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City Ballet 2016-2017 Season


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NEW YORK CITY BALLET PRINCIPAL CASTING FOR JANUARY 17-22, 2017

TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 17, 7:30 PM

(Conductor: Litton)
LA SONNAMBULA: Hyltin, *Finlay, Mearns, Ramasar, Adams, Villwock, *Kayali, *Hoxha, King, Carmena, Ulbricht

PRODIGAL SON: Kowroski, De Luz, la Cour, Anderson, *Brown, *Coll, Alberda FIREBIRD: Reichlen, J. Peck, Lowery, Scordato

WEDNESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 18, 7:30 PM

(Conductor: Litton) ALLEGRO BRILLANTE: T. Peck, Veyette [Solo Piano: Walters]

SWAN LAKE: Mearns, J. Angle, Laracey, Lowery, Dieck
THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS: Wellington, Scordato, Pollack, Applebaum, LeCrone, *Sanz, Huxley, A. Stafford, T. Angle,

la Cour, Bouder [Solo Piano: Gosling]

THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY 19, 7:30 PM

(Conductor: Litton) ALLEGRO BRILLANTE: M. Fairchild, Ramasar [Solo Piano: Walters]

SWAN LAKE: Mearns, J. Angle, Laracey, Lowery, Dieck
THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS: Wellington, Scordato, Pollack, Applebaum, LeCrone, Sanz, Huxley, A. Stafford, T. Angle,

la Cour, Bouder [Solo Piano: Gosling]

FRIDAY EVENING, JANUARY 20, 8:00 PM

(Conductor: Litton)
LA SONNAMBULA: *T. Peck, R. Fairchild, *Krohn, J. Peck, *Segin, *Maxwell, Alberda, *Coll, *C. Von Enck, *Villarini-Velez,

Schumacher

PRODIGAL SON: Ulbricht, Reichlen, *Sanz, *Smith, *Manzi, *Hoxha, *Kayali FIREBIRD: Bouder, Catazaro, Laracey, Farley

SATURDAY MATINEE, JANUARY 21, 2:00 PM

(Conductor: Litton)
LA SONNAMBULA: Hyltin, Finlay, Mearns, Ramasar, Adams, Villwock, Kayali, Hoxha, King, Carmena, Ulbricht

PRODIGAL SON: Kowroski, De Luz, la Cour, Anderson, Brown, Coll, Alberda FIREBIRD: Reichlen, J. Peck, Lowery, Scordato

SATURDAY EVENING, JANUARY 21, 8:00 PM

(Conductor: Litton)
LA SONNAMBULA: T. Peck, R. Fairchild, Krohn, J. Peck, Segin, Maxwell, Alberda, Coll, C. Von Enck, Villarini-Velez,

Schumacher
PRODIGAL SON: Ulbricht, Reichlen, Sanz, Smith, Manzi, Hoxha, Kayali

FIREBIRD: Bouder, Catazaro, Laracey, Farley

SUNDAY MATINEE, JANUARY 22, 3:00 PM

(Conductor: Sill) SCÉNES DE BALLET: Students from the School of American Ballet

THE CAGE: Lovette, Lowery, J. Angle, Suozzi
pause

EIGHT EASY PIECES: *MacKinnon, *Hutsell, *Maxwell [Solo Piano: McDill & Moverman]
pause

SCHERZO FANTASTIQUE (STRAVINSKY/PECK NYC PREMIERE): **Pollack, **Stanley, **Huxley

STRAVINSKY VIOLIN CONCERTO: Hyltin, R. Fairchild, Kowroski, Ramasar
* First Time in Role **NYC Debut

PROGRAM AND CASTING SUBJECT TO CHANGE (01/04/17)

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A release:

 

NEW YORK CITY BALLET PRESENTS FIFTH ANNUAL ART SERIES DURING 2017 WINTER SEASON

Brooklyn-Based Finnish Artist Santtu Mustonen To Create Large-Scale Installation
For the Promenade of the David H. Koch Theater On Display Throughout NYCB’s 2017 Winter Season January 17 through February 26

Single Tickets for Three Special Art Series Performances
To Go on Sale at Noon on Tuesday, January 3
All Tickets $30 and Audience Members Attending the Art Series Performances Will Each Receive a Limited-Edition Commemorative Takeaway Created by Mustonen

New York City Ballet will present the fifth installment of its acclaimed Art Series initiative during the Company’s 2017 Winter Season. Launched in 2013, New York City Ballet’s Art Series features annual collaborations between NYCB and contemporary visual artists who create original works for exhibition at the Company’s home, the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center.

For the fifth anniversary of Art Series, NYCB has commissioned an installation from the Finnish-born, Brooklyn-based artist Santtu Mustonen. The centerpiece of Mustonen’s commission will feature a large-scale video installation created from a series of original, digitally altered paintings that the artist has produced especially for New York City Ballet. Mustonen’s paintings will also be displayed on the orchestra level of the theater throughout the winter season.

