laurel

As it happens, I attended the Nutcracker performance last evening (12/4, 5:00 pm), friends and family in tow. (It's very easy to get non-ballet fans to join you when you go to the Nutcracker.) As a fan of Sara Mearns, I was disappointed to learn that she was ill and unable to perform. However, when Tiler Peck substitutes, there is no need for disappointment. If you've seen her dance onstage you know what a phenomenon she is. The speed, the clarity, her wonderfully complex movement - this woman is jaw-dropppingly amazing. Her Sugarplum-Cavalier pas de deux with Amar Ramasar was just great. They were well-matched, vibrant and engaging, dancing without errors, accomplishing the lifts with ease. To the family's astonishment this morning, we saw Peck's Instagram messages regarding her last-minute substitution. There was simply no way anyone would have known that Peck and Ramasar hadn't even rehearsed together. It's an homage to the high quality of dance at NYC Ballet, a true world-class company, and the professionalism both of Peck and Ramasar. In addition, Megan Fairchild as Dewdrop was superb, breathtakingly light, moving like quicksilver across the stage. The audience roared its approval for these three great principals. It was an unforgettable show. As an aside, we experienced none of the audience behavioral problems that others have during earlier performances. No cell phones in the dark, no texting, no children talking loudly or running down the aisle (we were in the orchestra). Maybe we were just lucky, but the audience seemed fully engaged by what was happening on stage.

Ashton Fan, thanks for your sharp, thorough analysis of the performances you attended. Your words about the non-verbal language of dance and symbolism in this Petipa ballet are of enormous interest to me, and something I wish to learn more about. I intend to do much more reading about the history of this remarkable ballet before I see it next, hopefully this coming spring. As a former devoted fan of Misty Copeland’s, I can honestly say that after eagerly attending performances in which she appeared for about seven years, the only real improvement I saw in her was the fact that she lost a tremendous amount of weight. Her dancing style, or lack thereof, did not really change. During that time she also acquired a manager and a sponsor, both with ties to the investment bank of Goldman Sachs, who shepherded her rise to prominence. I’m sure she continues to strenuously apply herself to improving her dancing, but I won’t ever pay to see her again.

Apparently there was much love from the audience for Lane and Cornejo at today's sold-out matinee performance at the Opera Bastille:

Sarah Lane rehearses her Act I entrance chez L'Opera Bastille:

Casting for the Sleeping Beauty performances in Paris have been posted. Trenary and Whiteside are assigned both opening and closing nights. Two performances each for Murphy, Boylston and Seo, one performance each for Lane and Abrera. The AD seems to be announcing Trenary as the "new face" of ABT, and it seems as if her promotion next spring is assured. Sept. 2: Trenary/Whiteside Sept. 3: Mat. Boylston/Gorak Eve. Murphy/Stearns Sept. 4: Mat. Seo/Gomes Sept. 6: Abrera/Hammoudi Sept. 7: Boylston/Gorak Sept. 8: Seo/Gomes Sept. 9: Murphy/Stearns Sept. 10: Mat. Lane/Cornejo Eve. Trenary/Whiteside

Yet another spectacular evening at the ballet tonight, as Sarah Lane hit a grand slam home run with an amazing performance as Aurora. I didn’t think she could ever top her performance three years ago in the old Sleeping Beauty, but she has, and in spectacular fashion. She gave what appears to have been a flawless performance, with perfect balances everywhere, vastly improved acting, and a complete assurance and control which have not always been present in her dancing over the past couple of seasons. Every movement was clearly articulated, her port de bras finished with lovely little flourishes, her footwork precise and scintillating. Her Rose Adagio was great. I’ve seen her hold her balances longer in the past, but tonight, though briefer, she held them solidly, with no wobbling, no falling off point. And this time, finally, Aurora had four great big strong suitors to lend her support (Hammoudi, Forster, Zhurbin and Hoven – yay Blaine Hoven!) What a difference! I saw Stella Abrera’s wonderful performance Thursday night, but her Rose Adagio was not as secure as Lane’s. In the Act II vision scene, Abrera was much more assured than she had been in Act I, but I found her performance rather too circumspect. Lane’s vision scene was filled with longing; you could almost hear Aurora calling out to the Prince to come and find her. Lane also handled her descent from the seashell perfectly. In the Act III grand pas, Lane and Cornejo were wonderful. No, once again they did not do the fish dives, but the grand pas was executed perfectly, so if they felt it was better to perform the original arabesques and get it right, why not? As we left the theater, I heard many people commenting on Lane’s performance (“incredible,” “awesome”). If this one doesn’t do it for Lane, then I don’t know what will. If she is not given an R&J next season, then the AD has a heart made of cold, hard ice. She may be small, but she is a formidable talent. The audience deserves to see her in leading roles, and she deserves a promotion. I was surprised to hear from several people at the Met that the show was sold out, but then I remembered that Misty Copeland was dancing Princess Florine, so it made sense. Both Copeland and Jeffrey Cirio as the Bluebird were very good together, but unfortunately I’d seen Skyler Brandt and Gabe Stone Shayer on Thursday, and I thought were better in the roles. Shayer in particular has more experience as the Bluebird, and he really has the character nailed. I was also very pleased to see Cassandra Trenary tonight as the Fairy of Song/Canary, giving the best performance of that role that I’ve seen.

