nysusan

I particularly like row R on the sides. There is a cross aisle in front of it so there are no heads blocking the view of the stage!

I had really been looking forward to Trenary's debut but I'm afraid I have to agree with Faux Pas. Trenary lost me in the 1st act long before the mishap with the hops - I didn't like her dancing or her characterization. Her ballonnes didnt have much buoyancy (in fact none of her dancing had much buoyancy) and she didn't stretch her positions, or make any of her poses linger. And I'm all for new approaches to the role - Osipova's was not a standard Giselle it was very bold but still successful. Trenary's characterization just made no sense. A Giselle who is coy & flirtatious and prone to anger and violence? There was one brief moment where it looked like she was trying to be seductive and another with the daisy where I could swear that she stomped her feet and glared at Albrecht. This Giselle was anything but innocent. Her second act was much better but still, there wasn't enough romantic epaulment for me, especially in the arms. Royal was fine but not great and as others have mentioned I didn't see one man land in a clean fifth until Bell on Saturday night, and he was fabulous. Shevchenko was also lovely taking a very traditional approach, dancing beautifully and acting the part well.

I've been very down on ABT lately and have been looking forward to this run of Giselle with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. I'm happy to say that the Wed night performance was great. The only dancer I felt was not up to par was Jose Sebastian in the pdd. His landings were stiff and positions were not stretched. His partner, McBride, was not exceptional but she was good. I really enjoyed both Wili attendants (Li and Gingiarusso) and the corps looked great. Agree with other posters that Peterson's initial balances weren't strong, but I loved her epaulment which gave her the Mariinsky-like mixture of softness/regret and fierceness. I often avoid Cornejo in the classics because he's been such a poor partner in the past. Not anymore. He was great and I was stunned that they even did the table top lifts (I thought they'd sub something else), let alone how well they came off. I know that this was only Brandt's NY debut but she can't have danced Giselle more than a couple of times and she was fantastic. This was an all around well danced, well thought out portrayal. I wish she was getting 2 chances in this run, I'd love to see her again immediately! Not only her dancing but her acting was excellent. In the 1st act her dancing was light, crisp and buoyant and those big eyes served her well. Her second act was exquisite and my only quibble was that at times she didn't seem ethereal enough for me which I think was because she was putting in so much effort to dance as fast as she could and make her jumps as high as they could be. Not that anything looked effortful, just that I feel like the effort she was putting in detracted from the weightless, ghostly movement sense that I like in the 2nd act. In some ways she reminded me of Osipova here but Osipova's barely-dead Giselle seemed like part of her overall approach to the role. In Brandt's case it seemed more incongruent. This is such a minor quibble though. She was wonderful and exceeded all expectations. I look forward to seeing how she grows into the role.

I did the same thing! I have a ticket to 1 mixed rep performance but thought with the discount I'd see if I could add another. Got a seat I like for only $29 but with all of the fees the total came to $44. Really pissed me off and I dodn't buy the ticket. Also agree with all the posters who are not excited about this ABT season. I'm going to 3 Giselles (Brandt, Trenary & Shevchenko) and the mixed bill that includes Piller. Sorry to miss Murphy & Forster in Giselle but I already had plans for that date.

Its a shame to see that Nutcracker tickets are so expensive now. As I subscriber I was able to order tickets about a month ago and got 3rd ring for $45 each (not including service and other fees). Perhaps all of the less expensive seats sold out quickly.

For some reason the system wont take my reply when I quote Canbelto's post: "An important thing to remember is that Balanchine and Robbins had their share of flops too. We culled their works for the masterpieces and that's what we see. But I bet if someone saw PAMTGG or Watermill we wouldn't necessarily think they were works of genius." I started going to NYCB when they moved to the NYS theater, around 1967. I distinctly remember my young self sitting in my chair watching yet another boring, derivative Balanchine ballet with my eyes rolling back in my head, bored out of my mind and thinking to myself "Why do I even bother coming here?". Then after the intermission there would be Serenade or Concerto Barocco or the (then) new Stravinsky ballets in the 70's and I was reminded exactly why I came. Balanchine was a genius and he produced many, many masterpieces but he probably made just as many duds. Its both fortunate and amazing that after culling out the flops so many works of great beauty remain.

