Amour

Tiler Peck was 2nd cast. I still don't understand why she didn't perform it Friday and has been taken out from Sunday's matinee.

So sorry I missed these farewells. But it sounds like both Paloma and Xiomara got great send offs,

That video has nothing to do with this thread or the official NYCB PR. It's on Devin Alberda's personal YT channel. It was made by 2 corps dancers, the always funny and acerbic Devin Alberda and Lydia Wellington, about their second week at SPAC (Saratoga) back in 2011. Most of the dancers are housed in homes with pools and they have more free time than in NYC. So they're having fun while also working. Nothing wrong with that, IMO.

So is Bouder. She's out of the Schumacher piece, Clearing Dawn, and Goldberg Variations this Friday. In fact, Goldberg has a ton of replacements, too numerous to list here. Based on her Instagram photo, showing her in a boot, I'm afraid Ashley might be out for the rest of the season but so far both she and Sara are scheduled for the June 3 Midsummer.

You changed the photo in this post. Originally it was a posed saut de chat.The fact is that Erica doesn't have a great jump compared to some other NYCB dancers (and of course Ashley). Right now my biggest problem with her is her lack of stage presence or charisma. She's tiny, so she needs to work especially hard on both technique and projecting, especially projecting confidence and charm. That's something that, say, Lauren King or Gina Pazcoquin have in spades. I'm not dismissing Erica the way Macauley did (calling her "vapid and inconsequential") but she really does need to work on things.

I agree. Macauley,with his surplus of dance history and often misogynist views of female dancers is not my cup of tea. Frankly,I can barely take him seriously. In his review of the last cast Syphide he spoke only of Anthony Huxley (whom I adore and whose mom I'm friends with) but to not even mention Lauren Lovette as the Sylph? C'mon!

I thought he was a dance historian. That's why he always gives so much space to history and so little to critiquing the performance ( as canbelto said). I, too, find that very irritating. I long for the days when Anna Kisselgoff was the NYT critic.

I thought Diana and Marcelo were exquisite tonight. I agree with Batsuchan that age is beginning to show a bit, more IMO in Diana than Marcelo. Still, there were so many lovely moments throughoutl. I liked. i agree with onxmyxtoes that Diana's hops on pointe had just the right combination of flirtatiousness and skill and she casually looked over to see if he was watching her. I also like she gave all these premonitions of her heart condition. She clutched at her heart, almost immediately, seemed to faint and then Marcelo came over, gave her a shake and she recovered. Marcelo also played the role of Albrecht in a more typically dramatic way (as opposed to understated Shklyarov's interpretation) he was the arrogant, caddish, entitled Prince, although unlike some, he never totally spurned Giselle. I found Stella's mad since a bit more layered that Diana's. Stella had a wider range of emotions pass over her face. Diana basically looked shell shocked. As for Hilarion, I liked Patrick Ogle tonight much better than Thom Forster. Partick's mime was very clear and his suspicion of and disgust at Albrecht was palpable. Act 2 was wven better than Act 1. However, of instead Stella as Myrtha we got soloist Devon Teuscher. This was a VERY last minute replacement. There was no insert, just a verbal announcement l(ike at NYCB). Likely this was Teuscher's début in the role. I thought she did very well. She did all the beats that Veronika just threw away and did her promenades with not even a hint of a shake.'I thought her jump was pretty good and becoming more authoritative will come in time. I'd certainly like to see more of her. Diana was ethereal, ephemeral, ghostly in this act. One thing I'd be remiss not to point out is that after all the whirling in attitude, Diana completely left out the sissones that move from stage left to right. She substituted some traveling steps instead. But other than that, everything was gorgeous,and all the jumping was fine. The slow lifting of her leg from arabesque into penche was luxurious and beautiful. When she extended her first leg into a la seconde it seemed a bit shaky but the second side- it looked like she could hold that forever. Marcelo danced a desperate Albrecht. He did the entrechats sixes (I counted 24) but they were high, clean and his arms remained at his sides.When he lifted Giselle high overhead, he put her down very slowly. I also loved the touch that after Giselle returns to her grave, Albrecht doesn't just hug the grave but picks up the flowers he got her and strews them around the cemetery until his final pose (on his knee, crying). As for other character,Christine Shevchenko and Stephanie Williams had great ballon and fluidity as Moyna and Zulma respectively. The peasant pas was again danced by Craig Salstein and Misty. He was even worse today than last Saturday; his tours were really messy. I don't think he landed cleanly once. I thought Misty was a bit better, her point shoes were not as loud (although at intermission everyone complained the could hear her run off into the wings). She lost her balance doing a pirouette into a penchee but luckily didn't fall off pointe. Anyway, it's late and my takeaway was that this was a marvelous program by two artists who know each other so intimately, they are the Ferri and Booca of our time.

