New York City Ballet 2022-2023 season

[cobweb]

37 minutes ago, bellawood said:

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

Thanks, bellawood! I saw Peck and Chan and assumed that was it; I didn't realize the footage went on and on! Lots of great stuff. I would sure love to see Emma von Enck's Aurora! She looked great. 

[griffie]

Last night's Sleeping Beauty was a joyous delight. (The last SB I saw was ABT's rather garish Kirkland production; this was far better. So many lovely court costumes!) Echoing that Fairchild and Gordon were wonderful - expansive and assured. They made it all look easy, even the fishes. Dancing of all roles was of the highest level. Loved the Garland Dance as seeing so many dancers moving in intricate patterns is just deeply satisfying to me. I thought the fairies' choreography often looked a bit frenetic. I admire speed and dazzling footwork as much as anyone, but feel a steady diet of it for five variations in a row isn't the best presentation. All fairies did really well although I did see some tiny weight adjustments here and there due to the extreme difficulty and speed of the steps. Baily Jones in the final (red tutu) variation was notable for her quickness, precision and secure footing.

Mira Nadon was a beautiful regal Lilac with her long limbs. She danced and acted very well in her debut, with lovely musical back-bendy attitude turns, but I did feel she came across as a bit solemn compared to the smiling, warm and gracious Stella Abrera I last saw as Lilac. Perhaps that's an artistic choice for Nadon; every dancer has their own personality onstage.

The cattiness of the White Cat and Puss (E. Von Enck and Harrison Cole) got many laughs from the audience around me. So did the tiny Little Red Riding Hood with her small forest tree friends and her (very avuncular) Wolf. She looked like she couldn't have been more than five or six years old and not only was she adorable in her big number, but later during the reprise, she kept up with all the adults covering a great deal of ground in the mazurka. She was practically running and still did all the steps and right timing. I know that small children with that talent, level of discipline and commitment exist, but I have never met one! Certainly not mine. 

Although I liked the dancers and the music, I didn't think the choreography for the Jewels brought enough extra to the fairytale section to be worth the added time. If someone were to tell me that it was more Martins than Petipa, I would not be surprised; even when Martins was at his best, I rarely seemed to "click" with his work. (Except for his early piece Calcium Light Night, which I do appreciate and don't think he ever topped.)

Question for those who know this kind of thing. In her Rose Adagio, Fairchild didn't make a show of holding the attitude balances for a long time. They were secure but fairly brief. I've no doubt she could sustain them for an extended time if she tried. Is that her personal choice (maybe to not slow down the music tempo), or is that Balanchine discouraged that kind of grandstanding?

[canbelto]

20 minutes ago, griffie said:

Question for those who know this kind of thing. In her Rose Adagio, Fairchild didn't make a show of holding the attitude balances for a long time. They were secure but fairly brief. I've no doubt she could sustain them for an extended time if she tried. Is that her personal choice (maybe to not slow down the music tempo), or is that Balanchine discouraged that kind of grandstanding?

That's more her personal thing, because I have definitely seen NYCB Auroras hold the balances a long time. Also have seen ballerinas struggle with the balances. It's just like SB productions all over the world. Not everyone is Margot Fonteyn.

[FPF]

2 hours ago, griffie said:

Although I liked the dancers and the music, I didn't think the choreography for the Jewels brought enough extra to the fairytale section to be worth the added time. If someone were to tell me that it was more Martins than Petipa, I would not be surprised; even when Martins was at his best, I rarely seemed to "click" with his work. (Except for his early piece Calcium Light Night, which I do appreciate and don't think he ever topped.)

The Jewels choreography is indeed Peter Martins'. It's supposed to be a sort of homage to Balanchine's Jewels.

[Caesariatus]

I saw Wednesday's Sleeping Beauty (Fairchild/Gordon).  Not a lot of emotional depth to it, but a lot of beautiful dancing in beautiful costumes.  Fairchild and Gordon were both very good.

One thing I never really noticed before is just how manipulative the Lilac Fairy is. She played Prince Desire like a violin.  He was just a pawn in her inter-fairy rivalry with Carabosse.

[Balletwannabe]

11 hours ago, Caesariatus said:

I saw Wednesday's Sleeping Beauty (Fairchild/Gordon).  Not a lot of emotional depth to it, but a lot of beautiful dancing in beautiful costumes.  Fairchild and Gordon were both very good.

One thing I never really noticed before is just how manipulative the Lilac Fairy is. She played Prince Desire like a violin.  He was just a pawn in her inter-fairy rivalry with Carabosse.

