Kaysta

Not that it matters, but last year's promotions were announced on 6/30

If you're going to see at least two perfs consider seeing one from the balcony. It's much steeper than the orchestra so not as much worry about someone in front of you. Sections 15, 16 and 17 are very nice, but avoid the first row because there are huge lights that obstruct the view. I like row c in those sections.

Thanks! This is very helpful! I'm going to order tickets for the day and night performance on the 11th. I know it's the gala but it's the only time I can get up there Going to spend Saturday night in Saratoga and come back home sometime Sunday.

The theater is enormous and there are definitely sections to avoid. Pleasexadvisexabout whether you prefer orchestra or balcony (there are only the two levels) and approximately how much you'd like to spend and I can advise you better. I know that place really well.

Please come! We will welcome you!

I'd prefer orchestra, cost would be no more than 90 dollars per ticket. Thanks for your help!

I'm thinking about making the trip up to Saratoga for a weekend. How is the seating at SPAC? Is there any seating areas to avoid?

In her ABT bio, it is mentioned that after moving to the USA at the age of 8, she trained at the Rock school in Philadelphia for 7-8 years.

I live next to the Rock School in Philly, and have been to their performances and had a chance to see a lot of their dancers. They have very high caliber students there and get fantastic training, so I'm not surprised Shevchenko has flourished.

Other Rock alum at ABT include two apprentices who just moved up to the corps (Rachel Richardson and Jin Zhang).

Those turns of Osipova's are a part of that variation and look good! Maybe other balletomanes find it ok to do these for the coda of Swan Lake. I'm just not a fan of it and I've never seen it for Odile's variation - anybody ever seen this for 3rd Act SL?

I've never seen that done during the black swan coda, even at regional companies.

I'm sure Copeland's performance was probably very good, and as I find joy in most performances, I'm sure I would have enjoyed her today in SL. While I favor Abrera's dancing of all the soloists, I still think Misty is talented and has hatched her publicity plan based off the current messed up atmosphere (rent a Russian, aka star strategy) at ABT.

That being said, saying that Misty's performance is on par with Lopatkina (who is probably THE definitive O/O) is crazy, and only adds fuel to the Misty hater cause. Misty is a novice in performing O/O, and while she may have been lovely, she cannot possibly be on par with Lopatkina, who has been perfecting the role for many, many years. That is not a slight on Misty, there may not be another current ballerina who can match Lopatkina in this role.

Making such grandiose statements only hurts Copeland's cause.

Curtain calls...crowd squealing bravos foriisty!

Spectacular black swan pdd, despite a few piques after halfway through fouettés. Overall, Gorgeous.

She fell out of her fouettés again?

I like Copeland, but using her name in the same sentence as Lopatkina's is going a bit overboard, no?

The only kind I take. Based on what I've just seen, I would also put in a vote for the National Ballet of Canada in Toronto. The train ride is quite long, but the plane ride is short. The Porter flight from Newark to the Billy Bishop Airport is very convenient--and even Pearson International Airport is marginally less horrible now that a train connects it to Toronto's city center--and the current exchange rate is very advantageous to American travelers.

Off topic, but I plan on making the trip to Toronto this fall to see Ratmansky's R&J.

I think Nicole Graniero may be departing as well, based off a public Instagram post.

And, we should say, Simkin's. I have a friend who got tickets to this specifically after seeing his Bluebird the other week.

Good point! I like Simkin's dancing. It's a shame there is the height issues, because I find him thrilling to watch.

The apprentices have been moved over to the corps. Changes are a-coming! Hoping the promotions will be announced soon!

FYI: Outside of Copeland, the second best selling Swan Lake is Boylston's Saturday matinee.

I know. I'm surprised the masses who hated The Tempest (and the slightly smaller masses who hated R's Firebird) haven't chimed in yet.

They will, any minute now. In 5...4...3...2...1...

I'd like to see that double bill as well!

Me too!

Copeland will be promoted, whether we like it or not. I'll honestly be shocked if she is not promoted. And while a lot of people (esp. those on this board) will be upset, Misty's fans (who do but tickets to see her) will drown them out.

All I can say is that there better be a promotion for Stella as well. I am prepared for a Copeland promotion, but if Stella is passed over again, after her triumphant Giselle, I'll be angry.

And I'd just like to add that if one can find nothing redeeming about the entire spring season, than why torture yourself and go? Yes, there have been some major disappointments this year, but there have also been some magical moments like Stella and Shyklarov's Giselle, or Gillian's Juliet that have happened during this wretched, horrible, catastrophic, demoralizing, terrible no-good spring season.

But ABT will never be a repertory based company (like NYCB) or a one choreographer company. I think that would be the kiss of death for ABT. Especially without stars to make up for it.

I completely (but respectfully) disagree. I think ABT should rely more on Ratmansky. Say what you want about Sleeping Beauty, but at least the company appeared unified and cohesive during the run. It was obvious that the Ratmansky's were very hands on with the coaching to all the dancers, and ABT actually looked like a united company that didn't have to rely on the Rent-a-Russian approach. Plus, he gives chances to corps members that KM clearly ignores (cough Lavine cough). If that is what happens when Ratmansky restages (or choreographs new pieces), I'm all for ABT becoming a one choreographer company.

At this point, (with the debacle of the "star strategy" to fill the seats being made public), Ratmansky's presence is one of the few things that keeps this company artistically significant. Personally, I wish KM would retire and Ratmansky take over, although who knows if Ratmansky would even want the job.

Ah. I see now we're not. I thought the term "press lift" was referring to the one where he lifts her up and down repeatedly while he's kneeling.

That is the lift I thought was being discussed as well.

I'm pretty sure Gillian did not put her hand down on Whiteside's shoulder during the Wednesday matinee, if that is the lift we are talking about.

