canbelto

One thing I noticed this fall season: Wendy Whelan was at almost every performance I went to. She was talking actively with many of the dancers in the theater promenade, and this was not the case when Peter Martins was AD. I have no idea if she simply feels more comfortable now with him gone or she is testing the waters to see how good of a fit she'd be managing the company.

Here's another example, and a very personal one at that: This is a group of kids I used to teach in high school. (Don't worry, they've all since graduated, and they're all over 18, and they asked me to film them.) But this was a makeshift "talent show" after school one day. The music system was experiencing technical difficulties so they improvised this. And none of them are great or even good dancers. However I think the first boy (the one in the red hoodie in the beginning and later in the gray T-shirt and ripped jeans) is very musical. His dance is making you see the rhythms of hip hop. His moves aren't flashy but they do have an exuberant energy.

Hmm. Julie Kent posted this on her instagram:

Some Friday night post-Halloween party thoughts: I think musicality is a dancer who makes you "see the music," to use Balanchine's phrase. This can come in many different forms. For example, whoever did the muppet dance for the "Kate Pierson" character in this Sesame Street rendition of "Shiny Happy People" was very musical -- the way the muppet bopped her head and then started shimmying at 2:03 made you really see REM's song. I actually like this rendition better than REM's actual single. And these aren't even dancers. Just muppets. This is another example of musicality: the way Gelsey Kirkland delicately raises her leg in penchee while softly rolling from pointe to flat-feet makes me "see" the delicacy and youthfulness that is a part of this variation's music. Many Giselles raise their leg way too fast, or too slow. Kirkland also accelerates her menage of pique turns around the stage with a frenzy that foreshadows Giselle's initiation as a Wili. Then there's Uliana Lopatkina in the White Swan adagio. Her frappes at the end of this adagio are surprisingly fast and timed to the music. She dances with such stillness and tranquility but the speed of her frappes suggest a heart that is beating faster and faster. So you not only "see" the serenity of Odette as she surrenders herself to Siegfried, you also "see" that her heart is flush with the excitement of being in love for the first time. A final example: it wasn't until I saw Ratmansky's reconstruction of Harlequinade that I realized the second act pas de deux was supposed to resemble a lark flying over a nest. But the gentle flutter of Patricia McBride's arms during this performance gave a hint about the avian nature of this variation. This was McBride's last ever performance with NYCB. I;m sure in 1965 her pirouettes were more secure. But she still made me "see" Colombine's music.

I love Stella but I've seen a real deterioration of her technique in the last year or so. Her Giselle was shaky. Which is why it's a shame she's not given Manon, a role which she could still dance well. But as it stands all this speculating is moot because the ABT roster is injury-prone and there's likely to be many a cast shuffle between now and May.

Well I've read the novel twice, cover to cover, and it really is an undanceable novel, if that makes sense. There's just so many stretches of the novel that are Don Q and Sancho traveling through Spain, meeting people and talking, sharing ideas and gradually almost fusing into one person. It's a great achievement of literature but I've always thought that great novels make poor dances.

Don Quixote is not really about the Don and Dulcinea either. Dulcinea is a passing fancy for Don Quixote. The core of Don Quixote (the novel) is in the symbiotic relationship between Don Quixote and Sancho, and the way they start to take on characteristics of the other, and also a tableau of 15th century Spain. Balanchine's Don Q as I understood it also added way more religion to the character than Don Quixote the novel character has. The earthy humor of Cervantes' novel as well the genuine insight into humanity is not really there either.

One issue I could see about reviving Don Q is all the variations they have for other dancers. Balanchine's Don Q may be a love letter to Suzanne, but he also gave gifts to many prominent dancers of the company. It was a time capsule of the company in 1965 in more ways than one. NYCB is a big company but this would involve massive amounts of rehearsal time, and might be more of a time commitment than Suzanne is willing to make.

Well from this article it's not clear that he was let go. Sounds more like a mutual agreement that WB was no longer a good fit for him. What's more concerning is Julie's high salary when budgeting is so tight and the fact that she lives rent free off Washington Ballet's expense. Yikes. The optics for that are not good especially if she's letting dancers go because she can't pay them what they want.

Well I think one thing that's undoubtedly true is that the 1950s/60s NYCB ballerinas all had very distinct mannerisms that Balanchine worked into his ballets for them. It's part of what made them stars. However the thing about mannerisms is that they don't always work for everybody. In Kent's case her freakishly flexible body was worked into many of the roles she danced. On another dancer they might not look as good. Another thing: John Clifford was only in the company for seven years. Granted it was during a rather productive time in Balanchine's life but how things were done in those seven years might not reflect how Balanchine "really" wanted it done.

