BalanchineFan

They may not be your cup of tea, but both Savannah and Megan LeCrone dance Agon quite well. I think it's the best thing I've seen Savannah dance, (aside from Hippolyta or Peck's Times Are Racing). I've never seen her as Coffee, though.

LeCrone is also well suited to the Agon second woman role with all her angularity. There's a short video of her rehearsing it and talking about it on the NYCB website.  She seems like a Stravinsky ballerina to me. All the women's roles in that ballet tend to go to the taller women. It's such a leg festival. And yes, Unity and Calvin are well paired. It's like they come from the same long-legged tribe. Somewhere there's an instagram clip of them doing the opening.

I've only seen Unity dance the ppd with Calvin Royal III. I'm not sure who she'd do it with at NYCB. I don't know who Miriam dances it with either, though she apparently performed the entire ballet shortly after she joined NYCB. Does anyone know who she danced with? 

There was a new Peck ballet a season or two back, horizontal stripes, lots of corps de ballet. Silas Farley and Miriam danced together for a hot second and I thought they were well paired. He's certainly tall enough.

Is there someone you'd like to see in the MWM pas de trois? Unity may already perform that. She's done one of the pas de trois in the piece, but somehow I think it's the WMW. Heather Watts gave a talk on the ballet last fall and that's where I saw Unity and Calvin dance. They had done it at Vail.

1 hour ago, nanushka said:

I've never seen Agon live and don't remember the last time it was done. Any guesses as to whom we might see in it later this season?

In addition to Maria and Tess, both Unity Phelan and Miriam Miller also know the Agon ppd.

I've seen Savannah Lowery and Megan LeCrone in the MWM trio. It's been in the rep in the past two or three years. I saw Tess Reichlen and Adrian D-W in a rehearsal for the ppd, but I never saw them perform it. Maria and Amar are amazing in it.

I was under the impression that See the Music only adds time to the performance. I saw one (heard one?) before Midsummer and thought it was such a great idea. The music is so lovely and the conductor highlighted all the different musical themes and connected them to the characters. It added to my enjoyment and understanding of the ballet. I made a point to buy another ticket when they're doing See the Music. It probably helps build the audience. I wish they'd do one with Stravinsky. When Litton spoke at the Apollo talk he gave the audience a few things to think over in that realm.

Abatt, you're absolutely right! If I were hired as director of NYCB I wouldn't spend MONEY on new SL costumes when the current ones are wearable. I just want to see them as an audience member.

On 2/6/2018 at 1:40 PM, sandik said:

In part because these decisions are made very far in advance, likely before any of the proverbial shit hit the fan.

On 2/6/2018 at 1:40 PM, CharlieH said:

Abatt, I agree with this general formula but...with such a rich bounty a great ballets in the NYCB Rep, I can’t help but think that the great majority of Martins’ works will no longer adhere to that formula. Martins left (resigned) just as the current season was about to begin. Too late to re-program. I suspect that we’ll see the impact of Martins’ departure beginning in fall 2018...even if initial programming has occurred, the new leaders have time to make changes before the 2018/19 rep is made public.

R+J is so hideous that, if I were a betting guy, I’d wager that it  never returns. Swan Lake - yes. Beauty - absolutely.

Fearful, Hallelujah and Barber Violin seem to be his better works. Magic Flute is so atypical of Martins, I often wonder if Balanchine helped out? I’ve seen about 30 or so Martins ballets since the mid-80s and didn’t care much for the majority.

I think it was Bournonville that helped out with Magic Flute. Wasn't Bournonville the original choreographer and Martins was supposed to be restaging it "in the style of"?

Honestly, I'd be happy to see this SL go. It looks like the swans are dancing in someone's old abstract bed sheet. I think it's been quite successful with audiences, though, so they'll probably keep it for a few years more.

On 2/4/2018 at 12:30 PM, fondoffouettes said:

I completely agree. Even in a less-than-perfect performance, I was so impressed and moved by Four Ts. And nothing felt more like "balm for the soul" than the Andante section of Divertimento ...

Does NYCB ever present Theme and Variations as a standalone piece? I appreciate Suite No. 3 as a sort of foil to the brilliant grandeur of T&V, but I feel T&V is more effective when presented on its own. It's a perfect ballet that needs no prelude. 

