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NYCB winter 2017 promotions


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Yaaayyy I just clapped and my roommate was all surprised and wondered what the hell happened! I am thrilled for all, but mostly for Unity, Indiana, Joseph and Harrison. These are not surprising and they were a long time coming. I am thrilled to see them finally happen!

Edited by sohalia
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If I had been living in a co-op instead of a condo, the co-op board might have booted me from the building after the commotion I made early in the morning when I learned that Shizuka Arakawa won the Olympic gold medal in 2006 ;)

 

Congratulations to all of the dancers :flowers:  I got to see some of them on Opening Night last Fall.

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I had a list of people I thought would get promoted and I got all the corps members right ! I'm sort of excited because I'm new to the ballet world (2 years), so I guess it means that I have an okay eye and that I am approaching and "appreciating" this wonderful art form correctly ! I'm very happy for all the dancers who got promoted. I saw most of them in Saratoga and I was blown away by their talent. Congratulations !

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Fabulous news! Especially happy to see Sara Adams -- sometimes it seems as if she's been rather underutilized in the corps, so it'll be great to see her with more opportunities. Also really happy to see Emilie Gerrity promoted -- while there's not as much "name recognition" as with Unity Phelan, Indiana Woodward, et al., she's really developed a lovely magnetism on stage within the past few years.

 

BalletontheRocks, I was a bit surprised as well, but there's such a depth of talent in the corps that it may take a few cycles to get all of the future soloists moved up. My guess is that Ashley Hod, Alexa Maxwell, and Claire Kretzschmar will be part of the next "batch" (perhaps with Miriam Miller as well, though perhaps she'll be moving on her own trajectory). What a great time to be in the City Ballet audience!

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Agree about Ashley Laracey.  She is so lovely.  But congratulations to all...well deserved, and what an exciting day!  The talent is so deep that it seems impossible to promote all who deserve it.  And I think that may have  been the case in the past as well.  There were "principal dancers" in the past who weren't officially principals.  Colleen Neary comes to mind...

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This makes the ranks of female soloist pretty crowded right now. Lowery has been there the longest (soloist since 2007) and seems unlikely to move up. Pereira has been a soloist from 2009 and seems stalled, with few new opportunities coming her way. Of the batch they promoted in 2013, only Lauren Lovette has been moved up. I wonder what the prospects are for the rest of that batch -- Lauren King, Brittany Pollack, Ashley Laracey, Megan LeCrone, and Georgina Pazcoguin. Will they all be terminal soloists? The current female soloist who seems most likely to make it to principal is Ashly Isaacs. 

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The roster of principals is at max capacity it seems at the moment, so I don't see any of those long-standing soloists moving up. My guess is that 2 or 3 female principals will be retiring in the next couple years. I know that Maria Kowroski is on a comeback from a long maternity leave, but she isn't dancing the technically demanding roles anymore and she is 40 years old. Abi Stafford's career too has seemed to fizzle out after she had her baby. I haven't seen her cast in anything major in years it seems and it's a shame because she is a lovely dancer. And where has Ana Sophia Scheller been? She was a regular Aurora, but wasn't cast in any role for this run of Sleeping Beauty. I recall her performing maybe one Sugarplum during Nutcracker season? 

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Yes, I agree NYCB has a wealth of principal-level female soloists now. How lucky for us. And there is a group of talented young corps members breathing down their necks. I have always been taken with Ashley Laracey, so I hope she is promoted to principal soon. I wonder if Georgina will return. Is she still in Cats? Some performers have spent their entire careers in that show. I'm not familiar with all the newly promoted soloists, but I saw Joseph Gordon yesterday as Gold in Sleeping Beauty and felt his performance was wooden, without characterization or drama, and his face lacked all expression. He needs to complement his technical competence with dramatic skills.

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16 hours ago, Jacqueline said:

Agree about Ashley Laracey.  She is so lovely.  But congratulations to all...well deserved, and what an exciting day!  The talent is so deep that it seems impossible to promote all who deserve it.  And I think that may have  been the case in the past as well.  There were "principal dancers" in the past who weren't officially principals.  Colleen Neary comes to mind...

 

I feel that there has been significant audience support for Laracey and King, and I love them as well, but to be completely objective, they both seem to lack a wow factor besides their beauty in adagio roles. I think being a principal requires a certain technical versatility and I just don't think they have what it requires technically. Much like what happened with Rebecca Krohn and sometimes what I'm afraid for Lauren Lovette, I think that without having the technical abilities, you run the danger of becoming a bit irrelevant even after becoming a principal, and for me, rooting for King and Laracey to become promoted at this stage may be a hard sell in the end. I very much agree with Ashly Isaacs moving up, as long as she stayed injury free and became more free in her expression. 

