fondoffouettes

I'm glad to have seen Bourrée Fantasque for the first time this evening. I thought it was a hoot, and I'd happily watch it again! Nadon was great in the first movement, and I think Zuniga did well for a debut, with room to grow; he lacked stage presence. Gerrity and Bolden were lovely in the second movement and pulled off all the tricky partnering very well. Abreu seems to have worked out the kinks; no mishaps between him and von Enck. The costumes for the women in the second movement are some of my all-time favorite Karinksa costumes I've ever seen -- wow. One detail I love is the little black bows where the straps connect with the back of the bodices.

Fairchild and Ulbricht were very good in Steadfast Tin Soldier, but I'd happily never see this ballet again. Luckily, it's short. It looked awkward when Fairchild climbed into the fireplace at the end. Is it ever executed in a way that makes it look like the ballerina has actually been blown into the fireplace? I haven't seen this ballet in maybe 15 years, so I'm just not sure.

Nadon was magnetic in Errante and commanded the stage in her solo. Her flexible back and slinky arms were gorgeous. One thing I really appreciate about Nadon is that you never really see her working to achieve an effect, and she doesn't overdo things (no vamping). Yet, she's endlessly fascinating to watch. It was so good to see Sanz back and looking so well; I really enjoyed him. Overall, it's not a great ballet, and the corps feels sort of superfluous, but it was a great vehicle for Nadon. The boho tops for the corps girls are so awkward! They are not flowy enough to look like real boho tops, so they just end up looking like ill-fitting baggy bodices. 

Tonight's Symphony in C felt off to me, almost dull (and I can't believe I'm calling a Symphony in C performance dull). The energy and incisiveness just wasn't there for me. Gerrity was just fine in the first movement, though I enjoyed her much more in Bourrée Fantasque. Chan was pretty good, though somehow I expected more from him. I was pretty disappointed with Phelan. She seemed rather tense for much of the adagio; there was no majesty, no depth, no individualized interpretation. I feel like management is putting her in these roles because of her look -- beautiful lines, very pretty face -- but she just doesn't bring any inner life to them. Maybe she's just not a very imaginative artist. Knight was fine, though he made some of the partnering look effortful. I'm glad he's stopped bleaching his hair, but all the volume he has toward the back of his head just makes his proportions look weird; it makes him look shorter than he is. Takahashi seemed to lose steam toward the end of the third movement (I kept wishing Mejia were there to tear up the stage). It was great to see Macgill again. She danced very well, though during all the turns where she holds one arm above her head, I wished she'd shaped her arm and hand better; it just looked sloppy and not fully shaped. There was one time when she pulled off a really impressive multiple pirouette and did hold her arm above her head in a nice position, and it looked fantastic!

So, oddly enough, I enjoyed tonight's Bourrée Fantasque more than Symphony in C. Who would have thunk it?

Their link to learn more about Barry Hughson and his vision for ABT just goes to ABT's homepage. And there's nothing more about him and his vision if you go to the ABT News page, either. Great job, ABT.

33 minutes ago, abatt said:

If memory serves, Altson was tapped to lead one of the movements in Symphony in C when the company toured in Paris.  It will be interesting to see if she gets a Symphony in C lead in the Spring season.  

Yes, she is in the performance of Symphony in C  in Paris that was filmed for PBS' Great Performances (dancing the third movement beautifully, opposite Huxley). I only really know her from that video since I haven't had the opportunity to see her this season, but her performance in that video made a great impression on me. Has she essentially been absent or mostly absent since around that time? I believe injury was mentioned up-thread. 

@abatt, you mentioned Mira Nadon in Scotch Symphony earlier. I didn't see her SAB performance live, but I was thrilled that Lincoln Center released the film of it during the pandemic. I could see why everyone had been raving. She performed like a fully fledged ballerina, not a pre-professional dancer. Riccardo was good, but you could see the contrast between him and Nadon; he was dancing more like an apprentice/student (albeit an extremely promising one). If you can still find the video floating around somewhere, I highly recommend it. 

13 hours ago, Jack Reed said:

Thanks for the leads, BalanchineFan.  I might have done better to explain that I'm anticipating NYCB's short run at the Harris Theater here in Chicago, March 20-23, and I'm wondering whether to attend their "Masters at Work" program with "4 T's" and "Serenade".  If all their Balanchine looks like it did in the recent PBS video shot in Madrid and in the earlier one shot in Paris, which looked pretty bloodless to me, I'm not going to pay top dollar to be miserable at what's been lost since the hundreds of performances I watched in Balanchine's day, in the '70's and early '80's. 

I've only experienced the Balanchine era via video, but I've overall found 4Ts to be very well-danced by the company over the past several seasons, with some performances being particularly exhilarating/moving. I think they've generally cast the ballet well.

