oberon

Thanks, Dale...how long ago was that? Hansen has been gone from the Company for at least 5 years. Wasn't he a bit tall for her? I wonder if she has done it more recently...

Has Rachel Rutherford ever danced SPF? I think it is the type of role where she would excel but I can't recall ever seeing her listed for it.

Albert Evans is not a replacement for Jock but he & Wendy are superb together. And people are always clamouring to see Albert more frequently. I also like the pairing of Wendy with James Fayette. And she was forming a great alliance with Robert Tewsley who has unfortunately departed.

I think the program was designed to feature works of NYCB's 4 main choreographers. It would be hard to come up with an evening in which all the principals could be seen...unless it were just snippets of several ballets. Perhaps the security guards were there to be sure no terrorists poisoned the food. I saw a few dancers in the audience: Megan Fairchild, Daniel Ulbricht and the very chic Pauline Golbin. Do they count as celebrities?

OCTET is modestly attractive, the music pretty & danceable, the costumes simple, the ten dancers (2 couples each with 3 corps boys backing them) are sometimes seen to repeat sections of the choreography. Ashley Bouder & Benjamin Millepied are the bravura couple, their speedy & tricky partnering in the third movement quite exhilirating. Ben looks really good, has regained most of his pre-injury form and is light as a feather. Bouder slipped on an exit in the first movement but Benjamin caught her and swept her off. She danced impressively. Carmena & Suozzi were featured in the virtuoso segments. Darci is looking lovely as ever, and Stephen Hanna has become a very charismatic stage personality, with a fantastic body and rapidly developing skills as a partner. Their adagio was overly long for the choreographic content...very pleasant but unexceptional. I think adding some girls to the corps would make the piece more effective. Jon Stafford, Seth Orza and Andrew Veyette (with a neat new haircut) were fine as the "green" trio. I could see this ballet again...or not. I didn't feel strongly one way or the other. Sofiane Sylve is one of the most strikingly beautiful ballerinas I have ever seen...her big-scale dancing was a pleasure to watch in Tchaikovsky PDD. Askegard was an amiable cavalier, his variation not quite sparkling. Between these two pieces we had a mesmerizing performance of LITURGY...Jock Soto is the partner every ballerina must dream of: he gives Wendy the freedom to go beyond the boundries of what we might think the human body can do. Tonight, her other-worldly presence and uncanny elasticity aligned with her searching, dazzling eyes and her mystical expression put this performance way up at the top of my (huge) list of Wendy's most memorable evenings. The piece, with its achingly eerie lyricism, seemed to hold the audience in its thrall: totally attentive. But after the silent coda, in which the dancers seem to become automatons - endlessly repeating the series of gestures as the stage darkens - there ensued a roaring ovation from all parts of the house. Jock & Wendy drew the elusive 3rd call before the curtain...and this from a gala audience. I didn't stay for I'M OLD FASHIONED...I would love to have seen the dancers, but the piece is not one I really enjoy.

No, "soul" cannot be bought, stolen or learned but I believe that as a dancer matures, both on the artistic and personal level, we see the manifestations of it. Not too many teen-aged girls display much depth or spirituality in their dancing; they are still mastering technique and offstage they are probably mainly concerned with whether the boy they have a crush on is going to call them or not. But as time passes, as roles are repeated and the music seeps into them, and they endure injuries, romantic break-ups and the various slings & arrows of daily life, things begin to evolve. If you think back to the first few times we saw Darci, Kyra, or Merrill Ashley you might be able to say they had "it" from the start - and that may be true - but they surely became more emotional and far more interesting as time went by. Also, repertoire has alot to do with what the dancer is able to give. The girl twirling a baton in STARS & STRIPES isn't really there to move us, but the woman borne aloft at the end of SERENADE surely does...here the "soul" is in the role. Also I'm sure our perceptions of who has "it" and who doesn't vary widely. It is as much in the eye of the beholder as anything. Five or ten years from now, or even sooner, we may view someone like Ashley Bouder differently. I saw a glimmer of the possibilities in her first Aurora Vision Scene. I for one am keen to see what she does. Alexandra, there were flat evenings in the 70s & 80s and there are wonderful, vibrant evenings today...the corps these days is really in a whirl - am I mistaken or do people come and go with alarming frequency? Almost any evening there will be dancers new to the ballets they are dancing. It seems to me that just as a cohesive unit is beginning to function well in a given piece, people leave and others take over. As to Peter Boal's departure, we have to remember he has been there over 20 years and probably wants to do other things. And how better to retire from the stage than at the peak of your artistry?

