canbelto
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Posts posted by canbelto
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The listed participants are:
ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater, People's Artist of Russia Svetlana Zakharova;
— Sergei Polunin;
- ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater, Honored Artist of Russia, People's Artist of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania Ekaterina Krysanova;
- ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater, Honored Artist of Russia Evgenia Obraztsova;
- ballerina MAMT named after K.S. Stanislavsky and V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, laureate of international competitions Ksenia Ryzhkova;
- ballerina of the Mariinsky Theater Oksana Skorik;
- Prime Minister of the Bolshoi Ballet, Honored Artist of Russia Vladislav Lantratov;
- Soloist of the Bolshoi Ballet, laureate of international competitions Klim Efimov;
- Premier of the MAMT ballet named after K.S. Stanislavsky and V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, laureate of international competitions Dmitry Sobolevsky;
- Premier of the Mariinsky Theater Ballet Andrei Ermakov;
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25 minutes ago, vipa said:
Anyone else read Toni Bentley's, Serenade? I just finished it, and enjoyed it very much. There are times when Bentley can veer to the sensationalistic (although other dancer books I've read recently, do more so). Still, I could have done without the hints as to the identity of her first lover, and accounts of Petipa as wife abuser.
Nadine Meisner's book goes into great detail about Petipa as a wife abuser. The accounts are pretty grisly.
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35 minutes ago, Rock said:
What about Petipa? Is there a good biography about him out there? I feel I know so little about his life. French. Brother. Daughter was a dancer. That's about it. Was he fired from the theatre? Why? I'd love to know more.
Nadine Meisner's biography is great, very comprehensive:
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Went a second time tonight. Really enjoyed it more this time -- noticed a lot more of the corps patterns and the dramaturgy. At the end of the evening Christine Shevchenko and Alexei Ratmansky held up a Ukrainian flag.
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Here's the review I wrote for Bachtrack:
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But my point is Duo Concertant isn't a "new" ballet to NYC audiences. As of this year, it's 50 years old and is performed (maybe overperformed?) at NYCB. ABT audiences were acting like this was totally new and avante-garde.
Even Ashton's Cinderella and Fille mal gardee don't sell well.
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17 minutes ago, Quiggin said:
I remember hearing a man telling his wife at an ABT performance at the MET that he was happy that the next ballet was a story ballet, that they had really"missed the boat" across the way at State Theater by producing so many abstract ballets.
Maybe ABT could have a BAM week where they try out different things, like Love and Rage excerpts (but retitled and with Rauschenberg costumes?) or smaller cast workshop ballets. Was interesting to read Brian Seibert's review of early Paul Taylor works, wonder if there are strands of interesting earlier ABT experimental works that could be revived?
I remember an ABT performance of T&V where some audience members were complaining that they didn't like these "new" works. They wanted Romeo and Juliet. When I informed them that Theme and Variations is actually older than R&J, they were shocked.
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2 minutes ago, balletlover08 said:
Then ABT may be better off sticking only to the classic full lengths for the MET. They can do all the advance garde shows elsewhere, maybe segerstorm or on tour? I think there is an audience for newer modern, jazz works etc. Just maybe not for very conservative audiences.
Just to give you an idea of how conservative spring season ABT audiences are, I remember the frosty reception to Duo Concertant.
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1 hour ago, miliosr said:
Here's another elephant in the room: Just how popular is Alexei Ratmansky with ABT's core audience? He has a following among critics and seriously committed ballet fans. But how much of an audience does he have at ABT beyond that?
Well ABT's spring Met audience is extremely conservative and would probably want 5 weeks of nothing but Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet. This is an audience that finds T&V avante garde. I think Ratmansky's full lengths of Sleeping Beauty and Harlequinade were fairly popular. His other works less so.
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It's so gross how many Tony's this got.
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13 minutes ago, Roberta said:
The KC programing folks (like other arts presenters across the USA and maybe elsewhere) have been on an Affirmative Action diversity plan for a while now. It's about presenting choreographers/artists/musicians of diverse genders, colors, etc. Both ABT and NYCB's triple bills included jazz-music commissioned by the KC (music for the Alonzo King for ABT + the Roberts work for NYCB). Then there's next week's diversity festival (or whatever it's called...Reframing the Narrative).
With the two foreign classical ballet troupes cancelled (China and Mariinsky), it left two classical companies (ABT and NYCB) other than Miami with Nutcracker. So it would have been nice if the two companies that interested me and my family would have provided more classical works, incl more Balanchine and a Robbins or two. But they did not meet the Affirmative Action agenda.
