BalanchineFan

Returning from pregnancy is quite different from having an injury. During her pregnancy Bouder posted videos of herself doing fouettés in class at 6 and 9 months pregnant (scroll through her IG, the posts are still there). Not the sort of thing you can do in the midst of a "possibly career ending injury."

Ashley Bouder just posted on IG (in the stories, I believe) that she is back from a "possibly career ending injury" and thrilled to be onstage. She thanked her family and her physical therapists.

At SAB they danced only the fourth movement of Symphony in C. I thought it worked well. It's rousing piece on its own, though it doesn't last that long.

So Sterling is debuting Rosenkavalier! How lovely. And how lovely that she's cast with Robert Fairchild. He's looking fabulous these days. I have tickets to see him in the Wheeldon/Joni Mitchell piece with Sara Mearns at Fall For Dance. I'm really looking forward to that ,too.

People are also complaining online about ABT's interface with that same theater. Maybe it has something to do with the theater.

Kurt Froman posted an ad campaign from the early 1980's that features women in pointe shoes, but their feet only. It strikes me as a counterpoint to this current ad. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg9eZ9Jgs5e/

Verrrry interesting. It sounds like a fascinating Fall Fashion Gala: Solange and Gianna Reisen, Kyle Abraham and Giles Deacon, Justin Peck and Raf Simons and SYMPHONY IN C! Maybe I'll try to get a ticket to the gala itself.

Yes, they are slow with the dancer headshots. There are a few interim places to look for photos, however. Newer dancers are often featured in NYCBallet's Instagram. They also have interviews (short 5 question articles) on their website, from time to time. I know you didn't ask about these particular dancers, but this is an example of what's on NYCB's Instagram Quinn Starner https://www.instagram.com/p/CcqhJzFsDI5/ Rommie Tommasini https://www.instagram.com/p/CcqhR0phTRy/ LAUREN COLLETT https://www.instagram.com/p/CBv5VnuHwEU/ (FOUND IT!)

I just saw that. What a lovely picture of her dancing in Stravinsky Violin Concerto. She will be missed.

I loved the Workshop. The program did seem a bit short, but I attribute that to the pandemic. The highlight, for me, was the finale of Symphony in C. Many of the attendees near me somehow expected to see the entire ballet, since casts for the first three movements were listed. I guess they didn't realize that each movement gets its own reprise in the finale. According to a recent email from SAB, students were invited to join the following companies: The Australian Ballet, Ballet Austin, Ballet West II, Boston Ballet II, Cleveland Ballet, Houston Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Joffrey Studio Co, Los Angeles Ballet (3 students invited), Nevada Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet (8 students invited) Pacific Northwest Ballet PDII, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Royal Danish Ballet (2 students invited). Students were also admitted into: Barnard, Boston University, Brown University, City College of NY, Clemson U, College of Charleston, Columbia University, Drexel University, Emerson College, Fordham University, George Washington University, Hunter College, New York University, Northeastern University, Pace University, Pratt Institute, Savannah College of Art and Design, University of California -Irvine, Los Angeles and Berkeley, University of Florida, University of Maryland, University of Massachusetts Boston, University of Miami, University of Southern California, University of South Carolina, University of Washington, Yale. Congratulations to all!

Interesting question. I'm going to keep thinking about that... I wasn't so interested in Kyle Abraham until I saw The Runaway. I think you see modern dance choreographers' work change more over time than you see with ballet choreographers. I'm thinking Twyla Tharp's early work on her company, very dry (The Fugue). Then she discovered popular music and her sense of humor. Or Trisha Brown's early accumulations (also dry) compared to her later "valiant" phase of full bodies movement, practically heroic. Jerome Robbins' later work was much richer than Moves or Interplay, imo, but I wouldn't call his early work forgettable. Could it be the truly forgettable ballet choreographers don't stay in the big pond of NYC?

How would they know a choreographer is "of quality" until they've created the ballet? I imagine we ALL went better ballets ALL the time, even the choreographers. The questions remain: how do you get there? And what makes a good ballet? I don't feel the need to label ballets I don't like with a political tag, and my dislikes are generally larger than one single category of anything. I would be quite happy NEVER to see another Peter Martins ballet, for example. Even he seemed to admit, at a certain point, that choreography need not be his greatest contribution to NYCB. He began one of the most significant programs nurturing emerging ballet choreographers, the NY Choreographic Institute, which continues today. I believe choreographers can choose from the NYCB company members and create works on them during weeks the company doesn't work. The dancers work for scale. It allows choreographers who may not be familiar with ballet, or other younger ballet dancers, to begin working on choreography with very well trained dancers. Everyone gets a chance to develop their skills. Any individual may not like the resulting ballets, of course. What makes for good ballets is another matter, and open to a great deal of interpretation. That's why I keep going to see what they're doing.

