FauxPas

1 hour ago, Lena C. said:

The good news of the promotions is, for me at least, darkened by Lane's unjust termination. If there was any hint of a legitimate reason...but there's nothing. Lane was at the top of her game for her D.C. Giselle and Richmond Swan Lake. Nothing unsavory in her personal life.

I would say the handwriting was on the wall when sometime during the 2018-2019 season, Lane became professionally (if not personally) alienated from two of her most crucial artistic collaborators: Alexei Ratmansky and Herman Cornejo.

Both these men are known as good colleagues and Ratmansky was an ally and mentor to Lane.  When Sarah lost their support and collaboration, her days at ABT were numbered.  I won’t assign blame or guilt since I don’t know what happened but Sarah must have done something professionally or personally to lose their support. 

Perhaps because the Fall 2020 ABT season was canceled, Sarah has been given enough months of lead time per the union contract before the next ABT season?  If Sarah Lane is being notified now that her contract is not being renewed as a principal dancer, she has a certain number of months to look for another job.  It is still a not nice way of going about things but that is show biz, folks.

Also, of course any soloist promotions will not be be made until late 2021.  But new soloists need to be developed from the corps which means that dancers need to be chosen and trained in soloist roles.

All of the principal promotions (and one soloist promotion) are richly deserved.  Sarah Lane has also not updated her Facebook page which states that she is an ABT principal and company member since 2002.  She has a bunch of online master classes scheduled.  I wish Sarah the best wherever she goes next.  San Francisco Ballet has a repertory that would suit Sarah well.  So does Pacific Northwest Ballet.

I do see that with all these promotions to principal, the soloist roster is rather scanty.  Arron Scott and Alexandre Hammoudi have both retired this past season without an actual farewell performance.  Shall we discuss who among the ABT corps is worthy of some soloist assignments whenever performances resume?  Keeping an eye on the next generation of ABT leading dancers?

Eric Tamm I always felt was principal material and was on that path until he decided to move away from ballet.  His friend and former business partner Luis Ribagorda is a talented dancer (also Sarah Lane's husband).  Marshall Whiteley I think could be a danseur noble with his height and good looks.  He also is interested in acting and has potential as Prince Siegfried, Albrecht and Romeo.  Luigi Crispino, Cameron McCune, Jonathan Klein, Patrick Frenette, Carlos Gonzalez and Tyler Maloney have potential to do more.  Among the corps ladies: Scout Forsythe, Zimmi Coker, Erica Lall and Betsy McBride are good bets.

In the 1970's, ABT played its Spring/Summer season at the New York State Theater (now the K*ch).  In fact, the videos of Makarova in "Giselle" (with Misha) and "Swan Lake" (with Nagy) are filmed at the NY State Theater.  They could open their season after NYCB closes in late May and play until July.  Most of their productions are designed to tour different theaters so the sets are flexible, so why not move their Spring season to another house?

One problem about extending their Met season into July is that the Metropolitan Opera starts prepping productions on the Met stage in July and starts rehearsing in August for their late September opening.

What makes Sarah Lane's IG post even more problematic is that if it is aimed at Skylar Brandt, we have a principal bashing a soloist for using money to get roles.  Within the company hierarchy, Lane is higher in rank than Brandt.  So it looks like someone who is privileged and powerful bashing someone who is trying to rise within the company.  Maybe Lane feels that she is not privileged or powerful at all at ABT and that could be the problem.  Of course, Lane must be very aware of the fact that she is not being cast as much as several of her colleagues.  Even Ratmansky who has been very much a Lane supporter has not cast her in his new ballet and her role of The Rose in his "The Seasons" is TBA this Spring despite the fact that Lane created the role.  Another issue is that Skylar Brandt is a very petite dancer as is Lane - Brandt is younger and a more consistent technician.  Definitely there is the factor of competition for roles.

Also, it is very evident from all the extra coaching sessions that Brandt posts on Instagram that she is working very hard indeed. 

