ABT Met Season 2024

[FauxPas]

I wonder if splitting up Aran Bell and Cate Hurlin with other partners was part of this thinking re: Boylston and Whiteside.  I want to see them together more often.  

Except for Hurlin and Bell, a lot of the recently promoted principals are over 30 and many over 35. 

I think Skyler Brandt is about 30, as is Cassandra Trenary - so they are on the younger end of the spectrum.  Joo Won Ahn is also 30.  Daniel Camargo is 31.

Devon Teuscher is roughly the same age as Shevchenko - 34.  Shevy is 35.  Calvin Royal III is 35.

Isabella Boylston is 36,  Tom Forster is 37, Hee Seo is 37 as is Cory Stearns.  Whiteside is 38, 

Misty Copeland and Herman Cornejo are in their early 40's.  Gillian Murphy is 44.

In five short years many of these people will retire or be retired.  

I hope dancers like Schevchenko and Forster are allowed to hang on for a while since they were held back cruelly for over a decade and promoted late.

In the lower ranks, Chloe Misseldine is clearly a prima ballerina in the making.  She has been dancing the pas de deux from "Swan Lake" in guest appearances - both Odile and Odette.  Clearly she is being groomed for stardom.

Others like Park and Granlund et al. are good dancers - often wonderful but could they cover all the repertoire that Gillian Murphy has?

Jaffe needs to start finding the next generation of dancers - and fast.

BTW: social media is full of technically remarkable young dancers.  Elisabeth Beyer new to the corps is one of them.  I am seeing some amazing dancing on Instagram.

I haven't seen the Studio Company but have read reports here that they are chock full of new talent.  

Sascha Radetsky and Stella Abrera are in charge of these dancers and are working with young dancers at Vail.  They are a resource.

But new dancers need roles and I think casting one performance with promising soloists or corps dancers would be a boon.  Chloe Misseldine in Swan Lake.  Jonathan Klein and Zimmi Coker in "Coppelia" or "Don Quixote".  Patrick Frenette as Albrecht in "Giselle".  I could go on.  Thirty-three years ago we got things like Julie Kent as matinee Giselle or Juliet even when the company had stars like Ferri, Jaffe and Martine Van Hamel on the roster.  It needs to happen.

Edited September 6, 2023 by FauxPas
Adding a few more ages

[ABT Fan]

57 minutes ago, FauxPas said:

I wonder if splitting up Aran Bell and Cate Hurlin with other partners was part of this thinking re: Boylston and Whiteside.  I want to see them together more often.  

Except for Hurlin and Bell, a lot of the recently promoted principals are over 30 and many over 35. 

I think Skyler Brandt is about 30, as is Cassandra Trenary - so they are on the younger end of the spectrum.  Joo Won Ahn is also 30.  

Devon Teuscher is roughly the same age as Schevchenko - 34.  Shevy is 35.

Isabella Boylston is 36,  Tom Forster is late thirties, Whiteside is 38,  Hee Seo is 37 as is Cory Stearns.

Misty Copeland and Herman Cornejo are in their early 40's.  

In five short years many of these people will retire or be retired.  

I hope dancers like Schevchenko and Forster are allowed to hang on for a while since they were held back cruelly for over a decade and promoted late.

In the lower ranks, Chloe Misseldine is clearly a prima ballerina in the making.  She has been dancing the pas de deux from "Swan Lake" in guest appearances - both Odile and Odette.  Clearly she is being groomed for stardom.

Others like Park and Granlund et al. are good dancers - often wonderful but could they cover all the repertoire that Gillian Murphy has?

Jaffe needs to start finding the next generation of dancers - and fast.

BTW: social media is full of technically remarkable young dancers.  Elisabeth Beyer new to the corps is one of them.  I am seeing some amazing dancing on Instagram.

I haven't seen the Studio Company but have read reports here that they are chock full of new talent.  

Sascha Radetsky and Stella Abrera are in charge of these dancers and are working with young dancers at Vail.  They are a resource.

