abatt

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.

I've also had enough Whipped Cream over the last two years. I would only go as a last resort if I needed something to exchange into and didn't have any other option. I guess I should not prejudge, but Jane Eyre looks like a vehicle similar to Onegin and Lady of the Camellias. Not a great deal of technique required.

http://www.playbill.com/article/west-side-story-remake-taps-tony-winning-choreographer-justin-peck

The statute of limitations may have expired on some of the potential claims against Levine.

Good point, On Pointe.

The statement was carefully worded to avoid a direct reference to the firings, resignation and the Waterbury lawsuit. However, I don't think there's any doubt that the statement was the direct result of the firings, resignation and Waterbury lawsuit, and was an implicit reference to these events. I have not seen any info to suggest that there was a vote on the Reichlin statement. We know that it ws written by Reichlin and Adrian D W. Since individuals are not normally given a platform to give speeches from the stage at a special event on topics of their own choosing, I'm comfortable with the assumption that the speech was prompted by, and approved by, management. Added: It's also no coincidence that the text of the speech was distributed to the media for reporting purposes, in order to promulgate favorable news coverage pertaining to the speech. This was done through the NYCB publicity/public relations department.

NYCB's own conduct raises serious questions regarding the legitimacy of the firings. The fact that they initially only suspended them for four months, and a week later fired them, suggests that NYCB itself initially concluded that there was no grounds to fire them. What facts came to light during that one week period that moved them from the relatively minor punishment into the opposite extreme of firing? Was it the feelings of a few dancers? Was it bad publicity from the Waterbury media blitz? Under the circumstances that transpired, the legitimacy of the firings needs to be evaluated by an impartial person like a mutually acceptable arbitrator. The union isn't just going through the motions of doing its job - there are significant issues at stake here. I'm probably in the minority here, but I thought the stunt of having Reichlin read a prepared statement with all the dancers surrounding her on stage was inappropriate. The dancers were being used as pawns by the company (management) to give the company some much needed positive publicity. But that's not their job. Their job is to dance. To the extent that individual dancers feel strongly about what's happening, they can express their feelings on their own social media platforms. Requiring them to be herded on stage in a show of unified support was not appropriate in my opinion. Added: We now know that there is no unified position among the dancers regarding the firings. Some support the terminations; others do not.

Peter Martins must be relieved that he retired and doesn't have deal with all this. The timing worked out well for him.

If NYCB is to believed, the firings were purportedly prompted by the fact that certain female members of the company informed management that they would no longer be comfortable dancing with Catazaro or Ramasar. So there is is a divide within the company, and NYCB decided to fire them instead of leaving the suspension in place pending further investigation. I found it astonishing in the above article that some dancers were upset that their union was challenging the firings. That's the core function of the union - to make sure management deals fairly with employees.

Yes, I believe his warning not to rush to judgment relates to the fact that he was wrongly accused of sexual misconduct. At least in his case, he was able to clear his name and continue to have a major career. I think the damage is already done for the three dancers at issue. Two have already been fired, and the media circus surrounding Waterbury's lawsuit, and orchestrated skillfully by her attorney, has made it look like all defendants, the institutions and the individual defendants, are guilty. Even if Catazaro and Ramasar are cleared, their careers in ballet are probably finished.

I 've seen Boylston's SL twice - once with Gomes, and once with Lendorf. The one with Gomes was more dramatically incisive than the one with Lendorf. No surprise there. Gomes could always improve the performance of his partner by his presence and charisma. As the NY Times wrote about Boylston's SL with Lendorf, it lacked tragic dimension. Boylston's problems with sloppy upper body , neck and arm positions have not really improved much over the years. Since upper body beauty are an integral part of the Odette role, Boylston will never be a great interpreter of this role until she can address these problems. She is more suitable for whiz bang roles with lots of spinning and jumping, like Kitri.

Why does he feel he needs to congratulated for a remark about a dancer? Weird.

I was holding out hope that if they revived Manon, maybe Osipova would come and do one guest performance with Hallberg. But based on Hallberg's statement, I guess we will not be seeing Osipova at ABT this spring.

Perhaps you can exchange the ticket?

Major program change, folks. For the Sat Oct 6 matinee, they have replaced the Ratmansky masterpiece Concerto DSCH with the decidedly NON-masterpiece New Kyle Abraham work. The Concerto DSCH was the main draw on that program. (See updated casting sheet posted today.) I assume this was necessitated by the firings/resignation/injuries. It's having a ripple effect. You can see that the Angle brothers are once again being drafted into additional performances due to lack of available principal men. They still have not figured out yet who will replace Adrian at the DeLuz farewell in Todos Buenos Aires. Oh, and the casting for This Bitter Earth on that same program is changed from Tiler & Tyler to Reichlin and LaCour. Glad I decided to skip the Oct 6 matinee.

I doubt they ever even discussed any settlement figures. NYCB's lawyers most likely advised them that the claims against NYCB were flimsy, and that they should not submit to this shakedown.