Photo of Sara Mearns in Swan Lake, by Paul Kolnik, taken from NY Times.

Last week was the first time I’d seen Peter Martins’ version of Swan Lake. Overall, I wasn’t in love with the production, but I was in love with the dancing, particularly Sara Mearns’ interpretation of Odette, which nearly moved me to tears, which just hardly ever happens with Swan Lake. She is the Veronika Part of New York City Ballet to me and I just love her. She inhabits whatever character she’s dancing with her entire being and she takes you to that place with her; she really creates another universe and she puts you right there and won’t let you leave it! I think here what I loved was that she humanized her Odette. So many ballerinas will focus on getting the fluttering foot just right, waving their arms about with just the proper fluidity that they look like actual wings, and of course totally nailing the chaines and fouettes in the second act. They make the White Swan all about the styling and the Black Swan all about the athletics. And they forget about the story.

But with Mearns — just the way she would wrap Prince Siegfried’s arms around her body, the way she’d nearly dive into an arabesque letting him catch her before turning her, or fall nearly to the floor and arch her back, wrapping herself around his kneeling knee — everything was about the tragic story, about Odette’s loving the prince and longing for him and her need for him, and then his inability to fulfill that need. I’ve honestly never been so moved before, and when she bourreed away from him at the end (there are no suicide swan dives into the lake here), leaving him, it just left me with such a emptiness. I couldn’t stop thinking about that — about her wrapping his arms around her in the pas de deux and then her sorrowful bourrees away from him at the end — for days; I still can’t get over it. I think those images will always be in my mind when I think of this ballet.

And she just had so much stage presence. Sometimes when all the swans are onstage together, I’ll lose Odette, but not with Mearns. I think that may partly be because she has a broad face, allowing her expressions to be more noticeable to the entire house. But of course she makes those expressions that not everyone does — her face, her body, she is always fully immersed in the role.

And Jared Angle was the absolute perfect partner. You can tell he’s a very strong guy and a very solid partner who’s easy to get along with. Because she’d really really throw herself into those arabesques and he’d catch her and she was so off her center of balance — she had to be in order to show the passion and emotion, and the full, expressive line – and he’d promenade her like that, and it was so incredible because you could tell he spent the better part of the ballet supporting a lot of her body weight.

And he acted it well too, and did perfectly on his solos. Very impressive performance by him!

The other cast I saw was on opening night with Maria Kowroski in the lead and Stephen Hanna making his debut as Siegfried. Hanna was very good — he’s a strong guy too, and that night, he performed a major save! Toward the beginning Kowroski went to jump into his arms, on her way into a shoulder-high lift, and she slipped before she ever got to him. He somehow reached out and caught her anyway, and took her up into that lift beautifully. The whole audience went “ahhhhhh”! I think it threw Kowroski a bit though because she seemed nervous and a bit shaky throughout the rest of the ballet. She might also have been a bit anxious because Hanna was debuting in the role, so they obviously hadn’t performed it together yet. At intermission, someone mentioned she might have been less nervous dancing with her usual Charles Askegard. Maybe that’s true. I thought Hanna did a very good job overall.

But I’m not in love with the production. Like Martins’ Romeo + Juliet, the sets are very modern, and the costumes for Siegfried and Benno and his friends are bright, color-coded, and basic with minimal embellishments. But the sets are the worst. In the beginning, you can’t even tell they’re in a palace. In the second act, the sets are not only minimal, but what’s there is so incredibly modern, just a few brown and beige slashes on some backboards. And yet, the people are dressed in Elizabethan costumes. Either set it in modern times completely or go with the historical thing, but don’t do half and half?…

And the production just moves way too fast, in my opinion. This worked for Sleeping Beauty (the paring down of all the miming and the boring court dances, in favor of getting right to the point and to those gorgeous variations), but it didn’t work here because there’s too much story up front missing. We see all these people dancing — we don’t know they’re in a palace, so we just see them all dance, and next thing we know, Siegfried’s all bouncing around with a bow and arrow. Then he runs offstage and a moment later, on comes Odette. Then Siegfried runs back out and they do a pas de deux, and after that’s over, Odette runs one way, Siegfried runs the other, and on come the swan ensemble. And — and maybe this is conductor Karoui’s doing — but you don’t even realize Odette’s run away from Siegfried because she’s afraid of Von Rothbart, and that now Siegfried is running around madly trying to find her. Instead, it just looks like a bunch of running. There should be pauses so that you know exactly what’s happening and why– the pacing is way way too fast. I never really did see Siegfried fall for her. I first realized there was something between them when Mearns’ Odette wrapped Siegfried’s arms around her in the White Swan pdd.

The other thing is the ending, which I both like and don’t like. In this ending, there is no suicide with the two lovers  ending up together in eternity. Instead, since Siegfried has betrayed Odette with Odile, they can’t be together. The problem is that Martins still has Von Rothbart die — he melts into a puddle and dies once he realizes their love is undying and real. But then, if he dies, the spell should be broken and Odette can resume human form. So, the ending then loses its mysticism and becomes a human ending — Odette leaves him because he’s betrayed her, and even though he’s horribly sorry, the damage is done and can’t be undone. So, basically she just can’t forgive him. But why not? It doesn’t really have the resonance to me that it should. I think Martins should just not have Von Rothbart die. That way the lovers can’t be together because of Siegfried’s betrayal. But she still loves him, so that when she bourrees away from him, letting go of him little by little, her arms still reaching out toward him as she disappears into the wings, it just makes you want to bawl your eyes out the same way as the Giselle ending.

One other thing: Martins has some children dance in the beginning courtly scene, which I love. It’s very Balanchine to put the children in, and they were very sweet. And I could tell the people around me thought the same.

Oh and one final other thing: there’s no real dancing for Von Rothbart — it’s really just a character part. But I missed the seductive Marcelo making all the women swoon with his sexy jumps, and then tossing his Odile all about!

Anyway — sorry, I’m behind on blogging and have to blog about these things all together — but earlier in the week, I attended a daytime tribute to retiring Balanchine ballerina Darci Kistler (above photo from the front of the program). She danced the Preghiera passage from Mozartiana beautifully, with some children from School of American Ballet, then the White Swan pas de deux with Jared Angle. And then Kathryn Morgan danced the Sleeping Beauty wedding pas de deux with Tyler Angle, which was sheer perfection. They also showed some excerpts of interviews with Kistler from a 1989 documentary, Dancing For Mr. B, and there was a short panel discussion where Bob Craft from the NYCB Board interviewed her. Later, the two were joined by Peter Martins, Philip Neal (who seems very polite and well-mannered), and the hilarious Albert Evans, who you can tell is the type of guy who puts everyone at ease. He got up there and immediately started reminiscing about a blue sweater Darci’d wear to rehearsals all the time and how much he wanted it (she ended up saying he could have it!) and some rather amusing (in retrospect) goof-ups they had together, and she just really burst into genuine laughter.

