Kaysta

So excited, Sleeping Beauty day is here! And I survived a horrendous commute through the Lincoln tunnel. Life is good!

Even among the confetti and flowers you can feel the brrr factor when Kevin McKenzie came onstage.

You really can! It was more noticeable with Reyes than Paloma, but neither gave him the warm hugs they gave everyone else. Interesting...

In the Paloma farewell video posted, the hugs between Paloma and everyone who came out was so sweet and caring, until KM goes into hug her and it's completely awkward.

Sad to see these two beautiful dancers retire.

I saw her in the dress rehearsal on Friday. I thought she danced it rather beautifully, but she really doesn't have any sense of authority in the role, forget any hint of menace (which, as someone who is commanding people to dance until they die, you'd really expect).

Completely agree. I've seen her as the Fairy godmother in Ashton's Cinderella twice, and while I was watching her Myrta, even though the steps were obviously different, she could have been dancing that role instead of Myrta. She's a beautiful dancer though, so hopefully she'll grow into it.

Decoster, I completely agree with you re: Part. She may not have been perfect, but I still think she's the best Myrta ABT has. She is very believable and cold (in a very good evil wili way!). I love Gillian and think her Myrta is amazing, but I still am hopeful that she'll be switched to Giselle at some point (maybe next year when Reyes, Herrera and Kent are gone).

Last night was not Teuscher's debut, she danced the role at the Saturday matinee.

Hope Stella is ok.

I have to wear glasses and have this problem; that is, like you I can't see anything without glasses and switching back and forth between glasses and opera glasses is no solution. For many years I didn't use opera glasses at all. But....I finally found a small pair (at the Met shop) that I could use comfortably and without fear of scratching my glasses etc. They were not cheap--but I was able to experiment with them a bit before the purchase. (That is, experiment with putting them over my glasses and looking at things; obviously the Met store didn't let me take them for a 'test drive' in the theater.)

It turned out to be one of my best purchases, so, it might be worth experimenting around, though I realize everyone experiences these things differently. I feel like I'm too young to be getting shorter, but more and more often I have problems seeing over people's heads at the Met (and elsewhere) and now sit upstairs for a number of performances even though I enjoy being closer. Opera glasses over glasses will never be ideal, but finding a reasonably workable pair has been a boon.

This year, I switched my seats from grand tier side box seats to front balcony because of cost (going to more performances, so have to spend less money). I like the front of the balcony because I can really see the patterns of the corps, but I really miss being able to see faces. Sometimes I switch it up and sit in the cheap side orchestra seats that are close (row G or so) but they cut off a good portion of the stage. So I guess I need to get use to the balcony, because I can't afford prime orchestra seats for all of these performances (unless I decide the government doesn't want me to pay back all of those student loans I borrowed!

I wish I liked using opera glasses. I bought a pair and tried them out with Giselle, but as I need glasses I find them quite awkward to use. I don't want to take my glasses off, because then I'm completely blind and have to only use the opera glasses or keep switching back and forth.

I've never found Murphy's dancing harsh.

Me either. I'm tired of people using that as an excuse as to why she can't dance certain roles.

I'd take Gillian in those roles over some of the dancers cast in those roles at ABT in a heartbeat.

I am beyond bummed I missed the Stella Abrera Giselle due to some unforeseen circumstances (including an ear infection that hasn't gone away). But now I have confidence that this will not be Abrera's only Giselle. So there's always next year ...

Sorry about the ear infection. I've had problems with my ears this year, too, due to allergies. It's frustrating.

I actually feel bad about my earlier post about not caring about the rest of Giselle week. There are two big retirement performances coming up this week, plus Julie Kent's last Giselle. I'm looking forward to hearing about these, so I hope they'll be some reports from BA'ers who attend.

Ok. What is "streaked" hair. Is he saying that Boylston has highlights in her hair that he dislikes? I saw her earlier this week and I did not notice anything odd about her hair. Anyone have a clue?

I was trying to figure out what he meant by streaked hair, too! I didnt notice any streaked hair from the balcony.

McCauley obviously favors Boylston. I've never seen him write a bad review of her. As someone who saw and enjoyed both performances on Saturday, Abrera was heads and tails better. And I, unlike many on this board, like Boylston.

Just bought some seats for the premiere on Friday night. I have tickets for the Sat matinee as well, but I'm not sure I'm going to want to drive into the city twice in two days. Guess I'll see how much I love it and how much I really want to see Lane as Aurora.

Surprisingly (or not) there are A LOT of open seats left for the premiere. I'm surprised. Gillian and Marcelo dancing, a Friday night, and a NYC premiere? I shouldn't be able to land great seats five days from the performance.

McKenzie should have promoted her from the stage, after the performance. Isn't that what they do (or did) at Paris Opera Ballet?

I was hoping he would.

He should give her one of Seo's Juliets. I don't know if Stella knows the part, but if she did it would capitalize on all of the buzz going on right now plus give poor Hee Seo a rest and not make her dance back to back performances.

I do think she'll get promoted after this year, though. If she doesn't, it'll be time to face that it just isn't happening.

Last night was so epic that I feel done with Giselle and am ready to move on The Sleeping Beauty. The rest of the Giselle performances don't even matter to me.

You know, I've been thinking about ABT's guest artist policy a lot after last night's performance.

