Amour

Back from tonight's gala. An overly long somewhat tepid affair. As usual, the guests were more interested in chatting among themselves than in the dancing. The show started 20 minutes late and at intermission they had to turn down the lights before people sat down. As for the dancing, I thought it was a very mixed affair. About 50% good, 50% bad and of the latter, 50% tragically bad. It says a lot about the gala that the highlight of my night was seeing Kimin Kim at intermission and talking briefly to him. To be brief I enjoyed Billy the Kid, Rodeo, Push Comes to Shove, Pillar of Fire, La Bayadere Shades Scene, Sinfonietta, Piano Concerto #1, Etudes, la Sylphide,and T&V. Under the bad column, were Fancy Free, Fall River Legend,, Les Noces, Bright Stream, Giselle, Tschai Pas and Corsaire. In the tragic column were Black Tuesday, Manon, SL excerpt, Leaves Are Fading and Don Q. I'll begin with the tragic. I've seen Black Tuesday several times at both ABT and Paul Taylor. Tonight's performance just didn't seem to have a clue that this ballet is about the Depression. And Danill was very sloppy all night (he headed up this cast). Manon was also tragically bad but I feel for Julie, getting such short notice she had to dance. I've seen Manon innumerable times with Ferri and Bocca, Vishneva and Gomes. There are also some good YTs to be found. The way Julie danced this with Marcelo was sterile; no hint of sensuality or sexiness. And of course there's the large problem that Julie just can't do the choreography correctly. Her spine is stiff; instead of multiple fast pirouettes going into a lunge in Marcello's arms, she does a few tepid pirouettes and extends herself a little. No. Julie is simply not able to pull this ballet off technically and the playfulness, sexiness and sensuality weren't there. Tragic. The SL excerpt with Misty and Whiteside excerpt was also tragic. Why, in any case, pick the shortest act of SL and then only a portion of it. If you perform it, you should perform either the PDD from the first lakeside scene or part of the black Swan Act. I suspect Misty knew she's not ready for prime time. First,she is overly muscular, too heavy and has too large breasts to look good in a tutu. Her limbs look short and she looks thick and dumpy in a tutu. Anyone who compares her to Sara Mearns hasn't seen much of either of them.. Sara is much taller than Misty, her muscles are elongated, she doesn't have much of a waist and she has virtually no breasts. Then Misty's dancing is just leaden. Where everyone else seems light, she dances like she has lead in her toe shoes, not light or lifted out of her hips at all. Reminds me of my modern training. When James was trying to lift her (and not even an overhead lift) he looked like he was struggling mightily. And no expression or acting AT ALL. Just awful! Also in the tragic column were The Leaves Are Fading. If you ever saw Amanda. McKertow and her husband John Gardiner perform this you know what a good performance looks like. There's also one onYT (less good) with Altynai Asylmuratova. This performance by Hee Seo and Cory was not good technically and dismally acted. There should be some use of the arms and some acting conveying sadness. I'm beginning to think Hee Seo is just a cipher with no ability to convey any drama. She also messed up the technical part of the arms where they look like pinwheels and are so beautifully linked to each other and fell off pointe. Tragic. Finally Don Q this time Cory with Bella. Oy. What a disaster, Bella in her 32 or so fouettes managed to fall off pointe twice, zigging and zagging across the stage towards downstage. Unnbelievable (and she still got enthusiastic response) Go figure. Not as bad were Fancy Free, Fall River Legend, Les Noces, Bright Stream,Giselle, Tschai Pas and Corsaire. Just to make this review shorter, my objections to Fancy Free were that Herman is much shorter than Marcelo and Cory and doesn't dance anything like them. Fall River Legend, despite Gillian's attempt to seem menacing when she picks up the axe, the audience just started giggling and laughing. This really was not a bad performance at all. It's just the gala audience tends to be pretty unbelievable at times in their reactions. It was unfortunate and took me out of the moment. I didn't like Danill in Bright Stream (really in anything) tonight. For me, his attempt at humor fell flat. Look to Nikolai Tziskardize doing the role on YT. He's a hoot. As for Les Noces, it's like the Rite of Spring's poorer cousin. Less well danced and no compelling story. The very brief Giselle excerpt showed that Maria Kotchekova is really nothing special. Little ballon, no excitement in her whirling. Blah. I thought Paloma tried with Tschai Pas, especially to play with the music but it just somehow didn't work. As for Daniil as Ali in Corsaire, he was kind of sloppy, made the audience gasp when he nearly fell over doing a barrel turn and his neck muscles were clenched so tight I could see it all the way from rear orchestra. Really the bright lights were mainly the ensemble pieces. Billy the Kid and Rodeo were very well done. Xiomara was charming as the cowgirl. I haven't seen Push Comes to Shove live since the 1980's. I thought Herman did a very credible, engaging turn in Misha's role. The corps girls didn't look totally comfortable with the style but really good effort. The corps did look beautiful in the Shades entrance in La Bayadere. Very synchronized and well rehearsed. I also very much liked Jiri Kylian's Sinfonietta. Devon Teuscher, Veronika Part, Bella Boylston, Thom Forster, Blaine Hoven and James Whiteside did an excellent job. James also did an excellent job with footwork and batterie in his excerpt from La Sylphide. Certainly as good as any James NYCB has presented. Piano Concerto #1 was very well danced (except for a little stumble in the corps) by Christine Schevchenko, Calvin Royale, Skylar Brandt and Gabe Stone Shayer. Seeing it again reminded me how much more I like this piece than Wheeldon's Mercurial Manoeuvres (choreographed to the same music). But the highlight of the night was definitely Joey Gorak in Etudes and then Joey and Sarah Lane in T&V. Gorak was simply incredible. His multiple turns in a la second and then around 32 fouettés perfectly done, in time with the music, all the same height. Astounding. Gillian was good in the lead female role but on YT I've seen Tereshkina do a lot better. And finally T&V. This was just the finale but Joey and Sarah were fantastic (the demis looked a bit leaden, though). This was the best live T&V I ever seen, and that includes Tiler Peck. Sarah's scintillating footwork was fast crisp,and clean. Joey lifted her overhead as if she weighed nothing. If there were partnering problems they weren't visible. It was an utter joy to watch. I haven't seen anyone this good since the Kirkland/Baryshnikov one done for PBS (it's on YT) At the end, all the dancers came onstage. Diana was there with Marcelo. Then dancers from the past came on. I only recognized a few: Bobby La Fosse, Kirk Peterson, Makarova, Irina (looking stunning in the evening's most beautiful gown)and husband Max, Susan Jaffe, Martine van Hamel. Then the ballet masters and the conductors. Confetti rained down. It was a celebration.

