drb

Kristi Boone, who received quite a positive curtain call.

Saturday eve, June 9, 2007 From misery to admiration Paloma Hererra had the unenviable task of replacing the ill Diana Vishneva. Strange, when Aurora enters, she has no friends among the young people. In NYCB's production Aurora has tons of them. But of course there they probably really are. It takes a school. Paloma pulled off the Rose Adagio without a hitch. For the first time I saw the costumes of the four nerds (no disrespect to the poor dancers, I refer to the characters that replace the princes of earlier versions). Unbelievable. But in all the casts I've seen they get the balancing job done (all four dancers were replaced, I guess each ballerina has her own quartet). There was a very long delay at intermission. Obviously an injury. Turned out to be Gelsey Kirkland. Angel Corella made the most of the Vision Scene. Plenty of charisma in the earlier part (he may at times sacrifice perfection in order to deliver the expected virtuosity, but his deepening interpretation is more than compensation). Paloma continued her very committed performance with an intensely focused Vision Scene, with Angel very powerful and ardent. I now really look forward to his Swan Lake with Nina Ballerina. Their Grand PdD featured especially all-out fish dives. There's nothing like a long-term partnership, yet these seem fairly infrequent these days. Sarah Lane really lit up the place as Florine. A company that believed in itself enough to grow its future would have given us the likes of her as Aurora.

In Sunday's Times article on the retirement of four ballerinas (already posted on Links) Macaulay's gifts strike again. Speaking of Kyra Nichols: And further,

Actually, she hadn't run out of energy by Act III. Here's the story of how their performance was thrown off, roughly translated from an interview in Russian last July:

Both Nina and her company seem to have got off to a good start, judging from the Charleston Post and Courier (see June 8 Links): After praising the corps's impeccable performance, including perfect arabesques, the review went on to say Added June 11: The paper has published the following correction:

Thanks to all for these glowing reports. I'm especially glad that Mr. Bejart's association with Suzanne is being honored. I am forever grateful that he brought her to us during the unhappy time. Their time together also was important to the art of ballet in another way. Just reading the long Time Out interview with Alessandra Ferri. The ONLY reference to a ballerina's influence on her career was of Suzanne:

My little notebook's sound (or maybe just ancient ears) can't quite make out what it is that Wendy says to Sara that makes her giggle. Help, anyone? Thanks Stanley and Carley!

"How much time she has left"? She's only 30, in great shape & strong enough to dance another ten years minimum. Is there something we should know? Seems to me there's no worry. In her recent Izvestia interview she's promised more dancing in Russia*, plus there's that Beauty in Motion Tour Across America in 2008, and on her site a mention of a probable tour with La Scala in 2008. And her statement that she's booked two years in advance! Plus the Mariinsky's visit to the NYC City Center in April, 2008 promises her in its advertising. *[added for clarification]: the article reports that the promiss was made to Gergiev. This being Izvestia, she also added patriotically:

Alessandra retires from ballet on August 10. TONY has just posted an extensive interview with her, with much NYC-specific detail (Baryshnikov as teacher/partner is wonderful). Her first retirement was from La Scala, in March, as artist reported above: She retires from ABT, New York (the city where she lives, and as the interview notes, where she has chosen to school her children) as Juliet on June 23. Here she reflects on her life as Juliet: http://www.timeout.com/newyork/Details.do?...drama_queen.xml

You really should see her dance. So, yes to Aurora, but just if you can watch only her (maybe binocs would be necessary). However, if you can, even better to see her Juliet or Manon (her favorite of all roles, I'd pick her second perf, as her partner is new to her in this ballet. Her "method" requires experience and, especially, fresh rehearsals with her partner.).

