choriamb

Thank y'all so much for the reviews...especially all of the cast notes! (I'd already bought my Met ticket for Ferri/Cornejo, but was waiting to see if the ballet was strong enough to withstand a second viewing. Now, I think I'll go ahead and pick up that extra ticket for Murphy & Co. )

Agreed. I'll never fault Jaffe for trialling one new ballet each year (and seeing out the license of the previous year's new ballet even if it isn't a hit). They can't only do warhorses...and I've been genuinely excited about Woolf Works and the other most recent new ballets just because they've offered so many opportunities to see potential soloist/principal candidates. (Although I won't lie: the ONLY way that I'm risking Crime and Punishment is if Curley gets his first top-billed full-length lead in it.) I personally think that there will be a Petipa extravaganza in 2026 (or 2027) to celebrate their 6 youngest soloists becoming principals. ABT now has a larger number of soloists under the age of 27 who have successfully danced a lead role in a full-length than they've had in the 2 decades that I've watched them: they'll totally want to make a splash showing them off in the classics when they're all ready for prime-time. But I don't think that we'll see much more Petipa than we've already seen until then. Jaffe still has to slowly ease those 6 soloists into harder, top-billed roles over the next two years...and ease about 12 principals/soloists over the age of 37 off the stage. (FWIW, I also think that Trenary's delayed Swan Lake debut is probably partly due to this aging-in/aging-out process. If Brandt or Boylston were injured, Trenary's now really the only woman who is short enough, experienced enough, and young/healthy enough to risk helming a last-minute Swan Lake with Cornejo or Carmargo. It seems unlikely that they would risk presenting her in a major role debut within 2 days of a sub. I sometimes wonder whether she and Bell are held in reserve at times simply because they're the right age/height/technique/gumption to dance with anyone in the event of injury.)

Phelan in the Brahms-Schoenberg Rondo and Woodward as the girl in Pink are definitely interesting casting choices. But it's actually something that I like about the current AD team: when dancers were siloed into highly technical or non-technical roles under Martins, I felt like there was a bit too much technical slippage at the principal level. When Phelan had her successful Divertimento No 15 a few seasons ago, I felt like it gave her a bit of extra authority in her other ballets, too. And I'm glad that Woodward is getting a chance to develop artistically a bit between this and her La Valse. It's also interesting how consistently LaFreniere is being cast in von Aroldingen's roles (and the roles that she took over from Verdy). It's the most smart, sophisticated slice of the rep...and I love what she's starting to do with it.

She had a really intelligent, different take on the role the last time that I saw her perform it. I hope that this is a confidence-builder for her.

Yay!! They promoted the guys with charisma! And isn't it delightful how untouched by COVID and the late-00's "ABT star system" collapse these promotions feel: how very normal these promotions are?They're all under 30. Two have had a few years of outings in leading and soloist roles...Curley won't be thrown into Siegfried seemingly minutes after learning Rothbart like the last three guys. They've all acted under pressure. And there isn't the sense that they've cut off everyone else's chances to rise. So, I'm actually excited about this summer's rep: the company men will have lots of low-stakes opportunities to shine. And there are enough male demisoloist roles in Woolf Works, R+J, and Onegin that we'll get a sense of who is up next and how fast. A less-challenging ballet that's a vehicle for an older ballerina is the kind of boost that a guy needing a launch (or re-launch) can't get anywhere else. One of these guys will look great as Lensky on stage with Seo. When Ahn sets foot onstage with Murphy in Woolf Works, the audience will be full, absolutely no eyes will be scrutinizing him, he'll know he's beside someone who has seen and fixed any stage mishap imaginable, and Murphy's stardom will rub off on him just as effectively as it would in a Petipa gut-cruncher. And while it's totally unimaginable that Ferri would be cast opposite anyone but Cornejo or Camargo in Woolf Works, if an AD were determined to make a young male dancer a star...

I think that the summer casting quirks are less about favoritism than stabilizing the newest crop of men. Because the upside to this summer's rep is all of the relatively-lightweight-but-visible vehicles for men who are still developing: I'll be attending for that reason more than any other. Boylston, Trenary, and Brandt's light workload makes more sense if they're being paired with male up-and-comers (Curley, Ischuk, Roxander, Gonzalez, etc.) who would benefit from technically strong, shorter partners as Olga/Lensky in Onegin and in Woolf Works. The new guys will need more rehearsal time. Likewise, I suspect Bell's season is relatively quiet so that he can spend time rehearsing with Misseldine for her Swan Lake debut. Teuscher's marquee debuts are balanced with outings to support a dancer who is still developing in LWFC, Swan Lake, and Nutcracker. (Which isn't a knock on Ahn: unlike Forster/Royal/Shevchenko/Teuscher, he wasn't really given lightweight or comedic roles in which to develop his stage legs before being thrown into lead roles. One consistent, unflappable partner for a few seasons can work wonders with that.) Also, I think the casting suggests that Murphy, Whiteside, and Stearns won't retire this season given that they're all dancing at least three ballets and two are debuting roles. The past ABT principals that I recall danced at most 2 ballets in their final seasons, presumably, to keep them uninjured so that their splashy sendoff occurs without a hitch. And I can't imagine Cornejo retiring in LWFC. (All that being said, I'm sad we won't see Murphy or Trenary as Tatiana...but glad that Murphy is getting to take on Ferri's role in Woolf Works.)