Oh and at the beginning, Kathryn Morgan presented Kaitlyn Gilliland with the 2010 Janice Levin Award (Morgan was the 2009 recipient). Both gave little speeches, and Gilliland (who seems like a natural speaker) prefaced hers by pronouncing Kathryn’s recent Sleeping Beauty debut “historical,” which nearly brought tears to my eyes. Can’t think of a more apt description!

And finally, earlier last week, I saw the debut of a new ballet by corps member Adam Hendrickson. It was presented in a small downstairs auditorium at Carnegie Hall and was part of a program featuring newly discovered Prokofiev music performed by students and faculty of Yale’s School of Music. Hendrickson’s ballet was set to his Music For Athletic Exercises, and it was fast, flirty, and fun. It was performed by three dancers — Matthew Renko (who is really a stand-out dancer — I kept wondering why he wasn’t with a major ballet company, and then realized later in the week he’s a corps member at NYCB), Elysia Dawn, and Colby Damon and one pianist — Boris Berman — and Hendrickson’s original, clever choreography had elements of Ratmansky’s Concerto DSCH as well as Jerome Robbins. At one point, Dawn’s feet are moving so fast and furiously, and the pianist just keeps at it and won’t let up, and she kind of stops and shoots him a look. It reminded me of Robbins’ Suite of Dances — it was cute and the crowd loved the joke. This is the second work I’ve seen of Hendrickson’s and I found both to be engaging and memorable. I think he may have a real future as a choreographer. Anyway, here is Philip’s account of the evening, and here is an article on the music.

So, toward the end of last week I saw two more casts of Sleeping Beauty in New York City Ballet’s production. Above are the beautiful Kathryn Morgan as Aurora and Tyler Angle as her Prince Desire (Paul Kolnik is the photographer). Below are some photos of the other couple I saw, Tiler Peck (both she and Kathryn were making their Aurora debuts), with Gonzalo Garcia, albeit not from this ballet.

(in Four Bagatelles, photo by Paul Kolnik)

(and in the Christopher Wheeldon / Martha Wainwright collaboration over the summer, photo from NYTimes by Andrea Mohin; I like this photo because I think it shows each of their personalities well).

And then last week, I saw Ashley Bouder and Andrew Veyette.

I’ve been thinking about who I thought was best in what role but it’s actually really hard to do that. I honestly ended up liking everyone, though there were definite differences.

I do have a lot to say about Gonzalo Garcia though. I LOVED him as Prince Desire — he really melted me, he really completely stole the show that night and I feel like I’m not ever going to like anyone quite as well in that role now. I mean, you just have to see him in a classical ballet, as the romantic lead, and you realize why San Francisco audiences were so upset when he left SFB for NYCB a couple years ago. Some of those SFBallet fans were really devastated when he left. And I think it’s been such a puzzle to those fans that New Yorkers haven’t really fallen for him the same way. And I think it’s because he hasn’t had the chance to shine because NYCB is so Balanchine-heavy. He needs roles where he can act and become a character. He’s such the quintessential romantic prince.

You can really tell how differently he’s trained than the other NYCB dancers, who’ve nearly all come from SAB and been trained on Balanchine’s non-actable abstract ballets. I felt like with Gonzalo I was seeing someone from ABT — mainly Angel Corella (in terms of the body type, dramatic style and boyishly handsome face). The way he’d hold onto the music, draw it out while it crescendos, by for example in the vision scene holding out a finger to the princess and then leaning back, then looking out to the audience — not AT the audience but in the audience’s direction — to show how enthralled he is, how much he wants to catch her, all before then turning and running toward her. The other two — Tyler and Andrew — they didn’t do all that. They just kind of looked toward her standing more and more toward the tips of the toes, ready to run toward her when the music told them to. Gonzalo’s way was so much more Petipa and Tchaikovsky and Bolshoi and Romantic Russian and all that, and it might all seem overly melodramatic to audiences who aren’t used to that. But that’s what I’m used to with ABT — and that kind of stuff makes me swoon!– so that’s why I think I loved him so much. But I’m wondering what others who saw this cast thought?

And Gonzalo just knows what’s expected of him, as the prince. Later, when he went to do that crazy series of jetes, he was rested up and ready and he nailed them like I’ve never seen him nail anything. I’ve never seen his legs straighter, in perfect splits, and the whole way around the perimeter of the stage, without tiring. And it’s like he knew that was a very important part, and he had to do them perfectly because that’s just what the romantic hero does — that’s the way he shows his love for the princess, and that he’s worthy of her. The other two obviously took them seriously (because they’re crazy hard, you have to take them seriously), but it just was more of a difficult feat, instead of having the same meaning. You know what I mean? Like he looked out all across the stage wistfully, and then he just took off flying around it. It gave it a different meaning than just flying around.

It makes me wonder though if contemporary audiences understand that, or appreciate it. Or whether they prefer for the emotion to look more “natural”? I’m not saying Gonzalo was better than the other two, just different.

I wonder what Joaquin De Luz was like, since he’s not SAB trained either. Did anyone see him?

As far as partnerships, Kathryn and Tyler were my favorites. Tyler had a few flubs on some of his solo variations (but I still love him!), but he was always the perfect partner, he was always solid when supporting her. And the series of fish dives in the wedding pas de deux were some of the most breathtaking I’ve ever seen. Her legs were pointing completely up toward the ceiling! Magnificent! And the final hands-free fish dive was picture perfect.

I liked all of the Aurora interpretations, but they were different too. Kathryn was the most princess-like, the most regal, though that may just be the way she looks. She just kind of looks like royalty! Ashley and Tiler seemed more “real girlish”  – all smiles and sweetness and awe at the world and their cute suitors.

The rose adagios were all near perfect. (ABT’s Sarah Lane is still the queen of the balances to me — it seems like she could hold them for hours.) Kathryn had the most absolutely gorgeous extensions. Do I have to giggle every time Robert Fairchild comes out leading the cavalcade of suitors? I loved Craig Hall as the “African prince,” – I don’t know what exactly stood out about him but something did. And even though it wasn’t a dancing role, I loved Henry Seth as the King; he acted it really well. Chase Finlay was lovely as Gold in the wedding scene – -he’s a really beautiful dancer with exquisite lines. Everyone’s talking about him being the next romantic lead. I loved tiny Erica Pereira as the fairy of eloquence and Ana Sophia Scheller as the fairy of courage, thought Faye Arthurs and Adrian Danchig-Waring were brilliant as The White Cat and Puss in Boots, and Daniel Ulbricht is the quintessential gymnastic court jester.

