Amour

If you didn't specifically ask the box office about "Trios" for ABT, but instead called it Create Your Own, they may not make the connection between them, even though the Trios offering is essentially a create your own program by a different name.

That's probably true, Abatt. The box office rep I had on the other end of the line seemed pretty 'green' about options, suggesting that I wait until March and purchase my three performances then, which wasn't much of a solution, IMO, especially because I wouldn't be afforded the discount and ticket prices most likely will increase.

I believe the ticket prices don't go up until mid-April. There's really not much incentive to buying a subscription, other than being able to exchange with no fee. At NYCB subscription holders get a 15% discount throughout the seasons, exchanges can be done over the phone, and new tickets can be purchased over the phone or Internet with no handling fee. No such thing at ABT. I also rarely get good seats with my subscription. I'm constantly poring over their seating chart, finding better available seats and then going to the box office for an exchange. Unless you want to be assured about getting a seat ( if you are going to a retirement performance (Julie, Paloma or Xiomara) or a guest like Smirnova) I wouldn't think a subscription is even necessary as long as you get your seats by April. BTW, when dynamic pricing goes into effect, even subscribers have to pay the higher amounts to add on new performances:( IMO, ABT really needs rethink everything if they want to continue to exist.

I've re watched this several times since the original viewing on Dec. 19. The port de bras of SAB soloists was wonderful in Serenade and Coppelia! Western is 'free form' so no problems there. The only problem was with Odette in Swan Lake.

So I take back any generalizations about port de bras at SAB. But it goes to show how one bad apple can hurt overall perception of a troupe. It should not. SABers were great. I blame the coaching of one specific piece (Swan excerpts).

My husband and I attended the Saturday night workshop performance filmed here for PBS. I have to say Serenade was even more breath taking live than what you can see in this broadcast. So much better than what NYCB does. Coppelia and Western Symphony were also very good. Truly the only disappointing performance was the Swan Lake. We were a bit surprised, because Macauley had featured it (and Alston McGill) in his preview article on the workshop performance a few days earlier. However, we both felt the problem lay with Darci, since the students were still obviously talented. We left with the impression that Suki Schorer (who coached Serenade) was a great teacher and, surprisingly, Darci not so good. Given how great Suzanne Farrell is, we had thought Darci -Balanchine's last great ballerina- would be a good teacher but the Swan Lake did not reflect it.

Some interesting offerings in dance.

-A preview of ABT's 75th Anniversary Season

-Wendy Whelan and Edward Watson in new works.

- A preview of Justin Peck's new ballet for MCB

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/12/29/guggenheims-works-process-series-to-offer-dancing-singing-and-more/?ref=arts

Thank you abatt (and happy New Year). I got my pamphlet directly from Works and Process. All of these shows will be live streamed.

They are: Justin Peck, 1/18 @ 7:30 and all of the ABT Performances: 4/19 @ 3:00pm, 4/19 @ 7:30pm and 4/20 @ 7:30pm. The first ABT talk will cover dancers from 1940-1965; then is dancers from 1965-1990; and the last group (the McKenzie dancers) 1990-2015. There is no date yet announced for the Whelan/Watson.

I'm just grateful to see any ballet on prime-time TV. Sigh. (We'll get a bit more tomorrow with the annual Vienna New Years show on PBS.)

I watched the dance segments of the Vienna New Year's show. The choreography of the first piece I thought odd. But Olga Essina and Alice Firenze were lovely in the second piece. Manuel Legris has done a good job with this company.

If anyone saw the all-debut cast of December 28, or any of the debutants in subsequent performances, I'd love to hear about it -- Emilie Gerrity as Sugarplum, Ashley Hod as Dewdrop, Claire Von Enck leading Marzipan, and any others!

Not sure this is the right place to put this, but Brian Seibert reviewed the debuts here: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/02/arts/dance/in-city-ballets-nutcracker-an-ever-changing-menu.html?_r=0

Oh, thank you, Amour! This is good news. I wonder why the box office didn't tell me. that?

Hi Albany Girl! Perhaps the box office doesn't know? ABT is very invested in having people subscribe to their regular subscriptions, for some reason. Maybe so they can be assured of some income early. However, last year I got tired of subscribing to performances I didn't want to see and then exchanging them. The Trios has all the benefits of a regular subscription (no problem with exchanging dates or getting different seats). All you have to do is choose a minimum of 3 performances. I typically get the offer just after the expiration date for choosing a regular subscription.

