designed to promote himself rather than ballet. Maybe Macaulay will take the latest buy-out offer to NYT employees which could open up the possibility for a real critic with some honesty to walk in.

The best thing that we can do to deal with the grey lady's ungracefulness is to look at the advertising in its culture pages and then drop those folks an email that says you're not buying their products due to the lack of respectable content.

Even when reporting the recent heroics of ABT's Gray Davis in rescuing a man who was pushed onto the subway tracks, NYT had to print a picture of Misty Copeland in order to try to lure unsuspecting African American clicks to its advertisers. There were plenty of pictures available of Gray dancing beautifully with his wife, Cassandra Trenary, but NYT has only one thing on its narrow little mind. The truth is hard to find in The New York Times.

  

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The few comments that we've been able to find so far on social media after last night's Iowa City preview premiere of Christopher Wheeldon's new Nutcracker for the Joffrey Ballet are pretty ecstatic. Here's a shot from inside the brand new Hancher Auditorium on the U of I campus courtesy of the alumni association Twitter feed. Haglund is proud to be a U of I alumnus:

This new theater, a replacement for the Hancher Auditorium that was destroyed in floods several years ago, looks stunning. The old one was pretty spectacular also. When Rudolf Nureyev came to Iowa City to perform in Sleeping Beauty, he had the gall to complain that the wings were too big and too drafty for him.

So far, it sounds like the only major glitch in the new Nut has been our choreographer breaking his ankle last week after a backward step into the pit – apparently not while excoriating a dancer as happened with Jerome Robbins.

This video about Basil Twist's contribution was just uploaded yesterday. The rats, omg ...

Current forecast for the December 10th world premiere in Chicago includes 23 degree temps, mild winds, and a 20% chance of snow. That doesn't look so bad – on paper.

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The Royal New Zealand Ballet is searching for another new artistic director to replace Francesco Ventriglia who has decided not to renew his contract when it expires in the coming year. There have been dancer complaints of mistreatment by the AD, and several artists and staff have left or are about to leave the company, including Lucy Green who blossomed so dramatically under the direction of Ethan Stiefel. She has announced that she has accepted a soloist position with the Queensland Ballet which is led by the legendary Li Cunxin.

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It's very exciting to hear that the Lincoln Center Festival will once again present some fantastic ballet next summer. With the NYC Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, and Bolshoi Ballet sharing the stage for five performances of Balanchine's Jewels, you can bet that the demand for tickets will out of the universe. Hopefully, the Bolshoi will seize the opportunity to get some NYCB advice for their Diamonds team which has kind of gone off the deep end lately, although we have some of the same problems here, too. Where, oh, where did the idea come from that Diamonds is about the pain of giving childbirth?

 

 

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Julio Bocca has agreed to return to the Ballet Nacional del Sodre after walking out for a month long breather. He's keeping the acting artistic director as a co-director and has acquired a company master to be another partner in running the ballet company. Hopefully, he'll be happy, but we all know that he'd be happier in New York – and he knows we'll wait for him. There's a reason why he has kept his condo here all these years...

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Royal New Zealand Ballet premieres its imaginative The Wizard of Oz on Wednesday night in Wellington. We can’t wait to get some comments. It's not anything like the familiar Judy Garland movie, but has been adapted from the book by L. Frank Baum.

Artistic Director Francesco Ventriglia has created this full length ballet based on his earliest childhood experience with the story. He told the New Zealand Listener:

When he was five, he spent months in a children’s hospital. Close to his room was a girl of the same age who was seriously ill. One day he noticed she was no longer there and wanted to know where she had gone. His mother and his doctor told him the Wizard of Oz story to explain her death. “They said the girl was in Oz and had started a journey with friends, a lion, a scarecrow and a tin man. This story remained in my mind for a long time.

In Ventriglia’s ballet:

When Dorothy wakes up from her trip to Oz, she is not back in Kansas with Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, rather she is in hospital recovering from a coma. Her exploits in Oz are coma-induced dreams.

He explains:

My idea of this journey is that to ‘come back home’ means to wake up and become an adult and find yourself. Everyone is in the ballet – Dorothy, all her friends, little Toto – but in the ­background, it is very much me.

