sneds
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Hi!
Thank you for such wonderful reviews!! I'd considered going to Saratoga for a few days this past week, but was too busy and not energized enough for such a long drive.
Sounds like some great ballets and debuts-glad to hear that Daniel Ulbricht did so well in his first shot at "Interplay". Ulbricht's very talented, and I just hope that he is able to avoid having any more knee problems.
I look foward to reading any reviews of his debut in "Tarantella", though I feel that Antonio Carmena should have gotten the first shot. He's a great dancer, and I'm always nervous that he will jump ship to ABT if he doesn't get opportunities at NYCB. (Apparently he actually wanted to go to ABT Studio Company with his Prix de Lausanne scholarship, but there were language difficulties and the committe thought he meant SAB.)
So, thank you again for your reviews! I look foward to reading about another week of ballet in Saratoga!
kate
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Hi!
The Acosta& Benjamin Coppelia DVD is from a performance in 2000 and was released (at least in Region 1 form) in November of 2001. (Unless they taped another version with the same dancers).
Kate
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Hi!
Both of ABT's recent televised performances are not available on DVD-"Le Corsaire" and "Variety & Virtuosity".
A great way to check out dance DVDs is to go to www.amazon.com and do a search under DVD for ballet. I know there are some Nureyev ballets on DVD.
Kate
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Hi!
Some intriguing debuts this week and next week up at Saratoga:
This afternoon: Ulbricht, Hendrickson and Veyette in "Interplay"
Next week:
Mandradjieff, Krohn and Dronova in "Raymonda Variations".
Bouder and Ulbricht in "Tarantella" (now that should be interesting!)
In Vienna Waltzes: Rutherford in the first section, Ash in the Explosions Polka and Ringer in "Gold Und Silber Walzer".
Any comments-or even better, will anyone be seeing any of these new casts?!
Kate
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Ok...I'll step into the arena
)Well, I tend to think that Gottlieb, like some critics is somewhat stuck in the past and far too negative. We can't stop time-Balachine has been dead for nearly two decades, and his hand-picked dancers are retiring. Face it-things are going to change (as they always have) and we can't just constantly compare today to the past.
Dancers have changed-careers, especially for those who never make it out of the corps are shorter and not nearly so focused on just ballet. Dancers are getting married, having kids, taking college classs, dancing with other companies etc. It's a different world, and the newer dancers are a different generation.
I've disagreed with many of Martins' choices in dancers, casting and programs, but he's really in a no-win situation. No-one will ever live up to Balanchine.
Also, I tend to think this season's problem was the choice of ballets, not the dancers.
The women-
Borree has her issues, but she's a good dancer. Over the years she's been excellent in ballet such as "La Sonnambula". I really liked her Helena (or Hermia?) in Midsummer's.
I very much disagree with Gottlieb about Ringer. Has she been dancing with NYCB for 13 years?-she's only just 30, I think. While T&V is not an idealrole for her, she did a elegant job. I would have liked to see Somogyi in the role, but for all we know, with all the injuries, Martins may not have been able to work the schedule out to have her do T&V enough times to make it worth the rehearsal time. Better to wait rather than risk exhasuting her to the point of an injury or illness.
(I think in many cases it's not completely fair for us to negatively comment on casting when we are unaware of a lot of the issues-minor & major injuried, partner incompatibilties, attitude issues, dedication or lack there of etc.)
Ringer was born to do "Who Cares"-with both Neal and Hubbe, she was spectacular.
Her first Midsummer's PdD was a tad tentative (I doubt she got very much rehearsal), but it was beautiful. I think it will be spectacular by the end of the run next Spring Season.
The men..
I agree that NYCB has some issues in its upper male ranks, but am less worried now that I was a year ago.
Woetzel has actually been on stage nearly twenty years-he joined the Los Angeles Ballet when he was 16. He's been with NYCB for 17 years. Obviously, Woetzel has lost some power with age, but he's still pretty darn good. Yes, he was not at his best in Midsummer's, but anyone who is familiar with Woetzel knows that he doesn't give 100% in every performance or every role. He looked a little off on Wednesday, but his Saturday matinee performance of Oberon was excellent.
Boal and Soto are not young chickens, but still are great assets on the stage and over at SAB. Soto may not be ideally built, but he and Whelan were so breathtaking in the Midsummer's PdD that I didn't even think about his physique.
I think Millepied and Marcovici have great promise, and Fayette has carved his own niche as a solid, elegant partner. After all, Balachine's male choreography, in general, is much more about supporting the women thant individual dancing. Angle and Hofmans (of the exquisite feet!) are also ones to watch.
