Olga

8 hours ago, Kaysta said:

What a fantastic night!  It seriously restored my soul after a couple of rough weeks. I loved all 3 pieces....

 

The 4 dancers in the background during Phlegmatic were the highlight.  

 

Symphony in C is my kind of ballet.  Sara Mearns was breathtaking in the Adagio.  And I thought Alston Macgill held her own with the senior principal ladies.

Agree. What a fantastic program. A treat. The four girls in Phlegmatic were AMAZING. And Ask LaCour danced it well. Macgill is totally charming - something that can't be learned. Sara Mearns danced the second movement  of Synohony in C like the goddess she can be. Also loved Reichlen in Choleric in the other cast. And let's not forget Ball and Gordon, or the superb partnering of Tyler Angle with Maria. And then there's Peck! And Ashley Isaacs was excellent too. But everywhere there is the choreography. Balanchine. It really does restore the soul.

Thanks anyway though. They do seem to have some "secret" postings from time to time. I will have to control my excitement about those Robbins and Balanchine programs for a while longer. 

16 hours ago, DanielBenton said:

The programs are now shown by date in the NYCB website calendar

I can't find this. How do I get to it? Much appreciated.

2 hours ago, DC Export said:

I saw Kowrowski and Tyler Angle perform the second movement during the 2015 .... feel so strongly about treasuring her gift while we can still see her on stage. 

Yes! Thrilled about the Balanchine casting. 

5 minutes ago, CTballetfan said:

I seek your advice. As part of my membership in ABT I signed up for the dress rehearsal for Giselle. I've never been to a dress rehearsal before. What is it like? How does it work? Do you see multiple casts? Does the director frequently stop the flow? Would I get enough of the performance so that I don't need to buy a ticket for another performance of Giselle? I have seen ABT's Giselle many, many times over the years and love it. Thank you for your input.

In my limited experience, the flow is interrupted and you may or may not see different casts. But one thing is for certain: you won't see the cast performing that evening (if there is a Giselle that night).

The way to buy single tickets ahead of their going on sale to the general public is to become a member. Single tickets went on sale to members today. This applies to gala tickets as well. 

I called the box office on Friday and was shocked at how rude and unhelpful their person was.

38 minutes ago, Stecyk said:

 

“I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.”
― Mae West

 

If you start at the beginning, you'll see some comments regarding NYCB social media. From your comment, you seem displeased that we drifted off topic. Just start at the beginning and stop when you lose interest.

 

 

 

Well I was confused because I got

on in the middle of the long discussion about a lawsuit (still don't know

who was involved) and then it drifted to Misty. Kind of funny, like the Mae West comment. 

I just wandered into this topic thinking it was about NYCB social media guidelines.

6 hours ago, Quiggin said:

 

 

The choreographers who survived seemed to have been relegated to more mundane assignments. In "Theatre in Revolution" Nicholetta Misler gives the example of Goleizovksy being "reduced to designing choreographies for the Stalin parades, such as the banal flower bed for the 1938 May Day celebration."

 

....Alexei Ratmansky in his NY Public Library interview mentions the Taganka as a favorite place of refuge when he wasn't taking ballet classes – so in some very roundabout way Ratmansky may have been plugged into some of the same influences as Balanchine had been.

 

 

Quiggin, Thank you very much for this information. Both very interesting points and the first is very sad. Lucky for dance, and for Balanchine, that he left Russia. Probably another thing Ratmansky has in common with Balanchine. Thanks again for your helpful response.

On December 10, 2016 at 1:12 AM, Quiggin said:

[Continuing OT]

 

 Interesting about Ashton and Cechetti and the upper body, and being an heir to Petipa that way.

 

I think of Balanchine continuing Petipa architecturally. Compare the corps of Kingdom of the Shades to the corps in Symphony in C with the long lines and diagonals, and how everyone alternatingly faces one direction, then the other, continually changing register. I don't think Ashton had that command of space, it was more a kind of balletic intimacy with him, maybe it was a cross of Petipa and a bit of English music hall for leavening. It definintely depends on a certain "high" or slightly ironical sensibility to bring off.

