springnemesia

Very excited to hear how tonight goes! I can't believe I'm considering doing the matinee AND evening show on Saturday just out of desperation to see TschaiPas... Do we know yet if there's a second cast Apollo or if Danchig-Waring is doing all three shows? Was hoping for a Joseph Gordon debut at some point!

I saw Wednesday’s performance (Hurlin & Bell) and decided not to look at the NYT review beforehand so I wouldn’t spoil it. I left the theater giddy with excitement to read what I was sure would be a lethal, nit-picky takedown by Gia Kourlas. The gender politics? Rape-y pas de deux choreo? Darker & hairier dancers abusing the slave girls? Vaguely oriental music motif whilst dancers emerge in vaguely oriental outfits with Egyptian arms? I am, like many of you, stunned she gave it a positive writeup in light of her previous grievances. Who shelled out major $$$ to the NYT for this review? If L+R shows up in the next NY Mag Approval Matrix please remember I called it here first. The fix is in. I still found L+R mostly enjoyable (largely thanks to Hurlin & Bell’s brilliant performances), but what was the selling point to a general audience? As others have already noted: No star power/big names No well-known storyline No overly glamorous/interesting/unique staging or branding (things that made Akhnaten a runaway success with NYC 20-somethings) No interesting score/scenery/costume collaborations. As Drew mentioned above, it likely helped increase interest in Whipped Cream; NYCB has clearly figured out how to harness artist collaborations to sell tickets. The Peck/Stevens ballets have monopolized the Brooklyn indie sadboi hipster contingent. Choreography? I mean… maybe? I was truly expecting a feminist plot twist at the end in which she rejects all three (or four?) suitors and gets on the boat with her son and sails to her freedom. My friend and I were also hoping she’d get her revenge and kill Chaereas. Alas. There was a palpable sigh of relief & joy throughout the theater when Bell finally had his glorious jetés/turns a la seconde moment in the battle sequence. This is American Ballet Theater. Give the people what we want. TURNS. JUMPS. Anyway, as a 20-something in marketing, my recommendations to ABT/the Met for filling more seats would be: I suppose established story ballets don’t lend themselves well to interesting collaborations, but I’m sure you can figure something out with the upcoming Jaffe transition. Minimalist Don Q staging? SL with Anish Kapoor vantablack set pieces? Sufjan scoring an indie sadboi R&J? Dana Schutz backdrops? Nico Muhly? Anybody? Plagiarize NYCB’s Art Series concept. Pick the nights least likely to sell, brand them “Date Night at the Ballet,” sell all tickets for $40, offer free drinks + a DJ on the balcony, and promise the presence of a professional photographer. Get Guest of a Guest to put it on their calendar. Pay NY Mag to put it in the Approval Matrix. Get the NYC tiktok accounts & The Skint & every company member social media profile to post about it. Add on a cool rebrand, fixing your dang website, you get the idea. Actually, just pilfer some people from NYCB’s marketing & programming team – they managed to make the one-act SL cool and sexy! Meanwhile, I just saw a Youtube ad for next week’s Swan Lake that’s merely a zoom-in on pas de quatre feet. Skip. Find better dramaturgs or I dunno, story ballet concept developers? Are those a thing? Ratmansky got an incredible amount of money and time and energy and manpower to create this ballet because he… thought Greek aesthetics were cool, so he backed his way into a plot from there?

Thank you for posting! Teared up watching, really going to miss him

Hello all! Long-time lurker but finally made an account I saw Wednesday's Apollo/Orpheus/Agon program -- was so pleased to have an extra surprise chance to see Hyltin even though I wasn't all that thrilled by Orpheus otherwise. All of the ballet newbies were raving about the Agon pas de deux as they were leaving the theater. It was fun to sit near folks who didn't know what was coming and kept gasping at some of the really tense moments. The $30 under 30 program going online because of COVID really is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me and it feels way too good to be true. I always manage to grab a front-row seat at least once a week and I feel like I own the place squeezing past the folks who paid $260. I hope they never go back to the in-person rush system. (Yes, I'm bragging about this here because none of my real-life friends get why this is a big deal 😎) I'm really excited Mira Nadon is back! Can't wait to see her in Rubies tomorrow.