2018 Met Season

[canbelto]

Wed matinee is fine if she also got an evening slot. But for the vast majority of the working folk, Wed matinees are no-gos. 

[Kathleen O'Connell]

13 minutes ago, nanushka said:

Yes, I don't get a sense that those on here who've complained (other than just personally, because they can't attend the performance) about dancer X or dancer Y getting assigned the Wednesday matinee slot are suggesting anything negative about the audiences at those performances — just that, in the context of this particular company's casting tendencies, it may seem to send a certain message to the dancer and to the public about how that dancer is viewed by the company's administration.

Murphy has two Wednesday matinees (Whipped Cream and Don Q.)

Copeland has a Wednesday matinee (Harlequinade)

Boylston has a Wednesday matinee (Firebird)

Teuscher has two Wednesday matinees (Bayadere and R&J)

Shevchenko has one Wednesday matinee (Swan Lake)

Lane has one Wednesday matinee (Giselle)

Seo has none, and neither does Abrera.

I'm not sure what this tells me about ABT's casting policies, frankly, but it doesn't look like the Wednesday matinee is the Siberia to which only the up-and-comers and the less favored are exiled.

[Kathleen O'Connell]

9 minutes ago, canbelto said:

Wed matinee is fine if she also got an evening slot. But for the vast majority of the working folk, Wed matinees are no-gos. 

Don't worry. Lane will get the Friday evening Giselle that Osipova will cancel when injury once again forces Hallberg to bow out. 

Okay, okay, I'm only half joking ...

[nanushka]

9 minutes ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:

I'm not sure what this tells me about ABT's casting policies, frankly, but it doesn't look like the Wednesday matinee is the Siberia to which only the up-and-comers and the less favored are exiled.

I don't disagree with your facts or even necessarily with your perception. I was merely explaining what I think is most often intended when people suggest that a Wednesday matinee casting (without accompanying evening casting, as canbelto notes) is a discredit to a particular dancer — i.e. not that a matinee audience is less deserving of top-notch casting.

Edited March 13, 2018 by nanushka

[fondoffouettes]

What's remarkable is Seo is only assigned opening nights, Friday night and Saturday nights. While it's not Seo Ballet Theatre any longer, she's given the spots that are often seen as the best-selling and/or most prestigious. Until last year, opening night guaranteed a review in the NYT. I think she can do no wrong in the AD's eyes.

Edited March 13, 2018 by fondoffouettes

[nanushka]

7 minutes ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:

Don't worry. Lane will get the Friday evening Giselle that Osipova will cancel when injury once again forces Hallberg to bow out. 

Yes, please! (Not wishing for the latter, of course, just hoping the former is the result if so!)

[Helene]

Having had  Saturday matinee subscriptions to NYCB in the '80's and both weekend matinee subscriptions to PNB since the '90's, I've had a long time to observe the patterns and what messages they convey.

[Kathleen O'Connell]

4 minutes ago, nanushka said:

I don't disagree with your facts or even necessarily with your perception. I was merely explaining what I think is most often intended when people suggest that a Wednesday matinee casting (without accompanying evening casting, as canbelto notes) is a discredit to a particular dancer — i.e. not that a matinee audience is less deserving of top-notch casting.

But if the audience is no less deserving, why is it a discredit?

[vipa]

3 hours ago, angelica said:

But that must have been coaching outside the company. n'est-ce pas? Which she had to pay for herself.

 

True angelica. I've also heard Boylston say she went to an acting coach. My guess is dancers supplement where they feel they need to.

[nanushka]

2 minutes ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:

But if the audience is no less deserving, why is it a discredit?

I don't necessarily think it is. But I can imagine reasons for thinking it is that would not involve thinking the audience is less deserving, one of which I explained above.

Edited March 13, 2018 by nanushka

[nanushka]

8 minutes ago, Helene said:

Having had  Saturday matinee subscriptions to NYCB in the '80's and both weekend matinee subscriptions to PNB since the '90's, I've had a long time to observe the patterns and what messages they convey.

Just curious, what have you observed?

(I'd grant that Saturday matinees are not the same as Wednesday matinees and that different companies may well have different patterns and/or messages. A Saturday matinee at NYCB, for instance, feels to me very different from a Wednesday matinee at ABT.)

Edited March 13, 2018 by nanushka

[fondoffouettes]

13 minutes ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:

But if the audience is no less deserving, why is it a discredit?

These are the reasons why I think a Wednesday matinee might be perceived as a discredit to a dancer cast in one:

-Wednesday matinees don't sell as well, in general, as evening performances. (Some of the emptiest houses I've observed at the Met have been Wednesday matinees).

-I've found Wednesday matinee audiences to have more muted responses to the dancing, though this could simply be a result of lower attendance.

