Classic_Ballet

I am glad to read the opinion of other ballet lovers about the term ladies....

I do know a lot of dancers, not city ballet though, and if there is something that they hate is being called girls, especially when they are in their 30s and in the corps.

I have just read an interview in Time out with sophie flack (which i didnt know, since I dont follow this company) and coincidentally she talks about this and how much the members of the corps of City Ballet hate being called "girls" by Mr Martins, so i guess that says it all........

with http://newyork.timeout.com/newyork/article...978/sophieflack

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You didn't see the PBS broadcast? Well, it was AWFUL, even thought Sterling Hyltin was divine despite all. Someone else told me Swan Lake was somewhere in between the badness of R PLUS J and the excellence of his Sleeping Beauty. But I will have to tell you later about that. I do know that Sleeping Beauty really is a fine piece, even with that often-inferior orchestra, but R PLUS J, forget it. If you have to see it, try to get a video, it's not worth 'filling a seat' for.

no, i didnt see R+J on PBS, i was tempted to go this year, but decided to avoid it at the end.

and yes, i agree, I saw their SB last week and i had a good time, Bouder was fabulous !

I do know quite a few people who actually know about ballet more than me, and not even 1 of them, like this production.

but anyway, the point is not to get into an argument here or anything.

if u felt offended, sorry about that, again, not my intention.

and beleive me, i wish i wd have liked, there is nothing that i hate more that wasting time (and on top, paying for it)

DeborahB, glad u enjot it.

truly, if u have seen Kirov for 30 yrs, abt, royal, its hard to understand, but everyone is entitle t have their own opinion.

have fun

and just to clarify with the ladies and women thing, i didnt mean to be disrespectful whatsoever

same as i respect that u enjoy it, accept that a lot of other people, dont.

Classic Ballet--oh lord, I haven't seen it yet, but I think I know why someone once told me 'it has to be seen to be believed', if your (hilarious, if unfortunate) report is accurate (I have no reason to doubt it).

papeetepatrick, whoever told you that described exactly, literally, what I felt, beleive me, my report barely described what I witnessed tonight.

I didnt talk about the customs and the sets, they are out of this world !

My favorite was prob the Prince outfit (it is kind of similar to abt's napolitans, just to give u an idea)

Lady Gaga should also come and take a look at the Queen's dress, it will give her a lot of new ideas

i am going to add another remarkable moment that came to my mind:

at the end of Act II (Act I in this production), whe Odette is saying good bye to the prince while he is kneeling on the stage, in the last moment, when bouder was in arabesque penche,

she hugged the price, literally, arms around his body, as when you hug your buddy/friend in the street (including small movements to the sides typical of this hugging), then she stepped back, doing a weird movements (head included) which to me were like screaming, Help ! Get me out of here !, and then she left.

I am in my 30s, and I have been attending to ballet since i am maybe like 12-13yo.

As far as I recall, I saw one performance by a very small company, like small town performance, not too serious, that prob came close to this.

if you want to experience something pretty unique, i encourage you to go, u wont ever forget it.

I just came from tonight's SL.

It was my first time (and last one) at Mr Martins's SL.

I dont think is even worthy to comment such a horrendous production.

I dont recall anything that bad (prob because I havent seen his R + J).

I actually left after the first act ended, it was all I could take.

As much as I like Bouder (and she was the only reason I went), it was a huge disappointment as well.

A hysterical Odette, running from one corner of the stage to the other one, dancing at such speed that I could literally not believe my eyes.

Upper body as stiff as it can get, and port de bras, well, lets call it crazy, disorganized and also hysterical arm movements (bc thats not port de bras)

she had this electric movements that she seemed to repeat every few minutes, prob when she remembered that she was playing a swan.

emotion ? connection ? zero, this was just another non-story ballet performance, execute and continue...

her technique was still there..... maybe a good coaching will help.......dont really know.

The corp was something else too, 70-80% of these ladys were doing arabesques maybe at 10-15 degree angle, many actually barely care about lifting the leg at all

and the upper body mov was def one to remember.

