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Swan Lake reviews?


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I was at Part's Swan on Tuesday and thoroughly enjoyed it. She along with Marcelo Gomes as Siegfried gave a riveting performance. What especially impressed me about Part was her incredibly clear mime and her emotional involvement in the role; she make you believe in the story. She has an exquisite line, and had all the signature bent leg arabesques that are the hallmark of Odette. I had anticiapted that Odille would be more difficult for her than Odette, dance-wise, but she seemed even more in command in Act III than in Act II.

Special mention to Herman Cornejo and Craig Salstein in this version of the Neapolitan; both turned an elegant as well as bravura display.

Full-lake Swan Lakes are not on my must-see list any more (as I prefer Balanchine's one-act version), but I will definitely go to another Part/Gomes one. l It was that good.

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I saw the weds. maitnee, with Hallberg and Wiles, OMG AMAZING!! I will elaborate more, later. It was most breathtaking though!!

Please eleborate! :D I heard they did a great job yesterday and want to hear more. Any comments on that Neapolitan debut? :wink: Hope to see you there Saturday!

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I saw Part's, and much as I have loved her before, I was just knocked over. She has technique enough for it, got through the fouettes without major difficulties, but she is the type of dancer that is so far beyond technique that it doesn't even seem to be an issue. I would rather see her stand on stage and point her arm than see any number of turns no matter how brilliant. To me she is just from another world, a fairy tale, say, of a princess who spins velvet on the moon. I have no critical facilities left, I am just someone worshiping a goddess!

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I saw Irina D last night -- she rocked!

Her arms are completely boneless, it seems. During intermission I saw girls trying and failing to imitate that boneless wing flap. She of course has great extension, some might think extreme. She's probably a better Odile than Odette, but her Odette also had this mysteriousness that was enchanting. She could express so much by a flick of the hand. For the fouette count, yes she did them all, and managed not to travel much. She threw in a couple triples and doubles too, and the cool thing was she threw them in towards the end.

The corps was having a very off night, I must say.

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I'm interested in hearing about all the Swan Lakes--particularly as I'm unable to *see* any of them--but I'm especially thrilled at the responses, here and elsewhere, to Part's performance. I'm hoping Dale saw it and will report as well...

(I was able to see Part dance in the shades scene in Bayadere earlier this season--third solo I think--and was struck by a textured, weighted quality in her movement that I somewhat recall from other Kirov ballerinas. I found her lines beautiful as well, but this one solo role in Bayadere does little more than give one a glimpse of her dancing.)

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I was fortunate enough to see Michelle Wiles and David Hallberg perform at the Wednesday matinee. I enjoyed it very much, but I never felt like I was being drawn into the story as other dancers have made me feel (i.e. Julie Kent and Angel Corella). Both have amazing technique, but I felt that stage presence was lacking in the first two acts. I felt they were much better suited to the Black Swan pas de deux. Michelle Wiles executed triple endehors attitude turns in her variation and threw in triple fouettes in the coda, which was quite a feat that I don't think the audience recognized. Overall, I really enjoyed it. I hope both dancers grow in their artistry and presentation as they mature and experience new roles. :wink:

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Michelle Wiles and David Halberg-wow. Let me start this off with, asking a question this is only what, their 2nd time performing Swan Lake? and the first at The Met. If this is true, then yes,them pulling you in the the "story", wasn't the best i've ever soon, but with time that will come.

Their technique and stage presence, as in holding your attention to them on the stage and being enthralled with every little movement, is very good. Both of them have such a purity about their dancing, they don't come off as tricksters, yet they can pull of what is needed in that area.

I was most impressed with Michelle's Balance. She would go up into arabesque and HOLD and then roll right through her foot, ahhh so nice to see! Something elese that will also come with time are her Arms. While they were very classical and very good, they were not swan like enough, one day they will be like Julie Kent's Im sure! Her fouettes, right on. Throwing in triples and not moving alot, very clean. I too, do not think the audience realized this, partly because it was so effortless on her part!