Blaine Hoven's partnering of Veronika Part in Seven Sonatas back in May was superb. Watching them, I began to daydream that they would be terrific together in Swan Lake. I'd like to think that somehow, some positive energy from my little daydream helped nudge the AD to do the right thing and promote him (ha ha!) And I'm hoping that maybe a year from now, my daydream might become a reality! Congratulations to Blaine Hoven! Looking forward to seeing more of him in the fall!

An astonishing night at the ballet. Ferri and Cornejo were absolutely on fire. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him give such an emotional and moving performance. And Ferri, holy smoke! Ferri was my all-time favorite ABT dancer and I’ve missed her enormously over the years. I’d seen her twice before in R&J, around 10, 11 years ago, and amazingly, she’s still as fluid and lyrical as she ever was. At 53 she puts the current 20-years-younger ABT principals to shame. Once you have seen her dance, you will not care whether she’s “stolen” a performance from someone else. Because you will never want to see that someone else again. Ferri is the standard against which the rest of them must be judged. It really was like going back in time 10 years or so, when ABT was full of dancers with superb skills, so vibrant and alive. And it makes you realize that the company today is just a shadow of its former self. I lost track of how many curtain calls they took. No one wanted to leave the theater.

Apparently no one else attended the Saturday evening performance of the Golden Cockerel except for me, but these days I won’t pass up such a rare opportunity to see Sarah Lane in a leading role. The drawback was having to sit through yet another colorless performance by Hee Seo. But it was worth it to see Lane dancing the kind of choreography she’s rarely permitted any longer. Speedy, precise, she was like a blur of gold flying across the stage. There was also a hint of creepy danger in her performance, especially in her interplay with the astrologer (a hammy Whiteside). And it was doubly rewarding to hear Lane receive far more applause than Hee Seo, at the evening’s end, especially since she overshadowed the principal’s performance in every way.

Completely agree. I’ve seen Simkin drop Lane, or at least lose his grip on her, twice in the past. This was the best partnering I’ve ever seen from him and I was very impressed. He seems to be maturing and it looks great. Also agree about Cornejo’s performance, but he did bow out of Symphony #9 a couple of weeks back, so perhaps something has been bothering him and he doesn’t want to push it. Overall, quite a dynamic show tonight from everyone, including the corps, which seemed really energized, as did the audience. Don’t know what the tiers looked like, but the orchestra was packed with people who really enjoyed themselves. There were very few empty seats. Spontaneous applause broke out many times throughout the evening. What a change from last week!

This ballet was the perfect antidote to a tough New York work week and endless bad news in the papers. There are simply times when you don’t want to sit through unhappy supernatural tales of young women betrayed by love, no matter how virtuosic the choreography. I just loved this Ashton homage to late 18th century English country life. Stella Abrera’s beautiful, lyrical dancing on Thursday night was transporting, and coupled with her playful pantomime, I thought she was a truly splendid Lise. This was only the second time I’ve seen Whiteside perform (the first was last fall’s laughably bad performance of Valse Fantaisie with Hee Seo; neither dancer has the speed or technique for Balanchine). Here at least his technical skills were formidable and he pulled off some breathtaking lifts, all successfully. Unfortunately he didn’t appear to be the most ardent of suitors. Physically, his head seems too small for his long torso and his face doesn’t register well across the footlights. I thought Arron Scott as Alain was far more effective, albeit as comic relief. But it was great to see Abrera in the kind of role she should have been dancing for years. It’s too bad there were so many empty seats in the house and I blame ABT for not promoting their own dancers to the fullest. More people should be aware of Abrera and treated to her beautiful dancing before her inevitable departure.

As usual, the list of ABT sidelined principals is growing. Herman Cornejo suffered an injury sometime yesterday afternoon and was unable to perform in last night's "Symphony #9." (An enormous groan rose from the audience at this announcement.) Joseph Gorak appeared in his place, however, and gave a splendid performance. No word yet on how long Cornejo will be out (leave it to ABT to keep it a secret as long as possible), but he is scheduled to dance both this afternoon and this evening, so we'll see.

