Olga

35 minutes ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:

Whelan was a great ballerina despite her body, not because of it. I hope young dancers who rightly see her as a model for their own artistry realize that. 

Exactly. I remember I was horrified and turned off when I first saw her - she was in a leotard, and in addition to the scary thinness, she has a strange rib cage, perhaps related to her spine problems. However, I came to adore her as an NYCB ballerina. Looking at just her arms in the video interview posted upthread though, I actually think it would be problematic for her to represent the company at the highest levels of management. I shudder to think of the message it would send to SAB students. The issues around weight in the ballet world are quite serious, and likely more of a present danger to dancers than Martins was at this time, in his later years.

I also thought Maria was gorgeous throughout the opening night Mozartiana, and so did my friend. A divine performance. She and Tyler Angle were the highlight of opening night. Great chemistry. Anyone with a ticket to their Chaconne should be  looking forward to it. 

3 hours ago, abatt said:

It's only the first week of the Winter Season, and Mearns did not perform on Tuesday, Thursday or Friday. Of course, I know they rehearse even on days they aren't scheduled to perform. If she's on weak legs at this early stage, that doesn't bode well. Since the error has been in the exact same spot twice, I tend to think that it's not fatigue, but a partnering or skills problem causing the repeated error in Chaconne.  

 

Mearns seems to have a lot of outside projects. Maybe it's time to cut back.

Mearns danced in Cortege on Tuesday, opening night. On Saturday she danced leads in both the matinee and evening. 

Furthher to BalanchineFan’s comments, tempo issues seem to come up a lot in rehearsals. I remember one Midsummer Rehearsal in which Tiler and Tyler were basically talking (frustratedly) to Litton from the stage and telling him to look at them. I think it was last season that Justin finally told him and I quote “they can’t dance that slowly.” Martins frequently beat out the tempo with his hands to show the conductor. I think Balanchine’s excellent and trained conductors were a factor in how musical the dancers were. 

6 hours ago, orangerose said:

 

One touch I can't stop thinking about is when Juliet first refuses to marry Paris and her mother ends up crying on Juliet's bed. Juliet puts her head to her mother's dress and her mother reaches out to comfort her--only to take her hand back, pull her dress away and resume the distant persona of a noble woman again.

 

 

This was an exquisite moment of  depiction of the conflicts in motherhood. As Goethe said, the genius shows in the details. Illustrative of the thought Ratmansky put into this production. We are lucky to have a contemperaneous choreographer like him. I liked this ballet very much and I have enjoyed reading the recap in this particular thread.

Thanks for the video link, Abatt.  I love Maria K. in this role. Just looking at her in this short clip...puts into focus what an abomination ABT's Mozartiana was last Spring. They had no business doing that ballet.

Thank you Nanushka. That was a while ago and I didn’t remember it. 

19 hours ago, BalanchineFan said:

 

I've also known some dancers who've had ACL repair. There are a few different ways to do it, one involves taking a portion of a ligament from the dancer's hamstring and using it to repair the ACL. The recovery on that is about 10-12 months.

Sorry, which dancer has had ACL repair? I didn't follow the connection, unless you are referring to Adrian

44 minutes ago, abatt said:

The dancers whose contracts will not be renewed for next season must be notified by NYCB in February under union rules.  Assuming no new AD is appointed in the next few weeks, are the 4 interim AD's  going to vote amongst themselves as to who will not be coming back?  Or will there be no terminations?  While that idea sounds nice, if nobody leaves there may be no money to offer contracts to apprentices.  

 

I would assume the interim AD’s would make the decision if there isn’t a permanent one. I am not sure of the division of responsibility among the 4 (I doubt anyone really is) though Stafford is the lead. It’s amazing to look at the company’s webpage where they list “Artistic Staff.” No mention of Martins. Not even a “retired” or similar appelation. Founders, Founding Choreographers, Interim Artistic Team (with Stafford having top billing). 

As long as we still have the rule of law and the Constitution, being charged with a crime doesn’t mean you are guilty.

4 hours ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:

I gather they look something like this:

 

Touchè! One of the greatest dance videos.

5 hours ago, California said:

Balanchine himself ordered the black fabric for those tutus. When asked why, he just said "there were black swans, too." I've never found any more of an explanation. In several versions of the ballet (including the Ratmansky reconstruction), there are 4-8 black swans in the last act. I've never been sure what that's about - mourning? sadness? but they all show that through the movement. So, I don't know. 

