I saw La Fille last night, 8pm. I just moved to NY, and this is actually my first time seeing any American ballet company. I've seen La Fille a few times at RB, and I love Aston. I actually found this forum because I was looking for guidance about which partnerships I might enjoy seeing, not having seen any of them live before.
My thoughts....
On the whole this performance lacked quickness and sharpness, and also fluidity especially in the back. I've also always thought this was a really bouncy ballet, and this performance felt heavier than others I've seen.
Cory Sterns was a disappointment. He made it look like Gillian weighed 200 pounds, and he fluffed two lifts, once almost dropping her before he finally heaved her onto his shoulder. Their pas de ruban in act 1 looked like they were concentrating so much on the physical side of what they were doing they didn't hide it with the affection and flirting I've seen before. Gillian's acting and mime is great otherwise, she really made me think she was a petulant teen, her mime was lovely too. Generally, he didn't help sell the young love, romantic soppiness I've seen before and his dancing was unremarkable in the solos.
The corps were very nice and together, and good acting especially in the storm scene, I almost felt them getting soaked and blown about. The chickens were great, these are soloist roles at RB, so it's nice to see them going to apprentices and junior corp members here. I thought the 4 of them really projected the characters well (and dealt with a shoe coming off very professionally).
I like pantomine, so don't have a problem with playing it for laughs; I thought Arron Scott was really good both acting and dancing, I'd be happy to come see him again in a non-character role (he came closest to the bounce & energy I was expecting overall). Marcelo Gomes was great; I thought the clog dance was one of the best I've seen, and he's a great character actor.
I was sitting in the Family Circle (only first 3 rows were anything close to full), but moved down to the center B row of the Balcony in the intermission. I thought it was pretty empty overall, and several other people shifted forwards too. The comments here are right, it's a huge theater, and the family circle is not ideal for ballet, but the company on a whole does a good job projecting up (at least in this performance).
I have tickets to La Corsaire and Sleeping Beauty too, and I'm hoping to find nights I can go to the rest of the season.
