JuliaJ

Some very exciting stuff in the 2022-23 season but it's odd how repetitive some of the programs are -- for example, putting both Haiff Divertimento and Donizetti Variations on two separate programs. I can't wrap my head around the double bill of one-act Swan Lake and Pictures at an Exhibition (and in that order) to close the whole season. I appreciate the amount of hard-core classical in the season though, and all of the Ratmansky. Will definitely take a "wait and see" approach with the Peck full-length (hopefully it won't have sneakers!). Sleeping Beauty could have some exciting casting. Bummed they're not doing Diamonds after cancelling it this past winter, but hopefully it will be back soon!

Woodward is cast in every show the first week from Thursday-Sunday (sometimes in two different ballets), so she's got a busy week. I'm also surprised about Hod as Russian Girl, since they always cast shorter for that role, but I'm looking forward to seeing what she does with it. Plus, they need to replenish casting for some of these frequently-programmed ballets, with Bouder MIA and Fairchild injured (she recently posted on Instagram about a sprained ankle). Both of those dancers are pushing 40 and will likely retire in the next few years. Looks like LaFreniere is dancing the same role as Mearns in Goldberg Variations -- they seem to be priming her to help fill the void left by Kowroski and Reichlen. There is a lot of rep typically occupied by Bouder, Fairchild, and Reichlen coming up this season, so it will be interesting to see who gets cast.

I've been waiting for Ball to get promoted for several years, so this is great news. His classicism is a huge asset to the company. I haven't seen Walker in anything major lately, but he always stood out even when he was in the corps. Height and partnering skills are a huge plus. They've been giving Chan some big roles lately (according to Instagram both he and Ball are rehearsing "Spring" in Four Seasons) so I wouldn't be surprised if he gets promoted as soon as the spring season. Given Mejia's ongoing partnership with Tiler Peck (and his wonderful Rubies opposite Hyltin), he shouldn't be too far behind, even though he was just promoted to soloist.

I felt sorry for Trusova and saw her outburst as an explosion of adolescent rage. She's a product of this toxic system too. It's tragic she couldn't be happy about winning a silver medal. Also incredibly sad to see Scherbakova sitting all alone in the "kiss and cry" after just winning gold. The whole Valieva saga has been heartbreaking, to say the least.

I saw last night's performance. I absolutely loved Phelan and Furlan in Tchaikovsky pas de Deux. I'm used to shorter dancers like Bouder and Peck in the ballerina role, and Phelan's long lines gave the ballet a sort of European elegance, without sacrificing the Balanchine speed and attack you see from the best NYCB dancers. So really, best of both worlds. Furlan also has beautiful lines and high extensions for a man, so the two dancers complemented each other well. His bravura sequences were very good; I think they could be a bit more sprightly and bold next time he dances this. Phelan struggled on the fouettés and ended ahead of the music, but other than that, she was technically secure and artistically stunning. I also loved Ball and Woodward in Andantino; they're a fantastic pair and I hope to see their partnership continue. Swan Lake with Fairchild and Garcia was the low point on an otherwise great program. Fairchild was never a natural Odette, and while I think her maturity as a dancer gives her more depth in this than she might have had 10 years ago, her musical phrasing was seriously lacking. She couldn't hold the developpés in her variation, and she even stepped out of one of the turns in her diagonal. I already knew her attitudes and arabesques would be low, so those elements weren't necessarily the problem. She just isn't a great swan. (I think Phelan will be absolutely fabulous in this role, for what it's worth.) And while I was happy to see Garcia one last time before he retires, and he's always a dependable partner, his brief solo sequence looked heavy and belabored. I actually like the arctic-inspired scenery of the ballet, but there there is a fundamental lack of drama in just having a one-act piece. I hated the pas de neuf. Serenade was also lovely, especially Hyltin and Gerrity. Pereira was very good as the Russian Girl and filled the stage more than she often does, although I missed the daring jumps of Ashley Bouder.

Teresa Reichlen's last Walpurgisnacht was lovely last night -- happy I caught it. She was clearly having fun in her final go at this. Will miss her regal presence, impeccable control, and epically long legs. Alexa Maxwell sparkled in the soloist role -- I hope she gets more opportunities like this. It's sad she was sidelined by injury for so long, or else she might be a soloist by now. Angle's jumps were high but he should retire the white-tight roles, and that's all I'll say about that. Unanswered Question felt weird placed directly after Walpurgisnacht with just a pause in between, but I love the piece. It got an enthusiastic audience response from the not-very-full theater. Moves take a few minutes to get into because of the lack of music (so quiet in the theater you can hear the dryers in the bathrooms), but the choreography is mesmerizing. Lots of little moments that feel like Glass Pieces mixed with Balanchine neoclassical works like Rubies and Agon. Almost the entire cast was soloists, including newly promoted Hod, Mejia, LaFreniere, and Miller. Towards the end, LaFreniere held a rock-solid arabesque for a crazy long time and didn't shake at all. Slaughter is a great match for Mearns' sultry energy and high kicks. And Angle is all personality and fun in the hoofer role.

