Hi everyone,
I am new to the board and just moved to New York City a few weeks ago. I am a huge fan of the site and an even bigger fan on NYCB.
I too was at the Sunday matinee of Sleeping Beauty and decided to attend just to check out Ms. Hytlin.
I will add though that I was more impressed with Mr. Martin's production then I thought I would be. I enjoyed it in the sense that for the most part I never got bored. The production had a nice pace and the dancing really kept my attention.
I have only seen NYCB twice. I will say that while I was impressed with the females, the male dancing was a let down. Aside from Mr. Ulbricht, none of the men caught my attention. I was also shocked and Mr. Veyette's dancing (he was Bluebird I believe in this performance). He struggled quite a bit with his variations.
I was impressed with Ms. Hytlin's dancing. Young and fresh, she does need to work more on strenghtening her technique a bit. She struggled at times during the partnering sections, especially with her attitude promenades. She also had this funny expression whenever she was tackling a turning sequence. Her mouth would open and her eyes would widen, almost like she was concentrating too hard.
That said, she has lovely proportions, beautiful extensions and is quite the jumper and turner. She really is something special and I know she will continue to do big things.
Tessa was lovely as Lilac. What a ballerina look this woman has. She is a strong, self-assured dancer. I think she just needs to work on broadening her expression and really letting go.
I was also impressed with Ms. Stafford's dancing. You want a technically strong dancer, she's it.
Sour notes for me included Ms. Dronova's variation. While I agree she's got gorgeous feet, she is a weak dancer and has difficulty with her technique. Also, aside from Ellen Bar and Stephanie Zungre, I wasn't overly impressed with any of the fairies.