-It's often, but not exclusively, the spot used for dancers making their role debuts at the Met (Teuscher in Swan Lake, Part in Don Q, Trenary in Sleeping Beauty, and certainly many others).

-Critics are much less likely to review a Wednesday matinee.

-The energy is simply different. I know that's incredibly vague, but Wednesday matinees have just felt more laid-back and casual to me (not in a bad way).

I say all this as someone who has been able to take off from work occasionally for Wednesday matinees and have loved the experience. And I pretty much exclusively go to Saturday/Sunday matinees at NYCB.

Edited March 13, 2018 by fondoffouettes

[vipa]

2 hours ago, fondoffouettes said:

They've had up to eight swan queens in a single run of Swan Lake at the Met; this year, just six. There's no reason Lane couldn't have been given a second shot. It would mean bringing Teuscher down to just one performance (since obviously they won't do that to Misty, who rakes in the dough for ABT). 

IMHO, the role should be removed from Boylston's rep. I've given up on her progressing artistically. 

I agree about Boylston. She has a body that's a fabulous instrument for ballet and a very strong technique, but her port de bras is lacking and I don't see any depth in her artistic approach. However, as I said before the AD seems to believe she can do anything. 

[nanushka]

23 minutes ago, fondoffouettes said:

These are the reasons why I think a Wednesday matinee might be perceived as a discredit to a dancer cast in one...

Another that comes to mind:

There are likely more people who are able to attend evenings but not able to attend Wednesday matinees than there are people who are able to attend Wednesday matinees but not able to attend evenings. (The former are not more deserving, just more numerous, I'd guess. And there are some people who are able to attend both.) Dancers have followings (many who post on here are among them), which both the dancers and the company have an interest (for various reasons) in cultivating and satisfying. Casting a dancer in the Wednesday matinee slot makes it somewhat more difficult to do either.

Edited March 13, 2018 by nanushka

[vipa]

1 hour ago, bingham said:

Irina can't last forever and the ABT ladies need help. Isabelle Guerin, a former Etoile of the POB lives in NYC and ,if she is willing, would be a great addition to the coaching team at ABT.  She did staged Other Dances for ABT and from the dancers comments in Instagram, was a marvelous coach/teacher. Just a thought.

I agree. I am thinking, however, that the ABT coaching staff is probably not very expensive. No offense to anyone, but in an interview Susan Jones did mention struggling by on unemployment during layoffs, . I doubt that Raffa and Jones demand the salary that someone like Guerin would. There could be financial restraints.

[hyacinthhippo]

Felicias....  I suggest we rename this forum topic to the

“Sarah Lane Fan Club and Defenders”

[angelica]

9 minutes ago, hyacinthhippo said:

Felicias....  I suggest we rename this forum topic to the

“Sarah Lane Fan Club and Defenders”

I'll be a charter member, just as I was a charter member in the past of the Veronika Part Fan Club and the Stella Abrera Fan Club. What would these often overlooked dancers have done without us?

[angelica]

1 hour ago, vipa said:

True angelica. I've also heard Boylston say she went to an acting coach. My guess is dancers supplement where they feel they need to.

It's one thing to go to an acting coach but quite another to go to a ballet coach because the company has few resources to provide enough coaching, even to its principals and upcoming soloists. I would guess that NYCB principals and soloists get their coaching from within the company.

[Helene]

2 hours ago, nanushka said:

Just curious, what have you observed?

(I'd grant that Saturday matinees are not the same as Wednesday matinees and that different companies may well have different patterns and/or messages. A Saturday matinee at NYCB, for instance, feels to me very different from a Wednesday matinee at ABT.)

From NYCB in the late '70's and early '80's, NYC was just a few years away from the very low period of being the verge of bankruptcy in the mid-'70's, and all you heard was "crime, crime, crime."  Elderly women walking slowly at night were considered prime targets, and it was a general phenomenon that they attended arts performances at matinees, along with the typical smattering of kids who could only go on weekends (and when NYCB rep was considered palatable). So when you have an audience that self-limits itself to one or two performances a week, you don't have to serve shrimp appetizers, but can serve pigs-in-blankets instead.  (Or you serve Green Giant green beans instead of the No Frills label, even if the cans have the same beans with different labels.) You offer the really good mustard -- a Farrell here, a McBride there -- so that this audience doesn't feel completely taken for granted and stop subscribing (back then) or coming.    

I saw many of Joseph Duell's, Stephanie Saland's, Judith Fugate's, the Roy and Frame siblings' early(ish) featured performances because NYCB could on Saturday matinees, and I became very loyal to this contingent and sought them out, but let's just say I overheard an enormous amount of grumbling on the 66 crosstown bus on the way to my connecting bus.  (It takes all of my self-control to not yell when I hear people at PNB performances doing the mapping from the cast lists to the hierarchy and overhear the disappointed, "But she's only [a soloist/corps]," because they have no idea what a privilege it will be to see that dancer.)  Gradually I sought out the weekly cast lists and tried to see every permutation of every cast of almost every ballet.  (I wouldn't have cared if Baryshnikov himself returned to dance "The Steadfast Tin Soldier:" that would have been a "skip.")  Sometimes that meant Farrell, and sometimes that meant a corps member.  Granted that was most often from rows M-O or standing room, but I got to see a ton.

