abatt

According to the Times, the union, AGMA, has moved to block MOVES on the ground that it violates the dancers' labor contract.

That's where the film reminded me of Kirkland's book... The director has mentioned in interviews that he read many books to prepare for writing the script. I think I recall him mentioning in one interview that he read Kirkland's book. By the way, Natalie gave a tearful thank you speech at an awards show recently in which she thanked Ben Millepied, her partner in the film and, "now in life." She also mentioned in an interview w. Access Hollywood that the director gave her the greatest gift by introducing her to Ben.

ABT has added some casting info on its website. Part's partner for SL is Cory. Bolle is partnering Paloma in Giselle. I'm not too happy about the Stearns partnership with Part for SL. I was hoping it would be Bolle. Also, Reyes will be partnered by Radetsky in Cinderella.

My problem with the movie is that it was so campy, but had pretentions of being a serious movie.

The official casting is now up on the NYCB website

I think Morphoses used to be a regular source of additional income for some NYCB dancers. Now that Morphoses (in its original incarnation) is finished, "Moves" seems like a great alternative for them to dance more weeks and earn additional money.

That may be true, but now that we have come to expect it, we are disappointed when it is not provided. ABT has been known during the last decade for the caliber of its men. When I want to see stellar female dancing, I often go across the plaza to see the NYCB ladies. Except for their guest artists (I include Vishneva in the guest artist category), many of the ladies at ABT on the principal level are, in my opinion, a disappointment.

I agree with you that he is not at the same level as the other principals, but at the same time it would arguably be unfair to him to continue assigning him so many lead roles every season without a promotion. Also, ABT's principal ranks among the males is getting old, as we have discussed on this board. Indeed, many of their principals only show up for the MET season. It is probably easier to sell tickets to out of town engagements when you are presenting principals in principal roles, instead of soloists and corps members. I'm hoping that Cory continues to develop and improve. Frankly, I was not a big Hallberg fan when he was a soloist, but he has worked his butt off to improve and become the incredible dancer that he is today. However, I think Hallberg's weaknesses were more amenable to improvement than Cory's. Hallberg's primary weakness when he was a soloist was his partnering skills. I think partnering improves with experience and age. In my opinion, Cory's weaknesses are technical - jumps and spins that are adequate, but not what we have come to expect of ABT males. I'm not sure that those technical issues can be addressed easily at this stage.

The Associated Press is reporting that Peter Martins was charged with DWI at 2 AM on New Year's Day at a checkpoint in Yonkers, New York. The AP also reports that Martins issued a statement through a spokesperson stating that he will not discuss the matter.

Hi abatt, Nunez is a technical monster, a real standout dancer and slowly becoming the RB's go-to girl, she's always worth the price of admission. At the start she was often cast as the soubrette, or secondary non dramatic principal. She's without doubt one of the top technicians in the world. She came to prominence at the same time as Cojocaru, and fell under her shadow after Cojocaru's starmaking rise to fame after the two Giselles in 2001. Cojocaru got the meaty roles, Nunez got the show off demi caractere roles which was a pity as Nunez is a very credible, striking dramatic dancer too, she's been coming into her own of late and getting those big meaty principal parts, she definitely worth seeing. Pennefather is pretty dreggy. A political promotion to Principal to counter the non-British principals at the RB complaints. Very bland, technically patchy, but tall and good looking but so what? He's paired with Nunez a lot he's the Hardy to her Laurel, the Marge to her Homer, the Scully to her Mulder, the Kate Jackson to her Farrah Fawcett, the Tonto to her Lone Ranger and the Richie to her Fonzie. But Nunez is worth the price of admission alone. Thanks Simon.

I'm not familiar with Nunez & Pennefeather. For those in the know, will they give a great performance?

In the Dec. 31 edition of the NY Times, each of the cultural critics was asked to write about the event in 2011 he is most looking forward to. Macaulay wrote that he is looking forward to seeing Ms. Mearns take on new roles. He calls her the great American ballerina of our era. No argument from me on that one. What new roles are we looking forward to seeing her in? If I were in charge of casting, my choices would be the girl in pink in Dances at a Gathering, Mozartiana, the lead in Apollo, and the final section of the Vienna Waltzes. I missed her last year in Cortege Hongrois, so I hope I can see her in the role this season. Any thoughts? Is Sara the great American ballerina of our era?

