FauxPas

28 minutes ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:

Hm less troubled by them than by the babydoll is-it-a-nightie-or-is-it-a-slip that Martins' Juliet has to skitter around in while everyone else remains fully clothed. 

Hmmm... Now that I think about it, I may need to add Martins' Swan Lake and Romeo+Juliet to the list of NYCB art crimes. 

Now that Alexei Ratmansky is a resident choreographer at NYCB, perhaps he can create his own versions for the company.  The crayola Per Kirkeby sets and costumes could be sent to the New Jersey landfill.

2 hours ago, SaraBW said:

Longtime lurker, first time poster: I do appreciate the willingness to evaluate our prejudices about various aesthetics as ballet evolves. I remember when Sara Mearns first came on the scene. I really disliked her "look." Her broad, high shoulders/short neck, in particular, bothered me a lot. As I watched her perform, I fell in love with her style and musicality and now I'm a onboard to see anything she does. I was so used to the "typical" Balanchine look that I almost didn't give her a chance. And I don't mind seeing dancers who are bigger than what has been the super-skinny (often unhealthy) norm for so long. I just want to see beautiful technique and artistry. If that isn't there, then the dancer's body becomes a distraction. It's such a fine line to walk, especially for dancers whose bodies don't fit the "ideal," and I absolutely appreciate that. With Ashley Border, it just seems so clear that it's time for retirement, that her body just isn't going to be capable anymore of what it once was, and that's rough to watch. Her Instagram post last night made my heart hurt - it definitely won't endear her to her colleagues and reinforces the impression that she's not ready to exit the stage with grace. I can't imagine how hard it is for a dancer who's had so much success to transition to the next phase. I feel for her.

Bravo on your first post Sara.  It is a really tricky line to navigate because it is a fraught and emotional subject that is also a very sensitive one.  There is a few extra pounds and/or a deteriorated technique but the two don't always go together.  There are thin dancers who are "out of shape" technically and there are dancers who may be perceived as overweight but are dancing well with good technique.  Of course dancing well with good technique regularly is cardio and promotes thinness in a dancer, being overweight can impede stamina and flexibility impeding technical ability (but not always).  Tyler Angle is thinner but still a little over the weight he was before the pandemic but he is dancing well with good technique.  Preston Chamblee was heavier and dancing with effort and diminished flexibility - this season he has come back strongly and is looking lean and mean and ready for bigger things.

I think that Jonathan Stafford, Wendy Whelan and the rest of the administrative and coaching staff are aware that dancers were coming off of a two-year enforced break.  So certain dancers were allowed to find their way back slowly.  Many dancers have been injured especially when going back to dancing full time after a long break.  (Ashley has been injured  including a big one in her first Fall season in 2021 right after the pandemic and then another severe one early last year)  So I think everyone has been a little more forgiving.  Also many of these senior dancers, like Bouder, were colleagues of Jonathan and Wendy and they are not going to kick them out unceremoniously.  (However, Abi Stafford was something of a special case...)  Jared Angle clearly was past his best and most useful years as a principal and was not cast in anything but smaller roles with just partnering, no solos.  But he was allowed to stay on for a few years until he found a position abroad as a dance master.  There seems to be a policy of not enforcing retirements or kicking people out until they are ready/willing to go.  Is that always a good policy?

In the case of Bouder she seems to have little self-awareness of how badly her technique and physical conditioning have declined.  She can make accusations of weight discrimination and age discrimination but the bottom line is - Can you dance?  How well can you dance?  Are you able to handle the repertory?  If you can't dance well and do justice to the choreography, don't stay on the stage.   She also doesn't seem to be a team player.

Bouder when she was pregnant with her first child kept dancing past the point where she was showing and in difficult classical roles.  I remember a Sugar Plum Fairy in "Nutcracker" where Andie Veyette had to change the partnering and adjust the lifts to accommodate the baby bump.  Bouder was taking company classes late into her third trimester doing pirouettes on pointe, etc.  After she had the child and had gained weight, Ashley hired a trainer and worked hard in the studio and classes to get back into shape, lose the weight and reclaim her old, demanding classical repertoire.  She did that (but I felt with some loss of fluidity and grace).  Management may have assumed that after the pandemic enforced hiatus and the various injuries, Ashley would have the same determined work ethic. Well it's over two and a half years later and she still hasn't recovered her technique...

