drb

The 74 second continuous interval given on the site shows some impressive geometry from Nureyev, but is fast cut into 17 segments by the editor. Perhaps this will be shown on MTV here. Or was this atypical of the dvd?

When will they ever learn...

...I am more disappointed by Odettes without poetry than Odiles without fouettes.... But the swan is a more multifaceted role, with different demands....

Amen, Beck Hen.

In the early 2000's I really enjoyed that annual Murphy/Herrera/Dvorovenko battle as to which would have the most rotations, usually around 50. Although for me it was only Murphy who found artistry in them. After her pregnancy Irina D seems to have switched focus to performing 32, cleanly and in place. Interesting that in reports from Paris she is the one gaining praise for the quality of her classical dancing.

When I first saw Maya Plisetskaya's Swan I was momentarily "shocked" when she omitted them, but by the end of that evening I had really seen the ballet. How could this most famous of O/O's omit the best part? Well, years later I found the reason in her autobiography. She couldn't do them well b/c she was "too lazy" to take the train trip back and forth to Mme. Vaganova's class to learn the step properly. After a few performances she owned the role and was able to replace them. And when that most illustrious of all balletomanes, Chairman Mao, arrived for his due honors in Moscow, he demanded a program change so that her could see her O/O.

So last year, when The Divine Sara Mearns chose to turn 12 times in NYCB's Lake I was no less moved by her artistry. When Gillian Murphy some day decides to rip off 32 quads, for her, and to me, that will also be artistry. But artistry, not numbers, rules.

...But she fell in yesterday's (Sunday) 'Slice to Sharp.' A huge belly-flop. Everyone gasped. I was amazed to see her return to the group finale, a few minutes later.

Ashley Bouder has had to dance in 13 of the last 14 NYCB programs, and she's assigned some of the hardest, most risky roles. One of the reasons given in support of block programming is that it could be used to help spread out a given dancer's work load. For a dancer who's had some very extended injury periods, Mr. Martins is not doing an optimal job of protecting his grandest star.

She is (was) scheduled to dance in tonight's Gala.

An obvious source is Ivor Guest's very comprehensive The Ballet of the Enlightenment which came out about a decade ago.

The period, from a dancer's perspective, was covered by George Balanchine Foundation researcher Judith Chazin Bennahum in a book I believe is out of print. From their site:

Judith Chazin Bennahum, principal researcher, Orphée aux Enfers

A former dancer with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and the Santa Fe Opera Ballet, Gigi Bennahum is now known as a scholar, writer, choreographer, and educator. She is author of many articles as well as three books: Dance in the Shadow of the Guillotine (Southern Illinois University Press, 1988)... On the faculty of the University of New Mexico, she is the chair of the Department of Theater and Dance and an associate dean of the College of Fine Arts.

I know resubscribers at least were permitted to request tickets for Ferri's farewell. As of Friday's mail I was informed of my seat locations, including those for an additional new subs, so the process is moving along. No notice yet received (except to acknowledge request) as to whether I'll get the offered Ferri tickets--they are, after all, also part of a series. It is hard to know how many subscribers made such a request, but probably many have. The recent retirement programs of McKerrow and of Bocca were sold out. More important, most people lucky enough to attend them will probably have a keen desire to repeat such a powerful experience. So, how to get in?

1. I've found that during subscriber exchange I've not been limited according to the number of seats in a subs. I've been allowed, e. g., to get four for a specific date, even though I subscribe by the pair. One exteme try would be to buy the subs that includes her performance at the lowest possible price level, then try to exchange all four for one higher priced Ferri seat. At least you'd get to see it and cut your losses if no better seat was available.

While most tickets would have been purchased via the actual Friday subs, there will be people who will exchange that date (some are sick of R&J, or have a particular favorite dancing another night yet find two R&J's in one week pretty heavy going). So there are some bound to pop up during exchange week, or later. I don't know if the Met will do something special like keeping a list of those subscribing requesters whom they may have had to deny, some sort of priority list. But it is not like the Met to bother about customers for something as insignificant as ballet...

2. On the first day of regular sales you can check their website, even at midnight. If there are any tickets that have popped back into the system, you might luck out. Just be warned that their computer thinks we want the closest row available, and that is what it offers. So there is chance of a better seat if you also look at the lower priced orchestra seats.