Maybe you could write Wendy and ask why they're not programming more Silas Farley? I'm sure he would appreciate it. I didn't care for his new piece. I saw a piece he did at the Metropolitan Museum a few years ago and that was more interesting to me. I thought the recent NYCB ballet had too many people onstage and too spread out. It lacked visual focus. I would have asked him to divide his group up into fewer dancers more often and look that they were arranged onstage in more varied groupings. I love seeing new work. I love the Balanchine and Robbins, too, of course. But I like seeing what the choreographers are doing, I like being in on the ground floor of something new, and I LOVE seeing how different dancers respond and develop when shown in something that only THEY have performed. I thought Megan Fairchild was a revelation last season, dancing in ... I can't remember if it was Sidra Bell or Andrea Miler. The ballet had bizarre, neon colored costumes and by the end Megan danced in just a leotard and pointe shoes. She started out with a lime green hat the obscured her face and a long diaphanous coat. Ms Tschaikovsky tutu in a leotard ballet!

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cfzh2W9lMna/ I"m not good with links, but that should be Jovani Furlan's post of himself and Unity Phelan rehearsing Glass Pieces. It's not a Story, so it shouldn't disappear.

I agree that if employers can be held liable for what their employees do with their private devices, particularly when the private behavior is not made possible by the employment, it will be bad for employers and employees alike.

IIRC they were fired before there was a complete resolution of the Peter Martins situation. That may have played a part in the decision. Waterbury had named NYCB in her suit so that, too, was ongoing. It wasn't just public relations. I saw NYCB as trying to limit their liability. That said, I was overjoyed when Ramasar was reinstated, and he was dancing better than ever all season. He has always seemed apologetic and eager to make amends.

The people I recognized in order (with blanks): Peter Martins (in orchestra seating), Jonathan Stafford, woman in red dress, man in blue suit, woman in purple sweater, woman in black suit with trim (probably his early ballet teacher Olga Kostritsky), Susan Pilarre (white dress w big red flowers), Indiana Woodward, Megan Fairchild, Unity Phelan, Sterling Hyltiin, Maria Kowroski, Alexei Ratmansky, Tyler Angle, Adrian D-W, Joseph Gordon, man in black pants & white shirt (probably a NYCB dancer, Sean Suozzi?), Jared Angle, Daniel Ulbricht, woman in pink dress with Wendy Whelan (white pants), Harrison Ball, Zach Catazaro, Peter Walker, woman in dress, Sebastian Villarini-Velez (w flag), Megan LeCrone, Chun Wai Chan, Justin Peck, woman, J-P Frohlich, Ashley Laracey and Troy Schumacher, Jovani Furlan, Preston Chamblee & Emily Kikta & Isabelle LaFreniere, Emilie Gerrity, Ashley Hod, Kathleen Tracey & Lisa Jackson, Dena Abergel, woman in white pants/black shirt, Sara Mearns, Andy Veyette, Clotilde Otrano, Gonzalo Garcia & Joaquin DeLuz, Alexa Maxwell, 3 family members, person in black, red headed woman, Marika Molnar (as glitter begins)

The performance was sublime. I was in the first ring wondering who Amar was jumping out into the audience to embrace. Glad to know. It was a great farewell performance and the house was, indeed, full of love and admiration, up to the Fifth Ring. He was so warm and full of energy with people, doing dance steps with Ashley Hod and again with Joaquin de Luz and Gonzalo Garcia. He's one of my favorite dancers and will be sorely missed. Marika Molnar (the brilliant Physical Therapist) was the last person to come out after what I'm assuming were Amar's parents.

