Okay, regarding the earlier controversy as to whether Ms. Bouder was dancing all out during the rehearsal, here she is with David dancing for real at Vail, albeit from a different section of the pdd. Personally, I think she looks beautiful — gorgeous arms. And surprisingly, you don’t even really notice the height difference, which has to be pronounced (she regularly dances with Joaquin De Luz at NYCBallet and David is well over 6′).
DAVID HALLBERG AND ASHLEY BOUDER AT VAIL
Our David Hallberg (with flying blonde mane and miraculous feet!) rehearses the Black Swan pas de deux with Ashley Bouder, which they’re currently performing at the Vail International Dance Festival. Great Paloma Herrera-esque fouettes, Ms. Bouder (with the multiple pirouettes thrown in; I haven’t really seen the NYCBallet ballerina in a dramatic part yet; she and David look good together!)
Bouder’s also performing Balanchine’s Who Cares with SLSG favorite Robert Fairchild, and David’s dancing Apollo with Pacific Northwest’s Carla Korbes. So wish I could be there…
VAIL INTERNATIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL BEGINS TODAY
Longtime Winger readers will remember David Hallberg blogging on and on about his enchanting experience dancing in Vail a couple years ago. Well, he is scheduled to dance again this year, with Gillian Murphy. Other performers include tap dancer Savion Glover and members of Morphoses. The festival begins today and runs through August 11th. You can follow updates and view photos and videos on the festival’s blog.
ROMEO HAS LEFT THE BUILDING: ROBERTO BOLLE AND IRINA DVOROVENKO CLOSE OUT ABT’S MET SEASON, LEAVING FANS DEVASTATED!
Because there aren’t nearly enough pictures of Roberto Bolle online, let me just post one more…
So, it all ended Saturday night with Roberto Bolle and Irina Dvorovenko dancing the leads once again in Romeo and Juliet. I’d already seen the same cast earlier in the week and so didn’t get another ticket, but I decided to watch from the Met lobby where they have a couple of high def screens.
I actually did this on Friday night as well for the Herman Cornejo / Xiomara Reyes cast, until I ran into some new friends during intermission who’d snagged a couple of tickets outside from patrons who had to leave for one reason or another. They gave me ticket marked Grand Tier, where I’d never sat before. Well, I didn’t know we weren’t supposed to do that! My friends went in before me and after seeing the hard time the usher gave them (he said all tickets are non-transferrable, but he seemed more irked that she’d made up a story about meeting friends for drinks and then getting stuck or something!), I was about to run back out and resume my place in front of the screen. But then the usher just kind of nodded and laughed and rolled his eyes. “It’s okay, it’s the end of the season. You’ve all got to see your Romeo and Juliet,” he said, softening.
Funny, though, I hadn’t thought of the ticket-swap thing, but another new friend recently suggested it to me as a way to get in, particularly to the opera, which is always sold out here practically minutes after tickets go on sale. And then I remembered reading in a Jonathan Ames book (I think it was The Extra Man, which is now a movie, no?…) where two characters regularly do this, again with the opera. I had no idea it was frowned upon — I mean if the other patrons aren’t coming back…
Anyway, Grand Tier was nice for a change! Different perspective being raised a little above the stage like that. Xiomara and Herman were very good. I liked them much better than the first time I saw them in this — performing the balcony pas de deux at an opening night gala a couple of years back. Xiomara acted everything well and really brought the part to life and, because of her powerful final scenes, Herman really didn’t end up outshining her. And what I really liked about Herman’s Romeo is that he danced him so that at the beginning, he’s a show-off, a dancing show-off of course. The other Romeos kind of dance him at the beginning as if he’s immature, reckless with the sword-fighting, etc. But Herman gave his Romeo a character arc that makes more sense for him given his immense dance skill. So all of that jumping around stage at the beginning of the balcony scene makes sense to me now. And for the first time I noticed that during the balcony scene, Romeo does an extra pirouette right after Juliet takes his hand. It’s as if to say, wait a minute, just one more trick for you! I think I first noticed it with Herman because it was so swift and sharp and pronounced, like typical Herman! And then of course his Romeo grows up and learns to become a partner.
I also really liked the scene where Herman’s Romeo and his two friends, Benvolio (Daniil Simkin) and Mercutio (Carlos Lopez), are play-sparring before they crash the Capulet ball. For once all three men were about the same height, and were perfectly spaced apart onstage (the dancers playing these characters aren’t always), and their movements were all perfectly in sync. I think some choreography that either requires very intricate footwork or that is very evocative of something (like play-fencing here) tends to look better on smaller bodies, particularly smaller bodies that move so well and are capable of making such sharp, enunciated movements. I was still watching from the screen downstairs at that point and it was really visually stunning.
Anyway, back to Roberto and Irina.
Roberto and Irina were beautiful again. And again I really liked Irina’s very real final scene, where her Juliet simply backs into Romeo’s body while walking backward, horrified at the sight of a corpse next to her. No melodrama whatsoever, all very genuine and it really moved me. I wanted to cry for her when she collapsed on seeing Romeo.
The lobby screens of course are not really the ideal place to view dance and of course don’t substitute for buying a ticket and going inside — there’s a lot of talking, ushers going through this rather intense ritual of closing the ticket windows and changing the signs above the booths, moving the expandable line-holders and untaping house manager phone cords from the front walls, and just goofing with each other (on Friday night, the ushers all started singing “One Day More” from Les Miserables in anticipation of the season ending!) Not to mention all the tourists who have to venture in and ask if what’s going on on the screen is actually live, what play it is, who the dancers are, etc. etc.