When I first moved to Seattle and saw PNB live -- I missed their 1987 tour to BAM, but I did see the Nutcracker movie and fell head-over-heels for Patricia Barker -- what my brain remembers is two casts:  Patricia Barker and Someone Else.  PNB didn't announce casting back then: it was on a clipboard at the receptionist's desk in the Phelps Center, which housed the school, rehearsal studios, and library.  I wanted to see and get to know all of the dancers and quickly, after years of learning new faces by process-of-elimination at NYCB, and I started to buy extra tickets to the alternate cast(s).  I remember once when the receptionist held it close to her chest and asked me suspiciously why I wanted to know.  I told her that I had seen Barker the week before, and I would buy another ticket only if I knew if I'd see the other ballerina.  I don't think she believed me, because people would switch out if Barker wasn't dancing, but I went to the box office and bought a ticket to the other cast.  

Unfortunately, as the company grew with more and more fine dancers and options, the number of performances in each run became fewer, and they never again added an extra performance of a visiting company to the subscription package like they did the first season I attended, 1994-5. 

What I see now is that, unless there is a new one-act ballet and/or injury, which usually means one cast for all three performances first weekend (Fri, Sat mat, Sat eve), the performances that are cast with the most favored dancers (of those doing the casting, which can be the choreographers or stagers) are Opening Night, which also means the open dress rehearsal the night before unless it is a strenuous full-length, and first Saturday (for full-lengths and some reps, a different cast than the Opening Night cast. The first Saturday cast gets the dress in a strenuous full-length, like Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty.)   Sometimes there are more favored dancers than first weekend performances, or performances over a run, and who gets two and who gets one, which can end up being a matter of seniority (and the cast with one gets the abridged school matinee).   In many reps, the cast getting the Sunday matinee is a new cast getting a one-off, and I try to see as many of those as possible.  

While the physical danger isn't a factor in Seattle, you still have the kids/families coming in the afternoon, and elderly people who would rather not drive in the dark or deal with spotty transit with inconsistent service at night.  And I don't think it was an accident that PNB cast Noelani Pantastico in one non-subscription performance of "Swan Lake" and Lucien Postlewaite in the other: they were two names who could sell more than anyone else, and there were a lot of tickets to sell.

I can't judge Wednesday afternoon audiences, because the only time I took a day off from work to attend the ballet was in the mid-'80's when Paris Opera Ballet visited.  I think that it would have a different mix of people, including students, freelancers, and tourists, who have more flexible schedules and for whom a mid-week matinee is appealing in itself.

[nanushka]

Thanks so much, Helene. I find that all very interesting.

[nanushka]

2 hours ago, angelica said:

I'll be a charter member, just as I was a charter member in the past of the Veronika Part Fan Club and the Stella Abrera Fan Club.

I’d gladly sign up for all three!

Edited March 14, 2018 by nanushka

[LadyBubbles]

You can add me to the club. And proud of it.

[bingham]

8 hours ago, vipa said:

I agree. I am thinking, however, that the ABT coaching staff is probably not very expensive. No offense to anyone, but in an interview Susan Jones did mention struggling by on unemployment during layoffs, . I doubt that Raffa and Jones demand the salary that someone like Guerin would. There could be financial restraints.

Surely, one of ABT's prominent patrons can sponsor her coaching position/salary.

 

[Olga]

16 hours ago, its the mom said:

Maybe, for once, Kevin saw into the future.  With Cornejo winding down and three smaller women on the rise (Lane, Trenary and Brandt), they can use him.  Who knows if he will stay long enough for us to find out.  He danced a lot more in Boston and at ENB.

Cirio could certainly step up and step in if there is a levelling off of Cornejo and Simkin’s casting. Assuming he is still there, and I did  get the impression from his effusive if not fawning Instagram thank you to ENB that he is looking to move on. But it’s the shorter men who really need the shorter women, not the other way around.

[abatt]

17 hours ago, fondoffouettes said:

They've had up to eight swan queens in a single run of Swan Lake at the Met; this year, just six. There's no reason Lane couldn't have been given a second shot. It would mean bringing Teuscher down to just one performance (since obviously they won't do that to Misty, who rakes in the dough for ABT). 

IMHO, the role should be removed from Boylston's rep. I've given up on her progressing artistically. 

From what I've observed, Swan Lake sells out every year regardless of who is dancing, so they really did not need to give Misty two Swan Lakes in order to sell tickets. Swan Lake sells itself.