LadyBubbles

Yet another precious one gets away. Honestly, I don't blame him. I thought his post was very diplomatic and I applaud him for that. Big loss for ABT (and for us), but I have to say that ABT had it coming. Hopefully they'll start showing more respect to their artists from now on. I doubt it though. And yes, short women can be partnered by tall men, but a very large gap isn't desirable either. I even remember Bolle talking about it. He mentioned in an interview that he was fine dancing with shorter women in a ballet like R&J, but that it was better to dance with a taller partner in ballets like Swan Lake, etc. It can be done, but it's not necessarily ideal.

I fully expect Shayer to get promoted this year. I think (hope) Bell's promotion will happen sooner rather than later, but this is only his second season as a corps dancer. I don't know if Kevin will promote him just yet. We'll find out all of this year's promotions in just a few weeks.

Of all current ABT Kitri's, Murphy is my favorite and I definitely won't (hopefully) miss her performance this year as it may be her last. I hope she doesn't go for broke too much on her first performance like last year (I remember she had to pull out of her second performance because her first Kitri aggravated an injury). I won't be in town for Murphy's first Kitri, so it's double show Saturday for me. I hope Lane is practicing those fouettes day and night so we won't have a sad looking Kitri at the end of the PDD. I look forward to her debut, and Cornejo's Basilio. If you're interested in seeing Boylston, honestly it depends on what you want to see. She's not my favorite Kitri (or at any classical role for the matter), but at least you know she can do all the required steps and has a big jump. So, technique wise it should be a good show. Not to mention that she's matched with Simkin's Basilio, who will do anything to wow an audience. There's also Christine Schevchenko, whom I haven't seen in this role yet, but I heard she was wonderful in her debut last year.

Yeah, I saw that. I wonder why they didn't train an understudy well ahead of time. Considering the choreography is hard and taxing on the feet, you'd think Ratmansky and ABT would have at least one understudy ready in case anyone had to withdraw (Especially when you think about how things went last year. Le Corsaire week anyone?). Good for Brandt.

I imagine that being allowed to rest from all of her original soloist assignments allowed Trenary to be fully prepared and healed for her debut today. It's nice of ABT to be this considerate.

Thank you for the reports. First of all, I'm glad Murphy's Gamzatti is still looking strong. I never got to see her Nikiya, but I always loved her Gamzatti. I'm sure it's not as strong as it was a decade ago, but she set a pretty high standard for herself. And not surprised that Kim stole the show. He's fantastic and his Solor is amazing. As for the three shades, wow, it sounds like a terrible night all around. I know Lane has the bad habit of letting the entire audience know when she makes a mistake (especially if you're up close or are using opera glasses). But walking some steps to fill in the music sounds bad. I hope she was just psyched out and it's not a problem with an ankle (or shoe, I once, long ago, had a shank completely bust while practicing that same diagonal - not cute). As for Williams, Dancerboy90210 mentioned that she cut out the first developpe sequence. That's so bizarre. I don't recall ever seeing something like that. I wonder if it was planned that way or if she just made it up. Here's hoping that things go smoothly for everyone tomorrow.

Ah, now that's different. Interesting though, scheduling 2 principals to perform the shade trio on the same night. I'm sure ABT has its reasons for its casting decisions, although I don't always understand them. I do wonder how much rehearsal time both dancers had considering they had a major debut 2 days ago, and they are both working on even more debuts in the next few weeks (Columbine and Kitri for Lane, Pierrette and O/O for Shevchenko). It's no secret that we can't give everything the same degree of priority.

Re Lane: Not enough rehearsal perhaps? I was afraid this could happen. That variation is hard because if you're off the music pretty much everything else gets messed up. Hopefully tomorrow goes better for her. I'm glad Shevchenko did fine, although I'm sure she would have given a great go with more rehearsal time. Speaking of rehearsal time, for the sake of the company, I hope they give their shades more of it next time they stage this production. It sounds like the unsteadiness problem was more than just nerves.

I didn't attend any performances last year, but based on reports and her own Instagram she spent the entire MET season in Arizona. If she's injured again, I hope she's able to recover. The other option is that she left ABT recently, but she's still listed on the roster (both on the website and on the playbill).

I was going to ask if anyone had seen Bethea at all this season, because I sure haven't. Brandt is definitely MVP this (among non corps since they dance so many shows). She has quite a few principal assignments, but has been dancing a very heavy soloist load. We'll never know, but I'm convinced that she was scheduled to do at least one of the peasant pas that Lane ended up doing (remember that she announced her matinee one the same day of the performance, and the second one not long before the evening show). Definitely props to her. It's a shame that Trenary is not 100% back from whatever injury she had, but dancing Gamzatti and two Columbines next week will be taxing. I suppose she can then take a break until Whipped Cream starts. I was surprised by Lane's post, but I suppose the theory that this allows stronger corps women to dance the corps shade makes sense. Of course, if I were a corps dancer and they took away two of my shade trio performance I'd be disappointed.

