KayDenmark

Hi, Michael! The Tivoli music was taped, but the sound quality was a vast improvement from last summer's gala - at which, if I recall correctly, Hubbe performed. Last summer the music sounded like it was coming through a transistor radio propped up against a microphone, but this year it was about as high a quality as taped music gets. Who Cares? was performed without a corps - just the eight couples. I was impressed that Hubbe was able to bring so many corps members along, however. It was a fairly big company for a gala.

According to what he has been telling the Danish ladies’ magazines, his love interest is "Jan, a 46-year-old architect." He also says he likes to cook “any combination of things from the refrigerator – that’s my specialty”; that his Manhattan apartment is too small for a television, so he has not seen “The Osbournes” (big in Denmark now); and that he feels “most masculine when I am dancing, exhausted and covered with sweat.” Believe me, after you read a few of this type of interview, you’ll be happy to hear dancers stick to talking about jetés.

I agree with you, Effy, that Millepied was excellent and that Askegaard and Fayette were nothing special - I see them as glorified soloists, not true principals. There is, however, another French dancer among the young NYCB principals, Sebastian Marcovici, who also bears watching. He is not as charismatic as Millepied, but he is taller and a bit more noble. He also has a fascinating face, with a tear-shaped birthmark beneath one eye. I quite like him, although others are less enthusiastic. Ringer was, indeed, full of personality. I also believe Jennie Somogyi sparkles. Although her look is not as unique as Ringer's, Somogyi's technique is better - her arms and hands, in particular, are lovely.

One paragraph out of eight discussing sets and costumes does not seem excessive to me, Effy. And, as I mentioned, lack of sets is standard practice for most galas. And, quite frankly, the dancing was not THAT good, particularly Afternoon of A Faun. Perhaps you were there for the other performance, but at the Saturday night show I attended, it recieved only lukewarm applause. Compared to the Hubbe and Friends shows later in the week, the French show was a disappointment. Apart from the retired Isabelle Guérin, it didn't even have any étoiles, since Laëtitia Pujol failed to show up. As I mentioned in my review, it had some exceptional moments and I'm glad I saw it. However, all shows are open to criticism, even if M. Meinertz is doing his very, very best.

With Monique Meunier and Helene Alexopolous gone from NYCB, who would you like to see as the Prodigal Son's next Siren? I realize that both Maria Kowrowski and Yvonne Bouree have done the part, but I must admit I am less than excited about those two dancers. Who's next? For that matter, who's the next Prodigal? I believe Boal, Neal, Woetzel and Hubbe have done the part, but none of them are under 30. Personally, I'd enjoy seeing Millepied in the role.

Yes, I saw three of the five shows, and have posted a review in "Recent Performances."

Hubbe and Friends was five nights made up of two programs: the first, a Balanchine Night, consisting of Mozartiana, Movements for Piano and Orchestra, Harlequinade, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, and Who Cares?; the second being a Balancine/Robbins mixed bill of Apollo, In the Night, and Interplay. I saw the first program on the 18th and 22nd, and the second on the 21st. Both were excellent, although the final show was attended by Queen Margrethe of Denmark, which seemed to cause some jitters and missteps in the first half of the show. Hubbe himself is in top form - he's in great shape and I have never seen him dance better. Clearly, he enjoys dancing in Denmark, where he is a huge celebrity, and this was really his show, playing to his strengths and featuring some of his best numbers. (He also did everything possible to promote it, with hunky photos and up-close-and-personal interviews in every woman's magazine in Denmark: I now know more about his cooking skills and love life than I ever wanted to know.) At any rate, he was well rewarded, with good crowds and standing ovations at all three shows I attended. He also seems to UNDERSTAND Apollo more than he once did, but maybe I was just caught up in the general excitement. Jennie Somogyi was another highlight - I think she's a tremendously underrated dancer, and there's no one I enjoy watching more. Her fluidity, spontenaity, and athleticism are such a joy to watch - she looks as if she's making up the dance as she goes along, and having a grand time doing it. To me, she is a truly American ballerina - confident, intelligent, strong, yet wonderfully graceful, particularly her hands and upper body. In these shows she appeared in Harliquinade, Who Cares? and Apollo, and the crowd loved her. Wendy Whelan also did a fine Mozartiana, accompanied by girls from the Danish Royal Ballet School, and Tom Gold made a suitably grim gigue (and, was, in fact, grim in every other dance he was part of - something is clearly on Tom's mind). Ben Millepied was a top-flight Harlequin - what a wonderful jumper. Unfortunately, when he took off his Harlequin cap for Who Cares? (a wonderful "Liza") it was revealed that he badly, badly needed a haircut, so badly that it actually distracted me from his dancing. Maybe one of those Danish women's magazines would like to work on Ben next time. Maria Kowrowski, sadly, was a disappointment. You can't argue with her beautiful proportions, and technically she's fine, but the longer she dances, the more she becomes a beautiful blank. Contrasted with Jennifer Ringer, whose technique can be iffy but whose warmth and showmanship is never in doubt, Kowrowski comes up dull, a sort of moving oil painting. Ringer, by the way, was lovely in Who Cares? and In the Night, both times dancing with her husband, James Fayette. Fayette is not my cup of tea - I find him workmanlike, but colorless - but Ringer is obviously wild for him, making her marriage part of her official biography and posing for a (lovely) program photo of she and her husband staring into each others' eyes. I left New York before Ringer got a chance to make much impact, but now I can see what people are so excited about. She's a likeable and accessible, a warm and positive stage presence. Of the other soloists and corps members, Rachel Rutherford had a memorable turn in Harlequinade, and Adam Hendrikson stood out in Interplay. Still, it was rather sad to see the pint-size Hendrikson standing next to Gold as the company took bows - he's a fine dancer, but you can't help wonder if his career will be as limited by his size as Gold's has been. All in all, three nights of wonderful performances of wonderful ballets.