Mr. Schiavone has now posted SIX big pix of the Reunion Curtain Call. He usually moves his photos around, or off, so see 'em while you can! http://www.geneschiavone.com/gallery/album08

Wednesday, June 6, 2007 Vishneva/Hallberg 1 Dancers of Air For me, the ballet Sleeping Beauty is not a fairy tale and is not an allegory, nor even about battles on some high and moral plane. A given realisation is, of course. But what has gotten me through so many productions, and what I honestly believe, is that it is about The Ballerina. About a 120 years ago a stream was set in motion. It stays so, because of Tradition and a School. It is crucial that that School not only teaches how, but gains continuity of motion for the stream by assigning those who have bubbled up from its depths, filled with The Ballerina, to stay and teach those with the raw material to become another vessel for Her. This week we've been graced by two such vessels. Diana Vishneva was a dancer of the air, a creature so light that something like the Rose Adagio had nothing to it, it was the easy and natural thing to do with what Tschaikovsky was telling her. The happy hops, and the circles, no more, no fewer, than what Veronika Part--the dancer of line--had shown: for Tradition remembers who The Ballerina is. In the Vision Scene (+). David Hallberg was an absolute success. Sometime when your first time is in a certain version seen as wrong to others, the dancer doesn't need to compare, and simply inhabits the home he's given. (Such was the case with Gillian Murphy's success in McKenzie's final act of Swan Lake). So here was Hamlet, but one that might have been if Mr. Shakespeare had awakened on a happier side of the bed the day he wrote it. Not mentally ill at all, just confronting a situation that was rather unreal... His focus and youthful majesty, and jumps, were complete. Eventually, Aurora showed up (one doesn't count the sleeping in that whatever that carries her from stage left to right) in their mutual dream. A very different Aurora to that of Veronika Part. Ms. Part, as I've tried to describe earlier, dreamed not only sight and music but also, at one magic moment, her physical feeling, her body, as if touching the world afresh. This suits a great Odette, who in every performance of White Swan has been inspired by Siegfried to feel her human self, that had been long lost in the Swan prison (At every performance that moment is at a different time, because it catches her unaware). Diana is a great Giselle, so she remains on that ethereal plane throughout the Vision Scene. But Mr. Hallberg knows exactly who she is and that he wants her. His celebration is a dramatic masterstroke: He now dances with her lightness, and of course his virtuosity and poetic line. When the kiss awakens Diana, it takes a while till she even looks at the kisser: she feels, she faces her old Kingdom and the people in it and the audience and the whole world and embraces it. Then sees her Prince and remembers him and is ready for the rest of her life. The Grand Pas de Deux was the remaining question. As far as I know this is their first time dancing together, where Ms. Part had her one and only Partner, Mr. Gomes. Mr. Hallberg was surely terrific here as well. They of course look good together, even to matching with air-like interpretations (no doubt very intentionally so rehearsed). It went off beautifully, without a real glitch, including the fish dives (of course more carefully than Part/Gomes). He often looked at her in awe, even at their "crowning," how could life be so wonderful to him? I look forward to their Saturday performance. Ms. Vishneva will be The Ballerina differently, of course, as she is that most four-dimensional of all ballerinas. But I think Mr. Hallberg will know how to be the right different too. He is an artist.

The Spring SAB Newsletter that arrived (finally) in today's mail includes some memories of Lincoln. Paul Taylor's has the ring of straight and endearing truth to it, so I'll try to type it out (all typos are mine): Other memoires include those of Chris d'Amboise, Albert C. Bellas, and Peter Harvey. Also, Jacques d'Amboise, Colleen Neary, Pascale van Kipnis, and Francia Russell remember Tumey.

Is it not rude to ignore a dire need to exit? As long as you are preventing passage, consider all those people in rows behind whose view YOU are responsible for hindering. Also, cultural event attenders are generally old, men's prostates enlarge, and MANY men in any given audience have or have had prostate cancer. Regard that in most theaters there are far more women's restrooms (by Law) and that men must often change levels to get to one. Anyone who has wolfed down restaurant food (often not the soundest quality near cultural istitutions) rushed between work and curtain time, may give your lap more than wetness. For you to see one happy grin on one applauded dancer's face, some old patron may be faced with finding a way to get home with more than dampness in the pants. Who is rude?

