abatt

I saw a blurb in the NY Times today announcing the upcoming season of the Alvin Ailey company. They will perform Chroma during the 2013-14 season. Does Chroma contain pointe work for the women? I'm asking because Ailey is modern, and they don't do pointe work in any of their rep.(Some of their dancers do have ballet training.)

The idea of doing a Broadway revival of American in Paris has been kicking around for years. In fact, I think that the Wheeldon production of An American in Paris that he did for NYCB started out as Wheeldon's potential draft of the choreography for the show.I'm not sure what kind of shape Damian Woetzel is in at this stage of his life, but he would seem like a strong candidate for the Gene Kelly role.

Agree w. you Waelsung. When Ratmansky gets his hands on a classic that he tries to revamp to make his own unique stamp, things go off the rails. I could not stand his Nutcracker or his Firebird. He is at his best when he is creating something from scratch, rather than making a new version of a well known classic.

Abrera was wonderful as Florine. Radetsky did not partner her well. Agree with the praise of Lendorf. He was excellent, and I'm glad I had a chance to see him.

Part gave a master class tonight on how to dance the Vision scene. She and Gomes were fantastic. Part was very confident and commanding throughout. Those balances no longer plague her. By the way, Boylston was a much better cat tonight than on Friday night. Time for bed. Hopefully will post more tomorrow.

It was good to see you Christian. I hope you enjoyed your trip!

I thought Murphy & Whiteside performed beautifully last night. Murphy was not as secure in the Birthday scene as in prior outings. She did fine, but no daredevil balances in the Rose Adagio. She sparkled throughout the rest of the performance, though. Whiteside had strong technique and very good partnering skills. His acting is weak, but I can accept that. Given the number of lead roles he has taken on this season (SB on about a week's notice, after Corey was injured), I would have to say that McKenzie hit a home run in hiring this guy. If all goes well the next few months, I expect that he will be the next male principal at ABT. Hee Seo was lovely as Lilac, although a bit more happiness in her facial expression would have been appreciated. Lane was a lovely Florine. Gorak replaced Simkin as Bluebird. It looked like he and Lane had little or no rehearsal time together. It was some of the worst partnering I've seen at ABT. Boylston was the cat, and she wore a glum expression throughout. The bubble over her head would read: "I should be dancing Aurora or at least Florine. What the #$%! am I doing being cast as the Cat? SB sells. The Big House has been packed all week.

Casting changes due to Stearns' injury. Forster is replacing Stearns in Symphony in C. Due to a lack of a tall partner (apparently), they have removed Part from the Corsaire casting. Herrera and Vasileiv move into the July 13 evening and Reyes Cornejo move into the July 14 cast as Medora and Conrad. Joe Phillips replaces Cornejo as Ali. It's interesting that ABT went out of its way to find a short partner for Cornejo for his SL and SB performances, but instead of finding a tall partner for Part in Corsaire, they dropped her from Corsaire and gave her performance to someone else.

I don't think it's unconscionable to expect a principal dancer to debut in SB and SL during the same season. After all, Hee Seo does not perform lead roles in a number of the ballets that ABT presented this season, such as DonQ , Sylvia and Corsaire. She already knew her roles in Eugene Onegin and R&J from prior seasons, so it does not seem like an unduly excessive burden. The NY Post review of her SB was much kinder to her SB debut than a lot of the comments I've read here.

If Zakharova dropped out because she was angry she didn't get first cast, then she is clearly a very petty individual.

Let me add my voice to the chorus of praise for Sarah Lane. She was gorgeous. I'm so happy for her. Simkin was especially wonderful in his solos. There were some partnering issues,but no disasters. Stella was luminous. McKenzie should be hanging his head in shame for failing to recognzie the talents of Lane and Abrera. I saw Kochetkov/Cornejo in the evenng. Her Rose Adagio was competent and professional, but not breathtaking on any level. I thought she did better in the later acts. However, if her presence gave our wonderful Herman a chance to perform Desire, I guess I cannot object too much. Herman was extraordinary. Kajiya is miscast as Lilac (much too short). I also saw Monday night's performance. Aurora is one of Paloma's best roles. She was lovely, and Marcelo was magnificent (of course).

I also find Manon to be dreary with generally uninteresting choreography. However, I would see Vishneva in it is revived at ABT.

There have been a number of clunkers that never returned. Parson's The Pied Piper, the Snow Maiden, HereAfter (or AfterHere, depending on which night you saw it), Anastasia. I hated Taming and would not see it again if they brought it back.

You and at least half the patrons in the audience.

Do the Cranko stagers really have so much power that they can dictate who dances on which night? Seems like unwelcome micromanagement.

Wow, not one mixed rep program? No Ratmansky triology? I'm getting kind of tired of Don Q. As always, thanks mussel.

Since Hallberg knows Onegin, I wonder if he will be cast.

Since Orion is supposed to be a powerful and coarse bad guy, I thought Vasiiev's approach worked well for this role. In fact, I much preferred it to the more classical approaches to Orion that were delivered by Stearns and Matthews. When Orion is done in a "balletic" style, it wipes out the contrast between the choreography for Aminta and Orion. And the costume did disguise Vasiliev's thick thighs.

I thought Matthews (Aminta) had a very elegant and pure line and partnered well. However, his jumps and spins are not as explosive as either Gomes or the gravity-defying Cornejo.

Stearns replaced by Radetsky as Orion in tomorrow's Sylvia matinee.

I've seen all of the Sylvia performances this week except the Wed matinee. Last night I thought Vasiliev hit a home run as Orion. His jumps and spins were unbelievably high and difficult- far exceeding the technical level of anyone else who did the role this week at ABT. Vasiliev nearly touched the back of his head with his foot in one of the leaps. Amazing. In addition, he fully inhabited the character he was portraying. He was creepy and frightening in his facial expressions. I thought it was a triumph. (He would also be perfect as the evil character in Raymonda, if ABT ever decides to revive it.) Herman Cornejo was the most brilliant of the Amintas this week in terms of his solo work. He was simply breathtaking and perfect in every jump, leap and spin. His partnering was generally fine, but there were errors. One lift in the pdd near the end of the ballet looked very awkward. He also arrived a second too late to grab Xiomara's hand when she came out of a spin, resulting in her comimg off pointe briefly when she shoud have been on pointe. Of all the Syvia's I saw, Murphy was the best. I enjoyed her bold attack and athleticism, which perfectly suit the role and the choreography. Semionova was gorgeous too, but more demure somehow. Semionova was my favorite ballerina in the seduction of Orion scene. Herrera seemed underpowered for the entire evening. Reyes did well, especially considering that she was thrown into this at the last minute. However, I don't think Syliva is the best fit for her. Special mention for the gorgeous dancing of Simkin as Eros. The performances this week have been sparsely attended, except for last night. I think many people bought tickets to see Osipova and were disappointed by her absence.

Why isn't there any show on Oct 31? Strange.

And the casting changes continue .... Gomes is replaced by Jared Matthews in the Sat matinee of Sylvia. Stearns is replaced by Gomes in the Monday SB (w. Herrrera) Stearns is replaced by Whiteside in the Friday SB (w. Murphy)

I'm not sure if guesting is a feather in the cap or a gigantic paycheck in the bank. Probably a little of both.

I'm hoping for Polina and Marcelo in T&V.