nanushka

I don't disagree about Kourlas's restraint, nor about the explicit focus of her criticism. I'm curious what others think (and what Kourlas thinks), though: are there many roles in which Pereira wouldn't have been miscast? Many roles in which her "body...comes to life through them" (in Kourlas's words)? I can't think of many.

Now that they're only performing in NYC ~6 weeks a year, I wish they'd lay off on the repeat productions, year after year. Swan Lake every summer is one thing, and pretty understandable. But both The Dream and Romeo and Juliet two years in a row? Even for Giselle, three years in a row seems really unnecessary. The repeat programming makes the loss of a full 8-week Met season seem especially tough to take.

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.

49 minutes ago, BalanchineFan said:

Kind of makes me feel sorry for Erica Pereira.

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

33 minutes ago, vipa said:

I just want to clarify my statement about Emma Von Enck, @nanushka. I wouldn't say that she reminds me of Fairchild or Hyltin either for that matter. It's just that I can see her moving into the Fairchild rep.

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.

1 hour ago, vipa said:

The sailors were Ulbricht, Walker, Vallarini-Velez. Walker's variation was a bit fuzzy technically and vague musically. The other two men were excellent.

Agon is a ballet I can't get enough of. I hadn't seen much of LaFreniere before her promotion, and one was a very weak showing. Post promotion I've seen her in Concerto Barocco and now Bransle Gay in Agon. Both times I've been taken with her attack, musicality and technical clarity. Eager to see more of her. Miller and Janzen were wonderful in the pas. Her line soaring, his partnering wonderful, their connection quietly dramatic.

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.

19 minutes ago, nysusan said:

NYCB updated the casting sheets for the last 2 weeks of the season. Miller & Chan are both out for the rest of the season. Looks like Kitka, too.

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.

2 hours ago, MarzipanShepherdess said:

Raymonda Variations: obviously this is the kind of role that both Tiler and Joseph Gordon just eat up, and they were both excellent. The final fish dive was particularly bold, it really looked like Tiler was going to fly right into the orchestra pit! I know there's been some discussion of the first "hops on pointe" solo last night and how it's evolved over the years. Last night Olivia Mackinnon did travel while doing her hops--not all the way across the stage, but definitely traveling along. When I saw Claire von Enck do the solo earlier in the season she did the hops in place. 

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.

46 minutes ago, Pointe533 said:

I‘m looking to buy tickets for a performance of Giselle for the Met season. I specifically really want to see Chloe Misseldine dance Myrtha, but it doesn’t look like the site shows Myrtha casting for any of the performances. Does anyone know if this information is typically posted ahead of time, or will it just be the principal couple posted only? 

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.

29 minutes ago, vipa said:

I also think Western Symphony is over programmed. Are these works considered crowd pleasers that sell tickets?

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.

19 minutes ago, cobweb said:

Studying the season brochure that arrived, I wonder if the pic of LaFreniere on the cover means we will see her in Symphony in C second movement. Hope so! 

I don't love the All Balanchine II program. Of course I want to see Agon. But I have no idea what Bourree Fantasque is. And Slaughter on Tenth Avenue again, really? Of course they could not get every Balanchine work into the season, but I am struck that they have left out some of Balanchine's most accessible, easy-to-love works: Divertimento No 15, Chaconne, and Mozartiana all come to mind. Any of them would be a whole lot more enjoyable on this program than Slaughter, IMHO. 

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?

2 minutes ago, cobweb said:

...or Ballet Imperial someplace during the year. But, there will be lots else to keep me busy. 

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?

23 minutes ago, matilda said:

While I did not see Misseldine in Like Water for Chocolate in California, from what I have seen of her in New York in Ratmansky ballets, she's a real standout who seems years beyond her age in artistry and stage presence, kind of like ABT's version of Mira Nadon. Her quick promotion to soloist felt well-deserved from my vantage point. 

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

16 minutes ago, volcanohunter said:

Some of the couples did do fish dives...

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.

7 minutes ago, matilda said:

In my view this Like Water for Chocolate ticket situation was entirely predictable. Doesn't necessarily mean the Met sales will be bad, but it's not a good sign. To fill the Met for 12 performances would require selling more than 45,000 tickets.

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.

7 minutes ago, California said:

I'm sorry I can't find the social media posting where I saw this -- I vaguely remember that Sarah's husband Luis Riborgado took a leave of absence to sell real estate and then returned to ABT, all while she was in the company. Can anybody confirm? More importantly, there are other companies in the west where he might have found work. He was never a high-priced principal.

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.

5 minutes ago, GB1216 said:

I can’t find anything online but do we know when single performance tickets go on sale? I’m looking online and can’t find anything.  I want to grab skylar Brandt’s giselle on 7/5.

April 24, according to the ABT website.

Gia Kourlas has the story:

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Early Sunday evening, just after New York City Ballet’s final performance of the season, four soloists received the kind of postseason gift every dancer dreams of: Emilie Gerrity, Isabella LaFreniere, Roman Mejia and Mira Nadon were elevated to the rank of principal dancer. They learned of their promotions onstage after the curtain fell on “The Sleeping Beauty,” receiving the news from Jonathan Stafford, the company’s artistic director, and Wendy Whelan, its associate artistic director. During that ballet’s two-week run, and throughout the winter season, they had all made important debuts, including originating roles in the premiere of Justin Peck’s evening-length “Copland Dance Episodes.”

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:

Quote

“I’m not arguing we should tear him down,” she continued. “But there’s this singular focus on Balanchine at S.A.B. and City Ballet that goes with a kind of hero worship that I don’t think is healthy. Everyone is in thrall to a dead man. And there aren’t many ballet memoirs about what it’s like having a dream deferred.”

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:

Quote

Asked for her opinion of a book that is critical of him, Ms. McBride said: “He didn’t expect his life to become a museum of ballet. Balanchine always knew that things were going to change.”

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.