Erik Bruhn Prize livestream - 25 March 2023

[volcanohunter]

The National Ballet of Canada will livestream this year's edition of the Erik Bruhn Prize on Saturday, March 25th, at 7:15 pm Eastern. Competing his year are Emerson Dayton and Noah Parets from the National Ballet of Canada, Chloe Misseldine and Tristan Brosnan from American Ballet Theatre, Viola Pantuso and Daichi Ikarashi from the Royal Ballet and MacKenzie Brown from the Stuttgart Ballet, partnered by non-competing Adhonay Soares. The competing choreographers are Ethan Colangelo, Lauren Lovette, Joshua Junker and Roman Novitzky.

The jury will consist of the companies' artistic directors.

https://bruhnprize.neme.tv/watch/448-bruhnprize-erik-bruhn-livestream

[volcanohunter]

Hope Muir posted the performance order in her stories. ABT's competitors will dance Grand Pas Classique. Then Stuttgart's dancers will do...Grand Pas Classique. The National Ballet of Canada's contestants will perform the wedding pas de deux from Sleeping Beauty, and those from the Royal Ballet will do Diana and Acteon. (What?! Maybe I'll just skip the first half. ) The contemporary pieces will be presented in the same order. While the jury deliberates, there will be a screening of I'm the Same, Only More. I don't know whether that will be included in the stream.

[volcanohunter]

So, the prizes went to Mackenzie Brown from Stuttgart and Daichi Ikarashi from the Royal Ballet, and the choreographic prize was awarded to Roman Novitzky for the piece he choreographed for Stuttgart's pair.

[aurora]

59 minutes ago, volcanohunter said:

So, the prizes went to Mackenzie Brown from Stuttgart and Daichi Ikarashi from the Royal Ballet, and the choreographic prize was awarded to Roman Novitzky for the piece he choreographed for Stuttgart's pair.

Honestly it was pretty ridiculous. Misseldine was by far the best female dancer. Ikarashi's award was well deserved.

[Wonders]

2 hours ago, aurora said:

Honestly it was pretty ridiculous. Misseldine was by far the best female dancer. Ikarashi's award was well deserved.

Agreed, Aurora. We didn't think it was even close. We were shocked when Misseldine didn't win. We also thought Lauren Lovette's piece was by far the best for choreography.

[stuben]

I am pleased that Canada has finally decided to Livestream this after all these years, the only issue I had was the initial "countdown", why have a countdown if there is a pause for over 15 minutes? Why not just do a countdown to 7:30 or have any countdown at all? I thought the reason was an intro of discussion at 7:15. I thought the streaming was good otherwise. As for the presentations ....

11 hours ago, aurora said:

Honestly it was pretty ridiculous. Misseldine was by far the best female dancer. Ikarashi's award was well deserved.

 

8 hours ago, Wonders said:

Agreed, Aurora. We didn't think it was even close. We were shocked when Misseldine didn't win. We also thought Lauren Lovette's piece was by far the best for choreography.

I feel that all our comments will sound very subjective as audiences since I personally beg to differ, again this is IMHO, with regard to Misseldine and Lovette. True that Misseldine has technical prowess, however, I felt that Brown delivered more theatrics and connection with the music in her Pas. It was unfortunate to see Brosnan slip twice but I guess the stage jitters can get the best of us. Both Brosnan and Misseldine have promise, Brosnan needs to build strength as seen last night against the other competing men. Misseldine is technically good but I feel her overall dancing still remains at this point as a competition dancer vs the more seasoned dancers from within her own company and especially seen against dancers from Europe like the Royal.

Comparing the two Grand Pas Classique - It may be me hearing things but it seemed that the tempo was a bit sped up in Misseldine's vs Brown's, so it felt rushed. IMHO either way, Brown was more fluid in her pas as well as her solo, the music seemed to flow with her every gesture and her connection to the piece.

As for Lovette's choreography, I wonder if she had chosen a better piece of music instead of the continuous drumbeat, perhaps that would have been better suited for her choreography. I am only responding to this as an audience and what I felt when watching all the pieces and dancers. I actually preferred Colangelo's piece for Canada but again this is personal.

[Blackcurrant]

Ikarashi was brilliant! Noah Parets would be my #2 for the men, and I thought Emerson Dayton and he brought the best acting skills to their classical pas. I look forward to seeing more of them.

Like stuben, I was satisfied with Mackenzie Brown's win. In the classical pas, though I did not think she was the best, her movements had a beautiful flow and her skills were integrated with the story-telling well, rather than standing separate from them. Brown was an absolute revelation in the contemporary pas, head and shoulders above the others, whereas Chloe Misseldine seemed less well-served by choreography that showed off technical skills similar to what we had already seen from her in the classical pas.

I didn't have a strong preference for the choreography competition, other than thinking that it was gutsy to put a song in Dutch up on stage 🙂

Rex Harrington was a personable host, and the Erik Bruhn video excerpts, which I'd seen at a previous competition, somehow took on new resonance in light of what we'd just seen on the stage. All in all, it was an exhilarating evening and the National must be proud to have hosted it.

PS It seemed a good night for the representation of women in ballet, what with there being two women company directors, choreography by two women, and a song sung by a woman.

 

 

Edited March 26, 2023 by Blackcurrant
clarity plus to add some hyperbole and afterthoughts

[ABT Fan]

14 hours ago, aurora said:

Honestly it was pretty ridiculous. Misseldine was by far the best female dancer. Ikarashi's award was well deserved.

 

12 hours ago, Wonders said:

Agreed, Aurora. We didn't think it was even close. We were shocked when Misseldine didn't win. We also thought Lauren Lovette's piece was by far the best for choreography.

I'm dumbfounded that Misseldine did not win. Her technique, command, stage presence and grandeur was far superior.

Ikarashi absolutely deserved that win - glad they got that one right.