2018 Met Season

[alexL]

An update on Harlequinade casting- Skylar Brandt will be dancing in place of Misty Copeland. That is June 6th mat and 9th eve. 

I also just realized that Simkin will be dancing with Boylston in Swan Lake on 19th and Aran Bell is dancing Rothbart on 22nd. Why didn't I see this before? Anyway, I happened to have June 6th ticket and am very excited to see the Brandt/Simkin pairing!

[ABT Fan]

9 hours ago, alexL said:

An update on Harlequinade casting- Skylar Brandt will be dancing in place of Misty Copeland. That is June 6th mat and 9th eve. 

I also just realized that Simkin will be dancing with Boylston in Swan Lake on 19th and Aran Bell is dancing Rothbart on 22nd. Why didn't I see this before? Anyway, I happened to have June 6th ticket and am very excited to see the Brandt/Simkin pairing!

Wow. Isabella Boylston said in an interview (or was it an Instagram post?) that Columbine has a lot of hops on pointe in her choreography, so I wonder if that's the reason for the change. Happy for Brandt though.

Lendorf has been completely removed from the season (even from Bayadere in LA), which many of us predicted would happen. Simkin replaces him in SL. Whiteside replaces him in DQ with Shevchenko. Good for Bell getting a Purple Rothbart debut (two shows). I have a feeling he replaces Lendorf in at least one of those. Happy Royal gets 3 PR's. Hope I can catch one of those. 

Edited May 26, 2018 by ABT Fan

[California]

39 minutes ago, ABT Fan said:

Wow. Isabella Boylston said in an interview (or was it an Instagram post?) that Columbine has a lot of hops on pointe in her choreography, so I wonder if that's the reason for the change.

This gets curioser and curioser...Presumably, Ratmansky has a huge say in the casting of his ballets, at least in the premiere season. And surely he knows that some of the dancers have major problems with those hops. Yet he reportedly (according to Boylston) choreographed them anyway. Inquiring minds wish we knew the whole story here!

[bcash]

1 hour ago, ABT Fan said:

Wow. Isabella Boylston said in an interview (or was it an Instagram post?) that Columbine has a lot of hops on pointe in her choreography, so I wonder if that's the reason for the change. Happy for Brandt though.

Lendorf has been completely removed from the season (even from Bayadere in LA), which many of us predicted would happen. Simkin replaces him in SL. Whiteside replaces him in DQ with Shevchenko. Good for Bell getting a Purple Rothbart debut (two shows). I have a feeling he replaces Lendorf in at least one of those. Happy Royal gets 3 PR's. Hope I can catch one of those. 

What happened with Lendorf? Injury? I was hoping to see him in something this season. 

[fondoffouettes]

26 minutes ago, bcash said:

What happened with Lendorf? Injury? I was hoping to see him in something this season. 

Not sure if the nature of the injury, but yes. He's been dealing with an injury or injuries since around the time he joined ABT and has had to pull out of many performances.

[fondoffouettes]

1 hour ago, ABT Fan said:

Wow. Isabella Boylston said in an interview (or was it an Instagram post?) that Columbine has a lot of hops on pointe in her choreography, so I wonder if that's the reason for the change. Happy for Brandt though.

Lendorf has been completely removed from the season (even from Bayadere in LA), which many of us predicted would happen. Simkin replaces him in SL. Whiteside replaces him in DQ with Shevchenko. Good for Bell getting a Purple Rothbart debut (two shows). I have a feeling he replaces Lendorf in at least one of those. Happy Royal gets 3 PR's. Hope I can catch one of those. 

1

Here's the interview with Boylston:

http://observer.com/2018/05/isabella-boylston-brings-realism-to-american-ballet-theatre-2018-season/

She says, "The music is exquisite, which is probably the reason why he wanted to bring it back, so beautiful and danceable. But there’s also lots of hopping on point—so painful!—and it’s conspicuous when you fail."'

Copeland is still set to dance Gamzatti next week, which is no walk in the park, so I can't image she's injured. Ratmansky has cast her in lots of his ballets, so I wonder if he wanted to try to make this work but she couldn't pull off the steps. 

[ABT Fan]

3 hours ago, fondoffouettes said:

Here's the interview with Boylston:

http://observer.com/2018/05/isabella-boylston-brings-realism-to-american-ballet-theatre-2018-season/

She says, "The music is exquisite, which is probably the reason why he wanted to bring it back, so beautiful and danceable. But there’s also lots of hopping on point—so painful!—and it’s conspicuous when you fail."'

Copeland is still set to dance Gamzatti next week, which is no walk in the park, so I can't image she's injured. Ratmansky has cast her in lots of his ballets, so I wonder if he wanted to try to make this work but she couldn't pull off the steps. 

Thank you - that's the interview I was thinking of.

I agree that it doesn't appear that Copeland is injured with all of her other roles still scheduled. 

