Blog Page - Haglund's Heel

NYCB 10/10
Balanchine + Ratmansky – both in top form

October 12, 2024 4 Comments

Thursday night’s Balanchine + Ratmansky program capped off the fall season like a royal's fascinator. Oh my gosh, watching this new generation fashion the masterworks onto their crowns — re-tooling the tulle, as the saying goes — has us fixated.

Only the sickest balletomane would obsess over the perfectly crossed, perfectly maximum turned-out back heel of Mira Nadon’s bourrees coming downstage in the Preghiera of Mozartiana. The sight of her feet compulsively tip-toeing forward with the flat profile of that back heel peeking out on the opposite side nearly triggered a Paxil emergency. Her ensuing deep cambré engaged the sacral wings in a moment that seemed to resurrect and release the choreographer’s spirit. A memorable solo indeed.

The Theme et Variations by Nadon and Peter Walker gleaned the musical wit from Tschaikovsky’s re-telling of Mozart’s work while stunning with its split-second coordination in the pas de deux. Walker’s variations were excellent—only occasionally over-powered at the expense of plush landings. The leg lines and batterie were crystal clear. He possessed a beautiful arabesque profile on both the right and left sides. The final single tour, double tour combination was not quite what it should have been on the landing, but we’re not sure why. We’ve seen and admired the form of Walker’s double tours since he was a soloist. The assemblage of those mile-long legs in the air was a stunning sight to behold but the tentativeness of and reluctance to finishing on the knee suggested some kind of impairment. Nevertheless, this Mozartiana performance by Nadon and Walker made us some new beautiful memories that we will hold onto for a long, long time.

Miriam Miller and Aaron Sanz in Monumentum pro Gesualdo followed by Dominika Afanasenkov and Davide Riccardo in Movements for Piano and Orchestra continued to inject new life and clarity into these esoteric Balanchine pieces. We liked the idea of different casts dancing the two works because it promoted the idea of considering each ballet on its own merits without the influence of the other. The easy length and gentle geometry of Miller and Sanz contrasted nicely with the acute shapes and seriously straight lines of Afanasenkov and Riccardo.

Emma Von Enck’s explosion of energy in Concerto DSCH set a new standard in this ballet. She’s a Ratmansky dream come true — a dancer who can actually give even more than he asks for. What an absolute delight it was to watch her take blistering command of the stage — propelling herself through the choreography as though the steps were trying to catch up with her energy. What a bright lightning bolt. However, does any of this make up for not casting her as Aurora and Coppelia? Nuh-uh. Grudge intact.

Unity Phelan and Adrian Danchig-Waring were an appealing couple who brought the ease and flow required in the pas de deux. The whirling around of the ballerina in the air did not look like a strenuous windup for a hammer throw as it did in the previous cast. Harrison Coll and Sebastián Villarini-Vélez offered great charisma along with fetching tours and allegro.

Haglund kept watching the corps in Concerto DSCH, not only because Gilbert Bolden III and Davide Riccardo were making it impossible not to watch, but because Owen Flacke and Samuel Melnikov suddenly looked mature, commanding, and both huge men could move like the wind — at Ratmansky velocity.

The H.H. Pump Bump Award, a Manolo Blahnik revealing pump, is bestowed upon Mira Nadon for her memorable Mozartiana that fully revealed the beauty of the choreography.

NYC Ballet Gala 10/9
Signs pointing to nowhere . . .

October 10, 2024 No Comments

. . . before pointing us the wrong way into the water.

The New York City Ballet Gala performance taxed our patience as we have come to expect over the years. Gianna Reisen’s Signs included a lot of hugging & tugging & skipping & sudden pauses to express emotion about whatever. “But we want to act and emote on stage” the dancers seemed to be saying. How about trying some ballet steps and leave the acting to the professionally trained actors? Ballet dancers create such a kerfuffle when models or actors are shown in ads or online pretending to “do ballet”. But they have no problem wading into areas on the stage that are outside their bailiwick.

Reisen’s Signs offered no signs of progress for the choreographer. Dull beyond dull, academically cute beyond cute, at times it showed great admiration for Twyla Tharp — who by the way will be blowing the roof off here next week with In The Upper Room. Reisen’s Signs is not NYCB main-stage ready. The content is not there. The organization is not there. The creativity is not there.