Thanks for the info re: the balcony scene, Marc. I wonder why they still refer to it as "the balcony scene" in the program, given that it has been re-set. An interesting idea, though.

Galas in general, and Tivoli's in particular, are usually long on stars and short on corps and scenery. The Paris Opera Ballet's performances in Copenhagen were no exception: apart from a backdrop and a single grassy knoll brought along for Afternoon of a Faun, the gala offered no sets whatsoever. It was the only time I've ever seen the Romeo and Juliet balcony scene done without a balcony. The closest the gala got to set design was a huge white feather that fell out of Muriel Maffre's dying swan costume and drifted around the stage for several numbers. None of the étoiles would bend down to pick it up, but all of them carefully danced around it. Much of the dancing, however, was exceptional. Although the evening opened with a rather unexciting Faun, starring a supremely fit Pierre-Francois Vilanoba, it quickly got into gear with an exceptional Thais pas de deux, graceful and athletic. My only complaint: while Elenora Abbagnato seemed like a woman deeply in love with her partner, expressing it through dance, Yann Salz (filling in for Jérémie Belingard) seemed to be gazing determinedly at a point three inches in front of his face. He could have been reciting baseball scores to himself. Flames de Paris, starring Alessio Carbone and Myriam Kamionka and - a fill-in for the missing Laëtitia Pujol - was uninspired, and grinning Carbone muffed several of his landings, but the Giselle pas de deux, starring Isabelle Guérin and Benjamin Pech, was everything it should have been. The first half of the show ended with Forsythe's In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated - a huge hit with the Danish audience, which has a soft spot both for Forsythe and for Muriel Maffre, dancing again with Vilanoba. After the pause, we got the non-balcony balcony scene - Juliet just greeted Romeo as if she'd met him on the street - starring the hapless Kamionka and Carbone. Carbone is a technically strong dancer, but with little ability to attract the eye, and he smiles too much. Interestingly enough, he gets more bearable as a number progresses and he has less energy to smile. Maffre's Dying Swan brought the house down, and was followed by Abbagnato and Salz again in Carnaval in Venice, a replacement for the Forsythe Pas./Parts that was supposed to star Berlingard. Both dancers showed great technical prowess, landing great jumps and pulling off multiple turns while trying to avoid that bothersome feather. The evening ended with Guérin and Pech in the tragic L'Arlesienne - a bit too long, but powerful none the same.

Miranda Weese has been replaced in the NYCB program by Jennie Somogyi. BTW, I will post a review of the Paris Opera Ballet performance September 14 in "Recent Performances".

Calliope, you're right - LaFosse has magically re-appeared on the website! He really was gone for a few days, though - this was also mentioned in the NYCB forum.

Inspired by the fact that Robert LaFosse seems to have simply disappeared - no muss, no fuss - from the New York City Ballet website, seemingly indicating the end of his dancing career, I've been wondering: are there ever gala farewells for male dancers? I seem to recall reading that Peter Martins also simply disappeared from the stage after Balanchine died. What about Jacques d’Amboise, Eddie Villella, Arthur Mitchell, Mikhail Baryshnikov? By contrast, there seem to be huge gala farewells planned for the most mediocre female principal dancers. Any thoughts? Personally, I think the audience would enjoy having a chance to say goodbye to male dancers whose work they've enjoyed.

It is, in fact, the Nijinksy version, and will be danced by Muriel Maffre and Pierre-Francois Vilanoba as well as dancers from "the Pantomime Theater" - perhaps Tivoli's own. I can't imagine that they'll bring too many sets....Tivoli performances tend to be a bit low-rent. Last year's performances featured recorded music that sounded like it was coming from an 8-track tape player, circa 1973.