But new dancers need roles and I think putting one performance with promising soloists or corps dancers would be a boon.  Chloe Misseldine in Swan Lake.  Jonathan Klein and Zimmi Coker in "Coppelia" or "Don Quixote".  Patrick Frenette as Albrecht in "Giselle".  I could go on.  Thirty-three years ago we got things like Julie Kent as matinee Giselle or Juliet even when the company had stars like Ferri, Jaffe and Martine Van Hamel on the roster.  It needs to happen.

I agree with most of this - it's a bit shocking to realize how many of the principals could retire in 5 years, as you put it.

Shevchenko wasn't held back for over a decade - she joined the company in 2007 and made it to principal in 2017. The same amount it took for Teuscher, Brandt, Trenary and some others to make it to principal. But, Forster was indeed held back far too long.

I think Park has potential to get to principal, given some of her recent casting. Misseldine is a given. McBride, Granlund, Williams, Han, I'd say no (with the others in need of retirement).

I'm all in favor of this: But new dancers need roles and I think putting one performance with promising soloists or corps dancers would be a boon.  Chloe Misseldine in Swan Lake.  Jonathan Klein and Zimmi Coker in "Coppelia" or "Don Quixote".  Patrick Frenette as Albrecht in "Giselle".  I could go on. 
**I'd add: Curley with Misseldine in SL. Roxander and Coker or Katsnelson in Coppelia. Or, Frenette with Coker in Giselle. Fleytoux in Cinderella. Le Spectre de la Rose with Magbitang. La Fille with Klein, Maloney, Roxander, or Gonzalez and Coker, Fleytoux, Katnelson, Lall. Yes, I could go on as well.

Edited to add: I think Jaffe is focusing on finding the next generation of talent, but she has a huge uphill battle and very little time (i.e. "old" or older principals, many soloists who are stagnant/can't dance principal or challenging soloist roles....). The fact that Roxander has been given so many principal roles for the Fall, and laying off casting Stearns much is telling. She has her work cut out for her.

Edited August 28, 2023 by ABT Fan

[Drew]

11 hours ago, ABT Fan said:

I think Park has potential to get to principal, given some of her recent casting.

I saw Park as Tita in Wheeldon's Like Water for Chocolate and though she hasn't (or hadn't) yet developed dramatically to the point of putting as strong an individual stamp on the role as other ballerinas I saw, I thought she showed herself deserving of the opportunity and a beautiful classical dancer.  If nothing unexpected upends her development, I would be very surprised if she did not become a principal dancer, and I am eager to see more of her dancing.

Edited August 29, 2023 by Drew

[FauxPas]

To hammer home my point - back in 1980 Susan Jaffe made the papers when Mikhail Baryshnikov chose her to dance the lead in "Swan Lake" at the age of 18.  Things like that happened then.  

I also don't think that 10 years wait to dance principal roles is a good idea since that basically cancels out the dancer's 20's when they should be at their peak physically.  That is why the majority of the principals (including several who were promoted in the late aughts) are 35 and over now.

[pirouette]

1 hour ago, FauxPas said:

I also don't think that 10 years wait to dance principal roles is a good idea since that basically cancels out the dancer's 20's when they should be at their peak physically.  That is why the majority of the principals (including several who were promoted in the late aughts) are 35 and over now.

I completely agree with this. I wish ABT would be a little less hierarchal when it comes to casting roles. I think that given how little they perform these days, they might not want to take roles away from their current principals, especially since many classical ballets like SL only have 1 male and female principal role. But if they took these risks even just once in a while, it would give younger dancers in the corps and soloist ranks more experience and exposure. Personally, I think instead of giving Hee Seo 2 Swan Lake shows nearly every Met season, they could use one of those shows as a 'debut' for someone up and coming. Or they could also test it out in one of the smaller tour performances, if they're so worried about how principal casting affects Met ticket sales — though I would argue many balletomanes would be more excited about a debut than seeing the same cast every year! I love discovering new favorite dancers at NYCB when they're thrown into bigger roles, since NYCB does it way more often. I understand that they also perform more and there are more opportunities for principal roles in Balanchine ballets, but still, I dream/wish for the same for ABT. 

[ABT Fan]

1 hour ago, pirouette said:

Personally, I think instead of giving Hee Seo 2 Swan Lake shows nearly every Met season, they could use one of those shows as a 'debut' for someone up and coming. 