My impression from the mime scenes was that she was helping him because he wasn't very intelligent.  

"I have to do what?"

"Find the princess"

"But there are thorns"

"You have a sword"

"Oh is that what this is?"

 

[bellawood]

Jovani Furlan is missing his Sleeping Beauty performances due to a family emergency and is in Brazil. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CoxAuynuOmS/?igshid=MDM4ZDc5MmU=

[Kathleen O'Connell]

1 hour ago, Balletwannabe said:

My impression from the mime scenes was that she was helping him because he wasn't very intelligent.

Jonathan Stafford was really good with this particular bit. When the briars started to clear after his first thwack, he'd look down at his sword with body language that suggested nothing so much as "Holy Sh*t!" His Firebird Prince Ivan was delightful for similar reasons. He wasn't always compelling as a Balanchine capital-P Princely-Consort-to-the-Boss-Lady, but he did Naive-but-Endearing-Rescuer-of-Princesses well. (He was the only Ivan I ever saw who made it seem absolutely right that he ends up with the Princess rather than the Firebird, even though the latter has the best steps and a snazzy costume.)

[matilda]

How awful for Jovani! Now who will dance Desiré with Isabella LaFreniere? Predicting Chan since they've danced together lately. 

[pirouette]

I hope everything is alright with Jovani and his family! So sad that he's missing his debut as Desiré  Was anyone at the show last night for Chan's debut? Also interested to hear how Ashley Hod was as Carabosse and Emma Von Enck/Roman Mejia as Princess Florine/Bluebird. 

[Rosa]

7 hours ago, Balletwannabe said:

"You have a sword"

"Oh is that what this is?"

 

🤣🤣🤣

 

6 hours ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:

He was the only Ivan I ever saw who made it seem absolutely right that he ends up with the Princess rather than the Firebird, even though the latter has the best steps and a snazzy costume.

Glad to know I wasn't the only one who felt Ivan should have ended up with the Firebird!

[vipa]

I just got home from the Woodward/Huxley Sleeping Beauty and found the entire performance something of a mixed bag. Woodward's warmth and joy, make her a natural Aurora and she had lovely moments in her portrayal, the way she related to others on stage, and in her dancing. At the same time her nerves seemed to get the better of her. There were unexpected technical mishaps and she didn't savor/linger on any moments of choreography. Rose adagio had lovely moments, but not much musical nuance. On the last set of balances, the first was very solid and then she struggled to let go of her partner's hand. Fortunately the conductor was paying close attention and stretched out the music to give her plenty of time. In the wedding pas, Huxley really saved the day a few times, particularly in the turns into the fish. Then his variation was not the pristine dancing I've come to expect from him. Overall for Woodward, I'd say she has the right ingredients for the role but isn't comfortable enough to play with the music and use her technique to the fullest. Definitely a work in progress.

Other notes: I enjoyed Megan LeCrone as Carabosse. Suitably evil, she took control of the space. Emily Gerrity as Lilac, grew in graciousness as the ballet went on. I think she has the makings of a fine Lilac Fairy. 

My opinion on the prologue fairy variations is that they are too fast. I don't want the music to drag, just take it down hair to allow some graciousness to show through. The dancers always seem to be coping. Amazingly, Alexa Maxwell, found a way to do some musical phrasing in Courage.

Sara Adams sparkled in Blue Bird pas. Roman Meiia seemed oddly grandiose in his presentation. A bit mannered for my taste.

Jewels Pas de Quatre - Majorie Lundgren replaced India Bradley as Ruby. Harrison Coll had a struggle as Gold. Turns that started badly went downhill. Emma Von Enck was crisp, clear and elegant as Emerald and Ashley Hod as Diamond was impressive.

As someone else mentioned, in the final section of the ballet I get a kick out of watching Little Red Ridding Hood zip along with all the grown-ups!

I enjoyed the evening. Not the greatest performance of Sleeping Beauty I've ever seen, but much to enjoy and many hints of good things to come as these dancers grow.                                  

 

Edited February 18, 2023 by vipa

[GB1216]

I was there last night as well, and agree with @vipa.  Overall I did enjoy it but I came out of the first act feeling like - well they made it through. All of the fairies were debuts so I wonder if that had something to do with it too.  

I do find that I just don’t love PM’s choreography as some commenters have mentioned. It felt so fast and almost as if it were super technical for technicalities sake? I don’t know if that make sense.

for me, I enjoyed Emilie Gerrity the most.  She had beautiful arms and her movements felt very grand.  I would love to see her again as she progresses in the role. 