On Thursday Nina dances Odette/Odile partnered by Filin in Charleston, SC. Is anyone going to the Spoleto Festival? PLEASE post about it . For those who may have missed it on Links a couple of days ago, here's a detailed prewrite about her company's Swan Lake: http://www.thestate.com/115/story/80468.html

Bringing this Sleepy Beauty to Disney Land will be like taking coal to Newcastle.

I enjoyed the second Part, but only by blocking out everything that wasn't her. So I saw a precis of a great ballet, while some other stuff was going on on stage. But, even one critic liked the ballet that was actually going on. See the Newsday review on Links: Apollinaire Scherr: http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/arts/...-arts-headlines

Monday, June 4, 2007 Part 2 Part is All Tonight Veronika brought Aurora's partner to the ballet. His name is Tschaikovsky. Ms. Part entered to some applause from her admirers and smiled happily back. How can one say she is too voluptuous for this role? Aurora is two years and two weeks older than Juliet, for those days an adult. But Ms. Part was a carefree, confident young woman. Not a clue of any concern about what her ballerina-inhabitor was about to face. The music let you know it was Rose Adagio time. Since we were given no cause to see this as some fearsome bunch of tricks, we could just let the perfection of it pour in, never a test, never excess, just Beauty doing beauty. Nailing the first balance of the final diagonal of balances in attitude, Ms. Part seemed to silently say "Oh, yeah!", or whatever the Russian is, and easily completed her triumph. A huge response, with mutiple bows. It was in the first variation to follow that I realised that all the mess of this production was invisible, the music filled, or in this production replaced, the void. Just a ballerina and her Tschaikovsky. And in the second variation those jetes, so perfect of form, in no way exagerated, but amplified by Veronika's perfect body and classical line. Then the double circle of turns, some triples included. Her perfection proclaimed innocence; her line, desirability; her serenity, Petipa. The production's Act 2 disaster at least gave us her vision scene. It began as if her eyes were still closed, dancing with ethereal lightness. She began to dance with Marcelo Gomes. He grasped her around the waist and a glow came across her face as she felt him in her dream. Later, as that ultimate partner came up from behind to hold her about her waist again, just a fraction of a second before the touch, her face burst, however so serenely, into joy. At that moment she showed us that she knew he'd be there at the moment she really opened her eyes. The trust in Tschaikovsky and Petipa to tell the whole story... maybe this is what Balanchine's "Just dance" means. Epiphanies. Act 3's Grand Pas de Deux. The Adagio. As Marcelo promenades her in attitude, they finish with Veronika's back to the audience and hold that pose. The utter perfection of her placement. We see (or I see, for the first time) Giovanni da Bologna's Mercury through Carlo Blasis's eyes. Because I can't explain how so simple a thing can transcend beauty itself, this paragraph stops. The next, or next three epiphanies, the fish dives. One of course looks forward to this test, much as one does to Odile's 32. But on this night this ballerina and this partnership weren't taking exams and weren't performing tricks. Of course the dives happened, each glorious. But her sublime line in each dive's final position, the beyond perfect placement of those legs that are the divine prototype, and that was their entire Love Story in triplicate: Each time, the sole of her toeshoe rested, caressing his shoulder. And then, a final epiphany, in the Adagio's finale pose, that sole embraced the back of Marcelo's head. What a total partnership, that can tell a story like this. There was other splendid dancing, and the return of Gelsey Kirkland to the stage. But all that was in some other ballet.

Uh oh .. better keep this from reaching the ears of the McKenzie team or we'll have a new ending to Swan Lake, with Don (sic) Rothbart being dragged into his cave by giant scorpions in tutus. Come to think of it, any change in McKenzie's last act of SL could be an improvement. Now let's turn all this negativity into a positive. The team's artistic choices for Sleeping Beauty can indeed rescue his Swan Lake. He clearly devised that ballet's new last Act because the original's was boring, no spinning and jumping or fun. The real point is that Swan Lake is over after Bad Bird and the Prince have finished their spins. So rather than fill in the rest of the time with his Frog Pond scene, just stop the ballet there, and then include his promised left-outs from Sleeping Beauty, to send everyone home happy. I refer to the promise reported three weeks ago in PlayBill: Of course the wedding will be of Odette and Siegfried. Can you imagine the brisk sales from this twofer?

