nysusan

I feel that I should have mentioned what a big fan of Tyler Angle's I have always been, so seeing him in this state is very upsetting.

I saw Gerrity and T Angle in Walpurgisnacht Sat evening and have to agree with you. Between the gut, the huge thighs, the bald head and the deteriorating technique I could barely bring myself to watch Angle. I am going tomorrow night and am afraid he is going to ruin Allegro for me. He is in much worse shape than Bouder was in her most recent performances, both in terms of weight and technique. I thought Gerrity was lovely and lyrical in Wapl but that is not what I look for in this ballet. I miss the dynamism, daring and abandon that Mearns brings to it. I absolutely loved Pereira in the second donna role and in Valse-Fantasie. She has improved immensely. This is the first time I've seen Laferniere in Firebird and I thought she was great. Ditto Peck & Mejia in Allegro, agree with other posters who noticed how much his line has improved. And wow for Laracey, Gordon, Nadon and Danchig-Waring in SVC on Thursday. They were all great but Nadon, heavens - I just want to see her in everything! .

All 3 are ballets I would love to see again soon - especially Union Jack!

Went to my last Nutcracker last night. I don't usually go after Christmas, so this felt a little different but still wonderful. The cast was strong and it was a very good performance. It was a pleasure to see Villarini-Velez and Ulbricht again in Tea & Candy Canes, and Miriam Miller was a beautiful Coffee. The one bit of casting that gave me pause was Pazcoguin as Dewdrop. And true - she won't go down as one of my favorites - she didn't have the speed to really play with the music or the clarity in her footwork that I've come to expect (Bouder & Peck have always been my favorites). She almost came to grief with a series of pirouettes but then did a beautiful multiple before her exit in one of the later passages. However despite that one bobble her technique, turns & leaps were solid and she was very expressive and musical. I enjoyed her. Laracey and Janzen were our Sugarplum and Cavalier. Janzen was good, Laracey was exceptional. Oh, those arms! That upper body was just so supple and expressive. In my mind she was a cross between the warm graciousness of a Kowroski or Mearns and the sprightly fairy of Hyltin. I was enchanted.

Well... Cornejo may have started in ABT's corps but he has been an international star for years now and unfortunately, is nearing the end of his career. Camargo just joined after dancing with other companies. So I'm really only talking about Bell, Forster, Brandt and Hurley. And I'll add Curley. Even though he is still in the corps I find him very interesting. Too bad so many performances are taken up by Ahn, Boylston, Seo, Royal, Stearns, Teuscher and Whiteside. And let's not forget that Copeland will be back at some point.

I 100% agree with both of these statements. ABT needs more coaching not just for principals but also for the corps and soloists. I have zero interest in seeing most of ABT's current principals with the exception of Cornejo, Camargo, Bell, Forster, Brandt and Hurley. Ok, I'm also a little interested in Shevchenko and Trenary, but not enough to go see them with a partner I don't like. I went from having 4 subscriptions (16 tickets) and adding a few more when singles went on sale to having a sub with 8 tickets and having trouble finding enough shows I want to see to book those 8 tickets. I think coaches & international level dancers are much more important to ABT than a resident choreographer at this point.

Good point. Time was (not too long ago) you could go to ABT and see the best dancers in the world. Not anymore. Not saying that ABT doesn't have some very good dancers - they do. But none at the level of a Vishneva or Ferri or Osipova or Gomes or Corella (except for Cornejo , who is at the end of his career and Simkin, who is rarely scheduled to appear now). Book Smirnova or Osipova and the Met will fill up quickly.

