Drew

I wondered about Tereshkina as well. Also , in a different vein, Cojocaru, who seems to me to bring wonderful harmony to the nineteenth-century repertory and indeed everything she dances. And while she dances with great purity, she certainly infuses her dancing with character and feeling.

Among male dancers today, I think about Chudin perhaps and one or two others, but it is a harder call for me

However, of the three I just named Cojocaru is the only one I have seen multiple times and in a range of roles.

I enjoy many elements of the Grigorovich Nutcracker, but even if I didn’t I would recommend the DVD with Maximova and V. Vasiliev for the sake of their amazing performances.

Congratulations to all the dancers on their promotions. (I am especially hoping to see more of Kaneko in the future.) 

6 hours ago, Ashton Fan said:

The debuts, planned and unplanned, which took place during the initial run of Scarlett's Swan Lake  showed considerable promise for the future. Management made the sensible decision that dancers making their debuts in the lead roles would do so with seasoned and experienced partners supporting them. This prompted a great deal of wailing from a number of dance fans who bemoaned the fact that management had not arranged for Naghdi and Ball to make a joint debut in the new production. They seemed to be blissfully unaware that unlike the prince in Sleeping Beauty who only turns up in the second act Swan Lake's Siegfried has rather a lot to do as he appears in every act.

Or they were aware and thought he could handle it. They may or may not have been right about that—I very much see the value of an Odette-Odile debutante having an experienced partner—but audiences can disagree with casting decisions without being at all "unaware" of a ballet's demands.

1 hour ago, Mariangela said:

Okay thanks 😊 Can I ask you why many on this forum have a distaste for her technique? I often read that her dancing is fantastic on technique but lacks on the interpretation... I personnally like her, she was the first Odette that I saw and there was something in her that I liked immediately... same for her Giselle. I'm the only there? 

  

One question that gets raised about Zakharova's technique is that her very hyper-extended limbs do not express the aesthetics of classical ballet--which are not "about" flexibility, even if a dancer's disciplined flexibility can be effective. That is, people find that there can be something gymnastic about her quality of movement.  Perhaps this objection was raised more when Zakharova was younger than it is now, though. And, in any case, Zakharova has many fans and admirers all over the world.

(I personally have had mixed reactions to her dancing both live and on tape; but her performance in the HD broadcast of Dame Aux Camelias seemed quite wonderful to me. Have you seen that? if you wanted to see a 20th-century narrative work--somewhat melodramatic, but also moving--I would recommend it, though it probably doesn't count as "essential.")

I don't know how long you have been collecting DVDS, but you must have noticed a huge variety of judgments and opinions coming from many different people with many different backgrounds about pretty much every single well-known dancer/production you can name... It's not that I believe all judgments/opinions about dancers and productions are "equal" exactly: there are standards in classical ballet--perhaps coming differently into play for different traditions or choreographers, but still they are standards one can define and discuss and debate.  I appreciate it when someone can give me very concrete reasons for what they admire and what they dislike and I learn from such discussions. But no critic seems to me simply to have the last word on such things either.

Oh and, for a great Aurora I recommend the Royal Ballet's DVD of Sleeping Beauty with Alina Cojocaru. Among other classics on DVD, I recommend the Bolshoi Nutcracker with Vladimir Vasiliev and Ekaterina Maximova.

I love the procession, which absolutely made me giddy with delight three performances in a row. But I did wish that Ratmansky had found ways for some of the procession figures to dance either by including one or two more danceable characters or letting, say, the pink Yak or some such have a silly little pas.  In the Bayadere parade we are seeing a procession of figures who are also about to perform and that makes it more theatrically meaningful.

And, as much as I find the ballet delightful without worrying, as Nanushka writes, about its “point”—outside “the pleasures of imagination” that is —I have also sometimes wondered if Whipped Cream is just on the verge of letting loose more serious meanings than may first seem the case though it never insists on them and that is sort of its point —to just let the audience “indulge.” But is the boy’s uncontrollable consumption of whipped cream so different from the doctor’s alcoholism?  It is as if the little boy who dreams of living happily ever after in the land of the sweets would IF he were to grow up, become the alcoholic Doctor—and the ballet’s excessive layers of loopy fantasy are all designed to obscure that....this to me helps explain the final image in which the tall, cone-shaped ancient fantasy figure who presides at the end of the ballet is played by a tiny child made up as an old man. I find that figure slightly grotesque....more withered toddler than ancient of days. And since, unlike Nutcracker, the boy never wakes up, the ballet refuses to become an allegory of growing up. It is a pure fantastical indulgence with hints of dread around the edges, but still an indirect image of how all encompassing —even dangerously all encompassing—fantasy is in this ballet which means it is keeping something OUT. (Like Ryden’s kitshy images of a small town America endlessly presided over by Abraham Lincoln.)

