Fleurfairy

From the clips I’ve seen, I think the music is entirely unsuitable for ballet - lots of screeching violins and no discernible melodies. This is the reason I have not gone to see it yet. Not sure if I ever will. I just can’t abide bad music.

All very well deserved. I saw Fang as Zulma(?) last year and I couldn't take my eyes off her. She's a lovely dancer.

A pretty revealing interview with Sarah Lane and Hee Seo in the NYT today regarding their Don Q debuts. Glad Sarah decided to stick with it just a little while longer and got that promotion. Still, our assumption was correct that the company dancers resented the guest artist trend. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/26/arts/dance/abt-don-quixote-sarah-lane-hee-seo.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fdance&action=click&contentCollection=dance&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

It’s a real shame because Baca and Jared Matthews could be killing it at ABT right now if not for McKenzie’s total mismanagement. He really only had himself to blame for the lack of good male talent.

I’m guessing she will omit the hops on pointe and also the fouettés.

According to Sarah Lane’s Instagram stories, she’s performing Pas de Trois tonight. Sigh.

ABT seemed to pigeonhole Cirio into the Daniel Ulbricht/Tom Gold type roles. Rarely Leading Man roles.

I get the feeling a lot of people have been boycotting due to the really underwhelming casting, me included. Misty getting two performances with two different Romeos was ridiculous. They couldn’t have paired Sarah Lane (a natural Juliet) with Daniil?? That would have been amazing but much too logical of McKenzie. Also pretty sure the majority of people wanted to see Abrera and Hallberg together.

FOF, I hope you didn't back down or apologize. There is no excuse for a child ruining the viewing experience of other ticket purchasers.

She was originally listed on the casting sheet as Columbine but was recently replaced by Skylar Brandt.

Then it doesn't surprise me that they took Misty out of the role. This type of dancing is not exactly her forte.

Let's be honest. Shades Trio is a soloist role at the most. Ideally, a corps or even apprentice dancer should be performing it. The fact that they are putting two principal women in (and notice they didn't dare put Misty in) says 1) their corps and soloist well is very shallow at the moment and not many dancers can step in and make it look decent; 2) they haven't been developing the corps dancers enough to be able take on roles like these at the last minute and 3) management doesn't mind insulting Lane and Shevchenko by giving them these subpar performance opportunities. It's like throwing crumbs to a starving lion.

Just noticed on Sarah Lane's Instagram that she, Shev, and Stephanie Williams are performing the Shades Trio tonight. Kind of ridiculous that they needed to sub in two principal women for roles corps girls should/could be dancing. There really is no development or role experience in the pipeline right now, is there?

I think ABT needs a big overhaul of their Spring Season repertory. Way too many ballets being performed just out of some sort of outdated necessity. The audience is bored which reflects in low ticket sales.

This is the main problem ABT needs to address and frankly, unless it is resolved properly, McKenzie should be out on his keyster. The 10-15 years of relying on the sensation of Guests Artists hurt ABT immensely and it is just now slowly starting to dig itself out of the hole. But the effects of it will be felt for years.

According to Lane’s Instagram stories, she’s got another surprise Peasant Pas this evening. I wonder who she is filling in for...

Agree and I still think she would do better at another company where she could get the performance experience she deserves at this point. What company, I don't know. I think she would have done very well at SFB. I know her dream was to be a principal at ABT but now that that dream is realized, she isn't really dancing any more often than she did as a soloist. Maybe less often actually. It's a shame for her and for the audience who loves to see her.

It is so infuriating that they have been slotted in matinees the past two years.

Glad she's getting the opportunity! She's lovely. And Gabe is fabulous of course.

I would say this is a least a little critical of Misty, considering that her management is the one that has promoted her as the only female principal at ABT. She sought stardom, it's not like the media all of a sudden out of the blue picked this "unknown" soloist and made her a star. She is a self-promoter with her own marketing team (outside of ABT) and so it does reflect badly on her when articles like these appear.

I wish they would bring back Demille's Fall River Legend. I'd love to see some of the newer principals get a stab at that (no pun intended).

I would have to say Sarah Lamb of The Royal. I think she can do anything and everything.

Tchai Pas has a tendency to be cast with smaller dancers. Mearns is one of the bigger principal women and with the flying fish dives, you need a really strong, tall male to catch a dancer of bigger proportions. Of course, that is not the rule as Kowroski and Reichlen have danced Tchai Pas. But I think Reichlen only recently debuted in this as well?

Wow, how old is he? His ballet career seemed to be on the upward trajectory.

I was wondering why Megan Fairchild was absent from the casting sheet for the Spring season. She is pregnant per her Instagram today.