I thought that Semionova made the adage section references to The Sleeping Beauty's vision scene sing. I never had an opportunity to see Murphy in the role, but I'll bet she was equally good or better.

While I absolutely read Met season casting as a sign of whose promotion is imminent, I don't really read Fall casting the same way. Beyond marquee works (like The Dream, Ballet Imperial, and the Ratmansky pieces), I think that ABT casts the Fall season short works more as low-stakes tests in preparation for the higher-stakes full-lengths at the Met. Very younger dancers tend to get a first exposed role (like Magbitang in The Dream last year). Technicians tend to get stretched in dramatic roles (like Ahn in Depuis le Jour or many people cast in Some Assembly Required). Older adage dancers tend to get pressure-tested in a technical workout (like Seo in Piano Concerto No. 1 or Part in Symphonie Concertante in years past). So, I actually don't expect up-and-coming dancers who have been successfully featured in a full-length principal role (like Brandt and Trenary a few years ago or Curley and Ischuk now) to get much face time during the Fall. They've already been tested and have "graduated" to the Met season, in a way. (They'll be cast enough to maintain/build their stamina and otherwise be first understudy.)

Janet Rollé, their former executive director, announced her departure roughly 4-5 months ago. Regardless of her exact stance on the contract's terms, her departure in the midst of negotiations has probably prolonged the discussion.

It takes years to develop a star in terms of both artistry and celebrity. That's why it behooves managment to elevate dancers as quickly as possible. When ABT tried that with Boylston and Seo (elevated in their mid-20s), the backlash due to the existing pipeline of older dancers (Abrera, Copeland, Lane, Messmer) who regulars felt had been skipped was so damaging to the young hires that it's understandable why they pulled back. The story of the past decade has been how they've made each subsequent cohort of dancers a little more prepared at a little earlier age while easing the pre-existing pipeline out. Shevchenko/Teuscher were given more featured roles at a younger age than Copeland/Lane. Brandt/Trenary were given more featured roles at a younger age than Shevchenko/Teuscher. Hurlin was given more featured roles at a younger age than Brandt/Trenary. Only now are dancers (Granlund/Park/Misseldine) really being given featured roles at the correct age to become full-fledged stars. But it's finally happened, I think it will be the norm moving forward...and it will be exciting to see the results! And my read is that the main role of a star is to create other stars. Ballerinas who perform past their late 30s are the ones who have enough box office clout to sell tickets even with a novice partner and the experience to support/develop those novice partners under duress. If you subscribe to that idea, Kochetkova's intended role (after a first season to acquire her Met legs) wouldn't have been to dance with Simkin or Cornejo: it would have been to shepherd younger men like Hoven, Gorak, Shayer, and Klein until they could fly on their own. (Basically, to assume Reyes' role of setting less-experienced short men at ease and saving their badly-supported fouettes into her 40s.) Kochetkova played that part rather well from what I saw, but she may have decided after a year that she really only wanted to dance with more experienced dancers...or ABT may have thought that Lane had the potential to do it just as well. Similarly, Semionova and Osipova were wonderful solo artists...but what was equally notable about them was how much better they made Hallberg and Stearns look (and the ways they could potentially have developed the company's younger men). When you're under 35, you're graded on your own performance; when you're over 35, you're graded on your partner's performance.

I agree with ABT management's artistic call on this, too: their comaraderie is fun in comedy...but generates no spark/tension in romantic roles.

I've always felt that announcing promotions at the END of the Summer season was an utter waste from a marketing perspective: why drop the most exciting press release of the year on your audience months before they can take action on it by subscribing/buying tickets? For the sake of generating press/excitement about future talent, it would be far better to announce when subscriber (or general) ticket sales begin before the Fall or Summer seasons...especially if that's the same time that you're announcing the retirements of older dancers. I'm hoping against hope that this is what will happen in the Jaffe regime. (Does anyone know when ABT has to declare dancer salaries on its tax statements? Might some folks have already been promoted...but the announcement is being withheld until a more advantageous time?) It will be interesting to see how the casting plays out in all of the visible (but lower-billed) demisoloist roles in Ballet Imperial, Etudes, The Dream, and Petit Mort. I'm most curious to see which men are cast in the demisoloist roles to accompany Brandt and Misseldine in Ballet Imperial (i.e. who is being pressure-tested as a partner in an allegro role). And that "Classics Old and New" program with Piano Concerto No. 1, Petit Mort, and Etudes, would be a perfect vehicle for a stealth stamina test (c.f. when Brandt and Trenary had to perform demi-soloist roles in Theme and Variations, A Gathering of Ghosts, and The Seasons all in one night during the Fall season before their promotion): might Curley and Ischuk be cast in all three ballets?

