Tag: Alina Cojocaru

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Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg Guest Star in ABT’s SLEEPING BEAUTY

Curtain calls photos taken by my new balletomane friend, Andrea.

I have to confess, Sleeping Beauty is probably my least favorite ballet. I like the Aurora / Prince Desire wedding pas de deux, with all the gorgeous fish dives, in the last act but I could do without the rest. I just don’t have a big appreciation for sustained balances on pointe and all of the fairy variations and all that.

BUT, I have to say, Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg, guest starring from the Royal Ballet in American Ballet Theater’s Met production showed me this ballet in a new light. As I said on Twitter, I feel like I now know how Sleeping Beauty is really supposed to look!

I did see Cojocaru last year (without Kobborg), but I think because I was sitting in orchestra and because it was my first time seeing her and was just getting used to her, I couldn’t stop focusing on piddly things like her feet / shoes.  Now that I’m used to them, and because I was farther up, in dress circle (my friend, Marie, gave me her tix because she had to fly last minute to Japan and couldn’t use them – thank you Marie!) I just focused on her brilliant dancing. She’s somehow so precise and does such stunning things and makes such stunning lines while making it not about doing these stunning things but about the character and about bringing her sweet story to life. That’s a crazy run-on sentence but you know what I mean? In the “Rose Adagio,” while circling around in those repeated turns while being passed from cavalier to cavalier, she’d just flick her leg up so high and so fast whenever a cavalier took her hand. I was so awed. And she has the most stunning arabesque in attitude while she’s being promenaded about by those cavaliers. To me, those fast, high, perfectly done lifts of the leg and her gorgeous arabesque were more magical than the sustained balances on pointe (which is what most hardcore ballet fans seem to adore in this ballet).

And during the wedding pas de deux, when Kobborg dipped and dropped her into a fish dive, her legs went up so high in the back. And they were perfectly crossed. And the dip was so fast. It was stunning! Sorry I keep using that word; it’s just the word that best expresses how I felt the whole night. The other dancers – the American trained ones – don’t do those fish dives that way. They take their time raising the ballerina and then fluidly taking her down into the dive. I think that’s the influence of Balanchine, where every movement’s supposed to seamlessly melt into the next and nothing is supposed to look “posey.” But I like it so much better the way Kobborg and Cojocaru did it. So much more … stunning! Okay, I’ll stop…

But my friend Natalie and I weren’t the only ones wowed. This is what I love about sitting up higher. I feel like the orchestra is filled with people who fall asleep and with critics. Higher up is where the real fans sit, and Natalie and I were sandwiched in between these giggly twenty-something girls who nearly blasted out of their seats every time a lightning speed develope or fish dive happened, and this tattooed construction-worker looking guy who was there on his own and who followed Cojocaru’s every movement with his binoculars and nearly burst my left eardrum with his applause at the end. I so love these people 🙂

Kobborg totally reminded me of NYCB’s Gonzalo Garcia, who, everyone who reads this blog regularly knows is one of my favorites. His expressiveness, his devotion to his partner, his immense charm and the way his personality really shines through from far away – I really loved his Prince Desire. On the way out one of my friends said he loved Cojocaru but found Kobborg to be not as stellar as some of the ABT men like Marcelo Gomes. That’s totally true, but what I loved about Kobborg was how he let her have her night, how everything he did was to showcase her. I love Marcelo and David Hallberg and all the ABT men of course (of course!) but sometimes it’s nice when the guy doesn’t steal the show and just lets the ballerina shine. But it wasn’t like he wasn’t as good as she was, just that he was letting it be all about her. Of course they’re now engaged so a little romantic sentiment could be at play 🙂

Anyway, a few more pictures:

Martine Van Hamel was perfect as the wicked fairy Carabosse. And, I think I’m the only one who feels this way, but damn do I love that costume! It’s very Helena Bonham-Carter / Tim Burton… Actually it’s very Helena Bonham-Carter at the Oscars…

The whole cast. Thank you again to Andrea for the first-row pics!

