California

I don't disagree with all the expressions of regret for the turmoil in the lives of dancers. I just want to point out the importance of their union contract in giving them a year to impress the new director and also to look for other work. Without that contract, it could have been much worse...in an era of dramatically declining union membership, it's important to remember the good unions do.

I saw the Friday-Sunday performances, but haven't had time to post. For now, just a few observations on the Tchai Pas: Friday with Peck and Veyette: the big problem was the fact that Peck accounted for about 90% of the energy on that stage. I don't see NYCB enough to know what's normal, but he seemed glum throughout, with a palpable sense of relief when each section was completed. He also seems to hunch his shoulders to pull himself up in jumps. But she is such a joy in this -- confident, alive, sparkling. I love the little extras she throws in, like the rippling arm during the final fouettes, starting high and brought low. Saturday with Isaac and Finlay: I don't disagree with anything said about their cautiousness - to be expected in a debut (and his return, apparently, from a long absence due to injury). The most telling moments for me were the two fishdives at the end - super-cautious, almost afraid of them. The orchestra seemed to be using the same tempo they used on Friday night with Peck - but isn't this the company that says the dancers follow the music, not the reverse that you see elsewhere, where dancers set the tempo?

Did they abandon Balanchine's birthday weekend? That used to be 3-4 different performances of several Balanchine ballets. This year that weekend looks like the same program Friday and Saturday and other choreographers on Sunday. It was snowed out in 2016, but I had hoped it would come back. They usually added nice extras, like a panel discussion between the matinee and evening.

I have a choose-your-own subscription with 6 performances this year. I can't see anything for next year. Are others in the same situation?

I am stunned that for a program called West, with three American choreographers, the illustration is the twin towers. Is that how they have thought of us all along, or is this a reflection of the recent terrorist activity in that region? None of the three ballets seems to have any connection at all to 9/11 or other terrorism. https://operaballet.be/en/programme/2016-2017/west

The NY Times just posted this story: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/13/arts/dance/romanian-ballet-companyloses-its-leading-lights.html?smid=tw-share The writer just sent it out on Twittter.

I couldn't agree more. The chances of being caught in gun crossfire in the US or being killed by a drunk driver on the way to the airport are ever-present. We have to go on living, or the terrorists really have won. Stay alert and enjoy your travels!

A day later and these schedules have not appeared anywhere on the site that I can find. Did any people here on their press list get the actual schedule?

I can't find the actual schedules on the NYCB web site. If anybody receive the press release with the attachment of actual schedule (mentioned in the release, but not provided), could you post that?

I've been thinking about a few classics that were moved to appeal to a particular audience. San Francisco Ballet set their Nutcracker in the historic city of San Francisco and they have impressive on-line materials each year to whet appetites. Dance Theatre of Harlem set their Giselle in Creole Louisiana. Both of those were very smart moves, I think, and perhaps that's what Lopez had in mind. Nureyev set his Cinderella in Hollywood in the 30s - not sure if that was a good idea.

The program for the SAB Workshop performances for 2016 have been announced: http://www.sab.org/news_events/workshop_performances/program_information.php LES GENTILHOMMES Music by Georg Friedrich Händel Choreography by Peter Martins THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS Music by Paul Hindemith Choreography by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust DANSES CONCERTANTES Music by Igor Stravinsky Choreography by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust Performances are Saturday, June 4 at 2 and 8 pm, with a benefit June 7. Tickets go on sale in mid-April for $60.

I saw all three performances (Friday and Saturday) of the Director's Choice program. I don't see this company regularly and don't follow individual dancers, but the choreography was intriguing and led me to decide this would be a worthwhile visit. This company treats their audience very well - with pre- and post- discussions with company directors, choreographers, and dancers. I wish others would follow their lead. I was mainly interested in seeing Doug Fullington's reconstruction from the Stepanov notation of the first three acts of Le Corsaire for the PNB School. I really hope he reconstructs the entire ballet for the regular company. I would love to see his analysis of how this original version differs from the various adaptations that we see at places like ABT. I'm always interested in seeing how different companies and countries get young kids interested in ballet, and this was a superb choice. Lots of little audience members were wearing their pirate costumes and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the show. A special treat: the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra in the pit provided live music - and were very professional. A pirate with a booming voice provided narration for much of it, which I'm sure helped the very young kids appreciate their first ballet. As for the company's program, I was mostly interested in seeing Justin Peck's Year of the Rabbit, which I had not seen before. I saw his Rodeo last spring (sorry - I hate those gimmicky accent marks) and was so impressed that I decided I needed to start catching up on his other work. His use of the ensemble to create moving sculptures and shapes is truly astonishing and fresh, never gimmicky. I often found myself watching those and forgetting about a principal solo going on at the same time. Easy to understand why he is in such demand. Alejandro Cerrudo's Little mortal jump was mesmerizing. After several very clever and funny sections (I won't spoil the surprise elements), to a wide-ranging collage of music, the final PdD is astonishingly engaging and intricate. The whole thing is more interesting with each viewing and I'd recommend it. Rush was choreographed by Paul Gibson, a PNB ballet master, originally in 2002 and reworked for this season. The music was Martinu's Double Concerto for Two String Orchestras, Piano, and Tympani. Although this expressed the composer's despair over the encroaching Nazism in his homeland of Czechoslovakia, Gibson apparently knew nothing about that history when he choreographed this piece. I kept hearing and seeing glimmers of Symphony in 3 Movements, Stravinsky's expression of despair at the devastation in Europe at the end of WWII - not in the sense of simplistic copying, but in the similarities of programmatic music despairing of the same cataclysmic events. Gibson's use of arms straight up and straight to the side recalled the final moments of Symphony for me. Has anybody ever put together a program of music and ballets that grew out of the influence of WWII? I'm thinking, e.g., of Tudor's Echoing of Trumpets, also to Martinu, about the massacre of the Czech town of Lidice. English National Ballet put together an amazing commemoration of WWI a couple of years ago with Lest We Forget - WWII has also inspired music and dance worth seeing.

