nysusan

I believe that its part of the LC Festival but beware - they usually sell subscriptions before single tickets so you have to buy several of the LC Festival offerings

Geez! Lincoln Center Festival tickets are always considerably higher than regular NYCB or ABT tickets, but this takes it to a whole new level. But I will still go, because I love Jewels, because I saw it that first season and want to honor that memory and because I am really looking forward to seeing the Bolshoi's Diamonds live. However at these prices they had better be bringing Smirnova and Zahkarova. or I will be very disappointed. And even though I know that Obraztsova usually dances Emeralds I'd love to see her in the Rubies PDD.

lol Natalia! I would so appreciate it if you'd share your thoughts about this new production as soon as possible after you've seen it. I'm waiting to hear what Ballet Alert peeps think before deciding whether to dump my expensive ABT subscription ticket & pick up a cheapo cheapo nose bleed seat during exchange week (this starts on 3/18, right after the SoCal run). I was so disappointed with last year's Golden Cockeral, I really felt like I threw my money away on it and I don't want to do that again. A preview in the OC Register http://www.ocregister.com/articles/ballet-746176-whipped-cream.html talks about its similarities to the Nutcracker, and that's just fueling my apprehension: These (Ryden) design details helped Ratmanksy shape his choreography and they are also what will hopefully set the new ballet apart from the well-known “Nutcracker” story line which even Ratmansky admits bears a striking resemblance to “Whipped Cream.”

I agree 100% - it forced me to buy a ticket to another performance. Peck's Dewdrop is one of the best ever. I've never seen Laracey's SP but she's such a warm and gracious dancer with that glorious epaulment that I'm sure it will be wonderful

The press release (or was it the NY Times story?) mentioned that the multi company Jewels was being done as a commemoration of the ballet's 50th anniversary - it debuted at the State Theater in 1967. As such, I think its a great idea. I will definitely go to a few. I'd love to see Smirnova & Zakharovas in Diamonds, and I'm sure POB will be lovely in Emeralds but based on their DVD I'm not so keen on seeing them in the other 2/3. Edited to add: Just saw this in Dance magazine - POB will dance Emeralds for all performances, NYCB & Bolshoi will alternate Rubies & Diamonds. NYCB orchestra will play for all performances: http://dancemagazine.com/news/coming-soon-epic-jewels-ever/ It doesn't specifically say whether it will be only the leads or the full corps from each company but it sounds like each company will bring their own corps & soloists. It would be really weird to see POB & Bolshoi leads with NYCB corps - the stylistic differences would be very jarring.

Hallberg is one of the greats and I fervently hope to see him back with ABT this spring. , I guess I'll have to put up with Hee Seo if thats who he's paired up with, but I certainly wont be happy about it

The stars were in alignment last night and we were given a double dose of Veronika due to the replacement of the Seo/Hammoudi/Han cast of Monotones 2 with the Part/Forster/Stearns cast. They brought out the otherworldly poetry of Ashton’s vision beautifully. Monotones 1 was enjoyable, but it was marred occasionally by Boylston’s hunched shoulders. I think Boylston has a lot of potential but how a dancer can ascend to a principal position at a major company without having this type of problem corrected is beyond me. I appreciate how each of the men in Plato’s Symposium is given such distinctive choreography and how each of the dancers makes so much of their assignments – they were all smashing - but I just don’t see it as the greatest new ballet of the 21st century (per Macaulay). I find it to be an enjoyable piece and a great showcase for the company’s up and coming male dancers but not a ballet I want to see over and over again. Its been a very long time since I saw anyone but NYCB do Prodigal Son. As you would expect, ABT takes a very theatrical approach to it, acting it a lot more than NYCB does. Not that it wasn’t also danced well, Simkin’s technique was in full force but this was no mere technical display. He did a good job projecting the prodigal’s combination of arrogance and naiveté, as well as his harrowing fall and repentance. Veronika may have been the most overtly sexual Siren I’ve ever seen. She had one tiny bit of trouble with her cape at the part when she was on the floor and folding it over herself but aside from that it was a truly commanding performance. And my goodness, the way those legs parted and sliced through the air was amazing.

