Drew

Interesting criticisms of ABT's Giselle by YID and I agree with many of them -- I also think that Bathilde shouldn't raise her skirts so high when she flounces off the stage in anger as it's not aristocratic and makes her seem as emotionally unrestrained as...uh...a peasant girl; I've also seen more beautiful "dawn" lighting at the ballet's close.

But at least the production is missing the absurd accretions of the ABT Swan Lake. I actually like this Giselle for being a reasonably straightforward production and well designed. (The wild graveyard in Act II doesn't bother me. and I like having the Wili Wand be a branch from a tree since it makes the Wilis forces of nature.) I also like the fact--referred to in another post--that it tries to integrate the peasant pas de deux into the Act I action which not every production seems to do: Giselle wants to dance for the hunting party but since her mother won't permit it she introduces the peasant pas de deux...

I also think the company is dancing pretty well -- I saw an array of Moyna's and Zulma's (over the course of three performances) and all of them made a good--some a very good--impression. The company (as Chiapuris noted above) does not have the stylistic cohesion that shared training brings (and Giselle's friends, in particular, would make more of an impact if they were coached/rehearsed a bit more to have a unified look whatever their training) but I thought the admittedly not large corps still managed to convey the world of wili-dom very well.

I saw three Albrechts (Corella, Carenno, Halberg) and two different male dancers in the peasant pas de deux (Simkin and Hoven) and I do think the company's era of being the place to see one sensational male performance after another is under threat of coming to an end. I was quite surprised at how much steam Corella's technique seems to have lost--he's only in his young thirties surely (?) and he danced with less elan and excitement, than Carenno who is considerably older--nor did his performance compensate for lost height, speed, and turning ability etc. with any special energy, extraordinary drama of movement/partnering or chemistry with his ballerina (Visheva). In his brises his upper body bobbed up and down (initially arced forward over his legs, it then came upright with each one--from the waist up it was like watching a rocking horse and totally undermined their intense/hypnotic effect).

If someone were to tell me that Corella was dancing with an injury, I would certainly find it plausible. I know he is a very fine dancer so I guess I'm willing to call it an "off night." Carenno has also lost steam. However, I will say that that bothers me less because well, he IS older, and he definitely brought a little more excitement to the stage than Corella, including beauty of upper body that consistently complemented his ballerina--Ananiashvili: for example, they angled their heads and arms in such a way as to complete each other's lines etc. He also did a (slightly) better job with his upper body in the brises than Corella.

Sat. night Halberg was excellent. His performance was harder for me to get a handle on as a whole for extraneous reasons -- I was in pain from an old injury flaring up -- naturally -- and had a tall person in front of me so that I could never see the entire stage picture. So, with limited resources of concentration that evening I focused on Osipova. However, though I was delighted to see Halberg perform the entrechats (which I can't remember ever having seen though I must have) I seem to be the only person who was bothered by the fact that as he went higher and higher he couldn't keep his body on a pure vertical but slightly leaned one way and then slightly leaned another way each time he went up. So, from the waist down they were utterly gorgeous, but as a whole they did not seem perfectly controlled and that undermines the hypnotic "driven" effect of the moment. I am of course holding him to a very high standard, partly because he IS so good--possibly one of the best around with real potential to be this era's Anthony Dowell. I just don't think he is quite there yet. I thought he made a wonderful partner for Osipova--loved the contrast of his tall fair elegance with her tiny dark winsomeness. I thought the lifts throughout were especially effective.

Just to wrap up on the ABT men I was able to see (far from all of them I am perfectly aware): Simkin was great fun and seems to pride himself on showing off clean balletic positions (and I've read and heard fabulous things about his Prodigal Son) but he is ultra boyish and his dancing doesn't yet have the "filled out" look that one needs in a principle. If he grows into that, he should be terrific, but ... On Saturday night, there were individual moments in which Hoven really impressed me with how he executed this or that step, but he did not put them together that well.

That said, I tend to be more ballerina obsessed, and I think ABT's nineteenth-century repertory is a ballerina repertory (or should be) and in the ballerina department, with its guest artists (Vishneva and Osipova) and Ananiashvili dancing her farewell season, ABT has nothing to envy the best of the "old days." Vishneva seems to me one of the all time greats--and Osipova well on her way and indeed already simply breathtaking. This post is long and others have written of the ballerinas in detail so I'll stop,...except to say that I did find Osipova moving as well as dazzling...The only dancer I can think to compare her to is Gelsey Kirkland. As for Vishneva -- since I was frustrated with Corella I tried to think what dancer I wanted to see her with and the only name I could come up with that seemed to me right on target was Nureyev...But my point with these evocations of the past is not to play "old timer" but to say these performances were truly great occasions--and ultimately like nothing I've ever seen.

