BalanchineFan

Well, I saw Pereira in Square Dance and it was after Megan Fairchild had been out a week. I thought they should have had Alexa Maxwell do the ballerina role and moved Ruby Lister, Quinn Starner or Mimi Staker into Maxwell’s corps role. Or Emma Von Enck in the lead. Pereira would have kept her previously scheduled performances. It’s not like they don’t have the talent available. I can’t imagine that’s what Pereira is thinking, now though.

Thank you for the links!! I'm rooting for Natalie Glassie. Wherever she goes, whatever she does. She's that lead in Brahms-Schoenberg.

NY Times review of the season from Gia K. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/29/arts/dance/new-york-city-ballet-dancer-standouts.html?searchResultPosition=1 Standing (and Dancing) Strong at New York City Ballet Kind of makes me feel sorry for Erica Pereira.

Perhaps I am quibbling, but of course it’s “really” Swan Lake. It’s certainly not Agon. It’s just not a full-length. Who says you need four or five acts to tell the story? Does it turn into a different story just because it’s shorter? Or do you need Odile for your Swan Lake? Is Ashton’s The Dream not really Midsummer? Is Balanchine’s Midsummer not really Midsummer for wrapping up the plot before intermission? Does that make it less authentic? Perhaps I’m in a mood.

I stand corrected. And Maxwell has been killing it all season. I'm also impressed by Olivia MacKinnon. She seems much more herself onstage. More comfortable, more relaxed. Impressive technique without straining. And MT MacKinnon showing her talent as well. She was great in Times are Racing.

The site is cute. Thanks for the link! Just FYI, getting PT really doesn’t prove a dancer is out with an injury. It can be a way of keeping things on track so they don’t get worse and prevent you from performing, too. Tiler did post on IG that her spring season is over. Re: Copland Dances “it was a great way for me to end a wonderful season.” Maybe that’s just casting and rep, maybe it’s something else.

Thank you. I found it a bit confusing online. You have to sign into your account and search for $38 tickets in each ring. When you click on the seat, it says there may be a $12 fee per ticket, but then when you actually check out (as a subscriber) the fee is only $4. So I could have saved myself a trip to the box office and gotten the tickets online for the same $42 each.

Someone was asking upthread. They have opened the third ring for certain performances. Today I got $42 tickets for 5/27 matinee ($38 + $4/ticket service charge in person at the box office.) There's a $12/ticket service charge if you order online or by phone. Still, it's a deal. Go in person. Ask for the $38 tickets.

Charlie Klesa and Olivia Bell are now in the NYCB corps de ballet!! Congratulations. (It’s on Instagram.) https://www.instagram.com/p/CsGqwZ-O1UC/ https://www.instagram.com/p/Cr7PvNgMEx1/

I’ve seen the posts. Rehab was definitely a good idea for him. Many people who have been through extensive rehab, therapy (and other traumas) become therapists. Certainly none of us are as bad as our worst mistakes. I am taking a wait and see approach (not that he needs my approval), though I’m glad there are messages of support on his IG.

Wasn’t Ashley Bouder wearing a black lace dress and black heels?

I can’t imagine the orchestra would agree to that. Nor their union.

Do they announce it at the beginning of the season? See the Music is certainly on the schedule by the time casting is announced. That's enough time to exchange your tickets, if that is of interest.

They could definitely let people know earlier. At a certain point they know when they’re going to schedule See the Music. NYCB used to have more programs run by docents and volunteers. They would do 4th Ring talks during intermissions and talks before certain performances. I seem to remember they got rid of the staff person who ran these programs during the pandemic. Not sure they replaced them.

They should rethink that, if time is the issue. Just my opinion. A few hours in the studio and try someone else. They had a week. Also, Merrill Ashley is pretty tall. Height should not be an impediment to Isabelle LaFreniere dancing Square Dance at some point.

I'm sad to hear people don't enjoy See the Music. I loved Andrew Litton and his talk about Stravinsky. Most orchestras only play 4 Stravinsky works (Firebird, L'Histoire du Soldat, Petrushka, Sacre du Printemps ) while NYCB has, IIRC, 37 Stravinsky pieces in regular repertory and, has performed 61 ballets to his music in company history. People know the breadth of Stravinsky's work largely because Balanchine choreographed it! He said Symphony in Three Movements requires a lot of orchestra rehearsal and that orchestras can't spend that much time rehearsing a piece that is an "opener." We probably hear more Stravinsky than anywhere else. I also remember Litton's See the Music on Midsummer. They played the musical themes for different characters. Was See the Music focused on the Debussy or on another piece of music?

I think it's Wheeldon's work on An American in Paris that they're hoping will help in NYC. It's similar in the film-adapted-into-ballet genre, even though it also has singing and a spoken narrative.