3. Where to sit? The Met is not a ballet house, so there are some seats a county away (I began in the last row of the family circle and was chastised for reaching up to the gold leaf ceiling--you could still scratch some off in those days--but binocs brought Nureyev close enough to motivate future rebudgeting to the balcony...). Many are at extreme angles too. But if you can sit to audience left, you will see the all-important balcony scene.

4. During exchange week, I'll be exchanging at the Box Office, and will post on BT if any are available. Perhaps other BTers will also.

By the way, the night before Ferri's event, Kyra Nichols will have her retirement program at NYCB. Peter Martins has chosen to make this a nonsubscription event featuring her in three of her favorite roles.

February 10, matinee

Angelic Sara, the Wilis, and what Maria can do

This afternoon's Serenade featured Wendy Whelan, Ashley Bouder, and the debut of Sara Mearns. Wendy, partnered by Charles Askegard, continues on her run of outstanding performances, right down to a flawless finish. Ashley is at home now, nothing close to a fall, nothing pushed, new life breathed into what was already perfect choreography. She seemed to radiate Act 2 Giselle, as she previously had in Aurora's Vision Scene and in Act 4 of Danish Lake. I don't imply she was trying to layer that ballet onto Serenade, just that she has brought that level of soul and wholeness to her part. Leading the sisterhood Pd5, she was all interior soul-searching calm, but as the music changed so did she, becoming one with her sister "wilis", a joyful return to others.

Called by many the Divine Sara, how appropriate that Ms. Mearns was the Angel. A very accomplished beginning, but then came the moment when she leads Stephen Hanna toward his mystic Orpheo encounter with Whelan. Here she was the guiding creature of light. I don't know how, or why, Mearns has these moments. She becomes a living mystical experience. And so, a Serenade full of Russian Soul, danced by an all-American team. Could even the Mariinsky approach this? Who knows, but yet another proof that for Mr. B.: mission accomplished.

After an hour and a half intermission (all due respect to the hard working dancers for most of that time), came Violin Concerto.

Aria 1: Maria Kowroski and Sebastien Marcovici. Maria is very well-suited to this dance, her flexible back bends would even make Vladimir Malakhov envious. Only that ultimate erotic intensity Sofiane Sylve brings to this part was not quite there. Has Maria perhaps lost too much weight?

Aria 2: Here and throughout the ballet Yvonne Borree looked calm and happy, and Nikolaj Hubbe continued his come-back season. Partnering was solid and steady, it was an aria that often sung. With a certain job available at his home company in Denmark, how much longer shall we see him?

Then, the company returned to the stage, and Maria too.

Maria was ecstatic, swimming in the music in that way that has marked her very best moments. Extensions fly to heaven. The profile, the eyes alight, beauty fills the hall, she makes us ask the question only Maria can prompt: Is Farrell back on this stage that she alone can ever own, her sovereign throne?

Friday, February 9

Great dancing is enough

Kyra II. Tiler Peck's first Carousel found her continuing her growth into a complete ballerina. By the time she'd completed her opening cirlce of the group, not smiling but in character, one suspected that this currently underrated ballet was going to be good even without the captivating Alexandra Ansanelli. Once among her friends of course she smiled, but why not? Especially with Damian Woetzel on the scene. At first it was, oh, nice to see him on stage... But once their first PdD began, they really seemed to matter to each other and I really think she began to inspire him. The intensity built, temperatures rose, till the very end, when she seemed to awaken from her fantasy reverie and saw that the object of her dream was actually right there. Stunned, she recoiled and made her quick exit. The second PdD was for real, and though the kiss that ended it also shocked her, it was more an electric shock, and this time it gave her something very different to contemplate. Splendid chemistry. Another step on her march toward Juliet?

A pause, then the Feld/Brahms Intermezzo #1. Pairings were Ringer/Askegard, the Fairchild siblings, and Hylton/T. Angle. The late pas by Ringer/Askegard, where she expresses distaste for the light shining in her eyes was most powerful, but this was after the flagging invention of the middle of the ballet.

