nysusan
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Posts posted by nysusan
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Dance Masterpieces was a fabulous program and I'm so glad I made the trip to see it. I went to the Friday & Sat matinees & evening performances. I love all 3 pieces but Upper Room is my favorite. It's the only one I was a little disappointed in, but more on that later.I've seen The River may times, most recently by the Ailey company but they don't dance it on point and I like it so much better with the women in point shoes - as Ailey choreographed it for ABT!I particularly liked Oksana Maslova in Meander, she put a very sensual spin on the choreography. Yuka Iseda danced Lake with Austin Eyler and Twin Cities with Arian Molina Soca at both matinees. Dayesi Torriente did Lake with Jack Thomas and Twin Cities with Sterling Baca on Friday and Sat evening. All of them were great and Iseda & Torriente were totally different. Iseda looks to be a small dancer, sinewy with very pliable back and torso. She brought a poignant vulnerability to Lake. Her partner, Austin Eyler, is big, tall & strong but still with a nice clean line. He was a great partner to her, making all of those difficult lifts look so easy.Torriente made a big impression on me years ago when I saw her as Myrtha in Giselle. I loved her Lake too, her take on it was strong and sweeping, more along the lines of the role's originator, Cynthia Gregory.The matinee cast of In the Middle was good, but the evening cast was great. Especially Nayara Lopes, Maslova, Iseda and Torriente. They threw themselves into those crazy attenuated extensions and twisty arabesques into attitudes that folded in and over. Loved this.In the Upper Room felt a tad low energy to me. That may not make sense since its such a high energy piece but this felt like maybe half a step down compared to what I'm used to seeing. I think part of it was the staging/lighting/haze. They used a scrim and the haze didn't move or change at all. The lighting changed, but not the haze. I've seen this often and recently (Tharp's own staging with her hand picked dancers at City Center last year) and I remember the haze billowing and retracting, swallowing up the dancers at some points, sometimes obscuring parts of them and allowing them to burst out of the haze at other times. Here they appeared from and disappeared into the haze at the back of the stage on their entrances and exits but that was about it. The billowing haze gives it a pulse that mirrors the propulsion in the music, sweeping the dance along. I didn't get that feeling here. The cast was the same in all 5 performances and while they were all very good, except for the last 10 minutes of the piece I didn't get the feeling that they were dancing full out.It looked like they were trying to hit perfect ballet positions rather than pushing through with abandon and I didn't quite get that feeling of euphoria and exhilaration from them. With other companies I felt that by the end they were completely exhausted and unable to take one more step but I didn't get that feeling here. It might have helped it they'd had 2 casts. But a less than perfect Upper Room is still great and I loved seeing it.I loved the company, they have some great dancers and there was not one I didn't like. I'm very much looking forward to seeing their Corsaire, La Sylphide and Swan Lake next year.
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I love his plans for next season, and I am going to buy a subscription. Corsaire, Swan Lake, La Sylphide/Etudes & a modern program appeals to me much more than ABT's spring season. It's just a 1 hr 40 minute train ride away. In fact I'm taking that train ride today to see their Dance Masterpieces program.
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4 hours ago, cubanmiamiboy said:
And then....I can go back and forth between that and my home company 's great recon....😎
I'm coming to see the recon at Broward...maybe I'll see you there!
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44 minutes ago, abatt said:
Just curious. How was the "second cast" that debuted in Solitude on Tuesday, featuring LaFreniere and Phelan in the secondary roles.
Solitude was still very moving however I found the 2nd cast to be far inferior to the 1st cast. Not Danchig-Waring, he was different from Gordon but still very good both technically and emotionally. The big difference was Nadon/Mearns vs LaFreniere/Phelan with the latter bringing little beyond the steps to their roles. Nor was Veyette Chan's equal as a partner.Mearns' breadth of movement gave the sense of being a benevolent angel, adding greatly to the piece. Nadon was wonderful, the way she gobbles up space and displaces air her every move conveyed intent. Neither LaFreniere nor Phelan had that kind of impact. As an example, there is a moment when Nadon is thrown high & far by her partner & caught by 2 other men. With Nadon it was a startling, gasp inducing moment. With LaFreniere you hardly noticed it.The rest of the cast was fine, Von Enck looked great as always but that is such a small role. -
On 2/20/2024 at 6:30 PM, balletlover08 said:
She uses her neck and side profile so beautifully! I like her interpretation of Odette so far, and I can't wait to see it fully on Friday. I will report back afterwards!
