MarzipanShepherdess

Saw the Trenary/Cornejo cast Saturday evening. I enjoyed this ballet and think it's a good addition to ABT's rep, despite its flaws. Give me this over "Of Love and Rage" any day.

I too wish this ballet had more, well, full-on ballet--especially ensemble dances. It feels like a missed opportunity not to have had any dancing for the wedding guests in the first act, for example. Still, the roles are quite rich dramatically and this is a real opportunity for the company's dancers with acting chops to shine. Christine Shevchenko was a forceful and imperious Mama Elena, and Catherine Hurlin gave the finest dance-drama performance I've seen from her. I remember being struck when I saw her dance the lead in "Of Love and Rage" at how one-note she was; here she brought Gertrudis's full character arc to life very vividly (from sidelined middle child to wanton sexual awakening to proto-feminist leader boldly taking up space and claiming her place in the family on her own terms). Trenary is a dancer who has not made much of an impression on me as a principal but here she really delivered a nuanced, powerful characterization through her dancing that was genuinely moving. She has good chemistry with Herman, who is always a joy. The final pas de deux has many very tricky lifts that must require immense trust and seamless coordination to execute and she and Herman delivered them with aplomb. 

The first act is long, but for me it didn't drag because so much was happening. Definitely read the plot synopsis ahead of time; my friend didn't and found herself squinting at it during the first act trying to make sense of what was happening on stage. I think they could have profitably cut the first act plot line about the baby, which takes up two whole scenes.  From a dance perspective, it was limiting (not much you can do dance-wise with a baby), and as they were already departing from the novel there I think they could have just streamlined things and created more room for "pure dance" moments by saying that Mama Elena ordered Dr John Brown to take Tita away to Texas to get her away from Pedro. 

As far as sets/costumes/staging goes, this is far above almost everything else in ABT's rep (with the exception of Whipped Cream, which is visually quite delightful). The sets are creative and impactful: I'm thinking particularly of the moment at the end of the first act where the papel picado backdrop becomes a blanket that Dr John wraps around Tita's shoulders. I also loved the opening image of the row of bridal Catrinas who turn around to become old ladies in black knitting, and then settle in the back of the stage. And I loved the judicious use of stage magic in the ballets very last moments. I also enjoyed the score and thought the orchestra sounded great under the guest conductor. 

Audience reaction seemed very positive; I imagine this will have good word of mouth. But it was noticeable to me from where I was sitting in the parterre that the parterre was VERY poorly sold (maybe half the boxes were totally empty). Orchestra looked reasonably full, though. 

I'd like to see this one again, I'd enjoy seeing how different dancers interpret the characters. 

5 hours ago, abatt said:

 I wanted more actual dancing and less gesturing. 

[...]

Overall I felt that the choreography was more like something you would see at a Broadway show rather than the level of sophistication I have come to expect from a top tier ballet company.   One act of Don Q has more sophisticated and difficult choreography than 3 acts of LWFC.

 

I'll see LWFC tomorrow evening, but your description makes me think of how I felt watching English National Ballet do Wheeldon's Cinderella last week. Which, FWIW, had sold very well at Royal Albert Hall which is a massive theater. I do think there's audience appetite for ballets that lean more dance-theater than "capital B" Ballet, but if I want that I prefer Matthew Bourne's more creative and inventive take on the genre it to Wheeldon's. 

I could really see Isabella Boylston following a similar trajectory to Megan Fairchild at City Ballet. Both were promoted on the basis of sterling technique and work ethic but were often considered to be artistically limited. Then, Megan experienced a late-career artistic breakthrough. I used to avoid her performances and now I seek them out! It's been a real joy of the last few years of City Ballet-going for me to watch her evolution. Isabella seems deeply committed to ballet and to growing as an artist, I could see that happening for her too.

Echo everyone highlighting Fleytoux, Coker, Curley, and Klein as ones to watch in the corps. On the principal front, I really like Calvin. Does he have the most gorgeous classical technique? No. Is he a compelling presence on stage who really shines as an artist? In my eyes, yes. I would rather watch him than most of the current roster.

