17 replies to this topic

[abatt]

Mercurial was created on Soto and Weese, with Liang in the solo principal role. I think the parts Wheeldon has created for Whelan tend to mirror or emulate the Balanchine leotard ballets.  He takes full advantage of her flexibility and angular, neoclassical approach.  In his more story driven ballets, he tends to use Tiler Peck, who has great dramatic skills.  (Didn't Tiler originate Carousel A Dance with Woetzel?  She definitely originated Estancia, which has a narrative "plot.")  I loved Tiler in Mercurial earlier this season.

[carbro]

abatt, on 23 December 2011 - 12:09 PM, said:

Didn't Tiler originate Carousel A Dance with Woetzel?

No, Ansanelli, another dancer with great imagination and flair for story-dancing.  I miss her.

I think the point about Balanchine schooling his dancers to become what he needed was key.  I also think that, especially with choreographers like Wheeldon and Ratmansky -- essentially global freelancers, even if they are Choreographer in Residence somewhere or other) -- the most important quality they look for is the ability to understand what he wants of them.  Sometimes -- you know? -- people just miscommunicate with each other.  Especially in the arts, where suggestions may be more poetical than specific.  And further complicated if the choreographer, working in a second language, uses a word with unintended nuance.

[angelica]

Ratmansky ballets have deep emotional undercurrents in addition to their whimsical humor. The PdD, in Nutcracker, for example, are rapturous, and I think the ballerina who most exemplifies that aspect of Ratmansky is Veronika Part. IMHO she hasn't been given the opportunities at ABT that she deserves, and I so much hope that Ratmansky will choreograph a ballet on her the way Balanchine choreographed ballets specifically for one or another of his ballerinas over the years.