On 2/20/2024 at 9:33 PM, ABT Fan said:Yes, please! Look forward to your thoughts.
So do I. They have the casting online in the digital program and what a cast for tomorrow's matinee! Bell with Misseldine, Curley as VR and Crispino/Gonzales in the Neopolitan. Can't wait to hear what you think of it.
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3 hours ago, BalanchineFan said:
I enjoy all the dancers you mentioned above, but none of them has yet had as many principal roles as Alexa Maxwell did (The Cage, Copland, Voices, Fancy Free, and I think I'm still forgetting something major). I agree, I thought they could have promoted her and Kikta a year earlier. I don't mind the prudence with promotions, it's just how it is.
I agree that Maxwell has had important roles and done well with them. But she is already a soloist and I don't see a promotion to principal coming right now. Certainly not before Kitka, Millar & Von Enck.
I would not object to seeing Sautter and Afanasenkov promoted out of the corps, but on the other hand I would not mind their being held back a couple of years to continue their development.
Alec Knight certainly deserves a promotion to soloist.
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I am a huge fan of the Peck work and enjoyed the fluff piece from the Times but thought it was highly exaggerated.For one thing, while Stanley may consider himself non-binary but to my knowledge he has only danced male roles at NYCB. And it's not as if Edwards was debuting the Walz girl in Serenade. Both couples in The Times are Racing have had gender swaps since early on in it's history. Ashly Isaacs and more recently Brittany Pollack have danced the Robbie Fairchild role. The pdd Edwards and Taylor did was originated by T. Peck and Ramasar, but the T. Peck role has also been danced by male dancers including Stanley himself (with Applebaum).So while it was nice to see this with Edwards & Stanley (and I enjoyed them in it) it didn't feel to me like it was "making history" in any way. It may have felt that way to Edwards but to me it was just another interesting cast change.
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22 minutes ago, volcanohunter said:
There was this on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/yQawr8ARarV5QCzx/?mibextid=oFDknk
Beautiful! I'm going to see her (& Mejia) in this soon but bummed that I'm not going to be able to see her first Ballo. She is quite something.
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NYCB posted "flash footage" of Sautter & Bolden from In a Landscape on Facebook. Don't know if this will come thru but here is the link
https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=7899317113415737
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And I agree with all of those posts about Phelan - I don't think a significant number of people come to the ballet because she is dancing. She has a very striking instrument, beautiful plastique, solid technique and management loves her. I have seen her give some gorgeous performances but unfortunately probably an equal number of flat, boring ones. I agree with people on this board who think that is because she has been thrown into too many roles too soon. I hope they hold off on giving ner new assignments, she needs to settle into the roles she has.
I only add performances to see Mearns, Nadon, von Enck, Mejia and Afanasenkov. Now adding Sautter to that list.
Also Peck to a lesser degree, and in the old days - Bouder.
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Ava Sautter - WOW. I mean really WOW! Tall, long legged with great extensions - plush 6 o'clocks and great control of those limbs. Beautiful port de bras and intense stage presence that just grabs your attention. I haven't felt this way about a dancer since the first time I saw Nadon.Everything else was fine. I love Bolden but Landscape was all Sautter. Love Ballo, cannot watch that ballet without smiling. Huxley was great and so were the soloists - O. Mackinnon, von Enck, MacGill and Hod. Fairchild was fine but a little underpowered.I do not like Hallelujah Junction, found it extremely boring and really couldn't appreciate Maxwell, Gordon and Takahashi. I've seen the Concert too many times, the gags are getting stale for me. Nadon acquitted herself well, she was charming and goofy but this is not her forte. The rest of the cast was great in this character driven piece, but I'm done with this ballet for at last the next 5 years.
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4th week casting is up! Nadon as Choleric! Laracey in Liebeslieder!
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I would love to see Nadon's Sugarplum, and there are a few seats left but those prices are too much for me. I paid way too much to see the Von Enck/Mejia/Peck cast last week and can't justify $155 for a decent seat to see the Nadon cast. Even seats in the back of the 4th ring are $125. Good for NYCB, but bad for me!
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21 minutes ago, abatt said:
I saw Emma V. E. last night as Sugarplum, with Mejia as Cavalier and Tiler Peck as Dewdrop. The ticket was a fortune, but all of the leads were spectacular. I've seen so many wonderful Sugarplums and Dewdrops over the years at NYCB. However, I'm not sure I've seen such a brilliant technician in the Cavalier role since Damian Woetzel retired. Full house.