So far a number of us seem to have been impressed by Raina, 17, the younger sister of NYCB's Kaitlyn Gilliland. She is the daughter of former ABT dancer Lise Houlton, and has danced for her mother's company in Minnesota. Here are two photos of her with that company: http://www.minnesotashubert.org/Enchantment/Bio/Raina.htm http://www.mndance.org/about/news.html

Saturday matinee, June 2, 2007 Twinkliana, a dance for six young women and one young man, was the curtain-raiser. All the youngsters aquitted themselves well. There were seven variations, a PdD, and a finale for all seven. Next came Les Gentilhommes, I suppose meant to give nine young men a chance to shine. The problem is, there is no meat here, no choreography in which one could excel. A peculiar choice. The first part concluded with Mr. Martins's teen-muse, 16 year old Callie Bachman's chance to dance in the role she helped inspire, Juliet, from the Balcony Scene. Her partner was Wien-winner Russell Janzen, who may have some noble roles in his future. R + J's Balcony Scene is not really excerptable, one needs continuity with earlier scenes, since the PdD's choreography lacks true romantic sweep to indicate Love when not in context. (Unlike ABT's which can better alone, rather than sitting through the whole ballet.) Of course, we had the context of her return from injury, and of SAB's warmly human choice to give her this chance, and that was enough! And this mega-ticket hit will surely have many future performances..., so we can keep an alert eye on future casting. The middle of the program was a dynamic performance of 4 Temperaments, one as easy to enjoy as the Big Company's. The three Themes were especially professional: Amanda Clark/Victor Rocha, Shelby Elsbree/Joseph Hernandez, Puanani Brown/Joshua Thew. Matthew Renko, who was Gents lead, had more substance to work with as Melancholic; while, next, Kristen Segin and Cameron Dieck--both Wien winners--warmed our hearts with cheer. Then Samuel Greenberg, another refugee from Gents got the meaty challenge of Phlegmatic. By now, I was so involved in this splendid performance that I'd forgotten who was to dance Choleric. I wasn't aware of this younger sister, but when Raina Gilliland took command of that stage, there was no doubting the star authority of a true stage-filler. What glorious line, the confidence, the ease; how Balanchine! The final Wien-winner, Sara Adams was partnered by Zachary Catazaro Clark in Gounod Symphony. While some of the early choreography for the couple did not scream Balanchine, there came a point where 10 couples, the women in (peachy) pink and men with yellow sleaves and print vests, enter rear stage left and form an anti-diagonal. Soon 10 more women, in (peachy) orange, enter from rear stage right, their diagonal creating an X. Balanchine having fun: men switch to corresponding other partners, new patterns grow, symmetries and asymmetries... When the master has such fun, I'd bet the dancers do, and I know I do too. The pace picks up and the leads dance exciting variations, you know why they're winners, and you want this ballet back in NYCB's rep! The Wien-winner for distinguished service was Nokolaj Hubbe.

