drb

Wednesday eve, May 16

Vishneva/Stiefel/Abrera: The Goddess Reigns

Well, just maybe Diana has found her ABT partner. Tonight's Solor was the complete Ethan Stiefel, the one who was Amanda McKerrow's partner in those late, magical Giselles.

Early on the eight bayaderes performed the circle dance with arms and palms up that Mark Morris included for his blessed spirits in the opera Orfeo ed Euridice. So now we know from Mr. Morris that they're reaching to feel the rain!

Diana entered, of course beauty incarnate. Her waiting-for-Solor variation began with her reliving the ecstacies of their prior romance, both her joys and his. She was sure she'd live hers again when they met. But seemed to have a little doubt, or perhaps insecurity after so long a separation, that he would find his again. As they met her joy radiated like a nova, and she very much wanted to see him glow too. They showed a powerful rapport, yet even as she began a pair of grand jetes away from him she glanced back over her right shoulder, at the first one's summit, back toward him. Ethan's ardent response meant she had no need to look again during the second leap. Yes, I mean summit. She delivered those leaps of hers that possess the glory and divine symmetry of Fuji.

In scene 2, Stella Abrera's Gamzatti was far removed from hers in prior seasons of this ballet. Her classical technique has made great strides, tossing off the fouettees, grand and French, with seeming ease. She needed this, as Solor was virtually not there, he was with his temple dancer soul and body. Stiefel's classical form was noble, his devotion to Diana was as she deserved. In the confrontation, Gamzatti had no answer for Nikiya's overpowering confidence in love. I think she felt so defeated that her only solution was murder, even if Nikiya's deep-seated insecurity had not lead her to make that knife attack. Vishneva's horror at what she'd done made the rest of the ballet self-evident.

When Diana entered the palace garden, the betrothal scene, the chemistry between her and Ethan formed an unbreakable connection, his eyes pouring her in, but not bond. He was, after all, a general, totally obedient to his sovereign. Vishneva was the heartbreaking heart of Russian Soul. At the moment she channeled her overwhelming love for Solor into the central flower in the basket, the viper struck. Stiefel, obediently restrained by Radjah Saveliev, walked off in total daze with his assigned bride, Diana saw, her heart stopped by despair and poison, but her Soul lived.

And thus in the Shades, superbly danced by the corps, she was not just a pipe dream, she was inhabiting Solor. They were the epitiome of classical perfection and dazzle, Stiefel dancing on a grand, full-out scale, yet always pure and always with her, Diana's diagonal exit the thing that dreams are made of. This Act raised their Bayadere into my personal pantheon along side the Bayaderes of Cojocaru and Asylmuratova, along with the home teamers Makarova, Kirkland and McKerrow. The fine Shades were Sarah Lane, Yuriko Kajiya, and Maria Riccetto. Kajiya, especially, appealed with her reach toward combining amplitude with lyricism.

Herman Cornejo was spectacular as the Bronze, well in his case, Golden Idol. Seen from downstairs, the effect of the two circles of candle holders, one round each of Gamzatti and Solor, lacked the aesthetic force that it has from my usual perch upstairs. In this performance, I do not think Nikiya was seeking revenge, instead the temple and principality were destroyed by their own evil, and Diana and Ethan lived forever after as Blessed Spirits.

I did, over all very good!! The corps impressed me very much. I will comment more later!

Thanks Dansuer85, the corps news is great. Shows what a difference some rehearsal time makes, after just the few minutes they had before the Monday Gala!

Have you seen the NYTimes video of the Gala?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/arts/dance/16ball.html

You learn that Wonder Woman's feet were too big for her to be a ballerina and that she loved the excerpt from Othello.

Did anyone see Herrera/Corella/Murphy on Tuesday?

I hope the event and all the attention and criticism it has drawn is not too distracting for Ms. Part, as she is to reprise her 2000 Mariinsky role of Nikiya Wednesday afternoon and again Friday. Merde!, Veronika.

The photographer Gene Schiavone has posted about 150 photos of the young dancers and has requested viewers to help identify them. Please help him out, and simultaneously you'll be helping the dancers gain some recognition too!

http://www.geneschiavone.com/gallery/

You'll also find photo sets of the phenomenal Nunez/Soares (look at her arms whilst she's airborne!), and of Dupont/Legris.

A fascinating typo on ABT's site:

Mon. Eve., June 4, 8 P.M. GISELLE - THE SLEEPING BEAUTY - Part, Gomes, Murphy, Kirkland*, Reyes, Cornejo

By a process of elimination, Gelsey must be dancing the role of Giselle.

... Even the anonymous ballerinas in Balanchine's leotard ballets have an imagined inner life that is evidenced through the choreography. ...