I thought ABT began offering Create Your Own subscriptions a few years ago.

ABT has the Trios subscription that essentially allows you to choose your own subscription. It generally doesn't get offered for the Met season until about late January.

IQ is not directly associated with mental health.

If you're taking about IQ, he has a legal degree.

They have now structured the Vaganova rectorship so that you need a law degree to even apply for the job (a tidbit I learned from another one of Ismene's wonderful blog posts). The job description was specifically rewritten so that only Tsiskaridze could have it. It still really bothers me that they fired Altynai for this joker. He's ridiculous (not to mention not Vaganova trained). We'll see how the next few years of students (like Shakirova) look like under his rectorship.

Could anyone recommend particularly good SBs on either DVD or YouTube? I've only ever seen ABT's, and I have my own sense of certain ways in which it falls short, but I'd like to get a better sense of how some other companies have made more of the piece's potential so that I have a basis for comparison once I see Ratmansky's next spring.

I very much like Durante in the old RB version of SB. There is also a rather nice Mariinsky version from about 1990 that I have on DVD, with Larissa Lezhnina as Aurora and Farukh Ruzimatov as Prince Desire.

I noticed that the running time is 3 hours, including intermission. Hopefully this means that the Ratmansky version will restore all of those wedding act divertissements that McKenzie inexplicably cut in the interest of getting the kids home early.

Kevin didn't cut those, abatt, that was all Gelsey and her husband. I well remember a Guggenheim Works and Process about the production before it opened. Gelsey was very proud that she and her husband had rethought the ballet story and eliminated all these "inessential" dances.

I get hung up on by telephone fundraisers often. Our policy at home is to donate to written requests. We save them up, and do one donation at the end of the year (sorting through the box of requests and sometimes doing a little research) If we've donated in the past, we'll likely donate again, but we don't give or pledge over the phone, ever. Once I go through this (rather tedious) description, most callers hang up (some so say 'thank you' first). If they still don't believe me, I tell them that we hardly ever give, in any fashion, to people who insist on calling. That generally does it.

We do exactly the same thing, sandik. The only thing I add is "Please take us off your calling list because your calls are really annoying." Usually we don't hear from them again. In the case of ABT calls, I tell them I only donate directly through Grey Johnson.

I, too, was getting very aggressive calls from ABT. When I would simply try to get off the phone with an excuse (like I can't talk now) the caller would simply keep going with their spiel. My caller ID does identify ABT when they call so I then chose not to answer their calls. However, when they started calling during dinner, my husband got fed up and brusquely told them to take us off their list. That seems to have done the trick, though, as a subscriber, I am deluged by mail from them almost every other day.

I would like to add that, unlike many of you nice people, I will refuse to give any money (other than for a ticket) to ABT until they change their AD and casting policies. I feel this company has been going down the wrong path for many years and I stopped donating around 2008. I know their current financial condition is dire but continuing with wrong headed policies (i.e., all the guest stars and neglect of inhouse talent) is just not something I can support.

For those who don't know, Patty McBride was one of the honorees of the Kennedy Center, shown tonight on CBS. The show is worth well watching, both to see old clips of Patty and for Tiler Peck's outstanding performance in excerpts from Who Cares (old costumes, yay!) and Dances At a Gathering. Tiler is so remarkable, such an artist, it is always such a great pleasure to watch her. Unfortunately, they also chose to have Jeffrey Cirio (Boston Ballet) and Lauren Lovette do a few minutes from Rubies and Misty do a few minutes from Tchai Pas. This is the 2nd time I've seen Lauren do Rubies (the other time at YAGP with Herman Cornejo) and both times made me cringe. I also did not like her Sugarplum in Nutcracker this season. I'm not sure what's going on with her but she is not ready for prime time, IMO. I think she's being pushed too fast. And Misty in Tchai Pas? She looked leaden. Why not Ashley Bouder? Patty was a NYCB ballerina after all. For that matter, why not spritely Sarah Lane (if you're going to use an ABT dancer)? Anyway, the show was a loving attribute to Patty and well worth watching.

I believe that Ashley Bouder has been injured this fall (someone please correct me if this information is inaccurate). I am not sure about Sarah Lane's situation, but she could have declined their offer. Patty appeared to enjoy all four excerpts, and America got to see several leading dancers in some Balanchine classics. I'd say it's a win on all fronts.