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All I can say is that I will be demanding my money back for the Osipova/Sarafanov SB. Clearly, bait and switch. I encourage everyone to do the same.

My videographer husband didn't mind the slo-mo (I certainly did) but recognized all the other failings we've been talking about. All I can say is you really want to see a documentary on ABT watch Frederick Wiseman's Ballet. Yes, it's only at that particular moment of time but you get to see so much more dancing and dancers. The number of people never even mentioned (Ferri, Bocca, Leslie Browne, Ethan Stiefel, Angel Corella, Jose Manuel Carreno) really made me mad. And Homans droning on? How this was a "history of ABT" totally eludes me.

Saturday night the fact Tiler almost never tilted her head sideways (it was always straight) was driving crazy. But canbelto's assessment that she is kind of in between Ashley and Sterling seems about right. Also, as Canbelto noted, this probably just isn't her thing. Still, I wish she had brought more lightness, flirtatiousness and musicality to the role. We've seen her do all those things in other ballets like Who Cares. In fact, that's the Tiler magic. I was counting on her to do those things plus get the style right. Clearly, my expectation were too high. I do also suspect she might have gotten less rehearsal time but now that Sterling and Ashley are done with Sylphide, Nilas (and whoever is with him) can concentrate on Tiler/Garcie and Lovette/Huxley. I'm glad to hear from Natalia that Lovette was good in the divertissements because next weekend she'll be the Sylph to Anthony Huxley's James. I adore Anthony and am so hoping he gets promoted either during or after the spring. How he does in this role might affect Peter's decision so my fingers are crossed. And I'm seeing him on Sunday the 24th. He's so good at quick batterie I think his technique will be fine. But can he act? That's what we will see. That will be my 5th La Sylphide. I'm kind of overdosing on it and not in a good way. I'm glad to get back to the rep this week and Midsummer the last week.