Still, you do see certain things you miss inside. I noticed, for example, how Roberto takes up space on the stage and how that makes him so much more visible than the other Romeos (excepting Marcelo). On Friday night (Herman and Xiomara in the leads), a tourist came in and asked me what the ballet was, then asked me to point out the main characters to her. It was during the scene where Juliet and Paris are dancing and Romeo’s watching. I actually had a hard time pointing out Romeo to her because Herman was kind of lost in the crowd. If you looked for him, you found him and he was doing what he was supposed to be doing: noticing Juliet and watching her intently. But you had to look for him. I also remembered someone in the audience on David and Gillian day remarking that she couldn’t figure out who Romeo was for half the first act. And then I also remembered thinking how Cory Stearns always kept to the corners and how it made him so much less visible than Hee Seo as Juliet.
But I noticed on Saturday night watching Roberto Bolle on the screen that it’s impossible not to see him, and not because he’s tall and handsome, but because he’s standing far away from the rest of the crowd, practically circling right around Paris and Juliet, the only ones who are centerstage, like a shark. When it’s time, he aggressively goes right in, and pushes Paris aside by literally standing in the very space Paris is currently occupying. Everyone in the lobby watching the screen giggled, some laughed and some swooned when he dove in like that. The other Romeos kind of approach Juliet hesitantly, as if to say, “excuse me, I’m kind of attracted to you.” But he was all, “I want you and you want me too!” The camera is perfectly centered and I watched for the rest of the performance how Roberto is always as close to center stage as he can possibly be and still be doing what he’s supposed to be doing. Not being a performer myself, it made me realize that there is an art to stagecraft — it’s not only about dancing well and looking good, there is actually an art to how to use the stage well. I think Roberto is the most mature and experienced of all the Romeos and the younger dancers could learn a lot about that from watching him.
Anyway, I was to meet some of my new friends at the stage door, so after all the curtain calls I waited about fifteen minutes — until the ushers said they were closing the house — then walked downstairs (the Met stage door is basically in the underground Lincoln Center parking lot). I didn’t see my friends at first but ran into choreographer Avi Scher who was there to chat with friends. I was talking to him a little bit when Alexandre Hammoudi, who danced Paris (and who I liked recently as Orion in Sylvia), exited. He and Avi are apparently friends because he stopped to talk. Alexandre was the sweetest guy — kept congratulating Avi on his recent successes with his company (at Jacob’s Pillow, at City Center). And he has the most charming smile and accent 🙂 My new crush 🙂
Anyway, weirdest thing when Irina and Roberto exited. Irina exited first and got mobbed. By the time she got down to where I was standing she seemed really frazzled, like she really needed to get out of there. Max Beloserkovsky (her husband) was with her. They were being nice and polite and responding to people who wanted to say hello and get a picture but they seemed like they really needed to be somewhere. She’s so tiny, and so beautiful in person. Both of them are.
Then Roberto made his grand exit / crowd entrace last and he seemed the same. It was crowded, like it was for Swan Lake, but a little less so, but he seemed like he really needed to be somewhere in a huff as well. I wondered when the company is flying out to L.A.; Irina and Roberto are to open the Los Angeles season this Thursday but I figured they weren’t leaving for a few days.
Anyway, he was stopping for some pictures and autographs, but not many. You really had to be an aggressive fan to get a photo with him. Then, this guy beside me with a monster camera asked him for something as he passed by us — I assumed it was a picture — and his eyes got wide and he said “no, no” and shook his head rapidly, smiled and looked quickly away. I wondered what was such a big deal — maybe the guy wanted to take a video and wanted him to talk into the camera or something, because why balk at yet another picture?
Anyway, rather hilariously, Roberto just started walking briskly through the crowd. If you didn’t practically downright clobber him, you weren’t getting a picture or autograph or anything.
So, he was walking through the crowded hallway kind of snaking through the crowd acting as if none of those people were actually there to see him (which I guess is nice; if a dancer makes this huge exit and dramatically opens his arms out to the crowd like Evita, you’d think, how frigging presumptuous, right). Well people didn’t really know what to do. So everyone just kind of started following him! At this point, I spotted my friend I was to meet in the crowd and I called out and tapped on her shoulder. “Come on!” she said, motioning for me to follow as well. So I followed. Haha, he was like an unintentional Pied Piper leading us all through the underground Lincoln Center maze.
He stopped near the exit to the parking lot for a few more pictures and autographs.
And then he just stopped, and stood there, and no one knew what to do! I don’t know if he even realized there was this huge group of people who’d followed him outside and were eagerly awaiting his next move.
It was like we didn’t want the season to end and he was the last performer to leave and we were all kind of devastated! We didn’t want him to go home, and we didn’t want to go home ourselves (it didn’t help that it was POURING with kind of frightening thunder and lightening).
Finally, he went off with a couple of incredibly lucky women (who we surmised were agents and the like) and we all stood watching as he exited southside of the lot by Fordham Law School. My friend called out “Ciao, ciao, Roberto.” And then others joined in. He turned around one last time and nodded and said bye.