I couldn't agree more (same with Teuscher historically getting two performances of most everything).

[abatt]

They have provided  a lot of major debuts over the last two seasons.  Hurlin, Trenary, Royal, Ahn, Forster to name a few.

[pirouette]

8 minutes ago, abatt said:

They have provided  a lot of major debuts over the last two seasons.  Hurlin, Trenary, Royal, Ahn, Forster to name a few.

True, and it's been exciting to watch them, but those dancers were already on their way to becoming principals if not principals already. Would be cool to see someone relatively new and unfamiliar to audiences thrown into a major role like SL — a la Sara Mearns dancing O/O when she was still in the corps. 

[FauxPas]

The weird thing is that when all those soloists were promoted about 3 or so years ago, very few had danced leading principal roles.  Ratmansky had cast Trenary in "Sleeping Beauty" (he has an eye for up and coming young talent) but Forster, Ahn, Bell, Royal et al. had danced very few full-length classical leads until they were promoted to principal.  So all these promoted dancers had to get up to speed very quickly with little previous exposure as classical leads.  So it was catch up fast.

Teuscher and Shevchenko were promoted in 2017 and had danced some principal roles as understudies in emergency situations.  Trenary, Brandt, Bell, Ahn and Royal were all promoted to principal in September 2020, during the pandemic.  Hurlin and Camargo (hired as principal) were promoted in 2022.  Except for Trenary's Aurora, many hadn't danced the leads in major classical ballets.  Bell and Ahn had been tried out as Solor and Bell got a Romeo.  That again, was due to the McKenzie management sticking with the hierarchical casting of only principals in principal roles with no soloists getting a shot.

The mass promotion of all these talented young soloists to principal meant that the soloist ranks were depleted and full of senior dancers who were (as ABT Fan aptly put it) "stagnant/can't dance principal or challenging soloist roles."

So that is why it is necessary to develop as much from within and possibly grab some hot talent to fill in the gaps.

Edited August 29, 2023 by FauxPas

[ABT Fan]

19 minutes ago, pirouette said:

True, and it's been exciting to watch them, but those dancers were already on their way to becoming principals if not principals already. Would be cool to see someone relatively new and unfamiliar to audiences thrown into a major role like SL — a la Sara Mearns dancing O/O when she was still in the corps. 

ABT has done that, but it's not common. When Bell was still in the corps and barely 19, he was given Romeo opposite Teuscher. That was his first principal role. The NY Times even wrote an article about it: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/arts/dance/aran-bell-romeo-and-juliet-american-ballet-theatre.html

I remember when Hee Seo was also still in the corps she was given Juliet and Gamzatti (I saw the later).

 

[matilda]

One exception to the norm was when Brandt got opening night Corsaire, plus a second show during the weekend, as a soloist back in 2019. (And Ahn did Ali as a corps member that year.) Then Brandt got the "TBA" Giselle slot at the Kennedy Center in February 2020. She was barely cast for the (cancelled) 2020 Met season but still got promoted to principal in 2021. 

If you count the leads in Whipped Cream as "big principal roles," Jonathan Klein debuted the Boy years ago (2019?) and is still waiting for that soloist promotion.  Coker and Maloney debuted it last year. 

Maloney and Gonzalez also danced Harlequinade quite a long time ago as corps members. I'm not sure how much either of them is still a contender for promotion (both have had issues with technique since returning from injury), but there's no excuse for the soloist rank to be so neglected at this point.

I think it's time to take Shayer and Gorak off the website. 

Edited August 29, 2023 by matilda

[FauxPas]

Just to mention that "Harlequinade" and "Whipped Cream" are both Ratmansky ballets, and as I said Ratmansky is always looking to give young dancers a shot.  When he was running the Bolshoi back in the aughts, two he developed as youngsters were Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev.

10 minutes ago, matilda said:

One exception to the norm was when Brandt got opening night Corsaire, plus a second show during the weekend, as a soloist back in 2019. (And Ahn did Ali as a corps member that year.) Then Brandt got the "TBA" Giselle slot at the Kennedy Center in February 2020. She was barely cast for the (cancelled) 2020 Met season but still got promoted to principal in 2021. 