If they wanted to give Tchai Pas a rest (as wonderful as it is), how about Sylvia Pas de Deux? It's similar in length and filled with razzle-dazzle moments, if not as gasp-inducing as Tchai Pas. Does NYCB ever perform the work? Is there some problem with securing rights? 

I don't care for the first few movements of Suite No. 3, but in my 30 years of ballet going I've only seen NYCB perform the Suite in its entirety. What an interesting idea. It would make it more like ABT, though. Though I NEVER tire of Tschai Pas, I've also never seen Sylvia ppd. I thought the Trust gave the company the rights to perform any Balanchine work. Someone on here certainly knows.

And yes, Balanchine as balm for the soul. More Balanchine in the programming please. I'd love to see Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No 2 (aka Ballet Imperial) and Liebeslieder Waltzer, which were performed a few years ago. Tiler Peck made her Piano Concerto 2 debut with Amar (beautiful, both of them, bringing tears to your eyes). That woman really has nerves of steel. Liebeslieder too. What a beautiful, cultured ballet.

Lauren Lovett's Not Our Fate is now listed on the NYCB website for four performances in May! I don't think I missed it before. It must be new information.

It's part of the Classic NYCB program. I'm so glad this lovely ballet is getting additional performances. I thought it was one of the real winners from the costume gala, in terms of dancing, choreography and costumes.

I've seen Martins' R&J several more times than I need to. The bright costumes remind me of the jerseys for football teams. Capulets on the right in red, Montagues squaring off on the left in blue.

I saw Erica Pereira dance R&J once with Taylor Stanley and I didn't think they had much chemistry. Does she dance it with anyone else?

Also, Lovette and Finlay have danced together a fair amount after their split. I think they're lovely together onstage. I agree their R&J was compelling, still I haven't seen anything as good as the short clip Robbie Fairchild posted of him dancing it with Sterling back in the day.

Could that be Joseph Duell in the background at SAB, or maybe Ricky Weiss?

On 1/29/2018 at 10:00 AM, abatt said:

Whoever ends up as the new director, I hope he or she will give additional consideration to certain dancers who have been marginalized or written off.  In particular, I'm talking about Laracey.  She was the most exquisite Ballerina on stage in Divertimento.   Also, why are Applebaum, Scrudato and certain other men languishing as permanent corps members.  They were both far superior to Veyette in Divertimento.    

Laracey never struck me as someone who'd been written off. Hasn't she just come back from a major injury? Now she's got this big role in Divertimento.

I'd vote for Roman Mejia for Janice Levin honoree just based on seeing him in the SAB workshop last spring. Though, I also wonder if they'd give it to Preston Chamblee. He'd be another good choice. Sometimes he seems like a soloist already. 

A thank you to AmandaNYC for explaining the Janice Levin thing.

I'm wondering if the patron's dress rehearsal is considered public enough to comment on in this forum? I suppose this can be edited if it's not.

Music Director Andrew Litton still seems new to me. In the Apollo lec-dem he mentioned that he "got the music two weeks ago." (or perhaps he said "we started on it two weeks ago.") He was of course familiar with the score, but I'm not sure he had conducted it before, and certainly not for these dancers. He was a knowlegable speaker. He said there are four Stravinsky pieces that are done everywhere (Firebird, Petrushka, Sacre and maybe L'Histoire du Soldat). NYCB on the other hand has 21 Stravinsky pieces in the current rep and 37 (THIRTY SEVEN!) of Stravinsky's works have been used for ballets over the course of NYCB's existence. No wonder Balanchine said "If you don't like the ballets, just close your eyes," or something to that effect. They dance to music of the highest quality and sophistication.

In Friday's rehearsal they spent a lot of time getting tempi right for Cortege and for Red Violin. They changed the music cue for Meagan Mann who was dancing the first variation. It was a simple change, but it was weird to me that they hadn't worked that out before. Hasn't Cortège already been performed this week? It doesn't seem like the sort of thing that you'd do differently for different dancers. The first time, the music started when Mann was in the wings, then Rosemary had her run out in silence and stop as a cue for the music to begin. in Merrill Ashley's book she writes of an instance where something like that had been overlooked in her stage rehearsal. She and her partner were supposed to enter from opposite sides of the stage. In performance she realized she couldn't see her partner in the wings because of the set. Her husband said she had a strange and unnattractive look on her face at the start of the pas de deux (she hadn't recalled the incident until then) and she realized she must have been the picture of consternation at that moment.