And we just kept standing there while he walked out into the pouring rain with those women. No umbrella. “He needs an umbrella,” someone said. “I think we should go,” someone else said. After his increasingly small figure finally disappeared into the distance, my new friends and I walked back through the maze to the north exit. Everyone else who was still out there followed. Everyone had their heads down and looked so forlorn! Under the 67th Street scaffolding my friends and I chatted for a while about the season and this final performance and some of the dancers we like and our own dancing. Then, probably about an hour later, a cab came by honking and I told them to take it. They got in reluctantly. We vowed to find each other again next season and hang out and keep up via blogs and facebook until then.
So nice making new ballet friends! And I met several this season. But so horrible when the season ends. I hate this feeling!
HEE SEO: MY FAVORITE JULIET SINCE ALESSANDRA FERRI
Hee Seo and Cory Stearns made their Met debuts in the R & J leads last Thursday night and if it isn’t clear from what I’ve blogged and tweeted before, and by this post’s title, I was completely blown away, particularly by Seo. It’s so hard to describe what you really love about a dancer, but I think with her it’s that she combines what I love about Diana Vishneva with what I love about Veronika Part. She dances the steps — particularly the bourrees, as Marie noted, in her own particular way that shows why the choreographer put them there in the first place (I’m thinking mainly of the tip toe steps first away from Paris, shunning him, then, in the following scene, toward him but ever so cautiously and completely without desire, then in a criss-cross pattern toward the bottle of fake poison). And she’s also a powerhouse of an actress, really taking you there with her, always in the moment, never being the least bit melodramatic, never “acting,” but always completely real. She’s somehow able to say so much just with her eyes, without even widening the lids without even making any kind of frown — just by having definite, intense thought that is somehow readable to the audience. And even though she’s so subtle, she somehow projects out to everyone. It’s really amazing — I really don’t know how an actress or a dancer does something like that.
There were places where I loved Irina Dvorovenko (at the very end — she doesn’t run around that crypt like a drama queen with her head cut off; instead she approaches the corpses, covers her mouth in fear, trips over Romeo, crumples into a ball and bawls — what anyone would do), and places where I loved Diana Vishneva (at the beginning, when playing the lute for Romeo, falling in love with him, especially the balcony scene). But I loved Hee Seo in every scene. There wasn’t a place where she wasn’t so completely in the moment and where she wasn’t able to make you feel exactly what she was feeling.
Her Romeo was Cory Stearns, who I liked but thought was very very nervous and let it influence his dancing. I know from David Hallberg via the Winger message board that this is the hardest role for a male lead, and it’s clear just from watching all those pas de deux how true that is. All those crazy high lifts, particularly the very last scene, where she’s limp as a rag doll. I can imagine having your Met debut must be terribly nerve-wracking for any man dancing Romeo, particularly a young one. I could tell he was shaky up front on the jumps — some of the landings were not so steady. He did seem to calm down, though, and kind of let himself get into the role, and he seemed to be doing much better by the second act (I think getting through the balcony pdd without any mishaps must always be a big relief!) But he also just seemed generally shy throughout, not wanting to take up space, not wanting to be seen, kind of relegating his Romeo to the corners of the stage. And that’s not good. Romeo needs to be aggressive to get his love, to avenge his friend’s death; Romeo needs to stand out.
And then during the curtain calls, same thing. They only took one. But people were going nuts with applause and were tossing bouquet after bouquet up there. They (Cory mainly, since he was leading her) just kind of walked away from the flowers and went back behind the curtain, as if hiding, and didn’t come back out again. I’m sure it was just nerves and awkwardness and not really knowing how to take all the applause, but I felt sorry for him because he didn’t really seem to understand how much people loved their performance. The company was also having a celebration for Frederic Franklin (who still plays Friar Laurence and who turned 95 in June), and I’m sure he was conscious of them wanting to start those festivities as well. But still, they could have taken one more curtain call!
Franklin was so cute! My pictures didn’t turn out too well because of the dark stage but here he is amid the balloons and surrounded by the cast. Seo and Stearns are to the far left, and ABT artistic director Kevin McKenzie is patting him on the shoulder. When he first came out onstage as Friar Laurence, everyone gave him so much applause that he had to come out of character, and walk out to the front of the stage to take a bow. He wore the sweetest little smile! We should all be like this at 95. And beyond.
One other mention: Daniil Simkin danced Benvolio, my first time seeing him in this ballet. I loved him, of course. In her post, Marie reminded me of that extra jab of the sword he took when dancing the mock-sparring scene with Romeo and Mercutio before the three crash the Capulet ball. If I remember correctly the jab was at Romeo and when Cory turned around, Simkin made clear he was just joking. It was a moment of playful camaraderie and I remember thinking these three — Simkin, Stearns and Craig Salstein as Mercutio — made, of any of the casts, the most believable trio of young friends. I also thought though it was a bit of foreshadowing of what was to come. So, I loved that he made that choice. I think Daniil is such a character, such a good actor as well as obviously a good dancer, I wasn’t sure why McKenzie didn’t cast him as Mercutio at all this run. He seems like the quintessential Mercutio and I saw every performance but one and am pretty sure he never danced it.
So, in the future, I would love to see Simkin dance Mercutio, and I would also love to see Hee Seo dance with Marcelo Gomes or Roberto Bolle as her Romeo.
MORE ON VERONIKA PART – THIS TIME IN THE PARK AT A LAURA JACOBS READING – AND SWANS AND SWAN DIVES
Thank you so much, you guys, for all the wonderful comments on my Veronika Part on Letterman post, and for the comments on all of my ABT and SYTYCD posts. I’ve been so busy at the Met I haven’t had time to respond to most of them but I really greatly appreciate them!