Friday, June 1, 2007 Four Debuts Mr. B's Concerto Barocco, with perhaps the current cast of choice, Whelan/Rutherford/Evans, opened this evening's all Bach program. I felt it was a particularly fine performance, and thus everything that could be said of Bach had already been said before the other two works could begin. Fortunately each offered two very significant debuts. Ana Sophia Scheller appeared in the program insert, a sub for Tiler Peck in Chris d'Amboise's Tribute. While the piece is really too light-weight for NYCB, it is a good vehicle to display young talent. Devin Alberda reprised the opening solo that launched him onto City Ballet's Most Promising List. Then Ana Sophia displayed her mastery of classicism, and Robert Fairchild his potential for partnering. Then came the PdQ, with the second debutante, Kaitlyn Gilliland (why, in great part, I by-passed ABT's SB premiere). She was partnered by Tyler Angle, while Gretchen Smith danced with Adrian Danchig-Waring. Odd that the pairing wasn't tall-tall, less tall-less tall, but the proof was in the dancing. Tyler and Kaitlyn made a potent impression, as, facing each other in profile, his young Nureyev gaze cast at her as she unfureled the arabesque of the season, created a spell-binding moment. As a soloist she is not confined to conform to the corps, and she could let Bach rip through her, her back tracing a perfect Russian arc, sweeping through long arms to her very fingertips, seeming a world away. She is most like Tess Reichlen, already famous for arabesques that tell whole stories. But Kaitlyn's have their own special flow and music. Really distinctive (and ravishing) arabesques, one reads, don't hold the place they once did in ballet. Of course, there's Veronika Part's, and there was Farrell's. Kaitlyn's is worth a trip. Much dancing followed this, the ballet is longer than its invention, but the dancers were so enjoyable... And of course there was our Ashley. Ms. Bouder had lots to do, but I especially like her PdD with, yes, Mr. Charisma a/k/a Tyler Angle. A Kingdom for their Giselle! She took a solemn, Romantic (not romantic) approach. Early in the pas, she extends her hand toward him, but withdraws it just before he can touch. A little later the gesture is repeated, the withdrawel just tentative enough to permit a nano-second of contact. Later still, she reaches toward him, but he turns away. They come together again and he lifts her, then seems to be bringing her down. She chooses to stay up, wraps her arms about his neck. They exit, Tyler turning and turning as Ashley caresses the hair on the back of his head. She is such a phenomenal technician, but I love her best when she turns it loose on art, contemplative, expressive, our own American Soul of Dance. Last on the program was Brandenburg, not the Paul Taylor masterwork, but the late Robbins ballet. The first three movements comprise the BB Concerto #3. It really is a ballet in itelf, and featured debuts by Ms. Bouder and Andrew Veyette. We speak of men as partners, some, we call great (Bruhn, Dowell, Bocca, Soto, Malakhov, Gomes...). But it takes two to partner, and among ballerinas, Bouder is, I think, a great partner. Just as Mr. T'Angle was great in Tribute, so was Mr. Veyette here. It takes one to make one? The Allegro found good old Ashley, that dancer of joy. Tearing things up, yet so true to the music, and to Andrew. An adagio, then another allegro. Because it was Robbins, the corps really wasn't a corps. It contained some big names, and every single one of the eight women and eight men had plenty of visibility, as there were still three movement to go. The first of these was an adagio for Maria Kowroski and Philip Neal (BB Concerto #2, Andante). Mr. Neal is having a hot streak, and that continued this evening. This may well have garnered the biggest applause of the evening, save Barocco, of course. Then it was showtime for every dancer, to BB Concerto #1 Menuetto-Polacca and BB Concerto #6 Allegro. This ballet's parts are greater than its whole, yet it gave so many dancers a chance to shine, that...