I'm no expert on how Mozartiana is "supposed" to look (although I have seen the Farrell/Anderson footage), but I thought Peck gave a beautiful, moving performance last night. Her trademark musicality was well-matched to the choreography. Her port de bras was expansive in the Preghiera. This is a good role for her at this point in her career. I love Harrison Ball and thought he nailed the difficult footwork and turning passages. You really need quick, pointed feet for this one and he delivered the goods. He also is among the most attractive men in the company in white tights. I don't think the company would have put him in this role if they weren't planning to promote him. He and Peck are new partners but I thought they showed promise as a pair and were well matched in size/height. Rubies was fabulous. Mira Nadon cranked the heat WAY up since she debuted this in 2019. That promotion must have given her some extra juice. She really went for broke and it paid off. I'm so excited to see what else she masters. She really has it all in terms of star quality. Roman Mejia had a very successful debut -- I was impressed by how much personality he was able to show, despite being so early in his career. He really brought out the humor in the choreography and maintained a playful rapport with Hyltin. Oh, and it helps that he can jump what looks like ten feet into the air. In my opinion, Hyltin is the Rubies gold standard in the way she articulates every note of the music. And despite being short, she's very leggy and flexible for the pas de deux. Indiana Woodward had what I felt was an excellent debut in La Valse. She brought both delicacy and drama that projected throughout the theater. I had never seen her dance with Gordon before, and I thought they were very good together. He has such a beautiful grand jeté. This was a great program and made for a much-needed winter Balanchine fix. This whole cast performs again on Wednesday; I'd recommend catching it for anyone who can.

The performing arts are generally suffering right now. Even popular Broadway shows have opted to close or pause performances because they aren't selling enough tickets. It is depressing, but not surprising, that ballet feels a bit dead too... even when Balanchine masterworks are on the program. Also, this particular Balanchine program used to be a lot more exciting when "Diamonds" was supposed to be the closer. The Nutcracker cancellations and resulting uncertainty about winter shows going on also may have deterred a lot of people from coming. I think the company will need as many blockbuster-type programs as they can muster for 2022-23!

Teuscher is a special dancer too. I don't love her Swan Lake (not enough flexibility) but she was stunning as Myrta in Giselle. She has both lyricism and crisp technique with allegro and especially turns. Looking forward to her Juliet with Bell.

Danchig-Waring is also in the first cast of Four Temperaments (Phlegmatic?). I'm intrigued by Sara Adams getting a debut in Tchaikovsky pas de Deux -- she's rarely cast in any principal roles, and this is a big one. Would love to hear reports. So happy to see the new female soloists thrown into so many roles, and also major opportunities for Ball, Furlan, Mejia, and Chan, who have to be on the principal track. Maybe Walker too.

I saw the "New Combinations" program last night (all tickets throughout the house were only $38!) and found it pretty lackluster. Peck's Partita made for a bad opener -- I thought it was a huge missed opportunity to do something more interesting with such fascinating music. This was the best music Peck has picked in a long time and I think he squandered the chance. I feel bad saying this because I've loved some of his past work and thought what he did with West Side Story was brilliant, but I feel like he has regressed with the frequent revisiting of sneakers and casual warm-up wear. That look worked well in the Times are Racing but, from what I've seen, hasn't been successful since. Partita would have been so much more interesting as an actual ballet. Instead, it was just a lot of waving arms and chaos without a clear focal point. Tiler Peck made the best of it though. And I thought India Bradley (and her long legs, wow) shone more than I've seen in the past -- she's gorgeous. Summerspace is a very admirable and impressive work and there were no major missteps I could see with the tricky choreography. Devin Alberda danced the Adrian Danchig-Waring role. Ashley Laracey's beautiful lines gave the choreography an extra balletic feel. But with the minimalist, avant-garde music, it did not make for a good programming directly after the Peck piece. The audience response was tepid. Crowd-pleaser DGV saved the evening, since it was high energy and actually involved ballet and point shoes. I appreciate it now more than when I last saw it. Nadon and Chan were on fire, same with Mearns and Angle and their silky-smooth partnering. I will probably avoid most all-modern/contemporary programs in the future.

I have yet to see Partita (going this weekend) but from the pictures, I so badly wish Justin Peck would move on from dressing his dancers in warm-up attire (or as Gia Kourlas put it in the NYT review, "playsuits.") At least the jazzercize-inspired costumes in a ballet like Glass Pieces are attractive. These just look drab.

Reichlen's departure leaves open some interesting casting possibilities for the rest of the 2021-22 season: Prodigal Sun and Slaughter in February (no Kowroski either), Firebird in the spring (Bouder may not be back by then), Choleric in Four Temperaments, Titania in Midsummer, Agon.. And next time they bring back Diamonds, there will probably be two debuts given that Mearns will be the only one left who has danced it.

