abatt

Got an email from NYCB re company updates. In addition to Fahoury and Anderson, corps member Clara Miller has left the company. I didn't realize the company is touring to Madrid this month, doing Serenade, Square Dance and the Times Are Racing.

No Aran Bell in any of this casting. No Boylston. No Murphy. There is a rapid succession in which the same casts appear repeatedly, Indeed, Herman is scheduled to appear multiple times over the course of a week. I'm getting the feeling that this choreography isn't terribly taxing or difficult.

Program change for the Spring Season George Balanchine's Raymonda Variations will be performed in place of Jerome Robbins' Brandenburg on the spring's formerly named Masters at Work: Balanchine & Robbins I program, which is now titled All Balanchine. This update applies to the following performances: Tue, April 18 at 7:30 PM Wed, April 19 at 7:30 PM Thu, April 20 at 7:30 PM Sat, April 22 at 2 PM Sat, April 22 at 8 PM Wed, April 26 at 7:30 PM Fri, May 5 at 8 PM Jerome Robbins' Brandenburg will now be performed on the spring's Masters at Work: Balanchine & Robbins III program on the following dates: Wed, May 10 at 7:30 PM Tue, May 23 at 7:30 PM Sat, May 27 at 2 PM Sat, May 27 at 8 PM

Exactly. If you are going to finally give a review of this company, why are you wasting precious space in the article rehashing the same information about Martins that has already been published in this paper a million times.

Here is a review of Sleeping Beauty by Gia K. in the NY Times. She seems to have a vendetta against Peter Martins. She apparently doesn't think he should even be permitted to sit in the audience at the Koch. Really? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/27/arts/dance/sleeping-beauty-new-york-city-ballet.html

Apr 17 is probably also the beginning of the subscriber priority exchange/purchase period.

I think Miller and Kikta must be disappointed.

Roman Mejia was replaced in the Saturday Matinee. He was replaced by Coll in the Gold role. Anyone know why. By the way , I saw the Sat matinee and I'm pretty sure that Coll was doing the modified version of Gold that Davide Riccardo did the other night. I also noticed that in the final sequence of her variation in the Wedding section, our Lilac fairy Gerrity omitted the final step where she has to spin and go down to one knee. That particular step has been a problem for a lot of the Lilacs, but she performed it well during her debut last week. Since the motif of the Lilac and the fairies going down to one knee is a motif in the ballet's choreography, I found that change a bit disappointing, I don't know if it was planned or it was a performance error.

Yes, Dutton O'Hara is lovely. I think she has a lot of potential. Even though LaFreniere was the least successful of the Aurora casts, I still enjoyed the performance. She did poorly with the balances, particularly the first set. Perhaps the most irritating thing for me was that she had the plastered on smile throughout. No mystery or spirituality in the Vision scene. (None of the NYCB ballerinas excel at this. ABT's dancers are much better at conveying this distinction, particularly Part and Hee Seo). I thought Freniere did nicely in the wedding scene. The fish dives did look strange, but that was not Freniere's fault. Walker waits until she has completely stopped turning to begin the process of using his left arm to begin executing the fish dive to position his ballerina. As Tiler Peck explained in a video that was linked somewhere in this thread, the best results come when the man starts putting his ballerina into fish dive position while she is still spinning. I thought Walker haf some wonderful moments, but he also fudged some of the steps and finishes in the wedding scene. Since he was a short notice replacement for Desire, I'm happy to cut the guy some slack. I thought Kikta was very secure in the Lilac footwork, although she could certainly benefit from more refinement in her arms. And I really like Takahashi, but he need improvement in partnering skills. Now that I have seen each cast, I believe Joe Gordon was the best of the Desires. Megan Fairchild is like a fine wine that has improved with age. She was a wonderful Aurora. Gerrity was a stunning Lilac. I also thought Laracey was terrific, with the most beautiful upper body/arm movements, but she doesn't have technical brilliance in the footwork. This run has sold like gangbusters. I hope they revive it again soon, and hope that Emma V.E. gets a shot at Aurora.

Yes, I noticed this too. I'm wondering if either one will retire this season.

yes, I noticed this too. The variation that Davide Riccardo did was easier than what the other men did in Gold. He was beautiful, but it was clearly a "dumbed down' version of the usual choreography.

Misty's partner of choice is usually Cornejo, although I think she was scheduled to dance R&J with Royal before the pandemic. How much longer do we think Cornejo can hang on as a principal? I can't even imagine how Misty could dance Giselle in 2024 after having been off the stage for this many years.

Martins used to promote people en masse during the latter portion of a two week run of SB or SL. I hope the current leadership follows that pattern, although time is running out.

Gerrity does all principal work, and does it well. This has been the case for a substantial period of time. It's time to give her the promotion she has earned.

I think Baily Jones is well liked by management. She gets a lot of opportunities. I'm guessing she will be promoted. I think India Bradley was also a contender for promotion, but her injury may put a potential promotion on hold. A lot of current soloists will likely shortly be promoted, and others appear to be on track to (forced) retirement.

