aurora

Ethan just poached Stella to dance Aurora in the new Sleeping Beauty down there. Not surprised...Sascha and Stella are good friends of Stiefel's. New Zealand's gain is ABT's loss.

http://www.voxy.co.nz/entertainment/rnzb-beds-down-biggest-production-date/5/93990

Poached her? People guest star all the time, ABT dancers amongst dancers from every other company everywhere, have been doing it for years.

It is a great opportunity for her to broaden her rep with a role that she hasn't been given at ABT. If she does well at it I'm sure KM will be paying attention. No, it may not translate to her getting that role at ABT (though certainly its better suited for her than Lilac which I don't think she's right for) but it can't hurt her at ABT it can only benefit her. So good for her. And showing she has the talent and stamina and can remain injury free would go a long way towards that promotion for her that many of you have been talking about.

So why the negative light here? There is no implication she is leaving ABT for NZ!

it was not a given that the problem would be transferred to the streets which escalated the amount of smoking on the streets, especially in groups. The other option, being considered and legislated now, is a smoking ban in public spaces, confining smoking to private, indoor, non-commercial spaces.

You (and others) are ignoring the fact that many people rent their apartments and many rental agreements now preclude smoking in said apartments. So unless you are rich enough to own abode, you cannot smoke in your "private spaces."

Speaking of casting, they have not published any info on which principals will be participating in this engagement. Will we be losing Gillian to New Zealand for the fall and for Nutcracker season?

Not to be offtopic, but has there been anything to indicate she was going to cut down her ABT committment significantly or was this just due to the rampant hypothesizing regarding Stiefel's new engagement that has been going on here?

Wow at the Vaganova Shades!

Really? I know they are students but I was astounded at how *UN* synchronized they were. The leader very beautifully and elegantly lifts her leg to arabesque in a continuous movement. Others tendu and lift their leg up at the last possible moment, to I suppose save their strength, and they aren't coordinated at all. Look again and see how few of them are following the first shade or are coordinated with each other...

Individually a lot of them seem to have nice things going for them, but as a synchronized group? I don't see it.

I go to the ABT regularly but it's not really a great classical company. The lack of uniformity among the corps de ballet and principals is an automatic demerit, as is the truncated and often cheesy productions of "the classics" that they perform (their Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty are awful). They rely a lot on guest artists for their spring season, and their famous male roster is thinning rapidly.

On the other hand, I would argue that while NYCB may be a great company it is not a great classical company at ALL. It is a neoclassical company. In fact I thought this was general knowledge not an opinion.

Thanks for that bit of info. I didn't know which hand Corella wrote with, so couldn't insert that point of interest! It's what makes the choice of side for turning even more intriguing, that it doesn't (always) have to do with one's handedness!

Is there such a strong general corrolation between turning direction and handedness?

It is true that most people are right-handed and most people are right-turners. But I'm not sure that most left-turners are left-handed.

I know that (like Angel Corella) I'm not

I guess this will sound harsh, but since ABT has been presenting intl. guest artists on the MET stage for decades, anyone in the corps or soloist level who is surprised or annoyed by that policy of using guest artists certainly chose the wrong company. The last woman McKenzie promosted from within to principal was Wiles, and she's not exactly filling those seats with paying customers at the 3,800 seat MET.

I would disagree somewhat (err not with your assessment of Wiles!)

Veronika Part would qualify as a promotion from within. Granted she didn't start in the company as a member of the corps, but she certainly put in her dues and time as a soloist...

that said, I think the rest of what you said is on the mark.

I'm just by nature very suspicious of such things, I guess, and believe classic literature oughtn't to be tampered with.

I apologize if i missed these being linked above, but the times has posted both a commentary saying much the same thing at some length: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/books/07huck.html?hp

and a room for debate (with many commentators) on the bowdlerized Huck Finn: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/01/05/does-one-word-change-huckleberry-finn

Judging by the large numbers of empty seats in the orchestra and mez that I have seen in the online select your own tickets system, and have also observed at the theater, it would appear that ABT has grossly miscalculated its pricing structure. Wealthy suburban families are not flocking to Fort Greene. ABT must have spent a fortune on advertising, but it did not seem to matter.

As someone who was recently priced out of Fort Greene, it isn't like the area is exactly the ghetto. I guess from what you say it isn't attracting wealthy people from Manhattan or the suburbs, although other factors such as the need to build an audience for something new, the fact that a good portion of the run is happening after Christmas (which I do think harms a ballet that people associate so strongly with the holiday) might also be at play here. But you have brownstones going for over 2 million a few blocks from BAM (and it was an area with no real price drop during the recession) and fantastic restaurants like No. 7 greene, so let's not extend the impression, if indeed it exists, that the area is poor.