That Ashley is not today's Ashley.  Maybe her body can't bounce back any more.  She is retreating into victimhood and accusations.  Under Peter Martins there were times when principal dancers were let go without a retirement performance (especially if it was felt they couldn't perform well in such a program).  Nilas Martins, his own son, was one of those dancers who was retired with no celebration or announcement.  If Bouder continues to make problems on social media and run to the press and appear on TV belittling management then I would not blame them if she wasn't rehired for next year and simply dropped with no parting celebration.  I wouldn't want to be the one to have the "conversation" with her about a quiet, graceful, timely retirement.  The board member or whoever who told her privately a year or more ago that it was time to look at a life after dance may have thought they were being kind and helpful.  Their intervention led to a tearful Instagram rant that lasted several minutes.

I also wonder how this top leadership person supposedly told the audience not to clap for Ashley?  Did they address the audience from the stage?  Was there an announcement over the loudspeaker?  Did they put a flyer in the program "Don't applaud Ashley, it will only encourage her"?  I mean maybe the company leader told their companions in their row to not applaud her?  Were company members attending the performance told not to clap before the show started?  Okay but is that the public slight that Ashley was suggesting?  It seems a private internal matter.

I wonder if contracts for next season have been signed already.

The first live performance by ABT that I ever saw was February 1989 in Chicago at the Lyric Opera House.  I saw the "Kingdom of the Shades" performed on a mixed program as a standalone.  The soloists were Marianna Tcherkassky and I believe Danilo Radojevic.  It was done as a standalone several times in the 70's and 80's though I attended only full-length "La Bayadere" performances once I moved to New York City in the 90's.  Makarova had no problem with the Shades act being performed as part of a mixed program back then and probably wouldn't now.  However, she is in her early 80's with bad arthritis and if ABT wants her to coach the new generation of dancers it has to be done pronto.  I think Makarova would not be open to revising her full-length production to cater to politically correct sensibilities, but I am not living in her brain so I wouldn't know for sure.  But her production honored and redacted the Konstantin Sergeyev production she danced in St. Petersburg in the 1960's and early 1970's.

BTW: slightly off-topic but on Sunday evening I attended the Ajkun Ballet Theater's 90 minute abridged version of "La Bayadère" which they performed in a dance studio behind City Center on Saturday and Sunday.  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/la-bayadere-tickets-713848950427?aff=oddtdtcreator.  They will bring it back on August 10th and 11th for those suffering from acute Bayadère withdrawal.  Now they only had 6 corps dancers (2 of which were soloists) and no ramp (or any scenery), so the descent of the Shades was omitted.  The music was on tape.  I will not suggest that these plucky and charming dancers are the technical or artistic equals of American Ballet Theater, the Mariinsky or the Paris Opéra Ballet which I have seen perform the ballet.  (I have yet to see the Bolshoi Grigorovich production but that isn't in the cards given the current political situation.)  Anyway I enjoyed what they offered of the ballet and was reminded why I love it so much.  Areum Jeong performed Gamzatti and didn't simplify or omit anything difficult and was a pleasure to watch.  Klevis Tafaj as Solor is very handsome and a good strong partner.  There is something about watching a classical ballet in the intimacy of a studio less than 10 feet from the dancers sharing the same space. 

Tamara Rojo made a trenchant comment about how there will always be people who are offended by this or by that, and if we limit art to what doesn't offend anyone we'll have bad art and lose a lot of great art.

The Kingdom of the Shades from La Bayadère is a central, historic part of ABT's repertoire.  I shudder at the thought of it being banned from our stages especially since the Russian companies can no longer tour here.

That means there will be generations of audiences who will be denied the opportunity to see it live in New York City.

