Drew

Best from my (necessarily rather limited) ballet-going in 2014: 1. New York City Ballet--extraordinary repertory/extraordinary ballerinas: especially performances by Sara Mearns (Diamonds and Chaconne--performances that really defy description) and Tiler Peck (preturnaturally Romantic in Funerailles, preternaturally fast in Pictures at an Exhibition, preturnaturally musical in Emeralds). Also performances by Bouder and Hyltin. And, of course, Wendy Whelan. This fall every time I saw her step on stage was special, but 'specially special the beautiful new role she created in Ratmansky's Pictures at an Exhibition 2. Great new neo-classical repertory at Atlanta Ballet. Maillot's Romeo and Juliet and (especially) Ratmansky's Seven Sonatas pushed the dancers to their limit and maybe even a bit over, but it was wonderful to see ballet choreography of substance at Atlanta Ballet. Special nod to Alessa Rogers' performance as Juliet. 3. From Mikhailovsky U.S. tour: the Messerer revival/reconstruction of Vainonen's Flames of Paris and particularly the third of the performances I saw -- a Sat night with Bondareva, Perren, Vasiliev, Lebedev, and Ugrekhelidze. Just one of those exhuberant evenings in which a performance takes flight. 4. From Bolshoi U.S. tour: The brilliant Ekaterina Krysanova. Well, honestly I don't think I saw her give any one overall great performance from start to finish -- but in the bravura pas de deux of Swan Lake (Black Swan) and Don Quixote she reminded us why the word "Bolshoi" sends shivers down people's spines. 5. Also from Bolshoi tour: Semyon Chudin and Olga Smirnova: 2014 gave my my first chance to see these artists (Chudin as Siegfried and Basilio; Smirnova as Odette/Odile and Queen of the Dryads). When he made his bounding entrance onto the stage in Swan Lake, I think I literally sat up in my seat. And, from that performance, the first of his two Swan Lakes in NY, I won't forget the Bruhn-like landings from double tours and perfectly shaped and evenly controlled turns all evening long. All infused with modest gallantry and warmth. (Wee bit less perfection the other Swan Lake he danced and in Don Quixote--but still very refined and enjoyable dancing.) She seems an extraordinary talent if still a work in progress and her distinctive and lush upper body was a special pleasure. In the moments when everything comes together, she take's one's breath away. I mention Chudin and Smirnova together because they also seem a real partnership and in Swan Lake one of best things about their dancing was their rapport with each other. 6. Sensational Russian Character Dancing: Whether Mikhailovsky in Flames of Paris or Bolshoi in Don Quixote. Wow! Honorable mentions for year: Osipova's Giselle with Mikhailovsky was not quite as moving as in performances I have seen her give in the past. Still, there are always unexpected details of execution/interpretation to catch the eye--details which no-one else does or, perhaps, can do. David Hallberg's Siegfried with the Bolshoi had all his trademark elegance and, at least in first act, beauty of execution. Denis Rodkin as Espada in Bolshoi Don Quixote -- because fun is fun. (I had almost written because hot is hot.) At NYCB, I finally got to see some of Justin Peck's work and am interested in seeing what comes next -- and, among company dancers new to me, Ashley Laracey caught my eye. Worst: I always feel uncomfortable about doing a "worst" list, but I think acknowledging the good means more if one acknowledges that there is some bad out there and sometimes it bears mentioning; still, this year, after writing a rather longer list, I deleted most of what I had written. Here is what I left: 1. Grigorovich's Swan Lake. Even with the casts I liked best--Even allowing that some of Grigorovich's 'effects' however untrue to Petipa-Ivanov (as in Odette's entrance) have their charms...still just dreary. From start to finish. Depressingly so. Final note: Usually ABT figures somewhere on my list, but 2014 went by with no ABT for me. I very much hope to see them next year!

Indeed, Waelsung. Pavlenko, with her husband Sergeyev, as the prince, was the highlight of the Kennedy Center's run of this ballet a couple of years ago. Since then, I believe that she's been allowed to essay the role only once at the Mariinsky...maybe twice? I also thought Pavlenko was terrific as Cinderella, but I wonder if they won't give the additional performance to Batoeva who danced it recently on tour in London...