I didn't see a thread for week 7 performances of NYCB--which happens to have been the week I was visiting New York and able to see the company for the first time in a year, so I thought I would put in a word about the two performances I saw.

First and foremost I wanted to say something about Liebeslieder Walzer which I thought was just beautifully danced on Saturday Afternoon (Kistler, Whelan, Somogyi, and Taylor were the ballerinas). This must be one of the most physically and emotionally inventive ballets ever made--at least that's how it felt to me. Every moment seems to lead deeper into the music and the music, in turn, to lead deeper into the dance. The performance was one of the highlights of my trip. (I should say I have only seen the work once before -- many years ago when the Mitchell production was new. I liked it then, but think it made a bigger impression on me this time.)

I'm a little surprised I haven't read more reports on its performances this season (I recall ViolinConcerto was disappointed with the performance s/he saw). I can believe that those who have memories of earlier casts (e.g. the original cast or casts from the 80's) might have criticisms and, as someone who has seen a fair amount of ballet I can "extrapolate" as to how this or that moment in the performance I saw could be deeper, sharper, more exciting etc. but I have NO complaints. I thought the whole cast was beautiful and gave a performance that really presented the ballet to me like a gift.

I guess strictly speaking the men were weaker than the women -- I admit I was focused on the women -- but they set the women off in a way that--for my taste--let the ballet take flight, so...more than good enough. If I had to single out any ballerina for special praise, it would be Whelan whose every gesture and glance seemed utterly inside the ballet's world or, rather, her own intimate relation to that world, and yet able to share that experience with me.

Les Noces on the same program made for an intriguing closer. I remembered seeing and admiring the ballet with ABT, but could not help feeling at this performance that the whole exercise felt too patently artificial--the women in particular looked like long-legged NYCB ballerinas playing at primitivism for reasons that were not entirely clear to anyone involved. Morgan (as the bride) looked like a child-bride, which I think could work very well in this ballet, but she danced almost gingerly, which did not seem right to me. I did like Andrew Veyette as one of the matchmakers and found him rather more convincing in (and convinced by) the ballet.

The other performance of NYCB I attended gave me my first chance to see Mercurial Maneuvers. One sees immediately why it attracted such attention for Wheeldon. I particularly liked the opening and the pas de deux though I found the finale a bit frantic. (The person I was with, who did not much care for the music, actually liked the finale best of all and thought the early sections dragged.) Tyler Peck, replacing Stafford on Wednesday night, danced with a clean, quiet elegance. She seems to be turning into one of the company's most reliably strong AND reliably beautiful dancers. (Her dancing was a highlight of one of my other New York trips which is why I say this.) The ballet also gave me my first chance to see Kathryn Morgan and Erica Pereira. I liked both and especially enjoyed Morgan's supple upper body and glowing presence. But really both were very appealing.

The same program included Lifecasting and what I gather was Ashley Bouder's first performance back after a long lay off--she danced well though perhaps not as spectacularly as I remember her, so I'm guessing she is still getting up to speed (literally and figuratively). Although the ballet has the rubbery contemporary/eclectic type of choreography that tends to make everyone look alike, I did think that, even so, Kaitlyn Gilliland -- whom I was seeing for the first time -- managed to stand out. I don't really know how she did it, but you can believe I am eager to see her again...preferably in Balanchine.

Much better have the earthquake during the third act...

I remember that for a Bolshoi tour of the early eighties--when the company brought Raymonda and The Golden Age--Taranda was featured on the cover of the souvenir program. The photograph was just sensational (at the time I assumed it was his Abdulrahkman but honestly I have no idea). He looked terrific--very much what I thought of as the "Bolshoi" at its most exciting (dramatic, intense, daring). Well, imagine our dismay when we learned that he had been kept from the tour! ("Our" -- that is, ballet fans in Washington D.C., and elsewhere too probably.) He was obviously supposed to be a, if not THE, featured star of the tour and then...