David Halberg, he is just so nice to watch. He has such a presence about him, not too "look at me", but not too humble either. Almost perfect. Obviously, he was made to be a prince. Tall and gorgeous. He has such clean technique. He has gorgeous lines. The most effortless, animal like Grande Jete I ever ever seen. Just breath taking. He is a very good partner. I don't remeber seeing one fumble between either of them. It was quite nice to see a male dancer not have to throw in a bunch of tricks to get the audience stand up! I don't belive he did more than 4 pirouettes, maybe 5, he doesn't have these huge double cabrioles, but they are nice. His turns in 2nd were gorgeous, he too threw in triples. He is defientely one of the most up and comming dancers at ABT, if not in the world!

The cast as a whole was right on. The swans were quite gorgeous, not always together and legs at the same height in the arabesque, but over all very nice. The 4 swans were very well rehearsed, there was a cast change Misty Copeland was supposed to do it, but someone elese was announced as doing it, who and why I do not know. All of the variations, russian and spanish and mazurka were very good. Neopalatin, was very good. I was quite impressed with the 2 guys, especially Arron Scott. He was right on. Very nice turns and jumps.

I was very impressed with this performance, I saw it live for the first time last summer with Julie Kent and Marcelo Gomes(im pretty sure) and it was ofcourse the most amazing experince, atleast on Julie Kents part, and one I will never forget, but this performance is right up there with it. Friday I will be going to see Nina perform, Never have seen her, so should be fun!

:)

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I saw the July 19th matinee with Gillian Murphy and Ethan Stiefel. Let me first of all say that Murphy is truly an amazing dancer. I think she is ABT's best technician.

Her fouettes in the Black Swan pas de deux left the audience gasping in disbelief.

She was wonderful in the white acts as well, but as Carbo has often pointed out - something was missing - a spark, emotion - I'm not sure what. Anna Kisselgoff of the NY Times said Murphy's performance lacked depth. I don't always agree with Kisselgoff, but I think she's right in this case.

Ethan Stiefel as the prince danced pretty well, but he was no where near Murphy's level. During his first solo in the Black Swan pas de deux his air turns seemed to be off center. His acting, however, was quite good. The scenes where the Queen Mother (the always wonderful Georgina Parkinson) was pressuring Siegfried to get engaged were very funny. Stiefel's Siegfried really seemed to love Odette, which made for a very poignant Act II pas de deux.

Sacha Radetsky, Erica Cornejo, and Renata Pavam were very impressive in the Act I pas de trois. Erica Cornejo radiated such joy in her dancing that it made me smile just to watch her. Pavam, who's still only in the corps, is having a wonderful season. This Spring I've seen her as one of Raymonda's friends, a flower girl in in "Don Q" and one of the pas de trois ladies in "Swan Lake". Pavam only gets better every time I see her. I hope she'll be made a soloist soon.

Ricardo Torres as the attractive von Rothbart danced a very lackluster solo in Act III. It's bad enough that von Rothbart's solo is even included in McKenzie's "Swan Lake". When it's danced well, as in the past by Vladimir Malakhov or Marcelo Gomes, I don't mind it so much. But when it's not danced well - to me it's just a major waste of time.

As for the production itself, I don't agree with Anna Kisselgoff about how wonderful it is. I wish ABT would bring back the David Blair production. The main things that annoy me about McKenzie's production are the inane prologue, the two von Rothbarts, and the shortening of Act IV. The rest of the ballet is very enjoyable, especially when Odette/Odile is danced as brilliantly as Murphy danced her yesterday afternoon.

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I know this is not of the most importance, but something I forgot to add was that Michelle did Double pirouette into triple attitude turn, every single time. I saw Nina on Friday night, i do not have time right now, but will try to elaborate soon!

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I saw Irina in the wends. night performance and I thought she did an outstanding job. Her fouettes were on. She did an excellent job in the black swan pas de deux. It could just be me but I think Ive seen Misty Copeland dance better then she did that night. She is still an amazing dancer but I dont know. Some may care to disagree.