Yes, the tickets cost a fortune and yes the cast was fabulous so they were well worth it! My one and only Nutcracker splurge.
The only sour note was the violin solo (the one interpolated from the Sleeping Beauty). The program listed Delmoni as the soloist but there was a substitution announcement at the start of the performance. I didn't recognize the name so I don't remember it. To my ear it was shrill and screetchy, something I've never heard from the NYCB orchestra before. It was a terrible thing to do to a beautiful piece of music.
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10 minutes ago, California said:
I just have to share this gorgeous torch lift by Bell and Hurlin in Ratmansky's Nutcracker. Wish I could see it in the theater next week!
That was gorgeous! Wish ABT would put them together more often during the Met season.
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I really do wish they would bring back some of their wonderful Tudor and Fokine rep.
I agree that all 4 principals in Dneipro Sat matinee were excellent however this was the dullest evening of ballet I can recall seeing in a very, very long time. Diversity, sure. But not at this cost.
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15 hours ago, FauxPas said:
It hasn't been done in a long, long time and it would allow certain ballets that are no longer acceptable as full-lengths a chance to be seen.
Well, for one thing, The Tribute to Petipa evening could include the Kingdom of the Shades scene from "La Bayadère" as a standalone which would allow us to see part of the ballet which is pure classicism and isn't weighed down with orientalist faux-Indian tropes. Hurlin, Teuscher and Schevchenko and Misseldine have never gotten to dance Nikiya and that would give them an opportunity. Boylston, Seo do dance Nikiya (so has Murphy but let's leave that in the past). The evening also could include parts of "Raymonda" and "Le Corsaire" that are not troubled by the racist and faux oriental parts of those ballet librettos (no dancers in brown makeup and black fright wigs leaping around as "savages" doing the Drum Dance or Fakir dance, etc.). The Final Pas de Six from "Raymonda" or the Jardin Animé or Grand Pas de Trois from "Le Corsaire" could slake our thirst for the Petipa choreography while leaving the politically problematic plots behind.
Add in Act III of "Sleeping Beauty" (Brandt, Teuscher, Schevchenko, Misseldine as new Auroras, Trenary and Boylston dance it). Then do "The Hunting of the Larks" from "Harlequinade" and possibly throw in a "Don Quixote" or Black Swan pas deux from "Swan Lake" and you have a lovely evening with opportunities for lots of dancers, including role debuts.
When the Mariinsky appeared at City Center way back in 2008 they did single acts from the classics - Kingdom of the Shades, Jardin Anime, 3rd act of Raymonda. While I enjoyed it very much, none were as satisfying to me as the full ballets.However, since it seems clear that we have no hope of seeing these 3 ballets at ABT in the foreseeable future I would welcome this type of programming. Yes, mix it up with some other classical pas de deux and maybe the Pas d'Esclave or other pieces and I'd be there for multiple performances. A Ratmansky highlights program doesn't sound bad either.15 hours ago, miliosr said:I couldn't agree more. For all the money ABT threw at him, Ratmansky never provided them with the kind of lasting multi-act story ballets that are the company's bread and butter. (His Nutcracker and Whipped Cream probably came the closest.)
But how many times would the company be able to go to that particular well? It would work for a season or two but I doubt it would relieve ABT of their (over)dependence on Giselle, Swan Lake, Romeo & Juliet and Don Quixote.
I don't think ABT is overdependent on Giselle, Swan Lake, Romeo & Juliet and Don Quixote. That is what their audience wants and I think that is what they SHOULD be doing - along with Coppelia (and Bayadere, Corsaire, Raymonda) and I'd love to see them mount a production of The Awakening of Flora. They are the only company in NYC that does the Petipa classics (NYCB's Swan Lake, & Sleeping Beauty don't count, too much Martins). If ABT stopped or reduced the number of Petipa classics they do in their now truncated Spring season, with the absence of the big European and Russian companies appearing in NY we'd be a pretty much Petipa-less town, which is unthinkable to me.
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I so agree that Roxander lit up the stage whenever he appeared, and Teuscher did those chaines at lightning speed.Other than that I found the program pretty boring. Petite Mort was ok, but only because the music was beautiful and the piece itself was brief.58 minutes ago, California said:
I remember Piano Concerto No. 1 well from the premiere in 2013 as part of Ratmansky's Trilogy (with Vishneva and Osipova! - those were the days). He never helps us understand all the subtle symbolism and apparent story telling that I guess only people who grew up in the Soviet Union would fully grasp.
