nanushka

Personally, I'd hardly go so far as to say that seeing her in it is not a "still valuable" experience, despite the fact that she may not be ideal for the role. The 2nd movement was quite beautiful; I can forgive the 3 minutes she's onstage for the 4th.

I've never visited the collection but hope to soon. Is it currently required for one to be a NY resident and/or to have a NYPL card? I live in NJ -- so I'm close, but I'm not sure if I'm eligible. Thanks!

I agree with much of CTballetfan's report, especially regarding Allegro Brillante. Tiler Peck is a wonder. Such a blend of technical brilliance and expressive grace is so rare. Her turns were phenomenal, and so many small moments with the hands and arms were infused with fresh insight. Andrew Veyette looked positively run down. Especially in the segments where he dances in unison with the other men, he stood out as the weakest of the five. Some steps seemed only marked rather than danced full-out. Low, low energy. I've warmed to Megan Fairchild from seeing her more this year, but I was not impressed by her Symphony in C 1st movement. Perhaps I've been too obsessively watching the Paris video of Tiler Peck dancing this, but I missed the latter's musicality and expressiveness. I particularly enjoyed the third movement with Harrison Ball and Alston Macgill. When jumping, Ball seems to just hang in the air. Standouts in 4T's were Teresa Reichlen and, announced as a replacement before the performance, Aaron Sanz in the 3rd theme PDD. I was entranced by Aaron's gorgeous hands. Also, I've seen Indiana Woodward in the Sanguinic corps twice now this year, and her total commitment to even a small part such as that is striking; she fully embodies the role.

Is the "he'll be cast for May 27" part of your hope/assumption as well, or has that in fact been indicated in some way?

How exciting would it be to see a Murphy–Hallberg–Abrera Giselle on Saturday night, followed by an Abrera–Gomes–Murphy Giselle three nights later? Fingers crossed!

Fascinating to read such contrasting views of the Millepied piece, from two contributors with whose reviews I'm usually nodding my head in agreement!