Agreed, Copeland & Boylston are too small. Part would make a great Siren, also Abrera and Murphy

Agreed that they were lovely together in Spectre, but there are no overhead lifts in Spectre. That is also why they are ok together in Ratmansky's Beauty. It's a different story with things like T&V and basically anything that requires him to lift his partner or hold her overhead.

I agree about Sarah but I think the decision to bring Kochetkova in was at least partially driven by Cornejo. Just conjecture here, but she is the only ballerina I have ever seen him partner comfortably. Both Reyes and Lane were actually a bit too big for him. Reyes was very good at compensating for his partnering deficiencies but I have seen some very bad partnering from him when he's been paired with Lane. Kochetkova is shorter than either of then and considerably smaller (lighter) than either of them. Despite my dislike of her dancing, Cornejo has never looked better than when partnered with Kochetkova, and he lifts her with ease.

II have no problem with her technique, her lack of height or her hipsterness. In fact I have enjoyed her with SFB when she was dancing modern works and I liked her in Ratmansky's Piano Concerto. But I generally avoid her with ABT because she has absolutely no feel for the 19th century classics., and thats mostly what she dances here. Yes, I know that she is Russian and trained at the Bolshoi school but don't forget that the Bolshoi didn't offer her a contract and she only lasted one season with the Royal. Her movements are so sharp, she has no Russian back, her epaulment is stiff, her arabesque pedestrian. Her phrasing is dull, I've seen no rubato from her, no cantelina line, no amplitude in her dancing. I saw her in Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake her first season with ABT and that totally soured me on her. Next season she was cast in Bayadere and I thought that would be a better fit for her. I was wrong. I might give her another shot if she does DQ in the next couple of seasons, but I'm done with her in the classic ballerina roles.

But he isn't tall! He was noticeably shorter than Gillian (when she was on pointe) and that may explain some of the partnering problems. I thought his dancing was great, but he didn't make much of an impact and in a ballet like this, you have to sell it. He certainly did not impress as a pirate leader who could ward off an insurrection by the sheer force of his personality (paraphrasing the program notes).

If we do it will be my last season as a subscriber. Enough is enough.

I agree 100% about Lovette, she is so small she just got swallowed up in all that costuming. She definitely has the personality for the role but she looked like a kid in her mother's dress and that hat - well, the hat wore her.

I absolutely love Sylvia. I love the music, I love that wonderful open Ashton style, the pastoral, the goats, everything. But I have to say that last night the first act was just dreary. The music was played so slowly and the dancers seemed really lethargic. I'm sure it didn't help that there were so many empty seats and that the audience was so low energy but it was more than that. It seamed like the orchestra and the dancers were just tired, or just not ready for the season to start. Thinks picked up a great deal after intermission, but this kind of start does not bode well for the season. And I agree with Canbelto that it was shocking to see so many empty seats in all levels on opening night. I know its a Monday, I know Sylvia is not a popular ballet but c'mon - it was opening night and it was half empty.

I was a big fan of Hammoudi's in the beginning when he was still in the corps. He showed such promise - tall & lean with great stage presence and a warm stage personality- he reminded me a lot of a young Gomes. I thought he and Part would be great together and always hoped ABT would pair them up. Unfortunately IMO his technique & partnering skills never really developed sufficiently. So, while I think he and Part will look great together and have great chemistry together on the stage, I don't think that he will be up to partnering her. And we know how important it is for her to have solid partnering. I have tickets for their SL so I will cross my fingers and hope for the best.