By combining abstract, handcrafted visual imagery with new technology, Mustonen makes visual art that literally moves. “I see a lot of connections to dance in my work,” says Mustonen. “By using digital tools to animate paintings, I can make a work move almost like a dancer.”

Mustonen, who figure skated while growing up in Finland, also briefly studied ballet to improve his skating technique. At university in Helsinki, and later in Amsterdam, Mustonen focused his studies on design and after receiving a grant from the Finnish Cultural Institute in 2011, he moved to New York and immersed himself in the art world. He first saw the David H. Koch Theater three years earlier on a visit to New York when he attended a performance of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker at New York City Ballet. Struck at that time by the theater’s iconic Promenade, Mustonen explains that his Art Series commission will take advantage of the space’s towering height and multiple vantage points, with an animated video installation that plays with scale and alters viewers’ perceptions in an Alice in Wonderland fashion. “There’s no ending, no start.” he says, “It’s a piece where you can choose to get just a little glimpse or jump into the rabbit hole and experience it all.”

In recent years Mustonen has created work for The Academy Awards, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The MTV Video Music Awards, Flow Music Festival, and The New York Times. He is represented by New York based creative agency Hugo & Marie.

Mustonen’s NYCB Art Series installation will be on display at the David H. Koch Theater from Tuesday, January 17 through Sunday, February 26 during all of NYCB’s 2017 Winter Season performances. NYCB will also host free, open hours for the general public to view the exhibition on the following dates: Saturday, February 18 through Sunday, February 26 – Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon; Sundays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.; and Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

In addition, NYCB will hold three special Art Series performances, which will take place on Saturday, January 28 at 8 p.m.; Friday, February 3 at 8 p.m.; and Thursday, February 23 at 7:30 p.m. All single tickets for these three Art Series performances are priced at just $30 and will go on sale at noon on Tuesday, January 3 at nycballet.com, or by calling 212-496-0600. Each Art Series performance will be followed by a post-performance party on the theater’s Promenade open to all audience members, each of whom will receive a special limited-edition takeaway created by Mustonen to commemorate the NYCB Art Series collaboration.

ABOUT NYCB ART SERIES

Launched in 2013, NYCB Art Series was designed to produce annual collaborations between contemporary visual artists and New York City Ballet in an effort to showcase and celebrate the visual arts during NYCB performances at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. The first four installments of Art Series have featured acclaimed installations by FAILE (2013), JR (2014), Dustin Yellin (2015), and Marcel Dzama (2016).

 

Through the use of non-traditional marketing, social media engagement, and specially priced tickets, the NYCB Art Series was also conceived to engage audiences new to NYCB, as well as to cross pollinate NYCB’s existing fans with those of the commissioned artists. During its first four years, Art Series has introduced tens of thousands of new patrons to New York City Ballet, helping to change the Company’s demographic make-up with a 10% increase in audience members under the age of 40.

In addition to NYCB’s unparalleled history of commissioning new work from numerous composers and choreographers, the Company also has a long tradition of working with visual artists such as Isamu Noguchi, Andy Warhol, Julian Schnabel, Francesco Clemente, Helen Frankenthaler, Roy Lichtenstein, Keith Haring, Santiago Calatrava, Per Kirkeby, and others, all of whom have created artworks and other visual elements for NYCB performances. The lobby of the David H. Koch Theater, which was built for NYCB and opened at Lincoln Center in 1964, also features a permanent collection that includes several landmark works of art, including Jasper Johns’ Numbers, Lee Bontecou’s Untitled Relief, and Elie Nadelman’s Two Female Nudes and Two Circus Women.

To learn more about New York City Ballet, or to purchase tickets for any performance, visit nycballet.com, or call 212-496-0600. The David H. Koch Theater is located at Lincoln Center, Columbus Avenue and West 63rd Street.

NEW YORK CITY BALLET is one of the foremost dance companies in the world, with a roster of more than 90 dancers and an unparalleled repertory of modern masterpieces. The Company was founded in 1948 by the legendary choreographer George Balanchine and arts patron Lincoln Kirstein, and quickly became world-renowned for its contemporary style and a repertory of original ballets that has forever changed the face of classical dance. Now under the direction of Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins and Executive Director Katherine Brown, NYCB is committed to promoting creative excellence and nurturing a new generation of dancers and choreographers. For more information visit nycballet.com.

The 2017 Art Series and Access Evenings are supported by generous grants from the Howard Gilman Foundation and Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.

The Travelers Companies, Inc. is the Global Sponsor of New York City Ballet. 

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On 10/19/2016 at 1:32 PM, E Johnson said:

IGlass Pieces continues to be a great pleasure, and I continue to think its time to redo the costumes. Those shiny pastel unitards are terribly dated and also terribly unflattering; when Sara Mearns looks flabby there's something wrong. 