One can imagine the conversation that the ballerinas in Divertimento No. 15 might have around the dinner table, or the one that those in Agon, Episodes, and Four Temperaments might have. (I'll go out on a limb and say that I think that when Balanchine puts two women in a ballet it's so the prima will have someone to talk to: the second violin ballerina in Concerto Barocco comes back at the end of the second movement so that the first violin ballerina can tell someone just how terrific she feels. In Balanchine, sisterhood is powerful.)...

But the women in Martins' ballets are objects in the worst way: there's nothing going on in there. This isn't hating women, this is being oblivious to them. ...

OK - lunchtime is over, back to the grind, mid-thought or no ... I think I drifted from saying that women were opaque to Martins to saying that even if they weren't he doesn't have the choreographic chops to tell us about it.

Wow! Perhaps this is the way Mr. Macaulay should have gone. Including all the analysis I "..."-out for brevity. Your whole post is a must-read. Wishing you longer lunches, and Thank You!

I'm with Old Fashioned -- I hope the casting stays as is. I'm looking forward to seeing Part in the rest of the ballet.

Carbro - I didn't recognize the choreography either for the vision scene solo. It's not the soviet version, the Royal version or the 1890 version. I guess it's the McKenzie-Kirkland version.

Could it have been the Malakhov version in the Berlin production that he and Vishneva dance frequently? She may not have arrived in time to learn whatever ABT is going to do.

I hope Part is able to dance Aurora. Remember too that she has Nikiya tomorrow. Ashley Bouder came off pointe once in her first Rose Adagio, 'though was not so rattled, then proceeded to deliver the best Aurora I'd ever seen. Until her next one.

NINA :wub: times 10

+

Yes, Nina Ballerina is all the way back, and she did more turns than that many, some with arms unsymmetrically up, sometimes folded, just to make the point. She was dazzling and very seductive throughout Odile, and when she deceived Angel with those amazing rippling wings, you knew Odette was back too! Let's get the season out of the way and get to June 28! Angel looked inspired by her too.

The Bayadere corps, especially number four and a couple others in the front row had real problems staying up on their left legs, the right having far less difficulty.

In the Sleeping Beauty excerpts, I found Michele Wiles's little Lilac variation showing her usual technical aplomb, but also simultaneous softness and clarity, which just might be a hint of how ABT shall benefit from Gelsey Kirkland's coaching. I saw Ms. Part's Rose Adagio much as Carbro reported. When she repeated that diagonal of assisted balances, after having received the second gift of roses, she looked worried, and only held the balance for that split second that it took the next hand to grab hold. Perhaps with her Nikiya coming up she's had lots of rehearsals to deal with. She looked decidely thinner than she did last season. Diana Vishneva looked uncomfortable in her Vision Scene variation. It may have been partly to do without having the context of the ballet, with her method I suspect that really matters. Irina and Max easily won the dancing prize for part one of the gala with their GPdD, fish dives and all. They (as always) looked happy, but one sensed they were more in the story, a kind of refinement that may not be without Gelsey's influence. When the curtain closed on these excerpts the applause faded fast, but returned for Michele's curtain call. Then stopped cold, but Veronika and her four balancers came out anyway. It started again. Then down, but then got loud for the Beloserkovskys. The gala audience just doesn't get it. But the key point is that Diana did not come out for her solo bow.

Lady's Choice was dominated by Lang Lang. The Liszt encore was not mentioned on the program. When the curtain closed they needed time to move the piano forward, but the rich folks sections went silent. The dancers had to come out for a curtain call to give the stage hands time. Very awkward, despite the darkened theater people were walking out for intermission. Lang Lang was his usual self in the Second Hungarian Rapsody. As he speeded up applause burst from the main floor. We knew who they were... While I'm fortunate to hear him often, with quiet audiences, this audience was a disgrace. Although, as for Carbro, his performance was a highlight.

The second part a greatest hits affair.

R and J's Balcony Scene was choreographically way ahead of R+J's, with plenty of heat from Reyes/Cornejo. But my heart still belongs to the Pereira/Peiffer duo.

Glad to get Othello out of the way. It was good to see Ferri/Gomes.

Often Julie Kent wins the gala competition with Manon, but she and Jose Manuel Carreno had to follow Nina this time.

Bayadere's Temple PdD, was very bland, but since seeing Cojocaru trace the entire history of her relationship with Solor in Nikiya's memory variation before he arrives, I am incapable of rational evaluation of this scene. I found Gillian Murphy and Ethan Stiefel's classicism and virtuosity in the Gamzatti/Solor Pd'A thrilling.

Will two weeks of sold out performances of R+J force a delay in producing the Martins/Kirkeby Danish Manon?