The rest of the cast was very good as well. In particular I loved Yuriko Kajiya as the Lilac Fairy (she was a last-minute replacement for Maria Riccetto). She stood out to me more than she ever has before; for once I realized that she has a real stage presence. Maybe it was being up higher?… All the fairies were very good – Misty Copeland, Simone Messmer, Luciana Paris, Renata Pavam, and Hee Seo (who should be promoted to principal soon!), and Daniil Simkin and Sarah Lane were, as expected, a lot of fun as Bluebird and Princess Florine. I think they tried to give Kobborg and Cojocaru the best supporting cast possible.

Anyway, that’s it for New York. ABT season is now over. The company is on to L.A. and Japan. And here in N.Y., we’re on the Mariinsky next week at the Lincoln Center Festival. And then ballet season is over for the summer.

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The Sheepdogs of GISELLE

Don’t have time to write a review right now, but last week I saw basically three Giselles (two inside the auditorium, and one on the screen in the lobby 🙂 ). I saw Diana Vishneva and Marcelo Gomes (my favorites), Hee Seo and David Hallberg (it was Seo’s debut as Giselle), and on the lobby screen, I saw Alina Cojocaru (guesting from the Royal) and, again, Hallberg. Anyway, I snapped this picture of the Afghan sheepdogs ABT uses in the first act, outside, during intermission, getting ready to leave with their trainer. So cute – and I thought they deserved attention: they do hard work in that ballet under those harsh lights, trying hard to stifle barks, walking, then sitting when told – behaving so well!

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Alina Cojocaru and Polina Semionova Guest Star in ABT’s DON QUIXOTE

Over the weekend, two European star ballerinas – Alina Cojocaru from the Royal Ballet in London, and Polina Semionova from the Berlin State Opera Ballet – guest starred in American Ballet Theater’s Don Quixote as Kitri.  Cojocaru danced with Jose Carreno, and Semionova with David Hallberg. I saw both performances. Overall, I thought both are beautiful dancers, have an innate sweetness that shines through, are absolute balance queens who can hold balances on one leg on pointe for many many seconds unassisted, and can dance the role nearly perfectly. But I thought that both of them lacked fire; they both played it too safe. Maybe it’s just that Natalia Osipova has ruined me and I just can’t see anyone else in this role now.

One thing I loved about the Cojocaru / Carreno performance were that the two seemed to have a real rapport, a genuine affection for each other. Did they ever dance together at the Royal, does anyone know? Or was Jose there too early for her? Cojocaru never threw herself into his arms with the wild abandon that Osipova did last year, and I missed that. But I don’t think Jose did 🙂 Seriously, he didn’t seem to appreciate Osipova’s theatrics that much. Cojocaru seemed to tone it down and they worked very well together. Also, as I complained about on Twitter ad nauseam, during those insane one-handed overhead lifts, Jose did not go on releve and hold one leg up in arabesque the way Ivan Vasiliev did with Osipova in the Bolshoi’s live-streamed performance. It’s okay; I still love Jose 🙂 But seriously, Vasiliev and Osipova have ruined me! Cojocaru has absolutely gorgeous developpes. She can lift her leg up so high – really stunning. And I mentioned the balances earlier. She held those for so long; crowd went wild. And sweetest thing: Jose kept demanding she return for an encore bow after each of her solos. Made me really love Jose.

Cojocaru was a little shaky during the first act, and she had a little stumble. But it wasn’t memorable. Far more memorable was her strong performance in the third act, her best. That’s when she did the crazy balances.

In the third act fan variation, Cojocaru did a completely different series of steps than I’d ever seen before, which makes me think there are a bazillion ways to do that variation. Or at least three – the American, the Russian, and the British. The Ballet Bag ladies sent me a You Tube link via twitter, of Cojocaru dancing with Johan Kobborg. Around the 7 minute point is where she does this different variation.