 

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2 hours ago, Fleurfairy said:

The roster of principals is at max capacity it seems at the moment, so I don't see any of those long-standing soloists moving up. My guess is that 2 or 3 female principals will be retiring in the next couple years. I know that Maria Kowroski is on a comeback from a long maternity leave, but she isn't dancing the technically demanding roles anymore and she is 40 years old. Abi Stafford's career too has seemed to fizzle out after she had her baby. I haven't seen her cast in anything major in years it seems and it's a shame because she is a lovely dancer. And where has Ana Sophia Scheller been? She was a regular Aurora, but wasn't cast in any role for this run of Sleeping Beauty. I recall her performing maybe one Sugarplum during Nutcracker season? 

 

Scheller's been out for long periods with injury (missing one and half years I believe) and she danced briefly in the fall season before being out again in the winter. 

 

The soloist who dances the most is probably Brittany Pollack but to be perfectly honest I've never really remembered Brittany in anything she dances. She's very capable because I see her name a lot in my programs but I don't really remember her dancing one way or another.

Edited by canbelto
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20 hours ago, mimsyb said:

I would have thought perhaps Cameron Dieck would have also been put forward.  Maybe soon.

Perhaps they are holding off on promotions for now to see how things develop. Cameron Dieck, Silas Farley, Preston Chamblee, Aaron Sanz, and perhaps Peter Walker, are all tall guys who might be ready for promotion in a year or so. (my personal favorites here are Aaron Sanz and Preston Chamblee.)

Edited by cobweb
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4 hours ago, cobweb said:

This makes the ranks of female soloist pretty crowded right now. Lowery has been there the longest (soloist since 2007) and seems unlikely to move up. Pereira has been a soloist from 2009 and seems stalled, with few new opportunities coming her way. Of the batch they promoted in 2013, only Lauren Lovette has been moved up. I wonder what the prospects are for the rest of that batch -- Lauren King, Brittany Pollack, Ashley Laracey, Megan LeCrone, and Georgina Pazcoguin. Will they all be terminal soloists? The current female soloist who seems most likely to make it to principal is Ashly Isaacs. 

Very, very depressing thought of King and Laracey both possibly never making it to principal. They have both deserved the rank for years and Laracey is now the most embarrassing omission from principal status in any major US company. I doubt Pazcoguin will even return, much less be promoted again (the first promotion took too long--only Krohn has made it to principal after thirty, of the current crop) though she is a marvelous dancer--she had spoken of looking to make a change in some interviews before she moved to 'Cats.'  LeCrone has probably gone as high as she will, having had her career seriously slowed by back injuries. It's distressing to think that Lovette was the only dancer of that 2013 group to make principal so far. There was footage on facebook a while back of Laracey rehearsing the Bizet adagio in the studio--it was indescribably ravishing, and maddening.

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20 hours ago, Jacqueline said:

Agree about Ashley Laracey.  She is so lovely.  But congratulations to all...well deserved, and what an exciting day!  The talent is so deep that it seems impossible to promote all who deserve it.  And I think that may have  been the case in the past as well.  There were "principal dancers" in the past who weren't officially principals.  Colleen Neary comes to mind...

Neary's career had faltered; Balanchine probably planned to promote her with Merrill Ashley, as he did when he made them both soloists (they were rivals and competed for the same roles since their first years at SAB) but Neary gained weight and lost momentum, fell out of favor, and Balanchine finally promoted Ashley and not Neary. Laracey's dancing has grown lovelier each year to date, and it is a crime that she was not a principal years ago and dancing things like Bizet adagio, Swan Lake, Diamonds....

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Scheller was never cast as Aurora previously.  She has a history of significant injuries, but I don't know why she was out recently.

 

I was a bit surprised that Catazaro was not promoted along with Janzen, but I think his time will come eventually. 

 

I think the promotion of Troy was a gift.He is not a particularly impressive dancer, but it appears that Martins may want to use him to choreograph additional works for NYCB in the future.

 

Apologies to any Ask LaCour supporters, but I think it's time for him to retire.

 

I agree with the post above which stated that neither King nor Laracey seem to have the "wow" factor that is valued at NYCB.  Krohn doesn't either, but she waited it out long enough that she eventually got the promotion.  The same fate may be in store for Laracey.  Of the soloist women, the most likely to be promoted next are Isaacs and Pollack.

Edited by abatt
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I think Laracey does have the wow factor in certain roles.  I saw her at the Kennedy Center dance both Ash and the Infernal Machine the same night.  She was stunning in the Infernal Machine -- so much that I was shocked it was the same dancer in both roles.  She was a last minute sub for Isaacs in Ash but was scheduled for it later that week.

 

In other news, Megan Fairchild was a perfect Aurora and just thought I should share =).  She really projected her dancing.

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Post(s) discussing Macaulay's criticism have been moved to the "Writings about Ballet" forum.

 

The Company forums are about what you think.  References to historical info and context, production descriptions, etc. within reviews are fine to reference in the Company forums.

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