Choreographer Caili Quan checked all the boxes for NYCB: female, non-white, young, photogenic & personable, not too terribly ballet-ish. In her choreography entitled Beneath The Tides, here the principal dancers went again: “We want to act.” There was too much emotional display over nothing and a lot of watered down ballet-ish movement. We can’t even give the costumes by Gilles Mendel a good grade. Different? Yes, sort of — corsets on both men and women. But the overall effect was hodge-podge. We were able to appreciate Tiler Peck’s costume and output which reminded us of her output in Justin Peck’s works — right down to the fouettes. In fact, it was Tiler Peck who saved the evening with her own choreography.

Peck’s Concerto for Two Pianos is technically, musically, and artistically skilled and a joy to watch. Her problem, though, is the same as other choreographers who have first-cast her in their new works. Once Mira Nadon (or Tiler Peck) originates a role, it will be a long, long time before anyone else can make balletomanes happy in it. Nadon, Chun Wai Chan and Roman Mejia dazzled in the work. The corps de ballet ran with the choreography like race horses. This is what they have been brought up to do since they were foals.

It seems impossible for New York City Ballet to put on a gala without wading into identity politics these days. Can’t the company stick to dancing and fashion? Can’t we just put tribal politics in ballet aside? Detractors within ballet continually try to claim that women are its victims from grand plies to grand battements. Last evening's emphasis at NYCB’s gala that all of the choreographers for the evening were women was a point made to underscore how the ballet brotherhood has locked out women from choreographic opportunities. All of those obnoxious white males who have been monopolizing ballet choreography over the years — you know, Twyla Tharp, Agnes de Mille, Susan Stroman, Anna Marie Holmes, Bronislava Nijinska, Alicia Alonso, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Birgit Cullberg, Ninette de Valois, Martha Graham — they’re getting their comeuppance now, aren’t they? NYCB has Tharp choreography socked away in the basement. It has Taylor-Corbett, too. And Stroman. And Nijinska. If the company truly wants to celebrate the accomplishments of women choreographers, why not stage a celebratory evening of Tharp, Taylor-Corbett, Nijinska, and Stroman? The truth is: ballet hasn’t locked out women from choreographic opportunities; the post-boomer generation simply forgot about women for a time while free-riding along on previous women’s generations’ accomplishments.

Everyone should go see McNeal at the Beaumont Theater. Robert Downey Jr. is brilliant. The play offers a lot to think about in the way of borrowing others' work for one's own, quoting others' work, using others' work as a so-called tribute or inspiration.

NYCB 9/26
Impressive debuts

September 27, 2024 20 Comments

The final performance of the Masters at Work series included successful debuts for Unity Phelan, Peter Walker and Miriam Miller in Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2. All three clearly had decided beforehand that any errors were going to come from giving too much, not too little. Not only was Unity competent and beautiful, but she was able to add elements that none of the other current interpreters could — such as an arabesque that rose above 90° and a breathtaking and beautifully placed a la second extension that was exclaimed by a magnificently arched foot. Her joy came across as authentic. Her energy was not compromised in any way. Her turns and grand allegro were on the money. This was a very, very good debut performance with the promise of future spectacular ones. We’re not sure why at times Unity seemed rushed — perhaps from trying to make every movement as large as possible or perhaps from her realization that this was a one & done performance that she wanted to make the most of. We wish after the first dismal performance by Sara Mearns, management would have made a complete substitution with Unity.

Peter Walker’s debut began with almost overpowering force — like he was trying to be someone else. Peter Walker is good enough to dance this ballet as Peter Walker. He doesn’t need to be anyone else. When he finally settled down, we were able to appreciate his beautiful lines and blazing batterie. His deportment in the central portion of the ballet clearly conveyed his sincerity and the feeling of loss. The few awkward partnering moments with Unity seemed born from over-excitement by both dancers. All of these nerves would have subsided at a second performance if only they had been given one.

Miriam Miller in the soloist role had high energy and danced beautifully but did not have the confidence to try to steal the show. We needed something in between Serenade and Slaughter from her. If only there had been a second performance . . .

While we understand that these days featured corps roles tend to be handed out based on seniority, neither Kristen Segin nor India Bradley captured the elegance of the two women who performed forward-pitched arabesques with the male principal during the center section of the ballet. Both seemed quite awkwardly and uncomfortably perched during each instance. The corps de ballet as a whole danced splendidly in each performance of this ballet.