And there’s NEVER been a better Carabosse than Georgina Pazcoguin! Nor has there ever been (or, perhaps, could there be) a better Lilac Fairy than Sara Mearns. I love how she arches her back so luxuriously and opens up her chest. And the rich, full-out port de bras. Such beautiful expansiveness, that, with her beatific face, makes her perfect for this angelic role. She reminds me of Veronika Part.

Okay, that’s all I can think of, for now!

This week begins the Swan Lakes. I’ve never seen Peter Martins’ version, so I’m really excited. In particular, I’ve heard wonderful things about Maria Kowroski as Odette and I’m psyched for Stephen Hanna’s debut as Prince Siegfried!

New York City Ballet opened their Winter 2010 season last week with rotating performances of Balanchine’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, and a two-ballet program of his Who Cares?, set to Gershwin music, and Peter Martins’ Naive and Sentimental Music.

I LOVED Who Cares?! (photos above — of Robert Fairchild and Sterling Hyltin, and of the whole cast — by Paul Kolnik.) I’d only ever seen the pas de deux before and didn’t even realize the whole was comprised of a whole slew of Gershwin songs, some danced by the ensemble, some by only the women, others by only the men, with solos and pas de deux mixed in. I particularly loved Tiler Peck’s duet with Robbie Fairchild in The Man I Love. She has such a clean, beautiful line and she’s so expressive and so engaging. She can make a story out of anything. And of course Fairchild is always the perfect romantic male lead Crowd went wild over his and Ana Sophia Scheller’s duet to Embraceable You as well as Scheller’s My One and Only solo. Such a fun ballet — I’m going back for more this week.

Also shown in that program was Martins’s new Naive and Sentimental Music, set to John Adams’ score of the same name. I wrote about that ballet when it premiered here and posted pics of it here. Seeing it again evoked a bit of Balanchine’s Jewels, particularly the lovely lyrical white section (my favorite) and the sexy red.

One little thing I have to say: this ballet was created on and is danced only by principals but Adrian Danchig-Waring danced in last week’s production as well, and he is still a soloist (I think he may have been replacing Amar Ramasar, who must be injured because he was replaced a few times over the week…) Anyway, I realize NYCB is top heavy at the moment, but I think Danchig-Waring definitely needs to be next in line for a promotion!

And earlier in the week I saw the best EVER cast of  Midsummer Night’s Dream. I finally got to see my Gonzalo Garcia as Oberon (photo above by Paul Kolnik, of Garcia as Oberon and Darci Kistler as Titania). I’d missed him in this role at the end of last season. He did very well – -not only with the dancing — particularly that crazy fast scherzo — but also, and less expected for me, with the acting. I thought he’d be a sweet, glowingly endearing Oberon, but, no, he was a pissy, demanding fairy king — just as much as Andrew Veyette last season (cutely pissy and demanding though!) He wanted Titania’s servant boy and he wasn’t letting her say no to him. Only thing regarding the dancing — his legs don’t seem to be as flexible as they once were. It seems like he may have injured an adductor muscle, or else he’s built up so much thigh muscle or something — but his legs when he jumps are not making perfect splits. But his upper body is so fluid and graceful and he exudes such charm that he’s still the perfect lyrical male dancer nonetheless.

Titania was the beautiful Sara Mearns (headshot by Paul Kolnik — a new headshot for her, right?)– and she was the best Titania I’ve personally seen. Oh she’s such a beautiful dancer! She throws herself so fully into every move she makes. If Garcia is the ideal male lyrical dancer she is the ideal female – they were so perfect together.

And I’m so glad Stephen Hanna is back at NYCB (still annoyed with the Billy Elliot directors for not making good enough use of him on Broadway). He was Titania’s cavalier and his pas de deux with Mearns was the best Titania / Cavalier pdd I’ve ever seen. He’s so big and strong — which certainly amps up the romance factor — and his numerous tour jetes just have so much power. Honestly I often get bored during that pdd and just want Oberon to return, but not with Hanna’s cavalier!

And new to the cast of human characters who get their hearts messed with by a mischievous Puck (Troy Schumacher) was Janie Taylor, as Helena. She is another one who excels at story dances, always delving into a character and making clear to the audience what’s going on in her mind. She’s pathetically, endearingly funny from the time she enters the stage all forlorn over Demetrius, to her being completely bewildered by Lysander’s sudden attraction to her, to her searching the forest madly for Demetrius, to her cat-fights with Hermia, etc. She really brought out the humor.

In the section where I was sitting, there were at least three large groups of people you could tell had never seen the ballet before — nor likely the play; they didn’t seem familiar with the story. But they were laughing hysterically throughout the whole thing and were really awed by the dancing, and by some of the tricks (like Puck’s being pulled up to the ceiling via harness at the end). That’s when you can tell with a story ballet that the cast really brought it to life, when the newcomers are enthralled.

Photos by Paul Kolnik.

I’m a little late on this news, but for NYers who haven’t heard, Erica Pereira was recently promoted from corps member to soloist at New York City Ballet. I first noticed her in 2006 when she was the youngest Juliet cast in Peter Martins’ Romeo + Juliet (she was still then only an apprentice with the company). I knew how special she was then, and so I think this promotion is very well deserved.

Getting so excited for NYCB’s Winter season to begin! Nutcracker shows through Sunday, January 3rd, then the regular season begins the following Tuesday, January 5th, when the new Peter Martins will show, along with Balanchine’s Who Cares?

Ballet preceded by cadillac margaritas and duck tortilla pie at Rosa Mexicano, then followed with Ed’s Chowder House martinis and scallop ravioli:) Or maybe Honoo & green tea martinis at the A-Rod / Wallace Shawn bar… Ballet season: yum!

Here are some photos of Peter Martins’ Naive and Sentimental Music, which premiered last night at NYCB. All photos are by Paul Kolnik.

Tiler Peck,

Charles Askegard and Maria Kowroski,

Darci Kistler and Jared Angle,

And cast of first section.

New York City Ballet officially opened its 2009-10 winter season last night, with a performance and black tie gala dinner. The performance included Alexei Ratmansky’s Concerto DSCH (above photo of that ballet — dancers are Ana Sophia Scheller, Gonzalo Garcia, and Joaquin De Luz — by Paul Kolnik, taken from NYTimes), stars of the Paris Opera Ballet Aurelie Dupont and Mathias Heymann dancing the central pas de deux from Balanchine’s “Rubies,”

(photo taken from Kulturkompasset; Dupont is center, Heymann is holding the hand of another dancer).

And then the evening finished off with the world premiere of artistic director Peter Martins’ Naive and Sentimental Music, set to John Adams’ (brilliant) score of the same name (I’ll post photos when I receive them).

