Kathleen O'Connell

10 minutes ago, cubanmiamiboy said:

No...it is not. I was referencing to Sir Peter Wright's or Alonso's . They both come from direct links to the Imperial Ballet-( Sir Peter Wright's via N. Sergueev/Markova and Alonso having learned it herself from A. Fedorova, an Imperial era dancer). 

Both are pretty much preserved and well passed into the XXI Century. 

Thanks for the clarification! 

33 minutes ago, cubanmiamiboy said:

Probably. 

So three good chunks of the original are preserved in pristine condition: grand pas, candy cane and prince mime. Quite good, I'd say 

Is Balanchine's version of the grand pas really Petipa/Ivanov's choreography "preserved"? I've always been given to understand that Balanchine either used or made reference to some of the material in the original pas, e.g., the shoulder-sits and the effect of the slide, but that the choreography was in essence his. But I'd be happy to learn otherwise.

Just now, cubanmiamiboy said:

Rather Petipa/Ivanov...?🙂

Or, I gather, Shiryaev.

Thank you, Canbelto! 

38 minutes ago, Drew said:

I think Balanchine remembered the Candy Cane dance....which he had been taught at the imperial theater.

 

It's a mark of genius to know when to leave well enough alone. 😉 

(And thanks for the info!)

Mark Morris' The Hard Nut. 

Best Party Scene. Yeah, it's raunchy and everyone (even Marie) behaves badly, but Morris loves these people anyway and forgives them — just as one should in the spirit of the holidays.

Best Snowflakes. I can't help but laugh out loud no matter how many times I see it.

Best choreography to Tchaikovsky's magnificent, ever cresting, never resolving "Journey Through the Snow." Morris uses this music for the Nutcracker Prince's transformation from a toy into young man, via a very tender duet with Drosselmeyer. The Nutcracker becomes fully human the moment the music peaks and it makes me cry every single time. 

No one really knows what to do with Tea, it seems. I don't know why the Land of Sweets divertissements seem inevitably to call forth so many tired ethnic stereotypes and character dance clichés — but Morris is guilty of this, too. They so often seems like paint-by-numbers choreography, as if the dance-makers couldn't imagine any other approach to the music — but which Balanchine actually did with the Candy Canes: there's not a Cossack to be seen in the Trepak. (An aside: I'm delighted to see that the "Kozotsky" i.e., "Cossack" dancing my uncles indulged in when things got rowdy at Christmas and Easter lives on in Hip-Hop.)

45 minutes ago, ABT Fan said:

I just looked this up on Amazon Prime and it's not available. I can add it to my watchlist but it's not avail for free viewing....

Hmmm ... It shows up when I log into my Prime account. I'm watching on my computer rather than on my TV — maybe that makes a difference? (It pops up on my iPad in the Prime Video app as well.)

2 hours ago, vipa said:

She seems to be very interested in choreography projects, and a number of them are coming her way.

There will always be another season of Nutcrackers, but a fellowship at NYC's Center for Ballet and the Arts might not present itself at so opportune a moment in her choreographic career, or even might not be possible again at all. (Not that I think Jennifer Homans' enterprise is likely to fold anytime soon, but CAB's funding and / or NYU's willingness to could crater suddenly and without warning.) And ditto her opportunity to teach at Casa Amarela Providência  in Brazil. 

25 minutes ago, canbelto said:

I don't agree with the Tiler Peck/Robert Fairchild comparisons, bc in that case the two of them aggressively marketed their fairy tale courtship, wedding, and marriage. It was all over mainstream newspapers. That came on the heels of Fairchild's star turn in An American in Paris. I admire them enormously as artists but their marketing of their personal lives was in retrospect unwise.

Kathryn Morgan's social media following seem to be ballet students who simply relate to her down-to-earth ballet tutorials as well as her openness in discussing some issues in the ballet world (but being tactful and fair about it -- she's not Gelsey Kirkland). The comments in her YT videos are mostly ballet students. And as I said, if she's marketing, she's not marketing her personal life, but rather her professional one.

Apologies for the confusion: I wasn't referring to Morgan's social media presence, but rather to the possibility of a feel-good media blitz promoted by NYCB (or any other ballet company she might join) to make a fuss over her joining the company after overcoming the obstacles that had sidelined her. 

I have no issue at all with her social media presence. 

21 minutes ago, fondoffouettes said:

I give her a lot of credit for creating a niche for herself during her time away from the stage.