The problem for me at ABT today is that there aren't enough dancers in the company who can act, emote, and make interesting artistic choices in how they interpret their roles. When I watch them, I feel like I'm seeing someone execute the steps that, say, Giselle does. But I don't feel like I'm seeing Giselle. And I certainly don't have the thrill I used to have with Vishneva, of knowing that her interpretation of Giselle with ABT one season might shift into a different, equally glorious one the next. Given the core of ABT's rep, that's obviously a huge problem. 

I worry that ABT has entered a kind of death spiral, where lower ticket sales mean even more limited budgets for coaching, hiring inspiring/exciting guest artists, and less general investment in the artists' development, and then it becomes harder to attract top-tier talent to the company, and then ticket sales go down further, and so on. But as someone pointed out upthread, ABT has been in tough spots before where it looked like the company was fading, and then they came roaring back. Hopefully that happens again.

Saw Tuesday night's Agon/Fancy Free/Brandenburg program.

Fancy Free: I've been watching Daniel Ulbricht in this ballet for the better part of twenty years at this point, and he's still such a joy in it. Last night he punctuated his bravura split jumps solo with this incredible off-kilter balance which he just HELD longer than you thought possible, it was really something. Peter Walker was debuting as the sailor who couples up with the girl in the purple dress. I think he's still shaping his characterization, but he's always a beautiful dancer. He is SO tall that his scene with the girl in the purple dress under the streetlight read as a bit more overpowering/ threatening to the girl than it usually does for me, which I didn't love. I liked Sebastian Villarini-Velez as the sailor who does the mambo, the one who doesn't get a girl, 

Agon: I loved Isabella LaFreniere in this, such authority and attack. Her pas de trois involves lots of her body being manipulated by her two male partners but you felt she was utterly in control and a total force. The debuts in this piece felt like works in progress to me: Jules Mabie seemed at times out of sync with the other three men, from the opening tableau on, and I agree with @bellawood that the demisoloists (Corrigan and MT MacKinnon) don't yet have quite the speed and sharpness one wanted. Of the four men, Russell stood out to me the most, especially how he was using his arms. Did Miriam Miller dance? I was seated just before the performance started and didn't hear all the casting change announcements.

Brandenburg: My first time seeing this and I enjoyed it. Emma and Roman were unquestionably the highlight for me. I really admired how Emma was both fleet and sparkling in the allegro sections and then had these lovely, luscious, slowly unfurling arabesques and arms at other points. She's got it all. She and Roman seemed to bring out the best in each other (it was also nice to see Tiler Peck in the audience cheering Roman on). The energy dropped for me when Unity and Adrian came on stage: I think they got the less interesting pas de deux choreography-wise (theirs felt a bit repetitive to me, lots of her being rotated in arabesque and then lifted, again and again), but they also made less of what they had to work with. I liked the corps choreography a lot, lots of playfulness that feels unexpected with the music and costumes (leapfrogging, big groups of corps dancers bobbing in and out of alignment) and interesting shapes. Dominika Afanasenkov stood out to me in a pas de quatre in the third section.

On 5/20/2023 at 9:37 PM, pirouette said:

The people next to me were also unfortunately very distracting  They were a whole family and I cannot imagine why anyone would bring three small children under 10 to see a 76 minute contemporary ballet piece with no set, no story, minimal costumes, and no intermission. The little boy next to me was asleep within the first fifteen minutes and snored the whole way through. His sister next to him kept whispering to her mom. Curious what made them choose this program to bring the kids to. 

This fall I saw an evening performance of Mayerling at the Royal Ballet at which there were multiple kids under ten in the audience (for those unfamiliar, Mayerling is a lurid Kenneth Macmillan ballet whose main plot point is a murder-suicide by gunshot, which also has simulated sex and IV drug use on stage). There is a certain kind of parent who will just drag their kids along to anything!

