New York City Ballet 2022-2023 season

[Helene]

I could be mis-remembering, and I don't have the full programs anymore, but I thought the two women in Tea, who dance en pointe, were students, at least when I saw the company regularly, yegads, nearly 30 years ago at this point!  

In any case, Martins attended at least two performances this year: Ramasar's and Hyltin's farewells, and I'm sure he had his eyes open for those former students.  It's only been four years.

[Jacqueline]

NYCB has lots of wonderful SB rehearsal footage up on their Instagram stories right now ...a real treat.  And, we can see Emma von Enck rehearsing Aurora (!) in preparation for performing that role at "Family Saturday" on Feb. 25, as per the caption provided by the company.  

[pirouette]

Wow, I love that they posted so many rehearsal videos! I'm very excited to see Indiana Woodward, though everyone looks pretty great. She seems to have that youthful energy that I'm looking for in Auroras. I also saw Megan Fairchild last night at the dress rehearsal and she definitely plays the part of a 16 year old very well!! 

The fact that Emma von Enck is performing Aurora's choreography for Family Saturday makes me think they considered her for the role but decided she wasn't ready yet. She will hopefully debut it in the future! She looks terrific from the videos they posted. 

[bellawood]

31 minutes ago, Jacqueline said:

NYCB has lots of wonderful SB rehearsal footage up on their Instagram stories right now ...a real treat.  And, we can see Emma von Enck rehearsing Aurora (!) in preparation for performing that role at "Family Saturday" on Feb. 25, as per the caption provided by the company.  

She looks quite impressive! - also lots of footage of Isabella doing the rose adagio — plus Megan and Joe looking 💯.

[BalanchineFan]

deleted

Edited February 16, 2023 by BalanchineFan
reflection

[cobweb]

If anyone was there tonight I am interested to hear who were the young men attending Lilac’s fairies. I was at the Dress last night and they were not listed in the casting, but several of them looked stellar. I recognized Riccardo, Melnikov, Nelson, Abreu, possibly Klesa(?) and…? Can anyone help me out here from the program?

[Helene]

35 minutes ago, BalanchineFan said:

I don't think SAB works quite the way you have in mind. The young children who appear in with NYCB are indeed from SAB. They dance MIdsummer, Nutcracker, SB, Mozartiana, etc. They are generally under 11 or 12. None of them dance on pointe.

PNB works the same way for the children's roles in almost all of the same ballets, although I don't think PNB ever did Harlequinade.  Most of the children in those ballets, all of whom are local, do not go on to the most advanced levels, although some do and a few of those do make the leap to the Professional Division (last two years).  There have been more local children who've started early in the school and made it into the company (or other companies) through Dance Chance and the Francia Russell Center on the Eastside, but for a long time, it was similar to NYCB, where Peter Boal, Judith Fugate, Michael Byars, and a few others did start at SAB as young(er) children, whereas most of the local dancers, like Calegari, didn't join SAB until they were teenagers.

Merrill Ashley wrote in her book that she performed the first kid Candy Cane in at 13 or 14, when her parents allowed her to attend SAB, but she wasn't yet tall, and she fit into the costume.  I realize that isn't a pointe role, and I was thinking specifically of the Tea sidekicks.  

I thought the Nutcracker corps was supplemented by students in the advanced classes, but I was corrected earlier in the thread. 

And, of course, Martins wouldn't cast based on an 11- or 12-year-old unless they were extremely talented, but there were 14- and15- and 16- and 17- and 18-year olds that were in the advanced classes at SAB in December 2017 that are dancing at NYCB now as 19-23-year olds. They would surely be up for parts in The Sleeping Beauty, and he'd be aware of them, especially as he attended at least two performances recently.

Peter Boal hadn't taught 1/3 of PNB that recently either when he became AD, but he did remember them.

[abatt]

4 hours ago, Helene said:

Balanchine only appeared in SAB classes a few times a year -- dancers have written about how they would wear their best clothes, do their make-up carefully, choose the right earrings, wear perfume, etc. when they heard he was coming -- and, he too, made quick decisions.  If Martins disagreed with Kay Mazzo about her suggestions, he'd observed enough to form that opinion, for better or worse.

My apologies for not knowing the SAB terminology for the way levels are described at SAB.

So that means SAB students are no longer in The Nutcracker, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Coppelia, The Sleeping Beauty, and Harliquenade?   (I don't know the new works, and those are the ones I remember with young dancers.)  Where do they get the children/teens from if not from the school?

They are certainly SAB students in Sleeping Beauty, which I saw this evening.  My program actually lists by name the SAB students who appeared in the Garland Dance.