ABT obviously has an excess of fabulous male talent. Yet, NYCB does not need a roster full of explosive technicians. The NYCB rep demands partnering skills, solid technique and somtimes bravura skill. I'd love to see Corella in the NYCB rep, but I don't think some of the other ABT men would be so comfortable at NYCB. And I don't think Martins lost Stiefel-Stiefel's always been a wanderer and still is off dancing around the globe at every chance.
I prefer to look at the positive-and there's plenty to look foward to in coming seasons. Antonio Carmena has grown physically and technically this season, and Martins is giving Dan Ulbricht every opportunity to show off his talent(he's debuting in Tarantella next week). Ansanelli is great, and there are many appealing young women in the corps.
If I were to constant think of the negatives, it wouldn't be worth the effort to go to the ballet. Each performance to me is a chance to see the positives-more some nights than others. So, Mr. Gottlieb, lighten up and look for the good in life. NYCB will never be the NYCB of 10 or 20 years ago, and that's good in many ways. My generation is different from yours, and thus so is the ballets.
And things aren't so hunky-dory over at ABT.
Cheers!
Looking foward to NYCB this winter!
Kate
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Ok...I'll step into the arena
)Well, I tend to think that Gottlieb, like some critics is somewhat stuck in the past and far too negative. We can't stop time-Balachine has been dead for nearly two decades, and his hand-picked dancers are retiring. Face it-things are going to change (as they always have) and we can't just constantly compare today to the past.
Dancers have changed-careers, especially for those who never make it out of the corps are shorter and not nearly so focused on just ballet. Dancers are getting married, having kids, taking college classs, dancing with other companies etc. It's a different world, and the newer dancers are a different generation.
I've disagreed with many of Martins' choices in dancers, casting and programs, but he's really in a no-win situation. No-one will ever live up to Balanchine.
Also, I tend to think this season's problem was the choice of ballets, not the dancers.
The women-
Borree has her issues, but she's a good dancer. Over the years she's been excellent in ballet such as "La Sonnambula". I really liked her Helena (or Hermia?) in Midsummer's.
I very much disagree with Gottlieb about Ringer. Has she been dancing with NYCB for 13 years?-she's only just 30, I think. While T&V is not an idealrole for her, she did a elegant job. I would have liked to see Somogyi in the role, but for all we know, with all the injuries, Martins may not have been able to work the schedule out to have her do T&V enough times to make it worth the rehearsal time. Better to wait rather than risk exhasuting her to the point of an injury or illness.
(I think in many cases it's not completely fair for us to negatively comment on casting when we are unaware of a lot of the issues-minor & major injuried, partner incompatibilties, attitude issues, dedication or lack there of etc.)
Ringer was born to do "Who Cares"-with both Neal and Hubbe, she was spectacular.
Her first Midsummer's PdD was a tad tentative (I doubt she got very much rehearsal), but it was beautiful. I think it will be spectacular by the end of the run next Spring Season.
The men..
I agree that NYCB has some issues in its upper male ranks, but am less worried now that I was a year ago.
Woetzel has actually been on stage nearly twenty years-he joined the Los Angeles Ballet when he was 16. He's been with NYCB for 17 years. Obviously, Woetzel has lost some power with age, but he's still pretty darn good. Yes, he was not at his best in Midsummer's, but anyone who is familiar with Woetzel knows that he doesn't give 100% in every performance or every role. He looked a little off on Wednesday, but his Saturday matinee performance of Oberon was excellent.
Boal and Soto are not young chickens, but still are great assets on the stage and over at SAB. Soto may not be ideally built, but he and Whelan were so breathtaking in the Midsummer's PdD that I didn't even think about his physique.
I think Millepied and Marcovici have great promise, and Fayette has carved his own niche as a solid, elegant partner. After all, Balachine's male choreography, in general, is much more about supporting the women thant individual dancing. Angle and Hofmans (of the exquisite feet!) are also ones to watch.
ABT obviously has an excess of fabulous male talent. Yet, NYCB does not need a roster full of explosive technicians. The NYCB rep demands partnering skills, solid technique and somtimes bravura skill. I'd love to see Corella in the NYCB rep, but I don't think some of the other ABT men would be so comfortable at NYCB. And I don't think Martins lost Stiefel-Stiefel's always been a wanderer and still is off dancing around the globe at every chance.
I prefer to look at the positive-and there's plenty to look foward to in coming seasons. Antonio Carmena has grown physically and technically this season, and Martins is giving Dan Ulbricht every opportunity to show off his talent(he's debuting in Tarantella next week). Ansanelli is great, and there are many appealing young women in the corps.