I am writing my review of the fabulous debut of Hee Seo and Cory Stearns as Romeo and Juliet. And, I also inadvertently snuck in (more on that soon) to see Herman Cornejo and Xiomara Reyes dance the leads last night and will write a bit about that too (they were both much better than the last time I saw them in these roles — Xiomara’s performance was very moving and I loved Herman’s unique interpretation of Romeo).
In the meantime, James Wolcott posts his thoughts on Veronika Part’s Letterman appearance. Also, he spotted her in Madison Square Park at his wife, Laura Jacobs’ reading of her latest novel, The Bird Catcher (which I’m reading now)! I keep missing these Jacobs readings! Probably because I’m too busy lately to read blogs and keep up with all of her appearances, and Barnes and Noble has for some reason taken me off of their events updates list. Anyway, in his post, James Wolcott also identifies the maker of Veronika’s gorgeous Letterman appearance dress, Christian Cota, which Haglund finds in Cota’s collection.
In light of all of my waxing on the swan dives, a contact of Marcelo sent me a photo of his:
I didn’t see Marcelo’s Siegfried this season (I was making a point of it to see people other than my regulars this time around), so it wasn’t fresh on my mind, but from this picture it looks — wow, breathtaking!
Finally, regarding not the swan dives per se but Swan Lake in general, a new ballet-going friend of mine, author Marie Mutsuki Mockett, has a very interesting post (with lots of videos) about the evolution of Odette. Ooh, and I see she now also has a post on Cory and Hee’s Romeo and Juliet (which I saw with her)!
Today’s the last day of ABT in NY. Sadness! Matinee is David Hallberg and Gillian Murphy and tonight is Roberto Bolle and Irina Dvorovenko. And then, they’re on to LA. for all the celebrity viewings… I hope there are bloggers out there?… I don’t know if Jen and Jolene have time for a trip down the coast. Ooh, but look, they do have a video of Veronika on Letterman!
VERONIKA PART ON DAVID LETTERMAN — WHO SAW IT?
Did you guys see it? If you missed it, basically, it was short but sweet. IMO they had Daniel Radcliffe on for far too long and her not enough, but … Anyway, he introduced her, called American Ballet Theater one of the most prestigious ballet companies, and remarked that they’d never had a ballet dancer on the show … except for Richard Simmons… — which garnered lots of laughs.
She came out in this gorgeous blue strapless satin-y-looking tea-length dress. She seemed a bit nervous, but who wouldn’t be?! David Letterman was sweet though and I think his silly questions and funny demeanor kind of calmed her, made her laugh. He asked her where she was from in Russia and she said yes, I am from St. Petersburg, in Russia. She has a beautiful thick Russian accent and her understanding of English is probably not perfect but so what — I think she was endearing to his audience because of her Russianness. I think it’s very hard to learn English if you’re Russian and vice versa for us.
He asked her what their schools were like in Russia, she said they were good. He asked if she always knew she wanted to be a ballerina and she said someone had told her family that she had pretty, long legs and so must become a ballet dancer. But then she kind of laughed at herself, shook her head and said no one in her family knows anything about ballet. “Well, except you,” he said, and everyone laughed.
Then he put some pictures of her up to the camera and had her explain what they were. The first was of her doing an arabesque in — I’m not sure which ballet it was. She named the step, and he asked her if it hurt! She laughed (as did the audience). The other picture was of her as Odette at the end of Swan Lake, preparing to commit suicide by jumping off the cliff and into the lake. She called it “the final pose” of the ballet and explained that she jumps onto a mat under the stage. He asked if it hurt and she laughed again and said no. My question of course is — but does David Hallberg’s flamboyant swan dive hurt? He’s got to land on his belly. That mat must be thick!
And that was all of the pictures unfortunately. I really wish they would have shown one like the one up top, of the no hands fish dive.. She could have explained how hard it is (and, in Dave’s lingo, how much it hurts 🙂 ) and of course she could have talked all about her wonderful partner, that Marcelo Gomes 😀
Or this picture too
Anything with a fancy lift, basically.
Then he whipped out some toe shoes and gave them to her. They must have discussed beforehand what she’d do with them because she seemed to grab them and begin putting them on right away. The camera homed in on her feet, so we all watched her tie the ribbons. Then she got up and he led her out to the non-carpeted area and she went on pointe. She took him by the hands and lifted her leg up in back of her, in arabesque, and kind of motioned for him to walk her around like in a promenade. But he didn’t really get it and instead emulated her, lifting his leg up in back too, in a very funky-looking attitude. It was all very cute.
And then it was over, too soon.
Anyway, I was out at ABT tonight being completely floored by Hee Seo’s absolutely stunning, tear-jerking portrayal of Juliet (best I’ve seen since Alessandra Ferri, honestly), and then having a little after-performance bite to eat at Ollie’s with a couple of fun new ballet / writer / publishing friends (the best kind!), who I met in the blogosphere (the best place to meet!) Write-up soon of Seo and Cory Stearns (who was very good too, albeit a bit nervous — but excellent chemistry those two!) But, because I still live in the dark ages home entertainment-system-wise and still use a VCR to record, I could only record one show — and had to choose Veronika over SYTYCD results. If anyone could fill me in on the latter, would be much appreciated!
