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ABT 2017 promotions prediction/wish list


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Sarah Lane absolutely should be promoted to principal as soon as Vishneva retires. However, I believe that her forte is in two genres: Romantic-serious and Soubrette-comedic. I was not impressed with her tiny-scaled and bland Aurora in SB or other "classical tutu" roles, such as that unfortunate Flames PDD with Simkin at the Kenn Cen a few years ago. But her wondrous Giselle this past week proves that Sarah is much much more than a cute soubrette which, I believe, was her problem in the past.

 

Corps-into-soloists: April Giangeruso among women; Gabe Stone Shayer and Calvin Royal for men.

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Technically there are two "openings" in the principal women: Polina Semionova who sort of just packed her bags, had a baby, and never came back, and Diana Vishneva. Polina is tall, Diana is short. 

 

My guess is Sarah Lane is going to be the short girl who gets principal. Any guesses on the tall girl? Devon? 

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The two tall soloists need to be groomed to become principal soon or at least to take on the roles, as most of the aging (sounds horrible because they're in their 30's, but it's ballet) principal ballerinas are all tall: Part, Murphy, Abrera. I don't know if a tall dancer will be promoted this year, but if one is, my money is on Teuscher.

I personally would like to see them both as a soloist for at least another year, they haven't been soloists for that long. A little more time in the soloist rank (with the opportunity to take on full length principal roles, obviously) will give them more stage and prep time to become full time principals more successfully.

Same goes to the younger short soloists: they're both great but I feel like it's too soon to promote them. Their time will come, but in my opinion it should not be this year. Then again, ABT always goes against everything I think, so what do I know?

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4 hours ago, LadyBubbles said:

The two tall soloists need to be groomed to become principal soon or at least to take on the roles, as most of the aging (sounds horrible because they're in their 30's, but it's ballet) principal ballerinas are all tall: Part, Murphy, Abrera. I don't know if a tall dancer will be promoted this year, but if one is, my money is on Teuscher.

I personally would like to see them both as a soloist for at least another year, they haven't been soloists for that long. A little more time in the soloist rank (with the opportunity to take on full length principal roles, obviously) will give them more stage and prep time to become full time principals more successfully.

Same goes to the younger short soloists: they're both great but I feel like it's too soon to promote them. Their time will come, but in my opinion it should not be this year. Then again, ABT always goes against everything I think, so what do I know?

Misty Copeland is also not a young principal, at age 34. 

 

Good thing the newish soloists, Cassandra Trenary and Skylar Brandt are in their early 20s and have major potential to have long careers in principal roles!

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So, if ABT is consistent with the past few years, we should be hearing about promotions this week.

 

Fingers crossed for a few long overdue ones to be announced. (And, there's usually a surprise or two, at least for me.)

Edited by ABT Fan
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On 6/1/2017 at 1:45 PM, ABT Fan said:

Hammoudi gets principal roles, but he delivers lackluster performances.

 

I wouldn't doubt seeing Hammoudi being promoted, given that ABT's technical standards for Principal spots consideration have diminished. But yeah...he's no Principal material. Royal is.

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Comparing the roster in tonight's program to one from June 12, it appears that four of the five apprentices got corps contracts since the 12th. Congrats to Carlos Gonzalez, Annabel Katsnelson, Xuekan Lu, and Gabrielle Perkins. Kiely Groenewegen is still listed as an apprentice.

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Apprentice to corps promotions usually happen around late May to mid June (and early December to January). Congrats to the young artists who got promoted.

I believe Kiely Groenewegen is a fairly new apprentice. She was still listed as a Studio Company dancer on the ABT website until very recently (in fact she's not even listed as an apprentice on the website, because it takes forever to update).

 

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33 minutes ago, AB'sMom said:

Royal has to be promoted to soloist, right? They can't possibly leave him in the corp. 

Yeah, I think he's the most likely promotion from corps to soloist. There were a lot of promotions from corps to soloist last year, so I could imagine him being the only such promotion this year.

 

I know there has been a lot of talk recently of ABT lowering its standards with regard to its principals' technique. That said, I still can't imagine Hammoudi being promoted. He's looked sloppy for years now, with no signs of improvement, really.

Edited by fondoffouettes
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Actually last year was a slow year as far as promotions go. Only Hoven and Cirio got promoted (to soloist and principal respectively). However, 2015 had a ton of promotions.

 

Don't be surprised if Hammoudi gets promoted. They probably shouldn't, but they might be a little desperate with their current tall male principal problem (Bolle and Gomes and getting old, Hallberg is slowly coming back). I think they should groom some of the tall corps dancers instead. I think Aran Bell has definite prince potential, and he's quite tall now. The problem is that he's very young, and you know ABT doesn't like young male principals anymore. I hope ABT doesn't let his talent (and others') go to waste.