It's been fine for me in NYC.

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Thank you mimsyb for your wonderful and detailed accounting of Friday night.

Just back from a Bouronville day at NYCB. Attended both the matinee and evening performances. vipa has nicely explained the matinee and I agree with all she said. I don't think Ashley and Andie were quite as spectacular as Tuesday evening but they were still very good (he was a bit sloppier this afternoon). But this evening. Oy! I am a big Tiler fan and I hesitate to say this performance was terrible. But it was not good. She was third cast and,IMO, looked third rate. Very, very disappointed. First the Bournonville Divertissements. There were a lot of last minute substitutions though the corps has remained the same throughout. In the Ballabile from Napoli, Taylor Stanley (who also danced it in the afternoon) replaced Troy Schumacher. Georgina Pazcoguin was his partner. I love Taylor in this section! His footwork is fast and clean and his upper body open and relaxed. Gorgeous. I liked Georgina a lot. She has a big (if loud) jump, can dance fast and has charisma. I thought the two looked pretty good except at moments where their arabesques were at different heights. Otherwise, Bravi! In Flower Festival PDD Ask la Cour was replaced by Zach Catazaro. That was unfortunate. I think Ask is a much more reliable presence onstage and a partner. To me, Catazro looked a bit of a mess, trying to catch up to the music, do the footwork cleanly, meanwhile his hair is flying every which way (hairspray, Zach, they have lots of it) and he's trying to partner Tess Reichlen. Antonio Carmena was much better in this role at the matinee. And of course no one is better than Tyler Angle, who danced it with Sara for the first few performances. As for Tess,she started very strong, good epaulement and footwork, lots of charm. She seemed lighter on her feet than Sara but can't get into that arabesque/wraparound position as easily. Still, except for one minor slip I thought she did well. Onto Pas de Six from Napoli. This had some strong women -Sara Adams, Brittany Pollack. Lauren King (subbing for Ashley Isaacs. I thought Andrew Scordato was near flawless in his longer solo. Russell Janzen is taller and has a harder time trying to control those long limbs. And then the featured solo was Joseph Gordon. I love him. He danced Gurn very effectively in the afternoon and was wonderful in this solo. NYCB is lucky it has so many young, wonderful dancers. If someone is injured or out it's not as big a deal as at ABT, where the lower level dancers simply aren't as good , IMO. Since vipa covered the matinee of La Sylphide, I'll just stick to the evening. As I said above I was very disappointed in Tiler. None of the Bournonville style or Romantic style seems to have made it into her body. My biggest problem was her lack of romantic epaulement and her stiff, upright head. She barely turned it to the side at all. Then there was the lack of lightness and ballon in her jump. I know she's not frail like Sterling or a great jumper like Ashley but I expected more. There needs to be some etherality or magiic in this ballet. But no Also, virtually no acting. I was close in the orchestra all the times and I looked through the opera glasses at, for example, Ashley in the death scene. Her face was despairing and her body wilted. With Tiler I saw almost nothing on her face or body. And the one big pose with her James (Gonzalo Garcia) where her leg is in a high arabesque and her lower body turns to look up at him. Awkward is the best I can say about this. I expect this kind of dancing from ABT but not Tiler Peck. As for Gonzalo, he was ok, nothing more. In his solo in Act 1 towards the end of his batterie he just stopped it, clearly he was tired and just jumped up and down in a closed fifth. Thank God this problem didn't happen in Act 2. He kept his batterie going. His jumps were small compared to Andie but they were clean as were his tours. His acting was fine but nothing to write home about. I didn't find Harrison Ball as Gurn or Faye Arthurs as Effie particularly convincing, especially after the wonderful Joseph Gordon and Megan Le Crone at the matinee. All the Madge's seem to be playing the role with a bit of comedy, but thankfully none have approached the broadness Georgina showed in the role opening night. The corps was fine and at each outing look a little better. This cast doesn't have to perform again until next Saturday night. I fervently hop that between now and then they practice a lot (they have a whole week) because they need to.