Off to tonight's NYCB AMSND!
Jazz, a musical tradition that is over a century old, is now associated with a rather elderly (and dare I say it, white) fan base.
Also, the programs by KC seem to mirror the programs done by NYCB in the spring. I saw a program with both Emanon and Partita. Also MSND. It seems likely NYCB simply didn't want to create a new triple bill for their KC engagement.
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4 hours ago, Roberta said:
Less emphasis on European traditional classicism. Fewer tutus and tiaras. Less classical music. More sneakers and jazz. More non-traditional "couplings" depicted on stage, yadda, yadda.
NYCB's run will be followed by something called Reframing the Narrative, as if the Kennedy Center - and the rest of North American arts institutions - haven't been reframing all season. ROTFL. The traditional conservative paying public refuses to support this. I tore our family's 4-ticket subscription package for the paltry 2022/23 KC Ballet subscription...into the trashcan! We will enjoy the very last traditional show of our season subscription on Saturday - NYCB's Midsummer Night. After that, it's bye-bye Wokes.
First of all, it's not my experience that ballet fans are politically conservative. Arlene Croce was. But she wws the exception.
Second of all, I disliked Emanon bc it seemed so obviously derivative of the Balanchine jazz classics like Who Cares and Rubies.
Third of all, jazz is a musical tradition now over a hundred years old. It's not "woke."
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18 hours ago, Roberta said:
Maybe ballet is going to the Woke Crowd? They can keep it. They're not getting our money next season.
I fail to see what's so "woke" about this KC program. It wasn't well planned but how is it woke?
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Besides the planned departures of Amar Ramasar and Andrew Scordato, it seems as if Sean Suozzi is no longer on the roster either.
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Ok we get it. You don't like her.
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I find this quite lovely:
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T he McKenzie SL simply butchers the final act. I hate it. I also hate the cheesy decor.
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A version of Raymonda was actually broadcasted on LFLC:
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3 hours ago, FITTB85 said:
What an extremely dismissive way to write about Alexandra Waterbury. “Model good looks and feisty personality… she’s the perfect #MeToo agent.”
I say this as a compliment to her. She's very appealing. I have nothing but empathy for her ordeal. I just don't think Amar should be the blame for her pain.
I also called her a change agent. I meant this in a positive way.
By the way here is my full quote:
QuoteAlthough he apologized again and again, the scandal followed him around. When he danced Bernardo in a Broadway revival of West Side Story, Chase Finlay's photogenic and eloquent ex-girlfriend Alexandra Waterbury stood outside in protest. With her model good looks and feisty personality, Waterbury was a perfect #metoo change agent. Just this season, he was loudly booed after a performance of Four Temperaments. His dancing of the Phlegmatic variation was stellar, so the booing couldn't have been for his dancing. He looked shaken at the curtain calls.
I despise the words "cancel culture" and "woke" because I think they're often used to denigrate important concerns and injustices in society. But with the case of Amar Ramasar, at a certain point I thought, "he's suffered enough." It should be noted he was not responsible for some of the more vile comments that were exposed in the lawsuit, and that unlike Chase Finlay, Amar took responsibility and apologized. I empathize with Waterbury's rage and humiliation, but Ramasar lost almost a year's worth of salary. He did his time.
One of the reasons Ramasar has my respect is he's never tried to skirt this issue, never made a "oh it was taken out of context" excuse.
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I wrote a little tribute to Amar:
https://humbledandoverwhelmed.blogspot.com/2022/05/amar-ramasars-farewell-full-of-joy-and.html
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I generally don't comment on performances during the season because I review them for bachtrack, but here's my reviews of the spring season:
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Lourdes Lopez is the woman in the red dress and bouquets.
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35 minutes ago, cobweb said:
I look forward to someone notating who was who at the farewell. I was way way house left, way up front, so I could not see the faces and didn't recognize many of the people who were there for Amar. That was definitely Peter Martins he greeted first in the aisle though.
That I recognized:
Besides the NYCB principals, I saw Alexei Ratmansky, Maria Kowroski, Joaquin de Luz, and Zach Catazaro.
All the NYCB principals besides Ashley Bouder, Tiler Peck and Russell Janzen were there (didn't see Russell).
ABT 2022: Mixed Bill
in American Ballet Theatre
Posted
I attended the mixed bill yesterday. I thought Brandt and Cornejo were excellent in T&V, although I feel like Brandt could use some ballerina authority. The background and costumes need a change -- the black background and extremely bright lighting on the yellow costumes created a glared, washed effect and it was hard to see Herman and Skylar's faces.
Single Eye actually put me to sleep.