abatt

Simkin did use white face makeup as Ariel during the premiere on opening night.

Thanks for the response, sandik. That raises the question as to why Tom Forster, who is in mid-air in the middle of a longer phrase, has his free hand in a beautiful position, with his fingers pointed skyward instead of at the floor like Boylston.

NY Times is now reporting on this topic today, and mentions that Ratmansky has blasted the appointment of NT in a terse statement on his Facebook page. No love loss there. Wasn't NT a major thorn in Ratmansky's side during Ratmansky's tenure as leader of the Bolshoi.

I have a question about Sylphides. I'm attaching this link only for the purpose of looking at the photo of Boylston. One thing I found in her performance of the work is that her hands and arms didn't seem to look like what everyone else on stage was doing. You can see in the photo that she breaks the line of her arm at the wrist, so her hand is almost at a 90 degree angle with her arm. Notice, in contrast, that the corps has their hands and arms softly rounded. What's the correct position. Is this too nitpicky? http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/04/arts/dance/american-ballet-theaters-sylphides-and-gong.html?ref=dance

I had never seen Bach Partita before last night. I loved it and can't wait to see it again. I'm not normally a huge Tharp fan either. I thought Sylphides was overall well done, with especially lovely performances by Forster and Seo. Boylston could use some more training on the carriage of her upper body and the use of her arms and hands in this ballet. Gong was fun, and is one of the better Morris ballets. The night belonged to Murphy, who dazzled in the Tharp and the Morris. Tharp came out during the curtain call of her work and got a thunderous welcome.

Well, since Herman didn't have too much actual dancing to do as Caliban, at least we can hope that his role in Tempest won't preclude Herman from returning to one of his greatest roles, Puck, during the Spring Season, when Tempest and Dream are on the same program.

Here are some photos from Women's Wear Daily of the red carpet scene. http://www.wwd.com/eye/parties/american-ballet-theatre-holds-fall-gala-7259412

For anyone interested, the Playbill from last night also listed the casting for Fri Nov 1. The lead cast for Gong on Nov 1 is Abrera, Butler, Copeland, Murphy, Reyes. Cornejo, Gomes, Radetsky, Scott and Whiteside. All other lead casting for the other ballets on the program to be found on the ABT website. Does anyone know why Hallberg is listed as a principal for the ABT fall season in the playbill, even though he is not appearing with ABT anywhere until June 2014? (None of the other missing principals, like Vishneva, Vasiliev, Bolle are listed in the playbill.) Also, was it my imagination or did Whiteside substitute some pirouettes where there should have been a double tour?

Last night's gala was packed to the rafters. It seemed like a sell out. I liked the new costumes for T&V. They were elegant, with the principals in goldish yellow, the demis in peach and the corps in tangerine/orange. The bodice of the principal tutu had what looked like crystals or sequins. The men's jackets are military style (I thinks that's what it's called), also with a fair number of crystal sequins on the front. I was disturbed by the fact that Murphy's brand new tutu had a long loose thread hanging down the back, which was apparently cut off once she exited stage. As for the performance, it was good but not spectacular. There was nothing wrong with it, but it didn't crackle with excitement and energy. I think I prefer the NYCB less fussy performance style of this work. I didn't enjoy Gomes' piece. It looked like a student work with repitition of aimless, pointless jumps for 8 (?) shirtless men. It didn't help that Gomes' work followed a Balanchine masterpiece. I thought the Tempest was mostly successful. First, the costumes, makeup (for Simkin and Cornejo) scenic design and lighting were very well done. Some of the costumes was outrageously creative and strange. If the viewer was not familiar w. The Tempest going in, or neglected to study in depth thel synopsis, I'm afraid a lot of the drama would be totally lost and very difficult to follow. There are a lot of characters in this production, and it's not easy to follow what's going on from the choreography alone. There was a chorus and a mezzo soprano, but for the life of me I couldn't understand a single word of her singing. Maybe distribution of the text would help. The best and most daring choreography was performed by Simkin, who performed numerous flashy jumps and leaps while staying completely in character as Ariel. I thought most of the other choreography for Gomes, Lane, Gorak and the others was somewhat generic. This may be due in part to the music, which I think has limited dance potential. I thought Herman Cornejo got the short end of the stick. His choreography consisted of looking and moving like a Neanderthal Man. Most of the time he was on the floor, rather than airbound. The Koch Theater promenade was designed to look like a scene out of the Tempest, but it was so overdone it was tacky. There were strobe lights (lightning), belching steam machines which were supposed to look list mist coming off the sea, and sound effects for thunder. In addition, there were gigantic paper mache structures all over the promenade meant to look like whirling tornadoes. The lighting was also very dim. A good idea run amuck. ABT needs to have a better plan for moving people around during intermission and after the show. Various bathrooms were inexplicably closed. On the second ring, you were not permitted to walk from one end of the house to the other because there was lighting or sound equipment blocking the pathway from house left to house right. When the show was over, however, instead of allowing people to leave that ring via the nearest stairway on house left, the ushers forced people sitting on the left side to maneuver their way through all of the equipment and a blinding strobe light to use the staircase on house right. Easy potential for a major accident. Celebs in attendance: Bebe Neuwirth, Sigournay Weaver, Star Jones, Peter Martins. I'm sure there are others I didn't notice. Wendy Whelan was there (no crutches). A. Ferri was also in attendance.

How can there be an "official interpretation" of a sentence contained in a newspaper article? The interpretation is offered by the readers of the comments made by Vishneva.

