nanushka

Just now, Natalia said:

 

Since this was originally to have been Kochetkova & Simkin, I suspect that the "Brighton Beach Brigade" was there en masse, especially vocal for Russian dancers. Lane had to win them over. They already know & love Simkin.

Yes, and though remaining tickets went fast after Lane was announced, the house was already quite well sold (in keeping with what you'd expect for a Thursday night SL) when that happened.

A few more random observations following last night's performance:

• One of my favorite sequences in the ballet is in the middle of Odette's variation, the diagonal series of sissonnes followed by arabesques. Last night, though, it looked like Sarah did not do the bend forward with crossed arms that typically comes before the developpé to arabesque. This is an essential part of the sequence, in my mind, contributing to the "blooming" quality of the développé, and I really missed it. I don't think I've ever seen it done this way before, and I wonder why she made that choice.
• Alban Lendorf really won me over last night as Rothbart. (I've generally been less than excited by his having been brought in to ABT.) He gave a commanding, stylish performance. Particularly noteworthy was his expressive use of hands in the second, faster half of the solo. (Is this a result of his Danish training, perhaps?) At the end of his solo he leapt up onto the throne and rested his head back with delicious satisfaction. He then stood back up and came back to center stage but didn't even bow (cocky SOB! perfect for the character), just looked out at the audience and then turned back to wave off the princesses. Oh, and his interaction with the Queen (Nancy Raffa) at the beginning of the solo was the best I've seen besides Marcelo.
• Sarah's beautiful, long-held arabesques have been noted, but I also noticed again last night how gorgeous Daniil's arabesques often are. They seem to poetically evoke the shape of his bow. (Perhaps just my personal association?)
• Another favorite moment is when the Italian princess rises onto point and is drawn to Rothbart in an upstage diagonal of very fast fluttering steps. Both Stephanie Williams on Wednesday afternoon and Katherine Williams last night (not certain those names are right –– I'm referring to Wednesday's program and last night's slip) failed to do this effectively. Their steps were sluggish, and there was no sense that they were being pulled by his sexual magnetism.
• Can someone please explain to me what is going on all those times when Siegfried walks up to Wolfgang the tutor during Act I? What is Wolfgang's deal? Why is he so unsympathetic? Why does he keep gesturing upstage left? Why does he spend the whole party standing at the side, looking off into the wings and generally coming across like a wet blanket?

12 minutes ago, Helene said:

According to Wikipedia, Sobeshchanskaya hated it and requested a new pas de deux, and Minkus wrote the music.  Tchaikovsky was angered, but he wasn't allowed to write any new original music:  it had to fit Petipa's choreography to Minkus.  She then requested more music for the variation, which wasn't in Tchaikovsky New PDD music v1. I don't see a citation, though.

From Wiley's Tchaikovsky's Ballets (p. 58):

On 26 April 1877 Anna Sobeschchanskaya made her debut as Odette. By that fourth performance new music and choreography had been added to Swan Lake. From the conductor Stepan Ryabov we learn how Sobeschanskaya, distrustful of Reisinger [the choreographer of the 1877 version] and dissatisfied with Tchaikovsky's music, went to Petipa in St. Petersburg and asked the ballet master to create a pas de deux for her. Petipa complied, as he had before when she had complained about Reisinger's dances in Ariadne; for Swan Lake he composed variations to music by Ludwig Minkus.

Wiley goes on to quote from P. Pchel'nikov, "Recollections about P. I. Tchaikovsky":

Having returned to Moscow, the ballerina informed the Kapellmeister that she had acquired a pas de deux, which she wished to interpolate into the third act of Swan Lake. When news of this found its way to Tchaikovsky, he began to protest energetically, pointing out the embarrassment that he would suffer from the interpolation of someone else's music in his ballet.

'Whether my ballet is good or bad,' he said, 'I alone would like to take responsibility for its music.'

After long discussion, Tchaikovsky, promised to write a new pas de deux for the benefit artiste.

But then a serious complication arose. The artiste did not want to change the dance composed for her by Petipa, nor did she want to go to Petersburg again.

The possibility of calming the storm presented itself only in composing new music for the existing dance.

Peter Ilyich took upon himself to resolve the argument in this way. Having requested that Minkus's music be given to him, he promised to write new music which would agree, bar for bar, note for note, with Minkus's music.

