Balletwannabe

What's with the finger pointing in the courage fairy choreo?  Why?? It's distracting. 

1 hour ago, pirouette said:

I was also quite impressed by Woodward and Gerrity last night. Yes, there were a few small mishaps but overall I left the show on a high. About the fish dives - I noticed that as she is 'diving' one of her legs (I think the front/left leg) is flailing and bent a bit. Maybe that's what made it look a little off? Once she was in the actual fish dive position, it looked fine to me.  

Fairchild's fish dives looked awkward in this same way- I wasn't sure if I was just nitpicking because she did it the same way both times. 

11 hours ago, Caesariatus said:

I saw Wednesday's Sleeping Beauty (Fairchild/Gordon).  Not a lot of emotional depth to it, but a lot of beautiful dancing in beautiful costumes.  Fairchild and Gordon were both very good.

One thing I never really noticed before is just how manipulative the Lilac Fairy is. She played Prince Desire like a violin.  He was just a pawn in her inter-fairy rivalry with Carabosse.

My impression from the mime scenes was that she was helping him because he wasn't very intelligent.  

"I have to do what?"

"Find the princess"

"But there are thorns"

"You have a sword"

"Oh is that what this is?"

28 minutes ago, bellawood said:

How was the performance, Balletwannabe? 

Megan Fairchild is a 39 year old mother of 3 and pulled off playing an innocent sweet 16 year old.  I loved every minute of her stage.  

Highlight for me were Emma Von Enck & Harrison Cole in the cat pas.  I wanted it to last so much longer.  Their technique & chemistry was off the charts.  

I was not enthralled by the "Jewels" in the Wedding, except fot Megan LeCrone playing Diamond.  I just really enjoyed it, can't put my finger on why.

I hate Peter Martin's choreography for the fairy's.  Dance after dance I wondered why I wasn't enjoying these dancers- and then I realized it's the choreography.  

However - Mira Nadon's role being much larger as the Lilac Fairy, thoroughly enjoyed.  I know she's tall, but I think she could pull off Aurora.  She has beautiful, expressive stage presence.

Joseph Gordon's technique was excellent, thoroughly enjoyed his solos.  

The jesters need to work on timing & spacing .  Had the same issue with the men's sections in Copeland Episodes.  If timing is off it ruins the energy of the group.  

I could tell Maria K. Was thoroughly enjoying her evil role.  Loved it.  

Overall an enjoyable performance, looking forward to comparing with Woodward.

7 minutes ago, Balletwannabe said:

I was at the performance last night and there was an SAB student performing a corp role who is not yet an apprentice.  You will see the +++ indicated next to her name, Maya Milic. 

The advanced SAB students performing the roles that "require hardly any technique" are fully capable of dancing at a high level should there suddenly be a large group out of the corp due to Covid or injury.  I watched Maya Milic & her peers at the female choreography night & Jonathan Stafford was in attendance.  The relationship between SAB & NYCB is tight-knit.

I have no idea why my post just quoted and double posted and I don't know how to delete oops.

I was at the performance last night and there was an SAB student performing a corp role who is not yet an apprentice.  You will see the +++ indicated next to her name, Maya Milic. 

The advanced SAB students performing the roles that "require hardly any technique" are fully capable of dancing at a high level should there suddenly be a large group out of the corp due to Covid or injury.  I watched Maya Milic & her peers at the female choreography night & Jonathan Stafford was in attendance.  The relationship between SAB & NYCB is knit tight.

30 minutes ago, Rose said:

Well, doesn't Peter Martins cast Sleeping Beauty because he choreographed it? She wrote that book...

Yes, I don't think choreographers are too keen on casting dancers that label them as their psychological abuser.  

Edit: assuming he does do casting.  I don't know how that works.  

Hi- thank you for the recommendations to see Fairchild, I have tickets for the opening on Wednesday.  Bookended with the final SL with Woodward.  Can't wait!

Another question - I have this point only been seated in 2nd/3rd/4th ring.  I've never done the partial views or orchestra.  I plan on many more performances in the future.  Where are your favorite Koch theater seats and why?

The future is bright with the talent I saw at SAB last night during their female choreography night.  And I might note since height is being discussed- they continue to train dancers of various heights.  I've always liked that about NYCB.

2 minutes ago, carllovesballet said:

I'd go for Fairchild - might be her last run of it.

Thanks, I was leaning towards her after seeing her in Copeland Episodes.  

I'm seeing Woodward but I have the opportunity to pick from the following for a second performance: Lafreniere, Fairchild, Peck.  Who would you go for?

Has anyone attended the SAB choreographic events?  Looking forward to the evening of female choreography event on Wednesday.

Copeland Episodes:

Justin Peck had some weird dance dreams and put it on the stage and I'm here for it.  Choices were made.  Some strange ones, but made with confidence.

I loved it.  

Joking aside (but I did love it): putting that many male dancers on the stage comes with pitfalls.  I've never seen so many male dancers for that length of time; I felt like they lacked chemistry.  Timing could have been much improved and for that reason I found those sections a bit distracting.  I wasn't sure if they were supposed to be in unison or not.  I think I also just didn't love the choreography for them.  

I'm not sure if T.Peck typically has better extensions, or if I'm just comparing directly after seeing Nadon's gorgeous long lines.

I believe tonight may have been sold out, the energy in the audience was wonderful.