Peter Boal is, for me, the most wonderful male dancer at NYCB now, and probably in the more than a quarter century I've been attending. He has the technique, the artistry, the muscles, the soul, the warmth...everything you want. I have to say that of all the ballets I've seen him do OPUS 19/THE DREAMER ranks, along with APOLLO & PRODIGAL of course, as most memorable. He's an American prince... Much as I will miss him, he has been dancing there for over 20 years and we all know that careers don't last forever. It seems to me that his performance schedule has slowly been on the decline...seeing him on a cast list these days is more of an exception than a rule. It is going to be tough coming up with people to succeed both Boal and Soto...to me they are pretty much total opposites as dancers...but their joint departure leaves lots of roles to be filled. As for Ashley Bouder's lack of soul, let's give her time..."soul" or spirituality or charisma - whatever you want to call it - develops as dancers mature. Right now she is a whiz-kid and I like her for that...it will be interesting to see how she grows up. Having watched Alexandra Ansanelli, who started off as a bright technical lightning bolt in the corps, turn into the radiantly womanly dancer that she has become makes me think that things take time, and watching it happen is the best part of it...

I bought a ticket...it looks like they are doing the first 3 pieces with pauses in between and then the single intermission before I'M OLD FASHIONED. So I'll just stay for the first half. Sylve, Wendy, and the cast for OCTET are enough to lure me to the theatre.

I don't see Monique Meunier's name down for anything...

[snip; gossip] Then today, a friend from Hartford called to tell me he had been to the performance and was spell-bound by the dancers & the ballets. He said the audience was large & enthusiastic. The casting that he gave me was: APOLLO: Nilas M, Yvonne Borree, Rachel R, Carrie Lee Riggins CONCERTO BAROCCO: Maria K, Janie Taylor, Askegard MOZARTIANA pdd: Wendy & Nikolaj H ALLEGRO BRILLANTE: Ashley Bouder & Nilas Sounds pretty good to me, in particular Carrie Lee & Ashley B...he said Wendy seemed to enthrall the audience and that APOLLO, which he had never seen before, was remarkable. He was then reading to me the names of some of the corps dancers and there, along with my beloved Edge, Bar, Beskow & Barak he said "Kirsten Sloan"...wow, a flash from the past! She was a lovely dancer and just getting some nice featured roles when she was apparently injured and eventually dropped off the roster. Anyone know if she is re-joining the Company??

Young, relatively inexperienced singers need lots of support from the pit. Manahan in particular tends to let the orchestra surge up and cover the voices...even experienced pros like Joyce Castle, in last week's CARMELITES, found herself swamped a few times. During James Levine's early seasons at the Met he tended to give too much orchestral sound, nearly covering some pretty hefty voices. Levine literally learned his trade on the Met podium. He eventually grasped an opera conductor's main function: listen for the singers. He does have a tendency these days to keep his head down...even if a singer is in a bit of trouble, Levine does not look up at the stage. I for one would go to ABT far more frequently if they danced at NYS Theatre. At the Met, even if I have orchestra seats, I feel like the dancers are far away. At the State Theatre I feel cozy and really involved. And I'm sure if I saw ABT more often I would get attached to their dancers just as I am now to the dancers at NYCB. I wonder if the two companies would ever...merge?

In today's Times, there is a story about NYC Opera's quest for a new home. Now they are looking at the Red Cross building on Amsterdam Ave. at 66th-67th Streets which is apparently to be torn down. The opera house would be on the lower levels of a residential building on the site. City Opera's complaint about the State Theatre is that the acoustics are bad for singing. To be honest, I really think it is just a matter of conductors who don't know how to balance pit & stage. In the days when Julius Rudel ruled at NYCO, you always heard the singers...even such delicate instruments as those of Patricia Brooks and Louise Lebrun came across. Then a few years ago, it suddenly became an acoustical crisis. They installed an "enhancement" system but I really can't tell if it's still in place...some voices I heard there recently were covered by the orchestra. Anyway, if NYCO moves out that will leave NYCB there alone with the burden of all the expenses. I have always wished that the State Theatre would be strictly a "dance hall" (no, not with Sofiane Sylve doing the can-can...but a theatre for dance...) ABT and NYCB could coordinate their seasons and visiting companies could appear there rather than at the Met. The Met really is too large for dance...you feel so far away from the dancers at the Met. Also, with audiences shrinking for ballet/opera it becomes increasingly difficult to fill the Met...except for the Taymor MAGIC FLUTE. According to the article, NYCO is commited to the State Theatre thru 2014...of course, much can happen in the next ten years.

