abatt

The central pdd is clearly ballet in Glass Pieces. Upper Room also extensively uses pointe work along with balletic choreography. I would not classify Moor's Pavane as ballet. It is modern dance. Don't recall Dark Elegies.

Good point about Fancy Free, DeCoster. I feel like the men's roles are truly classical ballet in Fancy Free. But to me something like Company B is not, because apart from the lack of pointe work, there is littile of the classical ballet idiom in it. Yes, I agree w canbelto on that point - the ABT dancers do not seem to get the dark undertones of the Taylor idiom. I noticed this not only in Company B, but also in a work that ABT premiered by Taylor a few years ago about the Great Depression (forgot the title). When the Taylor company performed the work it had so much more nuance and darkness than when the ABT dancers performed it. I recall that Simkin just performed the Brother Can You Spare a Dime seciton at the gala in May, and it looked more like a jumping competition, completely missing the sadness and pathos of the choreography.

Company B is not a ballet. No pointe work. And I agree that it is performed too often in New York City. I go to ABT to see ballet, not modern dance.

Saturday evening is a big draw, but Sunday evenings are not.

Company B is great, but you might consider seeing it the next time Paul Taylor revives it, instead of going to ABT to see it. It is a Paul Taylor classic that is often revived by his own company.

From the press release: Copeland will be performing from August 25 - September 6 at the Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evening shows and the Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday matinees. The show will also have a Saturday and Sunday evening performance during those weeks.

Yes, I saw Ms. Cope at the theater with her husband and another RB dancer who I could not identify. Nunez was perfection again tonight. Whiteside did a fine job with the partnering and also did well in his solo, except for a botched landing in Act II. By the way, it is clear to me now that Whiteside is also doing a "modified" version of the Act II solo that is easier than the original choreography. Part's phrasing tonight was beautiful. Also went the matinee. Stella was a lovely and lyrical Cindy, but she came off pointe during the Act III pdd. Gorak is such a beautiful dancer. His solo work looked effortless, as compared to Hammoudi's. Gorak's beautiful lines and crisp footwork were a joy to watch. He's also made a lot of progress in partnering. Looking forward to seeing him in more roles. Also special mention for Sarah Lane's sparkling footwork in the Spring fairy variation this evening. Grant DeLong was in the matinee. He has gained quite a bit of weight. Didn't realize he was retiring until I read it on the other thread (ABT roster).

Having now watched a few Cindy performances, I can report that both Whiteside and Stearns are doing the full male variation as choreographed by Ashton in Act II. Hammoudi is doing a much simplified version, but it still looks like a sloppy mess even with the easier choreography. Have not seen Gorak yet.

If McKenzie is going to invite a RB guest artist, I'd much rather see Nunez than the overexposed Osipova. The audience went nuts for Nunez last night.

Announcement next week, probably. They probably wanted to get all of the promotion info out first.

Actually, he was giving Part some wonderful new roles a few years ago like Kitri and Medora, but things seem to have dried up this year. Maybe next season she will at least get her Medora role back.

Nunez was a dream as Cindy. Can we keep her?

The problem is that Lane, for the most part, continues in the same roles she has been doing for years. McKenzie doesn't really give her the opportunity for growth. The same thing was true about Abrera. Her only full length lead this year was supposed to be Cinderella, which she has been doing for a period of years (albeit with different choreography). Her appearance in Giselle was a fluke, a completely out of left field opportunity brought about by circumstance. It was at that performance that McKenzie probably fully realized the extent of her ability, and also became more keenly aware of a pent up demand among a segment of ABT's audience to see her in lead roles. Going back to the issue of money, the retirements this year may have freed up a lot of money going forward. However, I wonder how much difference in pay there is between being a very senior soloist and a brand new principal. Given the lengths of their tenure, I would guess that both Misty and Stella were probably paid at the highest soloist level available under the union contracts. The promotion to principal may not be costing ABT all that much additional money. Obviously, the issue of status is huge. Let's hope that McKenzie doesn't moth ball Stella in the way he has done to Simkin. Even though Simkin is a principal he is doing very few principal roles.