Sadly, NYSusan did not opt to go to Kolesnikova and the St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre, instead attending NYCB's "Swan Lake".  I did go on the Saturday opening night (I did a double header "Swan Lake" weekend with NYCB "Swan Lake" on the Sunday matinee with Mearns and Côté.)  

First of all, it is a nice traditional and conservative production - basically a cut down bus and truck version of the 1950 Konstantin Sergeyev "Swan Lake" from the Kirov-Mariinsky Theater.  The sets are almost identical designs.  If you remember, the Mariinsky brought the actual Sergeyev "Swan Lake" to the BAM Opera House five years ago.  Though it was thrilling to see the dancers, the sets looked like they were pushed too far forward on the shallow BAM stage and the dancers looked cramped.  This smaller scale copy fits ideally on the BAM stage.  There are 22 swans in Act II, with 16 usually onstage and the Act III national dancers usually have four to six dancers in toto.  It works fine.  The company looks like a pickup group - the corps and soloist women were better than the men.  The corps lack the unity of style and precision of the Mariinsky or Bolshoi corps but looked well-drilled.  Denis Rodkin of the Bolshoi was borrowed to dance Prince Siegfried on the SPBT tour which proved a definite asset.  It would impossible to identify the other dancers in the Act I pas de trois, cygnets or national dancers since there was no program distributed for the performance - not even a digital e-program one could access on your mobile device.  There was a deluxe souvenir program you could purchase from the gift shop but I passed on it.

Irina Kolesnikova who is in her late thirties is an elegant old-school dancer of the Kirov school.  She has long arms and a pliable back but very strong legs and feet.  Her extensions are strictly textbook and there are no 6:00 developpes out there.  Her Odette is very slow, liquid and stately in the old school with languid adagio phrasing.  Kolesnikova manages to work in some variety and emotional nuances into this slow phrasing and has a certain straightforward vigor that keeps her White Swan from lapsing into mannerism.  Her Act IV Odette was particularly moving.  (There is the mandated Soviet happy ending.)  Her Odile is well danced without being as individual.  Again, she has strong pointes and is a solid turner and hit 32 (or thereabouts) single fouettés in the side kick Russian style ending on a multiple with the music.  I will not criticize the Odile solo (the traditional Kirov one) since the orchestra at that point totally fell part leaving Kolesnikova stranded at times not knowing where to come in.  Kolesnikova was a total professional:  she posed and waited until a recognizable phrase emerged she could dance to and kept it together.  Rodkin was a handsome, noble and attentive partner who didn't get an Act I reflective solo - was it dropped or does this production not have one?  He was a great partner to Kolesnikova in each act and really put emotion on the stage.

A certain Chamber Orchestra of New York was in the BAM pit, they started out well in Acts I and II.  I suspect that was all they had rehearsed.  But by Act III there were whole orchestral parts being left out or coming in at different times.  I started to hear shouts, loud shushing and singing emerging from the pit and thought a madman had wandered in there.  Well it was the conductor Timur Gorkovenko going insane attempting to restore musical sanity and get something resembling Tchaikovsky out of this band.  

I thought that Kolesnikova was lovely and preferable to many Odette/Odile interpreters in major companies, a friend felt she was the prima ballerina of a second tier company, no more, no less.   I found the company, the ballerina and the production charming and refreshingly unpretentious and satisfying.  I was glad I went.  A largely local Russian audience were very enthusiastic at the final curtain calls.  Hopefully the production will continue to cohere and that orchestra will get their act together.

Lane is the other small ballerina who has danced Giselle with Herman but she danced it the night before.   Brandt and Cornejo have been rehearsing I am sure for the past few days.   

Also, Brandt wants to make principal badly, this was evident in the NY Times interview/profile.   This is her test for which she has been preparing for months.   Giselle was also the role that broke through for Abrera and Lane to make principal rank.   Brandt will seize the opportunity and nail it, Mark my words.

