KayDenmark

I caught the Saturday matinee, the fourth of five performances in the newly re-opened Tivoli concert hall, which has been transformed from a boxy, fifties-style theater into a renovated boxy, fifties-style theater.

It's nicer than it used to be, however, and has a new staircase/intermission lounge area tacked on the side and some sharks in the basement - there is now a giant aquarium across from the coat check.

NYCB's visit to Copenhagen was a great chance for fans like me to see some of the new faces people in this forum have been enthusing about.

The program opened with Sofiane Sylve in Allegro Brilliante, and although I had to contend with restless children on both sides of me - the curse of a matinee! - I could certainly see why people enjoy her work. How supple and graceful she is! Her partner was Ask la Cour, but my eye kept drifting away to Craig Hall in the back row.

Next came Liturgy with Wendy and Albert - both of whom I like, but I'm afraid the piece just didn't move me. Red Angels, which followed it, is also a modern ballet, but so much more affecting! Even the fidgety kids were suddenly quiet. Jennie Somogyi, always one of my favorites, was one of the leads, and Ashley Bouder the other. Bouder really has stage presence. I can't figure out what is so special about her dancing, but it's hard to stop watching her.

Zakouski may not have been the best chance to experience Megan Fairchild, whom many people on this board seem to adore. I suppose my attention was taken up with Joaquin de Luz, trying to fill a part that is so clearly written for Nikolaj Hubbe - de Luz just hasn't made it his own.

Daniel Ulbricht followed with a great turn in Tarantella - I really enjoy him, and find him a very masculine presence, a bit like Robert Mitchum!

The show wrapped up with Thou Swell - Amar Ramasar dancing with Rachel Rutherford, Darci with Jared, Chuck with Faye Arthurs, and Nilas with Yvonne. Beautiful costumes! An entertaining and fun piece, although certainly nothing life-changing.

All in all, a good afternoon at the ballet, although I was sorry I didn't get to see Janie Taylor, who must have been on the evening program. House was about a half to three-quarters full, perhaps due to the very expensive tickets - the cheapest was fifty bucks, and my balcony seat was about ninety, roughly double the prices of the Royal Theater.

I don't know about the casting, but there is an article in today's Berlingske Tidende, in Danish, about the company. The story was written in New York, so it doesn't necessarily indicate that Wendy, Jared or Craig Hall are part of the group now in Denmark.

http://www.berlingske.dk/grid/kultur/artikel:aid=653246

I get the point here, but I would like to see the Evans. Didn't his first piece for NYCB receive good reviews?

And as Martins goes, "Fearful Symmetries" is by far my favorite.

I wasn't able to find tickets for sale on the Tivoli website, but they are available here.

http://www.billetnet.dk/event.jhtml?event=9421

Majinksy, I have to admit I never liked Fayette either. I didn't want to say so after his retirement - it seemed wrong to speak ill of the departed - but I found him grating, particularly in roles that required humour. Now that you've been bold enough to come out in the open, however, I'll back you up. Against the majority opinion, it seems.

GeorgeB fan, I agree with you as well. I'd love to see Albert Evans as Apollo, and cross my fingers I'll get the chance before HE retires. Millepied as the Prodigal also sounds like a good idea!

I wish the company would put their brochures online as a PDF file.

It would really be a gift to those of us living outside of New York - and could be a good marketing device for them as well, since people could print out the brochure on their own without waiting for one to be sent to them through the mail.

I'm quite surprised by Fayette's retirement, since he is relatively young, isn't he?

I will be interested to read the "story behind" whenever he chooses to tell it.

I never felt Johnson fit in the company. He didn't seem to be the right body type - too massive, particularly his thighs. And I found him uninspired, even in small corps roles. Here's hoping he's moving on to something that suits him better.

I second the motion! I'm happy to see Hall getting a chance at a bigger part. I've always liked his style and his carriage. Better parts will help him develop to his full potential.

I just think it's impressive to hear that Kistler was performing "Red Angels" at all. I don't believe she's done it in years, perhaps since its premiere season, an omission that was reportedly the lady's choice. It became Helene Alexopolous's role, didn't it?