Wow, attendance must be sparse among BAers, no discussion of what was performed tonight. I was really curious about Gillian's T&V, so if anyone saw it, a report would be much appreciated.

Tonight was the second cast night of Walpurgisnacht, Sonatine, La Valse and Symph in C. Overall a good night but you could tell it was second cast. Tess Reichlen, Adrian D-W and Erica Pereira (as the lead demi) were in Walpurgisnacht. I thought Tess and Adrian were quite good. Tess has developed a lot both technically and stage presence wise in the last year. Her long limbs give her incredible lines. No, she did not power through some of the very fast sections (like the chaînes ) that Sara did last week. But Adrian was a good partner. Certainly better than Ask la Cour last week. I did not enjoy Erica, however. She was underpowered and for much of the piece, off the music (ahead of it). I enjoyed corps dancer Alexa Maxwell better last week than Erica tonight. So a good performance but not like last week's phenomenal one. Sonatine with Ashley and Gonzalo Garcia was not better or worse than last week (with Tiler and Joaquin) just different. Tiler and Ashley are just very different dancers. Tiler is softer, with more expressive arms and maybe a bit more musical. Ashley has that scintillating footwork and is more of a virtuoso. I think I liked Gonzalo a bit more than Joaquin but I'm hard pressed to say which performance I liked better. Both were very good. La Valse with Sara was definitely better tonight with Sara than last week with Sterling (and that despite the fact that Sterling had vastly improved since the winter). No, Sara is not vulnerable and tragic like Janie Taylor was. But she is very dramatic and really draws you into the piece. I was also impressed with Faye Arthurs as one of the lead demis. I never realized how tall and long limbed she was before. And Amar really outdid himself tonight as Death. Menacing yet seductive he was wonderful in both his characterization and his dancing. Actually, though I've seen this piece many times, I never realized how much actual dancing that role has. He was splendid. And lest I forget, Jared Angle was a fine partner to Sara. Symph in C was a whole other story. Basically it was worse tonight because Ana Sophia (who did 1st movement) was never as good as Ashley to begin with (last week's 1st movement) and now is just coming off a 1 year injury. Basically, she got through it but barely. Even though conductor Clotilde Otranto really slowed the music down, Ana Sophia still had trouble getting through the movement and looked ready to collapse by its end. Lucky for her, Andie Veyette was her partner and made up for any of her problems. We saw sky high jumps, great batterie and multiple, multiple (did I say multiple) pirouettes in series, one after another from him. I think Andie did about 7 pirouettes in one go. And they were centered and he did not fall out of them. Thank you Andie!! Maria K and Tyler Angle did the 2nd movement just like last week. Only this week it was worse. Although Maria can hit those penchee positions, she is hanging on to Tyler for dear life. As I believe Canbelto noticed, there is a whole lot of visible shaking going on, on Maria's part. When she did the développe to a la second and with her arms overhead and has to switch hands, she was shaking so hard I thought she might fall off point. Luckily, Tyler is probably the best partner NYCB has right now and he saved her. Although many in the audiences screamed and cheered after her movement I was thinking (like Canbelto,again) Maria might need to start thinking about giving up this part. I've seen Sara do it and she's wonderful. While the first two movements were played fairly slowly (by NYCB standards) the third movement sped up enormously; suddenly we were off to the races. But the leads Ashley Isaacs and Joseph Gordon were totally ready for it. They were terrific, made all those pique turns en tournant seem no big deal. They were absolutely wonderful, much better than Erica and Gonzalo last week. I enjoyed this movement best of all because the dancers were so well prepared to dance it (I didn't have to cross my fingers that someone would get through it.) What was true if the 3rd movement was also true of the 4th. It was played very, very fast. But Lauren King (especially) and Sean Suozzi were able to keep up fine. The problem came with the re-entry of the earlier movements' leads. As soon as Ana Sophia came out, Otranto started to slow the music a little. Maria had a very hard time keeping up. I was sitting close (row J,orchestra) but looked at Maria through the opera glasses. Her neck muscles were so tense, as was her face. She was behind the music for all the pirouettes. I know it's sad but there does come a day when you have to retire certain roles. Maybe not this season but soon. There is so much talent in this company, I'm sure finding a replacement will not be too difficult (and, as I said earlier, Sara already does the role) So not a bad night overall. Really there's nowhere else I'd rather be than at NYCB.