I partly understand the disappointment about Sleeping Beauty, but if I still lived in D.C. then I would be more inclined to complain about a week of Spartacus than the Sergeyev Sleeping Beauty -- which I remember loving and in which I saw the first (and probably only) really great overall performances of the ballet I have ever seen including the company's -- that is the Kirov's -- performances of the reconstruction (which I also found stunning as a production despite the not-the-least-bit reconstructed or even traditional style in which it was danced).

But Spartacus? I assume the Bolshoi plans to feature Ivan Vasiliev but I remain skeptical. Even if Vasiliev pulls it off, does the company have any mature male stars (I mean mature and I mean stars) who can remotely compete with the dancers who made Spartacus at one time compelling? I gather Acosta had a huge success as a guest artist dancing it in London, but without major male performances what exactly is the point?

Actually I'm being a little disingenuous, because to be honest even if they have such male stars I would prefer any number of Bolshoi works to Spartacus...Heck I'd prefer they bring Coppelia...especially since, when I saw the Bolshoi dance a Spartacus excerpt roughly six-seven years ago or so--with a bunch of streamlined looking men who did not remotely recall the Bolshoi of old--I thought they looked as if they believed in the ballet even less than I did.

Oh well...perhaps I am too pessimistic and it will be rip-roaring. I will read about it on Ballet Talk and kick myself for not seeing it. Hope so...

Definitely too bad. In a way, I feel for NYCB--they helped (a lot) to launch Wheeldon and in the United States Ratmansky (with Russian Seasons) and now the company has lost both.

By the by, I don't mean the above remark as in any way a criticism. Wheeldon had obviously evolved to a point where he wanted to do something different--I doubt that was avoidable. I gather the company just couldn't get the committment from Ratmansky they felt they needed...Could they have been more flexible?? Who knows...I will be interested to see how much he works with ABT in coming years.

In the meanwhile, thanks to everyone for these reports on NYCB this season. Jennifer Ringer and Teresa Reichlin have always been among my favorites.

"The last great new ballet created at NYCB was Concerto DSCH, in my opinion" (abatt)

Forgive me abatt, but this made me smile a bit. Concerto DSCH premiered just a year ago--so that's not too shabby.

(Edited to say: could not get the quote function right...)

To address this more pragmatically and less theoretically than Papeetepatrick, I think a more precise way to describe how some ballet lovers feel -- well, to describe me anyway -- would be 'waiting for the next choreographer whose new works I genuinely look forward to seeing' to come along.

'Genuinely look forward to seeing' -- that is, looking forward out of more than a desire to stay caught up with the latest repertory or latest new role for dancer x or y, looking forward out of more than a yen for a little variety or curiosity concerning a set designer or composer (all reasonable motives to see a new work). I'm speaking of a real desire or eagerness to see what this choreographer is going to do next, where his or her vision may take me or, rather, take ballet. I have enjoyed several of Martins' ballets but I can't say, for example, that I genuinely look forward to each new one or deeply regret the fact that I miss so many of them living, as I do, far from New York or any other ballet metropolis.

Right now, Wheeldon and Ratmansky both seem generating something like this kind of desire/eagerness for some ballet lovers. For others (not really on this message board and presumably more in Europe than in U.S.) Forsythe.

In fact, my one ballet trip this year is organized around seeing certain dancers in Giselle--not the next Balanchine or even the last one--but I am particularly pleased to be able to see a Wheeldon ballet I have never seen on one of my non-Giselle nights and sorry to miss the new Ratmansky. We will see if either choreographer proves to have staying power as a creative force to be reckoned with, but from what I have seen of both I would at this point say that there is at least a possibility my wait IS over...but it was never a wait for the next Balanchine.

(By the by, I read this right after I posted it and decided it was too negative, then reread again and decided it was too positive...so I'm editing now to say, I don't mean to be either...just to say that at least now there are some choreographers on the scene who seem worth following without feeling one has conceded to mediocrity. Oh..and I might be wrong about that especially as I haven't seen that much of their work.)

Thank you for that link as well--some wonderful photographs. But I'm not sure I would exactly describe the language as "English" -- more like "translationese"...

Let me add my thanks for posting these links--I enjoyed them a lot.