Oooh Wow! Thank you.

Actually, I think the price if the ticket depends on the cast. The tickets I got for the Lovette/Finlay Nutcracker were substantiallly less than the Bouder (now Tiler)/De Luz Nutcracker. The house is almost completely sold out for the latter and the available seats (in the 4th ring) are $71 -$91. Do you really think it's based on the cast? Or is it just that particular casts sold particularly well at an earlier date enabling the ticket pricing changes to kick in at a different pace? I don't mean to be pedantic...I'm genuinely curious/concerned, because it seems very antithetical to NYCB--even in today's era of pre-announced casting--to change prices based solely on cast.

OMG, had i been a mother, i would under NO circumstances allow my children to be near a person wearing such an outfit. Moreover, a ballerina (imho) should be a person of a bit of a better refined taste and manners that a typical person. "Dieu de la danse" very recently circulated this (older) photo of Alessandra Ferri: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=645147752263177&set=a.285736424870980.62327.100003038742854&type=1&theater I'm not trying to talk anyone into this sort of thing, just noting that other ballerinas - and much loved and respected ones - have posed at least as revealingly. I say nothing of Guillem's nude photo shoot...In fact, I've seen/heard of Guillem taking flack for this sort of thing, but not Ferri. (Though on FB some people are now commenting on the photo in less than flattering terms.) I wouldn't expect Mishkin to do anything other than cover the 'same old...same old' in an interview with a ballerina, and yes, as commented above, much of his audience would not have heard Copeland talk about her career elsewhere. I, too, could wish otherwise but repetition is part of the reality of the celebrity-artist interview circuit...I remember watching Elijah Wood get asked to tell the story of how he interviewed for Frodo at the time the second Lord of the Rings Movie came out--he could barely hide his boredom with repeating the story over a year after he had been telling it on every single talk show and in every print outlet imaginable. Letterman had Makarova on his show years after her defection, but the defection story was all he wanted to discuss; ditto (as best I remember) for Merv Griffin and Nureyev. For that matter, how many times has Nichelle Nichols been asked to tell the story of how Martin Luther King asked her to stay on as Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek--even decades after that show was off the air? That's the story people want to hear especially if they aren't Star Trek fans; I have no idea if Mishkin is a ballet fan, but he is certainly not interviewing for ballet fans.

Flames of Paris seems to me as peculiar a choice for ABT (even in the Ratmansky version) as Bright Stream. Those ballets have a reason for being in Russian companies; much less so in an American one. The full-length Ratmansky that I thought might be imported by ABT was Lost Illusions. I agree at least to a large extent with Miliosr and Sandik, too, that it feels as if a large portion of ABT's audience--certainly of their Met audience--has been, over the decades, increasingly brought to expect and admire familiar full-length works with well-known principal dancers. I personally like the fact that ABT maintains the major classics in repertory regularly--which is the only way to maintain quality in dancing those ballets. I could wish they had better productions of many of them. I'm more dubious about some of their 20th-century full length works--by which I mean Macmillan--but am resigned to their popularity. I also am okay with--even enthusiastic about--'stars' who are artists, as long as the company develops some of those dancers from within (eg Murphy, Cornejo, Hallberg) and has relations with others that are dancing with the company regularly not just dropping in for one performance. I certainly make no apologies for believing a great ballet company needs great ballerinas. ABT is obviously going through a tricky transition right now on that particular front. But even so, I would like to see more attention to repertory programs at the long and repetitive Met seasons. Something that I think would also bring out strengths in the company as a company that we seem likeliest to get a glimpse of during the much shorter Koch theater season.