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I saw Ananiashvilli Friday night---and I have run out of superlatives :wub: I did notice a few welcome changes; her 'soulful' expression was noticeably toned down, but did manage to show itself a few times. (I was in the eighth row of the orchestra with my opera glasses.) Her second act coda could have been sharper, and the fouettes less harried---but I leave that to the technical wunderkinds---they need something to distinguish their performance. Her toned down expression brought her very close to Danilova's interpretation, and her Odette solo was much like Danilova's---could it be Franklin's influence in the Company? What a joy it was to see him on a ballet stage again.

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I also saw Nina on Friday night, she and Bocca were so good they almost made McKenzie’s staging work for me. I’ve only seen Nina’s Swan Lake once before (10 years ago) and at the time I thought her interpretation was way over the top. This time I thought she was wonderful. It could be that she’s reigned it in a bit as ATM711 suggests, or my tastes have changed, or it’s just that I find this staging so cold and soulless that I really need an extremely emotive Odette to make it come alive. In any case, I found her to be very exciting technically (I loved that 3rd act balance, and those dizzyingly fast uncountable supported pirouettes), and a very emotional, passionate Odette. Sad, certainly, but not a wimp. Do the other ABT ballerinas do the 2nd act mime? She did it so clearly and with such conviction, it seems like years since I’ve seen it. I don’t remember the mime at all from the performances I saw last year. Ditto the crossed arms saying “I will die” in the last act. It was a beautiful, heart rending performance from both Nina & Bocca. Usually I find myself being overly analytical when watching this staging, but they really drew me in, and had me close to tears by the end.

I've noticed that Misty Copeland has had some rather prominant demi soloist type of roles this season, and she’s looked fine to me. She looks like she’s gaining a lot of confidence.

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I saw ABT's Swan Lake on Monday, June 14 with absolutely no expectations. In my first trip to NYC in 10 years, we went with standing room tickets simply because we had nothing else to do on Monday night. I went with a friend who likes ballet but doesn't know a lot about it. Suffice it to say, we were blown away by Gillian Murphy. I thought I had seen enough full length Swans to last the rest of my life, but I am very happy to have seen this performance!

I won't comment on the quality of her acting, as from our standing room tickets it was not easy to see the details, but overall it was a sensational performance. I knew absolutely nothing about her. Her White Swan was exquisite, dancewise, in Act 2, so I just assumed she was a natural Odette. My experience watching Swan Lakes over the past 30 years is that a ballerina is usually a more natural Odette (Makarova, et al) or Odile (Gregory, et al), but rarely equal in both. Well, Ms. Murphy equalled her White Swan with her Black Swan. Though I recall performances with acted with more wit, technically it was outstanding. The icing on the cake were the fouttees in the coda that absolutely blew the roof off the theate. I mean really, 5 triple fouttees in 32! Amazing! I've seen the equal but never better. I don't mean to focus exclusively on the tricks, but she certainly topped off an outstanding overall performance with these fireworks. It made for a memorable performance.

I felt the Act 4 was very beautiful and emotionally satisfying, though the flying leaps off the cliff were rather over the top! Careno was curiously underwhelming, but Ethan Brown (I think) as a disturbingly hunky and pyrotechnical Von Rothbart received a huge ovation.

All in all, for a performance that I expected nothing of, it was a surprising and wonderful night at the ballet. It is one I will certainly remember.

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I saw the Saturday 6/19 matinee, and must add the the kudos for Gillian Murphy.

I am not a Swan Lake fan, but went to see Arron Scott in Neapolitan. Arron did a great job and it was exciting to watch this young man begin what I hope will be a long and wonderful profession career. His jumps and turns were crisp and thrilling.

Gillian Murphy's performance in the Black Swan pas was jaw dropping, goose bump making, jelly leg amazing! When we left, my son asked why we were taking the elevator instead of walking and I had to confess my knees were so weak from watching Gillian, that I did not think I could make it down the steps!

all I can say is WOW!

Miss

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