FPF Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 I also get the emails, I assume because I went in 2020 because I happened to be in NYC for other reasons that day. I am middle-aged and not a subscriber. The performance I went to was almost completely sold out and lots of people (us included) lingered for a while afterwards to see the art and enjoy the other entertainment. The friend who went with me was very surprised at how much she liked it--she is more of a modern dance fan and it opened her eyes to see that ballet was not necessarily old-fashioned and stuffy--and I don't think she would have bought a ticket at the regular prices. Link to comment
MarzipanShepherdess Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 Art series tickets were made available last night for a few hours in a pre-sale (it ended at midnight), Wendy Whelan and David Michalek posted an access code on their Instagram accounts. Link to comment
matilda Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 I got a brochure in the mail about upcoming premieres and it said that Ratmansky's new ballet will be to the funeral march from Mahler's 1st symphony and the Adagietto from the 5th. Sounds weighty (perhaps he'll be alluding to geopolitical events) but I'm very much looking forward to seeing. Link to comment
California Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 (edited) 12 hours ago, matilda said: I got a brochure in the mail about upcoming premieres and it said that Ratmansky's new ballet will be to the funeral march from Mahler's 1st symphony and the Adagietto from the 5th. Sounds weighty (perhaps he'll be alluding to geopolitical events) but I'm very much looking forward to seeing. If you follow Ratmansky on Instagram and Facebook, he seems devastated by the carnage in Ukraine and often posts shots of the bombardments. I'm glad I have tickets to see the new one and wish I had seen the one he did for PNB, Wartime Elegy. https://www.pnb.org/repertory/wartime-elegy/ Interesting that Symphony in 3 Movements, with its allusions to WWII, is show on the same program. This would be a great time for ABT to revive Tudor's Echoing of Trumpets, his tribute to the Czech town of Lidice that was destroyed by the Nazis in 1942. It was shown by Colorado Ballet in 2010 by McKerrow and Gardner, who now work for ABT. It would work for the State Theatre this fall. https://www.antonytudor.org/ballets/echoing-of-trumpets Edited January 7 by California Link to comment
volcanohunter Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 It will be interesting to see how Ratmansky deals with those pieces of music, which are very slow and not emphatically rhythmic. When choreographing Wartime Elegy he decided to use not only Silvestrov, as originally intended, but added some archival dance music to speed things up a bit. It's difficult to imagine a Ratmansky ballet without allegro. Link to comment
Quiggin Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 The "Funeral march" is ironic and has some dances in it and odd changes of tempi, so it would seem to give Ratmansky some room to play in. The Adagietto is what people who don't like Mahler like, and I never look forward to it. Klaus Tennstedt said something like it was a bit too sweet perhaps, but it gives the audience a moment to "elax" a bit. But as main fare? Link to comment
KikiRVA Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Week one casting is up! https://res.cloudinary.com/new-york-city-ballet/image/upload/v1704842021/Documents/Casting/NYCB_Casting_January_23-28_2024_lobby.pdf Link to comment
abatt Posted January 10 Author Share Posted January 10 (edited) No Mira Nadon listed. Disappointed. Hope she is well. Also notice that LaFreniere is not cast at all in week one. Edited January 10 by abatt Link to comment
cobweb Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 I was excited to see Ava Sautter's name in Four Seasons until I realized it's just that role where she sweeps on and regally waves her arms around. Still, this is good exposure for her. Glad to see Cainan Weber getting a big opportunity in Winter -- he deserves it! Also will be interested to see Olivia MacKinnon in Spring -- she definitely cannot wear her frequent worried expression in this one! And what on earth is going on with another guest artist!!! I just don't get this trend AT ALL. Link to comment
KikiRVA Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 55 minutes ago, cobweb said: I was excited to see Ava Sautter's name in Four Seasons until I realized it's just that role where she sweeps on and regally waves her arms around. Still, this is good exposure for her. Glad to see Cainan Weber getting a big opportunity in Winter -- he deserves it! Also will be interested to see Olivia MacKinnon in Spring -- she definitely cannot wear her frequent worried expression in this one! And what on earth is going on with another guest artist!!! I just don't get this trend AT ALL. The guest artist plan was announced months ago as part of the celebration for the 75th anniversary year. It does not seem at all related to the performance of current company members. Link to comment
Jacqueline Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 No Chun Wai Chan either. I really enjoyed him in Spring in 2022. Link to comment