I mentioned Seven Sonatas as well -- which has been danced successfully by other companies not just ABT. But actually I was careful only to mention works about which I had read both critical praise from professionals and a lot of praise online from fans. Not just works I liked. For myself I thought the Firebird was pretty remarkable--but I recognize there is not as much consensus about that ballet! But I have to add that I think that art isn't a consensus affair: for years John Martin was ripping up Balanchine to take a relatively notorious example...Over time Ratmansky's ballets will either prove themselves or be consigned to the dustbin of ballet history. I'm a Ratmansky admirer, but I haven't had the chance to see any of his full length works more than once and I am plenty curious how they will hold up when I see them (if I have the chance to see them) repeatedly. Still, in my book it's not a mark against a choreographer that not everyone likes him/her. Though it's certainly something ABT has to take into account. And indeed it's not as if the company has been handed over to Ratmansky works/stagings. That's one reason he can create so much for other companies. He's a piece of the ABT picture, but only a piece. (I also don't hold it against a choreographer that he doesn't produce a hit a year as long as I feel he is a serious artist...I do occasionally wonder about Ratmansky spreading himself too thin.) God knows ABT needs some 'hits'...and must have been hoping for one with Nutcracker. I don't doubt that failing to make a go of it at BAM is a disappointment to them. If it turns into a west coast moneymaker then I guess that will be some compensation. But when it comes to box office and ballet...As I remember ABT did not have box office success with Ashton's La FIlle Mal Gardee which is a both a great and a very audience-friendly ballet. And sometimes it seems that at the Met they have given up even trying to make their mixed bill programs sell. I guess that can't be literally true, but by scheduling so few of them it's almost as if they are advertising them as being relatively unimportant. By the time the Shostakovich trilogy was reviewed it was no longer possible to buy tickets, because it wasn't being danced anymore. I also don't see how one can sell even the greatest and most loved full-length ballets season after season after season at the Met without high powered principal dancers. Ratmansky at least has seemed interested in developing dancers like the much lamented--by me certainly--Simone Messmer. Copeland's Firebird has been her most widely and warmly praised major role so far. And Ratmansky has given Hallberg distinctively different kinds of roles as well--developing a kind of character dimension to him. These things also matter to the life of a ballet company and are one reason new works are important. It will be interesting to see if the company can make the Ratmansky/Petipa Sleeping Beauty a "hit"--but whatever the staging it's a ballet that needs ballerinas. Right now, I think the paucity of major ballerinas at the height of their career is much more likely to be damaging ABT and its box office--even its Nutcracker Box Office--than Ratmansky per se even if he's as bad as his detractors believe. Whether that's because the company does not have those dancers in its ranks or because it has failed to cast/develop them properly is a different matter.

Very nice to read about. Congratulations.

Yes...That has been absolutely crucial to me.

[quote name="Waelsung" post="346214" timestamp="1417146741" BTW, what exactly has he done in NY that was really successful in the long run? A lot depends on how you are thinking the word "successful" --praised by a range of critics? Acquired by other companies? Major breakthrough for some of its cast? Box office? What fans think? What fans on Ballet Alert think? One's own judgment? (I am also not sure how to think "the long run" when talking about a choreographer who has been working in NY for no more than a decade...rather less actually.) I have not seen Ratmansky's Nutcracker and, though I would like to, I can think of many other things by Ratmansky I would prefer to see first. But by almost any criterion I can imagine, I think he has had a lot of success making dances in NY. Both at ABT and NYCB, though my own favorite of those I have seen, Namouna, was created for NYCB. From his collaboration w. ABT and, restricting myself to works I have seen, liked/admired, and of which I have read positive reviews, professional and amateur, I will just mention the closing ballet of the Shostakovich trilogy (Piano Concerto No. 1) and Seven Sonatas... But another question for ABT "in the long run" is what kind of company it would be in the absence of new works and all the risks that go along with new works. New works may not at present time be as central to ABT as to NYCB, and I am happy to see ABT be a different kind of company, but new works should not entirely fall off the radar. In the years just preceding Ratmansky's involvement with the company, the company's new acquisitions certainly had less (much less) success than his works have had--by any criterion. But Ratmansky's works also do not come close to dominating the repertory at ABT...they can be largely avoided. His Nutcracker did replace Mckenzie's which was not particularly well-received critically. I am reading here that Ratmansky's Nutcracker has been a box office bust this season--was Mckenzie's Nutcracker ever in the running as a steady company moneymaker in the NY area? For myself, ABT is infinitely more interesting with Ratmansky than it would or even could be without him.