I seem to recall a story about the NY premiere of PORTE & SOUPIR..at the end of the performance there was some booing. The dancers behind the curtain were apparently concerned that they had failed Balanchine and were feeling anxious when Lincoln Kirstein came backstage, having watched from the auditorium. When they asked about the booing, Kirstein said: "That was me. We could use a controversy." Whether this was true, or whether he made up the story to appease the dancer's bruised feelings, we'll never know. It is a bizarre piece...when I first saw it (with Karin & Victor Castelli) I didn't know quite what to think. But they were incredible. Later, the beauteous Helen Alexopoulos was a remarkable Door, and now the role belongs to Kowroski. I would imagine it takes an awful lot of rehearsing to get the timing down as well as the manipulation of the enormous "cape" of black silk. It is a piece to see once in a while...there was a season when I saw it twice within a week and I admit on the second night my mind was wandering.

Did anyone see Chris Wheeldon's VIII? Reports, please! One of the Company members e-mailed me that it was a "big HIT" but that's all he said. Need details! Michael, I read your notes on SPECTRE with interest. Who, among current male dancers, could do justice to the Rose in SPECTRE? Not just technically, but "spiritually"? I can think of one I'd like to see: Adam Hendrickson from NYCB.

Ashley's farewell was that single repertory night before NUTCRACKER begins. The very last thing Ashley danced at her farewell was BARBER VIOLIN CONCERTO with Jock. Since her retirement, she has come back as Carabosse in SLEEPING BEAUTY. It might be fun to see her (or Karin) as the Queen in SWAN LAKE...Peter casts tall corps girls in this role but some companies use beloved ballerinas from the recent past.

She is also a wonderful actress in her own right...her performance in IN MEMORY OF...a couple seasons ago shook me to the depths of my soul. And who, having seen it, will ever forget the expression of bereft bewilderment with which she brings DAVIDSBUNDLERTANZE to a close? Last season, at an especially fine MOZARTIANA, where the audience took to her immediately and she was showered with applause, I realized she has transcended the steps and the music and that her face and body simply radiate with the very essence of beauty. She is not as flexible as she once was, nor as daring...after 30 years onstage, how could she be? But the poetic quality, the luminous expression...these things cannot be taught.

Yes, it's an incredible career...I believe only Merrill Ashley, who danced at NYCB for 31 years, surpasses Kyra among the women who have danced there. I'm not sure that NYCB celebrates anniversaries, only farewells. In the coming Winter season, few of the ballets that Kyra dances are in the repertoire. Unless, of course, she is taking on some new roles. I believe the most recent additions to her repertoire were Carabosse and the Mother in CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS. (Did she appear in DOUBLE FEATURE? I never saw it...) To me she is the paragon of balletic lyricism.

Dale, I share your praise for Jenifer Ringer in this role...when she first took it on, I was thinking it wouldn't be for her. She made an amazing impression. Ringer's "perfume" has often been mentioned here, and never was it more gorgeously wafted into the theatre than in SERENADE. Yes, Kyra is very tall but her usual Dark Angel is Kowroski who, if she is not taller than Kyra, has longer legs thus giving an illusion of height. Did Kyra ever do the Dark Angel? That would be something to see, though for me she remains an ideal Waltz girl. The photo of Gilliland certainly makes me wish they were doing SERENADE this season. I could watch it every night!

I have raised this question before, but no one has given me an answer or even an opinion: were the roles in SERENADE given the names Dark Angel, Waltz Girl and Russian Girl by Balanchine or are they just points of reference that have developed over the years to clarify who is dancing which role? In many performances of SERENADE that I have seen, the Dark Angel is the tallest, the Waltz girl medium, and the Russian Girl shortest. I don't know whether that is how it was planned or how it has turned out. One of my favorite SERENADEs was with Karin as Waltz Girl and Calegari as the Angel...they were both quite tall...and Sara Leland was the Russian Girl...not a bad trio. But didn't Karin also do Dark Angel? Or am I hallucinating? Anyway, the picture of Gilliland in SERENADE at exploredance.com is really lovely...I can see where people are reminded of Gelsey K and and also of Farrell. She has wonderful hair, too. Can't wait to see her onstage at NYCB! In the same photo, Rachel Piskin made me think of Helene...anyone who makes me think of Helene is bound to pique my interest. Yesterday, I had my first pre-season dancer sightings: James Fayette and Vincent Paradiso. So, they're back...and the opening is drawing near. Can't wait!