But first, there was a short film of the reconstruction of the inside of the Koch Theater (still can’t help but think of it as the State Theater…) while the orchestra played Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty overture (as it turned out, the perfect music to highlight the comically sped-up but ultimately awe-inducingly huge renovation process). Highlights of the renovated theater are — most importantly and coolly — the orchestra pit with a floor that can rise to stage-level (! — and this is how the orchestra played the overture), and two aisles now carved into the orchestra seating section. (Before, orchestra section had no aisles — so, though this is how Balanchine wanted it, apart from being extremely hard getting to a middle seat, it was a fire hazard).

Anyway, after the mandatory thank-you speeches by Peter Martins and David Koch (who funded the renovation), came the  Ratmansky. The fun frolicking threesome in blue (top photo) were danced by Joaquin De Luz, Gonzalo Garcia and Ashley Bouder (all three brilliantly on, Bouder thankfully back from an injury), and the adagio couple in green were Benjamin Millepied and Wendy Whelan (photo below). I think this was danced better than I’ve ever seen it done before — it could have been because I was so excited to see Bouder return, or because the dancers are all beginning-of-season fresh… but this is by far Ratmansky’s best, imo — it’s got the most complex structure and original movement.

(photo by Paul Kolnik, taken from Danza Ballet)

Next were the POB couple, who danced “Rubies” brilliantly — not only with precision and clarity but with great exuberance as well. One thing I meant to say earlier about La Danse (the Wiseman film about the POB) and forgot, was that the POB dancers are all so trained to make meaning out of every little thing they do — every step, every gesture, no matter how small. You have to have some kind of thought in your mind whatever you do. (This is not what Balanchine taught his dancers; he taught them simply to do his steps and those would contain everything the audience needed to know.) I feel that this allows POB dancers to bring a certain passion and humanity to all of the works they do — I noticed that from performance footage from that film as well as from last night.

And third came the highlight — for me anyway — of the night: the new Peter Martins’ ballet. The John Adams music was absolutely gorgeous — rich, many-layered, complex, intense, varied and structured into many sections — some lighter, many heavier, evocative, etc. etc. Beautiful! Oftentimes music like that overpowers the dancing, but not here.

In a short film shown before the dance (methinks Martins is taking after Wheeldon here with these little introductory films), Adams says the title refers to the difference between musicians whose music was fresh and original (the “naive” composers — like Mozart, he says) and those whose music was meant to speak to the past, to convey a sense of history, music that kind of carried the weight of the world on its shoulders so to speak (the “sentimental” — which he considers Beethoven). You could really see that in the music — some of it lighter, much of it weightier. Martins said in the film he tried to evoke that visually through dance, and I think he did so successfully — there’s a lighter, adagio section with dancers dressed in pristine white, another light but fast section with dancers in red, and then the more intense, almost severe sections with dancers in blues and deep greens and black.

Though most sections are danced in ensemble, Martins created the ballet for the principals only. This created an interesting dynamic, because, except for the middle section with the three pairs of dancers in white, almost all roles had equal weight — and yet practically all of the dancers stood out. It was an overload of star power!

And, though some sections seemed a slight bit underrehearsed (or maybe it was just that the footwork was so difficult and fast), everyone shone since Martins highlighted each dancer’s strengths: Maria Kowroski and Sara Mearns as lyrical women in white, Sterling Hyltin and Teresa Reichlin as kind of sharp-edged, sassy women in fiery red, Andrew Veyette and Daniel Ulbrich at the high-jumping bravura guys in black, there were some jazzy moves for Amar Ramasar, etc. etc.

Oh and I just love Tyler Angle He partnered Yvonne Borree and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so at ease and so fluid! She looked really beautiful. Nice also to see Stephen Hanna back from Billy Elliot! He partnered Darci Kistler in the white section.

It’s a rather long ballet but I was thoroughly engrossed and can’t wait to see it again. I hope they keep it in the rep.

Okay, that was the gala. Now onto the Nuts. Regular season begins in January.

How funny — I was just going on in my last post about how I fell in love with the Paris Opera Ballet through Frederick Wiseman’s currently-showing film La Danse, and now I receive news that two etoiles with that company — Aurelie Dupont (in photo above, taken from Bailarinas) and Mathias Heymann — will be performing with New York City Ballet in their opening night gala, on November 24th. In exchange, NYCB’s Ashley Bouder and Gonzalo Garcia (both SLSG faves) will perform with Paris Opera Ballet, on November 12th. Both couples will dance the “Rubies” section of Balanchine’s Jewels.

Additionally, NYCB’s opening night performance will include Alexei Ratmansky’s Concerto DSCH (my personal favorite of his) and a premiere by Peter Martins set to John Adams music and starring all of the company’s principal dancers.

Photo of DSCH by Paul Kolnik, from NYTimes.

NYCB’s Nutcracker season begins the Friday following opening night, November 27th. Visit the website for tix and info.

Most exciting though about the dancer exchange. I’ve never seen Heymann perform live and I’ve only seen Dupont dance Trisha Brown, not full-out ballet.

Here are a couple videos of Heymann I found on YouTube: first as Bluebird in Sleeping Beauty and second in a contemporary solo:

And here is Dupont as Kitri in Don Q:

Sorry, you guys, I’m just so into videos these days!

Practically all of SLSG’s NYCB favorites who were not already principal dancers in the company have just been promoted: the always magical Kathryn Morgan (above, with Seth Orza in Martins’ Romeo + Juliet), heartthrobs Robert Fairchild and Amar Ramasar, the always dramatically compelling Tiler Peck and Tyler Angle, and the statuesque Teresa Reichlen.

Here are Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild rehearsing Robbins’ Afternoon of a Faun for the Vail International Dance Festival over the summer.

And here are Tiler Peck and Tyler Angle performing the adagio from Christopher Wheeldon’s Mercurial Manoeuvres at said festival:

All promos are from soloist to principal, except young ‘un Morgan who was moved up from corps member to soloist.

All of the new principals will make their debut as such at NYCB’s winter season opening night gala, on November 24th, in Peter Martins’s new ballet set to John Adams’s Naive and Sentimental Music, which will make its world premier that night.

Visit Oberon for more dancer pix and info.

Above photo by Paul Kolnik from Voice of Dance.

If you haven’t already seen, there’s an excellent slide show of photos of dancers and choreographers that have appeared in Vanity Fair over the past decade or so on the magazine’s website. Of course you know I would have to post this one (by Bruce Weber by the way), but there are also some really beautiful ones of Darci Kistler and Peter Martins, Bill T. Jones, Alvin Ailey dancers, and some oldies from New York City Ballet, just to name a few. Check it out here.

Photo of Pina Bausch’s Orfeo ed Euridice by Ursula Kaufman from NYTimes.

Well, I am sad and surprised that Nigel Lythgoe did not give any kind of tribute to Pina Bausch last night, the way he did Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon last week. Pina Bausch is a legend in the dance world; how can you have a serious show about dance and not mention something as huge as her passing?