 

Jose is such a great Basilio. He’s a natural flirt, a natural macho Latin guy, and a natural actor who can be a macho and a flirt and still be totally endearing. And it really kind of made me melt when he kept insisting she take more bows.

I really enjoyed Sarah Lane and Isabella Boylston as “the flower girls.” They often weren’t in sync because Boylston danced with more expressiveness, arching her back, taking her time and drawing out the turns, playing with the musicality. Lane was more sharp and precise, hitting poses right on the beat. But I could have cared less that they weren’t perfectly in sync. I loved that each had her own personality, as people do in real life.

I missed Sascha Radetsky as Espada the matador. I’ve never seen him in that role and I think he’d make a good one. He was replaced by Gennadi Saveliev. He was replaced on opening night too, which worries me that he’s injured.

I thought Polina Semionova was really beautiful, and, where Cojocaru had a few wobbles, Semionova had none. She was very very near perfect. Like Cojocaru, the third act was the one that most brought her to life. She kind of veered all over stage on her third act series of fouettes but she threw several multiple pirouettes in, and her balances were even more stunning than Cojocaru’s, as, during her final balance, she took her leg out of arabesque and straightened it out in front of her, without ever holding Hallberg’s hand to steady herself. Audience went absolutely crazy with applause. They really loved her, and called her and David out for several curtain calls.

In the third act, she did “the American” fan variation. She’s Russian and dances in Berlin, so I really think each ballerina just chooses whichever version looks better on her body and feels most comfortable to her. I thought the little hopping “horse steps” on pointe were really sweet on her.

She and David seemed to like each other as well. The partnering was a little off at points, though, and he almost dropped her in a fish dive. She played it very safe with the second act swan dives into his arms as well, and he didn’t try any Vasilievs on the one-handed lift.

David is a beautiful dancer on his own though, and, as a critic said to me during intermission, it’s sometimes hard to focus on anyone else when he’s onstage. His movements were absolutely perfect, both the more balletic and those kind of side to side matador-looking movements. His jetes are beautiful – he’s just the most beautiful male dancer and you can completely lose yourself in the story of the ballet just watching him.

Acting-wise, I think David is wonderful in the romantic scenes. He’s definitely a romantic. But the rest of the time I think he should just be himself, make Basilio his own, and not try to be so cocky and macho. In him, I find it comes across as anger, an an intimation of violence even, like he’s really going to go off and whack someone. He’s not a natural cocky flirty Latin shit like Jose and Marcelo Gomes 🙂 And so it loses its charm with him. My thoughts anyway.

It probably won’t come to a surprise to anyone who’s read my blog for some time that Veronika Part (here as Mercedes, the “street dancer”) stood out to me. In the first two acts, I found her even more captivating than Semionova. One thing I love about her is her attempt to make the styling as authentic as possible. Part really looked like a Spanish dancer to me. And in the second act’s dream scene, I found her jetes across the stage really breathtaking – just as much as Semionova’s.

Sarah Lane danced the part of Amour in the white scene. I always want to call that character Cupid. Anyway, before the performance began, I overheard one teenage girl behind me say to another, “Sarah Lane! She was the one in Black Swan!”

All in all, really lovely performances, but I do think Cojocaru makes a better Sleeping Beauty and Giselle than Kitri. She’ll be dancing Giselle this Saturday night. She’ll also be dancing Don Quixote again with Jose tomorrow night (Monday, the 23rd). I’m excited to see Semionova in Swan Lake later in the season.

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American Ballet Theater Spring 2011 Opening Night Gala

Last night was ABT’s Spring 2011 opening night gala. Dreary, rainy night … but what else is new for New York these days?

Once inside, I really enjoyed the show though. (I’m hoping to receive photos soon, which I’ll post). The program began with a short preview of Ratmansky’s The Bright Stream, which I’m excited to see next week. Seems to have a lot of humor, some bravura dancing, a cute storyline.

 

(Photo: The Bolshoi’s production of Bright Stream; Natalia Osipova is jete-ing).