For those who don't know, Patty McBride was one of the honorees of the Kennedy Center, shown tonight on CBS. The show is worth well watching, both to see old clips of Patty and for Tiler Peck's outstanding performance in excerpts from Who Cares (old costumes, yay!) and Dances At a Gathering. Tiler is so remarkable, such an artist, it is always such a great pleasure to watch her. Unfortunately, they also chose to have Jeffrey Cirio (Boston Ballet) and Lauren Lovette do a few minutes from Rubies and Misty do a few minutes from Tchai Pas. This is the 2nd time I've seen Lauren do Rubies (the other time at YAGP with Herman Cornejo) and both times made me cringe. I also did not like her Sugarplum in Nutcracker this season. I'm not sure what's going on with her but she is not ready for prime time, IMO. I think she's being pushed too fast. And Misty in Tchai Pas? She looked leaden. Why not Ashley Bouder? Patty was a NYCB ballerina after all. For that matter, why not spritely Sarah Lane (if you're going to use an ABT dancer)? Anyway, the show was a loving attribute to Patty and well worth watching.

Not quite sure where to stick this, but here seems as good a place as any! (Moderators: please don't hesitate to move this reply to another thread if it seems appropriate.)

NYCB corps member Faye Arthurs started a lovely -- and very informative -- blog a few months back. (Thoughts from the Paint) She recently put up a series of posts about The Nutcracker, both Balanchine's and Ratmansky's as it happens. They're well worth your time.

Today's installment is a guest post by Troy Schumacher detailing a day's worth of prep for about two minutes on stage as the lead Candycane. Don't miss the high speed video of his pre-performance barre.

In this post, Arthurs talks about The Nutcracker experience generally from the dancers' perspective and her own roles in particular (Frau Stahlbaum, Arabian, and Spanish).

Finally, here are her thoughts on Ratmansky's Nutcracker for ABT, which she finally got to see for the wrong reason: an injury that took her out of some of NYCB's Nutcracker performances. (Get well soon!)

My questions still stand: were those terms different than any other Vaganova Academy graduate? If different than in years past, did the change apply as of a specific year?

Academy graduates who have been hired into the corps have been cast in soloist roles, whether or not they are slated to rise up the ranks.

Zhiganshina is different to other Vaganova graduates in recent years in that she is the ONLY one who danced a principal part in a full-length ballet (Masha with the Nutcracker) with the Mariinsky ballet while still a Vaganova student. Not the only one in her year, but the only one in the past 19 years, because the last one I can remember is Diana Vishneva as Kitri (correct me if someone here knows someone else who did that later). None of the graduates since 2008 or earler has even danced a solo part with the company before graduation.

On the Mariinsky tour to London, this past summer, Renata Shakirova -a Vaganova student- danced the role of Polyhymnia in Balanchine's Apollo. I also believe I saw her in a video a few days ago, performing the pas from Nutcracker. I have never heard of her before but Fateyev must like her.

Well another dancer we won't be seeing is Keenan Kampa. Looking at another thread, Kampa is no longer listed on the company roster. I'm not sure she ever belonged at the Mariinsky but after all the press she got, she's just gone? I wonder where she is and what happened.

According to this link, she spent the summer instructing at Grand Rapids Ballet:

http://www.grballet.com/keenan-kampa/

Also, apparently she's appearing in a fictional movie:

http://www.pointemagazine.com/blogs/keenan-kampa/keenan-kampa-star-high-strung

Neither of these articles give any indication Kampa has left the Mariinsky. There are a few tweets from her about the car sharing service Uber, but it's hard to know if they are legit. After all the brouhaha about her being in the company and now she's mysteriously gone. Given the currently sour relationship between the U.S. And Russia, I'm not that surprised she's gone.

Another reason to celebrate: Shapran & Kimin in Spectre de la Rose!

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I certainly am glad I'm getting to see Kim in DC because he is apparently not coming to BAM. I wish someone would explain that to me. On the one hand, Gergiev complains the Mariinsky has no new stars. On the other hand, he refuses to let a dancer who could be a star be seen in NY. Filin actively promoted Smirnova to make her a star. Gergiev (or Fateyev) doesn't only seem unwilling to do that, they seem to be actively hiding this guy (I believe Kim is the only dancer going only to DC).