Shklaryov is the first guest performer I've seen, as I usually stick to the home grown team out of dislike of ABT's star policy of giving roles to guest artists over their own (although I did buy a ticket to see Nunez later this year-but I'm seeing Stella as well).

If I would have stuck to only seeing home grown performers, I would have missed out on what was probably the most technically thrilling and best acted Albrecht I may ever get a chance to see. But what made last night so special was the fact that not only was Shklaryov so amazing, but he and Stella were fantastic together (granted Stella is already a gorgeous dancer, but I think he elevated her performance to a level that may not have happened if she were partnered with Hammoudi or Stearns, no offence to those two).

So if ABT wants to bring in fantastic world class guest performers like Shklaryov, they should at least pair them with someone from the home team, instead of the double guest artist crap (like Osipova and Sarafonov). Then it's a win-win for ABT. They get the money from those who flock to see the guest artists, and they still give opportunities to the home team. And the guest artists should truly be world class artists (I'm not going to name names, but there have been a few who are NOT better than what ABT can front themselves).

Anyway, these are my post-Giselle frenzy hungover thoughts for the day.

ABT should definitely try to bring Shylarov over more in the future. He was fantastic ( and adorably cute, I might add!)

The audience members behind me audibly gasped during his entrechats, he had such height and quickness.

Has Hee Seo always had back to back performances of Juliet on the 15th and 16th? Was Semionova in that spot? Crazy to have her dance two nights in a row.

Agree with everything else that's been said. Tonight was special. One of those performances I'll remember for years.

Stella was fantastic. Shyklarov is amazing. Together, they were unreal. Hard to believe this is a brand new partnership, their chemistry was off the charts.

Veronica Part is the definitive Myrta to me. And the corps was just outstanding. This really was a homerun for ABT tonight.

Stella's mad scene was epic!!

Round 1 of Giselle day is complete. For all of her critics on this site, Isabella Boylston received a standing ovation for her performance. I wasn't standing, but I do enjoy her dancing. I saw some of her sloppy wrist action that everyone likes to comment about, but for the most part I thought she was beautiful. Her act 1 was playful, shy and sweet and her act 2 was strong and graceful. I think she may have come off point during her ballones, but I was pretty far away so maybe I'm wrong.

Hammoudi overall did a nice job. I thought he was a strong partner. I feel like he has improved over the last year. He did not do the entrechat sixes, and instead did diagonal brises twice. I'm looking forward to Shyklarov tonight.

Myrta was Devin Teuscher, who I am a huge fan of. She is a beautiful dancer and has quickly become one of my favorites. I was a bit disappointed in her Myrta only because she wasn't cold and evil enough for me. Her dancing is so warm, she could have been dancing Act 1's Giselle and not Myrta.

Now I just have a few hours to wait till Stella! I'm looking forward to seeing this cast, and hoping it will be worthy of the standing o.

This may well have been in the planning for some time, before Abrera was cast...and people coming in from outside of New York meant that it had to be a Saturday performance to be practical. But in any case it means Abrera is making her debut in as high profile a context as imaginable. It is an unusual setting, but not a diluted one. (And it doesn't sound as if it will interfere with curtain calls in any case...)

Exactly! I think it's good that everyone will be there. When Stella kills it (and she will be fantastic I have no doubt), it will hopefully put even more pressure on KM to do the right thing and promote her.

I'm not sure whether the news that Julie Diana and Zachary Hench are leaving Philadelphia for Alaska has been posted elsewhere on the board.

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/304661711.html

Very sad to see them go, but how exciting! A complete change of pace from Philly.

Wow, Saturday night is looking to be a fantastic evening! How exciting for Stella. Wouldn't it be nice if KM did promote her with everyone in the audience at the end of the performance? A girl can dream right....

Thank you, NinaFan. The problem is that I did a 3 performance create your own but it is not treated as a trio subscription for the reasons I state above in an earlier post. Very weird, IMO.

I also buy individual tickets instead of a subscription as I'm very picky with where I like to sit and I like to physically pick out the seat online. I wanted to switch Giselle performances from Saturday afternoon to Saturday night, and they would not let me. So now I'm seeing 2 Giselles on Saturday.

Their policy is annoying, because even though I chose not to subscribe, I'm going to nine performances this year and you'd think they'd allow loyal customers to exchange.

Maybe next year I will do a trio and then add the additional performances separately.

I wondered if the lack of music from the ballets being shown was a budget issue. Then again, it was of a piece with the slow motion which tended to homogenize everything into a single look, even when the documentary was talking about a variety of styles.

I, too, feel I could listen to Ratmansky all day.

You know what's sad? I enjoyed Ratmansky's NYPL talk last October way more than this documentary. They spent all this money and time for what?

Although I did enjoy the interviews with the retired dancers like Serrano and Alonso.

Lots of craziness happened while I was at work. Like everyone else, I'm really disappointed with the casting changes.

I'm still going to keep my Bayadere ticket, even though I'm not so keen at seeing Seo as Nikiya. But Murphy and Kim will hopefully be enough to make it worth it.

I'm not surprised about Osipova pulling out of Sleeping Beauty. I don't think it's related to injury, as I saw her live in London performing Lise in Fille and she looked fantastic. I honestly don't care that she pulled out, as I'm happy seeing the Lane and Murphy casts.

Excited for the start of the Met season for me. ABT matinee then across the plaza for NYCB tonight!