No, it was not given in 2014 (which, by the way, was the only year from the past 7-8 years when Manon was given). See below. As I said above, I believe R&J has (like Giselle, SB, Corsaire, Don Q, etc.) been pretty much 2 years on, 1 year off. (There are some occasional exceptions in that list, but that seems to be the predominating pattern.) AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE ANNOUNCES 2014 SPRING SEASON AT METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE MAY 12-JULY 5, 2014 COMPANY PREMIERE OF FREDERICK ASHTON’S CINDERELLA, A SHAKESPEARE CELEBRATION AND REVIVALS OF LÉONIDE MASSINE’S GAÎTÉ PARISIENNE AND KENNETH MACMILLAN’S MANON TO HIGHLIGHT SEASON ALINA COJOCARU, MARIA KOCHETKOVA AND DENIS MATVIENKO TO RETURN AS GUEST ARTISTS American Ballet Theatre’s 2014 season at the Metropolitan Opera House was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie. The season will be highlighted by the Company Premiere of Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella, and a Shakespeare Celebration to include Ashton’s The Dream and Alexei Ratmansky’s The Tempest. Season revivals include Leonide Massine’s Gaîté Parisienne and Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon. Principal Dancers for the 2014 Metropolitan Opera House season include Roberto Bolle, Herman Cornejo, Marcelo Gomes, David Hallberg, Paloma Herrera, Julie Kent, Gillian Murphy, Veronika Part, Xiomara Reyes, Polina Semionova, Hee Seo, Daniil Simkin, Cory Stearns, Ivan Vasiliev, Diana Vishneva and James Whiteside. Guest Artists for the season include Alina Cojocaru, principal dancer with English National Ballet, Maria Kochetkova, principal dancer with San Francisco Ballet, and Denis Matvienko, a guest artist with Mariinsky Ballet. American Ballet Theatre’s 2014 Spring Season opens with a Gala Performance featuring ABT’s Principal Dancers on Monday, May 12 at 6:30 P.M. For information on ABT’s Spring Gala, please call the Special Events Office at 212-477-3030, ext. 3310. COMPANY PREMIERE American Ballet Theatre will give the Company Premiere of Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella on Monday, June 9 with Hee Seo in the title role and Cory Stearns as the Prince. Set to music by Sergei Prokofiev, Ashton’s Cinderella features sets and costumes by David Walker. The ballet received its World Premiere by Sadler’s Wells Ballet on December 23, 1948 at London’s Royal Opera House. The original cast included Moira Shearer as Cinderella, Michael Somes as the Prince, Frederick Ashton and Robert Helpman as the Stepsisters and Alexander Grant as the Jester. Staged for ABT by Wendy Ellis Somes with additional staging by Malin Thoors, Cinderella will be given eight performances through June 14. A SHAKESPEARE CELEBRATION American Ballet Theatre’s 2014 Spring Season will also be highlighted by four performances of a Shakespeare Celebration, which includes Frederick Ashton’s The Dream and Alexei Ratmansky’s The Tempest, Monday, June 30 through Wednesday, July 2. Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg will lead the opening cast of The Dream on June 30 portraying the roles of Titania and Oberon respectively. Staged for ABT by Anthony Dowell with Christopher Carr, The Dream is set to music by Felix Mendelssohn and features sets and costumes by David Walker and lighting by John B. Read. The Dream received its World Premiere by The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London on April 2, 1964, danced by Antoinette Sibley as Titania, Anthony Dowell as Oberon, Keith Martin as Puck and Alexander Grant Bottom. The ballet received its United States premiere by The Royal Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York on April 30, 1965, danced by the same cast. The Dream was given its American Ballet Theatre Company Premiere at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York on May 24, 2002, danced by Alessandra Ferri as Titania, Ethan Stiefel as Oberon and Herman Cornejo as Puck. Alexei Ratmansky’s The Tempest, a ballet in one act, is set to music written for the play by Jean Sibelius. Adapted from William Shakespeare’s play of the same name, the ballet features sets and costumes by Santo Loquasto and lighting by Robert Wierzel. Tony Award-winning director Mark Lamos served as the production’s dramaturg. The Tempest will receive its World Premiere by American Ballet Theatre on Wednesday, October 30 at the David H. Koch Theater in New York with Marcelo Gomes as Prospero, Daniil Simkin as Ariel and Herman Cornejo as Caliban. The ballet’s first performance of the Spring Season on Monday, June 30, will feature Marcelo Gomes as Prospero. REVIVALS The Revival Premiere of Léonide Massine’s Gaîté Parisienne will be presented on Tuesday, May 20 for four performances through May 22. American Ballet Theatre’s production