I agree. Erica is ok in certain roles but she's doesn't even approach the virtuosity of Ashley or the musicality of Tiler. Still, hopefully, she will look a little more confident in Raymonda, not like she's about to break down and cry, like last Friday. As I said before, casting her in Ashley's place isn't fair to her or the audience. This Bournonville stuff has just been a killer for everyone to take on. Hopefully, we'll at least see Sara and Tiler for Midsummer.

I believe by Pereira. You can see it if you go to the ticket date and click on "buy tickets" you'll see all the replacements. On Friday Erica was really not enjoyable in Raymonda but the other soloists were good.

In person, Irina was (and generally is) stunning. She must get her gowns gifted or she borrows them. I can't imagine she has the money to buy them. I went in the downstairs entrance at the Met gala night to avoid the hullabaloo of the red carpet out front so I only saw some of the people pictured in this article.

I guess every one of the NYT dance critics has their problems. My real favorite is Roslyn Sulcas but she's abroad so usually does special pieces on the RB, POB or RD. Macauley certainly has his favorite women -Sara Mearns, Osipova and maybe now Boylston. I can't remember the last time he said anything bad about the first 2. Only a few dancers, like Erica Pereira ("vapid and inconsequential) are on his hate list nowadays.As for men, his favorites list for men is much broader but Marcelo Gomes, Herman Cornejo and Anthony Huxley (I adore all 3, too) immediately come to mind. My point is that Macauley has his favorites as you say Gia does (I've never noticed that about Gia, actually). They both occasionally bring dancers with them to the ballet (somehow my seats, especially at NYCB, are always near the NYT seats). But now I find Macauley seems almost afraid to give a bad review while Gia (her gala review being a great example) can still be critical and acerbic. Frankly, my favorite place to read ballet commentary now is here on BA! People love or don't like things but they're honest. I really think this board is terrific!

That article is vintage (and I think authentic) Macauley. Basically dismissive of the entire performance. I remember the awful, personal things he wrote about Darci Kistler, Nilas Martins, Ashley Bouder and Gillian Murphy's face. I think after the Jenifer Ringer "one sugarplum too many" review he came under heavy scrutiny by the NYT. Also, I'll bet he doesn't want lose his seating privileges at NYCB or ABT. So he's become far more ingratiating as a critic. Personally, I prefer to read Gia Kourlas.

I just finished watching this 55 minute film. It has lots of great clips of Merrill dancing-Ballo, the 4Ts, Agon PDD, PDD from Flower Festival. These clips are impressive and show how differently Balanchine is danced now as opposed to when he was alive. My husband, who never saw NYCB when Balanchine was alive,looked at the Agon clip and said despairingly, "I've never seen THAT Agon". These clips have some interviews preceding or following them with people like John Meehan and Jacques D'Amboise. While we get a short bio of Merrill and how she started dancing, the film gets pretty quickly to the topic at hand - Merrill's retirement and career transition to teacher and coach. We see Merrill at 1year after retiring, then 21/2 years, and so on, up to 10 years. What's too bad is that the most recent interview was quite awhile ago, in 2010. The most extended segment of Merrill teaching is showing her coaching Alexandra Ansanelli, who is not only no longer with NYCB (she left years ago) but is no longer dancing herself. So that part seems very dated. It would have been nice to see Merrill doing something more current like coaching Olga Smirnova in Diamonds. Even the class we see Merrill teaching at the Mariinsky has Evgenia Obratsova (who moved to the Bolshoi about 4 years ago) in it. On the plus side, Merrill is very candid about how hard and emotional it was to retire and how nothing, not even occasionally playing character role (like Madge) can give her the same pleasure as dancing did. How teaching and coaching don't give her the same pleasure as dancing did. She goes through all the injuries she had, how they affected her dancing and finally led her retire. We see her make the big decision to have hip replacement surgery and then recover from it. What's best is how frank and open Merrill is about all this. So a big thumbs up for the film, even though I wish it had more current material.