Went to the Tuesday night performance of the 21st Century Choreography I program, with the new Wheeldon, new Pires, and Times Are Racing.

New Wheeldon: I saw the cast with Alexa Maxwell in the lavender unitard role Sara Mearns is also dancing. I liked this ballet. It's to the same Schoenberg music as Tudor's Pillar of Fire, which threw me a bit at the beginning as I kept picturing that opening choreography in my head. But you can see why so many choreographers have been drawn to this music, there's so much within it. The ballet opens and ends with the dancers pulsing in an anenome-like cluster, and felt like an exploration of group vs individual needs. Over the course of the ballet the Alexa/Sara dancer breaks away from and rejoins the group, and in the end walks away. I found it moving and appreciated the emotional arc Wheeldon built within this abstract work. The set design involves several progressively peeled away scrims, which eventually reveal a brightly lit backdrop of colorful, oceanic swirls at the end. I thought it was effective, but my spouse thought the early scrims obscured the dancing too much. One of my favorite passages was the pas de deux between two men, danced in that cast by Peter Walker and I can't remember who else. Alexa Maxwell obviously has the unenviable position of being compared to Sara Mearns as the other ballerina debuting the lead role here, but I thought she gave a compelling performance in her own right. Very nice to see her getting opportunities like this.

New Pires: I thought this was a strong debut with a US company from Pires. There are some interesting, surprising movements (some off-kilter, almost mechanistic bits) and I'm still thinking about the frenetic final solo Tiler Peck performs as the curtain comes down, where she's like some kind of furious, malfunctioning wind-up toy. I found the ensemble dances for the corps and the solos for Tiler to be most effective; Mira and Adrian have a series of pas de deuxs that didn't feel so compelling. Mira doesn't have much to do here, as the pas de deuxs involve a lot of her body being manipulated through space by Adrian, but I'm happy to see her on stage in pretty much anything. Would be glad to see more from Pires.

Times Are Racing: This was the highlight of the evening for me. You get the sense watching this that the dancers really, really love performing this one. SO much energy, so exciting. Tiler and Roman were a joy to watch in their pas de deux, bringing a delicious and sweet playfulness. And Brittany Pollack was excellent as the girl in jeans, as was KJ Takahashi who subbed in for Peter Walker as her partner. He continues to impress me this season with how his presence and charisma on stage is so rapidly maturing.

1 hour ago, nysusan said:

Now that Simkin has left the Staats Ballet Berlin ABT should really do whatever they have to do - absolutely ANYTHING to GET HIM BACK!!!

Although I honestly believe that they are more in need of top level ballerinas, they desperately need a star like Simkin. Bring him back!

Agree wholeheartedly, I'd love to see Simkin return, even if just for more regular guesting!  Years ago, I used to attend ABT as often as 3x a week because there were so many dancers I wanted to see that I couldn't pick just one cast. Now, it's a struggle for me to find one cast where I'm excited to see at least one of the leads and can tolerate the other. I think they need more of a middle road between the old regime, which had so many guest artists and international stars joining as principals, and now, when it's all home-grown talent. 

Saw the Friday 5/5 All Balanchine program.

As with the first time I saw this program this season, Ashley Laracey was the highlight of Concerto Barocco for me. She is absolutely dancing at a principal level, which this ballet and its recent casting makes so clear.

Kammermusik: I found myself missing the attack and sharpness Mira brought to this earlier this season, where she made every movement so emphatic. Miriam Miller and Emily Kikta gave solid performances in this tricky ballet, but I wanted more of that attack. Miriam was more effective for me at the end of the ballet than the beginning, when the movements get looser and more expansive and she brought a kind of jazzy sensuality to it that was compelling.

Raymonda Variations: obviously this is the kind of role that both Tiler and Joseph Gordon just eat up, and they were both excellent. The final fish dive was particularly bold, it really looked like Tiler was going to fly right into the orchestra pit! I know there's been some discussion of the first "hops on pointe" solo last night and how it's evolved over the years. Last night Olivia Mackinnon did travel while doing her hops--not all the way across the stage, but definitely traveling along. When I saw Claire von Enck do the solo earlier in the season she did the hops in place. 

