nysusan

For those of you who have seen Peter Martins' R&J please forgive me if I vent. I've never had the desire to see the ballet but the opening night cast was so good I thought I'd give it a try. How bad could it be? Well bad. Actually awful! Epically awful. If you haven't seen this ballet don't go. It is a waste of money and 2+ hours you'll never get back...

The ballet's choreography is basic, uninspired and extremely repetitive. Clearly, Martins has absolutely no idea how to tell a story with movement. As for me, I will never see this ballet again.

Based on the casting I agree with Vipa that Bluebird & Florine are probably 6 & 7, but I don't know which role 5 is. Part has 3 Lilac Fairies, including opening night and Lane has 2 Florines, or whatever soloist role 7 represents. I'm disappointed that neither one is cast as Aurora, but Lilac & Florine are nothing to sneeze at, especially Lilac.

There was a cable TV documentary maybe 15 years ago called "Fighting over Fokine" where his granddaughter Isabelle Fokine staged The Swan and Polovtsian Dances and maybe also Scheherazade for the (then) Kirov from Fokine's notes and other materials in his archive. There was a "bible" for The Swan which included Fokines's wife in photographs of each pose. She asserted that all current versions, including Lopatkina's were "improvisations" that had little to do with the original. She also maintained that Markova's version was not the original, although I don't recall whether she said anything about Pavlova's, though she did say that Diaghalev changed Fokine's ballets during his lifetime, to which he objected.

I recall that there was a lot of opposition from the Kirov dancers to changing steps that they considered traditional and eventually she taught Yulia Makhalina the original version, which was contrasted with Lopatkina's. I found this video of Makhalina in the Swan from 2013. It doesn't state which version it is, but it sure isn't the Lopatkina version!

https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A2KLqIWBw89UfXMArfr7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTByZWc0dGJtBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQDBGdwb3MDMQ--?p=yulia+makhalina+dying+swan&vid=2e745afa08bade5154d297e4120a21c9&l=2%3A53&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DVN.608006505860501025%26pid%3D15.1&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DcX_JkJUWg6Y&tit=The+Dying+Swan+-+Yulia+Makhalina&c=0&sigr=11bjhstt3&sigt=110nbo6jo&sigi=11rrv0vcv&age=1377313955&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Av&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=mozilla&tt=b

Canada is now doubtful. Berkeley will get Cinderella while OCPAC will get Raymonda. When will OCPAC announce the new season? Who are the current crops of Raymonda at MB? It may worth a trip if they bring Lopatkina to SoCal.

Currently: Lopatkina, Tereshkina, Kondaurova, Skorik, Kolegova. Also, Novikova has danced it, but I cannot remember how recently. (Shirinkina also dances it, but she is on maternity leave.)

To see Lopatkina in the full length Raymonda would be heaven but truthfully, whoever is cast this is a can't miss for me. They tour Raymonda so rarely and we haven't seen any full length Raymonda here in NY for something like 10 years. I'm hoping for Lopatkina, Kondaurova & Tereshkina, but I'll go whoever is cast. Gonna start saving my pennies now!

I'm on my way home from the Sunday matinee. I enjoyed seeing Sacre, I thought the primitivism of the choreography and the intensity of the Stravinsky score made for a very powerful experience. Not that I'd want to see it 3x in a row, but I'm glad that I saw it. While I would much prefer to see Pavlenko in a tutu role she was a fierce Chosen One, dancing with full commitment and great intensity. And the best part - I saw her when I was leaving the theater at the end of the performance, and was able to tell her how much I enjoyed seeing her dance.

A very last minute announcement made just before the curtain went up for Spectre informed us that Kim was replacing Stepin. This was my first time seeing him, and while I agree that he was not the most evocative spectre, I was till very impressed with him. Tall & lean his jumps were beautiful and high and he really hung in the air. I look forward to seeing him with ABT this spring. Shapran didn't impress me in this the way she did in the Millipied at BAM, but her dancing was lovely.

Kondaurova was magnificent in the Swan, but this has never been one of my favorite pieces.

The program for today's performance was missing Paquita, so thanks to all for providing the casting here - it was the Skorik/Ivenchenko cast with Selina, Bateova and Latypov in the pdt and Ivannikova, Kondaurova, Asaben, Marchuk and Matvienko doing the variations.