So far, Ashley has not been replaced in Clearing Dawn on the 29th (I have tickets) although she's out for Raymond Variations on the 27th. So disappointed at not being to see her in Raymonda. I doubt that even Tiler can dance it with the same virtuosity as Ashley so I'm still debating whether to get tickets to the Sunday matinee. I'm praying that Ashley is better in time for Midsummer.

Mine, too, abatt. I'll be keeping my eye out for her in the future. I don't think she'll be in the corps for long.

Macauley was at NYCB Friday night when Hee Seo danced the opening night Giselle (I was sitting a few seats away from him). I think it might have been the first performance of Raymonda Variations this season. So I figured Macauley would review NYCB for Friday and maybe Gia review ABT. I actually didn't expect the NYT to cover the Saturday performance but I'm so glad they did.

I'm not trying to bash AM. I'm actually thrilled he wrote such a positive review of last night. I expected him to rave about Shklyarov but I wasn't sure what he would say about Stella. Unless it's Sara Mearns or Osipova,(and maybe now Boylston as well), AM's reviews of women are unpredictable.

Half of that paragraph was just background - that Stella is a soloist, that she replaced Semionova, that the audience greeted her so warmly. Only a few sentences on the actual performance. All of Shklyarov's paragraph was on his dancing last night.

To be accurate, he wrote twice as much about Shklyarov as about Stella. But he did say Stella's performance was "luminous".

Just came back from the Sunday matinee and I agree with abatt. Huxley was my favorite James. His footwork was sparkling, crisp, clean and clear. I had never seen him act, though, so his superlative mime and acting was a delight.. Really, this was the clearest acting I've seen of all the casts. I feel like I could have seen the ballet and not knowing the story would understand exactly what is happenening. His only flaw at all is just his height. He is shorter than most of the women around him. Still, De Luz and Ulbricht are even shorter. Is it too much to hope he will be made principal at the end of the season?I liked Lovette but she was my least favorite of the Sylphs. She has a womanly body so I was impressed she looked as light as she did. She is not the airy, delicate Sylph like Sterling or the technical virtuoso of Asley. She doesn't have the musicality of Tiler. Still, I thought she did a very credible job and her chemistry with Anthony was good. Lauren King was a spunky Effie with a sunny disposition (her wonderful smile and pretty good looks help a lot). Gretchen Smith as Madge was a bit less comic (a good thing) than some of the others. Troy Schumacher was much better than I expected but I definitely prefer Joseph Gordon. The Bournonville Divertissements started out the program. Tess substituted for Sara in the PDD with Tyler Angle but I thought she was terrific. Shy, girlish, her acting was wonderful. And her technical mastery was in full evidence. I thought all her poses, the height of her extensions, her attitudes derrières were all better than Sara's. Tyler was formidable in his jumps and footwork as seen previously. Erica and Allen Peiffer did the Ballabile. I thought Erica looked strong and confident. Her balances and turns were terrific. Yay Erica! It was a pleasure to see her looking like she enjoyed being onstage. I like Taylor Stanley a lot better in this role than Allen but his footwork was crisp and he did a good job partnering Erica. I thought the Pas De Six was especially good today. I'm not quite sure who is who among the women but the woman who I think is Meagsn Mann had rock solid balances, held extra long in arabesques and a la second poses. Ashley Isaacs (I think?) is also very strong technically and very musical. Andrew Scordato was again terrific in his footwork and tours. The corps (the same people who have been doing it at every performance) looked slightly weary as though the jumps and footwork were becoming slightly too much. Luckily for them, this was the last Bournonville program. Overall, a very enjoyable afternoon and a pretty credible run of Bournonville for a company not used to doing that style.

