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Hallberg to withdraw from upcoming ABT perf due to injury


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The release:

DAVID HALLBERG TO WITHDRAW

FROM UPCOMING PERFORMANCES WITH

AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE DUE TO INJURY

Due to a recurring foot injury requiring surgery, American Ballet Theatre Principal Dancer David Hallberg will withdraw from upcoming performances with the Company this Fall, it was announced today by Kevin McKenzie, Artistic Director.

In addition to ABT’s Fall Season at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, Hallberg was scheduled to perform on tour with the Company in Swan Lake at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane, Australia and in Fancy Free at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.

"It is with great regret that I have to step off the stage for this period of recovery," said David Hallberg. "But as an artist that relies on his body as his instrument, my main priority is to dance in full health and take the time needed to perform at that level again."

For more information on American Ballet Theatre, please visit www.abt.org.

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Why am I not surprised?...Has Hallberg ever said anything (in interviews, perhaps?) about the strain of performing and rehearsing on the raked stages in Moscow? I vaguely remember something along those lines from Gomes a while ago. It's quite an adjustment for dancers who did not grow up with those things.

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And I thought I would finally see him dance in fall season since I missed him completely in the spring and with Bolshoi. Sincerely hope that the surgery will do the trick. I'm sure he was hoping to avoid surgery but sometimes it's the only way and other methods have clearly not helped.

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This will be awkward. They use very few principals for the Koch engagement, and one is already off the roster. Gorak is listed in the Hallberg role for the alternate cast of Seven Sonata. Isn't there a big pdd for Hallberg and Kent in Seven Sonatas. Are they planning on pairing up Gorak and Kent?dunno.gif

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And I thought I would finally see him dance in fall season since I missed him completely in the spring and with Bolshoi. Sincerely hope that the surgery will do the trick. I'm sure he was hoping to avoid surgery but sometimes it's the only way and other methods have clearly not helped.

Same here - missed him entirely at the Met Season after he canceled. I had a feeling his casting in the Fall was too good to be true. I hope he recovers quickly. But, I think the stress and performance demands from flying back and forth between the States, Moscow and all of his other guesting gigs could certainly be an injury-trigger. I hope he takes the rest that he needs and heals up.

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The Australian casting has already been adjusted. Whiteside and Stearns are now doing 3 Siegfried's each and one von Rothbart. Stearns is now paired w/ Seo (instead of Part) as Whiteside is now with Part (which I think is a better pair). I have doubts that Stearns can handle all of that.

At Koch, Stearns is now doing Fancy Free. Kent looks to be paired w/ Hammoudi now in Seven Sonatas.

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La Scala, where he has also done a lot of guest work, also has a raked stage. Indeed, at least according to this news report, dancers from Berlin and Paris have complained about it! Add to that the constant jet lag ABT Fan mentioned and he's been under a lot of physical stress lately!

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/dec/20/entertainment/la-et-cm-la-scala-opening-with-conductor-james-conlon-strike-20121219

The production reportedly has been beset with problems, starting with protests from dancers who said the raked stage was causing them physical pain.

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In that case the dancers were complaining because Sasha Waltz's Roméo et Juliette is performed on a ramp steeper than any raked stage, and at certain points in the choreography it is lifted by the attached cables.

Yes, that's an odd one. But conducter Lorin Maazel refers to the raked stage in a production of Falstaff, which makes me think the permanent stage is indeed raked:

In a whimsical stroke of staging genius, Giorgio had a huge wave wash over the stage three seconds after the laundry basket "hit" the river! (Never mind that during at least one performance, the water flowed over the raked stage into the orchestra pit!)

http://www.classicalite.com/articles/1735/20130619/read-maestro-lorin-maazels-facebook-opera-staging-madness-part-two.htm

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Yes, that's an odd one. But conducter Lorin Maazel refers to the raked stage in a production of Falstaff, which makes me think the permanent stage is indeed raked:

It may well be, but opera sets are often built on angled ramps that would be completely unviable for dance. In any event, I don't think it would do much good for dancers to complain about the usual slope of their home stage. The angle of La Scala's stage is unlikely to change anytime soon, so if the dancers there are miserable about it, the only sensible solution is to find a job elsewhere. In this case I suspect they were feeling uncomfortable because the angle of the set floor was unusual.

Hallberg has not yet done a lot of guest work at La Scala. He did three performances of Nureyev's Swan Lake there in April. According to La Scala's online archives, he had not performed there previously.

http://www.archiviolascala.org

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California, yes, David himself did say during an interview conducted at the Met this spring that the stage raking caused him injury. I continue to be amazed that there are not more injuries due to the differences in raking in this era of the peripatetic ballet stars.

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