This is now the 3rd time I've seen Skorik in a leading role in the past 3 weeks and, I have to say that she is just not my cup of tea. I think she was best in Swan Lake because it allows her to use her extraordinary plastique to full effect, but I found her static and lifeless in Chopinianna and now brittle and perfunctory in Paquita. There were no major technical problems, she travelled a bit during the fouettees but thats no big deal. I just don't see Vaganova epaulment or any perfume in her dancing.

Kondaurova, on the other hand was ravishing in the 2nd variation and, like just about everyone else I was enchanted by Marchuk in the 4th variation. I also really loved the PDT. Selina and Bateova were both great, Selina was especially bright in her variation and Latypov was stunning. He has the most amazing batterie. Between him and Kim the Mariinsky has some wonderful men on the way up. I may just have to travel to see them in California in September.

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Some notes about last night's "Swan Lake":

First act was a bit of a mess. Everyone seemed a bit off - and Anastasia Nikitina's spill (possible injury) didn't help. Though I felt that Xander Parish and Yana Selina (that was not Ivannikova last night though there was no notice in the program) covered well for her sudden absence. T

That was definitely not Selina last night with the Lopatkina cast. I've only seen Ivannikova a couple of times in small soloist roles, but I do think it was her:

http://www.mariinsky.ru/en/company/ballet_mt_women/ivannikova/

But definately not Selina, who danced the PDT on opening night with Batoeva & Stepin.

Lopatkina was exquisite, absolutely spellbindingly exquisite, every movement was perfection. Ivanchenko seems to have improved a bit, he wasn't quite as wooden as the last time I saw him. He supported Lopatkina admirably and thats what mattered. I hope Nikitina wasn't badly injured in her fall during the pas de trois.

Tereshkina & Shklyarov were very, very good last night but Lopatkina is on a whole different level.

The Mariinsky corps is one of the wonders of the world and they've been spot on these last 2 performances.

I do know that this is in Boston's AGMA contract: "Right to Refuse – Artists shall not have the right to refuse to appear in any dancing role as assigned by the Artistic Director except when morally unacceptable to the Artist (e.g. nudity)." And, I will say that when Boston performed Kylian's Bella Figura, the dancers were given the right of refusal. There were women who did refuse to appear in the piece. But, there were those, who although they did not feel comfortable with the nudity at first, jumped at the chance to do the piece.

So, I would imagine ABT has some sort of clause in their contract that says dancers cannot refuse roles. Most dancers are used to doing what the choreographer says. Were Misty and James uncomfortable with it? Maybe. Maybe not. Could Misty have taken herself out? Maybe, but at what cost? These dancers do want to keep their jobs. The fact that Lane did it differently may mean they toned it down after the initial evening, or even that she just could not do it in the same manner.

The most offensive part consists of the female dancer standing facing the audience while the male dancer stands in front of her, puts his hands on her breasts and manipulates them. There is no skill involved and no actual action on the females part. Somehow I think Lane could have managed that if she wanted to and since Copeland/Whiteside continued to perform it that way throughout the run it was not toned down after the initial performance.

The shame of it is that I really like this ballet including that specific pas de deux except for those few seconds. Unfortunately that part is so jarring and off-putting that that it was really impossible to put it out of mind and enjoy the rest. And let me add that the Lane/Forster version was less offensive but it still did not make a good impression - it looked really stupid. If only Scarlett could be convinced to change that part I'd love to see ABT revive it. But not the current version.

These went on sale today at noon, $29 tickets + $10 in fees = $39 for any seat in the house. If you go to the box office you can probably skip the $7 service charge and get them

for $32. They were not on sale online when I tried but I was able to get them by calling the box office.

Ernest Latypov is fantastic, by the way. He graduated a couple of years ago. He danced Swan Lake pas de trois at one KennCen performance a year ago, I believe.

You are correct, he did dance the pas de trois and I agree, he was fantastic. Gorgeous line and great elevation, too bad I'm not going to see him this time out but maybe he'll dance the pdt in NY (I hope)!

A brief defense of Misty Copeland and the Liam Scarlett piece: My understanding is that Copeland and James Whiteside performed the choreography as Scarlett envisioned it. There was a vociferously negative reaction to the choreography and, for subsequent performances, Scarlett changed it.

That is not what happened. I saw the piece 4 times, first by Copeland and Whiteside at the beginning of the run, then by Lane and Forster, then by each cast at the end of the run. It is possible that Copeland/Whiteside toned it down a bit after the first performance but, if so it was a very small adjustment. The did the boob jiggle and twerking at both performances. Lane & Forster did a much more tasteful interpretation at both of their performances. I have no doubt that C&W did the choreography as Scarlett envisioned it, but it was created on them, so they had input and were obviously comfortable with it.