Hello everyone, I found online this Cambridge Scholars introduction to reprints of the scores of Giselle, La Sylphide and Le Corsaire.  There is a long explanatory introduction about the changes to the score over the years with music added by Bergmuller, Minkus and in the case of the Act II finale - Boris Asafiev.  The notes are by Robert Ignatius Letellier and reflect his research:
https://www.cambridgescholars.com/download/sample/58856

"No. 16 In connection with the changes to the end of the ballet (the removal of the appearance of Bathilde, the
hunters and the courtiers after Giselle’s disappearance), in 1913-14 a new variation of the music of the finale
was composed by B. Afanasiev, which is performed in the theatres of our country to this day. Because of the
major difference in the number of bars the composer’s finale is printed separately (Appendix I)."

"3) Boris Vladimirovich Asafiev (1884-1949)
Asafiev provided a variant of the final bars of the ballet for Russian productions in 1913-14. This allows the
ballet to end quietly, instead of the vigorous closing bars that follow on Albrecht’s collapse in the original score.
The Asafiev version is now included as an alternative in published versions of the score (as in the arrangement
by Henri Busser and the Pas de Deux edited by Daniel Stirn). In the Russian version it is given as the preferred
ending, with the original conclusion somewhat incongruously provided as the first appendix. The Asafiev
conclusion is by no means typically used in most productions."

The video clips used in this discussion have been removed from Youtube.

Here is a performance of a "Minkus Pas de Deux" to the "Giselle Pas de Deux" music as choreographed by Leonid Lavrovsky and Sofia Golovkina.  It was a Bolshoi Tokyo tour in 1985 with students or graduates from the Bolshoi School.  The dancers include Vladimir Malakhov who was a 17 year-old student at the time partnering Viktoria Melnik during the 1985 Bolshoi Ballet Academy gala in Japan.  She is less impressive (though she definitely has her moments in the coda).

Here is the Zhuraitis recording of the adagio section of the pas de deux only, the solos sound a bit circusy/Don Qish to me.  Not Romantic at all.

Here is another Bolshoi young student, Ksenia Andreenko performing the solo on a too small stage:

We have been talking about the mime that was added - what about the traditional mime that wasn't there?  The first is in the Giselle/Albrecht/Hilarion aka Hans confrontation in Act I:  When Hilarion/Hans takes out his knife to attack Albrecht, Belyakov did not do the traditional business of reaching for his sword (which he isn't wearing because he is disguised as the peasant Loys).  Belyakov just kind of waved Hans off while stopping Giselle from interposing herself between them.  This gesture of reaching for the sword hilt tips off Hilarion/Hans that Loys is not what he seems.  Of course, Hans/Hilarion has already overheard Albrecht's discussion with Wilfred at the beginning of the act, so he is already on to him, so in this staging that bit of reaching for the nonexistent sword is superfluous.  I guess that bit of business was not notated in the early French sources - the Antoine Titus and Justamant notations?  However after the village girls leave, Hilarion/Hans breaks into the hut to steal the sword to unmask Loys as Albrecht.  I think it could remain since it could give Hans the idea that the sword is probably there in the hut and could be useful.  Anyway, I miss it and it would still give Hilarion/Hans motivation to find the sword.  It should go back.

The second bit is Giselle's fainting spell during the village girl dance with Albrecht.  About half of the dance is there but the music that seems to suggest dizziness or sudden weakness is there but the fainting spell is not.  I think the music suggests it and it is excellent dramatic foreshadowing and should be retained.  That also isn't in the French sources?  It is there in the music.

Also the character usually known as the Duke of Courland (here Bathilde's father) bows to the dressed down Albrecht when he is exposed to everyone - the whole group of courtiers bow to him as if he is their sovereign lord.  Usually they seem to be equals or Albrecht is junior to the Duke.

Also in Act II, I noticed a change in Giselle's choreography as executed by Smirnova.  Usually in the Act II grand pas, the initial Giselle solo has Giselle executing a developpé with the right leg and shifting to a slow arabesque en tournant and after a little sauté then executing a developpé on the left leg and dropping into arabesque penchée.  It is very exposed and the ballerina has to be equally strong and flexible on both sides of the body.  Here is Makarova doing that combination in 1976: 

Smirnova only did what looked like one developpé very high on the right leg and then did only another very brief one on the same right leg.  Did the other Bolshoi ballerinas do that change in this production or is it exclusive to Smirnova?  Maybe a problem with her left hip?  Weird. 

