Kathleen O'Connell

49 minutes ago, abatt said:

Hyltin was glorious.

Oh, she was! 

3 hours ago, Helene said:

I also adored his Little Humpbacked Horse

I loved it too. (I certainly loved Vladimir Shklyarov and Evgenia Obraztsova in the lead roles.)

I do think Ratmansky's reconstructions are more successful than the story ballets he creates "from scratch." But even then, I think he makes the occasional misstep when it comes to storytelling matters like focus and pacing.

20 hours ago, Olga said:

It seems they have banned Odessa, or at least they aren’t showing it, presumably because of an ambiguous rape scene. 

I think this refers Siobhan Burke's observations in a New York Times article entitled No More Gang Rape Scenes in Ballets, Please, which was discussed in this thread.

I thought the referenced passage from Odessa—in which one of the lead ballerinas gets tossed around by a group of men—pointed towards a culture that was comfortable with casual but ugly violence towards women while at the same time idealizing them. I didn't find it as offensive as the purse snatching scene in Fancy Free, which we are supposed to take as good fun—but only someone who's never been harassed on the street by strangers could think that scene depicts "good fun." I think we're to understand that the violence in Odessa is as ugly as it looks.

3 hours ago, BalanchineFan said:

What did you like about Odessa? And why is Namouna your favorite?

I like Ratmansky's not-quite-a-narrative-but-not-really-abstract works with a whiff of the cinematic about them the best, and both the deliciously demented Namouna and the darker Odessa are solidly in that category. (I'm inclined to put his Serenade after Plato's Symposium for ABT in the same category.) I think Ratmansky is better at almost narrative than full-on narrative; he's not a great storyteller, IMO, but he implies stories better than anyone I can think of, with the possible exception of the very cinematic Crystal Pite.

Namouna is what you'd get if you atom-smashed Apollo*, Ivan Tsarevich, Buck Rogers, and a 1930s movie-musical set on a cruise ship. (Like this one, with Fred, Ginger, and a chorus of glamorous women in ball gowns and tutus. I always think of that scene when I see this one from Namouna.). Ratmansky used Leonid Desyatnikov’s incidental music from Russian director Alexander Zeldovich's film Sunset ("закат") as his score for Odessa. The film was based on Isaac Babel's Odessa Tales**. (Babel himself wrote a play—also entitled Sunset—based on some of his Odessa Tales material.) I haven't seen Zeldovich's film, but it doesn't sound like Ratmansky's ballet is a reworking of it, even though it's got criminal underworld atmospherics to burn. It's also got this gorgeous choreography, originally for Joaquin de Luz and Sterling Hyltin. 

* Here's Polyhymnia. Here's Calliope. Here's Terpsichore manqué 😉

** Odessa Tales deals largely with Odessa's pre-revolution criminal underworld.

3 hours ago, BalanchineFan said:

How many Ratmansky ballets are they supposed to keep going?

All of them. 😉

Namouna is my favorite, but I liked Odessa too.

50 minutes ago, abatt said:

In my opinion, that's an upgrade.

Definitely! It doesn't hurt that NYCB's current roster has more than a few women who might shine in the role.

I thought Teresa Reichlen's Firebird was as much a touchstone as her Rubies Tall Girl was, so it will be interesting to see what the new generation does with the role now that she's retired.

7 hours ago, abatt said:

Unity got the coveted part in the final section.  All the steps were there, and she looked radiant, but this role can be so much more communicative of thoughts and feelings.  

This echoes my sentiments about Phelan's performance in La Sonnambula. She looked lovely, she did the steps, but she never conveyed the sense that the Sleepwalker had an inner life and a backstory, much less created any sense of mystery. Janie Taylor's barnburner of a performance in the role a few years back was an object lesson of what it can be in the hands of a ballerina who leans into its Gothic roots with a will. You knew The Poet was doomed the second she started to bourrée across the stage.

It is Phelan's wont to color inside the lines, and her dancing can be pretty but bloodless as a result. For a while the company tried casting her roles that call for a ball-of-fire attack—like the Fall ballerina in Robbins' The Four Seasons—but she never looked comfortable in them. 

20 hours ago, FITTB85 said:

I am a millennial and therefore I’m the target audience for Abraham but I LOVED this. Incorporating pop-and-lock movement with ballet is all I’ve ever wanted.