In a word, he promised to produce a pas de deux, to the music of which it would be possible to perform the dance composed by Petipa, not only without any changes, but even without rehearsals.

The music was written very quickly, and in addition pleased the benefit artiste so much that she requested that Tchaikovsky write for her an additional variation, which he did. In the benefit performance both of these numbers enjoyed a noisy success with the public.

21 minutes ago, aurora said:

The thing is, they do.

Fair enough, aurora. I'll try to stop lighting my hair on fire!

It's just frustrating when the most technically deficient dancers end up getting the most performances –– 4 out of 8 9 this year (and only 1 of those was unscheduled).

15 minutes ago, abatt said:

That's true, but my expectations for an ABT SL are quite different from my expectations for a NYCB SL.  Full length productions are the bread and butter of ABT, and I hold them to a higher standard in full length productions.  Similarly, I hold NYCB to a higher standard than ABT in Balanchine rep.

True. If ABT does not have a roster of dancers who are capable of reliably performing all of the standard steps in Swan Lake of all ballets (arguably their signature piece, performed every single year), then something is not right with the world.

1 minute ago, fondoffouettes said:

I actually think those little pickup steps are beautiful and I much prefer when a dancer elects to do those in the Tchai pas rather than focus on throwing in multiples; it's much more musical. I can sort of imagine them being incorporated into Swan Lake, alternated with traditional singles, maybe.

There's a delicacy to them, though, that I'm not sure fits with Odile or the Black Swan coda music; it's much more in the style of that moment in the Tchai Pas music. (Typical Balanchine, to perfectly illuminate the musical effect with his steps.)

4 minutes ago, vipa said:

Also, I think she was tiring at that point, probably from lack of experience in doing that role.

Great point. It's easy to forget how much of a difference it must make to have the actual experience of dancing all three of O/O's acts in "real time." That's one really big reason why ABT dancers who do principal roles are really facing a distinct challenge (since they have so few opportunities to do that). 

4 minutes ago, ABT Fan said:

But Gorak had a new weird big fake smile throughout.

Yes, it was almost as if Sarah's awkward smile from the past got transplanted onto him. I remember seeing her generally lovely first Aurora in 2008 or so, which was marred mostly just by that smile. But of course it doesn't fit here for either Odette or Odile. And she's grown out of it. So Benno apparently got stuck with it!

3 minutes ago, ABT Fan said:

(Why doesn't Odette get a running start like Siegfried?) 

I do like, though, that Odette gets a nice moment to pose in pathos at the top of the cliff. It seems okay to me that Siegfried gets to show off while Odette gets to be gorgeous for one last moment.

Just now, Natalia said:

So this week so far we've had one out of five ballerinas complete the 32 fouettés. Hmmm. Part will be the sixth & final Odile of the run on Saturday afternoon. (Seo & Copeland will have 2nd chances - Fri & Sat eves, respectively.) 

Thankfully, Part never gets greedy: she always sticks to just the basic singles, which is as it should be given that her strengths are not in allegro.

5 minutes ago, vipa said:

 If you do all singles it's about 30 and pull in for a double. If you do doubles in there it's fewer.

I've never really known whether to count doubles as one or two, but I've leaned toward two; otherwise, definitely yes, 32 becomes impossible.

7 minutes ago, vipa said:

As an aside I wish every dancer didn't think she had to do doubles. Just pump out your 30 or so singles, pull in for a double and your done. I think dancers are going for too much in this respect.

 

I completely agree. If you're a Gillian, great; go for it. But if not, just do the classic. It's still impressive. We're not at the circus; we don't require tricks. We want to see good dancing. That should be what's foremost.

2 minutes ago, vipa said:

Joseph Gorak is a fine dancer but has an odd way of partnering turns that disrupt the flow. 

I noticed this especially in his face. He shifted abruptly tonight between "working face" and "presentation face." Back and forth, with each supported pirouette. It was very distracting, and he really needs to fix that if he's going to advance.

4 minutes ago, Batsuchan said:

Overall, however, I thought it was a very successful debut, albeit not the home run that Sarah was probably hoping for.  I'd still prefer to see Devon OR Sarah over ANY of the ABT principals currently performing the role.

