angelica

Cornejo and Abrera will be stunning, and maybe Copeland will surprise us all. Enjoy, eduardo!

On 3/28/2018 at 6:13 AM, eduardo said:

Hello everyone at the forums.

Living in Buenos Aires, I am not very familiar with ABT. I will have the chance of attending one single performance of Giselle next May. I might choose Tuesday 15 (Copeland - Cornejo - Abrera) or Wednesday 16 (Boylston - Whiteside - Teuscher). Since I will be working, I won't be able to attend the Wednesday matinee (Lane - Simkin - Shevchenko).

Which of those performances would you suggest and why? 

Thank you in advance for your input.

This may not be helpful, but I would do everything in my power to change my work schedule in order to see the Wednesday matinee with Lane, Simkin, and Shevchenko. They are far and away the best cast.

22 minutes ago, Vs1 said:

I have seen Hallberg many times and cannot understand the hype.  He cannot lift very well.  He is very slight.  He does not have a beautiful face.  He seems very inward, rather than focusing on his partner. His book was very self-centered, too, as well as boring.  (I can't believe what he said about Michele or that he thought leaving her last name out was meaningful. He also ignored half the company.)  Half of what he said sounded like a cliche.  He is always seemingly injured.

I keep asking for enlightenment, but all anyone ever says is conclusory.

Just a few brief thoughts: Hallberg has proportions that are ideal for ballet, and has always achieved a beautiful ballet "line." Before his injuries, I found him gorgeous to watch. When he jumped, he seemed to "float" in the air. When he was younger, his face seemed rounder, less pointed, and rather handsome. Admittedly, he had difficulty lifting ballerinas, which I was told was related to an earlier shoulder injury. IMHO, the worst mistake he made was going off to Russia and trying to become a Bolshoi dancer. If he had stayed here, built on his strengths and worked on his weaknesses, he might not have the tortured look on his face that he projects nowadays. And yes, the book portrays him as totally self-absorbed. 

At the risk of repeating myself, the CASTING for the entire month should be accessible from desktop computers!!! Please, someone at ABT, do something about that!

The new web site is WORSE than the old one! It's important to be able to see all the casting at once in order to decide what tickets to buy.

On the plus side, I won't have to close one eye in order to watch Stella in Giselle.

21 minutes ago, Marta said:

Boylston & Copeland are also on my least desirable list.  I would love to see Lane in either Bayadere or DQ but these  dates will be difficult for me to attend. I saw Lane & Simkin last year in Giselle and loved them.  Almmost every  possibility gets crossed off my  list because one or both of the lead dancers are duds.  I may skip the whole Met season.

I'm in total agreement with you and nanushka about the matter of casting. Thankfully, I'm able to see Lane in Giselle, Bayadere, Harlequinade, and DQ, as well as Abrera in Giselle and R&J (for the latter two performances I'll be watching with one eye closed.) And I'm hoping to see Osipova and Hallberg in Giselle if that partnership will happen. I'm really not enthusiastic to see anything else. Brandt and Ternary could have had leading role debuts this season if they didn't double up on our least favorite dancers.

1 hour ago, vipa said:

True angelica. I've also heard Boylston say she went to an acting coach. My guess is dancers supplement where they feel they need to.

It's one thing to go to an acting coach but quite another to go to a ballet coach because the company has few resources to provide enough coaching, even to its principals and upcoming soloists. I would guess that NYCB principals and soloists get their coaching from within the company.

9 minutes ago, hyacinthhippo said:

Felicias....  I suggest we rename this forum topic to the

“Sarah Lane Fan Club and Defenders”

I'll be a charter member, just as I was a charter member in the past of the Veronika Part Fan Club and the Stella Abrera Fan Club. What would these often overlooked dancers have done without us?

30 minutes ago, vipa said:

Sarah Lane has posted videos of herself being coached by Irina Dvorovenko. She also thanked Irina and Max on social media after her performances of Giselle last spring.

But that must have been coaching outside the company. n'est-ce pas? Which she had to pay for herself.

33 minutes ago, vipa said:

So agree canbelto, and there are just so many principal roles to go around in the Met season. At the same time, part of this is the AD's taste. He seems to think Boylston and Hee Seo can do just about anything. When I comes to Lane he casts her in Don Q but not Romeo and Juliet. Misty Copeland is given everything (my guess is that she's the only name that sells tickets right now). 

I'm told that after age 40 a dancer can sue for age discrimination. I'm not a lawyer, so check that out. If that's true, there's something to be said for the AD retiring dancers before they reach that age, although I think that's coldhearted. Isn't that what happened to Veronika Part? Last I heard the mandatory retirement age at POB is 42--and after that the dancers get a pension for life.

1 minute ago, canbelto said:

Well to be honest the last few times I've seen Abrera she's still a lovely dancer but I do see a decline in technique. Her Giselle last season was a lot shakier than I expected.