If I were to constant think of the negatives, it wouldn't be worth the effort to go to the ballet. Each performance to me is a chance to see the positives-more some nights than others. So, Mr. Gottlieb, lighten up and look for the good in life. NYCB will never be the NYCB of 10 or 20 years ago, and that's good in many ways. My generation is different from yours, and thus so is the ballets.
And things aren't so hunky-dory over at ABT.
Cheers!
Looking foward to NYCB this winter!
Kate
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I was the person who commented about the turn, and the dress rehearsal in question was open to several hundred NYCB guild members and all the students from SAB- a yearly event.
In this case the dancers were clearly aware that they were being watched by a large number of people (it's amazing how many people will talk during rehearsal even when each person is given a sheet clearly stating NO talking..but that's whole different issue!) and were reacting accordingly.
Kate
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Hi!
I've seen all three nights so far. Kyra was excellent on Wednesday, though age has definately limited her stretch and technical skills. No matter, she still has the regal bearing and elegance that the role of Titania requires. She did seem a handful for Fayette in the pas de deux-the timing was off in her leap into his arms, and he was very obviously straining. On Thursday, Kowroski, with her stunnning extension ,was a youthful, but elegant Titania -more than a handful for Boal's Oberon.
Korbes made a good debut as Helena on Wednesday, though I think she'll improve with more maturity and experience. Stuart Capps made a fabulous debut as Bottom. The pas de deux with Kowroski was especially endearing, I'm sure in part because they are a couple off the stage as well. He tended to hold his arms a bit stiffly, but other than that he managed the dancing and characterization with the huge donkey head admirabley well.
It was wonderful to see Jared Angle back on stage last night. Hopefully he won't have any future setbacks, and I can't wait to see him dance again next season.
None of the other Hippolytas came close to Somogyi. Van Kipnis is an elegant dancer, but lacks the oomph. Ash, in her debut, seemed to be trying too hard, and instead of the needed sheer power and energy, her dancing looked forced and effortful.
Jenifer Ringer was stunning in her debut as the pas de deux. Askegard was a solid partner, and appeared to be giving her some cues. With more experience in the role, Ringer should relax and her dancing become even fluid. However, as Askegard, if anything, is a bit tall for her, I'd love see to her dance with Fayette. That would truely be a pas de deux to watch! Yvonne Borree was technically competent on Thursday night, but her very visible trembling during the majority of the pas de deux detracted from the overall impression of the dancing.
Gold is fine Puck, but Hendrickson is fabulous. He's only done the role a handful of times, but is a bundle of youthful, mischevous energy. Hendrickson is the most athletic Puck and is wonderful comic actor, getting many laughs for his antics.
The corps and kids were excellent. Antonio Carmena continues to stand out in the corps, and I hope he gets the opportunity to display his talent in the coming seasons.
Kate
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Hi!
I saw Nicole Hlinka and Helene Alexopoulos's last performances (and Susan Jaffe's).
During the bows after Hlinka's last performance, Damian Woetzel, who had danced with her earlier in the evening, leapt out dressed in the Harlequin costume from "Harlequinade" to present her with yet another bouquet of flowers. Apparently the female lead in "Harlequinade" was one of Hlinka's signature roles. Also, when Hlinka stepped back to achknowledge the crowd, she slipped on the flowers and fell flat on her bottom. She recovered gracefully and was very careful where she put her feet after that!
We've mentioned a lot of final performances of ballerinas. Has anyone seen a danseur's final performance (Luders, Martins, Fischer etc.)?
Kate
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Hi!
The first act ended up a bit rusty looking because the conductor (George Cleve, who I think is a guest), set a tempo that was too fast, even for NYCB. I thought Kistler & Askegard's PdD looked a bit rushed as a result, and Boal's pirouettes got fairly wild in his attempts to keep up with the tempo. (During the final rehearsal, Boal wasn't having any problems with the pirouettes).
Evans was a fabulous Puck-all mischievious energy. During the final bows he was chatting with the little girl who played Titania's page.
There were several corps changes in the second act-Hanna and Hall were missing, Jon Stafford was swiched to the Divertissment and Hendrickson and Carmena were dancing instead. I hope that these are just casting adjustments and not an indication of injury. Abi Stafford was also dancing in the corps, a bit unusual for a soloist, but nice to see that she appears uninjured after her problems last Friday in "Who Cares".
BTW, Kyra Nichols did the dress rehearsal yesterday and looked wonderful. I look foward to seeing her with Woetzel tonight.
Kate
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I vote to keep it, but overall the way it's done.
