WAS IT EVERYTHING YOU HOPED FOR?

[GeorgeB fan]

Now that the spring season of NYCB is over I'm curious to know what all of you like or dislike the most of the season and do you think Peter Martins and company did justice in their tribute of the centennial of Balanchine's birth.

For me I most enjoyed discovering the beautiful and romantic Liebeslieder Walzer;

guest artists Aurelie DuPont and Manuel Legris dancing Sonatine;

Alexandra Ansanelli in Afternoon of a Faun;

the rise of Ashley Bouder;

Wendy Whelan's Mozartiana;

The entire Thursday evening of June 17 (Agon, Monumentum pro Gesualdo, Movement for Piano & Orchestra, Duo Concertant, Symphony in 3 Movement)

Balanchine and Stravinsky would have love it;

Kyra Nichols performing in anything;

Miranda Weese's new abandonment and musicality;

But in general the overall execellence in dancing by the whole company.

The only disappointment I had was not seeing Jennie Somogyi dance due to injury. I hope she recover in time for the 2005 Winter Season.

I think overall Balanchine would have been proud.

[Alexandra]

What a nice idea! I hope everyone will post what their high points were. If you discovered a new ballet, or new dancer, or changed your mind about either, etc.

[oberon]

For me, the ballets that looked best were EPISODES and 4 TEMPS...EPISODES, especially, thrilled me.

In general I thought that it was a very good, solid season but without alot of really memorable individual performances.

Although I thought Wendy Whelan may have come back off her injury a bit too soon, she undoubtedly did not want to miss the Balanchine season altogether. She gave many engrossing performances but a very slight feeling of caution was there. Nevertheless, her MOZARTIANA, CAGE, BARBER VIOLIN, EPISODES, SYMPHONY IN C, GLASS PIECES and MUSAGETE were among the very best things I saw this season. Wendy being cautious is like most ballerinas going full-tilt.

Weese was excellent in SHAMBARDS, THEME & RAYMONDA. Sylve and Ansanelli had some really exciting nights. At this point, I am so happy to see Kyra and Darci dancing so well...any minor difficulties they might have seem so unimportant when viewed in the light of their lyricism and musicality. Borree had a lovely role in ANDANTINO. There were many other very pleasing performances from the female principals. And Bouder's Firebird was electrifying.

It is becoming an increasingly rare delight to enjoy Peter Boal, he seems to be dancing less frequently than ever. His OPUS 19, with Wendy, was a joint triumph for them. Robert Tewsley in MUSAGETE, Albert Evans in 4 TEMPS (and everything else he did); Marcovici and Hubbe also had some interesting roles. Millepied did not dance so often, I believe he may still feel the effects of his earlier injury.

The injuries that plagued the season were disturbing, and for me Abi Stafford (though she eventually returned) and especially Janie Talyor were sorely missed.

It was a joy to see Edwaard Liang back at NYCB, and Stephen Hanna is turning into a prince of a dancer.

If I start in on the corps, this posting will run to Proustian lengths, but I must mention Laracey in EROS PIANO and Rebecca Krohn in CAGE. After her radiant Lilac Fairy, I try to keep an eye on Amanda Hankes and of course it is difficult to keep your eyes OFF Carla Korbes. Much, much wonderful dancing from the various corps dancers that I love.

Most of the guests I could have done without, though Dupont & Legris were pretty nice. It would have been lovely to see Gitte Lindstrom again. Overall, I don't think guests are really needed at NYCB...there are plenty of soloist or corps level dancers that I would like to see get opportunities rather than bring in outsiders. But I understand the idea of inviting guests for the Balanchine Celebration.

I look forward to the Winter Season, hopefully free from injuries.

[Drew]

I only saw three performances but I'll go ahead and list my "highlights" anyway!

Ashley Bouder in La Source -- just stunning -- huge jumps, tremendous energy, engaging musicality. (I was pleased to see that dancing a non-jumping role in Divertimento No. 15 she also made a solid impression, but I can't say Divertimento No. 15 was, on the whole, any kind of highlight.)

Episodes, especially Maria Kowroski in the final movement. The choreography offers a series of extraodinarily concentrated explorations of what ballet can do at its most distilled and most daring. Kowroski I loved for the poise and clarity of her every movement. I really did feel as if I was seeing the music...It was baroque order brought to modern (and modernist) life.

Also worth mentioning: The Four Temperaments -- a solid all round performance of one of Balanchine's greatest ballets. (Reichlen was a weak link in the performance I saw, underpowered as choleric, but I do think she is very promising and understand why she was cast.); Jennifer Ringer, looking unspeakably beautiful in Robert Schumann's Davidsbundlertanze and dancing with a purity and simplicity to match. I was disappointed in Shambards, though I have admired other work by Wheeldon -- still, I was very struck by Carla Korbes in the first movement. She seems to have the gift of making any movement interesting. I'm afraid I don't know how to put it more precisely...

A final note: although I didn't quite share the horror expressed by many when the plans for this season were announced, retrospectively, I'm feeling some sympathy for it. I think the company might have done more to honor the centenary with projects conceived specifically to showcase aspects of the Balanchine heritage likely to be lost: more revivals of little or rarely performed works or even some one time only special performances in which the company showcased different versions of still-performed works or, more realistically, excerps of different versions. That may have been unrealistic, given the enormous pressures of a full length ballet season, still... (I also had a forlorn hope that the centenary would be a good occasion to try to rebuild a relation between NYCB and Suzanne Farrell without anyone losing face.)