I like MacMillan's choreography for R&j (or at least I love the balcony pas and the score, which makes up for the rest) but I do find some of the acting a bit cheesy and over the top. And I agree the act 1 sword fight is too long.

The good thing about being a relatively new fan of ballet is that everything still brings me joy, even if it's not a groundbreaking performance. Yes, there are some performances I enjoy more than others (Gilian and Whiteside's last rose adagio and Stella's Giselle being the highlights of the Met season for me), but even less spectacular performances make me happy--esp. as I may be moving to the Midwest in the winter, and won't be able to see as much of ABT in the future. I don't want this spring season to end, despite some of the disappointments with casting. I think NYers may take this for granted. I love PA ballet, but it's nowhere near as enjoyable as even a "mediocre" night of ABT. And I think what I will get next year in the Midwest will really make me miss ABT, shady casting policies and all.

I feel very badly for Hee Seo. She's been such a trouper taking on so many performances, filling in at the last minute for all these cancellations, which must be incredibly physically demanding and exhausting...and yet, she's incurring the wrath of so many simply because she's "not Osipova" or "not Vishneva." So many performances may not have happened if she weren't ready and willing to fill in when others could or would not. She may not be Vishneva/Semionova/Osipova/etc, but she does have some lovely qualities of her own that I'm glad some do appreciate. It signals a bigger problem with management if there is only one person who is able to pick up the slack, which is unfortunate due to the retirements, injuries, and illnesses this season, but Seo herself should not be blamed for this.

As an employee for ABT, she has certainly earned her keep, and I do hope she is compensated accordingly. They are both principals, but by this spring season's end, she will have appeared in 18 performances vs. Vishneva's...3.

I agree with all of this. Do you think Seo wanted to go on last night, at the last minute, in an audience filled with people expecting Vishneva?

This is not Hee's fault, this is KM's fault for stifling the soloists and corps.

I also agree with Aurora that Hee's acting was good on Wednesday night, so I'm not sure if she reverted back to form last night, was so exhausted she just didn't have anything in the tank, or the audience had a case of bitter-too-much-Seo-and-loss-of-the-amazing-Russianitis.

Seo is not a great Juliet, but she's not a Misty Copeland either. I went in expecting mediocrity and was pleasantly surprised. She is a far better Juliet than Nikiya. She really danced with emotion and intensity as Juliet, and I felt she lacked that as Nikiya.

I completely agree with abatt on KM's over-reliance on Seo being a problem. And, although I enjoyed Seo's performance much more than I expected, I would be disappointed with this switch if I had tickets tonight.

I will say this about Seo..

There were some ardent Osipova folks sitting next to me on Wednesday night who didn't get the memo that she was out. They were ANGRY at the beginning when they realized it was Seo performing. After the first act, they stated, about Seo: "She's stunning in this role, isn't she?"

I really enjoyed Seo's performance, almost as much as Gillian's.

Yes, pretty please!

I third this!

I'm sad I missed Obratzsova's performance. Too busy with work, so I couldn't make it to NYC. Hopefully they bring her back.

a good example of where the fetish for balances takes over and destroys the overall integrity of the dance. Awful!

(Sorry, I don't know how to embed videos right on this page. If anyone can offer tips, I'd appreciate it!)

Wow, that is horrible. In the last set of balances, she never takes the last suitor's hand! Haha!

Continuing with musical analogies, the minimum I expect from any performance is to hear the notes that were written down by the composer. Musical notation is not perfect, and many aspects of any piece of music are left up to the performers. We do not even know what pitch Bach would want his pieces to be played at, as the pitch used to vary widely and still varies somewhat even these days. However, we do know that if he wrote a “D” he meant “one tone higher than the C just below”, and that if he wrote a quarter note he meant a note that lasts approximately twice as long as an eighth note. These basics that are clearly preserved in the notation are expected to be followed in every performance. Whether the performers want to tune to A440 or A415, and whether they want to use modern violins or violins made in the 1700’s—that’s up to the performers to decide because, as far as I know, Bach has not left any instructions in his scores regarding these. However, the argument that the violin technique has much advanced since Bach and that therefore performers should insert extraneous virtuoso passages into his Chaconne in order to make it palatable to listeners these days—such an argument is obviously preposterous. Even though modern violinists are indeed technically much more advanced than those in Bach’s times, no serious musician would mess with the notes in Bach’s violin pieces.

I find equally questionable the argument that Petipa’s steps that are preserved in the notation should be disregarded or modified because the ballet technique these days is more advanced, or because the dancers' bodies are different, or because they wear different shoes. Whatever steps survived in the notation, I would like to see them performed, because Petipa---much like Bach---seems to have been pretty good at what he did!

In those classical music pieces where the composer did not even have a chance to write down all the notes, such as Mozart’s Requiem, care is usually taken to fill in the remaining notes with deference to the composer’s style. I would expect no less from the choreographers filling in the blanks in Petipa’s steps.

This is said far more eloquently than I ever could--thank you! I completely agree!

I saw all the R&Js Monday-Wednesday (except Gillian's) and will write a more detailed review after I return home tomorrow. Just wanted to say that in spite of the criticism she gets in other roles, Hee Seo was a gorgeous, sensitive Juliet tonight. Unlike Monday where I found her lovely and very beautiful but not much more, tonight she was infinitely better--abandoned in both the pas de deux (thanks to Gomes surely) and far more visceral. Everything she did was bigger and read better in the MET than on Monday. Gomes was not as strong as technically as in past years (notably a 2010 R&J I saw with him and Vishneva) but no one can argue his strength of partnering and detailed acting.

I agree, Seo was fantastic tonight. I can see why everyone says Juliet is her best role. And Marcelo seems to bring out the best in all of his partners.