Woetzel's NYCB Farewell program

[AmandaNYC]

As a subscriber, I received a notice in the mail yesterday, inviting me to get tickets to Damian Woetzel's farewell ahead of the general public. It says he's performing Fancy Free and Prodigal Son. It's a non-subscription performance.

I am quite upset he won't be doing Stars & Stripes!

-amanda

[carbro]

Oh, this is too sad! But in view of what I wrote yesterday about Darci Kistler dancing with waning abilities, better too soon than too late.

Thanks for this, Amanda.

[richard53dog]

But in view of what I wrote yesterday about Darci Kistler dancing with waning abilities, better too soon than too late.

There is much to what you say. As the years go on, I'm leaning more to the "better too early" school of though myself

[AmandaNYC]

Btw, there's also a TBD special one-time only performance listed in the NYCB schedule for the end of the season. I'm wondering if anyone else is retiring. Or if they are doing some special Jerome Robbins program to mark the end of the season.

-amanda

[maxboswell]

re "retirement programs" at NYCB, just this:

Nowadays everyone gets a "retirement program." But throughout most of the Balanchine years this ceremonialism (part homage, part marketing) was unheard of. Tallchief, Wilde, Eglevsky just weren't there anymore, faded away, along with all the others, principals not so well known, long term soloists. Was there a farewell for Verdy? I think not. Mimi Paul? Certainly not. Jillana? Janet Reed? D'Amboise? Villella? Moncion? For Hayden, of course, Mr. B. made a farewell ballet -- but she had to hang on and on and on before he came to the idea of kissing her off, with Cortege Hongrois. She'd earned it, of course, and it had a grand kiss-off finale. Now almost every principal gets the flowers, the confetti, and the press release. Anyone have thoughts about this latter-day, slightly commercial practice?

[Farrell Fan]

Interesting observation, thanks. The phenomenon of the farewell performance at NYCB began with the farewells of of Patricia MacBride and Suzanne Farrell. But even after those landmark occasions, some important dancers were allowed to slip away uncelebrated. I'm thinking in particular of Maria Calegari and Bart Cook.

[Helene]

Although not specifically advertised as such, apart from perhaps a line in The New York Tims, Helgi Tomasson, Adam Luders, and Gen Horiuchi were featured in their last performances, the latter two in a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream, with Luders in the Act II Pas de Deux and Horiuchi as Oberon. Was anyone at von Aroldingen or Daniel Duell's last performance? Did d'Amboise take a formal last performance bow after a "Davidsbundertanze"? Sunday night subscribers got to see a number of final performances in the 80's. Stephanie Saland was given a solo bow after dancing the "Rosenkavalier" movement during the 1993 Balanchine Festival, her last performance with NYCB.

It made sense that this started after Balanchine's final illness and death. From all accounts, he wasn't big on acknowledging the importance of any given dancer, at least explicitly. I think it's important for closure, to allow the audience for whom dancers were important to express this.

Of the programs built around a dancer, McBride's to me was the most touching, concluding with the beautiful solo from "Harlequinade" which ends softly with a bow to the audience.

[kfw]

The phenomenon of the farewell performance at NYCB began with the farewells of of Patricia MacBride and Suzanne Farrell. But even after those landmark occasions, some important dancers were allowed to slip away uncelebrated. I'm thinking in particular of Maria Calegari and Bart Cook.

I remember Michael Byars being showered with flowers after his final performance in 1995 (?), as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream. I don't think the company came out onstage behind him, but it was a sweet tribute nonetheless. Are soloists often honored this way?

[Amy Reusch]

I'm in favor of marking transitions with ceremony... births, weddings, deaths.... A principal dancer retiring is a pretty big transition... as an audience, I think we need it... I hope it helps them as well, but I'd love to hear whether it's as well received at their end as it is meant from by the audience. I think it must or Peter Martins wouldn't have been so proactive in staging them. I guess in the old days there was such a thing as a "benefit performance" at retirment where the box office went to the retiring artist? (I know there were other benefit performances, I think Beethoven had one once at a time when he certainly wasn't retiring). The positive press must help them a little in their next step...

Is there a tradition for debuts?

[Helene]

I think it was Elyse Borne who retired as one of the four demis in Ballo Della Regina, and she got a solo in-front-of-the-curtain bow. I don't remember if there were many flowers; I seem to remember it being short.