18 minutes ago, cobweb said:

I believe that is pianist Susan Walters. 

Yes, I couldn't remember her name (thank you!) but she's the petite pianist who loves to wear really dramatic colorful shoes.

1 hour ago, pirouette said:

I think she might've been the one who comes out at 3:20 right before Tiler Peck, then goes to stand a little off to the right side. 

Yes I think that was Ashley, I remember her coming out with a bouquet right before Tiler.

1 hour ago, abatt said:

Who came out at the end?  Was Zac Posen there?

Yes, Zac Posen was in the audience and then came out on stage at the end. Megan LeCrone came out first, others were Maria Kowroski, Sterling Hyltin, Georgina Pazcoguin, Tiler Peck (in some very fabulous shiny silver heels), Indiana Woodward, Unity Phelan, Alexa Maxwell, Megan Fairchild, Ashley Bouder, Wendi and Jonathan. I think Sara Mearns too, can't remember everyone! 

Also saw the La Source/Namouna program last night.

La Source: Indiana and Joe Gordon. Great roles for them both which they both nailed. More and more, Indiana has the quality I like so much in Tiler's dancing: the blend of technical authority with this light, sparkling, playfulness. 

Namouna: Such a joy to see Sara Mearns back on stage in the role she originated, dancing full-out and fearlessly. I've missed her so much. Mira was fantastic in the "smoking girl" role, so witty and quick and just mesmerizing. Very, very excited to see what Ratmansky choreographs on her in the future. Ashley Laracey was lovely, but felt a little overshadowed by Sara and Megan: she is not as vivid and bold of a presence on stage. Roman was great in the main sailor role, easy breezy with big big jumps. I was impressed by how well KJ Takahashi held the stage with him, especially in those "dance off" bits of the choreography between the two men. He seems to have developed a lot as a dancer even just in the past few months, since winter season.

Count me in the Namouna fan club, for me it holds up to repeat viewings. The choreography is so fun and intricate and I love all the solos. 

Moving farewell today for Harrison Ball.

The program started off with Erica and Anthony leading Square Dance, but Harrison came out and performed the male solo that comes fairly late in the ballet. That solo has never lived large in my memory of Square Dance, but it will now. As Harrison danced it, it felt like he was doing a male waltz girl (from Serenade) with these deep deep surrendering backbends. He's such an emotive dancer. Gorgeous. (As was Anthony, Erica for me falls a bit flat in this). I love that Harrison was given the opportunity to dance the part of this that he could, even though unfortunately given his injuries the full ballet is beyond his current capability.

Then Donizetti Variations with Tiler and Andrew Veyette. Tiler just ate this up, so fleet and joyful and wow those turns. I love how she plays with the phrasing. Totally in command. 

Afternoon of a Faun: Harrison and Unity were both lovely. Unity can feel blank and remote to me on stage, and that works here, at least for me. I have enjoyed reading the varying interpretations of this ballet; today, with these dancers, it very much felt like a ballet about failure to connect,  with a sadness lurking at its heart. Despite this being a debut performance by Harrison, it felt fully realized. I really admire Harrison's decision to learn a new role and commit to it so wholly and beautifully for just one single performance.

Haieff Divertimento: What will stay with me from this performance is the final image of Harrison, going down to his knees in front of the ballerina (Indiana) and the springing up to freeze with an arm outstretched reaching with such yearning towards his departed partner, as the curtain came down. Felt like a very poignant last moment on stage for a performer who's having to say goodbye to his dancing career far too soon.

I think programming Orpheus was obligatory next season given that it's the 75th anniversary of the company and it was 1/3 of the inaugural NYCB program. But it's not my favorite either.  I wonder if the thinking with Slaughter was that for the all-Balanchine season they wanted a ballet that represented the reasonably lengthy career Balanchine had making dances for Broadway and Hollywood. 

I'd love to see Cortège Hongrois come back soon!