As a Jason Brown super-fan, I'm happy to see him going to the Olympics, quad or no quad. Ilya Malinin should be going in place of Vincent Zhou though. Zhou is totally inconsistent and has close to zero artistry. If Malinin were coming out of Russia or Japan, I don't think there's any doubt he'd be Olympics-bound. I'm not too confident in the US men's potential to score gold in the team event. US women have gone seriously downhill in the artistry department, but the talent of the Russian ladies is jaw-dropping. The recent European Championships are available on NBC Peacock -- there are must-watch performances from Kamila Valieva and Anna Shcherbakova in particular (ages 15 and 17 respectively). Also excellent are Ekaterina Kurakova of Poland and Loena Hendrickx of Belgium.

All of the newly promoted soloists are still in their 20s, so the company is strategically promoting them while they're still relatively early in their careers and have time to potentially progress to principal level, which is great. All of the promotions are well deserved -- Kikta, Hod, and Miller in particular have been dancing soloist roles for years. I can see why someone like Segin wouldn't be promoted. She's a little bit older and while she's excellent in her rep, I'm not sure how versatile she is beyond classical allegro ballets. Regarding Laracey, she's almost 40 so there would be little logic in promoting her at this point, especially when the principal rank currently has a lot of dancers who are getting closer to the end of their careers. Sad it didn't happen earlier for her.

I've always found Trenary to be extremely versatile in terms having excellent classical technique and also being exceptional in more modern/contemporary works. I don't see why she shouldn't get a Don Q at least during the tour. Perhaps the shortage of shorter male principals helps explain her lack of casting. There are so few Basilio-worthy dancers in the company right now, and Cornejo has an ongoing partnership with Brandt.

Tiler Peck is debuting Mozartiana with Harrison Ball on 2/5: https://res.cloudinary.com/new-york-city-ballet/image/upload/v1642610714/Documents/Casting/NYCB-Casting_February-1-6-2022_lobby Also, debuts for Woodward in La Valse and LaFreniere in Rubies, plus a few others

I think Copeland's last performance was the 2019 run of Nutcracker. Also, if I can remember correctly, Gillian Murphy was originally on 2019 Met schedule when the season was announced (and the brochures were sent out), and then was replaced only a few weeks later after her pregnancy became public news.

The whole point about Angle was that his solo dancing abilities in hard classical ballets like Mozartiana, Symphony in C, and Chaconne have diminished. His lack of hair is completely secondary. But it doesn't help the overall visual effect.

I think Gordon would be great in Mozartiana. Ball could handle the lead as well although they probably need a taller guy. With all respect to T. Angle and his talents, I think his ship has sailed for the white-tights roles. He doesn't have the technique for hard-core classical anymore. And yes, I think the baldness would be distracting in ballets like Mozartiana, Diamonds, Swan Lake, etc. It's not a good look for the company to keep casting veteran dancers in roles to which they're no longer suited. It's curious why Jared Angle is still on the roster; he hadn't performed in awhile even before the pandemic. Veyette has actually made somewhat of a comeback in the last couple of years; he still has a lot of power and control in turns, at least.

They just announced the last week is cancelled too. Totally frustrating -- they should have just cancelled the whole run last week instead of dangling the possibility of week 6 happening. And I don't see the logic either. Omicron is showing that Covid is morphing into something even milder than the common cold for vaccinated people. They're certainly deterring people from wanting to buy tickets for winter. I no longer feel bad for their losing money over this.

According to the master calendar, in addition to the Met season they also have twelve Don Quixotes to cast in the spring for Kennedy Center as well as performances in Norfolk, VA and New Orleans. Without Whiteside, they may end up casting Forster or Royal, but I'm not sure either of those guys have Basilio in them. They may very well need to pull from the corps -- didn't Sung Woo Han dance the pas de deux with Hurlin on tours last summer? -- or maybe they'll give Simkin, Brooklyn Mack, or other possible guest artists a call. Otherwise, 20 Don Quixotes over three months seems like too much for Stearns, Ahn, Bell, and Cornejo to split on their own.

I'm hoping for a Peck/Mejia Swan Lake too. Last time she was paired with Gordon. They were a great match but Mejia is someone she's really built a rapport with recently. He is totally ready for big classical roles. I could see Gordon being paired with Phelan, assuming she gets a debut.

Their website is so bad. The number-one goal for a performing arts company website should be to make performance info easy to find (to therefore sell tickets), and ABT's online calendar doesn't even load properly. Soloist Hurlin has more on the schedule than principal Trenary! I'd vote for putting Trenary in Theme & Variations. I've always thought she has the Balanchine allegro "spark."

It seems odd that during a Nutcracker season when four former Sugarplum Fairies have recently retired (Kowroski, Stafford, Lovette, King) and others are out of commission due to injury or other reasons (Mearns, Bouder, Reichlen, Pollack, Kretschmar), they couldn't save at least one spot for someone new. Casting sure works in mysterious ways. Also mysterious to me is why they gave Furlan only one performance of Cavalier, and it was a Wednesday matinee fairly early in the season. After his rave reviews in Swan Lake I assumed he'd become an MVP for the princely roles.