Bouder Triumphant. America's Assoluta did not fall in her Slice to Sharp debut. I think that is a good thing, and don't agree with those who celebrate her falls (sure it shows she dances full out, but it hurts, I'm sure, and I don't want our national treasure injured). She was utterly spectacular. Her partner Joaquin De Luz also shown, both dancing for joy. Maria Kowroski supplied the beauty, and her touches of humor, while Edwaard Liang spun brilliantly and was masterful in delivering Elo's jokes. Tess Reichlen and Amar Ramasar danced with grand amplitude, so much of the company's future is theirs. Wendy Whelan and Craig Hall were moving in the central adagio. I cannot describe it, because when they are together memories of their adoration PdD in After the Rain, perhaps the finest PdD performance I've seen at NYCB in this century, just pours in and floods my perception. After its incredible debut, this ballet flagged last season. But much of that early excitement came back tonight. Four curtains.

Friandises was the closer, and began after 10. But people stayed. One Tiler Peck is not enough. When the dancers burst upon the scene there were Sara Mearns and Amar Ramasar together. I hit upon a plan, meaning no offense to the other wonderful dancers. Whenever they were on I would watch them as if it were a PdD, except of course when Tiler was there too. It worked the first time: what dancing arms she has and what a noble partner he is. And they looked at each other. Later, right after Tiler's extraordinary multiple pirouettes, the music softens and Peter's beautiful adagio for a number of couples begins. With Sara and Amar entranced with each other, what a magical adagio. In the finale, the corpswomen's last pirouette, Sara floated one to reach the rafters. Daniel Ulbricht and Tiler Peck were sensational, the ballet worked (moreso than I can remember). Despite the hour, three curtains.

NYCB is loaded with great young dancers, Tiler is well on the way to something very special, Ashley is a goddess.

For those fortunate enough to have tickets for the latest "partnership of the century", here are photos of the Osipova/Vasiliev Don Q:

http://www.for-ballet-lovers-only.com/vasiliev_th.html

click to enlarge

Those who enjoyed Maria Allash's portrayal of Raymonda in this beautifully produced telecast may be pleased to learn that Alexei Ratmansky promoted her to the rank of Principal on January 19, 2007, after her performance as Nikaya in a Bayadere which included the Solor of Vladimir Neporozhny, Gamzatti of Yekaterina Shipulina and Bronz Idol of Ivan Vasiliev.

The promotion is now confirmed on the dancers list on the company's website.

A lengthy article on Ms. Weese's departure, with four photos of Miranda, appeared recently in Playbill:

http://www.playbillarts.com/features/article/5968.html

..."She has a huge scope in her understanding of the ballets," said Principal Dancer Nikolaj Hübbe, who was her partner for that first role in Who Cares?, and who has often danced with her since. "She's so natural. She always gets it."

Among her favorite Balanchine ballets is Theme and Variations from Tchaikovsky Suite No. 3. ..."It's the epitome of what Balanchine is all about. It's concise and classical. And I love the music."

Ms. Weese has also originated roles in several ballets by Christopher Wheeldon. "He really speaks to the moody side of my personality," she said, adding that her work in Shambards (2004) was particularly rewarding: "I danced with Jock Soto, which was a dream come true."

Her greatest artistic achievement, however, she feels came from her work in Peter Martins's full-length Swan Lake.... "So many ballerinas have danced Swan Lake — I just had to find my own way in it," she said. Together with Peter Boal, who partnered her, she dug into the ideas behind the legendary ballet. "We spent weeks rehearsing together. We spent time talking and building the story."

...

..."There were times when I didn't feel like I could live up to the title of principal dancer of New York City Ballet." Over the years though, confidence grew. "I grew up here," she said of the Company. "I'll miss this audience. They've watched me grow up over the years, and they've always been so supportive."

The audience has seen Ms. Weese become a dancer with an air so gentle that she can almost seem to come from another century. The Emeralds section of Balanchine's Jewels highlights her gifts as if it were made for her — though she can take on the jazzy Rubies section with a haunting fierceness. "She dazzles with an incredible ease and calm in the upper body," said Mr. Hübbe, who puts her departure in simple terms: "I'm really going to miss her."...

...

I liked Dybbuk when I saw it a few nights ago, so it's a work that I would like to see the company grow into. Why should a company drop a ballet from its rep simply because they don't do it was well as another company? I don't like Othello, and think it should be dropped, period, but that's besides the point. Should NYCB stop performing Sleeping Beauty and the Royal stop performing Balanchine?

Sorry for my faulty logic, I dislike Dybbuk. But more to the point, the ballet, combined with the company's commitment to block programming, is driving people away (commuter timing reasons, fatigue) and thereby preventing their viewing a very great masterpiece, Violin Concerto. And the same will occur next season, as VC again will follow D. If there must be block programming, the problem could be solved by placing Dybbuk last, but we know how rough it would be for the dancers to perform before a near-empty house. Or at least next season they could have had another ballet, perhaps by Mr. Martins, follow it.

