Drew

4 hours ago, California said:

 

Flames of Paris is another historically interesting piece from the 30s, made in response to Stalin's request to show the decadence of the west, and I suspect Bolshoi will continue to show it. It also is chock full of flashy choreography and bits of it keep showing up in gala shows in the west. It will survive for that reason alone, if not others.

Messerer did a terrific revival for the Mikhailovsky that stays closer to the original libretto. I saw it live in NY when they brought it on tour. I have only seen Ratmansky's on video so can’t make an entirely fair comparison, but as best I can tell  Messerer’s frank embrace of the ballet’s Soviet approach made for a more coherent ballet than Ratmansky’s attempt to graft an anti-revolutionary message onto it —however interesting one may find the latter. (Also the Mikhailovsky put character specialists in the Basque dance and....WOW! Even the Bolshoi’s most exciting classical dancers couldn’t put it over quite so well.) If the Bolshoi had to give up Ratmansky’s I suppose they might pick up the Messerer version....if they even care about keeping it in repertory beyond having the pas de deux as a gala number.

On 5/9/2022 at 8:53 PM, volcanohunter said:

I really felt for Ratmansky when he described the feeling of sand castles crumbling behind him as he made his departure from Moscow. Under any circumstances knowing that months of heart and soul, blood, sweat and tears have suddenly come to naught is extremely painful. But the haunting feeling that ballet doesn't really matter a whole lot in the face of such cataclysmic circumstances must have been eviscerating.

I was thinking about this the other evening. Ratmansky has a number of productions in Russia that may never be revived and not all of them have also been performed--or are likely to be taken up--outside of Russia.  I am thinking, for example, of Little Humpbacked Horse, which I enjoyed and would be sorry to see lost from the ballet repertory, but which obviously carries associations for a Russian audience that it could never have outside of Russia...

It has been a long time since the Bolshoi revived Lost Illusions, but that's a ballet I have always been very curious about. It was likely a lost cause anyway, but now, seemingly for sure....(Ratmansky himself talks about The Bolt as a failure--so, another lost cause--but I LOVE the video that exists of it.) I assume a western company might at some point be interested in his historically informed Giselle, but who knows?

Bright Stream has been done by non-Russian companies but seems as if it should be done by a Russian company and has a more natural home at the Bolshoi than it could ever have in the U.S. or even in Latvia...(What was always the troubling irony of the operetta-ish plot set on a 1930's collective farm  when that period of collectivization was, shall we say, not at all operetta-ish might now, in the wake of the war in Ukraine, rule it out-of-bounds anywhere other than Russia anyway.)

I have found myself wondering if the Bolshoi might keep Ratmansky's Flames of Paris on the (not completely absurd) grounds that it's really their ballet and, indeed a chunk of the choreography is Vainonen's...

Anyway, a lot of Ratmansky's legacy in Russia is pretty much sand castles now, not just the two ballets he was working on....However little that legacy weighs or seems to weigh "in the face of such cataclysmic circumstances" -- it is still a real loss that ballet lovers who admire Ratmansky can feel and mourn.

I'll add that the losses of "The Art of the Fugue" for the Bolshoi and the Pharoh's Daughter revival for the Mariinsky seem enormous to me at both ends of the Ratmansky spectrum: new, music-inspired, non-narrative choreography and historically informed revivals of much older narrative ballets.... 

Thanks for posting!  This looks terrific--

Trenary posted on her instagram that she has been working with Lynn Seymour on Juliet. That caught my attention --especially after reading about Trenary's Giselle. Wish I could see that debut...

48 minutes ago, Jacqueline said:

Ashley Laracey also reported on her Instagram story that she has COVID and will have to miss her debuts in Orpheus and Apollo this week.

24 minutes ago, abatt said:

Poor Laracey. She's been waiting so long for  these roles and opportunities. 

I was very sad to read about her illness...Would love to see her in both ballets and if not see her at least read about her performances (as would have been the case this season).

3 minutes ago, BalanchineFan said:

[...]

I have a different questions based on that statement, and it has nothing to do with management's actions. I don't see it as management making an excuse for not casting her. If someone loves an activity and are pursuing it professionally, like law... as a random example, why would that person be so wounded not to be cast in a ballet? It seems counter to the '$200,000 for emotional distress' argument and counter to the things she told the reporter during her interview half a year after her retirement. 

 

People have complex, mixed, and even contradictory feelings about things that are important to them -- Stafford's feelings may be too.

