ABT Fan

Stella has always been one of my favorite dancers and she should have been promoted years ago. I will never understand that. I’ve never seen a less than wonderful performance from her and have been following her for years. Whether she’s dancing Myrta (possibly my favorite role of hers), Lilac Fairy, or in any one of Alexei’s ballets, her technique is rock solid and she infuses each role with a lovely luminosity. She’s never disappointed me. However, she is now about 35 actually, and I believe her time to be promoted has passed. ABT missed a great opportunity. But, now I can understand why she wouldn’t be promoted given her age (if that is the reason). I doubt they would want to invest the additional coaching and resources (salary, etc.) to promote her when they’ll probably get only about another 5 years from her (no way to tell really, but at that age it’s undeniably limited). They’d rather put their resources towards developing a much younger dancer with principal potential (Seo, Boylston – though I agree that Seo was promoted too soon, despite how lovely she is; she needed more time to develop). And, I have to admit that that makes sense at this point. ABT also has a history of only promoting women to principal who dance all (or nearly all) of the leads in the 19th century classics or big full-length ballets. The only exception I can think of is Kathleen Moore. Stella has never carried one of these ballets, has she? Besides Cinderella? She’s always in the 2nd supporting role. I think she would have made a terrific Giselle, but I can’t see her as Odette/Odile, Kitri, Juliet, to name a few (not for lack of technique, but just not the right fit, and something in my opinion coaching wouldn’t change). I agree that a “campaign” won’t have any positive affect – I doubt McKenzie will be influenced by that and granted he may have many other reasons that we don’t know about as to why Stella hasn’t been promoted. But, until McKenzie sits me down and explains his reasoning to me (ha ha), I’ll always shake my head in disbelief. Stella is truly a beautiful and gifted dancer.

Agree! I've felt for years that Lane would make a most lovely Juliet! How about Gorak as her Romeo? Please post a review for the Gomes/Vishneva Onegin afterwards.

Absolutely!!

And double yikes: "Irina Dvorovenko: And when you know that people are helping you, and that they care about you, you have more strength and security in yourself. In the company [ABT], there are a lot of principals and the big problem that the majority of the dancers [face] is that they feel nobody cares about them. They care about the performance and to push them, go, but artists are very sensitive. Every person needs nourishment. You cannot be pushed constantly, constantly, constantly. At 20 years old, they see a psychiatrist three times a week. It’s not normal. We want to be nourished, cared for; even I sometimes see some person down at the ballet who has a role of soloist. I can talk and explain and [say], “Calm down.” You want to be hugged a little bit and feel that somebody cares about you. Then you feel you are important. Just very sensitive moments. The problem is that they throw you somewhere and then ask you to survive, but without help it’s really difficult." Great interview - thanks for posting! Irina is indeed quite funny throughout her interview. But her candor regarding ABT is not. I'm frankly quite surprised she said the things she did for a publication, and in her specific mentions of a few dancers. Every company has its problems and critics, but the lack of coaching, support and dancer development at ABT is pretty well known by now and as we see here, dancers aren't being quiet anymore. About a year ago, Sascha Radetsky wrote in DanceMagazine about his wife, Stella Abrera: "She stretched her sciatic nerve a few years ago and had to relinquish her dream role—a well-deserved opportunity that, inexplicably, has not again materialized. " See full article here: http://www.dancemagazine.com/issues/April-2012/Breaking-Free. I believe he was referring to Stella as Giselle. TimeOut is a pretty well known magazine, so this is not good publicity for ABT. (I don't mean for the general public, who might not be as concerned with her comments, but the dance world.) I believe ABT has also suffered with Susan Jaffe leaving as ballet mistress due to her new role in North Carolina. I think she still teaches classes there occassionally, but she was coaching the soloist women quite a bit (Sarah Lane, Isabella Boylston). No doubt a great loss to them.

Congratulations! Something is definitely in the water at NYCBallet.

Has anyone heard anything about the fate of these dancers yet? I've just found one news story about one of the male dancers (Gonzalez) who was hired immediately by Sarasota Ballet: http://nbclatino.com/2013/04/10/florida-ballet-company-goes-to-cuba/

Thank you for publishing the clip of Lorna Feijoo. What a glorious upper body and port de bras she has!

