ABT Fan

Thanks, abatt. I’m really curious what Buena Vista will be like. I love their music.

Yes it was

This certainly raises a lot of eyebrows. The timing makes me think she wants to distance herself from the Met season as quickly as possible.

Thank you, Helene. It is indeed better today, thank goodness. It was very concerning to say the least.

The other newly minted female soloists (Granlund, McBride, Park) do not have the personality or carriage necessary for Myrtha, in my opinion. That’s not a criticism. Not everyone can portray a steely and dominating character.

Couldn’t agree more. Hopefully next year Jaffe will mix things up. Maybe McKenzie had scheduled this Met season; we may have already discussed this but I can’t recall.

Hurlin is debuting Giselle at the Met, so assuming she’s not doing Myrtha so she can focus on that (she’s also doing Juliet and O/O and LWFC, so she has a lot.) I’m guessing Williams may be injured since she’s now out of Myrtha and LWFC. Happy to see Li get a debut as Myrtha (and that may be happening at the Met only because Williams is now out) and also Roxander debuting as Mercutio.

Please let us know your thoughts on both performances!

There are also a handful of soloists who have been underperforming for years now. While I'm no fan of the slash-and-burn method when new management comes in, it's past time for certain dancers to move on and make room for talented corps dancers to finally be promoted. A few of those soloists are near retirement age anyway.

I’d be thrilled if they’re (finally) bringing back Etudes and Petit Mort!

Maybe Jaffe will offer him better casting than McKenzie gave him.

I'm dumbfounded that Misseldine did not win. Her technique, command, stage presence and grandeur was far superior. Ikarashi absolutely deserved that win - glad they got that one right.

No, not typical. Gala night is rarely a full length. Usually excerpts or shorter ballets.

This makes sense. I had also never considered that there could be financial penalties to revising the number of performances. It's all really unfortunate. Even before we saw the dismal sales in CA, many of us could not fathom a week and a half of a new ballet at the Met. I hope Jaffe will make better programming decisions for next year than McKenzie has saddled us with.

It wouldn’t be original or even ideal, but they could absolutely cut Chocolate down to one week and just add 4 or so more SL performances. We all know SL sells and at this late stage they probably don’t have time to start rehearsing a different ballet (or ballets) to add. This would also give dancers more than one shot in SL and/or they could throw in some much needed debuts (Trenary for one).

Black. Trenary has posted rehearsal footage of her as O/O before. I would love to see her actually be cast.

Happy to see that casting for Zimmi and Jonathan.

How much longer can Murphy hang on as a principal? It’s possible she could retire before Copeland returns, which would open up a Juliet spot (&O/O, Giselle, etc). But, the partner issue remains. Copeland was scheduled to dance R&J with Royal pre-covid. I don’t know if Cornejo can hang on long enough for her return, although he has been having a great run lately. I think the reason Brandt hasn’t been given a Juliet yet is a lack of suitable partners to go around.

Absolutely, way too much and I'll be extremely disappointed if that's the case. Maybe that was more of her wish (or assumed) list and not guaranteed programming. Also, it'll be interesting to see how they navigate casting when she returns. Nine principal women including her. And, she usually dances with Cornejo. So, what does that mean for Brandt and Trenary?

He’s not listed on the casting. Maybe he’s an understudy.

That's very interesting - happy to see that opportunity for both of them. And, here's another interesting casting announcement: Hee Seo is debuting as Myrtha April 22. https://www.abt.org/performances/master-calendar/

Agree. Same with his Espada.

Mercutio casting has been posted: Klein gets opening night and 3 performances total and Maloney and Gonzalez both get debuts and 2 performances each (all 3 are so deserving, and Klein had better be promoted this year). Pogossian debuted the role at the Met last summer, so I wonder why he's not cast (injury, illness?). Neither is Shayer, who has done Mercutio several times - still on the roster, but hasn't performed since I believe last summer. I haven't seen any announcement but he had alluded on his IG to being a guest artist now (but, again, still not dancing).

Wow. In the article he says he needed a change and there was the danger of knowing the dancers too well, they’d know what to expect of him. But, he’s been choreographing at NYCB during his entire time with ABT and for longer, in fact, so he would know the City ballet dancers even better than ABT’s. Hmmm.

This news isn’t too surprising, given the changes in artistic leadership and the continual economic free fall. Whatever the exact reason though, it’s indeed unfortunate, but for me it’s less about losing his choreographic contributions and instead his identifying and fostering young talent by giving them ample opportunities to develop and shine. We don’t know how Jaffe will lead so she may do a much better job than McKenzie in that area.