choriamb

Thanks, Natalia: I'm so glad that this turned out so well!

After attending the penultimate "Proscenium Works" Trisha Brown program at the University of Washington last night, I met my sister for breakfast today and (lacking a balletomane friend to rehash the night) did what balletomanes do and subjected the poor woman to a lengthy one-sided historical review of this very topic. One of my crackpot ideas was that a school and a unique technique seem the best indicators of survival. It's less a matter of the quality of the choreography and more that a reasonably large amount of people have made an investment in a quite specific style. It's one of the reasons I fear for Brown's lovely dances: you can't patent skips and shrugs. (In some ways, the early works that involve heavy rappelling equipment seem more likely to survive.)

Thanks for your post, Kathleen! (And though I'm not a devotee of Carla Korbes, I do wonder how folks who have seen both her and Farrell compare them in Diamonds.)

Congrats to all! I don't know PNB's dancers well, but loved Lin-Yee's performance with Carrie Imler in Don Q last year: a thoughtful partner with good stagecraft (which allows one to appreciate that he is also a dreamboat with a clear conscience.)

Dunno. Macauley has praised plenty of Peck's past work and mitigated his comments with nods to parts he liked. This review seemed like a fair cop.

Hallberg's extracurricular activities don't strike me as a sign that he's retiring soon: nowadays, plenty of artists start planning for life post-stage years in advance. And I'm actually glad that ABT has listed the presumptive Hallberg slots only as TBDs: it's a more honest stance than listing his name (and they're taking a financial hit for their honesty).

[insert Dad joke about dinner theater here.]

I'm glad to hear that so many other folks like Ulbricht's Gigue. He's the best I've seen in this role, and I feel that he's unfairly typecast in many ways. I think Hyltin's "lighter" Mozartiana is more beautific in the eyes of folks who saw Mozartiana performed at NYCB in the years since Nichols was at her prime. Dancers since then had become too reverent...too conscious and fearful of it as a Last Great Work. Hyltin's Mozartiana may lack the originator's nuance...but it no longer feels like a museum piece.

I attended on Friday. Rubies didn't feel quite right on Friday to me either. Partly because the tempo was a bit slow to start, which sapped some energy. Partly because the casting lacked texture. I think Rubies works best when it reads like a reworking of On Your Toes: roughneck guy, naive playful girl, worldly exotic Tall Girl (like the Veyette/Hyltin/Mearns cast at NYCB). Sylve commanded the stage exactly as you describe. But Domitro never felt dangerous enough to make the sections with Zahorian feel fraught...and without that Rubies loses much of its oomph. It just becomes a series of dances based around two (albeit very nuanced and commanding) female allegro specialists. Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes was primarily cast with very young corps dancers. A mistake: even at ABT, I've only seen Marcelo Gomes and Marian Butler look really good in it. It was built to display huge personalities from different traditions playing together, and without that it can be bland. Of the corps, the new woman from Brazil and Wei Wang registered the most (partly, I think, because of their different training). Doris Andre was the only one who really made the dance come alive. Fearful Symmetries is not a mature work. It's of the "humans as twitching, thoughtless, sexual beasts in dramatic lighting and flesh-baring clothing" genre and adds nothing to my understanding of life. However, it uses John Adams' score (the best ballet score of the past 30 years) more effectively than Peter Martins' original, Scarlett composes the stage patterns/exits very effectively, each solo was distinct to its performer (one didn't feel like one was watching the same idea ad nauseum), and every single dancer performed with total commitment. It was the success of the night and inspired my interest in every dancer on stage (Joseph Walsh was nothing short of magnificent).

I know, it bothers me when folks use the term "classical" only to mean "not modern dance". (But we have another thread somewhere on the semantics of that.)

She was especially noticeable in Scarlett's new Fearful Symmetries last night. (Whatever the merits of the work, everyone actually looked great. But SFB's corps de ballet is so very stylistically uniform and cool that even a minor difference in training and temperature reads quite large in that company.)

!!! It makes one long for the days when Ratmansky made nice, conventional ballets...like Namouna. (I think it will be crazy-fabulous.)

Thanks for these insights, Fraildove. I had always assumed that resistance to GMs was just a matter of tradition...it's interesting to hear a dancer explain the actual technical concerns!

This is a rare case where treating art irreverently doesn't bother me. Partly because in my mind the "real" version of Nadelman's "Two Circus Women" is the original papier-mâché version which sometimes crops up at the Whitney Museum (even though the Koch's statue is a marble reproduction, it still feels like a less precious reproduction). (Partly because circus folk can usually handle a joke.)