This evening included repeats of Duo Concertant with Megan Fairchild and Anthony Huxley, and Glass Pieces with Unity Phelan and Adrian Danchig-Waring. All gave strong, satisfying performances. The Corps de Ballet rocked Glass Pieces, as they tend to do.

Our H.H. Pump Bump Award, a Jimmy Choo jeweled sandal, is bestowed upon Unity Phelan for her promising debut in Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2.

NYCB 9/25
Mozartiana, M&M, Concerto DSCH

September 27, 2024 No Comments

How freakin' lucky are we at the ballet to be able to listen to a program of four of the greatest composers to ever live! Tschaikovsky, Mozart, Stravinsky, and Shostakovich. That is one huge musical program — more substantial than what one will likely hear these days at Geffen Hall. NYCB not only comes through with the biggest ballet but with the biggest music played brilliantly by the New York City Ballet Orchestra. Call us grateful.

In some respect the ballerina in the Preghiera section of Balanchine’s Mozartiana serves Tschaikovsky’s adaptation of Mozart’s Ave verum corpus like the choir of voices serves Mozart’s hymn. They both tap into the divinity of the music allowing its humanity to flow freely as song. Tiler Peck used reserve and texture in her eloquent interpretation on Wednesday evening. The reserve was the hard part while the musical texturing was innate. Her elimination of the extreme cambré didn’t go unnoticed but it didn’t soil the performance either. Tiler’s elegant curves in the elbows and the length of the triceps in the upper arms revealed a new eloquence in her port de bras that, if one can even imagine, enhanced her storied musicality. The subtle peeling apart of the palms to open a fifth position overhead was one of many details in this exquisite performance.

The pas de deux with Anthony Huxley revealed slight imperfections while also promising something new and interesting. What could these two offer one another? How might they inspire and challenge each other? Huxley’s allegro solos astonished in their clarity and effortlessness. His allegro sprang from joy and anticipation — always on the “o” of count one, the “f” of the four, the “e” of the eight.

Troy Schumacher’s Gigue was enjoyable, and we were glad to see him back in top form. The Menuet crew of Christina Clark, Naomi Corti, Meaghan Dutton-O’Hara, and Malorie Lundgren were mostly precise but offered some unhelpful facial expressions.

My oh my, how a fresh coat of paint can make the old walls new again. Mira Nadon and Adrian Danchig-Waring brought a daring amount of glamour and sensuality to Monumentum pro Gesualdo and Movements for Piano and Orchestra. It takes a lot more than just the right physiques to bring these two abstruse creations by Balanchine to clarity and to fasten them securely to Stravinsky’s musical ideas. Enlightening, to say the least, were these performances where strength and beauty were equals.

Ratmansky’s Concerto DSCH saw the performance levels of David Gabriel and KJ Takahashi soar to their next stages. Both of them — so charismatic and confident. Indiana Woodward as their scampering compeer blazed through her allegro like her feet just couldn’t stop even if she wanted them to. Sara Mearns and Tyler Angle showed great joy in their pas de deux. However, Tyler appeared to be dead-lifting Sara most of the time. Can he accomplish that and make it work? Yes, he’s that strong. Should he have to? No.

The corps de ballet in DSCH was ready to go. We need to make a special mention of Mary Elizabeth Sell who always excels in this work. Stephen Gosling's piano performance was worth the price of the ticket.

The H.H. Pump Bump Award, black lace from Manolo Blahnik, is bestowed upon Tiler Peck for her dancing in Mozartiana — not yet at the center of her bailiwick but soon could be.

NYC Ballet 9/21 evening
Intelligence For Our Times

September 22, 2024 4 Comments

The highlight of Saturday evening was Lar Lubovitch’s Each In Their Own Time, a pas de deux he created for New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival in 2021 to Johannes Brahms’ Eight Piano Pieces. Lubovitch was 79 years old when he created this dance to Brahms’ 188-year-old piano cycle using a style of choreography steeped in the classical ballet idiom several hundred years old and reflecting the 20th Century influence of Jose Limon. The end result was a sensitive, universal, timeless portrayal of two human beings connecting through dance, connecting through music, connecting via their educated instruments that allowed them to speak with unusual eloquence.

Susan Walters beautifully performed the Brahms from her piano positioned up stage and properly amplified while Adrian Danchig-Waring and Taylor Stanley amplified the beauty of Lubovitch’s signature style — oceanic in its flow with swirling undercurrents and waves washing over the music.