To put it more grimly: why doesn’t the child wake from his delirium? if he has really been carried away from his ordinary world never to return then isn’t he dead as far as the ordinary world is concerned? and Princess Praline an Erlkoenig figure however benign? Or perhaps it is about art as much as death and she is, after all, like the Fairy of Baiser de la fee even if in the mode of playful irony? (After all it is the chef who whips up a mock kingdom of the shades as he were a figure for the choreographer...or even a figure for Ratmansky, since what he creates is not a kingdom of shades but a bowl of  “whipped cream”?)  The ballet doesn't allow any of these possibilities to surface exactly—you can enjoy it as sheer visual ornament or pure desert-like indulgence with the only message beeing that you CAN have your cake and eat it too. That’s part of its irony. 

I don’t have any problem with a substantial work of art playing with fantasy shot through with the barest hints of (ignorable) anxiety in this way and even allowing those hints to dissipate. For that matter, I believe art has room for sheer imaginative indulgence (it had better!). If this was the only kind of ballet Ratmansky created then I would find him a less rich artist perhaps (though I would still admire this ballet), but it isn’t. I also find whole swathes of the choreography fantastic as well as fantastical —without which I would hardly find it a work that could be sat through repeatedly. And, as often with Ratmansky, I felt that the choreography helped me hear the music.

I agree that the whipped cream ensemble, after its witty entrance, is not quite the choreographic highlight one hopes for and structurally there are some oddities to the ballet as a whole (tied to the score I suppose) including the fact that the Princess Teaflower pas is a little long — however much I like the choreography and the almost decadently witty framing of the pas by the assymetrical ensemble. Even allowing for these problems, this is a ballet I would love to see again. 

4 hours ago, nanushka said:

Personally, I felt quite the same about the music when I listened to it before seeing the ballet last year, but as with The Tempest (the music for which I found quite hauntingly lovely but didn’t at first consider very danceable) I thought Ratmansky did a pretty remarkable job of discovering the dance potential within the rhythms and orchestration. I was definitely in the minority on the latter and sounds like I am in the minority on the former now too. I’ve found Whipped Cream quite delightful, though certainly not without its imperfections.

 

I loved Whipped Cream when I saw it (with multiple casts) last season and I also felt that Ratmansky found a persuasive way into the music. That last feeling grew each time I saw the ballet. 

Very sorry to read this. Hope he is 100% healthy soon....

41 minutes ago, cubanmiamiboy said:

She was quite the black sheep of Alonso's company. Always relegated...never allowed to tour..her defection and very vocal criticism of Alonso's tyranny were epic. I often see her at ballet performances down here. She's a faculty member somewhere.

I definitely remember seeing and loving a Rosario Suarez, but if she was never allowed to tour must I be thinking of someone else? Or was she once or twice allowed to tour and that’s what I remember? 

In any case, I enjoyed the video you posted...

Suarez is just fabulously fun to watch in the final sequence.

(She was one of my favorites when the National Ballet of Cuba first came to Kennedy Center way back when....)

Well, the Bolshoi's Igor Tsvirko is now listed as a principal dancer on the company's website and is also listed as dancing in Don Quixote in New York. (I don't know if he will be dividing his time between the Bolshoi and the Hungarian National Ballet or not.)

Something like 25 years ago I saw them dance Don Quixote in their home theater which is, as Meunier Fan mentions, "TRULY STUNNING" -- imagine a sort of "orientalized" Palais Garnier.  I remember the production included a fantastic gypsy dance done by an ensemble of men that was very different from the backbending, anguished gypsy woman of some other versions...I also enjoyed the Kitri, a somewhat hyperextended ballerina named Popova. (The cashier at the box-office had recommended Popova to me when I asked her if she could recommend which cast I should see.) Obviously it must be a very different company now--and I have no idea what production of Don Quixote they dance, but if I were in New York, curiosity would draw me to the theater as well as sentiment. And I definitely wouldn't want to miss Tsvirko's Basilio.