I too am overwhelmed with sadness and cannot think what to write. I hardly saw her at all--just once when she must have been over 50 in a showcase program in Chicago put together by her husband, the great Vasiliev for what seemed to be a pick-up group of dancers. She was breathtaking--not breathtaking "for over fifty," but breathtaking. Vasiliev had designed a pas de deux showcasing her in lift after lift. The piece was very much what I think of as old-style Bolshoi, and her beauty and fluidity were like no "older" ballerina I had ever seen. I give him credit for the canny choreography, but she made the "canny" into a grab-your-heart thrilling work of art. I was there with a non-ballet going friend who was similarly dazzled though she came to the performance with none of my emotional investment in Maximova's earlier career with the Bolshoi.

Since then, through video and youtube, I have had some other indirect exposure to her vivid, beautiful dancing and characterizations in more standard repertory--Nutcracker and Don Quixote. I remember stumbling over a black and white Don Quixote pas de deux solo just a year ago or so via youtube and feeling as if I had been given a sudden illumination, a sort of balletomane vision: "Oh! THAT'S how it's supposed to look." In every video I have ever seen of her, she has, too, an extraordinarily engaging personal quality--she inspires love, as she did that one time I saw her on stage.

This makes me very, very sad. Seeing her with NYCB I found her to be a really remarkable dancer and was delighted to read about her rise to principal at the Royal Ballet. I actually saw her twice with the Royal -- as the first of the gift bearing fairies in the prologue to Sleeping Beauty and as a lovely though not yet fully realized Lilac Fairy in the same production. In the first fairy solo I found her simply gorgeous--almost hauntingly so. I wish her the very best.

I think it's odd when some donor drops a lot of cash on an arts institution with some sort of agenda or conditions attached.

....

And then there's the Koch family which dropped a dime on the NYCB and got the theater named for them and they probably get to participate in the design decisions too. And from a very right wing family. That deal soured me on NYCB and I won't step in the place. But I don't think Mr Martins could care less where the money came from.

Color me cynical.

...

If one looked carefully at the money sources of ABT and NYCB (long before Koch) there would be plenty to make one feel sour and worst. But where exactly is the "clean" money supposed to come from in these contexts? Shall we say the Ford Foundation--just as one example? Well, let's see...that money goes back to...oh, never mind...

I'm not saying that I would never draw the line--one can imagine (or read about) extreme circumstances where it might be better to let an arts institution die rather than play along with the status quo necessary to keep it alive--but even in more normal circumstances patronage has always had an ethically problematic side. More state support is something I would like to see, but that, too, is not always ethically or politically or even artistically unproblematic. (It was good for Russian ballet but also bad for Russian ballet that the Soviet Union "supported" it.)

For sentimental reasons, I have trouble bringing myself to say "Koch theater," but I bear no ill will to Martins and Mckenzie or, rather, I even admire them for doing what they can to raise the funds they need to keep their companies going.

I don't even really blame the donors for wanting to attach their name to something as a "legacy" or even directing it at things they especially care about. I do think company directors need to know when to draw the line in answering their demands. I can't comment on the coffee table book for ABT which I haven't seen, but a fund for new works does not seem inappropriate to me as a gift to ABT especially if "new" can be interpreted to mean new productions of older works which it seems to do.

I do absolutely agree that it would be more selfless and in many cases better for the institutions if donors were more willing to give their money no strings and no names attached...

(Of course, the above makes me more, not less cynical than Sander O.)

I know it's infra dig to respond to your own comment, but ...

I e-mailed the company regarding my inability to register (they never sent a confirmation e-mail) and NO-ONE has gotten back to me five business days later...I will go ahead and purchase via telephone I guess.

Umm...I don't expect perfection, but really never had these problems on other theater websites including theaters like the Met and Royal Opera House Covent Garden which have the same kinds of issues to address.

Others may be more patient than I.

Since I complained above about my disappointment in the subscription series seats I got, I will say that the ABT marketing office and the Met have been trying to help me with my woes. Assuming everything works out, I plan to make the company and even the Met a small donation...(can't afford a big one: I'm spending too much on the tickets).

I too was seeing these You Tube clips for the first time and thought that they were just stunning, though I can't begin to describe them as Paul Parish does.

I don't much care to watch ballet on video -- it usually sort of bores me -- and I know it gives misleading impressions of some dancers. (Much as I am glad the video of Kirkland in Nutcracker exists, I wish people wouldn't form their opinion of her from it and of course they do.) But these clips fully captured not just my attention but my imagination.

From the one live Giselle I saw Evdokimova dance I remember the effect of her long arms, romantic lines, and expressive face in Act II though not, unfortunately, much else: the clip made me wish I could actually remember her dancing not just her "image."