I did of course love that the show had its first ever classical ballet routine– performed by ballerina Melissa and her partner Ade to Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, a version of the famous balcony scene choreographed by Thordal Christensen. It was more Peter Martins than Kenneth MacMillan, but I mean, come on! Am I complaining I keep forgetting what Ade’s dance style is, which is perhaps a testament to how well he excels at everything. But I do know it’s not classical ballet! She was beautiful it goes without saying. Those overhead lifts were difficult-looking and perfectly executed, the slide (that NYCB’s Robert Fairchild and Sterling Hyltin admitted they could never get down and so took it out when they performed ) was likewise perfect, beautiful continuous super-charged chaine turns for her, really gorgeous lines and pointe work. She was really lovely. And Ade did quite well too. I mean, I don’t think he landed the jumps in perfect position and he wasn’t turned out, but come on, he’s not a ballet dancer and I don’t know if he even has any ballet training. He did miraculously well with all of those jetes and twisty turning jumps. And he was the perfect partner with those lifts. As Mia Michaels pronounced, “GORGEOIS!”

I also of course love the newly-established Dizzy Feet Foundation scholarship for dance training for underprivileged kids. Can’t wait to see Katie Holmes dance on July 23rd. Love how Judith Jamison appeared in an interview to talk about the scholarship. Just like her to be involved in something like this!

Okay, the other couples:

Janette and Brandon’s Cha Cha choreographed by Jean Marc and France Genereux was excellent, I thought. Particularly Janette. That one can do anything. Like Mary said, she’s a salsa dancer and, though people may not realize it, salsa technique is far different from cha cha. Salsa’s much more bent-kneed and free-form, less stylized. Cha Cha has to have the straight knees and the super quick leg action, the quick hip shifting. She did so well with it; I really thought she was a competitive ballroom dancer. I actually didn’t like Brandon as well as I liked her or as well as the judges did. He looked a bit robotic, he didn’t have enough hip action. It looked to me more like a hip hop version of cha cha.

Kayla and Kupono’s contemporary Sonya Tayeh routine: so, they said up front she’s supposed to be trying to escape death and he’s trying to draw her to it? Wouldn’t it work better the other way? Like she’s attracted to the dark and he’s trying to help her out? Anyway, I thought it was so so. I thought she had very good lines and very good form. I don’t like Kupono though; I just don’t. I thought his lines in his jumps were clumsy, his form wasn’t good — especially compared to hers. They partnered well though, seemed comfortable together. And good in sync dancing.

I actually really liked Randi and Evan’s Broadway routine, choreographed by Joey Dowling. They danced to Rich Man’s Frug from Sweet Charity, which I love. I thought they did really well getting the character down, both of them. I thought the bent wrists were sufficiently pronounced; I thought the lines were all there; the character, the sexiness, the attitude, the sharpness — it was great fun. I don’t know what the judges were on about. Then again, I don’t see a lot of Broadway. Oh, my favorite part was when he lifted himself out of the chair. How did he do that like that? It looked like he used no leg muscles at all to get up! Like he raised himself straight from his center. Amazing!

I wasn’t into Jason and Caitlin’s Brian Friedman jazz routine. She was supposed to be an alien who’d blown up earth and destroyed all of humanity and was coming back to use him, the last remaining man alive, to impregnate her? Sounds fun! She was sufficiently robotic, great isolations for the both of them. I love when she was smacking him about, and his face reacted to her imaginary slaps of the hand. He had a good jump and she an astounding gymnastic flip. Not sure what the flip was doing there though. Like the judges, I wasn’t so into the choreography — sounded a lot more fun than it was. But the dancing was good.

Phillip and Jeanine’s hip hop routine choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon. So, they’re supposed to be chained together by the ankles and said chain is to show how on the show you’re locked into a partnership — for better or for worse. I thought they had some great isolations — especially with the shoulders and chests, which I think the judges pointed out. I thought the chain could have been used to better effect, actually. It was so long, they really didn’t seem chained together. I just remember a ballroom routine — I think it was performed by Max Kozhevnikov and Yulia Zagoruychenko way back when and they were connected by their costumes, which wrapped around each other. They could unwrap themselves to an extent, but the fabric was connected, so they could only unwrap so far. It was mesmerizing watching how they worked that fabric, doing lifts even, connected the way they were. This was just not at that level, in terms of the prop.

And Karla and Vitolio’s Quickstep, choreographed by Jean Marc and France. I agree with the judges on this — one of Jean Marc and France’s best pieces on the show ever. Wow! That had everything — a couple of balletic jumps performed side-by-side with the batting of the feet (one of my favorite jumps in ballet), beautiful lifts, traditional Quickstep with all its fast, super-charged footwork with some fun social Charleston thrown in, excellent concept of him being a statue at a museum, she bringing him to life, and he placing her on the pedestal at the end. And of course excellent costume trick with one dress changing into another with the simple pull of a spaghetti strap. I thought they did very well with it too.

Except for the lack of a Pina Bausch tribute, I really enjoyed the show this week.

(Photo by Paul Kolnik, of Gonzalo Garcia, Darci Kistler and cast, taken from Oberon’s Grove)

Last week, I saw two Midsummer Night’s Dreams at New York City Ballet. This was my first time ever seeing Balanchine’s version of the ballet and it was really sweet. It follows the Shakespeare pretty closely: Theseus, Duke of Athens is to be wed to Amazonian queen Hippolyta and Hermia is to be wed to Demetrius. But Hermia doesn’t love Demetrius, she loves Lysander, but her father insists she obey him and marry Demetrius. She and Lysander elope and wander the forest. But first, Hermia informs her friend Helena of her plans. But Helena is in love with Demetrius, a love he doesn’t return. He is in fact quite rude to her. So she decides to try to win his favor by telling him of Hermia and Lysander’s plan of escape.

Meanwhile in the land of the fairies, King Oberon and Queen Titania are fighting because Titania refuses to give Oberon her boy servant, which Oberon badly wants. So Oberon arranges for his friend, the devious Puck, to apply a magical potion to Titania’s eyes while she’s asleep that will make her fall in love with the first person she sees on awaking. After turning a man from the wedding entertainment troupe into an ass, Puck applies the potion to Titania and arranges for her to fall in love with the man/donkey when she awakes, which she does.

(photo of Maria Kowroski and Joaquin De Luz as Titania and Oberon, by Paul Kolnik, taken from ArtsJournal)

Angry about Demetrius treating Helena badly, Oberon also instructs Puck to put the potion on Demetrius’s eyes so that he will fall in love with Helena. But Puck mixes up Demetrius with Lysander and Lysander falls in love with Helena, to Hermia’s obviously great dismay. The two women fight, and the two men fight over Helena. Puck eventually realizes his mistake, rights his wrong, and Demetrius ends up with Helena, Lysander with Hermia. Eventually, he changes the entertainer back into a human and Titania and Oberon make up, she giving him the servant.