California, I also remember the premier of Piano Concerto #1 and not only did it feature Vishneva & Osipova but also Ivan Vasiliev (and Cory Stearns). I remember it being exhilarating back then but much more subdued this time around. For me it only came alive in the last few minutes.Here is a link to a Times review where Macaulay discusses some of the "shadows" in the pieces.I know I saw Etudes at ABT back in the day, also saw the RDB and I think I've seen video of the Mariinsky ( I particularly remember Sarafanov in it). I loved it and was very much looking forward to it but (except for Roxander) it felt flat to me. I know the steps are hard but the corps looked so effortful and it just seemed like it went on forever. -
The Paul Taylor company is appearing at Lincoln Center 10/31 - 11/5, right after ABT.If there are any Eran Bugge fans out there - I just read that this will be her last Lincoln Center season. Tickets start at $15
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8 minutes ago, Roberta said:
The full Tchai Suite no. 3 was performed at the Kennedy Center-DC in March 2013, as part of an All-Tchaikovsky program. I'm assuming that it also was performed in NYC during that season. At the Kennedy Center I saw the following cast leads:
I. Elegie - Krohn/Catazaro
II. Valse Melancholique - A. Stafford/J. Peck
III. Scherzo - Scheller/Carmena
IV. Tema con Variazioni - Bouder/Garcia
They did it in NY a couple of years after that and they did T&V as a standalone more recently - maybe just a couple of years ago.
As an aside, although I saw ABT do that T&V with Veyette a few years ago I particularly remember ABT doing this 10-15 years ago with Ashley Tuttle & Angel Corella. Tuttle was awful and Corella was sublime.
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Single tickets are on sale now, and I just bought them for Swan Lake 4/26,27&28 in Broward.
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25 minutes ago, abatt said:
The pas, however, was probably the most bland interpretation I've seen of this iconic ballet. These two have no chemistry together. Whereas the Mearns Janzen performance was like a conversation of depth, the Phelan Gordon performance was just a bunch of steps strung together by music.
This x 1000. Phelan has strong technique, she is a beautiful dancer and a beautiful woman however she has been cast in absolutely everything and I think that is to her detriment. She would do better if they limited her repertoire a bit and gave her time to develop her roles. Or maybe she is just a "surface" dancer, time will tell.
I liked Bouder in Emeralds, Her upper body was lovely and I really thought she brought the requisite mystery and perfume to the role. But Laracey was extraordinary. Did not love the PDT - honestly I've seen it performed better by the Mariinsky (there is one dvd in particular with Yana Selina, Xenia Ostreikovskaya, and Anton Korsakov that is just gorgeous but I've seen it done much better by NYCB as well).
Loved Rubies - Peck and Mejia were great and Kitka ruled.
Edited to add: I did not realize that this was Phelan's debut in Diamonds. Knowing that I will cut her some slack but although beautiful it was a very dull, surface performance from her.
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14 hours ago, naomikage said:
Also a fabulous performance of Diana and Acteon by Takumi Miyake, new apprentice at ABT. He was awarded the Ninette de Valois Prize at Royal Ballet School for the most outstanding male graduate of the year but was unable to be auditioned for Royal Ballet because he was injured then.
4 minutes ago, ba11et0mane said:osipova brought him out to perform flames of paris when she did her show in new york earlier this year- had no idea who he was at the time but he was mind blowing!! he will climb he company ranks quickly.
I also saw that performance and agree 100%. He was incredible, I look forward to seeing him take on the virtuoso rep at ABT!
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10 hours ago, Drew said:
But I have reservations too. In the U.S. and specifically at NYCB casting against body type does happen--and often with success. From recent reports, shorter women have been cast in the 'tall girl' role in Rubies to give one example and people on this site seemed satisfied.
Hi Drew! Can you give examples of short dancers cast in the Tall Girl role at NYCB? The shortest dancer I remember is Claire Kreztsmar and she is not short - just not super tall like Kowroski, Reichlin and now LaFreniere, Miller and Kitka.
And, speaking of different body types at NYCB - Balanchine championed dancers with non traditional ballet body types like von Aroldingen and Patricia Neary, who (if I recall) was not only tall, but big.
And now, of course , there is Mearns. She is a magnificent dancer I love but certainly not one anyone would describe as having a typical ballet body.
Miami City Ballet 2023-24 Season
in Miami City Ballet
Posted
Anyone know when they typically list casting? Arsht performances start this week and I still haven't seen any casting...