Here is Olga Spessivtseva - not pigtail but a kind of ponytail.

I see little or no resemblance to Smirnova, who I like very much but prefer as Raymonda or Odette to Giselle.  Great Giselles are kind of a ballerina breed apart.

I would be fascinated to hear from Seattle_Dancer or others who can compare the PNB new/old "Giselle" to the Bolshoi Ratmansky reconstruction.  Differences, weaknesses, strengths, etc.

The Ratmansky ending looked very rushed and slightly confused to me.  Ratmansky decided to have Giselle disappear into the ground before Bathilde returns.  Wilfred comes on first leading the rescue party and then Bathilde follows (as directed by Wilfred).  Wilfred seems perturbed to see Giselle's ghost.  The original notations have Bathilde returning with the courtiers and Wilfred and Albrecht is told by Giselle to marry Bathilde and then she sinks into the earth.  Also Bathilde actively consoles and forgives Albrecht.  So it is a more dramatic scene with Bathilde taking an active part with the women on each side (the Albrecht "sandwich" as Helene called it).  Ratmansky has Bathilde come on later after Giselle is gone and Wilfred seems to be holding up an exhausted, devastated Albrecht who seems to barely look at Bathilde who reaches out to him.  Albrecht weakly returns the extended arm.  He seems way too far gone to go back with her and is half slumped.  It looks as if though Bathilde is willing to take him back, Albrecht is spiritually still with Giselle and order is not restored, really.  Like Ratmansky wants it both ways - the double forgiveness and the devastated, alone Albrecht sorrowing at the end.

According to the reviews, the PNB version works well dramatically and is moving.

By the way, this program note from the Pacific Northwest Ballet website will clarify a lot of questions we are having:

https://www.pnb.org/repertory/giselle/

It seems there were two sets of human interlopers - gamekeepers sent packing by Hans/Hilarion and then later a group of peasants returning from a festival who were saved from the Wilis by an old man.  

Some interesting points in the article by Marian Smith:

"The French manuscripts give us a marvelous opportunity to discover ways in which this ballet was performed in the first two decades of its existence, that is, before Petipa created his now-famous version of Giselle in St. Petersburg in 1884—the version that today’s productions are based on. They reveal, quite surprisingly, that Petipa’s version of the choreography was not nearly as different from that of Coralli/Perrot as dance historians have long averred. Passages in the Justamant manuscript that are choreographically similar to those in the Stepanov manuscript include many elements in the Act One Scène d’amour, sequences of steps in the Peasant pas de deux, Giselle’s first entrance in Act Two, as well as the opening of that act’s adagio for Giselle and Albrecht, and the well-known diagonal formation of the Wilis It seems that Petipa liked much of what he saw in the original choreography and kept it."

"...Third, these sources show us characters whose personalities are not quite the same as the ones we are accustomed to—for instance, this Giselle is more high-spirited and feistier. Indeed, in Act One scene iv when Loys fails to appear on time she says (in the Justamant manuscript) “Loys should have come; but he isn’t here; he’s badly behaved and I’m leaving.” When he arrives shortly thereafter, she turns her back on him, saying to herself, “There he is. He will pay me back.” This is a far cry from the emotionally delicate girl we sometimes encounter today in this scene, a girl who seems dependent on Loys’ affection for her sense of well-being and even weeps a few minutes later when the daisy-petal prognostication comes out badly. (This weeping is not mentioned in either of the French manuscripts.) Giselle also openly defies her mother in Act One scene vi and even tries to dance away with Loys at the end of the scene, and in the finale of the same act (in the Justamant manuscript) actually curses Loys. The strength of Giselle’s spirit in the first act helps explain how she is able to defy in Act Two of the most formidable character of all:  Myrtha."

"Finally, it must be pointed out that both the Justamant and Stepanov manuscripts confirm, rather unsurprisingly, that the dance vocabulary of the time was primarily petit allegro—small, fast steps, primarily jumps and beats—for both men and women, soloists and corps de ballet. Moreover, in the Stepanov manuscript, all women in dancing roles wear pointe shoes."

