California

Just a few quick comments on the Thursday night performances of the same program: Piano Concerto No. 1: The principals (Seo-Forster and Hurlin-Curley) were fine. [Some time ago, somebody asked on this site why Hurlin and Bell were not being cast together. In the original casting announcements, they were cast for two performances of this one and one of Etudes, so it doesn't seem that ABT had some kind of bias against this pairing. Too bad we won't be able to see it this week.] Petite Mort: The highlight was Whiteside's strong and seemingly happy performance, after his long, well-publicized serious injury and recovery. (I like this ballet less and less every time I see it...) Etudes: As Cornejo has noted in his social media, this was his debut as a principal in this ballet, after 20 years as an ABT principal. His turning sequences were remarkable, but the height and other details in jumps, etc. were not as impressive - as you might expect from a 42-year-old! Gillian Murphy is showing her age, too -- fast chaine turns but not knock-outs, etc., etc. Ahn seemed a little stronger tonight, perhaps after last night's embarassingly stark contrast with Roxander.

Roxander posted a rehearsal clip of one of his solos in Etudes. He no doubt knows he's being taped, so it's full out. But for those who haven't seen him yet, you do see his power and presence in this. (At the very end, over on the right, is a glimpse of Bell watching. I do hope we get to see him in this role someday! ) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cyd_nxlgaQj/

Here's the Etude final with Tereshkina, Sarafanov, and Skylarov (very poor quality, alas). The lift where Roxander almost dropped Teuscher is at 3:15.

No real disagreements. Roxander was the star of the evening and I can't wait to see him again in the same roles Friday. He commands the stage whenever he appears. Head-to-toe presence in everything he does. You can't look away (which gave me memories of what it was like when Baryshnikov appeared on-stage). I almost felt sorry for Ahn when they were on-stage at the same time in Etudes. Ahn does the steps (not always competently) but you never feel any dynamism or presence. Roxander has been in the corps for one year! I can't imagine he'll be overlooked for a promotion. Ahn is on-stage tonight with Murphy and Cornejo and I imagine he'll look as disappointing as he was Wednesday. On Friday Roxander is back with Hurlin and Han. I love Etudes -- guilty pleasures with so many technical demands as the ballet progresses. All the dancers seem exhilarated trying to meet the challenges. I remember Piano Concerto No. 1 well from the premiere in 2013 as part of Ratmansky's Trilogy (with Vishneva and Osipova! - those were the days). He never helps us understand all the subtle symbolism and apparent story telling that I guess only people who grew up in the Soviet Union would fully grasp. No real hints in program notes or interviews. Why does the Shevchenko dancer shelter and protect the Brandt dancer? Sheltered from what? What is the meaning of all the red symbols hanging from the ceiling? Other than the Soviet star, what are they? But as with Ratmansky's other ballets in this "genre," we are left to just grasp what we can and focus on the movements, which are daring, imaginative, risky, exciting to watch. I yearn for a gifted dance writer to give us more of a roadmap to what it all means. And I wish someone would revive the first one, Symphony #9. I'm tired of Petite Mort. Colorado Ballet has done it twice in the past decade and is bringing it back next spring. It seems the dancers love to perform this, but it's tiring to sit through the gimmicks with the swords and black "dresses" when you know what's coming. PNB does this with the companion piece (Six Dances), also to Mozart and with the black dresses, but other North American companies don't, for whatever reason. The abrupt ending with the dresses pushed back on stage is disappointing. I really loved Kylian's Sinfonietta last year (and which was also performed in spring 2023 by Colorado) and hope they bring that one back.

Yes - and it's great to see Aran practicing with Boylston! Fingers crossed!

I think Daniil Simkin is taunting us! His Instagram stories today says to expect a big announcement next month. Is it a coincidence that we are expecting ABT to announce its Met 2024 season in a few weeks? If they need another male principal who can sell tickets and who is available, hard to think of a better choice!

On Instagram stories yesterday, a flurry of ABT members posted the same notice about union negotiations. One was posted by Bell, so we know he's alive -- wish he would let us know if he's also well! He was extremely busy in August -- galas in Japan and Australia and, in between, performances at the Hamptons dance festival. Plenty of news on social media. Since then, nothing. Disappointing.

Interestingly, Colorado Ballet does T&V in rotation with their other Balanchine ballets -- Serenade, Concerto Barocco, and now Prodigal Son (last season) and Rubies (next spring). Normally, they do one Balanchine a year on the Masterworks program in the spring. It's been a while since they've done T&V and I'm not sure they currently have principals who could manage it. (All the Russian emigres have retired, alas!)

Bell has been missing from social media for a long time. Something's up. He's now scheduled for just two performances - the gala and one Dnipro. What a disappointment.

