2017 Fall Season

[angelica]

18 hours ago, Leah said:

I'm a newcomer to NYC and am seeing Bouder on the 21st. I was hoping for Reichlen, but I've never seen this company in person before so I don't know. Any opinions on whether I should change my ticket, and if so to whom?

 

In your shoes, I would change to Reichlen. I've seen Bouder twice and didn't buy a ticket before casting went up because I wanted to see Reichlen or Mearns. (And speaking of Mr. Macaulay, I want to see what all the fuss is about.)

[canbelto]

2 hours ago, angelica said:

 

You won't regret your decision if you remember that you are not going to see ballets, you are going to see dancers. They really are two different perspectives.

 

Huh? That's the worst perspective ever if you follow NYCB or care about actual ballet. Dancers come and go and get injured. Ballets are forever.

[angelica]

3 minutes ago, canbelto said:

 

Huh? That's the worst perspective ever if you follow NYCB or care about actual ballet. Dancers come and go and get injured. Ballets are forever.

 

Seriously? I think that ballet dancers are amazing beings, and what they do with their bodies is transcendent art. Arnold Haskell, a ballet critic in the early decades of the 20th century, said something to the effect that there are three kinds of people in this world: Russian ballet dancers, ballet dancers, and very ordinary people. I just love that perspective, even while knowing it isn't literally true.

Admittedly, you need ballets for them to display their art, but I wouldn't say they're forever. Only the very best are carried through the generations. Even some of the Balanchine ballets are on the back burner.

Anyway, I think that "worst perspective ever" is hyperbole.

[nysusan]

1 hour ago, canbelto said:

 

Huh? That's the worst perspective ever if you follow NYCB or care about actual ballet. Dancers come and go and get injured. Ballets are forever.

 

3 hours ago, angelica said:

 

You won't regret your decision if you remember that you are not going to see ballets, you are going to see dancers. They really are two different perspectives.

 

Lets not forget that we're talking about the Martins Swan Lake here. There's no way I'd go to see it for the production itself - the production is horrid. Yet I'm going to see it 5 times. Why? For the ballerinas! 

 

Also - for the person who was debating switching Bouder for Reichlin - Reichlin is a great dancer but I don't love her O/O. She has the perfect body for it but my recollection of her last time around was that she was rather cold and although the instrument is amazing she didn't really stretch and hold those positions and I don't recall very deep or pliable backbends.

If you haven't seen it yet and you're only going to one I'd go for Mearns.

[Barbara]

9 hours ago, abatt said:

 

Where  is Robbie Fairchild in this casting news?  He is in New York.  (He will be appearing at the  Chita Rivera Dance Awards ceremony in Manhattan  on Sept 11.) He has done Siegfried before, and he has become an audience favorite.  And yet he is not cast.

 

 

Abatt, maybe recently coming off the London American in Paris, then on to Oklahoma, and scheduled for Brigadoon in mid-Nov (just got my City Center brochure in the mail), it was felt he wasn't in ballet-shape for Swan. I also hope he isn't leaving the company. Maybe just needs some time and distance.

[angelica]

1 hour ago, nysusan said:

Also - for the person who was debating switching Bouder for Reichlin - Reichlin is a great dancer but I don't love her O/O. She has the perfect body for it but my recollection of her last time around was that she was rather cold and although the instrument is amazing she didn't really stretch and hold those positions and I don't recall very deep or pliable backbends.

If you haven't seen it yet and you're only going to one I'd go for Mearns.

 

Yes, I agree, go for Mearns.

[canbelto]

I wouldn't recommend Bouder in Swan Lake. She's an amazing dancer but O/O is maybe her worst role. Mearns, Reichlen, Hyltin and Peck are all IMO better picks.

[nanushka]

1 hour ago, nysusan said:

Reichlin is a great dancer but I don't love her O/O. She has the perfect body for it but my recollection of her last time around was that she was rather cold and although the instrument is amazing she didn't really stretch and hold those positions and I don't recall very deep or pliable backbends.

 

This was very much my impression of her single-O in the Balanchine SL this past year. I went in with very high hopes and left underwhelmed.

[cobweb]

Have to agree about avoiding Bouder in SL. Last time I saw her (admittedly, a few years ago now) I was left baffled by her bizarre, staccato interpretation. 

I have a ticket to see Megan Fairchild. Not the most obvious ballerina for the role, but given her development over the past couple of years, I'm looking forward to it. 

Edited September 6, 2017 by cobweb
ETA glad to see Adrian Danchig Waring back on the stage!!

[abatt]

If I could only see one SL, it would be Mearns. Of the four ladies at NYCB who have previously appeared in the role, she has the deepest understanding of the role.  I agree completely with cobweb about Bouder in SL. She can spin like a top, but there was no fluidity in her movement.  I also agree w. nysusan about Reichlin, with the added comment that Reichlin did not pay much attention to her arm positions.  But who knows - maybe practice makes perfect and these ladies will surprise me during the upcoming run.