Swan Lake & Giselle again, yay! ABT doesn't typically do Giselle every year, maybe every third year so I'll be thrilled to see it again if they program it for their Met season. Right now they have an incredible Giselle in Brandt and I would love to see her develop in the role. I would hate the idea of not seeing Swan Lake for a couple of years so even though I'm not a big fan of ABT's staging or their current O/Os I'm glad they do it every year. For me a mediocre SL is better than no SL (and NYCB's doesn't count). I'm not so keen on R&J, esp since IMO ABT does not have a great Juliet at the moment and great artists in the lead roles are the only thing that makes R&J interesting to me. But it is very popular with the Met audience so I can see why they'd program it again. With a season that is barely more than 4 weeks long I doubt they'll have room for much more than SL, Giselle, R&J and LWFC (assuming these are the ballets that are programmed). I can also see them doing maybe a 4 show run of OLAR. I would love to see Bayadere (not likely), Sylvia or Raymonda (I know, we'll probably never see another Raymonda at ABT). Fortunately my taste seems to match that of ABT's core Met audience - give me the classics please - every single season!

Doesn't mean he's going to be with them forever 😉. Don't most companies run with 1 year contracts?

I agree, Camargo danced beautifully and he is always engaged onstage but I still have such clear memories of Gomes and Stiefel absolutely dominating as Oberon and he was not all that. Murphy was lovely but has lost some flexibility, which is important for Titania. The corps looked great, last time I saw ABT do Ashton I thought they looked very stilted - maybe they've gotten some better coaching. I also really enjoyed The Seasons. Forster was great as the Zephyr and I even enjoyed Boylston (I usually don't). Misseldine and Coker were standouts in the supporting cast.

I agree with everyone, the Tharp show was fantastic in so many ways. The dancers really amounted to an embarrassment of riches. The ABT/NYCB home team - Trenary and Ulbricht - were standouts, as were our stompers Gilliland and Peterson. So were Delgado and two dancers I'd never seen before - MacKay and Freemantle. Wow, I would go see either of them in anything. All the rest of the dancers were great, too. It was super interesting seeing ITUR under Tharp's personal direction. One thing that really stood out was how controlled the fog was. I've seen MCB do it, and seen at least 6 performances by ABT over several revivals. The fog often overwhelms the stage and the dancers. Not here. It was mostly contained to the back of the stage so you could really see the dancers when they were dancing, but they disappeared into it at the back of the stage. The pace was relentless and exhilarating, but the actual steps looked much clearer and more fully formed that what I remembered seeing in the past. I did notice a lack of unison in a couple of places but I'm not sure unison was what Tharp was going for, and I noticed it mostly when Ulbricht and MacKay were doing side by side pirouettes. Considering how much taller Mackay is I don't think its possible for him to get those long limbs around as quickly as Ulbricht, and I don't think Ulbricht is capable of slowing down! I have seen ABT do Sinatra Suite many times, but this is my first time seeing 9 Sinatra Songs. I don't know if Tharp tweaked the choreography for "That's Life" but it sure felt different from what I remember at ABT. There the woman looked like a submissive rag doll being abused by the man. Here, Delgado and Ullbricht went toe to toe and it was more like a really tempestuous relationship. Borrowing cobweb's description, "ferocious" is the perfect word to describe Delagdo's performance. I found 9 Sinatra songs inventive and enjoyable, but ITUR absolutely should have been the closer. So glad I'm going to see it again tonight, then it's on to ABT!

I've seen Chebykina several times with the Mariinsky and would be very happy to see her as Giselle. To me. she definitely seems like a more natural Giselle rather than Myrtha. Of course I'd love to see Cojocaru or Smirnova but regardless of casting I am planning to buy tickets as soon as they go on sale!

This is the same cast that performed when I saw it at Damrosch Park during the BAAND festival. They were all great and there was one blond guy who looked really impressive. I think it was Robare but I don't know the newbies well enough to be sure.

Thank you both. I was also wondering who she was, she was wonderful!

I agree on both counts. We fans are passionate about the dancers but I don't think the general public cares who's dancing at NYCB. Only a big star will darw people and Misty is really the only one these days, I don't even think they'd know an Osipova or Simkin. I do think closing the 3rd and 4th rings has hurt business. I don't agree with Aurora that those $38 side view seats are horrible - that's where I prefer to sit and they are very hard to get. When they first started closing the upper rings I played the game of checking the website almost daily to see if they opened the 3rd ring. It was very frustrating and it really made me resent NYCB management's choice to force everyone into the lower rings. I remember back in the day when there were lots of people sitting in the 4th ring. Who knows, maybe a cost/benefit analysis reveals that its not worth it financially for them to sell cheaper seats in the upper rings but even if thats the case I think they are being penny wise and pound foolish. Plenty of people would buy less expensive tickets if they were available from the beginning - not put on sale only occasionally and at the last minute.