I saw The Nose live in the Big House this past Saturday. I thought it was a novelty that I enjoyed seeing once, but woud not see again because I'm not generally a fan of the music. The thing that made this special for me was the production values. There were a good number of teenagers in the audience - more than I normally see at the opera.

Do you think Vishneva is referring to Tsis­karidze only, Lopatkina only or to both of them. I thought she was friendly w. Lopatkina.

I agree w. you puppytreats. I've enjoyed Bourne's other works (SL, Play without Words), but this SB was a dud as far as the choreography.

I think almost everything sold out last time the Bolshoi was here. Maybe not Bright Stream.

Yes, I agree Natalia. The Kennedy Center Giselle is a done deal. The contract that the Bolshoi would have w. the Kennedy Center was inked a long time ago and that engagement is definite. The deal they are trying to work out w. Lincoln Center is an entirely separate contract that has nothing to do with the Kennedy Center engagement. I think the KC must offer very good deals to major ballet companies, and the KC has lots of taxpayer money to fund these engagements (in additon to private capital donations). The Saratoga engagement sounds like an add on. Hey, we're going to NYC, we might as well throw on an extra week to the NY tour and make some more $$$ in Saratoga.

Unlike the Mik, the Bolshoi has plenty of stars. Bolshoi can sell out the Met with SL and DQ with or without Hallberg and/or Vasiliev. (Spartacus isn't exactly an audience favorite, so that's going to be a tougher sell no matter who is cast.)I'm guessing this delay of signing contracts must somehow relate to money, not personnel. It's probably a negotiating maneuver by the Bolshoi. If the Bolshoi doesn't end up coming to NYC, I seriously doubt that they will come to Saratoga. I'm not sure that Hallberg would necessarily be a big draw in NYC for the Bolshoi anyway. When the Bolshoi visits NYC, a large segment of the audience, including many, many Russians, want to see Russian dancers who were trained at the Bolshoi, not Americans.

I sat in the second ring, and I didn't find the portraits blurry. I didn't noitce the name on the grave.

Just checking to see if others noticed this detail in Cinderella. In the scene where various family portraits are hanging, did anyone else notice that one of the portraits was Wheeldon in drag?

Yuan Yuan Tan is perhaps too regal and mature to play Cinderella, but her dancing surely was ethereal. There were some minor partnering glitches, but nothing too terrible. For those people who only saw the Sat evening show, the end of Act I with the carriage should have looked even better. Tan had a problem with the big cape for a few seconds, so instead of looking like the roof of her her horse drawn carriage it ended up completely covering her face. There was no mass exodus at the performances I attended, although I have to say that ending a kid friendly ballet at 10:40 PM is a little nutty. Not sure why they didn't begin their evening shows at 7:30 instead of 8PM. This was a very enjoyable and successful tour, and I hope SFB returns to New York soon.

Funny. I don't see Gomes in this role at all. He is not "Americana", which is what they would be looking for. By the way, I've now moved into the Sapphire Circle with my 2,000th post. Whoo Hoo

Here's a link to an article on Ratmansky's Tempest. Lovely photo of Gorak and Lane, too. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/27/arts/dance/alexei-ratmansky-tackles-the-tempest.html?pagewanted=all

I saw last night's Cinderella, and I preferred the lyricism and fluidity of Sarah Van Patten as compared to the opening night perforamce of Kochetkova. Also, I enjoyed Tilt Helimets as the Prince because of his height and long lines. Hansuke Yamamoto was excellent as Benjamin. I just finished reading the interview w. Froustey. Didn't realize that she had previously approached ABT for a position. McKenzie put a lot of his eggs in the Osipova basket these last few years, but that turned out to be a really bad decison after she accepted the RB's offer. As Homer Simpson woudl say, DOH!

Kochetkova is merely a guest at ABT, and has given only two performances with ABT. She was trained at the Bolshoi, and danced at Royal Ballet and ENB before ending up at SFB in approximately 2007.

I know that Balanchine works are strictly monitored by the Balanchine Police Trust. I'm pretty sure that the MacMillan rep is still under copyright protection. Isn't there a similar organization that monitors performances of MacMillan's works?

I saw the opening night of Cinderella. The production is gorgeous. It looks like no expense was spared. The costumes were sumptuous and the set design was magnificent. (The only issue I had with the sets was the dangling chairs above the stage in final act. Maria Kochtekova was a perfect choice for the role because of her size and youthful appearance. Her execution of the choreography was first rate. Boada didn't make much of an impression on me as the Prince. I would have preferred someone taller, with longer lines (i.e., Domitro, who was dancing the secondary role). The guys with the gold masks were creepy. I very much enjoyed the choreography at the end of act I for the seasons. The ballroom scene of Act II was beautifully choreographed. While the Ashton version still has the best choreography, I think this version is very good. The ballroom scene, and the patterns in which Wheeldon deployed the corps, was inventive. The pdd for Cinderrella and the Prince was beautifully done, full of romantic lifts and difficult footwork. The performance was heavily sold. The fourth ring was open, but I couldn't see how many rows of that ring had been sold. The other rings were full. This production is a hit. ABT's McKenzie was there, and Wheeldon was in the house too. Also saw Max Beletserkovsky with his adorable daughter. This version is WORLDS better than the last 2 Cinderella productions we have seen at ABT (Stevenson, Kudelka), not only in terms of the production look and invention, but also in terms of the choreography.