Tonight's Giselle was one of the most marvelous I have ever seen. Stella and Shklyarov both acted up a storm and danced spectacularly. Stella in Act 1 was the shy, lovestruck girl who becomes infatuated with a cad. Her line, her arms and legs were beautiful throughout. Soft, delicate, pliant, arms - very Romantic era. Her jumps in Act 1 had a gorgeous ballon and lightness to them. Basically she was the antithesis of the athletic Osipova style we get to see all too often now, IMO. And Shklyarov! Well he is a tremendous actor and technical virtuoso. But he looked beautiful with Stella. When they jumped together their arms and legs were at the same height. He never tried to outdance her, seeming to realize it was her night. Even though I was in row L of the orchestra I spent a fair amount of time looking at facial expressions with my opera glasses. Stella's ran the gamut, from innocent shy girl to wonderment at Bathilde's gown to anguish and despair when she discovers Albrecht's treachery. As for Shklyarov, he seemed like a young man who didn't set out to deliberately deceive Giselle and did not totally spurn her, as some Albrechts do. Shklyarov also seems to have a very, youthful stage presence and I found that to be the case tonight. And Stella's mad scene was just perfect. Driven to madness but not acted over the top. As one alum said to me at intermission, Stella was clearly very well coached (and probaxbly by the Australian Ballet). My one minor complaint (I would be remiss to not mention) were her hops on pointe were not strong and she moved only about 1/3 of the way downstage. Still, they were a lot better than Cojocaru's and most people don't mind hers at all. While Act 1 was good, Act 2 was spectacular. I was truly moved to tears and that hasn't happened to me since Ferri danced Giselle. Stella was truly an otherworldly presence, a spectre. Again, the opposite of Osipova, of which I am glad. Stella's lightness and buoyancy were a delight. The way she did her développe into a la second, the ballon of her jumps were wonderful. She didn't protect Albrecht like a tigress (that's Osipova) but a spirit. Again looking through the glasses I saw kind a tenderness but not fierceness, which I loved. Stella also wore a rather simple skirt in the Act, eschewing the typical costume that is rather large, full of layers of tulle (and that everyone else wore). Also in Act 2 Shklyarov got to really show how magnificent a dancer he is. Multiple air tours landed perfectly, upright and close fifth. Beats galore. And he did the entrechats sixes wonderfullyl, first starting with his arms at his side, the one hand on his heart, the other outstretched as if asking for forgiveness. Only at the very end (I stopped counting at around 26) did he raise his arms above his waist. But thankfully, no fist pumping like Sarafanov did in the fall. And when Giselle went down into her grave, Shklyarov kind of hugged the earth that was her grave. They had terrific chemistry together and were a joy to behold. As for other characters, Veronika Part was kind of unimpressive as Myrtha. It's almost like she knew it wasn't about her tonight and so she didn't care. Her jumps were ok but she didn't bother with any beats. None! Shame on you Veronika. Her arms were also ok but nothing more. And she didn't seem a terribly formidable presence. I did think Christine Shevchenko did a very nice job as Moyna. Nice ballon to her jumps and softness in her arms. Stephanie Williams as Zulma looked like she was trying but not really succeeding at what Christine did. The corps was wonderful. When they split in half and hopped across the stage, they looked perfect, not one girl out of place in line. Good job ladies and Susan Jones for her coaching! In Act 1, Nancy Raffa did a good job of being worried and protective mother to her daughter Giselle. I wasn't very impressed by Thom Forster as Hilarion. I never got the feeling he deeply loved Giselle or would go out of his way to demonstrate his love. He was a cipher more than a character as was Alexei Agoudine as the count's squire. He was basically so invisible, he wasn't worth loathing. I didn't like either Craig Salstein or Misty in the Peasant Pas. He was messy, didn't land his tours or turns particularly well. As for Misty, nothing seemed to be working for her tonight. Her jumps weren't good (neither high nor far), and she couldn't do the supported penchee (it was somewhere between an arabesque and penchee). And does she bother to bang out her toe shoes? Every times she landed a jump, it was not only with a heavy thud but the loud noise of the block hitting the stage. As laurel described , when the performance ended the whole house got up to give Stella and Vladimir a standing ovation. It was a pretty raucous audience, everyone screaming or shouting bravos. Not only did they get several curtain calls but even after the house lights came up , the audience kept shouting bravos and so Stella and Vladimir came out again. I think it was a wonderful night and no one wanted it to end. In some trivia, I was sitting 2 rows in front of Stella's husband Sascha, Gennadi Saviliev and Gillian. Marcelo Gomes was one row behind but on the opposite side of the house. Oddly enough I again was sitting near Macauley, so I'm hoping he will review tonight. And finally, I spoke briefly with Bobby La Fosse who seemed to think he knew me (he doesn't) but couldn't remember my name. It was funny.

Simply marvelous!!!! More detailed post to come:)

I've not had that problem. I've exchanged a few different dates a few times. And I exchanged 1 SB for a Cinderella and then exchanged that Cinderella for another on a different date. I haven't needed my subscriber card.

Ashley Bouder just posted a picture of herself on Instagram where it looks like she's in a boot:( She titled it "a boot and a clog". If that's the case, I guess she's out for the rest of the season. https://instagram.com/p/3A3gqgP_6N/?taken-by=ashleybouder