I'm a millennial at least twice over and I have quite the appetite for Abraham. Pop-and-lock moves date back to at least the 70s Funk era—aka, Boomer Salad Days. 😉

The Royal Ballet has a video up of Abraham rehearsing the ballet he choreographed for them (Optional Family) with three of the company's dancers and it provides a little window onto his way of working within the context ballet technique.

5 hours ago, bellawood said:

I think EWG could be trimmed by 10 minutes

EWG has about four false finales. Every time I think it's done, nope, there's more.

7 hours ago, BalanchineFan said:

She will be missed.

Indeed she will! I've really enjoyed her dancing and I'm sad to see her go. (I thought she looked terrific in her duet with India Bradley in Peck's Partita.) I hope she continues to choreograph. I think the two pieces she's done for the NYCI show real promise and I'd love to see her pursue a choreographic career if she has a mind to.

You can see videos of her two NYCI works here and here.

20 hours ago, Roberta said:

Hope Boykin and the raised fists at ABT Studio.

Boykin's For What Is It All Worth? struck me as being a pretty classic entry in the Un-ironic Youth Anthem* genre, as wholly in the spirit of 1967 as 2020. I saw my late-60s, MY GENERATION'S GONNA FIX THIS WORLD! self in it—back when the Buffalo Springfield song used for its score was a hit—and it made me smile. Boykin sees hope in the generation of which the ABT studio company is a part, and I'm inclined to honor her for that. Raised fists weren't much in evidence in the version I saw, but fingers pointing up towards heaven were. 

*Paul Taylor's Field of Grass is the ironic version. Taylor used Harry Nilsson songs for his score, so no surprise there, I guess.

1 hour ago, abatt said:

I think a part of the problem at NYCB is that Peter Martins hired choreographers who were steeped in ballet and who employed ballet vocabulary in their works. 

I'd argue that many of them didn't employ it particularly well—Mauro Bigonzetti and Angelin Preljocaj by way of example, although the list is long and distinguished. 

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on Abraham's skill in melding ballet's technique, vocabulary and dance logic with his own characteristic style. The solo to "I Love Kanye" looks like textbook male bravura to me. And re Stanley's solo: the more outlandish the phrase, the more it resolves into something from the ballet classroom—ditto other sections of the work. I find it The Runaway compelling viewing after viewing after viewing for just that reason. 

1 hour ago, abatt said:

I think the company gets a tax deduction if it gives away tickets for educational purposes.

ABT is a non-profit, so it doesn't pay taxes. It could be that its Board members, private foundations, or government grantors provide some additional targeted funds to support free or discounted youth tickets. 

On 5/18/2022 at 9:13 PM, Helene said:

Plot Point is The Bomb.

It sure is! I saw today's matinee performance (6/26/22) and wanted to see it again immediately. 

On 5/19/2022 at 3:56 AM, seattle_dancer said:

It isn’t exactly dance, it’s more like structured movement

On 5/19/2022 at 3:14 PM, SandyMcKean said:

From my POV, it may technically not be labelled ballet (or even dance), but frankly, I can't imagine anyone not ballet trained being able to do it (at least not well).

"Structured movement" puts me in mind of Robert Wilson's work for the opera stage—i.e., movement crafted for non-dancers and designed to integrate with the overall production design in order to achieve particular theatrical / dramatic effects. I don't see how someone who wasn't a rigorously trained dancer could have performed any of the roles in Plot Point. It's much "dancier" than Pite's cinematic effects make it seem at first glance; there's real dance logic to the movement and it's firmly grounded in the music. I'd label it dance for sure.

Dove's Standing on the Front Porch of Heaven is an echt 90's ballet, from the Arvo Pärt score, to the white unitards, to the moody pools of light, to the random outbursts of faintly absurdist gesture that is rooted in neither dance logic nor dramatic expression, to the placid, mournful solemnity. (Since Pärt's score is only about 8 minutes long, we hear it three times through.) There are some genuinely compelling sections—e.g., the central pas for two of the men, or the sections where the ensemble joins hands in a circle and cycles through a series of kaleidoscopic patterns. But overall the work looks dated and made me realize how old I am: I remember when this kind of thing was new. 

Tharp's Waiting at the Station was fine. I wouldn't rush to the theater to see it again, but I certainly wouldn't object if it happened to be on the program with something else I wanted to see. The choreography is fluent, but the whole premise of the ballet is just plain hokey. And why two lead couples? I couldn't see that they were particularly distinct in any way: I kept waiting for the pas or solos that would give them different stories.

