Kaysta Posted December 17, 2016 Share Posted December 17, 2016 (edited) Just got back from Sterling Baca/Mayara Pineiro/Lillian DiPiazza cast of the Nutcracker. ABT is dumb. Very very dumb. I realize they can only have so many soloists or principals but they screwed up letting Baca go. I'm glad they did though, because now I get to see him at the Academy of Music regularly. Tonight I saw the best Sugar Plum Fairy/Cavalier pas de deux that I've ever seen (I've seen the Nutcracker about 20 times since 2013). Baca is a fantastic partner. I know there is a lot of tricky partnering and exchanges in that pas, but you wouldn't know it by watching them tonight. They had no bobbles or mistakes that my non-dancer's eyes could see. It was smooth and luxurious. Honestly, it brought tears to my eyes it was so darn good. I forgot that there was a drunk person sitting behind me who kept kicking my chair and a five year old who was chatting about bumble bees, and got lost for a brief seven minutes of dance heaven. Dayesi Torriente was supposed to dance Dewdrop but Lillian DiPiazza filled in instead. While I love DiPiazza, I was a bit disappointed, because this was my first opportunity to see Torriente in a super technical fast paced role (I saw her Marzipan lead last week) and I was really looking forward to it. But DiPiazza is a stunning dancer, with fantastic lines and great technique, so I still got to see a fantastic Dewdrop. Last year I went though a phase where I hated the Marzipan Shepherdesses, but this year I'm loving it. I really respect how difficult that choreography and footwork looks. Ana Calderon did a really great job. My only complaint (and I felt the same way last week) is that the corp de ballet is not doing a very good job with Snow. I think this might be because of the drastic turnover at PAB over the last two years. A lot of these dancers must be dancing Balanchine's Nutcracker for the first time because I saw a lot of messy areas during Snow (less-so during Flowers). During those chaine turns on demipointe, one poor young soul was so completely out of sync with the rest of the corps that she stood out like a sore thumb. And they didn't hit the accents on the music like I've seen NYCB corps do. To be honest, I saw the CPYB Balanchine Nutcracker last week, and I thought their Snow was head and tails better than PAB. At least the boys choir saved the scene for me. Anyway, if anyone gets the chance to see Sterling Baca or Mayara Piniero, I highly recommend it. These two are legitimate stars and I'm happy I get to see them. Edited December 17, 2016 by Kaysta Link to comment
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