of Gaîté Parisienne, set to music by Jacques Offenbach, with costumes by Christian Lacroix, scenery by Zack Brown and lighting by Steven Shelley, was given its Company Premiere on January 19, 1988 in Tampa, Florida with Cheryl Yeager as the Glove Seller, Victor Barbee as the Baron and Johan Renvall as the Peruvian. The ballet received its World Premiere by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1938 at the Theatre de Monte Carlo in Monaco with Nina Tarakanova as the Glove Seller, Frederic Franklin as the Baron and Léonide Massine as the Peruvian. The ballet was last performed by ABT in 1999. Gaîté Parisienne will be presented this season on a program along with George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations and Duo Concertant. A revival of Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon is scheduled for Monday, June 2 with Julie Kent in the title role, Robert Bolle as Des Grieux, Stella Abrera as Lescaut’s Mistress and Daniil Simkin as Lescaut. Staged for ABT by Julie Lincoln and Yuri Uchiumi, the ballet is set to music by Jules Massenet. Manon was given its World Premiere by The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London on March 7, 1974, danced by Antoinette Sibley as Manon and Anthony Dowell as Des Grieux. Manon was given its United States premiere by The Royal Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York on May 7, 1974, danced by the same cast. The Company Premiere of the full-length Manon was given on May 28, 1993 at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, danced by Alessandra Ferri as Manon, Julio Bocca as Des Grieux, Gil Boggs as Lescaut, Kathleen Moore as Lescaut’s Mistress, Michael Owen as Monsieur G.M., Victor Barbee as Jailer and Georgina Parkinson as Madame. Manon was last performed by ABT in 2007. The ballet will be given eight performances through June 7. FULL-LENGTH BALLETS American Ballet Theatre’s 2014 Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House includes five additional full-length ballets opening with Don Quixote on Tuesday evening, May 13 led by Polina Semionova as Kitri and Cory Stearns as Basilio. The ballet which will be given eight performances through May 19, is staged by Kevin McKenzie and Susan Jones, with choreography after Marius Petipa and Alexander Gorsky. Don Quixote is set to music by Ludwig Minkus and features scenery and costumes by Santo Loquasto and lighting by Natasha Katz. The McKenzie/Jones staging of the current production was first performed by ABT on June 12, 1995. La Bayadère choreographed by Natalia Makarova after Marius Petipa, will be given seven performances May 23 through May 29. Diana Vishneva as Nikiya, Marcelo Gomes as Solor and Gillian Murphy as Gamzatti will lead the season’s opening night cast of the ballet. Set to music by Ludwig Minkus, specially arranged by John Lanchbery, La Bayadère features scenery by PierLuigi Samaritani, costumes by Theoni V. Aldredge and lighting by Toshiro Ogawa. The full‑length La Bayadère received its World Premiere by the Imperial Ballet at the Bolshoi Kamenny in St. Petersburg on February 4, 1877. The dancers were Ekaterina Vazem as Nikiya and Lev Ivanov as Solor. La Bayadère, Act II (The Kingdom of the Shades) was first performed in the West by the Leningrad‑Kirov Ballet in 196l. Natalia Makarova first staged The Kingdom of the Shades scene for American Ballet Theatre in 1974 and it received its premiere at the State Theater in New York City on July 3 of that year, danced by Cynthia Gregory as Nikiya and Ivan Nagy as Solor. Makarova subsequently produced and choreographed the complete version of La Bayadère (in three acts) for American Ballet Theatre, which received its World Premiere on May 21, 1980 with Natalia Makarova as Nikiya, Anthony Dowell as Solor, and Cynthia Harvey as Gamzatti. Eight performances of Giselle begin Monday evening, June 16 with Diana Vishneva dancing the title role opposite Marcelo Gomes as Albrecht. Set to music by Adolphe Adam, with scenery by Gianni Quaranta, costumes by Anna Anni and lighting by Jennifer Tipton, Giselle has choreography after Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot and Marius Petipa and has been staged for ABT by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie. The world premiere of Giselle, one of the oldest continually‑performed ballets, occurred at the Theatre de l’Academie Royale de Musique in Paris on June 28, 1841, danced by Carlotta Grisi as Giselle and Lucien Petipa as Albrecht. The ballet was first presented by American Ballet Theatre (then Ballet Theatre) at the Center Theatre in New York City on January 12, 1940 with choreography by Anton Dolin and scenery and costumes by Lucinda Ballard. The leading roles were danced by Annabelle Lyon and Anton Dolin. American Ballet Theatre’s sixth production