I saw this streamed live from the Bolshoi this afternoon.  Some corrections to the casting above:  the beloved Lyudmila Semenyaka performed the role of Berthe this afternoon and was very moving in the role.

I have to say that the added and corrected mime adds many layers to the dramatic structure of "Giselle", particularly in Act I.  There are several bits that frankly, now I cannot live without.  Even the Act I initial tableau has surprises.  We see aristocrats walking to the hunt on the upstage higher path while a moment later, peasants walk by in the opposite direction on stage level.  We see the class distinctions creating separate worlds that divide Giselle and Count Albrecht in the first few minutes.  Hans (Hilarion in most productions) comes onstage and starts to poke around Loys' hut stage right.  Albrecht/Loys and Wilfred enter and Hans hides behind a tree upstage and is a witness to their entire conversation.  He realizes from the first that Loys in an imposter and his actions are to protect Giselle, not just jealousy.  Stealing the sword is to obtain evidence proving his story.  Little bits of mime are restored that seem integral:  During Berthe's warning pantomime to Giselle about dancing herself to death and becoming a Wili, there is an admonishing finger gesture that is timed exactly to the chords in the orchestra.  Bathilde is a kind, modest noblewoman who is sympathetic to Giselle and bewildered, not angered by Albrecht's betrayal. 

The music is different and longer in some places and the dancing is majorly rearranged.  The little dance sequence early in Act I where Giselle and Albrecht dance with the village girls is mostly excised - they enter and dance but briefly.   All that dance material is pushed to the sequence late in the act where Giselle is crowned queen of the harvest festival.  That is redesigned by Ratmansky as a major "Harvest Festival Grand Pas" with the village girls Act I choreography moved there.  It starts with Giselle's diagonal "Spessivtzeva" solo, then comes the peasant pas de deux (traditional but with the steps refined and made more musical and surprising and gorgeously danced by Khokhlova and cutie Alexei Putintsev).  After that comes an expanded version of the solo that Albrecht dances earlier in the act in the standard Russian version.  This turns into an expanded pas de deux for Giselle and Albrecht.  Then we get the group corps dances from both the village girls from earlier in Act I and the harvest revelers combined for a big finish.  It is the Duke of Courland, not Bathilde who interrogates Albrecht as to why he is dressed as a peasant.A touching mad scene from Smirnova and curtain.

Giselle's actual choreography is completely identical to the standard Russian version - very little changes.  Her mime is similar but expanded with subtle and expressive dramatic details.  Albrecht's solo is expanded and slightly enlarged from the standard one usually performed earlier in the act.

Act II starts with some reveling country bumpkins who are drinking in the forest late at night to music either shortened or cut in the standard version.  The Pacific Northwest Ballet had a wise old man come on and tell the revelers to get home as it is Wili witching hour but oddly Ratmansky has Hans/Hilarion push them offstage.  He then ignores his own advice by praying over Giselle's grave.  This bit frankly can either be cut down or omitted as it is in the standard text. 

Ratmansky wanted to restore many magical theatrical trick effects to Act II that Perrot and Coralli wanted but were limited by 19th century stage machinery and technology.  So both Myrtha and Giselle entered from beneath the stage via a stage elevator through a trap door.  Myrtha seems to fly across the rear of the stage left to right via a kind of scooter.  Vlashinets is a really strong Myrtha with a huge jump and great control.  She seems to fly and float without technical assistance.  Giselle initially appears to Albrecht via an alcove covered with a scrim which is lit and she magically materializes by her grave.  Giselle (or a Giselle stand-in) later floats on wires above the stage and there is a high tree with a lever contraption for her to drop lilies on Albrecht during that initial encounter.  Those bench press lifts with Giselle horizontal have been changed to Albrecht lifting her from the waist overhead with Giselle remaining vertical - it actually looks more authentic and early 19th century that way.

