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2023-2024 Season

abatt

By abatt
in New York City Ballet

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BalanchineFan

BalanchineFan

Posted
Posted (edited)

I have seen Bourree Fantasque several times. The first was at the State Theater during a Miami City Ballet season some years pre-pandemic.  The second was a year or two after that when SAB did the ballet. I’m pretty sure KJ Takahashi led the first movement with Savannah Durham. Then I saw the open rehearsal on Friday and Saturday matinee.

I find Bourree delightful. The first movement has lovely patterns for the corps and lots of funny moments playing on the relationship between a haughty, tall woman and her shorter, adoring male companion. 

The second movement is lyrical and floaty with swoopy, swoony moments for the main couple. The women wear longer, romantic tutus. I thought Gilbert Bolden and Emilie Gerrity really shone. 

The third movement is like a firecracker. The leading man keeps throwing the woman into a switch split overhead, like a lift in Tschai Pas, but more dynamic. The music has chords that repeat in a syncopated rhythm. It sounds a bit like a circus, in a fun and energetic sense. 

In the rehearsal Ms Pilarre wanted the music a touch slower, but for the performance it seemed they must have changed their minds, as the orchestra ramped up the tempo. David Gabriel, and Alexa Maxwell led the third movement and seemed to relish the speed and meet the challenge. She was particularly astonishing, a ray of light onstage, spending the majority of her time in the air.

I’m rooting for Gilbert Bolden for soloist and Alexa Maxwell for anything and everything. The three movements each have such a different feeling. For a ballet that’s new to them after an absence of 30 years, NYCB, does this Bourree than anyone. All the leads come back for a rousing finale similar to Symphony in C. I recommend it to anyone who is curious, it’s a great opening ballet. 

Edited by BalanchineFan
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vipa

vipa

Posted
Posted
54 minutes ago, Alexandria81 said:

https://nypost.com/2023/09/30/ex-nyc-ballets-peter-martins-has-earned-2-8m-since-leaving/

wow.

 

The Post has a habit of taking a sensationalistic approach, as we know. Just the language used: "he quietly collected..." is loaded IMO. It is a lot of money but it was spread over 4 years. Peter Martins resigned, so I have to assume some deal was negotiated with the BOD. The company performed the Martins Sleeping Beauty last spring, and pretty much sold out the house. Big ballets sell, and it was his big ballet so he was paid. I see no reason for this piece other than to stir up talk. 

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BalanchineFan

BalanchineFan

Posted
Posted
On 9/30/2023 at 8:22 PM, cobweb said:

I too was wondering if Mearns and Woodward were going to go through class with loose hair, then I looked away and suddenly their hair was up! Fairchild was really there to work, you could see her serious approach. Also interesting that Gilbert Bolden put himself front and center again and again. I would probably resent that if I were one of his peers, but since I'm just an audience member, I enjoyed seeing him. 

I was there for company class early. If other company members had wanted to stand in front like Gilbert Bolden, they could have. Many people came early and chose places in the back. (Davide Riccardo, Taylor Stanley and  Mira Nadon, I'm talking about you!)

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BalanchineFan

BalanchineFan

Posted
Posted (edited)

Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch own the NY Post. It's a rag. The funniest part is this quote, 

"The Post could not confirm what additional work, if any, Martins has performed for the organization. "

They are saying they didn't care to do any research, but still want to fan the flames.

Edited by BalanchineFan
un bold
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abatt

abatt

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I assume like everyone else, Martins got a pension since he worked there for over 30 years.  Why wouldn't a portion of that money, or most of it, be his pension.

I had to laugh when the article referenced an unnamed veteran company member.  Gee, who could that be.

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matilda

matilda

Posted
Posted

I think royalties make up only a small fraction of the continued payments to Martins. You can see the company's tax forms through mid-2022 on ProPublica: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/132947386

For each of the fiscal years of 2020-21 and 2021-22, he was paid $624,000 as a "former ballet master in chief" according to the documents. None of his choreography was performed during those years; in fact, nothing was performed at all during the fiscal year of 2020-21 because of the pandemic. His Swan Lake was supposed to go on in the winter 2022 season but was cancelled due to COVID. 