Attended last night's opening night. Glad to be back at the ballet, though I find myself missing the beautiful Shy Light sculpture installation.

Concerto Barocco: I know it's an iconic Balanchine ballet, but somehow just not one of my favorites. Well-danced by Unity and Ashley. I found Ashley more compelling to watch, just a bit more expansive and intriguing. 

Kammermusik: I really love this ballet. It's so relentless and I love the asychronicity between the two female leads, how they mirror each other but are also out of sync. And I find the choreography for the male corps very interesting, with the strange contorted bent arms and the flat footed hops. Mira and Emilie were great, super-fast and powerful. Strong debut from Mira. She had a fall pretty early, maybe 5 minutes in, which has to be just awful to experience in the context of a ballet as demanding as Kammermusik, but she took it in stride and was dancing full-out again very quickly. 

Raymonda Variations: agree with @abattthat Megan has never been better. Still technically secure but more lyrical and individual, more "perfume". Anthony was just gorgeous, so light, so precise. Was impressed by Claire Von Enck in the first solo doing the hops on pointe. 

Looking at week 3 casting, interesting to see that Dominika Afanasenkov has another significant debut in the new Wheeldon, which has a fairly small cast, right on the heels of her Afternoon with a Faun debut. More excited to see the two new works based on their casting than I was before.

2 hours ago, matilda said:

Pazcoguin retiring in "Namouna" this season: https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Georgina-Pazcoguinthe-Groundbreaking-Ballerina-Broadway-Star-and-Culture-Leaderis-Leaving-New-York-City-Ballet-For-Greater-Heights-20230419

Possibly the Mearns part? 

Doesn't look like it's the Mearns part, as Sara is dancing in the same show. I haven't seen Namouna in so long I can't recall what role the second name on the casting list corresponds to, but that's the role Georgina is debuting in for her retirement.

Not a shock given how relatively little she's been cast lately, but I'm going to miss Gina and will be excited to see what other work she takes on. She has always stood out for me, bringing a lot of fire and flair and individuality. I think I just saw her in one role winter season, in Radtmansky's Voices, but she was fantastic that night.

Thanks so much for sharing these details @abatt!! A lot of stuff I'm excited to see, including the Tiler Peck commission. Some of her choreography was featured in her "tiler peck and friends" evening at City Center last year, and I enjoyed it. Also very intrigued by the Albert Evans piece, I didn't know he choreographed. I like that Wendy and Jonathan seem to be committed to resurrecting a real rarity or two from the archives every year, like with Rondo and Haieff Divertimento this year. 

13 hours ago, vipa said:

Going back to Coppelia, which I think would be wise as a ticket seller. I believe for pandemic streaming there were issues with the Chinese dolls' dance in the workshop scene. They ended up streaming just the last act. Correct me if I'm remembering incorrectly.

The Chinese doll section is short but very stereotype "cute" Chinese. I think they will have to figure out what to do about that before doing the ballet again.

Hadn't thought of that as it's been a while since I've seen Coppelia but you're right. I think City Ballet consulted with Georgina Pazcoguin, wearing her "Final Bow for Yellowface" hat, when they reworked the similar Tea pas de trois in Nutcracker. Shouldn't be too hard but definitely something they'll need to tackle before staging Coppelia again.

I'd be glad to see Coppelia back on the calendar soon, it's a great vehicle for Megan Fairchild and Tiler Peck and I'd love to see them in it again before they retire. 

58 minutes ago, matilda said:

I've noticed a pattern since the pandemic reopening that some of the "best" programs with Balanchine, Ratmansky, etc. are sometimes selling the worst. Meanwhile, the underwhelming one-act Swan Lake is practically sold out over a month in advance. New York City Ballet has always depended on a more "sophisticated" dance audience that seeks out Balanchine and Robbins, but the crowd seems to be shrinking. Very unfortunate. I wonder how this might be influencing programming strategy looking forward. 

