angelica

I totally agree. Every seat at the Met is a compromise.

My published online comment in response to the announcement of Isabella Boylston's promotion to Principal Dancer "It is mind-boggling to me that Isabella Boylston has been promoted to principal dancer above Stella Abrera! I've seen it coming because Ms. Boylston has been given the opportunity to dance principal roles. However, Ms. Abrera is a far better dancer, more classical, more lyrical, more graceful, more arresting on stage, and it is a great injustice that she hasn't been given the same opportunities as Ms. Boylston. What this means is that Ms. Boylston is going to be cast in roles that I, and many others, have waited for years to see Ms. Abrera perform. This may be enough for me to cancel my patron level membership as well as my ABT subscriptions. The last straw is that Jared Matthews and Yuriko Kajiya are leaving ABT because of lack of promotion. I saw Ms. Kajiya in the dress rehearsal of The Tempest today and she was magnificent. The Board of Trustees should be on its hands and knees begging them both to stay." As for another technically competent dancer to dance the entire repertoire, there is always Semionova.

Kaysta, many of us on this board totally agree that Stella Abrera is an exquisite ballerina and would make a perfect Giselle. Perhaps you know that she was scheduled to dance the role some years ago but got injured. Then she was scheduled a second time, but wasn't fully recovered yet. For the last couple of years she has been perfectly well, and even danced 10 Auroras in 30 days with the Royal New Zealand Ballet about two years ago, so she's up for anything. However, she has been passed over for roles and promotion in favor of inferior dancers with lesser technique and artistry. I have written to Kevin McKenzie about this, not criticizing his other dancers, but advocating for Stella, and I'm sure my letter went directly into a black hole. It's a very sad situation and I know many people who are both sad and furious that she has had to dance Myrta to Giselles who have been given the opportunity to cut the line in front of her. By the way, if she were dancing Giselle in the Philippines with anyone but Whiteside, I would seriously consider making the trip.

I attended this afternoon's performance and I'm seriously speculating that Cory Stearns reads our forum. I thought his acting today was greatly improved from Wednesday. I had the sense he was adding, quite successfully, an acting dimension to his already accomplished partnering and dancing. He interacted with others on stage, smiled when appropriate, was excited by his birthday gift, turned his face upwards into the light and towards the balconies, ran instead of ambled, added much more emotion, always tastefully. For me, just as Wednesday's performance was all about Part, today's performance was all about Stearns. Although Semionova is a technical wizard, I found her interpretation seriously lacking. I had no sense of an interior life, as they say, her arms were flapping every which way, her upper body expressed nothing of tragedy. Admittedly, she was better as Odile than Odette, but overall I think someone's earlier characterization of her as ABT's in-house ballerina was underscored by her performance today. Of course, she got deafening ovations and applause, but for me she paled in comparison to Part.

Why don't they let US do the casting instead of McKenzie?

That is an inspired suggestion, cobweb!

Along with this line of thinking, I can't believe they are asking Hee Seo to dance Swan Lake two nights in a row. That, to me, is putting her in harm's way.

I'm seeing the matinee, but if your dream comes true, nanushka, I would cancel my evening plans and stay for the evening performance as well. We'll all be trying to get the few remaining good seats.

Unless they've made any changes since last year, booster seats are only for children and they often run out. You have to bring the child with you to prove it's for a child, and they make you leave your driver's license as hostage so they get the cushions back. I seriously doubt that at 6'0 they would give you a booster seat, MJ.

I would cast Stella Abrera with Jared Matthews or Tom Forster.

If Whiteside is cast to partner Semionova in the Saturday matinee, I'll be glad to sell my two tickets.

That's exactly my point, abatt. The tutu scenario defies credulity. (On the other hand, he actually could have used more makeup, which isn't to say that it would have made a difference in his performance.)

Now that would really be a story behind the story! Cory Stearns is described as bland and dull because his stage makeup came off on Veronika's tutu while they were practicing a lift right before curtain time? Where were the makeup people at the crucial moment?

Is this even possible? I, too, saw it on the web site, but I've never known anyone to dance two Swan Lakes on successive nights. I doubt this is the final casting.

Thank you, thank you, atm711, for characterizing Stearns as "pensive." I think you've hit the nail on the head, at least for me, as I watched him in yesterday's matinee. And "pensive" doesn't play to the crowd. I remember him as "pensive" in Onegin, as well, when people were disappointed in his acting. And, although I'm repeating myself, he partnered Part as if she were a world treasure and deserved every attention he could give her, including those fabulous lifts in Act III.

Having slept on it, I concede that with a more engaged partner, Part's Swan Lake could have been a very different ballet. The only other partner I've seen her dance O/O with was Hallberg at a last-mnute substitution, and it was a disaster. He couldn't lift her and there was no emotional engagement. What struck me most about the partnership yesterday was that in the past, Part has overacted to compensate for the lack of emotion from Stearns, as if she was trying extra hard to pull something from him. That didn't happen yesterday. What did happen was that she seemed to trust that Stearns would be able to lift her and spin her (yes, there was one nail-biting moment) and she could dance her own story. I do think Stearns has one of the most beautifully proportioned body for a male dancer as well as a beautiful ballet line, and anyway, I'm a sucker for his adorable handsome visage.