I saw the Nutcracker tonight. Act 1 was special again thanks to Sawyer Reo as Fritz. That little 8 year old has more acting ability than lots of adult dancers. Claire von Enck (class of 2013 at SAB) was again very good as the doll as was Olivia MacKinnon as Harlequin. Devin Alberda was the best soldier I've seen this season: perfect tours and pirouettes and great beats. Robbie LaFosse was Drosselmeier. Thank goodness for at least one age appropriate Drosselmeier. Interestingly, he played him as a very kindly grandfather. No sense of menace or disquiet, despite the eye patch. It's the first time I've seen such an unthreatening Drosselmeier, but since Robbie was around during Balanchine's time, I have to think he must have known how Mr.B wanted the character played. As an aside, Preston Chamblee, who was in the SAB workshop performance of Serenade, is now an apprentice and played the Mouse King.

In Act 2, Ashley danced. Hooray! I was worried we'd get a last minute replacement. I like Ashley very much and think she may be technically NYCB's best female dancer. Hers was an exciting, dynamic Sugarplum. She danced very fast; her pirouettes, pique turns (and the manège), and chainees were perfect. The promenade with her Cavalier (Joaquin de Luz) was flawless and every time they switched hands, Ashley held the arabesque a long time. The jumps to shoulder sits were perfect and the audience applauded like mad. My seat mate -an approximately 10 year old little girl- had seemed bored during Act 1. During Act 2 she squealed with the delight and bounced in her chair every time Ashley appeared. My only critique is that Ashley did not have the graciousness or warmth I generally associate with Sugarplum. That really is not a criticism of Ashley so much as I think Sugarplum is simply not a role most suited to her strengths. I would love to see Ashley as Dewdrop. I think that role probably really brings out her strengths as a dancer.

Speaking of Dewdrop, Sterling Hyltin performed tonight. Of the 3 Nuts I have seen, her Dewdrop was the weakest(I saw Sara and Tess before). She seemed to have difficulty with the fast tempo (Clotilde Otranto conducted) barely getting the steps in, and lacking in stamina. I noticed that in the finale she bailed on her last 2 Italian fouettes. She is not without charm but she is just not in the same league as Ashley, Tiler, Tess, Sara or Maria.

The other variations were done quite well. Despite the fast tempo, Rebecca Krohn was able to make Coffee sexy, a first for me this season. It just goes to show what the right dancer can do with a role. Anthony Huxley's agility and jumps again made him a great Candy Cane while Erica Pereira again deftly handled all the pointe work in Marzipan. Antonio Carmena was a virtuosic Tea (and just a nice change from Ralph Ippolito, who I saw twice) while Aaron Sanz was a sure footed Mother Ginger. I did miss Taylor Stanley and Brittany Pollack in Hot Chocolate (tonight we had Gwyneth Muller and Daniel Applebaum) but you can't expect them to dance it every performance. (And Brittany was one of flower demis tonight) All in all, it was a great night; perhaps not as perfect as a few weeks ago, but I came away happy. And I am relieved that, clearly, Ashley is healthy again.

Ok YID, just saw the casting for In The Night. I'll never get Owen to switch (he loves Tereshkina) but I might try to get myself a single ticket for Sunday. I'm afraid, as I said before, Mariinsky doesn't seem to care about audience preferences.

As for complaints, Skorik in both casts of Chopiniana? And no Kim? I love Stepin (I think Parish is ok) but why couldn't Kim do one of their roles for one performance? I'm utterly baffled that they're not bringing Kim to NY:(

Should we start a "fight" or a campaign? to restore originally advertised, posted and bought-in casting, which would be more benefitial to dancers(see below) for the Chopin piece?

Now they list Tereshkina on 24th - the original date, the date MOST (if not all of us) bought the tickets for under subscription and membership sales and Lopatkina on 25th.

Tereshkina listed to lead Swan Lake on 23rd, and then do the In the night- the day after that, and making Lopatkina dance on 25th which leads NO time for Tereshkina to rehearse/refresh in the night or for Lopatkina to rehease Paquita and the swan. Kinda harsh & inconsiderate to principals.

But from the monetary/fairness point of view., HOw can i switch all my 11 tickets between the dates? I am going to write to both the Mariinsky and to BAM. Neither it is fair to membeship, or subscription nor to the principal dancers......

I wrote my letter to Ekaterina Ordovskaya at ordovskaya@mariinsky.ru is Mariinsky Public relations person and am writing a similar letter to infor@BAM.org

I'm sure you know more than me, but it seems that protests to the Mariinsky fall on deaf ears. Last summer, when they took away Stepanova's SL, Mathilde tried to organize a protest. Nothing happened:(

Right now I'm trying to find out if Kimin Kim is dancing at BAM. And if not, why? Are they afraid McKenzie will try to poach him (I don't think ABT has the money)? Kim is such a star and being seen in NY would cement his status as such. I can only sigh at the Mariinsky casting antics.