Osipova is still going to dance w/ ABT at the Met Season; how many performances I don't think anyone knows yet (I know some folks discussed on an early page possible conflicting seasons with ABT vs RB, but I haven't been able to find them). She never danced in ABT's fall season but did tour with them - and how her tour performances w/ them will be affected is I believe still not certain. I don't think it could ever be a black or white win-win-win - what is a "win" for another dancer getting a new opportunity isn't necessarily a "win" for ABT. If she doesn't perform that much w/ ABT starting next season, then of course that opens up opportunities for others (seasoned principals and/or soloists), but she is arguably the biggest box office draw right now for a ballerina so ABT won't necessarily "win" if her performances become very limited with them. Not sure which principals you're referring to as "many of whom are leaving or have left"? Not many have left recently - not females anyway. A lot have cut back on their performances w/ ABT as they have other company obligations now (Murphy), or due to age or impending retirement (Kent, Dvorovenko). But, promoting new talent is something that remains illusive at ABT - well, rare is probably a better way of putting it. Osipova performing less often w/ ABT certainly won't directly translate into a soloist getting promoted to principal. It might help. But, ABT can also go out and get yet another female principal guest artist (or permanently hire one) from another company to fill in for roles Osipova would normally perform, thus removing opportunities for a soloist (and one who needs that opportunity in order to get promoted).

Oh my! I love love love Gomes as a dancer (and as a partner) - he's truly gifted and one of my all time favorites. But, as a choreographer, he stinks. It's not enough to have beautiful dancers - himself, Finlay and Copeland. Not for me anyway. I couldn't even finish watching the tapes of Gomes and Copeland dancing - the choreography for them looks very similar, in the first few minutes anyway. Did Finlay have to go to the bathroom? (Why did his hands keep covering up his "parts"?) And, what was wrong with his wrist that he had to keep grabbing it? (This is what was going through my mind. Was that Gomes' intention... for us to think Finlay needed to relieve himself and that his wrist hurt?) Stupid, pretentious, trite, juvenile and appears nothing more than doing something different just for the sake of doing something different. Sorry folks, I cannot say anything nice about this choreography.

I disagree with labeling Misty "the most aggressive self-promoter". Of course, I don't know first hand what her intentions are or not, but to me I see her various activities as merely taking advantage of digital media and the growing interest in dance these days (dance on its own and using dance in media) for other reasons than getting promoted to Principal. It's a chance to make some more money which, let's face it, most dancers could use (even a soloist with ABT), plus she's spoken many times in interviews about her wanting to be a positive role-model for minority girls who want to study or pursue ballet as a career, especially African-American girls. Being in a commercial for a well-known product (with her voice-over talking about the Boys and Girls club and making ballet accessible to "everyone") certainly puts her face out there for hopeful minority girls. How often do we see images of professional minority ballerinas? I have a feeling that she's been sought out aggressively to BE this role model. The time is ripe for it. Also, she has come across to me in her interviews as not only well-spoken but very smart and self-aware. So, I don't get the impression that her media activities are an attempt to get promoted - I think she's smart enough to know that that won't do it. Though I agree that she seems to be the most visible these days, other dancers, as Helene has mentioned, have also been exploring media and other outlets over the years. Julie Kent was a print model for Coach many years back. Daniil Simkin is a prolific Twitter user, as are many other dancers. Alex Wong (from Miami City Ballet) and Danny Tidwell (from ABT) were on So You Think You Can Dance several seasons ago. That exposure arguably worked well for Alex who developed quite a following and who went on to become part of the Newsies Broadway cast. I think it's something to consider that most of us (dancers and non-dancers) realize that we live in a media-driven world, for better or for worse. It can be worth your while to jump on the bandwagon no matter what your profession is. And, for dancers who have such short careers, getting involved in different mediums/areas now while they're still at the height of their performing career, can bode well for them when it comes time to retire and they already have other "career" experience in something else, whether that be in writing books, modeling, digital media, etc. Opportunities for retired dancers have expanded vastly in the past several years. No longer is coaching and teaching the only route, especially for women. Ellen Bar, who was a soloist with NYCB, started getting involved with film-making before she retired and was able to transition immediately to NYCB's director of media projects upon leaving the stage. Perhaps all of Misty's ventures are just a way to do more now than simply performing. I don't think it makes her any less committed to her craft (not now anyway). Who knows - she may realize that her chance of being promoted are nil, so she's going to do the best with what she has now and make the most of any other opportunities that come her way.