The bit where the Wilis form a cross comes after Giselle's wild circle dance when she comes to life - they all circle around her and it ends with them forming a crucifix formation kneeling.  This does not make sense since the Wilis are later shown to be repelled by the cross on Giselle's grave - why would they form a cross?  The "Fugue des Wilis" comes during the Wilis capture of Albrecht (both that and the killing of Hans/Hilarion is totally restaged).  They form a circle around Albrecht and he and Giselle escape the circle and take refuge by the stone cross over her grave.  It is a brief but striking moment and Ratmansky's original choreography is imaginative and inventive.  Olga Smirnova is technically strong in Act II with excellent entrechats.  The pas de deux is mostly exactly the same but Albrecht's solo has a bit where he changes legs that exactly follows the musical structure that I now need to see performed in every production.  Smirnova got cheers for her solos, particularly her entrechats but the series en derriere didn't get off the ground very high to give that flying look.  The final coda with Albrecht doing a series of high entrechats or brisés has been changed to him dancing around the stage - I think the standard choreography gives one a stronger sense of being forced to dance oneself to death.   99% of Giselle's steps and staging are the same, Albrecht's choreography is majorly retooled.

The final scene has Giselle not returning to her own grave but to a bower stage right.  She gestures to Albrecht to remain faithful to Bathilde and then she sinks into some enveloping greenery and disappears into the ground.  I think she needs to return to her own grave at that point.  Evidently, Gauthier and Perrot wanted the covered with grass effect and delayed the premiere back in 1841 Paris.  At that point Bathilde enters and Wilfred is supporting Albrecht who reaches towards her in distress and she gazes to him with forgiveness.  The final bars of music was originally major key and triumphant rather than those sad sweet minor key phrases we hear in the standard version with Albrecht alone and stumbling around clutching the lilies.

Dramatically, this is a very effective version.  The choreographic changes will divide some people.  I mostly liked them and loved the added subtle details.  The Bolshoi performers were uniformly excellent.

There were minor technical problems with the transmission at Empire 25 Times Square.  Some regular audio dropouts in Act I, some pixelization in Act II and also red lights that randomly appeared that may have been on the Bolshoi technical crew's end.

Sean Stewart also left the ABT corps and returned.  Frankly, I am still pining for Danny Tidwell, who at last sighting was dancing in Oslo for the Norwegian National Ballet but is no longer there.  

Hello everyone, I just checked the Washington DC tour schedule.  The master calendar now shows that Skylar Brandt is dancing Giselle with Joo Won Ahn and Katherine Williams on Sunday matinee February 16th.  I am very happy for all of them!  Not sure if this was discussed before.

https://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/event/BUBSE

Gardner and McKerrow created the roles in "Some Assembly Required" (and evidently both casts did beautifully under their direction last week), Natalia Makarova coaches the "La Bayadère" production she staged and choreographed for ABT, Eddie Villella was invited by Ratmansky to coach the mime in "Harlequinade".  Gardner and McKerrow are working with the Tudor Trust as well as licensed stagers/regisseurs.  Ferri I believe coaches the MacMillan repertory having worked closely with him during her career.  I believe that both Stella Abrera and Sascha Radetsky are headed in the same direction as coaches and regisseurs.  I hope ABT makes greater use of them.  Radetsky is currently leading the studio company and is a company teacher.

I think the steep decline in the level of male dancing in the company is indicative of the lack of training and coaching available in the company.  For example, in this last run of "Theme and Variations" neither Cory Stearns nor Joseph Gorak could dance the male solo acceptably.  We will see how Joo Won Ahn does this weekend.  Since the generation of Hallberg, Gomes and Cornejo, no male dancer of that calibre has emerged from within the company.  Daniil Simkin was already an international prodigy when he joined ABT over a decade ago.  

BTW: this discussion has made me think of some ballets I wish would return to the ABT mixed repertory.  One is the "Bruch Violin Concerto" by Clark Tippet that hasn't been done in over a decade.  https://www.abt.org/ballet/bruch-violin-concerto-no-1/

Also Makarova staged the "Paquita" Grand Pas for ABT back in the eighties.  It was last done in the early nineties when I saw Julie Kent dance the lead ballerina role in it.  It would be nice if that came back either restaged by Makarova or have Ratmansky do his a new staging of his authentic version from the Harvard Sergeyev notes.  I also would love to see Ashton's "Birthday Offering" come back.