The orchestra matched perfectly with the whole show, who knows what they were playing.

one funny thing was the way one of the ladies of the pas de trois, kicked her leg backwards 3 times in a row, as if we were in a kickboxing battle, pretty original.

a few others manage to do something similar in the corps.

somebody seating in my section dared to scream Bravi ! a few times, that def made the night for me !

I hope he is a dancer's family, otherwise.....

I could not stop thinking about the young people and the inexperienced audience (almost sold out house), is this the way they are going to be educated about such a legendary ballet ?

if there is a balanchine trust to make sure that Mr B's ballet are properly performed around the world, there should be a Petipa trust or similar to avoid aundiences such a pain !

I rarely come to nyc ballet because I have been educated in classic, story ballets.....my friends gave me a warning and i didnt listen...guess i deserved it.

Luckily I'll get to see Part's performance in the spring and will redeem myself

I rarely attend to nyc ballet performances for reasons that are beyond the discussion on this topic.

However, I'd seen A. Bouder a few times in the past in short pieces, and always enjoyed her quite a lot, so when I found out that she was dancing SB on Wed 27, I run to LC and got a ticket for her show last night.

First, I have to say that I liked the production in general, a few minors here and there, but overall it is enjoyable and coherent. The company daced it pretty well, I disliked well more the guys (most of them) than the female dancers, but in general the level was ok, and better than I expected and seen other times.

Apart from this, I just totally adored Bouder performance.

Luckily, I was seated pretty close in orchestra so I had the chance to see her face and all the details really well.

I was not able to take my eyes off her during the whole night.

Marvelous, sharp and crystal clear technique, sublime upper body and port-de-bras, adorable expresiveness.

Its one of the few times I ve seen an Aurora using her dancing so fluently and as a perfect vehicle to tell us the story.

I cant say enough about her, still have that monster Rose Adagio with that beautiful smile in my head.

absolutely fantastic !

Have anybody seen her swan lake ?

of course I wont miss her performance in Jewels, which I assume she will dance.

I attended to an average of 3 performances per week.

In general, the shows were very well sold. At least in the orchestra level, I saw more than 85% seats sold in most of the nights that i attended.

Swan Lake was pretty much sold out in all 8 performances (at least in 6 of them).

Giselle and R & J sold very very well too (with a few close to sold out shows).

I think Sylvia sold pretty good as well (at least the 3 that i saw, not monday though), similar to Corsaire and the Balanchine program.

Sadly, I think La sylphide was probably the weakest, although it was still pretty well sold (more than 70% i would say).

I dont know about the prokofiev program. i only attended to opening night and it was pretty full.

I think the season was a great success.

Now I have another question here, why is abt not performing at city center this year ?

I thought that city center would be closed for construction, but it doesnt look like it.

The last two years the city center season was reduced to 2 weeks, and now is gone.

Instead, we only get 4 days at Avery Fisher, how awful !!!!

The idea of waiting another full year to see the company perform is so crazy.

Also, why is the met closed for 2 1/2 months ?

We used to get kirov, Royal, Bolshoi after the abt season, not anymore !!!!

This year the Royal and the Bolshoi came to DC, none of them stopped by nyc (guess no theater for them here)

Next year, the Kirov is bringing their magnificent SB to DC and then the Bolshoi "Spartacus".

Bravo for the Kennedy center and shame on nyc and the met, we dont get the best in ballet anymore, why ? why ?

No words can describe Veronika's beauty, lines and musicality.

She puts so much love in her Odette.

The way she uses her magnificent port-de-bras, at the right time, with the right tempo, as a vehicle of expression, incredible.

...and tonight she added some astonishing balances, including one during Odette's variation which will stay in my mind for ever.

Thats as beautiful as an arabesque can get.

Veronika Part is classical ballet in its purest state.

What a tremendous performance.

The crowd went totally crazy for her.

She received plenty of flower bouquets and a huge standing ovation which lasted for a very, very long time.

I am still speechless.

I will write more later, after I recover.

I also attended to Vishneva/Gomes SL last night and all i can say is that these two were just fabulous.

Diana is trully an artist. She does dance beautifully, but I see her as a ballerina who uses her body as a vehicle to tell the audience the story she wants to tell.