featuring scenery by Gianni Quaranta and costumes by Anna Anni, was created for the film Dancers, produced in 1987 by Cannon Films. This production’s first public performance was given on March 20, 1987 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, with Miss Tcherkassky as Giselle and Kevin McKenzie as Albrecht. The current staging is by McKenzie, using the Quaranta and Anni designs. Swan Lake, choreographed by Kevin McKenzie, will be given eight performances beginning Monday evening, June 23 with Gillian Murphy as Odette/Odile and Marcelo Gomes and Prince Siegfried. Swan Lake is set to the score by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky and features scenery and costumes by Zack Brown and lighting by Duane Schuler. This production of Swan Lake premiered on March 24, 2000 at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. with Julie Kent (Odette-Odile), Angel Corella (Prince Siegfried) and Marcelo Gomes (von Rothbart). Coppélia, with staging by Frederic Franklin after Nicholas Sergeyev, will be given six performances, May 30 and 31 and July 3 through 5. Coppélia features music by Léo Delibes, scenery by Tony Straiges, costumes by Patricia Zipprodt and lighting by Brad Fields. Misty Copeland will lead the season’s first performance of the ballet on Friday, May 30, dancing opposite Herman Cornejo as Franz. Franklin’s staging of Coppélia is directly descended from the 1933 Nicholas Sergeyev revival for the Camargo Society, danced by members of the Vic-Wells (later Sadler’s Wells and now Royal) Ballet at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London. Sergeyev’s staging, a two-act version in which Franklin danced the czardas, was based upon choreography by Lev Ivanov and Enrico Cecchetti after the original by Arthur Saint-Léon. Franklin’s staging received its ABT premiere at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, California on February 14, 1997, danced by Paloma Herrera (Swanilda) and Angel Corella (Franz). ABTKIDS ABTKids, American Ballet Theatre’s annual one-hour introduction to ballet, is scheduled for Saturday morning, May 17 at 11:30 A.M. All tickets for ABTKids are $25. Subscriptions for American Ballet Theatre’s 2014 Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House, on sale beginning Tuesday, October 15, are available by phone at 212-362-6000, or online at ABT’s website www.abt.org. American Airlines is the Official Airline of American Ballet Theatre. 
Northern Trust is the Leading Corporate Sponsor of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre. 
ABT is supported, in part, with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. American Ballet Theatre's performances of Giselle are generously supported through an endowed gift from Sharon Patrick. Don Quixote is generously supported through an endowed gift from Anka K. Palitz, in memory of Clarence Y. Palitz, Jr. Cinderella is generously supported through an endowed gift from the Toni and Martin Sosnoff New Works Fund. Cinderella is also generously supported through an endowed gift from Monica, Stefano, Cosima, and Tassilo Corsi. Le Bayadère is generously sponsored through an endowed gift from Drs. Philip and Marjorie Gerdine. La Bayadère is presented in loving memory of Mrs. Caroline Newhouse. A generous grant from the Rockefeller Foundation has made this production possible. Major funding for this production has been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. Manon is generously supported through an endowed gift from Ruth and Harold Newman. David H. Koch is the Lead Underwriter of The Tempest. This production is generously supported through an endowed gift from the Toni and Martin Sosnoff New Works Fund. Linda Allard, Arlene and Harvey Blau, and an anonymous donor are Leading Sponsors. The Gwen and Austin Fragomen Fund and Mary Jo and Ted Shen are Sponsors. Additional support has also been generously provided by Howard S. Paley and Michael and Sue Steinberg. Original funding for Coppèlia was provided by The Lucia Chase Foundation and The Green Fund, Inc. Swan Lake has been generously underwritten by R. Chemers Neustein. Costumes for Swan Lake are generously sponsored by the Ellen Everett Kimiatek Costume Preservation Trust. Gaîté Parisienne was generously supported through an endowed gift from The Toni and Martin Sosnoff New Works Fund. The Dream is presented in loving memory of Clarence Y. Palitz, Jr. by his family. ABT gratefully acknowledges Mr. and Mrs. John C. Sites, Jr. for their generous support of Theme and Variations through both an endowed gift and an additional special Leading Sponsor gift for costumes in 2013. Cindy and Chip Murphy are also Leading Sponsors of Theme and Variations. Additional support has been provided by the Lawrence E. Deutsch Foundation, and Richard S. Ungerleider, M.D.

