nanushka

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.

ABT has only 4 weeks at the Met now, and mixed programs do not generally sell at all well there. I think it makes sense for them to focus on full-length ballets and save the mixed programs for the Koch. And even there, I hope they'll continue to do one full-length each fall. I also hope that under Jaffe's leadership they'll find some additional opportunities to perform in NYC — and to perform more in general. Maybe then they can return to more of the shorter pieces they used to do.

Not this afternoon, at least. I left the auditorium right after Tiler Peck brought on Andrew Litton, and I remember it was 3:36 when I checked my phone. The first three fairy variations were fine, but the fourth and fifth were definitely too fast, distorting the choreography. The Lilac variation was faster than I like, but not as bad as the previous two. Parts of the final act were also too fast — one or two of the jewel variations, I think, and part of Bluebird (I think it was the coda where I noticed similar distorting effects on parts of Florine's choreo).

I loved Marcelo Gomes' Carabosse in Ratmansky's production at ABT.

I don't think of them as expectations; I think of them more as standards of excellence and personal taste. I think they're an important part of what makes some dancers become excellent and makes certain rare dancers become exceptional.

It doesn't read as potentially violent to me, but it's definitely something. Arthurs suggests that the size difference of the traditional casting gives it a "creepy kid-sister feel." That's a little closer to my feeling, but still a bit different.

Having read this, I sought out the Arthurs review, and I think her point is a subtler one than what's often meant when calling a work "problematic." I don't think she suggests that Balanchine is endorsing a "problematic" relationship, just that he's showing us one (or showing us a relationship that has an aspect she finds "problematic"). Even if the work itself is without judgment, that doesn't mean that our responses need to be. We're allowed — even invited — to have feelings about what we're shown. Arthurs says that Aria II can be "uncomfortable to watch," but she doesn't suggest that the work should have been different or that it shouldn't have made her feel that. Indeed, her being "thrilled" to see the passage come across in a different way suggests that she's excited to see a new layer of potential meaning in a work that has made her experience one feeling in the past but that is not inherently defined by that difficult feeling. Since reading the full article requires registration, here's the paragraph in question:

It's the Peck-Copeland ad that I find most ill-considered. Sleeping Beauty is at least familiar to veteran ballet audiences, whereas NYCB must appeal to audiences unfamiliar with this new work (except for its recycled content). Two minutes of the same two dancers repeatedly performing the same dull cliche movements (all those clasped hands and cross-hatched arms) with (we're meant to assume) intensely meaningful earnestness. Not impressive, and definitely not something that makes me excited to see a new work.

But if it's for the newbies, is it really giving them a good sense of what the pleasures of ballet (or even of these specific ballets) are going to be? Even if they're not playing to their strongest audience, I'd think it'd be a good idea to play to their true strengths — the experiential elements that really make the art form engaging and worth attending.

Ratmansky’s Tempest ballet was set to music by Sibelius.

But didn't ABT used to start their Met season almost immediately following the Met's own final performance of their season? The Met finishes on Saturday, June 10, but ABT doesn't start until Thursday the 22nd. Unless things have changed on the Met's end, they could presumably start as early as Monday the 12th. Ending at the same time, that would then be a six-week season. Last year they did five full weeks; this year, they're not even doing that.

I imagine that if she'd wanted to do that, they would have let her. But I'm not surprised if she didn't. Having made her peace with the way her performance career ended, I would guess that she wouldn't want to revisit it three years later. From a June 2020 article in the Times:

When Misseldine gets her first O/O I will absolutely be there.

I think Fremantle announced (publicly — I just don’t have the links because not regularly on sm these days) when leaving SFB that he no longer wanted to do ballet full time.

The choreography is Balanchine's. Who holds the rights? My program from 2020 only indicates the Balanchine Trust for the entire piece (minus the no-longer-performed Graham portion). Interestingly, the Trust's page on the ballet incorrectly states that the "Variations" section was no longer performed at NYCB after 1960, when in fact Peter Frame danced it between 1986 and 1989.

Regarding Episodes, it's too bad they're not continuing to do the Taylor solo (assuming that from the casting sheet, though I didn't get to see the piece this season), since Jovani Furlan performed it in 2020. (I remember that was the last performance I saw before the shutdown.) It seems a shame to let it fall back out of the repertory, if that's what's happening.

Why not just give Ulbricht the role, I wonder. Seems a little strange, as if there was some reason they wanted Ball to be onstage for the final section.

Frenette ends the post "I can't wait for OLAR to come back next Met season."

Interesting. IIRC the summer casting made it seem they were testing his potential. Seems he didn’t impress?

I really hope they're looking at the spring tour of R&J as an extension of last summer's production, not precursor to another run next summer. Please not that—especially with only 4.5 weeks.

There are some great closeup shots on the new video they have up with Emilie Gerrity.

It actually depends on the date; they're doing Tchai Pas on Sept 24m and 29e.

There's an excerpt in the current issue of The New Yorker:

Yes, there is. Vilar's fall was notorious.