The story’s told entirely in the first act, the second consists only of a celebratory divertissement of a three-way wedding between Theseus and Hippolyta, Lysander and Hermia, and Demetrius and Helena.

On my first night seeing this, Faye Arthurs and Abi Stafford most stood out to me as Helena and Hermia respectively. Abi in particular danced with more emotion that I’ve ever seen before from her. I really felt sorry for her when Lysander ran off with Helena and she ran through the forest, searching desperately for her lost love, and scared like a child. Sometimes she disappears to me in the story-less Balanchine or Robbins ballets, which makes me think maybe she needs more roles like this, where she can really delve into a character, because she really blew me away. I haven’t seen much of Faye Arthurs, but she was really hair-pullingly tormented by Demetrius. I really felt for her too. Give these two wonderful women more acting roles, Mr. Martins!

My first Oberon was Antonio Carmena, who danced the role very very well.

Photo by Paul Kolnik, from Oberon’s Grove.

There’s a very difficult Scherzo (a humorous section of music with a typically very fast tempo) with lots of high jumps with the fluttering bird-like beats of the feet and multiple turns, and he pulled it off very well. He was a rather nice Oberon, seeming to ask Maria Kowroski’s spectacular Titania nicely for the boy-servant and for Puck to commit his mischief (rather than to demand those things of them).

Andrew Veyette was my Oberon the second night I saw the ballet and I loved his interpretation. Andrew’s a more virile dancer and he made all the demands Antonio’s Oberon did not. Overall, Veyette was probably my favorite dancer in the whole two nights.

Photo by John Ross, of Veyette dancing another ballet, taken from Ballet Co)

Andrew’s Oberon was a deliciously pissed off fairy god, a real match for Teresa Reichlen’s stunning Titania and Daniel Ulbricht’s over-the-top Puck, directing the two of them all around this way and that. Daniel Ulbricht as Puck was of course an excellent jumper, as always — and he did these moves where it looked like he was running in the air. Others do more of a cute scampering hop, but he’s able to really run in the air because he attains such height on those jumps. He’s a true gymnast, you can tell from his body when he’s not in tights! But critics have noted that he tends to take over, make Puck the central figure of this ballet when he dances it. Not here. At least not in my mind. Andrew’s Oberon was most definitely the main character. He has too much virility and command to ever let anyone else take over, whatever he’s dancing.

One other thing about Ulbricht: audiences really seem to love him. I’m not a sucker for the high jumps and the pyrotechnics unless they’re necessary to character (though, looking back, I admit I was more of a sucker for that kind of thing when I first started watching ballet). I think audiences go completely wild for that though and I think they expect him to be cast as Puck and when he’s not, they feel cheated. When it was announced he’d be subbing for an injured Sean Suozzi the audience went wild with applause, making me feel sorry for Suozzi. If I was Peter Martins, I’d try to cast Ulbricht as Puck for every single performance, if possible, so as not to upset audiences. Seriously.

Robert Fairchild, making his Lysander debut Thursday night, was cute in the role, as always, as was Sterling Hyltin as Hermia. And Henry Seth was a cutely funny Bottom. He had the slurred-footed “donkey” moves a little more down pat than Adrian Danchig-Waring on the previous night, and you could practically see through his donkey head his hilarious inner conflict over whether to go for that grass or the beautiful Titania.

Savannah Lowery really stood out to me Thursday night as the huntress Amazonian queen Hippolyta. She did her multiple whipping fouette turns like no one’s business. She’s a very strong dancer. An excellent performance.

And Jared Angle did really well as the leading man in the divertissement adagio, which he danced Thursday night with Jenifer Ringer. He strikes me as a very good, very caring partner who will really take care of his lady. And he’s well cast in these noble roles, like his brother Tyler. I think Sebastien Marcovici is likewise a very good partner and he always makes sure he saves his woman before worrying about himself. He worked very hard Wednesday night in that divertissement adagio and big huge kudos to him. The ballerina he was partnering was having a real struggle with her nerves out there — it was visible, and I felt very sorry and nervous for her. It made me wonder whether there’s anything dancers can take for their nerves, to calm them down without making them so relaxed their dancing suffers? I don’t know, is there? Anyway, there are lots of very good, strong male partners in New York City Ballet.

Ariel and I thought we spotted actor Jeff Goldblum in the audience on Wednesday night.

(Design by Janie Taylor, NYCBallet)

I love these Dancers’ Choice programs at NYCBallet! Established to raise money for the Dancers’ Emergency Fund, it’s the one night of the year where the dancers plan everything — the ballets to be performed, which excerpts, and who dances them. One dancer plays artistic director for the night (tonight’s was  principal ballerina Jenifer Ringer), another designs the program graphic (tonight, Janie Taylor, above), and another choreographs a ballet to be premiered (tonight, Ashley Bouder, with costumes by Janie Taylor) Dancers who are visual artists donate their artwork for a silent auction during intermission. And that’s my one and only complaint with the evening — the intermissions are always too flipping short. There’s no way people have time to browse through the special items for sale and make their purchases in 15 minutes. Why don’t they double or even triple the intermission? People can buy sparkling wine and browse and buy, not to mention people-watch (practically everyone shows up for these things — all the dancers past and present at NYCB and even ABTers from across the plaza). And it wouldn’t be more expensive to do that, right — if you’re selling alcohol and art, what’s the added expense? What do people need to get home for by 10:00 anyway

Okay, that’s my little rant.

The program was excellent. They chose the best parts of some great ballets, and some ballets I’ve never seen before — and ended up loving — and of course Bouder’s new ballet!

I’m not going to go in order, but just write what comes to mind first, which is the new Bouder,

Continue reading ‘“BRAVO, MR. B.”: DANCERS’ CHOICE PROGRAM, NEW YORK CITY BALLET’

(photo by Paul Kolnik, of Sterling Hyltin and Robert Fairchild, taken from NYObserver)

Don’t forget: tonight on PBS Live From Lincoln Center, New York City Ballet performing Peter Martins’ Romeo + Juliet. It’s not my favorite version of the ballet, but it grew on me the last time I saw it, and the dancers are superb. So please watch, or DVR or Tivo or whatever, while So You Think You Can Dance premieres on Fox. Let me know what you all think!

(photo by Paul Kolnik taken from Explore Dance)

Last night my friend Judy and I went to New York City Ballet for Martins’ Romeo + Juliet, my first viewing of that ballet since it premiered in 2007. I wanted to see it again before the live Live From Lincoln Center broadcast this Thursday. Don’t forget, PBS at 8 pm EST on the 21st! Reminders to come!