I'm glad PNB brought Pite to NYC since we don't get to see much of her work here. The dancers were all terrific, and so were the musicians. 

On 6/10/2022 at 5:41 PM, Roberta said:

It's primarily about the paying audience feeling as if it's getting its money's worth. Such a great rep at NYCB and we got that sad mixed bill?

I like both Bell's Suspended Animation and Peck's Partita a lot when I saw them in NYC and will buy tickets to see them again when they return to the stage. (I've already seen Partita three times ... It's safe to say I more than like it. 😉)

I liked all of Emanon's music (Wayne Shorter is one of the jazz greats) and about three-quarters of its choreography. Except for a big, introspective solo for Jonathan Fahoury, most of Roberts' choreography looked like pretty straight-up neo-classical ballet to me—as @canbelto pointed out above, it hearkens back to Balanchine in Who Cares mode. In truth, my main complaint is Emanon's relentless busyness; Fahoury's solo represented the ballet's only real change of texture and it was like a balm. (It would benefit from different costumes, too. The flirty skirts are great; the peplums less so. The less said about the men's pants, the better.) In any event, the applause seemed pretty enthusiastic both times that I saw it.

It might not have been the best mixed bill showcasing its new ballets that the company could have put together, but I wouldn't consider it sad.

But I'm the kind of ballet-goer who signs up for mixed bills of new work: sure sometimes it's forgettable, but then a masterpiece comes along and you're glad you were there. I didn't hesitate to buy tickets to see PNB's Dove / Pite / Tharp program when it returns to NYC in just a couple of weeks: I'll have more than enough opportunities to see Diamonds, frankly, although I'm sure PNB more than does it justice.

4 hours ago, Peg said:

I must say I wasn’t disappointed in the least with seeing Woodward and Veyette.

I thought Woodward was absolutely superb in the Midsummer Divertissement.  She was musical, un-mannered, and filled out every phrase with a relaxed ease that looked as natural as breathing. (I've seen Woodward step into a Tiler Peck role a couple of times this season and haven't been disappointed yet.) 

Veyette looked better than he has in an age—much better. I'm not sure I'd have preferred Tyler Angle, to be honest.

17 hours ago, Drew said:

I must admit I can live without I'm Old Fashioned which I have always found disappointing. 

Robbins' 33 minutes of choreography somehow doesn't live up to the two minute clip of Rita Hayworth and Fred Astaire dancing that's projected on to the giant screen at the back of the stage when the ballet begins, and thus seems doubly disappointing by comparison. Also, the men's costumes are awful; they look like the wait staff.

Here's Hayworth and Astaire in "I'm Old Fashioned" from You Were Never Lovelier:

4 hours ago, abatt said:

Better to keep showing The Runaway.

I certainly think so. 😉

I prefer my Astaire straight up.

12 minutes ago, Helene said:

That sounds like a stupendous Apollo

Maybe not stupendous—I think that depends on how wedded one is to the Farrell / Martins white-tights model—but I was certainly glad to be there for the happy accident of it all. I'd like to see this same cast after they had a chance to perform it together a few more times.

1 hour ago, abatt said:

FYI, Pazcoguin replaced Pollack last night in Apollo.  I believe this was a debut.

It was. Some thoughts on last night's Apollo in no particular order:

The only dancer left from the originally announced cast was Sara Adams. Stanley, Peck, Laracey, Adams became Danchig-Waring, Hyltin, Laracey, Adams which became Danchig-Waring, Hyltin, Pollack, Adams which became Danchig-Waring, Hyltin, Pazcoguin, Adams. 

What the heck are they saving Sara Adams for? Her debut as Calliope was so strong you'd have thought she'd been dancing the role for years. She did something that only a handful of the many ballerinas I've seen in the role have been able to do: weave Calliope's outlandish gestures and abrupt changes of mood into the fabric of the steps. Brava!

Gina Pazcoguin made a surprise, last-minute debut as Polyhymnia and I'm glad I was there for it. Her Polyhymnia was deliciously boisterous. I've seen casts dance Apollo like they were afraid they were going to break it. Not Pazcoguin: she tore into the role with gusto and palpable joy. 