I previously made a suggestion that ABT put together a Petipa evening.  They could do the Kingdom of the Shades, the Hunting of the Larks from "Harlequinade" and then pas de deux and solos from "Sleeping Beauty" (the Ratmansky production was to be revived with many role debuts in 2020 but was canceled with the rest of that season).  Maybe parts of "Paquita" or the whole "Paquita Grand Pas".  That would be a great evening.   Petipa's "The Cavalry Halt" still exists and can be staged for ABT- I think Gelsey Kirkland's company did it.

I bought two tickets at the box office for the upcoming ABT season - "Woolf Works" June 28 "Honoring Alessandra Ferri" because it will be her de facto farewell and the July 6 evening "Swan Lake" because I haven't seen Brandt as Odette/Odile and Cornejo's days in classical lead roles are limited.  Otherwise, I will see what shows end up discounted.  "Onegin" is never that popular and the current crop of dancers can't match Vishneva, Gomes, Osipova, Kent, Bolle et al.  I think Camargo is potentially wonderful as Onegin.  Camargo might get me to see "Like Water for Chocolate" a second time.  I also have some interest in Catherine Hurlin and a lot of interest in Chloe Misseldine (and Aran Bell) in "Swan Lake".  But I can wait for the rest.  "Romeo and Juliet" I really need a break from.

So if we want to start predicting the 2025 Summer ABT season we have "Giselle", "Crime and Punishment" and the inevitable "Swan Lake" with maybe another classical ballet?  I hope NOT "Romeo and Juliet".  "Don Quixote"?  That would have some variety.

I think if ABT wants to revive "Woolf Works" it could probably be staged perfectly well at the New York State (K*ch) Theater for the Fall season.

Not loving the shortened Met season and the lack of classical rep.  They need to do some classics like "Don Quixote" or a new "Coppelia" at the State Theater.

Sadly, Jonathan Klein, corps dancer but potential soloist (and likely principal) material has left the company with his wife Emily Hayes to spend more time managing their skin care line.

Also several people have mentioned that the Studio Company has strong talent and several members have joined as apprentices and corps.

Names that spring to mind are Elisabeth Beyer, Finian Carmeci, Cy Doherty (a dance actor it seems), Takumi Miyake, Madison Brown, Andrew Robare, Alejandro Valera Outlaw, Kyra Coco and probably one or two I've missed.

They need to be utilized stat.  Beyer and Miyake are outstanding talents.

Just a note that looking at the corps roster - Jonathan Klein is no longer a member of ABT.  He is off the roster.  A real loss.

47 minutes ago, its the mom said:

Who retired to make room for the other three? 

Well, several male soloists were promoted to principal which opened up slots (including character dancer/actor Roman Zhurbin).  Gabe Stone Shayer was fired.  Joseph Gorak either left or wasn't rehired.  So that opened up even more slots.  Plus over the pandemic veteran male soloists like Alexandre Hammoudi and Arron Scott retired/were let go.  So spaces were definitely there.

I think that being injured is a hindrance to promotion and that was what probably sidelined Zimmi Coker this time around.  However, Katharine Williams is retiring and Luciana Paris and Zhong-Jing Fang (sadly) are near (or past) retirement age. 

So there is room to advance.

On 2/18/2024 at 6:45 PM, BalanchineFan said:

I’m really not following your point. It seems to me that if there are two people, then you have two oppositional forces. 
We’ve seen the duet in TTAR as male/female, male/male and non-binary/nonbinary. It’s still two people doing the steps, doing their best to dance together. How do dialectics and binaries come into it?

All I will say is that I saw Ashton Edwards and Taylor Stanley in TTAR and I didn't get a sense of opposition or of being in two different worlds.  What I got were two individuals who were were isolated/lacking community and joyously found one in each other.  That sense of connecting and finding yourself in the right place with the right people and being in your community.  There was a feeling of joyous bonding.  Edwards was radiant onstage and projecting JOY and Stanley was very present and engaged.

We like to sort of push sexuality into black and white extremes on the furthest opposite poles of the Kinsey Scale.  There are infinite shades of gray. 

But there are also different forms of self-identification and presentation.  Edwards is biologically male but was presenting very female.  Taylor Stanley is biologically male but was more cisgender in his presentation in this ballet.  The way that a dancer may present onstage is not the way they present offstage.  For example, the Broadway actor Brandon Uranowitz can play very serious masculine guys onstage but I saw him interviewed on the Tony's red carpet and he is extremely flamboyant and effeminate offstage.  I don't have a problem with that.

