ABT Swan Lake in Singapore

[abatt]

Interesting that Schevchenko attempts to do Murphy's gloss on the variation by raising her arms overhead while turning.

[its the mom]

29 minutes ago, abatt said:

Interesting that Schevchenko attempts to do Murphy's gloss on the variation by raising her arms overhead while turning.

I have seen many dancers do it that way.

[nanushka]

57 minutes ago, abatt said:

Interesting that Schevchenko attempts to do Murphy's gloss on the variation by raising her arms overhead while turning.

It looks too casual. If she's going to do it, I think it needs to be crisp. She's probably better off sticking with the standard approach.

[Vs1]

On 10/25/2017 at 4:51 PM, Fleurfairy said:

Yeah, Abrera is not an option for Swan Lake. She was promoted too late. Even then, she might never have been a good fit for it, much like Alessandra Ferri or any number of other ABT principals that have come and gone without doing O/O. 

She is not like Ferri in that regard.  Swan Lake would be excellent for her. We watched years of Myrtha and saw her excel as Giselle finally. I see no difference.

[fondoffouettes]

1 hour ago, Vs1 said:

She is not like Ferri in that regard.  Swan Lake would be excellent for her. We watched years of Myrtha and saw her excel as Giselle finally. I see no difference.

I agree — I see Abrera as much more at home in classical ballets than Ferri. She managed to get cast as Aurora just in the nick of time, career-wise.

When I’ve seen Abrera have technical issues, it’s almost always been in turns. It would make me nervous to think of her taking on Act III of SL. Of course, that didn’t stop Part, but she had years to get more comfortable with the role.

I do think the company had Abrera on the principal track (not a fast track like Herrera), but then her injury sidelined her in what could have been her prime years. If I remember correctly, she was cast twice as Giselle and both times had to withdraw due to injury. I give the company credit for casting her yet again as Giselle after she’d recovered and then promoting her. I can understand criticism of ABT for allowing Lane to languish as a soloist for so long, but I think Abrera’s situation is different. 

I’d be there in a heartbeat if Abrera were cast as O/O, and I’m sure she’d handle the technical demands much, much better than Copeland.

Edited March 27, 2018 by fondoffouettes

[nanushka]

18 minutes ago, fondoffouettes said:

I agree — I see Abrera as much more at home in classical ballets than Ferri. She managed to get cast as Aurora just in the nick of time, career-wise.

When I’ve seen Abrera have technical issues, it’s almost always been in turns. It would make me nervous to think of her taking on Act III of SL. Of course, that didn’t stop Part, but she had years to get more comfortable with the role.

I do think the company had Abrera on the principal track (not a fast track like Herrera), but then her injury sidelined her in what could have been her prime years. If I remember correctly, she was cast twice as Giselle and both times had to withdraw due to injury. I give the company credit for casting her again as Giselle after she’d recovered and then promoting her. I can understand criticism of ABT for allowing Lane to languish as a soloist for so long, but I think Abrera’s situation is different. 

Still, I’d be there in a heartbeat if Abrera were cast as O/O, and I’m sure she’d handle the technical demands much, much better than Copeland.

This is a cogent analysis, and I mostly agree, but I would argue that it took too long for her to be cast the third time. I started following the company ca. 2007-08, and I'm pretty sure it was already balletomane lore that Stella had once been cast in Giselle and cancelled due to injury. Or if not, it was so within just a very few years after that. I certainly don't remember it actually happening; I only remember people talking about it having happened. So there was quite a bit of time between her earlier cancellations and the triumphant Giselle with Shklyarov two years ago.

(That said, the subsequent Giselle last year already showed some technical decline. Which further supports the idea that she was kept waiting too long.)

Edited March 27, 2018 by nanushka

[abatt]

There are other dancers besides Stella who lost years (in her case, 2 years) due to injury.  However, it impacted her overall career much more than others.  Hallberg was out for years, but by that time he was already a big star so it didn't matter.  Copeland was also out for a long period when she had that plate put in her leg.  However, her trajectory was different, because as soon as she returned she was already on her publicity campaign, and McKenzie gave her new lead roles upon her return as a result.  In contrast, after Stella returned from injury she was always cast for years in the same soloist roles that she had before her injury.  After her husband, Sasha Radetsky, left, he said in an interview that the Giselle that Stella was supposed to dance before her injury was never offered again by ABT. In fact, it was sheer luck that Stella had learned Giselle and performed it numerous times with the Australian Ballet  (or was it New Zealand Ballet?) only a few months before she  unexpectedly and on short notice stepped into the ABT Giselle when Semionova left.  It was the Giselle with Shkylarov that led to her promotion, at long last.