BryMar1995-I don't get the impression that the "dancers relish it". They looked exhausted by the time Mahdaviani's ballet finally premiered, and I'm sure they'd rather not do 50 different ballets in one season. And, since the same dancers seem to be picked for just about every ballet, there are some dancers who are probably not too happy about sitting on the sidelines for the duration.
There are plenty of other ballets that could be revived other than Symphony in C-plenty Balanchine and Robbins ballets have been shelved for far too many seasons and would make wonderful additions to the active rep. I'd love to see Coppelia, West Side Story Suites and Union Jack again, among others.
I've never seen Woetzel's Diamond Project ballet, but his ballet for the SAB Workshop was not bad, and showed some flashes of talent. He's had a lot more choreographic experience since the Diamond Project, so I'd give him the benefit of the doubt.
Kate
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Hi!
I think Ari has made some excellent points!! After seeing Mahdaviani's new ballet last week, it seemed very clear that the company was being pushed beyond it's limits of energy and ability to absorb the choreography of yet another new ballet.
I think it might be interesting to have the NYC Choreographic Institute feed into the Diamond Project. Once all the ballets for the year have been seen in the closed performances, then a limited number of ballets could be chosen (by whom though?) for further development with NYCB dancers in preparation for the Diamond Ballet season. This would give the choreographers a chance to work on the choreography before having to take up NYCB rehearsal time, and allow the selection of NYCB dancers to be more controlled-say limiting dancers to 2 or 3 new ballets.
In this context, established choreographers like Martins and Wheeldon would be excluded from the Diamond Project-their ballets can be premiered during any season. (I thought it unwise of Martins to be premiering so many of his new ballets during the busy Diamond Project season, when the focus and time should have been given to the newer choreographers)
Exceptions could always be made for choreographers who might not be able to schedule time for the NYCI and the Diamond Project or might be new to ballet, but not to dance.
Variety, as everyone has already mentioned, would be a breath of fresh air! Wheeldon's "Variations Seriuses" was fun just because it was so different from any of the other new ballet recently. And it does look like NYCB will be getting some interesting new stuff-Susan Stroman is supposed to be doing something next season and Eifman is supposed to be doign 2 ballets for 2004 (as mentioned in a recent New Yorker article).
Kate
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Hi!
I also though Ansanelli was fabulous.
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Hi!
The Los Angeles Ballet that was directed by John Clifford lasted for several years in the eary 80s and in fact toured to NY at one point (late 83?). The star of that tour was 16-year old Damian Woetzel, who would come to SAB full-time when the LA Ballet folded, study for at SAB for six months and join NYCB after the 1985 Workshop. The rest is history.
Kate
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Hi!
I stand corrected-just checked the cast list at the State Theater and Meunier is still schedule to dance on Saturday night.
Kate
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Hi!
I'll check when I'm at the State Theater tonight, but I believe that Meunier has been replaced in the ballets she was supposed to dance in for the remainder of the season.
Kate
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Hi!
OK, I wasn't sure if it was Severini or not-the dancer in question looked a lot like one of the new apprentices and appeared to be a bit unfamiliar with the choreography. I don't think Severini has danced much this season, so he might just be getting back into the swing of things.
The tempo did seem a little slow, but it didn't take away from the dancing. I prefer it a tad slow at NYCB, rather than too fast for the dancers at ABT.
It was very nice to see how great the full corps looked in the finale of T&V. The timing and spacing, which had been just a slight bit off in some of the earlier T&V sections, was spot on and it looked beautiful!
Kate
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Hi!
I also saw T&V last night and though it was well danced by all. Ringer doesn't have the crispness that some dancers bring to the role (Gilian Murphy over at ABT is great), but she danced well and her pas de deux with Woetzel was excellent.
BTW, in the T&V section, did anyone notice whether Aaron Severini was dancing. I had though one (or two) of the new apprentices might have been dancing, but perhaps I was confusing one apprentice with Aaron Severini.
Kate
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Yes, those were barrell turns! I knew I'd heard another term for those turns before, but was totally stumped.
The performance was reviewed by Anna Kisselgoff in today's NYTimes and she described the level of dancing as "ultra spectacular". The article is accompanied by a fabulous picture of Acosta high in the air in a grand jete, legs at a pefect 180 angle!
Kate
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Hi!
Manhattanik-it was not a series of normal coupe jetes-Acosta's jetes were done with his body leaning back so that his feet actually ended up higher than or at the same level as his head. Almost a helicopter-like effect with the legs. I don't have the Le Corsaire video with me in NY, but I think it's the normal choreography, only I've never seen someone add an extra rotation to the final jete.
Kate
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Hi!
ABT does not have its own school, so I'd guess the student were all from SAB. I also thought the girls seemed very young to be on pointe.