Bryan Pitts of NYCB played Tadzio at the Metropolitan Opera premiere of DEATH IN VENICE with Peters Pear & John Shirley-Quirk as principal singers. I went to one of those performances and confess I left during the intermission, finding it pretentious and tedious. As my friend & I were crossing the plaza, a couple emerged from NYC Opera and offered us their ticket stubs to see the final act of TOSCA...we went in; Domingo was having one of his earliest conducting gigs and the orchestra was all over the place...third-rate soprano & tenor were belting. But after the dry, creaking vocalism of Pears, it seemed like a revelation. My friend turned to me and whispered: "THIS is opera!!" Later I came to appreciate DEATH somewhat though I never went to see it again; to my mind, BILLY BIDD is Britten's masterpiece followed by RAPE OF LUCRETIA and TURN OF THE SCREW. GRIMES can be fascinating with the right tenor (Vickers & Langridge were exceptional) though the character roles are too often played for laughs. MIDSUMMER NIGHT's DREAM has some wonderful music but an over-long third act. OWEN WINGRAVE is much under-valued, in my view.

Thanks, Leigh...I'll check it out!

Earlier this year, quite by chance, I met Wendy Somes...it was a very brief encounter. Yesterday, I mentioned this to a friend of mine and she said: "Michael Somes was probably the handsomest man ever to set foot on a ballet stage." Well, that set me looking on-line for some photos of him but I couldn't come up with much...some small black & whites in costumes for various ballets and one picture of him in his later years. Does anyone have any suggestions for finding pictures of Somes on the net? Thanks! Oberon

I like several of Peter's ballets: FEARFUL SYMMETRIES, BURLESKE, HALLELUJAH JUNCTION, CHICHESTER PSALMS, MORGEN, CONCERTI ARMONICI, ASH, RELIQUARY, GUIDE TO STRANGE PLACES, RIVER OF LIGHT...this does not mean I think they are masterpieces, but I enjoy seeing them. I agree with Leigh that Peter is better at "fast" than "slow"...but he has made some nice slower pieces also. To my mind, he makes better steps for men than for women. He tends to repeat sections of choreography within a piece, without the slight alterations or flourishes that make repeats interesting. Certain dancers (Darci - of course - Janie Taylor and Benjamin Millepied for example) seem to inspire him. He is worlds apart from Morris, who I think is vastly over-rated...I just sat thru his staging of the Rameau opera PLATEE at NYCO and the endless cuteness of the steps and gestures became tedious. I saw his Company several times and cannot really say that I remember any of the pieces beyond a few clever moments. I like Wheeldon's abstract ballets quite a bit and as he tends to use my favorite dancer, Wendy Whelan alot, I am usually satisfied. His "story" ballets seem less interesting...fun to see once. To date I would rate POLYPHONIA as his best work, with the somewhat similar MORPHOSES close behind. I was surprised I liked CAROUSEL, since I am not a "Broadway" devotee. Chris has already created some really memorable "moments" like the 2 duets for Wendy & Jock in POLYPHONIA, Wendy's long & floating traversal of the stage in backward bourees as well as her crab-walk in MORPHOSES. These are things I look forward to, every time I see these pieces. To me they are as exciting as the 32 fouettes, or the ballerina touching her forehead to knee in SYMPHONY IN C, or the balances of the Rose Adagio. I look forward to lots more Wheeldon... What piece of Peter's will you see in Boston? Be sure to report on it here after you've seen it!

HALLELUJAH JUNCTION is by John Adams and I think it is the name of the musical piece as well as of the ballet. I seem to recall that it is named after a town in California. I think it is one of Peter's finest ballets, maybe the best of them all.

Adam Hendrickson is one of the most charismatic & accomplished dancers in the company. He might be a bit too short for some roles (still, if Joaquin de Luz can...) Adam is one of those dancers that draws you to watch him, even if he is in the second row of a czardas. He has a slightly darkish quality that makes him more "interesting" than Tom Gold or Daniel Ulbricht (no offense to those guys, who are excellent in a more out-going way...) As far as the dancers looking bored, I see it only very rarely. Sometimes I focus my opera glasses on one individual corps dancer and watch them for a long time...it might be Amanda Hankes or Craig Hall. I see concentration, dedication, and sometimes joy. What might be interpreted as a bored expression could be what is often referred to as "New York City Ballet face", a sort of detached and slightly arrogant look. My feeling is this may have developed from Balanchine's supposed admonishments to: "Just dance, dear. Do steps."