Then, there were introductions by Rachel Moore, executive director of ABT, wearing a beautiful green dress, and Kevin McKenzie (AD), followed by Caroline Kennedy, who introduced the students of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of American Ballet as they danced a world premiere, Karelia March, by Raymond Lukens. The program says the students are Level 7, which must be the highest level, because some of those dancers looked like ABT principals. I’m not kidding, I swear. They really amazed me. That school is doing incredible things!

Next was Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, danced by David Hallberg and Gillian Murphy. Everytime I see David dance I think he must be the most perfect male dancer in the world. Gillian was stunning too.

Then came the Grand Pas de Deux from Ratmansky’s new Nutcracker, danced by Marcelo Gomes and Veronika Part. (No, they’re not performing that ballet during the Met season, but there seemed to be a few excerpts in the program from ballets they’re not performing). I missed seeing this couple – overall still my favorite – when the company premiered Ratmansky’s version in December. They were so sweet. Veronika danced with such wonderment in her eyes, such joy. And Marcelo was her perfect, adoring cavalier, all eyes on her. I don’t have kids, but I’d think they’re the perfect wedding couple to wow very young audiences.

Then came Majisimo, a classical ballet piece with Spanish flourishes created by Georges Garcia for the Ballet Nacional de Cuba in 1965 and set to Jules Massenet’s Le Cid. This piece was mainly meant to highlight Jose Manuel Carreno, who of course retires from ABT later this season. But it was really a dance for eight couples, and he danced only the male part of one of them – there were very few solos. He danced with Paloma Herrera. Xiomara Reyes was paired with Reyneris Reyes, guesting from Miami City Ballet. The other couples were comprised of Cuban dancers guesting from other companies as well: Lorena Feijoo and Joan Boada from San Francisco Ballet, and Lorna Feijoo and Nelson Madrigal from Boston Ballet. The dancers were spectacular, but I didn’t think that much of the choreography, which reminded me of a more bland version of an ensemble scene from Don Quixote. Jose had a series of turning jumps, and a really beautiful multiple pirouette that wowed the audience – drawing those turns out are what he’s most known for. And Xiomara really took my breath away with this crazy fast series of traveling turns in a diagonal down the stage. I’ve never seen her dance like that!

 

(Photo: Jose Carreno dancing with Polina Semionova in Diana e Acteon)

After intermission came two pas de deux from Swan Lake. A Twitter follower asked me why they needed to perform two scenes from the same ballet. I think that ABT, same as everyone else, is just trying to benefit from the Black Swan craze. They should have had Sarah Lane dance one of the pdd though! 😀 Anyway, first pas de deux – White Swan- was Paloma Herrera and Alexandre Hammoudi, which was good. But the second – the Black Swan – I found surprisingly magnificent! It was danced by Michele Wiles and Cory Stearns. There have been so many guest stars from Europe lately gracing ABT’s stage, I’d forgotten how perfect an Odile Michele Wiles is. And Cory really impressed me as well. Whatever he may lack in dance ability (I can’t imagine he’ll ever be a David Hallberg or Marcelo Gomes), he more than makes up for in acting and stage presence. He’s really good at bringing you into the world of the ballet and creating a character you can sympathize with.

Sandwiched in between the two SLs was Jessica Lang’s Splendid Isolation III, danced by Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Beloserkovsky. I joked on Twitter that Max earned the hot guy of the night award for that, but seriously – he did! Irina was really beautiful as well. And her party dress, which she came out in for the final stage bow, was, as usual, gorgeous. She has such impeccable fashion taste, imo.