Personally, I love "Red Angels" and am sorry I missed the performance! Can anyone who was there give us a quick review?

So frustrating to live overseas and not be able to see any of these photos!

Since we're discussing hair anyway, I don't feel too trivial in commenting that blonde hair often does photograph brown. My hair is the same color as Rachel Rutherford's, but the camera often turns me into a brunette.

By the way, if no one has left the company, does that mean that Craig Hall is still aboard? And has he gotten any parts outside the corps? I was really impressed with him when NYCB performed at Tivoli last year, but I worry about him being consigned to Albert Evans-style oblivion.

Interesting to hear that someone else is performing "Zakouski." I don't think I've ever seen anyone but Hübbe cast in it.

I hope he's given a chance to perform "Chiaroscuro" one more time. It was choreographed on him, and I've always had a weakness for it.

Am I the only one who treasures "Symphony in Three Movements"?

I've always been told that it was the one ballet Balanchine said he wouldn't change a step of.

A very interesting young cast in 4Ts at the Saturday matinee.

I look forward to hearing reports on how Hanna, Ramasar and Reichlen carry off their roles.

The new Wheeldon ballet, with Körbes, la Cour, Bouder and Fairchild, also sounds intriguing.

Also nice to see Jared Angle dancing again. Marcovici doesn't seem to be back, however.

I can't be sure, but I believe Evans has appeared in Scotch Symphony.

And I agree with you on Apollo. Back when I was a journalist covering NYCB, I used to harp on the topic with some regularity. I also feel Evans' elegance, grace and line would make him an exciting Apollo.

In fact, there are so many people who are eager to see him in the role, perhaps Martins should arrange a special fund-raiser with that casting. I predict a sold-out house.

I must admit I don't follow the RDB too closely, but haven't they just opened two new feeder schools in Odensee and Horsens? Perhaps casting the net a bit wider will lead to some additional talent. I've been told that not all of the students in these schools are Danish - that, in fact, there are a number of Russians - but at least graduates will be thoroughly trained in the Bouronville style.

In the discussion of future talent, I thought Yao Wei really stood out in the corps of Anna Karinina, and that Julian Ringdahl showed a relaxed charisma in the corps of the Balanchine ballets.

I also enjoyed the ballet, although unlike the other correspondents, I thought Melbye's scenery was fantastic. The projections really gave a sense of time and place, much more effectively than the Royal's usual paint-and-upholstery sets. And that train! Well-done, realistic, and terrifying. Great stagecraft, from my point of view.

I will agree, however, with the others about the costumes. Anna spends the first act in dowdy black and starts off the second looking like Little Bow Peep. (Those who want photos can find them on the Royal Ballet's website) It isn't until the final scenes that she gets a fantastic scarlet number that really says something about her character. Meanwhile, Vronsky's white Imperial Army uniform makes him look like a pasta chef.

While I don't have a strong opinion of either Marie-Pierre Greve or Mads Blangstrup as dancers, I thought Ratmansky's unimaginative choreography gave them very little to do. They seem to be constantly repeating the same ten steps, whether in the throes of ecstasy or the depths of despair. There were some interesting touches to their parting scene, but overall, I'm just not impressed with Ratmansky's skill as a dancemaker.

Yet another virtually non-dancing role for Peter Bo Bendixen, as Karenin! The last time I saw him, he was Golfo in Napoli, also mostly standing around. I'd re-examine my contract, if I were him.

Chill out, folks. As I said in my original comment, Wei and Sakuri are both young dancers with potential. They’re too different to be dancing together, however. As a couple, they simply don’t generate any heat.

Largely a good evening, highlighted by a nearly flawless Serenade, staged by Victoria Simon. Apart from occasional arm placement problems by one of the demis, it was exceptional, and I daresay City Ballet couldn't have done it better.

Octet was Martins-as-usual, and included several instances of that annoying effeminate question-mark posture he likes to put his men into - it pops up a lot in "Symphonic Dances", too. There's also a lot of dashing across the stage at angles, a la "Fearful Symmetries", some couples who can't quite get it together ("Them Twos") and some costumes, designed by Martins, that look at lot like the green leotards used in "Ash."