In total agreement –– with the very significant exception of Veronika Part!

Just now, Batsuchan said:

It was an amazing leap, that is true!

 

But I have to give best swan dive to Hammoudi!  That was perhaps the best thing he did yesterday.  He had a nice height and a nice elegant position, but it still seemed dignified and tragic.  Whenever I see those super athletic swan dives--as impressive as they are--I always laugh.

Yes, true; Hammoudi's was quite nice, and probably more dramatically appropriate. But hey, it's Swan Lake, not Hamlet, so I'll admit I'm a sucker for something showy!

Just now, BrazilianBAllet said:

Can someone explained what did she do after she fell off the fouetté turns and there was still music left? Did you say she then finished with an arabesque? I am trying to visualize it - thanks ! 

I think what Batsuchan describes above (which probably was posted as you were typing) is the clearest description.

And O.M.G. Simkin's leap at the end. That one really deserved the applause it got, no matter how tasteless it is to clap at that moment.

He flew into the air, arched his back, and then the angle just completely shifted into a DIVE. Holy smokes!!!

2 minutes ago, abatt said:

It just seemed like there was a  lot of fouette music left when she stopped.  Perhaps time just stood still as I contemplated the potential impact of what had just happened. 

I had a similar reaction, but I think there was less music than it felt like there was. I was so struck with disappointment that I didn't even see the arabesque she held, which ABT Fan mentioned above (and my companion commented on as well)!

Just now, canbelto said:

I'll write more later but I thought she got to 24 ... (Yeah I was counting ...)

But the worst was the defeated look she had after her fouettes. Odile is supposed to be dripping with smug glee, but Sarah looked visibly shaken.

Yes, you could tell during the whole rest of the coda that she was upset by what had happened. That's what made it so heartbreaking for me.

But she came back and danced a gorgeous Act IV.

2 minutes ago, onxmyxtoes said:

I was paying attention and thought she got very close to finishing all 32 counts of fouettes (with the doubles interspersed it is nearly impossible to do 32 fouettes in 32 counts).... I would say probably 26-28 counts. Not sure where you got 16?

Yes, I agree. She was definitely well into the singles, which traditionally (when one does the 1-1-2 progression) start at the halfway mark. I didn't get the sense that she deliberately went left to prevent herself from dropping into the pit; she had plenty of space. I think the traveling was unintentional.

1 hour ago, ABT Fan said:

Lane fell out of her fouettés and early but she finished with another amazingly held for an eternity arabesque. Other than that her Odile was incredible, completely in character. No sweet girl there. Complete contrast between her Odette and Odile. More later.

This was a heartbreaking moment for me; I was really pulling for her. She started off with the single-single-double progression that many do, and then when she shifted to all singles at the halfway point I felt that Barker picked up the tempo –– or at least didn't keep it slow enough at the pace she was going (which was indeed a bit slower that usual). It seemed she was straining to keep up and that threw her off. (That may be giving Sarah too much credit; it may have been not at all Barker's fault; but before she stopped I was really wishing he would slow down to match her.)

My quick take, with more details to follow:

A superb Odette. And a very nice partnership, which could have very likely been improved with more time to rehearse. A very good Odile, which I hope she'll have the opportunity to develop in future years. Not the overall triumph of her Giselle earlier in the season, but a strong performance.

I am going to be on pins and needles until week 8 (most likely), when promotions are announced. I really, really hope this is her year. C'mon Kevin, you've started really doing right by these female dancers; let's keep it up!

WOW! That arabesque she held at stage right just as Siegfried first entered from the wings! Gorgeous!

I really tend to favor tall O/Os. (Veronika is my gold standard.) But as has been said on here before, Sarah dances LARGE. 

A truly breathtaking performance so far. Very curious to see how she handles the evil seductress.

PDT is Gorak, Brandt and Trenary. What a night! 

16 minutes ago, Helene said:

It's not a semantic point to point out that there's a general misunderstanding and misapplication of a term that underlies a national myth that is myopic in the best of cases.

Just a note to clarify that I edited that part of my post before you responded but apparently after you hit "quote," simply because I didn't want to give the impression that I was calling it a semantic point in the demeaning sense. In my profession, semantic points are just as valid as any other sort!