If it's that's the case then what about Ashley Bouder? She was profiled in the last City Ballet reality series. She's from a very poor background in Appalachia. She's from a single mom family and grew up in a trailer park. But thanks to her teacher, Marcia Dale Weary, later Suki Schorer at SAB and Ashley's own mom (and her own determined outlook and phenomenal talent) she had support that helped her succeed.

I was at NYCB tonight so I didn't see the Ric Burns documentary. However, I did see the 60 minutes segment on Misty. Based on that, the most egregious behavior I saw was not that of any ballet company or school but Misty's own mother, who seemed determined to squash her daughter's dreams, indicated she was pretty determined to have Misty to quit ballet and then fought(and won) to pull her away from the white ballet teacher who was helping Misty to succeed. If one wants to discuss racism, let's discuss the community that doesn't really want one of its members to succeed in a white world.

I saw several casts of NYCB's Nutcracker this season and 1 of the 3 casts featured an Asian Marie and Fritz.. Just because you can't read about them doesn't mean Asians aren't attending SAB.I also attended last summer's SAB summer intensive performance, In the 2 works performed (1 by Peter Walker, the other by Silas Farley) several African American students performed. One had a featured solo. Again, this was not written about.

I've had no problem exchanging tickets as long as it's 24 hours before the show. But you have to do it at the box office, not by phone.

Diana could probably still do Nikya. She did it last year.

Tonight I attended what was billed as the 21st Century choreographers night. It consists of 1 bad ballet (Martins' Symphonic Dances) 1 ok ballet (Justin Peck's Rodeo) and 1 good one (Wheeldon's Mercurial Manoeuvres). Despite the varying choreography, all were superbly danced. Symphonic Dances, despite the poor choreography (and hideous costumes) looks like a difficult ballet to dance. Because Martins' choreography to the Rachmaninoff piece is so "on the nose" much of the ballet is extremely fast with quick directional changes from lunges or open tendu positions. Also a lot of very fast grand jetes and pirouettes. The men have most of the fast choreography and Zachary Catazaro, as the lead male, partially redeemed himself from last week's dismal Apollo. He had attack, did all the quick windmilling arms and everything else quite well. Of the 4 demi men, Joseph Gordon and Harrison Ball were the most impressive for the same reasons (Spartak Hoxha and Peter Walker were the other 2). I thought Tess Reichlen did well as the lead woman. This role calls for someone with long limbs and she has them. She got to do lots of slow développes and attitude derrieres, wrapped around Catzaro. Even though she's a bit tall for him, the partnering was ok. I thought Catazaro handled her quite well. However I would have loved the lead to be Adrian D-W. This more contemporary piece is right up his alley and he and Tess look good together (they might have danced it in the winter) Tess has developed a lot more personality and artistry in the last year so seeing her is always an interesting experience. I have to say, though, that one day I would love to see the Ratmansky Symphonic Dances choreographed on MCB. I'm sure it's a much better ballet. Next up was Peck's Rodeo (or Rode,o, as he insists on calling it) This was the 4th or 5th time I've seen it (I saw it several times in the winter). However, it was the first time Andie Veyette got to dance his role (he got injured the day before the premier) so I wanted to see it with him. I loved this piece the first time or 2 I saw it. However, with every subsequent viewing I find it less interesting. Part of this may be because it didn't look particularly well rehearsed tonight (it's only being performed a few times so maybe it's not getting much rehearsal time), There are 4 different sections, not all done as well as possible. The first section featured the soloists (Garcia, Ulbricht, Ramasar and Veyette) dancing against a backdrop of the entire cast. I thought Danny was especially wonderful, great lines, pirouettes and anamazing series of turns in a la seconde, that get progressively slower. Although Andie did a lot of high jumps, I didn't think.he looked terribly comfortable in the choreography. The best part for me is the 2nd episode, which is kind of an adagio section. The section has Taylor Stanley leading a group of 4 other men, who, btw, include Preston Chamblee who only a year ago was an SAB student. I have always liked Taylor but the wonderful job he did in Bournonville Divertissements, the other night gave me new respect for him. He is always able to keep an open relaxed upper body, no matter what the legs are doing. Somehow, the 3rd episode -a PDD for Amar and Sara - didn't work for me. I thought she looked great but he's simply not strong enough to handle her. Just because he works well with Maria K doesn't make him a good partner for all large ladies. So this part was a little disappointing for me. The 4th episode has everyone in it again and it's very lively. The audience really loved the piece and it got a standing ovation (at least in the orchestra). As an aside,one thing I noticed was that the milliskin jerseys seemed stretched out on some of the men. Maybe it was a bad fabric to use. I bet they'll have to redo some of those costumes within a year. The last piece was Wheeldon's Mercurial Manoeuvres, set to Shostakovich's Piano Concerto no. 1. Although I like the Ratmansky piece that uses the same music, better, this is still a good ballet. I thought everyone in it -from corps to principals - looked much more comfortable in it tonight than last winter. It uses the corps well as they jump and twirl on pointe. The piano's opening them is represented by Anthony Huxley (who alone wears a red unitard in a sea of blue costumes). What can I say about this marvelous dancer. He is a real classicist. His rounded arms and epaulement are always perfect. He is quick, can jump fairly well has a lovely line and beautiful feet. He transfixes me every time he's on stage. He partnered demis Sara Adams and Kristen Segin deftly. Since he is able to partner so well, I don't really see his height (and he's much taller than De Luz and Ulbricht) being an obstacle to promotion. Tiler and Tyler Angle were the true leads and did a wonderful PDD in the middle. She is so musical, has expressive arms and expansive gestures. Tyler is a good dancer but a greater partner. Tonight he outdid himself. Tiler would jump into his arms, he would hold her as she put her feet in a pas de chat position and he "rang her", he could lift her any number of ways. Everything looked absolutely seamless. I didn't detect one problem, not even strain. It was just wonderful to behold. The piece got lots of cheers at the end and absolutely deserved them. On a final note, the music sounded especially glorious tonight under the baton of guest conductor Paolo Paroni, who will be a regular guest conductor in the future.