[matilda]

I had a different experience from the posters above and thought last night's Sleeping Beauty was totally magical, with Woodward an exquisite Aurora--lyricism, technique, warmth, musicality, acting--she has the full package. I didn't notice anything wrong technically on her part and found her Rose Adagio so beautiful I was tearing up. The balances were very, very impressive. I saw her debut in in 2019 and she's grown into the role a lot. She's cast in a lot of soubrette technical-whiz roles but her lyricism and musical phrasing in adagio is also gorgeous, in my view. I thought the fish dives were daring and perfectly snappy. All in all Indiana sent me home on the subway on a total high and I'm so happy I went out of my way to see her in this. 

Huxley's dancing was pristine except for one moment when he had to kind of save the landing on a double tour into arabesque, but it wasn't that noticeable. His strength is not really in these acting roles but he's such a talented dancer I love watching him in anything. 

Gerrity seemed a tad nervous and unstable in her first Lilac solo but she was fabulous the rest of the evening, lots of warmth. Her port de bras is one of the company's best. LeCrone really impressed as Carabosse. I haven't seen her in many character roles and she was very strong here.

Mejia and Adams were everything a Bluebird and Florine should be, in my eyes. This is a perfect role for Adams in particular. Mejia is a great Bluebird but he's ready to play the prince at this point. Last night was the best I've ever seen the jesters (Ulbricht, Grant, Abreu). Ulbricht, a veteran principal, kills it in these kinds of roles even if it's questionable why a veteran principal is cast here. 

The jewels quartet was mostly good, minus Coll's problem with the turns as stated above (he managed to save it adequately; I've seen those turns botched worse). 

Of the fairies I really liked Alexa Maxwell and Dominika Afanasenkov (from the On Pointe documentary). 

A note on Emma Von Enck, who many people expected and wanted to be cast as Aurora. She was fantastic and appropriately perky as Emerald but watching her, I was thinking about how I've never seen her in anything but upbeat allegro roles, never anything with gravitas or much emotional depth. She would be a natural for Aurora's party scene but it's unclear how she would fare in the vision and wedding scenes, since they're so different from her existing rep. 

Edited February 18, 2023 by matilda

[abatt]

I thought of the three casts I've seen Woodward was the most robust  Aurora of the Rose Adagio.  However, she lacks grandeur.  It's a difficult  role because not too many ballerinas can successfully navigate the entire role.  I also notice that something was amiss in the placement of the fish dives that Huxley and Woodward performed, but I can't figure out exactly why.  Certainly no disasters, though.  I thought Huxley did pretty well with the technical demands, except toward the end of the wedding pas he started to have problems in his solo.  More problematic was that he is completely wooden actor.  

Woodward had a hilarious blooper in which her leg somehow became entangled in Janzen's cape in the Rose Adagio.

 

I liked Tiler Peck on Thursday.  Her musicality was quite wonderful.  Kudos to Chan, who is both technically terrific and a wonderful partner.  

I enjoyed Gerrity's performance, but so far my favorite Lilac is Laracey.  The way Laracey used her upper body, arms and hands  were exquisite.  Laracey exudes goodness and benevolence, and has the perfect temperament for the role.  In contrast, all of the things that make Nadon great at Tall Girl in Rubies and in SVC make her an imperfect interpreter of Lilac.  She has an urbane sophistication which does not work for this role.  Of the three Lilacs, as far as I could tell Gerrity was the only one who danced the steps flawlessly.  

I liked LeCrone as Carabosse.  She reminded me of the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz.  

Harrison Coll was out of his depth in Gold.  It reminded me of the bad old days when Chase Finlay tried to fake his way through the Gold variation.  So it appears that the only tall  person available who can actually dance Gold right now is Peter Walker.  Roman takes on the role this afternoon, and I'm sure he will be wonderful.  However, they need more tall men to take on important roles, ASAP. What a shame to see Ball and Janzen wander around the stage as suitors in the Rose Adagio section  but unable to dance the difficult, important roles in this ballet. 

Laine Habony looks out of shape.

 

Added - Loved Emma and Roman in Bluebird.   I thought Emma's footwork was much more clearly articulated than Adams' as Florine.

Edited February 18, 2023 by abatt

[pirouette]

I was also quite impressed by Woodward and Gerrity last night. Yes, there were a few small mishaps but overall I left the show on a high. About the fish dives - I noticed that as she is 'diving' one of her legs (I think the front/left leg) is flailing and bent a bit. Maybe that's what made it look a little off? Once she was in the actual fish dive position, it looked fine to me.  