Its so much more than steps, her character are all about perfection, details, and more importantly she dances for her partner, not for herself.

Her Odette was gorgeous, with that super-flexible Vaganova-trained upper body, beautiful arms and using her head as very few ballerinas know how to use in SL.

She danced it with the perfect tempo, not too slow, not too fast, such a good taste !! and such musicality !!!

She may not be the more accomplished technician, but she did held herself pretty good. Except for a couple of details (especially at the end of the diagonal in turns of Odette's variation where she went a little wild), she was rock solid, nailing a few beautiful balances (at the right times) and some pretty good triples pirouettes during odette's variation.

Highlight of Act 2 were the Adagio with Marcelo (true that you couldnt hear a whisper in the entire audience) which was absolutely fenomenal !!!!!!....and details like that little kiss that she gave to marcelo (in his mouth) at the end of act 2 (just before the transformation when she was saying good bye to him), while executing a beautiful penchee and after embracing him as many times as she could, with so much love, brava !

Act 3 showed a malicious Odile. She used her mouth a lot (as someone commented before) especially that evil smile.

Her variation was close to perfect (except for the very end, she finished up a little out of balance), and she did nail another couple of really long and beautiful balances.

The fouettes were probably the weakest part of the performance. I have seen all her SL in nyc and she always, always try for multiple turns and ends up either falling off point or lossing the balance completely. Is not really that important to me, but i think that it would be much better to do simples turns at a faster tempo (she def can do that) and end them up clean and strong, it does leaves a much better taste for the audience, in my opinion.

Anyway, at the end of the coda, when they were both at the front center of the stage, marcelo kneeling, just before the end, she caressed Marcelo's face so maliciously again ! what a detail !

This is what i really loved the most in this performance. Diana was trully and absolutely enjoying herself on stage as i have never seen her before.

its so obvious how much she loves dancing with Marcelo (no wonder she danced giselle with him at the Mariisnky festival), she added countless details that she doesnt do with anybody else. Now that Malakov is ending his career, i think she is kind of picking Marcelo to built a strong and acclaimed partnership, which is growing pretty fast and so strongly. I just cant wait for theirs R & J, that is going to be amazing !!

As for Marcelo (the magnificent, as somebody call him on this board), what can you say. Such a noble dancer, so elegant and such a tremendous partner.

Those beautiful long legs ...ufff.

No matter who he is dancing with, he always gets the most of his ballerina, bravo !!!

As Diana, he always gives 110% in all is performances, and that is something that as an audience member i trully appreciate a lot.

The rest of the casting wasnt at the level of the leading roles.

I disliked more Jared Matthew's Von Rob. than Savaliev's (which is a lot to say since i really disliked Savaliev performance but at least he had more personality and probably a more suited physique).

Simkim was incredible once again, and once again he showed really weak partnership skills (he cant manage to hold his ballerina straight when holding her from behind, and the supported pirouettes are so sloppy..., luckily with a lot of work, this may be solved in the near future)

Sara and Isabella were better than moday, still I liked a lot more Ricetto/Abrera's perfromace.

Ok, so now, the stage is all set for Friday night's movie-star looking couple.

Since one of the two most beautiful dancers nowadays (if not the most) were announced to dance SL together, i have been counting the days left for the performance (like for the olympics, ha). So far Part has had one of her best seasons since she came to abt, including an astonishing Sylphide !

its like Ava gardner performing SL with a beautiful greek god , cant get better than this !

Friday night is going to be just magic !

I attended to last night performance (Murphy/Corella)

It was a great pleasure to see how Gillian keeps improving year after year in all her roles.

Her artistry has improved quite a lot. You can see that tremendoulsy beautiful back bends going deeper and deeper and a much improved port-de-bras as well. Her prodigous technique has also reached new peaks, showing once again an astonishing control, together with her usual crystal clear foot work.

As Odette, she is still not as deep in passion as Part but overall it was a very good performance (artistry-wise), which combined with that amazing technique made it even better. Act II highlight was her Odette's variation which was flawless. The diagonal with perfectly executed triples adding the much improved arm movements was incredibly beautiful, she ended it up with crazy fast chaines.