Edited March 27, 2018 by abatt

[fondoffouettes]

4 hours ago, abatt said:

There are other dancers besides Stella who lost years (in her case, 2 years) due to injury.  However, it impacted her overall career much more than others.  Hallberg was out for years, but by that time he was already a big star so it didn't matter.  Copeland was also out for a long period when she had that plate put in her leg.  However, her trajectory was different, because as soon as she returned she was already on her publicity campaign, and McKenzie gave her new lead roles upon her return as a result.  In contrast, after Stella returned from injury she was always cast for years in the same soloist roles that she had before her injury.  After her husband, Sasha Radetsky, left, he said in an interview that the Giselle that Stella was supposed to dance before her injury was never offered again by ABT. In fact, it was sheer luck that Stella had learned Giselle and performed it numerous times with the Australian Ballet  (or was it New Zealand Ballet?) only a few months before she  unexpectedly and on short notice stepped into the ABT Giselle when Semionova left.  It was the Giselle with Shkylarov that led to her promotion, at long last.

TBH, the years sort of became compressed in my mind and I had forgotten that there was a good deal of time between her becoming healed and getting that Giselle with Shkylarov. 

[Vs1]

Just now, abatt said:

In fact, it was sheer luck that Stella had learned Giselle and performed it numerous times with the Australian Ballet  (or was it New Zealand Ballet?) only a few months before she  unexpectedly and on short notice stepped into the ABT Giselle when Semionova left.

Sheer luck?  I think it was hope, hard work, and planning.  For example, Paulina Waski has been posting her regional Giselle for years and now is starting with Myrtha at ABT.  Everyone discusses waiting for the "understudy opportunity".  All dancers learn these roles in school, too.

[abatt]

4 hours ago, Vs1 said:

Sheer luck?  I think it was hope, hard work, and planning.  For example, Paulina Waski has been posting her regional Giselle for years and now is starting with Myrtha at ABT.  Everyone discusses waiting for the "understudy opportunity".  All dancers learn these roles in school, too.

Yes, luck that Semionova cancelled, luck that Stella had performed numerous Giselle performances only 4 or so months before the ABT season, so that the entire role was fresh in her muscle memory and her actual memory, and luck that there were already so many injuries and cancellations that McKenzie couldn't just reassign another Giselle to Hee Seo.  .

[nanushka]

Just now, atm711 said:

Just love your Marta Becket reference!  I saw the opera house but unfortunately Marta was not performing that day! 

A night I will truly never forget!

[Helene]

[Admin speaking]

I had missed subscribing to this thread, or I would have acted sooner.

When I first got an email reporting a post later in the thread, I thought it was simply a diversion back to the fouette discussion that has been rehashed here many times -- not that anyone has ever convinced anyone of the opposite opinion about whether or not fouettes are sacred -- and that the posts could be split off and added to the end of the older thread.  Going forward, I found posts that could have been combined with the Copeland threads and others that could have been combined with several threads about race.

However, going backwards, right after the actual reports about the ABT performances in Singapore, for which I am grateful, what I encountered was a swamp.

Whether you love or like or hate Copeland, Smirnova, Somova, Skorik, or any other dancers about whom there are polarizing opinions, when the comments pile on and on -- often by the same people making the same points in multiple threads and diverting the discussion to that agenda -- and they descend to the tone of many a YouTube comments thread, they'll be removed.  

The approximately two dozen thoughtful posts, including the handful about opera, out of 10 pages I removed, I'll try to find a home for and restore.  Unfortunately, I couldn't just leave them here, because there was no context.

And to respond to multiple posts, click the "+" button to the left of "Quote," and they'll be combined in the same post, which saves real-estate when scrolling on a mobile device.

[/Admin]