 

Following that was the highlight of the night, for me – Diana Vishneva and Marcelo Gomes in the Act I pdd from Manon. Such a perfectly choreographed pas de deux – beautifully romantic and full of love / lust but with so many breathtaking but capriciously executed, dangerous-looking lifts you sense something out of control. As beautiful as it is, this story isn’t going to have a happy ending. I am liking Diana Vishneva more and more. I’ve always thought she was a great dancer but she always seemed to play too much to the audience for the story ballets. She didn’t take me into the world of the character as much as I want an actor to. But the last two seasons she’s been doing just that: really developing the character and dancing to her partner – Marcelo here and in Lady of the Camellias last season, which is the first time she really blew me away – instead of the audience. This – the Manon pdd – was the audience favorite last night as well. The two got a storm of whoots and bravos at their curtain call, and practically had a standing ovation the audience was so loud in their applause. “So beautiful,” exclaimed the woman beside me. “Okay, we can go home now,” she joked.

 

(Couldn’t find a photo of Diana and Marcelo, but here is Diana dancing Manon with Manuel Legris. With all photos I post now, I’m linking to the original site via a click on the photo.)

Here are Marcelo and Diana in Lady of the Camellias:

 

Then, Alina Cojocaru, one of the European guest artists this season, danced the Rose Adagio from Sleeping Beauty. I’m not a huge fan of this ballet in general, but she was lovely. Patrick Ogle replaced Sascha Radetsky as one of the cavaliers.

Second to last was the Act II pdd from Lady of the Camellias danced by Julie Kent and Cory Stearns. Again, Cory did a very good acting job – and physically he fits the character perfectly, as Julie does hers, but I think some of those lifts are so difficult-looking… I just worry about the dancers. Isn’t that how Roberto Bolle got hurt last season – performing this role?

And the evening ended with another ensemble excerpt from Ratmansky’s Bright Stream. People who stood out most to me were Daniil Simkin and, again, Xiomara Reyes. I really am excited to see this ballet.

Tonight Don Quixote begins and runs through the beginning of next week. I’m excited to see Alina Cojocaru dance with Jose Carreno on Friday night, and Russian ballerina Polina Semionova guesting in the Saturday matinee with David Hallberg.

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Is Ballet A Dying Art?

 

I must confess I haven’t yet read Jennifer Homans’ acclaimed but controversial history of ballet, Apollo’s Angels. I’m working hard on my second novel and have been knee deep in prison and cop memoirs and haven’t had time for much outside reading. I hope to read it soon though.

In the meantime, I have read some of the reviews, including Laura Jacobs’ in the WSJ and Toni Bentley’s in the NY Times. The two reviews focus on very different aspects of the book so it’s interesting to read both of them. Bentley says Homans is best on Balanchine (both Bentley and Homans danced with him). But Jacobs find the earlier sections enlightening as well.

The controversial aspects of the book seem to be toward the end when Homans argues that, for various reason (but according to Bentley many of them being that Balanchine has passed and his legacy is not being kept alive), ballet is a dying art.

I don’t want to go on too much since I haven’t yet read the book, but I will say that ballet seems to be alive and well in many European and Latin American countries. I do notice a real influx of visitors to my blog whenever the big European stars perform with ABT. I don’t think Roberto Bolle, Alina Cojocaru and Natalia Osipova fans think ballet is dying and certainly not because Balanchine is no longer with us. Ballet may be less popular in this country since the Baryshnikov era passed though, and it remains to be seen whether movies like Mao’s Last Dancer and Black Swan can do anything to revive it. I’m doubtful but want to be hopeful. I think it’s more likely that Natalie Portman marrying Benjamin Millepied will draw audiences to ballet than the actual movie will.

But then I recently ran across this interview with Homans over at the Ballet Bag, a London blog. At the beginning of the post, the writers say audiences there have been dwindling a bit and they’re worried about the future of the art form as well. Which scares me.

Anyway, has anyone read the book?

Another thing I wanted to call attention to is the book cover. The top one is the British cover, the second the American. Which do you guys like better, and think will sell more books? Just about every single time I see a European cover beside an American cover, I like the European better. But maybe it’s just me.