 

Ramen. Those unitards have been hideous since Day One, and you're so right about Mearns. If NYCB and Martins can junk the lovely Bizet costumes in favor of Swarovski nouveau-riche arriviste tutus, the Glass costumes can go. Unflattering costumes *and* headshots are one of the astounding NYCB perennial problems: how do they manage to make so many unusually pretty people look so bad???

And speaking of Martins, "Thou Swell" is one of his most odious outings for so many reasons. I think the thing I hate most about it is the utter dreck 'choreography' to great , great popular music. Balanchine made masterpieces ("Who Cares?" most notably) to popular music; Robbins at least did not mortify himself in "I'm Old Fashioned." When I see good dancers having to appear in "Thou Swell" I want to hurl.

Edited by jsmu
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2 hours ago, Olga said:

About that casting for the last show of the Balanchine Stories: Martins is doing a good job bringing up the rear! 

 

Amen to that and it's not easy to bring up the rear when you have such an amazing roster of principals.  Good for Peter Martins.  I'm speaking as one whose involvement in ballet goes way back, andI never thought I'd say - good for Peter Martins.  IMO he's turned out to be a terrific AD  which means Mr. B was right again.

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On 1/11/2017 at 10:14 PM, vipa said:

 

Amen to that and it's not easy to bring up the rear when you have such an amazing roster of principals.  Good for Peter Martins.  I'm speaking as one whose involvement in ballet goes way back, andI never thought I'd say - good for Peter Martins.  IMO he's turned out to be a terrific AD  which means Mr. B was right again.

Mr. B had nothing to do with the choice of Martins; that was the Board of Directors, which assumed control and disenfranchised Balanchine when he was in the hospital with his last illness. Such figures as Betty Cage, who was NYCB's general manager for thirty-two years, are quoted on the subject (in Greg Lawrence's biography of Robbins, "Dancing with Demons," among other places) as saying Balanchine named and left no successor. Mr. B was never given the chance to be right in this case.

Edited by jsmu
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On 1/13/2017 at 12:00 AM, jsmu said:

Mr. B had nothing to do with the choice of Martins; that was the Board of Directors, which assumed control and disenfranchised Balanchine when he was in the hospital with his last illness. Such figures as Betty Cage, who was NYCB's general manager for thirty-two years, are quoted on the subject (in Greg Lawrence's biography of Robbins, "Dancing with Demons," among other places) as saying Balanchine named and left no successor. Mr. B was never given the chance to be right in this case.

So this almost year old post is very interesting in light of recent events. Peter Martins has told the story numerous times from the SPAC stage:

NYCB was in Saratoga and Mr. B invited Peter to breakfast at Sperry's. The restaurant is still there, has changed hands several times, and only serves dinner now. I don't remember a time when breakfast was served there. 

The upshot of the meeting was, according to peter, the nomination as Mr. B's successor.

Greg Lawrence's take on Balanchine is well known. 

What is the truth here? Opinions?

 

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Robert Gottlieb has said that Balanchine told him directly, while the two watched Martins partnering Farrell from backstage, that it had to be Martins, because Martins knew what a ballerina needed.  If he later felt he had made a mistake, he didn't tell anyone who has come forward.  It was Kirstein within five years who told Gottlieb that Kirstein had made a mistake by advocating so hard for Martins.

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4 hours ago, rkoretzky said:

So this almost year old post is very interesting in light of recent events. Peter Martins has told the story numerous times from the SPAC stage:

NYCB was in Saratoga and Mr. B invited Peter to breakfast at Sperry's. The restaurant is still there, has changed hands several times, and only serves dinner now. I don't remember a time when breakfast was served there. 

The upshot of the meeting was, according to peter, the nomination as Mr. B's successor.

Greg Lawrence's take on Balanchine is well known. 

What is the truth here? Opinions?

 

Peter Martins is on record (and film) saying that Balanchine spoke to him about taking on the job and all it entailed. I've never heard anyone dispute it.

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4 hours ago, rkoretzky said:

So this almost year old post is very interesting in light of recent events. Peter Martins has told the story numerous times from the SPAC stage:

NYCB was in Saratoga and Mr. B invited Peter to breakfast at Sperry's. The restaurant is still there, has changed hands several times, and only serves dinner now. I don't remember a time when breakfast was served there. 

The upshot of the meeting was, according to peter, the nomination as Mr. B's successor.

Greg Lawrence's take on Balanchine is well known. 

What is the truth here? Opinions?

 

This is somewhat contradicted by other versions such as Balanchine saying to Martins something like "no one is going to give it to you; you've got to step up (to the board) and ask for the job". Balanchine was under a certain amount of pressure though, to choose a successor.

If I can remember the source of my reference I will add it here.

