ABT Fan

Read this review of PAB's recent opening of Jewels and weep for humanity.

One of the most vapid lines: "Diamonds concluded with a large cast promenading in lines across the stage, forming almost streams of glittery tennis bracelets, and intersecting into tiara shapes."

This review ranks alongside the one of the Joffrey Ballet in Ohio about a month ago.

My "favorite" part: ""Rubies" was breathtaking...with long-legged prances en pointe...."

What exactly are "long-legged prances en pointe"? And, what would be the opposite of that? Short-legged prances en pointe?!

At least this is good for a laugh!

It looks like the American In Paris revival is taking shape, with Wheeldon at the helm as choreographer and director. The show will premiere in Paris, with hopes of a Broadway transfer in 2015. Robbie Fairchild is in the workshop in the lead male role. Leann Cope of Royal Ballet will workshop the Caron role. I'm not familiar with Cope, but Robbie Fairchild seems like the PERFECT choice for this project as far as the dancing goes. My only other candidate for the role would be Woetzel, but I suspect that he is now too old for this role. Robbie can certainly dance the role, but I have no idea whether he can act. It seems like for a big budget musical on Broadway, they would need someone who is a "triple threat".

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/17/an-american-in-paris-is-planned-for-paris-and-may-head-west-to-broadway/?ref=arts

Thanks abatt. I agree that Fairchild is an excellent choice for this role. Besides his dancing, he has that charming charisma that Gene Kelly had which is perfect. I guess this would take him out of NYCB for a season (or 1/2 a season depending on how long he commits to the role in NYC). But, I think this musical would be fantastic on Broadway. I'm there!

Thank you Amy!

Amy, thanks for reporting this. What did Murphy and Abrera dance? Hopefully ABT will post some photos from the event to their site.

Thanks pherank. These videos are great!

Thanks for posting. Very cool movement patterns! If only I knew what they were saying.

follow the money: Osipova sells tickets at premium prices. And the donors love the Russian ballerinas.

Part does not, and we'll never know if Abrera could.

I believe - correct me if I'm wrong - that maria kochetkova is a guest artist at ABT. I saw her Swan Lake (because I had a ticket for Cojocaru) and it was good but IMO not exceptional. Why is she a guest artist? I can't imagine that her name will sell tickets. Maybe her Russian name? If that is the case all the soloists should just add ova to their names.

Yes, Maria Kochetkova is a guest artist. She replaced Alina Cojocaru at the Met's SB with Cornejo last summer. They needed a small enough dancer for Cornejo and Lane and Reyes (his usual partners) were already in SB on other days. I guess ABT liked that pairing enough to bring her back again next year. My feeling is that ABT wanted a seasoned principal to pair w/ Cornejo (and are perhaps looking forward = Reyes is about 10 years older than Cornejo and may be nearing retirement, so are shopping for a replacement now; and perhaps they know they will never promote Lane). I believe Lane should be promoted to principal as she has truly proved herself and she and Cornejo are a very good match. That's my take.

I see that Hallberg's name is missing from the first 3 weeks of the season. Any chance that he will appear w. the Bolshoi in Giselle in D.C. during during May?

correction: Hallberg's name is missing for the first 5 weeks of the season. His name doesn't pop up until his Giselle on June 17. Curious.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love David Hallberg, but can we even call him an ABT dancer any more? He's more like a guest, just performing every once in awhile. It's just another heavy hitting loss to ABT's principal roster without a satisfactory replacement to heal the wound.

I'm a huge Hallberg admirer and am disappointed with how infrequently he performs w/ ABT in NY anymore. I understand and respect his Bolshoi obligations, but selfishly cannot live off of seeing him perform once/year in NY. Hopefully, he'll fill in some of the TBA's on the Met schedule (I would think at least one Manon).

I agree it's odd that Part is scheduled for so many matinees; I'd love to see her in SL, but taking the day off for that isn't realistic.

Thanks abatt. I agree that's a strange announcement.

Thanks Dale. Lots of TBA's! I gather Osipova is not a guarantee otherwise she'd be announced as a guest artist.

Happy to see: Gorak as the lead in Coppelia; Lane in T&V and as Coppelia; several soloists (and a corps member, Gorak) as the lead in Coppelia

Confused by: No Hallberg/Osipova in anything, especially in Giselle; Boylston as Giselle (I love her but she's more of a Myrtha to me; she'd be great as Cinderella); Hammoudi with only one main lead and in Giselle (last Met season before he was injured, he had a big season planned for him; he was supposed to debut in Swan Lake, but no SL's for him this year. Lots of TBA's in other things, so maybe they'll give him more main roles.)

Fantastic news! Congrats to Mr. Whiteside! (I wish a few more promotions had been included.)

And November 6's performance of LS has been filled by Joseph Gorak. Both great news! (I'll be going on 11/6 so really looking forward to it!)