Edited September 7, 2017 by abatt

[canbelto]

Can we talk about how the casting of Rothbart with Silas Farley and Preston Chamblee again? Really? Farley has the least Rothbart-like face I can imagine. Very sweet, happy, smiley kind of dancer. Ugh. I do not like this at all.

[volcanohunter]

14 hours ago, DC Export said:

Maybe I'm not on this since I live outside of NY-- how do I get onto this newsletter list?

 

If you've ever bought tickets online, you will probably be on the email list. I now live waaay outside New York, but the emails from NYCB come regularly. It would probably be enough to create an online account. 

[CharlieH]

I'm thinking of going to NY for the "21st C Choreographers" (Fall 2017 Gala) program, which includes four world premieres + a Martins work that I've not yet seen, Chairman Dances. Can anybody shed light on the four choreographers who are creating the new ballets? Other than Justin Peck, I've read very little about them. Even Peck's output seems to be spotty - some great (like Year of the Rabbit), others not so (Most Incredible Thing). What have regular NYCB audiences loved (or not) about the various choreographers?

[Kathleen O'Connell]

1 hour ago, CharlieH said:

I'm thinking of going to NY for the "21st C Choreographers" (Fall 2017 Gala) program, which includes four world premieres + a Martins work that I've not yet seen, Chairman Dances. Can anybody shed light on the four choreographers who are creating the new ballets? Other than Justin Peck, I've read very little about them. Even Peck's output seems to be spotty - some great (like Year of the Rabbit), others not so (Most Incredible Thing). What have regular NYCB audiences loved (or not) about the various choreographers?

 

All four choreographers are young - very young in the case of Gianna Reisen, who was still an SAB student when the gala commission was announced in April. Who knows what kind of choreographer she is or will become?

 

Lauren Lovette, who is an NYCB principal and an alum of The New York Choreographic Institute, has only recently begun to refocus her attention on choreography. The work presented at the gala will be her second for NYCB. Her first , For Clara, premiered at last year's gala. My take, based on For Clara: her work shows real promise. I got the impression that she didn't want to leave anything on the cutting room floor, however: the ballet seemed more than a bit overstuffed for a 15 minute work. (The music Lovette chose — Schumann's Introduction and Concert Allegro — seems to change tone and texture about every 16 bars, and may have compounded matters.) I'm happy to write it off as a novice's mis-step, and a not at all unusual one. I don't think I need to see For Clara again, but I would like to see another Lovette ballet. 

 

Although Troy Schumacher is an NYCB soloist, he built his choreographic career outside of of the company: he started his own arts collective in 2010 which evolved into his current company, BalletCollective. To my eye, Schumacher's work is characterized by a strong sense of community amongst the dancers on stage. (This is one of the things that characterizes him as a dancer, too: he always seems to be deeply present in the world being created on stage. If you want to know who or what to look at in a sea of dancers, follow his gaze.) I've enjoyed what I've seen of his work, both for BalletCollective and NYCB; my biggest reservation is this: a lot of his ballets, in one form or another, seem to take place on a playground full of overgrown kids and I'd like to see him explore a different kind of community. Every now and then I think he needs to change up his palette of textures too, or at least slow things down.

 

I'm a Peck fan. Even his misfires give me something to think about. I never mind it when one of his ballets is on the program, even if it's one I wasn't crazy about. I am absolutely crazy about the second movement of his Rodeo, however.

 

PS: if the past is any guideline, all four gala premieres are likely to be on the short side.

Edited September 7, 2017 by Kathleen O'Connell

[CharlieH]

Thank you, Kathleen. Very helpful.

[Fleurfairy]

On 9/6/2017 at 10:48 AM, yukionna4869 said:

Fairchild used to be cast in Swan Lake opposite Hyltin. I hope he doesn't leave the company because of his split with Peck. 

 

I would love to see him do Apollo. 

I have a feeling his booming Broadway career, coupled with his divorce, is going signal his retirement from NYCB pretty soon, if not this season. 

 

I also wonder how long Kowroski and Abi Stafford are going to stay. Seems like they are both pretty much done. 

[sandik]

On 9/6/2017 at 11:25 AM, angelica said:

 

You won't regret your decision if you remember that you are not going to see ballets, you are going to see dancers. They really are two different perspectives.

 

On 9/6/2017 at 1:38 PM, canbelto said:

 

Huh? That's the worst perspective ever if you follow NYCB or care about actual ballet. Dancers come and go and get injured. Ballets are forever.

 

And honestly, you're both wrong and you're both right.  I frequently see a program multiple times as part of my job, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity.  I learn an incredible amount about the work and about the dancers this way.  In reference to Angelica's comment -- it is a different feeling to be watching an individual throughout a work, especially when they aren't dancing the leading role.  Following someone's pathway through a work gives me a very different insight on the structure of the choreography as well as their specific movement qualities, almost like a Blue Highway trip.  I think we all have very powerful feelings about our "home" companies, and for me, it's all tied up in the individual dancers.