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned, but during a live televised performance of 'Romeo and Juliet' with Makarova and McKenzie--McKenzie played the final death scene in his leg warmers...and it is there on tape for all to see.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This is so strange. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. I wonder why he did this? Actually I think they were sweat pants (grey) and they were baggy.

Richard

Edited to add: Oh dear, it looks like I probably just want to see Osipova--she's not scheduled for 'Giselle', I see. So I guess I will see her Aurora. But Coppelia sounds pretty irresistible too...

Osipova got really incredible reviews in London(?) in the new Bolshoi production of Coppelia. Yes, production itself got great reviews but she got fantastic reviews in the part. I did very much enjoy her Aurora and it is a work in progress and will be better this year than last, but I would probably (if choosing only one) go for Coppelia!

I think selling pointes is great. I just was pointing out that these egotistical donors might also consider funding the insurance of the young dancers instead of relying on the sale of pointes for this. Heck I bought a pair and love having them.

Their insurance is part of their contract so far as I know. Where are you getting this? It isn't like only those who sell point shoes get insurance, and ultimately it is all going to the same funding pool, no?...

one of my favorite clips ever, if only because the beauty of Gregory as Aurora was so unexpected to me. She is such a mature adult dancer that her triumph as a 16 year old princess was priceless. Also, the balances!

G,

This might be interesting for you to illustrate what we've been going on about. Videos of Sylvie Guillem and Svetlana Zakharova in the pas de deux from William Forsythe's In the Middle Somewhat Elevated (you have to get through a bit of interview for the Guillem vid:

In the Middle... was created for Guillem by William Forsythe in 1987. It was created as a guantlet almost to classical ballet, it's an intensely classical ballet, but reimagined for a new generation of dancers, of which Guillem was the chief exponent. Hyper flexible, fast, technically superb.

In the Guillem version she is despite the extremity absolutely classically placed, the distortion is in tempo, classical form, speed - but Guillem is academically correct, she never distorts or throws herself around, she uses turnout impeccably.

Now the ballet, as seen in the Zakharova version is about flinging yourself into pretzel shapes and extreme contortions, the dance is miniscule because the gymnastic element takes all the energy.

Thanks for the visual comparison. The beautiful tension and strength of Guillem's performance is utterly lost in Zakharova's rendition as you say.

I found this version with Kondaurova very interesting as well:

While she has high extensions, I don't think of her as an ear-whacker of the same ilk of somova and Zakharova. This clip however seems to illustrate how far the choreography has come from what Guillem was doing--the contortions (deliberate) of Kondaurova's upper body in the part that shows the same choreography done by Guillem make the segment almost unrecognizable...

In defense of Guillem---there is more to her than high extensions and beautiful feet---there is a wonderfully expressive artist. I can't say the same thing about Zakharova.

In further defense, Guillem showed a willingness to moderate her ability to hit high extensions when they were inappropriate to the piece (see the attitudes uses in SB--textbook, not the attenuated line popular now). She Also did NOT distort her hip/line of her torso to achieve her extensions, or at least not so far as I have seen. To me that makes a major difference.

This is a wonderful resource! Thank you so much.

On a selfish note, as I am moving to Italy, any plans to add La Scala or the balletto dell'opera di Roma? I know that Silvia is happening in Rome in October with guests including Bouder and Semionova (though I can't find who is what date!)

I saw Kent's Aurora a while ago when they brought McKenzie/Kirkland's SB to Miami, and found her lovely to watch, if not technically impressive. She had that "thing" that comes with years onstage. She had a regal quality in her dancing, which she blended really well with doses of delicacy. Whatever I missed from the technical side, she made it up with her accents.

Gomes I saw recently at Mme's gala in NYC dancing the first act of DQ, and I was like WOOOW!! Such a great personality onstage. Loved him, loved him.

Oh, I can't wait...

While I haven't seen her do Aurora, and haven't seen her in Giselle in a bit, Giselle is a much better (I think) role for her, so it should be good!

That clip (which I had seen before) does not do her justice I don't think. There is a pigeon-head thing going on in the hops on pointe that is seriously unfortunate but which I don't recall from ever seeing her do the part. She is so delicate and fragile appearing that she is immensely believable as Giselle, and the technique has always been better for her (I think) than something like SB or SL.

Can't wait to hear about it!

A Somova Mark II ? Suddenly I don't feel well

Someone put up videos (tagged only Vaganova)of what appear to be the graduation performance. Most of the text is in Russian. I don't want to id the person in case the videos get pulled (though it doesn't seem an issue in Russia).