DAVID HALLBERG IS WORLD’S MOST BEAUTIFUL DANCER, BUT HE DOES NOT CAVORT WELL WITH PROSTITUTES :)
Yesterday’s Romeo and Juliet was the most “dancerly” cast, by which I mean, it was full of ABT’s most quintessential dancers, as opposed to actors. Cast was: David Hallberg and Gillian Murphy as Romeo and Juliet, Jared Matthews as Mercutio, and Blaine Hoven as Benvolio. Photo above, of ABT’s poster of the ballet outside in front of the Met, showing David Hallberg with Paloma Herrera (and two adorable little girls posing in front)
David Hallberg has got to be the most beautiful male dancer now alive. I couldn’t find any photos of him and Gillian dancing this ballet together, but below are a couple of the two of them dancing Antony Tudor’s version, which the company did last fall at City Center.
Because he is such a tremendously beautiful dancer, I really prefer to see David in more pure movement roles, like Balanchine ballets or some of the newer ballets, like those created by Lauri Stallings and Jorma Elo and Stanton Welch.
He really came alive here when Juliet first sits down to play her lute at the Capulet ball and he dances for her. Those series of high jumps with the continuous turns high in the air landing on one foot almost made me cry. David is most at home when he’s just dancing, and any time he had a solo where he could kind of transcend the story, transcend everything around him and just dance, it really almost made me cry — I’m not kidding! For that reason, I will never ever tire of seeing him dance Romeo or anything else.
But this, to me, is the most dramatic of ballets. It’s Shakespeare, so it’s first and foremost theater, albeit using MacMillan’s poetry to advance the storyline instead of Shakespeare’s. During the first intermission, a girl behind me exclaimed to her friend, “I can’t even tell which one is Romeo!” And I’m sure she meant not that she didn’t see David, but that she didn’t know he was Romeo. And I kind of know what she meant.
For one thing, I think it was wrong to cast Grant DeLong as Paris. He’s too good-looking and charming and suave. Paris needs to be a bit of a dork, or there needs to be something off about him, or else you’re thinking, “Oooh Juliet, great catch!” Which is exactly what I thought when I saw DeLong.
And the other thing is David’s enormous dance skills being so far ahead of his acting. He didn’t really fully inhabit Romeo. But I still think he’s done far far better than before and I think he’s getting better. There were points where he really brought himself into that universe, into Romeo’s specific situations. He was very good with all of the sword-fighting, both at the beginning and in the second act, when he slays Tybalt. During those scenes, he really became a reckless kid not really thinking about the consequences of his actions. And my favorite acting part for him was before he killed Tybalt. When he picks up the sword that killed his friend, he looks at it, at first in disbelief, and then he traces its blade, wiping the imaginary blood, and what’s happened hits him and his rage against Tybalt takes off. I thought he did so well with that.
And then there are things I don’t think will ever look right on David, no matter how hard he tries — like his cavorting with the prostitutes. Roberto and Marcelo and Jose Carreno (wherever he’s been this season — he seemed to abscond after his turn in Giselle?…) are just so much more believable when they grab the harlots and play with them and toss them madly into the air. David’s just too much of a romantic 🙂 It’s partly just the way he looks. But he kind of plays off that by having his Romeo internally reject them, and by playing it as if he’s trying hard to be a sport and take their taunts with amusement.
I also heard people in the audience say they thought there was no chemistry between David and Gillian. I was reminded of something Chimene said on seeing them dance in Chicago, something along the lines that they’re both too ethereal, and she needs someone who’s grounded. I think the problem with the two of them together is that they are both quintessential dancers. No one’s humanizing this drama. Everyone’s concentrating on the stylistics and the plastique and the bodily expression of things, on making the most of every shape they possibly can, and of course on dancing with technical perfection. Gillian is probably technically the greatest female dancer in the world — at least that I’ve seen. And I loved her in Swan Lake — she was all-around my favorite Odette / Odile. But Swan Lake is more of a dancerly ballet. I’m probably not using the right terms, but you know what I mean? It’s all about making shapes with your arms and torso and legs that most evoke a swan, a swan-maiden. And in the Black Swan pas, it’s all about seducing Siegfried with your pyrotechnics — those crazy fouettes and lightening-speed turns all over the stage. So the story is all in the body; you don’t really need to express anything with your face (at least if you’re the female lead).
But, again, Romeo and Juliet is fundamentally theater. No one arches her back like Gillian and no one looks as gorgeous running around the stage with her back and head thrown back and her arms out while fleeing her bedroom and running off to Friar Lawrence. And her form was beautiful too when she woke up in the crypt and freaked out about being in the midst of the dead and then began running about trying to figure out how to get out of there, when she nearly trips over Romeo. Diana Vishneva did much the same thing in that final scene, and I prefer Irina Dvorovenko, who kind of collapsed into herself and covered her face when she saw Romeo lying on the ground. Irina’s reaction to Romeo might not have been as “dancerly” as the other two, but it was human and it was real and it moved me the most. I also thought I saw the most in Irina’s eyes during that scene where she’s simply sitting on the bed staring out at the audience trying to decide what to do after Romeo’s been banished and she’s told she has to marry Paris. It takes a real actress to have that kind of thought behind her eyes, to be able to express so much while sitting shock still.
So, I don’t know. Everything David and Gillian did, both separately and together in the pas de deux was absolutely perfect, and absolutely beautiful. David almost went on pointe reaching up to her at the end of the balcony scene, when she’d gone back up to her bedroom. It was so gorgeously stylized, it should have been full of passion. But somehow it wasn’t. I don’t want him to stop making stylized choices like that — the way he apparently stopped taking his breathtaking dive at the end of Swan Lake. He just needs to learn how to make the passion come from within as well. Same with Gillian — she makes beautiful shapes, but they didn’t fully embody the passion here.