I'm more-or-less witholding full judgment on Mearns until Nutcracker and on Bouder until the end of Spring 2024. Based on the other NYCB ballerinas (Kowroski, Ringer, Mearns, Peck) that I've watched return from long absences, stage presence returns fully around the end of Season 1, technical ability returns around the end of Season 2, and the body returns around the end of Season 3 (e.g. Mearns' slow start in Concerto Barocco last season and the slow return of Peck's arabesque after injury). None of them would have escaped a cull if they were judged purely on their performance/technique/conditioning during the first season that they returned to the stage: "ballet thin" is a non-normative physical state...and it's taken every dancer that I've seen almost a year of steady performance to return to it, even if they're "normal-person thin" on returning to the stage. For me, the sad thing about Bouder's return last year was that she was following a pretty normal recovery trajectory for someone returning from a long absence before she was re-injured. Her first return performance in Scotch Symphony was technically blurred. But, by the end of the season, she looked about 80% back to normal in terms of presentation and technique in Vienna Waltzes...and Bouder's 80% is better than most dancers' 100%. Anyway, I look forward to seeing what she does with Emeralds this time around: she brought a more adult perspective to her most recent La Source and Dances at a Gathering, so I'm curious to see how she's changed in her other Verdy roles.

I caught Monday and Tuesday's performances. The times that I've seen Other Dances recently, it's been danced elegantly and technically pristinely...but without much perfume. Some of the sprezzatura has been lost. And if the dancers have sporadically caught a few of the folk dance gestures, they haven't demonstrated that those folk dance gestures convey meanings (or that the meaning of those gestures is usually flirting). Not on Monday. Murphy and Bell nailed the tone. The episodes had nuanced moods but still felt tossed-off. Bell perfectly underplayed the humor. And Murphy performed like someone who has danced Raymonda, worn character shoes, and been around Makarova a bit. Like two artists given some delightful bagatelles after a season of serious full-length works. They danced well together and I'd enjoy seeing them deepen their partnership beyond the pros-meeting-at-a-gala stage. (Based on this, Murphy still turns better than her peers did 20 ago.) On Tuesday, I arrived late and was standing far back in the grove, so I didn't really catch faces or nuances in Boylston and Ahn's performance. (If I were in the Met, I wouldn't have been in the standing room area...I'd have been in the lobby.) From what I saw, Boylston's presentation was great: sunnier overall but with bravura energy and attention to her partner. Agreed that Ahn was elegant and musical in solo varations. (I think he still needs to visibly engage with his partner more, but he's actually better at that than Cornejo at a similar age.) The other companies brought loud full-cast barnstormers, which ABT presumably couldn't do due to the corp being at Wolf Trap. I felt that Ballet Hispanico's piece (Ochoa's Línea Recta) needed a bit more editing/workshopping. Lots of flamenco-influenced movement without a deeper formal exploration or a clear narrative. Antonio Cangiano and Gabrielle Sprauve had enough dramatic verve to fully lift it briefly, but all of the dancers gave committed performances. But it warmed my heart to see how far Dance Theatre of Harlem has come over the past decade. They are fully back: every dancer looked in top-notch form in a killer petit allegro workout and had an individual stage presence and movement quality. And if this is the kind of ballet Robert Garland is going to make for the company, I don't have any worries about the rep either: I would be happy to see his stuff at ABT or NYCB.

ABT has recently promoted its female principal-track dancers in two-person cohorts by height (short, mid-height, tall) and supplemented them with one mid-career terminal soloist at each height. If they follow that same pattern for their men, Curley and Ishchuk are shoe-ins for the next tall principal-track cohort (with possibly Sebastian or Frenette as a new tall terminal soloist). My guess for the next short-to-mid-height male cohort is Gonzalez and Roxander, less for their dancing than for their pizzaz and chutzpah. (The main complaint about ABT's recent short-to-mid-height men is that they had technique and style, but needed more confidence as actors and partners.) But, financing aside, I wouldn't be surprised if their promotions were delayed a year to give the public more time to absorb the tall guys. From a marketing perspective, ABT has had an insane amount of people to attempt to re-launch to the press and audiences in just 2 years: Trenary, Brandt, Hurlin, Forster, Royal, and Ahn. And, to a lesser extent, Misseldine, Granlund, and Park. 9 dancers. 2 years. After an extended absence. In brief, one-month-season spurts. I imagine that ABT has probably asked some senior dancers to delay retirement simply to avoid shifting the marketing focus away from the new principals. Cornejo, Copeland, or Murphy's departures would have overshadowed an entire season. (And Paris, Fang, and Hoven have been such stalwarts that I suspect ABT is delaying their departures until a time when they can give them a more graceful, visible exit, now that they new folks are more established. Fang has a small but very committed fan base. And Paris has danced a wider swathe of character roles and harder technical soloist/corps roles than anyone in recent memory...and I'll drop everything to see her in a lot of them.)