Darci Kistler, Peter's wife, worked as an instructor at SAB.  I suspect she may have also informed Peter about student performance abilities in addition to Kay Mazzo and other instructors.  Even if Peter wasn't teaching SAB classes, I have no doubt he was getting reports from numerous instructors about particular students at SAB.

[abatt]

37 minutes ago, cobweb said:

If anyone was there tonight I am interested to hear who were the young men attending Lilac’s fairies. I was at the Dress last night and they were not listed in the casting, but several of them looked stellar. I recognized Riccardo, Melnikov, Nelson, Abreu, possibly Klesa(?) and…? Can anyone help me out here from the program?

You know your dancers!.  They were Abreu, David Gabriel, Melnikov. Lars Nelson, Davide Riccardo and an apprentice - Owen Flacker.

[Rose]

 

I wasn't referring to non-dancing filler background roles in Sleeping Beauty or any other 'story' ballet. Those parts don't require technique (or anything) and also they don't come around very often. Advanced students don't perform with the company in dancing roles unless they are apprentices (I can't speak for the random male from the school who Stafford now employs). Sometimes dancers become apprentices so quickly, you might think they are still students. I'm not referring to a student during Balanchine's era who was in an advanced level and made it onto the stage in The Nutcracker. It was different then. Also, obviously it is not just Kay Mazzo who spoke with Peter Martins about which dancer to hire, it could be any teacher at the school. She just had the most clout at that time because she ran the school. 

[Rose]

5 hours ago, Helene said:

Balanchine only appeared in SAB classes a few times a year -- dancers have written about how they would wear their best clothes, do their make-up carefully, choose the right earrings, wear perfume, etc. when they heard he was coming -- and, he too, made quick decisions.  If Martins disagreed with Kay Mazzo about her suggestions, he'd observed enough to form that opinion, for better or worse.

My apologies for not knowing the SAB terminology for the way levels are described at SAB.

So that means SAB students are no longer in The Nutcracker, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Coppelia, The Sleeping Beauty, and Harliquenade?   (I don't know the new works, and those are the ones I remember with young dancers.)  Where do they get the children/teens from if not from the school?

No one was ever notified (that I'm aware) that PM was going to be teaching class. I don't think it mattered that much who PM chose because almost everyone in the advanced division of the school was good enough for the company. And to be very clear, I am not referring to the children in the school who perform roles in the above-mentioned ballets. Those are not corps roles. Please don't mention the Garland Dance for the hardly-ever-performed-SB. Story ballets are the exception. But, come on, how relevant are story ballets at NYCB?

[Helene]

It's a shame that the upper level students aren't performing in the corps.  PNB isn't the only company where, by the time they've spent their last two years at the highest level that they've been in multiple ballets, supplementing the apprentices and corps members in the big corps ballets.  Here it's Nutcracker Snow and Flowers, Sleeping Beauty and/or Swan Lake, Giselle when it's played, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Cinderella, Coppelia, Pite's two big works among them.   There may have been some other ballets with large corps that haven't been performed in a while that used students in the corps, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch.  That stage experience ia invaluable, and that's not even counting the Spring story ballet matinees (ex: Snow White) and the school shows, which include Next Step, in which company members choreograph on them.

    

        4 minutes ago, Rose said:     

    

   Please don't mention the Garland Dance for the hardly-ever-performed-SB. Story ballets are the exception. But, come on, how relevant are story ballets at NYCB? 

I think the Garland Dance counts, and from what I've been reading here over the years, Peter Martins thought enough of his full-lengths, particularly Swan Lake, which made it to PBS as a representation of the company to the rest of the country, and Romeo + Juliet to be programmed enough, even going head-to-head with ABT.

[Balletwannabe]

I was at the performance last night and there was an SAB student performing a corp role who is not yet an apprentice.  You will see the +++ indicated next to her name, Maya Milic. 

The advanced SAB students performing the roles that "require hardly any technique" are fully capable of dancing at a high level should there suddenly be a large group out of the corp due to Covid or injury.  I watched Maya Milic & her peers at the female choreography night & Jonathan Stafford was in attendance.  The relationship between SAB & NYCB is knit tight.

[Balletwannabe]

7 minutes ago, Balletwannabe said:

I was at the performance last night and there was an SAB student performing a corp role who is not yet an apprentice.  You will see the +++ indicated next to her name, Maya Milic. 

The advanced SAB students performing the roles that "require hardly any technique" are fully capable of dancing at a high level should there suddenly be a large group out of the corp due to Covid or injury.  I watched Maya Milic & her peers at the female choreography night & Jonathan Stafford was in attendance.  The relationship between SAB & NYCB is tight-knit.