They were talking a lot about tempi for the Red Violin rehearsal, too. All this is to say that I wouldn't be surprised if the dancers were responding to unexpected tempi onstage in performance. The wonders of a live orchestra.

I just saw Mearns in today's matinee in Mozartiana. Ethereal and beautifully musical. I found Adrian Danschig-Waring strong as Apollo, still the women commanded my attention a bit more. NYCB is casting the three women's roles equally strong. Sometimes you see a stellar Terpsichore and the other two are lower ranked dancers. I was blown away by Indiana Woodward and Ashly Isaacs. Loved Tiler's Terpsichore, too, but I never realized the other two women have a duet. They were so in sync, so well matched. In the lecture dem earlier Sterling Hyltin, Lauren Lovette and Ashly Isaacs danced with Zachary Catanzaro as Apollo. He had some really strong moments. There are some seriously good looking men in NYCB. 

In response to the Mearns discussion, she posted on Instagram that today's performance was "literally brought to you by Tiger Balm." And a video of the Mozartiana bows "what to do when you have no legs left." It makes me wonder if she didn't misstep in performance, wince or grunt, and try to get back into the show. During bows for Chaconne tonight (yes, I went to both performances today and the Apollo lec-dem) she and Adrian seemed to be exchanging looks, totally on the same side of whatever it was, not antagonistic at all. I imagined I saw her telling him, "see, I told you it's ff'd up." and he seemed to respond, "definitely. let's talk later." No words were spoken, of course.

It's interesting to me that the performance level can be really high quality, but you can still tell something is going on. They're all dancing a lot. They must be dead tired. I know I am.

In other news, Andrew Veyette was replaced in both the matinee and evening shows. I hope he's ok.

Is the Janice Levin honoree always a corps member?

8 hours ago, meliodori said:

How is it known that this is what Martins meant? Did he say so directly somewhere? 

 Abatt: I bring it up here because Mearns' approach is exactly the type of approach that Martins always rewarded.  You notice Mearns, even if you don't always agree with what she's doing.  Risk taking and giving 1000 percent every second, although sometimes overkill, is exactly what Martins referred to when he urges a dancer to make him notice her.

//

I don't have a record of what Martins meant, but there is a NYTimes interview with Balanchine where he praises Darci Kistler in class for throwing herself into the movement so much that she falls over. There's a long tradition of rewarding physical risk taking at NYCB.

I'm going to both Balanchine programs this weekend. I can't wait. I wish I were seeing Maria Kowrowski do Mozartiana, but I've got the other cast (still, not shabby).  I'm really looking forward to seeing Tiler Peck in 4T.

Vipa, I've never "got" Erica Pereira either. She seems shaky technically, and smiles so much in performance that she seems immaturely young. I hope Adrian has completely recovered from his injury, whatever it was.

On 1/17/2018 at 12:03 AM, Helene said:

Tharp did a residency at PNB in which she helped marketing and other admin departments, and people were in awe of her.

I particularly dislike the works that poke fun at ballet with a stacked deck: for that reason I can't stand "In the Upper Room."  But I do love two of the works she made for PNB that specifically don't:  "Waiting at the Station," which is a lot like the shows she been creating, and "Afternoon Ball," which was just revived and is a character-driven piece, and "Waterbaby Bagatelles."

How do you see In the Upper Room poking fun at ballet with a stacked deck? That's not my take on the ballet at all. I just remember phrase after phrase of incredible movement. If you said that about Push Comes to Shove I'd understand, even though I wouldn't agree.

On 1/14/2018 at 7:36 PM, Amy Reusch said:

BalanchineFan... and I believe stage managers are also AGMA.   Probably confuses things further...