 

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36 minutes ago, 83firefly said:

Can't wait to find out!! Crossing fingers and toes for Royal and Lane.

 

These two should definitely be promoted. And Thomas Forster should be given more prominent roles to groom him for promotion to principal in the next year or two.

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10 hours ago, LadyBubbles said:

Actually last year was a slow year as far as promotions go. Only Hoven and Cirio got promoted (to soloist and principal respectively). However, 2015 had a ton of promotions.

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Ah, thanks, LadyBubbles. I was thinking of 2015, when there were all those promotions.

 

There are always a few surprises, but these are my best guesses:

 

Soloist to Principal:

Very Likely: Lane (The company has been rewarding seniority recently. Her Giselle was an unqualified triumph, and her Swan Lake was quite good, despite the limited prep time.)

Likely: Shevchenko (She rose to the challenge, and then some, in Don Q and Corsaire.); Teuscher (She nailed Swan Lake, but I wonder if they will wait for her to carry another full-length before promoting her.)

Possible: Hammoudi (His dancing has been so underwhelming, but he's a pretty solid partner and continues to be cast in principal roles.); Brandt (I suspect they will try her out in more roles for one or two more seasons, but you never know!); Trenary (Her dancing has been lovely, but until she takes on another full-length classical role, I'm not sure she'll be promoted.)

Wild Card: Gorak (As others have noted, he's kind of stalled out casting-wise, but he continues to dance beautifully. He's the only male dancer whose elegance approaches that of Hallberg.)

 

Corps to Soloist:

Very Likely: Royal (He's been dancing so strongly. Standouts for me have been Rothbart, Symphonic Variations and the last section of the Shostakovich Trilogy.)

Wild Cards: I think there may be very few promotions in this category, given the number that happened in 2015, but perhaps HamrickFang or Scott will be rewarded for their many years of dancing soloist parts. Then there are the relative newbies who have been standing out: Ahn, Shayer, Zhang (Ziyao).

 

Of course, I'm sure most of these predictions will be wrong! 

 

Edited by fondoffouettes
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10 minutes ago, fondoffouettes said:

Ah, thanks, LadyBubbles. I was thinking of 2015, when there were all those promotions.

 

There are always a few surprises, but these are my best guesses:

 

Soloist to Principal:

Very Likely: Lane (The company has been rewarding seniority recently. Her Giselle was an unqualified triumph, and her Swan Lake was quite good, despite the limited prep time.)

Likely: Shevchenko (She rose to the challenge, and then some, in Don Q and Corsaire.); Teuscher (She nailed Swan Lake, but I wonder if they will wait for her to carry another full-length before promoting her.)

Possible: Hammoudi (His dancing has been so underwhelming, but he's a pretty solid partner and continues to be cast in principal roles.); Brandt (I suspect they will try her out in more roles for one or two more seasons, but you never know!); Trenary (Her dancing has been lovely, but until she takes on another full-length classical role, I'm not sure she'll be promoted.)

Wild Card: Gorak (As others have noted, he's kind of stalled out casting-wise, but he continues to dance beautifully. He's the only male dancer whose elegance approaches that of Hallberg.)

 

Corps to Soloist:

Very Likely: Royal (He's been dancing so strongly. Standouts for me have been Rothbart, Symphonic Variations and the last section of the Shostakovich Trilogy.)

Wild Cards: I think there may be very few promotions in this category, given the number that happened in 2015, but perhaps HamrickFang or Scott will be rewarded for their many years of dancing soloist parts. Then there are the relative newbies who have been standing out: Ahn, Shayer, Zhang (Ziyao).

 

Of course, I'm sure most of these predictions will be wrong! 

 

Gabe Stone Shayer has been doing a lot of soloist parts for 3 years. I wouldn't call him likely only because I can't predict but certainly it is more "deserved" than "wild card" at this point

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9 minutes ago, angelica said:

 

These two should definitely be promoted. And Thomas Forster should be given more prominent roles to groom him for promotion to principal in the next year or two.

 

Zhong jing Fang, Paulina Waski and April Giangeruso for soloist. More principal parts for T Forster and soloist parts for Grey Davis.

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18 minutes ago, fondoffouettes said:

 

Wild Cards: I think there may be very few promotions in this category, given the number that happened in 2015, but perhaps HamrickFang or Scott will be rewarded for their many years of dancing soloist parts. Then there are the relative newbies who have been standing out: Ahn, Shayer, Zhang (Ziyao).

I think that Scott (Arron Scott, is there another Scott?) is already a soloist, and well deserved.

 

bingham said "Zhong jing Fang, Paulina Waski and April Giangeruso for soloist."

I have found April to be very disappointing this season, with a weak upper body and falling out of her turns.

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