All Martins ballets seem to include at least one role for someone who looks like Martins and dances a bit like Martins once did. Nilas gets this job a lot, and so did Nikolaj Hubbe before he wisely started to fill up his date book with other things. In Octet the honors go to Andrew Bowman, whom I believe is from New Zealand, but looks Danish - tall, blond, and muscular. He is graceful and certainly watchable, if not particularly compelling. He partnered Silja Schandorff competently in one of those standard crawling-all-over-each-other Martins pas de deux. Schandorff didn't have much else to do, and lacked her usual luminosiity.

What really turned me off about Octet, however, is Martins' casting of the other lead couple - Yao Wei and Kristoffer Sakurai. Both have potential - Sakurai more than Yao - but they are radically different dancers. Yao is a chirpy classical sprite, while Sakuri is modern and severe - he broods even when he smiles. They not only look unlikely to fall in love, but unlikely to sit at the same cafeteria table. Given Martins' weirdo racial profiling at City Ballet, I can't help but assume that the reason they were paired was because they were the Royal Danish Ballet's only Asian dancers. Unfortunately, that's the only thing they have in common. Chemistry = 0.

The ballet was raptuously receieved anyway, with Martins coming out to make several dramatic bows before the Danish queen, as well as Darci and Talisa Martins, who were in the audience wearing matching pink coats.

The evening ended with Tchaikovsky's Second Piano Concerto. RDB head Frank Anderson recently said he thinks this ballet is unjustly neglected as a Balanchine classic, which shows how much he knows - it's as hackneyed as Serenade is sublime. All those tiaras!

Tonight, it also had to suffer from Caroline Cavallo and Claire Still in the lead roles. Perhaps these ladies are wonderful and kind human beings, but I simply cannot stand to watch either one of them dance. I find them clumsy and cloddish - so much that they sometimes remind me of my own talent-free ballet career, which is really saying something. And Claire Still looks like Mayor McCheese from the old McDonaldland TV commercials. Basically, I spent most of the ballet watching the corps and hoping one of the leading ladies would break a fingernail and be replaced by one of the vastly superior girls dancing behind them.

The corps did look good, I must say, with special notice to NYCB alumnus Julian Ringdahl, a very relaxed-looking, but still technically strong dancer.

Patricia Neary did a great job of staging the ballet, given what she had to work with, and looked absolutely sensational when she came out for bows. A sequinned black minidress, black stockings, and long, loose salt-and-pepper hair - I only hope I look half as good at her age!

Like Carbro, I prefer the Fourth Ring at the New York State Theater, particularly when watching some of the more abstract Balanchine ballets.

The patterns are lovely, and you get a sense of the overall force of the ballet without being distracted by silly things that have less to do with the dance than the personality of the dancers - ie "What's wrong with his hair?" or "Oh, did she get engaged?"

Just a couple of quick notes from the Friday performance -

Are they serving the men double portions in the City Ballet canteen? Albert Evans is also bigger than I have ever seen him, something which is not particularly flattering in a yellow miniskirt (ie "Herman Shmerman"). That ballet, never one of my favorites, was otherwise performed relatively well, with Whelan at her most angular. It catches a side of her which people once thought was her only side.

Millepied was a no-show again in "Guide to Strange Places," with a terrified-looking Amar Ramasar replacing him. Sneds, perhaps you know if he has done this role before, but my guess is that he had just learned it that afternoon. He kept up with the steps - it is, after all, a pretty fast ballet - but had no ability to relate or interpret. He looked, frankly, like a frightened 20-year-old suddenly thrown into a principal part. At any rate, it's nice to see Ramasar getting some chances, although it would be better if he had time to really think through the roles.

Sneds, re: your talk of promotions, it seems likely to me that Ramasar will be made a soloist, and perhaps Hanna as well. He seems to be coming along well and danced several major roles here in Copenhagen.