The "Brandon Uranowitz" of NYCB is Gilbert Bolden who can present very serious, weighted and masculine onstage (as in the Barber Violin Concerto) and sexy in a macho way.  However, in his real life and attending galas Bolden loves to genderfuck and wear high heels and cross dress in very outrageous feminine fashion like a peacock.  Per instagram, Bolden uses the pronouns "He/Him".  Meanwhile checking Taylor Stanley's instagram they present as cisgender in private life (and seems happily partnered with Alec Knight).

So the pronouns are a very personal thing and the self-presentation and self-identification can vary widely.

In ballet we have all seen very gay and feminine male dancers who have had to "butch it up" onstage and in the studio in order to get cast.  In standard ballet, traditional gender roles are rigidly enforced.  So the debut of Ashton Edwards with Taylor Stanley partnering was a joyous opening up to more diversity.  I think the community of Peck's "The Times are Racing" is open to trans, non-binary, whatever... 

I didn't get a sense of compromise or political correctness or virtue signaling at the expense of artistic integrity but a sense of joy, connection and discovery from the pairing.  The world of that particular ballet is about finding and creating community - there is room in that community for the very different alternative gender identifications of Edwards and Stanley.  And it added another level of narrative and message to the ballet.

I was there last night and must agree with all of the above - everyone seemed to have settled in, worked out the kinks and were more on their game.  Mira Nadon was on another exalted level from her very fine colleagues.

I too was impressed with Preston Chamblee who was looking beefy and out of shape last season - he is lean and mean and on form these days.  He is needed.

Another possible improvement is that in the pause between the halves of "Liebeslieder Walzer" the curtain came down but so the lights were only put on at a lower level - so clearly it wasn't like another intermission with the lights full on.

I attended the Sunday matinee

1) Polyphonia — I didn't always enjoy the Ligeti music (not all of it is danceable) but Wheeldon's combinations are beautiful.   Davide Riccardo looked very elegant replacing Aaron Sanz.  I enjoyed the work for its use of space and the excellent group choreography.  Emilie Gerrity looked particularly warm and engaging in her waltz section.

2) Barber Violin Concerto — I think this is one of Peter Martins' better efforts.  Merrill Ashley was seated behind me - she has been coaching the women in "Barber Violin Concerto" and "Ballo della Regina".  A few things - Mearns was very good but she is very different from Merrill Ashley.  Ashley was always perceived as a "cool" technical virtuoso.  Martins' choreographic concept keeps the "classical" couple elegant, balletic and restrained to begin with and then when they dance with the "modern" partners they loosen up.  Seeing Ashley with her hair down, sexualized, abandoned and passionate was a surprise.  No surprise with Sara Mearns, beautifully as she suggested the contrast, as we know Mearns can be passionate, sensual and abandoned.  Gil Bolden looked great and is riveting onstage.  He then joined the corps in "The Times are Racing" though he wasn't listed in the program.  Suspect that he was replacing an injured colleague in an assignment he had left behind.  Emma Van Enck was the "modern" girl and seemed to relish stamping her feet, throwing her hair around and jumping on the so elegant, so game Alec Knight (he is really emerging and looking great).  It was fun.  No masterpiece.

3) The Times Are Racing — this ballet has a great energy.  Ashton Edwards had a lot of fans in the audience and a lot of support onstage from the company and their partner Taylor Stanley.  Lots of hugs and cheers at Edwards' curtain calls.  They looked radiant.  I loved Harrison Coll in full James Dean/Jeremy Allen White mode (if they were a dancer) - great work with KJ Takahashi.  Alexa Maxwell also did yeoman duty doubling in the Wheeldon and this and looking great in both roles.

I agree - not necessarily.  BTW: I was wondering about Preston Chamblee.  His recent Instagram post has a valedictory tone to it:  https://www.instagram.com/p/C2QCJwaAD7B/?img_index=1

8 minutes ago, abatt said:

Tiler Peck is still in total command as far as spinning skills and musicality, but she did not have the requisite flexibility in her back to do that Plisetskaya head kick I have seen others do in Fall.  Small quibble.