My question was directed at absolutely everyone! And thank you for the terrific replies. I, too, love Davide Riccardo and am watching closely to see how he develops. He danced a nice Agon a few weeks back!. Roman Mejia is a shoo-in for principal and international star of the ballet, imo. I miss Lydia Wellington and wish her the best in Monte Carlo (or wherever she goes, forever). I also love to see Mira Nadon onstage. She always seems fully in control of what she's doing. Fully realized, fully formed, completely living in the ballets she dances and expanding their possibilities. I am thrilled that Amar (and NYCB) have found a way for him to dance tomorrow, in some part of Midsummer and I'm really looking forward to it. This season has seemed like a changing of the guard for NYCB. With Reichlen's retirement (following Kowroski, Lovette, et al), Bouder's injury, Mearns partial absence, and Hyltin's announced retirement there have been a lot of opportunities for "next generation" women. It's been exciting to see what that means more precisely. Who is ready to take on which roles, and how they have fared. NYCB has always had an abundance of talent, a deep bench as some say, and a willingness to throw youngsters into the spotlight. The time is full of possibilities.

So, Mejia was Oberon and Schumacher was Puck? I was just wondering, what qualities a dancer should possess to make you feel they should be promoted? Do you have a particular criteria in mind when you (each of you) start to clamor for the promotion of one or another dancer? For me, I don't care if dancers fall. I'm interested to know what happened on a given night, but falls usually indicate energy and commitment to doing something exciting. Other times it's just a weird mishap, an unexpected bit of sweat on the stage, or the like. I want to see dancers that make me want to watch them more than other people onstage. Dancers who command with their presence and phrasing. Dancers that somehow take you on a journey throughout the ballet. Yes, they should technically fulfill the choreography (be in the right place at the right time doing the correct steps, feet pointed, etc), but I feel you have to WANT to watch someone. They have to be interesting and hold your attention. Often it's because they're dancing big, but it could be delicacy, subtlety, how they connect the steps, how they surprise you or an engine whirring away in their gut, something less tangible. Additionally, In boxing people refer to boxers "hitting above their weight class" and I think it applies to promotions. When I'm consistently excited to see someone dancing onstage, when they have blown me over in a wide variety of ballets over a period of time, when they are consistently excelling in the repertory and workload of a higher rank I start to think "PROMOTE." What makes you want to watch a dancer? What makes you think they should (or should not) be promoted.

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Well, for the record, I think highly of everyone who had to do that and is now back succeeding in their chosen profession, unusual or not. I also think everything about the pandemic is unusual.

I have to say that I am enthralled by Indiana Woodward and Harrison Coll all the more knowing they had to move out of NYC and in with her family during the pandemic.

NYCB furloughed A LOT of people during the pandemic and my guess is that some of them ran the online casting sheet. Depending on how it's set up, it might not be easy to update, or the people work by the hour, or the contract didn't take multiple changes into account, and what with all the changes due to Covid and injury I'm sure they're doing the best they can. Laziness? Really? They need one of those boards, like Broadway shows, where you slip in a plank with the understudy's name on it. I myself have a website that cannot easily be updated. I could make a new one, of course, but it's been several years of me waiting to have the time. I saw Veyette on Sunday in Midsummer, soft landings to all his jumps, clean turns. He looks better than ever to me.

I think all of Megan Fairchild's Midsummer performances are next week. Please correct me if I'm wrong. She's not a likely Titania, and they've got enough women for the Divertissement (T. Peck, Sterling Hyltin, etc) to get them through the first weekend. Her IG said she did her first performances back from injury in Copenhagen. Mira Nadon was aglow in Summer in Four Seasons. Fully formed, phrasing and sensuality. I went Friday and also loved LaFreniere and Phelan in Piano Pieces. Peter Walker was great with LaFreniere. He's really bulked out (for him) into a danseur noble type. He was super skinny and (just my opinion) insubstantial looking before. He really inhabits the stage now, and the last moment of their duet when he offers LaFreniere his hand was quite moving. Alec Knight also drew my attention favorably. Lots of changing of the guard. I feel so badly for Amar. I have tickets today and to the last performance. I hope he's healthy and can do it safely. He's been dancing so very well. I wonder if they give any thought to having variety in the principal ranks. One review of Violin Concerto mentioned how Phelan and Laracey are similar (i don't agree, but they're certainly more similar than Mazzo and von Aroldingen). Maybe certain dancers are overlooked for principal because they are too similar to other principals. There was a lot of diversity of style and look during Balanchine's day. You would never confuse one dancer with another, not based on how they looked, not based on how they danced. I think that's a good thing to develop in a company, a way of treating the audience to more. Still, I vote for Emilie Gerrity, Isabella LaFreniere and (soon) Mira Nadon for principal.