I agree 1000%. He's one of my favorite current male dancers who I hardly ever get to see...just the occasional gala appearance

MCB made a great impression with their 1st program here last night. What a privilege & a pleasure it was to watch Simone Messmer as the Waltz Girl in Serenade. She was incisive, musical and full of mystery. I don't know most of the MCB dancers but I think it was Nathalia Arja as the Russian Girl (and also the girl with the red star at the end of Symphonic Dances). If so this soloist needs to be promoted to pricincipal ASAP! She is a small, speedy technical powerhouse also capable of great delicacy and full of charisma . My only quibble with Serenade was the casting of the Dark Angel ( I think it was Emily Bromberg). She was fine, but she faded into the background compared to the other two. Not particularly tall (about the same height as Messmer) and certainly not possessed of the imposing presence and glorious arabesque of Dark Angels we get to see in NY like Kowroski, Mearns and Reichlin. I loved Symphonic Dances. There is so much going on in this ballet that I'd like to see it multiple times, unfortunately I only get to see it once more. It uses many dancers in different groupings and changes of costumes, and they all looked wonderful. Among the principals I recognized G. Delgado and Albertson, and I think Arja was the girl with the red star at the end but I'm not sure, and I couldn't identify any of the men.

I saw the RB do Anastasia in the late 60s/early 70s when it was new - with Lynn Seymour, no less! All I remember was that it was awful

I really don't know how they expect us in Manhattan to support this program when its only showing at 1 theater (Symphony Space) and they are choosing to schedule them at 1 PM on Wednesdays. NY has a large ballet community but a lot of us work! I took off 1 day of work this year to see the Rhapsody/Two Pigeons program. I would have seen more if they were shown evenings or weekends. I may take off once next season to see Wolfworks, but thats really all the time I can take off of work for ballet.

Not surprising, I think its obvious at this point that she is a super star, known and admired WELL beyond ballet circles. Look at this review of ABT's opening night in Detroit. They talk about the opulence of the production, about the center's ballet program and about Misty. The principal dancers are barely mentioned, the review is all about MIsty's 8 minutes in the Bluebird pas de deux. http://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/arts/2016/04/01/sleeping-beauty-abt-detroit-opera-house/82490208/

"Advance Access to Individual Tickets" has not been rescinded, that refers to the ability to order single tickets when you order your subscription and have the order filled before single tickets go on sale to the general public ( but after subscription and Trio sales have closed). Thats still a nice perk but you can't choose your exact seats as you can at the box office and, as I was told on the phone last week when I called in panic because I hadn't received the single tickets I'd ordered and subscriber exchange week was about to begin, single tickets are not exchangeable, only subscription tickets can be exchanged. They're really clamping down this year and it makes no sense for them to alienate their subscriber base.

I had the same experience as abatt and mimsyb. I was there before the box office opened and they made an announcement letting us know about the new policy, so I went through my list of exchange dates and prioritized them to make sure that I could exchange into the dates I thought would be most popular and the ones I wanted to see the most. Sure enough, when I was 3/4 through my list I was told that I had reached my exchange limit. In my case it didn't have to be an even number of tickets because when I don't find a replacement ticket with a location I want I often downgrade to a cheaper ticket - so the $ amount of new tickets couldn't exceed the $ amount of tickets I was returning. Since I had different priced tickets the dollar amount wasn't exact and the BO guy told me they'd take the $30 I had left on account as a donation to ABT. I said NO WAY. He wouldn't let me buy 1 more ticket so I could owe them money (and pay the additional, of course) so I wound up switching one of the tickets I'd downgraded back to my usual section so the money evened out. The BO guy was actually very nice, and apologized for the policy which he said was 100% ABT's. I was grumbling and grousing to myself about having to come back again next Sunday when, like mimsyb and abatt I started wondering if I really needed to spend the extra $300 -$400 on ABT tickets. I think this stupid new policy is going to backfire on them big time.

ABT's "Pointe of View" eNewsletter says that the box office opens on March 20th at 12 noon. This makes sense since the subscriber exchange week runs from 3/13 - 3/19.

I thought Skorik was absolutely gorgeous tonight. That stunning arabesque line, the long legs and uber flexible torso and back served her well as Raymonda. Her face is not very expressive and that can be problematic in certain roles but not here, at least not for me. I think that's what some people are reading as fear, she does sometimes have a "deer in the headlights" look, but I think that's just her natural expression. Askerov acquitted himself well. His variation was the best of the 3 but then again, he's probably 15 years younger than Korsuntsev & Ivanchenko! And I've found a new favorite that I will look for from now on - Yekaterina Chebykina who once again KILLED Clemence's 2nd act adagio variation.