Haglund's Heel

observations 1-9

Loved getting another ABT brochure in the mail today with photos of Marcelo Gomes and his performance dates listed for the spring season -- this one's a keeper.

Natalia "This Met stage isn't big enough for me" Osipova is shown as a guest artist, but Alessandra Ferri is not – yet. The Unofficial Information Exchange (UIEX) ticker tape has been whirling & whispering that Ferri may perform in Wayne McGregor's AfterRite.  Of course we can easily guess what happened after the original (real) Rite of Spring and which could turn up in Wayne's World: The savages consumed the sacrificial virgin while wearing nude-colored briefs to accentuate the dislocation of their limbs as they yanked them around to – not choreography – but to an algorithm loaded with palindromes which were most likely written on the palms of their hands. This Rite sequel, however, may need to pander to the local press; so there may be lots of gratuitous same-sex sphincter-groping and kissy face. Maybe the savages in Wayne's World will even blow goats -- just to appeal to a wider audience.

Wayne's World could turn out to be an eye-popping experience for all the children who come to the double-bill to see Misty Copeland in Firebird. That's what ABT is all about: forward thinking.

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In a couple of weeks, we'll get a little bit of relief from the unsettling start of the year when New York City Ballet opens its winter season with Balanchine's extraordinary Apollo, Mozartiana, and The Four Temperaments among other of his masterpieces. Chase Finlay opens the season as Apollo. Let's hope that he can pull it all together including his fifth positions.

We can't wait to see Ashley Laracey and Lauren King again in the Divertimento No. 15, Maria Kowroski in Mozartiana, Adrian Danchig-Waring as Apollo, and everyone in Chaconne and Cortege Hongrois.

 

UIEXobservations 10-13

Maria let the cat out of the bag. Maria opened the barn door and let the horses out. Thanks, Maria for telling us via Instagram that Zachary Catazaro has been promoted to principal dancer. We wonder if he is the first Buckeye since Suzanne Farrell to be a New York City Ballet principal. Could somebody verify? Sometimes – not very often – but sometimes, we Ohio folks are in the news for good reasons rather than bad.

Catazaro has increased his focus, effort, and stage output exponentially in the past year since coming back from injury. His long-awaited debut as Prince Siegfried proved that he could go to most any company in the world and be a principal. We thank him for choosing NYCB.

 

Veronika is leaving

Sadly, the UIEX was right last January. Veronika Part is leaving ABT.

 

But why the stark difference in Kevin McKenzie’s treatment of the departures of two admired and loved ballerinas who had nearly identical lengths of service and pedigrees - Vishneva, a perennial guest artist for more than a dozen years; Part, a major contributor to the company for 15 years. Vishneva gets weeks and weeks of build-up and PR while Veronika gets the cold shoulder and "don’t let the door hit you in the fanny on the way out” treatment. 

 

If McKenzie wasn’t already the most despised director in all of ballet for the past 20 years – most despised only behind Benjamin Millepied, that is – this will certainly raise him to the level of revile needed for that dishonor. On Saturday, is he really going to waltz out onto the stage with a big bouquet of flowers and bogus, insincere thanks along with many of Veronika’s principal partners who ultimately begged their sorry sissy ways out of dancing with her because she was tall and there were other easier ballerinas for the pickin'? Would she be leaving if McKenzie hadn’t  let the whimpering sissy boys out of their grown-up partnering duties? Who are the real divas here?

 

McKenzie will be lucky if he doesn't get shoes thrown at him.

 

We wish Veronika the best wherever she is going. We hope it’s only a few hours away and not twenty-five hours, because if she is given a worthy partner to dance with, it would be wonderful to see her again on any stage - by worthy partner, we mean not an emotionally crippled narcissist asshole who disrespectfully mocks her.

 

UIEX

Sources now claim that in today's patron-attended dress rehearsal at the Met, Sarah Lane will dance the role of Odette.

Update: 1:45pm

We just received eyewitness confirmation that Sarah is dancing Odette at the Met this afternoon. Hallelujah!

UIEX:

The ticker tape at the Unofficial Information Exchange went bonkers today just before closing at 4pm down on Wall Street. 

C'mon, ABT. Is our littlest Odette-in-Waiting going for a swim next week? Our wallets are open and ready....