I have no idea why my post just quoted and double posted and I don't know how to delete oops.

Edited February 16, 2023 by Balletwannabe

[BalanchineFan]

8 hours ago, abatt said:

They are certainly SAB students in Sleeping Beauty, which I saw this evening.  My program actually lists by name the SAB students who appeared in the Garland Dance.

Darci Kistler, Peter's wife, worked as an instructor at SAB.  I suspect she may have also informed Peter about student performance abilities in addition to Kay Mazzo and other instructors.  Even if Peter wasn't teaching SAB classes, I have no doubt he was getting reports from numerous instructors about particular students at SAB.

Darci left SAB shortly after Peter resigned.

I deleted my entire post when I started thinking about how Martins would have known Unity Phelan, Indiana Woodward and any other dancers he took into the company and promoted, quite well.

[cobweb]

9 hours ago, abatt said:

You know your dancers!.  They were Abreu, David Gabriel, Melnikov. Lars Nelson, Davide Riccardo and an apprentice - Owen Flacker.

Thank you abatt. I do like to get to know the youngsters. It's so annoying they've discontinued putting up pictures next to the bios. All this social media footage, and they can't find the manpower to flesh out the website? Annoying. 

[bellawood]

3 hours ago, Balletwannabe said:

I was at the performance last night and there was an SAB student performing a corp role who is not yet an apprentice.  You will see the +++ indicated next to her name, Maya Milic. 

The advanced SAB students performing the roles that "require hardly any technique" are fully capable of dancing at a high level should there suddenly be a large group out of the corp due to Covid or injury.  I watched Maya Milic & her peers at the female choreography night & Jonathan Stafford was in attendance.  The relationship between SAB & NYCB is knit tight.

How was the performance, Balletwannabe? 

[BalanchineFan]

On 2/15/2023 at 12:00 AM, Fernie M said:

Wondering if India Bradley danced at dress rehearsal tonight? According to updated casting, she’s replaced throughout the week. I hope it’s nothing serious.

Nieve Corrigan danced in her place, as she's doing Bradley's schedule and her own shows the rest of the week.

Edited February 17, 2023 by BalanchineFan

[Balletwannabe]

28 minutes ago, bellawood said:

How was the performance, Balletwannabe? 

Megan Fairchild is a 39 year old mother of 3 and pulled off playing an innocent sweet 16 year old.  I loved every minute of her stage.  

Highlight for me were Emma Von Enck & Harrison Cole in the cat pas.  I wanted it to last so much longer.  Their technique & chemistry was off the charts.  

I was not enthralled by the "Jewels" in the Wedding, except fot Megan LeCrone playing Diamond.  I just really enjoyed it, can't put my finger on why.

I hate Peter Martin's choreography for the fairy's.  Dance after dance I wondered why I wasn't enjoying these dancers- and then I realized it's the choreography.  

However - Mira Nadon's role being much larger as the Lilac Fairy, thoroughly enjoyed.  I know she's tall, but I think she could pull off Aurora.  She has beautiful, expressive stage presence.

Joseph Gordon's technique was excellent, thoroughly enjoyed his solos.  

The jesters need to work on timing & spacing .  Had the same issue with the men's sections in Copeland Episodes.  If timing is off it ruins the energy of the group.  

I could tell Maria K. Was thoroughly enjoying her evil role.  Loved it.  

Overall an enjoyable performance, looking forward to comparing with Woodward.

 

[Fernie M]

1 hour ago, Balletwannabe said:

Megan Fairchild is a 39 year old mother of 3 and pulled off playing an innocent sweet 16 year old.  I loved every minute of her stage.  

Highlight for me were Emma Von Enck & Harrison Cole in the cat pas.  I wanted it to last so much longer.  Their technique & chemistry was off the charts.  

I was not enthralled by the "Jewels" in the Wedding, except fot Megan LeCrone playing Diamond.  I just really enjoyed it, can't put my finger on why.

I hate Peter Martin's choreography for the fairy's.  Dance after dance I wondered why I wasn't enjoying these dancers- and then I realized it's the choreography.  

However - Mira Nadon's role being much larger as the Lilac Fairy, thoroughly enjoyed.  I know she's tall, but I think she could pull off Aurora.  She has beautiful, expressive stage presence.

Joseph Gordon's technique was excellent, thoroughly enjoyed his solos.  

The jesters need to work on timing & spacing .  Had the same issue with the men's sections in Copeland Episodes.  If timing is off it ruins the energy of the group.  

I could tell Maria K. Was thoroughly enjoying her evil role.  Loved it.  

