best (yet) of season

[charlieloki]

i have attended, at least as far as my budget is concerned, too many performances this season -- i felt that there will never again be another real balanchine season such as this one at nycb, so i went for broke

by far, my personal favorite piece has been agon

i saw it again last night and was overwhelmed

the music was brilliantly crisp and conducted with great sensitivity -- hard to tell whether the conductor or the dancers were leading the orchestra

sofiane sylve was even better than before, which is hard to imagine

one of her held balances was so incredible that i heard many gasps in the fourth ring, then utter silence

we could not believe what we had just seen (previously, in my experience, only lourdes lopez had that effect in agon)

ms sylve will soon be one of the real anchors of the company

i believe that the level of her performance inspired wendy whelan to even greater heights, which is also hard to imagine

a real agon, a real contest

across the board, everyone seemed especially inspired

agon was first on the program, and i didn't have to think at all about what i would do at intermission

i left the theater, knowing that everything that followed could not measure up, and not wanting to disturb some very special mental images i had just stored away -- did a few replays on the long bus ride home

darci kistler in monumentum/movements; yvonne borree in duo; the not yet really artistic ashley bouder show in symphony in three movements: all downhill from agon

question now is, should i give away my remaining tickets or slog through the rest of the season's performances?

all it takes to have a memorable season is one memorable performance

thank you, mr. b and company

[Balanchinomane]

Yes, Charlieloki, Agon was perfect. But don't deprive yourself of some nice

performances. The M&M Ballets are so interesting - and it was nice to see

Darci - I 'll never tire of seeing Darci. Symphony in 3 Mvts was not as good

with this cast - mainly because Sofiane was not in it. Weese and Evans were

excellent in the Pas de Deux. Before you left I wonder if you heard the

woman yelling Woo-Woo-Woo with the applause. She was sitting behind me

and kicking my seat, so it wasn't a perfect evening for me.

Well there's only 11 more performances and I'm going to 5 of them. Hope

you will go too. And don't forget to thank Peter Martins for hiring Sofiane.

She is brilliant in everything she does and it's so exciting to see her career

unfold. We are very lucky indeed.

[jimmattimore]

let me say that I am delighted that I opted for "Swan Lake" at ABT which was wonderful, and not for BE. Oh, I loved Dale's review, and I trust her judgments 300000%. I like to sit outside of the stage door and see the dancers coming in -----some of them were eating sushi-----and when I saw Sofiane I waved and she smiled and waved back, so I am now hopelessly in love with yet another ballerina. Everyone's been saying it: she is an etoille.