Yes, definitely Lendorf as Colas. Also Lendorf would be excellent as Desire - the choreography of this version would suit him very well. Basically, yes to anything Lendorf is doing. Would also like to see what Gorak might do with Colas, and also Cornejo.

It's now official in the casting list. Garen Scribner will dance all Wednesday evening shows in the role of Jerry Mulligan.

I agree with Natalia. Sarah Lane has not necessarily proven herself as being ready for principal status at this time. Her work in SB was overall very good, but she simply has not been given enough roles to demonstrate the consistency of her work. That's McKenzie's failing, not Sarah's. But, McKenzie has also promoted others who also were, in my opinion, not ready for principal status. Hee Seo is one example, although she has improved a lot since the time she was promoted. Ditto Cory Stearns, who has also improved over the years. It is unfortunate that McKenzie has gone out and hired Kochetkova for a permanent place at ABT, which, I believe, will significantly diminish Sarah's potential opportunities for roles. In my opinion, Kochetkova's presence will probably end up being a permanent barrier to Sarah's potential advancement. The roster of short, small ballerinas for lead roles is now pretty full. Without Kochetkova, I might have guessed that Sarah had a chance for promotion in a year or two, depending on how things went. Now, I believe there is no real chance that she will end up with a promotion at ABt in the next few years. The guest artists strike again. Lane has done some excellent work and given many excellent performances, and I hope Lane will be given some more chances at additional lead roles so that her signficant talents can further develop and emerge. I do like Lane's dancing very much, and will always come to the theater to see her whenever she is cast. I would love to see her given a chance at Lise, Giselle or O/O. That wish probably won't come true. McKenzie has difficulty seeing the value of people who are right in front of his nose, and Sarah is the victim of that myopic view. If the confluence of events had not resulted in a situation where (a) Abrera was ready to perform Giselle due to her recent guest appearances elsewhere and (2) Polina's absence left a spot open for a Giselle, I have a feeling Stella might never have been elevated either.

I recall that California posted a subsequent response explaining what he/she meant and to clarify his/her position, but that explanatory, clarifying post was not provided above. Why am I not surprised.

Yes, there are a number of people who are posting on this thread and other threads whose apparent objective is to villify anyone that makes a remark regarding any issue related to Copeland, her dancing, her promotion, or audiences that attend her shows.

Yes, it seems like Boylston's issues can be corrected with some good coaching. A diamond in the rough.

Semionova and Bolle were great together in Sylvia.

I thought Hammoudi did a good job overall, but his landings were frequently sloppy when he did tours. Boylston was fantastically buoyant.

Boylston can dance rings around both Copeland and Seo. Her main issue is lack of polish in her upper body/arms. Boylston is a formidable talent with rock solid technique almost all of the time. Stuben, nothing in your post was remotely hateful or evidence of being on a hate bandwagon.

As lovely as Hee Seo's performance was on Monday, Murphy was on an entirely higher level last night. Her Act II solo was thrilling. As the music swelled, her speed in doing a series of jumps and turns increased, and the elevation of her jumps increased. It made me realize that the music must have been slowed down for Hee on Monday, who was much more careful and slower. Murphy is at her peak, and she is a great interpreter of Ashton. See her if you can in this.

Perhaps it's time to chill out. Not every remark has an "ism" or a "code" lurking behind it. If memory serves, canbelto, you also objected to the word chinoiserie as being a racial insult in a recent thread. Nobody has said that Misty's audience is ignorant except for you. People have merely asked the question as to whether and to what extent her audience is willing to see other ABT stars in addition to Misty. You are constantly projecting your own assumptions into what others post when there is zero basis for such assumption. And all of your assumptions are based on the underpinning that you must be right and everyone else must be wrong and evil.

You forgot to post the remarks to which I initially responded. The initial remark was that some of ABT's audience only wants to see white bodies on stage. Putting things in their proper context is always quite helpful and elucidating, isn't it? The original post was number 139 in this thread. I then picked up on the reference made by another post to "white bodies" in my responsive post. For the record Misty has a beautiful body. But the posts have focused on whether and to what extent minority audience members will go to non-Misty performances at ABT. That was how this got started.