Seat selection came on promptly at 12 noon EDT and everything is working fine today. No freezing up, no locked out site. Thank you Met Box Office and ABT!

PA Ballet gives subscribers 15% off all additional tickets, along with the perk of free exchanges, special events, and a few other things: http://www.paballet.org/1617season NYCB's Create-your-own series, with at least six performances over the entire year (spring-winter-fall), has a nice exchange privilege with no fee. And it's late enough in the year that you can pick your own seats, as traditional subscribers already have theirs: http://www.nycballet.com/Season-Tickets/Subscribe.aspx PNB offers 15-20-25% discounts on additional single tickets, plus a lot of other things: https://www.pnb.org/season/subscriptions/subscriber-resources/#subscriber-benefits San Francisco offers 25% discounts on additional single tickets and the opportunity to purchase them before the general public: https://www.sfballet.org/tickets/subscribe etc., etc....what have these companies figured out that ABT hasn't?

I've been reading this thread on subscriptions with great interest -- and bewilderment! Anybody who has read Michael Kaiser's books or who just looks around the country at the treatment of subscribers elsewhere can see how misguided ABT's approach is. PNB, San Francisco, NYCB, Pennsylvania, Colorado, etc., etc., etc. - subscribers get all sorts of really nice perks for this day and age. Keeping the same seats from year-to-year is pretty far down on the list. Rather, discounts on tickets for the subscriptions and additional tickets. Early buying opportunities for additional tickets. Exchange privileges. Receptions. Events. Nice incentives for many of us, even if it means buying tickets for a program I'd otherwise skip. At least according to Kaiser, subscriptions just a few decades ago accounted for over 50% of an audience and brought in important cash flow early on before the season. But that has been in steep decline for a long time. You almost wonder if ABT is trying to depress their subscription base in hopes of leaving more seats for dynamic pricing down the road! I tried a trio subscription with ABT a few years ago and realized it was essentially worthless, so I'm back to single ticket purchases on-line, which work fine in a house that big.

I'm looking at the Met ABT subscriber page. http://www.metopera.org/Season/Tickets/ABT-Subscription/ What does this mean? Exclusive subscriber benefits, including Priority Seating, Advance Access to Individual Tickets and FREE Ticket Exchange Privileges.You all got "priority seating" (because you have tickets, even though you didn't get to pick your seat). But what do they mean by "advance access to individual tickets" and "FREE ticket exchange privileges." It sounds like they let you exchange subscriber tickets one-for-one, but denied you additional individual tickets. False advertising? Perhaps the Met box office isn't communicating with the ABT staff in charge of this?

And for the ABT Kennedy Center engagements in the late 70s, early 80s, shows would routinely sell out before casting had been announced! People were so desperate to see Baryshnikov, they bought just on the hope he would be performing. And ABT visited KenCen twice a year, for 2-3 weeks in the fall and again in the spring. I doubt we will see those days again, not in our lifetimes.

Now that Rachel Moore is safely in LA, I guess we can no longer blame her for ABT's bizarre subscription and ticketing policies. Should we blame the Met Opera House? What is the real incentive for subscribers?

I had the sense that Barbee never had the artistic stature to be seriously considered as the next ABT AD - not with people like Stiefel and Ratmansky around. And she hasn't had the opportunity to develop administrative experience while she's been dancing. So they should make a perfect team at Washington Ballet, combining their strengths. Perhaps someday they'll be in a position to come back to ABT or perhaps they will be happy enough at WB to stay there and build the company. Her predecessor stayed for 17 years!