Jared Matthews got a lot of applause as Mercutio, but he didn’t do that much for me. His dancing was often stellar – -he had an excellent sequence of pirouettes — but the acting wasn’t there, and the role of Mercutio more than any other I think requires a good actor with decent comical ability. Am I going to see Daniil Simkin at all in this role, ABT? Patrick Ogle didn’t stand out much as Tybalt. He had the stern look down but it didn’t come through in his dancing. He danced it way too cautiously. Blaine Hoven was very very good as Benvolio — those cat-like sideways jumps made me want to jump up and whoot right then (of course I didn’t; I would never!). He seriously deserves a promotion to soloist. But I think he’s going to have to learn how to make some sort of facial expression if he’s ever going to make it to principal. Simone Messmer, as one of the harlots, gave a particularly memorable performance when Tybalt died.
IT’S ROMEO & JULIET WEEK AT ABT, WITH CELEBRATION OF FREDERIC FRANKLIN’S 95TH BDAY
Finally, Pashmina week is here!
I couldn’t find any pictures of the pashmina lifts, but watch this video — two occur around 430-440 and 528-532. By the way, that clip, from a BBC broadcast apparently, is really good — the Royal’s Darcey Bussell talks about MacMillan’s gorgeous balcony pas de deux and then it’s performed by the great Carlos Acosta and Tamara Rojo.
Anyway, last night’s debut cast at ABT was Marcelo Gomes and Diana Vishneva in the leads. It was excellent. The audience collectively rose to its feet right after the curtain went down on the two lovers, dead in the crypt, and hardly anyone sat down or left until after the final curtain call. And a significant amount of people didn’t even want to leave then, after all the lights came up. I don’t think I’ve ever seen quite that kind of crowd reaction before. Diana was the best I’ve ever seen her (she’s really growing on me). The end was a bit melodramatic and overdone, but that aside, her performance was brilliant — perfectly and passionately danced and in character throughout. And the bourrees 😀 Marcelo is always perfect. He’s the lifting king in this very lift-heavy ballet. And he’s of course very romantic and passionate to boot 🙂 He’s never not completely made my night at ABT. He kissed Diana on the lips during curtain call; audience went “awwwwwww!”
Herman Cornejo danced Mercutio, and, believe me, there’s no one better for that part. No one! Audience went wild over him, nearly as much as the leads. Veronika Part replaced Stella Abrera as Lady Capulet. It’s not a dancing role but a very serious acting one. I’ve never seen a more tragic Lady Capulet. I really felt her horror at Tybalt’s death. I almost cried with her. Isaac Stappas was a very good Tybalt, very virile, very threatening, but ultimately vulnerable. And Carlos Lopez was a very good Benvolio — he landed all of his jumps very well 🙂
And 95-year-old Frederic Franklin played Friar Lawrence (and got loads of applause for it when he first appeared onstage — for a minute I thought they were going to have to stop the music so he could take a bow!)
So the rest of the week: Marcelo will dance Romeo once more, on Wednesday night, with Paloma Herrera as Juliet. Tonight (Tuesday) and Saturday night Roberto Bolle dances with Irina Dvorovenko (a must-see performance). Wednesday and Saturday matinees are David Hallberg and Gillian Murphy. And Friday night are Herman Cornejo and Xiomara Reyes in the leads. Thursday night’s performance should be special: the young Hee Seo and Cory Stearns are making their debuts in the roles, and, according to the Playbill, there is also to be a little celebration that night in honor of Franklin, who will again play Friar Lawrence.
Pretty amazing to still be onstage at 95!
For ABT’s schedule and ticket info, go here.
NINA ANANIASHVILI'S FAREWELL PERFORMANCE WITH AMERICAN BALLET THEATER
The widely beloved ballerina from the Republic of Georgia gave her farewell performance, of Swan Lake, with ABT to a completely packed house on Saturday night. Angel Corella danced Siegfried and Marcelo Gomes von Rothbart.
Of course it was a wonderful performance, one her bizillions of adoring fans will never forget. It was my first time seeing her in this role and she was gorgeous. One thing that really struck me was how she’d wave her hands while in the guise of a swan. Not only her arms, like the other ballerinas do, but actually her hands. They looked like feathers they were so light and delicate and fluttering. I’d never seen anyone do that. She also did the rapidly fluttering foot during the White Swan pas de deux better than any ballerina I’ve seen. She is splendid at small details like that that make all the difference in a performance.
Unlike the others, she faced the audience, instead of the back of the stage, as she bourreed offstage after the end of the White Swan pas. I’m not sure if she always does that or if it was only this time since it was her last and she wanted to see the audience. Her face was full of sorrow but there was also this kind of “that’s life, that’s that, this is my fate” subtext behind her eyes — a thought Odette might have as well as a retiring ballerina. At the end, during bows, she bourreed offstage again, this time with her back to the audience, her face toward her pile of bouquets and the many dancers and former partners lined up onstage who’d come out to issue her her farewell. (Shown in pic below)
Of course Angel was his usual passionate Siegfried self, and Marcelo was a mouth-wateringly sexy von Rothbart. I liked the way he picked one court lady up (I think it was Misty Copeland) and tossed her aside, so he could flirt with another. Marcelo’s ultimately too sweet though and his sweetness shines through — I don’t see how anyone’s actually ever completely believed his performances as the quintessential bad guy 🙂 I also like how he jumped up to the throne, taking Siegfried’s princely place next to his mother, in one flying leap. It was acrobatic and eye-catching, and very presumptuous, as von Rothbart is. Actually, watching Marcelo made me like David Hallberg better — David was much like him. They both did the part very well. There were a few more giggles during David’s turn as von Roth, but that could have been because he’s usually “the nice guy.”