NYCB allows subscribers to purchase additional tickets at 20% off. ABT needs to do something similar.

But what if, say, a dancer has a surgery or breaks his/her foot at the start of the season? Then there is no realistic hope the dancer will return that season. And PNB sounds like NYCB, where the choreography is king/Queen and casting only comes out shortly before the performance. ABT, on the other hand, uses its "Star Strategy" to get seats filled. They advertise based on specific stars. What then, if the dancer is still being advertised as dancing?

Yes, at what point does bait and switch become outright fraud. ABT has known since the Kennedy Center that Julie was injured. Similarly with Smirnova's Bayadere. Everyone in the world knew Smirnova was out with an injury and the Bolshoi was saying they 'hoped" she'd return in July. It wasn't until mid April that her June 5 performance became TBA, (and then Cojocaru) long after subscribers have paid their money. Many of us (like me) are unhappy with her replacement. But in any event, advertising a performance for a dancer who can not reasonably be expected to perform (and the company knows it) seems like false advertising and fraud. I'm afraid these problems will just worsen as the season progresses and prominent dancers get injured.

Oops, ok. Didn't notice that at ABT.

I, too, am a fan of Lane and Abrera. I think Misty is fine in contemporary roles but definitely not classical ones. I am pretty sure Abrera will be passed over for promotion ( she's been a soloist for about 15 years). I also think Sarah will be passed over. IMO, both dancers should leave for greener pastures after this year. In any case, the performances I saw from Boylston and Hee Seo on Monday were definitely not worthy of the title principal. I thought, promoting Copeland? So what. ABT is at its lowest point I've ever seen it. Good dancers should jump ship now.

Yes, at NYCB they scan tickets. At ABT they don't.

I don't know whose policy it is. But if NYCB allows phone exchanges that means the technology exists to make it possible. ABT/the Met needs to take advantage of that.

Personally, I find this to be a bit of bait and switch. If the company knows they need to pull a lead principal, they should announce that more than 24 hours before the performance, when the audience can exchange tickets. Or they should abandon the 24 hour policy and/or allow people to exchange tickets over the phone, as NYCB does. Not doing so, is not improving the company's reputation, IMO.