Igor Tsvirko is now listed as a principal dancer on the site of the Hungarian State Opera Ballet and is already scheduled to dance with the company in Don Quixote in New York this November and also to dance Mayerling with them in June 2019 .  I can't quite figure out whether that means he is departing the Bolshoi or not though informal reports had seemed to assume as much. Here is his page on the English version of the Hungarian State Opera Site--which creates what I trust is the misleading impression that he will be dancing eight performances of Mayerling in the course of nine days. Which makes one wonder if he will be dancing both the Don Quixotes for New York that are listed.

http://www.opera.hu/tarsulat/szemely/tsvirko-igor/?lan=en

Whatever night he dances...if I were in New York, I would make every effort to see his Basilio.

I had never seen that video before -- thank you for posting it.

I'll never forget Kirkland's performance in Sonnambula with ABT -- which I found remarkable.

Oddly, in the "old days" (70's/80's) I actually preferred Theme and Variations with ABT to NYCB, because I hated the sets and costumes NYCB used (they have changed, but the last time I saw NYCB dance Tchaikovsky Suite Number III--with Megan Fairchild a few years back--I still disliked the T&V sets/costumes though I guess I found them less heinous).  I also enjoyed and still enjoy seeing Theme and Variations outside the context of Tchaikovsky Suite Number III. For my taste, as a single unit, Theme and Variations is a perfect Ballet; Tchaikovsky Suite Number III...an interesting but imperfect frame for it that does change the way T&V "works." (I also don't think I have ever been entirely persuaded by the way the NYCB ensemble dances the polonaise in the finale.)

It may be the case--almost certainly is--that ABT has gotten worse in the ballet over time--still over the years, I have seen fine principal performances--Murphy's debut and also Corella's (dancing with Mckerrow) which were both well worth seeing. And though I missed it, I never read anything but raves for the young Herrera's performance in the ballet. I last saw the company dance Theme and Variations when it was revived with Semionova and it was certainly a flawed performance -- weaker than the others I had seen -- but I wouldn't have said a disgraceful one.  Overall I think I would regret it if ABT were simply to give up on Theme and Variations which is part of their history. And it makes sense for them to revive Balanchine works not danced or not danced much by NYCB...and since NYCB doesn't dance Symphonie Concertante, I am pleased to see that revived. I also recall seeing a young Herrera in Symphonie Concerante--a wonderful performance with Ashley Tuttle as the other lead.

Too much looking to the past? Maybe. But ABT reconnecting with some of that past might not be a bad thing...if they can do it.

Years ago--before her injury--many people on this site seemed to assume Fang was on the track to principal; I remember high praise for her performances in Ashton's Symphonic Variations in particular. More recently, I thought her Marianne Chartreuse was the funniest and most charming of three casts I saw last year (which included the "original" cast) ... I'm sorry to have missed her various solo outings this season (I'm not seeing ABT at all) but have been rather delighted to read about those performances and to learn that she has been promoted!

48 minutes ago, Mazurka said:

 

There are transmissions of the Royal Ballet as well as some Russian ones in NY -  has anyone gone to one?

 

There are transmissions of the Bolshoi and the Royal elsewhere in the country as well--the Bolshoi broadcasts have been posted about and discussed fairly frequently usually in threads listed under the "Ballet videos, Films, Broadcast [etc.]"  category though sometimes under the company category. I live in the Southeast and can only occasionally travel to cities with major ballet companies and I very much enjoy the Bolshoi transmissions I've seen--if I lived in New York, ABT and NYCB transmissions would probably interest me less, though I still would attend Bolshoi and Royal Ballet transmissions. But I also might still attend an ABT or NYCB broadcast to see an alternate cast or experience the occasional close up of dancers that, in the theater, I usually see from fairly far away.

In any case, it baffles me that ABT and NYCB don't do more livestreams as well as broadcasts etc. though I assume they have looked into it...perhaps the issue is sorting out rights and royalties with all the parties involved?? But would they really LOSE local audiences? and not gain new fans and audiences for their tours? I gather not everyone is convinced the Metropolitan Opera HD broadcasts have been good for building audiences in the way expected, but then the data does not seem decisive--perhaps the current decline in audiences would have been worse without the broadcasts (?): https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/hd-broadcasts-once-the-future-of-opera-are-now-seen-by-some-as-its-demise/2016/07/14/d5763340-3406-11e6-8758-d58e76e11b12_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f7ef79806b3e

I have mostly enjoyed the ballet broadcasts I have seen and wish they were scheduled so I could see more.  And, living outside NY, I would race to attend ABT and NYCB broadcasts if they existed. Of course, the broadcast experience IS very different from the live experience--and not all the camera work is ideal. I will say that I find seeing an HD broadcast in a movie theater on a giant screen considerably more satisfying than watching on one's computer or even on a large television set.  Somehow more of the glamor and larger-than-life character of theater performances comes through--probably just because of the large screen.  Though these broadcasts can certainly become the basis for DVDs that are valuable too.  Well, we can hope the situation changes...

