ABT Fan

Thank you. I think I learned this a long time ago as it now sounds familiar, but I didn’t remember it when I made the initial post.

According to Tidwell’s brother, Travis Wall, he has passed away. I remember him from ABT, especially in Le Spectre de la Rose. What a beautiful jump he had. I was very sad when he left the company, he had such talent and potential.

There’s a synopsis here: https://www.abt.org/scfta-presents-world-premiere-of-love-and-rage/

I’ve been wondering if they’d cancel the R&J tour due to coronavirus. If they don’t and Copeland can’t dance, who would sub?

They could be, but given Cornejo’s size the options are severely limited. Copeland, Lane and Boylston are the only principals short enough to dance with him. Soloists Brandt and Trenary are of the right size obviously, and are the only soloists of the right size who could also handle SL, IMO.

I think because some folks thought that Lane understudying was still a possibility, even a slight one, given that no other principal or soloist, besides Lane, was of the right size to dance with Cornejo who had also performed, or even rehearsed, SL before. Boylston is as well, and she’s doing Bayadere with him, but her subbing would depend on how many days there are between Cornejo’s show and her own regularly scheduled one for her to recover. Now that Brandt is learning SL on her own, it may be that her subbing is the more likely scenario giving Lane even fewer performance opportunities than the measly few she currently has.

If I remember correctly, Copeland pulled out days before the show saying she didn’t have enough time to learn the choreography. Perhaps someone else can recall the specific details.

I would much rather see Trenary in SL (or as a sub) than Brandt. Trenary recently did Dying Swan for a side gig, or maybe it was ABT’s cruise gig, but she had clips on her Instagram that were extraordinary. Guess I’m in the minority but I’m not too impressed with Brandt’s (albeit a work in progress) rehearsal videos. Edit: correcting myself. Trenary did White Swan pas with Whiteside for an ABT cruise gig. See video below:

Some Berthe’s do this better than others and make it look like she’s petting and stroking her head to console her, and you barely notice the hair pins being removed. But, when it’s done poorly I agree it’s bothersome.

Regarding Simkin, since he is only doing ONE performance at the Met (and why?), I wonder if this will be his last season with the company. Perhaps he has other commitments in Berlin over the summer and prefers those to ABT. Or, it’s not his decision. But, one show isn’t a good sign either way.

I just noticed that casting for The Seasons leaves out Abrera as The Spirit of the Corn. Hee Seo will debut in her spot with Forster. Replacing Abrera is bad enough, but they couldn’t have given that role to someone else, who has less to do but is deserving of a new opportunity? Katherine Williams would be beautiful. Separately, check out this beautiful trailer for Love/Rage which is on Bell’s and Hurlin’s IG.

There is still one response from Lane in the comments. She says she doesn’t support Hicks or Trump, just using part of a quote. Um, no. She never should posted it, nor the money references. Just don’t say anything! Someone commented that Lane is cast less for the Met than some of her colleagues. If by colleagues they mean her fellow principals, she is cast WAY less then ALL of them. Even considerably less then Brandt, Trenary and Hurlin. I can’t imagine how she must feel. Maybe she’s being pushed out and she knows it. But, posting stuff like this online doesn’t help her. I really hope she rethinks and refrains from anything more like this.

Nothing negative about her dancing. She’s an extraordinary technician. I agree with canbelto that she’s regal and more of a Myrta, a natural Myrta IMO, very strong and commanding. And, not at all girlish. Sort of like Murphy whom I can’t imagine as Giselle.

I agree with the above, and was quite surprised with Shevchenko being cast. I’m sure finances have a lot to do with bringing in extra coaches. Also, Irina was vocal about her forced retirement, so I can’t imagine she’d want to work for McKenzie again.

I wasn’t suggesting that McKenzie told her to learn the role or else she wouldn’t get cast. I was suggesting that he told her to learn the role because she probably would be cast (or it would be a strong possibility), but clearly they weren’t going to teach it to her. The only videos Brandt posted of learning the role were with Irina and Max. She posted maybe 2 videos of recent run throughs with ABT, just a week or so before DC. If she had been in the studio getting coached by Kolpakova, then I guess I assume we would have seen those videos as well (or at least a post rehearsal photo with her, like many dancers do).

