Kathleen O'Connell

I suspect that the majority of the generation that came of age during the Vietnam war — i.e., today's "aging audience" — would not be unduly scandalized by The Green Table.

Thanks - I should have known that, but didn't! A quick search and I found this short video: Backstage at the Met Opera's costume shop: frenzy, fabric and velvet codpieces I don't know if my favorite bit of dialogue is "Is this Pong? No, it's Ping" (about a costume for Turandot) or "How do you feel wearing that codpiece?" (fitting a costume for Henry VIII in Ana Bolena).

Well, for what it's worth, not mine. Since I know most of the NYCB rep well, I have a pretty good idea of what's coming and what I'm going to see, which frankly adds to my experience rather than detracting from it. And it's happened that I've learned something new about a work I've seen dozens of times and simply never noticed before. A couple of the "See the Music" presentations I've seen have featured newly commissioned or less frequently performed works, and I appreciated having my dance-watching and music-hearing pumps primed. I like the experience of taking in something about which I have absolutely no prior knowledge, but I also like the experience of taking in something when I have a grounding in its particulars, either through study or experience. (To quote Louis Pasteur, chance favors the prepared mind.) They're very different ways of encountering and experiencing art, but they're both valid and valuable. On a related note, I love seeing dancers I've witnessed being human beings — either via social media or speaking to us from the stage in their civvies or sweating and fretting in a documentary — transform themselves into something extraordinary through their art. That's mystery enough for me. Of course, your mileage may vary! And I have gotten impatient with "See the Music" from time to time when I've needed to get out of the theater and into a subway car before it turns into a pumpkin.

OT! I wish the powers that be would deign to fund a documentary about NYCB's costume shop. The little clips we get from time to time make me hunger for something more comprehensive — following a project from start to finish, perhaps. Something along the lines of The September Issue — which wasn't really about fashion, but rather negotiating both creative conflicts and production snafus while working to a tight deadline — might be interesting. At the very least, the craft of these fabulous artisans needs to be documented and celebrated.

I agree! The music at that particular point in the piece, with its plucked strings and silvery little bells, has a kind of delicate sparkle that, to my eye at least, is beautifully captured by interleaving the fouettés with those quick little steps on pointe. It makes me think of embroidery. That being said, Peck's fouettés are undeniably thrilling and a legitimate option, given that the variation was sometimes performed that way when Balanchine was alive. (By Melissa Hayden, for instance, in this 1960 telecast. Patricia McBride did the version with the little steps in the Choreography by Balanchine broadcast.)

Just seconding Drew and Vipa: Laracey was absolutely lovely, lovely, lovely as the second ballerina in Concerto Barocco this afternoon! I simply cannot say enough good things about her dancing today. It more than lived up to the promise of her lyrical, luminous Winter season performance in Divertimento No. 15.

Woo Hoo! One of my guilty pleasures! The company absolutely needs to revive this one while Maria Kowroski is still on the roster. I've seen several ballerinas perform it (including Karin von Aroldingen, who originated the ballerina role) and Kowroski was hands down the best — appropriately droll without being the least bit arch. It doesn't hurt that she looks fabulous in the get-up. I can imagine Reichlen in it, too, but will make it a point to see Kowroski if she's cast.

I agree! That combination suits both the delicate sparkle of the music at that particular point as well as role's "perfume" as a whole. The music may have been written for Swan Lake, but the Tschai Pas ballerina isn't Odile.

But Balanchine may (must?) have been comfortable with either approach: Melissa Hayden opts for the fouéttes only version in this 1960s telecast with D'Amboise (its around the 8:30 mark).

Thank you for posting this! I would have missed it otherwise. I see Reichlen does the version with the little steps in between the fouéttes, which I find very pretty and utterly charming. If I recall correctly, Peck does all fouéttes with some port-de-bras thrown in for extra thrills — and that version is thrilling (at least when Peck does it) but I think I prefer the version Reichlen does (which is also the version McBride does in the video).

I'm a Mark Morris fangirl, but I confess that I wanted to see Layla and Majnun for the music — and most specifically for the opportunity to hear Alim Qasimov and his daughter Fergana Qasimova. (Alas, the calendar was working against me and I wasn't able to catch any of the NYC performances.) You can listen to the Qasimovs in performance on Spotify here. I think it's really beautiful, but of course your mileage may vary. And yes, I think L'Allegro is a good place to start with Morris. PBS recorded a performance as part of its Great Performances series, and made it available for viewing online. BUT NOTE: TODAY (March 26 2018) IS THE LAST DAY THAT IT WILL BE AVAILABLE! So drop what you're doing and go watch it now.

OK - I just looked at the entire casting sheet. Here's another way to think about it: if I had to choose between seeing Tiler Peck in Tschai Pas vs Symphony in Three Movements, I'd choose Tschai Pas. If you go with the Pech / Tschai Pas evening, you'll get to see Sterling Hyltin and Adrian Danching- Waring in the Symphony in Three Movements pas de deux, which is well worth a trip to the theater, plus Ashley Laracey's lovely, lovely performance in Divertimento No. 15, plus a look at Joaquin De Luz in what will likely be his last Kennedy Center performances. Plus Claire Kretzschmar's and Joseph Gordon's debut in Pulchinella Variations.