1 hour ago, BLalo said:

A great dancer does not automatically equal a great coach / teacher / director / stager / repetiteur / regisseur / choreographer / anything else.

Having experience as a dancer does not equip you for being a good coach which encompasses so much more than just “passing along things people have told me”. Not only is it having knowledge (and knowledge isn’t solely passed along from principal to principal), but it also means having a good eye and having a strong understanding of how to psychologically and emotionally get the best out of the dancer you are working with. 

My impression of a lot of Ballet Company AD's like McKenzie and Peter Martins is that they hire ballet masters who will not be a threat to their authority.  That is why Martins refused to bring back star dancers like Farrell, Villella, Patricia McBride, Allegra Kent or Melissa Hayden as ballet masters.  They had worked longer with Balanchine and could challenge his authority.  Someone like Clinton Luckett or Carlos Lopez cannot claim authority over Kevin McKenzie.  And they did not dance leading principal roles and therefore cannot teach them to someone like Aran Bell or Joseph Gorak.

Aran Bell had to go to Max Beloserkovsky to learn Romeo in the MacMillan R&J.  He had never done a lead in a dramatic ballet before.  Carlos Lopez was at best a Benvolio or Mandolin Player and couldn't coach him as Romeo.  Max evidently got the job done since Aran Bell got excellent notices for his Romeo debut including in the New York Times.

Weird thing - Boylston at age 14 did have lovely port de bras.  Here she is at age 14 at the 2001 YAGP:

BTW:  Boylston herself has been one of the most outspoken critics of the lack of coaching for the ABT dancers.  She mentioned that she was working with Susan Jaffe but when Jaffe left to take another position that it left only the octogenarian Irina Kolpakova in charge "and Kolpakova can't coach everyone".  The other two female coaches are Nancy Raffa and Susan Jones who mainly handle the corps.  The male coaches are Keith Roberts and Carlos Lopez.  Lopez was only a soloist at ABT and not a great one.  

I attended the "Masters" program on Thursday, October 17th and last night the 22nd.

Theme and Variations:  Frankly the slow tempos could be seen as adding grandeur and lyricism to the work if the dancing has enough amplitude and strength.  Devon Teuscher and Cory Stearns who are taller and longer-limbed than the other cast filled out the broader phrases better.  Stearns is also an excellent partner and carried himself well except for his solo in which he struggled through the multiple turns traveling a lot around the stage.  Teuscher really shone in the ballerina role - she actually has a Balanchine ballerina body - very elongated.  Also she is an excellent turner as the late Alicia Alonso was.  She looked like a queen on that stage.  I was sitting quite close to the stage last Thursday and Sarah did not look nervous or tight to me.  Her problems were her conductor and her partner - not small ones which can seriously derail a dancer's performance.  Otherwise, she looked lovely.  Her problem is that she is small and those slow tempos make her dancing look small and brittle because she lacks the amplitude to fill them out.  Faster tempos and a strong partner and she would sparkle in T&V like Tiler Peck and Ashley Bouder do at NYCB.  Gorak was exactly as described by the previous posters and his lack of development is disappointing in the extreme.  His coach is Keith Roberts and Gorak mentioned in an interview that upper body strength is a problem with him and that he was training to correct that.  Frankly, nothing has come of that and he is exactly in the same place he was when he started at ABT.

A Gathering of Ghosts:  I agree that this is no masterpiece.  I found it enjoyable because of Herman and a few of the supporting dancers like Christine Schevchenko and Skylar Brandt.  Herman's solos are the best thing in it and reminded me of how well Tharp worked with Mikhail Baryshnikov in the 1970's and early 1980's.  There was that same creativity and sense of fun and she released something in both Misha and Herman that was not seen with other choreographers.  When the costumes weren't pretty, they were humorous.  My advice is to totally ignore any suggestion of plot or individual characters - you can ignore "Greased Lightning" and "Madame de Stael" and "Murasaki" as they don't really show up in the choreography.  It's just Catherine Hurlin in silver shorts, Joo Won Ahn and Aran Bell up there.  And that isn't a bad thing.