I missed the Sunday evening performance due to the blizzard. Since my tickets were in the orchestra, this was a considerable loss. Despite the massive snow storm and the 40 mph winds on Sunday evening, ABT has taken the Draconian position that there are no exchanges of any type. I have been a subscriber at BAM for a long time, and after a huge snowstorm they allowed all ticketholders to exchange their tickets into another performance. (BAM's website clearly indicates that the no exchange policy is ABT's policy, not BAM's policy.) At the MET Opera approximately 6 years ago, they allowed ticketholders to exchange into certain unpopular, undersold operas if they had to miss a performance because of a huge snowstorm that year. After a huge snowstorm in February 2010, the New York City ballet allowed ticketholders to mail in their tickets with a list of three dates for spring 2010 rep performances, and they permitted an exchange into one of the dates if available. In sum, ABT is the only organization which has acted, in my opinion, in a completely unreasonable manner on this issue. I think they will find that their customer service (or lack thereof) will hurt them in the long run. It's shortsighted. They could have easily permitted people who could not attend because of the blizzard to send in their tickets to ABT and provide a list of 3 dates for an exchange into a spring performance at the MET. Additionally, given the huge number of unsold seats at the Nutcracker, they could have allowed a standby line for ticketholders on other performance dates. Instead, they chose the most inflexible route. Of course, I know they have no obligation to provide assistance.

As someone who was recently priced out of Fort Greene, it isn't like the area is exactly the ghetto. I guess from what you say it isn't attracting wealthy people from Manhattan or the suburbs, although other factors such as the need to build an audience for something new, the fact that a good portion of the run is happening after Christmas (which I do think harms a ballet that people associate so strongly with the holiday) might also be at play here. But you have brownstones going for over 2 million a few blocks from BAM (and it was an area with no real price drop during the recession) and fantastic restaurants like No. 7 greene, so let's not extend the impression, if indeed it exists, that the area is poor. I have no problem with Fort Greene. I've been going to BAM for 15 years. However, I think there are many people who still have preconceived negative notions about the neighborhood which may no longer be applicable. Seemingly all of Brooklyn has undergone "gentrification". Also, if you're a family looking for a day of fun, the logistics of going from BAM to Manhattan to view the X-Mas tree, the Macy's windows, FAO toy store or other Manhattan attractions may not be terribly appealing.

The Ratmansky Nutcracker is filled with High Concept Ideas. However, the choreograpny is frequently at odds with the music. I have to agree about the Snowflake misfire. It wasn't so much that making them scary was a problem. For me, the real problem is that the music they are dancing to cries out for a whirlwind of expanisve dancing. Instead, the ladies are doing small jumps in place, and they are frequently stretched out on the floor. Judging by the large numbers of empty seats in the orchestra and mez that I have seen in the online select your own tickets system, and have also observed at the theater, it would appear that ABT has grossly miscalculated its pricing structure. Wealthy suburban families are not flocking to Fort Greene. ABT must have spent a fortune on advertising, but it did not seem to matter.

I saw Paloma and Cory last night. They were not nearly as thrilling as Murphy and Hallberg. Their first act pdd looked very careful and labored. They both looked better in the grand pas in the second act. However, Cory's jumps are relatively low to the ground, and he doesn't have the beautiful line of David Hallberg. The first lift in the grand pas was shaky. The other lifts were smoother. I liked Paloma in this role, but she was not as thrilling as Murphy. There were acres of empty seats in the orchestra.

Millipied hardly ever dances with the company anymore. He missed the Fall 2010 and Nutcracker 2010 seasons entirely. He was cast in two ballets during the Spring 2010 season, and the NY Times correctly noted that he lacked stamina in one of those performances. Will we see him during the Winter 2011 season on stage? Who knows.

I saw the film this weekend. I thought it was absurd. If this is one of the best films of the year, then it must have been a really awful year for films. The worst part is that people who don't go to the ballet might get the incorrect impression that this film is actually representative of what they would see on stage. Mostly a lot of flapping arms and menacing facial expressions. Is Millipied returning to NYCB in the foreseeable future?

It's been kicked-up a notch to Yahoo News: http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.ap.org/natalie-portman-wed-black-swan-choreographer-ap Will the wedding be before or after the Oscars, I wonder? Congrats to the beautiful couple - and they truly are that. I was wondering if the wedding will be before or after the baby is born.