What I remember is that in the 1970's ballet dancers were complaining that AGMA did not represent their interests well. In many cases the union didn't follow up on complaints and didn't adequately recognize that dancers had different concerns than musicians or other union members. One issue had to do with differences in the average length of their careers since dancers can't usually dance as long as people in other professions. I think that is why Willie Frankfurt refers to AGMA as a musicians' union. It's how the union started and, in her day, AGMA was more closely concerned with musicians' needs.

2 minutes ago, Amy Reusch said:

You've lost me...  in that NY Times article there were two unions involved... the dancers' and the musicians'... neither union's name appears in the article, but I see no reason to think they were not AGMA and the AF of M.

I guess it's not the best example of the issue I'm remembering.

On 1/11/2018 at 2:37 PM, Amy Reusch said:

I am aware of what AGMA stands for, however one might derive from your statement that the orchestra musicians for ballet companies would be members of AGMA.

Apologies. I made a lot of incorrect assumptions. I thought the AGMA thing referred to Sophie Flack, and instead it's Wilhelmina Frankfurt in her Salon interview.

During Willie's time (1970's/80's) I recall that ballet dancers had complaints about AGMA, saying the union represented musicians better than dancers, perhaps due to the union's hisstory. That may be why she refers to the union as she does. This NY Times article shows the musicians' and dancers' labor interests being at odds in 1973.

http://www.nytimes.com/1973/11/15/archives/issues-muddled-in-city-ballet-strike.html?_r=0

42 minutes ago, sandik said:

I have to disagree with you -- I think it's a wonderful and sly work.  When people look at the whole of Baryshnikov's directorship at ABT, I think his invitation to Twyla Tharp will stand as one of the most influential things he did.  I don't always love the direction that ballet travelled at that time, but there have been some phenomenal works come from it, and fascinating dancers to perform them.

They should put The Upper Room and Push Comes to Shove back in ABT rep, imo, but maybe that's off topic. Perhaps the new NYCB AD will invite Twyla back to make a new work?

On 1/12/2018 at 12:38 PM, nanushka said:

That's a really interesting idea. It certainly wasn't the only significant factor (for one thing, I think they were just fundamentally, temperamentally unsuited to one another), but it very well could have played a substantial role in shaping her responses and, thereby, their relationship. It's so easy to forget how strong an impact serious chronic pain can have on one's experiences (especially when one doesn't have the same experience of pain as another person — which one never does).

Kirkland is probably the one dancer from the past whose career I most intensely wish I had witnessed. In part, this is because there's just so little recorded evidence of it. I've scoured YouTube and relish everything I've found (especially the two complete [or in one case near-complete, and with only reconstructed sound] performances of T&V — I consider the telecast version to be perhaps the greatest complete ballet performance ever professionally recorded, at least of those I've seen), but there's just so much less of her on video than of some other dancers of her era and prominence (for a variety of reasons).

The other reason I wish I'd seen her is that my sense, from those videos, is that she was truly unlike any other dancer. Of course that's true of many—but, for instance, I think I know kind of what it would have felt like to see Baryshnikov, or Makarova, or Verdy. (Of course I could be wrong.) Not because I've seen other dancers who are quite like them, but because I suspect I've seen other dancers who have provoked in me the same sorts of reactions that they would have provoked. My sense is that Kirkland would have provoked something quite distinct. She was sui generis.

Actually, for some of the same reasons (a limited number of recordings and a real distinctness of character and qualities), but also for some others, I think Farrell would be my runner-up in the "wish I had been there" category.

I feel very fortunate that I saw Gelsey Kirkland perform. I saw her in Giselle with Ivan Nagy in Minnesota. Sublime characterisation and fabulous dancing. The Act 1 variation on youtube is just a taste of what she could do. The whole evening was like that. I saw The Leaves Are Fading live as well. I've forgotten what else. I love the Nutcracker film, costume and all.

Regarding Kirkland's memoirs, I don't recall that she "excoriated" Baryshnikov. I worshipped him like the sun, too, so perhaps I've blocked it out. IIRC, she wrote her heartbreak that he moved on romantically, whereas with Peter Martins she seemed blind to the fact that he and Heather Watts (even though he told Kirkland they'd broken up) were still emotionally attached. She seems very young and naive in the book, (age appropriate given her youth and inexperience with men during the events she describes) and extremely self-critical. Maybe the impulse to anorexia is anger turned inward. You can see that in the Diane Sawyer interview. Dancing on My Grave is a juicy read. I recommend it. Martins is the one to introduce her to Baryshnikov and suggest they dance together. Early evidence of his eye as an AD?