I think Misty would make a fantastic Nikiya, Myrtha and Kitri! She has also done a recent Diet Dr. Pepper commercial: http://www.drpepper.com/video/.

I couldn't get the above link to work, so here's another link to the story on Yahoo: http://news.yahoo.com/ballet-dancer-misty-copeland-2-book-deal-174419651.html

While I'm hesitant to say that I'm happy with this announcement (because that sounds snarky and unkind and I wish only the best for Irina), I'm pleased that this means (hopefully) that there will be room for a soloist to be promoted who has labored for too long in that role (because haven't most of them?). Especially, since for whatever reason, Irina hasn't performed much in recent years. It would have been nice if Irina and Max could have done a retirement gala together - why couldn't they have waited to announce Max's retirement a little so they could have made a joint announcement at least? Max has performed even less frequently than his wife, so perhaps he's injured/out of shape/already "retired" and so a joint retirement gala wouldn't have been possible for him. A Swan Lake farewell would have been appropriate. In any case, I wonder if they'll do any teaching/coaching at ABT? I've seen them on teacher's rosters elsewhere (of course now I can't remember where).

This is truly unbelievable. I had no idea things could get so.....crazy and disgusting over there. Very interesting to read Ratmansky's comments in the NY Times article today. Perhaps this is why he really left.

I agree completely with you Plisskin.

Not too surprising to me. He's barely danced in the last couple of years, so I can understand there being no retirement gala; I can't imagine it would sell out. I imagine some patrons would be thinking "Max Who?".

I noticed that Max is no longer listed on ABT's website as a principal. Must have happened very recently.

I agree with miliosr's prognosis. I think this leaves the company in a very precarious position - heaven forbid Gomes becomes injured and is out for any length of time, who can step in? He has been carrying the load of male principal parts for some time, year-round. He is the best partner they have and in my opinion, the most versatile. I really hope that the 2013 season is the last for Beloserkovsky. Sorry if that is harsh, but his salary would be better spent on someone who actually dances. On a side note, I hope ABT nutures the younger guys who show a lot of potential right now. As this thread shows, the company needs to do a much better job of nuturing and developing talent and not letting dancers (male and female) stall in the corps or as soloists. Eric Tamm is opening Nutcracker (and performed the lead last year too) and has really shown that he is soloist material. Joseph Gorak also has the talent. I hope they don't languor in the corp.

Great news! Congratulations Daniil! I hope more promotions are soon to come at ABT.......

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and good wishes. I'm one of the lucky ones. I live in Astoria, Queens and never lost power, heat or hot water. No flooding by me either. At least half of my co-workers weren't so lucky and are still without power and heat and overnight temperatures are now close to freezing. Several had to leave their homes due to damage from flooding. One co-worker who lives in Long Island City won't have power for at least another week. She and her husband stayed with me for 2 days before going to their in-laws in PA for some semblance of normalcy. This is one time at least when I didn't think the media was exaggerating, but the attention hasn't been equally distributed; not even close. Many parts of Long Island have been ignored as has Westchester. Staten Island, Red Hood and the Rockaways haven't received enough coverage either and are still lacking basic necessities. Folks in these areas have lost everything. I definitely have survivor's guilt. It's heartbreaking to see what my fellow NY'ers are dealing with.

I think in general that this is a great move for ABT. Although CC is smaller, I will miss it purely for the grand beauty that it is, especially now following their renovation. I just hope that with moving to the Koch Theatre, ABT will still continue their fall tradition of showing only mixed repertory and not throw in any big full-length ballets since Koch will be able to handle those productions, obviously. I'm a big lover of the Swan Lake's and Giselle's, etc., but we get enough of those classics during the Met season. From what I've read here and heard elsewhere, the public (and I think the dancers too) and hungry for more mixed rep, so I hope that doesn't change.

I nearly gagged when I read that. Koch doesn't own the theatre nor the ballet companies (or the other arts institutions) that perform there, no matter how large his contributions.

