canbelto

I did a wrapup of the Winter Season which includes a link to my review of the last All-Balanchine program at Bachtrack: https://humbledandoverwhelmed.blogspot.com/2019/03/a-review-of-nycb-at-bachtrack-winter.html

Stafford was an okayish Polyhymnia. But she barely dances. It's hard to stay in shape when you're barely onstage. She also has a young child at home and goes to law school. I think she's transitioning out of her ballet career slowly.

Whelan also had a monopoly on certain roles that is no longer the company's norm. For instance while she was in the company I don't think I ever saw anyone else do the main Agon pas de deux or Symphony in Three Movements. And new choreography would almost always be Wendy.

Kowroski = Diana Adams role (later danced by Suzanne Farrell) Hyltin = Melissa Hayden role (later associated with Patricia McBride) Bouder = Violette Verdy role Laracey = Jilana role

I also wonder what will happen with some of the people who spoke out rather forcefully about their unhappiness with the lack of leadership. Tiler Peck and Ashley Bouder are big stars and principals and may be untouchable ... for now. But I wonder if they're looking back and regretting their words: For instance Tiler Peck in this interview: And Ashley Bouder: Bouder then made it clear she was Team Wendy on her Instagram:

It happened again a few years later with Sara Mearns. Both of them landed on the floor with a thud and at the curtain calls let's just say Sara looked ... not pleased.

Angle and Veyette are excellent partners. La Cour is iffy -- I;ve seen him make huge partnering bobbles including Piano Concerto #2 where he tripped the foot of Sara Mearns and both of them tumbled to the floor. Also Nutcracker where there were several noticeable partnering bobbles.

Did anyone go to the HD? I know Camarena did the encore for all performances.

Jared Angle, Sean Suozzi, Georgina Pazcoguin, Andrew Veyette, Ask La Cour are all dancers who either aren't dancing much or at all or have an extremely limited repertoire. And Abi Stafford, but she's Jonathan's sister.

There are a few senior principals and soloists who simply aren't dancing much anymore and not really due to injury. I think they would have been let go no matter who became AD so it wouldn't surprise me if their contracts aren't renewed after this season or the next.

I saw it and enjoyed it a lot. Here is what I wrote about it on my blog:

I even went to some of my favorite arts blogs like dancetabs and found no coverage. I mean ... not to toot my own horn but ... it's like the only person who covered several casts was ... me. https://humbledandoverwhelmed.blogspot.com/2019/02/nycbs-sleeping-beauty-has-radiant-new.html

I find it a shame that no major newspaper has covered any performances in this Sleeping Beauty. Only the NYTimes did that piece about Ashley.

Who wore it better, Maya Rudolph or my mattress? (That's my actual bedspread).

They do! But it's more of a modern dance thing. Obvious examples: Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, Paul Taylor (he was famous as the dad in Big Bertha), Merce Cunningham.

Hmm this isn't really a knock against Lovette but I don't think she'll ever have the technique for major classical roles. It's too bad she doesn't have a choreographer who can really choreograph for her strengths (her charm and beauty and lyricism).

Uh so ... did anyone attend the final performance with Indiana and Anthony?

Hmm just to put this into perspective -- a NYTimes archive article about a Royal Ballet tour in 1970 says that Antoinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell were first cast in both Sleeping Beauty and Romeo and Juliet. And this was when Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev were still worldwide sensations and by far the biggest names of the company. So just because you're first cast doesn't mean you'll always be first cast.

Well whatever the merits or demerits of this SB it's done well at the box office. I was going to go one last time this afternoon for Indiana and Anthony and the house is pretty much sold out except for the nosebleed seats.

I actually think Bouder unwittingly fed into some stereotypes about females and ballet when she made the complaint to the NYTimes. If she had simply spoken about Martins' undue influence it would have been one thing. But by specifically mentioning Sterling Hyltin and citing the reason she thinks Hyltin was first cast, she's fed into this stereotype that females can't get along, that it's easy to divide and conquer quarreling females, and also fed into some Black Swan-type stereotypes about ballerinas. I'm not saying that she should be silenced. But the average reader is going to read that article and picture a catfight royale backstage and that's sort of a shame. I agree that a strong AD needs to be hired ASAP because right now this sounds like a Dynasty-era soap opera.

Sterling Hyltin still follows Ashley Bouder on Instagram so whatever tension the article might have caused apparently it didn't cause them to unfollow each other ...

Uh ... well in the midst of all this discussion. Has anyone seen the Bouder/Gordon/King/Reichlen cast? I unfortunately only went to the Hyltin/Janzen/Reichlen, Peck/Angle/Laracey and Woodward/Huxley/Lecrone performances.

You know, casting decisions generally do go to the foundation/stager. For example when the Cranko estate staged Onegin they did not want Zakharova as Tatiana. It was a big scandal and Zakharova walked out in a fury and went to the press about it. But the Bolshoi ceded to the Cranko estate's wishes. So Peter's well within his rights to cast his own ballet. Was what he did nice? Maybe not, but the only way around it is to not stage his ballets. Also, if he wanted to be spiteful I must say that Bouder getting three performances (two evening ones and one matinee) with a generally excellent cast is pretty far down on the list of ballet spitefulness. Balanchine for all his sainted reputation could be way more spiteful when it came to casting decisions (remember him pulling Paul Mejia from all his roles after Mejia married Suzanne Farrell?). If Bouder were relegated to a single matinee performance then I would say her claim of retaliation has more footing. But it seems as if the larger issue is that Stafford's decisions are not really being respected by the Board, and they are also disorganized and not really being as proactive as they should be about naming an AD. So that leads to chaos, confusion, and general unhappiness. ETA: in the fall Martins did cast Bouder in his version of La Sylphide for two performances.

Yes I did notice that both Unity and Ashley Laracey were frighteningly thin. But Unity danced very strongly I thought while Ashley's dancing just didn't have the beauty and sparkle I'm used to seeing from her.

Hyltin's post about dropping Juliet: