ballet blog with occasional diversions

The crime of waste at ABT

 

How does McKenzie sleep at night? How can he continue to deny ABT's audience the opportunity to see the glorious Stella Abrera perform Giselle, the role that she was destined to dance and has danced to international acclaim, while he soils ballet's most important classic with muck season after season? The horsey, slovenly, homely dancing of Boylston; the incompetence of Kent who will weep all season long and drag her kids out on stage at every opportunity as some kind of protection from criticism for staying a decade too long; the paint-drying dullness and instant fatigue-inducing of the technically impaired Seo; the empty, mechanical, artless waste of Semionova; the manic slop of Oslopiva — all of these nobodies, has-beens, and can-never-bes soiling the Met stage while one of the company’s most important artists is stuck trying to make a hometown career out of doing an excerpt during a lecture-demo on a postage stamp-sized stage to the academic tinkling of a piano? Why doesn't McKenzie do everyone a favor by stepping off the curb in front of a speeding import.

 

14 responses to “The crime of waste at ABT”

  1. angelica Avatar
    angelica

    That first developpe a la seconde and promenade in arabesque sent me into rapture.

  2. angelica Avatar
    angelica

    That first developpe a la seconde and promenade in arabesque sent me into rapture.

  3. Haglund Avatar
    Haglund

    Me, too, Angelica. She is and always has been the real deal.

  4. Haglund Avatar
    Haglund

    Me, too, Angelica. She is and always has been the real deal.

  5. J Avatar
    J

    She is exquisite in that clip – and always.

  6. J Avatar
    J

    She is exquisite in that clip – and always.

  7. jose Avatar
    jose

    i think ABT(or KM) just let her dance a very short portion of Giselle just to tease( or for spite) all of SA admirers. Not a classy action at all.

  8. jose Avatar
    jose

    i think ABT(or KM) just let her dance a very short portion of Giselle just to tease( or for spite) all of SA admirers. Not a classy action at all.

  9. Laurel Avatar
    Laurel

    Even with the tenuous camerawork I still got the chills watching this clip. What a gorgeous dancer. Doesn’t the AD realize that people will pay real money to see her dance this role?

  10. Laurel Avatar
    Laurel

    Even with the tenuous camerawork I still got the chills watching this clip. What a gorgeous dancer. Doesn’t the AD realize that people will pay real money to see her dance this role?

  11. Dreamer Avatar

    This is perfection to the core. Next time Stella dances Giselle I’ll fly in no matter how remote that place might be. I hope my saying this doesn’t jinx the possibility of her getting this role at ABT.

  12. Dreamer Avatar

    This is perfection to the core. Next time Stella dances Giselle I’ll fly in no matter how remote that place might be. I hope my saying this doesn’t jinx the possibility of her getting this role at ABT.

  13. Haglund Avatar
    Haglund

    J, Jose, Laurel, and Dreamer – thanks much for the comments. I understand that someone forwarded the video link to Yuri Fateev.

  14. Haglund Avatar
    Haglund

    J, Jose, Laurel, and Dreamer – thanks much for the comments. I understand that someone forwarded the video link to Yuri Fateev.