It seems similar to what is reported to be happening across the plaza at the Met Opera: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/26/arts/music/metropolitan-opera-endowment-contemporary.html where new work is now selling better than respected but not household-name level older work (the example cited in the article is Verdi's Don Carlo, which sold only 40% of its tickets last season). Their announced programming strategy is now to prioritize contemporary work more. I imagine City Ballet will do the same. It seems like there's a polarization sales-wise at City Ballet recently, where 19th century narrative classics like Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty that everyone knows sell very well, and the buzzy new stuff sells very well, but "modern classics" like Agon or Fancy Free don't. They seem to suffer from falling in between: not classic enough to be kid-friendly or well known outside the dance world, and not contemporary enough to feel cool. 

And looking ahead to this upcoming spring season, which hasn't even opened yet: Copland Dance Episodes, the 21st Century Choreography program with the Reisen/Solange Knowles piece, and the Balanchine/Ratmansky program with Swan Lake had nearly all their first ring and orchestra seats sold when I was buying tickets last week. As someone who ideally would wait until casting is released to buy tickets, I'm bummed, but as someone rooting for the longevity and financial health of the company I'm delighted. 

On 4/6/2023 at 9:08 PM, canbelto said:

 

I guess I like her more than the people on this board. I really liked her in Piano Pieces and also Episodes.

Count me as another Isabella fan who felt her promotion was very deserved. Agree with you about Episodes, and others about Firebird, and I'll add The Cage as another ballet she made a major impact for me in. I feel like those are all roles in which she has shone that are much more representative of NYCB than Aurora. IMO,  not being able to carry a big classic story ballet shouldn't a dealbreaker for NYCB promotion the way it obviously should be at a company like ABT.

Re: Mira Nadon's rapid rise--I chatted with someone recently who had grown up training at Mira's childhood dance studio in CA, with some overlapping years together, and she said everyone who knew Mira growing up is unsurprised by her zoom up the ranks at City Ballet. She said it always felt clear to her that Mira was going to have a big career. 

Perhaps Olivia Mackinnon's promotion feels more surprising than it otherwise might because it comes alongside that of Alexa Maxwell, whose elevation feels SO painfully overdue. By contrast, Olivia's could look more premature than it may actually be. I appreciate @BalanchineFan's reminder that as audience members we get such a relatively limited window into dancer's potential on stage. 

It's also interesting to think about the promotions in the context of the WWD article @WLH shared. Stafford emphasizes "energy" a lot as a prized quality, and Takahashi certainly embodies that more so than the "overlooked" Riccardo and Bolden. 

I was pleased, though like others surprised, to see SunMi Park get such a big debut (and to see Chloe Misseldine and Betsey McBride also get big roles). I'm in favor of ABT taking more casting risks like this! In the 15 years I've been watching the company I've felt the casting is generally very predictable and heavily weighted to the same small handful of dancers. In recent years, with many of my favorites departing the company, I've been seeing fewer and fewer ABT performances as a consequence. The Park/Camargo/Fong/Misseldine/Brandt/Royal cast is the one I'd most like to see when the production comes to New York (though I'm sure I'll go to the Teuscher/Cornejo cast just because I relish any opportunity to see Herman dance and who knows how much longer he'll perform). 

Agree with you @pirouette that Alexa really deserves to move up! She’s overdue. Baily Jones and India Bradley seem like other likely candidates. KJ Takahashi has only been in the corps a year and half, but seems like he’s on track to move up to soloist already. 

12 hours ago, canbelto said:

According to NYCB's IG stories, Marika Anderson retired tonight after her performance of Carabosse.

She also performed the Queen earlier in the run in the cast I saw. It struck me that I’d never seen someone do that role so emotively and maternally! She really brought what is often a pretty wooden promenading role some life and color. Brava Marika!

15 hours ago, LadyCap said:

My Russian teacher gave a similar explanation! She called this one "Fairy of the Unexpected Fate." Makes more sense to me than a golden vine when you're trying to give a future queen some helpful gifts.

I hadn't heard this explanation before and I love it! I'll stick with this one.