The only ABT principal who sells more tickets than the rest is corporate dancer Misty Copeland. I'm sure Hee Seo has her core audience who will always support her, with her nice, lyrical performance style. But for me she is a Ballet Machine, reliably cranking it out, without much emotion, over and over. She's a bland, harmless substitute for whichever more interesting injured performer she'll be asked to replace.

Absolutely. I couldn't agree more.

Two-minute clip of Sarah Lane as she rehearses Ratmansky's Sleeping Beauty Act III variation. Posted this afternoon on Facebook. Hope it's viewable. <div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><div class="fb-video" data-allowfullscreen="1" data-href="/124434904299788/videos/vb.124434904299788/971329892943614/?type=3"><div class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore"><blockquote cite="https://www.facebook.com/124434904299788/videos/971329892943614/"><ahref="https://www.facebook.com/124434904299788/videos/971329892943614/"></a><p>Rehearsing Aurora Act 3 for Alexei Ratmansky's The Sleeping Beauty.</p>Posted by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Sarah-Lane-124434904299788/">Sarah Lane</a> on Monday, March 28, 2016</blockquote></div></div>

The listing actually reads: "Alessandra Ferri (Guest Artist); David Hallberg (on leave)"

So disappointed that the New York Lane/Cornejo performance of Sleeping Beauty has been cancelled; I was really looking forward to it. But at least there are other opportunities to see Lane in supporting roles in other ballets this season. And yes, it’s true: the Hee Seo Ballet Machine is back! Looks like she’ll be doing THREE Auroras in a row this year, with three different princes! (Whiteside, Gorak, Hammoudi) It’s getting to be a sad joke at this point, no matter what the season brings us via the usual ABT drama over scheduling conflicts, injuries, etc., Hee Seo will be called on to crank out yet another bland performance to fill the void. Do they think people are going to rush to buy tickets to see her? Whatever charm her dancing may once have had has been lost by this endless overkill. There's so much of her, it's made her nothing special. Possibly some folks may be placing bets as to how many performances it will take until she collapses onstage in a heap of exhaustion.

Thanks, ABT Fan, that's definitely good news. And with Stella Abrera as Princess Florine on April 1, it should be a great performance.

Congratulations to Gabe Stone Shayer (who I hope will forgive my misspelling his name above), who was named the winner of the 2015 Clive Barnes Foundation’s award for dance at Lincoln Center yesterday afternoon. The Foundation presents two winners, one for theater, one for dance, with $5,000 each. Shayer’s fellow nominees for the dance award were Catherine Hurlin of ABT, Joseph Gordon of NYC Ballet and Jacqueline Green of Alvin Ailey. Hope to see more of this talented young ABT corps dancer on stage this coming spring! http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/THE-LEGEND-OF-GEORGIA-McBRIDEs-Dave-Thomas-Brown-Wins-Clive-Barnes-Theatre-Award-American-Ballet-Theatres-Gabe-Stone-Shayer-Wins-For-Dance-20160111#

I say bravo to Lane, no matter how she may have landed the gig. Since ABT is not going to promote her, she might as well get out there and let other companies see how good she is. It's also great for her to receive coaching and instruction outside of ABT; she's spent her entire professional career there, and every opportunity she has to break free of that insular world offers a great chance to improve her dancing.

Sarah Lane of ABT just posted the following on her Facebook page: I will be premiering in Helgi Tomasson's version of The Nutcracker as Clara with The San Francisco Ballet alongside Vitor Luiz on 12/22 @2:00pm and 12/23 @7:00pm. The shows will be conducted by my friend and colleague, David LaMarche. This will be her second or third guest appearance this month in different "Nutcrackers" around the U.S., and will follow her two performances in Alexi Ratmansky's ABT production at the Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa on 12/19 and 12/20. Busy lady!

A brief announcement of this performance appeared in the Fall 2015 issue of ABT’s “On Pointe” magazine. In addition, Sarah Lane posted a mention on her public Facebook page, and included a link to several dynamite photos on iCloud of herself and Cornejo in costume taken by Lucas Chilczuk. If you can’t access iCloud, google “Herman Cornejo Sarah Lane Spartacus,” and links to several different websites will pop up where you can view/access these photos. Makes you want to buy airline tickets and fly to Argentina immediately!!