Her black swan continued to be once again a total diplay of incredible power and control, combined with better acting and energy. One thing that amazes me about her technique is her confidence, you can rarely see her tumbling, plus, the center of her turns and her supported pirouettes are nearly perfect even when she throws triples.

This year I also noticed improved extensions, making a few 180 penchees that she didnt do before, and some good balances keeping that arabesque high or at a nearly perfect 90 degrees.

Her Odile variation, well, what can you say about that, wow, and her fouettes were again improved (how in the world was that possibe ). The lady threw quadruples !!! but not happy with that, she did them while executing a beautiful por-de-bras, i mean, really, the coordination and the control needed to do this is literally insane. As a london critic said about her performance there, "the only thing she didnt do was flying over the stage", for god sake, I ve been going to ballet for many years and I have never seen anything like this. More than that, she finished them so strongly, with the same series of quad with port-de bras, and on pointe ! I was just speachless !!!!!

In Act IV her back bends were beautiful. She threw herself to the lake with no fear (most abt swan queens seem terrified when is time for them to make that jump) after saying good bye to her prince, a very touching detail.

Angel was ok, but he has gained so much weight that its painful to watch him so limited technically speaking, compared to where he was before. Considering his age (he should be at his peak now), its hard to understand.

I guess that running a company in Spain is hard to combine with keeping a high standard of dancing. At this point, I am kind of worried about his future here. I hope (and wish) he comes back next year in great shape, because if this keeps going deeper and deeper, the picture wont be pretty.

Luckily he kind of picked up in Act 3, although the easy and virtousity of his dancing wasnt there either.

Saveliev was not a good Von Rob, especially if you compare him to Marcelo and David.

He looked shaky and his protrayal of the character is far bellow my expectations.

I think McKenzie added the monster Rothbart and the stuffed swan in order to make it more "Disneyesque". Kids like to see monsters and stuffed animals, so let's put them on stage. I think he believes that this approach makes it more family friendly and therefore sells more tickets.

i wish Ratmasnky will re-stage all the classics and especially Mr McKenzie's versions

............"I wasn't sure whether having approximately the same facial expressions throughout Act II (and, for the Prince, Act I) is a more "Russian" presentation, or a presentation particular to this pair. In Act II, the only time I felt Odette's experiencing something emotional was the initial fear she had of the Prince. Maybe Irina D thinks that she is "acting" very subtly with her eyes, but I was using my binoculars a lot and I didn't think that was achieved, if that was her intent. In Act III, as Odile, she more effectively used seductive or expressive eyes (looking from the left or right at the Price)".................

Is def. not a Russian presentation but something very typical of this couple.

Irina is a very talented dancer, but when she decides to come for a photo section instead of a ballet show we get what we got tonight.

I encourage you to see Part and Vinshneva, so you can see by yourself that they way she danced tonight was totally anti-russian style.

and yes..I did see Irina's leg crashing into Maxim's chest, and the funny thing to me was how she still moved the leg and force it to go into 6-o'clock position....as if saying....over my dead body I am not showing a 180o perfect penchee in front/center stage of the met.... i have to said that i literally laughed...

I actually think that it happened more than once during the performance.

Swan Lake

Dvorovenko/Maxim B.

Irina displayed a pretty equlibrated performance (between Odette/Odile), with solid and strong technique, some spectacular balances, super fast- single fouettes....

Her port- de bras at the end of act II was beatiful as well.

However, I found her Odette pretty unmoving, totally lacking passion and love.

I have enjoyed her a lot this season but i think tonight she went back to her "showy" version, going from pose to pose....

She also danced Odette at a very very fast tempo, which I particularly disliked a lot (especially in the adagio pdd)

Maxim, probably due to the recent injury, was pretty weak as her prince and certainly he did not contribute in the acting section either.

Marcelo showed why he owns the role of Von R., he was wonderful.

Simkim elevation in his jumps were as amazing as usual, however he does show problems whenever partnering a ballerina.

I think he had a little problem with his variation, ending it up before the music.