I had to add- Megan Fairchild was delightful, I could watch her all day.  The yellow was also so flattering on her.

4 minutes ago, carllovesballet said:

I have only ever sat in 4th ring (usually any center POV) and it's still been great - especially for large scale ballets like Copeland and SB I prefer a more birds eye view, so hopefully you enjoy it!!

Good to hear!

Funny, I would have preferred 2nd or 3rd, all that was available (for $38) was 4th ring.  I'm going to Copeland Episodes and then SB later in February.  Hoping the top view is ok for these shows, I've never actually sat in 4th.

Ballet has pointe work (unique to this art) which always fascinates the general public.  I don't know why they don't hone in on this in their marketing; it's the type of thing that gets shared on social media.  A general artsy-modern video like the one being referenced, is not interesresting at all and will not be shared, because there's nothing unique about it.  

10 minutes ago, BalanchineFan said:

Thank you for posting this @uptowner! I don't always keep track of the podcasts. This is a total GEM! I just love Wendy and hearing her, Craig Hall, Craig Baldwin and Chun Wai Chan talk about this project is just fascinating. Like Copland, my mother also studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris!

"Drain your bladder. It's 80 minutes with no intermission. You're not going to want to miss anything." Good to know.

Ok, so I'll come dehydrated; that's the only way I'm making it for 80mins.  

3 minutes ago, abatt said:

NYCB has been hiring a lot of modern dance choreographers who have limited knowledge and understanding of ballet.   In my opinion many of those works have been unsuccessful and not worth NYCB's expenditure of resources.  Even if you don't care for some of Ratmansky's works, at least they will utilize the ballet idiom in a sophisticated manner.   

I think Ratmansky was being rather diplomatic in explaining his departure from ABT.  As an example, when ABT presented a second cast of his The Seasons in the Fall at the Koch, there was one ballerina who had a difficult role and was obviously out of her depth in performing the very difficult choreograph.  Ratmansky will not encounter such issues at NYCB ,where the depth of talent at every level is astonishing.  The company has a seemingly endless pipeline of remarkable talent right now.

It makes complete sense that he would sign on with NYCB.  

I can think of at least one NYCB dancer who is not celebrating the hiring of Ratmansky for the next 5 years.

A principal female?  I remember one arguing with him on Facebook.  

3 hours ago, matilda said:

Aurora casting clue alert: Unity rehearsing the Rose Adagio in Chun Wai Chan's Instagram stories

Gilbert Bolden's voice in the background 🤣. Love it.

Ashley Bouder updated that she's still dealing with her foot injury.  I think this is good timing to avoid any and all drama surrounding her as Aurora.  I don't mean I'm happy she's injured, but if it was going to happen, now's a good time to avoid a lot of stress for all parties involved.

I've seen Phelan as SPF & Indiana Woodward as Dewdrop (not an NYCB performance).  They are very different dancers and I think they are suited to those; Dewdrop requires a different energy and I think Woodward nails it. 

The most recent one was... interesting.  Women kill themselves for the few coveted soloist roles... let's not make them also compete with men who typically all end up with an abundant repertoire of soloist roles?  Alas, I digress.  I know it's just a fun little thing, but NYCB officially posted it...so ..noted: nothing in the future will surprise me.

A quick search reveals that there was no consent. "In response, Ramasar allegedly sent a naked picture of his girlfriend Alexa Maxwell, who is also a dancer, to the other two men without her consent"

"Maxwell called his text messages a “misstep in judgment.” She said he had apologized to her multiple times, and that she had already forgiven him."

17 hours ago, Drew said:

One reason for the problems we have now is that the "instead of" you mention was not a consistent reality by any means. "Proper private review"processes," all too often were derelict in workplaces even, or especially, when they were needed.  What we are discussing as "cancel culture" didn't replace a system that was working just fine. 

(This is not a comment on NYCB or Waterbury and Finlay. But a general comment.)

I'm sure you're right - so it's only gotten worse, it seems.  

1 hour ago, Helene said:

NYCB has "community standards."  

And it's not as if morals clauses, or whatever they're named, are something new and part of "cancel culture," unless you consider "cancel culture" as old as the oldest sin, because workplaces and groups have, for millenia, removed people from violating their cultural norms, which, for companies, has simply meant embarrassing them., or restricted them from the beginning.

I'm referring to cancel culture as a new phenomenon, where instead of a proper (private) review process of behavior that might end in a firing, the public has become the judge & jury and companies unfortunately let them decide more often than not.  I think it's awful, but as I said, it's not going anywhere.  

9 hours ago, On Pointe said:

One could argue that the true faces of the scandal are Finlay's and Waterbury's.  Yet in the many articles about it in the non-dance internet coverage,  Ramasar's face was often the only one shown.  

In my opinion, the whole kerfuffle was an over-reaction on management's part.  Everyone involved was an adult.  NYCBallet had no business interfering in their private lives.  Of course they had to defend themselves when Waterbury sued the company,  which is still playing out.  But there is precedent that corporations are not responsible for the non-work related activities of their employees.

This isn't true in any job, anywhere.  If something becomes public that's considered offensive or unsavory, you can/will be fired.  Most people sign a contract that includes a morality clause.  "Cancel culture" isn't going anywhere.  This wasn't a shocking story, we see these types of stories every day in the news.  

Your second point that they're not *responsible* (legally), 100% true.