There was a week's notice for some of the Square Dance performances. Too bad they didn't have at least one additional woman performing Square Dance. I wonder who the third cast would have been. Glad to hear reports of Emily KIkta. I'm looking forward to seeing her this season.

IMO, Orpheus would benefit from coaching from some of the original dancers (if any are still living), or people who danced it under Balanchine. I remember it being shocking (particularly Eurydice's death) twenty or thirty years ago, and it has seemed much less so in recent years. Of course, I've also changed. Perhaps I'm not as shockable.

Bourree Fantasque is a ballet in several movements. One movement was choreographed on Tanaquil LeClerq and Jerome Robbins and has a lot of "tall woman, short man" jokes in the partnering that are quite funny. SAB did the ballet in full several years ago. It may be an opportunity for dancers like Emily Kikta and Isabella LaFreniere as they can be partnered by any shorter man.

I am really looking forward to Sunday!! NYCB has been giving lots of dancers debuts during their farewells and farewell seasons. Lauren Lovett debuted in After the Rain. Sterling Hyltin debuted in Vienna Waltzes shortly before her farewell. Wendy Whelan and Maria Kowrowski had new ballets made for them. It's counterintuitive programming but makes for a very exciting last performance.

Me too. If there were paper slips they must have had a bit of lead time. I’m thinking it probably wasn’t a last minute injury.

It doesn’t bother me when dancers slip, fall or fall off pointe. A performance is so much more than that. If someone is dancing well or dancing fully and has a mishap I find it’s easy to get (or stay) absorbed in the ballet. Bore me, however, and it’s a totally different story. I much prefer daring and accident prone to safe and dull. There are entire companies I avoid because they’re safe and dull.

I agree with this. Homans shows us Balanchine's drawings of himself as a mouse and different women (was it LeClerq or Zorina or both?) as the cat. In a weird way, it seemed that Balanchine was bringing it up. Small, private, a craftsman and ballet master rather than an Artistic Director. I thought she leaned on the "cloud in trousers" metaphor much more. One thing I loved about the book, which I hadn't considered, even with all the other Balanchine material I've read, is Homans' idea that he swallowed up dying cultures right before their demise, and got out before they fell. Russia and the Russian Imperial School - he left before Stalin cracked down and made that impossible. Berlin at the height of the Weimar era - she goes through many artistic influences there. Paris in the late 1920's and early 1930's and again, by the time Nazi-ism came to the fore to end that golden era Balanchine was in NYC. It was a great device to place him in the twentieth century and show how the major events of the century shaped his life and career. It's so enlightening to read multiple accounts of the same events. One can evaluate the accounts against each other and (hopefully) get a more nuanced, fuller picture of the events.

Emilie Gerrity's picture DEFINITELY needs an update. She's a beautiful woman and it doesn't even look much like her. You'd never recognize her onstage after seeing it. She needs a picture with her hair off her face. I saw Sara Mearns' return in Concerto Barocco. So good to see her back. She did seem a touch tight in the beginning. I thought it could be nerves, her past injury, or the fact that she'd done the other role (for years) and was fighting her muscle memory with that music. She was so glorious in the ppd! I was also reminded why I was so in favor of Isabelle LaFreniere's promotion. She wants to move. You can see her enthusiasm for the movement from the audience, she revels in it, and dances big all the time. Full, daring phrasing, space devouring, all lovely lines and positions. I see new things in Kammermusik every time. I don't think I remembered the two ppd at all, though I've seen the ballet numerous times. The juxtaposition with Concerto Barocco was lovely. Both have a corps of eight, as @vipa noted upthread. Balanchine does such phenomenal things arranging the corps on stage, each ballet completely different. Barocco is like turning a kaleidescope. Kammermusik is more organic with the men in a tangle at times, holding hands with each other and stepping over the clasped hands. Emilie Gerrity and Mira Nadon were great foils to each other. In some ways their dance in canon with each other was more significant than with their male partners. Raymonda was lovely. Tiler Peck must have nerves of steel because I've seen her in a number of role debuts and it never, never shows. She is commanding, musical, at ease, playing with her phrasing and with her partner. You'd think she'd been doing this ballet for years. I thought the women's variations all went well. They are pretty and tricky. (The Marnee Morris solo seems like the dancer is knitting a sweater with her legs... in a gorgeous dancing kind of way. It's the piqués, passé, tight sousus and en dedans turns at unexpected moments) I particularly liked Malory Lundgren, partly because she wasn't too smiley. She let her legs (and body) do the talking and left the audience to marvel without telling them what to feel. Joseph Gordon was beautiful, plush jumps and turns, lovely bearing. I love him in these roles. It was a fantastic night back at the ballet.