NY Ballet fans

[Cheylana]

I have a ticket for the wacky Swan Lake; I am seeing the matinee. Cheylana, let me know if you end up getting tickets. We can meet up even if you end up at the evening performance.

I purchased the June 16th matinee tickets and then remembered I have to be in Rhode Island on the 16th for a bachelorette party - arrrrrgh! (And not my bachelorette party - double arrrrrgh!!) I gave my ticket to my mom, and now I don't know if I'll splurge for a ticket for another night that week. [Insert grumbling/weeping here.]

I am seeing The Bright Stream tonight, if anyone else is going.

[nubka]

Did anyone have the chance to attend the GKA Elusive Dreams performance over the weekend? I have always been a huge fan of Gelsey Kirkland and am following her students with much interest.

BUMP!

I'm assuming that nobody saw the performance...

[Cheylana]

I'm sorry, nubka, I didn't see it. Perhaps one of the others did, though.

The Bright Stream was ok, though the storyline and choreo were not really my cup of tea. I knew it was supposed to be lighthearted and whimsical, but the choreo had too many pratfalls and silliness for my taste. That said, the dude doing en pointe was kind of impressive. Cast was Reyes/Osipova/Cornejo/Simkin.

[Marge_Simpson]

Magnolia Bakery has "Firebird" cupcakes on sale during June, in honor of ABT's new Firebird.

[Marge_Simpson]

I went to the matinee of "Bright Stream" on Wednesday; I am now firmly convinced that matinees attract loons. (Myself excepted, of course )
This wasn't on my subscription so I got a ticket in my usual Grand Tier box. I was the only one in it, but the box next to mine had 3 loud ladies who were no strangers to botox injections or tanning salons. They must have been from New Jersey, they sounded like they were auditioning for "The Sopranos"
"Oh, honey, you look GAWJUS, where did you buy that dress?"
"Ya like it? I got it at Nawdstroms!"
"Oh yeah, you look hawt!"
Anyway, it was a treat after seeing the boring Bayadere. I went mainly to see Alex Hammoudi, who was Pyotr and did a really nice job with it. He didn't have his hair gelled back as he usually does, and he did something different with his makeup, which took about 10 years off his face. Not that he looks old for his age normally, but on Wednesday he looked about 18. Perhaps he was experimenting for his Romeo debut? Veronica played his wife, Zina, and they looked very good together, even if his new look made him seem a tad too young for her. I'd love to see this partnership develop... Alex played Pyotr as a loveable doofus, quite charming, but I couldn't help wondering if he took his inspiration from Kevin, who always strikes me as a cheerful fool.
Speaking of Kevin, when is he going to promote this guy??????
Cory Stearns was a complete shock to me. His acting gets better every time I see him, but I had my doubts that he could pull off the man in drag scenes convincingly...he just doesn't seem the type to ham it up. But he had the audience laughing hysterically, and his pointe work was pretty nifty. I was howling at the bit where he stumbles to the ground, then realizes his tutu is exposing his legs and quickly crosses them in a coy pose. He hadn't shaved and his hairy legs juxtaposed with the tutu just cracked me up.
Roman Zhurbin stole the show with his pompous quality control inspector. I laughed out loud when he first appeared on stage, prompting a three-way look of death from the ladies in the next box. They hadn't figured out that we were watching a comedy.
Misty played the milkmaid and her look of disbelief was priceless when she was presented with the red dress. It's printed with tractors on it.
Jared Matthews looked extremely hunky in his overalls with no shirt on underneath.
Is anyone seeing "Onegin" on Monday? let me know if you want to meet up.

[Marge_Simpson]

Onegin was DIVINE.

[emason]

Happy to hear that, as I am going Thursday, and I think it is mostly the same cast.

[Rob]

Onegin was DIVINE.

oh i wanted to go so bd, but I got bronchitis and sinus infection and had to cancel my trip back to NYC.

[emason]

Bummer. I'll send good thoughts your way when I am there on Thursday.

[Cheylana]

oh i wanted to go so bd, but I got bronchitis and sinus infection and had to cancel my trip back to NYC.

Feel better, Rob.

Onegin is divine? Hmm, now I'm tempted to go. I do have some of Tchaikovsky's Eugene score on my iPod, so it would be nice to see some dancing to that music.

[Marge_Simpson]

Go on Thursday, you will get the same cast I saw. (Vishneva, Gomes, Osipova, Matthews, Saveliev)
I was SO tempted to swap out my tickets and go to see another cast, but I know nothing I see will be as fabulous as what I saw last night and i would just be comparing the two.

[emason]

Feel better, Rob.

Onegin is divine? Hmm, now I'm tempted to go. I do have some of Tchaikovsky's Eugene score on my iPod, so it would be nice to see some dancing to that music.

I'm not sure it is the same music. My understanding is that it is Tchaikovsky, but other music, not from the opera. Someone correct me if I am wrong, please.

