abatt

I looked on Misty's twitter page. After a number of people complained on her twitter account that they had bought tickets to see her at ABT but she did not show up, she replied that she was sorry and had a family emergency. She was able to attend some promotional gigs earlier this week for the film Nutcracker and the Four Realms, including appearances on GMA and Live with Kelly and whoever (is it Ryan?).

I completely agree. Although I will probably go see Murphy in Manon out of curiosity, she is not a good fit for the role and she has plenty of other lead role assignments. Surprised that Ferri is not cast in Manon. Is the Ferri comeback tour coming to an end?

I think they should have given Stella either the lead in Manon or the lead in Jane Eyre. They will probably only do Jane Eyre this coming season and the following season and then put it to rest, so there was no reason to contemplate long term future casting with respect to that ballet.

I didn't get to the attachment fast enough. It's now gone.

Well,they are apparently not giving Stella the role of Manon. She is getting the secondary role of Lescaut's mistress. On the plus side, we will at least get Brandt returning as Medora in Corsaire. I guess I will be seeing Seo as Manon, because she is partnered by Bolle in his farewell ballet with the company.

I thought Songs was much more than just competent. Although it's not as good as some of his other works, I thought the choreography was engaging and musical. It showed a much higher level of craft, polish and choreographic skill than than the new Jessica Lang or Dorrance works.

I think there will be many, many disappointed Misty fans if she is replaced.

Murphy and Abrera gave a stunning performance of Symphonie Concertante this afternoon. Hammoudi did well in the partnering, but his solo work was not impressive. Abrera was supposed to dance in the final ballet today as well, Fancy Free, as the woman with the red purse. After a ridiculously long intermission preceding Fancy Free, it was announced that Abrera is injured. Luciana Paris danced in her place. I hope this is not a serious injury.

In LaFreniere's pubic instagram account, she posted “Patience is the calm acceptance that things can happen in a different order than the one you have in your mind.” In the comment section, someone posted "Merde! I heard the exciting news! I am so pumped for you!". Seems like she is not out due to injury or illness.

I don't know whether Seo will be replaced next week. However, I can tell you that when the cast change was announced last night before the performance, a few people actually applauded. I did a silent fist pump at my seat.

I'm happy about the cast change for tonight's Upper Room and looking forward to it. To each his own. Yes, tap and flamenco are both based on percussive footwork. But the mastery is in fast, complex footwork. What most of the ABT dancers were doing looked like a beginner level tap class.

The portions where the ballet corps was banging the stage with poles and stomping their feet was interminable. Also, the section where three ballerinas ran together to various tap dance floor boards placed on the stage and banged their point shoes in unison was just boring. In fairness, some of the ballroom dancing was moderately enjoyable. Here are some photos from the gala. I'm loving the first photo of Stella and Sascha. https://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2018/10/19/style/katie-holmes-ansel-elgort-marc-jacobs-charity-fundraisers.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Farts&action=click&contentCollection=arts&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=sectionfront

I attended last night's performance. Hee Seo was replaced in Symphonie Concertante "due to injury". Shevchenko was the replacement; the other leads were Boylston and Hoven. I can't even imagine Hee keeping up with the fast footwork of this ballet. Shevchenko was gorgeous, and Hoven looked wonderful too. In fact the entire cast was excellent. I could watch this beautiful ballet every week. I have no idea why NYCB doesn't perform it. I enjoyed the live jazz music of the Dorrance work. However, I thought it was mostly an embarrassment for the dancers. I'm a fan of tap, but this was mostly ballet dancers clomping around the stage, sometimes in unison. That's not tap dancing. A waste of talent and time. Fancy Free was a fabulous way to end the evening. Not quite the dream team of the old days (Corella, Carreno and Steifel!!), but certainly excellent performances from all.

Maybe I'm late to the party, but I just noticed, to my great disappointment, that a number of important casting changes have been made since this casting info was published. I specifically bought Oct 26 to See Murphy & Abrera in Symphonie Concertante. Guess what I just discovered on the ABT website- they switched Stella & Gillian into the Oct 21 matinee. Also, Lane & Cornejo's Other Dances performance is on Oct 26 now, not Oct 28. Since I didn't buy my tickets until sometime in late September, these changes must be pretty recent. No refunds or exchanges on these tickets, right. GRRRRRR.

They are bringing it back because it requires little or no additional rehearsal time. The dancers already learned the roles for this past Met season, so they don't need to spend any additional money or time to rehearse it. I have enjoyed some other McGregor works, like Chroma. However, I would not sit through AfterRite again, ever.

I don't think it's the dark subject matter that is turning people off. I love Tudor's Dark Elegies and Jooss' The Green Table. They are modern masterpieces that deal with very dark subjects. I would go in a heartbeat to see those works if they were revived at ABT.

There are a significant number of debuts for many dancers on the Shanghai tour.

The current technology that allows us consumers to see the seating map does not do ABT any favors. I'll bet that a large percentage of the best orchestra seats that are showing as sold are actually house seats reserved for the company or for the press. Unlike at the Met, where every ABT show is part of a subscription, the ABT fall season at the Koch is completely non-subscription. Therefore, they can't even rely on the casual ballet goer who shows up on their subscription date regardless of the program. Ultimately, I'm sure they will "paper" the orchestra. .

It took Rebecca Krohn a very long time to move up to principal. I think it may have been around 13 years, but I can't recall. I missed Laracey's Concerto Barocco performances last spring. I was surprised they didn't give her a single performance of that ballet during the fall season. Note that she is debuting on the tour this week in Shanghai in Stravinsky Violin Concerto.

I think certain NYCB dancers who are cast in full length Petipa ballets and other full length dramatic ballets don't have enough experience in mastering the styles needed for their roles. For example, I've seen problems arise in phrasing, upper body carriage, and arm placement and movement. These issues have been noticeable to me in certain performances of Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and Romeo & Juliet, to name a few. However, some company members excel in mastering other styles and content, such as Sterling Hyltin's wonderful La Sylphide recently.

Some performances have already popped up on TDF, so certain seats showing as sold were actually heavily discounted.

The problem with NYCB is that they commission so many new works each season, but very few deserve a permanent spot in the rep. Nevertheless, NYCB seems to feel that a new work must be shown at least 8 times for them to break even on its cost. The result is that they continue to rotate the new works, whether good or bad, through the rep until the magic number of performances to break even is reached. There have been many wonderful new works created at NYCB, but most are unworthy and do not merit repeated viewings. Given the ever increasing price of tickets, people are less inclined to buy expensive tickets for a program that includes a weak ballet.

Did anyone see Herman Cornejo and Alina Cojocaru at FFD last night? Reports?

Is she related to corps member Olivia MacKinnon?

Most offensive to me is one of the spring programs titled something like Balanchine meets Peck. It shows an arrogance that Peck is somehow worthy of meeting Balanchine. They should stick with the simplicity of Balanchine & Peck.