We should know shortly, as when you go to NYCBT's site there's now Winter Season printed there, but not yet "clickable."

[edited to add, at 12:16, Winter Season is no longer there...!?]

I don't think I'll bother with a New York trip after all. Sounds as if I might as well stay home in sweatpants with a "Highlights" DVD.

But dvd's don't have the likes of Part and Vishneva Auroras vs. Gelsey Kirkland as Carabosse! These battles of the

Will would even teach Nietzsche something!

More photos, but it is worth a click if only to see a pair identified as Talicia Martin and Peter Martin, who don't look at all related to (also pictured) Steve Martin. Seriously, father and daughter look great together!

It is the 12th photo. Further on down, Bill, and Chelsea. And further still, in separate photos, Robert and Sterling.

http://www.papermag.com/?section=album&albid=139

Thanx nysusan and klavier for bringing us back to the dancers. To hopefully give another break from the angst: from the sublime of the dancers to the ridiculous of the opening night ball, reviewed for its fashion. But if you go all the way to the bottom of the photos, you'll find Sterling and Robert, and in the penultimate paragraph info about their dressers:

http://www.fashionweekdaily.com/Scene/full...&itype=8488

Perhaps adding support to NYSusan's suggestion, the slap of Ms. Peck was so alarming that I quickly picked up my binocs to see her face close-up, and was surprised that I saw no redness.

Tickets went on sale today, so if you hurry you can see 4+ more R+J's this summer:

http://www.spac.org/spac-ballet/spac-ballet.asp?varID=50

Did the actor in Romeo and Juliet actually hit the ballerina ?

Yes, on her left cheek, the sound especially loud for Ms. Peck.

[edited for memory correction and after reading Major Mel's semi-simultaneous post]

Indeed, especially noticed after slapping Ms. Morgan, Jock showed deep remorse. It called to mind the story of the time the very loving father Robert Schumann slapped one of his daughters. Fearing that might happen again, he walked into the sea, but I believe was rescued against his wishes by a man who was fishing. Rather than expose his children to risk, I gather he feigned being catatonic in order to be placed in an institution. The walk into water was represented in the finale of my favorite dramatic Balanchine ballet, Schumann....

Helene has now posted the Times article on Links, with the very valid point that it should be read in whole as opposed to an excerpt. Of course I knew I couldn't post the link here, and that others post links on Links. It is a complex article, and not, perhaps, possessing quite the lucidity we've come to welcome from the new Chief Critic. The excerpt quoted was a surprise, even a shock, not exactly what one might have expected in a review. Of course I've read many reviews in the Brit press, by exceptional critics, and realise that restraint regarding personal matters is not the same there as here.

In today's Times Mr. Macauly writes a review on a single moment in R + J, The Slap. Surely it will be posted on today's links. Here is some rough stuff from his review:

...For the next aspect of the gasp factor at City Ballet, you must speak of offstage matters, notably the 1992 incident in which Mr. Martins was arrested on charges of assaulting his wife, the ballerina Darci Kistler. The charges against him were dropped, and I would hesitate to raise this ghost had it not recently been resurrected by Martin Duberman’s new biography of Lincoln Kirstein, which reveals how Mr. Martins nearly lost his job, and how Kirstein, City Ballet’s co-founder, telephoned Mr. Martins “to say that if there was ever again such an incident, he’d never again speak to him.” And I don’t doubt that some people in the City Ballet audience assume that history is repeating itself when Lord Capulet hits his daughter center-stage.

How do you feel about the slap?

Are you surprised that Mr. Macaulay would spend an entire review on this matter?

Nina is dancing at Jacob's Pillow , 6/20-6/24

Brice, if you check out the thread on the 2007 and 2008 tours of the Georgian company Nina runs, you'll find that she's dancing Giselle the week before in New Haven as well. The 2008 tour is getting announced one city at a time (it seems to be starting out west, with two midwest locations already announced as well).

http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...=24009&st=0

And, welcome to BT!

'Don't leave me now.'

We in the audience were saying the same to her.

I for one didn't find the dancing intrusive, but seen from the balcony section of the Met's enormous auditorium, what dominated the stage picture was above all the two huge movable bleachers for the chorus, and perhaps if I had been in the orchestra section (which would have cost $300 or so rather than $80), I would have been more conscious of any "intrusiveness" from the dancers. Perhaps drb has more pertinent thoughts.

Fortunately we attended on a far lower-priced evening and I ordered way in advance. Center orch, Y, was only $100. Of course decades ago when I attended opera, Balcony was first choice, for the accoustics. The sound was a little less fullsome down there, but the view terrific. Got to enjoy Amor's ups and downs! Up is really way up! I found nothing intrusive. In fact the dancers and singers interacted in ways that I think further clarified and help develop their characters. Had he created something like Balanchine's Chaconne for the Blessed Spirits dances he would have perhaps had a greater artistic triumph, but with his restraint kept this about O finding E, not upstaging the course of the opera: he allowed the opera have its peak where Gluck placed it. Morris and restraint!

