Jump to content
This Site Uses Cookies. If You Want to Disable Cookies, Please See Your Browser Documentation. ×

Marcelo Gomes


California

Recommended Posts

4 minutes ago, California said:

RE: the partnering. I can't imagine these two have danced much together - if ever. I like to pay special attention to some of the really tricky partnering -- the floating thing across the back of the stage, the move backing away from Myrtha on the diagonal, e.g. -- things that are so often bungled or awkward. These were smooth as silk as only an attentive partner could manage. And that was really lovely to see.

Yes, and I'm sure we can look forward to seeing the bungled/awkward  version several times at ABT in May.

Link to comment
59 minutes ago, abatt said:

If anyone at the Mariinsky is reading this, please include Marcelo as a guest artist for your next visit to the Kennedy Center.  The east coast fans on Marcelo will turn out in big numbers.

 

Whatever erosion of technique there may be, I thought Gomes looked wonderful as Albrecht, and I've never seen him dance the role in the theater. There is much more from Act I on youtube via some of the same channels linked to above and I'm responding to those as well as what's here. In the early portions of Act I, he looks like he knows what he is doing in "courting" Giselle. He's not a mustache twirling villain, of course, but not innocently in love either or heedlessly carried away. Or did not seem so to me.  I like that more ambiguous portrayal and the arc of development it allows for the character to develop and deepen from the shock of Giselle's death.  I also think that approach suits an older Albrecht. (And Osmolkina is just dreamy as well as moving as Giselle--pretty much my ideal.)

But I'm planning on coming to D.C. for the Mariinsky's next visit--which is not for over a year--and I can't agree about wanting to see Gomes with the Mariinsky then...and in Corsaire especially (which is what they are bringing). I want to see their best Conrads and Alis even if I think it likely Gomes is a more charming performer and a better partner than one or two that they may, in fact, bring.  

However, if some producer wants to do a special program with Gomes in New York --A Kings of Dance type event or some such--and maybe even take it on tour--then they surely will be able to do very nicely selling tickets to his many admirers and fans.  (I'm assuming the past is past--and whatever led to his departure from ABT won't rear its head again.)

Edited by Drew
Link to comment

As reported in the Sarasota Ballet thread, Marcelo will be performing the final pdd from The Two Pigeons with Victoria Hulland  during the company's August engagement at the Joyce Theater in NY.  This will be presented at the Saturday matinee and evening performances. 

Program 2

Starts with Wheeldon's There Where She Loved and then to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Ashton's passing the program will include Monotones I & II and four Ashton diverts/extracts (La Chatte Métamorphosée en Femme; the pas de trois from Les Patineurs; Méditation from Thaïs; and the final pas de deux from The Two Pigeons, performed by Victoria Hulland and guest artist Marcelo Gomes).

Link to comment
11 hours ago, California said:

Marcelo is joining Sarasota Ballet as a guest artist for the 2018-19 season! Two Pigeons, Diamonds, Apparitions. Between this and the Miami/Ratmansky Swan Lake, Florida is looking good!

https://www.pointemagazine.com/whats-marcelo-gomes-doing-now-2582177375.html?

That means I can book my ocassional weekend there when he dances. Never been to Sarasota though...🙂

Edited by cubanmiamiboy
Link to comment

In the past Sarasota has always had two casts for each program. Usually a guest artist or the best (maybe "favorite") local artists dance Friday night and Saturday night and there is usually a totally different cast for the Saturday matinee. I only mention this because it is highly likely Gomes will only dance at the Friday and Saturday night performances. Of course, I don't know how difficult Illuminations is. There is a chance if it is not taxing he could dance all performances of that.

Link to comment
Quote

To paraphrase Ellen Willis, when Nureyev got it on, he got it on with everybody, and it was an essential part of his special appeal, I think. And it didn't detract from his chemistry with his partners but rather enhanced it. But he did break the mold - he was the product of a certain time and place, very much of the Sixties and Seventies. Completely different atmosphere now and in some ways a more restrictive one, paradoxically.

This. 

Also, I don't know where anyone got the idea that straight guys don't have to act when pretending to love Ballerina X. :)

Quote

Very glad he's still getting performance gigs around the world. Just wish we could see him, too!

