Kathleen O'Connell

11 minutes ago, bcash said:

As far as the impact on casting goes, yes this is bad news. Male principal rank was already strained before this. 

There's plenty of talent further down in the ranks. 

24 minutes ago, CharlieH said:

I’m disappointed that this article includes quotes from negative reviews by Macaulay on two of the guys in question. Was that really necessary?

I suppose that the intention might have been to provide some context re the potential impact on the company and the season at hand, in which case it does come off a bit like "Meh, no real biggie despite our breathless lede."

About that lede ... "New York City Ballet — three weeks from its fall season and still reeling from the departure of its longtime leader, Peter Martins —" Hmmm ... I don't know what it's like inside the company, but it certainly doesn't look to be reeling from the outside.  

3 minutes ago, ABT Fan said:

Are we to assume that the three guys sent inappropriate communications to the same person, the complainant? 

The complainant may not have been the person or persons to whom the communications were sent. 

On 8/26/2018 at 3:23 PM, Helene said:

... the big miss was not getting the Watts and Soto Divertissement on film.  It's not the type of role that is usually associated with her, but she was stellar in it ...

You are absolutely right on both counts! Fortunately, one of the Watts / Soto performances was taped for archival purposes, and it's available for viewing on site at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. 

NYPLPA also has video of Watts performing the Divertissement with Sean Lavery  in 1982 and 1985. 

Watts was simply superb in the role. I can honestly say that no other ballerina's performance of it has moved me more than hers did. 

Thank you for the link to the AD posting, FPF! Interesting reading.

21 hours ago, fondoffouettes said:

I appreciate the historical pics and videos John Clifford posts, but his self-promotion is getting to be a bit much. A recent post mentioned how his age shouldn’t preclude him from leading a company. Another encouraged people to email the firm that’s handling the NYCB AD search. And then there’s this most recent post.

Ugh. ME ME ME ME ME isn't exactly the vibe I'd be looking for under the circumstances. Glad you had a career of note dancing for Balanchine and Robbins 50 years ago! Hooray for you! But what's your vision for the company now and for the next decade?

Also, send in your own damn resumé; don't apply for the job on public-facing social media.

Sigh. Apologies for being cross, but Clifford's posts are just rubbing me the wrong way, especially given the lovely modesty of the interim team. 

55 minutes ago, abatt said:

I've seen two separate interviews with Justin Peck in which he directly states he's not interested in becoming AD because he prefers to continue his creative work in choreography.  He said this in an interview he did with CBS Sunday Morning several months ago, and he said it again in the recent NY Times article regarding the Broadway revival of Carousel.  Unless he's playing hard to get, I take him at his word that he is not interested in the job.

His stint on the interim team might have given him some insight into how much of a time-sink running the place might actually turn out to be. 

21 minutes ago, nanushka said:

Maybe. But then, nobody ever admits they're running for president until they do, right? Could be Peck has a bigger vision, and ideas of how this position could boost his creative work as well.

If Peck turns up in a diner in Iowa, we'll know something is afoot! 😉 But of course you are right. Still, it sounds like his some of his aspirations — e.g. to do more dance-based theater and storytelling on Broadway rather than restaging Swan Lake — wouldn't mesh well with a full time AD position at a major US ballet company.

31 minutes ago, bcash said:

I know Woeztel has an excellent track record as well and is very popular guy, with past and current dancers as well as with donors (important).

Yes, it is important. The AD is the public face of the company. Obviously, being admired, trusted, and respected by the dancers and other company stakeholders is job one, but it absolutely does not hurt if the AD has the kind of charisma and cachet that inspires donors to pull out their checkbooks and their rolodexes. 

I don't know if Millepied is interested in the job or if the Board would be willing to risk it on him given the outcome of his stint at the POB, but I can imagine him (and his wife) filling the tables at the gala. I suspect his glamour quotient is rather higher than some of the other candidates.

And ... I wouldn't write Peck off on this front either now that he's had to deal with Broadway investors. But I gather from the interview linked above that he's more focussed creating than running a ballet company at the moment. 

30 minutes ago, Helene said:

I think it's interesting that we're dismissing people in their '70's to run NYCB,  when Donald Trump was elected President at 70 and Ronald Reagan at 69.

Well, that should learn us. 😉

In all seriousness, I think it would likely be better for the company's organizational health if its new AD had at least the prospect of a long tenure in the position. Not that a 70 year old has one foot on the grave and another on a banana peel, but the risk of a forced retirement due to ill health or disability — mental or physical — is higher than it is for someone in their 50s. 

19 minutes ago, its the mom said:

Woetzel just started his contract in July.  I realize he was working in tandem with Polisi for a year, but officially just started.

https://www.juilliard.edu/school/about/office-president

Ok. He's not leaving.

I had no idea that his tenure didn't officially begin until this July. Thank you for the head's up!

20 minutes ago, dirac said:

I had the impression that Lopez would be interested, and her age might actually be a Good Thing - she could be expected to run the company for about 10-15 years, a respectable length of time to guide the company through a rough period. Nichols would seem to be a good choice.