??? R&J seems to be a typical ABT two-years-on, one-year-off ballet. Whereas Manon has been done exactly once in the approximately 8 years I've been regularly attending Met seasons.

Indeed, she posted a photo of herself on Instagram today with the caption, "Keeping up with my leg and feet exercises for when I get back to work!!"

According to Vanity Fair, Melanie Hamrick is pregnant. This will be Mick Jagger's eighth child.

If you find it let us know! I suspect that whoever recorded that didn't stay for Act II (criminal!), because nothing ever showed up from him/her on YT, so far as I know. I would kill a close family member to see video of it, though!

Hahahaha I take from this that Makarova is the least of what you're willing to sit through a performance of? Geez.

This sounds good in theory, but once you give all the current principals a performance or two and throw in one or two guest stars, there really isn't much room left over for up-and-coming homegrown dancers to have a shot. If your goal truly is homegrown talent, it's not enough to just give the current principals a slot; you also have to make some space for the ones who aren't yet at that level -- like Trenary. If one or two guest artists had been given a Sleeping Beauty this year, she would likely not have gotten to perform the role.

Wow. That's quite a statement!

To clarify, my concerns about Cirio have nothing to do with his being an "outsider." He became a member of the company when he was hired a year ago; that's good enough for me.

But Whiteside danced numerous lead full-length roles in that intervening year, while Cirio danced one. I'm not talking about time at ABT alone. I'm talking about content. (As I wrote: "Whiteside's first Met season with ABT as a soloist was very different from Cirio's.") As fondoffouettes said above, Whiteside had to prove himself first as a capable lead and partner across ABT's core rep. Cirio has not yet done that. (Gorak, for one, has -- at least to a significantly greater extent. Admittedly, with some shortcomings.)

Prior to coming to ABT, perhaps. But not since. Whiteside's first Met season with ABT as a soloist was very different from Cirio's.

That would be wonderful to see! She needs a strong and dramatically engaging partner to really work her magic.

Anyone know how old Hoven is? Just curious.

I agree with your last point. But again, the roles you list -- other than Colas -- are not in the category I was describing. They are not (other than Colas) what I would refer to as "leading roles" (as opposed to roles commonly danced by principals, soloists and corps members alike) in the context of ABT's core full-length rep.

This seems like something of an overstatement to me -- the "leading roles all season" part, not the "great acclaim" part. Cirio has certainly been warmly received by many on this board. But I completely agree with fondoffouettes that this seems out of line with typical promotion practice. What other principal has been promoted in recent memory without having danced any of ABT's central leading roles -- the full-length principal parts which are (like it or not) the core of ABT's reportory? (I don't include roles like Bluebird or Ali or Eros in this category. While commonly taken on by principal dancers, they are not leading roles, and they are not the bulk of typical principal's repertoire. Even Simkin dances select full-length leading roles.)

Cirio, but not Gorak. Wow. Love that Hoven got soloist, but otherwise this is upsetting.

I completely agree. There wasn't quite enough distinction between Act I and Acts II-III. This was where I felt Stella really shone tonight. I was somewhat disappointed by Stella's Act I, strong as it was in certain ways. I really wished I'd seen her before seeing Trenary, as I found the performance a bit of a letdown after Wednesday's exhilarating high. While Stella is very good playing at being girlish (which is a large part of why Lise was such a great fit for her), she's not truly girlish. And playing at being girlish just doesn't work as well for Aurora. It feels too saccharine in this more refined context. Where Stella really excelled, though, was in creating the otherworldly quality I always look for in Act II. Her dancing here was gorgeous, because she was letting herself be simply gorgeous rather than overlaying it with a girlish manner. No longer girlish now in Act II, Stella seemed truly a vision (as the act is titled) rather than a flesh-and-blood woman -- which is what she became at the very end of the act, when awoken. The difference from Act I was evident from the very first moment she came on stage. Her qualities of movement were so obviously different from those before. (In particular, I would second Batsuchan's more recent comment about the beauty and grace of Stella's port de bras -- exceeded only by Veronika Part tonight, who was the fullest embodiment of the Lilac Fairy.) Trenary's Act II, by contrast, was too much of a piece with her Act I, I felt. BTW a small side note, but I've now seen 5 dancers in this production (Gillian, Isabella and Sarah last year plus Trenary this year) and despite some less-than-stellar balances in the Rose Adagio, Stella certainly had the most impressive balance on the shell contraption: sublimely still. And one other side note: Sarah Lane writes on Instagram today that she and Cornejo will once again tomorrow substitute the "apparently original version of choreography" instead of the fish dives.