I'm still curious as to what he did that made his home company drop him so abruptly, and what explanations, if any, he's offering his current employers (or have they asked?).

Link to comment
1 hour ago, dirac said:

I'm still curious as to what he did that made his home company drop him so abruptly, and what explanations, if any, he's offering his current employers (or have they asked?).

You can google till the cows come home (as they say) and you won't find an explanation of his abrupt resignation, other than "sexual misconduct" eight years ago. This appeared in the NY Times yesterday. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/29/arts/dance/marcelo-gomes-new-york-sarasota-ballet.html

The Sarasota Ballet company director, Ian Webb, said more in that article than we've seen elsewhere:

Asked whether he had discussed the allegation against Mr. Gomes, he replied: “We didn’t go into the details. Whatever’s gone on, it hasn’t been made public, and he didn’t need to tell me.”

“I’m old school,” Mr. Webb continued. “I believe in due process.”

Link to comment

I paused over Webb’s “due process” comment. Did ABT fail to follow due process? As I understand, they received an allegation, began an investigation, and Gomes almost immediately resigned. Was the allegation so absurd it should have been dismissed out of hand? Who not involved in the case can say? I don’t know what kinds of legal pressures ABT was or wasn’t under, though clearly the companies hiring Gomes don’t feel any. 

I actually find it very hard to believe that Webb and Julie Kent and others (at least in the United States) don’t have some knowledge of what was behind the accusation against Gomes and have not formed their own private judgment of what happened...they may be right in their judgments, but that way of proceeding is not “due process” either, so I rather wish Webb had avoided that particular phrase.

 

Link to comment

Thanks for the link, California, I had missed that quote from Webb. 

I tend to agree, Drew. ABT appears to have been trying to follow due process as we understand the term in this context, and Gomes forestalled the process by quitting. Hard to see what Webb thinks he's talking about. Does he think Gomes and other men caught up in #metoo have been denied due process, and if so, which ones? What did ABT not do that Webb would have done? Since he's mentioned it, I'd like to see him pressed on this the next time he's talking to a journalist........

Link to comment

Previous comment to Cargill:  Yes! Thanks for the correction! I did mean Apparitions. 

And concerning “due process”:  My gut feeling is that Webb threw that comment out to mean he’s not judge and jury. He’s not going to “not hire” someone simply due to unsubstantiated issues. I think all he probably meant was that he’s not going to assume Gomes is in the wrong without hardcore evidence. 

And apparently everyone is hushing. The resignation at ABT ended the issue in the news. We may never know what exactly happened, but I personally can’t imagine ever resigning from a job if I were innocent. I would let them fire me and then sue, but each person is different. I do like Gomes as a dancer. 

Link to comment
2 hours ago, Birdsall said:

Previous comment to Cargill:  Yes! Thanks for the correction! I did mean Apparitions. 

And concerning “due process”:  My gut feeling is that Webb threw that comment out to mean he’s not judge and jury. He’s not going to “not hire” someone simply due to unsubstantiated issues. I think all he probably meant was that he’s not going to assume Gomes is in the wrong without hardcore evidence. 

And apparently everyone is hushing. The resignation at ABT ended the issue in the news. We may never know what exactly happened, but I personally can’t imagine ever resigning from a job if I were innocent. I would let them fire me and then sue, but each person is different. I do like Gomes as a dancer. 

What you say makes good sense, Birdsall. I also liked him very much as a performer and from two brief chats at receptions and an interview as a person. But things can go wrong, possibly. It all seems rather sad. For the moment, out of court 'justice' has reduced his image and prospects considerably. If matters support it, more information should come to light and be dealt with. Same with Peter Martins, perhaps. Hopefully all will be handled justly and fairly.

Edited by Buddy
Link to comment
15 hours ago, Birdsall said:

 

And apparently everyone is hushing. The resignation at ABT ended the issue in the news. We may never know what exactly happened, but I personally can’t imagine ever resigning from a job if I were innocent. I would let them fire me and then sue, but each person is different. I do like Gomes as a dancer. 