Woetzel - there would be a nice irony in there somewhere  – the former maîtresse-en-titre of the old boss man and symbol of the “bad old days” returning to the company as wife of the new boss man.

Also, Lopez has demonstrated grit: she held Morphoses together for longer than one might have expected after Wheeldon abandoned it and stepped into the Miami AD position at a time of tremendous organization turmoil. 

She danced for Balanchine, she's taught, she's done arts reporting (WNBC-TV), she was ED of the George Balanchine Foundation, she was on the Barnard dance faculty, she founded one dance company and runs another, and she's on the Ford Foundation Board of Trustees. If she's interested in the job, the Board would be foolish not to give her serious consideration.  

12 hours ago, cobweb said:

I am not nearly as familiar as some others here are, with the possible candidates to succeed Martins. But does anyone else have the qualifications that Woetzel does, with experience in dancing, curating/commissioning, and  leadership at a high level (eg, head of a large, multifaceted arts organization)? 

Lourdes Lopez and Peter Boal certainly have as much experience as Woetzel (if not more) as far as dancing and curating / commissioning go. Both also have experience running a ballet company day-in-and-day-out (Miami City Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet, respectively), which Woetzel does not have. Notably, both also lead ballet companies with affiliated schools. 

Being the President of an academic institution — even one focussed on the arts — isn't quite the same thing as being the AD of a performing arts organization, though it certainly suggests that one has some administrative / organizational chops and hopefully some fund-raising mojo. 

It may be hasty to assume that Woetzel is even interested in leaving Juilliard to take on NYCB's AD position. Juilliard is a very prestigious institution with a whopping billion dollar endowment. It has tremendous influence in the arts world (and "world" is literal: it is known everywhere). And it pays well: its previous President, Joseph Polisi, was paid about $2 million in the fiscal year ending 6/30/16. I'm not saying Woetzel is in it for the money (and he's probably not being paid $2 million this early in his tenure), but financial security is not nothing. (Martins' annual take from NYCB and SAB was about $1 million; I assume the new AD will be paid somewhat less.)

I wasn't only referring to young people ready to step into leadership roles in dance: there are young leaders emerging everywhere and it's a wonderful thing.

The list of people who lead arts organizations in their younger decades is long and distinguished. For instance, Diaghilev was in his very early 30s when he founded the Ballets Russes. Ninette de Valois founded what eventually became the Royal Ballet in her early 30s as well. 

Granted, they were creating new companies practically from whole cloth, which is a different sort of challenge from taking over an established company, but still. 

For a current example of that, we have 35 year old Michael Novak, who has been designated Paul Taylor's successor by Taylor himself. 

23 minutes ago, cobweb said:

I am curious about the training of the dancers. The program and website don’t give any info about the background of the dancers. I can’t imagine they all come from the associated school... or can they??

They don't. You have to Google each dancer to learn more about their training and prior experience - although the little flag on each dancer's headshot does provide a clue. For instance, Thomas Giugovaz — who was very impressive in Monotones 1 — is from Italy. A quick Google search reveals that he trained at the La Scala school. 

I'm not sure why Sarasota is so coy about their dancers' training and prior experience. (And you have to be at least a coryphée to even get a bio on the website.) Perhaps the intention is to keep the audience focussed on the here-and-now and to make it clear that the company is a company and not a pick-up troupe.

Sorry. At 71, John Clifford is too old for the position. I mean this as no disparagement to his knowledge, skills, or experience. I'd make the same observation about anyone in their 70s looking to take on this particular job at this particular junction at this particular company. I'd make it about Farrell, McBride, Villella, Bonnefous, whoever. Sure, bring them in as coaches and mentors, but please, it's time for a new generation to take the helm.

I say this as an aging boomer well-pleased by the sterling cohort of young leaders who are ready to take on the many challenges of the years that lie before us all. 

1 hour ago, California said:

I had thought Lourdes Lopez might be a contender, although she's 60, which might be too old to take this on in the minds of some: https://www.miamicityballet.org/portfolio/lourdes-lopez-2

It depends on what the Board is looking for: someone to lead the company for the next 20 years or someone to keep a steady hand on the rudder while they mentor the younger person who will succeed them. 

I've seen the latter done well in a corporate setting, but it requires very careful planning, organizational buy-in, and the right temperaments on the part of both mentor and successor. There's plenty of opportunity for mischief. (I've seen interim leaders decide they'd rather stay in power after all; I've seen presumed successors decide they'd rather not wait; and I've seen competitors to both decide the situation is really a power vacuum just waiting to be filled.) 

The Board may very much want someone with a direct connection to Balanchine — e.g. Lopez or Andersen — because of both their valuable first-hand experience and the authority that experience might give them in the eyes of all the company's stakeholders, but it might also be wary of the perils a shorter tenure would entail.

Given that Martins was 70, I'm frankly shocked that the Board didn't have a succession plan in place. Maybe the plan was to keep Martins in place for another couple of years while he groomed Stafford or Peck and there was no fallback plan ready in case that didn't work out. 