Tiler hasn't been taking those risks for a long time since her back and neck injuries.  Tiler used to also go off center in turns and pirouettes like she was going to throw herself out of the steps but would pull herself back in at the last moment.  No more.  She also used to sort of do a pause at the apex of a difficult step in time with the music - creating a risky kind of freeze frame moment.  No more.  She is still amazing.

BTW:  on the online casting sheet for Week 3, I see Sanz listed in "Hallelujah Junction" and "Copland Dance Episodes".  Also, Ashley Bouder is still MIA and I thought we might get her in "Liebeslieder Waltzes".  Maybe a second cast?

I was there last night.  Naomi Corti was the winner of the Janice Levin award.  By the way, Jonathan Stafford and Corti were both reading prepared speeches which sounded rather canned and flat as a result.  Corti loosened up a bit.

"Fancy Free" got a terrific performance with a very stylish mambo from Jovani Furlan.  I find the ballet overprogrammed (I saw many ABT performances with the likes of Corella, Carreno, Gomes and Stiefel back in the day).  Still this cast was diverting. 

"In the Night" is lovely (the Mariinsky performed it at BAM many moons ago).  Alec Knight and Olivia MacKinnon were really tender and radiant as the young couple - he especially had elegant upper body carriage and arms.  Sara Mearns and Tyler Angle were both looking good - both have the maturity for their roles.  Angle had to lift and rotate Mearns over his head and was still a strong partner.  However, he is not that tall and the rotating moves would have worked better visually with a taller partner.  Once Mearns had to bend her leg when coming down from a lift into arabesque.

Andrew Veyette and Unity Phelan were good as the passionate couple - Phelan seemed connected to her role and had some authority (which isn't always the case).  But it also seemed a little like they were still figuring it out.  Lots of potential though.

"The Four Seasons" was fun throughout.  Emma Van Enck sparkled with Devin Alberda and Villarini-Velez as her jumping duo in "Winter".  Huxley and Woodward were fresh and buoyant in "Spring".  I loved Gerrity and Danchig-Waring in "Summer" as they projected sensuality and authority.  But nothing sparkled like Tiler Peck, Roman Mejia (in whiz bang virtuoso form) and an elfin playful KJ Takahashi in "Autumn".  The evening ended on an exciting note.

Yes it ended late but I went home happy.  Though I missed the last M12 bus...

The McKenzie Nutcracker I saw at the Metropolitan Opera House sometime in the aughts.  It was performed during the summer season and it is very hazy in my recollection.  I remember there were two ballerina roles (as in Balanchine) and that Julie Kent was the Sugarplum and Paloma Herrera was the other ballerina (not a Snow Queen but not sure).  It wasn't memorable I guess. 

One thing that helped the Ratmansky "Nutcracker" was that the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School had been founded.  So there were trained children available to the company.  In fact, I believe Clara/Marie/Masha in the first season in 2010 was a very young Catherine Hurlin who has grown up to become a home-trained principal ballerina and danced the grown up Clara in the Ratmansky version.  I must have seen her since she danced opening night.  There's an old program buried in storage somewhere.

I think City Center is a worthy option and Ailey or whatever could be shifted.  Also there is a new venue downtown, the Perelman Performing Arts Center near the World Trade Center.  They could do a week there.

The Ratmansky "Nutcracker" played its first season at BAM in Brooklyn.  Initially it was a hot ticket.  Brooklyn has millions of residents and is easily accessible from Manhattan by public transportation.  But after the first few years, the attendance at BAM dropped.  There were discounts available for the shows which I took advantage of in later seasons.  This was the era of prime Gillian Murphy, Veronika Part, Marcelo Gomes, David Hallberg, Herman Cornejo et al.  (I saw almost all these dancers in it with the exception of Hallberg)  Yet it didn't sell after a few years and the venue changed after that to the Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa, California.