 

UIEX – observations 10-5

This whole idea of a Sarah Lane/Daniil Simkin Giselle has staggering potential – IF Simkin will portray Albrecht as an immature, self-absorbed cad who recklessly toys with Giselle's heart. It's been quite a while since we've seen a dancer take Albrecht to a point where he risks the audience not liking the character. Baryshnikov was willing to go there. Sometimes Stiefel would get very close. But for the most part, men who dance Albrecht are unwilling to risk the love of the audience in order to propel the drama of Giselle's heartbreak and death to its highest possible point and to make the reconciliation and sad resolution more meaningful. Come on, Simkin, take the risk...

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Don't plan on missing the final NYCB performance of the season when Ashley Bouder closes it out as Liberty Bell in Stars and Stripes on October 9th  16th (thanks, Dave). Her engines will be revving. The review of last night's performance, which was very good, will be somewhat delayed while Haglund addresses academic obligations and tries to keep up with his over-subscribed life that includes tonight's NY Phil performance of Beethoven's 5th. Are there any other old folks out there who can still remember when there was a definite dearth of dance in NYC during the fall? Who can keep up with it now? By the way, we're still waiting for an NYCB offer to pop up as an AARP Deal of the Day. We're very serious about the need for this outreach.

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Much of yesterday's World Ballet Day Live transmission is up on YouTube. Just put World Ballet Live 2016 in the YT search bar and up pop lots of goodies including a session with Suzanne Farrell working on Gounod Symphony with her company.

 

UIEX – Scrub Daddy gossip

Today when Haglund got home from work the little Scrub Daddy peeps in the kitchen were smiling more broadly than usual and chatting up a storm during their afternoon tea party.

Haglund said, "Wassup, Daddios? What did I miss?"

They chimed, "We can't tell you."

Haglund said, "Come on, guys, we're Scrub Buddios."

Mr. Blue said, "All I can say is Sterling, and too bad you can't go to the opening night of Cinderella in Philly."

Haglund said, "Tell me everything you know or I'll ––"

Mr. Blue said, "–– or you'll what? Squeeze the smile right off my face? Go ahead and try."

 

Haglund said, "Okay, guys, let's have it all."

They all started talking at once, and Haglund couldn't understand any of it. Mr. Green was chanting, "Sar–ah! Sar–ah! Rise from the grave hallelujah!" The Yellow Twins were nearly overcome with emotion while blabbering "De–von! De–von!" with the evil twin hissing and spitting while angrily flapping his imaginary wings.

Haglund finally had to take control of the situation because it was upsetting the cats who are at odds with the Scrub Daddy community anyway. Time for some Scrub Daddy Therapy until they can calm down from what was apparently a very exciting news day:

 

 

observations 8-30

We've got everything in Manhattan including a brand new sink hole on the Upper West Side. That's right, a sink hole has developed in the middle of Manhattan as the result of flooding from a water main break last night. Unfortunately, the flooding spread into the home of Ballet Hispanico in addition to the sink hole swallowing up somebody's white BMW. The two studio floors in the company's headquarters have been destroyed and the basement where all of their costumes were kept has been flooded as well. Artistic Director & CEO Eduardo Vilaro reminded us through the NY Daily News that when SuperStorm Sandy hit a few years back, their costume warehouse in New Jersey was destroyed.

This handsome company will need our help in the coming months. We'll post details for any fundraising benefits that we hear about.

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There is chatter about town that the Bolshoi Ballet will return to New York next summer with Balanchine's Jewels and that they will use guest dancers from NYCB and POB for the Emeralds section. We'll keep our ear to the ground for any sound of hooves.

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We need more details about the Ashley Bouder Project performances at Symphony Space on March 17 & 18. All we know is that the New York Jazzharmonic will accompany the dancers and that there will be a premiere of a commission by Liz Gering to a commissioned score by Miho Hazama. Send us your tips, please.

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While ABT is in Paris readying their Sleeping Beauty, it would be helpful if they would do a little wooing of Pierre Lacotte with the goal of persuading him to allow ABT to dance his wonderful Marco Spada that he set on the Bolshoi a few years back with David Hallberg in the lead. That would be a fabulous addition to the repertory.

