BalanchineFan

I can't imagine that the board member who made the now famous "we hope Peter comes back" quote back in December 2017, still feels that way. I thought the quote was shocking in 2017, but now time has moved on and it would not be in anyone's interests to have Peter return. For one thing, imagine the effect on the Waterbury complaint. I wonder if the board member was just trying to express generic support for Peter and got caught saying something he shouldn't have when all the information came in. In terms of finding new choreographers, the Interim team has been making some good picks! I hope they still have a voice with the new director. New choreography (along with the Balanchine/Robbins rep) is the life line of this company. I just watched several of John Clifford's postings. Boy, I don't envy the board having to pick a new director. The egos involved can be enormous.

Well, I, for one, was THRILLED to see the new Abraham piece on Saturday! So exciting to see such a compelling new work, The Runaway. Taylor Stanley's performance is a revelation and the cultural references just keep coming. It's one of the things I love about modern work. Much like Agon, where the dancers' identities seem so fluid, Stanley seems to have an identity that shimmers and changes, one minute he's like one of the ball queens in Paris is Burning, the next he's a break dancer on the floor, and out of THAT he becomes a classical prince. And there's this serious, searching quality to his journey. It's an astounding piece of dancing. His physical facility is breathtaking. How great it is to see more of Black popular culture developed and referenced in the classical idiom onstage at NYCB. Ballet did not stop in the 19th century! I've also never seen a choreographer make such good use of the costume gala. After seeing the pictures I wasn't sure the costumes would work (Personally, I would forbid sleeves for dancers), but the costumes are spectacular... though I would still omit Georgina Pazoquin's sleeves. The costumes were amazing, the choreography made USE of the costumes, and several dancers even came out in multiple looks.

Thank you California! I just got my copies of the two Nancy Goldner books in the mail, Balanchine Variations and More Balanchine Variations. They are fabulous, detailed, easy to read and really get to the heart of Balanchine's choreography.

I remember Unity saying that the "apprentices now have contracts," as well. Just fyi, Clara Ruf-Maldonado is now a member of PNB. I bet she was injured. I can't imagine AGMA would make an exception otherwise. https://www.pnb.org/artist/clara-ruf-maldonado/

On the SAB website it says apprentice contracts can only last one year, due to AGMA's constraints. https://www.sab.org/winterterm/career_planning/nycb_apprentice_program.php

According to the SAB website (below) apprentices are between 16-18 years old and can only remain apprentices for one year. The website may be old (it says Peter Martins invites the dancers to be apprentices). I also remember Unity Phelan saying in an online interview that you now had to be 17 to be an apprentice. That would make the apprentices at the party somewhere in the 17-20 year old range. https://www.sab.org/winterterm/career_planning/nycb_apprentice_program.php

IIRC, Waterbury’s complaint doesn’t say what Catazaro distributed. They might have been stock nudes from paid models on his own time, off company premises, i.e. not a crime and only involving NYCB because he happens to dance there.

The story I heard about the balance (perhaps it was from John Clifford, perhaps it’s in Kent’s book, I can’t quite remember where) is that she was having trouble balancing that day and they reshot that part of the ppd without the corps. Conrad Ludlow was able to cover the balance, which I think he does beautifully (both of them dance beautifully, really). I know it’s Clifford who says that Allegra originally wasn’t supposed to do the filming (she’d had three kids by then) and stepped in for Gelsey last minute.

I will look for the Nancy Goldner! Thank you for recommending it. I see that she has two books analyzing Balanchine ballets; Balanchine Variations, and More Balanchine Variations. I can't believe I don't have them already.

This is my attempt at a general response to ideas expressed upthread. I can’t seem to make the text smaller. NY Times: Sexual harassment training Doesn’t Work. But Some Things Do But while training protects companies from lawsuits, it can also backfire by reinforcing gender stereotypes, at least in the short term, according to research by Justine Tinkler, a sociologist at the University of Georgia. That’s because it tends to portray men as powerful and sexually insatiable and women as vulnerable. Her research has shown this effect no matter how minimal the training. “It puts women in a difficult position in terms of feeling confident and empowered in the workplace,” she said. One thing of interest in this NY Times article is that it shows how certain kinds of sexual harassment training protect companies from lawsuits but make the issue worse by perpetuating gender stereotypes. When women are seen as weak and in need of protection and masculine is equated with strong or powerful then harassment is more likely to occur. Now add that the Waterbury case occurred among people working in an art form that historically portrays women as delicate and vulnerable and men as powerful and strong. For those reasons I think it’s dangerous, and potentially offensive, to assume Ms Waterbury is so vulnerable that we, the uninvolved, should second guess how much she takes on (school, work, etc) and question her decisions about how to proceed with her legal complaint. She was violated without her knowledge or consent over a period of about nine months. However she chooses to work through that, whichever legal remedies she pursues, in whatever order, is now, finally HER choice. I understand that this is an online forum and all we do (in a sense) is discuss other people’s choices. Still, we wouldn’t be discussing this issue if it weren’t for her. Dance schools around the country (the world?) wouldn’t know about it. Teachers wouldn’t be giving quotes to Dance magazine, Pointe or whoever. She has moved the needle and if her name comes up on Google for it we should all be grateful. I now see that by suing NYCB Ms Waterbury has chosen to make her horrible experience less about just herself and more about the girls and boys, women and men, past, present and future, who might have suffered, or might still suffer similar violations. How rare and laudable.