And of course Marcelo and Angel, both of them full of theatrics, had to pull the stunt of the season: at the end of the Black Swan pas de deux, Marcelo picked up Nina and tossed her high, right into Angel’s arms, and he caugh her in a fish dive. Very dramatic, and of course the audience went completely nuts with applause. They performed said stunt again during the curtain calls. I didn’t get a picture of it, but someone caught in on YouTube!!! Oh how I love illegally enthusiastic fans! Thanks to Haglund for finding it!
Here are a few more of my favorite pics:
What every girl wants — a hug from Marcelo! Even if he is dressed as evil von Rothbart.
Her little girl was brought out onstage and took a bow with her mother 🙂
Receiving a hug from Isaac Stappas, who danced von Rothbart in swamp creature form.
Getting a kiss from handsome Angel.
Giving a dancerly nod to conductor Ormsby Wilkins.
I love the arm in the air!
In front of the curtain with those two stuntsmen, either right before or right after aforementioned three-way-fish-dive.
Those are some of my favorites. See the full album here.
A couple of other hightlights: Blaine Hoven danced one of the Neapolitan high-jumper guys in the court scene. When he did this series of kick jumps, he sent his kicking leg nearly all the way up to his head. Maybe I should begin calling him Blaine Osipova…
And Simone Messmer danced as one of the girls in the Benno pas de trois. Recently I’ve begun to find her very captivating but am not sure why. One of the reasons, I’m now thinking, is that she is so amazingly athletic. She did this series of entrechats (high jumps where the feet change back and forth in front of and behind one another, like a braid) like a man! Seriously — those were damn David Hallberg entrechats! I don’t mean that in a bad way at all — my favorite ballerinas (aside from Janie Taylor 🙂 ) are the most athletic ones.
Trying to think of other things that happened during curtain call. David Hallberg was cute — he bowed down to her several times repeatedly as if to say “I’m not worthy, I’m not worthy.” Audience went wild. Gillian Murphy and Ethan Stiefel came out together. Roberto Bolle came out, all dapper, in a shiny black tux. I remember Paloma Herrera, Diana Vishneva, Maxim Beloserkovsky, Kevin McKenzie (who looked like he may cry). I didn’t see Jose Manuel Carreno (unless I missed him. What’s up with him though — he doesn’t seem to be dancing any more this season??) I didn’t spot Julie Kent, although she just had her baby so that’s understandable. Curtain calls lasted for maybe twenty minutes, although I’m not entirely sure since I had to leave to go to a housewarming party. Anyway, wonderful night. It goes without saying Nina has a huge amount of fans and will be badly missed.
ROBERTO BOLLE AND VERONIKA PART IN ABT’S SWAN LAKE
It’s kind of hard for me to be my usual enthusiastic self after hearing about the death of Pina Bausch earlier today, but I’m getting too far behind on blog posts to take the rest of the day off, so I’ll try.
Of course, I should have written about this performance earlier, but I was too busy at the stage door that evening, and then I’ve had a ballet every night since then. Anyway, hope I can make sense of my notes!
Overall impression was that they both — Veronika and Roberto — gave a beautiful, stunning performance, that he did very well when dancing on his own, that she did very well both on her own and when being partnered by him, and that she out-acted him. By a long shot. I have been told that (despite posing for photos like this) he is actually rather shy, though, and it did kind of seem like that at the stage door, so I think maybe he needs to get used to a ballerina for a while, and will do much better the more comfortable he gets. The reason I say that is because I loved him so much in Romeo and Juliet two years ago, and he danced wonderfully and completely comfortably with Alessandra Ferri. I think it’s just a matter of getting used to our ballerinas and perhaps American audiences.
Whenever he was on his own, his dancing and acting were solid. I really felt like I saw Odette flying away after Siegfried’s encounter with her, as Bolle’s sad eyes traced her imaginary path along the ceiling. And his early solo, when Siegfried is at the party, pre-Odette, and he’s feeling alone and ill at ease with his mother’s demands that he choose a wife, Bolle really conveyed that mixed emotion, confusion, loneliness. Later, his jumps were stellar. It just seemed that whenever he partnered Veronika, he was concentrating so hard, he had no time for emotion. So, Angel, Ethan, and Marcelo (when I last saw him as Siegfried, a year ago, anyway), were more passionate. But others think differently. Read Haglund (an excellent newish ballet blog by the way!) for a different take on Bolle’s performance.
Veronika was just gorgeous, and so passionate. She did her usual thing of taking me on her character’s journey with her, of making me feel Odette’s plight and pain, and Odile’s desires as well. She has such sweep and breadth, when he’d take her down into an arabesque penchee on pointe, her arms brushed the floor. And her extensions are always so breathtaking, and the overhead lifts — they are both so tall they were just spectacular, she just touched the sky. In the Black Swan Pas de Deux, she did the straight fouettes, as did Nina Ananiashvili the following night (review coming soon!) She has such height she moves a bit slower than other ballerinas and she didn’t really make the 32 fouettes, but who cares. She really devoured the stage with those fouettes, and when she did her turns around its perimeter. What’s important in that scene is how you eat up all the space around you and command the attention of the audience and poor Siegfried, and you can do that in a variety of ways — a ridiculous number of turns is only one. She had a really wicked smile all throughout that scene! I really love her!