Cant wait for Vinshneva/Gomes and Part/Bolle shows !!!!!!!!

Part was tonight EXQUISITE !!!!!!

She had many wonderful moments, but her death brought tear to my eyes.

The more I see her the more I realize that she is a real treasure in the ballet world.

I enjoyed Osipova's performance but Part was just something else.

She was far beyond great jumps and virtuosity (and yes, her jetes were beautiful as well, obviously not with Osipova's ballon, but still awasome),

so beautiful and delicate ! The style was right there the whole time, and she used that gorgeous upper body to the fullest.

I think Van Hammel has also made a tremendous job coaching her, it really showed throughout the performance.

BRAVA VERONIKA !!!!!!

Abt Management (In case somebody read this):

Pls, pls, pls, give her Giselle and Juliet ASAP !!!!!!

I just cant wait any longer.

This woman beauty is truly astonishing, stunning.

I was kind of shocked when I came out of the theater, it took me a while to land again into the real life

I loved Cory as well, he has such a great stage presence and although he struggled at times with some steps, he looked gorgeous.

In a couple of years he is going to be amazing.

Van Hammel was good but I liked Raffa's Madge a lot more.

Lopez made a fantastic Gurn

now veronika is scheduled to do both evenings, friday and saturday.

cant wait to see her

osipova was wonderful last night, a playful sylphide flying all over the stage.

herman was great as well and I loved Simkin, very funny grunt !

Herman Cornejo is no longer listed as Natalia Osipova's partner on Wednesday night; the schedule has "tba". David Hallberg is still listed to perform on Tuesday and Thursday with Nina Ananiashvili and with Hee Seo on Friday. No press release has yet been made.

will abt surprise us with Vasiliev, now that he is prob in dc ?

just a thought

there is a review of Osipova's performance in the NY times (Mr. Macaulay)

www.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/arts/dance/15abt.html?_r=1&ref=dance

This time he decided to ignore V. Part (I guess since he probably found no reasons to destroy her, ignoring was then option number 2). I so so tired of this guy's aversion for V. Part and his adoration for some other dancers.

We are all entitle to have our own opinions, but no matter what his glorified dancers do, he will always write beautiful things about them, and no matter how magnificent the ones on the opposite group perform, he will always destroy them (or in the best scenario, ignore them). Is pretty pathetic.

Is there is something to be admired from a critic is fairness, for the good and the bad.

Osipova/Halberg/Part

Osipova debut at abt was a great success. Sold out show with a huge crowd going totally crazy for her.

Her vistousity is just brutal, and is clear that there is no ballerina who can match those tremendous jumps and the floating efect that she puts on them, simply amazing, she seems unreal.

With that said, I have to say that I came out of the show with mixed feelings.

I loved her protrayal in the 1st act ad the madness scene was glorious, I saw a lot of people crying in the orchesta section, something I hadnt see in a very long time. However, in my opinion, Natalia's lack of experience showed up in the 2nd act pretty strongly.

The romaticism style was gone, completely, up to point that I ended up disliking intensily her postures (upper body/head and arms positions). She was dancing and showing us her tremendous power, but thats not Giselle, not for me, not at all. She was light beacuse of those wonderful jumps, but at the same time she wasnt ethereal. 2nd act pdd with David did not look good, her movements were abroupt and with little attention paid to details. Especially after seing Vishneva/Nina and Irina's performances, this one didnt came close. I also felt a strong lack of emotion and connection with her partner which certainly didnt help either.

Technically, as i said before, she was just brutal, her entre-chats in the 2nd act were probably one of the best that I have ever seen. But Giselle is much more than that and I felt like Natalia has a long way to go to mature this character. This was to me, as somebody said before, -a work in progress- and I am sure Natalia will become much better and hopefully she will be make this ballets hers in the near future.

Part Myrtha was Majestic, as her dancing and stage presence is.

How can she be so beautiful and delicate, that upper body and arms are a gift from nature, incredible.

I mentioned in a post here a few days ago that I was amazed with Lean Underwood's Zulma on Wednesday performance.

Well, last night the girl danced this variation so spectacularly that she go plenty of Brava ! at the end of it.