I also had my first chance to see Wheeldon's Carousel, which had some nice moments, but bored me in the pas de deux. Again, maybe Ansanelli is just young, but she still seems remarkably self-preoccupied. I didn't see her connecting with Woetzel at all - I didn't get the feeling of a couple in love.

Back to "Guide to Strange Places" - I very much enjoyed Janie Taylor in this, and it will be interesting to see how she develops. At any rate, she's an individual, which in my eyes makes her principal material at some point.

In general, Strange Places seemed to be Martins-as-usual - but what pretty costumes!

The evening wrapped up with another performance of "Serenade". Ringer was gorgeous and expressive - and did everything right that the mystery blonde on Tuesday night did wrong. (I've since remembered to bring my opera glasses). It was, however, no stroke of genius to cast tiny Yvonne Bouree and tall Maria Kowrowski together. Whenever they had to dance with each other, or to balance out the stage, they looked like the Jolly Green Giant and Lil' Sprout. (Or, for the Danes, Bi and Fi.)

One last note: Perhaps Effy and I have seen different RDB performances of Balanchine pieces. Every time I have seen the RDB attempt Balanchine, they have completely missed the plot, such as last year's "Stravinsky Violin Concerto" with round arms and no angles. RDB is, however, pretty good at Martins' "Fearful Symmetries".

In answer to your question, Alexandra, the Danes I spoke with were thrilled with the performances. "I can never go back to the Royal Danish Ballet again," said one dance fan, presumably jokingly. "I love the Royal Ballet, but it's clear that this is in a different class entirely," said another.

Even though NYCB has its faults, New Yorkers sometimes forget how privileged they are!

Thursday night's performance had its ups and downs. First, the ups: Hübbe was in great form in "Square Dance", clearly enjoying himself in front of his hometown audience. His solo was expressive but also controlled and understated - a quality that Americans sometimes don't get, but which plays very well in Scandinavia. Hübbe retains the star quality that separates him from the corps behind him, something his partner Yvonne Borree lacked. Despite his age, Hübbe was able to match or exceed the young corps dancers in strength, style, and jumping.

Also noted Jerome Johnson in the corps of Square Dance - as one of my Danish friends pointed out, he and Hübbe were the only substantially-built men onstage, the others being more slight. Johnson has presence, too. Hopefully Martins will break out of his Albert Evans syndrome and start giving black dancers good roles. Otherwise, Dance Theater of Harlem will have a heck of a lineup in a few years.

"Piano Pieces" followed, with Antonio Carmena apparently a very last-minute replacement for Millepied. He stumbled and fell repeatedly, looking hopelessly underrehearsed. For those of you worried about Megan Fairchild's fate, she appeared with Carmena in the Polka de Salon, although she looked tired and I found Lindy Mandradjieff more compelling.

As I mentioned before, I have not seen the company in three years, and I think both Jared Angle and Sebastien Marcovici have aged poorly. Both looked chunky, uninteresting, and uninspired, and Angle's hair loss makes him look ten years older than he is.

Back to the good news: Jennie Somogyi was thrilling - so feminine and fluid and strong. For my money, she's City Ballet's best young ballerina, everything people once said Maria Kowrowski would become. Kowrowski, meanwhile, looks like she's dancing with an alabaster mask on. And I know that many people love Ansanelli, but to me she seems overly conscious of her own winsomeness.

It was fun to see Janie Taylor, much discussed on this board, in the "Infernal Machine," even though the piece is basically "Ecstatic Orange" meets "The Cage." (Martins always seems able to steal just a bit of Robbins or Balanchine for each one of his pieces). Best part: hearing the woman next to me trying to hum the modern-music score during the pause.

"Symphony in Three Movements" was, as usual, a masterpiece, although Effy is right in that neither Whelan or Soto look very good right now. Tom Gold, however, remains fantastic - what energy! what jumps! And Tess Reichlen certainly does stand out in a crowd.

One note: this is a BIG tour. Every dancer in the company seems to be here, with the exception of Kyra Nichols. Thanks go to generous financing from H. Lundbeck, the Danish company which has grown rich selling the European version of Prozac!