ABT Fan

I don’t want to think about the Met season being cancelled. That would be devastating. But, it’s only two months away. Personally, I’m going to wait to buy tickets. 

I wonder if they are going to cancel any of their other tours. Chicago is next week so I’m assuming that will still go on. But, then there’s Durham followed by Detroit next month. Even domestic travel is being postponed by a lot of businesses (such as my own). It would be terrible if they have to, yet completely understandable, but it would be detrimental to the dancers and their bottom line. 

3 hours ago, On Pointe said:

Travis Wall was Danny Tidwell's brother - his mother adopted Danny.

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?

1 minute ago, nanushka said:

Gotcha. I had assumed already they were already preparing another option. I realize that was just an assumption though.

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. 

47 minutes ago, nanushka said:

I don't understand. Aren't Copeland's SLs with Cornejo? If so, that could very well be why Lane wouldn't understudy that. I thought we knew all along that was likely. How does this add any new information about the prospects for Lane's ABT career?

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.

10 minutes ago, California said:

I give up - what was the "Syphyde affair"? 

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:

41 minutes ago, Emily12 said:

Thanks!   I should have been more clear, I could see what she was doing (and it's def not Berthe's fault) but I just don't feel the ends justify the means - that is to say having her hair all the way smoothly down isn't worth her mother's reaction to her daughter's collapse to be fixing her hair.  For me, it takes me out of it.  If you watch the Obratsova one at Paris Opera on YouTube, her hair never makes it all the way down - she tears at it, it becomes a mess, mother comforts her, she gets up again with it in disarray.  It's just the direction of that action that bothers me.  Not hugely, but I notice it.

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.

14 minutes ago, fondoffouettes said:

And now she’s taken down the quote.

 

 

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.

1 hour ago, nanushka said:

Was is it about Shevchenko’s dancing that makes her seem to some not well suited to the role?

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. 

4 minutes ago, abatt said:

I think the only other person besides Brandt who was in the running for a Giselle debut but has not yet gotten a chance is Trenary.  She seems like a good fit for Giselle, more so than Shevchenko, who strikes me as  better at the Petipa roles than the romantic role of Giselle.

I agree with the above, and was quite surprised with Shevchenko being cast.

1 minute ago, bingham said:

A little bit off the topic. It seems, Irina and Max are top-notched coaches with terrific results. So, why hasn't ABT grabbed them as ballet masters/coaches. Irina K. can't do everything. Just a thought.

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.

10 minutes ago, nanushka said:

I don't think that was obvious at all. He said it in the context of their discussing what she might work on during the summer break — a time when staff wouldn't be teaching or coaching her anything, presumably. She wanted to get a head start, I think. I don't think McKenzie was suggesting that she had to the learn the role on her own and she wouldn't get cast unless she did.

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).

1 minute ago, abatt said:

So how expensive is it to get coaching from Irina and Max on the side?  We know that Royal is doing it, and he is getting a soloist salary. 

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.

8 minutes ago, canbelto said:

Misty never made it to a single Giselle performance. Skylar did, twice. And she had a recent NYT article about the heavy investment she made into learning a role BEFORE she knew she;d be cast.

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.

12 minutes ago, abatt said:

There is at least one other ABT ballerina who is cast in roles based on financial considerations rather than artistry.  

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!