If you count the leads in Whipped Cream as "big principal roles," Jonathan Klein debuted the Boy years ago (2019?) and is still waiting for that soloist promotion.  Coker and Maloney debuted it last year. 

Maloney and Gonzalez also danced Harlequinade quite a long time ago as corps members. I'm not sure how much either of them is still a contender for promotion (both have had issues with technique since returning from injury), but there's no excuse for the soloist rank to be so neglected at this point.

I think it's time to take Shayer and Gorak off the website. 

 

[balletlover08]

27 minutes ago, matilda said:

One exception to the norm was when Brandt got opening night Corsaire, plus a second show during the weekend, as a soloist back in 2019. (And Ahn did Ali as a corps member that year.) Then Brandt got the "TBA" Giselle slot at the Kennedy Center in February 2020. She was barely cast for the (cancelled) 2020 Met season but still got promoted to principal in 2021. 

If you count the leads in Whipped Cream as "big principal roles," Jonathan Klein debuted the Boy years ago (2019?) and is still waiting for that soloist promotion.  Coker and Maloney debuted it last year. 

Maloney and Gonzalez also danced Harlequinade quite a long time ago as corps members. I'm not sure how much either of them is still a contender for promotion (both have had issues with technique since returning from injury), but there's no excuse for the soloist rank to be so neglected at this point.

I think it's time to take Shayer and Gorak off the website. 

I know some people don't like Brandt and her social media presence but at the time she had to really fight for her TBA Giselle spot and then fight for her eventual Swan Lake debut. I don't think she thought that Mckenzie necessarily wanted to give her either debut. Skylar I think really fought her way into being casted more often and now she's casted a lot(more than Trenary now I think). Mckenzie certainly loved casting some people and neglected others. I hope Susan Jaffe is better at casting. 

[abatt]

Brandt is more reliable technically than Trenary, in my opinion.  Trenary gets the "dramatic" leads, like in R&J and LWFC, where Brandt tends to get the technically challenging roles like Kitri and Odette-Odile.  Having said that I think Brandt would be interesting as Juliet.  

[FauxPas]

Brandt was also hinting broadly that she would look for a position in another company if she wasn't going to be promoted to principal at ABT.

Also I remember that Brandt and Shevchenko both ended up making emergency Medora debuts in "Le Corsaire" replacing V. Part and Gillian who were injured and unable to dance.  That might have been 2017.  

But it was an emergency save and both Skylar and Shevy had to go to Max and Irina for emergency coaching.  Both scored successes.  Shevchenko was promoted to principal immediately after but Brandt had to wait a few years until 2020. 

Edited August 29, 2023 by FauxPas

[laurel]

5 hours ago, FauxPas said:

Also I remember that Brandt and Shevchenko both ended up making emergency Medora debuts in "Le Corsaire" replacing V. Part and Gillian who were injured and unable to dance.  That might have been 2017.  

If it was 2017, it was Maria Kotchetkova who was injured.  Brandt replaced her in Corsaire, Sarah Lane replaced her in Giselle and Swan Lake, and was finally promoted.  Kotchetkova did not return to ABT afterwards.

[vipa]

1 hour ago, laurel said:

If it was 2017, it was Maria Kotchetkova who was injured.  Brandt replaced her in Corsaire, Sarah Lane replaced her in Giselle and Swan Lake, and was finally promoted.  Kotchetkova did not return to ABT afterwards.

If I recall it was a strange situation with Kotchetkova that I never understood. Rather than promote Lane they entered a contract with Kotchetkova, and she was a principal danccer with ABT and SanFrancisco Ballet at the same time. I guess the schedules worked out, but I never saw the point. Maria Kotchetkova was a solid dancer, but the times I saw her she didn't blow me away.

[volcanohunter]

18 hours ago, vipa said:

If I recall it was a strange situation with Kotchetkova that I never understood. Rather than promote Lane they entered a contract with Kotchetkova, and she was a principal danccer with ABT and SanFrancisco Ballet at the same time. I guess the schedules worked out, but I never saw the point. Maria Kotchetkova was a solid dancer, but the times I saw her she didn't blow me away.