Overall an enjoyable performance, looking forward to comparing with Woodward.

 

Thank you for your observations on yesterday evening’s performance. I couldn’t be there, and was missing it.

I agree Mira Nadon would’ve made an excellent Aurora. She certainly has the “youthfulness” required. I believe she’s not as tall as LaFreniere. 

As I was watching the SB footage on NYCB IG, I kept thinking how I really enjoyed Emma Von Enck’s rehearsal performance over hers. LaFrenière is certainly technically capable, there’s just something about her that doesn’t read Aurora to me. But we’ll have to see.

[pirouette]

44 minutes ago, Fernie M said:

As I was watching the SB footage on NYCB IG, I kept thinking how I really enjoyed Emma Von Enck’s rehearsal performance over hers. LaFrenière is certainly technically capable, there’s just something about her that doesn’t read Aurora to me. But we’ll have to see.

I have to agree Fernie M! Emma von Enck looks so light on her feet! LaFreniere looks good and clean, but she appeared very mature and regal rehearsing the Act I Entrance and Rose Adagio. I think that energy might work for the wedding pdd, but not for Act I (excluding the vision scene).  LaFreniere still has a week to go though, and final performances can be very different. Will be interested to hear reports on what people think! Sadly I don't think I will be able to make it to either of her shows..

[cobweb]

I seem to have missed the footage of von Enck and LaFreniere! If anyone sees them put it up again, please post!

[bellawood]

37 minutes ago, cobweb said:

I seem to have missed the footage of von Enck and LaFreniere! If anyone sees them put it up again, please post!

It’s still on the nycb Instagram stories for a few more hours!

[abatt]

3 hours ago, Balletwannabe said:

Megan Fairchild is a 39 year old mother of 3 and pulled off playing an innocent sweet 16 year old.  I loved every minute of her stage.  

Highlight for me were Emma Von Enck & Harrison Cole in the cat pas.  I wanted it to last so much longer.  Their technique & chemistry was off the charts.  

I was not enthralled by the "Jewels" in the Wedding, except fot Megan LeCrone playing Diamond.  I just really enjoyed it, can't put my finger on why.

I hate Peter Martin's choreography for the fairy's.  Dance after dance I wondered why I wasn't enjoying these dancers- and then I realized it's the choreography.  

However - Mira Nadon's role being much larger as the Lilac Fairy, thoroughly enjoyed.  I know she's tall, but I think she could pull off Aurora.  She has beautiful, expressive stage presence.

Joseph Gordon's technique was excellent, thoroughly enjoyed his solos.  

The jesters need to work on timing & spacing .  Had the same issue with the men's sections in Copeland Episodes.  If timing is off it ruins the energy of the group.  

I could tell Maria K. Was thoroughly enjoying her evil role.  Loved it.  

Overall an enjoyable performance, looking forward to comparing with Woodward.

 

Very much agree with this post about the quality of the dancing last night.  Fairchild is ageless.  A wonderful performance.  And this is exactly the type of pure classical role in which Gordon excels.  I find him less convincing in neo classical works like SVC, but in this he was superb.  Fish dives - NO PROBLEM.  Every one was perfect.

I liked Nadon's dancing, but she needs to lighten up and be more joyful.  Maybe she was nervous, but she seemed a bit too cold for this role.

Erica and Danny were terrific in Bluebird.  A joyful evening.   The place was packed.

And Maria K was a delicious Carabosse. 

 

[MarzipanShepherdess]

I echo many of @Balletwannabe's observations! Maria K was a delight as Carabosse, she played her as like a female Joker. Lots of maniacal laughter and wicked glee. Joseph Gordon was so gorgeous that I felt cheated every time he went off stage, we don't get enough of him in this ballet! Roman Meija gave a bravura turn as the lead jester, subbing in for Sebastian V-V. Everyone who gets to see him as Bluebird is in for a real show. And Emma Von Enck was excellent as the White Cat, so charismatic and impactful in such a short solo. I really hope we get to see her Aurora sooner than later. Of the non-Lilac fairies/jewels Alexa Maxwell stood out to me the most. What a great season she's having.

I'm a big Mira fan and thought she made a lovely Lilac debut, with room to mature in the role. She is a natural Lilac, with her gorgeous long lines and expressive port de bras, much in evidence last night. But there were moments were I felt like she was overdoing the choreography a bit, and it looked a bit forced/effortful.  Her Lilac had a grandeur yet also a sweetness that was beautiful to watch, but I think she could further develop how she conveys the power and authority Lilac wields. 

Megan Fairchild is such a treasure to the company and to audiences. Her Aurora last night was just radiant.