abatt

I'm not sure everyone is cut out for teaching or coaching simply because they have a strong personal resume. I have no idea whether Part would be considered a good candidate for that type of job. Communication skills and personality factor into the equation.

Right, I agree with your reading. Whelan felt that she made the sacrifice of not having a kid because her first or only loyalty was to NYCB. However, to me that demonstrates a lack of self awareness. Nobody at NYCB ever told her not have a kid, and there are numerous principal women at NYCB who did have kids and then return. Wendy's choice was based on what she wanted to do with her own life, without having the burden or distraction of raising a child.

Whelan also seems to implicitly blame Martins and NYCB for her decision not to have a baby. Really?

That's part of the problem. ABT does already has high quality senior dancers- Murphy and Abrera, who are both approximately either 38 or 39. In addition to the financial issues discussed above, ABT needed some young principal women who are not limited by a history of injuries. Since the principal women roster is always about 8 or 9, they did not need 1/3 of that roster to be comprised of ladies pushing 40. Someone had to go. Murphy still can dance most of the killer roles, although she seems to be injured for a portion of every season. Since Stella was only just recently promoted to principal 2 yrs ago, they were not going to fire her. That left Part. Let's not forget that to put together a season of 8 consecutive weeks of performances, you need a very healthy and robust team of dancers at your disposal. You cannot throw a corps dancer into Nikiya or O.O, the way Martins can throw a corps dancer into a 20 minute rep piece. The principal roster needs to be healthy and ready to dance, and ready to fill in for extra shows too in the event of illness or injury to another lead dancer.

I think an implicit nudge into retirement is much more civil than having your boss tell you he is not renewing your contract. To make matters worse, to have the NY Times report that your contract was not renewed adds another level of humiliation to the situation. My understanding of the situation from Part's own comments is that she knew for some time that her contract would not be renewed, but there was some vague promise by McKenzie to give her some work next season during the spring season in some sort of guesting arrangement. Based on that, she must have known for a period of time already that although she might have some income from ABT during 2018, it would not be anything remotely close to her salary as a principal.

Thanks for the insights, Natalia.

Just to clarify, the popularity of Ferri and Kent had nothing to do with social media. I would say the only ABT dancer who has really exploited social media/PR machine to an art form is Misty Copeland.

Miliosr makes a great point. I had forgotten about the concession of the ABT dancers to take a pay cut. Also wanted to add a question. I thought Part was a wonderful dancer and I treasure her performances. If Part had stayed at the Mariinsky, do you think she would have eventually been elevated to principal? The competition at the Mariinsky is fierce and they had so many world class ballerinas who were Part's contemporaries (Lopatkina, Vishneva). At ABT, she was a unique dancer with Vaganova training, unlike any of the other ABT ballerinas.

Regarding Part's latest comments (translated in an earlier post above), she compares her situation to Julie Kent and Ferri, both of whom were permitted to dance with ABT at far more advanced ages than Part's. The fact that she is comparing herself to them is indicative that Part has no sense of how having a massive audience following can influence your standing at ABT. Kent was the face of ABT for decades and was a beloved figure with a huge following; that following trailed off by the end because her ability had declined so much. She had a special place in ABT history. Ferri also had a massive following and a legendary career, so it was a box office bonanza for ABT when she decided to make a comeback and dance 2 shows last season and this season. Unfortunately, if we are being completely realistic, Part did not have either a huge fan base or a historically significant relationship with ABT, so she was never going to receive the same treatment as either Kent or Ferri.

Marcelo is sharing the role with Dominic North, but I have not located any info on which dates Marcelo will dance.

https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/adea.cfm The federal age discrimination act applies to people 40 and older. However, even if she had been terminated at age 40 instead of 39, I doubt that she would have been able to establish a viable age discrimination claim.

Actually, Hallberg is dancing in the fall season. It is Gomes who is skipping the Koch.

Gomes is splitting the role with the man who originated the role in London, so the exact dates that Gomes will perform are unclear. I hope he performs with Mearns.

Hmm. I wonder if Golding will go back to ABT, where he used to be in the corps. ABT definitely needs an infusion of a tall principal dancer.

Actually, I think money is that tight. I think McKenzie probably has a fixed amount of money to work with to pay dancer salaries, so that a new promotion to principal is highly dependent on the departure of someone who is already a principal. Since Veronika was very senior, her firing may have paid for one new "junior" principal, plus a portion of the money needed to promote Royal. It's an ugly business at ABT. Edit to add: I think that when Veronika said on her instagram or other social media that "they already gave my contract to some other dancer", this is an implicit statement that the pool of available money is indeed very limited, and that McKenzie could not promote the people he wanted and also keep Part on as a principal. Zero sum game.

I loved Part's performances and always went to her shows. ABT's conduct is reprehensible. They behave more like Walmart every year. I understand that McKenzie probably did not have the funds to make all these promotions and keep Part as a full time worker, but would it have been so awful to make Shevchenko or Teuscher wait one more year for the promotion?

I don't think so. Kent stayed well beyond the age when she should have left, and McKenzie kept giving her the roles she wanted to dance. McKenzie also allowed her to make whatever changes to the choreography she wanted to accommodate her diminished ability. Kent retired when she wanted to leave, not when she was told to leave.

Lendorf was breathtaking tonight in Aurora's wedding. I don't think I've seen the male solo variation done as well by anyone at ABT in the past. Such clean, precise, fast movement, with every single step fully articulated. He was a marvel. Oh, and he doesn't cheat on the fish dives by using both arms to get the girl into position. He does it the old fashioned way, with his left arm only.

I would love to see Abrera as Nikiya instead of Gamzatti. But I'm not sure if they will give it to her at this stage of her career.

Devon and Christine have both been Lilac fairies in SB, so I'm not sure Aurora will be in their futures.

What new roles do we want to see our new ballerina principals conquer? I want Sarah to finally get a Juliet, and also a Gazmatti. I want Devon and Christine to be cast as Nikiya. I also want Christine to be cast in SL.

I think there is a lot of talk about disruption and booing, but it may amount to nothing in reality. Thank goodness the person arranging this is using booing, and not the nefarious and criminal conduct employed by Pavel Dmitrichenko at the Bolshoi.

The only person who should rightfully be blamed for Part's dismissal is McKenzie, not anyone who was promoted.

Does that fact that there were 3 principal promotions instead of 2 mean that Kochetkova is history at ABT?

Surprised Gabe was left off the list. But congratulations regarding all these well deserved promotions Now it's time for ABT to find another tall, strong guy to promote. I think Hammoudi may be out of the running permanently for promotion. Time to try out Hoven and Forster in some more lead roles