I forgot to mention Wasserman. Nice, controlled stage presence and carriage. He doesn't yet have the flash and the extra "wow" factor in his technique, but that will come. Very, very attentive partner. And anybody who can pull off those one-armed lifts as they did has a future. (Sorry I keep mentioning "tricks" but in a ballet like this they are a partial bench mark for their technique.) One detail: I had the feeling the crowd and set made the men especially feel cramped in their circular menage (not sure of the right terminology). They too often seemed to be holding back a tad because of the stage available to them.

I also saw the Saturday matinee, 3/5 with Ana Calderon and Craig Wasserman. She has a great stage presence and her characterization was delightful, but her technique didn't have much of a "wow" factor, with a few exceptions. The attempted Plisetskaya's were pale imitations, e.g. She is unable to balance even very briefly in anything. But the fouettes in Act III were solid, with several doubles thrown in. And those one-armed lifts at the end of Act I made up for a multitude of sins -- they went on forever, looked very solid. She is only in the corps and he is an apprentice. They have one more performance of the two-week run (Wednesday night) and this seemed like a try-out for future roles. The audience was about 60-70% at this matinee. I felt a little sorry for long-time principals relegated to secondary roles, but it's a tough business. Jermel Johnson was a sizzling Espada on opening night and an impressive gypsy on Friday night. Francis Veyette was a disappointing Espada at the Saturday matinee and doesn't seem to have anything else to do during the run - a not-so-subtle signal that it's time to think about retiring or moving on? These three are the only performances I'm able to see. If I could visit next weekend, I'd aim for Pineiro/Diaz on Friday night and Sunday afternoon. Diaz was also a great gypsy Friday night, but that was a one-time opportunity.

I saw opening night Thursday and also Friday night. I share Kaysta's enthusiasm, for the most part. A few more observations: The opening night cast (Mayara Pinero and Etienne Diaz) were amazing. They are cast again Friday, March 11 and Sunday, March 13 at 2 and I wish I could see them again. She is currently only a soloist and he is in the corps. Her technique pushed the boundaries - higher, faster, crisper. Her balances were exceptionally long, although sometimes TOO long and wobbling a bit to hold them as long as possible. Most amazing from her: the 32 fouettes. I always count but wasn't prepared for the start: 5 or 6 pirouette turns on pointe. I've seen Gillian Murphy do that on Instagram, which made me wonder if Gaynor Mindens might be involved! The rest of the fouettes were solid - not much travelling, throwing in some doubles. He also had a stunning bravura technique, although you could sometimes see the effort/strain to make things a little more sensational. Most impressive: he kept reminding me of a young Corella -- so much flare, style, joy in his dancing. Notable throughout was the evidence of serious coaching of the soloists and corps. The matadors, e.g., seemed especially mindful of sharp, crisp arms and upper body positions - much more compelling than usual. The use of fans throughout by the women was distinctive, with little touches I haven't seen before. The leads Friday night were Oksana Maslova (also a soloist) and Arian Molina Soca (a principal). I gather Soca was brought in from Cuba by Corella. Nice bravura technique, although not as sizzling as Diaz at the opening. Her fouettes were a problem - wobbly and travelling all over the place. She has an odd way of flaring her right foot on the turns that broke up the line in distracting ways. But mostly she has an exceptional extension and great dramatic flare. Worth seeing again. The tempo seemed a little slow to me in many passages. The set is gorgeous, with bougainvilleas all over adding to the authenticity. Two musicians on stage during the Act II gypsy scenes were an unusual touch, but the speakers were set much too high and they were a distraction from the orchestra in the pit. Maybe they'll get that fixed for the weekend performances. Hate to bring this up but the Bolshoi Don Q is still unsurpassed in my mind -- I've seen it in two settings (Orange County and Lincoln Center) - such a big company, with such polished character dances and scenes from the gypsies and the tavern we don't seem to always see in US productions. Still, with their 200+ dancers, it would be hard to out-do them. Empty seats both nights - maybe 80-90% sold. But the audience was quite enthusiastic and maybe it will sell with word of mouth and good reviews that have appeared so far.

I wondered about the cost of licensing for Stevenson vs. Ashton. I don't know who owns the sets and costumes or where Colorado Ballet rented them. It's also possible that the ABT license gives them exclusive North American rights for a certain time period.

The 2016-17 season has just been announced: http://paballet.org/upcoming-programs I thought it was interesting that they are doing the Stevenson Cinderella. Colorado Ballet did the Stevenson version just a couple of years ago. ABT, of course, does the Ashton version, although I understand they did Stevenson's long ago.

The touring company will be in Denver March 8-19, 2017 at the Denver Performing Arts Center: https://www.denvercenter.org/shows/specific-series/Get?Id=20d44ce2-4382-4b11-b7d9-ed33d6a8ab29 I'm so sorry I missed Robert Fairchild in this production, but this will do, I guess.