Barbara, I love the way you describe the dramatic arc of Part's performance. She truly did convey the trajectory of Odette's feelings, from fear, to forgiveness, to recognition of the only way out.

Hi Kaysta, Whatever else you do, you should always keep your tickets for Part. She is a world-class ballerina, and the best that ABT has to offer.

I, too, attended today's matinee of Swan Lake. Over the years I have watched Part many times in this role and today I felt she reached new heights of artistry: she seemed fearless and much more secure technically than ever before; she used her upper body and port de bras with great fluidity and expressiveness; she neither overacted nor underacted--she was pitch perfect. Words almost fail me. She was ravishing and I was in awe of her performance. It makes me sad to hear Cory excoriated so badly because I really enjoyed his performance today. Admittedly, I was sitting in Orchestra Row B, close to the center aisle, so I could see every nuance on his face. He is not a self-promoting dancer and doesn't play to the rafters, but I found his dancing/acting nuanced and sincere. He partnered Veronika with great attentiveness, putting her needs before his own, and in his solos he created beautiful lines and landed in beautiful fifth positions. He extended his renverses the extra bit that made them beautiful rather than simply correct. I felt that although he may not be the most expressive actor, and may not have the ability to play multiple roles at once, e.g., prince, son, friend, lover, foremost in his mind was the recognition that it was a privilege for him to partner the magnificent Part and he was going to do his darndest to help her shine. I could write about other dancers (Stella Abrera and Melanie Hamrick were wonderful) but for me today's performance was all about Veronika--to my mind the best performance of Swan Lake I've ever seen from her. When I saw her in the company class onstage last Saturday she stood out from the rest of the dancers. Her body, with its long and expressive arms and legs, shaped by her superior Vaganova training, is a marvel, and she has reached a whole new level in being able to use it to deliver a stunning performance like today's.

I agree with California that the best boxes in the Parterre are 5 and 6, and also that you must sit in the first row because a great deal of the stage is obscured from any other row. Over the years I have sat just about everywhere in the Met to try out the different seats, and at the risk of repeating myself yet again, to my mind every seat in the Met is a compromise for a ballet performance. At this point my favorite seats are Orchestra Row A, but they're almost never available for sale, except if you're lucky at the last minute and someone turns them in. I just love seeing everything up close, even though you do miss the feet at the back of the stage when the women are not on pointe. If I were just a bit taller, that probably wouldn't be a problem. After that I like Orchestra Rows I, J, and K, on the aisle. However, from a cost/benefit pointe of view, those side parterre seats are a very good deal. However, if you like a panoramic view, then Dress Circle Rows A and B are also cost effective. The problem is that most of the first row Side Parterre seats are held by subscribers. Same for the first two rows of the Dress Circle. I sometimes wonder whether the number of unsold seats at ABT has to do with the fact that people are reluctant to pay upwards of $125 for, say, Orchestra seats on the sides and in the back, where you can't see much of anything except little people moving around on the stage. With the greatest dancers, the house tends to nearly sell out because people will pay anything for even a glimpse of these artists. I, for one, wouldn't buy a ticket in the back of the orchestra no matter who was dancing.

I've been waiting to hear the response to Giselle with Cojocaru/Cornejo...but now, i REALLY want to hear about Cojocaru/Hallberg. Granted you never know what will happen with last minute casting changes... Maybe he'll do those entrechat sixes since so many people have yearned to see him do them.

Last night I saw what may well have to be my last performance of Giselle, because what I saw was its Platonic perfection. Diana Vishneva was sublime, the supreme embodiment of the character, dancing with a stellar technique and making gorgeous visual images with a stunning ballet line. In Act II, she was weightless, floating, never touching the floor. Marcelo Gomes was her ever-adoring partner. Sarah Lane and Joseph Gorak were exquisite in the peasant pas de deux. Jared Matthews was the best Hilarion I have ever seen (and now he is leaving for Houston Ballet because--well, we won't even go there on this forum). My only quibble, agreeing with Amour above, is that Gillian Murphy, as Myrtha, danced formidably but, in my view, over-acted her sternness. I would have preferred Veronika Part in that role. But how will I ever find another performance so perfect?

At the risk of repeating myself, IMHO every seat at the Met is a compromise for ballet. My first choice is Orchestra Row J on the center aisle, but my second choice is Orchestra Row A. Even though you miss the very bottoms of the dancers' feet, you see their facial expressions and the details of their dancing with magnificent clarity. Row A in the Grand Tier is way too far back for me.

Welcome to the Stella fan club, Kaysta! We are all hoping for a promotion to principal and major leading roles, especially the title role in Giselle. She is terrific as Myrtha, but enough is enough! And it is painful to see other lesser dancers cut into the line ahead of her. I'm so glad you loved her! It made my day.

And I believe that Ratmansky has been very supportive of ABT's home-grown dancers, casting them in his ballets. I don't think that most of the guest artists have been brought in at his behest.