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Here's an interesting NYT article about Martins from 1996, The Company He Keeps:

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/21/magazine/the-company-he-keeps.html

'Until now, Martins has never explained what led him to let Farrell go. "Why should I try to make other people look bad?" he says. "I wanted her with the company. Suzanne proposed to me that she become the associate artistic director. I said, 'But there's no artistic director here.' 'You're the artistic director,' she said. I answered, 'No, I'm ballet master.' 'Change that,' she said. I told her: 'Suzanne, forget about the title. I'll move a desk for you into my office and you can see what I do every day and figure out what you want to do.' "

Farrell, who did not return calls for this article, said no. She had taught a class at the company, but after the first week nobody went. "I can spot a good teacher," Martins says. "I'm not interested in teachers who want a following."'

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2 hours ago, Josette said:

Helene, out of curiosity, I was wondering the source for your post.  Is it "Avid Reader?" 

 

That was one source. I have the Kindle Books version, so it's Location 4567 in the "Dancing" chapter:

Quote

While Balanchine was in the hospital through his long, final illness, Peter was essentially in charge of the company, though with no official position.  And when Balanchine died, there were several people who felt they had a right to be considered his heir.  But George on two occasions had told me directly that Peter was his choice.  One was a casual remark, in passing.  But the other was highly specific and clearly deliberate.  We were standing alone together in the wings watching Peter partnering Suzanne.  Without turning to me he said, "It has to be Peter.  He understands what a ballerina needs."  Was he referring to Peter's genius as a partner?  Who knows?  Balanchine, at least with me, came forth with utterances rather than taking part in conversations.  Was he making sure that a member of the board could bear witness to his decision? Again, who knows?  Whatever was in his mind, I took his statement as a royal command.

He doesn't say when.

I think he reiterated it lately, maybe in his Conversation on Dance interview.

Edited to add:  Gottlieb starts to tell this starting ~9:29 in the podcast:

http://tendusunderapalmtree.com/jewels-with-bob-gottlieb/

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1 hour ago, pherank said:


Farrell, who did not return calls for this article, said no. She had taught a class at the company, but after the first week nobody went. "I can spot a good teacher," Martins says. "I'm not interested in teachers who want a following."'

This is interesting because when Balanchine was alive many dancers did not attend his company class.

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On 12/28/2017 at 8:08 PM, vipa said:

Peter Martins is on record (and film) saying that Balanchine spoke to him about taking on the job and all it entailed. I've never heard anyone dispute it.

What else would you expect Martins to say? The Gottlieb anecdote is equally as impossible to prove as the Betty Cage quotations *except that* Gottlieb was not the bedrock of the NYCB for over thirty years. In addition, the Gottlieb anecdote is *vague*  in its reference. Was Balanchine talking about partnering or was he talking about the directorship of NYCB? No one knows . I think it sounds far more like partnering.

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On 12/28/2017 at 3:39 PM, rkoretzky said:

So this almost year old post is very interesting in light of recent events. Peter Martins has told the story numerous times from the SPAC stage:

NYCB was in Saratoga and Mr. B invited Peter to breakfast at Sperry's. The restaurant is still there, has changed hands several times, and only serves dinner now. I don't remember a time when breakfast was served there. 

The upshot of the meeting was, according to peter, the nomination as Mr. B's successor.

Greg Lawrence's take on Balanchine is well known. 

What is the truth here? Opinions?

 

Peter Martins' 'take' on many things is well known, including his pathological aversion to keeping any great Balanchine ballerinas on staff at NYCB. Violette Verdy, Merrill Ashley, Suzanne Farrell...There is no one commenting on Martins' assumption of the job, most particularly Martins, who does not have a highly personal involvement in the matter, so the swipe at Lawrence is unjustified.

Edited by jsmu
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Martins could have said that he got a call from the Board, or that Lincoln Kirstein told him to go to Gottlieb for help, because he was going to be the head of the company, although it wouldn't have been as snappy.

Gottlieb believed that Balanchine meant that Martins was supposed to take over the Company.  Gottlieb doesn't say when this conversation took place, though: we only know that Balanchine was still watching from the wings, and not his usual side, which meant, at latest, Spring 1982, since Balanchine was hospitalized that Fall, and it sounds like NYST, not Saratoga.  Balanchine was reported to be quite lucid, at least when he was first hospitalized, and there were enough regular visitors, that it would have been easy for him to object to Martins as a successor.  And it could have been played as, "Thank you so much, Peter Martins, for all of your work as interim director in holding the place together, and our new Ballet Master is [xyz]."

I think they made a very wrong bet on the very wrong horse, but I'm not sure of the older generation, who the company would have rallied around, given the rivalries.   I don't know if McBride was interested, but she's about the only one besides maybe Verdy (who seemed to hate administration) who was as close to universally liked as anyone.

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