Whatever the reason, I'm glad that Brandt was cast and I'm really looking forward to seeing this ballet.

[Inge]

5 hours ago, ABT Fan said:

Wow. Isabella Boylston said in an interview (or was it an Instagram post?) that Columbine has a lot of hops on pointe in her choreography, so I wonder if that's the reason for the change. Happy for Brandt though.

Lendorf has been completely removed from the season (even from Bayadere in LA), which many of us predicted would happen. Simkin replaces him in SL. Whiteside replaces him in DQ with Shevchenko. Good for Bell getting a Purple Rothbart debut (two shows). I have a feeling he replaces Lendorf in at least one of those. Happy Royal gets 3 PR's. Hope I can catch one of those. 

Bell may possess height, but he still carries such a boyish quality. I understand giving him a Romeo, but it will be difficult for me to buy him as the puppet master for Gillian's movie star Odile. 

I'm trying to see Monday's SL just to see Calvin in the Purple Rothbart role. I missed him last year, but it takes a lot of gravitas to pull off that costume and in photos he looked amazing. 

[fondoffouettes]

Sterling Baca in the men’s dressing room at the Met! (It was posted by Carlos Gonzalez as an Instagram story.) I wonder what this means, if anything. 

Could he be coming back to dance with ABT for the Met season, the way Nicole Graniero does? I don’t think PA Ballet has anything programmed until October. That’s a long layoff period...

Edited May 26, 2018 by fondoffouettes

[laurel]

10 hours ago, ABT Fan said:

Wow. Isabella Boylston said in an interview (or was it an Instagram post?) that Columbine has a lot of hops on pointe in her choreography, so I wonder if that's the reason for the change. Happy for Brandt though.

At Monday's Gala, the Hunt of the Larks pas de deux from Harlequinade included a series of fast backwards hops on pointe for Columbine, repeated three or four times, for which Boylston received a well-deserved round of applause.  It's exactly the sort of movement Copeland would find difficult to execute.

Copland is not injured.  Prior to tonight's performance of Firebird, Connor Holloway hosted an Instagram live-stream story featuring Copeland having her Firebird makeup and hair prepared for the show, in which she mentioned her double-performance day today.

[vipa]

32 minutes ago, laurel said:

At Monday's Gala, the Hunt of the Larks pas de deux from Harlequinade included a series of fast backwards hops on pointe for Columbine, repeated three or four times, for which Boylston received a well-deserved round of applause.  It's exactly the sort of movement Copeland would find difficult to execute.

Copland is not injured.  Prior to tonight's performance of Firebird, Connor Holloway hosted an Instagram live-stream story featuring Copeland having her Firebird makeup and hair prepared for the show, in which she mentioned her double-performance day today.

I'm very surprised that casting in Harlequinade was changed after the Copeland fans, no doubt,  bought tickets. 

[angelica]

5 minutes ago, vipa said:

I'm very surprised that casting in Harlequinade was changed after the Copeland fans, no doubt,  bought tickets. 

For whatever reason, whether it's the hardware in her leg(s) or the difficulty of the steps, or a combination of both, if Copeland were to miss the hops and fall, it could disappoint her fans (or not) and give another reason for her non-fans to complain that she cannot do the required steps. Maybe Brandt will pick up some new fans, as she's such a gorgeous dancer and can do anything. According to her first teacher, who told his adult students directly, I among them, she was doing 32 fouettes on pointe at the age of 10.

[nanushka]

25 minutes ago, vipa said:

I'm very surprised that casting in Harlequinade was changed after the Copeland fans, no doubt,  bought tickets. 

Interestingly, as of this afternoon, the Sat eve Copeland performance looked no better sold than the Fri eve non-Copeland performance — at least in orchestra.

Edited May 27, 2018 by nanushka

[canbelto]

21 minutes ago, nanushka said:

Interestingly, as of this afternoon, the Sat eve Copeland performance looked no better sold than the Fri eve non-Copeland performance — at least in orchestra.

Harlequinade rarely sells well at NYCB either. Think the commedia dell'arte storyline is rather cruel and unappealing for the average ballet goer. 

[ABT Fan]

3 hours ago, fondoffouettes said:

Sterling Baca in the men’s dressing room at the Met! (It was posted by Carlos Gonzalez as an Instagram story.) I wonder what this means, if anything. 

Could he be coming back to dance with ABT for the Met season, the way Nicole Graniero does? I don’t think PA Ballet has anything programmed until October. That’s a long layoff period...

I don't think so. He has an Instagram story up that says he's in NYC for the weekend to see his ABT friends. He was probably taking class with the company and using the men's dressing room afterwards (and hanging out with his friends).

[nanushka]

14 minutes ago, canbelto said:

Harlequinade rarely sells well at NYCB either. Think the commedia dell'arte storyline is rather cruel and unappealing for the average ballet goer. 