YID - I agree, the switch is very annoying. Unfortunately I won't be able to go to the sunday performance so I'm sticking with the one I bought.

Albany Girl - Tereshkina is wonderful, a monster technician and very soulful, beautiful dancer. Also, her partner Shklyarov is the best of the Siegfrieds. Lopatkina's partner is Ivanchenko who, while technically competent and an excellent partner is like wood -

completely unresponsive. Kondaurova is partnered with Askerov who is a better actor than Ivanchenko but not a great partner. Although Lopatkina's O/O is legendary and I doubt that we'll get a chance to see it here in NY again the Tereshkina/Shklyarov is probably the most well rounded and, really - you can't go wrong with any of these casts. They really brought the A team this time.

As for partial view seats, this theater has huge round boxes at the sides which really block the view from many of the side partial view seats. I ordered orchestra partial view seats for Cinders and the woman on the phone said to go with row N or higher. Doesn't really make sense to me but I took her advice.

I agree with nysusan that you really can't do wrong with any cast but I'd pick Lopatkina, despite Ivanchenko being Siegfried. I saw them in London (once again, they pulled Korsuntsev) and she was terrific. Such a soulful Odette. And though she now does only single fouettés, her Odile sparkled. Of all the casts is SL, Lopatkina was the only one to have an in front of the curtain bow. She is a legend, still in good shape and unless you travel to Russia, it's probably your last opportunity to see her dance.

I will be going to St Petersburg in May 2015, and I've been looking around on the internet for things to do there.

I noticed that on the website www.balletandopera.com they offer backstage tours of the Mariinsky theatre, for 113€ per person (! this is more than double what I paid for an orchestra ticket to a Saturday night Mariinsky ballet performance that I already booked). The Mariinsky website does not seem to offer this kind of tours.

Did anyone here take this tour? Or can you book this somewhere else (read: less expensive)?

Would love to do this, but I'm not sure I want to at this price.

Wow, that is a huge amount of money for a tour. The ROH tour my husband and I took this summer was about 10 pounds each, I think.

Since you can't find this tour on the Mariinsky website I am a little sceptical about it being legitimate. Why don't you tweet the Mariinsky (@mariinskyen) and ask. They're usually pretty prompt about their responses.

Sarah Lane and Joe Gorak were, well, magical Friday night. Didn't see any of the problem partnering that was mentioned here. They looked comfortable and adorable together. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea but I love Ratmansky's Nutcracker. I find it incredibly moving and I think his snow flake interpretation is brilliant. I am very sorry to see it move across the country.

I heard that same thing from another source!

I saw the Nutcracker on Thursday night. It was a lovely performance with one exception: the dull, almost static Dew Drop of Megan LeCrone. Sure, she did all the steps correctly but there couldn't possibly have been less responsiveness to the musical surges, less of a sense of urgency or evanescence. I saw 3 Dew Drops this season. Sterling Hyltin was light & lovely, not really my taste in Dew Drops but still quite lovely. My favorite was Lauren King - certainly not the most technically proficient, but more than good enough and so joyous & musical, she really rode the crest of the music.

Back to Thursday night. Tyler Peck was simply one of the best Sugar Plums I've ever seen. Lush, musical, warm & welcoming and she and Garcia were gorgeous in the pas de deux. Anthony Huxely was very impressive as the Candy Cane leader and Emily Kitka did a great Arabian, very sensuous & mysterious. The nicest surprise came in the coda when she did the almost-extinct bent knee pirouettes. I couldn't believe my eyes!

That's too bad about Megan. She hasn't really danced much this past fall,so maybe her stage presence is a little rusty or maybe she didn't get to rehearse a lot. As for Tiler, I saw her on Friday the 12th when she was subbing for Ashley. You can read the review I gave her up thread & I said the same as you. One of (if not THE best) Sugarplums I've ever seen. Perhaps Darci matches her but I'd have to sit down and watch it closely. Tiler is really a treasure; I pray if Little Dancer moves to Broadway Tiler'll only go in the summer or when the company is off. As for me I'm seeing lmy ast Nut on Saturdat evening, supposedly still w/Ashley (we'll see). After that I am eagerly awaiting the winter season especially January, when both Mariinsky, NYCB & Royal Danish principals are in town.