I can't picture the context in which it would ever happen, but I would be intrigued to see what Tiler Peck might achieve in Ashton. Perhaps Sylvia or Fille Mal Gardee...certainly some of his plotless works....

That is interesting to me (even if just speculation), for the one thing I do very much enjoy in Nikulina's dancing is her beautiful bouree, and a beautiful bouree happens to be my one vivid memory of Bessmertnova's dancing.

Anything looks great with Vasiliev (V.) and Maximova. Actually all I remember from seeing that particular video of Nutcracker over ten years ago is...well...just how great I thought they were. I can't remember what I thought of the production. Watching dancers that wonderful, I doubt I cared. I have heard the theories about Rodkin's recent prominence in the company (mentioned above by Volcanohunter) but actually don't know that I altogether need theories to explain to me why he is being featured/cast a lot, since I found him quite charismatic as Espada in Don Quixote when I saw the Bolshoi live this past summer...though I guess one would expect two live filmcasts in a row to be the kind of casting reserved for established stars. (I'm afraid that Nikulina's prominence in the company does just plain baffle me. I allow that perhaps I just don't 'get' her...) I don't think either Rodkin or Nikulina belong in the same category as V. Vasiliev and Maximova.

Reports are trickling in that Alla Sizova, one of the most wonderful ballerinas of the 20th century, has died. Her dancing in the 1965 Kirov film of the Sleeping Beauty made me a balletomane for life. No words. http://nekropole.info/ru/Alla-Sizova https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=alla+sizova+wikipedia From much later in her career (which was interrupted by a bad injury):

All of the Bolshoi ballerinas I saw this summer with the exception of the Vaganova trained Smirnova (that is, Kretova, Alexandrova, and, with caveats, Krysanova) had fairly low or even very low working legs. The caveat with Krysanova is that she would begin with a higher leg (though still low-ish) and shifted to much lower in final stages when she went into warp speed. Cubanmiamiboy reported a very low leg in fouettes when he saw Alexandrova in London before she got injured...I think it may be a "choice" probably in order to solve other problems or conceivably work up the additional speed...I'm not crazy about it at all.

This is indeed a tricky part of the role. Giselle has to jump and jump and jump, and look like a ghost the whole time, but Albrecht has to falter, without looking sloppy. Of the two, I've often thought his was the harder job. The general point is well taken! But In the interest of fairness I want to be clear that although there were a number of things I did not like about Sarafanov's Albrecht, I did not think he looked sloppy. My problems with the performance, as discussed above, were different.

I would have loved to see this program!

These are beautiful pictures (including those at links)...thanks for posting. If I ever had the opportunity, I would visit Balanchine's grave.

I assume you are being ironic with the reference to "expert observers" whom you take to be . . . wrong. But I don't think you would find much disagreement with the suggestion that Albrecht is supposed to look exhausted and collapse. The question for me is...how. Great Albrechts find a way not to have the collapse look equivocal, not to have it look as if they have gone out of control as dancers even if they are out of control as Albrecht. Malakhov managed to go higher and higher in his final set of leaps while making it look simultaneously as if he was more and more unable to jump. Like you, I'm an amateur not an expert, so don't ask me how he did it. But I was actually okay with Sarafanov's collapse, though I found his acting throughout rather palid. (If anything I was dismayed that he didn't manage to collapse more convincingly by ballet's end, to look truly drained/transformed by his experience.) However I did not care for the waving arms to express desperation at the end of the entrechat sequence. Why not? Well, he managed to select exactly the gesture to express Albrecht's desperation or, as you suggested, "pleading" that could also be read as rousing the audience to cheers; I have seen Russian figure skaters wave their arms just that way at the end of a competitive program. For me, in the context of this particular performance, it read as a kind of equivocation--as if Sarafanov wanted to "act" the drama of the moment and get in a little applause bait as well. Something that's fine in some ballets (Don Quixote anyone?) but not really Act II of Giselle. That may not be how he intended it. I don't doubt he is a serious artist and, for some viewers, it obviously worked emotionally etc. -- it didn't work for me. I have seen other Albrechts manage their pleading, desperation, and exhaustion without it seeming to me equivocal in that particular way. It probably aggravated my response that I felt he was piling on the entrechats (he went past 32) in a way that seemed not quite called for. I actually am pretty tolerant of dancers pushing things up to the edge or beyond of 'taste' let alone tradition -- if I had enjoyed Sarafanov's performance as a whole more than I did, then I probably would have been inclined to give him a pass on a bit of showiness. Very interested by your description of Soboleva by the by. I only saw her in a tertiary role (in Flames of Paris)--but she is just lovely to look at...