Speaking publicly about problems at work may be professionally unwise, but Stafford is, at any rate, changing professions. (I am agnostic about whether she faced mistreatment at the company.)

Being a dancer is hard. I know other jobs are hard  too and many of us are acculturated to put up with stuff, and much of it should be put up with because even having a job, especially a good job, a creative and well-paid one, is a gift (in our society anyway).  I also know better than to think that every complaint against management is justified. Being a company director is hard too. Still, in the world of dance, I can't help but feel some human sympathy with those who break the 'thin pink line' now and then. (And putting Stafford's individual case aside, the ballet world can probably use more honesty about several issues.)

As for the Times's role...the fact that the article has generated so much discussion here--even negative discussion--seems to confirm the editor's judgment. People are checking the article out and talking about it.

27 minutes ago, abatt said:

NY Times also ran a story about the Jaffe appointment.  It mentioned that Ratmansky's contract with ABT expires "next year", and Jaffe refers to Ratmansky as a "tremendous artist".  I wonder if Ratmansky will sign on again with ABT, or will instead branch out to more companies and spend less time with ABT.  We know that he has no plan to work in Russia again until Putin is gone.

Congratulations to her! She brings a ton of experience to the job....

The article mentioned that she had not yet spoken with Ratmansky.  I hope she does so soon -- and I hope he does sign on again.

As I contemplate when I may next return to ballet travel (pandemic is definitely still an issue for me) I also have been disconcerted by the programing. From a different perspective, as long as I am reluctant to travel for health reasons, I guess the programming has made me more philosophical. Maybe they need a new Robert Gottlieb type figure....or at least somebody who thinks more like a member of the ticket buying public. 

(I suppose it is possible a new generation’s tastes are different, but I find it interesting that multiple long-time ballet goers on this site are commenting on the issue,)

5 minutes ago, Marta said:

  1 hour ago, pherank said:

Tonight's 60 Minutes episode  (05/08/22) has a segment on how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is affecting  the ballet world. Alexei Ratmansky is one of the people interviewed. When a link becomes available I'll post it here.

Here's the link, starting at 28:30

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/60minutes-2022-05-08/#x

Thank you....

56 minutes ago, pherank said:

Tonight's 60 Minutes episode  (05/08/22) has a segment on how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is affecting  the ballet world. Alexei Ratmansky is one of the people interviewed. When a link becomes available I'll post it here.

Thanks for the information. I had no idea and am sorry I missed it. I will try to find it online and will look out for the link...

I saw the stream--wonderful in every respect! Fantastic production...beautifully danced --

As anyone reading this probably knows, Rachel Beaujean's production of Raymonda rewrites the scenario just enough to dispense with some of the more potentially problematic white-crusader elements and (less talked about as far as I've read) also explicitly anoints Raymonda the future ruler of her feudal kingdom.

Since the production makes these changes while still keeping much of the ballet intact and allowing one to wallow in its classical pleasures, I am hoping that it will be taken up by a major American Company. If someone made me the new director of ABT, then this would probably be one of the first productions I would try to obtain. (I have a longer list prepared in case I'm tapped for the job .) [Edited to add that just a few hours after I posted this, the job was given to Susan Jaffe. I hope she saw this livestream.]

Any negatives? Jerome Kaplan's slightly autumnal color choices in Acts I and III were perhaps cued by the melancholy in the music, but I'm not sure how I feel about them. And I personally like to see Raymonda play the lyre in Act I--it's one of the ballet's most magical images and seems to be missing here. Also, and not really a criticism of this production, I can't help but miss some of the Sergeyev choreography that one sees in the Mariinsky Raymonda--especially in the first act Waltz ...

Regarding the new scenario: maybe it doesn't fall into place without raising a question or two. Abdur-Rahman seems awfully philosophical about being knocked down by his lover's ex, and everyone except for Jean De Brienne and some of his immediate entourage is blasé about Raymonda's change of heart. But I was largely fine with the new scenario.  I even think that the gorgeous music and choreography of the Act II pas d'action actually makes more sense if Raymonda and Abdur-Rahman are falling in love -- as they are in this production... That aspect of the new scenario worked very well for me.

Anyway, an extremely enjoyable performance. I hope others had a chance to see it--though I realize that perhaps not everyone will have liked it as much as I did.

Quick postscript to my last post to say that there is another discussion of this under NYCB...

For those who saw Restless Creature, there is some irony in the role Whelan (inevitably) now finds herself playing.