Why can't ABT or NYCB do a similar free performance in the Central Park? Maybe, PBS can filmed it for eventual broadcast.

What a great idea! I wonder why that hasn't been done? Surely Koch, the parks dept, and Bloomberg could have sponsored something like that. Maybe our new mayor will next year.

I'm hoping the announcement will be for some well-deserved promotions (but no new guest artists)!

Thanks for posting that link. A terrific interview. Hallberg is a very thoughtful and honest speaker!

Fantastic! Thanks for posting.

I found it irksome in last night's episode that when performance snippets were shown, we weren't hearing the orchestration but the episode's music. I think once (or twice) they had both tracks of music playing simultaneously but the episode's music was much louder, so you really couldn't hear the orchestra.

I felt bad for Zach when his wig fell off, but from what they showed it looked like he handled it well. Wardrobe malfunctions can happen to anyone.

Yes, it wasn't great when Christiana fell off pointe during her pas de deux with Rex, but I didn't think it was the end of the world like they were showing it to be. I've seen many ballerinas in major companies do that (yes, it is still a mistake). Granted, I've missed a few episodes this season and thus probably the rehearsal footage for that section, and I don't know the choreography in that segment, so maybe the part when she fell off pointe was during a highly climactic moment in the pas (they didn't show enough of the performance for me to gather that). Anyone else have any thoughts on this part?

Beckanne and Allison looked lovely during their performance parts. Too bad Allison's boyfriend couldn't be bothered to show up.

Thanks kbarber for the link. Golding is a gorgeous dancer (what jumps!) and very good partner. I'll be hoping he performs in NYC sometime in the near future.

Wow. Has he joined as a corps member, soloist...? I'm not on Facebook so I can't see if his FB page says so.

Thanks Ray, and yes, that's probably one of the most ignorant reviews I've ever read. I was born and raised in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, where this performance took place and this reviewer demonstrates why professional ballet ceased to exist in Northeast Ohio years ago. Long gone are Ohio Ballet and Cleveland Ballet due to lack of support, vision and sophisticated tastes (granted Ohio Ballet was also mismanaged). This reviewer clearly couldn't be bothered to do any research on Rite of Spring (other than to learn its premiere was met with riots) or the Joffrey. Geez, he can't even spell pas de deux correctly! I'm embarrassed for my hometown.

That is brilliant!! Bravo Simkin!

Thanks, abatt, for reviving this thread and for that fascinating link. The article is balanced as to the positives and negatives of claqueur culture. I was rather appalled though, by Mr. Abramov's sense of humor:

“I would love to pour a ton of acid on her head,” he remarked cheerily about a critic who had offended one of his favorites.

This throws light on something reported on one of our Bolshoi threads yesterday: that 30% of respondants to a question about the acid attack on Sergei Filin felt that throwing acid wasn't such a big deal. "Fanatics," indeed (to use a term embraced by Mr. Abramov).

On the other hand, it is nice to hear that Abramov has, since experiencing a heart attack, given up encouraging his claques to disrupt the performances of out-of-favor dancers.

I just finished reading this article, and boy was it enlightening. I still cannot believe Abramov made an "acid" joke.

I wonder, are claques only in the Russian theatres, or do any of them travel with the companies when they go on tour?

Isn't Stearns appearing w. the Royal Ballet during that period, as part of that dancer exchange between ABT and RB. (We got McRae for two shows.) I think Boylston will be appearing w. the RDB as part of that exchange.

Surprised that Hammoudi isn't part of the lineup Perhaps he's still injured,

Yes, Stearns will be dancing w/ the RB and Boylston will be dancing w/ the RDB during this time. See http://abt.org/insideabt/news_display.asp?News_ID=425.

I was wondering if ABT was holding the "TBA" slot in Les Sylphides in November for Hammoudi; to see if he could recover in time for those performances.

I'll guess I'll have to listen to it because I really want to understand why she wouldn't be listed if she's a company member.

Perhaps this next question would be better under a different thread, but if "there's a whole lot of national pride bound up with ballet in Russia" (and I agree with that), as why they don't like foreigner's in their companies, then why is the reverse OK - i.e. why is it acceptable to a Russian dancer for them to leave Russia and join another company in another country? Wouldn't they be considered a traitor? And, not just a traitor by their country and company but a traitor to themselves? Not to mention hypocritical. Forget "artistic expression" as a reason to leave a Russian ballet company. I'm merely talking about national pride.

I pose these questions as honest questions. Not as an attack on anyone or on Russia, so I hope no one reads it that way. I'm really curious what the thought process and rationale is. You know the phrase: "you can't have it both ways"......

I noticed that Joy Womack is not listed on the Bolshoi's website under any rank. Her personal website says she currently dances with them: http://www.joywomack.com/?page_id=45.