I'd be interested in the venn diagram of people who follow any given ABT ballerina on instagram, the people who seek out Alistair Macaulay's New York Times reviews, and the people who buy tickets.

This is one of Tiler Peck's best roles; it showcases everything that's wonderful about her dancing. If you can only catch one performance, it would be hard to recommend against hers. That being said, Bouder is no slouch in the role and I, for one, would really like to see what Reichlen makes of it. I haven't seen any of the men dance the part, but they're not the dancers I ordinarily look to for Wham! Pow! pyrotechnics. I think we can trust Peck and Angle to nail the fish dives, though.

I actually don't mind it when dancers talk openly about what's hard (or even just annoying) about their jobs. As far as I'm concerned, it's ok if dancers don't like matinees and say so, whether it's because of a physical challenge (e.g., being out of gas from last night's performance), a schedule challenge (e.g., not enough time between class and curtain to prepare physically or mentally for performance), or problems with the house (e.g., the theater is half empty or the audience is sitting on their hands). If anything, it makes me appreciate a good performance even more. What would tick me off would be a comment along the lines of "eh, I only gave 75% today because matinees, who cares amirite?" We've all had to give 100% in situations when we'd have preferred not to, because that's what grown ups and professionals do. I expect the same of the dancers, and frankly, they almost always deliver.

But if the audience is no less deserving, why is it a discredit?

Don't worry. Lane will get the Friday evening Giselle that Osipova will cancel when injury once again forces Hallberg to bow out. Okay, okay, I'm only half joking ...

Murphy has two Wednesday matinees (Whipped Cream and Don Q.) Copeland has a Wednesday matinee (Harlequinade) Boylston has a Wednesday matinee (Firebird) Teuscher has two Wednesday matinees (Bayadere and R&J) Shevchenko has one Wednesday matinee (Swan Lake) Lane has one Wednesday matinee (Giselle) Seo has none, and neither does Abrera. I'm not sure what this tells me about ABT's casting policies, frankly, but it doesn't look like the Wednesday matinee is the Siberia to which only the up-and-comers and the less favored are exiled.

Well, it's a very lovely thing for those of us who, for personal and professional reasons, have to opt for the matinees. I may have mentioned this before, but we are not chopped liver.

Balanchine may well have been both concerned by the discrimination Mitchell was subject to as a black man in America and unwilling to accommodate it. Good for him. But that doesn't mean that Agon without a mixed race couple in the central pas de deux is somehow less of a ballet, which is what Kourlas seems to suggest, or that the ballet is in some way a statement about race. Interestingly enough, I think a mixed race couple might perturb today's audiences less than the central pas de deux' frank eroticism.

Hmmm ... I take issue with Kourlas' assertion that the Agon pas de deux was "intended" for a black man and a white women or that "Skin color is as much a part of 'Agon' as its Stravinsky score." It was certainly choreographed on a mixed race couple, but "intended" for one for all eternity? That seems unlikely. I'd have to crack open the reference books to check, but I seem to recall reading that Balanchine liked the juxtaposition of Adams' and Mitchell's sharply contrasting skin tones but wasn't wholly alert to the fraught implications his decision to cast them had in the America of the 1950's and was somewhat surprised by the reaction he provoked.

My general impression this season: more than a few dancers could lose five pounds and more than a few could gain five pounds. But many, many more than a few are dancing with all the power, musicality, and artistry that one could ask for, and that's a good thing.

If Finlay can't dance the role with the requisite speed and elan, then he shouldn't be cast in it, irrespective of how much his appearance may evoke the role's originator. NYCB has plenty of men on its roster — short and tall — who can do Duo Concertant justice. I mean this as no disrespect to Finlay.

Ditto Nikolaj Hübbe, who is also about six feet tall and blew through Duo Concertant like a whirlwind. I did see Finlay perform Duo Concertant early-ish in his career, and while he was no R. Fairchild, he was OK. Injury may have taken its toll in the interim.

Sigh, it appears so, and it really makes it a different ballet. I still like it well enough (it's the only Millepied ballet I've seen that I do genuinely enjoy from beginning to end) but those Iris Van Herpen costumes were its chief glory. Herpen's costumes gave Neverwhere a quirky, Forbidden Planet-ish kind of vibe. Since Millepied relies as much on moody stage pictures as steps, those costumes gave it a bit of an unexpected edge. Millepied's vocabulary of stage imagery is ... stylish but predictable (think trendy boutique hotel lobby) and the original costumes at least gave them a bit of frisson. Now Neverwhere is just another black practice clothes & dark lighting ballet, and we certainly don't lack for those. I assume the decision was made to ditch the costumes now that half of the original cast has moved on; perhaps it was impractical (or too expensive) to refit or rebuild them for a mostly new cast. I saw the Sunday 2/25 matinee performance, and thought the dancers (Sara Adams, Emilie Gerrity, Lauren Lovette, Russell Janzen, Joseph Gordon, and Preston Chamblee) acquitted themselves more than honorably. ETA: To get a sense of what Herpen's costumes were like and what their effect was, go to Neverwhere's page in the Repertory section of NYCB's website for some videos and a slideshow. The one featuring Mark Happel and the costume shop making Herpen's vision a reality is worth a look.