The Marston one act is Summer and Smoke, which will premiere at Houston Ballet next month.

Wow. Interesting. Thanks.

Gordon's fish dives with Fairchild were flawless on Wednesday.

I like the Jewels section and hope they keep it going forward. It gives more dancers the opportunity to shine.

I saw yesterday's matinee. The weakest link was definitely Veyette, not Phelan. Veyette made numerous errors in his solo work in the wedding scene. This classical choreography seemed to be completely beyond his current level of ability. Phelan was shaking a lot during both sets of balances in the Rose Adagio. She had to immediately grab the next guy's hand to stay upright. She never came off pointe, but the balance sections were very precarious. The rest of her work was wonderful throughout the performance. The only other issue she had was during the wedding scene, when she has to do some spins across the diagonal of the stage. Spinning is her kryptonite. On the final spin she lost control and stumbled a bit. There was a major mishap on the first fish dive. I thought Phelan might end up being dropped, but somehow Veyette managed to reposition her body to fix the problem. Mejia was fantastic in his Gold debut. So was Nadon as Diamond, but she was clearly too tall for Mejuia. The Jewels section was well performed by everyone. So far my favorite Diamond has been Kikta. Looking forward to her Lilac. Miller got through her Lilac variations in the Christening, but the effort was visible. In her final steps in her wedding solo, she lost control and made obvious mistakes. In my opinion, she has the weakest technique of all the ladies who are realistically in the mix for promotion at the moment.

I thought of the three casts I've seen Woodward was the most robust Aurora of the Rose Adagio. However, she lacks grandeur. It's a difficult role because not too many ballerinas can successfully navigate the entire role. I also notice that something was amiss in the placement of the fish dives that Huxley and Woodward performed, but I can't figure out exactly why. Certainly no disasters, though. I thought Huxley did pretty well with the technical demands, except toward the end of the wedding pas he started to have problems in his solo. More problematic was that he is completely wooden actor. Woodward had a hilarious blooper in which her leg somehow became entangled in Janzen's cape in the Rose Adagio. I liked Tiler Peck on Thursday. Her musicality was quite wonderful. Kudos to Chan, who is both technically terrific and a wonderful partner. I enjoyed Gerrity's performance, but so far my favorite Lilac is Laracey. The way Laracey used her upper body, arms and hands were exquisite. Laracey exudes goodness and benevolence, and has the perfect temperament for the role. In contrast, all of the things that make Nadon great at Tall Girl in Rubies and in SVC make her an imperfect interpreter of Lilac. She has an urbane sophistication which does not work for this role. Of the three Lilacs, as far as I could tell Gerrity was the only one who danced the steps flawlessly. I liked LeCrone as Carabosse. She reminded me of the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz. Harrison Coll was out of his depth in Gold. It reminded me of the bad old days when Chase Finlay tried to fake his way through the Gold variation. So it appears that the only tall person available who can actually dance Gold right now is Peter Walker. Roman takes on the role this afternoon, and I'm sure he will be wonderful. However, they need more tall men to take on important roles, ASAP. What a shame to see Ball and Janzen wander around the stage as suitors in the Rose Adagio section but unable to dance the difficult, important roles in this ballet. Laine Habony looks out of shape. Added - Loved Emma and Roman in Bluebird. I thought Emma's footwork was much more clearly articulated than Adams' as Florine.

Very much agree with this post about the quality of the dancing last night. Fairchild is ageless. A wonderful performance. And this is exactly the type of pure classical role in which Gordon excels. I find him less convincing in neo classical works like SVC, but in this he was superb. Fish dives - NO PROBLEM. Every one was perfect. I liked Nadon's dancing, but she needs to lighten up and be more joyful. Maybe she was nervous, but she seemed a bit too cold for this role. Erica and Danny were terrific in Bluebird. A joyful evening. The place was packed. And Maria K was a delicious Carabosse.

You know your dancers!. They were Abreu, David Gabriel, Melnikov. Lars Nelson, Davide Riccardo and an apprentice - Owen Flacker.

They are certainly SAB students in Sleeping Beauty, which I saw this evening. My program actually lists by name the SAB students who appeared in the Garland Dance. Darci Kistler, Peter's wife, worked as an instructor at SAB. I suspect she may have also informed Peter about student performance abilities in addition to Kay Mazzo and other instructors. Even if Peter wasn't teaching SAB classes, I have no doubt he was getting reports from numerous instructors about particular students at SAB.

I haven't seen the current casts for Fancy Free. I skipped that program. But for me it will be pretty hard to surpass the performances of Tiler Peck and Damian Woetzel in the romantic pas in the bar. Woetzel was a great in the rhumba solo. I also have such vivid memories of ABT's performances, in which the three sailors were Carreno (perfection as rhumba guy), Steifel and Corella. (I never liked any of the women at ABT who performed in Fancy.)