I was also at Thursday night’s performance and for the most part really loved it. I hadn’t seen Leaves are Fading in many years, yet remember the central ppd virtually step by step. I had seen Amanda McKerrow perform it years ago (she and her husband, John Gardner, staged this) and she will probably be the standard to which I hold this. I thought Hee Seo and Roberto Bolle made a really nice pair and had some lovely moments, but I thought they were missing the yearning and subtlety that this ppd requires (especially Seo). It’s not about high extensions and big lifts, in my opinion. Once thing I loved about McKerrow’s performance, was how she and her partner were almost behind the music, as if reluctantly moving forward in order to savor every moment with their partner. That was missing with Seo/Bolle. And, I agree with DeCoster that Seo’s pointe work can be “clod-hoppy”. There were a few moments when her feet almost seemed to get stuck together on the floor after coming out of a turn or a big movement, as if on the verge of tripping over one of her feet. It’s a visually small error, but something only unseasoned dancers usually do. I’ve seen her do this in the past when she was still a soloist and in the corps, but she’s a principal now and should be more secure in her footwork. Other than that, she was quite lovely and her very long legs and arms made wonderful lines. In the rest of Leaves, Sarah Lane and Daniil Simkin were wonderful together; they have really nice chemistry and their partnership is really moving along. Simkin’s partnering is getting better, but he still struggles with over-the-head-lifts; he thrusts his partner over his head with a tremendous amount of effort. Nevertheless, I’d love to see him and Lane do the central pdd in Leaves, after his lifting gets better. I think they’d be gorgeous. Lane has one of the most open faces I’ve ever seen on the stage; just lovely. Stella Abrera and Lane had a few nice moments together. Roman Zhurbin also stood out for me. The world premiere of Symphony #9 was quite exciting, but I think it’s one of those pieces where you need more than one viewing to absorb it all, as there’s a LOT going on. I didn’t like how it began – it seemed to start in “mid-sentence”, as if the preceding movement was left out. This will eventually be part of Alexei Ratmansky’s evening-length piece at the Met next spring, so maybe once it’s all put together it won’t look that way. In any case, the pace is mostly frenetic, with lots of dancers moving every which way. It was hard to watch any one dancer for long because they’d go offstage so quickly! Ratmansky’s patterns and use of the “corps” was wonderfully different and inventive. I liked how he’d have the male or female corps form different lines either on the side or back of the stage while Polina Semionova and Marcelo Gomes were dancing. This was my first time seeing Semionova dance – she’s so pretty and has gorgeous lines and technique. Her part w/ Gomes is heavy on partnering, so I look forward to seeing her dance some solos in the future. This is a great part for Gomes – he gets to show off his awesome partnering skills, and has some solo moments that display his technique and charisma. I also agree that Cornejo stole the show, and he had a lot of competition between Gomes, Craig Salstein and Simone Messmer. No doubt Ratmansky choreographed this to show off their best skills: Cornejo’s athleticism, coloring and nuance; Salstein’s tongue-and-cheek personality; Messmer’s quick footwork and sultry looks. I was most looking forward to seeing Rodeo, which closed the program. I hadn’t seen this one in years either and had forgotten about the square dance section, which was charming. Who knew dancers could talk! This piece shows off Salstein the best – his huge personality, expressive eyes, and quick-wittedness are perfect for The Champion Roper. He and Marian Butler, as The Cowgirl, have terrific chemistry – they look like they’d be really good friends offstage – and had such a naturalness to their characters. Butler made me laugh and was heartbreaking when we see she realizes the Head Wrangler, Roman Zhurbin, will never love her. Zhurbin is such a great actor, and was the perfect combination of macho yet chivalrous suitor. A wonderful evening but was surprised Rodeo didn’t get a bigger response from the audience during the bows. I’m saddened to hear that Cornejo injured himself yesterday. Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery!

I think Misty would make an excellent Kitri. Any suggestions for her Basilio? I am impatiently waiting for Sarah Lane to be cast as Juliet - I think she would be incredible. Glad she has another Aurora coming up and some ppd's. But, is she following in Stella's footsteps to be a soloist forever? Speaking of, Stella and Sascha don't appear to have been cast much in the Spring, although some casting, say for Symphony C, hasn't been announced yet. Anyone know why Kristi Boone hasn't been dancing much for awhile? I assume she's been injured but I haven't heard. Her Siren in Prodigal Son a few years back was fantastic. Hooray for Cornejo getting Albrecht!

Well said! Couldn't agree more.