I guess no one’s been attending ABT’s fall programs this week, because they’d have reported by now on the fantastic Thursday evening performance given by the entire company. Opening with the Brahms-Haydn Variations gave the audience a real lift, with the company more buoyant and energetic than I’ve seen in a long time. With 15 couples flying in, out and across the stage, it was hard to follow any one duo for any length of time, but Murphy and Whiteside, Cornejo and Kochetkova and Lane and Simkin were all excellent (and Simkin did not drop Lane!). The company was well-rehearsed, and it showed. I had great trepidation prior to seeing The Monotones; the very title does not instill eagerness in a viewer. However, it turned out to be one of the most beautiful and hypnotic ballets I’ve ever experienced (both parts). All six dancers were excellent; no one was out of tune or step with another. The movement of each trio across the stage, and their bending, twisting and turning relationships in and among themselves made me wish it would never end. I can’t wait to see this ballet again. The last number of the evening was The Green Table, which I’d seen before. However, I was not expecting the deeply dramatic and emotional performance given by the entire ensemble, led by Marcelo Gomes, Herman Cornejo and Sarah Lane. Whether it was the current state of our nation’s foreign affairs, or the presence of Marcelo Gomes as Death, or both, this was simply one of the best performances I’ve ever seen from this company. I can’t imagine anyone better than Gomes as Death, cold, brutal, and deeply frightening, the embodiment of every monster from the human id. As the reptilian profiteer, Herman Cornejo imbued his character with more than just cynicism and opportunism; jauntily skipping among corpses, he made you loath him. Sarah Lane was outstanding as the young girl. Desperate, despairing, then finally overwhelmed and destroyed, Lane’s strong and deeply felt performance indicates that she is capable of handling far darker and more complex characters than the de rigueur ingénues and princesses we associate with her. After such a great Thursday evening, Friday night seemed anticlimactic. I was there to see only Cornejo and Lane in Le Spectre de la Rose, and they did not disappoint me. If you’ve seen Cornejo in this ballet you’ll know what perfection he brings to the role, his great leaping and slicing through space like a knife, his upper body more lush and fluid than some of the women in the company. As the girl, Lane was less dreamy child than eager young woman thrilled by her first ball and the sharp, brief sexual spark which the Rose promises. There was great chemistry between these two performers, which I hope to see again in their upcoming Sleeping Beauty. Lane has been having a very good week, and I hope this bodes well for her future. If you’re able to catch one of the remaining performances of The Green Table with Gomes, Cornejo and Lane, I would encourage you to do so, because I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. The second cast, led by Roman Zhurbin as Death, is fine, but not up to the same level of performance or experience as the first.

A major problem with this show is that the producers are employing a large, full orchestra in order to recreate the sound of the show from the original production of 1944, and employing so many musicians is a major drain on production expenses. It also wasn’t marketed well to tourists. There are no celebrities or well-known Broadway performers in the cast. When I saw the show several months back the house was half-full. Now that tourist season is in full swing it’s still the lowest-grossing musical on Broadway. I don’t blame the producers for going after Copeland to try to boost the box office. The role of Ivy Smith was originated by Sono Osato, who probably couldn’t sing well, so Comden & Green gave the character only one chance to sing, during a music lesson with her alcoholic teacher, when it’s okay for her to sound shrill and off-key. There are, however, three major ballets in the show, and though I thought the choreography was good, it wasn’t especially challenging for Megan Fairchild. Copeland should be just fine. Eight shows a week? Professional Broadway dancers can handle that, why not ballet dancers? (Hee Seo, anyone?) Copeland may have to attend some special events & may need her nights off. It will be interesting to see if any local theater critics review her performance in this show. Unless her buddy Taye Diggs recommends a good acting and vocal coach, I’m certain her performance will be just as wooden as it was in Romeo & Juliet.

I don’t believe anyone here would be questioning Sarah Lane’s skills or presence on stage or alleged “8-weeks at the Met” nonsense had they seen her two years ago in her Wed. matinee performance in the old Sleeping Beauty. This was a tour-de-force of skill, stamina, energy, expressiveness and lyrical beauty like none else. Her Rose Adagio was so strong and secure that applause broke out while she was still with the third suitor, and she appeared not to need any of them to maintain balance. This was also the performance in which her partner, Simkin, almost dropped her twice in the third act due to his near non-existent partnering skills, nearly wrecking this great moment for her. She was the best Aurora that season, and this was only a year after her Swan Lake in Barcelona with Angel Corella, a tiny clip of which still can be seen on youtube, for those who don’t understand what they may have missed. This was absolutely the moment for her promotion, and why it was ignored and passed over is something only the AD can tell us. Lane is not an aggressive, muscular dancer like Boylston & Copeland, who attack each step with force and gusto, to the delight of audiences. If her beautiful poetic style is out of fashion these days, then it’s our loss.