 My impression is that Balanchine ordered a lot of black fabric and when asked to justify it he made a comment that even swans can be black. (That is basically whaT the company’s website says.) I interpret that as an offhand comment, or even perhaps a semi-cryptic remark indicating he wasn’t going to answer the question directly. I do not believe he ever said he was going to change the entire corps’ costumes from white to black. I think it’s a big step to go from that comment to the current costume scheme. And I think it ruins the visuals and possibly alters the meaning.  Peter’s sense of costume and set design is not one of his stronger points - witness his own Swan Lake. I do believe in some Russian productions there are a few black swans mixed into a predominantly white field. I havent seen Ratmansky’s Swan Lake.

The black tutus for Balanchine’s swans are a travesty. I hope they go back to white. 

11 hours ago, vipa said:

I was wondering when casting was going to come out for the winter season. My first ticket is for Jan. 24. I know it is early for casting to be announced but I wonder if it had already been done by Martins, and if not who would do it. I know many roles will go to  dancers who'd done them before, but I wonder if there will be surprises.

Me too. I hope the moderators will open a new thread under the NYCB heading for the Winter Season which starts in three weeks. It’s time to move forward to the extent we can. I just went over all my tickets for the rest of the 2017-2018 season. (I don’t see one for even the Fall season that just passed, so maybe I am not looking in the right place.)

Birdsall, Thank you for sharing your very personal story. It may be that many of us, even almost all of  us, have some sort of personal history with sexual predators, or hostile work environments or the like. it's amazing how many hits the Martins' thread has received. These issues are so widespread and complex and strike different chords in people. I feel our society is being turned inside out in many ways and people are reexamining lots of assumptions. This is kind of like a wildfire that is spreading. I dont believe any institution is free of this behavior. 

3 hours ago, abatt said:

I guess I'm jaded, but it seems to me that anybody who has watched a TV show about lawyers or police investigations would have  realized that  attorney Hoey would be testing Kelly Boal's memory of an event that took place decades ago, and also confronting her with evidence that she continued to have contact with Martins, voluntarily, even after she quit NYCB (the pool party). 

That doesn't sound jaded to me. If you're going to come out after 25 years with allegations as serious as this you would have to expect some serious questioning.  Martins and the institution are entitled to it. It's her word against his, 25 years later. Real world. 

I am not the first to say some of Wendy's dancing since retiring from NYCB,and thechoreography that went with it, has been cringeworthy, or that her blaming Martins for her hip issues and for supposedly prematurely taking her out of the Sugarplum role was unwarranted, to say the least. While I greatly admired her ballet dancer career, her actions post retirement from that indicate to me she does not see herself or others realistically and that is a serious problem. 

Since Abatt added a paragraph to the post I said I pretty much agree with, I would like to add that I disagree with the addition -- It may be ABT did have a duty to investigate. What I'm complaining about is the press release.

I pretty much agree with Abatt. We know nothing about the underlying "misconduct". And ABT has rights and duties as an employer. But the vagueness on the one hand, and the specificity on the other, compounded by the distancing from Gomes' alleged conduct in vociferous terms, is really close to a smear. It has to be one of the oddest press releases. Generally speaking I have not found ABT management to be all that together. 

So glad we looked at this latest issue more closely. 

Many thoughtful comments here. 

Kathleen, As I have indicated I do not care for Cage. However, given what else is going on in some ballets, I stand by my view that it is complicated. Why shouldn't women have the same range of good and evil as men? Do youthi k sexual enslavement by men (Corsaire)  is ok? Why should we have these ballets that consisting of little more than  the manipulation of women's bodies by men (McGregor)? These are rhetorical questions.  Anyway, I find it didficult  to fully express myself but it may be the repulsion we feel at the Cage is indicative of the double standard for women. On the other hand, it could be the revulsion we feel at the thought it might be the projection of Robbins' neurosis. In any event, sanitizing  and regulating artistic expression is a complicated matter.

Kathleen, You make some good points about Giselle vs Cage.  Balanchine also analyzes The Cage in 101 Ballets I believe, and if memory serves saw it as in the lineage of strong females. These are complicated issues. 

Just as a point of information, Robbins did not understand why people were upset by The Cage. He viewed the plot as not too dissimiler from Giselle. I guess I would agree with that view of the plot/theme,  but Giselle is so bathed in beauty and so tragically romantic, with more character development, that it doesnt hit you in the face as much. I can hardly stand to watch The Cage but Giselle is another matter. 

Great essay. Not so much about Barishnikov, but more generally about dancers. Thanks.

On 12/9/2017 at 7:44 PM, On Pointe said:

I am distressed by my post being so misunderstood.  I must try harder to make my point.

By no means am I suggesting that Martins gets a pass because of his looks.  

 

I for one never thought you were suggesting that.