Incredibly high arabesque, beautiful balances, a a couple of 180 degrees penches followed by a spectacular serie of renverses, was like, wow !!!!!!!

This girl needs a big opportunity real soon !

David's Albretch is also a work in progress, but I loved his performance very very much.

He puts so much love ! his technique was great too with tremendously beautiful jumps and woderful entre-chats as well.

I was very dissapointed with Hoven/Seo.

He struggled very much with all the steps and his partnership was weak.

She had some good moments but looked shaky a few times as well.

This is the couple that i dislike the most from the 3 that I saw.

Irina's Giselle last night was wonderful.

I thought that having Diana's still in my head would probably make me dislike this performance a bit, but it wasnt like that at all. I would rank Diana's better but Irina danced it very strongly as well.

Part's Mirtha was better than ever, so confident again, much stronger technically.

Her upper body is just majestic, so beautiful jetes !

She has added a lot of details that really make a big difference.

Awasome, not to mention her comanding stage presence and beauty.

I wish she were cast with Diana next year.

Vishneva/Gomes/Part would make just the perfect Giselle

Lean Underwood caught my attention once again.

She was Zulma, her variation was danced with such power and at the same time so musical.

Her penches were like, wow ! I love how much risks she takes, seems like no fear at all.

Her line also looked beautiful.

I remember she blew me away as a shade in La Bayadere last year and I loved her as

an Odalisque in "Le Corsaire" two weeks ago.

I wonder how old she is and if she is going to have the chance of dancing a soloist part anytime soon. According to abt website she should be pretty young since she is a member of the corp since 2007 (and was an apprentice in 2006). I really love this new girls who have no fear at all and are willing to take big risk so they can caught people's attention. Thats how you go up in the ladder. Brava.

That is incredibly insulting to Xiomara Reyes. I don't think she has ever performed a lead role on opening night. Moreover, if this is true, her number of performances in this ballet have been cut in half.

I think its not fair to reach final conclussion if we dont know all the facts.

Actually, I just saw that her giselle is also been removed. Ricetto will perform again Saturday matinee.

Given the circumtances, I would have liked to see Part given the opening night rather than a dancer who is not a member of the company. I guess they wanted Cornejo to dance that night and that was probably the driven force to give the opening night to Osipova.

Diana was just DIVINE !!!!

She showed last night why she is considered one of the best giselle of her generation, if not the best.

The transitions throughout the performance were amazing, from an incredibly happy girl so in loved with her prince, to an astonishing madness scene.

The diagonal of hops on point was insane, she started flirting with angel while holding her skirt. Half a way through, hands free now, she was looking to her mom, telling her how happy she was, how much she loved him. Close to the end she stopped for a few seconds in a balance, looking at her prince again, flawless. She didnt dance it, she interpreted it all the way through.

The plasticity and postures of the 2nd act will stay in my mind for ever. It was real romanticism era !

The way she moved her head and the position of her arms, uff, incredible.

Each little move was weightless, she was so damn light !!!!

The technique was top class, super-fast spins during the initiation as a willi, big jetes, incredibly beautiful balances and arabesques (very high). All her variations brought lost of BRAVA from the audience.

At the end, standing ovation and plenty of cheers, very well deserved.

Simkim danced a masterclass pdd with Lane, who danced at a very high level as well.

He ended his piruoettes very slowly, like slow motion, with such perfection and musicality !!!

Lane dancing was strong and elegant and they looked very well together.

I agree that she should be careful with her facial experssions.

I loved Stella once again, as Moyna this time, and I disliked Wiles's Mirtha very much.

I ve seen her doing better before, but last night (and especially close to Diana) she looked so jerky and heavy, very heavy. She seemed stiffer than ever (if possible). It was just too bad, probably the only one thing that I did not enjoy about yesterday performance

Angel to me wasnt near close to who he has been before. However, he did partered Diana perfectly and thats another reason why she looked so gorgeous in the 2nd act. She also seemed very condident with him.

Not strong chemistry as the 1st time they danced together but it was still great.