He has also been in a number of ad campaigns and in magazines (recently Avenue magazine with Copeland) so he does have some supplemental income.

McKenzie told her “to keep a strong eye” on Giselle (info we weren’t privy to before that article and when she was posting all of her rehearsal videos). That comment didn’t guarantee her being cast, but it sure sent a strong message that she should start learning it by any means possible. For a dancer with limited financial means, that would entail watching endless videos, reading books, working out some steps in their apt, staying a few minutes after class or for however long they could steal the studio for their own use before getting kicked out. Brandt is very fortunate that she could afford to hire top coaches and for as long as she did, but It seems obvious from that article that McKenzie wasn’t going to have any staff teach or coach her in the role (otherwise he would have said “we’re going to have you learn the role” or something to that effect). Yes, she made a heavy investment BEFORE she was actually cast, but in my opinion, the AD told her to do so for a reason.

Yeah, I don’t know. We (and I mean me too) could all be reading into this post and it might not have anything to do with a particular dancer. I say this because I remember when Abrera and Copeland were both promoted, Hallberg posted a lovely congratulatory message on his own IG to Abrera, and only to her. He said she was the real deal, had demonstrated the benefits and respect of persistence and hard work (and he really emphasized such values) which I interpreted as a dig to Copeland. I even remember seeing a comment or two from people saying something to the effect of “and congrats to Misty, too, no?”, to which I never saw him reply to (of course maybe I just didn’t see his reply at that time). Since then I’ve seen frequent and lovely postings and comments made by him regarding Copeland and they all seem very genuine, so I quite possibly read into what he wrote, and didn’t write, years ago.

That’s exactly who I was thinking of.

For what it’s worth, I just checked and Brandt “liked” this post (so did Irina and Max). So, she must not believe it’s about her.

She could be referring to someone other than Brandt, but either way I agree it’s not classy and I’m very surprised she’d do this. And, the Hicks quote? Oh boy is right.

Lane did a live Instagram story on her account about 3 hours ago of a Q&A with the dancers of the Richmond Ballet. You can still watch it. It’s maybe an hour, I’m still watching. They ask a lot of good questions: how she’s been treated at ABT, the Black Swan movie controversy, how she handles nerves, self confidence issues, etc. She also talked about how the former guest artist policy affected her confidence and held back her career (and that of others too) and how once she was promoted to principal she wouldn’t even get tech rehearsals for big debuts. Someone asked if Stearns is a regular partner and what it’s like to dance with him. She said, and I’m paraphrasing, that they are longtime good friends but never danced together much till this year. She had wonderful things to say about him, including how nice it is to dance with someone who can hold her up without worry. Hmmmmm.

Thank you for this in depth review, laurel. I wish I could have seen it!

Was anyone there last night? Would love to know how Aran Bell's debut went.

I am sure Brandt will do well tonight. She has proven being able to handle last minute shows like with Medora and Columbine, except with Giselle she's been rehearsing that for months unlike those other roles. I was thinking this all along yet didn't voice it, but I think Copeland's cancellation tonight is exactly why Brandt is now debuting as Giselle. I thought it was circumspect that Shevchenko wasn't cast as Giselle in DC, since ABT usually has the dancer debut the role on tour before their Met debut. But with Copeland's frequent cancellations and Lane and Cornejo no longer being cast together (at least for now...) they need another dancer who is ready to fill in last minute to dance with Cornejo (and I'm guessing that Lane will no longer be the understudy). If Lane was still dancing with him, she'd be filling in tonight and wouldn't have been chosen to do Swan Lake with Stearns in Richmond Friday and Saturday. That said, I am in no way implying that Brandt doesn't deserve this opportunity. I just think it was expedited due to necessity. McKenzie telling her "to keep an eye out on Giselle" per the NY Times article, tells me that he was trying to plan for this exact situation, but perhaps didn't want to take away Shevchenko's opportunity to debut on tour. Why else did that TBA sit on the calendar for so long? I hope Brandt has a great performance tonight and hope that someone on this board will post about it. Now, the other question is who will be Copeland's newest understudy for O/O?