There is no way to adjudicate the ending of dancers' careers for fans reading about it--and maybe not even for those insiders who are watching it close up. There are too many variables.

For myself, I have no idea what happened between Abby Stafford and her brother or what shape she was in for her final season as a dancer.  I saw her dance some warm, lovely performances at various points earlier in her career -- one or two others that I criticized for sure and on this website. What is certain is that under the best of circumstances it is very hard to come to the end of one's ballet career. And I do believe that between the pandemic and the change in company leadership as she was approaching retirement Stafford was facing less than the best circumstances.  (Adding a fraught family relationship to the mix can't have helped....)

Wishing her huge success as a lawyer!

"...Cancellation of Russian culture in Europe, you say? In Russia, they themselves are cancelling culture."

4 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

The Bolshoi has abruptly canceled performances of Yuri Possokhov's Nureyev that were to take place on May 6-8 and replaced them with (wait for it...) Spartacus. No explanation was provided.

But a few days ago Kirill Serebrennikov, the director of the production (a concept I don't quite understand), posted a collection of old anti-war posters.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc7QqJQqSIF/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

I wonder if this means they are going to drop the Serebrennikov/Possokhovn Hero of our Time from future Repertory plans...even if it is (presumably) less controversial on its own account...

I am very late to this party, but still want to celebrate--Thank you @Terez "The Classical Girl"!

The Nijinska Les Noces!!!!

Congratulations to him! Perhaps I should also congratulate his long-suffering fans!

(I wonder if some are thinking of Thibault on hearing this news.)

On 4/22/2022 at 4:49 PM, abatt said:

It's very unusual to retire in a Nutcracker performance.  I don't recall anyone else doing that in the past.  I guess Sugarplum is her favorite role. 

 

Well, this is waaaay back when...but Martins did. Although this was, I think, before "farewells" were as much of a regular item, Martins' farewell got a lot of attention, and I remember how hard it was to get a ticket...

Thanks for the detailed reports on this...

I just watched last night--wonderful indeed! I hope the program ends up available for purchase/rent or some such.

The article on Copeland is also being discussed on the Copeland thread under "Dancers"--starting the middle of page 22 of that thread and then into page 23....

Copeland didn't have as many major, principal role opportunities pre-injury as some of the other dancers mentioned above in @Helene's post--I can't get the quote function to work. Did Copeland, before her injury, dance any of the lead ballerina roles in the nineteenth-century repertory at ABT other than Gamzatti and perhaps Gulnare?  (If those...I'm not 100 percent sure about my dates.) Peasant pas de deux--and I remember hers as delightful--is not the same thing.

Ratmansky's Firebird was something of a breakthrough in terms of drawing attention and praise for Copeland in a major, even "star" part though, obviously not a nineteenth-century one. But she danced it just a couple of times before being out for . . . what was it? nearly a year? 

As a company director I do think that at the least Copeland would have the potential to be a very successful fundraiser and that is a big part of the job.

4 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

So the situation is peculiar to say the least, with Pisarev working in occupied Donetsk, lining up his corps de ballet in Z formations, touring Russia and toeing the party line on Russian television, while his family was living and working in Ukraine proper--and being bombed by the Z army.

Thank you for filling out the story. There seems to be a lot we still don't know/can't know--and may never know or at least never understand.

Instagram's algorithm drew my attention to an account that describes itself (according to google translate) as follows: "We publish information about dancers, ballet dancers, teachers, and choreographers who ignore or support Russia's war in Ukraine." They have just three posts so far and in addition to calling out the current head of the opera house in Russian-occupied Donetsk, they call out Polunin and Ovcharenko. The latter danced in the performance of Spartacus that was the Bolshoi's fundraiser for the families of dead Russian soldiers and Ukrainian "refugees" in Russia. (They also criticize Ovcharenko's initial 'peace' post on the war--an image of friendship between Russia and Ukraine--as not, in fact, opposed to the Russian position at all.)

I do NOT endorse this sort of 'calling out' of Russian or Ukrainian artists--well, maybe the guy in Donetsk if he really did line up his dancers in the Z formation as reported both here and elsewhere--but I also suppose the account is run by Ukrainians and I am not inclined to fault them for their rage either. (You can see the account is followed by a number of Ukrainian dancers whose names are now known to ballet fans the world over such as Potiomkin.) I post about the account here only because I think it's a sobering reminder that when this war ends it may not be all Kumbaya in the world of classical ballet. Too much that is too horrible has happened.

Here is the link:     https://www.instagram.com/zradaart.ua/