I'm a bit late to the party but must echo what everyone else has been saying. This was a superb performance. And it truly did feel like, as abatt above said, a star was being born. The audience reaction after the Rose Adagio was intense. We'd all seen her before, but this was a revelatory emergence of such deep talent and artistic intelligence. Rarely is a performance so emotionally engaging and technically exceptional as Trenary's Aurora. She used every instant on stage to convey character, always engaging fully with the other dancers around her and, ultimately, with the audience. In terms of both acting and dance technique, there was a sense that she had studied the part, engaged with every beat of the music, analyzed and made careful choices for execution -- and yet, what resulted was something that seemed purely spontaneous and fully lived. (As an aside, someone recently said to me, in reference to a different dancer's glamorous image, that she is "the Maria Callas of ballet." In a very different sense, In terms of piercing artistic intelligence, I would say that of Trenary yesterday. As with Callas, there was a sense that she had brought a powerful if intuitive mind to work on the role, that she understood what she was doing and why at every moment. And yet, again, there was no way in which the performance seemed studied or labored. There was total commitment to and engagement in the part.) Trenary's dancing yesterday was so cleanly articulated -- every single step was crystal clear. (If I were a dancer, and wanted to learn the part of Aurora, I think I could have no better tool than a video of yesterday's performance to study.) And yet these steps all came together to form fluid whole arcs for every phrase and, on a larger scale, every variation. (I feel like I'm pushing paradox past the point of believability in all these descriptions -- but that's truly how it seemed! Such is the mystery of an exceptional artistic performance, I suppose.) Interestingly, there was a similar quality of clear articulation balanced by unbroken fluidity in some of Whiteside's dancing yesterday as well -- especially the difficult Act III variation. I've seen Gomes, Gorak and Cornejo all dance this, and Whiteside's was definitely the best. His was not overall the most fully successful performance of Désiré that I've seen in this production, but this perhaps most challenging and important moment was quite impressive. (I also agree that he pulled the costume off most successfully. Though there was still one moment where one of those ridiculously cartoonish cuffs hung down right in front of Trenary's lovely face as he held her hand above her head.) Devon Teuscher similarly handled the trickiest parts of the Lilac Fairy's variation (the more challenging of the two used in this production) with grace and finesse. Sarah Lane and Zhiyaho Zhang danced one of the best Bluebird PDDs I've ever seen. Zhang competes with my memory of Gorak in this role. While Gorak had more gorgeous liquidity in the opening phrases of the coda, I must agree with fondoffouettes that Zhang's elevations were truly astonishing -- especially because there seemed to be so little force propelling them. (He's no Vasiliev, for instance.) It truly did create the illusion of flight at certain instants. (So odd, though, that Lane and Zhang did not come out for a bow after their exit at the very end of the PDD. I don't remember this being the case with other pairs in this production. I almost thought perhaps one of them had been injured and couldn't come back out. But that didn't seem to have been the case, as they both seemed fine in the finale. Does anyone recall other couples not taking a bow?) A final shout-out to Craig Salstein for his fine comic (but not overly broad) performance as Prince Désiré's tutor, Galifron. So excited to see Stella and Marcelo tonight, then Boylston and Gorak on Saturday! What a great way to end the season!

Very interesting -- this was the scene that people most complained about last year as being overstuffed and crowded. I'll be curious to see whether they've scaled this one down a bit to make it more effective. I'll also be curious to hear (not seeing them this time) whether Lane and Cornejo do the fish dives this year or whether they do the alternate choreo as they did last year. And curious to see whether there are any other tweaks in the production since last spring.