Perhaps the assumption was ABT audiences demanded Russian ballerinas, and Kochetkova was closer and presumably didn't require a work visa, so she was less of a hassle. She did have a large following online and was very popular in San Francisco. But that sort of thing doesn't always translate to another city or country. Conversely, José Manuel Carreño proved to be far more popular in New York than he'd ever been in London.

[nysusan]

19 hours ago, vipa said:

If I recall it was a strange situation with Kotchetkova that I never understood. Rather than promote Lane they entered a contract with Kotchetkova, and she was a principal danccer with ABT and SanFrancisco Ballet at the same time. I guess the schedules worked out, but I never saw the point. Maria Kotchetkova was a solid dancer, but the times I saw her she didn't blow me away.

 

16 minutes ago, volcanohunter said:

Perhaps the assumption was ABT audiences demanded Russian ballerinas, and Kochetkova was closer and presumably didn't require a work visa, so she was less of a hassle. She did have a large following online and was very popular in San Francisco. But that sort of thing doesn't always translate to another city or country. Conversely, José Manuel Carreño proved to be far more popular in New York than he'd ever been in London.

I always thought it was mostly due to the never ending quest to find Cornejo a suitable partner. Kochetkova may not have been any shorter than Lane or Brandt or Trenary, but she looked significantly lighter than them. She was really tiny. I liked her in modern ballets (most of which I saw her in with San Fran) but did not like her at all in classical roles. I do not know why she left, or whose decision it was (hers or ABT's) but she missed a lot of performances her last season, whether for health or other reasons.

[California]

I thought she was also friends with Simkin, both Russian-born. If you google "Simkin Kochetkova" all kinds of examples pop up -- they danced together in Berlin, Russia, Teatro Colon, Tokyo, going back many years before and after her time with ABT. I have no idea if Simkin recommended her or if ABT management thought she'd be a good partner for Simkin or she wanted to join ABT and got his help. Perhaps all of the above! 

[volcanohunter]

The one time I saw Kochetkova with ABT she was dancing opposite Sarafanov, filling in, I think, for Osipova. I remember liking her more than most Russian ballerinas. The six-o'clock extensions were grotesque, but she was less mannered than most of her compatriots and didn't drag behind the music.

[California]

My disappointment was that Kochetkova never seemed to "push the envelope" and surprise us -- faster, higher, cleaner, etc.  "Workmanlike" is too harsh, but I always wished for more from her.

[MarzipanShepherdess]

22 hours ago, California said:

My disappointment was that Kochetkova never seemed to "push the envelope" and surprise us -- faster, higher, cleaner, etc.  "Workmanlike" is too harsh, but I always wished for more from her.

I remember feeling the same. I was surprised because her social media presence shows her to be a very vibrant person with a quirky sense of style and an individual point of view, clearly someone engaging seriously with the arts in a variety of disciplines. Yet the handful of times I saw her perform (only with ABT) it felt a bit cookie-cutter: polished and capable but not particularly exciting. I too was left wanting more.

[Quiggin]

Interesting premise: that Maria Kochetkova was kidnapped by her Instagram persona.

I saw Kochetkova dance many times at San Francisco Ballet and while she preformed well, it always seemed her mind was elsewhere. Perhaps it was a kind of shyness. Along with nysusan, I liked her best in Wayne Gregor and other contemporary works where she really held her own.

[choriamb]

On 8/27/2023 at 11:44 AM, Papagena said:

But they don't have the same kind of chemistry that Ferri/Bocca and Vishneva/Gomes had.

Boylston / Whiteside have a very 'close silly friends' energy that doesn't translate well to the romantic ballets - almost like seeing brother and sister together. The only pairing with them that really worked for me was Harlequinade, where their goofy energies and playfulness lit up the stage. Really early in their careers it was different, but now I think management was in the right. I think they are a great pair for comedic ballets, which are rarely done anymore since they don't sell well. 

Then again I've avoided them together for this reason (love Whiteside's modern energy with a more muted romantic ballerina, and Camargo brings out the best in Boylston), so my exposure to them together during the last few years has been limited. 

I agree with ABT management's artistic call on this, too:  their comaraderie is fun in comedy...but generates no spark/tension in romantic roles.