I do too! If ever there were an example of turning lemons into lemonade, it's Morgan's YouTube channel. I can absolutely understand its bunhead appeal — which is surely based as much on her warmth and openness as it is on her ballerina cred — but I think the knowledge she conveyed may have been as much about empowerment and resilience as it was about perfecting your pirouettes and your makeup. 

8 hours ago, wonderwall said:

That “celebrity” hiring factor popped into my mind as well, but in terms of NYCB—timing her return with the announcement of the AD in an effort to start the company’s new chapter with a feel-good tone/get good publicity. However, NYCB Is bursting at the seams with talented female dancers, so I couldn’t see that happening.

With all due respect to Morgan's talent and resilience, the last thing NYCB's new AD needs to do is arrive with a dancer in tow. What kind of message would that send to the current roster, whose own considerable talent and resilience have been very much in evidence during a period of turmoil almost operatic in its extent? The temporary PR buzz from a Sunday New York Times Arts Section feature about a ballerina's long road back from tragedy to triumph seems hardly worth it. 

Plus, feel-good publicity doesn't always work out the way it seems it might. For evidence of that, one need look no further than the press hoopla around Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild's engagement and marriage. 

20 hours ago, cobweb said:

Week 4 of casting up. Debuts for Sebastian Villarini-Velez as the Cavalier and Kennard Henson as Tea. 

Just about the only thing I remember about Matthew Neenan's "The Exchange" is Kennard Henson's beautiful, eye catching jump in the midst of a sea of dancers rushing hither and thither. There's more to his dancing than that —  the company cast him opposite Lauren Lovette in Afternoon of a Faun, too  — but Tea will give him an opportunity to show it off. 

Good for him, and good for Villarini-Velez.

2 hours ago, cassieallison said:

I thought Gretchen Smith's purple suit was stunning

Seriously. I would like to find one in my size in my closet tomorrow morning.

1 hour ago, balletforme said:

I think that an AD is so much more than artistic. .  .and you really need to have solid management and administrative experience. You just do. It's a business . NYCB's budget is over 65 million. You are putting someone in charge of a multimillion dollar business (510C3 but still). 

As NYCB is currently organized, the artistic staff and the administrative staff are housed in separate, parallel organizations. 

Executive Director Katherine E. Brown is responsible for the following departments: Communications, Development, Marketing & Media , Education, Operations & Company Management, Production & Design, Music, Costume & Wardrobe, Health & Wellness, Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology, The George Balanchine Trust, and NYCB Moves. I assume that she reports directly to the Board of Directors.

The artistic staff, under the leadership of Jonathan Stafford and the rest of the interim team, is comprised of the ballet masters, the Resident Choreographer (currently Justin Peck), the guest teachers, and the children's ballet master.

It is quite possible that the new AD will be primarily responsible for the dancing and repertoire and that Brown will continue to have responsibility for all the other functions. That is, the new AD may have some collegial input into matters such as the budget, production, HR, etc., but might not be responsible for them. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if both the AD and ED reported directly to the Board rather than the ED taking direction from the AD.

21 hours ago, BalanchineFan said:

I was at the SAB open house this year and they had a presentation on costumes. It wasn't Happel, but a man spoke about how costumes for Concerto Barocco and Serenade had changed over time and about how each costume has a book showing design, decoration placement and fabric swatches, (including fabric costs, where to purchase etc.) for all of its elements. The costume shop is on top of it!

Happel talks a bit about each costume's "bible" in this short video feature about remaking the costumes for  Theme & Variations. Yes, the costume shop is on it!

While we're saying nice things about Marc Happel and the costume shop ... It turns out Happel designed Sara Mearns' wedding dress. Scroll down this story in Brides.com for the details. As one might imagine, it's a lovely dress.

7 hours ago, sappho said:

Heh. My first thought when he mentioned this in the new video was that I'd sooner entrust the company to Marc Happel, the astonishingly knowledgable and much-beloved Director of Costumes, than I would to John Clifford. 🙃

I wish someone would make a good documentary about Happel and his costume shop. A binge-able, multi-part series documenting a "year in the life" might even be in order. I appreciate NYCB's little costume gala featurettes about the costume design and construction process, but Happel and his artisans deserve a brighter spotlight.

4 minutes ago, FPF said:

He was obsessing about this in some of his earlier posts, too.