I attended tonight's premiere. Kevin McKenzie gave a curtain speech thanking all the donors, but particularly David Koch. McKenzie announced that the company was giving Koch a gift of a Nutcracker drawing. He proceeded to introduce Koch. Koch stated, "Thank you, Peter" Gasps and groans were heard throughout the audience. It took Koch a moment to realize his error. Koch then stated that he would put the drawing next to a drawing he has of Peter and the Wolf. (I think this may have been a cover to convey to the audience that he was thinking of Peter and the Wolf, not Peter Martins, when he mis-spoke.) When Koch was introduced, there was very modest clapping, and at least one hiss. On to the ballet. I thought the costumes and sets were marvelous, except that the X-Mas tree was disappointing. Gillian and David were breathtaking, and the choreography for their variations was first rate.Gillian was so light on her feet. David was a wonderful partner and handled the allegro steps in his solo with ease and precision. I loved the opening scene in the kitchen. Tonights kid leads were Catherine Hurlin and Tyler Maloney. Both were very good. I have to agree with the posts above about the child tantrum scenes in the first act. I see this behavior every morning on the subway. I would have preferred to have been transported to a world where social grace and cordial behavior among youngsters was the governing behavior. Oh well. I also thought the variations for Chinese (Lane, Simkin) was very clever and well done. However, overall I felt that much of the choreography was disappointing. I think this may have been in part due to the relatively small stage space. For example, in the snow scene, the snowflake corps of dancers should float through the air. However, possibly due to the stage constraints, most of their choreography was very contained and simplistic. I also thought that the choreography for the flowers and bees suffered from the same problem. Too many people on stage, but not much room to move around. The Spanish dance was pretty standard stuff. Sascha was the Arabian Dancer tonight. I thought the music called out for more sensual, sinuous choreography. I was very disapponted with the Russian dance (Ilyan, Salstein, Scott). It was comical in a Three Stooges sense, but it was a wasted opportunity for some great choreography. I didn't care for the costumes of the Nutcracker's Sisters (Boylton, Hamrick, Kajiya, Messmer, Underwood). More importantly, once again I felt like their choreography was too simplistic and a bit dull. Every dance critic was present. I saw Mark Morris in the audience. All of the major donors were there, as well as numerous company members. (I saw Stella, Ethan, Kent with her adorable little boy, Max, and Irina in the audience). Irina, once again, wins for best dressed. She was wearing a gorgeous burgundy form fitting silk dress which went to the knee, with puffy short sleeves and matching burgundy heels. Her closet must be a treasure. In sum, I had a good time, but I found that overall I was frequently bored because I felt that the choreograpny was often too simplistic and contained for this caliber of a company. I'm sure Peter -- I mean Kevin -- doesn't mind being called by an incorrect name as long as Koch keeps writing big checks to ABT.

I'm curious as to how well the tickets sold. Was the theater full?

At what point do you think McKenzie realized he was wearing sweats? Clearly, when he goes for the vial of poison he is aware.

Thanks for that video of McKenzie in his sweat pants. I laughed out loud. I recall two fun bloopers. One was Stella Abrera at ABT. There was a scene where she has to pull a handkerchief from her cleavage. ( I guess this must have been Othello.). Well, I guess the darn thing must have slipped down her dress because she was endlessly searching her cleavage for it, but it was nowhere to be found. The other fun blooper, also ABT, involved Carmen Corella as Myrta. There is a scene where she has to pull a branch from what looks to be a tree. The branch would not move. She pulled on with all her force, without success. My all time favorite blooper was not at the ballet, but at the opera Aida at the Met. The triumphal march in this staging has a white horse. The horse decided to, um, do its business on stage during the performance. The performance proceeded as the singers studiously avoided the pile and tried not to laugh. Suddenly, a cleanup crew dressed as slave servants in the production comes out with a bucket and other tools to clean the mess up in a jiffy. Ah, those Franco Zeferelli productions with live animals.

Thanks rg. I forgot to set my DVR. It certainly looks like a lovely production.

I saw it on Friday. It was fantastic in every way. The singing was stellar, the orchestra sounded incredible under Rattle's baton. I think there are only 5 performances, since this opera does not sell terribly well.