The Met has been closing in Winter - the whole month of February.  I have often wished a ballet company would guest at the Met in February as they sometimes did in the summer back in the day.  That is now awkward because ABT has been pushed further into July due to the longer Metropolitan Opera Spring season.  And many of the August/September weeks are used for tech rehearsals for the upcoming Metropolitan Opera season.

The Ratmansky "Nutcracker" would look good on the City Center stage and they have something of a subscription base.  I would love to see Cate Hurlin and Aran Bell in "The Nutcracker".  

On 12/11/2023 at 7:13 AM, California said:

It's not surprising that Cornejo is slipping technically.   People saw the same thing in his Etudes and Dream performances this fall. This isn't in a league with Nureyev's painfully visible deterioration when he refused to leave the stage, but I hope Cornejo is realistic about his strengths and increasing weaknesses and retires on a high note.

Cornejo didn't dance Puck in "The Dream" this Fall.  It was Roxander and Magbitang.  Cornejo danced Puck in Fall 2022, I saw one and it was good but not the unreal aerial miracle it was in the aughts.  

I saw his second and last performance in "Etudes" on the Saturday matinee of October 21.  He actually danced very well that afternoon, according to a friend much better than he danced at the prima.  

Cornejo has good and bad nights, like any dancer in his 40's with age and injury piling up.  When he is good, which still happens, he is worth it all.

BTW: on his social media his mentioned that the "Giselle" Albrecht in Japan will be his last, so he is letting go of roles.  Which is wise.

After seeing the casting, I decided to go hardcore and do a double header on Saturday getting standing room in the morning for both the matinee and evening shows...  (needed some extra time in bed this morning)

So I saw the Ashley Laracey-Davide Riccardo evening performance.  

First of all, both performances were excellent with strong casting throughout.

On Saturday night, Ashley Laracey looks like a seasoned, commanding principal ballerina - not an aging soloist.  Balances were secure, port de bras was finished and lovely and she was technically in command throughout.  Nothing extra - just beautiful line and aristocratic elegance.  Laracey projected a mature, queenly presence that radiated serenity and grace.

Davide Riccardo looked every inch the romantic prince and he was an attentive and strong partner in the tricky pas de deux - no gaffes or iffy moments.  The jumps to the shoulder went off without a hitch.

His solo was quite fine but only suffered in comparison with Roman Mejia's aerial jumps with beats that seemed to rise in the air and whiplash tours a la seconde.

Riccardo needed to get onstage faster to reach center stage for his series of tours which he danced a little stage left - those things that come with more stage experience.

Indiana Woodward was a scintillating Dewdrop.

In that performance I enjoyed Lars Nelson and Mary Elizabeth Sell as Dr. and Frau Stahlbaum with Adam Hendrickson as Herr Drosselmeier.

I was impressed by the young corps dancer David Gabriel as the Candy Cane.  I think he has done Harlequin (?) in "La Sonnambula" and impressed me there too.  I liked him better than K.J. Takahashi in the afternoon performance, Gabriel was smoother and had more ease.

Miriam Miller was a lithe long-limbed Coffee but had an iffy landing from a turn - I preferred the langourous Olivia Boisson at the matinee.

Baily Jones was a very spritely and animated Marzipan lead.  The role fits her just right.

In the afternoon, Tiler Peck and Roman Mejia were the Sugarplum and her Cavalier.  Mejia used his strength to see that Peck came down slowly from every lift light as a feather.   The balances were held long, the arabesque on the sliding device was silky smooth and the jumps up on the shoulder were impressive.  Peck did some swirling upward arm motion during a supported pirouette that made her port de bras look like a fountain.  (Laracey just did an elegant classic en couronne pose). Tiler was both girlish and spritely while projecting good fairy authority as the Sugarplum.  Lovely arms and quick turns in the coda.  Mejia seemed to float upward in his turns and cabrioles and made the Cavalier a bravura role, though brief.

Miriam Miller was the Dewdrop and had a very good afternoon.  She is tall and long-limbed so created a slightly slower but lusher plastique in the role.  Technically it was fine and she maintained speed but never looked brittle.  The jetées where one leg does a little articulated movement while the rear leg goes upward were excellent.  Miller is quite glamorous onstage and looks sensual.  I sometimes have found Miller bland or tentative, lacking core strength and technically uneven - not so here.  She had authority and strength.