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SLSG’s Dance Highlights of 2010

Instead of trying to remember which were my favorite performances of the year, I’m just going back through my blog archives from January of this year and linking to the most memorable posts. More fun that way! A lot happened in a year…

January

Pacific Northwest Ballet made their debut at the Joyce; it was my first time seeing them live.

The Post‘s Page 6 announced that you know who and you know who are dating, and the ridiculous homewrecker attacks began.

Baryshnikov and Annie Liebovitz starred in a very cool Louis Vuitton ad.

February

I totally fell for New York City Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty.

…and Mark Sanchez 🙂

I found myself quoted in Colin Jarman’s book, Dancing With the Quotes.

I also fell for Sara Mearns’s Odette in Peter Martins’s Swan Lake.

On a personal note, my former judge, the esteemed Honorable Sylvia Pressler, passed away.

The Kings of Dance came to town.

Morphoses shocked the ballet world by announcing that Christopher Wheeldon was leaving the company.

March

My friend’s organization, Art for Change, held a benefit for Haiti after the earthquake.

Rasta Thomas’s Bad Boys of Dance announced that Danny Tidwell and SYTYCD’s Jacob Karr were joining the company.

Corella Ballet Castilla y Leon finally made their NYC debut!

I found myself actually getting press for liking Kate Gosselin – or for not hating Kate Gosselin rather – on Dancing With the Stars.

I fell for Keigwin + Company’s Runaway.

I was delighted to receive an email from NYCB ballerina Yvonne Borree’s aunt regarding of all things, my novel.

April

I had my first experience as a dance writer panelist! Thank you, Marc, from TenduTV!

Tiler Peck appeared on Dancing With the Stars in a Travis Wall routine, which everyone was so excited about. But it ended up amounting to not a whole lot…

Roberto Bolle danced a naked Giselle, in Italy of course.

May

New York City Ballet opened their spring season with premieres of Millepied’s Why Am I Not Where You Are and Ratmansky’s Namouna, both of which I liked, though Ratmansky’s had to grow a bit on me.

Baryshnikov returned to the stage.

I greatly enjoyed ABT’s new production, Lady of the Camellias, though most critics panned it.

June

ABT celebrated Alicia Alonso’s 90th birthday with three all-star Latin American casts (plus Natalia Osipova) dancing in Don Quixote.

Yvonne Borree gave her farewell performance at NYCB.

Bill T. Jones won a Tony for best choreographer for Fela!

Philip Neal gave his farewell performance at NYCB.

Natalia Osipova was mugged right outside of Lincoln Center.

Two of the greatest ballerinas in Europe – Osipova, and Alina Cojocaru – gave back to back Sleeping Beauty performances at ABT.

Albert Evans gave his farewell performance at NYCB.

Tap great Savion Glover made headlines by voicing his annoyance with Alastair Macaulay’s NY Times criticism of him – onstage, during a show.

Conductor Maurice Kaplow gave his farewell performance with NYCB.

Darci Kistler officially ended the era of the Balanchine-trained dancer with her farewell performance with NYCB.

July

Carlos Acosta announced his retirement from ballet and his foray into modern dance.

Alex Wong, probably the second greatest contestant ever on SYTYCD was injured and unable to finish the show.

My friend, Taylor Gordon, was profiled as a freelance ballet dancer in a New York Times article 🙂

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s beloved Denise Jefferson passed away.

Nilas Martins retired from NYCB oddly sans fanfare, sans criticism, sans a performance.

August

I interviewed tWitch about his role in the movie Step It Up. Fun fun interview!

I had a blast covering Ailey Camp.

I nearly fell over when Wendy Perron, esteemed E-I-C of Dance Magazine recommended Swallow on Twitter!

September

NYCB began their excellent “See the Music” series.

October

I loved Ashley Bouder’s Serenade.

Emerging Pictures’s awesomely exciting Ballet in Cinema series began with the Bolshoi’s Flames of Paris.

This cool new Lincoln Center-area street art sprouted up.