Lane? Don't you mean Trenary (the lead maiden for last night's show)? I'm pretty sure Lane didn't dance at all this week.

Yes, she danced the Pas de trois with Brandt and Cirio (another principal, I'm beginning to see a pattern here). I bet they'll dance PdT again in June.

Trenary has been pulled from Wednesday's Firebird. However, she's still scheduled to perform in all of her AfterRite shows and Saturday night's Firebird. My guess is that she has a minor injury or is recovering from a minor injury. Brandt and Hurlin both have a heavy work load next week, so they probably wanted to give them a break from the Peasant Pas (both of them) today.

Last update: The Whipped Cream casting has been completed now. Forster officially takes Hallberg spots (it was TBA until a few hours ago), and the missing Tea Flower / Coffee cast from closing night is up (Teuscher/Royal).

So happy that Aran Bell gets a go at Romeo. But I hope they work on his expression before his debut. I wonder if ABT sees him as a Roberto Bolle type of guy. Tall, handsome, with very good and clean technique, strong partner, princely, etc. Remember, Bolle wasn't the best actor at first (but hey, that gorgeous smile was more than enough to make me buy tickets). Even now, his acting is certainly more reserved than that of other male veterans, but nonetheless is good and effective. Perhaps they're going that route with Bell. I, unfortunately, won't be able to attend that performance. But I hope some of you will and post your reports here

I love how the AfteRite cast showed as "To be announced" for months, and now that it's been posted it simply says "Company." Thanks for the accurate info, ABT

Boylston could easily be Lane's Myrta. For starters, she looks tall next to Lane, and I agree that she has a rather strong presence (and a big jump). Good qualities for a Myrta (but then there's the acting part of it). She wouldn't look tall next to half of the corps, but she's tall next to the ladies who'd stand in the front row. Having said that, she already has so many roles I doubt she'd even be interested in learning Myrta even though it might be a good fit for her.

Oh, what a shame. IIRC, wasn't she replaced in the fall season too? I can't remember, but I thought she was originally cast in a featured role and then replaced. Since there are currently no tall female soloist, I have a feeling ABT is looking at tall corps ladies and hopefully promote a few of them in July. This could have been a great chance for her. Hopefully she can recover from this and come back stronger next season.

No word at all. Waski posted a video rehearsing the role a few weeks ago. If it's injury related, we'll find out soon. Hopefully it's not an injury. Either way, bummer that she won't get to perform the role but happy that K.Williams is getting an opportunity.

Replacements depend heavily on the male lead though. For example, when Copeland withdrew from SL at the Kennedy Center last year, they had the change both leads because none of the other O/O could dance with Cornejo. Having said that, I agree that if there are any replacements, they will probably be the already cast O/O's. Last year Boylston was injured, so she couldn't replace Kochetkova (partnered by Simkin, with whom Boylston can dance). If it's Cornejo without a partner, then either expect Lane to dance or an entire different couple to pick up the performance. If it's Simkin's partner, then my money's on ABT subbing in Boylston. The remaining Siegfrieds can all partner tall ballerinas, so it could be anyone stepping in.

I haven't seen neither Copeland nor Boylston as Giselle, so I can't comment on that. But, I'd choose Cornejo over Whiteside in a second. I'd also choose Abrera's Myrta over Teuscher (although I'm sure Teuscher's Myrta has gotten better in the last few years).

Wasn't Whiteside originally performing with Abrera? She has Stearns now, and Boylston has Whiteside (replacing Lendorf, I think?).

Thank you for the report, Leeyl. Sounds like Shevchenko had a great debut and will no doubt be great at the MET.

Marcelo's post definitely looks like a proposal, but Nick's posts does indeed seem to imply that they're already married (those wedding bands). The two posts are only a day apart. Then again, Marcelo's picture may have been taken a while ago. Regardless of their current marital status (engaged? married?), congrats to the couple. They sure look happy, not to mention they look great together.

Yeah, I thought the "*" in your other post wasn't a typo. If you think a dancer is lame for traveling with her dogs and complaining about a badly kept hotel, then you just described a lot, and I mean a lot, of ballet dancers. Not everyone has a publicist managing or monitoring their social media posts, you know. Anyway, back to the real topic and enough with people bashing dancers' personal life, I can't see Osipova dancing with any other current ABT guy, to be honest. If Kevin doesn't bring someone she approves of, then expect a last minute withdrawal announcement. That's how ABT rolls. Of course, maybe Hallberg will be healthy by then. Who knows?