Come on Thursday if you can; I'll be up in the dress circle, seat F112.

[Cheylana]

Oh, that's interesting about the music, thanks emason. Even so, I'm awfully tempted, and I'm off Friday so Thursday's performance would work well. Will mosey down to the box office and see if I can get a good seat.

[Marge_Simpson]

I can't post about Onegin because I will just gush all over the place.
So I will post about seeing NYCB on Sunday. I went mainly to see "Jeu de Cartes"; I had only seen ABT do this, never NYCB. I didn't realized they do different versions, NYCB's has no joker. It was great fun anyway. The 4 "suits" were Tiler Peck, Joaquin De Luz, Taylor Stanley and Andrew Veyette. They were all very fine, but I was especially impressed with Stanley, who is still in the corps. This sort of playful, lighthearted role suited him very well. (I felt he was woefully miscast as a Jet in WSS this past winter) His partnering was wonderful, too, there are a lot of tricky handholds here and he was really secure with them. After reading Joaquin's interview in TONY several weeks ago, I kept looking at him through my binoculars to see if he was sweating. He wasn't!

Next up was Fancy Free, which I have seen more times than I can count, but you can never have too many Fancy Frees, IMO. The sailors were Andrew Veyette, Daniel Ulbricht and Robert Fairchild, I saw the same cast over the winter. Is it just me, or does Ulbricht remind anyone else of Maxim Staviskyi? They have the same sort of devilish grin.
I enjoyed this very much but Andrew, who did the "samba sailor" will never come close to Jose Carreno's samba sailor. Ha!

The last piece was Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3, which I had also seen over the winter, but I can never have too much Tschaikovsky. Unfortunately I had to suffer through Ask LaCour in the "Elegie" section. He dances nicely, he partners well, he has beautiful stretch, he is so utterly blah. Can someone tell me why this section is danced with bare feet? Ballet dancers, even the men, have seriously nasty looking feet. I wish they'd wear slippers here. Ashley Bouder and Gonzalo did the last section, which is my favorite, the tema con variazioni. They were gorgeous together. (and Gonzalo is just dreamy looking) For some reason Gonzalo's dancing makes me think of Malakhov's, possibly because their body types are so similar and they both have beautiful feet.
There was some kind of dancer talk before the ballet, but I had to make a decision: slog up to the 4th ring for the talk, or walk across the plaza for gelato? The gelato won out.

[emason]

Gelato should always win out.

Fancy Free: I have always thought that City Ballet's pales in comparison to ABT's. The first time I saw it at City Ballet, it was like a museum piece - frozen in time and formaldehyde. It's improved since then, but ABT just gets the flavor of it better than City Ballet. Yes, no one comes close to Carreno in the samba except for the late, great Bujones.

[Marge_Simpson]

Gelato should always win out.

Fancy Free: I have always thought that City Ballet's pales in comparison to ABT's. The first time I saw it at City Ballet, it was like a museum piece - frozen in time and formaldehyde. It's improved since then, but ABT just gets the flavor of it better than City Ballet. Yes, no comes close to Carreno is the samba except for the late, great Bujones.

I didn't see Bujones dance when I first started going to see ABT. Baryshnikov had just fired him, IIRC. I did see him several times when he returned, although not in Fancy Free. "Elegant" is the best word to describe him IMO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5yP4hy_qG8

[Rob]

Bujones was amazing.

[Marge_Simpson]

I am MASSIVELY peeved with Alastair Macaulay. Did anyone see his review in the NY Times today?
I was irritated when I read his review of Eifman's "Rodin", which he disliked and claimed was melodramatic and over-the-top. I thought he missed the point altogether, EVERY Eifman ballet is melodramatic and over-the top. Complaining about that is kind of like complaining that only the men have flashy solos in "Le Corsaire" or that nobody drops dead in "Don Quixote". That's just a fact of life. Clearly, he doesn't care for Eifman's style; he should have stayed home and watched his old Baryshnikov videos instead of coming out and finding things to criticize. Hmph.
But he didn't like Monday's Onegin. I do not know what is wrong with this man. Does he actually like any ballet at all? He maintains that "no choreography here rewards repeat viewing" and the ballet is "historical pulp fiction". Has he actually read the book? Worst of all, he said that Jared Matthews was "a blandly pleasant" Lensky. Jared danced as well as I've ever seen him, and he was wonderfully in character...a mild-mannered guy who boiled over when stretched to the breaking point. Bland? Hmph. Hmph.
Is there any ballet this man is positive about?

[kwanfan1818]

Balanchine, Tudor, Ashton, Petipa are just some of the choreographers that Macaulay loves.

[Marge_Simpson]

I found another full length Swan lake for everyone's viewing pleasure. This is the Bourmeister version, with Zakharova and Bolle. I much prefer it to ABT's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM3fZ...feature=fvwrel