[Balletwannabe]

1 hour ago, pirouette said:

I was also quite impressed by Woodward and Gerrity last night. Yes, there were a few small mishaps but overall I left the show on a high. About the fish dives - I noticed that as she is 'diving' one of her legs (I think the front/left leg) is flailing and bent a bit. Maybe that's what made it look a little off? Once she was in the actual fish dive position, it looked fine to me.  

Fairchild's fish dives looked awkward in this same way- I wasn't sure if I was just nitpicking because she did it the same way both times. 

[canbelto]

Any reports of Unity Phelan's Aurora? I won't be able to attend any of her performances so curious about how she does.

[pirouette]

7 hours ago, Balletwannabe said:

Fairchild's fish dives looked awkward in this same way- I wasn't sure if I was just nitpicking because she did it the same way both times. 

Me too – Indiana also did it for all three fish dives so I think it's just how she does it. The only other Aurora I've seen in performance is Tiler Peck and hers has always looked extra clean to me, as showcased here at around 1:38 

 

[abatt]

I saw yesterday's matinee.  The weakest link was definitely Veyette, not Phelan. 

Veyette made numerous errors in his solo work in the wedding scene.  This classical choreography seemed to be completely beyond his current level of ability.

Phelan  was shaking a lot during both sets of balances in the Rose Adagio.  She had to immediately grab the next guy's hand to stay upright.  She never came off pointe, but the  balance sections were very precarious. The rest of her work was wonderful throughout the performance.  The only other issue she had was during the wedding scene, when she has to do some spins across the diagonal of the stage.  Spinning is her kryptonite. On the final spin she lost control and stumbled a bit. 

There was a major mishap on the first fish dive.  I thought Phelan might end up being dropped, but somehow Veyette managed to reposition her body to fix the problem.

Mejia was fantastic in his Gold debut.  So was Nadon as Diamond, but she was clearly too tall for Mejuia.    The Jewels section was well performed by everyone.  So far my favorite Diamond has been Kikta.  Looking forward to her Lilac.

Miller got through her Lilac variations in the Christening, but the effort was visible.  In her final steps in her wedding solo, she lost control and made obvious mistakes.   In my opinion, she has the weakest technique of all the ladies who are realistically in the mix for promotion at the moment. 

 

 

 

Edited February 19, 2023 by abatt

[cobweb]

So far it sounds like this run of SB is a mixed bag of performances. I'll be there Tuesday night and will report on Phelan and Veyette. It sounds like most everyone is in agreement that the fairy variations are way too fast, and that the "jewels" section is perhaps superfluous. Obvious suggestion, remove the jewels and slow down the tempo to something more reasonable for the fairy variations, or really just for the entire ballet. I realize they're trying to adapt SB for a modern audience, and I personally don't want to be getting out of the ballet close to midnight, but I don't want Sleeping Beauty to feel so rushed, either. It loses a lot of grandeur and graciousness when it's breathlessly plowing along. Also, kind of paradoxically, I feel it gains its own momentum when taken more slowly. 

[abatt]

I like the Jewels section  and hope they keep it going forward.   It gives more dancers the opportunity to shine.

 

 

 

[canbelto]

The fairy variations during this run were the slowest I've ever heard them. In fact, the whole evening was longer -- both nights the ballet was about 2 hr 45 minutes total. Friday night it was close to 11 when we finally got out.

[matilda]

I would also keep the jewels section. I might be in the minority but the fast pacing of the Martins SB doesn't feel all that problematic to me. I don't really go to NYCB for top-tier ballet storytelling with lots of mime; I go to see pure dance. This production is full of that, with so many different parts for different dancers. The Ratmansky version at ABT may be "authentic" with richer storytelling but that production kind of drags in comparison to NYCB's. Plus, this one has such beautiful sets and costumes. 

I still haven't seen any news or clues online about who will be replacing Jovani Furlan in his scheduled Sleeping Beauty performances. 

Edited February 19, 2023 by matilda

[California]

18 hours ago, pirouette said:

Me too – Indiana also did it for all three fish dives so I think it's just how she does it. The only other Aurora I've seen in performance is Tiler Peck and hers has always looked extra clean to me, as showcased here at around 1:38 

 

Joseph Gordon's Instagram Stories has two fish dives with Fairchild. Those only stay on-line for 24 hours (I think), so look fast. They seemed okay to me.