15 hours ago, Birdsall said:

 

And apparently everyone is hushing. The resignation at ABT ended the issue in the news. We may never know what exactly happened, but I personally can’t imagine ever resigning from a job if I were innocent. I would let them fire me and then sue, but each person is different. I do like Gomes as a dancer. 

You have proven your mettle in the past!  In this case, if Gomes had not resigned and his innocence had been established by the investigation--or even, simply, if the allegations had not been substantiated as in the Martins' case--then I personally don't think ABT would have fired him. And if that had happened, I also think it would have been easier for time to erase people's focus on the issue. (Martins' reputation survived arrest for domestic abuse--which remained a footnote in his career until the new allegations were made--and Gomes is very loved.)  Like Jayne I know this is a fraught issue, and the reason I decided to post at all was partly to defend ABT which at least as far as I know did not do something improper in deciding to investigate the allegation.

From the combination of utter silence about what may or may not have happened in combination with other American companies hiring him to dance, I also think it's a reasonable inference to draw that many people in the ballet world have concluded that even if Gomes did do something improper or illegal eight years ago, they don't think he deserves to lose his entire career over it. 

I paused over Webb’s “due process” comment. Did ABT fail to follow due process? As I understand, they received an allegation, began an investigation, and Gomes almost immediately resigned. Was the allegation so absurd it should have been dismissed out of hand? Who not involved in the case can say? I don’t know what kinds of legal pressures ABT was or wasn’t under, though clearly the companies hiring Gomes don’t feel any. 

I actually find it very hard to believe that Webb and Julie Kent and others (at least in the United States) don’t have some knowledge of what was behind the accusation against Gomes and have not formed their own private judgment of what happened...they may be right in their judgments, but that way of proceeding is not “due process” either, so I rather wish Webb had avoided that particular phrase.

3 hours ago, CharlieH said:

Berlin Staatsballett will be premiering Ratmansky’s reconstructed Bayadere on Nov. 4, 2018, with repeat performances spread out through February 2019. Some details here:

https://www.staatsballett-berlin.de/en/spielplan/la-bayadere/04-11-2018/718

New designs will be by longtime Ratmansky collaborator Jerome Kaplan. 

My wife and I have planned a trip for this. Anyone else going?

I am afraid a trip to see this is not in the cards for me. I look forward to reading your response to the production.

5 hours ago, ECat said:

https://www.dancemagazine.com/american-ballet-theatre-promotions-2582402676.html

Great news--and thanks for the link. You can find a discussion of the promotions  that's been going on for a bit now in the ABT forums; I couldn't figure out how to do a link that didn't just lead to one particular post rather than to the thread as a whole, but you can find the thread titled 'ABT 2018 Promotions' under the ABT forum which is under "Companies and Performances  --  U.S. Companies."

Congrats to all! I must admit I was especially happy about Fang...

Thanks for these reports. It is enjoyable to read some excited responses to ABT this season. I remember Van Hamel completely eschewing the leap with the leg kick to back of head when I saw her Kitri and it didn’t garner complaints (though that was pre-internet, so who knows) — maybe a ballerina with back problems could afford to do the leap without that touch.

(A side note regarding “Osipova level” fouettes:  this month even Osipova isn’t doing them. In Swan Lake with the Royal ballet she opted for a manege of pique and chaine turns in place of fouettes. Nothing in her performance —the one I saw— suggested injury, though at a public event concerning the production that I did not attend, it was apparently implied that that was the reason.)

Congratulations to her....

1 hour ago, fondoffouettes said:

I’d love to see what some of the current principals and soloists could do with Pillar of Fire. It’s definitely a revival that’s more overdue, IMHO, than Fancy Free. I’m not a Copeland fan, but I could imagine Hagar being a great role for her. 

I've thought of this as well--of course everyone at ABT would need proper coaching for Tudor especially now when they dance it so rarely. (I used to wonder about a Cornejo/Copeland Shadowplay...)

Osipova is including Tudor (Leaves are Fading) in the "pure dance" program she is putting on at Sadler's Wells and then bringing to NY City Center in April. She is nothing if not artistically curious.