D. Vishneva

Wednesday, May 30, 2007 A VERY mixed bill Tonight's program began with an intense performance of Serenade. Darci Kistler danced with some abandon, and with profound emotion, partnered by Charles Askegard (welcome back!). Ashley Bouder has further refined her role, showing deep compassion for the fallen Darci and Angel, Sara Mearns. The virtuosity was always there, yet serene, purely in the service of higher mysteries. Divine Sara was, of course, to her role born. Stephen Hanna, too, was very fine. A very merited three curtain calls. Too bad the entire corps could not come out to bow... What total contrast to Maria Kowroski's debut in Bugaku! Toshiro Mayuzumi's score opens with what sounds like many cats meowing. Sure enough four kittens enter, followed by what must be Mr. B's Mourka (Maria). I really suspect Mr. B did have cats in mind with that score, but of course this wasn't a story about cats. After four boys and a man, Albert Evans, had their turn, the two sexes met, politely. The music stopped, there was applause, perhaps politely.... or in hope it was over? Some minutes went bye, and some murmurs of concern. It was just a matter of costume changes, as the dancers dressed for undressing. There were lots of not-for-children things, that looked like fun if you had a chiropractor (or better still, an osteopath) in the family. Legs Maria was a miracle of flexibility. She was amazing, and merited her (and Albert's) three curtains. Maurice Kaplow, looking in fine fettle, conducted the first two ballets. Then Nicolette Fraillon, who so impressed last week, had her turn with Union Jack. I hadn't seen Ben Millepied in a while, but he looked a bit Peter Boalish leading Lennox. Damian Woetzel looked very Woetzelish, in other words way more than sufficient. Philip Neal and Yvonne Borree were also excellent, and Abi Stafford, leading Green Montgomeries, particularly joyous. Wendy Whelan had the penultimate clan, the role that always maxes Act 1 applause, and rightfully did again. But Tess Reichlen held her own with the RCAF, of course dancing big, but also was most glamorous, well, with those legs, gamorous. In Costermongers, Nilas Martins was warm and winning in this, his best role. Kyra Nichols was wayward and wild, just plain wonderful! The children, Amanda Kraus and Arden Pickoff-Rafferty, were already accomplished virtuosi. Kyra with children is always something special. But so is Nilas! For the Navy, Damian let it all hang out, a fabulous virtuosic display, including elevation. But it was that chief WREN, SEXY Tess Reichlen, that ate the audience alive! And seemed to enjoy every moment of it. Despite the hour, three more curtains! With lots of male shouts, seconding my feelings about magnetic Ms. Reichlen. After the opening sublime prayers, it was a very hot night.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007 Vishneva/Corella/Salstein/Bragado-Young Dreamgirl Diana Vishneva's Titania was all pride and petulance versus Angel Corella's very angry Oberon in the changeling confrontation. Later, Angel and Craig Salstein's Puck were more than just boys-will-boys mischief-makers. When Oberon kicks Puck's butt, it was audibly not a stage kick, one can only guess what heck it would have raised had it been in R+J across the plaza... There was even a girl-slaps-boy's face as well. When the happy couple first came together Jennifer Alexander was a very Brittish Hermia, her working foot tracing those love circles on the floor for her Lysander, Jared Matthews. A smile with a touch of Fonteyn's restraint didn't hurt either. They most effectively prepared us for the love story at the ballet's conclusion. Marian Butler and Sascha Radetsky played the bickering couple with just the right not-over-the-top sensibility. Ashton does rustics superbly, probably because he really liked them. Julio Bragado-Young caught Ashton's Bottom well, not just a cardboard joke at all. When drugged Diana spots Bottom, it is not just a comic love-at-first-sight. As she comes to him she especially loves his Assish features. As she spies his hooves, pointes, she sees them as yet a further way to express her erotic feelings, as she playfully skips hers among his. Diana can dance love, and its nice to know its always real. Throughout there's lots of virtuosity for Salstein and Corella. Angel doesn't take a Dowell approach, preferring to dance with size and force, as opposed to refinement. And a whole lot of excitement. After Titania's "caught" by Angel, she begins their reconciliation on uneven terms. She shows him the bottom of her pointes at least seven times, sure to seduce Ashton, and his protagonist! But she does eventually catch on, and then it becomes mutual. There is a magic moment where she dances Hermia's love circles to Angel. But these have an extra airy floor-skimming quality, just so he'd know that this was the love of a Fairy Tzarina. Toward the end Bottom comes out and she sees through his human form to the Ass of her Dreams. She looks upon him fondly. Diana was a vision of beauty tonight, and so much more. The program opened with a classroom excerise by Balanchine. Perhaps I've just been spoiled by a week of the master's masterpieces, some beautifully done, across the court. And some thrilling dancing in some not officially great, too. It was sad that Irina Dvorovenko was scratched, she's got the technical chops, and also a way to connect to the audience to take us from reading to singing. The vocal singing was not of the musical level that NYCB delivers for its Dream. The corps looks much better here than when so cramped at City Center. Sarah Lane was one of the six demis, and my binocs where so occupied throughout. If one must show this Balanchine, then why not cast such young corpsters in the leads, so that these roles will really be life and death matters to the dancers?