In the fiscal year ending in 2019, during which time his Sleeping Beauty was performed, he's listed as making $5,250 in choreography royalties/fees and $936,000 simply as a "choreographer, etc." 

It appears that his retirement, which was not exactly by choice, came with a stipulation to essentially pay his salary for a set amount of years in addition to any royalties. 

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miliosr

miliosr

Posted
Posted (edited)
9 hours ago, vipa said:

The Post has a habit of taking a sensationalistic approach, as we know. Just the language used: "he quietly collected..." is loaded IMO. It is a lot of money but it was spread over 4 years. Peter Martins resigned, so I have to assume some deal was negotiated with the BOD. The company performed the Martins Sleeping Beauty last spring, and pretty much sold out the house. Big ballets sell, and it was his big ballet so he was paid. I see no reason for this piece other than to stir up talk. 

I can't speak to the Post's sudden interest in running stories about the New York City Ballet (beyond delighting in tweaking the "progressive" City Ballet for its various lapses.) I do believe one or more parties are feeding these stories to the Post. Certainly, a story like the Peter Martins one undercuts the company's claims of poverty in its negotiations with the musicians' union and only helps the union.

Also, kudos to the reporter for actually reporting correctly the Board's findings regarding Martins:

"An investigation commissioned by the organization did not corroborate [note: my emphasis] the various allegations made against Martins by current and former dancers to the New York Times and the Washington Post in 2017."

The Board was very, very careful when it released its findings to say that it couldn't corroborate the charges made against Martins.

Oh, and John Clifford is always ready, willing and able to criticize Peter Martins!

Edited by miliosr
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Helene

Helene

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, miliosr said:

"An investigation commissioned by the organization did not corroborate [note: my emphasis] the various allegations made against Martins by current and former dancers to the New York Times and the Washington Post in 2017."

My emphasis would be quite different:

"An investigation commissioned by the organization did not corroborate [note: my emphasis] the various allegations made against Martins by current and former dancers to the New York Times and the Washington Post in 2017."

The commission wnet to a law firm that, according to its website, analyzes potential liability for employers.

 

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Fernie M

Fernie M

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, abatt said:

Casting is up for week 4

NYCB_Casting_October_10-15_2023_lobby_2.pdf (cloudinary.com)

 

Laracey in Orpheus is perfect casting.  Pollack, not so much.

Interesting choices… Surprised Nadon is not dancing in Fall Fashion Gala or 75th Anniversary. Truly unfortunate she’s not dancing in Seranade, she was fantastic in Madrid.

As others have mentioned upthread, why is Phelan cast in almost everything?

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pirouette

pirouette

Posted
Posted

I'm sorry to say that I've come to dread seeing Erica Pereira. Someone upthread expressed hope that Von Enck would be cast as Russian Girl.. I'm sure she would've been lovely in that. And I echo everyone else's comments regarding Phelan being cast in too many roles!! She can be so beautiful when she gets the chance to grow into a role (I've enjoyed her in Agon the last few times I've seen her) but she's simply too overworked. 

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deanofdance

deanofdance

Posted
Posted (edited)

I have admired Unity as she stepped into all these great ballerina roles since she made principal — but I do think it has been premature — as I haven’t really seen much progress from her artistically.  So I am hoping that perhaps these third and fourth weeks (yes, she is cast in EVERYTHING) will be a breakthrough for her — that she will grow in confidence — and in grandeur.  
I can’t say I’m a fan of ballet, more a fan of Balanchine — so I’m not familiar with other companies, only NYCB.  But I was in London in 2017 and twice saw the Royal Ballet do Jewels — first I saw Marianela Nunez in Diamonds — and she had the innate regal quality, fierce concentration and dramatic imagination that this prima role calls for and she was magnificent.  The second time I saw Sarah Lamb in Diamonds and something happened in the beginning that caused Sarah’s confidence to slipped away and she was left with only doing the steps, the drama had disappeared, and she was just a dancer in a tutu.  I bring this up — because I don’t think artistry can be taught nor can it be faked or willed into being — but for Unity’s sake, I do hope a glow appears in her dancing these next 2 weeks.

Edited by deanofdance
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