As for the Sylphide clips--wow!

That said, my memory is that American critics were not entirely won over when she came here with the Berlin Opera Ballet and Croce at one time referred to her as an example of the kind of weaker ballerina Nureyev preferred to pair himself with later in his career. As I remember, too, I liked her in Giselle but was really dazzled by her Miss Julie -- a very forceful dramatic presentation of a difficult character. And I also remember a rather nasty back-handed compliment about that Miss Julie performance in Ballet Review (not by Croce)--along the lines of 'at last a role (neurotic, repressed etc.) that suits her.'

Watching these clips, I'm inclined to think she did not get her proper due in the U.S. Perhaps if she had danced more here she would have...From posts made above, it does sound as if she was greatly appreciated as a teacher in New York once her performing career was over.

I tried to register 3-4 hours ago, but so far have not received the e-mail confirmation, so I have been unable to take advantage of the new system. I suppose I will probably end up purchasing via phone. Still, in principle I am very happy about the change...

(And from your post Carbro I learned where I should send my query about problems with registration and I have now done so.)

I saw her on tour with the Berlin Opera Ballet, but I don't know what troupe she considered 'home.'

I subscribed for the first time ever this year. Since I come from out of town for a few days of ballet going each year it does not usually make sense to do so but this time I plan to see three Giselles in one week so why not do the "trio" series where you pick your performances?

Well I will tell you why not. The tickets are slightly to considerably worst than anything I have ever gotten in the same (high end) price range buying them over the phone a couple of weeks after the box office had already opened. And I really am comparing apples to apples -- star casting in ninetenth-century chestnuts. Somehow subscribing did not get me better seats or even equally good seats--even in a year when I think one can assume subscriptions and box office may be down.

I guess I complain a lot on this website about the vagaries of ballet travel, and trying to buy tickets when you can't walk up to the box office and "mull over" the different seats on offer, so I should at least express gratitude that (so far, knock wood, throw salt, etc.) Osipova's Giselle is still 'on.' In any case, I'm counting on at least one of the performances I plan to see turning out as hoped!

I'm very happy to read she will be back on stage later this month. I won't be able to see her myself but am looking forward to reading about the performances.

In addition to seeing her in a very fine Giselle, I saw her give a really rip-roaringly terrific performance in Miss Julie. A striking dancer -- I am sorry to read of her death especially so young.

Natalia -- I hope no programmers or tour managers get any ideas from your last post ! I've read the wonderful descriptions of the ballet on this thread and watched a few youtube excerpts as well. And it would be fabulous to have the opportunity to see it. (Fabulous enough to buy plane tickets and fly to D.C. or New York to see it should work allow. I will even say that given my limited resources for that kind of extravagance, I would be more inclined to spend the money for this work than for the nineteenth-century classics, which I DO love and respect/)

I vaguely thought Ratmansky's Bright Stream was something of a hit in London at least. Certainly, he is pretty much the most talked about choreographer in ballet right now. Macaulay is a huge admirer and it might be possible to get a big feature in the Times and other papers. If one was lucky (very lucky) in D.C. maybe a first family appearance on opening night. So, perhaps a marketing campaign to sell this ballet to the general public is not impossible to imagine -- 'lost masterpiece of the Soviet era brought back to life by the most exciting choreographer in ballet!'

Of course if I knew how to produce a successful ballet tour, I would probably not be reduced to fantasizing about it on ballet message boards.

Anyway, for my part, I would be very glad to see this.

These are terrific -- thank you.

I also have a ticket for Osipova's Giselle -- I actually am trying not to think about her jumps in Act II (though the fact that I have to try tells you something) and focus on the fact that the best video clips I have seen of her suggest that she really DANCES, each step flowing rhythmically into the other so that one almost ceases to see steps even though they are there. (Not every clip suggests that, but a few hint at it...)

After last year's Vishneva debacle (debacle for those of us flying many miles and paying for a hotel to see a dancer scheduled for a particular performance only to learn she was injured) I also picked the Giselle so I get a mini-festival of performances with different dancers I would like to see, including Vishneva, all scheduled for the same week.

If all the ballerinas I care about end up injured at the same time, then I will take that as a sign from the universe that it wants me to give up ballet going. Hope that doesn't happen though--and I am quite aflame with excitement about seeing Osipova.

The dance magazine photo is just beautiful--thanks Hans--very Aurora.