Mes amis Parisiens – 6  September & 10 September (2:30pm) Ce sont des performances à ne pas manquer.

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Sorry about all the updates this morning, but the news just keeps coming.

The Joffrey Ballet will offer a first glimpse of its brand new Nutcracker by Christopher Wheeldon in a YouTube rehearsal on Thursday, September 8th at 11:30 am - we're pretty sure that's Chicago time which would be 12:30 pm in New York. Here's a link to the Joffrey's YouTube channel.

 

 

ABT's fall season 😞

How curious that ABT simply left Herman Cornejo off the Fall listing of principal dancers without an explanation. Three days after the close of the season, he's scheduled to perform at City Center as part of the Vail Dance Festival/ReMixNYC (11/3-6). Wow, that makes Prodigal Son a lot less appealing. A lot. It's also cause to worry whether Herman might not appear on the Paris tour thereby jeopardizing Sarah Lane's opportunity to dance Aurora. Wow, again. Exactly what McKenzie may have prayed for - an opportunity to stick Sarah and her A-1 Aurora in the closet.

While we are extremely grateful for being spared Kochetkova, why on earth does ABT need the import Alban Lendorf for the fall season or any season?

Not buying any of this. If that Paris schedule goes up and Sarah has been denied an Aurora, Haglund may simply skip the whole fall season - and he invites others to join him. Pennsylvania Ballet has Ben Stevenson's gorgeous production of Cinderella playing at the same time. Everyone should see that regardless. Hopefully the new Principal Dancer, Sterling Baca, will get a Prince gig in it.

ABT should have just announced their 2017 Met schedule and gotten the bad news over with. Our UIEX is pretty rich with tips, although they are sometimes a bit hard to decipher -- like WWII Russian spy notes being passed as wadded up dinner napkins.

For 2016-17 there is no MacMillan ballet on the program. Zilch. Nada. Niente. Rien. Thank goodness Giselle will flutter back from the grave. Swan Lake, Le Corsaire, that blasted Cockerel again, Don Q, Onegin and a rep week. There is still one TBA full length, but don't hold your breath for MacMillan or La Bayadere.

So there you go.

But here's a little good news. You can skip the second spring week of ABT and run down to Washington DC where the Washington Ballet (the brochure) will be presenting Ashton's The Dream and Tudor's Lilac Garden in the big opera house. That promises to be a big whopping event. And everyone should keep their eyes on WB's big week of Giselles in March.

 

observations 7-10

The new Jessica Lang piece that ABT will premiere on October 21st utilizes seven women and three men and carries the theme of women hitting the proverbial ceiling which stops them from growing. Set to Fanny Mendelssohn's The Year with costume designs by Brayton McDonald, it will be her first piece created on ABT although she has made others for the studio company. Of course, we all remember that fantastical white dress that Irina Dvorovenko wore in Spendid Isolation III, a ballet originally made by Lang for NBA Ballet in Tokyo.

This new piece has some interesting possibilities. (Too bad, not) Ashton's Daphne and Chloe, Prodigal Son, and other stuff we chewed on last season will probably make up the balance of the fall season if the various and vague UIEX tips are correct.

(Update: Tickets go on sale at the Koch box office on Monday July 25th.)

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Sarah Lane is very busy for the rest of the summer. She's touring with Roberto Bolle and Friends all over the place, including Spoleto. Her partner will be Osiel Gouneo (National Ballet of Cuba, Norwegian Ballet, English National Ballet). Their rep for the tour is Diana and Acteon PdD and Le Corsaire PdD. Then Sarah will tour with Daniel Ulbricht's Stars of American Ballet for most of August.

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How many times have we heard and read how Ratmansky's staging of Sleeping Beauty lowers the passe foot for all pirouettes to the middle of the leg in accordance with how he interpreted Petipa's wishes? About a zillion times. We also observed it in perfect practice by Sarah Lane, Gillian Murphy, and Stella Abrera.

Why then did ABT send the Paris Opera this video footage for use with their website promotion of ABT's visit in September in which Isabella Boylston as Aurora does it exactly wrong? Does ABT think that the sophisticated and knowlegeable Parisian audience won't notice?

Graceless and can't follow directions...