 

And Canbelto put a finger on an important element here -- one of the ways we discern what is the actual ballet (as opposed to one person's performance of it) is by seeing a variety of dancers in a role.  It's true that specific roles can be closely tied to the people who they were made on, so that we see a moment in the Rubie duet in Jewels and think "ah, there's Patricia McBride" but it's not about seeing her so much as it is seeing a quality that she has, that others might share as well.  So when I see Rachel Foster or Leta Biasucci in that part later this month, I know a bit about them because I know something about the ballet.

[angelica]

On 9/6/2017 at 1:30 PM, alexL said:

I've decided to see all 6 casts as I'm on a vacation. Hopefully I don't regret my decision after the first one. 

 

Just to be clear, because this question is not an either/or matter--you either go to see dancers or you go to see ballets. Of course, you go to see both.

 

When I said to remember that you're going to see dancers, not ballets, it was in response to the above post, in which I took alexL to be saying that he/she already knew they didn't like the production but was, in fact, going to see different casts. In that situation you're going to see different casts because primary in your mind is the different ways the dancers interpret the role. If I made an incorrect assumption, then I'm guilty of assuming. But otherwise I think my response was dead-on.

[angelica]

On 9/6/2017 at 3:07 PM, alexL said:

That's my approach as well. Martin's SL puts me into a REM sleep each time I see it. The only time I actually pay attention is when O/O is on stage. I also have lower expectation level for the NYCB dancers when they perform Petipa ballets. I just plan to see their own interpretation of the character. 

 

In this case, the poster is going to see dancers, not ballets. And I'm out of this thread.

[vagansmom]

I'd switch from Bouder to Hyltin. I think she is the complete ballet dancer and I'm truly excited to be seeing her in this role. Bouder always leaves me cold. I've tried so hard to like her but during her absence from the stage these other phenomenal dancers got their chances to dance more roles and proved they not only have the pyrotechnics or close to it, they also have an ability to connect with audiences: Hyltin, Reichlin, Peck, Fairchild, Mearns. They are each singular in their portrayals and I trust each one to embody both Odette and Odile.  I trust Bouder's Odile, but the music for Odette is so exquisite I need to see a dancer who will inhabit that character or I'll be terribly disappointed. 

Edited September 8, 2017 by vagansmom

[vipa]

1 hour ago, vagansmom said:

I'd switch from Bouder to Hyltin. I think she is the complete ballet dancer and I'm truly excited to be seeing her in this role. Bouder always leaves me cold. I've tried so hard to like her but during her absence from the stage these other phenomenal dancers got their chances to dance more roles and proved they not only have the pyrotechnics or close to it, they also have an ability to connect with audiences: Hyltin, Reichlin, Peck, Fairchild, Mearns. They are each singular in their portrayals and I trust each one to embody both Odette and Odile.  I trust Bouder's Odile, but the music for Odette is so exquisite I need to see a dancer who will inhabit that character or I'll be terribly disappointed. 

This is all so interesting to me. I saw Hyltin's SL and it was very satisfying. Flawed in some ways but satisfying. I find myself with a ticket to Bouder and wouldn't dream of changing it. Over the last year Bouder's artistry has grown in leaps and bounds so I am very interested in seeing what she does. I believe this is an incredible time at NYCB. Any one one of the dancer's cast as O/O deserves a viewing. I don't have the pocketbook to see them all but I'd be willing to take a chance on any of them. I chose my date before casting came out and I am eager to see Bouder, who I've never seen before. I have seen Hyltin, Mearns & Reichlin all worthy of seeing again. I have one chance at SL I see no reason to switch.

[wonderwall]

On the topic of SL, which dancers have performed O/O in past runs at NYCB that are no longer casted in the role (due to age, reitrement, etc.)? Did Maria or Wendy?

[Drew]

55 minutes ago, wonderwall said:

On the topic of SL, which dancers have performed O/O in past runs at NYCB that are no longer casted in the role (due to age, reitrement, etc.)? Did Maria or Wendy?

 

Both Kowroski and Whelan have done it. I am not sure if you are only asking about recent runs or about its longer history, but retired dancers who have danced it include Darci Kistler, Monique Meunier, Miranda Weese, Jenifer Ringer...well, probably quite a few others since the production has been around for a while.

Edited September 8, 2017 by Drew

[harpergroup]

On 9/6/2017 at 8:41 PM, canbelto said:

Can we talk about how the casting of Rothbart with Silas Farley and Preston Chamblee again? Really? Farley has the least Rothbart-like face I can imagine. Very sweet, happy, smiley kind of dancer. Ugh. I do not like this at all.

 

They've got Cameron Dieck as another Rothbart.  So they're going with the tall dancers now - these three are amongst the tallest of the current crop of corps men.

[Kathleen O'Connell]

4 minutes ago, harpergroup said:

 

They've got Cameron Dieck as another Rothbart.  So they're going with the tall dancers now - these three are amongst the tallest of the current crop of corps men.

 

Good.

 

Re Farley: he was one of Aurora's four suitors way back when he was still (I think) an apprentice. He was hands down the most princely prince on the stage, and not an obvious candidate for Von Rotbart.