canbelto

So I will eat my words about Maria Kowroski no longer being up to the demands of Balanchine roles. I didn't like her Mozartiana nor was I crazy about her Chaconne, but I loved her in Agon last night. I thought she and Adrian D-W were just sizzling.

Coppelia in Franz is one of his trademark roles and that's programmed in the spring season.

This is confirmed by "on the ground" reports:

I think Hyltin was a revelation in the role (and several other roles) because unlike so many of her predecessors she doesn't go for the Goddess approach. I think at NYCB the idea of muses and goddesses are so wrapped up in the company history (maybe culminating in Balanchine's ballets for Suzanne Farrell and also in her many other roles which she turned into Goddess roles) that sometimes people forget that Balanchine also choreographed roles that were meant to be danced as mortals, and not goddesses. Duo Concertant is definitely one role where that faraway, aloof, chin to the sky approach is not ideal.

Finlay really has not been very technically reliable, ever. I remember those fabled first Apollos he had some stumbles too. But back then the deficiencies weren't as noticeable because he didn't have a principal's workload and he also didn't have a series of injuries. But now with several injuries/absences/departures on the male principal roster he's being asked to take on more and more roles and the lack of consistency is more apparent. Don't get me wrong -- he is a beautiful dancer and can be great. But the day-in-day-out technical consistency is not his forte.

This has sadly been confirmed by Heather Watts on her instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heather_watts_watts/

I saw Huxley do it with Lovette. He was alright although IMO this ballet is overdone -- of all the Duo couples I've seen only Sterling Hyltin and Robert Fairchild were able to get that combination of academic cleanness with romanticism. I think the Tall Guy/Short Girl combo comes from the fact that this ballet was originally set on Peter Martins (tall) and Kay Mazzo (short).

edwin denby, arlene croce, and akim volynsky's volumes of work are my dance bibles.

It definitely carried over to a ballet like La Sonnambula where she was technically perfect but didn't have that mystery. This extended to her perfectly straightened hair -- it just didn't look like she had been locked up in an attic. She also doesn't quite do it for me as Pink Girl in DAAG. It's plotless but she exudes such strength that in those quieter moments like when the Pink Girl draws a rainbow in the sky I didn't quite see that rainbow come to life. And I say this as someone who could probably watch her dance Allegro Brillante, Piano Concerto #2, Dewdrop, and many other roles for the rest of my life.

This is a general rule about Tiler Peck: despite her amazing abilities as a dancer she's not a great actress and I've rarely seen her have chemistry with any of her partners.

It reminds me of those fashion galas where famous fashion designers design costumes for the dancers and it's obvious they haven't a clue how a ballet dancer needs to move or how those designs will play out over the footlights. The worst was a fuzzy red Valentino concoction that would have looked great on the runway but looked horrible on Sara Mearns.

Uh ... this is a glitch in the Met's website but if you subscribed to the Met's 2018-19 season you can buy single tickets for ABT performances.

sorry nvm wrong message board

I've seen it once live (Emeralds) and many video clips (I don't want the channel to get shut down but there is a tireless chronicler of the POB and it includes them dancing Balanchine on YT). My opinion: they dance it well, but sort of anemically. When I saw their Emeralds I saw their beautiful feet, their exquisite port de bras. What I did NOT see the kind of fast footwork, sudden ability to switch center of gravity and go for broke attack that IMO Balanchine requires. They also have a tendency to airbrush the thornier parts of Balanchine choreography. During the Emeralds i saw one couple deleted the stacccato "clock" arabesques of the walking pas de deux. I saw a video of their Four Temperaments and the Choleric is a fine dancer but she doesn't do those fast gargouillades that IMO are an iconic part of the choreography. On the other hand I do think they can do some Balanchine very well. For instance this Tchaikovsky pas de deux has maybe the most exciting dancing I've ever seen from Dupont. I mean I didn't even know she could do a quintuple pirouette:

It's a rather small company and I think many people think that they can go to NY if they want to see "the classics." PA Ballet is still a rather small regional company and I don't think the average ballet goer really knows, say, Sterling Baca or Mayara Piniero or the other dancers Angel Corella has been pushing heavily. I'm sure the company's heavy turnover the past couple of years hasn't helped.

Hmm I don't know ... their full-length productions have not sold well this season. I have gotten email offers about discounts. Their upcoming Swan Lake (usually a cash cow in whatever form) has plenty of seats left.

It's really becoming mini-ABT.

I think Troy Schumacher's ballets Common Ground and The Wind Still Brings are pretty dreadful. I like Schumacher as a soloist but both of those ballets were boring and endless. I was surprised they revived The Wind Still Brings for the winter season.

There;s this interview with Tomasson about Baiser also:

No one's seen him in that before because it's his debut! But about Baiser I remember seeing Tiler with Robbie in that back when they were together. Looking back the ending predicted their real-life relationship.

I believe you're talking about Boris Eifman's Musagete but I believe it was Wendy who made the slithering entrance through the hole as she played Mourka's, Balanchine's black cat:

Well many of the same dancers of Red Violin got huge applause when they closed out the night with Russian Seasons so I hope they didn't take it personally ... It's hard to muster much enthusiasm for Red Violin though.

With that being said I recently attended a performance that included Martins' Red Violin and the work was so overlong and boring that there was barely any applause afterwards. A similar thing happened with Jeux de Cartes (revived last spring). Crickets from the audience. It's nothing like the response the audiences have for Balanchine, Robbins, etc.

Well being "ballet master" of NYCB certainly didn't stop Balanchine ballets from traveling during his lifetime, just sayin' ... In fact Balanchine was famous for refusing to take a salary at NYCB because he made a comfortable living from the commissions of his ballets around the world. Same goes for Jerome Robbins, Sir Frederick Ashton, Sir Kenneth MacMillan ... As I said I admire Peter Martins for a lot of things. Certainly his eye for talent has been great. But his limitations as a choreographer IMO don't take away from the good work he's done for NYCB since he's joined the company in 1967. And I have a hunch he would agree: in the past few years there has been a drastic scaling back of Martins ballets, except for the full-lengths.

I think Martins' La Sylphide and Sleeping Beauty are fairly inoffensive versions of the classics. I dislike his Swan Lake less every time I see it. But his one-acters: I've seen many and other than Hallelujah Junction, Fearful Symetries and Barber Violin Concerto I can't think of one I've wanted to revisit. This isn't a slam on him. Many, many people do not know how to choreograph but that doesn't stop them from trying.