Wow. I would love to see Robare in some major roles but I will be super unhappy if he replaces Camargo in his one and only Oberon. In fact, I think that may be the only performance he is scheduled for in this brief season.

Hmm, I think I feel a road trip coming on!

Yup, sounds pretty dismal. No hope for anything with any resemblance to the Petipa Bayadere, Corsaire & Raymonda. If this comes to pass I will be spending my ABT $s on trips to see the Washington, Phil and any other U.S. ballet co that puts on those productions. Ballet West? Maybe even a trip overseas to see the Royal or POB Bayadere or Raymonda.

Article about Camargo in today's NT Times https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/20/arts/dance/daniel-camargo-american-ballet-theater.html

lol, sounds like we were at 2 different shows last night! I recall Murphy doing several multiples at the start of the fouettes but then, as you noted, the second half were fast singles moving forward and she clearly finished before the music, though she covered it well. I have never been a fan of her Odette so I haven't seen her O/O in at least 6-7 years and I thought her Odette had improved greatly. IMO her plastique was much improved, pliant and expressive in the adagio with beautiful flow and upper body positions including that one incredible backbend. I was also a little disappointed in Forster, though I love him and thought he was ok. His line is beautiful, his legs are beautiful, his jetes are beautiful, he has noble bearing but his acting could be more developed and it looked like he did simplified the steps in some his solos - perhaps he's just too tall to get those legs around properly. I enjoyed the pdt but Park is the second dancer I saw in this role who did not do entrechat sixes, I think Granlund was the only one I saw who actually did them, the rest did a watered down version with only 1 or 2 beats. I think Erica Cornejo spoiled me and its a shame that most of today's dancers can't come up to the standard she set.

Makarova may have substituted the SL Fouettes a couple of times but as a rule, she did them. I know because I saw most of her ABT Swan Lakes up until 1976. I recall when she did the DQ pdd shortly after returning from maternity leave she substituted pique turns for the fouettes and may have done the same in SL during that time period. I'm ok with a star dancer who has & can do the fouettes subbing them out on occasion. Or like Plisetskaya who did them in DQ but didn't like them in SL. I'm ok with it when you've reached that level and your choice isn't because you can't do them (my reollection is that Makarova returned to the fouettes once she'd regained form after that maternity leave). But IMO being able to do all of the steps should be required form all ballerinas at a top level company.

Damn, I switched my tickets from Friday to Thursday for Shevchenko/Bell in T&V and now I have to try to switch them back.

I agree with juliaj, her Giselle was transcendent and among the best I've ever seen so I was hoping for the same with Swan Lake. But as Drew pointed out, Odette/Odile is a different beast. I've seen many great Giselles but only a handful of great O/Os and upon reflection - all of them had been dancing the role for some time when I first saw them in it. Some for a VERY long time - my first great Odette was Fonteyn (with Nureyev), and she had been dancing it for a couple of decades at that point. Add to that Makarova, Pavlenko, Lopatkina & Part and that is some very rarefied company. I'll be interested in seeing Brandt again in a couple of seasons to see how she develops.

This - exactly.

I agree with abatt and fondoffouettes. I thought Brandt was a more natural Odile than Odette, and her Black Swan pdd was great. IMO she did not display the requisite fluidity in the first lakeside scene, and I saw no sign of a russian back, or the energy radiating throughout her body. And though she hit some beautiful positions she never really seemed to stretch them from her toes to her fingertips. I thought she looked much better in the second lakeside scene. Equally important I agree with fondoffouettes that her Odette lacked dramatic impact - I did not feel for her at all. Still, it was a good debut. I was hoping she'd hit it out of the park like she did with Giselle but for me it just did not happen. Also agree that, while still better than most ABT male principals, Cornejo now looks like he is in the twilight of his career. Shayer's VR was completely forgettable.