Do you remember who her partner was?

1 hour ago, Helene said:

Abrera isn't going to dance forever, and she doesn't get huge number of performances.  I'd go to watch her dance if her partner was chosen randomly from throwing a dart on a map.

I'd be willing to have them throw one more dart at the male principal roster, even including the male soloist roster and take that partner. It couldn't be any worse. I think that apart from being able to lift dancers, he has no other attribute that warrants his principal status.

2 minutes ago, nysusan said:

R&J AND Giselle. I'd be at both in a heartbeat if she was pared with a decent partner but I just can't do it. No more putting up with one poor dancer to see a great one. The one exception I'm making is the Seo/Bolle Giselle, because who knows when/if we'll have another chance to see Bolle. Alas, no Stella for me this season except for Pierrette and Dryad Queen..

Yes, Giselle too!!! Stella waited so long for those wonderful roles, I'd even spring for a foreign guest artist to be her partner. Perhaps Shklyarov, who partnered her in her very first ABT Giselle, which brought the house down.

32 minutes ago, nysusan said:

now I can't even find enough performances I want to see to fill in for the tickets I want to exchange. I'm going to hold on to my WC ticket at the end of the season in case a cast change or late guest brings about a performance I want to see.

ITA. this is the worst Spring Season ever! Worst of all, they have paired my beloved Stella Abrera, in her R&J debut, with a partner whom I can't bear to watch. I don't want to miss Stella, and I'm telling myself that I'll keep one eye closed, but whom am I kidding? It will be impossible for me to believe that for this Juliet it is love at first sight.

Just now, sandik said:

Beyond that, I heard through the grapevine that they are no longer sending out their art-form specific email notifications (that email with links to all the dance-specific content in each issue).

Hi Sandik, I'm not part of the grapevine, I'm directly affected by this new policy--I was recently advised that I will no longer get "ABT Alerts" in my email. Admittedly, this is a first world problem, but it speaks to the slow deterioration of the importance of the arts in general, and ballet as a fine art in particular. On the other hand, most of the alerts were addressed on this forum, so I'll still be in the game.

55 minutes ago, NinaFan said:

 Does anyone know if I can just buy additional tickets at the box office during the exchange week?  As of now, I don’t want to trade in any of my subscription tickets so I can’t combine it with an exchange transaction.

You can call the Met box office today from 12-6, 212-362-6000. Whatever they tell you, call again just to confirm

1 hour ago, vipa said:

 As a personal example, David Hallberg has my least favorite body type for a male dancer. When I watch him I have to force myself to go beyond my natural inclination and  and judge his performances. 

Vipa, are you talking about the "old" David Hallberg, before his rehab in Australia, or the "new" David Hallberg, who is much more muscular in his upper body, and presumably stronger, than before?

1 hour ago, cobweb said:

Jared especially. For some years now he looks like he's been sampling the entire realm of sweets, or whatever it was. Doesn't stop me from enjoying the nobility of his dancing, but I think he'd have more spring and get more height if he reduced.  

I didn't see Jared this past season, but I did see Tyler, and I would say the same about him.

I hope the Pierrot role requires Forster to do a lot of dancing so that we can see him in action. We really don't know what he's capable of.

11 minutes ago, CharlieH said:

Re Harlequinade:  It will be Lane/Cirio/Abrera/Forster for me. That was easy.

Yes, same here.

5 minutes ago, ABT Fan said:

Brandt has been cast at the last TBA Maiden in Firebird on May 23, 25 according to the Met Opera's website. (Still TBA on ABT's site, of course.)

That's good to hear. It seems she is getting short shrift this season, which is surprising given her last-minute and remarkable performance as Medora last year. I'm hoping the AD will make it up to her next season by giving her a Kitri and a couple of other leading roles.

I see that Thomas Forster is cast in Harlequinade and I really hope he turns in stellar performances because ABT needs more tall principals. And I liked him in his acting roles in Giselle (Hilarion) and Onegin (Prince Gremin).

For me, the star of Duo Concertante was the violinist. I couldn't take my eyes off him. Bouder seemed fine, but Finlay seemed to be on another planet.

10 hours ago, Olga said:

It IS pretty repetitive, other than Ratmansky.  But if the Fall season is the judge, even non-repetitive is a problem for ABT. Actually, I think the right adjective is unimaginative. Boring is also good. I always enjoyed the guest dancers; it seemed an integral part of this latest incarnation of the company, and an exciting one. This season does not excite me. 

A Sarah Lane Swan Lake would help. And as for the men, what about Tom Forster? I don't understand why they aren't trying him out on principal roles. Some people would like to see the same for Blaine Hoven. And yes, ONE male foreign guest artist would do a lot.

I'm never going to get the hang of this, but I try.