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Back here in the USA, ABT has predictably waited until the last minute to predictably report that one of its Fake Principal Dancers, Polina Semionova, is predictably bowing out of the season on a medical leave. Predictably, McKenzie stuffed Hee Seo into most of the roles, which we don't care about, really, because we never intended to buy any tickets to Semionova's predictable performances anyway. Predictably, he has given one of Semionova's Swan Lakes to Boylston in order to continue to try to shove the unprepossessing dancer down everyone's throats as an Odette. When is this nightmare going to be over? The great tragedy in all of this is that Kochetkova has been moved over to Blaine Hoven's performance of Sylvia. What a stupid, dumb ass move. The only reason that she was ever hired was that she was small enough to be partnered by Cornejo. Blaine doesn't require a small partner. He's big enough and strong enough and skilled enough to partner god. What a predictable waste of an opportunity for a real, honestly talented, classical company ballerina to debut in the title role. Someone like Stella Abrera who always looks sublime with Blaine Hoven. Predictably, we're not buying a ticket to this performance even though we would like to see Blaine bring the house down. We predict there will be other cast changes trickling down weeks after ABT has known about them; so, predictably, we're keeping our wallets closed.

 

 

The Wizard of Oz in Wellington, Kansas New Zealand?

We’re definitely not in Kansas anymore. This exciting production is happening way, way over the rainbow on the other side of the world.

The Royal New Zealand Ballet is readying its world premiere of Artistic Director Francesco Ventriglia’s fantastical production of The Wizard of Oz based on the story by L. Frank Baum. But the music will not be from those familiar movie songs that we grew up with such as Over the Rainbow, We're Off to See the Wizard, If I Only Had a Brain/Heart/the Nerve. Ventriglia will use works by Francis Poulenc which have been arranged by RNZB’s pianist Michael Pansters. The designs are by Gianluca Falaschi, and boy, are they ever WOW!

From the RNZB press release:

“There’s tutus for the porcelain world, Munchkins in 1930s style bathing suits, bare-chested flying monkeys, butterfly-gowned good witch, exaggerated bustle and black corset for the wicked witch and of course loads of green sequins, red glitter and gingham,” says Francesco Ventriglia.

AD Ventriglia first created this ballet in 2013 for Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence but it never was performed. He has expanded it for the RNZB which will premiere it in Wellington on May 4th followed by an eight city tour through New Zealand.

Look as these stage designs from the RNZB website (click to enlarge):

And here is Lucy Green as Dorothy photographed by Ross Brown:



Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, whose costume will have 1,000 butterflies (per the RNZB FB page).

Hopefully, we’ll get some reports from NZ to share with everyone. It's a shame that some of our big-budget U.S. critics can't seem to get on a plane to go to the other side of the world to see and report on productions like this one and the co-production with Queensland Ballet of Scarlett's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Shots from RNZB's A Midsummer Night's Dream

According to Jack Yan who writes for Lucire, the Royal New Zealand Ballet's new production by Liam Scarlett is "jaw-droppingly magnificent" and "witty yet respectful." Respectful is always nice to hear.

Like previous choreographers, Scarlett chose to add incidental music from other Mendelssohn works to extend the length of the ballet.

Multiple reviewers have indicated that designer Tracy Grant Lord has outdone herself with the sets and costumes. Says Yan:

Set in a fairy dell in the wood, Lord’s imagination takes us into a world of cabanas and fungi, with electric blue shades offsetting the dark, night sky. It is the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s largest set, complete with bridges, multiple staircases, even a pole from which Puck slides down.

Take a look at these two shots by photographer Stephen A'Court which we found on Lucire:

Tonia Looker and Harry Skinner

Tonia Looker and MacLean Hopper

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a co-production with Li Cunxin's Queensland Ballet, where former ABT corps dancer/Tharp ITUR Bomber Extraordinaire Laura Hidalgo is now a principal dancer. Queensland Ballet hasn't announced its 2016 season yet; so we don't know if this new production by Scarlett will be seen there next year or the year after.

 

Everyone has a dream

In a day and a half, the Royal New Zealand Ballet will premiere Liam Scarlett's brand new production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in Wellington. Tonia Looker will dance the role of Titania and will most likely sweep everyone into the dream and off their feet. She reminds us of Tina LeBlanc who was a magical Titania for the Joffrey Ballet a few decades ago. Richmond, Virginia native MacLean Hopper who attended the North Carolina School of the Arts will be Oberon.

Tracy Lord Grant has designed the costumes and sets, the latter of which include more than 4000 LED lights and over 2,000 metres of illuminated fibre optics cable to create this effect:

Here's a little promo that gives a glimpse of the costumes and movement:

 

Haglund was just thinking about how nice it would be to see Ashton's The Dream (with the old costumes and a new Titania named Stella) on a bill with Balanchine's Symphonie Concertante for ABT's spring season. Everyone would stay for the whole show and might even come back for second and third helpings. (We keep mentioning Balanchine's Symphonie Concertante because ABT is still using a photo of it on the LA Music Center's website to advertise it's July 2016 program out there without mentioning it by name. Buyer beware.)