Indiana Woodward and David Gabriel brought imagination to Balanchine's Divertimento from Le Baiser de la Fée and handled the intricate, difficult choreography with ease. Alston Macgill and Mary Elizabeth Sell were lovely demi-soloists, and the corps included newer members and apprentices who at times wore terrified expressions which we assume will subside quickly.

Sara Mearns and Tyler Angle performed Christopher Wheeldon’s This Bitter Earth. It was all competently and smoothly danced, but Wheeldon’s casting of this ballet is curious because the choreography clearly calls for subtle and languid qualities such as those found in Wendy Whelan, Ashley Laracey, and Yuan Yuan Tan of San Francisco Ballet. The dancers managed all the positions and partnering, but to what end, we’re not sure.

Jerome Robbins' The Four Seasons included standout performances by Olivia MacKinnon in Spring and Ashley Laracey in Summer. The sweeping romantic pas de deux showed MacKinnon at her best and gave her ample opportunity to show us that she could inhabit a role with style, particularly when partnered by the skilled Chun Wai Chan. Ashley Laracey’s engaging mysterious quality was perfect for the sultry Summer section. Her partner, Davide Riccardo, responded with his own sensual, alluring style. Summer never felt so hot.

Erica Pereira, Devin Alberda, and Andres Zuniga skated through the Winter section in a lively manner. The fabulous Fall section was led by Unity Phelan and Andrew Veyette with KJ Takahashi as the little goat. No complaints at all about Unity’s output; she was gorgeous and danced impeccably. Veyette — what can we say — he held nothing back. He simply would not let go of any turns and pushed his grand allegro to its maximum. He was at times thrilling because the viewer had no idea if he was going to survive what he set out to do.

The H.H. Pump Bump Award, A Jimmy Choo blue-green sea sandal, is bestowed upon Adrian Danchig-Waring and Taylor Stanley for their moving interpretation of Lubovitch’s thoughtful and highly crafted ballet.

NYC Ballet 9/17-18
Ready or not, here we come!

September 21, 2024 24 Comments

The theater doors sprang open and in we ran on the first night of New York City Ballet's Fall Season. As if in a game of Hide & Go Seek since June, we had counted a hundred days with our eyes closed and now we were on the hunt for Balanchine.

Boy oh boy, did we ever flush out of hiding a magnificent performance of Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 by Tiler Peck, Chun Wai Chan and an energized corps de ballet. Following a polite, somewhat colorless grand allegro solo by Olivia MacKinnon in the opening moments where she wove in and out of a circle of corps women and danced her steps spiritedly, Tiler calmly walked from the upstage wing to the center of the stage and began a master class in what it means to be a ballerina. She is in terrific physical shape with new length in her port de bras and upper back & neck. Her speed seemingly required no force — almost as if her joy propelled her. Watching Tiler embrace Tschaikovsky was to watch a dancer literally living the music. As much joy as it was for her to dance, we hope she understands the incredible joy it brought to the audience. Chun Wai Chan was the perfect partner and seemed to find a new comfort in releasing emotion. Beautiful batterie and grand allegro although the size of that grand allegro may have gone down since his Houston Ballet days. The composite elegance of Chan and Peck was so natural and effortless that it made their pas de deux a dance of one.

Unfortunately, the performance on the second night didn’t rise anywhere near to what we witnessed on the first night. Haglund knows that Sara Mearns has a tribe who will gush over anything and everything she does. But honestly, her performance on Wednesday wasn’t good and at times was mediocre. She shuffled through allegro, “kind of” doing beats while showing great effort. She fell off point while doing a couple of simple fouettes. The throwaway arms and arabesques were worse than we’d ever seen them. At one point in the last section when she and her partner were standing watching the soloist dance, Sara just let her arms hang at her side like she was standing on the subway platform waiting for a train. From her first entry until her final step, there was a serious question as to why this ballet was in her rep. Her partner, Tyler Angle, on the other hand, made it clear that he was committed to delivering a respectable performance without fudging beats or heaving grand allegro like a DSNY worker heaving a load of trash into the back of a truck. Angle was good, very good in every respect.

The star of this performance, however, was the soloist Emily Kikta who simply stole the show with her glamour, expansive dancing, speed & clarity, rapport with the audience from the orchestra up into the tiers, and all around generosity of artistry. She should have been dancing the lead ballerina role on this night — and on future nights.

The corps de ballet was ready on night one and busted out of the gate at the bell — racing their hearts out. As the women shared the stage with Tiler Peck in the initial section, they beamed and seemed inspired to give even more. We’ve seen this before. When Tiler comes out and dazzles with her grace and artistic force, the whole corps de ballet responds by raising its level even higher.

Duo Concertant received fine performances from Megan Fairchild with Anthony Huxley and Indiana Woodward paired with Taylor Stanley. Huxley, in particular, possessed style in spades. Duo is his surfing speed.

Glass Pieces was a little rough on the first night and gave the impression that it was slower than usual. The initial crowd sequence included some innovative randomness that was cleared up by the second night. By the third performance, everyone was up to high speed and dancing with the verve and joy that makes Glass Pieces so enjoyable to watch. Unity Phelan with Adrian Danchig-Waring and Ashley Hod with Aaron Sanz were handsome pairs and displayed eloquent lines in the central pas de deux.

The H.H. Pump Bump Award, a creative beauty from Badgley Mischka, is bestowed upon Tiler Peck for her glorious performance in Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2. What a pleasure it is to watch this artist lovingly create a new piece of art every time she takes the stage.

observations 9/6

September 6, 2024 10 Comments

It's time to rev up the ole pointe shoes for the fall season. Vroom vroom vroom. Let's poke some holes in those tailpipes to make sure that everybody can hear that the ballet is taking over Lincoln Center once again. However . . .

. . . if anyone is looking to cram a little extra into his or her ballet schedule, Haglund highly recommends a short swim across the Milstein Pond to the Beaumont Theater to experience the brilliance of Robert Downey, Jr. as McNeal in Bartlett Sher's new riveting production. What an evening of innovative, carefully written, intelligent theater! It's hard to believe that last night was Downey's debut in a Broadway theater. He has crafted enormous detail into his characterization of the Nobel winning author whose life crumbles before our eyes. Didn’t want him to walk out of any scene. The production makes extremely clever use of Artificial Intelligence while probing the downside of AI and how it can wreck people’s lives. Incredible use of technology to further the story as opposed to substituting for a weak script as so many other shows do. At the end, the audience gets confused about what is real and what is AI. Andrea Martin is fantastic as McNeal's literary agent. Great chemistry between the two.

McNeal runs through November 24th, but see it right away because you'll want to see it again!

Bravo LCT – the best of Broadway again!

Major ascension by Julio Bocca

August 24, 2024 20 Comments

Last week Haglund was reading a recent interview of Julio Bocca in which he casually quipped that he'd like to run an organization again some day. Now comes the announcement that he's taking over the directorship of Teatro Colon — not just the ballet, but the whole kit 'n kaboodle — ballet, opera, philharmonia, chorus, art institute, educational institutes — all of it. The Ministry of Culture dismissed Jorge Telerman in order to install Bocca. You may recall that Telerman was pivotal in the ousting/resignation of Paloma Herrera as the director of the ballet. He later said that he would like Bocca to return, but it's doubtful he had in mind that Julio would take over his own job! Julio is bringing in Uruguayan Gerardo Grieco to help him lead the organization.

This is a huge ascension by Bocca – the equivalent of becoming the head of La Scala or ROH. According to several sources, the Teatro Colon is ranked as the third best opera house in the world.

So happy that Julio has found the challenge that he was looking for — even if it isn't in New York.

Julio Bocca

observations 7/19

July 19, 2024 18 Comments

A hopelessly crappy news week ends with some great news.

Congratulations to Patrick Frenette, Léa Fleytoux, and Fangqi Li on their promotions to Soloists at ABT! High quality promotions every one of them. Susan Jaffe got it right when she acknowledged that Frenette has been deserving of this promotion for a number years. We're very, very happy (and relieved) to see this happen.

ABT Swan Lake 7/3 matinee

July 5, 2024 36 Comments

In addition to promoting Chloe Misseldine to Principal Wednesday at the conclusion of her matinee performance as Odette/Odile, Artistic Director Susan Jaffe should have draped Chloe's shoulders with a black & white PhD graduation stole with cords. Misseldine not only deserved the promotion, but she deserved to be recognized for academic excellence and achievement which come with great expectations for future contributions to the chosen field. Hers was a doctoral level performance if ever there was one. Haglund was nearly overwhelmed while witnessing this very young Ballerina’s mature choices and the overall integrity of her dancing. It’s hard to remember the last time that the sole of a shoe in the face felt so good. Her pointe shoe soles were so turned forward on each extension that the front row audience members could probably read the imprint on the leather. But honestly, rather than sole, it’s all about soul, to quote Billy Joel (because we cannot believe or accept that his 150th MSG performance will be his last). And as Billy says quite clearly and, in fact, several times – it’s all about faith and a deeper devotion. That’s what we saw on stage on Wednesday afternoon from Chloe Misseldine and Aran Bell: faith in their own artistry and a deep devotion to telling the story clearly and with the utmost respect for their language. To borrow one more of the piano man's most famous adages: like every good ballet performance, it allowed us to forget about life for a while. Man oh man, don’t we need that . . .