Also, although I am reluctant to comment on a work I haven't seen I think commissioning Musagete was a misjudgment. Balanchine himself plays the indirect biographer of a suffering artist in Davisbundlertanze, so I don't think one can quite object to the genre per se (and I don't think too many people would be prepared to defend the cartoon critics that appear towards that ballet's end if they weren't Balanchine's doing...). Still, one could easily have predicted that Eifman would have little to offer of a serious choreographic or conceptual character as his commentary on the life of Balanchine, and by all accounts that seems to have been the case. I doubt, too, the company can count on Eifman's audience returning if they don't see more Eifman in the repertory...However, if I see the ballet myself and decide I feel very differently I promise to write a long mea culpa...

[perky]

Drew, I'll do ya one less. I only saw two performances but this is what stood out for me.

Ashley Bouder: I saw her as one of the four soloists in Ballo Della Regina and as the soloist in La Source. I love her energy and style. I could not erase the goofy grin plastered on my face whenever I watched her dance.

Sofiane Sylve: Saw her as the Coquette in La Sonambula and Sanquinic in The Four Temperments. A very womanly, mature stage presence combined with her striking good looks and astounding technique made a tremendous impact on me. I wish I was there to see her dance more often!

Pauline Golbin and Antonio Carmena were two corp members that stood out for me. Golbin has such a warm, glamorous presence.

Of the ballets I saw The Four Temperments was the best. Wonderfully performed by everyone. It had my heart beating faster from the onimous opening notes to the final mass surging forward, the principal women lifted in graceful arcs by thier partners.

I just thought of something and wanted to add it.

The centennial of Balanchine's birth is a BIG deal. From outward appearances it seems that the powers to be at NYCB think so too. All the advertising, the special packaging of the winter and spring season, the quest artists, the new ballets commissioned to "honor" Mr. B. All of this they hope will bring in more of an audience, to sell out the theatre, etc. It seems that instead of thinking "how can we honor and celebrate Mr. Balanchine's centennial," they thought, "how can we market and package this in order to take ADVANTAGE of Mr. Balanchine's centennial."

My husband and I drove 11 hours this Spring in order to see NYCB perform. We could perhaps have done it last year or waited until next year, but I wanted to do it this year, in the Balanchine Centennial year as a way to somehow honor Mr. B. Maybe a small gesture, but heartfelt all the same.

I just wish Peter Martins and the Board of Directors that ok'd commisioning Musgete and putting in on Balanchine's stage thought the same way.

[Farrell Fan]

On counting my Playbills, I discovered I'd been to thirteen performances in the Spring season. It was a pleasant enough season, highlighted by the evening honoring Hugo Fiorato. I enjoyed many individual performances, but was the season everything I'd hoped for? Not by a long shot. NYCB acted like the U.S. Postal Service which, instead of a Balanchine centennial postage stamp, gave us stamps for Graham, De Mille, Ailey, and Balanchine. During the Balanchine centennial season, Vision Division, NYCB also gave us Robbins, Wheeldon, Tanner, Martins, and, egregiously, Eifman. Like Drew, I'd harbored some hope that Suzanne would unexpectedly return to the State Theater. It was more fantasy then hope, really. What we got was business as usual.

[GeorgeB fan]

I think the company might have done more to honor the centenary with projects conceived specifically to showcase aspects of the Balanchine heritage likely to be lost:  more revivals of little or rarely performed works or even some one time only special performances in which the company showcased different versions of still-performed works or, more realistically, excerps of different versions.

Drew after reading your post I started thinking how wonderful it would have been to see ballets that I've ever seen but only read about or seen pictures of them. Ballets like Danses Concertantes, Bouree Fantasque and Minkus Pas de Trois, which I did see perform nicely by Miami City Ballet a few years back. Sylvia Pas de Deux is another ballet I would love to see NYCB perform but they don't. ABT perform it but City Ballet for some reason don't.

I understand Balanchine never like the costumes and sets created by Kurt Seligmann for The Four Temperaments and had them quickly remove. It would have been interesting if for just one performance NYCB would have recreated the costumes and set so we could have seen the ballet in its original concept.

A few years ago on a television program, possibly on PBS, a ballet company - I can't remember the company maybe the Joffery Ballet but I'm not sure - reconstructed a early ballet of Balanchine's called Cotillon a ballet he created for Tamara Toumanova to great sucess. It would have been nice if Peter Martins ask the stagers of that ballet to stage it for the Balanchine Celebration.

Speaking of reconstructing is there some way they can recreate The Seven Deadly Sins - that is a ballet I would love to see. From everything I've read about it, it was a highly theatrical ballet. I think that would have been a major event.

[liebs]

It seems to me that at one point may years ago, a reconstruction of sins was talked about with Bette Midler in the Lenya role. But from what I remember, no one could reconsturct the ballet. Does anyone rembers this?

[Alexandra]

I do remember it, but the story I was told was that the project was skuttled because of a strike, and the idea was never revived.

[Ari]

Sylvia Pas de Deux is another ballet I would love to see NYCB perform but they don't. ABT perform it but City Ballet for some reason don't.

Balanchine used the man's variation (the music and choreography both) for Franz's solo in the third act of Coppelia, which may be why he didn't want to revive the original pas de deux. Although I wouldn't mind seeing it twice -- it's a beautiful variation.

[oberon]

Perky,

I agree with you about Pauline Golbin...pure glamour! I love watching her and always hope to see her get some featured roles. She now seems to be in that group of select "taller girls" so she is frequently to the fore. I used to run into her sometimes in the Village and she is always dressed with a sort of casual elegance, whereas some of the other girls look like they threw on whatever they could rummage up.

Oberon