Well I think there's also the issue that Peck's body is simply different from Kent's. Tiler Peck for one doesn't have much of a neck. This is not a knock on her or a criticism. But she just doesn't have the traditional elongated neck of a ballerina. Nor does she have a particularly flexible back. What will look amazing on Allegra (who was renowned for her flexibility) would probably look awkward on Peck. As for the clock arabesque in Emeralds, I think that the ballerina that night just struggled with the step because the ballerina the following night did it. And then this fall in a shocker I saw Megan LeCrone miss the clock arabesque in one performance and then she did it the following performance. And this brings me to another thing about Clifford: by his own admission he hasn't seen the company since 2011. Since then there's been a lot of turnover in all levels of the company -- principals, soloists, corps. Whoever they bring in I hope will observe many performances and many rehearsals to get a feel for the company. Riding in cowboy style and saying "Okay everything's gotta go" is generally not a wise way to start a term as AD. (Well I mean you can go the route of Angel Corella and fire the whole company but ...)

John Clifford is at it again. His complaint about ballerinas not throwing their heads back in the final moment of the MSND pas de deux is not really borne out by video. At 1:45 in this video Tiler Peck definitely does throw her neck and head backwards. Maybe not the degree that Allegra Kent has, but she does throw it back. But Gelsey Kirkland in what I assume was the early 1970's does not throw her head back at 8:22:

Here's some clips of Suzanne in Don Q. Amazing is an understatement.

It's not just that she created that role. It's that the whole ballet was such a time capsule of Balanchine and Farrell's relationship in 1965 and the ballet such a personal love letter to Farrell that I think it loses its impact without her. Actually it lost its impact when she returned to the company as by then their relationship as I said was much different. He tried to revive it, made lots of tinkerings, and gave up. This is what Arlene Croce (a Balanchine loyalist if there ever was one) had to say about the 1975 revival: "There is very little besides Farrell to justify the maintenance in repertory of his full-evening work Don Quixote. Farrell has little to do until the final act, where she fully recaptures her old brilliance and adds to it a new gift of dramatization. Up to that point she has outgrown the role, and the ballet is stale and boring."

I must say after watching those Farrell clips that I can't imagine anyone else doing this ballet. It should be noted that when Farrell returned to NYCB Balanchine tried reviving Don Q but ultimately dropped it from the repertoire. For one his relationship with Farrell had evolved and the ballet just didn't sell well no matter how many tinkerings he made.

It took Adrian D-W 10 years to be promoted to principal: he joined in 2003, was promoted to soloist in 2010 and principal in 2013. Ask La Cour was 11 years -- joined in 2002, soloist 2003, principal 2013. It took Georgina Pazcoguin and Lauren King 10 years just to be promoted to soloist. It took Troy Schumacher 12 years to be promoted to soloist.

NYCB also has a much, much longer season where everyone is together. I think it's the longest season for an American ballet company. Fall season, the craziness of Nutcracker season, winter season, spring season, touring in the summer. So whether you like these people or not, you have to find a way to be in the same space as them because guess what, you're stuck with them.

Tess Reichlen picking up Joaquin will never not be adorable. I also must say that NYCB knows how to seem like a happy family when doing farewells. This has not been the case with some recent ABT farewells, which had glaring no-shows and general awkwardness.

I'm really pulling for Indiana Woodward to be promoted to principal. I think she's an amazing talent who just brightens up the stage whenever she dances.

Guys I really apologize I accidentally deleted the farewell video from my own channel. I reuploaded it:

Re: Veyette because I was there one awful night he was doing Donizetti Variations. He landed hard on a jump, you heard something CRACK from the audience, and he limped offstage. Ashley Bouder improvised the rest of the ballet on her own, and constantly looked into the wings. He never came out for curtain calls. He has never been the same since.

I don't have an issue with Martins' Sleeping Beauty or La Sylphide. I think both of them work well with the company.

I think Harrison Ball might get tapped for Apollo. He definitely has the "look" and is making a good comeback after a long injury.

Chase Finlay and Zach Catazaro. Um, yeah.

Women: Maria, Sara, Ashley, Tess (who picks him up), Abi, Lauren, Sterling, Tiler, Megan Men: Andy, Ask, Jared, Taylor, Tyler, Adrian (in the boot), Daniel, Russell, Joe, Anthony, Gonzalo (with the flag). The interim team of Jonathan Stafford, Rebecca Krohn and Craig Hall came out together. Justin was missing. Then Robbie Fairchild came out. Joaquin's dad. Girlfriend (woman in green). His mom (woman in pink). That's all I could recognize.