By the way, I am a big fan of Misty's, I just think she made a bad choice here.

On the other hand, I am not a fan of Kochetkova and I hope that McKenzie does not hire her as a regular company member. I think she is excellent in contemporary rep but that is not what ABT's does. In the classical rep I find her her way too sharp and angular. She may be Russian but she doesn't dance with Russian style (I feel the same way about Semionova, but to a lesser extent). I am hoping (praying) that Cornejo finds an instant rapport with Obraztsova and that we get to see her here much more often. Her Juliet is heavenly and her Kitri both a technical marvel and a total charmer. What I would give to see her Giselle & Aurora here on a regular basis!

I should amend my post above - I enjoyed Skorik's O/O much more than several early performances I saw by Somova however the last time I saw Somova's O/O she had improved greatly and I enjoyed her very much.

Just curious, nysusan, was Skorik able to handle Odile's 32 fouettes? One of my concerns would be that she'd fall off pointe or bail early. I don't think that happened in London (I read both newspaper reviews and Twitter comments about her performance) but was curious if that was the case a few years ago.

I took a look back at what I wrote here after her Costa Mesa O/O (where she and Shklyarov danced on opening night):

"She was ok technically most of the time and there were no big, noticable mistakes but she did simplify some of the steps. They didn't do the iconic overhead lifts on the diagonal in the 1st lakeside scene and my friend pointed out that she didn't really do all the beats we're accustomed to seeing in Odette's coda. Her beats sur le cou d'pied (I think thats what they're called) at the end of the WS pdd were very weak. She made it through the BS fouettes with no problem till she fell out of them at the very end. This was not a big flub, it was hardly noticable unless you had seen Kondaurova the night before who ended under perfect control in a beautiful, solid, triumphant 5th position"

So I guess that two years later I may be remembering her performance as being better than it was - it's the beauty of her line in the White Swan acts that stuck with me . Still, I think she's a dancer with a lot of potential and I'm looking forward to seeing her again.

I should amend my post above - I enjoyed Skorik's O/O much more than several early performances I saw by Somova however the last time I saw Somova's O/O she had improved greatly and I enjoyed her very much.

Does anyone have a feedback on Skorik? We have bought tickets to SL with Alina Somova originally cast as O/O; Mariinsky then changed cast in its usual fashion.

We are not sure whether to sell tickets or attend January 22nd performance as Skorik 's partner (Parish) seems to be a rather plain, unsure Siegfried. Would love to know your opinions.

Thanks!

I saw Skorik in London this last August perform the PDD in Act 2 of Balanchine's Midsummer.

I guess my first question is are you seeing other SLs? And if not, can you exchange your tickets for another performance?

When I saw Skorik my expectations were very low. A lot of people really dislike her and I've seen YTs of her losing her balance, falling off pointe, doing the hops in Act 1 of Giselle on releve instead of on pointe.

What I saw was a very tall (taller than Lopatkina), thin dancer with a nice line and pretty nice feet. However, she is weak and her epaulement is not really what one would expect of a Vaganova dancer (Skorik trained in a Perm). Though you could see she was struggling a bit during the PDD (she danced with Askerov), she smiled gamely throughout it. In the end I felt she was not nearly as bad as some people complained about but was not in the same league as other principal dancers in the Mariinsky.

If this is your only SL and you can't exchange your tickets, I would see this performance, if only to see the gorgeous corps. I don't really like Parish. I find him bland; okay for the pas de trois in SL Act 1 but not really up to Siegfried. But the corps is gorgeous and you never know who might be performing the Act 1 pas de trois or the folk dances in Act 3. So try to exchange or see another performance. If this is your only option, see it just to see the Mariinsky.

I saw Skorik dance O/O about two years ago in Costa Mesa. I would call her line much more than just nice - I'd say it's absolutely gorgeous and her best feature by far. Her technique was ok but not spectacular, and I didn't find her emotionally engaging. Still, it wasn't a bad performance and she may have improved over the past few years. If you can switch to Kondaurova you'd have a sure thing, but if you can't I'd still go see Skorik. As Amour said, the corps is wonderful, and she isn't bad - I enjoyed her much more than Somova.

Batoeva is a lovely soloist who is on the rise, I would be interested in seeing her and I recall from the Kenn Center performances that Shkylarov was a wonderful Prince however 3 Cinderellas is about 2 too many for me. Especially when up against the NYCB Serenade, Agon & Sym C program.

