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This is the week that was


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It has been a very difficult week at NYCB with many injuries but perhaps, not surprisingly the Company pulled off a very strong weekend of performances. Newly injured are Miilepied, Mandarjeff, and Barak. Hopefully, these are not serious and we will see them soon.

Sat. night brought a lovely Donizetti Variations. Ringer was excellent, I saw no problems with either her petite or grande allegro and her sweetness works well in this piece. Neal danced strongly, good line in his jumps and great elegance, and was very engaged with Ringer. His turns and double tours remain problematic but were stronger than I have seen them some times.

The ladies of the corp looked great and Hankes gets an award for stamina, she was in all 3 ballets on Sat. Severini, Hendricksen and Carmena were well matched and danced in the kind of perfect unison we rarely see.

Scotch Symphony was a disappointment. Martins appeared tired (although who can blame him, given his reh. and perf schedule ). Nichols was not having a great night. There were some lovely momentts but this performance had much more limited mobility then she showed in the same role last season. Van Kipnis was terrific as the girl in red.

Piano Concerto #2 has had two distinguished debuts in recent weeks. Somoygi's had more grandeur and more interesting musical phrasing. Cavallo was warmer with lovely arms. Both were very well supported by Askegard. Last night, Bouder did the second ballerina. Great attention to detail, terrifically powerful and musical. And she did feel that she had to wrestle the part to the ground as she some times does.

Kudos to the female corps in this, just beautiful. They have been a tower of strength throughout the season and deserve all our applause.

Today's Swan Lake had more cast changes than I ever remember seeing in decades of attending City Ballet.

Cavallo was an excellent Odette/Odile, well partnered by Martins who danced as well and as passionately as I have ever seen him. I prefer my Odette's to have more extravagantly swan-like arms than Cavallo used but she gave a strong performance over all.

The pas de quatre was danced beautifully by Ringer, Tinsley and Van Kipnis supported by Jonatham Stafford who made a strong showing but needs more elegance.

Bouree danced as well as I have ever seen her dance in the Russian dance, relaxed and stylish and well supported by Fayette.

Fairchild, Orza and Riggins were a pleasure to watch in the Act II pas de Trois. Orza is growing as a dancer. As is Carmena who gave a good performance in the Neopolitan dance in Act III wirh Edge. In fact , all of the national dances were well done with an elegant Arch Higgins in Spanish.

Ulbricht 's Jester was more carefully and musically danced than previously. I really enjoyed it.

Again, the female corps was strong and stylish and much more precise than in former years. I love the power they bring to the corps dances.

The Company is now having a well deserved day off.

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NYCB Jan 31, 04

This has to have been one of the finest Donizettis I've seen, despite Philip Neal's sub-par performance. (Casting Neal in a role that wears pink is treading into questionable territory, for starters.) Credit for the superiority of this performance goes to the corps, who managed to bring out the conversational quality of the choreography more vividly than usual through attention to epaulement and fine timing. That there were passages when the unison could have been tighter, or where lines could have been straighter hardly mattered, because the ballet resonated with spirit. In fact, it looked (and felt) much like Donizetti ca. 1975 -- with the virtues and flaws of the company as it danced for Balanchine. Jenifer Ringer was bubbly perfection, filling the space with shaded moods and flirting discretely with the audience. The more experience she has in this role, the more fun it is for both her and the audience. It's a great role for her.

The corps also danced jauntily in the opening movement of Scotch. Pascale's Scotch Girl was especially peppy and witty. Nilasdanced sluggishly but partnered very attentively. I had problems with some of Kyra's musical responses and thought she overdramatized the role. Nothing about her suggests the otherworldiness of those spirits from the 19th century romantic ballets, and I thought she would have been better off deemphasizing those stylistic references. I was more bothered by the voluntary aspects of her performance than her loss of elevation in leaps, of spring in her sautes.

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto #2: Cavallo's stiffness was not so much in the arms as the torso. She was capable of the technical challenges, and she sustained a queenly aura, but she did not set the stage afire. Ashley Bouder took care of that. Her dancing was grand and modulated, clear, explosive. From the first slow, savored develope at her first entrance to the sharply defined emboites of the finale, she gave the audience a very special performance. In this, also, the corps looked fine.

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