Also, I'm trying to imagine one of Balanchine's ballerinas asking him to coach her on the finer points of the lighting plots rather than, you know, dancing his ballets. 

Wait ... Clifford is seriously worried about not getting the lighting plots and decor aesthetic directly from Balanchine and thinks that that's going to lead to "further degradation" of the repertoire. Hazarding a guess here, but I suspect the lighting plots are pretty well documented, as are the original costumes and decor, and that these are the least of our worries.

5 hours ago, balanchinette said:

It’s another sign of city ballet’s dearth of men that they felt they didn’t have one good enough for the first movement and stuck tyler angle in it, when he normally would be doing the second movement.  Jared doesn’t normally do that role.  

Joseph Gordon has danced the first movement of Symphony in C and Russell Janzen has danced the second, so there were some attractive options on the roster. The company certainly had enough time since the departure of Catazaro, Finlay, and Ramasar to get a cast rehearsed and ready to go. Frankly, Gordon and Janzen would have been preferable first and second movement alternatives to Catazaro, Finlay, and Ramasar in any event.

3 hours ago, canbelto said:

John Clifford is at it again.

His complaint about ballerinas not throwing their heads back in the final moment of the MSND pas de deux is not really borne out by video. At 1:45 in this video Tiler Peck definitely does throw her neck and head backwards. Maybe not the degree that Allegra Kent has, but she does throw it back. 

OK. I watched the video Clifford refers to in the comments to his IG post. And ... I absolutely loathe the way the extreme arch in Kent's back and neck make that particular moment look. In this video at least (and video is not always an honest or accurate record of what happened in the theater) Kent's aggressively arched torso makes makes Amboise's lifting her up from one backbend swoon, releasing her into gravity, rotating her, and lowering her into another swoon looks so effortful (and unmusical) it just kills the moment. It needs to read like one long, sweet sigh. How far back the ballerina arches her back and drops her head is just about the least important thing about this ravishing moment.

Again, it's only one video, but I wouldn't want it to become a model of how the Divertissement MUST be done. Peck and (especially) Hyltin happen to be dancing the role rather beautifully at the moment. While there's always room for improvement, any complaints about their current level of performance is pretty much nit-picking. 

1 hour ago, ABT Fan said:

Anyway. I still think about seeing Laracey in her Concerto Barocco debut last Spring and how magnificent she was. She danced like a principal. Has anyone at NYCB ever been promoted to principal at 35+? I know that's rare anywhere, but maybe she'll get "lucky" like Abrera did across the plaza.

Maybe Judith Fugate? She joined the company in 1973, was promoted to soloist in 1979, and then to principal in 1986. So, it took her 13 years to get from corps to principal, and she spent about 7 years as a soloist.  (And one also had the sense at the time that she was going to finish her career there.) Laracey's been with the company for 15 years and a soloist for five of them. 

4 minutes ago, nanushka said:

Not in his dancing. (what I mostly — though not only — meant). I’ve seen older videos in which he’s excellent, with great energy. Now he so often looks like he can’t keep up. I remember a Rubies from a few years ago; the part when he jogs around with the other guys was just sad, embarrassing.

Oh, I didn't mean his dancing - although there have always been moments when it's looked labored, even when he was a freshly-minted member of the corps. But yes, it wasn't that long ago when he did more than emulate bravura. 

1 minute ago, nanushka said:

Wow, that's surprising, because at least onstage — I've never seen him in person, only onstage (and on video) — Veyette in particular looks so much older.

Veyette always looked like he was born 40. Here's when each dancer joined the corps:

J. Angle - July 1998

La Cour - RDB 2000 / NYCB 2002

Daniel Ulbricht - November 2001

Veyette - Spring 2000

Bouder - June 2000

Reichlen - October 2001

Megan Fairchild, Sterling Hyltin, Georgina Pazcougin, Adrian Danchig-Waring, and Sean Suozzi all joined in the 2002-3 timeframe. 

21 minutes ago, CTballetfan said:

The three disappointing men, going through the motions with hardly any movement or energy, were Andy Veyette, Jared Angle, and Ask la Cour. Taylor Stanley—and De Luz— danced rings around them. I know it was the last performance of the season, but they could have tried.

11 minutes ago, fondoffouettes said:

I think that's just how those three generally dance these days.  I know that sounds harsh, but you'd think they were on the verge of retirement, not de Luz. 

Those three men are roughly of an age with Ashley Bouder and Teresa Reichlen, who appear to be in the high summer of their prime.