It was a spectacular performance from Misseldine replete with gorgeous arabesques, liquid swan arms, intelligent usage of stillness and flight, dramatic conviction, tightly coiled pirouettes, and balletic lines that were acutely geometric but which also synthesized avian and human beauty. We first noticed the little bump-up at the top of Odette’s high a la seconde extensions as though she suddenly engaged a flexor near the pinnacle, and concluded that it needs to be smoothed out. However, when we saw it again during Odile’s Pas de Deux, it came across as an absolutely brilliant detail that corresponded to von Rothbart’s creepy neck cracks and whipping head movements that conveyed his evilness. Conclusion: Misseldine should eliminate it from Odette but wildly exaggerate it for Odile to give her Black Swan a unique sense of danger.

Aran Bell’s Siegfried was superb as well. We noticed that he launched his pirouettes with an unusual amount of caution and did not rip the revolutions as we have seen in the past. However, the pirouettes were still impressive as were the double saut de basques that he landed with perfectly balanced arabesques. But the extra caution or preparatory delay on the pirouettes took some of the magic out of the moment; it conveyed an upcoming trick as opposed to an emotional expression by Siegfried. We’re not nitpicking, just observing. Bell’s projection of the drama was strong, clear, and as traditional as we could ever ask for with balletic integrity from his first descent of the staircase in Act I to his final descent into the lake at the end of Act IV. We sensed a developing rapport with Misseldine coupled with his sense of responsibility to make sure that she had the brilliant performance he knew she was capable of giving. Bell has grown into a very generous, mature artist, and it is easy to forget that he is still very young. What the 25-year-old Siegfried might accomplish with this 22-year-old Odette/Odile in the coming years is something for us all to be excited about.

Patrick Frenette gave a major performance as Benno. Always a star in his Ratmansky roles, he has also delivered impressive performances as Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet. His character of Hilarion drew such sympathy that one hoped that Giselle would wake up and smell the coffee and eventually choose him over Albrecht. Frenette is on the cusp of becoming one of ABT’s most captivating theatrical dancers, and we need to see much more of him. His technical abilities keep growing — because he is constantly working to improve them. His pirouettes on Wednesday afternoon were clean and his grand allegro was storm-filled with energy and urgency. He was animated and mime-oriented, but sometimes dropped his facial expression when preparing pirouettes. His partnering was impeccable – he saved Paulina Waski’s standard fumblings and highlighted Sierra Armstrong’s magnetic placement and confident charm in the Pas de Trois. The landing to the knee of the final double tour was smudged, but at that point it simply did not matter. We kept wondering if Waski will ever be able to manage the cabrioles and entrechat six required in this section or the supported partnering. There comes a time when further chances should be cut off, and it seems that we have been past that point with Waski for quite some time. Her weaknesses made Armstrong’s strengths all the more apparent.

Joseph Markey as the purple von Rothbart gave an exceptional performance as well. Even though we knew exactly what the upcoming steps were going to be, Markey created tension with an unpredictability that made the choreography look new. Not only a good, good dancer, but he is an interesting one. Cy Doherty as the monster von Rothbart had some great moments: he died without a shred of dignity left and suffered dramatically at the wings of the swan corps. The Corps de Ballet did a competent job at this matinee but did not have the spectacular visual effect of corps in years past. The various Princesses and national dances in Act III were also competent but a little sleepy. Carlos Gonzalez and Melvin Lawovi needed to kick it up a notch in the Neapolitan duet. It was too careful and lacked voltage.

Small complaints aside, this was a performance of Swan Lake worth remembering for a long time due to the outstanding performances of our two leads, Chloe Misseldine and Aran Bell. We’re going to toss them an H.H. Pump Bump Award, a pair of magnificent Manolo Blahnik diamond embellished pumps, for their dazzling portrayals of Odette/Odile and Siegfried.

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