I bought tickets for Vishneva cause the role was created on her and I was interested in seeing what she did with it. I would never have bought a second performance except to see my favorite ballerina - and they roped me in by making it look like Pavlenko was going to dance the role of Cinders. Had I known that she was only dancing the comic character role of the stepmother I would have stuck with just the Vishneva cast.

If they had published all the performances with complete casting up front the Batoeva/Shkyarov might have been my first choice, but I'm not going to add it on as a 3rd Cinderella. This ballet is too dreary to sit through 3 times. Hopefully Batoeva will be cast as one of the Prince's friends in SL.

Edited to add: Correction - I didn't see Shklyarov in Cinderella but I stil bet he's be wonderful! Here is what I wrote when I saw this production at the Kennedy Center in 2012:

YID - I agree, the switch is very annoying. Unfortunately I won't be able to go to the sunday performance so I'm sticking with the one I bought.

Albany Girl - Tereshkina is wonderful, a monster technician and very soulful, beautiful dancer. Also, her partner Shklyarov is the best of the Siegfrieds. Lopatkina's partner is Ivanchenko who, while technically competent and an excellent partner is like wood -

completely unresponsive. Kondaurova is partnered with Askerov who is a better actor than Ivanchenko but not a great partner. Although Lopatkina's O/O is legendary and I doubt that we'll get a chance to see it here in NY again the Tereshkina/Shklyarov is probably the most well rounded and, really - you can't go wrong with any of these casts. They really brought the A team this time.

As for partial view seats, this theater has huge round boxes at the sides which really block the view from many of the side partial view seats. I ordered orchestra partial view seats for Cinders and the woman on the phone said to go with row N or higher. Doesn't really make sense to me but I took her advice.

Sarah Lane and Joe Gorak were, well, magical Friday night. Didn't see any of the problem partnering that was mentioned here. They looked comfortable and adorable together. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea but I love Ratmansky's Nutcracker. I find it incredibly moving and I think his snow flake interpretation is brilliant. I am very sorry to see it move across the country.

I was there and I agree, they were magical. The only flaw I saw was that I think there could have been more abandon in the big lifts and there would have been if Gorak was a better partner. He still has work to do. But they were gorgeous, and they had great chemistry.

Its been 2 years since the last time I saw this production and I liked it better than I did in the past, though I still MUCH prefer the NYCB version. Ratmansky's snowflakes are beautifully extreme and I found the bees less annoying than I once did though, again, I much prefer Balanchine's version of the Waltz of the Flowers. This used to be the most annoying part of the production for me - I cringed all through it in the past. I still don't love it but this time I kind of enjoyed it. I felt the musicality in it, even if its still not my favorite treatment of this music.

BAM itself is my least favorite major venue. The late seating was annoying and continued through the evening, even at the beginning of act 2. Just getting to your seats is a pain. I was in the mezzanine and if you enter through the cafe they only have 1 door open so there is a huge line to get in up until the last minute. Didn't help that they only opened the auditorium 15 minutes before the curtain. Then I had adults behaving badly all evening - one crinkling a bag of candy all night and a couple behind me talking through the entire performance. I'm really dreading seeing the Mariinsky here next month. I mean I'm looking forward to the performances, but dreading the annoyances I now feel that we're bound to encounter at BAM.

I saw the Nutcracker on Thursday night. It was a lovely performance with one exception: the dull, almost static Dew Drop of Megan LeCrone. Sure, she did all the steps correctly but there couldn't possibly have been less responsiveness to the musical surges, less of a sense of urgency or evanescence. I saw 3 Dew Drops this season. Sterling Hyltin was light & lovely, not really my taste in Dew Drops but still quite lovely. My favorite was Lauren King - certainly not the most technically proficient, but more than good enough and so joyous & musical, she really rode the crest of the music.

Back to Thursday night. Tyler Peck was simply one of the best Sugar Plums I've ever seen. Lush, musical, warm & welcoming and she and Garcia were gorgeous in the pas de deux. Anthony Huxely was very impressive as the Candy Cane leader and Emily Kitka did a great Arabian, very sensuous & mysterious. The nicest surprise came in the coda when she did the almost-extinct bent knee pirouettes. I couldn't believe my eyes!

Mearns danced Sugarplum over the weekend at NYCB, according to her twitter page. Although, I'm sure if she had been invited to dance at the KC tribute, NYCB would have given her the weekend off.

This is the second KC Honors in which Tiler Peck has performed. I know that Woetzel is a big supporter of Peck, and I think he is also part of the committee that selects the honorees.