You have proven your mettle in the past!  In this case, if Gomes had not resigned and his innocence had been established by the investigation--or even, simply, if the allegations had not been substantiated as in the Martins' case--then I personally don't think ABT would have fired him. And if that had happened, I also think it would have been easier for time to erase people's focus on the issue. (Martins' reputation survived arrest for domestic abuse--which remained a footnote in his career until the new allegations were made--and Gomes is very loved.)  Like Jayne I know this is a fraught issue, and the reason I decided to post at all was partly to defend ABT which at least as far as I know did not do something improper in deciding to investigate the allegation.

From the combination of utter silence about what may or may not have happened in combination with other American companies hiring him to dance, I also think it's a reasonable inference to draw that many people in the ballet world have concluded that even if Gomes did do something improper or illegal eight years ago, they don't think he deserves to lose his entire career over it. 

Edited by Drew
Link to comment
23 hours ago, Birdsall said:

 The resignation at ABT ended the issue in the news. We may never know what exactly happened, but I personally can’t imagine ever resigning from a job if I were innocent. I would let them fire me and then sue, but each person is different.

I suspect Gomes has taken the smartest path even if the two possibilities are to be considered. If he 1-did "something"-(to which we don't know the details, the extent of it or how consensual or not it was. Yes...there have probably been countless of those allegations out there in which the "act" in question was originally consensual) or 2- if has been the subject of a scheme/witch hunt.

He was probably on the verge of retirement at ABT, and if he was innocent, it would had been a hideous drama for him to stay while he was investigated or to temporarily get a suspension, a la Martins, which at the end it is bad too. If he was guilty, all the story and diminishing details would had been by now in our mouths and the arts circle gossiping networks. He probably cut a deal to quietly get off his contract in return for a gag order from all the opposite outlets. Smart decision.

I LOVE Gomes.

 

Link to comment
On 7/1/2018 at 8:25 AM, Birdsall said:

We may never know what exactly happened, but I personally can’t imagine ever resigning from a job if I were innocent. I would let them fire me and then sue, but each person is different. I do like Gomes as a dancer. 

I don't agree with the premise that the resignation implies, even vaguely,  that Gomes was guilty of wrongdoing.  It is equally as likely that he became so angry and his pride was so hurt by the way ABT dealt with him that he quit in disgust and as a protest of his treatment.  Also, while many Americans live by the motto of sue, sue, sue, that is not necessarily true of someone who  grew up in another culture.  Instead of a protracted legal battle, he decided to walk away and move on to other things for the few remaining years he had left to be a ballet dancer. 

Link to comment
2 hours ago, abatt said:

I don't agree with the premise that the resignation implies, even vaguely,  that Gomes was guilty of wrongdoing.  It is equally as likely that he became so angry and his pride was so hurt by the way ABT dealt with him that he quit in disgust and as a protest of his treatment.  Also, while many Americans live by the motto of sue, sue, sue, that is not necessarily true of someone who  grew up in another culture.  Instead of a protracted legal battle, he decided to walk away and move on to other things for the few remaining years he had left to be a ballet dancer. 

I don't agree with the premise that he had anything to protest in regards to his treatment.

I love Gomes. But if an incident was made known to the company he worked for,  it would have been negligent not to investigate. He was clearly a huge favorite of audiences and of dancers/staff alike. I'm pretty sure they too would have rather this never happened. 

Link to comment
23 minutes ago, aurora said:

 I'm pretty sure they too would have rather this never happened. 

I agree. I'm sure they would have rather this incident never happened. But the Board of Directors felt the need to give it the full blown investigation treatment once they had information regarding a potential claim  in order to cover their butts from potential legal liability. 

Link to comment

I've looked earlier on this thread but didn't find — could someone refresh my memory of what exactly we know about that "full blown investigation treatment" and about ABT's actions regarding this? My recollection is that that publicly available information was quite limited when this all happened earlier in the year, which means there are a lot of different possibilities of what did, in fact, happen.

I'll be continuing to search for that info as well, but just in case someone has it at their fingertips I wanted to ask. Thanks!

Edited by nanushka
Link to comment
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...