No one in last night's cast seemed interested in dancing Apollo like a museum piece they needed to handle with white archivist's gloves in a climate-controlled room. Danchig-Waring looks like a big blond god Apollo, but (thankfully!) doesn't dance the role that way. In sculptural terms, his Apollo is Bernini's coiled energy rather than Praxiteles' elegant repose. He still shows us Every. Single. Step (as is his wont) but dances the role like Peter Martins' Apollo never happened, and I mean that 100% as a compliment. I'd really like to see him in the complete version.

I'm glad I got to see Hyltin's Terpsichore again before she retires. (It's like a knife in my heart to write those words.) She was joyful, playful, and soulful by turns and feather-light without being fly-away. Her authority comes from her musicality and serene self-possession rather than magisterial grandeur, and I find it refreshing. 

On 5/9/2022 at 6:43 PM, nanushka said:

e.g. I love Balanchine, generally, but there are certain of his pieces that just do not do it for me

There's a lot of Balanchine that doesn't do it for me, including some of his popular ballets. If I never saw Western Symphony or Vienna Waltzes again, my life would not be materially altered for the worse. 

On 5/9/2022 at 6:52 PM, nanushka said:

I've also found that the new team doesn't seem to have as good a sense (or perhaps just has a very different sense) of the three-act structure and how to use it most effectively.

Yes to this. I've wondered if the programming and program order have been driven by the exigencies of both Covid and retirements. 

I guess I'm an outlier. I thought NYCB's Spring 2022 programming was pretty strong. The only ballets on the schedule I have zero interest in are Scherzo à la Russe and The Cage. I'd have seen the Visionary Voices program thrice over had I been able to, even though I don't have a lot of enthusiasm for Emanon. 

ETA: Here's a list of the ballets programmed this spring. I have a few quibbles*, but overall, it looks pretty strong to me. The new Peck and Farley ballets may have been disappointments (I haven't seen either), but there's no way to know that when the season is being put together. 

•    A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Balanchine)
•    Afternoon of a Faun (Robbins)
•    Agon (Balanchine)
•    Allegro Brillante (Balanchine)
•    Apollo (Balanchine)
•    Architects of Time (Farley)
•    The Cage (Robbins)
•    Circus Polka (Robbins)
•    Divertimento From 'Le Baiser De La Fée' (Balanchine)
•    Divertimento No. 15 (Balanchine)
•    Duo Concertant (Balanchine)
•    Emanon - In Two Movements (Roberts)
•    Firebird (Balanchine)
•    The Four Seasons (Robbins)
•    The Four Temperaments (Balanchine)
•    The Goldberg Variations (Robbins)
•    Law of Mosaics (Tanowitz)
•    Orpheus (Balanchine)
•    Partita (Peck)
•    Piano Pieces (Robbins)
•    Pulcinella Variations
•    Rubies (Balanchine)
•    Scherzo à la Russe (Balanchine)
•    Scherzo Fantastique (Balanchine)
•    Serenade (Balanchine)
•    Stravinsky Violin Concerto (Balanchine)
•    Symphony in Three Movements (Balanchine)
 

*The Cage. Ugh. Since it's a Stravinsky Festival, I'd have opted for Robbins' Les Noces (1965 version) not because the ballet itself is great, but because the music is. The way NYCB stages it, with the percussionists, pianists, soloists, and chorus on stage with the dancers makes for spectacular theater. 

2 hours ago, BalanchineFan said:

I have found that expecting anything, expecting that people will give you anything (even based on your past accomplishments) is a path to misery and suffering.

This is true for every profession. I've watched smart, talented people spiral into very dark places when they got passed over for a promotion they believed they deserved or saw someone else get assigned to a plum project they wanted for their own. 

17 minutes ago, JanLevNYC said:

Currently, NYCB's roster has a very thin line up.

I actually think there's a greater diversity of body types than there have been in the past, in terms of height, body type, weight, what have you. It's hard for me to look at a roster showcasing dancers like Sara Mearns, Indiana Woodward, Emily Kitka, Isabella LaFreniere, Mira Nadon, Adrian Danchig-Waring, Preston Chamblee, and Gilbert Bolden III and think of it as a thin lineup, or that the men are too small. 

I think they all look great, by the way. 

22 hours ago, Helene said:

Apollo is the one ballet where I wish that every man who wants to dance the role has the opportunity.

YES! I think it's one of those porous roles that can accommodate a considerable diversity of dancers, and not just in terms of looks—e.g., blond princes—but also in style and presentation. 

Peter Martins got stuck in an "Apollo Must Be Blond" rut and it took Robert Fairchild to bust him out of it.