abatt

Ulbricht has never been cast in Donizetti Variations at NYCB.

Hi. Jennifer Homans will give a lecture at the Frick Collection regarding "Balanchine and Imagination" on Fri, March 6. Tixs $40. http://www.frick.org/programs/salon_evenings

In April, in conjunction with an exhibition of tapestries illustrating scenes from Don Q, the Frick will have 2 Salon Evenings hosted by Clinton Luckett regarding the ballet Don Q, including demonstrations by ABT dancers. Dates are Apr 10 and 11. No info on which dancers will appear. Tixs $40. http://www.frick.org/programs/salon_evenings (Note:The stage at the Frick is extremely small.)

A NY Times article from September 2014 mentioned that R Fairchild will be out for the entire winter and spring seasons due to American in Paris. Sister Megan will return for one week during the winter season on a break from On The Town.

I saw Mearns and Catazaro as Sugarplum and Cavalier on Dec 23. Her performance was grand ballet at its finest.

They are performing on Sat evenings. Sat Jan 17 evening is Cinderella, and Sat evening Jan 24 is Chopin bill. There are no Sat matinee shows, probably because they need to change the scenery from the Swan Lake performances on the 2 Friday evenings. It would have been better if they had done a full week of SL with no interruption of any Cinderella performances, and then done the mixed bill and Cinderella during the second week. I think Gergiev may have wanted to conduct the SL opening and the Cinderella opening, and those were the days he was available. I don't think Gergiev is conducting all the performances. It is pretty amazing that BAM never bothered to send out any notice to ticketholders, subscribers and so on of the added shows. I get emails from BAM on a regular basis about all kinds of things, but no email re the added Mariinsky shows. Amour, Lopataina was scheduled for the 24th originally. Still no casting for the Jan 20 Cinderella.

It's really tough to have a successful show on Broadway. I hope it does well in NYC, although I would not want R. Fairchild to be away from NYCB for too long. Yes, R. Fairchild is definitely scheduled to be in the show on Broadway. I assume Leanne will also be in the Broadway production.

There is an interview in the NY Times about Stroman's next project, the Merry Widow at the Met Opera. In passing, she mentions that the next stop for Little Dancer is a run during the summer of 2015 in Los Angeles at the Ahmanson Theater.

As an aside she also took a major fall during the Mikhailovsky's run in NYC. Don't recall if it was in Don Q. At that time, she fell on her rear and just got back up and continued. I don't recall her falling when she was ABT in anything. Hope she is okay.

Sorry to see Tamm and Ribagorda go. Best of luck to both men. Wonder what this means for Sarah Lane (Mrs. Ribagorda).

Now that you mention it, I see that Isaacs is also replaced next week as Dewdrop. I hope she is not injured. So looking forward to seeing her in the winter and spring seasons.

I've read articles in the paper saying that a lot of designers were unhappy with the Lincoln Center set up anyway, and they were already opting out of going to Lincoln Center even before this settlement. Thus, a number of prominent designers have already left the Lincoln Center venue and hold their own shows in alternate locations. (Most powerful among them is Diane Von Furstenberg, who has been very critical of the Lincoln Center set up .)

It would be wonderful if Litton could arrange for recordings of the NYCB orchestra, but I would prefer that any recordings be in the form of DVDs of ballet performances. NYCB has the technology to film, but like ABT, is far behind most other major ballet companies in releasing DVDs.

As part of a settlement of a lawsuit regarding the use of Damrosch Park by the Fashion Week participants, Fashion Week will leave Lincoln Center. Bye Bye. Damrosch Park will finally be returned to the public for public use. http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/fashion-week-to-leave-lincoln-center/?ref=arts

Eric Tamm has appeared on a TV commercial for K. Hovnanian. He lives (or lived) in a Hovnanian builidng in Jersey City, New Jersey. The commercial has been running a few years. I saw it again sometime within the last few months. I wonder if he has other advertising gigs.

I have a question about the contracts at ABT. For the principal dancers, do they contract separately for the Met season, the Koch season and the BAM season. Is it possible that ABT did not particularly want to pay too many principals for the Nutcracker run, whereas the soloists and corps have an annual contract that includes all performances and does not require any additional compensation by ABT for the Nutcracker run. It is strange to open the playbill and see only four principal dancer photos in the BAM playbill. I have a hunch that the lack of principals for the Nut run has to do with monetary factors, at least in part. Yes, McKenzie was not stingy in giving Part principal roles. He was just stingy in giving her the promotion she deserved in a timely fashion. Returning to the topic at hand, Murphy was sublime last night. This Nutcracker is one of her best roles.

Part did numerous principal roles year after year until McKenzie finally promoted her to principal. I think she started doing principal roles from the time she was first hired as a soloist at ABT, and I believe it took seven years of doing principal roles before she was promoted.

I don't think Obama was damaged by any of the birth certificate controversy. If anything, it made the Republicans look stupid and petty, and indirectly may have helped Obama. If memory serves, even John McCain confirmed publicly that he was sure of Obama's US Citizenship so that McCain could distance himself from the right wing extremists in his own party.

Casting is up for the final week of Nutcracker. Sara Adams and Harrison Ball are debuting as Sugarplum and Cavalier on the Jan 2 matinee. If anyone attends please post!

I don't think it's a matter of "prejudice" against short dancers. Short dancers are not particularly effective or suitable in a ballet like Swan Lake, where the extension of long limbs enhances the choreography. Swan Lake loses a lot of its magic when the limbs that are unfurled by Odette are short. This is why shorter dancers tend to be more suitable in soubrette type roles or as Juliet. Obviously, there are extraordinary and legendary dancers like Makarova who can make you completely forget the height issue. Maybe McKenzie is now entering a new phase of artistic leadership, where he has decided that short dancers are suitable as O/O and as princes, and uber tall dancers are suitable for roles that used to be done by short to medium sized dancers. That seems to be the direction he is taking, as far as casting Herman in princely roles, casting Misty and Kochetkova as O/O, and casting Semionova as Juliet. The drawback of casting Semionova as Juliet was apparent to me when Hallberg had to lift her. If we are entering this new phase of casting irrespective of height or body type, please cast Part as Juliet and Giselle.

Other than the unique and extraordinary Natalia Makarova, have there ever been any other 5 ft. 2 in. women at ABT who have been provided with the opportunity of dancing the lead in Swan Lake? I've been attending since the late 90s, and I cannot recall any such ballerinas at ABT. Xiomara Reyes had to go elsewhere as a guest artist in Europe to dance O/O because McKenzie never would cast her, though I believe she is taller than Misty. (Kochetkova was brought in to be Herman's partner. How tall is she?) Since Misty has now learned the role and performed it, why do they need to bring in Kochetkova to dance with Herman going forward?

This is sad. La Monnaie is where Mark Morris created and premiered his landmark masterpiece, L'Allegro, in 1988. I guess economic times are tough.

His citizenship was questioned by a small percentage of right wing conservatives who hate all Democrats. That small faction does not represent the majority of Americans, as indicated by the fact that Obama won not once, but twice.

Don't know if anyone posted this, but Misty will be a guest lecturer at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan on Apr 27 at 8:15. Tickets are $30.

I'm hoping ABT can do right by Calvin Royal. He seems so talented and ready for more roles. Ditto Tom Forrester.