FPF Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 33 minutes ago, Jacqueline said: No Chun Wai Chan either. I really enjoyed him in Spring in 2022. He's listed for Polyphonia on January 25th. Link to comment
cobweb Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 11 hours ago, KikiRVA said: The guest artist plan was announced months ago as part of the celebration for the 75th anniversary year. It does not seem at all related to the performance of current company members. Thanks for the info. I can't access the link/embedded pic, but it's good to know it's just for the anniversary year. Presumably that means it's not going to continue. Link to comment
FPF Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 2 hours ago, cobweb said: Thanks for the info. I can't access the link/embedded pic, but it's good to know it's just for the anniversary year. Presumably that means it's not going to continue. There were also multiple guest artists for the 1993 Balanchine Celebration, and I don't recall any in the following years--I remember Elizabeth Loscavio from SFB, Darcey Bussell from the Royal Ballet, Patricia Barker from PNB, and I think there were others. I think this is just something NYCB does to celebrate. Link to comment
Helene Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 Jeremy Collins from ABT, Isabelle Guerin from POB, Zhana Apuyova from the Mariinsky Ballet, Viviana Durante from the Royal Ballet, and Ronald Perry from DTH were also guests for “Dinner with Balanchine.” Link to comment
Jacqueline Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 13 hours ago, FPF said: He's listed for Polyphonia on January 25th. Thank you for the correction, FPF. I guess my eyes were just looking for him in the "Spring" section of The Four Seasons! Link to comment
Helene Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 I was there, and I don’t remember Jaffe at all. But the only performances in Western Symphony I remember are the Leclercq and d’Amboise film excerpt from the Balanchine doc and Stephanie Saland in the second movement, also on film. Link to comment
nanushka Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 (edited) 7 minutes ago, Helene said: I was there, and I don’t remember Jaffe at all. But the only performances in Western Symphony I remember are the Leclercq and d’Amboise film excerpt from the Balanchine doc and Stephanie Saland in the second movement, also on film. There was at one time (and may still be) a video on YouTube of Susan Jaffe and Nikolaj Hübbe performing the final movement. ETA: Yes, here it is: Edited January 10 by nanushka Link to comment
cobweb Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 All very interesting. My history with NYCB does not go back that far and I didn’t know that having guests was a special-occasion thing. I’m glad to know it’s temporary and not a new trend. I also don’t understand it with dancers who perform regularly in NYC. If I want to see Gillian Murphy and Aran Bell, I know where to go. Link to comment
abatt Posted January 10 Author Share Posted January 10 The thing about the Murphy Bell performance is that Other Dances was created on and will forever be associated with Makarova and Baryshnikov, who both had significant relationships with ABT. So on some level it makes sense that they would have 2 ABT dancers perform this work at NYCB. Actually, I'm excited to see Bell in this work. However, I think the age difference here between Murphy and Bell is not ideal. Link to comment
volcanohunter Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 2 hours ago, Helene said: But the only performances in Western Symphony I remember are the Leclercq and d’Amboise film excerpt from the Balanchine doc and Stephanie Saland in the second movement, also on film. My memories of the films with Le Clercq, Alexopoulos (Dance in America) and Jaffe are very strong, so the next time around when I saw the ballet with a young Sara Mearns in the rondo, the breakneck tempo just about gave me whiplash. At that point I thought that NYCB's quest for speed had gone too far. Link to comment
FPF Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 Other Dances premiered at ABT (5/9/76) with the original cast of Baryshnikov and Makarova before it premiered at NYCB 6 months later (11/26/76) with Martins and Farrell, and it has been showing up in the ABT rep periodically since. Gillian Murphy and Marcelo Gomes danced it in an ABT performance I saw a while back at the Fisher Center. As long as the dancers are capable of their roles, I think it's nice to have other companies participate in the NYCB 75th anniversary celebration. Link to comment
vipa Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 I'm not excited about the first week, but I'm very happy to see that Mearns is back. I wonder if Bouder will be cast in Liebeslieder. Link to comment
cobweb Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 5 hours ago, vipa said: I wonder if Bouder will be cast in Liebeslieder. If she's truly back up to snuff, and maybe even upped her artistry with age, then sure. Otherwise, please no! Link to comment
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