I would have thought that ABT’s new Ratmansky Harlequinade would have drawn a broader and rather different audience than NYCB’s Harlequinade, but perhaps that explains it.

Edited May 27, 2018 by nanushka

[canbelto]

50 minutes ago, nanushka said:

I would have thought that ABT’s new Ratmansky Harlequinade would have drawn a broader and rather different audience than NYCB’s Harlequinade, but perhaps that explains it.

Hmm I think if anything ABT's audience is more conservative and a bigger chunk of the audience thinks ballet starts with Swan Lake and ends with Romeo and Juliet. Those two ballets seem to sell out no matter who's dancing, while ABT struggles to fill seats even for La Bayadere. 

I will be watching Ratmansky's Harlequinade with eager eyes but part of me will miss this lovely dance Balanchine did for Colombine/Patricia McBride:

 

[nanushka]

8 hours ago, canbelto said:

Hmm I think if anything ABT's audience is more conservative and a bigger chunk of the audience thinks ballet starts with Swan Lake and ends with Romeo and Juliet. Those two ballets seem to sell out no matter who's dancing, while ABT struggles to fill seats even for La Bayadere. 

Yes, definitely true. I meant to write, "ABT's new Ratmansky Harlequinade with Copeland" — thinking that there might be, for that at least, a variety of constituencies (those interested in a prominent new Ratmansky work, those interested in a new Petipa reconstruction, those drawn in by the charming ad campaign, those interested in Copeland, etc.) who might fill the house a bit more, at least for the (originally scheduled) Copeland performances.

Edited May 27, 2018 by nanushka

[Vs1]

21 hours ago, bcash said:

What happened with Lendorf? Injury? I was hoping to see him in something this season. 

He was pictured at the gala

[its the mom]

15 hours ago, laurel said:

At Monday's Gala, the Hunt of the Larks pas de deux from Harlequinade included a series of fast backwards hops on pointe for Columbine, repeated three or four times, for which Boylston received a well-deserved round of applause.  It's exactly the sort of movement Copeland would find difficult to execute.

Copland is not injured.  Prior to tonight's performance of Firebird, Connor Holloway hosted an Instagram live-stream story featuring Copeland having her Firebird makeup and hair prepared for the show, in which she mentioned her double-performance day today.

Sometimes, as you know, dancers are nursing injuries and feel it is better to pull out of certain performances to save themselves for others.  I think we saw that last week with Trenary who did not dance the peasant pas in Giselle, but danced this week in McGregor's piece and Firebird (I think.)  Nursing injury is quite common during Met season, I would think.

[fondoffouettes]

19 hours ago, canbelto said:

I will be watching Ratmansky's Harlequinade with eager eyes but part of me will miss this lovely dance Balanchine did for Colombine/Patricia McBride:

1

That variation is heaven. Thanks for sharing that video; I'd never seen it before. Whenever I need a moment of zen, I watch this clip of Tiler Peck dancing it:

The Balanchine version is followed, at around 1:03:30, by a dancer performing the original Petipa (however, I'm not sure how historically accurate it is). It has a series of hops on pointe at around 1:04:40. Is this similar to what Boylston did in the excerpt featured at the gala? From what people have described, it sounds like Ratmansky's hopping sequence might be more extensive or strenuous than what's seen in the video above.

Edited May 27, 2018 by fondoffouettes

[sandik]

On 5/27/2018 at 3:47 PM, fondoffouettes said:

That variation is heaven. Thanks for sharing that video; I'd never seen it before. Whenever I need a moment of zen, I watch this clip of Tiler Peck dancing it:

The Balanchine version is followed, at around 1:03:30, by a dancer performing the original Petipa (however, I'm not sure how historically accurate it is). It has a series of hops on pointe at around 1:04:40. Is this similar to what Boylston did in the excerpt featured at the gala? From what people have described, it sounds like Ratmansky's hopping sequence might be more extensive or strenuous than what's seen in the video above.

Many thanks for the link -- I hadn't yet watched this program.  FYI, the young woman who danced the Petipa solo is Angelica Generosa, who is a soloist at Pacific Northwest Ballet.

[alexL]

Another casting update(maybe I'm the only person who didn't notice this until now but here it goes...): SL on June 23rd matinee will be performed by Copeland and Cornejo instead of Simkin. I kind of saw this one coming though. 

[ABT Fan]

3 minutes ago, alexL said:

Another casting update(maybe I'm the only person who didn't notice this until now but here it goes...): SL on June 23rd matinee will be performed by Copeland and Cornejo instead of Simkin. I kind of saw this one coming though. 

Simkin replaced Lendorf w/ Boylston on 6/19, so I'm sure that was the reason for the change. Cornejo is now cast w/ Copeland for both of her performances.

[ABT Fan]

Hallberg will be guesting with the Mariinsky July 12 and 20 at the White Nights Festival. I’m guessing that’s why he pulled out of Whipped Cream earlier in the month.