One of my favorite posts of the year, though it received no comments, was about Anne Fortier’s novel, Juliet. I jokingly daydreamed about it being made into a film, and which of my favorite ballet stars might take the lead.

November

ABT made an historic visit to Cuba and oh how I wished I could have gone with them.

I think I was the only person in the entire dance world to sympathize with Bristol Palin on Dancing With the Stars.

I had a blast covering New York So You Think You Can Dance auditions.

All of a sudden Black Swan was everywhere.

Nearly fell over again upon hearing Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko took the world Latin ballroom title – making them the first U.S. couple ever to do so.

December

My take on SugarPlumpGate.

Black Swan finally premiered which I didn’t love but was happy to have ballet brought back into the spotlight.

I was in awe of Alvin Ailey’s 50-dancer Revelations, staged in honor of the 50th anniversary of that dance. I also loved several other dances in their City Center season – Ailey’s Cry, Ronald K. Brown’s Dancing Spirit, and Geoffrey Holder’s The Prodigal Prince – just to name a few.

Robert Wilson / Roberto Bolle’s Perchance to Dream exhibit in Chelsea was a lot o’ frightening fun.

ABT’s new Nutcracker premiered, which I really enjoyed, almost as much as the Bolshoi’s.

Portman and Millepied revealed they are now engaged and expecting.

I had great fun, despite the crazy snowstorm, going down to Wall Street and covering Judith Jamison’s ringing of the closing bell at the NYSE.

Pretty busy year.

Happy New Year, everyone!

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WEEKEND VIEWING: JOSE MANUEL CARRENO

 

 

(Middle photo of Fancy Free – with Sasha Radetsky and Herman Cornejo – taken from Ballet.co; other photos from ABT website)

Jose Carreno is my dancer of the season this ABT season, mainly because I love him and am trying to see him in everything possible so in case, as people are surmising, he retires next year or the year after. I’m trying to get my fill. Not that you can ever really get your fill of a dancer like him. But it seems to be what everyone is doing — I’m hearing, “Oh, I’m trying to see Jose as much as I can!” everywhere around the Met right now.

This season, I’ve seen him in La Bayadere with Julie Kent, Sleeping Beauty with Alina Cojocaru, of course Don Quixote with Natalia Osipova (twice if you include the night honoring Alicia Alonso) and a host of mixed rep fare including Fancy Free — he’s by far my favorite cocky Latin sailor EVER, Tharp’s Brahms-Haydn Variations which would have been a great deal more boring without him, he was still a real standout among a cast full of huge principals the day I saw it, and what else have I seen him in? Seems like something else, but maybe it’s just that I’m looking forward to tomorrow night’s Manon pas de deux with Diana Vishneva.

If and when he retires I’m going to be a hysterical wreck. He’s 42 this year and dancing, in my eyes, as well as he ever has, so I don’t know why it even needs to be an issue at this point. But he’s said years ago that he planned to retire at 40, and it seems most ABT men stop dancing in their early 40s at the latest (Julio Bocca was only 39) so … whatever… He’s the most advanced artist at ABT, the most advanced artist I know of currently dancing; he’s a legend. And he’s the only dancer who’s ever brought me to tears (with his Romeo).

So, since this is a long weekend, here are some videos so you can enjoy him too:

Dancing with Irina Dvorovenko in Le Corsaire:

In Coppelia:

Diana and Acteon:

With Gillian Murphy in Don Quixote:

And rehearsing for a Kings of Dance performance with David Hallberg, Joaquin De Luz and Nikolai Tsiskaridze:

Happy 4th everyone!

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WHY NOT MORE JOHN CRANKO IN THE US?

 

 

My friend, Mika, who is half Austrian, half Japanese and who spends a significant amount of time abroad was asking me the other day why I thought there wasn’t much of John Cranko’s work performed here when his ballets are so popular in Europe. I didn’t know. But I do know from some of Evan and Patricio’s Winger posts that his ballets are widely performed elsewhere, including obviously Chile. I was intrigued

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