Fair observations. In Gelsey's book Dancing on my Grave, she talks about that performance. According to Gelsey, they had been arguing about something beforehand. She was distressed that this was her last performance with Baryshnikov before his departure for NYCB and she feared her career was over without him. The performance should be judged based on what we see, of course, not on what might or might not be going on backstage. What is so important about that performance is that it has been so widely available, first on the bootleg tape for many years on YouTube and then on the release during the COVID lock-down by Lincoln Center. Most of us have never seen the other performances people mention. But the tape does give us a "baseline" for what's possible when we do see it in the theater.

I went to the Friends rehearsal this afternoon. The printed program they handed us said T&V with Peck and Gordon, but when we got into the theater, it was Fairchildand Gordon. I don't see casting changes for Thursday night on the web site, but not a good omen!

I thought it was "brava," which someone screamed in the 1978 recording after Gelsey did that same variation.

T&V: I was expecting a lot and was disappointed by Tuesday night's performance. The Kirkland-Baryshnikov tape from 1978 set the gold standard for me and I suppose that's forever engraved in my memory. Megan's gargouillades and pas de chat barely left the ground and were almost unrecognizable. The soloists were sloppy and out of sync. Perhaps it will get better with more performances. Still, it's a great ballet. Orpheus: I wanted to understand this, but it does feel very dated, from an era of Ballets Russe that sometimes was more interested in traditional narrative/story-telling than dancing. I tried to focus on the commissioned Stravinsky score but couldn't get into it. Perhaps it will work better tonight. Joe Gordon did his best and I wonder how he will do both Orpheus and Symphony in C at the 75th anniversary performance. I can see why this is not often programmed nowadays.

Thank you! What a treasure. Here's the Amazon US link for the book: https://www.amazon.com/Five-Ballets-Paris-St-Petersburg/dp/0190944501/ref=sr_1_1?

I went to the Works and Process at the Guggenheim Sunday night with Susan Jaffe. Two pieces of news I hadn't heard: (1) Alessandra Ferri will do two performances of Woolf Works next summer at the Met, and (2) Chloe Misseldine is prepping to do Swan Lake in February at the Kennedy Center and at the Met next summer. She did openings of white Swan pdd and black Swan with Thomas Forster.

Another problem: major, "killer" ballets that haven't been performed in many years -- Ballet Imperial, Etudes, even Piano Concerto No. 1. How many of the current principals have performed those? It was exciting to see that line-up of ballets when they were announced and now we're seeing the difficulty staffing them.

ABT regularly has Company class on stage each season (fall and Met) for Friends. It's interesting in its own way and I normally attend if I'm in town. Not all the dancers seem to be there. Some only do the barre, then leave. It's fun to see corps members mixed with principals, all striving in the same routines. I think companies are always looking for little extras to offer Friends to get people to join/renew their donations.

Disappointing, but he was only down for one performance of Etudes -- at the same Saturday matinee as the Ratmansky. That would have been a killer afternoon. Still...I would have loved to see him in Etudes.

Watching the flooding on Twitter and the Weather Channel. Yikes!! SAB is holding live streams for friends today, but is cancelling everything after 4 pm. Scout Forsythe posted that her subway line was flooded and they made everybody get off. Except for the dancers who live within walking distance, you might have some interesting cast changes tonight! Please report, if anybody can get to the theater tonight!

I'm a Medici subscriber and it doesn't seem to be available. But I've marked my calendar for the PBS showing.

In the background material on that taping, Balanchine asked Baryshnikov if he could do that. We first saw a similar move (fouette with the leg lifted) in Push Comes to Shove in January 1976. Does anyone know if that had ever been done before? 6:06 I think Baryshnikov did something similar in the Robbins' Four Seasons.

Jodie Gates is departing as Artistic Director at Cincinnati Ballet: https://artsair.art/2023/09/22/cincinnati-ballet-announces-departure-of-artistic-director-jodie-gates/ She just arrived a year ago! https://cballet.org/behind-the-scenes/cincinnati-ballet-names-jodie-gates-artistic-director-2/

Royal's stream is not the current season. I bought it during COVID, but if you're a Friend (at a pretty low level) you get a discount. Very rich library that's better than what I see on Medici or Marquee from Royal. And it's a way to preview things with their ABT partnership (Water for Chocolate and now Woolf Works). I think PNB is making a mistake eliminating the single digital performance. Perhaps they didn't bring in enough $$ or the administration was too messy for the money. But as I've said before, I saw them as pioneers with their high-tech capacities in that theater in Seattle. If I could buy individual NYCB performances, even a few weeks after the live theatre event, I would, for sure. But I realize it must be hard to get that set up and administered so they at least break even.

I think it's only for an ABTMEMBER

ABT just announced a Flash Sale 50% off for ABT members. I think they did this before the Met season, too. Flash Sale Select Performances: Classics Old and New: October 19 7:30 PM October 20 7:30 PM 20th Century Works: Balanchine and Ashton October 25 7:30 PM October 26 7:30 PM 21st Century Works: King, Ratmansky, and Bond October 27 7:30 PM October 28 7:30 PM