Not to say Gluck needed any help.

In honesty, Bart, I don't understand Lobenthal's comment. First he says M+G are not a perfect fit; then he seems to contradict himself by saying dance doesn't have to conform to the music, and there can be tension in the opposition of the two. The fact that the "fit" between collaborators isn't always "perfect" is what makes collaboration interesting.

Amen.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Sean+Tiler

Finally completed my Juliet Cycle last night. By now this thread has SanderO's review of the performance starring Tiler, with more S'O specifics about Ms. Peck's dancing on her thread under dancers. So I'll just fill in a few impressions, and then get controversial.

All four couples had different takes on the pair, presumably created by the couples themselves. This task, depending on the couple, must have been an added burden to the dancers. It is like asking them to be like Vishneva and Malakhov, who make a point to rehearse from scratch before each performance, creating a new story each time. Well, not quite that hard, but at least once. This could be valuable experience, especially for when they go out guesting. And it may have been Peter's way to create rapport between the R's and the J's.

Tiler Peck, of course the allegra virtuosa of the four (and almost of the Company), could have probably put on a show even if she ignored the story. In the ballroom she was, of the four, the least overwhelmed by her Romeo (really well danced and intensely partnered by Sean Suozzi), requiring great emotion on his part to convince her in the Balcony Scene. I felt she was finally completely won in the upside-down kiss! These two used their very precise skills to connect hands for this kiss in a flowing of graceful movement which gave the sense of moving as one.

In the Bedroom PdD she awoke as an adult, her visage completely transformed. Yet, as the memory part of the duet began, her faced transformed back to the smiling child at the Ball and Balcony. The ballet must have been a growing experience in dance-acting for Tiler, so different to the sorts of acting required earlier in the life of this Broadway and Film Starlette, as she now continues her growth from Ballet Starlette to Star.

THANK YOU'S

How difficult this run must be on the dancers who have to perform every day. Thank you, the soloists and principals too, deeply, each and every one. Moreover, next winter when R+J has an 8-week run after the Nutcracker season (after all, it sells out), they'll be exhausted into retirement. To help avoid this catastrophe, Balanchine's ballets need to be brought back to life, and audiences back to see them. So selfishly, instead of flowers and not really just to save $'s (I paid for my tix), I'd like to thank each Juliet with a specially chosen Balanchine, together with a special coach. Since each ballerina is of a different rank in the company heirachy I'll start at the Principal Level, in full confidence that all four will be there together soon.

Sterling Hyltin: Theme and Variations, Altynai Asylmuratova. I think she's the former dancer of this ballet to maximise Sterling's airy and graceful pure (pre-Guillem) Mariinsky sensibilty and line.

Tiler Peck: Liebeslieder, Kyra Nichols. Tiler, a vituosa at Kyra's early technical level, should have the teacher who made the transition from virtuosity to inner profundity.

Kathryn Morgan: Chaconne, Suzanne Farrell. Why this sacred pairing for Katie? It is as when Baryshnikov, when asked Why Gelsey?, answered: Just look at her. As Juliet, seeing her dead Romeo, leans back for her silient shriek, Katie's wasn't just a lover's scream at loss. It seemed a release of both their Souls, coming from someplace so deep inside it probably wasn't just inside but more a burst from some Black Hole in a higher space. No, not in any sense overacting, Ms. Morgan brought herself and Romeo together. The lovers, and perhaps some in the audience, left in total peace.

Erica Pereira: Act II PdD from Midsummer Night's Dream, Darcey Bussell. Of course we'll give her her Romeo, Allen Peiffer, as partner. This monumental dance of mature love, will get a giant dose of love from this partnership. Darcey can coach mature. Properly advertised, Mr. B's masterpiece could join lesser works on the best-seller list.

What a great husband!

Nina might want to say that of her husband. Not only did he buy back most of her famlily's Royal land (documented in an interview which is probably still on her site), but is also sort of a hero, as he was one of the negotiators of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT).

Let your little girl pick out a pair at intermission and the only question is whether she'll be wearing them during the next act, put them on on the way home, or wait till home and then still have them on the next morning. Whatever, the joy's worth the money, as long as she doesn't catch foot cooties from the dancer. Usually there'll be a couple of men's shoes, just in case you've got a budding Misha, or more likely meant to find their way under some lady's pillow? Sort of the grown-up Princess's pea.

The money often goes to things like a dancer's emergency fund, though certain large opera houses may well get half or so of it, which might explain some price differentials.