abatt

They have been offering discounts for Taming all over the place. You are right - during the last visit with the "warhorse" ballets, every show sold out at full price. I think it was only the critics who complained about "warhorse" ballets -in particular Macaulay. I'll take the warhorse ballets any day over Taming. It only adds insult to injury that this production is under1 hour 50 minutes including a 20 minute intermission. Not much for your money.

I agree, volcanohunter. A complete waste of time, energy and money. Even though it was incredibly short, I was still bored. What a waste to bring some of the greatest dancers of the world to NY on a rare visit, and present this.

I think this cinema broadcast will be a repeat of their Shrew cinema broadcast of last season.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/arts/dance/bolshoi-ballet-taming-of-the-shrew-review.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Farts&action=click&contentCollection=arts&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=sectionfront NY Times review of Shrew.

Just back from Taming. So glad I did not purchase tickets for additional performances. While not the worst ballet I've ever seen, it certainly makes the worst 10 list. The most exciting part of the evening was a fire alarm that went off during Act I, and kept beeping for a good 10 minutes. What a fiasco. Very simplistic and boring choreography. The best part was a pdd for Smirnova and Chudin in Act II. Question: The website says this production is 2 hrs, 5 min., including intermission. In actuality, it started at 7:30 and ended at 9:20, including the intermission. Did they cut a portion of the ballet for the NY engagement?

Pollack was definitely in the running, but she will be taking a leave of absence in 2018 to work on Broadway in Carousel. I think under those circumstances it is not likely that she would be in contention for a promotion during the 2017-18 season.

With Scheller gone, and Krohn imminently retiring, can we expect one or more promotions to principal during the coming season? Of the ladies, I think Ashley Isaacs and Unity Phelan are in the running. On the men's side, Catazaro. Laracey is a lovely dancer, and I hope she is promoted, but she doesn't seem to be on management's radar as a top tier talent.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/arts/dance/new-york-city-ballet-designers-fall-fashion-gala.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Farts&action=click&contentCollection=arts&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront She will become a ballet mistress at NYCB.

For what it's worth, A. Macaulay's instagram account contains mini reviews of almost all of the Jewels performances. He specifically notes that the women of the second Emeralds cast (that is, the Gilbert cast) were superior to the women of the first cast (Pujol cast).

I thought Marchenkova was fascinating as the tall girl on Sunday afternoon. First, she has great flexibility, so she could lift that leg and smack herself in the head with it with no difficulty. I loved her sexy and sultry demeanor. Very fun to watch. The lead cast in Rubies, not so much. A word about the Sat matinee Diamonds cast. Alena Kovaleva (spelling?) was striking. What long legs and gorgeous feet. I was entranced. She was a little young for the part, but she has exquisite lines. Looking forward to seeing more of her, and her excellent partner (Tissi?) in the future. Seeing Shrew this week, I suspect, will not be as exciting as these Jewels performances. Going from the sublime to the ridiculous. How sad that traditional tutu ballets with large casts, set to classical music, are now either out of fashion or just too expensive to mount.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/28/arts/dance/understanding-george-balanchine-jewels-new-york-city-ballet.html?_r=0 I thought this might be of interest re Jewels.

Mearns emotes in anything she does. Some feel that she over-emotes where it is not even appropriate. In Diamonds, however, it works.

Laughed out loud when I read your comment, Natalia. Canbelto, the photo is Misty and James Whiteside.

Yes, Hod was definitely a Diamonds soloist. Habony was not there. Mearns' Diamonds interpretation is completely different from Smirnova's. Smirnova is an aloof queen. Mearns invests the pas with more romantic drama and interaction with her partner. Both interpretations are fascinating. Agree w. NYSusan that the Bolshoi was not impressive in Rubies. It's like they were speaking a foreign language that they had learned through some Rosetta Stone tapes rather than through language immersion with native speakers. I also thought Gilbert was wonderful. She deeply arched her back, which is exactly what was missing on opening night from the first cast. Also, Gilbert did not have the odd head movement affectations that we saw on opening night. The walking pdd was also better than opening night, but still not memorable. Home team NYCB does it better.

NY Times review: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/21/arts/dance/balanchine-jewels-lincoln-center-festival-city-ballet-bolshoi-paris-opera-ballet.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fdance&action=click&contentCollection=dance&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

Bolshoi blew me and Mr. Abatt away too. Such grace, beauty and elegance from the corps on up to the leading dancers. The Bolshoi dancers must have the longest limbs and necks in the business. Pure JOY to watch. Smirnova and Chudin in the pas were ethereal and breathtaking. Rubies was electrifying. Megan F. is far from my favorite interpreter of the Rubies, but she was good enough. Reichlin and DeLuz have never been better. Outstanding. POB was disappointing in some ways. As noted elsewhere, in the walking duet some of the staccato movement of the ballerina in the walking duet was left out. Why?! Also agree with the post above about Pujol's overly affected head movements. Also, I found the costumes for Emeralds to be poor. The skirts seemed to have stripes of different shades of green (forest green, turquoise), but where was the EMERALD coloring? Also, too much sparkle in the skirts. Great to see so many friends there last night. The crowd was jazzed for this special, extraordinary event. Thanks to the Festival for this outstanding presentation.

No, the stacatto movement of Emeralds was actually left out of the portion that canbelto was alluding to. It was not merely obscured or softened. My jaw dropped.

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.