The POB roster I have lists Isabelle Guerin, Laëtitia Pujol, Elenora Abbagnato and Muriel Maffre (a Copenhagen favorite, she performed in Tivoli last year) on the women's side and Benjamin Pech, Jérémie Belingaard, Alessio Carbone and Pierre-Francois Vilanoba on the men's side. The program includes Flames de Paris pas de deux, the Dying Swan, Roland Petit's Ma Pavlova pas de deux en Thaïs, Giselle pas de deux, Forsythe's In The Middle Somewhat Elevated, L'Après-midi d'un faune, Nureyev's Roméo et Juliette balcony scene, Petit's L'Arlésienne and Forsythe's Pas/Parts.

The performances take place from Wednesday, September 18 to Sunday, September 22nd at Tivoli Gardens Concert Hall. Tickets at www.billetnet.dk. If you come a week earlier, you can also see stars from the Paris Opera Ballet performing September 14 and 16.

The program has her dancing Harlequinade, Who Cares, and Apollo.

Just a note to say that the program has just been released for Nikolaj Hubbe's group of NYCB stars, which will be performing in Copenhagen next week. We will be getting two separate programs - the first, all Balanchine, will include Mozartiana, Movements for Piano and Orchestra, an excerpt from Harlequinade, the first two movements of Stravinsky Violin Concerto, and an excerpt from Who Cares. The second, billed as a Balanchine and Robbins night, will include (the inevitable) Apollo, In the Night, and Interplay. Scheduled dancers include Wendy Whelan, Tom Gold, Maria Kowroski, Charles Askegard, Miranda Weese, Benjamin Milepied, James Fayette, Jennifer Ringer, Yvonne Borree, Carla Korbes, Faye Arthurs, Dana Hanson, Rachel Rutherford, Mary Helen Bowers, Stephen Hanna, Adam Hendrikson, Stuart Capps (!!) Carrie Lee Riggins, Glenn Keenan, and of course Hubbe himself.

Can't wait to see Johnson dance! It's so much fun to watch dancers at the beginning of their careers, when they have so much possibility and promise. It's also a nice antidote to complaining about all the older dancers who, for one reason or another, have failed to fulfill their promise. Ramasar really stood out at his SAB workshop, I remember, for his fine jump as well as the fact he was the only East Indian in view. I ran into him on the street the next day, handing out NYCB fliers for some extra student cash, and he was absolutely thrilled that anyone recognized him. So there are some **benefits** to being a person of color in a mostly white company! Has he had any good parts this past season?

No, what I meant is that Albert Evans has always been underused by the NYCB. He's a principal, but has never gotten the attention, exposure, and roles offered to other principals. Where is Evans in Apollo, Evans in Prodigal Son? Granted, Evans has a more modern style and body than some other NYCB dancers - he's not a Royal Danish type. Even so, the man can do more than just Diamond project ballets and Arthur Mitchell's part in Agon. Evans is one of my favorite dancers and frankly, I think he has wasted much of his career in a company that rarely gave him a chance. As for the up-and-coming dancers, I wish them well. None are above corps level, although I hear Craig Hall is talented. I sincerely hope that he is NOT just being groomed to take over what seems to be the company's token black principal spot - and Arthur Mitchell's part in Agon.

Diversity is not NYCB's strong point. Ask Albert Evans.

I've seen the Kølpin Sylphide in its entirety, and it is excellent. The Royal Danish Ballet still offers plenty of performances of the standard version, for people who want it that way.

I had to delete this post, kay. It's a violation of copyright laws to post entire articles on the web. We have a post on this in the Rules and Policies forum. If you saw the performance, please post about it. -- Alexandra

I loved it when Jody's parents came backstage after the ballet - having just seen their teenage daughter humping around on a bed in black lingerie in front of several hundred people, all they could say is, "We're so proud." That is NOT what my parents would have said.

Just read the new Gottlieb piece - it's like being seated at a dinner party next to a boring, rancorous drunk. He's got some good points, particularly about the handing down of parts, but by the end it's hard to listen to anything he's saying in that monotonous whine. Having worked as a critic myself, I know that complaints have a lot more impact when you mix them up with a few compliments here and there. This piece is just unpleasant.

Just read the new Gottlieb piece - it's like being seated at a dinner party next to a boring, rancorous drunk. He's got some good points, particularly about the handing down of parts, but by the end it's hard to listen to anything he's saying in that monotonous whine. Having worked as a critic myself, I know that complaints have a lot more impact when you mix them up with a few compliments here and there. This piece is just unpleasant.