I went to both Saturday programs. It was my first time at SPAC and I loved the venue! At this point any ballet is good ballet but I wasn't crazy about the matinee Short Stories program. I understand that they were restricted in what they could do but I felt that the rep did not work well with the reduction of the scores to a single piano. Opening with the Bernstein - hard to imaging the Fancy Free score with a single piano accompaniment - it just fell so flat. Ditto for the Western Symphony finale. The piano worked better for the rest of the program but though well danced a lot of it still felt flat to me. Meaghan Dutton-O'Hara danced the Rose Adagio well & with charm but she didn't blow me away, I would not rush out to see her if she gets a debut in the full length. I liked Reichlin better in the Firebird than the White Swan. My takeaways from this program were that male ballet dancers should not be allowed to sport bald heads in classical works - it was really jarring. And I thought the knock out performance was Kitka in Western. She brought such pizazz to her role, even with a less than optimal accompaniment. And those legs! The Saturday night All Balanchine program worked better for me, I think that many of the selections were not harmed as much by the music. First and foremost - Miriam Miller was stunning in the Diamonds pdd. Absolutely spectacular. Her line, musicality and epaulment were superb and she had that mystifying je ne sais quoi that makes the role so special. She was mesmerizing. Its hard to believe she's still in the corps, she and Kitka need to be promoted to soloist immediately! I will run to get tickets if she's cast in Diamonds this winter. I enjoyed the 4Ts and Jewels demonstrations and really loved all of the Saturday night performances with the exception of the Who Cares finale. Ramasar & Miller were great in Agon, he brings a lot of sexual tension to this pdd, esp when he dances it with Kowroski and to a lesser degree here with Miller. It was nice that we also got to see him at his sunny best in Who Cares, but I thought this also fell flat because of the music.

Absolutely, that was the first thing I noticed. While so grateful to be able to watch Part's O/O (and Lane with Gorak and Brandt in the pdt) the elongated look of all of the dancers was very disconcerting.

I was also looking for this last night. With the SAB celebration they announced that it was postponed. With Coppelia they announced a new broadcast date. This was different. There was no word from Lincoln Center, it just disappeared from their program list. Very disappointing, and very bad form from LC.

I've seen Makarova's DQ PDD many times back in the 70's and she almost always did the fouettes (even though she hated them). Ditto with her Swan Lake. This performance was one of her first after returning from maternity leave and she was not 100% back in shape so I can forgive her substituting the fouettes here. Its very different from a ballerina who is at full strength and simply can't execute the steps. Agree that it was a wonderful video and hope that its available for awhile longer. That T&V is legendary and the Sylphides was gorgeous!

I received a refund for my ABT subscription today. I also ordered single tickets and that money has not been refunded yet so I guess they are issuing refunds in stages.

Thanks abatt! I just set it up to DVR it. Zelensky retired maybe 10-15 years ago so it will be interesting to see when this was recorded and who dances the other roles.

Can you tell who the leads are?

Barbara, if you didn't receive the letter that came with your subscription you may not know that you can't exchange into the Osipova/Hallberg performances or the Smirnova/Kim Bayadere, as well as the Gala. I expected the Gala to be excluded but was surprised and disappointed at the others.

I got that one. If you join at the supporter level or above ($750 per year or $62.50 per month) you can buy single tickets starting 3/15. 3/15 is also when subscriber exchange week starts. It runs from 3/15 - 3/21 and then single tickets go on sale on 3/22.

I saw it on Friday night. There were a lot of things I liked about the staging and the performance. Aside from the 48 swans it was a pretty traditional production with a full 16-17 minute last lakeside scene and tragic ending. The sight of the 48 swans was gorgeous and the swan corps was beautiful, very well synchronized, lovely positions and fluid in their movements. The corps scenes may have been my favorite part of the ballet. All of the dancers were good, particularly their O/O, Qi Bingxue. She had beautiful epaulment, strong balances and strong technique. I was less impressed by her Siegfried, Wu Husheng. He had elegant bearing but his arabesque wasn't great and nothing about his dancing was really outstanding. The downside was that I didn't find it very dramatic or emotionally engaging - not sure if that was due to the staging or the performances.