Nobody who knows ballet wants to see that awful mis-Firebird again at the Met. Total misfire. And Seven Sonatas, as lovely as it is, isn't going to entice people to their seats, either, especially if ABT has already asked them that week to sit through all three individual ballets that make up the Shostakovich Trilogy. Yes, ABT loves Ratmansky - and the audience likes him, too - but please don't tank a week of rep just to demonstrate artistic loyalty.

Speaking of The Dream and that really funny scene with Hermia and Helena fighting, here's a clip – oh no, what a tragic mistake, sorry – this clip isn't from The Dream; it's from Ratmansky's The Golden Cockerel at the Royal Danish Ballet which will be presented this spring by ABT (see charming poem seven posts below.) We were just fooled by that Hermia-Helena look alike moment. The clip seems very Bright Streamish in places, but we will not allow ourselves to pre-judge. No, we won't. No siree Bob.

 

RNZB appoints new AD from ItalyNew Liam Scarlett production of Midsummer Night's Dream, too

 

The Royal New Zealand Ballet has tapped former La Scala dancer and director of MaggioDanza, Francesco Ventriglia, as its new artistic director to replace Ethan Stiefel who is coming home to the U.S. The 36-year-old, who is also an accomplished choreographer, will begin his appointment in November.

From the Wellington Scoop:

Francesco Ventriglia trained at the Ballet School of La Scala, Milan, joining the world-renowned ballet company of La Scala in 1997. During his dancing career he performed solo and principal roles in a wide range of repertoire including the Bronze Idol in Natalia Makarova’s La Bayadère, and Hilarion to Sylvie Guillem’s Giselle at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York and at Covent Garden. As a choreographer, he has created works for leading dancers including Roberto Bolle, Ulyana Lopatkina and Svetlana Zakharova, and for prestigious venues including the Arena di Verona, the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg and the Venice Biennale, among others.

After retiring from the stage, at the age of 31, Francesco Ventriglia was appointed Director of MaggioDanza (Opera Dance Theatre) in Florence, Italy, in 2010. He guided the company to new success on the international stage, substantially increasing the number of performances at home and abroad, investing in education programmes, commissioning new works from Italian and international choreographers, and received acclaim from audiences and critics alike.

RNZB's 2015 previously planned season, which Ventriglia will oversee, is an ambitious one that includes a brand new production of A Midsummer Night's Dream by the Royal Ballet's Liam Scarlett.

The company will take its Stiefel/Kobborg production of Giselle to England and Scotland, and will tour New Zealand with Gary Harris' production of Don Quixote. Its 2015 rep program will consist of brand new contemporary works which take their inspiration from stories of New Zealand at war.

Wow, it seems like the RNZB is ready to take another leap forward along with another big shot of glam.

 

Ecretsay Iveslay ofyay Ancersday Easonsay Eethray

Look, we have to keep this a secret ecretsay.

One of our favorite Haglund'eelers who lives in a far off place passed us a link to the first episode of the new season which he captured and stashed away. The series is currently location restricted to New Zealand. If you want to watch it, just shoot an email to Haglund and he'll send you the link, but it's not for posting on other blogs like Ballet Alert or Huffington Post or on Twitter or FB.

The first episode shows the Artistic Director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Ethan Stiefel, in a range of hairstyles – from Alexander Godunov-inspired straight tresses to Farrah Fawcett sweptback foofoo – as he prepares to audition dancers for the upcoming season and finally makes his choices. It seems that this week (in real time here in NYC) he's sporting a new-recruit buzz. Who can keep up with it?

There are only hints of what the new plot lines will be during the season. Mostly, this episode was a refresher of what the series is about – like, ya know, who needs that? Right off the bat we were told that since the last episode of last season, Sergio has left town. For those up for the chase, he's at the Royal Ballet of Flanders these days where one of Haglund's all-time favorite ABT Tharp Bombers, Laura Hildago, also resides.

At the end of the audition, AD Stiefel selected a lovely female dancer – who is 5'10" tall – because she had the dancer qualities, intelligence, and artistic maturity that he was looking for. Obviously, this AD doesn't have a perverted preference for women dancers who have "that child-woman" quality that Kevin McKenzie admitted he wants. By the way, on Friday night while McKenzie's weakest principal ballerina was struggling through Swan Lake at the Met, McKenzie was sitting over in the Koch Theater watching the Boston Ballet perform. Ya think maybe it's time for a change?

Next week, the TV drama will swirl around the company's preparations for its tour to China. Hopefully, we'll have access to that episode, too.