nanushka

Probably too much to hope that they're doing the full trilogy (though that'd be great), but glad to hear they're doing at least that part of it again. I'd like to see Symphony #9 again sometime, too.

Ouch, yeah — I happen to agree with the assessment in general (I didn't see her this season), but that's gotta hurt.

Yes, that’s what I was referring to as well: I imagine (or hope to see) her fitting into Hyltin’s rep, a bit more than Fairchild’s.

I was there too and completely agree with your assessments of the first two performances (if not both pieces). Walker just didn't seem to have the style for Fancy Free. The other two men were great. I don't need to see the piece again soon, it just doesn't do it for me overall. Agon does, and I was so happy to see it again. I've never liked LaFreniere as much as I liked her today. This piece really suits her. Mabie and Ricardo didn't seem quite up to the same standard, but were pretty good. A number of final moments were sloppy in both PDTs. I saw Miller do the PDD a number of years ago and wasn't too excited to see her again, but this afternoon's performance was very satisfying. Janzen looked great throughout the piece. I had to leave before Brandenburg, wish they'd kept that piece first on the program. Next time, perhaps. I saw Emma Von Enck in La Source and, while others have compared her to Fairchild, I actually thought of Hyltin more. I'm curious to see where she goes, but bet it'll be worth watching.

I'd love to hear any reviews of tonight's Fancy Free and Agon casts. I'm rather bummed that my tickets are for Saturday afternoon, not evening. I would love to see Mejia, Gordon, Veyette, Danchig-Waring and Gerrity, among others. But I'm still looking forward to the program — and very excited to be seeing Agon again, after too long.

I'm not seeing that in what's currently up for May 23-28 (marked as updated 5/15), where Miller is still listed for Agon and both Miller and Chan for Copland.

I completely agree about the excellence of Peck's and Gordon's (and Laracey's) performances! I came back to see this program again specifically for them, and they did not disappoint. I also had the same thought about the final fish dive — so exciting! I have to disagree about the traveling hops. The early (much shorter) sets did travel, as with Claire von Enck's in the other cast I saw. But the main longer set toward the end of the variation was done pretty much in place, I thought. The latter were done facing stage right, and I recently noticed in the old 1965 video of Marnee Morris doing that variation (available at times on YouTube), she was facing stage left [sorry, I typed that wrong at first!], and the hops traveled quite a bit.

Brandenburg was swapped onto another program this spring. It’s being done with Agon and Fancy Free. There's an article in the Times about the revival.

It will be posted eventually, yes, but probably not before single tickets go on sale Monday. You shouldn't have trouble getting tickets later, though, once the Myrtha casting is up.

I’ve got to admit I’m a sucker for those send them home happy closers, and the Western finale does it. I do really appreciate that they’ve packed in a good diversity of Balanchine styles next fall. So I don’t begrudge them for leaning on some they’ve programmed recently, like Orpheus, even if it may not yet deserve a repeat.

Those are three I was thinking of too. Mozartiana especially, as it feels like it's been awhile (and doesn't seem to come around quite as frequently). Totally agree about Slaughter — once every 5 years is more than enough for me.

4 weeks, 6 weeks and 6 weeks — pretty standard, no?

See All Balanchine III, in the fall.

Full programming info is now on the NYCB website for all of 2023-24.

Thanks for the info. Was there any clarity on what "a year from now" meant? — i.e. their usual fall season (Oct 2024), or would this be a new spring engagement at the Koch?

I agree. She made a considerable impact in the role of Lady Capulet, for instance — definitely not one that relies on "competition tricks."

Most, in fact. The year it premiered, Lane and Cornejo were the only couple to do the notated choreography in place of the fish dives. I'm not sure if anyone did the same in later years, but it definitely wasn't the norm.

It would be one thing if ABT had a highly competent marketing operation, but I think we all know that's not the case. I agree, entirely predictable. With this company, it seems like it's just one unforced error after another in recent years. I'm really hoping Susan Jaffe can turn things around.

Yes, that's correct. It's well-documented in the archives of their Instagram feeds. I'm pretty sure the offer from SFB would have come while he was away from ABT — as he was for a good number of years until he returned not terribly long ago. That said, we can't possibly know Lane's reasons for not having accepted the offer. It could have been about not wanting to leave the NYC area, but it could have been about innumerable other things.

April 24, according to the ABT website.

Gia Kourlas has the story:

An article in the Times anticipates the publication of Alice Robb's "Don't Think, Dear": On Loving and Leaving Ballet. Though Robb sounds reasonably even-handed in many aspects of her critique, I have to say her repurposing of the Balanchine quote for her title rubs me the wrong way — giving potentially a very false impression of what Balanchine seems to have meant when he said that. (And also, perhaps, the impression that "dear" was his patronizing way of addressing female dancers in particular, when in fact he used the term with men as well, including non-dancers.) In the article, she has this to say about Balanchine himself: From all I've read about him, I don't get the sense that Balanchine would have wanted to be worshiped as a hero or have everyone in thrall to him after his death. Patricia McBride makes this point in an interview quoted in the article:

I don’t think ABT has had a particular tradition of holding farewells in the final day or two of the Met season in recent years, and when there have been major farewells they’ve tended to be announced well in advance. Neither of which is to say it won’t happen for either dancer, just that the timing of their scheduled performances doesn’t make me think it’s especially likely.

Dominika Afanasenkov was in the Disney+ series On Pointe, during which I believe she was made an apprentice with the company.

They can't possibly be planning to do R&J and Giselle again in NYC in 2024, can they? After this summer, they'll have done both ballets twice already in the preceding two years. Especially for R&J, that is way too much.