 

But Balanchine is both an heir to Petipa and to the anit-Petipa  Soviet cubo-constructivism and biometrics of the 1920's,. You see that in Agon (the pas de deux half on the floor) and The Four Temperaments (the opening figures which come directly from Balanchine's New Ballet work) and in general how things quickly flick unexpectedly from one figuration to another. Petipa and Meyerhold are like his estranged parents or grandparents, and he's sometimes loyal to one and sometimes loyal to the other and sometimes, when no one's looking, he mixes them up together.

I'm only now getting around to reading this, but the mention of Balanchine's command of space is so right, as is seeing him as heir to both Petipa and the anti-Petipa Soviet 1920's choreographers. One doesn't get to see much of the latter so it's easy to forget that aspect of Balanchine - and he was in fact an active participant in some of those productions. Wasn't a lot of that experimental Soviet choregraphy purged, so to speak, under Stalin? 

DC Export - it really was with entirely new eyes.

Mearns is as marvelous a Carabosse as she is a Lilac Fairy. When she is on stage in either role,  the whole ballet plays a few notches better. It's too bad she can't do both roles on the same night! 

About that casting for the last show of the Balanchine Stories: Martins is doing a good job bringing up the rear! 

On December 13, 2016 at 1:23 PM, altongrimes said:

 Of my numerous ballet pilgrimages during the last several years , I marvel that as I approach my final destination: front and center at The David Koch or somewhere in the superbly designed Terrace at the Segerstrom that I invariably make the transformation from adult to the boy I used to know . How my heart and mind catch fire with the wonder that surrounds me ! Suddenly, every negative memory from a love lost to a bad boss evaporates into thin air. I am born again ! For I know that I have come to "the mountain", indeed, a mountain top of artistic achievement and once again, I am "at play in the fields of the Lord ". 

A great description of the inner life of the ballet fan! I've never been to Segerstrom, but it certainly fits the Koch theater.  I can hardly wait for the Winter Season to begin. 

Thanks so much, Fondoffouettes. Very interesting. I believe I saw somewhere that originally he was to partner Lane in Nutcracker this year but the casting was changed. 

3 hours ago, fondoffouettes said:

. I've only seen one go really wrong (a Lane/Gorak one a few years ago), but I can't recall if it was because they attempted the leap or not. 

What happened with Lane/Gorak, as far as you remember? I'm curious. Thank

you.

That may very well be, It's the Mom. My comment about Vasiliev being in a different league was made in response to a specific post. As I said originally, it would be very interesting to know what is in Ratmansky's mind about this and he would have to tell us that - anything else is speculation. I personally think -again, pure conjecture- the answer would be telling, about larger views, and that it is not just a choreographic mistake. But maybe it is. I can't imagine though that there is any possibility Ratmansky doesn't see that it's not working well. I think I've said more than enough and even repeated myself so my apologies. 

55 minutes ago, California said:

Thanks for adding to the collection of clips, canbelto! Yes, the 2015 Bolshoi is pretty awful -- indeed, it looks just like the ABT version! Maybe that's the clip the ABT principals have been studying. The Maximova clip takes the prize - and it's one-armed, unlike the other two Bolshoi clips.

It's Vasiliev. He is one of the greatest dancers of all time. A totally different league. 

Oh not to beat a dead horse , but what I was agreeing with in California's post is the challenge for the dancers part. The fact that he doesn't take it out after all this time says something and its that something that would make it interesting to know his thinking, as I said. 

I pretty much agree, California. It may also be that the lift is so much in his mind, so associated for him with the ballet, etc,  that even though he isn't doing a reconstruction he doesn't want to take it out. Maybe one day they will have someone who can do it. Of course all of this is speculation. 

It would be interesting to know Ratmansky's thinking on this. I'm sure he realizes they are not able to execute. The clip of Vasiliev and Maximova was thrilling. Thanks for posting - I now see the whole ballet with them is on YouTube. 

Cellphone light is the worst. What are these people thinking? 

Very funny visualization of the embattled balletomane, Choriamb! I like it!

5 hours ago, Helene said:

Why "ouch?"  You can put the cast list on a dartboard, throw a dart, and get an equally good cast.

Not sure it's THAT good, but does make you think about the days before casting info was released in advance.