I saw Gerrity’s debut as Sanguinic in 4T’s. She was great. I liked her better than Mearns in that ballet. I’m a total fangirl for Unity Phelan. I’d crawl over broken glass (love that phrase!) to see her do 2nd movement Bizet or Diamonds. I feel certain they will come at some point. I’ve seen her dance Agon ppd in a lec dem with Heather Watts lecturing. Unity dances it with Calvin Royale, like they did at Vail. They are well matched. There’s a short clip on her IG, if you haven’t seen it. I love Sterling best in Symphony in 3 Movts. There’s something both matter of fact and incredibly detailed about her in that ballet. She lives inside the music and just plays around calmly hitting all the right notes. Still, I could watch the Bizet every night. Put a new woman in there and keep it coming. I always feel so happy after that ballet. John Clifford has posted a video on YouTube of the Bizet with Allegra dancing the 2 nd Movt, beautifully partnered by Conrad Ludlow. That’s one thing I like about Clifford - he posts great Balanchine videos.

This NY Times article is on topic. I hope the link works: Sexual Harrassment Trainings Don’t Work, But These Things Do Traditional methods can backfire, but ideas like teaching bystanders to intervene and promoting more women have proved effective. Read More...

I saw Craig Hall dance After the Rain ppd several times. He danced it with Wendy Whelan at her farewell performance and they added it to the program on HIS final performance in NYC. He was beautiful in it, seamless, soulful. I think Maria dances it with Ask Lacour, and they are well matched physically. Tiler dances it, and I can’t think of who she’s partnered with. It’s certainly not Ask due to the height discrepancy. I may have seen her dance it wih Craig as well. I’m not sure any man would want to step out of retirement and onto the stage with their shirt off, but Craig Hall would be worth seeing again.

I’m of the opposite opinion. I wish they’d let a few more women do 2nd movement Bizet. All the women who dance it have been doing it for quite some time (Kowroski, Mearns, Reichlen). They’re each good in their different ways but it would be so exciting to see someone new take a crack at it. I remember Sterling dancing it. Justin Peck partnered her IIRC. She was good, but not earth shattering. They usually cast the taller women. Is that why you say she was miscast?

The past several years I haven’t seen her dance much. She danced Concerto Barocco with Maria K last spring or winter. She dances Helena in Midsummer, when they’re performing it. She did Kammermusik a few years back .... she’s lovely, but in the period I’ve been going to NYCB she just hasn’t danced that much.

There’s your young, male phenom: Roman Mejia.

I really like Chamblee in Not Our Fate. He’s great dancing with Taylor Stanley and partnering him, seems to me he could partner Reichlen in Agon or do one of the leads in 4T. Personally, I like him in Glass Pieces, to each their own. I haven’t seen him in any of the princely roles. Silas Farley seems more princely to me, and in fact he’s danced Titania’s Cavalier and the Nutcracker Cavalier. There was a moment in one of Justin Peck’s pieces where Farley and Miriam Miller were face to face (they made eye contact and smiled at each other) and I thought they’d make a great partnership, both so tall and long. I see a lot of promise in the men’s corps de ballet. Women, too. I’m not sure how you could compare them. I suppose we haven’t quite seen young male performances at the level of say Unity Phelan or Indiana Woodward, but they’re there. Why do you think otherwise about the men?

I think Preston Chamblee is also deserving of more principal roles. Has he done Agon or 4T that anyone remembers? If so, which roles? Oh, I just looked at his company bio and they’re not listed. If I was AD I’d at least have him learn those two ballets.

Rock, I was referring to rewriting the agreement the dancers sign upon entering the company, not to hiring new apprentices or replacing departing dancers, which are things that happen every single year.

I didn’t take what Bouder posted as “throwing the interim team under the bus.” The four on the interim artistic management team have a different mandate than an AD, namely, “the day-to-day artistic management...” I can’t imagine they’d be expected to 1. redo or update contracts, 2. design and instigate a training program for new hires, a program that would apparently be the first of its kind in the 70 year history of NYCB 3. Respond to any ongoing or new litigation. 4. Write a code of conduct, or direct an appropriate person to write one (please remove this is it’s too speculative) I’m not even sure they have the authority to promote, demote or suspend dancers. NYCB doesn’t have an AD, neither the founder (because there was truly only Balanchine) or the ONE person who tried for those 30 odd years to replace him. It’s not an insult to Stafford, Hall, Krohn and Peck to state the truth, and I don’t think it in any way minimizes the admirable job they’ve done.

Thank you for the NIED and IIED definitions! When I see the phrase “expectation of privacy” all that comes to mind is the expectation of privacy you have in an apartment having sex with your bf. Once Ms Waterbury discovered the texts, the senders had no protection on that basis due to the harm they were doing to her. A thief who breaks into your car can’t claim “expectation of privacy” when you catch him.

Could/should the board have hired a new AD before the investigation into Martins’ conduct was concluded? I think that may have slowed the search. They waited for the outcome and tried (in their small ways) to address that situation in their search.

The language “condoned, encouraged, fostered, and permitted” is from the Waterbury complaint. “ for several years the defendant NYCB Inc. has condoned, encouraged, fostered and permitted an environment where its agents, servants, employees, donors, principals and/or others affiliated with it abused, degraded and mistreated alcohol, drugs and women.” The entire situation is controversial but in posting, Bouder backs up the company’s position that NYCB should be excluded from the complaint, imo. That was why I didn’t understand why the post itself was controversial. Reading the responses here I’m getting a fuller picture of the implications. Thank you.

Bouder’s IG post bolsters NYCB’s claim that they did not “condone, encourage” etc the reprehensible behavior in question. It supports the company line and, imo, may have been vetted by NYCB. I was glad to see her condemn the illegal behaviors. How is it controversial?

Would someone explain what IIED and NIED are? I’ve read the complaint but I’m not a lawyer or a law student.