Serenade has been more of a mixed bag, with several of the female leads not quite doing it for me, for whatever reason. I'd look forward to seeing some new dancers breathe life into the work. Emma Von Enck as the Russian Girl? Nadon as Dark Angel?

One reason I appreciated the Ratmansky Nutcracker at BAM was that it was so much more affordable than the NYCB Nutcracker, and it was a great opportunity to see dancers like Murphy, Part, Hallberg, etc., in their prime, as @FauxPas has noted. I'm pretty sure I always paid under $100 to sit somewhere relatively decent in the mezzanine. I wish ABT could have used that price point to its advantage in sustaining its Nutcracker at BAM. However, I have family in Southern CA and am delighted that they have the opportunity to see a company like ABT perform Nutcracker.

I do wonder how ballets with more niche appeal, like Woolf Works, manage to perform ticket-wise at the Segerstrom. I love both LA and Orange County, but as @California says, it's a tough region for ballet. (On a tangentially related note, it makes me very happy that Kathryn Morgan and her husband have established her dance studio in Huntington Beach!)

15 minutes ago, tutu said:

I tend to agree.  It’s possible to mark and celebrate a historic occasion without commenting on the quality of the performance.

That said, I would have just loved to see Bradley’s Dewdrop — have thought for years she’d be wonderful in the role.  Any reports?  

Whelan, Craig Hall, and others have described the debut as historic. Is Bradley the first Black dancer at NYCB to dance Dewdrop? 

Whelan often posts positive comments about NYCB dancers' performances on social, and it's given me pause, as well. They seem more like the posts of a fellow dancer rather than someone who's in a management position. Part of me likes that she seems very warm and encouraging toward the dancers, but I could see how it could easily be perceived as favoritism. She seems to spread the love pretty broadly, but still... 

1 hour ago, Helene said:

Sean Rollofson!  He used to dance with Pacific Northwest Ballet and was a terrific dancer.

I had no idea he used to be a PNB dancer. Kathryn Morgan dances with him a lot for gigs; you can probably find footage of them dancing together on her YouTube account if you're curious. 

14 hours ago, Rose said:

 

Bouder DID look amazing. She thinks she is still just as amazing now. She has plenty of blind eyes to back her up.

At some point, she needs to see the writing on the wall. She has been guesting in Pennsylvania Regional Ballet's Nutcracker this week and her partner, Sean Rollofson, posted some rehearsal footage: https://www.instagram.com/p/C0SW_EIPDZV/.

I suppose she may still be cast as Sugarplum in the final two weeks of NYCB's run, though I think Dewdrop is out of the question. 

In her Instagram stories, Mearns confirms that she's not dancing Nutcracker due to tears in her deltoid ligament. She says she's aiming to be back for the winter season. 

40 minutes ago, abatt said:

Mearns has not appeared in the casting either. 

I wonder if she's planning to forgo Nutcracker this year. I feel like she's spoken a lot on social media about how she's experienced injuries and subsequently mental health issues relating to The Nutcracker. 

Will Bouder reemerge for Nutcracker? I thought it might be one of the few assignments given to her. 

1 hour ago, cobweb said:

This looks extremely boring. Same old, same old. 

I agree. This may be the least excited I've ever been for a spring ABT season (and last season was pretty bad). I was very underwhelmed with Onegin when ABT last staged it and found the choreography unimaginative and at times cringy. So I'm really finding little to look forward to.

ABT has often announced retirements separately from its season announcement. I think it's entirely possible Gillian may still retire this season, though I did expect her retirement to be well-planned in advance and perhaps included in the season announcement. 

All signs point to Copeland never returning to ABT, and I'm not sad about it. 

R&J is also a good retirement backup for Murphy, who I assume will be retiring this season. Yes, I know O/O is her signature role, but she's been quite injury-prone the past few seasons and had to pull out of Swan Lake last year, so having an alternative retirement vehicle for her may be advantageous. 

I do think programming a work like R&J for a third year straight comes down to financial considerations. If Copeland retires and dances the ballet once or twice during the run, all the better for the box office. I'm still doubtful she'll come back for the spring season, but I could imagine Woolf Works and R&J being possibilities for her. Having her name (and her comeback) associated with a new work like Woolf Works could help it from floundering at the box office. 

15 hours ago, ABT Fan said:

Not sure where to put this, but Cornejo has just posted a farewell to Albrecht, saying if he gets to perform Albrecht again in 2026/2027 “it will be a miracle “. So, he must know that is the next time they’ll do Giselle and it also must mean he’s not retiring anytime soon.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CzkYO-rR6NO/?igshid=MXhndHo1Z3B1Z2kybw==

Thanks for posting this. I'm kind of surprised he's thinking about dancing for the next few seasons, but at the same time, the quality of his dancing is still higher than some fellow principals, so I can't blame him. At this rate, we may see Stearns or Whiteside retire before Cornejo.

