BLalo

Honestly I think the most shocking thing is that Gorak actually gets three principal performances...! Also to point out to everyone who believes matinee casting to be a slap in the face: Teuscher, Stearns, Shevchenko, Cornejo, Copeland, Murphy, Whiteside, Boylston and Simkin are all scheduled for at least one matinee.

Not to mention Amanda McKerrow and John Gardner just coached ABT in Jardin aux Lilas for Vail and have just been coaching Some Assembly Required.

A great dancer does not automatically equal a great coach / teacher / director / stager / repetiteur / regisseur / choreographer / anything else. Having experience as a dancer does not equip you for being a good coach which encompasses so much more than just “passing along things people have told me”. Not only is it having knowledge (and knowledge isn’t solely passed along from principal to principal), but it also means having a good eye and having a strong understanding of how to psychologically and emotionally get the best out of the dancer you are working with. Coaches don’t turn dancers into copies of themselves.

Dying to hear about the new Tharp... Tharp-Kamali-Tipton dream team!

I don’t think he was making any kind of comment. He finds AD-W’s name difficult to pronounce so instead he calls him Double-Barreled, probably because he thinks it’s witty because his surname is literally a double-barreled surname.

Yes. I didn’t think it was unknown. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-barrelled_name

Honestly I don’t think “double-barreled” was meant as any kind of description for AD-W at all, I think “double-barreled” is just a term for that type of surname. For example Jackson-Barrett is double-barreled surname.

If the critics and a “large segment of the public” consider it a triumph, is the show then not a success? Is longevity the only factor in determining something’s success? If that was the case, only a handful of shows would truly be successful.

I agree, Cobweb. I also like the pleated skirts and I am also looking forward to the prologue and apotheosis which I feel add so much interest to the ballet. I’ve always found Apollo to be reliant on a group of intriguing individuals, rather than its success being the product of this company or that.

Definitely looks to me like something that should remain firmly in the past.

Hear hear!

Agreed. Sometimes it’s just not the same ballet without the right dancer chosen by the choreographer.

I feel it’s a pretty complex issue, but if a role has been designated a specific race (Madame Butterfly, Othello...) then that role should be given to a person of that race, rather than a white person masquerading as a person of that race. If you don’t have the dancers for a piece of repertoire, don’t programme that rep.

Definitely a big difference between casting an Asian dancer in an Asian role and casting Asian dancers only in Asian roles...

It’s my guess that this part is considered particularly vital and/or difficult which is why it merits a front-of-curtain bow. It is certainly out of the ordinary to have the corps now in front of the curtain. I don’t really see it as a problem.

Very true. I think these designs show us why every other ballet costume has lighter tights than the top.

Yeah the new costumes don’t work for me. It’s a beautiful color palette, but the wrong color palette for this ballet and almost nothing to distinguish the principals from the corps.

Curious if anyone saw CoLab at Kaatsbaan this past weekend or if anyone is planning on seeing them next weekend at MMAC? I’m unable to go but would love to hear any reports. For anyone who doesn’t already know, CoLab is directed by Lauren Post of ABT - her summer project. I believe they started last year. This year I think they had three new works by three female choreographers including Gemma Bond so I’d love to know how that went.

I suppose you can ask Mr Ratmansky yourself on his FB page (he seems very open to answering questions) but only two notated versions of the Lilac Fairy Variation exist. I believe Part initially performed the variation currently performed by all other Lilac Fairies and at some point switched to the Marie Petipa variation.

Yes, Ratmansky has made adjustments every time SB was presented but just to clarify - Part did the same Marie Petipa variation every time she performed. There have only been two versions of the Lilac Fairy variation in this production and Part was the only one who performed the Marie Petipa one. Three Ivans and Mandarin / Porcelain Princesses Dance was included ONLY for ABT’s presentation of “Aurora’s Wedding” in 2017 in place of Cinderella and Hop O’ My Thumb. These numbers were not performed as part of the full SB.

Thank goodness for Daniil who injected some much-needed energy into last night’s performance. Skylar Brandt’s performance was pristine - practically perfect.

As we know from other book-to-ballets, an epic book would require the condensing of many events into fewer, larger scenes and it is possible that Adele, Mrs Fairfax, Grace, Bertha, Blanche, among others appear at the wedding. We also have no idea at this point the choreographic weight the choreographer has prescribed to anyone in the novel. It seems quite strange to assume that a principal could only be doing a corps role based on the little information we have about the ballet.

Yet in the program they are referred to as “Suitors” and then subsequently “Asia”, “Africa” etc. Nothing to indicate as in other productions that they are princes or have “high stature”. Regardless, the point I was trying to make was that their costumes are fairly nondescript and choreographically there is no difference between any of them (most royal Ballet productions have the French Prince do most of the “extra” partner work as Aurora would already probably be familiar with him - but at City Ballet they all take turns doing the extra stuff). They could easily be referred to as “Four Princes” (to convey their high stature).

This, combined with the news that ABT’s presence at the Met is being diminished would indicate to me that ABT may be in a pretty precarious position. I would also assume that this will be quite damaging for ABT’s brand. Do prestigious ballet companies perform on cruise ships?

Is the Death Knell tolling? http://www.seatrade-cruise.com/news/news-headlines/celebrity-cruises-partnership-is-bringing-american-ballet-theatre-to-sea.html