I saw Yuan Yuan and Sarah Van Patten do Dybbuk in San Francisco. Dybbuk was better in San Francisco, I think....

.... Unfortunately, a lot of the New York audience left after Dybbuk...

I'm glad the San Francisco Ballet (which I greatly admired last summer at Lincoln Center) outclasses NYCB in Dybbuk and, for that matter, ABT in Othello. The New York companies would do well to drop these ballets from their respective reps.

I'd love to have another dancing Angle brother....

If that third were to appear we'd have a TriAngle.

.....It will be a great opportunity for Bouder, whoever her partner is. And to be in Roma...

...and to work with Carla Fracci! Our great dramatic ballerina will surely return even greater still.

It's surprisingly tiny. Right hand column, under "News."

Don't know why the Mariinsky Theatre would underplay it, since they are credited in the proclamation.

The official Kremlin document is nine pages long, click page 3 to find Diana on the list of five People's Artists (she's in the middle of the five), where her association is given as Mariinsky (not Bolshoi). Clicking >> will get you to page 9, where you may enjoy Great Leader V. Putin's "signature" and the Great Seal.

http://document.kremlin.ru/doc.asp?ID=3777...C=1&PT=1&Page=1

The document was signed on January 31, so one wonders why it was not announced until today.

Did anyone see the debuts of BAR, RAMASAR, TAYLOR , and MARCOVICI in Episodes, and of MEARNS and J. ANGLE in V W?

Next month Darcey will be dancing Terpsicore to Carlos Acosta's Apollo, as well as Theme and Variations with him. Hopefully some of our London members will tell us about the performances.

When Wheeldon announced he was going to establish his own company both Darcey Bussell and Sofiane Sylve were mentioned in the Times article as members. Darcey, 37, has worked with him frequently and danced in a number of his ballets. In an extended interview with Zoe Anderson last November 24 in The Independent some mention of her, NYCB, and Balanchine:

Bussell is at a physical peak, dancing with unshadowed splendour. This season, her Royal Ballet repertory is hugely demanding. It's dominated by Balanchine ballets: plotless works that need speed, clean line and strong feet. "Well, I still want to be challenged," she says. "It's not as if I just want easy work."

In The Four Temperaments, her dancing is gloriously bold. Fast steps have a glinting precision. In one series of jumps, the ballerina kicks up her legs as she leaves the ground, arches her back as she lands. Bussell flies through it. She moves with complete abandon, but every step is given full weight, every pose fully stretched. "It's one of the best scores out there, the music is fabulous," she says. "The steps are very challenging. And I've never done it before. Even though I guested for three years at New York City Ballet ... I didn't do some of those signature pieces. For me, that style is very natural, very comfortable."

Regarding Wheeldon:

Christopher Wheeldon has put her at the centre of several ballets. In DGV (Danse à Grande Vitesse), his latest work for the Royal Ballet, he has her carried in on high, in a duet that celebrates her beauty of line. Bussell had told him she wished she could do more new work. "He said, 'Don't worry, Darcey, I'll put you in mine,'" she remembers. That sounds casual, but his ballet clears a worshipful space around her.

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/theatre...icle2008024.ece

Darcey Bussell is one of the greatest Balanchine ballerinas I've seen in the post-Farrell era, and in her rep. I seem to remember Midsummer Night's Dreams with her and our Darci together, alternating the two lead roles. On certain occasions while she guested at NYCB it would be fair to say she was the most glittering ballerina on stage.

She recently danced Balanchine's 4 T's at The Royal, I believe. Here's an old Times review to make one wish she were guesting this season:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...fRoyal%20Ballet

I think most BT people see Darcey's Balanchine roles more appropriate to Sylve than to Bouder. (My own bias is that there is no good ballet I would not want to see Bouder in.) While each of the three is in a different stage of her career, it would be hard to quantify serious differences in greatness among them.

Subscription brochures are available in the lobby.

As usual, full of great photos.