I noticed her too--she danced in the most purely classical parts of the ballet ... Ismene Browne tweeted a link to a 2009 article she wrote on the "Messerer dynasty." Quite detailed and interesting.... http://www.theartsdesk.com/dance/messerer-dynasty

I wondered how Vasiliev would hold up. I assume they were worried about selling tickets to Flames of Paris without him, but by this afternoon he was on his third of performance of Philippe in three days, having also done Albrecht on Wednesday. I saw Vorontsova with Zaytsev and, like Canbelto, enjoyed her dancing and, also like Canbelto, more than I ever have on video. I guess unsurprisingly in a former Bolshoi dancer she seems to know how to project herself well. I did find her mime a little less charming than Bondareva's -- and her turns a little less fluent, but she gave what I thought was a very good performance. I also thought this ballet was a wonderful gift from Messerer and the Mikhailovsky. It speaks directly out of its era but is still (as the company dances it) alive in the theater--so it gives a real window into another time theatrically -- and politically -- even as it's a lot of fun. The Soviet ballet we usually see in the U.S. is either Grigorovich or Lavrosky (Romeo and Juliet)--this is very different, not least because of the variety that Canbelto talked about above. Grigorovich, at any rate, is nothing if not repetitive. Sophisticated dramaturgy it's not--and not supposed to be. But visually wonderful with terrific dancing. I also thought Saturday night's performance was just rather special--everything flowing with high energy. And, in this kind of ballet, I have no problems with Vasiliev's hell-for-leather dancing...certainly not in the two performances I saw him give.

This sort of thing is definitely not about tight fifth positions. I thought Saturday night's performance kicked up a notch from Friday -- Vasiliev included (despite a hand down on one of his trademark indescribable leaps); he did less vamping and was somehow at once more under control AND more exciting. Bondareva, a little looser I think, added a bit more personality to her gentle soubrette manner and fluent spinning. But huge cheers from me for Irina Perren and Marat Shemiunov in the Soviet (or Soviet style) acrobatic adagio of Act Three. I enjoyed them last night, but they had just that much more confidence and ease this evening to make it special. They showed you what that kind of showy partnering CAN look like even if it almost never does. Generally this ballet has been a real treat. I quite enjoyed the afternoon cast as well...Though I missed Ugrekhelidze as Teresa...I depart NY early tomorrow or I would happily see it again.

I have liked Borchenko in the past, and she showed off a lovely upper body in the court ballet, but I thought Perren negotiated the challenges of the role of Diana - both in the court ballet and in the acrobatic revolutionary celebration - with a lot more ease, and also had lovely port de bras...Found Perren's pantomime quite charming as well.

I enjoyed this too; made a few comments in Giselle thread (by way of contrast). Perren's Giselle was very admired in London ca. 4 years ago. I was surprised she did not get cast in it here.

I did think the company showed to much (much) greater advantage in Flames of Paris than Giselle. I saw the opening cast - Bondareva, Vasiliev (who was born to be a great Soviet dancer), Perren, Sarafanov plus Ugrekhelidze... Am certainly looking forward to seeing Saturday's performances, too.Giselle had its interest and it's pleasures--I went Thursday--but I was disappointed in Sarafanov. Even Osipova, whom I consider a miraculous dancer, did not transport me quite as she has in the past. Nor did the company look anything like the energized and lively ensemble that made Flames of Paris so delightful. When I saw them a few years back, I thought their character dancing a special highlight. It still is.