Hehe, one other thing: poor Roberto. No one told him that, thanks to a certain David Hallberg, New York audiences are accustomed to an all-out Olympic gold medal-level Swan Dive off the cliff and into the lake at the end 🙂 Or perhaps he didn’t want to out swan dive his lady, because Veronika just kind of tossed herself off the cliff. Either way, Roberto followed her with a slight jump, not even really a jump — almost like he was falling into the water as well. Of course I’m partly joking about the need for an extravagant suicide jump, but I do have to say, in my quest to see casts other than my regulars this season, I did so miss that Hallberg dive!
A couple of other things: I have a bunch of stars next to Craig Salstein’s name in my Playbill so he must have done something I liked… Oh yes, he was one of the two Neapolitan high-bouncing jumping jack guys in the court scene. I also have written “violins ***” which reminds me that I thought the violinist was very good during von Rothbart’s seduction of the court ladies scene. I always forget about the hard-working orchestra!
DANCE YOUR ASS OFF SERIES PREMIERE
Thanks to a comment from the executive producer on my prior post, I remembered to watch the series premiere last night of the newest TV dance show (Oxygen network).
It was sweet. All of the contestants are “real people,” some with dance background, most with none, and all of whom are overweight, some severely and life-threateningly so. They each work with a professional dance partner, a nutritionist, a doctor, and a fitness coach to learn to eat right, maintain physical fitness, and of course dance. For many of these contestants, success on the show is a matter of life and death — no exaggeration. That’s what morbidly obese means — it’s not just a loose term that means “gross” or something; it means the obesity could have morbid results. The doctor was very interesting. He talked about how for many of the contestants, fat had leaked into their liver, their pancreas, and their diaphragm, making it harder for those organs to function, harder for the contestants to breathe. I knew it could cause diabetes but I didn’t know fat could do that – could spread to other organs, like cancer, and overtake them.
Anyway, it’s a competition of course, like almost all reality TV these days, so a person is eliminated each week. The dancing is all fast-paced and aerobic, which makes sense. The dances last night were chosen by the contestant — hip hop, disco, swing or jive. Next week everyone is supposed to compete in disco.
There are three judges and each contestant receives a score, based on the quality of their dancing. They then weigh themselves, and the percentage of their total body weight that they lost that week is added onto their dance score for a total score. The person with the lowest score leaves. There seems to be no audience vote.
Which is fine, because it’s completely impossible to root for one person at the expense of the rest. Of course you want them all to do well. And it’s kind of sad that it has to be a competition anyway, given the goal of the show (which is of course to lose weight but there’s also an incentive in the form of a $100,000 prize). But competitions are what audiences seem to want these days. As it was, the first person to leave last night was the person who probably had the least to lose: she’s an attractive young woman, a former model, and had only recently begun to put on the pounds. But she wasn’t anywhere near as heavy as the rest. Hopefully, she had enough time on the show (meaning, the weeks — I assume it was weeks — spent preparing), to change her lifestyle.
I think the show is a very good idea, but I do hope its important message is able to rub off on the general public and it doesn’t just become a spectacle like so much reality TV. The reason many thin people are thin is that they have happy, fulfilling, active lifestyles. They appreciate the taste of food and so seek well-made, quality food (ie: eat canned asparagus with dinner and you’re probably going to have to get rid of the horrendous aftertaste with a monster bag of Oreos or whatnot; eat asparagus vinegarette with a nice glass of wine and no need for dessert), in moderation and without gorging (you can’t appreciate the taste if you’re only going to gobble it right down) and without ever depriving themselves of their favorites. (ie: eat chocolate and be happy, but buy a quality bar and you’ll be much more fulfilled than if you eat crap from a vending machine, in which case you’re probably going to have to eat a few bars to be likewise sated).
I know it sounds funny for a blogger with the words “skinny white girl” in her tag line to be lecturing on weight loss, but honestly my mother is the same size as many of the contestants on the show — actually bigger; she’s really too big to dance — and she has a whole host of health problems and I worry about her daily. The only difference between us is lifestyle (city versus small town) and our approach to food.
Of course another reason thin people are thin is that they don’t have time to eat so much because they’re out being active, and being active is fun, not a chore. You don’t have to go to the gym, you don’t have to run laps. You can lose weight and become fit by learning to dance, so long as you’re learning proper technique and learning to use proper muscle groups. And then you’re not just losing weight but getting sculpted as well 🙂
I think this show is a great idea. It’s on every Monday night from 10-11:30 EST, 9 pm Central. Visit their website to learn some of the dance moves on the show, watch episodes, and submit your own videos. You can also join their Facebook page to discuss. For weight loss, I recommend your local dance studio — preferably ballet (I’m not kidding; just because barre work is slow doesn’t mean you’re not getting an intense workout, avec the body sculpting I was talking about!) If you’re in NY, the Harkness Center at the 92 Street Y is a very good dance studio with a very non-intimidating atmosphere. If you’re braver, try Steps on the west side (be warned, famous dancers take class there). If you want to work at home, I highly highly HIGHLY recommend this.