Woetzel certainly seems like an obvious choice given his age, experience, and the apparent regard he commands in many quarters of the arts world. I don't know what the terms of his appointment to Juilliard are; it may be that he is free to leave the position at any time, or, it may be that he's required to serve out a specified term or provide ample notice if he intends to depart. Of course, Woetzel may prefer to stay at Juilliard!

9 hours ago, Marta said:

Actor shouldn't really be gender specific. We say poet and not poetess, even though the latter exists. Singer, not songstress.  Since English is not a language with true genders, like romance languages, it makes sense to use the  same  word to describe all people who practice the same art form.  Painter, not paintress.  Potter or ceramicist. No female sculptor I know wants to be described as a sculptress. It sounds trivializing.

I agree wholeheartedly! Although natural gender persists for some nouns — e.g., "mother" or "father" vs "parent" — grammatical gender in English has been largely eliminated except for a few pronouns. There's no need to try to apply rules for grammatical gender to nouns that don't need them, and there's certainly no need to impose natural gender on them either. 

We can reserve "heroine" for the female protagonist of a novel if we must, but I think we can safely call any woman who's been awarded a Silver Star a hero. 

Ummm ... I do have a certain fondness for "aviatrix," given that "aviator" has been sadly reduced to an adjective for eyeglass frames.  

I love the story behind Franklin's Nessun Dorma performances: she was a last-minute stand-in for an ailing Pavarotti at the 1998 Grammy Awards:

Franklin had been booked on the show to perform a Blues Brothers number with Dan Aykroyd, John Goodman and Jim Belushi. Two nights before, however, she had actually performed “Nessun Dorma” in honor of Pavarotti at a MusicCares dinner. The Grammys producer had an empty hole where Pavarotti’s performance was supposed to be, crossing into the third hour of the show. Could she possibly…?

Producer Ken Ehrlich ran to her dressing room and asked if she’d do it. “She said she wanted to hear the dress rehearsal,” he says. “In those days we had a boombox with a cassette. And I brought it to her and played it for her. When she heard it, she said, ‘Yeah, I can do this.’”

The Daily Beast: When Aretha Franklin Sang ‘Nessun Dorma’ at the Grammys: The Story Behind the Greatest Award Show Performance Ever

Most of the tribute playlists that have come out since Aretha Franklin's death have focused on her undeniably great 60s hits like Respect, Chain of Fools, Think, Natural Woman, etc. 

But I haven't seen many links to 1985's Grammy-winning Freeway of Love, one of her most unabashedly joyful songs and one of her biggest Billboard hits. If you need a celebration of love and road trips, take a listen. Bonus: Clarence Clemmons!

That would indeed make sense

So, I note that the "Board and Staff" section on NYCB's website is divided into three pages:

Board

Administrative Staff, headed by an Executive Director (Katherine E. Brown), which includes Executive Offices, Communications, Development, Marketing & Media, Education (not SAB), Volunteer Services, Operations & Company Management, Production & Design, Music Department, Costume & Wardrobe, Health & Wellness, Finance & Admin, Human Resources, IT, The George Balanchine Trust, and NYCB Moves.

Artistic Staff, headed by the Interim Artistic Team, which includes Ballet Mistress (Dunleavy), Ballet Masters, Resident Choreographer, Guest Teachers, Children's Ballet Master, and Assistant Children's Ballet Master. (This is also where you'll see Balanchine and Kirstein listed as Founders and Balanchine and Robbins listed as Founding Choreographers.)

Will the new AD only be in charge of the Artistic Staff, or will he or she also have responsibility for the Administrative Staff?

Put another way, does (or will) the Executive Director report to the Board or to the AD? (I have no idea who the Music Director, Andrew Litton, reports to ...) 

ETA: I would love to see the actual job posting, but it looks as if it hasn't been made public.

46 minutes ago, Amy Reusch said:

Where I don't see an Artistic Director as  being appropriate is for a school.  Here one would have a Program Director.

Since the company and the school are two separate legal entities with their own Boards, officers, budgets, administrative / professional / artistic staffs, employees, etc., the new NYCB AD could certainly have a different title in his or her capacity as head of SAB. It's a whole different job at a whole different — but obviously closely related — organization.

Note, however, that Peter Martins' title at SAB was "Artistic Director." 

I agree that on the face of it, Program Director makes more sense. 

Queen of Soul dead at 76.

Not the news I needed today, or any day.

I will always cherish this performance and that fabulous hat.

1 minute ago, nanushka said:

This is true at ABT as well. It seems potentially problematic to me.

If I've read NYCB's IRS 990 and website correctly, Peter Martins wasn't on the NYCB Board, although he, Katherine Brown (Executive Director), and Farang Azari (CFO) were Officers, as were the Board Chair, Vice Chairs, President, Treasurer, Secretary, and Counsel. 

I'm on the Board of a (very) small performing arts non-profit. Our Artistic Director is not a member of our Board, although she attends Board meetings. She makes all the artistic decisions; we tell her how much money she can spend.