I saw Farrell quite a bit too. I happened to see two performances of Walpurgisnacht in a week in 1981 (or so). In the second one Farrell held a balance in attitude so long that she had to improvise an ending to the phrase. What guts. The audience went crazy. Darci danced the second ballerina role that performance. It was a golden era... for me at least.

On 1/11/2018 at 1:34 PM, E Johnson said:

Any ideas for who will be cast in Baiser de la Fee? i haven't' seen it since Boal retired but am considering a revisit this season. 

 

what i'm looking forward to: my daughter is a j.peck fan and it will be her first time seeing year of the rabbit, which i think is one of his best works.  very interested in her reaction.  and i always enjoy it too. 

Year of the Rabbit is one of my favorite J. Peck pieces, too! I also love Everywhere We Go and Rodeo. Have you seen them?

I'm hoping I get to see Maria Kowroski in Mozartiana. Has anyone seen her do it? Also looking forward to Tiler Peck as Sanguinic. I'm going to two of the Balanchine programs.

I've also known some dancers who've had ACL repair. There are a few different ways to do it, one involves taking a portion of a ligament from the dancer's hamstring and using it to repair the ACL. The recovery on that is about 10-12 months.

On 1/2/2018 at 10:34 PM, vipa said:

This is nice but it pales in comparison to the past markings of Mr. B's birthday.

Which past birthday events do you remember? Is there something you'd like them to do?

I've been to at least three of the past Balanchine Birthday celebrations. Twice they did a lecture demo with SAB senior division students onstage. One year Peter called on Silas Farley to demonstrate a lot and it seemed clear Farley would make it into the company. They may have offered other events that I didn't attend on the same day (full family ballet classes come to mind). Another year they had most of the women principals dance and then speak about certain solos. The dancing was great, and I remember being charmed that they all mentioned their nerves at speaking onstage.

Ashley Bouder danced Nutcracker

Sara Mearns danced Symph in C 
Rebecca Krohn danced Elegy
Tiler Peck danced Allegro B
Megan Fairchild danced Tchai Pas
Maria K danced Western Symph
Sterling Hyltin danced Mozartiana

I'm planning to attend the Apollo event. Whatever they do has to fit in with a two performance schedule, since it's always happened on a Saturday.

I idolized Gelsey Kirkland like the sun. I read her book on its release and was shocked at how hard she was on herself. I found her self-punishment suffocating, though she had guts to put it out there. I still have both her books and sometimes reread portions when other people comment on the events depicted. She was AMAZING onstage. Best Giselle ever. Best Theme and Variations too. Neither Peter or Heather come off well in the book. Martins and Watts seemed involved with each other to a toxic extent. I remember thinking Gelsey should run in the other direction. I may have yelled it out while reading.

While at NYCB Kirkland had tendinitis which was prolonged partly because she followed Balanchine's edict to wear pointe shoes all the time, including at the barre. All NYCB women still do that, but they have much better physical therapy now.  Merrill Ashley also talked about having tendinitis in the days when the protocol was to self treat with heat, rather than ice. Ugh. These days you can watch videos of current SAB students dunking both feet in buckets of ice water after class or rehearsal. I cut Kirkland a lot of slack after I had plantar fascitis. Pain can really color your experience. My take is that the pain of tendinitis colored her experience with Balanchine. What he recommended really hurt her. Plus she tended to overdo everything. They were not a good match... to the delight of classical ballet fans everywhere. We all would have missed out on her beautiful artistry in classical ballets if she had remained at NYCB.

13 hours ago, Amy Reusch said:

The AF of M might take issue with that.

14 hours ago, aurora said:

AGMA is fundamentally a musicians union (opera really) which expanded over the years to handle dancers. That is not an error.

AGMA  stands for the American Guild of Musical Artists. I haven’t reread Flack’s letter with regard to this comment, but perhaps that clears something up.