Kathryn Morgan had the lead and I loved her! She was so beautiful, so sweet, so dramatic, so girlish and innocent in her early scenes with the Nurse, then so full of tragic pathos as the ballet progressed. No one has her floral, fluid, sweeping lines, and no one can so exquisitely arch her back. She really reminded me of Margot Fonteyn and she nearly made me tear up at the end, which only Jose Carreno as Romeo has ever done to me

Her Romeo was Sean Suozzi and, though I still find Robert Fairchild to be NYCB’s most charismatic Romeo, she and Sean complimented each other far better than she and her original Romeo, Seth Orza. Seth was hunky and handsome and powerful and manly, but he danced Romeo with all the emotion of a brick wall and it made it seem like Kathryn was overacting. There was much greater balance here.

(photo of Morgan and Orza by Elinor Carucci, from the New Yorker)

Also, I think Martins has vamped up the choreography in the pas de deux more, no?

Continue reading ‘KATHRYN MORGAN’S FONTEYN-ESQUE JULIET!’

(above image of Joaquin de Luz and Megan Fairchild in Tarantella by Paul Kolnik, courtesy of NYCB)

So, Sunday marked the end of New York  City Ballet’s winter season. I was honestly in a blue funk all day yesterday, which shows, I guess, that I am really beginning to love this company since I’ve normally only gotten so sad over ABT and Alvin Ailey.

Sunday was a one-day only program, the All-American Season Finale, which included Robbins’s Glass Pieces, Martins’s Hallelujah Junction, and Balanchine’s Tarantella and Stars and Stripes. Tarantella (this is the only time it showed this season) is always fun, with its cute Neapolitan peasant boy-tries-to-get-girl caricatures, lightening-charged footwork, and series of bravura solos for both man and woman, all performed with a tambourine. I was completely out of breath after watching Joaquin de Luz fly across the stage and ultimately steal a kiss from Megan Fairchild. Joaquin is not just a dancing virtuoso but a dramatist as well and his characters are always these virile, sexed-up, but charming, innocuous men. I really love him.

Glass Pieces and Hallelujah Junction also really grew on me. I don’t know if it was Maria Kowroski or what, but the  slower, more adagio section of Glass Pieces was very compelling this time, and it really spiced up the last man-centric, drum-beating, section as well. At first I wasn’t a huge fan of Maria Kowroski, but either she has improved or she has really grown on me. I always thought she had an excellent dancer body, but now she is using it in a much more expressive way, really to say something. The only thing I’m not in love with choreography-wise in Glass Pieces is in the last section, how the men come jogging out, hands powerfully punching the air, doing their ‘man things’ to the booming drums, and then the women daintily slink in to the sound of the flutes. Corny.

I was able to watch more than just the mesmerizing lighting in Hallelujah Junction this time. I love the movement theme –toward the beginning — of the landing a jump or phrase on releve and then swiftly lowering the ankle to the floor. On Andrew Veyette it looked kind of teasing but in a sinister way, like the slicing of a knife. There is something very sinister in general about Andrew Veyette, very virile in a threatening way, which makes him perfect for the devious man dressed in black here.

And I love how Sebastien Marcovici, the man in white, kind of Janie Taylor’s saviour, would powerfully jete across stage after him, threatening him, banishing him. Sebastien and Janie are such the romantic couple, in part because they work so well together and in part because of their respective sizes. Someone very knowledgeable in the dance world told me they thought he’d been working out a lot, trying to build muscle. I do think he seems to have become more muscular lately, especially his legs. Building muscle often decreases the muscle’s flexibility and he doesn’t seem to make a perfect split on a jete like some of the others, but I still think it’s so romantic that he’s so much larger than little Janie; he can just sweep her off the floor and scoop her up into his arms — aw

The program notes state that Stars and Stripes, the somewhat cheesily patriotic but excellently danced Balanchine ballet, was shown at presidential tributes, like that of Kennedy and Johnson, and at Nelson Rockefeller’s NY gubernatorial inauguration. It’s so weird to me to think of that, though I could see it performed back then. But now? At President Obama’s inauguration? It just doesn’t seem like it would fit. It would seem kind of anachronistic, sadly…

Anyway, the talk of the ballet world lately has been Sir Alastair’s New York Times season wrap-up.

Taylor Gordon, my friend and fellow blogger / dance writer, says, “whether you agree with him or not, it boggles me that one person has the power to say these things in basically the one print medium dance criticism has left. Ouch.”

Macaulay basically takes the women of NYCB to task, saying none of them really command authority like true ballerinas,

Continue reading ‘New York City Ballet Season Finale and Wrap Up With Response to Sir A’

(photo of Sara Mearns and Jared Angle by Paul Kolnik, courtesy of New York City Ballet)

Last night Ariel and I went to the premiere of a new ballet by Melissa Barak, A Simple Symphony, at NYCB. It was really lovely and not at all what I was expecting! The program they included it in was entitled “21st Century Movement” and it was an evening of abstract ballets with lots of sharp, angular motion. But Barak’s ballet was very beautifully Balanchine, very classical — or neo-classical — with the ballerinas dressed in pretty Romantic pink-skirted tutus with pink and white striped form-fitting bodices designed by Barak herself.

Suited to its title and set to music by Benjamin Britten, it was simple in a Balanchinian sense, generally storyless and without lots of drama, but with an underlying complexity in the steps and rhythms, and not at all without emotion. At one point, several men partner several women, all of them doing assisted pirouettes for a really beautiful visual effect, with all the skirts flying about in the same direction at the same time. There was lots of bouncing on pointe for the women, then the men would respond with turning jumps into the air, followed by bouncing on the landing foot, the other foot held back in arabesque.

The main couple was danced charmingly by Sara Mearns and Jared Angle. But as always, it’s Jared’s brother, Tyler, who blew me away. Everything he does is in such perfect form. Ditto for Robert Fairchild, who stole the show in the first piece, Jorma Elo’s Slice To Sharp.

Anyway, at the end, Barak came out onstage for a bow, as is customary with premieres. She looked so cute in this gorgeous white baby doll dress, empire-waisted with the area below the high waistline lined with fringe, and high-heeled silver Cinderella-like slipper-sandals. I wondered if she’d designed her outfit too!

Read Philip’s interview with Barak here.

The rest of the evening consisted of abstract very modern ballets that are not always to my liking On first was Slice To Sharp, as I mentioned, which does hold my attention with all its lightening-speed quick-footedness and high-jumping, fast-turning theatrics, mainly performed by Joaquin De Luz. I don’t know if I’ve never seen Robbie Fairchild before in this ballet or not, but he danced on a different level from everyone else, made me understand like never before the ballet’s title as his arms sliced propeller-like through the air with razor sharpness and exactitude.