I didn't see any Somova, though it is true I didn't watch them all. One of the girls however, who did a duet from Esmerelda, I thought quite interesting.

At first glance one might think she would be of that ilk--tall-seeming, VERY LEGGY, blonde. But her extensions were not in any way extreme and I thought her rather charming in fact.

Hallberg is the ideal cavalier, but I noticed that Stiefel's bio on the ABT website includes the following:

"His roles with the Company [ABT] include ... the Cavalier in The Nutcracker ...."

Did the ABT have a Nutcracker at some point in time since Stiefel joined ABT in 1997? Hallberg's bio also indicates that he has performed with the ABT as the Cavalier, and he has only been with the ABT since 2001 (when he started as corps member).

ABT did a Nutcracker as recently as 2 or 3 years ago in DC. I don't know what the production was like. I know Part was one of the Sugarplum Fairys.

BTW, I hope Ratmansky will rein in Kevin M when it comes to background scenery and costumes -- this production of the Nutcracker should not be kitschy or too colorful. Does the choreographer have a say in such matters?

Sleeping Beauty is one production, so let's not extrapolate a bright kitsch aesthetic and call that Mackenzie's based on that ballet. While Mackenzie's productions have their flaws, I don't think the problem with Swan Lake is that it is too colorful, or that it looks kitschy. In fact with the exception of the Swampthing/Purple Rothbart (and there are a lot of other ugly rothbart costumes out there, but swamp thing does take the cake) it is a visually beautiful production. In any case, the lead in such matters would be Ratmansky I would think, though the rest of the ABT executive team would have to be involved in any (such expensive) decisions...

Dale and richard53dog -- Thank-you

Do you know if the PATH train runs late enough to take people back to Manhattan after the performance in the wintertime? I wasn't sure if summer hours are different.

The PATH runs all night doesn't it? I know it does from Jersey City...

Twitter about Hallberg Osipova performance, but from Hallberg himself, so I assume it is ok to post and it comes with a backstage photo

My sigh of a seasons end! I will never forget yesterdays show. Once in a career. Osipova and I were one. http://twitpic.com/245y8l

I just wanted to say that I thought the emotional connection between Osipova and Hallberg was really extraordinary. She really had a great dramatic arc for the role and brought out such emotional intensity in him. It was a truly moving performance. Beautiful dancing from both of course as well.

An exceptional role debut from her, and a fabulous performance from him.

Nice that Michelle Wiles is doing lilac to Veronika's Aurora--I think one needs a stronger Lilac with Part than Stella, who was beautiful but just not authoritative enough to compare to Part.

Elsewhere, Mr. Macaulay it has been stated that he has “favorites”. I would say from reading his columns for a good many years that he is not a “fan” who would have favorites, but has admiration for particular dancers arising from his judgment fashioned from a wide knowledge and experience which is his own.

Leaving aside the rest of your argument, the implication here is that somehow his having favorites implies that it isn't based on his knowledge and judgment or, conversely, that us "fans" of dancers just 'like' them, without any knowledge or experience.

Saying Macaulay has favorites, which he himself makes clear over and over (and he has also point blank said in reviews that there are dancers he does not like) does not in any way imply that his admiration is not based on his judgment, or that in many cases that judgment is not good. Perhaps this is an issue of terminology.

What I take issue with is when it leads to reading essentially the same review over and over again. Even dancers he claims to think well of, such as Gomes, can get barely a word of mention, if there is Hallberg, Stearns or Cornejo to review. And in the case of Stearns--well read the comments on ballettalk...Macaulay may be seeing something wonderful, but he is clearly in the minority on that.

There is something of the implication in your statement that Macaulay is above us mere mortals who have preferences. I think that is insulting both to us and to the dancers he has made it clear he dislikes, some of whom are considered great dancers. His judgment reigns supreme? I don't think saying he has favorites implies they were capriciously chosen, obviously they are based on his experience and knowledge, which are vast (as he regularly makes clear). But it doesn't mean his taste is unfailing, or his the only correct opinion.

I found it interesting he managed to review, in today's review, Cory Stearns (his new love), who did not perform, and omit any reference to Puck, a key character in The Dream, and the dancer who performed that role. For someone who cares *so much* about the ballet text, one could have read the review and not known such a character existed...

He raved about Cornejo as Puck three weeks ago. Not every review has to be written for readers who've never seen the ballet. I found the contrast he made between Stearns and Gomes instructive, sharpening my image of both.

But it wasn't Cornejo last night, it was Salstein, and I would have found it instructive and enlightening to know how the person who actually performed in the performance being reviewed, performed.