abatt

No. ABT shared the production with Royal Danish.

I was referencing Bouder, who has publicly complained that Ratmansky "body shamed" her.

NYCB has been hiring a lot of modern dance choreographers who have limited knowledge and understanding of ballet. In my opinion many of those works have been unsuccessful and not worth NYCB's expenditure of resources. Even if you don't care for some of Ratmansky's works, at least they will utilize the ballet idiom in a sophisticated manner. I think Ratmansky was being rather diplomatic in explaining his departure from ABT. As an example, when ABT presented a second cast of his The Seasons in the Fall at the Koch, there was one ballerina who had a difficult role and was obviously out of her depth in performing the very difficult choreography. Ratmansky will not encounter such issues at NYCB ,where the depth of talent at every level is astonishing. The company has a seemingly endless pipeline of remarkable talent right now. It makes complete sense that he would sign on with NYCB. I can think of at least one NYCB dancer who is not celebrating the hiring of Ratmansky for the next 5 years.

thanks! I think working with Ratmansky on Giselle will greatly improve Shevchenko's understanding and performance of the role. Looking forward to seeing her performance in Washington.

Is Justin Peck also an Artist in Residence? added- I just found a recent playbill and Peck is listed as "Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor" So do Peck and Ratmansky have equal status as resident choreographers?

Yes, that is what I was thinking too.

I had not focused on this before, but I guess NYCB's 75th Anniversary is coming up. I hope they have lots of Balanchine and Robbins planned.

Yes, he did. Peter Marins offered him the position before ABT, but as I recall he did not want to commit the amount of time that Martins was requiring.

Wow. Take that ABT! Good for NYCB!

I thought I heard Jaffe say that McKenzie had commissioned Cathy Marston for Summer and Smoke, which is a coproduction with Houston Ballet. Houston will premiere it in March 2023.

Me too. No Furlan in week one?

Casting is available for week one. Woodward and Gordon will debut in Donizetti. Whoo hoo. Perfect casting. She's a bit short for Gordon, but it will work out. NYCB_Casting_January_17-22_2023.pdf (cloudinary.com)

It's to make up for the fact that there is no performance on Tues Feb 14. It must take an entire day to load the scenery for SB. In fact, for as long as I can recall for SB and for the Martins SL they have to skip the Tuesday show and they add a 7PM Sunday show.

On SB casting, I think Megan Fairchild is dancing at the height of her powers right now, so I think she could probably still present a very wonderful Aurora. I'm less sure about Tiler Peck, but I think she will dance at a high level. Possibly the most authentic performance will be Woodward, because she is younger and has such great technique. I'm guessing that additional Auroras will be Phelan and Emma Von Enck. A lot will also depend on Desire. I think we will definitely see Huxley, Chan and Furlan as Desiree. I'm not sure Janzen will be case because he is just working his way back from injury. Ball seems be on a modified work schedule, with limited casting (due to lingering injury?). I can't imagine that Tyler Angle can get through this role at this point in his career, but it's possible. Interestingly, years ago Harrison Coll was cast in major roles, but his star seems to have fallen at the company. I'm rooting for a Mejia Desire.

Woodward is a more brilliant technician, and Phelan is a lyrical dancer with weaker technical abilities. Woodward has been excellent in creating characters. I thought her performances in La Sylphide and Sleeping Beauty were very good. I hope they give Woodward Coppelia during the next cycle when it is revived.

I attended the final Nutcracker yesterday. My main motivation was to see Roman Mejia. He was dazzling. We frequently talk about promotions for the ladies, but in my opinion Mejia has proven himself as deserving of elevation. His technical brilliance is undeniable. His partnering has improved a great deal. I hope to see him as a new Prince Desire this season. I had never seen Tiler Peck as Sugarplum before. Her musicality, stage presence and technique remain magical. However, this role exposes to a high degree that she can no longer raise her leg into a full arabesque position. Phelan was Dewdrop. A terrific performance except for when she had to spin. Turning is her kryptonite. I've seen her also come to grief because of fouettes in other roles like Symphony in C. She got through the few fouettes required in Dewdrop, but they were sloppy and traveling. Emma Von Enck was a treasure as Marzipan. I can't wait to see what other roles she will be assigned going forward. Happy New Year to all! May 2023 be filled with health, happiness and lots of ballet.

Best Party Looks of 2022 - The New York Times (nytimes.com) NYCB's Gilbert Bolden made the NY Times Best Party Looks of 2022 list, for his outfit for the fall fashion gala. Photo contained in the link.

Forgot to add that I was very impressed by Cainan Weber as Tea in last night's Nutcracker. I hadn't really noticed him before.

I attended tonight's performance. I have not been to Nutcracker in many years. Megan Fairchild as Dewdrop pretty much stole the show. She dances with authority, technical brilliance and joy that radiates out to every person in the theater. A sensational performance. Laracey was very good as SPF. She has long, beautiful limbs which work perfectly in this role. She had difficulty with a pirouette (came off pointe too soon), but other than that she did pretty well in the roleRussell Janzen made his long awaited return to the stage. He looks in great shape. There isn't an ounce of extra weight on his frame. As always, he was an elegant and gallant partner. However, I thought his solos were slow and cautious. It's going to take some time for him to work his way back after missing so much time.

I'm not sure if this will help, but try it. I'm a subscriber and when I logged in and tried to buy Nut tickets, it showed me almost no seats except ADA. I logged out and looked for Nut tickets and suddenly there were plenty of seats available on the seat map. I only logged in when it was time for checkout, and the seats were already in my cart. This was about two weeks ago. I have no idea why their computer software would operate in this way, but that was my experience. See if that helps.

I'm quite certain that Miami has exclusive rights to North American performances of the Ratmansky SL for a few years. I wish they would bring it to NY as I was not able to see it in Florida last season.

Whereas I would always show up for a new Ratmansky, Wheeldon or Tharp work, I rarely show up anymore for new works that ABT presents by other choreographers. There are a seemingly vast supply of very bad choreographers out there. Best of luck ABT. You are going to need it. Jaffe should acquire rights to Ratmansky's Swan Lake and his reconstruction of Giselle for a future season.

ABT desperately needs star dancers who can attract an audience. Attendance is now so poor that they have reduced their Met schedule to 4 1/2 weeks. People are not coming to the theater much to see the majority of the home team players. I know there was a huge backlash against international guests in favor of home grown dancers, but that plan doesn't seem to be working out very well at the box office. With a few notable exceptions, ABT is now a shadow of its former greatness. Most entertainment has returned to full capacity, so we can no longer blame the pandemic for the lack of box office for ABT and the substantial reduction in its Met season.

Ratmansky's position as Artist in Residence was funded largely from funds supplied by David Koch. Now that Koch is gone, I have to wonder what role, if any, financial considerations may have played in this outcome. Of course, Ratmansky is in demand all over Europe and America, so he is not lacking in commissions.

Ratmansky owns the rights to his works. ABT will have to pay him for the rights to perform a particular work. This is not a change from any prior arrangement. The difference is that he is not contractually obligated to create a new work each season for ABT,