Best of 2015: -- Best outreach effort: The educational demonstrations around PNB's Forsythe bill -- Most satisfying evening: New York Theater Ballet's Fall "Legends & Visionaries" slate of Tanowitz, Cunningham, Fonte, and de Mille. The old choreography was honorably performed; the new choreography was thought-provoking. Special mention for the wonderful Amanda Treiber, who led the first three works and was artistically incisive and technically at ease in all three. (Back-to-back Tanowitz and Cunningham!) -- Best moment of sheer beauty (tie): Ashley Bouder in "Harlequinade" (Act II) and Linda Celeste Sims in Ronald K. Brown's "Open Door" (a love letter of a dance to her artistry) -- Best revival: Garth Fagan's "Oatka Trail" at Lincoln Center Out of Doors and the Joyce Theater -- Best discovery: Cassandra Trenary -- Best classic: Gillian Murphy. Dancers wax and wane at ABT, but Murphy's artistry is a constant beacon...as engaged dancing "Fancy Free" with Sterling Baca as she is dancing a full-length with Marcelo Gomes. -- Best feel-good moment: The ABT landslide. The promotions of Abrera, Copeland, Trenary, and Brandt were wonderful...but the elevation of ultimate team players Arron Scott and Luciana Paris tipped it into misty-eyed territory.

...and what confuses the "imprint" issue as well is that dancers themselves are not malleable clay: they have their own ideas about which stylistic elements (or which charismatic instructor) they wish to emulate. (My first two years of training were with a charismatic teacher in the RAD syllabus; despite working principally with SAB-style teachers ever since, Balanchine hands still look/feel indefinably "wrong" to me!) The choice to focus on a specific style must be a deliberate decision on the part of the dancer. There was a great interview with Dorothee Gilbert a while ago about how she worked on acquiring POB placement.

One of the things that I like about Raymonda is that ballerinas seem to feel freer to interpret it differently: it just doesn't come with the same emotional baggage as Swan Lake or Giselle. My favorite take on the role actually isn't any of the ones mentioned! I like seeing a more worldly, adult, playful Raymonda in the final act: it provides a great--but logical--contrast to the fresh (and then vision) maiden of the first acts of the ballet. I can't speak to their full interpretations of the role, but the Act III clips I've seen online of Plisetskaya and van Hamel locked this interpretation in my head: they seemed intent on showing how much fun it was to become an adult woman and wife, free from the uncertainties of girlhood. That said, I also enjoy the grand, severe approach taken by Kondaurova and Marie-Agnès Gillot. Like folks have said, it leaves one few places take the characterization...but what an impression it makes in the final act!

Congratulations to her!

I always rather thought that the Studio Company was designed to give possible ABT dancers a safe way to learn to command the stage in prominent roles in front of large groups (and for the artistic staff to see if they have any real potential in that way). NYCB's repertory of mixed bills allows Martins to cast younger dancers in principal roles with greater freedom than he would if NYCB's repertory were only short runs of classical warhorses. At the Mariinsky and Bolshoi there are far longer runs of the classics (whether at home or on tour), so casting a young dancer in a prominent role is less fraught. I imagine the Studio Company is meant as a corrective.

FWIW, the gala program is at http://icrny.org/589-World_Ballet_Stars_at_Lincoln_Center.html Buyer beware: the Jazz at Lincoln Center ticketing site leaves something to be desired (namely seat locations and program information) and I'm not entirely certain that my order even went through.

Gwyneth Muller posted a photo with Pfeiffer on her Instagram account http://www.instagram.com/gmuller that seems a bit valedictory. He looked good this past year: it's always great to see people go out dancing well.

Agreed!

Did anyone else notice that ABT now lists several Sleeping Beauty performances at the Detroit Opera House on its calendar for Mar 31 through Apr 3? It's great for the dancers--between this, DC, LA, and last year's Met, I can't remember when they've had so many opportunities to refine the same role in a single year. No casting yet, but one imagines Trenary will get one performance as a warm-up, as ABT's management doesn't usually debut new soloists in leads at the Met. (Abrera did Sleeping Beauty several times in New Zealand, so the other performances are more of a question mark.)

DeCoster, might the odd instrument perhaps be the single trumpet notes played at phrase endings using a straight mute? (It creates an odd buzzing sound like a snare drum.) And, miliosr, the performances that I saw (Thursday and Saturday matinee) were fairly well sold, for what it's worth. I'm reserving judgment on Kochetkova until after the Met season: it takes time to settle into a company, even for a pro. At the very least she's articulate and strongly committed to her partners (she always looks engaged with them and covers missteps).

I'm now quite curious to see Tellmann!