Kate
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It's late, so just a few remarks...
WOW, WOW and WOW!!!!!
This goes down as one of the best nights of ballet I've seen. It almost felt like a gala night with many dancers from NYCB, and the few ABT dancers not dancing in the audience. I suspect that with Corella, Reyes, Acosta, Herrera and deLuz all in major roles, that many of the other Spanish and Latin American dancers & familiies were on hand to watch and cheer.
It started out with Wiles, Murphy and Riccetto as powerhouse Odilesques (sp). Though they were a tad off in the group work, the solos were first rate! I think Murphy may have started the pirouette sequence with a quintuple or more-I counted four revolutions in her third or fourth pirouette. Then came Xiomara Reyes with out of this world speed on her turns-fastest I've ever seen on any stage.
Then came Herrerra, her usual brilliant self.
And then came Acosta and Corrella. Corrella, Herrera and Acosta brought down the house during the pas de trois. Acosta has the most incredible height on his jumps, spin speed to rival (and beat) Corella and when he does the circles of angled tour jetes (I don't know the right term, but they are leaning, bounding turns), he finishes off with what appears to be 1.5 or 2 revolutions in the same position. There was an audible gasp from the audience every time he lept into the air.
Acosta is not a very tall dancer, but has a huge presence on the stage, and appears to be a very solid partner.
Corrella took up the challenge and met it-huge high delayed split jumps, those crosslegged, bent knee pirouettes which start in second postion and seem to last forever-this time completely cross-legged to the very end and one after the other. Then Herrerra kept on foutteing and fouetting and fouetting.
Standing ovation (many people were leaving early-grrr...at least wait for the main bows to end) and at least three curtain calls for Acosta & Herrera.
Kate
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Hi!
According to the new ABT Dancer Directory the following dancers were promoted to the main company for the 2002 Met Season:
Erin Ackert
Patrick James Ogle
Craig Salstein
The following are current apprentices
Yuriko Kajiya
Catherine Sebring
Kelley Waddell
Ashley Ellis
Melissa Thomas
Sarawanee Tanatanit
Simone Messmer
It's possible that more promotions to the main company/to apprentice were made at the time of the other promotions.
Kate
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Hi!
The show was quite interesting, though I think it was conceived as a way for NBC to attract viewers who would ordinarily not tune in until NBA game-time. I wouldn't have known about it, except that I'm on the Joshua Bell mailing list and we got a message saying that he would be on the show.
It was obviously filmed in NYC late last year or early this year-the dancers, actors and musicians were/are all temporarily or permanently based in NYC and judging from the marquees shown in one clip, "The Full Monty" was still open and "Thoroughly Modern Millie" was open or in previews.
The dance segment was, in my opinion, the best part of the show. Judith Jamison was very eloquent and offered some very apt insights on the "dance in basketball".
I wonder why Damian was chosen as "the ballet dancer"-certainly there are other popular dancers in NYC these days (Corella, Stiefel etc.). But, I think it was a good choice-though certainly not very tall by basketball standards, he has a long, lean, muscular physique much like many basketball players. Much of the focus seemed to be placed on his muscular legs-he was shown in short spandex shorts , the shots were of steps that emphasized his legs (pirouettes in seconde, entrachets) and at least once, the camera focused close up on his feet (neat-it's not often that we get to watch feet that close up-he has nice pointed feet in the entrachets/beats.
Kate
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)
saratoga debuts
in New York City Ballet
Posted
Hi!
Saratoga, not Sarasota
Yes, this was Ulbricht's first time in "Tarantella". He has danced other "soloist" roles- a sailor in "Fancy Free" and the gigue section of "Mozartiana".
Casting choices at NYCB (under Martins) have often been, um, interesting. In part, I think that because the repetory is so large and mostly comprised of short ballets, younger dancers get more shots at larger roles. There simply aren't enough healthy soloists and principals to fill every soloist/principal role in every ballet. Still, dancers somtimes seem miscast, and some dancers seem to be neglected while others seem to get many roles.
I love Ulbricht's dancing, but thought that perhaps Antonio Carmena should have had a shot at "Tarantella" first. Carmena is very talented, and at the this point, appears to have a stronger partnering skills than Ulbricht. I would be very upset if Carmena were to leave-he's one of the great talents still mostly hidden in the corps.
I am pleased to see Amar Ramasar and Seth Orza getting opportunities-both are great dancers. According to the current issue of Pointe Magazine, Ramasar will be getting a shot at "Fancy Free" next season. He's definately been rehearsing it, since he danced an excerpt with Orza & Ulbricht at the Guild Luncheon.
Kate