I cant say much about him since I literally could not take my eyes out of Diana for a second during the entire ballet.

what a star !

I didnt talk about Irina's fouettes since I wasnt sure if she did that on purpose or if it was that she had gone off in the middle of them. What really impressed me a lot was how she went back to her initial spot, then did the 1 1/4 turn to face the audience and then how she finished them so strong.

It seemed to me that she was in control about was was going on all the time, she didnt travel the stage or anything, it was a straight move to her right side, then back to initial position.

I thought that even if it wasnt on purpose, just the way she came back was pretty amazing.

I also attended last night.

Fauxpas has described the evening very well, I agree with most of his thoughts.

Prodigal Son was ok, but I think that Herman needs to work some more in the acting and I didnt like Wiles.

Their partnership wasnt good, which could be because of the lack of rehearsal (last minute casting change).

I am not a big fan of this ballet, but I think I could have enjoyed it more.

Desir was so so boring to me. Lovely costumes and lightning, but I found the coreography terrible.

Except for the pdd that Stearn/I.B. got, the rest was the same boring thing over and over again, and it seemed to last for ever. I dont like Kudelka's cinderellas either, so..

On the Dnieper:

I found the coreography pretty brilliant. The story is interesting and very well translated to the audience through the steps. I am not crazy about the music and thats one of the things that probably didnt make me love the ballet.

I think the 4 principals were wonderful, loved Veronika Part. Herrera also looked real good.

I did not like the fact that the stage seems to be very crowded all the time, like people almost jumping on top of each other. I wd have liked a couple of quiet pdd and/or maybe a beautiful solo for Part at the very end.

The costumes look good but I think they are not confortable for the dancing or at least they dont allow for more exciting dancing to happen. Is emotionally intense and very well coreographed, as i said before.

Between P. Son, Desir (which I hate it) and the new piece, I think I am done for this week.

I bet the press is going to love the program and they wd probably say "this is what abt has to do more often, instead of boring full-lenght old classics". I did love the balanchine program, but to be honest, maybe its me, but I would have liked well more to enjoy a well danced bayadere or Manon that what I saw last night at the met.

I attended Wed night (Nina A), Friday (Reyes) and Sat Matinee.

The 3 casting were superb.

I already wrote about the Wed night performance so I will go straight to Friday/Sat matinee.

Reyes was a huge surprise for me. I like her because of her musicality and consitency as well as for being quite expressive but she kind of always run short for my taste. Well, not this time.

Her techique was very very sharp with one of the faster and shaper turns i ve seen, clean and perfectly executed.

She did give to the whole ballet a complete different meaning, astonishing beautiful pdd in the second act after the fireworks with Cornejo (despite the fact that Savaliev didnt do a decent job at partnering her, i just dont like him as a partner). Herman was so clean and perfect, it just cant get better than that, cant say enough about him.

I didnt particularly like M. Cooperland, I dont see her dance elegant and classical at all. She always looks fabulous in modern/contemporaty dance but i just dont see her dancing "tutu ballets".

On Saturday matinee, Irina D. just blew me away.

She is so damn talented !! I am really thrilled to see her again in such an amazing shape, havent seen her dancing like this for 2-3 years. Boy, her jetes and extensions were literally Svetlana Zk-like, her technique all over the ballet was top of the line, not to mention the italian fouettes that she executed perfectly and so high in the 3rd act.

She ended them up with a huge balance in a la second which she held for a few seconds, amazing.

In the pas de trois she nailed all the step with perfection and cleaness. She held a few balances in arabesque (real high too). In the pdd, she and Cory looked terrific.

Cory impressed me very very much. His line is so beautiful and his jumps are to die for.

He looked very well in command and secure, partnering Irina perfectly.

Corrella did an amazing Ali, much better and clean than the one he did in the opening night gala.

Irina seems to be back in great shape and decided to dance with such an energy. She also seems to finally be going for that extra in every performance, which in my opinion, is whats been keeping her from the great ones. She def has it all to be there.

Overall, I am quite impressed with the improvement in the dancing, especially the females principals.

I think it may probably be too fast to assume this is due to the arrival of Ratmansky or is it ?