Mearns was scheduled to dance Dewdrop on Friday but was replaced by Hyltin. Not sure if she has danced at all since the Nutcracker run started

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Unfortunately, with the rest of the casting up it looks like we won't be getting a Pavlenko Cinderella. We'll be getting an A. Matvienko/ Sergeev Cinders with Pavlenko as the stepmother. What a shame.

Casting has been updated and there have been changes. Somova is out, Skorik is in (with Parish!) Tereshkina/Shklyarov get 2 performances and Kondaurova's been switched to 1/21:

Principal casting: Viktoria Tereshkina/Vladimir Shklyarov (Jan 15), Ulyana Lopatkina/Yevgeny Ivanchenko (Jan 16), Yekaterina Kondaurova/Timur Askerov (Jan 21), Oxana Skorik/Xander Parish (Jan 22), Viktoria Tereshkina/Vladimir Shklyarov (Jan 23)

http://www.bam.org/dance/2015/swan-lake

Principal casting: Viktoria Tereshkina (Jan 15), Vladimir Shklyarov (Jan 15), Ulyana Lopatkina (Jan 16), Danila Korsuntsev (Jan 16), Alina Somova (Jan 22), Yekaterina Kondaurova (Jan 23)

http://www.bam.org/dance/2015/cinderella

Principal casting: Diana Vishneva (Jan 17), Yekaterina Kondaurova (Jan 17), Vladimir Shklyarov (Jan 18), Daria Pavlenko (Jan 18)

http://www.bam.org/dance/2015/chopin-dances-for-piano

Principal casting: Alina Somova (Chopiniana, Without), Vladimir Shklyarov (In the Night), Yekaterina Kondaurova (In the Night), Ulyana Lopatkina (In the Night), Danila Korsuntsev (In the Night)

PS: Jan 21st Swan Lake cast is not published yet.... AND let's see how would it hold. I'll be HAPPY if it holds

Oy, looks like I will have to see Cinderella again for both Vishneva and Pavlenko. Also. I'll bet the 1/21 Swan Lake cast has not been published yet because they've only published the principal dancers. So we can expect to see soloists like Skorik/Askerov or maybe Matvienko or Kolegova.

I think the problem isn't Misty taking a role away from someone more "deserving" (which I agree that there are better dancers in the soloist rank, most notably Stella Abrera), but the complete lack of opportunities for soloists and corp de ballet dancers to dance in these roles. In companies like the Mariinsky, Bolshoi, or the Royal Ballet it is not an anomaly to see soloists and corp de ballet members dancing lead principal roles like it is for ABT.

If it wasn't such an anomaly I think people wouldn't be so hard on dancers they consider "less than" being given a chance. But then, that opens up a whole other can of worms with ABT like the lack of adequate coaching. If Misty had proper coaching to fix her issues, would she be considered a dancer only accomplished in modern works? It makes me wonder.

Exactly. Misty didn't take the opportunity away from Sarah or Stella because THEY WERE NEVER GOING TO GET IT. Mckenzie's actions have made it very,very clear that he doesn't see those dancers as O/O. I'm sure he doesn't see Misty as O/O either, but she forced his hand by going out and developing her own following, by creating demand. In addition to the appearances & Payless deal she has been a guest judge on So You Think You Can Dance 5 times so far this season. 5 times! Do you know how big that audience is? McKenzie didn't need a small O/O, Hammoudi is a big guy. If he hadn't given her the O/O he would have given a second performance to Part or Hererra. It wouldn't have gone to Stella or Sarah.

Also, I think Misty is quite fine in terre a terre classical work. She was a good Gamzatti (barring the performance just coming back from that horrendous leg injury) and an excellent Gulnare. I just don't think she's particularly suited to O/O, but with the right coaching, who knows?

In any case, most role assignments aren't based solely on talent or suitability for the role. Just look at Seo's Fouettes, or Boyleston's gangly elbows . How much were those role assignments and promotions based on powerful patrons or one man's taste in dancers? I admire Misty for taking her future into her own hands.

The rest of the casting is finally out, poor Veronika has to dance opposite Ivanchenko's Albrecht! He shouldn't have any trouble with the lifts but Veronika will have to do all the acting for both of them!

Giselle: Veronika Part (ABT)
Count Albrecht: Yevgeny Ivanchenko
Hans: Ilya Kuznetsov
Myrtha: Sofia Gumerova
Classical duet: Sofia Ivanova-Skoblikova and Alexei Popov