I love Giselle but am glad to hear it's getting a rest after being programmed so much recently. It gives me hope we may see a full-length like Sleeping Beauty or some Ashton next spring. 

19 minutes ago, bingham said:

That was impressive. How old is Marcelo? Is he still dancing in Dresden? 

He's 44. I get the impression from his social media and the company's website that he's fully transitioned to administration and is no longer dancing with the company. I'm glad to learn he's landed a permanent post after serving as artistic advisor to the company. 

Corps member Katie Boren must be leaving the company. Carlos Gonzalez congratulates her on her career in his Instagram stories.

6 minutes ago, abatt said:

Oh no.  What a complete lack of imagination.  

Truly. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if they program Giselle again next year. I just hope they can fit in a fifth production this year rather than devoting a week and a half to single work, like they did last season with LWFC. 

29 minutes ago, stuben said:

With so many agreeing on the sound issues, I wonder if this accentuated the squeaky wheels from those black dresses in Petite Mort, I just can't get that noise out of my head, they were so distracting.

Quite possibly. I could actually hear quite a lot of noise from Bottom's costume change that occurs far upstage, and I'm not at all used to hearing that sort of thing. 

I did notice that ABT's marley formed a rather thick lip right at the proscenium line. I've never noticed that at NYCB, so it made me wonder if NYCB extends theirs onto the apron. I'm not sure what, if any, difference that would make acoustically. 

30 minutes ago, abatt said:

Based on what I saw at NYCB this fall,  both Mearns and Tiler Peck did the turns on demi-pointe in that opening solo. 

Thanks for clarifying. I think I was responding to something looking different about Shevchenko's approach to those turns -- they looked more flat-footed than what Mearns did, if that makes sense. 

I do think Shevchenko may have executed one of the turns on pointe. I know that section does also have turns on pointe, but I thought she did it for one the ones that is supposed to be on demi-pointe. But, ballet moves so quickly and there's so much to take in -- I often wish I had instant replay!

Tonight was my first performance of the season, and the sound issues with the floor were more bizarre than I'd expected. I don't think the dancers are to blame at all. In the first movement of Ballet Imperial, I could actually hear the dancers' knees/legs hitting the floor as they dropped into knee-bends, and clearly they weren't slamming their knees into the stage. I was also able to hear what sounded like Royal and Camargo's shoes both sticking the stage floor. In the corps sequences in The Dream, it felt like you could hear every corps member's pointe shoes working at the same time. There were so many other examples, but basically you could hear nearly all foot noise all the time. This isn't something I've ever experienced at the Koch with either NYCB or ABT in the past.

I agree that Camargo and Trenary were wonderful in The Dream. Camargo's arabesque was indeed beautiful, and I thought he did well with all the fleet-footed choreographic moments. Trenary is an ideal Titania. Lawovi was great as Bottom -- one of my favorites I've seen. I haven't seen Roxander as Puck, and yet I was still very underwhelmed by Magbitang. He's a good turner but not the most impressive jumper, and I thought his characterization was quite lacking. The impish insouciance was nowhere to be found. He also has the physicality of a child gymnast, and I prefer a Puck with a more robust presence. 

After hearing reports of Shevchenko in her first outing in Ballet Imperial, I was pleasantly surprised that she seemed quite relaxed in the piece. I agree with others that her solo in the first movement was played way too slowly. She struggled a bit with the turns in that solo; two were fine, but then one of them only seemed to have one revolution, and then for another one, she elected to execute it on pointe rather than on demi-pointe. (It made me realize, though, that I don't think Mearns executes the turns entirely on demi-pointe. It looked strikingly different to see Shevchenko execute the turns with two full revolutions on demi-pointe.). I thought she and Royal were strongest in the second movement, where Shevchenko was able to luxuriate more in the music and use her flexible back and fluid ports de bras to her advantage. Misseldine was great -- expansive, exciting dancing.

I've long wanted to see Ballet Imperial in tutus, but the ones ABT is using make a pretty poor case for them. Everything just looked too heavy and decadent, and I thought the use of color was unsophisticated. I think the Happel costumes at NYCB are a total misfire, but I'm convinced now that the piece does look better in flowy skirts. Perhaps the ballet could look good in tutus that are far lighter than the ones ABT is using.

20 minutes ago, stuben said:

Had originally posted this by error on Fall Season thread. Anyway I saw the latest social media stories from many of the dancers about this and feel it’s just terrible how the artists who literally do all the work can’t get what they need to live on (only a select few may not have an issue) with skyrocketing rent, especially in NYC! I wonder if strike is on the horizon like the writers Union and SAG is still on strike! With all the millionaire donors you’d think they’d have a heart!

