abatt

I also thought Tiler Peck was not at her absolute best last night. (Has she done this role in Vail? With Cornejo?) She certainly was good, but I was hoping for more. Maybe she needs to settle into the role and into her partnership with Huxley. The performance last night that did put a huge smile on my face was the brilliance, energy and verve of Sara Mearns in Mozartiana. It was pure joy to behold. I didn't stay for La Valse. The Third and Fourth rings were empty. The first and second rings had substantial numbers of unsold seats. People, it seems, are not venturing out to the theater. It was depressing to think that this All Balanchine program doesn't sell.

MJ The Musical opened last night. Here is the NY Times review. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/01/theater/mj-musical-review.html

This is perfect casting for the male lead. However, I'm having trouble imagining him dancing with Hyltin. He should be partnered with Peck.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/28/arts/dance/review-justin-peck-partita-new-york-city-ballet.html Review of last night's performance. I largely missed the Peck work due to a homeless man who decided to go for a stroll on the subway tracks, grinding all trains to a halt on my subway line. Cunningham's Summerspace was well done, but not my cup of tea. Veyette was replaced by Villani Velez. I absolutely LOVED the cast of DGV. Every one of the lead dancers crackled with energy and electricity. My only quibble was that Furlan was not entirely secure in his partnering of LaFreniere in the big overhead lifts. The program noted that Bradley and Ricardo are indeed the Janice Levin winners.

Week 3 casting https://res.cloudinary.com/new-york-city-ballet/image/upload/v1643317316/Documents/Calendars/NYCB-Casting_February-8-13-2022_lobby

I don't recall her being cast in a lot of new roles in Balanchine & Robbins ballets in the Fall. Unity got many, many debuts in the Fall before her promotion. I guess we'll see what roles they give her going forward. Right now I see her listed for Summerspace, Moves and DGV. I hope she gets a debut in a classical role like Swan Lake.

Just speculating, but who do we think will be our next female principal. I used to think Gerrity had a chance, but they do not seem to be using her in the essential roles of the rep.

She is going to manage her husband's art gallery in Lower Manhattan. Quite a shocker.

Laracey never danced the lead in La Valse. She was one of the three tall girls who dance in the first act (the fates).

I think the oldest person to be promoted from soloist to principal was Krohn. As a practical matter, if the company is investing time, money and effort to teach leading roles to new principals in rep that is revived every few years, they must prefer to have confidence that the person will be around for a period of time to perform the roles. When you are talking about dancers in their mid or late 30s taking on new lead roles, the likelihood that those dancers will continue to perform those roles over the course of several revivals over the years is diminished. That's why I think after a certain age the likelihood of promotion to principal diminishes. While Whelan stayed for a really long time, she was a star dancer for several decades and had the ability to write her own story, to an extent, regarding when and how she would retire. Ditto Maria K. I think the time may have passed for Laracey. They are putting her in oddity roles in ballets that are infrequently revived, like the Unanswered Question and Summerspace. .

This year's Ladies Figure Skating Championship is going to be off the charts in terms of technical content. Quads, quads and more quads. Just think that only four years ago at the Olympics NONE of the women even attempted a quad. And for the Men's Figure Skating, do we think Hanyu will attempt the quad axel? He tried it at Japanese Nationals but he two-footed the landing, and it may also have been under-rotated.

Margaret Tracey was promoted to principal, but her sister Kathleen only made it to soloist. Kathleen is now a ballet mistress at NYCB.

Contract renewals are coming up very soon. It's possible that some soloist contracts simply will not be renewed. Congrats to all the new soloists. The one I find a bit surprising is Miriam Miller. I think she has a lot of potential, but she seems to have stalled since Peter Martins left.

I was surprised and disappointed that the US did not name Ilia Malinin to the men's team for figure skating. He deserved to go instead of either Brown or Zhou.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/20/arts/dance/north-carolina-school-of-the-arts-lawsuit.html A lawsuit has been filed against the NCSA alleging physical, sexual and emotional abuse of students.

I just got the ABT brochure. Previously, only the orchestra had multiple price levels. Now they are showing multiple price levels for all other sections of the house (i.e., front Grand Tier; Rear Grand Tier and so on). I'm not finding any info regarding where the demarcations between "front" and "rear" are for each section. Added: Question answered. The ABT website has the seating maps showing where Front and Rear are for each section.

Certain people who were getting commissions under Martins are not getting commissions anymore, such as Lovette and Troy Schumacher. They are increasingly going to choreographers who are established in modern dance circles but who have no foundation in ballet. I had heard that Martins had control over the lead casting in his SL even after his departure, and I guess Lauren now confirms that info.

Did the ABT brochures have any notation when Murphy was out on maternity leave. I don't recall, but I don't think they did. In fact, I don't even recall whether her picture remained in the brochure for the season Murphy missed due to maternity leave.

Who is he rehearsing with in that photo? I can't identify the ballerina.

Shocked by this news. I never would have anticipated that she was interested in moving to the US. So who will take over at ENB? Alina Cojocaru!?

Troy Schumacher has also been missing from the stage for a substantial period of time. I think some tough decisions have to me made by management about certain long term corps and soloists dancers who will not be advancing.

Yes to Joe Gordon in anything. I found Tyler Angle's baldness distracting in Symphony in C, but not at all distracting in DGV pas with Maria at her farewell or in Slaughter.

I think they will continue to cast Tyler Angle in his usual roles even though his abilities are diminished. They did the same thing with Veyette. Mejia would be great for the smaller male role. I would also love to see Mejia in Black Swan pdd and in Tschai pas.

I would love to see Laracey get one of the Balanchine one act Swan Lake performances.

Phelan?