The full-page painting by Per Kirkeby gives a clue about their new R&J. Abstract, with the color-coding inherent in that artist's narative vocabulary that was so central to the way Peter Martins told the story of Swan Lake. This time blue, red and yellow. For Lake, if one watched for the colors of the drop in the costumes that followed, the social/political aspects of the story were brought out in clear relief, freeing Martins from some narrative necessities in his choreography. I wonder if this will free Martins to produce more pure dance than one finds in the familiar narrative-laden versions of R&J.

There is a fabulous photo of airborne Ashley Bouder in Dances at a Gathering, capturing her perfection in abandon better than any other I've seen. A photo of Maria Kowroski, partnered by Philip Neal in Diamonds, demonstrates the far too underated significance of physical beauty in Farrell roles. I prefer Maria's Diamonds for this very reason: the sublime beauty in the Adagio for me simply outweighs any technical shortcomings elsewhere (and of course this time around she appears to be stronger).

Recent comments on another thread of La Sylve's sexual allure are potently supported in a photo of her with Albert Evans in Violin Concerto. Another page traces the temporal span of the company with The Apprentice Kathryn Morgan (with Seth Orza in Carousel) in one photo and Senior Prima Kyra Nichols (in Prayer from Mozartiana) in the other.

Going over the first three weeks of rep casting (as posted on BT) of major Balanchine ballets where one might reasonably consider there to be one female role which seems relatively the major one (Agon, Square, Stars, Serenade, Sym 3, Mozartiana, Tchai PC2, Violin), I counted 29 performances, for which there was a total of one debut, Sofiane Sylve in a pair of Tchai PC2's. Of course there have been more in other roles and ballets...

Back to Sofiane Sylve, I find Alexei Ratmansky's evaluation, made in his Russian Seasons Time Out interview last June, rings true:

Sofiane is not only a technician, she is an artist....The music suggests the character. I wanted them to be personalities. With Sofiane, it works and it seems like it’s what she does best—big, dramatic, moving across the stage.

She strikes me as our most similar dancer to his Bolshoi superstar, Masha Alexandrova. Playing the matching game further: Bouder with Osipova.

I do not agree that NYCB is short on female talent, even with the outrageous losses of Ansanelli and Korbes. But this season the company has taken the easy way out, casting the Balanchine masterworks with dancers who've danced them for (many) years. I'd have preferred it if second casts, at least, would have featured more debuts. Of course (in some cases) there would have been protests at not seeing some old favorites... You've got to watch the lesser works and secondary Balanchine roles to see the blooming greatness.

.... Hey, she can dance any where she wants, as long as she comes to NYCB now and again! NYCB would be lost without her womanly, sexy, technically bold style! BRAVA!!! ...

In the casting listed so far Sofiane Sylve is not scheduled to dance her great created roles in Slice to Sharp and Russian Seasons. By the way, the Dutch National site no longer lists her as a member, rather one of their Guest Principals. Charles Askegard and Marcelo Gomes are also GP's, with Gomes promised for the run of Makarova's Bayadere which begins in mid February. Maybe that is why La Sylve will be missing... So while endorsing everything in your review of her, especially the last sentence quoted, I sure don't like the penultimate one. Sigh....

When you consider that Mr. B. lost his family at age 9, the same age as Ms. Farrell's when her family structure changed, it is only a matter of time till Ms. Acocella is criticised for not including a numero(il)logical analysis of the number 9 as it relates to the creative process.

I really do enjoy most of her writings for the visual descriptions she gives, and for the emotional impact she describes. It really isn't hard to distinguish these from the general conclusions she makes. Hyperbole is not literal, but a way to convey true enthusiasm. Who needs bored critics? Would that the Newspaper of Record had such a critic.

Here is a generous portion of Acocella's 2003 New Yorker Farrell article. It will bring back precious memories of her final performance, including that unforgetable moment with Lincoln. And includes descriptions of her impossibly great dancing.

... What she performed was still classical ballet--she got out there with her hair in a bun and did glissade, assemble--but in her the classical style seemed to have sunk to the bones of the dancing. The flesh was something else, an awakened force. When she bent down into an arabesque penchee, you thought she would never stop. (She was the first dancer I ever saw touch her forehead to her knee in penchee.) When she executed a triple pirouette, and tilted as she did it, and then--without ever righting herself--plunged directly into the next jackknife or nosedive, you thought the walls were falling in....

For more:

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summa...86-22301639_ITM

From New Yorker Online Only, an interview with Joan Acocella that gives some context to her article:

http://www.newyorker.com/printables/online...on_onlineonly01