I really feel for the dancers. To have their retirement contribution slashed in half and still not have it restored is awful, especially given their short careers. I have no doubt that many are struggling to make ends meet, as the letter says. And I can't believe some have not received cost-of-living increases. The cost of living in NYC is absolutely insane right now. I wonder what financial resources ABT actually has on hand to fulfill any of these demands. In the more recent letter, there is no mention of the company's financial status, as there was in AGMA's letters regarding NYCB's orchestra members. The general impression I get is that ABT is trying to operate beyond its means and maintain artistic excellence even if they don't have the money to properly support it. 

Edited to add: In the past, ABT has declared its commitment to diversity and established Project Plié. You cannot have true diversity if you don't pay dancers a living wage. It limits a ballet career to those with inherited wealth or outside support from family or a spouse, and in our society, that limits racial diversity. (The 2017 letter describes junior corps members relying on family support.)  

Excuse my ignorance on the topic, but what exactly would ABT be bringing to the venue in terms of flooring? Are they responsible for bringing in vinyl or whatever material it is that covers the stage floor? Are some types less sound-absorbant than others?

When the theater was renovated, its acoustics were improved for opera, but I've never noticed that causing issues for NYCB in terms of noise from the stage. ABT can be on the noisier side at the Met, but I'm not sure if that's acoustics, flooring, or a mix of both. I sometimes dread the thuds when Giselle and Albrecht simultaneously leap from side to side in their first pas de deux...

13 minutes ago, abatt said:

Perceptive note above that Jaffe is planning these fall programs  like in the heyday of the early 2000s. I won't start listing all those great dancers from that era -  otherwise I might start crying at my computer as I type.  But what we are seeing is that they don't have the personnel to justify scheduling the major ballets that they used to do.

I've been thinking a lot, too, about Corsaire and Bayadere. I know Jaffe has said she doesn't plan to program those ballets until they can address the Orientalist tropes, but I frankly I don't think the company can properly cast those ballets at moment, especially when it comes to the male roles. And there are only maybe one ore two female dancers I'd like to see as Nikiya at the moment.

1 hour ago, abatt said:

Maybe ABT shouldn't do Balanchine if they can't do it well and/or don't have the dancers to  perform the roles well.  

To be honest, I thought the company had abandoned the notion of dancing most Balanchine. For the past decade or so, they'd stopped dancing works like Symphony in C, Ballo della Regina, Allegro Brillante, and Ballet Imperial. I assumed McKenzie came to he conclusion those works weren't the best fit for the company. We continued to see Theme and Variations, which is understandable since it's part of the company's choreographic heritage. And Symphonie Concertante made good sense for the company, as NYCB doesn't dance it. 

To me, this current season feels very much like a throwback to early-2000s ABT, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Part of the reason I'd wanted to see ABT's Ballet Imperial was that I was curious to see the ballet danced in tutus, and I quite liked the principal and soloist costumes that I saw in rehearsal videos. But now that I've seen pictures of the the backdrop along with the costumes for the entire ensemble, it's reading really dated to me. I'll hold further judgment until I see the piece in person later this week. 

How gorgeous is this Karinska costume for NYCB's Ballet Imperial? I love the color combo, judicious use of crystals, and the vertical lines on the bodice. (I'd love to see NYCB's Theme and Variations costumes replaced with something similar.)

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cyi9GkpuJFR/?hl=en

NYCB also recently posted some up-close shots of Karinska's Symphony in C costumes on their Instagram. I feel like I was able to see them well for the first time, as it's been hard to read the details of the costumes on old videos and photos, and I never saw the work at NYCB before the current costumes were introduced. The economy of the decoration is striking, and I really love the use of what looks like damask on the bodices (not a fabric I'm used to seeing very often on ballet bodices). 

2 hours ago, MoMo said:

I could be wrong, but I seem to recall that she said she would try to come back Fall of 2024, not this year and no Nutcracker this December. 

She'd said fall of 2023 around the time her child's birth was announced, and then revised her come-back date as Nutcracker season 2023 when she spoke with Whiteside.

https://people.com/parents/misty-copeland-secretly-welcomes-first-baby-exclusive/

1 hour ago, DPell said:

Misty said on James’ podcast that Nutcracker will be her first performances.

That's true, but that episode was from back in February, and I wonder if she's still aiming to return this winter. When she appeared on Conversations on Dance in late June, her plans sounded much more vague (at 3:55 in this transcript).

My gut is that she won't return for Nutcracker this winter, and I wouldn't be surprised if she only appears again with ABT in a very limited capacity, if at all. I don't see her returning to Petipa or similarly demanding repertoire.

I'll be very interested to see if she appears in the casting for Costa Mesa.