The Seasons:  A choreographic masterpiece.  The weird color palette and discordant designs of the costumes and the lack of scenic designs are a problem.  I agree with the poster above who said that it looks better on the Koch/State Theater stage.  Aran Bell is just out of his teens and had a huge growth spurt less than five years ago - I think he is still growing into his new 6 foot plus body.  Hence his odd posture, etc.  He will blossom into a tall, handsome man with maturation.  The casting changes last night were Zimmi Coker replacing Cassandra Trenary as Rose, Cassandra Trenary replacing Catherine Hurlin as Autumn Bacchante.  So Hurlin was the odd woman out but she danced earlier that evening in the Tharp and is scheduled to dance in the "New Romantics" program tonight.  I suspect fatigue from a demanding schedule of performances and rehearsals is the culprit.  Stella Abrera looked so gorgeous as the Spirit of the Corn - her port de bras really looked creamy and magical and Tom Forster was an excellent partner.  He is ready for Siegfried and Albrecht.  

Agree with all that is said above.  One less reason to attend performances at ABT.  

I was suspicious that perhaps Stella was pressured to retire but this public-facing Instagram post suggests otherwise:

I will be attending Saturday and Sunday afternoon.  Hope to see some of you.

Sad to hear that this is not a good production.

Makes me angry all over again that ABT didn't buy the sets to Ratmansky's Munich Ballet "Paquita" when the company discarded the production.  That one followed the original libretto and the Harvard Library Sergeyev notations.

2 minutes ago, Marta said:

I've been wondering if the second paragraph is a serious statement.  How would casting Asian dancers in  Bugaku remove the thorny aspects of this ballet?  Shouldn't dancers be cast on merit and not race?  It's not as though we're talking about. for example, Porgy and Bess, which is mandated by the Gershwin estate to be cast with all black singers, chorus etc.

Casting Asian dancers gets rid of the yellowface problem.   No white dancers putting on black wigs and trying to look Asian.  Also the ABT dancers I suggested are mostly principals who certainly have merit and the corps dancers merit dancing corps roles.  

Discussing non-white dancers, there is also a lack of Asian dancers in NYCB.  I fell into a conversation with Wendy Whelan during the intermission of a recent performance.  I was interested in Balanchine ballets that have been out of the repertoire:  "Tzigane", "Gounod Symphony" and also "Bugaku".  Wendy replied that "Bugaku" is problematic right now with the yellowface and cultural appropriation issues.  I mentioned that "Bugaku" might fly if cast with Asian dancers and Wendy replied that they don't have that many in the company right now.  So there's that.

ABT actually has more Asian dancers and could cast Stella Abrera and Hee Seo in "Bugaku" (Hee is not ideal but she is Asian) and Joo Won Ahn as the partner - maybe Kimin Kim could guest.  Plus there are two other Asian men and two girls in the corps de ballet and Zhong Jing Fang, a soloist.  The piece requires a soloist couple and four corps couples - so five women and five men.  Allegra Kent and Edward Villella are still around to coach it.

I am still missing Danny Tidwell and Eric Tamm who also languished in the shadow of the "Born to Be Wild" generation.  Though in the case of Tidwell he got some roles like the Spectre of the Rose and mainly left because he didn't like dancing in a big company.  In the current crop, Catherine Hurlin also is being fast tracked and that is a good thing.  I will also miss Kaho Ogawa who retired due to career-ending injury, not neglect.  Among those who waited over a decade too long for big roles add the name of soloist Zhong-Jing Fang but she also had an injury but like Abrera was allowed to languish too long before opportunities and promotion.

Ahn who I saw as Solor has a very clean elegant technique but I have yet to see personality from him.  But I am glad he is getting chances.   Bell is very young and very promising - we will see if he turns into a Marcelo or into a Cory with time and experience.