The strong casting extended to Emma Van Enck as a vivacious, technically impeccable Marzipan.  I loved Olivia Boisson as Coffee and also Preston Chamblee as a sassy, befuddled and vain Mother Ginger with RuPaul attitude. 

Gilbert Bolden III had an interesting double act doing a very paternal and gracious host Dr. Stahlbaum in the matinee and returning for a very bouncy, flouncy Mother Ginger in the evening.  He was more motherly than Chamblee.

The children (same in the morning and evening shows) were good.  The dark-haired Marie was feisty in the Mouse King Battle but the Prince mimed well but was walking in a very dance-ey way - self-consciously turning out and pointing his toes even when crossing the stage.  The Fritz was cute but needed clearer facial expressions to project brattiness.

The casting looked great and delivered what it promised.  Wish I could see Emma Van Enck as the Dewdrop and Sugarplum and India Bradley and others.  The social media photos of Alexa Maxwell as the Dewdrop were from a guest performance at the Eastern Connecticut Ballet.  (Unity Phelan was also guesting, former NYCB dancer Gloria Govrin is the director).  Hope Maxwell gets to debut the Dewdrop at her home company.

Something to look forward too in 2024!

10 hours ago, Belka said:

I saw Devon Teuscher in what I believe was her O/O debut (with Marcelo Gomes) years ago at the Kennedy Center. What do you all recommend, is Misseldine the show to see for this KC run? I have never seen Catherine Hurlin or Christine Shevchenko perform either.

I think all three are worth seeing.  Take a look at the Prince Siegfried and see where your preferences are there. Misseldine has Aran Bell, so that's a yes.  Hurlin has Whiteside who has had injuries and is never at his very best in pure "prince" roles.  So a maybe there.  I have seen Schevchenko and Royal, and though I like her, I am less sold on him and I think their partnership is so-so.  Maybe a pass on that one.

I'm beyond shocked that on Christmas Eve, Emma Von Enck is finally debuting as the Dewdrop - with her turning, jumping and allegro skills it seems a no-brainer role for her...

On 12/5/2023 at 5:11 PM, abatt said:

Interesting debuts.  I'm surprised Miriam Miller is only now debuting Sugarplum.  Emma gets her debut Dewdrop  in the final show.  

Circa 1993, right after having a huge success in the unsuccessful "The Red Shoes" musical on Broadway, National Ballet of Canada ballerina Margaret Illmann (Australian born) was invited to dance "The Red Shoes" ballet by Lar Lubovitch (excerpted from the show) at NYCB.  Illmann also stayed to dance "Symphony in C".  She didn't stay after that season.

Just a note that ABT put up this video featuring Stella Abrera, Susan Jaffe and Sascha Radetsky on YouTube and it is expiring on December 3rd:  

Panelists: Sascha Radetsky, Susan Jaffe, and Stella Abrera Performances by ABT Studio Company Join the conversation with panelists Susan Jaffe, Stella Abrera, and Sascha Radetsky as they discuss @AmericanBalletTheatre Studio Company and their dedication to developing the next generation of extraordinary dance talents. The evening will feature live performances by the Company’s emerging stars, highlighting excerpts from their current repertoire, including The Seasons by Alexi Ratmansky, Don Quixote, and an upcoming premiere by Jamar Roberts. This event will be livestreamed and available on-demand Nov 20 to Dec 3.

On 11/16/2023 at 9:55 PM, vipa said:

I was surprised to see Pollack's name,  even though it's not a debut. Glad to see she's fully back.  Another surprise for me, again not a debut, was Erica Pereira cast in both SP and Dewdrop. 

Last year I was gifted a ticket for a "Nutcracker" and the Sugarplum was Erica Pereira.  Again, she is not one of my favorites as I feel she dances "small" - does all the steps but without amplitude and authority.  Basically a perennial soloist.

However, I was surprised and delighted to find that Pereira was a lovely Sugarplum - she did dance with amplitude and authority and radiated tons of sweetness and charm.  I wasn't expecting much and was really surprised and delighted with her.