Also shown were Peter Martins’s Hallelujah Junction, set to piano music by John Adams, played on two pianos. The stage was so wondrously lit I couldn’t think of much else besides those pianos. They were set up on a platform at the back of the stage, back to back, and the back of the stage was all dark except the golden light made by the lights over the sheet music. Some dancers were dressed all in white — including the main, angelic couple, Janie Taylor and Sebastien Marcovici — others all in black — including the kind of devilish fast-footed character danced by Andrew Veyette. I’d need to see it again for the themes, but the shades of light and the way Martins used color were really stunning.

The evening ended with Christopher Wheeldon’s Mercurial Manoeuvres, which I thought I’d seen before but hadn’t. I have to say, I’m not always on the same page as Wheeldon, but I was very pleasantly surprised and I’d love to see this one again. Like the others, and as its name suggests, it was full of quick-footed dancing and interesting visuals — bright red costumes on some combined with lush red curtains at various points, dancers weaving between them sinuously, Gonzalo Garcia kind of the main elfish character full of innocuous mischief.

I found the music really interesting as well — Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, for a trumpet and piano, neither instrument secondary to the other, both fighting for prominence but in kind of a teasing way. At one point, the trumpet sounds very sexy, and the couple then dancing, Abi Stafford and Tyler Angle, give their partnering a kind of Argentine tango twist. Later the more calming, harmonious violins sweep in, and a female dancer is picked up by several men who carry her about the stage, raising, then dipping her romantically (or, if you prefer, pashmina-like, ala Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon, except here it’s sweet, not seductive).

Afterward, we ended up at P.J. Clarke’s. Again. This time we saw Timothy Hutton eating up front with several friends. I was excited but Ariel had no idea who he was! I tried to think of movies he was in but, ridiculously, all I could come up with was Taps, and something about a Snowman, which were two of his first. Don’t know why I thought first of those and not all the rest!

(image from PBS)

Don’t miss — don’t fail to record so you have it forever — the Jerome Robbins documentary on PBS this Wednesday evening, February 18th at 9pm EST. It’s long — 2hours — and very extensive; includes discussion and excerpts of nearly all of his ballets and Broadway shows. There are interviews with many many people — Baryshnikov, Chita Rivera, Rita Moreno, Peter Martins, Violette Verdy (a former ballerina), Suzanne Farrell, Stephen Sondheim (who is not at all what I expected!), Jacques D’Amboise (who is quite the character!) writers Deborah Jowitt and Robert Gottlieb (the only two critics whose faces I’d never seen), and more — can’t even think of everyone who spoke. And there’s footage of interviews with Robbins himself both recently and further in the past.

He and others talk about his inspiration for and meaning of much of his work — The Cage, Fancy Free (one of my favorites, which was based on a Paul Cadmus painting, which I hadn’t known), Interplay, Dances at a Gathering, Glass Pieces, NY Export Opus Jazz, Afternoon of a Faun, West Side Story, Gyspy, the wonderful Fiddler on the Roof (Broadway) and Les Noces (a rather haunting ballet about a Russian wedding based on Fiddler, which I guess is kind of obvious, now that I know), Goldberg Variations, Watermill (lots of interviewees defending this pretty controversial work!), Suite of Dances, etc. etc. etc.

There’s brilliant footage of Tanaquil Le Clercq and Jacques D’Amboise dancing Afternoon of a Faun (and please tell me if you’ve ever seen anyone better than those two in those roles!), of Robbins himself dancing Fancy Free, of Barysh also dancing FF, Dances at a Gathering, and Other Dances (with Natalia Makarova), of Robbins and Balanchine dancing in a piece Robbins choreographed for the Stravinsky Festival, etc. etc. — there’s so much, I can’t remember it all, but I think they’ve got excepts of just about everything.

There’s also coverage of major events in his life — so upsetting when his ex-fiance talks about discovering one evening that he was in love with Montgomery Clift and was gay and trying hard to marry and be “normal”; his excruciatingly difficult decision that would forever haunt him to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee; his visits to Eastern Europe that resulted in the making of one of his masterpieces — Fiddler; the quite nasty things he did to a Gypsy actress who couldn’t remember some important actions in the play…

And dancers and actors talk about how Robbins rehearsed them, which I found extremely interesting. An actor from West Side Story says he always made people do their own character sketches, which they’d have to present to him — which I love! He was a hardass to put it mildly, but only in a certain respect. He worked the dancers hard mentally (similar to one of his tutors, Antony Tudor), but when it came to the physicalities of the dance, he’d ease up considerably, ask dancers why they were working so hard — the opposite of Balanchine. At then end, Peter Martins remarks that it was mentally challenging to work with Robbins but physically relatively easy; it was the complete opposite with Balanchine.

This is honestly one of the best PBS specials on dance that I’ve ever seen. It does get slow in some points — especially early on when there are all these people talking and you can’t read the subtitles quickly enough to figure out who everyone is — and Robbins was so prolific that the film moves quite quickly and sometimes you can’t figure out which dance the interviewee is even talking about. So, I’d highly recommend taping it so you can watch it again and again. Believe me, you’ll want to. Go here to check local listings. (Type in “Jerome  Robbins: Something to Dance About”).

photo of Stabat Mater by Paul Kolnik, NYCB

Last night I brought my friend Judy with me to New York City Ballet for their Early Music Masters program. It happened to be a very ballroom-y night: I saw two sets of ballroom dance friends — one a fellow former Pasha student from Dance Times Square, and the other a former fellow West Coast Swing team member from my first studio, DanceSport. Always fun to reconnect and see what everyone’s up to. Actually I often see people I know from the ballroom world at the ballet. So, just a little note to ballet companies: I do really think serious ballroom dancers are a potentially big cross-over audience for ballet.

Anyway, first on the program was Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15 set to Mozart and in the style of a courtly dance from his era in which ballerinas are clad in sky blue and yellow tutus and their cavaliers in blousy tops with ornate vests. Honestly I find Mozart rather bland for ballet.

Continue reading ‘New York City Ballet: Early Music Masters Program’

(photo of Jock Soto in Chiaroscuro by Paul Kolnik, borrowed from Ballet Co.)

Methinks with Seth and Nikolaj now gone, Sebastien Marcovici has kind of taken over as NYCB’s hunky male dancer. He shone in two of my favorite ballets from the past week anyway.

(photo by Paul Kolnik, from NYCB site)

I went to City Ballet’s all Jerome Robbins program mid-week and today’s “Four Voices” — featuring ballets by four different choreographers (Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Peter Martins, Alexei Ratmansky, and Balanchine).

Both programs were excellent. My favorite ballet from today was Chiaroscuro by Taylor-Corbett, whom I’d never heard of before but whom I now won’t be forgetting.

Continue reading ‘New York City Ballet: Robbins, Chiaroscuro, and Sebastien Marcovici’