Thanks Mashinka, "old Kirov" is my favorite style so it looks like I'll be going to Brooklyn in February!

She is dancing in Swan Lake at BAM on February 16 & 16 and I'm trying to decide whether or not I want to go. I haven't been able to find much online - just that their Swan Lake is a standard Russian version though with somewhat reduced sets and scenery. Has anybody seen her O/O and this production? Is she an O/O not to be missed, or just average? Any info would be appreciated as I debate whether to trek out to Brooklyn on a Sunday afternoon...

I did not see problems with Lane's performance last night, except for poor partnering from Gorak. She seemed relaxed and danced well. There were a few areas where she could have done better - I thought her phrasing was a little brittle at the beginning of the pdd and she did not radiate the joy that you see from Peck or Bouder - but I don't know that a performance like that is even possible with ABT's staging. Was the music slower last night than on opening night? I wasn't at opening night so I don't know, but ABT has always taken the music at a funereal pace and the orchestra just stops and waits for the dancers to position themselves for each new movement - which sucks all the life out of T&V. The real disappointment for me was Gorak. He is such a beautiful dancer, my eye is always drawn to him but he did not make a good case for himself last night. You'd think by this time he would have taken the initiative to build some upper body strength but he is still unable to partner even tiny dancers like Lane. And his solo variation was shockingly bad. Its a real disgrace for ABT to put a dancer who can't do the steps onstage in this iconic ballet. Especially when there are so many others who can. I liked the new Tharp - didn't love it but I found it interesting and am looking forward to seeing it again. The Seasons was the hit of the evening for me. I still find the costumes incohesive, but I just love everything else about the ballet and all of the dancers looked great in it.

NYCB posted some footage of Nadon's debut:

Mira Nadon's Rubies debut was a smashing success. She is not the tallest tall girl, her 6 o'clock penchee doesn't really hit 6 o'clock, and her plie in 2nd isn't the juiciest around, but all of those elements were still good enough. So while there is room for improvement, everything else about her tall girl was great. Her musicality and phrasing, the way she articulated those angular body positions and the way she wielded those legs as weapons, mon Dieu! As for the rest - Bouder/Stanley were a HUGE improvement over Stafford/Ramasar in Emeralds and while LeCrone is not a great fit for the walking ballerina she wasn't bad. So all in all I liked last night's Emeralds much better than opening night. Mearns & Janzen were beautiful in Diamonds, though I thought I saw a couple of very uncharacteristic small stumbles from her in the coda. Nothing major and Janzen gave her all the support she needed to prevent any mishaps. Still, even while watching them I couldn't get the memory of the Kowroski/Angle opening night performance out of my mind, I longed for their elegance and slow unspooling of the pdd

I'm so sorry, I was looking at the February DC Giselles. VERY glad to know that I was mistaken. Now here's to hoping that he gets the open DC slot!

Oh no, I just looked at the calendar and Murphy's Albrecht is now TBA. Say it ain't so 😢😭

I agree, I was very much looking forward to seeing Bouder & Huxley in Rubies. But I can't complain too much since we're getting to see Hyltin in the role again!

I absolutely LOVED Hyltin In Rubies last night and I love her in many roles. But not Symphony in C. She hasn't been cast in the 2nd movement since she made her debut in it back in 2016. I was hoping that meant that management realized that she was totally miscast in it. I remember at the time that although she, of course, has no problem executing the steps she didn't convey the mystery, or spirituality or transcendence that the best interpreters bring to the role. Hyltin was just pretty, she didn't really project any inner life and for me that is a killer in this role. I have tickets for her performance so I can only hope Whelan is spending lots of time coaching her in this. Another 3rd week casting disappointment - it looks like Bouder is cast in Wrens. I saw her last time she did this and here is another example of a great dancer cast in a role she is totally unsuited for. She has none of the glamour or sly humor the role calls for. I think she'd be fierce in MacDonald of Sleat, but not Wrens. I also second cobweb's vote for Georgina Pazcoguin in MoS.